5 ms·

I am so sick of Web 2.0

46 points by freediver 3y ago

fullshark 3y ago
Junk / Fast food really does seem like the perfect metaphor for the cultural artifacts the internet is optimized for these days.
oriettaxx 3y ago
"The Internet these days just feels like we’ve been relegated to a McDonald’s play place. You have to sit in the sticky, plastic chairs that everyone else has sat in while you eat your shitty double cheeseburger. It’s hot, it’s stuffy, it’s gross, and you want to leave but you can’t because all your friends seem perfectly fine putting up with this dogshit" let's save this gem before Reddit itself collapse
Solvency 3y ago
As a 38 year old whose been online nonstop since Prodigy, then AOL, then the broadband "free world" of the web, here's what's absolutely gotten worse: - The speciality/niche/enthusiast forum scene. - Google search. - Web developers, development, all of it. A slow, bloated, duct taped festering husk of utter shit. - Bots. Everywhere. Reddits CEO didn't kill Reddit. Bots killed it first. At least the stuff that truly bugs me.
- yuppie_scum 3y ago
  GDPR banners and sticky mobile ad banners that make everything impossible to read
  - rejectfinite 3y ago
    Ublock origin or Brave now blocks those. A must have.
nickm12 3y ago
As a Gen Xer, it's wryly amusing to hear today's internet referred to as "Web 2.0". What we have today is not what I think of when I hear "Web 2.0". I'm sure there are internet scholars who can give some formal definitions and timelines, but to me Web 2.0 was the period roughly from 2002–2012, when the web had an age of amazing blogs, sites, videos, and (flash) games generated by individuals. I probably visited many dozens of different sites a week, which all had a very distinctive feel and perspective. I think that era ended due to a combination of a bunch of factors, particularly the iPhone, which defined the model for the modern smartphone. The iPhone favored an infinite scroll of bite-sized bits of content meant to go viral and a lot of the mindshare that was building web 2.0 sites, switched over to building mobile apps. It's easy to get nostalgic, but I miss Web 2.0. There are still very many interesting things going on on the internet, but they are largely filtered through the business models of a handful of mega-platforms that have a distorting effect.
- laurencerowe 3y ago
  I guess I think of the Web 2.0 transition as the technology change in the web stack where sites started to become JavaScript apps rather than server rendered pages which were basically the same tech as 1990s CGI. The change you’re talking about in 2002 or so was hugely significant but I feel it was all about wider adoption and emergence of social media (blogs and then MySpace) on the web which had previously been limited to the pre-web AOL, Compuserve, BBS world. Tech wise the web stack was still the same except being faster to access over ADSL rather than modems. Anyway that’s my geriatric millennial take having used AOL over a modem in the late 1990s then earning money as a web dev in college from 2000 or so. I hope we can at least agree that Web 3 has nothing to do with the Web!
  - ehnto 3y ago
    From my view web 2.0 didn't have JS apps, jQuery/prototype/JS offered some interactivity but sites were still typically generated server side and delivered as renderable HTML/CSS rather than built on the fly by JS client side.
    - 3y ago
superchroma 3y ago
Way too late to be making this sort of observation. That's been and gone. The blame lies squarely on people sacrificing everything for convenience and access to their friends. Even today, that choice has not changed as the person in the post notes. We reap what we sow.
IOT_Apprentice 3y ago
It is the rise of the engagement algorithm that has destroyed society and is negatively impacting the global community such as it is. Youtube and Facebook are the twin patient zeros in the digital space of the internet. The ironic thing about the McDonalds metaphor is that their junk food has now increased in price (at least in the US) due to the price gouging that corporations are inflicting on society, because they can. From fuel costs, food costs, and every other thing, corporations are wringing every bit of money from us. Everything is getting worse.
- FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago
  In the end it’s all the same problem: capitalism. It all boils down to the requirement of as much profit as possible, no matter how.
adamwong246 3y ago
We need to go back to web 1.0. Host your own software and pay for it yourself.

46 points by freediver 3y ago

Junk / Fast food really does seem like the perfect metaphor for the cultural artifacts the internet is optimized for these days.

oriettaxx 3y ago

"The Internet these days just feels like we’ve been relegated to a McDonald’s play place. You have to sit in the sticky, plastic chairs that everyone else has sat in while you eat your shitty double cheeseburger. It’s hot, it’s stuffy, it’s gross, and you want to leave but you can’t because all your friends seem perfectly fine putting up with this dogshit" let's save this gem before Reddit itself collapse

Solvency 3y ago

As a 38 year old whose been online nonstop since Prodigy, then AOL, then the broadband "free world" of the web, here's what's absolutely gotten worse: - The speciality/niche/enthusiast forum scene. - Google search. - Web developers, development, all of it. A slow, bloated, duct taped festering husk of utter shit. - Bots. Everywhere. Reddits CEO didn't kill Reddit. Bots killed it first. At least the stuff that truly bugs me.

yuppie_scum 3y ago
GDPR banners and sticky mobile ad banners that make everything impossible to read
- rejectfinite 3y ago
  Ublock origin or Brave now blocks those. A must have.

nickm12 3y ago

As a Gen Xer, it's wryly amusing to hear today's internet referred to as "Web 2.0". What we have today is not what I think of when I hear "Web 2.0". I'm sure there are internet scholars who can give some formal definitions and timelines, but to me Web 2.0 was the period roughly from 2002–2012, when the web had an age of amazing blogs, sites, videos, and (flash) games generated by individuals. I probably visited many dozens of different sites a week, which all had a very distinctive feel and perspective. I think that era ended due to a combination of a bunch of factors, particularly the iPhone, which defined the model for the modern smartphone. The iPhone favored an infinite scroll of bite-sized bits of content meant to go viral and a lot of the mindshare that was building web 2.0 sites, switched over to building mobile apps. It's easy to get nostalgic, but I miss Web 2.0. There are still very many interesting things going on on the internet, but they are largely filtered through the business models of a handful of mega-platforms that have a distorting effect.

laurencerowe 3y ago
I guess I think of the Web 2.0 transition as the technology change in the web stack where sites started to become JavaScript apps rather than server rendered pages which were basically the same tech as 1990s CGI. The change you’re talking about in 2002 or so was hugely significant but I feel it was all about wider adoption and emergence of social media (blogs and then MySpace) on the web which had previously been limited to the pre-web AOL, Compuserve, BBS world. Tech wise the web stack was still the same except being faster to access over ADSL rather than modems. Anyway that’s my geriatric millennial take having used AOL over a modem in the late 1990s then earning money as a web dev in college from 2000 or so. I hope we can at least agree that Web 3 has nothing to do with the Web!
- ehnto 3y ago
  From my view web 2.0 didn't have JS apps, jQuery/prototype/JS offered some interactivity but sites were still typically generated server side and delivered as renderable HTML/CSS rather than built on the fly by JS client side.
  - 3y ago

superchroma 3y ago

Way too late to be making this sort of observation. That's been and gone. The blame lies squarely on people sacrificing everything for convenience and access to their friends. Even today, that choice has not changed as the person in the post notes. We reap what we sow.

IOT_Apprentice 3y ago

It is the rise of the engagement algorithm that has destroyed society and is negatively impacting the global community such as it is. Youtube and Facebook are the twin patient zeros in the digital space of the internet. The ironic thing about the McDonalds metaphor is that their junk food has now increased in price (at least in the US) due to the price gouging that corporations are inflicting on society, because they can. From fuel costs, food costs, and every other thing, corporations are wringing every bit of money from us. Everything is getting worse.

FranzFerdiNaN 3y ago
In the end it’s all the same problem: capitalism. It all boils down to the requirement of as much profit as possible, no matter how.

adamwong246 3y ago

We need to go back to web 1.0. Host your own software and pay for it yourself.