sparksbet's recent activity
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Comment on Opinion piece: I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day. in ~life.women
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Comment on Opinion piece: I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day. in ~life.women
sparksbet Link ParentOr even just being perceived as being part of the woman category.Or even just being perceived as being part of the woman category.
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Comment on Fix your hearts or die: The path to liberation for lonely men is feminism in ~life
sparksbet Link ParentThe thing is that there isn't really a "counterpart concept" of "positive masculinity". "Toxic masculinity" was created to describe a particular social force in our culture, one that can be...the counterpart concept of "postive masculinity" is only vaguely defined and not well differentiated — what about it is masculine and not generalizable to women or any other member of society
The thing is that there isn't really a "counterpart concept" of "positive masculinity". "Toxic masculinity" was created to describe a particular social force in our culture, one that can be enforced by women just as easily as by men. It's not just describing individual behaviors, and there isn't an equivalent or counterpart social force that corresponds well to the idea of "positive masculinity" -- which is, as you seem to say, pretty much just generally positive traits that one can exhibit regardless of gender, except For Men.
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Comment on I switched my gaming PC to Linux, and this time I think it's for good in ~comp
sparksbet Link ParentI've swapped to it for a couple games in the past based on ProtonDB recommendations but I think it was to solve a few edge cases (weird audio issues and the like), and I haven't had that happen...I've swapped to it for a couple games in the past based on ProtonDB recommendations but I think it was to solve a few edge cases (weird audio issues and the like), and I haven't had that happen for years.
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Comment on Opinion piece: I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day. in ~life.women
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentDiscussion here of "how to keep women and girls safe" feels very othering to me, insofar as it feels like this comment was directed at people who do not belong to the class consisting of women and...Discussion here of "how to keep women and girls safe" feels very othering to me, insofar as it feels like this comment was directed at people who do not belong to the class consisting of women and girls. After all, if you ask someone who is the victim of societal misogyny like this how to keep themselves safe from it... the answer is you really can't. It's like putting a tea bag in a cup of water and asking how to keep it dry. Radically change the world I live in, maybe, but that's hardly actionable advice.
Not everyone's experiences are as harsh as this girl's, but a lot more than you think are. By and large we are used to living in a society where misogyny is ubiquitous, or at least a constant threat. I think there are broad societal changes we can advocate for and attitudes we can strive to instill in younger generations that will make the world less awful for women, and I think we can see from history huge strides forward that prove it is possible to make changes. I try to remind myself of that to prevent my doomer-y tendencies. But at the same time, it does still feel like trying to empty a lake with a teaspoon.
I'm not a current teenager, so there's a limit to how directly I can suggest specific solutions to what she describes, too. I don't necessarily agree with her that a social media ban for under-16s would solve these problems, though. It may, optimistically, make them less visible, though I'm skeptical there too. But teenage boys aren't going to stop learning misogyny from adults and their peers because they aren't allowed to use social media without faking an age verification. If there's one thing that's pretty clear, it's that men can perpetuate and propagate misogyny very thoroughly through in-person interaction alone.
As an aside, I would recommend not using the word "degeneracy", even to describe stuff that is extremely vile like the stuff you use it for here. "Degenerate" is an explicitly eugenicist term and imo we have plenty of better words to criticize disgusting behavior like that in this article without using one that relates so inherently to fascism and race science.
EDIT TO ADD: While it addresses a different gendered issue as its focus, I think looking at this essay and the comments on it here on Tildes is a good place to look when you think about making the world better for women and girls, and most of the comments already there are thorough and thoughtful to an extent that mine here really isn't. As for any exceptions in that comment section, well... a lesson on how misogyny looks when it isn't from 15-year-olds.
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Comment on This video is six minutes long! in ~tech
sparksbet LinkWill have to wait until I get home to watch this particular video, but I have observed one cool (if probably subtler) use of the audio track feature: James Hoffman uses English (US) vs English...Will have to wait until I get home to watch this particular video, but I have observed one cool (if probably subtler) use of the audio track feature: James Hoffman uses English (US) vs English (UK) so that you can pick between a track that includes him slurping the coffee or not.
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Comment on I switched my gaming PC to Linux, and this time I think it's for good in ~comp
sparksbet Link ParentHonestly even Proton-GE is mostly only needed for edge cases these days. Normal Proton has advanced a ton, at least if the decrease in frequency with which I need to switch to GE is anything to go by.Honestly even Proton-GE is mostly only needed for edge cases these days. Normal Proton has advanced a ton, at least if the decrease in frequency with which I need to switch to GE is anything to go by.
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Comment on I switched my gaming PC to Linux, and this time I think it's for good in ~comp
sparksbet Link ParentHonestly OpenRGB seems to have been easier to set up with the permissions needed on Fedora than it was on an Ubuntu-based distro for me. Might just be that I gave up earlier when I set up my...Honestly OpenRGB seems to have been easier to set up with the permissions needed on Fedora than it was on an Ubuntu-based distro for me. Might just be that I gave up earlier when I set up my previous distro though. I finally have it set to turn the lights off when I put the computer to sleep (and back on with my preferred settings when I wake it back up) since my PC is now in my bedroom 😌
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Comment on Slop and guilt in ~talk
sparksbet Link Parentto be fair, slop has been used to insult things people actually made for a long time. Referring to "AI slop" in particular has caught on in popular discourse right now, but using "slop" this way...I don't really like how folks have taken slop from referring exclusively to AI output and started applying it to things people actually made.
to be fair, slop has been used to insult things people actually made for a long time. Referring to "AI slop" in particular has caught on in popular discourse right now, but using "slop" this way for things people actually made is hundreds of years old now.
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Comment on I switched my gaming PC to Linux, and this time I think it's for good in ~comp
sparksbet LinkI've been gaming on Linux since around 2021 or 2022, and I recently distro-hopped to Fedora KDE myself! I'm really liking it here. In terms of gaming, it's gotten to the point where I don't even...I've been gaming on Linux since around 2021 or 2022, and I recently distro-hopped to Fedora KDE myself! I'm really liking it here. In terms of gaming, it's gotten to the point where I don't even really have to check ProtonDB before I buy a game at all, because I can just assume it'll work (though I do usually check for any good recommendations for changing settings just in case). Granted, I don't play many multiplayer games and thus haven't suffered much from anti-cheat, which is where most of the remaining friction with gaming on Linux is.
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Comment on ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ just made ‘Breaking Bad’ lose its IMDB score record in ~tv
sparksbet LinkThis is honestly a very silly article, and tying it to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is even sillier. Ozymandius has had a perfect 10 score on IMDB for a while, it's true, and it's notable that...This is honestly a very silly article, and tying it to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is even sillier. Ozymandius has had a perfect 10 score on IMDB for a while, it's true, and it's notable that it's finally dropped to 9.9, but I'm not sure how much we should care about ratings on IMDB changing solely due to two different fandoms review-bombing each other.
Breaking Bad fans review-bombing other shows is also nothing new. Heated Rivalry episode 5 tied Oxymandius for a perfect 10 shortly after release, and it's now at a 9.9 with a ratio of one-star reviews that obviously signals review-bombing (65k 10-star reviews, 3.1k 1-star reviews, and no considerable quantities at any star numbers in between). I suppose it's possible that the people review-bombing Heated Rivalry specifically are homophobic rather than Breaking Bad fans, but I'd prefer the latter since at least it's lighter-hearted.
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Comment on US imports more from Taiwan than China for first time in decades in ~finance
sparksbet Link ParentTaiwan exports much more heavily to the PRC than vice-versa iircTaiwan exports much more heavily to the PRC than vice-versa iirc
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Comment on She graduated from high school with honors but can’t read or write. Now she’s suing. in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentI mean. Yes? It's a huge source of inequality in outcomes that those who are least able to advocate for themselves (or are unaware of their legal options) are often unable to access the legal help...I mean. Yes? It's a huge source of inequality in outcomes that those who are least able to advocate for themselves (or are unaware of their legal options) are often unable to access the legal help needed to file lawsuits. Richer, savvier parties will often take advantage of this to violate people's legal rights under the assumption that their victims won't have the means or awareness to fight back legally (this is a huge issue in tenancy law, for instance). And even highly literate laypeople generally require a lawyer to file a lawsuit, with the exceptions not seeming super relevant here.
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
sparksbet Link Parentahhh, yeah, makes sense. This actually rules out some Japanese romanizations too afaik, since it's relatively common to mark long vowels (which do matter for meaning) with a macron over the vowel...ahhh, yeah, makes sense. This actually rules out some Japanese romanizations too afaik, since it's relatively common to mark long vowels (which do matter for meaning) with a macron over the vowel in question.
I think given this, the best idea would be to use the same underlying representation in the database and just change how it's displayed and interacted with on the front end, like @Bwerf suggested.
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
sparksbet Link ParentYeah this would probably be the best way to implement it imo, though ig you'd also want to implement the search functionality handling the reverse as well...Yeah this would probably be the best way to implement it imo, though ig you'd also want to implement the search functionality handling the reverse as well...
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentI definitely understand why conversations can't be multilingual, just from a moderation perspective. But it would be interesting to have other things on the site be more multilingual in at least...I definitely understand why conversations can't be multilingual, just from a moderation perspective. But it would be interesting to have other things on the site be more multilingual in at least their technical nature.
Luckily threads and comments themselves definitely support Unicode better than tags currently, so in practice I don't think much is impeded.
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentI think the key reason I disagree with you here is that there's a loss of information present in romanizing the text that is not present with this (yes, obviously not intended to be read by...I'm just saying this is like the most ideal case possible for transliteration. It's already messy, but every other case is going to be magnitudes worse.
It's just, like xn--x8xoq871v or whatever is not readable, nor was it ever meant to be read by humans, so there's got to be a better way.
I think the key reason I disagree with you here is that there's a loss of information present in romanizing the text that is not present with this (yes, obviously not intended to be read by humans) version. You can programmatically turn that gibberish back into Japanese text and know you're getting the same text that was put in. This is not the case when romanization is used, sometimes even if you limit yourself exclusively to either hiragana or katakana, and always if you apply this process to both Japanese syllabaries (and applying romanization in any automatic fashion to text with kanji would introduce so many additional problems that it would possibly genuinely be difficult to accomplish with an acceptable level of accuracy, so I'm setting that aside entirely and assuming we only care about the phonetic syllabaries here). This means that if we romanized the texts and then later Unicode support was implemented, we would not necessarily be able to losslessly turn these back into Japanese characters.
I'd be eager to see Unicode support implemented for tags! I think hanzi/kanji are actually a good example of a use case for a feature like this, and I think full support gives us a number of other fun options. I just don't want to word things like I'm expecting Deimos to implement it in addition to the time he already spends running the site 😅 I don't think I really have the technical know-how to do it myself, but perhaps someone else does or when I have some downtime I'll look into learning.
EDIT: I checked the examples on the wikipedia page for punycode and it does in fact cover kanji as well, which dramatically increases how problematic using a romanization would be for information loss.
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Comment on In Neovim, C-y and C-e insert the same character as the column above or below the cursor in Insert mode in ~comp
sparksbet Link Parentglad my nitpickiness could be of use! maybe I'll remember this thread next time I need to use neovimglad my nitpickiness could be of use! maybe I'll remember this thread next time I need to use neovim
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
sparksbet LinkThis betrays a lack of familiarity with romanization of Japanese specifically. Not only are there a lot of homonyms when romanized that would be written differently in Japanese characters (while...- Exemplary
In this case, Japanese in particular has a neat and tidy solution. Romanji. Every katakana character is a syllable, and each syllable has another character or pair or characters using English glyphs.
This betrays a lack of familiarity with romanization of Japanese specifically. Not only are there a lot of homonyms when romanized that would be written differently in Japanese characters (while this problem is most pronounced with kanji, it's not completely absent when it comes to hiragana and katakana -- which btw there is no way to distinguish between at all in romanization either afaik), there are multiple competing romanization systems for Japanese, resulting in multiple competing ways to write the same Japanese syllables in the Latin alphabet. For instance, づ and ず are both written as "zu" in Revised Hepburn romanization and Kunrei-shiki (aka ISO 3602) but are written as "du" and "zu' respectively in Nihon-shiki (ISO 3602 strict). There are several pairs of characters with similar distinctions that exist in one major romanization system but not another. And that's just looking at the three most popular romanization systems on paper, and not to common non-standard romanizations: Google Translate, for instance writes づ as "dzu" to distinguish it from both ドゥ "du" and ず "zu". Not to be confused with the older form of Hepburn, which used "dzu" for both づ and ず! And that's not the only sticking point: there are at least four ways to romanize Japanese long vowels that are officially recognized by the Japanese government! God knows if there are even more unofficial ones out there.
Even if Tildes just picked one common romanization schema and stuck with it, this would impede tag searchability, especially in cases where the source in question has an official romanized form that differs from whatever the schema we picked uses. The much better solution to this problem would be implementing support for the native Japanese characters the way most web browsers have. Sadly, deimos probably doesn't have the time to do that atm, so we should probably cope with the jumbled letters as tags, since they at least unambiguously correspond to the Japanese characters in question. It would at least be technically relatively simple to turn a search for the same Japanese characters into a search for that same stream of gibberish and thus to return the proper result, and there would be no loss of information in using the gibberish as a tag in the meantime the way there would be if the tag was romanized.
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Comment on In Neovim, C-y and C-e insert the same character as the column above or below the cursor in Insert mode in ~comp
sparksbet Link"will" as in this is a change being made to the functionality that's going into effect soon? This is nitpicky af so feel free to mark as noise and ignore, but if this is previously existing...- Exemplary
"will" as in this is a change being made to the functionality that's going into effect soon?
This is nitpicky af so feel free to mark as noise and ignore, but if this is previously existing functionality, using the simple present (just "type" rather than "will type" in this case) would be more appropriate in English in that context (though like I said, this is nitpicky af, and the title as it stands is still understandable.)
to be clear, my post isn't a "this is something experienced by all gender identities" thing, it's more of a "this is how much it sucks to experience misogyny and live in a world where you can't ever really escape from it" more emotional response. I identify as non-binary now and use he/him pronouns, but I grew up as and have lived the majority of my life as a woman. But even without the complicated gender feelings involved for me, living in a world that's so full of misogyny fucking sucks and emotionally it's hard to cope with the knowledge that it will always be there, at least on any timescale that's relevant to my life.
btw I figured you probably didn't know re: degenerate, people often use it thoughtlessly on the internet (and I feel like I've seen it more often recently) and it's easy enough to pick it up from others without knowing the baggage, so I just try to push back when I can so people realize the connotations it has.