chikorita157 🐰 on Nostr: I have been using the term #enshittification lately to describe #Reddit downfall, but ...
I have been using the term #enshittification lately to describe #Reddit downfall, but it's happening to all centralized platforms lately because the era of easy money is coming to an end with interest rates raising. It's a term coined by Cory Doctorow. He describes it as this:
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.
I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable"consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
Source
Can the Fediverse be "enshittified." The answer is no as there is no profit motive if you use open source software that uses ActivityPub like Mastodon, Misskey, Akkoma, Calckey, Pixelfed, etc. Servers are run by users or organizations, usually without a profit motive. Most of them receive funding through donations. If one server decides to go to crap or plans to shut down, you can always move to another server. This is why the ActivityPub powered Fediverse can never be enshittified unlike corporate, centralized platforms that are unlikely to turn a profit.
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.
I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable"consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two sided market,” where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
Source
Can the Fediverse be "enshittified." The answer is no as there is no profit motive if you use open source software that uses ActivityPub like Mastodon, Misskey, Akkoma, Calckey, Pixelfed, etc. Servers are run by users or organizations, usually without a profit motive. Most of them receive funding through donations. If one server decides to go to crap or plans to shut down, you can always move to another server. This is why the ActivityPub powered Fediverse can never be enshittified unlike corporate, centralized platforms that are unlikely to turn a profit.