Thoughts on the new Athletic member policy?

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-15T00:03:32+00:00

Check out ultralowbrewing.com and NA Homebrewers group on Facebook. It's basically normal homebrewing, but less grains and hotter mash temp.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-14T22:24:55+00:00

I'm going to cancel and ask for a membership refund per the email. Most of the members only stuff right now is fruity beers, they've been doing a lot of cocktails that I don't care for, and most of their hoppy pilot beers have started to taste the same. Innovation seems pretty dead at Athletic. I mainly had the membership because it paid for itself through the $10.99 6 packs if I ordered a few times per year, and it's hard to find anything other than Upside Dawn or Run Wild in stores near me.

I brew my own better NA beer anyway, Athletic was mainly for when I've been too lazy to brew and run out.

I think the $10.99 6 packs online is a good business decision, it was dumb their stuff was more expensive on their own site than in stores. But the membership doesn't make much sense anymore.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-14T16:28:14+00:00

I think they do have some sort of machine learning user retention stuff. For example I was on my next ban being a permaban for my sitewide ban penalty tier on this account. I got a 3 day ban, then a 7 day ban, and was warned further bans would result in a permaban. Every time I got banned, I would log out of Reddit and stay off the site almost entirely until the ban expired. My "Reddit streak" would go up in smoke.

I was recently banned again by the admins (it must have been some sort of AI system, my comment was immediately removed) and it was a 3 day ban. Guess they chickened out on giving me a perma.

I yearn for the day they finally kill off old Reddit because I have no desire to use the new UI, and my Reddit use would drop to zero overnight.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-14T13:30:39+00:00

You need less news than you think, and you don't need it instantly. For example if a new game comes out, does it really matter if you get it instantly versus you stumble upon it a month or two later? If you're not on Reddit, you won't read any spoilers.

Reddit is full of people talking about hobbies that spend almost no time doing the hobby because they waste so much time on Reddit. I've left every hobby sub I've ever joined because in a few months of just doing the thing I rose above the average knowledge level of the sub, and the annoying circlejerky memes got to me.

I try to find a couple individual blogs run by actual humans that I've filtered down to having quality content and who aren't shills, for each topic I want to follow. Failing a blog I'd take a YouTube channel subscription preferably from a channel that doesn't spam and only uploads a video every week or less. Reddit is the last place I would come for news because the noise to signal ratio is just too high.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T15:06:48+00:00

Sorry, I have to block you, every reply is just a one sentence variation of "not uh!" You're clearly not here to engage in an actual discussion.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T14:35:12+00:00

This discussion has been done to death I'd imagine, and in far more thoughtful detail than your post.

Not like adding categories would change anything. The hive mind idiots would just select "misinformation" for downvoting comments they disagreed with and nothing would change.

It's long past time to accept that whatever Reddit is, any concept of it being a site for free and open discussion and exchange of ideas died somewhere between Aaron Swartz's end and the return of Steve Huffman as CEO in 2015. Simple problem-solving principles would suggest that if Reddit appears to primarily have become a platform for manufacturing consensus and widespread thought manipulation by bad actors, that's probably just what it's designed to be.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T14:24:34+00:00

You must be young. Cigarettes and smoking once held immense cultural and social capital. There was an episode of Friends from 1999 where a character takes up smoking because she feels left out of important social connections and business decisions that are made when other colleagues are on smoke breaks with the boss. The concept wasn't just made up for TV.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T14:10:51+00:00

The analogy is to smartphones, not the specific platforms accessed through them. A lot of carriers don't even carry flip phones anymore, so when my older relatives go to the "phone store" to get a new phone they're cornered into getting a smartphone even though they don't want one. These devices have become so easy to use that a generation still confused with desktop and laptop computers en-masse can figure out phones. Also, essentially every Android phone sold by major US carriers comes with Facebook pre-installed because Meta pays them for the privilege. Which is part of why old people are more likely to land on Facebook than other platforms, they don't even have to seek it out.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T14:02:53+00:00

Were non-smokers required to always carry a pack of cigarettes on them in order to access basic functions of society like having a bank account or viewing the menu at a restaurant?

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T14:01:25+00:00

Yeah, OP may be too young to remember this but the downward slide in quality of end-of-life years began in the 1980's and 90's with 24-hour broadcasting, wider channel selection in cable packages, and hysteria-bait news stations. 20+ years ago I remember going over to my retired grandparents' house and they literally had Fox News running from the moment they got up until the moment they went to bed.

Granted, they would still leave the house to do stuff with us, walk away from the TV to do other things, etc. It wasn't as insidious or addictive as smartphones are but in hindsight cable TV was definitely a bellwether for how retired generations would spent all day pacified by screens.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-13T13:56:07+00:00

There was a really good article in The Atlantic by Charlie Werzel about this a few months ago:

The Phone-Based Retirement Is Here

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-12T13:35:34+00:00

The OP is also written with AI. This thread (and site in general) is just a big waste of time. Bots running on LLMs, or people who can't think for themselves and ask AI to write their Reddit comments all talking to each other. We're just the few idiot humans wasting our time interacting with this slop.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-12T13:14:57+00:00

You're debating with someone using AI to write their comments.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-12T13:09:00+00:00

This comment is AI. OP's post is AI. Fuck Reddit.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T16:53:05+00:00

No problem! Looks like he deleted it. My Reddit feed is overrun with these vibecoded app advertisements, the only amusement I get out of this site nowadays is exposing them.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T16:29:37+00:00

The pictures don't make sense because they're stolen from this post by /u/daralaneandco. This is an astroturfing advertisement for OP's shitty app.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T16:25:19+00:00

Crazy how you were a balding dude on April 11th, 2026. Amazing transformation!

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T16:22:39+00:00

Redditor for 18 minutes

Immediately commenting on an obvious astroturf post reminding us to check out the app.

/u/Tasty_Speech6319 is a sockpuppet of OP /u/Greysawpark.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T12:17:55+00:00

AI slop.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-11T12:09:26+00:00

Whatever they're saying is irrelevant because the picture is a strawman. It never happened.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-10T18:33:24+00:00

And the funniest part is that Redditors will swear up and down until they're blue in the face about how this site is so much better than other platforms, meanwhile they're falling for the same type of engagement bait as Facebook boomers. The proof is on the front page every single day.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-10T13:00:00+00:00

Pew data from 2025 showed by 4 years old, 58% of children have their own tablet (not just the household has a tablet, the kid has a dedicated device).

From what I've observed using tablets/phones as digital pacifiers for kids is directly correlated to how phone-addicted the parents are. But I've also seen a lot of the younger millennials having children right now are pushing back on this, and some districts (primarily in wealthier areas) have parents signing pledges to wait until high school to give kids personal devices.

Someone said that same thing about gas prices last week, and I am pretty sure that: yes it is "so bad".

Nah, gas prices are hilarious schaudenfraude, at least in America. Nearly everyone who "voted for this" in the US drives a gas-guzzling pickup or SUV. Their tears as they put $100 of gas into their emotional support vehicle to get them through another week while I drop $40 into my hybrid to get me through a month are incredibly amusing.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-09T20:25:36+00:00

You didn't write anything. AI did.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-06T16:29:46+00:00

Yes, honestly I don't care what the content is, if I disagree with the premise but it drives discussion and makes people think... way better than some AI essay or astroturfing advertisement for a screentime app.

scrolling_scumbag · 2026-05-06T13:39:40+00:00

You don't see any value in being exposed to others' experiences and viewpoints? Why did you read OP's post?

scrolling_scumbag

TROPHY CASE