linktree was such a great utility in the beginning (I vividly remember people being *very* resistant when I'd try sending them to mine in 2016 lol)
... but oh my god...
just noticed that you can't even copy the actual destination urls from a linktree page anymore - if you try, you get a `tr.ee` shortlink to resolve, instead.
so what could have/should have been LEFT a very simple utility has metamorphosed into a company with two HUNDRED to five hundred employees(??? if LinkedIn is right) engaged to continue justifying whatever the fuck as their primary day-to-day purpose.
... because as far as I can tell, literally 0 actual *utility* has been added to the service since its very first version.
just some bs, and a WHOLE LOT of fucking users.
...that bit constituting the most dangerous aspect of this whole fairy tale: the amount of people who bascially rely on their (proprietary as fuck... somehow lol) Linktree page as their primary web landing page/homepage.
and how is this all going to end? it's all but a certain story by now, right... and what I will GUARANTEE you is [whatever,. whenever] happening reckons these people with the fact that it literally doesn't take any more than one idiot half an afternoon...
...to create a single webpage that is a list of titled hyperlinks...
...the story does NOT end with the functional persistence of these Linktree pages for any length of time.
as for the BILLION DOLLAR "Valuation"... you are all completely insane but perhaps you coulod valuate *my* proprietary entry into the space. davidblue.wtf/redirection
if indeed value is still calculated by cost/benefit - and if we accept 1 billion dolores as the current market value or whatever of Linktree - there's no way my redirection page and associated tools are worth less than like 100 billion dolars.
[reminder that this all started just because Instagram refused -... CONTINUES to - refuse the implementation of HYPERLINKS (literally a requisite to be described as an Internet thing).] theverge.com/21443811/social-media-bio-links-business-tiktok-instagram-influencers
oh yeah and I almost forgot... at the beginning of this year, they just fuckin gobbled up what could have/should have been THE most important link resolution utility of our time... smartcompany.com.au/finance/linktree-acquires-odesli-musicians-startup/
David Blue, Automotive Edition
@dieselgoth
Self-Described Software Historian and COMPAQ ride or die, Writing In Public, consulting from the bilge, and here to help. 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 Largely here because @NeoYokel - my 15-year-old account upon which I'd posted nearly every day, met many of my adult friends, etc., was suspended last summer and I'm trying to rescue my best ideas. (Sorry.)