I think getting a lot of downvotes for this post is actually a win!

Go to scholar.google.com and look up the following, to see if it’s what you’re looking for:

• training simulations
• serious games
• interactive exhibits

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a complete waste of time to think through a post that I’m writing, if only a couple people are going to read it. But then I figure: a) doing so is its own reward: practice putting sentences together, keeping the mind sharp; b) some texts/ideas can be seminal, just as a music band may have very few fans but each of those fans goes on to create their own band; c) contemporary scholars study texts and articles (including ephemera such as handbills) from past decades, so it’s likely that future scholars will trawl and study social media posts from our era, using techniques we can barely imagine. Plus, it’s fun!

Also give us a chance to make a comment that will be seen, and maybe encourage discussion.

If Lemmy had weekly awards, you would win one for this post. The bland, LLM-inspired structure creates a feeling of rising dread until the very end when one is left with the horror of realizing this human (if they can still be called human?) has spent way too long talking only to AIs.

What’s more, the text is not a story or essay submitted as a post; the text only really works AS a post, with its references to Lemmy, Aspect, and SocialAI and contextualized among a stream of posts. The fact that it’s in [email protected] provides ironic distance, but not so much to prevent it from being read unironically for at least the first couple paragraphs. I don’t know what Aspect and SocialAI are like, but the differences between them and Lemmy that are pointed out in the text creates a picture of a platform that problematizes modern identity and the individual’s role in a society mediated by social media (ha) and AI bots. I bet someone could write a half-decent critical theory research paper expounding on your post. Well done.

Put metal triangle in water. Sinks.

Add more weight. Floats.

Problem?

It looks like your “edit” is right (version of lemmy and instance configuration are an issue), with the additional complication that sometimes where it is hosted makes a difference (sometimes the youtube summary is in a different language and/or won’t grab it because of regional restrictions) and sometimes the reader app/web interface grabs their own thumbnails and/or may not display thumbnails and/or may even try to just embed the video. There was a post on techsupport a while back about this: https://lemmy.world/post/20180043

I post to [email protected] from slrpnk.net and to get a thumbnail, I do the following:

• get a thumbnail image file. either grab it from wikipedia, imdb, or by a screencap that I trim. put that file somewhere on my computer.
• use the web interface with default client. It has a “thumbnail URL” field (which I didn’t see back when I had a lemmy.world account - probably version differences) but I can’t just upload the image to that field, so I have to…
• go to the post “body” input field and click on the “upload image” button to upload the thumbnail image file from my computer. This uploads the image to the server and adds a line of code to the body input field that looks something like this: ![](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/a-long-UUID.png)
• copy the part from “https” to “png” and put it in the “thumbnail URL” field
• usually I then delete that code from the post “body” input field
• edit: of course, I still have to add the youtube URL in the “URL” field…

I think this adds thumbnails, but of course I can never be sure because someone can always use a client or configuration I’m unaware of. That’s the price of freedom from a single corporate server and a limited choice of viewer clients.
Ideally this whole process would be easier or automatic. I imagine the situation/process will change as time gones on.

It’s a pedestrian’s fault. _/s

Unironically these are amazingly cool. Imagine an entire house built in this style.

I’m torn because I want to tell him to leave me alone, that I don’t care about his life, but considering the ‘offense’ this seems too much and knowing me I’d immediately regret it and feel bad about it.

Imagine someone has a huge booger hanging out of their nose. It might be embarassing that you point it out to them, but it’s a lot more embarassing if they walk around with the booger hanging there. It’s the same with this. If you’re polite but direct, there’s nothing to feel bad about, you’re helping the guy learn where the line is.

Expressing the basest of notions with the loftiest of words is the pinnacle of wit.

“It became necessary to destroy the students to save them.”

Back in the 70s, men’s hair had to be about an inch short. Women were very limited in what kind of jobs they could get, and were regularly groped if not assaulted. LGBT+ were literally considered mentally ill. If you were non-white, no way you could work in an office (except for janitorial maybe.) But yeah, America sure was Great back then… _/s

I’m sure they’ll just add a fine next month: “using residence for unauthorized life event” or “reducing number of occupants without permission” or something.

Maybe he’s in England.

“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this: He is no hero.”

• Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania and likely future Democratic presidential candidate

C’mon y’all. You know if you go to a non-chain Latino restaurant nobody’s calling the cops.

WARNING: anyone possessing such a manifesto may be suspect of “ill will towards corporate America.”

Careful, kitty! That bag is not a toy!