this post was submitted on 21 May 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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[–] loki@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

This reminds me of a Puffin browser Pro that used cloud resource to render contents on the phone. It was super fast and isolated from the OS, making it secure. It was a one time purchase with a free version with ads/limited features.

Then one day, the dev decided there were too many pirates and google wasn't reliable to check licenses. Then shut down the pro version and started charging a subscription. And started doubling down and insulting users calling them pirates and such.

Now that their ratings have tanked, I sometimes go back and watch the reviews for the exchange for some laughs.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudmosa.puffinIncognito

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudmosa.puffinFree