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What I want from the internet

chrbutler.com

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Re: What I want from the internet

#61

Post by pixl97 »

JohnFen wrote: post #33
camgunz wrote: post #29

I mostly buy Eternal September, or as rephrased by David Foster Wallace: "[The internet] is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." Like, the internet is banal because we're (the rich world) all on it. It's not a weird little niche anymore. So it's now subject to all the (…

> You just gotta get out of the browser. I agree with this. The internet is a great tool. The web is extremely problematic and growing less useful over time. Too many people think that the internet and the web are the same thing.

Firewalls pretty much have made the internet and web the same thing, as discussed on HN in many threads. About the only services on the internet that are not wholesale blocked are DNS and HTTPS. The internet's usefulness as a tool has been greatly compromised because of this.

Re: What I want from the internet

#62

Post by pixl97 »

throwuwu wrote: post #19

Just put down your phone. Or better yet, just use the smolnet sites that already exist. If you pine for the days of a small, nerdy and exclusive internet then just go there it’s just a few clicks away.

At least until you piss some kiddy off and the entire subnet you're on is receiving a TB/s of packets till the point your ISP drops you or you have to hide behind cloudflare.

Re: What I want from the internet

#63

Post by danrl »

camgunz wrote: post #29

I mostly buy Eternal September, or as rephrased by David Foster Wallace: "[The internet] is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." Like, the internet is banal because we're (the rich world) all on it. It's not a weird little niche anymore. So it's now subject to all the (…

Gemini:// is a protocol that currently feels a lot like the geocities-era web. It is not yet September there. You’ll find how to get in if you try hard enough.

Re: What I want from the internet

#64

Post by visarga »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

> And the internet used to be more work to experience. Today, it’s more work to avoid. Since the author likes analogies, I'll add mine: the internet now has become roads, bridges, towns. The internet used to be forests, rivers to ford, camps. There used to be an exploration-aspect to the internet, not sure what you would find if you took this trail or that one. Now we all seem to travel the few, well-worn roads to th…

> I would keep Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Stack Overflow.

I'd be very sad to lose YouTube. It's the jewel of the internet.

Re: What I want from the internet

#65

Post by qup »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #49
DamnInteresting wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely you say? I was addressing this portion of your comment: > I'm pretty darn sure I'm not the only independent content creator being largely ignored, attacked for "self promotion" I agree whole-heartedly with your share it sentiment, but if that was your original point, it was unfortunately obscured.

It's a no win situation. People ignore independent creatives while consuming more established and popular media. Share your own work, people attack you. Meanwhile if you don't share your work, no one sees it. Then you read articles whining about how hard it is to find interesting content and escape the prison of social media. It's not because independent creators don't exist. But there are a lot of barriers to gettin…

Why do you keep using the term "whining" to reference the article?

Re: What I want from the internet

#66

Post by JohnFen »

pixl97 wrote: post #61
JohnFen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You just gotta get out of the browser. I agree with this. The internet is a great tool. The web is extremely problematic and growing less useful over time. Too many people think that the internet and the web are the same thing.

Firewalls pretty much have made the internet and web the same thing, as discussed on HN in many threads. About the only services on the internet that are not wholesale blocked are DNS and HTTPS. The internet's usefulness as a tool has been greatly compromised because of this.

> About the only services on the internet that are not wholesale blocked are DNS and HTTPS.

Really? I'm so happy and fortunate that hasn't been true for me. If the only thing I could reach was the web, well over half of the usefulness of the internet would evaporate.

Re: What I want from the internet

#67

Post by chrbutler »

qup wrote: post #65
DoreenMichele wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a no win situation. People ignore independent creatives while consuming more established and popular media. Share your own work, people attack you. Meanwhile if you don't share your work, no one sees it. Then you read articles whining about how hard it is to find interesting content and escape the prison of social media. It's not because independent creators don't exist. But there are a lot of barriers to gettin…

Why do you keep using the term "whining" to reference the article?

Hah, I have had the same thought a few times. I didn't think I was whining!

Re: What I want from the internet

#68

Post by DoreenMichele »

qup wrote: post #65
DoreenMichele wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a no win situation. People ignore independent creatives while consuming more established and popular media. Share your own work, people attack you. Meanwhile if you don't share your work, no one sees it. Then you read articles whining about how hard it is to find interesting content and escape the prison of social media. It's not because independent creators don't exist. But there are a lot of barriers to gettin…

Why do you keep using the term "whining" to reference the article?

I've been on HN a lot of years. Lots of people here have money and as a group most of them consistently object to essentially any means to monetize content, pay content creators, etc while denying that this amounts to expecting slave labor from writers and also decrying the tragic lack of good quality writing.

I used to try to consistently point out such patterns while being personally attacked, told to stop whining, stop expecting to make money from writing as it's simply not realistic and "get a real job."

People here want a quality experience online. And they want it for free (including ad-free).

Often while they, themselves, make good money for writing the code that runs the internet. Somehow, that's different.

Re: What I want from the internet

#69

Post by bsder »

visarga wrote: post #64
JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

> And the internet used to be more work to experience. Today, it’s more work to avoid. Since the author likes analogies, I'll add mine: the internet now has become roads, bridges, towns. The internet used to be forests, rivers to ford, camps. There used to be an exploration-aspect to the internet, not sure what you would find if you took this trail or that one. Now we all seem to travel the few, well-worn roads to th…

> I would keep Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Stack Overflow. I'd be very sad to lose YouTube. It's the jewel of the internet.

Except that it's not. YouTube is a giant hole of suck that brings everybody else down to their level.

YouTube being subsidized has driven any competitor out of the space. Since YouTube has a monopoly, your content will get copied and posted over there even if you don't give permission. Since YouTube is backed by Google, they are larger than lawsuits which could bring them to heel.

If you wanted YouTube to improve, split it out from Google again.

Re: What I want from the internet

#70

Post by qup »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #68
qup wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you keep using the term "whining" to reference the article?

I've been on HN a lot of years. Lots of people here have money and as a group most of them consistently object to essentially any means to monetize content, pay content creators, etc while denying that this amounts to expecting slave labor from writers and also decrying the tragic lack of good quality writing. I used to try to consistently point out such patterns while being personally attacked, told to stop whining,…

Well let me respond, since maybe I'm one of those guys.

You've fundamentally misunderstood what I want. If a "writer" wrote it as part of their job, I don't want to read it. I mean, I might, but that's not what I would be "whining" about here.

I've kept blogs most of my life. I'm after similar content to what I would post.

I don't care to read whatever you want to get paid to write. No offense, I'm sure it's great and worth all the money.

The quality experience is enjoying other people's gardens, and the point of having the garden is to share it with other people, not to have a ticket booth or a billboard. At least, that's the case at my blog. Which I've never shared here, and nobody else ever has either. Which I find totally fine.

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