The Lost Commandments of The Internet

[thumped]

This is a good read

I’m old. I’m old enough to remember an earlier version of the internet. Not Usenet and Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, I’m not that old. But right after that, in the early 2000’s, an internet of message boards and forum-based communities.

Often these days I find myself wistfully thinking back to that period. There were a set of unspoken rules that governed life there, an interlocking set of principles, norms, and ideologies. They weren’t perfect, they were a product of their time, and in many ways things have improved. But I can’t help thinking that many of the worst aspects of contemporary internet culture are the direct result of our having abandoned these fundamental guidelines.

So, in the hope that knowledge of the past can help us construct a better future, I have tried to reconstruct, to the best of my abilities, the sacred decrees that ruled this simpler, more innocent age:

https://medium.com/@franklin.odell.lantz/the-lost-commandments-of-the-internet-706fb1f6eeb4


This podcast interview with the author is also worth a listen

http://thewonderofitall.xyz/all-uni...l-units-the-lost-commandments-of-the-internet

 

[Walter]

Pfft. I am old enough to even have memories of the Usenet and the fun of having to dialup with a modem - and guess what, the paradise he describes never existed. Just take a look at the wars fought in a Usenet archive.