EatonJul 16, 2023

The failure of the Internet to deliver its promise is particularly noticeable when you hunt for repair manuals for a product from the 90s. Used to be, the information would either be there or not there, finable or unfindable.

Now, there are hundreds of algorithmically generated sites claiming to have it just because it appeared in their search logs, generating potemkin village content traps with endless paging, broken-thumbnail named-like-the-file-you-want but actually-just-ebay-photos bullshit

Show threadbioluminescentlyJul 16, 2023
@eaton This is also why it's such a problem that independent websites are now falling so far down search engine rankings. When I was younger, if you had a problem with A Thing from a larger category of Things, you'd go to a website run by some Thing Enthusiast or group of them, and look your Thing up in the site's index or inbuilt search box. If it wasn't there, you'd post on the site's forum and another Thing Owner might help. But now... good luck even finding out that indie site exists.
Show threadEaton
@bioluminescently yep. It’s one of the reasons that enthusiast communities with curated lists of links have turned into a more promising resource for many subjects. Thankfully, Reddit is still going stro— aaahhh fuck
Jul 16, 2023 at 8:25pmWeb
Show threadbioluminescentlyJul 16, 2023
@eaton I really didn't see the Reddit thing coming - I've got an account but I've rarely been an active user; it's where I go because people have linked to an AMA or a discussion, and it feels (I mean this kindly) like a living fossil: as crocodiles are to the dinosaur age, so Reddit is to the age of forums: it's the thing that survived, so it seemed like it would be around in that form forever and everything else would change around it.