Mastodawn

Ted Hoffman's Actuarials Apr 4, 2023

Been a while since I said anything. I might have thoughts stored up, especially since briefly going back to that other place only to watch it let the bird fly away.

Major takeaway from that: no, I'm not missing anything. Not enough to go back with an account and stay. If anything, letting people pay $8 for a blue check underscores what a dumb decision that was because now everyone thinks they're an expert on everything - including stuff they should know better about.

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Ted Hoffman's Actuarials Apr 4, 2023

Things I knew, but they bear repeating:

1. Do not use social media as your source for weather information, especially during impending severe weather. *Way* too many people are "experts" and spout shit they don't understand, but they're looking for clicks and follows - and in the case of YTers, suckers to send them money.

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Ted Hoffman's Actuarials Apr 4, 2023

2. If you *really* feel the need to go search social media for current weather, make liberal use of the mute/block functions. Nothing is more annoying than seeing 43 people screaming "TOWN, THIS IS A MASSIVE TORNADO, GET TO SHELTER NOW!" and it's even more annoying when nearly all of them are parroting the exact same thing. And that's before I circle back to "they're spouting shit they don't understand" which really needs an hour of my time.

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Ted Hoffman's Actuarials Apr 4, 2023

3. For all the complaining someone did about bots being a number of accounts, there are significantly more of them now than ever before. That, or there's a vast number of people - more than even I thought - who are too lazy to think of their own things to say who see what someone else wrote and just copy/paste it. Or, both of those might be true.

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Ted Hoffman's Actuarials Apr 4, 2023

4. There are *way* more "news" and "media" outlets than there need to be. I promise if 95% of them went away, no one would miss them - especially when their "news" is merely copying what other established media outlets have produced. I know you want to find your $15 of fame and milk it for everything you can so you can get rich quick, but JFC try doing something original. Hell, try covering local news - something that would provide incredible value to everyone.

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Ted Hoffman's Actuarials

5. Speaking of people copying news: chances are really high you're not getting paid to be a news aggregator. Quit sharing every news article you see, unless you've got novel thoughts about it. No, you ranting convulsively about everything doesn't constitute novel thoughts.