lonelyislet

Post on the web

Wed, 20 May 2026 23:48:32 GMT

Warning. This post contains absolutely nothing worthwhile. You can skip it

This is just a post on the web. I add to the noise and/or LLM scraping. It's a product of Tim Berners Lee, the W3C, the IETF, whatever. There are billions like it, alongside the multitude of websites. Hi. I hope the world is doing ok

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I'm doing

Fri, 08 May 2026 07:10:58 GMT

...what i should've been doing all along. It's 3 in the goddamn morning and here I am in a dark room, blasting trance music through my headphones

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Nobody uses their own product

Tue, 05 May 2026 13:28:32 GMT

Youtube apparently has a thing where if you disable comment reply notifications where you get notified EVERY TIME someone replies in the same general thread, rather than just to you, it disables ALL reply notifications ever

Do you motherfuckers not give a shit? Are there ANY humans working at these companies? With more than 5 brain cells? I suppose this is the benefit of monopolies? You don't have to care - but I'm still astonished how bad some of these products are. What do the workers do all day?

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Fri, 01 May 2026 03:31:40 GMT

There's a concept I've been aware of dimly but not given a name to, but it's basically profound-wisdom-as-a-service (for ads)

Here's what I mean. Go on some social media site, Facebook or Youtube (you cannot tell me Facebook has ever been a serious social site. Sorry. 15 ads per post? no. Monopoly, break them up, or whatever). See some video of "Family cries when lost puppy is returned". And that's not even what I mean but I hope you get the general thrust. Or like "Man tells wisdom of life on his deathbed"

First of all I think everyone is entitled to discovering their own truth. Not truth in that wishy washy everything-is-subjectively-true, but I mean your own path. Not everything has to be profound, not everything a blaise statement that might appear on sites like Upworthy or Buzzfeed. You don't have to be told this, you don't have to be told what you *ought* to be appreciating

But the reason you see these things shoved into your feed is because god damnit, tech platforms (if not everything) have to have valuation. They need space for ads. They can't just have you come in and take what's useful and then fucking leave. Everything has to be basically a sob story

And the problem with this is that it's inauthentic. As I said, truth is an internal thing, and it's often discovered, not presented on a platter (Also, is death bed wisdom - or anything - really profound if everyone agrees on it? Shares it on social media to get clicks? On my death bed I hope one of the things I DON'T regret is click seeking...). It also has a tendency to make platforms worse. I do (vaguely) remember early Youtube. It by and large was set up as a way for YOU to explore in your OWN way. Remember that Simpsons thing with Ralph? "You can pinpoint the exact second his heart snaps in half"? I can see that moment in Youtube's history, when they (while decidedly ignoring user feedback) decided to start chasing cheap metrics. It's horribly sad

And the other thing to add is it disguises(?) how mendacious these companies are. I'm so glad we have irrelevant videos for recommendations while Youtube engages in censorship about covid or removes videos like the flame coming out of the tank at Waco in 1993 (and no don't ask me what happened at Waco, I don't know the history, but as far as I know they did censor that video) or demonetizes a bunch of channels. Or insert similar thing here for Facebook, I'm so happy we get to see 10 Rules To Live A Happy Life while the platform obstinately refuses to show any posts from friends in the feed. No. Really. People have died and others haven't known about it because it took weeks or longer to surface. While you get banned in a heartbeat but the Nazi page you report does "not violate community guidelines"

You know what? Fuck all of you. The internet is no longer fun and it's because of you assholes and your VC enablers

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Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:46:07 GMT

Dear Reddit,

You already broke old.reddit. Why doesn't new.reddit work? Your search bar is literally broken

Stop bathing in VC dollars and IPOs and make sure your FUCKING SHIT WORKS PROPERLY

NOTHING is about the customer any more. In any of these companies

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Dear reddit

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 05:02:39 GMT

("Dear reddit" autocompleted in my browser. Which probably means I already have a post with that name. Oh well)

It's really sad how you allowed ideological mods to take over and ban everyone (but it would be forgivable if not for the other things) and more importantly how you crippled third party Reddit tools including tools to help mods and you want to IPO (unless this has already happened at the time of this writing) which might mean you ban users so you can train LLMs on Only Correct Opinions

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But - fuck you? You took an excellent format and ruined it (RIP Aaron Swartz even though he might not have had to do much of anything with Reddit)

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Zuck managed to be worse than Trump was

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 06:33:12 GMT

People assume Facebook is bad because "Trump won the election". Cambridge Analytica was a data scandal on top of it being a political scandal

I have few opinions of Trump. It's clear the media at least in part lied about him and I've heard stories of his being generous to people. The popularity is not manufactured nor does it have no basis

But Zuck kind of sucks regardless of political spectrum. He immediately said it was ok to call LGBT people mentally ill and Facebook banned Democrat hashtags (apparently). Even Trump I suspect wouldn't support that

(Be more targeted in your criticisms of why specific tech platforms suck. "I can't see any friend posts and when I can it's wildly out of order"? Sure. Or Facebook hijacking email addresses or the other dozen+ things they've done)

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The cycle

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:40:12 GMT

- Go on Youtube

- See "Mix"

- Mix contains... well, mix stuff. Completely useless to recommend, I tend to want to watch individual videos

- Click "Not interested"

- "Got it. We'll tune your recommendations."

- But you won't, will you? Because I keep clicking no on Mixes. Is there a toggle option for don't show Mixes again? Furthermore, how does the algorithm decide? Is it "we won't recommend this video", or "we won't recommend this Mix" or "we'll show less of Mixes"?

You know what? Fuck all of you. You people have no idea how to make websites (and you want to compete with TikTok, that's the reason for all of this), you've ruined the internet

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I was banned from Left Land

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 03:02:54 GMT

I was not one of those (unfortunately) who during covid stood up and said "This is all entirely bullshit. They're making it all up. There's not one shred of truth in it." It's what I privately felt, the voice in the back of my head. But it was go along to get along (never do this with tyranny. always fight back.)

But I got banned from a group with left leanings for posting the most milquetoast of videos. It wasn't about vaccines (it could never be about vaccines. the injections are not vaccines). Not about Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine. Not about lockdowns (as such).

I got banned for Omicron being less dangerous. That was it. That was enough to brand me a dangerous spreader of misinfo (instead of trusting the science which if you really trusted the science you would be constantly questioning everything. that's what "trusting science" is.)

And so now with all the evidence of lockdowns (they don't seem to work, the epidemiological model is wrong) and the harms of the shots (they kill and severely injure people) and masks (they never worked) etc I'm curious about how these same people will now look at the people they treated in their lives, offline and on

Is an apology forthcoming? Again, I wasn't screaming from the rooftops. I wasn't vindicated during covid. I trusted authorities too much. I wasn't one of those people who actually did stick their heads above the parapet and encountered real reputational danger and called all kinds of names from "Trump Supporter" (who did recommend Hydroxychloroquine, because DOCTORS WERE DOING IT TOO) to "Science Denier". It doesn't quite land as much for me. But I'm fascinated by this whole phenomenon. If you called your friend an idiot can that ever be repaired? Will people have the humility to realize they were lied to, and at that, on a mass, war crime like scale? (Because it was a war crime. In addition to coming from the DoD, the Nuremberg Code exists for a reason)

That's just people. What about corporations? Are apologies forthcoming from Facebook? Youtube? Medium (which removed covid articles)? LinkedIn? I'll grant coercion is possible from government, and I'm sympathetic to it. But will those CEOs say anything? I'm already not a big fan of content removal with no justifications. If you say something violates terms of service, you had better be damned forthcoming about that (as happened with so many videos, the conversation with Bret Weinstein, Steve Kirsch and Robert Malone; Darkhorse Podcast being demonetized; Rebel News being demonetized (presumably the latter also for other reasons and not just covid; they cover a lot of things))

Because basically if you don't apologize you should be forever shamed - for the people. For the corporations, many of you deserve to go to prison for a very long time. It's coming. Declare your sins now and we might be a little more lenient with you. But basically - fuck all of you. And don't EVER use "science" as justification for your braindead action ever again

The problem is that Left Land is incredibly pervasive. There's an entire segment of the world. Who believes New York Times tells the truth. Who believes Wikipedia is right (whose editors should also face prison time) when they take a respected cardiologist like Peter McCullough or any number of the members of FLCCC Frontline Critical Care and append "misinformation" to their name. Who believes it's good to demonetize videos or outright remove them or censor posts when they go against the party line. It's hard to escape. You're on the fringes if you don't affirm your membership of Left Land, on these and dozens of other topics

On a personal level, those of you who did this will be and should remain pariahs. The corporations however should go to prison. And you all deserve it. Redeem yourself now, and we'll talk.

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Jensen's heart to heart

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 23:11:02 GMT

Jensen Huang apparently doesn't want people talking to him 1 on 1

Some may call this visionary. I call it just another sociopath in the tech industry

May I gently suggest that you make your cards work on Linux and give Nouveau support? But you don't actually care. In another world you'd be in a prison cell

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Mohan

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:34:45 GMT

I'm pretty convinced Neal Mohan is behind the current wave of censorship at Youtube

Wojcicki did it with covid; she defined what "misinformation" was and acted accordingly. But people seemed to kind of like her outside of that. Of course the site was in decline for several years

Mohan has legitimately ruined everything

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Nobody should be deriding SWW

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 04:58:35 GMT

(SWW = Sarah Wynn Williams)

To me, everything she wrote about (in Carless People) completely validates Facebook's history. It's very telling Zuckerberg absolutely will not make time in his schedule for important world leader events. It describes him perfectly, all the privacy scandals, how he treats people as his property. Some have said "it's not legitimate, I would have quit" [in her position]. She talks about this. She was pregnant and needed the job. It's hard to "just leave". But the ycombinator crowd only seem to have a very limited 2D view of the world - that *also* shows, and describes them perfectly

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Reverse Pascal's Wager

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:37:24 GMT

It's better to not believe in God/assume God's nonexistence because

If god isn't real then you're correct

If you're wrong, it means you're still likely not to be punished because god, giving you free will, obviously wants you to use it

(Who's more likely to actually to go to hell? The nonbeliever or the TV preacher/religious cleric who actually does prey on people?)

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Communication problems

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:34:05 GMT

I genuinely have a hard time saying things. By which I mean not (only?) verbal but in writing as well. I faff about on the margins, trying to get to a point about something, and often don't. It makes me respect people who face real adversity, who actually know how to debate. Even if you know you're right, if you can't vocalize it or be descriptive with language, you're going to have a really hard time

(Being direct is often good. You may think you're doing well by being subtle, but that's not necessarily the case)

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I'll click on your stupid mix

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:03:48 GMT

...and stop pressing hide/show less of - IF it's some generic title

Mix - pop music? Fine, I guess, though I think they're seriously spammed, Youtube does not need Mixes

But Mix - very specific thing I watched? No. In the dustbin

"Show less of" never works anyway, with these parasite sites. They'll keep spamming you with vigor

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I don't like Google but

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:06:21 GMT

First of all I generally dislike Google as a company but having said that you need to separate the various "factions"

Waymo is pretty good, while Chrome is corrupt

They're a kind of general AI/research company

Their censorship arguably does exist (it's hard to tell, with SEO - ideally we'd match websites by keywords but it's not always possible and the internet is noisy) and I'd like to know more about that and especially with Youtube and oh by the way their (Youtube's) years long practice of copyright strikes

However with that being said -

Google (Gmail, specifically) offers data takeout options. You have access to people's email addresses. If you send someone an email they actually get it, at worst it will visibly go into the Spam folder (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6090712, by contrast). Facebook replaced people's email addresses in people's profiles. They introduced mandatory encryption where if you clear cookies you might lose access to your messages. They offered people an "unsend" option only after they had been caught doing it with Zuckerberg's messages

Zuckerberg is many things. Even intelligent. But he seems sociopathic and people would do well not to forgive him so easily ("he was young", "he was joking", "he was making a point" - re: "dumb fucks")

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Myanmar and "social" media

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 07:10:57 GMT

This should be a short post, because I just want to make one very basic point

First of all I've never understood what people mean by social media, when they decry it, at least. The term is too nebulous. But let's assume it's "engagement metrics" on top a substrate of existing digital media. A chronological twitter timeline wouldn't be social media but starting to put posts out of order or maybe even putting huge amounts of ads in the feed would be

I don't know

But, Myanmar had a problem. Their government was committing genocide, and everyone blamed Facebook

The problem?

Well, there is no problem - Facebook seems to be appropriate to blame. But why? They're "just a platform"

I'd love to believe that to be the case. However first of all they were told about this going on, about people posting incendiary things on the platform, and they seemed to do nothing - Facebook has so much (fraudulent) money, they can absolutely step in (or step in to rescue hijacked and banned accounts which they also never seem to do anything about)

Secondly, Facebook barges into markets. Free Basics set out to hoodwink people in India and from there, other countries. Facebook got people to automatically (they did it for them) send emails to the telecom regulatory authority (TRAI) supporting Free Basics

The people of Myanmar may not have been ready for it especially one that AMPLIFIES (algorithmically) incendiary messages

So, Zuck's a criminal who should have been imprisoned ages ago. His brand of "they trust me, dumb fucks", his modus operandi https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692122 poisons the well of everything fucking around him (ie society)

A chronological Twitter feed would be much less liable to blame, I think

(I'm aware that politically, he's at least not quite so far left-leaning as Google/Youtube, or at least what they've become - that's a good thing, but being an asshole is being an asshole regardless of political spectrum)

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The ultimate monopolist

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:37:08 GMT

tl;dr: Zuckerberg is the ultimate monopolist (and no, I don't love Google either, with Chrome, etc) and he should have been in prison ages ago

Facebook overwrote people's public-facing email addresses

Facebook has increasingly changed the TOS (I think especially in 2015) to own your data for themselves. Ditto Instagram. It's hard to just leave (provided you don't get fucking banned by some arbitrary algorithm, that is) because that's where all your friends are (of course, they've replaced your friends' email addresses so now you can't leave)

They blatantly took over Whatsapp. In north america it doesn't mean much but in the rest of the world it does

Certainly Oculus. Those who got banned on FB (no support) have had to buy an Oculus to get unbanned. That's convenient!

Copying Snapchat

Copying Snapchat

Copying Snapchat

Copying Snapchat

Copying Snapchat

Copying Snapchat

We'd also like to own your money too, you know. Libra/Diem crypto

They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692122

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Separate the political from the platform

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:43:47 GMT

First of all, both Facebook and Google in aggregate suck. Google does corrupt things with Chrome. People have gotten randomly banned from Google services including Google+ (and of course, nymwars). And of course Facebook is all of this and probably worse

The problem is that on its surface, Facebook's politics make more sense, at least if Google's censorship is a real thing (Google the search engine, not Youtube, but they do own Youtube and I really hope G's censorship doesn't lead to Y's censorship, because Y does a ton of it)

Zuckerberg defended both Breitbart, and Alex Jones/Infowars. Before 2020, I might have believed that was wrong, but I've seen too much of what qualifies for "misinformation" (and therefore apparently it must be censored) at this point for that genie to go back in the bottle

The issue is that as a person Zuck is untrustworthy. Google doesn't have the data problems Facebook does. This situation irritates me. I want the best of both worlds and I want all these platforms/products to stop being shitty

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Dear Youtube execs

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:58:31 GMT

Those of you responsible for censorship broadly (I use the informal use of censorship, not "done by government", but any type of unnecessary removal of content) and especially for covid and the deadly vaccines and for auto-censoring the comments should face life in prison without possibility of parole

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It baffles me

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 06:38:05 GMT

that the Winklevoss twins are held in such low regard

(btw it says a lot about Hacker News, the kind of VC infested mind that dwells there)

I don't know the entire history and who knows if ConnectU would've succeeded or not (for various definitions of success)

But like, Zuck does all these shady things and somehow it's their fault? They meet Larry Summers (who's since been implicated in Epstein and apparently financial fraud) in suits and they get called "assholes"? Well, here's the lesson for life, everyone: fuck over whoever you want and you're sure to win

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More about Youtube

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 04:25:43 GMT

It is true Mohan kind of ruined the platform (but also Wojcicki before him; censoring "misinformation", most notable around covid but I'm unsure what else) and it's awful with unhelpful search results, Shorts, AI slop, comment auto-censorship (so you can ban comments and channels but you leave up the most egregious videos? yeah - sounds like every social site these days... maybe I blame Facebook that was able to IPO and become a certain visible presence in the investor community off fraudulent numbers, that also took down no abuse while banning regular people; everyone feels obliged to copy them) - but Youtube has been pretty bad for years before that, too. Banning videos that aren't "authoritative". And other things that make the user experience worse

I promise you, people making these decisions, if you apply for my company I will not ever hire you, and I will tell everyone I know to do the same

Hang your head in fucking shame. You should be disallowed access to computers forever. Placed under permanent house arrest

It's so offensive what you do (and makes a case, actually, for Google which owns Youtube potentially being involved with the 'deep' state)

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Message to all tech CEOs

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:46:14 GMT

Caring about money and shareholder returns is good

We'd all like to live in a world where money is no object but we don't live in that world

I get you have a Hard Job

However just bear in mind that when you alienate users and push them away after one too many braindead decisions you're ultimately going to _lose_ money and whatever goodwill in the process

(Of course, switching costs are high, that's the point, trap people)

Keep in mind also that a lot of your "earning value" seems like fraud in a lot of cases

Be careful you don't become yet another white collar person that ends up in a jail cell, because at least half of you are headed that way

Now, give us back the fucking products we grew up with and enjoyed, before you all ruined them

Thanks

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VC slop

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 09:51:28 GMT

Hacker News needs to get its head out of its ass (hi, if this somehow ends up on there)

You are a fucking joke. You endlessly splitting hairs and your unnecessarily stringent moderation means topics really can only get discussed in a limited way. Anyone familiar with HN will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about

There's no need to redefine every word when you discuss things

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All the tech platforms fucking suck

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:14:11 GMT

Facebook is run by a sociopath regardless of political orientation

Google and Youtube censor everything

Elon freed the world from covid censorship but apparently the site still bans a whole lot of people and crashes constantly

You can't fucking use ANYTHING

Be better?

Not that that's easy when the VCs that fund the companies are like Marc Andreessen, whose worldview seems to be limited to "Edward Snowden is a traitor" (in fact he put it even better than that, "if you look in the dictionary under traitor there's a picture of Edward Snowden")

Fuck all of you, you all deserve prison time

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