So the past of the internet?
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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The original web 3 was supposed to be a return to form of web 1, with the good stuff of web 2 and decentralized. Then cryptobros hijacked it
Yes and, We're taking it back.
https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/how-to-get-started-in-the-fediverse/
There's more than just lemmy
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I don't think I've really seen any literature about web3 that wasn't a crypto scam in a trench coat. Do you have any links or info about the original goals of web3?
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History rhymes and all that
"Time flows like a river, and history repeats." -Secret of Mana
Time flows like a river, and fruit flies like a banana.
Everything old is new again.
Basically forums
Maybe we’ll use newsgroups for actually talking to people again
Arr, those be the high seas now
The thing is that many people, myself included assumed most were dead and cannibalised by Reddit and Facebook groups. Turns out those specialised places have been running continuously on their own pace. Yeah, threads can still span hundreds of pages but in the end going through them makes you an expert on things overnight ;)
Oh my God, the Something Awful forums are still up: https://forums.somethingawful.com/
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Bring them back! I for one would rather use a forum over a fucking Discord server any day of the week. At least forums are open, searchable and discoverable. Good luck finding the answer to a question you have that some poor sod like you may have also asked in a Discord server months or years ago.
God I hate discord.
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It is for me, but I have my doubts that the majority will avoid the corporate-owned spaces.
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I think by now we have figured out the majority of people are garbage and you only want to spend time with a select group. Discord seems to have this figured out.
The only thing which has changed is the medium.
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Sounds a lot like the past. And, actually, a bit like the current internet. Custom websites, feed syndication, etc. didn't disappear, they just shrank in the face of behemoth platforms.
Check out Neocities, a great community of indie web fans, built in the spirit of the old GeoCities sites.
Some really great sites there, it really captures that late 90's to early 2000's internet vibes.
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I wasn't too early, but I joined reddit around the Dota 2 beta, so circa 2012, and damn the site became more and more garbage the more people it had, most comments became nothing but karma farming one liners, references or snide shit.
Communities grew into massive echo chambers, quality of discussions went down the drain.
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...smaller communities
So like it was before the dawn of Reddit and social media?
Sign me the fuck up. I miss my dumb little websites with a dodgy layout full of terribly cropped gifs.
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Real issue is how much effort are people willing to put to maintain those communities.
The future is the past!
One might suggest that it should have always been that way.
I firmly believe that connecting people to their IRL friends is an important part of the potential of the Internet, as it is shown by Facebook, for example.
But I also believe there are people looking to connect with new people and finding a community where they can express themselves wholly. I think the current Internet is weak in this regard, weaker than it has been before, but I think it's possible to build a place where people can connect.
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"the future of the internet is likely its past..."
Small communities where one can talk about specific subjects? Man there's something like that already and people can run it from their own computers too, forgot the name though.
The good old days of phpmybb
Thank fuck the corporate silo era is (slowly) coming to an end. And they tried so hard to turn it into TV 2.0.
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First the internet needs to rise against techno-fascism!!
The future of the web may be relearning the browser (and other tools)
It costs money to run these things so monetization always rears its head.
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yes, but where could we find something like that?
We should be able to bootstrap activityPub to GeoCities websites. WordPress integration is taking a long time.
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Curated experiences are the reason we're in the shit right now.
But yeah, maybe boutique curated exepriences will somehow be qualitatively different, and not just finer market segmentation.
I think they meant human-curated.
I'd say genuine. Genuine experiences. Sharing shit for sharing's sake. Not for better SEO. Not for profit. Just unadulterated human expression.
That's how I envision using the internet for entertainment in the near future. I'll still use the shitty corporate sites when I must, for transactional browsing. I'm not going to pretend I can push Amazon, Microsoft, Google, online banking, etc. out of my life just like that.
But I will actively seek authentic spaces. They will be a tad smaller than your average social network, Reddit, and whatnot. But I'm certain they're out there and more people will join me in this search and populate these small spaces as time goes on.
Lemmy, Mastodon, the IndieWeb movement. The first steps. I hope to find more!
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Not all of Reddit works, but some of it does for some people, and the reason it works for them is because the moderators shape communities that the community members enjoy participating in.
Personally, I think active communities below the Dunbar number (about 150) in size are some of the most rewarding to participate in, long term. But, there are always a lot of people who flock to wherever the biggest crowds are.
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