What I want from the internet • Hacker News Board

Re: What I want from the internet

#111

Post by selfhoster11 » Wed, May 10, 2023, 1:42 PM UTC

giantrobot wrote: post #88

danrl wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gemini threw the baby out with the bath water by disallowing in-line images and styles. It's not like GeoCities because there's very little if any ability to express yourself artistically with the medium. Half of the "Geocities" pages people harken back to were themselves artistic content. None of that is really possible with Gemini.

In-line images are up to the user agent. A Gemini client can permit the user to turn these on. Besides, Gemini being a protocol that aims to be hostile to tracking, made it a bit harder to include tracking beacons/pixels by not allowing those to be downloaded by default.

Re: What I want from the internet

#112

Post by bombcar » Wed, May 10, 2023, 2:24 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #95

bombcar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It went from an Internet of amateurs (those with an actual love for what they are talking about) to professionals (which are very slick, but the money is always there). You can still find great content in videos and music from amateurs, but the professionals "outshout" most of them; and the best amateurs end up getting sucked into being professionals. Once your livelihood is on the line, things change.

What exactly do you mean with "outshout"? Where are the professionals taking away the amateurs' space exactly?

Here's a simple example. In the mid 90s, if you found a website with recipes, it would have been by a cook with some technical ability and it would have been dedicated to recipes.

Such sites may still exist, but heaven help trying to find them amongst all the "professional" recipe SEO spam that exists today.

Re: What I want from the internet

#113

Post by danrl » Fri, May 12, 2023, 3:50 PM UTC

giantrobot wrote: post #88

danrl wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gemini threw the baby out with the bath water by disallowing in-line images and styles. It's not like GeoCities because there's very little if any ability to express yourself artistically with the medium. Half of the "Geocities" pages people harken back to were themselves artistic content. None of that is really possible with Gemini.

Agree on the lack of style. I think it would be nice to give the user agent at least a hint in the form of a color map.

Images can be inlined by the user agent.

Re: What I want from the internet

#114

Post by themadturk » Fri, May 12, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #106

themadturk wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not bombcar, but I take it to mean that professionals have more resources they can pour into publicizing their stuff. It's not so much taking away amateurs' space as overwhelming amateurs' voices, thereby diminishing their power.

I just don't understand it. Publishing space online is infinite and will continue to be infinite no matter how popular somebody else gets. Who gets overwhelmed by somebody else publishing something?

Those with more resources have...more resources. More money they can put into spreading their word wider. They often know people in media who can increase the number of voices that are talking, the ears that are hearing. I can say anything I want online, as many times as I want. I still won't have the reach of someone who is boosted by national news, the New York Times, a Facebook group with thousands of member, a friendly YouTube or TikTok influencer.