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What's a service you’ve been using forever that hasn’t enshitified? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Davy_Jones@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

241 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We all know the struggle of beloved services slowly going downhill. What’s one service, tool, or website you’ve been using for years that’s still great and hasn’t turned to crap?

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[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I think there are three reasons for this:

Steam is not freemium. It's built on paying customers rather than advertisers.
PC games, unlike TV shows and console games, don't end up platform exclusives (and because games storefronts aren't a subscription, there's no reason for them to be). There are console exclusives but exclusivity has never really made sense for PC games. And without exclusivity there's genuine competition (even if none succeed at dethroning Steam)
Valve is a private company owned by Gabe Newell, instead of a for-profit. Shareholders are short-sighted.

That second point got me thinking about Nebula (the streaming service). I don't believe it'll be enshittification even though it has exclusives. I wonder why that is.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Idk, plenty of companies that tick all three boxes and are not like this at all.
A single owner vs a company without a principal shareholder & how they threat humans is just a gamble.

Overall it does have to do with ownership & how the company culture was built tho - in Valve there are like 20 people running a billon monies company. They all have enough, and are happy.

Oh, and Valve it's def a "for profit" c company, being an actual non-profit is a completely different thing.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

A for-profit company is a very specific thing. It means a company that's required, by law, to put profit above everything else. Valve may be a for-profit company but as far as I know it isn't.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Isn't Nebular owned/ran by content creators? Or have I misunderstood what that service is entirely?

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

It is. And I guess that's probably enough.

Nebula exclusives make sense and are being employed. Nebula technically has a monopoly on that content and that's why I was confused about why I wasn't worried about Nebula enshittifying. I guess Youtube-adjacent content is mostly interchangable so missing out on exclusive content isn't on the same level as missing out on a cultural touchstone TV show.

Also Nebula just isn't big enough to enshittify. It needs a far larger market share first.