this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 145 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Seeing Tom Scott and MatPat being called the "old internet" might be the thing that puts me in retirement

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago

TIL I was using the Jurassic Internet as a teenager

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Old internet to me is straight up pointlesswasteoftime.com, which eventually got absorbed by Cracked like a cheap suppository after David Wong (aka mediocre comedy writer Jason Pargin) sold out. That was in 2007. And now Cracked is functionally a content graveyard.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And I thought the old internet was YTMND,slashdot, and fark.

Fuck I’m old.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And now Cracked is functionally a content graveyard.

I'll have you know that Cracked is the number one source for shitty listicles that were generated by running a /r/AskReddit thread through an AI.

I assume, at least. Haven't actually visited cracked since before 2010 probably.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

It got bought out by the company that owns KnowYourMeme, ebaumsworld, and the "I can has cheezeburger?" website in 2019. That's pretty much all you need to know.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 9 months ago (7 children)

The general reaction to this post being "Who's Matpat?" is super interesting to me. And the comments saying that Tom Scott and Matpat aren't old are also interesting since they follow the trend in Lemmy of the average age being a lot older than any other social network. I'm Gen Z and primarily consume content via a very Zoomer-heavy platform, YouTube, and the only other social network I have is Lemmy, which I'd say is very millennial-dominated. Which is why I stayed on Lemmy when I first got on here in June, since I liked the difference in opinion on the same topics on Lemmy and YouTube. Nothing related to the post, just something I've noticed for a while but never shared.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago

I feel like people not knowing this Matpat person may also just be a case of the channel being called "The Game Theorists".

I have seen videos of that channel suggested, but never clicked on any, because it looked like typical content mill stuff to me. If you don't watch any videos, you'll only ever read "The Game Theorists"...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (2 children)

as a fellow zoomer I can verify that Lemmy is unique in that you and me as zoomers seem to be a minority here

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

This place is a lot like what the older Internet from the 80s and 90s was like, just a bunch of disjointed seperate individually run forums and communities run by passionate individuals in a world of digital anarchy where you can find something new every day. One minute you're downloading guitar tabs handwritten by some random metal fan, to reading about some guy named Steve's tribute website to his pet dog the next.

I think that's what draws us in and keeps us here for the older folks.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Same here, it's a lot more chill of a place at least

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

YouTube is zoomer heavy. I know that's true, but I like to believe that I, a millennial, am still welcome there.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I've got accounts older than my niece and she'll be 16 in a month.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I remember YouTube being millennial dominated. I wonder if it's just a phase before realizing you're throwing comments into the void and by being a central social site that still allows anonymity, it just invokes trolls - like xitter.

Wait till you find out YouTube isn't that old and came about because some horny dudes couldn't find the video of Janet Jackson's boob. I mean, 18 is ancient for the internet and other tech, but I'd say it goes beyond just being a website with its social prevalence.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Honestly I just consider "old internet" to be before I was even born

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

The „old internet“ imho is before the few social media sites swallowed all the small forums we had

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago (5 children)

The public internet has been around about three times longer than what you're calling "old".

Geocities, Angelfire, and dialup modems are the "old" internet.

[–] DaleGribble88 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

No kidding. Wardialing with my C64 and a 300 baud modem was the shit in the mid 80s.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

I used ftp, Archie, and gopher in college. I even had a paper book called “The Internet Yellow Pages” before search engines were a thing.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago

Seeing MatPat being called the old internet is...something all right. Almost as disorienting as seeing all the "Who?" reactions to the news. I guess it isn't that surprising given how huge Youtube is. I'm sure there are plenty of giant channels I've never heard of. That being said I'm curious to see if any more "old-school" youtubers decide to retire over the next year.

[–] snowe 43 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Never even heard of matpat and I’ve been using YouTube since 2006

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You've missed out on literally nothing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well it was good in the beginning. I stopped watching when he started uploading FNAF. Back then YouTube was fun as a young gamer: A+Start, Scykoh, the CrazyRussianHacker, animated Minecraft Music Videos to name a few.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

What, you've never heard of the "game theory guy"?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not OP but I’ve never heard of that channel either, surprised that YouTube has never recommended it to me despite watching mostly tech and gaming videos

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Question: are you over the age of 12? In which case, you're outside of the demographic for MatPat videos

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago

Physically? Yes. Maturity-wise? The jury’s out…

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

I always knew him as the guy that copied reddit and tvtropes forum posts and put them into youtube videos while providing no credit to the original people that came up with them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

John von Neumann?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

For those of y'all who don't know: MatPat has announced that he will be stepping down from The Game Theorists to focus on himself and his family; Tom Scott has gone on indefinite hiatus for similar reasons.

I believe this heralds a new era of the internet, where 'old' creators are not as influential as the 'new' crop springing up, given the rise of Tiktok and the general direction of social media as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This seems like a big change only because YouTube/content creators are such a new phenomenon. Makes sense to change tracks after doing the same thing for a while. Or retire if you get filthy rich. It's a natural cycle, only this time in a new environment.

Tom Scott has been doing the same thing for 10 years. Hell I can barely do the same job for 2 years without getting bored out of my mind.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The Game Theorists

Who? I feel like my algo has me under a rock.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This is how I find out matpat is retiring?!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

The old Internet died when Reddit became "the front page of the Internet"

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Meanwhile the Angry Video Game Nerd won't retire when he really should.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Why is that? Haven't watched him in a while.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago

If the 4 hour long hbomberguy video is to be believed, the Angry Video Game Nerd channel (?) got bought by a company that turned it into something of a content mill. And there's some plagiarism involved.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

From what I've heard on the grapevine (I also don't watch his stuff), his channel really declined in quality past 2019, and it just hasn't been the same.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

He signed up with one of those media management companies to help him promote and produce content. He mostly did it because he wanted to spend more time with his family, because he's not really a gamer and has been running out of games he played as a kid, and because he's kind of inept, to be honest. He made a behind the scenes video that showed just how ramshackle his workflow is.

Anyway, once he got that company involved, they injected themselves into his videos as well as write and edit,nand everyone was wondering who "these fat slobs" were? They just appeared with no introduction. The quality of his content took a nosedive around this time. They also started adding all sorts of new content, like rental reviews and podcasts that all died out very quickly due to lack of interest (and because they were mostly centered around the slobs rather than James). You could also tell James wasn't very interested in any of it.

Anyway there's more to it, but that's the big stuff.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

No idea who Matpat is, but I will miss Tom Scott's stuff... also The Canipa Effect announced he is quitting YouTube after 10 years of producing content.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The past few months to a year or so we’ve seen a total restructure of the internet. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been actively scaring away their user bases.

It’s resulting in a split and divided internet. Like the days of old. Fediverse ActivityPub integration is the only thing that can undo that and revive these all-in-one style communications platforms.

I’m curious to see if it will be better or worse.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Also a format change for Joel Haver: no more weeklies. Also Meatcanyon.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

Nobody mentioning Jenna Marbles?!?!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What, did multiple someones all get hit with allegations on the same day?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Matpat gone? Good fucking riddance. Fascist piece of shit.

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