freemode.net

I want my Internet back    [ Rants ]

goddammit.

(Time for a rant.)

I just spent over half an hour deleting over a hundred comment spams on this site before installing a comment queuing system to prevent spammers from using my site as a free linkfarm.   I spend probably 3-5 minutes per day deleting spam emails that make it past my mail filters.   I go to some amount of effort to use browsers like Mozilla Firebird that include pop-up blocking by default, and install blocking software like the Google Toolbar or PanicWare's Pop-Up Stopper with IE to ameloriate its terminal b0rk3d-ness.   I've tried running web proxy software like JunkBuster and SquidGuard with Squid to stop pop-ups.

But it only goes so far.   This is a fair selection of what's out there, and it STILL doesn't completely work.

I mean, here I am - I've been using computers for 20-odd years, I've been connected to the 'net for nearly a decade and seen three major ages of its lifetime, I'm computer-savvy enough to get a job fixing security, networking and systems problems for corporations and government organizations, and it frustrates the hell out of me!   This is my hobby, my work, and my play, and there's times when I just want to get up and LEAVE to find a world where this shit doesn't go on and doesn't suck up my time.

What on earth would a brand new user, who's never browsed the web or used email before, think of this cretinous mass of garbage that's thrown in their face?   If you went down to Wal-Mart, put down $450 of your hard-earned money for a bargain PC with a monitor, and forked out $30 or $40 per month for high-speed access from the local telco or cable joint, would you even WANT to use it after dealing with this crap?

There's something seriously wrong here.   When I first started poking around on BBS's and at my school library into this shiny ethereal concept, it was beautiful, exciting, raw around the edges, but new and filled with possibility and wonder.   That's not there anymore.   I still get a thrill from finding cool new technical tools and tricks to use, seeing well-engineered designs in action, building systems and networks and fixing problems, but it's not centered on the Internet itself anymore.

You have to go out of your way to find these experiences.   That's true of any good thing, and one can argue that the changing face of the 'net reflects that.   Once people realize it's useful or attractive or interesting, more people come.   Once more people come and use something, it's not as special.   And that makes it worth going out of your way to find new and interesting things.

But the 'net held such promise, such hope - gigabytes and then terabytes and petabytes of data at your fingers, search engines and indexes to seek out and guide you to new places, history and art and sport and literature and programming, all there for the taking.   Sure, there were commercial areas, there always were, but they embraced the 'net as a means of better communication.   And there were always those who would abuse the commons, but they were held in check by the rest of the population.

None of that complaint is new, I suppose.   But there's a real tragedy when a communications medium with such promise is completely raped and pillaged and rendered close to useless (minus defensive measures) by pop-ups, spam, virii, worms and filth raining down like dark hail from the heavens.

I don't have a solution beyond the incremental arms-race I've tried so far.   Maybe something will emerge - IPv6 buddy lists? Internet3? Strong SMTP authentication? Hardended out-of-the-box operating systems and applications? Encrypted-protocol-over-IP networks like Gnutella? - but it's an exhausting battle to fight.