this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
700 points (98.7% liked)

Enshittification

1587 readers
65 users here now

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.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 121 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I'm with the OP. I just gave up on tomshardware pages entirely, even with ublock origin, reader mode, and other tricks. The enshitification just makes it to difficult to garner the info I want, and it's easier to find it elsewhere.

[–] techt@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Where else do you like find that kind of info? I still have a Tom's Hardware shaped hole in my heart what needs fillin'

[–] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago

Anandtech. Oh, wait!

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Here you go. A beautiful and open source news site article text scraper called "newswaffle" Now feel free as you browse the tomshardware articles with all that crap cut right out. I love it! Let me know if you are interested in how this works.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's pretty impressive. I've been using Omnivore but newswaffle might work better. I like the open source existence. Did you find it or are you the developer?

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I am a part of the Gemini protocol community. Newswaffle is a service hosted on the Gemini protocol to render web pages as gemtext (a simplified variant of markdown). Newswaffle the web article scraper is developed by Acidus. Here is newswaffles github .

I'm not a developer for it however I am one of the few people on this planet who actively use it and have had many email conversations with the dev over the years. Some of my suggestions made it into their services like lowtechmagazine be added to main newswaffle page and the simple English Wikipedia being added to their wikipedia gemtext mirror.

The github you linked is actually to the portal.mozz.us which is a seperate project that let's me share Gemini protocol stuff like newswaffle over the web with regular people who dont really know about or understand Gemini and the small net. portal.mozz.us is developed and hosted by Michael Lazar (Mozz)

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

What are you reading on? I'm using my phone and stock android. It looks fine, no more ads than a local paper might have.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago
[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 3 points 2 months ago

Mix of Firefox derivatives on LineageOS, or Cromite. Firefox or ungoogled chrome on a desktop.

Try reading tomshardware with ublock origin on, and without using a reader mode or other trick I couldn't get past it's adblock detector and Captchas (on VPN). That was several years ago so I just stopped visiting. My mental blocklist persay. Looks like it's more accessible now, but I'll probably still avoid it.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 95 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

A big point is that all written tech news has been going downhill for ages. Anandtech just closed, in case y'all missed it.

They simply can't keep up with SEO blogspam, social media and ad enshittification.

Gamers Nexus is this weird intersection of old and new, like an old school hardware outlet that grew up on YouTube. They're lucky in that respect, not many outlets are so fortunate.

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Plus he has a following of people who like his take on being open and to the point. It feels like a breeze of fresh air sometimes.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There used to be tons of outlets like that. Techreport was stellar with methedology and transparency, I even wrote some articles as a side thing for HardOCP, and the owner of that site was very blunt.

[–] coaxil@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

Tech Jesus is awesome

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 24 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Should someone tell Steve about adblock?

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 144 points 2 months ago

Yes, but their point about how awful the website is without adblock is still valid.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 120 points 2 months ago

Gamers Nexus is making a point about what it's like as a consumer. Obviously they know how to block ads, but they're looking out for other people, not themselves

[–] Rognaut@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oh no no, you can't use that. That's piracy 'member?

[–] abfarid@startrek.website 10 points 2 months ago

I know you're joking and referencing Linus, but you can consider it piracy and still be ok with doing it.

[–] NateSwift@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago

Saying that like Linus hasn’t been pro piracy for as long as I remember

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just out there raw dawgging the internet and asking why there's weird stuff showing up

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The problem is that we used to "rawdog the internet", including Tom's Hardware, and there wasn't a problem, but now there is. Enshitification is only understandable when compared with an internet where shit like this didn't exist.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

I didn't know this community existed until I saw this article on the front page. I think it's awesome. Subscribed. I'll even withstand the shit emoji, which I absolutely hate.

[–] ScampiLover@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He's just scrolled to the bottom of the article? I can see the comments button

That said I do hate sites like this and yeah, I can use ad blockers but it's easier just to avoid the website

[–] anzo@programming.dev 14 points 2 months ago

Easier? Really?? I disagree. An Ad blocker has 0 cognitive weight, just a few cpu cycles and ..voilà! Meanwhile, avoiding the site, to me, means reading a thread on Lemmy without opening the link. Something I do oftentimes, but not always.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] univers3man@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Back to you Steve

[–] jelloeater85@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I tried to follow them via RSS. It's much more readable... However they just regurgitate so much shit from other sites it's not really even worth reading anymore.

[–] Soup@lemmy.cafe 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I just block sites like that from by browser. They’ll get one hit from me to see what they’re about and they’re gone. If more people did this, this wouldn’t be a problem.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I do this too but it really looks like OP scrolled to the bottom to make a Lemmy post.

[–] Soup@lemmy.cafe 3 points 2 months ago

Yes it does. Agreed.

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How do you do it? I've been thinking about just blacklisting some sites altogether from my search, but couldn't find a solution to do it across most big search engines - duckduckgo and Google - that I use. Also plus if it is just a simple click on a result.

[–] Soup@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I generally do this but I only ever use the internet from my phone. Haven’t used a computer in years.

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

I mainly browse on PC, and have an Android, but thanks for the effort nonetheless.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Works fine for me? I looked up a random article and got death stranding graphics testing. All the ads were in text breaks with decent sized chunks of article text readable. I'm not a fan of the 1.5 paragraphs to ad ratio but it wasn't what you claimed either

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago