I just know that any time any "big corp" comes into play, it means whatever they touch will be dead or completely uninteresting after a while (dead or uninteresting for me, I mean)
Granted, Facebook was always "big corp" in a way? Or it wasn't like, overtaken the way we imagine big corp comes sliding in.
But I remember Facebook used to be just kinda funny. You had loads of those wdigets you could add to your "wall" (MyRoom, Grafitti, Superpoke, Aquariums etc). Tons of fun little "things" that people could interract with, send stuff, etc.
Later there were actual games (obviously cash grab addictive fomo stuff etc, but still....games.) MafiaWars, FarmVille, Pet Society, I remember there was like an Indiana Jones games too, and some Sims game? There were TON of games!
At some point, Facebook went from "just you and your friends and family poking around on a platform together" to like, a sort of digital marketplace for all companies to exist and push their stuff onto "followers" (People...).
Like, I dont consider Facebook a social platform anymore, just a "universe" where you have a profile and companies are nagging your feed nonstop. It's not even just "companies", but media, (newspapers, tv channels, etc). Not that I care about FB anymore, but it's so bizarre that it went from us giving superpokes and drawing on our "walls" to just this highway of every company in the world having a "page".
I also will never forgive MSN's shutdown, and how Skype was supposed to be the "new" thing, even though it looked awful, you couldn't customize it the same way, it was sluggish and prone to crashing/bugs (I disctinctly remember having to help neighbours, family, etc a lot because their Skype was just garbage.).
And now we're left with just crud like Zoom, Discord, Teams, whatever you have. Oversized, bulky, ugly UI, no customization, no personality, etc.
Yes I know Escargot MSN exists, but for how long? It seems they have a hard time with funding.
I hate that I cant view Instagram, Twitter, Reddit without logging in (at least Reddit on mobile is nagware at this point imo.)
Same with Discord, but personally I believe that's not Discords issue, that's user issue. People will use Discord to relay/"save" important information and then it's gatekept there because that's how it works.
The second Meta starts sinking their ugly fingers into any smaller spaces, that's it, it's over. Either they'll do anything they can to siphon out information/data, and/or they'll elbow their way in and take over. Tale as old as time, as far as I'm concerned.
I find that once you're
in places like Melonland
![Loved :loved:](https://forum.melonland.net/Smileys/ALIEN/kiss.gif)
it's very easy to rabbithole and find new places, how we used to back in the 90s / 00s. I had a hard time finding anything before MelonLand (though I guess I sorta new I could look at places like Neocities), but that was basically my experience too back in the older days. I would sit for hours and search for fansites of stuff, and then one site has a forum, that forum has users, that give other websites, with more forums, and so on.
A lot of people know they want everything handed to them, and they just want empty entertainment. Hours of tiktok scrolling, doesn't matter the content, snapchat messaging, just basic ass text on white background, no personality, no nothing, just whatever. Just an uncanny bitmoji character peeking sometimes. I'm not blaming them, they've just been baited to get addicted to it, to not be more sceptical, to not care. The algorithm sustains them, so why should they bother? They get empty nothings in an endless scroll, they're happy (sort of).
As for the future, I dont know. And I cant worry about others, I want to take care of myself, lol. A lot of my internet-friends for example, they say they want to move from Messenger/Meta, yet they dont. Just "because". I've provided them a bunch of options (Discord, Escargot, Signal/Telegram, not sure group chats are possible on Signal tho, but I believe so, I think the Escargot team also has AIM in the works, and more.) but it's so "convenient" for them to keep using Messenger.
I will say, I love that there are always someone who works on OpenSource stuff. Those people are some real heroes of the internet. There's always someone making a good alternative that is free and opensource, etc. And sometimes maybe it's not the best, or maybe it's for example limited in space, but for me that does not matter much.
Sorry I am rambling. I was going to go on about the enshittifaction of Discord, but we all know how lame Discord is turning (and has always been).
I posted this in the other thread, but I will post it here because it basically gets the essence of a lot of my gripes with enshittification, lmao. And it gives me a good chuckle.
(invidious link:
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=cvDGqAtNzUc)
@Cobra! that video about enshittification was very good. My dad was tallking about this exact format a few weeks ago. We were talking specifically about how I had looked for a compass as a store, and that the compasses were cheap, but the reviews were like "yeah this shit doesnt even work" lol, and he basically said the exact same thing as that video. It's crazy how it's just literally
everywhere these days.