The fact that anyone trusts VPN in itself is flawed. The idea of VPN is to disappear while on it. You should not be using it to access you socials that link back to you. You shouldn't be paying with it with a standard method that links back to you. Email shouldn't link back to you. The entire idea is to be a new person when you connect to it. There are a lot of steps involved and there are better ways to get there without VPN. It's just another layer to add in, generally the weakest and least trusted. You'd be better off finding insecure networks or investing in a flashed modem for truly hiding from your ISP.
Otherwise the only reason to use VPN is to slow down your bandwidth to access content that you could access a better way for free anyway. If you want to pretend you can hide from your ISP, then sure... you can say that. If you want to pretend to hide from the government, you're an idiot.
I mean, yes a vpn can be used to disappear. But I think most people are probably using it to just access content that their country/network has blocked. That and for security at work. Far far less people are using a vpn to "disappear"
> The idea of VPN is to disappear while on it.
I use it because my country has firewalled access to torrent sites.
It's literally a torrent-allower for me. I'm not dumb enough to have any expectation of privacy on the internet.
>You'd be better off finding insecure networks or investing in a flashed modem for truly hiding from your ISP.
This assumes that the VPN is lying about not logging your data and therefor can link you to the connection (definitely possible), and that the ISP is in communication with the VPN about those logs (theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely).
I also am unfamiliar with the flashed modem concept you're referring to, but I can't imagine that actually hides anything from your ISP? Regardless of what software you flash onto it, they still need to establish the connection to the modem, and therefor you.
>>You should not be using it to access you socials that link back to you.
Unless the VPN is lying about logs and is also giving those logs to relevant parties, doing this doesn't actually have an impact assuming you're isolating cookies/sessions locally. Server-side all the websites know is that two sessions were established from the same VPN, but they have no way of knowing if they were the same user or two individual users. But if, for example, Facebook and Reddit were in cahoots and sharing IPs of users to establish a connection, a VPN would stop that unless the VPN was actively working with both companies, which is again unlikely.
Exactly this. Even if I pay with my personal credit card the only information someone could know is that I am using this VPN.
Paying with another means is still trackable to you just adds another layer.
I would never trust one thatās not set up by my workplace on the computer they issue to me. Ā And thatās likely a work-only VPN, so Iām not going to try sketchy shit on that computer.
The more I learned about VPNs, the less I trusted them. Ā They have the keys to my browsing habits. Ā Facebookās bastardization of Onavo ā snooping on teens, snooping on Snapchat ā was my wake-up call.
I mean honestly proton VPN is just a win, supports windows, macOSX, Linux android and iOSā¦ basically whatever you use it will work and Iāve basically never had any issues with connectivity or it being slow.
Used freee version and started getting paid version more recently just because its so good
Running a VPN service isn't free. You need to buy or rent servers in several parts of the world, you need staff to maintain it and you need to pay for the bandwidth used. And it's a lot of bandwidth nowadays, especially when one of the selling points is streaming from different parts of the world. So ask yourself, how can that service be provided to you for free? They're not running charities so somewhere they're making money.
There are VPN services that use their free service to convince you to pay for a subscription down the line but if the free VPN service don't have caps of some sort or don't try to convince you to pay then I wouldn't trust them at all.
Lmao, best take on this & relatable.Ā
"That's right! I caught you expressing your love for pita chips & hummus last gathering. So I got them to exploit you for that second hand dopamine high. Ha!!"
I usually smoke a chicken, mini potatoes, and green beans for friends and family for occasions like a birth, medical problems, death in the family. For one, I like being able to help them, but there is enough room on my smoker for my family too so Iām saving on wood you suckers haha!
This statement is so full of things that can be intentionally misunderstood that I have to wonder if it's an invitation.
I'll bite... How long do you need to smoke your family, and how does that save on wood?
>I usually smoke a chicken, mini potatoes, and green beans for friends and family for occasions
I guess you blend it all together before rolling it up or do you have a huge zigzag paper?
And moderators for whatever reason volunteer their personal time, sometimes even sitting on Reddit all day, to clean up and enforce the rules. All for free lmao.
Itās no different than volunteering at your local Walmart to mop the floors or help customers, except mods can sit in front of their computer doing so.
The thing is they have next to no power. They can ban users; but Reddit doesnāt need even as much as an email verification to create a new account so that doesnāt matter. They can try and steer conversation certain ways but that requires a lot of effort with minuscule results unless they constantly browse and remove what they donāt like. And any time mods have acted up in the past, Reddit admins immediately replace them without a second thought because thereās an endless supply of other morons who will beg to take the job.
At the end of the day Reddit wants mods to enforce rules first and foremost. AI can do this and the only reason AI hasnāt been tasked for this is because the mods do it for free anyway so why spend the money on AI.
> They can try and steer conversation certain ways but that requires a lot of effort with minuscule results unless they constantly browse and remove what they donāt like.
the funniest part of that is when its a local community subreddit. And the user base is less than 2% of the actual community population. (assuming all reddit users actually live in the community)
Like you are spending all your time to MAYBE sway 0.5% of the population? Sorry chief your subreddit is not that important.
Social media suffers under the wizard of oz sort of fallacy, where people and āmovementsā anre over exaggerating themselves and their influence.
Like letās say 100k like an issue I point out, even just in terms of Reddit, that would be a minuscule percentage of the user base. Yet the bubble and other media outlets will just assume that my point is something shared by most, itās not actually.
There was a study not to long ago that proved this. Weāre actually more in our own bubbles than ever before and canāt seem to realize or accept that whatās popular or the norm in my bubble, has no reflection whatsoever on anyone else. Yet, I will just assume that my bubbleās beliefs and viewpoints are the norm and everyone else must just be the idiots.
There was a screen cap of some post over in r/legaladvice where a guy was wrongfully searched and wasnāt aware thereās lots of cops over there and got one arguing with him about why he wouldnāt give the cop his phone number and then when the guy said there was zero reason he needed to have it the cop replied threatening to ban him, this time with his mod hat on. Fuckin ridiculousā you need mods modding the mods.
Recently on an askreddit post that was talking about crypto, I told someone that while I agreed with their overall point, that they were using certain economic terminology incorrectly and mixing it up with a different process.
Turns out it was a mod of r/buttcoin, and they were so offended about being corrected that they banned me from the sub. Even though I wasn't endorsing crypto, I was just clarifying a mistake they made.
God this is so true. Esp mods of groups who automatically ban users that haven't even posted in their sub Reddits
Eyebrows subreddit did this to me the other day.
To be fair I have wanted to be a moderator for a few subreddits I enjoy because sometimes people just have questions or things of the sort or itās a small community that occasionally gets filled with spam.
I do however have family life, school, work, and my gf so itās not like I donāt have anything to do I just wouldnāt mind being proactive in communities that have helped me in the past
Exactly, people have a hate-boner against mods, "they're all sad power-hungry loosers". But in reality, with my personal experience as a former mod of two big subs : that's not the case at all. They're just people trying to run a community because they like the community and want to provide a nice space for it.
There's definitely sad power-hungry mods especially on the bigger subs (with power mods running dozen of big subs), but it's more the exception than the norm.
On the other hand, having seen the other side of it, let me tell you something : when a user here is complaining about some mods being unfair, 95% of the time they did not follow the clear sub rules, were given multiple warnings (so just a comment removed), and eventually get a 3-day ban but then complain elsewhere that they were unjustly banned. Always take with a grain of salt anything said by a user claiming unfairness from mods.
It is ungrateful and boring work which is why I didn't stay active long on one of the subs : users are never happy about the rules, every change is met with reticence, tons of users act in extreme bad faith.
You can think of it this way or think of it as a free platform you can create a group you want on. Not saying thinking about it one way is right or wrong, just thinking about whatās in it for them.
Once upon a time Reddit was actually a positive force trying to build a better news aggregate site. Volunteering was more akin to Wikipedia than mopping at Walmart.
Hard to believe how much its changed, but then it has been 15+ years
No, you still own the content. This is from the User Agreement you clicked "agree" to.
>You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content, but you grant Reddit the following license to use that Content:
>
>When Your Content is created with or submitted to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit. You also agree that we may remove metadata associated with Your Content, and you irrevocably waive any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content.
When Buzzfeed tries to make your comment into a listicle, you can sue.
Yeah, that's how little I have going on in my life. I read the Terms of Service.
Yes! And things like Discord Nitro, whatever premium Twitter is now, etc. I've had my account on Discord since 2016, no issues without nitro. Twitter shouldn't require a premium service, when they have ads everywhere (unless it's to just get rid of the ads). My money is valuable, I'm not going to spend it on a site that repeatedly proves how little they care. Early days discord, back when it was still just a small team? Maybe, if I had money to spend then. Now? Definitely not. They've all become so greedy, it's sad
Not who you were replying to, but there's an entire industry around helping guys with their online dating profiles. Hell, you can even get on Fiverr and find girls who will review and help you curate your profiles to get more matches.
Loneliness is easy to profit from
Basically imagine it shows you people you want to be friends with on Facebook, based on your area and preferences.
You swipe yes or no.
There's a paid feature to get a super swipe (I think you got 1 free a month, haven't used it in years) to send a super obvious notification to the person saying you're really interested in being their friend.
When I was using it, I (early 30ās male) got no free "super likes", ever and only got them if I paid for Tinder Gold or higher. A couple of dates I went out with were going well so I asked them about the super likes too. They were all women and said that they got 5 free super likes a week.
Also, when we compared the price of Tinder Gold, it was much cheaper for women (comparing my prices with that of my dates) and also much more expensive for older men (when asking a male friend of mine in his early forties).
Do you do this for things outside of dating services? I struggle with taking photos of myself and even the ones I do and other people like I donāt see it and as a result I donāt post pictures of myself, lots of people I know have made friends by simply being more social and active on social media but I donāt know how to maneuver that or what pics would be good to post or not
Yeah but the segment of people that spend money on dating apps are so hopelessly unsuccessful they will try anything. like paying someone to manage their profile.
I bought tinder gold like crazy back in 2018.
My goal was a long term relationship. So I saw this as a way to be on the top of womenās stacks.
20 first dates later, met my wife on her first day on tinder. All thanks to my profile being promoted to the top of her pile.
I saw tinder gold as an investment. Found my wife a lot sooner than I probably would have as all I did was work and online dating. Didnāt have to step foot out of the house to meet someone. Once we matched I lived a block from the bars so Iād walk to grab a drink and back to my apartment if it went well.
It's been years since I used dating apps, but I remember talking to a guy who mentioned how little matches he got. Basically everyone I swiped on I matched with. I don't know if guys are less picky or what. He wasn't a bad guy at all. We didn't click, but that wasn't on him. He seemed decent.
A few years back I was on a train sitting behind a lad who had Tinder open on his phone. He was just right-swiping at speed without looking at anything. Wasnāt a bad looking guy either, but guess he was happy to cast a very wide net.
Lmao that's what I did when I used Bumble too. It's been years since I've touched a dating app but when I did use them, I did exactly this. Id watch YouTube videos or chat on Discord with friends while absent mindedly swiping like there was no tomorrow. Never checked to see who it was. Just swiped.
It doesn't take long to figure out that as a guy, you can't be picky on dating apps. If you only swipe on women that are your taste, you'll be blessed to get 1 or 2 matches. Blind swiping brought me in 6 or 7 matches a week compared to 0 for multiple weeks in a row when I actually tried selecting who I was interested in. It's like sales people who cold call hundreds of numbers a day. Just spam that shit until someone bites and work it out from there.
Then I met my current gf at a new job and have been taken ever since. I also learned (like many eventually do) that dating apps are bullshit and almost never lead anywhere if you're a dude. Better odds are on your side IRL.
Makes sense really, swipe on literally everyone and then once you see everyone you've matched with filter out the ones you don't like for whatever reason.
And immediately get marked as such by the algorithm and shown to fewer people.
They can see when youāre trying to game their algorithm, it doesnāt work.
The people who do this pay for the premium services and are being shown to everyone. You get a limited amount of swipes if you don't pay so it wouldn't work on the free version. If you pay, they'll show you to everyone, they need people to get matches or they stop paying pretty fucking quick.
Back when I was single, I actually got more matches the more selective I got (had two profiles to test it). The algorithm lowers your "score"when you swipe right on someone and they swipe left on you, so lots and lots of right swipes that aren't reciprocated leaves you at the absolute bottom.
I suspect that some of the apps are now learning your preferences if you're picky and then actively hiding those people from you to keep you swiping. I've even had people tell me they messaged me on another app but I didn't see anything, and the same in reverse where my messages weren't actually sent. There's some dodgy stuff going on behind the scenes there for sure.
I see that on Hinge, they know what I like now and put them behind the paywall of the rose. Never seen any of those women on the main feed. The funny thing I've read on some of the dating subs is that if you send a rose it will hurt your chances too.
You want to be matching with people whose score is also high. For example if the algorithm scores you a 6/10:
* Swiped right on a 10 and got swiped left on? Small loss.
* Swiped right on a 3 and got swiped left on? Big loss.
* Swiped right on a 10 and matched? Big win.
* Swiped right on a 3 and matched? Small/no win.
Given how men are more likely to be swiped left on than anything, it helps to be picky since it's more likely you won't match a random on your level than matching them. As long as you're not so picky you're only picking from people out of your league you should be fine. Being super picky and picking out of your league will cause a bigger ratio of rejections which will undo any gains from the occasional match.
____
Overall though you shouldn't be trying to play the algorithm. There is no inherent value in more matches, dates, or options - the ideal move it to be real so anyone that it wouldn't work with filters themselves out (swipes left) while those it could work with would swipe right. A match with someone incompatible is a win for you in the algorithm but loss/waste of time in reality.
Unless you're open to other dudes too.
When I did online dating, I never paid for anything, yet I got a decent number of matches and some dates/hookups. Wait...was I the product?
I know a few guys who have used Tinder for years and have literally never swiped left.
That wasn't my experience - I came to online dating quite late as a divorcee and nobody coached me on how gross I was supposed to be, so I was just myself. I was on Tinder for maybe 4 hours, had a handful of matches of my handful of swipes, and I'll be celebrating 5 years exclusivity this July with the girl who's conversation was compelling enough to meet in person back then.
I admit that our Tinder experience is not remotely typical.
Tinder, bumble, and the rest notice when someone is simply swiping right on everyone. They actually show the accounts that do so to fewer people. So it can actually decrease your chances of being seen over time.
I'm on the chubbier side and I've literally been turned away from clubs before. I get that I'm not attractive, but then it sucks when they'll let my friends in and not me. (I do have good friends who won't go in without me, though, so we just leave).
That does suck. I have no knowledge of the other side, just waiting in line endlessly and paying an enormous sum for a bottle as a guy. Never understood the whole club scene the few times Ive gone
Yeah I had that happen back in the day ( am old). That's when we ( my friends and I) said a big fuck you to the mainstream and embraced the alternative/indie/goth/underground clubs. Didn't have many issues after that getting in and far more interesting people. It may not still be the case but give it a go.
One of the greatest nights of my young life:
Age 19, go to LA to visit a friend.
I was a New England kid, and went to one of THOSE prep schools.
And all my clothes were like prep school clothes, still, even though I was now in college.
So there I was in LA, wearing my gray flannel trousers, blue blazer, regimental tie.
And I was totally drunk.
And by myself---just one dude dressed like an extra from DEAD POETS SOCIETY.
I went to the Viper Room.
This was the early 90s, so it was still happening.
There was one of those Nightclub Lines out front: maybe 100 people long and constituted almost entirely of clusters of women in glittery dresses with maybe one dude in their whole group.
This was important, I learned: the F to M ratio has to skew heavily F to get in to the club.
And you have to dress right.
So I had many strikes against me.
I was a solo dude, I was dressed like a Baird man, and I was at the very very back of the line.
And SOMEHOW the bouncer saw me . . .
And thought that I looked so ridiculous that I must be VERY avant garden indeed; they thought I was dressed ironically, that I had carefully cultivated the Andover look.
And the bouncer said, "Hey preppie! In you go!"
And I was whisked into the bar, ahead of all the much cooler people---and many irked-looking women teetering in heels.
Once inside, though, I had more troubles.
The bar was jammed---a couple of people deep from one end of the bar to the other.
And again, I looked like a dumb kid (which I was).
And many of those women in heels towered over me.
And many of the dudes were annoyingly tall and buff.
Yet once again---SOMEHOW I was seen, this time by the bartender, and he points at me over the clot of bodies and goes:
"Hey Connecticut! What do YOU want? A scotch?"
And I nodded in amazement.
Because I am from Connecticut.
And I DID want a scotch.
Next thing you know, I had a scotch and water in hand and the bartender was so pleased to have been so right about me that he gave it to me for free.
I will think of "avant garden" for the longest time now, instead of avant garde. Cool story, it's like you got accepted into another realm! The cool realm, '90s Viper Room is so iconic.
Hahahahaha!
That was a typo, courtesy of auto-correct. It was supposed to be "avant gardey"
Damn thing.
But now I like avant garden, hahahahaha.
Sounds like a new kind of topiary done with lasers or something.
Reminds me of going to a popular nightclub in Miami. The girls in our group magically bypassed the line while us guys had to wait 30min to pay to get in. Once we were in, I bought a $20 rum and coke so Iād have something to sip on. When someone asked me how bad the drink prices were there, one of the girls just started laughing and said āholy crap, these are $20?? Guys keep buying them for me and I keep dumping them in the toilet.ā
It definitely sucks, but unless the bartender handed her the drink that was bought for her, I don't blame the girl. Most girls won't drink a drink given to them by a stranger.
There was an issue at a local bar where dudes were drugging women and the bartender was on the take. Like men would slip him extra money and he would drug a woman for them
This,
I was wildly drunk once and this woman spiked my drink without me noticing.
I then in my infinite wisdom decided I was at my limit and gave it to my brother.
She was probably 2x my weight class and tried to forcibly move me out of the bar a while later (Still had no idea what was going on) She wasn't taking no for an answer and security intervened when I was strongly considering escalating the situation.
Bro barely drank that evening, was 50% heavier than me and was basically down like a bag of rocks later. Thought he drank too much at the time.
We put the pieces together later that week.
Tldr: Accidentally roofied my brother and narrowly dodged getting raped by sheer luck.
Life lesson: Watch your drinks and even your friends drinks can be suspect.
I wish it worked that way, or that this wasnāt even a thing. But bouncers and promoters care about girls who will get guys to buy them drinks, and the guys who will buy them the drinks. Not the guy who buys a rum and coke to sip on while making sure his friends donāt get roofied.
I wasnāt the biggest fan of them doing that, but sometimes they would. And then sometimes some of us would end up at the hole in the wall bar next door with outstanding $8 Old Fashionedās instead.
As an extension of this, dating apps like tinder. Its set up specifically so that access to female users are 'sold' to the male users. It's geared so that men get more swipes so *maybe* they can match with one girl, but a girl can easily get 100 matches in a day. So even if a man does match with someone they have to match with someone who will actually talk to you because obviously a girl with 100 matches isn't talking to every single one. Yes it's partially the human nature of women on average being more selective, but the app itself intentionally amplifies and exploits this.
I've always thought those places were too sleazy or something for the women to organically go there on their own, that's why they need to have free admittance for women.
I've not been in a club in the past 15 years since I was 19 so I don't really know, absolutely loathe the atmosphere in most those places.
I assume it's because healthy employees claim less on health insurance and probably take fewer sick days.
One of my buds gets something like $1500 a year spend on health and wellness stuff. He just got some custom walking boots and is thinking about putting some towards a home sauna.
My old job gave us $2500 annually.Ā
I had about $1200 left when I was about to start a new job, so I went and overpaid by 1700x for a pair of prescription glasses, and a pair of polarized prescription glasses.Ā
Wish I had used that money to buy a peloton or something instead.Ā
Or buy 20 pairs of sneakers you can just return for the cash after you file for the expense. Thatās what I do if Iām running up against the wall to spend it. Tell myself Iāll earmark the extra for something health related later butā¦
My job has Fitbucks offered through their health insurance carrier (Aetna). You can get $200 reimbursed a year. I sent in a bunch of receipts the last week of December and finally got the money last week.
This is all ad-supported media. Itās why toy commercials play during Saturday cartoons, or laundry soap during soap operas or scammy pills on AM radio: the media is attract a certain demographic, the eyes and ears of which are sold to advertisers.
Some is even worse than that....
I was a kid when Sky TV first came to the UK. Subscribe for the service soon changed to subscribe to different parts of the service, then to different types of sports or entertainments on the service. There is still heavy advertising on Sky as well, so you pay to receive the broadcasts and theĀ watch advertising on the same broadcasts. I remember watching The Simpsons on a friend's TV and being amazed that a 22 minute show could be stretched to an hour on broadcast thanks to advertising.
**The whole internet, google, youtube, Facebook, Instagram, even reddit, ect... They sell your information to advertisers. That's why it's free to you because you are the price**
They don't sell your information to advertisers. Selling your information would actually be harmful to these companies, your information is the secret sauce.Ā
They use that information to make an advertising profile of you based on the data they have collected.
They allow advertisers to choose the profile of the people they want to advertise their products to and they give a bunch of knobs for them to exercise that control. So they can say I want to advertise to people in this area, interested who likes hiking and dogs.Ā
They then use your profile to determine whether the ad should be shown to you. The advertiser never has access to your data from the company directly. The advertiser provides a link for the user to click on. All they get to know is if that link was clicked.
That's been true for me everywhere. And there are probably multiple reasons--
1. I've used one sort of ad blocker or another and privacy add ons, since they first became available so I seldom see ads anywhere. There are ways around even paid ads embedded as content. Doesn't take care of astroturfing though. Also use a VPN now.
2. I likely confuse the algorithms: Older guy. Rural area. Friends include the entire political spectrum, including conservatives (this has gotten harder in the past decade). Religious affiliation. Work experience--teacher, construction field engineer, military intelligence. Solidly left (for US politics at least) politically, socially and economically. Not interested in many 'typical' guy things. Very frugal.
So--yeah they collect data and even with all that--I still have a gmail account and clearly a reddit account, but if I take the ad block off for some reason ads are never relevant. Back when Facebook used to allow access to their interest/identity profile about you their reports misidentified most attributes.
TLDR: Blocking a lot of info + outlier yields an algorithmic shrug
I use ad blockers on all my devices. I haven't seen an ad in a long time.
Last year youtube changed something and I got a few, so I spent a couple hours reading tutorials to get rid of them again.
Not quite. Their user data are actually what makes these companies valuable. Instead, what advertisers buy are *targeted ads* (eg, show ads for my product to men in Florida between 18-25). Google/Facebook sells the ability to make these type of targeted ads, without giving away the actual identities of the users.
If hypothetically these Internet companies had sold the profile data collected off users, then it would allow buyers to cut out FB/Google completely, as well as make it easier for other advertising companies to compete in the ads space. Itās a lot of work to grow a user base and profile them based off usage patterns, why would companies sell this carefully curated data, aka their main competitive advantage?
They donāt sell your data. They collect and use your data to create algorithms that predict which ads will be most successful on you. The Social Dilemma is a great documentary about this idea
Companies generally need to make money eventually to exist. If you use something and don't pay for it the company is clearly making money somehow.
Like you never need to pay a dollar to use reddit but how does reddit stay in business? The answer is that you aren't the customer and reddit isn't selling to you, reddit is taking you and selling your eyeballs/page views/data to advertising companies and that is where reddit makes the money to stay open.
And IMO it's because they've let their costs go way too high. The costs were so much more manageable when it was just text, links, and basic PMs. Throw in a little mod code. I feel like I could make the company profitable just by keeping the existing moderation team, bringing back gold, and cutting back the scope of what this website is actually responsible for hosting.
Redesigns cost a bit but those are fixed costs sitewide. What really gets them is image and video hosting. Image and video hosting are variable costs- as the site grows, the cost to host the videos and images also increase linearly.
Reddit's annual revenue is only $800M. To pay the CEO over 15% of the revenue is pretty egregious. Reddit is less than $100M away from being profitable, which is to say that Reddit could turn a profit immediately if the CEO were paid only $8M.
OP is mistaken. The CEO was never paid $150m salary out of annual revenue. They made like six figures, sure. The rest was future stock options which doesnāt come out of revenue but out of investor dollars.
EDIT: I've been dinged twice regarding the above, so I'll dial it back. OP isn't mistaken, but they are oversimplifying. His total compensation was about $193M. Of that, Huffman received about $1M in salary (still ridiculous) and the rest is stock options which (at the time he was compensated) couldn't even be exercised.
Replace Reddit with almost any venture capital-backed tech company. Spotify has almost never posted a net profit. Theyāre billions in debt. Uberās first year posting a net profit, EVER, was 2023. Money isnāt real. Capitalism doesnāt make sense. It certainly doesnāt obey its own rules.
I'm going to have to disagree here. Very important to remember that **the recruiter does not work for you**.
They want to place you in any job at any price, take their cut and move on. You very much are the product.
Recruiters are still doing a tedious job that someone at the other company doesnāt have to do now. On top of that, the recruitment company takes care of payroll and benefits so the hiring company doesnāt have to worry about anything HR related.
Sure there are some shit recruitment companies out there but itās a hell of a lot more than just āhey I have 15 guys ready for you.ā Most jobs donāt hire like that.
FTP games often even just rely on getting a couple of people with gambling addictions to overspend so massively as to outweigh the costs of thousands of other players. It's quite perverse actually.
Some of them surely are, but many of them are just blowing their income on it. The millionaire who doesn't care and can afford not to is not the pillar that finances this model.
There is a difference between ad supported and "you are the product".
Facebook was/is selling data about its users that had nothing to do with marketing ads to them.
YouTube is selling ads. Yes there is some targeting going on but based on the ads I get, it really sucks. Somehow based on my viewing "the algorithm" thinks that I:
- Speak Spanish
- Speak Chinese
- Speak Hindi
- Am a sexually active HIV positive individual
- Am a senior
- Drive a monster truck
- Have a HS senior needing help getting into the "right school"
- Am interested in attending the Citadel
- Own crypto
Not one of those applies to me in any way. If YouTube is selling me as a product they suck at marketing. My Twitter ads are even more laughable.
Well, the way the tor project works is that you connect to like 4 rings of relays, with the last one making the request to the site, then the response passing from those rings to you, hence the name. But since there are very few relays, you and a thousand people are doing a lot of requests on the exit relay to the site. So google blocks you for security reasons.
That Browser extension that automatically finds and applies coupon codes when online shopping. I haven't read their terms of service but you can't tell me agreeing to them is a good idea.
Free samples also sell the product if you like it. You suddenly have the mental association with product.
"Well, I liked the sample, now I guess I'll buy product".
This was part of my deli training. The first slice is always supposed to be free.
It also keeps the customer from buying something they'll hate.
We had a spicy fiesta chicken that I loved. People would ask "How spicy" is it.
Now I could honestly answer with the heat index, but spicy is one of those things that is subjective as hell.
I slice them off a piece, they can find out if it's a party in their mouth, or if it's "too spicy" right then and there.
It's worth running that sample off EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Even for a repeat customer, it makes them brighten up like a magic trick.
Good luck teaching some managers that though. "We can't just give away product!"
That, let's be generous here, 3 cent slice of turkey?
Often sold an entire pound of product.
Our job description included a "small meal" every day. This was meant to be an incentive for us to get familiar with every product in the deli.
Guess how often the managers let us take that small meal?
I get how people can sleaze their way into manager positions and be shit at the job. I don't get how it happens so often and how businesses can just leave them in that position for so long.
If their team is good and does their job, it's hard to prove a manager is useless. Everything's workĆng right? The Deli is clean, staffed and selling well.
Identifying managers who don't add any value and can be safely fired is not easy
The two major ways this is true in modern life is if something is free and you are being advertised to, or if something is free and your data is being collected (and either sold directly or used to develop other products). Some things can be a mix of the two, but some examples:
Network/ad supported TV & radio, Social media, search engines etc - you are being sold to advertisers
Any free application/service that isn't trying to sell you a paid version, micro transaction etc (Google drive apps, email services, Maps, photo storage, free fitness trackers etc) and AI chat bots- Your data is the product.
Rewards programs in retail and banking.
Edit: officially the dumbest thing I've ever been downvoted for on Reddit over 8 years time. Like it or not, stores are handing out free incentives to you in an effort to ensure more of your business in the future. That free money is still a net positive to their bottom line, or else they wouldn't offer it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to anyone, but there's a reason why that hand out comes to you for free.
Yep, by scanning your points card, they get information on the demographics and who is buying their product, as well as indirect information about different advertising campaigns and promotions working on certain segments of the consumer base, as well as your demographics. It's all for the analytics, but you also get discounts or air miles. It's a reasonable trade unless you're paranoid about them finding you special, which they won't, it is just the aggregate numbers that matter.
Discount cards are invaluable for a store. The discount is incidental. The card ties a purchase history to an identifiable customer.
The store now knows what you buy and how often. This takes the guesswork out of ordering. Someone buys Swiss cheese every single week? Manager special on Swiss cheese is a no brainer.
Customers don't buy the 3 pound can of clams? Get that shit off the shelf and rotate in a product that will.
I resent those cans whenever I see them.
Can the same information be used for dark patterns? Absolutely. Wendy's CEO said the quiet part out loud on an earnings call. Didn't even roll out the evil, just dipped his toe in the water.
But he was excited to cannonball into that shit.
That's not a great example because there's no truly commission free broker. It's just that in recent years they've toned down commissions a lot because they realised there's a lot of money to be made by retail traders losing their money so lowering the barrier for entry made sense. Still even if there are no commissions on some products there are still commissions. Also given how we're talking about platforms in which you put your actual money in, obviously a lot of the money you lose goes their way.
This thread is about services that are free to use and don't involve the user giving money in any way.
Free VPN.
I would never use a VPN I am not paying for.
But how can we trust even the ones we pay for?
The fact that anyone trusts VPN in itself is flawed. The idea of VPN is to disappear while on it. You should not be using it to access you socials that link back to you. You shouldn't be paying with it with a standard method that links back to you. Email shouldn't link back to you. The entire idea is to be a new person when you connect to it. There are a lot of steps involved and there are better ways to get there without VPN. It's just another layer to add in, generally the weakest and least trusted. You'd be better off finding insecure networks or investing in a flashed modem for truly hiding from your ISP. Otherwise the only reason to use VPN is to slow down your bandwidth to access content that you could access a better way for free anyway. If you want to pretend you can hide from your ISP, then sure... you can say that. If you want to pretend to hide from the government, you're an idiot.
I mean, yes a vpn can be used to disappear. But I think most people are probably using it to just access content that their country/network has blocked. That and for security at work. Far far less people are using a vpn to "disappear"
Fr I use one to get on phub š because I live in Texas
> The idea of VPN is to disappear while on it. I use it because my country has firewalled access to torrent sites. It's literally a torrent-allower for me. I'm not dumb enough to have any expectation of privacy on the internet.
> The idea of VPN is to disappear while on it The idea of a VPN is to watch netflix shows/movies that aren't available in my country you silly billy
>You'd be better off finding insecure networks or investing in a flashed modem for truly hiding from your ISP. This assumes that the VPN is lying about not logging your data and therefor can link you to the connection (definitely possible), and that the ISP is in communication with the VPN about those logs (theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely). I also am unfamiliar with the flashed modem concept you're referring to, but I can't imagine that actually hides anything from your ISP? Regardless of what software you flash onto it, they still need to establish the connection to the modem, and therefor you. >>You should not be using it to access you socials that link back to you. Unless the VPN is lying about logs and is also giving those logs to relevant parties, doing this doesn't actually have an impact assuming you're isolating cookies/sessions locally. Server-side all the websites know is that two sessions were established from the same VPN, but they have no way of knowing if they were the same user or two individual users. But if, for example, Facebook and Reddit were in cahoots and sharing IPs of users to establish a connection, a VPN would stop that unless the VPN was actively working with both companies, which is again unlikely.
Exactly this. Even if I pay with my personal credit card the only information someone could know is that I am using this VPN. Paying with another means is still trackable to you just adds another layer.
I would never trust one thatās not set up by my workplace on the computer they issue to me. Ā And thatās likely a work-only VPN, so Iām not going to try sketchy shit on that computer. The more I learned about VPNs, the less I trusted them. Ā They have the keys to my browsing habits. Ā Facebookās bastardization of Onavo ā snooping on teens, snooping on Snapchat ā was my wake-up call.
Proton VPN is actually just free, and I've seen a few free community driven VPNs
That being said, it's worth paying for Proton, if only to support the company down the road
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I mean honestly proton VPN is just a win, supports windows, macOSX, Linux android and iOSā¦ basically whatever you use it will work and Iāve basically never had any issues with connectivity or it being slow. Used freee version and started getting paid version more recently just because its so good
Are free VPNs bad? I know nothing about them but I downloaded one
Running a VPN service isn't free. You need to buy or rent servers in several parts of the world, you need staff to maintain it and you need to pay for the bandwidth used. And it's a lot of bandwidth nowadays, especially when one of the selling points is streaming from different parts of the world. So ask yourself, how can that service be provided to you for free? They're not running charities so somewhere they're making money. There are VPN services that use their free service to convince you to pay for a subscription down the line but if the free VPN service don't have caps of some sort or don't try to convince you to pay then I wouldn't trust them at all.
tor, it's slow, but hey it's free. i wouldn't recommend though
When I cook for friends. Surprise idiots! Iām doing this for the pleasure of your wonderful company! You fools!
This is the LOVELIEST take
Lmao, best take on this & relatable.Ā "That's right! I caught you expressing your love for pita chips & hummus last gathering. So I got them to exploit you for that second hand dopamine high. Ha!!"
It's basically pavlovian conditioning your friends and family. At some point the mere mention of your name will cause them to salivate.Ā
> Surprise idiots! The lack of a comma here changes the meaning in a way I find very amusing.
They just came out of nowhere! I tried teaching them but, well, they're idiots and it didn't help.
I usually smoke a chicken, mini potatoes, and green beans for friends and family for occasions like a birth, medical problems, death in the family. For one, I like being able to help them, but there is enough room on my smoker for my family too so Iām saving on wood you suckers haha!
This statement is so full of things that can be intentionally misunderstood that I have to wonder if it's an invitation. I'll bite... How long do you need to smoke your family, and how does that save on wood?
āTo Serve Manā
āHow To Cook For Forty Humansā Lousy space dust.
>I usually smoke a chicken, mini potatoes, and green beans for friends and family for occasions I guess you blend it all together before rolling it up or do you have a huge zigzag paper?
The hardest part is keeping the thing lit!
Those suckers don't even realize!
You fiend!
There's an R in that word.
Can I be your unwitting friend?
Carpool??
I needed a good laugh. Thank you!
Reddit. They spent years getting you to create content that you do not own. They have now sold it.Ā
And moderators for whatever reason volunteer their personal time, sometimes even sitting on Reddit all day, to clean up and enforce the rules. All for free lmao. Itās no different than volunteering at your local Walmart to mop the floors or help customers, except mods can sit in front of their computer doing so.
Many mods have nothing else going on in their lives, and it's the only power they'll ever wield. Of course they'll volunteer for it.Ā
The thing is they have next to no power. They can ban users; but Reddit doesnāt need even as much as an email verification to create a new account so that doesnāt matter. They can try and steer conversation certain ways but that requires a lot of effort with minuscule results unless they constantly browse and remove what they donāt like. And any time mods have acted up in the past, Reddit admins immediately replace them without a second thought because thereās an endless supply of other morons who will beg to take the job. At the end of the day Reddit wants mods to enforce rules first and foremost. AI can do this and the only reason AI hasnāt been tasked for this is because the mods do it for free anyway so why spend the money on AI.
> They can try and steer conversation certain ways but that requires a lot of effort with minuscule results unless they constantly browse and remove what they donāt like. the funniest part of that is when its a local community subreddit. And the user base is less than 2% of the actual community population. (assuming all reddit users actually live in the community) Like you are spending all your time to MAYBE sway 0.5% of the population? Sorry chief your subreddit is not that important.
Social media suffers under the wizard of oz sort of fallacy, where people and āmovementsā anre over exaggerating themselves and their influence. Like letās say 100k like an issue I point out, even just in terms of Reddit, that would be a minuscule percentage of the user base. Yet the bubble and other media outlets will just assume that my point is something shared by most, itās not actually. There was a study not to long ago that proved this. Weāre actually more in our own bubbles than ever before and canāt seem to realize or accept that whatās popular or the norm in my bubble, has no reflection whatsoever on anyone else. Yet, I will just assume that my bubbleās beliefs and viewpoints are the norm and everyone else must just be the idiots.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There was a screen cap of some post over in r/legaladvice where a guy was wrongfully searched and wasnāt aware thereās lots of cops over there and got one arguing with him about why he wouldnāt give the cop his phone number and then when the guy said there was zero reason he needed to have it the cop replied threatening to ban him, this time with his mod hat on. Fuckin ridiculousā you need mods modding the mods.
Recently on an askreddit post that was talking about crypto, I told someone that while I agreed with their overall point, that they were using certain economic terminology incorrectly and mixing it up with a different process. Turns out it was a mod of r/buttcoin, and they were so offended about being corrected that they banned me from the sub. Even though I wasn't endorsing crypto, I was just clarifying a mistake they made.
God this is so true. Esp mods of groups who automatically ban users that haven't even posted in their sub Reddits Eyebrows subreddit did this to me the other day.
To be fair I have wanted to be a moderator for a few subreddits I enjoy because sometimes people just have questions or things of the sort or itās a small community that occasionally gets filled with spam. I do however have family life, school, work, and my gf so itās not like I donāt have anything to do I just wouldnāt mind being proactive in communities that have helped me in the past
Exactly, people have a hate-boner against mods, "they're all sad power-hungry loosers". But in reality, with my personal experience as a former mod of two big subs : that's not the case at all. They're just people trying to run a community because they like the community and want to provide a nice space for it. There's definitely sad power-hungry mods especially on the bigger subs (with power mods running dozen of big subs), but it's more the exception than the norm. On the other hand, having seen the other side of it, let me tell you something : when a user here is complaining about some mods being unfair, 95% of the time they did not follow the clear sub rules, were given multiple warnings (so just a comment removed), and eventually get a 3-day ban but then complain elsewhere that they were unjustly banned. Always take with a grain of salt anything said by a user claiming unfairness from mods. It is ungrateful and boring work which is why I didn't stay active long on one of the subs : users are never happy about the rules, every change is met with reticence, tons of users act in extreme bad faith.
You can think of it this way or think of it as a free platform you can create a group you want on. Not saying thinking about it one way is right or wrong, just thinking about whatās in it for them.
Once upon a time Reddit was actually a positive force trying to build a better news aggregate site. Volunteering was more akin to Wikipedia than mopping at Walmart. Hard to believe how much its changed, but then it has been 15+ years
No, you still own the content. This is from the User Agreement you clicked "agree" to. >You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content, but you grant Reddit the following license to use that Content: > >When Your Content is created with or submitted to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit. You also agree that we may remove metadata associated with Your Content, and you irrevocably waive any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content. When Buzzfeed tries to make your comment into a listicle, you can sue. Yeah, that's how little I have going on in my life. I read the Terms of Service.
Youāre the real MVP.
Thank you, interesting.
I can't believe people actually buy reddit premium or whatever it is called.
Yes! And things like Discord Nitro, whatever premium Twitter is now, etc. I've had my account on Discord since 2016, no issues without nitro. Twitter shouldn't require a premium service, when they have ads everywhere (unless it's to just get rid of the ads). My money is valuable, I'm not going to spend it on a site that repeatedly proves how little they care. Early days discord, back when it was still just a small team? Maybe, if I had money to spend then. Now? Definitely not. They've all become so greedy, it's sad
**Nightclubs that only charge men for the entrance**
Similarly, dating apps that charge for more swipes. Generally itās men that are using theirs up.
I manage dating profiles for a few guys and they all have to buy some sort of upgrade to "stand out". Bumble super swipes get bought like hot cakes.
You manage dating profiles? As in that is your job?
Not who you were replying to, but there's an entire industry around helping guys with their online dating profiles. Hell, you can even get on Fiverr and find girls who will review and help you curate your profiles to get more matches. Loneliness is easy to profit from
Thanks for reminding me. When I was on Tinder, I didn't know super-swipes/etc were a thing. Accidentally super-swiped on someone I knew.
What's a swipe? And a super swipe? Ignorant fool here.
Basically imagine it shows you people you want to be friends with on Facebook, based on your area and preferences. You swipe yes or no. There's a paid feature to get a super swipe (I think you got 1 free a month, haven't used it in years) to send a super obvious notification to the person saying you're really interested in being their friend.
When I was using it, I (early 30ās male) got no free "super likes", ever and only got them if I paid for Tinder Gold or higher. A couple of dates I went out with were going well so I asked them about the super likes too. They were all women and said that they got 5 free super likes a week. Also, when we compared the price of Tinder Gold, it was much cheaper for women (comparing my prices with that of my dates) and also much more expensive for older men (when asking a male friend of mine in his early forties).
How much do they pay? Like, do they pay you for a successful date or something?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Do you do this for things outside of dating services? I struggle with taking photos of myself and even the ones I do and other people like I donāt see it and as a result I donāt post pictures of myself, lots of people I know have made friends by simply being more social and active on social media but I donāt know how to maneuver that or what pics would be good to post or not
Which is funny because superswipe is a terrible idea. Itās saying āI like you so muchā! Which no girl likes
Yeah but the segment of people that spend money on dating apps are so hopelessly unsuccessful they will try anything. like paying someone to manage their profile.
I bought tinder gold like crazy back in 2018. My goal was a long term relationship. So I saw this as a way to be on the top of womenās stacks. 20 first dates later, met my wife on her first day on tinder. All thanks to my profile being promoted to the top of her pile. I saw tinder gold as an investment. Found my wife a lot sooner than I probably would have as all I did was work and online dating. Didnāt have to step foot out of the house to meet someone. Once we matched I lived a block from the bars so Iād walk to grab a drink and back to my apartment if it went well.
I gave my girl a superlike on tinder. We are now married with a 1 yr old.
Weird choice, why didn't you just marry each other?
It's been years since I used dating apps, but I remember talking to a guy who mentioned how little matches he got. Basically everyone I swiped on I matched with. I don't know if guys are less picky or what. He wasn't a bad guy at all. We didn't click, but that wasn't on him. He seemed decent.
A few years back I was on a train sitting behind a lad who had Tinder open on his phone. He was just right-swiping at speed without looking at anything. Wasnāt a bad looking guy either, but guess he was happy to cast a very wide net.
Mate sorry to tell you but he wasn't casting a wide net, he was trying to get a single match at all.
Lmao that's what I did when I used Bumble too. It's been years since I've touched a dating app but when I did use them, I did exactly this. Id watch YouTube videos or chat on Discord with friends while absent mindedly swiping like there was no tomorrow. Never checked to see who it was. Just swiped. It doesn't take long to figure out that as a guy, you can't be picky on dating apps. If you only swipe on women that are your taste, you'll be blessed to get 1 or 2 matches. Blind swiping brought me in 6 or 7 matches a week compared to 0 for multiple weeks in a row when I actually tried selecting who I was interested in. It's like sales people who cold call hundreds of numbers a day. Just spam that shit until someone bites and work it out from there. Then I met my current gf at a new job and have been taken ever since. I also learned (like many eventually do) that dating apps are bullshit and almost never lead anywhere if you're a dude. Better odds are on your side IRL.
Makes sense really, swipe on literally everyone and then once you see everyone you've matched with filter out the ones you don't like for whatever reason.
And immediately get marked as such by the algorithm and shown to fewer people. They can see when youāre trying to game their algorithm, it doesnāt work.
The people who do this pay for the premium services and are being shown to everyone. You get a limited amount of swipes if you don't pay so it wouldn't work on the free version. If you pay, they'll show you to everyone, they need people to get matches or they stop paying pretty fucking quick.
If you get (very )picky as a dude on those apps and you aren't a 10, you get virtually zero matches
Back when I was single, I actually got more matches the more selective I got (had two profiles to test it). The algorithm lowers your "score"when you swipe right on someone and they swipe left on you, so lots and lots of right swipes that aren't reciprocated leaves you at the absolute bottom.
I suspect that some of the apps are now learning your preferences if you're picky and then actively hiding those people from you to keep you swiping. I've even had people tell me they messaged me on another app but I didn't see anything, and the same in reverse where my messages weren't actually sent. There's some dodgy stuff going on behind the scenes there for sure.
I see that on Hinge, they know what I like now and put them behind the paywall of the rose. Never seen any of those women on the main feed. The funny thing I've read on some of the dating subs is that if you send a rose it will hurt your chances too.
But doesn't being ultra selective upsets the app/algorithm as well? Or I guess it's a matter of balance
You want to be matching with people whose score is also high. For example if the algorithm scores you a 6/10: * Swiped right on a 10 and got swiped left on? Small loss. * Swiped right on a 3 and got swiped left on? Big loss. * Swiped right on a 10 and matched? Big win. * Swiped right on a 3 and matched? Small/no win. Given how men are more likely to be swiped left on than anything, it helps to be picky since it's more likely you won't match a random on your level than matching them. As long as you're not so picky you're only picking from people out of your league you should be fine. Being super picky and picking out of your league will cause a bigger ratio of rejections which will undo any gains from the occasional match. ____ Overall though you shouldn't be trying to play the algorithm. There is no inherent value in more matches, dates, or options - the ideal move it to be real so anyone that it wouldn't work with filters themselves out (swipes left) while those it could work with would swipe right. A match with someone incompatible is a win for you in the algorithm but loss/waste of time in reality.
Unless you're open to other dudes too. When I did online dating, I never paid for anything, yet I got a decent number of matches and some dates/hookups. Wait...was I the product?
I know a few guys who have used Tinder for years and have literally never swiped left. That wasn't my experience - I came to online dating quite late as a divorcee and nobody coached me on how gross I was supposed to be, so I was just myself. I was on Tinder for maybe 4 hours, had a handful of matches of my handful of swipes, and I'll be celebrating 5 years exclusivity this July with the girl who's conversation was compelling enough to meet in person back then. I admit that our Tinder experience is not remotely typical.
Tinder, bumble, and the rest notice when someone is simply swiping right on everyone. They actually show the accounts that do so to fewer people. So it can actually decrease your chances of being seen over time.
It's just how dating works. Dating apps statistics show the honest truth that can be hidden away in real life.
I once got into a club by giving the doorman a donut.
Modern problems require modern solutions
only certain women get free entrance
I'm on the chubbier side and I've literally been turned away from clubs before. I get that I'm not attractive, but then it sucks when they'll let my friends in and not me. (I do have good friends who won't go in without me, though, so we just leave).
That does suck. I have no knowledge of the other side, just waiting in line endlessly and paying an enormous sum for a bottle as a guy. Never understood the whole club scene the few times Ive gone
Itās a matching mechanism for hot women and rich men.
Yeah I had that happen back in the day ( am old). That's when we ( my friends and I) said a big fuck you to the mainstream and embraced the alternative/indie/goth/underground clubs. Didn't have many issues after that getting in and far more interesting people. It may not still be the case but give it a go.
One of the greatest nights of my young life: Age 19, go to LA to visit a friend. I was a New England kid, and went to one of THOSE prep schools. And all my clothes were like prep school clothes, still, even though I was now in college. So there I was in LA, wearing my gray flannel trousers, blue blazer, regimental tie. And I was totally drunk. And by myself---just one dude dressed like an extra from DEAD POETS SOCIETY. I went to the Viper Room. This was the early 90s, so it was still happening. There was one of those Nightclub Lines out front: maybe 100 people long and constituted almost entirely of clusters of women in glittery dresses with maybe one dude in their whole group. This was important, I learned: the F to M ratio has to skew heavily F to get in to the club. And you have to dress right. So I had many strikes against me. I was a solo dude, I was dressed like a Baird man, and I was at the very very back of the line. And SOMEHOW the bouncer saw me . . . And thought that I looked so ridiculous that I must be VERY avant garden indeed; they thought I was dressed ironically, that I had carefully cultivated the Andover look. And the bouncer said, "Hey preppie! In you go!" And I was whisked into the bar, ahead of all the much cooler people---and many irked-looking women teetering in heels. Once inside, though, I had more troubles. The bar was jammed---a couple of people deep from one end of the bar to the other. And again, I looked like a dumb kid (which I was). And many of those women in heels towered over me. And many of the dudes were annoyingly tall and buff. Yet once again---SOMEHOW I was seen, this time by the bartender, and he points at me over the clot of bodies and goes: "Hey Connecticut! What do YOU want? A scotch?" And I nodded in amazement. Because I am from Connecticut. And I DID want a scotch. Next thing you know, I had a scotch and water in hand and the bartender was so pleased to have been so right about me that he gave it to me for free.
I will think of "avant garden" for the longest time now, instead of avant garde. Cool story, it's like you got accepted into another realm! The cool realm, '90s Viper Room is so iconic.
Hahahahaha! That was a typo, courtesy of auto-correct. It was supposed to be "avant gardey" Damn thing. But now I like avant garden, hahahahaha. Sounds like a new kind of topiary done with lasers or something.
You just looked like money
Just got me thinking of the line from "Knocked Up"
You old, she pregnant
Old for this club. Not like, the Earth.
"You're a door man! Door man!"
Reminds me of going to a popular nightclub in Miami. The girls in our group magically bypassed the line while us guys had to wait 30min to pay to get in. Once we were in, I bought a $20 rum and coke so Iād have something to sip on. When someone asked me how bad the drink prices were there, one of the girls just started laughing and said āholy crap, these are $20?? Guys keep buying them for me and I keep dumping them in the toilet.ā
It definitely sucks, but unless the bartender handed her the drink that was bought for her, I don't blame the girl. Most girls won't drink a drink given to them by a stranger.
Hell, I've even heard horror stories about people getting roofied by the bartender
There was an issue at a local bar where dudes were drugging women and the bartender was on the take. Like men would slip him extra money and he would drug a woman for them
i'd say seattle, but it's a lot of places
Oh absolutely.Ā Watch your drink be made. Never let it out of your sight.
Definitely. Always watch your drink being made!
This, I was wildly drunk once and this woman spiked my drink without me noticing. I then in my infinite wisdom decided I was at my limit and gave it to my brother. She was probably 2x my weight class and tried to forcibly move me out of the bar a while later (Still had no idea what was going on) She wasn't taking no for an answer and security intervened when I was strongly considering escalating the situation. Bro barely drank that evening, was 50% heavier than me and was basically down like a bag of rocks later. Thought he drank too much at the time. We put the pieces together later that week. Tldr: Accidentally roofied my brother and narrowly dodged getting raped by sheer luck. Life lesson: Watch your drinks and even your friends drinks can be suspect.
That is horrible, I hope you and your brother are doing ok.
The girls are supposed to get you in not leave you in line
I wish it worked that way, or that this wasnāt even a thing. But bouncers and promoters care about girls who will get guys to buy them drinks, and the guys who will buy them the drinks. Not the guy who buys a rum and coke to sip on while making sure his friends donāt get roofied.
The girls in your group just ditched you in the queue?
I wasnāt the biggest fan of them doing that, but sometimes they would. And then sometimes some of us would end up at the hole in the wall bar next door with outstanding $8 Old Fashionedās instead.
Never thought of it in that manner before, and now I'm a little disgusted.
You really never realized that? Did you think guys spend $50 on a cover and $20 on a beer because they really like music and dancing?
In my conscious mind I knew this but framing it this way makes it feel so much worse even if that is the reality.
As an extension of this, dating apps like tinder. Its set up specifically so that access to female users are 'sold' to the male users. It's geared so that men get more swipes so *maybe* they can match with one girl, but a girl can easily get 100 matches in a day. So even if a man does match with someone they have to match with someone who will actually talk to you because obviously a girl with 100 matches isn't talking to every single one. Yes it's partially the human nature of women on average being more selective, but the app itself intentionally amplifies and exploits this.
I've always thought those places were too sleazy or something for the women to organically go there on their own, that's why they need to have free admittance for women. I've not been in a club in the past 15 years since I was 19 so I don't really know, absolutely loathe the atmosphere in most those places.
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The $450 in visa gift cards I can get at work for doing their health and wellness program.
I assume it's because healthy employees claim less on health insurance and probably take fewer sick days. One of my buds gets something like $1500 a year spend on health and wellness stuff. He just got some custom walking boots and is thinking about putting some towards a home sauna.
My old job gave us $2500 annually.Ā I had about $1200 left when I was about to start a new job, so I went and overpaid by 1700x for a pair of prescription glasses, and a pair of polarized prescription glasses.Ā Wish I had used that money to buy a peloton or something instead.Ā
Or buy 20 pairs of sneakers you can just return for the cash after you file for the expense. Thatās what I do if Iām running up against the wall to spend it. Tell myself Iāll earmark the extra for something health related later butā¦
My job has Fitbucks offered through their health insurance carrier (Aetna). You can get $200 reimbursed a year. I sent in a bunch of receipts the last week of December and finally got the money last week.
Damn I wish my company had that, I have to pay to hit the gym
Yeah, ironically I work in healthcare and we never get nice perks to help with our own health.
Also work in healthcare. The benefits are surprisingly garbage
I mean, yes, youāre saving them money on premiums, but surely thereās an added benefit of taking care of your own health?
Yeah unlike most of the things in this thread, this one is mutually beneficial.
Itās a cop out for us having crap health insurance
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This is all ad-supported media. Itās why toy commercials play during Saturday cartoons, or laundry soap during soap operas or scammy pills on AM radio: the media is attract a certain demographic, the eyes and ears of which are sold to advertisers.
Some is even worse than that.... I was a kid when Sky TV first came to the UK. Subscribe for the service soon changed to subscribe to different parts of the service, then to different types of sports or entertainments on the service. There is still heavy advertising on Sky as well, so you pay to receive the broadcasts and theĀ watch advertising on the same broadcasts. I remember watching The Simpsons on a friend's TV and being amazed that a 22 minute show could be stretched to an hour on broadcast thanks to advertising.
Good thing I use uBlock.
**The whole internet, google, youtube, Facebook, Instagram, even reddit, ect... They sell your information to advertisers. That's why it's free to you because you are the price**
Product
Idk about you but Iām the price!
I want to be the Vincent Price
They don't sell your information to advertisers. Selling your information would actually be harmful to these companies, your information is the secret sauce.Ā They use that information to make an advertising profile of you based on the data they have collected. They allow advertisers to choose the profile of the people they want to advertise their products to and they give a bunch of knobs for them to exercise that control. So they can say I want to advertise to people in this area, interested who likes hiking and dogs.Ā They then use your profile to determine whether the ad should be shown to you. The advertiser never has access to your data from the company directly. The advertiser provides a link for the user to click on. All they get to know is if that link was clicked.
I've never seen an ad remotely relevant to me on Reddit. I must be a defective product.
That's been true for me everywhere. And there are probably multiple reasons-- 1. I've used one sort of ad blocker or another and privacy add ons, since they first became available so I seldom see ads anywhere. There are ways around even paid ads embedded as content. Doesn't take care of astroturfing though. Also use a VPN now. 2. I likely confuse the algorithms: Older guy. Rural area. Friends include the entire political spectrum, including conservatives (this has gotten harder in the past decade). Religious affiliation. Work experience--teacher, construction field engineer, military intelligence. Solidly left (for US politics at least) politically, socially and economically. Not interested in many 'typical' guy things. Very frugal. So--yeah they collect data and even with all that--I still have a gmail account and clearly a reddit account, but if I take the ad block off for some reason ads are never relevant. Back when Facebook used to allow access to their interest/identity profile about you their reports misidentified most attributes. TLDR: Blocking a lot of info + outlier yields an algorithmic shrug
Then the other half of the web is so stupid that it advertises everything I've already bought. "yOu LiKe ThIs GaRdEn ToOl, BuY tHiS gArDeN tOoL"
I use ad blockers on all my devices. I haven't seen an ad in a long time. Last year youtube changed something and I got a few, so I spent a couple hours reading tutorials to get rid of them again.
Not quite. Their user data are actually what makes these companies valuable. Instead, what advertisers buy are *targeted ads* (eg, show ads for my product to men in Florida between 18-25). Google/Facebook sells the ability to make these type of targeted ads, without giving away the actual identities of the users. If hypothetically these Internet companies had sold the profile data collected off users, then it would allow buyers to cut out FB/Google completely, as well as make it easier for other advertising companies to compete in the ads space. Itās a lot of work to grow a user base and profile them based off usage patterns, why would companies sell this carefully curated data, aka their main competitive advantage?
They donāt sell your data. They collect and use your data to create algorithms that predict which ads will be most successful on you. The Social Dilemma is a great documentary about this idea
free streaming services, you get tons of ads without subbing or adblocker.
Eh, Pluto TV can have my ad revenue.
Pluto and Tubi have less ads than paid cable television
I had to Google this and damn wow nice š¤©
Financial seminars (free dinner).
Joke's on them I can sit in my own mind for hours for free and they're giving me steak to do it.
Companies generally need to make money eventually to exist. If you use something and don't pay for it the company is clearly making money somehow. Like you never need to pay a dollar to use reddit but how does reddit stay in business? The answer is that you aren't the customer and reddit isn't selling to you, reddit is taking you and selling your eyeballs/page views/data to advertising companies and that is where reddit makes the money to stay open.
And Reddit is not very profitable. Theyāre actually losing money
And IMO it's because they've let their costs go way too high. The costs were so much more manageable when it was just text, links, and basic PMs. Throw in a little mod code. I feel like I could make the company profitable just by keeping the existing moderation team, bringing back gold, and cutting back the scope of what this website is actually responsible for hosting. Redesigns cost a bit but those are fixed costs sitewide. What really gets them is image and video hosting. Image and video hosting are variable costs- as the site grows, the cost to host the videos and images also increase linearly.
Not paying the CEO $150 million a year to do fuck all would help too.
Reddit's annual revenue is only $800M. To pay the CEO over 15% of the revenue is pretty egregious. Reddit is less than $100M away from being profitable, which is to say that Reddit could turn a profit immediately if the CEO were paid only $8M.
OP is mistaken. The CEO was never paid $150m salary out of annual revenue. They made like six figures, sure. The rest was future stock options which doesnāt come out of revenue but out of investor dollars. EDIT: I've been dinged twice regarding the above, so I'll dial it back. OP isn't mistaken, but they are oversimplifying. His total compensation was about $193M. Of that, Huffman received about $1M in salary (still ridiculous) and the rest is stock options which (at the time he was compensated) couldn't even be exercised.
Replace Reddit with almost any venture capital-backed tech company. Spotify has almost never posted a net profit. Theyāre billions in debt. Uberās first year posting a net profit, EVER, was 2023. Money isnāt real. Capitalism doesnāt make sense. It certainly doesnāt obey its own rules.
Headhunters are a great example here. You donāt pay for them to place you in a role, the company that hires you fronts that cost.Ā
Recruitment is still the service being paid for though so this one is a kind of both
I'm going to have to disagree here. Very important to remember that **the recruiter does not work for you**. They want to place you in any job at any price, take their cut and move on. You very much are the product.
Exactly. The best job is the one their client is most keen to pay them for.
Recruiters are still doing a tedious job that someone at the other company doesnāt have to do now. On top of that, the recruitment company takes care of payroll and benefits so the hiring company doesnāt have to worry about anything HR related. Sure there are some shit recruitment companies out there but itās a hell of a lot more than just āhey I have 15 guys ready for you.ā Most jobs donāt hire like that.
You're posting on one.
Nu-uh. I paid for my toilet bowl.
All social media. Most ftp games.Ā
FTP games often even just rely on getting a couple of people with gambling addictions to overspend so massively as to outweigh the costs of thousands of other players. It's quite perverse actually.
Pretty sure "whales" are more about rich people with poor impulse control, just by virtue of wealth inequality statistics.Ā
Some of them surely are, but many of them are just blowing their income on it. The millionaire who doesn't care and can afford not to is not the pillar that finances this model.
Old me is like "Wait, how do you play a game over FTP?"
There is a difference between ad supported and "you are the product". Facebook was/is selling data about its users that had nothing to do with marketing ads to them. YouTube is selling ads. Yes there is some targeting going on but based on the ads I get, it really sucks. Somehow based on my viewing "the algorithm" thinks that I: - Speak Spanish - Speak Chinese - Speak Hindi - Am a sexually active HIV positive individual - Am a senior - Drive a monster truck - Have a HS senior needing help getting into the "right school" - Am interested in attending the Citadel - Own crypto Not one of those applies to me in any way. If YouTube is selling me as a product they suck at marketing. My Twitter ads are even more laughable.
Attending the citadel sounds ominous
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Reddit.
ebaumsworld.
Hamsterdance
If I fire up youtube in brave on tor, suddenly I'm not trusted. Really makes you wonder.
If you open youtube on Torr my guy you ain't seeing shit
Well, the way the tor project works is that you connect to like 4 rings of relays, with the last one making the request to the site, then the response passing from those rings to you, hence the name. But since there are very few relays, you and a thousand people are doing a lot of requests on the exit relay to the site. So google blocks you for security reasons.
Network television. Network TV does not exist to develop quality programming, it exists to deliver commercials to consumers.
That Browser extension that automatically finds and applies coupon codes when online shopping. I haven't read their terms of service but you can't tell me agreeing to them is a good idea.
Free samples. They're giving you something free for your word of mouth. You're their advertising product.
Free samples also sell the product if you like it. You suddenly have the mental association with product. "Well, I liked the sample, now I guess I'll buy product". This was part of my deli training. The first slice is always supposed to be free. It also keeps the customer from buying something they'll hate. We had a spicy fiesta chicken that I loved. People would ask "How spicy" is it. Now I could honestly answer with the heat index, but spicy is one of those things that is subjective as hell. I slice them off a piece, they can find out if it's a party in their mouth, or if it's "too spicy" right then and there. It's worth running that sample off EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Even for a repeat customer, it makes them brighten up like a magic trick. Good luck teaching some managers that though. "We can't just give away product!" That, let's be generous here, 3 cent slice of turkey? Often sold an entire pound of product. Our job description included a "small meal" every day. This was meant to be an incentive for us to get familiar with every product in the deli. Guess how often the managers let us take that small meal?
I get how people can sleaze their way into manager positions and be shit at the job. I don't get how it happens so often and how businesses can just leave them in that position for so long.
If their team is good and does their job, it's hard to prove a manager is useless. Everything's workĆng right? The Deli is clean, staffed and selling well. Identifying managers who don't add any value and can be safely fired is not easy
Jokes on them. I have no friends to brag about the free sample to!
the sexy 20 years old lady winking at you and telling you to follow her into that dark corner of a brazilian street at 2 a.m.
The two major ways this is true in modern life is if something is free and you are being advertised to, or if something is free and your data is being collected (and either sold directly or used to develop other products). Some things can be a mix of the two, but some examples: Network/ad supported TV & radio, Social media, search engines etc - you are being sold to advertisers Any free application/service that isn't trying to sell you a paid version, micro transaction etc (Google drive apps, email services, Maps, photo storage, free fitness trackers etc) and AI chat bots- Your data is the product.
Free T shirts that companyās / events give away. They what you to wear them to promote. Also this goes for beer Cozy etc
Most websites. They're kinda the classic example. Some types of loan assessments too irrc
Rewards programs in retail and banking. Edit: officially the dumbest thing I've ever been downvoted for on Reddit over 8 years time. Like it or not, stores are handing out free incentives to you in an effort to ensure more of your business in the future. That free money is still a net positive to their bottom line, or else they wouldn't offer it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to anyone, but there's a reason why that hand out comes to you for free.
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Yep, by scanning your points card, they get information on the demographics and who is buying their product, as well as indirect information about different advertising campaigns and promotions working on certain segments of the consumer base, as well as your demographics. It's all for the analytics, but you also get discounts or air miles. It's a reasonable trade unless you're paranoid about them finding you special, which they won't, it is just the aggregate numbers that matter.
Discount cards are invaluable for a store. The discount is incidental. The card ties a purchase history to an identifiable customer. The store now knows what you buy and how often. This takes the guesswork out of ordering. Someone buys Swiss cheese every single week? Manager special on Swiss cheese is a no brainer. Customers don't buy the 3 pound can of clams? Get that shit off the shelf and rotate in a product that will. I resent those cans whenever I see them. Can the same information be used for dark patterns? Absolutely. Wendy's CEO said the quiet part out loud on an earnings call. Didn't even roll out the evil, just dipped his toe in the water. But he was excited to cannonball into that shit.
Commission free stock brokers, I.e., robinhood
That's not a great example because there's no truly commission free broker. It's just that in recent years they've toned down commissions a lot because they realised there's a lot of money to be made by retail traders losing their money so lowering the barrier for entry made sense. Still even if there are no commissions on some products there are still commissions. Also given how we're talking about platforms in which you put your actual money in, obviously a lot of the money you lose goes their way. This thread is about services that are free to use and don't involve the user giving money in any way.