Eskating cyclist, gamer and enjoyer of anime. Probably an artist. Also I code sometimes, pretty much just to mod titanfall 2 tho.

Introverted, yet I enjoy discussion to a fault.

  • 60 Posts
  • 140 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Allowing a person to think for themselves is always the best option.

    But allowing her to accept scientology should not be an option, and isn’t what I was suggesting.

    I simply assume that OP, looking into scientology with a critical eye, is likely to have a good relationship with their daughter. And that the daughter being of dating age, and the offspring of someone seemingly reasonable, they are both capable of having an adult conversation. One that won’t end with their daughter going “fuck you, I’m cutting you out of my life forever” but rather with their daughter accepting reality and intergrating the facts into her mind in a way where they can’t be easily subverted.

    If that isn’t the case, then the heavy handed approach is absolutely warranted.


  • For a long while their innermost secrets were just that, secret. Members are tight-lipped on any real elaboration, and won’t engage with outsiders.

    It also makes it really difficult for outsiders to present any countering logic to their beliefs. People aren’t gonna tell you you’ve fallen in with crazies, if you don’t tell em the dumb shit you’re being told is real.

    But a lot of it is now out in the open, if you know to look. Even then, the church AGGRESSIVELY wields the law in an active attempt to suppress public knowledge as much as possible. But as even top-level members have left the cult over the decades, even the innermost bullshit has been exposed.

    It’s probable that your daughters boyfriend himself knows much less than what is available online, because members are discouraged from interacting with any “harmful” media so as to not grow disillusioned, and aren’t told anything substantial until it’s way too late to painlessly pull out.

    It’s all quite deliberately set up to be as insidiously prolific as possible, while minimizing the chances people will leave.

    And if people do show start to show signs of wanting out, the gloves come off really quick with stuff like blackmail and legal action.

    Even its tax exempt status in the US is a complete farce, yet it lends the cult an air of legitimacy.


  • It’s a cult. The “science” they base their beliefs on is called “dianetics”. You can look that up and get more straigh-up explanations than by looking up “scientology”.

    In short, they think humans are possessed by the dead souls of immortal aliens from millions of years ago, but we can’t perceive this due to traumatic memories which must be “cleared” using “auditing”.

    Auditing sessions are recorded, and as they involve confessing your darkest secrets to “clear” the relevant “trauma”, the recordings can then be used to blackmail people into staying with the cult.

    It’s a pay-to-level-up religion, except instead of caring for your health they abuse you. They actively reject mental healthcare based on real science, and consider psychiatrists equivalent to murderers.

    They don’t believe in the concept of crime, instead considering anything and everything that happens to someone their own fault.

    Members are not allowed to report crimes perpetrated by other members to the actual police, instead they must be reported to the church. When scientologists rape other scientologists, the victim gets punished with more auditing.

    The most infamous scientologist is likely Danny Masterson, who is finally in prison for assaulting likely dozens and dozens of female members.

    They also don’t tell their followers what their beliefs actually are, before they’ve paid so much money for it that the sunk cost fallacy has them too committed to pull out.

    You can find more info online about their actual beliefs told by people who have left the cult, than they reveal even to their own followers. Its all deliberately confusing, because no-one would buy into their crazy bullshit otherwise.

    Get your daughter out of this relationship asap. Or even better, have a serious talk with her about scientology, explore what it is and what it does to its members, together, so she can then consider the situation and navigate it for herself.
















  • For the power matter, you don’t. The device being charged, the charger, and cable does.

    If you mean what is the maximum wattage that will actually be used, that should be the maximum possible between the charger, cable, and device. So look at their specs. Whichever has the lowest maximum, is what the others will match.

    USB PD defines a protocol for the device and charger to determine max safe power. If the cable is replacable (not attached to the charger), it must be rated for PD and be able to tell the charger it can handle more than just the usual 5 volts at 2 amps.

    USB PD chargers only output the maximum safe amount of power. That’s why I can use my 65W steamdeck charger to charge my phone if I want to. It just outputs normal USB charger power if the device on the other end can’t verify it can handle more.

    It’s also why my SteamDeck charger is what I use to fast charge my phone, because it can actually talk to it using the USB PD protocol to request the voltage and amps it needs to fast charge.






  • Exactly.

    So the best way IMO is to do whatever you think is right (and like another commenter said, make the only real rule be “don’t make me ban you”), and as long as you aren’t being insane, you’ll probably be pleasing the majority of users just by coincidence.

    I’d add that you should always be ready to change a decision, based on new events and arguments, or if you missed something. The biggest reason I think some mods go a little insane, is that they try to be infallible, but when they inevitably fail, they try to pretend the decision was correct anyway.


  • The way I moderate, is to be unashamedly selfish, with a sprinkling of impartiality.

    Basically, I do whatever I would want “the mods” to do if I were a user. Obviously, there are other users, but since the point of me bothering with the whole thing is to facilitate the kind of activity I personally enjoy, considerations for people who want my communities to be something different, is simply not a priority.

    Unless I joined a mod team that existed already, I decide.

    If someone complains or has a suggestion, I do make an effort to actually consider what they are saying, but then I still decide what will or won’t happen. I’m doing the work in order to have communities I actually like, not the adoration of a bunch of thankful users. If you compromise on the former for the latter, why even put in the effort? Either way, there will be a set of people who like what you do, and a set of people don’t. So why please other people at the expense of pleasing yourself?

    Unless you actually open things up to be voted on, the goal is to be a benevolent dictator. You can’t please everyone, but that doesn’t mean you have to make yourself one of the unhappy ones. You may be a mod, but we’re ALL users. That means what you want to do, even as a mod, matters too.