Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: A tale of three customer service chatbots; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/11/12/sor…
1/
Pluralistic: A tale of three customer service chatbots (12 Nov 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: A tale of three customer service chatbots (12 Nov 2025)Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)
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
2/
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…
3/
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…
4/
A more buttoned-up version of Garbage Day
Ryan Broderick (Garbage Day)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…
5/
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…
6/
Pluralistic: General Strike 2028 (11 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)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…
7/
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…
8/
Picks and Shovels
SupaduDev (Macmillan Publishers)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/
9/
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/…
10/
Downstream IRL, Aaron Bastani in conversation with Cory Doctorow Tickets | From £15 | 17 Nov @ EartH, London | DICE
DICECory 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…
11/
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…
12/
Neuroscience, AI, and Society
Computational Neuroscience CenterCory 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…
13/
Enshittification and the Rot Economy: A Deep Dives Conversation with Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron
Clarion West (YouTube)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!
Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2025/11/12/sor…
--
If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🫁". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!
--
You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0:
pluralistic.net/feed/
14/
Pluralistic: A tale of three customer service chatbots (12 Nov 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)Cory 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
eof/
Pluralistic: Announcing the Enshittification tour (30 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netSimon 🐮
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •> more careful not to help…if they can help it.
👀 I see what you did there
Oggie
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.
Oggie
in reply to Oggie • • •Sensitive content
Really I just wanted a smartwatch with a better battery life. That was the entire goal. But this one is the 'international edition' and doesn't work with my us phone carrier, and had a few other things. So after having it delivered (quickly!) I decided it's not for me, and tried to initiate a return.
20% restocking fee, assessment for damage, and must be done in person (before buying, this was 'just mail in to return it!').
That text is now gone, of course.
Oggie
in reply to Oggie • • •Sensitive content
Caveat Emptor, and when I thought maybe there was a resolution, I got woken up (who sends an email and a text before 8am?) with the news that not only was that not true, but now I have to return it in person a couple days after Cyber Monday (no more feb return date for me).
Then the chatbot refused to connect me, and a long phone call where I could hear a cubicle mate of my support guy far better than him, and I'm in a worse position.
My fault for participating.
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…
Good Farms Are Smart With Money
Farm to Taber (YouTube)