site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1709 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

It's time to switch to Linux. There were some good threads on here recently.

I use Linux and fucking hate it. There's no clear instructions on how to do anything. I have hardware encoding and decoding working perfectly... Except in any chromium-based browser, and no amount of troubleshooting has gotten me any closer to figuring it out.

It's not even clear to me how to go about finding out how to find things out with Linux. Shit ends up in random folders that can only be accessed through the terminal, unless it manages to make it into the macOS ripoff start menu

Yeah, it's still not perfect unfortunately. One upside of the impending paperclippening is that the chatbots have ingested everything ever written about how to solve Linux problems. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd recommend prompting an LLM to act like a condescending neckbeard expert Linux user and friendly troubleshooter, with permission to ask you for further info or to ask you to run commands, and see if you can get it to narrow down your problem.

I actually tried that with chatgpt last night, and it did a decent job of working me through all the stuff I'd already wasted hours figuring out. Didn't solve the chromium issue, but at least went faster than using Google.

I might try Linux on my backup PC but I can't see myself maining it. I paid a lot of money for a gaming rig and I intend to use it.

Proton has become astonishingly good. The main problems I think are around invasive anti-cheat systems.

https://x.com/zack_overflow/status/1894821367331332153#m

Hmm. Cool.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats