4 ms·

Most of those sites filter what you upload, doesn't allow some content and limit your possibilities. I often see messages like: "Wait 60 seconds before...", "T

by GvS 17y ago

Most of those sites filter what you upload, doesn't allow some content and limit your possibilities. I often see messages like: "Wait 60 seconds before...", "This video is not available in your country", "Your account has been banned because we say so". You are also limited by some laws that normaly don't apply to you, because service is located in other country. You often have to deal with popups and ugly banners. Speed might be the only problem, but sometimes freedom is worth it.

froo 17y ago
Let me address some of your problems. "Most of those sites filter what you upload, doesn't allow some content and limit your possibilities." Yes, because most of those sites are content specific (eg, youtube is for videos, not documents) That being said, there are sites like Rapidshare which don't. I often see messages like: "Wait 60 seconds before..." Ok, let's assume you mean rapidshare. Well, let's do a little analysis of that shall we. I have the fastest home connection available in my country - 24 mbit adsl. My max download speeds are around 2mb/s down and 70kb/sec up. So, assuming I am downloading a 50mb file from a friend and he has a similar connection to mine, it would take about 11 minutes to download directly from him, or 1.5 minutes to download from rapidshare (which includes the 60 second wait time).... no contest. When you're sharing files with multiple people, this becomes more apparent which is the superior solution. "This video is not available in your country" Well I live in Australia, we have some of the most restrictive distribution deals when it comes to media content and I've only ever seen those kinds of messages from places like the TV networks and Hulu. I don't think this really applies to peer content, so the point is moot. "Your account has been banned because we say so". If you're sharing illegal content or content that is of a questionable nature, then of course you're going to get banned. Either way, the point still stands about the speeds given a lot of this content would be video, which doesn't really scale for home connections. "You are also limited by some laws that normaly don't apply to you, because service is located in other country." You would also be limited by the exact same laws if someone is downloading from your computer who lives in another country. "You often have to deal with popups" None of the sites I linked above showed me a popup when I visited them to make sure all the links work.... "and ugly banners." So far, the only valid point you've made.... and that is easily avoidable with adblockers. "Speed might be the only problem" Well, it's a pretty big problem if you want to share on any kind of scale. "but sometimes freedom is worth it." Freedom how? Unless you are doing some seriously shady shit, most of the above services won't even blink an eyelid at what you're doing.
- vorador 17y ago
  Freedom how? Unless you are doing some seriously shady shit, most of the above services won't even blink an eyelid at what you're doing. I know that facebook has banned photos related to breastfeeding. Your arguments are practical but it's an ethical problem. Some people care about their freedom (for instance by only using free software) and don't want to have their personal data freely available on the internet.
  - froo 17y ago
    and don't want to have their personal data freely available on the internet. With a lot of the sites I mentioned above, you do have the option of privacy settings so that only certain users can see files. So the point is still moot. Opera is embedding something into their browser that firefox has had as an extension since sometime last year (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3002 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3002) and that people who really cared about could have easily downloaded apache... yet are claiming it as a revolutionary idea? What's more, it's an impractical idea at it's core, which is why the practise hasn't taken off in any previous incarnations (speed is a fairly big issue for a lot of users), meanwhile these social sharing websites continue to flourish. Lastly and this is a real testament to just how much Opera has missed the mark, they also want to implement their own protocol (unite://) for it to actually work in some cases? Dumb from the get go.
    - vorador 17y ago
      and that people who really cared about could have easily downloaded apache And what if I'm not a techie but I still want to control my data ? With a lot of the sites I mentioned above, you do have the option of privacy settings so that only certain users can see files. And what if I don't want my data to be stored and later used by systems like Facebook Beacon ?
      - froo 17y ago
        "And what if I'm not a techie but I still want to control my data ?" Then if you were really paranoid about controlling your data - you don't share it, at least not on a publicly accessible network like the internet. It's a simple concept. "And what if I don't want my data to be stored and later used by systems like Facebook Beacon ?" It already is, whether you like it or not, eg, Google.

by GvS 17y ago

froo 17y ago

Let me address some of your problems. "Most of those sites filter what you upload, doesn't allow some content and limit your possibilities." Yes, because most of those sites are content specific (eg, youtube is for videos, not documents) That being said, there are sites like Rapidshare which don't. I often see messages like: "Wait 60 seconds before..." Ok, let's assume you mean rapidshare. Well, let's do a little analysis of that shall we. I have the fastest home connection available in my country - 24 mbit adsl. My max download speeds are around 2mb/s down and 70kb/sec up. So, assuming I am downloading a 50mb file from a friend and he has a similar connection to mine, it would take about 11 minutes to download directly from him, or 1.5 minutes to download from rapidshare (which includes the 60 second wait time).... no contest. When you're sharing files with multiple people, this becomes more apparent which is the superior solution. "This video is not available in your country" Well I live in Australia, we have some of the most restrictive distribution deals when it comes to media content and I've only ever seen those kinds of messages from places like the TV networks and Hulu. I don't think this really applies to peer content, so the point is moot. "Your account has been banned because we say so". If you're sharing illegal content or content that is of a questionable nature, then of course you're going to get banned. Either way, the point still stands about the speeds given a lot of this content would be video, which doesn't really scale for home connections. "You are also limited by some laws that normaly don't apply to you, because service is located in other country." You would also be limited by the exact same laws if someone is downloading from your computer who lives in another country. "You often have to deal with popups" None of the sites I linked above showed me a popup when I visited them to make sure all the links work.... "and ugly banners." So far, the only valid point you've made.... and that is easily avoidable with adblockers. "Speed might be the only problem" Well, it's a pretty big problem if you want to share on any kind of scale. "but sometimes freedom is worth it." Freedom how? Unless you are doing some seriously shady shit, most of the above services won't even blink an eyelid at what you're doing.

vorador 17y ago
Freedom how? Unless you are doing some seriously shady shit, most of the above services won't even blink an eyelid at what you're doing. I know that facebook has banned photos related to breastfeeding. Your arguments are practical but it's an ethical problem. Some people care about their freedom (for instance by only using free software) and don't want to have their personal data freely available on the internet.
- froo 17y ago
  and don't want to have their personal data freely available on the internet. With a lot of the sites I mentioned above, you do have the option of privacy settings so that only certain users can see files. So the point is still moot. Opera is embedding something into their browser that firefox has had as an extension since sometime last year (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3002 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3002) and that people who really cared about could have easily downloaded apache... yet are claiming it as a revolutionary idea? What's more, it's an impractical idea at it's core, which is why the practise hasn't taken off in any previous incarnations (speed is a fairly big issue for a lot of users), meanwhile these social sharing websites continue to flourish. Lastly and this is a real testament to just how much Opera has missed the mark, they also want to implement their own protocol (unite://) for it to actually work in some cases? Dumb from the get go.
  - vorador 17y ago
    and that people who really cared about could have easily downloaded apache And what if I'm not a techie but I still want to control my data ? With a lot of the sites I mentioned above, you do have the option of privacy settings so that only certain users can see files. And what if I don't want my data to be stored and later used by systems like Facebook Beacon ?
    - froo 17y ago
      "And what if I'm not a techie but I still want to control my data ?" Then if you were really paranoid about controlling your data - you don't share it, at least not on a publicly accessible network like the internet. It's a simple concept. "And what if I don't want my data to be stored and later used by systems like Facebook Beacon ?" It already is, whether you like it or not, eg, Google.