Filip L.

When it comes to Star Trek, many things changed over the years. In the beginning, everything was different. There was no money, no credits, no holodecks, no androids serving as Starfleet officers, and many other similar things. Each new TV show made ST even further apart from the original concept designed by Gene Roddenberry. He had something else in mind: a pacifist utopia on a cosmic scale, where all diversities of life in the infinite Universe matter. Later, Star Trek became more and more agressive and violent over the years, similar to its greatest rival, the Star Wars. With each new season on some ST TV show, we get to see yet another ground rule being broken. Recently, a ST reboot was made, with an idea of some alternate reality where planet Vulcan is destroyed and there is no Vulcans to initiate the First Contact. In my personal opinion, Vulcans are crucial to entire Star Trek universe. Without the Vulcan, nothing make sense, not even the United Federation of Planets itself. Although Gene Roddenberry always insisted on having much more powerful female figures included in a story, we had to wait for ST VOY to get a first woman captain of a star ship. Additionally, some changes only confused the Trekkies, such as Lor, Data's evil twin. How can an android robot, without any emotion whatsoever, ever be evil?! Yet another example of ST losing a compass over the years is a concept of Tuvok, who supposed to be pure-blooded Vulcan, yet it was never explained how come he's so different from any Vulcan we ever saw before, or after that. The same goes for his wife. They had to be unique in all the ST universe, considering the fact the couple is much more similar to other Klingons out there, not to other Vulcans. Speaking of Klingons, even the ST canon screenwriters have to give some kind of valid explanation on why the Klingons from TOS don't look anything like those in let's say The Wrath of Khan. Remember that famous episode about the tribbles anyone? My conclusion is quite simple: over the years, Star Trek deteriorated, and recently it was surpased in many ways by a rival Star Wars franchise, if not by anything else, then consistency. Unlike Star Trek, which constantly changes over the decades, Star Wars essentially stays the same, no matter what. One might say that Star Trek got defeated by Star Wars. Of course, many Trekkies tried to stay loyal to TOS ideals, creating some of the best fan production ever in science fiction, yet those are just the web shows we're talking about, with amateur crew. The official ST movies and TV shows are not even close to TOS. One might say they are millions of light years apart. Looks like Star Trek is losing a battle with its biggest rival. In a continuous battle between phasors and lightsabres, so far, the lightsabres prevail.

Back in the beginning, in 2005, when YouTube was just being created, it was all very different from the way it looks right now, in 2021. Over the decades, a lot of things has changed, but not for better. Once, YouTube was a place of fun and having a good time. Today, YouTube is all about money, profit, advertisement, etc. There's a total lack of creativity like it was back in the good old times. Instead of promoting freedom of expression, YouTube became obsessed with copyright and deleting comments with some URL linking to another site. On some browsers, it's even impossible to reply properly to some other user by name, simply because of total lack of instant reply option altogether. You know what I mean. Anyway, this vital option is missing even from YouTube mobile app, which makes absolutely no sense to anybody. Posting some hashtags in comments is also a big issue on YouTube these days. One can even get banned for spamming, if they post too many hashtags, or links, in their comments! YouTube doesn't let users to add links to another site, even if so many movies and TV shows are missing from YouTube, all due to copyright, as well as community guidelines. Some users tend to falsely tag their videos as suitable for children, although in fact they're not, simply to avoid their videos being flooded with all those ads! If you ask me, YouTube should ban all those users who only troll the site, uploading hours of nothing at all, hidden behind the fake title of some full movie. Two hours of absolutely nothing! What a total waste of time, not to mention the memory hosted on YouTube servers. There are so many trolls on YouTube these days, with so called full movies which are nowhere to be found, all thanks to this ridiculous YouTube copyright policy. Also, the community guidelines make absolutely no sense these days. I'm under the impression that everything is unacceptable to post on YouTube these days! People get a lot of false copyright claims on their videos all the time from various music companies, or movie companies, or TV broadcasters, even those that nobody has ever heard of, such as the mysterious yet omnipresent Lasso Group, yet no one ever received a single strike on their account for trolling the site! Even if being reported for trolling, or spamming, by so many users, some spam or troll accounts on YouTube are never deleted! Go figure! Looks like YouTube doesn't care much about trolls and spammers anymore! One can get banned for copyright infrigement, or for uploading too explicit sexual content, yet never have I heard of a single troll account being deleted by YouTube! The comment section is the worst! People use it to post negative comments all the time, and to spam the site with some of the most absurd comments you can imagine! Some of them even re-post the same comment multiple times, without any repercutions from YouTube whatsoever! Although it's against the general rules of YouTube, many users post comments only to hurt other people, or to make someone look bad. Comments keep disappearing all the time, for no appareant reason, much like the likes that one gets for their positive comments. YouTube obviously doesn't want people to interact with each other on the platform, afraid that it might become a social media, instead of just a video sharing platform! That's why replying to somebody's comment is being heavily discouraged by YouTube itself. Personally, I think YouTube is already a global social media, and a perfect replacement for a defunct Google Plus, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. The site allows users to upload public executions, torture, and other gore content, yet for some reason any sexually explicit content gets deleted immediately! YouTube is a very cold and hostile place now. There's no fun on YouTube anymore. Everyone only cares about the money these days! YouTube is discriminating all those small channels with less than 1000 subscribers, because one can't even start a new poll on YouTube these days, unless they already have 1000 subscribers to the channel. Additionally, subscriber count on some YouTube channel may vary significantly from day to day. One could lose plenty of subscribers literally over night, all due to a single video, or some difference of opinion posted in form of a comment! Also, YouTube keep decreasing the total subscriber count by removing a lot of users without any channel content whatsoever from the list of subscribers. Meaning one can no longer know for sure just how many subscribers they may have this time tomorrow. Many users only subscribe to some channels only to downvote the videos, and to post negative comments. What can one say about all sorts of phobia existing on YouTube these days, or this constant clash of opinion between the opposite political views?! Even the most absurd things can occur, such as massive dislike of certain videos, like some Christmas carol for example, from users who don't share the same belief system. Why else would someone ever be listening to a Christmas carol, unless they're actually Christians themselves?!? People nowdays use this YouTube comment section for personal insults, and for posting a lot of very offensive comments full of hate speach against other religions, nations, countries, or even someone's political views, race, gender, or sexual orientation. That's not acceptable on any site, especially not on YouTube! On top of all that, YouTube is full of unwanted and completely unrelated ads. Way too many ads, if you ask me! Sometimes, the ads altogether are even longer than the video itself! One has to pay extra to get the YouTube Premium, so they could get rid off all those annoying ads! It's almost impossible these days for any small creator to ever reach the number of 100 subscribers, much less the 1000 required for monetization. Basically, YouTube became a synonym for vevo, with some of the biggest channels out there designed only for some online streaming, as well as running personal vlogs, yet the average creator on YouTube is completely helpless and left outside altogether. How can anyone make a fanvid these days, when all the music, as well as pictures, or videos, is already copyright?!? Fanvids without music have absolutely no sense. Music is the key element of every single fanvid. I remember the time when users could make a remake of some popular song, and then the video would go viral in the matter of hours. Today, making such remake would only result in getting a copyright strike, or even a channel deletion! Not all users can afford to pay the enormous royalty fees to some copyright owners just so they can upload some full movie, music video, or some full episode of a sitcom, or some other TV show. That's why you won't find any of those on YouTube, so may I suggest that you go and find it yourself someplace else. None of the most popular TV shows, or any blockbuster movie is available on YouTube! To watch it, one has to look for it elsewhere. YouTube supposed to be a place of fun, not profit, but most users only care about the money! Search results and suggestions often show only the videos from some big channels. The other huge problem on YouTube is YouTube app, especially the mobile one, which is no match to Google's high standards, although Google actually owns YouTube now. They should make more efford to create a much better YouTube app for everyone. YouTube should finally do something about all those problems mentioned in this review. Getting an email on which one can actually reach YouTube personnel, instead of some bot, would be a good start. Let me remind you that so far there's no way to send a simple message, or a complaint, to YouTube directly. For a global platform such as YouTube, it's a big disadvantage these days. Speaking of a global site, most users are unaware that majority of uploaded content is literally unavailable worldwide, due to YouTube copyright policy, as well as this whole YouTube region restriction. Some content is unavailable in certain countries, while some videos may even be blocked all over the world! That's not how a global site should look like! When one upload something to YouTube, they expect to be visible to everyone, all around the globe, which is not always the case. Sometimes, two copyright holders are in dispute, so one could get a copyright claim from both parties involved, making it impossible to upload certain music videos, movies, or TV shows! What YouTube needs right now are some vevo-like channels made by all those major movie companies to upload their own products: full movies, and full episodes of all sitcoms and other TV shows for people to watch for free. There's not so many full movies you can find on YouTube, and finding some full episode of some TV show, or some sitcom, is literally mission impossible, because of YouTube copyright policy which makes no sense to anybody, much like those very confusing community guidelines. My conclusion is quite simple: YouTube needs some improvement soon, or more users would quit the site and go someplace else, to some other similar site with less confusing ground rules and simply absurd guidelines, and without any more obstacles in expending the boundaries of one's creativity.

Fanpop is notorious for its glitches. It's more of a software issue, related to site's already outdated servers. Also, the Fanpop algorithm doesn't allow fans to edit or delete their own polls, quizzes, or even questions, after they've been published to various fan clubs. Sometimes it's not even possible to embed a simple YT video to some club, or even to upload a simple picture. Only YT videos are supported, all other videos end up in links section by mistake, such as Vimeo, or if it's a Dailymotion video, then on most devices video simply won't play! Not only that, but the site doesn't support a shorten URL. Fanpop is not even a HTTPS site at all, but a simple HTTP instead, meaning there's no actual security, nor can the fans upload their own home made videos in mp4. If by mistake you add someone to your fanlist, and if that someone is not really your friend at all, you're gonna have a lot of trouble trying to un-fan that person, to remove them from your fanlist. Also, keep in mind that if you by accident become a fan of something, there's no turning back. Unlike all other social media, such as Facebook, or YouTube, fanning something on Fanpop is permanent. You can't undo that! So, all future fanpoppers beware: You can't change your mind afterwards! Meaning once you become a fan of some stuff, you're stuck with it forever, no matter how much you may try, even if it's the worst song you ever heard in your entire life, or the worst movie ever made! Additionally, let me tell you that Fanpop no longer awards new fans with special occasions caps, or holiday caps, ever since 2014, discriminating all the new users. Recently, in 2019, a modern Fanpop was introduced, which allows fans to dislike videos, pictures, etc. Many fans misuse this new feature to get a personal revenge. For same reason, some users tend to spam other users, sending hate mail to enemies, insulting other fans by posting negative comments, leaving clubs they have in common for no reason, etc. Basically, Fanpop has become a troll haven. They should even change the site's name to Trollpop. Props and personal messages are misused the most. Some fans shower their friends with props for no reason whatsoever. Some users delete even seasonal greetings attached to a prop on their wall, if they really dislike someone. Others gossip about other users using Fanpop messaging system. If someone tells you on Fanpop you two are gonna be friends for life, that usually means a week or two, if you're lucky maybe even a month. Then, your so called best friend will find somebody else, another user to call his or her best friend, and he or she would simply ditch you from their fanlist altogether, just like that, for no obvious reason. It happened to me already, it could also happen to you, so be very careful who you're inviting to your friends! The site itself is outdated and it needs a new software, as well as a new improved algorithm to give the fans more control over their own contribution and wallposts, such as editing option. Most clubs look deserted now because all the fans abandoned this site long time ago and some clubs have been last updated over a year ago. Fanpop is just piling up the fans in all those clubs. Even though the fancount shows more than ******* fans in some clubs, the truth is, most of the fans are not even on Fanpop anymore. They just forgot to leave the club, before they deleted their account, or, in some cases, they got banned. Yes, many fans got banned even today, and it's permanent, despite the fact that each new ban is supposed to be only temporarily. Once you got banned, there's no turning back! I've seen people getting banned just because the site didn't like their username, or their user icon, or simply because their username was too short. You can't even make an appeal, once you got banned, because there's no one to reply! Basically, this whole site is running by a bot, not by actual living people anymore. Lack of activity is the main reason why I had to quit. Most fans who join the site these days are not active at all in all those fan clubs they joined, but instead they're just silent bystanders: they make no contribution, they don't post any comment, they don't like any new content, I mean, nothing at all! Sometimes, it takes months, or even years, to finally get your first fan on some of your stuff! Most people just ignore that button made for fanning stuff completely. Nobody watches the videos anymore, nobody cares about new pictures, or even some great new links! You'll see some cool stuff with 0 likes, meaning nobody's a fan of it! Users on this site are gone inactive these days. They don't contribute anything at all. Some new users are not even interested in making friends after joining the site, so you'll find plenty of users who are not fans of anybody else, yet the Fanpop's biggest problem is nevertheless a total lack of any email validation upon making a new account, not even a phone validation is required by texting. For that reason, Fanpop became notorious for people who constantly create fake accounts. Some users even have more than 2 accounts! There is no OTP either to validate your account. Basically, anybody can create the unlimited number of fake accounts by using a non-existant email to register. That's why so many users already quit and left the site for good, deleting their accounts after years of inactivity. Fanpop needs to invest much more in self-promotion. It lacks sponsors, and it's also the only social media without any celebrity among the users. Today, in 2020, the site has no more than 200 regular users on daily basis, which is the main reason nobody ever heard of Fanpop. It's not even listed in any social media wiki on Wikipedia. Fanpop is losing fans rapidly. People on this site became obsessed with props and medals. They will do anything to get the attention and popularity, even betray or hurt their best friends, just to become more popular on this site. Beware the fake friends on this site who only use you to get props from you! Once you stop showering them with props, you're gonna lose a friend who was never your real friend anyway. When you eventually get a medal in some club, nobody would even bother to congratulate you for winning your medal! Why? Mostly because nobody cares about anybody else on this site but themselves, yet usually because others obviously got jealous of your recent success by winning a medal in a club you have in common. Let's face it, Fanpop is way too competative: people compete with their best friends for props and medals all the time. Some users even go too far by spamming other users to get more fans, more props, more attention, and eventually more medals. Some users only care for medals, not for other people on this site, so beware who you call your best friend, because sometimes your best friend on this site could turn into your worst enemy literally over night! It has already happened to me, a lot of times before, so make sure you got yourself some true friends, not the fake ones! Pick your online friends very carefully! If I could go back to the start, then I'm sure there would be a lot of people which I should never even add to my fanlist in first place, because they were only my fake friends, or frenemies, if you like, but it's too late now for regrets. Spamming and trolling, even stalking people, became a big problem on Fanpop lately, but the biggest problems on Fanpop are actually the following: inactivity, indifference, intolerance, as well as inability to take control over one's contribution or wallposts. I'm afraid, this site won't be around in 2026, to celebrate its round, 20th anniversary. Also, this site has no headquarters and no mailing address to send a letter by post, like any other social media, or a phone or fax number, and a contact form by email is completely useless, because you never get a reply. All the founders, or F4, already left the site years ago, and even the moderators are not always around when you need one. In conclusion, to summon up my entire experience of years of active fanpopping in a single sentence, I would have to say that Fanpop is a failure, and therefore, much like Google Plus, it won't be long before Fanpop got defunct. It is only a matter of time really. Also, Fanpop is the only global social media without a mobile app! Despite the promise made by F4 years ago to make such a mobile app, there is no Fanpop mobile app available, not even today! Many users are on mobile site, yet Fanpop doesn't care. There should be a Fanpop mobile app for years now.