OpenStars

OpenStars , 17 days ago

Are you implying that the credit is here? If so, where? I am not seeing it.

OpenStars , 17 days ago

Thanks!:-)

OpenStars , 18 days ago

He can love his son and also democracy and justice too - i.e. allow his son to go to what will surely be like a resort vacation spa that they will call “prison” (not bc he’s special, just bc he’s rich).

OpenStars , 18 days ago

Why is “Threats” in double-quotes? The fact that they are “threats” is not in question - these are not “alleged threats”?

I see that it comes from the article, but that only pushes back my question as to why the article does that. It also puts “hard right” and “all-out” (and “holy war” and “race war” and “dangerous” and “evil” and “demonic” etc.) in quotes too, which should not be, but those at least are all more discretionary, whereas putting “threats” in quotes like that calls into question their validity.

OpenStars , 18 days ago

The “election” is perpetual. People will vote with their participation.

As it should always be.

OpenStars , 18 days ago

You are talking about user-level blocking, whereas iirc defederation is an instance-level blocking that also stops user comments too, as well as votes.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Seems fishy

Not anymore…

OpenStars , 1 month ago

I wonder where they went?

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Beauty != Taste

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Someone writing a wall of text when it is not asked for or appreciated may be being insensitive to their audience. On the other hand, I’ve literally had people ask for it and then someone else steps in to complain, so definitely there are Karens who feel entitled to whinge no matter what you do. Just settle in your own mind whether you are doing the right thing, and let being correct remain your guide as to what to do.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

I am not the person you replied to but I wanted to echo and extend their statement: you may need to come to terms with the fact that you might not have the capability to help your friend, and it’s even possible that nobody does, unless and until they become receptive to that kind of aid.

I am not saying to do nothing, but do be aware of that, e.g. if you give them money and they gamble it away, will you just keep giving them money until neither of you has any at all? And then repeat for every single one of your friends as well?

Decide what you can do and what you cannot. In any case you may not be able to “save” him - that is something that as an adult he needs to do for himself, and may resent you for even trying?

OpenStars , 1 month ago

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

It is to their advantage to be act surprised, therefore they are “surprised”, see? This was your “opportunity” to show how dedicated you are the company, having worked all weekend long…

OpenStars , 1 month ago

You are fortunate that it takes “only” 30 minutes.

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

should be, ftfy :-(

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Yeah, along with the tiny soft semi-permeable bags that swim in it and wiggle and breathe, that’s some other robot’s problem.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Becky let him smash, I’m just saying…

OpenStars , 1 month ago

The one I am thinking of is Becky - is there another?

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Oh THAT Betty! Thank you for sharing. But uh… did she uh… smash the Hulk? :-P

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Is this the new “Honey Badger Don’t Care” meme?

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

Y-y-yeah that’s it, t-t-that’s why he’s crying alright. I mean, I’m he’s not crying, shut up! /s :-P

OpenStars , 1 month ago

no cap

OpenStars , 1 month ago

To name one example, he deregulated the inspection of train safety, despite internal whistleblowers (who were ofc subsequently fired) claiming that the industry was not regulating itself in anything remotely resembling a “safe” manner. Keep in mind, this was before all those famous train derailments happened. Multiple people especially train engineers predicted they would happen, they went to a large amount of trouble - and were fired as a result - of warning that they would happen, but Trump ignored all of that and deregulated the industry to help make it more profitable… and then the derailments happened, whereupon we all paid the price. Socialization of costs, privatization of profits, it is the exact opposite of both socialism and of capitalism both - it was sheer foolishness, period.

And ofc there was his handling of the pandemic - note the initial cause of the pandemic was not his fault, but his poor handling of it is on him. First, at minimum, if nothing else “the buck stops here”. But above & beyond the latter, as the audio recording with Bob Woodsworth revealed, Trump knew that the virus was airborne - he told his friend that much - and yet even knowing that, afterwards he lied and told people that it explicitly was not airborne (again, to aid “the economy”, at the expense of the workers who died as a result). When others, e.g. Bill Clinton, have lied previously, conservatives got angry and tried to impeach them - and rightfully so - so why ignore it when it happens on the other side? Also this lie, measured in the form of “excess deaths”, contributed to the deaths of more Americans than all of our wars combined. That seems like “harm” to me.

Then too there is how he inserted himself between a Congressional decision and the intended recipient of funding, with his attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian government to “just do me a favor though”. By some definitions of the word that might even have constituted “treason” - I am no lawyer though, so be skeptical ofc, especially extreme claims require more extreme evidence, which the first impeachment trial was meant to bring forth except it was halted by Republicans in Congress.

The list really can go on and on… whatever you think of conservative vs. liberal philosophies, or of Republican vs. Democrat politics, he really was quite a dangerous President. Yes, most of us are still alive after his Presidency, but again… many of us are not now, with a good number of those deaths directly traceable to his decisions. Biden may not be “good”, but extremely few Presidents in all of American history come close to how dangerous Trump was, by many objective metrics. History will reveal that, but right now it can be difficult to distinguish b/t the lying liberal media and the lying conservative media sources both lie, for the sake of their own profits. In all of that muddiness of facts, it can be super difficult to find out what is really going on. But the fate of people in and maybe the fate of our actual nation is on the line, so it is worth the effort for those of us who would consider ourselves “leaders” aka citizens, whose votes will determine the course ahead for us all.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

YOUR veins, not THEIRS.

You don’t get to become a CEO by remembering the human. Hate the playa, but even more so hate the game.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

What I see of management styles today is “make a plan”. Period. End of sentence. End of matter. End of discussion. Short-term thinking is the only type of thinking allowed. Want to do more? You’re fired, and replaced with someone who will be more of a “team player”. Even/especially the CEO, by the Board. i.e., you are overestimating their willingness & capacity to think beyond their greed - YOU (& I/we) see that, but they don’t won’t.

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

There are several closed group options or other closed source ones that aim to be just like Reddit in practice but not exactly it in theory. Ironically the Reddit alternatives sub on Reddit is probably the best place to get such a list 😜.

I enjoyed Squabbles for a bit - it was described at the time as toxically non-toxic as in very much anti-hate speech, though I don’t know how it’s fared recently. At the end of the day though it’s just one guy’s project, and while he’s no Huffman, still the entire thing turns around him, very unlike the Fediverse that can become anything we want it to be.

If you do remain on Lemmy, learn which things to block bc that will improve your experience substantially. Just blocking lemmygrad.ml and hexbear.net improved mine 95%, and ironically some people (not me) also block Lemmy.ml. You will come to find what works for you, I am just saying that the experience varies enormously depending on that one factor!

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Thank you so much for the update. Oh wow what a turn-around. I can only guess he was desperate to grow the site and did whatever he thought would help his profits. I really do enjoy the mode of thinking behind the Fediverse so much more!:-)

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Well I don’t, thus keep in mind that I may be summarizing here the reasons that others do incorrectly &/or unfairly, but from what I understand people are saying:

(1) often when people get extremely argumentative (aka bat shit insane crazy trolling) it is from there. Who wants to talk to someone who is rude, condescending, and doesn’t listen in the slightest to your POV before loudly proclaiming how very wrong you are, even while using logical fallacies (such as strawman) as they do so?:-P Counterpoint: that can happen on any sufficiently large instance e.g. lemmy.world too? Though it does seem to happen more often on lemmy.ml for whatever reason.

(2) it may be relevant (tbh I’m not entirely sure how though?) that it leans fairly hardcore to what many people e.g. in the USA would consider an extreme leftist viewpoint, as in so far to the left that it may even become uncomfortable to someone living in a society that leans more rightwards even if the person in it considers themselves an “extreme leftist” in relation to that center point. Along these lines, are “memes” merely political propaganda that happens to be drawn in a cartoonish form? (Though this is an argument pertaining to merely a community, not an entire instance.)

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Meh, to be fair, communism gave us all the likes of Mastodon and Lemmy, whereas capitalism gave us all Twitter/X and Reddit so… it’s not like I’m knocking the politics even, so much as the extremely annoying manner in which those thoughts are handled, sometimes.

Imagine a Karen who regardless of actual right vs. wrong, thinks they are right, but more importantly just enjoys slamming it into people’s faces. Like, if you really think that you are correct, why work so hard to convince people of that “fact” - you catch more flies with honey than vinegar - and who exactly are you trying to convince bully even?

Likewise even a factually correct endpoint can be made into part of an incorrect statement if arrived at via a false chain of logical deduction - i.e., even a stopped watch is right twice a day, but that doesn’t mean that you should trust the watch from then on!? A statement that includes a logical fallacy, even if deployed in order to defend a true statement, is still false, even if the underlying fact also happened to be true.

And if there is anything I am learning from the internet, it is that trolling exists, yet not everyone is a troll, and it improves my mental sanity >95% to block such. I used to be proud of never blocking anyone, ever. I grew up though, in seeing how others refuse to grow.:-D

You might try an experiment and make an account somewhere, and see how different some posts and their complement of comments look, in terms of which instances you may choose to block, and also which individuals may have blocked your instance in return…

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Oh I did not know that. Sometimes the answer to “where would you go, if you were a troll” may just happen to be the same answer as “where would you go, if you were not a troll”:-).

OpenStars , 1 month ago

I mean, that’s how they want to be, so whatever, they can enjoy it.

But that’s not how I want to be - and I resented having it thrust upon me without consent, in the form of being able to make an informed choice. They do not clearly state how they are, yet they are that way, hence the disconnect.

Like any authoritarian regime, they have drunk their own cool-aid and they seem to both not acknowledge it whilst simultaneously also flaunting it proudly - i.e. how they are looks to be by design, not ignorance or whatever.

And ofc the obligatory caveat that not all people on those servers are that way - e.g. you were there, until you weren’t anymore:-P. But it does form a trend. And I for one would rather that people be able to make an informed choice. Like someone go there if they want, but don’t you come here and tell me how to be.

Yes an echo chamber provides value to them in terms of an emotional reinforcement, though it’s dangerous b/c what gets reinforced becomes thereby divorced from logic. i.e., “might makes right”, which works so long as you ignore the alternative that “the pen (Reason) is mightier than the sword (Might)” - i.e. the value is purely local amongst themselves, who choose to refuse to see outside.

Even so, the code for the Fediverse came from the guy who started lemmygrad.ml iirc, and it was freely offered to the world not in spite of but b/c of that belief in communistic philosophical principles. In contrast, Reddit and most other alternatives started here in the USA - like squabbles to name one (looks to now be renamed to squabblr or something?) - did not offer their sourcecode freely, and instead tried to monetize their user base, and this too not in spite of but b/c of their own beliefs in capitalistic principles.

As long as they are honest about it though, I’m fine with them. The problem is that they are not, nor are they respectful to others… so I ban them and move on with my life. I am not kidding: if I could not have banned them, I would have left the Fediverse entirely - they are that annoying. So being able to easily improve my Fediverse experience by 95% with 1-2 instance blocks (lemmygrad.ml is often blocked by default, and many others though seemingly fewer likewise also block hexbear.net) is wonderful!:-)

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Also matches TakesOutzTheYourMother, since the asterisk allows for zero matches to the group, and there seems no bounding constraints:-).

OpenStars , 1 month ago

I strongly hesitated saying anything at all b/c there are so very many different rules governing the behavior of every single kind of symbol. Though one jumping off point is the use of the parenthesis, without slashes prior to them and them meaning alternatives within a grouping context rather than merely “remembering”, for the sake of e.g. replacement or copying, so e.g. in the Unix CLI “grep” command this would not work even with the -e parameter (I am not so sure about perl-style though, or rather, this would work within pure perl, but perl-style regexps from within grep is another matter, plus that option itself is not universal across all forms of Unix).

In any case, I hoped that the YoMama joke would be universally understood and appreciated regardless, across all of the many & varied language barriers 😜.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

iirc, we did legislate it. Surprise: Trump un-legislated it, and even before that Congress de-funded it.

bUt ThE eCoNoMy ThO

OpenStars , 1 month ago

he wouldn’t get this concept

Emphasis on the would not, as distinguished from can not, it is refuses to.

Some people listen, others exclusively talk. Thank you for being part of the former:-).

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Don’t forget: you can become one yourself, by running your own community.

OpenStars , 1 month ago

This alone is enough to answer why people need to vote for Biden next term!!!

OpenStars , 1 month ago

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OpenStars , 1 month ago

How did you know that I was referring to (that famous person) from (the other side)? Blast, I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling sleuths! :-P /s

OpenStars , 1 month ago

Yup, sounds about wrong :-P

OpenStars , 2 months ago

Listen here young’un, back in my day the only thing that would randomly fall from the sky was bird poop - and we liked it that way!

OpenStars , 2 months ago

I feel like you will appreciate it when I say that this song was crap-tastic!:-)

OpenStars , 2 months ago

Fwiw, this is how I choose to view the situation:

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OpenStars , 2 months ago

Not a terribly accurate portrayal… (cop was way too accurate, not involving bystanders, and actually bothered to clean up the mess!)

OpenStars , 2 months ago

USA bias strikes again! :-P

OpenStars , 2 months ago

Surely you mean that you totally believe that these totally real creatures have “nothing whatsoever” to do with any kind of… um… surveillance capacity, government or otherwise, r-r-right, RIGHT!?