I mean there’s Reddit ofc, as well as Twitter in its entirety, Discord is implementing some dumb updates, there are issues with Tumblr as well as everything to do with Meta, and I’m sure there are plenty more (and I haven’t even touched other digital media, for example the Sims). Why is it all happening in the span of about a couple months?
As a phenomenon you’ll see a lot of people call it “enshittification.” The term seems to originate with Cory Doctorow who writes, “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.”
The whole article on his blog is worth a read here: https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys. His Mastodon handle is @pluralistic if you’d like to follow his work there (woohoo federation!).
bro wtf we are actually living in the future, i just followed the equivalent of someone’s twitter from the equivalent of my reddit account
Reductivist, boring, and accurate. I’m impressed
I think the concept of a trust thermocline is important here: https://freethepeople.org/the-trust-thermocline-twitter-and-the-feds/
The main sticking point is profitability. Not many platforms have managed to create a business model that’s sustainably profitable. Reddit certainly hasn’t. Now they’re basically looking for a way to cash out so they’re prioritising short term profitability over everything.
Honestly if reddit had come, cap in hand, and says “Hey what can we do to be awesome so you’ll buy premium”
And then listened to our advice? I’d have bought premium to help em out.
Instead, they are acting genuinely insane. Like back when my brother was on cocaine and Adderall and would try to hit me up for money.
Reddit can die.
They’re just trying to survive until they IPO. Then they can cash out and who gives a fuck about reddit after that.