this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025

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Enshittification

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Welcome to Enshittification

A community for everyone who misspelt it as enshitification.

"I the onceler felt sad as I watched them all go, but business is business and business must grow, regardless of crummies in tummies you know."

This is your space to document the decay, demise, and destruction of the tech world as we know it. Share stories, articles, and firsthand experiences that capture the ongoing decline of once-celebrated platforms, services, and companies in the late stage capitalist landscape.

From monopolistic corporate shifts to anti-user updates and the relentless pursuit of profit over quality—if it’s broken, bloated, or just plain bad, it belongs here. We’re here to spotlight the moves that make the tech world worse, one piece of enshittification at a time.

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🔹 Positive Monday: The first Monday of every month is reserved for positive content only that shows enshittification isn't inevitable.

Join us to expose the changes that ruin the things we once loved and to discuss what comes next in a tech world gone wrong.

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CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net

1203

YouTube is full of ads. (slrpnk.net)

submitted 4 days ago by CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net to c/enshitification@slrpnk.net

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 39 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It's this extreme enshittification that made me sail the high seas again

It's not that I want to

It's not that I don't want to pay

It's not that the seas are cheap

It's not that the seas are easy

It's hard, it's expensive (storage is cheap until you need to store boat loads of 20-40GB files, it takes huge amounts of time and has become a hobby because that's what it takes.

I would gladly pay a single provider 100/month for all my series, movies, music, etc and always have access to everything everywhere without ads but the providers literally fucked us over on each and every one of those items so I'm done.

Aarrrr mateys, all aboard!

[–] Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (5 children)

No chance @ 100/month. At that money, I want my dick sucked as well. Netflix used to be just 5.99 a month. I let it run for months even when I wasnt watching it because, fuck it. Its only 5 bucks. Not its what, 20? Fuck that. And thats before you get to all the other shit.

I spent 300 on a 22gb HDD and havent looked back. Sonarr downloads whatever tv shows Im watching, and I play it through plex or infuse. Both of which I paid the 100 for the lifetime sub. Other than that, I pay for internet and power. I also pay 45 a year for an iptv sub. Im in the UK, so thats 45 for the year to watch football that would cost me 50 per month to watch legally, and I still wouldnt get to see every game.

All of these greedy cunts have created this world of the high seas. But in order to get people away from it, it would have to nowhere near 100 a month. Theres no way Im chipping in for some fat CEOs fucking boat, just to watch tv. They can charge a fair rate, or they can fuck off.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I have some 100TB available right now and built a bit of a personal collection as a hobby, finding obscure.movies and shows nobody has heard of world wide, American, Canadian, Mexican, Danish, German, Japanese, etc.

It gets costly quickly, and takes huge swaths of time but it's awesome having such a broad cluster of media available, this is what a Netflix type provider should have.

The 100/month is just to say that money never was an issue, I just want to have access to any media that I want instead of the bullshit we have now where providers must fuck around with their users to get the maximum amount of revenue

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[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Unlock Origin for browsers (mobile and desktop)

NextDNS or PiHole (for everything)

FOSS apps for ad free apps that do exactly what the ad-full and premium apps do but free

And minimize usage of software that sells your data wherever possible

Everyone needs to be doing these things. Corporations gaslight folks into thinking they need ads and your info to upkeep and improve their services, but it isn't true. They pocket the revenue while making their products shittier and shittier.

Don't support shitty buisinesses

[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Strange to read your comment then notice that you are writing that from Cloudflare’s centralised walled garden. Not supporting corporate technofeudal shitholes entails staying outside of Cloudflare.

[–] nuko147@lemmy.world 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Normally i don't read a wall of text in post images, but damn. Every sentence is true.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah the wall of text is the medium for this art piece and it’s very effective.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It really matches the exhaustion of dealing with tech in 2025.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

it's not "tech", it's capitalism. tech works fine. you can see this with linux and fediverse and such. it's companies making everything into a subscription service that sucks.

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[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 98 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Made me angrier than it should have.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because it's SO damn true..

[–] kernelle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

If I wasn't in IT and knew how to run my own servers I would probably have given up on technology by now

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[–] 18107@aussie.zone 69 points 4 days ago

AI driving a wedge into modern digital infrastructure

Original from xkcd

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 73 points 4 days ago (7 children)

I wonder how much more they need to do before more people start using tools like uBlock and such. The internet is practically unusable without it, and I'm not using hyperbole--most websites have so much garbage on them that you literally can't read them without an ad blocker and/or reading mode.

Since Google removed support for ad blockers, I convinced my wife to switch to Firefox. She noticed a huge improvement immediately, especially on mobile.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 48 points 4 days ago

I went as far as installing network level ad blocking on both my home network as well as devices.

Recently, I've had a few friends over whom are... not as technologically adept. They were incredibly surprised that after joining my guest WiFi, suddenly they were able to browse most websites almost completely unobstructed. No ads, no popups, no BS. Aside from the usual cookie agreements, of course.

If you can, help your friends, install ad blockers for them, make their internet experience better. Even DNS level adblocking is relatively easy to set up, and the only thing this hurts is the unscrupulous megacorporations that want to milk you for every single bit of personal information to sell.

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[–] wilfim@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Youtube shorts / short form content has driven me so mad that I've now deleted all social media, with only voyager to access lemmy. I actually couldn't handle how shit it all is, which I kept going back to like a drug

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

There's browser extensions/addons to block YouTube shorts. Combine it with SponsorBlock, DeArrow and a decent adblocker and YouTube becomes somewhat useable. The only thing you still notice is content creators wasting time and beating around the bush so they can abuse your watch time for ad money and better watch statistics.

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 3 days ago

I FUCKING HATE HAVING TO DELETE MY ACCOUNT BY SENDING EMAILS IN A LENGTHY AND UNNECESSARY SUPPORT TICKET EMAIL CHAIN

give me a button. give. me. a. delete. acount. button. I am asking this not of the corporations, but of the government. Right to be forgotten should mandate making it convenient. When I want to delete my account I click Delete Account and recieve a confirmation email. I click the link in the email. My account gets deleted right then and there.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There are people who are building and participating in alternatives. They deserve support. But people have also become accustomed to getting a lot for free.

Now I'm not defending YouTube, but they have to store billions of hours of videos and serve millions of people at a time, just so you (and me) can stream 10hrs of video a day just to listen to lo fi study music or watch let's plays. that's very expensive. The whole model is ass-backwards, that content creators exist to get paid. YouTube should be charging content creators for storing their videos, and if the creator wants to saturate their shit with ads and e-begging, then it be their choice.

[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The free/cheap entitlement definitely seeps into FOSS areas. I periodically see things like "this app/platform NEEDS to have all of the functionality of the paid one, be free and easy to set up" or particularly contradictory "a Linux phone NEEDS to have reliable calls, texts, support my banking apps, WhatsApp, have modern hardware, and cost $200"

(or variations thereof)

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[–] atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

You’re right, but this benefits rich content creators at the cost of new ones creating more income inequality in the content creation business.

[–] keepthepace@slrpnk.net 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Embrace free software and piracy. No account needed. No ads. No spam.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 24 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's the wild west all over again until they establish law and order in the tech world. No standards, just everyone trying to make their millions (billions nowadays?). I can' help but think the end result of all this is an empty husk of a planet, floating dead through space because people wanted to collect money tokens of various values and denominations.

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[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Youtube is not full of ads.

This comment was brought to you by Invidious gang.

[–] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

No ads on my side, either.

This comment was brought to you by the uBlock Origin gang.

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[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 days ago

When Google started its attack on Invidious, I was forced to try direct YT access. The ads were so frequent and intrusive that I had to walk. It’s intolerable.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

no ads on my side either.

greetings from the ~/.bin/yt gang.

use like yt fHYNyCi2lnA where fHYNyCi2lnA is the youtube video id.

#!/usr/bin/bash

# usage example: yt fHYNyCi2lnA
if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
	echo "Usage examples:"
	echo "   yt fHYNyCi2lnA"
	echo "   yt https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=a1oxZ6RtpPk"
	exit
fi

ADDRESS="$1"

# change https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=a1oxZ6RtpPk to a1oxZ6RtpPk

if [[ "$ADDRESS" == *"watch"* ]]; then
	arr=(${ADDRESS//'v='/ })
	ADDRESS="${arr[1]}"
fi


echo video id: "$ADDRESS"

mpv  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=%24ADDRESS"

[–] chamomile@furry.engineer 44 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

@CurlyWurlies4All Relevant essay from Ed Zitron. It's well-worth a read, for those who haven't already.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

The picture I am trying to paint is one of terror and abuse. The average person’s experience of using a computer starts with aggressive interference delivered in a shoddy, sludge-like frame, and as the wider internet opens up to said user, already battered by a horrible user experience, they’re immediately thrown into heavily-algorithmic feeds each built to con them, feeding whatever holds their attention and chucking ads in as best they can. As they browse the web, websites like NBCnews.com feature stories from companies like “WorldTrending.com” with advertisements for bizarre toys written in the style of a blog, so intentional in their deceit that the page in question has a huge disclaimer at the bottom saying it’s an ad.

[–] AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

While far from concise, this article is one of the best summaries of the state of modern technology I've read in a long time. I've followed some of his analysis of the AI market and generally he's got a good understanding of what's at play. It's amusing (and somewhat depressing) to consider how much I've internalized the current state of affairs as "normal" and have developed my own methods for compensating or navigating around the toxicity of commercial tech. Read this and then his "Rot Economy" article. I hadn't read this before, thanks to @Chamomile for posting.

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[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm reading Cory Doctorow's latest book, Enshittification. As Ed Zitron said, never forgive them for what they did to the internet...

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[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 24 points 4 days ago (6 children)

A lot of this I'm on board with, and I know Patreon is a shitty company with its own problems, but including "join my Patreon" in this list is silly.

Creative people deserve to be supported by the people enjoying what they've created. If the complaint is strictly about Patreon or about how Patreon has monopolised the "creator support" space then I agree, but the wording makes it seem that there's something wrong with artists who have Patreon memberships.

It would be better of them to encourage direct donations or something ofc but 🤷‍♂️ I just felt that one item missed the mark!

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[–] Toneswirly@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Steal what you can, live without the rest. Its shockingly easy to unplug from the majority of platforms.

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[–] RedFrank24@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)

You know, if ads actually worked, I wouldn't mind them. We have AAAAALL this tech to try to find the exact thing I might want to buy, and they still can't do it. If the ads in my feed were 100% things I would buy, I wouldn't actually mind them because it's things I like and either have bought or would want to buy. Instead, I hate ads because it's all things I don't and never would buy!

When I was growing up watching Cartoon Network, obviously there were ads, and those ads actually were suited to me, because I was a child watching children's programming. When they advertised a toy, I saw it and I thought "Ooh I want that!"; I didn't always get it, but I definitely wanted it. That was in the late 90s, with 1000x less information on me personally than they have now.

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[–] lapislazuli@sopuli.xyz 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Youtube is full of ads?

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago (12 children)

Some people raw dog it

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[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Many of the reasons OSS and OSH are so critical to a post-information world.

Our governments' failure to protect our rights from corporations is monumental. And when politicians are captured by money and not the people, we have no choice but to do things ourselves.

Hence dbzer0's mission and vision! Come join!

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

uses proprietary crap and wonders why it sucks

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

You say that, but plenty of FOSS projects are getting worse every day too.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (4 children)

but you don't understand, 500 megabytes of dependencies in a slow language bundled with a web browser is the only way to make modern user interfaces

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[–] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 days ago (5 children)

The internet used to be anything we wanted it to be

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 29 points 4 days ago

Reject consumerism, embrace FOSS.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The shit that really killed me is when my favorite card game, Magic the Gathering, went all in on making cross-promotional sets. Who knew fucking card games could have ads too? Had to cut that shit out of my life.

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago

People need to learn that just because you see an ad for something doesn't mean you need to DO the thing. Take the time to learn who you are and then look at all these external things and ask yourself if you need this shit in your life. 95% of the time, the answer is no. If you're confident in who you are as a human, you can pick and chose and neuter the things you want and avoid the ones you don't.

Besides the solid list from @HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world, use an Invidious front end. Even just search for a video on DDG and play it there.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (5 children)

What the fuck is with that write an email to cancel your account by the way? Seriously what the fuck is that? I ran into that a few months ago and I was so fucking furious.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 21 points 4 days ago

I'm glad the governor of my state made this shit illegal. Basically: if you can acquire a service through a certain channel/medium, cancellation must be available through that same channel/medium. The law is from 2007; it was originally made to address a few traditional roach motels (newspaper, TV, gyms, credit cards, internet providers), but it works wonders against this sort of e-arsehole too.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If they put enough hurdles in the way, you might not bother deleting your account so they can continue to sell your info, bill you for subscriptions (gym memberships for example), or just pad their user numbers making them look bigger/more popular than they are for investors.

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[–] oyzmo@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

Spot on summary

[–] DeICEAmerica@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Who the actual fuck has ever clicked on an ad inhibiting you from watching the rest of the video you were enjoying? I will carry a grudge for businesses that hound me like that. Keep your fucking ads off my monitor. If I want to watch ads, I'll tune into the Superbowl qYearly. This is why TV stations and ad executives were told to fuck off when the VCR was invented and released for consumer purchase and they tried to regulate them and make it so people could not FFW through ads and the SCOTUS had to settle it. This is the same shit different medium. If your advertisers don' think they are getting a good bang for their buck, tough shit. Stop paying inane shitinfluencers so much money to further expedite the fast track to idiocracy and you wouldn't need to rely on ad revenue.

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 3 points 3 days ago

There are a lot of people who just let it happen. Watching ads, clicking on ads accidentally and all that shit. If i see an ad on my screen i'd rather spend a day figuring out how i never have to see an ad again, than play their stupid little game.

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