queerlilhayseed

@queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s an overarching storyline with some timey-wimey bits that I read at one point and have since forgotten. I haven’t played all of them so maybe there are continuity assumptions elsewhere but both of the n64 titles can be played without knowing anything else about the series. MM complements OoT, but even then they don’t have to be played in order to be appreciated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So are they like extinct or something?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Every square you ever met is a rhombus that gave up its art career and got a boring 9-5.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I think so, I think Ocarina of Time earns its high esteem, and Ship of Harkinian irons out a lot of the QoL issues that make the original annoying, like being able to toggle boots without going into the menu.

  After you finish OoT I’d recommend running Majora’s Mask via 2 Ship 2 Harkinian as well. It’s less popular than OoT but every bit as good, I think. I can’t pick just one, but if I had to pick a “#1 favorite video game of all time”, Majora’s Mask would be a finalist. It’s really good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are lemmings so touchy about downvotes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  downvotes are whatever you think they are for

  agreed. they are subjective by design, occasionally accompanied by objective constraints like community rules” that attempt to guide how members deploy their downvotes. Sometimes rules work, sometimes they don’t.

  which is why it’s totally random

  disagree. They’re noisy, and hard to interpret, but they aren’t random. Something motivates a person (or bot, for that matter) to click the button when they could just as easily not.

  and shouldn’t be taken serious

  disagree here too, though this one is more a question of taste. I am so curious about what makes people act the way they do on the internet. Especially the meanies; the behavior of jerks on the internet is so puzzling to me, but I don’t think it’s impossible to understand better. Part of understanding it better is treating it as a subject worthy of serious inquiry, whether or not it deserves it.

  there is no definite rule on them in an open global platform

  agreed again, which is part of what makes them so tough to generalize about. There are definitely common patterns though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are lemmings so touchy about downvotes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think you’re wrong, but I think that all of those (generic disagreement, ideological disagreement, political disagreement, and retaliation) are reasons why someone might deploy the shame button, separate from the action itself. Plenty of people on the internet disagree all the time without using the downvote button too, so they must be separate even though there is overlap between them. One of the reasons I don’t like downvotes as a mechanic is that the reasoning behind the action is almost always obscure, if not unknowable. They’re very vague indicators, which incidentally is also true of most IRL shaming techniques. Shame is usually deployed when someone “should already know better” and usually does not accompany an explanation, unless the shamer is feeling instructive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are lemmings so touchy about downvotes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Downvotes are a digital shame button. They are community signals for what members consider inappropriate for the community. Like a lot of other shaming techniques, they are usually frustratingly lacking in nuance, prone to pile-ons, and are as often deployed in bad faith as good. Maybe more; I’m not sure how to measure or even define “good faith” and “bad faith”. I have a gut feeling for it, but my gut is sometimes wrong.

  Getting a lot of downvotes is the social media equivalent of your community telling you “your behavior is unacceptable, be better, or at least different, or shut up”. That’s a difficult thing to hear from a community; some people handle it more gracefully than others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I slander Java too lmao. I'm sure Java devs have the last laugh when their paychecks come in, tho⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  .war huh? Yeah! What is it good for?

  Cutting quarterly expenditures by delaying expensive infrastructure migrations that would save money in the long run!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I either want to learn French or Italian. Which should I learn in your opinion?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think Italian is more fun. Incidental: Italian with Gramma by Mark Twain has always stuck with me. I think it’s a pretty good read.

  I also frequently mix up my Spanish and Italian.

  As for the LGBTQ-ness of it, I think they’re both fine choices. If I know anything as an American, it’s that France and Italy are two of the gayest countries in Europe, the gayest continent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Classic rock⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Poor lil guy ❤️

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does the USA have gifted schools or was Spider-Man Homecoming lying?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, I won’t deny that that site is 100% propaganda, I was just checking that they were still around. I don’t know how evidence that a poor person couldn’t go to a magnet school would be validated, but that doesn’t comport with my limited experience. I have been aware of children being at magnet schools whose parents didn’t strike me as particularly wealthy or influential. Mostly fringey-artsy types whose kids wanted to go to the artsy school, or perhaps whose parents wanted that. We weren’t close enough friends that if they’d been secretly wealthy I’d have known about it, necessarily, but they really don’t strike me as the type to be able to arrange a backdoor deal to get their kid into a magnet school.

  IDRK, but my observations lead me to believe that it’s more similar to what elite colleges do, i.e. bring in enough rich kids to keep the gravy train running but also just enough poor kids to prove their equality bona fides, rather than being 100% a paper mill.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does the USA have gifted schools or was Spider-Man Homecoming lying?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They definitely still exist: https://magnet.edu/

  I don’t have much firsthand experience with them but there’s a known stereotype that, if an influential person wants their kid in one, they can find a way, even though it’s supposed to be strictly merit based. I believe most of them accept a certain percentage of poor kids, whether because there are some people in the school system who believe in what they’re doing, or to maintain the illusion of fair play I couldn’t speculate. I’ve known some people who went to one and they didn’t seem to have benefited immensely from the privilege, though they generally seemed positive about them, the few times we discussed it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Treat your body like a data centre⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Molotov cocktails really dry out my skin tho :/

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How hopeless is getting a job with a CS degree?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some advice on choosing a specialization: consider the teachers whose classes you’ll need to take. Some teachers are just better at teaching than others, and sometimes even a very highly regarded teacher just won’t do it for you. It shouldn’t be the only consideration; there will likely come a time where you’ll need to take a class taught by someone you just don’t work with. But finding someone whose explanations make sense to you, whose style of teaching fits your brain, someone you find it easy to ask questions of, and taking their classes will help you learn a lot more, even if their area of expertise isn’t your first choice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it just the norm now-a-days for grocery stores to have lots of stuff on the shelves that's past the best-by date?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve noticed an uptick in my area of the US. My personal experience is that it got more common after covid, maybe got slightly less common for a while, and has gotten more common in the last year or so.

  It may be I just check them more frequently when other food safety concerns are in the news. But I’ve also noticed an uptick in other supply issues in grocery stores, items being out of stock more often for example. Perishables especially. Those two things feel like they might co-occur.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grow your own⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the journey more than the destination. But stick with the journey long enough and you’ll find yourself at some exceedingly tasty waystations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When do we riot?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re welcome! I hope you find your people, we’re going to need a lot of local organization to get through this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Autism Rule⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I haven’t bought an oscilloscope in a while but that seems like way too much.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When do we riot?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t look on the internet, you won’t find the community you’re looking for here. Find the coolest candidate running in your local area and volunteer for their campaign. Even if they kinda suck, show up for their events. You aren’t there to meet the candidate, you’re there to meet other people who care about their community. Talk to the other volunteers. You’ll be surprised at who you meet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?"⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think about it in neither way. My point is that the descriptors of “light” and “dark” are our own (or the Jedis’ own) moralizations mapped crudely onto the nature of the universe. The Jedi describing themselves as “light” and others as “dark” is a recursive definition of morality and it leads to moral rot, because people start to believe that the rules handed down by the Jedi are actually morally perfect, and above question. It is definitionally authoritarian.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?"⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I replied to Björn’s comment first with more detail, but I fail to see the difference. The “light side” of the force is just branding the Jedi used to claim moral authority for their own rules about who can use the Force and how.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?"⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What is the “light side” of the Force if not Jedi propaganda establishing themselves as the only morally correct force users in the galaxy? Who is to say which parts of the force are good and which are evil? The failing of the Jedi isn’t that they assumed they were completely on the right side, but that the force has “sides” at all. The dark side exists in all living things, because the Force exists in all living things. To deny a part of the Force is imbalance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?"⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that is precisely the misreading that led to the downfall of the Jedi order. The dark side of the force isn’t inherently evil, just as the light side isn’t inherently good. The Jedi did a lot of shitty stuff under the banner of being the good guys. Balance, I think, is having all aspects of the Force (that is, all living things) in harmony.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It is not an issue⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “That’ll be somewhere between $15 and $900, your insurance will let you know eventually.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The end of civilization costs $5⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mine turned into people. Oh, god :(

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favourite gaming console you have played?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I got the SNES Classic just for Donkey Kong Country. The other games were a nice bonus. I have some novelty electronics that I never use anymore but that one gets pulled out on the regular.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you think about the dead internet theory?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s very confusing when it happens to someone you know because they usually aren’t horrible people. Nor are they particularly stupid, at least not more or less than your average human.

  I think people in left-of-center spaces like to say things like “The Republican party is a cult” as a sort of disparaging cliche without really appreciating what a cult is or how they operate in real life. They see things like “Donald Trump ate a live baby on camera today, also his support among Republicans is at 90%” and assume that 90% of Republicans are cool with infant cannibalism, when in reality those Republicans just don’t see the same news we do. They are actually in a cult, which means (among other things) that they are conditioned to believe the cult leader (Trump, at the moment) and his approved mouthpieces, and only them. They’re reminded, constantly, that the left is deranged and willing to say anything to make Trump look bad, so when Trump does something so heinous it actually does penetrate their media bubble, it gets brushed off as more evidence of the left’s lunacy. It’s a very resilient form of conditioning and it’s been going on way longer than the internet’s been around, and it’s… really hard. Because they aren’t horrible people, mostly. They’re mostly scared, and broke, and confused about the world, and they flock to people like Trump because they have been told by their handlers that he’s their best bet. Once he’s dead or too toxic even for the Republicans, they’ll be reoriented toward the next leader.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you think about the dead internet theory?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem of the dead internet isn’t that there are no human users, but that the human users are isolated from each other or herded into ideologically suitable echo chambers, where misinformation and lies can be harder to resist because they already have momentum. It’s also hard to prove because we’ve demonstrated the inclination to do it to ourselves even without malign orchestrating influences like giant corporations.

  An indicator of a dead internet wouldn’t be that no one in your IRL experience uses the internet, but that either A) their experiences are extremely congruent with your own (you’re both in the same bubble) or B) their experience of the internet reality has no shared basis with your own (only one of you is in a bubble, or you’re both in separate bubbles). Which… does happen to me occasionally, especially with older folks. A lot of people are caught in the dead internet of facebook, and are being groomed and manipulated like cattle. The export products of the bot farming industry are influence, votes, hatred of minorities, etc. I suspect a lot of the MAGA elements of my family are deep into dead internet traps, though of course it’s hard to get an accurate picture of their media diet because they don’t trust me enough to share it.

  Do I think this means the internet is now Certified Dead? No, but I think it’s a sliding scale of deadness and it’s somewhere between 0 and 100 percent. Where on that scale we are is difficult to pin down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Player Voice Quickly Reveals What Players Want Most⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I could have worded that more clearly. I’m not saying consoles are themselves profitable, but that shipping consoles is the first step in building the captive audience that buys the games, accessories, live services, etc. that make consoles profitable. That vendor lock-in allows console makers to then milk buyers for the entire lifetime of the console.

  If consoles were more like PCs i.e. anyone could play any game from any studio that cared to publish for the platform, console makers would have to focus on making their hardware stand out on its own. Which is particularly funny because, at least back when I was buying console gear (xbox 360 / beginning of the xbone was about the era I fell away from consoles) Microsoft was actually making really good peripherals. I still have my 360 controllers and I break them out for PC games whenever I have a bunch of people in the same room. they’re nice to use.

  Instead, we get profit-maximizing tactics like taking a game that people want and putting it behind a several-hundred-dollar paywall, forcing people to either pony up for another 99% redundant console, or not playing the fun game everyone else has. No judgement to those who choose the latter, I bought the original xbox because Halo looked fun and my friends were playing it and guess what? It is a really fun game. I still play it from time to time. I just like it a lot better now that I don’t have to buy another expensive hunk of proprietary hardware.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ultimate Chicken Horse - 10th Annifursary Update (and sale)⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This may be my favorite party game of all time. Exceptional concept, exceptional execution. Really solid balancing mechanics that don’t feel artificial because they’re (mostly) not. Really well designed graphics that still read pretty well when the screen is overcrowded, which happens often in this game (by design). Also, super cute graphics, I think. I main raccoon but I love all of them.

  It’s set the standard of “casual couch / voicechat multiplayer” for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Player Voice Quickly Reveals What Players Want Most⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Because console makers make money by selling consoles, and exclusive titles are bait meant to entice players to buy into the platform? It seems like it lines up really well with how Xbox makes its money, but I don’t see how players benefit at all.

  I’m not saying every comment is fake; I’m sure some people on that forum genuinely feel strongly about Halo or whatever remaining an Xbox exclusive, but that can’t possibly be their number one most important thing they want Xbox to do. I don’t have any evidence but my gut says there’s some skullduggery going on. I don’t think it would be too hard for Microsoft to manipulate a forum they control either, and the incentives seem pretty clearly aligned with Microsoft. It’s just very convenient for them that this article exists.