1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. We've had very few donations over the year. I'm going to be short soon as some personal things are keeping me from putting up the money. If you have something small to contribute it's greatly appreciated. Please put your screen name as well so that I can give you credit. Click here: Donations
    Dismiss Notice

What's ruining the Internet?

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Baraka_Guru, Jan 24, 2012.

  1. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    I've been using the Internet since the early/mid-'90s. I've seen lots of changes. Many of them are good. Progress and all that, right?

    Recently, however, I've started to snap out of it. It's not all good. There are trends out there now that are ruining what's come to be expected on the Internet: for example, instant gratification. Whether this is to confirm whether something is good or sucks, you still want it now.

    This is being ruined. For example...

    What's Ruining the Internet

    1) You click on a link to see a list of items promised by an enticing link, usually ranging from five to forty items or so. This is usually "The best" this or that, or "The top funniest" this or that, or what to do or what not to do, etc.

    2) You expect to see a quick and easy list usually within seconds of clicking the link. It is the Internet after all, amirite?

    3) You are forced to watch a 45-second commercial for a product/service clearly geared toward a market too wide, as you either a) currently have no interest in it, or b) will never have an interest in it—this DESPITE IT BEING ON THE INTERNET, the MECCA of contextual advertising.

    4) You are then given a basic introduction to the list, usually accompanied by a picture depicting one of the list items. However, it's a tease because it doesn't tell you which list item it is. The introduction, though usually terse and cogent, doesn't really offer any useful information if you're even modestly educated.

    5) You are then forced to click to see the first item. You eagerly do so because by now you're a bit annoyed at not having seen the list yet. It's only upon clicking that you realize, "Wait, what? First item?"

    6) By now you are annoyed at having to click twice and wait more than 45-seconds to see what you were after whilst simultaneously being frustrated at realizing you might not see a list after all. In fact, you are expected to click through each item individually—this despite webpages being built in such a way to permit a hypothetical infinite amount of space.

    7) You then determine if this list was so important to be worth the time to load another four to forty pages.

    8) Even if you do deem it important, you realize that, hey, this isn't really a list after all. It's more of a narrative.

    9) You now either a) give up despite what you feel about the "list," or b) trudge through it grudgingly.

    10) You then vow to never click on a link that seems to promise a list but has a high likelihood of not actually doing so. These are usually identified by an enticing photo that seems to depict a yet-to-be revealed list item. You now realize that this is what hooks you in the first place. You now know it's probably not worth finding out what list item that is. You now know you're probably better off not knowing, as it is usually rather anticlimactic. You now know it's a marketing gimmick to get people to watch/see more contextual ads. You are now jaded, because all you wanted to see was a quick and simple fucking list.

    Conclusion: What's ruining the Internet is what's ruining the beautiful idea of lists. People like lists. They're ruining lists!

    What's ruining the Internet for you?
     
    • Like Like x 1
  2. uncle phil

    uncle phil Moderator Emeritus (and sorely missed) Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    pasco county
    i don't particularly care for those ads but they do pay for the service...
     
  3. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Well, the funny thing is, I don't mind the ads that much, and I understand what they do. I guess the problem is putting up with the video ad and then being expected to put up with all that other crap.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  4. uncle phil

    uncle phil Moderator Emeritus (and sorely missed) Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    pasco county
    by other crap, i presume you're 'talking' about 'lists.' which lists?
     
  5. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    By other crap I mean weaving through page and pages of "content" to get the non-list I was after. It's pretty much a trick to encourage a longer "time on website" metric as far as web analytics and web advertising are concerned. I'd rather a single page and a numbered list, kinda like the one in my OP.
     
  6. EventHorizon

    EventHorizon assuredly the cause of the angry Economy..

    Location:
    FREEDOM!
    the proof that man is inherently evil: 4chan
    fuck that website and all it has created
     
  7. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    I sense strong emotions. Mmm, my buddy EJKWT once summoned 4Chan to destroy TFP... specifically the_jazz, IIRC.

    I don't know what a 4Chan is, but I'm guessing it's not a lot different than Reddit, SomethingAwful and FOX News.
     
  8. EventHorizon

    EventHorizon assuredly the cause of the angry Economy..

    Location:
    FREEDOM!
    haha did those vile masses really try and take down TFP/his jazziness?
     
  9. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    Regarding the OP: Pfft, the users. Everything here is a product of those that create and use the content. 1% academic, 20% babble and 79% porn.

    Over-commercialization, social media, sites set up for data mining and the fact that it hasn't been "The Internet" since Usenet groups had that new car smell.

    The 'Net is simply the TeeVee of now. It's more useful at the cost of being super intrusive. Big Brother is watching you and you're cool with it. It's kinda like this.

    I remember downloading shit in UUE format with a 2400 modem. Don't let nostalgia get you down, homie. I mean, everything used to be better back then, amiright?

    ...

    My personal gripe with the 'Net is how everybody thinks everything needs to be free. It's that kind of ridiculous entitlement complex that landed us here today: pop-ups and personal info raping.

    Go throw some cash at TFP, for fuck's sake.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  10. Fangirl

    Fangirl Very Tilted

    Location:
    Arizona
    I agree and it scares me that it's Plan9 with whom I'm agreeing but there it is.
    I throw cash at 'free' services I use. TFP, Wikipedia, Photoscape, etc.
    And if TFP gets with selling branded merch, if it's not ugly, I'll buy one or two of those.

    I get paid for writing on the internet; made a killing over Christmas--from people who want to plaster their favourite TV show/band/cult film image across their chest and wear their T-shirts proudly. I lured them to my sites with enticing images and (original) mediocre writing. I spend a lot of time doing just that.
    The people that keep TFP running know this better than many: TFP is a labour of love but love don't pay the bills.

    Like the OP, I hate the runaround I get when I do searches now and I'm constantly searching for content I can 'reinterpret' and embellish upon. Google has hosed things up royally with their tweaking of metrics causing other search engine providers to rethink their search metrics and sooner or later tweak them--so people will buy stuff--because content ain't free.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  11. the_jazz

    the_jazz Accused old lady puncher

    Uh, no. There was an event a few months ago where someone implied that 4chan is his own private little army and that he'd sic them on us - I, believe it or not, wasn't really involved until the fireworks were over - and take everything down.

    Considering that 4chan doesn't really answer to anyone and they tend to get upset about real wrongs - as opposed to messages amounting to "maybe you shouldn't post while drunk" - you can see how that worked out.

    What do I hate? When I'm searching for something very specific and I have to wade through unrelated crap to find it because someone, for whatever reason, has gamed the results.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  12. Zweiblumen

    Zweiblumen Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Iceland
    Search words can be bought on Google so certain searches will return a webpage/link specified by the customer, Google then charges the customer for each "click" on that link. I have see upto $4 per "click".
     
  13. cynthetiq

    cynthetiq Administrator Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    New York City
    people.

    stupid people.

    fucking stupid people.

    god damned fucking stupid people.
     
    • Like Like x 8
  14. Random McRandom

    Random McRandom Starry Eyed

    4chan is pale in comparison to other similar chans.

    ask Lordeden if you don't believe me..he's a chanpro.

    as far as what's ruining the internet? I think it depends on who you ask. Some will say the porn that pops up everywhere, some will say the advertising, some will say the torrents etc etc etc. For me, it's similar to what the_jazz said. I hate when results that aren't even close to what I need pop up. If I'm browsing a stock footage library for a specific thing and footage of an african cat jumps into the frame when I clearly need people/emotion shots.. it annoys me to no end.

    oh..and..

    goddamn stupid fuckers.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  15. aphex140

    aphex140 Vertical

    Location:
    GB
    AS above - but then that would be business ruining it but possible it is us as a species ! your idea of ruination is dependant on your use ort requirements. As a old teacher of mind said Religion and politics all ruined by man for other men !!!
     
  16. Zen

    Zen Very Tilted

    Location:
    London
    Websites which prevent my back button from salmoning my stream of surf back to the source.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  17. Lordeden

    Lordeden Part of the Problem

    Location:
    Redneckhell, NC
    4chan isn't even that bad anymore, there are worse sites out on the net, 4chan is just like the token website that people like to be able to point at and say, "This is what is ruining the internet", "the asshole of the internet", or "4chan, You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." 4chan is just a a website (full of assholes, dumbasses, pre-teens, and trolls), it's the people who post to it that make it what it is (but godDAMN sometimes that place is hilarious to read).

    People make me laugh when they break the rules of 4chan. I think it's number #4. "4chan is not your personal army". No one controls 4chan. I do like it when that ADD raddled website sets it's sights on something, it's like watching someone get attacked by a swarm of killer bees. Shit is hilarious and sometimes beneficial to humanity (ie. see when 4chan helped track down the lady that dumped a cat in the trash).

    Which is why I agree with cyn, PEOPLE ruined the internet. Morons, dumbasses, idiots, and teenagers; THOSE people ruined the internet.

    Also, FUCK you Gloryhole, I don't browse 4chan that much. Really, I don't. I see enough trolls on this website that I don't need to get my fix from 4chan.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. Joniemack

    Joniemack Beta brainwaves in session

    Location:
    Reading, UK
    Never been on 4chan. Gave up mining for lists. Gave up a lot of internet surfing I used to do due to all the above.

    I stick close to TFP (note to self: TFP donate in Feb) and a songwriting site I help moderate. I check my account balances and pay bills on line. Every Monday, I check out the New Yorker's cartoon caption contest page and if something cute, clever, and pithy comes to mind quickly to, I enter. I check my Facebook page everyday but only to spy on my kids as everything else there makes me want to vomit. I do belong to a FB group of childhood friends reconnecting but that's getting stale too.

    What's wrong with the internet is what's generally wrong with so much, I think. Too much in your face marketing of shit I don't want or need, navigating the huge informational techno maze, and boring, stupid, insignificant crap that keeps piling up like garbage in a landfill.

    Used to be I could do a Google search and find what I was looking for rather quickly. These days, I still Google but only put in the required effort to find what I'm looking for if I really need to find the info I'm looking for.

    I have no doubt the problems users find most frustrating about the Internet have been carefully planned out. More clicks, more opportunities for ad placements to get noticed. Not by me of course.
     
  19. samcol

    samcol Getting Tilted

    Location:
    indiana
    as much as everyone hates what has been happening to the internet i think it is still the best place to get information. sure you might have to wade through all the shit to get what you want, but it's there. if the government gets involved we wont have access to any of it. sopa type legislation really will kill the internet as we know it today.

    i understand where people are coming from, but all the porn, spam, ads and bs from the internet wont be nearly as bad as not being able to access sites when the government (aka corporations) get their hands on it.

    and for 4chan. it is what it is. the site regurgitates so much information and occasionally comes up with something brilliant. their one day ddos attacks dont exactly break the whole internet. only governments and corporations are capable of ruining the internet for everyone. if you dont like 4chan dont go there. their attacks are hardly worth policing the internet over. they shut down sites for one day, legislation is capable of shutting down sites forever.
     
  20. Hektore

    Hektore Slightly Tilted

    The 'slideshow list' as I call them is definitely infuriating. As best I can tell, it's a ploy maximize click and load sales to advertisers while simultaneously showing a complete disregard for consumers.

    It's almost as irritating as the 'information aggregate' sites that clog up my search results all the fucking time. The ones that try to provide specialized articles on everything and manage to cover next to nothing. Seems like the first page of all my search results link to shit sites like about.com, ehow, etc. They seem to specialize in providing just enough useless, typically 'borrowed', information to give the appearance of relevance required to hit the top of the search results page and not a damn bit more.