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I know it’s just the inevitability of capitalism but I’m just old enough to remember the early days of the internet (via a 9.6kbps modem if I recall!) and it wa

I know it’s just the inevitability of capitalism but I’m just old enough to remember the early days of the internet (via a 9.6kbps modem if I recall!) and it was such a wonderful, positive force. Every now and then I’ll look back and reflect on how distant that memory feels these days. Locked down proprietary app stores with apps designed to do nothing other than part addicts from their money. Sigh.

mrits 3y ago
Do you remember the anarchist community that loaded up BBSs with bomb making and animal torture material?
- omgsharks 3y ago
  Definitely. And all of their 25 users. It was literally a non-issue even back then but titles like The Terrorist’s Handbook and The Anarchist’s Cookbook had a lot of shock value. Animal torture is such a fringe and infinitely small area that even if it’s deplorable it’s not, and never has been, prevalent in any meaningful way. Funny enough the first fallout we had among admins when we started The Pirate Bay was about a cat torture video that forced us to take a stance on freedom/anti-censorship vs decency and compassion. (The latter won, but not without losses in the team because they found it hypocritical that we “censored” uploads.)
  - mrits 3y ago
    Animal torture is highly prevalent in the world. It's even part of our mainstream supply chain from food, cosmetics, or medicine. Torture for the sole purpose of torture is what you are describing and not what I was referring to.
  - ok123456 3y ago
    I remember some high school kids dying during that period after trying to follow pipe bomb tphile recipes. There was bad press, but for 99% of people, using a computer to do this was so abstract that it didn't create any lasting moral panic.
- dartos 3y ago
  Hindsight is rose-tinted. Tho I think those kinds of things weren’t as easy to discover or as widely talked about as the internet was largely a hobbyist thing at the time
  - xDetoursx 3y ago
    I don't think that's the case here. The early internet and social media's original function and intent was basically to share information, learn things that would otherwise be nearly impossible to know, like what's going on across the globe and to keep in touch with friends/family. Today's internet is a far cry from those ideals. It's about a handful of enormous companies sharing private data, shaping the way people think by promoting fake news and suppressing differing opinions. It's about making a buck of advertising which makes it impossible to surf the web without add blockers. Social media has devolved into a cesspool of hate and a fake sense of self worth.
toss1 3y ago
Yup I'm starting to think that the entire internet is a net-negative, especially when compared with desktop computing and occasional ability to connect to other specific endpoints which we chose — doing the computing we wanted to do with the tools and people we wanted. Today, the entire world of computing and internet seems like being hooked into a giant scam-land, where it is just a giant effort to avoid everything from constant flashing adverts (that screw up any dark-screen setting) to outright hacks and scams, despite having multiple layers of filters in place, and the FFoxes, TBirds, & DDGs of the world, who try to preserve some hint of independence struggle to merely survive.

mrits 3y ago

Do you remember the anarchist community that loaded up BBSs with bomb making and animal torture material?

omgsharks 3y ago
Definitely. And all of their 25 users. It was literally a non-issue even back then but titles like The Terrorist’s Handbook and The Anarchist’s Cookbook had a lot of shock value. Animal torture is such a fringe and infinitely small area that even if it’s deplorable it’s not, and never has been, prevalent in any meaningful way. Funny enough the first fallout we had among admins when we started The Pirate Bay was about a cat torture video that forced us to take a stance on freedom/anti-censorship vs decency and compassion. (The latter won, but not without losses in the team because they found it hypocritical that we “censored” uploads.)
- mrits 3y ago
  Animal torture is highly prevalent in the world. It's even part of our mainstream supply chain from food, cosmetics, or medicine. Torture for the sole purpose of torture is what you are describing and not what I was referring to.
- ok123456 3y ago
  I remember some high school kids dying during that period after trying to follow pipe bomb tphile recipes. There was bad press, but for 99% of people, using a computer to do this was so abstract that it didn't create any lasting moral panic.
dartos 3y ago
Hindsight is rose-tinted. Tho I think those kinds of things weren’t as easy to discover or as widely talked about as the internet was largely a hobbyist thing at the time
- xDetoursx 3y ago
  I don't think that's the case here. The early internet and social media's original function and intent was basically to share information, learn things that would otherwise be nearly impossible to know, like what's going on across the globe and to keep in touch with friends/family. Today's internet is a far cry from those ideals. It's about a handful of enormous companies sharing private data, shaping the way people think by promoting fake news and suppressing differing opinions. It's about making a buck of advertising which makes it impossible to surf the web without add blockers. Social media has devolved into a cesspool of hate and a fake sense of self worth.

toss1 3y ago

Yup I'm starting to think that the entire internet is a net-negative, especially when compared with desktop computing and occasional ability to connect to other specific endpoints which we chose — doing the computing we wanted to do with the tools and people we wanted. Today, the entire world of computing and internet seems like being hooked into a giant scam-land, where it is just a giant effort to avoid everything from constant flashing adverts (that screw up any dark-screen setting) to outright hacks and scams, despite having multiple layers of filters in place, and the FFoxes, TBirds, & DDGs of the world, who try to preserve some hint of independence struggle to merely survive.