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Sadly, it’s the people. The old internet had a filtering function where, because it was harder to use, people had to have some interest or skill to use it. So

Sadly, it’s the people. The old internet had a filtering function where, because it was harder to use, people had to have some interest or skill to use it. So as a result, I think the proportion of people “online” had similar interest so more content was relevant and made by similar people. Now everyone is online with more diverse interests and capabilities.

grishka 5y ago
Not quite. Companies decided to monetize the internet, and because they want to earn all the money in the world, they want as many people as possible to use the internet. So they dumb it down to make it "easier to use".
- CyanBird 5y ago
  > Not quite You are just describing the same thing as OP said And it is not even a matter of direct monetization, but growth into monetization So yeah, OP is correct
vkk8 5y ago
I think that most of the filtering happened because different communities operated on different platforms rather than a single huge one like Reddit or Facebook. A small, old time discussion forum for a specific interest in my (rather small) language had only perhaps a hundred active participants and another few hundred casual posters. In that sort of environment it is actually possible for the actives to get to know each other and have occasional live meetings, which builds a much better community. The threshold of participation is a lot higher since a new participant would first have to find the forum and then go through the registration process, both of which filter out people who were not actually that interested in the topic. In Reddit or Facebook, any "community" (the word in quotations because I don't think they actually are very communal) for even a mildly popular topic gets filled with thousands and thousands of posts from thousands or millions of casual participants. The quality of the posts get very low, it becomes impossible for anyone to read all of them and personalities of the participants don't matter at all.
- eloisant 5y ago
  I think it's a good point. Also everything being in the same place, easy to link or retweet means the small weirdo community will invariably see outside people coming to make fun of them or explain them that they're bad people who deserve to burn on hell.
- ItsMonkk 5y ago
  Yep, this is something I noticed as well. Reddit calls its subreddits communities, but most communities are not about the people but about the content. As you can only have nuanced conversation when you repeatedly run into the same people, the only subreddits able to withstand conversation are niche or heavily moderated like AskHistorians. What this means is that if you want good conversation on Keyboards, it better be about mechanical. Good conversation on coffee or want a new pair of headphones? Better be into audiophile equipment. There's no room for generalists who just want good enough. Overnight WallStreetBets went from an interesting community of people willing to gamble far more than I to a pile of garbage. I'm beginning to think that Dunbar's number and the associated tribal splits are something that we should factor into our community building, and not try to work around through metrics and algorithms. So HN does this aspect correct, by grouping by interest of a certain type of person, but even on HN as more people show up and post the same problems will become evident.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    There are subreddits pretty much dedicated to generalist hardware that does things "well enough". Reddit users recognise that not everyone has a large budget to play with, such as teenagers who have to scrounge together a setup with a few dollars and a handful of pocket lint.
globular-toast 5y ago
I agree. It hasn't just ruined the internet, though. The internet has ruined them. Back in the day we didn't have any illusions about what the internet was. When you connected to a website you were literally just reading information from some random dude's computer. Nowadays there are older people who think the internet is finally lifting a veil on everything because anyone can say anything and mainstream media censors everything (ie. conspiracy theorists), and younger people who don't know anything except the internet and don't realise that there is so much stuff still out there that isn't online.
hvasilev 5y ago
This. It also happens with everything, not just the old internet. It is the fun aspect of being one of the few first to reach a certain resource.
fighterpilot 5y ago
"diverse capabilities" is quite the euphemism.

grishka 5y ago

Not quite. Companies decided to monetize the internet, and because they want to earn all the money in the world, they want as many people as possible to use the internet. So they dumb it down to make it "easier to use".

CyanBird 5y ago
> Not quite You are just describing the same thing as OP said And it is not even a matter of direct monetization, but growth into monetization So yeah, OP is correct

vkk8 5y ago

I think that most of the filtering happened because different communities operated on different platforms rather than a single huge one like Reddit or Facebook. A small, old time discussion forum for a specific interest in my (rather small) language had only perhaps a hundred active participants and another few hundred casual posters. In that sort of environment it is actually possible for the actives to get to know each other and have occasional live meetings, which builds a much better community. The threshold of participation is a lot higher since a new participant would first have to find the forum and then go through the registration process, both of which filter out people who were not actually that interested in the topic. In Reddit or Facebook, any "community" (the word in quotations because I don't think they actually are very communal) for even a mildly popular topic gets filled with thousands and thousands of posts from thousands or millions of casual participants. The quality of the posts get very low, it becomes impossible for anyone to read all of them and personalities of the participants don't matter at all.

eloisant 5y ago
I think it's a good point. Also everything being in the same place, easy to link or retweet means the small weirdo community will invariably see outside people coming to make fun of them or explain them that they're bad people who deserve to burn on hell.
ItsMonkk 5y ago
Yep, this is something I noticed as well. Reddit calls its subreddits communities, but most communities are not about the people but about the content. As you can only have nuanced conversation when you repeatedly run into the same people, the only subreddits able to withstand conversation are niche or heavily moderated like AskHistorians. What this means is that if you want good conversation on Keyboards, it better be about mechanical. Good conversation on coffee or want a new pair of headphones? Better be into audiophile equipment. There's no room for generalists who just want good enough. Overnight WallStreetBets went from an interesting community of people willing to gamble far more than I to a pile of garbage. I'm beginning to think that Dunbar's number and the associated tribal splits are something that we should factor into our community building, and not try to work around through metrics and algorithms. So HN does this aspect correct, by grouping by interest of a certain type of person, but even on HN as more people show up and post the same problems will become evident.
- selfhoster11 5y ago
  There are subreddits pretty much dedicated to generalist hardware that does things "well enough". Reddit users recognise that not everyone has a large budget to play with, such as teenagers who have to scrounge together a setup with a few dollars and a handful of pocket lint.

globular-toast 5y ago

I agree. It hasn't just ruined the internet, though. The internet has ruined them. Back in the day we didn't have any illusions about what the internet was. When you connected to a website you were literally just reading information from some random dude's computer. Nowadays there are older people who think the internet is finally lifting a veil on everything because anyone can say anything and mainstream media censors everything (ie. conspiracy theorists), and younger people who don't know anything except the internet and don't realise that there is so much stuff still out there that isn't online.

hvasilev 5y ago

This. It also happens with everything, not just the old internet. It is the fun aspect of being one of the few first to reach a certain resource.

fighterpilot 5y ago

"diverse capabilities" is quite the euphemism.