Modern Web Woes - I'm mad at the internet

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Is return YouTube dislike broken for anyone else? YouTube seems adamant on fucking the user experience recently.

I myself have been using freetube which sadly doesn't implement that feature, but it wouldn't surprise me honestly.

720p videos look lke 180p on youtube most of the time now and I fucking know it's not me "getting used to 4k/8k" because I've saved shit to my computer in the past and the playback and files on youtube are significantly crustier now than the copies of the same videos friends have downloaded a few years ago.

I did take a look at a random 720p60fps youtube video and it does seem a bit fuzzy unlike a locally saved 720p video I looked at.

 

[Toolbox]

I've seen a number of crazy "science" YT channels lately. A lot of "clickbait" stuff, like "NASA scientists make a terrifying discovery", "scientists prove the afterlife", "proof the pyramids weren't built by Egyptians", "here's why we never went back to the moon", "moon landing fake", "warp drive has just been invented", stuff such as that.

Examples are channels like "DB Business", "Future Space", and "Orbit".

Bot written and 'voiced' channels are dime a dozen now since the rise of enhanced ai chatbots, I'm sure the process to make this trash can practically be automated besides the thumbnails for some, and many are automating even that.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Bot written and 'voiced' channels are dime a dozen now

Bot-made videos, bot-made articles, bot-made responses to questions (like on Quora), bot-made calls...

 

[Stasi]

Are there any good blog search engines anymore? I'm kinda sick of searching for a topic, wanting to find other real people actually thinking about a given topic, and instead getting pages and pages of media articles shilling one barely related position or another.

Speaking of searching online, the YouTube search is completely fucking useless.

It frontloads the results with videos you already watched, even if they are barely related to what you are looking for. What's worse the search results will have blocked out sections with completely unrelated recommended videos or your subs. I'm searching for something specific, why the fuck are you showing me my subscriptions that I can very easily check myself on the subscription feed.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Like Twitter, Gmail dropped support of the non-JavaScript version. Now it's JavaScript-heavy thing.

I think the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't really apply in Current Year thinking.

 

[Susie Sumner]

Like Twitter, Gmail dropped support of the non-JavaScript version. Now it's JavaScript-heavy thing.

I think the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't really apply in Current Year thinking.

Not having a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality keeps their jobs longer.

 

[yydszmiteg2]

Like Twitter, Gmail dropped support of the non-JavaScript version. Now it's JavaScript-heavy thing.

I think the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't really apply in Current Year thinking.

There's a reason I use a mail client. webmail sucks.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Yup I'm locked out of my old Yahoo accounts because they all require other locked Yahoo acounts to access them.

I had a relative prevented from logging into their yahoo account because it was demanding a mobile number for recovery and they have neither a smartphone nor texting service. Thankfully, I found a workaround via a serendipitous web search, bu it sucks that smartphones are now an expectation for everyone... worse are those services that require both a smartphone and a bloated app for mundane activities that shouldn't need it.

Is return YouTube dislike broken for anyone else? YouTube seems adamant on fucking the user experience recently.

Last night, I had a couple of instances where YouTube paused my video and claimed I couldn't watch it with an adblocker active. While a refresh got rid of the warning and played the video uninterrupted, I fear the time is coming near where YouTube hardblocks anyone using an adblocker just out of spite.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I've seen a number of crazy "science" YT channels lately. A lot of "clickbait" stuff, like "NASA scientists make a terrifying discovery", "scientists prove the afterlife", "proof the pyramids weren't built by Egyptians", "here's why we never went back to the moon", "moon landing fake", "warp drive has just been invented", stuff such as that.

Examples are channels like "DB Business", "Future Space", and "Orbit".

Click bait in general seems to be on the rise. As are obnoxious videos nobody likes.

My parents are as boomer and normie as they come, and they hate it when cute dog videos have stupid stock voice clips, music, and emoji's over the top. I don't know who those videos are supposed to appeal to.

Related to that, videos that have had bars and text added so many times (converting for widescreen, to vertical phone, to twitter, back to widescreen) that the actual video is an unwatchable postage stamp.

Bot-made videos, bot-made articles, bot-made responses to questions (like on Quora), bot-made calls...

It blows my mind that "I got a phone call from a robot." is said with eye rolls and frustration, not with amazement and wonder.

I know Dead Internet Theory has been a thing for a while, but I do wonder if we're going to reach a point where telephone is rendered unusable due to spam.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I don't know who those videos are supposed to appeal to.

The "normies" of "Millennials" and "Zoomers"?

It blows my mind that "I got a phone call from a robot." is said with eye rolls and frustration, not with amazement and wonder.

A clear pre-9/11 memory I have from when I was a little kid was looking up at the sky through some windows, and imagining that in the 21st century, it would be like The Jetsons with flying cars. Past me would've thought robots would be like those in that show.

Instead the future this world got is some crappy cyberpunk dystopia with endless scam calls, "smartphone culture", "social media", "social revenge justice", "The New Normal", endless "Current Things", Our Democracy™, and suppression of "wrongthink" "fake news".

 

[SilentDuck]

A clear pre-9/11 memory I have from when I was a little kid was looking up at the sky through some windows, and imagining that in the 21st century, it would be like The Jetsons with flying cars. Past me would've thought robots would be like those in that show.

Instead the future this world got is some crappy cyberpunk dystopia with endless scam calls, "smartphone culture", "social media", "social revenge justice", "The New Normal", endless "Current Things", Our Democracy™, and suppression of "wrongthink" "fake news".

We got Cyberpunk but without any of the cool noir stuff... just that grim crushing corpo feel + 1984.

Turned out chilling with a 15" off-brand flickering CRT and a shitty PcChips quality computer in 1999 was way cooler and better feels than that 2020 feel with your pandemic hovel full of shizo rigs, bejewled in 4k with a quasi data center in the basement. You can touch the grass all you like but that won't change the way things are heading and you better wear your mask outside so you don't get arrested or attacked.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Like Twitter, Gmail dropped support of the non-JavaScript version.

update: There is still a non-JavaScript version, but it is harder to find.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html (should work when already logged in)

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

I'm MATI about clickbait on YouTube, specifically on Russian-speaking part of YouTube.
For whatever reason nothing attracts clickbait like the DIY/home repair/lifehack videos. It'll always be something like "EVERY HOME REPAIRMAN NEEDS TO KNOW THIS" or "NEVER THROW OUT USED <name of an object>". It wouldn't be as annoying if not for the fact that if I'm looking for specific DIY guides i'll get more of these clickbait videos than ones that actually cover my searched topic. I despise how pretentious the video titles always come off -- the author implies he's smarter and craftier than you and he's willing to show how clever he is, but ONLY if you bother to open his video without even knowing what the fuck it even is about.

Actually I think I do know what they're (always) about, it's literally just "I know something that you don't" and it works on people who have an inclination to FOMO (fear of missing out). The worst part is that this shit still works -- the videos end up with millions of views because the niggercattle are too dumb to realize they were tricked or to actually learn from their mistakes as not to get hooked on the same bait over and over.

 

[xn--mck1c]

It'll always be something like "EVERY HOME REPAIRMAN NEEDS TO KNOW THIS" or "NEVER THROW OUT USED <name of an object>"

Extension that replaces titles with crowd sourced ones.

https://github.com/ajayyy/DeArrow

Not sure how much contribution there is on the Russian side, but for large English channels it's a godsend since it often puts the name of the thing being reviewed into the title.

 

[Sperg Coalition]

Extension that replaces titles with crowd sourced ones.

https://github.com/ajayyy/DeArrow

Not sure how much contribution there is on the Russian side, but for large English channels it's a godsend since it often puts the name of the thing being reviewed into the title.

>Need to pay for a license key to use an open source extension.
Absolutely niggerlicious software, avoid.

 

[xn--mck1c]

>Need to pay for a license key to use an open source extension.
Absolutely niggerlicious software, avoid.

You literally don't need to pay.
If you don't want to pay the dollar:

However, if you cannot, or do not want to pay, click the button at the bottom to use DeArrow for free. No worries if you can't or don't want to pay
If you cannot, or do not want to pay, you can use DeArrow after waiting some time. You will not be able to use DeArrow right away, but instead will recieve free access (that lasts forever) up to 24 hours after installing.

plus

Try it out for an hour (No credit card required)

Just install it, try if it works and come back the next day?

If you really can't wait, the code to activate it is barely 1 line and should be obvious when looking at the code on Github.

I can kind of understand a 1 off wait period to nudge users for some money in this case, since the software relies on a backend to consolidate the crowdsourced data, so there's an actual monetary cost that grows as the userbase increases. Much better than resorting to ads or selling user data to cover costs.

 

[Sperg Coalition]

You literally don't need to pay.
If you don't want to pay the dollar:

plus


Just install it, try if it works and come back the next day?

If you really can't wait, the code to activate it is barely 1 line and should be obvious when looking at the code on Github.

I can kind of understand a 1 off wait period to nudge users for some money in this case, since the software relies on a backend to consolidate the crowdsourced data, so there's an actual monetary cost that grows as the userbase increases. Much better than resorting to ads or selling user data to cover costs.

Scrolled down and found out that you can effectively use it for free. I am now prepared for my puzzle pieces.

 

[Nitro!]

Scrolled down and found out that you can effectively use it for free. I am now prepared for my puzzle pieces.

Better hit me with those too, because "acktually it's free but I didn't tell you right away :^)" is niggerlicious without exemption.

 

[Overly Serious]

GDPR cookie requirements were a stupid implementation of an arguable idea. Overnight it went from me being able to block all cookies to continuous nagging and irritation if I didn't allow them. Okay, but recently I've noticed it getting worse in that in addition to all those regular "Purpose" boxes, there's often now a second column next to it for "Legitimate uses". So the number of boxes to untick has doubled. What is "Legitimate uses", vague and legally dubious loophole stuff to put the cookies on there anyway.

Oh, and while I'm ranting, the inability to find the source video on almost anything topical because it's drowned out by people playing the same thing but with them talking over it. It is forbidden to think, it is forbidden to form your own thoughts. All you may receive are the prepackaged thoughts and opinions on any matter.

 

[306h4Ge5eJUJ]

It is forbidden to think, it is forbidden to form your own thoughts. All you may receive are the prepackaged thoughts and opinions on any matter.

I find the (usually Tiktok-related) garbage that always has a big emoji on the screen - just in case you don't know what you're supposed to think - especially revolting.