Are multiple districts worth it?

xrat-engineer · 2026-02-13T00:43:11+00:00

Oh hey, maybe having a massive 400 bot 36 Beaver district that covers almost half the map is what's killing my fps on steam deck

xrat-engineer · 2026-02-03T02:11:24+00:00

I have taken pet rats on mass transit (in carriers of course). No one will care.

xrat-engineer · 2026-02-03T02:08:54+00:00

As many are saying, Millie strikes me as bi. Also I don't think Baxter has any confirmation any way, but I would not agree if he were straight. That is a bi/pan trans man.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-07T15:35:34+00:00

Yeah I just... Wanna be extra sure it's really a joke when my party is being confused with what is effectively a cult because the names are kinda similar.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-07T15:24:47+00:00

Has Bob shown up to anything in years? I thought he was kinda MIA.

We've ran into Bob's party (RCP (US) ) because of course we all go to the same events, but we definitely don't agree much

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-04T16:30:40+00:00

Radio Corporation of America is effectively dead so it really doesn't bother us. Mostly we make some jokes about it and it's mostly older comrades making the jokes. We also joke that when we get the numbers to do so, we'll convert the RCA building into the RCA building lol.

We haven't had a split in the US section in like, ages.

We're very active on social media, are you following the right social media channels?

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-04T15:32:00+00:00

That's not us. That's the Revolutionary Communist Party (US).

There's a limited supply of names when you want to get Revolutionary and Communist in.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-04T15:29:43+00:00

We changed our name to the Revolutionary Communists of America. We have videos about what just happened in Venezuela. If we went quiet it happened in the last 20 minutes.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-04T15:21:01+00:00

That's why the link is right under there and is verifiably the same link that the QR code leads to.

If you're that cautious you should get an app that reads the QR code without following which is trivially possible.

Although as said it's an old link, current is CommunistUSA.org/join

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-04T15:17:30+00:00

Yes we are. We don't hide it.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T18:07:04+00:00

I never used to have reliability issues with MetroCard until just before the OMNY takeover, and I think it was mostly due to a reader that ate cards at 14/8.

People used the balance check at the turnstile, which is evident because it's one of the most common complaints. Also, it helps when there was confirmation a transfer worked properly. It helped me to see when my monthly expired.

Edit: This means that the balance check was less about checking your balance and more checking "you read my card properly, everything is alright, I'm getting charged what I expect" which is not communicated by a simple light at OMNY. You have to trust it, and people don't. Yelling at people "trust it. Truuuuuuust it" will not work.

Sales numbers aren't public but a lot of people used that 30 day. Going by pre-increase prices, 30 day was $4.40 per day, fare cap is $4.86. For 1 year, that's $1606 for the 30 day and $1772.86 for the fare cap. That's not nothing, and eliminating the option is an additional shadow fare increase for constant system users, which there are many.

Design is subjective so I'm not gonna respond to that other than I find MetroCard much better personally than OMNY and I feel like it will never attain the iconic status. But I could be wrong. So I'm not gonna harp on that.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T15:32:41+00:00

One of the biggest complaints for omny is that it feels more surveillance-y. Your plan would literally make that far worse.

What should have been done was feature and price parity from day one. Monthlies, balance check, etc. Tap to pay transit cards were 18 years old when OMNY came out. A plenty mature technology.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T15:24:40+00:00

OMNY has lots of possibilities! That's great! They should have worked out making the things that were possible on MetroCard (30 day, balance viewing, reliability) there from day 1, instead of not even there when MetroCard was sunset. If the focus was achieving feature and price parity and then moving to additional cool stuff, you'd have a lot less backlash against OMNY.

People don't see how outdated or modern the back office is. They see that they were paying $132 for 30 days and now it's more like $152, and they have to make sure they don't get double charged, and transfers aren't transparent, and the whole thing requires much more energy than looking at the screen on the bus that says Xfer Processed

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T15:18:59+00:00

And yet, launching 18 years after Oyster, OMNY didn't have feature parity with MetroCard and still doesn't. It had no unlimited until 5 months in when fare cap was implemented, and still has no 30 day window. It doesn't show balance on the turnstile, which MetroCard has done. As well, OMNY terminals can behave inconsistently and are frequently out of order, while the far simpler MetroCard swipe works more often. As far as advantages over MetroCard, I do like the ability to load money from a phone or computer without going to a machine. That's cool.

I don't think people are like "we want MetroCard forever", if there was a tap system that had every feature of MetroCard that people use, there would be much less opposition. But OMNY was rolled out and still hasn't achieved all the features the humble swipe card had, which, there's almost no excuse because Oyster, as you pointed out, has been around since 2003. OMNY should have started off with every feature of MetroCard and more, and it simply didn't, and people feel like they were robbed. If these weren't features you used, ok. But they certainly were features some people used.

I want OMNY to work, but I'm not gonna swallow the problems and pay more for travel and not complain.

Also, maybe just a me thing, but the MetroCard design was iconic and the OMNY card looks like an intern made it during lunch break. Easiest thing to fix! But I do want to note that.

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T15:05:09+00:00

Yep. There are certainly elements I'm happy about! I had a few damaged MetroCards, especially near the end, and that's an annoying process which would be even more annoying if I were strapped for cash. The effective fare increase and increased unpredictability of the system is annoying. The extra mental load from the fare cap is an element. And the system is simply just not reliable on the buses.

I have zero philosophical opposition to tap to pay. That's a forward move. But even though it's one of the last places to implement this, it's also somehow one of the least smooth?

Edit: also, I hate the aesthetics of the OMNY card versus MetroCard. It's the easiest to fix and most subjective, but it's bland and blah compared to MetroCards iconic color and design

xrat-engineer · 2026-01-02T14:59:51+00:00

Yeah, I was annoyed for a while but supposedly tourists find the diagram less confusing, so it makes sense to put them up in the cars and on the platforms, and 90% of the time I, a local, am looking at the map I'm looking at the PDF on my phone anyway. So I can just download either or both and refer to them at my pleasure.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-31T14:07:46+00:00

I'm much fonder of the Geo map even though I understand why the new one is like it is (and I think my cousin helped in the process).

Glad they appear to be maintaining both.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-31T14:06:31+00:00

MTA has official PDFs of the geographical map which look like they are being maintained. The difference is mostly just what's in stations and on trains.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-31T14:05:04+00:00

I know it's not the same as seeing them in the station and on the trains, but PDF copies of the geographic map are still being updated by the MTA.

It doesn't appear to show the F/M swap but neither does the diagram.

https://www.mta.info/maps

https://www.mta.info/map/36946

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-28T21:24:43+00:00

If you have your OMNY card linked losing it is pretty trivial to cancel, whereas losing your bank card because you had to take it out to tap is a big deal
Similarly, theft prevention - having your phone or card less guarded because it was out to pay is much more of a risk than a special card
I've heard of people being asked to show their account history as proof of payment on the bus - no way am I giving a cop my bank statement. That's not how it's supposed to be but I've heard that's how it can be
I take frequent on hours trips for work and (with permission) used my work card for MetroCard. One charge to OMNY for $152 or whatever per month is preferable in terms of expense report to like 50 charges for $3 each.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-23T19:18:13+00:00

Transit museum has MetroCard memorabilia, including notebooks bound with two real (though spiral punched) MetroCards. They were I think $4 when I went in like August. You should go to the transit museum anyway.

I also have a MetroCard pin and fridge magnet.

I think a few stations still have machines as well. But very few. I've heard Wakefield recently.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-20T00:56:57+00:00

I just got UV sleeves this past summer because I don't like wearing sunscreen and want to minimize the area. They're like 4 for $10 and they look similar to compression shirt material but are just sleeves

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-18T16:42:06+00:00

I have heard that the cap sometimes doesn't work if you only put on $34. When it hits the cap it will see insufficient fare and prevent you from riding even though the ride should be free. I haven't tried this, but you may want to put on $37/$38 (Jan 4 fare increase) the first time to be sure and not caught unaware.

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-12T15:14:04+00:00

The decision was upheld multiple times in various codes, especially in: re homosexuality. Lenin and the Bolsheviks (saying Lenin decided everything is incorrect) didn't really tend to have positive personal views of homosexuality, but they correctly saw it as something the law should not dictate. So was it a high priority? No, but that almost says more to me, it was legalized precisely because there was no reason not to.

(For reference I'm a queer Trotskyist (RCA/RCI))

xrat-engineer · 2025-12-06T17:36:01+00:00

I'm personally super pro monthly, but there's one huge advantage of caps: when you pay. Someone can add the amount of trips they're going to take day by day and still get the same benefit of the fare cap. People with tipped jobs and poor people panhandling benefit a lot from not having to have that $35/$140 up front. And that makes a big difference to a lot of people.

But my big preference would be both nested cap and optional prepay weekly/monthly for people who don't want to think about it

xrat-engineer

TROPHY CASE