Notices by FoolishOwl (foolishowl@social.coop), page 3

I keep seeing posts about Bluesky, that "starter packs" are a great idea, except that they're non-consensual, you can't opt out, and they're being used to coordinate harassment campaigns.

That sounds like a bad idea and one Fediverse should not emulate.

@phaedral @thegibson I remember Big Bang Theory, The IT Crowd, and Community each having episodes about roleplaying games. But it was clear that only in the case of Community did the writers understand and appreciate roleplaying games even as it made light of them.

Community was the only one of the three to portray an autistic person with both understanding and humor.

@cwebber I've been finding the people who defend using Bluesky infuriating for just this reason. Of course this was going to happen. Every commercial platform on the Internet is driven by advertising and data harvesting. That's where the funding comes from. That's why they're (temporarily) free. It's a trap, every time. We've seen it over and over.

For all its many serious flaws, the Fediverse is one of a few holdouts. And it's under siege.

@cstross There was an old, and rather stupid, theory among a few radical leftists that we should want things to get as bad as possible as fast as possible so that people would be forced to rebel.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to hope that was a good theory after all, because it looks like that's the situation we're in.

I had been looking at a personal app on my phone, then switched over to Tusky and saw someone's selfie, and thought, "Finally someone who looks interesting", before realizing the context had changed.

It's weird how most of the profiles on dating apps converge. Stock phrases, and at least one photo of backpacking on a mountain or sailing on a boat, usually multiple of each. Way more selfies at Machu Picchu than I would have expected. Almost no nerd culture or political radicalism, the main things I'd look for.

I've had a bunch of rants in my head I've started typing, then deleted, this morning. I don't understand what's happening.

I'm old and I'm tired and I'm lonely and I'm sad and I'm scared.

Good morning from Forest Park, in Portland, Oregon.

@sam It's a real frustration. When I was in DSA, we'd keep getting techies who'd be excited about using open source tools. Non-techies would agree in principle but balk literally within seconds of seeing an open source tool.

Out of necessity, our chapter switched from Slack to Mattermost, and people were furious about it.

@dalias @evdas @idzie I think there was something of a campaign on Twitter for anarchists to accept use of the hammer-and-sickle, in a brief period of left unity, before the backstabbing resumed in earnest.

@babe @futurebird My family had a borzoi. He didn't bark, but he had this eerie howl. We lived in a rural area, and late at night, you could hear a freight train sound its whistle at crossings. The dog would howl back at the train.

Mozilla is promoting yet another "generative AI" tool, this time a plug-in they've developed. I suggest appropriate feedback on the review page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/feedback/addon/orbit-summarizer/

I'm looking at an email from a radical left group, with their social media links at the bottom: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

C'mon, try, people.

CNN Anchors Won’t Stop Lying About Something Rashida Tlaib Never Said
https://theintercept.com/2024/09/24/cnn-rashida-tlaib-dana-nessel-antisemitism/

Two years ago, Joe Biden said the COVID pandemic was over. Since then, 200,000 people in the US have died from COVID. Many more are suffering from Long COVID.

Wear masks.

@float13 In this case, I'm not surprised. I had a subscription, and was punished for it with frequent spam from Consumer Reports. Often their ads were misleading, offering a "free" book, that turned out to be a premium for a renewal. At least once I accidentally renewed a subscription to Consumer Reports because I misunderstood the email.

I've completely lost any respect I ever had for them.

Once in a while I consider growing a beard.

I once tried doing that for a few weeks, a long time ago. I remember disliking how it made my face feel stiff. I've heard enough positive comments about beards from an important demographic that I'd be willing to give it another go. And I'm unemployed at the moment, so arguably this is a good time to try it again.

I'm worried about it affecting the fit of masks, but I'd probably be keeping the beard short.

I hate him. I hate that smug reactionary misogynist so fucking much.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/31/jd-vance-podcast-feminism-immigration

Sometimes I think my social anxiety is less a trauma response and more a rational response to a toxic social environment.

@broadwaybabyto What's struck me in this and similar stories is the near uniformity of doctors' responses, which seems to go beyond common misogyny. I wonder if this fixation on women's fertility is heavily pushed in their training.