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This is how I feel about it too. It's almost like the Eternal September just kept getting worse. I remember in my early days online, I was learning electronics
by philpem 8y ago
This is how I feel about it too. It's almost like the Eternal September just kept getting worse.
I remember in my early days online, I was learning electronics design as a hobby. I posted a rather silly question to sci.electronics (silly in the sense that even a first-year student would have known the answer). A couple of hours later, a professor at an Ivy League university and a professional electronics designer had not only answered the question, but suggested some things I should learn and brush up on, and some books to do it. All very polite.
These days, it feels like the only answer you're likely to get is "lol git gud". The questions I come across sound almost like "I'm paying my ISP, I deserve an answer". The politeness and respect seems to have been lost over time.
That's not saying it's gone from everywhere -- StackExchange seems to get the balance right, with people willing to help newcomers to get involved. It's just that nice places like that are becoming fewer and further between, and I think that's sad.
- ianai 8y agoIt was also possible to run your own services much easier. If you wanted a domain name it or something close to it were unlikely to be squatted. I was able to setup and run a mail server in a colocation as a high school student. Not to mention I easily got email names or account names that didn’t suck - Ie not artificially long or number inclusive. At several points I had email accounts like jobs@domain.com. Most everything has been thought of or just squatted by someone looking to make a big buck. There was also optimism. The internet seemed impenetrable to the concentrating effects of society - but now we’ve got about 5 companies that run anything you’re looking to do online or with a computer. Even things like movies or shows are dominated with dystopian plots. They’ve even killed Star Trek, a hallmark of scifi eutopias.
- zeruch 8y agoThe eternal September reference is an accurate one.