Bilb!

Bing is allowing IP in prompts again?

You gotta host your own instance so that when it disappears you can only be disappointed in yourself.

You know, instance admins can find out who is downvoting and upvoting by checking the database. It doesn’t have to be a mystery if you stand up your own instance. You don’t even have to use it primarily, just get it federating your comments.

Yeah, and it also happens to get me access to the tool that was able to summarize this video without watching it. But most people would probably choose the $5 tier, I think.

tl;dw

• Cory Doctorow coins the term “enshittification” to describe how platforms start out benefiting users but eventually abuse users and business customers to extract all value.

• Facebook started by prioritizing user privacy over ads but now prioritizes profits over all else.

• Network effects are a double-edged sword - they lock users in but also make platforms vulnerable if users leave en masse.

• Low switching costs due to universality and interoperability allow competitors to reverse engineer platforms and plug in competing services.

• Mandatory interoperability and limiting data control can curb platform power by distributing control to users and smaller companies.

• Recent antitrust actions aim to roll back decades of lax merger policy that let platforms consolidate power.

• Breakups will take a long time so interoperability is a faster way to restore competition.

• Laws should limit abusive behavior rather than rely on platforms to self-regulate.

• Federated open services fail gracefully and encourage migration to better platforms.

• Political will is growing but change will be gradual - focus should be on harm reduction in the near term.

This isn’t true, I think. You can have an instance that federates with nearly everyone but which still has a higher standard for behavior for its own users. This way, users on such an instance can see all the problematic instances but are not permitted to be problematic themselves. It’s an option.

(Even still, I think you’d find yourself de-federating from someone eventually for spam or other technical reasons if not due to objections over content.)