I could have done the meme in one frame, but I wanted Quark to do a Jim stare.

Dog-piling is when someone expresses an opinion and people swarm in the comments telling the OC how wrong they are and how right they are. Typically the person getting dogpiled is downvoted into oblivion in the process. Note that I'm not talking about anything controversial in their opinion or the comment being trolling in any way; just any general disagreement with the groupthink.

Brief example:

User 1:  There are lots of factors at play here, not just money.  There's X, Y, Z, and those are all independent from money.
  |____> User 2: No, it's money.  It's always money
  |______>  User 4: Right?  How can anyone think it's anything *but* money?  Some people!
  |____> User 3: Yes, well, X, Y, and Z wouldn't be a problem if not for capitalism, so it's definitely money, and you're wrong.
  |____> User 5: It all boils down to money; always does.
  |____> User 6: Of course it's money.  Only a capitalist bootlicker would think otherwise.
  |____> User 7: Go back to Reddit, troll.
  |____> User 8: You're so close, but it's money.  
  ...
  |____> User 999: (Same as the last 998 comments; contributes nothing except attacking the opinion for being different)

None of that adds anything to the discussion; they're not engaging on the subject, just attacking the opinion because it differs.

That behavior does not seem healthy to me and seems like it's almost designed to discourage anyone from expressing any opinion that's not part of the established group think. Again, I am not talking about trolls here, just any kind of differing opinions.

Should that kind of behavior be discouraged? If so, as a mod, what would be the best way to address it? After the 2nd or 3rd dogpile comment, start removing subsequent ones that are just piling on?

It's definitely a people problem, so I'm curious what would be a gentle but firm way to deal with it.

Following a conversation / thread is a hot mess at the best of times, it's mostly just brain farts, and #people #write #out #things #like #this #as #some #sort #of #shitty #search #engine #optimization #because #EVERYONE #MUST #FIND #MY #BRAIN #FART #AT #ALL #COSTS .

If you have something of substance to say, just blog it or make a post on a proper platform where you can actually make your point without the reader having to put together the worst IKEA jigsaw puzzle known to humans. The technology to edit/update a post has existed forever, so it's stupid to just keep replying to yourself as new information "breaks".

Microblogging is dumb.

#Twitter #Mastodon #Threads #McDonalds #Walmart #TheGap #Baseball #NFL #RockAndRoll #TheInternet #Starbucks #DisneyWorld #Porno #Valium #Reeboks #FakeTits #Sushi #TacoBell #Rodeos #BedBathAndBeyond #TheAlamo #KitchenSinks #Sportsmanship #Books

Edit: Added alt text

Ford is moving forward with its $3 billion EV battery plant in Michigan despite political pushback and the potential loss of key U.S. tax credits that make the project financially viable.

Ford's argument is that by building batteries using technology licensed from China's leading battery producer, CATL, it is helping to re-shore important manufacturing expertise that was long ago ceded to China. [...] "LFP batteries are produced all around Europe, and the rest of the world," said Lisa Drake, Ford's vice president of technology platform programs and EV systems. "How can we compete if we don't have this technology? Somebody has to take the lead to do this," she said, adding that it will lead to homegrown innovation and the seeding of a domestic supply base. "I'm convinced this is the right thing to do for the United States," she said.

Drake said the tax subsidies are even more important in the face of slower-than-expected EV demand. "When EV adoption slowed, it just became a huge headwind," she said. "The [production tax credit] allows us to keep on this path, and to keep going." "We don't want to back off on scaling, hiring or training in an industry we need to be competitive in the future," she said. "It would be a shame to build these facilities and then have to scale back on the most important part of it, which is the people. These are 1,700 jobs. They don't come along very often."

Consumer tax credits for EV purchases get the most attention, but for manufacturers, the far more lucrative incentives come in the form of production tax credits. Companies could receive a tax credit of $35 per kilowatt-hour for each U.S.-made cell, and another $10 per kilowatt-hour for each battery pack. With an annual production capacity of 20 GWh, Ford's battery plant could potentially receive a $900 million tax credit, offsetting almost one-third of its investment. [...] The Republican-controlled Senate could vote as early as Wednesday on a budget bill that would rewrite language around EV tax credits. A House version of the bill passed last month effectively killed the production tax credits for manufacturers by severely tightening the eligibility requirements. It also specifically prohibited credits for batteries made in the U.S. under a Chinese licensing agreement -- a direct hit on Ford.

You hear that piano intro, and who do you think of?

I don't know exactly what cadence you'd call this, but all the point releases that are divisible by 10 are basically "cleanup releases".

I usually try not to introduce anything new in these and rather focus on debugging, refactoring, and streamlining all the changes for the previous 9 releases.

So, don't expect anything groundbreaking from the next version.

That said, I am asking for feedback on things; what can be improved (without adding anything new), what's buggy, etc.

So far in 1.4.40, I've done the following. In addition to these, are there any particular areas that could be improved?

Bugfixes:

• Don't add comment text to conversation line button tooltip if comment is hidden.
• Check if comment_view.comment.content is undefined before setting the comment text value to it. Only shows up in console log as an error, so it's non-breaking, but it's still annoying
• Fixed the gap where the moderation button would be in the post action toolbar if user is not a mod.
• Fixed "Hide Deleted Posts" filter. It's a holdover from the 0.18.x days and recently, you can only see your own deleted posts. The filter was hitting the safety check to not hide your own content before this rule fired, so there's now an exception above the "post is from self" check.

Filtering:

• Add ability to filter NSFW posts (works in addition to NSFW blur)
• Add ability to filter posts from bot accounts (without blocking them entirely)

Enhancements:

• When collapsing a comment thread via the conversation line, if the topmost comment in the thread is outside the viewport, scroll it into view.

Cross-posted from "Where did all the Wintermutes go?!" by @[email protected] in [email protected]