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I keep thinking about wanting to teach folks who are new to tech an approach called “WEB OR NOTHING”. We have to start being a lot less compromising about what tech we use and which platforms we build for.

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As long as we aren’t teaching …. You too, can build your own platform to enshitify for the sake of wealth extraction

It has to be pointed out that the web in its current form may be the "least worst" option, but it's a pretty terrible option all the same, and getting steadily worse. Search - dead. Discovery - dead. Security - expensive. Scraping - constant. IP - stolen. Updates - continuous. Complexity - high.

And that's before we get to the business model of publishing on a medium where most business models have been strangled by the dominant players into either micro-cents per transaction or insanely complex and regulated subscription services that drive away users.

This is a great concept, *and* it only works at scale if we make the right option also the easiest option. Most people *do not* have the resources, be it time, energy, or money, to do the hard thing simply because it’s right. They’re just trying to survive a system that sees them as disposable.

So often we shoot ourselves in the foot in tech by yelling at people, “But this harder way is better! You should do it because it’s better and more ethical!” Doing good should not be hard. That’s a choice our society has made. Doing good should be effortless and deeply rewarding.

ok but i've been looking down gopher holes the last couple weeks and it's the most fun i've had on the computer in a decade