davehtaylor

They did the shitty misogynistic tweet:

Yeah, this is one of those things that gets a lot of people seriously up in arms.

Classic cars, for example, are defined as ones that are 20 years or older, or if they have some particular significance. I think that can generally work for games as well. Some might bristle at the idea of the OG xbox and PS2 as retro, but they’re both pushing 25 years old at this point. Which is why I think it’s generally an ever-moving line. But it’s also one that can often be subjective. My first game console was an NES. But someone else’s first console might have been a Gamecube. So our frames of reference are going to be different.

I think it’s also challenging when a lot of older games are still playable on modern hardware. There’s a ton of games that were released for the OG xbox that are still playable on the xbox one (not sure about series x|s): Morrowind, Halo, KotoR. Since we often think about retro games being ones that are out of production and difficult to play in modern times (like the difficulties with connecting an NES or an Atari 2600 to a non-CRT TV). But backward compatibility has shifted that window for a lot of titles. Which is why I think a lot of people balk at the idea that an xbox or PS2 might be considered retro, even given their age.

So I think it’s really a matter of relative time + a healthy dose of subjectivity

This is just post-hoc justification, coupled with “PC culture is censorship” type of bullshit.

although the word “gimp” can be used offensively in some cultures, that is not our intent

Intent is irrelevant. In this case, if you didn’t mean to offend, then you apologize and then change the fucking name. You don’t get to say “sorry you were offended, but I don’t care” and still expect people to take you seriously. Change “gimp” in that sentence to any other slur and try to make that same kind of justification.

I does not matter if the name was

• based on a Pulp Fiction character because the devs thought it was funny
• was a genuine reference to kink culture
• an abelist slur

Who tf thinks a piece of software should be named after any of that? It’s 1) offensive 2) wildly unprofessional and 3) a massive barrier to adoption.

The devs have the mentality of “edgy” 14 yo teen boys, have refused to ever grow the fuck up, and just throw tantrums whenever anyone tries to have a rational conversation with them about it

Even if their UI/UX weren’t an atrocity that belongs at The Hague, the cruelty of their devs actively pushes me away from having any desire to give them another shot

This also reminds me of something that people often do that I cannot stand, and that they don’t seem to understand why they shouldn’t: adding scanline effects to pixel art videos/animations that are going to be shown on a CRT

Yeah this looks like more of an alternative to Sublime

Might be neat. Might check it out. But devs really need to stop asking me to install things by curling a script and piping it into my shell. There are better ways to do this. Doing this leaves a massive possible attack surface.

Exactly.

Also far, far more often than not, when someone talks about “corrupt banking systems” they’re about two steps away from quoting The Protocols.

It’s all Libertarian/anarcho-captialist pablum, pushed by people who think society was a bad idea

I definitely agree Bluesky is the best alternative right now. It feels like twitter used to, but with much better moderation and no Dorsey (or Musk). And I love things like Aegis, and Feeds.

Threads’ algorithm is extremely aggressive and just viewing a single post will send your entire feed into reccs for that kind of thing. It constantly refreshes, making discovery and finding things extremely difficult. And it’s just Instagram-y. It’s not about building community, it’s just there for throwaway “content.”

But I do agree that Bluesky is doing federation in a way that simplifies it for the users. Non-tech users can just be there and don’t even have to think about it. In fact, most people there (at least across my feeds) have no idea what Federation even is or means. If others want to federate or hang somewhere else and have the knowledge to do that, they can. So they make it much more frictionless.

Because federation is a mess, and doesn’t really solve the problem. There’s no quick elevator pitch that non-technical people can understand, on-boarding is painful, and even if you as the publisher understand it, your audience may not.

Exactly.

Gods this whole “if we outlaw AI only outlaws will have AI” bullshit is so so tiresome and naive

You mean to tell me that the purpose-built disinformation machine that you developed has been used by malicious actors to spread disinformation?!

WTF are you talking about, “trapping” you?

If you can’t give a full-throated condemnation of a company using slave labor, then I don’t know what your position is supposed to be.

Wait. We’re talking about making sure a company isn’t using slave labor in their supply chain, and creating consequences for them doing so. And that’s a problem for you? You think it’s fucked up that a company forced to abide by rules preventing them from using slave labor?

Yeah I think I agree. The law should be: if you can’t positively confirm it’s clean, you can’t use it.

We should have standards for the treatment of people, and strive not to participate in or reward those who treat people in unacceptable ways.

Totally agree.

It’s not good for a country to create an unfair marketplace. And it is an unfair marketplace when rules which acutely affect only certain people drastically for the good of all, are implemented too quickly to adapt to without major setbacks.

Just saying it should be phased in, to minimize local economic tearing.

Totally disagree.

Fines/tariffs/etc. are just cost of doing business for big business. Slowly enforcing regulation gives companies time to hedge, shuffle, and deflect without actually doing anything. Consequences should be hard and fast. Economies be damned. If an economy can’t stand on its own without companies acting ethically, or with them being punished for it, then it shouldn’t stand at all.

Yes, that’s exactly what I expect. If you can’t verify with 100% certainty that your supply chain isn’t using slave labor, then you stop using that supply chain. And if that costs the company an entire market, or even causes the company to fail, then so be it.

And that’s the problem. The average person isn’t looking for it, and will absolutely not see it. As long as it’s good enough, that’s all that matters. A plausible enough video of Joe Biden talking about rounding up Christians into internment camps that gets shared on Facebook, or something like that which panders to right-wing bigotry, is enough to get people going. Even real images and videos that are miscaptioned are enough, and even when a link is there that disproves the caption.

People seriously underestimate just how horrifying the possibilities are with this shit. And as high stakes as this election cycle is, and the state of politics in this country, the tendency for people to latch on to anything that affirms their preexisting ideals creates a fucking minefield

So we shouldn’t do anything about it, and just let big corps scoop up all the data they want, regardless of ownership?

1. The largest code contributors to Linux are corporate contributions
2. Regular people who contribute to OSS do so as a passion project, as a hobby, and have other unrelated jobs that pay the bills. Those people still have to make a living, they’re just not doing it from their software contributions. Journalism isn’t a hobby and you can’t work a day job and still be an effective journalist. News orgs don’t come together as hobby projects.

I’m not defending advertising. I hate it and think it’s ruined the web. I’m just addressing the analogy here wrt Linux.

Am I misunderstanding, or is ActivityPub just reinventing RSS?