This post is somewhat inspired by a recent post in this same community called “Is anyone else having trouble giving up Reddit due to content?”
I imagine “Reddit” will be a common answer. (And it’s one of my answers.)
Another of my answers is “Hasbro.” First Wizards of the Coast (a Hasbro subsidiary) tried to revoke an irrevokable license and screw over basically all 3rd-party publishers of D&D content, then they sent literal mercinaries to threaten one of their customers over an order mixup that wasn’t even the customer’s fault. D&D: Honor Among Thieves and the latest Transformers look really good, but those are within the scope of my boycott, so I won’t be seeing those any time soon.
Third, Microsoft. (Apple too, but then I’ve never bought any Apple devices in my life, so it hardly qualifies as a boycott.) Just because of their penchant for using devices I own against me in every way they can imagine. And for really predatory business practices.
One boycott that I’ve ended was a boycott of Nintendo. I was pissed that they started marketing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (though it didn’t have a name at the time) before the WiiU came out, prompting me to be an early adopter of the WiiU, and then when they actually released BotW, they dual-released it on WiiU and Switch. I slightly eased my boycott when the unpatchable Fusee Gilee vulnerability for the first batch of Switches was discovered. I wanted to get one of the ones I could hack and run homebrew on before they came out with a model that lacked the vulnerability.
Apple. I wouldn’t use their products if they were free.
Roblox. As a parent, I’m not about to support a casino for kids. As a hobbyist game developer, I won’t support their exploitation of developers either.
Lotteries. Im not against gambling in general, but I sure am against emotional manipulation, and taking advantage of those who don’t understand math.
I traditionally never back any lottery but when they break $1 Billion the ROI becomes too high not to toss in a few dollars. I’ve bought only seven lottery tickets in my life and won big on Powerball playing when the jackpot was huge. Playing every week, that is where you get in trouble.
It’s not dumb to spend $10 on 5 tickets and spend the next 2-4 hours imagining / discussing what I would do with the winnings. It’s basically a movie ticket for my imagination, costs the same amount, and lasts about the same amount of time. I call that worth it for a bit of fun every year or so when the jackpot gets really high.
Why boycott apple?
I will not be upgrading my MacBook Air 2017 with a new Mac when it dies. This was the last year that you could replace the SSD, a part that is guaranteed to fail in time. All new Macs have soldered in SSDs that cannot be replaced. There are more reasons but that’s enough for me, I’m done with Macs (after owning many over the decades since getting my first in 1986).
I thought they were pushing a “right to repair” bill /s
Welcome to Linux when it dies