@Thcoudreau @johncarlosbaez Yes, it's called fast-track #Enshittification.

We saw the same thing with #Mozilla (#Firefox) recently.

I won't hold my breath, but chances are we'll also see #ensloppification of #arXiv soon.

@pluralistic

#Browsers are so frustrating. I've been trying to make myself use #Vivaldi. And it's fine. Truly, it's fine. I don't really like chromium based browsers. I haven't gotten past that. But again, it's fine.

Until I need to use it for a site that has many ads. Then it falls apart. Manifest v3 changes mean that even with #ublock, most of the garbage is there. Back to #Librewolf (or #Zen or other #Firefox based browsers) until #Mozilla #ensloppification renders them unusable.

So, with #Firefox becoming a slop browser, I think I can see where we're going. We are going to have 2 internets;

1 internet that is corporate, AI-filled, without privacy, browseable only with Chrome and Firefox;

1 internet that exists of stuff like the Fediverse, personal websites, and is usable with FF forks and older browsers.

These worlds will grow apart over time, and with the second category of browser, we will not be able to visit the corporate sphere anymore; the big platforms, online stores, maybe also things like WordPress sites, and notably, this will also include governmental sites and banking sites.

In the corporate browsers, we are always identified, logged, tracked. VPN and ad blockers will be banned. In short, government and corporations (which is becoming the same thing in the west, yay #neoliberalism ) will have full control here.

Most people will fall in line and reluctantly keep using the corporate browsers, while a smaller group will move to the "alternative internet" altogether, on which #enshittification and #ensloppification doesn't take place. (we're already here! yay!)

We end up being forced to use the corporate browser for some stuff that you can hardly get around - government, banking, contact with normies - not unlike how living without smartphone feels today.

So, just like it is living without a smartphone, I see us non-compliant people using some second device with the corporate browser, to manage that kind of stuff, while steering clear from it in daily life. (at most workplaces though, people will have no choice.)

These are my thoughts on which direction the internet seems to be going. At one hand, I wouldn't mind the internet splitting into two, so I can evade the corporate part.

But my problem lies with the part where we kinda can't get around having to go into the corporate sphere regularly, forced by majority culture as well as governments, which will be all too happy to have everyone nicely identifiable and compliant.

It can get really bad if the good part of the internet becomes outlawed, and that might well happen if we keep living under corporate/neolib/authoritarian governments. (talking about "the west" in general, not just the US)

#Internet #Privacy #Mozilla

I use the MS Outlook Android app for my email (not my first choice, but there are reasons). I have zero interest in its Copilot features, so I dug through the settings and found the one to disable them.

A few weeks later, the Copilot buttons reappeared, so I disabled them again.

Just now that dreaded Copilot icon appeared in the UI AGAIN. Managed to disable it yet again, but WTF Microsoft?! Take the hint!

#AI #ensloppification #enshittification

ATTN: apple iterm2 users. the update brings a default allowing "LLM" garbage.

Make sure to "correct" this...

#AI #ensloppification