I mod a worryingly growing list of communities. Ask away if you have any questions or issues with any of the communities.

I also run the hobby and nerd interest website scratch-that.org.

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Joined 3 年前
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Cake day: 2023年6月15日

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  • I’m genuinely having trouble thinking of a consumer product where the most widely sold brand or version is the “best” (highest quality, most durable, most features, best flavor, or whatever meteoric would be used).

    I can think of a number of products where getting the “best” is a case of steep diminishing returns compared to the increasing price, and for the purposes of the “average” person the “best” product isn’t any better for them than the mainstream one. The “best” versions of some products are only better for those with the skills to make use of them or the need for the “best” quality or features.





  • I’m not here to argue on the situation. What I am saying is that if you discuss this with somebody neutral or opposed to you, it matters to make sure you position yourself well. Otherwise you can get completely sidetracked over words, as we are currently.

    If you say “prisoners are being forced to work”, that can turn into a losing discussion quickly when you have to get into an extended discussion about how prisoners aren’t actively being dragged to work against their will. Actively being dragged out of their cells and put to work would be the initial connotation, as I’ve even seen in this thread. Once that connotation is shown not to be what’s happening, you’ll lose people quickly.

    If right out of the gate you say prisoners are being coerced to work with the threat of an unfair parole hearing, you are on a much stronger foundation that people can’t truthfully pick at.

    I get the feeling you feel so strongly about this that you might not care about what other people initially think initially or that you don’t want to give ground on what qualifies as forcing something, but if you want to get your message across, making it more bulletproof helps it.




















  • While being aware that leaking passwords and reusing them is a major risk, I was just asking about the construction of the password as it relates to being attacked directly.

    But also, no one wants to try to remember a hundred different unique passwords so it’s also a good idea to use a password manager.

    Absolutely. I recommended the notebook approach only because I think people of a certain mindset would be more open to it than a password manager, even if it isn’t as elegant of a solution. At the end of the day it still diversifies passwords. I’m vividly picturing my mom throwing a fit any time a doctor or other office wants her to fill out a form on a tablet instead of paper.


  • I’m going to be real. I was part way through an explanation before I deleted it. What you are dealing with sounds like a situation where you simply won’t win by using logic. To continue to labor under the presumption that a good and logical reasoning will have an effect is just going to stress you out and achieve nothing.

    Google password because I recommended against it being a word.

    IT nerds help me out here, but I’ve been under the impression that the best defense against brute force attacks is a very long password, and the idea of sprinkling in special characters or numbers is outdated. Something like “iwenttothestoreandboughtabirthdaycake” is a more secure password than “$6jds_*WghP6”.

    edit: Also the mantra to never write down any passwords is more of a workplace piece of advice. I personally think, and this would probably be helpful for older people, that writing down passwords in a notebook which is kept secure in their home is pretty safe. Short of a home invasion, that notebook is safe, and having it can encourage them to diversify their passwords on different accounts. So, if you are going to keep at the issue, taking an angle of using something they are more comfortable with like a paper notebook is going to be accepted more easily than trying to sell them on a password manager or something.