Hi everyone!

Last year lemmy.ca ran a census for our instance, and this year we wanted to solicit feedback ahead of time. Since other instances expressed interest in running similar censuses, having some agreed upon questions would make it easier to do comparisons. (previous: lemmy.ca results, lemmy.nz results).

Timeline wise, for our instance, we are thinking of gathering feedback for the rest of the month and then running the census early in the new year. We are open to adjusting when we run it, to align with other instances.

General areas of feedback:

Self Identification / Categorization

With some questions, it is difficult to have a predetermined list of options. Last year we included a free form entry option, and then created word clouds with the full list. However, that is not as insightful, and it takes a lot of time to process. For this year, do you prefer:

• A set of options + a free form option (same as last year)
• A set of options only

Please share if you know of a resource that has a good/inclusive set of options for the question types. Even if a free form option is included, a better set of options as a base will lead to better data.

For context, these were the questions where this happened:

• What is your ethnicity?
• How do you identify? (sexual orientation)
• What is your occupation / field of Work?

Data collection & Results

Last year we used Google forms for collection, and a spreadsheet for calculations and analysis. Visualization was done with google sheets, an open source word cloud generator (github link), and DataWrapper (link) for an interactive display on our website.

This year the plan is similar, although we’re interested to try chart.js for the visualizations. We had some issues with DataWrapper displays, and having the code be open source would make it easier for others to replicate. One consideration is data privacy (do we commit anonymized data to the repo, host it elsewhere and import it, etc.).

Sometime in the future, it might be nice to have a template and/or pipeline that everyone can use, for consistency and to minimize work. In the meantime, do you have any thoughts or recommendations?

Fun Question

Last year we asked about people's favourite dessert. It would be cool to do something similar this year. Do you have any suggestions for a fun question? Some ideas:

• Favourite comfort food
• Favourite fruit
• Favourite color (with a hex code input)

Proposed Questions

Where applicable, I’ve included changes from last year. Depending on the type of instance you run (ex. regional or not), you may want to skip, add, or modify questions.

Section 1: Where is everyone from?

Where are you from?

• Canada? (yes / no)
  • If in Canada, which province or territory?
  • If not, which continent?

What is the size of your community? (rural / urban / suburban / other)

• suburban and other are new options

In your opinion, what is the quality of your internet connection? (poor, reasonable, excellent)

What is your internet speed?

• new question inspired by lemmy.nz
• we may include a link to a speed test site for convenience, and have a free form entry

Section 2: Who are you?

What age range do you fall into? (0-9, 10-19, etc.)

Ethnicity? (options uncertain, see above)

Gender Identity? (Man, Woman, Non-binary person, Genderfluid)

• Optionally, we could include a free form entry 'other' option, and list the input in a separate list.

Are you someone with trans experience (yes / no)

How do you identify? (options uncertain, see above)

Disability Status (yes / no)

• New separate question inspired by lemmy.nz

Disability Status (free form entry)

• Last year we manually processed the text inputs and displayed them in a list. We're open to hearing suggestions on better ways to run this question!

Educational Background

• Last year we had multi-select, which didn't make sense. This year we can split it into a few questions:
  • Are you currently in school? (yes / no)
    • What are you studying? (single selection, see list below)
  • Highest level of education completed (single selection, see list below)
  • All past education (multi-select, see list below)
  • List of options:
    • No formal education
    • Some secondary school (high school)
    • Secondary school (high school) diploma
    • GED
    • Trade / technical / vocational training
    • Some Post-secondary (college, university, CÉGEP)
    • College diploma
    • Associate degree
    • Bachelor's degree
    • Master's degree
    • Professional degree (MD, JD, MBA, etc.)
    • Doctorate (PhD, etc.)
    • Other

Employment Status (full-time, part-time, self-employed, student, retired, unemployed, other)

• Last year we also got responses for 'homemaker', 'disabled', 'active duty military'. We could add these as options, or include a free form 'other' entry for them.

Field of Work (options uncertain, see above)

• This question was a free form entry last year, and it was very difficult to process. Having a solid list of options would be ideal in this case.
• We could include an 'other' option with a free form entry, with a note that any response will not be included in the main results and will be displayed as-is in a separate list.

Section 3: Instance Usage

How many {instance name} communities do you participate in? (0, 1-9, 10-19, 20+)

If you moderate any communities, how many? (number input)

• Last year this was a multi-select, but a number input would be more straightforward

What community do you want to see on {instance name}? (free form entry)

What existing community do you want to see more people using? (free form entry)

• This is a new question.

On average, how much time do you spend on Lemmy each day? (<1 hour, 1-2 hours, 2-3, 3-5, 5-8, 8-13, 13-21, 21+)

How often do you visit {instance name}? (multiple times a day, daily, weekly, monthly, rarely)

• This is a new question.

How do you access Lemmy most often? (desktop, mobile (including tablet), both about equally)

• (including tablet) is a new addition
• both about equally is a new option

If you use desktop, what operating system do you use? (Windows, MacOS, Linux, I don't use desktop, other)

• New question

On desktop, which interfaces do you use? (default, Mlymym, Photon, Voyager, Alexandrite, I don't use desktop)

• I don't use desktop is a new option, and will be separate from the 'skip this question' option

Is there another interface you would like us to add? (free form entry)

• New question

If you use mobile, what operating system do you use? (Android, iOS, I don't use mobile, other)

• I don't use mobile and other are new options

On mobile, how do you access Lemmy?

• We will include an updated list of apps, and a free form entry for any new ones
• We will include an option for I don't use mobile, web browser, and other, in addition to the skip this question option

If you primarily access lemmy.ca through different Lemmy/Kbin instance, please list it below (optional) (free form entry)

What other decentralized / federated platforms do you use?

• Some potential options: none, Mbin, Kbin, PieFed, Mastodon, Bluesky, Pixelfed, Peertube, Loop, Bookwyrm, WriteFreely, Pleroma, Friendica, Misskey, Writefreely, + free form entry

Fun Question (yet to be determined)

Feedback (free form entry)

General Changes:

• All questions will have a 'skip this question' option
• Fewer random comments from me when reporting the results. I looked back at them afterwards and thought they might be a bit much.

I thought the CT scans were neat

It's a weird headline, but the discussion is around how journalists and the public look through internet history in cases like this. Some of it is helpful, some of it is not.

In particular, it's a response to this article:

'Extremely ironic': Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying played video game killer, friend recalls (NBCNews)

The game in this case being AmongUs...

Monday night, NBC News published an article with the headline “’Extremely Ironic’: Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO Slaying Played Video Game Killer, Friend Recalls.” This article is currently all over every single one of my social media feeds, because it is emblematic of the type of research I described above. It is a very bad article whose main reason for existing is the fact that it contains a morsel of “new” “information,” except the “information” in this case is that Luigi Mangione played the video game Among Us at some point in college.

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/72744

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/72352

[...] Many users are complaining of hallucinated artists' stats, songs they've never heard appearing in most listened lists, and more. Some users aren't happy with the way that Spotify Wrapped looked this year, complaining that it was boring, and not as creative as previous years. [...]

One of the most common complaints seems to be that Spotify Wrapped has misreported on the stats in claims to represent. Now, while this has happened in previous years, this year it seems to be a whole lot more prevalent — as you can see in this Spotify support thread. It's filled with users complaining about top artists they've never listened to, songs appearing in at the top of their lists that they didn't even know existed, or a mixture of the two.

Just anecdotally talking with people outside the internet-o-sphere and you'll quickly find people with iffy Spotify Wrapped statistics. I have friends who listen exclusively to bizarre, underground punk acts, and their Wrappeds were topped by the likes of The Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Even on the Tom's Guide team, we've seen strangeness — our own Millie Fender discovered Swift among her top artists, yet her songs didn't appear in her top 100.

Just read people's reactions online, especially in the trending topic on X or even the announcement thread on Reddit. Many are blaming Spotify's pivot to AI this year for the lack of personality, and some even hold it responsible for their weird Spotify statistics. I have reached out to Spotify for comment, but I am yet to hear a response.

What can we do?

First off, there are other streaming platforms with year-end roundups. Deezer, for example, has unleashed My Deezer Year, and like everything the French streamer does, it's filled with creativity and personality. That's a streaming service with better sound quality too. Apple Music has its Replay feature, which similarly takes you through your year. There are options.

If you're duty-bound to Spotify, then there is a way to really check your most-listened-to artists, songs, and genres — Track your listening with Last.FM, for example, which gives you breakdowns over the course of the year. Whatever happens, I (and many others) are hoping that Spotify Wrapped is a whole lot better next year.

Welcome to release v1.122.0 of Immich. After a long release break, Immich is back and brings many new features with loads of bug fixes to enhance the user experience further and make Immich more delightful to use. Some of the highlights below:

• HDR video support in the mobile app
• Multiple URLs for machine learning service
• Automatic switching between server URLs in the mobile app
• Ability to hide users when searching in an Immich instance
• Access the most recent albums through the web navigation bar
• Custom email templates
• Automatically clean up files left behind by interrupted uploads
• More responsive hosted maps for users in Oceania
• Notable fix: swiping between videos failing on older Android devices

Description from github:

A C++ based, lightweight music and noise remover for YouTube and other internet media, using DeepFilterNet for audio enhancement.

Demo Video & Info

Direct link to demo video

Source post: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1h7k7fa/

I am introducing you Fast Music Remover (https://github.com/omeryusufyagci/fast-music-remover); a free and open source tool that filters internet media.

We consume, willingly or not, large amounts of media everyday, and that includes content that is emposed on us. I want to give you the choice to opt-out of them without missing out on the core content.

We're building a feature rich media processor that is efficient, modular and cross platform. It's being built for you! This means: clean and light APIs for programmers, containerized on GHCR for remote users, with a Web UI for anyone interested!

Today, we support background music filtering and noise removal to enhance audio quality. In the near future, we are looking at supporting multiple ML models as well as DSP modules to empower you with the tools you need to take control over the media you consume.

There is a demo video on the readme as well as clear instructions on how to use FMR. You can immediately start by getting the docker image available at: https://github.com/omeryusufyagci/fast-music-remover/pkgs/container/fast-music-remover

If you have any feedback at all, please let me know. Thank you!

https://downdetector.com/

I assumed my internet was down until I opened Lemmy. Looking around, I'm seeing complaints about google and google services (gmail, drive, etc.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/34269340

Here is what I found so far:

Pokemon:

• [email protected] (active)
• [email protected] (active)
• [email protected] (somewhat active)

Pokemon Pocket: [email protected] (new & active)

Pokemon Go: [email protected] (active)

Pokemon Cards: [email protected] (inactive, needs love)

Pokemon Memes: [email protected] (inactive, needs love)

Image source, supposedly it's based on a lemming**___**

Here is what I found so far:

Pokemon:

• [email protected] (active)
• [email protected] (active)
• [email protected] (somewhat active)

Pokemon Pocket: [email protected] (new & active)

Pokemon Go: [email protected] (active)

Pokemon Cards: [email protected] (inactive, needs love)

Pokemon Memes: [email protected] (inactive, needs love)

Image source, supposedly it's based on a lemming**___**

The article has full details, excerpts below

The week before Thanksgiving, Marshall Brain sent a final email to his colleagues at North Carolina State University. "I have just been through one of the most demoralizing, depressing, humiliating, unjust processes possible with the university," wrote the founder of HowStuffWorks.com and director of NC State's Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. Hours later, campus police found that Brain had died by suicide.

Marshall David Brain II established HowStuffWorks.com in 1998 as a personal project to explain technical topics to general audiences. The website grew into a major success that Discovery Communications acquired for $250 million in 2007. He later expanded his educational reach through books like The Engineering Book and television shows on National Geographic Channel [...]

Brain was also well-known in futurist and transhumanist circles. In 2003, his "Robotic Nation" essay, published freely on the web, predicted that widespread automation and robotics would cause a massive labor crisis by 2050, warning that up to half of American jobs could be eliminated, leading to unprecedented unemployment and social upheaval. [...]

At 4:29 am—just two and a half hours before he was discovered dead in his office, Brain sent a final email, obtained by Ars Technica, to over 30 recipients inside and outside the university. In the detailed letter, Brain disputed an announcement made by his boss, Stephen Markham, executive director of NC State's Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. Markham had told staff Brain would retire effective December 31, 2025. Brain wrote that he had instead been terminated on October 29 and was forced into retirement as a face-saving option.

The termination followed Brain's filing of ethics complaints through the university's EthicsPoint system about an employee at the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The complaints stemmed from an August dispute over repurposing the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program meeting space.

"What got us to this point? The short answer is that I witnessed wrongdoing on campus, and I tried to report it," Brain wrote in his email. "What came back was a sickening nuclear bomb of retaliation the likes of which could not be believed," Brain wrote in the email. He stated that the accused person "excommunicated me from my department for reporting my concerns to her."

In his email, Brain wrote that the school's head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering later informed him the department would stop recommending students for Brain's Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. According to Brain's account, this led to disciplinary action against Brain for "unacceptable behavior."

"My career has been destroyed by multiple administrators at NCSU who united together and completely ignored the EthicsPoint System and its promises to employees," Brain wrote. "I did what the University told me to do, and then these administrators ruined my life for it."

[...] Dror Baron, an NCSU professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, wrote on X, "A professor I know died following various investigations. I know the people mentioned here, and call for a transparent and independent investigation."

So far, that investigation has not been forthcoming. University spokesperson Mick Kulikowski declined to comment to The Technician about Brain's death or the allegations. To date, the university has not issued a public statement about Brain's death.

Barry and Kashani expressed disappointment in the university's lack of public response. "It's been six days now," Kashani said at the time to the school newspaper. "There hasn't been any acknowledgment of mistakes that were made, systems that failed, no resignations, not even a call to celebrate Marshall's achievements."