Imperfect

resurrect your web

Inspired by Steve's Resurrect the Old Web found via this Hacker News submission.

Steve says:

I think I can confidently say that the majority of us aren't happy with the state of social media.

What can you learn from the minority making social media work for them in ways you admire?

Back in its early days it was fresh and exciting, a fun way to connect with your friends that might be far away, or make new friends online. It was cozy. No ads, no feeds, no endless videos. Instead it was just people, the whole reason you started in the first place. Now it's just noise and scary addicting and effective algorithms that keep you plugged in for hours on end.

How would said minority describe their present social media experience as "fresh and exciting", connective and cozy, and "just people"?

In my eyes, reducing modern social media to noise and algorithms invites personal change. Upgrade your agency. Terraform your environment. Bridge the gap between yourself and "the whole reason you started in the first place." Return to what made you fall in love the first time.

We build apps and products to help kill the monster, or perhaps we even delete some social media apps. Many of our friends we used to stay connected with seem so distant, as many of them too are tired and perhaps jumped off socials altogether.

The real monster is lacking connection from those you would like to connect or reconnect with. However, that monster isn't unique to the modern web, let alone online connections. Reigniting old and/or in-person friendships can teach us a thing or two about how to replicate the feat online.

In my opinion the answer is honestly pretty simple: blogs and RSS feeds.

Imagining myself in others' shoes, my first question would be, "What are those?" Are the people you are trying to reach tech-savvy enough to endure such constraints in addition to weaker network effects?

From a student's perspective, my next question is, "How much do those actually pique my interests?" I empathize with corytheboyd's recollection of how he surfed the web as a youngster:

In my opinion the answer is honestly pretty simple: blogs and RSS feeds.

This point is made very often, and I do believe it was true for many people, but I honestly didn’t care about individual blogs at all when I was a young net user.

(...) All the action for me was on forums and chat rooms. Like the author mentions, it’s exactly the type of excitement that naturally led to early social media, which I was also a huge fan of for the close friends I already had.

The connective magnitude of this very blog and related email exchanges so far pales in comparison to the above venues. To me, blogs and feeds operate with much less synchronicity, retention, and subject matter stickiness than more social outlets.

Additionally, much of a state- or teacher-centric curriculum can fly above a student's head. Their minds are filled to the brim not with what's being taught, but with imagination, adventure, and play. The real world, popular social media, or even being born later can further limit how effective Steve's constrained answer can be.

In contrast, Steve serves this stellar, much more open directive later on:

We have autonomy, and we have the freedom to choose how we interact with each other.

We can interact with each other toward what we want. Apreche prioritizes maximizing this intrinsic expression over minimizing extrinsic identity:

The old web isn’t a platform, an aesthetic, or a technology. The old web is people creating and sharing because they are intrinsically motivated.

Not only can we interact as often as possible, but through as many avenues as possible. endymion-light shares that replicable sentiment:

Trying to ressurect the old internet by staying limited to a platform like bear blog may be a big limitation. To me, part of what made the old internet so interesting is the expression of ideas in so many things beyond just regular blogs.

What i'd love to see more of is people building interesting experiences for the love of the game, that's what feels like builds passion and interest. But there's no returning back to the old internet in the same way, because what's interesting and what's fun to read has changed.

While you never step into the same river twice, you can still build your Internet of your dreams. And if you can't, how can you with the help of trusted friends? crnkofe demonstrates their perceived need for such assistance:

Nowadays the main issue for me is that there are too many people in the room. Pick any social network and forum and you're an immediate misfit there. Make one edgy statements and trolls, flamers, live streamers will tear you apart. Not to mention AI tech advancements are making a not-great situation slightly worse. The internet is no longer a happy place. Its a good question if it ever were.

For how many social networks, forums, and places within where you are considered an immediate misfit, there are outliers. It's up to you to find them.

Too many people in one room invites you to inhabit more. Take advantage of how you can be in more than just one place on the Internet, whether active or dormant.

Exercise caution with your utterances. The more you believe the Internet is no longer a happy place, the more you can expect that sentiment to manifest or aggravate itself in your own Internet.

However, believing that you can be found also relies on being present in ways that coincide with that. dmortin emphasizes the importance of search and indexing when it comes to online spaces:

What bothers me is that even some tech forums use Facebook groups and stuff, hiding the information in non-searchable silos.

Why can't at least tech people use only traditional forums which are easily searchable, readable without login, etc?

wiether complements the above from a preservation angle:

If anything else, if one wants to resurrect the "Old Web", one shouldn't do it on someone else's platform.

Parts of the "Old Web" disappeared when the platforms hosting it stopped.

Multiply and diversify your virtual spaces to defend against such failure modes. Take advantage of the ease and connectivity of someone else's platform like you would the sovereignty and portability of renting your own domain.

The solution to the web of your dreams is abundance: not only of depth, but of breadth too. Always be connecting: people, ideas, stories, tools, and more. Preserve those connections via whatever method you can: archival, syndication, remixing, or otherwise.

Welcome.'s It's Funny Because It's True (and Sad) shares an image comparing how small the rock of your entire output is to the mud pit that is the Internet. Yes, the Internet holds infinite webs just like yours. In the spirit of Indra's net, beautify your own such that it may reflect ever more beauty upon the rest.

Want to reach out? Connect with me however you prefer: