5 ms·

> The internet has turned to garbage. The ad-supported internet has turned to garbage. The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different

by mrec 7y ago

> The internet has turned to garbage. The ad-supported internet has turned to garbage. The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different from the old days. The governmental internet depends a lot on where you are, but .gov.uk is really rather good, and vastly better at what it does than snailmail and Post Offices were in the old days.

anon1m0us 7y ago
I went to a government website the other day. 5 pages of forms I filled out several times. Each time on the final page, "system error, cannot proceed." I called the agency, they said, "You should print out the PDF, fill that out and bring it to our office." Can you believe that?? There aren't enough programmers to make the .gov stuff work right because FAANG is buying them all. So, I'm not sure you are right on that.
- bovermyer 7y ago
  You should have a look at the work that the USDS is doing. You should also look at volunteering with Code for America.
- Kalium 7y ago
  > Can you believe that?? There aren't enough programmers to make the .gov stuff work right because FAANG is buying them all. So, I'm not sure you are right on that. There are enough. There certainly are in the US and likely so other places. It's that government often pays peanuts compared to private sector and adds poor management and poor advancement prospects on top. If people aren't willing to work for you because your working conditions suck, it might be worth considering better ones.
  - blackflame7000 7y ago
    Being a contractor is where it's at, it's just hard to win the contracts sometimes because you gotta know people. Once you do, it's not unusual to see a $3 million budget to build a basic website.
  - sli 7y ago
    The government might also have a lot of trouble finding programmers that have never done any illegal drugs, which probably doesn't help. Although that might only really be something the three letter agencies care about, I'm not sure.
- mrec 7y ago
  Is this in the US? As I said, I was talking about the UK.
- cobookman 7y ago
  It’s due to the government not being able to compete on salary due to federal salary schedule limitations. The joke is they can easily pay a contractor 150$/hour though. But can’t pay an employee hourly wage of 100$/hour
  - monknomo 7y ago
    I believe employee wage ceiling is something more like $75/hr, and that would be for a job description like "you run the department of commerce"
- pascalxus 7y ago
  Your assumption that this is happening because those engineers are less skilled is completely wrong. I've worked at both private and govt. the problem in Govt is that resources just go towards the wrong projects. and things that could be fixed never do get fixed due to bureaucracy and regulations. engineers working for gov sometimes are forced to use the worst tools imaginable: often due to regulations (the tools/software used needs to be licensed or some other bs regulations).
  - anon1m0us 7y ago
    Believe me when I say there is a lot of money to be made making it easier for people to package information to give to the government. Yes, the government should spend more money on IT. I agree with you. This is just a huge side conversation. Also, there is a TON of great educational content on youtube produced by governments. Google won't show me those videos on web pages at the government website, but they'll show me the youtube video with ads on it.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Government offices don't just lose on salary, but also on working conditions. Secondhand anecdotes recount fistfights in the office and the unfireable-until-the-election official viewing porn during working hours and continually infecting their desktop and the intranet with malware.
  - lowdose 7y ago
    This sounds outrageous. Would be awesome if that video is going to end up on yt.
    - logfromblammo 7y ago
      Unfortunately, that was from before smartphone ubiquity. Possibly the story is also from before YouTube, but the recounting of it was not.
- autoexec 7y ago
  I've also seen a number of .gov sites that require googleapis or use google and other trackers. .gov is very much involved with monetization and tracking
Mediterraneo10 7y ago
> The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different from the old days. YouTube, and dreams of monetization, have infected the hobbyist internet too. I am active in some niche travel hobbies. It used to be that people in this subculture would write detailed text blogs with tips about various routes and definitions. Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information, and so they make YT videos that have lots of whizbang effects and GoPro shots but aren’t very information-dense. You have to sit through many minutes (or up to an hour) of a guy stuttering “Uh... So...” to eventually glean details that might help you. It sucks. For a while the people who made these videos would also spam Reddit and specialist forums with links, clearly interested in the prospect of monetizing, but now everyone seems to understand that YT is not a reliable path to financial success. The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry.
- mrec 7y ago
  > The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry. Interesting; I wasn't aware of that. Do you know whether alternative search engines like DDG have the same problem?
- josteink 7y ago
  > Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information How people decided to default on the absolutely least effective medium for doing this is beyond me, but oh yeah, I’ve seen this. For me it’s a clear sign of worthless content not worth my time. If it’s not text, I’m not going to consume it. EOT.
- Smithalicious 7y ago
  People just go to where the audience is. I've considered both starting a blog and starting a YouTube channel, and realized that if I actually want people to see my content then only YouTube makes sense. After all, I don't even follow any blogs myself! Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers
arkades 7y ago
I have the same impression. Old days: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, impossible to find anything. Middling days: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, Google! Now: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, impossible to find anything. It’s still gotten easier to put things on the Internet than ever before. There are still even more hobbyist sites than ever. Google hasn’t actively rolled those things back, it’s just taken us back to the garbage fire of the old days.

by mrec 7y ago

anon1m0us 7y ago

I went to a government website the other day. 5 pages of forms I filled out several times. Each time on the final page, "system error, cannot proceed." I called the agency, they said, "You should print out the PDF, fill that out and bring it to our office." Can you believe that?? There aren't enough programmers to make the .gov stuff work right because FAANG is buying them all. So, I'm not sure you are right on that.

bovermyer 7y ago
You should have a look at the work that the USDS is doing. You should also look at volunteering with Code for America.
Kalium 7y ago
> Can you believe that?? There aren't enough programmers to make the .gov stuff work right because FAANG is buying them all. So, I'm not sure you are right on that. There are enough. There certainly are in the US and likely so other places. It's that government often pays peanuts compared to private sector and adds poor management and poor advancement prospects on top. If people aren't willing to work for you because your working conditions suck, it might be worth considering better ones.
- blackflame7000 7y ago
  Being a contractor is where it's at, it's just hard to win the contracts sometimes because you gotta know people. Once you do, it's not unusual to see a $3 million budget to build a basic website.
- sli 7y ago
  The government might also have a lot of trouble finding programmers that have never done any illegal drugs, which probably doesn't help. Although that might only really be something the three letter agencies care about, I'm not sure.
mrec 7y ago
Is this in the US? As I said, I was talking about the UK.
cobookman 7y ago
It’s due to the government not being able to compete on salary due to federal salary schedule limitations. The joke is they can easily pay a contractor 150$/hour though. But can’t pay an employee hourly wage of 100$/hour
- monknomo 7y ago
  I believe employee wage ceiling is something more like $75/hr, and that would be for a job description like "you run the department of commerce"
pascalxus 7y ago
Your assumption that this is happening because those engineers are less skilled is completely wrong. I've worked at both private and govt. the problem in Govt is that resources just go towards the wrong projects. and things that could be fixed never do get fixed due to bureaucracy and regulations. engineers working for gov sometimes are forced to use the worst tools imaginable: often due to regulations (the tools/software used needs to be licensed or some other bs regulations).
- anon1m0us 7y ago
  Believe me when I say there is a lot of money to be made making it easier for people to package information to give to the government. Yes, the government should spend more money on IT. I agree with you. This is just a huge side conversation. Also, there is a TON of great educational content on youtube produced by governments. Google won't show me those videos on web pages at the government website, but they'll show me the youtube video with ads on it.
logfromblammo 7y ago
Government offices don't just lose on salary, but also on working conditions. Secondhand anecdotes recount fistfights in the office and the unfireable-until-the-election official viewing porn during working hours and continually infecting their desktop and the intranet with malware.
- lowdose 7y ago
  This sounds outrageous. Would be awesome if that video is going to end up on yt.
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    Unfortunately, that was from before smartphone ubiquity. Possibly the story is also from before YouTube, but the recounting of it was not.
autoexec 7y ago
I've also seen a number of .gov sites that require googleapis or use google and other trackers. .gov is very much involved with monetization and tracking

Mediterraneo10 7y ago

> The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different from the old days. YouTube, and dreams of monetization, have infected the hobbyist internet too. I am active in some niche travel hobbies. It used to be that people in this subculture would write detailed text blogs with tips about various routes and definitions. Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information, and so they make YT videos that have lots of whizbang effects and GoPro shots but aren’t very information-dense. You have to sit through many minutes (or up to an hour) of a guy stuttering “Uh... So...” to eventually glean details that might help you. It sucks. For a while the people who made these videos would also spam Reddit and specialist forums with links, clearly interested in the prospect of monetizing, but now everyone seems to understand that YT is not a reliable path to financial success. The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry.

mrec 7y ago
> The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry. Interesting; I wasn't aware of that. Do you know whether alternative search engines like DDG have the same problem?
josteink 7y ago
> Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information How people decided to default on the absolutely least effective medium for doing this is beyond me, but oh yeah, I’ve seen this. For me it’s a clear sign of worthless content not worth my time. If it’s not text, I’m not going to consume it. EOT.
Smithalicious 7y ago
People just go to where the audience is. I've considered both starting a blog and starting a YouTube channel, and realized that if I actually want people to see my content then only YouTube makes sense. After all, I don't even follow any blogs myself! Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers

arkades 7y ago

I have the same impression. Old days: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, impossible to find anything. Middling days: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, Google! Now: random cool stuff, sea of garbage, impossible to find anything. It’s still gotten easier to put things on the Internet than ever before. There are still even more hobbyist sites than ever. Google hasn’t actively rolled those things back, it’s just taken us back to the garbage fire of the old days.