Tristan LouisJun 20, 2023

The anti-Meta #Fedipact can only achieve one thing: make sure that #ActivityPub loses to the Bluesky protocol. Is that what people here want?

As an #openweb advocate, I don't.

Meta joining the Fediverse is like AOL joining the internet: something that will bring a mass amount of people in, create some friction, but ultimately make the net better as more people federating on #Mastodon, #kbin, #lemmy, #pixelfed and other parts of the Fediverse make open protocols that much stronger.

Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023

@TNLNYC AOL joining the internet is arguably one of the major steps to ruining it, and turning it into a commercialized wasteland, far away from any dreams of what it was supposed to be.

Now, its an ad delivery service.

Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023

@ubergeek but back then it was the training wheels that allowed millions to get online at a time when it was hard to do so.

It may be a shell of its former self but it did serve a purpose.

Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023
@TNLNYC the only purpose it served was commercialization of the internet, which at that point was free to access if you were near a college or uni or library. Paid for, sorta, if you were a business.
Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023

@ubergeek Most businesses, at the time, didn't have internet access. Once you got out of Uni, you had to find an ISP and figure out Unix commands for a text-based version. If you wanted the web, it was a question of figuring out TCP/IP, logging in, maybe a SLIP link, and drivers that worked between your modem and your computer.

AOL was one diskette and you were on. The commercial internet existed. It just wasn't very popular. When it became popular, all kinds of new things became possible.

Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023

@TNLNYC that said, all you stated wasn't required. Freenets were all over the place. You needed a modem, and a terminal emulator (free with most OSes of the era).

If you wanted to make a business out of it, you needed more.

Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek Freenets were operated by volunteers who paid the exorbibant phone bills for connection. Just because you didn't see it didn't mean that no money was changing hands. Running a BBS wasn't cheap, which is why most BBS operators only did it for so long.
Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023
@TNLNYC freenets were generally operated by unis and libraries, so yes, they were paid for via tax dollars.
Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek so I was in NYC in 1993. There were no library sponsored Freenet. There were a bunch of ISPs that subsidized access to the internet. If you weren't a college student, that's how New Yorkers connected to the internet prior to AOL.
Show threadTristan Louis

@ubergeek At the time, there were about 6M NYCer. Most didn't have a computer at home. Even fewer had modems.

Now, the homeless person on the street can connect to the internet. You're telling me this is worse than it was?

Jun 20, 2023 at 9:25pmWeb
Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023

@TNLNYC the homeless person can get on the internet now, and get delivered ads non stop.

Yes, I see an issue with that.

Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek ... and they can get access to support services, food stamps, etc... I think that's useful.
Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023
@TNLNYC can they? Because I heard wait times and lines are longer now than they used to be.