Things that confuse/annoy you

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TexRex
Free sample. Ever gone to a shop that sells ice cream by the scoop/pint/tub and will let you try a little bit on a tiny plastic or wooden spoon? It's easy to pass it up when you don't know just how good it is, but the sample entices you to buy more. This is nearly identical to the practices both you and I have highlighted.
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Alright, you got me there.

TexRex
Criticize it. I said nothing of criticism. My gripe with Twitter above was itself criticism.

What I said was you shouldn't fault them for the practice. It isn't wrong to fault them, but it's irrational. It may or may not make good business sense to give out free samples, but it certainly isn't good practice to give your product away without limitation.
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Ah, alright then; I think I'm getting it a bit. However, I still have one more problem with this argument. In an Ice Cream shop, I usually don't have to tell them my private information. They just ask for the money the ice cream costs plus tax and that's it.

With Instagram in this case, they're just limiting content just to incentivize me to send them my private information versus another method to show ads. If I had the choice, I would choose the latter. It's not the advertisements or the push to pay that bothers me, but how it's done.
 
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RandomCarGuy17
In an Ice Cream shop, I usually don't have to tell them my private information. They just ask for the money the ice cream costs plus tax and that's it.
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Most of these platforms don't charge you a conventional fee to use their service. Maybe they have a premium service that offers more and for which they charge a fee, but the basic service tends to be "free."

The basic service is free (it's not really, though you may pay no money) because they're monitoring your activities. They're tracking you whenever you follow someone, "like," "retweet," click an outside link and any number of other actions that are valuable to advertisers who want to target you. This doesn't involve sharing of private data (though some do sell that, which absolutely is wrong, and there has been some pushback and penalty for these tactics), it's just behavior analysis.

Guess what, the ice cream shop does this as well, just not to the same degree. They don't target individuals, they don't monitor each and every action and they probably don't sell the information they collect, but when few people buy a certain flavor, they make it in smaller quantities or cease to offer it altogether.
 
TexRex
This doesn't involve sharing of private data (though some do sell that, which absolutely is wrong, and there has been some pushback and penalty for these tactics), it's just behavior analysis.
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and that's my main concern with that. The risk of private data being used in such a way or with hackers coming along and getting that information.

TexRex
Guess what, the ice cream shop does this as well, just not to the same degree. They don't target individuals, they don't monitor each and every action and they probably don't sell the information they collect, but when few people buy a certain flavor, they make it in smaller quantities or cease to offer it altogether.
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Huh? Does an ice cream shop really know my address without me telling them?
 
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I've never been that bothered by social media sites having my info because I've always added the bare minimum and don't even use my primary email.

RandomCarGuy17
Huh? Does an ice cream shop really know my address without me telling them?
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No, but they keep tabs on what flavors sell and what ones don't as well as how people like their ice cream (in a cone or dish, toppings, dine-in or take-out, etc...). From there they will put more focus on the more popular options and less focus or just completely discontinue the less popular options (this goes for any type of business too).

As for your address, that's already out there even if you've never entered it into a social media website. It's actually pretty shocking/terrifying just how little personal info is actually private. With just a name you can pretty much learn someone's basic life story even if they've never used social media.
 
Northstar
No, but they keep tabs on what flavors sell and what ones don't as well as how people like their ice cream (in a cone or dish, toppings, dine-in or take-out, etc...). From there they will put more focus on the more popular options and less focus or just completely discontinue the less popular options (this goes for any type of business too).
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Okay then. I don't care about that.

Northstar
As for your address, that's already out there even if you've never entered it into a social media website. It's actually pretty shocking/terrifying just how little personal info is actually private. With just a name you can pretty much learn someone's basic life story even if they've never used social media.
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and now I think I'll say screw it. It's irrational to get paranoid about sharing information with a company just to look at pictures if it means mine is already out there anyway. Another part of life that I hate.

@TexRex Okay, I think I'll stop badmouthing companies over this now. Still don't know why Instagram can't just use a survey though. Youtube's ad survey is just a simple multi-choice one and that's it.
 
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RandomCarGuy17
and that's my main concern with that. The risk of private data being used in such a way or with hackers coming along and getting that information.
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That's a legitimate concern, and even if it may not be used by these companies for anything nefarious, it's probably not a bad idea to treat it as though it will and provide only bare minimum personal information.

As for hackers, I'd wager any personal information these companies have and don't wish to distribute is probably safer with them than it is with most other companies that have it. Internet security is vital for their business interests.

Still, you do have agency over your actions and your best bet is likely to not have any involvement with companies online that you don't have to. I know you want to, but you trade a degree of privacy for the enjoyment you derive online. It's a call only you can make.
RandomCarGuy17
Still don't know why Instagram can't just use a survey though. Youtube's ad survey is just a simple multi-choice one and that's it
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I'm certain they've considered it's not an worthwhile profit model for them.

I've never made any selections when I get one of those on YouTube. I wait a couple of seconds and click through. But YouTube also has direct ad revenue for the basic service and I gather the premium service eliminates ads.

Tangentially, I've signed up on YouTube so that I have easy access to the content I want, but because I have no desire to rate or comment on uploaded content, much less upload content myself, I've never bothered to create a channel. YouTube knows what interests me, though...even if it frequently ignores it and recommends things in which I have no interest.
 
TexRex
Still, you do have agency over your actions and your best bet is likely to not have any involvement with companies online that you don't have to. I know you want to, but you trade a degree of privacy for the enjoyment you derive online. It's a call only you can make.
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Right, that's something I'm going to try doing for now on. As much as I hate it.

TexRex
Tangentially, I've signed up on YouTube so that I have easy access to the content I want, but because I have no desire to rate or comment on uploaded content, much less upload content myself, I've never bothered to create a channel. YouTube knows what interests me, though...even if it frequently ignores it and recommends things in which I have no interest.
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I wish I could say the same for me with Youtube's ads. I keep getting advertised canva despite most of my viewing time dedicated to either car channels or video game reviews.
 
Something that used to confuse and annoy me was not being able to pop of a beer bottle cap with my bare hands, no matter how hard I tried.

I was just reminded of this watching a Hollywood movie in which it happens a lot.

It was when I was considerably far into my drinking career that I learnt there are such things a screw top beers.
 
W3H5
Something that used to confuse and annoy me was not being able to pop of a beer bottle cap with my bare hands, no matter how hard I tried.

I was just reminded of this watching a Hollywood movie in which it happens a lot.

It was when I was considerably far into my drinking career that I learnt there are such things a screw top beers.
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This reminds me of a house party I was at where the host supplied screw top Budweiser, but there was a few older bottles that needed a bottle opener. Needless to say after a few I unknowingly picked up one of these older ones and proceeded to carve a serrated pattern into my palm :grumpy:
 
One thing that annoys me: People online telling me to buy a wheel.

No, I don't want want a racing wheel. I reffuuuussee to use one. I loathe the idea of using a racing wheel!
 
Something that confuses me is the multiverse theory. In short its the popular theory that there are infinite numbers of universes where everything happens, basically. So there has to be a universe out there that is a 1:1 copy of this one except that the moon is for example one millimeter bigger in diameter, one where Hitler won, one universe where earth is ruled by lizard people etc. Everything ranging from the tiniest to the biggest differences, all possibilities play out.

So that means there is a universe out there that is a 1:1 copy of this one where I suddenly, like in 10 minutes decide to wear a pink dress and dance in the streets like a madman. It has to exist.

My issue is, why would I do illogical things like this, in a universe where everything is like this one except this one difference? I mean the universe is a 1:1 copy except that one single difference, including me. Why would I stand up and do this right now? Why would I do that crazy and illogical thing in another universe?
 
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Multiverse suggest (to me) that possibility is infinite and all probabilities are certain. If there are infinite multiverses, or even infinite space time in our universe, all possibilities are certain.
There’s no way to measure the infinite and as a concept it’s quite mind boggling. So a theory relying on X being infinite is also going to be a hell of a mind bender.

It seems as equally logical to me that we live in a simulation of some sort, because believing in simulation theory or multiverse theory takes a huge amount a faith with the current limited evidence for either.
 
Photobucket.
sigh
What are they even doing with this site anymore? 😒 I used to like it and I used it a lot in my early days here at GTP until GTP12 came out and I no longer needed it to post pictures. As time went on, various things have happened with the website and it only seems to be getting even worse as time goes on. I have reached the point where I no longer enjoy using it anymore.
1. When searching for something, it used to have tabs on the top left, one for photos, another for videos and you could even find comments on said content when clicking on them. But then they changed it where they no longer had those tabs anymore, videos no longer show up in searches, and comments on content are no longer there. Not too bothered by the comments part, but the other 2 however, just why?! 😖 I really liked being able to find both in searches.

2. As some probably remember, at one point years ago they made it where it was no longer free to hotlink images from Photobucket unless you upgraded your account (which cost $400) and some even said they couldn't even download their own pictures unless they upgraded. This was terrible because not only were they essentially holding their pictures for ransom, but that means the countless websites that depended on them for embedding images now only display error messages where the pictures should be. Thankfully, they did away with this later on, but then they started blurring the embedded images, and if I remember correctly, the only way to see them unblurred is to either view them on Photobucket itself or pay a fee. Thankfully they did away with this one too.

Okay, both things may not be a problem anymore, but the fact it happened at all is just despicable. 👎

3. The site used to work reasonably well and displayed images just fine provided your internet wasn't terrible. However, in recent years, I tried using it again and it was the total opposite of that. I had decent internet and it was slower than most websites I used. Not to mention some images didn't always load like they were supposed to, sometimes prompting me to refresh the page multiple times just to be able to see them. And then I frequently had times where it would not return any results when it was supposed to. I could search for something and it would say no results, but then I search the exact same thing again, and then it would display them.

Seriously?! It used to be so much better and then they chose this, which felt like an unfinished beta we shouldn’t be able to use yet. How did they screw this up?!

4. Something I noticed just recently is it’s not slow anymore, but not only is the “no results” glitch still there, but when I search for something, it doesn’t even display photos from Photobucket anymore. Instead, I get a lot of stock images from Shutterstock, many of which are not even vaguely related to what I searched for, and theirs no page numbers at the bottom anymore. 🤔

Seriously, I come here to see pictures posted on Photobucket, not some other website. If I wanted to see pictures from Shutterstock, then I will go on Shutterstock, I don’t need Photobucket for that.

5. Something else I learned just recently is they now limit the number of uploads to 250 for free accounts. If you're like me and have far more than that from before it was introduced, they'll be blurred on the site and you'll get constant emails telling you you're over the limit and need to delete some.

This is incredibly frustrating for me! Before GTP12 was introduced, I used Photobucket to post pictures here on GTP and I have MANY pictures from Photobucket embedded everywhere on here. Then they decide to bait and switch like this years later. I really want to go back and edit my posts with reuploads of the pictures I used just so they won't read weirdly, but I have struggled to find the motivation to do it. 😩
Maybe I am missing something here, maybe theirs more to this than I know, but one thing I do know though is, it's not what it used to be. It has gone so far downhill, it's pretty much a shadow of its former self now and if it weren't for the pictures I shared here, I wouldn't give 2 flips about it anymore. Had 19 year old me known it was going to be like this years later, I probably would have never signed up.
 
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Sonygamer455
Photobucket.
sigh
What are they even doing with this site anymore? 😒 I used to like it and I used it a lot in my early days here at GTP until GTP12 came out and I no longer needed it to post pictures. As time went on, various things have happened with the website and it only seems to be getting even worse as time goes on. I have reached the point where I no longer enjoy using it anymore.
1. When searching for something, it used to have tabs on the top left, one for photos, another for videos and you could even find comments on said content when clicking on them. But then they changed it where they no longer had those tabs anymore, videos no longer show up in searches, and comments on content are no longer there. Not too bothered by the comments part, but the other 2 however, just why?! 😖 I really liked being able to find both in searches.

2. As some probably remember, at one point years ago they made it where it was no longer free to hotlink images from Photobucket unless you upgraded your account (which cost $400) and some even said they couldn't even download their own pictures unless they upgraded. This was terrible because not only were they essentially holding their pictures for ransom, but that means the countless websites that depended on them for embedding images now only display error messages where the pictures should be. Thankfully, they did away with this later on, but then they started blurring the embedded images, and if I remember correctly, the only way to see them unblurred is to either view them on Photobucket itself or pay a fee. Thankfully they did away with this one too.

Okay, both things may not be a problem anymore, but the fact it happened at all is just despicable. 👎

3. The site used to work reasonably well and displayed images just fine provided your internet wasn't terrible. However, in recent years, I tried using it again and it was the total opposite of that. I had decent internet and it was slower than most websites I used. Not to mention some images didn't always load like they were supposed to, sometimes prompting me to refresh the page multiple times just to be able to see them. And then I frequently had times where it would not return any results when it was supposed to. I could search for something and it would say no results, but then I search the exact same thing again, and then it would display them.

Seriously?! It used to be so much better and then they chose this, which felt like an unfinished beta we shouldn’t be able to use yet. How did they screw this up?!

4. Something I noticed just recently is it’s not slow anymore, but not only is the “no results” glitch still there, but when I search for something, it doesn’t even display photos from Photobucket anymore. Instead, I get a lot of stock images from Shutterstock, many of which are not even vaguely related to what I searched for, and theirs no page numbers at the bottom anymore. 🤔

Seriously, I come here to see pictures posted on Photobucket, not some other website. If I wanted to see pictures from Shutterstock, then I will go on Shutterstock, I don’t need Photobucket for that.

5. Something else I learned just recently is they now limit the number of uploads to 250 for free accounts. If you're like me and have far more than that from before it was introduced, they'll be blurred on the site and you'll get constant emails telling you you're over the limit and need to delete some.

This is incredibly frustrating for me! Before GTP12 was introduced, I used Photobucket to post pictures here on GTP and I have MANY pictures from Photobucket embedded everywhere on here. Then they decide to bait and switch like this years later. I really want to go back and edit my posts with reuploads of the pictures I used just so they won't read weirdly, but I have struggled to find the motivation to do it. 😩
Maybe I am missing something here, maybe theirs more to this than I know, but one thing I do know though is, it's not what it used to be. It has gone so far downhill, it's pretty much a shadow of its former self now and if it weren't for the pictures I shared here, I wouldn't give 2 flips about it anymore. Had 19 year old me known it was going to be like this years later, I probably would have never signed up.
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Same here, I'm dreading how much of my surviving stuff all around the web is broken now that Photobucket's poop and Tinypic's dead.

Have the bulk of my images on Imgur now; site's still a right pain at times (no Imgur we can talk about me getting the app once you allow me to do something as dead simple as choosing the size of the thumbnail I want within it, until then I'll force-load the desktop site on my phone and do things the old-fashioned way) but when it works it works just right.
 
Darla Starch
Same here, I'm dreading how much of my surviving stuff all around the web is broken now that Photobucket's poop and Tinypic's dead.
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Well, it is worth noting the pictures on one of my later posts on here to utilize Photobucket still show the pictures just fine, it's only on the website now they're blurred. I do wonder exactly what they will do to my account if I don't delete my pictures. 🤔

I find it interesting TinyPic's website says this:

Go Unlimited.​

Make the switch to Photobucket​

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To that I say:
 
I get confused on how people label all filler in TV Shows as terrible.

For me, several of my favourite episodes have been filler episodes. Filler can be done right as a way to give us insight to a character and how they are when the plot isn't happening so they don't need to rely on a flashback and when the plot comes back and impacts the character, there's more weight to it since we know how the character is outside the plot.

In fact when shows switched to being seasonal, I wish there was more filler material to get us to know the characters more personally as I don't think they have as much weight without it

Filler can be done wrong, I really don't like the ones that is just flashbacks, I don't like abrupt filler either, filler needs to be timed when the plot is able to cool down for a bit but to label it all bad just because it's "filler" I think give is painting it all with one massive stroke and I don't get it.
 
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RESHIRAM5
I get confused on how people label all filler in TV Shows as terrible.

For me, several of my favourite episodes have been filler episodes. Filler can be done right as a way to give us insight to a character and how they are when the plot isn't happening so they don't need to rely on a flashback and when the plot comes back and impacts the character, there's us more weight to it since we know how the character is outside the plot.

In fact when shows switched to being seasonal, I wish there was more filler material to get us to know the characters more personally as I don't think they have as much weight without it

Filler can be done wrong, I really don't like the ones that is just flashbacks, I don't like abrupt filler either, filler needs to be timed when the plot is able to cool down for a bit but to label it all bad just because because it's "filler" I think give is painting it all with one massive stroke and I don't get it.
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What bugs me more is this thing they do in some animes where half-way through the season they'll have a recap episode. This episode will usually have about two minutes of new footage while the rest is just characters recounting all the events of the last eleven or twelve episodes. So annoying.
 
UnkaD
What bugs me more is this thing they do in some animes where half-way through the season they'll have a recap episode. This episode will usually have about two minutes of new footage while the rest is just characters recounting all the events of the last eleven or twelve episodes. So annoying.
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I won't defend recap filler episodes as mentioned before. They don't add anything at all, not to the plot (granted most fillers don't otherwise it ain't filler) or to the individual characters (which good fillers do).

Although I get why they exist even though I don't like it, as it is to save animators time and/or money when things get too tight as it's mainly reusing assets, however I remember Yugioh VRAINS had 2 recap episodes in the first season due to animation constraints and it got to the point where they axed the Animation director and eventually Konami moved Yugioh to a different animation company altogether for SEVENS so there even is a point of too much annoyance for even there
 
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"Smart casual".

No such thing. If it's smart, it isn't casual. If it's casual, it isn't smart. Stop messing about and just say if you want me in the suit.
 
Roo
"Smart casual".

No such thing. If it's smart, it isn't casual. If it's casual, it isn't smart. Stop messing about and just say if you want me in the suit.
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I remember back in school with our Drama excursions being "Smart Casual" as the Dress Code. I always thought it was just any shirt that didn't have a design.

They eventually dropped it for our last year and it was just our School uniforms
 
My every day business casual attire is dress pants and a polo shirt.

Casual on Fridays is jeans and a polo.

I don't go full business except for weddings and funerals. I've been the most dressed up guy at the last two weddings I've gone to. :lol:
 
“Standard” and “Deluxe” editions of albums.
Artists releasing 2 versions of an album, one with more content than the other. This has become a rather common practice with music albums in the past decade and it’s one I really wish would stop already. I really don’t like the idea of having 2 different versions of an album because you could buy the standard version without even knowing the deluxe edition exists or before said version is even released and end up missing out on some extra tracks. I once bought an album from Blake Shelton, didn’t realize until afterward they had a deluxe edition and ended up returning it after since I’d rather have the deluxe edition.

Sure that’s probably my fault for not doing my research first, fair enough, it’s not as a big of a deal if they’re both already available. However, what’s even more annoying is when they wait until later to release the deluxe edition. My dad got an album from Luke Combs for his birthday once, only to be bamboozled a week later when he released the deluxe edition with 6 new tracks on it. I also bought an album from Kenny Chesney last year and he later did the same thing. If you’re going to release a deluxe edition of an album, either do it when it first releases or don’t do it at all.

I can imagine why artists do this and I’m sure theirs more to to it than I am currently aware of, but at the same time, I don’t fully understand why they do this. As a consumer, I find this annoying and would be happier if they just released one version of an album instead of splitting it into two different releases.
 
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TB
My every day business casual attire is dress pants and a polo shirt.

Casual on Fridays is jeans and a polo.

I don't go full business except for weddings and funerals. I've been the most dressed up guy at the last two weddings I've gone to. :lol:
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How to say you live in North Dakota, without actually saying you live in North Dakota. ;)
 
TheCracker
How to say you live in North Dakota, without actually saying you live in North Dakota. ;)
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The last five years or so attire for weddings has really gone downhill. Seems like jeans and a not dirty shirt is good enough to get married in. :boggled:
 
Overly tight teeth in CD/DVD cases.
Something I have been meaning to post about for a while now. Whether it be music, videos games, or movies, it's something that bothers me no matter what kind of media it is. I have a Tanya Tucker box set I got in recent years and while it's nice, the discs are hard to get out and I feel like I am going to break them every time I try to get them out. Pretty sure I've seen this in some other CDs as well, two of my Garth Brooks box sets being one of them, but I can't recall any others.

Perhaps the worst example I have seen yet is with NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for the PC. Got this game nearly a year ago and it was the single hardest one to get out I have seen. I don't think I was able to get it out without bending it slightly and it made me nervous every single time. So much so, I had to take an Exacto knife to the teeth and carve them down because the fit was unacceptably tight, and seeing what this game tends to go for, the last thing I want is to break it.

I get those teeth are designed to keep the disc from falling out and possibly getting damaged and it's great they exist. However, if I feel like I am going to break the durn thing just trying to get it out, that kind of negates its purpose and becomes a concerning inconvenience instead. If you're going to put these in the package, make it so it's easy to get out when you want to use it but not so easy it falls on the floor when the case is open, don't make it so needlessly cumbersome to take out.
 
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