Ugh, absolutely fucking annoying. I’ve been online since 1994. Back then, proper spelling and grammar were enforced by ‘grammar nazi’s’. If you wanted your post to be taken seriously, you had to write it properly. Because of that, I tend to write longer posts with proper grammar.

Unfortunately, not writing like a drunk koala means you now MUST be an AI.

I’ve pretty mych resorted to inserting a random typo somewhere in the comment or post so at least it looks like a human typed.

Sometimes it’s just not worth arguing with people. Certainly not if it’s the fifth time that week or something. That shit gets exhausting.

Also, you’re allowed to simply not give a ahit on some things. We’ve all got our own shit do deal with without needing to form an informed opinion on every other thing that might be happening somewhwre in the world.

Yeah, as a fresh 44 year old, I’d really love to have a boring decade where nothing much happens. Just a bit of a breather before the inevitable climate wars. I’ve lived through so many ‘once in a lifetime’ events, it’s not even funny.

Yeah ‘serving size: three jelly beans’ or ‘one Oreo cookie’ are not realistic even for people who don’t actually binge them.

This shit reminds me of that helicopter gunner scene in Full Metal Jacket:

“Everyone who doesn’t show their face is an AI. Everyone who does show their face is a well-disciplined AI.”

Problem is that most people and automated systems are downright terrible at figuring out what’s actually AI. Even AI itself can’t always tell if it’s AI.

I’ve had people accuse my posts on social media as AI, just because I can write more than two sentences without spelling errors. Since they can’t, they think nobody can…

So now I tend to leave the occasional delibarete spelling mistake just so people don’t think this was written by ChatGPT. Unless I put that in my prompt, obviously 😂

YouTube’s bullshit is having some interesting effects for sure. Have you noticed how more and more channels are now including short clips of them doing the actual voiceover? It’s usually not even that long, like a second or two or sometimes even less. But apparently that’s now needed to prove that there’s an actual human behind the channel.

I do find it a bit distracting, but I’d rather not lose those channels either…

Yup. And replaced with utter shitheads who toed the line. I stopped visiting a lot of great subs after that.

In the wake of the Luigi Mangione shooting, bans went into overdrive. Even using the name Luigi in any context could get you banned. I’ve seen people get their account nuked for posting Luigi’s Mansion gameplay footage.

That place is an utter clown show at the best of times.

Reddit did everything in its power to get rid of the users that made the platform what it is. Or rather, what it once was. It’s barely a shell of the former glory days.

And if you get rid of your power users who make good content and good comments, well, this is what happens.

Everyone can, there’s no legal issues with it. Same as wheelchairs. You can buy and use one if you like. Of course, people will be weirded out if you do it, but there’s absolutely nothing illegal about it.

That said, I’ve never needed a cane even though I’ve been trained to use a ‘recognition cane’ to cross the street (I went to a school for the visually impaired, where they teach everyone how to do that).

Yep. That’s the sort of thing that interested me as a visually impaired guy (I see about 20 percent with my contacts). It’s a shame I can’t really buy and use them for that since I’d likely get physically assaulted for using them for benign purposes.

Yeah we remember. Because that’s a literal fucking warcrime. You’re not allowed to destroy historical sites.

While I agree that destroying books is bad - even common ones - it’s also not technically illegal. If I want to burn a first edition of whatever book worth thousands of dollars… I’m legally allowed to do that.

I can also see the benefit of having a digital version of a rare book that can be enjoyed by thousands as opposed to sitting on a shelf. But yeah, definitely hold companies accountable for destroying them. There has to be a better way to do that work and still have a useable book afterwards.

Good god, people were actually believing in that stock? Fucking idiots. 😂

That’s a meme stock, or something you buy a single share of just to say you have it. That wasn’t ever going make you rich, certainly not in the short run.

Absolutely. There’s way too many blithering idiots online. We made the web way too accessible to them back in the ‘90’s.

And if idiots don’t get challenged, you run the risk of them thinking they’re actually right. And that’s very, very dangerous.

I will admit the only reason I attempt to verbally correct them is because I don’t have access to a Reaper drone to shove a Flying Ginsu missile up their ass.

Yeah. If anything, admitting that you’re an avid reader will have people saying “You think you’re better than me because you read?” Or some other dismissive comment regarding people who enjoy books.

So I’ve personally chosen to absolutely agree to that question: people who read are better than people who don’t.

And it doesn’t even need to be boring books. Yes, I will even count comic readers amongst our reading brethren. Anyone who reads with actual intent is alright in my book 😉

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard someone here in Europe say they used a OnePlus device. Our entire company is all iPhone or some flavor of Samsung.

I don’t imagine they were much of a player here in Europe, just looking at my own circle of friends, family and colleagues.

I’m lucky in that I never sold any old consoles. I’ve got stuff dating back to the NES and Master System. And all of it still works too, right down to the Dreamcast.

So thankfully I’ll still be able to play games once the console market implodes. I’m definitely not buying a new console if there’s no physical medium available.

And yeah, I’m going to be more actively collecting for those older systems. They can’t steal the stuff you physically own…

Yes, that exactly!

Back in the days of COD on 360, voice chat was a relatively new thing. And everyone wanted to have a go. Since it was novel to talk to people far outside your own country, they did what humans do: teach each other naughty words and slurs. And whether you were from the Netherlands, Greece, the US or wherever, that was fun!

Now, obviously there was verbal abuse. But the thing people don’t really grasp unless they were there is: everyone gave as good as they got. Someone calls you X, Y or Z, well you insult their mom in three different languages back. Especially European lobbies were great fun since you’d get teams of all different nationalities.

And since voice chat was pretty much uncensored, nobody thought anything of it. Like I said, we all gave as good as we got.

With modern games, there’s so much censorship that people take voice chat off game. Barely anyone talks anymore, and certainly not outside their own group. Because one slightly offensive word can get your account banned.

So yeah, I’ll take an uncensored, chatty community over a completely silent one.

I used to be pretty good at the usual stuff like COD, CS, Battlefield… but each game got fucked up in its own unique way. Stuff became just too sweaty and annoying, all the while the sense of community faded. COD back in the 360 days was fun. Now it’s just annoying.

These days, I’m fully single player. It’s just not worth the price of modern games to deal with all the multiplayer bullshit.