• markr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Product information search is now totally useless. I used to be able to use a part number to find a manual, now it is just scammers Amazon and eBay.

      YouTube videos were once good sources for DIY, now the useful shit is buried behind product placement bullshitters.

      • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Or websites showing the first page of a manual and requiring payment if you want to see the rest.

      • Comment105@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If it could be done, and done right, I’d love to see a couple wiki-like additions to the fediverse, one focused on products and product-specific information and care, with the other focused on the development of a catalogue of methodologies and tech for production and more general repair. Not tech news like the technology instances I’m aware of.

        But I guess it’s not suited for the format, nor could we really hope for the task of building anything even close to exhaustive to be a surmountable one for us.

        I had some ideas about UI/UX for something like this a while ago, though it wouldn’t work with Lemmy. I could probably find my notes and sketches, but effectively they’re just a bunch of wishful thinking born from my dissatisfaction with the limitations of Wikipedia, the chaos of Google, Youtube, and Reddit, and the ridiculousness that is WikiHow.

        It’s been a few years tbat I’ve been crossing my fingers for a positive paradigm shift specifically for the online content about products and DIY.

        • Godwins_Law@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately I feel like if that ever got popular then it would inevitably become tainted by people trying to promote certain products.

          • maggoats@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There might be some kind of trust system that could work. I have no idea of course but I’m envisioning something like Stack Overflow’s system and a bit of community correction and authority à la Wikipedia.

    • Misconduct@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What’s been pissing me off for years now is googling a specific company and getting a wall of advertisements for their competitors first. So. Dirty.