People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
I don’t remember it that way. To me, it was a minefield of viruses, popup ads, chain mail, and unexpected extreme NFSW content.
Everything improved a bit when browsers started limiting recursive popups and hidden executables on websites, but for much of the late 90s and early aughts, every click was risky. And oh my god the design of things. I was so happy when the tag finally fell out of fashion.
Boo.
Yeah I think this is definitely a case of rose colored glasses. I absolutely miss the way the internet was 25 years ago but I also do not miss randomly browsing and running across child pornography, I don't miss every kilobyte being measured to make sure I don't over use the network, I don't miss having to have multiple browsers just because a website was written for Netscape and not Explorer, or pop-up adds, viruses, and everything else you mentioned.
"The Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization..."
they were spot on.
I can literally never use Reddit again but all.my search results keep taking me there
It's so interesting. My partner is still on Reddit and she was complaining to me about the massive amount of bots, trolls and general negativity. My response was basically, yeah, that's why I left and don't miss it one bit. I found a much better place that has actual discussion and nowhere near that level of toxicity. I asked her if she wanted to know about it and her answer was just "No". LOL. She's also a fan of super drama filled reality TV so I guess if you like one you like the other.
I'm low-key glad for the Reddit API debacle that caused me to migrate over here. Although it seems that Reddit has become especially awful nowadays, Lemmy made me realise that this degradation had been happening for years.
Part of what masked it is that my favourite parts of Reddit were the niche communities that still had quality discourse in them. I especially liked the craft subreddits, which were full of vibrant users and useful resources. In hindsight, by the time I left Reddit, I was spending most of my time in these small communities, rather than the defaults.
To some extent, Reddit's front page and default subs have always been a bit of a cess-pool of toxicity, but it wasn't always as bad as it was when I left. It seems like it's even worse now though. I wonder how much of that is because people who care about quality discussion migrated to platforms like this. Given how much I enjoy the vibe of Lemmy, my gut says that surely must have had a significant impact. However, my brain says that I'm probably overestimating the significance of our little pocket here.
Regardless, I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad you are here too. I hope that people like your partner will eventually find their own pockets of enjoyable psuedonymous community, whether on Lemmy or elsewhere — I'm not a drama enjoyer myself, but it'd be nice if people who like that could have a place where they can indulge in that without the unpleasantness you describe. I sympathise with people who feel overwhelmed by the fediverse, and I sometimes have to try not to evangelise too hard.
I left Reddit and deleted my account after 15 years, and millions of up votes on comments and posts. I do not regret that decision.
However, my much older slashdot account is still there.
It was so human a lot of usenet was properly unsavory.
Because that's what humans are, mostly.
It was, but... this morning I pulled out my pocket computer that also can make calls, started streaming the Disco Elysium soundtrack, and proceeded to drive across two cities. There were no pauses or hiccups in the stream.
The early 2000s mind cannot comprehend this.
But surely if you hit any bumps while driving, the disc skipped, right?
I would argue was even more the case during the earliest days of the web. It was really a open, untamed, wild west feeling, like anything was possible.
Then the corporatization of the internet happened during the dotcom bubble, and all hell broke loose, we know the rest.
I was there, even a couple years before that... and in reality not so much has changed.
What we now call "The Internet" is what BTX (in germany) was back then: A commercialised platform controlled by corporations. Trolling, hate, ragebait... all nothing new, just look at archived posts from the Usenet!
The cool thing is that we now can rebuild something that is more akin to the BBS networks of yesteryear, something like the Fido-net, something that is entirely owned by the people using it.
completely ahistorical, the Internet has had the same problems for basic its entire existence
It was for sure toxic af, but a lot less commercial. Actually the early internet was incredibly hostile to corps, but then the banner ads came, and the eyeballs, and the ads started actually making more money than just server costs, and it was all over.
Yes and no. It's important to remember that people lied and wanted to rage: but it was annonymous and we knew everyone was full of shit so it didn't matter.
As per examples through history, greed and profit chasing have completely ruined what once belonged to the people.
It sucks because it’s beginning to feel like a life wasted. I got in early, my career pre-dates the 1st .com crash. My first browser was Mosaic, then shortly became Netscape with the big pulsating “N” animation.
I LOVED the early internet. I loved the personal sites, webrings, IRC and newsgroups. I remember the first time I spoke with someone on the other side of the world (hello to my Canberra friend, it’s me, your midwestern buddy). I felt part of something that was new and exciting and fun.
Then ads came and it’s just gone to shit ever since. To the point where I now hate being online, all my shit is selfhosted and I barely interact with anything besides lemmy and mastodon (they still feel like the actual internet).
I used to be slightly disappointed my kids didn’t turn out as nerdy as me. Now I am just thrilled that I was able to be a cautionary tale for them.
It ain't years it's months ago...