Today’s prompt was to answer the Proust Questionnaire. Decided to follow the prompt exactly w/ one-line (reasonably lyrical) answers for each question & minimal editing after the fact. The result could maybe use a bit of shuffling/revising to be considered an actual poem, but I think it flows well & even makes a bit of surprising sense as-is.
When I complain about a product, your answer to just stop using it stinks, very badly.
Once in a while, I run into problems with this or that product. Sometimes, when I cannot find a solution, I post my issue to the fediverse, hoping someone will have the answer.
A lot of people don’t respond. This is entirely fine.
Some people respond with their own problem. That’s also fine.
Some people respond that they swear never to use the product in question again. Yes, this is entirely fine, too. I’m in favor of you making the decision to not use this product again.
However, some people come to tell me that I should not use the product I’m using. This is it. This is the entirety of their response. They don’t suggest something else, they just shit on the product.
How is this at all useful?
You’ve not solved my problem. In fact, you’ve compounded my problem. You say not to use the product I’m using. Okay. What is the alternative? Ah, well, you did not say, did you? You’re leaving me with the task of having to find the alternative. Your answer stinks.
Once in a while someone come up with an alternative. At least this person is trying to be useful. It is entirely fine to toss an alternative at me, if it is done humbly. That is, if it is done with the understanding that your choice may not be adequate for me. This is fine.
What is definitely not fine is those asshats who insist that I should their own favored product without any inkling that maybe their product is not fine for me. I’ve been on this planet long enough to know that when someone says just use this instead, it is likely that I’m going to run into problems, if not a downright dead end. Your answer stinks.
You want examples?
“WordPress stinks! Just use write.as.”
I tried write.as. It stank, even more than WordPress. I’m not a fan of WordPress, but it gets the job done.
“Chrome stinks! Just use Firefox.”
I actually did the move. Firefox is my primary browser now. However, I forgot how many sites won’t work with Firefox. Yes, I know that this is something that shouldn’t happen in 2024, but here we are. I cannot use any teleconferencing software with Firefox reliably. (Jitsi might work, but I haven’t tried it with many people, so I don’t really know.)
I’ll also add that I most likely have spent time considering the flaws you found in the product I’m using. I’ve most likely also spent time considering alternatives and found them lacking. I especially love it when someone shoves in my face an alternative I’ve already rejected.
You’re not informing me about anything I did not already know. If your answer is among those I declared to be stinking above, your answer stinks too. Even if I don’t tell you to your face. Your answer stinks.
“When violence answers violence in a growing frenzy that makes the simple language of reason impossible, the role of the intellectual cannot be... to excuse from a distance one of the violences and condemn the other... that role is clarify definitions in order to disintoxicate minds and to calm fanaticisms, even when this is against the current tendency.” –Albert #Camus, “Preface to Algerian Reports” (1958)
Hey #Canadians I'm trying to figure out what healthcare is like there. Everywhere has problems but they're all a bit different. Here in the USA people don't want to go to the hospital and rack up a bill that will leave them homeless so they stay home and die of something preventable. One person on Reddit said in #Canada people die of cancer while waiting for the results of their biopsy - they can afford the care but it takes so long because everything is so backlogged they die anyway. How true is this? Wait times for specialists take a couple months where I am in the US and the ER wait times probably 4-12 hrs.
You're going to get #conflicting#answers to many questions, because #health is a #provincial responsibility, so there are 13 different systems across Canada, and each does things a little differently.
#Access also varies a lot across the country, even within a province or territory. There are many #specialists in the largest centers, and next to none in #rural areas.
In the thinly-populated prairies, even getting a regular G.P. can be difficult or impossible.
Read The Bible - cartoon (occ777.blogspot.com)
Fluther: Tap the Collective (www.fluther.com)
A great Q & A site.