Everything is Shit: Tracking the Great Enshittening

[Samson's Wig 3178]

I'll take the curbside shoppers over the old ladies at the grocery store any day.  They both take up the entire aisle and couldn't less that anyone exists or is trying to shop, but only the old ladies look at you like you're a piece of shit when you politely ask to get by them.

[Paul Wesley 3277]

48 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

spread their racism propaganda. 

1.   Definitely not what I said

2.   You’re quoting “data” from a lobbying group who advances corporate interests.  They have an agenda.

3.  I tried to make this point clear, but despite my caveats, it only took a few minutes to be misquoted:  in a nuanced issue, multiple things can be true at once.  We don’t have to choose one or the other.  
 

For example:  a). Mark Furman is a perjurer and a dishonest cop who dropped N-bombs on a daily basis.  b). OJ is a murderer.  Both true.  
 

In this case:  a).  The NRF is a lobbying group that represents billions (?trillions) of dollars of private corporate interests, and their data should always be viewed with that in mind. b).  Property crimes should be prosecuted and punished.   

[Guest]

Misquoted, but it's exactly what you said.

Sorry your fairy tale has massive plot holes.  If you think shoplifting and shrink in retail stores is a myth or propaganda, then you must never leave the fucking house.

 

Either that, or you don't really believe the notion to be true either, but let's throw it out there and see what sticks.

 

 

Edited February 10 by slorch

[Paul Wesley 3277]

Just now, slorch said:

Misquoted, but it's exactly what you said.

Sorry your fairy tale has massive plot holes.  If you think shoplifting and shrink in retail stores is a myth or propaganda, then you must never leave the fucking house.

 

 

Me:  Data from lobbyists should be viewed with some skepticism.  Criminals should be prosecuted.  
 

Slorch:  “Fairy tales with massive plot holes!!!!”

[Neonmoon 38127]

1 minute ago, Paul Wesley said:

Me:  Data from lobbyists should be viewed with some skepticism.  Criminals should be prosecuted.  
 

Slorch:  “Fairy tales with massive plot holes!!!!”

You engage 

You receive 

[troph 24562]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

I bet streaming has been great for small and independent artists. They dont rely on being picked up by a label for promotion and sales. No need to have recorded a full LP or even an EP to get broadcast. No slinging tapes or CDs out of a van at shows. 

With just a single they get a shortcut to exposure and distribution never before and transparent payment. Theyre probably not complaining. 

That’s what I’m saying - and that’s also great for consumers. 

[PTINS 3442]

Interesting thread.

Enshittening?

Entropy is the word I learned, - the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity. Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder.

Like the waves in the ocean, the decay and dumbing down of society is inevitable.

TLDR.  Stop now, and save yourselves.

I'm older (not retired, not working and not looking for a job.)  I'm comfortable financially and have the freedom of choice. 

I started my career before cell phones and the internet, when companies made products and provided service. If you didn't do that, you probably worked for the government in some capacity, or were born on 2nd base.

Every engineer I went to school with had a job before they graduated. Companies that came to recruit late in the cycle couldn't get people to sign up for interviews. Most people had jobs already.

If I had worn a blue suit to my interview, I would have went to work for IBM instead of Oil & Gas. By the time I realized I should have been a doctor, or a lawyer or a banker, it was too late.

I worked for 4 companies that got bought by other companies and lived in Houston 4 times, Oklahoma 3 times, as well as Denver and Lafayette, and traveled to damn near every oil & producing producing region in Texas, and the lower 48. I know about sacrificing and paying your dues.

In 1991, my "company", one of 5 business sectors, was carved up and cannibalized into 5 asset groups.  When I asked by new boss for a job description, he wrote "Make Money" on a sticky not and asked which word didn't I understand. Later on, when asked what I could do for a prospective company, that was my answer. Didn't get a lot of follow up questions.

I learned a long time ago business decisions benefited the guys in the chairs more so than the companies they worked for.

With that said ... 

On 2/8/2024 at 11:04 AM, Brisketexan said:

Except (as discussed in another thread), that concept of fiduciary duty has been reduced to just one thing: profits in the next quarter.  Period.  

Our warped, narrow definition of "profitability" is a big contributor to enshittening.

TLDR version: treating customers like shit and ripping them off is lauded, because it yields an immediate profit advantage; the fact that such treatment will cost you customers (and profit) in the long-term is a non-issue, and is someone else's problem.  The system incentivizes fucking people over today, who cares what it costs you tomorrow?

I agree with this conceptually, but from two different perspectives; as an employee v. as a consumer/investor.

I worked in the O&G industry, the Midstream sector before there was a midstream sector, just upstream and downstream. Gas Processing was the interface between production and processing/marketing. There was a symbiotic relationship with our customers, on both sides, in that none of us could survive without the other. 

Fucking people over was NEVER an option. Once a company got that reputation, they were toast. The competitive marketplace would not accept that behavior. The opposite was also true, once you got those customers, they were yours.

Executing 10-20 year contracts, and over servicing those contracts worked. Long term contracts meant long term relationships.

That industry and business model is much different today. Everything is MBA's and business models that tell you how to make money, now. All driven towards a favorable earnings release every quarter. 

I blame 2 things for the ... decay. Personal computers and Y2K. Personal computers gave people with 4 function calculator brains access to higher level mathematical tools, and Y2K invited techies into the board room with a disproportionate amount of influence.

As a consumer, I can take it or leave it. I can still go to the local HEB, Home Depot & Walmart for most of my needs. Add Amazon, and that is ~ 90% of my consumer spending.

As an investor, I luv me some FAANG companies, or whatever it is now.  Not that I don't care about social and privacy issues, but financial preservation and growth is a much bigger driver.  Some have store fronts and sale products. Others consolidate information and package information for consumption by others.

Are they too big? too powerful? who cares? They make money, hand over fist. The vast majority of $ invested in the stock market has exposer to these companies. What is good for them is good for most people. Their decisions are numbers on paper computer screens. Their offices and cubicles are not going to explode and kill and main people.

Are they good companies to work for? Don't know.

I remember hearing Ken Lay speak to his employees (pre Enron days) at a luncheon, and someone made a comment about shorter term goals compromising longer term security.   He said something to the effect he didn't remember telling anybody that long term security was ever the priority. 

On 2/8/2024 at 7:17 AM, Neonmoon said:

Companies keep chiseling because Americans are fat lazy cash machines that sit back and pump out money when asked. Zero pushback.

Consumers vote with their spending, and their habits. You get what you pay for, always has been, always will be.

If you don't like it, don't buy it.

On 2/8/2024 at 2:35 PM, Captainant said:

Being public doesn't automatically make you a bad or unethical company, ... Given enough time, a shithead is gonna be in charge and do some bad shit that is amplified thanks to the size of the organization. 

The biggest criticism I have with public companies is that their single most important driving factor is to grow quarter over quarter, forever. That's literally cancerous behavior. There is never a growth number or business size that is acceptable, because that is what is demanded by their shareholders. 

Companies may be made up of people, but corporations are not governed by the people who comprise them. They're steered exclusively by the BOD and its shareholders, which solely and exclusively care about quarterly profit growth, ad infinitum. 

There are always "Peter Principle" employees in organizations that have mastered the technique of staying employed, some of which rise to the management level. The filtering of information at lower levels leads to decisions made on less than the best information available, and Voilà, corporate America.

My first job out of college I made more money than my boss. It was probably that way for 10-15 years. Having to explain things to your boss is a hard way to  make a living. 

On 2/8/2024 at 2:39 PM, Brisketexan said:

I don't disagree with this at all.  And maybe what's hard to get at in this short-form discussion is that structures can create different incentives among different stakeholders.  My suggestion is that our current structure of how we assess and compensate for "value" is skewed to incentivize many of those stakeholders to prefer profit today at the expense of investment in tomorrow.  Tragedy of the commons stuff, or my preferred metaphor, eating your seed stock.

Compensation moving from salaries to incentive compensation plans and stock options fueled the short term decision making, get it now while you can.

 "Tragedy of the commons" ?. I like that. Too bad I'm a common. If only the concept of "Fuck you Money" was a thing in my younger years. Ok, it probably was, but not for anybody I knew.

On 2/8/2024 at 2:39 PM, Samson's Wig said:

A lot of SMBs came to the realization during the pandemic that a certain percentage of their customer base isn't worth dealing with anymore. 

A lot of it is generational ... "I want to talk to someone before I place an order, by god!  No real reason other than I want to!"). Whether or not that is reasonable is beside the point, as businesses will eventually stop caring what customers who require more effort to close want and for good reason. 

As wealth continues to shift from the gigantic older generation to the gigantic younger one, older folks are going to complain more and more about customer service.  It won't matter when those old folks are GenX, as we've been too small in numbers for anyone to ever give a shit about anyway.

The point: customer service seems worse for the neediest customers because businesses have stopped focusing on attracting their business.

My kids always complained that I complained when my quarter pounder had cheese on it. "Just eat it dad, you like cheese anyway." That wasn't the point. That is not how I ordered it. 

Good thing I didn't want my kids to do everything I did. 

But it served me well. "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate."

The HEB catch all.

My favorite store, and company. Not unlike Disney, Southwest Airlines, and Apple, in their prime. It all starts with hiring the right people.

I like all the HEB personal shoppers; you never have to go far to find someone who can tell you exactly where a particular item is. We live in the country, ~ 10 miles from 4 different HEB's, 2 brand new. They have different layouts, yogurts, beer options, etc. If I have to leave the house, I usually go by HEB, just because I'm out. Wife still works full time, I don't.

For general shopping, I'm a late morning shopper. Not busy, shelfs fully stocked, lots of stay at home moms.

For an item or 2, I'm a mid afternoon shopper. Free wine and snacks is the greatest thing our society has to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

22 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

You engage 

You receive 

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

[52-80 19081]

1 hour ago, troph said:

That’s what I’m saying - and that’s also great for consumers. 

I agree with you. People have this reflexive tendency to shit on every societal advancement.  Its like that louis ck bit about airplane. Waaa the food is bad. Okay, but for $500 someone is flying you from boston to london.  A century ago it wouldve take you 2 weeks on an oceanliner scheduled once a month at a cost you couldve have afforded anyway. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Paul Wesley said:

 

Anyway, this whole "PEOPLE ARE STEALING EVERYTHING FROM US!" from the retailers... that feels like an eerily similar corporations-as-victims claim, and I'm going to apply a small bit of skepticism when they present their alleged data.

I think this latest round of corporate propaganda is even more powerful because we've got actual videos of actual criminals doing brazen smash-and-grabs*, and this lines up perfectly with other ecosystems of thinly-veiled racism and "lawless cities!" propaganda.  

*since nuance is dead, let me say that for sure that those property crimes very much need to be punished

 

 

1 hour ago, Paul Wesley said:

Me:  Data from lobbyists should be viewed with some skepticism.  Criminals should be prosecuted.  
 

Slorch:  “Fairy tales with massive plot holes!!!!”

 

1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

You engage 

You receive 

The bolded part above is what Paul Wesley posted as commentary on the article.  I didn't change it or misquote him.

That tactic is hardly new.  Again, throw shit against the wall, and then act like you didn't say it.

Whatever. 

Edited February 10 by slorch

[Chopper 17152]

6 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Cant believe these corporations are using *checks notes* actual videos of actual criminals committing brazen crimes to spread their racism propaganda. Smh. 

Let nothing, including facts and prior history, stand in the way of armed, public protection of private property. smh

[Bevo 13524]

4 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Let nothing, including facts and prior history, stand in the way of armed, public protection of private property. smh

Do any of the Austin HEBs have whole green chiles? They have shelves of different brand of diced, but not a single damn whole green chile can. I cannot support the institution until my store starts carrying whole ones.

[Chopper 17152]

2 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Do any of the Austin HEBs have whole green chiles? They have shelves of different brand of diced, but not a single damn whole green chile can. I cannot support the institution until my store starts carrying whole ones.

I donut believe you, amigo. Namaste.

[F250 28679]

2 hours ago, Bevo said:

Do any of the Austin HEBs have whole green chiles? They have shelves of different brand of diced, but not a single damn whole green chile can. I cannot support the institution until my store starts carrying whole ones.

Just tell the store manager. They are pretty good about taking requests for specific products.

[CHAD BRISCOE 369]

9 hours ago, Paul Wesley said:

1.   Definitely not what I said

2.   You’re quoting “data” from a lobbying group who advances corporate interests.  They have an agenda.

3.  I tried to make this point clear, but despite my caveats, it only took a few minutes to be misquoted:  in a nuanced issue, multiple things can be true at once.  We don’t have to choose one or the other.  
 

For example:  a). Mark Furman is a perjurer and a dishonest cop who dropped N-bombs on a daily basis.  b). OJ is a murderer.  Both true.  
 

In this case:  a).  The NRF is a lobbying group that represents billions (?trillions) of dollars of private corporate interests, and their data should always be viewed with that in mind. b).  Property crimes should be prosecuted and punished.   

First  he was O J was declare Innocent the glove did not fit judge had to let him go

so i suggest you check your fact's bitch

[Chopper 17152]

16 minutes ago, CHAD BRISCOE said:

First  he was O J was declare Innocent the glove did not fit judge had to let him go

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, one which is deliberately bad.

[CHAD BRISCOE 369]

40 minutes ago, Chopper said:

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, one which is deliberately bad.

fuck your

[Deej 76542]

18 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I'd almost rather deal with the fat people on their HEB rascals.

[immamac 42516]

17 hours ago, PTINS said:

 

I like all the HEB personal shoppers; you never have to go far to find someone who can tell you exactly where a particular item is. We live in the country, ~ 10 miles from 4 different HEB's, 2 brand new. They have different layouts, yogurts, beer options, etc. If I have to leave the house, I usually go by HEB, just because I'm out. Wife still works full time, I don't.

I have news for you “old man” you don’t live in the country anymore. Hahahahahaha

[PTINS 3442]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

I have news for you “old man” you don’t live in the country anymore. Hahahahahaha

Well, for the 2 million people in the Austin metro, I live in the country 😊. We anticipated growth, that is why the new HEB's are ~10 miles away. Not quite the long range views we have at the ranch, but the country grocery store in Utopia is only 4 miles away from the ranch. We have access to fiber optic at the ranch, but not at home. Go figure.

Every year (10 years), we've had baby deer born on our property, and I see (not hunt) trophy deer at home every year, usually bigger than the ranch. That's my definition of being in the country.

Love it when the cousins come to play.

 

 

[Hagbard Celine 10751]

On 12/28/2023 at 1:26 PM, Helobious said:

Ummm… I can navigate Google maps perfectly fine, and my favorite time waster is still dropping the street view guy random places seeing what’s around. Maybe you’re just getting old. 

kudos to 956 for starting this critically important thread

if the term "capture/captured" has yet to be introduced in to this thread I will be using that meme in my replies/comments

re: helobious and gmaps working fine.....

- street view is extremely important, depending on when the imagery was recorded

- the navigation of gmaps is not it's failing; if it has the bandwidth it usually renders at lightspeed whether zooming, or panscanning, or both

- here is the use case that identifies where the ABC overlords are abusing it's power through enshittification:  from a standing start zoomed out to the north american continent i can zoom and pan to a specific location in a couple of seconds if the rendering engine and bandwidth keep up; up until a few years ago, at maximum zoom, every non-residential location would be identified and tagged with the name of the location which was an active link; today less than 50%, sometimes less than 30%, of the specific locations are "blank" buildings; you know a kickass new pizza place is in stripmall X between businesses Y and Z, but the map doesn't tell you which storefront is the pizza place; it doesn't give the name of the business; there is no active link to click to nav to the website to place an order; BUT IF YOU "SEARCH THIS AREA" for "pizza" and SUBJECT YOURSELF TO ADS IN THE RESULT SET..... VOILA! the name of the new kickass pizza place appears on the edifice with a clickable link to the business; what's going on here is this: if you are not paying in to the ABC ecosystem in some way, and this includes pretty much the entire adtech cloud, if you are not paying "protection money", you don't exist (not rendered on the map) until your customer already knows you exist (by typing in your name in maps search or regular search)

 

other memes in addition to "Capture" that should be introduced in this thread if they have not already been voiced include the "blipvert" from MaxHeadroom (ABC 1988) and for any readers have not seen it Idiocracy (Mike Judge 2006)

 

and if the thread really gets funky, it will be impossible to avoid citation and reflection of ideas brought forward in Minority Report and the complete Matrix Trilogy including the Animatrix compilation from the 2003 box set

 

anyway, here is where enshittifcation ends up, if we don't do something about it:

 

 

Edited February 11 by Hagbard Celine

[Chopper 17152]

On 2/11/2024 at 12:07 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

kudos to 956 for starting this critically important thread

if the term "capture/captured" has yet to be introduced in to this thread I will be using that meme in my replies/comments

re: helobious and gmaps working fine.....

- street view is extremely important, depending on when the imagery was recorded

- the navigation of gmaps is not it's failing; if it has the bandwidth it usually renders at lightspeed whether zooming, or panscanning, or both

- here is the use case that identifies where the ABC overlords are abusing it's power through enshittification:  from a standing start zoomed out to the north american continent i can zoom and pan to a specific location in a couple of seconds if the rendering engine and bandwidth keep up; up until a few years ago, at maximum zoom, every non-residential location would be identified and tagged with the name of the location which was an active link; today less than 50%, sometimes less than 30%, of the specific locations are "blank" buildings; you know a kickass new pizza place is in stripmall X between businesses Y and Z, but the map doesn't tell you which storefront is the pizza place; it doesn't give the name of the business; there is no active link to click to nav to the website to place an order; BUT IF YOU "SEARCH THIS AREA" for "pizza" and SUBJECT YOURSELF TO ADS IN THE RESULT SET..... VOILA! the name of the new kickass pizza place appears on the edifice with a clickable link to the business; what's going on here is this: if you are not paying in to the ABC ecosystem in some way, and this includes pretty much the entire adtech cloud, if you are not paying "protection money", you don't exist (not rendered on the map) until your customer already knows you exist (by typing in your name in maps search or regular search)

Gmaps also seems to show a lot more ads when accessed on a browser.

 

[Chopper 17152]

Not ideal

[Guest]

Fuck YouTube and their 3 minute fucking ads.  Come the fuck on.  

There was seriously a 7 minute+ one today.  Dumb.

I'm not subscribing to a gotdam infomercial.

Edited February 20 by slorch

[Parliament 14128]

My ad blockers have been stopping them so far, but I know that’s gonna change.

[Captainant 27442]

13 hours ago, Parliament said:

My ad blockers have been stopping them so far, but I know that’s gonna change.

Yeah advertisers are getting smarter and starting to encrypt and embed ads directly into the product so it's much more work to block effectively

[Fudge Nuggets 19146]

17 hours ago, Parliament said:

My ad blockers have been stopping them so far, but I know that’s gonna change.

Which ad blockers are you using?  Mine have made YouTube slow down to a crawl.

[HouTex 1850]

On 2/10/2024 at 6:36 PM, Bevo said:

Do any of the Austin HEBs have whole green chiles? They have shelves of different brand of diced, but not a single damn whole green chile can. I cannot support the institution until my store starts carrying whole ones.

Same at San Felipe HEB in Houston.  

[Wally Fairway 5521]

I am sure there is a better thread for this, but I didn't feel like finding it

You want to talk about something that we (humans - purportedly an intelligent race) have truly fucked up is all the pollution in space. It started with Sputnik, and it will never end, there skies are filling with junk, some of it useful, some of it just junk/debris/trash/etc.

Here is a summary of stuff that "we" have put into orbit

video is from here - https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/climate/space-debris-solution-climate-scn/index.html

 

 

[Brisketexan 104557]

Looks like all the styrofoam pellets that came out of your old beanbag chair when you got stupid and opened it to see what was inside.

You know you did that.  Don't lie.

[Guest]

Is this the thread where we bitch out shitty things in life? Actual tickets to sporting events/concerts instead of this digital shit that's become the norm. So much easier just to have a hard copy ticket than dealing with digital copies. Plus, you can actually keep them as a souvenir.

[Chopper 17152]

Amazon continues its rapid pace of enshittification.

[F250 28679]

7 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Amazon continues its rapid pace of enshittification.

Standard Prime Video in a couple of years.

 

[Captainant 27442]

7 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Amazon continues its rapid pace of enshittification.

The Amazon business model IS ENSHITTIFICATION

 

They drove everyone else out of the market by ignoring profitability and undercutting on price while delivering a higher quality service, and then once they had primacy, started chipping away at the quality of their offering and platform overall.

It's the same playbook as Uber and a bunch of other tech startups. And it's profitable as FUK BOIIIIII so they ain't gonna stop

[Brisketexan 104557]

18 minutes ago, Captainant said:

The Amazon business model IS ENSHITTIFICATION

 

They drove everyone else out of the market by ignoring profitability and undercutting on price while delivering a higher quality service, and then once they had primacy, started chipping away at the quality of their offering and platform overall.

It's the same playbook as Uber and a bunch of other tech startups. And it's profitable as FUK BOIIIIII so they ain't gonna stop

This.  It's a pretty standardized approach in the here and now, and it's the exact downside of monopolies that all rational economic discussion has pointed out for....forever.

Dump/undercut to capture the entire market.  Then, when you've eliminated all meaningful competition, ass-rape the consumer because you can (where else are they gonna go?)

[Chopper 17152]

49 minutes ago, Captainant said:

The Amazon business model IS ENSHITTIFICATION

 

Enshittification is a strategy. Right now it's just a question of finding the bottom. What they're paranoid of is people canceling those $169 prime plans. They're trying to walk the line.

Edited February 21 by Chopper

[Hornius Emeritus 12415]

On 2/10/2024 at 10:33 AM, mdmost said:

I don’t live within 100 miles of your precious HEB so be grumpy to someone else.

Sounds like you need to make better choices in life.

[Chopper 17152]

A fascinating article about how google is allowing large publishers to not only game 'search' but also fails sites that do actual independent reviews.

An explanation for why your product review search results probably suck.

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

[Homercles 10205]

19 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Is this the thread where we bitch out shitty things in life? Actual tickets to sporting events/concerts instead of this digital shit that's become the norm. So much easier just to have a hard copy ticket than dealing with digital copies. Plus, you can actually keep them as a souvenir.

I agree on the lack of souvenirs piece, but I do enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing I can’t lose the ticket.  What kills me about digital tickets is people who wait until they’re at the gate to fumble out their phone only to realize they don’t have a good connection, can’t figure out the app/wallet or try showing the emailed invoice.  Fuck them.  

Show tickets of any kind have become an absolutely stupid expensive endeavor through TicketMasters monopoly on distribution, venues and artists.  I practically lived at Stubbs for a few years at $35/ticket barely a decade ago…now it seems any show anywhere is $120+ once you include the ‘convenience’ fee that you are required to pay.  

Add on a gamed secondary market, $20 beers, $30 parking, ‘dynamic’ pricing like airlines ruining miles redemption…can be a miserable, expensive experience.  Then again, the market seems to support $5,000 Taylor Swift or $25 in fees on a $35 Royals ticket so we collectively enable that shit.  

[Captainant 27442]

43 minutes ago, Homercles said:

Show tickets of any kind have become an absolutely stupid expensive endeavor through TicketMasters monopoly on distribution, venues and artists.  I practically lived at Stubbs for a few years at $35/ticket barely a decade ago…now it seems any show anywhere is $120+ once you include the ‘convenience’ fee that you are required to pay.  

Shit, on an expensive ticket you're looking at $150-200 on fees that are not part of the listed price of the ticket. Shit should be illegal, but regulating business is unfortunately communism so we just get to bend over and enjoy it

[gofuckyourself 8121]

9 hours ago, Chopper said:

A fascinating article about how google is allowing large publishers to not only game 'search' but also fails sites that do actual independent reviews.

An explanation for why your product review search results probably suck.

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

Good article. I've observed the trend for a while.

Also how I often can't find the manufacturer's website to research it directly, because the review sites are choking them out.

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

is this where we rant about the AT&T outage?

there shall be less trolling on X/twitter.  limited Karen traffic on nextdoor complaining about cars parking along the street.

[Hank Kingsley 20678]

I've noticed Uber becoming really shitty over the last 6 months or so. The app is now pushing me to more expensive cars by making the wait times longer. I live in the heart of Houston and have a 4.96 rating or something like that, so it's not an issue with a lack of drivers or being passed over. An Uber that used to be at my place in 3 minutes takes significantly longer. An UberX is "15 minutes away" so I should upgrade to Comfort or XL for a quicker ride, than that car is still 15 minutes away. Assholes. 

Edited February 22 by Hank Kingsley

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Chopper said:

A fascinating article about how google is allowing large publishers to not only game 'search' but also fails sites that do actual independent reviews.

An explanation for why your product review search results probably suck.

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

The October google update completely devastated small, independent publishers in favor of Reddit, Quora (which absolutely is an awful site) and big brands. 

Edited February 22 by FirstTimeCaller

[Chopper 17152]

9 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

The October google update completely devastated small, independent publishers in favor of Reddit, Quora (which absolutely is an awful site) and big brands. 

Reddit, its, shall we say, unreliability, and its appearance on the first page of search results, is discussed in the article.

Verywell, People.com, Health.com, Travel + Leisure, Byrdie, MyDomaine, The Spruce, Lifewire, Southern Living, TreeHugger, Parents.com, Real Simple, Popular Science, Tom's Guide, NY Mag, CNET, Business Insider, Buzz Feed, Better Homes and Gardens, Rolling Stone - those are many of the brands that now dominate everyone's product recommendations search results and all they're doing is pull in reviews from amazon and then link back there for affiliate sales.

Here's the article's conclusion:

 

 

 

[Brisketexan 104557]

Well, some sort of bullshittery is definitely afoot.  I just did a search for "muledick," and Surly never popped up as a result.  I CALL SHENANIGANS!

[hayden_horn 11360]

6 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

I've noticed Uber becoming really shitty over the last 6 months or so. The app is now pushing me to more expensive cars by making the wait times longer. I live in the heart of Houston and have a 4.96 rating or something like that, so it's not an issue with a lack of drivers or being passed over. An Uber that used to be at my place in 3 minutes takes significantly longer. An UberX is "15 minutes away" so I should upgrade to Comfort or XL for a quicker ride, than that car is still 15 minutes away. Assholes. 

that's weird. uber just posted record profits the last couple of quarters. 

I'm sure that's totally unrelated

[52-80 19081]

2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

that's weird. uber just posted record profits the last couple of quarters. 

I'm sure that's totally unrelated

“record quarter” = the first 2 quarters of ttm profits, ever. 

each bar is a quarter. 
they should be forced to continue losing money so we get cheaper taxi rides. 

[52-80 19081]

On 2/11/2024 at 1:27 AM, Chopper said:

Let nothing, including facts and prior history, stand in the way of armed, public protection of private property. smh

retail theft cant possibly be a factual thing.

stores love to lock $2 products behind glass protection to feign the appearance of theft and advance “corporate agenda and interest”….. which dont include enabling sales because they hate revenue. 
 

[Chopper 17152]

54 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

retail theft cant possibly be a factual thing.

Did someone say there's no such thing as retail theft by shoppers? Tell me, genius, what percentage of sales nationally is inventory theft on the floor of a store and how does that compare to other ways inventory disappears? Is there a number that shows floor theft is greater now than in any previous year? Also is that your picture or did you rip it from the internet? Where is the store located? I was in a Target earlier today and saw nothing remotely like that. I was also in a Walgreens in CA 3 weeks ago and saw nothing like it. A store that puts their deodorant behind lock and key like that is a store that doesn't want to sell deodorant. Whose neck do you think retailers are trying to put their foot on? Are you, in fact, gullible enough to believe that increasing criminal penalties for petty theft is going to deter theft or prove somehow beneficial to society?