These are the two factors that make services terrible: captive users, and no constraints. If your users can't leave, and if you face no consequences for making them miserable (not solely their departure to a competitor, but also fines, criminal charges, worker revolts, and guerrilla warfare with interoperators), then you have the means, motive and opportunity to turn your service into a giant pile of shit.
I never used those "services",but I've noticed You Tube doing the same thing,from lowering video quality,to ordering people to turn off ad blockers and trying to restrict their use of the platform if they don't comply.
I'm one of those people who refuses to comply due to my unbridled hatred of ads.
Good Lord yes, but these big outfits seem to've worked out how to obtain unobtainable resources to match their growth. Mom and pop outfits not only lack the access capital to the internet, but also the kind of revenue stream newspapers used to get from their ad syndicates. There've been online ad services with discreet, postage-stamp ads that've supported outfits like Metafilter before. Being able to handle not just the traffic but also the necessary revenue plowback from getting Slashdotted probably helps, right?
I never used those "services",but I've noticed You Tube doing the same thing,from lowering video quality,to ordering people to turn off ad blockers and trying to restrict their use of the platform if they don't comply. I'm one of those people who refuses to comply due to my unbridled hatred of ads.
Good Lord yes, but these big outfits seem to've worked out how to obtain unobtainable resources to match their growth. Mom and pop outfits not only lack the access capital to the internet, but also the kind of revenue stream newspapers used to get from their ad syndicates. There've been online ad services with discreet, postage-stamp ads that've supported outfits like Metafilter before. Being able to handle not just the traffic but also the necessary revenue plowback from getting Slashdotted probably helps, right?