[cutthegrass2]

I've been thinking about this too, perhaps it's my age (43) and the fact I vividly remember earlier times.

If I were to pick an inflection point, a point at which the internet started going to shit, i'd say it was around 07/08 with the birth of the iPhone and Appstore. That's when "pay to publish" really started to take off.

[aleph_minus_one]

> If I were to pick an inflection point, a point at which the internet started going to shit, i'd say it was around 07/08 with the birth of the iPhone and Appstore. That's when "pay to publish" really started to take off.

That's very plausible.

I additionally want to add that before the iPhone, having a locked-down device where the vendor decides which app(lication)s you are allowed to install caused huge outcries and shitstorms.

Example: Microsoft's initiatives for "Next-Generation Secure Computing Base" (formerly Palladium) [1] and attempting to enforce a TPM on computers (keyword: trusted computing).

When the iPhone came out, this all suddenly became perfectly accepted.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-Generation_Secure_Computi...

[user3939382]

I don’t know if Palm was technically a walled garden, I’m guessing you could load from wherever, but practically it was and I don’t think anyone had a problem with it. Not sure if it’s a counterpoint but something to consider.

[aleph_minus_one]

> I don’t know if Palm was technically a walled garden, I’m guessing you could load from wherever, but practically it was

According to this Reddit thread [1], you could easily install applications to a Palm from a memory stick. Additionally, I am not aware that Palm applications needed to be signed by the device producer (i.e. the device producer could not decide which applications are allowed vs forbidden on the device).

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Palm/comments/tmvm9z/is_there_a_way...

[kalleboo]

The Palm was wide open, there was zero DRM, I had a Palm IIIx in high school and spent hours browsing the web for fun freeware/shareware to HotSync onto it over serial. I also spent my time waiting at the bus stop writing my own bus time tables app directly on the Palm using yBasic

Palm even provided the source code of the built-in apps like the calendar etc as sample code with their SDK, leading to a huge ecosystem of freeware or shareware "Calendar Plus"-type applications that just added small quality of life features

[bigfatkitten]

Palm was an open platform. You could install apps from wherever you like, or write your own.

I learned 68k assembler in my teens for the purpose of cracking Palm apps for my Palm IIIe. I obviously had no credit card, and I had very little money.

[marklubi]

I'm 45 and have been in the industry for more than 25 years. I think it was closer to 2010/11 when things went sideways.

The birth of the iPhone changed a lot of things, but it took a few years to reach critical mass.

[Clubber]

For me it was around this time, but 2013 when the Snowden revelations came out. The internet became creepy because of all the spying and collection. It was a distinct change in my attitude I remember distinctly.

[Foobar8568]

For me, it was the buy out of geocities by Yahoo was the inflexion point with a sure and slow demise. Death of ezboard was also a pain.

So corporate profit over users.

Another acceleration was google turning to shit as well.

[BoingBoomTschak]

Some people pointed to 2007 for lots of simultaneous reasons:

http://0x0.st/Xx1H.png

[DanielleMolloy]

Not sure how it was 2007, but tumblr feels like relief nowadays because it still has some glimpses of that old internet. You can customize a tumblr down to the HTML, including JavaScript.

Not using the social parts (likes) etc. though. I'm using it as a way to share photos and what I'm up to with family without forced login. Like a homepage basically. It is not trying to distract visitors with pointing to other blogs either.

[TheAceOfHearts]

This is interesting to me because I vividly remember the Summer of 2006 as being one of the most fun times I had on the Internet. I wasn't aware of these details but probably would've also said around 2007 or 2008 there was a vibe shift.

[Izkata]

One of the possible names for Gen Z that was thrown around about a decade ago was "iGen", a reference to the iPhone and noticing there was a cultural shift in those that came of age on/after 2008.