Tom WalkerNov 13, 2022

There was once a dream of a decentralised web.

As recently as a decade ago we had a still very active blogosphere, connected via blogrolls and RSS. Specialised web forums were still mainstream and messenger apps could largely interoperate.

Centralised social media slowly ate that dream. It had plenty of positives, but it pulled more and more people away from the open web and into corporate walled gardens.

Some people kept the dream of decentralisation alive. And now you are here.

Show threadCammaCNov 13, 2022
@tomw am I old for remembering MiRC?
Show threadTom Walker
@cammac I was going to mention IRC in this but it feels like it belongs earlier! I did still use it in that time period (a decade ago) but very rarely. I learned whole chunks of the protocol in the early 2000s because Napster was basically a hacked up IRC client
Nov 13, 2022 at 7:41pmMastodon for Android
Show threadCammaCNov 14, 2022
@tomw oh Napster, now there's a step in the past. How things were much simpler back then.
Show threadʞuᴉԀ ✅Nov 14, 2022

@tomw @cammac as an aside, Twitch chat is IRC, you can use an IRC client to connect to it, and some of the people I know from back in the day do.

I use an app called Chatterino that is a multichannel chat client that makes use of that fact, so when I'm on a channel that is co-streaming with others I can see/interact-with the chat from them all while just watching one video feed.

Show threadTom WalkerNov 14, 2022
@PeaEyeEnnKay @cammac That's neat – I've never really used Twitch for anything yet but this may come in handy to know someday!
Show threadRoni Rolle LaukkarinenDec 8, 2022
@tomw @cammac I still use IRC daily and our 100person IRC community is still really strong. There's also things like thelounge that aim to modernize IRC https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge
GitHub - thelounge/thelounge: 💬 ‎ Modern, responsive, cross-platform, self-hosted web IRC client

💬 ‎ Modern, responsive, cross-platform, self-hosted web IRC client - thelounge/thelounge

GitHub
Show threadAlexis LAMEIRE #Apero 🌈🍺🖧Dec 19, 2022
@tomw @cammac I've learned Linux with IRC, and do a lto of troll ;) It's still alive but declining !