I like the idea of using spotdl and yt-dlp but my eyes gloss over as soon as I see that there is no GUI. Lidarr kinda sucks but it gets me pretty close to what I need. Wish I was more comfy without a GUI but don’t really have the time to get the hang of it. So it goes.

Not aware of any cracks. I use the felddy image on my Unraid setup and the first window on a fresh install asks for the license. Same goes for when I run locally on Windows. I’m sure there’s a crack out there, but I’m not aware of it.

All I can offer is my full endorsement of Foundry. It’s worth the money. If $50 is a bit steep at the moment, I think they do offer a small discount with an anniversary sale each year. Not sure when that is exactly.

Switched from paying Roll20 an annoying monthly fee and it’s more than paid for itself now. There is even a tool floating around to export active Roll20 games for use in Foundry. I remember it being pretty inefficient, but better than starting from scratch.

Neat. I never need a VPN for more than a few days at a time, but if I ever sub to one long term I’ll keep this in mind.

Yup. Folks looking for stuff to be salty about. Those admins were protecting their hides and had every right to do so. Hosting carries risks. What could have been handled better was communicating this (a day or three beforehand + not on Discord lmao). The people acting like this is some sort of unforgivable problem are just being dorks. Don’t like it? Pop onto a new instance. It’s easy and is a perfect example as to why Lemmy is great.

Edit: Worth mentioning that the piracy community is among the most active groups on the entire platform. As a viable alternative to reddit, I don’t think piracy being the face of Lemmy is a great look. Newcomers may start on LW and never need or want this community. Those who want it WILL find it.