Maybe this already exists. But couldn’t one theoretically create a world within a world that is like the Net we all knew and loved before it was enshittified? I know the wayback machine exists, but I was thinking something that is still alive. IRC chats, forums, flash games (maybe not, with security concerns…), video sites that didn’t suck absolute ass like Corptube, stuff like that.
If it does exist, I am sure this would be the place to find it! Or maybe is a matter of staying off of all modern corp sites. I don’t know. Maybe Lemmy is this fantasy world…
IRC is still alive and somewhat kicking on places like freenode, obviously a lot of that kind of culture lives in discord today, but you’ve also got matrix as an alternative to that style, but I can’t say I’ve really clicked with it myself.
A few forums have managed to hang around (not that I recommend it, but I discovered somethingawful is still around recently), and the software to run one is still out there being maintained. Reddit really did a number on these sites though so Lemmy, etc is probably a good tool in the box for this too.
Flash games are dead for a pretty valid reason (security, etc), but sites like newgrounds still have a presence for the kind of stuff you’re thinking of. I can’t say I’ve browsed it in a very long time though. You’ve also got the indie game scene that blew up in the 2010s—I personally feel like that’s scratching the same kind of itch for me at least. Places like humble and itch.io are good sources.
Haha. I think you’re a bit out of the loop, Freenode “died” like four years ago. Some fucking weirdo who claims to be the rightful king of North and South Korea bought it, started selling advertising on the web site and tried to turn the IRC network into a “cybernation” with himself as ruler. Cool, right?
The people who actually ran Freenode all left to found Libera.Chat and basically everybody moved to either there or the OFTC. Meanwhile, original Freenode was shut down entirely (i.e. all users, services, etc. dropped) and booted from scratch as … whatever the fuck it is now, some coked-up royalty LARP.
Has it really been at least 4 years since I checked on it?! Thanks for the correction! (And mild existential crisis)
I’ve just checked and quakenet still seems to be a thing at least!