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Awoo cum/came based 1mo ago (x.com) Edited 1mo ago 1,740 thread views #330831 earned 460 coins from votes

Cohost of Undisputed, Joy Taylor, was banging execs and commentators to get her sports commentator job and openly debated falsely accusing the head executive of sexual assault if he found out.

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/h/europe

grizzly glow/bear :marseybear:

5d ago (x.com) 143 thread views #343901 earned 72 coins from votes

elon fires rockets at poland

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/h/toomanyxchromosomes

LiterallyShaking brit/bong TER, drop the F 1mo ago (reddit.com) Edited 1mo ago 1,424 thread views #332020 earned 360 coins from votes

Foid with BIG FAT TITTIES gets harassed at the Verizon store [POLL INSIDE]

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OP:

Selected pictures:

Best comments:

They think because you look the way you look that you're looking for attention. Insufferable people.

No, I'm just saying that viewing your previous posts had as the same red flags as the weirdo thinking it's ok to text you that crazy stuff. I'd block him for sure but you might want to take some time thinking about how you're interacting with these creeps

Game is game

Fun Facts

According to her post history she's on methadone and probation.

Poll:

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/h/vidya

Patrice e/acc 15d ago (image post) Edited 15d ago 386 thread views #341384 earned 276 coins from votes

Would I be a if I bought a Couchmaster to play games on a Steam Deck + TV?

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Draki_Fairnose they/them Run the Gambit like I'm throwing cards 16d ago (x.com) 582 thread views #341045 earned 576 coins from votes

Booze Cruiser goes 130mph so he can see his Marsey sooner

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ACA I/I I don't really like talking about my flair 24d ago (reddit.com) Edited 23d ago 887 thread views #338740 earned 488 coins from votes

The YWNBAW post on /r/copypasta (3 years old) is an entertaining yet typical tennis match between "s*x is biological reality" and "psychologists say that you're whatever you think you are."

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This was posted on rDrama a year ago but without annotation or marseys.

The reddit OP is [[[deleted]]] but his legacy lives on.

Pinned comment:

You can read the full context behind the 'You will never be a real woman' YWNBAW copypasta here

https://copypastatext.com/you-will-never-be-a-real-woman/

The link does not offer full context. It references its origin on a 4chan thread but doesn't even give the get.

You can say whatever you want but it is true. Just because you "feel" you are a woman, doesnt mean you are one. Period. Its all in the post

Psychiatrists disagree with you.

Psychiatrists can say what they want, you will still, never be, a woman.

Why not?

Because You have no womb, you have no ovaries, you have no eggs... [the full copypasta]

So what gives you more authority to make that judgement than psychiatrists?

So essentially, this is my reasoning:

You have no womb, you have no ovaries, you have no eggs. [full copypasta]

That's not reasoning. You just reposted the copypasta.

(Yeah no shit, that's what it's there for )

Because for some reason you aren't getting the message.

His observation doesn't come from an appeal to authority, like yours and "psychiatrists" do. His observation is based off of reality.

I can say I feel like an Asian woman. I can say I feel like a foxen kin, and psychiatrists can agree that I AM one, all they want, but the fact remains I was born a white male. Nothing changes this. Surgery doesn't. Altering my hormones doesn't. Changing my posture and clothes doesn't.

Would you like me to pasta that copy for you, again? Or is 4 times good enough?

[gay shit about appeals to authority and meta discussion]

Heres the climax!

I'll ask you point blank then: You think a man is a woman the moment he believes himself to be one?

Yes, she is.

INTENSIFIES

[[[ Removed by Reddit ]]]

Except that the overwhelming scientific consensus on the subject is that gender identity exists separately from biological s*x, and that altering the latter to match the former is better, more healthy, and more feasible than the inverse.

:#marseysurejan:

As per my last two paragraphs [[[removed above]]], your comment qualifies as this conversation being ended.

If you're not willing to converse without me rejecting science in favor of supporting your bigotry, then yeah, we can't really continue from there.

Our brave little biological reality warrior then goes on to frick everything up by resorting to 2015 insults.

You're a bootlicker, incapable of thinking for yourself. Probably a cuck. Thanks for removing yourself from the gene pool

The battle continues, a year past the original post date. I won't copy it here, it's off in the weeds past the original point but here's the link many layers deep:

https://old.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/lyktos/ywnbaw/jco4w2w/?context=8

A couple of teasers if you want to delve into the ancient battlefield:

Imagine calling someone a "bootlicker" because they're more pro-freedom than you
Freedom to sin is terrible for the soul. Should be stopped immediately. Inshallah.
If I want to commit a sin that hurts me and me alone, then I see no reason why laws should exist to restrict that. It's my afterlife to afterlive.
There is no such sin that only affects the sinner.
Ivan Karamazov ... Grand Inquisitor ... Long gay quote from some dead russian with a stupid name
Yeah I'm not reading that great wall of china long text wall
Your lack of classical education does not render Dostoevsky obscure, kid. (my favorite cringe out of all of this)
Those who believe in omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent gods must know that such hypotheticals bla bla
[the battle ends 2 years after the original thread]

Honourable Mention (!bardfinn spelling)

/u/EmojifierBot

You 😎👉 will never ❌ be a real 😍 woman 👩. You 👉 have no 🙅🌈 womb 👶, you 👈 have no 🙅🏻❌ ovaries 🗣👩🏾, you 👈 have no ❌🚫 eggs 🥚. You 👈 are a homosexual 🏳️‍🌈 man 👨🏼🚫 twisted 🥨 by drugs 💊 and surgery 🏥 into a crude 👺 mockery 😤 of nature's perfection 👌.

All 💯 the "validation" you 👈 get 🉐🇮🇹 is two-faced and half-hearted 💔. Behind ↩ your 👈🏾 back ⬅ people 👨 mock 😨😟 you 👈🕛. Your 👉👶🏼🚀 parents 👪🛬 are disgusted 🤢 and ashamed 😩 of you 👈, your 👉 "friends" laugh 🤣😂 at your ⛓👉 ghoulish appearance 🔎 behind 👟💥 closed 🚫 doors 🚪.

Men 👨 are utterly 🐄 repulsed by you 👉😏. Thousands 👌🌼💯 of years 🗓 of evolution 🐒 have allowed 😖 men 👨 to sniff 👃 out frauds 🚫 with incredible 😯‼❗ efficiency 📊. Even 🌃 s 🙋‍♂️👠 who "pass" look 👀 uncanny and unnatural 👽 to a man 👨🌊. Your 👉 bone 🍖 structure 🏠 is a dead ☠ giveaway 🎉🥳🎊. And even 🌃 if you 👈 manage 🧔 to get 🉐 a drunk 🍺🍻 guy 👨 home 🏠 with you 👈, he'll turn 🔄 tail 🍑 and bolt 🏃🏻‍♀️ the second ⏱ he 👥 gets 🉐📴 a whiff 🤑 of your 👉🏄🏾📝 diseased 😷🐱, infected 😖 axe 🙌😤😠 wound 💨.

You 👈 will never 🚫💩 be happy 😊. You 👈 wrench 👨🏿‍🔧 out a fake 👻 smile 😊 every ☝ single ☝ morning 🌄 and tell 💬 yourself it's going 🏃 to be ok 👌💯, but 🍑 deep 😱 inside 💠 you 👈 feel 😜 the depression 😭 creeping 💥 up ⬆ like 💖 a weed 🍁, ready 😏 to crush 😘📏 you 👈 under ❌⬇👇 the unbearable 😤 weight 😔😓💤.

Eventually 💦🍆 it'll be too much 😩😂🙀 to bear 💯🐻 - you'll buy 💰 a rope ➰, tie 👔 a noose 😔, put 🔛 it around 🔃 your 👉😘 neck 🐪, and plunge 😵😲😩 into the cold ❄ abyss 😍😝. Your 👉 parents 👪 will find 🔎 you 👉, heartbroken 💔😢 but 🍑 relieved 🤤 that they no 😣 longer 🍆 have to live 😩 with the unbearable 💥👃👎 shame 😳 and disappointment 🙃. They'll bury ⚰ you 👈 with a headstone marked 🖍 with your 👶👈 birth 👑 name 📛, and every ☝ passerby for the rest 💤 of eternity 🌋🆎💅🏿 will know 🤔 a man 👨 is buried 🕳 there. Your 👉 body 💃 will decay ☠ and go 🏃🏼‍♀️ back 🔙 to the dust 💨, and all 💯 that will remain 😥 of your 👉 legacy 🐒🌄 is a skeleton 💀 that is unmistakably male 👦.

This is your 👉🏠🍕 fate 💀☠. This is what you 👈 chose 👉😎👈. There is no 🙅💔🚧 turning 💫↩ back 🔙.

!chuds !transphobes !historychads

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SRDEnjoyer she/them Popcorn tastes good. 1mo ago (reddit.com) 1,137 thread views #335386 earned 336 coins from votes

Drama in r/Amerexit when commenters point out to OP that homeschooling is illegal in many countries

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OP makes a post called 'Black Mom Leaving the US' looking for experiences from other black women on emigrating from the US. They mention homeschooling, which leads several people to point out that homeschooling is illegal in some of the countries OP is interested in. OP isn't having it and calls some of the comments 'creepy':

Yeah it's very strange, and creepy, how obsessed people on this thread are with the future education prospects of my one-year-old.

OP believes that being a digital nomad does not make them a resident of that country... somehow?

https://old.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1i6a4ge/comment/m8by8nh/?context=8

More drama when someone else points out that some of the countries listed are significantly more racist than OP realises:

https://old.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1i6a4ge/comment/m8bfx6z/?context=8

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1i6qw28/drama_in_ramerexit_when_commenters_point_out_to/

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/h/random

J Deux/Rama 4d ago (youtube.com) 49 thread views #344448 earned 36 coins from votes

its assembled not forged

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Emoji Award given by @IlIlIlIlI: "vegetakneel"

Emoji Award given by @IlIlIlIlI: "marseykneel"

N any/all Attention Seeker (NotYou) :marseychristmasgift:

2mo ago (image post) Edited 2mo ago 690 thread views #326611 earned 1,136 coins from votes

EFFORTPOST UPMARSEY THIS CSS osu! (Game on @YourAlterEgo's profile)

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CSS osu!

Also posted on WPD

I made a simple version of the circle clicking game osu! with HTML and CSS. I was mostly finished with it around December 4. You can find it on @YourAlterEgo's profile. It's on the desktop site only. If you're using a laptop, using a mouse is recommended.

To play it, you click the circles when the ring (approach circle) gets close to the circle. The right time to click is around the time the ring turns white or when it almost reaches the circle. You can click earlier or later if you want. If the anthem starts at the same time you click the play button, it should somewhat sync with the song (it's not perfect).

Play here on @YourAlterEgo's profile (Desktop only)

If the anthem autoplays or the game lags, try it here:

https://reddreamer.nekoweb.org/cssosu/

The above site is a static web hosting site like Neocities or GitHub Pages.

Click here if you want to vote on polls asking whether you played and liked the game. They're in a comment because you can't have <details> and polls in the same post.

Comment what you think. If it glitches out or doesn't work, comment what went wrong and what browser you're using. If the anthem doesn't play, try closing other rDrama tabs that have audio playing.

Assets

rDrama version (Copy and paste it into your bio and profile CSS if you want)

Non-rDrama version

I tried making a .zip, but Furryfox (Firefox) kept calling it a virus :marseyconfused:

https://files.catbox.moe/imovff.zip

CSS (cssosu.css) (Mirror, name it cssosu.css)
HTML (name it anything ending with .html)
Song: lucky-nightcore.mp3 (Mirror, name it lucky-nightcore.mp3)
Cursor: cursor.png (Mirror, name it cursor.png)
Logo (used as an icon): cssosulogo.png (Mirror, name it cssosulogo.png)
Background: background.jpg (Mirror, name it background.jpg)
Background source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adobetutorialz/4556724799/ (Median filter used to remove the patterns)

The song is a nightcore (sped-up) version of Lucky Twice - Lucky. I got it straight from an osu map (.osz file) with the same song and edited it to start shortly before the chorus.

Questions

If you have other questions, ask in the comments, and I might answer.

1. What is osu!?

It's a free-to-play weeb rhythm game where you click circles while listening to music. This is the game's website. You can try an unoffcial web demo like I did if you don't want to download it. On the actual game and the web version, you can use Z and X to click, which is easier than clicking with the mouse. They also have sliders and spinners, which aren't present in this CSS version.

2. What is CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets, a language used for styling webpages. You can use it to change the color of text, add shadows and glows, change the page's layout, add background images, add simple animations, and so on.

3. Is there an indicator for early and late hits?

No. I tried to track early hits by adding another <details> element that would be animated to toggle its visibility (and therefore clickability). There would be 2 <details> elements you could click, and clicking the one that appears earlier would mean you hit early. However, this caused issues with the circles not responding to clicks, so I gave up on it.

4. How does it work?

CSS animations, animation delays, CSS counters, and lots of <details> and <summary> elements

This uses a lot of <details> and <summary> elements. To make the circles and play button interactive on click, they needed to be interactive HTML elements. <details> and <summary> elements (normally used for showing more text on click, like a spoiler button) are allowed in rDrama bios (unlike checkboxes), so they were perfect for this. The <summary> is the actual clickable part, so that is the element that is styled into a circle or play button.

The following is what details and summary normally look like.

Try clicking me. This clickable text is the summary element inside the details element.

Hello!

This is the hidden text!

<details>
<summary>Try clicking me. This clickable text is the <em>summary</em> element inside the <em>details</em> element.</summary>
Hello! :marseywave2: This is the hidden text!
</details>

The game screen is a <blockquote>. It has a play button at the start (<details> and <summary> elements), and there are 72 blockquotes containing other elements after the play button, one for each of the 72 circles. The bio looks something like the following.

<blockquote>
<details><summary></summary></details>
> <details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p>
> <details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p>
...
> <details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p>
#
> <details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p>
...
> <details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p>
</blockquote>

In HTML, it would be this.

<blockquote>
	<details><summary></summary></details>
	<blockquote><details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p></blockquote>
	<blockquote><details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p></blockquote>
	...
	<blockquote><details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p></blockquote>
	<h1></h1>
	<blockquote><details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p></blockquote>
	...
	<blockquote><details><summary></summary></details><h2>a</h2><p>a</p></blockquote>
</blockquote>

The blockquotes are absolutely positioned and placed around the screen. Inside the blockquotes are the circles (<details> and <summary> elements), the rings/approach circles (<p>), and miss indicators (<h2>). There are also a few <h1> elements between the blockquotes used to mark the start of each section with different colored circles.

<blockquote>
	<details>
		<summary></summary>
	</details>
	<h2>a</h2>
	<p>a</p>
</blockquote>

You might notice the <p> and <h2> elements have "a" written inside them. This is simply because rDrama did not allow empty <p> and <h2> elements.

The approach circles (rings), circles, and miss indicators were all animated with CSS animations. Because osu! has set timings, it's easy to simply add an animation delay to determine when circles should appear. For example, circle 1 fades in 1.13 second after you click the play button, and circle 72 appears 32.73s seconds in.

#profile--bio blockquote > blockquote:nth-of-type(1) {
	animation-delay: 1.13s;
}

The circles, rings/approach circles, and miss indicators inherit the timing from the containing blockquote.

#profile--bio blockquote > blockquote p,
#profile--bio blockquote > blockquote details,
#profile--bio blockquote > blockquote h2 {
	animation-delay:inherit !important;
}

The play button consists of <details> and <summary> elements. When you click the play button, the open attribute gets added to the <details> element, and the play button gets hidden. The game only starts playing the animations for the other elements when the play button has the open attribute. The CSS uses the sibling selector to use the play button to target the other elements.

#profile--bio details[open] ~ blockquote details {
	animation:1.5s fadecircle ease-out;
	animation-fill-mode:forwards;
}

The above means that the circle (the second details) should have an animation named "fadecircle" only after the play button (the first details) has been clicked. The details[open] means that the details element has the "open" attribute. This looks like <details open> or <details open=""> in the HTML. The ~ is a sibling selector. If you write details ~ blockquote, it targets all blockquotes that are siblings of a details element (having the same parent element) and come after it in the HTML.

The circles need to be clickable for a limited amount of time. The visibility attribute both can be animated and affects interactivity. A circle's visibility is toggled through a CSS animation to make it clickable only when it's on screen.

@keyframes fadecircle {
	0% {
		visibility:hidden;
		opacity:0;
	}
	10% {
		visibility:visible;
		opacity:1;
	}
	90% {
		opacity:1;
		visibility:visible;
	}
	100% {
		visibility:hidden;
		opacity:0;
	}
}

When you click on a circle, it hides both the approach circle and the miss indicator. The miss indicator only appears after the circle fades out, meaning that if you click the circle, the miss indicator will never appear. Clicking the circle also makes the circle play a different animation to fade out as a white glow. Like with the play button, the open attribute is used to determine whether a circle was hit.

Hide approach circle after the circle (the second details) has been hit ([open])

#profile--bio details[open] ~ blockquote details[open] ~ p {
	display:none;
}

Play a different animation after the circle has been hit

#profile--bio > blockquote > blockquote > details[open] summary {
	background:none;
	animation:0.15s hitcircle linear;
	animation-fill-mode:forwards;
	border-width:6px;
}

The numbers on the circles and the hit counter were made using the CSS counter feature. The CSS counter feature allows us to count elements matching a certain selector and display the current count using the content attribute. For example, you can make a counter to count the number of circles and display the current count on each circle. That way, the 1st circle will be labelled 1, the 2nd circle will be labelled 2, and so on.

The first rule initializes 3 different counters to zero. The second adds 1 to two of the counters at every one of the 72 blockquotes inside the game. The third displays the current count of the counter circlenumbers on the circles.

#profile--bio {
	counter-reset:circlenumbers hitcircles totalcircles;
}

#profile--bio blockquote > blockquote {
	...
	counter-increment:circlenumbers totalcircles;
	...
}

#profile--bio > blockquote > blockquote > details > summary::before{
	content:counter(circlenumbers);
	...
}

There are different sections with different colors, and the circles in each section are numbered up starting from 1. To determine when each section starts, there are <h1> elements between the blockquotes. This allows us to use the sibling selector to target the blockquotes after each nth <h1> and change the circles' colors. The counter on the circles is also reset to 1 at each <h1>.

#profile--bio h1 {
	counter-set:circlenumbers 0;
	...
}

The default circle color is red. The circles in the first section use that color. The rules below override the colors of the circles after the first <h1> and the second <h1> with pink and purple respectively.

#profile--bio h1:first-of-type ~ blockquote summary {
	background-color:var(--pink-transparent);
}

#profile--bio h1:nth-of-type(2) ~ blockquote summary {
	background-color:var(--purple-transparent);
}

The hit counter counts the number of circles with the open attribute and is placed on the ::after pseudoelement attached to the outer container blockquote (the game screen). The element displaying this counter needs to be placed after all of the circles in order to count them all, and this meets the requirement.

#profile--bio > blockquote > blockquote details[open] {
	counter-increment:hitcircles;
}

#profile--bio > blockquote::after {
	content:"Total circles: " counter(totalcircles) " | Circles clicked: " counter(hitcircles);
	...
}

The timer was made using ::before and ::after pseudoelements with an animated content property. I found out this was possible from @iheartrdrama's former WPD CSS!

#profile--bio > blockquote details[open] ~ h1:nth-of-type(4)::before {
	content:"0:00";
	left:20px;
	animation:36s timer linear, 0.25s timerFade;
	animation-delay:0s, 36s;
	animation-fill-mode:forwards;
}

The other timer uses the same animation but in a reverse direction.

animation:36s timer linear, 0.25s timerFade;
animation-direction:reverse, normal;

Animation

@keyframes timer {
	0% {
		content:"0:00";
	}
	2.78% {
		content:"0:01";
	}
	...
	97.22% {
		content:"0:35";
	}
	100% {
		content:"0:36";
	}
}

Thanks for reading if you read this post, and thanks for playing if you played the game. :marseybow:

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redscarepod.net House Vampire Founder

JimieWhales she/bitch An educated, strictly organic, ortho molecular aware patriotic princess. 4d ago (youtube.com) 61 thread views #344386 earned 40 coins from votes

wage wars, get rich, die handsome

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ToeBeans She/Her LOOK AT THEM!! :marseyblush:

10d ago (bbc.com) 506 thread views #342596 earned 128 coins from votes

Dating apps could be in trouble – here's what might take their place

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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."

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Russian is acquiring territory at a rate of ~~100 dead/km². Another~~ 50 million dead, and they'll control all of Ukraine.

There are more than 50 million Russians, so it's doable.

So smart.

Yet he forgets that Ukraine is about to mobilise their 18 years old. And that Russian captured in 2024 more than in 2023 and all their big gains happened the last 3 months.

Why look at those facts if it will make things look bad for Ukraine ? I mean Ukraine is going to win any moment they get the game changer… wait he ain't talking about Ukrainian victory, what happened ? :marseytroll:

Area taken really doesn't show the full picture. You could probably calculate that it would take something like 100 years for Russia to take the whole of Ukraine. However neither Russia or Ukraine can't keep this level of warfare up more than a few years at most. One of them will eventually collapse either from lack of manpower/equipment or due to economy.

Shut up stupid Redditor

This. One of them is going to give up because both are really, really struggling. Both are running out if people. Both are irritating their allies. Both are getting increasingly desperate.

Exactly

The difference is that Russia is running on volunteers while Ukraine is conscription. Most of those volunteers come from the most impoverished areas of Russia and even from foreign countries. Russia can keep the war going much longer than Ukraine

Shut up no truth Russian soldiers having low moral

https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1fng9wy/russian_morale_is_collapsing_now_is_the_time_to/

Well, this ignores the fact that Russia is losing its position in the world (like in Syria) and that its economy is increasingly in trouble. It also misses the fact that the motivations are dramatically different. The Ukrainians are fighting for their very survival, they have very little incentive to surrender. The Russians are fighting for pride and money, which means they just want it all to wrap up quickly. The Ukrainians are far more committed to their fight than the Russians who are just there for a paycheck.

Exactly !

Ukrainian Journ*list Yuriy Butusov confirmed that 1,700 soldiers from 155th mechanized brigade "Anna Kyivska", which was trained in France and sent to Pokrovsk deserted before the first battle. He added that the brigade commander was dismissed immediately after the battle, and…
— AMK Mapping 🇺🇦🇳🇿 (@AMK_Mapping_) January 1, 2025

Ukrainian so motivated that after half year training in France they run away from their first battle. Not the second or third but first :marseybinladen:

Majority of Ukrainian dislike Zelenskyy, don't want 18 year old mobilised are ready to give up the territory

Burgers cuts the nafo budget and all the "combat Russian misinformation" budget. Media starts painting digits that tell majority of European now want it all just end :marseyjanny2:

Ahmad Al Sharaa said in an interview with Saudi Arabian state-owned news outlet Al Arabiya this weekend. "We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish."

Al Sharaa, still better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad Al Jolani (and other simply just as Jolani), is head of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebel coalition that deposed Assad.

"All of Syria's arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts," Al Sharaa further told Al Arabiya, while also highlighting the "deep strategic interests" of what he described as the "second most powerful country in the world."

@DaddyReagan

Was insisting to me that Russian run away from that base like almost a month ago. Except Ukraine and EU (that ain't even part of that Syrian party) ain't interested in Russian leaving Syria. Redditors are too stupid to understand Israel, US, Turkey and the new Syrian gov won't benefit from Russian leaving.

"That isn't entirely true Russia forces are actually expanding And that has been noted on many occasions by NATO generals 1- https://www.businessinsider.com/top-us-general-russia-growing-back-pre-war-military-strength-2024-4

2- Atlantic council talking about how Russia military is expanding and it might reach peak military production in 2025 -2026 https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/nato-russia-dynamics-prospects-for-reconstitution-of-russian-military-power/

3- https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4589095-russian-army-grown-ukraine-war-us-general/

4- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-16/putin-says-russia-recruited-more-than-430-000-to-army-this-year

Since start of the war Russia conducted a semi mobilization for reserves

Meanwhile ukraine conducted six mobilization efforts in 2014 and 2015 Since the start of the war Ukraine have conducted countless mobilization and Ukraine has been snatching people from streets for year and half now

Antony blinken said in interview that Ukraine Basically has more equipment than troops at this point of time and they need to mobilize fast and also No increase in equipments will save them

"

Stupid Redditor making sense

With Trump as president, Ukraine will fall. It's a sad reality but we need to start admitting it.

This is smart Redditor, despite Ukraine last victory was on October 3rd 2022 so more than 50% of Biden presidency was without Ukrainian victories. So next years you will hear from them that Ukraine lost because of Trump :marseyxd:

Because if Biden had won then Ukrainian demographics would been fixed. Can you argue with it ? You can't because you ain't multiverse creature that can test it :surejan:

russia will collapse in 2025
— HotSotin 🇫🇮🇺🇦🇮🇱🇹🇼🇺🇸 NAFO (@HotSotin) December 31, 2024

That what I am talking about ! Oh wait it's not Ukraine going to win it's Russia going to collapse because subliminally they know Ukraine ain't going to win so they are coping with Russia will callabse :soyjakwow:

My fav prokhohol last year was this guy

Two things can be true at the same time.

Russia is advancing south of Pokrovsk, at huge sacrifice. Taking monstrous casualties and capturing a very small amount of land.

Ukrainian forces there are overwhelmingly outnumbered and feel hopeless as a result.

Both are true.
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 10, 2024

It actually isn’t a good result for Russia to shove a division into a fight with a few battalions and end up taking catastrophic casualties while capturing not much land. No matter how hopeless and overwhelmed the defenders feel.
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 10, 2024

I know a lot of people are currently obsessed with Russia’s advances in Ukraine, but I personally see these advances as largely a failure of the Russian military. They are dumping entire Divisions directly into combat and advancing a few km while sustaining absolutely…
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 7, 2024

Writes billions words in early December about Russian are now slowing down, Russian in December 2024 had best month since March 2022. Slowing down baby :gigachad2:

Ukraine has two extremely toxic problems that should have been addressed a long time ago, but never were.

First, there is this pervasive idea that being mobilized into the military is basically a death sentence. Which is entirely untrue.
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 11, 2024

First, there is this pervasive idea that being mobilized into the military is basically a death sentence. Which is entirely untrue.

:marseyxd: :marseycoin: :marseyonegramgold:

Ukraine literally didn't had any demobilisation the only way you get delisted from army in Ukraine is if you lose combat capability

Second, there is this idea that once mobilized, you can no longer contribute to the economy. This is asinine. Of course they can. There are many models of mobilization that allow people to keep their jobs and continue working while also being trained.
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 11, 2024

There are many models of mobilization that allow people to keep their jobs and continue working while also being trained

Ukraine has shortened the training requirements and so did eu for Ukrainian

So this homo suggest that Ukraine that is short on men power and has hard time replacing loses will just for lol train some guy to send him back to his regular job ? :marseygold:

This homo banned me but you can see he is genius. He believes that Ukraine has 6-12 months training and will do it 2 times :marseyxd: Ukraine officially has 8 weeks training and in reality 2-3 and he talks about 100 weeks training

Then he finish of with this

Russian government: we have manpower problems
Russian military: we have manpower problems
Russian soldiers: we have manpower problems

People on twitter: RUSSIA HAS INFINITE MANPOWER AND WILL LAST FOREVER
— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) December 14, 2024

And blocks comments because he wants to believe Russian having as much problems as Russian

I mean legendary frog brigade proved this point

Remember they haven't even really mobilized yet.
— Tom Neznamy (@Tom_Neznamy) December 14, 2024

So back to the front lines

Russian forces have completed the capture of Kurakhove. pic.twitter.com/tYSzMlLmzD
— KalibratedMaps (@Kalibrated_Maps) December 31, 2024

Kurakhove has fully been captured so now Ukraine will lose whole lower half of Donetsk and fight will start in Dniper region

As one Redditor wrote in og post

Once prokovsk is taken there is only fields till Dnipro, so loosing the Donbas would lose Ukraine the war. Taking the Donbas is by far the hardest part. Just look at WW 2 mr super military genius

Donbas is the most defensible part of that whole region of Ukraine / Russia, as you said first the Germans had trouble going through it and then Soviets too when they were retaking land. The guy calling this advancement against 2014 super entrenched defensive lines insignificant just outed himself as knowing nothing about the war

Ukrainian mappers of course don't report it

Since admitting Kurakhove has fully Ben lost is admitting that black line territory will be soon lost and chances are for truth Sirsky is going to mobilise then as he did with deepstatemap :marseyxd:

Many people have high hopes with Trump that he will come and end it all.

And I have a good news, he won't :marseyparty:

2025 will be year of legal battle. They talking about peace deal but what peace deal if nether Russia nor Ukraine are fighting each others ? :marseyjanny2:

For a peace deal there must be a legal conflict and there just no conflict on paper. Russia wants that Ukraine side says that those 5 oblast are Russian territory. That something Ukraine side won't do since its defacto killing Ukraine, they of course don't have power to recapture it but they need cope that one day they will be able to do it. US offers no nato for Ukraine for 20 years. So every side wants to come out as victorious. But what West and Ukraine is offering Russia is just a draw and not fixing the reasons why Russia invaded. Why would Russia accept it after it survived all the giga western weapons. Aid for Ukraine is now around 500 billions that's inflation adjusted is 3 times more than lend lease to Soviet Union. And Biden created lend lease for Ukraine but never used it, you wonder why ? Because he was giving everything for free to Ukraine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_Democracy_Defense_Lend-Lease_Act_of_2022

Lend lease was such pathos moment

So after all the epic pathos moment how Russia will be defeated by united west

The scary tanks and long range missiles, Ukrainian are on their back foot without any ability to regain balance, west is offering Russian a draw :marseyjanny2:

So you see it's ether Ukraine recognise that those 5 oblast are Russian or the grind will go on

As I mentioned before Zelenskyy is dead if he recognises those 5 oblast as Russian and he already against elections since now even republicans ask it and he still says no

So don't worry bros Slavshit won't end in 2025

Have a good year, see you again around February, need to study, will have exams about how bad and evil Trump is. Had to listen like 2 hours about how Trump is facist but you can't call him facist :marseythumbsup: