this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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[–] SleepyBear@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Okay I've done the free discord nitro a couple of times and i gotta say... It was surprisingly easy to cancel. Billing and subscriptions tab in discord ---> nitro subscription cancel service button. Thats it. It's hardly as bad as the rest of them, and so it is a little surprising seeing them go to court over it.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago

Not surprised.

They keep offering these "Free Trials" of Nitro, but then they wanted me to put in a credit card in order to claim it?

Last I checked free means I'm not handing over shit.

But hey I know what's up, they just want me to forget I have Nitro, bill me for a month when I do, and then make it difficult to cancel knowing that I can't just tell my bank to dispute the charge because then they'd ban my account.

That's why the second the Free Trial needed a card, I just backed out of it.

When are we switching to Revolt?

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

it's not hard, though? I live in Turkey so I don't get protected by EU

Even then, it's still a single button press

[–] viking@infosec.pub 3 points 2 days ago

People are barely literate these days, I'm not surprised.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 207 points 3 days ago (3 children)

This is only a problem if you subscribe to nitro in the first place. Rookie mistake!

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 53 points 3 days ago (6 children)

I enjoy the higher streaming quality and server boosts. Discord makes it very easy for my ttrpg groups to gather weekly not to mention the many other communities it facilitates. It's even partly responsible for me and my partner having a successful long distance relationship. The service is worth paying for, imho.

[–] Codilingus@sh.itjust.works 44 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (14 children)

You can fake a Nitro subscription for free higher quality streaming. Look up ~~Vendord~~, it hardens Discord for better security, adds themes, and plugins. One such plugin is fake Nitro.

Edit: Vencord. Got autocorrected.

Also adding I have only used fake Nitro for streaming quality. So I have no idea if it works for emojis or whatever other Nitro perks there are.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 41 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Wait, so for this to work access to the Nitro features it enables must be managed client-side and the client is fully trusted with no validation? That seems... unwise on the part of Discord.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

That seems… unwise on the part of Discord.

New here? The company and people behind Discord suck shit and like all tech startups things like security are an afterthought for years on end.

Adblockers had existed for 15 years or more by the time YouTube finally started cracking down on them. I think it would probably take similarly as long before enough people were actually exploiting that loophole before Discord did anything about it.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

Adblockers had existed for 15 years or more by the time YouTube finally started cracking down on them

And I STILL manage to beat them by, literally not even knowing about the crackdown in the first place and just telling Ublock Origin to do its thing

[–] taaz@biglemmowski.win 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

No, the commenter ommited a lot of information, it's not full Nitro, it's just the features that can be enabled/worked around client-side, see my comment under the parent one.

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[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The downside is it's against their ToS, and you could have your account banned or similar if they do decide to take action.

[–] Codilingus@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Oh no, not my free account.

Thanks for the heads up, though!

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[–] taaz@biglemmowski.win 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

To clarify about the fake nitro plugin of Vencord/Vesktop:

It's not Nitro, it just enables some features you get with nitro, mainly better streaming quality and being able to "send" emojis from any server (this is all it does, cant use any emoji reacts nor send bigger files or server boost).

Also

About the emojis, the custom/other server emojis are sent as image links which discord will render but it is not a native discord emoji and will format differently when used inline.
It also does nothing for custom emoji reacts.

About streaming, Discord uses webrtc, that usually means P2P streaming which in turn means that the streaming client can send whatever they want (as long as the receiving clients understand it) and discord servers can't say no. It's not server authoritative communication, discord without nitro just hides the UI options, vencord gives them back.

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[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 40 points 3 days ago

Any place there is a way to sign up for a service, there should be a way to cancel the service. Make a pop-up that interrupts you every time you open an app asking you to sign up? You need to keep that pop up and ask if you want to cancel every time.

[–] john89@lemmy.ca 148 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Good! Holy fucking shit is insane at the amount of predatory crap in software these days!

It's literally become a fucking science on how to manipulate people by wearing them the fuck down with pop-ups, sign-ups, notifications, and "related" content. Anything besides giving the user the opportunity to do what they fucking want to do in the first place.

Honestly, Lemmy is a breath of fresh air. It's also insane how straightforward and easy it is to use, especially considering the reputation the fediverse has for being "complicated."

[–] numanair@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 days ago

Open source software seems to be the only way to be free of dark patterns. Why use products that are actively against you?

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 39 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I cancelled my Amazon Prime trial the other day, and in order to dissuade me the site switched to French...

Maybe just a bug (I tried again and it was in English) but the hoops sites make you jump through to cancel a subscription is ridiculous. Constantly asking you if you're sure, offering discounts, swapping the position and colour of the buttons... The Humble Choice one is particularly bad, and the final screen tells you you're cancelled and the prominent button signs you right the fuck back up again.

If you can sign up in one click, you should be able to cancel in one click.

You should be able to cancel ALL of this shit from your credit card provider/bank apps. One click, gone, bye-bye.

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[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 59 points 3 days ago (1 children)

All subscriptions should automatically cancel if you stop paying.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 days ago (9 children)

That's a bit circular though because they just keep billing your credit card.

[–] gaael@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

In Europe, we have debit cards and some banks allow you to create them on the go. I've stopped bothering canceling stuff, I just create a new card for each recurrent payment and I cancel it when I don't want to use the service any longer.

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[–] padge@lemmy.zip 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I know apps don't like having subscriptions through Apple/Google where they take 15-30%, but it does make it easier to cancel sometimes

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It also makes it easy to find all your subscriptions in one place. When every provider tries to get you to subscribe, hunting them all down becomes a pain.

[–] baatliwala@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I know what you mean but saying this on a decentralised federated social network which encourages separate instances is very ironic

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Eh, your account is still tied to an instance. That instance stores your subscriptions, as well as the vast majority of your preferences. If you want to get way into the weeds, that's why Jerboa won't persist comment sort order, but other clients will - there is a server side prefer for all/local/subscribed and new/hot/best at a post level, but not at a comment level.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

how is it too difficult to cancel? you literally just go to manage subscription and click cancel and it ends at the end of the current term....

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

Is it the same in every country though?

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 31 points 3 days ago

i got a trial then cancelled it once, sure, subscribing was easier than unsubscribing but it wasnt nearly as bas as a ton of other companies, namely amazon.

[–] leanleft@lemmy.ml 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

offtopic but related: android privacy settings are scattered across many hidden menus.

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[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

These guys likely haven't tried canceling a gym membership lmao

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 points 1 day ago

Why not just pay the membership in cash? I am not sure my gym even offers autorenewal, but would avoid it anyway because of instances like this.

[–] Nyxicas@kbin.melroy.org 25 points 3 days ago (9 children)

It wasn't that hard to cancel. People are just dumb.

Now if you want a pain in the ass subscription to get rid of, I'll say Amazon that requires you 4 - 5 clicks to get rid of it as they're pleading with you to stay.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 151 points 3 days ago (16 children)

It wasn't that hard to cancel. People are just dumb

If a subscription is harder to cancel than it is to sign up, that's anti-consumer. It's not really anything to do with anyone's intelligence.

[–] ouch@lemmy.world 43 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The process described and shown by the screenshots does seem a bit much for a cancellation. Suing feels disproportionate when I first hear it, but are there many other recourses to force it to become more user friendly?

[–] dan@upvote.au 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Based on what I'm reading in the post (since I don't use Discord), it's still obstructing the cancelation flow and making the user go through more steps, which is illegal in California.

[–] brie@programming.dev 9 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Will it lead to the exodus towards Matrix/Element? If I have to pay for messaging, I'd rather cut the middleman.

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[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Maybe it's because I live in California and we have rules about this shit to a degree but I remember it being as simple as logging in and saying "end this shit bitch"

If that changed/isn't the case elsewhere then yeah fuck em burn it

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[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Can they sue crunch fitness next?

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