This is exactly my feeling as well. I like the design of it, but it doesn't feel like it's own thing. It feels like alternative content from the people I already follow on Instagram. It's like an echo chamber in an echo chamber.
I'll be curious to see if they ever decide to open it up to non-Insta users. I turn to Microblogging like Mastodon/Twitter for a completely different social media experience, not a different side of the same coin.
The foundations of it are stronger than the original. There's deeper characterization, more complex themes of family, interpersonal conflicts, infighting and the last hour is essentially a non-stop, stupendously choreographed action sequence. It sets up interesting dynamics for the sequels too.
As a technology buff I appreciated the framerate experiment. Films have always been shot at 24FPS typically, but the human eye sees at a much higher framerate than that. Avatar 2 experiments with increasing the framerate for realism. Action shots are mostly in 60FPS with dialogues and close ups in 24FPS. I think it did make the action sequences feel more lifelike, but the switching was a bit extreme IMO - it pretty regularly switches between 24FPS and 60FPS in action sequences which can be jarring. I personally would've preferred solid, on-stop chunks of 60FPS with chunks of 24FPS rather than on again/off again. That made it more distracting than a benefit, but I think the framerate experiment worked well overall. I'm hoping they stick with a single framerate per section in the sequels.
The real problem is the pacing. I thought Avatar 1 was a great scene setter for the universe of Pandora. Even if it's broad strokes are very predictable, at least it's enjoyable to see it play out. But the second time around, my god it takes FOREVER to get going. You know exactly how the conflict pieces slot into place for the climax and the dialogue is still just as clunky as the first film. Plus there's some excessive "save the whales" scenes that IMO could've easily been cut as it repetitively bashes its obvious environmentalist message over your head again and again.
...But overall, it's still a bit better than the first film. Just about. I'm really hoping the scripts for the next entries fix the dialogue and have more ambitious storytelling.
Exactly. I've been following Remedy since I was a teen and they've always made it crystal-clear Alan Wake 2 was the #1 priority in their hearts, but the realities of AW1 not selling particularly strong at first meant they didn't have much leverage to make it as soon as they wanted to. They very transparently and regularly talked about Alan Wake 2.
I'm really excited to see how different this turns out from the original now they can apply the lessons they learned in Quantum Break and Control.
Is anyone else really entertained at this point by watching this pompus asshat's arrogance single-handledly dismantling the pretty solid reputation Reddit has as a social media platform? It's like I blink and he thinks "hmm, how can I say something worse to show everyone how strong and powerful I am?"
I mean if Reddit's going to go down, may as well go down in the most spectacular self-emulation possible. Solid alternatives are already formed and off to the races. Go off my guy.
I think we should actively keep track of Reddit restoring user's content without people's permission. Screenshots, timestamps, everything. Monitor it all.
Maybe if Reddit go ahead with their API change whilst treating their users like such disposable crap, we could reach out to the EU to inform them of Reddit's GDPR breaches. Maybe that'd lead to their new revenue from API charges disappearing into hefty EU fines.
Update: Maybe there's going to be some loophole about actually having to use the data deletion request via Reddit's UI for there to be an actually GDPR breach though thinking about it. Going to ask around some Law friends for advise
My theory is the stockholders definitely have an IPO planned very, very, very soon and are applying a lot of pressure on Spez to prep Reddit ahead of it. I don't trust him for a second when he says an IPO isn't happening for a long time. It's the only logical explanation I can think of for Reddit's rapidly reckless decisions.
Yes, it is. So charge a reasonable API price and this whole argument is over.
But that won't happen. This is about monetizing Reddit's content ASAP before Spez resigns ASAP with a nice big, bonus for pushing through those beautiful API changes oh so smoothly.
The more Spez speaks, the less sad I am about Reddit dying. Platforms come and go. There's loads of Internet corners to discuss my hobbies. I don't want to stay on a sinking ship with a hole shot out by the captain because he has ship insurance, actively throwing people off board as him and his crew climb up the still buoyant part whilst insisting THIS WILL BLOW OVER. I'm not going down with the Titanic of community boards as it sinks. It'll die in infamy and I don't feel like drowning alongside it.
However, I will now thoroughly enjoy watching Spez naively, single-handedly dismantle Reddit's legacy for short term gain whilst thinking he's being a super duper smart businessman we couldn't possibly understand. Or possibly being a forced fallguy for share holder decisions which he has a choice in avoiding by quitting.
I've never in all my years of Internet browsing seen someone running an Internet-based company so blatantly indifferent to the customers they serve. There's no Reddit revenue without Redditors.
I wish him luck on his inevitably piss-poor IPO when Reddit offers little content of value and more people get more angry at him as more ridiculous reasoning flies out of his mouth. Reddit's gonna look like MSN News by the end of this mess.
That's ok dude. That's the nature of coding. We all copy and paste and take ideas from other places. Attributing is a low priority for minor personal projects and now suddenly your personal project is a bit bigger.
All good. No harm done. I look forward to seeing how this platform grows even more.
This is a really good explanation for how defederation works.
I understand your point that Beehaw defederating from two subs for moderation and user management seems like an extreme reaction. But it's one I kind of expected from them given Beehaw's philosophies as as an instance.
Their detailed posts about what Beehaw is always made it very clear to me they think carefully about how they run their space and the users they want to grant access to. They really prioritise making their instance a safe space for well-meaning discussion through their vetted registrations.
I'm not an admin. I'm not an experienced Lemmy user. I'm not someone who has had experience moderating and being an admin on several communities before. They have and I've also seen activity on the Lemmy repo from them showing they have dev experience too.
As you pointed out, the entire site of 12k users is currently managed by 4 people who seem to have quite a lot of experience managing communities. That's a big workload. I've been using both Beehaw and Kbin since Reddit's awful API changes to see how both places grow and so far I've found Beehaw to be a very enjoyable experience with a pretty high engagement rate. I usually get hella upvotes and replies to anything I say. It does feel like a pretty active, close-knit place of well-meaning people even at this early stage. I think they're running Beehaw pretty well so far. Kbin is very solid too, but Beehaw I've found tends to have a deeper level of engagement and longer, more in-depth post styles that I prefer.
I know any instances with open registration could hop in and contribute to Beehaw, so this issue they have of not being able to vet and control users isn't unique to those two instances. But given so far the place to me as a user still feels the same as when I joined a few days ago more or less, I'm going to take them at their word that they're getting an influx of activity that isn't a particularly good fit for Beehaw for now. There's a lot of instances that could defederate from. 2 is not a huge number so far. Plus they did explicitly say at the end this is not a permanent decision, they may very well change their minds later on.
So personally, I respect and understand Beehaw's decision at this moment. Lets give things time and see how things develop. It's definitely a temporary, broad axe to cutting an apple type solution to their troll problem - which may very well continue as Lemmy gets more popularity as a platform overall - but I think they want to be specific about who they pull into their moderation team to ensure the vibe of Beehaw is maintained. Lets give it some time to see what happens.
I agree man. I don't think it'll make much of a difference. It's just a shame to see how rapidly the platform is dying overnight due to greed and I want to know as a long time user, at least I did everything I could on my part to protest it's changes. Onto greener pastures we go.