3 ms·

As Diablo 2 released a remaster this year, it is sad to see that old websites with comprehensive information from 20 years ago are gradually replaced by the sam

As Diablo 2 released a remaster this year, it is sad to see that old websites with comprehensive information from 20 years ago are gradually replaced by the same three or four SEO optimised content farms in the top of Google search results.

celdon25 5y ago
“Worse is better”
drusepth 5y ago
Same with the Chrono Cross remaster this weekend: I'm already inundated with content farms spewing (bad) rehashes of tutorials from 20 years ago. We've come a long way from text-only 200-page gameFAQ .txt tutorials to more-ads-on-the-page-than-text listicles that split paragraphs of content over a slideshow of multiple pages in order to run even more ads.
- orlp 5y ago
  Holy shit this comment resonates so much with me. It used to be that you could Google something about your game and find a 150KiB text file article (no ads, no useless pagination/SEO filler) which is a treasure trove of useful information, e.g. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/921905-pokemon-emerald-version/faqs/22554 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/921905-pokemon-emerald-ver... . Nowadays I'm almost happy if I find at least one sentence of useful information in an entire "article" recommended by Google. I think the above game example is an example of erosion of both sides: articles have gone to shit, and the amount of care, attention and depth to most games have gone down a lot.
  - charlieyu1 5y ago
    Don’t know this game, but some of the best resources about Age of Empires 2 are written in .txt files.
raldi 5y ago
Like Genius, but for walkthroughs. And while you're at it, recipes.
nullc 5y ago
A big part of this appears to be that google massively downranks any non-https sites-- most old sites, which are just documents and have no accounts or writing functionality have had no reason to adopt https. If you run an older internet reference, please add https. The search engines also have an obvious 'recent' bias, but everything we can do to prevent the loss of accessibility of older reference material helps.
- hansel_der 5y ago
  > A big part of this appears to be that google massively downranks any non-https sites true. but then again, in the context of accessibility and compatibility, ssl is a hindrence. next thing google decides that sites without ads are to be downranked ... fuck this
  - Viliam1234 5y ago
    > next thing google decides that sites without ads are to be downranked ... fuck this Probably already happened, they just didn't make a public announcement.

celdon25 5y ago

“Worse is better”

drusepth 5y ago

Same with the Chrono Cross remaster this weekend: I'm already inundated with content farms spewing (bad) rehashes of tutorials from 20 years ago. We've come a long way from text-only 200-page gameFAQ .txt tutorials to more-ads-on-the-page-than-text listicles that split paragraphs of content over a slideshow of multiple pages in order to run even more ads.

orlp 5y ago
Holy shit this comment resonates so much with me. It used to be that you could Google something about your game and find a 150KiB text file article (no ads, no useless pagination/SEO filler) which is a treasure trove of useful information, e.g. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/921905-pokemon-emerald-version/faqs/22554 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/921905-pokemon-emerald-ver... . Nowadays I'm almost happy if I find at least one sentence of useful information in an entire "article" recommended by Google. I think the above game example is an example of erosion of both sides: articles have gone to shit, and the amount of care, attention and depth to most games have gone down a lot.
- charlieyu1 5y ago
  Don’t know this game, but some of the best resources about Age of Empires 2 are written in .txt files.

raldi 5y ago

Like Genius, but for walkthroughs. And while you're at it, recipes.

nullc 5y ago

A big part of this appears to be that google massively downranks any non-https sites-- most old sites, which are just documents and have no accounts or writing functionality have had no reason to adopt https. If you run an older internet reference, please add https. The search engines also have an obvious 'recent' bias, but everything we can do to prevent the loss of accessibility of older reference material helps.

hansel_der 5y ago
> A big part of this appears to be that google massively downranks any non-https sites true. but then again, in the context of accessibility and compatibility, ssl is a hindrence. next thing google decides that sites without ads are to be downranked ... fuck this
- Viliam1234 5y ago
  > next thing google decides that sites without ads are to be downranked ... fuck this Probably already happened, they just didn't make a public announcement.