Harp the Wigglytuff @wigglytuffitout@computerfairi.es

@InspectorCaracal @zensaiyuki basically we need to rely on AI less for important shit, and more shit like "hey AI, here is a two-legged critter, figure out the most efficient walk for it to walk on the moon", then we put googly eyes on the results, especially all the midway points it tried working towards the best solution

@zensaiyuki @InspectorCaracal see also: silicon valley's love affair with "disrupting" instead of saying "okay, we're not doing things like this. i wonder why? maybe i should research that. it seems like we have a lot of regulations around this thing. i wonder why they exist. maybe i should read a book about it."

i'm just waiting until the new Apple (tm) iTriangleShirtwaistFactory is announced tbh

@zensaiyuki @InspectorCaracal and in what's happening now, a lot of times society HAS seen fit to forbid bad solutions - it's just that the programmers doing this think that things like "looking at the current laws regulating equality in housing" is a waste of time because their box of numbers is more enlightened than that and anyway they're not interested in learning why such laws exist, so

WHOOPS IT'S RACIST REDLINING WITH EXTRA STEPS

@InspectorCaracal i have done the EXACT opposite of convincing everyone this is a bad idea, haven't i.

@InspectorCaracal and then i'd probably include fucking recipes between chapters because Mirou got her job and keeps it by virtue of being able to do fancy cooking, but mostly just being really really really good at soul food

and ofc the former slave boy turned sith lord is like "........oh fuck yes is that some fucking frybread thank GOD these people keep trying to feed me SEVEN-TIER FUCKING ASPICS on account of being a HIGH RANKING DIGNITARY i'm so sick of it thank god you made curry"

@InspectorCaracal please don't tempt me it'd be a full 15-part series about Dasje scuttling around this castle like Jeeves if Jeeves got sent off to ninja school that one time and Bertie Wooster has had all his english charm replaced entirely with murder so it's just him doing exactly what his employer was about to tell him to do before even being asked while his wife makes really good mushroom curry two floors away in the kitchen

@aradinfinity EXACTLY! it's the same reason everyone i've ever met who has watched ATLA is ready to throw fucking down in Zuko's defense at any moment

letting people know redemption is possible, even if you fuck up, and that doing better is always something you can and should do - that's compelling!!!

i mean fuck it's basically what drives the story for the Yakuza game franchise.

sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, and the fire is a real good concept.

i mean, then i go on weird tangents about how my favourite OCs i've ever made are darth vader's valet and cook, who are surprisingly chill folks. don't get me wrong they're avid fans of their employer so kind of terrifying in their own ways, but i also fucking love them and they're some of the best characters i've ever come up with go team Dasje and Mirou sorry i only got to write you in for like five chapters and a spinoff oneshot

@aradinfinity and so in my case, it means 70k words (and i'm barely 1/4 through) of darth vader being a shitty person, because good to bad like a binary switch is kind of boring, but the parts where he's struggling, trying his damndest, not quite making it, then realizing he's fucked up and starting again - that's interesting! having everyone around him in the Rebellion resent him hardcore for taking up their oxygen - that's INTERESTING!

it's just not what usually gets written with the idea.

@aradinfinity but people like it for a reason. people go back to it for a reason.

so yeah, i wear the comments i've gotten in my hat with pride about how someone says "i never though i'd like a fic with this idea as much as i do this one. you're actually following through on so much of what everyone else doing the concept is skipping."

for me it's interesting BECAUSE of what gets skipped. ofc people aren't going to like stories where you take the interesting out. so keep the interesting in.

@aradinfinity honestly i think a lot of the concepts are good ones. if an idea seems done to death, sometimes where there's smoke there's fire, you know? there's SOMETHING about it that is interesting or compelling.

what people are tired of is bad execution. they just don't know it yet.

like... my fucking pet fic. on its face? it's another fucking "redeemed darth vader au". you can find these in fucking spades. fuck, there's even a couple of official comics that are same premise. >

@aradinfinity i mean i know i write plenty of dumbass obscure shit, but that's because i often end up writing a fic that can be summarized as "this is a concept other people have done before really horribly but somehow works this time"

because i like that challenge! i like surprising people like that!

but uhhh it does mean that i'm sure there are people out there mocking it for trying too hard to work with a shitty idea so

*ANXIOUS GRIMACING.*

i know it's all meant in good fun, but "come to my stream where i read bad fanfiction" has absolutely given me a new worry to think about at 4am when i'm trying to sleep

just, uh

just wondering if i've made an appearance there yet

@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz don't worry, given the level of star wars minutiae in my brain, i certainly have no cause to throw any stones

my shoulder: hey it feels like this muscle might not go into a horrid cramp immediately

me: oh i can actually get you to relax you say??? let's try some trigger point self-massage!

my shoulder:

i should probably stop mother hen-ing at people so hard but in my defense:

@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz i mean i've been watching a pleasant gentleman review terrible things on youtube so it's not like i can throw stones

sometimes you watch shit not to get involved in it, but because you know it's the equivalent of a can of pringles

@Sapphicgiraffic@snouts.online i've also heard a very convincing hypothesis that you can line up the myths of changeling babies quite well with the developmental differences that arise with autism and are in some cases first spotted

it makes one see how "my beautiful baby has been stolen, and left a strange fae in its place" at least stuck around a fair bit (if not developed)

However That's A Bit Depressing

i suppose the additional takeaway here is that one of the hardest parts of moderating is not taking people pointing out a problem as a personal attack. it may feel like one, but it is not. if people are trusting you to keep them self, you have to be ready to swallow your pride and listen to concerns.

which is a pretty evergreen reminder, honestly, since this is a dynamic reflected and similar to many other situations that someone will encounter.

saying you're against cancel culture is all fine and good, really, but if you try to cancel somebody for "screenshot dunking" in order to get people not paying attention to your own failure of moderating, then, uh

problem's not been solved all that much.

i say, sitting here subtooting, but i figure at this point this is like a morality play for my white ass to observe so i can figure out how to check myself and not wreck myself LOL