It is endlessly frustrating that companies have universally decided that they won’t let people say “no” to stuff, ever. There are no longer options to reject stupid-ass new “features”, only postponement until next time you open the app/website/program. They’ll continue pestering you for the rest of your life. I realize that my frustration may be a little over-zealous, but we deal with these interfaces dozens of times per day and this is user hostile behavior. There isn’t really an option to just use another service or program, since the entire technology landscape has been commandeered by a few major corporations, and they all enact the same shitty things as a group.
No, YouTube. NO. I will NEVER, EVER want YouTube Premium. Stop asking me about it every fucking time I watch a video.
Download LibreRube and PipePipe. No ads.
I switched to Nebula as most of the YouTubers I watched most are on there. NewPipe for the few that aren’t. Now I’m spending the time I used to waste watching YouTube contributing to openstreetmap.
I’ve considered getting nebula. Are you also able to comment, like or dislike? Are there custom playlists?
No comments, likes or dislikes or playlists. No recommendation algorithm, just a nice simple video streaming platform with no ads
You don’t want Shorts? Gotcha, we will remind you in 30 days.
I never even knew they suggest those with prompts. I use librewolf/Mull+uBO+yt enhancer for years so I guess it just filter those out. Also, you can convert short to regular videos so that’s cool too
You want to avoid shorts and the algorithm by automatically opening the subscriptions feed? Fuck you, here’s shorts in your subscriptions feed! proceeds to switch to RSS (That’s my journey with YouTube)
YouTube premium is probably the video streaming purchase I get the most use out of lol.
Same here. I always said “ain’t no way I’m ever paying for what used to be free!”
Fast forward to political ad season and some orange peckerhead keeps popping up… “Alright, here’s your damn money. Now let me watch this autistic guy unclog drains in peace.”
You’re only saying that because they forced you to buy it!
Actually I’ve had YouTube premium for a few years now and I love it! I use YouTube a lot, but I also then get YouTube Music which I also use A LOT because it’s actually a really good music service.
Music plus ad free YouTube? Video/music background playing? All worth the money to me, and I’m helping keep a service I enjoy alive as YouTube still isn’t profitable. Which also slows enshitification of another product I enjoy.
I want to help YouTube be profitable while I still like it, to
I tried the YouTube music service and I hated it. It would play the low quality BS that people uploaded instead of studio quality recordings from the bands. It also has way too many live versions of the songs. I also didn’t like the interface. My wife and I considered signing up for YouTube premium, but it costs as much as traditional cable. I might as well just get Comcast or something. At least then I could watch baseball without a VPN. But I’m glad you enjoy it.
Are you sure you haven’t gotten YouTube Premium mixed up with YouTube TV? The latter is priced like traditional cable because that’s basically what it is; premium is just YouTube with no ads, basic app features that shouldn’t be paywalled in the first place like downloading videos, and YT music thrown in.
The YouTube premium family plan (pairs with more accounts/devices) is a little more expensive at like $23 but I didn’t think that was cable tv expensive. All the full-package cable replacement services I know of are around $70-$90.
If they wouldn’t have that fucked up “same household”-policy for the family plan, I would be all over YouTube Premium. But for me alone it’s too expensive (I don’t use it THAT heavily) and I couldn’t share it with my family that lives in three different places.
Ah yes, I was thinking of YouTube TV.
Having all the live versions of some songs is the best part for me. I love live recordings.
I’m ashamed to report the same.
Because they irritate people into getting it. You wouldn’t have it if they didnt turn features off and increase ads until you wanted it.
Fuck google
I heard it’s one of the better ways to support YouTube creators. That’s why I got it.
I have adblockers and a pihole so ads weren’t that bad anyway.
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Use NextDNS and you can block everything except for ads that are served as content, like Facebook does.
Use portmaster and rethinkdns to use those filter lists no matter which DNS you choose (I use dnscrypt BTW)
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No he didn’t. Why are you libeling him?
Probably because of this. The commenter overstated the situation, but there are valid and serious criticisms to be made.
The commenter overstated the situation
Yeah, by a whole fucking lot.
So did the people making the initial accusations, which twisted RMS’s words past the breaking point of credibility.
For the record — since almost nobody seems to have bothered to read what he actually said, instead preferring to blindly believe the character assassins’ secondhand interpretation — the only thing RMS did “wrong” was failing to conform to the societal assumption that the teenager involved had zero agency just because she was young and should instead be treated exactly the same as if she were a small child. He didn’t even claim she did have agency; he just refused to discount the possibility out of hand.
In other words, he got cancelled for being too respectful and feminist toward her (along with using careful logic and not jumping to conclusions unsupported by facts just because the topic was taboo).
I mean, this is a guy who was inventing neopronouns before it was cool. He’s literally the most egalitarian-minded person I can think of, and is about as far from a male chauvinist as you can get!
Frankly, the whole situation reeks of wanting to weaken the Free Software Foundation and bend it towards corporate interests by discrediting the most prominent copyleft and users’ rights hard-liner. But I can’t prove that, so I’ll stop short of actually claiming it.
(I also won’t claim that the speed at which people were willing to believe the accusations at face value was due to their latent ableism and lack of understanding towards autistic people. Although RMS certainly acts autistic IMO, to my knowledge he’s never claimed to have been diagnosed with that condition.)
No he didn’t. He said some things that were blatantly misreported, and then he was crucified without anyone bothering to notice that he didn’t actually say what was accused of saying.
What app or tech is badgering you? I feel like with standard android and pop! OS I have zero complaints. Everything just works
This happens with YouTube, for example. Even though I pay for their premium, whenever I disable their shorts section they tell me “ok, we’ll hide it for 30 days”. How about you don’t show me your shorts ever again?
Use Firefox with adblocker then disable the YouTube app so it goes with Firefox as your default
Yeah that’s understandably frustrating. I heard they make like no money off of that. Wonder how long before it hits the killed by google list.
@PetrusHyde @Gnubyte the problem with these platforms is that you don’t have the control. You can only choose from the available options the platform owner give you
Use something like ReVanced, which has the ability to hide Shorts forever (or until YouTube changes their backend enough that you need to update your ReVanced install to continue blocking Shorts). ReVanced also has the ability to unlock certain Premium features for free, and it supports SponsorBlock, among many other things.
Paying for the ability to not be fucking spammed with scam ads was your first mistake
Lol for real
yt enhance u disable it 4ever
Companies like this are abusing you as a paying customer. I would use newpipe if you’re on android or if apple has any alternative to newpipe then use that otherwise use firefox with ublock.
I use piped.video for the dozen or so subscriptions I have. I don’t have an account, I once exported my subscriptions and when I erase browser history I upload that subscriptions file. All I want to see on YT is right there.
Discord has been hassling me about whatever name changes I read about. I only open it once or twice a month, so I’ve been able to delay taking whatever action so far. If I was in there on a regular basis, that’d be a big pain in the ass.
ETA: Oh, and the IMDB app keeps asking me to sign up for an account. I’ve been saying no for literally years.
Discord wants to move away from the #4-digit identifier system because it is an unnecessary hassle for users. The downside is that it means that a username must now be unique. That’s why they’re asking you.
I guess at one point they’ll just force change your username and you’ll have to stick with it or make a new acc.
Duolingo just did this to me yesterday. Pissed me off
Huh. I guess I mostly use foss stuff and maybe a few apps like youtube premium/tv, that I pay them for service so I never hear about it.
I’m learning Japanese with duoligo, I discovered that you can get the free trial for premium, cancel it when it reminds you your trial is almost up, and then 2 days later it offers you the free trial again.
My girlfriend kept complaining about losing her hearts on Duolingo and I was very confused as I never had any “hearts” during regular lessons. Eventually I found out that since I had created a classroom while exploring the site, I was given access to a teacher version of Duolingo - which is basically a free premium version 😅
Surprise LPT! I’ll have a poke around, see if I can do that too. I’ll report back. 🫡
it seems to be part of the general hostility corporations have toward, well, humans… like you say, developers seem to be pushing every limit they can to try to get in your face, or chain you to them for life, and they don’t seem to have a lot of incentive to back the fuck off… i am completely fed up with all of them… like you, i have a hostile attitude in return…
Bite the bullet. Move to slightly worse but non-abusive alternatives. Fund them with the portion of your budget that was previously coerced from you.
Microsoft: “Please use Edge!”
Me: “No thanks!”
Microsoft, 6 months later: “Please use Edge!”
Me: “No, thanks.”
Microsoft, when I visit Bing: “Please use Edge.”
Me: “No. Thanks.”
Microsoft, when I open Outlook: “We will be opening links in Edge instead of your default browser. To switch back, go to your preferences.”
Me: “Motherfucker, I think we have a difference in viewpoints.”
Yep, super annoying and you will get the same thing, but for Chrome, when hitting Google sites in Edge or Firefox.
I don’t think that you’re being overzealous. Far from that - even the phrasing rubs me the wrong way; it conveys "you’re something fooling itself that it has a choice. You don’t - you aren’t a rational human being, you’re a user. Do as you’re being ordered to. The continued pestering adds “You’ll be bossed around until you learn to obey.” to the insult.
On a lighter side I agree with Grouchy that you have options. I think that we should start giving those companies the middle finger. And frankly I think that we’re better off doing so for other reasons - the data vultures love this sort of “non-confrontational on surface, but bossy upon analysis” discourse.
the data vultures love this sort of “non-confrontational on surface, but bossy upon analysis” discourse.
We need a simple name for this, like we have for enshittification or shrinkflation.
Dark Pattern
It’s a subset of dark patterns.
Yes! It’s a dark pattern microagression.
Consumer manipulation?
Corporate badgering?
Hmmm… maybe something involving “false dichotomy”, “Sysyphus”, “pestering”, “options”, “forced politeness”, …
Illusion of choice.
Perhaps “donkey taming”? Donkeys are often associated with stupidity, but they’re actually rather smart… and stubborn, they don’t do what you want them to do unless you’re really insistent, and slowly lead them the way that you want. What those businesses are doing with users is the same.
Yes, the most egregious one that really grinds my gears is on the front page of YouTube, where it will show a shelf with YouTube shorts with an X top right. If you click it, it will hide the shelf and say “Okay, we’ll hide shorts for 30 days” which is something no body would ever mean by pressing that button and it’s such patronizing, insidious bullshit.
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever even been the the front page of YouTube.
It’s like Stack Overflow in that regard. Google just takes you to pages in it, and then you leave again.
Wow, you used to be able to just completely disable shorts in the settings.
YouTube Revanced is the way (Android). Just disable shorts or anything else you don’t like and live happily ever after.
Is it a little more finished now?
When the original vanced got stopped, I could never get the patcher for revanced to work on my phone, and it wasn’t even clear what the issue was. just a lot of errors and glitchy youtube.
I’ve just beeing using firefox with ublock, but its not very convenient.
If it’s not, NewPipe still works like a charm
Yes, I’ve had a better time with it since then. I also couldn’t get it to work initially but now I’ve used it on two phones and it works fine. The trick is to use a slightly older release of the YT apk.
From my experience, yes. The initial setup was kind of annoying, but it’s been almost entirely smooth sailing from there.
I freaking hate Shorts, and the persistence with which YouTube attempts to shove that crap down your throat is absolutely infuriating.
YouTube also recently made the thumbnails larger, which is also really bad as it makes it more difficult to see what videos are in your subscription feed (even moreso with all the shorts clogging it up).
Apparently it’s where the real money is. People doom-scrolling through an endless stream of crap.
TikTok makes tons of dollaroos with shorts, now Google wants a slice of the pie. “Me too, me too”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so annoying.
I’ve been watching shorts lately and now EVERYTHING is about shorts. I don’t ever get the little x anymore to remove the annoying fucking shelf anymore. Why does all this shit have to suck so much.
Same. I wish it wasn’t there.
At least it shows the shorts of the creators that you are subbed to.
I usually only watch the one on the front page if I can recognize them in the thumbnail or it actually seems interesting and never ever scroll them.My only gripe:
- Youtubers use shorts for the short sketches instead of actual short videos
- Only 60s long
- Vertical instead of horizontal
- Both rot my brain. :(
And you can’t see which ones are from your subscriptions and which ones aren’t, right!
Yup.
But if, I usually only watch the once I recognize. Those random brain rotting shorts are very noticeable from the ones I usually consume.
I hear your frustration, but there are other options. They won’t necessarily be the same, or perhaps equivalent in every way, but they do exist. You don’t have to use the same corporations over and over again.
Do you know of a music streaming service that isn’t Amazon, Apple, YouTube, or Spotify? Because I’ll check it out if you do. In my car I have a thumb drive with my entire lifelong music collection on it, but at work I can’t plug anything into my work computer and need something that is accessible through the internet. I can’t imagine not having music to listen to while coding, I’d eventually lose my mind.
I hear decent things about Deezer, never tried it myself though.
Since I just ranted about the family plan of YouTube: Deezer doesn’t enforce (or even demand) family members to be in the same household. So I have Deezer Family and share it with family members living in three different cities.
Deezer is pretty decent.
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Have you checked out Plex? Host your own steaming server … for years I used a 10yr old Mac Mini.
A streaming server that I can access from my work computer? Like on the web or something? I can’t install Plex on my work computer. I set Plex up about 6 years ago, but then I realized I could just stream my movies and songs onto my home theater system straight from a HDD, so I didn’t get very deep in the Plex configs before I stopped using it.
With Plex you can go to https://app.plex.tv from your work computer and steam from your browser. That said, if you can install software, Plexamp is a great way to listen to and rediscover your music.
Thank you! I’ll set it up this week.
Also have a look at Jellyfin, basically a libre replacement for Plex
I use Koel. https://koel.dev/
Install it at a host of your choice and access it in a web browser or with mobile apps.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Setup a self hosted media server, put your media on it, stream from that.
Actually, we do often have to use the same corporations over and over again. The choice to abstain or switch can often require more time, training, or money.
Even with suites like Adobe, the support for their programs from third parties is HUGE. That’s finally changing slowly, but it’s still typically easiest to stick with things like after effects and premier because it’s got massive community resource support. Templates can be a huge shortcut, and without the right options mane projects are made a lot more difficult and/or decreased in quality.
I’ve don’t think I’ve ever used an Adobe product. While they may be huge in specific fields, there are other options. Yes, extra time, training, and money will need to be used to move to alternatives, but what’s the other option? Continue giving Adobe money and support their monopoly? Be the change you want to see.
So what “other option” do I have to stop my kid’s ClassDojo app from badgering me to “upgrade” to “plus?”
Keep in mind that it’s the public school system that chose to use ClassDojo, not me.
And that’s only one out of about half a dozen shitty third-party services with shitty ToSs that the school system has tried to push on me in the last week!
There’s always options.
- Refuse to use the applications and consult with the school board with your concerns. Involve other parents and start a movement.
- Use a different local school system. Is there a local private school that’s better?
- Home schooling is another option.
I’m not saying any of those are easy options. In fact, you may have no good options today. But you don’t need to stay that way forever. Explore what options you could have next year, or the year after. What can you work toward?
At the end of the day, the more everybody gives in and allows the abuse to happen, the move it will be normalized and accepted. If you don’t like what is happening, then make changes in what you accept in your life.
Pester me and I’m done with you. I don’t care. App quits working because I didn’t upgrade it and your reason is “improvements”, goodbye.
I had a lot of that experience with an app called Postman before I switched to Insomnia.rest for software development. Same thing with twitter after musk bought it.
Postman
Someone’s developing a rest framework!
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Good! I wish this passive-aggressive shit was illegal.
Part of this is a symptom of support demands from users. There has been an expectation in software development historically, back from when software was always hideously expensive and limited to companies as users, that errors would be fixed by someone on demand ASAP. We’re all familiar with the IT guy “file a ticket first” signs on offices, or the idiot executive’s demands for a new computer because they filled theirs with malware somehow.
But now a lot of what software did is web-based and frequently free/freemium. But the customer’s expectations of having their issue fixed ASAP remains. Despite the internet being far from a standardised system of completely intercompatible components. So updates and fixes need to continually be deployed.
And that’s great for most people, until that expectation extends to the creation of new features, from management and end users alike. Then things start getting pumped out half-finished-at-best because you can just fix the MVP later, right?
We’re going to get to the backlog sometime… right? We don’t need to keep launching new features every quarter… right?
That is one of the things that was made worse by always on internet connections. It used to be that a game or program had to be perfect before it was released, because that was it, that was their one shot to get it right. Now they release things months before they’re actually ready and then act like it is a privilege to pay to be part of the beta team. Beta testers are supposed to get paid, not pay for their own service.
It’s maddening. Some of our users prefer Edge, so I don’t run anything that would remove it. So much M$ is a PITA. But hey, Patch Tuesday is tomorrow 😀
MS Edge, when I accidentally open it.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Sokath, his eyes uncovered.
It’s true
Obligatory mention: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil for those who want to completely* remove Edge, but are unable to do so by conventional means.
* Windows updates can and sometimes do reinstall Edge. The toolbox offers a tweak that can delay feature updates by two years and security updates by four days. That gives you time to review the changes and check whether they’ll reinstall this malware again. Alternatively, you could just re-run the tool after any feature update to uninstall Edge again.
Oh my God it’s such a pain in the ass. It spawns like 15 processes that don’t die when you close the browser window, and there’s no indication which is the master so you just have to kill them one by one until they all die. And the search bar that pops up on the desktop is such tacky 90s spamware… I’ve never liked Windows but since they launched 11 they’ve really become intolerable, even the w10 experience is being degraded by it.
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The only way to say “no” is to not give them the opportunity to ask the question to begin with.
