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The best thing left on the internet is Wikipedia and archive.org, and they nearly got that with the .ORG takeover attempt which they would take down those sites

The best thing left on the internet is Wikipedia and archive.org, and they nearly got that with the .ORG takeover attempt which they would take down those sites with excessive fees, cuts and slashes from copyright/corporate attacks veiling the authoritarian aims. The web was once anti-authoritarian and decentralized, it is now more authoritarian and centralized, and where it isn't authoritarian it is big fish corporate owned. There is so much propaganda, marketing and astroturfing, even the places set aside for real people have been steamrolled. I don't know what the solution is, it was a nice Wild Wild West of the web from 1992-2012-ish. Mobile/apps also did a number on the web in terms of viability and longevity. The sites that are successful are locked and walled gardens and highly centralized in moderation. Moderation is also something that has been abused, almost censorship level now, it has created shrouded content contained with moderation moats.

rglover 6y ago
The solution as I see it is to encourage independent creators who want things that represent that 1992-2012 spirit to create them. The cost and time required to do that now is really cheap and seeing as how a lot of people lament their absence, some level of success is guaranteed. Ultimately I think it comes down to personal desire and long-term goals. It seems like a lot of great, ambitious ideas that could/should have stayed one-person or small team operations get looped into the VC/growth thing (effectively destroying their original intent).
- tachyonbeam 6y ago
  I'd be tempted to create something like a reddit clone with less moderation, but I'm wondering: 1. How many unsuccessful reddit clones are out there already? 2. How much would regulations be a problem nowadays? You can be held liable for the content you host, and there's things like GPDR. Would that make it much harder to start a new social media platform?
  - rglover 6y ago
    1. Several, I'd imagine. But is the quality any good? Probably not. 2. I'm sure some weasel would find a way to cause trouble if it got popular enough, but it may be an opportune time to do it as a DAO or some other decentralized app so you can circumvent that stuff.
  - searchableguy 6y ago
    You could look at ruqqus - https://github.com/ruqqus/ruqqus https://github.com/ruqqus/ruqqus
  - claudiawerner 6y ago
    In what way would less moderation prevent the causes of the loss of the early web: propaganda and astroturfing? If anything, that would seem to make it worse.
    - tachyonbeam 6y ago
      Yeah, actually not opposed to moderation, but opposed to some forms of censorship. There's a balance to be struck, but right now, you can get kicked off Facebook for politically-incorrect memes, for instance.

rglover 6y ago

The solution as I see it is to encourage independent creators who want things that represent that 1992-2012 spirit to create them. The cost and time required to do that now is really cheap and seeing as how a lot of people lament their absence, some level of success is guaranteed. Ultimately I think it comes down to personal desire and long-term goals. It seems like a lot of great, ambitious ideas that could/should have stayed one-person or small team operations get looped into the VC/growth thing (effectively destroying their original intent).

tachyonbeam 6y ago
I'd be tempted to create something like a reddit clone with less moderation, but I'm wondering: 1. How many unsuccessful reddit clones are out there already? 2. How much would regulations be a problem nowadays? You can be held liable for the content you host, and there's things like GPDR. Would that make it much harder to start a new social media platform?
- rglover 6y ago
  1. Several, I'd imagine. But is the quality any good? Probably not. 2. I'm sure some weasel would find a way to cause trouble if it got popular enough, but it may be an opportune time to do it as a DAO or some other decentralized app so you can circumvent that stuff.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  You could look at ruqqus - https://github.com/ruqqus/ruqqus https://github.com/ruqqus/ruqqus
- claudiawerner 6y ago
  In what way would less moderation prevent the causes of the loss of the early web: propaganda and astroturfing? If anything, that would seem to make it worse.
  - tachyonbeam 6y ago
    Yeah, actually not opposed to moderation, but opposed to some forms of censorship. There's a balance to be struck, but right now, you can get kicked off Facebook for politically-incorrect memes, for instance.