I do agree with you, though keep in mind that the previous version of the web worked great when it was run by engineers (that cared about silly things like freedom of speech) and not valueless executives.
Do you think decentralisation is the key? I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday and i’m leaning toward profit motive as the difference.
We were pretty centralised around a few locations like slashdot & newsgroups.
Walled gardens were a thing, here in the UK a service called CIX was popular but AOL is the big famous one.
It’s not that we communicated less, group messaging with non-techie friends was done over email - cue flashback to 300-message deep top-posted replies.
It’s not that we were better in any way, the anarchist’s cookbook cost many a high school several new sets of door locks. Back orifice was a thing and was used for real scummy purposes sometimes.
I landed at profit motive as the difference. Just before the era of spyware is where i’m thinking it fell apart but I’m not at all confident in my assessment.
I just mean I think we will start seeing more interest/investment in things like progressive web apps that aren’t beholden to centralized platforms but feel like native mobile apps.
The point is these platforms are actively banning apps that appeal to a political party that represents half of America. if Parler is banned from the App Store a PWA is the next best thing.
