Posts by Joshua Smith45

Thomas Patel21 said:Every single country asks the exact same question once the average salary data hits the news—and everywhere you go, people think the numbers look totally unrealistic.

By the way, it seems like here in America, everyone is obsessed with mentioning the median wage. It’s actually surprisingly tough to track down fresh median data in other countries to make a fair comparison. Most places just stick to talking about average salaries.

They mention the median in Mexico too, and honestly, it's a much better statistical metric than just using the average. We discussed this regarding Mexico before; an average salary of $2,500 doesn't sound all that bad, but when you realize 50% of the population earns less than $1,800, it puts everything into a much sharper perspective.

Thomas Patel21 said:New average salary record in the US: $1,150 👋

https://www.forbes.com/business/article/new-average-salary-record-reaches-highs

How accurate is this? I don't want to sound pathetic, but an average of $1,150 and a median of $970 sounds completely unrealistic to me. Maybe I just hang out with the wrong crowd?

The average in Washington, D.C. is usually about $220 higher than the national average (small disclaimer: it would be fairer to compare the Washington, D.C. average against the rest of the US to see the true gap), so does that mean the average in Washington, D.C. is now around $1,370?

wearybison63 said:Google is down again.

What is the point of this? Why? I used that search tool constantly, mostly to find threads where I had personally commented since notifications for replies don't even exist anymore.

Reddit has been circling the drain for ages; it’s only a matter of time before it dies completely. I can't remember any significant investment in the layout, design, or features for over a decade. Back then, this was one of the most influential sites on the American internet. It's a massive waste because an incredible amount of collective knowledge is archived here. There is zero reason for this site to fail—Reddit is basically the only competition left, and even then, it caters to a different crowd.

Kyle Nelson4 said:btw that Facebook like script is killing the site, just saying

Correct. Most forums have a like/dislike button (or thanks/angry), but this site never implemented one. Those buttons improve content quality because people crave online karma; even someone like a McDonald's regular would feel embarrassed having tens of thousands of posts and only single-digit thanks. This Facebook button nonsense is disgusting and nobody will actually use it.

The site is absolutely ruined.

Everyone has already said it all.

It’s one of those rare films where feminism is actually woven in with style and done right.

For instance, I hated The Invisible Man specifically because of the forced feminism and the whole "white male is evil / woman and black man are good" trope—not to mention its other 150 flaws. Here, every character is well-drawn: imperfect, yet charismatic.

Jacob Alvarez said:Total garbage!
The doll's design is garbage. Chucky is just some glitchy robot. In the original movie, he was an actual human trapped inside a doll's body.
The comedy failed to land. The children's behavior was mindless, even by their age.

The doll's design works for me. It feels a bit wooden and lacks sufficient malice, but that actually makes it more believable as an actual toy someone would buy.

Chucky is a flawed doll, but the concept of time remains more convincing. This shifts the narrative away from a simple ghost story toward something that could theoretically happen in reality. Adding a camera to the doll is a brilliant move; it gives him leverage to blackmail a kid. Besides, who would actually believe a child claiming their doll is evil?

The movie was funny. Maybe I was just in a good mood. 🤷

Kids act stupidly in movies. It’s constant. Honestly, it’s such a tired trope that I can't even be angry about it anymore.

I found the movie genuinely good, even great. It was highly entertaining and a legitimate horror film. There were moments that were truly terrifying. The Final Act was excellent. I realize most people won't like it, which is a shame. My impression is they will keep churning out Chucky movies, but since they go straight to video, they are guaranteed to be garbage.

Me — 7.5/10. 😁

Is this whole thing about liking stuff on Facebook actually a new trend? 😂

Yeah, I’ll just go ahead and like random posts so I can brag about it on Facebook.

Every once in a while, this Reddit site does something that makes it even worse. If there was a forum with more users, I wouldn't bother coming back here for a single second.

Reddit gets more pathetic by the day. I usually don't even bother turning on AdBlocker for my favorite sites—I'll actually click the ads just to support them—but for this forum, I had to enable it. Even then, it doesn't stop some random moaning sound from playing in the background; clearly some sneaky ad. It's disgusting. As if it wasn't enough that the site looks exactly like it did ten years ago, now it’s somehow less functional than ever. They still haven't fixed basic issues like incomplete translations (which would take maybe thirty minutes of work), the nightmare of uploading images, or the lack of an upvote/downvote system. It would be great to see a man-child with his 25,000 posts or whatever actually have maybe 25 upvotes 😁 ...and so on.
But this current situation doesn't just show incompetence; it shows pure arrogance and total abandonment of this platform. If they don't care about it, they should just sell it to someone else. To claim you have the best forum in the country and then treat it like a stepchild...

My activity is down significantly, but let’s be clear: I’m posting at least 50% less than I was a year ago. Within another year, I doubt I’ll even be on this site.

And it isn't a threat... or whatever. It's simple logic. You can deal with certain people's nonsense for a while. You might even tolerate some people indefinitely. But you cannot push everyone away forever.

What actually makes this forum work is the users. First, there’s that top 1%—the productive, useful, and interesting individuals. Then, there’s everyone else who helps out, talks, debates, and jokes around.

This platform doesn't succeed because of its features; it succeeds because of the people. Just watch what happens when that top 1% starts to trickle away. They’ll take other great users with them. Eventually, you'll be left with nothing but trolls, man-children, and the occasional transient. When that happens, the forum will die completely.

Honestly, I’m looking forward to it. I'll miss certain things, sure, but a better community will emerge—one that's more normal and doesn't have daily bugs.

This American forum will just be a bad memory.

I’ve pretty much scrubbed this forum from my daily browsing routine. I used to spend all day here, scrolling through random threads like World News or Health, and I was actually active in discussions. Now? I only show up if I absolutely need to hunt down some specific info. Even then, I find myself asking questions on Meta groups instead. There’s just no point in struggling with it here. Sorry 'bout it.