Not necessarily. A thread about a topic should be a place for reasoned discussion of said topic, potentially with opposing viewpoints. Unfortunately, when the discussion becomes so one-sided that opposing viewpoints are shouted down as trolling, it becomes the echo-chamber to which I was referring. In this case, a relative handful of users all echoing the same viewpoint.
By way of an example, another user took issue with statements that Plex would be subject to legal repercussions related to their actions. When they asked for any substantiation of such claims, they were basically told to go pound sand and dismissed as a troll when they pressed the issue.
Indeed, it is. But further to my point above, a discussion is cooperative, and accepting of differing viewpoints. When such diversity is lost, it ceases to be a discussion and become an echo-chamber where all the views are the same and are just reinforcing one another. Said views being:
- âIâm going to cancel my Plex Pass and request a refund; heaven help Plex if they do not grant it.â
- âThis action by Plex is obviously illegal in this region; heaven help Plex if they do not have good lawyers.â
- âThis action is clearly an overture by Plex in their ultimate goal to completely eliminate their personal media server offering. This has been their goal since they began offering free, ad-supported content.â
- âPlex is lazy and stupid, and took the easy way out. They just blocked 2.4 million IP addresses and ignored obviously easier methods of accomplishing their stated goal because it was easier.â
- âIf Plex blocked one hosting provider then itâs obvious theyâre going to end up blocking the entire Internet.â
- Others I canât be bothered with dredging up.
Everyone is saying the same things, over and over. Thereâs no original thought being offered anymore, no new ideas. Hence my echo-chamber comment.
It wasnât so much a dismissal as an expression of exasperation of what the thread has become. Yes, thereâs valid criticism and certainly the frustration is valid. However, the conspiracies put forward repeatedly by some are great examples of Olympic-level mental gymnastics.
I wonât repeat my points from above, but this appears to be a targeted action against a hosting provider known (by Plex) to host a large number of ToS violators. It was a drastic move, but obviously Plexâs calculus concluded that it was the right one.
This is reinforcement of my idea above that alternative viewpoints are not welcome. Iâm no Plex sycophant, I can assure you; I have my own problems with them, mostly regarding functional issues (Iâm looking at you, transcoding which is broken more often that it is working).
I wasnât going to post in this thread at all; I actually wish I hadnât. My original goal was humor; I thought an alternative narrative might bring a little levity to the vitriol already on display.
However, it was not my intention to detract from the one, central fact of the thread: There are non-ToS violators being caught up in this action. That is a shame and I wish it were different. Perhaps there were other ways Plex could have handled this.
But perhaps a small portion of my âfan-fictionâ above was true. Maybe doing this will allow Plex and Hetzner to work more closely with one another to take down the offenders individually. I know the general belief in this thread is that Plex has every tool and all the information needed to do this already, but I honestly believe that, were that the case, thatâs the path they would have taken.
