this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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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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Has YouTube experienced enshittification?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I noticed that with music videos. They remove the release date, remove it from the video section of the channel and shove it in something called releases on there. Weird change.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Music videos are a special case, because I think the majority of them were uploaded to Youtube in 2009 when they launched the Vevo service. Everything from Video Killed The Radio Star to I Got A Feeling were uploaded to Youtube "14 years ago."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

A lot of changes look wierd on the surface from the companies, these are experiments for figuring out how to extract more money.

In this case my guess is people constantly look to seek out new content and avoid older content. If people don't know, that could lead more general engagement then baseline and therefore an increase in revenue.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The cat story is really upsetting.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

The English language long has started failing me to accurately describe just how trash the entire YouTube situation as a whole to this date really is

This is just one monopoly, all but a glimpse into the dystopia company's want to become

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Has YouTube experienced enshittification?

Ummm???

[–] RandomVideos 7 points 3 weeks ago

Enshittification has 3 steps:

  1. Make a good platform for users
  2. Make the platform worse for users, but better for business customers
  3. Make the platform worse for users and business customers to maximize profits

Youtube is past the first step

In the comments for this post i have seen 3 explanations:

Boosting smaller youtubers, which would not make the platform worse for the users, meaning that it couldnt be part of the process

Boosting radical youtubers, which would make the platform worse for business customers, but not increase profits, meaning that it couldnt be part of the process

Making people click on videos more often, which goes against attempts to make people watch single videos for longer

This is just a terrible change, there is no overused word to describe it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

removes dates

and that's all the news channels gone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I bet that when they do this that older videos with newer thumbnails will get more clickthroughs and watch time same that of the newest uploads, but it won't be as effective with documentary / science videos (vsause, veritasium ect) because their videos are highly memorable. This will have a bad effect on the end user filtering out low effort video farms that show up in the search results, because those videos tend to have 100 views - 10k views.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Oh fuck off, the rounded edges on videos was bad enough

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You know why they might be hiding upload dates? My theory is, Youtube doesn’t really want you looking at new stuff. (Very apparent by the algorithm) they want you looking at specific news stories, and specific content but not constantly seeking new uploads from independents.

But that is just a theory a plain theory. Thanks for watching.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Youtube doesn’t really want you looking at new stuff

I think they do want you looking at new stuff. Its just going to be AI generated stuff, and you'll get spooked if you realize it was produced hours or even minutes ago with virtually no other engagement to speak of.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

This is so stupid… I can give a personal exemple that happened to me today!

I just got into Lorcana and I want to learn a bit more about the meta and where the strategies are at. The damn thing got like FOUR expansions in a year!! So a video that came out during release is already WAY out of date!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

About 15 years ago Microsoft had this great idea.

What if we forced everyone to use our software on the web so they can’t buy it.

Macros will no longer work, but not many people use macros so fuck those guys, they are nerds anyway.

This became the heyday of the Libre Software movement. And the reason I still occasionally use it.

Companies run on the simple automation the nerds create with Macros and companies aren’t going to hire a bunch more clerks so they can pay more for shittier software.

TL;DR, Microsoft backed down when people voted with their feet and not before.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

This is the dumbest shit I've ever seen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Has YouTube experienced enshittification?

Crapperidge's law says yes

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I suppose this targets viewers like me who refuse to watch large content creators

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or more likely viewers who just go with large content creators.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

They continue to foster a culture of ignorance and dependence.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

how's that even a question?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Is that a rhetorical question?

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