poopmonster

Great simile. That really is how it feels.

I think it's important to take it case-by-case. Many people with ADHD find stimulant medications positively life-changing. However, plenty of people with ADHD also have a substance use disorder. Sometimes medication is an effective treatment for both issues; other times it exacerbates the latter.

Consider the subreddit r/stopspeeding, a recovery community for people addicted to stimulants. Many, many users share similar stories of being prescribed a stimulant medication for ADHD, then beginning to abuse it. Many of these people really do have ADHD, but find that their lives are better without stimulant medication.

No, however they are often comorbid.

Depends on the discipline. I never hear of mathematicians using anything else.

How did you identify it?

> yielding to a lynch mob

Reacting to public outcry by cutting off a legal stressor?

I just don't think it's that big a deal.

Being hosted on someone's private server is a privilege, not a right. As far as I know the host is legally responsible for the material they dispense.

In the abstract, I believe everybody should have access to web hosting. But upholding that mission is not the job of one private company.

Anyway, I guess "content-neutral" is an easier sell for most people than "We will 99 times out of 100 let you be even if you're pretty out-there, unless people start suing us about you and it's pretty plain to see you might be a degenerate force on the social internet, in which case yeah we'll tell you to beat it".

Like, it's not a power that should be exercised liberally. But be real. It's Kiwifarms. Businesses have a right to refuse service to recreational gangstalkers

It is really convenient and stays out of the way. As much as I'm enjoying the mess, I am forced to appreciate its value.

I'm guessing loads of student work? If so, it'll be great for anyone who wants to research AI usage in papers.

My guess is that they believe by maximizing their attack coverage, the odds are greatest that some of the institutions will pay up. And otherwise, they can still make a bit of money by selling the data.

Don't ransom all your eggs in one basket

Student at an impacted university here.

Our whole testing center is down. This is inconvenient, but mainly it's amusing. I swear strangers are talking to each other more. I'm noticing people just sitting in the sun and relaxing. Nature is healing.

(Of course, plenty of people have also just finished their exams, so it's hard to know the cause.)

Any idea what data Instructure-and-also-now-ShinyHunters even purport to have beyond names, profile photos, pronouns, homework assignments, school communications, phone numbers, and email addresses?

i.e. What makes this threat so different from what any old data brokers have already scraped?

What leverage besides aura farming do the ShinyHunters really have?

All I can think of that's really valuable is passwords. And private communications in Canvas DMs. But if you're being at all intimate over your school email, that's kinda on you.

Anyway surely Instructure only stores user public keys or something?

Alternate history question: If they just sold the data, never revealed the hack, and didn't make a scene, from a customer perspective, how different would this be from business as usual?

skill issue

I am suddenly reminded of a clip I saw recently of Ronald Reagan on Johnny Carson in 1975. (https://youtu.be/CNmnmdtcdcg?si=UMpkHwOVA74Nv5P7)

Reagan speaks with grandfatherly warmth about the importance of finding a middle ground between reasonable safety regulations and progress. In the same clip, he mentioned not knowing of any group with as little influence on politics as business.

Dog convinces owner to let it off leash. The rhetoric that charmed Americans into letting down their guard, in miniature.