I do not argue with that. And I do not say gilding gold is a democratic tool. I just said, that when taking away the gold, all is left is a voting system. And if this voting system is not transparent but only in the control of a platform, the platform will use it in their desire. Here I linked to the wikipedia article, as after removing the community voice by gilding comments, all is left will be a voting system that is not transparent.
You are absolute right, that the gilded posts were and will be used for and against a certain goal and a gilded comment does say anything about its value of a comment (good or bad).
The only thing I said was that a gilded comment is standing out. And that is something reddit would like to keep in control. I think you try putting words in my mouth.
It is quite crazy. People will have time until Sept. 12 to spend their coins on awards ... and then Reddit will delete all gilded awards from every post. WTF? Why even use them at all from now on?
This thing reeks of control. Reddit is trying to prohibit people from giving undesired opinions more visibility. In the past sometimes comments received awards that were not in line with advertisers. Now by removing this feature, these comments can only receive an up- or downvote but do not stand out by gilded awards anymore. And the up- and downvote is something that can easily be twiddled with behind the scenes to the desired outcome. It was much harder to remove awards from a comment, as the person who gave them out, would recognize it immediately. But who can proof that their up/downvote was not counted correctly... it is the perfect manipulation.
In a guided democracy, the government controls elections such that the people can exercise democratic rights without truly changing public policy. While they follow basic democratic principles, there can be major deviations towards authoritarianism. Under managed democracy, the state's continuous use of propaganda techniques prevents the electorate from having a significant impact on policy.[3]
It is today widely employed in Russia, where it was introduced into common practice by Kremlin theorists, in particular Gleb Pavlovsky.
I am not yet sure, that people really want to hear what other people have to say, when all the reason they followed them on insta in the first place was because of their looks. Some of the insta models (man & woman) might be nice to look at, but as soon as they open their mouth and try to construct a coherent sentence about a political or societal problem, they really quickly unmask what kind of soft wood they are made of. If the follower is made of the same wood, it might work, but then again, I would argue that writing and reading is not the first passion of both sides of the conversational partners. We will see...
While true, I would like to point out who is leaving: The vocal community.
When you see a reddit post and it has 1000 Upvotes and 50 comments, than this means that a couple thousand people saw it, over 1000 votes on it (up and down) and 50 made a comment, and some even commented on a comment. Most people are lurker and are just passive and enjoy the contribution by OP posting it, people curating it by voting for it and giving the topic traction by commenting on it (maybe even provoking another thread of the same topic or adding another thought in another post in the next hours/days or turning it into a meme).
The people, who are leaving - as far I as I see it - are the vocal active people. Not the lurker. So it might not be a mass exodus, but those who are active and vocal about their unhappiness and who are actively searching for alternatives and are now here on Lemmy, are the heart of the buzzing culture of reddit. Those are the ones who bring in new posts, vote actively and comment massively. Not the lurker. So who is left behind on reddit is mostly lurker who are now missing a good part of the active community who commented and voted for them. And I think this is visible on reddit and can accelerate reddits decline.
Its not the mass of the people that is important, but the engaging force that is driving the discourse in a community by being active and vocal.
And I think Lemmy got a good heap of those people.
Lobbying and rule-of-money (in the US, the side who has the most resources has leverage over the legal discourse by having more, better and longer working lawyers which somehow will often be able to win a case)
FYI: You posted a youtube video with a pp parameter. It is not really clear what it does but as it is a unique identifier next to the actual watch id (watch=xxx), people assuming it is for tracking in some way. You might be leaking your identity or at least making it for google/YT possible to see where and who you are sharing things with. You can just cut of the &pp=xxx part to be save.
Crazy that a corporate TOS can take away your legal rights like that.
In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a study showing that arbitration almost always benefits the corporation at the expense of the consumer. In 2017, they almost succeeded in passing a law to prevent class-action waivers in arbitration agreements for financial service corporations. Most mandatory arbitration agreements have held up in court, but there are also cases where courts have found these agreements “unconscionable”.
Today, corporations are trying to further shield themselves from accountability by quietly burying opt-out clauses into their lengthy arbitration agreements.
Sounds like Etsy is as well in the sprial of Enshittification: They lured in the customers with great deals on personal/handworked products, they lured in more seller by offering them the customer base while broaden the products they can offer (leaving behind the initial userbase going straight to a general marketplace). Now that they are both in, they changed the rules and make it just shitty enough that people do not quit, but the revenue is maximized. Now shutting down future risk by Class Action to protect the profits. Here is a great 29 Minute Podcast with Cory Doctorow explaining this shift that platforms are currently making.>>>
I use pocket casts since years. Never felt like needing the plus. Just checked the benefits and I think I am still good. Before a flight I download dozens of podcast to my phone via WiFi and use the list of downloaded podcasts to keep track of them.
I see no need for the following features for me:
Folders
Organize your podcasts in folders, and keep them synced across devices.
Desktop Apps
Take your podcasts to more places with our Windows, macOS and Web apps.
Cloud Storage
Speed up your lectures. Burn through other content. Be your own Podcast DJ.
Watch Playback
Ditch the phone and go for a run – without missing a beat. Apple Watch stands alone
Themes & Icons
Fly your true colors. Exclusive icons and themes for the plus club only.
Dude, you are my superheros. Please do not take it the wrong way. You created the best app currently for lemmy in such a short time that I have nothing but praise for you and your team. At no point do I want you to think I am anything other than thankfull and grateful for what you did. My input - if at all - could be ignored up until 2025 and I still would not trashtalk Memmy. It is THE best Lemmy App currently for iOS. Full Stop. <3
EDIT: Donated you 5 Coffee to make it more than words!
To pay respect to the Devs: I love Memmy. Memmy is the best Lemmy App for iOS. Everything after this line is just my lazy ass, laying on my bed, whining at a high level.
__
Fair enough, but the blocking of communities should not take me so many clicks. I loved RES at Reddit for the ability to hover over a sub-name and block it this way. In Narwhale it was a long press/hold on the post to open a menu to block a subreddit. At Memmy, I currently have to click the Community Name to go to the community (and loading the full first set of entries), then click on the top right and then click on the bottom to block. It is almost a dark pattern to stop people from blocking communities.
I looked in my Settings. Currently I have 200+ /c blocked. And 80% of those I blocked are via Memmy. I had to make this 3-click-journey a lot for that and can say that the the top right icon not always opened on the first tap. Sometimes, when I lay on my side I try to open it with the finger coming from behind the screen, reaching over the top of my phone and try it multiple times before I give up, roll over and have to use two hand to finish the blocking.
Agree. It is annoying when you want to block a community to click that often. Why are the three points not directly the blocking option if it is the only option? Why do I travel all the way up there and then have to travel all the way down to actually click "block". It is always something where I have to roll from my side to my back and do it with two hand.
I do not argue with that. And I do not say gilding gold is a democratic tool. I just said, that when taking away the gold, all is left is a voting system. And if this voting system is not transparent but only in the control of a platform, the platform will use it in their desire. Here I linked to the wikipedia article, as after removing the community voice by gilding comments, all is left will be a voting system that is not transparent.
You are absolute right, that the gilded posts were and will be used for and against a certain goal and a gilded comment does say anything about its value of a comment (good or bad). The only thing I said was that a gilded comment is standing out. And that is something reddit would like to keep in control. I think you try putting words in my mouth.