Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
Man has created the world's fastest, most reliable, most extensive, most accessable means of communication and information dissemination the world has ever known, and what's it being used for? Malicious circumnavigation of copyright laws, the mostly unhindered transfer and viewing of pornography, and the commission of countless incidents of virtually every type of crime on earth.
Other than that, it's a great reference resource, when all the SE's are working correctly; a way to make a buck or two through the honest application of traditional capitalist values; and a fun venue to express one's opinions without meeting the business end of someone's "zoot stick". :)
My websites all provide a product or service; some (ecommerce) make a reasonable amount of pocket money, while some are just informational. The commercial outrank the informational about 2:1. My little piece of the 'net might not be raking in millions, but at least it's HTML 4.01 compliant. :)
My strongest view is one of shame.
Yep. The Internet sucks.
What frustrates me most about trying to establish a respectable online business is how difficult it is to isolate yourself / your business from the trashy side of the Internet.
On the Internet, there is no demarcation between "Intelligent and Sensible" and "Stupid or Trashy".
In real life, you probably know which areas of the city to avoid if you don't want to get involved in "that stuff".
If you want to go shopping, you'll go to the Mall, where (in general) every business is an established, fair, honest and professional company, who would no doubt provide great customer service. If you have lunch in the food court you know that it is almost certainly hygienically prepared and will be good food.
The Internet has no real parallel with the Mall or an established "City Center" shopping area.
On the Internet, "Scams-R-Us" are right next door to "J C Penny".
I recently thought i'd try-out one of the latest banner exchange networks on my "fun" site, because they said "We only accept high quality advertisers and manually check all advertisers before accepting them into the network."
Now I credit most of the people that visit my site with an IQ. The ads that this network started serving up were an embarrassment to human-kind. How can any of us actually come up with the stuff they were trying to palm off? Pyramid schemes, MLM, all the usual stuff you see in SPAM messages. Right there in front of my professional audience.
The Internet sucks. :)
Is it a place where Joe Public can mull around, keep warm or cool and dry, touch and feel things, meet friends, eat and drink and generally treat it as a municiple building?
Or does it have a darker side? is it there for no other reason than a giant piggy bank?
Perhaps the internet and shoping centres are on the same lines.
I once did a presentation 10 years ago on the trends in the internet. I postulated 3 major phases. 1) a network for the transfer of military intelligence secure from the breakdown on solitary channel failures, 2) a network for the transfer of research and communications between gov and acadmic researchers mainly working in very specific areas where other experts may be remote in time and space, and 3) a commercial phase coming up fast as users became more mainstream.
I was criticised for calling it the commercial phase by many there at that time, but i think history has proved me right.
My definition too, I think has stood the test of time - the major shift in being the "reasons" why these documents are interlinked.
The Internet has no real parallel with the Mall or an established "City Center" shopping area.On the Internet, "Scams-R-Us" are right next door to "J C Penny".
Being big and respected doesn't mean squat - the big guys rip people off for much more money, consumers just don't realize it.
How many ads are there from the respected three credit bureaus offering "Tri Merged - Three in One Credit Reports"
"View your credit history as reported by the three major
credit reporting agencies with just one order
See a line-by-line comparison of your credit information from all three agencies"
Says one of the respected sites - what people don't realize is this is a SCAM - they drop info they can't figure out how to merge - these are almost worthless if your checking your credit for a mortgage. People don't know this - and neither did I until a few months ago.
Long distance - false advertising a plenty....
Sorry to get off track.
I view the Internet as my research tool, play ground, personal piggy bank, and general link to the outside world.
Being big and respected doesn't mean squat - the big guys rip people off for much more money, consumers just don't realize it.
There's a big difference between being ripped off for something that has value, and being conned into paying any amount of money for something that has no value whatsoever.
I was referring to the latter - I just didn't make it clear enough in my post.
Great Question?
Well I am tring to balance both ends.Internet is a wonder option,an option which no other means can provide.If I have a brilliant Idea and great value for my information,I can start sharing right away, or build business on it.Had internet not been there, then I could never imagine myself going for (My interest Artificial Life Advertisements on TV), which cost a million.
Because of internet I am more vibrant , I can express safely ,freely and securely.Yet get paid for it (not pay for giving information)
Coming to Spam on the internet, yes it is very high and in very visible form,I belive oflate it's decreasing, with google being able to catch hidden text and the like.This is on decreasing trend to some extent I belive.
Will we able to control SPAM? No not in the near future.
Are we in a place where we can say these sites are good and these are not maintaing the standards?
The answer is CLEAR NO,for an average user it's very long call to distinguish good sites from the whole lot.
Will we get there, yes the latest toolbars seem to help a little extent in identifing good sites(google, alxea).Again another long journey for internet to make.
Can we control SPAM in email newsletter, no perhaps not in the near future.
So how do we help internet grow?,
by contributing excellent stuff, put in hardwork on SEO,then make sure the spammed copies and other things get burried deep down on SERPs.By adsense google helped here in encouraging web publishing content wise.Only if they show discretion in selection will this help internet in general.
Perhaps an organisation which manually checks top 100 sites in each category and awards based on the content is required.
For me,Internet is future and it will grow rapidly and perhaps far too unpredictably.Thus bringing in uncertainity business or otherwise.
Aravind
PS: Internet: where the world becomes a villiage.
It's also the embodiment of empowerment. You can put up a website tomorrow by yourself and literally impact the world.
1)Community - www.webmasterworld.com
2)Personal Printing Press for Money - I realized just a bit ago that everytime I come across something cool I think "Can I make money with a website about that thing?". When all the fuss started about the impending Harry Potter book I built a site. I saw that Hillary Clinton was writing a book and thot to myself that I should build a site. I look at everything with 'online glasses' these days. I register domains on a whim because I might one day build a site about something or other. Every website I look at I try and figure out how they can monitize it and how I could potentially get a piece of the pie. I think it's a sickness of sorts :) I can't remember the last time I surfed just for fun and information.
Absolutely! Bingo! Without a doubt! (ran out of enthusiastic phrases, but you get the idea.)
See opening the door(way)s [webmasterworld.com]. I'm just back from a meeting where I use my network of sites to generate traffic and otherwise promote a growing list (now 50+) of official sites. I underwrite web-related expenses (and sometimes significant development costs) that should be paid for out of state, regional, or local budgets --great ideas and services that will get killed by the bureaucrats.
Payback? Works for me, I've monetized content sites since 1995-6.
After a while I found that Holidays were fun but too long away from the Internet and I'd get frustrated.
In order to make money you get sidetracked and in your search for knowledge discover lots of interesting distractions, WW is one, it can provide lots of good advice and a chat with kindred spirits, sometimes in the Forums and other times via stickies.
In my search for links I've made friends with other webmasters, exchanged mailing lists and tips.
So in summary its less of a source of information for me but more of a way of life and the money is a bonus.
World Wide Web - the various websites and other resources that reside on some of the computers that are connected to the Internet and are accessible through it.
There, now that my exhaustive thesis on what's what is done... ;)
It was my job to build websites for clients. Then it became a sideline hobby to build my own. Now (as Symbios aptly noted) it's become an obsession. Mostly because I find it fascinating to take what I learn/theorize, apply it, and then measure my results.
Sure I want to make money, and it is an important component as to why I do this, but the real drive is my curiosity and the ease with which I can manipulate the range of possible outcomes. I'm still tickled pink to learn that people from the other side of the planet visit my websites and actually stay to read something! So I'd have to say it's the provision of the content that intrigues me the most.
Thanks for the question, it has an effect, you reminded me of a lot of things I used to feel, time to remember them again
it leveled the playing field, remember that one? it really did lower the price of entry.
I always thought it was probably pretty wild and wooly when they were building the railroads, and there were scams and ripoffs aplenty then (now institutionalized, so there are less surprises)
But same thing here, we're all at the primitive level of the infrastructure, it still hasn't yet attained to the old science fiction level where the smart house knows what you want and acts as your agent for you, almost invisibly, so you live your simply human life.
But that's where it's all going, we just are building railroads right now, bound to feel a little grimy at times ;)
