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The internet was a magical place back in the day. We were all super excited to contribute to something so transformative. I remember my father excitedly putting

by archhn 5y ago

The internet was a magical place back in the day. We were all super excited to contribute to something so transformative. I remember my father excitedly putting up his 3d gifs on his GeoCites page. Then the corporations came with their legions of desk jockeys, all competing with each other for promotions dependent upon squeezing the internet of every last drop of value. The internet became less human, just like modern society. Everything about the almighty dollar. Human creativity and freedom be dammed.

drran 5y ago
We can start Internet 2.0, a HackNet, just for hackers. Create your own DNS server, register non-commercial hacker sites only, create catalogue and decentralized search engine for these servers. Commercial operators will see no value in this parallel network, because google will be unable to index it, so spam problem will gone.
- hansel_der 5y ago
  >We can start Internet 2.0 we're already at ipv6 and web3.0 /s deep/dark web does still exist
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Hmm, not a bad idea. I’ll add that to my feature list for newnet.
- lloydatkinson 5y ago
  I would love to be involved in this
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  > "because google will be unable to index it" Creating a DNS server is beyond Googles abilities? Why will Google be unable to index it? If you can read the catalogue, they surely can. > "Commercial operators will see no value in this parallel network" If people are using it, they will want to put ads on it. Why wouldn't they? And why are 'hackers' separate from 'people who want money for their work' in this scenario?
  - drran 5y ago
    These servers will not be accessible with normal DNS turned on, so Google may index it technically, but links will not work for normies, because they know nothing about DNS or networks. Technically competent users can switch DNS server, so they will. Yes, it will be possible to show ads, but ads may link to sites within the parallel DNS system only. Hackers, who want money for their work, are called security experts.
- archhn 5y ago
  The arrow of time only goes one way. We can't go back now.
throw10920 5y ago
You're ignoring all of the other things that have happened with the internet in order to specifically attack this nebulous idea of "corporations". You can make exactly the same argument about the influx of new users (Eternal September memes, "then came all of the normies with their friends, all competing to get the most upvotes on their Reddit posts), the bloating of the web ("then came all of the hipster developers"), sexual content, or any one of another half-dozen side-effects of the internet becoming massively more popular than it was in 1990. If anything, the web has more independent content on it than it did a few decades ago - you just don't see it because you frequent a small number of platforms, you're not investing effort looking for it, and Google's search results are incredibly gamed. I have hundreds of individual blogs that I've bookmarked through link-following and reading Hacker News frequently, without even trying to amass a collection. If you were to actually spend effort tracking down independent content, then maybe you'd actually find some. Moreover, the internet never became "less human", because it was never human in the first place. It was a network of computers, a technology - not your neighborhood, or anything resembling a community, because technologies are not communities. Your complaint is basically saying that the median website is more focused on profit than it was a few decades ago - which, aside from the fact that there's no evidence to back it up, is a meaningless complaint equivalent to the Eternal September ones. Sure, even if the median website is more profit-focused - so what? There still far, far more useful information, and interesting people to meet, than there were decades ago - and the internet is available to everyone, as opposed to just those with dial-up (or whatever).
- archhn 5y ago
  The idea of corporations dominating the internet is not nebulous at all. Things used to be more ad hoc. People would create their own websites from scratch. There was less centralization. Every website wasn't a boostrap clone. The pursuit of profit changed things dramatically. As soon as people started making big money on the internet, things changed. FOMO kicked in and the internet became the new gold rush. Idk man, it seems like you just weren't there at the beginning.
  - shrimp_emoji 5y ago

by archhn 5y ago

drran 5y ago

We can start Internet 2.0, a HackNet, just for hackers. Create your own DNS server, register non-commercial hacker sites only, create catalogue and decentralized search engine for these servers. Commercial operators will see no value in this parallel network, because google will be unable to index it, so spam problem will gone.

hansel_der 5y ago
>We can start Internet 2.0 we're already at ipv6 and web3.0 /s deep/dark web does still exist
Aeolun 5y ago
Hmm, not a bad idea. I’ll add that to my feature list for newnet.
lloydatkinson 5y ago
I would love to be involved in this
jodrellblank 5y ago
> "because google will be unable to index it" Creating a DNS server is beyond Googles abilities? Why will Google be unable to index it? If you can read the catalogue, they surely can. > "Commercial operators will see no value in this parallel network" If people are using it, they will want to put ads on it. Why wouldn't they? And why are 'hackers' separate from 'people who want money for their work' in this scenario?
- drran 5y ago
  These servers will not be accessible with normal DNS turned on, so Google may index it technically, but links will not work for normies, because they know nothing about DNS or networks. Technically competent users can switch DNS server, so they will. Yes, it will be possible to show ads, but ads may link to sites within the parallel DNS system only. Hackers, who want money for their work, are called security experts.
archhn 5y ago
The arrow of time only goes one way. We can't go back now.

throw10920 5y ago

You're ignoring all of the other things that have happened with the internet in order to specifically attack this nebulous idea of "corporations". You can make exactly the same argument about the influx of new users (Eternal September memes, "then came all of the normies with their friends, all competing to get the most upvotes on their Reddit posts), the bloating of the web ("then came all of the hipster developers"), sexual content, or any one of another half-dozen side-effects of the internet becoming massively more popular than it was in 1990. If anything, the web has more independent content on it than it did a few decades ago - you just don't see it because you frequent a small number of platforms, you're not investing effort looking for it, and Google's search results are incredibly gamed. I have hundreds of individual blogs that I've bookmarked through link-following and reading Hacker News frequently, without even trying to amass a collection. If you were to actually spend effort tracking down independent content, then maybe you'd actually find some. Moreover, the internet never became "less human", because it was never human in the first place. It was a network of computers, a technology - not your neighborhood, or anything resembling a community, because technologies are not communities. Your complaint is basically saying that the median website is more focused on profit than it was a few decades ago - which, aside from the fact that there's no evidence to back it up, is a meaningless complaint equivalent to the Eternal September ones. Sure, even if the median website is more profit-focused - so what? There still far, far more useful information, and interesting people to meet, than there were decades ago - and the internet is available to everyone, as opposed to just those with dial-up (or whatever).

archhn 5y ago
The idea of corporations dominating the internet is not nebulous at all. Things used to be more ad hoc. People would create their own websites from scratch. There was less centralization. Every website wasn't a boostrap clone. The pursuit of profit changed things dramatically. As soon as people started making big money on the internet, things changed. FOMO kicked in and the internet became the new gold rush. Idk man, it seems like you just weren't there at the beginning.
- shrimp_emoji 5y ago