this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Enshittification

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What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

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So my internet went out on Friday at 6am. Trying to navigate the Verizon website and app has been a pure hellscape, with repeated requests to revalidate using a PIN which is denied arbitrarally, causing call to drop. If you do manage to get a warm body, they put you on hold or transfer the call will inevitably drops causing one to start the whole process again. Finally, they said it was a router problem, which was only 6 months old and no longer compatible with their service. Finally got bounced back to Sales at 5PM, who ordered a new router for me and waived the recurring fee (either $400 for a new router or $18/month for something paid for many times over). Anyway, I went to pick up said new router at the location indicated only to find that they don't stock equipment and I have to drive another 4 miles to a nondescript store in a strip mall. I finally get home and try to self-install which bombs out, necessitating another aventure into their website/app hellscape. About 18 hours after the initial outage, I'm back in service. I've never run into a company who is so blantant in their desire to piss off their customers. If only there were viable alternatives in my area.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've had Verizon for dsl and FiOS. Each time it was a horrific experience that required multiple long calls over the course of weeks to get basic service established. I will never willingly choose Verizon for anything unless it is my absolute only choice. I'd rather pay more money for a lesser service than deal with their customer (dis)service because it's not worth the time or stress.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I will never willingly choose Verizon for anything unless it is my absolute only choice.

You’ve never had to deal with Comcast (xfinity) or Time Warner Cable (Spectrum) or Frontier.