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Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

theguardian.com

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Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#4
post #2

Maybe I'm prudish, but I really dislike the term 'enshittification'. It sounds ugly, and it makes what would otherwise be polite discussions vulgar. 'Degradation' seems to carry most (all?) of the same meaning and doesn't have those downsides.

I think we're well past 'degredation', enshittification is abuse at the end users cost.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#5
In some ways Amazon's entshittification is others' gain. For example, Amazon used to be a place you could easily buy and download music files legally. But they entshittified their music product to the point where it was impossible to use. Others stepped in selling lossless format downloads with a good buyer experience and made nice businesses out of them. The same will happen in all other areas previously dominated by Amazon.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#8
post #2

Maybe I'm prudish, but I really dislike the term 'enshittification'. It sounds ugly, and it makes what would otherwise be polite discussions vulgar. 'Degradation' seems to carry most (all?) of the same meaning and doesn't have those downsides.

Not only that, if someone has such a poor grasp of English they probably have little of value to say.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#9
Amazon kindle books search is designed to show you authors other than the name you search on, to increase sales of "in the style of" which could have been a tickbox item, but no: they know it irritates, but it makes them more money.

If type "Charles dickens" in search, there should be a way to get works by Dickens exclusively. Even if you select the Web link author name, you get "in the style of"

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#10
post #2

Maybe I'm prudish, but I really dislike the term 'enshittification'. It sounds ugly, and it makes what would otherwise be polite discussions vulgar. 'Degradation' seems to carry most (all?) of the same meaning and doesn't have those downsides.

When the present-day is compared to the promises and hopes for big tech as the companies were starting, the word seems appropriate. We ain’t in Sunday school! Degradation doesn’t capture that many of the changes for the worst are willful and intended.
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