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I have a new theory on the enshittification of information retrieval/proliferation of groomercord :marseydiscord:

I am probably not the first person to notice :marseynoooticer: this but I don't think I've seen anyone else talk about it in these terms before.

As we all know, the internet sucks compared to 10 years ago. Specifically, search engines and easily accessible information sources are much less useful than they were in the past. As many have pointed out (and as I like to bring up whenever relevant) a lot of the blame lies with SEOshit, and another sizeable chunk of the blame lies with the groomercordification of communities. :marseygroomer2:

:#marseydeadchat:

In case you've missed all of my own and others' rants on the topic, what I mean by groomercordification is the currentyear+9 tendency of online communities to use groomercord instead of a forum or subreddit or wiki for everything from community organization (meh) to information archiving (very, very bad).

:marseyminer#:

To use an example most of you incels should be able to relate to, take vidya gayme mods. A decade ago, developers of a mod would use either a legacy self-hosted forum, self-hosted wiki (usually in combination with a forum), or a dedicated subreddit to share general information with each other and with their users. Information such as installation instructions, community feature requests, compatibility details, current status of codecel efforts, details of codecel efforts (I believe the codecels call this "documentation"), et cetera.

:#marseybacktodiscord:

In CY+9, it is increasingly common for vidya mods to have no web presence other than a splash page referring you to their groomercord. Want installation instructions? Refer to groomercord. Want to request a feature? Refer to groomercord. Want extremely basic FAQ-tier tech support? Refer to groomercord. Want to know some details about the code in order to diagnose compatibility problems with other mods? Refer to groomercord. Want to ask other users an extremely basic question about the mod? Refer to groomercord.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1713829363250717.webp

This phenomenon has taken over all kinds of communities, but modding is an example where I've personally observed it multiple times over. A lot of the types of information I listed above are going to be frequently requested by users. In the old times, we had these things called "installation instructions" and "FAQs" on static web pages. The best thing about these static web pages was that they could be retrieved on demand, at any time, with no action required by anybody but the requestor, by entering keywords into a search engine. Similarly, we had these things called "forums" where you could check whether somebody had already asked the question you're about to ask by searching for it before asking.


Finally, my novel (to me) point: why are we backsliding to a state where basic information is gated behind a login wall and mandatory interaction with other people?

One more sidestep: chatbots.

:#marseysnappynraged:

Chatbots are an innovative way for companies to outsource their tech support to a computer/not have to pay for call centers. They're pretty good for 90% of tech support problems, since 90% of tech support problems can be solved by walking the tech-illiterate customer through the process of turning their device off and back on again. Having a robot do this instead of a person saves a looooot of money. More recently chatbots have taken on a new meaning as the most common frontend for AIs, probably because they're easy to interface with even if you're tech illiterate. Can you see where I'm going with this?

:marseyitsover#:

The groomercordification of everything, and especially of things that should not be groomercordified (anything that would traditionally be on a wiki), is just another result of the normie takeover of the internet. A loooooot of people (apparently the vast majority) strongly prefer to consume technical information in a conversation style versus reading a document, so the state of things has drifted towards enforced conversation-style information consumption. This has had horrible consequences for the general availability of information that should logically be retrievable on demand from a static source.

Yes, this is rather galaxybrained and obvious in hindsight.


Current hyperfixation: https://i.rdrama.net/images/17146091388618665.webp

63
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Late to the party :marseymasquerade: kid

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I had a feeling I was but I've never personally read anybody articulate it like this as far as I can remember

Edit: specifically the causality. The phenomenon itself is widely known and complained about.


Current hyperfixation: https://i.rdrama.net/images/17146091388618665.webp

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That's because you said the silent :marseymime: part, the part that was implicitly understood by those who care, out loud. Just like no one really :marseythinkorino2: expounds on cars replacing horses because we all implicitly understand why

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I am a little special sometimes :marseyspecial:


Current hyperfixation: https://i.rdrama.net/images/17146091388618665.webp

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NOOOOO YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ARGUE WITH ME FOR 60+ COMMENTS NOOOOOO

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When the options are between someone else being wrong and me being an r-slur, it's usually me being an r-slur (or both)


Current hyperfixation: https://i.rdrama.net/images/17146091388618665.webp

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