captainjaneway
@captainjaneway@lemmy.world
- Comment on Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO 3 months ago:
The common thread I’ve seen online is this:
- Google’s search algorithm sucks. I always append reddit.com to get good forum results
- Reddit’s search algorithm sucks.
These two tools are quickly becoming coupled for Google-Fu expert users. The historical forum history that goes back 3-5 years on Reddit is their goldmine. You can’t just make a new subreddit overnight when a sub gets paywalled. All of that historical data will be lost and paywalled.
I think a paywall could be an effective money maker for Reddit because they’ve basically become their own Google - in that each subreddit acts like a unique website with real, human, responses. The only problem is that reddit has a god awful search algorithm that they refuse to improve. So people use Google to essentially search reddit. The “whales” so-to-speak are the only people they need to capture. People like myself (frugal people) aren’t in their peripherals. But the people that think “I’ll pay each month for NYT” or “it’s just a few dollars for the WSJ” are going to use the same logic for Reddit: “it’s a small amount of money to have access to high quality forums on X, Y, and Z”.
In addition, this might bolster Reddit’s content even further. Since paywalled subs will automatically reduce the amount of AI content spammed on them, they will inherently increase the legitimacy of each forum.
Lastly, this will give them a path towards monetization for moderators which doesn’t require them skimming off of their own pay checks to achieve it.
Do I like this? No. Is this fair? Also no. People contributed to Reddit under the impression that their data would be available and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. That implicit guarantee is being violated. It’s an afront to the hard working individuals that have developed these communities brick by brick.
But does this “solution” make a lot of business sense? Possibly. As long as they survive the changeover in the short term, I think they’ll thrive from this choice for the reasons I stated above.
Again, it’s going to give them a pathway for:
- Monetization
- Reduce AI spam (a big fear of all forums)
- They could make even more money off the back of this
I’m pretty much over Reddit anyways. Lemmy has been my backup social media for a while now. The Internet is still free - for now. I just hope we can all find better search engines and forums in the future. Google has been degrading. Reddit has been locking things down. We obviously need to pivot to other platforms. Or maybe just go back to the old days where you find niche forums hosted by some dude in his basement. Nothing wrong with that.
- Comment on Mozilla roll out first AI features in Firefox Nightly 4 months ago:
I think it makes sense. I like ChatGPT and I appreciate having easy access to it. What I really wish is the option to use local models instead. I realize most people don’t have machines that can tokenize quickly enough but for those that do…
- Comment on Alternatives to Hashicorp Vault? 4 months ago:
Why didn’t you like Hashicorps Vault? I want to know for my own edification.
- Comment on [Serious] Why do so many people seem to hate veganism? 6 months ago:
I was talking about meat replacements but I put tofu in that category as well because I don’t have a lot of experience with tofu outside of “we have this instead of meat”.
Vegan food is cheaper in America, for sure. Beans, veg (some) and rice are cheap. However fruit is expensive.
But the alternatives to meat are not cheap: tofu is like $5/lb compared to chicken which can be as low as $2.99/lb. Steak is expensive in America, but it can be close to the cost of tofu. It’s definitely cheaper than the steak-alternatives like beyond meat.
While you might find meat replacements to be unnecessary, most Americans (myself included) struggle. 90% of the meals I used to eat were some variation of: protein (meat/chicken/fish), plus a veggie, plus a carb (rice/bread). That was the basic dinner. It has a nice ratio of protein to carb. It was tasty (to me at least) and the cost wasn’t too bad.
I’m guessing I’m not alone, culturally. It’s not like you can fry up two slabs of tofu and just call it a day. Tofu is just different. It doesn’t cook the same and it doesn’t taste the same. I cook tofu at least once a week, but I treat it very differently.
It’s just not easy for Americans to justify going vegan. It’s culturally very different and - if you want to stay within the culture - it’s expensive.
But that’s why I always advocate for meat reduction, not replacement. Eat more vegetables. Try other dinners. Etc. But most Americans are remiss to be told what to do.
- Comment on [Serious] Why do so many people seem to hate veganism? 6 months ago:
There in lies the rub, though. Most vegans are vegan for a moral reason that they believe applies to you:
- Animals deserve life / don’t deserve livestock conditions
- "Growing" meat is speeding up global warming compared to growing crop
There are more fringe reasons for veganism such as: diet, health, etc. But those aren’t relevant to the point I’m making.
“Live and let live” doesn’t apply to situations where we’re talking about global warming or the abuse of animals. Most vegans are trying to educate others and - yeah - they probably vote for things that would result in more expensive meat or less meat being available in your local markets. I believe most vegans are hoping their efforts will slow global warming and provide better living conditions for livestock.
I’m not trying to sit on a moral podium here and judge. I eat meat too. I’m not vegan. Though I’ve tried to reduce how much meat I eat in yet another small, feckless, civilian effort to slow global warming. All I’m saying is: I sympathize with people who want to improve the world and I understand why they spend time and effort talking about being vegan.
But meat in america is cheaper than the vegan stuff and definitely tastier. So it’s hard for us to meaningfully change.
- Comment on After 16 years, Ecobee is shutting down support for the original smart thermostat 6 months ago:
Yeah the majority do it and I think it’s bad.
- Comment on After 16 years, Ecobee is shutting down support for the original smart thermostat 6 months ago:
Thermostats are easy to change out. So this isn’t a huge deal. But I don’t love the idea that tech isn’t built to be self-hosted or maintained in any meaningful way. If you’re not shipping an open source version of your software when you close up, you’re an asshole.
Yeah, self hosting isn’t for most lay people if it’s just a GitHub repo. But GitHub repos quickly become adopted by nerds like me who build tooling around it that eventually let lay people self host software with the click of a button.
- Comment on I just heard about Brazilian Butt Lifts which is a procedure where they take fat deposits from somewhere on your body and place it in your butt? 6 months ago:
What about ketosis? Are ketones a legit way to remove fat?
- Comment on Mandelbrot 6 months ago:
Resolution limits
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
We’ll never know.
- Comment on space 7 months ago:
Yes and that’s how we ended up with American Football. In the original timeline, it never existed.
- Comment on What’s the most average skill in the world? 7 months ago:
Genuinely: anything that someone is born with. Like being able to stick large amounts of pencils in your mouth; you just have a big mouth. That’s not a skill. That’s a factoid.
- Comment on What’s your personal key to happiness? 7 months ago:
It was Zoloft but I’m trying Celexa now.
- Comment on How does this math work? 8 months ago:
Maybe 1, 1, 1 -> 49, 48, 47 is a better example though. But same thing.
- Comment on Why don't we have one timezone covering the whole earth? 9 months ago:
It’s not that different. But you’re mentally mapping a UTC offset to your local time as well? Doesn’t that mean you have to do something like:
- Does this time work for me? (Map offset to my time)
- Does this time work for them? (Map offset to their time)
Genuine question here. Seems like you’re doing twice the time-conversions when using UTC.
- Comment on Why don't we have one timezone covering the whole earth? 9 months ago:
Yeah but in your example, you wouldn’t need to look anything up either. You’re presumably very familiar with the offset of your time to their time? You’d also become familiar with their “universal time” versus your time. You’d just know what hours they’d be awake and asleep because you will have done the translation a few times.
In addition, I - personally - would find it easier to memorize times in a single system: e.g. remembering that people in China are awake from 9pm to 8am is easier for me to remember. I typically already do this in my own head. I’ll convert times to my own local time and then memorize that. Do other people not do that? I find it much easier to look at my own clock and know if I can reach out to someone internationally.
- Comment on xkcd #2891: Log Cabin 9 months ago:
Base case when the smallest piece of wood can no longer be distinguished as a piece of furniture
- Comment on Starlink's Laser System is Beaming 42 Petabytes of Data Per Day 9 months ago:
I use Starlink because I only have one other satellite competitor in my area. It’s extremely effective. Previously, I had a 500GB limit and only 15-25mbps on any given day. Now, I have unlimited data and get 35mbps-70mpbs on any given day. Often above 50mbps.
It’s cheaper, it’s faster, and it’s easier to manage/setup/move/etc.
I think Elon is an idiot. I don’t even like that I have to use satellite internet. America used to have programs to build infrastructure like fiber optics across the nation for everyone. Our ability to service each other has diminished so greatly that it’s easier for me to connect to a satellite than it is to crowd source laying cables in my area.
It’s way faster, cheaper, and reliable to just dig trenches and lay cable. But Starlink provides me with something I can use for remote work, entertainment, and communication. It’s a decent product. I just think it’s like solving a drought by melting the ice caps.
- Comment on xkcd #221: Random Number (9 Nov 2007) 9 months ago:
maybe
- Comment on xkcd #221: Random Number (9 Nov 2007) 9 months ago:
I generate a random number and then use that number as a seed. I then generate a random number. Then I use that number as a seed. I then generate a random number. I divide that number by a random prime number picked in a similar fashion. I take the last n-digits of the remainder and that’s the random number I give to a user.
- Comment on ‘The View’ Host Joy Behar Scoffs at Young People Feeling ‘Left Behind by the Economy’: ‘Oh Please, Get a Job!’ 10 months ago:
- Comment on smellulator 10 months ago:
TL;DR it worked but was often considered a poor, synthetic, replacement for the real world scents. Some people liked it, but most seemed to dislike it.
- Comment on I need a lot to pictures like this 10 months ago:
- Comment on How many Star Trek fans will see red because they don't see red? 10 months ago:
Yeah I guess. Plus that one in the image seems precariously balanced on the speaker?
- Comment on How many Star Trek fans will see red because they don't see red? 10 months ago:
- Comment on Why do I do this? 10 months ago:
- Comment on 7 Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp 11 months ago:
This is absurd. I don’t understand how people can be so cruel. Though the “General + Dragon” succeeded in getting Mr. Lu out, it does feel like perhaps the ransom was just paid with a bit of negotiation. This is a very frustrating situation.
- Comment on It's a good thing they aren't in charge of adult toys... 11 months ago:
What parties are you attending that:
- Someone brings a dildo
- You describe that someone as just “a guy”
Having a dildo is questionable enough. Not knowing the guy who has a dildo at your Christmas party is extremely questionable.
- Comment on Please defederate from threads.net 11 months ago:
Yeah but you might have it in reverse. Meta would benefit from lemmy users providing original content. It would basically suck the life out of the smaller instances and people would have no incentive to stick with apps or instances made by the little guys. If Meta started serving ads and we pulled out, it wouldn’t mean much. By then, Meta might have adopted most users - all the whole stealing our content.
^ Super hypothetical. I’m not a federation expert. But it sounds like that could happen.
- Comment on Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported 11 months ago:
It’s pretty simple. Medical devices should have certain expectations for time and support. This happens in other industries all the time. Product support has to be guaranteed. And if you can’t guarantee product support, make your software open source. That’s not a law, just a “I’m not an asshole” placeholder. Open source schematics and software won’t fix everything, but it shows good faith effort to help people fucking not go blind.
