I browsed a thread some time ago, and the site owner of Userbenchmarks apparently has notoriety for being biased towards GPS, and lets his bias influence his site.

Now this is something i personally never knew or knew about any drama revolving around the. I would use https://www.userbenchmark.com for quickly checking rough comparisons between laptops, to Graphics cards, or way back in 2019 when i built my beastly budget beast gaymer desktop. But i never ever exclusively relied upon one site or source for determining a component's actual strength - the only real way to determine actual real world performance that wasn't advertiser bullshit, was to check out Youtube gaymer turbo autists which demonstrated the performance of the laptop or component at various benchmarks or current released high level intense games to see actual real world comparisons.

But holy smokes, it seems /r/PCMasterRace realllly hates the site. But even as i was reading through the thread I couldn't determine why, in what aspect was this site biased?

---

Finally a day later, as the top comments surfaced, I realized the site https://www.userbenchmark.com, apparently had a thing against AMD (one of the two most prominent Graphics Cards manufacturers in the global industry).

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/185folc/4070_ti_vs_rx_7900_xtx/kb1qqu7?context=8&sort=controversial

"According to the guy that runs that site, an i5 from two generations ago is better than the the latest consumer ones from AMD." Summed up in this comment - so apparently the site owner is amanufacturer fanboi, no not a fricking ConsoleWar fanboi, but a fricking manufacturer fanboi lmoa

Like holy smokes, imagine /r/hailcorporate nonsense, where fat nerds fight like they did during the 2010-2011 era about whether their Gaystation or Xbone console was better and had better games, but instead now it's for fricking what Graphics card you have in your desktop

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/185folc/4070_ti_vs_rx_7900_xtx/kb39y0y?context=8&sort=controversial

Some further tech jardon i dont completely understand, but apparantly Userbenchmarks.com is sucking Intel and Nviea off

---

One user then goes on to link a classical comparison between AMD and Intel Processors

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-13600K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-7950X/4134vs4133

and even an illiterate tech-illiterate moron like me can spy something very wrong from an instant glance. The Ryzen processors were AMD's answer to the much more worldly famous intel dominated market, and in 2019 era, they were shockingly good, especially for their prices. I know this, because i had researched flagship and entry processors from both companies. The comparisons were very basic. A ryzen 3 was roughly the equivalent of an intel3, a Ryzen 5 to intel 5, ryzen 7 to intel 7, ect ect

often the Ryzen equivalents was 20% slower than their intel peers, but could be as much as 40-50% cheaper, least in RSA in that time. An as far as I know this trend has not altered that mich in past 2 years.

So when an i5 workhorse Intel CPU is apparently the equal of a Ryzen 9 flagship turbo chip, then you know someone, somewhere is taking the piss.

For anyone currently looking to compare components, the only definitive answer is to go to Youtube and search comparisons between two desired chips/processors/GPUs ect, and see the real world performance rather than some r-slurs say so. There's enough benchmark turbo autists who will cover the product u want.

---

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/185folc/4070_ti_vs_rx_7900_xtx/kb1brck?context=8&sort=controversial

---

Another example of the long and short summarized:

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/185folc/4070_ti_vs_rx_7900_xtx/kb2caes?context=8&sort=controversial

Basically the site algorithm appears to heavily weight down the performance comparisons of AMD products.

---

ALSO. apparently the Userbenchmarks fights are so common that an automated message is replied to any comment linking to Userbenchmarks.com

---

Good morning, rdrama!

I'm told @MarKong has a fun writeup of drama in the works, and I'm as eager as anyone here to see what he has to say. It does end up connected to me, though, so I figure I should lay the important details out in case he forgets any of them. This is all going to be tedious metadrama, I'm afraid; I'm sorry, but it was going to come out one way or another.

The tl;dr if you find this sort of thing dull: I ran a blatant furry alt here for the past 6 months, started the furry megathreads, and helped launch a Groomercord server to hang out with the local furries; Marco declined an invitation so he could infiltrate instead; now he has a fun spy story to tell everyone

tl;dr of tl;dr: neurodivergence

---

August 2021: I come to rdrama as @Jackal because the point of this space is drama and leaning into furry nonsense while sharing horrifying furry drama on a site that hates furries seems like a fun bit.

September 2021: I write my first article about you guys; you're all kind enough about it that I feel I ought to create a proper account here and say hi

October 2021-January 2022: @Jackal goes mostly dormant; I notice a few furries popping up around rdrama; I keep poking around here mostly on main.

December 2021: I publicly out myself as a disgusting furtwink for professional reasons, news to those who chose not to hang onto every word of my self-indulgent 30-minute self-introduction essay elsewhere.

~January 2022: After weighing my options, I elect to increase my participation here on @Jackal so that I can keep @TracingWoodgrains around for substantive articles or other meaningful commentary and participate in a less obtrusive way overall.

29 January 2022: I decide it would be fun to formalize the furry infestation of rdrama and start a megathread. It's a roaring success in terms of both effort-to-drama ratio and chatting with random furries on rdrama.

SHOW MORE

11 February 2022: @AltAccountOkapi creates s/furry so we can properly dance on the corpse of Ruqqus; I join in the dancing. We quickly become the most-successful and most-blocked hole on newruqqus. Good work, lads!

21 February 2022: I misinterpret ambiguous messages from @geese_suck and @MarKong to @Jackal as indications that they know it's an alt of mine, so I confirm that the two accounts are connected. I don't care much for secrecy and anyone who expects alts to stay unknown on a site with Alt-Seeing Eye as an explicit feature is a fool, so I expected this to happen at some point. Once I increased activity on @Jackal, I figured "local fake journo has furry rubbishposting alt" would be a fun easter egg for regulars to discover; I didn't mind telling them and am grateful they didn't make a big deal of it.

28 February 2022: I work with a couple of friends here to set up an experimental Groomercord server for some of the rdrama furries, starting with personal friends and expanding slowly to encompass a wider group. On my part, this was for purely self-interested reasons: I've never liked the furry fandom writ large but I like a lot of the local furries and wanted to assemble a solid circle of friends based on the peculiar intersection between furries and rdrama (more on that below).

3 March 2022: Since he is, after all, one of rdrama's most prominent furries, we elect to send Marco an invitation to join our Groomercord. He rudely declines

4 March 2022: I accidentally furpost from main; because of the way rdrama deletion works my followers can still see it. Sorry about that

7 March 2022: Marco positively ruins our weekly thread by ghost-awarding it and announces plans to keep doing so; I whinge to the chadmins as @Jackal and Carp takes vengeance for House Furry by ghosting the whole front page.

Also 7 March 2022: Marco reveals that he's been secretly infiltrating the server from an unknown alt after declining our invitation to join; shell account @SneedCityUSA starts spamming "concerned user" messages and grass awards while quoting lines from server chat; drama ensues. It's all very exciting and I'm sure you'll hear all about it in Marco's roundup, so I'll just provide the lovely gift messages @SneedCityUSA wrote up for our shiny new grass badges:

![](https://cdn.groomercordapp.com/attachments/937934775786831976/950575475258953778/unknown.png

)

![](https://i.rdrama.net/images/1684135968037595.webp

)

![](https://i.rdrama.net/images/1684135968392195.webp

)

![](https://cdn.groomercordapp.com/attachments/937934775786831976/950580932996386866/unknown.png

)

![](https://cdn.groomercordapp.com/attachments/937934775786831976/950583053187678218/4905870F-54C2-4441-BCF9-F422D4BEF396.jpg

)

(Presumably) 8 March 2022: Marco writes an epic about his infiltration.

---

A few thoughts on the matter:

I like hanging out with the local furries b/c a lot of the things I dislike about the furry fandom are mostly cancelled out by rdrama's effect. In particular, the site neatly avoids overly woke, tiptoeing-around-landmines environments while not leaning all the way into .win-style rightoid silliness and has a strict no-tolerance policy for libertarian or zoo rubbish, all of which combine to chase off most of the worst furries. More broadly, it's important, when you have an absurd hobby, to be able to make fun of yourself and not take things too seriously, so the relentless mockery of furries on rdrama is a public service that makes those who stick around here a pretty fun lot. I've been spending more time posting on @Jackal because I've been having a better time than I anticipated with it all.

I also hold that a furry infestation is healthy for rdrama as part of the initiative to blow everything out of proportion and make things as dramatic as possible, and to help spook .win-tier rightoids who freak out about funny stuff, but to be honest that's mostly just an excuse b/c infesting rdrama is fun.

I have no intention of shutting down either @Jackal or the Dramafur groomercord, or of furposting further on @TracingWoodgrains. I joke about it, but I do get that most of you guys are (understandably) weirded out by furry rubbish at best and I don't want it to distract too much from my writing or other projects here for those of you who are uneasy about furries but enjoy what I have to say on other topics. Sorry to those (particularly @Yall) who follow me in spite of furry rubbish and now get a whole bloviating metapost on it because of all this; all I can say is that I'd rather tell my own story than have others tell it. I'm a bit disappointed to be so visibly connecting the two accounts because I really do think it's more fun as an easter egg where most don't recognize me as me, but I stand by my words and actions on both and intend to carry on in much the same vein until I get bored.

Marco's good at what he does and he did indeed manage to cause havoc and panic some of our members early on in the life of our server. It's a clever work of drama and about what I expected from this space, successfully turning a comfortable conversation into a game of Among Us. Ah, well, that's what we get for setting up shop next to rdrama. Sorry to those of you who shared semi-personal info and are/were stressed about leaks; that's on me. I knew drama was a predictable risk, but I wanted at least a bit longer of comfortable, open conversation before something like this let all of rdrama find out about the space.

It's a good server tho

If you feel like you ought to have gotten an invitation to the Groomercord but didn't—you're probably right and I'm sorry to have missed you I tried to limit things at first to mostly the people I've had substantive conversations with, but feel free to shoot me a message either here or on @Jackal if you're interested in the server. No promises on timing or definite entrance—we're, uh, trying to tighten security up a bit, for some reason—but I'm always happy to chat. As a general reminder, keep in mind both that Groomercord servers are inherently public spaces and that we have no interest in allowing anything close to any ethical gray areas in the server. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Anyway, nice work, Marco. You win this round, even if you're still a furtwink just like the rest of us in the eyes of most people here Next round's on me.

p.s. you should be sure to share the MTG cards story if you noticed it in the server. it's a fun one

TL;DR A lot of people got mad at me for posting wholesome Bible verses on /r/Christianity

Prolouge

This story begins with /r/RoeVWadeCelebration. Now, I have a general rule when trolling to never argue for things I actually agree with, and I lean slightly pro-life on the issue of abortion (I'm more of a centrist, but I think pro-choice people have terrible arguments. Like I get it you are losing "freedom", but that is entirely tangential to the problem at hand ). However, I couldn't resist a good opportunity to troll redditors, so I decided to try Christmaxxing (more on that on my other post). I had been meaning to try it, but had never gotten around to it. (trolling rightoids is too much fun)

I had some good fun trolling /r/RoeVWadeCelebration's resident lolcows, but I wanted to bring more actual Christposters into the fold (dramamaxxing), so I went to the most logical place to find Pro-Life Christposters - /r/Christianity. Boy was I wrong.

The Absurd Nature of /r/Christianity

the front page of /r/Christianity, on 5/15

Even a cursory glance at /r/Christianity will reveal that there is something very bizarre going on. Firstly, pretty much everything posted there has a rather liberal bias (compared to "normal" conservative Christianity). In fact, it seems almost apologetic for being Christian. And, more importantly, a decent chunk of posters aren't even Christians!

im beginning to notice something

So, what's going on? Well, based on my observations, /r/Christianity has three distinct groups of people that browse it.

1. The Atheist Agitators : These people browse /r/Christianity in an attempt to debunk the lies of religion. Obviously, the vast, vast majority of redditors are atheists, so it makes sense that we would have a decent-sized population of them. They also get a lot of upvotes for the same reason.

2. The Malleable (((Methodists))) : These are liberal Christians. They aren't very numerous in the real world, but on a site that is as predominantly liberal as reddit, they are the largest group, by far. (Technically, they aren't all methodists, there are other denominations that are fairly liberal, like the Universalists, and people that don't go to church). These guys make a big show about being better than your average Christians because they have New Good Opinions™ rather than Old Bad Opinions™. Since the itself Bible is fairly problematic, a lot of them don't believe the Bible is accurate.

3. The Conservative Christians : These are the sorts of people that you'd meet if you went into most churches in America. However, reddit isn't kind to these people, being both "conservative" and "christian". Therefore, they don't generally use reddit, so they have a small population on /r/Christianity.

Because reddit is democratic, the "normal" Conservatives are pushed into a corner, while the rest circlejerk about how bad they are.

There's also something to be said about the mod team. /r/Christianity has a mod bio for their jannies, and my "biased" count shows there being 4 atheists, 7 methodist/liberal, and 9 "normal" jannies. So, the libs outnumber the cons by 2. As you would expect, the liberal Christians do be liberal:

I was raised Southern Baptist. In college, I went through a major deconstruction of my faith. The Episcopal Church is now where I call home! In the past, I’ve held Evangelical, Calvinist, and charismatic theological views. During that deconstruction, I was curious in Death of God theologies, Christian atheism, and other radical theologies. Now, my theology is again creedally orthodox, and highly influenced by liberation theology and contextual theologies, such as Black, disability, and queer theologies.

I live in Washington, D.C. with my wonderful husband of two years, and work in affordable housing. In my free time, I’m usually reading, running, or watching Netflix. Star Trek TNG was the most formative show of my childhood, but nowadays you can catch me on my fifth watch-through of The Office.

Even the "cons" aren't nessisarily even that conservative (I lumped my denominations that I consider to be more biblically focused together as "conservatives")

He plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and synthesizers in church. He is also pursuing, part time, an MA degree for Worship Arts + Pastoral Counseling. He is a Libertarian NeverTrumper. MBTI: ENTJ. DiSC: C/D.

oh yeah, a lot of them list their Myers-Briggs lol

The Plan

Given the fact that they were so liberal, but it was still technically a Christian subreddit, I saw the opportunity to begin causing a little bit of mischief. Now, obviously the Bible is problematic in and of itself, with verses that condemn homosexuality and sexual immorality but that is so passé. That's ragebait and rightoid. Instead, I would post wholesome bible verses that have a somewhat prolife bent, and wait for people to get mad at the literal bible on /r/Christianity. I did this for six days.

Day 1: The Crusade Begins

My first post was 🤗"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:13-14 👶. This one got 37 comments, and a respectable 69% upvote ratio. Despite the fact that this was posted to rile up leftoids, a decent chunk of the commenters were actually positive. Of the four top level comments, only one was challenging me. (Don't worry, things will heat up soon)

I did get a couple of bites, however. My first customer was a "gay christian"

our debate didn't last, however, it did spawn a WORDSWORDSWORDS debate between a conservative and him, so I count that as a win. My next customer was cumberlandbanjo, saying this "isn't the debate of the day"

wtf dude, you can't just post bible verses on /r/Christianity

Day 2: Nothing happens

This was a boring day. I only got three comments and they were all positive. 🤗 "You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love." Job 10:11-12 👶🧵

Day 3: Enter McClanky

Day three was my first big hit. The vast majority of comments were seething. More importantly, our two biggest lolcows make their first appearances - McClanky and TeHeBasil.

TeHeBasil

First, TeHeBasil. TeHeBasil is an atheist, but more importantly he can never leave a conversation without getting the last word, which I stan hardcore. Our first conversation just kept going...

notice that he calls me rude. this is what you call foreshadowing.

...and going...

...and going...

...and going.

The funny thing about tehebasil is that he is super entitled, and gets very easily "annoyed". "ITS PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO DROVE ME AWAY FROM THE CHURCH" ok so? you're already out of the church, why would I care? lol

McClanky

TeHeBasil isn't my favorite lolcow, however. My favorite lolcow is McClanky. McClanky is a moderator, and a bit of an butt. Our first confrontation began with him posting a verse I had seen multiple times (lmk if any of you christcels know a good comeback for this, this is like the third time I've seen it)

Ahh yes, God finds everything so precious that He helped create a potion that, at the least made a women incapable of having another child, or, at the most, made her miscarry. Very precious indeed.

“‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curs—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

🤰🧴💀🧟‍♂️👼👿

clearly mcclanky had been aware of my emoji-posting, and had probably been stalking me lol. So I asked him.

mcclanky why do you dislike bible verses so much? 🤔 you keep coming into these threads to troll me 😭 i don't understand why 😭😭😭alright have a blessed day, peace

I dislike your annoying use of emojis 🤢. You also seem to not understand that this is a subreddit for discussion🙈. Your posting things related to hot-button issues😱. Don't expect people to kiss your feet🤮 and praise your intelligence🤓 for posting a verse with emojis💤.

ok. 🤷‍♂️ well i will keep doing what i am doing, bc jesus said that i would face persecution

if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they keep my word, they will also keep yours

i hope you find peace, mclanky. ✌ have a blessed day

This isn't persecution. That is a pretty egotistical thing to say in relation to people who are actually being persecuted. You just don't have people agreeing with you.

"i hope you find peace, mclanky."

I appreciate it, but I found it a long time ago.

neighbor, you're questioning, how tf you gonna say you have peace?

Naturally TeHeBasil pops into the thread and begins doing what he does.

"ok. 🤷‍♂️ well i will keep doing what i am doing, bc jesus said that i would face persecution"

That's such a sad state of mind. Where you think you're doing a good or right thing because someone else said others wouldn't like it.

I mean, come on.

id rather trust jesus 👆 than mcclanky 🤷‍♂️ alright have a blessed day

Another funny comment comes from a self-described atheist

Also the way this person says have a blessed day peace, like normally I have no problem but the way this person is using it sounds like they are trying to end the conversation, like why bother posting on a social site if you are basically ignoring everyone?

One more thing. You'll never guess what religious group McClanky has ties to

oh jesus im really starting to notice things

Day 4: My Big Break

On day four, for whatever reason, my post exploded, and I got a TON of seethe, at a whopping 269 comments. It was also one of the weakest verses, because it was taken mostly out of context, lol. that probably boosted it.

The trouble with emojis

My favorite part of day four was the fact that so many people began seething about my usage of emojis. The top comment, gilded and sitting at 170 updoots, claims it is a red flag. So, naturally, I asked why

These emojis are a 🚩

Yeah, excessive use of emojis always causes alarms for me

what alarms does it cause? genuinely curious alright have a blessed day, peace

here's reddit explaining the emoji question

Reminds me of MLM girl bosses

say you hate women without saying you hate women

It reads like a facebook post made by a karen / "girlboss" kind of person lol.

why is it always karen? 🤔 really makes you think.

Why do you think emojis would be a good thing? Would you ever put that in anything important that you were writing? A resume? An obituary? A legal document?

the internet is serious business.

Emojis generally aren’t welcome on Reddit

That sentence is two words too long.

somebody call /r/emojipolice 🚨

For me its indicative of lazy writing. The person often can't be bothered with capitalization, punctuation, they often don't know subtle differences of words, they don't know how to write for brevity or emotional impact. Just “word bites”. But the most important one is that lazy writing often comes with lazy thinking. Use of emojis isn't a guarantee of any of these issues, I’ve just noticed a correlation.

ah so you think that a person who uses emojis is "dumb" for lack of a better word? 🧠well ill be the first to admit im not an einstien lol. ⚛ im just a normal guy that wants to praise jesus... 👆 anyways i think ill keep using emojis for now 😁 alright have a blessed day, peace

Not at all. Said nothing about intelligence or lack of it, but rather laziness when it comes to writing. You aren't bothering to capitalize or use punctuation correctly, but because you're too lazy to put in the effort. I don't blame you though, I think it's a problem created by social media where capturing a simple essence of an idea and the poster's emotional response in a visual way is far more “rewarded” in these social apps, than actually deeply thinking about a topic and putting in the effort to clearly communicate your ideas.

It has nothing to do with intelligence, but effort and expectation. You claim you're “just a normal guy” so are you claiming normal people can't learn to write, punctuate and use grammar correctly? I disagree. It's not that hard to do. We teach it in elementary school. If you never learned it, that's a failing of the school system. Again, not a measure of intelligence.

Lastly, you jumping to the conclusion I’m claiming you're “dumb” is a good example of a similar problem, not taking the time to fully read and comprehend. It seems like something which comes from having a ton of social interactions on sites like twitter where short emotive comments are of more value than in-depth analysis.

im just a normal guy who wants to praise jesus 🤷‍♂️ i really dont see what the big deal is😕anyways, have a blessed day, peace

this guy is super smart

Day of the Mop

McClanky appeared once again, and acted like an absolute butt. So, I had to ask the obvious question

God knew us before our birth 👆 he had plans before us before we even came out of the womb 👶 he knew us even before there was time ⌚which means that all babies are precious💎and so are you😀alright have a blessed day, peace

That ☠ was a bunch of word salad 🥗 that did not answer 😐 anything that I said 🥸. This verse 🙄 does nothing but say God 🤲🏿 is omnipresent.

so? 🤔 it proves that God has a plan for all people 🤼 check this out

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

alright have a blessed day, peace

God 🤲🏿 has 👉 a 🧞‍♂️ plan 🛩 for 4️⃣ people 👾 who 🦉were 👈 going 🏃‍♀️💨 to 2️⃣ be 🐝 born👶not ⛔ those 👪 who 🦉 were 👈 going 🏃‍♀️💨 to 2️⃣ be 🐝 aborted 👼 or 🚣‍♂️ miscarried 😇.

you sound kind of angry mcclanky 😭idk why you are so mean 😭 it doesn't matter, ill just keep praising jesus 👆 alright, have ablessed day, peace

Your inability to actually try to have a discussion on a subreddit dedicated to having discussions is weird.

i only posted a bible verse 😭😭😭i thought this was the /r/Christianity subreddit🤔im not on /r/atheism , go there lol 🤣 anyways have a blessed day, peace

Please do not tell me or other users to go somewhere else. That is a discourse violation. You are welcome to post on this forum, but we expect users to have good-faith conversations.

😂😂😂 this is a discourse violation 😂😂😂

I did a poll a while back asking what I should write about. Surprisingly "my old boomer times" won by a large margin. So I present you with a history of MUDs, the thinking man's multiplayer game.

Telnet

Back in the 1800s (yes, that's how far back I'm going) Americans invented all kinds of awesome things: telephones, machine guns, movie cameras, record players. Two of these devices, the typewriter and the telegraph, were combined into something even more powerful. The keyboard of one typewriter sent electrical signals to control a typewriter at a distant location. This was known as teletype. It's how big organizations like militaries and multinational corporations sent data for about a century.

Teletype Model 33.

Eventually Americans invented even more cool stuff like mainframe computers capable of doing time sharing. This meant they could respond almost instantly. You could connect a teletype to the computer but that was suboptimal as the teletype couldn't print as fast as the computer could think. So the printer was replaced with a video screen, and now you had a dumb terminal. It could show text on a screen and accept text input but that was about it. These came into use in the 1970s among big organizations that could afford to pay for the luxury.

A DEC VT100 terminal. This is the standard terminal that's emulated in software.

Another revolution quickly followed in the 1980s with microcomputers, little computers so cheap that an individual person could own one. These were not very powerful at first but they were smart enough to pretend they were a dumb terminal and connect to mainframe. It's a computer emulating a terminal emulating a teletype.

Telnet being used for something more serious.

Why waste your time with this history lesson? It's important to understand the environment we're dealing with here. The Telnet protocol that you use to connect to a MUD is all about text. The technical details of how it gets from one place to another are more advanced, but in the end it's just alphanumeric characters going in and out like a machine from the 1800s.

Gaymers Rise Up

As universities got mainframes capable of time sharing, computer games soon followed. Among the most revolutionary was 1976's Colossal Cave Adventure. The player explores a cave system made up of a network of rooms. Each room has a text description and it can have items in it for the player to pick up. The player gives commands by simply typing in what they want to do. Many more games following this formula followed and the text adventure genre was born.

Don't get eaten by a grue.

Zork was among the most popular of these new games. Some nerd at the University of Essex loved to play a version of it called Dungeon. In 1978 he decided to make a multiplayer game based on it, which he naturally called Multi User Dungeon, and the MUD was born. In 1980 the university was connected to the internet, exposing MUD to the whole world.

UNIX Nerds Emerge

The roots of the MUD genre were now firmly planted but it would be many years before it bloomed. There were a number of technical obstacles which made it prohibitively expensive for all but a lucky few to play MUDs. The internet was only available at a few dozen universities and major computer companies, most of which frowned on using it for monkey business like playing games. By the late 1980s there were several MUDs running on commercial networks like CompuServe and AOL but these charged obscene amounts for connection time. Microcomputers like the PC became available but were still far too expensive for an ordinary family to get just to play games. A modem had to be purchased separately and these were incredibly slow and expensive as well.

Remember how to calculate your THAC0.

Despite these challenges, the 1980s saw great progress. A new nerd monoculture was sprouting in America and Europe, one that would prove to be fertile ground for the emergence of MUDs. The UNIX operating system and C language were taking over university computer science programs replacing a hodgepodge of weird proprietary systems. This made it much easier to share code, which would be crucial in the golden age of MUDs. There was compatibility in culture as well. Every nerd liked The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons.

Explosion

Ultimately MUDs would explode in popularity not because of some revolutionary idea from a creative genius but simply because computers got better and cheaper over the years. By 1995 you could get a Windows PC with a modem for a reasonable price. The fiber optic backbone of the internet was laid and in the early 1990s the government allowed it to be used for commercial purposes. University computers became powerful enough that running a MUD wasn't too big a drain on resources.

Around 1990 a few free (as in Richard Stallman eating something off his foot and calling it "GNU") MUDs appear. Most MUDs in the future are descendants of these, especially the enormously influential DikuMUD. However there are also all kinds of MUDs with their own unique codebase, some of them quite bizarre like one based on LISP. The most enduring are true labors of love, often based in a university computer science department and passed down from one class of students to the next.

A map of the city of Midgaard. DikuMUDs generally kept the same layout.

Some MUDs were for roleplaying. You were expected to stay in character pretending you were an elf or a Romulan or something. As shameful and embarrassing as it was to engage in this type of behavior, it had a charm. You were essentially cooperating with the other players to write a story in real time. If nothing else, you could learn how to write quickly under time pressure. Some of these artsy-fartsy type MUDs let you create your own areas and even program them. It was kind of like Second Life except without graphics or Bardfinn. With no graphics and such a simple user interface it was easy to add whatever gameplay mechanics you could think of.

But most were simple hack and slash affairs. You go out to an area appropriate for your level, preferably in a group, and hunt for mobs. When you find one you type something like "kill orc" and enter combat, taking turns attacking each other. Occasionally you "kick" or "cast magic missile" or whatever your class' special power is. When you kill it you get xp, gold, and maybe equipment. This should sound very familiar to you. MUDs were inspired by D&D and in turn became the basis of MMOs. EverQuest, the first MMO to achieve mainstream success, ripped off DikuMUD to a large extent.

Legacy

The golden age of MUDs lasted until around 2000. During this period they were really the only game in town. There were multiplayer FPSs and RTSs but nothing that gave you a similar experience. On a 56k modem it took a few seconds just to download a jpeg. Internet connections were much less stable, frequently cutting out for a second or two. So text still made sense as the medium for a multiplayer game.

Then MMOs arrived like Spanish conquistadors, bringing ruin for our civilization. Better PCs and better communications technology like DSL finally allowed the dream of a "graphical MUD" to come true. These were the shiny new thing. Why read walls of text written by some random 20 Finnish nerd boy when you could be looking at 3D graphics instead? If you had any normie friends they would be playing WoW, not words words words. Of course some MUDs have survived and are still thriving today, but the age when there were a thousand running at a time with all kinds of creative new ideas is over.

You can't compete with graphics like this.

So why do I lament the passing of this era? Is it just nostalgia for a time when ska ruled and action movies had real stunts? No. It's more. That was a time when we were free. Free to express yourself. Free to make your own world. Free to implement any crazy gameplay system you wanted. Free to be a Romulan. Jolan 'tru, dramanauts.

It's good. It's actually really good. Let's discuss some of the themes the movie brings up. I'm quite surprised to see so many online calling it feminist garbage. It was actually a refreshing take on modern gender relations.

1. Men and shame

Although the movie is about Barbie, it pays plenty of attention to Ken as well. He is Barbie's sidekick, and he is constantly trying to get her attention. He goes to the real world and he discovers patriarchy, and he is immediately in love with it. After a lifetime spent in Barbie World, for the first time, he is introduced to the idea of male supremacy. In many ways the Barbie/Ken relationship is somewhat abusive, with Barbie not making the nature of the relationship clear to Ken ever. It is clear Ken is enamoured of Barbie, and Barbie allows this to continue despite the feelings not being reciprocal.

Situations like this happen constantly in real life. Unfortunately, we seldom hear about it because men are shamed when they are abused by women. In Abused Men by Phillip Cook, this is discussed.

How many of these red flags are in your life? How many make an appearance in Barbie (2023)?

---

2. Machoism

Ken wants to win Barbie's heart, and he does so by trying to appear macho and catch her attention. Machoism is a common burden placed on men. It is considered to be an essential component of heterosexual attraction. However, as the movie illustrates, there are harmful aspects to machoism and they affect both men and women. Let's turn back to Cook.

---

3. Idealized Womanhood

The central issue in Barbie is that too much is expected of women. Oftentimes, the demands are completely contradictory. Nietzche is often portrayed as being anti-feminist and misogynistic. However, many scholars have instead argued that Nietzche is tearing down this idealized image of womanhood, which is what Barbie (2023) aims to achieve as well.

---

4. Shunning of victimhood

Despite discussing women's issues in depth, the movie never portrays women as victims. In this way, it stays true to the history of Barbie as a representation of the potential and capabilities within each girl. As Kajsa Ekis Ekman explains in Being and Being Bought:

I would like to criticize this for a moment. Sometimes, it is necessary to accept your victimhood. Only then can you begin the healing process. Relieve yourself of the burden! Admit that you've been hurt and made to feel weak! stop holding the secret in.

---

5. Vagina and womanhood

The movie ends with Barbie visiting a gynecologist. This is noteworthy because she chose to become a real woman, which would mean she would gain genitalia, which she explicitly stated she did not have prior. Why is the vagina so intrinsically tied to womanhood? Why does Barbie only become a real woman once she has a vagina? Is a woman reducible to her s*x organs?

I don't have answers, but it is worth thinking about. Also consider how, as Ekman argues, modern women in s*x work view the Self as separate from the vagina.

---

6. Buying women

The movie jokes about the fact that Ken lives in Barbie's shadow. There is something quite interesting about this, however. It is normal and common for Barbie to be bought. Yet the idea of buying Ken never catches on in the movie or in real life. I believe this ties into how we view men and women. Women are commodities that are bought and sold. This occurs in s*x work, in the pornification of media, and in the unpaid labour of the domestic domain.

Though Barbie has no doubt inspired many women, it is worthwhile to remember that there are real women who are bought and sold every day. Their reality is far from glamorous.

It is also worth noting that Barbie LIKES being bought and sold. This is perhaps the biggest gripe I have with the movie. Though Barbie (Margot Robbie) chooses to be a real woman, the rest of the Barbies remain as dolls despite knowing of the existence of the real world. They're explicitly choosing to remain commodities to be played with, and they love it! Every day of being an object is paradise for them. In many ways, this parallels the myth of the "happy hooker" who loves being bought and sold for s*x.

Sorry for the sloppy piece, I'm writing this before bed after watching the movie. In closing, I really enjoyed Barbie (2023). Although there are some criticisms to be waged against its handling of feminist issues, it was surprisingly more competent than I was expecting. If you're looking for a laugh and some light-hearted adventure go for it. If you're looking for a perfect feminist piece, look elsewhere. My biggest compliment is that it manages to handle gender relations in a way that adequately explains some of the issues that modern men face beyond simply "man scared to cry" e.g. how to relate to women, how to deal with a society where gender power dynamics are shifting. I think men will find it surprisingly meaningful.

BONUS: Google the word "Barbie" for some fabulous!

Background

With the start of the upcoming thirteenth season of Riot's classic MOBA game League of Legends tomorrow the community is split upon the argument if Riot is even actively developing new content for the game or rather dragging the game over the line relying on the success of their other popular games namely Valorant and Wild Rift or on the fantastic animated series Arcane. As recent developments in League's history featured a trite pre-season, a new provider for the very important SEA region and the departure of a beloved host (not sjokz so doesn't matter) of the LCS coupled with switching the schedule of the aforementioned professional league to a completely inaccessible time slot in the afternoon, people are concerned about the future of the game in the west. It's hard to gauge actual facts as Riot doesn't release their numbers but from the eye test alone you'd immediately come to the conclusion that League of Legends is heading south. While many people (casual and professional g*mers) have said this for a long time now, the recent developments have made things much worse and I'll tell you why:

---

Not officially announcing the start of the season until a couple days prior

While this tweet offers a timetable of the season start for each major and minor region you'd think it's kinda weird for a game of this size to not have a concise and clear answer until 2 days before the season start. Players had to figure out the exact date for the start of the season for weeks prior relying on vague he-said-she-said information on twitter or other inherently unreliable sources.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107m6ej/official_ranked_start_times_all_regions_by/j3nqayd/?sort=controversial

The fact that we have to find out like this after deducing the fricking SEASON START like Hercule fricking Poirot is utterly ridiculous

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107m6ej/official_ranked_start_times_all_regions_by/j3n51w2/?sort=controversial

again we have to look for it on twitter, nothing in the client etc. its so fking disgusting

Is the new events tab we got for no reason (that is entirely more clunky than the event rewards page being in your rewards tab) not enough for you? You think they could somehow manage fixing the client and adding useless shit no one asked for at the same time lol? Nah, they only had the manpower to shift the events page to its own clunky tab that you can barely see more than 2 rows worth of cosmetics in.

Just be thankful that useless new events page didn’t end up breaking the client further, we could have lost the entire runes page as a result of adding that new tab.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107m6ej/official_ranked_start_times_all_regions_by/j3n64id/?sort=controversial

And the official insta has a countdown with 12h in their story, some say the new ranked season already started in Korea. I just don't know anymore...

For some reason Riot already started the season and Korea and had to reset all already played games (see here for example).

---

Not following up on their promises

This headline is intentionally chosen to be opaque mainly due to the fact that I am incapable of finding all broken promises but here are some prime examples of Riot failing to deliver:

• Removing Smurf Queue: SmurfQ was a method Riot used in the previous season to combat the menace of smurfs (stronger players playing on new/stolen/friends' accounts against weaker players) in ranked games although they failed to figure out how to remove previously inactive account from this queue meaning if you were a returning player (or any other player with a high discrepancy between your MMR and your rank) you'd end up in full smurf lobbies which was an absolutely miserable experience over and over again. Some people claim it took them tens if not hundreds of games to finally be out of smurf queue and play against people on their skill level. As this was obviously not fun for either the returning players or the plethora of next Fakers in smurf queue Riot decided to just remove the system making smurfs appear in regular ranked matches again. See here or here for further discussion.

• Failing to release the new VGU: As League of Legends is quite old now a lot of the older heroes are not capable of keeping up with the power creep of the latest releases making them obsolete and quite frankly incredibly unfun. Riot combats this by updating older heroes to new standards either via a visual or a gameplay update; sometimes even combining both of them for a visual and gameplay update. As a token of goodwill Riot offered players the choice of which hero gets this desired upgrade and the community voted for Skarner who is as one-dimensional as Salvador sperging out about the Ukranian-Russia war. I think he won the poll about a year ago but nothing has been done and the community is quite sceptical about Riot failing to deliver yet again here

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107jo6b/so_has_any_work_for_the_skarner_vgu_been_done/j3mpw1t/?sort=controversial

From the sound of it they still haven't decided what visual design road to take him in, which sounds really odd at this point.

But we don't know when this was recorded so maybe something changed since then?

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107jo6b/so_has_any_work_for_the_skarner_vgu_been_done/j3n02wb/?sort=controversial

I legit think they didn't expect him to win so they didn't even have any plans made.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/107jo6b/so_has_any_work_for_the_skarner_vgu_been_done/j3mtj6d/?sort=controversial

Honestly I feel like they have no idea how to tackle him which iirc that’s why they didn’t rework him before either

This article talks about an update for this long-awaited VGU that's planned for Skarner but it's still mind-boggling how Riot is simply incapable of doing this in an acceptable time frame.

• Other hero updates: Some announcements of older heroes receiving 'ASU', 'midscope' or other minor updates to make them more accessible received mixed reactions and I'm frankly too lackadaisical to write about that here but if you're interested Jax, Rell and Ahri are some of these.

• Balance issues: Insert some g*mer seethe abour role/champion/item/team/region being too strong/too weak/too unfun/too fun/too hard/too easy see here: Recently people have come to the adc subreddit and demanded evidence and facts, and with Phreaks tweet., here: Riot Phroxzon follow up comments from the videos (includes ADC satisfaction, healing outliers and more) or here: Isn't the amount of damage riot lets tanks do a bit excessive?

• ARAM changes; All Random All Mid is a fun mode in all MOBAs in which players are assigned random heroes to battle it out in a straightforward lane without any depth or strategy. Basically the mode for casuals or people who just want to relax. However Riot updated the mode to make it incredibly unfun and players are NOT happy at all:

The update didn’t ruin ARAMS, you just forgot what the gamemode is all about. [600 comments]

The current state of ARAM balance is an absolute mess. [680 comments]

ARAM Champion specific buffs are borderline insane [600 comments]

ARAM is dead to me [1500 comments]

The game most just feels so awful now. The aram balance adjustments feel awful and the new tower falling/death times feel terrible as well. One of my favorite champions, ashe, is forced to not go adc, while Leblanc gets broken modifiers because iron players suck at her. No aram adjustment should go past 5% in my opinion. Yes some champs will be better than others but at least I don't have to scroll down a list every pre game to see what champs are currently neutered. I can't believe we didn't get nexus blitz so they could further ruin this abomination of a game mode. Goodbye aram I'd rather play weakside top lane then waste another minute wallowing in the filth that is ARAM.

ARAM seems less "for fun" with the recent changes [800 comments]

---

The failure of the 2023 cinematic

The absolute bomb Riot dropped was the travesty of the newly released cinematic. Despite releasing a couple of hours prior to this post it has already gathered more dislikes and negative comments than all other cinematics combined:

On Youtube:

• Alexcx: the cinematic perfectly depicts the state of game: uneventful and below expectations [+15100]

• Maple: I can't help but to feel sad about this, honestly. Cinematics were the only thing that NEVER disappointed from riot, yet here we are... [+2000]

• Tren Status: After the 2022 cinematic, I can't even begin to explain how DISAPPOINTING this year's is [+6500]

On Twitter: (a lot of people working in the league bubble are disappointed)

https://twitter.com/LeagueOfLegends/status/1612736707220369408

• https://twitter.com/viennavtuber/status/1612738189206376448: Darn :/ after last years "The Call" which was the certified banger of all bangers I really feel like yall gave up on League 😞

• https://twitter.com/Nanal0l/status/1612769755429015553: I thought this was the riot mmo trailer 😞 dont feel the league hype energy from this

• https://twitter.com/YamatoMebdi/status/1612786317003493377: Nah this better not be it

On Reddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/10857ge/the_brink_of_infinity_season_2023_cinematic/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/10857ge/the_brink_of_infinity_season_2023_cinematic/j3q8kmp/?sort=controversial

Is that it?

1 year for the intern to drop their realistic render of the rift and voice a few lines

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086230/brink_of_infinity_has_52k_dislikes_at_52_mins/?sort=controversial

Fantasticaly underwhelming. I hope this is the biggest dissapointment I'm gona suffer this year.

I admit, after last year "The Call" my expectations were high as heck but witnessing this shit that was goo in 2012 at best probably summs up the issues the game faces and probably make community realises why the voices calling the game "maintenance mode" are louder than ever.

Pre season was already dissapointing enough with core gameplay issues around itemisation is still unfixed ever since new system from S11.

Feels like everything I/WE loved about this game slowly getting tossed aside by every year. :(

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086230/brink_of_infinity_has_52k_dislikes_at_52_mins/j3qctb7/?sort=controversial

It has 8.1k dislikes and 2022 cinematic with 143 million views has 8.3k lmao. Took 1 hour to get the same amount of dislikes.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086230/brink_of_infinity_has_52k_dislikes_at_52_mins/j3qexi1/?sort=controversial

If this is the future of cinematics for league, I just hope they stop doing them at all. This was so cheap and disappointing wtf. Dislikes are deserved imo.

It's so bad I'm confused - it quite literally looks like a Riot cinematic from 10 years ago, complete with the odd plasticky graphics, and focus on the Summoners/Summoner's Rift instead of the actual world of Runeterra

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/10866a8/lets_discuss_the_cinematic/?sort=controversial

My personal opinion? Worst cinematic ever. 0 Lore progression, 0 Hype. I don’t know what they thought creating this. After the call, this is probably the painful awakening. It feels like Platin Peter‘s motivational speech to his duo mate, that they will win dia promos this time.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/10866a8/lets_discuss_the_cinematic/j3qh2g1/?sort=controversial

Dash got sacked to make more budget for THIS???

Lil Nas X catching some strays:

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/10866a8/lets_discuss_the_cinematic/j3qfwxd/?sort=controversial

The shit that happens when you blow your entire budget on lil nas x

Except the 2023 budget is supposedly the biggest yet so there’s no excuse

his music isn't even mid

why did they even pick him?

the worlds song sucked so fking hard and now this?

Why did they pick a gay black singer to design a skin for a gay black character in a season in which they're trying to promote inclusion?

---

Summary and further discussion

Go to the League subreddit and I bet you that at least 75% of all posts are complaining about something. It's also honestly fascinating how some posts on this subreddit with millions of subscribers are on the frontpage with less than 100 upmarseys. Some further threads that complain about the state of the game:

Where has Riot's passion for League gone?

'Events' nowadays are just an excuse to get players to buy an event pass. We're lucky if we get a visual novel with it.

Riot's skin philosophy seems to have shifted to "quantity over quality". This is apparent when looking at the Zenith Games skins, Battle Boss Bel'Veth, and skin lines that champions have been forced into like SG and SB.

Champion teasers are something we have to ask for nowadays. I guess Riot doesn't really care about hyping up players for champion releases anymore. But why would they if everything gets leaked anyway nowadays, right?

This year's season start cinematic was terrible. No champions, no nothing, just a render of Summoner's Rift.

Is this the same company that released K/DA, the Annie: Origins cinematic and TFT as passion projects? The same company that made event gamemodes like Odyssey: Extraction and PROJECT: Hunters?

The same company that decided to focus on champion reworks for like a year because they realized that a lot of champions are outdated? Now 'midscope updates' are the new hot thing.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086hu0/where_has_riots_passion_for_league_gone/j3qewrl/?sort=controversial

Valo, MMO , project L.. Riot has new favourite child/children.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086hu0/where_has_riots_passion_for_league_gone/j3qfdme/?sort=controversial

This is called corporate complacency and is a well known cycle in every industry. It's an issue fundamentally of profit-focused business management culture prioritizing revenue milking over the fundamentals of their original success and consumer unwillingness to punish this behavior.

I nominate the Pokemon company and game freak if you want to see the worst example. 100 man team for game dev reusing assets and can't make a triple a game on a modern console, massive profits. By comparison a game like Warframe has 500 employees.

Do we have to be scared? Are they reducing the budget of League so much?

Ahri took 300 years and she looks identical

Skarner is still in the early CONCEPT stage

Champions are getting post-poned left and right

No new events announced for 2023

Valorant getting better cinematics for a SKIN BUNDLE

Wild Rift getting so many exclusive (and high quality) skins

THAT SORRY EXCUSE FOR A "CINEMATIC" FOR SEASON 2023

What is happening to League? Are they reducing the budget of the game so much? Are we going towards some kind of maintenance mode or something?

I know it seems soon to cry wolf, but all these things together made me really worried for the future of League.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086en6/do_we_have_to_be_scared_are_they_reducing_the/j3qhjj3/?sort=controversial

As a former Heroes of the Storm player, I must say that this feels very familiar.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086en6/do_we_have_to_be_scared_are_they_reducing_the/j3qg53i/?sort=controversial

League is the older sibling and the parents dont care about them anymore. All the younger children is getting the attention now.

That's how life often works. Times change.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086en6/do_we_have_to_be_scared_are_they_reducing_the/j3qkkn3/?sort=controversial

League is basically running in a skeleton crew compared to 2015-2017.

I mean I remember the gangplank event. the OG Oddysey event and a bunch of stuff like that. the mass reworks that even if annoying af made the game fresh.

anyone who says otherwise its just willfully ignoring facts.

we have gotten the same content the last 2-3 years that we woulve previously gotten in 1 season.

Idk how most ppl don't realize this. We been running on fumes for a while now. I feel like anybody with a shread of wanting to do something diffrent went to TFT.

[..]

All of their best people are on other games. Valorant, TFT, and Runeterra are all fantastic. I'm sure they've got all of their resources pointed at the MMO, too. I guess they figure that League can take care of itself while they flesh out their portfolio.

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1086en6/do_we_have_to_be_scared_are_they_reducing_the/j3qe1ii/?sort=controversial

My guess: Most of LoL Devs moved to the MMO. LoL now only exists to fund the MMO so there will be huge budget cuts while trying to make as much money as possible (thats why there are 2 season resets now, they want us to play nothing but LoL and buy lots of skins).

---

Personal opinion

'No king rules forever and the times they are a-changin' said the preacher. It's all vanity in the end, isn't that right?

Also please try to NOT make fun of me for writing all of this I'm sensible o-okay

Greetings Dramastrags

I was watching some utube vids last night when I came a cross a compilation of of the worst Burgerland national anthem renditions of all time and it instantly brought me back to memory lane 13 years ago in 2009 when the absolute worst most atrocious version of the South African national anthem had been sung before!

---

So the year is 2009! On 15 November, the RSA rugby team, the Springboks :marseysa:, are facing off against the frogs in the Test Match. It was a good season, and SA team had been doing reasonably well.

Scheduled to sing the South African anthem, was Ras Dumisani. And whoooooooooooooooooooooh boi, it was not Ayoba. Haibo boys, it was fricking KAK! A highschooler with a breaking voice would have sung it better.

https://www.iol.co.za/sport/rugby/springboks/watch-from-kurt-darren-to-ras-dumisani-the-3-times-the-sa-national-anthem-was-butchered-live-f94ac40c-651b-4cea-9f4e-ed2e2b484a50

"In 2009, Ras Dumisani was asked to sing the national anthem for South Africa before the Springboks took on hosts France, a match they would go on to lose 20-13. Though the Springboks would have been left deflated after their defeat, they certainly did not receive any inspiration before the clash from Dumisani. He struggled to hold a note and he seemed to have no idea what the anthem should actually sound like."

I remember the good old days of physical newspapers, where my father or older male family members would give me R20 each sunday for me and/or sister to go down too the cafe and buy them a newspaper, and keep the change as reward. And if there was a notable event that week, he would call us and read out loud the country's latest corruption/shenanigans. That November, the Sunday after the Test match was national drama and sneed after what was considered by the entire rainbow nation, by all of its races, by all of its physical newspapers and fledgling social media, as the absofucinglute woooorst national anthem ever sung by man's lips

I remember vividly the front page Rapport afrikaans newspaper having a short and column written in the sports section, where literally NOTHING was mentioned regarding the events taken during the match, just 5 paragraphs detailing this controversy and its outlandishness. With a single fricking sentence following the drama, as if in summation: the Boks lost 20-13 implying the kak singing was the primary cause of the lose.

---

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/16/ras-dumisani-south-african-anthem

=====(from article)

It was not just bad. It was not-knowing-where-to-look bad. And the man responsible is rapidly becoming public enemy number one in South Africa.

Reggae singer Ras Dumisani mauled, mutilated and murdered the national anthem in a hilariously off-key rendition before South Africa played France in a rugby international last Friday.

Some fans in Toulouse were in fits of laughter, but the Springboks players looked incredulous during the sub-karaoke wailing and later complained that it robbed them of inspiration.

Unfortunately for Dumisani, who was flanked by two bongo players, South Africa takes rugby very seriously. Outraged critics are blaming him for their team's 20-13 defeat in a heated national debate that is escalating in newspapers, radio stations and Facebook, where one group is called "Ban Ras Dumisani From Ever Singing Again"

The South African Rugby Union has written to its French counterpart to complain that Dumisani's tuneless attempt at Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("God Bless Africa" in Xhosa) was "absolutely disrespectful". This is despite his name having been on a shortlist of artists drawn up by the South African embassy in Paris.

Even politicians, normally preoccupied with crime, race and the economy, are piling in with strong opinions. The Congress of the People (remember these guys ) called Dumisani's rendition a "vocal misfire", saying: "It looked as though it came right out of the blooper reel of a reality TV singing show."

The Young Communist League of South Africa said Dumisani was a "howler of note" and should sing "only in his shower".

====(end)

---

There's a bunch of articles with lists of worst sung national anthems, but I personally believe none of the other artists can hold a candle to Ras Dumisani's bad performance, or had such a high profile public event involved.

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/sport/rugby/springboks/springboks-watch-rendition-sa-anthem-trending-breaking-monday-21-novembr-2022/

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-04-17-watch-three-times-the-sa-national-anthem-was-mauled/

https://www.enca.com/life/watch-worst-anthem-blunders

You get the idea.

---

Here it is by the ways - Ras Dumisani sings what he believes to be his beautiful version of the South African National Anthem, before the 20-13 Test match defeat to France.

Lol, Schalk Burger was a rough and tough player which was memed that he started destroying the opposition whenever he wen Hulk mode

Bryan Habana, perhaps the most infamous and best coloured Rugby player in all of SA history trying not to lose his shit

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SOME BONUS CONTENT: SHIT KAK BURGERLAND NATIONAL ANTHEM RENDITIONS!!!!!!!!

What inspired me to absolutely have to make this post.

Some or all of this might be wrong, was listening to this while eating :marseynerd:

Adriannah, 22, Austin TX

Could you fix her !straggots ? I think this one's beyond me

Self-rated: very bad, worst of her life maybe

Is our student loan debt being forgiven or no?

No

For real?

Yeah for real

Okay yeah, because I have 9'000 of that and I don't know how to pay it

Personal Life:

• Cut off while she was 17, :marseythinkorino: had to work two jobs in highschool

• Went to college full time (lived there)

  • 3 jobs in college, part time wedding videographer, streamed on twitch and took a lot of addies (perscribed)

• Had addictions at some point, claims to be over them

• Trying to save to move (thinking about doing a payment plan with the IRS)

• A family friend told offered to be her financial advisor and put her in life insurance ($100 a month)

  • Kvetching about customer service mansplaining and not letting her open a Roth IRA :marseywomanmoment:

• In therapy "One time I had a really bad incident where I thought the world was ending and I spent $500 at HEB"

  • :marseywomanmoment:

• "A lot of my financial things are from travelling since my parents are far away"

Career:

"Content Creator"

• Tiktok, Twitch, Instagram

  • 109k Tiktok, 112k Insta, 15k Youtube, 100 paid subs Twitch

• Trying to expand presence on youtube

Income:

• $6 a month from Youtube

• $4-6k average income across all platforms

Expenses/Debt:

• Total minimum monthly payments $983, a quarter of her income

• Wanted to consolidate credit card debt but hadn't done her taxes for two years?

  • Just got a CPA, doing all her taxes now

• Someone else is using her credit card?

  • I missed a chunk, not sure what's going on here

• Restore "Monthly Payment"

  • Her IVs? !biofoids please explain, what is an IV?

  • "I get IVs because I had problem with my hair falling out and when I drink I can't throw up so umm usually I'll get an IV so it restores me"

• Tons of eating out, fast food places

• $418 on a Salon :marseyfoid:

  • "I wanted to look good because there was a chance I would get signed and get a literal salary to this thing that I was literally led on since August to get signed to and they were like 'Come to LA you`ll have a better chance if you come to LA' so I'm like I need to look my best I need to be my best self before I come to LA. So I got my hair I got extensions but they weren't mine they're my mom's so I didn't have to pay for them I just had her put them in and then, those extensions ruined my life. So this is me getting my extensions out and my hair redone because I could show you my bald spot right now but I'm not going to, my extensions literally ripped my hair out and it was like a mess."

• $213 on an outfit

• Stopped doordashing since she started watching Caleb's channel

• Car

  • "Before you say anything I will not be selling it... but I am going to be refinancing it. But listen-"

  • Couldn't refinance because she let her out of state license expire and now has to retake the entire test

    • Apparently this is an insurmountable process for this egirl as by the time she got her license to refinance she was deep in debt

  • Land Rover LR4 2011

  • 400 minimum monthly, 9% interest rate, 72 months, got it at 19

• Student loans

  • $900 Federal

    • $150 minimum maybe?

    • Didn't graduate, year and a half going to school for film

      • "It was a waste of my time because I talked to the lady, I said what, how can I reasonably get a job with this degree after and she said 'you can do wedding videography for a company' and I said 'I already do that' so I dropped out"

Credit Cards

• All basically maxxed out

• Apple store $6996.24

  • "When I signed up for an apple card I thought it was just for the Apple Store and I wanted a macbook beacuse I was like I'm buckling in and I'm editing"

  • Minimum payment- 280.74 (will be paying 20k over 21 years if only doing minimums )

  • 3 things financed on this card

    • Macbook, iPad, Apple Pen

  • Wanted a macbook

  • Still spending on it, bunch of apple bills for buying app subscriptions? "I don't know what they are" "I don't really look at my things"

• American Express $10'831 - 27% interest

  • She loves this one because it sometimes gives her 'free' first class upgrades

  • "It wasn't my choice to have that limit"

    • Customer service told her they love her so she went with it

  • "I started a show, it's called 'Drinking with Dree' where I invite 3 creators on, and I would like to invite you on' and we [words words words basically a podcast]"

    • Was going to use it to prove herself to that company she thought was going to sign her

  • I think this succubus is trying to get her claws into 's $$$$ and clout

  • Interesting contrast between how they approached the eceleb game Timestamp

  • $50 minimum payment but pays more than that (and spends even more than that purchasing with it)

• Mastercard $3356.44/$3500

  • First card

  • minimum monthly payment around $40?

  • 24% interest maybe?

  • Paying it off but spending way more than she's putting on it

• Target

  • "because my other cards were maxed out and I didn't have money for a while I had to use my Target card even though I just paid it off because I needed to buy groceries... And I could this right now if I wanted to"

  • $153 previous balance now $374 "well because I bought groceries"

• Paypal Credit Card?

  • Used only for stream stuff and editors

  • 646.94/650

  • normal minimum is 40?

  • not sure interest rate

Savings:

• 2000 in a savings

• 1450 in a checking but 900 of that came out to pay the CPA to deal with the taxes

• 3000 in a Robin Hood

  • Never pulled anything out of Robin Hood besides Doge

  • "I like that it's in Robin Hood because I am impulsive and crazy"

  • Gets stock advice from some guy on Twitch

  • Over a year 2900 => 2230 => 3100