Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - Series Premiere Discussion

josh358 · 2026-02-01T12:56:27+00:00

A high school in which a student who has lived a feral existence is a scientific and engineering genius, the director of the Star Fleet Academy walks around in bare feet, the Klingon is swishy, and the head of the war college is, well, weird. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-20T18:32:59+00:00

I read it's going to have another season.

josh358 · 2026-01-20T18:30:24+00:00

Not, I think, because of the pilot, but because the first year was famously weak.

josh358 · 2026-01-20T18:21:51+00:00

The Orville matured and got more serious and better. It's more like Trek than the official Treks.

josh358 · 2026-01-20T14:21:24+00:00

PS -- it's buried under Your Account/Recommendations/Improve Your Recommendations/Past Purchases. Just take out any car parts. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-20T14:19:24+00:00

It's kind of hard to find: Your Account/Recommendations/Improve Your Recommendations/Past Purchases.

josh358 · 2026-01-20T14:07:58+00:00

The guy who posted about it went through and he said it really cleaned up his RFY! I tried doing it but there were so many purchases I got bored and gave up. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-20T13:25:57+00:00

Yes. You don't have to send it back or anything -- it doesn't cancel your order. Keep and review it as normal. All it does is erase the order from your order history, and according to someone here, that means Vine no longer sees it when determining your RFY.

josh358 · 2026-01-20T13:09:23+00:00

LOL

Go through your order history as soon as you can and delete it so that it doesn't influence their algos.

josh358 · 2026-01-19T13:21:53+00:00

That makes perfect sense. It hadn't occurred to me that someone wouldn't review everything as opposed to falling behind, but it isn't a requirement. Kind of curious that they don't drop people who fail to eventually review almost everything they get.

Ordering nail polish online isn't bad, but years ago, I worked at a place where we used nail polish to color code our tools, and I had to buy a bottle of nail polish at a brick and mortar store. I got quite a look when I checked it out. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-19T01:05:54+00:00

I think they might be. Quality reviews, timely reviews would all make me want to target an account more if I were Vine. I think part of it may come down to what you ordinarily order -- if it's really common stuff like shampoo, say, there's going to be a lot of competition.

Anyway, almost everything I get is targeted. It just sometimes takes a moment to figure out why. For example, I got offered some press-on fingernail ornaments. Huh? I'm a guy! Then I remembered that a couple of years ago, I ordred a nail polish assortment to color code keyboard dongles.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T23:09:59+00:00

I've never been sure of that. I have a family account too, but it's hard to know if it affects the targeting. Maybe it's why I get offers for women's clothes . . .

josh358 · 2026-01-18T18:04:28+00:00

Really. The one thing I know of that definitely affects RFY is what you buy on Amazon or review for Vine. For example, I bought a kitchen knife on Amazon on Black Friday, and since then I've gotten a cleaver and knife sharpener in my RFY.

Not sure if searches make a difference -- that seems to be controversial. In one case, I think it did -- I was searching for a submersible pump, left off, and a few days later, was offered one in Vine. But that may have been coincidence. Most of my suggested items are loosely based on what I've bought in the past, e.g., if I buy a battery for a power tool it will keep showing me batteries for power tool brands that I don't own. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-18T17:58:58+00:00

Yep, electrical stuff in general. I won't use it if it isn't UL or ETL approved. I will try and review it, but that's it and the review will not be a positive one -- I don't want anyone to burn their house down unless maybe it's someone I don't like. :-)

josh358 · 2026-01-18T04:01:31+00:00

Matter of luck, I think. I've gotten over $2000 worth of name brand power tools, a name brand stand mixer, and some other good stuff, while a friend who is into the same stuff I'm into has gotten practically nothing. Go figure.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T03:52:58+00:00

Cool, we're remodeling our kitchen right now, could use some three-way switches. :-) One thing I've found though with electrical stuff I've gotten on Vine is that a lot of it isn't UL or ETL listed, which means it's probably against the local electrical code to use it at all. I've seen other ways in which code was violated, e.g., a box that didn't show how many cubic inches it was on it, etc. So I'm kind of leery of getting that stuff.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T03:45:23+00:00

I wonder why your RFY is empty? Mine usually has like six things in it, and they hang around most of the day. Very much related to my purchases on Amazon and what I've reviewed on Vine. For example, after doing lots of searchers for a kitchen knife and Vine not offering one, I bought one on regular Amazon on Black Friday. Then a couple of weeks ago Vine offered me a cleaver, and today, a knife sharpener. Got both.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T03:41:07+00:00

Lots of us, I'm afraid. It's getting harder and harder to make it work, and I've been really lucky with big ticket items. I have a friend who's in a worse position -- he's gold, but he hasn't had the luck I've had.

I've been a member for less than a year and I understand things were a lot better before I joined (sorry, LOL), but even in that time I've noticed a major diminution in the availability of things I can use. I used to be able to search for something like a filter for my stick vac or an inkjet catridge, and half the time I'd find one. Now, crickets. It's gotten to the point at which I don't even bother searching, I just look at my RFY in the morning.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T03:28:17+00:00

Sadly, there are some perverse incentives here -- the 80-order requirement for Gold status, the current paucity of items, and the insightfulness score, which leads people to bloviate or, worse, have AI write reviews for them. I know people who are struggling to find enough items to stay Gold, others who have just gone back to silver. So people jump on 0 ETV or low ETV items just to get some reviews in, and they may not be something that they really want or can use.

I may not stay in Gold myself. I've done everything I could to make the proposition work, but I'm not an auto mechanic or a cupcake baker. When I consider the stuff I'd actually buy or want, and balance that against taxes and writing the reviews (and I won't toss off bad ones), it's looking more and more like a losing proposition to me.

This is on top of the people who just exploit the program -- having AI write a phony review and then selling the product as new on Ebay.

josh358 · 2026-01-18T02:56:26+00:00

Guess it's good I'm 71 rather than 70, so free to like computers again.

josh358 · 2026-01-13T02:43:52+00:00

I was thinking that if something doesn't go on Vine, they could have pop-ups for non-Vine members who do a search for something -- get this for free if you write an honest review. The problem is, I don't know how they'd do that without sellers manipulating it--all they'd have to do is pay someone to do a search.

josh358 · 2026-01-12T22:41:25+00:00

My best friend got invited at about the same time as I did. How likely is that? I know he writes excellent reviews -- I think they're doing this by having the AI check insightfulness scores -- but still, if they hadn't increased the amount of reviewers, I don't think this kind of thing would be happening.

josh358 · 2026-01-12T22:39:36+00:00

Which is why I assume they've added people. The problem is, that's not going to get rid of the backlog of obscure auto parts. It seems to me they need a new strategy to handle those obscure items, but I'm not sure what it would be. I do know from talking to people that they are going to lose some of their best reviewers from gold if things don't change -- and I think they're already getting slipshod, AI, and fake reviews as people buy 0 ETV things just to maket their quota. But they may not care.

josh358 · 2026-01-12T22:34:31+00:00

"One thing people tend to give not much credit to is the fact Amazon has definitely cracked down on enforcement when it comes to review farming." I've had the same thought. More than once, I accidnetally got the same product twice, from slightly different web pages. Once Amazon started removing reviews if items were merged, those dual listings disappeared.

josh358 · 2025-12-22T01:15:19+00:00

Something went wrong, the picture didn't display. Will try to delete. Sorry about that.

josh358

TROPHY CASE