Jeep with wooden wheels - GIF

**hemmjo** · Jan 28, 2024, 04:46 AM

Originally Posted by Jon

Yeah, platform decay, or, per Wikipedia: enshittification. It's definitely hit YouTube.

All the lame places on the internet used to be really useful and cool. Even Facebook. Just five years ago Reddit was still intellectually valid and thought-provoking. Amazon is gradually Walmart-ifying these days. Etsy is half Alibaba now.

There are still good pockets on all of those platforms, especially if you know how to use them, but they follow that same pattern.

DIY forums have been the safest haven for genuine interactions over the past 30+ years. The exodus from Facebook and the current rise of "membership sites" (largely forums) is like a cyber-reactionary movement that is rejecting that common enshittification cycle.

Interesting, if you think about it, enshittification, does not just describe web platforms. It can also be seen at work nearly every part of general society; churches, hospitals, hardware stores, schools, colleges and universities, politics, it is everywhere.