I’m not fully there yet since this summer has been more reasonable this year here, but I’m on my way to wishing it would go by quicker.

Words cannot express how much I hate walking out of the gym after a workout, already pouring sweat, exhausted, and out of breath, into essentially an outdoor sauna, and then into my car with all-black interior that you can’t even breathe when you get in because it’s so hot. Such an all-around awful feeling.

Also, like you, I really don’t like the super long days. I don’t like the super short days either, but right now it’s still bright out when I go to sleep and it’s annoying. I like having a couple hours where it’s dark before I go to bed as it feels like a nice wind down and perfect for watching TV or gaming without glares on the TV or just my space being lighter than I want.

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful response. I try not to let these type of interactions get to me because I know I should not let stranger’s opinion be able to affect me that much. I should be the gatekeeper of my emotions and what I let affect me. I just was already not having a great day yesterday, and being treated poorly for literally no reason, and realizing I wasted my time sharing my ideas just put me a bit over the edge.

And you’re right, these kinds of interactions are just something that happens as being a part of the internet and even just as part of humanity in the real world too. Bad actors are bad actors.

Not to mention, the “just google it” comment is also terrible even if it was made in good faith considering how bad Google seems to have gotten at providing actual useful search results. Hence, why so many people add “Reddit” to the end of their search query, just making everything full circle. You’re providing the content people are googling by making your post.

Yeah, I’m really loving the downvote feature being gone. I’ve been on another forum that had a noticeable decrease in toxicity when they removed their dislike reaction too.

Oh man, that’s intense. I know what you mean about that kind of hostility fostering more hostility even within yourself. It’s not a good environment for anyone.

I totally get it. When you get that kind of reaction to just trying to contribute or you read a toxic comments section, it makes you wonder why you should contribute or be there at all!

I use Apple Watch for general/overall fitness tracking. I use Hevy for my weightlifting workouts.

I’d say I’ve like 70% degoogled.

• For search, I mainly use DuckDuckGo, but will use Google if I can’t find what I’m looking for on DDG.
• I do watch a lot of YouTube.
• I use Apple Maps primarily, but I use Google Maps to check reviews and to see how busy a place is. I also use Waze occasionally which is owned by Google.
• I use E2EE iCloud - Files, documents, spreadsheets, photos, notes. But I do have some Google Docs from years ago still in my Google Account.
• I use a combination of iCloud Email and ProtonMail primarily for email, but I still have my Gmail for receiving random things that still have that email attached to it.
• I use Safari and Firefox primarily as my browsers. Only use Chrome if I’m forced to, and I don’t login to it.

May I ask why? That seems unsustainable to expect to be able to get the same amount of entertainment and utility from creators without helping compensate them.

Also, I would argue monetization has had to increase because of people using adblockers and the Silicon Valley mentality of “grow first, make money later.” Now that interest rates are high, social media companies are being forced to make money wherever they can since money isn’t cheap anymore.

If this is purely companies already being profitable and trying to just suck as much money as possible from their user base, then I would agree with you. But Twitter has been rumored for months to be close to having their lights shut off, and Reddit apparently isn’t profitable. Idk about YouTube, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not profitable and/or wouldn’t be able to exist without Google being its parent company today due to their other businesses diversifying their revenue streams.

I guess this will be an unpopular opinion, but YouTube is justified in doing this imo. Video hosting isn’t cheap, especially providing 4K & 8K. They’ve gotta be able to support costs somehow, and if you’re not paying for Premium, you should be paying with ads. You’re also preventing the content creators from being compensated for content that you find valuable, useful, and/or entertaining.

I know ads are annoying, and I hate them just as much as you do. But a big reason why we have people who make super niche videos that help you learn how to fix something on your car or those regular videos that you watch every week is because the creators are able to get compensated for their work. Are you really saying that utility and entertainment isn’t worth 30 seconds of ads and it’s better to not support them at all?

Part of the reason we’re in this enshittification era of social media is because of the expectation of social media to be free. We need to learn from our past mistakes. It’s not sustainable.

DuckDuckGo. Google if DDG isn't cutting it.

It’s not super surprising since, if you look at history, there tends to be progress, then pushback, progress, then pushback, over and over. Progress was the 90s-2010s, now’s the pushback. We just can’t let the pushback win.

Sounds really interesting! I haven’t heard about it before this, and honestly, I’m always looking for things to get into on Prime Video because I rarely use it though I pay for it. Thanks for posting!

Generally agree, but this document is also from January 2021. Apple brought E2EE to almost all aspects of iCloud in December 2022 including iCloud Backups. It's opt-in, so theoretically, if you were having a conversation with a contact who didn't opt-in to E2EE but backed up their iMessages to iCloud, the government could still access your messages via that contact even if you opted-in to E2EE, but still.

While essentially killing off 3rd party apps is disappointing, I could’ve understood and been willing to switch to the official app and maybe even pay monthly for no ads and more features.

What made me leave is how poorly Huffman and the company treated the developers, moderators, and users.

For developers:

• Reddit went back on their word about no API cost changes this year
• Lied about making the API cost reasonable
• Gave developers very little time to adjust
• Treated developers and their apps as freeloaders instead of as a source of growth for Reddit when they didn’t even have an app yet
• Blatantly slandered Apollo’s developer

For moderators:

• Reddit treated moderators as if their input didn’t matter despite providing free labor for the site
• Framed them as being power hungry for disagreeing and protesting Reddit’s decisions

For users:

• Reddit treated users as if their input didn’t matter despite Reddit being a user-generated content site
• Treated their contributions to the site as Reddit’s property, not their own
• Essentially said users are just a bunch of whiney babies who are powerless, have no willpower, and will visit the site no matter what we do

Also, even besides Huffman showing his true colors as being a total asshole, it just makes Reddit’s poor leadership SO evident. How do you become such a popular site with free content and free moderators, and still can’t make money? How do you manage to turn a great Reddit third-party app into a buggy mess of an official app? Why are you constantly prioritizing what you think users want instead of just listening to them? And now you essentially just told all of us: “fuck you, I own you and your content, and I am entitled to to make money off of you.”

No, I’m not saying you or MacRumors are wrong. I’m saying Spez is being Spez, lying directly to the public’s faces while doing exactly what he says he’s not doing.

This is literally a copy and paste from another article with Huffman posted TODAY:

While the company does “respect the community’s right to protest” and pledges that it won’t force communities to reopen, Reddit also suggests there’s no need for that.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762501/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-interview-protests-blackout

Yeah it’s funny how I always got warned about how “the internet is forever” when it comes to being care about what you post on social media, which isn’t bad advice and is kinda true, but also really kinda not true. So many things I’ve wanted to find on the internet that I experienced like 5-15 years ago are just gone without a trace.

My most common reading times are during my lunch break at work and before work if I wake up earlier than I need to be awake. But other than that, I just read in little bursts throughout the day when I have free time.

I prefer eBooks over physical books because they're easier to hold, have adjustable font sizes and themes, and I don't need a light to read. This is nice when reading before bed so that I can read my book in the dark, with light text on a black background. It's also nice that I can read practically anywhere since I almost always have my phone or some other device on me.

I don't play music when reading. I prefer a quiet environment.

Yet I often tend to think way too long on even smaller digital expenses, like an app for €2, but I will happily pay €10 for a coffee and a croissant at a train station like it is nothing.

I think about this a lot too. I spend $10 on a drink that's gone in a half hour, and I'll never remember having months from now, but spend lots of time questioning whether it's worth it to pay for apps I use daily.

I regularly pay for a VPN, cloud storage, and music/video streaming. I find myself most willing to pay extra for no ads on streaming services I use a lot, even if I only pay for a month here or there (YouTube, Peacock, Hulu). I used to pay for Proton (VPN, Email, Cloud Storage, and Calendar) before iCloud implemented E2EE. Sometimes I'll pay for news.

I find a lot of the apps I use I wouldn't benefit from paying for extra features for, and if I would benefit from them, I wouldn't have enough free time to use it to justify paying for it. A lot of my needs are covered by the free and/or stock apps.