WoodScientist
@WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied. 1 day ago:
Things need to be paid for, but why does that mechanism need to be baked into the platform?
Imagine I’m the best, most engaging poster and commenter on Lemmy. Everyone loves my posts and comments, shares them, quotes them, and responds to them endlessly. (Maybe in this scenario everyone has brain damage for some reason, and this allowed me to become the top Lemmy user.)
If I’m in that position, what’s stopping me from just putting a little blurb at the bottom of each comment saying, “this post is brought to you by Carls Jr.” or whoever wants to sponsor my comments. If people for some reason loved my posts and comments enough, I could find sponsors and just put those sponsorships right in whatever comment or post I make. Lemmy doesn’t need to be involved. They don’t need to go out of their way to recommend my posts either. If they’re good enough, then they can be spread naturally by people sharing and engaging with them.
It makes sense for platforms to provider revenue to creators, but only if the platform has substantial ad revenue. YouTube pays its creators, but it also brings in billions of ad revenue. I don’t think most Lemmy servers even have ads.
- Comment on We were once forced to watch predetermined junk on cable TV, now we get to choose which junk we want to watch on internet TV. 1 day ago:
Yeah, I’m guilty of the same.
- Comment on We were once forced to watch predetermined junk on cable TV, now we get to choose which junk we want to watch on internet TV. 1 day ago:
The great thing is that you only have to watch junk if you want to watch junk. Even if you confine yourself to free videos on youtube, there’s plenty of good stuff out there. If you curate your subscriptions and browse on the “subscribed” tab, rather than letting the algorithm feed you, you can control your viewing experience fully. You can even set up rss feeds for your subscribed channels if you want. Plus there are no shortage of ad- and sponsor-blocking options out there.
Ultimately, you get the online experience you work for. But it’s certainly possible to curate a stream that is the equivalent or superior to the experience of the Discovery or History Channels back in their heyday, before their enshittification.
- Comment on dear republicans, what's the point of alienating every single ally of the US? 2 days ago:
And why do you take the word of a man who was infamously one of history’s greatest liars?
- Comment on I am at a loss on words 3 days ago:
Door’s Agar.
- Comment on Is it possible to design a (pen and paper) cipher that is secure against government cryptanalysis for at least 10 years? 5 days ago:
Learn Navajo and ancient Babylonian. Write everything in a custom pidgin of Mandarin, Navajo, and ancient Babylonian.
- Comment on Billionaires shouldn't exist 5 days ago:
We need to wipe them from existence.
Let every nation have a maximum wealth cap. 1000x the median national household income. Anything else is taxed at 100%. This cap in the US would be about $80 million today.
But if you’re somehow in flagrant violation of this limit? If your wealth is the equivalent of over one billion 2025 dollars? Unless you quickly earn a multi-billion fortune and immediate give it away or spend it, having a net worth over $1 billion will be a felony. It will be a capital offense. Oh you’re secretly billionaire, having hid your vast illegal fortune from the IRS? You are guilty of trying to amass a geopolitically-significant level of wealth. We’re going to treat this as seriously as we would someone who attempts to build their own personal nuclear weapons. Really, you are guilty of a form of treason. Except instead of aiding a foreign nation, you were trying to become a threat to your nation yourself. And the traditional penalty for treason will be applied.
This is the world we could have. We could, if we wanted it badly enough, simply make being a billionaire a capital offense. Force them to give away or spend most everything they have. Either way, given or spent, wealth is distributed enough so that no individual can threaten the nation through their own personal wealth.
It is time we wiped billionaires off the face of the Earth. No individual should ever be allowed to become so wealthy that they become a threat to nation states.
- Comment on What would happen if Punxsutawney Phil comes out, and immediately dies? 5 days ago:
What if he dies via lightning strike?
- Comment on If Europe and the rest of the worlds response it to make weapons of war, someone will eventually insure they are all used. 5 days ago:
Do you have car home or renter’s insurance? If so, when are you planning on setting fire to your home?
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Instead of nine new justices, they were replaced with just one, the only good and just man in the nation, Keanu Reeves.
- Comment on Your boomer parents after giving you the most outdated job-seeking advice of your fucking life [Day 86] 1 week ago:
Apply to jobs in person. Attach your resume to a brick, and throw the employer’s front window.
- Comment on I hate this image because idiots will see it, not understand what its showing, and make up some crazy shit based on it. 1 week ago:
Yeah, I’ve used the name before in a similar tale. It just really tickles me to think that there in fact ARE Jewish space lasers, and there’s a brave group of rabbis up on a space station keeping the planet safe from extraterrestrial threats. And “Rabbi Rabinowitz” is one of the most ridiculously over-the-top Jewish names I can think of. And instead of nefarious conspiracies, it’s very fun to just be like, “what do you have against the Jewish space lasers?! How dare you insult the good work of the great Rabbi Rabinowitz! You ungrateful bastard. He’s given his life to save you!!”
- Comment on I hate this image because idiots will see it, not understand what its showing, and make up some crazy shit based on it. 1 week ago:
What’s everybody got against the Jewish Space Lasers? Rabbi Rabinowitz has been in charge of those lasers since 1998, and he’s been doing a damn fine job keeping the Martians and asteroids at bay! You know he’s only come down from Skylab II twice since he took the director’s position up there? You know what that much zero gravity does to a man? He’s been up there so long, he can’t come back anymore. He’s gonna die up there manning those lasers. That’s what Rabbi Rabinowitz has sacrificed for his country and planet! And the gall of some people, ranting about the Jewish space lasers. Are there Jewish space lasers? Yes! And they’ve been keeping your dumb ass safe from Martians and meteors for decades!
[In my head, I read this in Bernie Sander’s voice.]
- Comment on I hate this image because idiots will see it, not understand what its showing, and make up some crazy shit based on it. 1 week ago:
I mean, isn’t it obvious? Christianity has traditionally believed that Earth is the center of the Universe. Everything in the Universe is moving away from us, as if we are sitting at the very spot where “Let There Be Light” resulted in light being let. Physics has proven that we are at the literal single unique geometric center of the Universe. /s
- The Guinness World Record for the largest private collection of fossilized dinosaur shit.www.youtube.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to [deleted] | 3 comments
- Comment on EA just released source code for a bunch of old Command and Conquer games, and added Steam Workshop support to bangers like C&C 3: Tiberium Wars 1 week ago:
If they really wanted to redeem themselves, they should public domain it, allowing anyone to make new Command and Conquer games.
- Comment on Actually it's pretty cool 1 week ago:
I’m sure it’s somebody’s fetish.
- Comment on How to effectively protest outside my House representative's office 1 week ago:
Protest outside his house.
- Comment on 1 week ago:
Yeah, mutual aid works on the local level or in insular communities like long-term discord groups with a tight group of regular members. With community mutual aid, I’m generally in favor of just taking people at their word. If they say they need help, give them help. No need to interrogate them like the food stamp office will. You prevent people from abusing the system by simply not granting endless requests from the same person. Or if someone needs severe aid, at that point you can start actually verifying their story, helping them access government benefits, helping them find employment, etc.
But that kind of open approach works for in-person aid. It doesn’t work for anonymous online aid, where someone can use bots to spin up hundreds of convincing profiles each begging for money.
I just don’t think mutual aid works well in an online context. The only online context it works in is among communities like small discord groups where people know each other for years. But on a lemmy or mastadon-type service? Mutual aid is impractical. Any people asking for aid should be directed to local groups that can help them in person.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Yeah, there are indeed all sorts of weird hypothetical but possible scenarios out there. You might actually be a Boltzman brain and not even know it.
But I prefer to focus on what we can actually measure and observe. And we do know that consciousness ceases each night. Even if we count dreaming as consciousness, you conscious experiences is not a continuous thing. If “you” are simply your consciousness, then you die every night.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Each instance of our consciousness is a limited thing spun up for a limited time. This is as it always has been and always will be. This is simply your nature; there is no need to resist it. The fruit fly may as well lament its own limited existence, instead of dancing in the joy of its one living day.
If anything, this should encourage us to live life to the fullest. But also, to pass the torch with pride. You’re part of an seemingly endless line of you’s, and there will hopefully be many after you, today’s consciousness, has ceased to be. You’re part of a grand rely race stretching back thousands of times longer than your own consciousness. Make the goal each night to go to bed knowing you did your part, a worthy link in the great chain that is your existence. Go to sleep with peace knowing your later selves will manage things just fine. Close your eyes, and let the water take you.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
They’re both you. Though the two you’s will quickly diverge as their experiences differ.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
YOU MUST BALANCE THE EQUATION!!!
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
In the same way it is “you” that wakes up each morning. Their are periods of the sleep cycle where the mind is active and dreaming. There are other times when you are just gone, complete cessation of consciousness. In many ways, we live our lives as a series of discrete individuals, each life a single day in length. Each inheriting memories from the last.
Good morning Lemmy. Enjoy your one day of existence, and keep passing the torch.
- Comment on Sooo, where did the blatant Nazism suddenly come from? 1 week ago:
Bots are not allowed on a forum like this. If you are simply an instrument of a bot, you should not post here.
- Comment on Sooo, where did the blatant Nazism suddenly come from? 2 weeks ago:
Why would you post this trash? If people want to read chatgpt’s takes, they can access it themselves.
- Comment on Is there really nothing the EU or NATO can do to stop Russian vessels cutting energy and communication cables at the Baltic sea? 2 weeks ago:
Place sea mines defending the cables. Post maps for civilian ships to keep out of the mine zones. Anyone goes near the cables anyway? Well, you were warned.
- Comment on Rate my breakfast 2 weeks ago:
Alright Rorschach…
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
If you wanted to use an old printer, why buy an HP one? Even buying a used one indirectly supports HP. If there’s a secondhand market for HP printers, then they’ll have more value when sold as new. New cars wouldn’t sell so well if their value, rather than only taking a big hit, literally went to zero as soon as you drove them off the lot.
Simply having an HP printer, even a used one, also serves as an advertisement for them. Every time someone visits you and sees your printer, they’ll be reminded of the brand’s existence. Having and using one, even an old one, is a constant minor free advertising for HP.
If you already have an old HP printer that’s working well for you, I wouldn’t recommend trashing it and buying a new one just for the reasons above. There’s environmental concerns to consider. But if you’re looking to buy a used printer, why buy an HP? There’s plenty of other good brands out there that don’t engage is such evil.
- Comment on I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this? 2 weeks ago:
Commit crimes for the greater good.