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What I want from the internet

chrbutler.com

41–50 of 114 posts

Re: What I want from the internet

#41
post #39
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've certainly gone through phases of posting content of various types on various sites over time. I'll probably get back to posting on my own sites a bit more as one of my main channels went away. But it is easy to let dropping some comments on social media take the place of writing even a short blog post--and that's even assuming you have a blog all set up and everything. >But he does stay active on Twitter: https:…

>Sort of. He hasn't posted anything since last year. He posted this one April 23 (about 15 days ago): https://twitter.com/cshirky/status/1650298747237064704 I think the default Twitter webpage view is confusing because the pinned older tweets (Dec 31 2022) are shown before the most recent tweets.

Yeah. That's what threw me off. You see a pinned tweet and assume it's the most recent at a quick glance.

Re: What I want from the internet

#42

> And the internet used to be more work to experience. Today, it’s more work to avoid. Since the author likes analogies, I'll add mine: the internet now has become roads, bridges, towns. The internet used to be forests, rivers to ford, camps. There used to be an exploration-aspect to the internet, not sure what you would find if you took this trail or that one. Now we all seem to travel the few, well-worn roads to th…

In that sense, HN at least feels like a village up in the mountains. With lots of trails leading into less travelled forests around it...

I like that, and you're right. I find that discussions in the comment of HN articles almost always tell me something I don't know. Sometimes it feels like secret knowledge :)

Re: What I want from the internet

#43

Hi Christopher, I really liked this article. > It is hard, though, to build and maintain the structures of the old, “smaller” internet. I agree. Even just setting up an RSS reader and finding a little community of blogs to follow can take a lot of work. Interact with those blogs, whether that's by submitting comments to individual posts, posting responses on your own blog, or doing something fancier with IndieWeb pro…

Yeah, no mention of the Fediverse was baffling...

Re: What I want from the internet

#44
post #29

I mostly buy Eternal September, or as rephrased by David Foster Wallace: "[The internet] is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." Like, the internet is banal because we're (the rich world) all on it. It's not a weird little niche anymore. So it's now subject to all the (…

What is MLS?

Re: What I want from the internet

#45
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I describe it as, the internet of books and text became the internet of videos and music. Not better or worse just different.

I describe it as, the internet of books and text became the internet of videos and music. Except that the internet never was books, and was only text due to technological limitations. When we started networking all the computers together, we (myself included) had this vision of an information utopia where everyone would be able to access all of the information previously locked up in books, magazines, and newspapers.…

>the vast majority of the information — and lessons — learned in the last 500 years has been forgotten because it's not free and easy to access.

I guess I don't really agree with that. Yes, a lot of very detailed information (and primary sources) about things is in research libraries, at least some of which are not open to the general public. But that doesn't mean all that information is lost. A lot of historical information is accessible to the (admittedly relatively small percentage of) people willing to put the effort into digging it up.

Re: What I want from the internet

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't self-promotion per se, the problem is the sheer amount of self-promotion that occurs when it is allowed. If any is permitted, then often all is permitted, and a forum becomes inundated with people vying for attention. Classic tragedy of the commons.

You are missing the point. Entirely. If you know of an independent creator and they do something you like, share it.

Entirely you say? I was addressing this portion of your comment:

> I'm pretty darn sure I'm not the only independent content creator being largely ignored, attacked for "self promotion"

I agree whole-heartedly with your share it sentiment, but if that was your original point, it was unfortunately obscured.

Re: What I want from the internet

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen reports lately that bot traffic is accounting for nearly half of all internet traffic, which is truly wild. https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/bad-bot-traffic-r...

And depending on what group you listen to most of the internet traffic is for pornography, or possibly bittorrent.

I would assume today that the vast majority of Internet traffic is movie streaming for non-pirate sources. But I could be wrong.

Re: What I want from the internet

#48
post #44
post #29

I mostly buy Eternal September, or as rephrased by David Foster Wallace: "[The internet] is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." Like, the internet is banal because we're (the rich world) all on it. It's not a weird little niche anymore. So it's now subject to all the (…

What is MLS?

Messaging Layer Security: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messaging_Layer_Security -- basically TLS for messaging apps

Re: What I want from the internet

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing the point. Entirely. If you know of an independent creator and they do something you like, share it.

Entirely you say? I was addressing this portion of your comment: > I'm pretty darn sure I'm not the only independent content creator being largely ignored, attacked for "self promotion" I agree whole-heartedly with your share it sentiment, but if that was your original point, it was unfortunately obscured.

It's a no win situation. People ignore independent creatives while consuming more established and popular media. Share your own work, people attack you. Meanwhile if you don't share your work, no one sees it.

Then you read articles whining about how hard it is to find interesting content and escape the prison of social media.

It's not because independent creators don't exist. But there are a lot of barriers to getting traction at all.

And if you try to even comment on the topic in a discussion of this sort, odds are good people will act like it is a nefarious plot to self promote. It's maddening.

Re: What I want from the internet

#50

> And the internet used to be more work to experience. Today, it’s more work to avoid. Since the author likes analogies, I'll add mine: the internet now has become roads, bridges, towns. The internet used to be forests, rivers to ford, camps. There used to be an exploration-aspect to the internet, not sure what you would find if you took this trail or that one. Now we all seem to travel the few, well-worn roads to th…

In that sense, HN at least feels like a village up in the mountains. With lots of trails leading into less travelled forests around it...

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