#indieweb 2026-01-19
2026-01-19 UTC
[bunnyguy]1, Oclair_, oxtyped_, plantroon_, TwinAdam, rdg_, [morgan]1, thegreekgeek, [snarfed]2, sebbu2, geoffo_, [dpk], gRegorLove_, powerLien, sandra_, sdk-, saptaks, k3can0, Maker1, aks_, jetpack_, burgeonlab_, cotsuka_, ACG, plantroon, artlung, doesnm_ and Maker joined the channel
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[tantek] TIL: Bean soup theory 😂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_soup_theory - a phenomenon I've known about but didn't know there was a name for. Another social media algorithm downside, and hopefully unlikely to impact comments on indieweb posts
powerLien, daemonspudguy, doesnm_, arkadio, [artlung], [aciccarello], Ekul, JadedBlueEyes, plantroon, oxtyped, DanQ, coldfeet, Kaptan, cambridgeport90, jeremycherfas, gordinator and cambridgeport91 joined the channel
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[jeremycherfas] Fun badges aks
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Manprit Hello! I wanted to share a small website I’ve been working on as a passion project. Leaving it here in case it’s of interest: https://superpositionstore.com/
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# arekenaten I don’t understand the bean soup thing. Is it a critique of people who don’t understand the target audience of a piece of media? It seems reasonable to want to interact with something that comes close to your need or want and ask about variations.
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# [tantek] The other variant of this I've seen is where someone sees something missing or unmentioned (that they personally like or care about) in a public social media post and interprets that as if the original poster hates or doesn't care about that something. E.g. public post: "I like chocolate ice cream". Reply; "why do you hate vanilla?"
# [morgan] I do think this kind of stuff is exacerbated by algorithms
# [morgan] But likely has existed in forms for many years before the web etc. this kind of humor or thing
# [morgan] To be fair I think anyone in particular circumstances can act like this to a degree, its not a necessarily fixed personality trait, but its definitely related to a lot of derailment and occasional anti chill behavior
# [morgan] Just too much infinite scroll, usage of self-serving chatbots, that kinda stuff I think puts people in this vibe more often
# [morgan] The closest humor I can remember is a barista friend who talked about people who would order like really specific almost non-coffee orders at a coffee shops "quarter shot decaf pumpkin spice lattes togo cup with 3 sugars"
# [morgan] Not really the same but it made me think about it
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# [morgan] New cohorts of people are learning that not all is good for us that comes through screens, and bean soup is as good as any of a relatable way of communicating some aspect of that I guess is my thought
# [jeremycherfas] The bean soup as related above reminds me most strongly of Jack Nicholson’s order of rye toast in Five Easy Pieces. This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdIXrF34Bz0
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# [Al_Abut] @to2ds yep, I'm hosting live events for the movie club going forward. It’s not a substitute for the blog series, if that’s what you’re asking? Just an additional fun thing on top.
# [tantek] [snarfed] ++ good call. I've heard of SE in the past but didn't connect the dots. I do think the specific clusters of behavior are worth labeling as distinct. Will have to go cross link some Wikipedia pages now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_effect
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# aspizu im making a badge that says "AI-free" to let people know that u don't use AI to generate content in your projects
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Loqi A large language model is (AKA LLM) usually a reference to a service, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, that synthesizes text based on a massive set of prose typically crawled and indexed from the open web and other sources and should not be used to contribute content to the IndieWeb wiki; several IndieWeb sites disclaim any use thereof for their content https://indieweb.org/not_by_AI
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gRegor There's a button there ^ too if interested: https://notbyai.fyi/
# aspizu i have a few issues with this particular badge
# aspizu 1. it doesn't say 100% AI-free, they only require 90% AI-free
# aspizu 2. they have a paid verification system
# aspizu 3. its focused on art rather than code
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# aspizu also, they require you putting your email address in to get the badges
# gRegor Hotlinking seems to work fine: https://indieweb.org/buttons#Related_efforts
# aspizu for commercial use, you haave to pay 99$ to just "download" the badges
# aspizu [edit] for commercial use, you have to pay 99$ to just "download" the badges
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# aspizu i am doing it in a retro-style
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# aspizu thoughts?
# aspizu should i add the 3d bevel effect like the old badges
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# IWDiscord <aspizu>
# [Al_Abut] Icon feedback: I'd go with a robot 🤖
# [Al_Abut] The circuits are a bit busy and I had to zoom in on my phone to see what it says. Plus you need some padding to the left of ai and to the right of free to make it readable.
# [Al_Abut] The notbyai buttons have the same problem. Why a smiley face? Again a bot or something clearly mechanical would make more instant sense.
# aspizu the smiley face makes it look straight out of black mirror to me
# [Al_Abut] I get the ironic vibe, like a Nirvana shirt, and it should scale down to small sizes well.
# [Al_Abut] But it's too generic IMO
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[KevinMarks] The smiley face is likely a reference to the shoggoth trope, but I think that's old now
# IWDiscord <aspizu>
# [Al_Abut] [KevinMarks] that's a deep cut
# [Al_Abut] [gRegorLove] I can see the smiley face working like you said if they changed the text to emphasize that human-made angle, like 100% HUMAN in all caps and tiny subtext saying “no ai”.
# [KevinMarks] There's a history of using the smiley face ominously in comics from Watchmen to Boss Smiley in Sandman
# [Al_Abut] Oh the irony of having to enter contact info to download a button to prove that you're human instead of making your own…
# [Al_Abut] 🤦♂️
# [Al_Abut] [manton] I love your movie posts from this weekend. Could I entice you into picking one to host from an upcoming movie club?
# [Al_Abut] https://indieweb.org/IndieWeb_Movie_Club
# [Al_Abut] [KevinMarks] I get the irony, that's why I mentioned Nirvana.
# [Al_Abut] I thought it was an Xmas tree
# [Al_Abut] Had to literally screenshot and zoom to see the circuits
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# aspizu brain and circuit is a common metaphor for AI
# [Al_Abut] [manton] awesome! And thanks for turning me on to the anime for Edge Of Tomorrow. I'd read the manga but didn't know there was a new version.
# aspizu what about this ✨ ? its also a common metaphor used in user interface
# [Al_Abut] I don't think it works small
# aspizu let me try
# [KevinMarks] 🚫 AI free
# [Al_Abut] Honestly I don't get using anything other than a bot but am open to seeing if someone can come up with something
# aspizu never heard of it
# [Al_Abut] Oh [KevinMarks] and his text-based comedy
# aspizu okay is the 100% human subtext good?
# [Al_Abut] I want to see you at an open mic sometime
# [tantek] Maybe the most popular sci-fi ever in China? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)
# aspizu the 🚫 symbol is usually used in X-free badges like "gluten-free"
# [KevinMarks] I used to do Ignite talks, which are a bit like a tight five, but I don't think I could do the crowd work
# [KevinMarks] 🦜⃠ combining unicode never quite works
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# [KevinMarks] AI⃠
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# [Al_Abut] [KevinMarks] the idea of crowd work at a tech event just made me laugh
# [KevinMarks] Ꜹ⃠
# [Al_Abut] You might end up holding your stool like a lion tamer, like SJ famously did in his 1997 Q&A
# [KevinMarks] Heather Gold would do crowd work at tech events, but she said it was extra hard
# [KevinMarks] One of her favourites was calling out "Who here has RSI?" and someone in the audience replied "we can't raise our hands"
# [Al_Abut] I organized and spoke at a conference about 2010 where one of my two other co-presenters did an entire session of nothing but Q&A on product management. I found out when people started overflowing into my session because he was so bad at it that they felt cheated.
# IWDiscord <aspizu>
# [Al_Abut] Looks like a button to opt out of the car wash at the gas station
# [Al_Abut] Just try a bot!
# IWDiscord <aspizu>
# [morgan] The anti sparkles I think nails it
# [morgan] this was a creative mashup with some different visuals and that one emerges somehow to me as the victor
# IWDiscord <aspizu>
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# aspizu with interpolation
# aspizu not sure about the green color
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# aspizu capitalized "Free"
# osteophage Re: a Luddite badge, that sounds fun. The icon could be a hammer.
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# osteophage aspizu[d], not sure if this suggestion would be too far afield from what you're going for, but given what @Ulhar said I figure you could circumvent "100% human" by using phrasing like "Anti-AI" or "Anti-LLM" (as an ideological position). In any case I think it can be good to offer multiple versions.
# aspizu I'm intentionally choosing not to use Anti AI terminology with this badge because I want this to be agnostic of ur ethical/political stands on AI
# aspizu you can be pro-AI and still choose to not use AI for some things because it would be more fun to do so
# aspizu also, I'm not an activist, so it's not my goal to promote any ideology.
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# [morgan] Even just the sparkles and the word "FREE" could get the idea 💡
# [morgan] Could be an interesting variation
# aspizu the button is going to be a hyperlink to a webpage