- one forum thread
- 5 years ago
- “Fixed it, nevermind!”
Or the dreaded “here’s a quick step-by-step solution in these screenshots” followed by every single image link being dead/purged/removed by forum moderators.
And this is exactly why I refuse to be that person. I go back to my old posts and do a full write-up on how I fixed the issue. Hell, in many cases I’ll even post step-by-step screenshots in a follow-up comment, (though I’ll still explain everything in detail, in case the forum purges the images some day in the distant future.) If I had to do some basic scripting for the fix, I’ll include the script with full comments and sources cited for how the script works.
Hell, in some cases I’ve even included .bat files as attachments, (in a separate standalone comment, in case forum mods get twitchy about scripts being shared and delete the comment) along with instructions on how to use them (or how to modify them for your own use.)
My hope is that the comments can be a lighthouse for some lost and lonely person who is struggling. Because I’ve been there, and I know exactly how frustrating the “fixed it, never mind” comment is.
Welcome to enshittified search, many have noticed it’s approach for years. Although this specific issue indicates you may be going about things ass backwards, if no-ones done it you’re either a pioneer who should be aware or you’re on hard mode coz you didn’t think it through or do your research.
It all boils down to content farms for advertising dollars and SEO borking search engines for profit, not going away soon. Two approaches to mitigate, git gud at prompting llms like GPT or find a better search solution. Apparently kagi gives some good results, or at least has a lot of stans. I stood up a personal SearxNG instance, so now I get results from multiple engines and have the ability to blacklist content farms, and a whole bunch of other things (personal bangs!), it’s significantly better, not 2010 better, but better. A local 8x7B mixtral helps quite a bit as well.
Second only to the hatred I feel for the cheeky fuck who says “why would you possibly want to do that that’s dumb” to someone looking to do something niche
Don’t worry guys I fixed it
On my 30 years on the internet, I noticed I rarely return to explain problems I solve if I have to make an account.
If I’m logged into GitHub or SO, no problem. Answer or code away.
But typically it’s on random forum or some blog I never heard of, and to create an account… Bleh.
I was like this because I didn’t want to use my email address. It inevitably just means more spam.
But check this out: https://port87.com
You can give out an address just for them, then block it when they spam you (or just for fun).
(Full disclosure: I wrote this service and run it.)
