FWIW I think (but not 100%) that it was us at Kickstarter who first used the word "creator" the way it's used now.
At the time we were trying to decide how to describe all the different kinds of people who would be making projects -- artists, writers, filmmakers, coders, chefs. What do you call all of these people? There was no clear term, but in the course of brainstorming "Creator" really stood out as being the best at encompassing many different kinds of creative people. We launched with that as our term in 2009.
A year later I remember YouTube starting to use it too. I can't say for sure we were the absolute first, but I do remember when we decided to use it that it wasn't being used elsewhere.
I cut some of this out before hitting publish, but I had originally included more about the emotional and status anxiety of posting publicly, reputation management, and the risks to self posed by the way these platforms work. I ultimately cut those things because I thought they distracted from the overall idea and it's something we already hear so much of. I definitely wouldn't say this analogy is 1:1 with Liu Cixin's original, but I do think there is a real fear to poking your head out online that isn't that far from the original dark forest concept.
I identified with this post immediately -- both because of the Cixin Liu reference and my own behavior recently.
Before: good opsec, ad blockers, minimal social media under my own name, anonymous and pseudonymous accounts, etc.
Now:
Between 5 and 10 spam, scam or phishing voice calls every day to mobile phone, home phone and office phone.
So now I never answer any phone unless I'm expecting your call and all ringers are always off.
Political operatives of every persuasion are knocking on my door at home several times a week, and there's not even an election on right now. They all have mobile apps, logging every interaction in a central database.
So now I don't answer my own door at home.
Used to enjoy discussing current events, economics, geopolitics, tech policy with family and work friends. We usually disagreed, but it was fun to talk and often I learned a new perspective.
But now these discussions are amped up to 11, emotionally charged in every direction, so these conversations only happen with intimate friends now.
I'm either living in a dark forest or I'm a turtle withdrawing into its shell.
Meanwhile, others in my neighborhood are emerging from their shells, flying confederate flags and more obscure but hateful symbols, and advocating neighborhood militias on Nextdoor.
At the time we were trying to decide how to describe all the different kinds of people who would be making projects -- artists, writers, filmmakers, coders, chefs. What do you call all of these people? There was no clear term, but in the course of brainstorming "Creator" really stood out as being the best at encompassing many different kinds of creative people. We launched with that as our term in 2009.
A year later I remember YouTube starting to use it too. I can't say for sure we were the absolute first, but I do remember when we decided to use it that it wasn't being used elsewhere.