4 ms·

Remember when the internet was going to be this amazing thing ? These days it seems to be a machine for making me think "FFS" an increasing amount of times a d

by stuaxo 5y ago

Remember when the internet was going to be this amazing thing ? These days it seems to be a machine for making me think "FFS" an increasing amount of times a day.

low_common 5y ago
It still is an amazing thing.
- nathanaldensr 5y ago
  It's true: it is, but you have to strip away all the shit that's been piled on top to find the beauty. It reminds me of beautiful natural places like Yellowstone that have been ruined by over-tourism and careless people.
FridayoLeary 5y ago
I think the World Wide Web is amazing. I can gripe about Google, Amazon, Big Tech all day, but at the end of it, their products and services are fantastic.
munificent 5y ago
This doesn't have anything to do with the Internet. Corporatism and wealth consolidation is the problem here.
- kragen 5y ago
  The internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > The internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal. Not really. If "uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts" are illegal, what the internet does is make it easy to track down the people sharing them for punishment. The internet is far more amenable to automated surveillance at scale than the offline world.
    - kragen 5y ago
      Well, that's kind of what I thought when I was first FTPing popular music from sounds.sdsu.edu in 01994: this can't last! They'll shut it down! And indeed sounds.sdsu.edu did get shut down eventually... and eventually alt.binaries.* got mostly swamped with spam... and Napster got sued... and endless etc. But you know what? There was a lot more stuff being shared on the internet in 01998 than in 01994, despite sounds.sdsu.edu getting shut down. There was a lot more in 02002 than in 01998, despite Usenet having mostly died. There was a lot more in 02006 than in 02002, despite the Napster suit. And that trend doesn't seem to be slowing down even today, despite the automated surveillance at scale.

by stuaxo 5y ago

Remember when the internet was going to be this amazing thing ? These days it seems to be a machine for making me think "FFS" an increasing amount of times a day.

low_common 5y ago

It still is an amazing thing.

nathanaldensr 5y ago
It's true: it is, but you have to strip away all the shit that's been piled on top to find the beauty. It reminds me of beautiful natural places like Yellowstone that have been ruined by over-tourism and careless people.

FridayoLeary 5y ago

I think the World Wide Web is amazing. I can gripe about Google, Amazon, Big Tech all day, but at the end of it, their products and services are fantastic.

munificent 5y ago

This doesn't have anything to do with the Internet. Corporatism and wealth consolidation is the problem here.

kragen 5y ago
The internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > The internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal. Not really. If "uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts" are illegal, what the internet does is make it easy to track down the people sharing them for punishment. The internet is far more amenable to automated surveillance at scale than the offline world.
  - kragen 5y ago
    Well, that's kind of what I thought when I was first FTPing popular music from sounds.sdsu.edu in 01994: this can't last! They'll shut it down! And indeed sounds.sdsu.edu did get shut down eventually... and eventually alt.binaries.* got mostly swamped with spam... and Napster got sued... and endless etc. But you know what? There was a lot more stuff being shared on the internet in 01998 than in 01994, despite sounds.sdsu.edu getting shut down. There was a lot more in 02002 than in 01998, despite Usenet having mostly died. There was a lot more in 02006 than in 02002, despite the Napster suit. And that trend doesn't seem to be slowing down even today, despite the automated surveillance at scale.