5 ms·

Today we have things like: https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/ That Glitch is not as popular as My Space was tells something about what people that use int

by soneca 8y ago

Today we have things like: https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/ That Glitch is not as popular as My Space was tells something about what people that use internet want; and shows that the internet is still fun and weird for people that like fun and weird.

minimaxir 8y ago
Sites like Glitch assume that you already have a good grasp of tech/software engineering. The big appeal of the early internet was that anyone could make something neat with simple HTML shenanigans, and learn to code by hacking the HTML templates to their needs. Many coders got their start by hacking Neopets storefronts. (there were actual coding puzzles on Neopets too for their events!)
- wuliwong 8y ago
  I think it is much easier for a non-technical person to put up a website today than in the 90s. Today you need absolutely zero coding knowledge, not even HTML.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - ylesaout 8y ago
    Back in the 90s (at least in the second half) you didn't need how to code. You just used Dreamweaver or Frontpage and you got your site! The only technical bits were to use FTP to upload it to your free hosting provider.
roywiggins 8y ago
Glitch sounds amazing, and way better than the tools that existed back then. But back then, Geocities was popular and loads of people had heard of it. I have never heard of Glitch. It seems like there's become a re-division between "people who like to tinker" and "literally everyone else". On the one hand that's great but it kind of feels like everything is AOL again now. The last vestige of fun, weird and popular is probably Tumblr, which everyone agrees has the absolute worst user interface. But you can theme your Tumblr page to your absolute heart's desire.
- misterprime 8y ago
  Gimme some more of that sweet walled garden.
  - TheGRS 8y ago
    No joke, I do remember when Facebook came onto the scene, I liked it way better than MySpace. I absolutely hated how customized MySpace pages became. It was dreck. Sound would blast when you opened someone's page. You could barely read what was on the page at times. It was occasionally fun but more often than not really terrible.
    - FiveSquared 8y ago
      Thank god youtube got rid of that. One day you would browse a dark page, and boom! Searing white at 3AM! But it’s nostalgic.
    - jandrese 8y ago
      Reading the article my thought was "one person's fun and weird is another person's loud and obnoxious". These days people have to focus more on the content because the presentation is so locked down. This may be for the better, but it can definitely feel antiseptic and corporate. The sense of fun is lost.
      - dwringer 8y ago
        Where does Facebook offer a place to put "content"? AFAIK You can give them personal info and suggest interesting things, and Facebook decides how, if, or when to present this information, and to whom.
    - lozaning 8y ago
      Samy is still your hero and you know it!
    - rconti 8y ago
      When Myspace came along, it clearly seemed to be the cesspool of the internet; I never created a page and never visited it out of principle. There was nothing I wanted out there. Facebook's clean design was what I actually wanted. Not some autoplay crap music. In fact, back in the day, everything in Facebook was a search. I could click on your residence or your class/section and see everyone else in it. It was awesome and useful.
dammod 8y ago
But Glitch isn't a way for a normal person to express themselves, is it? Sure, you can write code which can be viewed by everyone, but you can do the same with github, Glitch is mostly only used by programmers, and you can't express yourself through code like you can express yourself through styling your own social media profile.
- krapp 8y ago
  Normal people already express themselves on mainstream social media, about normal things. Normal people aren't the ones wishing the web was weird and quirky again, and they couldn't care less that Facebook or Twitter doesn't let them customize their CSS.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- cpmsmith 8y ago
  They put a really strong emphasis on lowering the barrier to entry. While you're right that it still requires you to write code, so did the MySpace weirdness of olde. I think the difference is it allowed you to only write the code, and they would handle the rest.
- cr0sh 8y ago
  > you can't express yourself through code ...Bro, do you even code? Honestly, I can't fathom how you could make such a statement. Granted, most people can't express themselves through code - but that doesn't mean in general you can't.
  - perfmode 8y ago
    When I am feeling creative, I need a medium that allows me to keep up the momentum. Coding requires too much thought for my creative process in a visual medium (for exmaple).
    - deleted 8y ago
porphyrogene 8y ago
> [this] shows that the internet is still fun and weird for people that like fun and weird Does it, though? Google used to give search results, now it gives Google Search Results™ and most navigation is dictated by what appears in social media feeds. The behemoths are able to enforce a sense of legitimacy in their own products while marginalizing any threats to their dominance. If they really can't stop a rising star that is pulling away users by squashing or copying them then it is no issue to throw some money at the problem and buy them out.
reitanqild 8y ago
Never knew that site existed!
anildash 8y ago
"Glitch is not as popular as My Space was..." Well, we've only been at this for a little while, and we don't even have a way to follow other people or invite your friends yet. :) Rest assured, we're planning to keep going. And probably with fewer Tila Tequilas, of either the MySpace or neo-nazi variety.

by soneca 8y ago

minimaxir 8y ago

Sites like Glitch assume that you already have a good grasp of tech/software engineering. The big appeal of the early internet was that anyone could make something neat with simple HTML shenanigans, and learn to code by hacking the HTML templates to their needs. Many coders got their start by hacking Neopets storefronts. (there were actual coding puzzles on Neopets too for their events!)

wuliwong 8y ago
I think it is much easier for a non-technical person to put up a website today than in the 90s. Today you need absolutely zero coding knowledge, not even HTML.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ylesaout 8y ago
  Back in the 90s (at least in the second half) you didn't need how to code. You just used Dreamweaver or Frontpage and you got your site! The only technical bits were to use FTP to upload it to your free hosting provider.

roywiggins 8y ago

Glitch sounds amazing, and way better than the tools that existed back then. But back then, Geocities was popular and loads of people had heard of it. I have never heard of Glitch. It seems like there's become a re-division between "people who like to tinker" and "literally everyone else". On the one hand that's great but it kind of feels like everything is AOL again now. The last vestige of fun, weird and popular is probably Tumblr, which everyone agrees has the absolute worst user interface. But you can theme your Tumblr page to your absolute heart's desire.

misterprime 8y ago
Gimme some more of that sweet walled garden.
- TheGRS 8y ago
  No joke, I do remember when Facebook came onto the scene, I liked it way better than MySpace. I absolutely hated how customized MySpace pages became. It was dreck. Sound would blast when you opened someone's page. You could barely read what was on the page at times. It was occasionally fun but more often than not really terrible.
  - FiveSquared 8y ago
    Thank god youtube got rid of that. One day you would browse a dark page, and boom! Searing white at 3AM! But it’s nostalgic.
  - jandrese 8y ago
    Reading the article my thought was "one person's fun and weird is another person's loud and obnoxious". These days people have to focus more on the content because the presentation is so locked down. This may be for the better, but it can definitely feel antiseptic and corporate. The sense of fun is lost.
    - dwringer 8y ago
      Where does Facebook offer a place to put "content"? AFAIK You can give them personal info and suggest interesting things, and Facebook decides how, if, or when to present this information, and to whom.
  - lozaning 8y ago
    Samy is still your hero and you know it!
  - rconti 8y ago
    When Myspace came along, it clearly seemed to be the cesspool of the internet; I never created a page and never visited it out of principle. There was nothing I wanted out there. Facebook's clean design was what I actually wanted. Not some autoplay crap music. In fact, back in the day, everything in Facebook was a search. I could click on your residence or your class/section and see everyone else in it. It was awesome and useful.

dammod 8y ago

But Glitch isn't a way for a normal person to express themselves, is it? Sure, you can write code which can be viewed by everyone, but you can do the same with github, Glitch is mostly only used by programmers, and you can't express yourself through code like you can express yourself through styling your own social media profile.

krapp 8y ago
Normal people already express themselves on mainstream social media, about normal things. Normal people aren't the ones wishing the web was weird and quirky again, and they couldn't care less that Facebook or Twitter doesn't let them customize their CSS.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
cpmsmith 8y ago
They put a really strong emphasis on lowering the barrier to entry. While you're right that it still requires you to write code, so did the MySpace weirdness of olde. I think the difference is it allowed you to only write the code, and they would handle the rest.
cr0sh 8y ago
> you can't express yourself through code ...Bro, do you even code? Honestly, I can't fathom how you could make such a statement. Granted, most people can't express themselves through code - but that doesn't mean in general you can't.
- perfmode 8y ago
  When I am feeling creative, I need a medium that allows me to keep up the momentum. Coding requires too much thought for my creative process in a visual medium (for exmaple).
  - deleted 8y ago

porphyrogene 8y ago

> [this] shows that the internet is still fun and weird for people that like fun and weird Does it, though? Google used to give search results, now it gives Google Search Results™ and most navigation is dictated by what appears in social media feeds. The behemoths are able to enforce a sense of legitimacy in their own products while marginalizing any threats to their dominance. If they really can't stop a rising star that is pulling away users by squashing or copying them then it is no issue to throw some money at the problem and buy them out.

reitanqild 8y ago

Never knew that site existed!

anildash 8y ago

"Glitch is not as popular as My Space was..." Well, we've only been at this for a little while, and we don't even have a way to follow other people or invite your friends yet. :) Rest assured, we're planning to keep going. And probably with fewer Tila Tequilas, of either the MySpace or neo-nazi variety.