future of ~the internet~

Idk “people are stupid” always seems like a bad analysis to me.

a few idle thoughts i had while brushing my teeth this morning: is the ad-reliant experience of using the internet the same throughout the world? are there countries that use a different model? is the internet, on its current trajectory, inherently capitalistic and thus spreading/reinforcing capitalism across the world as it continues to be adopted and intertwined with daily life? here's what i mean, briefly:

the internet basically runs on advertising (though i realize that model is currently failing, in many ways), which seems natural in the united states. i can use a service for free because theoretically the website can make their money back by making we watch advertisements. but is that true elsewhere in the world? is there a heavily socialist country that somehow subsidizes certain internet properties, or in which they somehow get funding in another way, besides ads? are there places where the subscription/pay-wall model works better, perhaps because of cultural differences in how the website's visitors approach the idea of supporting businesses? (i'm talking out of my ass here; very ignorant obv, sorry, just asking the question).

or is the internet full of ads absolutely everywhere it reaches? and if that's the case, is the expansion of the internet basically spreading capitalism?

these ideas are founded in my own ignorance of what it's like to use the internet across the world (my only substantial international internet experience was behind the great paywall in china circa 2006). and they're also based on an assumption that an ad-reliant model of business is inherently capitalistic, and that there's another viable model that isn't. so...anyway. throwing all that out there

Idk “people are stupid” always seems like a bad analysis to me.

otm. I much prefer to think in terms of inherent design flaws in the systems which comprise our intelligence. We all have them and it takes experience to see them in ourselves and training to mitigate them.

Even though you could subsidize a useful replacement (imagine france's minitel but pulled forward 30 years) how do you outpace the shine of what the advertising-driven market can provide?

I don't think this can happen in the free-market parts of the world today. The advertising business model makes too much money and then those businesses can invest much that money they make back in the products.

And outside the free market, for example in China, the real business is helping keep the government in power.

And outside the free market, for example in China, the real business is helping keep the government in power.

Phrases like ‘outside the free market’ and ‘for example China’ should not exist in the same sentence. China hasn’t a hyper capitalist internet (and everything else) with a bread and circuses approach to keeping the government in power. The internet as commercial and capitalist entity funds, supports and provides the manpower for the apparatus that directs and channels freedom of expression. Whilst there is censorship, distraction with consumerism is a much more powerful tool.

But there's a deeper story to the Chinese market than that. The government does control who can participate in it.

good example from china is the baidu medical ads https://www.whatsonweibo.com/behind-baidu-scandal-baidu-putian-medical-group/ and this guide to baidu seo is interesting i think even if you're not trying to promote anything on baidu https://www.dragonmetrics.com/baidu-seo-guide/ the chinese internet for the most part, outside the dark corners, is a mirror of the english-language internet but just with tech companies you've never heard of running things.
i wish i could come up with a clear unified statement on how state ownership / investment in media platforms looks translated to internet platforms. recently (i think it's been three, four years since it launched?) you had thepaper 澎湃, basically same level of relevance and respect as huffpo, piggybacking off a larger state media company, has millions in state funds keeping it afloat (but it has also strayed enough from the party line to be subject to a recent crackdown) so it looks markedly different from similar sites operating off advertising, but there are other examples like older rival caixin's online media properties funded mostly from the private sector (backed by tencent first, who bought a stake from a provincial newspaper [citation needed]) look and feel like you're reading wapo or whatever (paywalls + ads). once outside of those big media platforms it does feel like the chinese internet is more choked with ads? and without adwords to hold a big enough share, so it's more scattershot, more corrupt anus and stomach hospitals / snake oil / online casinos.

hi can I get more details on corrupt anus and stomach hospitals

indeed

No results found for "corrupt anus and stomach hospitals".

In France most newspaper content is paywalled, sometimes with 3 or 4 free views per month. I guess the big national usa papers are like this now too?

french internet forums like jeuxvideo.com (kind of a french reddit I guess though obv there are french subreddits) are ad heavy so you have a point about this global infection.

trying to imagine what subgenre of metal would give rise to that as a track title xp

Colorectalchairmancore

i like little more than clicking 'reject' when a website tells me it's going to track my activity. some websites make it pretty simple, i can reject all, or sometimes i'm offered a choice - i can accept functionality cookies but not advertising cookies. works pretty well sometimes! but there are some sites, like tumblr, that just fuckin do not care. they hide the link to 'manage' cookies, and all that page does is link to amazon, google etc's privacy policy pages! it is a hiding to NOTHING attempting to opt out of cookies placed by those sites via tumblr. i literally think it can't be done. i don't see how that complies with GDPR frankly. i know i'm being ridiculous and pedantic but EU law around this is supposed to allow this to actually work, to say 'i don't want your goddamned tracking cookies' and if big sites like tumblr (hollow laugh) blatantly don't give a shit how is there even a pretence that any of this is effective?

yes i've been here - http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices

the website barely loads

there's also this page? http://optout.networkadvertising.org

tried to read an article on Slate today and 'Agree' is literally the only option. all or nothing. i know i'm being crazy. it's making me crazy. maybe i was always crazy. i feel like richard stallman over here.

but maybe... maybe if i'm using Privacy Badger it doesn't matter? i could just say yes and my lil' blocker'll block 'em anyway? it's hard to tell from reading their FAQ - https://www.eff.org/privacybadger/faq#What-about-tracking-by-the-sites-I-actively-visit,-like-NYTimes.com-or-Facebook.com

I used to think the EU mandated cookie warning was almost enough reason to brexit, now i can't get enough of clicking 'reject all'. Gotta love the ones that only let you turn off the advertising cookies one by one, partner by partner, in a list of 50 or more. Nigh on impossible on a phone.

yeah exactly. or a computer tbf. and sometimes that list of advertiser cookies includes entries without a button to turn off the tracker, just a link to the advertiser's website. which turns out to be in dutch.

just cause i'm insane i sent a letter to Slate's privacy address asking them how I was supposed to opt out, and got an actually pretty detailed autoresponse back with various things to do. last graf reads:

"Finally, please also note that your deletion request would only affect data for vendors with data controlled by Slate. Some of the other vendors with which Slate works may have collected data, but they are independent controllers and thus request that users reach out to them directly. You may access a list of these vendors here."

of course that link goes to a webpage that first demands you accept cookies before reading it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

patreon yesterday had a pop up ad for a web seminar which covered the whole page and wouldn't allow me to close it without clicking that I was interested in going (I'm not)

A private equity firm has bought the .org domain, which will likely drive up prices for nonprofits. https://t.co/IrPax3uqBK

— VICE (@VICE) November 19, 2019

"Ethos Capital," you can't make this stuff up

dangit, my personal website is a .org

fuck

serve up .ilx and we'll win the internet

minimum buy in to get a gTLD is…prohibitive for goofy hobbyists

i would love to fork out cash for an .ilx domain

plus, we could sell it to mazda later on when we go public

not Accura?

you'd think Acura. but i know a guy at mazda who would love to take away the .ilx domain, if it were available for the right price

This could, and should, happen guys

huh i always assumed .org had special rules around it like .gov

would he settle for ilxor.com

depends. would you settle for...$140? Plus a reissue of Sonic Youth's Dirty LP in near mint condition? because i would definitely, i mean HE would definitely do that.

Is buffy on blu ray yet

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/27/21402493/amazon-halo-band-health-fitness-body-scan-tone-emotion-activity-sleep

"I honestly think you ought to calm down. Take a stress pill and think things over. Tap to buy one now."

What a nightmare. I'm professionally obligated to be concerned about the emotional tone analysis, but the body fat scanner is fucked

i liked this

https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/08/make_the_internet_harder_to_use/

Fastly has fallen over, apparently, causing outages of some big site: Guardian, NYT, Pitchfork, The Onion, gov.uk etc. etc.

I've gotten accustomed to getting ready for work in the morning while having a Twitch livestream in the background. Now Twitch is down and I'm just having to click on various YouTube videos in its stead. I am so hoping this issue gets resolved by midday because there's a music stream I use at that time for background music while WFH and I'm really counting on it being there for me. :/

fast world problems

what the fuck is fastly

I imagine it as a huge *internet transmitter* like the Emley Moor mast, and it's fallen down!

Is the Guardian more cursed than it used to be?

all sites seem okay to me (in uk)

Back now I think, well that was exciting

yeah seems to have been sorted now

this wouldn't be a problem if we just agreed to have 5g chips implanted in our brains

Guardian and Reddit back for me but NY Times and Independent still down

Hooray, Twitch is back up in time for me to fix and eat breakfast! *spams a series of hype emotes*

apparently fastly is...

...AMAZON HOSTING!