I’m glad we are on the same page as far as “enshittification” goes l. Although I’m curious what you think is the contradiction between my last two paragraphs are. I did say that mainstream social media has become enshittified because of competition decreasing, and then said that the fediverse was competition.
But I was hoping that would be understood as the competition between the for profit platforms. As X/Twitter or Facebook gained critical mass and its competitors like Google+/Myspace/LiveJournal/tumblr went away or greatly were diminished then it had to start making a profit and the profit was everything people complain about when they say it’s enshittified.
Mastadon/Firefish/Fediverse-at-large won’t be enshittified because they aren’t free as in free lunch. If the fediverse reaches critical mass, there is no profit motive because the costs are distributed and users either contribute or mooch. Instance admins can project their costs and open/close signups accordingly.
If I didn’t see the term enshittification being used to describe Lemmy after the Reddit fiasco then your last point would convince me.
Because it’s always users of the enshittified product that use the term whenever any change occurs. I remember when YouTube allowed for longer videos that was derided. Wasn’t described as enshittification, we didn’t need to make up words back then to seem smart.
I’m glad we are on the same page as far as “enshittification” goes l. Although I’m curious what you think is the contradiction between my last two paragraphs are. I did say that mainstream social media has become enshittified because of competition decreasing, and then said that the fediverse was competition.
But I was hoping that would be understood as the competition between the for profit platforms. As X/Twitter or Facebook gained critical mass and its competitors like Google+/Myspace/LiveJournal/tumblr went away or greatly were diminished then it had to start making a profit and the profit was everything people complain about when they say it’s enshittified.
Mastadon/Firefish/Fediverse-at-large won’t be enshittified because they aren’t free as in free lunch. If the fediverse reaches critical mass, there is no profit motive because the costs are distributed and users either contribute or mooch. Instance admins can project their costs and open/close signups accordingly.
If I didn’t see the term enshittification being used to describe Lemmy after the Reddit fiasco then your last point would convince me.
Because it’s always users of the enshittified product that use the term whenever any change occurs. I remember when YouTube allowed for longer videos that was derided. Wasn’t described as enshittification, we didn’t need to make up words back then to seem smart.