TrickDacy

Yeah that's just stupid

1. fucking why?
2. how did you learn this abomination?

I wish PlexAmp did this so I could recommend it

Pure evil.

You seem a little out of touch with how people think.

Gotcha. I read the tone differently, but all good.

Yeah, you have two options, as the server owner:

1. You can enter a user's email from the Plex UI to invite a user to your library. The user then gets an email asking them to sign up if they don't already have an account.

2. You can generate/send a link to join, any way you choose.

Once signed up, the user can accept the library invitation, then they login to the TV or other device. The code is used for the TV login process, like on other streaming platforms. But yeah, you could do an account-less version of this for Jellyfin, which I think laypeople would like.

As I said, most people don't have that nor do they want to set it up.

No, Plex lets you invite friends to your server with a link they can click and sign up. Then they can type a code into their TV app or login to a browser and watch basically like a standard streaming setup they already probably have used.

Jellyfin is less familiar. Arguably not much more difficult but people aren't always rational. The unfamiliar is often intimidating.

Well yeah maybe that too, but a server no one connects to is a paperweight. The connection part confuses laypeople

They prominently point this change out and kind of force you to choose whether you opt in or out. There is a single checkbox to opt out of all. But yes, it's a bad direction. Just maybe not the apocalypse implied by some.

Apparently all your friends and family are comfortable with hostnames and ip addresses. Not everyone's are. Also, not everyone wants to buy a static ip or setup a dynamic dns service or similar. Plex is definitely simpler. I have used both.