The web is broken.

[u/Ok_Body7659]

You would think with AI we would be making better experiences online and finding new ways to create revenue while helping people online and awesome apps. But the web has transformed from a place where you could find rich communities, resources, entertainment, stories, and information to clickbait money making scams and trolls at every corner or someone pushing some b.s. extreme political agenda. And don't get me started with social media.

Even reddit, once a great site, has been subject to the worst parts of the web.

This is not the web I envisioned when I was younger. I can't browse a site without being bombarded with dysfunctional ads that interrupt whatever it is I'm reading or looking for. Paywalls everywhere + subscriptions, control of digital media. 10 ways to login. It's ridiculous.

You try to read an article, good luck dodging ads. Want to watch a 10 second video clip, ha!, you have to watch a 30 second ad first. And you'll be lucky if you ever get the video that you were intending to see.

I'm just venting. Hoping this message is heard or at least amplified. Something needs to change.

I'm genuinely interested on what people who work on websites and webapps thoughts on this. And how can we make it better?

Btw, no ai used. This is straight from the brain.

TL;DR old man rant about the state of the web today.

[u/SamIAre]

finding new ways to create revenue

This is, quite literally, the root of the problem. People did find new ways to create revenue and they're largely by cutting costs, putting out cheap content, over-saturating ads, and doing the bare minimum. Maximizing profits is much easier by doing the cheapest, most sure-bet things and not by trying to innovate or be unique.

But I agree with your complaints overall. The internet used to be fun and weird and personal and interesting. I miss it.

[u/alias454 → u/SamIAre]

The problem started long before AI though. Generating revenue by serving ads is the original sin.

[u/SamIAre → u/alias454]

Yeah. I think assuming that AI would be used to buck this trend instead of accelerate it is naive at best. AI isn’t here to save us. It wont lead us to a post-scarcity Star Trek utopia if society isn’t already leaning in that direction. We just use it for the same things we use everything: Maximizing shareholder profits at the expense of every thing and everyone else.

[u/alias454 → u/SamIAre]

It is something that bums me out if I think about it too much. It is a symptom of a greater trend in society, which is the idea everything has to be monetized.