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?

Show threadCrunchysteveJul 17, 2023
@eaton It strikes me that the clickfarms have no benefit to anybody other than those who own copyright on a service manual. For want of a better term, packet transmissions and processor cycles cost money. If those AI clickfarms are just randoms, what's their payday. If they're copyright owners, we know what their payday is - people give up trying to find the manual and pay for it. On a network with billions of users, the data costs of running a few clickfarms has a payday in real sales. Why do we, as a species, always seem to trust the guys with money to always be the ones doing the right thing? They rarely are, look at what Elon's doing to twitter.
Show threadDustin MitchellJul 17, 2023
@crunchysteve @eaton their payday is ads and/or malware.
Show threadTony Wells

@djmitche @crunchysteve @eaton

ads, malware and affiliate links, or a combination of all 3 in one click.

Jul 17, 2023 at 5:10pmWeb