“No you MUST uninstall Brave, the company is too shady!” -someone using a phone made by a literal advertising company

Wikipedia seems to suggest it was an original term, first recorded use in 1909, and mentions nothing about alternative terms or controversy. I call BS

I use Youtube more than any other service. If you like video essays, documentaries, and other medium- and long-form content, it’s the only place on earth to get it. Cable television ditched intelligent content long ago. Nebula and Curiousity are okay, but most of the content that I couldn’t already get on Youtube has that shitty cable tv vibe.

The only downside with Youtube is it’s huge and the algorithm is iffy. It can take a long time to build up a library of subscriptions that provide high level content every day. But now that I have that, it’s basically my exclusive streaming platform. I watch 1hr of Netflix/HBO/whatever with my wife every night, and all the rest is history, cooking, science, etc. on Youtube.

Anyone that cries “free speech” when government isn’t involved at all is a dolt

There is absolutely no chance that this is the strategy lol

They simply weren’t turning a profit (or enough of one to satisfy shareholders), and had to look to cut unprofitable avenues (eg, Apollo doesn’t show ads). They came up with a number of users that they were willing to lose if it meant the remaining userbase was profitable. Who knows if they came in under or over that number in the end, but my suspicion is lemmy has cost them more than they thought. The protests reignited development of lemmy mobile apps, which was really the missing component in making lemmy competitive (and why Reddit deliberately only gave devs 30 days notice, otherwise we’d have Apollo-Lemmy already).

But to me, their actions align pretty well with a company preparing for an IPO. The age of “growth at all costs” is over, and they need to start demonstrating a healthy profit. I just won’t be any part of it lol

Then why close it to admins? Just make vote history public, period. And make it very clear that everyone can see it.

The biggest problem that I have with it currently is that the vast, vast majority of lemmy users, whether it continues to grow or not, will not know about it. And many of them will use usernames that are identifiable, thinking that as long as they don’t say anything controversial, they can’t get into hot water with their govt/church/family/whatever.

just be careful when upvoting your unicorn bukake fetishes if you’re embarrassed about it

Sorry but this is just trying to trivialize a very real issue. If this is ever going to be a place for serious discussion and not just memes, puns, and repetitive jokes, then we shouldn’t dismiss real privacy concerns by acting like anyone who has them is just embarrassed of their silly fetish.

The best thing that any of us can do by far is vote. Even moderately adhering to reddiquette (is there a lemmiquette?) really does improve the community.

Unfortunately on lemmy your vote history is accessible to any admin of any server in the federation. Really hope that’s changed sometime soon.

It’s more about ownership of a copyright than ownership of an actual item though. There are issues with our copyright system that could be addressed (DMCA should be launched into the sun), but overall it’s the lesser of two evils. A society without any copyright enforcement simply wouldn’t produce the kinds of outstanding media that we’re all used to. Movies today cost hundreds of millions to make, and without a sufficient profit motive, no investor would be willing to front that kind of cash. Even crowdfunding, which I actually feel is scammier than private investors, has never come close to raising the capital needed for a major film or TV show. The system only works so long as a critical mass of consumers are actually paying for most media.

Personally I’m fine with paying netflix for their content, with the understanding that I’m licensing its use on my television, not purchasing the work outright. I don’t see that as any kind of scam. I mean I still pirate too, but now that I’m at a point in life where I can afford to contribute, I try to. I have friends that are actors and writers and so I don’t mind paying to ensure a healthy ecosystem of content creators moving forward. But if you make it too difficult or inconvenient for me to access the media I want, then to the high seas I sail, and I’m fine with that too lol

You only need a server if you plan to serve the content in a sophisticated way (like Plex). If you just watch movies on your laptop then it’s as simple as downloading the files and opening them.

Unfortunately, getting into usenet is actually not as technically hard as it is practically hard. First, some things to know about usenet:

• You pay for access to a usenet server, which has incredible speeds and doesn’t rely on uploaders. There are many out there, and good ones are easy to find.
• Because it isn’t P2P like torrents, there’s no way for the studios to know who’s been downloading anything. Typically the most they can do is send a DMCA to the servers, who auto-comply. Because of this near-anonymity, a VPN usually isn’t used. The corporations would need to subpoena the server to get any of your info, and they’re usually deliberately hosted in privacy-friendly countries.
• Now the hard part: knowing where the files you want to download exist on that usenet server, because even a small TV episode is often divided into 50+ smaller files. This is where NZBs come in. NZBs are small files that tell your usenet downloader where to find all the parts that create the bigger file. The usenet server you pay for doesn’t provide this service for legal reasons.
• Therefore, you need to also subscribe to an NZB indexer, which is where you search for NZBs for shows, movies, games, etc. Some are one lifetime payment, some are recurring. Good ones usually only open their enrollment during very small windows, so it can be really tough to get into one. This is the biggest hurdle for most people. Even finding out which indexers are out there can be tough, as people generally don’t blab about them in open forums, because they’re the most piracy-adjacent and vulnerable to being shut down.

That said, once you have a usenet server to connect to, and an indexer to find what you want, then it’s as simple as downloading the NZB file with a program like Sabnzbd, which will feel very similar to a torrent client. It downloads the various parts and combines them, so what you end up with is openable by windows (either media or exe). Everyone starts this way, and most users are probably content stopping at this stage too.

From there, however, some people get really advanced with it, like the person above running it on a separate server. There’s software out there that automates TV and Movies downloads based on your preferences and which shows you subscribe to, same with music and even ebooks. Then there’s Plex, which you may already be familiar with and which allows you to use your laptop or whatever to stream your content to phones, chromecast, etc., as well as share your content with friends to stream (requires paid sub I believe). It can be a little daunting to set everything up, but you’re mostly just following guides because it’s the same setup for everyone, minus changes in server URLs, username/password, etc. And once it’s running, it really is beautiful. A show that I subscribe to that airs on say, Wednesdays 8-9pm, is available on my Plex by like 9:30 typically, without me having to lift a finger. I even get a notification on my phone that a new episode is available.

But to be able to transcode streams to multiple people in the house? Requires a somewhat beefy processor. And to keep your huge library of shows for years and year? Requires a lot of storage. Even more so on both counts if you want everything in 4K bluray quality. And it probably needs to be a dedicated machine–can’t be gaming and transcoding from the same rig. But boy is it addicting building up your own enormous streaming service for friends and families haha. I hope you can see now why some people would get carried away with it.

It’s actually entirely possible that the vast majority of the team there is pro-fediverse and Meta “wants” it to succeed. But the thing about corporations is they’re fluid entities and could turn anti-fediverse overnight for no reason other than it’s the best financial move now.

The only thing we have to ask ourselves is, at any point in the future will the best possible financial move for Meta be to begin sabotaging the fediverse? It almost seems like a certainty, doesn’t it?

Seriously I don’t understand all the mental gymnastics on an anonymous internet forum, just admit it was easy to steal and you didn’t feel like paying for it lol

People will feel more guilty about piracy than speeding, even though the latter kills thousands of people every year.

But also, are you absolutely sure it’s theft for me to walk into a Hertz and take a vehicle? Like if they’re not in the business of selling vehicles then surely it can’t be theft to take one…

Usenet is still my primary source for uh…discounted media. I’ve had it for so long now I couldn’t even imagine not using it