Prediction of the decline of forums on the internet.

[QuickTwist]

I just watched a video:


In this video, it talks about how big data is used and the dangers of it.

Because of this video, I predict that within the next 20 years that forums like this one will be a thing of the past. I do NOT want that to happen.

Why I think forums will either be changed drastically or go extinct is because, as far as I am aware, at this point in time, Forums (at least the kinds like these that are good) don't give your data to advertising companies. Forums represent free speech because, though they often have a central topic, people are more or less uncensored for their views on things, especially on sites like this one. Because forums represent free speech and don't use big data, they are a threat to sites that do use big data. Long story short, sites like google are very influential into what content you can find online. If these algorithms figure out that forums are a threat to themselves, they could very well try and influence things to get rid of them. I believe this is not only possible, but likely.

My question for this theory, is what exactly is @Ragnar and other admins doing to ensure that INTPf sticks around? I imagine certain precautions are being made behind the scenes for this, so I just would like to know what is being done about this issue.

 

[elliptoid]

Call me crazy or idiotic, but you are looking to see what the owners and admin are doing to alleviate your fears that Google's AI will eliminate free speech in 20 years or so via the censorship of one particular medium that you are familiar with?? And a campaign to raise 500 GBP of funding to overhaul the software isn't good enough for the time being ... you want the details of their long term plan posted publicly, so the aforementioned malicious AI has all the self-disclosure it requires to make the decision to eradicate in the first place.

Seems legit.

 

[QuickTwist]

Call me crazy or idiotic, but you are looking to see what the owners and admin are doing to alleviate your fears that Google's AI will eliminate free speech in 20 years or so via the censorship of one particular medium that you are familiar with?? And a campaign to raise 500 GBP of funding to overhaul the software isn't good enough for the time being ... you want the details of their long term plan posted publicly, so the aforementioned malicious AI has all the self-disclosure it requires to make the decision to eradicate in the first place.

Seems legit.

Fuck you.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Well, one thing is influencing the masses by selectively showing them information satifying certain criteria - another is to delete websites from the internet. They cannot really do the latter. Another thing is that google certainly doesn't have a monopoly on search results. I for one stopped using it a while back because its search results are overoptimised and give you very monotonic information. Not to mention, it collects information on you in a very intrusive manner. I'm using duckduckgo instead.

 

[QuickTwist]

I am not arguing that Google is going to "delete" Forums. I am saying that Forums are going to be phased out because they don't participate in big data. What sites like Google CAN do, is largely omit results that give addresses to forum sites. And BTW, let's think about what you said about Google not having a "monopoly." One very easy example to come up with is the "ok google" voice search you can do with phones. Also, I believe google is a fucking huge company since pretty much everyone in the US has heard of it.

And it's not like I am saying this is going to happen tomorrow.. 20 years is a lifetime in the tech industry.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

But why would they start hiding fora in general from search results? And even if they did, that would make their seach engine useless and thus giving people an incentive to start using alternative ones.

My prediction is somewhat the opposite. As big data and heavy computation becomes cheaper and more accessible, the more competitors there will be to google, youtube, etc, and you'll get a more diverse web. For example duckduckgo, which is steadily becoming more popular, was made by one guy as some hobby project. I imagine that would be impossible, say, 20 years ago.

 

[Black Rose]

Google reads open threads from INTP forum all the time. And to purge just forum software sites would give them no benefit. You still can read personality from the forum people visit. Which gives them what they want. The only forum so far to be purged was Stormfront the white supremacist forum. You cannot find links to it anywhere on google. Let's say 100,000 forum exists and Google purged them. you know what happens then? 100,000 hackers attack Google, Shit goes down mother fuckers. This is not some baby milk Russia trump stuff, this is One Hundred THOUSAND people, Like Kuu, Like Ragnar, Like Adaire. Pissed off at Google. You just cannot mess with the natural order of the internet and hope to survive as you once were. The YouTube censorship thing is still hot right now from a year ago. If forums becomes endangered it will be from Matrix-like virtual reality that is more fun than sitting in from of a million pixel screen. Not google purges.

 

[elliptoid]

Fuck you.

do you always say this when other people post in your threads? you like having 0 replies?

 

[~~~]

And yet she still uses fb - see ~19:09.

 

[washti]

eerrr how forum isn't part of big data? It's indexed on search engines, their bots are infiltrating all the time. if you don't clean cookies it's even worse! Your own thread is subjected to Google Tag Manager and Double Click Add
But I'm sure our mods are silent heroes in fight with it.
like really.

 

[QuickTwist]

But why would they start hiding fora in general from search results? And even if they did, that would make their seach engine useless and thus giving people an incentive to start using alternative ones.

My prediction is somewhat the opposite. As big data and heavy computation becomes cheaper and more accessible, the more competitors there will be to google, youtube, etc, and you'll get a more diverse web. For example duckduckgo, which is steadily becoming more popular, was made by one guy as some hobby project. I imagine that would be impossible, say, 20 years ago.

Why do you think that would make their search engine obsolete? Did you even watch the video? they could be doing it without anyone knowing explicitly what they are doing.

We are looking at two different things.. you are looking at it in terms of diversity, I am looking at it in terms of having companies that are basically more powerful than the government.

do you always say this when other people post in your threads? you like having 0 replies?

As Hodo put it, I don't break chill unless some else does first.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Why do you think that would make their search engine obsolete? Did you even watch the video? they could be doing it without anyone knowing explicitly what they are doing.

Well, we have a TED talk here where they are talking about it, so we know quite explicitly what they are doing. I think in the future, people will be even more informed about such things, for reasons mentioned above.

One has to remember: google is one of the first large search-engine companies in the history of humankind. We are still in the iron age of technology, and in the future there will be a lot more companies in that business, very much like IBMs monoply on computers was eventually dismatled by Compaq and so on.

 

[QuickTwist]

Well, we have a TED talk here where they are talking about it, so we know quite explicitly what they are doing. I think in the future, people will be even more informed about such things, for reasons mentioned above.

One has to remember: google is one of the first large search-engine companies in the history of humankind. We are still in the iron age of technology, and in the future there will be a lot more companies in that business, very much like IBMs monoply on computers was eventually dismatled by Compaq and so on.

The point of the video wasn't necessarily that these things happen, but that they are pretty much unstoppable without extreme vigilance, and given how invested the american people are in politics, I don't think it is realistic to think that people are actually going to do much about it.

 

[Kuu]

There's not much sites can do in regards to massive data collection by governments and corporations save from keeping their user's data to themselves in a secure manner. It's the users that have to take the precautions to minimize their trackability.

Forums (and other sites) do get censored and demoted in google and other engines if their content is unsavory to those that run the platforms, but they don't do it too heavy handedly. Free speech in the era of mass media doesn't need to be silenced, when it can simply be drowned out with noise. There are botnets that swarm websites and flood them with shit posts, as well as real people that use sockpuppets to post terrible content and harrass users, stir drama with the mods or infiltrate the administration and in general destroy the community that is targeted. They do psychological profiles of the bigger influencers and try to disrupt them. There's even been leaks of the manuals used by intelligence agencies to do that sort of thing...

https://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm

In any case, it seems to me silly to "predict" the decline of forums in 2018 when social media has been wrecking them for a whole full decade.