I still think there is a future for web publishing - from indie to corporate - if people stop feeding the algorithm machine with both sides of the supply and demand market, and move it elsewhere.

People found the web more boring, because it became more boring.

They found the algorithm more interesting, because it allowed them to see what was going on with people they barely knew (from former school mates they'd lost touch with to celebrities without press filtering), and that was compelling.

But there's a next phase available to us, which is to make the web more interesting, entertaining and compelling again.

I love that b3ta.com still exists. I love that metafilter.com is moving on. I think it's great that web comics I love still publish to RSS.

I just think more of us need to provide more demand, and more people will wake up to supply, and the flywheel will start to turn.

RSS beat ICE, and it can beat Meta and X if people want it too, albeit for different reasons.