I just started playing WoW again and I don’t feel any pressure from the supposed “dark patterns”, or having to buy this stuff (which I can’t, because I’m not in the US). It has zero effect on my gameplay. WoW is fun and addicting in a sense for sure, but there are way worse MMOs when it comes to this. Just look at any Korean MMO, like Black Desert Online. I’d even argue ESO is way worse than WoW when it comes to monetization.

On a related note, what math should one know? Are there any upsides to go beyond everyday math? To brush up on lost math skills? I’ve forgotten most of my math classes, as I wager most have…

Even if it’s not as popular, I’d say the community might still be more solid in some cases. And that people are more responsive, especially with quality answers. I’ve noticed you’re chastised way more on reddit if you ask a “stupid” question.

Cool idea!

Yeah, I’ve been using OpenRSS to get the RSS feed of e.g. APNews, but it’s such a sad state of affairs that it feels like RSS is disappearing

Yeah it’s for sure an issue in the rest of the world too. Not discounting that

I really dislike this argument. Just because it’s “their country, their rules” doesn’t not make it an issue? Especially when it comes to privacy concerns. Privacy concerns are universal. There are a plethora of serious issues that are not defended by “national sovereignty”. If that was the case we should just turn a blind eye to North Korea, right?

Yes, because niche communities are much smaller here if not non-existant. Communities about Classical Chinese, poetry, various academic humanities subjects and the like isn’t exactly thriving on here. I try to use the fediverse when I’m able to though, and also try to support smaller communities, but yeah…

If you have an account you can use a VPN. Never had trouble

For a while? Our business used it until … this year. It’s finally EOL this year.

No one ever questions these things. “It’s for the kids!” is the one argument that’ll lead us all to damnation.

Hasn’t RSS support been dropping these last few years? Last I heard was that RSS was dying, though I don’t know how true that is.

Does lemmy and other fediverse stuff currently have such a huge bot problem?

It seems really great actually. Thanks for the rec. Might selfhost it. But I also get the argument of Kagi if one doesn’t want to rely on the search results of Google/Bing/DDG or whatever. Even if I definitely prefer FOSS.

Thanks, I definitely prefer this alternative. How does searxng work in general?

Kagi has definitely been on my radar, but it sounds a bit weird (for lack of a better word) to pay for search. I’ve never even thought about it. Maybe it’s worth it…