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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    Thank you for this, very sincerely. I think you've made a really important point: one of the problems of this kind of affordance is that they are built for whatever the software designers have determined is the "normal" user, and aren't sophisticated enough to acknowledge or account for the fact that people are individuals, and respond to things uniquely. Someone will doubtless be along shortly to insist that it indeed "doesn't matter," and that you are "wrong" to feel anxious about it. You're already sufficiently self-aware that such "advice" is pointless and, indeed, insulting. Your responses to this are entirely valid. Thank you for articulating them. I hope that they are taken into account as LL determines whether to retain this new feature.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    Thanks, Tommy. Just going to throw in my vote that this gets rolled back. It's not a huge deal because most of it is opt-out, but it's pretty clear that a great many people find this intrusive and unnecessary (including me). I don't think it contributes enough of value to make annoying people worth it.
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    Ugh. Yeah, this is what I do when I want to teach my dog new tricks. And this is the problem. One can know one is being manipulated, and yet still be manipulated. Sometimes the effects of that manipulation backfire, of course. In the 90s, I was forced (for reasons) to sit through no fewer than THREE stage performances of Les Miz. It was the most nakedly manipulative piece of trash I've ever been compelled to experience -- they pulled every rhetorical and visual trick in the book to get people laughing, crying, and enthralled. And because I was acutely conscious of the fact that I was being manipulated -- yes, I cried at all the right places, and laughed at the stupid gags -- I hated it every moment of it. I have never been left so bitterly resentful of a work of "literature." I felt like a lab rat. An index of how much it backfired is that, the third time I saw it, I had to be almost physically restrained from standing and applauding when "adorable little Gavroche" is shot and killed on the barricades.
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    So I see. That's a good thing. It would not surprise me if they roll it back. What does surprise me is that this was implemented automatically, without LL being consulted first. If that is, in fact, what happened.
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    This is probably the intention?
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    You got a lot of sleep very quickly, Han!
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    Kinda the point, though. Yes, this is not a big deal, because one can opt out of it. But do you think that this is the kind of "increased engagement" that this new feature was probably designed to encourage? I'm thinking that, so far, this isn't working the way it is supposed to.
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    I have! I'm hidden! And I'm talking about it so that others are more aware that they have that option too! And I'm afraid that you are going to have to "deal with" the fact that some of us, myself included, don't like this.
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    Coming from someone who spends an awful lot of their time here complaining about people and their posts . . . And yes, one of the points in highlighting this kind of idiocy when it happens is to "change society." We are being manipulated and surveilled, constantly. The fact that it happens isn't reason for me to be complacent about it. On the contrary.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    A feature that does what, Andrew? To what end? Why? You don't need this information. I don't particularly want you to have easy access to it -- which is why I am no "hidden" -- because you don't need to know this stuff about me, even if you don't care to know it.
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    All of these features are elements in the attempted social engineering that social media algorithms are nearly always about. They are about manipulating us, through carrots and sticks, or by manipulating the information available to us, to increase engagement, and especially particular kinds of engagement that are viewed as beneficial to the platform. This isn't new, Solar. It's the underpinning of the success of FB, Twitter, and Instagram. And yes, it pisses me off. I don't like being "manipulated." Even if it's as minor and unexceptionable as what is occurring here.
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    No, a profile pic and quote are the way in which I consciously choose to present myself here. They are my decisions, and not generated by software. So, yeah. Solutionism. Just a bit more personal information -- and what I choose to read is my personal information -- thrown out there for absolutely no good reason.
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yep, but you have to go to a profile to see that. I find that feature unnecessarily obtrusive as well. And also the ability to see who has visited your profile. Again, it hasn't kept me awake at nights. I just so no useful purpose in passing on information about my reading habits to anyone who wants them, for whatever reason.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yeah, this is more or less the answer I was expecting. This whole thing smells of the "We can do it! Should we do it? WHO CARES! LET'S DO IT!" ethos that so often seems to underpin technological development. "Solutionism" is the word: let's devise a solution to a non-existent problem! It doesn't matter to you, Solar. There is ample evidence here, now, that it does matter to others. And because it's so utterly unnecessary, that means that a number of people have been pissed off completely unnecessarily. That alone is one reason they shouldn't have done it. I see only negative impacts, no positive ones. And you can tell us that we "shouldn't care" all you want -- it's not going to change that.
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, I've already said that I announce my presence by posting a lot here. So, no, this isn't as intrusive as some other things might be. Answer my question, though! WHY do you need to know this? What value does it add to the forums that is outweighed by the passing on this information.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    I think it's great that you don't care that people can see where you are here on this forum, what you're reading, or even, if they care enough, track your movements. If it's true that all information can be misused, then the less that is available to be misused and abused, if it serves no useful purpose, the better. And while it's not going to keep me up at night, yeah, actually, I don't particularly want people to know where I am on the forums, anymore than I want them to know that I'm visiting "Lesbian Humiliation Paradise" in-world. It's more information about me that you don't need to know, and shouldn't have access to without my permission. Fortunately, there is an opt-out, so my permission is required. So, flip this around. Explain to me the value of this. Tell me the really good reasons you should have access to information about what other people are reading here.
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    No, this isn't a big thing. I usually make my presence obvious by posting, after all. And you'd just need to look at my post count to know that I pop in here pretty regularly and contribute. But it is utterly unnecessary information, and it is intrusive. Not "Chrome knows where I slept last night" level of intrusive, obviously, but still more of an invasion of personal privacy and anonymity than is really, surely, warranted by whatever "benefits" are supposed accrue from it. Most people, I'd imagine, don't have "locate me on a map" enabled for any but a very select number of friends in-world. This is somewhat analogous to that. Again, there aren't as many possible consequences here, but I can imagine the information being misused. At some point, someone is going to post something like "I see you've been sitting on this thread now for 3 hours, watching it closely." The fact that one can hide oneself mitigates the effect a lot. But, were I not able to do that, yes, this would impact on my posting here negatively.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    Do NOT read Virtual Secrets this weekend, Ceka.
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    "I've been hopping around, following you as you have been moving across the forum, and I have come to some conclusions. 1) You are here ALL the time, and clearly don't have a life, and are never actually in-world, and 2) you really like those naked pics, don't you? I mean, REALLY like them . . . hmmmmmmmm."
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, for FUN, yeah . . . totally. 😏
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    Welcome to the Panopticon, Coffee!
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    Interestingly, it's now just showing "4 other users here," with no names -- which suggests that everyone is going "hidden." So, maybe not so bad after all. Annoyingly, it shows when someone you've got on ignore is here and/or typing, though. That's not going to go over well for people who are trying to avoid particular other posters.
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm sure that this is one of those things designed to increase engagement, a sense of community, and so forth . . . but yeah. Why would anyone want this?
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes, definitely. I'd forgotten about that.
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    Thanks Claire. Fixed! (I hope.) I tend to leave this tab open on my desktop pretty much 24/7, so I'm not sure how "useful" or even accurate this information would be for anyone in any case. But ick.
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