The internet is slipping out of our reach

Search, SEO, and “Enshitification”

• Many see Google search as the core problem: ads, sponsored results, pop‑ups, tracking, and SEO content farms crowd out useful material.
• Users increasingly append site:reddit, reddit, or wiki to get better answers, or abandon Google entirely for smaller engines or proxies.
• Others argue Google is still “fine” for many queries and are tired of the doom narrative.
• There’s consensus that SEO has turned “being found” into the primary goal of content, not being useful.

Role of AI and LLMs

• LLM‑generated content is seen as accelerating spam and poisoning search indexes, worsening signal‑to‑noise and killing serendipity.
• Some see AI as just the latest step in an older trend of algorithmic “sabotaged search.”
• Views diverge on AI’s significance: some think it’s overhyped and obviously dumb; others warn that dismissing it based on current flaws is shortsighted.

Corporate Incentives and Centralization

• Several comments blame investor pressure for infinite growth, leading to squeezing existing products instead of real innovation.
• Critiques focus on big platforms (Google, social networks, GitHub) centralizing the web and optimizing for ads, engagement, and shareholder value.
• Counter‑argument: individuals still choose to use these platforms; the deeper issue is human preference for easy but lower‑quality options.

Walled Gardens, Private Spaces, and the “Dark Forest”

• Many good conversations now happen in Discord, Telegram, small servers, and invite‑only groups.
• Some see this retreat to private spaces as a healthy “dark forest” defense against harassment, politics, and spam; others dislike the loss of public, searchable knowledge.

Security Models and Self‑Hosting

• One thread blames the “ambient authority” model (apps get all your permissions) for centralization; capability‑based systems are proposed as an alternative.
• Others note that sandboxing on mobile, browsers, and macOS already mitigates this somewhat and that many users simply don’t want to self‑host.

Curation, Directories, and Alternatives

• There is nostalgia for early human‑curated directories and suggestions we may “come full circle” via curated link lists, GitHub “awesome” lists, and indie web efforts.
• Niche search engines (e.g., Marginalia) and community forums are praised but acknowledged as inherently niche.

Anonymity, Identity, and Future Communities

• Some fear a future where participation requires strong “proof of self,” killing anonymity; others fear the opposite—LLMs inferring everything about you from leaked behavioral data.
• There’s interest in more gated, reputation‑based communities as a defense against manipulation, but concern about exclusion and “midwit” gatekeeping.