Main Page: Difference between revisions
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But one of the core parts of the internet has still remained the same: To share information online. | But one of the core parts of the internet has still remained the same: To share information online. | ||
Wikipedia started all the way back in 2001 and it still exists to this day. It's become a central hub for sharing information online sort of like an online encyclopedia. I remember there were so many times in school where teachers would say "Don't cite Wikipedia as your source" but it's still nevertheless remains a fact that it's one of the best way to get introduced to a topic. | Wikipedia started all the way back in 2001 and it still exists to this day. It's become a central hub for sharing information online sort of like an online encyclopedia. I remember there were so many times in school where teachers would say "Don't cite Wikipedia as your source" but it's still nevertheless remains a fact that it's one of the best way to get introduced to a topic, find references that you can cite, and get a quick summary of something you don't know much about. | ||
Since then, so many Wikipedia clones have been built. Fandom, wiki.gg, WikiFur, etc. and they all rely on the same software called MediaWiki. | Since then, so many Wikipedia clones have been built. Fandom, wiki.gg, WikiFur, etc. and they all rely on the same software called [[mediawikiwiki:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]]. | ||
=== How I got into wikis === | === How I got into wikis === | ||
I've been contributing to internet communities for a long time. One of the core reasons why I got into Computer Science and Software Engineering is because I love to share information with others. I've always been interested in hearing other people's stories and sharing life experiences. | I've been contributing to internet communities for a long time. One of the core reasons why I got into Computer Science and Software Engineering is because I love to share information with others. I've always been interested in hearing other people's stories and sharing life experiences online. | ||
[[File:SLARPG wiki home page.png|thumb|387x387px|[https://slarpg.wiki.gg SLARPG wiki home page]]] | |||
I actually created this alt account because I wanted to get more involved with internet fandoms without my employer and irl friends knowing lol. It's easier to be yourself and explore interests outside your comfort zone when no one knows your real identity and you can abstract that part of your life away. | |||
I've been on-and-off with editing various fandom wikis and later wiki.gg and have been really passionate about sharing information online with the whole Internet. | |||
I've been on-and-off with editing various fandom wikis and later wiki.gg and really passionate about sharing information | |||
Some wikis I've worked on in the past include: | Some wikis I've worked on in the past include: | ||
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==== Enshittification ==== | ==== Enshittification ==== | ||
My #1 reason for not liking Big Tech is enshittification. It's not secret that if it were so easy to self-host everything, someone would already have done it. But there's only so much a single person can do. Big Tech companies have massive infrastructure like data centers, thousands of employees, and multiple teams in order to host large projects. And even though I follow a lot of communities like degoogle, I myself rely on these tools because it's too convenient and when it comes to work and school I just need something that works, has best security, and allows collaboration. | My #1 reason for not liking Big Tech is enshittification. It's not secret that if it were so easy to self-host everything, someone would already have done it. But there's only so much a single person can do. Big Tech companies have massive infrastructure like data centers, thousands of employees, and multiple teams in order to host large projects. And even though I follow a lot of communities like degoogle, I myself rely on these tools because it's too convenient and when it comes to work and school I just need something that works, has best security, and allows collaboration. | ||
[[File:No AI Sign.svg|No AI Sign|thumb|100x100px]] | |||
However, I've known a trend lately with Big Tech which is enshittification. I don't like how things we used for years like cloud storage, hardware, and smart IoT devices is suddenly getting worse just for the sake of prompting people to buy the next big thing. Good example is with iPhones and how Apple is notorious for slowing down older iPhones with software updates. I myself have experienced this issue. I remember my old iPhone 5 was running the latest iOS 10. One day, I decided to jailbreak it and downgrade to iOS 8 before Apple issued all these slow down updates, and it was so much incredibly faster it felt brand new! Even with software, there's just too many cases of AI (specifically LLMs) being embedded in every single service. Like do I really need a chatbot when talking with customer support smh. | However, I've known a trend lately with Big Tech which is enshittification. I don't like how things we used for years like cloud storage, hardware, and smart IoT devices is suddenly getting worse just for the sake of prompting people to buy the next big thing. Good example is with iPhones and how Apple is notorious for slowing down older iPhones with software updates. I myself have experienced this issue. I remember my old iPhone 5 was running the latest iOS 10. One day, I decided to jailbreak it and downgrade to iOS 8 before Apple issued all these slow down updates, and it was so much incredibly faster it felt brand new! Even with software, there's just too many cases of AI (specifically LLMs) being embedded in every single service. Like do I really need a chatbot when talking with customer support smh. | ||
==== Freedom of Speech + Self-hosting ==== | ==== Freedom of Speech + Self-hosting ==== | ||
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==== Paywalls and Login to View Content ==== | ==== Paywalls and Login to View Content ==== | ||
I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately | I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately where in order to view content on a site, you have to create an account where they'll inevitably use your data to target ads and make money off of you even if it's free to sign up. Here’s a couple examples: | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+ | |+ | ||
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=== Inspiration from Childhood Friend === | === Inspiration from Childhood Friend === | ||
When I was in grade school, one of my classmates created his own website where he would write entire tutorials and content for stuff that we learned in school. For lessons that we learned that day, he would go home, write entire recaps, and sometimes even record a youtube video of himself and embed it in the website. Many students liked his stuff, others found it super cringy cause he would literally go on the teacher's whiteboard and promote his website on it. But looking back, he did something that most students wouldn't take the time to do: | When I was in grade school, one of my classmates created his own website where he would write entire tutorials and content for stuff that we learned in school. For lessons that we learned that day, he would go home, write entire recaps, and sometimes even record a youtube video of himself and embed it in the website. Many students liked his stuff, others found it super cringy cause he would literally go on the teacher's whiteboard and promote his website on it. But looking back, he did something that most students wouldn't take the time to do: going beyond the classroom environment to share knowledge with other folks. | ||
[[File:Jaxon Files home page.png | [[File:Jaxon Files home page.png|thumb|620x620px|The home page of my friend's site before it was taken down|center]] | ||
=== Interest in ActivityPub, Fediverse === | === Interest in ActivityPub, Fediverse === | ||
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* '''Edmodo''' - Back in grade school, I remember all my classes used this site. It was like the Facebook but for school. We would have class discussions, assignments submissions, etc. Then one day, they suffered a huge data breach and within a couple months from that date, they closed everyone's accounts. All those memories are now gone. | * '''Edmodo''' - Back in grade school, I remember all my classes used this site. It was like the Facebook but for school. We would have class discussions, assignments submissions, etc. Then one day, they suffered a huge data breach and within a couple months from that date, they closed everyone's accounts. All those memories are now gone. | ||
[[File:Edmodo Logo.png | [[File:Edmodo Logo.png|thumb|150x150px|center]] | ||
* '''Groupme, Discord''' hard to archive - Call me old school but I prefer seeing things on websites. I hate how information and entire communities are hosted off in walled off gardens in which you have to create an account to view the info. Additionally, these sites make backup and archive nearly impossible. Good luck backing up years of messages on Discord | * '''Groupme, Discord''' hard to archive - Call me old school but I prefer seeing things on websites. I hate how information and entire communities are hosted off in walled off gardens in which you have to create an account to view the info. Additionally, these sites make backup and archive nearly impossible. Good luck backing up years of messages on Discord. One day these companies might deactivate your account, you might banned for any reason, and all that data is just gone. At least when communication takes place on desktop-first websites like Gmail and Reddit, there's tons of tools and extensions available that will allow you to archive it such as [[archive.org]], extensions, and these sites also have their own means of exporting data like [https://takeout.google.com/?pli=1 Google Takeout]. | ||
And did I mention this whole wiki is easily archiveable? Well, in fact here you go: [[Special:AllPages]] | And did I mention this whole wiki is easily archiveable? Well, in fact here you go: [[Special:AllPages]] | ||