Six years ago

[MoseyWalker]

I could watch a movie online without having to pay for it.

Six years ago I could hear thousands of independent radio stations online.

Six years ago, the internet was not only intriquing; it was a symbol of freedom.

It doesn't exist anymore.

Does anyone else care or wonder about the future of the internet?

[BuyingThyme]

1. I watch plenty of movies online.

And listen to plenty of independent broadcasts.

You must be on one of the other internets.

[MoseyWalker]

3. per bubbly so

it just is so different from what it was just a few years ago. There used to be many semi independent sites, and they just don't exist anymore. Now, it's look at youtube or ............nothing else. That's it.

[dave_p]

5. ... not quite

Google video & Guba have some good stuff... not much in the way of Hollywood blockbusters, admittedly, but you'd have to pay me to watch that crap anyway - sometimes free just ain't enough. }(

[dave_p]

2. In 2007

I can watch a movie online without having to pay for it.

I can hear thousands of independent radio stations online.

The internet's not only intriquing; it's a symbol of freedom lacking elsewhere.

It's shifted about a bit.

But they never managed to destroy it. And they're still kicking themselves over it.

Life ain't so bad for us. I'm just lucky not to live in Falluja.

[Union Thug]

4. I first went online back in '90...used PINE for my mail...

...remember the local bulletin boards (Sacred Grove was my favorite in the Seattle area). As you mention, if I needed something..a tool, an application, I could find it somewhere for free. There were no britney spears bubble heads clogging bandwidth, if I needed info, I could find it without having to pull out a credit card. Mailing lists were manageable and interesting.

That was the golden age of the internet. Now it's just another marketer's paradise. I can't find a goddamned set of guitar tabs without fighting either advertising, or posts saying that they had to pull their tab collection cuz they were threatened with lawsuits.

The internet today is garbage compared to the good old days!

[dave_p]

6. Aaw!!

I remember PINE! Ya got me all sentimental!

[MoseyWalker]

7. yep

oh, man, what it was and could have been.

[sammythecat]

8. I've only been on since 2000, but your post

really brought to the fore what was a vague sense for me. Something is different and it's not as much fun as it used to be.

[Union Thug]

9. To me, it's all about flash and $$$ today... Increased bandwidth...

has made a lot of things possible that would have been impossible 15 years ago, but wouldn't it have been great if that bandwidth was used to bring library special collections online and avaialable to everyone for free? Or if film students could search for a database of classic foreign and domestic films for viewing online...free of charge...

There is so much that could have been done to make the internet a true 'information superhighway'. Unfortunately, it has become a commercial enterprise more than anything else. So much potential, so little execution. Internet radio is awesome - I sometime run my own (it's down for the moment...www.atomicshaman.com), but soon, our bandwidth will be squeezed unless you can afford to pay for it and little stations like mine will not be worth even attempting.

[sammythecat]

10. I saved the link. I'll

keep an eye on it. I hope you get back up. It sounds intriguing. It really does.

This thing with the internet. It seems that any virgin territory we've ever encountered, if we don't screw it up entirely, we manage to make something of it that's inferior than it could have been. When I was younger, I had the fantasy that, if I were to really get fed up with it all, I'd just go to Tahiti and live my life there. It really was a place like that at one time. Now, I probably couldn't afford to stay there one night. The internet is getting to be big business and the businessmen are taking over.

Maybe it was economically impossible for it to stay the way it was and keep going. I don't know. But I do know that recently half of the main articles on CNN are videos which means I have to sit through a 30 second commercial before viewing a 90 second clip. Didn't used to be that way. Now it's started. I don't even care to see the video, let alone listen to the pitch. I just want to read the damn article.

[bananas]

11. Does anyone still use usenet?

I haven't used usenet in a long time, but last I looked it was going strong.

[Union Thug]

12. I went back in a few years ago, but I didn't stay long...just too chaotic

now. Too many troublemakers, irrelevant posts, etc. Back then I was reading alt.religion.asatru regularly. :-) Wow, it's all coming back to me now!

[bananas]

13. I mean for binaries. nt