There has been a desire to go back to older days where text was more prevalent, and so Gemini has begin and is gaining popularity - though I'm sure very slowly. See: https://gemini.circumlunar.space/
Also, separately (though i wouild not be surprised if frequented by same/similar folks who have interets in Gemini), there is also the tildeverse...again, more text-heavy environments. See: https://tildeverse.org/
And, as i have stated in another comment there is the fediverse (e.g. Mastodon, pleroma, etc.), so the ability to leverage APIs to interact with other folks and their content without explicitly needing a typical web browser exists, and flourishes.
I'll end by stating that there are a few exciting things - like the above items i mention as well as this neat Woob platform - which to me seem very fun, a little new, and yet at the same time in some ways nostalgic...maybe they won't make the morning news, and likely only attract geeks, but it is all still exciting - at least for me!
The tildeverse looks pretty cool, but why does it redirect me to a Rick Roll on Firefox?
I can see the normal site just fine on Lynx browser (maybe that's the point?)
Edit: ah, I see, they're doing a JWZ and redirecting based on referral, but going a step further and setting a cookie. Cute, but also terribly immature.
Oops, sorry about that. I never had an issue before...but funny after visiting HN, see exactly what you mean. (Clearing the cookies avoids the classic rick roll video). Anyway, yeah i guess the tilde folks are "characters". But, separate of that, the community i've interacted with is quite fun, respectful, and good-natured. I also failed to mention a sort of equivalent to HN, which i frequent (with similar topics to HN but often nicer crowd): https://tildes.net/
...Tilde.net used to be only open to invite not open to anyone creating an account...so if interested - and still not open to the public - i can trigger to send you an invite.
