Thinking I'm maybe 5-10 years older, as I have a very similar experience but based around the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. That was really proto-internet stuff, with usenet forums that required special software to even access them. No web browsers for us! Again, those communities grew out of fandoms (the TV show Babylon 5 for me) and then turned into places people just hung out. I met several members of the group in person, which in the 90s was a fairly revolutionary (nay, DANGEROUS and CONTROVERSIAL) thing to do.
Usenet withered into forums, and for a time I was heavily into the indie/amateur filmmaking scene. Still remember the 50+ page political discussions that remained largely civil throughout, had a huge range of ages, including kids, and felt like everyone was getting something out of it.
It occurred to me towards the end of last year that I haven't really enjoyed the internet since those days. Not in terms of community.
Thoroughly enjoying Notes so far, but that's because it's nothing like Twitter despite the interface similarities.
I wonder how much of this is simpler than we think, and purely generational-based. People in their teens and 20s use something voraciously, then they get older and have kids, and the kids don't want to go anywhere near the same places their parents hang out, and those platforms die as new ones springs up.
Judging by your PFP at least I'm guessing we're roughly the same age but I came to the internet late., so I missed usenet and newsgroups - though I was aware of newsgroups and they were still actively being used, my first communities were really basic forums hosted on GeoCities websites. Though I do wish I'd mentioned usenet and newsgroups in this piece as even though I had no personal experience with them, they're an important phase in the phenomenon I was describing.
I think you're definitely onto something with the generational factor. Evolution of anything, creatures or culture, tends to be a staggered uneven process. Just like the dinosaurs didn't evolve into mammals--they just got out of the way!
I like the idea of Mastodon. Instances feel like the general discussion thread on a 2004 forum. The moderation is pretty much based on the whims of whoever is paying the server costs (much like a 2004 forum). The instance I'm on had a guy called Nutsling (also much like a 2004 forum). The federated tab is garbage though.
Nazis are absolutely on tiktok and they will report you if you say Nazis are bad, and you will get banned because you said "Nazi" when you said "Nazis are bad".
May 2, 2023·edited May 2, 2023Liked by S Peter Davis
I was one of the non-mod users that was still on PWOT until the last day. Although, by the end, it was mostly just the forum games in Aimless Rambling (largely because it was otherwise a ghost town). Still, the friends I made in FEG are still friends I talk to every day.
I do miss forums, and especially that one. I wonder sometimes how much it's nostalgia to think that things were better back then, but the Social Media Web 2.0 is an endless garbage fire built to just spew more fuel on the fire. I won't miss it when it's gone. (Possibly excepting Tumblr, but that one might just be one of the legacy ones that sneaks through in its reduced levels.)
EDIT: Man, I had been on there since 2005. That's a pretty real chunk of my life to be in a community.
Maybe it's my age, but I don't see TikTok lasting a decade-plus like FB and the bird have. Its massive growth seems down to the "black box" sugar-rush algorithm; and sugar wears off after a time. People are still gonna need to write, and read, and connect; and the 'Tok is no place to do that. IG kind of isn't either; it's more like the 'ad circular" one gets in the mail every week than anything else.
I took refuge in the 1-900-HOTDOG Discord and it's like we've circled back around to chat rooms, only private ones you have to pay to join and that self-regulate.
Hey I'm in the Hotdog Discord too!... I really should participate more. In Australia my prime hanging-out-on-the-internet time coincides directly with America's being asleep time, so it's echoes in there when I'm around.
Thinking I'm maybe 5-10 years older, as I have a very similar experience but based around the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. That was really proto-internet stuff, with usenet forums that required special software to even access them. No web browsers for us! Again, those communities grew out of fandoms (the TV show Babylon 5 for me) and then turned into places people just hung out. I met several members of the group in person, which in the 90s was a fairly revolutionary (nay, DANGEROUS and CONTROVERSIAL) thing to do.
Usenet withered into forums, and for a time I was heavily into the indie/amateur filmmaking scene. Still remember the 50+ page political discussions that remained largely civil throughout, had a huge range of ages, including kids, and felt like everyone was getting something out of it.
It occurred to me towards the end of last year that I haven't really enjoyed the internet since those days. Not in terms of community.
Thoroughly enjoying Notes so far, but that's because it's nothing like Twitter despite the interface similarities.
I wonder how much of this is simpler than we think, and purely generational-based. People in their teens and 20s use something voraciously, then they get older and have kids, and the kids don't want to go anywhere near the same places their parents hang out, and those platforms die as new ones springs up.
Judging by your PFP at least I'm guessing we're roughly the same age but I came to the internet late., so I missed usenet and newsgroups - though I was aware of newsgroups and they were still actively being used, my first communities were really basic forums hosted on GeoCities websites. Though I do wish I'd mentioned usenet and newsgroups in this piece as even though I had no personal experience with them, they're an important phase in the phenomenon I was describing.
I think you're definitely onto something with the generational factor. Evolution of anything, creatures or culture, tends to be a staggered uneven process. Just like the dinosaurs didn't evolve into mammals--they just got out of the way!
I like the idea of Mastodon. Instances feel like the general discussion thread on a 2004 forum. The moderation is pretty much based on the whims of whoever is paying the server costs (much like a 2004 forum). The instance I'm on had a guy called Nutsling (also much like a 2004 forum). The federated tab is garbage though.
Nazis are absolutely on tiktok and they will report you if you say Nazis are bad, and you will get banned because you said "Nazi" when you said "Nazis are bad".
I was one of the non-mod users that was still on PWOT until the last day. Although, by the end, it was mostly just the forum games in Aimless Rambling (largely because it was otherwise a ghost town). Still, the friends I made in FEG are still friends I talk to every day.
I do miss forums, and especially that one. I wonder sometimes how much it's nostalgia to think that things were better back then, but the Social Media Web 2.0 is an endless garbage fire built to just spew more fuel on the fire. I won't miss it when it's gone. (Possibly excepting Tumblr, but that one might just be one of the legacy ones that sneaks through in its reduced levels.)
EDIT: Man, I had been on there since 2005. That's a pretty real chunk of my life to be in a community.
Maybe it's my age, but I don't see TikTok lasting a decade-plus like FB and the bird have. Its massive growth seems down to the "black box" sugar-rush algorithm; and sugar wears off after a time. People are still gonna need to write, and read, and connect; and the 'Tok is no place to do that. IG kind of isn't either; it's more like the 'ad circular" one gets in the mail every week than anything else.
I took refuge in the 1-900-HOTDOG Discord and it's like we've circled back around to chat rooms, only private ones you have to pay to join and that self-regulate.
Hey I'm in the Hotdog Discord too!... I really should participate more. In Australia my prime hanging-out-on-the-internet time coincides directly with America's being asleep time, so it's echoes in there when I'm around.
Yeah that makes it tough. I'm one to back-scroll and necropost though so you wouldn't be the only one. 😛