in reply to Jernej Simončič �

@jernej__s
Or just post the full text.

I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it.

I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. I’ve been sitting on this for about eight months, just watching the code getting pushed to production, and I can’t sleep at night knowing I helped build this machine.

You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories. I’m a backend engineer. I sit in the weekly sprint planning meetings where Product Managers (PMs) discuss how to squeeze another 0.4% margin out of "human assets" (that’s literally what they call drivers in the database schemas). They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent.

First off, the "Priority Delivery" is a total scam. It was pitched to us as a "psychological value add." Like I said in the title, when you pay that extra $2.99, it changes a boolean flag in the order JSON, but the dispatch logic literally ignores it. It does nothing to speed you up.

We actually ran an A/B test last year where we didn't speed up the priority orders, we just purposefully delayed non-priority orders by 5 to 10 minutes to make the Priority ones "feel" faster by comparison. Management loved the results. We generated millions in pure profit just by making the standard service worse, not by making the premium service better.

But the thing that actually makes me sick—and the main reason I’m quitting—is the "Desperation Score." We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.

If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as "High Desperation." Once they are tagged, the system then deliberately stops showing them high-paying orders. The logic is: "Why pay this guy $15 for a run when we know he’s desperate enough to do it for $6?" We save the good tips for the "casual" drivers to hook them in and gamify their experience, while the full-timers get grinded into dust.

Then there is the "Benefit Fee." You’ve probably seen that $1.50 "Regulatory Response Fee" or "Driver Benefits Fee" that appeared on your bill after the recent labor laws passed. The wording is designed to make you feel like you're helping the worker.

In reality, that money goes straight to a corporate slush fund used to lobby against driver unions. We have a specific internal cost center for "Policy Defense," and that fee feeds directly into it. You are literally paying for the high-end lawyers that are fighting to keep your delivery guy homeless.

And regarding tips, we're essentially doing Tip Theft 2.0. We don't "steal" them legally anymore because we got sued for that. Instead, we use predictive modeling to dynamically lower the base pay.

If the algo predicts you are a "high tipper" and you’ll likely drop $10, it offers the driver a measly $2 base pay. If you tip $0, it offers them $8 base pay just to get the food moved. The result is that your generosity isn't rewarding the driver; it’s subsidizing us. You’re paying their wage so we don't have to.

I'm drunk and I'm angry. Ask me anything before this gets taken down.

« Hey if you herald on stage at the #39c3 with angy paws and a skirt I'll buy you a drink. »
🐱 « Eugh, fine. »

(and that's how I came back home with a skirt, tight highs and arm warmers and I love it)

( 📸 Kübi ) ( 📺 media.ccc.de/v/39c3-building-a… )
#furry #fursuit #fursuitfriday #femboyfriday

🚨new paper published! 🚨

„Many weak and few strong links“ seems to be a common pattern in many ecological networks. 1st author Franziska Koch shows that this pattern can enable stabilising effects of network structure, using competitive hierarchies as a case study. We argue that skewed link strength distributions should hence receive more attention, especially in studies based on #RandomMatrixTheory.

link.springer.com/article/10.1…

#TheoreticalEcology
#EcologicalModelling
#EcologicalNetworks

I'd like you to know some numbers.

340.
That's the number of brand new billionaires we made in 2025. Roughly one a day and more than any other year.

9 million.
That's the number of people who died of hunger in 2025. Over 24,000 every single day for an entire year.

40 billion.
That's the number of dollars it would cost to end world hunger. Not to alleviate it. Not to lessen it. To eradicate it.

11.
That's the percentage tax we would have needed to impose on ONLY new wealth on ONLY billionaires in ONLY 2025 in order to eradicate world hunger. Eleven percent. That's all. Compared to the vast coffers of wealth they've already accumulated that's a rounding error.

Eat the rich. Tax them now.

This entry was edited (12 hours ago)

reshared this

als es um die chatkontrolle ging, konnte nicht genug getrommelt werden. Hier geht es um viel mehr. An fehlenden Accounts kann es nicht liegen, dass die 30000 immer noch nicht voll sind. Mitzeichnung ist auch ohne deutschen Wohnsitz möglich. Keine Führung eigener Register zur Erfassung von trans* und nichtbinärer Personen epetitionen.bundestag.de/petit…
This entry was edited (5 hours ago)

2025 had ups and downs, but I loved my 2025 at #IzzyOnDroid.

Our team has grown with several new members and we launched izzyondroid.org/, our new web home!

We even got our first grant ever (thanks, @nlnet!), allowing us to bring download statistics to IzzyOnDroid and integrate it directly into #NeoStore (and soon #Droidify), improve the #ReproducibleBuild system and more.

I'm grateful to the team for giving me a space where I feel able to make a difference ❤️

Here is to 2026! 🎉

IzzyOnDroid ✅ reshared this.

the AI slop in security reports have developed slightly over time. Less mind-numbingly stupid reports now, but instead almost *everyone* writes their reports with AI so they still get overly long and complicated to plow through. And every follow-up question is another minor essay discussing pros and cons with bullet points and references to multiple specifications.

Exhausting nonetheless.

Hubert Figuière reshared this.

We should talk about the availability of basic medicine without doctor’s prescription. Basic painkillers, nose sprays, typical medicine for seasonal viral infections.

This is not available in Austria without prescription and I’ve had enough of this paternalistic bullshit attitude.

I don’t believe doctors want to clog up their waiting rooms with very simple cases of flu/covid infections.

I think one reason we still have this is without it doctors visits would be just about the paperwork.

in reply to Bálint Szilakszi

This really is bs. I'm glad ours aren't like that. I can't live without painkillers and a nose spray some days... Like, that's basic stuff, why should you be forced to go to a doctor for it? Or interact with one at all? if their goal is to give people more reasons to go to the doctor, maybe they did it. Most stuff here doesn't require a prescription unless it's something very specific, antibiotic, or stuff that helps some mental conditions.

I’ve just created a new Django starter pack on FediDevs 👀

It collects non-human accounts only: Django projects, conferences, podcasts, news, and community initiatives.
No personal accounts, just things you may want to follow once and forget.

👉 fedidevs.com/s/Nzk4/

If you know other Django-related project accounts on the Fediverse, please reply and suggest them.
Happy to keep improving this together 💚

Please reboot 🙏

#Django #Fediverse #Mastodon #OpenSource #FediDevs

CC @fedidevs

This entry was edited (8 hours ago)

On Mastodon, decentralised means no mobs, no outrage algorithms, and no incentives to tear each other down.

Here, community and context come first.

Support a social web that puts people before profits: ​Donate #SupportMastodon

joinmastodon.org/sponsors#dona…

in reply to Rapha Mack

@denkbeteiligung it's against WhatsApp ToS so I cannot guarantee anything. We're niche enough that they don't care IMHO, as long as you don't spam/scam people. It pretends to be the WhatsApp web client. I had my account locked for 48 hours once in 4 years of use, while experimenting with group creation which I guess made me look like a spammer; it has not occurred since. We have not had such locked account reports from users. Experimenting while developing is the "dangerous" part. :-)

Imagine that the government has decided that, to stimulate the economy, every adult citizen MUST go on a TV reality/game show.

What type of show would you choose?

  • A game of brains ( like The Chase or Jeopardy) (74%, 23 votes)
  • A game of personality (like Housewives or Traitors (0%, 0 votes)
  • A game of strength (like Survivor) (3%, 1 vote)
  • A game of chance (like Deal Or No Deal) (22%, 7 votes)
31 voters. Poll end: in 3 hours

We tortured these shellfish to check that they're aware of physical harm and yep -- they are. So weird, every living thing we check we can find some kind of electrical or chemical response to damage. What are the odds?

earth.com/news/crustaceans-cra…

Oh yeah, totally forgot. It's been about a year and a week with Android now. Over all I'm really satisfied, Google has improved talkback a lot. The one and only annoying thing is typing, that's really a disaster and I'm glad I have vision left so I can turn off TB to type sometimes, or being able to attach a bluetooth keyboard. Otherwise though, I love being able to install apks and get updates right from the source like GitHub, Zoom, as well the camera zoom from the pixel 9 pro as well as the ability to Zoom anywhere with the accessibility button in the 3 button nav bar, which also features my best friend the back button, is great, not having to triple tap and swipe around laggy and weird like on IOS. Well, that's all. There are tons of other things I forgot for sure but I really enjoy what this is and would recommend. At some point, probably when I get a new phone whenever that is, I'll root or even gravin OS this thing, gonna be fun. Oh yeah and we have NVGT games, that's fun too.

Web Accessibility in 2026: Five Predictions Shaped by How the Web Is Changing blog.usablenet.com/web-accessi…

If you use an AI-generated image for your article/post, this indicates to me you might have also used AI-generated text.

If you use AI-generated text for your article/post then:

1- I have no idea if you verified the veracity of any claimed facts.

2- I have no idea what your own voice is.

3- I have no idea if this truly expresses your own views, and if you even cared to read it.

4- I have no idea what your intention is with this, other than exploiting my attention and clicks with the least amount of efforts on your part.

5- This shows me you have no respect at all for the labour that was stolen to build these tools, exploiting millions of artists and writers to make billions of dollars without any compensation to them whatsoever.

Why would I want to engage with any content like that?

• I don't want to communicate with a machine (I can do that by myself).

• I don't want to participate in this disgusting exploitation of artists and writers.

• And I want to communicate with another human, of course.

If your intention isn't to communicate with another human, then stop deceiving them making them think they are :no_ai:

#NoAI #StopTheSlop

This entry was edited (21 hours ago)

SAPI4 is returning to NVDA 64-bit.
Support for SAPI4 via a 32 bit shim runtime:
github.com/nvaccess/nvda/pull/…
@NVAccess

reshared this

Let's start with what my 24/7 outside Mics, the Clippy EM 272, attached to my window have captured. I sadly didn't have the time to setup better quallity thann opus with meh settings which where already in place, but I'll post some of the stuff I captured with the Zoom H1E as well. this are 5 minutes which give an overviewe quite well, no processing or anything. This was right 5 minutes after midnight, so 12:05 to 12:10.

ondrosik reshared this.