alyaza

joined 2 years ago
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

With no voices in support in the original post and currently the only two voices in support here being the mods themselves.

bluntly: this is not a democracy, we don't pretend it is, and we've never run it that way so this is not a particularly relevant consideration for us. democracy at the scale of communities is an incredibly fraught issue that requires a lot of time and energy to administer we don't have. in any case none of our referendums in the community (which we've done before) have been majority votes, they've solicited feedback that informs our judgement. our judgement here is this is a good idea regardless of how the community feels about it, and that even if we didn't implement the moratorium we'd be cracking down on posts, handing out bans, and doing sweeping removals because we've been more permissive than our usual moderation on the subject and let behavior we'd normally step in on go.

in short: even if the moratorium were removed, that'd just mean heavier-handed enforcement from this point forward. if people really want no moratorium then they should be prepared to start catching 30-day bans (or permanent bans if they're off instance) for any unkind behavior.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

Why are you doing this if you don’t think what happens here matters?

if you think something has to arbitrarily "matter" to be socially valuable to do then there's your problem. in any case, i certainly don't think the value of this platform rests on "people knifing each other about a presidential election they have very little power over the outcome of."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

If one takes that attitude, you’re right, you won’t change the world.

i think you're conflating "having value" with "changing the world" when these are two essentially independent qualities. at no point have we ever sought to "change the world" with this (because we're five people running this in our spare time, that's not in our capabilities as people), and from the beginning we've said we'd be content with only a handful of people using this place as long as they get something out of doing it (because that's what we consider valuable, not whether or not this can have sweeping social impact or importance).

 

On October 24, the Clark University graduate workers union, affiliated with Teamsters Local 170, organized a panel of grad worker union activists from universities in Worcester and Boston to speak about their organizing experiences. Contract negotiations for Clark University Graduate Workers United (CUGWU) are set to begin in January, and the panel was held on Clark’s campus as part of CUGWU’s efforts to prepare its members.

The hosts of the event – two CUGWU shop stewards, including one Worcester DSA member – introduced the panelists, started with opening questions, and then fielded questions from the audience on the successes and failures panelists have experienced in their respective unions’ contract campaigns.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (6 children)

because you can play meaningless "what if?" games like this forever. at the end of the day you don't have to be a pessimist to realize the odds of something here changing the world are so minute that it's fine to put a moratorium on certain kinds of posts. you're not going to convince me otherwise. and even in the optimistic scenario: virtually all of what's discussed here, while interesting, is designed to be fleeting and buried. conversations on link aggregators tend to have a shelf-life of no more than a week, and that's not really where you're going to find ideas that make change. here the conversations usually die down after an even shorter period (about two days).

frankly: if the next Lenin or whatever is actually on Lemmy, i'd tell them to get a blog instead of hashing it out in link aggregator comment sections. it's a better use of their time, it's a better place to test and hone their ideas, and they have actual editorial control over everything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

A lot of people are understandably upset right now, and yes, all the facts of the election are not in yet. But do you really want to have a moratorium on election posts for a whole month?

yes, the mod team is in more-or-less unanimous agreement on the subject. and if we were moderating to the exact same standard we usually do we'd likely be removing, locking, or severely pruning nearly every thread posted in the politics section on the subject in the past few days. maybe we'll shorten if it need be but moratorium itself is not controversial and i do not anticipate us reversing course on it. please remember that this cannot be a day job for any of us.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (8 children)

Who’s to say some random comment in a random post on the presidential election doesn’t come up with some incredible idea or solution?

if someone does this i trust they won't limit it to a niche social media website with like 500 users, where it will have no actual visibility and will reach exactly zero actual powerbrokers. i don't think this is a remotely convincing hypothetical, personally, and its logic would extend far beyond talk of the presidential election.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Because these are literal sky scrapers. Fire on a wood structure is a recipe for catastrophic failure. A fire in a large structure could have similar effects to those large high rise condos that collapsed in Florida from poor maintenance.

i think you're operating under 1) an extremely 1800s understanding of how fire-resistant a wood skyscraper would be and 2) a misguided understanding of where fire safety problems tend to come from in most contemporary buildings

wood is not uniquely flammable,[^1] and the vast majority of the problem in a fire is not going to be with the actual wood itself (as is true of steel, concrete, etc.) but moreso with the fact that we make nearly everything that isn't the building itself out of extremely combustible materials and we probably should not do that? as i recall that was the entire problem at Grenfell, where the cladding used was a flammable plastic that rendered any airgapping measures between flats useless and allowed the fire to spread uncontrollably. the fire at Grenfell also reportedly began from a refrigerator that was plastic-backed.

[^1]: it can rather trivially be treated to be fire-resistant--and as the person you're replying to notes has already been tested extensively and implemented in existing buildings to that end, and in multiple locales, just from a brief search on the subject

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Does this extend to not discussing plans, posting information about which states may be taking measures to protect their citizens or how effective those measures might be, or discussing things like resistance or mutual aid?

no, why would it? even way you're describing them makes it clear they're not about the presidential election. don't be too clever by one half--if there's a problem with a submission we'll just tell you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

my understanding is yes that's the general avenue people are researching; there's also the actual energy inputs powering steelmaking that hypothetically can be made greener (currently, it's a process that seems to almost exclusively use fossil fuels because of the very high temperatures needed)

 

Despite national election results that have left environmentalists and their allies wary of what’s to come in the next four years, ballot initiatives related to climate policies fared well across the country on election day.

At least five of six ballot measures related to climate change resulted in what most environmentalists consider wins. But state legislative races across the country that could impact climate policy had more uneven results.

 

A few years back, my local mom Facebook group started a weekly thread to share the best deals on groceries around town. We tried to look through supermarkets’ circulars to pull out the best deals we saw. Someone started a spreadsheet comparing prices at Costco versus non-warehouse stores.

The effort fizzled quickly. Why? Not because it wasn’t useful, but because it was so much work to do on a volunteer basis.

What if a local news organization did this for us, making it part of a reporter’s job? Better yet, what if local news organizations around the country made it part of their mission to help readers compare grocery prices around town? What if, on every digital local news site, a “groceries” vertical highlighted the week’s best deals across stores? Where I live, Market Basket generally has the lowest prices on everything — but once in awhile Star Market beats its price on butter or broccoli or bagels. A weekly digest letting me know this would provide a genuine service. A regularly updated Costco or BJs spreadsheet on a local news site? Yes, please.

 

this was proposed by @[email protected] and after some discussion we agree. in t3rmit3's simple terms:

State-level stuff, ballot measures, etc, no problem, but IMO there’s not going to be any productive discussion of the presidential race right now; there’s still too little information, too many emotions, etc.

the discussions already started about the presidential election will remain open, but in our view sufficient time has been given for venting frustration and expressing emotion about the result. additional discussion is likely to just be nasty and vitriolic as the blame game starts up between Democrats, between progressives and centrists, between identity groups, and so on. we don't want that and it's not interesting discussion. it will also be ill-informed discussion until much more in-depth studies are undertaken on the result. and in any case, a far better question than "what went wrong?" (which is beyond the ability of any person on Beehaw to influence) is "what can we do now?" (which people on Beehaw can influence, even in small ways). there are three months before Trump's second inauguration, and that is vital time for organizing, networking, and workshopping.

we would strongly encourage you to make posts, and off-Beehaw make connections, on those subjects. but at the very least: please don't post further US presidential stuff--we'll be removing it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

as the article kind of notes steelmaking in specific is very carbon intensive, so we either need to use less of it or decarbonize its production (or more likely a mixture of both). the statistics on this according to Wikipedia are:

As of 2021, steelmaking is estimated to be responsible for around 11% of the global emissions of carbon dioxide and around 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.[12][13] Making 1 ton of steel emits about 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide.[14]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

one thing i'd be interested in: is it possible to make a fun 4X-style game that challenges the very premises of 4X (which are mostly patterned after the models of expansion we're familiar with in the West)?

 

The hectic situation at Gleaton’s store has calmed down, but Helene’s aftermath continued to impact his community and his customers. For days, locals whose homes (and kitchens) were damaged by the storm still come to his Waffle House for meals, to charge their phones, to fill up on water, to grab to-go cups of milk for their kids, or just to sit somewhere brightly lit and friendly for a couple of hours.

Gleaton was happy he could provide that for them, but admits it is frustrating for workers like him to see the lack of respect and acknowledgement that he and other service workers receive from their employers and the public writ large, even after stepping up during a literal disaster.

“We were really providing so much for the community, and people do not think about that,” he tells me. ​“They belittle it, they downplay it, as if it’s not a lifesaver, and it literally was.”


The USSW has continued to push for more, calling for a $25 hourly wage for its members. ​“25 is a number,” Gleaton explains. ​“What we’re actually fighting for is a livable wage, because the cost of living just keeps skyrocketing. The whole inflation thing, it’s not getting no better for us, and they’re making it even harder, taking our credit card tips and then taxing them.”

USSW members like Gleaton are also pressing Waffle House to end its meal deduction policy (in which workers can only order off a limited menu and are charged whether or not they partake), and, even more importantly, to provide 24/7 security at its restaurants (workers say security is currently inconsistent). It’s no secret that the 24-hour diner can get a little rowdy, especially on weekend nights, when customers often show up drunk.. ​“I’ve probably cleaned blood off of every surface of a Waffle House,” Halie Booth, a Texas Waffle House worker whose gifted reflexes turned her into a meme queen, told the Independent (UK) in 2023.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago

The Mozilla Foundation laid off 30 percent of its workforce and completely eliminated its advocacy and global programs divisions, TechCrunch reports.

“Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We’re revisiting how we pursue that work, not stopping it,” Brandon Borrman, the Mozilla Foundation’s communications chief, said in an email to The Verge. Borrman declined to confirm exactly how many people were laid off, but said it was about “30% of the current team.”

 

The difference between a helpmeet and a parasite is power. If we want to enjoy the benefits of intermediaries without the risks, we need policies that keep middlemen weak. That's the opposite of the system we have now.

Take interoperability and IP law. Interoperability (basically, plugging new things into existing things) is a really powerful check against powerful middlemen. If you rely on an ad-exchange to fund your newsgathering and they start ripping you off, then an interoperable system that lets you use a different exchange will not only end the rip off – it'll make it less likely to happen in the first place because the ad-tech platform will be afraid of losing your business

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