Spyke

Replies

Comment on

New Google Trial Docs May Explain Why Search Sucks So Bad Now

Reply in thread

This was the main thing that made me switch to another engine, too. It's very obvious that Google hides certain results in addition to sponsoring others, and I don't want a profit-driven corporation deciding what I can and can't see (or anyone, if I can help it). On a larger scale, it's terrifying how much power over our culture via access to information this gives Google. I'm just glad there are still better options for me to choose from.

Comment on

It's been a minute

Reply in thread

It blows my mind that the railgun is still bad after they released the Quasar Cannon, considering the QC is better at killing heavies than the railgun was pre-nerf. Now the railgun is only good against hive guards, which the AMR can deal with much faster and with more ammo to spare. I'd rather the railgun was made a primary or they just completely reverse the nerf so that the railgun is an option again.

Comment on

It's not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media

Reply in thread

I think this is an underrated point. A lot of people are quick to say "private companies aren't covered by free speech", but I'm sure everyone agrees legal ≠ moral. We rely on these platforms so much that they've effectively become our public squares. Our government even uses them in official capacities, e.g. the president announcing things on Twitter.

When being censored on a private platform is effectively social and informational murder, I think it's time for us to revisit our centuries-old definitions. Whether you agree or disagree that these instances should be covered by free speech laws, this is becoming an important discussion that I never see brought up, but instead I keep seeing the same bad faith argument that companies are allowed to do this because they're allowed to do it.

Comment on

Why do we have to do the health insurance company's job for them?

Reply in thread

Just to offer another perspective, this covers just how difficult the burden of administrative tasks already is for physicians: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8522557/

Not all physicians work for a hospital, so I don't think they all have much access to large departments that can take up the slack for them. It's difficult to ask them to chase our insurance for us when the paperwork they already do is driving them insane and taking them away from their patients.

The solution, as you said, is single payer. The overwhelming administrative overhead is a symptom of a very broken system. Nobody directly rendering or receiving care is benefiting from how things currently are in the United States.

Comment on

DEF CON 31 - An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification - Cory Doctorow

Reply in thread

I understand hating subscriptions but in this case a one time payment would require Kagi to continually gain an increasing number of members for eternity or run out of operating money and shut down. You could hope for something donation-based like most Lemmy instances, but just expecting other users to cover your costs is selfish. There's a difference between asking your users to at least pay what they're costing you and rent-seeking with things that don't or shouldn't cost you a dime to provide. Subscription services have existed for a very, very long time (see: any government that collects taxes), it's only recently and due to greedy trends that they've been becoming a nuisance.

If you want to empower your own sense of privacy and security, you'll need to accept that you've been paying for services with your data or supposed ad views for decades, and some of those services cost money to run.

Comment on

Anyone else feel like Minecraft has gotten stale?

Reply in thread

I don't think I've played vanilla in a decade, modpacks are so much more fun in my opinion. Although I wouldn't mind more mods being ported to more recent versions. But even modded 1.12 has way more content than vanilla will ever have. 1000% try modded Minecraft if you're bored with vanilla, try modded Minecraft even if you aren't bored with vanilla. At this point there's got to be a perfect modpack for anybody.

Comment on

Knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss

Reply in thread

This kind of makes sense from a balancing perspective. Once you complete the main mission, you can't fail it anymore, even if you fail to extract. This stops the player from rushing the objective so they can clear the rest of the map stress-free. So you either risk failing the operation or have a much harder time exploring. Completing side objectives as you move along the main objectives seems like the ideal play with these mechanics, and I feel like that's the most intuitive way to play, anyways.

Comment on

What's something that you were surprised to find out a lot of people hate?

Reply in thread

It would be one thing if people were just overhyping things, but a lot of the outrage was over how much they just blatantly lied while marketing the game. They promised a lot of specific things and then released something that was aesthetically impressive but ultimately outdone in just about every other category by sometimes decades old games, and lacked all of the groundbreaking features they marketed.

Personally, even coming back to it much later and trying to enjoy it at face value with all of its updates, it still felt like a boring and shallow GTA clone with a neon glaze. That's not to mention the fact that it's still frustratingly buggy.

Comment on

stop asking for a karma system

Reply in thread

The big thing for me is that I've seen a lot of people say they've had their accounts stalked and harrassed for saying really mild things. With how many times I've read "I read your post history and..." over even the most mild disagreements, I absolutely believe this happens on a regular basis. Dropping an obviously unpopular opinion feels like an easy way to become a victim.