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 wonder why the internet was far less commercial?

Because prior to AOL, it was actively fought.

Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek Were you there? Because I remember that there were businesses trying to launch there before AOL was on there (I was in one of them)
Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023
@TNLNYC yes, I was. Installing ISDN lines for people...
Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek If you were installing ISDN lines for people, you were part of a priviledge class already. ISDN was unaffordable to most people at the time. The vast majority could only afford connecting at 14.4k.
Show threadUbergeek

@TNLNYC I wasn't installing them for businesses...

Which still didn't get them on the internet, because prior to AOL, commercialization was actively fought.

Jun 20, 2023 at 9:28pmWeb
Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek So are you saying that prior to 1996 (when AOL connected the Internet), commercialization was actively fought? How did Netscape go public in 1995 if that was the case?
Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023

@ubergeek How did Internet World get started if that was the case?

How did Hotwired sell ad banners?

Those moves were all welcomed at the time. There were some (*cough* Stallman *cough*) who disagreed but there was also a large movement to figure out how to make this work.

Show threadTristan LouisJun 20, 2023
@ubergeek I assume you remember that the choices were:
The open internet
vs.
Closed proprietary online services.
Show threadUbergeekJun 20, 2023

@TNLNYC Netscape's communicator suite was free to download.

Nobody said you couldn't sell software or distribute freeware and shareware...

What didn't exist was a 24x7 spy system monitoring everything you do.