I should edit my comment and add “post rage bait”.

You’re absolutely right. I’d describe myself similarly to you. I even created a local community here for my city. But it feels like I’m speaking quietly on top of a mountain while the nearest person is a time zone away. Perhaps a handful of people would stop by and subscribe to the content but this isn’t about subscribing - it’s about engaging. Communities are about exchanging ideas. Posting something that compels people to engage is one way to increase activity. As more people notice the community, they’ll be more likely to engage when there’s enough noise around that doesn’t single them out too much.

The major social platforms know this. This is why they promote trash over quality information. This is why I get frustrated on Instagram because it continues to show me posts from two or three days ago notifying me that I missed an exciting event.

You can post all the great informative content you want on your little corner of the fediverse but without engagement, is it really there?

By permitting advertising.

“Normies” are not “microbloggers”. Most people just want to follow what their friends and family and news organizations and “influencers” are posting.

My biggest gripe with the fediverse (indirectly) is that all the information I would get on Twitter about my city is not available to me - concert announcements, restaurant specials, road closures, major news, hobby meetups, etc. They’re posting on Facebook and Instagram (which is IMO the worst of all social platforms) and slowly adopting Threads. My issue with these platforms is mostly regarding the algorithm deciding what it thinks you want. This is driven by advertising.

Twitter didn’t really pick up steam until celebrities and news outlets were posting and engaging on the platform. Then they pushed hard for ads to increase revenue and expand features and stability (for better or worse). Then they just got greedy. Then they were sold for the dumbest amount of money in the history of sales.

Getting normies here means getting influencers here. Influencers want to make money for being assholes. If you don’t want influencers and ads here, don’t ask for the normies to come. Accept the beauty of this micro micro blogging platform. If you want to share outside the open fediverse, embrace cross posting to the closed platforms. That’s kind of the whole point of it. You can post in your tiny little corner while still engaging with the more popular platforms.

TL;DR: be careful what you wish for.

I genuinely can not find a single thing to like about it. It feels like development was stopped shortly after they finished the wire framing. Plex and QuMagie are significantly better (and they suck).

I’m not blaming my hardware or Elestio for the archaic user interface. It looks like it was developed in the 90s and never made it out of alpha.

Thanks again! I just moved a publicly shared photo album from Google Drive to Ente and it’s great. Just the fact that you can sort images properly is a relief. I can’t believe how horrible photos sites are in the 2020s. Ente certainly has a lot of missing features but I’ll be using it for stuff like sharing (less than 5GB) photo albums with friends and family.

As I said, I already tried that. Immich is a hard no.
Frankly, it’s shocking so many people recommend such a really bad photo application.

Ente

Thanks!

Appreciate that. Archaic, no?

Tranquility https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tranquil

Finding a trustworthy source is the hardest part. I generally avoid anyone speaking too loudly of the subject. Someone who’s knowledgeable and confident, most times, can present calmly with context that’s accessible to most people.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a good example. He’s a good place to start for a broad range of topics. Then if I want more details I can dig deeper on my own. A lot of times, his commentary requires digging deeper because he speaks too broadly.

I always check the source of a report or article; if there is no source, I don’t trust it. The source is usually a good place to ‘bookmark’ for further research.

Probably not what you’re looking for but this is my favorite time-waster.

https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-11-games/?pakupaku

When a business is busy, they don’t like having to stop what they’re doing to figure out the change. I’ve seen people stumble trying to figure out what bills and coins add up to what the POS is telling them. I feel like I should be apologizing for paying with tangible currency.

Right. Be it plastic or digital, it’s still credit. It still goes through a point of sale system. Visa or Mastercard still get a kickback.

I was in London last month and everything was Apple Pay / Google pay. You can of course use a card to tap but I rarely saw anyone use anything but their phone.

With so many places now taking credit over cash, I’m not sure how relevant this is anymore.

I actually tried doing the opposite for a while. I’d leave my phone home and just leave the house with cash, keys, and a notebook. Lots of places gave me the stinkeye paying with cash and some places refused to accept it. I wish this weren’t the case. The percentage every business pays per credit card transaction hasn’t helped with inflated prices.

You asked the question, “is a cake a sort of bread” and the dictionary is explicitly stating “cake is a breadlike food”.

Are you instead asking if “lots of people” is a more reliable source than the dictionary?

cake is: A: a breadlike food

Why are you questioning the definition you’ve provided?

Upvote for relevance and quality of the content.
Downvote for irrelevance or bad vibes.

The problem I’ve had with Reddit for so long is people using the arrows for agree / disagree. This does not promote discussion or interesting ideas. This often promotes comments that are irrelevant to the story people are commenting on. If I read a headline, I want the top comments to expand upon and contribute to that story.

Example: the headline might be about the decline of people eating apples. The highest voted comment might be a smartass comment about how red delicious is not delicious. But the article is actually an in depth report on the affects of climate change on apple production increasing the costs to consumers while processed foods have become more popular.

The amount of garbage on Reddit is just unreal. And now they’re training AI with it. All because people use the voting system improperly. Using my example, AI now believes apples are less popular because they’re not delicious. When people use an AI search engine, they’re not getting the true story.

I will absolutely upvote someone I disagree with. It’s rare but if they have an interesting thing to contribute while displaying knowledge of a subject, I’m all here for that. Genuine engagement with people we disagree with is how we all partake in poking holes in our echo chambers.

It’s an increasingly fine line but I don’t see these forums as social media. Ranking things by agreement or popularity feels like social media to me.

The rule you’ve described is ‘you have the right to treat people how others have treated you’.

That is not the Golden Rule. The point of the Golden Rule is to proactively be a good person, not one who reciprocates. Regardless of how others treat you, by treating others how you want to be treated, you will be seen as a good and decent person who spreads kindness in the world. Someone whom others won’t go online and complain about. Someone who is less likely to make someone’s away a little more shitty.

The Golden Rule is awesome. I struggle daily to abide by it.

operate a vehicle with lane assist and not even notice that it is enabled.

I see this as the problem. We’re becoming more reliant on robots to accomplish basic tasks. If the mode of transportation is fully automated - fine. But that is not the case, yet. It’s still the licensed driver’s responsibility if there’s a crash. You can’t tell a judge your robot made a mistake.

You know how they say Gen Alpha doesn’t know how to turn on a computer or use a file system? It’s like that. We can’t just give the robots full control of our lives. We should know the basics of operating a car, of being aware of our surroundings, of how to instinctively make a split second decision.

I’ll offer a compromise. There should be two (or more) levels of operating licenses. If you want your car to do everything for you, you do not have the same permissions as someone who knows how to fully drive a car. This means you’re unable to rent or borrow a car that requires your full attention. At least this creates some sort of stricter legal ramification when someone who’s been dependent upon driver assist features for a decade and gets behind the wheel of a “dumb” car and kills someone because they don’t know how to merge onto a highway. Frankly, we could benefit from this premise on existing drivers and vehicles today.

I still regularly use my iPod. Going on 20 years old! I’ve replaced the battery and swapped the hdd with an sd card.