version control systems (the next version of them) should not be something that was specifically made for the Linux Kernel community. It should be something that was specifically designed to be used by the wider community

Wholeheartedly agree.

And/or Ruby Tuesday's apparently

Nostalgia can make for decent niche markets.

Thought adblock lists get downloaded once and periodically updated. It'd be silly for them to have requests going out to their servers repeatedly to check static lists that only get updated every once in a while anyways.

However, if you provide the service for free, you don't have a sustainable business model.

I dunno. As much as I hate the freemium model for games, it doesn't seem as bad for the web, if you can keep costs low and have a fraction of 'premium' users mitigate the costs enough, it could be sustainable.

Well its going to be an interesting few days on Reddit. But it'll be old news in a week or two and everyone on there will continue doing the same old thing.

Agreed. It's always fun to see a few doomsayers' comments at the top of threads followed by things going back to 'business as usual.' With this one people may try to drag it on - but even (?|?), which was highly unpopular at the time, blew over for the most part (leaving only the occasional 'I miss seeing votes' comment in its wake).

100% agreed. That's always seemed a far more sensible and stable result than the monolithic communities that most sites tend to end up with.

though I hit the metaprogramming wall with the MUD

What metaprogramming wall?

when I'm not trying to finish a novel nobody is going to read

Publish or promote it as kleinbl00, and keep everyone thirsty for your commentary - it'll get /r/bestof'd and/or stalked ;)

Take care man. Here's to better days.

> Does the author or anyone else who feels aggrieved know what 'fast track' is or why it's important in a treaty deal?

Yes. I specifically looked into when and why this could even be considered justifiable, and understand the positive implications it has for negotiating a good deal.

But that kind of closed-door secrecy only even begins to be acceptable when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can't or won't be abused to try and rush things past the general public - which, considering the leaks that highlight the worrisome fact that special interest groups have seats at the table - I have no confidence in.

In some hypothetical world, closed-door negotions like this can, should, and would have to take place to make the deal work out as best for everyone. But right now, with the near-outright plutocracy we have in place, allowing this kind of behavioral precedent to be set is beyond dangerous.

It's been frustratingly hard finding useful discussion on this. This article had a couple of useful tidbits, thanks

Yeah. It's important to note that the things some people use reddit for (e.g. 'the red pill') are things that other people who use reddit are just as incredulous at - and that no groups on reddit are indicative of all the individuals who use it.

As I noted in response to caelum19, there are a couple of great communities on reddit as well - they tend to be the smaller and lesser-known ones. That said, I'm finding it comfortable here.

Yeah. It's sometimes said around there that reddit isn't worth it unless you're subscribed to the smaller subs. It can take some time looking for ones that you like, but there are pockets of good communities/nice people there too.

Even some of the larger subs aren't that bad. /r/AskScience has a set of tireless moderators that have managed to maintain the subreddit's quality despite its popularity.

Which, of course, helps Google plug Fiber as well.

It pays to have a hand in everything, I guess - never a shortage of fingers to point towards your latest endeavors.

"Hey, our comments section may be one of the most horrifying ones on the modern web, but at least it loads quickly!"

(Though to be fair, their servers do balance load/prioritize based on video popularity so some of the less well-known channels' videos do genuinely take longer 'because of' youtube.)

edit Oh, unless you meant the privacy thing (linking to google/g+)... or the newer thing they're doing, blocking out smaller/'indie' musicians, if you were referring to that.... or - well, any number of things really. 'Youtube's making itself worse' seems like a widely-expressed sentiment.

This was an intriguing read - as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about the kinds of webs and networks that the future's going to have, I liked the insight into your intent for Hubski.

The way things are going, though, there's a danger that the intended use may be lost. (E.g. I've seen people asking "what's the next thing?" and being answered with "Hubski".)

Thankfully, there are measures that can be taken to mitigate the 'negative' effects of reaching the so-called "critical mass" of users. I've got a textfile or two on that myself, might be able to clean some of them up and hopefully invite some discussion on the topic.

It'll be about as effective as hanging a 'keep out' sign.

The important thing to do would be to figure out methods by which an influx of users is handled properly. The web's never been good about handling Eternal September-like scenarios - and until a community comes up that starts thinking about the problem well in advance and taking measures to anticipate/stem the tide, it's just going to keep happening.

Looked into the first one, I remember hearing the name as a kid but didn't know anything about it.

> On June 30, 2014, Google announced it will be closing Orkut on September 30, 2014.

I don't know what's more surprising - that it's closing or that it's been kicking this whole time.

(So yeah, if you want to go back one last time for the nostalgia.)

I used to mute people all of the time on Reddit if/when it was obvious that they were trolling/not being constructive, and advocated that others do the same (rather than engage them, which it seems they always did.) Unsurprisingly, that never caught on - people enjoy "engaging the troll" or arguing hardheadedly too much to consider their time spent wasted.

Conversely, I have come across users in the past that had contrasting views from mine, but that obviously cared enough about "the thing" they were talking about that they were able to present clear arguments illuminating their reasoning. I chose not to block these people, and regardless of whether I agreed or disagreed with them, our conversations were always constructive.

I guess my point is, some discussions are worth continuing, others are not. I look forward to seeing if the ability to mute here makes "muting the noise" in pursuit of meaningful discussion a more standard practice.