Platforms not allowing for proper exhaustive browsing is really shitty. Sabotage search. Sabotage sorting. Pushing slot machine scrolling.

or you can just Pirate whatever you watching and remove all that hassle.

When we had Netflix I would get extremely frustrated every time I tried to interact with it. Most descriptions are like "Benedict Cumberbatch is a grumpy detective in this British crime drama" - so the only information not contained in the cast list and genre are one character trait and the country where it was made? How the fuck is that supposed to help?

You will suckle at the algorithm's teat or you will have NOTHING! and you will THANK US for the privilege!

Enshittification continues.

Leave netflix !

And replace it with what?

https://rutracker.org/ or https://mazepa.to/ if you're even more paranoid about getting caught using torrents.

Both resources support English search, have well seeded netflix content and English audio tracks are always provided for English language content (just set your player to default to english). Rutracker especially has lots of niche/older content you simply won't find on streaming platforms. Mazepa has a lot less content (in context of niche/older productions), but its also less on the radar and netflix content is generally well covered.

I don't know about North America, but in Europe you should be able to use both services via torrent streaming for most netflix content. Might even work in North America.

You'll need to register on both, but it's not difficult with a webpage translator. There is a solid number of english language users on rutracker.

Lot's of other options as well if you don't want to deal with foreign language; Usenet which requires a fee, private torrent sites (can be a pain to get into and maintain ratio though).

I started a Blu-Ray collection. The quality is just so much better and I don‘t waste hours sifting through garbage. The price isn‘t a big factor either. Especially if you buy used. Hell, you can even sell the discs again if you end up not liking a movie that much and get some of your money back.

Piracy...

They’ll cancel anything you start watching anyway, so may as well also treat it as a sampler.

https://fmhy.net/

Books, comics, sports, knitting, gardening, woodworking, video games, shitposting on Lemmy...

There are so many other things one can do besides watch Netflix.

Do you like watching TV at all? There is a lot of stuff on Netflix.

There is also a lot of stuff not on Netflix. You arent required to consume what they hype.

Yeah, I know. I was just trying to determine if the poster above was anti-Netflix specifically or anti watching-TV.

I am sure those are nice hobbies but… they‘re different hobbies. Very hard to compare, really. But maybe your point was that there are no alternatives.

There is a multitude of streaming services if you want one.

Going out into the big bright blue room and fondling the foliage? Piracy? Hookers and blow? I dunno man, we can't do all your thinking for you.

I don‘t know where you get your hookers but I imagine they‘re magnitudes more expensive than Netflix.

Hookers and blow?

.... continue

Set up a homelab. Doesn't need to be big - a NAS with dual 18TB disks + OS disk will do. Try to stay away from off the shelf NASes (Synology, QNAP, etc. - though the recent Ugreen NASes are quite okay!).

Then simply install the "Arr stack" (if you Google it like that, you'll find all the relevant info):

  • the download client of your choice (for torrent I recommend qBittorrent: low memory footprint with reliable clients, sane defaults, nice web UI)
  • Prowlarr for having more trackers and other media sources supported, with advanced filtering (e.g. you can limit a specific tracker for manual searches only, or for specific media types, and so on. I have it set up so auto searches only hit my main tracker that has known good media, while all the other trackers are on manual search for stuff I look up manually, this way quality is ensured)
  • Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr (although the official Readarr is EOL, there's a bunch of projects taking up the staff to continue it) - these are the "brains" for handling media. You set them up: connect to Prowlarr and the download client, set the folders in which you store the specific media, set up the media profiles you want, and add what movies, TV shows, music, books, etc. you need, and it will just do its job
  • Seerr - this app finally connects all the previous Arr stacks into a single interface, with multiple user support (through Plex or Jellyfin), and allow anyone you grant access to it, to request any media they want. You can even set up user roles so for some people requests go through automatically, and for some, you need to manually approve.
  • Jellyfin, Plex - these are your media frontends. Think of the rest as the Netflix servers, well, these will replace the Netflix app. You log in and all the media you have downloaded is made available via these apps. It's that simple! You can set up limited access here (e.g. if you have a nice big porn collection, you obviously don't want your kids to have access to that... Or if you invite friends to access your server, you don't want them browsing the family photo album).

There's a bunch of online guides that are super useful and aren't too technically involved, and most of the setup is going to be visual anyway.

Plex?

Jellyfin

Emby

submit to the algorithm

what lmfao i'm so glad i left them and all streaming years ago

cable before that as well

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