And also comments I don’t like/disagree with

That’s how most people upvote/downvote on Reddit and that’s why you’re massively downvoted there for expressing an opinion that goes against the hivemind, even when your comment is thoughtful and well written. Lemmy is better about that, but I’ve noticed a lot more downvoted comments here in recent weeks where it’s just people disagreeing.

Me too!

• Mullvad
• Addy.io
• Posteo

Lucky you!

There was a family of magpies in my yard at a place where I used to live. They’re so observant that they would look through my windows and watch me while I prepared food or cleaned or whatever in my kitchen. They recognize individual human faces. If you go out of your way to be nice or mean to them then they’ll remember that interaction for a long time and adjust their behavior around you accordingly.

Magpies (the corvids, not the distantly related assholes in Australia) are so fascinating. They’re self-aware (they pass the mirror test) and they’re able to plan for future needs (for example, they’ll cache food and then hide tools nearby to later break into their cache). They have a huge variety of vocalizations that vary by region, sort of like dialects. They also engage in play just for the fun of it, like sliding down snowy hills and tossing and then catching objects. I could go on and on about magpies, such cool birds.

I completely agree. I used to be a huge coffee drinker until I came to the realization that it’s horrible for my sleep and anxiety, so I weaned myself off it for a few months and then stopped.

Two years without caffeine and I’ll never start using it again. It’s so nice not being addicted to coffee (and not spending money on it), not feeling wired/jittery and not getting withdrawal headaches. I just wake up and I’m ready to go every morning.

I chose it because it’s the biggest Swedish instance, even if there are only ~100 active users.

Red '89 Civic hatchback. It lacked power steering so I had to turn the wheel a hundred times to make it turn. It felt ancient to me and it was manual transmission. My dad wanted me to learn manual even though most cars are automatic in the US. No power steering absolutely sucked, but it turns out knowing how to drive manual can be pretty useful.

I bought a new Subaru two years ago and love it. But only days later they started sending me offers to trade in my new car for a brand new Subaru! They email two offers every week and I haven’t unsubscribed because it’s amusing to see the value of my car go down and occasionally up (its value increased in December before dropping again). Right now they’re valuing my car, purchased for $28k, at $17k after 24 months of ownership.

Crazy: Years ago I sent a girl from one of those “meet people here” subreddits like 10 photos of myself because she seemed interesting from her bio and promised me photos in return. In the photos I was doing stuff like hiking and exploring abandoned buildings, and there was a badass one of me posing triumphantly on a massive rock in front of a glacier lake. What did she do? Wrote me back a nasty message accusing me of being hideous or having a horrible disfigurement because none of the photos were close-up clear shots of my face and she couldn’t figure out how to zoom in on my face with her phone. I guess my hobbies and interests weren’t relevant, not to mention my face was totally visible if she’d zoomed in.

I sent those same pics to another girl a few months later and six years later we’re still together.

I didn’t downvote your comment, but I’ll explain why I don’t agree with it.

We should upvote and downvote based on whether a comment contributes or doesn’t contribute to the discussion. If I disagree with a comment but still find it thought provoking or worth reading, then I’ll probably upvote. If I agree with a comment that adds nothing worthwhile to the discussion then I won’t upvote and might even downvote. If a comment adds no value to the discussion then there’s nothing to be gained by replying to it.

There are tons of issues with healthcare in the US, but quality of care isn’t one of them. Go to any major hospital in the US and you’ll receive world-class treatment, you’ll just most likely spend years paying it off.

The amount of AI slop on Reddit these days is insane. A decade ago I could spend hours a day browsing interesting discussions, now I spend 5-10 minutes and I’m done.