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I would disagree that the web was more about consumption. There where more personal pages because html was simple and there was little reason for large busines

by swiley 8y ago

I would disagree that the web was more about consumption. There where more personal pages because html was simple and there was little reason for large businesses to build pages around consumption or write html for you. Older browsers even had edit modes and would use the http PUT method to send updated versions of the document. The original intention of the web was a sort of global wiki, not this tool to connect you to some coorperate service.

onion2k 8y ago
There where more personal pages... Than Instagram accounts? YouTube channels? Facebook pages? Twitter profiles? No. There's far more now. The landscape has changed and things look very different, but those things are personal pages where people publish what they want to say. The only thing that's changed is that the platforms people publish to have far less scope for personalisation. I'd definitely agree that those pages are worse than homepages we had in the 90s as far as a personal voice is concerned. They're mostly boring, homogeneous things that only very close friends of the owner want to read (and even then...). Nonetheless though, they are homepages.
- cknoxrun 8y ago
  > All of the creating happened elsewhere. People made things on their computer in other apps and then published them to the web. The interesting thing there is that most people use those tools (Instagram, etc.) through an app, not through a browser.
- 908087 8y ago
  I'd argue that things like "likes" have created an environment where people generally publish what they think other people would want them to say (e.g. things that will be "rewarded" with internet points), rather than what they actually want to say.
  - onion2k 8y ago
    That's just 'better' metrics. Back in the day we had hit counters and server logs, and some of us tweaked our content to drive them up. There were early forms of SEO, clickbait, content marketing ("content is king" was something every web person knew). The desire for recognition was there at the start.

by swiley 8y ago

onion2k 8y ago

There where more personal pages... Than Instagram accounts? YouTube channels? Facebook pages? Twitter profiles? No. There's far more now. The landscape has changed and things look very different, but those things are personal pages where people publish what they want to say. The only thing that's changed is that the platforms people publish to have far less scope for personalisation. I'd definitely agree that those pages are worse than homepages we had in the 90s as far as a personal voice is concerned. They're mostly boring, homogeneous things that only very close friends of the owner want to read (and even then...). Nonetheless though, they are homepages.

cknoxrun 8y ago
> All of the creating happened elsewhere. People made things on their computer in other apps and then published them to the web. The interesting thing there is that most people use those tools (Instagram, etc.) through an app, not through a browser.
908087 8y ago
I'd argue that things like "likes" have created an environment where people generally publish what they think other people would want them to say (e.g. things that will be "rewarded" with internet points), rather than what they actually want to say.
- onion2k 8y ago
  That's just 'better' metrics. Back in the day we had hit counters and server logs, and some of us tweaked our content to drive them up. There were early forms of SEO, clickbait, content marketing ("content is king" was something every web person knew). The desire for recognition was there at the start.