5 ms·

I think the amount of people doing silly things like this has certainly gone down in relative terms, but probably gone up in absolute terms (think of the statis

I think the amount of people doing silly things like this has certainly gone down in relative terms, but probably gone up in absolute terms (think of the statistics about how many people gain access to the internet for the first time every day-- they can't all deny their human impulse to make silly things!).

echelon 6y ago
I think it's gone down in relative and absolute terms. Websites like NewGrounds flourished pre-platform Internet. Flash was an innovation engine and kids were making tons of content - animations, games, music videos. (Maybe this has moved to Roblox? One can at least hope it lives on somewhere.) In that era, lots of people had homepages. These weren't lazy - most had really great CSS or unique and novel gimmicks, and they almost all had links to projects and libraries and fun experiments. And blogs. Lots of blogs. Once the platforms arrived, the desire to curate a fun personal website dropped. The enjoyment of engineering got sucked out - it's now just a job, the mega monopolies get all the profit from our labor, and there just isn't the same audience for this type of content anymore. Facebook and Google killed the old Internet. Maybe this isn't bad, but it's certainly not the same.
- xkeysc0re 6y ago
  There's literally an entire ecosystem of web-based games that's far far larger than Newgrounds ever was - itch.io The internet is weirder and more creative than ever
  - SilverRed 6y ago
    Not to mention the mountains of video and image content that gets created every minute.
- kristofferR 6y ago
  StumblingOn.com [1] let's you find lots of great non-professional fun sites/projects quickly. Great way to experience the "old web" as you describe it, today. [1] https://stumblingon.com/ https://stumblingon.com/
- emteycz 6y ago
  I don't believe that for a second. There are more silly things than there were users of the Internet back then. Facebook and Google didn't kill anything, there is an incredible amount of silliness on their platforms too, and they don't represent even a single percent of the internet.

echelon 6y ago

I think it's gone down in relative and absolute terms. Websites like NewGrounds flourished pre-platform Internet. Flash was an innovation engine and kids were making tons of content - animations, games, music videos. (Maybe this has moved to Roblox? One can at least hope it lives on somewhere.) In that era, lots of people had homepages. These weren't lazy - most had really great CSS or unique and novel gimmicks, and they almost all had links to projects and libraries and fun experiments. And blogs. Lots of blogs. Once the platforms arrived, the desire to curate a fun personal website dropped. The enjoyment of engineering got sucked out - it's now just a job, the mega monopolies get all the profit from our labor, and there just isn't the same audience for this type of content anymore. Facebook and Google killed the old Internet. Maybe this isn't bad, but it's certainly not the same.

xkeysc0re 6y ago
There's literally an entire ecosystem of web-based games that's far far larger than Newgrounds ever was - itch.io The internet is weirder and more creative than ever
- SilverRed 6y ago
  Not to mention the mountains of video and image content that gets created every minute.
kristofferR 6y ago
StumblingOn.com [1] let's you find lots of great non-professional fun sites/projects quickly. Great way to experience the "old web" as you describe it, today. [1] https://stumblingon.com/ https://stumblingon.com/
emteycz 6y ago
I don't believe that for a second. There are more silly things than there were users of the Internet back then. Facebook and Google didn't kill anything, there is an incredible amount of silliness on their platforms too, and they don't represent even a single percent of the internet.