Anomnomnomaly

Ease of access to internet porn, ruined my enjoyment of porn.

Let's give this classic poem a tweak shall we...

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trans community (The UK is currently here) And I did not speak out Because I was not trans

Then they came for all people of colour (The USA is now here) And I did not speak out Because I was not a person of colour

Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

Not caring because it doesn't directly affect you is how you end up on this road to fascism to begin with. It's why there have been thousands of arrests of innocent people in the UK for simply protesting about a ban on a group of people who threw paint on some RAF planes and vandalised some genocide supporting israeli weapons manufacturer... because some people do care about others, because they have compassion and a conscience.

If the UK goes ahead with plans to ban protests entirely as they saying... those numbers will increase because it won't stop the people and the numbers continue to grow and if you try to stamp it out, there will only be one way it ends... with state authorised violence and death against people protesting the killing of innocent civilians.

That's the road you are on with that attitude, and then you'll be screaming that last line and playing the victim.

No, it's because imgur has refused to conduct the simple 'are you over the age of XX' when people create accounts, which is required by law... there's no verification of anything involved. Just a tick the box exercise... they couldn't even be bothered to do that and that's why they're being investigated and are facing massive fines for years of refusal to do what every other site has done for probably 2 decades now... It's got nothing to do with the draconian online safety act that was recently brought in... it's imgur throwing their toys out of the pram and screaming 'LALALALALALALA' we can't hear you now. it will have zero effect on the investigation and fines for their previous failings to follow the law... it's literally cutting of their nose to spite their face.

You've failed to understand the problem entirely... the entire internet asks users to confirm they are above a certain age when creating accounts... and that happened because the USA demanded it. There's nothing authoritarian about it... it's a simple 'Are you over 13yrs of age' and you tick yes... that was it.

Can you just browse other peoples uploads on there looking for funny pics and memes?

You're not being asked to, the UK govt hasn't done anything to them... they did this to themselves by failing to do anything about age verification long before the online safety act came in recently. This is about their failings over the prior years to do basic age checks that have been common on the internet for decades now... going dark in the UK doesn't affect the ongoing investigations or the fines that will be imposed... they're basically throwing their toys out of the pram and shouting LALALALALALALALA we can't hear you anymore.

Imgur had gone to dogshit anyway, it's no real loss and the new owners keep making it worse and after the last round of protests from users, went on a mass banning and censorship campaign to further alienate and anger the users they desperately need to shove an ever increasing amount of ads too.

Blame the right people... the greedy, ignorant techbros who want to extract every ounce of ad revenue they can to line their own pockets at the expense of killing the product they bought.

It's been dying for a long time, the vpn blocking started ages ago and the UK block entirely was recent as they're facing massive fines in the UK... nothing to do with the online safety act that recently came into effect... but due to an ongoing investigation over imgurs failure to do basic age checks at all... and blocking the UK is tantamount to them throwing their toys out of the pram and going LALALALALALALA we can't hear you now. It won't affect the investigations and fines over the years of failings prior to that.

After the last wave of protests over the shitty new owners and their repeated firings of staff and the degredation of the service... they went on a mass banning and censorship spree and further alienated the users. I can't imagine there are that many left there now.

Not worth the effort trying to get around it... there are alternatives that are actually better.

For people thinking about taking up this offer, make sure you have a large enough garden, and know that your insurance will increase your premiums if you have a tree within 5 meters of the property... because tree roots can damage the foundations and potentially void your insurance if you fail to inform them.

I think the jist of my reasoning is quite simple... people need to be willing to put up with a fraction more inconvenience, perhaps get used to waiting a few extra days for a delivery. I cancelled my prime almost 2yrs ago, get a lot more stuff locally, sometimes being prepared to pay a little extra because I know I'll get better quality products. I have a thing with my feet called supination (both feet roll outwards slightly) that caused me pain and injuries. After a gait analysis, I was recommended a specific type of 'rocker' style footware (good running shoes are perfect) and orthotics to go in them. it's transformed my ability to walk and reduced my pain. But those shoes aren't cheap, nor are the orthotics. I got the first pair from amazon a few years ago. I decided to get a waterproof pair for winter and extra orthotics as I should replace those every 4-6 months at least.

I found buying the running shoes direct from the maker, was no different than amazon, and found specialist online sellers of the orthotics that were 10% cheaper. I buy 2 pairs of orthotics a year and replace one pair of trainers each year... so summer ones one year, winter ones the next... and each pair does me at least 18 months... and I now subscribe to the Samuel Vimes theory of socioeconimic unfairness.

The old saying, "you can have things cheap, quality or quick, but can only pick two". is how I've adjusted my life now and you know what... it's improved it a huge amount.

The only way to win, is not to play. Cancel your prime, shop elsewhere and you 'WILL' get better deals, for those of you in the UK and EU, ALWAYS use a credit card for online purchases, as that gives you even better protections.

Shop locally, support businesses in your community, because the money you spend there, gets spent there over and over again. When you spend it in chain stores and online, that money is sucked out of your community.

I get it though... some people only care about the convenience of the deal, and that's the real cause of enshitification... the peoples failure to care about the effort they put into things... In effect it's a form of laziness and conditioning, people value their convenience above and beyond anything else. We see it in everything, social media is amongst the very worst of it, with friends complaining that they can't keep in touch because 'you're not on (insert SM name here)'... because the effort of stepping outside the bubble they've been sucked into is far too inconvenient for them, and you get to find out that these people are not really your friends... they never were, because they're convenience was always more important than your existence to them.

As for amazon, brands have woken up... do a search for something and you'll rarely find anything from those branded manufacturers... only 3rd party sellers and cheap crappy chinese knock-offs. Items that don;t even meant safety standards in the country they being sold in. Electrical goods that are a fire hazard and have caused loss of life... and amazon keeps getting away with it because '3rd party sellers' not them.

The only way to win is not to play... cancel your subscriptions, stop using their services, stop buying digital goods that can be taken away from you. Return to physical media that actually ends up being cheaper in the long run. You are the consumer, you have the power... hell... try going without a few times, you don't actually need that cheap piece of plastic crap you just ordered to save yourself a few minutes of 'prep' time in the kitchen that will break after a couple of weeks or be consigned the back of a cupboard after a few uses and forgotten about.

You have the power... use it better.

If you are in the UK and you tunnel into your home via VPN... you are still in the UK, you need to connect to a VPN service/server outside of the UK.

I lay in bed at night looking up at the stars and the only thing I'm thinking is 'Where the fuck is my ceiling'