Welcome again, the Internet
Originally posted: 04 December 2023
After some discussion, at the bar, it was decided that the “Welcome to the Internet” article I posted recently was very front-loaded, and just kind of petered out towards the end and didn’t really make a point… which I absolutely agree with.
I was writing it to purge my brain of stupid thoughts, and to share some of my favourite creators.
But, on reflection, I think there may be a nugget of gold in that pile of word salad.
So let’s recap that post:
Bo Burnham's song “Welcome to the Internet” is a perfect song. His entire Inside special is great, but this song really hits that unique flavour of comedy and nihilism that really resonates with me and a lot of my generation. I would also recommend “How the world works” as a great follow up.
Douglas Adams quote that all technology created before you are 35 is normal, and everything after is “against the natural order of things” is also spot on.
I’m obviously just quoting lots of people smarter than I am.
GenY (or Millenials) grew up WITH the internet, not ON the internet. So when we made stupid mistakes the impact wasn’t as severe. And I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people my age or older say “Thank god there were no smart phones (cameras) when I was a kid”.
GenZ (Or Zoomer, which it turns out is from a 4Chan meme in 2018, and not as I suspected because they were GenZ who went to school via Zoom during COVID) are so growing up with an internet that is designed to take their money, steal their identity and eventually harvest their organs.
And to a lesser extent, don’t judge a YouTuber by their name, as even someone called “TomatoAnus” can deliver heart-felt and meaningful words of encouragement surrounding mental health.
Right, so here we are.
So, the internet is full of shit. Absolutely chock-a-block full of it. I watched a video essay about the cancer that is filling up TikTok Live, with three scams that seem to be really popular, all preying on kids who have their parents credit card saved on their device.
And they are so low effort, low risk, high reward, that I can’t see them stopping anytime soon.
I think what we need is “The Light Web”.
Unlike the “Dark Web” where you can hire a drug dealing sex worker to assassinate your dog walker for three bitcoins, we need a “Light Web”, where everything is verified, tracked and certified.
There are bastions of this at the moment. Places like Nebula.tv, created as a place for YouTubers to create content that doesn’t have to conform to an Algorithm to get views. Run by the creators, with no ads.
Or the original concept of Wikipedia, before it was taken over by trolls. As much as I love the story of someone who edited a bands Wikipedia page to trick a bouncer into letting him backstage, there should be more checks and balances on edits. And sometimes someone should just be able to edit a page if they are an expert.
I remember a story about someone who had a page on Wikipedia that incorrectly stated their University (I think) so the person logged in, made the change and thought that was it. Except Wikipedia rejected the change, because there was no citation for it. So that person had to, in their next interview, ask the interviewer to ask where they went to University so that that interview could be used as a Citation to update Wikipedia, because apparently “being the person the page is about” is not valid.
Here’s a list of ideas for a Light Web:
1. Anyone can view the Light Web
However, some sites (like Nebula) will likely be subscription based, after all, content creators deserve to get paid for their work.
2. Nothing can be updated Anonymously
If you want to make changes to something on the Light Web (From adding a comment to a recipe, to changing some CSS on a site) you need to be verified.
There are many components of the internet that benefit from anonymity, but sunlight is the best disinfectant especially for misinformation. So if someone wants to post a hateful racist comment on a Recipe for chocolate chip cookies, then go right ahead, but it shall be associated with your actual identity.
So when you see there is an article on the efficacy of horse dewormer on COVID-19, you can see it was written and fact checked by a primary school teacher from Texas, and not a infectious diseases expert from the Mayo Clinic.
This might actually be a useful implementation of the block-chain, rather than guessing large numbers and trading JPG files.
3. Sites can take payment, but never STORE payment information
Light Web sites should be able to take payments, after all, payment is required not only to keep the lights on, but people deserve to get paid for their work.
But a Light Web site should NEVER save credit card data for users. I really enjoy when I use Amazon, I can just click one button and have something charged and delivered so easily, it’s great. But if there was a second person (or worse, a child!) on that account, that would be disabled so quickly.
I agree it is a step backwards for UX, but a step forward for security.
4. No advertising*
Yes this removes a large stream of revenue, but remember the old saying “If the service you are using is FREE, then it is YOU who is being sold.”
Facebook is FREE because they are selling our data. Google is FREE because they are selling our data. Which leads to…
* maybe no “external” advertising, so you can only advertise other sites on the Light Web..?
5. No selling of users data
Just don’t do it. Because if you plan on selling users data, then you plan on getting as much data as possible, which means you intend on exploiting the users.
6. Don’t be surprised if you are asked to pay
Want to upload a video to the Light Web YouTube clone? Then you might be required to pay a dollar or two. After all, someone needs to pay for the bandwidth. If you aren’t willing to put your money where your mouth is, why should someone else spend their time watching it?
Steam (The game distribution service) a few years ago added a $100 fee for listing a game for sale, and it did cut down on the number of shovelware games that were added, until the scammers found a loophole for laundering money through trading cards… which is another story all together…
So yeh, there’s six rules I think would work as a solid foundation for a Light Web alternative.
I conceded that the whole “no ads” and “no selling user data” thing would probably cripple it, but those big tech giants love to look like they care by throwing money into “open” and “transparency” causes.
And like most of my rants, it’s not exactly the most well throughout and reasoned thing ever typed… but hey… maybe this sparks an idea in someone.
Also, watch our for my next post, which will be another round of Christmas Carols based around Drupal :)
