modifier

@modifier@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your help needed: PhD research on why people choose to self-host⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  My only quibble would be to swap “pay” for “invest” which captures both the dynamic of up front expense and expected savings from ending recurring subscription fees. That’s how I look at it. Every penny I put into my own digital sovereignty is an investment that will yield returns both financial and otherwise.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ewwwww⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just say “you should be funny more”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TIL blocking users on Lemmy is nothing but a placebo⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure how long you’ve been here - not assuming how long you’ve been lurking, or that this is your first account, but I think it really is easier not to care here. All kidding aside, try it. You don’t have this whole upvote/award dopamine cycle here, and in many cases, anyone can see the number of downvotes a comment has vs upvotes - something that reddit long ago “fuzzed” along with actual vote counts.

  For instance, the comment I’m replying to has 3 upvotes (one of them mine), and 1 downvote as of right now. This ratio may stay the same, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you got more downvotes, because your comment was a kind of dismissive reply to a comment that probably represents what a lot of folks who’ve been here a while feel, which also came from a user that is very active and generally well liked. I could not begin to tell you their upvote count (can’t even see my own) as a proof of their popularity, so I just have to go by what I observe in my day to day, and this place is still small enough that you see familiar usernames in a variety of communities.

  This is still kind of a small town, and you may come to see this bug as a feature in time. I did.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Many props to you. I feel like reddit doesn’t count as social media, but I couldn’t energetically defend that position. They are certainly engaging in social media tech bro behavior, so the distinction probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it felt different than social media before it went to shit. Now, obviously when it “went to shit” is a point in time that is highly relative to the observer, but always sometime after the observer joined, which is an artifact of enshittification.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  yeah and I gobble that shit up like candy.

  I am not immune, and I don’t find all algorithms predatory - for example, I log on knowing that steam is selling me a product, but I am not the product. I just said in many ways I am successfully avoiding “the algorithm”, though the scare quotes immediately following a run down of social media networks was meant to indicate a specific type of algorithm that is meant to induce engagement or enragement (both are profitable) and change my behavior because I am the product.

  I still have plenty of time for algorithms that serve me up games for that crucial 15% of my library that I bought but haven’t played yet.

  One thing at a time Maxxie.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨$80 for Borderlands 4 too costly? Randy Pitchford says, "If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Found a way!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Me too but, sadly: paywalled. That’s how they get you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That isn’t an accident.

  There is this insight that I remember reading about internet scams, that they are poor quality with lots of misspelling by design. According to what I’ve read, this acts as a useful filter: If you’re smart enough to pick up on things like misspellings, we don’t want to waste our time scamming you.

  That is now essentially the entire ethos of the modern internet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There is a lot of heated debate about this. They’re saying due to COVID, that “early” can mean anything from 0-8 now, which obviously I don’t understand but what can you do? They are saying it.

  I must assume from your helpful correction that 2006 is the actual year twitter came out but even then I literally cannot be arsed to look that up on purpose because, I cannot stress this enough, I very much do not care about social media, as per my comment. So if you say 2006, that is what we’re going with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Can I just brag for a moment? I feel like I am among my people, and there is a little lesson at the end.

  to calibrate: White dude in my 40s, nerdy by nature but non-technical in my education/employment

  Twitter - signed up in the early 2000s when it first came out, pretty much stopped using by 2011

  Facebook - signed up in the early 2000s when it first got big, pretty much stopped using by 2011, deleted my abandoned account last year

  Google +, I’m sure I never signed up, but I had an account that I never used. Google being google negated me ever having to contemplate whether or not I would ever use it

  Snapchat - never used

  TikTok - never used

  Instagram - never used

  Are there others? I don’t know.

  Reddit was the only “social media” I ever used for a sustained period of time and the only one where I felt part of any sort of community. I left reddit in June of 2023 when I made this account and I’ve never been back.

  So, in many ways, I am successfully resisting/avoiding “the algorithm” and I am a good example of high media literacy with good resistance to manipulation by social media.

  But, just to emphasize why community itself is so valuable and worthy of exploitation by techbros, here are life changes I’ve made since joining Lemmy, even without any algorithms or dark patterns. Not that Lemmy is strictly causal in all of these, but the relationship is there:

  • I am now making my way through TNG, and am generally more Trek-literate

  • Linux, natch

  • Cancelled all streaming services (honestly most ‘subscription services’) in favor of a NAS running Plex (for now, will probably move to Jellyfin), Calibre, AudioBookshelf, Immich, Joplin, NextCloud, etc, etc, etc

  • Now using Steam Deck as my daily driver for gaming

  In other words, though I prize my independent thinking and avoidance of Big Cloud, and though I think all of these are positive changes representing a positive influence, I am clearly impressionable. And so are you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I want to pay. I want creators to be fairly compensated for their work. I just want a structure that doesn’t require a predatory middleman that adds no value.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The seas are truly splendid. I can only but pity the landlubbers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just a pic of two besties⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But should we?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just a pic of two besties⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m familiar with the move on the left, but the right hand looks like an Obama speech gesture.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It'll be worth it⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We could take a walk, and you could kiss me on the veranda.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨“Bionic Girl” Debuts New Wireless Hands That Even Work When Detached From the Main Prosthetic⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I bet if we all try we can remember the name Tilley Lockey because it’s a pretty badass name and arguably cooler than bionic girl

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What would this list look like for your generation?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Based on current performance, none of the previous generations are any kind of hot shit so I say we work with what we got.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discord CEO steps down, replaced with former Activision Blizzard CSO as they work towards being a public company⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “Well I’ve been rolling down this well-worn road…”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe Gets Bullied Off Bluesky⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Fireworks for me. I miss that whole suite though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨No Weirdos⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I would pay twice that for the novelty alone. I fucking love tacos.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I had no idea y cunt was this powerful⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I reject your entire premise!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How likely is it that Trump will be the first President assassinated since Kennedy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  He is certainly one of the most likely to die in office. Just on a purely actuarial basis, I should think.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hydro⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am just the right age for this meme.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Massive botnet that appeared overnight is delivering record-size DDoSes⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No ransom. This might be someone’s hobby project but it is dangerous, or will be, to the handful of dweeby, fake-ripped broligarchs that want to control ALL of our conversations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Israelis mock Palestinian children in viral TikTok 'prank call' trend⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Zionists

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit could soon punish users for upvoting violent content.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It is just galling to me that some massive rich dweebs interpreted all of my favorite dystopian cyberpunk as a blueprint

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nobody Wants a Nazi Electric Car⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And the board is probably afraid to fire him now too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Outlook servers down, reports say⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That might have been me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that if you hover your mouse over each segment of Wikipedia's IPA pronunciation key (typically found at the beginning of an article), it will let you know how it sounds in the tooltip⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I clicked on it once and it made a baby appear and the baby looked at me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Let me tell you something, I haven't even begun to peak.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is that a crest I see before me?