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Ankleson t1_j1ltmn6 wrote

I loved StumbleUpon. When I was a kid I used to just press that 'Stumble!' bookmark for days to find cool stuff on the internet back when everybody had their own quirky website and nothing was fully centralized. I miss that old internet feeling.

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carefreeguru t1_j1mvt57 wrote

>everybody had their own quirky website and nothing was fully centralized. I miss that old internet feeling.

The Internet was so great back then. I miss it too.

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windzyy t1_j1nkdr2 wrote

neocities reminds me of that old internet feeling… every site there is so unique and endearing

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1justathrowaway2 t1_j1oydcx wrote

With all the super easy web building tools and CMS systems I'm not sure why this isn't a thing again. Especially with how advanced social media is. You could easily have an interface to change a ton of settings and make your fb or insta look a specific way, play annoying ass music, and all kinds of shit.

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quisatz_haderah t1_j1pgm5b wrote

I think it is because most people online were tech savvy up to some point, and they were able to and want to put up websites. These days you need to sift through bunch of normies swarming on twitter and other places to get a connection.

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_methuselah_ t1_j1pj7t2 wrote

Social Fixer & F.B. Purity are two extensions that can do that for FB to a certain extent.

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windzyy t1_j217fad wrote

i WISH that was the standard. it’s actually kind of hard to get webpages to play music right off the bat now. i tried to do it with a site i made on github pages and i think chrome was blocking it — something about webpages suddenly blaring music being shocking to users (which i get but… still)

it seems like everything is kind of standardized to look and sound appealing and unobtrusive to everyone

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righthandofdog t1_j1prhqz wrote

After a little clicking around, it looks like a lot of teens are trying to bring that back.

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BeatitLikeitowesMe t1_j1nlom9 wrote

The transition from web 1 to web2.0 was jarring. At least as we transfer onto web3 it will help bring things back to defi roots.

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Smarty-Pants65 t1_j1m65pp wrote

I loved stumble upon and I absolutely hate how they transitioned to the mix. Then they made the mix ONLY for mobile devices. This site is scratching the itch but has some way to go.

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theKovah OP t1_j1mkfzj wrote

I would love to hear some feedback and ideas. Always looking for ways to improve the site. :)

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Smarty-Pants65 t1_j1mv4vb wrote

I mean stumble upon just had years of learning and adapting it’s algorithms im sure. A lot of the time when I use this site I have the pop up saying “this site can’t be viewed unless you click here for the full site” which is odd.

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theKovah OP t1_j1n71n7 wrote

Sadly, this is just a security measurement that both browsers and websites must or can enforce.

For example, you can’t embed any http website if https is enabled. Additionally, websites can tell browsers that they don’t want to be embedded anywhere.

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SpeedAtNight t1_j1niodi wrote

You're probably gonna have a lot of hits for that StumbleUpon nostalgia, but sadly the internet isn't what it was back then so I imagine the results can be a bit more generic or like you say, have security requirements requiring a direct load on the site.

Best of luck, I'd recommend you find some feature or concept that entices people to keep using your service. Nostalgia is great and all, but people get bored quickly.

Might be worth putting in a toggle option to ignore sites that won't render on your website directly. Not sure how you'd do it, but I imagine you could make it seamless to the user and if the page throws a security error just move to the next site to display.

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theKovah OP t1_j1nkrot wrote

Thank you for your honest feedback. I agree that the internet is definitely something else today. Fortunately, there is no need to "grow" or keep anyone on the site by all means. I just hope that people enjoy the site and remember it every now and then.

>Might be worth putting in a toggle option to ignore sites that won't render on your website directly.

You can do than when signed in, with the "Hide Sites that can't be displayed directly" option in your account settings. Probably something that can be made mode visible.

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saltpot3816 t1_j1q1m1t wrote

I know this is a whole other project, but could do do this as a standalone app, essentially a custom built web browser (eg based on chromium)? Or maybe for desktop, could build as a chrome extension, and a mobile app?

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Aaron215 t1_j1n1o3a wrote

On mobile when I go to a site that Cloudhiker can't display directly, I have no way to go back and favourite the site on my account. Finding a way to do that without going into history to do it would be helpful.

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stephen_1975 t1_j1nqg6w wrote

My initial feedback after my first five minutes checking this out: a huge amount of sites I get only display this. Overall, all the sites it "stumbles upon" seem to have a very strong bias towards STEM topics, history, etc.

Nothing wrong with that at all in my opinion either, but many tend to be at a level that might require quite a bit of familiarity and/or studies that could be daunting for Joe Blow to even get why they are interesting or neat. Maybe the focus could be broadened somewhat, perhaps with a feature allowing me to select some baseline topics I'm interested in first, tech, video games, etc. As it is now, it doesn't feel particularly 'random' and many of the links aren't super 'casual' on first glance. Funnily enough, many of the sites that don't allow Cloudhiker here are really only where I'm seeing the quirkier stuff.

I'm not a programmer type, sorry if I can't really explain it more coherently than that. :)

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get_the_reference_ t1_j1oywho wrote

When I use Cloudhiker from my browser on PC, I sometimes "overclick" and end up jumping past something that I realize too late is of interest. Unfortunately, I can't go back, and my browser does not record my visit in the browser history, so the site is forever lost to me. Perhaps there is a Cloudhiker history list that could help, but I haven't gone much deeper than clicking the Stumble button so far. I used SU several years ago and really enjoyed it. The privacy issues that make it necessary to click through to many sites makes this a clunkier alternative to the original, but I still like it and would use it more often if there was a way to "go back." Thanks for the clicks!

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jaccerz83 t1_j1nkoc4 wrote

do what SU did and did well. Do not become what SU became at the end. (If this makes sense)

I spent many hours on SU going thru random websites and I actually was thinking about how i missed SU last week, when i had that bored of playing games feeling.

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17laxbro t1_j1p0u6h wrote

Honestly. A NSFW version of the site would be cool.

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Birdhawk t1_j1mxx0x wrote

It was amazing. Especially earlier on before it got cluttered with crap sites/spam

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almostadaddy t1_j1nxcmr wrote

Centralization is what has allowed evil people to censor what folks say online.

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gigashadowwolf t1_j1p24we wrote

I used to love reddit when it was more like this too.

2008-2012 reddit was amazing.

Right around 2011 is when it first started getting too hivemindy, not in the fun way where people have the same thoughts but where ideas and ideals started getting so aligned that people with simply different opinions were being downvoted to the point of oblivion.

2016 is when this got kicked into high gear.

2020 is when reddit effectively died.

I'm not sure why I am still here at this point, except that the alternatives all suck too.

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viperex t1_j1onc83 wrote

Now everything is behind a paywall or a signup wall

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Damaso87 t1_j1m0zme wrote

Is anything fully centralized even now? Or is that reddit for you?

Lol so many downvotes for asking a question on Christmas.

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1337Theory t1_j1m2vlf wrote

The obvious answer to your first question is yes. Really, really, really obvious.

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Damaso87 t1_j1maiko wrote

My comment was meant to stimulate discussion around what non Redditors user to centralize content...but ok. Merry Christmas.

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hatuhsawl t1_j1mjyyy wrote

I’m autistic as shit, which I only bring up to say that I have a hard time parsing tone over text, so I always lean in to giving the benefit of the doubt by default when I’m unsure of tone, but I am an outlier because its something I am cognizant about.

I’d wager most people just go to their cold reads and vote accordingly unfortunately.

And in my experience of having my comments misconstrued on Reddit, as cathartic as it is to be snarky and passive aggressive when that happens, that has only garnered me even more downvotes to express my frustration in that way.

I’m not saying you should do anything, just sharing my relevant knowledge for you to make a more informed decision 👍🏻

May our next meeting be on warmer sands, my friend

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Slinkwyde t1_j1p76hj wrote

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

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Damaso87 t1_j1mkdn4 wrote

Thanks for the concern. I have more karma than a few seasonal downvotes can affect - but it is curious to see the tide changing here

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ColoneISanders t1_j1mpw82 wrote

Ok, like I sympathize with you because I've been there, making an innocuous comment/question that gets downvoted to oblivion because I'm not always quick on the uptake.

BUT, constantly referring to the fact that it's Christmas in every comment inferring... What that people downvoting you must be scrooges or heathens or something? seems kinda...cringy and desperate.

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Damaso87 t1_j1mrzgo wrote

Yeah dude. I expected better from /r/InternetIsBeautiful. Is that an odd expectation?

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Ajreil t1_j1m54h7 wrote

Reddit replaced the hundreds of forums we used to have. 90% of online human interaction happens on 5 social media sites. Amazon replaced every manufacturer having their own shipping service. Local news sites are dead.

Edit: Google has replaced or purchased Flickr, Map Quest, Yahoo, UTube, and Motorola Droid. To a lesser extent Microsoft Office, Dropbox, shopping directly on websites, and the news.

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Damaso87 t1_j1mir1j wrote

It's a shame, since forums are far superior to this format we have now, which seems to be designed to push ads

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ZellZoy t1_j1nxkel wrote

I don't mind Reddit replacing forums. What I hate is discord replacing forums. Discord is well and good as an AIM replacement but using it for forums, like games used to have, sucks.

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dgtlfnk t1_j1mk1go wrote

Use the Apollo app. Zero ads.

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Damaso87 t1_j1mkoma wrote

Ads are far more insidiously injected than you suspect. Probably half the content on reddit is paid for and run by bots.

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dgtlfnk t1_j1mkzn1 wrote

Oh, well yeah. I just meant actual ads. But you’re right. Gotta just read shit on Reddit and move on. No purchases should be influenced by something you saw on Reddit. Unless you’re in a conversation with someone extensively and specifically about something, by which you might expect it’s a legit human. Lol.

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Ajreil t1_j1mizmi wrote

Reddit's upvote system is much better than forums. They essentially had /new and top/all-time as sorting options.

Algorithmic feeds are a war crime.

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Damaso87 t1_j1mjejf wrote

Does an upvote system need to exist though? There wasnt* need for that in a discussion based forum with actual moderators. It wasn't a slam dunking karma game.

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Ajreil t1_j1mjmx7 wrote

Upvotes are good. Karma was a mistake.

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ThroawayPartyer t1_j1nxi2i wrote

Aren't you contradicting yourself? Reddit karma is what drives its algorithmic feed.

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Ajreil t1_j1o0hic wrote

Using upvotes to sort the /hot feed is a helpful. The most popular posts rise to the top.

Having those upvotes reflected on your profile encourages the more obnoxious posts. That part is what I mean by karma.

Reddit's feed is handled by a simple algorithm. It doesn't use machine learning to guess what you personally would like.

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