:Wtf Is The Internet

So WTF Is the internet?

I’ve been thinking about the idea of social and tech news sites lately, and noticing that I’m not having a great time with some of them. But that begs the question, “What is it that I ever liked about them?”

What I used to look at

It should be understood that what I used to look for in tech news came from sites that still have zombified versions of themselves online today. There may still be good things about a few of them, but I’ve given up on them for one reason or another.

I think a lot of this started back on a site called Kuro5hin. Gather round, children, I’ll tell you a riddal. Not really, but if you get the reference then make sure you’ve taken your medications today. Kuro5hin was an interesting mix of personal blog, forum, proto-Twitter, proto-Reddit, and many other things. The community was vibrant. I was immature enough not to understand how great we had it on the internet in those days. But either way, it was an early “social network” of tech folks. An excellent memory. It existed between 1999 and 2013, but I probably only frequented it between 2001 and 2004. As it was the precursor to things like Digg and Reddit, those new sites are probably where and when my attention wandered away from Kuro5hin. It was an example of excellent community. We do still have that in small pockets of the internet.

Slashdot also qualifies in these early times in much the same way, but more focused on tech/programming. I’m unsure why exactly Slashdot died for me, but I really haven’t been back. Maybe it’s worth a check to get a pulse. I recall a redesign mostly turning me off. The best part about Slashdot was certainly that the news was all actually tech focused, and serviced both highly technical topics and general interest tech.

Lifehacker is another great example of a memorable site that lost its sheen. I’m having a hard time tracking it down, but I think probably pre-2010. This was a great place for what I’ll call light advertisement articles that have since become heavy advertisement. Lifehacker’s original purpose was great though. What can I do to improve how I interact with tech? What can I do to take better notes? What cool stuff exists to make my life better? Fantastic, when I felt that I could trust it.

That brings us to Reddit and Digg. I was a very early adopter of Reddit. My account, as of this writing, is 15 years old. I think it’s technically possible to be 16 years old at various times of the year, but the site’s founder currently shows a 15 year old account. We were playing on Reddit when it didn’t have subreddits. I played on Digg while it didn’t have topics and Kevin Rose was playing on his new creation with us. This is all prehistory at this point. I have always liked the idea of these sites because users can bring their interests, and I can generally hone in on “the good parts” and ignore whatever I’m not interested in. That’s not really the case anymore with Reddit, but there are a few hobby areas that aren’t bad. 2016 ruined the site, as far as I’m concerned. We went from a jolly place to find people’s interests, news, and chat to a place that was increasingly led by external interests. Today’s Reddit is unrecognizable and completely against the spirit of what we were doing in the early days.

What I don’t really need

These days, I’ve noticed that I can’t load any mainstream tech site without seeing keywords about the current governmental powers, one of the richest people in the world’s daily activities, whatever way evil people are working to erode our quality of life via social values, or advertisements so thinly veiled that they should probably be illegal. There is occasionally something interesting sprinkled in, but it’s getting hard to justify any “mainstream” site that I know of.

I don’t want to know about whatever is going on with Space Karen or their enterprises. None of them interest me in the slightest for one reason or another at this point. The reason is mostly Karen, but each has its own nuance. SpaceX removes funding and interest from science/NASA. Tesla makes boring jellybean economy cars sold for too much money, and one extremely ugly virtue signaler. Twitter was already a dumpster fire, so that’s a non-issue. The rest just aren’t interesting to begin with.

I don’t really need to hear about AI until one of a few possible eventualities is realized. First, maybe we do see AGI in our lifetime and it’s a thing that can be interacted with. If so, then I’d be interested. I don’t care about the hype train until the point that it is a real and “tangible” technology. The other option is when the AI hype bubble bursts as it has in the past. At that point, lots of interesting things will have to happen with industry movements, skillsets to train, and whatever assets fall out of the bust. If you ask me on a random day, I’ll tell you that the bust is more likely.

General politics can fuck right off too. Get that shit outta my tech news.

Did you notice that all of the things in this section are basically the same thing. The current social world really has raced to the bottom in terms of variety in a lot of ways. This entire note might as well be about a different existential crisis that we all share whether or not everybody has noticed it yet.

Where I’m hanging out right now and what I’d like to see

The obvious solution to these problems is to find indie/small web “replacements” for the corporate machinations that have taken over the internet. I do have some of those, and I’m working to direct more of my intake not just to indie web, but indie web that is dedicated to staying independent. This is an important complication that cannot necessarily be predicted easily. Many things I used to enjoy either died or were acquired and became zombies.

One of the more important things to replace is Reddit. There are a few options that popped up in the wake of app-mageddon, but most of them are the same problem only distributed. Lemmy and kbin are just too similar to their inspiration to be usable for me. The site that has made a difference there is Tildes. This is basically the same initial idea of Reddit, but with limited sub-communities that are easy to filter. The potential downside is that it is not very active, so finding people interested in some particular topic may not happen. In addition, you can’t really doomscroll it. That’s probably a good thing, but let’s be honest about motivations for using sites like this: time wasting.

Mastodon has also taken up residence in a very real way. I scroll my local instance, social.lol, run by the most excellent omg.lol. I’ve found mostly good like-minded folks, topics I am interested in, and very few of the things that make me sad. When I do find a sad thing, it’s easy to add a filter to get rid of it. I think this is an important key in mental health on the modern web.

I want to note one small detail about like-minded folks and spaces. I’m not building an echo chamber. I am simply not interested in giving my time and attention to objectively terrible people. If you don’t pass the smell check, I don’t need you. Simple as that. Believe it or not, there’s lots of room for discussion and disagreement amongst those of us who adhere to reasonable social standards. If that’s radical to you, I think you should evaluate your behavior. omg.lol’s People Principles are a pretty good start to such a philosophy.

The downside to the previous two examples of things I visit is that there just isn’t as much activity on these corners of the web. It’s not always possible to see the latest about particular interests if you’re looking where the people that discuss those topics aren’t hanging out. So unfortunately, I still haven’t completely replaced the corporate internet.

Pockets of Reddit are still useful and interesting. Hobby reddits are vibrant areas that I would be putting myself at a disservice if I ignore. Drama happens in these places that matters and affects the tools I use both in hobbies and in professional settings. A recent example of that is the 3D printing community pushing back on Bambu Lab's terrible ecosystem changes. These things do matter, so I can’t just ignore them.

In addition, there are still regular tech sites that I look at. The trick I’ve come across is that I’ve mostly concentrated on getting their posts from Mastodon, where there’s already a filter in the way. So I still visit Ars Tchenica, TechCrunch, The Verge, and many other sources that I find to be less than wholesome in their modern form. I would love to be able to ignore them, but it’s not reasonable just as with Reddit.

Hopefully someday I’ll find myself in a world that is cushioned from the mind games that we play on one another. Until then, these are my current solutions. If you would like to get started with Tildes or omg.lol, please Toot at me: @[email protected].

Posted on 2025-01-25 by u/cws