Sheep's recent activity
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Comment on Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown in ~music
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentI have. At least 3 people I know had no job today because the service their businesses use to place orders was down due to cloudflare. Similar things happened when AWS went down a while back. When...but so far I haven’t really seen any examples of that.
I have. At least 3 people I know had no job today because the service their businesses use to place orders was down due to cloudflare. Similar things happened when AWS went down a while back.
When everything runs on these services, one outage is enough to bring all businesses down. The only saving grace is that they are usually not that long, but it is ridiculous to me that we live in a world where we put all eggs in one basket for such critical infrastructure.
I'm not saying businesses should make financial decisions that hurt them, that's precisely why I said I wish there was political interest in changing this, because obviously capitalism only cares about profit maximization and a small outage has already been determined to not meaningfully impact profits.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentI'm not saying we should aim for 100% uptime in any service, nor do I think that's possible. That's not my issue at all. The problem I have is with pretty much every single website relying on one...I'm not saying we should aim for 100% uptime in any service, nor do I think that's possible. That's not my issue at all.
The problem I have is with pretty much every single website relying on one of 4 big corporations to be operable (Cloudflare, AWS, Google, Azure).
This means that, when one of those goes down, one single company's downtime affects everyone, and I really don't think that's a good trajectory for the internet.
I am particularly concerned with digital sovereignty as well because all these big corporations are American and the US has proved time and time again to not be a reliable ally. I don't think my entire country's digital infrastructure should be at risk if Microsoft, at the behest of the US government, decides to pull the plug, for example.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
Sheep LinkRight in the middle of editing my mtg deck on moxfield! /s What saddens me is that nothing will be done about it once they come back because the cost of a temporary outage once every blue moon is...Right in the middle of editing my mtg deck on moxfield! /s
What saddens me is that nothing will be done about it once they come back because the cost of a temporary outage once every blue moon is worth the long term savings for most businesses.
I wish there was political interest in decentralizing sectors like this to avoid monopolies. As an EU citizen it hurts that almost everything I and other people do on a computer must at some point go through giant for-profit American corporations.
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Comment on PSP: The rise and fall of Sony's first portable in ~games
Sheep LinkI will die on the hill that the PSP (and its sequels) was peak portable console when it came out, and it hurts so much that Sony gave up on iterating it after the Vita (which is still an awesome...I will die on the hill that the PSP (and its sequels) was peak portable console when it came out, and it hurts so much that Sony gave up on iterating it after the Vita (which is still an awesome console btw).
It really felt like it came out too early for its own good. The lack of consistent support form 3rd party devs and even Sony ultimately killed its lengevity. But boy is it a blast if you jailbreak it.
With the tech we have today, Sony could absolutely release a killer portable console if they wanted to, but I'm guessing they've given up on the idea with the Switch's overwhelming dominance of that marker sector.
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Comment on Request for info: Is "Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro" respectful of it's child characters? in ~anime
Sheep (edited )LinkSome background: I have followed the author, Nanashi, for over a decade now (I checked my bookmarks and my oldest of his works dates back to 2013), way before he ever published any commercial...Some background: I have followed the author, Nanashi, for over a decade now (I checked my bookmarks and my oldest of his works dates back to 2013), way before he ever published any commercial manga. So I am, probably more than most, very intimate with his style, fetishes, and inclinations (in case you're unaware, he earned his fame/reputation as an independent hentai author).
My views on Nagatoro as a long-time follower are pretty simple: It's softcore femdom disguised as a romcom that slowly sheds off its femdom skin as it goes on.
First of all, it's adapted from a now defunct webcomic where Nagatoro, the main heroine, way more viciously bullied the protagonist. Lots of direct insults, kicking down, and only a very, very occasional blush/fluster from the heroine. It wasn't explicitly sexual even back then, but the presentation (it's basically a POV manga) was all about putting the reader in the shoes of the protagonist to kinda arouse them via the verbal and physical abuse. This web comic version has been almost entirely purged from the author's social media pages after he made the commercial version, likely to avoid "tainting" the Nagatoro character so to speak (Nagotoro herself is a veeeery old Nanashi OC, dating back to the early 2010s)
This is not surprising since one of Nanashi's most famous works before going mainstream, his 2nd ever doujinshi, is a lolicon femdom hentai that features a main character who makes the exact same eye expression Nagatoro would later make, which became the author's signature stare that everyone now knows him from. Nagatoro the character is older than this doujinshi, but I remember she only started making this very specific eye expression after it became kind of the author's hallmark thanks to this one doujinshi.
So right out of the gate, the formula was always to have this bully character entice the reader. In fact you can see traces of this more mean-spirited origin in the first few chapters of Nagatoro, before it's toned way, way down to just light teasing that's appropriate for a romcom. There was speculation earlier on that this came about due to editorial intervention and I'm inclined to agree because if that intense teasing from the first few chapters had stayed the same the manga probably wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.
So as far as sexualization goes, yes it's sexualized to an extent, because it quite literally puts the characters in very common femdom situations, just with no nudity or explicit dialogue (though there is partial nudity in some cases, the typical stuff you see in anime) because that would get an 18+ label. It's all about having female characters mock the protagonist and being superior to him.
Of course, as the series goes on, it begins deviating from this premise more and more and becomes way less in-your-face with the femdom, but that was the purpose of it and the driving force behind it early on, and certainly what a big part of the readership sought out.
Overall, I don't think what I said puts this manga outside of suggestive romcoms with similar themes. After all, lots of works do this thing where they lean into common fetish tropes/culture but then make it safe for work so the manga can sell to a broader audience. It's kind of a cliche by now.
But since you're particularly concerned about how the minors are treated in this work in particular, I would say they're treated suggestively, more so early on than later on, so if that's your primary issue then I'd skip this.
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Comment on The algorithm failed music in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentIn a broad sense, peace of mind I suppose? Not having to worry whether I'm missing some frequencies that I could otherwise hear. The only reason lossy formats exist is to save storage, but since...In a broad sense, peace of mind I suppose? Not having to worry whether I'm missing some frequencies that I could otherwise hear.
The only reason lossy formats exist is to save storage, but since storage isn't much of a concern to me, having everything in flac is acceptable for my use case.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
Sheep LinkIn a couple ways. For work, since I'm a translator, I have sometimes used AI to help me translate. Not to give me a direct translation, but to give me alternatives to translation solutions I'm not...In a couple ways.
For work, since I'm a translator, I have sometimes used AI to help me translate. Not to give me a direct translation, but to give me alternatives to translation solutions I'm not pleased with but can't come up with alternatives for.
For example, if I know I want to use a proverb in a certain line of dialogue but my mind just isn't coming up with anything decent, either because it's on the tip of my tongue or I just blanked out, I tell the AI "Give me proverbs that carry so and so meaning" and then, and this is the crucial step, I analyze the output using my expertise (look up if the proverb is real, see if it fits in context, etc.) and evaluate if any are good enough for what I want to use it for.
Sometimes I reject all solutions, sometimes I edit one better, and sometimes I like one so much I use it as is. I see this in the same way as looking up words in a dictionary, which I also do. It's a tool, and because I know its strengths and weaknesses, I can adjust it to my usage.
These all then go into my glossary if they're noteworthy enough, meaning I gained permanent knowledge, so it's a win-win in my book.
As for non-work related uses, I have used AI to un-enshittify searches for basic things that should be easy to find but modern search engines make the process daunting. Essentially very basic searches that, if I Google them, will have me wade through pages and pages of content that may or may not be relevant.
A good example: the other day I needed a quick comparison between a few body washes, and while I checked each individual page for said body wash, I wanted actual explanations from outside sources on what some compounds did, so I asked the AI to compare the products for me just to give me a general overview and then look up the relevant compounds on my own. Essentially I used it to filter out search results and give me what I actually care to look up.
I see IA as bypassing this tedious search and filtering process. But I never just take the AI's word for it. Usually I use it as a starting point to find actual websites or pages that will actually lead me to the information I want.
In a broad sense, I try to use AI as a tool with the things I know it's generally good at (parsing loads of text data to find what I'm after), but I never use it to think for me or take its results at face value. I'm always checking the sources, which sometimes definitely leads me to conclude the AI got it wrong, but I still find it valuable in shortening my time looking for something.
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Comment on The algorithm failed music in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentThank you for putting so succinctly. This is my biggest argument against the people who praise streaming platforms for their algorithm and how that helps you find new music more easily. Yes,...Thank you for putting so succinctly.
This is my biggest argument against the people who praise streaming platforms for their algorithm and how that helps you find new music more easily.
Yes, streaming definitely helps you find new music, I've been there too, but if you actually analyze the music you find, you will invariably notice sooner or later that everything you're finding basically concentrates into this amorphous blob of same-sounding songs.
It's not that the new songs you find are bad, but they start trending toward "music you turn on just to have music playing" rather than music you listen actively, and at that point is the algorithm doing that much for you? (note I am not saying that having background music to zone out or focus on work is bad, I'm just criticizing the discovery process of the music specifically)
I ended up hating losing the love I had for music when I strictly listened to my mp3 collection that was 100% curated by me, so I went back to it (and switched it all to flac versions while I was at it) and bought a DAP as well to take my collection on the go, and now I'm so much more engaged. Yes I might not discover new songs as quickly and effortlessly as I used to with streaming (though there are mitigating tools for this a la last.fm), but when I do, I genuinely think it feels better because it was a conscious decision, like digging for a treasure and finding it and feeling all giddy over it.
I seriously recommend people try being more active in their music library. It can be such an engaging activity.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
Sheep LinkRegarding dairy, while I know it's common to add milk to tea in many cultures, you don't have to. My family never adds milk to their tea and we drink tea pretty frequently. It's just a personal...Regarding dairy, while I know it's common to add milk to tea in many cultures, you don't have to. My family never adds milk to their tea and we drink tea pretty frequently. It's just a personal choice.
I do not consider myself a tea person at all, so I don't have much more to add but I think the old adage of "it's all preference" reigns supreme here. The best tea is the one you like, so don't try too hard to be a "tea person" so to speak, and more so try to find what you enjoy.
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Comment on Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason in ~anime
Sheep (edited )LinkAs someone who studied media translation (subtitling included), anime is really its own beast that you need separate specifications and guidelines for due to the vast amount of on-screen text as...As someone who studied media translation (subtitling included), anime is really its own beast that you need separate specifications and guidelines for due to the vast amount of on-screen text as well as the different alphabet that the majority of your audience will not be able to read. It's an absolute shame that Crunchyroll and some other companies do not take this seriously and end up diminishing their paid viewer experience for no good reason (I mean I know the reason is profit with the least amount of work possible, I just don't consider that a good reason).
Traditionally, when subtitling, you used to have a two line limit at the bottom of the screen for most situations (and a character limit per second, usually about 42-48), and then you may occasionally use the top of the screen for the on-screen text, if that text is necessary to comprehend the narrative (otherwise you'd ignore it so as to not clutter the screen). This was mainly a result of technical limitations of traditional formats like TV and DVD players, where fancy styling was not available so you couldn't encode that information in your subtitles. It was also important for subtitles to be modifiable for accessibility reasons as well, so the simpler the better, and in a traditional setting a subtitle file contains little more than timestamps and the text itself.
But for anime, especially nowadays, there are always so many scenes with text on screen (just think of how many fantasy rpg anime with menu screens there are these days) that it should be imperative for companies like Crunchyroll to have guidelines for them and not ignore them completely. Web players are also capable of encoding all types of styling as well, and if accessibility is an issue, you can always include an non stylized option for the people who need it, because modern players allow for such implementations, unlike TV in the old days.
There's also audience expectation. Anime fans are much more inclined to be interested in everything that's on screen because they're already conscious that they're watching a work from another culture and that difference is a huge part of the appeal, so losing out on that vital information diminishes the experience.
Like, I get it. As a translator I get that deadlines are tight and sometimes technical limitations don't allow you to do everything in the most pristine way, but we have ample evidence that something better than what is currently being provided is possible, and Crunchyroll and other anime licensing companies should absolutely be held to that standard if they are charging a fee for their service.
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Comment on Unfuck Google Drive (It's Gemini garbage, of course) in ~comp
Sheep Link ParentFilen was my choice for this. Has all the same sharing functions from Google Drive and it also lets you automatically back up stuff easily. I also heard good things about Koofr. -
Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (October 2025) in ~health.mental
Sheep (edited )LinkThis is my first time writing in this thread and I don't know why I only decided to write now other than I feel like I'm at the end of my rope so maybe jotting down my thoughts will help ease that...This is my first time writing in this thread and I don't know why I only decided to write now other than I feel like I'm at the end of my rope so maybe jotting down my thoughts will help ease that a little.
I apologize if this is overly negative. Please do remove it if you feel it doesn't fit this thread. I'll put all of my rambling in collapsible section as a content warning. Honestly it's more just me putting my thoughts down than anything else. At the bottom is what's actually been going well for me that has helped me fight back some of the negativity.
Content warning: negativity, anger, suicidal thoughts
I turned 30 this year and I don't think I've ever felt like less of a human in my life than now.
I still live with my father and younger sister because I do not earn enough to afford rent in my country. The only way I can leave is if I date/marry someone that I can split rent with or find a roommate. But at a time when I can't even love myself, this is not something that's in the cards (nor do I want to saddle someone with my current state).
In all my life I have struggled to get anything done on time, an issue that has compounded over the years and led me to where I'm at now: barely able to have a consistent income and struggling to motivate myself to change any of it. I'm pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD (something I only discovered at the age of 27 thanks to my friend who got diagnosed at 30) but I am still saving up to go to a psychiatrist and formally get myself examined and diagnosed so I won't assume this is true for the purposes of this text.
At 27 I developed severe tinnitus out of nowhere in the middle of the day, which massively altered my life and traumatized me for a good year before I got any semblance of a routine back. The cause is unknown, I don't have hearing loss (did all the tests) or any other factors that could have contributed to it, so it could have just been stress. Main point is: the silence I used to use to relax before is permanently gone, replaced by constant loud buzzing and whistling. I quite literally cannot sleep without something playing in the background (usually my white noise machine), but at least I can still sleep, something that wasn't true in the first year I got this condition.
All these factors have led me to spiral into depression over the course of time. I struggle very hard to find joy in anything I do. I cannot focus on anything for long periods of time, and my work life, despite me doing the job I dreamed of doing when I got into college (being a translator), is constantly held back by this. I've had almost a decade to advance my career, but because of my constant mental setbacks, I hamper myself and put myself down, thinking I don't deserve to be where I am or that I'm just not good enough to be with peers I look up to. Because of that, it took a good 6 or 7 years for me to even get properly started in my field and finally earn some semblance of a salary, but I still do not earn minimum wage (this might change soon, see bottom of the post).
If all this wasn't enough, I feel like I'm the black sheep of my family (well, I might be considering how unsuccessful I am compared to everyone around me) My father and sister do not treat me like I'm a human being worthy of respect. I don't know if they do it consciously or subconsciously, but whenever I bring up a personal opinion on any subject, 9 times out of 10 it is discarded with no valid argument given. I feel like I could argue as rationally as I can about any point I have and just be told I'm being stupid or everyone has different opinions or what have you. This isn't about politics, mind you, I don't even argue those. I'm talking, for example, how I think we should have a robust system for house chores so everyone always has chores assigned to them and the house can be tidy, but I'm told that's stupid and you should just clean/tidy something if you see it's out of place, nevermind that I'm the only person at home for most of the day so that would always fall on me. Or how I don't think we should have a dog because no one is willing to walk him everyday, but my sister begged my dad to have a dog so now we're stuck with one, a dog that is constantly locked in the kitchen and peeing and pooping everywhere, something I have to deal with constantly because no one is home most of the day, and I could go on ad infinitum.
What hurts the most is that my sister gets treated the opposite way. My father buys her whatever she asks, takes her wherever she wants to go no matter how unreasonable the request is, and does all her chores for her like cleaning her room which, despite me being the one constantly depressed, looks like one of those hoarders on reality TV. (my room isn't pristine by any means, I often struggle to clean the dust, but I don't have a week's worth of spoiled food in it like my sister does for example).
This has essentially led me to isolate myself as much as possible. If I speak to my father or sister about anything, just ask them to change something no matter how small, they'll simply put me down (either by deflecting to something I do that bothers them or plainly saying everyone works differently so I shouldn't criticize them) so why bother talking at all? I often spend entire days without saying a single word to anyone in my home, not even a greeting, because I don't want to risk having a conversation that will upset me. I literally sit at the dinner table with my family, quietly eat, and then leave without saying a word. I feel like a literal animal, but worse because at least our dog gets love and attention, even if no one ever takes him out on walks. I also avoid going to the kitchen because I'm so tired of dog pee and poop everywhere that no one wants to clean. I've essentially locked myself in my room most of the day and avoid sharing as much time as possible with anyone in my family because I feel like my head will explode with anger if I spend more than 10 minutes with any of them.
Needless to say these patterns have built into a deep-rooted anger that is now taking hold of me and making my emotional state even worse. I constantly have angry fantasies of revenge against my father (not violent revenge, I'm talking petty revenge because I fantasize about him knowing how neglected I feel), which I know is wrong and always rationalize myself out of, but it hurts how frequent they are now. I also more and more have suicidal thoughts, not as a way to escape the pain I feel but because I sometimes imagine how "awesome" it would be to get back at my father, which is genuinely disturbing when I catch myself doing it. How pathetic I feel that even in my suicidal thoughts I'm not doing something for myself, but to spite someone else. How can this one person have so much control over my emotions? (and no, I don't really have much hatred for my sister because she was literally raised to be like this. Anyone would end up spoiled if their father never told them no)
My mother is separated from my father and lives elsewhere in case anyone is wondering. I would consider her somewhat of an ally because she does listen to me and shows concern, but she has way too much stress in her life for me to burden her even more with my problems. I'd say she's in a similar position to me but just different circumstances. Whenever I'm with her she's constantly being angry and rambling about how poorly her life is going, so I choose to stay quiet around her to not compound her anger or mine. If anything, I have learned more and more why she got away from my father, because I too can't live with someone who gives so little of a crap about anything or anyone around them.
That's the most frustrating part, too. My father is the type of person who just doesn't care about anything no matter what. He is an eternal fence sitter that would rather maintain his poor lifestyle at home than to admit anything, no matter how small, needs to change. He's not physically abusive or anything, he's just impossible to move in any direction that's not the status quo, so I'm forced to deal with the same status quo no matter how much it hurts me. The only person that can move him is my sister, but she has a cushy life thanks to him so obviously she's not going to lift a finger.
Here's a prime example: I'm overweight and am trying my best to eat healthy so I can maintain a stable caloric deficit, but whenever I ask my father to buy anything to help with my diet, since he usually is the one grocery shopping (and I'm not talking an expensive meat substitute, I'm talking stuff like chicken breasts instead of beef hamburgers), he just ignores the request, often saying he forgot. Meanwhile he always makes sure to stock on endless boxes of cookies and bottles of sugary drinks for my sister without her even asking, which is making my weight loss journey worse due to cravings. This has essentially resulted in me giving up cooking healthy meals for myself because I can't afford to feed myself fully every month and need to rely on my father's income, which I obviously can't force him to spend the way I want to so my only choice is to plead, which falls on deaf ears. My father and sister both have very physically active lives so they can eat all this high calorie stuff and be skinny forever, but I am always home so I need to pay more attention to what I eat, yet my health concerns mean nothing to anyone but myself.
So that's the gist of my life at present, a never ending cycle of hatred and helplessness, and the general feeling that I'm not even seen as a human being by those around me and more of an object or burden that's in the way.
I know the only solution at this point is to remove myself from this house and find solace by myself, something I am very much eager to do, but I don't have the financial means to at the moment. I'm terrified that if I even so much as open up to my father about this I'll snap and he'll kick me out of the house which will set me back even more. So that's why I'm here venting instead. Thankfully, at the ripe age of 30, I have finally taken one small step toward progress. (see below)
This is the positive that's happened in my life: 2 weeks ago I was finally able to return to consistent language studying, a habit I dropped like 5 years ago. I am finally acquiring new skills that will improve my job prospects and hoping to maintain this rhythm until I can apply for a language certificate that I've always dreamed of having (I considered it a milestone in my career because it very much is, but my inattentive brain always let the goal slip)
It all started with creating a small habit every day: just pick up the book and read. Eventually it turned into a habit that I feel like I can't do without, which feels awesome. I thought I couldn't get such a routine back. I haven't felt this excited about my own career path in years. Of course, I still sometimes feel like putting the book down, but through some clever tricks like learning to put my phone down and blocking access to it, turning off my computer, and even studying outside with no distractions, have helped a lot.
I also finally managed to somewhat convince myself that my skills are real and even if I'm not the best in my industry I shouldn't put my worth down. So I've applied to more jobs, which has resulted in an interview that may finally lead me to earning a minimum wage. This might seem worthless to many reading, and I'm aware that this is a very low bar, but I have never earned this much in my life so I am very excited to finally start going somewhere.
I'm hoping that by the start of next year I will at least be at a point where I can support myself instead of feeling so helpless, since those around me don't seem to care for me. It still hurts right now since I'm not there yet, but I'm doing my best to put up with the situation and try to calm myself each day so I can get through this rocky road.
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Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentI agree with you, I just think it's the other way around. If social media is where almost everyone gets their news for the last decade, and social media works mainly based on engagement (ie it...I agree with you, I just think it's the other way around.
If social media is where almost everyone gets their news for the last decade, and social media works mainly based on engagement (ie it promotes content that keeps users on their apps over content that doesn't), then it's no wonder that sources that play up the engagement system end up on top in the authority scale, regardless of their veracity.
That's what leads to no agreed-upon authorities on all sorts of subjects. Whoever gains the engagement economy system has the bigger say, and in this day and age that's whoever is most popular on social media no matter what they do or who they are.
I legitimately think social media, in its current state, is the root cause of the sheer disconnect people have with reality nowadays. Whether that be directly because people are constantly online or indirectly because even traditional news sources are now incentivized to play the social media engagement game.
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Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech
Sheep Link ParentYeah it was a brainfart and I fixed it after re-reading my comment. My bad.Yeah it was a brainfart and I fixed it after re-reading my comment. My bad.
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Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech
Sheep (edited )Link ParentIn simplified terms, yes. Obviously overtourism is an issue with the steadily decreasing value of the yen. I myself took advantage of this this past spring to go there for considerably cheaper...In simplified terms, yes.
Obviously overtourism is an issue with the steadily decreasing value of the yen. I myself took advantage of this this past spring to go there for considerably cheaper than my last trip a couple years back.
But the notion that an increasing number of tourists only go to Japan to ruin it is also overly exaggerated due to social media cherry picking and misinformation.
Every country with lots of tourism will always have a small minority of said tourists that misbehaves, and the absolute number of those goes up the more tourists you have, but the percentages generally don't without any other factors being at play. Of course, it's unfortunate that anyone misbehaves, but it is something you can manage, not an excuse to go balls to the wall anti immigration like Japan is doing right now (which is a particularly bad move in Japan's case because their population is shrinking very rapidly and nobody wants to have children under the Japanese work system).
My experience with Japanese Twitter in particular is that Chinese people are vilified to such an insane degree you'd think it's 19th century USA with black people. I'm talking full on caricature drawings, sometimes doctored or heavily manipulated photos, along with the most bombastic headlines, as if Chinese citizens are there to invade Japan and replace Japanese people. This type of rhetoric is what's causing far right parties like Sanseito to rise more and more in the polls, to the point where they've gained influence with the ruling liberal democratic party and their new PM is taking much stronger far-right stances.
I made a joke with a friend that Westerners haven't experienced racism in the modern world until they've asked a Japanese person about Chinese people. Obviously this is overly exaggerated and purely anecdotal, but there seems to be an ever-growing hateful, xenophobic vitriol that you can find in Japanese online spaces, it's just isolated by the language barrier so most people outside of Japan don't come across it.
It just goes to show that literally no country is immune from the social media propaganda machine.
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Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech
Sheep LinkThis type of propaganda is rampant in Japanese social media as well. I don't live in Japan but speak Japanese fluently and watch Japanese content out of interest. Almost every time I talk to a...This type of propaganda is rampant in Japanese social media as well. I don't live in Japan but speak Japanese fluently and watch Japanese content out of interest. Almost every time I talk to a Japanese person about anything to do with the state of the country, it almost always invariably leads to how immigration and tourism (usually Chinese/Korean) is destroying Japan in some capacity (I almost always expect to hear something about Chinese tourists kicking deers in Nara or something).
Japanalysis, another Japan-centric youtube creator, did a good video recently about one specific political personality that's spreading this kind of misinformation within the Japanese public that I highly recommend you watch, since most English speakers never have contact with that side of the internet due to the language barrier.
All this to say this type of content affects both people watching from outside and people watching from the inside. It warps reality.
In the end, social media has created the breeding ground for this type of rampant misinformation and is eroding what little is left of real reporting. People are much more engaged with a YouTube short or a Facebook headline than they are with a detailed analysis of a situation. It's sad.
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Comment on South Korea officially recognises same-sex couples in national census in ~lgbt
Sheep LinkSmall step but everything counts in such regions. Hopefully this moves the needle toward equal rights. If I recall correctly, South Korea doesn' thave the same problem as countries like Japan...Small step but everything counts in such regions. Hopefully this moves the needle toward equal rights.
If I recall correctly, South Korea doesn' thave the same problem as countries like Japan where the constitution itself specifically says marriage is between a man and a woman (ie the only way to change it is a constitutional reform a much more daunting process), so in theory once there's majority support for it it should be more easy to change. Fingers crossed.
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Comment on Silksong’s real final boss: The translator who broke his NDA and wrote like a dead poet in ~games
Sheep (edited )Link ParentI work as a professional translator (games and books mostly) so I can chime in a bit with my own experience, though I can't promise it applies here since I don't know Team Cherry's workflow. The...- Exemplary
I work as a professional translator (games and books mostly) so I can chime in a bit with my own experience, though I can't promise it applies here since I don't know Team Cherry's workflow.
The vast majority of translators in this field specifically are freelance workers hired by companies for that specific project.
Speaking for myself, every single localization company has required I take a translation test to even join, some also requiring I have a certificate for the language (Many languages have aptitude tests you can pay to take, and then they'll formally grade your ability). So that is the first hurdle a translator must clear to even translate for somebody, and the first assurance to the client that they are hiring professional translators that can maintain a certain standard.
Then you have translation and style guidelines. Every company usually has these in some capacity to maintain consistency across their projects.
Lastly, a translator is not supposed to work alone. I have never in my life worked alone in the 10 years I've been active. You must always work in tandem with at least an editor that will oversee your work and polish it as necessary, which is then usually followed by a dedicated quality checker that will check for any further issues. The editor and quality checker are not always required to know the source language, but during the hiring process for those positions those are definitely qualities that are sought out so you can specifically ask the company that the editing and quality checking steps be performed by bilingual people as well.
Quality checking can also be done independently by the client or a separate company they hire. I've had books I've translated which were edited by my editor, but all the final quality checking was done by the client (or somebody they hired, I don't actually know) which then sent the feedback for us to review, and that feedback contained (among other things) translation errors made by me as well as disagreement over how I translated some things, which I then promptly fixed.
As the client, you can usually trust that the barrier to entry + the multiple person workflow will ensure nobody is stepping out of line, since if one person steps out of the line the others should step up and inform the company about it, preventing the bad work from ever coming out.
For example, I once worked on a game that was delayed because the previous translator did such an awful job that it was unsalvageable and needed to be redone. This was all caught by editors during the editing phase and the game was never published with that translation, instead being delayed until a new translation was ready.
Also if you're a freelance translator, doing shoddy work or god forbid breaching NDAs will get you on a blacklist prerty quickly and ruin your career in the industry. I have no idea why anybody would do what's described in this article, it's career suicide.
So unless you are directly hiring a single person and not a localization company, NDA breaches and shoddy work should definitely be a very, very low risk. Not impossible but there are enough barriers in place to prevent it.
Since there are only 2 people credited with the Chinese translation of Silksong, I suspect that is where the problem lies, as 2 people is very low for a game of this scale. Just a coordinator + translator + editor are 3 people, and they didn't even have that it seems.
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Comment on Denmark has proposed scrapping its tax on chocolate, cake and other sweets, as well as coffee, to help consumers cope with high food prices in ~food
Sheep Link ParentAs someone who lives in a country with reduced tax on books (6% instead of 23%), I support that one at least. Being a source of knowledge, I think books should be as accessible as possible to...As someone who lives in a country with reduced tax on books (6% instead of 23%), I support that one at least. Being a source of knowledge, I think books should be as accessible as possible to people who want/need to purchase them.
I live in Portugal where this is already the law. You are not allowed to resell a ticket for more than the price printed on the ticket (all tickets must have their price on them).
It has helped dramatically when it comes to online platforms. You can always report tickets being sold for more than their face value and it gets taken down. And most people are aware of the law and won't buy your resold ticket if you ask for more than it's worth.
It's not flawless. Tickets still aren't tied to ID so you could resell them on the streets for a higher price and so long as the police doesn't see you nobody will do anything, but at least it curbed the rampant scalping going on online, as it's much harder to run big scalping operations in person.