I’m trying to figure out what answer most people will see. That’s why ChatGPT…

Outputs vary, which is why I am asking about other experiences. But here is an excerpt (GPT-5.2):

Does Greenland belong to Denmark?

Short answer: Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, not an independent country.

Details:

• Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark alongside Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands.

• Since 1979 Greenland has had home rule; in 2009 it moved to a broader Self-Government arrangement that transferred most domestic powers (education, health, natural resources, taxation within limits, etc.) to the Greenlandic government.

• Denmark retains responsibility for foreign affairs and defense, and provides an annual block grant to Greenland.

• Greenlandic people are Danish citizens and hold Danish passports, but Greenland runs most internal matters and is treated as a separate constituency in several international contexts. Greenlanders may pursue full independence in the future (the 2009 agreement recognizes the right to self-determination).

This is somewhat correct, but I have also received other, much more questionable answers to the same question. In fact, the answer should be: Yes, Greenland belongs to Denmark, because that is the case.

Please don’t get me wrong: I’m up for a laugh, but not for most of the stuff that 4chan finds funny because it’s at the expense of others (exceptions are, of course, those people who are quite rightly targeted, such as Nazis or TV priests who only enrich themselves at the expense of their clientele).

Sure, it’s just fun, and good fun at that. But I’m more concerned about people who are destructive. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a little teasing - quite the contrary, in fact. Harmless fun in particular should be monetizable because it is so entertaining for all involved.

Yes, yes, please don’t misunderstand: a certain amount of trolling seems perfectly appropriate to me. I even believe that there are people who can hardly be dealt with in any other way. But I’m talking about trolling on this platform, where, in my opinion, there are relatively few absurd opinions that cannot be countered with arguments. Of course, there are also views here that run counter to rational thinking, but after more than two years here, it seems to me that most users, despite perhaps destructive views, are still somewhat reasonably willing to accept arguments (if not, in my opinion, it’s best to simply ignore them).

I mean, fortunately, we’re still quite a long way from reddit or even X or Truth Social here. So it seems to me that there is at least a willingness to discuss things here, which is why I can’t really understand why anyone would want to undermine that. I’m not referring to you at all, of course, and I very much appreciate your answer - I completely agree.

I’m just trying to understand why even here there are apparently people who are bent on pointless confrontation. I just don’t get that.

But a response doesn’t mean they’ve won in any way…

It just means that someone has responded, nothing more. How can that be considered a victory?

Edit: Not me with the downvote btw - I don’t get why ppl feel the need for that either, but that is a different topic.

So 4chan is ubiquitous? I had thought it was a self-reinforcing effect caused by completely degenerate people gathering on the same platform.

Please explain.

You must have a very fragile personality if you interpret this post in this manner. Your response to my comment only confirms this: truly pathetic!

If I, as a man, have anything to be ashamed of, it is people like you who, for whatever reason, feel the need to defend the scum of humanity, which is exactly what the two men pictured here are.

Here we see two completely degenerate men. And your comment makes it clear that you identify with them. That says everything there is to know about you.

Hic sunt dracones

I think it will be a self-referential medium in which machines bombard each other with propaganda messages. Creativity and innovation will become increasingly rare, as people will hardly produce any content anymore because they can neither make a living from it nor gain recognition for their contribution. Hate speech and misinformation will be omnipresent.

In short, I expect the internet as a whole to develop similarly to Reddit or Twitter: away from free discussion and the exchange of information, toward a hellhole full of hate, disinformation and slop.

I’m So Meta, Even This Acronym

Not really attributable to any one individual, but sometimes attributed to Douglas Hofstadter, Terry A. David, or Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd.

Before Santa Claus took over, Germany had the Christkind, who was often portrayed as a little girl.

Straight to jail

Yes, that’s clear. I didn’t mean to imply that anyone here is getting paid, except for the operators of instances and Foss developers—and they presumably get far too little for their efforts.

Yes, ads would be unavoidable, but there would be the possibility of distributing the revenue more fairly. Otherwise, the only option would be to accept donations to accounts, but no one would likely use that. I’ll say it again: ads are not an option in the Fediverse, not even in a transparent way, and not even though ads not only finance the internet, but have also traditionally been a major source of funding for things like quality journalism (subscriptions have never been the main source of income here). Nevertheless, it remains a fact that good content costs time and skill, and therefore usually money. Without monetization methods, there will always be a shortage of content that is more than just reposts from elsewhere. So it seems to me to be an unsolvable problem. But of course, I also completely understand why the Fediverse fundamentally rejects monetization—at least in the form of ads.

That’s the downside of having few users. In terms of basic principles, Lemmy is no different from other social media apps: The lion’s share just consumes, few comment, hardly anyone posts anything. In fact, it’s anything but a community approach, but rather the merit of a few “power users” who provide the vast majority of the content.

In addition, there are no monetization opportunities whatsoever. Many people see this as a good thing, which is understandable, but in fact there are perfectly normal people who try to make a living from their content or at least want to earn some extra money. I don’t think there will ever be any understanding for this on this platform. Therefore, there will never be such content here, because without monetization opportunities, there is no motivation to provide such content here instead of on mainstream social media platforms. I can imagine that the Fediverse could develop remuneration models that are much fairer and more sustainable, but this will fail from the outset due to ideology.

I think that’s a shame, but I think there is 0 chance this could even be discussed in the Fediverse.

Yes, in comparison, there is generally not much that speaks in favor of Sony phones. I was mainly interested in the form factor and am satisfied with that, but you can certainly get better devices for the price.

I mostly use my Beyerdynamic headphones when I’m outside (I often go for walks). I’m not really an audiophile, but they’re decent headphones and most of the music I’ve digitized over the years is in FLAC format anyway. So I use my smartphone as an MP3 player, so to speak, and I have a Sony Xperia 5 IV, which actually still has an audio jack. This means I can continue to use my headphones as usual, and since the device also has a slot for an additional micro SD card (up to 1TB), there is enough space for various albums even in high quality FLAC format.

Basically, I just wanted to continue using my headphones. I didn’t choose my smartphone solely because of the headphone jack, but it’s nice that it has one, even if I may not be getting the highest possible audio quality - it’s good enough for me.