Three algorithm-less streaming sites revive the wacky Web from days of yore | Hacker News Reader

Three algorithm-less streaming sites revive the wacky Web from days of yore

arstechnica.com

35 pointsfurcyd14 comments

Yes, the days of yore where there was no HTTPS - and, unsurprisingly, Comcast still is able to inject code into the page letting me know that i'm at 90% of my 1TB data cap.

To clarify, they have Heroku set up with no HTTPS but only because they aren't paying them $20/month (!!)

https://elements.heroku.com/addons/ssl

Having data caps qualifies solidly as the days of yore for me, as much as not having HTTPS. Are there really areas in the United States that still have them? The only capped plans I'm aware of are satellite or mobile broadband, and that's for folks who live in rural areas.

They have switched from hard caps to soft caps. Your unlimited plan isn't really unlimited. It's all in the microprint, but after enough bandwidth is used, there will be repercussions (varies depending on provider).

You're right that the terms and conditions say there is a "fair usage" limit that may result in warnings from my ISP, which seems to be around 1 TB. However it looks to be largely unenforced, which is fortunate as with a gigabit connection you'd blow through it in about two hours.

Rural Netizen here. I can confirm that caps are very, very real. Even with more recent plans, the cap is still only 250GB. The same applies to AT&T's "Fixed Wireless" service, iirc. I'm not sure though which category that falls under since it's neither cellular, mobile, or satellite.

Still very common in Canada. Unlimited plans exist, but are expensive.

Ugh, "algorithm-less" is the new "chemical-free." There's an algorithm, actually, many algorithms, used to serve that content up. Just as all things are made of chemicals.

As with the chemical-free movement, there is needed context; It's not built specifically to grab eyeballs or profit off others. There are algorithms for decisions, but it's to choose what next to play from a given set rather than to motivate and pressure.

My fear is that we're approaching an "algorithm-free" movement: the word "algorithm" being turned into a taboo which will be more fuel for the growing anti-intellectual movements.

That said, there are some bad algorithmics being applied in our world. I like the things mentioned in this article. The ones boosting unpopular / unseen content seem cool. These aren't algorithm-free; they're algorithms to discourage bubbles.

The one that simply refuses to crosslink content is curious -- it's the only one that might be described as algorithm-free, as it's simply not providing the next thing to watch. This is the opposite of the others, it requires you to find content through your bubble and might simply piggyback other social sites.

Is it an algorithm if its just database filtering / select statements though.

Yes. Perhaps a simple algorithm, but an algorithm nonetheless. Just as hydrogen is a chemical.

The internet was wacky when I didn't see the business behind them. I thought sites like youtube were just places for fun videos, not content creators trying to go viral, or students making a product to be sold to google.

YouHole made me think of https://forgotify.com

It serves up songs from Spotify that have had 0 listens.

"Collins' platform Saladbowl, where he hosts and streams videos directly from his computer to bypass copyright strikes"

oh man. I hope he understands why services like youtube are so heavy handed in taking down potential copyrighted material. False copyright strikes are annoying but copyright lawyers are ruthless...double so when the law is actually on their side in a case and its not them just harassing.

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