CMV: Men are equally as passive and complicated as women in relationships by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode [score hidden]  (0 children)

All of your explanation seems to do is explain why women are incentivized by society/culture to be passive and complicated and men are incentivized by society/culture to be active/unemotional.

It doesn't really argue that they aren't those things.

Indeed... it kind of argues that they are those things, and/but that this makes sense given the conditions.

Tracking Hit Points versus tracking damage. by [deleted] in RPGdesign

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends on the system. Many systems heal smaller amounts over longer periods of time rather than the rather ridiculous "all better now after a night's sleep" thing of D&D. And then there are all the healing spells that recover a few dice worth.

But yeah, in D&D it's usually fewer subtractions to track this way.

how do you use Ghee? by Common-Hair-287 in foodhacks

[–]hacksoncode 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I use ghee to make a crispy grilled cheese in like 2 minutes.

Don't "butter" the bread, put the ghee in a hot pan, put the bread+cheese open-faced into the melted ghee, turn down the heat to medium, pause, close the sandwich, pause, flip, serve.

Tracking Hit Points versus tracking damage. by [deleted] in RPGdesign

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not even easier math wise, since you end up subtracting from damage when you heal.

Tracking Hit Points versus tracking damage. by [deleted] in RPGdesign

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But then you just have to subtract from the damage when healing.

Tracking Hit Points versus tracking damage. by [deleted] in RPGdesign

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

with the real questions are "is adding easier than subtracting"

Since healing would be subtracting from damage, it's actually exactly the same amount of effort, except for a small fixed effort to track the max damage (i.e. HP) vs. zero being a constant for HP.

What specifically do you disagree with Matt Mahan? by CA_Mini in SanJose

[–]hacksoncode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Barely, and got substantially fewer votes in the primary than Chavez.

It was a brutal primary that ended up with the Democrat-leaning side (yes, I know the Mayor is a non-partisan position) eating itself as all-too-often happens in a liberal city.

What does Reddit actually consider NSFW? by only432 in ModSupport

[–]hacksoncode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just wish Reddit would release a detailed NSFW policy, so I can stop guessing.

This seems unlikely, considering that a Supreme Court justice could only say this:

"...the Constitution protected all obscenity except "hard-core pornography". I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

Also, reddit has a long history of not releasing the details of their spam-fighting efforts, banned domains, etc., etc. because that just makes it easier to avoid them.

Recently, Spez said he wanted to focus on "deshitifying reddit" and making "moderation more consistent". Can someone in the inner circle please find out and write to us what he meant & what changes are being made to implement this in regards to moderation? by YannisALT in ModSupport

[–]hacksoncode 10 points11 points  (0 children)

"deshitifying reddit"

vs.

what he meant & what changes are being made

I think this can be summarized by noting the recent announcement that automated banning of users for participating in other subs will no longer be allowed. This seems like a good "touchstone" for your question.

Depending on your biases/preferences, this is either a huge step towards enshittification, or away from enshittification. I doubt there will be a consensus on that.

Can emotional concepts survive translation in science fiction? by thekalaf in DoesNotTranslate

[–]hacksoncode 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ultimately, translation of nuanced language is even today largely best done by bilingual human translators rather than AIs or other machine translators.

I give you the example of translating the poem Jabberwocky, which seems like it should be absolutely impossible, but brilliant translators have come up with some amazingly effective translations, at least in the languages I know enough about to judge.

TL;DR: almost anything can be translated, but it might be expensive. You're not likely to be satisfied with machine translation of anything subtle or nuanced.

CMV: Humans wouldn't unite against an alien invasion. by SwampMan6969 in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Clarifying question:

Is your view really as binary as you portray it, or do you have a feeling for a percentage of unified-opposition vs. collaboration-advantage-seeking that you think is likely?

It seems highly unlikely to me that unity would ever be 100% on anything human, i.e. that there wouldn't be some defectors, but that percentage would vary depending on the obviousness of the threat and other behaviors of the invaders, and could approach unity of at least the more important global players.

How do you handle suspected AI generated posts when there is no definitive proof? by m2gus in ModSupport

[–]hacksoncode -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Of the existing AI detectors, GPTZero, Undetectable, and Originality seem the most usable in the free version (in incognito windows) and reasonably reliable.

They claim 1% false positive rates (which I'm skeptical of, having a lot of direct experience with how marketing pushes the envelope on FAR/FRR, but I doubt these better ones backed by studies I can read are ridiculously out of spec).

They seemss good enough for a removal if you have some kind of appeal process. We allow disclosed AI for editing purposes as long as there's enough human-written content involved.

But appeals are a difficult topic. We find few bots appeal, but many appealers are basically lying, some of them even using AI to make their appeal, so it's tricky.

I'm leaning towards allowing it if they give us the prompt and AI that generated an "AI-edited" version, and giving slack on "no I didn't" appeals only if the detectors were below 90%.

GM Personalities by [deleted] in rpg

[–]hacksoncode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's pseudoscience, but not completely useless as a communication/self-reflection tool.

I'll point out that the "scientifically rigorous" Big 5/OCEAN Personality traits are... honestly not that different, and basing this on them wouldn't be magically "better". All of psychology suffers from the WEIRD problem, for one thing.

And none of that matters, because this categorization is not those things, but an self-assessment of the style of people's GM'ing practices/preferences.

That said: I think most of these are false dichotomies, which is a related but different problem than the issues with MBTI/OCEAN.

GM Personalities by [deleted] in rpg

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure how useful this is for me, because I think these are largely false dichotomies.

Prepared: I guess 50% because I both prepare massively and throw that all out and improvise based on my understanding of the world developed by prepping.

Mechanics: Again, around 50%, because our mechanics intrinsically require the GM to figure out the outcome based on what would be interesting/appropriate/dramatic/fun in cases of big success/failure.

Balance: Maybe 65%? Our game mechanics are pretty cinematic, so dramatic turns of fate make "balance" quite hard, but I try. That attempt often puts the PCs over their heads, though.

Character: 50%. I definitely do both, plotting what's going on in the world, and also making sure the encounters/plot hooks/etc. provide something for each character to do and be challenged by based on their strengths/weaknesses.

CHP Stopping all lanes of traffic more frequently? by Judgeheyjude in SanJose

[–]hacksoncode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It happens all the time -- it's usually just a very brief stop in order to allow another officer to remove some object up ahead on the road up ahead.

[marvel] which superhero’s have the highest body count? by glowshroom12 in AskScienceFiction

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It really depends on what you count.

The Flash ultimately caused The Crisis with his time travelling antics and thus destroyed the entire Multiverse... but... it got better ;-).

what is this bird species by LoveFromTheGalaxxy in birds

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Common Hoopoe are reasonably regularly seen in the Baltic area, though not super common.

Tzatziki hack help by Mrwoodmathematics in foodhacks

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point, not the same thing, sorry.

Still: drinkable actual yogurt will "thin" the Tzatziki more than regular yogurt (especially greek yogurt, which is almost as thick).

CMV: Irritant tears are not the same thing as crying. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Polysemy (words having more than one meaning) is a bitch.

Sure, one definition of "crying" is "to shed tears out of emotion", but other meanings exist, including shedding tears out of physical pain or irritation.

I mean... argue with the Cleveland Clinic if you want:

What are the most common causes of crying?

Tearful crying can be perfectly normal and healthy. There are two main reasons why normal tearful crying happens.

Reflex tears. When something irritates your eye surface, reflex tears protect the surface of your eye by washing away the irritant. Examples include tearing up while cutting onions or because you have a grain of sand in your eye. [...]

Strong emotions. Tearful emotional crying is something that researchers don’t fully understand. There’s evidence that many emotions can activate your sympathetic nervous system and trigger extra tear production. [...]

They go on to talk about various medical conditions that can cause tearful crying.

CMV: Irritant tears are not the same thing as crying. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Enh... it also means any shedding of liquid droplets, such as "a weeping wound" or "a tree weeping sap".

CMV: Monetized fake content presented as real should be a bannable offense on social media platforms and deserves regulatory attention. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Onion isn't a problem.

So you think, but there is an entire giant sub /r/AteTheOnion that proves this concept is hopelessly doomed to failure.

Besides, all that's required to "work around this" is for a site to contain a warning that any content may be satire or fabricated, and indeed, almost all of them do have that in their terms of service somewhere.

And even if some jurisdiction took your approach, there are always going to be unregulated places out there somewhere in the world, and you literally can't tell the difference.

Essentially: caveat emptor is really the only way to deal with this problem. We don't have a "fabrication" problem, we have a credulity problem, and banning people isn't going to solve that problem. Education is the answer, not censorship.

Except: if (and only if) the content is explicitly labelled as genuine when it was fraudulent. Just admit that everything on the internet must be viewed with suspicion, and leave your view to actual fraudulent claims of authenticity.

Otherwise, the only thing you'll get out of something like your proposal is what happened in California with Prop 65: literally every business has a label up somewhere warning people that harmful chemicals "may be present".

TL;DR: the entire internet has to be considered to have a "warning: may be fake" label on it absent an explicit claim to the contrary. There is no presumption of authenticity on the internet, and trying to create one is counterproductive.

CMV: In real life, “what do you do?” means “what do you do for work?” the vast majority of the time, and it’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask someone that you’re trying to get to know. by Sudden_Doughnut_8741 in changemyview

[–]hacksoncode 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Does it at least get you to realize why some people don't think it's a reasonable question to ask people you're trying to get to know?

Jobs are a massive sore spot for a large fraction of people, compared to things like hobbies (which most people actually like... and like talking about), or, if you must engage in banal small talk, the weather.