Coyote's recent activity
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Comment on Persistent Black Theme for Tildes with uBlock Origin in ~tildes
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tildes
Coyote LinkI'm mostly solidly "fine" with tildes as a whole, though I disagree with a few dogmatically defended decisions-- around things with very low stakes, like organizational ones-- that seem to be in...I'm mostly solidly "fine" with tildes as a whole, though I disagree with a few dogmatically defended decisions-- around things with very low stakes, like organizational ones-- that seem to be in place just because of inertia & change being scary, especially when foisted on an enclave much faster than it desired it. I'm not a huge fan of the "well then there's the door, we are guests surviving on the leadership's good graces" attitude that pervades almost all suggestions for changes, whether I agree with them, think they follow the spirit of the site if not the letter, or not at all; it's not incorrect, but it's reductive and stifles genuine discussion. Change is important to social ecosystems.
I'd also like to see the more diverse folk of tildes feel they can contribute more; I've seen a lot of people with interesting & educational things to add to a convo be shut down by social bullies that simply found the most authoritative & "objective" sounding way to be astonishingly wrong about topics with little room for rhetoric. I won't list any in particular to avoid dredging up drama or being an asshole as the parties in question are not necessarily breaking rules, and they are not in any of the few conversations I've personally taken part in, so they are safe from people snooping to look for names. :P I don't engage with it.
Most of this is growing pains, tildes will hopefully move past both once the shock of its own growing popularity wears off.
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Comment on Do you think life was better in the past? in ~talk
Coyote LinkI think it's easier to see what you want to see out of the past and to (intentionally or otherwise) blind yourself to or downplay some of the problems depending on your own circumstances and the...I think it's easier to see what you want to see out of the past and to (intentionally or otherwise) blind yourself to or downplay some of the problems depending on your own circumstances and the movie reel circumstances of your imagination. Maybe a little bit of self-soothing for some people; well if I was born at this time, I would have been capable of more or better.
Not my thing, but I have seen it in friends and family pretty often. Humans have always had problems, and of these there have also always been hideous and ghastly problems (and most of these are still alive and well today, though some have taken to wearing different masks, sometimes, and in some places). Some of them I think just miss being young enough they weren't aware of the world's problems. Like that old baseball quote about most fans, when you ask them when baseball was at its best, will almost all roughly give you a timeframe from the years they were ~9-12.
I can also get behind the idea that some people maybe don't really think life was any better back then, but what they would really prefer are different problems to the ones they are facing right now. Whether that would actually be the case or not is immaterial, I think.
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Comment on Neglect of a museum’s collection could cause scientific setbacks at Florida State in ~science
Coyote (edited )LinkDidn't see this posted, so; I think it's important to highlight cases of academic neglect like this, when some very important sources of scientific data are at risk of, or have already been lost...Didn't see this posted, so; I think it's important to highlight cases of academic neglect like this, when some very important sources of scientific data are at risk of, or have already been lost to preventable decay.
Florida state is far from the only institution with a collection in desperate need of a higher standard of care, but the spotlight on them presents a good excuse to get people talking about the neglect of various collections left to rot in various institutions without either the time, money, people, interest (or a combo of all of these) in preserving them, and the loss of knowledge this represents. -
Neglect of a museum’s collection could cause scientific setbacks at Florida State
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Comment on By selectively breeding forty generations of silver fox over the course of sixty years, researchers managed to make them as friendly as dogs in ~science
Coyote LinkIt's a domestication experiment, to study the genetic changes that occur in animals as they become more tame-- but the idea was to study those processes, not necessarily because the scientists...- Exemplary
It's a domestication experiment, to study the genetic changes that occur in animals as they become more tame-- but the idea was to study those processes, not necessarily because the scientists believed they could truly domesticate an animal in the scant span of a human lifetime or even a few human lifespans.
The foxes themselves are not actually domesticated any more than any other strain of fur farm fox; the research was actually quite controversial among other zoologists and fur farmers alike, because they do some misrepresentation of their animals. Their findings-- floppy ears, curled tails, high white-marking... Are all already found in many other strains of farmed fox elsewhere in the world.
Whitemarks and Platinums both produce animals with just as much, if not more white found in the strains used in the experiment. They started with fur farmed foxes because they were already somewhat tame; so there is already question as to whether these genes were found in the backgrounds of the animals they started with, even if they didn't show on the phenotype of the fox itself.Flopped ears and curly tails are just usually culled for in most bloodlines because they produce a pelt considered to be inferior quality (for most garment use, I don't think it matters, stoles that use full heads and tails haven't really been fashionable for decades). Some of their conclusions were picked up on by journalists, the public at large & even some other scientists for the -wrong reasons- & that has been a very frustrating part of the whole thing.
The research does have merit! Recording these changes formally (such as the minute brain size changes that are rarely mentioned in media coverage of the experiments) is important to understanding the processes that went into domesticating other animals and determining what events likely occurred first. It's just not as groundbreaking or new as some people have been led to believe. Encouraging people to breed foxes (and other animals bred for fur) for temperament and less stress in confinement is a good thing, even if it had already been happening for decades in much of the rest of Europe and the Americas before the Russian experiment even started.
Farmed mink are a very good example of this, anyone that thinks tame fur farm mink are spicy (and compared to a ferret, that is actually a domesticated animal that has been with humans for thousands of years, they are!) has not yet had the experience of trying to handle a truly wild one.But there is a very broad misunderstanding with the public between domesticated & tamed (and to an extent, feral as well) that has not been adequately addressed by most of the journalists talking about this experiment.
Left to breed on their own, these changes would not wholly self-sustain the same way that they do in feral dog populations-- even the ones dangerous to humans!-- that have apart from humans for even hundreds of years, because dogs are domesticated animals with thousands of years and hundreds of thousands of generations behind them. Even dingoes retain traces of their domesticated past in terms of changes to areas of their brain, and they have been (mostly) outside of human control for thousands, not merely hundreds of years. :PTangentially, that broad misapprehension of the difference also leads to annoyances like people trying to fight for the "rights of wild mustangs"... That are simply feral populations that we abandoned in the first place, damage the environments they aren't native to, and do better in human care. They tame down quickly and become trustworthy because they were not actually wild. No matter how much time you spend working with a truly wild equine species, you aren't going to come away with an animal that is behaviorally close to one of those "mustangs". There have been a few people that have done some truly impressive work with zebras or other wild asses, but they are very aware these animals are very much the exceptions in the hands of very talented (and sometimes equally questionably moral) trainers and not examples of the baseline of their species.
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Comment on Should we be going back and editing games for content that doesn't fit with a modern viewpoint? in ~games
Coyote LinkBriefly leaving aside the game that brought up the discussion in order to reflect on the topic itself, I don't think there has to be a one-size-fits-all solution to this conundrum, and sometimes I...Briefly leaving aside the game that brought up the discussion in order to reflect on the topic itself, I don't think there has to be a one-size-fits-all solution to this conundrum, and sometimes I think different works (even within the same genre) benefit from different solutions.
Historical revisionism is shit, but artists (including authors, etc) should also be allowed to update their works to reflect their own growth; we see that in various 2nd+ editions of scientific works, but also in works of fiction-- this has been used both to catch up to modern sensibilities and simply to editorialize a book to make it better after the author had gained more writing experience, or thought about a plot point that stuck in their craw and wanted to rectify what they saw now as a mistake worth fixing in an existing work.
I think it's a little murky getting into updating the existing works of dead authors (why? I'm not really sure why my gut says that, maybe it's just a lack of being able to get consent? Is it fine for their estates, if they exist, to do so? I don't have an answer to this, tbh), but also nothing stops other people from iterating on them once they enter the public domain, so the classics tend to get revisited for The Times, such as they are, every generation or so anyway.
A lot of people's concern with modern day 2nd Editions may be with the lack of a (literal) paper trail; and I can see that, as more media becomes digital only, it gets a lot easier to just edit it out if something lands poorly or is criticized, especially if the offending party is a huge media conglomerate. I don't think Disney would be as quick to give us Somber JPGs in front of showings of its older media if they could have simply erased it all from existence instead, but that cat is out of the bag (for now, anyway). :P
I do think that kind of cultural history is important to remember! It gives legitimacy and more contextual weight to the often mostly-toothlessly-told history that gets watered down at every chance we get.
That said, I just don't know if I agree that every single bit of entertainment media should be left totally unmolested from its inception for fear of the boogeyman of revisionism. Not to be callous, but I think ascribing that sort of cultural heft to every single creation that gets made may be unwarranted.I think ultimately, the biggest hurdle to the future of archiving media will be continuing to find enough people who care & are able to truly archive the endless sea of media of all kinds so we have anything at all to compare things to. Fully digital media whose access is controlled primarily by big corporate conglomerates sounds like an absolute nightmare for anyone concerned about revisionism of the cultural zeitgeist in the next coming decades. As long as people have been archiving things, those that aren't well connected have had the collections they've worked so hard on dumped by family or the state going through their homes and trashing everything that they don't ascribe potential monetary worth to, and I think that's only going to get worse as more and more things live "only in the cloud".
That might be a greater concern to people worried about historical revisionism than whether or not one fighting game among thousands did a little tone editing to get rid of what sounds like something two steps removed from kiddie porn. :P I don't think there is much historical value in that questionable kiddie content, I'm not too sorry to say.
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Comment on Redditors of Tildes, which subreddits are you missing the most during the blackout? in ~tech
Coyote Link ParentOh yeah, pigs and chickens both are extremely food motivated, it's kinda funny! We have two pigs right now that someone just dumped in my yard about 9 years ago, and I got 'em to follow me into a...Oh yeah, pigs and chickens both are extremely food motivated, it's kinda funny! We have two pigs right now that someone just dumped in my yard about 9 years ago, and I got 'em to follow me into a pen by putting goat food (what I had at the time) in a bucket and just shaking it. Not sure if they'd been bucket trained by a previous owner before they were dumped or if they were just aware of the sound food makes, but it worked flawlessly.
When I used to free range chooks (as a kid, I've since moved and our predator load is much too high now, but I give 'em loads of run space), they were quite similar. They'd come to the glass door at my parent's house to beg for snacks, and were usually obliged. :P The guinea birds figured out which room was our bedroom and would stand on top of the fence to peck the glass if we slept in too late for 'em.
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Comment on Redditors of Tildes, which subreddits are you missing the most during the blackout? in ~tech
Coyote LinkThe only subreddits I really miss / haven't found good fediverse alternatives for are the more zoological animal science ones & the animal husbandry related ones. Not many casual fans of chicken...The only subreddits I really miss / haven't found good fediverse alternatives for are the more zoological animal science ones & the animal husbandry related ones. Not many casual fans of chicken genetics, sheep & pig herding & the latest data on animal training and behavioral enrichment on the fediverse yet. Or good husbandry advice/habitat design talk. Missing the entomology and flora ID / personal ecosystem management type stuff too. Some old school forums for these exist, and I still participate in 'em, but a lot of the ones that still exist lean a bit too far right for me to really enjoy.
The backyard chicken subreddit (for example) never went dark, but I won't be going back to reddit regardless of the personal loss of those hubs of niche but deeply held interests of mine. Alas.
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Comment on Do you go by a pseudonym or your real name (or both) for your online presence? in ~tech
Coyote LinkNever put anything close to my real name online, and I don't use a centralized username on any of my online accounts; ie if you search my username you are just likely to get a bunch of random...Never put anything close to my real name online, and I don't use a centralized username on any of my online accounts; ie if you search my username you are just likely to get a bunch of random people utilizing the same usernames. I sign up w/ fake birthdays to a lot of places that make bdays a hard requirement. I try to avoid making accounts many common places in the first place.
Sounds paranoid but really it's just bein' tired of dealing with shit & avoiding ad profiling based on age demographics 'n whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Comment on Does Tildes *want* Reddit 'refugees'? in ~tildes
Coyote LinkI'm from the most recent reddit purge, but I'm not really looking for a reddit clone, per say; I'd been branching out to various forums (such as they still exist) and federated communities for a...I'm from the most recent reddit purge, but I'm not really looking for a reddit clone, per say; I'd been branching out to various forums (such as they still exist) and federated communities for a couple years before this, as I don't think it's wise to keep all your eggs in one basket, as they say.
That said, I literally never used reddit outside of a 3rd party app like Apollo, so I was VERY insulated from much of the worst of reddit's population by accessing only very little corners of it and by lurking a lot more than I was talking. I expect that I'll be much the same here, but that's just my personality.Tildes seems interesting for it's take on things, and so far the overall mood has been pleasantly chill. The only downside is some of my main interests are very niche (hobby farming (some gardening, mostly livestock with a focus on genetics), zoo enrichment & keeping up to date with best practices regarding habitat & enclosure design, etc...) , and it's been rather hard to find any active communities for those things outside of reddit, which has been the biggest bummer. I've found a few cute communities for a lot of my other hobbies and interests with things like DIY, woodworking and mini terrain builds and the like at least!
The only advantage reddit has ever had for people like me is just combining a lot of niche topics under one "forum" style site. I didn't have to log in to 3-5 different sites to satisfy a social curiosity or answer people needing help with, say, backyard chicken enclosure sizes in one group and then people wanting advice on a terrain build for their dnd game in another, but I've never thought that idea was unique to reddit by any means. I do understand Tildes' reluctance to implement user-generated subgroups despite my more specialized interests, 'cause moderation can become a nightmare for both the moderators and users very quickly depending on the quality of the other.
I do wish we had a couple more broad ones I think are missing like DIY and/or home economics... My selfish wish would be for maybe one related to broad animal husbandry, pet and livestock alike, but I think the latter is mostly because it can be so hard to find hobby farm groups that are lgbtqa+ friendly. :')
It’s not the majority of users or lurkers, but I view tildes mostly logged out tbh, and often view sites without making an account; if unable to view a site without logging in, I honestly tend to just skip using it altogether.
This kind of thing can be harmlessly disseminated without interrogation imo, if it’s not useful to the majority that’s fine, but doesn’t make it worthless. I’ll be making good use of it tho, so thanks to OP for taking the time to share.