Yes, the most egregious one that really grinds my gears is on the front page of YouTube, where it will show a shelf with YouTube shorts with an X top right. If you click it, it will hide the shelf and say "Okay, we'll hide shorts for 30 days" which is something no body would ever mean by pressing that button and it's such patronizing, insidious bullshit.
I freaking hate Shorts, and the persistence with which YouTube attempts to shove that crap down your throat is absolutely infuriating.
YouTube also recently made the thumbnails larger, which is also really bad as it makes it more difficult to see what videos are in your subscription feed (even moreso with all the shorts clogging it up).
Apparently it's where the real money is. People doom-scrolling through an endless stream of crap.
This is why we still need Richard Stallman. That guy never gives up on explaining why manipulative, proprietary software is against our interests.
Use free software -- and when you can't, use ad-blockers, privacy badger, noscript, etc.
I think another issue here is a side effect of the move to Software As A Service. With installed software you could run an old version nearly forever, but with SASS you're always on the latest version
And this is one of the best reasons to categorically refuse to rent software.
Every time I go to the ATM to get cash it shows me an ad for a service and the options are "Yes" and "No thanks."
I am forced to choose one. I am forced to thank them for showing me an ad before they give me my own money.
Change banks
No, YouTube. NO. I will NEVER, EVER want YouTube Premium. Stop asking me about it every fucking time I watch a video.
YouTube premium is probably the video streaming purchase I get the most use out of lol.
I don't think that you're being overzealous. Far from that - even the phrasing rubs me the wrong way; it conveys "you're something fooling itself that it has a choice. You don't - you aren't a rational human being, you're a user. Do as you're being ordered to. The continued pestering adds "You'll be bossed around until you learn to obey." to the insult.
On a lighter side I agree with Grouchy that you have options. I think that we should start giving those companies the middle finger. And frankly I think that we're better off doing so for other reasons - the data vultures love this sort of "non-confrontational on surface, but bossy upon analysis" discourse.
I just had LinkedIn do this to me this morning. They sent a message trying to get me to buy some sort of sales package, with only preset response options, all were different versions of yes or ask me later. I reported the message as spam.
Good! I wish this passive-aggressive shit was illegal.
Start holding a grudge against all companies that don’t deserve your respect. If they clearly violate your trust, that bridge just got instantly burned to ashes, and there are no seconds chances.
I actively avoid products that get shoved in my face with ads and sponsorships. NordVPN, SkillShare, Brilliant, Raid Shadow Legends, fucking whatever can all go to hell. I wanna watch my videos in peace and they annoy me.
The tech market slowing after the end of Covid really showed these greedy fucks for who they are. Profits dropped and they all pulled out the enshittification dial for a big old twist.
Like, can't you just deal with being slightly less insanely rich for a few minutes?
I think it was Vanderbilt who answered the question of "how much money is enough" with "more". Billionaires have a hole in their soul. No amount of money will fill it, but that doesn't stop them from trying.
This is just one of a hundred reasons to avoid proprietary software. The only power we have to change the behavior of closed software is not using it.
In the eighties, it was acknowledged that since the fifties the viewing public are more resistant to commercials and marketing, outpacing their new techniques (more commercials, engaging commercials, obnoxious commercials, product placement, having whole shows that are one big commercial, etc.)
One factor is as marketers hard-sell middle age men, they're also immunizing their kids and grand kids who grow up skeptical of anyone saying anything nice lest they're trying to sell something.
This also likely figures into the attendance crises experienced by religious ministries as old parishioners age out and new ones realize they don't have time for spirit or money for tithes.
2020s big tech web platforms have a certain language to them that makes me think of a passive aggressive Californian dudebro designing them. It’s not “No”, it’s “Maybe later”; it’s not “OK” it’s “Got it” et cetera
"Got it" is a really weird one too, "Ok" had a hint that you are in approval of what you're seeing. "Got it" is more of a message of "we know you probably don't care or even detest this but you have to tell us you are at least aware of our latest thing".
It is underhanded in the language and has a bit of admission that they know you really just want the modal to just go away.
"Got it" is an acknowledgement while "OK" is an agreement. This is probably a deliberate choice on their part.
Yeah, Google is doing this to analytics right now. The decision seems universally disliked amongst professionals.
It's just like those stupid GDPR cookie popups. They're all different, and I can't think of anyone who would ever want to select some cookies and not others, people either are okay with it or they want none of them, yet few sites offer a "no to all" option, and most push the boundaries of what's allowed under the law.
At least this popup usually isn't there the next time I visit, but there's just so many sites that I keep getting them multiple times a day, so it feels just like what you're talking about.
I use Consent-O-Matic to automatically select "Reject all". It's an extension for both Firefox and Chrome, and I highly recommend it.
and most push the boundaries of what's allowed under the law.
I worked for a company that wanted me to load all of their analytics stuff, which drops a shit ton of cookies, before the GDPR consent. I told them that is illegal in the EU and they said the legal department already approved it. I'm not an attorney or a GDPR expert, but it seemed to me that the big companies have already found loopholes around GDPR to get the data that they want. I don't work there anymore.
Nowadays it's even in cars. When service is due, my car offers me to call service desk to schedule an appointment now or later. To get rid of this message, I need to make the call just to tell the person on the other side that this is a company car, I'm not the owner, and service is being scheduled by the leasing company through other means anyway.
I've yet to accept Whatsapp's new (2020) terms of service. App still works. So I consider it a small, petty victory for me
"Do you want to try the new Lemmy(TM) Story Experience? Click here or remind us now to keep reminding you until you finally cave to our humungous data-hoovering tentacles, puny little user."
MS Edge, when I accidentally open it.
Oh my God it's such a pain in the ass. It spawns like 15 processes that don't die when you close the browser window, and there's no indication which is the master so you just have to kill them one by one until they all die. And the search bar that pops up on the desktop is such tacky 90s spamware... I've never liked Windows but since they launched 11 they've really become intolerable, even the w10 experience is being degraded by it.
My LG television keeps asking to accept terms for voice control. I stand fast in my refusal to accept. There not even an option to say no...sigh..
I DNS blocked my LG TV services because I got tired of being served with paid content which I do not want to see but they give no choice to opt-out of. For example the recommended movies and TV shows from Amazon Prime. I don't have Amazon and I don't intend to get it. There should be an option to remove that but you can't. Same with the sports section.
So now the TV works as it should. It can't find the source for that content and just hides it.
Get Pi-hole
The only way to say "no" is to not give them the opportunity to ask the question to begin with.
What app or tech is badgering you? I feel like with standard android and pop! OS I have zero complaints. Everything just works
This happens with YouTube, for example. Even though I pay for their premium, whenever I disable their shorts section they tell me "ok, we'll hide it for 30 days". How about you don't show me your shorts ever again?
Pester me and I'm done with you. I don't care. App quits working because I didn't upgrade it and your reason is "improvements", goodbye.
I've been pissed about this for a decade
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