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The web we know is dead. I almost stopped reading anything outside HN, and even in HN, I've been noticing a rise of bots, especially with ShowHN where suddenly a bot will start upvoting and commenting random crap to move it to the top.

I read a report that 49% of internet traffic in 2024 was bots. I believe this will increase significantly this year.

We (humans) are a minority now.

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I've started using old-school forums where I can find them for communities I care about (e.g. music production forums like vi-control...sometimes Hans Zimmer shows up!). It's a joy when you find one, kinda feels like the old days. The only annoying thing is the never-die threads. Some threads on these forums are over 15 years old. But honestly, I've really soured on the voting mechanic.

Funny how back in the 90s/00s, we used to say 49% of the internet was porn. And now we say it's bots. Something curious about both being fake human interactions.

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