Looks like it’s time to cancel prime
this was the last straw? it wasn’t workers peeing in bottles, or businesses being displaced to build warehouses, or tax avoidance, or sweat shop wages for international workers?
to the trolls below, I’m a full time activist, you’re just keyboard warriors
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Please lord, don’t let chat bubble strawmen be the rest of my life. Amen.
It’s far easier to just not use Amazon than it is to not own a phone or computer.
Yes, it sucks there are no good options to buy an “ethical” phone, but phones are basically a necessity. Instead of shopping from Amazon you can shop from tons of other places.
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Yeah, I try to buy stuff from brick and mortar stores. I figure that even if it’s a big box store at least there are actual employees working there who live in my area.
But I can’t even find the kind of underwear I like at any physical store near me. Even online, Amazon seems to be the only place that stocks it.
The same goes for the style of jacket that I prefer. I’ve spent months looking everywhere, and the only place where I’ve found even an approximation of what I want is Amazon.
I’ve noticed that even in big box stores nowadays the selection is pretty limited. You’ll see a wall of racks full of the same item. I don’t know if it’s supply chain issues or if they’ve just decided that it’s not worth the trouble of trying to stock a variety of items that only appeal to a relatively small number of people.
I went to Home Depot store looking for some (admittedly kinda weird) hardware and after browsing around for a while the store associate told me to buy it on Amazon.
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Oh god. You’re one of those people who act like raising kids wasn’t possible without all the modern luxuries. You’d have failed as a parent 30 years ago.
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Because the idea that kids are so difficult to raise without next day delivery is a pathetic thing to imply.
That is all.
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there are no good options to buy an “ethical” phone
Actually there are. Look up Fairphone and Shiftphone
As someone who recently tried the Fairphone 4 out to replace an absolutely dying OnePlus 5 I’ve had for years as well as the guy who uses open source everything/advocates for the same - It’s not a mainstream option at all yet. If they could decouple the software from the hardware better maybe people would be willing to deal with the bugs but eOS and Lineage, while awesome projects I support, don’t play with many “secure” apps at all due to how Google decided to lock them down and that alone is a deal breaker for anyone working where you need access to say…Outlook. Banking apps can have issues (depending on the bank) which while maybe easy to work around for you and I is a huge pain in the ass for most folks who just want their phone to work. Having to jump through hoops to get the Play store on there in the first place is not going to work for anyone who isn’t fully committed to the de-Googled experience. F-Droid is the first thing I install on a new phone but there’s no way it’s going to be my only portal to apps I need.
They are certainly meeting their own set goals, and the hardware while bulky doesn’t feel cheap or anything, so that’s great. I really love how easy it would be to replace most of the phone if/when broken, and the commitment to fair labor practices and control of the supply chain is tremendously commendable. But for a tool most humans rely on for day to day life, the honest truth is neither project is quite there yet to be adopted in the mainstream.
If it sounds like I’m shitting on either of these companies that isn’t my intent at all. I’m following the progress with FP5 and really look forward to seeing the ideas set here grow if they can.
That’s a bummer. Hope they manage to iron out those issues because I was planning on getting one when my Samsung dies.
I mean… get one and try it out! They have a fair return policy.
If it sounds like I’m shitting on either of these companies
It does. The style of your argument makes the situation more complicated. No one said mainstream. From the sound of what you’re saying, monopolistic companies hindering compatibility will keep it that way. Apps will have bugs that need to be worked out, that’s just a given. Stating don’t get it because it’s not viable atm just makes this cyclical since there will be no consumer push to work the kinks out or let people learn about alternatives.
I never said don’t get it, I was replying about viable alternatives. It’s just not for the majority of the market right now. It sucks, and I’d buy some future Fairphone or equivalent in a heartbeat once I can actually use it as my daily driver phone and not need to carry a second one for business use.
I think his point is it’s a big ask to ask people to deal with buggy/less feature-rich hardware for a product they use - arguably depend on - every day. It’s a valid point bring up.
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ah yes, the contrarian absolutist here. i don’t wear brands unless they’re second hand, i use the cheapest electronics to suit my needs & use them til they break or can’t be repaired. i make an EFFORT to reduce consumption & about large corporations when i can, what the fuck are you doing to help?
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it’s common sense that Amazon is destroying the economy, but keep licking bezos’ butt
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It’s very easy to not order anything off Amazon
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You’re not wrong but on the other hand if you only have morals if it’s easy then I’d say your morals ain’t worth shit
Apparently Americans would die if not for uber and amazon.
The number of people who think they’ve ordered food delivery “from” a local restaurant, not realizing it was actually made in an UberEats\DoorDash all-in-one “ghost kitchen” located in a nondescript building nearby, vastly exceeds the number of people who’ve heard the term “ghost kitchen”. One of the most well-known local pizza shop’s deliveries, actually come from ghost kitchens, here.
Get bent. You moralizing keyboard pseudo-activitist.
Why aren’t you out right now on a picket line? Why are you wasting time on a forum, instead of helping the homeless? Why aren’t you…
How far are you willing to take your arbitrary purity tests? Instead of supporting someone who is intending to support an action you clearly also support e.g. cancelling Prime, you’re lecturing them why they should have done it sooner. Or why their choice is less moral then yours.
I bet that if Ted Cruz came out tomorrow to be the deciding vote on Medicare For All, and publicly stating his intent to do so, you’d scream about how Dems shouldn’t support any bill that has the support of such a scumbag. Because to you, the purity test is more important than the actual result and impact.
And if you’re not American, then insert whatever relevant politician and issue would be comparable to your county. The point still stands.
This is the best reply to some smug fart-sniffing “oh THAT’s why you etc etc but WHY NOT OTHER THINGS?!” bullshit I’ve ever read.
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I’m a full time activist actually lol, ive been protesting with picket signs for years around the country , how about you?
I travel the country doing woke anti-racist training in blue states, and based anti-reverse racism training in red states.
Their points are still valid, being smug doesn’t erase that. And your being an aggressive cunt about it doesn’t further the conversation, it just entrenches people.
So being a smug self-important douche doesn’t entrench people, but calling out their smugness in a manner that you deem too aggressive does?
Got it.
Pretty sure I recognized their smugness, but sure i f you want you’re both divisive.
Learn from it or don’t.
You’re an internet poet. I want you there whenever I read these bullshit grandstanding keyboard activist posts.
Just shut the fuck up and keep giving shitty corporations your money.
Glancing at your comment history makes it pretty obvious that typing out angry comments is the only respite you have from a life where you feel worthless and lack the ability to take control enough to get out of your pit of despair.
Normally, I’d take pity, but I genuinely think the world will get slightly better when you finally stroke out while hammering out yet another mean spirited and pointless comment that adds nothing of value, just like you.
Damn. Delicious.
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Have fun purchasing ethical power, food, textiles and electronics unless you’re already rich working at a non fortune-500 company lol.
Fortune 500 employees are some of the worst paid and most exploited. See Amazon, Walmart, etc. Even at the white collar level they get paid shit. The old “work for a Fortune 100” bit hasn’t been relevant since the dot-com boom.
Top level Devs at Amazon get paid 1m a year, plus stock options
Top level devs at Amazon would get paid that anywhere. They aren’t competing for a spot at Amazon, Amazon is competing for them.
That kind of undermines your original comment…?
How? People used to dream of working for a Fortune 100 company because landing one of those coveted jobs was a way to secure a well paying job with a nice pension. Those days are gone. Now you either make yourself priceless so that everyone is competing for your skills, or you work for a small firm that values your existence and sees you as part of the team. In a large company, with very few exceptions, you are just a disposable cog in the machine.
For context, I know a lot of developers that worked for Amazon. They all left. The mythological $1M devs are paid that to make sure the competition doesn’t have them. They aren’t employees, they are IP.
Did you just tell him to learn2code? 😆
i already do actually, been vegan for years, how about you?
Very nice! I try to be as green as possible. Being poor contributes to that more than anything else lol.
Can’t even remember the last time I’ve had a classic slab of red meat that wasn’t ground already lol. Chicken is so much cheaper. I’m happy to report that dairy will be carbon neutral in the USA by 2050 too. Not separating calves from mom is becoming more and more popular too!
Those all impact others. Nobody gives a shit about others. This impacts them, which is the only thing that matters to pretty much everyone. Look out for #1.
It was those things for me, I cancelled Prime years ago and never buy from Amazon (I will browse however and reach out to the seller via their own website)
Yeah, not sure how it took this to get people to finally cancel.
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“All Of My Awesome Pirated Media To Keep Being Great Quality, Ad-Free, and Forever Accessible”
Just do it.
With Netflix already having ads we are now 75% of the way to “cutting the cord” going back to reinventing cable again.
And that’s why people started sailing the high seas again.
My NAS is my best friend.
I had to upgrade mine probably 2 years ago now. I had nearly maxed out the 12TB I had. Now I have almost 30TB and some breathing room. Granted a lot of that is non-movies/TV but a good chunk of it is.
I’d be interested in building one… what do you recommend ?
I have an Asustor Drivestor 2 and a 4tb Seagate NAS HDD. IIRC, it was around $300 total. I’ve only been using it for a few months, but it’s an easily expandable setup if you want to add more storage later!
Arrrrrr! RD be the GOAT.
Fr. Stremio is everything.
Ha, I never stopped.
https://youtu.be/Th6PW5VwDFI?si=EvzuXbkiQGoeTW3C
Honestly everytime I have to feel proud for sailing I dance like an idiot while the magnet links are being being pasted on the real debrid
Indeed.
- Ad-blocking (before anything online)
- DHT crawler, or index sites if DHT has too many results
- right-click/long-press on magnet URL
- copy link
- paste magnet link
- remove tracker URLs (not needed)
- go
- enjoy
Hm, 8 steps, is one more than the 7 stages of grief; but I’ll take this over yet-another subscription service that continually degrades in quality for the dollar.
What is a DHT crawler?
if it was still just netflix, and everybody didn’t have their own streaming service, that would be different.
but when you add up netflix, prime, disney, paramount, peacock, max, and whatever else, the wallet definitely says it’s just like cable.
do one at a time and rotate, maybe have one you ‘always’ have. you can’t watch 10 different services at once anyway.
Or just download what you want and say “fuck ‘em”
“Again”?
I’ve still been out here since Napster. Welcome back aboard, we kept the torrents warm for you.
I like something I saw on here awhile ago that was something like " streaming services where only successful because they where slightly more convenient that pirating " for a while I mostly used a couple of streaming services despite most of the apps having really bad interfaces . But my Plex server has been growing in size lately while the streaming services are being cancelled.
My breaking point for paying for something that I could otherwise get for free is convenience. Doesn’t even need to be a lot, I just refuse to pay for a product that artificially more of a hassle than the identical product that I can obtain for free.
It’s not so much that I want a superior product, it’s that I refuse to pay money for an inferior alternative.
My line is ads if I’m paying for something I’m not watching ads . I actually pay for YouTube premium because it’s worth it in my opinion for the amount I use for it and I use YouTube music alot too .
As someone who doesn’t sail the high seas, I thank you. Sometimes it looks like there won’t be any classic media left without your efforts.
What are the cool kids using these days?
Seedboxes. Download the torrent on someone else’s computer, and then directly download it to yours through an encrypted connection. Sorta like a “money-laundering” for pirated content.
Honestly still just using Qbittorrent with a VPN; it’s a dream now that fibre is pretty ubiquitous. Mine hit 100MB/S yesterday, a 1.4Gb file takes about 10 seconds
Qbit+VPN to grab, radarr/sonarr to catalogue, overseerr to request, and plex/jellyfin to watch.
I was using torrents for years before I started messing with Usenet. Now I’ve got it set up it’s easy to grab pretty much anything and at higher quality than before.
Some of us never stopped sailing the high seas matey. Yarrrrr!
@OldWoodFrame @ZeroCool yeah I will never, Comcast/Xfinity are total scum bags and I would pay extra to never give them money ever again. Unfortunately I am forced to use them for Internet, there’s no way I’m paying for their cable TV programming.
The internet has gotten 3x shittier in the last 12 months.
There’s a reason for it, people don’t push back enough. We all need to push back more than we have been.
They’re noticing the pushback so far, but they’re thinking they can break through it and come out victorious on the other side.
Do you really want to pay a monthly fee to be forced to watch commercials?
The whole point of commercials was that you didn’t have to pay otherwise to watch the show.
I’ve cancelled everything in my life that requires a monthly payment (asides vehicle and rent).
It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s that I’m fucking sick of it.
^ This. 💯
It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s that I’m fucking sick of it.
And that’s how they win, it’s what they count on. It’s a death by a thousand cuts for us and more profits for them.
Don’t give up now, you won’t just fail yourself, you’ll fail everyone, if you do.
Apparently this is how cable started, and then they did the same thing lol
That was in back before the Internet though.
The internet was invented in the 60s
I know, I was there. But I’m talking about when it was used by the larger general public, which was in the 90’s. Before that, it was people dialing up on modems to BBS’.
Eternal September is real. It’s sad
Eternal September is real.
Partly, this is because “the free market will solve it” is just a neoliberal lie. Sometimes, there’s simply no other choice as corporations race each other to the bottom.
So this streaming service might have gotten shitty, espensive or unethical, but you can move to another right? Oh no, looks like they’re shitty and unethical too, just slightly differently.
Then in six months time, they’ve each absorbed one another’s shitty, greedy practises anyway, ensuring consumers are fully exploited with nowhere else to go.
But the true power of neoliberalism lies in its giant book of premade excuses, so neoliberals (or neoliberals in disguise) will of course read from the next page:
“Oh that’s just because there isn’t enough competition. We just need to deregulate heavily and allow companies to do whatever the streaming equivalent of dumping toxic by-products in the river is!”
But of course, that won’t ever come true either. The companies that already exist will grow more profitable polluting the river and new entries into the market will be either stamped out, bought and stripped for parts or enshittified by the same greed over time.
Following the flowchart taught at exclusive, expensive schools the world over, the next excuse is to blame the consumers.
“Oh if people really cared, they’d simply stop buying things entirely. But they don’t, because these companies continue to bring in record profits. So secretly, consumers actually love their chocolate being picked by child slaves”.
While they do fight back with boycotts, public outcry and (in this case) things like password sharing and piracy, it’s nothing companies can’t crush if it looks like it might actually dent their profits.
At some point, consumers need to pick their misery and the choices are bleak but obvious.
They can accept the minor misery of advertising, even as they pay a subscription, just like the corporation knew they would.
They can escalate their own misery further by boycotting the entire platform or industry.
But the moral high ground doesn’t make spending your few hours of personal time each day staring at the wall suddenly as entertaining as whatever content you’re no longer watching.
Also, the company doesn’t care. That was part of their calculations and they’re still making even more money.
Or finally, they could maximise their misery and actually do something, like busting out the guillotines or becoming a politician that opposes neoliberalism yet is somehow allowed power.
So anyway, people are tired. The fight never ends and some people have fought it for 50 years already. Encourage them to take the third option by all means, but don’t shame them for taking the first option.
They might already be miserable enough.
And the thing is, the product everyone’s got their butts in a bunch over is garbage television. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Maytag Plus, there’s nothing good on any of them.
[very verbose initial response]
Honestly don’t mean this as an insult, but you might want to consider being more concise, so that your point comes across better.
So anyway, people are tired. The fight never ends and some people have fought it for 50 years already. Encourage them to take the third option by all means, but don’t shame them for taking the first option.
I’m not purposely trying to shame people, but I’ll definitely get on their cases if they don’t push back and let this crap continue.
It’s called consumer advocacy, and it shouldn’t be shamed away and not done. Those who are causing the problems in society would benefit the most if this happened.
If we all work together, it’s been proven that it does turn things around.
They might already be miserable enough.
It’s not my fault they’re that way, it’s the fault of the people making society horrible so they can selfishly make more money for themselves, which must be fought against.
The ones making Society horrible definitely win when no one pushes back.
Honestly don’t mean this as an insult, but you might want to consider being more concise, so that your point comes across better.
I’m cool with ranting. I enjoy the act of writing, blogs are long dead and it’s important to articulate why so many things in the world are fucking shit.
If we all work together, it’s been proven that it does turn things around
When?
The ones making Society horrible definitely win when no one pushes back.
They also win when people do push back, because thats how the game has been rigged. The extent of the public’s power is making them win slightly less.
The only way to stop companies doing unethical things is strict regulations, ruthlessly enforced. The only times “consumer advocacy” ever works is when the government steps in, which is why the ultra wealthy go to so much effort to ensure they never do.
One good person in politics, with power, is worth a million people boycotting.
If we all work together, it’s been proven that it does turn things around
When?
Unions.
They also win when people do push back, because thats how the game has been rigged.
Strawman.
The only way to stop companies doing unethical things is strict regulations, ruthlessly enforced.
Its the most important way, but not the only way.
One good person in politics, with power, is worth a million people boycotting.
Definately agree with this. But its not a zero sum gain, an either/or. Both can happen, and increase the odds of success.
the money is drying up, gotta find new ways to monetise
All these services turning into shit, are the services without a viable business model to begin with. What I find interesting is that it is obviously possible to become leading in a field, just by burning investors money.
It wouldn’t matter if they were drowning in money, if you told them they could have a few pennies more from each customer, they’ll do it. It’s how greed works.
Covid kindness is over. Buckle up buckaroos.
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We have shrinkflation and now adflation.
$2.99/mo. + $14.99/mo. Prime subscription = $17.98 totes.
🤮
Price gouging and corporate greed basically.
Ahoy 🏴☠️
Arrr me matey
The pendulum is swinging back towards the monopoly model that destroyed cable. Time to dust off the old Jolly Roger and teach streaming an old lesson of what happens when you price gouge people.
I keep saying, we already fought this war, we already won.
Fuck around and find out 🏴☠️
People were obviously pissed off at cable’s fragmented model, but what killed it was the existence of video on demand services over the internet. The fact that at a certain point Netflix had everything certainly helped in adoption, but the biggest factor was not having to view at a specific time.
There is no such killer improvement on the horizon. All there is is the fragmented streaming market, or piracy.
Those on demand services arose to plug the hole of piracy.
Yarr, the killer improvement was here all along!
I’m baffled by the unrealistic demand for constant infinite growth from corporate shareholders and management. Those days are numbered.
It’s basically one massive Tragedy Of The Commons (if one is being nice, Ponzi Scheme if one is not being nice) were “somebody else” is supposed to pay people good salaries and “somebody else” is supposed to pay the taxes that support the whole damn structure in which these people are getting rich and get to keep their riches and “somebody else” is supposed to “buy my shares” at a higher price.
Everybody expects “somebody else” to take on the costs of keeping the system going all the while cashing in on all the things only possible thanks to that very same system they contribute into the minimum they can get away with.
It makes all sense for a single economic actor to act in a purelly extractive way when all others have a more balanced economic posture, but the problem is that over the last 4 decades ever more of the economic activity has passed into the hands of such people and now most of it is done like that (which is why “rent seeking” is so common) and the rest of the economic actors (the ones who produce rather than extract) can’t keep up anymore, hence why we’ve reached a point were the broadening of both financial empoverishment and fall in quality of life - i.e. the things that can be purchased with the dwindling money most people earn are themselves getting worse) has become very visible and even painful for many.
Tell me you just woke up from a 50 year coma without telling me you just woke up from a 50 year coma
Indeed, but no one knows what that number is. Corporations are currently of the mindset of “that will happen in the distant future, so we can keep going.” Of course, eventually, that distant future will become the present and things will collapse, but they’ll keep saying it’s in the future until then.
The corporate enshittification of once decent products and services continues unabated. Amazons decision to charge for UPS store returns even if the products they delivered were defective was almost enough for me to cancel Prime, but this seals the deal. When Amazon Prime commercials begin my Prime membership and most of my Amazon purchases end.
When did they make the UPS change? I made a return last week, no charge.
I had to return a DOA item last week and they imposed the charge for the first time. It depends on your specific situation though. In my case a Staples is physically closer than a UPS store, but I’m never near the Staples while I’m in the UPS store parking lot twice a week.
It wouldn’t bother me if I were returning items because I changed my mind, but when I’m already inconvenienced because of crappy product quality I don’t expect to be further inconvenienced so Amazon can save a buck.
I think it depends on the cost/reason of return, and where you’re returning it. Sometimes I have to pay a $1 fee to take to a UPS store but taking it to Kohl’s drop off is free.
Finally! I’ve been waiting for a good enough reason to cancel Prime
you don’t need a reason to cancel a sub, if you don’t like it, just do it.
I’m addicted to the shipping
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American. Right?
Congratulations on waiting and paying them for a service you didn’t want?
Seems like a lot of companies are testing how much they can get away with lately.
Yes and people are paying unfortunately Netflix succeeded and now everyone is trying ads 😔
So I’m really confused about the whole Netflix thing. It hasn’t asked me to set a household location and the whole no password sharing thing was supposed to have taken effect back in May, right? Since May, my family has continued to use Netflix as if nothing has changed and we said if they try to charge us extra, we will cancel. Our Netflix is regularly used at 4 different “households” and they have yet to charge a fee and have not automatically set a household like they claimed they would.
I was talking about advertisement in Netflix
This happens when you have to grow endlessly and hit a ceiling (in this case, number of users). Then you have to squeeze those users further so the numbers go up again. Of course you are killing the product in the long run because more and more users cancel but that’s not a big deal to the people making the decisions. (Well, the people doing actual work might object but nobody cares about them.) The shareholders that got obscenely rich will just leech onto the next big thing and the CEOs sail to their next product to ruin with a huge golden parachute. Rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, civilisation crumbles and decays, before it burns in the sadly inevitable climate catastrophe.
But Amazon crumbling isn’t civilisation crumbling… In fact, it opens doors for more small business owners.
You are incorrect though. Netflix and Uber (or any ride sharing app) have shown once people are hooked they will pay the increased rate to consume the product.
Call it what is is: GREEDFLATION.
Or maybe capitalism?
Nah, at this point anything subscription related is technofeudalism
Actual management strategy is “you don’t know what your boundaries are until you push against them”
Actual management strategy is “you don’t know what your boundaries are until you push against them”
This is why it’s so important not to get tired and quit, but instead to always push back.
Was already going to cancel when my renewal was up, now i’ll cancel even harder.
Come sail the high seas.
Eh, I only use prime video because it doesn’t cost extra, I don’t really need it. Back to piracy it will be, I guess.
Give me a prime membership that’s just for shipping. Cut the video out of the deal and stop including it in my charge kthx
They’re doing that, except it’s getting more expensive for video instead of cheaper for shipping.
This is bad for everyone. I’m still a Prime Member for shopping etc., but thats really got to be reconsidered now too.
I am not paying to watch commercials. Fuck that.
I think most of us pay for the shipping, the video is just a bonus. That said, their exclusives aren’t that great and they just end up in medusa.
I think most of us pay for the shipping, the video is just a bonus.
You’re not wrong, but the point though is to not reward them for bad behavior.
It’s a death by “1,000 cuts” if you do.
So basically we’re pretty much back to paying for a TV package.
