[jdpage]

Point of order: "enshittification" does not mean what the author's using it to mean. It does not just mean "the product got worse". It means "the product was purposefully made worse in order to capture additional value from the customer," i.e. a rug pull.

Maybe I'm being pedantic, but I'd hate to see such a useful term for corporate malfeasance diluted.

[joshbuddy]

Well, Cory recently said in a podcast we can use it to mean "product got worse", so I've become less pedantic on this point fwiw. (I think it was in the episode of Adam Conover from about a month ago)

[jdpage]

Hmm. I am tentatively holding to my position, because I think it's useful to have a separate word, but I'll go track down the episode and see if he elaborates on that further. Thanks!

[9rx]

> Cory recently said in a podcast we can use it to mean "product got worse"

Of course we can. We can also use it mean "product became wonderful".

The question, as always, is if we should.

[hlassiege]

I get the impression I hit a sensitive spot with my use of "enshittification" :)

Sorry about that. I realize this term has a very strict meaning in English, but it's a bit less true in my language (French).

I responded to this in another comment above, but basically I was using the term to encompass everything that contributes to degrading a product. Everything that makes it more complex, often tied to company growth (I started a company in 2012 that's now 700 people).

But I get the point. I see this touches on another topic around corporate malpractice. I honestly wasn't even aware of that.

Now I know :)

[mvkel]

Yep. The irony being that "enshittification," properly deployed, can actually lead a company to even more success. Product people always think "having the best product" wins the day, but there are billions of dollars made through a perfectly baked enshittified pie.

[gwd]

"The Market for Lemons" has always been a thing. If the user can't immediately distinguish between "Looks good at first and is good all the way through" and "Looks good and gets crappier as you go along", then both will be forced by the market to charge the same amount; but the latter one can afford to do it at a price the former can't afford.

[supportengineer]

Success for the shareholders, or for the paying customers?

[moravak1984]

Yes, pedantry is justified in this case.

Froggies doing wrong cultural appropriation again... maybe the "Emilia Perez syndrome" is becoming a thing.

[supportengineer]

There's another flavor of enshittification where no one benefits, but the product manager got a promotion.