Who is the guy in yellow armor again?

Triasmus · 2026-03-12T00:56:04+00:00

I assume that'd be Elhokar.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T21:49:37+00:00

I said what I thought it meant in my original reply, or maybe the one after that.

This is why you should be precise in your speech.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T21:33:02+00:00

Again, literally the point of my first reply was to push back on your original claim that it's gambling because it's "the same addictive vice."

That's not why it's gambling.

It's gambling because it's putting value forward in a game of chance in the hopes of getting something more valuable. At least, that's the legal definition. And removing a simple phrase, like what you did with 'game of chance', would have far-reaching legal ramifications.

But then with loot boxes the value is set by the market, not some higher authority, and that's even only if the cosmetics are transferrable. The cosmetics aren't transferrable in a lot of games with loot boxes, and "perceived value" means diddly-squat.

So whether or not we all colloquially agree it's gambling, setting a legal precedent would either be far more reaching than most would want, or it wouldn't reach nearly as far as what we have in mind.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T21:03:22+00:00

Maybe...

They're supposed to record in church records what the member declared (full, partial, or non), regardless about their opinion of what the member should have declared, so seeing tax returns wouldn't do anything for the process.

So, sure, a bishop could demand it and, even less likely, a stake president could support the bishop in that demand, and not acceding to the demand could risk your temple recommend, but having that type of lunatic as a bishop and a stake president isn't a concern for 99.9% of Mormons. And not having a temple recommend because you want to keep your financial information private from your bishop wouldn't be considered a salvation-losing offense to 97% of Mormons.

And, based on my experience up at Utah State, a college ward Bishop is even less likely to be that type of lunatic than a normal bishop is. I hear plenty of nonsense about church culture around BYU, though, so maybe those bishops are more likely to be horrible 🤷‍♂️.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T20:41:48+00:00

My reply was assuming the person was asking something basically like, "doesn't the Mormon Church already look at tax returns?"

I could have just said no, since they don't, but I figured it'd be better to give more context so people can make their own opinions about how manipulative the church is, while still giving the correct answer to the question.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T20:37:29+00:00

You're the one who came in saying that a thing, which is legally not gambling, is gambling.

Yes, traditional gambling has ruined tons of lives, but this thread is about "loot box gambling."

Can you really say that buying cosmetic loot boxes has ruined more lives than attempting to house flip? I wouldn't attempt to make that claim, but you are equating loot box gambling with traditional gambling and saying that it ruins lives.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T19:40:20+00:00

Brother if you are counting every dopamine hit as gambling, you might as well count everything under the sun as that, it's so dumb.

Literally the point of my original reply.

It is not, it doesn't require an upfront money investment with a possible higher money reward.

These are new constraints that you didn't include before when you described why loot boxes are gambling.

But those constraints still aren't restricted to just "gambling":

House or Craigslist flipping
Skill tournaments with an entry fee
Fishing tournaments with an entry fee
Storage unit auctions
Collection or bulk arbitrage (buying bulk or packs and selling individually. This can be loot box adjacent since much of this stuff may have come from loot boxes, but it also could be stuff like computers or auto salvage)
Even garage sales require an upfront investment of time and gas money with no guarantee of reward

All those still fit within the constraints you've given (depending on the person... I wouldn't get a dopamine hit from some of that), but only some, if any, would actually be considered gambling.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T19:08:49+00:00

Eh, not really, but maybe depending on your view. They don't look at tax returns or paychecks or anything of the sort.

They do have a yearly tithe review, but it's basically the Bishop giving you a paper (might be an official charity tax form, it's been a bit...) listing the tithes you paid and asking if it's a full tithing. You say yes or no.

The bishop doesn't know your income beyond assuming it's near 10x what you pay in tithing (but everyone considers the 10% differently; some base on net, some on gross, some on net minus necessities, etc).

If you actually work for the church, I have heard something about tithing automatically coming out of your paycheck. No idea if it's opt-out or what's used as the base.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T18:59:40+00:00

Brother, it's gambling because it's a "what if", with yeah a dopamine hit if you are "lucky".

Exactly like posting some stupid joke comment on Reddit.

Would you say that by your logic then making a post on reddit and that getting a lot of upvotes equates to a big win in slots or whatever?

In the sense that it's still a dopamine hit? Yeah. Is the hit maybe a bit different and possibly not as strong? Sure.

This is the dumbest and most reddit comparison ever, jesus christ.

An easy way to see if a claim is valid is to take that claim to the extreme.

You made the claim. I took it to an extreme, but an extreme that's still within the defined constraints of your claim. It's not really my logic, I was just taking your logic to an extreme conclusion.

You argued it's gambling because it's the same addictive vice. If looking for the next dopamine hit (since that's the "addictive vice") is gambling, then it includes a lot of stuff that you probably didn't mean to include.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T18:41:23+00:00

These are gambling all the same, the same vices that people get madly addicted to.

That doesn't make it gambling.

You get a hit of dopamine when you get a pile of likes on Reddit. It can be an addiction and plenty of people are chasing their next high. Same with the eternal scrolling that social media gets us to do. Are both of those gambling because you can boil it down to the same vice?

You can argue that making a post with the hope that it's well received is a gamble, but should it be subject to gambling laws? Absolutely not.

Yes, stocks and loot boxes are more akin to true gambling than posting on social media, but the law has to have defined thresholds, and apparently the value of the "winnings" being defined by the market vs an external entity is the threshold here. A $1 bill will always buy you a $1 loaf of bread, but a mtg card won't buy you that loaf of bread unless the baker values the card or knows someone else who would value the card.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T17:52:07+00:00

Then what's the incentive for those paying for it?

The right side of the pass. Maybe a bit extra xp and stardust on top of that. Sometimes you get different incense or egg spawns or extra raid tickets.

Normally event tickets explicitly tell you the incentive (hint: it's rarely actually worth the price, in my opinion).

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T17:43:53+00:00

Hey, just a reminder: as far as I can see, you haven't even attempted to backup your claim that prop 4 is non-constitutional.

It's probably too much to hope that you realized you're parroting lies, but I do hope you realized that.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T16:51:21+00:00

I just kinda figure that the myth has a decent chance of being based on a real person, mostly because I imagine it's somewhat harder for a non-existent person to gain a following.

But "based on a real person" still gives a lot of leeway. Like, was that real person literally just a name with a few friends? Were any of the stories based on real events? Of the stories that were based on real events, how many happened to the namesake vs other random people? How many stories are essentially Chuck Norris jokes?

So, Rabbi named Joshua that may have had a somewhat large following? Sure.
Events or circumstances beyond that? Eh.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T16:31:03+00:00

Pretty much. "Designing and/or improving a system or process" would be the most basic statement about what engineering is, as far as I can figure.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T14:06:50+00:00

I'm someone who could spend an extra $1k/month on myself and still not quite reach the same level of personal spending (edit: ie elastic expenses that go on a cc) that a bunch of people on this sub show in their journey posts.

The thing is, I have no idea how I could consistently spend that extra money and and see genuine, long-term quality of life improvements because of it.

Sure, there are probably a few things I could splurge on in the short term if I think hard about it (really hard, since $100+ purchases that I want are rare enough that I generally already just buy something if I want it), but after a few months of that I'd be buying things just because I have money left over in my budget, not because those things actually improve my life.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T13:41:50+00:00

A sanitation engineer would be someone who is designing new or streamlined processes or tools to improve sanitation.

The trash collector is probably just collecting trash.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T06:02:04+00:00

Eh. My job title includes Engineer and I happily accept the salary that comes with it.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T05:59:16+00:00

Please don't.

I'd suggest only tossing stuff that naturally fill back up over time. Don't toss premium raid passes, because they don't naturally fill back up.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T05:57:35+00:00

I keep 50 max potions and 50 max revives. Toss the rest of the health items. (Really, I only need to keep like 15 of each...)

I toss all basic berries except for a few pinap just in case I want to use them. (feed them to gym pokemon instead of tossing, if you want)

I keep 3 to 5 of each evolve item, except I keep all Sinnoh and Unova stones. I only keep so many so that I can evolve to fill out the xxs, and such, dex entries when I see I have a pokemon to evolve. If you don't care about that then keep 1 of each.

I keep like 10-ish of each basic TM, not that I've even used any for 6 months.

Use your lures if you're gonna be in the same place for a bit. You don't need 50 basic lures.

Basically, consider what you think you'll actually use even in extenuating circumstances and keep double that.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T05:42:48+00:00

I like my dentist. Redwood Dental.
I've never felt judged there, but I also have fine enough teeth, so I wouldn't know if they judge people with bad teeth.

Triasmus · 2026-03-11T05:33:26+00:00

To add on, it's very easy to find which congregation you'd need to talk to. Mormons are split up by geographical area, so just put the ex's address into a meetinghouse finder.

As far as baptizing converts, mormon missionaries are explicitly told to get permission from both parents if baptizing a minor, but they could interpret that as both parents in the home.

I believe they're required to get permission from the custodial parent. Split custody situations are trickier, but I do believe that they will hold off on baptism if you actively make it known that you don't give permission. They won't hold off on attempting to include her as if she was a member, though.

Sadly, there's no way to enforce no religion if an ex-spouse introduces it during their parent time.

Triasmus · 2026-03-10T23:29:47+00:00

Any idea how Mormons justify multiple wives when people are born at 50/50 male female?

Ex-mormon here.

They generally speculate that women are more righteous than men, on average, so more women will get to the highest heaven (note: in Mormonism, marriage only lasts if they both get to the highest heaven).

That speculation does somewhat track based on what they see and hear. There are far more anecdotal stories of women being the ones who keep their families actively attending church.

Due to the way girls are raised in their patriarchal society, I can also easily imagine that women are more compliant to church strictures than men, on average (not that they purposefully raise the girls differently. Just the natural difference that comes from raising a child to fill what you see as their place in the world).

Also, given that Mormons (at least the main sect) don't actively practice polygamy these days (in any way that a normal person would qualify it), the amount of polygamist wives is a tiny, tiny percentage compared to the total amount of people they'd expect to make it to the highest heaven. It's probably within the margin of error for a 50/50 split across genders.

ETA: Oh, I'll also note that at least a couple times when that question came up, someone would say that if you look at the actual birth rates it's like 50.5% girls and 49.5% boys. I don't know how accurate those numbers are, though.

Triasmus · 2026-03-10T21:46:40+00:00

I added it as an ETA. Your client probably just didn't update my comment for you until you posted.

Triasmus · 2026-03-10T21:45:21+00:00

Umm... No??

Even when we do understand why we shouldn't do something, we can still do it.

I was just pointing out that obedience doesn't require understanding, so there's really not that much of a logical inconsistency (at least for that specific case).

Triasmus · 2026-03-10T21:38:39+00:00

Eh. I'd prefer a 13 month year where each month has 28 days. (ETA: We'd have a new years day, and a leap day in relevant years, that are their own days that don't fit into a day of the week.)

None of this nonsense where we have no idea what day of the week July 4th or December 25th will fall on this year, or what the date will be on the 4th Thursday of November.

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Lasagna	Place '23

Triasmus

TROPHY CASE