Imagine hating on us when we're literally just minding our own business and browsing the web 🙃

— Firefox 🔥 (@firefox) January 28, 2025

Apparently Brave got a little cheeky in Google Playstore (I don't see this in Tim Apple's store) and Mozzila is coping hard.

Firef*x claps back after Brave browser's Play Store shenanigans

https://old.reddit.com/r/firef*x/comments/1ic4w56/i_guess_this_is_a_response_for_braves_forget_the/

Pretty lame response. "We are just minding our business and fading into obscurity". They should have use this opportunity to promote some benefit of using Firef*x over brave.

Why would they give their competitor free advertising

where is the competition? the true privacy browser is firef*x

*conditions apply. Please turn off data collection, sponsored links, non-privacy-preserving website advertising preferences, weather on New Tab page, pocket sponsored posts, default browser agent, Normandy, as well as suggestion improvements for search and web browsing. Be sure to not enable AI, and set default search engine to something that isn't Google.

**kindly please ignore that even if you turn off data collection, we will still relentlessly reach out to incoming.telemetry.mozzarella.org and location.services.mozzarella.com.

Firef*x really be doing anything but enable hdr support on YouTube.

I don't get the drooling love some people have for Brave. I personally don't think I would ever trust the browser for anything other than just another option when the ones I like don't work due to the history of crypto schemes and ad/affiliate link hijacking.

Same reason I doubt I will ever trust something made by Lenovo. They screwed up in such a bad way in the past with that whole root cert thing on their OEM images that even a decade+ on I still associate them with it and never consider their products as an option if I can find anything else to do the job.

It is essentially a cult. The crypto crowd loves to overhype stuff as they are used to do it in their pyramid schemes.

Some other people also believe brave to be some kind of anti woke browser. It's just ideology.

Firef*x is objectively the best browser in the world

in a newly-bought Macbook, install Firef*x and Chrome, then compare. despite having the M4 processor and generous amounts of unified memory, Chrome lags while Firef*x is buttery smooth

i feel sorry for people who's using Chrome, they don't even know they got used to terrible experience that they think it's normal. it's like not knowing what's above 60 Hz refresh rate or not having experienced OLED

Firef*x for everything. Safari if I want to stream 4K on Netflix. Chrome if my work will be primarily on Google Docs or Gmail. Brave if it's winter and I want to use my computer as a space heater

I use Firef*x on my computer and brave on my phone. I haven't noticed brave heating up my phone though. What's going on with Brave that everyone hates them so much?

personally, i don't like that you can't disable or hide the features that are bundled with the browser - vpn, crypto, and ai. as for the company behind Brave, i dislike their marketing because they have no business hating on other browsers if they're just a Chrome reskin themselves.

as for the heating part, well, that's my experience on Mac because it's so unoptimized. Chrome is slow as it is, but when you bundle it with other bloat, it takes a toll on your machine. there's also a long-running joke that Brave mines crypto, that's why it gets hot

Brave on my old M1 laptop literally has better battery life than Safari. You can turn all the shit off. Neighbor what world are Mozzilatards living in? Oh yeah, one where Furryfox has a 69% market share and they're not a fat slob in a boring butt IT job for some middling company.

Don't be a lameass Furryfox user, be brave! The browser that puts you first | Brave

!braveshills

Love checking in on my girlies more unhinged than /r/redscarepod and /r/rs_x

r*pe 😂😂😂😂😂

also im gay and my peepee is small

Thоughts ?

Geez Louise, Vavra has actually gone crazy, remember when Musa was just a side character?He's now part of the main story and so black it's hilarious:

>insults your white intelligence

>brags about his travels

>stares at women in the bath

>apparently may cuck you with a single mom which is meant to be the main hetero romance character in the game???

>White people don't season dey food

Literally.

!g*mers !chuds

KFC is moving their HQ from Kentucky to Texas pic.twitter.com/8ZE1oqq1B9

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 19, 2025

Shot Show, a big firearm manufacturer convention, was this last week in Las Vegas. Some small manufacturing and machine shop by the name of BSD Fabrication & Works showed up promoting that they would be building copies of Russian VSS firearms, which would be a cool item to own.

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons interviewed them and posted a video yesterday about his conversation with them, in which he expresses skepticism about their ability to do so (for example, Ian finds their comment about how "easy" it is to stamp metal concerning) but genuinely does hope for the best.

He also makes a comment about this in a private Facebook group, informing people that he does not recommend giving them deposits beforehand.

In any case, the owner of the shop starts sperging out on his personal Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BNtQxTwmp/

Most comments are from people supporting him as he continues whining as much as he can.

Although there are instances of people pointing out that these are mild concerns and criticisms.

There's about 70 comments in the facebook post.

Redditors in the /r/nfa sub (dealing with laws and regs created from the National Firearms Act) also learn about this:

https://old.reddit.com/r/NFA/comments/1iafjns/has_anybody_seen_ians_video_on_the_bsd_vss/

BSD is a clown and a C tier machinist. Charged an arm and two legs for simple machine work in the old days of the form 1 community.

For the curious about his history. This guy even used to bead blast his parts to hide chatter on threads

ETA: the HUBRIS of BSD with the stamping question. Lol. Lmao, even.

If memory serves, he got banned from /r/NFA because he was constantly hawking his services.

Link referencing his history is further down.

The guy is a meth head and an absolutely terrible machinist.

The history referenced in that first comment is this link here (bunch of pictures in this post):

https://old.reddit.com/r/NFA/comments/16j4e0b/heads_up_about_bsd_fabrication_works_llc/

Ah the first picture explains his pricing. When I heard what he was charging for those Surefire conversions, I thought he was smoking crack. Turns out it's actually meth.

Anyways yea this r-slurred meth addict reeeing about a mild critique is definitely going to re-engineer a niche firearm and sell it to the masses.

!firearms

I'm too cozy but have to poop.

REPORTER: *asks dumb question*

TRUMP: “I don’t know what you’re talking about and neither do you. Who are you with?”

REPORTER: “HuffPost”

TRUMP: “I thought they died.” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/B14XtHkYhD

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 10, 2025

!chuds

Subreddit info

/r/bikecommuting is a simple subreddit for users to post biking photos, news discussions, or hot takes about biking.

OP's Complaint

OP, after being confronted taking their bike inside their local Home Depot (a home improvement store), makes the following post, complete with an image for reference:

Home Depot told me I can't bring my bike into the store

I typically bring my bike into the hardware store with me unless there are proper bike racks. I don't see a problem with it as it's no bigger than a cart. The Lowe's by me removed their bike racks for an air compressor so I take it in. This Home Depot is new and I had looked for their bike racks but couldn't see them in the front of the warehouse, so I took it in.

When checking out I was told I can't bring my bike in as it is a safety concern. I gave a rebuttal that it's no bigger than a cart and they said it could fall and block an entire aisle when the carts can't fall over. I didn't continue the questions because they just work there but it seemed ridiculous to me.

Apparently their bike racks are in the back of the warehouse completely isolated, not somewhere i would feel comfortable locking my bike.

I'm going to continue bringing my bike into the store.

[Image of bird's eye view of the Home Depot and parking lot shows the entrance on the northwest side (marked with an arrow by OP), and the outdoor bike racks on the southeast area (circled for our convenience)]

Users debate the bike hike

It's a safety concern:

Bike traffic can be a safety concern around the entrance area with people, trolleys and cars. In some way this is not so bad. At least they have bike racks which is nice! Many stores don't provide that where I live.

When you say bike traffic, are you imagining OP riding their bike into the store?

Of course I'm not. I just mean that the store front is usually a place you don't want bikes parked and the traffic of them. Would be better to have bike parking on the parking lot, but we all know that is unlikely.

"Get over it"

Get over it, you are being a whiny ninny. I park mine at the car corral at Lowe's and never had an issue.

OP: Straight to name calling huh, sticks and stones... I would have found a suitable spot to lock it up outside if it had been a problem before, this was the first time I had been told not to bring it in

I intentionally ram carts into bikes at the cart corral.

How would you feel if someone intentionally rammed a cart into your car?

Guess they'd have to decide how much their Cannondale and legs are worth to them

It was more a question about intentionally damaging someone's property than a question of whether you like cyclists or not. I think it's just rude to ruin someone's shit, even if you don't inherently like them. Treat people the way you want to be treated, that's at least how I feel.

Then strap your bike to the bike rack.

"there is no bike rack"

Edit: well, this guy has a bike rack at his place lmao, mine doesn't have it tho rip

Private property, private rules:

You sound like an entitled jerk.

It's private property, they can have a rule that doesn't allow bikes. Just because it isn't convenient for you, doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want. [downmarseyd]

You'd have a point if they didn't install bike racks on the back side of the building forcing users to walk all the way around. They KNEW what they were doing. Treating us like shit because they can and we have no power.

Okay? So shop somewhere else.

It's a private business, you have to follow their rules.

Oh my god you have to spend a whole extra minute walking around the corner. Life gets much harder, hunny

Be fair, to walk all the way around a super store is more like 3 minutes.

and it's more about the indignation. Like forcing women to breastfeed near the trash bins out of sight.

OP should get trespassing charges:

This is a reasonable rule. I hope OP gets trespassed. [downmarseyd]

Why? To both.

Bringing a bike into a store is weird, like the people who bring their dogs everywhere. At least dogs are cute.

OP feels like flouting rules on private property.

I get that to some degree, but the part about getting trespassed is extreme to me. It's not as if they shoplifted or hurt anybody.

The audacity of OP:

wtf why would you bring a bike into the store

OP: Because I would be nervous about locking it in a place that, to me, would be ideal for a thief. And I was loading directly into my panniers using it as a cart

That's why people hate bicyclists [downmarseyd]

OP: Right...

What about dogs?

I can bring my dog but you can't bring a bicycle!?

Bicycles shit in the aisles, dogs don't.

I was bitten by a bicycle in lighting.

Did you go to the hospital? I heard bicycles carry rabies

I actually died right there in the lighting aisle. So that why I'm against bikes and pro car now.

Singular takes

Too far to walk for your American butt?

They maybe take a cut of the profit from each bike stolen

bikers are the most oppressed class

"I'm going to continue bringing my bike into the store."

So, you were literally told it's against store policy but you're so entitled it doesn't apply to you. You're a garbage excuse for a human.

Sounds like a battle of stubbornness is to be had. They're not going to ban you from the store over this so just keep doing what you're doing.

If the store said don't bring your bike inside, don't bring your bike inside. I can't bring my car inside.

Full thread with more bike takes here

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1i6aypn/ops_complaining_screeches_to_a_halt_when_users_in/

This is how Kamala can still win!

4 pm EST is so far away

hi everyone! We @electiontruth.bsky.social have final video, smoking gun that proves it was a coup d'etat not an election in November 2024. We will give 3 or 4 news outlets scoop to help us get this video at 4pm EDT today. @bloomberg.com @newsweek.com @rolandsmartin.bsky.social are our 1st choices

— Kirstin Elaine Martin (@kirstinelaine.bsky.social) 2025-02-08T10:11:46.666Z

https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/496871376

キャラデザ練習
Marlboro black menthol pic.twitter.com/bj8TjM97Pf

— VXDRQ (@vxdrq) February 6, 2025

These mayos have no sense of humor

Like b-word do we even know it's female ?

Like the first time I seen a trans in my life was in Japanese game

https://old.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/1ibxnwp/not_content_with_ahistorical_yasuke_ac_shadows/

I think they forgot how large the asian male population is. Even if their target demo did not buy it the asian makes would have well made up for it.

Homo forgot he is r-slurred Redditor. Would a non Japanese chunk want to play a homonorable Japanese warrior killing l'evil mayos and saving Japan. Or dildoing the japs little samurais as black Chung ?

For frick sake even japs would rather prefer to play some Chinese warrior than samurai because they literally releasing unlimited amount of dynasty warriors shit.

And sucker punch realised that since ghost of Tsushima was banned in Korea and probably Mongolia and China. So next game will be normal while you playing a foid fighting the evil Japanese colonisation. We often forget how evil japs were with native folks.

If you love anime you should know its history and like almost everything post ww2 it's created with a bit made in America and antisemitism (Disney) influence.

And sumo should let women participate because with rising fat women percentage around the world, land whales also need a job.

https://instagram.com/reel/DEstN9-OZu6/

Also comeone it's based

https://old.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/1icdmqf/assassins_creed_shadows_delay_was_to_scale_back/

Still cant play as a Japanese samurai, so who cares...

If he want to play that much as Japanese samurai he can play the best action game about Japanese samurai that is like metal gear rising

But I bet our samurai loving Redditor didn't even played that hidden gem

https://rdrama.net/h/dioceseofrdrama/post/321468/the-prophecymarseyfortunetellerof-st-malachy-pope-francis

https://rdrama.net/h/maxn/post/343602/terrifying-doomsday-fish-carpwave-found-on

Origin story article from last March

!goyslopenjoyers

when a content creator you used to enjoy watching ends up being a toxic asshole 💔💔💔 pic.twitter.com/3FnMBoZMz5

— The Worst of Twt (@TheWorstOfTwt) January 26, 2025

You might know this guy from a recently posted thread from @BussyBoy where he says some mean things about a dead minecraft youtuber. I don't know if he wants his channel to be associated with rDrama so I'm going to refer to him as Brian.

Apparently BB/Brian NOT ONLY made fun of a dead guy BUT two weeks before he also made a very insensitive joke where he refers to a black minecraft pig as a "pigger". In fact, this issue was so massive that the part where he says it is the MOST REPLAYED part of the video AND sponsorblock has it marked as the highlight of the video.

This generated its own sneeding with many users calling this joke really insensitive.

Not long after posting the drama died down (because preteens have the attention spans of flies) and everything was fine... UNTIL someone brought it up again in the drama referenced earlier.

Ironic that this guy is trying to be a moral authority when he posts trash like this: https://t.co/e2LBLQCO8M pic.twitter.com/b0hgLELlqR

— Matt (@Owehttamy) January 25, 2025

The replies are pretty boring because, like I said before, we're dealing with children.

Just wanted to include this screenshot because it's so fricking funny that this dude doesn't get the joke after like 3 replies.

HAVE NO FEAR, ANOTHER YOUTUBER IS HERE! Totaling at 770k subs, TheMisterEpic chimes in to defend Brian!

Every tweet of gerg I see makes me like him more and more https://t.co/nVrWXrk8aT

— TheMisterEpic (@TheMisterEpicYT) January 25, 2025

He whiteknights for Brian like a good friend and mentions the obvious fact: it's ragebait made to generate discussion

Here's his whole discussion with OP

Now, back to the main tweet. Xitter user TheWorstOfTwt informs everyone that TME is a heckin chud and that nobody should subscribe to him.

I don't care for minecraft so all of this discussion is boring. Feel free to mess with people, maybe deny all the atrocities that happened? Maybe claim these youtubers are black? Idk

editorial note post writing: the guy who made the callout thread is suicidal lmfao https://x.com/Owehttamy https://www.twitch.tv/owehttamy

The rate of obesity in particular rose steeply, doubling in adults between 1990 and 2021 to more than 40 percent — and nearly tripling, to 29 percent, among girls and women aged 15 to 24.

I am so happy for our girls

"Obesity comes from genetic, physiological and environmental interactions," she said. "It's not the fault of any one individual who has the disease."

I agree father mother skinny daughter fat, genetic not her fault

Completely unsurprised. Have been watching this happen for about the last 20 years. Watching school kids get more and more overweight, compared to my high school days in the 80's, where there were only 2-3 what would be called "obese" kids in my class of 300. And they weren't even THAT big.

Go to a flea market in the U.S now on a weekend. That is a real eye-opener, to the current mass obesity phenomenon ..

We are headed for the space ships of Wall-E ...

I spend 3 years in high school with 12 foid classmates and 2 were overweight rest obese to super obese. I respected them a lot

I remember once's when they started talking about guys and what they like I was like this

Because I thought they were delusional to think they don't deserve what they want obviously, they first and all were for me genderless persons.

So they coped by calling me gay because I never hit on any of them

im very drunk and shat this out teehee

Consider me upset and disappointed (as if redditor's feel any other emotions ). And I was actually going to make a post about how I've been pleasantly surprised at the lack of mask pushback the past 6ish months at doctors appointments. Which is GREATLY appreciated as I've been dealing with a newer chronic health condition, on top of my grandma who's on oxygen needing her doctors appointments as well.

Long story short - I asked my doctor to sign a medical exemption form for me so I can wear a mask to this upcoming necessary appointment. I was once again pleasantly surprised, she didn't question me and I felt like she was finally taking me seriously.

I opened the envelope today and read what she wrote: "Severe Generalized Anxiety Disorder". Not my chronic migraines, or the fact that I'm a care giver. We never discussed this "severe" anxiety disorder and I thought she finally recognized that a) my precautions are not because of my anxiety and b) my increased anxiety was due to my undiagnosed chronic migraines that I developed from a hormone medication SHE put me on.

I'll fully admit that my anxiety got much worse before my migraines were properly addressed. It was an uphill battle where I was not being heard by my doctor - the "it's just anxiety, anxiety, anxiety" bit until I had hospital worthy chronic pain...

But my family and I have masked and taken Covid precautions since 2020. It's infuriating that wearing a mask is likely the reason why my doctors first answer to everything is anxiety. Like pardon me for being educated and trying to protect my family. I guess that makes me incredibly anxious. So be it.

(I'm sending hugs to everyone that can relate🤍 I appreciate every single person on here😷🫶)

We're playing the turboneurodivergent Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV that replicates world history. !g*mers !historychads

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

336AD, the Roman Empire is #1 in the world by far but the Roman Golden Age has concluded. We've just conquered Nubia. The Western Roman Empire more or less officially ended in 476AD when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus so we're coming up on the timeframe we're supposed to be dead.

We successfully avoided the Western Roman Empire/Eastern Roman Empire split but more civilizations are going to rise and attempt to fracture off of our existing territory. The Arabs are gonna spawn with a huge butt army ready to spread Islam (which we founded already in Egypt ) and the European powers are going to start cropping up.

I'll need to prepare for this and be ready to retake this shit at a moment's notice from armies leveraged against me.

My goal is to vassalize the European powers so I can benefit from their global colonization.

We've had a small archer regiment providing us contact with India but only now I've gotten a scout east who can pass through the Bengal rainforest to meet China.

They inexplicably hate us for existing as with everyone else in the world, but they're willing to trade. They offer jade and venison for our wine and dyes with a lil gold to sweeten the deal.

They seem to be doing well but we're still #1 in the world by far. Persia is the only empire that comes close to matching us technologically - only they can research something we haven't researched yet.

Persia also has a lot of gold. I might trade them some technology for cash at benefit to them. This will improve relations, and I have a strong espionage network going with them so if they research something I don't have I can just steal it. Also, I predict the Arabs are going to BTFO them badly when they spawn.

With the money we gain from the tech trade, we can actually apply more espionage power to steal what they research. DEVIOUS!

With continued espionage harassment we get our first Great Spy, Locusta*. If a civilization were far ahead of us we could send her to infiltrate for a huge boost, but as we're top dog I'll settle her in Roma for a permanent +12 espionage and small science boost that will continue throughout history. +12 is quite significant early on, so this is pretty advantageous.

_{*This is a particularly cool article I recommend reading}

The dipshit Ethiopians continue to be difficult, despite everything we've done for them. Repeated Catholic missions to them have been failures and even the Catholic presence in Aksum eventually disappears. They will not bend from Orthodoxy. Even more insulting is that they've now sworn fealty to Persia. It's like they think we're a threat to them. All we've done is help them out and attempt to bring them peacefully into the Catholic faith.

They are officially a lost cause. No salvation for them.

Fine, because I have a new black best friend, the pagan Mande in West Africa

After researching Compass I'm able to pass ships through Cape Verde Peninsula and send a mission to Djoboro

I can't wait to spread the word of Christ and have a new Catholic brother!!!

Barbarians start to swarm about 400AD. The Roman Roads are a godsend as I can get my dudes quickly from one place to another as different areas get pounded. Byzantion as an espionage stronghold allows me to send spies out use the Citizenship bribery mechanic, this felt like a gimmick but it's actually super useful here. Just like irl I'm able to pay off the huns to spare Constantinople + I get free Hunnic Horse Archers to fight back with

By 450 it's a full on barbarian invasion

Did you know a !foidmoment almost caused the fall of Rome? In the 400s Valentinian III had a complete for a sister named Honoria. She was notorious for fricking and sucking around the Imperial palace and Valentinian graciously attempted to set her up with a nice senator while he was attempting to fend off the pillaging of hunnic warlord Attila. Honoria was pissed off by this and wrote a gushy love letter to Attila the Hun out of spite.

The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila by Raphael

Attila interpreted this letter as a marriage proposal and invaded Italy directly aiming to claim the seat of Rome, which he felt he gained a rightful claim to. Pope Leo I the Great met with Attila personally and somehow persuaded him to back off.

Our stability is okay, but definitely starting to dip. Okay is not good enough for what's coming. As always, military and foreign trickle down with the rest of the world being buttholes and barbarians up in our shit. Economy and expansion are not booming anymore.

Our treasury is doing alright but could be improved (right now we're running 40% research funding). Domestic could be improved easily with some civic changes.

We've researched Feudalism and now have another Legitimacy civic available to us. We don't have much reason to run Citizenship at this point, other than bribing barbarians, but our military is now spread out enough to deal with them. Vassalage is lower upkeep with compatibility with Thalassocracy. This + the unit upkeep will get us about 30 more GP per turn. We also change to Caste System like we should have ages ago, since Slavery is outdated.

Last time I won by researching "Civil Service" first, completing the final historic victory condition. I undid this so that I could attempt a Space victory instead. We're getting to a point where I'm running out of shit to research OTHER than Civil Service and the Sassanids, our only near-equal won't research it either

This is kinda funny and forcing me to do things differently. I'm going to discover Gunpowder much earlier than I thought and get stronger artillery. "Civil Service" obsoletes our Legion so I have 100s more of those running around (which is good, they're based). But these slackers really need to research it soon so I can fail

I'll have to help these idiots out a little and sell them another tech at an absurdly generous price.

~472-480AD Ostrogoths pop up right outside Rome. I think this is meant to represent Odacer or Theodoric, right on schedule. The precision put into this mod is

I wasn't expecting this but I have knights (Lancers) in Roma at this point

The game does not appreciate that I survived Theodoric. Charlemagne and France spawn as an independent kingdom, taking Paris away from us.

Bourdeoux and Clermont secede too, and we must fight to get them back.

Remember how when Rome spawned we were given a great military advantage? Well now France gets it and I have to pull assault forces from everywhere in the empire to recapture it.

How's that for a Stack of Doom motherlovers

France's doomstack is defeated by my gigadoomstack and I recapture Clermont. France cannot capitulate for some reason Probably a DoC thing for new civilizations. I don't remember all the rules. I think once "Rise of the French" ends they can become a vassal. I don't want to annihilate them, my goal is to have them become a vassal and take advantage of their colonization. For now, I've taken back a city, taken out their army and shown them who's boss.

I'm fine with just holding Clermont as it gives me foot access to Iberia. I just need to get Roman culture flowing fast.

This will be the first of many as new civs start to spawn.

The Vikings/Norse have arrived for example and introduced themselves in England. They may start to raid, but no threat of secession here.

However, around 600AD a certain guy who cannot be depicted visually is born in the Arabian Peninusla

Egypt and the Levant is lost Most of my army is kicked out and expelled to Knossos in Crete. I don't have enough boats to pick them up in, so they're stranded on Crete for a while

Conquering Nubia turns out to have been a good idea because it's outside of the flip zone, and gives us a southern vector for attack.

Next time: crusades

Next

A year into their relationship, Jess and Nate got engaged next to the sea. "It was a golden, sandy beach – empty and secluded," says Jess, 26. "It was just us two there, so it was really intimate."

Except that the couple were actually hundreds of miles apart – and they were role-playing their engagement in the video game World of Warcraft.

Nate, 27, was living just outside London – and Jess was in Wales. After meeting briefly at an esports event in Germany in March 2023, the pair developed a long-distance relationship, playing the game together "from the moment we woke up to the moment we went to bed", says Nate.

The couple still play the game daily, even though they've been living together in Manchester since March 2024. And they know other couples who have found their partners through video games: "It's a different way of meeting someone," says Jess. "You both have such a strong mutual love for something already, it's easier to fall in love."

Nate agrees. "I was able to build a lot more of a connection with people I meet in gaming than I ever was able to in a dating app."

A selfie of Nate and Jess on the left, and on the right, a screenshot from World of Warcraft showing Nate proposing with the words, "Will you marry me?"

Nate and Jess (pictured, alongside their virtual engagement), found love online - but not on a dating app

Nate and Jess are not alone. According to some experts, people of their generation are moving away from dating apps and finding love on platforms that were not specifically designed for romance.

And hanging out somewhere online that's instead focused on a shared interest or hobby could allow people to find a partner in a lower-stakes, less pressurised setting than marketing themselves to a gallery of strangers. For some digital-native Gen Zs, it seems, simply doing the things they enjoy can be an alternative to the tyranny of the swipe.

Internet dating at 30 - a turning point?

Since it first appeared with the launch of match.com 30 years ago, online dating has fundamentally altered our relationships. Around 10% of heterosexual people and 24% of LGBT people have met their long-term partner online, according to Pew Research Center.

But evidence suggests that young people are switching off dating apps, with the UK's top 10 seeing a fall of nearly 16%, according to a report published by Ofcom in November 2024. Tinder lost 594,000 users, while Hinge dropped by 131,000, Bumble by 368,000 and Grindr by 11,000, the report said (a Grindr spokesperson said they were "not familiar with this study's source data" and that their UK users "continue to rise year over year").

According to a 2023 Axios study of US college students and other Gen Zers, 79% said they were forgoing regular dating app usage. And in its 2024 Online Nation report, Ofcom said: "Some analysts speculate that for younger people, particularly Gen Z, the novelty of dating apps is wearing off." In a January 2024 letter to shareholders, Match Group Inc - which owns Tinder and Hinge - acknowledged younger people were seeking "a lower pressure, more authentic way to find connections".

"The idea of using a shared interest to meet someone isn't new, but it's been reinvented in this particular moment in time – it signals a desire of Gen Z," says Carolina Bandinelli, an associate professor at Warwick University whose research focuses on the digital technologies of romance.

Getty Images Joggers running in a parkGetty Images

Many younger people are exploring alternatives to dating apps, from gaming to running clubs and other social activities

According to Danait Tesfay, 26, a marketing assistant from London, younger people are looking for alternatives to dating apps, "whether that be gaming or running clubs or extra-curricular clubs, where people are able to meet other like-minded people and eventually foster a romantic connection".

At the same time that membership of some dating apps appears to be in decline, platforms based around common interests are attracting more users. For instance, the fitness app Strava now has 135m users – and its monthly active users grew by 20% last year, according to the company. Other so-called "affinity-based" sites have seen similar growth: Letterboxd, where film fans can share reviews, says its community grew by 50% last year.

Rise of the hobby apps

And just as in the pre-internet age, when couples might have met at a sports club or the cinema, now singletons are able to find each other in their online equivalents.

"People have always bonded over shared interests, but it's been given a digital spin with these online communities," says Luke Brunning, co-director of the Centre for Love, S*x, and Relationships (CLSR) at the University of Leeds.

"It's increasingly difficult to distinguish between behaviour that's on a dating app and dating behaviour on another platform."

Hobby apps are taking on some features of social media, too: in 2023, Strava introduced a messaging feature letting users chat directly. One twenty-something from London explains that her friends use it as a way to flirt with people they fancy, initially by liking a running route they've posted on the platform. Strava says its data shows that one in five of its active Gen Z members has been on a date with someone they met through fitness clubs.

"[Online] fitness communities are becoming big places to find partners," says Nichi Hodgson, the author of The Curious History of Dating. She says a friend of hers met his partner that way, and they're now living together.

The same appears to apply to Letterboxd, too. With users including Chappell Roan and Charli XCX, it's a popular platform for younger people - two-thirds of members in a survey of 5,000 were under 34.

The company says it's aware of several couples meeting through the app, including one who bonded over a shared love of David Fincher's opinion-dividing 2020 drama Mank. "It could be that seeing other people's film tastes reveals an interesting aspect of themselves," says Letterboxd co-founder Matthew Buchanan.

Why the shift?

So what might be driving this? While dating apps initially appeared to offer "the illusion of choice", and a transparent, efficient way to meet partners, the reality for many has often proven to be different. The Pew Research Center found that 46% of dating-app users said their experiences were overall very or somewhat negative.

The recent decline in user numbers might also be a response to the way some apps are structured – in particular, the swipe feature for selecting potential partners, launched by Tinder in 2013 and widely copied.

Its creator, Jonathan Badeen, was partly inspired by studying the 1940s experiments of psychologist BF Skinner, who conditioned hungry pigeons to believe that food delivered randomly into a tray was prompted by their movements.

Getty Images A psychological experiment with pigeons conducted by BF SkinnerGetty Images

Tinder's swipe mechanism was partly inspired by Harvard Professor BF Skinner's psychological experiments with pigeons in order to understand the brain's reward system

Eventually, the swipe mechanism faced a backlash. "Ten years ago, people were enthusiastic and would talk quite openly about what apps they were on," says Ms Hodgson. "Now the Tinder model is dead with many young people – they don't want to swipe any more."

According to Mr Brunning, the gameifying interface of many dating apps is a turn-off. "Intimacy is made simple for you, it's made fun in the short term, but the more you play, the more you feel kind of icky."

The pandemic may have had an impact, too, says Prof Brian Heaphy at the University of Manchester, who has studied dating-app use in and after the lockdowns: "During Covid, dating apps themselves became more like social media – because people couldn't meet up, they were looking for different things."

Although that didn't last after the pandemic, it "gave people a sense that it could be different from just swiping and getting no responses – all the negatives of dating-app culture," says Prof Heaphy.

And in that context, the fact that video games or online communities like Strava or Letterboxd aren't designed for dating can be appealing. By attracting users for a broader range of reasons, there's less pressure on each interaction.

"Those apps aren't offering a commercialised form of romance, so they can seem more authentic," says Prof Heaphy.

The World of Warcraft characters of PurplePixel and Wochi

The humans behind Wochi and PurplePixel (pictured) met while playing World of Warcraft, though they say finding a partner wasn't their original intention

It's a type of connection free from the burden of expectation. A different couple who met on World of Warcraft – and go by the names Wochi and PurplePixel – weren't looking for love. "I definitely didn't go into an online game trying to find a partner," says Wochi.

But although initially in opposing teams, or guilds, their characters started a conversation. "We spent all night talking until the early hours of the morning, and by the end of the night, I'd actually left my guild and joined his guild," says PurplePixel. Within three years, Wochi had quit his job and moved to the UK from Italy to be with her.

According to Ms Hodgson, "While some dating apps can bring out the worst behaviours, these other online spaces can do the opposite, because people are sharing something they enjoy."

Because of these structural elements, she doesn't think the recent decline in numbers is temporary. "It's going to keep happening until dating apps figure out how to put the human aspect back."

New kinds of dating app

The dating apps aren't giving up without a fight, however. Hinge is still "setting up a date every two seconds", according to a spokesperson; Tinder says a relationship starts every three seconds on its platform and that almost 60% of its users are aged 18-30. In fact, the apps appear to be embracing the shift to shared-interest platforms, launching niche alternatives including ones based around fitness, veganism, dog-ownership or even facial hair.

They're also evolving to encourage different kinds of interaction. On Breeze, users who agree to be set up on a date aren't allowed to message each other before they meet; and Jigsaw hides people's faces, only removing pieces to reveal the full photo after a certain amount of interaction.

It means that it's premature to proclaim the death of the dating app, believes Prof Heaphy. "There's now such a diversity of dating apps that the numbers for the biggest ones aren't the key indicator," he says. "It might actually be a similar number to before, in terms of overall membership."

And there's a downside to people going to more general-interest apps looking for love – people might not want to be hit on when they just want to talk about books. Dating apps, at least, are clear about what their purpose is.

What might the future look like?

In an increasingly online world, the solution to improving relationships might not simply be to go offline. Instead, apps that can offer an experience which more closely mirrors the best of IRL interactions, while tapping into the possibilities of digital ones, might also show a way forward.

With the imminent integration of AI into dating apps, we are "right on the cusp of something new", says Mr Brunning. "It's interesting to see if we'll end up with specific apps just for dating, or will we end up with something a bit more fluid?"

He points to platforms in China that are more multi-purpose. "People use them for chat, for community, and conduct business on them – they can also be dating platforms, but they're often not exclusively for that."

In the meantime, the interactions possible in less mediated communities like World of Warcraft could offer more of a chance to connect than conversations initiated by a swipe.

Jess and Nate's in-game engagement on the beach might not have been real, but the couple are hoping to change that soon. "It's a matter of when, really. There are a few things we need to tick off the checklist, and then she'll be getting her ring," says Nate. And there'll still be a gaming element.

"You can role-play getting married," says Jess. "So it could be funny to get all our friends together at some point in the World of Warcraft cathedral, and we could have a marriage ceremony."

Or maybe it's actually good this time?