JCPhoenix @ JCPhoenix @beehaw.org

Internet Addict. Reddit refugee. Motorsports Enthusiast. Gamer. Traveler. N

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382

Joined

2 yr. ago

Moderating

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I showed up last year in the aftermath of reddit's APIgate. I'm a longtime reddit user, for better or worse. Though this isn't my first foray with reddit alternatives. I've tried Imzy, Voat (briefly; very briefly), and Tildes. The last of which is still doing quite well, though it's a bit different from reddit and even Lemmy, in terms of overall culture and activity.

Admittedly, I am still on reddit, though my activity is reduced. I stopped using it almost entirely from like June through October, but then slowly made my way back. But instead of spending all my time on reddit as before, I spend my time between Lemmy, Tildes, Mastodon, and reddit. So I think that's still a win in my book. I don't mind using multiple sites for information and entertainment; it's kinda like what people did in the earlier days of the Internet. Further, I'm not really anti-centralized platforms. I still have a FB account. I scroll Instagram daily. I use Discord. I use YouTube. I use what gives me value.

Anyway, I landed on Beehaw after briefly looking at other instances and looking at Beehaw's "philosophy," which seemed attractive. Overall, Lemmy is not the promised land; There are issues I see with the platform, the userbase, and even with the current state of federation. But no site or platform is perfect. Every platform has upsides and downsides. I get what I want out of it and try to "give back" what I can.

Eh, the tech-illiterate come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors.

Final Fantasy XIII had Sazh Katzroy. He's not the main character (that'd be Lightning), but he is an important playable character right from the get-go. He has his own storylines as well.

Fireflies/Lightning bugs. I remember there were so many in backyards in the summer, even in the suburbs.

Then they just kinda went away. Feel like I'm lucky if I even see a few a year.

Same. Beehaw is my main, but I also have a Kbin account (which I know is technically different), and then a LW account, which I almost never sign into.

Even my Mastodon account is separate. It's fine this way. I don't need everything on one account. With a password manager, it's not like I have to remember passwords anyway.

Sorry to hear about the bedbugs! I've had those before; it absolutely sucks. Here's hoping you do have them all contained or outright killed.

Last week was pretty chill. Didn't do much of anything, work or personal. Which I was OK with. Visited the dentist for 6mo cleaning/check up and all was good. No issues, which is always great to hear.

I updated my mid-2014 MBP to Sonoma using OCLP last month from stock Big Sur. And then last week or the week before, Apple pushed Sonoma 14.4. OCLP also had updates related to 14.4, so I did both.

I had no issues, on either upgrade. No more issues than what the OCLP devs already know about, which to me are minor.

This MBP is certainly a little sluggish with Sonoma. But the 14.4 update didn't make it any worse (or better). Honestly though, it was already sluggish for me on stock Big Sur (the last official version for this machine). Stock Catalina was the last version that ran very well for me. At this point, I'm only using this MBP mainly for web browsing and some basic productivity. I have my M3 Pro MBP and Windows gaming machine for more serious/taxing stuff.

Anyway, I had no issues with the latest update. tunetardis' suggestion, if you're worried, makes sense, too.

Hopefully the American people -- those are still somehow on the fence -- see this and determine that this isn't the right thing for themselves or the country.

At this point, it's not about loving Biden or liking Democrats. It's just about making sure we have adults in the room managing and keeping an eye on things.

Yeah there are a lot of reddit-like behaviors on Lemmy. Often from the very people who say they hate reddit. Of course, why they hate reddit may have nothing to do with user behavior.

Which is a shame. We could do it better this time around, but we're not. Some are, like many on Beehaw, but equally many or even more aren't.

Welcome to the club!

Not a technical thing, but...

Better user interactions. I know not everyone came from reddit, but there are so many reddit-like interactions across Lemmy. I'm talking about not assuming good faith and jumping down people's throats. Low-effort comments (I'm guilty of this, too). The need to always be right and continue arguing for no reason.

It was tiring to see this on reddit over the years. But it's sad to see how much of that behavior has made its way to Lemmy.

With federation, however, there's not really a good way to solve this, since each instance, including self-hosted instances, determines their own moderation and "culture." But it would be something I'd like to see improved, even i we each have to do it ourselves.

On the technical side, absolutely mod tools. It's stunning how bad they are here. And I'm coming from reddit, where tools were poor.

There will always be new, perhaps younger, users who come through who don't know what it was like before. And of course, there will always be more veteran users who perhaps don't care. I care that reddit is going to shit, but I'm still on it (less than pre-APIgate though). On the other hand, my brother who's been on reddit almost as long as me, doesn't care. As long as gets his memes or whatever else he uses reddit for, he'll be there. He barely knew about that protests last summer.

It seems that the only way a social media actually collapses is when the company itself pulls the plug. Twitter has been circling the drain since Elon bought it, but it's still one of the main nodes of information from companies, governments, journalists, and just regular people. It's still used by millions of people daily, even if it's also used by millions of bots, too. Google+ was in a sad state for a bit, but there were still users. It only died when Google finally shut it down. I think Vine was in a similar situation back in the day.

An AeroPress for making coffee. It's functions sorta like a drip brewer, french press, and espresso machine, all at the same time. but super simple. It's really just a giant syringe for making coffee.

Such a game changer. I've just used drip brewers my entire life. And it was fine. But AeroPress-brewed coffee is soooo much better. So much smoother. Not nearly as bitter as drip brewed.

Thank you to James Hoffman for the recommendation.

Thanks! Honestly, I think it's more of a group size thing.

I'm much better with smaller groups of a handful of people. Like even having to give a report in a regular staff meeting, to the other 13 or so people I've work with everyday for years, gets my pulse moving a bit faster. Idk. That said, knowing it's a weakness of mine, I've tried to make an effort to get better at it over the years. As I've told some of my younger colleagues and friends, just because one works in IT doesn't mean they don't have to talk to people. It's an important part of the job; any job, really.

As far as parties, that I'm OK with. Usually because there's a little bit of that good ole' "social lubricant" in the mix! I've (half-)seriously considered having a drink before a presentation to a bigger group before, lol. Probably a good thing I've never actually done it though!

The Republican Party has been a RINO itself for awhile now. Now it's official just the DJT/MAGA party.

Whatever. Republicans, "the moderates" as we call them these days crazily enough, have no one to blame but themselves. They didn't have to sign a pact with the devil, but they did. What's that thing they like saying about unplanned pregnancies? "Actions have consequences"? There they go. They decided to get fucked, and now they're paying for it.

YouTube is a pretty good place to find help. I'm not a car person, but I've changed my cars' brake pads, installed a aftermarket radio, and even helped replace my brother's car's speakers, all from YouTube (and some car forums). Even my dad, who is an amateur gearhead (he's done a full engine replacement before), uses YouTube a lot.

Really just have to be willing to get a little dirty and put in some work.

I feel like no one is properly compensated. I feel like even my CEO, who makes like ~$225k running a non-profit, would say the same thing, even though he's much more comfortable in his life.

What's your channel? If you wouldn't mind sharing, that is. I'm always looking for new gaming-related content.

I had to give a report to our board of directors on Friday. I almost never do this, but a major project I'm leading up isn't going well. It's significantly delayed, and my boss, the CEO, thought I should be the one to tell them. Not because he's throwing me under the bus, but because I know the details. So I had to deliver the less than exciting news.

When I spoke to my boss like a week ago, he did tell me to be candid, that I don't have to lie or hide anything, because it's not like the board wasn't aware there were problems. And he also reminded me that we're not the first company to ever have a major project go sideways; that our board members probably dealt with similar issues in their workplaces. In a way, both things things helped allay my fears.

Honestly though, the report went well. Sure, the board was concerned and had some questions, but mainly sympathetic. They understood that this was mainly the fault of the vendor we're using, even though I told the truth and said that some of the delays are due to issues on our side. But I said we'd keep plugging away, while also looking for other vendors who might be able to step in.

And I wasn't as nervous as I normally am doing big reports like this (though by the end, I did feel a single bead of sweat drop down the side of my head). In a way, it was also a good training opportunity for me. Sometimes, you have to deliver bad news to leadership. It also puts some of the onus on them to figure things out. So I'm glad I did that.

Yeah for sure. I mean, my hotspot anyway has always been free. But I know people who have to pay separately. And I don't understand why.

I remember the first time I went to Europe several years ago. I went to Barcelona. I picked up a local sim card at an Orange store. I must've gotten like 10GB for like 28 days or something? And it was like half to 2/3 the price of what I was paying at home for 5GB.

Same in the Philippines. That said, in either location, I didn't try hotspotting.

$4000 in a month?! I assume that was mostly data/hotspotting? And I'm assuming that was for work purposes, right?