Is anyone else as disappointed as I am in how the internet and its surrounding culture and communities have developed...

Is anyone else as disappointed as I am in how the internet and its surrounding culture and communities have developed in the past 15-20 years?

Everything has become so centralized and dumbed down. BBS forums have died down in favor of discussion on existing social media and content aggregation giants. Thousands of articles containing thinly-veiled advertisements, useless or obvious knowledge are written by underpaid college interns daily, clogging up search engine results and lowering the already rockbottom standards of journalism further. Websites will lock you out from their contents until you sign in with your social media account of choice and allow them to data mine you.

A handful of massive corporations control the flow of all the information you see, and will bombard you with the same advertisements, political messages, and normie-noise through every channel they can reach you until it is burned into your brain.

How did we get this bad? How do we reverse it? Can we move on to a new internet and escape the sweeping, doomsday mediocrity of the normie net for a few years until they come over and ruin it all again?

bump? nobody?

If we create a new net, normies will obviously besiege it again.
Not sure how you can break the hold the social medias have over the people's minds.

>How did we get this bad?
They don't care.

>How do we reverse it?
Destroy the internet

The public space is a trough of garbage being fed to barely cognizant dopamine drowned plebs, the internet just became a public space instead of a hobbyist one.

Probably someone will make another hobbyist network method at some point.

You just need to avoid using products you disagree with. NoScript addon also helps make the web less toxic - if a page won't load w/o js it isn't worth your time.

>Probably someone will make another hobbyist network method at some point.

That's precisely what I am thinking of. The Internet's growth was slowed by a combination of economic and accessibility related factors. Silicon is cheap as dirt now, and most people are raised now with at least a modicum of an understand of how most technology works. You can raise the barrier to entry, but it will not take long for a well-intentioned fool to create some method of facilitating access to the platform (see: Sad Panda extensions).

the centralization and the cancerous ad culture can be fixed but the overall low quality can't. 99% of people is dumb so everything will get dumb and stay dumb as long as it's popular.

I blame mobile phones, it's now completely impossible to have a site with any sense of any kind of quality thanks to mobilefags

well if centralization is a problem, we need decentralization

someone make another search engine to compete with google. or two or three or four. I remember there was altavista, northernlights, alltheweb. even yahoo and lycos and infoseek were ok early on.

then ppl take on facebook. not vk-style copying even the layout, but something really different. something that gives privacy without forcing cell phone numbers or giving out your irl name.

there's other problems like the me-me-me my image culture of instagram and snapchat and I don't have an answer to that.

quite frankly, I don't see anyone with the capital necessary to take on those corporate giants now that everything's crystallized.
it'd take either a war (even cyberwarfare will do) that kind of dismantles the institutions, or an effort from a heavyweight nation-state, like china or russia, but don't expect either of them to promote a free pre-facebook internet.

there's finally the issue of computing devices so dumb you don't need to know anything about how they work. that was never a good idea. now everyone voice searches with alexa/siri/google and allows the default settings (upload all info to cloud), not that there's many settings left.

i started out on TOTSE in 2001 or so. i guess the entire decay was inevitable. similar to the hellish conditions created through urbanization. once the city rolls over your idyllic pastoral life, it doesn't roll back.

Manjaro forums are still good. No SJW cuckoldry, stellar support for new users.

Generally speaking any site with too many undedicated people will begin to host trolls and the like. Best to maintain your own sense of objectivity and not become too emotionally invested in any website.

Facebook/Apple/Google are corralling normies into certain areas of the web already.


Just dont use their sites user.

Oldfag here. I have watched this for a few decades now.
>How did we get this bad?
...

If you don't know the answer to that, then all hope is lost. This shit is old enough to get a driver's license now, FFS. Anyone that was around at the start of the dot-com boom knows the fucking story already.

>How do we reverse it?
Stop pretending you get something for nothing. Seriously. Support actual fucking paid sites with your hard earned cash; but ONLY support sites that don't farm you like fucking cows. Make that a fucking contract, make the contract enforceable, and if the site goes down, they can't sell your soul as an asset.

Honest pay-to-play is the only way out at the moment, and by honest, I mean there is an acknowledgement that the patron's information will not be commoditized and sold off in a tranch-block of 10k, like so many head of cattle.

>Can we move on to a new internet and escape the sweeping, doomsday mediocrity of the normie net for a few years until they come over and ruin it all again?
We had that. It was called 1994-2002. It didn't last because fuckheads wanted to siphon of VC capital, and the only way to get people to sign on was to lie and say "free lunch" as loud as possible. Why do you think all those shitty ventures even existed? They weren't meant to be a real business; they existed solely to suck VC cock in exchange for fat sacks of cash.

>Destroy the internet
The internet was never the problem, gifters and fuckheads being allowed on it were the problem.

>You just need to avoid using products you disagree with.
Close; we need to stop buying products that are shit to begin with. And that includes the bulk of the bullshit media. Out of the festering mound of bullshit that is YouBoob, there is maybe 1% of it that is of any use, or of any real interest, or even has any kind of information.

Do you honestly think I will not download that shit into a local file and tell them to fuck themselves?

Do you think that's air you're breathing?

>the centralization and the cancerous ad culture can be fixed but the overall low quality can't.
Also a grain of truth to this. You need to really weed through the spamvertisement sites, the "we don't have an agenda but we really do" news, and all the other bullshit. Filters are the only way, but you have to filter from all sides, and ALLOW ALL SIDES to come in. If you don't, you get the vapid stupid echo chamber we have today, where you only see and hear what you WANT to see and hear; and not what you NEED.

>well if centralization is a problem, we need decentralization
And the Internet was designed to allow for that. We just gave up on it because
>muh DNS failover
>muh site goes down for 5 seconds, they might leave
Stupid web designers have taken decades of research and wiped their asses with it, all in the name of click-views.

>similar to the hellish conditions created through urbanization. once the city rolls over your idyllic pastoral life, it doesn't roll back.
Then you pick your shit up and move it. The city tries to expand forever, but like any imbalanced ecosystem, it will eventually implode into itself by its own weight. This is what is causing urban decay today; the cities cannot bring in resources desperately needed to prop up their unsustainable living arrangements.

>Back in my day
*sits in dusty cloth and foam used desk chair*
>We had 18 non-intrusive search engines
*clicks on page 4 of results*
>Email seemed like magic
*spam email malware replicates through address book*
>and had forums that were as active as a mouses heartbeat
*last post 3 days ago*
>The people on the forums were amazing
*sets posts per page to 10*
>Nobody ever knew anything because they couldn't look it up
*turns toggle jpeg on*
>And so people would post garbage speculation all the time
*browses through responses of "just reinstall it"*
>IRC was incredible back then
*spends 10 minutes logging in to IRC*
>Talking to someone across an ocean made the world seem so much smaller
*tries to ignore the spam advertising bots flooding the chat*

Internet """culture""" wasn't really a thing back then. It was too much of a mess and too decentralised.
Just use the centralising sites like google, and youtube a little more sparingly and don't ever touch facebook. Sup Forums is better than any BBS or IRC I remember and it's not going anywhere.
People complaining about facebook are the most pointless kinds of people due how easy facebook is to plainly avoid. It's like someone complaining about a restaurant and then continuing to go there, just leave.

It was either that or keep the elite giants stay elite giants. The only way back then 99% of the time to make it was by being endorsed by an elite giant.

Platforms like youtube level the playing field now. Unfortunately leveling also means gutter trash also has the same exposure ability.

If you really want a taste of back then, learn Japanese and live in Japan. There is social media in Japan but there's still a close community due to the availability of physical media still being a thing. But slowly now Japan is turning into a digital age as well.

2007 was the worst year

>Japan, major tech country, not in the age of information like the rest of the West is.
That doesn't sound right.

1995.

That was the year AOL made it possible for every fucking moron to get on the internet, while having their checking account siphoned for $15/month for the next decade.

Nevermind Jobs and his Crapples.

It was shit back in the day too.

At least today there is information if you look for it. I'd rather sign in with a fake social media account rather than get excommunicated for not using my real name.

Japan is so much behind in computer technology, it's not even funny. If you browse a few Japanese websites you will feel like you're back in the 90s. The only thing Japanese is high tech these days is robotics.

Nothing is worse than buying a game and it doesn't work and no one can give you a solution of how to fix the problem.

That would be September 1993

Yes there are, yet they still keep using it because it's the only game in town.
Greedy kikes like zuckerberg and gates didn't help any.
Yea good luck with that, too many narcissists on facebook, twitter, and such obsessed with themselves and their image/brand out there to change things now.
Too late, the internet is part of the world now and nothing short of trump shutting it down will change that.
Yep, enjoy the ride.
Too late, the internet IS Skynet!
Yea that'll make a difference.
Yes, they're called windows users.
Mobile phones are just a means to an end, not the cause.
There's duckduckgo and others that claim to not store the search; if you're ooking for one with no ads and complete anonyminity forget it.
I was on the &TOTSE website and before that the dialup bbs, it was good for it's time but like others was killed by the inet.
Like that'll ever happen, too many drones already using them.
There are sites hat don't farm you, what imagination land of perfection are they in?

Reminder that useful fools still think this can be fixed.

>There are sites hat don't farm you, what imagination land of perfection are they in?
You got me there, kinda. I've occasionally bumped into the little indy site here and there over the years (I don't mean the behemoth bullshit "Indy News Media" or other crap, but actual mom-and-pop sites that run on donations). But yeah, the odds are literally like winning the lottery at this point. So, yeah, I agree. But that shouldn't stop you from trying to look. Keep digging in the various dusty corners of the web; they are out there.

Example:
lwn.net used to be pay-to-play years ago. You would get articles that were old if you wanted free, or you could pay a subscriber fee and get the articles on time. I don't know if they do that anymore, but it's an example of a "indy" site that was talking about above.

Good catch, thanks. Memory isn't what it used to be after 25 years.

Combining a bunch of meaningless shitposts into one big post just makes one big meaningless shitpost.

Concise sometimes has value, even if the value is a bag of shit.

At least it tied up all the loose ends.

Be the change you want to see.
Turn off JS, don't browse shitty "content aggregators", and start joining smaller communities.

I only got internet in 1998 so I guess that makes me a post AOL newfag. What I do know is the drastic shift of culture after smartphones really took off. Back then mentioning that you use the internet to some random dumb teenage girl would invoke a reaction akin to telling people nowadays you're playing Japanese porn games. In 2018, the stupid bimbo is using the internet herself, together with all her friends and their grandmothers, via dumbphones.

Holy fuck you are some melodramatic fucks. Did I accidentally click on /r9k/?

The internet is fine. You either got older or you're hanging out in the same place too long (hint hint: Sup Forums). There are plenty of niche circlejerk groups out there, go find them if you're so unhappy.

My issues stem far beyond the individual level. I do not use social media, but I can still clearly see the deleterious effects it has on society and my loved ones. I stay out of these spheres of influence, but I still can't help but be disappointed by the wasted potential of what the internet has become.

Everyone's a moron in some capacity, even you and the rest of the probable avid shitposters crying about how terrible everything is after they've pissed all over it with low-effort garbage for funny lulz memes haha xD

Thus everything with a lot of people eventually turns to shit overall, but like said you can just avoid the shit. There are still plenty of shitty mailing lists and "hobbyist" communities for you to hang around in and feast on your own shit.

>Turn off JS, don't browse shitty "content aggregators"
Spot on. I've used uMatrix for a long time, and you would be amazed at the amount of tracking/advertising bullshit a modern site pulls in. Some are catching on and serve up the content for an article through a CDN that is a part of a tracker, forcing the issue. Right now it's rare, maybe 1 in 20 that are doing this, but once it hits about the 25% mark I won't even bother anymore.

And yes, there are plenty of echo chambers out there right now, letting people effectively talk into a mirror. You really don't have news an opinions unless you take the time to look at more than one side, and sometimes that means going outside your comfort zone and reading articles "from the other perspective", whatever that perspective is.

After awhile, you begin to (figuratively) see the fucking Matrix for what it is...

>I saw the internet decline first!

Just kill yourselves already you snowflake faggots.

>The internet is fine.
This shit again. This is like saying "the death of privacy is ok, because I have nothing to hide".

If you honestly, deeply believe this self-deluded bullshit, then, sure, your answer makes sense.

If you had any wits about you and realized just what you are giving up, in exchange for what you get, you would be pissed as hell at the raw deal you got.

What makes you think those technologies won't work user?

I'll give you a hint

No, you're just a shit eating kid who isn't old enough to see the dramatic changes and centralization the internet has went through. Whether you think it was for better or worse, denying it has changed exponentially is just ignorance.

I don't use this site much anymore. I don't go on the internet much in general anymore outside of research or utility. It's become really hollow and fruitless.

What am I giving up, exactly? I get more use out of the internet than ever before.

I'm 35. You're just acting dramatic because you're a depressed faggot.

This has always been an issue though. It was definitely a problem for early world wide web, hell it still is an issue with modern day clearnet. You could have just as easily uploaded real cheese pizza when you clicked post.

There is no reason why IPFS services can't be moderated

You should let Miku into your life.
Or ponies.

>Look at me, lookie, me
>I can't imagine that it was actually better then with crap technology compared to now
>Everything is awesome, you just suck because you're not awesome
>I can make web pages and call myself a programmer

You have my pity, you've never known another way of life. All your life you've been raised like cattle, you live like cattle, and when you get sent to the pen on the last day you'll still think nothing's wrong and everything's fine, right up to the point your brain is crushed inside of your own skull.

I remember when I could walk through an airport to a plane and not have some underpaid flunky check my junk with a radio wand. I remember when terrorists were just a vague political concept and not a media boogieman. I remember shit that you can't even begin to imagine because you wouldn't know any better, you've never known any better, and you never will.

I don't see myself as a snowflake, or special, or anything other than some guy trying to survive. If you want to project YOUR problems, sure, you're welcome to give it a go. But don't lay that "he must be special" bullshit on me sonny boy. This is the only effort I'll even expend on your faggoty ass.

>I'm 35.
I'm 49, what do you fucking want, a brownie button? Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a Pogo Stick, who gives two fucks what are ages are?

Get a load of these depressed faggots crying about the state of the internet. Just get it over with and off yourselves already, you're weak.

I'm 42 and have to say the internet is better than ever. Just tell Sup Forums to fuck off back to Sup Forums and you're good.

>a 35 year old man unironically posts on Sup Forums and somehow thinks he can get away with condescending others on it

lmfao

Most people don't care because they don't think they can be manipulated. "Yeah information is because controlled by big tech conglomerates but someone like _me_ won't be tricked!"

I'm 22. Want to meet up?

:)

20/m/Melbourne asl? ;))

>inb4 >>/soc/

you going to the king gizzard show tonight brah?

>all of the mental midgets in this thread conflating technological progress and higher efficiency with the issues of deprecating design and eroding content quality
>muh internet iz betur than evur!!!

Please don't reporduce.

Nah cuz I'm too NEET.

30/M/Toronto

Yeah I fucking hate the Internet nowadays and FUCK GOOGLE

*completes 75th captcha for the day*

There is resounding hate for reCAPTCHA being on this site

>muh content
>muh nostalgia
Why are you still here? Why haven't you killed yourself yet?

>I fucking hate it!
>*completes 76th captcha for the day*
>Got the internet fucking sucks these days!

>How did we get this bad?
The answer is, has been, and always will be...Jews. Every single time.

It’s true I’ve been on Sup Forums since 2007 and I’ve been a phone only user for 3-4 years now. I don’t post my own threads anymore and I rarely post any pics, because I’m only on mobile.

The reason is my main computer is my company computer and I’m not visiting Sup Forums on it.

you could argue that any kind of security/privacy technology could be used for the storage and proliferation of cheese pizza
punish those who do, not those who could, i say.