Enshittification

[bb77]

@mwildam

Sure, we should all relax, be nice to each other and try to contribute where possible. But we shouldn’t be like sensitive plants either. I personally prefer it, when somebody tells me, if a feature is crap in a clear unmissleading manner.

Yeah, but that doesn’t automatically make it crap.

First, there are plenty of people who actually like the Waffle menu. Second, there are probably even more people who simply don’t care and adapt to the new workflow. And third, there are people who don’t particularly like either approach. For example, here: [UX] Apps in a sidebar

That said, I agree with you that criticism should absolutely be allowed. But it can also be nuanced and respectful. More importantly, we shouldn’t immediately assume bad faith or start throwing around terms like “enshittification” every time a decision doesn’t match our personal preferences.

If you personally don’t mind people coming to you, calling your work crap, then fair enough. But not everyone feels that way, and I don’t think expecting a basic level of respect for their work doesn’t make someone a “delicate plant.” As the French say, le ton fait la musique—the tone makes the music.

My main point, though, is that broad rants that lump ten unrelated issues together, even when they’re directed at the technical or design decisions themselves rather than at the people behind them, are rarely productive.

@mwildam

In my projects, whenever there are discussions if something should be this or that way, I see it as a) both ways are most likely wrong or b) when both variants make sense, both ways should be supported by a configuration option, as plugin or as customizing scripts.

Sure, in an ideal world there would always be options, configuration switches, or plugins. But as a developer, you know better than most that every additional option comes with additional maintenance costs.

I do agree with you, though: these days there’s a tendency to ship major changes too early and let them mature in production, with users effectively acting as the final testing ground. That’s become a bit of an unfortunate trend.

So my advice to users would be: stay one major release behind whenever you can. In practice, the latest “stable” Nextcloud release often feels more like a beta, at least during the first half of its release cycle.