Could you please create a middle ground between the nuclear option (banning sites) and the whack a mole option of banning users. It would be effective to be able to ban communities (at least temporarily) during bot spam attacks while you wait for admins to police up their site. Could there also be a way for admins to notify other admins that their site is spamming garbage so that admins know that their board is the cause of a problem and what that problem is?

“I think you’re just playing bad games…”

Like Baldur’s Gate 3?

“Where it’s predatory it sucks” - The literal definition of microtransactions.

I think we’re done here. You think video gaming is what’s happened in the past ten years. I played my first video game in 1979 on an Atari 2600. I remember Pacman fever, I lived in California during it. I remember when Space Ace and Dragoons Lair came out in the arcades and cost .50 instead of a quarter…

Tell me again how I’m “just playing bad games…” You just can’t see the forest for the trees…

And I’ll add the most important thing you forgot…

You have around 50 years of game data to sift through… Not just what a limited set from Steam gives you.

I’ll wait.

There’s a problem with your starting point.

We were talking about microtransactions. You jumped to free to play.

Not all games that have microtransactions are fre to play.

So you’ve lied again. Not as easy you thought.

What you need to do is grab ALL games with microtransactions. You need to grab stats on ALL free games. You need to grab stats on hidden cost games (also called free to play).

Try again junior.

And try thinking this time.

Okay, let’s think critically.

“I’ve been able to play games for free because of microtransactions”

Microtransactions cost money, that’s not free. What you are saying here is you got to play a game without supporting the devs while OTHER people paid for microtransactions.

You assume incorrectly, I support devs by buying games, not supporting microtransactions.

“Most of the most popular games in the world are free…” First, like hell. Show me stats that support a claim that MOST popular games are free. Second, if a game is supported by microtransactions, you’re lying if you say it’s free. MICROTRANSACTIONS ARE NOT FREE.

Next “I have purposely bought microtransactions to support the developer…” I support the dev by buying the game.

Microtransactions make a good game bad, and bad games worse. None of what you said made an argument for microtransactions. Microtransactions encourage devs to hide fixes behind pay walls, even small ones.

My statements weren’t kneejerk. Your nonsense obviously wasn’t even thought through as it’s internally inconsistent.

I look forward to you trying again.

How did it happen before microtransactions?

I’m thinking of all the times I’ve said, “You know what makes this game great? The microtransactions.” All ZERO times.

There are bad games and good games. Microtransactions make bad games worse AND good games worse. I intentionally only pay for games without microtransactions. THEY move the game from “I’m interested” (like with the rerelease of dungeon keeper) to “Well, I can play the OG version on GOG. Without microtransactions, I’ll do that.”

That business model ONLY works out for the business. It is NOT for the best interest of the customer.

So while what you said is right, you are incorrect.

Makes complete sense. Thank for clarifying.

Agreed. But I wouldn’t say you get nothing out of being a member on Patreon. I run lemmy.ninja. If I had a paying customer (Patreon) ask for something, and I had a non paying user ask for something…

Who do you suppose gets my time first? Now, it may be that I have to tell the paying customer that what they are asking for is only possible if code is changed. In that case I can put a request in on their behalf. However if it is a thing I CAN do, then my time goes to them first, right?

First, stop talking to me like I don’t know this already. Second, these facts don’t make me wrong or you right. The implication of what was said is that you run VM’s on docker. The fact is, you don’t. Stop arguing.

Yeah, that’s not how the math works. Cost of server + cost of maintaining = X. Divide X by the number of users. Example, my time is worth $60 an hour. I spend two hours a week working on the server ($120). I spend $30 a month on the server rental. $150. I have 20 users. $150/20 is $7.50…

The way, what was stated, was stated, indicated that docker runs virtual machines. It doesn’t. It runs containers, right?

If you’re running it using Docker, that’s a container not a VM. And that IS the way you would want to run it, in a container. They’re easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to maintain.

I’m going to tell you a secret…. Yes.

All those things could happen. Some people could run a site that has ads. Some people could run a site that charges a membership. Some sites could have a Patreon membership. Some sites could do subscriptions….

And some sites could be completely free.

The funny thing is, because of the federation, no one will be harmed. Let’s say I startup a site and all I do is pass through the cost of the site to each user. No profit, just what it costs to maintain the server is shared among the members.

Is that unreasonable?

I’m not positive what combination prevents bots from being dumped in to databases. There may even be an exploit that makes using everything irrelevant. I don’t know. For right now, I am vigilant about checking our database looking for sudden large changes.

Glad to be of service.

Glad to be of service.

Glad to be of service.

Thanks for the good news. I’ll let rotarykeyboard know. He’ll be ecstatic.

Boomer Shooter is my community, you have made my night!