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Tragedy of the commons applies to a community shared resource not a service like Cloudflare. Effective monopoly makes a little more sense but I guess I sort of
by zaphar 4y ago
Tragedy of the commons applies to a community shared resource not a service like Cloudflare. Effective monopoly makes a little more sense but I guess I sort of object since there is literally nothing other than money preventing someone from competing with them.
Switching costs for Cloudflare are effectively 0 other than the cost of using a less effective competitor. I could turn them off right now for my properties and have almost no impact. They still have to compete to maintain that position so monopoly doesn't feel like the right term here.
- Spooky23 4y agoThe shared commons is the open interconnection of the internet. By becoming a mediator at scale, CF potentially renders the value of the commons moot. The ill effects aren’t on you - you’re just a node in a larger network. What happens when Google, Microsoft or Oracle buy them? Pretty obvious.
- zaphar 4y agoI don't follow this at all. The open interconnection of the internet still works no matter what Cloudflare does. My users can still get to my site. When they no longer can because of Cloudflare I can easily drop them and/or switch to an alternative. Cloudflare is literally not capable of preventing people from reaching my site unless they ask me to. The minute they cause a problem I can drop them. There is no shared commons problem or monopoly problem here.