Theft of others’ creative works (and to an actor their voice is part of their creative work) has been going on via Big Tech for decades now. My first view of it was years ago when Google started stealing books it hadn’t purchased and wasn’t licensed and adding them to public spaces on the internet. I remember the big publishing houses and a lot of authors up in arms, but obviously they weren’t able to truly reverse any of that.

Back when I was still using Facebook, the only “solution” I found was to only use it on my laptop browser, and to make a browser bookmark for every friend, organization, whatever I wanted to follow. So, my family, a few work friends, some hobby organizations that had events, etc. I never bookmarked more than a few dozen. Then I put all those bookmarks into a folder.

Then when I wanted to check in on everyone, I would right-click “Open All Bookmarks” on that folder, and check everyone out one by one.

It was stupid, but it was the only way I could really see what was going on in everyone’s lives (that they were posting, anyway), without it all being hidden by the FB algo. After several months of this, I finally said the heck with it and just stopped using FB at all. Now I use text, emails, phone calls, RSS feeds, and the like to keep in touch. If one of these methods doesn’t work, then I figure the “friend”/whatever relationship isn’t real anyway.

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.

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.

Great idea. Thanks!

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.