Dark Forest Internet

[LostCable]

I'd love to hear users ideas of Dark Forest internet.

The basic idea is that as AI and doxxing becomes more prevalent people move to more private modes of the internet (think DM's / groupchats ) private darknets away from the more traditional social media.

https://www.ystrickler.com/the-dark-forest-theory-of-the-internet/

Considering everyone here is more willing to branch out from the usual big mainstream web I'd love to know your thoughts or ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sTymNqta3o

[Troid41]

Just finished reading the article and watching the podcast episode, and I have always found this way of thinking fascinating.

Whilst I do not agree that the internet is currently a "dark forest", I do understand that it may feel like it sometimes.

I don't think it is a dark forest because a large percentage of people using social media don't purposefully put themselves in a bubble, but they are brought there by the algorithm.

I do agree with you in the sense that, I feel like we are *becoming* darker, a lot of us... Silent even! xD

Which is why I really appreciated yours and Asaklair's idea to make the XMPP chat. It's another corner of the internet for me to inhabit with others 👁
Not only that, but it feels very anonymous, very disconnected, which I like.


I both love and fear the idea of the internet becoming "darker yet darker", because then we start devolving on all matters of the mind, politically, emotionally, morally.

If we retract to bubbles and only those bubbles, I think we become both softer and harsher to anything that is not commonplace within said bubbles. Which is why I have... Many online accounts going by different names. I try and view wildly different "bubbles" in many respects, because I am someone who rants a lot, and often I want to be able to say that I have personal experience with what I am critiquing. Not only that but there's just... So much out there!

I think we are surrounded by chaos, and I love this chaos. There's so much gold tucked away amidst this flood of slop, information AND entertainment wise. Just look at this place, I am such a glazer of it, and if it gets annoying do let me know lolol, but it really is an underrated thing to find out on the wild web! Had I not found this through YouTube, I think maybe once the Neocities page was put up maybe I would have found it then xD

A lot of this "gold" is surrounded by invisible "guards", the norms of each group. Hence, the creation of multiple accounts, because otherwise, in most cases, you'll just be viewed as an outsider. Or sometimes you'll just not be able to get into those spaces, it feels almost like a performance at times. I wish I could give concrete examples, but this is already getting pretty long, and I also don't want to detail all that I do online LOL

The singular example I can give is Minecraft Modded RP spaces. Those are a good one for "if you don't fit in, you'll be excluded"! xD

So... Uh, yes...! I do think it is true, but also that we are more in a noisy forest still, lots of unaware birds chirping on the ground while about 40% of the other birds like us hide amongst the tree branches. And a few, like me, have 7 different birds on the ground, in the branches, in the clouds, just trying to see it all at the same time and ending up ghosting 5 people for days at a time

[yeebus]

very very interesting theory to be put onto reading about, thank you!! I have been considering (and acting on) pulling away from the internet. ive deleted socials on my phone and check a few of them every so often only because my friends are on there. yam is my most dedicated social media platform, same for Kiri (and Asaklair just... plays his vidya games on his own LOL). I've enjoyed this exclusivity and having this little group of friends to have a personal social media just for us but with the public allowed to watch (yes i am just describing a blog that everyone had in the 2000s but thats also exactly what we wanted). we have a lot more planned- like i keep saying- to grow the site and to have more places for users to actually interact and come back to and not have it just be a neat one-time art site like a lot of other personal blogs.

i really do appreciate all the birds we've collected, even if it's only a few, and even if our tree branch's leaves start falling off we'll come back to it and nurture it to regrow when we can.

life has been very busy with my new job, and I can't meet with the team so often because of my schedule so production has been slow. ideas keep stewing to really get our little bubble off the ground and more known to the public. i mean you may have noticed a lack of new members on the forum and we have fewer monthly visits on the mainsite because we kind of just stopped talking about it and working on it as much, so nobody is able to even find out about this place. we have plans to change that which would involve siphoning people from other much greater bubbles (youtube, insta, twitter, etc.) but it just takes so much energy to pander to those algorithms. once that work is done hopefully word of mouth can promulgate the site a bit more and take some weight off our shoulders...

now im ranting too teehee

_{nice gaster reference in there too lol}