this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 142 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Fearing enshittification is one reason I want to keep my company private. If I have to answer to stockholders, then I’m not answering to customers, and that’s shitty.

[–] HootinNHollerin 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

100%. I never wanna work for public company again. I left a huge one after constant thrashing of canceling projects and trips so the accountants could move money around for the quarterly earnings reports only to revive after. Went to a couple small private ones then ~2yrs ago employer went public. Been so downhill so fast. Company isn’t recognizable to the one I accepted offer from. I’m leaving when I find a good private fit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I've always worked for smaller private companies because my partner always got screwed working at bigger corporations.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Fearing enshittification is one reason I want to keep my company private. If I have to answer to stockholders, then I’m not answering to customers, and that’s shitty.

I get it. His most recent post talks about how enshittification isn't just limited to digital platforms, it's inevitable whenever monopolies are allowed to form.

[–] agentsquirrel 12 points 1 year ago

Avoid private equity as well. PE is equally shitty.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I've noted over the past few years, how any company that invests in R&D rather than pays dividends is labelled as "loss making" by the press.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well good news... you don't have to fucking answer to stockholders. That's a fucking lie perpetrated by Harvard Business sociopaths and their bootlicking bitchboys.

All you have to do is what's in the best interest of the business. If someone doesn't like it they can sell the fucking stock.

[–] Shiggles 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“The best interest of the business” is far too lenient in its wording. Some of the shareholder derivative lawsuits out there are fucking wild.

Simple things such as “paying your workers too much”, “acting with too much emphasis on morality over capital gains”, it all does have to come back to shareholder profits, ever since Dodge Vs. Ford.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's not what was decided in Dodge v. Ford. That case decided that corporations are allowed to act in the interest of majority shareholders even if it hurts the interests of minority shareholders. The Dodge brothers owned Ford shares and were trying to use their position to force Ford to stop competing with Dodge.

Further:

"In fact, courts have consistently refused to hold directors liable for failing to maximise shareholder value."

"In 2014, the United States Supreme Court voiced its position in no uncertain terms. In Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., the Supreme Court stated that “Modern corporate law does not require for profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else”.

https://legislate.ai/blog/does-the-law-require-public-companies-to-maximise-shareholder-value

The idea that corporations are hamstrung and simply must do evil things to maximize profit is actually just corporate propaganda.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's the cargo-cult interpretation of Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

The real cost of enshittification is that they make it impossible for others to run honest business.

Who will pay a subscription for privacy respecting services when there are a dozen free alternatives. True cost of running online business has been completely hidden from users and for so long that they will never accept those that want to cover the costs upfront.

e.g. how many of you remain on Lemmy if instance owners asked for a monthly fee to cover their server costs?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That's the neoliberal secret -- you have to play the game, no matter how immoral the rules.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

At least in feddit (main German instance) there were a lot of posts offering up financial support, but it was declined because it was not needed.

I think especially the smaller communities wouldn't have a problem coming with funds for hosting. Donations for lemmy developers have also increased significantly since the main exodus.

I get your scepticism, but I think the lemmy community for the most part wants this thing to "succeed" and is willing to chip in a reasonable amount.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Kind of surprised (and a bit disappointed) you didn't get more replies saying "I already pay". Which does admittedly support your point!

p.s. I already pay.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If they are 100% transparent in regard to where the money goes, I'm in. The problem with something like youtube premium is not that it's unaffordable to the majority of users. It's that at this point you have to assume that they don't need the subscription fee to cover their costs, but to shove that money up some CEOs or shareholders asses. Yeah that's not gonna happen unless they force me to and even then I'd think twice about if I really need that service.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Depends honestly but there’s a fee I’d be willing to pay to support if there was ongoing development and efforts for things user privacy and responsible moderation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I used to donate to BBSes, and my BBS ran on donations, so that's how I'd approach the issue.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago

tl;dw

  • Cory Doctorow coins the term "enshittification" to describe how platforms start out benefiting users but eventually abuse users and business customers to extract all value.

  • Facebook started by prioritizing user privacy over ads but now prioritizes profits over all else.

  • Network effects are a double-edged sword - they lock users in but also make platforms vulnerable if users leave en masse.

  • Low switching costs due to universality and interoperability allow competitors to reverse engineer platforms and plug in competing services.

  • Mandatory interoperability and limiting data control can curb platform power by distributing control to users and smaller companies.

  • Recent antitrust actions aim to roll back decades of lax merger policy that let platforms consolidate power.

  • Breakups will take a long time so interoperability is a faster way to restore competition.

  • Laws should limit abusive behavior rather than rely on platforms to self-regulate.

  • Federated open services fail gracefully and encourage migration to better platforms.

  • Political will is growing but change will be gradual - focus should be on harm reduction in the near term.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I love that this is on YouTube, which us going full force in enshittifying itself right now.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's capitalism - it'll gladly sell you even its own criticism

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

'When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.'

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

True but it is unfortunately still the place where people will most likely watch your video.

[–] PissinSelfNdriveway 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thank God you censored the word SHIT so we didn't all need a group hug meeting .

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's the original title of the video. I assume the uploaded voluntarily censored it to avoid getting demonetized

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=rimtaSgGz_4&si=4REg2e22vrfEUYwl

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ironic that a bot had to come save us from having to watch the video in an enshititfying platform...

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The plan is US basically ... decentralization. The federated web

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

i.e. where it all began

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I watched the video yesterday and I couldn't really understand what the plan is. What I got was something like "the corps are too big for the consumers to do anything and laws are very slow to made".

Did I miss something about the "audacious(?)" plan?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Man, people think they want laws to regulate the internet but seem to forget who owns the lobbyists.

The fediverse will be at risk as soon as they start legislating.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

let the internet enshit itself, that why we are here, profit focused companies are going to fuck themselfs, it's just a matter of time

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That may have been true in the past, but in the last 30 years I've watched a lot of companies that should have outright failed because they were terribly managed get a few dumptruck loads of taxpayer money to keep them afloat.
We're well past the stage of "if they fuck themselves, let them fail" and deep into "If you're not going to buy their shit, we'll just take them money straight out of your paycheck"

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The World Wide Wipe

The Big Data Bidet

An Ethernet Enema

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bidets are the best thing ever though. Installing a bidet changed my life.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not all heroes wear capes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But in xkcd lore, Cory Doctorow does in fact wear a cape, and has a hot air balloon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how stupid that word sounds. I feel like we can come up with something better.

I just wanted to say, definitely watch the video if you have the time. Cory Doctorow is absolutely right and an incredibly smart guy.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's perfect. It enshittifies itself. It's like the shitty rule of capitalist economics in the 21st century.

[–] HootinNHollerin 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It we altered the word every so often to get shitier that would be great. Enshiiiiiiitificatiousne$$ is where we’d currently be

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)

It doesn't necessarily roll off the tongue, but that's a good thing. It seems to be catching on, and frankly those large companies and orgs that are enshittifying and get labeled thusly might actually not love being called out with it, and hopefully slow their roll.

Doubtful, but a man can dream.

I used to work at S***ify... which is currently enshittifying at top-speed. It fits.

[–] Codilingus 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Funny that it could either Shopify or Spotify, you refer to, as both are arguably enshityifying.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I first read it as Shittify

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

So stupid I saw it used a lot of times and I used it myself before I even knew the guy.. it conveys the meaning so well

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