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10
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53
Joined
3 yr. ago

Nonbinary (he/him) ∞

  • Wow Sonic and Shadow are dating now? So proud of them. Wishing them all the best.

  • Microsoft often imposes some additional hardware requirements on major PC makers that sell Windows on their devices, beyond what is strictly necessary to run Windows itself.

    Is this another of many examples of Microsoft asserting an unfair market monopoly?

    I recently switched to Linux and it only just occurred to me within the last few weeks or so that's it's very strange that every keyboard I've used has a "Windows" key (often branded with the Windows logo).

  • There's certainly an important discussion that should be had around whether keeping cats indoors is cruel or not. I am not knowledgeable enough on that topic to provide valuable input though.

    I'm of the opinion that if it really is cruel to keep cats indoors, then we need to reconsider whether people should have pet cats at all.

  • Yeah fair. i'll update it to domestic cats make things clearer.

  • Environment @beehaw.org

    Domestic cats “amongst the most problematic invasive species in the world”

    www.theguardian.com /environment/2023/dec/12/cats-diet-2000-species-conservation-study-aoe
  • Not really a "stinker" but I was disappointed with Tears of the Kingdom and have dropped it after 100 hours.

    I don't think it helps that I've been playing this whilst sat next to my fiancee playing the Witcher 3 on our Steam Deck. The difference between the two games is like night and day, despite the Witcher 3 being almost a decade older.

    Tears of the Kingdom is just okay, in my opinion. I enjoyed it enough to get 100 hours out of it. I dropped Breath of the Wild after a similar amount of time too. They're just not for me I guess, they don't immerse me like other RPGs do.

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Trust in nature – and stop raking up your garden leaves

    www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2023/nov/24/trust-in-nature-and-stop-raking-up-your-garden-leaves
  • That’s the difference between the two sides.

    When generalizing millions of people like you are, the amount of differences between one group of millions of people and another group of millions of people will be negligable compared to the amount of similarities they have. One similarity will be that any group of millions of people will in itself have varied opinions. The responses to this war are varied no matter what group of people we select. Your statement is wrong, unfair, and racist.

    For just one example of how you are wrong check out this article about a gathering of Muslim and Jewish women in the UK, united by their similarity of both their holy texts teaching "love thy neighbour" and a desire for peace.

    Many people on all sides want peace. We are similar, not different.

  • Science @beehaw.org

    Revealed: the industry figures behind ‘declaration of scientists’ backing meat eating

    www.theguardian.com /environment/2023/oct/27/revealed-industry-figures-declaration-scientists-backing-meat-eating
  • There is! Donating to certain charities and/or charity funds is an effective way to fight climate change. Keep in mind some charities are more efficient than others at using their money.

    I'm not sure this one is one that qualifies as effective but it is an example of what kind of things are out there: https://www.founderspledge.com/funds/climate-change-fund

  • Thank you too, for listening and for all the work you put in. And, of course, just to say explicitly I will respect whatever decision you come to even if it's not one that caters to me and my weird social media habits. I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide to do with Beehaw, I hope this community thrives wherever it goes.

  • What if we started out not federated with anyone, but clearly actively working towards it? Would you still follow?

    Yes, definitely. I think it would make sense to start out this way on a new platform. With my preference for whitelist federation over blacklist federation, it feels right to me to start from zero and slowly add other instances to federate with after determining that another instance holds community values which align enough with ones own.

    By federated, do you mean decentralized and interoperability with other platforms (TBD), or specifically federated with Lemmy, Kbin, etc?

    I mean decentralized and allows interoperability with other platforms. It wouldn't have to be Lemmy/Kbin/etc.

    Do you desire ActivityPub (aka mastadon) federation or others acceptable, as long as it’s not just Beehaw here?

    I'm most familiar with platforms on ActivityPub so it would be my personal preference but honestly it could be any distributed social networking protocol.

  • I'm primarily on Beehaw because I want to support federated platforms and help them grow. If Beehaw was to move to a centralized platform I wouldn't be following, but I would if the platform was federated. I do really like the community and admins here.

    Personally I have no attachment to Lemmy as a platform. Only within a day of joining Beehaw I discovered that the developers of Lemmy were... the way they are. So my intention has always been to bail Lemmy as soon as a viable alternative appeared.

    Hearing about the issues you've been having with Lemmy as a platform and the Lemmy devs, and that you are considering leaving... doesn't surprise me at all. Feels very sensible to bail I think.

    Going on a bit of a tangent now. I'm struggling to put into words my opinion on blacklist vs whitelist federation but I'm going to try...

    Blacklist federation feels as though it runs as an antithesis to what I seek in my internet communities. For me, I like that Beehaw required some text to be submitted before registering. But blacklist federation gives people an easy means to bypass that. It just seems impossible to maintain a safe community and productive conversations at least until these federated platforms are very mature, which will probably take years. Whitelist federation just feels like a must for me.

    I'm not here to have a constant stream of content at all times. I am here for good content and deep discussions. Federated platforms are interesting to me not because I want to see everything that's happening across the Fediverse at all times but primarily because it allows for even just a handful of communities who have similar priorities to spread out the technological, financial, and moderation load across one another.

  • Has anyone here ever thought "I would like this game more if it had encumbrance in it"? Or "I would like it if I couldn't pick up this item right now?"

    Admittedly these might not be the right questions I'm asking here as I understand there's a "realism" and "challenge" aspect to this debate (which honestly are two things I'm just not that interested in when it comes to video games I play).

    Maybe it's a delayed gratification thing...?

    I'm not trying to be accusatory, I'm just genuinely curious. Everyone has different tastes after all.

  • I honestly believe that modern social media and "the algorithm" has conditioned us into this kind of behaviour.

    It's already quite easy to forget we are interacting with other humans when we are behind screens and keyboards. This has always been an issue on the internet.

    But when the internet is fuelled by algorithms which only want engagement, it is going to encourage behaviour which drives this. This is often extreme, sensational opinions and language. I feel like the algorithm constantly tried to show me content that would upset me. "What's hot" is basically always "what's controversial", and controversy drives engagement. It certainly engaged me and I've had to make a conscious effort to just rip myself away from it.

    Furthermore, social media doesn't encourage long-form discussion, and it also conditions us to seek immediate gratification. Twitter especially wants us to summarize our points in just a few words, which doesn't lend itself to mature, thought-out discussions.

    I often make long posts here on Lemmy which I often feel aren't really read by people or responded to because TL;DR. Me writing out paragraphs of analysis about Starfield isn't going to get as many responses as someone simply saying "Starfield is the game of the century" or "Starfield is dogshit in every way".

  • My intention is not to dogpile here, but I do have to agree with acastcandream's comment that the tone of that paragraph is probably an example of the kind of behaviour you're frustrated with.

    This is not a criticism of you. You have provided two valid reasons for this, that English is not your first language and that you are upset. I personally relate a lot to the emotion you're communicating, and to the points in your original post. It upsets me too.

    I think it's worth remembering whenever we see unfriendly comments on the internet that these too might be people who are frustrated and people who may be unable to articulate themselves properly due to language barriers or even health difficulties. We are all flawed humans behind these keyboards and screens in the end.

    It does make me realise that for people whose English is their first language, such as myself, we have a responsibility to try our best to communicate our thoughts in a productive way so that people who learn English through interacting with people on the internet can learn from us :)

  • There's something about Saints Row the Third that just tickles my funny bone.

    It's just the perfect level of absurd humour for me. It's the first Saints Row game I played. I've since gone back and played Saints Row 2 and it wasn't absurd enough for me. Saints Row IV on the other hand felt too absurd.

    It's a guilty pleasure of mine for sure.

  • Yeah there's certainly a debate to be had regarding whether the realism/emptiness is actually implemented well.

    I haven't played the game and am not planning to (I'm in the camp of the "realistic haunting empty space" vibe isn't one for me, therefore this game just doesn't interest me at all) so I won't comment on it. But I am interested in following the discussion, so thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

  • The point about planets in general being boring and empty is an interesting one to me because ultimately I think this is either going to be a positive or a negative for people based on their personal preferences. Video games don't have to be realistic after all. It's fine for someone to enjoy Starfield because they like the "realistic haunting empty space" vibe, but it's also okay for someone to not like that.

    I can't remember much of how Starfield was marketed but I remember the "1000 planets" thing being parroted a lot. Was the fact that these planets were going to be realistically portrayed and mostly empty wastelands something that was made clear during marketing? If not, that might explain a lot of people's frustration and disappointment.

    I agree on your point regarding games that are rated 6 or 7 out of 10. I'm frustrated with people always jumping to a game either being "perfect" or "terrible", and anything lower than an 8/10 being considered as a "terrible" rating. I remember with the first lot of Starfield reviews people were talking about how they were shocked one outlet gave the game a 7/10 when that rating communicates to me they thought that the game was great?

  • When doing game reviews, I'd like to see an outlet who doesn't prioritise getting out a review on day one or before a games release.

    I don't think it really makes a review more objective if you invest tens or even hundreds of hours into a game before you review it if all of that playtime is done in the space of a few days. This gives the reviewer little time to reflect on their experiences, little time to discuss their experiences with others, or to let their initial "hype" die down so they can step back and look at the game as objectively as it's possible for any single human to do.

    I would call myself a "patient gamer" these days. I do not preorder anything. I don't get anything on day one of release. I'm not in a rush. Therefore there is no value to me in reviews which are rushed out, if anything I'm less likely to trust it. I especially do not trust any review where review copies are involved.

    Therefore, your idea of covering "older titles" gels with me. I'm usually buying older titles on Steam sales anyway. I also like the idea of having numerous potentially conflicting perspectives regarding a game presented together like Giant Bomb does.

  • My response here is targeted at the other people replying to this message.

    I am extremely distressed at the amount of people justifying deadnaming and upvoting the comments justifying deadnaming compared to the amount of upvotes on this comment.

    Deadnaming someone because it's convenient for you is not a good justification.

    It is very upsetting for the grand majority of trans people to be referred to by their deadnames. You should not do it unless specifically you are told that it's okay! Please listen to trans people when they say that this is upsetting and that you should not do this.

    Edit: Adding the following:

    A simple search for "Emily Young LTT" is all you need to find out who she is anyway? So it reiterate the original comment, there is no NEED for the deadnaming. There is only your comfort and convenience.

  • I'm not an expert on longtermarism but I have read William McAskills "What we owe the future".

    The quote highlighted about AI is a clear demonstration on how longtermarism is being misappropriated. It describes a "rush" when the impression I got from McAskills book is that AI ethics needs to be very carefully discussed and that rushing into it is the opposite of what longtermists should do. To try and describe it briefly, this is because AI presents the risk of what McAskill describes as "value lock-in" where our current society's values will continue long into the future, or the values that will persevere into the future will be decided by the few people who create the first generative AI.

    In reality, people like Musk probably see AI as a means to push what they believe are the correct moral values long into the future. Which is terrifying...

    This is why AI ethics is extremely important. We are already seeing institutional prejudices our current society possesses being perpetuated by AI, such as racism, sexism, etc. This is why when I saw that Microsoft/OpenAI was scrapping it's AI ethics team that I was absolutely horrified...

    The "rush" to produce AI is a problem with Capitalism, not longtermarism. There is a rush to create the first generative AI not because it will benefit society but because it will make buttloads of money.

  • Technology @beehaw.org

    Help With Rooting My Phone and Installing a Custom OS

    www.thecustomdroid.com /rog-phone-3-unlock-bootloader-twrp-root-guide/
  • Technology @beehaw.org

    Help with Building a Computer for Self-Hosting?

  • Chat @beehaw.org

    A Rant on Outdoor Cats

  • Gaming @beehaw.org

    Which flavor of ice cream is best? Vanilla, strawberry, or mint chip?

  • Gaming @beehaw.org

    Anyone on Beehaw been playing Splatoon this weekend?