Idk if this is the right community for this conversation, but it’s been on my mind and I want to share it with someone.

In the 00’s every new thing we heard about the internet was exciting. There were new protocols, new ways to communicate, new ways to share files, new ways to find each other. Every time we heard anything new about the internet, it was always progress.

That lasted into the early teens and then things started changing. Things started stagnating. Now we’re well into the phase where every new piece of news we hear is negative. New legislations, new privacy intrusions, new restrictions, new technologies to lock content away and keep us from sharing, or seeing the content we were looking for. New ways to force ads.

At one point the Internet was my most favorite thing in the world. Now I don’t know if I even like it anymore. I certainly don’t look forward to hearing news about it. It’s sad, man. We’ve lost a lot. The mega corps took the internet from us, changed it from a million small sites that people created because they had big ideas, or were passionate about small ones, and turned it into a few enormous sites with no new ideas, no passion, just an insatiable desire for money.

We’re at the end of an era, and unlike the last 20 years of progress, I don’t think most of us will like what the next era brings.

  • WhoRoger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    741·
    1 year ago

    I only really watch foss stuff, which should be exciting, but I get tired as it’s always much of the same news:

    • a new private messenger (like we don’t have 500 of those already)
    • a new app/program/distro that does the same thing as 10 other ones
    • a “simple” app/program that doesn’t do much of anything, just like 10 other ones of the same kind, will get 3 updates and then die
    • something for the terminal for terminal nerds that could really use a gui but shutup you dirty normie
    • a library that sounds cool but nobody except maybe some corporation will ever use it
    • announcement of a complete rewrite, which means we’ll never hear of the project again

    So I’m not exactly thrilled about anything either, tho for every different reasons

    • Exec@pawb.social
      27·
      1 year ago

      announcement of a complete rewrite, which means we’ll never hear of the project again

      A complete rewrite/redesign actually happens but with half of the original app’s features missing

      • Azzu@lemm.ee
        91·
        1 year ago

        Rewrites have failed so often that I wonder why people still think they make any sense.

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
          10·
          1 year ago

          It’s easy to look at source code and see that it’s got complicated. It’s harder to work out when it’s complicated because it needs to do something complicated like model something from the real world that’s complicated, or when it’s complicated because it’s accumulated loads of old crap. If you start experimenting with a rewrite, typically it’ll look like it mostly works before you’ve added most of the necessary complexity, and that can trick people into thinking that it wasn’t actually necessary.

          • Azzu@lemm.ee
            2·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, but what I meant more is that in almost every case, refactoring is the way to go.

    • not_amm@lemmy.ml
      17·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been looking into continuing or updating old programs that don’t have maintainers in the FSF/GNU list, but the mailing lists and archaic webpages don’t help much.

      I’m still learning, but I’m tired of not seeing enough good FOSS alternatives or only discontinued ones.

      • fbsz@lemmy.ml
        5·
        1 year ago

        yes, it’s much needed now as many projects needs contributions and you can create a website and list all of the contributions that is required to make it a real foss alternative