Ask HN: How to create a more human-centric web?

4 saubeidl 4 7/3/2025, 8:05:01 PM

With the good ol' www dying an unfortunate dead internet theory death by drowning in AI slop, I think we need to start thinking about how to create an alternative that allows for authentic communication between actual humans without LLMs shitting it up.

The question is how.

One vague idea I've had is a system based on a web of trust [0], as used in PGP. We could bring back key signing parties and build a protocol that filters content by trust levels.

Just throwing stuff out there. Maybe anyone has a better idea?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust

Comments (4)

austin-cheney · 1h ago

The problem is democratizing the one to many nature of broadcasts whereby competition drowns in noise. It is natural for people to want to lower expenses and maximize transaction quantity to generate revenue at everyone else's expense. The only solution for you, the person, is to not consume it yourself. Let the rest of the pigs have their slop.

The way to back off from that chaos is to ensure you are consuming content from people you trust, like neighbors and family. Another option is to self-host media.

mitchbob · 15h ago

I think the only realistic long term solution is for people, ordinary people, to own and control the systems and tools they use. We can create consumer cooperatives for social media and applications and offer tax credits to offset the costs. We can also require interoperability through legislation. People can fund the solutions they find most valuable, and there are always opportunities to create and get funding for new and better solutions.

saubeidl · 15h ago

I agree with that, for the most part. But we still need some sort of technical measure to keep the bots out and verify real humans, otherwise any system we build will just end up getting flooded and useless.

Have you seen Reddit lately?

v5v3 · 15h ago

>Have you seen Reddit lately?

I haven't.

Link to examples?