For the less technical, this is why we can lose instances (lemmy.sdf.org is the most recent one I noticed), but the fediverse will never go away: the fediverse is protocol-based (ActivityPub) like email.

This was worth reading. It made me a bit nostalgic for a simpler time when the net seemed untamed and full of possibility.

Great read!

Feels like most people here will agree with it, but the average person vegging out on instatok is harder to reach.

Fuck, his music is good.

I just really enjoyed this essay and wanted to share it. Cheers, nerds.

The interesting thing is the fediverse and the tildeverse are extensions of that older internet.

The statement that the new commercial veneer is dying needs to be backed up: YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Reddit still drive traffic, despite the slop, and because of the commercialization. Meta and Facebook are doing fine.

I like what he says about the underlying protocols, but it is missing a bit of nuance: Google has been instrumental in the evolution of HTTP; SMTP became a very different game when Google (via Gmail) pushed authentication; DRM made it into browsers thanks to Google and media companies.

Commercial companies may be benefiting from open protocols, but they are also pushing them in new directions. The stack the author remembers still exists, but it has been changed by that commercial "veneer".

This was a great read. Thank you.

Good read, good share. Thanks uniflashmob

I was thinking about this today. The reason why everything sucks is partly enshittification, but also everything has been gamified. “Get this stupid award for liking…?” Why? I just want to mingle, chud.

I am on the same side of the issue as this author and I should be reading this and agreeing. But I disagree with nearly every statement, god this is such a bad essay. I think it does a terrible job of making its case.

The cherry on top for me is the author making a fucking RSS reader.. I swear people in this space do not understand why its dying. They keep doing the same things over and over again instead of trying to actually fill the gaps. The solutions back then were solutions for the time, we can take them and improve them.

Hopefully the rest of the boring internet will let me read text in the lower half of my screen.

Ok, that’s the first thing I bookmarked. Whatever that bookmarks functionality is.

Was thinking about this the other day. And while the big players absolutely suck, I think we also share some of the blame by congregating in a small handful of sites and giving them the power that they have. Back in the early wild west days, it was more common to have a personal website and not just use Facebook. We ran our own forums or used usenet servers and IRC or other self-hosted chats and not Reddit or Discord. The only things that weren't usually small or locally hosted were sites for images and video; and that's still kinda hard today.

its hella annoying to read this paragraph pop up shite. tried ironfox reading mode but also failed.

there is some irony in writing about the old internet in an overstylised unreadable format.

I feel at some point these people will be living in a cottage with minimal internet activity and we will have no voices left. It feels like a clock is ticking and if we cannot drum up enough attention then it will be dead forever.

I looked for RSS reader. Apple only. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/current-is-a-new-rss-reader-thats-more-like-a-river-than-an-inbox/ Looks good, but...

Thank you! It's an inspiring read. Also, damn, I want that RSS reader app!

RIP Abandonia

My childhood

"Veneer"

That, Verily, is the second time I View such Verbiage. Though the Verbose extent I remain to Verify, I hope it is of Voluble read, and not the Volume of prose to be of Vain poetic Value.

(Sorry, couldn't hold it; but will be reading it when I get the time)

You almost had me until you started trying to sell me something.

I don't like the neologistic use of "federated" while describing old protocols with server-to-server communication.