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Comment by Olscore | Hacker News Reader

Was just saying the other day how it sucks seeing the web change. It's like when musicians complain about the music industry being over produced and too commercialized. I remember back in the 90's how excited I was just by making links underline or change color (before CSS.) Thought it was the coolest thing ever. The web used to be a place to find people who shared the same interests and I feel that is no longer the case. Everything is hyper focused on metrics; likes, re-blogs, shares, comments, etc. It's pointless.

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The Eternal September all over again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

It never really ended.

I remember making links NOT underline to be the coolest thing ever.

There are still pockets of resistance, specific forums that do not go away. The traffic have dwindled on some but still, there's enough. Others are thriving.

Where would someone find these pockets? I've felt a real lack of pulse since reader went away and the IRC channels I used to frequent sputtered out.

As I said: forums. For example, if you travel a lot, flyertalk. There are several forums still alive for PC enthusiasts especially if you are building small factor machines or insane gaming rigs: hardforum, overclock.net etc.

Healthboards and other health related forums. Nobody likes to discuss their health issues on Facebook or Twitter.

same goes with relationships and mommy related forums.

Not true. I have seen family members going through health issues make very strong, supporting friendships on private facebook groups dedicated to health stuff.

This might be a use case for Slack

Same is true with music. There's a whole world of amazing music out there that never gets a second of radio play or mainstream exposure. Occasionally it shows up in movie and TV scores but that's as close as it gets.

Same goes for art, literature, etc. The great and ground breaking stuff is out there but you have to look for it.

There is and probably always will be a pop "matrix" and a "Zion" known to those who stray.

This I have always not understood. There is some amazing stuff out there. Even music from genres I hate that sounds amazing when I listen to it, so you know it has to just be incredible. But that kind of thing is not what the establishment in <art, music, literature, whatever> are pushing.

Confirmation bias. Or are you really saying that there's no pop music you think is good?

Well, that's exactly the problem: it is all "good" these days. However, the ability to rate something as good implies that we talk about something we know how to rate and this is the case because the sample size of "good" songs is so incredibly huge by now. In fact, the market is totally saturated with "good" music but nothing has come to replace it yet. Just look at yesterday's Eurovision Song Contest: The songs were rather generic but they were all "good".

When OP talks about amazing stuff I think what s/he gets at is that there is music out there which literally causes amazement instead of a "yeah, this is good" nod.

Current pop music isn't meant to amaze you. If anything it serves as a utility. I.e. it makes unfortunate situations, like a long commute to your dead end job, more bearable.

good but no character. They are good in the sense that vocalists hit the notes they aim for (with or without autotuners), they are good in the sense that they have good harmonics, good rhythm etc.

They just lack any kind of character. cookie-cutter songs from talented but unimaginative people. Their music lacks 'life'.

I can't explain why but a good blues guitarist can strike a nerve just playing relatively simple licks if they do it well. It conveys a feeling that makes modern pop sound bland, lifeless, boring. There is no connection to the musician or the music. no soul.

All said though music is a very much personal taste thing so each to their own. Today you will have 'I'm a barbie girl, in a barbie woo-oorld' stuck in your head. You're welcome :)

A lot of it is popping up on YouTube, actually, in compilations. My new favorite work music is this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CmZtTxgGyk

Honestly, even I was just thinking today the amount of garbage that has become radio today. Everyone just keep playing the same list of crappy songs by few artist, that I do not even understand why they are famous. Many times, when I switch the channel to escape a crappy song, the next one is also playing it. Once the same nikki manaj song was playing in 4 channels, that was scary.

I viewed radio as a medium to find new good songs and listen my favorite ones.

> Once the same nikki manaj song was playing in 4 channels, that was scary

I thought this too, until I realised that the 4 channels were actually broadcasting the same airing, albeit slightly out of sync.

We listen to RadioParadise(.com). It's "new music" and "old music" that pretty much dances all over the Time and Styles matrix. The DJ, Bill Goldsmith has a real talent for delight and his eclectic choices make me smile every day.

The forums over there are old-internet great too... ;-)

Niche forums have a been a major holdout for a long while, but even those are fading as profit-focused megaforums like Reddit take over the space and draw off potential new users. There's nothing that the commercial web won't suck dry if it can.

(Of course, we're supposed to call this "disruption" and celebrate it.)

The slow decline of niche forums to Redditized discussion forums has been painful. Reddit's format, culture and user base has been anathema to the principles that made older forums treasure troves of information and entertainment.

If we know the platforms they're running on then they could be detectable with deep-linked information via some Shodan equivalent, perhaps.

Chat rooms, forums, comment sections of smaller, targeted, online magazines. I miss a lot of those. Centralized platforms pretend to replace and "improve" those technologies, but the end results are fake on many levels and ripe with problems that just weren't there before.

Indeed, many forums are still there, and they're living proof that what I feel isn't just nostalgia. For me, they're the only only online places that still feel like... well, places. With certain space and boundaries. With people having conversations. You can get to know people on a forum. Can't imagine that happening on Reddit, especially on more popular subs.

I think that a large part of it is UI. "Social" media has marketing-driven UI, which might look cool, but encourages bad behaviors from users. Just look at YouTube comments. Do you think they would be so horrible if there was more separation between different videos and more effort required to post something?

Money makes things suck.

I'm wondering if something like IPFS is where the next layer of fun will really be for developers.

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