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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Mozilla Introducing 'Terms of Use' to Firefox (www.omgubuntu.co.uk)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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From the new terms:

When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.

Looks like FF is on track for enshittification, I (unfortunately and with great sadness) called it last year (and was downvoted for it lol)

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

No, I'm not suggesting that people on non-elon servers would be forced to pay. I'm saying when 3 billion instances all say you need to pay, and 1000 instances say you don't, to a society that doesn't know what an instance is? That will just become known to the average person as "The fediverse is that thing elon musk created. You gotta pay to use it."

Even though none of that statement is true, perception becomes reality. And sure, your instance COULD block each elon instance one by one. But it'd be faster to defederate from all, and then only federate with non-elon instances.

.......but how do you find 1000 instances in a pool of 3 billion?

Enshitification is never about the tech, or the possible. It's ALWAYS about the money.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Sorry, I just don’t see that happening. “Truth” Social is just a mastodon instance, and yet mastodon still exists. Enshittification is merely the process of giving something for free and rent seeking once it becomes popular. This can’t be done to a protocol.