Popular Things You're Just Not Interested In

[Molandfreak]

And how often do you actually hear about her and how? At least in the news I read and the social media I partake in, recently, I've heard that she got engaged and I think she might have a new album coming out. Other than that, I haven't heard a thing about her in a year or so, other than from the few of you here on this board that bring her up with a high frequency and then complain about hearing about her too much. 

At my last job, somebody mentioned her every 30 minutes. They even had her picture on a contest that was going on. I see crap about her on social media all the time. I did recently download F.B. Purity, and I added her name and the name of her boy toy on the block list, so I don't see nearly as much about her as I did before. I do, however, get posts about her on my mobile app, so I don't use it as much. I'm just tired of hearing about her. If they talked this much about, say, Maynard James Keenan, I probably wouldn't be a Tool fan anymore. Overexposure ruins everything.

Sounds like your algorithm is just messed up. I've been trying to fix my Twitter algorithm since it seems like it's actively trying to recruit me to be a Proud Boy or something.

It's by design. You won't get better content without switching platforms altogether.

[JayhawkCO]

And how often do you actually hear about her and how? At least in the news I read and the social media I partake in, recently, I've heard that she got engaged and I think she might have a new album coming out. Other than that, I haven't heard a thing about her in a year or so, other than from the few of you here on this board that bring her up with a high frequency and then complain about hearing about her too much. 

At my last job, somebody mentioned her every 30 minutes. They even had her picture on a contest that was going on. I see crap about her on social media all the time. I did recently download F.B. Purity, and I added her name and the name of her boy toy on the block list, so I don't see nearly as much about her as I did before. I do, however, get posts about her on my mobile app, so I don't use it as much. I'm just tired of hearing about her. If they talked this much about, say, Maynard James Keenan, I probably wouldn't be a Tool fan anymore. Overexposure ruins everything.

Sounds like your algorithm is just messed up. I've been trying to fix my Twitter algorithm since it seems like it's actively trying to recruit me to be a Proud Boy or something.

It's by design. You won't get better content without switching platforms altogether.

Oh, for sure it's by design. I have no problem seeing viewpoints different from my own, so it doesn't inherently make me want to cancel my account. I certainly am no Musk fan, and wish I didn't have any activity on Twitter to make him even a cent, but it remains the best place for me to follow news/commentary about my soccer team which is the main thing I use it for.

I have a BlueSky account too, but that algorithm is also messed up since I get a whole lot of posts about birdwatching and professional wrestling, two things I have zero interest in.

[Molandfreak]

And how often do you actually hear about her and how? At least in the news I read and the social media I partake in, recently, I've heard that she got engaged and I think she might have a new album coming out. Other than that, I haven't heard a thing about her in a year or so, other than from the few of you here on this board that bring her up with a high frequency and then complain about hearing about her too much. 

At my last job, somebody mentioned her every 30 minutes. They even had her picture on a contest that was going on. I see crap about her on social media all the time. I did recently download F.B. Purity, and I added her name and the name of her boy toy on the block list, so I don't see nearly as much about her as I did before. I do, however, get posts about her on my mobile app, so I don't use it as much. I'm just tired of hearing about her. If they talked this much about, say, Maynard James Keenan, I probably wouldn't be a Tool fan anymore. Overexposure ruins everything.

Sounds like your algorithm is just messed up. I've been trying to fix my Twitter algorithm since it seems like it's actively trying to recruit me to be a Proud Boy or something.

It's by design. You won't get better content without switching platforms altogether.

Oh, for sure it's by design. I have no problem seeing viewpoints different from my own, so it doesn't inherently make me want to cancel my account. I certainly am no Musk fan, and wish I didn't have any activity on Twitter to make him even a cent, but it remains the best place for me to follow news/commentary about my soccer team which is the main thing I use it for.

I have a BlueSky account too, but that algorithm is also messed up since I get a whole lot of posts about birdwatching and professional wrestling, two things I have zero interest in.

I don't mind it when I know what I'm getting into, i.e. not here which claims to be apolitical but the actual moderation is severely flawed and only seems to take action when liberals cross the line. Users such as Kalvado make intelligent arguments even when I disagree with them, but there is functionally no difference between SP Cook's constant political posts and a 14 year old who just read Ayn Rand posting to Twitter. Same buzzwords.

It's like, you did effectively moderate SPUI to the point where he is not constantly posting about politics anymore. So good job there, because SPUI actually learned a lesson and significantly improved his regular forum behavior. But why not give Elkins an actual consequence for posting propaganda from a self-described white nationalist and refusing to admit wrongdoing?

[thenetwork]

I was going to say Taylor Swift hate, but that phenomenon actually does interest me, mainly because she doesn't have that large of an effect on my emotional state.

Unless some pop star caused you or loved ones physical pain, financial burden, or flaunts terribly oppressive viewpoints as a means for their success...continuously expressing hate for individuals usually reflects back as a lack of personal success or deep jealousy.

Her music causes my ears and head to hurt.

As far as "jealousy", that's bullshit. I wouldn't trade places with her. I just don't like her music, and I'm sick of hearing about her all the time. Even if I liked the artist, I would be sick of the overexposure.

I don't listen to her music, but I WILL say that despite all the overhype of Tay Tay-Kelce Mania, she gives back a LOT of her income back to charity and to her tour crew as bonuses. 

She even made an "undercover stop" in Colorado about 10 years ago to spend time with a girl with terminal cancer -- her last wish was to meet Taylor.  She spent at least 3 hours with this young girl at her house, who died a few months later.

Compare her to someone like Mariah "It's All About Me" Carey.  I have yet to hear anything good she has done like what Taylor has done.

[bugo]

Sounds like your algorithm is just messed up. I've been trying to fix my Twitter algorithm since it seems like it's actively trying to recruit me to be a Proud Boy or something.

I've been getting right-wing short video clips in my feed. I have no idea why, they started suddenly a few weeks ago. I always report them as hate speech, and I sometimes leave comments telling them to fuck off.

[CoreySamson]

I have no idea why... I sometimes leave comments telling them to fuck off.

That's probably why they haven't gone away... if you interact with those posts in any way, it feeds more of that to your feed.

[formulanone]

I have no idea why... I sometimes leave comments telling them to fuck off.

That's probably why they haven't gone away... if you interact with those posts in any way, it feeds more of that to your feed.

Very much this; just hit the "not interested in this" and it will resolve itself in good time.

A few years back I got a lot of knitting and quilting groups suggested in my feed for a few months. I had no idea why (other than providing no likes nor page interests), but I figured I'd leave it alone so other stuff wouldn't get in my feed. Joining a group for a particular camera lens a few years prompted me to suddenly get lots of birdwatching groups and associated ads for birding tours. I don't despise it nor have a major interest so I allow that clutter my feed.

[Scott5114]

T****r S***t

Trailer Shit?
Tudor Suit?

[kphoger]

... here which claims to be apolitical but the actual moderation is severely flawed and only seems to take action when liberals cross the line. Users such as Kalvado make intelligent arguments even when I disagree with them, but there is functionally no difference between SP Cook's constant political posts and a 14 year old who just read Ayn Rand posting to Twitter. Same buzzwords.

It's like, you did effectively moderate SPUI to the point where he is not constantly posting about politics anymore. So good job there, because SPUI actually learned a lesson and significantly improved his regular forum behavior. But why not give Elkins an actual consequence for posting propaganda from a self-described white nationalist and refusing to admit wrongdoing?

Every so often, I hear someone on here complain that the moderation is slanted to the left.  And every so often, I hear someone complain that the moderation is slanted to the right.  That's a big clue to me that the moderation is actually pretty balanced these days.  Anecdotally, I've seen the mods crack down on political stuff on both the left and the right, and I've seen them let stuff go on both the left and the right.  I haven't noticed any obvious imbalance from the mods in a few years now.  And, back before that, I'd have said the imbalance was slanted to favor the left, not the right.

I have no idea why... I sometimes leave comments telling them to fuck off.

That's probably why they haven't gone away... if you interact with those posts in any way, it feeds more of that to your feed.

A thousand times, yes.  This.

It's why my Facebook feed is now cluttered with flat-earthers' posts:  I interacted with the stupidity too many times, and now Facebook thinks that's what I'm interested in.  The algorithm doesn't know if you type "Go fuck off" or "This is so true" or an intelligent, well-thought-out argument that quotes experts and scientific studies.  All it knows is that you interacted.

T****r S***t

Trailer Shit?
Tudor Suit?

Time to see the eye doctor.  You miscounted the asterisks.

T _ _ _ _ r  S _ _ _ t

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently political media after my wife sent me an Instagram post about the shooting of Charlie Kirk.  Here is the exchange of texts:

Me:  Who got shot?
Me:  I have no idea who that is and the post assumes I do
Her:  Charlie Kurk
Me:  Never heard of him

[kphoger]

Apparently political media after my wife sent me an Instagram post about the shooting of Charlie Kirk.  Here is the exchange of texts:

Me:  Who got shot?
Me:  I have no idea who that is and the post assumes I do
Her:  Charlie Kurk
Me:  Never heard of him

I'd never heard of him either, and I'm probably someone who might have.  My wife asked at dinner if I knew who he was, then told me I'd probably hear about him at church last night.  I didn't hear about him at church last night.  But I probably will on Sunday morning.

Then again, half the reason I ditched my smartphone four or five years ago is that the political media I was watching on my phone back then was turning me into an angry version of myself that I didn't like anymore.  So you could say I used to be too much interested in it.

[hbelkins]

I wouldn't know a Taylor Swift song if one started playing on the radio (if I still listened to radio). The only time I have ever knowingly heard a song of hers was when I was on a trip with my brother and he actually had a couple of songs of hers on a USB stick that he played. I found nothing remarkable about what I heard and I still would not recognize one of her songs if I heard it.

[1995hoo]

I wouldn't know a Taylor Swift song if one started playing on the radio (if I still listened to radio). The only time I have ever knowingly heard a song of hers was when I was on a trip with my brother and he actually had a couple of songs of hers on a USB stick that he played. I found nothing remarkable about what I heard and I still would not recognize one of her songs if I heard it.

The only song of hers I would recognize is "Shake It Off." I very clearly remember where I was the first time I heard that song: I was at a Washington Capitals game, it was intermission, and I had gone to the men's room. I had reached the urinal and was doing what I was there to do when this song "Shake It Off" came on the PA and I found myself thinking, "Gee, thanks for the timely advice."

[kkt]

Watching a sporting event just for the sake of watching a sporting event. (If I don't have a rooting interest in the team, I don't care)

Me?  I don't understand being a fan of a team that you don't have a personal connection to.  If you didn't go to school at that college, or if you didn't grow up in that city, or whatever, then I don't understand why you'd "have a rooting interest in the team" to begin with.  This means that, for me, the only reason to watch most sporting events is just for the sake of watching them.  Will I care about the game?  No, but I can still enjoy watching the sport of it.

I agree.  When my kid was playing on a team, I was a fan!  The city's pro sports teams that recruit athletes from elsewhere, the college teams that admit athletes not to be students, do nothing for me.

[ZLoth]

Then again, half the reason I ditched my smartphone four or five years ago is that the political media I was watching on my phone back then was turning me into an angry version of myself that I didn't like anymore.  So you could say I used to be too much interested in it.

It wasn't the smartphone that was causing the issue, it was the social media platforms.

[kphoger]

Then again, half the reason I ditched my smartphone four or five years ago is that the political media I was watching on my phone back then was turning me into an angry version of myself that I didn't like anymore.  So you could say I used to be too much interested in it.

It wasn't the smartphone that was causing the issue, it was the social media platforms.

Correct.  Ditching the smartphone was my solution to unhealthy social media consumption (and the time it took away from engaging with family).

[Roadgeekteen]

Kirk wasn't a big deal to older people, but everyone under 30, agree with him or not, knew who he was. For gen z this could be a big where were you when x happened for us.

[CoreySamson]

Kirk wasn't a big deal to older people, but everyone under 30, agree with him or not, knew who he was. For gen z this could be a big where were you when x happened for us.

The response from America right now reminds me a lot of what I understand about the response to MLK being assassinated. Lots of people are angry, lots of people are urging for change, and lots of people are urging for nonviolence. I'm surprised there hasn't been any rioting yet.

[Max Rockatansky]

A lot of the time I feel as though I wouldn't even hear about these kind of things if I wasn't on the forum.  Most people I know outside of the hobby aren't politically inclined.  I was kind of surprised my wife sent me the shooting video yesterday.  Usually she just sends me dog and food videos. 

[JayhawkCO]

Kirk wasn't a big deal to older people, but everyone under 30, agree with him or not, knew who he was. For gen z this could be a big where were you when x happened for us.

The response from America right now reminds me a lot of what I understand about the response to MLK being assassinated. Lots of people are angry, lots of people are urging for change, and lots of people are urging for nonviolence. I'm surprised there hasn't been any rioting yet.

I don't think you can really compare the two. Back in the 60's, everyone got their news from the same places, so everyone was aware of these things. Now, as "Max" says, it's completely possible to be unaware of who he was and what happened without being willfully ignorant.

[ZLoth]

Then again, half the reason I ditched my smartphone four or five years ago is that the political media I was watching on my phone back then was turning me into an angry version of myself that I didn't like anymore.  So you could say I used to be too much interested in it.

It wasn't the smartphone that was causing the issue, it was the social media platforms.

Correct.  Ditching the smartphone was my solution to unhealthy social media consumption (and the time it took away from engaging with family).

Your choice. Unfortunately, I am attached to my electronic leash because it's my:

• Media player (Movies, TV, Music from my Plex media server, Audiobooks from my Audiobookshelf player)
• Two-factor authentication security device
• Personal organizer (Online calendar, contact list)
• Navigation aid (GPS plus tracking where my mother's phone is when we go out)
• Guide to local restaurants and attactions
• Camera (both still and video)
• Finance manager
• System monitoring for my own server
• Streaming radio stations, especially out-of-market stations like Classic FM in London

Note that social media and commercial streaming services is not on this list. Media streaming from my own server, however, is extremely important. But, to each their own.

As for the social media platforms, they were not only a time sink, but they became toxic as well if you didn't agree with that person's point of view with no room for a different perspective if you disagreed on any of the points. At that point, the only solution was to walk away.

[Scott5114]

Time to see the eye doctor.  You miscounted the asterisks.

T _ _ _ _ r  S _ _ _ t

Nope, that's not how asterisks work:

Code Select Expand

scott@alton:~/tmp$ touch Trailer_Shit
scott@alton:~/tmp$ touch Tudor_Suit
scott@alton:~/tmp$ touch Timber_Sport
scott@alton:~/tmp$ touch Tanner_Scott
scott@alton:~/tmp$ ls T****r_S***t
Tanner_Scott  Timber_Sport  Trailer_Shit  Tudor_Suit

(space converted to underscore here since space normally separates command line arguments, so passing T****r S***t to ls would only cause it to match all files starting with capital T and ending in r, followed by an attempt to match files starting with capital S and ending in t.)

[kphoger]

My own habits in blue:

Media player - TV streaming or DVD/BluRay, or else YouTube on desktop/laptop
Two-factor authentication security device - my dumbphone, via text message
Personal organizer - calendar on the fridge, contacts list on my dumbphone
Navigation aid - laptop before I leave, my wife's smartphone if I need it while we're out
Guide to local restaurants and attactions - laptop
Camera - rarely use anymore, borrowed digital camera from a friend for recent trip to Mexico
Finance manager - laptop
System monitoring for my own server - N/A
Streaming radio stations - only listen to the radio when driving in the car

[Molandfreak]

... here which claims to be apolitical but the actual moderation is severely flawed and only seems to take action when liberals cross the line. Users such as Kalvado make intelligent arguments even when I disagree with them, but there is functionally no difference between SP Cook's constant political posts and a 14 year old who just read Ayn Rand posting to Twitter. Same buzzwords.

It's like, you did effectively moderate SPUI to the point where he is not constantly posting about politics anymore. So good job there, because SPUI actually learned a lesson and significantly improved his regular forum behavior. But why not give Elkins an actual consequence for posting propaganda from a self-described white nationalist and refusing to admit wrongdoing?

Every so often, I hear someone on here complain that the moderation is slanted to the left.  And every so often, I hear someone complain that the moderation is slanted to the right.  That's a big clue to me that the moderation is actually pretty balanced these days.  Anecdotally, I've seen the mods crack down on political stuff on both the left and the right, and I've seen them let stuff go on both the left and the right.  I haven't noticed any obvious imbalance from the mods in a few years now.  And, back before that, I'd have said the imbalance was slanted to favor the left, not the right.

I know for a fact I'm not the only one annoyed by SP Cook's incessant political rhetoric, I'm just the only one actually posting about it. If SPUI could get hefty restrictions after years of complaints, why do I not see any evidence of the same being applied to those on the right doing the same thing? Even something like a Wikipedia topic ban where he gets a 30 day ban the next time he mentions taxes outside of a context directly related to roads would be fine. As long as it works and the actual behavior that is not tolerated is crystal clear to the user, the moderation is effective for the situation.

Terry Shea directly blames Rothman for moderation actions that were directly taken against him, when he is the one who called Rothman "tyrantasoreass" and told him to get a lobotomy. This level of extreme tone deafness indicates that he is not capable of self reflection or understanding exactly how he broke the rules. So if the goal is to prevent future abuse, it is pretty ineffective if the user can't understand what led to sanctions against themselves in the first place.

[kphoger]

I know for a fact I'm not the only one annoyed by SP Cook's incessant political rhetoric, I'm just the only one actually posting about it.

I must not visit the same boards as you do, then, because I don't notice |SP Cook| incessantly spewing political rhetoric.

SPUI

Nobody rises to the level of what |NE2| was like back then.

Terry Shea directly blames Rothman for moderation actions that were directly taken against him, when he is the one who called Rothman "tyrantasoreass" and told him to get a lobotomy. This level of extreme tone deafness indicates that he is not capable of self reflection or understanding exactly how he broke the rules. So if the goal is to prevent future abuse, it is pretty ineffective if the user can't understand what led to sanctions against themselves in the first place.

Dude, you're still talking about stuff from more than two years ago?  I thought you were talking about stuff right now.