LarbarBarking

Was born in 1969. Had a computer since I was 13. At 21, got an Internet account from my uni and I've been online since. It's sometimes difficult to remember pre-Internet since being networked has been part of essentially my entire adult life. Playing a MUD based in Germany. Chatting up girls from Taiwan and France. Getting into pointless arguments with people from everywhere. Using an "app store" (FTP) for the majority of the software on my old Mac LC. Even before the WWW revolution, using FTP, gopher, and usenet archives to get tons of information on random subjects. As early as 2001, I was receiving and responding to email on my little (and overly expensive but it had a color screen!) Samsung flip phone using an app. I remember helping put out a fire at work while I was drunk on vacation by tapping out instructions slowly using T9.

Everything since then has felt evolutionary to me, instead of revolutionary, which is a personal blindness from being so long exposed.

But there's one memory, which is funny to me, that illustrates how much social interaction has changed. In 1999, was sitting with a bunch of friends at a bar. We were usually a talkative group but this night everyone was being a little sullen and quiet. Since no one was doing anything, I pulled out my Palm III and started reading some article AvantGo had downloaded. Everyone else at the table started staring at me and looked a little horrified. My best friend gently took it out of my hand, folded the cover shut, and slipped it back into my pockets. And I never did it again, at least not for a couple of years. By late 2001, my little flip phone had a J2ME text-only browser and I'd read Slashdot on the slow bar nights. By then, it wasn't bothering anyone.

Metafilter has a $5 dollar entry fee, but will waive it in cases of hardship. Seems like a decent solution as long as the community is small enough to have responsive management / moderation like Metafilter.

For news sites with a paid component, they could allow comments only from subscribers / donors. Having a gate which involves money will improve the conversation somewhat. I'd even go a step further and make comments invisible except for subscribers. People creating trial paid accounts could see the comments but not comment themselves. This latter step would prevent astroturfing from firms willing to pay $10 for a trial but not $100 for an annual subscription.

Moderators would still be needed but their workload would be reduced. And there would be money available for them since many would subscribe / donate just to be part of the community, which would make moderation less of a drain and more of the core profit-making.

Woke up one morning to a very hot Thinkpad in my bag. Windows 10 did exactly that. Extremely frustrating.