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Many folks are justifying this decision on the basis that Amazon might lose some amount of money keeping the site up so of course they are shutting it down. Tha
by rurp 4y ago
Many folks are justifying this decision on the basis that Amazon might lose some amount of money keeping the site up so of course they are shutting it down. That take isn't wrong, but man it's depressing. The lack of common goods in the digital world bums me out, especially since that world keeps occupying more and more of people's time.
In the physical world there are countless spaces that exist as an open ended resource that people can use in a myriad of ways to enhance their lives and community. Things like city parks, libraries, national parks, blm land, lakes, etc. Places that will likely exist for decades or centuries. But there is almost none of that online. Most things are run by profit maximizing corporations that only look at the world through that one lens.
I don't think it _has_ to be this way, but unfortunately the current culture is too ok with it for much to change in the foreseeable future.
- troutwine 4y ago> In the physical world there are countless spaces that exist as an open ended resource that people can use in a myriad of ways to enhance their lives and community. Things like city parks, libraries, national parks, blm land, lakes, etc. Places that will likely exist for decades or centuries. But there is almost none of that online. Most things are run by profit maximizing corporations that only look at the world through that one lens. And even these need constant upkeep to preserve from the paperclip maximizers we've put in the heart of our economic system. Some of what makes the web so ephemeral is the need to constantly maintain it, even if that maintenance is low, and it's so convenient to just stop that maintenance. I do imagine we'll eventually figure it out -- on the scale of things, we haven't been _doing_ the web for all that long -- but I bet the places that last will start out as long-term concerns with an ethos not unlike a library, an ethos much, much different than you'll find at any place trying to maximize paperclips in a finite world. Wikipedia seems like a lasting public good, Internet Archive (knock on wood) as well.
- sdht0 4y agoWikipedia and Internet Archive and all open source stuff out there makes it a little less depressing.