Spyke

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Does voting for Biden change anything if I live in a deep red area of my state? (Ohio)

just under 50% of people voted in Ohio in the 2020 election.

Trump won by 8%.

If just 9% of the people who felt like you (what's the point of voting) had showed up to vote for Biden, that would have flipped the state.

No single raindrop believes it can make any difference. But together, all those insignificant raindrops can change the course of a river in a single day.

privacy

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Signal in 2026?

The client is open source, so it doesn't matter what the server code is, you can see everything the client sends and therefore tell what possible data is being collected.

It's run by a non-profit so there's no shareholders to please.

Your messages and decryption key are not stored on their servers.

It's been independently audited.

They have publicly posted responses to user information requests where they only provide the account creation date and last access time.

The (admittedly incompetent) US government recommends using Signal (for non-classified information) and top officials have been caught using it (Houthi Working Group).

You can never be 100% sure, but it appears to have excellent security and privacy.

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Matrix or Signal?

Do you want it to be so complicated that no one you know in real life is able to use it for more than two weeks before they make some kind of mistake or change that deletes their entire message history and identity? Matrix

Do you want a slim chance that friends and family might use it, but you have to listen to privacy nutjobs tell you your app is a CIA NSA PsyOp and you might as well cc: potus(at)whitehouse(dot)gov all your messages, it's run by an american non-profit obviously it can't be trusted? Signal

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Where do I go if I want to find someone to help me make an app game?

When you hear “I’ve got this great app idea—it just needs someone to code it,” it may sound to you like you’re halfway there. But from a programmer’s point of view, that’s actually the least interesting and riskiest way to start. Here’s why:


1. There’s no roadmap—just “code this”

  • Undefined scope: If all I have is a vague idea, I don’t know what “done” even looks like. Am I building a basic prototype? A polished product? What features must it have on day one, and what can wait until later?
  • Endless scope creep: Without clear boundaries, every conversation becomes “Just one more little thing,” and suddenly what was supposed to be a weekend project balloons into months (or years).

2. You’re asking me to invent half the project

  • UI/UX design: How should it look and feel? What screens go where? How do users navigate? That’s a specialized discipline all its own.
  • Product strategy: Who exactly is this for? Why will they use it? How will you reach those users? If you can’t answer that, I can’t write code that solves a real problem.
  • Testing & polish: Code needs testing, bug-fixing, documentation, deployment, maintenance… none of which you’ve accounted for.

3. No incentives, no commitment

  • Why me? Great programmers want to work on problems they find meaningful, challenging, or fun—and ideally get compensated for their time. “Just code my idea” won’t light anyone’s fire.
  • Who owns it? If I invest weekends or nights building your vision, what do I get? Equity? Pay? Recognition? Without a clear agreement, it’s a recipe for frustration and resentment.
  • Long-term support: Apps need updates, server maintenance, user support. If you haven’t thought through who handles that, you’re building technical debt.

4. Real success stories are team sports

  • Cross-functional collaboration: The best apps come from teams that include product thinkers, designers, data analysts, marketers—and yes, developers. You can’t outsource half the work and expect a hit.
  • Iterate and learn: You start with sketches or clickable wireframes, show them to real people, iterate, then bring in developers to build a minimum viable product. That way, you’re coding something people actually want.

What you can do instead

  1. Write a one-page spec: Describe the core problem, your ideal user, key features, and success metrics.
  2. Mock it up: Even hand-drawn sketches of each screen help communicate your vision.
  3. Validate your idea: Talk to potential users. If they’re excited, you’ve got something to build.
  4. Find a partner: A developer who’s excited by your clear plan—and who sees a fair path to reward for their effort.

In short: coding is only about 20% of what it takes to launch a successful app. If you can’t show a programmer that you’ve thought through the other 80%, they’ll politely pass—because turning a half-baked idea into a working product is a lot more work (and risk) than it looks.

privacy

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Privacy in academia?

Part of being an academic is being available to discuss your publications. Your full name will not only be flying around the internet but recorded permanently in libraries and journals.

Science is about collaboration, and standing behind the work you do, publicly. You will find it extremely difficult or impossible to get your PhD without being known to the academic community.

I think you won't find many anonymous scientific papers held in high regard.

memes

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*Permanently Deleted*

In the US, discussing salary with coworkers is protected speech. It helps people find out if they are being underpaid or unfairly discriminated against. I always share my salary information when asked and I think it's important to do so.

My salary is not indicative of my net worth. I could have a 7 figure salary and be drowning in debt, or make 75K and be doing fairly well because of responsible choices.

I dislike the stigma of discussing salaries, and believe that it's propagated by companies to dissuade workers from getting fair salaries.

privacy

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What does Ublock Origin do with cookies?

uBlock is a content filter. Cookies are set when a server responds to a web (http/https) request. So if uBlock has a domain blocked, not only are any cookies blocked, but no requests make it to that domain (whatever.com) at all.

If a domain is not blocked by uBlock Origin's filters, then cookies are set per your browser's configuration. Firefox I believe blocks some 3rd party tracking cookies by default, but can be configured to block all third-party cookies as well, but this may break site functionality like single sign-on.

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GitHub etiquette for a bugix fork that got out of hand?

Give it to the dev, and explain the situation. Let them know it seems too big/complex of a PR, but you're willing to make additional changes, or break up PR to make it more palatable for merging. It's in the dev's hands after that.

I don't think you should release your own fork without at least trying to work with the original project.

Make sure all your commits have detailed commit messages so that the dev can follow what you were doing (upgrading deps, refactor because xyz, etc.) Don't just record what was changed, explain why it was changed.

anyway that's what I would do.

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*Permanently Deleted*

https://www.zalgo.org/

T̸̛̟͚͋͛̈̊͜͝Ờ̶̤̫̦͙̜̫͇͕͈̘̭̈̑̓̀̈́̌͊͛̆͐̌̈́͝ͅN̸̯̫̺̄̿̎͗͗́͜Y̷̢̱͚̖̤̠̞͉̅́̋̉̿̇̎̋͆͝͝ ̸̧̡̨̧̡̛̖̤̜͔̲̯̞͉͈̻̎̈̄̓̊̄́̕͘͝͠ͅT̷͎̝͌̅̔̓̒H̷̨̧̧̳̱̜͓̮͍̣̬̩̜̙͚̑̌́̑͋̽͗̎͑̊͛̍́͒̕͝͠Ḙ̵̥̥̘̻͔͛̑͒̿͋͝͝ ̶̡͚̬͈̏͌̓̔̈̔̀͌̔̓̾̓͘͝P̷͙̃́̈͐̆̂́͗̏͌̈́Ô̶͎͓̹͖̘̟̬͚̻̦̩͔͛͜͠ͅŅ̶͖̜̱͍̦̔̊͐͆̾̎́́̈́̄̓ͅẎ̸̨̭̜̼͎̜̜͕̥͙̼̤̟̞̄̊̂́ͅ ̴̡̡̛̲̟̳̯͔̝̟͙̌̽͋̏̾̆̅̏̐̅͑̿̀͒̉H̵̪̞̩̥̫̺̅̑̈́̾͌͛́̾̅̈͛͒̾̌̈͐͝Ȅ̶̘̲͙̖̬̞͕̱͍̥͈̦͈͍͔̩̑̒̐̇̑̈́̏͊̽͜͝͝͝ ̸̨̛̛̻̘̙̯̰̦̻͈͓̒̽̉̈̄̌̄͊͂̈͆ͅC̵͙̗̣̮͈̜̪̞̰̣͎̙̏̌̄͗͜Ȯ̸͇̖̼͈̗̝͔̜̘̲̦̦̾̃̆̍͝͝ͅM̷̨̧̮͕̠̘̔ͅÉ̶̡̡̢̡͕̺̗̩̝̩͇͓̄͐͆͛̔̈́̕͜ͅS̵̡͙̬͔̞̞̳͓̜͔͑̌̓̎͆͌̈͌̌̂͛̚͘͝

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hey L.W mods/admins, how's it going?

it's almost like the internet has allowed all kinds of extremists that would otherwise be alone in their extremism find each other in an echo chamber where they're all "obviously correct" and that any action they choose to take is warranted and approved by their extremist community. with 8+ billion people in the world, of course you can find 1000 online that agree with you.