Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

They’re paying Joe Rogan $200M to be the exclusive home of his conspiracy disinformation bullshit, and they’re more concerned about forest_stream_with_gentle_rain_3.mp3?

Kudos to them for rolling out support more widely, but it’s a bit misleading as Firefox nightly/Fennec has supported extensions for years (albeit via a cumbersome process), and Kiwi Browser is also a thing.

I can’t understand how folks out there are just rawdogging the Internet out there without ublock or at least a DNS ad filter. Admittedly, Chrome runs a hair more smoothly, but the ability to use extensions like uBlock / DarkReader / Consent-O-Matic make the Firefox experience a tier above.

I just hope this makes it possible to install the Bypass Paywalls extension again so I don’t have to hop over to Kiwi for that.

Spotify is also paying Rogan $200 million for the honor of being the exclusive platform used to spread his disinformation, which is one of the reasons I prefer to avoid it. It’s bad enough they distribute it, but the fact that my subscriber dollars would directly be funding his bullshit just sticks in my craw too much.

It was a community built by a former Reddit backend developer, Deimos. He also built the subredditsimulator subs and automoderator, and is looking to purposefully cultivate an online community that avoids some of the common pitfalls, mainly:

• Gravitating over time towards low-effort, lowest common denominator clickbait.
• A culture of lawful-evil trolls who “follow the rules” but are ultimately assholes who ruin the vibe.

Personally I love what he’s done with the place. It’s small, but it’s big enough and I find that the quality of comments is far better than what you might find in most corners of the internet. I’ve also got a few invites if anyone wants to check it out.

Also the Tildes app is astoundingly good for what the developer is calling an “alpha”.

• YouTube test threatens to block viewers if they continue using ad blockers
• How well is uBlock Origin working for you in Chrome Mobile?
• Read up on Manifest V3. They were forced to delay Jan 2023 implementation due to outcry, but it’s still very much on their roadmap.

Are you really certain that Google is trying to eliminate adblocking is just an alarmist assumption?

I think the issue is that Google has both A) a track record of backdooring restrictions on adblocking, and B) an overwhelming motivation to do so seeing as how they generate their revenue from online advertising. They’ve forfeited the benefit of the doubt, especially when they’ve already disclosed that the whole point of the change is to enhance the profitability of online advertising:

Google’s engineers elaborate, “Websites funded by ads require proof that their users are human and not bots…Social websites need to differentiate between real user engagement and fake engagement”

So given that once implemented, this hop and this skip would just require a teensy jump in order to further restrict adblocking, it is reasonable to assume that’s within their desired goals.

I’ve been very happy with Tidal. I prefer the UX to the Spotify app but it is lacking some functionality like Spotify Connect. It’s also nice that they pay artists more, and that none of my subscription fees are feeding into a $200 million contract for Joe Rogan.

If you use Google Home/Assistant, Tidal doesn’t integrate well. It does integrate with Alexa.

As far as audio quality, I’m reasonably certain that I’d be unable to discern between the top tiers of any of the current services in a blind A/B test.