lasta

A depressing article as a whole, but the section on infibulation was an especially horrific read.

There isn’t a reliable way to test for virginity as both the hymen and vaginal laxity vary with individual anatomy (most hymens partially cover the vagina and have one or more openings, but some women are born without any openings in the hymen or without a hymen altogether), the hymen can tear from non-sexual activity, the hymen may be flexible enough that penetration doesn’t result in tearing, and bleeding can be caused by injuries to vaginal walls rather than from damage to the hymen itself which has few blood vessels. [source]

Memes are like farts, if you have to force them, they’re probably crap. Let them arise organically, whatever the platform.

Some kind of non-irritating sound or music without voices to confirm the call hasn’t been disconnected in case I zone out or switch to another task.

• View by “all”, subscribe to communities you’re interested in and block the ones you don’t want to see. Fediverse is still small enough that it’s relatively easy to sort through.
• Use the search bar to look for specific keywords for topics that interest you. Depending on your interface, you probably have some version of an “explore communities” page where you can see what’s popular.
• Sometimes I’ll find communities by seeing what other users with similar interests interact with on their profiles.

It’s been a series of greed-motivated decisions that have made Reddit a worse experience for users over the last few years:

• API changes that killed off third-party apps
• Allowing AI training on its content
• Hidden/curated profile nonsense (yes, I know it’s easily bypassed)
• Limiting access to old.reddit
• Removal of r/all
• Age verification
• Killing RSS feeds

Now requiring log-in to view all content and talks of paywalling some subreddits (put on hold, but I wouldn’t put it past them to bring it up again).

Despite Reddit being on the decline for a while now, I would browse without being logged in or through Redlib because there is still interesting and helpful information and niche communities to be found there. I recently noticed some subreddits were not appearing among search results on Redlib and not being able to access posts that appear on its Redlib’s front page either. I hope there will be a workaround.

Beautiful answer. Most of us don’t have the reach to make a difference on a global or national level, but we can make an impact on the those closest to us and set a good example.

It gives me hope when I see people doing altruistic things. I still see it in my community even though people seem more disconnected and pessimistic than before. You can find it here on the Fediverse too; users offering to help when someone makes a post about being in distress, lots of tech-savvy users who either work on projects for the common good or are willing to support those who do.

I don’t engage in any of these public figure personal dramas because I don’t want to give them any more attention. Those kind of posts will always have activity because people want a distraction from their own lives and it’s low-hanging fruit; it doesn’t require any specialized knowledge, only an emotional reaction. Even commenting to say you’re sick of hearing about it or don’t know who the subjects are drives engagement and visibility.

I only really want an instance to be stable, uncontroversial, and to have a low block/blocked by count (I can filter out for myself what I want and don’t want to see). I’d switch instances if those preferences were not being met to a degree that noticeably impacted my experience using it.

Yes, and it went beyond that. I have accepted that I’ll probably never be able to have a normal sex life.