Notices by Ride Theory (ridetheory@mastodon.social)

Whenever I saw a disproportionate number of #Dilbert comics in one cubicle, I knew to avoid that person. They were clearly the asshole in the office, and they were usually on a hair trigger. I once saw a cubicle that was practically wallpapered with Dilbert comics, including several where he had labeled the characters with co-workers’ names, and then pinned them on the OUTSIDE of his cube. Yikes! Steer clear of that dude!

3/9

If virtually every cubicle had more than one #Dilbert comic pinned up, I knew everyone working there disliked each other. The atmosphere probably wasn’t going to be too terrible for me as a temp, but I wouldn’t want to work there permanently.

2/9

The #Dilbert gauge never failed me. The more Dilbert comic strips I saw, the nastier the place was.

I worked at a one place where Dilbert was banned. Specifically, just Dilbert. Sounds extreme, but the bosses knew exactly what #ScottAdams was peddling, and they didn’t want any.

That office ran smoothly and was among the nicest.

5/9

If there was even one #Dilbert comic pinned up to a communal bulletin board, watch out! The hatred went from workers up AND management down.

God forbid someone had used the photocopier to enlarge it; that meant they wanted everyone to see how much they hated everyone.

In this last situation, I would usually call my agency at the end of the day and ask if they had any other assignments.

If I saw Dilbert plush toys, I’d just tell my agency I couldn’t continue the assignment.

4/9

My #ScottAdams Story

In the 1990s, I worked as an office temp. I logged a lot of hours in a lot of different offices, and I had an instant and accurate way to sense how dysfunctional and toxic a workplace was as soon as I walked in.

I took note of how many #Dilbert comics were pinned up, and where.

If I saw one or two #Dilbert comics scattered around, I knew people had their gripes and complaints about their co-workers, but it was nothing too serious.

1/9

@publicdomainrev I predict this may become a decent career choice in the near future.

@Mastodon Entweetification. Ugh.

@pluralistic

I have walked out of appointments when their paperwork said, explicitly, they expected payment in full from me at the time of service, though I was fully covered by insurance. "Are you going to bill my insurance?" "Of course." "Well, why does it say the exact opposite here?"

I've always said it would be great to slide a piece of paper with my expectations as a patient to the doctor and ask /them/ to sign it.

@bruces Here's hoping this will have no effect on my buddy who bundles up his back issues of Private Eye and mails them to me every few months. Looks like tariffs won't apply for the moment, but... uncertain times

@onmywalk @pluralistic

"If you're doing business with a religious son-of-a-bitch, get it in writing. His word isn't worth shit, not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal."

-- WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

@Gargron Ugh.

@bruces I'll celebrate with Tim Hortons and ketchup potato chips.

@Fragglemuppet

I had the same problem, but I found a site that makes it fairly easy: https://onlineradiobox.com. I'm able to get to most of the URLs I want.

Search for your station.
Click on the station name.
On the resulting page, right-click on the orange "play" button, and select "Inspect (Q)"
This brings up the code containing the station URL.
Right-click, select "Copy" and "Outer HTML"
Paste that into a text editor, and select/copy just the URL.

(These instructions work in Firefox)

@MastodonEngineering Oh no.

@lxo @pluralistic You'll know the word has really taken hold when translation software turns the Portuguese back into "enshittification."

@Gargron How much harassment from Threads users will be tolerated before the instance is blocked? Do you have a cutoff?

It never took off like "enshittify," but I'm fond of another coinage by @pluralistic, "Zuckervegan."

@pluralistic

"C'mon. How am I supposed to play cards and hold that thing?"

-- John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1772

@nancycomics see above, @pluralistic

@nocontexttrek The sci-fi version of Billy Bass.