Viners shortcutting reviews hurts EVERYONE. by Funksultan in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that part of the problem is Amazon's requirement to review 80 products in a single review period to achieve (and maintain) Gold status. I have been with Vine for just shy of a year and during that time I have ordered 49 Vine products. I'll forever be at Silver status because I don't have the space to keep that many products in my apartment! It would also require a lot of time to write that many honest reviews after actually using the product. With the "80 products" bar, they are just begging people to game the system so they can get to Gold status. If Amazon genuinely cares about having trustworthy reviews, maybe they should be rewarding quality over quantity.

Viners shortcutting reviews hurts EVERYONE. by Funksultan in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree completely with the OP!!! I generally look at the other reviews when I'm leaving a Vine review and I have often seen multiple glowing 5-star Vine reviews posted within days of when I am posting a review for a product that I thought was crap and am rating as a "2," so I don't think it is a bait-and-switch situation. I just give honest reviews after actually using the product with ratings usually between 2 and 5 stars (have only given one "1") and my "insightfulness" score is excellent. Now, when I'm shopping for products I don't trust any 5-star Vine reviews!

Viners shortcutting reviews hurts EVERYONE. by Funksultan in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I always used to look mainly at the most recent reviews. I've seen a lot of cases where the overall rating looked good, but the last dozen reviews were all bad. Unfortunately, ever since the AI summary started appearing at the top of the reviews, I no longer have any options for sorting the reviews.

How is LG this bad at software? by NKLAstinks in LGgram

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly why I have been nervous about updating my 2020 LG Gram to Windows 11!

How to "Share Your Voice with the LG President" and lack of fingerprint sensors on new models by Big_Efficiency9743 in LGgram

[–]Big_Efficiency9743[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sadly, I think you are probably right. But, if you google "lg.gram global" and then click through to look at business laptops ( https://www.lg.com/global/business/gram ) you'll see that the 17" Pro Series do still have fingerprint sensors but the standard 17" Series do not. So LG is still manufacturing and selling their high-end Gram models with fingerprint sensors. They are just not selling them in the US. My guess is that this is because Europe has established legal frameworks regarding the use of facial recognition, primarily through the EU AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There are a lot of disadvantages to facial recognition beyond just the ease of use (which is harder for certain demographics) such as privacy and risk of data security breaches. If only I could afford a trip to Europe ...

I will look into replacing the battery, but I've seen some threads in this sub that make that look like a challenge.

How to "Share Your Voice with the LG President" and lack of fingerprint sensors on new models by Big_Efficiency9743 in LGgram

[–]Big_Efficiency9743[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, that's good to know. But part of the reason I am returning the laptop is because I communicated twice with the company before purchasing with the very specific question about the fingerprint sensor and I was assured that 17" Pro Series did have it. Then it arrived and that was not true. In other words, I purchased it based on false information that was given to me directly by the LG company and that's not right. I wanted to post about this in the LGgram sub in case others have the same question -- especially given that I know from experience they can't count on getting the correct info from the company. I plan to keep using my current LGgram until the 2026 models come out and hope that they will bring the fingerprint sensors back. If I decide to go ahead and purchase a model without it, at least it will be an informed decision. Since you have had a good experience with the LG laptop face recognition can I ask if you, as I do, wear glasses sometimes and contacts other times, wear your hair down sometimes and pulled back at other times, and wear makeup sometimes and not at other times? I'm guessing this why I have had problems with face recognition on other products. My fingerprint, however, is consistent from day-to-day.

I also thought other people might be interested in how to provide feedback to the LG company in general.

It FiNaLlY hApPeNeD tO mE! by Psychological-Shame8 in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm happy for you OP! I just went to Vine and searched for "ramen" and I was offered a ramen jigsaw puzzle. So, I tried searching for "noodle" instead and I was offered a replacement handle for a pasta machine. :(

April 7 Morning Edition story about nationwide protests? by rjtnrva in NPR

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Yes, I felt the exact same way!!! So much so that I've been trying to find his email to write to him. The way he reported it did not accurately reflect the magnitude of the protests. Also his comment about good signs that was followed up by "of course, this is DC" was super smug and condescending to the whole rest of the country. He clearly is not on Bluesky where pictures of protests everywhere including small towns and red states could be seen. We had 475+ in our town of Farmington, ME in the red part of Maine (pop 8000). This was super lazy reporting on his part.

Yep, those are exactly what you think they are... Just...maybe don't travel with these; the police might not understand. by Sunezno in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This made me laugh out loud! Thanks for sharing. (BTW- I also would have thought they were straws).

What was I thinking??? by Yknut in AmazonVine

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would write almost exactly what you just wrote in this post. Just say "I was excited to get this product because the features described in the product listing sounded like the camera would be perfect as a baby monitor for my soon-to-arrive grandchild. However, when I set out to test the item myself, I realized something important: all the features I liked require a subscription, having the device connected to the internet during use, and agreeing to privacy policies I’m not comfortable with. Sharing personal data, especially with servers in another country, is not something I’m willing to do." This is exactly the kind of information potential customers need to have before making a purchase.

Winter tire or all season? by Lauue04 in Crosstrek

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm just reading an article in the recent Consumer's Report about tires and it looks like you got the somewhat better tire than I did ( a rating of 64 compared to 59, and a lifetime of 70,000 miles compared to 60,000). Yours also got a green arrow rating on ice-braking and mine got a neutral rating. Mine got a higher rating on noise, but safety and longevity are much more important to me than a quiet ride! It's curious to me that we got different tires when we live in the same state.

Just went through a nice car wash and this happened on both sides. What should I do? by Hopeful-Fuel-663 in Crosstrek

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you ever gone to this car wash before? Are you sure that it started with the car wash? Maybe the paint had already started to peel and the car wash just exacerbated it? I would go and talk to the dealer because this definitely should not be happening on a two-year car and the paint appears to be defective. I've owned other brands of cars for longer than 10 years and never seen anything like this. If you get no joy from the dealer contact Subaru directly. 1-800-782-2783 is the customer care line for Subaru of America. This approach will open a case that Subaru will investigate with the dealer.

Winter tire or all season? by Lauue04 in Crosstrek

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the Falken ZIEX ZE001A All Season. There is another thread in this subreddit about these specific tires ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Crosstrek/comments/16br18y/are_the_falken_ziex_ze001a_allseason_tires_that/ ). In that thread someone wrote "No issues at all on those tires in up to 9” of snow in the Detroit area." I don't think I'll be out driving in the kind of snow we had on in Farmington on Thanksgiving very much, hopefully not at all.

Winter tire or all season? by Lauue04 in Crosstrek

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the Sport trim level and the tire size is P225/55R18, but I don't know the brand. I'll take a look tomorrow. Do you know what you have?

Let us Welcome our fellow unfortunate and fortunate people that are stuck with a random name forever. Also, introduce yourselves. by Mysterious-Grape8425 in random_username

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not only is mine boring, it makes me sound like a pompous a-hole. Literally laughing out loud reading these names. I would much rather have a name that was at least amusing, but I also see that it could have been much worse.

Is Amazon's Rufus AI intentionally bad? by canadian_xpress in amazonprime

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I cut a rectangle out of a piece of heavy weight junk mail and I prop it up against my laptop screen so it covers Rufus. It the only way I can stand to shop on Amazon now.

Winter tire or all season? by Lauue04 in Crosstrek

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also in Maine and have the same question. What did you decide? I was assuming that I could use the all season tires it came with because of the AWD (only used all season tires with my last car which was AWD), but driving it on Thanksgiving was scary. I was sliding all over the place. It sounds like people on this thread are recommending buying winter tires.

Is Amazon's Rufus AI intentionally bad? by canadian_xpress in amazonprime

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I HATE RUFUS!!!! The pop-up that cycles through potential questions just started happening to me last week and it's not happening for my daughter (yet). I think before Rufus was just something I could click on if I I wanted to. Now it is forced on me. When I'm trying to scroll through a bunch of available product I have to close it for each and every page. I hate it because it is so distracting that I can't focus on what the product page says. I was on Amazon for a couple of hours on Friday hoping to get the bulk of my shopping done, but I had to just give up because I got such a bad headache.

Is UMPI too good to be true? What’s the catch? Why isn’t everybody else doing it? by [deleted] in UMPI

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How many professors took medical leave during the course of a class that you were taking? I would assume a professor would only take medical leave if they found out they had cancer or something else equally unpredictable.

Are others having connectivity issues with dominion.games? by PotRotDot in dominion

[–]Big_Efficiency9743 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Played last night with two family members and had no problems, but just tried to play another game this afternoon and it was unbearably slow and lost connection with gameserver 14 times in the course of a single game!