We need a new non-commercial version of the internet. Free of bots, free of ads, ... you pay to access social media optimized to be interesting enough to be worth paying instead of addictive enough to keep you scrolling to show you more ads.

It may look impossible right now. But what is impossible for real is to continue as we are. The damage that internet does to society is increasing by the day while its value is reduced (economic value, social value).

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godwinson__4-8 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> We need a new non-commercial version of the internet.

> you pay to access social media optimized to be interesting...

So is it commercial or non commercial?

Nothing is stopping you from creating a social network that is pay gated. Go build it. If you can't get anyone to sign up perhaps you'll realize it's not so easy as scapegoating addictive social media.

There is a whole cottage industry of people who legitimately make their living criticizing Facebook. It's a consumer software product. Yet few of these people seem to have their conviction extend to building an alternative that ever catches an audience. Why is that? Because addiction? Any other excuses?

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phoe-krk 41 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> We need a new non-commercial version of the internet.

Except it's non-commercial, therefore valuable, therefore commercialized, therefore commercial.

You'd need a force strong enough to prevent it from falling prey to this tragedy of the commons, and that force would need to be stronger than the incentives to commercialize it. And that's where plenty of contemporary scraping-based salaries lay.

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heavensteeth 36 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's this internet. Nothing precludes you from dropping big tech and solely engaging with the "indie web"[0][1] if you so choose. You're free to build your own website with its own RSS feed, join webrings[2] of like-minded people, and engage organically.

[0] One of many similar initiatives, I'm sure. Not an endorsement.

[1] https://indieweb.org/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring

	▲	pixl97 31 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		This is fine when you hide in the dark forest, small and unassuming, but the moment something discovers you, then you get ate by a predator. Your human engagement will attract said predators because it's a unique information signal.

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9dev 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Careful what you wish for. The ticket to entry will (have to) be a proof of identity, the ultimate nail in the coffin of privacy and anonymity on the web.Outside of that, chaos.

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immortalist 40 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Impossible to create

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armadyl 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Also for better or for worse the ad-centric model to some extent has allowed more people to access information.

Gating everything behind paid (but with no ads) likely would hurt a significant amount of lower income users.

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OtherShrezzing 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm not so certain. I used to buy a broadsheet newspaper, which was full of ads. Now I pay a few hundred a year, and get the same newspaper online, with no ads at all.

So, the precursor to online media has already gone through this paradigm shift.

	▲	pixl97 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I mean, what you're saying is "If I pay for a product ads go away" Which is partially true, but it only shifts the distribution of the problem. Once your service gains enough popularity network effects cause it to gain value. You have to worry about high priced buyouts of the entire service (great for the site owner, terrible for the users).

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Zambyte 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not, it just requires creativity. One example I can think of is limiting connectivity by distance between nodes. Something like Meshtastic seems unlikely to ever be commercialized in the same way that the Internet has been. Sure, you would lose some useful applications of the Internet, but you would gain other things.

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toomuchtodo 30 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

AT Protocol and PDS’. BitTorrent to share and distribute bundles of data.