Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: A tale of three customer service chatbots; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/11/12/sor…
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reshared this
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: A tale of three customer service chatbots; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/11/12/sor…
1/
reshared this
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •I'm on a tour with my new book, the international bestseller *Enshittification*!
Catch me next in #Lisbon, #Cardiff, #Oxford and #London!
Full schedule with dates and links at:
pluralistic.net/tour
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Pluralistic: Announcing the Enshittification tour (30 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
A tale of three customer service chatbots: Two were worse than useless, one betrayed its masters.
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11553521…
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Cory Doctorow
2025-11-12 06:05:42
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Hey look at this
* Byte - a visual archive byte.tsundoku.io/ (h/t Kottke)
* A more buttoned-up version of Garbage Day garbageday.email/p/a-more-butt…
* Meta’s AI Ambitions Appear to Be in a Tailspin gizmodo.com/metas-ai-ambitions…
* Book Deals: Week of November 10, 2025 publishersweekly.com/pw/by-top…
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Meta's AI Ambitions Appear to Be in a Tailspin
AJ Dellinger (Gizmodo)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#20yrsago Sony will stop shipping infectious CDs — too little, too late vaildaily.com/news/sony-halts-…
#15yrsago We Won’t Fly: national aviation opt-out day in protest of TSA porno scanner/genital grope “security” web.archive.org/web/2010111120…
#10yrsago Green tea doesn’t promote weight loss cochrane.org/evidence/CD008650…
#10yrsago The DoJ won’t let anyone in the Executive Branch read the CIA Torture Report techdirt.com/2015/11/11/doj-ha…
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Sony halts production of music CDs with copy-protection scheme
Ted Bridis (VailDaily.com)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#10yrsago House GOP defends the right of racist car-dealers to overcharge people of color mathbabe.org/2015/11/11/republ…
#10yrsago UK Snooper’s Charter “would put an invisible landmine under every security researcher” arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
#5yrsago Interactive UK covid omnishambles explorer pluralistic.net/2020/11/11/omn…
#1yrago General Strike 2028 pluralistic.net/2024/11/11/rip…
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The Snooper’s Charter would devastate computer security research in the UK
Ars Staff (Ars Technica)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Yesterday's threads: Theodora Goss's 'Letters From an Imaginary Country'; and more!; and more!
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11553065…
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Cory Doctorow
2025-11-11 10:43:52
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…
--
My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
us.macmillan.com/books/9780374…
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Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
craphound.com/shop/
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Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances:
* #Cardiff: Hay Festival After Hours, Nov 13
hayfestival.com/c-203-hay-fest…
* #Oxford: Enshittification and Extraction: The Internet Sucks Now with Tim Wu at Rawley House (Oxford Internet Institute), Nov 14
oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/event…
* #London: Enshittification with Sarah Wynn-Williams and Chris Morris, Nov 15
barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/…
* #London: Downstream IRL with Zack Polanski, Ash Sarkar, and Aaron Bastani (Novara Media), Nov 17
dice.fm/partner/tickets/event/…
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Hay Festival After Hours
Hay FestivalCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #London: Enshittification with Carole Cadwalladr (Frontline Club), Nov 18
eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-conversa…
* Virtual: Enshittification at the Internet Archive, Nov 21
eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-ens…
* Virtual: Enshittification with Vass Bednar (Vancouver Public Library), Nov 21
crowdcast.io/@bclibraries-pres…
* #Toronto: Jailbreaking Canada (OCAD U), Nov 27
ocadu.ca/events-and-exhibition…
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In Conversation: Enshittification
EventbriteCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #SanDiego: Enshittification at the Mission Hills Branch Library, Dec 1
libraryfoundationsd.org/events…
* #Seattle: Neuroscience, AI and Society (University of Washington), Dec 4
compneuro.washington.edu/news-…
* #Madison, CT: Enshittification at RJ Julia, Dec 8
rjjulia.com/event/2025-12-08/c…
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Cory Doctorow Talks Enshittification
libraryfoundationsd.orgCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Recent appearances:
* How to dis-Enshittify the world (Blood In the Machine)
bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-to…
* Reimagining Digital Public Infrastructure (Attention: Govern Or Be Governed)
youtube.com/watch?v=F8JuXDfDtB…
* Enshittification and How To Fight It (ILSR)
whoshallrule.com/p/enshittific…
* Big Tech’s “Enshittification” & Bill McKibben on Solar Hope for the Planet
writersvoice.net/2025/11/cory-…
* Enshittification and the Rot Economy with Ed Zitron (Clarion West)
youtube.com/watch?v=Tz71pIWbFy…
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Enshittification and How To Fight It: A Conversation with Cory Doctorow
Ron Knox (Who Shall Rule)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
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Pluralistic: A tale of three customer service chatbots (12 Nov 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
I'm on a tour with my new book, the international bestseller *Enshittification*!
Catch me next in #Lisbon, #Cardiff, #Oxford and #London!
Full schedule with dates and links at:
pluralistic.net/tour
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Pluralistic: Announcing the Enshittification tour (30 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netOggie
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
I just had an experience where I managed to fight past a chatbot at walmart last night, to be stone walled by it today- all to return an item that I was assured would have 'hassle free returns'.
I really should have known better, probably, but it was a good price and I gave in.
So I ordered a watch, 'return date of feb 2026'. I realized it wasn't going to work for me, and after being promised everything would be fine last night, from a human (I think), welp.
Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Calicoday
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
RiskyThinking
Unknown parent • • •Cavyherd
Unknown parent • • •@gjholmes
It's Yet Another Example of Sam Vimes Boots.
It's astonishing how often doing the right thing equals doing the profitable thing. Sara Taber has a good discussion of how this applies in farming. Unfortunately, that's apparently harder to show on the balance sheet you hand the venture capitalist. (And also takes more work & planning.)
youtube.com/watch?v=mHru7TweGb…
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