Enshittification
 

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Enshittification

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Posted by: tjagain

nope.   I know every tune thars played.  i wonder if the fact I haveit on 12hrs or more a day playing specific playlist means it has more to work with so srerves up less ai slop?  i would notice instantly if it did

There's no way you are sitting concentrating on each track in a 12 hour session. Spotify could be serving you up Frank Sidebottom sings Sinatra after a couple of hours and it'd go right over your head.


 
Posted : 21/12/2025 7:34 pm
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A whistleblower from Facebook revealed that when a teenage girl takes a photo on her forward facing camera, and then deletes it WITHOUT even posting it to any platform, Facebook knows, due to camera and storage permissions. 

The assumption that they then make is that the girl is not happy with her appearance and starts feeding her with content and adverts related to beauty. Beyond sickening.


 
Posted : 21/12/2025 8:39 pm
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Amazon must be the worst example.

Prime used to be genuinely brilliant and useful.  It was like being back in the glory days of CRC, except the delivery was practically guaranteed rather than a fingers crossed 90% chance it'd make it the next day.  I'd ordered brake pads mid ride on a trip and they were delivered ready for the next day!

These days, despite the proliferation of Amazon warehouses, it seems like anything I search for is drop shipped from China.  And if it's being drop shipped from China then I know I can get it cheaper on Ali-Express.

I'd cancel it but I pay for the 'entertainment' streaming subs, she's paid for the sports ones as she's the football fan and I'd feel a little guilt that she'd end up picking it up anyway.

 

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 9:58 am
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Was using the free version of Deezer without adverts for years, not anymore though!

Any particular reason? I'm trialling for free at the moment but will need to decide whether to sign up for an annual subscription in January 🤔 

Amazon is the pits, I've just had my annual trauma of buying something from them after getting gift card from work for Xmas - both things I bought would have been cheaper elsewhere too.


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 10:18 am
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Posted by: tthew

There's no way you are sitting concentrating on each track in a 12 hour session. Spotify could be serving you up Frank Sidebottom sings Sinatra after a couple of hours and it'd go right over your head.

 

 

totally wrong.  I would know within seconds if there was a cover in there.  Music is in the aspie part of my brain.  

 

I do love it when folk try to tell me what I think and do.

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 11:19 am
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Posted by: tjagain

Posted by: tthew

There's no way you are sitting concentrating on each track in a 12 hour session. Spotify could be serving you up Frank Sidebottom sings Sinatra after a couple of hours and it'd go right over your head.

 

 

totally wrong.  I would know within seconds if there was a cover in there.  Music is in the aspie part of my brain.  

 

I do love it when folk try to tell me what I think and do.

 

 

Doubt that very much especially with modern A.I. music generation, and if you still think otherwise then there is any number of music distribution services/record companies/DAW companies etc who would gladly offer you whatever you ask for so they could learn from your knowledge

 

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 11:29 am
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Doubt all you want.  Pretty much every song I have ever heard is in my brain permanently.  Anything new registers within seconds.  Aspie / Squirrel brain 

 

I also meant would the fact spotify has a very large database of music I have played make it less likely to do this?


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 11:55 am
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There's a bit of further enshittification of Strava detailed here.

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/12/strava-puts-popular-year-in-sport-recap-behind-an-80-paywall/

To be honest, I don't have a problem with this one, while it's crap to take away something which was free, it's hardly a core bit of functionality.


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 12:01 pm
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Posted by: tjagain

Doubt all you want.  Pretty much every song I have ever heard is in my brain permanently.  Anything new registers within seconds.  Aspie / Squirrel brain 

Ah OK, that's well outside my frame of experience. Apologies. 

I can't imagine that anyone is really that interested in those year in... summaries that are proliferating in all sorts of areas, (my bank sent me one!) that it would persuade them into a paid subscription. 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 12:42 pm
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Whether you get AI generated music on Spotify depends entirely on your listening habits and how you use it. If you search for say: Led Zep IV, that's what you'll get. Similarly lots of the old Decca classical recordings are pretty accurate reproductions. If you click on the "Sad Songs for a Rainy Day" or "lo-fi study" playlists you're going to get a lot of generated content. 

I'd imagine TJ is more of the former and less of the latter. 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 2:50 pm
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Posted by: verses

There's a bit of further enshittification of Strava detailed here.

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/12/strava-puts-popular-year-in-sport-recap-behind-an-80-paywall/

To be honest, I don't have a problem with this one, while it's crap to take away something which was free, it's hardly a core bit of functionality.

 

I don’t think it’s helped them much as there’s usually a few of those Strava end of year things floating around on social media from as soon as they’re available. This year I’ve not seen a single one. 

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 3:02 pm
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Posted by: thisisnotaspoon

These days, despite the proliferation of Amazon warehouses, it seems like anything I search for is drop shipped from China.  And if it's being drop shipped from China then I know I can get it cheaper on Ali-Express.

My missus has a habit of ordering stuff like that. I keep telling her to check the delivery dates which always give it away. 

 

TBH I don't buy from Amazon based on price, I buy on availability, choice and quick (free) delivery. 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 3:09 pm
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I genuinely do my best not to use Amazon, only for phone cases because otherwise it's reliable. But I just got an Amazon voucher from work and as a customer experience I find the Amazon website and search terrible. I don't actually know why people would use it.


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 4:49 pm
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Posted by: notmyrealname

I don’t think it’s helped them much as there’s usually a few of those Strava end of year things floating around on social media from as soon as they’re available. This year I’ve not seen a single one.

That's because it's the 22nd of December. Mine, and I'd guess most others, will be done after the last bit of work on the 31st.


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 4:57 pm
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Posted by: jimmy

I genuinely do my best not to use Amazon ... as a customer experience I find the Amazon website and search terrible.

Maybe that's just it. I use it frequently and find it completely straightforward and simple. 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 5:14 pm
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Posted by: lunge

That's because it's the 22nd of December. Mine, and I'd guess most others, will be done after the last bit of work on the 31st.

That’ll explain it then, I through I’d remembered seeing them before Christmas rather than at the year end. 

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 5:43 pm
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Any particular reason? I'm trialling for free at the moment but will need to decide whether to sign up for an annual subscription in January

Yes I had been enjoying a loophole of their web player. Which has unfortunately been closed and plays adverts every two songs, similar to how free Spotify has for as long as I can remember.

There are other websites who's services via their dedicated apps are worse than by other means but I'd rather not discuss it on a public forum as the loopholes get squashed when discussed openly on the internet!

Edit: In general terms and for most casual listeners it's good enough. Some obscure stuff and certain artists don't have tracks on there but even some of the obscure stuff the search doesn't find, can be found on compilation albums they do have!


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 8:17 pm
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Here’s Warren discussing the A.I involvement in current music production, only 10mins. 

 


 
Posted : 22/12/2025 10:48 pm
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Posted by: jimmy

I genuinely do my best not to use Amazon, only for phone cases because otherwise it's reliable.

I use it for academic text/research books, and before any smartarse suggests going directly to the bookstore's own website. Some just don't bother, some require you to be part of university before buying them. Some do, but their payment and delivery fulfillment page directs you to amazon anyway, and the reason they do that is 1. why reproduce something (for an additional cost) that you already have to pay for if you're on amazon anyway, and 2. Some amazon contracts don't allow it. The market for these sorts of books is pretty limited already, so it's not like you have much of a choice. 

Enshitification in action.

 

 


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 9:28 am
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^^ well that youtube clip is depressing

 


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 9:39 am
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Posted by: scotroutes

Posted by: jimmy

I genuinely do my best not to use Amazon ... as a customer experience I find the Amazon website and search terrible.

Maybe that's just it. I use it frequently and find it completely straightforward and simple. 

No, it's not if you are looking for something specific. In fact I think they make it difficult on purpose so that you don't go hunting through cheaper options and instead buy the "featured" ones that come up first by default. I presume these are ones they make most margin on.

Example. Search string "10TB hard drive internal". Sort by cheapest. Filter by "With Prime Delivery". Filter by "6TB and above" to get rid of the random brackets, screws and cables. Filter by "internal". Filter by "SATA interface"

First result: 500gb internal hard drive. (wrong size)

Second result: 1TB external hard drive (wrong size, wrong interface, wrong form factor)

third result: NVME SSD 1TB (wrong interface, wrong type of device, wrong size)

Fourth result: 6TB internal hard drive (wrong size)

Firth result: 5TB external hard drive. (wrong size, wrong interface, wrong form factor)

In fact there is not one correctly matched & filtered item on the first page of results.

 


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 9:44 am
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Posted by: multi21

No, it's not if you are looking for something specific.

I've just searched Tamiya XF4 (a type of paint) First hit. twice the price I can buy it anywhere else fo'shure, but it finds it?


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 10:11 am
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Posted by: nickc

Posted by: multi21

No, it's not if you are looking for something specific.

I've just searched Tamiya XF4 (a type of paint) First hit. twice the price I can buy it anywhere else fo'shure, but it finds it?

The post I replied to said it was "straightforward and simple".  To me that means searching for specific terms gives me items matching those terms, in the order I've selected (cheapest), filtered by the options I've chosen.

I already gave you an example of it not working (for the user's benefit at least);  I think they make the filters and "sort by cheapest" option work so badly that users will only ever bother to use the "featured" page which they curate to have the items they make most money on.  

 

For your example: it could be that they have no alternatives to what you searched for, it could be that they have a high margin on that item, etc.

 

Another example: often when you read the reviews, it will be for a completely different item.  Apparently what sellers do is list a popular item and when it has a lot of 5 star reviews, swap it for a different product.  It is clearly misleading for users, and would be trivial for Amazon to remove all the reviews or mark them as "this review was for a different product" when a seller changes the product listing significantly.  I presume Amazon have left this because more "stars" on an item results in more sales, even if it's clearly falsified.


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 10:33 am
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Posted by: nickc

I use it for academic text/research books, and before any smartarse suggests going directly to the bookstore's own website. Some just don't bother, some require you to be part of university before buying them. Some do, but their payment and delivery fulfillment page directs you to amazon anyway, and the reason they do that is 1. why reproduce something (for an additional cost) that you already have to pay for if you're on amazon anyway, and 2. Some amazon contracts don't allow it. The market for these sorts of books is pretty limited already, so it's not like you have much of a choice. 

Enshitification in action.

 

lots of these kinds of specialist books that are only easlily purchased from amazon are knock offs too 😂

 


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 10:39 am
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Maybe that's just it. I use it frequently and find it completely straightforward and simple. 

It's acceptable if it's something highly specific with no options, e.g the paint mentioned above, or you have a part number, although even then it seems to try and be clever.  Put in the part number for shimano brake olives and it starts showing you Chinese cable outer because presumably enough people have searched for brake hose/barb/tube/outer that it 'knows' they're sort-of linked.

Years ago there was a behind the scenes video that explained why the amazon product page layout is so awful and filled with random tables of part numbers, product data, pictures, text, etc rather than the usual nicely formatted website you'd expect for shopping.  It's so you spend less time there.  They want you to come to Amazon, type in Shimano B05S (brake pads), click on the first link (because that's the one that pays them the highest), and buy it.  It's deliberately supposed to be hard for you to browse so that you funnel yourself to the checkout ASAP before you check any other sites!

The only site that seems worse is Ali-Express, and I'm sure they just modelled it on Amazon, but made it worse so that whilst browsing for the cheapest Garmin mount it throws in a load of other results to try and get you to spend more.

 

 

 


 
Posted : 23/12/2025 2:55 pm
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