Yeah Cory, like have you even considered regional variations? It's Endumpification in southern England, Enshiteification in the north (shortened from Enbagofshiteification), and Enseeyouseyoumassivejobbyification in Scotland.
Polish language has a couple of attempts here. One is "enszitifikacja," which is a straight cliche. The other one is "gównowacenie," which is a transaltion. But the best one is "gównia pochyła," which is a play on words with "równia pochyła" (slippery slope), where "slope" is tranformed into "shit." The rationale is that once you're on it, you just roll down, and there's no going back.
(I also saw "rozpierdoszana," but I don't even know how to explain it. :D)
You really have to have a high opinion of yourself to email an author with such low effort criticism. Why not just impotently whine on socials like a normal person?
I like that it is very translatable, at least in French. We already had emmerder (verb), emmerdeur-se (noun for a person), emmerdant (adjectif) emmerdement (noun for an event) and now emmerdification (noun for a deliberate process) is the perfect addition to the family. A very traditional and proper way to enrich our languages.
I completely agree with the email. "Enshittification" is a term I would have come up at the age of 14 during a period of heightened teenage angst, while still trying to sound far more intelligent than I would have been. It is completely unsuited to a problem this serious and ubiquitous. What's wrong with "platform decay" as listed on the @wikipedia article?
Well, why did you choose such a silly word as your central selling point? I must confess that it's the rebuilding which intrigues me far more than the business of things falling apart.
I remember reading and commenting on the essay where you first used the term #enshittification, on @medium back in November 2022. I doubt you or anyone else realized then how much it would catch on 🙂
at first I thought the inclusion of "shit" detracted from the seriousness and intellectual vigor of the theory, but now I see where-- given the reception of general population and experts alike--this word does quite the opposite.
- I immediately knew it was not corporate marketing jargon. - I immediately knew it was something negative. - I immediately knew it was something intense enough that I should probably be paying attention to it. - I did NOT immediately know what it referred to, and as such wanted to understand it.
I think the term is spot-on and important. That said, I have some squeaky clean people in my life where the conversation would flow so much more easily if we could use a G-rated term. With them, I will say "Crush ICE" not "Fuck ICE". So with them I guess I can also say, "a pretend upgrade that's actually a purposeful downgrade" rather than "enshittification."
The term is perfect, and its French translation "Merdification" sounds great! I even heard hosts and journalists on the very serious Radio-Canada use it on different occasions.
James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Troed Sångberg
in reply to James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺 • • •fwiw even the Swedish public media has gone with "förskitning" as the translation to use and it really rolls of the tongue here :D
@pluralistic
Krazov
in reply to Troed Sångberg • • •Polish language has a couple of attempts here. One is "enszitifikacja," which is a straight cliche. The other one is "gównowacenie," which is a transaltion. But the best one is "gównia pochyła," which is a play on words with "równia pochyła" (slippery slope), where "slope" is tranformed into "shit." The rationale is that once you're on it, you just roll down, and there's no going back.
(I also saw "rozpierdoszana," but I don't even know how to explain it. :D)
Workshopshed
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Charlie Stross
in reply to Sean Eric Fagan • • •𝐉𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫
in reply to Charlie Stross • • •Iwillyeah
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •he must just hate swearing.
Wait...
Leonid
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Farah
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •McPoops
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Manuèle Ducret
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •We already had emmerder (verb), emmerdeur-se (noun for a person), emmerdant (adjectif) emmerdement (noun for an event) and now emmerdification (noun for a deliberate process) is the perfect addition to the family.
A very traditional and proper way to enrich our languages.
M1ke
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DeanC
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in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •I remember reading and commenting on the essay where you first used the term #enshittification, on @medium back in November 2022. I doubt you or anyone else realized then how much it would catch on 🙂
doctorow.medium.com/social-qui…
Also, happy to see another @thunderbird user. Sadly, Mozilla is becoming enshittified as well.
jan 00rich
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Pat
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •JR Rickerson
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •When I first heard the word:
- I immediately knew it was not corporate marketing jargon.
- I immediately knew it was something negative.
- I immediately knew it was something intense enough that I should probably be paying attention to it.
- I did NOT immediately know what it referred to, and as such wanted to understand it.
Seems like a pretty effective choice to me. 🤷
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Andrew Orr
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in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Jens Finkhäuser
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •enshittification
dictionary.cambridge.orgPaul L
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •