Well, this is forking intolerable.
#Firefox is officially #enshittified.
It turned on the horrid "sponsored shortcuts" and "sponsored stories" without me asking.
Those stories are the last dadgum thing I ever want to see. I don't want more news about USFASH.
Smeg #Mozilla. I hope Google bumps them off the money-nipple and they crash and burn.
I'm going to try #WaterFox and #LibreWolf again.
Douglas Floyd
in reply to R.L. Dane šµ • • •Shiri Bailem
in reply to R.L. Dane šµ • •@R.L. Dane šµ this isn't enshittification, it's keeping the lights on. Enshittification is when they've trapped you and are trying to maximize profits.
Everyone's always eager to shit on Mozilla when they're still the only ones even trying...
R.L. Dane šµ
in reply to Shiri Bailem • • •I understand the desire to keep the lights on and get out from under Google's thumb, but enshittification is when an org starts becoming user-hostile.
Forced ads are enshittification. That's where we're at with Mozilla. :(
Shiri Bailem
in reply to R.L. Dane šµ • •@R.L. Dane šµ it's not specifically user hostile, that's an aspect of it sure, but it's the process by which the hostility forms.
Also these definitely don't qualify as forced ads, just default ads. If there was no easy checkbox to turn them off then I'd be more inclined to agree.
Forced ads are ones you can't do anything about (officially at least).
Part of the reason I'm more inclined to also give them slack is if they start to really enshittify, or they start running out of funds... then Waterfox and Librewolf will go downhill fast too, because they're still relying on the work done with those funds.
R.L. Dane šµ
in reply to Shiri Bailem • • •I think I've given mozilla plenty of leeway for stupid behavior in the past, and I really don't want to move the goalposts on what defines the beginning of the process of enshittification, because I honestly think they're already there.
But I do agree with you that if Mozilla folds, the forks will immediately languish.
Shiri Bailem
in reply to R.L. Dane šµ • •@R.L. Dane šµ I don't think it's moving the goalpost outside the fact that people keep trying to move the goalpost on enshittification closer and dilute the meaning.
Enshittification was never has ads, it was "has trapped users and now starts removing features and actively making the thing worse for shareholder profit because people can't/won't leave".
Mozilla literally is incapable of enshittification at this time. They don't even have shareholder's to profit, let alone the fact that they haven't been removing or degrading features, just taking on profit streams that they even let you control.
I get defensive about it because (a) I hate when people dilute and devalue helpful concepts because they just want to throw them around everywhere and (b) every time Mozilla does pretty much anything they get attacked as if they're forcing stuff on people despite the fact that they're always including controls to turn things off.
Like they were attacked when they added support for DRM plugins (people forget the days when you had to install Microsoft Silverlight to be able to use Netflix...), they were attacked for working to add entirely offline AI tools to generate image descriptions for screenreaders when none were available... and here you're attacking them for the mildest and least offensive of ads that you can readily turn off.