internet useage critical mass

[burntcopper]

:pokes internets:

You know how there's that timeline for the internet memes? (when 'all your base belong to us' and rickrolling first hit the web)

I have decided there really needs to be a trends aggregator. Specifically, when it got to be critical mass of how people used t'internets.

For example : communities used to be based in email groups. (onelist, egroups, yahoogroups) Now they're mostly on places like lj (especially fic) because it turned out to be a hell of a lot easier to organise and archive, you didn't get a full inbox, you didn't have the spam problem, etc. When did the critical mass happen?

Another one : people get music in all kinds of ways. Download sales have now overtaken cds. We all know youtube is the main place if you want to watch vids and short clips, most big media organisations have their own channels, *theatre* groups have their own channels for advertising, etc.

However : when did it get to be people's jukebox if they just wanted to listen to a song? (not download, just listen to it, like on the radio - good for 'look, this is what it sounds like') Used to be that you'd google for the mp3, now you're more likely to check youtube.

any other critical mass examples?

In other news, yours truly would really like to know when I started referring to Terry Pratchett as 'Mr. Pratchett' in conversation. And where I picked it up from. I don't refer to other writers like this. I used to say 'Terry', or 'Pratchett'. I say 'Terry' to his face. Now if there's a conversation *about* him and his work when talking to people who've never met him, I always say 'Mr. Pratchett'.

Btw, gmh and clanwilliam, have you got your copies of the newsletter? There are some fabulous photos of you two. Me, it's all fuzzy. :sigh: But several quotes. Gideon got one too. Though really not sure why Jacqueline Simpson seemed to think I was a junior version of whoever it was the Raven haired.

Also : fuck me it's cold out there. Actual *winter* appears to have set in.

Comments

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Well, there appears to be a quote from a "Gideon Hallet" but I don't know anyone by that name.

*sighs*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

am thinking that they raided certain blogs and then stuck to those. And they may need proofreaders. or pseudonyms, that's always possible...

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Shame that the person actually putting it together has known G for over a decade, isn't it? And the quote came from G's post to the DWCon community.

That would be the post with his full name correctly spelled at the top: http://community.livejournal.com/discworld_2008/29411.html

[gmh.livejournal.com]

I flicked through it briefly - aargh, still have to get around to putting my DWCon photos up - but haven't had the time as yet to sit down properly and look through it.

...as for the name thing; well, yes, but there are people who annoy me when they leave the second 't' off (like my employers, or my bank); and people I don't mind so much - the person misspelling it this time around has at least misspelt it consistently for the last decade.

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=82228) was the first example that came to mind.

[cynicalcylon.livejournal.com]

I've always heard you alternate 'Terry' with 'Mr Pratchett'.
You seem to always use 'Terry' when talking directly to me though, so not sure...

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:ponders: maybe I believe that those who have not met him should show proper respect. Like Mr. Vimes. Subconscious, meet vocal reinforcement...

[cynicalcylon.livejournal.com]

Hehe...yeah, maybe...

[fahrenheit-f430.livejournal.com]

Imo, LJ critical mass is the point of convergence between LotR:TT & RotK and HP:CoS & PoA. You can practically draw a line through it with HP:OotP (book) & PotC:tCotBP.

The YT upsurge, imo, is totally down to Napster and when Google added a search-video facility. A lot of music vids were already on the web in squinty - picture=bad, sound=bloody great. So when Napster's legit service went live and they started charging to rent DRM locked tracks, people moved on to cheaper alternatives. iTunes went off like a rocket at about the same time - so people were previewing for free with vids found through Google Video & buying through iTunes. Then YT came along and the only thing that changed was the files moved from squinty to watchable *.flv.

That's just what I think anyway. One's a collision of two huge mass fandoms and the latter's economics & market trends.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

huh. interesting. i was on the hpslash list back when it was still book-based but left before the films hit properly - people were squinting at pictures of Tom whatsisface in that Jodie Foster film and going 'er. Does not scream 'Draco' to me.' when I was on them. and remember the rumblings about lj and all the screaming about napster, which at the time I couldn;t give a toss about, since I was happy with my cds and the radio. for some reason I've always been relatively low-fi with a ridiculously cutting-edge reading list. so I heard about he trends and tech in their infancy but never used them til they were stable.

[fahrenheit-f430.livejournal.com]

It's my brain's way of indexing things. eg, If I wanted to find something related to Magnificent 7: The Series - I wouldn't bother with LJ as the MLs were more active. In reverse BSG: New Series - hit LJ, exhaust everything then scrounge the web.

It sets up a whole lot of date lines in my head. PotC? A lot of the websites that went up didn't last as long as the LJs that're still knocking around and went up before the sites. My brain puts that down as 'Failed LJ-to-web transfer'. LotR & HP predate LJ, but the truly crazeh fandom element didn't kick off until LJ and things started travelling instantly. E-mail? You had to write, send, download, read etc - LJ write & send and it instantly appeared on your friends FPs.

YT's something totally different and, imo, its popularity is down to market trends, the availability of cheap good-res video/webcams/phonecams, broadband standard speeds and editing software. People looking songs up there is down to the number of mp3 sites that got pulled after Napster, and as Napster were offering pay-to-listen-not-to-own services people effectively went 'UP YOURS!' - listened through YT & bought through iTunes.

I'm 99.9% convinced all internet history and evolution can be charted by looking at all the ways Big Business has said "The internet doesn't have people it has CUSTOMERS!" and the people've gone "Sod. Off." - look at the furore when Y!G started putting ads on the site, on the base of e-mails etc. Everyone went to LJ... Now LJ are doing it, everyone's got FF with No Script & Ad Blocker.

It's The Untouchables in real time: "Capone puts one of your men in the hospital, you put two of his in the morgue." :-D

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Oh you young internet person :-) Communities used to be in usenet newsgroups and on IRC....

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Well, communities used to be on mailing lists (cf listserv) before they were on IRC, but you are correct in that usenet predates them both.

I think IRC, thanks to the "I", is a slightly different beast, though.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

I know. I used to hear about them and then figured you needed extra time and attention and then missed half the conversation because you went away for two hours. I am not nothing if not lazy.

Which for some reason often means that I look at something in disgust as overly complex, then provide a how-to guide. With footnotes and tagging so you can find things.

'...what are you doing?'
'writing the manual on how to use the xml program for newbies. The old manual was shit and too vague.'