I’ve been rocking it for a couple weeks now. So far it’s been great

I think there can be an intermediary step where things get a little better before they get much worse. I’m thinking of Youtube, which pre acquisiton, iirc, was getting slow and bad. Google infrastructure made it faster, but then, well…

This is really just the first step of enshitification - first they make things good for users, then introduce advertisers, then claw back all the value for themselves.

Or put another way

• "don’t worry you favourite thing will stay the same - we don’t want to mess with a winning formula!
• “these changes will benefit users!”
• “we have to comply with industry standards and best practices. please read our updated terms of service.”
• "in order to compete in a dynamic marketplace, we’re introducing an add supported tier!
• “we’ve made changes to our subscription model!”
• “we’ve made changes to our subscription model and we’re introducing adds on paid tiers! suck it!”
• “sure, you paid for it, but our agreements are expiring and we don’t value you as a human being!”
• “really, where else are you going to go? lololololol”

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I play a lot of boomer shooters, some of the more nostalgic ones give me that feeling.

But the cozy exploration, and childlike wonder of Sable are feelings I yearn for long after completing it. So far nothing else has scratched the itch.

It makes even less sense considering the pivot to an “original franchise.” If they’re cynically trying to print money, why not cash in on something with an established active fanbase? Seems like less of a risk.

I’d have bought a new Deus Ex game, regardless if it got badly reviewed. Not really interested in whatever they’re cooking up now. I’m sure most of us fans probably feel the same way.

And if you don’t mind hard games with a lot of dying. I died about 600 times on the first boss, no joke. But the game doesn’t make you wait between deaths, and they all felt fair. It’s the good kind of hard game.

there’s a conspiracy theory - use the fee as a way to normalize paying X for things and then pivot to paying through X for things until it’s the fascist super app of elon’s sweaty fever dreams.

i agree completely, and i’ve said it before, a small fee goes a long way to stopping spam and the bad kind of shitposting. It’s barrier that a lot of actors, good and bad, can climb, but they’ll be at least someone who can’t or won’t.

thing is, twitter has already eroded so much trust and relevance that i think for a lot of folks this might be the last straw. we’ll see - much like the reddit rebellion it’s hard to tell how many folks will actually quit from the noise alone.

For the fediverse i’m not certain at all. on the one hand many of us want the fediverse to grow and become more diverse. Fees are a barrier to entry. but i also agree, as you say, that mods and admins deserve something for their trouble - especially since their job is a lot harder on lemmy.

i hate to say, but maybe discord has it right? monetize cosmetics and stuff? i really don’t know. Disclosure i am nitro subscriber, mostly for the emoji.

Moving to a user supported service IS a good way to cut down on spam and wrest control from advertisers…

…IF you do it before you destroy all value, branding, community and cultural relevance

As so many others have said, this move at this point sounds like he’s trying to finally end this fiasco.