The CCleaner Worm attack (that wasn’t), and the EDEX Discord

Posted on 09-18-2017 by Benie

I didn’t want to say this thing, as I felt it was too embarrassing. But it’s the only way to get it off my chest.
What started off as a legit threat by using a trusted program, ended with me being publically humiliated in the EDEX Discord server. How this entire shitshow played out, is below.

I was just doing my normal thing (checking Youtube, the Wurm Online forum, the Discord servers I’m a part of). The EDEX Discord caught my eye. One of the members was reporting of this link claiming that CCleaner has a worm, and it was pinned to the server’s #announcements channel. I went over to the channel and saw the pinned topic, and all I could feel was anger and frustration for these people who would do this.
The link (seen here) is a highly detailed blog post by someone named “Cisco Talos”, who discovered the malicious code and reported it to the developers. Skimming through the post, I saw nothing being indicated what to do if you have this worm (or even how to prevent getting it), which I found quite odd.

Why would this person warn the devs, yet not help normal users deal with it? It felt like nothing was being done, which really frustrated me. So I went to the Discord server and ‘talked’ about it (aka letting my frustration do the talking).
They just had me to believe that again..nothing was being done to stop the worm. And then I’m given this article which states they did stop it, and the article that Talos made was just to “generate buzz”.

I’m beside myself, not knowing who to believe anymore. Did I just get trolled hard, first being told “what can be done?”, then told “by the way, they did fix it”? What the heck did I do to cause this to happen?
Ok, fine. Whatever. That’s great. It’s fixed. Don’t have to worry about it. But when I asked “so why is the article still pinned to #announcements?”, they act like they never did it. WTF?! I just saw it happen! I even took a screenshot of the pinned topic and showed it to them, and one says “…read the timestamps Benie, I did that earlier in the month.”
It. clearly. states. it. was. DONE. TODAY!! READ IT CLOSER, DUMBASS!!!

But, whatever. There’s no point of getting into a fight over a timestamp, so I just stopped talking. But it just proves that nothing is safe on the internet..not even what has been safe for years, on a legitimate website.
How in the hell can I protect myself from these things? Not use the fucking internet?! Because it isn’t going to stop here. There’s going to be more like this. For example, something like Speccy could be used to put a Trojan into.
It infuriates me that people could stoop so low, in betraying trust by making reputable companies look bad. Why, and what in the fuck can I use to defend myself, if I can’t even trust a reputable antivirus (like AVG or even Microsoft Security Essentials)?!

I just don’t know anymore. The internet is a scary place.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on The CCleaner Worm attack (that wasn’t), and the EDEX Discord

So, this “bitcoin mining” thing…. is it our future?

Posted on 09-17-2017 by Benie

I feel quite embarrassed of just now starting to hear and learn about this ‘bitcoin mining’ thing, and apparently how profitable it is. It’s actually scaring me in a way.
From what I can make out, the ‘Bitcoin’ started as early as 2008. And the reason is some people are worried the government has too much control over the banks (how they could stop your account), and so someone made their own ‘internet currency’.
Of course, the threat of a ‘global financial collapse’ didn’t exactly help much (which could still happen, mind you). You know, that thing experts warn that physical paper and coin money would be useless if it happens?

And…that’s as far as I know. I’m guessing this ‘bitcoin mining’ is similar to buying (and selling) Gold or Stocks, which..seems perfectly legal. However, what’s not OK with this, is these people who mine are buying loads of GPU’s, which is causing these hardware manufactures (AMD especially) to jack up their prices in hopes of stopping this thing. For example, a 1080Ti that was once $400…is now $700+.

But without knowing the entire story, I don’t really know if they’re to blame here. Which is what’s scaring me. It’s almost if these “Cryptocurrency” miners might be trying to send a signal to buy before the banks siege your money (aka the global financial collapse).
I do know this is the same currency that these assholes who make Ransomware are using, to trick people in getting their files back. I know THAT’s illegal, at least. Bitcoin cannot be traced to the one that received it, which that to me is… I dunno.
What are “laws”, really? Are they just holding us back? Just feels like there’s dark times ahead. Excuse me while I go get my tinfoil hat.

Posted in Personal, Politics | Comments Off on So, this “bitcoin mining” thing…. is it our future?

A free (yet awkward) way to get Windows 10

Posted on 09-17-2017 by Benie

Right, so as I was doing some massive, desperately needed edits to the blog post below this one, I was talking to Tulsi about trying to find cheaper alternatives to the hardware (mainly Windows 10).
He told me how he never once paid for a key, and he got the ISO off of a website and managed to mount it to a flash drive. Wow, technology.. wow. I remember when these little thumb drives didn’t exist, and you had to burn it to a CD-R (and then used a program to mount it).
Anyway, he also warned me about this ‘Windows Toolkit’, which generates the key. There’s a lot of sites that aren’t safe, and he just says to be very careful with them. So..I doubt I’m going to take that risk.

There’s also this ‘kenguin.net’, which is one of those sites that are…well, not good if you’re a video game developer. It’s a key reseller site, and they offer a Windows 10 key for $30. I personally felt “this is legit”..seriously, I did, completely ignoring about Pretty Good Gaming saying not to use these sites as they aren’t paying the devs.
Decided to ask Discord again, wondering if they think this is an OK site to use. Was told how they’re ‘in a gray area’, and the hoops I’ll have to jump to get customer support if something goes wrong.

Then one of them asked if I had the key for Windows 7, I said yes, and the person said that I might still be able to get the free upgrade direct from Windows. However….there’s a catch. I have to pretend I’m physically disabled (aka deaf) to upgrade freely using ‘assistive technologies’. Clearly I have no need to use such software, but this seems to be the only, legit way to get Windows 10 without paying for it.
Which brings up another reason why I was avoiding the free upgrade back in 2015 like the plaque. A ‘free upgrade’ isn’t a clean install/reformat(which is why I feel I need to get the OEM). Though I was surprised when I was told I can do both. I also asked if this is just an installer that I can throw on my drive, and pick a date to do it. But I was told it’s Windows 10 itself.
And as for if the key for my OEM copy of 7 will still work after installing this, I was told “it should” (and something about I’ll be stuck with it for a month if I feel I don’t like it and I want to go back to 7).

This is literally what I wanted; a ‘free trial’ of Windows 10. If I feel it’s worth it, then I’ll gladly pay the $100 for the OEM. But it’s going to have to really impress me. Though I don’t know if this is Windows 10 Home or Professional (I’m going to assume it’s Home), it will be interesting.
So now I got to backup my SSD (though I feel mostly everything’s already backed up on my external) and then pick a date to try this, as I’m going to be stuck with it for a month.
…And I believe I’ll pick October 1st to do it. It’ll push me all the way through Halloween. But why October instead of now? I just want to ‘say my goodbyes’ to Windows 7 before I smack that shiny ‘UPGRADE NOW >’ button. Also, call me quite nervous and full of questions.
“Will my hardware work flawlessly after upgrading to 10?”
“Will my games run faster (and be more stable) in 10?”
“How stable is 10 compared to 7?”
“Does 10 have full customization like 7 (aka, to not make the programs list look like a touch screen))?”
“What if my key doesn’t work and I’m stuck with an unauthenticated version of 10?”
“What if Microsoft finds out I’m not physically disabled and do something to me?”
And so on..and so on. It’s a lot to think about.

Posted in Computing | Comments Off on A free (yet awkward) way to get Windows 10

I can’t help but feel I messed up somewhere (the old upgrade)

Posted on 09-11-2017 by Benie

Can you believe it’s been four months since I tried to upgrade my computer? Though, why am I bringing this up? Well… it’s because I’m bored. And I’ve been bored enough to watch a few channels with tech videos (mainly Linus Tech Tips).
Youtube managed to show me Linus’ colleagues. But one of them seemed more ‘down to Earth’ when it comes to explaining things (for non-tech savvy people like myself who just want to buy some parts, slap them in and play games). And that is ‘JayzTwoCents’.
Rumors are going around that he’s the ‘king of watercooling’, teaching that anyone can do their own watercooling system for their computer. It definitely shows in his videos.
What’s so cool with this guy, is not only that he occasionally gives away computers he built (and tells it as it is (if AMD or Intel decide to fuck their customers up the ass with BS business)), but the fact he built a custom computer for the one and only “Old Spice guy”, Terry Crews. And Terry is a pretty awesome, POWWWWEEEERRRRRRful guy. Plus he shows that anyone, no matter their age, job, or what they believe in, can ‘geek out’ and join the PC Master Race.

But I digress. …Back to the point of this blog post. In this video (back in 2015, but IMO it’s still relevant), he built a system using only AMD (powered by an FX 8370 (he claims in another video that this is “‘the flagship’ for all low end FX CPU’s”)). But what really caught my eye was the motherboard. This is very similar to the board I had bought to properly underclock the 9590 (I had a Gigabyte, he used MSI). And he had no issues with thermal throttling or studdering in these current gen games.
It started to make me wonder, if the RAM I currently have in my computer (or even the 9590) was the reason for my computer beeping/shutting down before POST. There’s this video, trying to figure out why a computer he was trying to fix for someone wasn’t working, and discovered it was ‘bad RAM’.

Since then, this has given me that crazy itch to buy more hardware, which is this (note the Case/RAM/GPU/PSU/CPU Cooler, is what’s current in my computer. It’s just for reference). Buy the same thing he used, and finally say “I upgraded”. However, I wanted to consult with Tulsi and see if this build would work. Though at the time of typing this, he’s getting ready to head to Las Vegas (I guess just for the hell of it).
–
So I was forced to ask the Discord channels I’m a part of, and get their opinions if this “late” build is worth getting. Though even trying to defend the fact people still use the 8370 since last year in their builds, I was quite frustrated when I was told to get a Ryzen 5 instead. Getting current gen tech, costs the most money (and in turn will take the most time to save up). Yet when told the Ryzen 5 was actually cheaper than the 8370 (and the $700+(USD) i7), getting a Ryzen seems like the best deal.
And so I was recommended this build, featuring better RAM (and also a copy of Windows 10, but we’ll come back to that later).

Looking at the Ryzen 5 closer, it only has 6 cores, which is just two more cores of my 4350. And.. $200+(USD) for a 6 core? I dunno.. until I saw this website and was able to compare it VS my 4350..VS the 9590, and I got some quite interesting results. The 4350 has a faster clock speed than the Ryzen 5 (with the 9590 having the highest). When I asked why is that, I was told this has started to happen since five years ago. Manufactures (mainly Intel) have discovered that they can make a CPU run more efficiently by taking less power from the PSU, but in turn lowers their clock speed. This still gave room for them to give the CPU more powerful threads (which is why the Ryzen 5 is clearly seen beating both of my previous CPU’s in performance).
I feel this greatly lessens the uncertainty I had of the Ryzen 5. With a lower power draw, means less heat. So it should be OK for overclocking, and still try to keep it below 64*C.

There was also an issue that I didn’t notice ’till a day later, of the motherboard only having 5 USB ports. My current board has 8, and they’re all filled up (thanks to my external drive taking two slots). Took care of that with a slightly more expensive (and also better looking) board.
And here’s the build as it stands at this time. Again, this also has Windows 10 added to the total cost. Some of you are probably saying “Benie, you said you’ll never touch Windows 10! You liar! You sellout!” First off, how am I “selling out” when I’m not being sponsored by Microsoft(or anyone for that matter)? I still feel that anger I had, but it’s starting to die down as it very slowly gets closer and closer to 2020.
I can’t keep 7 forever. I have to upgrade eventually (to take advantage of DirectX 12..even though my 750Ti supports up to DirectX 11).
Probably will be looking for a new card, something like a 1060 or something. The 1080 is still quite expensive right now, and it doesn’t support DVI (which my old primary monitor requires).
But I digress. Even though I’ve been told the Ryzen 5 “should” work in 7 (according to AMD not going the way of Intel & Nvidia and forcing Windows 10 only hardware), by the time I come up with just over $500, it’ll be 2018. So I might as well start the year off right.

Back to the build, I also can’t shake this feeling of “is it even worth saving? Am I just bored with life this much?” And that feeling is the fact I rarely (if ever) review PC games. The thing is, Steam isn’t like Gamefly (there’s no option to rent). Yes there’s the thing that I can get my money back, but personally that’s nowhere near long enough to get a good review. I need much longer than two hours to get that special feeling for the story.
So please don’t be all “Benie’s now a console peasant! He’s playing a PS4 more! He’s no longer welcome in our glorious PC Master Race!” That’s not true at all. If Steam (or whoever) had a service like Gamefly, where you can rent any PC game you want for a nominal fee(for as long as you want with no late fees), don’t you think I’d jump for it?
I’m mainly curious on how the Ryzen 5 1600 would work with singlethreaded games (Minecraft and Wurm). According to that benchmarking site, it says there’s good marks for singlethreading (higher than the 9590).

All I know, is the anxiety of having to wait (just to know if I’m ‘going to be happy’) is absurdly real. I’m debating if I should seek out eBay for a cheaper (yet more risky) alternative.

Posted in Computing | Comments Off on I can’t help but feel I messed up somewhere (the old upgrade)

The 16 year anniversary of 9/11. Do you still remember?

Posted on 09-11-2017 by Benie

So it’s that time of year again, to understand why we still have troops overseas. Yet lately it’s been to stop ISIS than the ones that carried about the devastating attack in New York City, 16 years ago.

Also, sorry for writing this so late. Surprisingly, I actually forgotten about this day. Otherwise, I would had prewrote this a few days ago.
And also still, though I didn’t wake up at the exact time where I seem to remember mother telling me that something happened to New York and watch it on TV, and they were talking about a plane that hit the first tower, I was woken by the sound of hammers and drills of people installing new gutters on the house this morning. I’m surprised I got any sleep, especially one time it sounded like they were drilling into my ear.

What happened at 9/11 is tragic, but it also started a positive movement that no matter our race, color of the skin, political belief, and religion(on and off the internet), that all Americans can stand up as one united nation against terrorism, and any natural threat (hurricanes/tornadoes/fires/earthquakes/etc..). We support eachother. Plus in the aftermath, just like in the bloody wars in the past, “our flag was still there”. And it was still standing in the rubble of the towers, to show just how united we are in the face of diversity.
For this, I’m proud to be an American (even despite Trump leading it).

Though of course, let’s not forget the men and women that lost their lives in the towers, and the NYPD who bravely went into the towers to save people.

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on The 16 year anniversary of 9/11. Do you still remember?

Were the crazy theorists about the eclipse…right?

Posted on 09-08-2017 by Benie

Okay, first I question if it’s worth doing reviews, check Twitter and now an 8.4 magnitude earthquake has happened off the coast of Mexico (three hours ago).
We have three hurricanes in the Atlantic (with one in the Gulf of Mexico), and one being the ‘strongest on record’ (though this has been disproved by the NHC’s hurricane archive).
All of this has happened just under a month since the total solar eclipse, with Harvey being (from what I can remember) the only hurricane this year to hit the US mainland. What made that so devastating was it dumping 50″ of rain on Houston (as there was a large blocking high pressure over New Mexico keeping it from going further inland).
And now a monster hurricane with the evilest eye that you could possibly put a monocle on and it would look like a James Bond villain, is heading for Florida.

With all of this chaos going on, one would think this could be a sign from God to, I dunno.. stop destroying our planet by no longer ignoring climate change!? Of course, that’s why I (and many others who KNOW climate change is real and it’s only going to get worse), are being called a “Libtard”.
Now, I honestly don’t even know what a ‘Liberal’ is, just to show how much I’m interested in politics. Though I do have to say an earthquake has nothing to do with climate change. But having one hurricane after the other, hitting the US (and spiking the cost of gas)…that’s not a good thing, folks.

My prayers reach out to the ones in Mexico, Houston (and soon all of Florida)..unlike Trump, who goes to North Dakota and says “be glad you guys aren’t soaked like Houston!” I don’t live in Houston, and I find that..very disappointing coming from our President. Those people have been through hell and back! How DARE he use that tone.

Oh, but we mustn’t forget the icing on the cake of this whole hell hole, with Mr itchy trigger finger Kim Jong Un of North Korea..detonating a fucking NUKE (and causing a 6.6 magnitude earthquake) that is said to be more powerful than the ones dropped that ended World War 2.
I don’t like the way Trump is handling our safety. ‘Fire and Fury’ is a good Dragonforce song title, but not something that should be used on someone that only speaks by attempting to scare the world to death by launching missiles!

.
Sorry, was I talking about? Wow..how did this conversation go from earthquakes to Trump? Forgive me. Anyway, I am quite scared if this activates the fault in Illinois…or worse, the ‘Super Volcano’ in Yosemite(said to put the Earth into another ice age if it erupts).

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Were the crazy theorists about the eclipse…right?

That same old song and dance, of being a video game reviewer

Posted on 09-08-2017 by Benie

I was going to review the second game from PS+ this month (you can read the first one here, by the way)…. that was until I saw a video yesterday from Youtuber ‘Pretty Good Gaming’. They do reviews and news of the video game industry, and are pretty good at their jobs.
This video, titled “Is it OK to SUCK AT GAMES!?”, I originally thought it was a video similar to the style that ‘Outside Xbox’ uses, going over the rage feeling in video games and wanting to throw their controller against a wall…except this hit close to home. It felt like it was firing a warning, at me (at the way I review games).

Let me get to the point here. This conversation is about someone (named ‘Takahashi’) who calls himself a ‘video game journalist’, and has been doing it for 25 years (not sure how different that is from being a video game reviewer… but I digress) who was attending the tail end of Gamescon this year, and he sat down to play this game called ‘Cuphead’ (which seems to be a side-scroller in a 1960’s-like cartoon theme). It was also said to be quite brutal, as it sends waves upon enemies at you. Personally the fact it’s in color, it tends to throw away that feeling of old TV (as we didn’t have color TV ’till the late 70’s).
So this guy sat down to this game while in Gamescon, and was doing the tutorial. He spent, upwards to 10 minutes attempting to clear something so..utterly simple that a 4 year old could figure it out. Basically, the point where you stand on this box, then you got to jump and preform a dive jump. What was so bad, is the instructions of the entire tutorial weren’t just written down, but showed arrows of where the player was supposed to go.
How, can one be so BLIND? And what’s worse, he used this failure at a simple puzzle to do his review. And this is what brings up that question, of are video game reviewers supposed to be ‘good’ at a game to do a review.

And the answer is clearly “Yes”, but to an extent. And this was also a wakeup call, to stop myself (when it comes to reviewing a game) from feeling like the game is too difficult (when I can’t pass a level/kill that one NPC that keeps wrecking me).
It’s OK to suck at a game, but not when you’re reviewing it. People depend on your honest review to make that informed purchase. You don’t have to be good to the point you’re ‘reking scrubs’ left and right, but you still need to have..well, the competence to understand what’s going on around you.
I also heard this guy has reviewed other games quite unfairly, such as Mass Effect Andromeda. And I’m not talking about the bad facial animations, the writing, and the feeling it wasn’t a true Mass Effect game…but something as simple as knowing how to put skill points on your character. He claims he didn’t know. … Wow. This, is why you do lots, and lots of research in and out of the game before you start writing your review. And for a person who claims they’ve been doing this for 25 years, I just find that shocking. It’s almost as if he didn’t take his job seriously.

As for letting my own frustration of a game control the review, as I said I am trying very hard to suppress it and just going on with what I like and dislike. And this suppression started after my Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry review (of blaming ‘Axemen’ for my frustration). That was dumb of me, I won’t deny that.
But as for the general way I do reviews (aka the structure), last time I did a change was in 2016(and that was badly needed with how unbelievably messy they were when I first started). I want to do another one to make the reviews more modern, but I can’t think of anything better. Been thinking of going to WordPress’ forum and ask for suggestions, yet I’m afraid I’ll get ones that are too complicated for me to figure out (aka, going over level design).
Plus, the fact they completely ignored my issue of the Customizer not saving (and I had to get Arvixe to help me with that), I feel it too will also be ignored.

In closing, please give you opinions in the usual way (emailing). Should I stop reviewing altogether, or are you OK (but want “attitude changes”) of the way I do them? This website’s future is really in your hands, as I’m doing this for you folks.
I enjoy doing these reviews. Isn’t that the whole point of doing them?

Posted in Personal, Politics | Comments Off on That same old song and dance, of being a video game reviewer

A surprise from Arvixe (talking pricing, and the future)

Posted on 09-06-2017 by Benie

So hey…I’m back. Luckily no one emailed me screaming “OMG YR DOMAIN EXPIREDZ!!!!11111” I had no idea today was the day I needed to renew the domain (for $9.95), and Arvixe sure didn’t bring it to my attention via email.
Because of that, one of their admins actually brought it back up for free. I greatly appreciate it.

But there’s a bigger headache that’s coming in November, something that could affect this entire website. And that is the hosting price. Back in 2015, I remember it was very high debatable if it was worth spending $60 on this tiny thing.
That price has jumped to $96.00. And just like the domain fee, I never got an email alerting me of this price. And when I confronted them about it, they stated they sent an email out to all of their customers, yet ‘a glitch’ (as they claim) caused it not to appear in my account.
My guess is they did a batch send, and since I didn’t get it, tough luck to me (even though it was extremely important that it should’ve come to my attention).

And the reason from the price spike was to “stay competitive” in the market.
(dot dot dot)
My bullshit meter just went off the scale. This…is the SAME pathetic excuse ARK’s devs claimed why the Early Access price jumped from $30 to $60 (before release on Steam)! It seems corruption in gaming has found a way to weave itself into real life.
Though, I feel the person I talked to, knew absolutely what I meant(and could feel my frustration). So to blame them, would be wrong. Don’t shoot the messenger. Clearly this ‘move’ was done higher up.

.
Of all the times to wish I could go back in time, and stopped myself before I fucked up by bitching at angry about claiming he only used the site for coding, it would be now. Because he could possibly help me find a cheaper hoster to park this thing in.
Here I felt $60 a year was bad enough, and now they want $36 more!?
Thankfully I talked it over with my folks, who were willing to pay the $36 extra charge (while I continue paying the $60). This pretty much saves the website ’till next year.

However, even after that’s done, I feel I still need to find a better alternative. Might just go back to GoDaddy(where this mess started). I actually liked it, but angry didn’t. I think we left because he couldn’t SSH in or something like that. Pretty sure it was something Linux-related. I have no need to do that, as I’m not a coder. Though, I feel of any hoster I find that could be a candidate, has to be able to also host in Linux instead of Windows (I feel it’ll fuck something up).
I will also try to consult one of the forums I have an account on (or even Discord).

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on A surprise from Arvixe (talking pricing, and the future)

Going to Dallas, TX in mid-November (by car)

Posted on 09-01-2017 by Benie

I didn’t know how to start this blog post without saying my deepest condolences to the people in Houston. I’ve even donated to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Harvey relief. It’s the right thing to do.
And while what’s left of Harvey is getting ready to pass just under us (but is forecasted to dump 2-4″ of rain here), I have news to pass along. Since Harvey’s going to be ruining my typical Friday plans of going to Burger King, I went yesterday.
When I got back, my parents were on the front porch talking. They saw me and mother said that father told her, the thing about going to Dallas (and asked if I want to go). Of course I said yes.
However, she thought there was a small town around here named ‘Dallas’.. and not Dallas, Texas. Was told by father it’ll be for two days, and we would be going by car instead of by plane.
I’m split on this one. On one hand, seeing scenery I’ve never seen before (let alone the size of Dallas).. WOO!! — But on the other..remembering how I was ‘sandwiched’ in the back seat all the way to see the eclipse the last two weeks ago (and this time the ride would possibly take a day and a half of traveling, depending what hour we leave (may have to get my sleep as we go))… yeah, sounds like fun.

The reason why we’re going, is mainly to go on the same street where JFK got shot. And the only reason I’m going is.. “WOO! ROAD TRIP! ADVENTURE!! :D”

Mother also told me that I would have to buy a sleeping bag, incase I may have to sleep on the floor (if there’s no hotels).
So okay, you can call me crazy. You could say “why bother when Google Earth VR is the next best thing for exploring”. Believe me, if I had a computer beefy enough to run a VR Headset (and even have a VR Headset to begin with), I would be downloading it in a heartbeat.
Also, it’s better to see things in person than look at them from an application (that it’s image may/not be updated to the day you saw it).

You know, a typical gamer with a ‘career’ of raiding and pwning noobs would prefer to stay home. But me, how I’m not interested in any of that, and also have nothing to lose( except my computer of course)? I’m all for it! I guess it’s just that adventurer side of me speaking out.

I feel cautiously happy about this, because anything could change between now and then. Heck, I might even lose interest (or come down with a cold) and decide to not go. Anything is possible, for good or bad, says the hands of fate.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Going to Dallas, TX in mid-November (by car)

The new Youtube format sucks, and here’s why

Posted on 08-30-2017 by Benie

So I typically stay away from the hell that is ‘Youtube Drama’ (of course there were those times back in 2014-2015’ish (I think it was), where I was bitching about Dan bitching about AdBlock Plus not giving him money and stuff), but I never once commented about the layout used by Google…. until today.
Yesterday I started seeing changes in the form of the Youtube logo changing font types, but this wasn’t really a big deal as I could still use the website normally. Not today.

It feels like this was an overnight change that happened when I was asleep. Yesterday before I went to bed, everything was normal. And now BAM! UGLY!
First off, those three buttons at the top of videos (Home / Trending / Subscriptions)? Gone. No reason why. Now I have to click on the menu to the left of the Youtube logo to get to the other pages. But this isn’t the worst part…ohh no, it gets much worse. And that’s in the form of watching a video.

Before, everything was good.. well, as good as usability. Now…
1. Black border around the video, and the top bar goes left.
2. The statistics for like/dislike are gone, replaced with a simple Like/Dislike button.
3. I seem to have lost the ability to comment on a video (comment window is gone).
4. Comments no longer show post dates.

The third thing bugs me the most, mainly due to seeing others able to post and I cannot. It’s like I’m not even logged in. It’s very strange.
I really don’t know what to say. Clearly, the idea department of Google were smoking crack when they thought of these changes. I only pray these changes aren’t permanent, because this minimalistic look is going to cause people to leave the website.
Though, I’m surprised Google’s “make Youtube ugly first, don’t tell people why ever” business approach hasn’t already made lots of people to leave.
What, and especially Why are they doing this!? I couldn’t really tell you. I don’t know how they think(though it’s clear their thoughts aren’t in favor of viewers). All I can do is pray they revert these changes immediately. It’s anti-user friendly.

What worries me, is this may not be the end of these undesired, forced changes to their website.

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EDIT: There’s a way to restore Youtube to what it was yesterday. Simply right click on your avatar on the top right of the page, go down the list and select “Restore Old Youtube”(or something like that). There you can give your opinion (or not). What scared me a bit was seeing “We’re sad to see you go!”.. I’m not ‘going’ anywhere.
After submitting, nearly everything came back. The only thing missing is the three buttons on the homepage at the top, but I’m able to comment again.
So that’s a minor inconvenience.

Posted in Computing, Personal | Comments Off on The new Youtube format sucks, and here’s why