The mistake of yearning for the 'friendly' online world of 20 years ago

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Was the old internet really “friendlier”?

  • Many argue hostility, sexism, racism, scams and trolling existed from BBS/Usenet onward; nostalgia is selective.
  • Others say it felt friendlier because fewer people were online, and enthusiast communities were small, self-selected, and more invested.
  • Some note that marginalized users often had to hide identity, so “everyone got along” partly reflected who felt safe enough to be visible.

Centralization, algorithms, and scale

  • Big change: diffusion across many sites → a few massive platforms with algorithmic feeds.
  • Algorithms now drag users into rabbit holes and rage-bait; earlier, finding dark corners required intent.
  • Scale makes mass spam, SEO, influence ops and propaganda economically viable and politically relevant.

Small communities, culture, and gatekeeping

  • Strong nostalgia for small forums, IRC, mailing lists, and niche chats where you knew regulars.
  • Barriers to entry (cost, technical skill, “this tall to ride”) filtered out many casual or malicious users.
  • Several argue good communities require gatekeeping, dues, and explicit governance; open platforms inevitably degrade.

Identity, anonymity, and federation

  • Old norm: pseudonyms, compartmentalized identities, and minimal real-life linkage; many miss this.
  • Debate over how “walled” old IM systems (MSN/AIM/ICQ) really were vs today’s WhatsApp/Discord.
  • Federation (XMPP, IRC, Usenet) vs centralized silos recurs; some say situation is similar, others see a clear regression.

Moderation, censorship, and AI

  • Earlier moderation was local, human, and tightly coupled to community norms; now it’s centralized and opaque.
  • Concern that “civility” teams and safety policies blend corporate PR, censorship, and behavioral control.
  • Mixed views on AI moderators: potential scale benefits vs baked-in bias, prompt injection, and inability to handle adversarial users.

Commercialization and “enshittification”

  • Strong sense that motivation shifted from “build useful/cool things” to “monetize users and content as data.”
  • Ads are more pervasive; platforms optimize for engagement, brand-building, and influencer economics.
  • Some technical aspects improved (bandwidth, spam filtering, access), but many feel creativity, weirdness, and autonomy declined.