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I am becoming happier by the day with my decision to become a pirate again. I have no regrets and will continue to support artists and creators I like personall

by goolz 3y ago

I am becoming happier by the day with my decision to become a pirate again. I have no regrets and will continue to support artists and creators I like personally. But enough is enough. Plex pass is all I need for now and with a private tracker and a lifetime pass I pay nothing, no ads, 4k with all different codecs. Honestly, after being visually-raped by advertisers for so long I just got sick of it. And considering how execs treat us plebs I have little moral qualms too.

foxyv 3y ago
After going as long as I have without advertisements, I've realized just how psychologically violent they are. The colors, sounds, and manipulation are all over the top. I don't think I could handle watching that stuff anymore. Or, at least I don't want to go back to that.
- abawany 3y ago
  Yep, that was my epiphany as well - after trying Netflix and its then ad-free experience about 10 years ago, TV and other ad-infested 'entertainment' was ruined for me forever. I currently pay for YT Premium and unsubscribe from any channels that force in-video ads. While I didn't stay a Netflix streaming member (and will stop being a DVD member when they kill that service), I thank them for showing me how much better things could be.
  - tech234a 3y ago
    You can use SponsorBlock [1] to skip in-video ads. [1]: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/
- potsandpans 3y ago
  at the risk of being histrionic, I view ads as memetic viruses. when you think about what an ad is actually is trying to achieve, its pretty wild that we just accept them as the status quo.
  - foxyv 3y ago
    When you consider how many mistaken ideas people have about beauty, health, and identity just because of advertising. There are people who will literally fight you if you bad mouth their "Brand." Not to mention the trillions of dollars wasted on products that literally do nothing or are actively harmful to their users. It's insanity. The most insidious part is that by the time advertising has completed it's work, most people don't even know that their ideas originated from an advertisement.
hot_gril 3y ago
Piracy is never as seamless as you make it sound.
- DANmode 3y ago
  It really depends on your approach, and your flexibility on your content
- goolz 3y ago
  I dispute and resent this. Yes, maybe 10 years ago, but with 2 private trackers, a small server I run at home (seed boxes are good too, up to you really, I like home NAS) plus the *dar ecosystem provides the bots. I type one line to discord and have 4k, commercial free goodness in less than 5seconds. Edit: for the curious I have a Roku 4k stick (so cheap) and a cheap 4k 50inch. I can queue entire seasons with *dar and Requestrr. Merrily, merrily, merrily, pirating is but a dream.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Yes, that complex setup (which will inevitably require future maintenance) is what I mean by non-seemless.
    - goolz 3y ago
      It took like an hour to setup? I just use Plex and Requestrr+*darr. The only hard part would probably be getting a private tracker invite but honestly all you need is to not be too prickly of a person. An afternoon, mayhaps a weekend max, to set yourself free from ads? Worth it. And to whoever made Requestrr you ROCK. Super seamless, and free. Keep making the world a better place!
    - Stephen304 3y ago
      What requires maintenance though? It's not like there's going to be a breaking change to bittorrent protocol that requires you to update. Most of the pieces of the process are connected just by files in directories (if you don't use a transmission-api compatible torrent client, any client that can watch a folder for .torrent files will do the job), the arrstack picks up completed files from a specific location and drops them where plex can see them. The most important thing to update is the torrent feed aggregator (prowlarr) so new torrent sites will be available, but I just enabled 5 or so reputable-looking sites about 2 years ago and haven't needed to go into the UI since so even then you can just let one version run for a long time and it'll be fine. It's very low-touch after the initial setup. In the years I've used it, the only time I needed to touch it is when I'm impatient and want to check when the digital release for something is, which is usually approximately when stuff shows up on torrent sites - give or take a couple hours for popular content and give or take a day or two for less popular content.

by goolz 3y ago

foxyv 3y ago

After going as long as I have without advertisements, I've realized just how psychologically violent they are. The colors, sounds, and manipulation are all over the top. I don't think I could handle watching that stuff anymore. Or, at least I don't want to go back to that.

abawany 3y ago
Yep, that was my epiphany as well - after trying Netflix and its then ad-free experience about 10 years ago, TV and other ad-infested 'entertainment' was ruined for me forever. I currently pay for YT Premium and unsubscribe from any channels that force in-video ads. While I didn't stay a Netflix streaming member (and will stop being a DVD member when they kill that service), I thank them for showing me how much better things could be.
- tech234a 3y ago
  You can use SponsorBlock [1] to skip in-video ads. [1]: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/
potsandpans 3y ago
at the risk of being histrionic, I view ads as memetic viruses. when you think about what an ad is actually is trying to achieve, its pretty wild that we just accept them as the status quo.
- foxyv 3y ago
  When you consider how many mistaken ideas people have about beauty, health, and identity just because of advertising. There are people who will literally fight you if you bad mouth their "Brand." Not to mention the trillions of dollars wasted on products that literally do nothing or are actively harmful to their users. It's insanity. The most insidious part is that by the time advertising has completed it's work, most people don't even know that their ideas originated from an advertisement.

hot_gril 3y ago

Piracy is never as seamless as you make it sound.

DANmode 3y ago
It really depends on your approach, and your flexibility on your content
goolz 3y ago
I dispute and resent this. Yes, maybe 10 years ago, but with 2 private trackers, a small server I run at home (seed boxes are good too, up to you really, I like home NAS) plus the *dar ecosystem provides the bots. I type one line to discord and have 4k, commercial free goodness in less than 5seconds. Edit: for the curious I have a Roku 4k stick (so cheap) and a cheap 4k 50inch. I can queue entire seasons with *dar and Requestrr. Merrily, merrily, merrily, pirating is but a dream.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Yes, that complex setup (which will inevitably require future maintenance) is what I mean by non-seemless.
  - goolz 3y ago
    It took like an hour to setup? I just use Plex and Requestrr+*darr. The only hard part would probably be getting a private tracker invite but honestly all you need is to not be too prickly of a person. An afternoon, mayhaps a weekend max, to set yourself free from ads? Worth it. And to whoever made Requestrr you ROCK. Super seamless, and free. Keep making the world a better place!
  - Stephen304 3y ago
    What requires maintenance though? It's not like there's going to be a breaking change to bittorrent protocol that requires you to update. Most of the pieces of the process are connected just by files in directories (if you don't use a transmission-api compatible torrent client, any client that can watch a folder for .torrent files will do the job), the arrstack picks up completed files from a specific location and drops them where plex can see them. The most important thing to update is the torrent feed aggregator (prowlarr) so new torrent sites will be available, but I just enabled 5 or so reputable-looking sites about 2 years ago and haven't needed to go into the UI since so even then you can just let one version run for a long time and it'll be fine. It's very low-touch after the initial setup. In the years I've used it, the only time I needed to touch it is when I'm impatient and want to check when the digital release for something is, which is usually approximately when stuff shows up on torrent sites - give or take a couple hours for popular content and give or take a day or two for less popular content.