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Looks like there is hard ceiling in scalability of centralized internet platforms where things go nuts with enormous size of varied social (mis)behavour. Just

Looks like there is hard ceiling in scalability of centralized internet platforms where things go nuts with enormous size of varied social (mis)behavour. Just like with real authoritarian societes, they need expensive control and justice mechanism including strong censorship aparatus, otherwise the platform risks collapse or fragmentation. Trust can't be scaled easily. This gives me hope that the online world won't be eaten by few entities and will evolve back into more distributed federation, with local trust plus solid standards as lesson learned.

throwayEngineer 8y ago
Last year, before the Economic downturn, people were talking about FAANG like it was a dangerous monopoly. I think we should let this play out. No one stays the leader forever, and big companies have their own problems. Be a smart consumer and stop buying from bad companies. You don't need an Apple product, you don't need to buy from Amazon, you don't need all of your searches to come from Google. And Facebook is almost dead.
- larkeith 7y ago
  This could also be seen the other way: Facebook, Google, and Amazon have been increasingly user-hostile, yet impacts are minimal as their monopolistic tendencies enforce user lock-in. Even Facebook, with the most competition and negative publicity is only down 15% from its 52 week high; how many people not in the tech industry use a Google alternative for even search, let alone email or maps?
r00fus 7y ago
Or maybe just don't become a portal for dropship sellers from China. Is there anything more to Amazon than a) fast shipping and b) you can buy anything there for relatively cheap* (probably because it's from China) * I've found Amazon lately is a lot costlier than local department stores for random things.
- stordoff 7y ago
  > Is there anything more to Amazon than a) fast shipping and b) you can buy anything there for relatively cheap Service. I had some headphones that broke after just over a year, but were still in warranty, and the manufacturer was being awkward about repairing them. Amazon refunded them the next day. I also recently had some bulbs stop working after about six months, but as I'd ordered a two-pack and a single, and two had stopped working, I wasn't sure how to do a refund. Amazon just refunded all tree three.
- notacoward 7y ago
  The dropshippers are likely to be the last straw for me. Filtering out all the promoted listings and fake-review-based listings is enough of a chore. Filtering out all of the duplicates as well is just too much. I shouldn't have to work my way down to the third page of listings to find the first one that legitimately deserves its high ranking.
Nasrudith 7y ago
Really it highlights the problems with trying to please everyone being an unwinnable position. Some want Amazon to act more like middleware that doesn't care about what it sells viewing any intervention as an abuse. Others want it better vetted like a more traditional store. Even if they took a firm aligned stance one way or another it wouldn't stop complaints.
- tstrimple 7y ago
  > Some want Amazon to act more like middleware that doesn't care about what it sells viewing any intervention as an abuse. Who wants this other than shady marketplace sellers?

throwayEngineer 8y ago

Last year, before the Economic downturn, people were talking about FAANG like it was a dangerous monopoly. I think we should let this play out. No one stays the leader forever, and big companies have their own problems. Be a smart consumer and stop buying from bad companies. You don't need an Apple product, you don't need to buy from Amazon, you don't need all of your searches to come from Google. And Facebook is almost dead.

larkeith 7y ago
This could also be seen the other way: Facebook, Google, and Amazon have been increasingly user-hostile, yet impacts are minimal as their monopolistic tendencies enforce user lock-in. Even Facebook, with the most competition and negative publicity is only down 15% from its 52 week high; how many people not in the tech industry use a Google alternative for even search, let alone email or maps?

r00fus 7y ago

Or maybe just don't become a portal for dropship sellers from China. Is there anything more to Amazon than a) fast shipping and b) you can buy anything there for relatively cheap* (probably because it's from China) * I've found Amazon lately is a lot costlier than local department stores for random things.

stordoff 7y ago
> Is there anything more to Amazon than a) fast shipping and b) you can buy anything there for relatively cheap Service. I had some headphones that broke after just over a year, but were still in warranty, and the manufacturer was being awkward about repairing them. Amazon refunded them the next day. I also recently had some bulbs stop working after about six months, but as I'd ordered a two-pack and a single, and two had stopped working, I wasn't sure how to do a refund. Amazon just refunded all tree three.
notacoward 7y ago
The dropshippers are likely to be the last straw for me. Filtering out all the promoted listings and fake-review-based listings is enough of a chore. Filtering out all of the duplicates as well is just too much. I shouldn't have to work my way down to the third page of listings to find the first one that legitimately deserves its high ranking.

Nasrudith 7y ago

Really it highlights the problems with trying to please everyone being an unwinnable position. Some want Amazon to act more like middleware that doesn't care about what it sells viewing any intervention as an abuse. Others want it better vetted like a more traditional store. Even if they took a firm aligned stance one way or another it wouldn't stop complaints.

tstrimple 7y ago
> Some want Amazon to act more like middleware that doesn't care about what it sells viewing any intervention as an abuse. Who wants this other than shady marketplace sellers?