vanillax's recent activity

1. If you have a mental health issue which predisposes people to misjudge, marginalise and discount you, how has that affected you?

   ~talk Ask (survey)

   Sometimes it's not what we look like, or where we are from. It's a label.

   9 votes

2. Comment on When do you use a VPN? in ~tech

   vanillax

   June 20, 2019

   Link Parent

   I do not use it for Steam, so I do not know. A site such as http://itch.io will detect if you are in the EU and ask for VAT details and then add 20%. US sites can also detect this and add that...

   I do not use it for Steam, so I do not know.

   A site such as http://itch.io will detect if you are in the EU and ask for VAT details and then add 20%.

   US sites can also detect this and add that 20%.

   I'm happy to pay the software price, but tax? No thanks.

3. Comment on When do you use a VPN? in ~tech

   vanillax

   June 19, 2019

   Link Parent

   Steam has region locks for game purchases. Typically a game's full price in say Russia is a lot cheaper than it is here in the UK. http://steamdb.info will show you prices in different countries....

   Steam has region locks for game purchases. Typically a game's full price in say Russia is a lot cheaper than it is here in the UK. http://steamdb.info will show you prices in different countries. You could use a VPN to get around these to buy the game - and even then you might have to use the VPN to actually play it as well.

   Steam's TOS states that circumventing region locks is not acceptable. Whether or not this has ever resulted in user bans does not interest me. Same goes for Uplay, Origin, Blizzard.

   So I just wanted to be explicit that my VPN use is not for this purpose.

   8 votes

4. Comment on When do you use a VPN? in ~tech

   vanillax

   June 19, 2019

   Link

   I have two uses: Avoiding tax. I live in the UK so software/games can have VAT added. I don't like paying that, so I VPN through New York, buy what I want. This is not to avoid region locks or...

   I have two uses:

   1. Avoiding tax. I live in the UK so software/games can have VAT added. I don't like paying that, so I VPN through New York, buy what I want. This is not to avoid region locks or anything like that (I never use a VPN for Steam/Origin/Uplay/Blizzard etc), and it does not reduce the income for the developer, it is only to let me pay the price I see and not have 20% added. Just doing this saves me the cost of the VPN.

   2. Torrenting TV episodes. Sometimes TPB is blocked here, sometimes not, but in either case why tie my IP address to a download?

   15 votes