Deep thoughts on the pre-social media Internet

[general_radix]

Without going too far into what prompted this 2AM ramble: I HATED all those "fuck social media and everyone on it" rants and still do, but lately I've also been wondering if we really wouldn't be better off resurrecting the Internet as it existed in the '90s and '00s (minus the bad shit that went on during those decades) and leaving behind as much of social media's corporate buffoonery, apathy towards users, and frequent screwing-over of said users as we can.


(Since fan comms are part of what I hope come back: for a while I've considered starting a Marathon comm here, but I'unno how many people besides y'all would join. XD; )

Comments

[juzo_kun]

I was there and my first-past-the-rational-brain reply is "uuuunghhhh no" -- there's a reason I started with a nickname that sounds male (this one, which is old enough to vote at this time). As you correctly note, there was much s**t gioing: misogyny, ableism, homophobia, everything in a giant salad of suckiness toppled by a good sprinkle of elitism.

But I absolutely agree at the fact that privately owned social media are one of the big problems of nowadays society. I have Opinions on that! Many of them! If you are ok with a textwall ramble in a poorest English than my usual I could blather for a lot more :D

About a Marathon community... while I admit I slinked away from proposing the same thing due to not having the energy to manage it, I'm it as joining as a member. I think that there's a need for a space dedicated exclusively to Marathon fan-works, something it's lacking from the other spaces (Story Forum, Pfhorums, Reddit ugh and Discord especially Discord, that seems going back to the mess of IRC channels, minus the good things, [expletive deleted])

[general_radix]

Uuuurgh, yeah, that's an aspect of older Internet that should stay buried. >.< We as a people know better now, so hopefully it'd stay that way...

I'd be interested in hearing more!

Yeah, definitely (and man, tell me about the Marathon Discord; does "all ironic anti-humour all the time" alienate and tire you out, too?)!

[juzo_kun]

Yeah, at least now there's a lot more awareness... and a lot of whining (and worse) from whom see this awareness as an assault to their privilege.

Ok, when I'll have more time i'll post someIthing :)

...yes, yes, it does! That wouldn't tire me so much if it were just every once in a while, but *always*... And also the topics all over the place! Add to that my timezone, meaning that usually I have to read 200 messages all together and sometimes I lose some interesting things I'd like to say something about, sigh.

[general_radix]

Alright!

And on top of all that, I can never tell if someone I want to say there will be ignored or used as a springboard for more shitposting. :/

[juzo_kun]

...I might or might not fancy to start allocating some mind cycle to that visual novel project just to see the reactions, heh.

[vulthuryol_majicue]

Oh man... Anything that deals with politics now just depresses me. I use the internet to uplift my mood after work, not be exhausted even further.

Eager to hear more about a Marathon comm. But... Yeah... I don't know if anyone else will join?

[general_radix]

Maybe if I made the comm's interest list broad enough, it would catch some people's attention?

(At the moment, I figure it would be a regular meta-and-fanworks comm)

[juzo_kun]

I was wondering if giving prominence to the fanworks side (as in fanfic and fanart and fan speculation) might attract to Dreamwidth people that otherwise won't be really interested in switching for another platform (I'm thinking at people still on the blue T site or others on A03).

Alas, this might require to leave on anonymous replies and the subsequent need for screening and moderation -- I don't know how many would use openID authentication nowadays.

[general_radix]

That would be a good idea, I think. (Dunno of any ways to non-obnoxiously point folks on AO3 who aren't already in the fandom towards the hypothetical comm, but I guess if it's up by the time I'm ready to submit another fic, I could mention it in the author's notes?)

[juzo_kun]

Maybe? Or a link in user profile, if I got it correctly the only prohibition are links towards sites that involve any mean of profit and a fan community sure isn't among these. (I'll have to check the TOS again to be sure, however.)