It took 18 emails back and forth, over about 4 weeks, to get Microsoft to finally delete my developer account rather than just disable it. They first claimed they could only disable it, and I had to push multiple times, citing GDPR and saying I would report them to the data protection authority, before it was magically possible after all and they did it. 🙄
Hanlon's razor is the proposition that one should "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." It's actually a Napoleon quote.
To which I'll add, LeftistLawyer's first #capitalist corollary --
"Never ascribe to incompetence, that which is adequately explained by #greed."
Which, if you think about it, is really just a euphemism for malice. You have to be ok with the oblique suffering of others to be a good capitalist.
So please stop scratching your heads in confusion about why so many things are so fucked up. We celebrate immiserating the poor and lionizing malicious greed in the capitalist world. Hanlon was the greatest elite enabler of all time.
"The enshittification of the internet isn't the result of which technology we use. The important thing about a technology isn't what it does, it's who it does it for, and who it does it to."
YouTube is trying to ratchet MORE user data out of folks wanting to keep their browsing private. Now you'll get a blank homepage, and a direct link to your watch history settings (no longer on YouTube, but buried OBNOXIOUSLY in menus on Google).
A blank page with NO recommendations on "youtube dot com"?
~100 HTML elements, including 57 unique CSS class names across 83 attributes, 30 hidden DIVs, 3 iframes, 2 external script tags, 2 inline script tags, and 1 actual <img> tag.
the <img> is inside an iframe, nested 3 (!) levels of iframes deep.
This is one of the most well-explained cases of #enshittification I’ve ever seen, from the perspective of someone who is happy to pay for one of the most expensive streaming plans offered, but couldn’t even get that to work:
“So just to keep paying Disney close to all they could ask of me, I have spent about 5 total hours over 26 months on the phone without ever getting to the point that everything just flowed as promised.”
Reminder: if ISPs didn’t artificially restrict our upstream bandwidth and cap our monthly traffic amounts, we could all host our own videos and stream to moderately-sized audiences, without the need for services like #YouTube and #Twitch injecting ads into every goddamned thing.
These things are done for a reason, and it isn’t a technical one. It is to exercise control over what and how you are allowed to share.
Can't stop thinking about these extremely real and legitimate product photos from an Amazon listing for a 3P (or possibly a knockoff of a 3P) Transmetal 2 Megatron. Just Generic White Family genuinely enjoying these toys that they are definitely really interacting with.
LinkedIn was a pioneer in social media enshittification; I guess I still have an account, but haven't visited it in years. Started out as a useful tool for connecting with others in a professional context, then killed groups. #LinkedIn #enshittification
Just started seeing this popup today. It can be dismissed with the 'x', upper right - for now.
Hopefully the adblocker will find a way round it - or maybe #Firefox will. If not, I'll just stop watching #YouTube vids I suppose.
Just had a thoroughly dystopian online chat with a computer at HMRC where it failed to even offer me basic information on the correct topic, despite me telling them what the topic was in a very succinct manner.
It wouldn't have helped, as I've already read that, but it would have at least felt like it was potentially achieving something.
jesus christ have you tried using Thesaurus.com lately? Every page is covered in ads plus you get popover ads that take over everything, complete with a dark pattern to trick people clicking Open to engage with the ad. #enshittification
L'ultimo numero di Internazionale è dedicato alla #enshittification (articolo di Cory Doctorow)
@pluralistic, nell'articolo del FT tradotto in italiano, parla di come le piattaforme sfruttino i monopoli per imprigionate i propri utenti mentre li spremono e rendono la loro esperienza sempre peggiore.
Penso che Cory Doctorow sia una specie di profeta nell' ambito dell'etica digitale, consiglio anche il suo blog, scrive ogni giorno cose interessanti!
I don't get this kind of actions... Firing 10 writers to focus on Sales and SEO. I open these kinds of sites daily because I'm a fan of the writing, if they reduce the writing staff and use more SEO for new readers who won't come back, what's the point???
Imagine an alternate reality where Steve Jobs never budged on allowing apps on the iPhone, but allowed people to jailbreak their phones as long as they took responsibility for it (like how some Chromebooks have a dev mode).
You'd have tons of fun little apps, and almost no #enshittification of the app store. You'd also have a lot of great PWAs for those who never wanted to jailbreak their phones.
I don't miss the iPhone, but I absolutely miss the golden era (2008-2013ish) of the #iPhone.
I've been a really happy #Plex user for many years - have loved it, paid $100/year and invested a lot of time to get my #movies, #TVShows, and #music collections set up the way I want them.
If Windows 11 putting ads in the start menu wasn't bad enough. Microsoft is mulling adding watermarks to the OS if your computer doesn't meet the AI system requirements.
So I finally contacted Google disability support about the degrading accessibility of the youTube app for iOS. I'm fairly sure I was sent there from the youTube help site. I summarized a lot of the issues I and other Voiceover users have been having with the iOS app, particularly the hellish clutter of search results and recommended videos. The response I got today directed me to write to YouTube premium support, but the page they linked to is only for help with one-time purchases or ongoing subscriptions. As an alternative, I was told to post in the community. There was no acknowledgement of the issues and no offer to pass it along. It very clearly said "You've reached the wrong place."
My interpretation of this e-mail is simple: Google disability support can't file feedback about youTube. If there is a way to do so and reach an accessibility-aware person, I have not found it.
The youTube iOS app has now degraded to the point where it's painful to use. I think this is a good nudge to move the podcast feed generator in-house (literally) and start listening to videos in Overcast. It'll also make me less unfocused and dependent on the algorithm. #Accessibility#Google#YouTube#Enshittification
What the hell, where does the sudden #enshittification on #Startpage come from? There even are two additional "sponsored" entries on the bottom of the page, barely more results than ads. Doesn't get caught by µBlock Origin or another addon either.
Time to move to a better search provider. Probably a self-hosted one.
Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things: Three Decades of Survival in the Desert of Social Media (catvalente.substack.com)
This is an article by Cat Valente during the Twitter Migration, discussing the cycle of enschittification and the history of social media....