this post was submitted on 22 Feb 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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[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Wonder if federated youtube would work where people host their own content or join up to get a server as a group. That way the home videos nobody watches would not take up the space while big shots need to get better servers to support the view counts.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

This is what I advocate for. The caveat, but also the reason it will work (accordig to me) is that it's not monetised.

There would thus also not be very many dopamine videos (or ragebait etc), those are made to make money.

Also, if it isn't for making money, then the scope is no longer a big problem (you don't need the "line to go up" and get "more followers") and distribution becomes much simpler.

I'll gladly share a bunch of videos to see how it could function, I have a 0.7Gb up but can easily switch to a 10Gb up.

Thoughts?

[–] lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 2 points 16 hours ago

I'm hosting Invidious locally via Docker and don't have to deal with this shit.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 day ago

Stop!!! You cant watch content unless you hand over your identification papers sir.

While you are here may i interest you in our other entrances which are further away from where you actually wanted to go and will also stop you from entering without providing identification.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're right, those videos look like total garbage

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Was speaking the login requirement but the ads for other videos is insult to injury

[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even if you're logged out, YouTube still recommends videos based on your viewing habits.

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Ok

Not an advid watcher so they are just going off what ever link I happen to click any given day.

[–] unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That's still a lot.

  1. They know what videos you click (obviously)

  2. They know when you click them

  3. They know how much you watch each of the videos

  4. They know how many times you click on the videos

  5. Depending on the platform/client/browser/search engine implementation, they see what videos are shown to you before you click on them (thumbnail gets fetched, autoplay, pre-loading, etc.)

  6. If someone sent you the link, they most likely know who's sent you the link (through a reference ID)

  7. The person who's sent you this is probably logged in, so they know them by name, DoB, interests, etc. From here on out they can guess your own membership of certain statistical cohortsa bit better then through yourown clickinglinks alone.

And a host of other things - where you're located (IP address), what type of connection you're on (IP address + bandwidth), what type of device, what browser/client, etc.

This is just of the top of my head.

Don't mean to scare anyone with this, but it is inherently spooky at the very least.

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Its not only true of youtube either. I think they call it browser fingerprint? There are websites that can break down what it's looking for and Ive tried, in an always futile attempt, to mask mine as much as possible but could spend sometime looking into it again.

Someday I'll just go straight torr everything I am just admittedly too lazy.

[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 23 hours ago

They also know who is near you and what they are up to, so perhaps you, too....!

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Can’t you grab a login from bugmenot ?

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

That hasn't worked for me in like a decade.

[–] Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The most annoying thing for me is that I am logged in and embedded videos are still broken.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Third party cookies. You don't want them.

[–] jonathan@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Grayjay has been working pretty well for me.

[–] Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

For me it does not bypass age verification, even if I enable the toggle on the settings.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

If you're not going for an open source option just use ReVanced.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 1 points 21 hours ago (2 children)
[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 10 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

It doesn’t. This is about ad revenue and tracking cookies. Got a VPN? You’re a bot! Got an ad blocker? You’re a bot!

Bots aren't a problem when your not trying force content down people's throats.