Is spudding dead?

[Moonbogg]

Wake up people, it's game time! I got a new hybrid inbound!

[MrCrowley]

Well damn, Moonbogg! It has been awhile 8)

Looking forward to seeing the new hybrid

[Moonbogg]

Well damn, Moonbogg! It has been awhile 8)

Looking forward to seeing the new hybrid

Hey, Crowley! Good to see you man. Hey, the guys around here are helping check over my piston. Can you take a look and see if you think it will work or maybe see how I can improve it? I know you have experience with exactly this kind of thing. I'm thinking of rubber at Durometer A 55 hardness, which is right around what a car tire is at in terms of hardness. This will be for the bumper and sealing face. It's one of the newest threads in the hybrid discussion forum.

[Potato Demon]

I don’t use social media other than Reddit and SpudFiles. I’ll always be here checking out new stuff. I don’t know why people like Instagram and Facebook so much. I guess that this generation is more focused on which Khardashian took a dump than they are on actually doing and building things.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I don’t use social media other than Reddit and SpudFiles.

Over the past few years I have accrued more than a million karma points on Reddit spread over a couple of accounts, it's such a waste of time. Essentially a dopamine dosing machine powered by little orange arrows, but at the end of the day you've achieved nothing of worth. Having forced myself to stay away of late and spending the time designing, building and testing instead, 2019 is feeling a lot better.

[hectmarr]

Without trying to offend anyone

[Potato Demon]

That sounds about right. I only use Reddit for subs such as r/unpopularopinion and r/EDC. I just like to see what’s going on. SpudFiles is better in my opinion.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Without trying to offend anyone

Without trying to sound elitist I would tend to agree, those with pursuits that require some measure of reflection are not good fodder for what is now conventional social media. I would say stupidity is more of a resource than a product.

[Cthulhu]

I definitely agree that social media is detrimental to our hobby, but some sites still have some interesting information. I always find interest and innovative ideas on 4chan and even 8chan, but the threads don't seem to last long before they get overwritten by the immense mass of spam.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I always find interest and innovative ideas on 4chan and even 8chan, but the threads don't seem to last long before they get overwritten by the immense mass of spam.

Eh, I can't say 8chan has been a force for good recently...

[hectmarr]

Without trying to offend anyone

Without trying to sound elitist I would tend to agree, those with pursuits that require some measure of reflection are not good fodder for what is now conventional social media. I would say stupidity is more of a resource than a product.

People have the natural right to exercise their stupidity as they wish. Elitism does not take place here.
The consumerist tangle of social networks, (when they use you, and NOT you to them, to inform you etc), use that stupidity to sell it as content that inhibits the majority of thinking and doing a small but important part of their world. This hobby is for me, that, a small but important part of my time.
The fact of allowing any fool to think of something they do not know or know, is to use the ignorance of that fool and sell it together with advertising, (they earn a LOT of money with this, it's not free, even if it seems), as a childish illusion, (with the respect I have for children, children and adults), that everyone listens to you, that you are listened to and even a loved one ...
I think it's about using for one's purposes, whatever they are, all these resources, but not letting oneself be used because of the fallacy they sell to you and many people believe because they want it.
Time is a finite resource for humans, (and for weapons).

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Time is a finite resource for humans, (and for weapons).

Indeed, hence your inspirational quote in my forum signature

[hectmarr]

This phrase was frequently uttered by a professor at the orchestral instrumentation university, when we did not do the work. He was referring to art, saying that musical art is a very large field of knowledge and that the life of a human being is not enough to cover it. I took it as a premise for all activity in which it is necessary to learn from others, (usually very high-flying gifted).

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

There was a post on reddit (rather ironic in an of itself) lamenting the loss of the hobby forum. This phenomenon seems to a general one as social media - including reddit - have displaced them when it comes to how people spend their time online. Specific facebook groups and subreddits aren't really a substitute, and they reward low effort with a steady drip of dopamine that I found neatly encapsulated in this self-aware "tweet":



It's so insidious that it seems the only way to escape this cycle is to avoid it entirely, a black hole of productivity that's self propagating unless you consciously break away from it.

[mrfoo]

Quite. And to be honest, the addition of the little "thumbs up" icon at the top of every post does little to help. Gamification of social interaction, it fucking sucks.