shaun's recent activity
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Comment on Reddit is changing the r/popular algorithm so that more discussion-focused subreddits and posts gain visibility in ~tech
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Comment on What game hooked you? in ~games
shaun LinkUltima Online was the game that got me hooked, and the only one I ever much cared for. I spent many thousands of hours (and a few thousand dollars) playing over a number of years. It was a great...Ultima Online was the game that got me hooked, and the only one I ever much cared for. I spent many thousands of hours (and a few thousand dollars) playing over a number of years. It was a great value; for the cost of going to see a 90-minute movie, I could have a whole month's worth of entertainment. There was a thriving community around UO in its forums and several fan sites.
I eventually lost interest, not so much in the game or its evolving lore but with the way it was treated as a product. Aggressive i18n efforts took a lot of the rustic feel away from the experience. A new 3D-hotness client was introduced and the 2D client was left to languish. Prices went up. I moved on, playing on emulator servers for awhile and then giving it up altogether.
Haven't found another game that even comes close to giving me that same spark...
Yep, both the UI and the network have filled with bloat. The current state of Reddit feels like I'm having to fight a website, as though it's actively working against me. In the past year, I've
sinkholed multiple reddit.com subdomains to avoid tracking and whatever they're doing with websockets
sinkholed third-party domains to avoid spurious "chat" connections
installed Stylus and written styles to get rid of annoying page elements like "try the redesign"
opted out of the redesign
installed ViolentMonkey and added scripts to restore old user pages, suppress the chat box and icon, etc.
...and still I'm doing battle at every turn. When I log out to switch accounts, often the new design will pop up at random, even though every account has it turned off. Much of the redesign, including its login page, simply doesn't function if LocalStorage is disabled in the browser.
I've used a lot of interfaces over the years, and I've had my share of gripes, but I've never had to resort to so many hacks and workarounds to keep one comfortably usable.