Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report” • Hacker News Board

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#221

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 12:41 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #207

mindslight wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If demand was double what the supply was then it should have been possible to give people power for say 2 hours every 4 hours The problem is if that electricity is being used for heat, the draw of the 2 hour on periods will increase to make up for the time off. Perhaps even resulting in more total usage, because when power is on, people will set the thermostat to 80 instead of 65, anticipating the power going off a…

Only so much of the load is heating, and heaters can only draw so much current. Even 1 hour every few would stop food from rotting and let people do important tasks.

[deleted]

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#222

Post by john-shaffer » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 12:42 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #207

mindslight wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If demand was double what the supply was then it should have been possible to give people power for say 2 hours every 4 hours The problem is if that electricity is being used for heat, the draw of the 2 hour on periods will increase to make up for the time off. Perhaps even resulting in more total usage, because when power is on, people will set the thermostat to 80 instead of 65, anticipating the power going off a…

Only so much of the load is heating, and heaters can only draw so much current. Even 1 hour every few would stop food from rotting and let people do important tasks.

> Even 1 hour every few would stop food from rotting

I just put my food outside, in the car. I never lost power, but I didn't want to waste any electricity on cooling food when it was needed so badly.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#223

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:17 AM UTC

mhuffman wrote: post #71

jonathanlydall wrote: post #32

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

This sounds like a nightmare! Eskom seems to have been around for a long time, but this problem seems to have kicked in a little over a decade ago. Did something recently happen to Eskom to make them incompetent?

[deleted]

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#224

Post by alienthrowaway » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:18 AM UTC

mhuffman wrote: post #71

jonathanlydall wrote: post #32

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

This sounds like a nightmare! Eskom seems to have been around for a long time, but this problem seems to have kicked in a little over a decade ago. Did something recently happen to Eskom to make them incompetent?

> Did something recently happen to Eskom to make them incompetent?

Demand for electricity consistently went up over the past 20+ years, with no matching increase in generation capacity.

Maintenance of current power plants hasn't been great either, and the supply/demand situation is precarious such that if any one of the power generation plant is offline for maintenance, there are likely to be compensatory blackouts somewhere.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#225

Post by alienthrowaway » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:20 AM UTC

jimmydorry wrote: post #220

igitur wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's two-sided. Apartheid South Africa's government focused on providing electricity mostly for the white minority, which it did well, but the majority of South African, especially in the rural regions, lived with no or unreliable power supply. Post 1994, with removal of sanctions, the economy opened up. There was a lot of international investment in South Africa. The economy grew strongly and the demand for electric…

I think you are missing the most important part. Even after Apartheid, the existing utilities provided for the entire population. However, there has not been any new generation capacity since 1994. Instead, the maximum generation capacity has shrunk year on year as boilers and other key parts of the power plants fail and aren't replaced.

I'm not OP - that they explicitly mentioned this:

>> The supply side was woefully mismanaged and didn't nearly keep up with the pace of the growth in demand.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#226

Post by myko » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:22 AM UTC

bavell wrote: post #136

myko wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parler's stated goal was to allow that type of speech while Facebook at least put a cursory amount of effort in blocking it.

Hmm, so as long as the firehose of vomit continues to spew from the PR dept, it's all good? All you have to do is make it look like you're doing something? Never used parler and not defending them but idk why facebook gets a free pass from you, they are far more to blame for the events that transpired IMO.

Facebook doesn't get a free pass from me, I'm just pointing out that Facebook made at least an attempt, publicly, to combat insurrectionists / hate speech while Parler advertised as a safe space for the same.

These are just the facts, interpret them as you wish.

IMO:

Facebook (and YouTube, and Twitter) could and should do a lot more. The more they do the more likely it is they will be legislated out of existence and I'm not sure how they strike a good balance there. I also think Facebook in particular could do better but doesn't want to in order to keep engagement up - yet they want the good PR they can get for banning hate speech. They're trying to have it both ways and are awful. That's still different than Parler where the entire reason it exists is to push radical viewpoints without governance.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#227

Post by unityByFreedom » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:53 AM UTC

tsdlts wrote: post #134

unityByFreedom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with banning apps that permit organizing violent insurrection in response to independently certified elections. That isn't the case here however and I expect some resolution will come.

Very good, let's petition to ban signal. In fact, let's ban encryption altogether as such a technology can be used to coordinate terrorist attacks.

No, that's government level. I'm only fine with private entities choosing to do or not do business with whom they please. If google wants to block apps that use encryption then they can do it. Of course that would destroy their business so they won't.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#228

Post by unityByFreedom » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 1:55 AM UTC

simion314 wrote: post #93

unityByFreedom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with banning apps that permit organizing violent insurrection in response to independently certified elections. That isn't the case here however and I expect some resolution will come.

How do you draw the line exactly? What if someone used FB or the official Appole/Google email/chat apps to start a revolution in some country? For illegal stuff you have laws and examples, for this stuff you need to guess what Silicon Valley does not like and censor your content just in case. For the case you mention, do you think it helped? As I said I am not from US so I have no idea if the were any effects.

It's not me who draws the line and that's the point. Government/the public isn't involved. The companies themselves draw the line.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#229

Post by zepto » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 2:51 AM UTC

swiley wrote: post #216

zepto wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web notifications aren’t power efficient the way APNS notifications are. That’s why it’s easy to build support for it on Desktop safari but not iOS. I except they’ll support Web notifications on iOS once the technology is mature enough to meet the power budget.

web notifications work exactly the same way APNS do. If OS vendors are reasonable and expose the APIs needed to use them efficently that is.

This is not correct. Web push notifications rely on running a persistent service worker in a JavaScript runtime, which is not anything at all like how they are received by native iOS Apps.

Additionally with iOS apps, Apple can and does work directly with developers whose apps are overusing the notification system and draining power, which they cannot do with arbitrary web apps.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#230

Post by igitur » Tue, Mar 16, 2021, 5:10 AM UTC

jimmydorry wrote: post #220

igitur wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's two-sided. Apartheid South Africa's government focused on providing electricity mostly for the white minority, which it did well, but the majority of South African, especially in the rural regions, lived with no or unreliable power supply. Post 1994, with removal of sanctions, the economy opened up. There was a lot of international investment in South Africa. The economy grew strongly and the demand for electric…

I think you are missing the most important part. Even after Apartheid, the existing utilities provided for the entire population. However, there has not been any new generation capacity since 1994. Instead, the maximum generation capacity has shrunk year on year as boilers and other key parts of the power plants fail and aren't replaced.

> However, there has not been any new generation capacity since 1994.

That's not true. Majuba Power Station was commissioned between 1006 and 2001, although planning started in the Apartheid era. Gourikwa Power Station and Newcastle Cogeneration Plant were commissioned in 2007.

There are a few wind farms built after 2001: Hopefield, Coega, Darling, Klipheuwel, Dassiesklip Wind Energy Facility and Jeffreys Bay.

And solar: Kalkbult, Mulilo Renewable Energy Solar PV Prieska, De Aar Solar PV, Mulilo Renewable Energy Solar PV De Aar, SA Mainstream Renewable Power Droogfontein, Letsatsi Solar Park, Lesedi PV Project, Kathu Solar Energy Facility 1, Sishen Solar Facility and the Jasper Solar Energy Project.

But these were not enough to keep up with the demand.