r/TIFU and r/AITA - The former became a repository for preteen fanfiction and the latter became a place for confirmation bias/rhetorical questions looking for validation.
Then there's r/UnpopularOpinion which ended up being an oxymoron unto itself. I honestly don't understand how anyone thought that concept would work given that the literal point of a social media discussion platform, that utilizes an upvote/downvote system to determine visibility, is to push popular (highly upvoted) posts to the top/front. Very few people actually upvoted something that was unpopular and instead just upvoted the low hanging fruit popular opinion posts that were 'controversial' but still blatantly have a clear majority who support that side that OP took.
Companies are going out of their way to ignore the fact that "the easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." - Gabe Newell
I consider adblocking to be in the same boat. Piracy/Adblocking only exists because it's not a pricing issue. It's a service issue. By making the free version even more intrusive ON PURPOSE, they're not pushing as many people to buy a subscription as they are pushing people to install adblockers. If YouTube only ever showed a quick 10-15 sec ad at the very beginning of a video, I'd be less inclined to go out of my way to find and install an adblocker (and maybe even eventually just buy a subscription) than if they force feed me back to back, 30-second, unskippable ads.
It's the same with those stupid fucking commercials that run ALL the time and try and be as annoying as possible. If I find your ad to be annoying and frequent and shoved down my throat all the time, I will vehemently and actively go out of my way to AVOID that product, not be more inclined to buy it.
Good news to everyone! We've wanted an alternative to YouTube for a long time. Now it looks like Google that next big step in forcing alternative platforms to rise in it's place. I'm an avid user of YouTube, but not a snowball's chance in hell will I buy Premium when they are trying to shove it down my throat like that. That's a very good way to get people to NOT buy something but for some reason companies don't seem to understand.
Gabe Newell said it best: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Piracy was down and streaming subscriptions were up when Netflix first came about due to the ease/convenience of it, but piracy is seeing a return due to the mishandling and misconception of companies about how to gain profit through improved services vs increased pricing/poor performance.
The reason I bring this up is because YouTube, like many companies, thinks they're "solving" the issue of adblocking by force-feeding this kind of bullshit to the masses, but all they're doing is forcing more people to turn to alternatives instead.
Was going to say, I'm all for changing my habits/thought processes based on scientific data/evidence, but I could've sworn this debate has been raging on for some time now. First it was declared that it causes Cancer, then it was declared well no there's not really enough evidence to support that, and now we're back to it does. But I have yet to see a definitive link in any study and even this article says "possibly."
Now, that being said I still avoid aspartame when possible, opting for Stevia whenever I have the choice. I just fear that this kind of back and forth tends to erode credibility through unsubstantiated whiplash with the general public.
The sad thing is that the masses that are still on Reddit at this point dgaf and will likely stay on Reddit forever. There's a real problem of Apathy in today's culture when people are just jonesing for their fix of daily content/memes, or at the very least nothing that disrupts the status quo. They don't give a fuck about "ideals" or what corporations do or farm from them so long as their instant gratification and daily intake of said content remains unchanged.
I suppose it depends on what a person considers a hidden gem because everyone's tastes are different. I'll list a few categories and at least 1-2 of my favorites in those categories that I've found on Steam and are currently on sale:
Exploration/Base-Building:
Grounded
Raft
Rimworld
Subnautica/Subnautica: Below Zero
Story based/Farming/Romance:
My Time at Portia
My Time at Sandrock
Visual Novels:
Basically anything made by PixelFade (Ace Academy, Ethereal Enigma, Crystalline). One of the few English-based VNs that are fully voiced in English and have a pretty decent plot/story. Interactive with different choices affecting different outcomes and even some minigames at least in EE.
Nekop er Hush Hush. Ok, listen. I won't beat around the bush here. There IS an 18+ DLC for this but it's not necessary to enjoy the game. It honestly has a pretty interesting story/premise and I did get pretty heavily emotionally invested in the characters.
Note that MTAP has been fraught with issues. Although these issues don't necessarily make the game unplayable, and it's still enjoyable, be aware that it is was Pathea's (the studio) first such attempt and as such they were still learning. Their second game Sandrock has solved a lot of the issues and it's not necessary to play the first one
It's kind of surprising since the way it was explained to me, no remains could...well "remain" given the pressure at that depth. I know how morbid it sounds, but strictly speaking I would be interesting to know which "parts" remained/they found that could've withstood that.
It turns out I actually have the ability to convert thoughts to text for any company CEO or Board Member. So allow me to post an excerpt of what I've found:
NTA. For one thing, if she left "suddenly" with no explanation, your kids are old enough to see right through that. Telling them "things broke down" wouldn't explain why it would have been a very swift exit on her part unless something crazy happened. Second, allowing her to tell them herself was the smart thing to do because not only does it allow her to be the one to break it to them (and take responsibility), but it can't be said then that you were trying to pit them against her or anything by telling lies because the truth came straight from the horse's mouth. If she wishes that you hadn't made her tell them, then it's only because of sheer guilt that she has decided to try and project onto you as a form of defense. If she can't understand that her actions have consequences for others around her and not just herself (by saying that it's none of their business), then she probably wasn't a very fit person to be parenting them anyway. Parents are people, too. They can make mistakes. But not owning up to those mistakes or being able to have the empathy needed to see how it impacts others is not something you want to pass down to your children.
I actually started with an account on Fedia.io before coming here, but they're down like 90% of the time and I fear it might be too much for Jerry (operator of that instance) to keep up with, at least for now. But having an account on multiple servers that I can bounce between when such things happen has been nice.
lmao the sheer amount of entitlement on him. Truly a leopardsatemyface moment. Imagine tying your entire identity to being an unpaid lacky for a website that doesn't give two fucks about you, to the point that when you're let go you go nuclear.
I'm ngl, I'm kind of morbidly curious what, if any, remains are there when a sub at this depth implodes. Will there even be any bodies that are retrievable?
There's quite a few but I'll give my top 3:
r/TIFU and r/AITA - The former became a repository for preteen fanfiction and the latter became a place for confirmation bias/rhetorical questions looking for validation.
Then there's r/UnpopularOpinion which ended up being an oxymoron unto itself. I honestly don't understand how anyone thought that concept would work given that the literal point of a social media discussion platform, that utilizes an upvote/downvote system to determine visibility, is to push popular (highly upvoted) posts to the top/front. Very few people actually upvoted something that was unpopular and instead just upvoted the low hanging fruit popular opinion posts that were 'controversial' but still blatantly have a clear majority who support that side that OP took.