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While I do think "enshittification" is a thing, I think it's also the fear of becoming "stale" that leads platforms to eventually overcompensate, aliening its u

by aquova 3y ago

While I do think "enshittification" is a thing, I think it's also the fear of becoming "stale" that leads platforms to eventually overcompensate, aliening its users and potentially dying off. In my opinion, the life cycle of a platform looks like: 1. Platform is created with a strong vision in mind. 2. Platform gains popularity, adding new features. Many will die here, but the most successful projects will create features that positively supplement the core vision. There is a lot of positivity amongst its userbase. 3. Platform eventually becomes one of the leaders amongst its particular niche, typically new features begin to slow down as the platform reaches its ideal feature set and all the low hanging fruit is gone. 4. The platform is no longer causing disruption in the space, but is now the status quo. New competitors or clones will pop up trying to get a piece of the pie, but the network effect keeps users on the platform 5. Despite having an ideal feature set, platforms don't want to completely stop development, so new features continue to come in, but are more and more misaligned to the original vision. UI changes, incorporating clever features from its competitors, or trying to chase the trends in the tech space (NFTs, AI, etc) 6. Users are more and more alienated, but are willing to remain with the platform until a competitor arrives that is viewed to be worth the trouble to switch. As the network effect kept users on the platform, it also opens a floodgate as users quickly switch away. 7. The platform languishes in relative obscurity before being bought out and left in a zombie state. I think there are quite a few established platforms that remain in stage 5 or so. There's lots of criticism of Facebook, Twitter, Discord, etc. but everyone continues to use them because of the value they feel from other users using the platform. It's only once people leave for greener pastures that they die out (just look at the rise and fall of chat apps like AIM, MSN, Skype, etc. over time).

CyberDildonics 3y ago
While I do think "enshittification" is a thing It's not 'a thing' it's a made up word for clickbait
- mcphage 3y ago
  Every word is made up, that’s where they come from.
  - CyberDildonics 3y ago
    Where has this word been used outside of title like this?
- npteljes 3y ago
  Besides the point that every word is made up, the word doesn't equal to its meaning. Which is to say, it's valid to dislike "enshittification" as a word, but recognize that what it's trying is mean has merit.
jker 3y ago
This is an excellent description of the trajectory of Digg, the first platform I witnessed going through this lifecycle. In this case, the competitor that drained users from Digg was Reddit. Another feature of Digg’s decline was a disastrous redesign that, overnight, soured most of the users on the site. It was basically a speed run of step 5 here.
- FrontierPsych 3y ago
  oh, yeah. That was a bonehead move on the part of Digg. I was happy with it until that disasterous change. It reminds me of a bar I used to go to in San Francisco called The Rat and the Raven. There was a bartender there named Storm Large and she was great. This was a long time ago. It was packed every single day. People from all walks of life went there - from bikers to investment bankers. Then it was bought out. Instead of leaving it alone, they decided they could make it better. They changed it to some kind of upscale thing. Put nice floors down, tables, nice railings. I went in every once in a while and it was crickets on the weekends. Nobody there ever. If one goes in there in the due diligence phase of checking it out, and it is packed every night, why fuck with a good thing?
wvenable 3y ago
There's probably also politics issues that cause platforms to constantly grow rather than simply fragment into new products. The recent changes with Discord are seemingly to make it more social network like but it seems to me like it would just be better to spin that off as a completely different product (build on the same tech) and keep Discord as is.
ryandrake 3y ago
I think pretty much every software company fails to understand that step 4 means you win. You're done. Close the code editor. You don't need to prove anything anymore. Put the software into maintenance mode, fix bugs, polish it off, make it faster if you can, but stop cramming features. As a user, I've never in my life said "You know, software XYZ does everything I want it to, but since they don't randomly change the UI and update it with unwanted features every few months, it's 'stale' and I won't use it anymore!" I feel like everything past step 4 is "Developers gotta develop and designers gotta design" and making changes for change's sake rather than the user's sake.
- AwaAwa 3y ago
  Never have I felt this worse than with 1Password. The migration off is not pleasant because what they had and did well spoiled me so.
  - mdhen 3y ago
    I moved over to bitwarden (using the vault warden branch for self hosting) and I love it.
- zerbinxx 3y ago
  The problem from an economic standpoint, and the article alludes to this, is that a lot of these platforms just aren’t profitable at stage 4. They might be ubiquitous, well loved by users, and have next to no meaningful competition, but if the money isn’t there they will be under the gun to iterate until it is. And even if it is the fear has been, and continues to be, that unless you’re becoming even more profitable each quarter by siphoning off excess value from your network that you’re basically failing at your basic function as a public company. I’m not sure I can think of a good example of this, Google used to be it, but they’ve gone so downhill in the last 10 years.
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    I don't think you can feature-cram your way to profitability. If you have a great product with loyal, paying users, and are still not profitable, then maybe the product isn't the problem. Jamming chat into your product is not going to make you profitable. Adding annoying notifications is not going to make you profitable. Moving all the buttons around to make a new UI is not going to make you profitable. Marketing has the four P's. Software companies seem to just focus on changing one P (the most expensive and disruptive to change) and hoping for a miracle.

by aquova 3y ago

CyberDildonics 3y ago

While I do think "enshittification" is a thing It's not 'a thing' it's a made up word for clickbait

mcphage 3y ago
Every word is made up, that’s where they come from.
- CyberDildonics 3y ago
  Where has this word been used outside of title like this?
npteljes 3y ago
Besides the point that every word is made up, the word doesn't equal to its meaning. Which is to say, it's valid to dislike "enshittification" as a word, but recognize that what it's trying is mean has merit.

jker 3y ago

This is an excellent description of the trajectory of Digg, the first platform I witnessed going through this lifecycle. In this case, the competitor that drained users from Digg was Reddit. Another feature of Digg’s decline was a disastrous redesign that, overnight, soured most of the users on the site. It was basically a speed run of step 5 here.

FrontierPsych 3y ago
oh, yeah. That was a bonehead move on the part of Digg. I was happy with it until that disasterous change. It reminds me of a bar I used to go to in San Francisco called The Rat and the Raven. There was a bartender there named Storm Large and she was great. This was a long time ago. It was packed every single day. People from all walks of life went there - from bikers to investment bankers. Then it was bought out. Instead of leaving it alone, they decided they could make it better. They changed it to some kind of upscale thing. Put nice floors down, tables, nice railings. I went in every once in a while and it was crickets on the weekends. Nobody there ever. If one goes in there in the due diligence phase of checking it out, and it is packed every night, why fuck with a good thing?

wvenable 3y ago

There's probably also politics issues that cause platforms to constantly grow rather than simply fragment into new products. The recent changes with Discord are seemingly to make it more social network like but it seems to me like it would just be better to spin that off as a completely different product (build on the same tech) and keep Discord as is.

ryandrake 3y ago

I think pretty much every software company fails to understand that step 4 means you win. You're done. Close the code editor. You don't need to prove anything anymore. Put the software into maintenance mode, fix bugs, polish it off, make it faster if you can, but stop cramming features. As a user, I've never in my life said "You know, software XYZ does everything I want it to, but since they don't randomly change the UI and update it with unwanted features every few months, it's 'stale' and I won't use it anymore!" I feel like everything past step 4 is "Developers gotta develop and designers gotta design" and making changes for change's sake rather than the user's sake.

AwaAwa 3y ago
Never have I felt this worse than with 1Password. The migration off is not pleasant because what they had and did well spoiled me so.
- mdhen 3y ago
  I moved over to bitwarden (using the vault warden branch for self hosting) and I love it.
zerbinxx 3y ago
The problem from an economic standpoint, and the article alludes to this, is that a lot of these platforms just aren’t profitable at stage 4. They might be ubiquitous, well loved by users, and have next to no meaningful competition, but if the money isn’t there they will be under the gun to iterate until it is. And even if it is the fear has been, and continues to be, that unless you’re becoming even more profitable each quarter by siphoning off excess value from your network that you’re basically failing at your basic function as a public company. I’m not sure I can think of a good example of this, Google used to be it, but they’ve gone so downhill in the last 10 years.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  I don't think you can feature-cram your way to profitability. If you have a great product with loyal, paying users, and are still not profitable, then maybe the product isn't the problem. Jamming chat into your product is not going to make you profitable. Adding annoying notifications is not going to make you profitable. Moving all the buttons around to make a new UI is not going to make you profitable. Marketing has the four P's. Software companies seem to just focus on changing one P (the most expensive and disruptive to change) and hoping for a miracle.