Interesting. Is it mainly discussion groups with a charter, a hosting platform, blogging thingy, or roll your own?

Roll your own but with standards that allow for intersection. I think.

Webrings basically ????

Or a diagram. Even a photo will do. If I do decide a video is useful then if you don't STFU and stop prattling on in your annoying whiny voice about nothing at all to do with the technique I'm researching I will put you on mute as well as play your video at double speed to get it over with as quickly as possible.

I've been looking for a new sewing machine. Not your typical £120 from Argos or even £400 from John Lewis sewing machine. None of the 4 physical shops within an hour's drive of me have all of the models I was potentially interested in in store to look at so I have had to rely on videos. Some have been excellent calm demonstrations one even a series of 10 minute demos of the different things a particular machine can do with the sound of the machine, rather than annoying music (yes, some have that so you can't hear the machine in action turns out it's a rather noisy machine). One video was a whole hour of 3 people talking over each other and occasionally pointing at the machine, which wasn't even plugged in. Just blatant, pointless "content" rather than anything useful.

Another one was when I was sewing a cardi. Not a complicated garment to out together but there was a tricky curve with a bit of easing required to make the pieces fit together then sit in a particular way so it didn't gape. I was curious abut how various bloggers (it's a popular pattern so there were a lot of them) executed this bit neatly. Short answer, they didn't. Video after video of young women throwing together something crumpled and lumpy, with wobbly seams, that ended up making primark look like haute couture. Just for the sake of bloody "content" again.

been having exactly the same thoughts recently. I haven't been able to untangle how much the earlier 'fun' Internet was a) uncommercialised, b) exclusively used by weirdos, and c) was in my teenage years. And I know there's some kind of irony that I work at Meta, who simultaneously has built something that's captivating enough for half the world to use, yet is so creatively bland/uninspiring/homogenous. 

It also might be that some of the things I miss most still exist, like chatting shit with semi-strangers on message boards or in chat rooms, and I've just not put the effort in to find them again. Although I've lurked on various Reddits and Hacker News for a decade or so, but never felt the need to join in (the latter coincidentally had a post with similar sentiment to yours today).

Dunno if this is just me but there's also some kind of negative pressure to participate in recent years - can't figure out if that's anxiety about saying something stupid (it's easy to perceive everyone on the Internet as an expert at everything these days), or not enjoying the feeling of waiting/checking for replies, or worrying about putting someone else through that feeling if I take too long to reply to replies ????

Anyway, in summary, you're right. I miss it too. I think we were very lucky to have Teh community and all the associated fun stuff in the 90s/00s, so maybe it's better to have loved and lost. But I really hope there's some kind of way to rekindle it.

podcasts! Can't figure out if I love or hate them. I feel like I'm being unproductive if I walk for 10 minutes without listening to one. But recently I decided to try and write a blog post which occupied my mind for a month or two, and realised I hardly ever am alone with my own thoughts anymore. But then there are a lot of fun/interesting people out there who are more interesting than my own thoughts ????

Great example: I'm pretty late to the party but have been listening to The Rest Is Politics a lot the last few months, and Alistair and Rory both have fascinating minds and talk about super interesting stuff. But why am I listening to it? Totally unactionable, largely stressful, somewhat depressing how fucked so many politicians/political systems are...

I feel this.

Nae guru intended, but take a 40 minute walk without phone / watch / earphones (preferably when it's not fucking it down) and see how you feel.

Yeah it's very hard to untangle how much of it was the technology, the people, the time and place and whatnot. I do think a big part of it is, as you say, it was alllll weirdos back then.

Not to harp on, but it sounds like you might enjoy fediverse ("mastodon"). It's somewhat like Twitter, except people are nice. And it's more about the small things. There's no algorithm so it definitely takes some effort to find stuff you like but it recaptures a lot of what I liked about places like this. People just chatting shit, sharing what they love, all in good faith.

Also, yup, know what you mean about not being alone with one's own thoughts any more. With the anxiety it's something I've conditioned myself to avoid cos, left to its own devices, my brain likes to spiral me into terror. But it's something I miss a lot (recently started proper therapy and they're helping with that).

Love me some podcasts though. If you like the politics then Novara Media's "Downstream" can be very interesting. And personally I like Chapo Trap House but they're full-on leftist and take the piss a lot so personal taste.

As for working for meta: Man's gotta eat!

I've never been into Twitter (or Threads) but will check out fediverse/mastodon - "good faith" is definitely a strong selling point. Maybe there's even an argument that "bad faith" is what's wrong with <gestures broadly in all directions>

Very good to hear that therapy is doing something good - terror spiral doesn't sound like much of a laugh. I get most of my alone-with-my-thoughts time in bed these days - got into having a teeeeny bit of weed (thank god for vapes) before spacing out and thinking about infinity or other such nonsense. Which maybe does run the risk of one day taking a wrong turn down a terror vortex, but so far is mostly fun.

I tried Novara Media for a while (not the podcast just their general social media) and found them to be a bit too perfect-is-the-enemy-of-good, so will skip that, tho the Chapo Trap House looks a laugh - thanks, will check!

...or maybe I should skip the podcast recommendations and do more walking, as you recommend.

Have been doing a bit in the middle on my walks, listening to *music*! Although I haven't followed music other than the radio for yonks so am now bamboozled by what to search for, and I kinda resent the various 'discovery' playlists because I know they're technically trying to help connect me with new stuff, but also the music platforms get to pay artists waayyyy less for plays-on-playlists (something to do with 'radio' vs 'record' licensing or some-such).

<old man yells at cloud meme>

I've been trying Mastadon for a cuppla months. I'm still at the confused and don't know where I am stage, but I've seen a lot of interesting things and it's nice not to have to scroll past high-fiving fascists all the time. Found a bunch of folks talking about The Expanse in a video this morning! Gosh.

Weed and zoning out sounds lovely. I've been so averse to being alone with my thoughts for *decades* that I've literally got to re-learn how to do it.

And yeah, I've never been into Twitter either. The only thing fedi shares with Twitter, really, is its basic format. Everything else is different. It *feels* entirely different. Has more of the feel of early internet forums.

Novara's main stuff has got very tabloidy in recent years and I'm less of a fan than I used to be. But the Downstream stuff is good. The Bastani ones at least. He just interviews people with interesting ideas and lets them speak. Often ideas that wouldn't necessarily be popular with Novara's audience.

Chapo's much more fun though. Their current stuff is a bit off cos one of their key people (Matt) is off sick and he's kinda necessary to the dynamic. So I'd go back a year or two for their good stuff.

Also their series about the 30 years war and reformation is *very* good. Called Hell on Earth. If you're into more historical stuff.

Oh my word I feel exposed.

What's your thingy? Let's be friends!

Oh well, yes. I'm @Athelstone which is the name I use on some other sites.

@mastodon.social? If so, I've followed you!

Hurrah! A little red number next to the bell. And a message.

Off for a walk now. Just read a bit more about the Neil Gaiman stuff and I need fresh air before I start to think that life will be disappointing forever.

Haha.Yeah. Have a nice walk!

I've proper fallen out with discovery playlists. Same old common denominator shite keeps cropping up and there's definitely some Payola bollocks going on.

I miss just getting music recommendations from friends.

I once had a really good thing going with Discover on Spotify, it was genuinely coming up with all sorts of good stuff for me from obscure electronica classics to new independent music. Getting DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR from Lingua Ignota on the way to work was a memorable example. Crikey! Then my son started wanting to play music and it's just a mess now that I almost never look at. Never mind! I encourage him all the same and enjoy some tiny percentage of his stuff amongst the badness.

I got right into jungle again recently. Anything that autoplays after jungle is always Chase n fucking Status.

Talked to a few people and now I listen to Sully, 5am Kru and Nia Archives. Much better.

It really doesn't exist. Certainly not in the form we'd view as the peak 10-20 years ago.

Move to mobile over desktop (and partly laptop) has definitely changed how we consume online. Or at the very least how the people here would. I'm guessing most of us probably do most of our browsing on a phone now and only get out the laptop or sit at the desktop for something more involved. Whereas in the past me I'd do most on desktop, eventually moving to most on laptop.

My attention span these days is totally fucked. I won't lie, I haven't read your full post. I may return and read it in full at some point, but that's a problem I currently have which I think has been partly caused by the "scrolling" nature of social media these days.
Next post, next post, quick dopamine hit, forward that reel to my gf, skip that. Just letting the algorithm feed me nonsense rather than seeking out interesting things I want read/consume/enjoy.

I need to regulate my screen time far better.