Internet Artifacts: ~Cyber Sisters~ Webring
“Before CS, I would just wander around aimlessly, answering email and making pages…. now, I can’t wait to get up in the morning and check our newsgroup and see what email I have from my ‘Sisters’.
I have made so many new friends. It has completely changed my internet roaming.
I have a trusting relationship with these girls. I really feel as tho they are my sisters. There is always a place to go to answer . If I need advice, just go to the newsgroup and ask and my ‘sisters’ they will give me advice I asked for. We share good times, sad times, and even bad times with each other… its wonderful.”
— Lucille aka LucyMae, the founder of Cyber Sisters
American actress Kim Richards (left) as “Cheryl” in Meatballs II.
The saddest thing I read today.
We’ve been trained to think the government is bad online, because it designs shitty websites, whereas tech startups are good, because they design nice websites. But maybe usability isn’t actually a marker of moral worth. We used to be against a labor arrangement where the workers (us!) identified more strongly with management (tech companies!) than with each other, but that’s what we’re encouraged to do online: libertarianism for you, oligopoly for us. We used to think that strong, persistent collective organizations dedicated to protecting our rights were the best way to ensure we weren’t trampled on by moneyed interests. Now we think everything will be OK if we flip out on Twitter en masse, or change the background color of our avatar.
- “What Are the Politics of the Internet” (The Awl)
Probably one of the best things I’ve read about politics and the internet in a long time. Although I’m not sure if the trusting corporations over government only applies to the internet (it’s really in any area that is consumer-based and we are all guilty of thinking that way in America, at least), but still a really, really interesting read.
