Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

boxed wrote: post #2

We already have a word for it? "Misfeature" The opposite is the more interesting word though: hit bug. A bug/mistake/fuckup that turns out to improve the software.

They're not bugs, they're undocumented features

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#7

Post by ahf8Aithaex7Nai » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

Krasnol wrote: post #3

I'd say enshitification is a good enough word. Verschlimmbesserung is not widely used these days in Germany.

I do think it's part of many people's vocabulary. It's a bit informal. And it's not a word you use every day. But it's definitely a word that gets used when the occasion calls for it, just like the related verb "verschlimmbessern."

"Enshittification" isn't the same thing. "Verschlimmbesserung" is when you try to fix a loose connection in a power cord and then no electricity flows at all, or when you try to fix a bad haircut with a trimmer and the haircut ends up looking even worse, etc.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#8

Post by dwoldrich » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

Value is now only _extracted_. Place the acquired good into the press and smash it until all but the faintest essence remains among the mash. The squeezings are bottled and saved to pay for future _extractions_.

Companies like Valve can continue largely unshittificated because they are private. Once that is no longer the case, all our game rentals will be squozen away from us.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#9

Post by eqvinox » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

It's actually a verb, "Verschlimmbesserung" is the substantivization.

Base: verschlimmbessern

Present conjugation: I verschlimmbesser[e], you verschlimmbesserst, he/she/it verschlimmbessert, we verschlimmbesser[e]n, (plural-)you verschlimmbessert, they verschlimmbesser[e]n

Past/perfect: verschlimmbessert (e.g. "it got verschlimmbessert")

Imperative: verschlimmbesser[e] (e.g. "don't verschlimmbesser that!")

The [e] at the end is leftover from an older form, in the cases where I omitted it it would sound archaic to a German speaker, but in the other cases it's equivalent or may even sound better. It's also regionally different. The archaic versions kinda sound south German (Swabian, Bavarian).

[ed. made some adjustments]

P.S.: "Verbesserung" means improvement, "Verschlimmerung" means worsening/aggravation. The combined word is understood quite specifically though, not just as a combination of the two. It's *not* a normal case of German "paste words together", that's for nouns (you can do it with the substantivization, e.g. Donaudampfschiffverschlimmbesserungskapitän = "captain of verschlimmbessern the steam ships on the Donau", which makes little sense of course). It's not identical to enshittification either, the latter (to me at least) implies intention; verschlimmbessern you can (and probably often will) do by accident.

Re: Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need

#10

Post by OptionOfT » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

I usually relate this to people chasing good reviews at work. Maintaining a system and keeping it bug-free doesn't get people promoted.

Doing something large, inventing a bunch of metrics, and showing that you improve on those metrics does.