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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

228 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 63 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Steam

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This! Steam is the only proprietary program I use on my Linux machines that I'm actually happy with and don't want to get rid of

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

yeah I just hope they can stay this good. I like them but am always thinking about when I have to ditch it when they get some fool at the helm.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

I may need a plan if the Australian government bans me from having an account with Steam without giving them my ID because it's "social media" (this isn't confirmed, the brain fart has been carelessly thrown into the world by the national e-Karen, Steam might be exempt).

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Their size & net worth vs enshitification levels are suspiciously high!!

Gabe & co better not die out before they turn it/some parent company into a nonprofit.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days 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.