Marco ArmentJun 24, 2025

This is a core system app interrupting you, promoting a sale by a movie-ticketing company, to push you to go see the platform vendor’s new movie.

Why not just pop up random ads all the time, always creating new channels that everyone’s opted-into by default so you can never keep up with opting out of them all?

Oh wait, that’s already what happens.

Apple’s as bad as everyone else. They don’t respect their customers — we’re fodder.

They truly have no standards anymore.
https://mastodon.social/@caseyliss/114738626109660386

Show threadMarco Arment

I recently read this: https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

It’s long. Very long. And not every example is perfect.

And it’s also, broadly, very right about what tech has become.

Never Forgive Them

In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise. More

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At
Jun 24, 2025 at 2:15pmIvory for iOS
Show threadFreediverXJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment
I’ve been subscribed to that podcast for a while now. His takedown of Google Search was epic.
Show threadMikael HanssonJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment the irony when *that* article is covered by subscribe nags… 🙄
Show threadRichard SmithJun 24, 2025
@mikael @marcoarment That was the point I closed the tab, when I couldn’t see the content anymore.
Show threadMindaugas RudokasJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment Nowadays it’s no longer enough to rant for a couple of sentences. You need to write an entire rant book for people to notice.
Show threadJ-P TetiJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment I would love to see you all talk about this essay (and Ed’s perspective more generally) on ATP. This industry is in dire need of a reset and I am curious whether you all agree (sounds like you do), what you all think it would take, and how us nerds should or can respond.
Show threadBryan PowellJun 25, 2025
@jpteti @marcoarment I second this.
Show threadAnders HovmöllerJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment Matthew Hemming nailed it so long ago: http://matthewhemming.ca/cheeseburger_brown/stories/Two_Moments_of_Invention.html
Cheeseburger Brown: Two Moments of Invention

A science-fiction short story concerning privacy and networked lives by Chester Burton Brown.

Show threadChancerubbageJun 24, 2025

@marcoarment

It is over 12,000 words (and a handful of please subscribe pop-ups). It would take me 30 minutes to read probably.

But it’s unfortunate that the bit the link image reveals is ‘I’ve written 20,000 words this year….’

But, yes, from my tl,dr skimming to determine its length, I didn’t see a single point I did not agree with.

Show threadAlphacheezJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment Ironically, I got this automatic pop-over about a minute into reading this article:
Show threadrsgJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment what an irony that the page offers a newsletter at the beginning of the text, as a pop-up a short time of reading later, and then again as an insert a few paragraphs down. I stopped reading at that point…
Show threadtylercheungJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment Debian on all the things?
Show threadPatrick McConnellJun 24, 2025
@marcoarment that’s an awful lot of words to say capitalism is a cancer. Not incorrect but a slog of a read
Show threaddjoll Jun 24, 2025

@marcoarment his arguments are sound - but writing 12,000 not-very-polished words to make a point he could convey in 1,200 is just lazy & disrespectful.

He admonishes the hypothetical elitist reader for “suggesting they buy a $600 MB Air”, yet expects the same reader to wade through a waffling, self-indulgent novella so he may make his argument. 🤦‍♂️

Show threadJan RychterJun 25, 2025

@marcoarment I run a solo-founder B2B SaaS. I try *hard* to do the right thing. No ads, no tracking, no dark patterns, focused on user needs.

I don't think anybody cares.

I've yet to hear from a paying user that they chose my product because there was no tracking. I don't think it factors into any buying decisions and I don't think it influences my revenue numbers.

I run my business this way because I think it's right, not because it makes business sense. Non-enshittification is a hobby.

Show threadJan RychterJun 25, 2025
@marcoarment The fact that this article is posted on a site that shows no less than *five* "SUBSCRIBE!" ads, two of which are popups/popovers is somewhat ironic.