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Time to rebuild the web?

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Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ongoing success of Netflix proves not everybody is a freeloader, and a report from Spotify made the news for their estimate that 2 million people are using ad-block software to get premium without paying for it - the bigger news should really be that they have 150-some million users that aren't cheating the system, and that 70 million people pay money to Spotify. Everybody wants something for free, but there are…

As a paying customer, I'm genuinely surprised that adblocking is possible with Spotify considering they control both the servers and the client. That said, I started on the free plan and have friends who still use it and the ads really aren't intrustive at all - it hardly seems like it would be worth the effort?

Also as a paying premium spotify customer, I can say they still serve up ads, they're just incognito...

1.) I recently had a splash screen for a Hulu partner "free trial" membership. Turns out it's actually a bundle, but I don't want to pay more for Hulu so keep your "ads" out of my premium feed Spotify. Put it in a special offers section where I can peruse at my liesure.

https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/subscrip...

2.) My email is constantly bombarded with ads like "[pick a artist] wants to say 'thanks' with presale tickets". I already get presale with Amex. Again, these ads can be placed in a 'shows near you' section vice shoved in my email face.

No ads my hiney.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#312

I don't believe the problem lies in any technology. We don't need blockchain, it's not JavaScript minification, it isn't the centralisation of services that are the problem. It's the business model. No amount of tech is going to change that. If you want to change the situation, start social media businesses with a different business model.

>it isn't the centralisation of services that are the problem. I strongly disagree. These giant monopolies on different corners of tech caused by centralization are the very reason we end up having to have these stupid discussions about how everything should work. All of this crap tied up in walled gardens means we just have to cry on the outside with #DeleteFacebook hash tags and hope stuff changes. You claim we nee…

> You claim we need to change the business model. I claim the business model is irrelevant if we instead focus on open source and distributed platforms.

I think the organizational model is relevant. Would we be having the discussions around the most popular social network selling our data and completely disrespecting user privacy if the most popular social network were a non-profit organization?

I have to think there is some middle ground between publicly traded megacorp and complete decentralization.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#313
post #298
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If current web stacks aren't bloated and over-engineered, then I don't know what would qualify.

Imagine it would get even worse ;-)

It’d be nice if there was a possibility of real competition at the basic platform level. The browser model is so entrenched, yet it still amazes me that we’ve been stuck with it for two decades.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#314

I don't believe the problem lies in any technology. We don't need blockchain, it's not JavaScript minification, it isn't the centralisation of services that are the problem. It's the business model. No amount of tech is going to change that. If you want to change the situation, start social media businesses with a different business model.

>it isn't the centralisation of services that are the problem. I strongly disagree. These giant monopolies on different corners of tech caused by centralization are the very reason we end up having to have these stupid discussions about how everything should work. All of this crap tied up in walled gardens means we just have to cry on the outside with #DeleteFacebook hash tags and hope stuff changes. You claim we nee…

> These giant monopolies on different corners of tech caused by centralization are the very reason we end up having to have these stupid discussions about how everything should work.

NPR basically has a monopoly on public radio, and yet we don't constantly hear about all the evil stuff they're doing. Why? Because they're not being run as a loss leader to sell missiles and landmines or whatever.

Centralization isn't bad as long as the central organization exists to serve the relevant stakeholders in an equitable way.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#315
post #23

It feels like this is already a work in progress using Beaker Browser and Dat. - Beaker lets you browse entire websites (dat archives) and fork them. - It lets you create and serve your own sites directly from the browser and seed it from a server (like a torrent). - It lets other sites create templated sites under your name for user generated content. - Visitors by default temporarily seed your website which may red…

This is pretty incredible, thanks for posting.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#316
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EU is about to enforce GDPR [...] if European legislation is more supportive for small agile companies Surely you see the contradiction there. > Currently internet is very U.S. centric because most of the big players are located there. That could change if [...] That's not just a coincidence and I don't believe it's any kind of first-mover advantage. It's about the environment in which you operate and passing more…

Not necessarily a contradiction - GDPR could have many possible effects; it's too early to claim that these effects will disproportionately harm small companies. One possibility, of course, is that larger companies will have more resources to tackle GDPR compliance, and thus be better able to respond effectively than small companies. However, it's also possible that, by taking privacy / security seriously from day on…

It's not strictness being the problem, it's the uncertainty. GDPR seems like a framework to take out anybody at will, because nobody can really conform to the laws due to that uncertainty. If you do anything really disruptive/innovative, you're probably gonna get problems.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#318
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still possible: http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ When I made All About Berlin, it was just HTML and CSS. Nothing complex there. I eventually added Disqus and Google Analytics, but it's still possible to build simple websites.

Fixing the internet is hard. There are so many things wrong with it. Take your website for example: 1. No encryption, meaning any intermediate router could have altered the contents or at the very least surveilled them. 2. Illegible line length without me boosting the font size or browser width. 3. No protection for the reader that this is actually motherfuckingwebsite.com and not some .com with a Cyrillic character…

doesn't address all of your points, but: https://bestmotherfucking.website/

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#319
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a study on the (in)effectiveness of online ad campaigns? Is it or is it not a bubble that drives all this ad publisher to the ad platforms instead of buying ads more directly? I don't know the prices but I can bet buying an ad directly from a vlogger is cheaper and more effective than any ad platform out there. Is it really the dumbness of ad publishers that keep this system alive or is it me that I'm really…

Just watch what the big advertisers do. Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Procter & Gable, etc... When your company spends millions on advertising, you have teams of people to figure out if your strategy is effective. Follow the leaders.

I haven't seen one of them advertise online. Online adverts are way different than TV adverts. For one the latter costs way more, if I'm not mistaken. And even if that's not the case, still, those companies have so much money that running ads is like a hobby for them. So I'd rather not follow them. Just like Google can get away with killing Reader, they can get away with many things which if a smaller company did would be suicide.

Re: Time to rebuild the web?

#320
There's an amusing parallel between housing in major tech cities and the net. In both cases you've got the people who were there earlier and want the character of the place to remain mostly small entities like it was when they got there, and the people who came later and want to change the place to be dominated by large entities that will change most of the place's character.

It's amusing because the tech crowd are opposing the NIMBY people in meatspace but are the NIMBY people in cyberspace.

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