4 ms·

Very powerful. I read this article at the same time as this one [1] this morning, about the powers and limitations of content platforms. Both say the same thin

by vkb 11y ago

Very powerful. I read this article at the same time as this one [1] this morning, about the powers and limitations of content platforms. Both say the same thing to me: many people think the web today is inherently broken by middlemen, like the music industry was up until very recently. But as of yet, there is no solution to middlemen, because they are where the audience is, therefore,where the money is. [1]http://www.theawl.com/2015/07/in-no-charts http://www.theawl.com/2015/07/in-no-charts

jacquesm 11y ago
We already had the solution: a decentralized web. But do note that the author used 'medium' rather than to use his own platform and so effectively adds to the value of the medium content-silo.
- vkb 11y ago
  Is the tradeoff then visibility and platforms or obscurity and freedom? It seems to me like there's a middle ground somewhere.
- fixermark 11y ago
  Is there an implementation method for the decentralized web that doesn't require individuals to become web administrators (with concerns about security, SEO and "proper standards-compliant page architecture", storage and bandwidth costs, etc.)? If not, I'm afraid it's a non-starter. The centralized solutions are winning precisely because the average user just wants to get their signal out; they don't want to be forced to become even an amateur web admin to do it. So long as that's true, you'll find an ecosystem of dedicated individuals and small-count co-ops outside the centralized web platforms, but they'll never become large enough to draw consumer eyeballs away from those platforms.
  - mbrock 11y ago
    I don't know about "they'll never." If excellent tools are developed and freely distributed and improved, why couldn't there be a kind of co-op renaissance? Certainly there are lots of people who aren't interested in systems administration but who still see the problems with centralized services, and more importantly are getting bored and exhausted with the ad-ridden, spying, proprietary networks they're using.
    - fixermark 11y ago
      Unfortunately, I want to believe but I strongly doubt (based on personal observation of how the web ecosystem is evolving) that there are enough people to form a strong, healthy co-op ecosystem, for a few reasons. 1) Sysadmining is still hard, thankless, and tedious enough (outside the ecosystem of services that are paying sysadmins to do the heavy-lifting for the end-user) that you're looking at a very select clientele, even among the people who have become sufficiently fed up with the status quo to want to dive into that space. I'm capable of hosting my own blog, but I host it on Blogger because I don't want to deal with having to security-patch my tool of choice every week. Any popular toolchain monoculture is a target for security attacks, and any popular toolchain heteroculture (i.e. "tool that is flexible enough that no two installations look alike enough to allow for security attacks") introduces complications that diminish the adoption rate of the tool. The development of excellent tools freely distributed and improved is not at all a given; the bar to success is extremely high, even if someone comes along to foot the bill (which would be necessary, because if we could expect those tools to spring up for free, the web is old enough that we'd have already seen it happen). 2) Any small co-op that is successful enough either becomes a Facebook or gets bought by a Facebook. Blogger used to be independent. So was Tumblr. So was Livejournal. The monocultures have the money to acquire real competition, and it's hoping too much to pretend the central human owners of such co-ops (or even the entire co-op, if it really is structured as a cooperative) won't just sell the farm for a half-million dollars. So I don't see independent blogs ever becoming more than a fringe exercise on the modern web (hell, even the original author's reference to Blogger is a service fully owned and operated by Google, which can at a whim change what content is allowed on that network [https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/googles-blogger-drops-plan-block-nude-pics-amid-220802499.html] https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/googles-blogger-drops-plan-bloc...).
      - mbrock 11y ago
        I agree about these difficulties, but remain incurably optimistic. Actually I've been thinking about piracy as an example of resilient networks run by volunteers. For example, every little student dorm I lived in had its own DC++ server, run by dorky volunteers. Of course that's different from a blog platform with mass appeal, but it's something.
- coldcode 11y ago
  His writing on medium may be less likely to have to follow some local restrictions on content he may be under in Iran. Not everyone lives in a free society, if there is such a thing any more.
  - tedunangst 11y ago
    He specifically called out using your own domain though. You can still do that with a dozen different blogging platforms without having to host in Iran. But by choosing to publish on Medium, with a medium.com URL, he's guaranteed this writing will not last a day longer than Medium Inc.
chejazi 11y ago
I think there's an opportunity for individuals to reclaim some of this power, and therefore value. I'm working on a solution in the form of a url shortener. We pair advertisers with the links people share. So when an individual shares a link to a piece of content, i.e. a blog, they can monetize the process.

by vkb 11y ago

jacquesm 11y ago

We already had the solution: a decentralized web. But do note that the author used 'medium' rather than to use his own platform and so effectively adds to the value of the medium content-silo.

vkb 11y ago
Is the tradeoff then visibility and platforms or obscurity and freedom? It seems to me like there's a middle ground somewhere.
fixermark 11y ago
Is there an implementation method for the decentralized web that doesn't require individuals to become web administrators (with concerns about security, SEO and "proper standards-compliant page architecture", storage and bandwidth costs, etc.)? If not, I'm afraid it's a non-starter. The centralized solutions are winning precisely because the average user just wants to get their signal out; they don't want to be forced to become even an amateur web admin to do it. So long as that's true, you'll find an ecosystem of dedicated individuals and small-count co-ops outside the centralized web platforms, but they'll never become large enough to draw consumer eyeballs away from those platforms.
- mbrock 11y ago
  I don't know about "they'll never." If excellent tools are developed and freely distributed and improved, why couldn't there be a kind of co-op renaissance? Certainly there are lots of people who aren't interested in systems administration but who still see the problems with centralized services, and more importantly are getting bored and exhausted with the ad-ridden, spying, proprietary networks they're using.
  - fixermark 11y ago
    Unfortunately, I want to believe but I strongly doubt (based on personal observation of how the web ecosystem is evolving) that there are enough people to form a strong, healthy co-op ecosystem, for a few reasons. 1) Sysadmining is still hard, thankless, and tedious enough (outside the ecosystem of services that are paying sysadmins to do the heavy-lifting for the end-user) that you're looking at a very select clientele, even among the people who have become sufficiently fed up with the status quo to want to dive into that space. I'm capable of hosting my own blog, but I host it on Blogger because I don't want to deal with having to security-patch my tool of choice every week. Any popular toolchain monoculture is a target for security attacks, and any popular toolchain heteroculture (i.e. "tool that is flexible enough that no two installations look alike enough to allow for security attacks") introduces complications that diminish the adoption rate of the tool. The development of excellent tools freely distributed and improved is not at all a given; the bar to success is extremely high, even if someone comes along to foot the bill (which would be necessary, because if we could expect those tools to spring up for free, the web is old enough that we'd have already seen it happen). 2) Any small co-op that is successful enough either becomes a Facebook or gets bought by a Facebook. Blogger used to be independent. So was Tumblr. So was Livejournal. The monocultures have the money to acquire real competition, and it's hoping too much to pretend the central human owners of such co-ops (or even the entire co-op, if it really is structured as a cooperative) won't just sell the farm for a half-million dollars. So I don't see independent blogs ever becoming more than a fringe exercise on the modern web (hell, even the original author's reference to Blogger is a service fully owned and operated by Google, which can at a whim change what content is allowed on that network [https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/googles-blogger-drops-plan-block-nude-pics-amid-220802499.html] https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/googles-blogger-drops-plan-bloc...).
    - mbrock 11y ago
      I agree about these difficulties, but remain incurably optimistic. Actually I've been thinking about piracy as an example of resilient networks run by volunteers. For example, every little student dorm I lived in had its own DC++ server, run by dorky volunteers. Of course that's different from a blog platform with mass appeal, but it's something.
coldcode 11y ago
His writing on medium may be less likely to have to follow some local restrictions on content he may be under in Iran. Not everyone lives in a free society, if there is such a thing any more.
- tedunangst 11y ago
  He specifically called out using your own domain though. You can still do that with a dozen different blogging platforms without having to host in Iran. But by choosing to publish on Medium, with a medium.com URL, he's guaranteed this writing will not last a day longer than Medium Inc.

chejazi 11y ago

I think there's an opportunity for individuals to reclaim some of this power, and therefore value. I'm working on a solution in the form of a url shortener. We pair advertisers with the links people share. So when an individual shares a link to a piece of content, i.e. a blog, they can monetize the process.