cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/487849

“Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”

I didn’t know Cory Doctorow was still around, but he is, and he’s spot-on. It’s an extremely insightful analysis of why Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, Slashdot, Digg, and now Redhat and Reddit, tend to go down the exact same inexorable-business-logic pathway which makes their platforms less and less useful over time until people abandon them.