

We Didn't Mean For It To Turn Out Like This - DanielBMarkham
http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2014/05/we-didnt-mean-for-it-to-turn-out-like-this.php

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chrismcb
This guy must be talking about a different net... "We didn't want to play
games." Sure we did. People play games in real life too. Games can be a way to
exchange information. There is more to the net than just playing games. Drama
and angst and all the other stuff comes with open conversations. Freedom from
oppressive governments? I guess he missed the news on some of the recent
government overthrows, and how twitter and the net has played its part.
Browsers aren't the only way to access the net.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this? How was it supposed to turn out?

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notacoward
Who is "we" in this statement? Who _meant_ for the internet to turn out, or
not turn out, any particular way? I've been around the internet a long time,
and I don't remember any such master plan. It just evolved, because a lot of
people with a lot of different agendas nudged it this way and that over a time
span that involved lots of technical and economic changes. Evolution doesn't
have goals. It only has directions.

Instead of feeling nostalgic for a world that never was, how about if we work
_forward_ from where it already is? What incremental changes would make it
better?

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norswap
> We wanted to exchange information, not play games.

Other way around, personally. I would be scared of any person who wants to
"exchange information".

~~~
falcolas
You are afraid of sites like Stack Overflow? That's all they are - people
exchanging information for little more than popularity.

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norswap
People using stack overflow either want answers to their questions, to help
others, or to showcase their expertise. "Exchanging information" is barely a
mechanism for that, but never an aim itself.

Funnily enough, stack overflow is heavily gamified: part of the incentive for
answering questions is to increase your score and earn medals.

