I guess I’m just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all. Lemmy is free, signing up on an instance is free, people are posting/creating content for free, moderators are taking care of the space for free. No one’s locking in to get “fed” through the entire chain. The arguments about abandoned apps doesn’t really compute since plenty paid and advertising friendly apps go under/stop developing further as well (and the entire Lemmy eco-system is free so silly points of “capitalism better”). There’s also the crux of “Apps just replace a webpage”, they’re really not reinventing the wheel here.

But, if people prefer paid apps, if the developers want to construct the apps in that manner, have at it. I do think spreading awareness of what apps are out there is important, and how they operate (this is YSK after all). I also wouldn’t spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.

really? I thought the canadian connection was the relevant part (shop and promote companies in your area), but the walmart drop kinda confuses me lol.

Typically I don’t, the only reason I pull it up is because I have posts from 10 years ago that still get responses every month (I get e-mail alerts for those posts). Usually I’ll just message the user with information and an alternative forum I’ve setup in the past if they need more answers (it’s really niche and this forum format (reddit/lemmy) really doesn’t suit the topic). I keep thinking one day it will be all bots just leaving messages but they respond and usually sign up on the other site. So, I feel conflicted about deleting my posts or not responding because it is actually effective at connecting to new people, at least for the time being.

I’m starting to think they put something toxic in the Zip System, or at least it’s like a gateway for corporate sponsorship cocaine. Once they start jerking themselves off talking about how great Zip is, it usually goes downhill from there (not bashing zip, just is always funny). I just recently gave up on him so it was interesting to see the decline. There would be a really great informative video, then several just commercialized crap.

The sad part is if any of these products are scammy, we probably won’t find out about it publicly. The company product will just slowly fade from existence, maybe a report done by a safety or efficiency board that will call it out and be dropped from code. There’s been plenty of building products that don’t hold up to their specs when scrutinized.

I’m torn on affiliate links. I’ve worked with people in sales before and it’s usually scammy unless the contract is done right (flat rate commission, no bonuses for selling “certain” items). I’ve seen really hard working and informative workers that are actually impossible to replace because of the knowledge of products and handling the customers needs without flair or extra cost. Will inform them of cheaper methods like how easy it is to purchase and install a cable versus paying someone $100 just to plug something in and flip a switch basically.

In those instances, I think the affiliate/commission is warranted. Same with some awesome youtube channels I’ve ran across where they test the shit out of several products in a category (Torque Test Channel is a good one). If I need the product and I’m buying it off their recommendation I will gladly use their affiliate link if I think about it beforehand.

Now, there are some channels that I’ve just taken the affiliate link to be basically a form of sponsorship and promotion. Sadly a lot of construction/trade channels end up falling into this eventually. Matt Risinger is probably one of the worse ones, but even lower end guys like The Stud Pack just become a “new product showcase” channel instead of DIY or instructional videos.

In the link comment I provided I did state it was a far off miracle. But, my focus was less on 3rd parties or electoral reform, it was directly related to the “National Committees” that exists. I’m all for state parties, reminds me of when Bell was split into it’s different areas. But on a national level I wonder if it can be argued that it’s so far removed from focusing on “political ideologies of it’s group” to becoming a service provider for selected candidates. You could look at the committee’s structures, are they even following their own political ideologies, what type of controlling power they have, etc etc.

Looking at an entire political spectrum and there being only a Duopoly is heart breaking. But I meant more like each one is a true “business monopoly” for it’s own perspective market/party. Controlling exposure, funding, data, candidate selection, being generally a lobbying middleman group, at what point does this become less a “political ideological group” and more a business organization that focuses heavily on political candidates? (like a sign manufacturer is technically making political content, but they’re still just a business, they’re both providing a service or product to individuals).

This is not so much a focus on political parties or ideologies, but more the NC (national committee) portion of it. I understand state political parties. But when expanded to the national committee’s of those parties, how are those organizations not considered a monopoly for their parties centralizing and controlling the state level and have completely overtaken national decisions which can effect the state level as well.

… what are you doing in this post? Should I feel sad and pity you?

maybe it would look like a reverse snowfall underwater if the ice is buoyant? I imagine if the ice stayed at the bottom it would be interesting evolution wise since most things survive the cold by being at the bottom.

Everyone’s fleshed out a lot of the discussions so I’ll just bullet point my opinion to try to better explain the discourse I’m seeing on here

• I view “Lemmy” like it’s a Community Center with group discussions, Community gatherings, and/or lectures with public comments. If you’re in the crowd “Booing” (downvoting) without standing up and making your position clear, you’re not adding anything to the discussion.

• Downvote/Upvote is not like “Booth Voting” at all. You have ONE vote in a democracy, that’s the core principle. You don’t vote Yes for a candidate then vote No for another. You don’t see a ticker above the booth tallying everyone’s vote that was before you (voter manipulation, why hidden scores became a thing).

• I think this would go over a lot better if mods had the choice of how to present the votes. Opt in or out of showing voters, opt in or out of showing scores or eliminating downvotes or even upvotes if you want. Give the power to the community and create useful tools for mods to try out.

Here is the original posting from New Zealand Herald which has video of the incident (1 of 3 near identical pages, that website is a mess). I searched out the real one because that linked article is just horrible and unnecessary (idk why he felt cool putting “The only things I’m planning to sneak in are sleeping tablets.” at the end).

For anyone wanting to get riled up, NZ Herald also has this wonderful little opinion piece from Ryan Bridge (a local broadcaster).

Ryan Bridge is wondering where people’s shame went when it comes to breaking the rules. This is not the most important story that you will hear today, but it grinds my gears. It’s a small, seemingly insignificant event, but I think it speaks to two things that I absolutely hate about the world that we live in right now.

The opinion article is just a shit show from what sounds like a pretty horrible and privileged person.

Yeah does anyone else wonder if this screams of incompetence from upper management? OP was ONLY able to get the disks, RAM, CPUs and Network Card. Sounds like someone higher up gave the “ok” just thinking the “Server” frame was the important part security wise. It would be an interesting scenario to see if the data center was able to upgrade the system while keeping all of the base components compatible and everything under cost or if this was just a screw up.

Is there a risky click guy to call forth on Lemmy yet?