Gina Trapani! That's a name I haven't heard in a long time and at first couldn't place correctly -- for some reason, my mind went to Groklaw, but Lifehacker was the correct answer. Maybe I'm idolizing my own youth and its associated available free time just a tiny bit and I can't actually believe it's been 20 years, but those felt like good times, Web 2.0 with its focus on communication instead of publishing, with Slashdot up top for tech news, Lifehacker, Engadget and many other sites not yet owned by big corporations feeling fresh and bearing individual flair, making you feel being a part of something. A rare feeling in modern times.
There are still tons of websites (more now than ever) not owned by gigantic corporations. It's not their fault that you and the masses mostly stopped going to them in favor of facebook and twitter and instagram and, of course, apps.
(You're on one right now, naturally.)
I get the same feeling when people say "RSS is dead". I read dozens of websites via RSS and my RSS reader still works fine. Very few blogs I want to read don't support RSS.
This happens with programming languages also. Lots of people cry "Perl is dead" because its market share is decreasing. But its absolute user count is increasing!
It's not a competition for a limited size of pie; the pie is still growing at a frightening pace, along with all its pieces.
Those days brought us to successful blogs/websites to be acquired by bigger corp and then enshittified.
Moreover, what used to be a successful blogger is now a successful YouTuber, no? Because generally speaking, masses prefer to watch and listen to things rather then read.
Actually, it’s making a comeback now somewhat, thanks to the inherent capability to filter and select only wanted content and weed out the noise in this world.
I loved the old LH when she ran it (and a short time after, before it became fully enshittified). Still have a Steelcase Leap chair, which was the usual runner-up to the Herman Miller Aeron in their office chair votes.
