Upgraded machine 2/3 to #Debian 13 today and to my surprise, absolutely nothing went wrong. Usually I have to at least fix Friendica and Nextcloud.
2026-05-22 18:13:23
2026-05-22 18:13:23
2026-05-22 18:13:23
20623799
2026-05-21 05:36:18
2026-05-20 19:45:16
2026-05-20 19:45:16
20585398
Pretty sure my ISP's been rate limiting specpfic traffic again. Connecting to a VPN shouldn't increase my connection speed. I suppose it could be a weird routing issue, but this is far too regular an occurrence.
like this
juliadream likes this.
2026-05-21 13:00:03
2026-05-20 19:38:33
2026-05-20 19:09:04
20585270
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
and then the final, crucial step is to come home to Odin
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to Snow
in reply to Snow
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
Long post
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
in reply to abadidea
How to get prescribed ADHD medication in the Netherlands, a guide based on real world success:
1) spend over a year repeatedly trying to tell the GP that it’s not going well and you need help. This will not cost you money, only your precious finite time on this earth. It helps if you have a husband to drag you to the doctor when you’re at your lowest and argue with them
2) finally get escalated to a psychologist who takes a few months to be sure there’s definitely something wrong. She will recommend the GP to prescribe ADHD medication
3) Your prescription mysteriously disappears into the system. After several attempts to follow up that take months, and several confused phone calls from your psychologist to the GP, it turns out the GP refuses to authorize it because *shrug* reasons. Maybe if a psychiatrist also signs off on it?
4) You attempt to get an appointment with a psychiatrist. Every psychiatrist in the Netherlands is booked until 2034.
5) Finally, after a dozen rounds of pleading and nagging, you get a mysterious phone call from an unknown number. They give you an address and tell you to be there at 7 in the evening.
6) You find yourself at the door of a historic art deco mansion in the most exclusive district of Amsterdam. There is absolutely no indication that this is a medical practice. You ring the doorbell. Nothing happens. You wait nervously, and try again.
7) The door creaks open. An elderly man wearing crocs stands before you. He silently bids you follow him up a winding staircase to a parlor filled with a thousand thick and aging books in every tongue of the earth and perhaps a few also of the angels. They concern prophecy, and music, and poetry, and the apocalypse.
8) In a thin whisper of a voice barely to be heard, he asks your name, and where you were born. He slowly, very slowly, so slowly that you think you have died and this is purgatory, types this into a computer. It is in his lap because his desk is covered with strange devices beyond identification.
9) He tells you the prescription will be ready for pickup tomorrow.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe and Bernie Luckily Does It reshared this.
If your client cuts this off after the first few sentences, I guarantee the back half is more interesting than the first 😂
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
and then the final, crucial step is to come home to Odin
amused by how many people are replying/quoting with, like "yeah it's the same here, it sucks" without commenting on the visitation from the angel attempting mortal guise
my fault for not opening with that I guess 😂
I suspect Odin is the one indispensable element here.
In the United States this process is much simpler, shorter, and quicker.
1. Doctor prescribes the medication, and 2. Insurance company denies it because it's not medically necessary.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 7:14 PM)
thank you for not sharing the elderly man's pii - he must be protected at all costs
Oof that sounds rough 🙁 most of my (Dutch) friends have similar stories of various bureaucratic reasons to block getting help faster. I hope this is behind you!
yes it really helps to turn up to your GP with two diagnostic labels in hand (gained in the UK at some emotional cost) and all you need is the rubber stamp from the local system. (It would have been nine months to wait for the specialist clinic, but I got a cancellation appointment after four…)
can’t wait for the next chapter
well at least it's not just the UK then.
I didn't even realise Sierra made a Medication Quest
Oh wow, you glitched into the William Gibson timeline. Can you grab me some RAM while you're there?
Good grief. Now, let's see if the Rx actually shows up.....
(Wrestling stuff out of Dutch GPs should be an Olympic-level endurance sport... )
I feel a deep kinship with the eldritch cryptid that you met, and I hope his researches into the occult depths are fruitful.
You should somehow work this story into your VN
why did physicians become so callous 😡
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 8:11 PM)
Point 4): either dutch people don't want to become psychiatrists, or there is something rotten in the tulip fields.
Also, for a country (that used to be) so liberal on drug usage, this is borderline kafkaian
Also, for a country (that used to be) so liberal on drug usage, this is borderline kafkaian
Ah yes, I have the Belgian variation where the neurologist (I went directly to a specialist) believes this is just anxiety, prescribes the lowest dosage possible then immediately gives up medication when it doesn't work and sends their patient to an ADHD-specialized psychologist to just accept the condition (to be fair, acceptance is part of reducing ADHD-fueled anxiety).
In Germany my mom got my diagnosis as a child and somehow I only needed to go to a neuro psychiatrist, fill out a form, get an EKG and then I got my meds. I have no idea how hard or easy it is to get that if you haven't been diagnosed yet.
Now my biggest hurdle is to get a new prescription because i have to go in person and the doctor is only there at very inconvenient times. And because it is classified as a narcotic I HAVE TO do it myself.
I have a different story and I'm stuck elsewhere in the timeline.
1) Go to GP, GP refers you to the own practice's mental health support employee (GGZ ondersteuner)
2) Filling in an online survey
3) Said support employee saying "you only have a score of 5 out of 6 for ADHD on the preliminary screening, I don't see a point in referring you for a formal diagnosis, you'll wait for ages and I don't believe in medication anyway"
1) Go to GP, GP refers you to the own practice's mental health support employee (GGZ ondersteuner)
2) Filling in an online survey
3) Said support employee saying "you only have a score of 5 out of 6 for ADHD on the preliminary screening, I don't see a point in referring you for a formal diagnosis, you'll wait for ages and I don't believe in medication anyway"
that’s fantastic news, I know exactly how much this must mean to you having been through my own ADHD diagnosis and then prescribing battles with the NHS in the UK about 15 years ago.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 9:24 PM)
we have this problem in the UK too where GPs serve no purpose except to deny medical care. It's a mystery to me what society thinks we need them for.
Step 2 should have been "Find a new GP who takes you seriously."
Psychologist at step 2? The profession that _does not diagnose nor prescribes medicine_?
Go to Poland to get diagnosed. Ask for the diagnosis in English. Use it to skip to the end of the process in the Netherlands.
Will probably end up saving money that way.
Reads like a story from Borges
does a Grue appear at any point?
epic. And you got meds at the end. Bravo for persistence.
That's very similar to how it works in Australia. Except instead of the prescription apparently getting lost in the system because the doctor refuses to prescribe, the doctor can't find you in the database because you've never been prescribed anything that requires government approval, so they prescribe you two valium for which you don't need approval, but gets your name in the system because it's dangerous, so then they can prescribe what you're actually approved for.
Same in Norway.
I thought 7.5) was going to be "you have to roll two 20-sided dice and pray for primes"
Sensitive content
I am so sorry this is what you have to go through.
It's a similar tale over here in the U.S., but to varying degrees in some pain points than others.
meanwhile my doctor in California offered me some ADHD meds to see if it will help with fatigue 😅😬
As beautifully portrayed as it is, this seems somehow unrealistic.
An encounter with the Dutch medical system that doesn't feature being fobbed off with paracetomol?
An encounter with the Dutch medical system that doesn't feature being fobbed off with paracetomol?
I was lucky enough to be able to make use of my italian prescription here and convince my GP to prescribe me the same medication in the netherlands. however, switching to lisdex from medikinet was months and months of constant appointments which included a lot of pointless ones where we achieved nothing, some that led to getting my dose of medikinet halved, some that led to getting proposed to switch to xr+ir, and some that led to getting reverted to ir multiple times a day. the first time I tried to convince them to switch me over I had given up before I got anywhere, the second time I had enough stashed medication to be able to make it.
I guess the moral of the story is that persistence is the only way to achieve anything medically in this country and that the only accepted currency is time x_x
I guess the moral of the story is that persistence is the only way to achieve anything medically in this country and that the only accepted currency is time x_x
I managed to get a psychologist's diagnosis of ADHD in Germany in a walk-in session, no appointment, completely by luck and partly because the online form he usually gives as a preliminary is in German, and I don't down German very well, so he did the assessment then and there in English. That was in 2022.
Since then I've made a few attempts at getting a referral from my GP to bring to a prescribing psychiatrist, but I have yet to find one who is taking new patients and the German medic system is confusing to me.
Also, I'm anyway a bit nervous about taking those medications because I've a history of addiction issues with meth/amphetamine...
@confluency This sounds very close to my experience. Especially the 'all psychiatrists booked up' thing. Even with a pre-existing diagnosis, it took 3 full years to get into the queue for getting a medication prescription.
Does ADHD centraal still exist? It was a private facility that did a kind of 1 stop diagnosis and medication shop, but was seen as purely money making and medically dodgy. I never went but did recommend to parents of already diagnosed kids a few times.
1/2
This is not the first story I have heard of this being a problem in NL. IIRC @tanepiper was challenged on meds and existing diagnosis.
Fun fact, once you are diagnosed with autism or ADHD in the Netherlands, you need doctor to approve your driving license when it comes up for renewal. Was big shock. Much pissed.
this whole process sucks. At least you got an interesting and mysterious story out of it? 🤷🏻
2026-05-20 17:25:03
2026-05-20 17:25:03
2026-05-20 17:25:03
20583265
Fiiiiiine. I'll wash my hands in the kitchen sink.
2026-05-19 00:41:17
2026-05-19 21:34:08
2026-05-18 02:05:38
20549188
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
DontSurveil.Me has put together a great explainer on Bill C-22.
Canadians need to pay attention.
Expanding surveillance powers, retaining metadata, and weakening encryption all threaten privacy, free expression, civil liberties, and digital rights.
If we care about privacy, digital rights, and a free society, now is the time to speak up, contact MPs, and push back before this becomes law.
Learn more: dontsurveil.me/c22.html
#CDNPoli #BillC22 #Privacy #DigitalRights
Canada is about to end private digital conversation — Bill C-22
Bill C-22 would force every messaging app in Canada to build a backdoor — and track all your activity for one year. Apple says no. Signal says they'll leave.dontsurveil.me
reshared this
Shannon Prickett, Jonathan Lamothe, josh:// and A Fine Day to build a fence 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇺🇦🇵🇸 reshared this.
2026-05-22 17:53:25
2026-05-19 16:00:54
2026-05-19 15:47:14
20560217
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to Brooke Vibber
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to Irina
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to discobeez
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to there is beauty in simplicity
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to Elton Cora (Honorary)
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to Samantha Rose 🌹
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to babble encat
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
![Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]](photo/contact/80/4092?ts=1754915255)
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
in reply to dyani 🫠
EDIT: I agree with the majority! I'll use this to attempt to convince the powers that be to improve the situation in some way, as best I can. Thanks folks!
Does autoplay of a muted video in the background of a website bother you? Like as a decorative/design element behind the content.
If yes, let me know the effect it has and how it makes you feel (in the moment, about the website, about the company, etc)
Answer honestly (idk why you wouldn't but I feel compelled to say that)
boost so I can get more data pls
- Yes, autoplay bothers me in this case (95%, 553 votes)
- No, I don't notice in this case (4%, 27 votes)
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 6:13 PM)
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe, Ryan Robinson, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. and Kevin Davy reshared this.
@dyani 🫠 My server doesn't support polls so I can't vote, but I'll comment. I use older devices. The web is already so bloated that it frequently brings my browser to its knees. Video is usually unnecessarily burdensome on older hardware when it's already juggling so many other things.
I don't mind it being there, but let me decide if I want to play it.
like this
Rob Vincent 🎙️, tian2992, Willow (she/her), dyani 🫠, jevvv🇳🇿 and babble encat like this.
@me same, let me decide!
Your decorative design element is your other website's sleazy intrusive advert. Disable autoplay Always.
It shows the purveyors of the web site don't care about how much of my bandwidth or CPU they use.
yes it's both visually distracting and an annoying waste of bandwidth for no purpose >🙁
autoplay muted video has its place in content that i actually want to see, but not in the background
(and animated ads can just FOAD)
@brooke Right, when I started my own reply, I was thinking of bandwidth as well as distraction. Then I myself got distracted researching just where motion detection starts (in the retinas, like I'd thought) and forgot about the bandwidth issue. (And also ran out of characters.)
Anyway, yes, it wastes bandwidth in addition to the distraction! Thank you for reminding me.
My pet peeve regarding website video seems to be the little box of a video that you never started nor want to pay attention to, that follows you as you scroll down the article.
If I had started the video and it decides to follow me around it's not a problem.
----
That said (reading some comments made me understand the original idea better) animations are generally distracting and having like a short video clip just for the sake of making the site feel "alive" is not a good idea imo.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 4:06 PM)
it's a very quick shorthand to communicate "I don't care about your internet bandwidth or your attention self-moderation. It's about what *I*, John Q. Website, want."
It's the easiest thing in the world to wait for a cue that the user specifically wants the video to play, and the website *knows* they don't have that consent, or they wouldn't have muted it. They know. So it's about seeing how far they can push boundary they're aware of.
I frequently get visual migraines... when things move around on a website I am incredibly annoyed and more often than not as soon as something moves I close the site.
For me it's an accessibility thing, and it makes me feel like the company doesn't give a shit about people tbh.
I deliberately use a plugin that blocks it, because there's just too many sites that use it badly.
why waste my bandwidth for something meant to be a background piece, also just quite a potential to cause motion sickness or losing track of words depending on visibility of it.
It's like getting car sick and very distracted from what you came to do. The worst offenders are video loops under forms people have to fill out, this includes login screens.
It makes me unable to read the text on the page because my eyes keep jumping to the motion. So I generally leave unless I have a strong need to stay.
I find any background animations on web pages highly distracting, and disable them whenever possible.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 4:06 PM)
I find it distracting and I feel rushed. I think good sleek and simple design gives a far better impression, and if there are videos I can then choose to watch, I am more likely to linger
as long as the website does not load more than 50k of Data. And not in the background. Moving backgrounds are horrible.
It doesn't really bother me personally if it's purely aesthetic (attention-grabbing popover bullshit is another story), but if I were going to do it I would be aware of the fact that it *would* bother plenty of folks. So if I were doing it for some reason I'd at least gate it behind a check for whether the user has the prefers reduced motion setting in their browser.
I find it distracting, like with anything else that is at the edge of my perception trying to get my attention and that I haven’t activated, when I’m trying to do something.
In the case of video it also kind of shows a disregard for my situation. I could be under a phone data plan that I didn’t want to waste on random video streams. @sindarina
adhd-hardmode unlocked.
But maybe the website in question wants to distract you from looking too closely at the provided information and just "click yes already!" In that case: good design choice.
But maybe the website in question wants to distract you from looking too closely at the provided information and just "click yes already!" In that case: good design choice.
How it makes me feel in the moment varies.
If I am okay health wise, and at my computer, I am annoyed, since I have video play turned off in my browser.
If I have a migraine, it may mean I have to go lay down in a dark room instead of at least reading.
On my ipad is worse. I often use my ipad in the dining room, and I don' know what that video is, and don't want other people to see it thinking I approve of it. (Sorry too many in game ads have been XXX rated lately).
I have often left sites if they have a video, especially if the video pops out and follows the mouse around the screen.
Unless I am on a physical therapy site, or YouTube, I am almost never looking for video.
Ten degrees of vision, hearing loss, and migraines do that to you.
it would mostly make me feel like I wasn't expected to simply view/browse the site, but load something more bandwidth-intensive like a web application. Certain webapp sign in pages do this.
I usually have all sound off anyway unless I'm actively listening to something, so I probably wouldn't notice. But when I do (because I'm working with the headphones on, for instance; my work involves music typesetting and arranging) I'm NOOOOOOO!!! As bad as having background music in a talk video.
Oh, and autoplay *always* bothers me. Even when I do want to hear the sound I want to explictly turn it on myself. And things on a website shouldn't move unless I made them move (for instance by pressing a button). Gratuitously moving objects are distracting and annoying.
Videos embedded in websites that autoplay mildly annoy me. I find them to be a useless distraction.
Muted is better than not muted (looking at you, news websites) but unless you're a video site and I went looking, autoplay is still bad manners.
I find it annoying at best, distracting and frustrating at worst, like the site owner feels they have to rattle something shiny at me instead of allowing me to focus on the text block I came for.
If I can't close the autoplay video or make it stop, I have been known to either leave and find the information elsewhere, or locate its DOM element and block it programatically.
it's annoying because it's distracting. I find it to be disrespectful to how my attention works. It being deliberate makes this worse: the actual content I'm there for, is secondary to the engagement the website is trying to have with me... which isn't anywhere close to the engagement I'm trying to have with the website.
it’s so wasteful
all autoplays bother me
@kinsale42 It’s basically rickrolling but with variation.
Yes, it bothers me because there's *motion happening*. Our eyes are literally hardwired to detect motion (like, there are cells *in the retina* that detect motion before the impulses even make it to the brain!). That makes motion very difficult to ignore.
If I wanted to watch a video, I'd have clicked on something that looked like a play button. If I didn't do that, I don't want the site playing video. It pisses me off, and if I can't make it stop, I'll just leave.
I only want to see videos I choose to play. They do tend to slow things down on occasion, plus I normally prefer to just read the text.
i dont want anything to autoplay muted or not UNLESS its a video watching site and I explicitlyclicked the video. I also do not i want the video to follow me as a I scroll.
If the article is text based, keep the video optional
it's annoying to restart then video when you actually want to watch it. Furthermore like others said it's a waste of bandwidth (especially on mobile) and hardware resources.
I'm still of the mentality that Shockwave Flash videos and their modern equivalents (like this example) are to be used exclusively for either trolling friends or as punishment
The message I get is that the owners probably intentionally use two spaces to park their BMW at Trader Joe's, and honestly think that people will be sympathetic to their plight.
@cora 😂 best answer so far
for me i notice it distracts me from the sites content. it keeps on drawing attention away. I prefer having control over when something plays.
It's distracting, it pulls my eye towards it instead of what I'm actually looking for, so I find it irritating. If there's a way to pause it I always do, otherwise I try and scroll further down so I don't have to see it.
Autoplaying video, even without sound, is a distraction that consumes my bandwidth. I do not want it.
anger at wasting my bandwidth, especially if I'm on my mobile data on my phone, which in South Africa is not cheap.
That's followed by bewilderment at who would find it a useful addition to a webpage.
frustrated, annoyed, Yet Another Thing that I want to turn off but cannot.
I would avoid the website unless forced.
The only exception that I've come across are well designed pixel gif loops in a background, where the movement is limited to usually a corner of the screen, maybe some things like a shooting star rarely, and not distracting, just fun. Doesn't have to be pixel art specifically but that's what it mostly is.
But specifically muted videos have never been a good experience. I also get frustrated that I have been loading /that/ on my machine. Sometimes it lags the entire webpage, too.
i usually immediately close the page. Elements like that are viscerally uncomfortable to me - they're intensely distracting; they make it fucking impossible to concentrate on the actual content; and I feel great resentment towards the company and the designer for having inflicted this on me when I was just trying to access information that I, presumably, needed.
It's a huge insult to anyone with adhd or on a low-bandwidth connection.
it's super distracting and annoying. I find it overwhelming in a sensory way and kinda invasive in the attention grabbing way, while it also usually doesn't actually provide any useful information. Just making it harder to get to the info I actually want to see.
yes, it bothers me quite a bit. In brief:
- I find it visually distracting
- It consumes bandwidth, often enough to make the page load painfully slowly
- If I am on a metered connection (e.g. mobile data), it consumes my data to load something I don't want
- If I cannot make it stop, it feels like a violation of consent
- For all these reasons, I am immediately frustrated if I encounter autoplaying video of any kind, and most often close the page and don't attempt to view it again
Autoplay is turned off by default for me, so I never notice or see them
I leave the website immediately and am unlikely to return. It’s too distracting.
Such autoplay videos makes it basically impossible for me to use the website. Best case scenario (from website point of view) is that I get very annoyed and find a way to stop the video. Worst case (common) is that I just close the page right away.
My browser is set up to tell the website that I don’t like/deal well with motion (via the CSS reduce motion property) so there is no excuse for that kind of behaviour.
PS I consider it a severe accessibility problem with such videos.
@samantha oh, I need to find that tag!!
Depends on the context, of course — I don't want any autoplayed animation on a page when I'm trying to read — but in most cases, yes, I find it annoying.
Something moving on one part of the screen makes it pretty much impossible for me to look at, read or pay attention to any other part.
If I can't stop it, close it, scroll it away or cover it with my hand, I generally just abandon that site.
When I visit a "regular" website (not a video platform), I expect the front page to be mostly text and still images, possibly orienting me towards videos on other pages. I expect to have some text to read. Having a video automatically play in the background, even muted, is very distracting and is likely to make me lose focus and therefore lose interest in the website.
I actively despise anything animating in websites. Marquee may be the maximum I'll tolerate but preferably not. I will edit your DOM to remove whatever animating crap you add. If it's too much I'll declare your website toxic waste and never try to visit it, and recommend others to not use it either.
It is distracting and makes me feel stressed and annoyed. I would probably bounce off that website sooner, thinking, “jackasses”.
Hi @dyani, it's so distracting and it makes the page loading too slow. I have often trouble to read afterward.
Concerning my feeling about the company, it looks like as a company with an aggressive marketing approach
Concerning my feeling about the company, it looks like as a company with an aggressive marketing approach
autoplay of any kind feels massively intrusive. It'll monopolize my attention, interrupt what I'm thinking, and won't allow me to focus on much else until I've found a way to turn it off. But then I'm pretty sure that I'm autistic.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 7:40 PM)
i generally dislike autoplaying videos everywhere, including youtube, but it can be included tastefully on websites.
Mostly annoyed by it slowing down the browser or sucking bandwidth, but it's not conducive to reading, either. It's okay as a preview when the video is the point of the page, though.
it's a bit distracting, even more so when they decide to place at the top when you scroll past it
Having an autism spectrum disorder, I find it quite hard to filter out motion, especially at the edges of my vision, so it just distracts from the actual content of the website I presumably want to look at.
Sound or motion that I do not activate is a drag on my attention and my pitiful rural data rate. It will cause me to exit the webpage asap.
i have all autoplaying videos blocked, audio or not (except for a whitelist), so i cant really comment. alzhough i suppose zat answer should tell you all you need to know about my feelings on zhe matter
Absolutely intolerable, and I immediately leave the site
Like most people on this planet, I access the internet on a device with minimal computational power, on a network with minimal bandwidth
My computer can simply can't handle playing a background audio or video file and also scroll smoothly or handle clicks on the web page
I also might be trying to view the page in an environment where flickering light or sound would bother other people or critters. Or me
And, the biggest reason of all: It's consent violation
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 9:49 PM)
If it has no sound, it wouldn't bother me, and as long as it doesn't mess up parts of the page I need to read, I'm not even sure I'd notice it at all.
Unexpected autoplay is like a jumpscare. Then I'm scrambling to stop it or close it somehow, unless for some reason I decide to watch it, in which case I'm struggling to figure out how to go back to the beginning because I'll have missed a few seconds trying to understand what's happening.
yes it bothers me because (as far as I know) even small movement like a video playing will negate lots of power saving features. So it will keep the CPU and or GPU busy and eat battery slash power while it's visible. Plus accessibility concerns
I usually make freakishly barren web pages for print-friendliness. My worst pages look like income tax forms, but they load fast and run great
Oh! Also, since video is Big, a background video will either waste your server's bandwidth, or 🧵
or it will mess up your viewer's privacy by making them hit a CDN
So... Personally not a fan
It's distracting and makes me think that the designer didn't think about accessibility. I guess there might be some cases where that's not true but in most cases I would assume flashy was more important than quality content.
A cynical attempt to appear more creative and unique than it really is. A site that puts user experience and efficiency as less important corporate gloss and algorthmic performance. Untrustworthy.
echoing the many sentiments here of feeling distracted, wasting bandwidth, wasting system resources. i generally wish the web was more plaintext overall; so much can be conveyed with so little, and things begin to feel like they’ve lost direction quickly. a lack of conviction. and all of that adds up to feeling disrespected, and like i’ve entered a space where the owners, the people responsible have no real vision for what the space should be.
unless the website is supposed to be art, i clock it as annoyingly intrusive marketing.
Absolutely not bothered unless it is an advertisement. Also, sometimes I’m okay with audio at the same time as I scroll. It just needs to smoothly mute/unmute as one video is out of frame and another is in.
In a perfect world, the autoplay will have subtitles so I can read some content without having to unmute.
Anyone complaining should just be directed to tuning their browser settings to ignore autoplay.
I don't like it b/c it's distracting. And it slows down my browser and eats cpu time, which affects battery life. Also, it consumes a chunk of bandwidth which is an issue in some situations.
Yes, and I will actively attempt to hide the autoplaying element. If that is not possible, I will avoid the website.
its a distraction and a waste of bandwidth
It's distracting, and it makes me think that the website's owner cares more about making the site look like it has a high production value than about efficient communication. Unless the website has a specifically artistic purpose (e.g. it's an in-browser video game or a humor site or something), I generally am accessing the site with a specific purpose in mind, e.g. looking for particular pieces of information or filling out a form. A background video does nothing but distract me and possibly slow the page's load time.
I feel similarly about that thing some news sites started doing a few years ago, where scrolling down on a long form news article plays an animation rather than actually scrolling. It feels like a gimmick that just disorients me and makes it hard to "find my place" again if I have to pause reading and come back to it later. (Here's an example of what I mean from The Onion: theonion.com/the-best-books-to…)
even muted, this uses a ton of extra system resources, slows the whole browser down, and generally disrupts the operation of the site. autoplay on the web, in any form, is inextricably linked to a history of abuse, scams, spam, ads, and other toxic content. no responsible site creator would want their work linked to this, and it smacks of corpo scum who think they know better than the user.
playing a video uses my device's resources and bandwidth, and causes a deliberate distraction to direct my attention. these are things that should NEVER be done without explicit consent. ever.
it distracts from the real content, it wastes CPU cycles, it drains the battery…
It can be a migraine trigger for me, or trigger a very specific medical effect that I can guarantee almost nobody else would have. But the migraine trigger might be more widespread.
I honestly hate it because if I visit a website for written content, I don't want to be bothered by a video (muted or otherwise). I use extensions to block this garbage...It tells me a lot about sites that choose to try to evade my blocking software.
That they are SEOmaxxing peeps who don't care about my desires, CPU, or bandwidth. They want to grow into a massive digital presence to snuff out any competition. Its nasty behavior.
I regard it the same way I regard in-game ads that don't default to muted. More often than not, I'm in a public place when I'm scrolling (or gaming) on my phone, and I don't like disturbing those around me with sudden, unexpected blasts of noise, especially in the restroom.
Also, for the record (and PLEASE pass this along to others in charge of such things), I consider videos/ads that cannot actually be muted as a hate crime.
So, when I notice a video is playing, muted, I have to do two things if its some content I want to see - I have to unmute AND rewind. I see this so often on news sites where I am more often than not visiting specifically to see the video.
If its just some design element, then it is entirely a distraction from actually reading the content. Especially if its playing behind the content in some way to make the content difficult to read.
having spent months at a time in countries where data is incredibly expensive and also very meagre it makes me want to: scream, pull hair, break bones, vomit, find the perpetrator and punish them slowly, painfully and with disgusting infections. It shows a total disrespect for anyone who doesn't have privilege, which shows that the designer is a nasty turd. YMMV
additionally my ADHD and autism will be screaming so loudly in my head because of the distraction, that I will never remember why I am looking at the website
if something on a page moves without me initiating it, then I'm highly likely to just close that window and never come back. I will probably never think highly of that organisation again.
Anyone not respecting a user's "prefers-reduced-motion" preferences when present these days is making a deliberate choice.
it makes me completely unable to focus on the website. I am forced to deal with the video (either by watching it, or far more often trying to close it as soon as possible) before I can perceive any of the website's content
it bothers me when I'm using an #epaper screen, because that doesn't handle videos well. (But then, it also doesn't handle certain websites with too much in-between grey)
Not quite what you asked but on a related note, I am bothered by muted autoplaying of regular videos, regardless of which screen I'm on, because of the environmental impact (transmitting so much data, etc.). But if it's just a short loop as a decorative element and I'm on a regular screen I think that'd be fine/fun
I find motion very distracting and annoying. I wouldn’t be able to use that page because I would try to pause the video, realize it can’t be paused, and not be able to focus on the content at all
I don't think I never not notice moving images…
my parents always have the TV on in their house, and even if it was decidedly something I don't care about, it kept me distracted — and it hasn't changed in the 25 years since moving out of my parents' house
anyway, i think i just got distracted thinking about why get distracted by moving images, so you got a TMI.
yes, for two reasons: if I don't want to watch it, it is distracting; but if I want to watch it, in many cases I would want to unmute it, at least to make sure if I'm not missing something from the audio, so I need to do two actions (unmute and play again) instead of just playing the video.
Dislike it entirely - website should focus on reading of content and maybe static pictures, nothing should move unless I request it to do so. I definitely think a lot less of any company that does this -- I'll also include animated and moving backgrounds in this judgement.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 7:26 AM)
Outside of the needless use of my resources, I also get easily distracted by movement, so having a site always "singing and dancing" in the corner of my eye would bug me.
any background movement is distracting to me (the battery/power drain arguments do not hold much water because JavaScript on such websites usually eats more CPU than hardware-accelerated video codecs)
even if i closed the browser tab within seconds i would feel extra ill for at least a few hours from things moving on my screen.
@brooke I am dyslexic and find moving continually images behind or around content I am trying to read make it very hard to keep my etes focussed on the text.
Essentially unnecessary use of my resources absent my implicit consent, and distraction.
the visual distraction is a big part of it; also gives the website more of a flavor that spells “the content you came to read isn’t valuable to us”; and then there’s the technical aspect where video might play muted most times but whether it actually is muted gets influenced by so many factors out of the user’s control - it’s gonna blare some time.
Even when muted the movement pulls my attention from the text that I'm interested in
It's like a fly that keeps buzzing your face while you're reading & no amount of shooing will make it go away
yes, I don't like things drawing my attention to them unnecessarily and movement is a pretty effective way of doing that. It would be a constant source of (not particularly severe but still noticable) stress and make me want to avoid looking at the website.
My first hand-coded 1990s website had tiled animated GIF backgrounds.
I've spend the decades since trying to live a positive-enough life to counteract the bad karma that earned me.
I can't tell for sure because I don't remember ever visiting a web page doing that, but I think it would annoy me, just like muted autoplaying sidebar videos do.
Would you feel comfortable sitting in a room if the wallpaper was moving?
I think it depends on the format. An embedded GIF is fine.
and thank you for doing this poll so you can show them the impact
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 10:18 PM)
2026-05-18 16:03:14
2026-05-18 16:03:14
2026-05-18 16:03:14
20539556
I love how the weather went from needing to wear a winter jacket over top of a sweater to needing to hook up the air conditioner in a span of like two days.
2026-05-18 15:20:03
2026-05-18 15:13:51
2026-05-17 15:52:14
20520100
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to ZenHeathen 🇨🇦
in reply to datenwolf
in reply to datenwolf
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Martin Vogel
in reply to Martin Vogel
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Eystein
in reply to Chris Ammerman
@cammerman
in reply to Daniel Fisher(lennybacon)
in reply to Daniel Fisher(lennybacon)
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Andy Linton 🇮🇪 ✅
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Jeff Phillips
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to 4censord now@rustweek
in reply to 4censord now@rustweek
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to KF7CCC Andrew
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Yza
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Johan Diederik
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
in reply to Chris Ammerman
Remember 100 years ago when radiation was new and exciting and poorly understood, and companies were putting radiation into everything?
Thankfully we learned our lesson and will never make that mistake again.
This entry was edited (Sunday, May 17, 2026, 3:52 PM)
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
reshared this
fedops 💙💛, Michael Vilain, Shannon Prickett, Urban Hermit, Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) , Nicole Parsons, oldguycrusty, Lizzie, I am Jack's Found 404, Jonathan Lamothe, Only Sharts🇨🇦, aburka 🫣 and Bernie Luckily Does It reshared this.
Frankly, given their penchant for naming their companies and products after evil lately, I'm quite surprised there isn't a "Radium AI" out there.
Only Sharts🇨🇦 likes this.
@ZenHeathen
Radium is just but one element on the periodic table, all isotopes of which being highly unstable. There's noting evil nor good about it.
The things the tech bros name their "creations" after are deliberately constructed as such evils.
Radon "AI" would be more appropriate because it seeps into f*king everything *especially* where it's unwanted...
This entry was edited (Monday, May 18, 2026, 3:13 PM)
@datenwolf @ZenHeathen Not sure if you say it for Palantir but these objects are not inherently evil in the silmarillion and are in fact created by an elf
(yes I'm a big tolkien nerd)
@mardor Faith in humanity Regressed
@mardor I already found an AI generated sauce in the shop. Jalapeño-mint. Tasted like toothpaste.
Speak for yourself I still drink my recommended 1 Liter of radium water from my doctor approved Radium Vitalizer
something something asbestos
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
@cammerman
Only Sharts🇨🇦 likes this.
Only Sharts🇨🇦 reshared this.
this is SO FUNNY
@lennybacon
You will certainly not regret…
You will certainly not regret…
We're 6 months away from an AI condom startup.
@artnacrea Yes! I'm an 80's kid and I remember one of these, think I even used it. It must have been one of the very last in service in the UK.
This is a post about AI, right?
Exactly. Every shiny new technology gets sold as magic before people understand the risks. Radiation then, AI and other tools now. Innovation is great, but guardrails matter.
I once had a wrist watch with dials and numbers that glowed in the dark. And that was only 50 years ago.
@DrJay oh crap. I had one of those too. And that was 40 years ago.
remeber 50 years ago when asbestos was new and exiting and poorly understood, and companies were putting asbestos into everything?
Thankfully we learned our lesson and will never make that mistake again.
Remember 100 years ago when radiation was new and exciting and poorly understood, and companies were putting radiation into everything?Thankfully we learned our lesson and will never make that mistake again.
@4censord remember when smoking was The Cool Thing to do and everyone smoked everywhere.
@4censord AI = Asbestos Incarnate
@KF7CCC Andrew @Chris Ammerman Guaranteed to kill all insects and vermin.
...well, it will do that, yes.
like this
Luke Harby, Mycotropic and KF7CCC Andrew like this.
Thalidomide was a big winner, too.
@cammerman@mstdn.social and with everything monitoring us being cloud-based... Are we being poisoned as well as being always watched?
the thing is, radiations wasn't that poorly understood. factory bosses worked out that it was harmful when lots of their workers who were exposed to it a lot kept coming down sick with the same symptoms. they just surpressed the information for as long as they could, because people finding out would be bad for business
just like how fossil fuel companies were the first to discover global warming and made sure to proactively spread misinformation about it
they're counting on people not understanding and being excited by their product. they would like to keep things that way
Did we learn our lesson? I did research on dental radiography (a.o. panoramic images) There is still an enormous misuse of radiation in medical and dental practice. It’s an easy way of making money and therefore a triggering factor. The radiology rate should be $ZERO and included in diagnostics.
@JohanDiederik
Panoramic dental x-rays are equal to about 4-hours in an aircraft at 30,000’. Radiation treatment after a mastectomy is a rust colored burn that goes through the ribs to the edge of the lungs.
Panoramic dental x-rays are equal to about 4-hours in an aircraft at 30,000’. Radiation treatment after a mastectomy is a rust colored burn that goes through the ribs to the edge of the lungs.
And what to think of chemotherapy? Still learning…..
You mean like those bracelets?
youtube.com/watch?v=C7TwBUxxIC…
youtube.com/watch?v=C7TwBUxxIC…
Negative Ion/Anti-5g Products Are Actually RADIOACTIVE
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.The Thought Emporium (YouTube)
that's what I thought as well... it glows it has to be powerfull. mastodon.social/@PictureBandit…
Picture Bandit (@PictureBandit@mastodon.social)
Yeah we are totally doing the equivalent of painting radium on to our teeth at the moment. Just digtially & globally. What could go wrong.Picture Bandit (Mastodon)
I always remember the old copies of "science" magazines from early 1900, with ads selling radioactive elements to eat and feel "healthier"! 😱
Still isn't enough, as I heard some years ago of people drinking colloidal gold and silver, for a presumed "healthy" effect 😱
Still isn't enough, as I heard some years ago of people drinking colloidal gold and silver, for a presumed "healthy" effect 😱
2026-05-18 02:03:39
2026-05-18 02:11:08
2026-05-18 02:02:47
20529477
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
Quick, give him the drug that breaks down not knowing English
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
2026-05-18 03:30:54
2026-05-18 00:49:42
2026-05-18 00:49:42
20528100
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Paco Hope
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
Root #monsterdon post
Well this movie sure does not waste time getting into the action #monsterdon
Did he just pull a "that's a lovely family you've got. It would be a shame if something were to happen to thrm"? #monsterdon
Wait, why do they all have purple hair? And what's with the mesh uniform shirts? #monsterdon
The purple wigs are basically hey it's the future,
I love that everyone pronounces UFO as yoo-foh. #monsterdon
I don't know what the movie is, but that sounds like a 70s thing. ;)
With all those blinking lights, you know this stuff is high-tech. #monsterdon
These aliens can cross interstellar space and they're still using plastic? #monsterdon
"Everything seems to add up to a dying race." See, I told you. Ditch the plastic. #monsterdon
"Oh no! It's on a collision course. What course should I take?"
You're a fighter pilot in space! I'm sure you've got room to maneuver on your own in an emergency. #monsterdon
ax6761 reshared this.
Here in Canada, we have very sturdy trees. #monsterdon
"He appears to be humanoid and very intelligent."
You can tell that just by looking at him? #monsterdon
Fabio! 🐈 reshared this.
His eyes. So dreamy...😍
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
How exactly are they talking while wearing respirators? #monsterdon
How are we respirating while they're talking! That's what I wanna know.
@Paco Hope I guess it's super classified technology.
I never knew a giant stationary moon base was so hard to hit. #monsterdon
David Zaslavsky reshared this.
2026-05-17 03:19:37
2026-05-17 03:19:37
2026-05-17 03:19:37
20509696
I am not against AI, because "AI" is such an ill-defined term as to be nearly meaningless, so being either for or against it would be nonsensical.
That said, LLMs are a cancer. I am very much against LLMs.
2026-05-15 16:27:10
2026-05-15 16:28:47
2026-05-15 09:21:09
20474674
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to mc.fly
in reply to mc.fly
in reply to Bebna
in reply to mc.fly
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua
in reply to mc.fly
in reply to Eggs now in different baskets.
in reply to mc.fly
in reply to Face Thumb
I would like to have a new electric car but the whole data collection part is the main thing keeping me away from it.
So I liked this article quite a lot. Forgot where I found it, likely here somewhere on the fediverse...
arkadiyt.com/2026/05/13/removi…
Removing the Modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid
Modern cars are computers on wheels that send home nonstop telemetry about you. In this post I remove my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid's modem and GPS to prevent that :)arkadiyt.com
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe and Bernie Luckily Does It reshared this.
I'm guessing they will try to make this illegal
I guess the only way is to update an oldtimer to electro. All modern ones will come with EU-Flightrecorder.
youtube.com/watch?v=8-rN8sZaDJ…
Mein Verbrenner wird elektrisch - Lohnt sich der Umbau? | SWR Doku
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.SWR Doku (YouTube)
@bebna I have seen that and like that a lot. From the new cars my favorite is a BMW neue Klasse 3er. I could see getting that and replacing the antenna connectors just with resistors.
I am not sure if I would want an old cat just with electric motors.
This entry was edited (Friday, May 15, 2026, 12:36 PM)
Thanks for the link, very educative!
When people will understand that to trade their whole life for the convenience of knowing if there is an obstruction on the road is not a great deal?
@GustavinoBevilacqua Yes, from a philosophical point of view rather like road signs warning of "falling rocks".
I mean, what can you really do to save yourself if a sufficiently large rock lands on the roof of you car right above your seat?
Definitely do not want a modern car, irrespective of driveline because of data collection issues.
I'm using a PinePhone as I do not like the data collection issues, walled gardens and other issues such as data sovereignty associated with Apple or Google's offerings so why on earth would I want a car with CarPlay or Android Auto in it?
Or the car manufacturers own version of such things?
Or closed source engine and brake management systems? Or always on internet access?
This entry was edited (Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:23 PM)
@the_wub I don't want the data collecting, the always on, the constant monitoring so in case of an accidents the manufacturer can proof is not his fault.
I would prefer open source on the software but especially when it comes to stuff like engine management that's not very high on my list.
I like the accident detection and alarming but if buy that third party and just put that on the car.
Also, I usually gets cars when they are at least 5 to 8 years old and take them to third party mechanics, so I don't have a warranty and I don't get software updates from the dealer and from a software point of view my car is basically unsupported at that point anyway. How much functionality are they going to change anyway? They probably aren't going to keep improving anything important over a decade, unless they can charge me for it like drift mode or something.
Sure, security updates are great, but so is running a car offline so that it can't be remotely unlocked or started by a hacker who gets into the company's cloud infrastructure, or just pays an employee like happens now with mobile company sim jacking.
2026-05-14 05:58:33
2026-05-14 05:58:33
2026-05-14 05:58:33
20445708
I just discovered #Krita's colourise tool... and here I've been colouring the fill bucket and touching up with the brush like a sucker. 🤦♂️
2026-05-09 15:45:56
2026-05-11 14:48:05
2026-05-09 11:02:55
20358822
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
My dad started quoting this and now I found the original
in reply to Spring Jo 🥚 🍀
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
My dad started quoting this and now I found the original
reshared this
Meercat ✅ , I am Jack's Found 404 and Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
The new Behind the Bastards podcast on "AI" as an historical bastard is 👍👍👍
They mention that they go after art & writing because they're the 2 most common things people share on the internet, and thus the best for convincing regular people that it's "doing something"...
Very interesting analysis of the hype & marketing of shatbots [sic], worth the listen!
2026-05-11 02:27:28
2026-05-11 00:31:15
2026-05-11 00:31:15
20382921
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to David Zaslavsky
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
Root #monsterdon post
What the hell was that balloon filled with? Hydrogen? #monsterdon
that was my guess too... probably the first thing to come to a writer's mind when you need an explosive balloon
Or maybe methane idk
@David Zaslavsky Would methane float?
good question... a quick web search suggests yes, it's about half the density of air
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Oh, I can tell bybthe preview, we're in for a treat tonight! #monsterdon
The professor is weirdly intense, isn't he? #monsterdon
like this
Becky likes this.
@Jonathan Lamothe the professor is already my villain of the movie
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
They pretty quickly went from "get the hell out of here" to "come have some iced tea". #Monstedon
"Fame and fortune" are clearly more important than measley human lives, obviously. #Monsterdon
Just how many rolls of film did this guy bring? #monsterdon
"Just remember that you're all illegals and I'll report every damn last one of you!... and the fact that I've been breaking labour laws by hiring you while I'm at it!" #monsterdon
Why is everyone so casual about the number of "accidents" on this site? #monsterdon
I love that this guy's evidence for this theory is "some guy told me this story." This is of course #monsterdon so I know he's actually right, but you can't blame anyone for not buying his story.
This explosion is throwing cars around, but the people who were standing right next to it are somehow fine? #monsterdon
"You're my creation! I made you!"
No you didn't, and even if you did, do you expect it understands English?
Oh, the aliens do speak English, so maybe the dinosaur does too? #monsterdon
Surely it's afraid of your measley pistol. #monsterdon
"Of course you've never heard of us. We're a level five classified government agency. Obviously you can just take my word for it." #monsterdon
The Doctor reshared this.
You know, that was a weird angle for a satellite feed. Just sayin'. #minsterdon
"We can't use our fancy new laser. It's not safe!"
Yeah, because the rampaging monster is totally safe.
David Zaslavsky reshared this.
I want a jet pack! #monsterdon
I guess stop drop and roll isn't an option when you're flying on a jet pack. #monsterdon
See? The monster was just misunderstood. #monsterdon
aburka 🫣 reshared this.
If the aliens had these weapons they could just use from orbit, why didn't they just use them to begin with? #monsterdon
I love how brittle these buildings are. #monsterdon
2026-05-10 21:24:21
2026-05-08 20:01:34
2026-05-08 20:01:34
20342267
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
Congratulations!
2026-05-08 05:20:20
2026-05-08 05:20:20
2026-05-08 05:20:20
20329297
I've been down a YouTube rabbit hole working on improving my art. I've always been somewhat decent at replicating something I can see, but when I have to draw something from my head, the poroprtions always looked kind of off.
I've watched a bunch of videos by a couple different artists, but I've found this one who has a whole channel teaching in a way that seems to work for me. My anatomy drawing (which has always been my Achilles' heel) has rather vastly improved in a remarkably short period of time, and I've been happy with the progress... at least until I compare them against the artist's examples. Hers are way better.
Then I have to remind myself: I've been at this a few days. Of course the professional artist is going to do a better job than me.
2026-05-07 16:21:24
2026-05-07 16:24:56
2026-05-07 11:05:05
20319170
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
![⛧-440729 [sophie raven]](photo/contact/80/265889?ts=1779457883)
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
![⊕-2922 [Rox]](photo/contact/80/472808?ts=1778082985)
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to Tay
in reply to Tay
![Ripper Lambda Crime [The Möth Society]](photo/contact/80/477160?ts=1778170895)
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
![natalie[ee]](photo/contact/80/487004?ts=1759874225)
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
in reply to ⛧-440729 [sophie raven]
okay but what if we had a locally hosted torment nexus?
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
"YourMent Nexus"(tm)
Make the Torment Nexus your own with our self hosted version.
services.torment-nexus.enable = true;
what if we put women in it
Women in a Torment Nexus? I'm sure there's a market for that.
Hear me out, we write it in rust, and make it fully extensible with TormentScript!
@sophie then it can have ethically sourced torment, as a treat
federated selfhostable torment nexus
at first i read this as "torrent nexus" and i was like that sounds amazing 
what if we uploaded it to all android phones without asking.
Gotta run off solar power too, to make it ethical.
@sophie when will the torment nexus be releaed as a docker container? is there an unofficial container one can use in the mean time?
docker compose dont build torment_nexus
2026-05-07 16:18:51
2026-05-07 16:18:51
2026-05-07 16:18:51
20319106
I really wish #org-mode would allow me to specify a manual UTC offset in my timestamps.
2026-05-06 14:31:29
2026-05-06 14:31:29
2026-05-06 14:31:29
20297896
My lousy depth perception strikes again. I was putting my glasses in the ultrasonic cleaner and was trying to fish a cat hair I saw on the surface of the water. It wasn't in the water, it was stuck to the power cord that was hanging in front of it, about 15-ish cm away.
2026-05-06 14:24:11
2026-05-06 14:24:11
2026-05-06 14:24:11
20297723
It feels wrong to be reading the documentation for
ed(1) in emacs(1) for some reason.like this
harryhaller likes this.
2026-05-04 19:45:02
2026-05-04 19:45:02
2026-05-04 19:45:02
20262510
Fantastic...
...and I'm sure this system will be properly secured and won't be abused at all. 🙄
cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-w…
reshared this
Ryan Robinson and Justin To #НетВойне reshared this.
2026-05-06 04:47:10
2026-05-04 17:00:53
2026-05-04 17:00:53
20259588
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
My doctor has a fancy new on-line booking system. Trying to set myself up an appointment to follow up on some blood work, but the system tells me he's booked solid for the next two months and won't even let me look at the schedule beyond that.
I guess I'll have to call the office to book the old-fashioned way.
So it turns out he's on vacation until July.
It's gonna be neat when my ADHD meds run out.
2026-05-04 15:03:36
2026-05-04 15:07:22
2026-05-04 14:19:03
20257221
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe and dch reshared this.
2026-05-04 12:10:46
2026-05-04 00:52:45
2026-05-04 00:52:45
20245360
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to R.L. Dane 🍵
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
#Monsterdon root post
Well, the first thing I notice about this movie is that I used to work for the company that did the closed captioning. I'd recognize their style guide anywhere. 🙃
#monsterdon
#monsterdon
@R.L. Dane 🍵 The immediate telltale sign is that every time there's a change of speaker, the caption group starts with hyphen, space. Whenever I see that, I find that every other rule from their style guide is followed as well. You usually don't see that.
Ah, I've seen that before. Helpful when reconstructing a script from the captions.
I'm no crime scene analyst or anything, but that didn't look like an accident to me. #monsterdon
What happened to the motorized wheelchair? That thing was kinda cool. #monsterdon
David Zaslavsky reshared this.
I've gotta say: the special effects are... something. #monsterdon
Bet you wish you hadn't kept the game going now, don't you? #monsterdon
How exactly did he get up there in the first place? #monsterdon
Can you at least take the tie off properly? #monsterdon
Who exactly is this mob looking for? Isn't everyone still looking for a human? #monsterdon
Furbland's Very Cool Account™ reshared this.
I think they were looking for a human. I'm not sure why they decided that searching the woods at night was the best plan to find their proposed target.
This werewolf sure seems to like hiding. Why are you hiding? You're a freaking werewolf! #monsterdon
David Zaslavsky reshared this.
Well, that went well. Who'd have guessed assembling an angry mob could go badly? #monsterdon
If he didn't need a wheelchair before, he may be in extra need after riding this thing... #monsterdon
I have to admit, the eye patch does help with the bad guy look. #monsterdon
The bridge is unsafe and condemned, but not a barrier to be seen. #monsterdon
Mother Bones reshared this.
Well known fact that everyone is 100% obedient of signs in small towns. Yep. Well known fact.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
"I would never willingly hurt a child... you know, except for all those times I tried to kill you." #monsterdon
reshared this
David Zaslavsky and Fabio! 🐈 reshared this.
Don't you need a search warrant for that? #monsterdon
Badges? We don't need no steenking badges.
Did the stream just drop? #monsterdon
is there enough silver in that thing for a bullet? #monsterdon
Is there anything this guy can't either make or have made? #monsterdon
Furbland's Very Cool Account™ reshared this.
"Don't let any trick-or-treaters in."
Why would that even be a thing you'd have to say? #monsterdon
I've gotta say, Uncle Red's faring better against this werewolf than pretty much anybody else in this whole damn movie. #monsterdon
Kevin C 🎬 reshared this.
...and how exactly are they going to explain the dead naked reverend in their living room? #monsterdon
Kevin C 🎬 reshared this.
Dead priest? you call a “fixer”
The Wolf: Jimmie, lead the way. Boys, get to work.
Vincent: A please would be nice.
The Wolf: Come again?
Vincent: I said a please would be nice.
The Wolf: Get it straight buster - I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better do it and do it quick.
Jules: No, Mr. Wolf, it ain't like that, your help is definitely appreciated.
2026-05-03 18:08:27
2026-05-03 16:25:04
2026-05-03 16:25:04
20238767
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
TIL that
ed(1) requires me to escape (, ), {, }, <, and > in a regex to not use them as literal characters. This is the exact opposite of what I would expect.like this
Guy Geens likes this.
Basic vs. Extended regular expressions.
sed (and evidently ed) use basic regular expressions
awk uses extended regular expressions.
grep defaults to basic, with `-E` using extended.
Since those characters are also special to the shell, you might see them escaped from that purpose, even when they appear in a sed/grep command line.
@Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. This applies when I'm using
ed in interactive mode, no shell involved.
Yes, like I said, in basic regular expressions those characters only have special meaning when escaped. In extended regular expressions, they have special meaning unless escaped.
Both types of regular expressions are well documented in the latest Single UNIX Specification from The Open Group. Older versions of SUS are available from Debian contrib (or non-free?).
2026-05-02 14:45:30
2026-05-02 14:51:59
2026-05-02 14:44:55
20216813
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe, Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸, Dgar, Shannon Prickett, Mother Bones, Bernie Luckily Does It and Virgile Andreani reshared this.
2026-05-01 16:14:16
2026-05-01 16:14:16
2026-05-01 16:14:16
20198383
A poorly coded bot—supposedly named %fname% %lname%—keeps trying to request registration on my server. It's sad, really.
like this
juliadream likes this.
2026-05-20 16:51:55
2026-04-30 12:00:35
2026-02-27 14:35:29
18976588
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
Unknown parent
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
@the_etrain
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
Etrain you magnificent bastard! I boosted your post!
in reply to Staff Chief of Joints
*long drag on cigarette* Kid, this is Mastodon. We're all the algorithm here. You. Me. Everybody. Now get out there and boost somebody's bullshit.
reshared this
Shannon Prickett, Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸, Pseudo Nym, Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️🌈, Andrew (Television Executive), Jonathan Lamothe and Christina reshared this.
*uncaps whiskey bottle*
"I never asked for this."
*Puts on sunglasses indoors*
*Puts on sunglasses indoors*
@InsiderTreat some of us are more algorithm than man
...And while you're at it, kid, boost some shitposts, too.
I'm not an algorithm, I'm A Real Boy, <nose twitches>... or am I a swan? I always mix those two up.
(read with Harrison Ford's voice)
I guess I’ll do what I’m told.
*Sniff* *sniff* that ain't no cigarette... Giggles
Hugz & xXx
Just share ... Giggles ... I ain't not snitch ... Giggles
Hugz & xXx
@troublewithwords BOOPST THAT TOOT!
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
@the_etrain
You sound exactly like Tom Waits!
aye captain, consider it done.
sir yes sir!
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and shitpost.... and I'm all out of bubblegum"
I unboosted this just to reboost it.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
Etrain you magnificent bastard! I boosted your post!
*puts shovel down*
It didn't have to end like this, ya know. We had a good thing going until you fucked it up. Ain't no coming back from it now.
2026-05-06 20:56:09
2026-04-30 11:57:39
2026-04-30 11:36:09
20175342
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to Matt
This is your regular reminder that the large tech companies are pretty evil. Also anyone wearing those glasses needs to have a good think about their lives and what they are doing.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7yv…
Dispute over fate of Kenyan workers who saw Meta AI glasses films
Meta and its subcontractor disagree over why over 1000 Kenya-based workers were made redundant.Chris Vallance (BBC News)
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
2026-04-29 16:19:15
2026-04-29 16:20:29
2026-04-29 10:38:12
20159701
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
2026-04-28 17:10:57
2026-04-28 17:10:57
2026-04-28 17:10:57
20138373
onpoli, healthcare, security breach
Just got a letter in the mail that our healthcare information may have been compromised in a potential data breach. The hospital was very adamant that it wasn't their system that was compromised, but the systems of a third-party contractor used by the province.
Dear government, I take great pains to secure our personal systems. Can you please stop authorizing deals to hand over our sensitive information to sketchy third-party contractors without our consent? It's your responsibility to vet them. You don't just get to wash your hands of it when they inevitably screw it up.
like this
juliadream likes this.
reshared this
juliadream and C. reshared this.
2026-04-30 01:09:48
2026-04-27 22:06:38
2026-04-27 22:06:38
20122273
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Krit
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️🌈
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Aeon
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Maddie
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Krit
Got a request from @Katy Lamothe for my next drawing. Of course she would pick a picture where I'm wearing an intricate graphic tee. Here's a preview.
#krita #drawing
#krita #drawing
like this
Salinger 3, Krit and nadloriot like this.
Salinger 3 reshared this.
Interestingly enough, as I was painstakingly tracing out my guidelines, I noticed a colouring mistake in the graphic on the tshirt that I hadn't noticed in all the time I'd owned it.
like this
Salinger 3 likes this.
Somehow the drawing seems more attractive than the real thing. I love Krita but I used to stick to vector and Inkscape was my favorite, but then I started to play with a pen in an AOC screen and Krita shined to me.
like this
Jonathan Lamothe and Salinger 3 like this.
@Krit To be honest, I've always been a little intimidated by Krita. Sooo many tools and buttons and widgets and options. I look at the work of @David Revoy, and think, "I could never do that!"
Then I finally just started playing with it, and it's actually not half bad.
Am I doing things the "right" way? Probably not. In fact I'm doing things I know my high school art teacher forbade back while I was in school. When he gets into my head though, I just tell him, "shut up! This is a digital medium and the rules are different."
like this
Krit and Salinger 3 like this.
Also, what the hell is that weird line beside my nose. I must've accidentally drawn it and not noticed.
Anyhow, I'll fix that and start doing the shirt artwork on a separate layer so that I don't have to commit to it just yet.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 5:18 PM)
I’m in team artwork, otherwise that part of the image looks kind of bland
@Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️🌈 I am too. Problem is, I'm also in team lazy. 😅
So as much as I love #Krita's assistave tool that smooths out my lines, I'm finding that with this fine detail work, it's easier to turn it off and just carefully draw by hand than it is to fight against the tool.
I guess it's about knowing what is and isn't the right job for the tool, right?
Me: I don't like that gap in the line art between my arm and the shirt. I'm just gonna make my arm a little wider to close the gap so I don't have to deal with it.
Katy: You know, when most people doctor pictures of themselves, they do it to make them look skinnier.
Aeon reshared this.
I like the first version the most. The artwork is great but drags the viewers focus away from the guy and the cat.
Why is it that I always find some stupid little line or two that I forgot to draw when I go to colour? The bucket fill tool is a harsh mistress. Also, because the lines are anti-aliased, the bucket fill tool is not a silver bullet. I had to manually touch this up in a lot of places. Still better than colouring everything by hand though.
The decision to add the art to the shirt definitely complicated the process, still the finish line is within sight.
As a side note: the limitations of my artistic talent, and the art style I'm using makes my beard look significantly fuller than it actually is. 😅
The checkered pattern on the wall behind me is acoustic panelling, which I'm hoping to make more evident when I do the shading and highlighting. That's going to be tedious AF to do.
The things I do for my art... 🙃
Also, I took the liberty of correcting the colouring mistake in the original art in the tshirt because I can't add a [sic] tag to a picture.
We won't talk about the myriad of new mistakes I added in the process that you can find if you look closely enough. 🫠
Interestingly enough, as I was painstakingly tracing out my guidelines, I noticed a colouring mistake in the graphic on the tshirt that I hadn't noticed in all the time I'd owned it.
Have you been testing adjustments to the Spread and Grow Selection options for the Fill Tool? I think limiting the Threshold value might make the tool more forgiving about the tiny missing lines.
@Maddie I should look into that, yeah.
Got some shading done, but I still have to figure out what to do about the acoustic panels on the wall. I haven't even really attempted that yet. I have some ideas about how I might try to go about this, but despite any appearances to the contrary, I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just kinda making it up as I go along.
#krita #drawing #art #cat
#krita #drawing #art #cat
The only thing I think is bad about the shirt artwork is that the text is not in a position it can be easily understood. Other than that it looks good to me.
If you are using anything other than a mouse you will probably get things better setting accurately the brush dynamic options. Also I believe Krita has a threshold setting for the smooth.
Those are just my views and opinions, not meant to mess up your way of doing things.
If you are using anything other than a mouse you will probably get things better setting accurately the brush dynamic options. Also I believe Krita has a threshold setting for the smooth.
Those are just my views and opinions, not meant to mess up your way of doing things.
2026-04-26 09:13:46
2026-04-26 11:06:41
2026-04-26 08:41:57
20088873
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
here are my favorite chess strategies:
- eating the opponent's pieces while they aren't looking
- the "pawn on a string" trick
- putting the opponent's pieces upside down so they can't identify them as easily
- hiding monopoly money up my sleeve
- playing on a very slight incline so the pieces slowly slide off the board
- knight dupe glitch
- arbitrary code execution via pawn placement and null piece reference
- bribing the opponent with a $20 bill to throw the match
- putting worms on the board
- putting superglue on some spaces so the opponent's pieces get stuck
- cheating
- intentionally underdeveloping residential spaces to keep demand high, ensuring steady population growth over time
- bringing an atari 2600 and a copy of video chess so i can just copy its moves
- using nucelar pressure to secure a draw
- threatening the opponent's family
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
2026-04-26 14:30:40
2026-04-26 03:42:31
2026-04-26 03:42:31
20085491
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
like this
clarice overhere, nadloriot and David Shelton like this.
reshared this
Bob Jonkman, #caturday, #krita and Cats Of Fediverse bot 1/2 reshared this.
@bobjonkman that'd make a nice stained glass design!
This entry was edited (Sunday, April 26, 2026, 10:41 AM)
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Bob Jonkman reshared this.
such a nice drawing of your cat!
This entry was edited (Sunday, April 26, 2026, 7:32 PM)
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
2026-05-15 09:32:06
2026-04-25 02:14:05
2026-04-24 22:33:50
20068110
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
Who could have ever predicted this!
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Michelle Bacon
in reply to pmjv s klapkami na očích
in reply to Reid
in reply to Michelle Bacon
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Yiming Wu ✅ Use OurPaint
in reply to Reid
in reply to Martin Owens
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Willow at large
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Fubaroque
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Violet Madder
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to Reid
in reply to gábor ugray
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
Who could have ever predicted this!
reshared this
Jonathan Lamothe, Kofi Loves Efia and Nicole Parsons reshared this.
@bitcrush_io Alt text: r/vibecoding
19h ago
Join
Available-Dentist992
vibe coded for 6 months. my codebase is a disaster.
•••
the app works. users are happy. revenue is coming in. (that's actually the only good part)
but i just tried to onboard a dev to help me and he opened the repo and went quiet for like 2 minutes. then said "what is this."
6 months of cursor and lovable and bolt. every feature worked when i shipped it. but nobody was thinking about structure. the Al just kept adding. new file here, duplicate function there, 3 different ways to handle the same thing across the codebase.
tried to refactor it myself last week. gave up after 2 hours. the thing is so tangled that touching one part breaks something completely unrelated.
the generation was fast. the cleanup is a nightmare.
is there even a way out of this or do i just rewrite everything from scratch?
19h ago
Join
Available-Dentist992
vibe coded for 6 months. my codebase is a disaster.
•••
the app works. users are happy. revenue is coming in. (that's actually the only good part)
but i just tried to onboard a dev to help me and he opened the repo and went quiet for like 2 minutes. then said "what is this."
6 months of cursor and lovable and bolt. every feature worked when i shipped it. but nobody was thinking about structure. the Al just kept adding. new file here, duplicate function there, 3 different ways to handle the same thing across the codebase.
tried to refactor it myself last week. gave up after 2 hours. the thing is so tangled that touching one part breaks something completely unrelated.
the generation was fast. the cleanup is a nightmare.
is there even a way out of this or do i just rewrite everything from scratch?
They "wrote" that post using AI too. I can't stand that halting, weird structure that sounds like marketing copy. Makes me want to grab the person and shake them, screaming "Just get to the point!"
This entry was edited (Friday, May 1, 2026, 1:03 PM)
the text is written by a real human idiot, ai would never leave out whitespace between a parenthesis and a period .(
@Reid
This entry was edited (Friday, May 15, 2026, 9:21 AM)
@pmjv @michellebacon also, *no* capitalization outside of "AI". That's a very human thing
yeah, good point.
@michellebacon I wouldn't discard the possibility that they're just so linkedin-brained that this is how they actually write
That's a scary thought. I just figured everyone on LinkedIn posting in that style has been using AI since 2022.
I think at that point you reimplement.
Maybe use the existing code to generate test cases?
I mean, I've managed to do stuff like this to myself without AI, because I'm a self-trained hack programmer with ADHD.
simple, ask the AI to refactor 😁
@chengdulittlea unironically this.
Make sure you have unit test coverage, something that Claude can do quite well. Also, make sure that Claud doesn’t do something stupid like remove failing tests.
Plastic code?
Apparently cheap, environmentally expensive, degrades quickly while contaminating the commons and increasingly difficult to remould and reshape.
This entry was edited (Saturday, April 25, 2026, 3:59 AM)
> I love how vibecoded commits are called vommits. It's so perfect.
calvin 🛋️ likes this.
What did this moron expect? LLMs are actually working exactly that way: they parse the user's input and collate code by using tokenised code snippets in their data base. You never get the same result twice, because even minor subtleties in the prompting can trigger an entirely different decisioning. And yes, when coding you often can address a requirement in different ways. A human would stick to one way, an AI ... not so much.
And now he's complaining about inconsistency? 🙄
no worries, the next AI will fix it, or the next. Or we'll just rewrite it with another ai from scratch or not
This entry was edited (Saturday, April 25, 2026, 6:09 AM)
honestly I'm surprised it got that far
@Willow I mean, I have to doubt the "features worked" part unless we're talking about software with very simple and strict requirements, but given the industry's standards these days, it was probably considered passable by anyone used to Microsoft's quality.
I mean, there's a way out of this, I'm available, my rates are reasonable
Those with solid knowledge could use AI as an assistant by setting criteria. Those who lack that knowledge or want to take risks let the AI write code without reviewing it That’s when “vibe coding” becomes synonymous with sloppy code.
Corporations wanted to sell the idea that anyone can program using AI, but that’s only partially true. You can have functional software if it’s simple. However, when it comes time to modify it or perform any kind of integration, the code isn’t valid.
In my experience refactoring starts with writing tests. Whenever I try to understand a codebase reading the code only helps me up to a point, I need to see the components running to get a sense of how the are working. Writing code on an awful codebase is one of the few ways I know that I can fix stuff, without breaking stuff. That does mean that the upfront cost to learning the codebase is higher, and the long-term cost is lower as the code is better understood
This is also why I don't completely understand how people can read the code and say they don't understand it, without writing a line of code
This entry was edited (Saturday, April 25, 2026, 4:38 PM)
@bsdphk Can confirm.
Spend a few weeks putting a UI together. Each individual step looked ok, and I cleaned up the code as I went.
I decided to review the code in its entirety, and it was exactly this.
Multiple similar enums, multiple copies of the almost same function, class files with over 2k lines, dead code that got left behind.
Spent about a week creating prompts to clean it up.
AI loves writing code.
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
The responses don't see it as a problem... 🤪
new record! maintainable for 6 whole months
See people like this should lose their engineering card and never be allowed to touch a computer again
This entry was edited (Friday, May 1, 2026, 1:11 PM)
This is where I remember somebody in my feed looking at that Claude leak and saying, "I'd post screenshots but the spaghetti is too powerful."
@violetmadder I looked at the Claude Code sources and it's beyond spaghetti. Genuinely never seen code *that* tangled up before.
@0x0ddc0ffee A friend told a story about somebody making an experiment, in which he took a sizable application and then set up a loop where he continuously asked the coding agent to improve the code. The application went from something like 20.000 lines to 180.000 lines when the experiment was stopped😂
I maintain, even in the age of AI coding agents, that a program shall be as short as possible, but not any shorter (to paraphrase Einstein, I think it was).
The easy way out of this is to ask AI to refactor and clean the code base
unpopular opinion: this is actually quite ok. this person created an MVP to test if a market exists for a particular product. it is a cheap MVP, and there is real signal (paying customers).
now they can calculate if revenues justify building the real thing. if yes, they can put up or raise the money, hire a team, and build it. if not, it was a fun ride, and they can move on.
@twilliability there are 2 issues with that:
1) Nobody will actually fix things up later, ever. They say "nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution" for a reason
2) the people running in communities where they build the AI datacenters and accompanying power plants would likely not be so enthusiastic about it
2026-04-25 23:47:03
2026-04-24 20:58:28
2026-04-24 20:58:28
20064203
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to pizzapal
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to pizzapal
in reply to pizzapal
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Mark Connolly
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
like this
nadloriot, M-J-Revenge ✮☮★━NOK 4 U 2━★☮✮ and clarice overhere like this.
nadloriot reshared this.
Full disclosure: While no so-called generative AI was used in the creation of this drawing, there was a liberal amount of tracing from a reference photo I took.
like this
Paul SomeoneElse and M-J-Revenge ✮☮★━NOK 4 U 2━★☮✮ like this.
pizzapal reshared this.
you drew this? this is great!
@pizzapal Well, I traced it from a photo I took. No generative AI though. I cheated the old-fashioned way. ;)
tracing is legit, you still have to decide what shapes to include
photography is good too
@pizzapal The window frame was surprisingly difficult.
like this
clarice overhere and nadloriot like this.
uoou reshared this.
I think, in the future, I will use the straight line tool where doing so makes sense.
FWIW, the lines that are maybe supposed to be straight have character. They don’t need to be made straighter 😀❤️
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
@Mark Connolly Yeah, a big part of this exercise is me just playing around with Krita to see what I can do with it.
2026-04-30 22:52:35
2026-04-24 04:55:34
2026-04-19 00:53:48
19956169
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
mutual aid
Sensitive content
76%
The management office gave us 6 hours via email to pay the entirety or they’ll tow our vehicle.
I know.
We’re close but not quite there.
—
Still trying to make rent this month. Please help if you’re able.
This entry was edited (Thursday, April 30, 2026, 10:30 PM)
reshared this
Shannon Prickett, Jonathan Lamothe, Bernie Luckily Does It, Void Chicken and Alice Averlong🏳️⚧️ reshared this.
2026-04-24 18:35:06
2026-04-22 01:36:04
2026-04-22 01:36:04
20010213
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to silverwizard
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe
So... twice this week now the alarm that reminds me to take one of my meds has gone off, but when I've gone to take the pill, it's already missing from the organizer. No record in my medication log of my having taken it either.
That's... odd.
I've been online long enough to know this is where I'm supposed to suggest you check your carbon monoxide detectors
I mean, the landlord did last month.
@Jonathan Lamothe that's incredibly concerning. Both because the lack of log event means you're either sleepwalking, or in a state to not perform a log. And the alarm is likely the trigger. Uh - can you account for theft? Are they worth stealing?
Sorry - that's "my brain goes paranoid" level of fear
@silverwizard No, they're antacids. If someone were going to steal a pill, the ADHD meds were in the same organizer.
There are many benign possibilities. It's possible that when I loaded the organizer, I accidentally put only one of those pills in it (I take two a day). It's possible that since I was late with meds today, I got the schedule wrong, and accidentally took one at the wrong time. These are much more likely.
Still, I'll keep an eye on the situation.
@silverwizard My medication schedule is... complicated. Med X needs to be taken with food. Meds Y and Z can't be taken within two hours of each other. It's like the damn wolf, goat, cabbage problem.
Getting old sucks (though it's preferable to the alternative, I suppose).
So I've solved the mystery.
It's the result of my half-asleep brain taking the wrong pill in the morning—by feel, in the dark, of course—and then failing to log that anything even happened. Problematic, but not so much as the potential reasons that had been proposed.
clarice overhere likes this.
2026-04-21 15:11:17
2026-04-21 23:23:06
2026-04-21 14:55:46
19999743
Jonathan Lamothe reshared this.
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to \u1f0a1
in reply to Mastodon Migration
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
. @cwebber Me bottom right. 😅
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber
If you are thinking about running your blogpost through an AI editor, don't! It almost always makes it more boring.
Whatever you have to say is what you had to say anyway. Just say that, you don't need more. And the mistakes are perfectly fine.
I spell check once, proofread once, then publish. When people point out errors, it makes me feel good, because it means people are reading what I write, and I correct it then.
I'd rather have your charming acoustic-performance words, even if you make mistakes! I love mistakes in writing. Rustic and cozy.
like this
Hypolite Petovan and Jonathan Lamothe like this.
reshared this
aburka 🫣, Nicole Parsons, I am Jack's Found 404, Jonathan Lamothe and Urban Hermit reshared this.
There's an exception if English is not your primary language and you would feel too self-conscious to publish if you hadn't used some editing assistance. This I can understand, though personally, I can tell you I wouldn't mind!
And even then, AI editing will rob you of your voice – a thing that is much more important than any mistakes you might make
@bnlandor
It will rob you of your voice, and over time extinguish your voice.
It will rob you of your voice, and over time extinguish your voice.
@mastodonmigration @bnlandor it is your character that comes through with your choice of words. I just ignore the continual suggestions, they take the meaning away - and the me...
Not to be that guy, but I am actually going the other way. I'm reverting to handwriting my first draft to prevent myself from over-editing while I get my ideas out. Then in the (manual) transcription process, I can do a first editing pass. It takes longer, but the focus of handwriting is a blessing.
💯. AI processed words are like Velveeta Processed Cheese Products, cheese-like but not legally cheese. Some love it, it's shelf stable, but it's noticeable to makers of actual cheese.
AI is like Ultra Processed Foods of software, easy, addictive, profitable, high in things that erode and cause long-term damage to its consumers.
Good writing is authentic. That authenticity is in the detail, in the nuance, in the creative word or structural choices, that are found in your voice, not in VelveetaAI.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 3:10 PM)
Can you imagine what Mark Twain or Faulkner would read like after being run through an LLM?
I tried running my resume through an AI two years ago and the results were definitely worse.
I wasn't ever going to use AI tools, but as a side note: As a sometimes blogger whose perfectionism is his most frequent stumbling block—due in part to being formed in the debate-me caldera of pre-Musk Twitter—I can't express how grateful I am for reminders like yours, that my work can have value even if not polished to a mirror shine.
agreed! 💯 ive always loved art and music this is not perfect and overly refined. The mistakes make it unique! I love the happy accidents. I want to see the hand of the artist!!!
2/3rds of the time gmail suggests edits to my text, the result wouldn't even have the same meaning as the original. It feels like it's optimized to discourage business-speak dishonesty, which is a good thing!, but it also discourages anything that distinguishes it as being written by a particular person.
expect others like me have developed an almost infallible sense of "What's that smell" when encountering any text where the dead and soulless hand of faux ai has been involved. Pisses me off. A lot.
🤗 welcome mistakes, they are human 😁
Note that also people like me who can detect LLM editing will also stop reading upon seeing such common phrases as "It's not X, it's Y" "They thought it was X until suddenly Y happened" and so on. So another side effect of overusing LLM editing is to lose readers.
Since those sorts of things can infect the brain if you read them enough, so people like me preserve their ability to write without LLM poisoning the brain by actively shunning anything that does use it.
Last time people complained about a typo in a message of mine was when Reddit was filled with grammar nazis. I miss when people on the internet cared about grammar and wanted to help others.
I don’t have a blog but totally agree with you that writing is better with slight imperfections than when it is bland, boring and perfect.
I always tell people I've put in three ententional mistakes, so that they can hunt them down and, feel smug when they find them.
OMG yes! Please don't turn your writing into just some more AI slop!
Lo-fi rules
can confirm: when grammarly switched to using LLMs, the quality of my blog went down
totally agree! Also: the fun part IS the writing process, to get stuck, to take a walk, then getting unstuck and to take it across the finish line
We definitely need a Idioacracy 2.0 movie.
Maybe created wit Kunstvoller IntellIgenZ.
speling and grammar errors drives ingagement
Perhaps you could ask it to be a reader and ask you questions, which you could then turn into more writing.
The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
. @cwebber Me bottom right. 😅
This entry was edited (Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:48 PM)
to quote the kangaroo
"the good thing about free speech is that everyone can say what they want. the bad thing is, that everyone is doing it"
Agreed! Last year I went to a knitting party for the first time and when the person running it came over and I exclaimed about being bad and making dumb mistakes they smilingly told me that the imperfections is what makes it unique, lovely and human. That immediately relieved me of all my worries and I had a great time finishing my amigurumi doll after that. It really stuck with me, I think about it often.
ha! My AI has specific instructions to never attempt to write for me or attempt to rewrite anything I write. I tell it all the time that it's a much worse writer than I am.
That means I use it often as a rubber duck, but not for the writing itself.
It's baffling to me that this even needs to be said. Do other people not immediately click away from a blog post when they realize it reads like it came straight out of ChatGPT?
I find that waiting a few days before proof-reading is most effective, as it gives one time to separate enough from knowing what you are trying to say (so missing things) to actually reading with fresh eyes.
Rustic approach is great. In our real rural life things are not always perfect. If a dining plate appears generally clean we put it in with other clean plates, we don't examine it with a microscope. Some sand and dog hair on the floor is OK unless it's really not. When there's some speck somewhere we just say 'rustic' and keep on going.
100% agreed, signed, ratified and placed atop a pole.
This website uses cookies. If you continue browsing this website, you agree to the usage of cookies.
Maddie
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •This has been my experience with Northeastern University (Boston campus), and I never considered they could be throttling traffic, it always looked more like dropped packets, and so I assumed it was a problem with their Wi-Fi/lack in fiber, combined with how UDP is a bit more robust to dropped packets
I'll see if I still have some data on that after a nap
huntnewsnu.com/89834/editorial…
Op-ed: Northeastern’s wifi needs to be fixed
news (The Huntington News)Shae Erisson
in reply to Maddie • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Maddie • •@Maddie It's a thing ISPs here in Canada were doing a bunch until the CRTC (our equivalent of the FCC) told them to stop.
A lot of them kept doing it though because proving they were was difficult.
Maddie
in reply to Maddie • • •Jonathan Lamothe likes this.