Dark web social media here we come

Like Nepalese construction workers. They could have the most impressive cities but they don't.

Cities are built by markets, not people.

Is he talking about metaphorical cities, or Geocities?

We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will have to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute.

Buenaventura Durruti

We built this city on coooock aaaand trooooolls.

First name choice was "The internet"

Second name choice was "The pornography machine"

They have forgotten our provenance and purpose. There is no pornography sullying out social media. There is social media sullying our pornography.

In economics, a network effect (also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale) is the phenomenon by which the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. Network effects are typically positive feedback systems, resulting in users deriving more and more value from a product as more users join the same network.

The value of Twitter and Substack isn't the HTML or the CSS, it's the social circle behind it. That's why Facebook, founded as a Harvard social media site, outpaced Friendster and MySpace. That's why half your current crop of comedians and media pundits came out of the Ivy League. That's why The Federalist Society exists.

Like, by all means, make a new BlueSky or Mastodon or Lemmy whatever. Thank you. But "What if we had a new Facebook, for annoying marketing dweebs?" it's how we got LinkedIn. And a thousand other knock offs of LinkedIn.

So, keep that in mind.

The land wasn't barren though.

It was inhabited by GOPHERs and TELNETs and FTPs and BBSes.

We built this geocity

Cities start from villages.

That's what we've got here now.

Bring back Geocities!

What is substack? I only heard of it everytime they got involved with nazis

I miss the old days of people making niche websites for their hobbies, their own blogs, and message boards.

So many people think of the Internet as Google, Meta, Netflix, or . That makes me sad.

I don't see a way back to a less commercialized internet, but little pockets of goodness like Lemmy make me happy.

we-built-this-city

we-built-this-city.htm

I can still hear the s falling.

Those were the dark days, at the beginning of CSS, when we fought for scraps of anything that smelt like standardisation.

e: autocorrect