Stacker News has basically become my new digital home on the internet. This is the first place I visit in the morning and I'm thankful for everyone who contributes to this place.

But when it comes to the "big wide internet" - something is up. It does not feel so big anymore, in fact, it feels pretty damn narrow. Maybe I've become an old man and these are the moans of a millennial longing for the olden days, but I have this overwhelming feeling that somehow over the last few years the internet has started to really suck hard.

The Shit ListThe Shit List

It's lame how all the social media walled-gardens have become so shit. For me at least there used to be some cool people and communities on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit - but they have long since succumbed to enshitification.

• X/Twitter: has become a completely unusable algo and bot rage machine. That's the old passage to Ravenholm. We don't go there anymore. I need to delete my account at some point, but don't want anyone to squat my username.
• Reddit: Some of the ex-pat communities and fringe / political subs were always interesting sources of perspectives and juicy intel, but a lot of it now is basically AI bots talking with each other.
• Instagram: As a visual artist this still plays somewhat of a role in connecting with other creatives and just messaging people etc, but it's nothing like it was 10 years ago.
• Substack: is a more recent player, and this is one I hoped would possibly be able to do something different, given its focus on writing. I am a writer, but my "feed" there has for some reason become random click-bait shit and people shilling how to be "authentic and true to yourself" and "how to get more followers". I have come across some interesting people there, but the signal to noise ratio is still far too low. It seems to be going the way of medium with it's own kind of performance culture that is not quite my style (picture this: cupcakes and picnics on the riverside instead of anarchy in the streets)...

Nostalgia 2000Nostalgia 2000

• One of my big old inspirations is old skool forum culture. Everything2.com was the kind place where esoteric ideas and all kinds of "different" people came together. You would never know what you were going to get. I still find myself going there after all these years.
• Superfuture was another inspiration: streetware, tech, travel.
• Of course there is BitcoinTalk, which I was not really a part of in the heyday, but which is the source for a lot of the canonical truth on Bitcoin.
• I never got into 4Chan, but I hear that had a vibe.

If I blend all these together in my nostalgic mind, I imagine a kind of mythical text-based place where you could dive into some deep theology, or getting advice on running a Bitcoin node or hacking a DD-WRT router, or otherwise talking about Shibuya fashion or travel to some random place.

Overall, there was a culture of self curation, on-topic discussion, and a give-and-take approach to posting and commenting. There was a sense of something special in reading someone else's words, like a letter from an old friend.

Maybe it was the sense of discovery? Even Craigslist has the kind of vibe of "you never quite know what you are going to find" in both a good and a bad way.

Everything now has become so short-form and algorithmic. There has been a big pivot towards video too, which I have never gotten into. Maybe it's too real? On SN I am clearly not private, but I am not quite 100% my "government name" either.

So what is the big idea? Am I not the only one who feels that in the world of social media there is this shallow fucking performance routine that everyone is putting on to drive those engagement metrics and collect followers?

How do you guys feel about this?

Stacker News sits in this goldilocks zone for me. It is still a kind of subculture and there is a gateway to entry - you have to kinda know something about Bitcoin to function here.

Maybe what I am feeling is more broadly the death of subcultures? People have been talking about this for decades, I even interviewed a guy who wrote a book about it.

It seems that now instead of tending to a garden of contributors in the "in-group", it is all about those eyeballs - any eyeballs.

Everywhere else online I see the psychology and click-bait traits trying to play its little tricks, I see those fucking AI tell-tale signs "its not A, it's B" and of course the EM dash.

Hacker News still has some value for me, but it has its own kind of retardation going on when it comes to RealPolitik and Bitcoin and creative stuff.

As for "news" I enjoy reading Zero Hedge from time to time for the latest, but it can be hit and miss.

Where to from here?Where to from here?

Before anyone says Nostr let's be clear it is a protocol not a community. I think it is interesting tech to build a community on but fundamentally you still need the "place and the occasion".

I have my writing and essays and a bunch of other random things I am interested in sharing, but sometimes not quite sure how it fits. Not all of us here are going to be into the exact same things (maybe this is where territories come in?) but there is so much potential.

The reward and incentive mechanism of having to pay sats to post is one of the things that is keeping this place honest I think, without resorting to the kind of bullshit gatekeeping that happens on Hacker News.

I really need to thank @k00b @sox @Scoresby and all the contributors for this. I love this place, it feels like my home on the internet. I had a good chat with k00b a while back about these questions and more.

This is just an open letter, but like, what do you all think?

Where else do you guys still get value from on the "internet"? What are some of your other favourite places that you would be willing to share?