I agree, I don’t like all the self censorship that I think comes about from algorithms like tiktok - I’m not talking about ideas, but instead about literal words replacement censorship like “unalive” “seggs” and that like

I want people to be bold enough to use the real word - at least in irl conversation.

It feels way too much like Orwell’s Newspeak

That’s not what I am saying.

In my opinion the forum is a altruistic area. Is the value I provide tailoring the posts by up voting and down voting not valuable? Is the value I provide by summarizing and or giving interpretations of the articles posted here not valuable? Or engaging in thoughtful honest discussion not valuable?

I believe they are.

Do I feel entitled to some profit because of my input on this forum? No I do not.

I give this work because I provide my value to this site voluntarily, honestly, many hours of my day, altruisticly, to build a better community and discussion. I don’t demand money because I receive a community in return.

What I am saying is that this kind of stuff will segment our community, by creating a profitable segment of the community and an unprofitable segment of community, implicitly creating a “correct” and “incorrect” way. Beyond that it will introduce people to our community who care less about furthering this forum, and more about making profit.

Remember YouTube before the partner program and video responses and how much more engaged and equal that community was? And what it is now with most every prominent channel being sponsored on top of ad breaks and product placement?

Obviously, if a person wants to dedicate their full time to some art and wants money for it, they should, and I’m excited for what they produce, but this is not where to do it.

But you don’t have vibrant thoughtful debates about world events in target, you don’t purchase microwaves at the library. You go to stores to buy stuff, you go to forums to discuss stuff.

Content creators can create their own site, their own patreon, or whatever - they can freely submit their work to our forum for feedback and an audience, and they can even link someone the link to their store if they ask - but introducing the profit angle directly to our forum and integrating it in will be the beginning of the end for this community as it is. The first crack of enshitification.

Fuck the commodification of culture.

Fuck full time content creators.

I don’t want people working full time on social networks. I don’t want to read your ad, your secret knowledge, your product placement, or sponsorship, or your oh so subtle pitch for VC funding. I’m certainly not going to give money.

I want people who do their own thing in the real world, and as a hobby and show-and-tell, submit their work freely to the Internet to hone and expand their craft and field, and gain organic enrichment altruisticly.

If you want to sell stuff and make money, make your own website and store. Not on our forum.

Don’t pollute our forum. I want to be inspired, be in awe, be entertained, be informed, and to give back in my own way that continues this cycle and fuels the forum.

We’ve fled so many greedy sites - fleeing this capitalistic parasite in hopes of finding honest discussion untainted by greed. I’m tired of fleeing.

RTX 3060

Some advice that has taken me over a decade to learn myself:

There are no rules, the titles are made up, the responsibilities and requirements do no matter.

Get what you can from your job, and once you get something do your Best even if that best sucks, and stay until you have gotten what you want out of the job, or realize you can’t or don’t want to do it anymore, and then start again doing something else.

Don’t ever limit yourself thinking you need to “level up” or something needs to get unlocked.

Learn by doing, try your best, you will make things that suck sometimes, but as you do more and more you should be making things better.

Thank you for all the guidance and insight

Off the top of my head

Potentially odeysee, peertube, or maybe even twitch, more likely I could see subscription platforms like patreon and nebula taking over

Potentially something entirely new, I don’t know

Reddit did that and then instantly multiple serious competitors began to siphon off their power users both out of principle and practicality, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

YouTube i think understands to not cross the line because if they no longer have a monopoly on mid to long form content their golden goose dies. People are already on edge after a long sequence of attacks against non-premium users.

Personally, If they do do that, and at least some amount of the channels I care about move to a different platform, I’ll happily move with them and cancel my YouTube premium.

The establishment is not going to give up, they must be beaten at their own game. Perseverance is key. If you give up, you give up on your cause and accept whatever the establishment wishes.

Do what you want, but I will persevere, and I will vote for my interests.

Shawn Fain

It starts with a staff shortage while scaling up, or a small project that current employees don’t have capacity for.

The execs have a decision, find and hire a long term employee(s), train them up, make sure it’s a good culture fit, and pay their benefits and compensation

or get a contractor firm to fill seats and pay the contract.

It’s all downhill from there once they pick a contracting firm.

The contracting firm is a Trojan horse for the short term philosophy, while also eroding away the skill pipeline of raising juniors to senior talent so the company eventually has to keep going back to firms.

Instead of scaling up and building the knowledge pool as the company grows organically, they want to massively scale up and down and cycle through many people and skim the good contractors off the top. But this does not work.

The bad contractors overflow the org with tech debt. Seniors don’t have juniors to train, nor do they work on the core stuff to keep their skills. The seniors and good contractors skimmed off the top turn into contractor babysitters. The juniors don’t exist. The seniors eventually turn into managers or leave for greener pastures where their original skills are wanted and respected and fostered.

Eventually the company is left a husk of past talent and mountain of tech debt, and no in-house skill to turn things around, so the options are to stay with contracting indefinitely or start at ground 0.

Combined with not increasing wages to match cost of living and inflation, not giving bonuses when there profits, and now you’ve got most of corporate America with their burnt out workforce skeleton crew.

…

As of April 11, there were 65 Mercedes autonomous vehicles available for sale in California, Fortune has learned through an open records request submitted to the state’s DMV. One of those has since been sold, which marks the first sale of an autonomous Mercedes in California, according to the DMV. Mercedes would not confirm sales numbers. Select Mercedes dealerships in Nevada are also offering the cars with the new technology, known as “level 3” autonomous driving.

…

Drivers can activate Mercedes’s technology, called Drive Pilot, when certain conditions are met, including in heavy traffic jams, during the daytime, on spec ific California and Nevada freeways, and when the car is traveling less than 40 mph. Drivers can focus on other activities until the vehicle alerts them to resume control. The technology does not work on roads that haven’t been pre-approved by Mercedes, including on freeways in other states.

…

U.S. customers can buy a yearly subscription of Drive Pilot in 2024 EQS sedans and S-Class car models for $2,500.

…

Mercedes is also working on developing level 4 capabilities. The automaker’s chief technology officer Markus Schäfer expects that level 4 autonomous technology will be available to consumers by 2030, Automotive News reported.

…

It reads a little condescending imo

Fantastic, the electoral college is closer to retirement!

I’d leave that up to judge and jury with real details rather than hypotheticals, but I do think for justice to be accurate the state of mind, intentions, and many other factors should be considered.

I do think a person who was mentally competent, understanding the act is inhumane would get a more harsh justice than a person who wasn’t.

I think authority doesn’t have a direct role in deciding justice

I don’t think following orders is an excuse, each of us has a duty to understand what we are doing and are responsible for the results. but if a person was incapable of understanding the results of their actions that is different from a person who was.

A person who has authority likely is knowing and competent and intentional, and the wider impact of their actions will implicitly have harsher justice without directly considering their authority

Most countries have protections for people disobeying illegal orders, and most countries make inhumane acts illegal so I feel like this well covered.

I disagree

Willingly and knowingly promoting and distributing and organizing inhumane acts is as equally bad as commiting the core inhumane act directly. The goal and impact are equal.

In my opinion there is no spectrum for comparison in inhumane acts. It simple is or isn’t.

Hitler was just as inhumane as the ones he ordered to commit the acts.

There is no better or worse, just is or isn’t.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/qn7suVU0d-YAAAAC/whyarewenotfundingthis-familyguy.gif

9/11 lasted less than 2 hours. From first impact to last fall.

I can still remember most every detail of that day.

Mass trauma is like that.

A while back ago, there was an abandoned mall, a company bought it and allowed anybody to rent a small space in the open mall as a small business shop. People would put up curtains as walls and rent was very cheap.

The place was full of small vendors, more classy than a flea market, especially with the AC, but many artists selling all forms, and many odd widgets being sold. There was even a place that did custom glass blowing, etc etc. it was a real pleasure to be in and a community thrived there.

Importantly it was open consistently each day, so you could just randomly pop in and see what’s up.

From what I understand, the place was even making a profit, but apparently not enough. It was eventually sold and now it warehouses antique cars.

I think all those artists and small vendors vanished or moved online.

I miss it.

It was good.

I’d like more of those back, and to experience what community could develop from that.

There is no part of space travel that is easy. Do not so easily dismiss the challenge. Nor demean the progress SpaceX has made to solving those challenges. The starship has no near-peer competitor.

This test got further than the prior test and nothing unexpected was lost.

I’m no fan of Musk, and I’m not a big fan of SpaceX, but credit where credit is due, they are bringing progress and leading an industry that was once very stagnant.