Now, seeing as I wrote a whole thing here...

https://counter.social/@66ALW99/109841350354804538

...about questioning online accounts making recommendations and stuff on social media, I am fully open to any questions about my experience with them that you might have 🙂

(obvs not including any questions that involve personal info)

Okay, guessing this is going to be a iche post, but what the hey, might help someone..

I'm a #Youth & Community worker in the #UK. Currently looking to change employer.

There's hundreds of #recruitment agencies out there. Some of them are.. a bit sus, let's say.

Personally, I've had good experiences with Smart Teachers and Tradewinds Education. Both took the time to talk in-depth about what I'm after, no unnecessary phone calls.

https://www.smartteachers.co.uk/

https://www.twrecruitment.com/

It's kinda weird seeing people get pissed at Amazon for cancelling Smile. It's like getting mad at Hitler for swearing or something.

Honestly, been a big fan of Mark Knopfler since early Dire Straits, I've known, and bought, his soundtrack work for Cal, Local Hero and The Princess Bride - and this is the first time I've heard of Comfort & Joy

I just stayed watching Comfort & Joy on #BBC #iPlayer.

I'm watching through the intro stuff thinking "looks interesting", particularly how the kids are looking at Christmas displays with scepticism, and then I saw it...

"Original music by Mark Knopfler"

FUCKING SOLD.

My C#/#Unity learning project idea has evolved in my head.

I'm leaning towards it being a #procedural #sandbox #survival #game in a realistically simulated world.

There'd be a lot of lore/story, but told in the form of environmental storytelling. The mechanics would focus on the systems, though - I think that suits a project where I'm learning as I go, as I can add in mechanics as I go (not looking to get into Dwarf Fortress levels of detail!).

Shocking scenes from #Knowsley, where the far right instigated a riot at a hotel housing migrants who's asylum claims are being processed.

#PatrioticAlternative, led by a proper Hitler-loving, ex-BNP, nazi scumbag, Mark Collett, seem to be the main group behind it.

15 arrests so far, so it looks like the police are on it.
#Liverpool #UK #FarRight #fascism

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/fifteen-arrested-lit-fireworks-launched-26215880

Too much thinky stuff, time for some #CoSoMusic!

OG version of Hard to Handle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4mGgDNlk4

Couple of hopefully unneeded points to add:

1) counter.social does, imo, WAY better than any other platform in combatting manipulation of it's users. This isn't a criticism of CS in particular.

2) Big troll farms get attention. Other forms of social media manipulation get less. As the idea of big troll farms get more widely recognised, their influence will dimish as their tactics become more widely recognised.

3) Tactics will change.

4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBCvo-qGnk (no ads, I promise!)

Social media is, by it's very nature open to manipulation.

We're influenced by people - or who we perceive to be people, those we think share our values. This has been the case since long before social media and will likely continue be the case when the next big thing rolls across our horizons.

I don't even have answers to this stuff. The nearest I have is just.. question people you don't really know. Think critically. Constantly.

That youtube video that you've just seen a link to, did it start with ads?

Did the person you follow just link to an art materials store website because they genuinely use it regularly?

How well do you know that person?

And it *could* go further than that - let's assume that the person linking these things have nefarious interests at heart. Who benefits from your watching that youtube video? Or visiting that website?

We know how political trolls generally work - pretending to be regular people, 'just asking questions' about things etc.

We know how 'influencers' work on social media.

We also know that influence tactics that were originally the preserve of multinationals and nation states eventually filter down to the general public (troll farms, for instance).

So...

My 'political awakening' started with a book called No Logo by Naomi Klein (WELL worth a read).

Written in 1999, it's aged pretty well imo - the details may have changed somewhat, particularly with the advent of social media, but there's nothing to suggest the overall picture is inaccurate.

What it does very well is detail how companies manipulate human instincts, behaviours and relationships in order to benefit their brands. And I'm mainly thinking about 'social media influencers' here.

Here's a thing (it'll possibly not be a popular view).

CS is well known, and *deservedly* so, for being virtually troll free.

BUT... this doesn't mean that, as a user, you're immune to manipulation. The measures that CS has in place are, as far as I can see, mainly there as a defence against political manipulation. How about commercial?

A bit of background to what I'm thinking...

Damn, I mangled that. Can't even blame autocorrect, I plain left words out - hope you get the gist of it! 😂

When I was younger, I had heroes - people I looked up to because they seemed to embody thinking that made sense to me.

Over the years, I've found I've drifted away from them as I found aspects of their thinking that I disagree with.

This is fine. No two people are the same. It's perfectly natureal to look up to a person and learn from what they say and then, with the benefit of more experience of the world, that they're actually kind've a dick.

I always felt that the weakest part of Zarch/Virus was what happens when you can't see the ground plane anymore, as the shadows that appeared on it were so important to figuring out the position of enemies in relation to yourself, so a more ground-focused approach makes a lot of sense.

And that crawling bugspider thing is *really* cool. The video doesn't really explain how it works in any great depth, but I've now watched enough videos on inverse kinematics to put it together and have some idea.
#InverseKinematics # animation

I'm actually tempted to abandon the focus of my original project idea (a revamped updateof Zarch/Virus*) to do something new with all the cool stuff I'm finding!

*yes, I'm old :P
#zarch #virus #game #coding

I mentioned that I'm trying to teach myself a bit about c# and #Unity. Right now, that involves a lot of watching videos and here's one I found on #procedural animation (I'm really interested in procedural stuff) which was interesting and also entertaining
#C #ProceduralAnimation #programming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYWNFmP8urQ