4 ms·

Or perhaps that algorithms are just a scapegoat for the ignorant and superstitious and yet another example of the oh so trendy serf mentality that takes no resp

Or perhaps that algorithms are just a scapegoat for the ignorant and superstitious and yet another example of the oh so trendy serf mentality that takes no responsibility for their own life and its progreession.

dredmorbius 10mo ago
1. Being able to specifically curate and manage content, by downloading it, is precisely the user-centric self-sovereignty which counters that serf mentality. And Google (and numerous other algorithmically-driven services) explicitly target and disable such tools where and when they can. See the ongoing war against yt-dlp, extensively discussed on HN: <https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp>. Not to mention the earlier youtube-dl: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=youtube-dl&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. Another was mps-youtube, a CLI client which was hands-down the best interface YouTube ever had. Search (videos, channels), list-creation, download, and playback preferences (audio-only, which I largely prefer, full video, specified video resolution and/or audio quality, etc.), all locally managed without any obligation for a YouTube account. Of course Google killed it by way of its API key. See <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183> and generally <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=mps-youtube%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. 2. Just how much autonomy, wisdom, and ability to counter teams of highly-paid and highly-qualified attention engineers do you expect children and infants to possess? Or even their harried and distracted parents? Arguments for self-restraint against commercial addiction merchants have played poorly for well over 150 years, going back to the unregulated hawking of morphine- and cocaine-laced products, amongst others.

dredmorbius 10mo ago

1. Being able to specifically curate and manage content, by downloading it, is precisely the user-centric self-sovereignty which counters that serf mentality. And Google (and numerous other algorithmically-driven services) explicitly target and disable such tools where and when they can. See the ongoing war against yt-dlp, extensively discussed on HN: <https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp>. Not to mention the earlier youtube-dl: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=youtube-dl&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. Another was mps-youtube, a CLI client which was hands-down the best interface YouTube ever had. Search (videos, channels), list-creation, download, and playback preferences (audio-only, which I largely prefer, full video, specified video resolution and/or audio quality, etc.), all locally managed without any obligation for a YouTube account. Of course Google killed it by way of its API key. See <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183> and generally <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=mps-youtube%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. 2. Just how much autonomy, wisdom, and ability to counter teams of highly-paid and highly-qualified attention engineers do you expect children and infants to possess? Or even their harried and distracted parents? Arguments for self-restraint against commercial addiction merchants have played poorly for well over 150 years, going back to the unregulated hawking of morphine- and cocaine-laced products, amongst others.