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I like to fantasise about invite-only internet ‘shards’ off the main internet. Each shard would have a maximum capacity, and that capacity would be small enough

I like to fantasise about invite-only internet ‘shards’ off the main internet. Each shard would have a maximum capacity, and that capacity would be small enough that someone could create an index of every page in the shard. You could only be a member of one shard at a time. Shards wouldn’t be topic-based, they’re just deliberately small communities. Like the “mosaic of subculture” and “community of 7000” in A Pattern Language. Yeah we thought it was great that the internet could connect us to anyone, but it turns out that I only liked that as long as “anyone” was likely to be someone similar to me. Now that “anyone” is more likely to be a brand, an advertiser or an influencer tween... no thanks.

matheusmoreira 7y ago
It appears there's an optimal amount of users for each internet community. Too few users and the traffic will be low to generate any interest. Too many users and the signal to noise ratio decreases and the knowledgeable people start leaving. It seems measured elitism is the only answer.
pmlnr 7y ago
There's already a system for it: https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/ https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/
- silveroriole 7y ago
  Interesting, I hadn’t heard of that - sounds quite similar to Mastodon? I wish they weren’t social networks based around identities, friends and sequences of posts, though. I would much prefer sites and pages to be the primary thing. I don’t like the kind of content that social media encourages, even decentralised social media.
  - mxuribe 7y ago
    Have you considered/looked into Indieweb[0] concepts? While one could argue that it is a sorta type of decentralized "social media"...i would argue that it simply is "sites and pages"...But that can be somewhat be connected to other sites in a loose, decentralized manner - but only if you desire to be connected. Not sure that indieweb is exactly what you seek. But, have a look and see. Good luck! [0] https://indieweb.org https://indieweb.org

matheusmoreira 7y ago

It appears there's an optimal amount of users for each internet community. Too few users and the traffic will be low to generate any interest. Too many users and the signal to noise ratio decreases and the knowledgeable people start leaving. It seems measured elitism is the only answer.

pmlnr 7y ago

There's already a system for it: https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/ https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/

silveroriole 7y ago
Interesting, I hadn’t heard of that - sounds quite similar to Mastodon? I wish they weren’t social networks based around identities, friends and sequences of posts, though. I would much prefer sites and pages to be the primary thing. I don’t like the kind of content that social media encourages, even decentralised social media.
- mxuribe 7y ago
  Have you considered/looked into Indieweb[0] concepts? While one could argue that it is a sorta type of decentralized "social media"...i would argue that it simply is "sites and pages"...But that can be somewhat be connected to other sites in a loose, decentralized manner - but only if you desire to be connected. Not sure that indieweb is exactly what you seek. But, have a look and see. Good luck! [0] https://indieweb.org https://indieweb.org