You weren't forced to do anything. They asked you, do you want to combine your accounts? A lot of people just immediately clicked yes without realizing the consequences. To this day I still have my old YouTube account with a username.
> Before the final forced conversion they spent months and months trying to trick people into agreeing to change their account against their will using a bunch of interface design dark patterns.
There was no way for me to say "no, I don't want it, stop asking me". And they kept changing the pop-up locations. And once linked, the accounts couldn't be unlinked.
So no, you weren't "forced", but there was some really shady coersion
I have been using Blendle here in Belgium and I absolutely love it. I'm able to read the paid articles without having so get the full subscription for a big array of newspapers (and magazines like the `New Scientist`) definitely saved me money.
They also send out a mail twice a day with headlining stories. There's almost always at least on story that interests me.
Blendle really is the ideal tool for me. I don't have a problem paying for quality content, but don't make me take out an XX$ subscription just to read one article every now and then.
