How to fix the internet
technologyreview.com
We’re in a very strange moment for the internet. We all know it’s broken. That’s not news. But there’s something in the air—a vibe shift, a sense that things are about to change.
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Have they tried turning it off and back on again?
Seriously though, just raise the technical skill barrier to entry. Anything that requires more than idiot-level tech savvy will scare off most of the horrible people that make the internet a horrible place. It didn't even really take off until smartphones were a thing, dropping the barrier to the absolute minimum number of simple steps.
Some of the most condescending, man-splainy, anti-social, but-what-abouty contrarians I've ever had the displeasure of encountering online have been technical users.
Yes but you see here's why that's a good thing:
{Insert 400 page diatribe that is vaguely antisocial and misogynistic citing long-debunked or dubious scientific research as if it were real}
So that's why you're actually a wrong idiot who is probably also a woman and should get off the Internet and let the real technical guys handle it.
Meh
Fair enough
There are old usenet posts of people saying you can gain psychic powers by eating the radioactive element in your smoke detector. Usenet wasn't easy to get on back then. No, that doesn't work, and it excludes a lot of people who are otherwise sensible.