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Enshittification: An explanation for why Reddit (and basically all corporate social media) is getting worse (pluralistic.net)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey everyone, I see a lot of people throwing around the term "enshittification" to describe the long-term and systemic decline of many of the centralized social media platforms, most recently Reddit. I commented this elsewhere, but thought everyone might benefit for reading Cory Doctorow's original article coining the term. The first sentence here sums it up nicely:

"Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

I'm a big proponent for tracing and crediting the origins of ideas, and I think this one speaks to a lot of people right now. For all its flaws and occasional user-unfriendliness, I think the main draw of the Fediverse is an escape from this profit-driven cycle.

You can also follow the Mastodon account for Cory's blog @pluralistic (yay federation!).

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Tldr: money

Reddit's draw was content. Could have been from users or aggregated from different sources. Content was provided for free by users. Content was moderated for free by mods.

Now reddit is complaining that users consuming content via means bypassing monetisation are entitled while reddit has been freeloading for years. They're basically infrastructure. Important but not the lifeblood.

I hope they wither and perish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah definitely so, and weren't there some statistics regarding the amount of people using 3rd party apps, and that being relatively low? Correct me if I am wrong

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@EV_EV @pluralistic @wrath-sedan @novarime Even in the interview where /u/spez went on a tear about how Apollo was profiting off Reddit and costing them so much money, he said Reddit's own app got 95% of the downloads 😩

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

In the step between being good to their users and abusing their users, eternal September occurs. Early adopters tend to be curious and technically minded sorts of people, and the users that follow them, less so. Right now I'm enjoying that posts here tend to be more thoughtful and in good faith than what one usually finds on reddit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Somehow, Cory has done a ton of amazing writing, speaking, and other work, but his best work is a single word.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wonder if we could find a better word than "enshittification". Maybe something more descriptive?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@narF I doubt it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'm asking because some people (ex: my mom) would react badly to using such word just because there's "shit" in it. But with a different word, she might get it and use it.
I'm not good enough in english to find something better...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I enjoyed this 3-part interview with Cory about the subject: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/projects/enshitification

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Welcome to capitalism, have a seat! That'll be $250

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It's a basic monopoly move. Why is Google making it's search function shitty? Because it's a monopoly and you won't go to a competitor. Reddit assumes that it can make these moves because it doesn't have a competitor, and if it did, it could buy out the competitor right now.

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