All I can do is nod.

As Github's trending page declined from interesting hobby projects to (what I now perceive to be) big tech status reports, and Gitlab proved to not be the freer alternative that people wanted (take a look at their sponsors), I began to despair.

The final nail on the coffin for me was the loss of the search function on pastebin last year, which used to be a treasure trove of juicy information.

When did it all go so wrong?

I look back to the silver age of the internet as if it were only a fever dream, promising a better tomorrow as it empowered anybody with a keen interest in learning something new.

Sure, I could put on my elitist hat and say the internet empowered people who shouldn't have been empowered, let alone let anywhere near a keyboard, but the internet was never a friendly place to begin with and trolls always a had a room they could troll.

I guess that's the thing I miss the most: room, space to breathe, to ask an honest question and to get a detailed reply in return or get told to go to hell, instead of now trying to attract an answer by asking a more popular question instead of the one I actually wanted to ask.

There's fear there. Fear to say the wrong thing to anger a hive mind that used to be flat hierarchy of reasonably like-minded individuals, and is now... well no one knows whats driving popular opinion on these sites any more, but it certainly isn't the users anymore.

I'm waiting for a real community-based internet to rise up again. Something I can connect to my neighbours with, and they can connect easily back. Something involving resource sharing to build trust. A community garden of sorts if you will.

Bartender I appear to have wandered outside into your garden during my tirade, and I must say - your roses smell fanstatic.