[a_c]

Things go in cycle. Search engine was so much better at discovering linked websites. Then people play the SEO game, write bogus articles, cross link this and that, everyone got into writing. Everyone write the same cliches over and over, quality of search engine plumets. But then since we are regurgitating the same thought over and over again, why not automate it. Over time people will forget where the quality post comes up in the first place. e.g. LLM replaces stackoverflow replaces technical documentation. When the cost of production is dirt cheap, no one cares about quality. When enough is enough, people will start to curate a web of word of mouth of everything again.

What I typed above is extrememly broad stroking and lacking of nuances. But generally I think quality of online content will go to shit until people have had enough, then behaviour will swing to other side

[jstarfish]

Nah, you got the right of it. It feels like the end of Usenet all over again, only these days cyber-warlords have joined the spammers and trolls.

Mastodon sounded promising as What's Next, but I don't trust it-- that much feels like Bitcoin all over again. Too many evangelists, and there's already abuse of extended social networks going on.

Any tech worth using should sell itself. Nobody needed to convince me to try Usenet, most people never knew what it was, and nobody is worse off for it.

We created the Tower of Babel-- everyone now speaks with one tongue. Then we got blasted with babble. We need an angry god to destroy it.

I figure we'll finally see the fault in this implementation when we go to war with China and they brick literally everything we insisted on connecting to the internet, in the first few minutes of that campaign.

[madamelic]

I hope / believe the future of social networks will go back to hyperlocal / hyperfocused.

I am definitely wearing rose-tinted glasses here but I had more fun on social media when it was just me, my local friends, and my interest friends messing around and engaging organically. When posting wasn't about getting something out of it, promoting a new product, posting a blog article... take me back to the days where people would tweet that they were headed to lunch then check in on Foursquare.

I get the need for marketing, etc etc. But so much of the internet and social media today is all about their personal branding, marketing, blah. Every post has an intention behind it. Every person is wearing a mask.

[TimurSadekov]

The decentralized social network Mastodon did not have an unbiased algorithm for analyzing the reliability of information and assessing the reputation of its authors. This shortcoming is now being addressed by a new method - we create a CyberPravda (dot) com platform for disputes with unbiased mathematical algorithm for assessing the reliability of statements, where people are accountable with personal reputation for their knowledge and arguments.

[discreteevent]

> It feels like the end of Usenet all over again

Eternal LLMber.

[lurker616]

Great phrase!

[ponderings]

I can see it already! The war with China... then we find ourselves around the camp fire with the dads and mums cooking food, the boys and girls singing songs and the grandparents telling stories about times long gone.

[CogitoCogito]

I feel like somehow this is all some economic/psychological version of a heat equation. Anytime someone comes up with some signal with economic value that value is exploited to spread the signal back out.

I think it’s similar to a Matt Levine quote I read which said something like Wall Street will find a way to take something riskless and monetize them so that they now become risky.

[Log_out_]

Insular splinternets with Web of trust where allowing corporate access is banworthy?