There's a curmudgeon strain in this essay that reminds me a lot of all the criticisms of television when it became popular.
Oh wait :\
The internet is already over (2022)
131–140 of 283 posts
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#132What we've had so far was not "the internet" it was "the internet, gatekept by socioeconomic and educational criteria". The number of internet users appears to be flattening off at around 75% of the world population. So far people have been happy to jump right into that mass of 6 billion people. But I think that this plateauing will allow sub-ecosystems to flourish. HN is one of them.
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Poverty is not an indicator of intelligence, wit, or thought.
However, it feels like you are experiencing a profound poverty of all of those exact things. You elitist little shit.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#133We got the Internet that advertising built. This was not how we (well some of us early 90s and before) users assumed it would pan out. It has been my experience that private Internet communities (groups, forums, messaging chats) are where the quality discussion happens these days. Away from the advertising and the controversy seeking (and anti-tech) mainstream media reporters.
Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. It was supposed to be a place where some kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer, or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence (eg people really into collecting v…
I'm not sure that GP meant entirely private communities - rather something like, for example, Discord communities, or online forums, where people can still join, but it's not entirely "public" in the sense of Twitter or the like.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#134We got the Internet that advertising built. This was not how we (well some of us early 90s and before) users assumed it would pan out. It has been my experience that private Internet communities (groups, forums, messaging chats) are where the quality discussion happens these days. Away from the advertising and the controversy seeking (and anti-tech) mainstream media reporters.
Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. It was supposed to be a place where some kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer, or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence (eg people really into collecting v…
> that it would be open and really big.
I think that was the aspiration, but nobody realized there were so many people who thought 5G caused corona (and similar lack of thought process) until it was too late.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#135My take on declining online social engagement is; a lot of people like to consume online content passively e.g. just reading Facebook posts or watching a YouTube video without actually liking or commenting. Another thing is; increasing number of people came to realize that privacy does matter and they refuse to participate in online dramas that can damage their reputation or harm their mental health.
What’s the point of commenting a youtube video, have you ever seen the comments there? Liking a video makes your feed piled up with a semi-relevant crap for a week. Sometimes (increasingly often) I have to dislike an otherwise good video because I don’t want to screw up my recommendations.
You can use Mozilla's Regrets Reporter extension to refine your Youtube recommendations: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/regretsreport...
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#136We got the Internet that advertising built. This was not how we (well some of us early 90s and before) users assumed it would pan out. It has been my experience that private Internet communities (groups, forums, messaging chats) are where the quality discussion happens these days. Away from the advertising and the controversy seeking (and anti-tech) mainstream media reporters.
Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. It was supposed to be a place where some kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer, or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence (eg people really into collecting v…
> kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer
Small and private does not necessarily imply exclusive. There are such communities where you can easily join or lurk.
> or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence
And that still works for me like that. They might not be visible on the first results page but once you start to research a topic in depth you can find them.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#137I sometimes suspect the pandemic and lockdowns probably killed a lot of social engagement and internet activity too. Yes, it seems counterproductive, since those times were boom periods for many social media platforms... But then once it ended, it feels like being stuck online with nothing else to do all day burnt a lot of people out on the internet and online activities. Perhaps they decided it was best to make up f…
Statistically we actually know this is false, the pre-Covid 6pm internet surge window has actually stuck around as the new baseline normal internet traffic post-covid.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Removing it from your watch history might be more effective than disliking.
Agreed, I do both actually. Also “don’t recommend channel” for truly obnoxious ones. I follow through 3-4 of their videos so that they start to appear in the side column and then kill it from there, removing all traces afterwards. In my experience, - Don’t recommend channel - strong flag, but doesn’t modify “interests”. - Not interested - removes this exact video with a very low key tuning of recommendations, if at a…
I'm just glad there are browser extensions that remove all that Youtube dross no questions asked.
It's interesting to me that somebody would try and curate their experience in this shitshoveling assault on the nerves that is Youtube recommendations.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also the crowd is brutally cynical, which tends to discourage a lot of it.
To the contrary, this crowd is one of the most pleasant on the internet in 2024. A prime example of why gatekeeping is necessary and working.
Do you consider pleasant and cynical as mutually exclusive?
I had a chat with a former politician and he was definitely pleasant, but extremely cynical, he pointed out instances of corruption everywhere. Although to be fair he was probably just being realistic not cynical. Cynicism is a good filter against dumb trends, hustler types and "emperor's clothes" situations.
Re: The internet is already over (2022)
#140We got the Internet that advertising built. This was not how we (well some of us early 90s and before) users assumed it would pan out. It has been my experience that private Internet communities (groups, forums, messaging chats) are where the quality discussion happens these days. Away from the advertising and the controversy seeking (and anti-tech) mainstream media reporters.
Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. It was supposed to be a place where some kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer, or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence (eg people really into collecting v…
I honestly don’t agree with most of the doomsayers of the Internet.
Sure, there is way more advertising and bots these days but there is WAY more content available today than 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Definitely way more diversity of content too.