Comment by nicbou
3 days ago
The same thing happened with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Berlin, the entire effort to support refugees was coordinated on WhatsApp and Telegram, backed by Google Docs. It still did a marvelous job until the authorities could catch up and prepare resources. Even then the unofficial resources were far better.
I run an information website for a living. There is nothing I could have done that would have beat the speed and flexibility of that response. My own response was just to give those resources more visibility.
My takeaway was somewhat opposite to yours: it's marvelous that we can do so much, so fast, for free, with minimal computer skills. We should aim to make the independent web this easy.
Spreadsheet software and in this case specifically google docs are great tools for getting something off the ground fast; often it's good enough that no replacement needs to be written. I'm reminded of a contract some of my colleagues had at some point where a company's core business was all in a shared excel sheet, their job was to replace it with a proper application; iirc it took like 2-3 years to get it finished, at significant cost / investment. Of course, the excel sheet was no longer fit for purpose and not a good long term strategy to have.
These ad-hoc efforts are wonderful and extremely effective and are the utopia we all strive for.
Ultimately, I think, the distinction between "products" and ad-hoc effort is that one is tolerant of abuse and bad actors (the "enterprise" or bureaucratic system) and the other simply isn't.
I think I read it somewhere here, that any large project eventually turns into a moderation system.
I'm not sure what actions to take as a result of this observation... except perhaps to be a little bit sad.
A potential problem with a website in a wartime scenario is that once you publicize it, it has a huge target painted on its RJ45 (or SFP) ports. Google Docs and whatsapp are huge and resilient.
> It's marvelous that we can do so much, so fast, for free, with minimal computer skills. We should aim to make the independent web this easy.
Actually, I'd argue that our takeaway is the same. That's exactly the wider point I'm making, I'm just using this emergency as a synecdoche for it. This is good, the independent web would be better. Why is the barrier for entry to the 'normal' web so high that these people didn't consider it?
Lots of information that should be hosted by local, independent groups is being hosted in these closed un-indexable platforms. It does the creator a disservice and the end-user a disservice.
Had this disaster happened 10-15 years ago, I wager that this information would (I think) likely be displayed and posted here as a website (or at least turned into one).
And zooming out, how much good info is tied up in Google Docs alone? Indulge me.
- Here's TaranVH's (The editor from Linus Tech Tips, and a very technically skilled, impressive person) guide to colour grading.[This one hurts particularly because it's such a good document and desperately wants to be anything but a Google Doc.](https://shorturl.at/InI89)
- Here's a great resource for buying products for [Curly Hair.](https://shorturl.at/ZbNF9) This should be a blog.
- How many times have you seen YT drama or open letters be Google Docs? (https://shorturl.at/fJapj) If they were here, it'd be <motherfuckingwebsite.com>
- Here's a guide to video game stats. This should be on a Wiki. (https://shorturl.at/db49s)
- Here's a worldbuilding calculator. This should be a tool website.* (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AML0mIQcWDrrEHj-InXo...)
Whatever your opinion on whether or not these should or should not be documents vs. webpages, can we at least agree that they have information that people would be interested in? This stuff makes up the internet, this is where all the cool shit is. 10-15 years ago, these would be in search results. They're not anymore. It's all here, in undiscoverable Google Docs, unsearchable Discord servers, slow meandering Reddit threads, locked-down Facebook Groups and anti-discoverable TikTok feeds.
I keep hearing too much about good content leaving us (AI Slop in search), and not nearly enough about where it's going. If you find out where the good, creative stuff is going, you'll get your good, creative internet back.
*: I've said 'should' a lot, when what I mean is 'it would have been one when I was a kid'.