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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: 2, Informative) by acp_sn on Monday May 18 2015, @03:28PM
If you don't feel safe that is due to your ignorance and passivity. When I read your post it translates in my head to "I'm too lazy to take the measures necessary to educate and protect myself so I'm going to whine about it here."
Browsing is safe as long as you use noscript, requestpolicy, ghostery, ublock/adblock, cleanlinks, throwaway emails etc. You even should occasionally sniff your browsing machine with wireshark to make sure nothing suspicious is going to asia or eastern europe.
Forums are fine if you aren't an offendotron who staggers toward the fainting couch the moment someone says something you disagree with. Ignore options are there for a reason. Not that I go there anymore but Fark has one of the best ignore features. If you ignore someone you also don't any posts replying to what they said.
Also did I mention ublock/adblock? It effectively takes you back to the 90s glory days by removing the attention parasites. It works great on youtube as well so you have no excuse to whine about that.
Instead of complaining about things that you don't like why don't you state some specific examples and let the community give you advice how to make things better?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @05:20PM
Sorry you got modded down. I thought it was a good post. Whoever modded you down would never have survived the "old" 'Net where you needed to put on your asbestos underwear before jumping into a discussion.