Enshittification

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What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

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hydra

Enshittification in a nutshell (mastodon.social)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by hydra to c/enshittification

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Author: The Oatmeal

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[–] Geek_King 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh, I love The Oatmeal! My family got their first PC in the end of 1994 or early 1995, a bit before Windows 95 launch. The internet was magical an new feeling, real rough around the edges. The sweet spot was early 2000's, but ever since huge Companies like Facebook, Instagram, etc started being the focus, moving away from personally ran sites, everything started to get shitty. It feels like price of entry to start up something new websites is really high, and you have a huge uphill battle against the Facebooks, Youtubes, and Instagrams of the world.

I think in short, mega tech companies have too much power and control over the internet. It's made the whole thing just shittier. I was reminded of this, because of the time frame I used to check out The Oatmeal all the time, along with Penny Arcade and a few other web comics. I suppose the phrase 'Simpler times" applies here, but really it just feels like I'm banging my cane on my rocker shouting "BACK IN MAH DAY!!!".

[–] hydra 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, I've been feeling myself dizzy and ocassionally exploding with "old man yells at cloud" tier rants over how stuff used to work smoothly, nowadays the web does less while consuming more resources and it's all intentional.

[–] Geek_King 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Corporations saw every nook and cranny hiding potential profit, and started squeezing people harder and harder for everything. Why sell a product once, then beg the customer to beg when you could make your software a service and get a steady steam of money on the month?

I think the main issue is not many people notice this change and won't change anything about their usage habits to make a point that they won't stand for it. Just look at the average persons reaction to horrible breaches of privacy with Facebook or any number of huge events. Most people just say "Well I have nothing to hide" and just don't care. I can't imagine a internet where this enshittification doesn't keep progressing like cancer.

[–] hydra 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Most Fedi websites and platforms require a small minimum threshold of tech savviness to be in right now so it kinda helps filter less conscious people but sadly it isn't a solution since the problem is still there.

Have you noticed you can argue here without being randomly downvoted to hell like on Reddit?

[–] Geek_King 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, to some extent. I haven't had any arguments my self, but generally there is more discourse, replies are longer and less inside-reddit-joke type replies. Lemmy right now feels like a message board from the early 2000's, and that's a good thing.

The main thing that made me leave Reddit was how frequently you'd see bots reposting stuff for karma, so the account be sold. Or positive comments on shitty unpopular things that looked a lot like astro turfing.

On reddit I have DEFINITELY seen down vote brigades down vote someone into oblivion though.

[–] hydra 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, discourse feels more natural and less encumbered by obscure algorithms and SEO. Not having a karma score to protect helps a lot too. No one here cares about your karma which encourages echo chambers of parroted jokes and approved opinions. FAANG/SV controlled platforms are constantly sanitized for advertisers and in the case of YouTube, you have AI-assisted auto-censoring and comment shadowbanning so I constantly feel there like walking on eggshells. I remember this wasn't the case back in 2014, it's all caused by recent antifeatures introduced later on into the platform.

By contrast, here in Fedi you have no obscure algorithms nor shadowbans and you constantly interact with people from different instances which can have vastly different points of view and ethos than yours so you naturally get to see a genuine, diverse and vibrant space of conversations.

As for astroturfing and bots, these seem like things that come naturally to massive platforms once they reach the mainstream. To be honest this place feels a little vulnerable to these if moderation can't catch up. Luckily lemmy.world's owner is a trusted party with experience running Fediverse instances.