In todays episode of “Plex enshittifies” Plex employee breaks ToS.
Source: forums.plex.tv/t/…/917736
That plex thread is a shitshow
Fake reviews on Play Store by Plex staff
Submitted 10 months ago by Sunny@slrpnk.net to selfhosted@lemmy.world
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/22c7baa2-4941-4473-80f9-6dfec3a9cbf7.png
Comments
x4740N@lemm.ee 10 months ago
x4740N@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Conflict of intrest
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 10 months ago
From the forum post:
Just because he works at Plex doesn’t necessarily make his review fake.
Yikes the copium here. Reviews are meant for users of the app, this is so incredibly biased and in bad taste. I have had my shittiest companies ask us to leave positive reviews on Glassdoor. The shittiest ones.
Maybe their big redesign that no one asked for isn’t doing well, and this is a self preservation thing, to get more people to download it. Maybe CEO asked them to. Maybe they’re just over eager. All are excuses and not valid reasons to give a rating on your own company’s product
endeavor@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
I haven’t reviewed any of the games I’m in the credits for. Mostly cause I haven’t played or owned them.
ICastFist@programming.dev 10 months ago
Somewhat related, I recall Michael Bell talking about his experience with Soul Reaver, shortly after release. The voice of Raziel couldn’t get past the jump part of the tutorial and just gave up
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 10 months ago
While I don’t think it’s a great look, employees can be customers/users too. I can’t imagine a Plex employee wouldn’t actually use Plex either. They should have disclosed that they’re an employee in the review.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Yes, but since you are working on the product itself, it’s heavily biased.
He can use the app without leaving a review.
PalimpsestNavigator@midwest.social 10 months ago
I bet someone got it in their head that slow reviews were the reason the company wasn’t meeting a goal, and they asked everyone to contribute.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The download functionality also has been broken for a while and not working for lots of users, even LTT made a video about it
RedStrider@lemmy.world 10 months ago
PalimpsestNavigator@midwest.social 10 months ago
autonomoususer@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Daily reminder, Plex fails to include a libre software license text file. We do not control it, anti-libre software.
aramova@infosec.pub 10 months ago
And of course the twats locked the thread.
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
i mean im sure they use it too and nothing they said was anything but their personal opinion so i don’t think it’s that big a deal
RaptorBenn@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I used plex like a decade ago is it still the only decent option for gile share streaming?
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
There is Jellyfin and also a paid fork of Jellyfin, forgot what it’s called, but Jellyfin is good enough imo
firewallfail@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Jellyfin is a fork of emby. I’m not sure the state of it now but when I chose jellyfin it had most of the emby paid features and from a quick glance the UI hasn’t improved much while jellyfin has gotten a lot better.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 10 months ago
Never used plex. Finally got around to installing Jellyfin. Very happy with it.
MITM0@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Hence why you should never trust proprietary software (or even hardware if you wish)
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
subtitles have completely stopped working for me :/
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I fucking hate how I can’t listen to my music libraries in the main app now. I have a separate profile for other people in the house and I can’t switch profiles with plexamp.
drperil@lemm.ee 10 months ago
lol, did he have the AI bros in marketing write it too? If they’re gonna do this they could at least write their own bullshit…
jonne@infosec.pub 10 months ago
Marketing probably asked everyone to write a review on their internal Slack or something.
gradual@lemmings.world 10 months ago
Plex has always been shilled hard for useful idiots with more money than sense.
Like, free streaming services are right there. Why overcomplicate things just so you can fit in with other losers on the internet?
I swear, so many of you are leaning on each other without realizing none of you have a clue what’s going on.
daq@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
It’s relatively inexpensive and makes life much easier for people who are not tech savvy. Your position is that of an incredibly egoistic person that never had to help an older relative or dealt with an adult who doesn’t have time for random bs during an hour or so of downtime most people get in a day.
If spending hours trying to figure out which “free” streaming service had not gotten shot down today and magically has the content you want is worth less to you than a one time payment of a few bucks to plex, then you really don’t value your time.
sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
Dude just could have said something like,“Hey, I’m a developer of Plex and have really enjoyed my experience using it. Let me know if you’d like to see something added/fixed.”
u_u@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
This would’ve been the best response. Leaving 5 star review on your company’s product + signalling transparency and good communication with costumers? One stone two birds.
vaccinationviablowdart@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
This is textbook gaslighting.
Well if I spent 5 minutes instead of 0.5 minutes I might be able to find an actual text book but I think APA Dictionary of Psychology: “gaslight” is a pretty good definition:
to manipulate another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.
And it provides an example, from the original source of the term:
a wife is nearly driven to insanity by the deceptions of her husband
It is tres shitty to minimize actual abusive behavior by applying a term associated with intimate partner violence it to this minor thing which is someone posting a comment on some software he works at using an account which goes to zero effort to obfuscate that.
In penance I decree you should watch the movie archive.org/details/gaslight-1944 and tell me if it’s any good, I haven’t seen it yet.
catloaf@lemm.ee 10 months ago
It’s about on par with other movies of the era. If you like those, you’ll like Gaslight.
vaccinationviablowdart@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I seem to have replied to the main thread instead of the specific comment that mentioned gaslight. Didn’t you notice a complete no sequitur?
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 10 months ago
Hitchcockian study of human nature. Everyone should see it at least once, too fully understand the meaning of gaslight.
rumba@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Community Manager: After we changed the terms of our public client to force everyone to pay for what used to be a free service, our ratings have taken a hit. If we don’t get back to at least 4.0, Google won’t feature us for free advertising. Everyone, go and leave a 5-star review.
Developers: but there are mill…
Community Manager: STOP, go and review now. scoot!
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 10 months ago
Do you hate Plex so much that you’re going out of your way to invent fake reasons to try to make others hate it even more?
midori_matcha@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This review would have had a lot more credibility if he at least disclosed his affiliation with Plex. Instead, he posed as some unbiased rando while advertising Plex Pass. This is textbook gaslighting.
If you look on Plex’s review page in the Play Store, it’s receiving overwhelming amounts of negative reviews over the new UI changes, reliability/performance problems, and how the Lifetime Plex Pass purchase is a lifetime of regrets as they watch Plex getting worse every month by enshittifying itself.
If Plex is resorting to leaving fake reviews to save face, then this company is in deeper trouble than I thought.
vaccinationviablowdart@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
This is textbook gaslighting.
Well if I spent 5 minutes instead of 0.5 minutes I might be able to find an actual text book but I think APA Dictionary of Psychology: “gaslight” is a pretty good definition:
to manipulate another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.
And it provides an example, from the original source of the term:
a wife is nearly driven to insanity by the deceptions of her husband
It is tres shitty to minimize actual abusive behavior by applying a term associated with intimate partner violence it to this minor thing which is someone posting a comment on some software he works at using an account which goes to zero effort to obfuscate that.
In penance I decree you should watch the movie archive.org/details/gaslight-1944 and tell me if it’s any good, I haven’t seen it yet.
Machinist@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Damn skippy. Gaslighting and basic ass lying are different things. But hey, it’s trendy right now. Next, we’ll find out how he’s a malignant narcissist.
Dude posted a shill review. It’s called shilling. It’s a form of lying for profit. He likely did it to advance his career or because he was afraid not to. His employer likely encouraged the action without directly ordering it.
emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
Its literally a false review, designed to counter the multiple negative real reviews that have been left recently. Its a false narrative designed to induce the reader into doubting the ture narrative of the other genuine reviews, or possibly even influence a potential reviewer by coloring their actual experience with the app. Definitely fits the definition you posted, even if its inconsistent with the example they gave.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 10 months ago
SirSamuel@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is the type of pedantry that annoys me and yet I admire. Bravo, good fellow, I salute you
catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I work at a brewery. Am I not allowed to tell people I like the beer I brew? I’m doing this very wrong I guess my brewery has been enshittified by me. Bummer
gradual@lemmings.world 10 months ago
You can tell people whatever you want and they can criticize you accordingly.
If you don’t disclose your affiliation with a company that you’re shilling, rational people will criticize you for being biased and self-serving.
If you want to avoid this completely rational, acceptable, and expected criticism, then you should reveal any conflicts of interest before or during your promotion of the business.
This shouldn’t need to be spelled out for you, but this generation has been conditioned to be proud of ignorance and defending abuse.
Xanza@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Am I not allowed to tell people I like the beer I brew?
That’s not really what he’s doing though. It would be like if you pretended to be a customer and drink your own beer in front of actual customers and were like “WOW! This beer is super good! The guy who made it has a really big dick!”
It’s just shitty to do because it’s sheistery as fuck.
Plex employees totally have the right to review Plex in the store. But they should be expected to advertise that they work for Plex…
anas@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Are you allowed to tell people that you dislike your beer, as a representative of the brewery?
catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Sure, but I like it. I will say I often appreciate negative feedback though. Always trying to improve
discount_door_garlic@lemmy.world 10 months ago
you know full well its not a matter of liking the product you’re affiliated with, but an undisclosed conflict of interest in an environment where people have a reasonable expectation of transparent, non-biased testimonials from normal end users, not shilling from paid employees.
Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If you leave your brewery a public review pretending to just be another customer, yeah thats pretty shitty. You kniw what you’re doing, don’t play games.
gradual@lemmings.world 10 months ago
You kniw what you’re doing
Exactly. They know what they’re doing and we shouldn’t pretend that they don’t.
Scumbags are all around us, hiding in plain sight.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 10 months ago
People really abuse that new and very useful word. It diminishes the usefulness of it.
RedSquadCampFollower@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I saw someone describe rental housing as enshittified.
No honey, it’s just shitty.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
It’s very nearly a synonym for value extraction. I guess specifically it refers to the consequences of value extraction on the web, but really I think Doctorow’s whole goal with that campaign was to make people aware of how awful venture capital and value extraction really are for us.
Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I was going to say if he writes an app and doesn’t like it, something’s wrong there
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Perhaps. Either way, he’s biased, and reviews should be unbiased.
CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 10 months ago
This reminds me to go leave a review on their refresh of the app. I just got off a plane and Plex wouldn’t load once I lost service for me or my wife to watch our downloaded media.
DigDoug@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Well this thread is an absolute shitshow.
Jellyfin is great, but if you refuse to let yourself understand that Plex’s ease of setup for remote access is a point in its favour - especially when sharing with non-tech savvy people - then you’re just as bad as the supposed “Plex shills”.
Plex is well on the enshittification train, and I’ve always been a bit concerned about how private it may or may not be, but there’s absolutely no way I’d have been able to share a Jellyfin instance with my grandfather, especially as his dementia got worse.
Auli@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I have had very old and non techie people setup Jellyfin. Putting a URL in a box is not actually rocket science. I thought it would be way harder but they did it.
endeavor@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
idunno jellyfin was stupid easy to set up and works for me. Plex seems terrible.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
How so?
Yo dad, heres the login:
username: dad
password: Pa$$TheP0pIf it asks for a URL on the first screen input the following URL:
https://jellyfin.domain.tld/If you (or a relative) can’t manage that, I’d be afraid to even let you handle a car or open a bank account.
Can’t imagine you relative doesnt also have to create a plex account somewhere to then be invited to the plex share or input the URL to request access.rumba@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Assuming you set it up for SSL, and you own and manage your own domain, and they’re using a computer. Easy. So for the 10% it’s cake.
How’s it look for the rest?
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They won’t even get to the login screen.
All my relatives seem to have Hisense VIDAA TVs. There’s a plex app on the store. Jellyfin would require an external device like a Chromecast or HTPC to use it.
Windex007@lemmy.world 10 months ago
For the record, I fucking hate Plex.
But this is a disingenuous simplification of where the gap is.
Me, my brother-in-law, and friend all share our libraries with the same elderly relatives.
The GAP is that great grandma has to log in/out between servers to find content that may or may not be on an individual server. Plex lets you search/aggregate from all sources without having to jockey credentials and servers.
It’s not a giant ask. I heard a fucking absolutely brain-dead take that “that would require a centralized server which is against Jellyfins core ideology”.
So, I dunno. Maybe it isn’t YOUR use case, but it’s MY use case. Doesn’t make me a shill. I’m still pissed as hell.
But don’t fucking pretend that there is feature parity when there isn’t, and don’t accuse me of being a shill just because Jellyfin literally doesn’t support my use case. I WISH it did. I HATE PLEX.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 10 months ago
Oh cool so you’re ok with opening ports on your server to the internet with no authentication. Good for you. Most of us with the technical knowledge of hosting a media server know better.
vodka@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I as an arch using turbonerd absolutely love jellyfin and how I can make it do what I want.
I run plex too, because the support I’d have to provide to family members when they need a password reset, or the jellyfin app doesn’t work right on their new Hisense smart TV would be the death of me.
Auli@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Not that bad. It’s been about the same for Plex maybe less. Have had lots of Plex isn’t working when their servers where down.
UnrefinedChihuahua@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
This. Having the provide the support is what stops me from dropping plex entirely. I host jellyfin for the devices I control, and plex for my family and friends, all pointing to the same media.
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I tried jellyfin but it isn’t even close to as a good as plex
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Same as my experience
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Emby’s better than both, but jellyfin folks are probably going to crucify me for saying that.
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I ditched Plex for Jellyfin a while ago and am not a fan of Plex, but this is the silliest thing to complain about. First of all, just because they work for Plex doesn’t automatically make it a fake review. Certainly wouldn’t call it an unbiased one, but that doesn’t mean the review is fake.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 10 months ago
It’s biased and problematic because they don’t state they work for Plex.
Thing is, had they been transparent about it, at least we could give them credit for acknowledging that up front. Now we have to wonder how many reviews are from employees.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
It would’ve been fine with a disclaimer
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t count this as fake. He must certainly uses the software and the features he described are actually features under plex pass. And I no doubt believe he enjoys it. No lies here.
Syltti@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I think the point being made is that company staff shouldn’t be leaving five-star reviews on products they, themselves, work on. Whether they do it because they love the product, or a company suit told them to. Personally, I think it’s fine to try and convince people to use your/your company’s software, but giving yourself a five-star review to do so is downright pathetic.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 10 months ago
Mostly without being transparent, and stating they work for the company.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I’m fully okay with them doing so, but they have to disclose what they’re doing so. Like the fact that the review didn’t disclose that they were an employee is very sketchy to me.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They seriously enshitified the download feature. You used to be able to set it to download X number of unplayed episodes. Then it would manage downloading fresh content for you as you watched stuff. Now you have to manually download each and every episode yourself. This was literally the killer feature Plex had over Jellyfin for me.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 10 months ago
Oh, ffs, really? That’s kind of the reason for a download feature.
Pricks.
LavaPlanet@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I think they’re getting pressure re the pirating aspect. I could imagine the bigger they get the bigger the magnifying glass will be held up to them. They’re probably doing some fancy footwork to be able to remain in production / avoid lawsuits and similar pressure.
Sunny@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Yeah fair enough, and I do agree. I only reused the title of the forum post where this was originally posted. Have changed the title up now.
pigeonholedpoetry@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Never thought I’d see the hate for plex on here get to this level.
dave@lemmy.wtf 10 months ago
do you know for a fact that is him and not just someone using his name? either way this is fairly harmless
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Counterpoint: when I worked at Panda Express, I used to leave fake reviews on our store about how helpful and professional pp_boy_ was because I wanted a raise. Never did it on any accounts attached to my name though.
oyzmo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Why all the hate for Plex?
UberKitten@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
it’s a single review, who cares?
winterreach@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Sunny@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
It could. But the co-founder and staff have replied on the thread without addressing it being false. Feel like they would have called it out being fake if it truly was.
rowdyrockets@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Read the source.