When you Google for “best whatever” and land on a reddit thread, take some time to look at the histories of the people commenting.
You’ll find many cases where the only post they’ve ever made was for that product, and cases where the person posting the question also posts in the comments with an answer, like they forgot to switch to alt accounts.
A lot of it is obvious SEO marketing nonsense. Trust nothing. The entire Internet is trying to scam you. Enshittification, indeed. This used to be a nice neighborhood before the capitalists moved in in the 90s.
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We all used to agree that it was the best option to go for.
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And it’s only going to get WAY WORSE with LLM and Gen AI…
Good suggestion.
I think the savviest of the savvy out there are both properly seeding comment histories and continuing to post other comments after they astroturf which makes it all but impossible to identify.
Big bummer and no perfect solution I’ve ever heard of but we do what we can and can always hope.
The perfect solution is to research which to buy for 9 months and then end up buying none.
Because Reddit is infested with bot accounts at this point I tend to trust older threads over newer ones. Easy as hell to buy accs to say a competitor sucks dick
Or it’s just late stage capitalism where the product has truly gone to shit.
Por que no los dos?
Inb4 reddit removes dates from posts/comments
Can we all just take a moment and be thankful that Lemmy exists? Because if it didn’t, I don’t know what I’d do.
Being miserable on reddit instead of being [insert feeling here] on lemmy?
It’s been true 2/2 times for me.
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there needs to be a crowd sourced product review and maintenance website that can see trends of enshittification.
From Wikishittia, the free enshittepedia
(it does not exist, sadly)
I wonder if they’d mind someone mirroring their content, but with the one difference that anyone can edit, any time with no restrictions, spam blocking, vetting etc
See what chaos ensues
How dare you get my hopes up.
Let’s say everyone used an identity verification service to signup, like had to send photos of their ID and their SSN (national identity number) to be vetted by a third party.
How long after the service got popular would it take for the most aggressive marketers to pay rings of fraudsters to lend their identities and/or make fake reviews?
I think it would definitely start out great until it got big enough to be super useful and then the fraud would ramp up. I think an organization like Consumer Reports has a chance at successfully maintaining a low-bias product database, but the paywall is a big obstacle, as is the fact they’ll only review the largest product catalogs.
These are the pitfalls with the “amazon reviews/yelp” model.
A decent implementation of the Wikipedia/FOSS model sidesteps this because it theoretically is run by opinionated curators. No amount of bots/shills can break the article soft-lock ounce foul play is spotted.
That’s not to say these systems haven’t been occasionally broken through more sophisticated attacks, but empirically it seems clear that the model generally works well enough given enough community engagement (which would be the biggest challenge IMO, because maintainers can’t be expected to buy every product, and reliable primary sources may be hard to come by).
I think it would need to be a subscriber service paid for by consumers who are willing to pay for good reviews. Otherwise the consumers become the product and eventually marketers take over.
Also crowd-sourced reviews are what we’re supposed to have already, both on Reddit and Amazon (and anywhere else).
What I envision would be a publication that funds a set of reviewers (maybe a mix of full time and part time, since some products are appropriate for testing as a job while others are more appropriate to just use for a while).
Each product would either be bought by the org directly, or if manufacturers provide review samples, a layer of indirection is used to avoid the reviewer feeling like they need to give a good review to keep the free shit coming (with clear communication to the supplier that free or not well have no effect on the review).
Any issues get included in the review fairly, along with any kind of resolution (which should ideally go through both consumer channels as well as reviewer back channels, the former to show what average customers should expect, the latter to hopefully resolve design flaws).
The reviewer will then keep the product and give updates, either in the form of “still using it and it is like x after y months/years”, “doesn’t get much use because I’m using this other thing instead because of x, y, z”, or “doesn’t get much use because I’m not really part of the target audience”.
My complete vision includes brick and mortar locations where products are available to try out, and maybe sales handled there, where any product available has a “we vouch for the quality of this product” where flaws are highlighted as much as features are.
Though I think the idea is self-defeating because if it gains momentum, it could halt or reverse enshitification and make it redundant, fail, then enshitification returns. Ideally, enshitification is stopped with legislation about quality and enforcement that questions why a bad design is used when a better one is obvious.
I mean it more or less follows a line. It getting ever steeper lately but it’s pretty predictable.
The trick is designing the thing in such a way as to resist infiltration by astroturfing marketers.
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This is the sort of thing that the old internet could really deliver on. Chances are, a search query could lead you to some guy’s hoodie blog, and he just liked hoodies, and posted honestly about them.
Now, it’s all a mess of SEO pumped affiliate link lists filled with crapware. If the query is even thinkable, there will be AI generated pages stuffed with sponsored links, ready and waiting for you. And with search engines preferring recent results, that’s the type of page you’ll be served.
I’ve had decent luck using marginalia search to seek out some of those old internet type results. Obscurity works as a barrier to corporate infiltration. Plus you get page results that don’t have a million tracking and analytics scripts running on them, which is refreshing.
My exact experience finding out Audacity has adware
That’s why Tenacity is here to save the day!
After all of the controversies, Tenacity was born. It first started as temporary-audacity on GitHub since it didn’t have a name. In order to decide a new name for the project, the lead maintainer at the time held a vote. Among the new names were “Audacium”, “Sneedacity”, and “Tenacity”. The name Sneedacity would later gain traction among 4chan members, resulting in a large volume of votes for the name Sneedacity.
In response to the large volume of votes by 4chan members, the previous maintainers had an emergency vote, choosing the name Tenacity instead of Sneedacity. This upset some, leading to the creation of a new fork with virtually the same intentions. Unsurpringly, this fork was named Sneedacity.
Sneedacity lmao
Did they learn nothing from the Boaty McBoatface disaster?
>Formerly Chuck’s.
You can vote as long as you vote for my favourite option.
Reading your comment is how I found out. That makes me sad.
No it doesn’t?
I just googled it to be sure, but i already assumed you meant ‘spyware’ (which is something completely different), referring to the telemetry (which i can get is a sensitive thing, but anonymous usage statistics to know where to focus their development sounds like a decent idea, and afaik they implemented it with respect for the user)
I remember the concern years ago was: since the application was bought (acquired?) and the tool was still publically free, that the new owners had added the spyware to try and monetize the data coming from said spyware/telemetry.
After reading your comment I went back and did some cursory searches, and it looks like the general concensus is that its less of a concern than it was originally - although, there is still uncertainty around how the tool is being monetized, which is enough for some to stop using it.
It just joined the musescore project, great open source music notation software. For funding the only commercial thing they offer is a site where you can upload & download scores, with the paying part also paying licensining fees for copyrighted music. Imo all looks very legit. I was already familiar with musescore before this drama, and watched some of tantacrul (head of the musescore project, and now also audacity i guess). He’s a very down to earth guy that has quite some insightful videos on the musescore development and figuring out what to keep/remove when going for new versions. But also great videos regarding other topics.
So far i’ve seen nothing that rings any alarm bells. The open source community can sometimes be a bit too sensitive regarding paid services linked to open source software. But in this case as long as the actual software remains open source, and the paid part actually adds value (a nice place to exchange sheet music, without any copyright issues as that’s covered by your payment, so a very legit reason to ask money), why not?
though not 100% audio software, i recommend davinci resolve! it’s free, and no ads
And it does a pretty damn good job as audio software, tbh. Fairlight kicks ass.
I spent 3 hours reading Amazon reviews for shoes just trying to find ONE fucking pair that didn’t have “falls apart in 3-6 months” as the most common review…
The state of everything is just absurd.
We’ve always had to pay for quality, buying crap on Amazon is always going to be a tossup. There’s plenty of stores out there where you can buy good stuff, you just have to be willing to pay more than slave wages for it.
It’s tough out there, but there’s plenty of quality stuff if you look in the right place.
Yeah, the only shoes I’ve ever had falling apart (or more accurately, worn until there were holes in one of them) were worn for years before that happened.
I’ve also never spent under $100 on shoes.
And I don’t think it’s smart to buy shoes you haven’t tried on. There’s variation in foot shapes, some shoes just aren’t designed for your foot and need to be “broken in”. I thought all shoes needed to be broken in until one time I got lucky and the second pair I tried fit perfectly right away. Ever since then, I’ll keep trying shoes until I find ones that don’t need to be broken in.
One exception was when I forgot about that when my cousin saw a sale on good sandals and had him pick me up a pair. Was reminded the first time I wore them. I spent a day at an amusement park and my feet were killing me by the end of it. Figured it was because I hadn’t been standing much leading up to that. But then, a few years later I wore the same sandals (now broken in) in a similar situation and my feet didn’t feel nearly as bad.
So try on shoes until you feel ones that feel good right away and your feet will thank you. Spend money up front for quality and your wallet will thank you when those shoes last longer than that amount of cheap ones do.
Also take care of them. If they are tie up shoes, untie them to remove them. If they are difficult to get the heel in, get a shoe horn. If you’re often walking through puddles and/or mud, wear boots. Always wear socks unless your footwear can breathe well.
I’ve never put shoes through the washer, not sure how that would affect the longevity, though it likely depends on the materials.
Good shoes will last longer than the laces, too, so just replace the laces when they get worn down. A new lace colour can also refresh the look.
Like new xiaomi phones right? At least the new Pocos are decent.
Part of that is just selection bias. Very few people would post Amazon reviews for their shoes unprompted. But if something unexpected happens, like if they have a defective pair, they’re quite a bit more likely to go back and write something.
Shoes have too much of a usage difference to go off of Amazon reviews. You don’t know their lifestyle. For anyone that runs a marathon or similar exercise to have shoes that last over 3 months would be a miracle. Any typical big brands like adidas, Nike, etc lasts me many years if I only wear them lightly, like if I take the car. But if I exercise outside in them, they’re not gonna last half a year. It’s just usage dependent.
Occasionally you might get a bad batch and glue comes off or stitching rips. That’s inevitable bad luck. Though you can just get gorilla glue and glue it back yourself.
Dress shoes is a different ball game. Get stitched build/welted, not glued on. That’s usually a safe choice though expensive. These can be repaired and resoled, so you could wear them for 10+ yrs. Though getting bored of them might be an issue.
Light weight shoes are also obviously going to not last. Like hey dude shoes. They’re literally a single sheet of cloth. Easy to wash, but not going to last.
Also stop trying to buy shoes from Amazon. Go wear shit and try them on.
It should go without saying that if the brand you’re considering is called “Lahuekty” or “Mpanobeb” or something stupid like that you’re taking a huge risk. Amazon’s ‘brands’ are a joke.
Sooooo depends on what you’re using them for. Very few shoes will hold up to retail work, for instance. So 3-6 months for one reviewer without context could be 2 years for you.
This is where guitars are right now.
Both Fender and Gibson are now owned by venture capitalists. Their quality of everything, from strings to picks to guitars, has plummeted across every brand they own in the last five years. It’s sad really.
You go on Reddit and people talk about the models and which one is great for this, or why they prefer it for that, but then you find some deeper dives into more recent spaces and people who know what they are talking about have moved away entirely from both brands.
If anyone is curious, you can buy a better guitar from Harley-Benton, Cort, or Jet than from Fender/Gibson and it will be 1/2 to 1/4 the cost.
The classic “Buy a reputable brand, cut costs and coast along on the reputation until you can sell off all your shares and move on to another company”. Bonus points for using
legalised embezzlementshare buyback.I saw a headline on some guitar magazine “These are the most over priced guitars currently”. Says a lot and it’s true.
There’s not much point in throwing money at a brand name anymore. Quality control is long gone and they all come straight out of a factory anyway. It’s alright though, because factory quality is decent, and with a little know-how you can easily make them play good.
My best guitar is a $100 kit-build. Acknowledging that I’d need to do a full setup on any guitar I figured I might as well paint and assemble it myself, because I’m not going to pay several hundreds just for a paint job and a logo.
Did you like building your own? I have a used PRS SE 24, which I got for a steal due to paint scuffs, but thought about building my own.
Yes absolutely, I enjoyed it and might do it again sometime with a different kit.
I do have a lot of tools already so that wasn’t costly, only good practice, but it did take somewhat longer than I expected.
I wouldn’t attempt to make the neck and fretboard from scratch, so a kit with a good neck is a good starting point.
Did you find any useful guides online or on YouTube for getting started? I have a decent set of tools, but this would be a new endeavor for me.
Well aware this would be a “me” guitar and not something that would have much of a value to anyone else. Some people seem to think they are building their own K-Line guitar.
It was all pretty straight forward. The kit was made to be assembled with a bolt on neck all predrilled, so it was basically just shaping the body and headstock and then paint and varnish.
I did look up some painting techniques, but I really just wanted to stain the wood, so I did that with a brush and then 2 coats of varnish. I had to sand the wood first to make it more open for staining instead of paint. If you want to paint or spray paint you should probably keep or make a base coat to avoid the wood absorbing the paint.
It was a cheap stratocaster-like kit, so I wasn’t too concerned with making mistakes, but I’ll admit that putting the saw into a guitar was a little daunting at first.
I used a multi-cutter for most of it to make very precise cuts. And lots and lots of sandpaper by hand with different grit sizes.
It only took a few evenings to do, so it is not difficult at all, but I guess it depends on how much you want to customize it.
Do you know the brand? Sounds like my next winter project.
I want to make one with normal pickups - Out1 and add a piezo bridge with a three way switch for an Out2. Some of the sounds people are getting by blending the two are incredible.
The kit I used was a Harley Benton from Thomann.
Everyone replies with ‘thanks’, ‘nailed it’. ‘Holy shit that’s perfect’
To a comment that’s [deleted]
Holy shit thank you for this, i never even knew.
When I started fishing as a hobby, I couldn’t believe that it was the only hobby I’ve ever taken up that pretty much had unanimous recommendations for beginners. Everyone seemed to suggest the Ugly Stik GX2 on every website or forum. And there were no threads about how I should buy a more expensive rod/reel, other than a few that mentioned that I might want to upgrade the reel on the GX2 after a year or so.
Even the salesperson at the Bass Pro Shops store recommended the GX2 even though I could have afforded a bit more.
It was a completely new experience for me. I am used to having to spend at least $300-400 on initial investments for new hobbies. Fishing was only CAD$120 for everything!
My hobby (speedcubing) is like that as well. If you ask any semi competent speedcuber you will hear something along the lines of “Get the newest RS3M (9$) and maybe some lube (4$)”. I love it for that.
(Of course it s all a foot-in-the-door scam to get you hooked so you buy other events but shhh)
Just get a cheap one in KMart. It’ll likely fall apart, but it still comes from the same sweatshop as your favourite brand and you didn’t pay so much for the months of wear you got.
For something like a hoodie, I recommend you go to a thrift store. Anything you find there will be durable and quality enough to survive, and you can feel it or try it on. It’s very easy to find high quality stuff while thrifting. 8 dollars for what might cost 80 new.
Try to focus on non-synthetic fibers or semi synthetic. Plastics in clothing are bad for the environment.
Plastic in clothes is bad for you, not just the environment
Microplastics apparently do infiltrate through the skin
We have… done bad things with our world.
I snagged the world’s comfiest leather jacket for $8 at a local thrift shop. All it needed was some stitching in a couple pockets, but it’s bloody perfect otherwise. Eight friggen bucks.
You buy it anyway, and it’s a great purchase. Very happy. Dog eats it a few days later and the product is discontinued. Or Is it just me?
I ran into this when I was thinking about buying some Doc Martens recently. I know there have been other examples, that’s just the most recent I can remember.
depending on reddit for any kind of real world advice is a crapshoot at best
Even a crapshoot is better than the straight advertisements on Google.
I feel like here is not much better unless the advice is about technology
Every FOSS project I’ve ever looked into lol
