Well I’m just glad Harry Mack managed to release his 100th episode of “Omegle Bars” this week. He decided to take a break from doing Omegle-based content at the right time, it seems.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Harry Mack’s a freestyle rapper. He has (had) a series where he’d ask strangers on Omegle to give him a handful of words and then create a full song out of them on the fly. And not just saying those words then immediately moving on like most freestyle rappers do; he actually creates entire verses on the topics he’s given and really raps around them. Plus he’d be calling out things the people were doing as they react to him, responding to things they say, mentioning things he can see in the room, etc, as he raps.

Here’s one of his freestyles that’s really stuck with me ever since I first saw it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehcA4zCeaPI

He takes what are some fairly negative, “cry for help” words from the girls and turns them into a really beautiful, positive rap overall. He’s a very positive guy in general, and I’ve watched him consistently since I discovered him. Binging his videos got me through a breakup, in fact.

My own experiences with Omegle have either been penises or just bland, and it’s not something I’ve used for many years as a result. But videos like Harry Mack’s show what wonderful things could come from it and I do think it’s a huge shame it’s gone. It feels like another part of the old internet’s gone, and that we’re moving even closer to the sanitised, heavily-monetised internet run by megacorporations. I hate that.

Wow that was a great read. Leif comes across as very perceptive on multiple fronts here.

Unfortunately I think his warning about the internet ending up like “souped up TV” is looking more likely by the day.

Right now it’s quite easy to force a site or service to bend the knee to outside pressure. No matter how right or wrong that pressure is. People will go after hosting and ISPs, if that doesn’t work they’ll tie people up directly in the courts. You must provide real contact info and be willing to play ball if you operate on the old web.

Embracing encryption is the only thing I can think to do to avoid that. Which honestly kind of sucks, because while true anonymity would save sites like Omegle who act in good faith and police themsevles in a reasonable manner, others that don’t will also be protected. I think the pros out weigh the cons with anonymity but that is a hard pill to swallow for many.

Sad news.

I tried Omegle years ago close to when it came out and it was fun entertainment for a short while, though I didn’t stick around because one of the issues was that if you ended up striking an interesting and wholesome conversation, you’d never meet this person again and this bothered me.

Reading its epitaph shows there was a lot of work done on it to maintain it and catch evil users, so I’m much more impressed now.

RIP Omegle, you were a nice experiment!

Thanks for sharing!

Looks like this is the norm now, Technofeudalism is here, goodbye capitalism.

Following the censorship over the years, looks similar to what happened with legacy media (main stream media).

Quote included in post:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis

In short, the Internet opened the door to a much larger, more diverse, and more vibrant world than I would have otherwise been able to experience; and enabled me to be an active participant in, and contributor to, that world. All of this helped me to learn, and to grow into a more well-rounded person.

In recent years, it seems like the whole world has become more ornery. Maybe that has something to do with the pandemic, or with political disagreements. Whatever the reason, people have become faster to attack, and slower to recognize each other’s shared humanity. One aspect of this has been a constant barrage of attacks on communication services, Omegle included, based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users.

Fear can be a valuable tool, guiding us away from danger. However, fear can also be a mental cage that keeps us from all of the things that make life worth living. Individuals and families must be allowed to strike the right balance for themselves, based on their own unique circumstances and needs. A world of mandatory fear is a world ruled by fear – a dark place indeed.

Unfortunately, what is right doesn’t always prevail. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.

Can someone explain in short what problem people had about Omegle?

Was it that you can say things (and show things) there to a random person without any good possibility to trace it back to you because it’s anonymous and more “temporary” then something like Lemmy for example?

Or was it just a witch hunt without any real reasonable structure?

similar to craigslist personals.
and look how much better the world is now. /sarcasm