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What's something you wish made a comeback?
Can be anything: art, culture, technology, society. What's something valuable that we left behind, and would be awesome to revive?
Can be anything: art, culture, technology, society. What's something valuable that we left behind, and would be awesome to revive?
The Internet of 1990s-2000s, when closed wall platforms weren't yet synonymous with the Internet. I want more horrible-looking hobbyist websites and less of "you can set your profile page's background image and avatar!!!"
Along these lines I want forums back. Obviously they still exist here and there and places like tildes and reddit carry on that spirit of discussion, but I just really miss the forums of old. Each one had its own little gimmick to get you posting (ranks, karma, etc.), picking the right avatar and sig were a blast, and the forums I always frequented were generally small enough that you'd bump into the same people over and over again and start forming friendships.
I guess Discord is actually probably the closest successor to the forum concept, but despite many attempts I've never been able to get into using Discord.
Check out https://midnight.pub :) It’s a little old-school message-board around the idea of a virtual pub.
I used to manage a small-medium sized forum back in the early 2000s and I totally agree. I have a lot of nostalgia for the forum days. In my case, ultimately a combination of declining activity and a huge surge of spambots made it untenable to continue running the site.
I want the small communities old school forums and BBS's enabled back, but without the insane usability problems that they have.
When someone asks a question on page 3 of a thread and you have to wade through the next 6 pages to find someone who quoted them and gave a meaningful answer is an awful UX that I'm glad is gone. Changing topics/threads from a linear string of comments into a tree structure has been a massive improvement for this kind of thing.
I, too, managed a forum in the mid-2000s. I'm now managing a community in Discord now. While it's not a one-to-one transition, it's definitely scratching that itch.
I manage a forum that started in the early-mid 00s, and now we’re more active on Discord but maintain both. :)
Station wagons.
Nearly no one needs an SUV or pickup, and those that have them near universally would be better suited by a van or a station wagon.
Along these lines: small pickups. They actually are ubiquitous around teh globe, but here in the us a stupid chicken tax statute makes them prohibitively expensive to import :/
It looks like Ford is making the Maverick, which is both available in a hybrid and about the size of the 90s-early 00s Ranger. As someone who had a 2000 Ranger for a long time, I'm legitimately excited for a truck that size again, since the Tacoma, Frontier, Colorado, and the new Ranger are all gigantic relative to their small truck predecessors.
That looks really cool, but still not a true pickup. More like a compact SUV with a bed. Still better than nothing I suppose. Also Hyundai might be putting out something similar, the Santa Cruz.
But tbh, not like I could really own a pickup for the next decade, I've got two schoolkids, and they tend to frown on you riding your kids around in the bed these days.
Most of the best SUVs are just pick-up trucks with the bed covered and turned into additional rows of seating. The SUVs that aren't like this are mostly from companies that don't sell pick-up trucks so they had to come up with a different platform.
Don't even get me started on the utter lack of small pickups and the various (more than just chicken tax) regulations that make them less appealing to manufacturers. I'd be near infinitely less preach-y about SUVs and pickups being bought by the thousands by people that don't need them if small pickups were still a thing/being purchased by those people.
The recently-announced Ford Maverick has piqued my interest in this space. A fuel-efficient hybrid, light duty, relatively compact truck that’s pretty damn cheap. Now, it’s not truly a small truck.. but it’s probably the smallest modern truck that can be purchased in the United States.
Sure, if it had a short-cab option.
Yea... though, I'm kinda seeing it as more of a modern-day El Camino. Basically a car, but with a bit of a truck bed.
Yeah, but when compared to the size small trucks should be it's still massive. It's near-as-makes-no-difference the same size as the 10th generation F150. It's just a slightly smaller version of the new Ranger, but still unnecessarily large by any real standards.
Some hatchbacks are basically wagons. The Subaru Impreza and Outback are very popular where I live, and fit the definition well -- with light off-road capabilities, as much as anybody in a SUV will ever do anyhow.
When I bought my first Outback in 2005 my mom kept going on an on about how could a guy want to drive a station wagon. Since then they've become very common.
The Outback is a station wagon and the Impreza comes in a wagon variant, neither are hatchbacks.
They call the Outback a station wagon, but just look at it. That thing has balooned into an SUV! The fact that it's called a wagon is just a symptom of bloat in car sizes.
I think nowadays it's basically just car nerds who like car-shaped cars anymore. Everyone else really prizes high ride height. I, for one, hate being able to tell whether there are children or small animals in front or behind me without cameras or sensors to assist. It takes all the suspense out of backing out of my driveway.
Haven't bothered paying attention to Subaru's new offerings in some time, but I'm unsurprised they turned it into a "crossover" (which is just all the SUV size downsides with none of the SUV capability upsides).
8.5" of ground clearance and one fo the best AWD systems available feels like most of the SUV upsides to me. I've found Subaru vehicles to be extremely competent for taking my kayak to places where I wouldn't want to go in a regular car. That said, my Subarus are older and I do prefer the older styles over the larger ones that they make today.
It is my opinion that social media is the worst thing that has happened to a functional society In the past century. Some people just don't deserve the huge microphone that it provides.
I wish westerns made a comeback. Sure, western movies never really died, but they occupy a marginal position in our film culture. They're reliques, curiosities explored by few dedicated filmmakers. The western genre is all about poverty, crime and despair, change, and modernization. Displacement, the hardships of pioneering, and the shortcomings of the american dream. It would be very very interesting to bring back this rich cinematic tradition with a greater focus on the experiences of women, native americans, african americans, and LGBT.
I'm honestly shocked there hasn't been a gritty western released in the past few years, considering almost every other genre seems to have something representing it.
They've tried. They remade 3:10 to Yuma. The Coen Bros remade True Grit?. There was even a recent remake of The Magnificent Seven.
As for new ones, there's Revenant, and the Deadwood movie as well. And Ballad of Buster Skruggs is a series of Western short films. And there is a new one on Apple TV+ called News of the World.
Really they're just not popular with non-film nerds. Especially now that our relationship with Western fiction is more rooted in the debunkings and mythbustings of the John Wayne narrative than the John Wayne narrative. Deconstructions play better since you get to depict Native Americans with dignity. Maybe someday we'll even acknowledge that most cowboys were Black or Hispanic as well.
There are, however, very popular movies that are basically Westerns in all but settings. John Wick is a perfect example.
I'm sorry but I don't see it. That sounds like quite a stretch.
The directors have said they drew heavily from a combination of spaghetti westerns and wuxia films (which are, themselves, kind of Westerns in sensibility).
That is fine, but I tend to consider the work itself as more relevant than the artists intentions. This says more about inspiration anyway. I just don't think John Wick share enough characteristics from the genre to be considered a neo western. It has some of the same tropes for sure, but it is definitely not "a western in all but its setting".
Here's a summation of the thematic genre conventions of a Western. (emphases mine)
The main theme missing is the impeding approach of 'civilization' to 'tame' the wilderness. But that's also a much less pronounced theme in the samurai movies or the stories of knight errantry that Westerns are based on.
Sure, I'd settle with the notion that there's a lot from western in John Wick, I just think it is an exxageration to say that it is a western if not for the setting.
Edit: to be quite honest, I do not view genre merely as sets of attributes, but also as historic artifacts. Because of that, listing attributes is often not enough for me to subscribe something to a genre, and that often creates heated exchanges, since most people seem to apply genre in a way that is very distinct from my own...
Does westworld count?
Send Quentin Tarantino a copy of this book (along with two appropriately themed decks of cards, a poker chip set, and several sets of nice bone dice) and I suspect it'll take care of itself. (context)
Dense, intimate, walkable communities in North America. It's time for the oppressive, bland, car-only suburb experiment to die. Yet they continue to be built and it's not slowing down. There's no opportunity for small businesses to own property in new neighbourhoods, if it's even zoned for any at all. Businesses are stuck leasing overpriced spaces in soulless strip malls from equally soulless property holding companies. More often than not it's even worse than that, and the only commercial properties within plausible walking reach of suburbs are giant box stores.
It's shocking how much nicer and greener the old inner city neighbourhoods are than the far flung McMansion suburbs are. How do you even improve a cul-de-sac maze without bulldozing the whole thing? At least in a city you can build upwards.
Yes, and along with that, grid layouts. As a cyclist, I much prefer towns that have a grid layout over the modern approach of collector roads with cul-de-sac dead-ends, and even when driving, I find them to be more pleasant than being forced onto busy collector that make me drive the long way around to go anywhere.
I like Amsterdam's radial layout. It's both modern and medieval, grid and not-grid. Its main avenues were legible for navigation, but it also had winding alleys and side roads that were lovely for exploration.
Exactly. Cities with grid layouts can still easily restrict traffic with signage and oneway streets, where cyclists are usually exempt.
Some neighbourhoods put tiny footpaths between sections of cul-de-sac neighbourhoods to let people travel more directly, but it's often easy to miss the entrances to them if you're not familiar with the neighbourhood. It's clear that these types of neighbourhoods are designed in such a way to keep through-traffic out, which is good! Dozens of cars driving through what should otherwise be a quiet neighbourhood every few minutes is bad and I don't want to live near that. The same number of people (or triple) walking or cycling by wouldn't phase me in the slightest. I would enjoy it, actually.
Grid layouts are just so obvious to navigate around. If you miss a turn, or the road is blocked for some reason, no worries, just take the next one and loop back.
I'm certain that if we ask a youngster about visceral emotions in music they'll come up with numerous examples that are deeply visceral to them, but from my old man perspective there does seem to exist a tendency towards overproduction nowadays, which makes lots of songs sound anemic and detached.
I need music about how I'm exhausted from having kids, how much debt I'm in, and how sleeping weird can result in a few days of neck pain. I think country music has some coverage there, but pop-punk is more my speed. Wonder if Blink-182 has any "we're old" music yet?
California has some songs that fit that description, at least in my opinion. "Home Is Such a Lonely Place", "San Diego", and the title track "California" all make me reflect on the twenty-plus years that have passed since I first started listening to blink. Nine has songs that touch on depression and nostalgia.
I love blink-182 and who they've become as a band.
There's so much music out there I can guarantee there's plenty of what you're looking for. Maybe start either here or here?
That's pretty much true about everything on this thread, to make statements like these make sense you must interpret them as "I wish this thing that was once very popular became popular again", and not "I wish this thing still existed."
When I think of Nirvana, only one modern artist comes to mind: Bully
Also from the comments on that video are some interesting finds...
Phoebe Bridgers?
The 91% top tax bracket for incomes in the top 1% - from the early 1950's. And please, before the gaslighting starts, yes, I am very aware of the research saying very few of the top 1% wage earners in the day actually paid that rate. Nevertheless - the bracket existed and for many people, the 1950's ARE the golden age of the USA.
I made a post like this, and I wished for leftist protests in the US to become more frequent, more numerous and even more threatening, which I got after George Floyd was killed, and I even got a right-wing counter when the Republicans stormed the Capitol. There have also been a lot of protests where I live in Brazil, so that's that.
The main things I'd want from the past is honestly the seeming lack of loneliness, social awkwardness and self-deprecation of people in the past. (Save for the old man who outlived all his friends and the odd nerd archetype that seems more media than real.) It seems things like "My last 2 braincells when doing [x]", "TFW no GF", "the worst she can say is no" and the general demand for self-improvement advice concerning things that people tend to not see as connected to politics (read: anything concerning any type of relationship) just seems like it didn't exist 20 years ago. Whatever people had that made them make friends and SOs seemingly without any major issues and complaints needs to be brought back.
Dude, I grew up largely without Internet, and when I had Internet it was something way more niche. There was no social media. I was lonely as fuck, spent most afternoons staring at the TV and finding weird, mostly boring ways to occupy my time. School was full of bullies, every once in a while I was beat up and frequently humiliated. Kids in my street were basically proto gangsters. So yeah, social media sucks. But do not romantize the past... the past was full of awkwardness, hate, violence and intolerance. There's a reason so many people saw themselves in Kurt Cobain's lyrics....
While I absolutely agree that a lot of the social dynamics common in the past like the ones you mentioned were terrible and shouldn't be brought back, I have to wonder how related they are to the positive dynamics I mentioned in my comment, because as far as I can tell, whatever made people happy with their social circles and relationships in the past and the bad things social conservatism did even to those same relationships are not inextricably linked and we could have the good without the bad. I certainly don't know of any counter arguments to that claim.
I believe it is a mistake to assume that social conservatism was less of a driving force in our society in the past. That is especially true in our country, which was literally a right wing dictatorship back in the 80s.
We've had at least three progressive presidents since then.
If anything, things greatly improved.
No, I don't think people in the past were less driven by social conservatism, I agree it's the opposite. I just think that past people's seeming satisfaction with their personal relationships is not inextricably linked to social conservatism and thus could be adapted to the modern day and compatible with modern social values, and I do believe said conservatism had a fair and negative effect in their relationships and the reasons for their satisfaction are probably not related to said social conservatism.
I'm having some trouble understanding exactly what point you are trying to make.
Alright, I'll try to explain:
I agree that society was more influenced by social conservatism in the past.
I think people in the past were more satisfied with their personal relationships.
However, social conservatism is not a contributor to this (presumed) satisfaction, and many of your experiences show that it actively took away from said satisfaction.
Therefore, social conservatism is not the reason people were more satisfied with their personal relationships (or at least I think so) even if it undeniably had a larger effect. That's why I believe the things that did contribute to people's satisfaction with their personal relationships could and should be brought back.
Also, concerning your edit, I agree this vision of the past applies far more to the US and Europe than anywhere else. The closest thing a place like Brazil, where we live has to "the good old days" is Lula's presidency.
I wonder though, if (ignoring the pandemic) a lot of this loneliness isn't because we feel like we should be less alone, because we're comparing ourselves to the filtered depiction of other people through the lens of social media? Is it possible that we are more or less the same amount of alone, but we're now less ok being alone?
I think we genuinely are more socially atomized than we used to be, due to car culture and infrastructure breaking up cohesive walkable communities, and the face to face interactions we'd have had there being supplemented with shallow and generic media, social or otherwise. That said, while there's definitely a 'phones bad' take in there, I think it's something that's been underway since suburbanization kicked in and national media crowded out local in the late 20th century.
Micro Machines, specifically the little fold-out bases. Also the Mighty Max version of the same. Err...what else? Fruit Roll-Ups, Ricola gummies, HotWheels Attack Packs. Civilian gun ranges where you can blast off military firearms, I think we must've had those in the UK at one point. Drive-in theatres would be nice.
Not being connected to the internet and tech for the vast majority of my waking hours. Of course tech provides many modern luxuries, but it has become such a societal default that it's practically a chore to carve out any time away from it, let alone an extended period of time.
One other car-related wish they'd bring back: classy looks.
Most every car these days is agressive-looking, and the few exceptions are mostly "cute." I think there may be some more classic lines around the globe, but in the US our cars look like they're trying to eat everyone alive. Even fancy cars like M-B and Audi are going this way.
Reintroduce stately lines like an old Imperial, or smooth and sexy like a Jaguar. Or understated, utilitarian but elegant, like a VW rabbit or Dodge Dart.
Even the cute and petite Miata is bigger and angrier (despite the huge grin).
I always thought my late great Scion xA was really cute. My roommate used to call it the raisin. I miss that little car.
Mid 00s style music, anime, games, etc.
Having a white collar job without a computer. Do you ever watch MadMen and wonder wtf they do all day at their desks? I feel like the workday could be 3-4 hours instead of 8-10 without computers. So much unnecessary stuff.
I feel like that was the exact same argument these people would make if you'd asked them back then. Just change without/with
Small scale, Vincent’s Ear, a small, truly bohemian hole in the wall in my hometown where the likes of The White Stripes played to a sparse audience in the early days. Cheap beer, smirky camaraderie, tarot readings and deep appreciation for enjoying a state of being.
I also miss being 31.
Good alternative rock or grunge. I know a few bands are still around but I miss the days when they were topping the charts.
bringing back the related videos sidebar as an option on youtube. All the algos are trying to forcefeed you the newest content they have which strikes me as insane. Surely with all that content being uploaded and interacted with on a daily basis, they could afford better search options. I feel like everything is so very perpetually urgent now and finding a new rabit hole/channel is increasingly rare.
I had this idea for a youtube rewind that'd be more than just a fluff marketing peice. We all know there's bajillions of stats, tags and whatnot behind the scenes working up a profile on you, so i figured why not do a "wayback machine" styled recap of your year on youtube. Who you've been watching the most, what channels you're subbed to but haven't clicked on, videos that people with similar interest have been watching during that time, similar playlists to what you've been listening too...
I honestly can't beleive they're stitting on all this data but the only thing you can realistically do is get alerts for new videos and scroll through the subscriptions feed.. I suppose if they made it too easy then their costs would skyrocket since they'd never be able to put older things onto slower storage mediums, but that can't be the reason their search/retroactive experience is so horrendous.
thesixtyone circa 2009.
thesixtyone had a magic about it in the way is brought social and game mechanics to music discovery. I discovered so many great, small bands through the site and supported them. Then the site fell prey to a redesign that tried to make it more album art oriented and destroyed the ease of use and it died a slow death. I still have a playlist of just the music I discovered here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesixtyone
I remember that website, and I still haven't seen any other music service match its heyday. I don't suppose we could convince you to share that playlist in ~music sometime. ;)
Good idea. :)
You might like Jamendo. Perhaps it doesn't have the same discoverability, but was another site where I found a lot of good independent artists. It's been a while since I've visited the site, but I still have some music that I purchased from the artists there.
Pocket protectors. Very nice to be able to carry four pens/pencils and not have to worry about ruining your shirt. I wear one every day to work.
To add to the car stuff:
Stick shifts. That is, not manual transmission... but the actual stick shifts to change gears, e.g. this. My last car was a 2015 Ford Fusion (R.I.P.) that had one, but apparently the newer Fords (and I imagine other manufacturers) have changed into this dial selector that looks like this and... it's just not as satisfying to use. I rented a 2020? Ford Escape that had one and it wasn't too big of a change to get used to, but something about having that stick to rest your hand on (hello, Freud) is a lot nicer. Plus, I feel like I have more confidence in selecting gears with a stick as it requires a bit more force to do than that knob thing.
Anyway, the stick hasn't completely been replaced across the board... so this is more of a "something I hope doesn't go extinct."
I miss stick shifts too, they're so hard to find. But they're cheaper and idk makes me more aware of what I'm doing
Physical copies of games, like cartridges or disks, without internet connectivity.
It's part mental, where I invested more effort into a game that I made the trip out to Walmart to get and had a copy of. It felt like a waste to not fully complete it. I had less games back then but I got way more mileage out of them (this was my teenage years mind you, so I think I just had more time for all the games I had tbh).
It's also on the studios to make a complete game instead of rushing it out the door and treating day-one gamers as unpaid playtesters. Miyamoto said it best, "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is bad forever," and I can't help but feel like some of that mentality has been lost.
I want the C64 back and thankfully it is coming back with the Mega 65
https://mega65.org