| As is so often the case, the fundamental problem is that people realised that could use it to make money. And once the big companies move in and monetise something, it's never going back. People used to make websites and post on BBS/forums because they enjoyed it, and they didn't expect anything back. But as the Internet became more mainstream, the corporates started to wipe out many of the small sites - because they could make money from their views and that data. And it's not just the Internet - think about how much gaming has changes with microtransactions, lootboxes and pay2win compared to how it used to be. Or how much YouTube has changed since people were trying to make money and a career out of it, rather than just making cool content. Or how much cryptocurrencies changed when they shifted from being largely supported by people who really believed in them as the future, rather than day-traders trying to get rich. > But it felt free. You could just make a thing, and put it up for the whole world or no-one to find, and it felt like the future was condensing rapidly in front of the whole world. Like everything would accelerate from here and that we were going somewhere incredibly exciting, and then we went somewhere.. else. Nothing is stopping you creating your own website today and sticking it on the Internet - a domain and hosting is dirt cheap. And there are still plenty of sites and communities out there - you just have to go and look for them. The mainstream has moved on and will never come back - but that doesn't mean that everyone has to follow it. |