Garry used to run/host the Facepunch forums which strongly remind me of better times on the web. They were good times.
The Death of the Web (2024)
11–20 of 76 posts
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#12Once something becomes about the money, it's going to be about the money.
TANSTAAFL [1]
One of my collaborators would say we got seduced by the idea that it wasn't about the money. That is, it was cheap enough that we could go for a while without thinking how to pay for it, then the advertising model looked like an answer.
Early on one would make the comparison to advertising on TV, radio, magazines and such. Little did we know that personalized advertising would lead to something much worse. I mean, Proctor and Gamble, who gave us the soap opera, has been around since 1837. Do any of the big YouTube advertisers like all the fake food companies or the scam supplement subscription companies or Established Titles expect to be around in 2 years?
If people had been thinking about how to pay for it from day one we'd be in a different place.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#13Not every was around when the web was obscure. It's hard to explain how magical that time was. The pinnacle of the web for me was Audio Galaxy. A website where you could find new music to download and even push music to your friend's computer (using the Audio Galaxy Satellite app) [1].
I spent so much time in IRC rooms and discussion forums. It wasn't doom scrolling. No one was trying to manipulate me for my time or money. Perhaps you can think of it like going down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles. But there were so many people sharing so many unique perspectives - some I became friends with and many of those remain today.
I felt something like neocities might recapture that feeling. I haven't put in enough time to see if that's the case. I do hope that for a future generation that they get to experience something like the very early web ... it truly was remarkable.
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#14The web is a garbage ecosystem now.
The sad thing is that it would take only about twenty of you people, you who came across this post on HN today and are now reading this comment, to build an alternative ecosystem.
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#15I feel everything in this article as somebody who first got online when I was 13 in 1994. In those days you got bullied for being "good at computers" (especially in the rural area I grew up in) and the communities formed on IRC and early multiplayer gaming networks were a lifesaver. Many websites were written by college students who essentially "blogged" their newly discovered free lives, which was so appealing to my teen-aged self.
It's cliche to malign mass market consumerism, but it really is a lowest common denominator phenomenon. I feel like the internet has made grifting so scalable that it's getting more and more difficult to consume.
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#16Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#17Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#18The web is a garbage ecosystem now. The sad thing is that it would take only about twenty of you people, you who came across this post on HN today and are now reading this comment, to build an alternative ecosystem.
Hat tossed!
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#19This is from the Garry of Garry's Mod (GMOD) fame.
Re: The Death of the Web (2024)
#20The web is a garbage ecosystem now. The sad thing is that it would take only about twenty of you people, you who came across this post on HN today and are now reading this comment, to build an alternative ecosystem.
They did, it's called gemini: https://geminiprotocol.net/