As the author of a content management system I made with the idea to democratize internet content creation, I've had a lot of the same thoughts that the author brings up here. I've always thought that even learning Markdown was a bridge to far when it comes to empowering non-technical users however. In my experience it's best just to supply tooling similar to Word where you have buttons for things like lists and bolding. Using Markdown as the format itself is something I will agree with though.
Another thought I had is that local AI could most definitely play a part in helping non-technical users create the kind of content they want. If your CMS gives you a GPT-like chat window that allows a non-technical user to restyle the page as they like, or do things like make mass edits - then I think that is something that could help some of the issues mentioned here.
It's definitely an approach. I do think in true democratization of the internet, teaching people some tech is inevitable. We just can't have equal access if we retain the classes of user and maker as completely distinct.
Even worse than cancellation is when there's sloppy writing that is very obviously in place to push the series into another season while a bunch of plot threads go unresolved. It's like the corporate greed is being placed front and center of the content itself.
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I gave it an image of my crappy art and asked what steps I could take to make it look better. It gave me specific advice like varying the line widths and how to use this on specific parts of the character. It also pointed out that the shading in my piece was inconsistent and did not reflect the 3d form I was representing and again gave me specific fixes I could implement. I asked for it to give me an updated version of the piece with all of its advice implemented and it did so. I was pretty shocked at all of this.
I'm honestly surprised that VR hasn't been a bigger impact on board games. Besides the obvious fact that you can more easily get people together, software is great at handling the non-gameplay related "administration" that takes time away from the fun. Things that come to mind: shuffling decks, misdeals, misunderstood rule-sets (I'm looking at you D&D 3.5).
I guess the downside is also pretty big: no face-to-face communication - which itself can be a detriment to gameplay in games like Poker or PvPvE games like Dead of Winter. Also the tactile-ness of board games is such a nice escape from everything being digitized these days.
It's limited by how many people have VR rigs in the first place, and by the other things people might do instead if they've already decided they're going to play a multiplayer game on a computer or console, that aren't virtual board games.
I'd rather hop into Minecraft or whatever with some friends, if that's what I'm doing, than card or board game simulator. I'd guess that's a common sentiment.
Further, I'd rather play some very plain poker game (like the old Windows card games) with voice chat on than try to do some VR thing. Most of the benefits, and doesn't monopolize your attention. But that part may just be me.
I got the same "old, weird internet" vibe that you did. Back in the 90's there seemed to be more moonshot ideas like VRML and The Palace Chat - things that were maybe a little silly and geeky but at least pointed the way to something that could eventually become more useful and developed.
I wonder how many great websites we lost with the death of Flash.
Off the top of my head, I remember visiting the website for the movie Donnie Darko back when the film was originally released and being blown away at the strangeness and creativity of it.
> If I were to predict, Google would start identifying trends and slowly start ranking reddit higher for user centric queries. In my limited dev experience, that is already happening for Stack overflow. I love how the results are clubbed together under the first result.
Weird, I'm having the opposite experience with stackoverflow pages. Often I get pages from random websites that copy and paste stackoverflow content with some jammed-in SEO ABOVE the actual stackoverflow results.
Great timing! Just today I did a Google search in an attempt to figure out why my skin surrounding some recent scar tissue had a yellow discoloration. Didn't find my answer until the third page!
Another thought I had is that local AI could most definitely play a part in helping non-technical users create the kind of content they want. If your CMS gives you a GPT-like chat window that allows a non-technical user to restyle the page as they like, or do things like make mass edits - then I think that is something that could help some of the issues mentioned here.