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I don't think it's just me anymore, with the rise of all the bots and AI I just really miss how things were ~20 years ago. Or maybe I'm just getting old. My routine used to be visiting multiple sites like play, amazon, streets on line and scrolling hundreds of pages for offers, new releases etc (admittedly not a great use of time). Visiting sites and using bookmarks, actually being interested in the well written articles. Very little (that I noticed) main character syndrome being unprofessionaly forced into things. Politics was less prominent online, although I think that's just a sign of how things in real life have changed. Sites for everything, easy to find, people even shared useful links on their own homepage. And because it was all in silos it felt like there was no drama or hate for people thinking their opinion is right in saying a hobby or interest shouldn't be. Part of that nostalgia I remembered a long forgotten forum I used to frequent, but finally today I looked it up. I was active every day for many years, mainly while at work.. And before I even had a smart phone (I was late to the party) but it was life that got in the way more than social media replacing it. But then that did happen and I'm very much bored of what the Internet has become. What do you miss from what you consider the golden age of the Internet?
I think when the content wasn't just copy/ pasted from somewhere else. Though a lot of "tech support sites" from the subcontinent used to do that even back in the 90s. I was looking at a recipe for the Ninja Woodfire the other day, and one of the sites claimed copyright on all their content. At the top of the page was a youtube video from a guy called CJ who does lots of videos about Ninja WF stuff, and the recipe itself was a direct copy/ paste from the Ninja website. And so many "reviews" of products are clearly just rehashes of a product's press release (or a review from another site).
Hey, welcome aboard, @chrisjm 👋
I was active every day for many years, mainly while at work
Yes, same - each morning after checking work emails, I would visit several sites in succession to catch up with overnight posts, including dvdf.
Much of what you say is still around, and still possible, but we have all changed nowadays - streaming of course is the big change, not buying dvd bargains. And having so much content available all the time means that 'event' viewing is much less of a thing.
And then social media is the big killer - rather than posting links and funnies to anon forums, we are sharing stuff within our socials circles. The shift now is definitely away from FB, and Twitter is declining (thanks to Musk). Instagram continues to grow (personally I don't like it) and Threads (which is quite good but the algo is too aggressive).
With their built-in viewers, the apps also keep you trapped within (unless you choose to open links externally). Same with the search engines, with their 'quick answers' and boxes of AI content, so you hardly ever have to visit the actual website nowadays.
Forums used to aggregate the best news and films, but every algo now know us inside out, rending many personal recommendations useless. Often nowadays with my irl mates & family, we are recommending stuff to each other that we have already seen.
so many "reviews" of products are clearly just rehashes of a product's press release
Yes! I was looking for a review for a specific TV some months ago, and the only genuine opinion I could find was an average Joe's youtube channel! So I ended up having to message him via the video comments, to get a few more answers! (Turned out, it wasn't a good TV)
I think when the content wasn't just copy/ pasted from somewhere else. Though a lot of "tech support sites" from the subcontinent used to do that even back in the 90s.
Yeh, when you try and look how to fix a computer problem there are dozens of sites all with the same "10 ways to fix ...."
Leech sites have always been a problem.
They've also always been easy to spot, especially when one of the sites at the top of the leech chain contains an error that is then copied to innumerable copycat sites.
