site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I do so because I think the idea of renting access to your media is insane, and it baffles me that so many people seem to be ok with it.

Seems like there's just SO MUCH media out there that people accept that there's no way they can actually keep up with it all.

Imagine what it might be like owning 100 different cars when you can only drive one per day. It would make more sense to rent/lease than to just have most of them sitting unused all day.

Yes, I know storage costs round to zero for digital music. I'm mostly referring to the mentality. "I will watch this movie maybe twice this year, why bother keeping it around any longer?

I buy a digital download or I rip the CDs I own. Tag them, and then put them in Plex media server.

I'm so devoted to not relying on centralized services I went with Jellyfin instead.

I'm so devoted to not relying on centralized services I went with Jellyfin instead.

To be fair, Plex isn't inherently centralized. They offer that, but it's perfectly possible to not ever hook your media server up to their centralized service.

I don't quite follow. If one never uses the centralized service then surely there's no problem? Because then there are no "friends" for it to share your data with.

Yes, I'm just saying that the software is maintained by a company that may not make the best decisions for the end-users because incentives aren't quite aligned.