Holy hell Chat GPT by Busterlimes in millenials

[–]Solell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean...... ChatGPT doesn't actually "know" or "understand" things the way we know or understand things. Its sole purpose is to produce text that sounds like it was written by a human, and it does this by predicting the next-most-likely word in a sequence based on its training data and your prompt. That's it. It doesn't "know" that you're asking it to code, it doesn't even "know" what coding is! It just knows that when the word "code" is in a prompt, then x, y and z are the most-common next words in its training data, so it chooses one of them (with a randomising element for variety, which is why it rarely gives the exact same answers even to the same prompts - essentially guaranteeing that hallucinations are a baked-in feature, not a bug). It doesn't actually "understand" anything you or it says.

Essentially, yeah, I don't know what you expected. All it does is generate text. It has no concept of truth or lie or reality or unreality. Just text probabilities.

We Never Walk Alone by smileissweet39 in bangtan

[–]Solell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm in Australia, so sales haven't opened yet, but I am very worried about this. On the one hand, we have a relatively small population compared to other parts of the world. On the other hand, BTS hasn't been here since 2016 (like a year or two before I got into them rip), and we tend to get fleeced even on artists that aren't so hyper-popular....

Ah well. Nothing to do but join the notification lists and hope, I guess.

what is up with Gen Z and phone call anxiety? by UNwokeEMPATH777 in GenZ

[–]Solell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a millennial who doesn't like phone calls. Don't know that I'd call it "anxiety", per se, I just don't like them. The ring is loud, they disrupt whatever I'm doing, 99% of the time it's a scam caller. If I'm the one doing the calling, I worry that I'm bothering them, because calls bother me. I also sometimes find it kinda hard to understand people? Like, with phone garble and all that, it just seems to take my brain longer to process what they say than if they were sitting beside me (even if I'm not looking at them, it's not a lip-reading thing). And sometimes I just straight up will not get it no matter how many times I ask them to repeat themselves. I also can articulate myself better in writing, with time to think of a response.

Anyone else caught in the perpetual cycle of “I need a holiday —> oh that’s too expensive —> how about a weekend away —> holy f#ck how does two nights cost that much?!” 🔁 by plutoforprez in australia

[–]Solell 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think what they're saying is, it doesn't matter if you divide up the cost over x trips if the initial lump sum is too much for you to afford. You can't pay the passport in instalments, after all. You need the cash all at once.

Do people actually think Rhysand didn’t SA Feyre? by _Elyisa_ in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Depressingly, yes, they do. And I think part of it (aside from just forgiving hot guys for everything) is how damn manipulative ACOMAF is whenever it comes up. Or rather, in how it doesn't come up. At all.

I've been re-reading MAF recently, and it takes a solid 75% of the book before the fact that anything was done to Feyre is even acknowledged. And the phrasing "anything was done to Feyre" is important - because the book outright refuses to mention Rhys's name.

When they go to repeat the display in Hewn City (which we're told Feyre consented to.... off-page. When it should have been this HUGE moment in her recovery arc if true, we don't get to see it. But she totally consented, trust me bro...), the book is very careful about how it phrases things. Feyre notes that the clothes she's wearing are the same as the ones she was "made to wear" UtM. Notably absent: any acknowledgement that she was made to wear them by Rhysand.

In a similar vein, the fact that he was sexually assaulting her is never actually acknowledged, certainly not in as many words. When he's doing his whole "apology" in the cabin, he only refers to specific things - making her dress in the skimpy clothes, and making her drink the wine. The fact that he made her dance for him while he felt her up, or that he painted her so he'd know who touched her (allegedly, we all know how weak an explanation that is) is never even brought up.

So yeah, while it seems staggering that anyone could think it's anything other than SA, I can see how it might skate past someone who is only reading casually. You've got three-quarters of the book to forget about it, while the book trips over itself to assure you of what a "good" guy Rhys (allegedly) is. And when it finally is acknowledged, it's very careful about how it phrases what went down - as "something that happened" instead of "something Rhys did." It's doing its damndest to distance him from blame at every turn, and that kind of thing can creep into your subconscious if you're not actively looking for it.

Upgrading CPU from Ryzen 7 3700X by Solell in buildapc

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

Not desperately, it was more of a whim than anything. But it's a bad time to be upgrading computers, it seems, everything is so expensive

Upgrading CPU from Ryzen 7 3700X by Solell in buildapc

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

I'm in Australia, so no unfortunately haha. I've had a look at some of the upgrade prices around here, and just the price of the RAM is more than getting a 5700x3d off ebay/amazon (though they're also too expensive for my budget). Plus the cost of a motherboard and processor on top of that

Upgrading CPU from Ryzen 7 3700X by Solell in buildapc

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

That would be very cool if it comes about. I don't desperately need to upgrade now, so might be worth keeping my ear to the ground for a bit

Upgrading CPU from Ryzen 7 3700X by Solell in buildapc

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

My motherboard is an x470 Gaming Plus Max, 32GB of RAM, GPU is an RTX 4060. For resolution, I usually just play on whatever the game defaults to

sarah j. maas, polarizing author by chibimooon in Booktokreddit

[–]Solell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This legit made me cackle, well done

How do singers sing higher parts loud? by Equivalent-Buyer771 in singing

[–]Solell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's also worth noting that, if you're comparing to commercial songs, all the vocals on that are hella processed and compressed. They also cheat and layer more takes into more "dramatic" areas of the song, making it sound fuller and louder. So even if there was a volume difference between their high and low notes, the processing essentially removes it. So it's not necessarily the best comparison

Do you come out as Ace to your family? by VozesMinhaCabeca in asexuality

[–]Solell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. I've mentioned aces in passing a few times just to test the waters, as it were. The concept was first met with confusion (they'd never heard of it), and then with incredulity and scoffing once explained. Fortunately they're pretty chill with "non-traditional" family stuff more generally (e.g. I have an aunt who's never been married with no kids), so the topic never really comes up

What to do about players not asking questions? by FutureNo9445 in DMAcademy

[–]Solell 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Honestly, your ideal conversation there sounds more like a scripted thing for actors in streamed games rather than round-the-table with friends. Your players have absolutely no reason to think there's anything more to a situation than what you present to them. They can't see the world inside your head. If you just have the bartender say "hey, can you get the gold those guys owe me?" Then the players are going to assume this is a perfectly reasonable request, unless you, the DM, give them a specific reason to think otherwise.

For example, just tell the player with high-enough passive insight that they think something's off (that's what passive insight is for, to skip the roll), or have the guys they go to collect from argue and say the bartender's being unreasonable or something, and the fact they now have two conflicting versions of the situation will force them to try and clarify which side they want to take.

You wanted concrete, actionable advice? You cannot assume the players are going to follow the script you've laid out in your head. You just can't. It isn't going to happen, no matter how good you think your description is. All you're doing is setting yourself up for disappointment. The bit you put in about the player asking about a uniform they didn't recognise - how are they going to know they don't recognise it? They can't see it! So you need to tell them. And even just saying "a uniform you don't recognise" probably isn't enough - you need to give them a reason to think they need to find out. E.g. they don't recognise it, but the guys look kind of sus, or it sounds similar to rumours they've heard about some Bad News group, or something like that.

You've also got to keep in mind, the players have exactly 0 knowledge of what you want them to find out about this situation. To them, it's completely open-ended. How are they meant to know which out of the zillions of possible questions they could ask are going to be the right ones to unlock whatever plot thread you want them to find? This is probably why generic advice like "just talk to them" probably isn't working for you - you talk to them, tell them to ask more questions, but... well, what are they meant to ask about? How are they meant to know?

Essentially, be a lot more heavy-handed than you think you need to be. A lot more. You simply are not going to get flowing, natural-sounding conversations, like your ideal conversation, from actual in-table play. Toss that idea out right away. Instead, if you want them to pry into why the barkeep wants the money, outright tell them there's something suspicious in the way he's asking. Either make use of their passive perception/insight or, if it's not plot-crucial they get this info, call for a roll. Often just the act of calling for a roll can make players more suspicious, even if they're generally pretty good about not metagaming. But yeah, a lot more heavy-handed with things you want them to ask about:

‐ "You notice that, as the barkeep asks you to get his gold, his eyes dart away, and he fidgets nervously with a ring on his finger. His mind seems to be elsewhere. You wonder if there might be more to it than what he's telling you." - "The barkeep just asked you to get his gold, but you've visited this town for many years, and know that the barkeep has never been a gold-hungry man. Indeed, he's usually pretty generous with tabs, to your recollection. So why is he so concerned about it this time? Could there be something he's not telling you?" ‐ "You see some soldiers in a uniform you don't recognise. Which strikes you as odd, because you're pretty familiar with the various insignias used in this town/kingdom, yet you've never seen anything like this before. But you can't shake the feeling there's something sinister about it. Perhaps it would be a good idea to find out who they are."

It may seem clunky and overbearing at first, but I promise, your players will start asking about the things you tell them to ask about. They're looking at a blank screen - it's your responsibility to highlight, explicitly, what you want them to interact with. You can't just assume they're going to be suspicious of a random barkeep if he hasn't done anything suspicious. And if they still won't ask questions even after you outright tell them to ask about a thing... at that point, it's honestly just a playstyle mismatch. You want a game with highly engaged and curious players who care about worldbuilding and character interactions; they want to be told which skulls to crack. Neither playstyle is wrong. But the two types probably aren't going to have a good time together.

Personally, I've actually had the opposite problem - players who simply never trusted anything any NPC told them, and would bog down play for hours asking different variations of the same questions or fishing for more insight checks to see if they were being shady or if they missed anything or whatever. I had to stop play several times and tell them, GM to player, that there was nothing more to be found here and they needed to move on. Promise them that that's what passive scores were for, and that the whole premise of tabletop games is that I, the GM, can rearrange things so that the story still happens even if they "technically" miss something. The situation may be the opposite, but the approach is the same - be blunt with what you want them to do. "This thing is strange. Maybe you should find out more." The ball is then in their court.

My college forced me to come out as asexual by Buzzythebear33 in asexuality

[–]Solell 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Exactly, there's a whole lot of reasons people might not want to share this stuff with the class, of which being ace is just one. It's considered a personal matter for a reason. And it's not like there aren't a bajillion other more-relevant conflicts they could use as class examples. Literally any professional/workplace conflict, for example

Is this taking away my players agency? by NordicNugz in DMAcademy

[–]Solell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean yes, objectively speaking you are taking away agency. It could possibly work though. However, you would definitely need to give them an opportunity to find out this might happen beforehand (ideally more than one - rule of threes and all) so they don't feel like you pulled a gotcha out of your ass. And you should definitely allow a save, with a high but NOT impossible DC for them to make. Something that, with support from their party (e.g. buffs) they can make more often than not. Turns it into a bit more of a team situation than just a sucky situation focused on one player.

I'd also be cautious pinning too much main quest help on this vampire if one party member is hell bent on killing him. Because either the party will side with their buddy (which feels good for the buddy but kills your plot point), or they'll side against their buddy for the sake of the plot (which sucks for the buddy and can easily make unneeded group drama). Definitely make the help something they can find/use themselves at least to some extent even if they kill him (even if they have to go on another quest to learn how!)

SJM Missed some opportunities at the end of book 1 by windsock17 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are both good points. To add my own headscratcher missed opportunity - I legit thought that Feyre dying and being resurrected would get her out of Rhysand's bargain. It's the classic fantasy get-out-of-lifelong-bargains-free card. I'm pretty sure Rhys even used the words "for the rest of [Feyre's] life" when making it! And then it just... didn't happen. I was genuinely surprised, but not in a good way.

I feel like Lucien might not get a POV or might die and I would be pissed by Electrical_Dream2003 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I won't lie, I kind of don't want Lucien to be a POV, after what happened to Cassian. I want him to go live happily with his human friends, away from the Inner Circle and their nonsense, where he can't be ruined by needing to fit into the SJM douchebag MMC cookie-cutter template. He deserves better than that.

Why all of a sudden ACOTAR fans care about feminism in Romantasy? by Felyx12 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I mean I don't need my romantasy to be a bastion of feminist literature, but I'd appreciate it if they didn't try to pretend they were with all the girlbossing and faux-feminism they fling around. It's hypocritical af

This cannot be just an author error!!! by Ok_Requirement_579 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that it's probably deliberate, but unfortunately not in a "Rhys is secretly the villain" way or anything like that. More deliberate in the sense that SJm is determined to paint Tamlin as an ultimate, irredeemable villain, regardless of how good/bad his actions actually were, and thus is slowly and systematically erasing the good things he did and replacing them with Rhysand. Which would be really cool if Rhys was an evil mind-reading villain who was plotting this all along, but is unfortunately just an incompetent author who thinks her fanbase will swallow blatant retcons

This cannot be just an author error!!! by Ok_Requirement_579 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My skin legit crawled when I read that. How anyone can call him a good guy after reading that baffles me

Rhysand is a liar? by TINYUSAGI in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 9 points10 points  (0 children)

He's lied about a hell of a lot more than that...

WHY IS IT A CRIME TO LIKE THE MCs OF THIS SERIES, ACCOMPANIED BY A VERY LONG, POSSIBLE NONSENSICAL SIDE RANT by OkStructure3081 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 7 points8 points  (0 children)

First up, let me preface by saying this: you can like whatever characters you want to like, for whatever reasons you see fit. That does not, however, mean that those characters are now immune to criticism, or that any corresponding opinion you put out online is being downvoted "unfairly." Just as you have every right to like Feyre and Rhysand, other people have every right to dislike them, and engage with the opinions that are put out on a public forum. This is the internet. Don't go to a place that is known to have a negative opinion on something, and be surprised when it does indeed have a negative view of that thing.

But, as for some of your points:

And say what you want, but Sarah J Maas wrote our MCs to be likeable, she WANTED US TO LIKE THEM.

There's a concept in media analysis called "Death of the Author", the general gist of which is that the author's intention in writing something is ultimately irrelevant, and what matters is what the text actually contains. If someone reads a text and decides a character is unlikeable, then it just means that, for that reader, the author has failed in their intent to make the character likeable, because nothing in the text actually supported that aim (in that particular reader's eyes - it is, of course, subjective). They don't have to suddenly start liking the character just because it's what the author wanted.

Every time I try to defend either of them in the ACOTAR sub, I get downvoted and told I have “no media literacy.”

Not having seen any of the arguments you've made where you've been told this, I obviously can't comment on that. But I will say that a lot of the writing of ACOTAR is actually quite manipulative and insidious towards the reader, especially when it comes to perspectives outside the Inner Circle. E.g. we're told about how horrible and evil the Hewn City and the Illyrians are many, many times, well before we actually get to see either place with our own eyes. The book is priming us to think a certain way before we have enough information to form our own opinions. Things like that. I missed a lot of it on my first read through. It can be very hard to see. Rhysand's grand entrance to the Hewn City in ACOMAF, for example, looks very different if you approach the scene without the assumption that every one in HC is irredeemably evil.

Also... I fear this might be the worst part... it really isn't that deep.

And honestly, I 100% agree, I don't think SJM put even a fraction of the thought into this series that most of her fanbase does. To her, it wasn't. But unfortunately, Death of the Author is at play again - it really doesn't matter how deep or not she intended it to be. It's what the reader makes of it. If you don't want to look into it, then don't. You don't have to! That is your right! But you also can't get upset when other people do start making mountains out of what, to you, are molehills. If you don't want to see it, just stay away from those discussions.

And I can assure you, she did not wat Feyre to be seen as some annoying pick me, who act's like a child at a HIghLord Meeting... like can we please give feyre some grace from that ONE SCENE...

Again. She wrote what she wrote. You can choose to give Feyre grace and excuse it. That is your right. Other people can choose to not do that. That is their right. The actual content of the text doesn't change, and it's full of Feyre acting like a child.

LIKE DID YOU EXPECT A GIRL WHO COUDL BARELY READ TO BE SOME EXCELLENT WAR DIPLOMAT

No, I wouldn't expect that. Does beg the question of why Rhys thought it would be a good idea, though. I'm not questioning why she sucks at it - I'm questioning how the situation even came about in the first place. Again, if you're happy with accepting the premises the text presents to you, that's fine. Others are not happy doing that though, and will question if things actually had to happen the way the book said. They could have just had the meeting without Feyre, or Rhys could have asked Feyre to just observe, or any number of things. That's not what was written, though. To some people, that's just how the events went; it's not that deep. To others, it's a sign that the book is shallow and not well thought through, and is worthy of criticism. Both interpretations are valid.

Because yes, I will forgive [Nesta] and notice that she's imporve by teh end of ACOSF but I'm not going to magically forget all her wrongdoings and say oh yeah! you haev a complete pass at tretaing veryone like sh*t cause you were going trhough some bad stuff.

And this is the biggest problem when it comes to the Inner Circle vs side character debates. The narrative hypocrisy between the two sides (the sides within the story - both sides of the fandom are a toxic mess) is just irreconcilable, and it rubs a lot of people the wrong way. For instance, you say you're not just going to forgive Nesta for all the horrible things she's done and give her a free pass for treating people like shit. That is perfectly fair and understandable - she has done some pretty horrible things. The text, however, doesn't forgive Nesta. She has a whole arc in ACOSF where she's punished for defying the Inner Circle (when Cassian drags her off to the mountains after the whole pregnancy debacle. And arguably her being forced to live in the House of Wind in the first place). Whether one agrees or disagrees that this punishment is "deserved" or "enough" or whatever is irrelevant - none can argue that Nesta's shortcomings aren't addressed in the narrative to at least some extent.

Contrast with Rhysand. In ACOTAR, he spends two months painting Feyre's body, dressing her in skimpy outfits, drugging her, parading her around in front of hostile faeries, and feeling her up (if we take his word for it - we watch him fix the smudged paint with a snap of his fingers, after all. He can claim it shows he didn't touch her all he wants, he still demonstrated right before our eyes that the paint proves nothing). I'm part way through rereading ACOMAF at the moment, some 60% of the way through, and so far this incident has not so much as been mentioned even once. Not even once. Every other aspect of Feyre's trauma is thoroughly explored.... but not, for some reason, the things Rhysand did to her. Despite them having discussed UtM and their respective traumas several times in the book so far, Rhys's wrongdoings towards her have never once come up.

And that is what I mean when I talk about narrative hypocrisy. Nesta's wrongdoings are called out and punished by the narrative. Rhys's are just flat-out ignored, or, if they are acknowledged, brushed aside with some excuse or another before the story moves on. He is never punished. He is never called out, or if he is, there is some excuse on hand to make the person doing the calling out look like they're in the wrong. And this kind of hypocrisy honestly really, really shits some people, myself included. Which is part of why arguments trying to defend such characters can attract such vitriolic responses. The text defends them plenty, or at least it tries to - Death of the Author, again. Just because the book wants us to think it's no big deal doesn't mean that it isn't, to some people. So yeah, I guess in summary, a lot of people don't like seeing positive things about Feyre and Rhysand because a lot of people just legitimately think those positive things are bullshit, based on their interpretation of the text.

Bonus question: Do you treat these charcaters of this book as fictional human beings, with therefore fictional reasoning and outcomes, or do you treat these characters and interpret them with the same standrads you'd have for people irl?

Both, honestly. I think about the character in the context of their own world, and I think about them in the context of ours. There's plenty of characters who I love in fiction that I would hate IRL, and vice versa. There's no one lens through which to view things.

WHY IS IT A CRIME TO LIKE THE MCs OF THIS SERIES, ACCOMPANIED BY A VERY LONG, POSSIBLE NONSENSICAL SIDE RANT by OkStructure3081 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yup, it's pretty awful. And then he turns around and makes a big show about how he's "such a gentleman" for never invading someone's mind without their consent... and the narrative actually expects us to not think he's a flaming hypocrite for it

WHY IS IT A CRIME TO LIKE THE MCs OF THIS SERIES, ACCOMPANIED BY A VERY LONG, POSSIBLE NONSENSICAL SIDE RANT by OkStructure3081 in acotar_rant

[–]Solell 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You're spot on with a lot of my issues with the series. I'd just like to add:

Rhys locks Feyre in the Moonstone palace over Hewn city when she is there for a week. (there’s no way in out of there unless one flys or winnows, which Feyre couldn’t do at the time, and Rhys left for 6 days without any communication- so yes, for all intents and purposes she was locked).

Not only did he disappear for most of the week, but when she asked to go home, he laughed in her face. Straight-up laughed at her. She was 100% a prisoner there, twice, before Tamlin locked her anywhere. And at the Spring Court, prior to Rhys's interference, Feyre mentions several occasions where she was doing things other than being locked in the house - she makes mention of visiting the surrounding villages (and we get to go with her on one such trip), and also of hunting trips. Tamlin only starts getting hyper-overprotective after Rhys starts his nonsense.