[beej71]

Could it be that the "good internet" is just not a place for non-technical people?

Certainly when I consider what the good internet was circa 1995, it was not friendly unless you were technical.

And today, when the geeks have had enough, they launched all these fediverse products. I love this. It reminds me of the old days of the internet. I don't even visit any of the legacy enshittified sites any longer.

But this isn't something the rest of my family will do. For them, it's not a better experience like it is for me.

And when you have places like Kagi doing their small web search, looking for the good old days where people hosted their own sites (like I do), what they are doing is catering to us geeks. Non-geeks have just as much time and inclination to do that work as I have to replace my own roof.

I don't know if there's a solution other than we have our good stuff over here, and they can have that stuff over there.

[krapp]

No. Non-technical people don't deserve a worse experience simply because they have interests besides computers and programming languages. And being "technical" isn't a signifier for being friendly, civil, intelligent or even sane - the archetype of the "cat-piss man" exists for a good reason. And the web circa 1995 was post AOL and post Eternal September. You didn't exactly need a degree from MIT to use it. It wasn't that deep.

And besides, technical people are the reason the internet is the way it is. The same people who shat in everyone's punchbowl are now complaining about the taste.

[beej71]

> You didn't exactly need a degree from MIT to use it. It wasn't that deep.

I guess... no problem then...? Non-technical people can just stop using the enshittified Internet today. Why don't they?

> And besides, technical people are the reason the internet is the way it is.

I'm with Doctorow on this one, that greed-driven vendor lock-in is the reason it is like it is.

> The same people who shat in everyone's punchbowl are now complaining about the taste.

I don't know about this--I don't see Google or their peers complaining about the taste at all.