Can we all stop the in-fighting for a minute and realise how awesome the platform we are on is?
We are forming communities on the realized image of the internet that we were told we would have back in the 80s and 90s.
You can make your own home on the web and have your own niche community, not owned by any corporation, while still being connected to the wider internet.
This feels like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Not sure where you’re hanging out that you’re seeing infighting.
Also, I’ve been living in the Internet you describe since 1990. All it takes is intentionally saying no to the corporate offerings; there have been self-hosted and crowd-hosted communities the entire time.
Every once in a while I miss Fidonet though.
Fidonet was dope. Something magical about dialing (mostly) local and being able to see stuff so far flung it would cost you hundreds in long distance premiums normally.
Even if you weren’t a hacker in the modern sense, it was such a good hack in the old school sense that you couldn’t help but feel 1337.
Yha, advertising was non-existent on social media in the 1980’s, BBS systems and such were run because people like sharing information.
Facebook, Twitter were really about selling stuff and commercial advertising, people flocked to it.
That’s one view on BBSes; I remember ratios and some services charging for extra line access.