The Internet- great until the masses join in?

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

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This is probably going to sound a bit elitist...

Years ago while I was still in school a friend of mine discovered MSN Messenger and we all started using it. This was before it became popular at all. After explaining to people who asked what we doing, we would be called geeks/nerds/[insert derogatory name here]. Then suddenly it becomes popular with the masses, it becomes the new cool thing and then of course, it goes down hill.

Similarly there are a few threads that pop up now and then about MySpace and Facebook and how they are rubbish now- they didn't used to be. In the example of Facebook a lot of people mention that it was great until they opened it up to non-university/college emails (I joined just after the rules were relaxed), it became popular with the masses, applications showed up and then it all went down hill.

Is the common theme here that things on the Internet are great until the masses show up? Are such things better when they are not popular and mainstream?
 
Nostalgia plays a large part in this but yes often things are dumbed down for the masses instead of keeping the learning curve that you associate with the thing as you found it.

Like most things in our world usually it comes down to money and advertising. They try and make things as appealing to as many people as possible, and in doing so they loose their charm.
 
I can only think that more people is a good thing as if they get more revenue from ads etc they're likely to update it more etc thus helping the users, of course a lot of the time it doesn't work this way and the more people that get the service means you're more likely to encounter idiots.
 
I always hated MSN, I thought it was inferior to both AOL IM (AIM) or IRC, unfortunately it was MSN who seemingly won the battle of the chat messengers, though for me, IRC is easily the best, unfortunately it's the least accessible.
 
MSN has always been 'for the masses' and you citing it as an example of the good old days makes me wonder if you ever saw them :p

Now 6 figure ICQ numbers and DALnet..
 
I had one of those six digit accounts, but didn't know anybody else with one. The chances of getting somebody online if they had one at the same time was also slim. It was easier and cheaper to phone somebody :p
 
Why has msn gone downhill? It does the same old thing it always has (sits in the background and alerts me when a mate wants to go for a pint). Just disable the crap if you don't want it.
 
I think the internet has only got better, really... there is a lot of crud and a lot of people who don't know what they're doing, but things have only gotten better from my point of view. Loads more information and generally much better websites online nowadays.

I do think it's quite ironic how in high school I was looked down on for liking the 'net so much, but now you're a bit weird if you don't use it at all.

MSN is much improved with the mess patch :p No more song links / adverts / etc :cool:
 
ICQ was cool. Way before anything else.
I remember a guy in Holland introducing me to it, and couldn't believe that you could actually see someone else online at the same time as you and actually communicate with them there and then. Of course at the time I was only about 15 right enough.
 
All we need now to make this thread complete is for someone to come along and say the internets not the same as it was back in the day when BF2 came out.
 
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