Comments by "Gareth Hart" (@tgheretford) on "Louis Rossmann" channel.

  1. I've been saying for a while now when it comes to women's dating preferences "don't listen to what they say, watch what they do" or more succinctly "actions speak louder than words". It does apply outside of dating too but it is nice to be vindicated by the study at the start of the video.
    584
  2. I've notice parallels with the business model satellite and cable TV in Europe had from the 80s onwards. Everyone will follow suit. YouTube Premium with advertising is inevitable.
    229
  3. The retro gaming tier of the hierarchy - I want to play a retro video game and are happy to pay a fair price to compensate the creators but the publisher no longer sells it, complains about not getting a cent from a second hand sale, it is out of the reach of virtually everyone because of the collectors market inflating prices and the publisher has no intention of re-releasing the game, it is seen as "abandonware" and you find a pirate copy.
    199
  4. Wait until not only you have to pay for access, allow them access to gather all your data and hold it to ransom if you don't pay the monthly subscription fee, but also when they demand a royalty payment for the work you created using their software so they get a cut of your success. The days of "if its free, you're the product" is long gone. Now everyone paying is also the product.
    198
  5. Something to note is that this is another example of a precedence that has been happening in the last few years - one individual is now deemed to be legally responsible for the behaviour of other people. In the UK, we had the case of Alex Belfield who was jailed for harassment and stalking for five and a half years. In the sentencing remarks, part of the rationale for his jailing was not Belfield's behaviour but the behaviour of his subscribers, even if he told his subs not to contact anyone he covered in his videos. As an individual, you are now deemed legally responsible for the behaviour of others and dissuading people from that behaviour is not a defence in court.
    148
  6.  @SavageMontreal  It's the online safety law that allows him to be labelled a victim of someone he claims to be spreading "defamation", "hate speech", "doxing" and "misinformation". This was the concerns critics of online safety laws had - that it would be weaponised to censor critics, whistleblowers and investigators.
    147
  7. If you put a camera in someone's private property and catch someone intimately, it's voyeurism and you can expect to go to jail. If a corporation gets you to put a camera in your private property and catch someone intimately, it's not voyeurism but "data gathering to improve your service experience and security" and not a jail-able offence.
    116
  8. This is the consequence of online safety laws which Australia now enacts. The person who cries victim will be the one who gets protected by the Government and the other person who critiques them will be the one deemed to be spreading "hate speech" and "misinformation". Online safety laws must be repealed.
    112
  9. a.k.a. every retro gamer who wants to play games on what is increasingly most platforms nowadays. The prices of an increasing number of Sega Saturn games are well beyond the reach of those who want to play the games because the collectors market have shrunk supply at the same time people who likely bought a PlayStation in the 90s and only just seen the Saturn via YouTube and want to sample its library of games increase demand. Plus, the publishers don't want to re-release the games.
    93
  10. Facial recognition software got so good in the last few years that it can recognise people who are wearing a mask. So it won't be anything to do with that, masks are not a barrier any more. ETA: I oppose both facial recognition and mask mandates on civil liberties grounds.
    89
  11. It is happening across the board, in jobs, hobbies and society. And we wonder why there are increasing number of NEETS (or the Japanese term, Hikikomori) who live with their parents, playing video games and failing to launch. And I fear it will only get worse as AI, automation and the as a service model takes jobs, ownership and freedom away from individuals and SME's to large multi-national corporations and an ever expanding Government. I was made homeless in 2002 and I would dread to think what would happen if I was in the same situation now. Because all the help and opportunities have gone.
    84
  12. Me: "I would like to be able to control how I use the product I purchased with my hard earned money". Government and private companies: "No".
    57
  13. Another scenario, if a content creator criticises the anti-consumer behaviour of a company, should he be charged with a crime if a subscriber commits a crime against said company? The answer is obviously no but courts now think otherwise.
    53
  14. And yet we keep being told the solution is for men to "be better". Telling them to grow 99 metres taller so they can reach the hoop? All that will do is raise the hoop another 100 metres because as you rightly said, hypergamy floats. Maybe people won't be in despair and nihilistic if we have practical and realistic goals and expectations instead of reaching for perfection and a fantasy that is not possible in real life?
    51
  15. Has anyone actually asked why more and more people are walking away from finding a IRL relationship and a number of them consider an AI companion to be a better option than a IRL relationship? The answer to this question are not as simple as "just touch grass bro", "just lift bro" and "be better" as "self-improvement" influencers (or grifters as I would call them) keep preaching.
    33
  16. "That's a valuable piece of work you created on our software. It'd be a terrible shame if it was kept locked away until you agree to give us a cut of your revenue from every sale". The future of SaaS.
    30
  17. Same thing happened with satellite and cable TV in Europe - once they hit a plateau two things happened, subscription fees rose sharply as companies intended to increase average revenue per unit (ARPU) and the amount of advertising and sponsorships increased.
    28
  18. This is the sort of behaviour that when exposed and goes viral, will destroy a company. Already seeing rhetoric from people who are now going out to replace existing working devices just to protest them after seeing this.
    27
  19. I don't want to see a situation that in order to turn secure boot off or install a non-Windows OS such as Linux on the product I paid for, I have to pay a fee, one off or ongoing, to do so.
    25
  20. Team leader at work today sent a PDF document which was in the wrong orientation. Only wanted to rotate the document to the correct orientation. Was hit with a paywall demand for £30 a month to use the rotate function. I told him to tell Adobe to "do one" and open it up in the web browsers PDF viewer and hit the rotate button to rotate the document for free.
    24
  21. Because subscriptions make more money than one off payments. Even then, all a developer has to do is release new versions and time limit the current version.
    12
  22. The people who suggest men should make sure she is interested romantically first demonstrate zero knowledge and experience of how most people with a social circle and social skills communicate and interact with one another. And I say this as someone who is both introverted and lacks said skills.
    11
  23. There are politicians and individuals in power who believe words and ideas are just as, if not more dangerous than dangerous, life threatening goods. 0.2% for the latter, 10% for the former with new online safety laws. The danger is, right to repair will be in their sights too.
    11
  24. You won't be able to ignore the already in progress population decline as increasing numbers of people forgo finding a relationship which in turn has knock on effects for a wide range of issues and subsequent consequences for everyone.
    10
  25. First they will charge content creators to get people to view their content. Then they will charge viewers to have videos served to them from content creators. YouTube is going pay to play.
    10
  26. Just yesterday in the UK, the CONTEST 2023 strategy was released by the Home Office. The Government is now monitoring men who are single and not succeeding quickly in the dating market. The term "extremist" is being grossly watered down and over-used but it is noted how the state and private companies insist on aligning privacy and liberty with extremism.
    10
  27. The same people who can easily afford the transactions and monthly subscription fees that will be needed to view the content they see and hear today. Those who are poorer do not have that privilege.
    9
  28. It allows companies to control who rents out their product, what can be done with that product, ties people in to one provider and kills off the second hand sales market. eBay will have to radically change its business model in the future as a significant chunk of its purpose disappears. Linux will be in trouble as every computer manufacturer locks in to Windows and bars you from installing your own OS under a rented computer. In any other situation this would be deemed "anti-competitive" and "anti-trust". I expect Samsung to follow suit for its Galaxy S23. I also expect the next generation of video game consoles - the successors to the Switch, XBox Series X and PS5 to follow suit (console manufacturers HATE second hand game sales as it is those what make the profit from loss making consoles) as well as television manufacturers, smart device manufacturers and eventually anything with a microchip inside of it. Everything will become "as a service" with the ultimate goal for companies being having all the advantages of renting while passing on the disadvantages to consumers.
    8
  29.  @mattpobursky850  They also tell you that the law is to "protect children".
    7
  30. ​ @dontmatter4423  Not according to the over 70 randomly controlled trials reviewed for the Cochrane Review metastudy on mask efficacy. Little to no effect if you are being generous. Plus, surgical masks are designed to be used for short periods by surgeons in highly ventilated environments to prevent droplets, not aerosol, getting into open surgery and the mouth.
    7
  31. They've been asking for the same measures for physical, non-internet games from the 2000s and before. They claim that additional second hand sales of an item doesn't generate compensation for their intellectual property and gives nothing to the artists, programmers, musicians and so forth - therefore it must be banned or the law changed.
    7
  32. At least with BluRays, the content owners can't walk into your house and take away the content you've paid for.
    6
  33. I should not be forced to do anything against my will and without informed consent whether that is a medical procedure or a dress code to make someone feel more comfortable, to prevent offence or do something that someone else dictates. I respect your free choice, please respect mine.
    6
  34. How long before YouTube implements DRM?
    6
  35. Video gamers were right about the state of journalism seven and a half years ago.
    6
  36. This is the problem of the everything as a service model that companies and individuals are chasing as the golden solution to make money. People only have so much to spend, we're not infinite revenue streams for everyone. One example, if everyone decided to charge $1 per view on YouTube, that would add up over a short period of time.
    5
  37. They will eventually move to a whitelist model. Everything blocked by default unless approved, licenced and paid for to the Government.
    5
  38. If you want to lose all hope, read Female Dating Strategy.
    5
  39. A UK content creator got jailed for five and a half years. Part of the sentencing remarks that got him jailed was down to the behaviour of his subscribers. Content creators are now deemed legally responsible for the behaviour of their subscribers and dissuading people from doing said behaviour is not a defence in court. A dangerous precedent.
    4
  40.  @roboman2444  Yes, the irony is not lost on me.
    4
  41. Clothing stores in the UK are already starting to introduce this and ban customers who wear an item once and then return it.
    4
  42. It's happening with jobs, hobbies and society. And then you wonder why increasing numbers of young people live with their parents without a partner playing video games and being NEETS who will eventually fail to launch. If I was made homeless now I would not have the same opportunities and help that I needed in 2002.
    4
  43. If anything, the studies I have seen range from a very small benefit to ineffective in preventing human-to-human transmission as well as significant adverse physiological and psychological effects. Masks should only ever be voluntary.
    4
  44. 2031: We now charge a fee for each insertion of the USB cable but charging and data transfer will only work if your Premium subscription is active.
    4
  45. The problem came when people started treating science as a fixed, unquestionable tenet that can no longer be contested. Today's lockdown and mask efficacy sceptics are the Galileo of the modern day. Treat anyone who claims to present facts as and make policy based on "the science" as opposed to "science" as a charlatan and a confidence trickster.
    4
  46. It might be better described as anti-social media.
    4
  47. I've noticed that the UI on Chromecast has been heavily downgraded to lower resolution images and opaque basic elements. Videos are also defaulting to 480p in the hope you won't notice and therefore YouTube can lower it's bandwidth usage and costs.
    4
  48. We have conducted studies which range from a small benefit at best to DANMASK-19 which shows a statistically insignificant difference in protecting the wearer to a recent Stanford study which suggested that masks are ineffective in preventing human-to-human transmission and that they have substantial adverse psychological and physiological effects. We can also make comparisons between states and countries with and without masks and it shows taking all other factors out of the equation, masks do not work - if anything, they could be making things worse. Even Fauci today on MSNBC can't explain why Texas is not having a surge in case numbers after lifting mask mandates. Masks should only ever be voluntary with people informed of their efficacy and cost to the individual.
    4
  49. And what will happen is that the comments section will disappear. I would say these things are on borrowed time, the UK is already planning to implement a new law that will have a chilling effect on user generated content because one offensive post will give you a ruinous fine. All it will take is President Biden to do the same in the US and clarify that "offence, abuse and harassment" is not covered by the First Amendment to bring in a similar law in the US and you can kiss goodbye to user generated content online. Dislikes, comment sections, political websites, discussion forums and the like - all gone. Social media will remain but will be heavily moderated with lots of collateral damage.
    3
  50. After blocking the ability for people who are not registered to view service updates, emergency weather information, politician communication and local news to name a few who have moved primarily to Twitter to communicate with the public. By putting it all behind a walled garden and sticking a finger up to privacy minded front-ends, I have zero sympathy with Musk.
    3
  51. More likely because they're incompetent and are not differentiating between free and paying users but also likely that they're going to run ads with Premium in line with every other streaming subscription service.
    3
  52. But you have to remember as well there are costs to handling and processing cash. Getting cash notes from a retailer to a head office is not free, the security guards, the banks and the businesses who provide those services expect to be paid and ultimately that cost is borne by every customer.
    3
  53.  @ShaferHart  Until manufacturers realise and ensure that your TV is all but useless unless you connect it to the Internet and keep it connected. Video games are already doing this via always-on DRM. I can imagine parts of the TV's OS will in future only be available if connected to the Internet. Once the TV stops being supported, no more TV for you or it becomes very limited in what it can do. Planned obsolescence.
    3
  54. I don't think most people would mind a reasonable amount of ads, preferably every 15 minutes or pre-roll ones. The problem is, YouTube and some creators have got greedy and this creates a perverse situation where people who would have watched ads now block them. Same with sponsors. So now they lose much more money compared to what would be the case if they were reasonable. You'll always have those who refuse to watch ads at all - the people who recorded programmes on VHS and fast forward through the ads as an old example.
    3
  55. It's a new precedence that has been set that content creators are now responsible for the behaviour of their subscribers. And dissuading people from said behaviour is not a defence in court. Madness.
    3
  56. The concept that private companies can and will deteriorate your quality of life or even ability to live because they've gone bankrupt, do not want to support the product/item/medication, you can no longer afford the paywall, have the wrong political views or any other decision without your consent is terrifying and chilling. It's bad enough with banks in unison cancelling and refusing bank accounts to people with certain political views with the consequences that bring for your ability to function in society as a working individual.
    3
  57. Most people tend to meet in closed social groups (friends, workplaces, introduced by family). The people this is happening to and complaining about it are those who don't have a social circle and therefore can only meet strangers in cold approach and online settings. Particularly a problem for those on the autistic spectrum (but not universally though) and introverts. I think the big problem with why we are seeing the societal issues we are today is because of a minority of people who lack a social circle to be part of and form relationships naturally and are also leading the conversation which in turn is now leading to a bigger percentage of people not seeking relationships according to recent data.
    3
  58. Increasingly, those games on Linux are the Windows versions running on Proton and not a native Linux version.
    3
  59. Companies: if it exists, we will find a way to charge fees, subscriptions and microtransactions.
    3
  60. Google's preferred hotfix - upgrade your phone (at your expense, naturally) if its more than a year old. The only thing that would make this more offensive is if they give back the option to turn off VoLTE but put it behind a paywall. Just like what the router manufacturer of my current modem/router did with their advanced settings for the upgraded model.
    2
  61. ​ @rossmanngroup  From recent data, the vast majority of people being interesting, quality and lovely are quickly forming relationships predominately in closed social groups. The rest involves two groups, the "promiscuous 10%" coined by Alexander from Date Psychology who are causally dating and not settling down and the chronically single who make up the remaining 10%, whether because of mental issues, trust issues, lack of social circle, unattractiveness or so on. It is the final 20% who predominately make up the long term singles, predominately on online dating and it is the chronically single who are making all the conversation around the discourse regarding dating. Which is why you hear of a small percentage of men getting all the women via online dating and engaging in polygamy and most men get nothing. They're only focusing on a minority of people and ignoring the majority who would not recognise this reality and are likely not engaging in online discussions but just working, socialising and getting on with life.
    2
  62. The problem is, you have the prospect of being able to improve and learn about fixing motherboards with practice. The dating market as things stand is for an increasing number of men, a complete folly. The dating market for men is like an industry where there is a powerful cartel of large successful corporations and everyone else is fighting for barely any scraps. Sometimes, and business do this too, it is better to be rational and humble by focusing on avenues where you can succeed rather than continue throwing your time, money and effort into a sunk cost fallacy.
    2
  63. Only if you are a successful, independent, experienced, pre-selected and well earning man. If you are lacking one of those things, your desirability will be the same as it ever was - nil.
    2
  64. As far as Google is concerned, if you're not subscribed to Premium, you're a leech. That's why they're pushing it hard to free, ad-viewing users and making life difficult to the point you'll cough up or walk away. They're not scared of the latter because they suspect any competition will suffer financial difficulties earlier and harder.
    2
  65. In the UK, if you want to make a purchase over £100, it is advised to do so by credit card. Because legal protections of Section 75 of the Consumer Protection Act 1974 only kick in if you use a credit card. If you use cash or a debit card, you're not protected. Under this scenario, you either pay more and get legal protection or don't get charged but lose legal protection. No win situation.
    2
  66. I wish the competitors to YouTube including LBRY and Odysee acknowledged the concept that videos can be watched beyond a monitor, tablet or mobile device. Millions of people have double monitor set-ups without knowing it - a monitor/tablet/phone and a TV. Trying to cast to TV is messy or requires either a dual monitor setup via HDMI or a second computer.
    2
  67. Be the best provider and protector. Maximise your social status. Thar's it. I only learnt that after I exited the dating market and focused on myself. And I don't intend to go back into the dating market because as an outsider, I can see how grim it is for an increasing number of men. Just a shame I wasn't told that when I was a teenager instead of being given advice in good faith but in retrospect was damaging and counterproductive.
    2
  68. Most people meet others via closed social groups such as friends. The people complaining don't have friends.
    2
  69. How long before the ESA and the console manufacturers declare the console and the screws/tabs holding the console together in itself as a "digital lock"? This is a deliberate attempt to malign anyone performing what they deem "unauthorised repairs" as pirates and criminals.
    2
  70. And installing the paywalls at the same time too.
    2
  71. And eventually paywall it.
    2
  72. Mobile phone companies - our phones are game consoles now.
    2
  73. To those defending the state demolishing this man's property, careful what you wish for. One day, the state could deem YOU a criminal. And you will not have a leg to stand on. If anything, you will be subject to the same treatment as you are giving this man now or you will be the subject of schadenfreude.
    2
  74. YouTube Premium will eventually be known as YouTube. With microtransactions and a basic 480p ad-tier to boot.
    2
  75. Go to the company direct to buy the product and most times what do I see? A button that says "buy at Amazon". smdh
    2
  76. In terms of the requesting everyone wear a mask, I think anyone who has suffered at the hands of a sexual crime and who had their face covered by the perpetrator during the course of that crime may have something to say about masks not being an imposition.
    2
  77. Tesla had better hope that no UK residents were caught up in this. Their UK arm will get annihilated by the ICO. European (and UK) Tesla owners, you have the right to be forgotten and Tesla must comply.
    2
  78. I remember when you could rent TV's with built in coin slots that add time to a power supply and the money was collected once a month. The difference being when you paid the set plus interest, the TV was yours and the coin slot disabled. This future requires you to pay until the manufacturer doesn't feel like supporting your device when it turns into an expensive paperweight or you upgrade both the product and the fee. It's not just about money, it's about control.
    1
  79.  @Echo-gp6re  It's the case of Alex Belfield. I can't post a direct link on here because YouTube will flag and hide the comment but if you look for the sentencing remarks, you'll find them. Also, I'd recommend Blackbelt Barrister's coverage of the case.
    1
  80.  @imzanky6321  If he's not guilty, why is he in prison now? Please read the sentencing remarks for the case, it spells it out in that document that the partial rationale for his jailing was because of the behaviour of his subscribers and viewers.
    1
  81. The problem with self-help gurus and commentators is that they aim for the highest bar. We're talking top tier of muscular strength, CEO, hottest partner and so forth in short time with easy sound-bytes and a claim of a guarantee of success if you do what they do. Except that will guarantee a 100% failure rate for the vast majority of men because it omits realistic expectations. But the alternative doesn't get clicks, subscribers and revenue. Worse still, they will sell you programmes that are designed to fail because you won't meet the goals they set which means they will blame you for your failure to succeed and up-sell more expensive programmes. The patio door is a realistic goal that will help you on the road to success. The equivalent advice from self-help gurus and commentators will be to buy a electronic powered door with a usher in your own self-built skyscraper. Unless you're a billionaire, it isn't realistically going to happen. Failure is a learning experience. The one thing is where the risk of failure is too great. I wouldn't fix my own gas boiler because my house would explode and I'd be breaking the law. Can't learn from your experience if the result is fatal. The reason why increasing numbers of men don't approach women now is because if a single woman feels distressed or offended by your approach or even your presence, you can be reported to the police. Failure there attracts you social media shame, a knock to your social status and potential consequences for your employment and even getting a criminal record. Failure won't be fatal here but it is life-changing and too much to lose if you approach the wrong woman. Same with marriage, increasing numbers of men are taking a logical risk vs reward judgement and are deciding that divorce is not worth the risk for the rewards they could acrue. The problem with advice nowadays is that it is too optimistic to the point of being delusional and is devoid of the realistic expectations of each individual which will be different based on a number of variables. There's a reason why Dr Jordan B. Peterson tells men to "clean their room" not "own the world" as their first step toward self-improvement.
    1
  82. It's inevitable. And the free ad-riddled offering will be changed so you're nudged to subscribe.
    1
  83. Japan has the right attitude to the tipping debate.
    1
  84. Please explain the explosion in case numbers in Iran last year. Not known for its cold, damp weather. And the case of India, known for its humidity, very warm temperatures and dry season during the time they've had a pandemic.
    1
  85. I suspect companies will just fully switch to as a service model and get around the law. At which point piracy will provide a better service than the legitimate games.
    1
  86. Say the word. The word is "paywall". But that means we have to enact a barrier to entry for the poor.
    1
  87. Dangerous life threatening goods = 0.2% fine if you're lucky Mean, hurty words = 10% fine
    1
  88. 'It's only one lockdown...' Eventually, they will just stop opening the value. if we go down the road of your freedom must cease if anyone is endangered, we will no longer have freedom. Because that will not just apply to a pandemic. This is the precedence.
    1
  89. Today, non-serviceable battery by the owner,. Tomorrow, they will shift to a model where you rent your device and never own it. In both cases, the rationale will be for your "safety" and "security", of course.
    1
  90. Having everything go behind a paywall, microtransactions, subscriptions and season passes. Is this how we want to live life? I think if people start applying models that work for a closed source OS with a majority of the public using it, FOSS will fold pretty quickly. We'll be given a choice - pay massively and go broke for freedom and privacy or pay less for surveillance and giving away your data.
    1
  91. Browsing YouTube without an ad-blocker (like using YouTube via Chromecast) is a real pain on monetised videos. I don't think anyone would mind short (6-30 second) pre-roll ads or natural breaks in a long video or post-roll ads, but it's a joke on YouTube as of late. Regularly you can see three minute ads in the middle of a video, multiple ads run every few minutes, even advertisements up to TWO HOURS long for goodness sake! And the mid-roll ads can occur in the middle of a sentence, breaking the flow of a video.No wonder why people block advertisements. It's the modern day equivalent of the universally hated pop-up ad. We've already done the argument regarding whether ad-blocking is piracy in Germany. And it was decided it wasn't. If Linus isn't happy, paywall his content. Then he doesn't need to worry about ad-blocking. Though he will wonder why 98%+ of his viewership has disappeared.
    1
  92. Happened during the financial crisis of 2008, prices went up and rents went up whilst wages went down in real terms and savings lost value because of inflation.
    1
  93. The thing is, most people tend to stick within recommendations, subscriptions and trending. It also happens to be stuff from the partner programme full of ads and opportunity for YouTube to make Premium money. That's the stuff they'll promote. The "awesome channels" like the viewers get suppressed by YouTube because it isn't profitable for them. Unlike ad-blockers, YouTube won't do anything about SponsorBlock because YouTube doesn't take a cut from sponsorships - same issue with Patreon which is why they launched YouTube channel memberships. I can foresee them adding unskippable sponsors (that YouTube takes a cut from) and then they'll take action against SponsorBlock. Also, are you the person who promotes an app that has integrated SponsorBlock? Maybe take that out? As for any monetary loss, first, we can still manually skip them with the time bar (for now). Second, there is a free market solution to this problem - paywall. Even if that will disenfranchise 99.9% of your viewership.
    1
  94. Let them try the self-defence claim. I'd love to see the actual science that justifies that self-defence claim that masks prevent infection and death in court. I'll wager there won't be any because I've seen the randomly controlled trials and real world data that suggests they would not have a leg to stand on unless they use flawed and biased in-lab studies.
    1
  95.  @leonro  Businesses would refuse you service if you covered up your face. It's standard practice for motorcycle riders to remove their helmet when entering a business for this very reason if they want to be served and not told to leave.
    1
  96.  @leonro  It's standard practice in all UK businesses for exactly the same reasons as masks were.
    1
  97.  @dontmatter4423  The WHO stated it was spread by aerosol, matching the data found in all the RCT's and meta-analysis I previously mentioned.
    1
  98. Your face mask protects me from being identified. My face mask protects you from identifying me.
    1
  99. If you pay, you're still the product. I feel vindicated.
    1
  100. Watch on a TV. You are now constantly nudged to subscribe to Premium and advertisements (most of them now unskippable) are every few minutes. I think we are moving toward YouTube going behind a paywall. Twitter seems to be heading the same way under Elon as well. Worse still, YouTube Premium is more expensive than all the other streaming services.
    1
  101. Getting worse in the UK. You don't just have the cost of the item or service but you now also have mandatory service charges, tipping up to 20% and beyond, enforced by guilt and other charges that can double the price.
    1
  102. I fear vaccine passports will lead to Digital ID which will ultimately lead to a Social Credit System.
    1
  103. Everyone enjoying their free trial of "you will own nothing and you will be happy"?
    1
  104. They want to get rid of all the third party apps by making it so non-viable to operate in order to make themselves the exclusive avenue for the site... which then makes it far easier to paywall it for everyone. Twitter and YouTube are heading that way too. ETA: Based on the revenue per user now, if Reddit charged $4.99 a month for access, they'd only need 2.5% of current users to sub to break even. $5.99 = 2% of users. And so on. ETA2: The current situation with tech firms reminds me of what happened with both the UK satellite television industry and the mobile phone networks. Back in 1990 we had two competing satellite operators. Both stated publicly how many viewers each had. Until someone internal asked how much they were making. Turned out both were making big losses. And both realised that if they did not change tack and merge, they'd both be insolvent. So they merged and instead of focusing on numbers of viewers, quickly adopted a (near-)universal paywall, bought the live football rights and focused on average revenue per unit (ARPU). They're now the biggest pay TV company in the UK. In terms of the mobile phone networks, they also used to focus on numbers. Until the 2008 financial crisis. When they suddenly realised like the satellite television platforms that they need to focus on ARPU, not on customer numbers. So my phone network I was on sent an ultimatum to a number of subscribers who were not making enough money - pay double or leave. Many left but the company was now in better financial ground despite having less subscribers, they paid more. So much so the other networks followed suit. Basically, history never repeats but it rhymes.
    1
  105. Probably a case that the way to unlock the DRM will check first to see if you're subscribed to Premium Prime and if you are not, will only happen once the ads have been shown. That is likely the way YouTube will go as well.
    1
  106. I knew streaming services would go the same way as satellite and cable subscription services did. As will YouTube Premium.
    1
  107. There is a reason why pay TV broadcasters no longer relies on pay-per-view per programme and does not implement per channel subscriptions. Viewers would rebel and it would become prohibitively expensive to watch everything people wanted. That's why everyone from traditional pay TV platforms to modern streaming platforms bundle content, it works out cheaper and a better proposition for viewers. Asking people to pay directly for everything they consume, particularly during a cost of living crisis, is a tall order. Advertising works better in that regard because its still paid for by consumers but through the products they buy as opposed to a single tier cost that everyone, rich or poor, must pay to play.
    1
  108. This is what happens when we treat every single aspect of life as a line on a balance sheet. Including the two year old child's safety. Grossly immoral.
    1
  109. This is a particular problem for platforms like the Sega Saturn which has seen an emergence of interest in recent years from people who likely bought a PlayStation in the 90s, took interest at the Saturn exclusive games that passed them by until now but can't afford to buy them because the prices are too high. Nor is there any interest from publishers to release a Sega Saturn Mini console or re-publish the games. Case in point, it had probably the best rated Bomberman game of all time but Konami who now own the rights is never going to re-release it.
    1
  110. They will charge twice. Once for the air you breathe out as a "carbon charge" and again for the air you breathe in as a "clean air charge".
    1
  111. Be the change you want to see and paywall your videos.
    1
  112.  @thomastomtom2010  There's a very small minority of women who think that a man asking her out justifies reporting him to HR or the Police for harassment. The man asking her out doesn't know if she belongs to that small minority. A lot of men have had to deal with the thought of their life, social status and career being destroyed. Pair this with 99% of men having absolutely no shot of being able to defend himself in a disclipinary or court of law whom will find against him, you can see how a man might be on edge when considering asking someone out.
    1
  113. It's just a mask to protect others... It's just social distancing to stop the spread... It's just a vaccine passport to boost vaccine take-up... It's just non-removable batteries to prevent injury... It's just digital rights management to protect consumers... It's just serialisation of parts to deter theft... This is how we end up in this situation.
    1
  114. The advisors responsible for these measures will never, ever announce that the pandemic is over and ask to remove the mask mandates (the mask acts as a constant reminder of pandemic and danger as opposed to a viable and successful non-pharmaceutical intervention which prevents cases and lowers the case numbers). Because when they do, they lose their power and influence. Lockdown and mask mandates end when we, the public, say it ends.
    1
  115.  @JanHavel  YouTube is currently testing universal DRM for YouTube on TV users. If that is successful, it will roll out everywhere and Google can set it up so nothing is decrypted unless you pay for premium or view ads.
    1
  116. Thank goodness that my printer has ink bottles to refill it. No chip, no DRM, no bull.
    1
  117. The latest anti-right to repair rhetoric in the UK, because of a number of fires from lithium-ion batteries, specifically but not exclusively with e-scooters and being the focus of BBC Radio 4, there is a push to remove the ability to repair or modify any product "for your own safety" and others. Because they believe we are a danger to ourselves and others and can't be trusted. Which will herald everything not being your property and done on a subscription basis. On the GTA front, I bet the next game will be multiplayer only and behind a paywall from day one.
    1
  118. Companies have figured out how to moneitse items based on time and value. Used to be that you pay for parts, labour and materials. Now they want recurring revenue post sale for as long as the item exists.
    1
  119. Facebook had a similar issue in the EU. Their response was to put up a paywall. Google will follow suit.
    1
  120.  @olejniczak12  KitKat sponsored the vending machines in Theme Hospital. Back in 1997.
    1
  121. Businesses dealing with cash and needing it to be transferred (cash-in-transit) or kept securely do pay a fee for that service and that is passed onto the consumer through increased prices. Which is not the case with card payments. Cash or card, you're still paying a fee one way or another.
    1
  122. The next argument will be "why should just 1% pay? That isn't right, moral or ethical. Make everyone pay. And then, if they get value forever, make it a permanent ongoing cost rather than a one-off cost". They would argue that everyone paying the same on the same playing field is fair. It's a debate ongoing in FOSS as people look toward paywalls as the equaliser in funding for everything.
    1
  123.  @mirey-lamb  I know projects are increasingly going down the Patreon/monthly donation route as opposed to one off donations. My understanding of FOSS is that it's free in freedom and not in beer. Seemingly Red Hat doesn't think a subscription service violates FOSS licences.
    1
  124. Those who live in apartments and terraced housing have the additional problem of not being able to charge their cars at home. Not without trails of cables coming out of homes onto the sidewalk (or pavement where I am from). Unless you can get cars to be as functional as a petrol car where you can fill it up in minutes, there will be a good number of people who practically can not own an electric car. That is if, in the future, most of us can still OWN an electric car!
    1
  125. And so the march of everything embracing enshittification continues.
    1
  126. First they'll demand Physical Rights Management for products under their intellectual property. Then we go down the road of them seizing the product you paid for and justifying that it isn't stealing when they do it.
    1
  127. Wearing a mask for just a couple of months? No. The measures to mitigate from the dangers of terrorism are still with us almost twenty years on. In the UK, we are slowly making face coverings compulsory in more settings (the boiling frog analogy, in order to bring permanent change, you do it slowly - see eBay's home page change from yellow to white) where eventually it will be treated in the same manner as going out with your genitals on show in public. By legal force.
    1
  128.  @tissuepaper9962  Cash still has costs associated with the handling and processing of it. And those employees don't work for free. Regardless of which payment method you use, there are costs.
    1
  129. It's not just the Governments of the world that consider VPN's a thorn in their side, corporations do as well when it comes to residential usage, particularly avoid geo-blocking of copyrighted content. Any opportunity to restrict the freedom of the Internet for the populous outside of the state and corporate world "for your own safety" was always sadly inevitable. I'm in the UK so I can't air my grievances officially but I would personally recommend every single American citizen do so. This is bad and there will be consequences beyond the borders of the USA.
    1
  130. I wonder how long before they pull this nonsense on free users who don't have ad-block enabled to nudge everyone onto Premium (and eventually, Premium with ads)?
    1
  131.  @Venezolano410  Until your Linux distribution implements a "code of conduct" that will allow anyone 'harmful', 'offensive' or 'discriminatory' to be denied the ability to use that distribution. And then the rest follow suit. What then? BSD? Haiku? TempleOS?
    1
  132. Wait until companies perfect the four pillars of funding - paying a one off fee for a "licence" plus a monthly subscription fee for access, microtransactions for each item you consume and advertising/sponsorship in said item. All at once. It's when, not if.
    1
  133.  @Ultima64  The Labour Party plans to bring an amendment to ban VPN's in the Online Safety Bill. If that does not succeed, its only a year before they're are likely to be in power and can bring in their own VPN ban.
    1
  134. I think the reason you may be expecting blowback in the comments for the concept of paying for value is that you're gaining excellent value from YouTube to host and serve your content at no cost to you. In any other media industry, you pay for the hosting and bandwidth and customers pay for the content and bandwidth. If you hosted it on your own website, you would have to pay for the hostage and bandwidth and likely have to charge per video and/or charge a monthly fee. Everything online and offline will go behind a paywall, I fear. From alarm clocks, food delivery and apps to YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.
    1
  135. I get tired of pointing out reality and then getting called "negative" because not everything in life is fair and not everything is positive 24/7 like people want you to believe.
    1
  136. The alternative was paywalls for every site. Life would get very expensive quickly if you had to pay for everything.
    1
  137. I think the thing that people should be disgusted at is not the people using this service, but the monetisation of loneliness.
    1
  138. I'm not sure how it harms the creator as they've already been paid based on analytics that are already there even if you use SponsorBlock and you were never going to buy from the sponsor anyway. An argument could be made that blocking ads harms the creator as they do get paid per view/click. But then we get to the argument of - how do they get paid because increasingly, channels want to be paid? Channel memberships and Premium are voluntary (for now) and most people prefer free. Premium itself is extortionate in terms of price and the loopholes people were using to get it cheaper are being closed by Google (it could also constitute fraud). There is a free market option - paywall - but that will disenfranchise 99.9% of your viewer-base.
    1
  139. The streaming services are following the same trajectory as the cable and satellite services did at the end of the 20th century. Spoiler - it doesn't get any better from here, folks.
    1
  140.  @gundoxcrit1652  How about the companies still provide the service and collect/use/profit off of/advertise based on your personal data and paywall content and show ads and sponsorships to you? Because that's the direction streaming services are heading now. Satellite and cable TV went down the same road in the 90s. As far as they're concerned, when it comes to making money, all the money is not enough money.
    1
  141. How long before Reddit demand visitors to their website pay to view each page?
    1
  142. Widevine is already used for paid-for content on YouTube and will likely extend to all the free content too. Google invented it. There's more DRM shenanigans going around to control content and restrict freedom. See the recent attempt to encrypt "free-to-air" ATSC 3.0 terrestrial channels in the USA.
    1
  143. Chances are those workers are wearing masks out of fear of being fired if caught not wearing one when required to outside of work.
    1
  144. I suspect the executives, shareholders and investors in the companies that lost billions will not be sitting back with popcorn. They may have lost billions but they still have billions to pay for the best lawyers. And they will have the ear of the SEC and FTC. The problem that will sink Elon is that as he stated publicly that paid subscribers will have their posts promoted, they become a publisher of curated content and not a platform.
    1
  145. I worry that YouTube's solution is going to be Widevine in the same way they use it for paid-for content. DRM is already starting to be rolled out on free-to-air television with ATSC 3.0 for the same reason, to control content and restrict your freedom.
    1
  146. Same thing happened with satellite and cable TV in Europe in the 80s onwards. Free became subscription without ads and then the ads started to creep in to where we are now - expensive subscription with advertising at the same level as free-to-air broadcasters. YouTube Premium will go the same way. Mark my words.
    1
  147. If anything kills off the advertising revenue model for YouTube, this will be it. If advertisers pull their business en-masse, no amount of preventing ad-blocking will prevent the inevitable realisation that their only remaining path to financial survival will be to paywall everything.
    1
  148.  @flameshana9  Alongside content behind the paywall. As you'd need to verify your financial details and identity to prove who you are and that you are a real human. It's been thing for a while with satellite and cable broadcasters and recently became a thing with on demand services.
    1
  149. For these garbage companies, any amount of money is not enough money.
    1
  150. The one problem of the new model of funding everything directly by consumers as opposed to indirectly via advertising and sponsorship is that it heavily shifts the cost of running services from higher spending, richer consumers to everyone. It's a bigger burden on the poorest. Companies have now figured out that it's more profitable to run everything as a service than to have you pay a one off fee with the additional benefit of you never owning anything. By moving away from ads, we may be creating an even bigger problem where the poorest can no longer afford to live and companies cannot afford to raise wages to meet the higher cost of living. If we get to a point where the likes of Best Buy can no longer make profit from your data and advertising and now charge a subscription fee to access their retail service, everyone else will follow and we're in big trouble.
    1
  151. Nothing new. Had a mobile phone provider did it to me. Demanded I double my monthly fee or leave. I left. Never went back. Closing services for "lossmaking" customers and changing the terms down the line to fit their target ARPU is nothing new.
    1
  152.  @Bramble20322  This is why people call YouTube comment sections toxic. Because instead of debating the actual merits and disadvantages, its far easier to go for the ad-hominem. Because everything has to be political and the opposition is the deadly enemy. The first part of your demand is in the link I posted earlier to the scientific paper.
    1
  153.  @MA-zg2pz  If YouTube is refusing to provide a link to anything they don't like (ie. critical of masks), the paper is named "Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis" by Vainshelboim, 2021.
    1
  154.  @Bramble20322  Name of the scientific paper I refered to in reply to M A.
    1
  155. Shark and NINJA are the same company, for your information.
    1
  156. I know video game publishers want second hand sales made illegal on the basis that they don't get a penny from any additional sale of their intellectual property.
    1
  157. The MoneySavingExpert website has confirmed that Amazon will be doing this in the UK from February 5th.
    1
  158. Unpopular opinion - it is entirely possible to live life without a mandatory requirement of being in a relationship. Shocking revelation, I know.
    1
  159. I fear you are right. And that is a tragedy that we will feel the worst effect of in at least a decades time.
    1