By their hands
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Technology
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We really need to change the mindset about what the internet experience should be. I think everyone got too used to the idea of centralized services like Google search, Github, Discord, Twitter, reddit, and etc. and that didn't turn out well. We need to go back to federated protocol based system instead. Let's go back to the decentralized federated architecture of email, web, irc where no one corporate entity is the sole owner of said service. I think Lemmy and Mastodon are good start but we have to start replace things like Google search, Github, and Discord with decentralized counterparts. We have to learn from our past mistakes and start reconstructing a better internet infrastructure one piece at a time. It will take lot of effort and patience but it's really the only way out of the mess we put ourselves into by being addicted to simplicity of centralized corporate controlled systems.
From my perspective that seems to be happening. I feel like there's a rift between the websites I use for work and the ones I use on my own time. I realize that for most people on the internet, the big central platforms are the internet--I'm not trying to universalize my perspective.
It's just that I remember when computers and the internet itself were niche and business was still barely aware of its potential, so this kind of feels familiar: You've got biz churning away in the mainstream, unaware of another culture that's growing up, outside of their malls and parking lots.
Prior to GitHub, everyone just hosted their own Git repositories. The nature of Git is pretty decentralised. And Linux kernel development still uses old-fashioned mailing lists for development co-ordination, rather than something like GitHub. I have heard before someone say the difference between Git and GitHub is similar to the difference between porn and Pornhub.
Prior to Discord, there was IRC.
the difference between Git and GitHub is similar to the difference between porn and Pornhub.
🤣
I worked at a place that had self-hosted git and IRC for internal messaging. Was great!
I hope forgejo's federation efforts come along. Being able to host projects on my own instance, yet receive contributions without having to allow people to register on my instance, would give me the push to completely abandon Github.
IRC is still there. The user numbers just aren't that great anymore 😒 I fucking hate discord and what it did and how it took over. And also, of course, murican.
I hate that everyone fucking uses discord for everything, discord when I'm using it is strictly to game and for online game related activities.
People are just clueless and lazy, and take the easiest way "that everyone else does too". And here we are. Recently had to join one...and was asked for a phone number before being allowed to enter. Lol. Yeah sure. Guess I won't join then 😐
This makes me think that a big part of the solution is some sort of very low barrier to entry guide or product for self-hosting. Like something even a non-technical person can do. Imagine if it became the norm to have a little always-on device that serves up your personal website, instead of social media accounts...
I love the idea, but until stuff simplifies significantly that's simply not happening. I'm a moderately technical person and all the self hosting options are such a chore. Even simply looking up info about them can sometimes be harder than installing and starting the centralized option.
We need a startup to just make and try to sorta standardize a mini pc product pre-installed with a proxmox-like setup with an easy web interface and self-hosted solutions pre installed. 5-10 apps for main internet service needs like email, social media, content hosting/publishing and personal media libraries.
Give it a cute name like "Web-Pal", keep it open and Customizable for powerusers, watch the internet become a better place while you're the household name for devices that are as essential as a router.
I think this is a really good idea. A baby server for every privacy concerned house. Make it simple enough that customizing software features is like putting together Legos, but leave in the potential for complexity as some users grow.
If you could sell this for $500 or less you have yourself a customer
Exactly my thinking. You could even have some sort of containerized environment so that people can easily just download and run containerized apps for various things. A podman image for your music server, for your photo hosting... almost like apps but less proprietary and less closed source
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Doctorow is never wrong.
Google is so goddamn at fault for this it's not even funny.
Even browsing existing small to medium sized sites has become such a chore, with all these verifications and rate limiters as part of the anti AI scraper effort.
So many cloudflare verification checkboxes. So many Google sign ins. So many cross site cookies and tracking for even basic functionality.
Care about privacy and restrict browsing data even a little? Captcha hell.
Especially since discoverability has pretty much gone down the toilet, between SEO and spam sites.
You're not going to as easily find a new and interesting website, when the first few results are just computer generated regurgitated text, stuffed with ads by the gill.
Time to bring back the webring and every site having a "links" section.
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SEO should be a crime.
That's basically unenforceable unfortunately. Search engines are effectively made to be gamed by the way they function. SEO up to a certain point is what makes your website actually findable, it has just gotten out of hand.
Then you get to load and execute 10MB of JavaScript while another 5MB of ad content loads and displays in the background. With the obligatory two dozen API calls to various trackers, counters, taggers, and “optimizers” in the background of course.
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If the internet were a forest, Google opines the forest is in such poor shape while Google uses and sells chain saws.
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I am so fucking exhausted of EVERYTHING in this society being treated like a statistic.
But what pisses me off even more, is when a gigantic corporation makes a bold claim, pretending they aren't a major contributor to what's happening in the said claim
Google commenting on the decline of open standards feels like a tobacco company commenting on cancer rates.
s/admits/boasts/