As an old timer, it's always a bit tough to read takes like this from folks who missed the early days of the web. Obviously nobody's age is their fault, and new perspectives will own the future. But, as we said back then, your radical ideas have occurred to others [0].

Since everyone was fresh off Snow Crash, the early web was full of protocol drafts like VRML that were aimed at bringing about an immersive version of the decentralized creator space that was already blowing our minds. Since all that content was too fragmented to make the experience immersive, people built MUDs and early MMOs like Second Life to concentrate a critical mass of content. So why didn't this come to define the web? IMO:

- Nobody cracked how to jumpstart a real creator economy. Protocols only survive if people have incentives to participate, which is why the web ended up growing around frustratingly centralized pillar services with nefarious network effects.

- In a world of freely connected experiences, "immersive" isn't all that attractive. I let individual websites define how they present themselves to me, but only begrudgingly. Who would I give permission to organize that info into a physical metaphor, and why? This is especially true in a mobile first world, where my ability to shove a web based experience into my pocket is really valuable. Virtual reality is a constraint, not a new medium.

If "this time is different" it's probably because of the first bullet above. There is a generation of digital creators that is much more prepared to create immersive content than 20 years ago. And the biggest social media clearly believe they've learned how to organize them into an economy.

But it won't succeed because it's a new idea, or because we have better VR headsets. There needs to be a better argument about why it is more compelling than the freeform web.

[0] https://everything2.com/title/Your+radical+ideas+about...oh%...