A rant about internet things

This is a rant about video sharing sites, and the state of the World Wide Web in general

So I had a look at the "coming soon" page of Vlare, and noticed something a wee bit disturbing. Have a look at https://vlare.tv/

If you look at the bottom, you will read:
"Vlare and our partners set cookies for purposes such as customising content and advertising across our platform. By using this website you are authorizing Vlare to set and use cookies."

Which, to me at least, was a massive red flag.

So I decided to confront the Discord server about it, and they seemed to confirm my suspicion: This new Vlare will have targeted advertising.

Targeted Advertising, or Targeted anything is one of the things I hate the most on the internet. I'm not one of those "Muh Privacy, muh freeze peach" people, but I hate when websites take data they don't absolutely need from me without my consent (and by consent, I mean actually wanting them to, rather than needing to accept it against my will to use an essential service such as Youtube or Zoom) and then using it to, among other things, personalise advertisements to me. It's creepy!

The main reason I want to get away from Youtube is because I don't like having my data being collected and used to tailor shit to me without my permision, be that ads, or video reccomendations. I don't like when sites try to use what they know about me to keep me addicted to their platform, or make me click on their ads.

I'm fine with ads and an website or program being naturally addctive to use (Like Gemini Browsers!), but I despise when they're being enginners specifically to keep you using them.

I feel like Vlare with this choice is eliminating their only advantage only Youtube, and would even go as far as to say it defeats the entire purpose of their existence.

Like, let's think about it: Why would anyone go with Vlare over Youtube? Why would they go with a much smaller platform made by a smaller, less experienced team? The only reason I can see anyone doing it is because thery want to escape the corporate nature of big tech, but if Vlare's aiming to copy them, then we'd just have more of the same, just with less views and exposure. They're even trying to copy Youtube's layout, for crying out loud!

I honestly think Vlare is doomed to fail. Again. They have nothing to offer over the competition.

It's so frustrating as well, because I was looking forward to using them and even considered pledging on Patreon. That's all out the window now.

Even if somehow they get a lot of backlash for this and they remove the targeted ads, they still thought it was a good idea to begin with, showing their mindset. I wouldn't trust anyone who thinks personalised anything is a good idea.

They tried to argue that they "need to have cookies". Aye. Only for basic things like keeping you logged in, and *maybe* what language and theme you set the site to, and *maybe* to keep your position in a video if you close to view later. You don't need anything more, and taking any more is, in my opinion, incredibly creepy.

Just use static ads and maybe have a Patreon or Premium account to remove them. You don't need anything more than that! You're just being greedy!

The most frustrating thing about it all is Vlare looked to be the only good Youtube alternative. TILVids is okay, but that's strictly educational, and everything else has been overun by far right people who were banned from Youtube, and were banned for a reason.

I'm not interested in, and even weary of sites that claim to use blockchain technology and claim to be decentralised. I think sites need some regulation and delete harmful content. The technology seems to provide a safe haven for people with harmful and vile views, and BitChute and Odyssey seem to confirm this.

I don't like when things are *too* centralised, however, like the World Wide Web is now, centralised basically to 5 big social medias, and everything basically links to or screenshots them, and it circles back in the end.

I think Gemini and Gopher have that perfect balance. The Gopherholes and Capsules are centralised basically to one server each, and can, and seem to, ban bad content, but the protocols themselves aren't centralised to anywhere. You don't go to one or two capsules/holes whenever I visit, I just explore and go wherever links take me, and bookmark what I like, just like the classic web!

One browser that seems to encourage classic/"spartan" web browsing, even if it's not intentional, is NetSurf. It basically blocks all back ends and cookies, and most of Javascript from what I can gather, so the bigger sites just flat out won't work on it, but NeoCities sites and whatever you find on Wiby seem to work fine, though some also have issues. Been having fun using that!

Anyway, I guess that wraps up my rant. If you read everything up until now, then you must have a lot of spare time... but thanks!