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Where Have All the Websites Gone?

fromjason.xyz

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Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#101

Post by keiferski »

ben_w wrote: post #99
keiferski wrote: post #20

I share the author's feelings on the old web, but I think this misses a fundamental point about younger people: they don't really read as the default anymore, in the sense of reading longform blog posts/articles/newspapers. You could blame this on the impatience of youth, but I think it's actually more of a fundamental shift of media formats. Websites-as-default have gone away because browsing the web (i.e. reading s…

> they don't really read as the default anymore, in the sense of reading longform blog posts/articles/newspapers Did they ever? I grew up with newspapers, but adults back then were saying much the same then just with books as their example of "things kids don't read these days"[0], to the extent that my mum decided she ought to bribe me to read more[1]. But I also remember reading some claim that most people back the…

Yes, they did, even if they were reading pulp novels and not classic literature.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#102

Post by bheadmaster »

krapp wrote: post #87
bheadmaster wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 4chan has a horrible reputation in the outside world. That's because without any particular individuals to point the finger to, they just blame the monolith of "anonymous individuals". People have always feared the unknown, and the obvious coping mechanism is to aggregate it into some tangible form, whether it's the Boogeyman, Baba Yaga, the Devil, Anonymous, or any other villain, to be used as a scapegoat.

Nah. 4chan's reputation is entirely deserved.

Nah. 4chan's reputation is entirely undeserved.

See? I can also make claims without any arguments whatsoever.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#103

Post by krapp »

dt3ft wrote: post #80
lurker616 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like saying, I hope the new pop music trends that all the kids are listening to dies out, and 80s rock becomes cool again. It just isn't gonna happen.

I think you’re right. It is likely never going to happen.

Except 80s rock is cool again.

A lot of people here are still thinking with a pre-internet mindset, where because pop culture was mediated by the distribution of physical media or broadcasts at specific times, awareness of certain genres of music and pop-cultural touchstones was strictly gatekept by time, and trends were distinctly linear and generational.

But now all of that is discoverable at the same time. "the kids these days" aren't limited to what's trendy now, and it isn't more difficult to find 80's music than it is the latest tik-tok. And faux-nostalgia (neostalgia?) seems to be a constant pop human culture (indeed, much of it is manufactured by the corporations that control pop culture.) There are whole genres of new music like vaporwave and aesthetic movements that incorporate (at least a vague idea of) the 80s. People watch old shows from the 80s and 90s on Youtube. They look back on a time they never participated in as if it were a golden age of low-tech simplicity.

Of course, the general rule is things become cool again after 20 years to now I guess that would be... the millennium?

As far as personal websites go, the biggest reason the aren't likely to make a comeback is simply that hand-coding HTML and running a webserver has no utility for most people. Even considering all of the negatives of social media and centralization (which, let's be honest, is the fault of many of the people now complaining that the web is no longer cool) the model of software as a service allows people to publish to the web far more easily.

And who knows? "the kids these days" are as aware of the dangers of social media as anyone, that's why they won't be caught dead on Facebook or Twitter, they're all on Discord now or wherever. Maybe personal websites will catch on too just because of retro nostalgia as well.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#104

Post by zozbot234 »

miramba wrote: post #11

I believe that there are still a lot of interesting, non-commercial websites out there. I just can‘t find them anymore. SEO dominates literally every search I try. I also tried Bing, DuckDuckGo, you.com and many more - same result. I think a search engine that excludes every website with google analytics, ad networks and amazon affiliate links would be great. Anyone know of such a thing?

https://wilby.me/ does that. But back in the day all the "interesting, non-commercial websites" would be listed in a curated web directory arranged by subject, and we're still missing that. There is an emerging practice of niche subject-specific "awesome-lists" but these are no substitute.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#105

Post by Ekaros »

keiferski wrote: post #93
Ekaros wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is not that people don't like reading. It is just that video content generate so much more monetization. At least compared to work done. Thus most relevant content is generated as video instead of text. And those generating text are struggling with revenue sources.

I think if you asked people under the age of thirty what they prefer, 90% are going to choose video over books.

Maybe not books. But let's ask would they prefer video to check ingredients in a recipe or a textual article? Or maybe video instead of wikipedia page to verify some facts...

Similar things go to many things that would clearly be superior as text, but there simply isn't that much money in something user will quickly skim over. Instead of forced pre-roll adds and sponsorships.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#106

Post by krapp »

nairboon wrote: post #97
dikei wrote: post #15

Isn't this how we classify web "generation"? * Web 1.0: independent websites, self-maintained, hard * Web 2.0: hosted platforms like blogs and social networks, easy, but rely on providers * Web 3.0: promise to free users from the platform providers but are mostly crypto scam currently.

Someday there will be a Web 4.0, similar to some of the visions of Web 3.0, but without the money stuff, instead a true p2p web.

Web 4.0, since this nomenclature is nothing but hype and BS anyway, will be the web completely ruined by AI content. And unfortunately that web is already here.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#107

Post by splitbrain »

asicsp wrote: post #17

See also: "Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36575081 (1014 points | 6 months ago | 1960 comments)

Also https://indieblog.page/ to randomly jump to a post from any of the mentioned personal blogs from that post plus many many more. (close to 3500 personal blogs)

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#108

Post by marginalia_nu »

ghosty141 wrote: post #86
azornathogron wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want https://search.marginalia.nu/ It gets mentioned here on HN quite a lot.

Really missing a way to sort by recency, that would make it far more useful for me.

Easy enough. Added a toggle for showing results that are Dunno if it's actually useful, we'll have to see. I'm not one to shy away from feature creep though, and a lot of people are requesting these sorts of things...

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#109

Post by flir »

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #78
keiferski wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a consequence of elite takeover of the internet. The culture you describe still exists, but it's largely found in places considered unsavory and uncouth by mainstream organizations.

I‘ve always considered it to be exactly the other way round: in the old days of yore, the Internet was dominated by a certain kind of elite, and then the Endless September happened and commercialization followed.

I'd say there's been (at least) three overlapping generations: The academics (.edu email addresses), the geeky amateurs (dial-up internet), and the app users (the social media crowd).

Not trying to denigrate the third generation there, it's just that for them it's a mature product, like a TV or a car. They feel no need to tinker with what BigCorp is selling them.

Re: Where Have All the Websites Gone?

#110

Post by zozbot234 »

dikei wrote: post #15

Isn't this how we classify web "generation"? * Web 1.0: independent websites, self-maintained, hard * Web 2.0: hosted platforms like blogs and social networks, easy, but rely on providers * Web 3.0: promise to free users from the platform providers but are mostly crypto scam currently.

Web 3.0: back to independent websites but adding federation and detailed, subject-specific semantic markup (as provided by the schema.org standards, supported by the major search engines) to aid in discoverability.
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