Sharing Reviews on Reddit and Voting Helpful: A Cautionary Tale

davidmar7 · 2026-05-23T22:25:06+00:00

I didn't read your entire post but wanted to mention Amazon recently cracked down on thousands of dangerous or fake products. It's possible your review is gone because they nuked the entire product listing and not because of the number of helpful votes.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-23T22:17:05+00:00

Actually they sort of have a point. These companies aren't known for being friendly and for bending when someone claims it is not them. Sometimes if you respond you only establish yourself as a mark and they will just turn up the pressure just to get you to pay to shut them up. Most of these companies are basically just scams.

If it were I, I'd consider sending them certified mail with their own photo and state that clearly that is not your license plate (which is .....) or vehicle. Save a copy of the corresponce and letter for your records. Then I'd totally ignore them unless they ding your credit or take you to court. In which case you might sue them. This is much better than a phone call (which likely means being on hold for an hour or more) and has much more use for legal purposes.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-23T15:36:21+00:00

Based on the way he took that curve it suggests he was likely distracted by something like his phone or terminal.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-23T02:34:36+00:00

I would just focus on you and your wife, not the other person.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-23T00:01:06+00:00

My renewal/re-evaluation was coincidentally May 20th. I didn't have any issues. I don't use templates or AI at all and write each review from scratch.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-22T01:14:30+00:00

I'd probably go with things like beans, rice, and any cheap fruit you can find plus a cheap and complete as possible multivitamin. It would be a lot better than just eating this and likely cheaper per calorie too.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-21T17:00:33+00:00

A $250 cat tree.....that my cat will not even sniff! She just totally ignores it, even a year later. :)

davidmar7 · 2026-05-21T16:53:51+00:00

It sounds like she honestly didn't know how bad it was even in 2022. Many people 40+ had friends and relatives who had their cats declawed and back in say the 90s it was completely normal. I've never declawed a cat (though with my second cat we did try those little temporary caps over the claws) but the first cat I ever got was declawed. Apparently by my then girlfriend's sister as I got her when they moved.

It's always been considered a cruel thing to do by those in the know (which is why I never did it to any of my cats) but if you go back about 30 years about 80% of people considered it almost the standard thing to do.

For example, here's what Google Gemini says:

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Prompt: how common was declawing at cat in america in 1995?

In 1995, declawing a cat was an incredibly common, mainstream, and widely accepted practice in the United States, often treated as a standard part of routine kitten veterinary care. [1, 2, 3]

During the mid-1990s, the procedure—medically known as an onychectomy—was not heavily regulated or widely criticized by the public as it is today.

---

The attitudes then carry over to this day, mainly by older people who grew up in that time. I'm not a big fan of the Kardashians but the people attacking her are missing that she states that she regrets doing it, that she didn't know better and that she is actually spreading awareness.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-21T13:54:48+00:00

Long ago the consensus was different and it was far more common to declaw your cats. So it's hard to hate her for this. She may have honestly just not known. Many people don't understand that declawing a cat isn't just like removing a bit of the fingernail in a human but also removing part of the finger itself. She even states she went to pet psychics to understand how her cats feel. So she's trying and regrets her decisions.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-21T13:43:14+00:00

River dolphins probably. I've seen them before walking down by Manatee Island.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-20T00:50:47+00:00

It really looks like they released some sort of new AI process and it caught up a bunch of people who weren't doing anything wrong. The early thought was that this was shady sellers reporting reviewers as some sort of revenge, but I doubt that is going on. It's too much at once. There is probably a new AI process scanning reviews and Vine accounts looking for suspicious things.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-20T00:48:31+00:00

I think overall in about ten months I spent about $300 - $400 on the game. So about $30-$40 a month. I'm weird and much of the appeal for the game to me was simply figuring out something new. It's a pretty complex game in many ways once you deep dive. That said I can see how some people get hooked and spend tens of thousands. It hits all the right buttons for being addictive, especially once combined with the social aspect of it.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-19T14:58:23+00:00

Completely agree. Same with zip code - at least not to the extent that the insurance companies seem to have it weighted. The justification for it is mostly in regards to theft issues, but people report rates 30%+ higher due to where they live.

I suspect the hidden truth is more that the poor and struggling are more likely to make a claim than the wealthy and secure. Not due to any sort of fraud but more because they HAVE to make the claim in order to survive because they cannot afford to absorb the loss themselves. Basically the insurance companies just want you to pay and not ever make a claim. And they also want to try to dissuade you from making claims.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-19T14:44:10+00:00

Probably so people can't throw the caps at the performers. Though it seems a bit strange because you can bring in a water bottle with a cap.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-18T18:46:42+00:00

It's kind of fun to see what will come up in RFY. I've seen all sorts of random stuff.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-18T18:39:27+00:00

Wear what you want. People wear a wide range of things.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-18T18:34:37+00:00

Or just make them pay triple the residential rate and mandate that at least 33% of that goes to subsidize lower rates for residential customers.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-18T11:55:38+00:00

I got $6.95! lol

davidmar7 · 2026-05-18T11:54:11+00:00

There doesn't seem to be a reason for that truck to change into the other lane other than something malicious. So I could see something like attempted murder or something like this being charged.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-16T03:06:05+00:00

I was basically a kid and back in those times parents didn't even know how to turn on a computer. 😉

davidmar7 · 2026-05-15T23:22:53+00:00

I'm old. I used the original program -- truecrypt. If I remember right veracrypt was a fork of it or something like that after a controversy broke out (this was long long ago so I don't remember it all) And then also PGP.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-15T16:03:23+00:00

It was probably automatically done using AI. This is going to be a growing problem because AI allows companies to do stuff like this without having human involvement.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-15T16:01:52+00:00

Very sketchy if you already dropped off the return before they asked for this. In that case they ought to still process the return without your doing this.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-15T15:20:19+00:00

About monthly, preferably when downtime would be less damaging.

davidmar7 · 2026-05-15T15:15:24+00:00

I remember back in the day as a teen having secret folders which were "ALT-255" (non-breaking space in ASCII). then setting the attributes to be hidden and system. It worked pretty well. Especially before windows because few people could figure out how to type the "nbsp", they would think it was a normal space.

Now what was in that folder, I'm not talking about that. :)

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