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Dead Internet Theory

kudmitry.com

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Re: Dead Internet Theory

#71

Post by ares623 »

chongli wrote: post #49

I prefer a Dark Forest theory [1] of the internet. Rather than being completely dead and saturated with bots, the internet has little pockets of human activity like bits of flotsam in a stream of slop. And that's how it is going to be from here on out. Occasionally the bots will find those communities and they'll either find a way to ban them or the community will be abandoned for another safe harbour. To that end, I…

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. An invite only platform where invites need to be given and received in person. It'll be pseudonymous, which should hopefully help make moderation manageable. It'll be an almost cult-like community, where everyone is a believer in the "cause", and violations can mean exile.

Of course, if (big if) it does end up being large enough, the value of getting an invite will get to a point where a member can sell access.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#72

Post by JamesTRexx »

chongli wrote: post #49

I prefer a Dark Forest theory [1] of the internet. Rather than being completely dead and saturated with bots, the internet has little pockets of human activity like bits of flotsam in a stream of slop. And that's how it is going to be from here on out. Occasionally the bots will find those communities and they'll either find a way to ban them or the community will be abandoned for another safe harbour. To that end, I…

It would be nice to regain those national index sites or yellow page sites full of categories, where one could find what they're looking for only (based) within the country.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#73

Post by viccis »

>which is not a social network, but I’m tired of arguing with people online about it

I know this was a throwaway parenthetical, but I agree 100%. I don't know when the meaning of "social media" went from "internet based medium for socializing with people you know IRL" to a catchall for any online forum like reddit, but one result of this semantic shift is that it takes attention away from the fact that the former type is all but obliterated now.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#74

Post by myself248 »

chao- wrote: post #47
f311a wrote: post #44

> The use of em-dashes, which on most keyboard require a special key-combination that most people don’t know Most people probably don't know, but I think on HN at least half of the users know how to do it. It sucks to do this on Windows, but at least on Mac it's super easy and the shortcut makes perfect sense.

I don't have strong negative feelings about the era of LLM writing, but I resent that it has taken the em-dash from me. I have long used them as a strong disjunctive pause, stronger than a semicolon. I have gone back to semicolons after many instances of my comments or writing being dismissed as AI. I will still sometimes use a pair of them for an abrupt appositive that stands out more than commas, as this seems to t…

At this point I almost look forward to some idiot calling me AI because they don't like what I said. I should start keeping score.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#75

Post by FridayoLeary »

d4rkp4ttern wrote: post #60
f311a wrote: post #44

> The use of em-dashes, which on most keyboard require a special key-combination that most people don’t know Most people probably don't know, but I think on HN at least half of the users know how to do it. It sucks to do this on Windows, but at least on Mac it's super easy and the shortcut makes perfect sense.

First time I’m hearing about a shortcut for this. I always use 2 hyphens. Is that not considered an em-dash ?

You are absolutely right — most internet users don't know the specific keyboard combination to make an em dash and substitute it with two hyphens. On some websites it is automatically converted into an em dash. If you would like to know more about this important punctuation symbol and it's significance in identitifying ai writing, please let me know.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#76

Post by dvt »

I liked em dashes before they were cool—and I always copy-pasted them from Google. Sucks that I can't really do that anymore lest I be confused for a robot; I guess semicolons will have to do.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#77

Post by cal_dent »

chongli wrote: post #49

I prefer a Dark Forest theory [1] of the internet. Rather than being completely dead and saturated with bots, the internet has little pockets of human activity like bits of flotsam in a stream of slop. And that's how it is going to be from here on out. Occasionally the bots will find those communities and they'll either find a way to ban them or the community will be abandoned for another safe harbour. To that end, I…

This is the view I mostly subscribe to too. That coupled with more sites going somewhere closer to the something awful forum model whereby there is a relatively arbitrary upfront free that sort of helps with curating a community and added friction to stem bots.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#78

Post by Forgeties79 »

bigmeme wrote: post #64

[flagged]

This is what you made an account to do? To dump on this community as you tell us not to dump on another community? Pot/kettle and all that.

You’ve got some ideas here I actually agree with, but your patronizing tone all but guarantees 99% of people won’t hear it.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#79

Post by Frotag »

ageedizzle wrote: post #20
therobots927 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why we need a parallel internet.

What safeguards would be in place to prevent this parallel internet from also, with time, becoming a dead internet?

Social stigma against any monetary incentives. (I recognize the irony in saying this on HN.)

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#80

Post by numpad0 »

f311a wrote: post #44

> The use of em-dashes, which on most keyboard require a special key-combination that most people don’t know Most people probably don't know, but I think on HN at least half of the users know how to do it. It sucks to do this on Windows, but at least on Mac it's super easy and the shortcut makes perfect sense.

I've been left wondering when is the world going to find out about Input Method Editor.

It lets users type all sorts of ‡s, (*´ڡ`●)s, 2026/01/19s, by name, on Windows, Mac, Linux, through pc101, standard dvorak, your custom qmk config, anywhere without much prior knowledge. All it takes is to have a little proto-AI that can range from floppy sizes to at most few hundred MBs in size, rewriting your input somewhere between the physical keyboard and text input API.

If I wanted em–dashes, I can do just that instantly – I'm on Windows and I don't know what are the key combinations. Doesn't matter. I say "emdash" and here be an em-dash. There should be the equivalent to this thing for everybody.

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