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GMail is Breaking Email
  • If you're recommending setting up a forward/IMAP collection from a Gmail account, don't forget to mention deleting the messages from the server as well! Emails left on a server for more than 30 days are considered "abandoned property" for the purposes of warrantless search.

  • Why is Freelancer still the best?
  • Can I offer you some Star Sector (https://fractalsoftworks.com) in these trying times? It's a top-down view with more real-time strategy and RPG to it than first person space sim, but the exploration component is there in spades and scavenging ships to add them to your fleet is pretty fun and satisfying. I've been playing it obsessively the last few weeks.

    I didn't know about the secret exploration stuff in Freelancer, I never found wormholes or what have you. Might have to load it back up! Or the FOSS version "LibreLancer", thanks to all who commented so far for mentioning that 😊

  • Cyberpunk 2077 was “better than it was received,” CDPR dev says
  • I missed your content before mine, but this tracks with my experience. Thinking about it I did a stealth fists playthrough, with stealth bring all about avoiding combat where possible... I thought I was just bad at the game, but maybe it was my inner reviewer telling me combat is not a fun way to play the game 😂

  • Cyberpunk 2077 was “better than it was received,” CDPR dev says
  • I dunno, I finished it which is rare enough for me nowadays. I didn't speed through the story like I did with Diablo 4, either; I found it compelling when I could immerse myself in the game world. Then again I play on PC, so I may have fewer bugs to contend with than console players?

  • Roguelike recommendations?
  • There seems to be some disagreement over the term, but I have always liked the explanation that "true" Roguelikes are "like Rogue", in that they have randomly-generated maps, permadeath, and nothing saved between runs; meanwhile Roguelites feature a "meta-progression" system that allows the player some kind of persistent progress that carries over between runs, and maybe other QOL features.

  • Removed as moderator of /r/Celebrities after 14 years
  • Friend, is there any truth to the rumours of a lawsuit from current and former mods against Reddit, for back pay? I'm pretty convinced there's a case there, and your story is a prime example. One argument from Reddit might be that you and the community were the primary beneficiaries of your volunteer labour, but for Reddit to take your mod powers unilaterally sure makes them look like an employer rather than a maintainer of a public forum.

    In the US, there are no circumstances under which a private for-profit company can legally accept volunteer labour like that. Further strengthening your case would be how much Facebook pays for moderation of their platform. Reddit built an entire business on the backs of people like you, and your stake in that should be recognised and compensated.

  • Roguelike recommendations?
  • I love the idea of these games, but I am terrible at them. I sat down with Dark Souls and played it until I got gud, but Caves and Tales and Dwarf Fortress all kick my ass. Even Dungeons of Dredmor, which I poured dozens of hours into and got pretty far in, would annihilate me before I got to the bottom floor. Any tips on how to not suck long enough to learn how to not suck?

  • PineTime - a $27 smartwatch that runs open source firmware and software that's easy to flash and easy to modify and tinker with
  • Graphene user here. I rooted my devices and flashed cousin ROMs for years, but stopped because I got tired of the compromises. A couple of months ago I took the plunge while upgrading and got a pixel 7a (so it's got the longest support) to put Graphene on. I have found it to be, basically, Android. Googless at first, but you can add Goog to taste. Play Services runs sandboxed, if you want to run it.

    Most apps work just fine, but in my setup Google Wallet does not. I can't remember exactly why but I think it's related to Play Services. Banking and "pay me" apps like Venmo seen to work fine though!

  • Spiderwebs on my morning walk
  • Are these spiders on some kind of drugs? Not throwing shade like I could spin a better web or anything, I don't even have spinnerets; they just look like webs built while the spider was tripping balls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_psychoactive_drugs_on_animals

    Maybe on caffeine looking at the shape, perhaps there was a discarded energy drink can nearby?

  • Reddit mods discuss forming a union and suing for back pay
  • Please cite the case(s) where someone lost a case like this because the courts distinguished between "intern" and "volunteer". The law does not care about labels, it cares about substance. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a volunteer is defined as an individual who performs hours of service for a public agency for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered.

    However, the FLSA makes a clear distinction between work performed for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives and work performed for a private entity or for-profit organization. It states that "employees may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers." If a volunteer is performing work that is integral to a for-profit company's business activities, it can be argued that they are functioning as an employee and should be compensated accordingly. If a volunteer is performing work that is similar to work performed by paid employees, is working for a significant amount of time, or is under the direct control of the company, these factors could potentially support a claim that the volunteer is actually an employee.

    If former Reddit moderators can convince the court that they were:

    • Acting as employees of the company,
    • performing labour valuable to the company, and
    • that the company was the primary beneficiary of their labour

    then the court might well find that they were effectively employees and are owed back wages. Since Reddit themselves have admitted how important active, experienced moderators are to the platform's overall usability, it's going to be very difficult for the company to argue that moderation services aren't worth paying for, and they'll have to find an entire other crop of people willing to moderate the site for no pay if they lose the current mods. It could take years for the case to even be heard, and if Reddit starts paying for moderation for any reason in that time, it's going to look very bad for their case because that is a practical admission that moderation is a job that the company needs to have performed and thus should be paid.

    The fact that Reddit is a for-profit corporation is a big fucking deal in this case. There are effectively no circumstances under which volunteer labour is allowed for private, for-profit companies in the US, so this is not nearly as clear-cut as so many people seem to think.

  • Reddit mods discuss forming a union and suing for back pay
  • I'm not sure you understand how the law works. Read "Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc." (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1706417.html), where unpaid interns who worked on the film "Black Swan" sued the production company. The interns argued that they were actually employees and thus entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) and New York labour law. The court agreed with the interns, finding that they were essentially regular employees.

    To contrast with an unsuccessful case, I present "Wang v. The Hearst Corporation" (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1882161.html), where unpaid interns at various magazines published by Hearst sued for wages. The court used a "primary beneficiary test" to determine whether the interns or the company were the primary beneficiaries of the arrangement. The court found that the interns were the primary beneficiaries, so they were not entitled to wages.

    I think it would be hard for Reddit to argue that subreddit moderators are the primary beneficiaries of their labour, meaning if the mods unionise and bring a case, they might actually be successful.

  • Humans Aren’t Mentally Ready for an AI-Saturated ‘Post-Truth World’
  • "The real threat is not the gun, but the bullets that come out of it". It's both, and the malicious actors using the AI (or gun, or other tool).

    Don't forget that smart people get gulled too, especially when they think themselves excluded from the "gullible moron" group.

  • Wouldn't people who claim glutamate (MSG) allergies immediately die, since it's also a neurotransmitter?
  • I tried to Google "body shock loading" because I'm unfamiliar with this term, but mostly found articles about going into shock. May I ask what this experience is like for you? What do you feel when exposed to glutamate? Are OTC antiinflammatories/antihistamines an effective treatment for the reaction of do you need some kind of steroid?

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)DO
    dorkian-gray @kbin.social
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