My old person trait is that I think ‘ghosting’ is completely unacceptable and you owe the other person a face-to-face conversation.
I think that a basic lifestyle should be affordable for a basic person
Found the left-wing extremist! /s
i’m gonna go one further:
i think everybody should be allowed to live a decent enough life, whether they can work or not.
I’ll go even further and say that meeting the needs of a population is the only point of having a society at all.
that almost sounds like… anticapitalist propaganda! Can’t have that! Back to your cubicle, worker #33458!
I don’t think that is an old person trait. You are just secretly Nordic.
or not so secretly, seeing as i literally live a stone’s throw from a scandinavian border
Crazy how that is an unpopular opinion these days
My old person trait is that none of the things mentioned in the linked image happened on accident.
They happened because capitalism doesn’t give a fuck about anything except bleeding as much money as conceivably possible out of each and every human.
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Apps allow companies to suck more data out of your device than a website, allowing them to sell more of your data and… make more money.
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Video games needing access to the internet is simply Digital Rights Management and a way to prevent piracy and… make more money. Remember, most companies view something pirated as a “lost sale,” not that you would have never purchased it to begin with. As Gabe Newell once said:
“We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem,” he said. “If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable."
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This one speaks for itself. Being able to be in control of the products you buy is freedom. Having products controlled remotely by a corporation is giving them carte blanche to make more money off of you.
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Removing accessible customer service means more people will just give up on trying to get their problem solved, effectively allowing the company to steal from people and… shocker… make more money.
I agree, in theory, in respect to ghosting, but we live in a society that teaches us to be isolated, and doesn’t teach interpersonal skills unless the interpersonal skill is “Fuck you, got mine.” (which is, not surprisingly, a thing about making more money.)
In other words, these aren’t old people opinions. These are “I’m not gonna let capitalism absolutely fuck me endlessly” opinions.
At least in Europe I suspect those of us who grew up before neoliberalism took over in the 80s have a different take on the normality of the whole “being treated as a mark to scam money of 24/7” thing…
It’s specifically capitalism driven by GDP. Capitalism is bad but adding GDP is like removing any ethic and moral compass.
Where do I sign up to buy the awards around here?
Kidding…great post, tho
That’s what the emojis are for. Unlike the shitshow most of us just came from, here it doesn’t cost real money to add a tiny picture of 🏅 to a comment.
In terms of piracy, I wonder how much could be prevented by having demos, like Factorio does
Funny how Steam has been making sales and events around demos for a while (called Next Fests) and some games absolutely blow up out of nowhere thanks to them.
Also some people think FF16 having a demo was some weird, oddball marketing move by Square Enix, except they have been making “try now, continue later” demos for games since Bravely Default.
Demos used to be everywhere back in the day! I think they have a huge impact, because it’s a way to try to play a game without dumping all the money on it without knowing what the gameplay is like and if its actually fun.
When I was a kid, DOOM having the first episode of the game available as shareware was huge and I used to walk to my friends place after school and watch him play until he would get bored and let me play for a while.
From an old interview in 1999 with John Carmack about this very subject (emphasis mine):
Carmack: DOOM 2 was explicitly a commercial release. We sort of half heartedly did some shareware distribution with Quake, but I think the industry has almost unanimously decided that the three or so level demo is the best test vehicle.
A lot of people consider themselves to have “finished DOOM” when they just finished the shareware episode.
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I refuse to use subscription software. If I can’t buy it outright, I either use an alternative or take to seas.
I love software like Lightburn where you just pay a set amount for so many years of updates and support and when it runs out you can choose to leave it like that or buy more updates and support for a smaller fee.
That tactic is used some companies I have stuff from. It’s on the razors fucking edge of acceptable to me.
You just want free support for ever? Lmao, that’s very unreasonable.
my old person trait is remembering that it didn’t use to be this hot in the summer where I live.
Oof.
I think cars should not be dependent on a touch screen for ANY of it’s functions (or really have one at all). They are more difficult to use than tactile buttons, distracting, and do not receive long term support from the OEM.
What do you do with a 10 year old car that runs but the touch screen nuked due to age, firmware bugs or mechanical damage? Ford isn’t going to be selling replacement units 10 years later and I have yet to see an ‘infotainment’ system that has aftermarket replacement considerations.
Totally agree with this one.
I drive an old 06 and I much prefer using the the physical buttons to adjust things like music, volume, air settings. Even prefer using it to back up and having to use my mirrors and look back.
My '18 vehicle is all touch screen, cameras,etc. While the a/c functions better and I don’t feel like my fillings are going to fall out from all the rattles and bumps, I find there is a real disconnect. I am even asked by others why I lean over and look at the back window when reversing.
I work in tech and I don’t trust tech.
“If you think technology will solve your problems, you don’t understand technology—and you don’t understand your problems.” - Bruce Schneier
Yeah, I have the same experience: if you’ve worked long enough in Tech you know its limitations and all the ways it can go wrong hence being a bit skeptical about “high”-tech solutions for things which work fine already with “low”-tech.
Also, you’re well aware that deep down it’s still people having made all the decisions about how it works, only it’s people one level away from end-users (people doing stuff directly for people see how actual recipients of the services react and respond, people doing stuff which then does stuff for people, do not) so the design is often worse when there is Tech in the middle. This explains the fashion-following fad of using of touch screens in cars for functions that are interacted with when a person is driving and supposed to be looking at the road.
Yep. 100% agree. My new-ish Toyota RAV4 strikes an acceptable balance with touch screen vs real buttons/knobs. I don’t think anything critical is on the touch screen except maybe the equalizer. The touch screen isn’t massive either, but big enough to have a useful backup camera display.
My old person trait is that instructions do not need to be videos.
I might end up wanting a video, but there is so much low-quality content in search results. I can click into and out of six bad sets of written instructions in the time it takes me to watch one video far enough through to realize it doesn’t answer my question. Please, search engines, place more written instructions higher up.
i’m a little iffy on this one… if it’s something complicated/with lots of parts like how to repair your phone screen or something i prefer the video format, but for things like how to install certain softwares i totally agree with you
if I’m reading documentation for a software library, i want that written.
cuz i can read useful paragraphs faster than how ppl talk
but if it’s something highly visual, maybe a video is better
I think that buying something should be more convenient than pirating in.
That’s more of a “young person” trait though. For most of the history of media that could be pirated, buying meant going to a brick and mortar store and paying ridiculous sums like $10 per song on a music record. Pirating was nearly always more convenient.
My old person traits are most of all posted here because I am an old person.
But I’ll add that my old person traits is that I think a living wage should support… er… living, including a place to live, food to eat, paying for services, buying clothes, getting decent public health and education, and even have spare money for your free time (hobbies, eat out, theatre, concerts, etc.).
I have a few. And I’m not even that old (mid thirties)
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People who talk on phone calls using airpods or similar look ridiculous in public, like they’re utter lunatics talking to themselves or their imaginary friend.
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people who view life through their mobile phones are unfortunate and sad. Like…why pay money to go see a gig if you’re going to view it through your phone screen? I went to a wedding last week and I was one of the very few who was actually watching the procession with my own eyes rather through a camera app.
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Not being on social media should be an accepted norm, not a fucking exception. This is an issue when dating, unbelievably.
I have an old person trait. WHERE IS MY PHYSICAL PC GAMES
The not being on social media one sucks when dating for sure.
“How do I know you aren’t a weirdo, creep, stalker etc?”
“You don’t and me having social media wouldn’t change that either.”
Sure I could play ball and make myself a presence but honestly I’m happy enough being single that I’ll gladly dodge any lady who isn’t on board with my lack of social media.
Just a shame that in a numbers game that a relatively high proportion choose such a non issue to be a sticking point.
I think the numbers may work in your favor the other way. The coolest / funnest / most interesting people I know have minimal or no social media presence. There are fewer of them, sure, but a much higher percentage of them are cool people vs the mindless drones who see everything in life as a photo op which they can post on their curated online persona’s webpages.
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my old person trait is thinking that all of the above are extremely reasonable expectations and it’s a sad world we live in where most of those aren’t the case anymore
My old person trait is that I think I should be able to have anything I purchased repaired/serviced by whomever I wish, with whatever parts they deem acceptable.
Right to repair is a human right.
My old person trait is that when I purchase a printer, I should be able to use whatever is the cheapest compatible ink without the printer treating me like I’m smuggling unicorn blood out of Narnia
I bought a brother laser printer when my company sent us to WFH in March 2020 and I haven’t looked back. Just replaced the ink (er, toner) in March 2023
You get what you pay for. If you buy a loss-leader they will of course try to get more out of you
I don’t know why they are booing you, you’re right! If you don’t want a printer that’s a loss leader with expensive ink then buy a tank printer or a laser printer.
Cartridge based inkjet printers are almost always a loss leader and you also buy the part that does the printing every time you buy a cartridge. The print heads are actually on the cartridge, not in the printer at all.
Tank based inkjet printers are very different - the printer costs more but the ink is cheap. They also have no way of knowing what brand ink you use since it’s just ink - not a whole set of print heads and a microchip. This is all because the print heads are part of the printer - not included with the ink in a cartridge.
Laser printers are also great but they get even more complex. They have drum units which can be part of the toner cartridge or a separate unit that needs replacing periodically depending on the design of the printer.
It is often reasonable to handwrite everything to avoid printers
I want a proper headphone jack on my phone! Bluetooth can be convenient, but I prefer wired headphones.
An optional second usb c port would be better
I hate all websites that move things around as they load. If I see a button, that button should stay where it is when I try to click it.
The number of times the “news” headline display shows me something that catches my interest and then disappears and refreshes to something else before I was able to finish reading it infuriates me.
My old person trait is I shouldn’t have to scan a QR code for the menu at a sit-down where I’m dropping $100 on entrées. Give me a dang physical copy of the menu!
And then the QR code does not link to a menu but an app instead. So you need to install an app and allow weird permissions not related to the ordering of food for said app just to see that it only displays a static website in a Chrome custom tab.
