Notices by Richard MacManus (ricmac@mastodon.social), page 7

Some great points here about email newsletters — including that email open stats are starting to become unreliable due to AI and big tech like Apple screwing around with the inbox (no, email is not immune to enshittification!). All this is part of why I moved away from calling my site Cybercultural a "newsletter". I'm not exactly sure how to define Cybercultural currently, but it will involve fediverse as a community-driver going forward. #IndieWeb #WebLife2025

ref: https://www.therebooting.com/the-newsletter-bubble/

@evan I think you should name this “me-centralisation” (kind of a pun on re-centralisation)

“What makes me hopeful is that when you find a way to look at how people are really using the web, a lot of it still feels like the early internet. It's expression, communication, connection. Fundamentally, it's a place where regular people share themselves and do wonderful things." https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250306-inside-youtubes-hidden-world-of-forgotten-videos

A look back at GeoCities in 1995 (30 years ago!), including a couple of rare screenshots of the GeoCities website from 1995 — when it was still known as Beverly Hills Internet. https://cybercultural.com/p/geocities-1995/ #InternetHistory #GeoCities (special thanks to @GIFmodel for the knowledge and @andrewjbtw for the 1995 BHI images)

In this week's Cybercultural post, I look back on Tumblr in 2012. In particular, I explore how the gifset — a collection of animated gifs — came to epitomize Tumblr's quirky appeal and helped redefine blogging. (note: I fired up my YouTube a/c for this post, recording 4 video screencasts to illustrate some beautiful 2012 gifsets) https://cybercultural.com/p/tumblr-2012/ #InternetHistory #Tumblr #gifsets

On February 19, 2007 — 18 years ago! — David Karp launched #Tumblr: "A tumblelog isn’t better than a blog. It’s not a replacement. But we’re certain it will be a fabulous alternative to the 90% of web users who don’t care to maintain a blog." https://davidville.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/tumblr/

Good thread here for those curious about bots. I made my own internet history bot recently: @cybercultural (cc @botwiki and @FediFollows for your directories)
https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/114031982543389776

This week on Cybercultural I continue my look back at 1994 in #InternetHistory. I delve into how Netscape Navigator brought multimedia to the web, what it took to move the industry beyond the "internet in a box" paradigm, and why it was time for the ROMbloids to move aside and make way for the Webuloids! https://cybercultural.com/p/netscape-1994/

This week's look back at #InternetHistory is again about 1994, and what I think was the world's first multimedia website: the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA). I tried my best to get some screenshots of IUMA from 1994, even though none appear to exist! I used somewhat blurry images from old YouTube videos and computer magazines. If anyone happens to have, or know of, a 1994 screenshot of IUMA, do let me know and I'll add it to the post. https://cybercultural.com/p/iuma-1994/

So BuzzFeed is promoting its new social media platform to compete with X, TikTok et al with...a 10,000 word manifesto?! https://www.buzzfeed.com/island/manifesto

2/2 I have to thank @stefan for his inspiration and @botwiki website — a great bots resource! Also shoutout to @simon, whose post guided the structure I chose: https://til.simonwillison.net/mastodon/mastodon-bots-github-actions. I'm using a #Python script running on GitHub Actions, with screenshots taken via Playwright.

Other credits:
- ChatGPT helped me build this.
- I’m hosting my bot on @tchambers Indieweb.social instance.
- And finally, of course, I’m using @internetarchive's Wayback Machine for the content snapshots.

1/2 I made a bot! I’ve created an internet history themed Mastodon bot: @cybercultural. It posts screenshots of classic tech news websites and tech blogs from Dot-Com, Web 2.0 and the 2010s. There’s one post per hour, so it’s not too noisy. I’ve attached an example toot, and I invite you all to follow the bot if you want some tech blogging memories in your feed.

Note: it’s still ‘under construction’, as we used to say in the ‘90s, but otherwise good to go!

Totally agree with this…can we just stop with the wall-to-wall toots about politics, ex-Twitter, etc. Let’s instead build the social web (and world) we want to live in.

“We don’t need any more irony-poisoned hot takes or cathartic, irreverent snark. We need to collectively decide what kind of world we actually do want, and what we’re willing to do to achieve it.”

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism https://www.404media.co/you-cant-post-your-way-out-of-fascism/

I'm the same, using social media over the past few weeks has become a chore again. That's another great thing about Usenet the web forums back in the day, you could choose what you wanted to engage with. Wish Mastodon (and fediverse in general) had more tools other than mute to dial down political stuff in one's feeds and lists. And btw, it's probably even worse on Bluesky.
https://alpaca.gold/@Jeremiah/113936618805176377

1/ OpenAI’s new Operator agent is a “research preview of an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you.” This was the logical next step in “AI agents” technology, and it prob will be useful for tasks like shopping, or researching something. Initially, I was concerned about AI becoming “the primary user of the web now,” as one AI newsletter posited. But on reflection it seems more suited to task-oriented web browsing, & there are many other aspects of the web that are not that.

It’s pretty incredible to see Pixelfed take off, after a very long period of Daniel valiently promoting the service on Mastodon every day. Just goes to show that an app or website can “pop” at any time, and get that magical tipping point moment. It’s something all of us indies dream of for our little projects, but it’s quite rare to achieve. So enjoy it @dansup and all the best for continued growth! https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113873246090418740

@Gargron Happy birthday! I can’t believe you’re only 32, that makes me feel very old. Maybe you’re a GenX in spirit :)

3/3 Of course, there are risks for users and sometimes trade-offs with a commercial company building on open tech. And sometimes those companies go too far or you simply don’t trust them (e.g. Meta and why I’ve always been suspicious of their entry into the fediverse). But there’s nothing wrong with trying to build a business on the open web — heck, even @timbl is doing that now. I’m fine with people posting their marxist or capitalist opinions, but remember there is a middle ground here.

2/3 Personally, I consider myself a “liberal”, but I’m closer to the capitalist side of the spectrum than marxist. In tech terms, that means I am a fan of startups and entrepreneurs. It’s OK to try and build a successful company with open technologies — e.g. I admire what @mike and @marci are doing with Flipboard. I actually wish @Gargron could earn more income from Mastodon. I’m ok with Bluesy trying to be a successful company with decentralised technologies.

1/3 The discourse about the #OpenWeb has become too black and white for my liking in this new political reality we’re all in now. Just because you support the open web doesn’t necessarily mean you are “left-wing” or a “marxist” — just as continuing to be on X or Meta products doesn’t necessarily make you “right-wing” or a “capitalist”. It’s not that simple, there are many shades of grey.