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 threadEatonJul 16, 2023

Even if you find the manufacturer's site it’s more likely than not broken, with a search feature that pulls up what it claims are results but empty divs instead of links, or busted jQuery code from 2013 that prevents anything from loading.

Is it a real but broken site? Is it just another click farm? Does it matter?

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@eaton or there's a weird early naughts forum like site that requires you to make an account to download anything. Looking at you, hifiengine.
Jul 16, 2023 at 11:38pmWeb
Show threadsmidbotJul 17, 2023
@11backslashes @eaton honestly even these feel like godsends these days. Much better to have it in some weird (but still searchable) forum than in a fucking discord server or a social media post.