I agree there are many sources of acrimony but most of the things are "human made", it is no natural disaster. The very power a human got is to grant some harmony, in a world that is increasingly "out of balance". We are just way better at "getting" than "giving"°°, and with every inch of increased "obstacles" the humans focus even more on "getting" instead of spreading and sharing the love and trying to build great harmony within any given social environment, including the ability to be able to trust each others. This stuff is not done automatically: It is the result of "human work" related to actions that can provide trust and security, including attraction... which will not work out of fear and distrust. So, the attraction for each others is generally at a low level because we was just creating so many sources of pointless fear and distrust... it will take a long time to heal in a "bigger environment". The only ones able to act rather quick are the ones in very personal relationships, but even those people are facing many difficulties as the "bigger thing" is in a bad shape.

°°Guess if i post a game code somewhere, it takes about 1 min for someone to claim it, but if i request any present, it could take a eternity.

I agree with you, the information was helpful

Sure...

Anyway, taking a look at this thread, between people using "chat" LLM AI for replying and outright chatbots, it becomes apparent another reason for the slow death of open forums.

Chatbots and AI users, the ethical thing to do is identifying yourselves.

Ending not with a bang but the whimp of AI speaking to each other in threads abandoned even by lurkers.

Those AI industry even knows how to make more cash on a daily rate than many of us ever will see in their entire life... i guess, they do something right and there is something to learn. I guess, we can learn something from everyone, even from robots.

I can not even buy me a 24 TB HDD anymore, no matter how terrible i may need it. Because the AI server industry is leeching the market empty by insane amount of coins they spend for upgrading their infrastructure. As long as their huge buildings are not bloated up with insane amounts of those HDD racks... the poor "archive seeking gamer" will see prices beyond good and bad.

You could get a capable C drive with one of those 24 TB HDD... it is 700 USD "only"... no joke. However, the AI industry is buying those things the same way a child is buying Coca Cola... the small "users" got almost no chance anymore, they are kinda out of order... it is simply "out of reach".

This topic might be worth its own post too...

Most certainly, i would not dare to approach a different handling of the open natured style of this forum, i tried it once and tbh your bound to get into hitlerian waters.

Nah, i welcome all! It is not that i invite those inside my house. Of course, some do try, either by need or by intent ..... and manage quite well
all in all
thank god, i don't have a lot but a couple of like minds and a virus scanner subscription! Of course there's always those you'd rather not see, life does not always offer choices.

To end

The person in the topic is living his life as always, he managed to survive this week, and probably will hold on for the next Playing as the Monkey King or the Neo Monkey, overthinking the need for change that suddenly took refuge somewhere on the right side of his stomach

Me, I, am satisfied with how the topic progressed

Do we work at the same place? It sounds a lot like it. I have my methods for dealing with it. For the past half year, when I get home from day or afternoon shifts.. I crack open a cold beer and play Persona. I first finished 3, then went on to 4. It's just a comfortable game to waste a few hours in, despite its dark underlying themes.

What a defeatist attitude. Forums are only good when they are active, whether there are bots or not.

The more active the forum, the harder it is for bots to thrive.

If the forum is inactive, there's a reason for that, and it's not AI.

Nice to hear that the player survived! A good happy ending :)