[jfengel]

Platforms decay in a lot of ways. Doctorow was describing a particular cycle, closely tied to a particular funding model. But even free platforms can decay -- look at the way individual Usenet groups would rise and fall.

Doctorow chose an arresting choice of word, and perhaps it's sad that it drags us further along the euphemism treadmill (or in this case, dysphemism treadmill). But "platform decay" really doesn't capture what he was getting at, either.