Endymion_Mallorn

I’d love to go somewhere genuinely warm right now. Normally it’s okay though.

No such thing as a free beer, no more than there’s a free lunch.

Does the EFF call it Free?

Yes, we know. Goods that are made in America by Americans are expensive. And if they mean that they’re going to be affected by the import tariffs, then I’ll be just as happy not to buy as much from Costco, just the same as I’ll be doing at Wal-Mart, Target, or any other stores that refuse to support quality American businesses in favor of cheap foreign stuff.

Most people would pick the “stay out” option.

Anything you might have spent on anime, manga, or games from the publishers or studios involved with this gang…

So what they’re saying is to stop giving any money to a company that’s part of or reports to CODA. Did I read that right?

I’m not talking about the immigration issue. I’m talking about what this article is addressing, which is a form of offshoring. Yes, they’re talking about it in the entertainment industry, but it’s the same problem across all industries. There’s no difference to me between using an animation studio in Canada or a call center in India. We need to protect our labor - knowing that Americans are some of the most expensive employees in the world.

More proof that we need a labor or service tariff. We shouldn’t allow US companies to employ cheap foreign labor without having to make up the difference in taxes. Every job in America should optimally either be filled by an American citizen, or just as expensive to the employer as hiring an American. In the rare case we don’t have a citizen able to do it, invite the most skilled foreign citizen on a work visa to be treated and paid same as our citizens.

WP Engine has always seemed a very weird business to me. WP is free, and many hosting & domain providers just offer it for free with your hosting. If you don’t want to host yourself, why not just use WP.com and do a redirect? I’ve just never understood the value-add.

Have you ever seen the movie “The Thirteenth Floor”? It’s like that.

Commenting so that I remember to look it up, is reckfull a word? Or maybe reckful, knowing how English is weird about double 'l"s?

Thank goodness for that. Because their next step would be to cozy up to the ex-Kroger jerk who’s now in charge of Costco, I’m sure of it.

I hope so. Maybe make it a class-action with all the independent creators and studios who had damages from this.

Yes, which is why we should make every one of those false positives cost an arm and a leg to the perpetrators.

My worry is that without a lawsuit or other action, we’ll keep seeing LLM slop companies taking down smaller websites for bogus reasons. This needs to be codified somehow that there were damages done to Itch’s earnings (and more importantly the earnings of the independent creators on the platform who should start a class-action suit), and that what Funko’s contracted LLM company did was wrong.

There’s financial damages, loss of profit, emotional distress, reputation loss, and more. We need to take action against these companies for their wrongdoing. So either they need to willingly pay up and have that payment be known and public, or they need to be made to pay by the courts.

So, how much is Funko or their “partner” going to willingly pay Itch for their lost income? Or is there going to have to be a lawsuit?

The ends always justify the means, if the end is to enrich yourself.

Crafters are definitely up there, overall - but I think wargamers might beat them. Hundreds to thousands of models, paints, brushes, terrain, carrying cases, books - it adds up to a hoard of epic proportions. That’s just personal experience though. Lego fans can also get to be out there, and TCG players.

My understanding is that essentially, they see the downballot Republican candidates in these states as part of a uniparty with Democrats, or as RINOs. They’re not going to vote for these ‘establishment’ Republicans, as they feel they’d undermine Trump’s agenda. There are a lot of people who’ve been feeling disenfranchised in this country and want something, anything, to change. They want the people who’ve caused them pain to suffer - and they see the government and those who directly benefit from the government to be the ones who’ve caused them pain.

There’s also the party messaging going on. For decades, Democrats and their fellow-travelers have pushed the doctrine of “think global, act local.” They push community involvement and local direct action. On the other hand, since at least 2015, the Republicans have focused almost exclusively on Trump and the White House. Before that, the Tea Party tried to get Republican local action to happen - and that movement ended up collapsing under its own weight between 2012 and 2016.