Wattpad's Enshittification

[Sagacious_Punk]

I'm having a stressful day, I'm chasing mind-rending deadlines, I'm tired as fuck.

I decide to tweak some words in TCW, because of course, even after a whole stylistic overhaul, it still has lingering issues.

Spoiler

(The curse of not having an editor.)

One of the places I use is Wattpad. I log, and lo and behold - those idiots are removing private messaging at the beginning of May.

Spoiler

(Yes, yes, jeer me on for using Wattpad - it has its upsides besides its sheer downsides, regardless.)

So what do I do?

I decide to vent here with a lengthy, complex, relevant article:

Tik-Tok's Enshittification (by Cory Doctorow)

because I was reminded precisely of that process.

It's a looong read, and it's not a simple subject matter like web novels, so have a free evening before diving into the text - if you want to comprehend and internalize it, that is.

Thank you for coming to my not-TED talk.

I will now go back to my deadline-chasing.

Why the fuck nobody thinks about epoch-length civilization sustainability...

 

[CSDestroyer]

"Go to hell" is basic. "I hope your favorite platform sells out to advertisers and large capital funds" is smart. It's possible. It's terrifying.

I began on Wattpad, too. Irritating to see a platform do this to itself.

Small platform grows due to being "in touch" with regular people -> Grows really big -> Sells out -> Everyone flees to other smaller platforms -> Repeat ad nauseum

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Cory Doctorow

Ngl, I thought this said @Corty.

 

[SailusGebel]

Gl.

 

[tiaf]

So you can’t send dms to people anymore? Next they disable comments…