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Omegle 2009-2023

omegle.com

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Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#311

Post by jchw »

eru wrote: post #247
ijustlovemath wrote: post #198

This is devastating. I have so many fond memories of meeting fellow weirdos over text. The days where StumbleUpon always took you somewhere exciting, cool, beautiful, interesting, funny, or novel. Where you looked at what people did with The Web 2.0 and only marveled at the possibilities of what could come. Truly feels like the death of one of the old guard, a Usenet-of-the-2010s. I even used it during pandemic times…

> Where you looked at what people did with The Web 2.0 and only marveled at the possibilities of what could come. Truly feels like the death of one of the old guard, a Usenet-of-the-2010s. This is funny to me, because I am old enough to remember when web 2.0 was new, and people were nostalgic for 'web 1.0'. (And, of course, it's turtles all the way down with nostalgia.)

Even though I did miss older stuff in the web 2.0 days, I had a positive outlook (and good reason to have it) for the things that would come next.

Not anymore.

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#312

Post by coffeesque »

sugarpile wrote: post #154

Elsewhere in the thread this article with an embedded video was linked: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64618791 The video, showing a BBC “journalist” attempting to ambush Leif, is one of the most… existentially disgusting? videos I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s so utterly performative. Such a transparent attempt by the “journalist” at painting himself as a certain sort of person. Not a single genuine emotio…

[flagged]

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#313

Post by dragonwriter »

talldatethrow wrote: post #178
melvinmelih wrote: post #69

> But it became popular almost instantly after launch, and grew organically from there, reaching millions of daily users. The law of big numbers dictate that if there’s even a tiny chance of a catastrophic event it has close to 100% probability of happening if n is just large enough (in the case of millions of daily users, probably multiple catastrophic events per day). This kind of asymmetrical risk is very hard to…

I am absolutely certain people die hitting their head while at paid ice skating rinks. I'm amazed they haven't been sued into oblivion to where helmets are required to be worn. So it seems like we do have SOME semblance of understanding risk vs reward.

> I am absolutely certain people die hitting their head while at paid ice skating rinks.

And they are regularly sued for injuries (even short of death), and sometimes lose.

Picking one case out of many because it was a ice rink on a cruise ship:

https://www.mariettainjurylawyer.com/federal-court-holds-roy...

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#314

Post by yashasolutions »

cortesoft wrote: post #61
SamPatt wrote: post #18

I don't know the whole story, but this seems very genuine. It echoes a sentiment I imagine many people my age feel, where the magic of the early internet we witnessed during our coming of age feels threatened. I feel for him, and hope he's able to move onto other projects which aren't as stressful.

I find it interesting that the "magical period" seems to be determined by your age. For me, the internet has already lost its magic by the time the mid 2000s came around, well before Omegle came out in 2009. For me, the magical period was the early 90s, when I was growing up. In 15 years, are people going to be talking about the current internet as the time when the magic was there? It seems more about the magic of c…

It's also a question of what we call "magical"

The 90s were special in a certain way that is very different from how the Internet was in 2010.

I enjoyed both. I could call both of them "magical periods". Just different.

One could look at the current AI innovation as a different magical period.

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#315

Post by nomel »

veeti wrote: post #3
Laaas wrote: post #2

What "attacks" is he referring to?

"Omegle: Suing the website that matched me with my abuser" https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64618791

Is it this one instance, or is it the fact that it can connect children to adults? Or general moderation problems that include that? Or maybe attacks as in lawyers?

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#316

Post by taneq »

cortesoft wrote: post #61
SamPatt wrote: post #18

I don't know the whole story, but this seems very genuine. It echoes a sentiment I imagine many people my age feel, where the magic of the early internet we witnessed during our coming of age feels threatened. I feel for him, and hope he's able to move onto other projects which aren't as stressful.

I find it interesting that the "magical period" seems to be determined by your age. For me, the internet has already lost its magic by the time the mid 2000s came around, well before Omegle came out in 2009. For me, the magical period was the early 90s, when I was growing up. In 15 years, are people going to be talking about the current internet as the time when the magic was there? It seems more about the magic of c…

Anything before you were ~10 is "old", things between ~15 and ~20 are natural and right, things between ~20 and ~35 are modern and exciting, and anything that occurs after that is proportionately unnecessary and annoying. :P

/shakes-cane-at-cloud-infrastructure

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#317

Post by dragonwriter »

adamomada wrote: post #133
melvinmelih wrote: post #69

> But it became popular almost instantly after launch, and grew organically from there, reaching millions of daily users. The law of big numbers dictate that if there’s even a tiny chance of a catastrophic event it has close to 100% probability of happening if n is just large enough (in the case of millions of daily users, probably multiple catastrophic events per day). This kind of asymmetrical risk is very hard to…

The question in my mind is, 74 million monthly users have a good time (or not bad enough to not come back, whatever) vs the inevitable catastrophic event as you say, isn’t it well worth it to accept the risk and continue? The world couldn’t possibly function any other way

> The question in my mind is, 74 million monthly users have a good time (or not bad enough to not come back, whatever) vs the inevitable catastrophic event as you say, isn’t it well worth it to accept the risk and continue?

Assuming the 74 million are really getting lots of value from it, compensating the victims of the catastrophic event is more than worth it. Holding the host liable for the harms, and trusting the host to charge an appropriate amount warranted by the value received to the users is one way to do this.

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#318

Post by SoftTalker »

jdietrich wrote: post #282
wolverine876 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work? The public wouldn't know anything about anything unless a judge convicted someone.

Under German law, anyone involved in a criminal case has the right to privacy. The press are free to report on the case, but they cannot identify the suspect or victim. If you watch or read German news, you'll see everything you expect to see in a report about a crime, except for names and faces. Personally, I think this is an entirely reasonable balance between competing rights. Publicly identifying suspects can cau…

> Under German law, anyone involved in a criminal case has the right to privacy.

Until convicted, I presume?

Are the identites of those arrested (and possibly prosecuted but acquitted) protected forever?

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#319

Post by tinycombinator »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #295
dotnet00 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you have a point there since certain aspects of the internet experienced by each generation were different, I think a shared part of it is just the sheer sanitization of the 'open' internet that has happened since the mid/late-2000s. That aspect is not coming back in any way for the generation growing up on the current internet, unless they go deep into techie circles to 'frontier' places like certain corners o…

>That aspect is not coming back in any way for the generation growing up on the current internet, unless they go deep into techie circles to 'frontier' places like certain corners of the fediverse or matrix, the only internet they'll know is the heavily sanitized corporate-run advertiser friendly side where everyone's walking on eggshells because a power-tripping moderator or AI has complete power over you. Is this t…

There's definitely a bunch of crazy unmoderated stuff going down in those places, but it does seem more underground and out of the way unless you specifically look for it.

Actually, I'd guess that it's probably easier for people to find themselves in such weird spaces today. There's a lot of resources and guides out there, and if you want to, you can most likely find them.

Re: Omegle 2009-2023

#320

Post by phendrenad2 »

This makes me so mad, and it should make you mad too. Omegle isn't substantively different from Reddit or Discord or an MMORPG chat channel, but it's currently being dragged through the legal system while presumably the others are not.

The truth is, Omegle's real sin is being midsized. There's a real risk in being a certain-sized company. Large enough that suing you is likely to result in a payout, but small enough that you can't just absorb the lawsuit cost.

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