Eugene 
This morning I was "welcomed" by the SMS from my cellular operator about increasing costs for my tariff plan — since 1st January of 2026 I'll pay 845 ₽ (≈ 8.5 $) instead of 750 ₽ (≈ 7.5 $).
Obviously I don't want to pay more — why I even should pay so much for shitty network, which shuts down each time when military drones enter aerial space of Leningradskaya oblast (even the connection to the selfhosted server in the same city is not working, as @livefish told me), and which connectivity to the other networks is broken too — "thanks" to the some "three-letter agencies" (I even unable to update my timeline from mastodon.bsd.cafe without … ughm … using some special techniques — can't speak freely because writing about how to setup network services to avoid these blocks are illegal here)?
Thusly, I decided to login to the cellular operator's site and search for a cheaper plan. I found it, but — damn there are A LOT of dark patterns here!
First, I select a cheapest plan with enough traffic limits (25 Gb per month) which costs 700 ₽ (≈ 7 $). On the next screen it suddenly started to cost 720 ₽ (≈ 7.2 $). Why? Because the additional fee for unlimited use of ТамТам messenger was preselected, lol 
. Possibly, you don't hear about ТамТам because it is dead for now — all cool stateists using new messenger Max, lol.
Second, I decided to change the amount of prepaid minutes and Gb to get more Gb. And there is a funniest dark pattern:
I'm increasing the amount of prepaid minutes — the overall price increases too, as it should be.
I'm decreasing the amount of minutes — the overall price … INCREASES again! 
(see the attached video on the second toot)
When I'm decreasing amount of minutes, the free unlimited access to messengers become paid unlimited access — and the resulting price become higher, lmao.
Gingered
Thoughts Words Action
Scientific Frontline
Ben Hardill
Open Source Mobile Comms
Steve Dustcircle 🌹
Bigbass
Pseudonymous 
