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This article expresses a common sentiment among those of us who grew up with web1. However, by now I think we've found our places where the internet is still fu

This article expresses a common sentiment among those of us who grew up with web1. However, by now I think we've found our places where the internet is still fun. There's still some forums and chat rooms that keep things interesting without the constant barrage of advertising. This site is one of them, but there are a bunch of federated platforms out there now too that are fun to explore.

obloid 2y ago
Any in particular that you recommend?
- alecco 2y ago
  Please don't. The few good forums still out there need to be protected from Eternal September. This is why a lot of people moved to things like closed Discord servers. Or some pages looking ugly and abandoned running some weird PHP forum software.
  - obloid 2y ago
    I doubt simply mentioning a forum on HN is going to lead to an influx of "noobs" who will descend upon them en masse. Those people are too wrapped up in their world of tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, etc.
gnulinux 2y ago
> However, by now I think we've found our places where the internet is still fun. There's still some forums and chat rooms that keep things interesting without the constant barrage of advertising. I haven't. Internet is nothing more than an addiction for me. Internet is dead and misanthropic nowadays. It's soulless and corporate. It used to be fun, artistic, creative, and educational. Now it's neither of those, with extremely few exceptions like Wikipedia. > This site is one of them, but there are a bunch of federated platforms out there now too that are fun to explore. I read reddit and HN constantly because I seem to have an unhealthy compulsion to keep up with the news, politics, tech, and the world, but other than that I wouldn't say I like either site, or that they're fun.
- soulofmischief 2y ago
  What are some places you miss which you feel allowed you to be creative or learn without advancing some corporate agenda?
  - gnulinux 2y ago
    Random one off forums. They were alive.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
  I read Reddit and HN because they're there, but Reddit hellbans any account I try to make with no email, so I can't comment, and I'm gradually moving to Mastodon.
  - IncreasePosts 2y ago
    So many subs hellban young accounts to deal with spam. The only real way to get around it is create an account 6 months before you want to comment.
- CuriouslyC 2y ago
  Yup. I have so many fond memories of the late 90s/early 00s web, but a feeling of being bored with the internet set in around 2014/2015 and now I'm just a current events junkie.
- NalNezumi 2y ago
  >I haven't. Internet is nothing more than an addiction for me. Internet is dead and misanthropic nowadays. It's soulless and corporate. It used to be fun, artistic, creative, and educational. Now it's neither of those, with extremely few exceptions like Wikipedia. I feel like the reality is that every recommendation algorithm have been cranked up to 11 to throw garbage at you. The "good old internet" is not completely gone, all the thing you mentioned, fun, artistic, creative & educational are still there. I'd even say that when it come to educational it have actually massively gotten better, and still is, *but it is getting harder and harder to find it*. Google search is garbage, Youtube throw you shorts clickbaity shit, so does twitter, and Facebook is a wasteland. Yet the interesting blogs are still there, the youtube content creators are still producing educational content, artists are still producing stuff. *Search* has gotten worse. So you simply won't find as much as you used to, and your old channel is getting filled with SEO garbage and clickbait recommendation system preferences.
oersted 2y ago
The thing is that before most of the Internet population was in those places, and granted the population was much smaller (with pretty good self-filtering). But now everyone is scattered in the social media meme hellscape, and those old cool places are mostly populated by greybeards (not necessarily old-aged, just old-timers). Don't get me wrong, they are very cool people, and usually quite welcoming, but superficially so. Once you start trying to get into these communities a bit more seriously, you realize is just a big pile of old drama, discursive substance has long left, and it's just a bunch of weird old friends you don't know hanging out. The most extreme instance of this are old MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Oh man, I really want them to be big thing again, they are so deep and interesting. Like old bulletin-boards, IRC and forums, but embedded in a living world. The closest we've gotten to an actual social metaverse world simulation is in text-form. Some are still relatively active, but most users are not engaged with the world anymore, it's mostly just a small chatroom with a musky odor. I do agree that HN is a big exception to this, and there are indeed fresh federated platforms that are thriving. Mastodon is the main one, although I was never a big fan of the Twitter formula. And I couldn't get into Lemmy as a Reddit alternative, it's still too sparse and wild, the focus on semi-isolated server communities is both a strength and a significant source of disorientation.
- RajT88 2y ago
  My favorite weird place like this is themonsterchannel.com. All the content comes from basically an m3u8 playlist, so you can scrape it if you like (which I do), but it's mostly older folks who just hang out and chat all day about old sci-fi/horror movies. Occasionally, someone I know from IRL way back shows up.
- oersted 2y ago
  When it comes to old-web non-social patterns, the situation is much healthier I think. There are many blogs that are having their golden-age right now (Astral Codex comes to mind). I love what is being done in the smolweb, and the whole movement of Digital Gardens or Second Brains (100r.co is probably my favourite place on the internet). Then, of course, you have Medium (rather enshitified now, but still big), and it's heir Substack (starting to get enshitified, but thriving) and newsletters in general. They are both huge and growing, long-form content is having a resurgence. Not to mention the phenomenon of podcasts, and let's not underestimate how much high-quality earnest content is on YouTube. These are all modernized versions of old web patterns, first plain-old HTML content sites, and then blogs. And, well, ol' grandfather Radio, now greatly democratized.

obloid 2y ago

Any in particular that you recommend?

alecco 2y ago
Please don't. The few good forums still out there need to be protected from Eternal September. This is why a lot of people moved to things like closed Discord servers. Or some pages looking ugly and abandoned running some weird PHP forum software.
- obloid 2y ago
  I doubt simply mentioning a forum on HN is going to lead to an influx of "noobs" who will descend upon them en masse. Those people are too wrapped up in their world of tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

gnulinux 2y ago

> However, by now I think we've found our places where the internet is still fun. There's still some forums and chat rooms that keep things interesting without the constant barrage of advertising. I haven't. Internet is nothing more than an addiction for me. Internet is dead and misanthropic nowadays. It's soulless and corporate. It used to be fun, artistic, creative, and educational. Now it's neither of those, with extremely few exceptions like Wikipedia. > This site is one of them, but there are a bunch of federated platforms out there now too that are fun to explore. I read reddit and HN constantly because I seem to have an unhealthy compulsion to keep up with the news, politics, tech, and the world, but other than that I wouldn't say I like either site, or that they're fun.

soulofmischief 2y ago
What are some places you miss which you feel allowed you to be creative or learn without advancing some corporate agenda?
- gnulinux 2y ago
  Random one off forums. They were alive.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
I read Reddit and HN because they're there, but Reddit hellbans any account I try to make with no email, so I can't comment, and I'm gradually moving to Mastodon.
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  So many subs hellban young accounts to deal with spam. The only real way to get around it is create an account 6 months before you want to comment.
CuriouslyC 2y ago
Yup. I have so many fond memories of the late 90s/early 00s web, but a feeling of being bored with the internet set in around 2014/2015 and now I'm just a current events junkie.
NalNezumi 2y ago
>I haven't. Internet is nothing more than an addiction for me. Internet is dead and misanthropic nowadays. It's soulless and corporate. It used to be fun, artistic, creative, and educational. Now it's neither of those, with extremely few exceptions like Wikipedia. I feel like the reality is that every recommendation algorithm have been cranked up to 11 to throw garbage at you. The "good old internet" is not completely gone, all the thing you mentioned, fun, artistic, creative & educational are still there. I'd even say that when it come to educational it have actually massively gotten better, and still is, *but it is getting harder and harder to find it*. Google search is garbage, Youtube throw you shorts clickbaity shit, so does twitter, and Facebook is a wasteland. Yet the interesting blogs are still there, the youtube content creators are still producing educational content, artists are still producing stuff. *Search* has gotten worse. So you simply won't find as much as you used to, and your old channel is getting filled with SEO garbage and clickbait recommendation system preferences.

oersted 2y ago

The thing is that before most of the Internet population was in those places, and granted the population was much smaller (with pretty good self-filtering). But now everyone is scattered in the social media meme hellscape, and those old cool places are mostly populated by greybeards (not necessarily old-aged, just old-timers). Don't get me wrong, they are very cool people, and usually quite welcoming, but superficially so. Once you start trying to get into these communities a bit more seriously, you realize is just a big pile of old drama, discursive substance has long left, and it's just a bunch of weird old friends you don't know hanging out. The most extreme instance of this are old MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Oh man, I really want them to be big thing again, they are so deep and interesting. Like old bulletin-boards, IRC and forums, but embedded in a living world. The closest we've gotten to an actual social metaverse world simulation is in text-form. Some are still relatively active, but most users are not engaged with the world anymore, it's mostly just a small chatroom with a musky odor. I do agree that HN is a big exception to this, and there are indeed fresh federated platforms that are thriving. Mastodon is the main one, although I was never a big fan of the Twitter formula. And I couldn't get into Lemmy as a Reddit alternative, it's still too sparse and wild, the focus on semi-isolated server communities is both a strength and a significant source of disorientation.

RajT88 2y ago
My favorite weird place like this is themonsterchannel.com. All the content comes from basically an m3u8 playlist, so you can scrape it if you like (which I do), but it's mostly older folks who just hang out and chat all day about old sci-fi/horror movies. Occasionally, someone I know from IRL way back shows up.
oersted 2y ago
When it comes to old-web non-social patterns, the situation is much healthier I think. There are many blogs that are having their golden-age right now (Astral Codex comes to mind). I love what is being done in the smolweb, and the whole movement of Digital Gardens or Second Brains (100r.co is probably my favourite place on the internet). Then, of course, you have Medium (rather enshitified now, but still big), and it's heir Substack (starting to get enshitified, but thriving) and newsletters in general. They are both huge and growing, long-form content is having a resurgence. Not to mention the phenomenon of podcasts, and let's not underestimate how much high-quality earnest content is on YouTube. These are all modernized versions of old web patterns, first plain-old HTML content sites, and then blogs. And, well, ol' grandfather Radio, now greatly democratized.