Re: OT: Why is the internet so boring now?

[Michael Collins <mcollins () aleae com>]

I don't know if I'd say that that's as inspiringly insane as Chocolate  
Rain.

A hypothesis: I think it's really just a function of marketing. I've  
been spending some time over the past year reading "pre-genre" books  
--- these are books that existed in a genre before the genre existed  
(for example: fantasy novels before Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings or  
Howard wrote Conan the Barbarian).  At the time, the authors really  
don't have anything to react to so they have a lot more freedom and a  
lot more weirdness going on.  After someone slaps  genre label on it,  
there's an inevitable calcification: I've seen complete lists of dos  
and dont's for detective fiction, for example.  Tastemakers at that  
point serve as gatekeepers and promoters, but part of their  
requirement for promoting is usually fealty to the genre.

I suspect that there's still the same level of weirdness and  
interesting material out there --- the reason being that the internet  
has an infinite pool of amateurs to draw from.  What changes are the  
structures of promotion and endorsement; once people figure out how  
something "works" (and it's not so much figuring it out as defining  
it), there's an influx of professionals and a calcified endorsement  
structure develops.  Blogs are a good example of this, where it was  
originally just Jorn Barger and his personal insanity, and we now have  
professionals from before blogs, professionals developed in blogs, and  
blogging companies.

In conclusion: the interesting stuff is still there, but there's a  
large structure interested in pointing you to the less interesting and  
more profitable stuff.  It's an inevitable part of the process.   
Youtube is starting to morph into the same thing as blogs are now,  
still amusing amateurish but rabidly becoming slicker as youtube stars  
become more common.  Same thing with podcasting.  In a few years there  
will be some new thing and we'll see the same process again.

On Nov 11, 2008, at 10:58 PM, Tomas L. Byrnes wrote:

> Who says it’s boring?
>
> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645
>
>
>
> From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec- 
> bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Alex Eckelberry
> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:43 AM
> To: Trollie Fingers; funsec () linuxbox org
> Subject: Re: [funsec] OT: Why is the internet so boring now?
>
> Isn't it just that the novelty has worn off on a lot of the things  
> we used to think were cool?
>
>
>
> From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec- 
> bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Trollie Fingers
> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 8:53 AM
> To: funsec () linuxbox org
> Subject: [funsec] OT: Why is the internet so boring now?
> Seriously.  Why is the internet so boring these days?  Is there  
> anything that I'm missing?  Anything that can be done to make it  
> better?
> _______________________________________________
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