We really gotta back decentralized platforms if we don't want everything to become an overmonetized hellscape where all information and communication is skewed to suit business interests. I wouldn't pay for Reddit Gold and Twitter Blue but I should send some money to the Lemmy, Kbin and Mastodon folks.

It's called fiduciary duty and it's why every mega company sucks.

Cut costs by replacing cashiers with self checkout? Write a fat check to the shareholders! Then, shoplifting is becoming an even bigger issue from the self checkout... Cut costs again by preventing shoplifting by having people man the self checkout! Write another fat check to the shareholders!

Nevermind that it would have been easier and cheaper to just keep the system we had. Looking at you, Target.

How did you get that bitchin username graphic?

Not a coincidence. End of cheap money era.

Forreal, what's going on? Why does it seem like so many separate sites are suddenly so much worse/going downhill quickly?

The privately-owned for-profit Internet is starting to pop. User-driven FOSS will reign supreme.

You mean popped again? It has already popped back in 2002 with the dot-com bubble bursting. Seems investors never learn.

Don't forget about YouTube! https://www.techradar.com/computing/social-media/youtubes-test-run-of-the-three-strikes-youre-out-policy-against-ad-blockers-seems-like-a-bit-much

Tumblr was just ahead of its time

Everything is falling down:

• Google is dropping Reddit and Twitter from their searches.
• Twitter is throttling Tweets and you have to signin to view anything. Which would be crazy antivaxxer radicals, so not missing anything. No more free API use.
• YouTube is blocking you after 3 videos if you use an adblocker.
• Reddit has killed all 3rd party apps among API changes
• Now Gfycat is going, man that's like most of the sites I used since a kid. Imgur seems to be around still at least.

After 2008, interest rates were set to zero and basically stayed there for the next 15 years. What that meant was that investing your money in literally anything was better than putting it in a savings account or loaning it to the government (bonds). What thatmeant is that any company with a dream and a product found themselves swimming in piles and piles of venture capital fund funds. And all that money meant that customers were getting a lot of stuff at or below cost from companies that had lots of cash to spend, and no real concern about making it back. Now the free ride is over and everyone is trying to cash in, only to find that’s not as easy as they made it sound to their investors.

Enshittification is a sexy concept and I understand why everyone has glommed on to it. Unfortunately, the interest rate explanation is the much more complete and correct one.