• Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wholesome. I always wanted to use Omegle but I figured it was only appropriate for teens. It’s a damn shame.

    • __ghost__@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Omegle has always been primarily men masturbating to (for?) random people on the Internet. It was kind of a cesspool from the beginning so you didn’t miss much

      Anecdote for the road: I was in my early teens when Omegle was in its heyday. Even then it was a minefield of done people that wanted to roulette chat and men masturbating to primarily children my age. I met a lot of cool people to talk to and it was my first real personal/video interaction with people over the Internet

      When I was about 13 I started getting on Omegle to have men masturbate to me and tell me I was pretty. They would always ask how old I was or that I looked young. Looking back I can see that as harmful behavior, but I was old enough to have a semblance of control to never share any identifiable information nor show my face. Basically, Omegle was my homosexual “awakening” as I hadn’t had those experiences up to that point

      If a similar platform with maybe AI moderation came along I could get behind it. While I don’t view my experience as personally damaging, I can see the avenue for grooming and exploitation and I’m glad they finally shuttered

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Thank you for sharing. So pedo wankers were the main problem with the platform?

      • sosodev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is such a reductive perspective. Yes, plenty of bad things have happened on Omegle. Likewise plenty of beautiful things have happened on there too.

        The “it’s dangerous we’re better off without it” line of thought tends to reduce most things to bland nothingness. One could argue that Lemmy is dangerous in the same way. Children could see terrible things or meet terrible people here. But does that mean it shouldn’t exist?

        • __ghost__@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          What was reductive about my description? I qualified my experience with the good and bad. My only real complaint was the lack of moderation. Lemmy has its issues, sure, but it has community driven moderation whereas Omegle had essentially zero. Not to mention the accessibility and notoriety of Omegle far exceeded Lemmy

          I enjoyed having Omegle exist, and I’m happy there’s space for something else to take its place

          • sosodev@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Omegle definitely had moderation. It’s less to visible to the end users but certainly was in place.

            Your description is reductive because it focuses heavily on the bad while mostly ignoring the good.

            It’s weird that you’re both happy Omegle is gone and happy that something can take its place. Arguably the thing that takes its place will be worse because it doesn’t have the years of dedication and experience behind it.

            You also mention AI moderation while totally ignoring the fact that Omegle already had that. Just because it looked like the same old website that doesn’t mean they weren’t adopting new tech.

            • __ghost__@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              The result was still unlabeled sexual content. They had categories specifically for that, but it was rarely adhered to from my own experience

              If you’re complaining my perspective is reductive how is yours any different? You could argue whatever takes Omegle’s place will be worse, sure. I respect that you have a different opinion

              I’ll adjust my complaint to the need for better AI moderation. You’re ignoring that the Omegle was shut down shortly after a lawsuit settlement surrounding child exploitation. I don’t personally believe organizations or people should be able to outgrow something like that without consequences