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I go back on the 'net to the days of Mosaic, and earlier on Usenet and BBSs. I'm feeling pretty nostalgic, but also saddened. Between the crooks, the government, and fun loving pranksters it seems that there is no corner of the 'net that can be considered truly secure. I now routinely assume that nothing I do is safe.
I remember when the 'net was 90% thoughtful discussion, it was about web pages, pure HTML, and the content that they served up.
Now it seems as if no forum is safe from endless idiotic, threatening, and increasingly offensive trolls and bullies. Many good smart people just refuse to participate. In its early days the whole idea behind the 'net was the free sharing of information. Now you find things behind paywalls, registration pages, or removed after threats from lawyers.
Each week seems to bring another attempt by government or business to regulate the 'net, both what you can put on-line, and what you can look at. Add to that the many geographic blocks and other restrictions that keep out some of the people, some of the time. We rely on multiple layers of flash and java and other technology, each requiring some special software to make it work on your computer. Inevitably stuff breaks.
It was only a decade or so back that the very idea of marketing on the 'net was considered ridiculous. Now we're buried alive with ads, pop-ups, and stupid YouTube ads in front of every video - unless you want to pay them to remove them.
Increasingly using the 'net feels like more of a chore than a pleasure, and I can't see it improving. Is the Internet broken beyond repair?
(Score: 4, Informative) by zafiro17 on Monday May 18 2015, @01:59PM
Feeling nostalgic for the old days? The old ways are still alive and well. Start with Usenet: comp.misc is alive and full of the same folks that fled Slashdot when Soylent was formed. It's halfway decent. Lots of other newsgroups are rubbish though, stuffed with uneducated and inflammatory trolls. The nuance: no moderation at all! You set your own kill filters and don't get to ignore other peoples' posts - that's life! No graphics though, so no advertising, which is nice. And Usenet is so reduced in size and popularity these days that in some ways, it's a fine little community. Check out something tech related like comp.emacs or comp.mail.mutt to see Usenet the way it used to be - nerds exchanging ideas. Interested? You need a news client (Thunderbird or SeaMonkey will do for starters) and an account at an NSP (I prefer http:news.solani.org, which is free).
There are tons of BBCs out there, though each one has probably fewer than 50 users. Try the Electronic Chicken for starters: check out http://bbs.electronicchicken.com [electronicchicken.com] for instructions on how to visit via a synchronet BBS client or telnet. In essence, it's everything you remember. If that whets your appetite, there's a decent list of running BBSes at http://synchro.net/sbbslist.html. [synchro.net] Decide you want to stay on the BBS scene and you should install http://qodem.sourceforge.com [sourceforge.com] (QODEM, an opensource version of the old QModem software) before continuing. It's really awesome.
Let's shortcut to the finish, though. Spend a bit of time on these 'oldschool' services (and believe me, I have) and what will you find? Asshats, trolls, dumbasses, flamewars, ignorance, and the whole shebang. Turns out it's not the protocol or the technology that's faulty, it's human nature. The stuff you're sick of now has existed since the beginning. Old school services however are a nice way to escape from all the advertising - that's one thing basically absent everywhere except the WWW. As for the frailty of human nature, go Google "the greater internet fuckwad theory" which as far as I can tell, remains 100% in force everywhere two computers are joined by a server. Good luck!
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey