3 ms·

(7) is completely wrong. Hyperlinks do not subvert hierarchy due to network effects combined with the fact that the lookup system, DNS, is hierarchical. Nobody

by api 3y ago

(7) is completely wrong. Hyperlinks do not subvert hierarchy due to network effects combined with the fact that the lookup system, DNS, is hierarchical. Nobody uses hyperlinks anymore except to link into social media silos or “up” to media sources. The web as an actual web died and nobody noticed. It’s pretty thoroughly dead now. Creating your own home page or even a hosted blog is now a weird niche activity.

dredmorbius 3y ago
I'd argue that creating your own homepage or a hosted blog were always a niche activity. Though at one time, so was posting any online content whatsoever, and the first small niche was a much larger share of the second small niche.
jrm4 3y ago
I'd hold the phone on that one, literally today? I think there's not a bad chance right now that social media somewhat collapses and people significantly return to more things like that; a possible happy medium with -- ideally federated services, but if not, even just like 20 or so twitters and reddits instead of two?
- api 3y ago
  If the fediverse ever gets big enough to be a juicy marketing target or able to sway elections then the same bad actors that destroyed e-mail, Usenet, the open web, and social media will come for it.
  - jrm4 3y ago
    I don't disagree that it will try, but I'm generally pretty hopeful that it won't be all bad.
parasubvert 3y ago
This is far too cynical. Firstly, DNS is mostly irrelevant to hyperlinks, it's been a long time since everyone fought over getting "the right .com name". With a proliferation of TLDs, is this is really even a big deal? The web is still there as the foundation and glue. It's not dead, it's used all the time for eCommerce, support, documentation, research, forums, and most importantly for universal interoperability across whatever "silos" are out there. URI, HTTP, MIME, HTML, and JavaScript are literally the glue that holds even the silos together, or allows our myriad devices to interoperate with them. How else did TikTok take off? Hyperlinks! There's no central hierarchy , the network effects of the web won out. I think the issue people have is they confuse network effects with even distribution. But that's never been the case: think of the countryside Vs cities. Network effects often lead to huge clusters. Even peek web circa 2012 had Google Reader as the ultimate blog aggregation experience. All the architecture and tech of the web is sitting there ready to be used. It's up to software creators to make decentralized software people actually want to use.
- ggm 3y ago
  I would prefer people did hyperlinks through URI, and we accepted some centrality to access a URI -> URL mapper. I say "some" centrality because the mapping function is a public good, and will probably have to be done by a number of big entities either through sharding, or some distribution of a centrally managed/maintained core. Analogous to the risk in the DNS, but the DNS is also a public good.

by api 3y ago

dredmorbius 3y ago

I'd argue that creating your own homepage or a hosted blog were always a niche activity. Though at one time, so was posting any online content whatsoever, and the first small niche was a much larger share of the second small niche.

jrm4 3y ago

I'd hold the phone on that one, literally today? I think there's not a bad chance right now that social media somewhat collapses and people significantly return to more things like that; a possible happy medium with -- ideally federated services, but if not, even just like 20 or so twitters and reddits instead of two?

api 3y ago
If the fediverse ever gets big enough to be a juicy marketing target or able to sway elections then the same bad actors that destroyed e-mail, Usenet, the open web, and social media will come for it.
- jrm4 3y ago
  I don't disagree that it will try, but I'm generally pretty hopeful that it won't be all bad.

parasubvert 3y ago

This is far too cynical. Firstly, DNS is mostly irrelevant to hyperlinks, it's been a long time since everyone fought over getting "the right .com name". With a proliferation of TLDs, is this is really even a big deal? The web is still there as the foundation and glue. It's not dead, it's used all the time for eCommerce, support, documentation, research, forums, and most importantly for universal interoperability across whatever "silos" are out there. URI, HTTP, MIME, HTML, and JavaScript are literally the glue that holds even the silos together, or allows our myriad devices to interoperate with them. How else did TikTok take off? Hyperlinks! There's no central hierarchy , the network effects of the web won out. I think the issue people have is they confuse network effects with even distribution. But that's never been the case: think of the countryside Vs cities. Network effects often lead to huge clusters. Even peek web circa 2012 had Google Reader as the ultimate blog aggregation experience. All the architecture and tech of the web is sitting there ready to be used. It's up to software creators to make decentralized software people actually want to use.

ggm 3y ago
I would prefer people did hyperlinks through URI, and we accepted some centrality to access a URI -> URL mapper. I say "some" centrality because the mapping function is a public good, and will probably have to be done by a number of big entities either through sharding, or some distribution of a centrally managed/maintained core. Analogous to the risk in the DNS, but the DNS is also a public good.