The Value of Human Edited Directories

The problem we face on in the Internet is with navigation structures.

Unfortunately people were hypnotized by Google and its claim to have created some some of perfect algorithm that made the best information float to the top or search results.

The growing awareness of shadow banning and outright censorship on Youtube and Facebook have some people questioning their faith in this corporate giant that has grown to dominate the web.

I love seeing people support efforts like Steemit which is creating a new social media platform.

However, free speech afficiandos still need to address the broader question of navigation structures outside of multimedia platforms.

Personally, I am still a fan of human edited links pages, directories and indexes.

When I discover a new web site, I usually visit the links page to see who they support.

I am disappointed when I find dead end sites that don't have external.

Of course the biggest problem with external links is that about 5% of web sites go dark each year. This means a huge number of broken links. Removing broken links is an unpleasant chore.

People with a small link page with just a few hundred links can edit them by clicking all the links once a year. People with large link pages need a programatic approach.

Anyway, as people design their plans for using Steemit, I hope they also consider their link pages.

I guess I should end with a shameless self-promotion. I maintain a family of local directories with the brand Community Color for select towns in the Mountain West (Az, Co and Ut). This human edited directory has a 30,000 links (I've removed 20,000 broken links so far).

While my directories are a little bit overboard. I still think that human edited indexes should play a role in web development.

All of the navigation structures based on computer algorithms will end up being manipulated by other algorithms. So, even though the people who create human edited directories will always be biased, there biases are based on human brains and not machine brains.