ergot_vacation

21 ms·

91.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
The tactic was highly successful on SA, but it can only do so much. Having a cover charge keeps out lazy spammers, children, and casual vandals/trolls pretty well. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything to keep out those who are de
92.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Bingo. Water flows downhill, systems tend toward entropy, and businesses do whatever makes the most money. If those actions (like child labor) are unacceptable to society, laws have to be made to restrain them, or they will keep happening.
93.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
1. Good people make good thing. 2. Bad people steal good thing. 3. Bad people ruin good thing while trying to make money with it. Tale as old as time.
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by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Is this going to be Freenet in software form? The first bit of fuckery with FN wasn't enough to drive most people away. Nor the second even. But it KEPT HAPPENING, over and over, and eventually critical mass was hit. You'd think a
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by ergot_vacation 5y ago
" Significantly smaller services like Reddit, with only about 430 million users, do a much better job these days (at least since 2020, when Reddit abandoned its naive commitment to radical free speech and encouraged strong community co
96.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
As others have asked though, how does this effect side-loading? What does the user end up downloading: an apk, or an aab? If it's an aab, can they archive it for later, like you can with apks? APK archive sites have saved my ass on num
97.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Exactly. The Atlantic author seems to be laboring under the misguided assumption that the web is somehow the same sort of thing as a library of books. Even libraries often have some degree of garbage information in them, and represent a sur
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by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Having read the whole thing, it seems partially good, martially misguided, and partially terrible. The overall bent is a hand-wringing about link rot, which I thought we mostly got over a decade ago. The Internet is fundamentally ephemeral.
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by ergot_vacation 5y ago
A lot of this comes down to taste, but for my money almost everything about this is wrong. The first thing a web browser needs is a non-profit, propped up by an enormous endowment, so that they can stay independent in the face of unthinkabl
100.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Every modern attempt at starting competing services to major online forums has met with: -A firestorm of slander from media outlets controlled by competitors. -Cartel-style harassment and denial of basic services required to run the site, h
101.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
It's almost as if America was a radical attempt at a new kind of government, where its founders tried to avoid many of the pitfalls they had observed in Europe. The "United Kingdom" ("England" when we broke up with
102.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
I hate mudflinging as much as the next guy, but how would someone even engage in politics at all without statements that could be described as detestation or vilification? Politics is saying mean things about the other side in support of yo
103.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Agreed. There is a 1000% chance this legislation will be used to muzzle valid criticism of the rich and powerful, both in and out of government. The uncritical crowd here tends to assume anyone critical of hate speech laws just wants to tos
104.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
It's been my experience that almost everything is like this. You decide one day to learn how to do x, and look up some information from what seem like trustworthy sources on how to do x well. What you'll need, the technique involv
105.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
A lot has been written about the social and legal difficulties of running such a site (how much do you enjoy looking at child porn all day so you can ban the people posting it? How many mass-shooters would you like to have post their manife
106.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Reddit is the perfect case example of what happened to the 07-08 web as time went on. Initially, the Internet was a big exciting place and people just built stuff to see if they could, and maybe they could sell it later (a lot of communitie
107.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Most people are incredibly dumb. This includes the rich and powerful; most of them just happened to be lucky enough to be born in the right place, at the right time.
108.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
As a rough estimate, what percent of US economic activity is large piles of money being tossed into a flaming dumpster for the sake of someone's ego? Because every year it seems higher.
109.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
As long as it costs money, it's about value for money. If you're willing to give it to me for free, great, then we can kick back and speculate on how it improves me as a person (consider, however, there are MANY things in this wor
110.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
"The Case Against Education" by Bryan Caplan lays out exactly this argument: "Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to certify their intelligence, conscientiousness,
111.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
> Universities sell a financial product > No they do not. Then why are student loans (in the US) the only loans not dischargable in bankruptcy? If I live like an irresponsable asshole, run up credit card debt right and left, buy a car
112.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
People no longer trust their government, on a fundamental level. There has always been some degree of skepticism, but now trust has broken down completely. Politicians were always seen as crooked, but they were at least somewhat capable of
113.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
This article misses the two most important bits of info in understanding propaganda, and how people work. 1. Most effective communication is "propaganda" As outlined in "Thinking Fast and Slow" (and in numerous other pla
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by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Put another way, computers and the Internet are a tool to accelerate the process of becoming more of what you are. If what you are is a curious, humble person looking to understand the world better, it can help with that. If you're a v
115.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Innovation is exciting. Serious, exciting innovation in most of the computing world has ground to a near halt for over a decade now. Most things, hardware, software, web etc are just iterative, and often a step backward. Nothing to be excit
116.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Gradually, I've learned that the history of almost all technology is this: 1. Smart, well-meaning people see a problem, and try to craft a solution. 2. Bad actors completely ignore these good intentions and use the new invention for mo
117.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
People must have very different performance requirements than me. I've run 10 on nothing but HDD for years now with no issues. Of course, I also avoid electron apps, modify Firefox so it doesn't eat memory like an addict on a bend
118.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Found Everything back in the Windows 7 days and have never used anything else. It still amazes me that a silly little freeware search outperforms what Windows has. Really goes to show Microsoft's utter contempt (or apathy) toward the u
119.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
Over the past decade, software updates in general have mostly become another form of malware, as software makers care more about extracting money from their users or adding pointless shiny features than actually making their software fast,
120.
by ergot_vacation 5y ago
The unifying thread in all given examples is that Meme Activism is good at short-term and superficial victories, but poor at long-term, meaningful ones. It's great at getting a bunch of likes while harassing someone like Yang into shut

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