Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #SwitchingCosts
Most recents (12)
Growing up in #Toronto, I held #NYC in awe. Per the joke, one Torontonian changes the lightbulb, the other goes New York to make sure lightbulbs are still in. I had a *great* place to stay in the City: my cousin Maxine's rent-controlled place in a midtown doorman building.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/04/21/bon…
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pluralistic.net/2023/04/21/bon…
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Max was impossibly glamorous: a perfectly coiffed office manager at Colgate-Palmolive who earned an anthropology degree at CUNY, volunteered at the Brooklyn Zoo, and knew every trick for getting cheap tickets for museums, galleries and shows.
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The classic #trilemma goes: "Fast, cheap or good, pick any two." The #ModeratorsTrilemma goes, "Large, diverse userbase; centralized platforms; don't anger users - pick any two." 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/03/04/pic… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/03/04/pic… 2/
The Moderator's Trilemma is introduced in "Moderating the Fediverse: Content Moderation on Distributed Social Media," a superb paper from @ARozenshtein of @UofMNLawSchool, forthcoming in the journal @JournalSpeech, available as a prepub on @SSRN:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 3/
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 3/
This week on my #podcast, I read #Twiddler, a recent @Medium column in which I delve more deeply into #enshittification, and how it is a pathology of digital platforms, distinct from the rent-seeking of the analog world that preceded it:
doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/kno… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/kno… 2/
Enshittification, you'll recall, is the lifecycle of the online platform: first, the platform allocates #surpluses to end-users; then, once users are locked in, those surpluses are taken away and given to business-customers. 3/
In the #enshittification cycle, a #platform lures users with a good deal at first, then it lures business customers (advertisers, sellers, creators) by handing them the #surplus; finally, it takes all the surplus for itself, creating a pile of shit:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 1/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/27/ens… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/27/ens… 2/
When a company is neither disciplined by #competition nor by #regulation, enshittification inevitably ensues. 3/
In "Social Quitting," my latest @LocusMag column, I analyze the precipitous #VibeShift of the dominant social media platforms: how we so quickly went from wondering how to get shut of them to asking where we go now that we're all ready to quit.
locusmag.com/2023/01/commen… 1/
locusmag.com/2023/01/commen… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/09/wat… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/09/wat… 2/
The core of the argument revolves around #surpluses - that is, the value that exists in the service. For a user, surpluses are things like "being able to converse with your friends" and "being able to plan activities with your friends." 3/
#ContentModeration is fundamentally about making social media work better, but there are two other considerations that determine how social media *fails*: #EndToEnd (#E2E), and #FreedomOfExit. 1/
These are much neglected, and that's a pity, because how a system fails is every bit as important as how it works. 2/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
Mobile tech is a duopoly run by two companies - Google and Apple - with a combined $3.5T market cap. Each uses a combination of tech, law, contract and market power to force sellers to do commerce via apps, and each extracts a *massive* commission in-app sales - 15-30%! 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kit… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kit… 2/
This is bad for users and workers. Many companies' gross margins are less than 30%. In some categories, that means there's *no* competition. 3/
A leak from the @EU_EDPB reveals that the #EU's top #privacy regulator is about to overrule the Irish Data Protection Commission and declare #Facebook's business model illegal, banning #surveillance-based #ads without explicit consent:
noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-pe… 1/
noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-pe… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/12/07/luc… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/07/luc… 2/
In some ways, this is unsurprising. Since the #GDPR's beginning, it's been crystal clear that the intention of the landmark privacy regulation was to extinguish commercial surveillance and ring down the curtain on #ConsentTheater. 3/
Sometime in 2001, I walked into a Radio Shack on San Francisco's Market Street and asked for a Cuecat: a handheld barcode scanner that looked a bit like a cat and a bit like a sex toy. The clerk handed one over to me and I left, feeling a little giddy. I didn't pay a cent. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/ben… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/ben… 2/
The Cuecat was a good idea and a terrible idea. The good idea was to widely distribute barcode scanners to computer owners, along with software that could read and decode barcodes. 3/
Facebook users claim to hate the service, but they keep using it, leading many to describe Facebook as "addictive." But there's a simpler explanation: people keep using Facebook though they hate it because they don't want to lose their connections to the *people* they love. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/09/19/int… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/09/19/int… 2/
Calling Facebook "addictive" plays into the company's own mythology, the sales-pitch they make to advertisers, in which they claim to be neuro-sorcerers whose mastery of "big data" and "dopamine loops" can sell anything to anyone, which is why you should buy ads on Facebook 3/
A historical accident made Massachusetts a lab for studying how tech can serve monopolies, and the moves, countermoves and counter-countermoves show how businesses, tinkerers, governments and the public can liberate themselves from seemingly all-powerful monopolists. 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
It all starts with #RightToRepair. Companies love to monopolize the repair of their products. If the only place to get your broken stuff fixed is at its manufacturer's authorized depots, the manufacturer can move all kinds of value from your side of the deal to their own. 3/
This week on my podcast, I read my @Medium column "Jam To-Day," a look at how slow antitrust enforcement can be, and what regulators can do to offer relief to the hostages in Big Tech's walled gardens right from day one: through #interoperability.
doctorow.medium.com/jam-to-day-46b… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/jam-to-day-46b… 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/11/22/amr… 2/
pluralistic.net/2021/11/22/amr… 2/
Antitrust is a very slow-moving process. The AT&T breakup in 1982 was the culmination of *69 years'* worth of enforcement action.
1982 was also the year that IBM's 12-year antitrust sojourn ended, without the breakup the DoJ had been seeking. 3/
1982 was also the year that IBM's 12-year antitrust sojourn ended, without the breakup the DoJ had been seeking. 3/
