Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

2-year high alert period once again reset

As of 1/28/2025, I have noticed that ALL entries for this blog has been purged from the Google search engine.  This is being viewed as another successful attack, likely organized by the Steam troll community & the CutCafe misinformation channel on YouTube (probably other sources I am not currently aware of).  In response to completion of this attack (which affects Google search results for this blog), the 2-year high alert status is once again being reset (meaning higher restrictions in my Twitch channel, disabled contact email on WonderGamer.net & expiring personal-invite to my Discord server to trusted individuals only).  The estimated end period of high-alert status is now 1/28/2027.

EDIT:  In addition to the extension of this high alert status, I've also decided that since this attack affects this blog, I am also going to disable comments on the blog (at least) until the high alert status ends & posts from this blog once again start showing in search engines (not that I'm expecting either of these to actually happen).

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Another attack against YouTube channel through abuse of the report function

On April 7th, I got an email about a removal of content from my YouTube channel, which was a recording of multiple people teabagging other players in Destiny (for PlayStation 3) recorded back in 2015 (it took me a while, but I was eventually able to locate my backup of the video, which was an exportation from Twitch, so the original better quality version is likely still on Twitch), which came through while I was trying to get some last minute tasks done in Warframe (which unfortunately I was unable to complete before the weekly reset).  It was these particular attacks why I made it a point to back up each & every video on YouTube/Twitch & link everything over to Steam to preserve the descriptions of each video, the latter I would suspect is what lead to it getting hit with the mass of Steam trolls apparently still looking for ways to penalize me over my online content (ousting people for who they are based on their actions in games or on various sites).

Note that this isn't the first time one of these videos have been hit with a takedown in the past (the first one being back in 2015), however there was never a publication about it to WonderGamer.net because it was successfully appealed & the removal reversed.  Of course I've been keeping backups for this particular reason, specifically so it could be re-uploaded if necessary (to another site if necessary, although it should still be on Twitch regardless).

If the appeal does fail, I do intend on re-uploading the video, however it will have a different title & description if I do (at least on YouTube if it gets re-uploaded there).

As with any other case, I document everything that happens & keep logs of it to not only publicize these injustices, but also to keep track of when it happens for myself.  On the latter point, this resets the 2-year monitoring date of the thread where these attacks started on Steam, now potentially ending on April 7th, 2026, including more IP bans are likely to be placed on my personal site (after I get a chance to go through raw access logs again & see if there has been any excessive access of the site, which I haven't been doing for a while, but knew I would ultimately have to when I saw certain names popping up in my IRC logs for my Twitch channel, those logs still being kept track of here).  As I stated, this is a potential ending date, which is likely only to be extended because the attacks clearly haven't ended yet & probably won't until arrests are made.

This will likely result in a restriction on YouTube for uploading larger videos (over 10 minutes) for 90 days as it has in the past, any new videos will be held onto & uploaded at a later date if necessary, making it a point that their publications were postponed due to the attacks that lead to the publication of this new channel update in each of those videos' descriptions.

This also puts a longer hold on the lockups that are affecting public joining of my Discord channel & the increased chat restrictions on my Twitch channel back to the new 2-year date previously mentioned in this article.  This means that new Discord members on my server will need to be issued a private invite link to join (and they'll only get that if I already trust them) & the chat restriction for Twitch accounts that don't have a verified phone number on their accounts will either have to be at least 6 months old or have followed for 3 or more months (previously at 1 week & 10 minutes prior to the mass attacks coming from Steam).

Needless to say, the restrictions in place on YouTube (non-visible channel ratings, blocked comments & my personal refusal to stream to YouTube due to easy-to-manipulate standards) will be a PERMANENT restriction, given YouTube is 1 of 2 sites where trolls have managed to manipulate the report functions in their favor (the other being Steam after the attack that succeeded on January 14th, 2024, which is now detailed on my Steam profile & WonderGamer.net).  This also gives further reason why even though I've been on a waiting list for Google Fiber in my neighborhood for over 8 years (since moving to where I'm living now, there were a few years prior to that at the previous residence as well), I will be unlikely to switch to them when it does become available because I don't know that I can trust them with my payment information (probably the only exception I was going to make for paying for anything through them, but if the appeal fails, I will be looking at other options for my ISP when fiber does become available in my neighborhood)...

Regarding streaming

The lack of decent internet has been the primary reason why streaming has ended (or at least postponed indefinitely) on my Twitch channel, after switching from Xfinity back to CenturyLink (only to find they had the same problems that caused me to switch from them 4 years prior when I came back) & finding they do not offer a high enough upload rate to be effective in streaming online multiplayer games (Xfinity offering 10 mbps where I live now with the Boost plan, CenturyLink only offering 3 mbps at a higher cost), but perhaps somewhat effective for offline games.  Within a year of moving to my current residence (in 2016), CenturyLink (previously Qwest) were going door to door to tell people they were going to be putting in fiber, of course I was with Xfinity at the time & had some choice words for them when they came by to tell people; 8 years later, CenturyLink STILL has not followed through with their claim of putting in fiber in the neighborhood.

My father told me some time last year that there was a low income credit that was being offered through Xfinity, something that had me considering going back to them, but only if they weren't going to try & seek the early termination fees I had to file an FCC complaint against (their own staff telling me there wasn't a current active contract, only finding out after I had already had CenturyLink installed that they were hitting me for almost $200 in early termination fees); these fees were dropped through the FCC complaint, but Xfinity still refused to admit the actual reason for dropping them, giving another reason for it to try & save face (these details were published to WonderGamer.net in a review detailing the FCC complaint against them).  However I am finding that this credit may be a part of a federal affordability plan that may be getting killed this year, so this may kill any plans I have on going back to Xfinity if that is the case...

Unfortunately I just don't have access to a decent upload rate in my area that doesn't cost a fortune, I have to deal with what I have & this meant I was limited to uploads to YouTube for online games, which unsurprisingly is being attacked yet again (with a possible new publication regarding the attack to my personal site if it doesn't get reversed, making sure to take screenshots of each screen for it's publication if needed).

I believe it's time I contact Scripps news & ask them why gaming sites such as Steam (as well as PSN, I'll get into details about this at a later date) have not been getting the attention it should be regarding dangerous online environments for children (if it's this bad for me, you can only expect how detrimental this would be for a child).  This was previously stated in the ticket I filed with staff on Steam (apparently the only way anything that would get them to step in on it, using the report functions on Steam was getting very little done, if anything) & they were already aware of my intentions if the attacks didn't stop; while they may have been limited on Steam, it hasn't ended there, so it's time to make this a matter for the news to cover & hopefully start extending laws against social platforms to gaming platforms that also have these issues.

Pre-publication update

Before I managed to get this update published, I received an email from YouTube giving a decision on the appeal & this was that they were not going to reverse the decision against the video they decided to remove.  After spending roughly 2 hours typing all the information above, I wasn't simply going to remove it, so it's going to stay.  I will attempt to reupload the video with a different title & description.  If that fails, I will link over the video from Twitch to the Steam description since the video is still there & find another site to upload the backup to (probably adding another link to my YouTube channel to another media platform for videos that were moved after YouTube chose to allow the manipulation of their system).  There will also be another publication to WonderGamer.net regarding the allow manipulation of the report function by YouTube staff (aka Google staff).

EDIT:  Perhaps I should consider bringing up YouTube to Scripps also in regards to dangerous social platforms (they've already been mentioned on this particular point a number of times, I can still provide additional backup content regarding the matter however)...

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Forced YouTube ads, how I respond to them

YouTube recently started cracking down on people using security protocols on their site, regardless of whether they were being used to block ads or not.  I personally find mid-video ads intrusive & many times I do not finish watching the video once one destroys the experience for me, usually voting down the video for a ruined experience & finding something else to do.  For this reason I usually stuck to watching YouTube videos on my PC & rarely used the Shield TV, game system, mobile or tablet apps.

The recent change now blocks the player from even running, giving you a 3 video grace period, however that gets counted down even if you didn't start the video (refresh the page even if your browser prevented the video from auto-starting & you still get docked on the unstarted video).  This even affects videos that are not monetized & do not have ads on them (as with my own videos, which I will be making a point NEVER to monetize my channel with this type of bullshit being forced on users).

My response to having to disable my security plugins on YouTube lowers my trust rating of YouTube (which is likely going to be updated to state as much in my reviews of the site) & additionally leaves me open to not finishing videos as a result of intrusive mid-video ads (if I even decide to watch videos on YouTube anymore, I know I'll be looking at other sites for videos to watch before considering similar/same videos on YouTube).  If I do decide to continue watching videos on YouTube, I will continue to vote down EVERY video that is interrupted with mid-video ads.  This ultimately means that ALL monetized videos over a few minutes will be getting down-voted as a result of YouTube's insistence that you either pay their premium plan or you have to deal with intrusive ads that don't allow you to finish what you are trying to watch (or just go to another service to watch the same videos; quite frankly there's a reason I have subscriptions to other paid streaming services over YouTube).

I will be attempting to find another service to upload new videos to (as well as I have backups of EVERYTHING I have on YouTube, so I can always move them to that new service once I find something else that has an acceptable platform).  Additionally I will likely be looking to persuade Steam into allowing other video sharing services to be used on user's profile pages (which probably won't go anywhere, I know my attempts to get them to allow Twitch has been a dead end).

I've been waiting for Google Fiber in my neighborhood since I moved here in 2016, being on that notification list of availibility for almost 10 years since I moved into my previous residence.  I have refused to put my payment information on ANY Google service since they allowed the attacks from Bandai/Namco targeting a link on the live streaming page of my channel that never got removed after the first attack (getting hit once again a month later even when the live channel was not even active, this time not allowing an appeal to be processed; I have had live streaming on my YouTube channel disabled ever since & do not mess with any other live channels on YouTube because that function was targeted on my own channel).  I've been saying that if Google Fiber were to become available in my area, this might be the thing that ends my boycott against paying into Google services.  However with what has happened with ads on YouTube, I don't know that I will even be switching to Google Fiber IF it ever becomes available in my area, I am much more likely to just switch back to Xfinity/Comcast or stick with CenturyLink (provided the upload rate is good enough, which has the primary reason why live streams on Twitch ended; I don't really want to stick with the piss-poor customer service of CenturyLink, but right now my mindset is I don't know that I can trust Google-owned services with my payment information.