This. Though I left Netflix because the only way family was watching it was via Roku device, and in the last 6 months you had a 2 in 3 chance the Netflix app would lock up on it and none of the “fixes” (reinstall, clear cache, etc., etc., etc., … ) did anything to help.

Even worse, not only would the Netflix app lock itself up, it would lock up the entire Roku device so someone had to be dispatched to unplug, wait, replug the power on the Roku device to restart Roku.

We have so much on the Roku that actually works (Hulu, etc) - why pay monthly for such a crappy app? Family complained for about 2 days and then forgot Netflix even exists.

I don’t recall - I uninstalled it so fast I didn’t register the name. I was looking for a productivity app, so it was a planner or something. If I come across it again I will make a separate post for it so we can all grumble and wow.

I started having problems with freetube a few months back, as well. I switched to one of several piped instances (whichever one is working at any given time) in my browser.

I hate stuff like this, that thinks it’s being “cute”, or “cool”, or “clever”, or whatever as if the company and I have some sort of personal relationship and could just interact on this level. No, Ridiculous Company, you and I do not have any kind of relationship - and now we never will even try again for one, any time in the future. In fact, from now on every time I see your logo, I will remember your “cleverness” and imagine a room full of imposter marketers and imposter developers sitting in a plastic building full of foosball tables and needlessly-big vertical monitors being “clever” for each other while their stock goes further and further down the toilet.

Or is that just me?

At least they didn’t eat them…? 🤔

I see continued guaranteed employment for someone who needs a job. Can’t clean up after meatheads with AI - yet.

I installed a deb package this morning and started it up - only to face an ad for other software. It’s seeping in…

Buy less. Use less. Reward good pricing with your money. Spouse stopped buying favorite frozen sausages months ago because they went from $5 to $12. The other day noticed they are “on sale” for $5.25. Bought 2 and will continue buying them until they go back up. I’ve also started buying a lot of things on sale in bulk that will store awhile, so I can just walk by the ridiculous pricing until the next sale drops it again.

Since the receipt says the 18% “helps facilitate a higher living base wage for all our employees”, then that’s already the tip. So I would write the word “ZERO” on the tip line, and never return to that restaurant.

I’ve already stopped going to anywhere that:

1. Pulls stuff like this, or

2. Wants me to input a “tip” for fast food (which includes coffee shops - looking at you, Starbucks) and other places that don’t use the traditional waitstaff model for pampering and serving your table, or

3. Makes me input a tip up front before I get “service” or even product.

All of the above also means I’m eating a lot less garbagey and/or overpriced food-stuffs from restaurants these days. Better health. More money in my pocket. Higher quality food.

Currently paying for YouTube ad-free, Netflix ad-free, and Hulu ad-free.

YouTube’s algorithm seems intent on making me look elsewhere for content, as it suggests the same twenty things over and over again, despite the fact that I’ve watched half of them already and ignored the other half for months now. We only keep it because spouse wants it for YouTube music. Me? I’ve wandered off to piped and peertube, mostly.

The Netflix app locks up and crashes the Roku at least once every movie. It used to do this just now and again, but recently it’s so bad I don’t even load it anymore and spouse is THIS CLOSE to being talked into just cancelling it.

Hulu…? Well, it’s ok. I wish it still had a lot of the older stuff, as a lot of the newer stuff is just stupid and/or revolting. Because of the above, we’d probably keep this one and dump the others, based on price and what (mostly spouse) finds useful to watch.

I’m actually checking out other things. Like Hoopla through the local library, eBooks, real books (the local library is free). Spouse and I have also learned to play several different card games, and sometimes we actually interact with each other instead of alpha-wave mind-bending into the electronic hallucination machine on the other side of the living room. We’re also exploring more outdoor activities, like hiking, birding, nature walks, team sports, and so on.

Sometimes, a “bad” thing is just the right thing that needs to happen.

I have begun to believe that YouTube is trying its best to get me to never use it, ever again. Between the intrusive shorts, the algorithm that recommends the same exact things I’ve either already watched or haven’t watched for the last months despite them showing up all that time, and having to pay to get rid of ads only to live through sponsored ads that seem longer and longer all the time. On my PC I just use newpipe or piped.online, but the family Roku version of YouTube I watch hardly at all now.

So happy now that I’ve been too lazy to let my printer update anything for the last year.

I get a lot from searXNG. It’s gotten a lot better from when I tried it out years ago. Mojeek is getting better, as well.

So when I ate sand when I was a kid I was doing a good thing? Why didn’t someone tell Mrs. StrictFace, my kindergarten teacher?

Nnnnoooooooo! Don’t make Lemmy a top website! The more popular something is, the more vapid and full of spewers it becomes.

I hear this. I worked retail when I was a youngster, so I do my best to make retail workers’ jobs easier. That includes deliberately leaving my shopping carts in the parking lot cart stall outside after I use them. A few businesses have removed those now here so you “have to” return them to the building – so I instead leave my carts in the landscaping on the property (where they aren’t in the way of other cars but still have to be fetched). I figure:

1. It does give someone a nice mental break to be able to go outside and get some fresh air once in awhile while still on the clock.

2. It keeps someone employed. Stores here are replacing more and more checkout clerks with self-check machines, so a place that used to employ 20 people now needs maybe 4 or 5. So far they haven’t come up with that machine that will go fetch carts scattered over the parking lot.

I look forward to this implementation, as it will make it easier for me to see which sites are truly not worth visiting, and which sites are.

I’m surprised it’s not keyed all the days long.

Sites that won’t load unless I them ad-berserker over my web browser I just don’t visit anymore. Seriously. There are a million bazillion web pages out there. The internet managed just fine with people posting pages of relevant links to other similar or recommended other websites back in the Day when Google didn’t even exist yet (I had one myself) and other curated web search sites like https://curlie.org/en (and I contributed link suggestions to the ones like this back then). The only thing we can’t do today that we could back then is run BBS sites for each other off our home land lines. I’m not so worried.

Edit: typo

It did used to have great stuff. I first unsubbed years ago, and remain unsubbed until I forget what crap it became and resub - and then <DOH!> unsub again.