No money, and it's really hard to keep it as clean and focused as SO still is @Nat. Unity3D tried it with their answers site. To say it didn't work is putting it lightly
@Nat You need a starting userbase mostly consisting of able programmers, a very dedicated founder, some orator that can sway the masses by being profound
I guess we really do need to make it easier to have a micro-payment system based on usage. I mean, most users don't want to have to deal with paywalls or subscriptions, but seems like people would be willing to compensate StackExchange for its services if it were sufficiently simple and worry-free.
I think I saw a website recently where people can sign up with different subscription rates, like $10/month, and then it auto-distributes that $10/month to the sites you visit according to how much interaction you've had with them. Does anyone recall what it was called?
Most folks do this for a living. The average employer makes expensing small costs harder than expensing big ones. You could sell $10,000/mo SO access, but not $0.01/page access.
I mean, microtransactions can be creepy because they can snowball and are coercive. But if you get to set $10/month for ALL services you use, then it's a lot less intimidating.
So a few devs would just pay out of pocket, but most wouldn't because they wouldn't get compensated. They'd rely on other forums and we'd be right back where we started.
Folks have tried this. A few times. It doesn't work.
@Bart Contains cheap blended whisky and beef sticks
Yeah.. might be sorta like taxes? I mean, everyone benefits from us all paying taxes, but most individuals wouldn't opt into it if they could dodge 'em.
@Shog9 That'd be neat to see! Might have to do a more authenticated style, or else folks might do all sorts of tricks to avoid identification (e.g., Tor).
I'm thinking a bit more toward the future. I'm holding a pretty good hand when it comes to future political influence, but still trying to figure out how to play it.
In particular, I see people losing their jobs to automation, increasing shift toward information-service consumption, a loss of meaningfulness behind intellectual property rights, and other issues like that coming down the pipeline. I'd like to figure out a good solution for the future.
With respect to automation forcing folks into joblessness, simple plans like Basic Income seem like a decent start. Personally I'd describe it as a government buy-in to citizens as their side of the social contract, but "Universal Basic Income" works too, I guess.
@Nat I haven't contemplated about that automation-joblessness thing, but a while ago I read something along the lines of arguing in such way is missing the forest for the trees
With respect to tracking, I think we'll essentially have to come up with a complex proof-of-identity system that minimally invades privacy while still tracking services consumed/rendered. Otherwise the meritocracy aspect of the economy'll seem doomed.
Poe's Law's got me on Meta. I can't even tell who's actually offended and who's pretending. I'm not even sure there's actually a meaningful line between the two. So I'm starting to think it's all one big joke now.
The memorization-heavy stuff got me. I was the type who'd crack open the textbook 10 minutes before an exam.. which was more than enough for math-heavy topics, 'cause I likes me the maths. And stuff like Orgo I was all conceptual! I loved that. But then Orgo II was like, "MEMORIZE THIS LONG SET OF REACTION MECHANISMS THAT YOU'LL NEVER SEE AGAIN". And my brain was like.. "Um, yeah. I'm gonna think about squirrels now.".
And they always allow the hero propaganda to spread. The hero gets pissed off and kills the hell out of them, and then pretends they brought their own doom and jumped into a volcano or something, shouting "a captain goes down with his ship". Yeah right, how dumb do you think we are?
Meanwhile, the sequel villain persists to debunk the stupid claims, is often really crafty and apathetic at the same time, and is rarely a pain in the ass unless they yell corny 90's cliches
Pretty sure we're in the regime of "holy @#%$, it's really easy to make dangerous things! Let's try to keep some random idiot from blowing up everyone else.".
user206222
7:20 PM
On an even more basic level... "Show, don't tell"? CIA. "Write what you know"? CIA.
Hah there're even animes about it on Netflix now! This is, the premise that humanity had to regress to avoid self-destruction due to the increasing ability of individuals to harm many.
Some of the spying stuff is awfully creepy, but gotta admit that there's due motivation too.
Or maybe I'm just watching too much Netflix. Probably that. :-P
@Aza I didn't see it render, but it's Fry.gif. Fry, I assume, from Futuroma. Fry, who went 1000 years into the future to bring us entertainment bliss on our retro-futuristic television screens. Do not disparage the Fry!
They probably did, actually. The CIA was pretty heavily involved in preventive care in the mid-1970s as part of an effort to make American healthcare better able to respond quickly. It was international propaganda towards the idealization of the small American suburb. "You always have your doctor on hand," if you've heard the expression. Though it's fallen out of common parlance recently.
user206222
They identified three key ways they could improve trivial health issues: access to better ergonomics; access to exercise equipment or people-first suburb design; and they also started Whole Foods.
You always have a doctor two weeks away with pre-approval and a 4 hour window pay in advance credit check required. Just rolls off the tongue so much better.
@SonictheAnonymousHedgehog When what you're wanting to add as a watch/ blacklist isn't obvious within an MS post, please add a comment to the PR explaining where it's from. Without something indicating where it comes from, the PR is likely to be rejected. I did figure out where this one came from, but it took significantly more time than we should need to spend on evaluating a PR for a watch or blacklist command.
@user58 actually, yesterday I realized that in gnome I can start typing a unicode character's name in the runner-thingamajig. I'm on debian but close enough.
(not the proper alt+f2 runner, but the <stupid windows character> full-screen thingamajig)
@Aza I see you everywhere on MSE lately and I know being so active in such a trolling/transphobic time probably isn't easy for you, so I wanted to send you all my love. I really appreciate what you are doing for the trans community and, if at any point, you feel like you can't do it anymore, it's fine by me. You have already done more than your share. Be well and take care of you, dear stranger
Gonna... poke the OP there and ask 'em to flag and move on, too.
user206222
Looks like they're gone. Thanks, all.
user206222
10:16 PM
Incidentally, someone made a userscript that hides vote counts until you vote yourself, and good lord it's taken off so much of the strain of looking through this crap. I highly recommend it.
user206222
Unintended side effect of playing around with this userscript: I don't have to deal with knowing 12 people liked that attack helicopter post enough to upvote, at least unless I actually want to.
Ever studied, say, ancient Jewish laws, such as the text of the Mishna? Intent is relevant between you and God. Effect is relevant between you and another person.
This is additionally true on the internet. I know none of you all personally. I have no signal besides what you all write, and that is just text, so lacking all the nuance and extra information intonation and facial expressions usually carry