Many yearn for the “good old days” of the web. We could have those good old days back — or something even better — and if anything, it would be easier now than it ever was.

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The post reflects on the current state of the internet and contrasts it with the more open, creative, and less commercialized early days. It discusses issues like the dominance of large platforms, pervasive advertising, engagement farming, and the erosion of personal spaces online. It also emphasizes that the potential to return to a more decentralized and user-driven web still exists, and that modern tools and technologies make it easier than ever to cultivate independent online spaces.

We can have a different web

<p>A few visionaries make their dreams into reality, users start using the platform, costs become a problem, ads pop up here and there. The visionaries get greedy or sell out to greedy people, more and more ads/paywalls/subscriptions are pushed, bots boost the numbers. Then users start declining from the increasing ads/payments which results in more ads/payments to offset the loss, bots keep pouring in to make the numbers good for investors. The cycle continues down that path until the platform is absolute garbage propped up by influencers selling their fake experiences to people with mundane lives hoping for that lifestyle. There will never be another platform like the earlier BBS’s or GeoCities on a level they were on because they were revolutionary for that time period. Now the main social media user never knew a time period without social media so “dialing in to BBS” or creating a GeoCities site is absurd to them when Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter are a few clicks away.</p>


<p>I’ve been really enjoying <a href="https://indieweb.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://indieweb.org/</a> for this exact reason</p>
