If you need to marinade it to get any flavor out of it, at that point why even bother? You’re just eating marinade. At least marinaded chicken tastes like chicken. Marinated jellyfish tastes like seasoned plastic bags.
Playing my first non-vanilla run with Krastorio right now, and it feels like I’m playing a whole new game. I can basically kiss my life goodbye… again.
That alone just adds the extra ores, and not too much else. Really good introduction to an easier overhaul mod. Takes.about 60 hours to finish at a first go
This is the real kicker here. It’s all just theatre to keep attention on themselves while they gridlock the House from doing any meaningful work. Then they’ll use it as an excuse to say Dems can’t get anything done.
Sounds incredibly difficult to reign in a party that is only united in one thing. Opposing the democrats. Ideologically they have no unifying belief other than ‘democrats bad.’ Add to it each one of them is (not so) secretly vying for their own personal gain. It’s a wonder anything gets done with these nobs leaching off the system.
Exactly. They have no plan to fall on beside using Democrats as the boogie man. I found only one of them with a back boned and went on air saying that he would never vote for someone that has been saying the election was stolen. Sadly he will likely be voted out next year for being honest.
“The doting husband has gained thousands of followers on Instagram by sharing insights into his life with Miku, but things took an unexpected turn during the pandemic when Gatebox announced it was discontinuing its service for Miku.”
this is why I have trust issues with proprietary software
hmm not sure if that would work as the model that he was using would be different from what’s available so he’d probably notice some differences which might cause a mix of uncanny valley and surrealism/suspension of disbelief where the two are noticably not the same
plus using a chat-only model would be real tragic as it’s a significant downgrade from what they already had
his story actually feels like a Romeo and Juliet situation
Doesn’t even take a change of service provider to get there.
Replika had what had very obviously become a virtual mate service too, until they decided “love” wasn’t part of their system anymore. Probably because it looked bad for investors, as happened for a lot of AI-based services people used for smut.
So a bunch of lonely people had their “virtual companion” suddenly lobotomized, and there’s nothing they could do about it.
At first the idea was it’d be training an actual “replica” of yourself, that could reflect your own personality. Then when they realized their was a demand for companionship they converted it into virtual friend. Then of course there was a demand for “more than friends”, and yeah, they made it possible to create a custom mate for a while.
Then suddenly it became a problem for them to be seen as a light porn generator. Probably because investors don’t want to touch that, or maybe because of a terms of servce change with their AI service provider.
At that point they started to censor lewd interactions and pretend replika was never supposed to be more than a friendly bot you can talk to. Which is, depending on how you interpret what services they proposed and how they advertized them until then, kind of a blatant lie.
LLM is capable of role-playing, character.ai for example can get into the role of any character after being trained. The sound is just text-to-speech, character.ai already includes that, though if a realistic voice is desired, it would need to be generated by a more sophisticated method, which is already being done. Example: Neuro-sama, ElevenLabs
Next thing you know, he doesn’t read the fine print, ther “brain” is internet connected and, sooner or later, he won’t have a Miku talking back to him again
Their instance, I gather, is set to NOT federate with anyone by default, and their admins need to manually add other instances to their federation. Most instances are set to federate by default, so they need to un-federate with another instance here and there.
Some whine that they did not want federation in the first place and the mods did it without their consent. Slightly ironic considering they do not like democracy (although they claim you can have democracy without voting…somehow).
Since when was voting for representatives indicative of democracy? If your vote is fixed or if you can only vote for a singular party you wouldn’t be democratic at all.
In China’s case you dan vote for your local representative in an election that might be fixed and you can only vote for communists so while they have voting Im not sure they even count as a failed/failing democracy like the USA is.
Wrong, there are at least 8 other parties in congress and at local levels you don’t need to be a member of any party to be elected to certain posts. Where’s your evidence of the votes being fixed? You’re just lying and making things up about spooky enemy country
All eight parties are only permitted to exist at the whim of the central party. That is a Jupiter sized red flag for fairness in elections. China has never had a free or fair election ever.
China is not a democracy on any level. Just like Iran isn’t despite the fact you vote for more people directly as an Iranian.
Same thing in other countries. US only has two parties to choose from and the elections don’t matter, sometimes they even make the person who got less votes than the other one president.
How many parties in Congress? Every president for over a century has been one of the two parties, it’s not a democracy at all. That’s a good thing by the way. If it was a democracy the lazy poors could vote away the power of the rich. That’s why James Madison who wrote the constitution said we can’t have a democracy because it would stop us from hoarding wealth. I’m glad he did that because otherwise us wealthy folk wouldn’t be able to do whatever we want.
Chinas problem is it has too much democracy. The people that live there like their government (gross!) and say that it is democratic. That’s because the lazy poors over there get to run the show and the rich can’t just do whatever they want (NOT GOOD).
Three or four as I recall are in Congress right now but that is a false equivalence as the issue is the Chinese Communist Party determines what opposition can exist to them. That is why they are not democratic.
People can like their government all they want. It does not make them democratic. Given Xi’s recent move to make him eligible to lead for life they are in serious danger of no longer being socialist.
The Democrat and Republican parties definitely determine who can run since they make all the laws. It’s a dictatorship, which is good for me since I’m rich and I don’t want lazy poors to be able to vote for dumb policies that tax me more to pay for handouts.
No the two parties do not determine who can run. They determine who can run for their party. China’s communist party decides who can oppose them which means they are neither democratic nor a free population
There are literally millions of elections in China every year, what the actual fuck are you talking about? Who told you they don’t vote for their representatives? They lied to you.
every person there will describe their democratic beliefs, all of whom have a voting system with representatives. That is basic leftism. Are you lying or just born a fool?
Oh this was an excursion to see my “caught in 4k” glory. Nothing more. I want hexbear out of anyone’s reach, but that does not mean I want you guys out of my reach.
I don‘t think the linked text supports your argument at all. Calling the chinese fascists in light of the way they treat their citizens in general and the genocide against the Uyghurs especially is not at all comparable to eastern European nations revering people that murdered yews.
No offense but you missed the point. The most extreme claim from a german christian fascist was that China has 1 million people in reducation camps.That is not equivalent to the intentional extermination of 11 million people, before we count the 19 million soviet civilians who died during the german invasion outside the concentration camps.
China isn’t fascist, it is an capitalist/socialist mixed industrial economy with a ruling socialist party. Russia is literally just another oligarchy with opposed interests to US Oligarchy, they don’t have the important base economic markers characteristic of fascism and yes, the article opposes equating fascists and communists.
I never said China is fascist. Im not sure their government could become fascist given the ideological gaps between fascism and whatever we want to call the system China has.
The USA isn’t an oligarchy and the Gilens and Page paper people keep referencing never actually makes that claim. The USA is a plutocracy. Our wealthy people rarely gain their wealth as a direct result of government appointments.
Jewish people arent the only people who ever were victim to fascism… To say china commits a holocaust is holocause trivialization. To say it is a fascist country is not.
To say it is a fascist country is making fascism look better then it is. Fascism doesn’t have 95 percent of the population approving of the government. Fascism doesn’t exempt minorities from the one child policy. Fascism doesn’t end extreme poverty in a country of 1.4 billion people. Fascism doesn’t lead to trans youth Healthcare clinics sprouting up in major cities.
RSS is quasi-archival, so it can give you a listing of new content sorted chronologically with no other input. Even reddit’s /new feed cannot guarantee this.
The comments are why most people go there. It’s the major differentiator from other social media platforms. Holding a conversation on Reddit is much clearer than any other site. If YouTube has comments like reddit it would be a very interesting change to a lot of content that goes on Reddit at the moment.
My immediate thought about Reddit. Sure I discover some things there but what I really enjoy is seeing people’s reaction and genuine discussion (the quality of which is much better on Lemmy).
I’d love to use RSS but it feels rather lonely by comparison.
I view it just as much through the lense of entertainment as I do an essential check on disinformation both in the framing used by the actual post as well as clearing through bots and other dirty tricks/bullshit in the comments.
The one thing I will commend Twitter on is its introduction of “Context”. It can be shocking how misleading or disingenuous headlines can be when you give them even an inch sometimes
Among other problems, in youtube posters can delete comments, so when someone calls bullshit the poster can just delete, here that power is limited to moderators but you can still check deleted comments. Another thing is that thumbs down isnt visible, another useful information taken away. Comments are not structured in trees, and the list continues…
What is Reddit if not a glorified collection of RSS feeds with comments?
I went from Google Reader to Reddit. It scratched very much the same itch. I remember having quite the curated list of RSS feeds subscribed to. Still pissed that Google killed it.
Was about to say lol. Right in those last days/weeks of Google Reader, Feedly loudly stepped up and offered to help people import their data over and continue on right in the nick of time. I'd assume the majority of people who had been on Reader, who didn't quit using feeds entirely, probably migrated to Feedly the day Reader shut down.
That’s what I did! Over time I stopped looking at Feedly though. I replaced it with Reddit and Twitter mainly. Now that those sites have become Pure Evil I switched over to Apple News. I already pay for the Plus thing as part of the family bundle so might as well use it. The “Following” tab works like a personally-curated RSS feed list. If you want an algorithmic approach, you can use the “Today” tab.
The one main feature it’s still lacking that I really want is a pure chronological list of everything from my Following sources/topics. I sent them feedback so I’m sure it will show up any time in the next 5-15 years.
I used Feedly for many years, but recently switched to Newsblur, and I love that it lets me filter out posts by tags or keywords, finally don’t have to use external tools for it.
Is Feedly still a thing and okay? I remember it being the stopgap between Google Reader and Reddit, however I’m not sure where it lies on the “free version is good enough” vs “completely gimped free version and the real product is the paid one”
Its arguably also how content is “curated” which, at some point, is helpful for different uses. Nothing is pure asset or liabillity, it depends on implementation and audience.
If you used Reddit sorted as “new” exclusively, it would essentially be a collection of RSS feeds. But, what most people sort by “popular” or “hot” or “top” or something. Chronological sorting vs. algorithmic sorting is an absolutely key difference for RSS vs. other social feeds.
The thing is that Revanced follows a new distribution model. Rather than distributing a modified app, they instead distribute patches for the normal YouTube APK so that the user modifies the app on their own device. Thus, ReVanced never distributes any of Google’s IP. It’s kinda like game modding. ReVanced will be a lot harder for Google to kill.
The one downside for ReVanced is that it’s harder for ordinary users to install, so that will limit its popularity.
I know if I’m not wrong vanced got in trouble for using YouTube logo and reverse engineering the YouTube app. Revanced technically not breaking any law as it not directly modifying YouTube like vanced.
they've captured as many paying customersproducts as they could under the 'old' system, so now they're trying to squeeze more cash out every other source they can.
I don’t fully agree. I buy premium. As long as they keep it ad-free, it’s a vote for a better business model, for platform, creator, and user alike. YT has had that option for years. Up to now, it was essentially voluntary.
It’s time to leave the ad-funded internet entirely behind us, and move to platforms like Nebula, Floatplane, Proton Mail… And yes, even YT Premium. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed they don’t pull a hulu and try to double dip on both a sub and ads.
I just can’t agree with the $73/month price for something I rarely if ever use. My grandson loves watching Elmo’s world on it on the tv, ads aren’t too bad yet, get like 10 mins of video before 2 30 second ads. But I refuse to pay google any money, they make enough off the android phones and all their ads they shove down your throat via websites, YouTube and google search engine
I mean even if you pay for premium, they don’t give you the option to not have shorts shoved down your throat. This is a “feature” that has been added after premium was a thing. It’s also not too hard to figure out shorts are an optimized method to harvest more user data on interests.
While I don’t disagree with leaving the ad-funded internet behind us, I also don’t trust Google to be a pioneer in reducing ads on the Internet— considering they’re an ad delivering company above all else at this point.
No one said we should trust a corporation to do anything, much less google. I’ve ditched chrome and encourage others to do the same every chance I get. But I also think Premium, YT Music, Android and Pixel, Google drive/office suite, are all reasons for google to rely less and less on their ad business.
The challenge they now face, is the unwillingness of customers to pay. Due to google having relied on ads for so long, people are more than used to accessing their services free of charge. Just looking at the ad-block-blocking situation, they demand that they be able to do so. All the while rejecting even the ads.
Ads will never be the long term play. Sooner or later legislation will step in, as people who actually use the internet and it’s services like youtube, start getting into government.
I don’t have premium and I don’t see shorts either. I’m not sure if some of my addons is blocking those or I just clicked “not interested” enough many times.
YouTube Vanced was shut down because they tried to monetise it by releasing their own crypto NFTs, sparking Google to shut it down. I think for now Revanced is safe.
What are they gonna do? Revanced is just a patcher, unlike the previous version that fully distributes modified YouTube apk. There is a separate repo that has patched YouTube apk, but if that repo got taken down, the revanced manager still live on.
Or, you could buy YouTube TV, which gives you YouTube Premium as a undisclosed bonus I’ve found. A great option because it helps content creators and allows you to cut cable. I may have some bias on the topic of paying for media content services, but in general pirating hurts the creators. I hate that I’m old and wise enough that I might have been more receptive to Metallica’s arguments during the Napster era. I do feel though that it is in the best interest of creators for certain content to be previewable. The problem with YouTube video monetization are that most are not going to be rewatched.
I simply find that when I am logged into YouTube with my same account that purchased YouTube TV I receive no ads. I am not using an add blocker or anything. I assumed that was because of my purchase of YouTube TV. It might be a bug with my account because I still get a splash occasionally to buy premium, however no ads ever.
It also does not experience space, as the entire universe has been length contracted in its direction of motion into a 2d plane. It is simultaneously occupying every point along its path. So it doesn't need to experience time.
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this part and what it means for cause and effect for a while. I think Feynman said something like a photon is only ever emitted when the source and destination agree to exchange one. Which makes sense if the exchange is instantaneous to the photon. But how can billions of years pass for us in the mean time?
Photons exist, so there is the perspective of a photon. Most may not be absorbed but that's irrelevant because some are. And when they are, their perspective - like them - ends. Like yours does when you die.
The photon does not experience time, but we do, so from our perspective they can be emitted and absorbed even though from their perspective they are timeless. Again, like us. Before you were born, you didn't experience being not alive. From your own perspective, you've always existed, even though from the perspective of someone older than you, there was a time when you didn't.
I was using the wrong term. Photons don't have a frame of reference.
But even from the colloquial definition, photons don't have perspective. They don't live and die because they never experience time. If you had their point of view, your beginning and end would happen simultaneously, meaning you wouldn't experience anything. They are immutable particles whose only interactions are emission and absorption.
I just want to say how much I appreciate those discussion. They remind me of how little I know even though I’m considered an “expert” in my field of work.
There's a difference between time not passing and not existing. To a photon, space (in the direction of its movement) doesn't exist, as its origin and destination points are the same. But time does not pass - the axis of time is there, but the photon never budges in either direction, like a rock buried in the middle of the desert doesn't move in any spatial direction on a human timescale. The photon's beginning and end aren't simultaneous, quite the opposite. Since it can't move in time, they might as well be infinitely far apart.
Most photons are emitted and never absorbed by anything…
Yet
Eventually all photons will hit something. Even if it’s a trillion trillion trillion years in the future when nearly everything in the universe has decayed into irony.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but eventually the universe is going to be expanding faster than the speed of light. At that point all interaction ceases, and any photons that didn’t get absorbed by something yet never would.
Sort of. The expansion of space causes (and is measured by) redshift. The photon that doesn’t get absorbed “exists” until its wavelength is not measurable (as its wavelength approaches infinity).
The cool thing about this is that it is identical to what happens in a black hole. Spaghettification. This also has the fun consequence of us possibly existing inside of a black hole, and black holes themselves are entire universes. Because of the breakdown of physics beyond the event horizon its not exactly easy to confirm or deny this either.
Edit: redshift not redshirt. Startfleet personal aren’t dying here, it’s photons
Genuine question, how do we know that photons are being emitted that never get absorbed if observing them requires absorbing them? Is it an energy loss type of thing with the emmiter where we have to assume x many photons had to have been emitted to explain the loss?
Because we know how different things emit photons. We know a light bulb emits photons in all directions because we can move around and measure it. And we can see the photons being emitted from objects receiving the initial light bulb's light as well so we know it's emitting light in that direction as well.
The idea that photons are only emitted if they hit something also doesn't make sense because of power usage and how we know particle physics work.
Open loop dispersion vs closed loop absorption, in either case they are a distinction of low energy observer bias. They are functionally equal because the waveform is a projection through a open feature of a manifold bound by a topological inversion that intersects it.
So the photon never really goes anywhere, we just see its shadow cast across a screen that moves from our perspective.
Are we? Like even if you believe in the sliding scale it feels preposterous to assert there isn’t some breakpoint (even a fuzzy one) between inorganic thing that doesn’t experience and organic thing that does
My stance is that if we can define, measure, and test experience, then it’s science. But “experience” is a pretty vague term, and the way it’s used is pretty human-centric. To me “experience” isn’t so much a sliding scale thing that’s actually measurable in nature as much as it’s a human construct. If you ask me, if there’s a fuzzy breakpoint, it’s due to the word’s ambiguous definition, not reality.
In aggregate, yes, but any individual wave of light is still traveling at c. You get the appearance of a slower wave because secondary waves are generated that cancel the original one in such a way that it makes a combined wave that appears to be slower.
Not quite.c is the speed of light in a vacuum. It’s more accurate to say c is the speed of causality.
Velocity/speed isn’t very useful with photons either - its a wave-particle.
Light in changing mediums is a separate but related phenomenon. The photon essentially doesn’t continue on its same path, it gets absorbed by the particles in the medium. This leads to changing states (of usually an electron in an atom) which may emit another photon, remain stable but increase the atom’s kinetic energy (I can’t remember how likely that is, if at all), or it may eject the electron, ionizing the atom. In any case, the state changes, because the whole system (the atom, electron, and photon) can’t have net energy gain or loss.
How do reflections work? Aren’t changes in direction caused by acceleration? Also aren’t photons affected by the gravity of black holes? How does that work?
Reflections involve the material absorbing and re-emitting photons back the other direction.
The curvature of light from gravity is actually space-time itself being curved by mass. The light continues on a straight path through a curved space-time. It looks like it changes direction from the outside, but that’s just the shape of the universe in that area.
That’s why we feel gravity. The space-time around earth is curved inward, so going forward in time would actually mean falling towards the center if we were stationary in space. The ground is constantly accelerating us upwards. Light does not get accelerated that way, so it follows the curvature.
Don’t forget the company meetings where leadership says things like “this is the best quarter we have ever had”, along with “we need to work harder to stay competitive”. Sigh.
That's not true. The senior management team will be getting raises in line with inflation and also huge bonuses for those record profits. Not to mention their share value increasing.
So we want free apps that offer everything and don’t take your data or advertise. It must also have constant security updates and a fleet of developers keeping it running. Good Luck finding that unicorn.
I actually like this development. I’d much rather pay for a service with money over my privacy.
It’s only free because they’re trusting users to donate. That method of generating income for their developers could stop working at any time. Lots of FLOSS projects struggle to find kosher funding.
It’s only free because they’re trusting users to donate.
No, they sell their technology to Meta and Microsoft. WhatApp’s encrypted protocol that was rolled out several years ago is Signal’s. That’s also why Signal will never match all features of those messengers. They cannot drive WhatsApp and such out of business because that would mean Signal is out of business.
No. Everyone can use Signal technology for free in their own products. They are not selling it to anyone. Yes, some time ago moxie helped to integrate their encryption algorithm in WhatsApp and that’s that. Very likely that he / the foundation got paid for that service, but it’s not like Signal is funded by selling their technology to anyone. And for sure it’s not like they can’t match WhatsApp features because then WhatsApp would go down the river and they run out of funding…
I don’t know what to say but stuff like this makes me kinda angry. You read about moxie helping implement their encryption in WhatsApp at one point, and then came up with this story that Signal is somehow mainly funded by meta and Microsoft and can’t compete with their products because it would put ms and meta out of business and endanger their own funding this way. Like, please don’t make up stories like that, OK? It’s not a nice thing to do.
If you are really interested here are some actual facts on the matter:
No. Everyone can use Signal technology for free in their own products. They are not selling it to anyone.
Everyone can use the AGPL version but they also sell proprietary versions to customers.
I don’t know what to say but stuff like this makes me kinda angry.
You are angry because I read official Signal announcements and documents that clearly says that Signal / Open Whisper Foundation is working with commercial partners?
You read about moxie helping implement their encryption in WhatsApp at one point
“To amplify the impact and scope of private communication, we also collaborate with other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Google Allo, and now Facebook Messenger to help integrate Signal Protocol into those products.” – signal.org/blog/facebook-messenger/
“In collaboration with Signal, Microsoft is introducing a Private Conversations feature in Skype, powered by Signal Protocol.” --https://signal.org/blog/skype-partnership/
Those commercial partners don’t need to comply with the AGPL and release their entire app source code under AGPL as well because: “You hereby grant to Open Whisper Systems and to recipients of software distributed by Signal Messenger a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, and distribute Your Contributions and such derivative works, as well as the right to sublicense and have sublicensed all of the foregoing rights, through multiple tiers of sublicensees, provided that in all cases, Signal Messenger will make Your Contributions available under an OSI-approved open source license.” --https://signal.org/cla/
In case you don’t understand the Signal CLA: While contributions from outside participants will be open sourced, Signal has any right to make and sell proprietary versions.
Non-profit open source foundations with commercial offshoots are completely normal. For a somewhat similar case but without the CLA see Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation.
Source: wiki. Took me five seconds to google that. Again please don’t spread made up stories, thanks.
Luckily, everything I wrote is the truth. Too bad you only googled for 5 seconds and not 30. Please read linked official Signal documents/announcements carefully and calm down. Thanks.
You shifted your goalposts from “they’re working together so they can’t compete because (somehow) that’d drive them out of business” to “they’ve cooperated with other companies to make their services more secure” and are somehow acting like you were right.
First, isn’t it good for them to work with other companies to improve other services? Doesn’t that help more people?
Second, there’s no fucking way they’d drive Google and Facebook out of business just by offering a superior service. Even if they did, wouldn’t that be good for them? How did you even come to that idea in the first place?
You shifted your goalposts from “they’re working together so they can’t compete because (somehow) that’d drive them out of business” to “they’ve cooperated with other companies to make their services more secure” and are somehow acting like you were right.
I see you’re new to PR speak. If Signal’s commercial cooperation was solely “to improve other services”, all Signal code would be BSD-licensed and available for free to incorporate into any proprietary service, not AGPL + CLA with sublicensing clause. That’s not shifting any goalposts, that’s basic comprehension of PR speak and what such licensing models are for. Signal is working with Facebook/Meta, Microsoft, and in the past also Google when Allo was still a thing.
Second, there’s no fucking way they’d drive Google and Facebook out of business just by offering a superior service. Even if they did, wouldn’t that be good for them? How did you even come to that idea in the first place?
Not Google or Facebook as whole but their chat services. Those companies would have absolutely no incentive to pay Signal money for proprietary licenses. Google Allo is already dead, so Google is not paying any longer, unless Signal tech is incorporated into another product.
Dual-licensing with a CLA is nothing uncommon, neither is a non-profit being attached to a for-profit.
Signal uses donations to keep running. That’s one of the reasons why they don’t need to do this kind of crap. Kinda like Firefox.
It’s sad to see that slowly but surely the Internet gets divided into the more and more useless giant sector and the free and open sector, which just doesn’t get the attention it needs to be attractive enough for most to switch over. And then there’s also this weird shadow area where I often hear those pirate chanties from…
Talk to anyone who works for a nonprofit. It’s really hard to find enough donors sometimes. You end up relying on a few really rich people because most of the community can only donate a couple bucks.
If every Firefox user donated $4 per year they’d be a billion dollar company and wouldn’t need Google’s deal
Firefox doesn’t even accept donations. Mozilla Foundation does, which is a related nonprofit, but it crucially does not fund any firefox development and legally cannot do so.
What, related nonprofit that can not legally fund Firefox development? What are you talking about? It’s literally developed by them.
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.
Yep… And you can’t donate to Firefox development. You’ll only fund the nonprofit and its goals, the money doesn’t go to Mozilla Corporation who do the actual development.
Yeah, it will probably work out if all 1.4 billion people all drive alone in a car, occupying at least 15m² each. Needs one more lane, but then traffic will be solved!
and from what i remember, staying true to typical google fashion, they fucked it up by not opening up the "beta" when they had a critical mass forming behind it. then only to force everyone into having a profile a year or whatever later. lol, too late. i think most of us understood that anything associated with google is assumed to be a never-ending "beta", so no idea what they were thinking or waiting for.
That’s easy to say now, but Orkut (another Google social network, mostly used in Brazil) also had a beta invite system… And that helped it grow tremendously. The secrecy and “status” of getting invited made people go wild - they would even sell invites.
The strategy can work. It’s just very timing sensitive.
And the ridiculous part on top of that is that it was the exact opposite situation at first. When it first launched, you had to be a friend of a friend of a Google employee to register or you weren’t getting in. It took me a about a month before a friend of mine studying CompSci at university with the kid of some Google employee was able to pass an invitation my way.
I get the purpose was to generate hype by making it seem “exclusive” like Facebook was in the early days, but it took way too long before the people who genuinely wanted to use it were allowed to openly register for it. It was like that for 3 months, and a lot of people who gave up on trying to get an invite lost interest after the initial buzz died down.
And then Google wasn’t satisfied with upsetting the people that wanted to use it, so they had to go and upset the people who didn’t want to use it by later forcing it on everyone with a Google account.
It’s kind of funny, isn’t this exactly what Meta is doing to everyone with an Instagram account? You have a shadow profile on Threads regardless if you signed up or not.
I wonder why the reaction is so different, maybe because they both are social media? Or maybe just good timing with the whole Twitter debaucle.
I think there is still concern. When Threads launched, the media was full of articles outlining commonly-stated concerns about privacy and the involuntary connection between Instagram and Threads.
The problem is that zoomers who are flocking to it in droves don’t seem to care about any of that. And I don’t think it’s due to ignorance, but probably more like generational defeatism.
Yes, there has for shure been a shift in the culture. Privacy doesn’t seem to be that big of a concern for most.
I’m not so sure it’s just the zoomers that are to blame, plenty of older people don’t seem to care either. But I do feel for the younger generation, having never known the freedom and joys of the pre-corporate internet. Then again, maybe ignorance is bliss after all.
Yea I was annoyed that they were making me sign up for google+ for my youtube account so I never tried it I just set it up so I could keep using youtube.
It was good but it didn’t really add enough or solve an actual problem. At the time, there wasn’t as much negative sentiment around Facebook. The circles were a neat concept but too much work to use for the average user.
It’s strange to note that if Google had just casually worked on the feature, started gradually integrating it with YouTube etc, they might have beat insta to the punch and also really capitalized on Facebook hate. Instead they made one massive marketing blunder after another.
Being able to share certain posts with everyone (including your parents/grandparents) vs just your friends vs your work colleagues was a brilliant feature that seems to have just been substituted with private group chats instead. Seriously when I was a teenager the amount of stuff I thought about posting but didn’t because it would appear for everyone…
Google wasn’t comfortable in letting it grow naturally over time. They tried really hard to push on people by combining it with other more popular google products when it didn’t really make sense (i.e. Youtube). Also, as a teen at the time google plus just felt nerdy and weird. It didn’t really feel like something they cool kids would use so no one used it.
Yeah that’s how I felt too. I remember being excited about g+, then I also remember aggressively turning off any association to g+ because no one was on it and it kept pushing it in my face. Come to think of it gmail was similar, invite only and that, but it wasn’t forced even at release and they made it look a lot nicer than what yahoo and hotmail had going on at the time.
I agree, and the level of user on G+ was of a techy IT variety of person. It was great and you could have good conversations. Lemmy really has that feel now. Enjoy it till either the general public gets hold of it and it turns into a cesspool or it slowly dies a death.
Personally I hope to face neither of those scenarios, but history is not on our side.
I’ve been trying to remember but it hasn’t come back to me. It was a 2D, top down, space battle game. Its possible it wasn’t named after Star Trek, but you pilot a grey ship with a saucer section and nacelles to fire torpedoes and phasers at green bird of prey looking ships so…
That all sounds very familiar. The one I played was full color but it must have either been a late version of Empire or something heavily “inspired” by it.
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