Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

„Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work ” is my newest blog post about Fandom (big F), wikis, volunteer work and capitalism. If you have the time and any of those topics interest you, give it a read.

https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/

#wiki #volunteering #Internet #moderation #Fandom #capitalism

https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/how-denial-of-airborne-covid-transmission-broke-the-world/?s=09

Respirators are so effective that United Kingdom research has indicated their use by the public would have dropped the rate of COVID transmission by an estimated factor of 9, compared with 0.6 for surgical masks. A factor of 9 is enough to put SARS-COV-2 into exponential decay, meaning the virus would have been highly suppressed for as long as respirator use continued. The exponential math of viral spread also means that perfect masking compliance would not have been required to achieve suppression.

@maskup

#CovidIsAirborne #WearARespirator

one of the worst parts of our modern scam culture is how it's designed to make you feel guilty when you fall for it

you heard an interesting fact that was actually propaganda? Your fault. Fell for an image? Your fault. Got scammed money wise? Your fault

but that in itself is the biggest scam of all

“Where do you get your ideas from? - by Joel Morris”

https://joelmorris.substack.com/p/where-do-you-get-your-ideas-from

> So if you put out an episode once a week, and you make it to being one of the world’s most successful podcasts… you’ll be paid enough for a pizza per episode, provided you don’t go for any side dishes.

The modern media economy is unsustainable

I have been playing with a new term: "slop huckster"

A slop huckster is more than someone who likes to play with generative AI, or has some arguments for why they've been able to use it productively

Slop hucksters argue that generative AI means you should stop doing creative and productive things, kind of likes to rub it in your face that they can make creative persuits useless

The attitudes of slop hucksters resemble incels, a kind destructive bitterness stemming from jealousy

I guess it's possible the issue gets accidentally fixed or becomes irrelevant, but something about *closing* a perfectly valid issue report because nobody from the project has checked it out rubs me the wrong way. Similar to closing an issue as WONTFIX does versus a more precise “out of scope” or “design conflict.”

It really turns me off as a potential contributor who is trying to help, and makes it less likely that I would actually stick around and help with that much needed issue triage.

I get that issue trackers are hard, but I feel like stale bots that *close issues* come off as so hostile. I shouldn't have to come back to the issue tracker every month to confirm, “Yes, this is still an issue!” to prevent the issue from getting closed.

Tag an issue as “stale” for easier triage—that’s fine! But “oops you aren’t engaged enough, sorry, your issue doesn’t exist anymore” feels like a bit of a slap in the face. Especially if it gets closed as “not planned.”

"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!"

the entire point of that idiom was that you *can't*, it's straight-up impossible

"Just one bad apple"

. . . spoils the rest of the barrel; it's the *opposite* of an isolated problem

Any other idioms we've gotten completely backwards?

one of the most insidious things about the whole narrative around disability, benefits, mental health etc in the UK is the way that it gets into the heads of benefits claimants too. This one spent its whole life hearing about benefits scroungers, about how folks are just not working and just leeching off the state, about how things need to be stricter.

This one does not have major physical disabilities. It has severe long term mental health issues and disabilities (cPTSD, OCD, ADHD, DID, autism, depression, anxiety). Its mental disabilities do not present in the way that it is "expected" for mentally disabled folks to present. It is capable of appearing as "able" and "intelligent" to those who do not understand things. It claims PIP, Universal Credit, and the LCWRA health component due to all these issues. Even pre-cuts, this works out to less than minimum wage. And that's all it can get.

It absolutely is not capable of work. It can often barely hold a conversation for more than a few seconds without freezing up if it is at all stressed. It has panic attacks. It has days where it can't leave the house because of its paranoia about being attacked. It communicates in ways that are not typical and often considered impolite or totally not understood by neurotypicals. It cannot exist in spaces that are "unclean" to it. It has attempted work experience and had to have somebody come and collect it from "work" twice in a 1 week internship because of a breakdown, and this was back when it was in a much more stable position and its baseline state was better. It can't focus on a task that has been given to it by an external entity. Stress can cause it to dissociate so much that somebody else has to take control of its body. And so on.

But yet, the narrative has got into its head. What if it could work. What if it *isn't* actually disabled. What if the government are right. What if it is claiming benefits it shouldn't have. Because on its very, very best days, it may be able to put in a half day of work, at a push, if adjustments are made. It sews this doubt and internalized ableism that is really fucking annoying to clear out of its mind.

So, to everybody spreading that narrative: stop. Living on benefits is a nightmare, and claiming them is even worse. If you think that it's too easy to get PIP, go try and claim it. Attempt the thing you say is rampant. Enjoy the nightmares and getting nothing.
And to all the disabled folks: your needs are real and valid. You should claim as much as you can from the government to help you. Don't let this bullshit get into your head.

nerdy folks who like talking about their interests

I hope nobody is ever sending me legitimate messages on Signal that start out like this, because I block all of these instantly. Obviously I can't ask without first accepting, so you better tell me why you're reaching out if you want to chat 🤣

remember when I asked for a replacement for #disqus and then ranted about how none of the available solutions would also integrate with #mastodon?

Well shit. I did it again and scratched my own itch and barfed out another open source project.

Introducing: Meh..

https://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2025-03/26-meh_another_comment_system

* single install serves as many sites as you want
* can be used in static websites (it's lightweight web components in the frontend)
* imports Disqus
* fetches Mastodon replies as comments
* supports different languages (so far en, fr, es, de)
* probably has bugs

#opensource #opensourcesoftware #comments

idk i just think it's okay for things to not be intuitive so long as there's a clear path to learning it

idk about you but i read the manuals for stuff i buy (assuming it actually has one), even "obvious" things like a microwave

📚

#krita

Reminder: Misogyny in #VideoGames is a skill issue 😆

Source for the study summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games#Male_behavior_towards_female_gamers