[chubot]

There was the WELL, CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, all of which predated the web, and which were all commercial and proprietary services

I was on prodigy and AOL, and then the web

This thread actually shows the curse of inventing things and giving them away: some of the people who benefit from the idea think it is obvious, and some also think that you obviously should have given it away

It’s odd that if you create user-hostile products like Microsoft and Apple, you’re somehow more respected by (some) users

[zenmac]

yes and back then remember there were a battle about how to keep the web open, so the Internet doesn't become an AOL walled garden. Now who really knows AOL.

Now days is about META/GOOGLE apps vs web standard. Just seems like the empire always wants to strike back. We techs better be on watch.

[chubot]

Yeah exactly, there WAS a battle back then, and it WAS won for a while

But that doesn't mean it's won forever -- the people of the NEXT generation still have to put in effort

---

This thread shows the ingratitude: You didn't fix our problems for all time, in a rapidly changing world! The thing you invented and gave away only fixed it for a decade or so

Comment below:

> The protocols created no incentives to protect data and identities from being walled off. The original system was not "really good" at anything

Memories are short; history is written and framed by interested parties

[rpdillon]

For sure! Web attestation is the gateway through which we will close off the web, and Google's already proposed it.

[giancarlostoro]

You forgot Apple which cripples the web by forcing iPhones to only use WebKit.

[zenmac]

yeah dame you IndexDB was quite a hold back. But stuff like fakeIndexedDB is what something HN crowd can do to help.

[motbus3]

For me it is funny to remember it differently from you because I used the www much before AOL. When I tried AOL I felt it was so closed and limited. I understood the idea but the WWW was at the same time less professional but also free. I was maybe around 12y or 13y when I tried AOL and by them I was using the www for maybe 3y already.

My family had zero technology knowledge and I only came to know about BBS and other stuff after was an adult and those things were not relevant or dead by then

[daft_pink]

I think the fact that these services existed is actually the point.

If you charged for the world wide web, you would never have beaten compuserve and aol, both of which I used before the internet.

[giancarlostoro]

> It’s odd that if you create user-hostile products like Microsoft and Apple, you’re somehow more respected by (some) users

The respect is for the bits they get right more than anything.

[Nevermark]

Also, if you hold onto control, you maintain control. People respect control. Even when it is pervasively used against them. Perhaps more so.

If you give away control, people quickly forget and lose respect for you, for what you did. After wall, what have you done for them lately?

It isn't fair, but it is how people are wired.

People respond to today's marginal forces. Not much else.