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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3775 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Where do you go on the internet to have fun in 2023?

I used to frequent the chans back when there were many small ones, read a lot of SA, Fugly, iMockery, even early Cracked and some Maddox, among dozens of other small sites. Then there was Stumbleupon which was like magic to me when it came out, and I came across all kinds of weird and interesting sites while using it.

I've outgrown a lot of those sites now -- they were a lot funnier when I was 15 -- but I haven't really found any new sites or communities that scratch the same itch. I usually check this place first for interesting bathroom reading, then if there's nothing new I check a few subreddits, and if I'm truly desperate I'll open 4chan, although the noise/bots/spam seem to finally have killed any originality that was still lingering (except for during the rare major Happening).

Help me avoid reading books and going outside by recommending a few fun, funny, and/or interesting sites to read.

rdrama.net

The modern internet feels very small and uninhabited.

I don't actually go there to have fun but that's definitely an excellent meta resource https://explore.marginalia.nu/view

e.g. I just found https://watcher.neocities.org/

You get an invitation.

Can't have normies come in.

Have your tried the edgier part of Mastodon?

I think Kiwifarms is like the last place that carries that 'old internet' vibe forward, complete with the crude sense of humor and disdain for social norms of civility.

Twitter is still pretty fun in certain spots if you follow a good combination of people. That is, after Elon loosened the thumbscrews off the spicier posters a bit.

The true 'fun' stuff really has been relegated to discord/telegram/slack or other groupchats.

If I want entertaining reading material then usually something like /r/hobbydrama or /r/bestofupdates / /r/bestoflegalupdates, as they tend to be fairly longform, varied in subject matter and end at a conclusion. Theonion is still funny, and there's McSweeny's if you like your humour dry and literary and sympathetic to the blue tribe, but it's easy to burn through a month's worth of new posts on both of those sites in less than an hour.

I think all the cool kids moved on to discord and telegram. The problem with the latter is that you can’t sign up for an anonymous account; it requires a phone number.

The problem with the latter is that you can’t sign up for an anonymous account; it requires a phone number.

Discord also requires a phone number for new accounts.

I thought telegram is a messaging app like Whatsapp

I think all the cool kids moved on to discord and telegram. The problem with the latter is that you can’t sign up for an anonymous account; it requires a phone number.

Telegram has giant chatrooms. It's a huge thing in the open source intelligence world right now. A ton of information about the war in Ukraine gets posted in telegram first, and then makes its way out to more normal news channels.

Besides this place, mainly 4chan. /pol/ is a shadow of what it once was but other boards are good. I frequent /lit/ and /ic/. /vg/ for certain video game topics. There are surprisingly good discussions to be had on /d/ if you’re interested in, well, /d/ sorts of topics.

I’m spending less and less time on reddit because most of the subreddits I used to frequent are naturally slowing down and dying over time.

I don't. I quit. It's all trash. I check the motte, read some newspapers, but even those are activities in decline. I use the internet to get specific pieces of information I'm looking for, but I no longer ask the internet "what's new"?

Edit: To be fair, it was all trash back when, too.

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