In the late 2000s I hosted an Icecast server for our IRC channel and we had regular "radio" shows presented by channel members. It was great fun. Sometimes people who were in close proximity in real life would turn up as "guests" on other people's shows. We did a thing where people in the channel could pick songs for the show etc.
I know, I know, it's classic to look back wistfully, but I really feel like something was lost in the past 15 years or so. We just cobbled together this stuff from simple components and had fun. I didn't require a PhD to get your head around it, I feel like people were more clever because you kinda needed to be. Nowadays if something isn't part of the shiny web app you're just shit out of luck. Back then we'd just do another hack and it was all good.
The way I think about, Pulse is an attempt to part ways from the traditional "Algos" and other machine based recommendation systems (which is what I think of as the real "shiny web")... and get back to listening to real people and just vibing with them while each one does their own thing.
I know, I know, it's classic to look back wistfully, but I really feel like something was lost in the past 15 years or so. We just cobbled together this stuff from simple components and had fun. I didn't require a PhD to get your head around it, I feel like people were more clever because you kinda needed to be. Nowadays if something isn't part of the shiny web app you're just shit out of luck. Back then we'd just do another hack and it was all good.