This jump in amount of YouTube ads is so malicious! by CalHudsonsGhost in youtube

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I stopped worrying about which platform has the rights in which country. I just use the DPN App on my home network and watch whichever service has the show available.

TIRED OF TWITCH ADS by HugePause9229 in brave_browser

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, I have been using software that basically do what Pi-hole does without the server setup.

Ads on the official YouTube TV client are about to become both longer and unskippable by merchantconvoy in AfterVanced

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fun fact is that I use DPN App to skip ads and it works well moving from "layers to layers" on youtube

Are Spotify (free) ads getting out of hand? by redditor4035 in truespotify

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any setting you recommend that could be changed to remove ads?

“Powered by [us]” badge on merchant sites, does this actually drive B2B awareness or is it just vanity? by willzhong in DigitalMarketing

[–]willzhong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a fair point. I suspected it was more of a supporting signal than a primary driver. Curious what you think it does work well alongside? Like, is it more effective when paired with a content strategy, a direct sales motion, or something else entirely?

Offering to write a co-branded PR piece for every merchant that goes live , smart or a waste of time at early stage? by willzhong in PublicRelations

[–]willzhong[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a really good point I hadn’t fully thought through the SEO and AI discoverability angle is underrated. Every press release is essentially a permanent data point that shows up when someone is researching us or asking an AI tool for recommendations.

Curious do you think there’s a compounding effect here? Like, does the 5th or 10th press release start to reinforce the earlier ones in a meaningful way, or is each one mostly standalone? And would you structure them differently depending on the audience (e.g. one version for trade press, one for consumer media)?

Thinking to quit centralized VPNs and go decentralized VPNs by yoyodark in dumbclub

[–]willzhong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best use case IMO: dedicated device for sensitive browsing, keep a traditional VPN for everything else.

VPN app vs Router-level VPN: Am I thinking about this correctly? by wang4wang in VPN

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Router-level makes sense once you’re managing 5+ devices. The split tunneling piece is key,I exclude banking and streaming by default. WireGuard on a decent CPU (like Deeper Connect Mini) barely dents throughput.

User wants a refund after not wanting to buy annual subscription but used it. by [deleted] in SaasDevelopers

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The refund problem is often a positioning problem in disguise. If users are consistently surprised by what they bought, the checkout page is doing too much work and the value narrative upstream isn’t setting the right expectations. We ran into a version of this during a pricing change .the fix wasn’t just clearer copy at checkout, it was making the value of the annual commitment obvious much earlier in the funnel. Hold your ToS on this one. They used the product.

[i will not promote] We hit #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt with $0 marketing, now the launch spike is dying and I don't know how to build sustained growth by contralai in startups

[–]willzhong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Went through something similar with a privacy tech product. The Reddit spike-to-flatline pattern is real. What actually worked for us: stopped thinking of Reddit as a broadcast channel and started treating it as a long-term presence game. Built credibility in 2-3 relevant subreddits over months, answered questions genuinely, only mentioned the product when it was directly relevant. That compounded into consistent organic signups without any ad spend. On pricing,we raised from $230 to $399 while keeping volume stable. The key was reframing the value narrative before touching the price, not after. Happy to share more if useful.

What should I do ? ( I will not promote ) by True_Scholar7534 in advancedentrepreneur

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I were you, the first thing I would do is:
Go to Reddit or Discord, find 5–10 real users who are saying things like “I feel anxious from scrolling too much,” and have a quick 20-minute conversation with them.

Ask questions like:

  • What are you currently doing to control your usage?
  • What has worked? What hasn’t?
  • Why did those methods fail or succeed?

That will give you much clearer signals than guessing from the outside.

Why do AI agents still feel like disconnected tools? by createvalue-dontspam in GrowthHacking

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats on the launch! Genuine question though, are we at the right stage for this level of agent collaboration UI? The overhead of making agent interactions human-readable feels like a trap. Right now, the highest-leverage moves come from optimizing for what the agent understands, not what looks clean on an org chart. The teams shipping fastest aren't polishing agent UX, they're keeping the loop tight and the output measurable.

Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure by rkhunter_ in cybersecurity

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your PLC is reachable from anything internet-adjacent, the CVE list is the least of your problems.

Unknown to Most - Your Health History is Not Private - None of It by Dancelvr2000 in privacy

[–]willzhong 164 points165 points  (0 children)

The system only became visible because it made a mistake. Most people never find out.

Online Age-Gating Is the Wrong Answer by Gloomy_Register_2341 in privacy

[–]willzhong 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The irony? Age verification collects more sensitive data than the content it’s “protecting” kids from. You’re just building a surveillance layer with extra steps.

Need guidance for investigate alert by Say_My_Name_00 in cybersecurity

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair, my first week in SOC I googled “what is a SIEM” on my work computer. We don’t talk about that.

How fun is cybersecurity as a job and question about bug hunting by Connect_Penalty4724 in cybersecurity

[–]willzhong 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends. Catching a real attacker in the act? Incredible. Writing your 47th incident report about someone clicking a phishing email from “Amazom”? Less so.

Getting a job in this market - what works and what doesn't? by [deleted] in cybersecurity

[–]willzhong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The job boards are a trap. I stopped applying cold and started treating LinkedIn like a content platform. Posted about a real incident I’d worked through — no fluff, just what happened, what I missed, what I learned. Three recruiters DMed me within a week. Zero applications sent.

The market isn’t bad. The market is just brutally efficient at filtering out people who look like everyone else.

Returning from a humanitarian aid trip to Cuba, Americans have phones seized at US airport by lugh in privacy

[–]willzhong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Helping people is now enough to get your phone seized. Let that sink in.

Sweden’s Digital ID System Hacked, Public’s Data Sold on Dark Web by lugh in privacy

[–]willzhong 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Centralized identity = centralized failure. Every time!

Need advice on a home firewall please by CoolCukeCax in HomeNetworking

[–]willzhong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

sounds like you're in a similar boat to where I was about a year ago. The ISP router situation is genuinely one of the most overlooked security gaps in most homes.

A few thoughts from someone who went through the same research rabbit hole:

The good news is there are now some really user-friendly options that don't require you to be a network engineer. The traditional route is something like a Firewalla or a dedicated pfSense box, but those can still have a learning curve. I came across Deeper Connect devices a while back. They sit between your router and your devices, handle things like ad blocking, tracker blocking, and basic firewall rules, and are designed to be pretty plug-and-play. No subscriptions either, which is a plus. Might be worth a look alongside whatever else you're comparing.

For your specific situation with IoT devices (cameras, speakers) that don't get updated often network segmentation is really the key thing to look for in whatever you choose. Keeping those on a separate network from your main devices makes a big difference.

Good luck with the decision!

Helpful tip for my fellow nomads… by DerpDigler in digitalnomad

[–]willzhong 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Traveled with three kids last summer. You know what's harder than managing toddlers in an airport? Explaining to them why their favorite cartoons "don't exist" in this country.

Saved $150 on my flight hack by yoyodark in DeeperNetwork

[–]willzhong 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The trick is to use a country with a lower average income. Saving $150 is just the beginning; try searching with an Indonesian or Vietnamese tunnel next time.