Platforms seem to be destroying themselves.

First, it was Facebook because of its general dickishness.

There was Tumblr when it purged porn.

Then it was Twitter marking its demise with an X.

The latest is Reddit by ruining proper access in its homepage.

At least we still have the reliability of forums.

(September 30, 2023 at 4:25 pm)Foxaèr Wrote: Platforms seem to be destroying themselves.

First, it was Facebook because of its general dickishness.

There was Tumblr when it purged porn.

Then it was Twitter marking its demise with an X.

The latest is Reddit by ruining proper access in its homepage.

At least we still have the reliability of forums.

The word is enshittification.

First the platform is free, and uncluttered with advertising, because everyday users create the content that gets it off the ground.

When users get addicted to the platform it starts feeding you ads.

Then they start charging third parties for access to the API used to scrape the data.

The platform gets sold to a Nazi (Musk) or an evil corporation (Google, Microsoft) and the cool kids leave.

Advertisers follow the content creators out the door.  Then the platform goes behind a paywall and collapses.

God, I miss AOL, and alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die.die.die.die.die.

I blame Karl Marx.

Boru