The more services you have depending on a 3rd party which can do whatever the fuck they want, either directly or by changing the rules when the feel like it (i.e. not bound by rules they cannot change, such as root DNS providers are) and then doing it, the less your system is actually self-hosted, IMHO.

For me the whole point of self-hosting is exactly being as independent as possible of 3rd parties that can just fuck you up, be it on purpose (generally for $$$) or because they go bankrupt and close their services.

This is why I’ve actually chosen to run Kodi on my home server that doubles down as TV Box even though I can’t easilly use it from anywhere else (it’s possible but it involves using a standalone database that is then shared, which can only be safelly done through customly setup ssh pipes) rather than something like Plex.

It’s kinda funny to see people into self-hosting still doing the kind of mistake I did almost 3 decades ago (fortunatelly in a professional environment) of trusting a 3rd party to the point of becoming dependent on them and later getting burned when they abused that trust, and which led me to avoid such situations like the plague ever since.

Mind you, I can understand if people for whom self-hosting is not driven by a desire to reduce vulnerability to the whims of 3rd parties (which includes reducing the risk of enshittification) and is instead driven by “waste not” (for example, bringing new life to old hardware rather than throwing it out) or by it being a fun challenge, don’t really care to be as independent as possible from such 3rd parties.

Goddammit… Right after I got the lifetime pass…

Do people actually watch whatever plex streams? The only reason I use plex is to rewatch Star Trek for the 18th time.

Can’t sell my data if I’ve never given them any

How else can they afford to stream samurai cop 3 and other things you never asked? You guys need to support them in becoming the best corp they can be! They want to be big boys now.

Hello Jellyfin.

Meanwhile, poor Jellyfin just quietly doing the job.

I have a lifetime Plex pass but still I am considering switching. Currently I have both Jellyfin and Plex on the same libraries but Jellyfin doesn’t have support for chromecast (on iOS and Firefox) nor support for offline . (Not) covering neither my at home nor travelling use cases 😕

@Sunny lol OK so which subdomain do I block.

Even if you can mental gymnastics into believing this won’t affect you, we know that’s the way Plex is going. How long until it does?

I’ve had a lifetime plex pass for several years. Once I tried Jellyfin a few months ago it was all over. My “I’ll run both just in case” period lasted a week or two.

The downside is that Jellyfin will take more setup on your end, especially if you want to let other people connect securely to your server.

The upside is performance and responsiveness. Once I started using it I decided Plex had to go, even if I have to drive to each family member’s house to fix their shit. It was like moving between Linux and Windows, as far as one being designed to work and the other being designed to satisfy dozens of corporate KPIs.

Fortunately the setup for the end user is just as simple once your server is good to go. They just need URL, login, and password.

And since it’s all open source, there’s some fun diversity in clients. I use Finamp specifically for music, and there are audiobook focused ones.

I feel like I know the answer but what happens if you click “I do not agree”?

Damn it damn it damn it!! I can’t use Jellyfin because…its what I watch all my porn on. Plex was used for all the family stuff. Mother fuckers! Greed is a bitch. Edit: Wait…what if we are using a VPN…shouldnt we be good then?

I might actually have to switch to Jellyfin then…

I say that as a paying plex pass customer

"Updated “Who does Plex share or sell Personal Data with?” to include the Plex activity that you share based on your account visibility and activity settings as well as sharing/sale of certain Personal Data to third parties.

Nothing changes for Plex Accounts created before March 20, 2025 unless you change your preferences here.
If you are a new user and created an account after March 20, 2025, you can update your preferences here.
The types of data that we may share has not changed
We do not and will not collect information about content or titles in your personal media library or what you’ve played.
Personal media users: we do NOT, and will not, share or sell any information about the content and titles on or your use of a personal media server.
Consent is required by all Plex Accounts created before March 20, 2025 for the sale of their data."

Seems like it’s just for their other services, which I already assumed they were tracking and selling view counts.