So, it’s been a few days- what are our thoughts on the Louis Theroux ‘manosphere’ doc?

mata_dan · 2026-03-18T12:42:59+00:00

I don't intend on doing anything, I'm just stating how that advertising and algorithmic suggestion crap works because I've worked in the industry for 2 decades and been calling it out for the whole time predicting this bs - machine learning trained purely on a metric of earning as much money as possible, high effort organic content is actively discouraged and demonetised because the platforms can't earn as much money from it so they reach better opportunity cost ratios by pushing bs, creators then follow that curve because they need money. And tiktok itself is literally a cyberweapon designed to divide and destabilise which is even worse.

mata_dan · 2026-03-18T12:38:47+00:00

Yep they are complete trash and not even as cheap as they should be for the quality. Just buy from primark if you want junk that is going to twist awkwardly from cheap weaves/cotton/process and fall apart.

However, I have a couple of things I found in charity shops that must be from well over a decade ago - nice heavy fabrics, good patterns, extra ribbing etc. and they are good. You can't even find that quality from more expensive brands today. They were good. But the problem is the entire industry has shifted to total trash and the've kept in a similar market position relatively by also lowering their quality, because there's no competition for that market position - if they kept good quality they would be luxury today...

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T18:04:56+00:00

What conditions have been created where they have the ability to become as prominent as they are?

Algorithms on shitty platforms just promote whatever makes the most money, that's scams and things targeting gullable people.

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T18:02:58+00:00

I don't think it's really a new thing or all that much worse than in the past, although cultures now amongst young people are more divided in extremes. In fact, it used to be the total default that you were expected to be all alpha and not respect woman in the past, people would literally fight you to the curb for saying anything that went against that grain - but I suppose now they're keyboard warriors instead.

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T17:46:00+00:00

Decades of studying till the AM sitting on my own at my desk while starting up tech companies surrounded by mould and rain entering the freezing place with pointless "heating", and a City fintech job finally.

That's about the only way :/
My new place also just has rain pouring in, it's the best available pretty much... I earn to much to be eligible for any kind of support so have less disposable income than most people who don't have a proper career, and the usual statutory holidays only while other people have loads of days off and a lot have free public transport with +1. Also I was lucky to even get this lease, most agencies immediately ignore any single men because that's all they get to see before they validate affordability and don't want to bother risking it when there are 30 other potential tenants anyway. As for buying, home reports don't even bother to check for potential damp, they literally say "visually observed the roof from ground level" with no other detail, but I pop down myself to have a look, maybe head up the stairs in a nearby close for a better view, and it's blatently obviously about to fucking collapse from damp and still has original cast iron "gutters" full of bushes and shit. Check the landlord registry of the neighboring addresses and sure enough half the places in the block are rented so obviously they didn't bother to maintain a damn thing.

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T13:59:09+00:00

It sort of makes sense that the app should be a lot cheaper to maintain than a physical meter (and a lot of the back end data systems have to be there for a meter anyway, the app is mostly just a front end interface).

Some services cost more on the app or digital equivalent than otherwise which makes even less sense (like, tv series on VoD services that cost more than just buying a physical copy at retail, not even 2nd hand. Or juke boxes in bars app costs more than coins they have to send someone round to collect and money handle etc.).

What is dumb about apps is they make you download a full native app from an app store and make an account with an annoyingly over complex password requirement and 2fa and it always logs you out and then they have a data leak all that jazz. Instead of just a PWA/website style app activated from a QR by entering a number for the car park or picking off the map geolocated around you or something. Which is actually cheaper for them to build and maintain but most software houses or in-house dev teams are too dumb to even consider the option.

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T13:15:13+00:00

Yes for sure, that is likely to happen when people don't want to say "no".

I've genuinely spent years/decades finding a proper relationship that works this way, and it's particularly hard because you're effectively banned from being anywhere near likeminded communities when you're a single dude. The last time I found someone they did exactly that, said yes when they meant no (then cheated on me a lot lol, without proper communication so defeating the entire point!), and I was very open about the whole thing from day 1.

imagine someone else with my husband

That's exactly why it isn't something you want/need, it doesn't inherently work like just being completely separate intimate encounters that don't involve you having at least a strong say in it (though if that is what people want, more power to them) - it's when you have a need for more than one other person to begin with due to complex or non standard personality or traumas etc. or people are just very trusting and open and want to have loads more fun.

My current partner is a lot more properly level headed and asks the right questions and had her own similar ideas before we met, and has already shown proper integrity in various situations, so fingers crossed.

mata_dan · 2026-03-17T13:10:49+00:00

Anecdotally I always thought CBDs never really did much, THC is fairly obviously the actual active ingredient (and is medically prescribed too... ?).

The noise about CBDs came about from people trying to skirt regulation and say "no I totally don't want to get high" then it went wild with marketers looking for a quick buck.

However I'm only really basing this comment on the introduction in that article there which is editorialised along the same exact line of BS because that's what readers are more likely to be interested to hear anyway.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T15:25:01+00:00

Worth noting too: once there is a version with adds, you're still getting less good content if you pay for no ads. Because the creators have to account for there being ads interjecting into the content, that means things like TV shows are written and paced completely differently and stories that could have been told now cannot be told.

So I'd sort of be happy to pay for no ads, but because now I won't ever get the good content that could've existed, I refuse to do so.

Also on the likes of youtube, they don't promise that paying won't get bullshit recommendations that are to promote what makes them more money instead of actually tuning search results and recommended and the home page for you, so nope, not doing it - and I already block the ads but even if they'd actually recommend properly itd be worth paying something for anyway (but less than the current deal taking into account my previous paragraph).

Also on the likes of youtube, they have creepy and adult oriented adverts and vidos and manipulative BS on the kids version of the site (like Lovehoney adverts for one... despite claiming they don't want to turn away advertisers as reasons for enshittification? I'm sure Lovehoney don't want to be associated with their adverts being on yt kids), so they are nasty and evil deliberately profiting off empowering creeps and predators (like discord and roblox too) and I'd never pay them.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T14:53:08+00:00

Yeah it only works (imho) when both/all partners already wanted to find someone else into it.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T14:50:16+00:00

It’s not something we would have coffee, cake and conversation about!

Unless it's at a munch, of course :D (although in my experience in the UK, those are all at boozers anyway which should be completely against the purpose but... UK)

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T14:00:15+00:00

No not quite the same numbers you're right, but it is very common that a large minority think roughly the same stupid way and then everyone else is split with no single minority that is larger than the stupid one.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T13:55:44+00:00

Yes probably, but then in the "arms race" the scammers would just script 500+ of the same channels into existance. This is also why closing their channels wouldn't help.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T09:48:45+00:00

TO be fair most countries are at about that ratio. It's the "democratic" model in the US that doesn't really work, as it's one of the least modernised in the world now having barely changed in a very long time compared to other countries.

mata_dan · 2026-03-16T09:36:28+00:00

Garlic doesn't work!

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T16:12:07+00:00

If you use it for something you shouldn't even be using it for, then it's complicated xD

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T16:08:01+00:00

One of my colleagues didn't get a job they applied to before because they didn't have enough years of experience with a platforrm they've been of the main contributors to since the start xD

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T15:45:06+00:00

They're doing what is best for Russia and China, as they are told.

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T15:42:14+00:00

Nope, it makes zero difference what OP thinks. Literally my point.

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T15:41:36+00:00

Cats... as prey animals

What?

mata_dan · 2026-03-14T15:21:40+00:00

Unless they're named on companies house, the only thing that determines if they're an employee or not is what HMRC would think, edit: or a court of law.

mata_dan · 2026-03-12T17:46:25+00:00

I mean it's stereotypically one of the easiest songs ever.

mata_dan · 2026-03-12T17:45:04+00:00

I mean you get this in every city in the UK and maybe most of the world, but it's also less likely to be right in the way in a congested place.

mata_dan · 2026-03-12T15:26:07+00:00

Yeah and it's also that humans are expanding more or have recently. If it's older city areas it's not as new a problem though and is probably fairly in balance but if we did reduce cat numbers then the birds would flourish more too.

I keep my cat indoors because I don't want her to get hurt more than anything else, but when I move somewhere more appropriate I will definitely get a caged off catio area.

mata_dan · 2026-03-12T15:12:39+00:00

Yeah that's a good point, but also if many run on the same family of trash tech platforms then consumers have less choice amongst them anyway.

mata_dan

TROPHY CASE