The Antisocial Network: How the 90s Internet Died Like Diaryland (2014)

Nostalgia on the internet, particularly with social networks &#x2F; online communities, is real and I do think there will be a revival of the &#x27;old way&#x27; of how folks communicated online.<p>Hacker news is a good example of this that&#x27;s persisted, actually.<p>But I&#x27;m hopeful we get some social networks that are more like the old web in their architecture.

I am a migrant from a non-English-speaking country, and I used to be a journalist a long time ago. Even though I migrated many years ago, I am still surprised when I see spelling mistakes like the one in this article, which is right up there in the deck (the line just under the headline). Back in Italy, someone would be having a bad day over something like this, but in the English-speaking world it seems to be commonplace, even in major publications, corporate websites, etc.<p>&gt; Before Facebook or Twitter, there was Diaryland. But it’s creator just wasn’t a Zuckerberg and it faded into oblivion.<p>I think that this is because English ortography is highly nonphonemic <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Phonemic_orthography" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Phonemic_orthography</a><p>It&#x27;s an interesting topic!

I think what a lot of us also might miss is the sense of ownership and creativity that came with personal websites and blogs. People used to have their little corner of the internet where they could express themselves however they wanted, whether it was through HTML coding or just sharing their thoughts. Now it seems like almost every blog is trying to sell you something.

&gt; Part of the reason why Diaryland died was that Smales could never figure out how to translate the site&#x27;s pool of users into actual profit.<p>Here&#x27;s the instruction manual used by Facebook, Twitter, and everyone else:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Enshittification" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Enshittification</a><p>I&#x27;m impressed that Diaryland <i>didn&#x27;t</i> decide to grind up its users and turn them into money. For that reason alone, it is immediately (and probably permanently) superior to Facebook and Xitter.