The Internet is ...

July 8, 2003 4:44 PM

The Internet is ... Would anyone like to disagree with this argument?
posted by feelinglistless (47 comments total)

i dunno. maybe the guy who deleted the same thing off metatalk a few hours ago?
posted by quonsar at 4:47 PM on July 8, 2003

The question is: Are we (and Metafilter) too reliant on the internet and google? What did you have for lunch today? Provide full citations and the according Dewey Decimal Number AND the Library of Congress number for your sources.

The internet is shit eh? Yo mama is shit!
posted by Stan Chin at 4:48 PM on July 8, 2003

Really ... haven't visited for a while. Has anyone noticed that there isn't much in the way of WHOIS information, or did I miss that as well?
posted by feelinglistless at 4:49 PM on July 8, 2003

I just thought it was very well written. And interesting.
posted by feelinglistless at 4:52 PM on July 8, 2003

clearly it is robin hood's domain, although he's a bit off on the location of sherwood forest:

Registrant:
iis
Sherwood
Forest
Nottingham, State 111111
US

Domain name: INTERNETISSHIT.ORG

Administrative Contact:
a-dale, alain [e-mail]
Sherwood
Forest
Nottingham, State 111111
US
00339911
posted by quonsar at 4:53 PM on July 8, 2003

If one website says something about anything, it's more than likely pure invention and shouldn't be taken seriously. Checking your sources does not mean finding another website that says the same. Fiction is self-perpetuating.

Would that include sites like http://www.internetisshit.com?

(Of course, this would be far less scary if it hadn't been mentioned in MetaTalk in the last 24 hours)
posted by weston at 4:54 PM on July 8, 2003

Wow! What a revelation - someone gave fake address details in their whois record.

Give an infinite number of monkeys typewriters and they'll produce the works of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm reading all the books where they didn't.
Sounds about right. However, in attempting to produce the works of Shakespeare, they would no doubt come up with works that, while not being Shakespeare, could be perfectly acceptable literature all the same.

*notes the obvious irony in creating a web site to tell people that the web is shit*
posted by dg at 4:59 PM on July 8, 2003

The internet is allowing me to sit very still all day long. The internet is the reason I make more money now than I have in any job before. Is the internet the reason I'll soon be selling all of my things to live as a homeless vagabond in Central America?
posted by hellinskira at 5:05 PM on July 8, 2003

(Of course, this would be far less scary if it hadn't been mentioned in MetaTalk in the last 24 hours)

And I missed it for the twenty-four hours I wasn't around. Damn, the internet is ... oh it's already been said...
posted by feelinglistless at 5:12 PM on July 8, 2003

I don't know about the internet, but this post is...

substandard.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:16 PM on July 8, 2003

Less irritating print version.

I'm glad I got to see it before the thread gets zapped.
posted by ashbury at 5:18 PM on July 8, 2003

11 pages about how the internet is shit is basically just piling on more shit, don't you think?
posted by angry modem at 5:19 PM on July 8, 2003

Oh, I'm going to bed ...
posted by feelinglistless at 5:20 PM on July 8, 2003

No, it's just some healthy self-criticism on the part of the global consciousness. About damned time, too.
posted by Ryvar at 5:22 PM on July 8, 2003

You can argue that most things are shit. A lot of people think the telephone is shit, because it removes face-to-face contact and calling people you don't know can be scary. A lot of people think television is shit, because it turns its watchers into the square-eyed lumpenproletariat.

Of course, the Internet is shit for similar reasons, but it's good too. So, ultimately, you have to make up your own mind.. does the Internet do more good than harm for you?
posted by wackybrit at 5:34 PM on July 8, 2003

humanity is shit. dot com.
posted by quonsar at 5:42 PM on July 8, 2003

Sturgeon's Law applies to the Internet too, of course, as angry_modem more or less point out.
posted by billsaysthis at 5:48 PM on July 8, 2003

All manner of pointless and irritating content is continually poured down the infinite hole of data, unfiltered and over-appreciated.

then go ahead and filter it, dumbass.
posted by juv3nal at 5:50 PM on July 8, 2003

What a lame site. Where's the link to "Favorite Links?"
posted by TheFarSeid at 5:50 PM on July 8, 2003

Yeah, you call that a website? Where's the classmates.com popup ad?
posted by eatitlive at 5:56 PM on July 8, 2003

I like the post, it's kinda anti and can easily spurn discussion. It's like AdBusters, it's using a medium in order to describe something about the medium. I think "The internet is shit" is purposefully hyperbolic, the point being there are many things in this world that the internet cannot describe or inform.

Somebody, somewhere on MeFi or MeTa, wrote something along the lines of 'The internet is a system you can ask any question of and receive 1000 answers too, but none of the answers are actually right.'
posted by elwoodwiles at 5:58 PM on July 8, 2003

This did the rounds a few years ago: "It has been said that an infinite number of monkeys, pounding away on an infinite number of keyboards, would eventually re-create the works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true." I've seen it attributed to Robert Wilensky.
posted by carter at 6:01 PM on July 8, 2003

elwoodwiles: Interesting observation. This makes me think the new 'XXXChurch.com' thing you see everywhere is a similar media trick.. that is, pastors using a porn site to convince people porn is bad, mmkay.
posted by wackybrit at 6:10 PM on July 8, 2003

The internet ate my balls.
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:15 PM on July 8, 2003

Depends on whether 90% of your content intake is porn.
posted by scarabic at 6:24 PM on July 8, 2003

You people act like you've never seen a manifesto before.
posted by uosuaq at 6:26 PM on July 8, 2003

"Fiction is self-perpetuating."

Much like that website. Except sometimes fiction ties to entertain.
posted by MrLint at 6:39 PM on July 8, 2003

Depends whether you mistake the Internet for the Web. And the payload for the carrier.

Is email shit?

Is IM shit?

Is a distributed network for moving big chunks of data around the world easily shit?

Is a big fuzzy rant by a straw-man-erecting asshat shit?

Actually, according to Theodore Sturgeon, 90% of everything is shit.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:39 PM on July 8, 2003

The internet is a mirror. If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

(After G. C. Lichtenberg)
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:52 PM on July 8, 2003

Didn't someone just post about this here?
posted by dpkm at 7:32 PM on July 8, 2003

What is wrong with Shit?

Take shit, expose it to microbes, stir and fluff, and you have compost that will cause plants to grow tasty food you can eat to make more shit.

Process shit with worms and put it on plants if you want to violate a patent.

Someone must want shit. Look at Fox News, Micheal Savage, or even this thread.
posted by rough ashlar at 7:45 PM on July 8, 2003

I'm going to break tradition and be serious here. I think the Internet is the shit.

Many many times A DAY I wonder about stuff and when I spend a few minutes per idea on the 'Net, I find shit out. Beats a trip to the library every hour, I say.

Sure, there's more shit than diamonds on the Web, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell an ass from an elbow.
posted by kozad at 7:57 PM on July 8, 2003

A good deal of the web is shit. But honestly, I attribute it to making my life a lot easier. It helped me get through university via online tutorials, journals or just places to check answers to things that I had already figured out. I think there are enough people working on making this environment less shitty that there will be a clear line between what is and isn't shit.
posted by Quartermass at 8:09 PM on July 8, 2003

Hypocrite
posted by banished at 8:16 PM on July 8, 2003

saw this on blogdex :D so no? i dunno. intarweb, help me make up my mind!
posted by kliuless at 8:35 PM on July 8, 2003

From the Internet is shit web site: " millions of terrabytes of unreliable information, badly designed and clumsily written." He misspelled terabytes.
posted by Termite at 9:00 PM on July 8, 2003

You can't say that he's a hypocrite just because he posts to the internet attacking the internet. I mean, its the most obvious forum to get the message to the directed audience. Much like those annoying people who block porn shops because, well, that's the most likely place to find their target group.

That saying, I'm not all the way swayed by his message.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 9:03 PM on July 8, 2003

Print is shit too, for that matter. I can walk into any Barnes and Noble and find reams and reams of books too awful to use as doorstops.

There's a good argument in the part about much of the world's documents and deep wisdom not having been converted to digital format yet. Anyone who's done any serious research on anything knows that.

But as others have said, a high quantity of shit does not make the medium worthless. I personally have waded ankle-deep through discarded free porn magazines (on a Vegas sidewalk). Am I ruined for libraries and newspapers now? Of course not.
posted by scarabic at 9:40 PM on July 8, 2003

"The internet ate my balls"

BHAHAHAHA ahhh memories.
posted by afx114 at 11:42 PM on July 8, 2003

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

THE WEB IS NOT THE INTERNET! WEB CONTENT IS NOT THE WEB!

thank you, i feel better now. and yes, i was using the internet before TBL even thought of the web. on VMS, no less.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:07 AM on July 9, 2003

This guy's argument is that the Internet is imperfect, therefore it's shit.

This is just very, very silly. Everything is imperfect. Books are imperfect, films are imperfect, science is imperfect, politics are imperfect. Grow up. Deal with it. Use stuff for what it's worth, make it better if you can.

the britney spears not a virgin thread is definitely on the extreme side of 'imperfect', though
posted by Slithy_Tove at 3:53 AM on July 9, 2003

[obligatory Simpsons quote]

Bob: By the way, I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it. So don't bother pointing that out.

To which I can only add, so what? So what if it's shit? Is there a problem with that? Does anybody expect anything more?

Manure is great for promoting the growth of plants. Plants are mostly good. Therefore it's a good thing there's a fair bit of crap being flung. Still doesn't make it smell sweet, but at least it has its plus side.

And again, so what?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:51 AM on July 9, 2003

no, no, no. gopher is shit.
posted by VulcanMike at 8:44 AM on July 9, 2003

You're still here? Go home. Go.
posted by feelinglistless at 2:38 PM on July 9, 2003

the britney spears not a virgin thread is definitely on the extreme side of 'imperfect', though
In fact, it would be fair to say that it takes imperfect to a new level.
posted by dg at 4:26 PM on July 9, 2003

While there certainly is a lot of shit on the web, there is also a lot of pure gold.
posted by Fabulon7 at 4:57 PM on July 9, 2003

That man is what we on the Internet refer to as a "troll."
posted by Down10 at 10:58 AM on July 10, 2003