Dingaling

I think he’s fairly credible, but it’s obvious he also likes talking and being the center of attention so I suspect will exaggerate for attention. Being Ex-CIA guy is also his business, so he has motive for continuing to appear interesting and relevant. I think it’s prudent to remain a little sceptical.

You say that, but outside of Europe, I’m fairly sure much of society is getting less permissive since the 60s.

Personal view from someone who considers themselves pretty liberal: I don’t get why people spend money on it.

I have no issue at all with anything someone does to make money, provided it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Good for them, wish I was attractive enough to do it. I’d have absolutely no issue with my wife or sister or friend earning money this way.

What I do object to, is low effort. Not just OF/porn, but influencers and streamers more widely. Fake noises, grotesque leering, begging for money - none of it is real, and it doesn’t interest me in the slightest. It doesn’t appeal to me as a consumer, and I don’t understand at all that it does for anyone. Obviously it does work and people do pay money to watch it but I’m genuinely bewildered why. If you want porn, it’s everywhere for free. If anyone reading is a viewer, please do try to educate me on what you get out of it!

(Also, I do know there are people who genuinely enjoy performing and put a lot of effort into producing quality, it’s not all shite)

True story; I used to employ a chap doing building work. He was straight, married (but open, he slept with several of our female staff), good looking and very fit - and one day he handed me his notice. He said he’d been doing OF and gay porn at the weekends and he was making ten times the money in half a day doing that than he was working five days for me. Good for him, he was able to afford a lifestyle he couldn’t otherwise.

Don’t forget the Totnes Pound

We like things that are similar to ourselves. Humanity has always sought company in the darkest of nights. Anthropormising things makes them less scary.

They’ll ask ChatGPT something—even something that has a simple, definitive answer that doesn’t really need further explanation—rather than just looking it up on a search engine.

To me, that’s a no brainer. Chatgpt will give me the answer I’m looking for much quicker and more efficiently than clicking half a dozen links and wading through a crapload of adverts and SEO weighted nonsense.

I remember some wild story about a guy who was killed by some other guys, and then buried in a cave with a big rock and who came back to life, but nobody saw it, but somehow became two other guys as well.

There was another mad story about the whole world and everything on it being built by magic over six days too, but I think they were joking about that.

The sticker book was kinda cool though, and getting a sticker for every lesson and service I attended. Not completing that before I walked out aged eight, saying “But this is all wrong” is my only regret.

Overly restricting and subjective deletions and bans for low quality. (Eg: /r/casualuk)

Hear me out - restricting based on low quality sounds great, right? Until it’s your post that’s blocked. And you know it isn’t low quality, is unique and offers a new perspective. Some mods have genuinely forgotten that it’s (mostly) humans at the other end of their actions, or haven’t forgotten and enjoy being dicks.

Choose from:

1. You have an undiagnosed medical issue that is making you feel something unusual when you lie down. Inner ear infection sounds possible.
2. You have an undiagnosed psychological issue that makes you think you are under attack when you are not.
3. You’re correct and your neighbours are using something unknown to common science.

3 is unlikely to the point of impossibility. Anyone telling you different, perhaps in your DMs, will be seeking to manipulate you, or are also unwell themselves.

1 could be paired with 2, so there is a genuine feeling, but you are misidentifying its cause. Go see a doctor.

Companies are already using AI to generate their own versions of expensive proprietary software (Triggered no doubt by https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/09/29/1733238/new-claude-model-runs-30-hour-marathon-to-create-11000-line-slack-clone - a project that is entirely closed source)

As prompt engineering gets better and more reliable, why wouldn’t they? And honestly, I’d cheer. Commercial software pricing is so blatantly predatory (We won’t give you a price until you tell us who you are so we can charge you what we think you can pay, rather than what it’s worth) that skipping it entirely is a no brainer if you have some in-house support.

20 years old, self employed manual worker who broke his leg whilst on a night out drinking. The only night’s drinking I’d ever been on before or since.

How quickly I ended up without any money and unable to pay rent was a real eye opener. The bank I’d used all my life denied me a very small loan, I had no friends I felt I could ask for money. Fortunately I live in a country where health care is free, and my sole client kept a place open for me to limp back into when the plaster came off. I managed to stay out of serious debt and kept a roof over my head, but skipped a lot of meals and went without heating for a few months. I’ve never forgotten the feeling of helplessness and that has been a driver for a lot of my life’s spending and saving habits. We take a lot of things for granted, but they can often be taken away so quickly.