small thoughts V: the darkweb, FOSS drama, introverts and extroverts
In âsmall thoughtsâ posts, Iâm posting a collection of short thoughts and opinions that donât warrant their own post.
A while ago, I wondered if retreating to the âdark webâ (internet accessible via the TOR browser and .onion urls) would be a good response to evade GenAI training and interacting with bots posing as real users. I didnât think they would be crawling that, at least not yet, and that it could be at least a slight technological challenge to make it work. I also thought that maybe the fear of training on illegal or questionable material would limit the efforts, even though that type of content has been dying out and harder to find over there.
So I researched, and unfortunately, they already began crawling and scraping the dark web in mid 2023. Several companies have developed specific crawlers; one example is the ACHE crawler, but there is also DarkBERT made by South Korean researchers.
Iâm disappointed, but also not surprised. The idea to retreat there would have been a bandaid solution anyway I guess, since it is not impossible to crawl. Just harder, or a matter of time of finding you, and itâs easy to employ bots there too. But it would have been nice, as an idea. Somewhere so isolated, uninteresting, hard to access and not monetizable that companies and bots donât want to follow. Maybe one day?
Iâve recently looked into modding another device. Thereâs a project that I heard of over a year ago or so on GitHub, and I kept an eye on it because I thought it was right up my alley. Iâm vague here on purpose for reasons youâll see soon. Anyway, I couldnât just yet commit to buying the device and modding it because of some constraints on my end when I initially saw it.
Now those have lifted and I was looking into finally getting that started. So I went through the entire docs to be prepared and make the final choice, andâŚ. Ugh.
I really get that offering open source projects is tough. People act entitled, are rude, start arguments and take the patience and effort of developers for granted. I get being mad, burnt out, and needing an outlet for frustration about people. But the docs were littered with some small, some big rants that were clearly sparked by specific users or events. It was exhausting to read through. Every page, every topic and every other subtopic had a section dedicated to angry venting about assholes. Iâm not joking. Itâs like after every drama they just went and updated the docs; every other sentence was about how they regret it all and donât want the userbase to grow, and how theyâre a developer so they donât wanna do âpeople thingsâ.
Listen, I am all for opinionated software and people putting up boundaries, but that was over the top. I think some quick disclaimers, or one page dedicated to what behavior is not tolerated is perfectly fine, but there is a limit for me. When I read the docs, I want to know important info and any restrictions and restraints, not weird rants and assumptions about who I am as a user or whining about what happened to you. I just tried to imagine any other smaller product Iâm using having such docs and I couldnât. They no doubt face the same issues, and are also rather focused on code than managing people, but they deal with it much better.
I get itâs on purpose to alienate people further, and mission accomplished, but still. I sat there thinking: Then stop? Private it? Give it to someone else? Shut down the support group? Why are you telling me all this if youâre not ready to do what needs to be done? Youâre unnecessarily hostile to people who wouldnât even make a fuss. Even if I do the mod now, I donât even feel like sharing that info with friends or mentioning it on here as a simple fact because it has crossed from simply âannoying/awkward but whateverâ to downright weird to be associated with or pointing people to who are truly interested. I want to point people to products only if I think they are great, and these docs suck.
Iâm not trying to tone police or tell someone what to do - which is why obviously, the project name is unmentioned and the dev will hopefully never know - but I felt like saying it. Please, if you host FOSS, make good decisions for you and donât let feelings take over.
Iâm at a point where the terms introvert, extrovert or even ambivert are so devoid of meaning to me that they are virtually useless. If someone tells me theyâre one of those, I donât know anything more about them than I did before.
Is the concept of recharging with others vs. recharging during alone time true? I think so. But either we need new terms or we need to stop putting so much importance on it altogether, ceasing to make it some sort of identifier we carry around, wielding it like a shield or treating it as a shortcut to convey who we are.
Frequently, people use âintrovertâ to mean someone who is shy or has social anxiety, when thatâs not correct - itâs a separate thing. Likewise, people often use âextrovertâ to mean someone with endless energy thatâs constantly talking and hyperactive, even though thatâs not it either. Plenty of introverts arenât shy or socially inept, plenty of extroverts are calm and donât talk your ear off - because itâs literally just about your social battery, not your people skills or mental illness. What adds to the confusion is that itâs not a binary thing, it can be a spectrum, and even situational, especially if you take the colloquial use into account.
Maybe stress at home or the job makes you need more alone time. Maybe recent interactions made you more withdrawn or anxious. Maybe after a longer bout of illness, your social battery is smaller. In the same way, praise at work, fun times with good friends and amazing weather can make you more outgoing. Many introverts have that one person that doesnât drain them, meanwhile extroverts can also have people overload. People have reported becoming extroverted or introverted suddenly after life events, changing environment or with age.
If the spectrum is so intense and variable and something that can change more or less on lifeâs whim, per person, and isnât inherent to you, is it helpful to slap this static label on? When you tell others you are this or that, will they even know what your behaviors and needs are when it is so broad?
When you tell me youâre an introvert, I donât know if you simply need more alone time or if youâre a wreck in crowds. If you tell me youâre extroverted, I donât know if youâre a party girl or could simply hang out all the time. I guess ambiverts are the ones who get it right, acknowledging it can change based on environmental factors a lot, but it has an air of pretense, if Iâm being honest.
I personally donât really feel drawn to label me as anything in that regard, and I cannot empathize with wanting to do so; someone putting it in their bios, introducing themselves with that or offering it up as a reason for this or that (especially extremely bad social anxiety that should be treated) kind of makes me cringe, even. The deed, not the person.
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Published 12 Jan, 2025