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Find a pub that needs you

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Re: Find a pub that needs you

#351

Post by crazygringo »

wat10000 wrote: post #344
crazygringo wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just about elementary communication skills. You're arguing that obfuscation is somehow a good thing. How does that make any sense? When people communicate clearly, it makes the world a better place. People understand each other more easily. They don't have to waste as much time figuring things out. It's the golden rule, treating others the way you'd like to be treated. If you don't understand that, I genuinel…

All communication requires some context. You're on a web site with a vague title and a bunch of random links, and zero explanation on the front page for what it's all about. Do you also complain about that? This is not obfuscation, this is aiming at a particular audience that you aren't a part of. This web site doesn't need an introduction so that people browsing from Kazakhstan can understand what it's about, any mo…

> All communication requires some context.

Right! Which is why you should give that context when you create something for public consumption. Get it now?

> You're on a web site with a vague title and a bunch of random links, and zero explanation on the front page for what it's all about. Do you also complain about that?

Yes actually. HN has a terrible design for new visitors. Why would I defend that? HN is known for a lot of things, but its design is not one of them.

> You're doing the internet equivalent of yelling at people to speak English when they're having a conversation in another language. It's as uncouth here as it is there.

No, I'm doing the internet equivalent of criticizing where someone is giving a public lecture but refuses to give it a sufficiently meaningful title so people know whether or not they want to attend it.

This is a public website meant for public consumption. Not some private communication I'm trying to butt into.

You seem to be trying to defend some kind of gatekeeping-through-obscurity, where new potentially interested visitors ought to be made confused and have to "work" to figure things out. Why would anyone do that intentionally, or defend that? It's just rude and thoughtless.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#352

Post by alexfoo »

firefax wrote: post #349
piltdownman wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the VA for survivors of the 1980s as it doesn't allow music or TV inside, so tends to get ignored by the soccer followers of a weekend and the younger generation entirely. TBF their curry club and other food specials are basically subsidising old bachelors to the point of being an ersatz social service @ £8.45 to £11.45, including a drink, for 12 hours of service every Thursday. https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/we…

no music or tv? that sounds fucked... why don't ppl just drink in a park? iirc public drinking is actually legal in the uk? (I know in some countries it's actually not -- Bratislava being one surprising example, though some cops were really chill when I was like hey sorry, I thought this was allowed, it's cold out so I bought a pounder and I wanted to warm up on the way to my hostel I'm not trying to bother anyone...…

Isn’t it a pounder because it’s 16oz (US fluid ounces) which is a (US) pound?

(Note a US pint is about 474ml compared to the UK pint which is 568ml).

Of course US fluid ounces are a different size to UK (Imperial) fluid ounces. Plus the UK has 20 (Imperial) fluid ounces in a UK pint whilst the US has 16 (US) fluid ounces in a US pint.

How does it go? “A pint’s a pound the whole world around, except the UK where a pint of water is a pound and a quarter.”

As for drinking in a park, it is either something you do in the height of summer, or something you do if you are a tramp. There’s not much middle ground.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#353

Post by LAC-Tech »

roryirvine wrote: post #328
LAC-Tech wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- A strong leader and a weak bureaucracy, so that your vote means something. - A good constitution that puts hard limits on what they can do, no boiling the frog with freedom of speech restrictions like Canada, Australia, and The UK So basically an elected dictator with a functioning kill switch. Not a parade of faceless, temporary, unimportant prime ministers and elections which don't matter.

So essentially Soviet democracy (at least as it was supposed to have worked in theory)? How would you ensure that the strong leader wouldn't just bring in the Cheka as quickly as Lenin did?

We both have very different ideas of what "Soviet democracy" is :)

Theirs was a party democracy. Or are you referring to the actual soviets (workers councils) pre Bolshevik coup?

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#354

Post by ehnto »

ipsento606 wrote: post #291
ehnto wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does anyone gain from it really, except money in the bank for a handful of individuals, outsized property prices seem to be a hurdle for functional societies in basically every way. It doesn't benefit a town if rent is so expensive that their businesses shut down.

As property prices increase, developers are more incentivized to build new properties and increase density. The increase in supply then lowers prices. The problem comes when local laws and the planning permission system make it hard or impossible to increase the supply of homes. Then there's no balancing force to bring prices down when they go up.

I certainly agree with your last paragraph, however whilst I believe you're not wrong about the first I don't believe that is the only option for increasing supply.

For example, if you look at some of the densest cities in the world they are still predominantly single standing homes, just much more tightly packed, and in homes we can't huild. So I believe zoning and planning are the key issues, and I think property developers would actually play a smaller role in solving the supply problem if you allowed individuals to solve this problem themselves with less strict zoning and planning.

Obviously big developments still play a role, but at the stage American cities are often at, NYC excluded, I think zoning being more favourable to medium density would go a long way.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#355

Post by wat10000 »

crazygringo wrote: post #351
wat10000 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All communication requires some context. You're on a web site with a vague title and a bunch of random links, and zero explanation on the front page for what it's all about. Do you also complain about that? This is not obfuscation, this is aiming at a particular audience that you aren't a part of. This web site doesn't need an introduction so that people browsing from Kazakhstan can understand what it's about, any mo…

> All communication requires some context. Right! Which is why you should give that context when you create something for public consumption. Get it now? > You're on a web site with a vague title and a bunch of random links, and zero explanation on the front page for what it's all about. Do you also complain about that? Yes actually. HN has a terrible design for new visitors. Why would I defend that? HN is known for…

You're acting as though you're being kept out, because you expect everything you see to cater to you. You're not being kept out, you're just not being explicitly invited in.

"...meant for public consumption." Which public? Not one which includes you! But you insist that you must be part of the group it's meant for.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#356

Post by JBlue42 »

9JollyOtter wrote: post #325
marcus_holmes wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine who lived in a tent in a park got his own postcode. True story. Details: election time. He went to the election folks and asked for his election papers. They said "sure, where do you live?" he said "the Bender, Eastville Park, Bristol", they said "that's not a valid address", he said "that's where I live, so that's where I'd like my registration to be, please". There was some back and forth. They cav…

The post office will attempt to deliver if you put an address on it. There is guy living off grid in I believe Dorset on YouTube called "Maximus Ironthumper". The post office told him to try sending himself letters, eventually they started turning up. Then that became the address. He has a whole series of videos about how he kinda managed to setup his off grid living situation, there is everything from how to avoid p…

>The post office will attempt to deliver if you put an address on it.

I still find it fascinating that we developed this human system, with expectations that are still in play, even if some aspects become less and less relevant, it's still an important tool beyond being dependent on technology. Same with lending libraries. A few things we should cherish that have real ethics in this lets-monetize-everything world.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#357

Post by cbeach »

fakedang wrote: post #350
cbeach wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree on being subsumed into the stagnating EU (far better to align with dynamic English-speaking economies with strong growth, like the US). The EU customs union prevented the UK striking bilateral global free trade deals, and the legacy of EU over-regulation continues to curtail our innovation. The UK has a solid history of global trade and innovation, and it can acheive more if unshackled from the EU. Austerity…

Y'all got any of those bilateral trade deals yet? Brexit was done and dusted by 2019, it's been 7 years now. Where are those deals you're talking about? Where's your trade deal with English-speaking economies like the US? Heck, not even CANZ want to deal with you guys now. On the NHS, of course, gut the only thing that's keeping the country sane. I can literally not keep count anymore of the number of skilled doctors…

We’ve struck an incredible 71 trade deals since Brexit. And there are more in the pipeline. We genuinely have a better global position now than we did in the customs union.

You think the NHS is “keeping us sane”. Two of my family members have been close to death waiting for an ambulance that never arrived / waiting in a crowded emergency waiting room with internal bleeding for hours. I pay about £10K per year in tax to the NHS for a service that is inferior to the private care I receive for approx £1K a year. The whole system is a shambles and gets worse every year. It underpays and mistreats its staff. It is inefficient.

On your point about renewables, I never claimed we needed more reliance on fossil fuels. I think we should be building more nuclear plants. France is a shining example of how to generate electricity. And then, once we have affordable battery storage (in a few years) we will be able to expand wind/solar in a sensible fashion without our stupid politicians making our energy bills the highest in the developed world.

> Renewables haven't been reducing your energy bills because you guys haven't been putting up anything of note.

The UK is #1 in Europe for wind capacity and #2 globally for offshore wind (behind China). And we have the highest energy bills in the developed world

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#358

Post by account42 »

JBlue42 wrote: post #356
9JollyOtter wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post office will attempt to deliver if you put an address on it. There is guy living off grid in I believe Dorset on YouTube called "Maximus Ironthumper". The post office told him to try sending himself letters, eventually they started turning up. Then that became the address. He has a whole series of videos about how he kinda managed to setup his off grid living situation, there is everything from how to avoid p…

>The post office will attempt to deliver if you put an address on it. I still find it fascinating that we developed this human system, with expectations that are still in play, even if some aspects become less and less relevant, it's still an important tool beyond being dependent on technology. Same with lending libraries. A few things we should cherish that have real ethics in this lets-monetize-everything world.

Yeah it's hard to see either being created today if they didn't exist already. A good thing to remember when something gets called impossible.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#359

Post by roryirvine »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #353
roryirvine wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So essentially Soviet democracy (at least as it was supposed to have worked in theory)? How would you ensure that the strong leader wouldn't just bring in the Cheka as quickly as Lenin did?

We both have very different ideas of what "Soviet democracy" is :) Theirs was a party democracy. Or are you referring to the actual soviets (workers councils) pre Bolshevik coup?

The actual soviets - they remained in operation for the first few years after the Bolshevik coup, and the revolutionary slogan "All power to the soviets!" gave Lenin a convenient figleaf for sidelining the elected Duma.

Of course, the soviets also proved unwilling to entirely subjugate themselves to Lenin's whims, and made a habit of choosing non-Bolshevik delegates. This culminated in the failed Kronstadt rebellion of 1921, after which any pretense at democracy was finally ended.

But - in theory - the soviet model sounds akin to what you're looking for. Being made up of delegates rather than representatives meant that the power of recall on demand was baked-in at every level, and power flowed upwards to a strong executive leadership.

In reality, it's hard to see how any sufficiently strong leader wouldn't be able to override or simply ignore any sort of kill switch or other constitutional arrangements that might happen to stand in their way - as has happened every time it's been tried in the past.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#360

Post by prmoustache »

crazygringo wrote: post #336
keybored wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because the internet was invented in America so it's the only country where a country suffix was never used from the start of its popularity. I expect some countries like the UK and Australia to use something like `co.uk`. I expect many countries to use their own top-level domain. I do not assume that some `.com` website is American. Is “the only” based on experience? How many websites from how many countries have…

> I do not assume that some `.com` website is American. If it's clearly local to somewhere (news, shopping, etc.) as opposed to global or a webapp or something, and doesn't say it's specific to any other country, then yes people generally assume it's American. Because when sites are intended for audiences in other countries, they usually use a country-specific TLD. Which, for historical reasons, never became a conven…

If it is a business, people expect the .com is the global/international/headquarters address, not an us specific one per se. Some will have other country codes mostly to avoid phishing but some only redirect it to a subpath on the com website to handle regionalities/languages.

Random examples of foreign brands/companys in completely different industries: https://www.nestle.com is the "global" address of Nestle, a Swiss company. Mitsubushi, a japanes company uses https://www.mitsubishi.com with a /ja subpath to handle japanese language. The FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association which was founded in Paris, France and is know headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, uses fifa.com as its main domain despite having several regional office accross the globe but none in the US.

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