[phantom_oracle]

The cycle of these SV companies is interesting. They start off with a bang and become "darlings" in the initial stages, then they reach mass-market appeal, attempt to monetize (some of them do so in the most unethical ways) and start to become loathed by the very people who touted them in the beginning.

Let's compile a list:

- Facebook

- Twitter

- LinkedIn

- Quora

- Medium

(You can add to it to see how far we go)

[la_barba]

I think you specifically mean web companies that take VC money, and not just "SV companies". If you take someone else's money they probably want it back.. with interest. The unethical monetization just reflects the fact that the general public rarely pays for quality web offerings.

[drngdds]

It's hard to actually make money as a free service on the internet without being evil and/or really annoying

[djflutt3rshy]

Yes, it'd be easier to compile a list of large free Internet services that aren't evil or annoying.

1. Wikipedia

2. Hacker News

3. Stack Exchange

4. Github and Gitlab

[xrayspec]

Disagree on Stack Exchange, I'm afraid. It's a vampire that has pushed the costs of its service down on unpaid contributors (esp members of open-source communities) and privatized the benefits. Similar to Medium, that's time & energy that those programmers could've spent enhancing the knowledge archives of their own open-source communities.

[medecau]

The Peter Thiel recipe from Zero to One

[CM30]

Every image/video/content hosting site seems to go through this process too. Look at the likes of Photobucket or Imageshack or Imgur or YouTube; they all started out with simple, clean interfaces and everyone liked them, then they became mass market, tried to monetise and were so obnoxious with it that everyone turned on them.

Then again, YouTube is basically an example of a company/site/service which does virtually everything wrong, but succeeds on pure network effect/inertia. The monetisation aspect is probably the least of their worries.

[mritchie712]

Does anyone really loathe LinkedIn? My inbox always has some spam, but it's by far the best way to get a quick summary of most peoples professional experience.

[baddox]

It took numerous attempts over several years for me to fully close my account and stop receiving their spam emails. During that time I certainly loathed them, and now, I rarely think about them at all. Occasionally I’ll click a link to someone’s LinkedIn profile if they have it set as their website on Twitter or something. I’ll see the ludicrous login-wall, chuckle to myself, and close the tab.

[markovbot]

Interesting, I was going to ask the opposite. Was LinkedIn ever really a darling? I thought it was dark patterns, stealing contact lists and sending spam since day 1.

Also, for the record, yes, someone actually loathes LinkedIn. They are a spam factory

[flurdy]

That may be due to my echo chamber but I got the feeling everyone I know loath Linkedin.

Partly due to their dark patterns, partly due to it attracts recruiters and therefore a lot more recruiter spam.

But only a quarter or a lot less of people I know stick to their guns and don't use Linkedin.

Most (me included), moan about it, but still, have a fairly updated profile on their site...

[kevin_thibedeau]

I loathe that lack of an account on an invasive, spammy tool is regarded as a valid reason to discard my application.

[stevewodil]

Yes.

[bluetidepro]

To add to the list:

- Instagram

- Pinterest

- most Google products

[filoleg]

Out of curiosity, what happened to Pinterest? I was never an active user, and the only thing I observed was the mainstream interest in it fall, so it got out of spotlight, but i dont remember anything bad actually happening that triggered it.

[bluetidepro]

A lot like Quora, I think a lot of people see their tactics as super hostile to users. Things like bait and switching to force you to sign up to see the content. Tons of spam on the site. I know a lot of people hate that they have just dumped so much trash into Google image results, again, forcing you to signup when you actually want to see the content. A lot of dark UX patterns like those seem to be the biggest complaint I've personally seen and experienced.