We all know the struggle of beloved services slowly going downhill. What’s one service, tool, or website you’ve been using for years that’s still great and hasn’t turned to crap?
Craigslist
Hasn’t changed much at all, and their app is exactly what it needs to be, nothing more–i think the only thing I wasn’t able to do in the app was clear a saved search, but there’s no bloat, no ads, don’t need an account unless you’re posting or saving searches.
Every few years I’ll look for something on craigslist and every time I’m amazed that it’s still going strong and it’s still exactly the same.
The site still looks like it came right out of the late 90’s and that’s all it needs to be
Does rockauto.com count?
Stack Exchange. I know, controversial, as people complain about rules being there too strict and community not being too welcoming nowadays, but still a real goldmine of knowledge. All of that with no ads, no spam, no dark patterns.
Wikipedia.
Though I could do without the endless donation blockups.
I can forgive Wikipedia and Internet Archive for the spam. Both sites are incredibly valuable and completely ad-free.
They are one of the highest achievements of humanity, imho, that even make me feel proud to be a human.
It’s hard not to try to support them.
The “spam” is for them to operate, not maximise their profits.It’s not that simple and transparent actually. Wikipedia doesn’t really need those donations to operate. They have money reserves for many years of expenses. I don’t have a great source right now but this article looks decent. I didn’t read the whole thing though.
Gotcha, it’s another anti-European (and anti-USA), anti-male, quasi-Marxist organization. This is what your donations to Wikipedia are going to. Wikipedia spends more money on left-wing causes than actually running an encyclopedia, and by a very long-shot.
Well shit, I guess I’ll start donating
I see nothing wrong with that.
I just think it’s fair to say the way they ask for donations is at least a little bit disingenuous.
I came here to say both of those things about the Internet Archive, but I also hope both of those orgs get tons of donations regularly because I wouldn’t want to live in a world without them
Just found these custom ad block filters. Seems to be working so far
wikipedia.org##.nag-trigger wikipedia.org###centralNotice wikipedia.org##[id$=“banner-nag”] wikipedia.org###frb-inline wikipedia.org##.cn-fundraisingI just pay the 52$ once a year and know I’ve done my part for knowledge.
You know what?
I’m gonna start doing that.
It’s not just the spam, there is other enshittification like the endless co-option with AI companies and private info disclosure (aka surveillance capitalism) under the self-serving excuse of being anonymized or aggregated.
You can login and it’ll stop with the pop ups for a year.
Android ? Kinda ? I have practically only noticed progress since I started using it.
This might change in the near future though
Google is ending AOSP support and has announced they’re gonna stop allowing sideloading.
Ok, I might switch to the Apple side then
They will have the same issues, but at least when it works, it works flawlessly
Piratebay.
MUDs are fine
Oh that takes me back. MUDs are still a thing?
Yep! Most don’t really have much population, but very much still have a number that exist!
Fastmail. Getting better and better, profitable and charging for services.
Posthaven. Not getting better and better but started good and staying good. Profitable and charging for services.
Unraid. Getting better and better. Not cheap, but a lot simpler to operate than TrueNAS for day to day stuff.
Kickstarter. Yes they’re a virtual monopoly but so many awesome things I’ve joined through it (though fuck you Eve/Dough for roping me into your shitty monitor which never really worked).
Virpil controllers. Rock solid, made by fanatics and rightly loved by fans. Cannot speak highly enough about their hardware (though their attitude to customer service is … Eastern European).
Affinity products. They might be cresting though and about to roll steeply downhill towards enshittification valley. But I still love them for now.
Linux. What’s not to love.
Lemmy. In fact so so many open source products. Honestly, it’s hard to grasp the quality.
My local library.
Eh, if we are talking about online stuff then VLC.
Commenting for future reference
Linux has become better and better and now its incredibly good, better then windows and mac OS if you just spend a few weeks learning the small differences.
Yeah I have to say I should have moved over earlier but it is literally better. Like osx initially was massive as its unix base gave it a great gui with unix terminal power but linux now blows that away (and apple enshitified since but even comparing to its heyday)
7zip and VLC.
7zip
qttabbar
everything
windows 10 ms paint
windows 10 notepad
sublime, I think
Can’t mention Sublime without also a nod to Notepad++
Let’s you register an easy to remember domain name linked to an IP address you specify. It’s useful for self hosting or avoiding having to buy a domain name.
Free version makes you confirm every month that you still want the domain name, but that’s just a couple of clicks from the email they send you.
Thank you for this. Not sure how I’ve managed to completely miss it.
Steam. I think a lot of people are unappreciative of how user friendly and open it is. When Gabe bites the dust I think it’s going to get very shit very quick.
Yeah when hes gone it will go the way of ea and ubisoft, no question. There’s so much untapped market there. First thing will be steam subscriptions. Starting at 10 dollars a month. Then limiting your game downloads to 2 per month so no installing and uninstall ing as you wish.
Mark my words. Prepare to leave steam.
The risk is real, but it depends. If it goes pubic it’s all over. If it stays private or worker-owned it stands a chance.
Definitely best to keep steam away from the pubics
