The Web sucks now
By Edward Willis (gopher://encw.xyz and http://encw.xyz)
Published Jul/12/2024

I think that the Web has become terribly boring, and altogether not very fun.

I've come up with some reasons that I think may contribute:

The centralization of the internet on platforms.
The cookie cutter "influencers" who dominate those platforms.
The groupthink that emerges on those platforms.

It seems that wherever you turn it's just more of the same. It's tiresome.
My Web routine is now: open the browser, check the news, close the browser. The
Web used to be fun to surf. You'd find time just to browse and see what you
could find, and it was easy to find delightful websites. The web was awash with
small informational sites made by subject matter experts, forums dedicated to a
particular subject, and thoughtful and interesting personal websites. These
things still exist, but they're dying off in favor of large tech platforms.
Much of the time when you find a website that seems to be a single topic source
of information it is actually a poorly written SEO boosted vehicle for
advertising, and it's hard to get past these darn things to find good sites.

There is a new kind of person about the web too. I'm talking about those snarky,
rude crybullies. They're absolutely everywhere. You can't have a conversation
about anything without keeping in the back of your mind whether or not something
you say might inadvertently summon one of those godforsaken bores to harass you
about this idea or that phrase or whatever cause celebre is presently afflicting
them.

Also, arguments on the internet. For some reason when people have a discussion
about something on the internet on a public forum and there is any disagreement
whatsoever between them it becomes a petty back and forth slugging match.
Totally irrational. People who would never become so aggressive and pig-headed
in real life over a debate seem to be sucked into this behavior too.

And I can't imagine AI pumping out samey half-hallucinated junk is going to make
the future any better.

At least there is gopher.

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