The enshitification continues.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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Cancel your sub and don’t renew it. This shit will only continue getting worse if people continue paying for it
I canceled Prime as soon as they announced they were adding ads and I let them know that was the reason. Fuck them. We moved to streaming because it wasn't cable, now these fuck heads are trying to turn streaming into cable. Capitalism is the fucking worst.
I'm busy with work lately, but I'm investing into setting up Jellyfin, and the moment that's running, I'm canceling as well.
Would cancel sooner, but I'm not the one that actually uses it, so this was the compromise.
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I only have it because I have prime for shopping. If they were separate fees, I would not have streaming.
If you live near a regional transportation hub it probably won’t make a difference on your delivery times. We dropped prime when our “1 day” deliveries kept turning in 3 day deliveries and never saw a difference.
And honestly a lot of the stuff I used to get on there isn’t even cheaper on Amazon anymore. Half the time if I check the manufacturer website they’re having a sale or have no shipping costs or cover returns longer, something like that. YMMV, you know your situation and needs better than me.
You may as well buy from Aliexpress if you are shopping on Amazon. The only difference is the price and the transit time.
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Same, and even that is getting worse. I feel like I have to fight with the search algorithm to actually find what I want for the best price. Most of the time, I could order something better from another retailer for a better price and still get free shipping. They don't even do free returns anymore.
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I started acquiring my prime videos elsewhere even though I have prime
Say it out loud. We're both pirating content we've paid for. What a dumb system.
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I actually get Prime TV series from the high seas even though I'm subscribed to Prime. It's simply better UX this way.
Same here. I have Prime but only for their Amazon Prime delivery services, not for their video or audio thing(Amazon refuses to unbundle their stuff in my country). To make it worse, Amazon Prime Video, Atleast last I tried didn't go to full HD(or even 720p) on Firefox on Linux, so there is no point to it.
And there is hardly an ethical concern to it. I am paying for a service but getting my hands on the material; just via a different supply chain because Amazon sucks.
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It is insane to me how piracy is making a comeback because decision makers forgot Gabe's lesson
What's Gabe's lesson?
Piracy is a service problem.
There's a reason I use spotify and steam.
Yeah, theres a very good reason I dont use Spotify anymore. Not any music streaming services at all. Only good ol' reliable mp3s. Their idea of "service" is to silently remove songs from my playlists as their licenses expire, and then top it by replacing "Hotel California" with the WORST cover song I've ever heard.
Imagine if Sony stopped selling on Steam, and Steam in response silently replaced my "Days Gone" game with "The Day Before"? I would have been so pissed. But with music it seems that is totally okay.
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“We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem,”
“If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”
And I haven't pirated a game in I don't even know how long now because of Steam.
TV show? Last week.
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I'm one of the people that canceled when they announced they were going to be putting ads in prime. I'm doing just fine without it.
I've honestly just hit a point in life where I'm dine giving megacorps money. I stopped piracy like a decade ago because I had the means to pay for shit, but since then companies have just started treating customers with more and more disrespect, and I'm perfectly knowledgeable on how to access most of their shit fir free and with less restrictions and hassle. So Im back to piracy not fir money reasons, but FUCK YOU reasons
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Jesus christ do these people not understand what “Pause” means? It means my roommate just walked in and wants to discuss something. It means we’re looking at the freeze frame to see some aspect of the shot. It means the same damned collection of events should happen any time a “Pause” control’s been triggered since the invention of playback.
Why are the UX people not fighting them on this? Why does design have to be about breaking everything these days?
UX vet here.
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UX usually never ever has the final say on this stuff. Product management, finance, and marketing almost always win out in most companies. Heck, in just about every agile training that is given, people are taught that product management gets the final vote on whether or not a feature gets prioritized.
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Amazon is famous for being driven by bean counters and analysts. Many of their product development decisions are driven by measurable short term incremental tests. Amazon has never really known how to build physical or digital experiences that people love.
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UX designers present to Directors and VPs; VPs and Directors speak to their C-level; C-level and Board want more money; VPs and Directors tell UX/UI team; UX team complains; designers fired; UI outsourced at 2x rate; Ad driven website achieved; Consumer Satisfaction drops; Revenue increases; Board rich; People poor; Sad
The UX people did have that fight. It ultimately comes down to "take your check and do it, or we can find someone who will"
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Yes. Because when I pause to discuss a show I'm watching with someone, or to otherwise pay attention to something else for a moment, for some other sound and video to play is exactly what I want.
This makes literally no sense. The whole point of pausing, is that it's something you do right before you turn your attention away, and that's when they want to show you ads?
Either these ads won't work, because no-one will look at them, or they will defeat the point of pausing, annoying the living shit out of your users. It's a lose-lose for everyone involved. Including the advertisers.
I remember when commercial breaks were the time when you went to the bathroom/got snacks and then ran back and jumped over the couch to get back before the show started again.
But most ads don't work on a conscious level. They're there to make whatever is being advertised seem normal and good, like birds singing in the trees, background noise you associate with good feelings. The point isn't to get people to engage rationally. The point is to elicit positive emotions and associate them with a brand.
The point is to elicit positive emotions and associate them with a brand.
This is super obvious in pharmaceutical commercials as they all follow the same formula of upbeat music, people either enjoying nature or a party with friends, and lots of smiling as the voice-over tells you about the anal leakage and heart failure side effects.
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There's an easy solution for that.
Cancel it. Stop buying things from Amazon. Stop giving that awful company your money.
Our research shows that we can fill up to 80% of the visual field with ads before we induce seizures!
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Any streaming service that tries to combine ads+sub is just as greedy as cable TV and I can't support that kind of shitty business practice. Ads free or sub no ads. Cancelled each service as they rolled out that trash. Currently only subbed to Criterion and thinking of resubbing to Shudder.
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Once. It'll better be one hell of an ad because it will lose them my subscription. I stopped watching television back in the late 90s because of all the ads, before even I had internet to watch pirated media. I don't wear clothes with too visible logos. Just saying to illustrate how this ain't an empty threat.
Losing a single customer probably doesn't matter to them. But I hope Im not the only one?
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Just cancelled my prime today. I don't watch the video, just use it for delivery
It said "But you've save €247 with your prime account since the start!"
Over the last six years I've paid about €270 for the prime subscription
Fuck off Amazon
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Just imagine. If you install Amazon video on an external streaming device and hook it up to a new Roku TV, you could get the pleasure of looking at multiple layers of Pause screen ads.
Adverts are inevitable, these companies cannot help themselves. The temptation to double dip... A subscription from stupid saps and money from advertising. Soon the ads will creep into the other subscription tiers.
Piracy and ad blocking is the only escape.
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Spending all that time and money setting up my homeserver is looking better and better every day...
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After almost 20 years as a Prime subscriber I unsubscribed about a week ago. It was the ads, I put up with a lot of nonsense over the years but the ads were the final insult.
I'm not paying full streaming service prices for a service with ads.
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