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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: March 19th, 2025

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  • You can set it to update location every minute, hour, ten seconds etc. Then just check the app for last known location. I have excellent telecom coverage where I live, and it can ping for wifi networks as well as gps, so I have personally never lost signal as long as it’s charged.

    The frequent charging might be the biggest downside for tracking a bike, for my pet I can just do it every night when they stay indoors and don’t need it.


  • My pet tracker can be set up to only send location when asked for it. It uses a SIM card (pre paid), plus you can call it to listen to the surroundings or have it blink or make noise through the app.

    The app requires the phone numbers of the people who are allowed to query the tracker.

    I don’t know what trackers are available in your country. I found several who had subscription-type deals to have the tracking actually work. I hate subscriptions, so will always choose to pay more upfront to control my usage and cost. It’s a lot more expensive than any sort of air tag.

    With the one I have I can delete the app after setup and only text the number to get gps-coordinates when I wish, but the app works great for my needs.

    It also triangulates with WiFi etc to give a more accurate reading. All such settings can be changed in the app.

    Can’t speak for privacy aside from it can be set up to only send info when queried and only to preselected numbers. Kinda depends what you mean by privacy respecting.

    It does need to charge (varies greatly depending on weather, queries, settings etc) often.


  • I would absolutely love a game mode with proximity chat! As a temporary game mode with a separate queue, just to let us try it out. Maybe it could have a dB-manager so people (or at least survivors) were only able to murmur or whisper and everything with loud talking or screaming would be muted? It’s be really fun to frantically whisper “the killer is coming, run” or murmur “I’m gonna get ya!” in a chase, or hear a survivor whisper some instructions and then their audio cut out from screaming due to a jump scare.

    I think it could be a sort of middle road if there was a voice option for added friends in the game so that people can chat with their friends across platforms. That way people who want to chat with strangers can add people to their friends list while in any lobby (maybe with a category for “besties” or favourites to be able to sort irl-friends into), with the extra step to VC with in-game friends still keeping away the expectation that everyone can/should freely VC with strangers.


  • Without voice or text chat enabled that expectation of “should use VC to not be a burden on your team when they’re trying to communicate” is if course a projection, but it’s still powerful, and there’s no way of knowing how true that projection is without actually hearing from your teammates. So there’s really now way out of it besides “get over it” (which isn’t easy after a lifetime of learning to cater to others unspoken expectations)… Or by playing a game where there is no option of VC, so there cannot be any possible expectations of it, and no downside of not enabling it.

    For something one does to unwind I don’t feel like unpacking and facing deep-seated psychologically ingrained issues and the level of discomfort that brings, so it’s easier to choose games where that issue isn’t an issue.

    And now, after playing for a few years I feel confident enough to actually consider playing games with mic on. But I wouldn’t get there if those were the only ones available, I’d just find a different hobby or play offline.


  • It was the reason I started playing it.

    It’s one of the first things I bring up when recommending it to other women who aren’t playing online multiplayer games usually.

    Most women I know who play it don’t play any other multiplayer games online, at least none with VC.

    Games with VC usually do have the option to turn it off, but doing so you’ll have less information than players who use it. You’ll be a detriment to your team if they would otherwise have had efficient comms. You are turning off a feature, where the game is built on the expectations that it is turned on. I’d rather not have that option at all and instead have everyone be on the same page, with no expectations of comms with strangers. One less thing to consider, say no to, to disappoint others with.

    Nowadays I’d probably use VC if they had it, but I never would have started playing if they did, so I’m glad there are still games where it’s not even an option.

    So I’d say for a fair percentage that absolutely is the reason. That, and the horror icons.



  • Well… YOU could read papers. YOU could look up from your phone and notice the flyers.

    The possibilities are there. There are other ways to get info about local events than from fb. You don’t have to wait for everyone else to pick up a paper.

    Ps. I have plenty of friends and involvement, which most of my current social circle I gathered after moving alone to a new city, without using social media. I lost a lot of acquaintances by leaving fb, but none that I actually miss. My friends are the ones I put effort into keeping in touch with.

    People exist offline. We’ve done so for millennia, and still do.


  • I have a local newspaper subscription that often have articles/info and/or ads for local shows and festivals - one can even go to the library to read it every day for free if paying isn’t in one’s budget (but I like paying for it, it’s a lot of fluff but sometimes they dig up something about how my city is being managed or mismanaged, and they have shone a light on a few desperately needed changes in local government).

    I also know most venues in the area that host small bands and can check their website or get their newsletter through email.

    There’s also flyers being taped up at the store, library and on maintenance boxes and poles around town for current events and activities (that’s how I found my knitting club!).

    There are probably ticket vendors where you can flag certain bands or venues or maybe genres and get an email when something is booked in your area.

    Just walking my city, talking to people, looking in shops and venues, and being present outside I get a ton of info about local events. I don’t miss FB. I don’t need a global mega-site to tell me what’s happening outside my own door.



  • It’s frustrating being the guy pulling his hair out freaking out over things. When people look at you they see a tin foil hat man, but you know how it works.

    A few tips to better avoid the tinfoil hat-similarities:

    Break up your text into more easily digested paragraphs. One chunk of text like this just seems rambling regardless of how poignant it might be.

    Stick to one topic, or make the transition from one topic to another make sense. Going from spying cars, to a whole country collecting DNA through pee samples, to corporations are gangs, to fascist world order, to intelligence agencies collect child porn, to not wanting subscriptions in tech, while sprinkling in the Wizard of Oz at random times (in a more thought-out text it could be a powerful comparison to explain the issue or tie in to a red thread, but not just by mentioning the name and moving on)… It gets quite similar to the speech patterns of someone with untreated schizophrenia.

    Clarify why you are making a claim. For example the one about intelligence agencies having lots of child porn: Is it a good or a bad thing? Why do they have it? And how does it relate to the topic of seniors issues with tech, or mass surveillance through phones?

    Share your sources, especially for the lesser known claims. Put the relevant links at the end of each paragraph so it’s clear what each link refers to and it’s address.


  • I visualized “try” as watching a young child climb something that might be out of their comfort zone, so you’re letting them, but stay ready to “catch” them if something goes wrong. I suppose “throw” would be if they soiled themselves in their fall, you can throw them back into the arms of their loving parent for cleaning.

    But fuck_around, find_out and yeet would be fantastic.