- There are a lot of predators online: trackers, trolls, clickbait-ers, *actual* predators, etc. - In response, we’re retreating into the [[{2.4a} the public web versus cozyweb|cozyweb]]-type spaces (see [[Rao, Vankatesh - 2019 - The Extended Internet Universe]]) where, as Yancey Strickler [[Strickler, Yancey - 2019 - The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet|puts it]], “depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments”. - (I think Yancey describes these spaces *as* the dark forest… I tend to lean more toward them existing *outside of* the dark forest, like in [[Appleton, Maggie - The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web|Maggie Appleton’s diagram]] – possibly because I saw it first.) - This is creating a “dark forest”, as described in [[{2.4b2} the dark forest theory of the universe]]. - The internet appears empty because everyone is staying quiet to avoid the predators. - *I did not keep the original version of this note, so some links may seem out of place.*