DrNeurohax

Goddamn that was poetic, ya cunt.

“Black Company” fighting the good fight, it seems.

True. They created their own problem by trying to up each other’s lumens claims over and over to the point where decent flashlights are claimed to have 5.6 million lumens and included 25000mAh 18650s.

Most of the $5+ flashlights are probably fine for most people’s needs. I have several and they’ve been fine for me. Different models, similar modes, similar brightness, and all fine for walking the dog or if the power goes out. Now, if I were relying on them for survival, I might think twice. All have held up fine, including the 12 year old one from dealextreme (pre-alibaba). But, since I don’t know if people are asking for recommendations where spec accuracy matters, I’m hesitant to recommend them to random people on the internet.

(I had to check, just for fun, and there are 18650 batteries listed as 19900mAh. Pretty impressive, since Panasonic is capped out at 3500-3600.)

Yeah, it really caught me off guard the first time I used the site. It was during one of those special celebration discount days where they had the audacity to mark items as literally $0.01 when basically nothing was that price.

For 3D printer filament, which is usually bought in 1kg/2.2lb spools, most places list a 2m sample or a 250g spool to game the search. And my other favorite is the whack-a-mole shipping setup where on variation might be free shipping, but choose a different color and the shipping jumps to $300+.

With Amazon, I’m seeing a ton more overpriced items discounted to still higher priced than their competition. If you look at their deals pages, you can find things like portable monitors for $70 (down from $150), but checking that category shows the same monitor (same specs under a different name) for $60.

Here’s as close as I can find right now, since all the lightning deals are ending for the day. There’s a USB laptop docking station that’s “discounted” from $139 to $70. There isn’t an exact match (there usually is), but similar products go for ~$60-$70 (2 HDMI, 4+ USB3 ports, 100W PD, ethernet). What’s funnier is that the specific company’s Amazon site has at least 4 identical docks at slightly different prices.

I just tried it again on desktop and it worked, but the reason was that I downloaded an extension a while ago and forgot about it. When I disabled the extension, it stopped working.

There used to be a way to enable installing any extension on mobile FFx Dev, but I’m not sure if that still works. The desktop extension just changes the user agent string, so that might be another route to enabling it.

I use the ChatGPT feature from desktop Firefox with no problems. Maybe it specifically denies Chrome, in which case I bet you could change the user agent string and get it to work.

I use AliExpress for electrical parts (except anything with memory), 3D printer parts, and small crap I don’t mind waiting for, but never anything I would be angry about if it never arrived. Also, nothing I consume or wear or need for safety, and I’m wary of anything that’s supposed to be plugged into the wall for long periods of time unattended.

I wouldn’t say I’ve been surprised, but my expectations are low. It’s all cheap stuff, but as long as you’re not needing the stuff you buy, it’s fine. Dollar store quality with the scent of plastic and cigarettes.

That being said, beware of scams. The one that seems acceptable to them is to list one cheap part for the listing, along with variations of the full device. That way it looks like the lowest price in search results, but when you click it, the selected variation is the cheap part. Like, you’ll search for “pliers set” and see a listing for $1, compared to others around $15. When you select it, the product page will have a carrying case for $1 and the various pliers for twice as much as the competition. What’s better is that the case will be selected automatically, not the thing in the picture you clicked on or the picture you see first in the product pages’ gallery.

There are also scam stores that pop up with super low prices compared to others on the site can disappear overnight and the cancellation/refund process is a super pain. Contact customer service once and just submit a claim with your CC company. Their refund process will try to keep telling you to wait for another week, and that includes the reps you get on chat. If you’re suspicious and still order, always follow the shipping info. They will estimate a reasonable delivery date, you’ll get a shipping notification, but it will sit in limbo. The shipping folks are separate from the scammers, so if you see the package actually move towards a shipping center, you’re in the clear. If it says they received shipping information for over a week, you got screwed.

Ignore flash drives/SSDs, batteries, and assume any flashlights are 1/100th the brightness claimed (literally). Oh, and watch shipping costs. Something with free shipping can be 10x the price of the product if you add a second one to your cart.

If the surface is flat enough, start with a scraper. One of those single edged replaceable blade deals. That’ll quickly take off 90%, if not all of it. If the blade gets sticky and you want to made another pass, wipe it off with some oil (basically any, even olive oil). Then go for the other suggestions, like rubbing the sticker with oil and alcohol.

This works much quicker than just oil and alcohol, BUT the surface has to be flat. If it isn’t flat, it has to be non-razor-blade-damage-vulnerable material.

And your second!

They will still get site visit counts and other general metrics (page view time, clicks, etc.). When you see in a press release that they, “have X million daily page views,” that’s including everything from signed in users to anonymizing middle clients, like libreddit.

It’s the most minimal help for them possible, but not as good as just staying away. If you used to post regularly and scanning the front page twice per day will help you engage less, that’s much better than slipping back into old habits.

Very true. I would argue that for some people, it might be better to ween themselves off Reddit than stop cold turkey.

If they posted every day, stop posting, maybe reduce commenting, and take an extra 10 seconds to search out other sources of info.

If they commented every day, stop commenting, browse Reddit if you feel like it, but try to find an equivalent article here to comment on.

If they lurked, try finding new sources, try new search engines, etc. Did they lurk because they didn’t care about interacting, or because they were turned off by toxic responses in the past? Try commenting here.

I’d rather see people leave slowly and stay away, than go back to their old patterns because they think, “I just really NEED to check that one sub, so I guess protesting is not for me.”

Also, I don’t think there are many here that would fault those that actually need Reddit in some way (e.g.-Ukraine war, self help, support groups, etc.). They have bigger shit to worry about. Revisit the migration topic when you’re comfortable, and if you want.

(It’s worth mentioning that some of that material is starting to pop up around here. See if they fill your needs when it’s okay for you - no point in joining a group with 2 people if you really need a larger support system.)

There were a bunch of initial shitlords that tried making roads into here a few weeks back, but they were quickly shouted down. A few defederations later and things have been smooth.

As for the Lemmy devs, there are some screenshots of nasty tankie comments floating around, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for now because they have been very involved with keeping things civil and came out publicly against their past statements. I think a bunch of us effectively argued with one of them that letting that shit in during the initial growth in general public instances was a platform-killer (lots of mentions of the “Tolerance of Intolerance Paradox” and the “nazi bar story”). A T_D popped up for an hour or two and was quickly pushed out. They can make their own little microcosm somewhere else.

I’ve seen a few douchebags pop up here and there, but not enough to worry me. Though, I hear the politics mags might have more trouble than the comment threads I frequent.

You didn’t have to say you’re new - the fact that you thought you could get banned for that post screams it! That’s the good ole Reddit PTSD. Folks are more chill and friendly here. Also, maybe 5 people fully understand the system, so we’re all learning.

One little bug that I think makes this whole situation more confusing is that not interacting with a thread for long enough (opening several tabs, walking away while ready comments, etc.), your browser could stop updating the state of the page. When you go to subscribe or comment or vote, you get hit with one of two errors. I had assumed that was part of this whole who-can-talk-to-who fediverse confusion. It’s not. It’s just a bug you can get around by refreshing the page.

As for combining posts, that’s something in the works, but there’s no karma and most people I’ve come across don’t give two shits about the various bugged equivalents. If you’re going to submit a post, check to see if it’s already already being talked about on another instance. There’s no etiquette for how to handle that yet, so I think it might make sense to just post a link to the federated post that that people in that subscribed magazine/community get directed to the larger discussion. Or maybe do this and say you want to talk about some specific aspect more.

And yes, there’s lots under construction here, but nobody was prepared for this deluge. Seriously, from ~3,500 users between kbin and lemmy to ~2 million now. We know that the devs are hard at work, so it isn’t like it’s an abandoned project. But, I’ll take this community over Reddit’s any day.

Correct. Also, in Lemmy “magazines” are “communities”.

It might be worth noting that the platform is stable, but still growing. Expect little quirks; we’re dealing with a big influx of new users.

For example, I joined during the first big wave of signups and the servers were having trouble keeping up with the sudden spike in activity (10 to 1000x+ new posts/users/instances). I would sometimes see federated content, sometimes not. After 12 hours and a massive effort by the devs, everything became MUCH more stable.

There will be bugs, but they are actively being squashed at breakneck speed.

For example, one that I encounter regularly is leaving a thread open in a background tab too long (on Firefox) eventually stops syncing with the server. When I eventually get to that tab, the data is old and attempting to interact (click arrows, reply, subscribe, etc.) send me to an error page. The fix? Refresh the page if was open more that 30 minutes ago. It’s a minor bug that will eventually be fixed, so give it time.

I also wanted to throw some advice out there, in case it’s useful…

If they’re ever confused, there are plenty of support communities/magazines. First, check if others have posted about the same problem. If they haven’t, feel free to ask. The NoStupidQuestions community hosts a ton of simple Fediverse-related questions posted by users, and it has some of the highest engagement on the platform. I know the reluctance of posting may have been ground into you by Reddit, but (a) this isn’t Reddit, and (b) we’re all new here.

There is a slight learning curve, so canoodle around a bit to get a feel for this new Reddit-esque multiverse. Read a few FAQs, skim the support communities, follow a few rabbit holes.

Here’s what I suspect is a semi-normal new user experience (because it was mine :) ):

• To start, you’ll want to register an account, so you do. You’ll click a few stories, try to comment, and find you’re not logged in and can’t log in. You’ll notice you’re not on the original server. Do you have to register a million accounts? That makes no sense! The answer is no.

• Next, you’ll want to understand why. That post you clicked took you to another instance (think of them as servers). So, how do you post a comment on another instance? Ah, from your home instance. So, did it matter where I registered? Yes and no, but mostly no.

• • Keep going down the account rabbit hole and you’ll read about the pros and cons of running your own instance, how federation/defederation works, and other instance-related topics,
• • Or, hop back out and proceed to comment on the post you read. Wait. My comment has no votes. The path forks again.
• • • Is there something like Reddit’s karma system? Down the voting/rep rabbit hole!
• • • Is it considered bad form to vote for my own comment/post? (There’s no consensus right now, so don’t worry.) Down the Lemmy/Kbin etiquette rabbit hole!

You’ll eventually go back to hit on those forks in the path you didn’t take. Follow whichever path suits you best and expand from there.

Correct.

Yes, but if I remember correctly, the UBlock Origin devs said that the current restrictions in Chrome prevent some of the performance improvements seen in FFx because the filtering is done after the element is downloaded. So, it still has to transfer, but isn’t rendered or executed. I could be mistaken, though.

I’m generally a Windows user, but on the verge of doing a trial run of Fedora Silverblue (just need to find the time). It sounds like a great solution to my… complicated… history with Linux.

I’ve installed Linux dozens of times going back to the 90s (LinuxPPC anyone? Yellow Dog?), and I keep going back to Windows because I tweak everything until it breaks. Then I have no idea how I got to that point, but no time to troubleshoot. Easily being able to get back to a stable system that isn’t a fresh install sounds great.