As mentioned in the HN submission, Last.fm went through a redesign already over a decade ago. It stripped so much functionality that the site became useless except for merely tracking one's own listens, and there were already libre alternatives for that.
Last.fm is one of my go-to examples of how the internet has become a lonelier place. The old Last.fm was deeply linked with real life: it would show upcoming gigs in your town along with members who might be attending, and you could easily meet people in your own location who shared your own tastes in music. Where does a person find music-related socializing now?
A bigger question is why Last.fm did this, and why they don't do it again now that they're independent. I've been on Last.fm. since 2005 at least.
That's not a Last.fm issue, that's a general trend that affects everything.
People don't blog on their personal sites any more, blog comments don't really exist any more, MySpace / Tumblr like sites are not popular any more and people don't share everything private on social media any more as everyone realized that the internet is not always a friendly place and there's enough public cases where this fired back.
The same also applies to the platform itself, opening yourself up to more user contributed data is often a real headache as you need to moderate it properly and that needs resources too. Ask Meta's moderator team how much fun they are having.
TFNA · · focus · HN ↗
Last.fm is one of my go-to examples of how the internet has become a lonelier place. The old Last.fm was deeply linked with real life: it would show upcoming gigs in your town along with members who might be attending, and you could easily meet people in your own location who shared your own tastes in music. Where does a person find music-related socializing now?
wyclif · · focus · HN ↗
dewey · · focus · HN ↗
People don't blog on their personal sites any more, blog comments don't really exist any more, MySpace / Tumblr like sites are not popular any more and people don't share everything private on social media any more as everyone realized that the internet is not always a friendly place and there's enough public cases where this fired back.
The same also applies to the platform itself, opening yourself up to more user contributed data is often a real headache as you need to moderate it properly and that needs resources too. Ask Meta's moderator team how much fun they are having.