Tag Archives: reddit

Press F to pay respect

I only recently found out why people sometimes comment “F” on Reddit threads. It comes from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014).

At one point, you walk up to a casket at a funeral and have to press F to pay respects to the fallen soldier.

As others on that Reddit thread said, I thought it had something to do with following a thread to get notifications. Just to prove how out of touch I am, it even has a Wikipedia page where the viral meme is described as iconic, but the authors of that page describe it well:

“Press F to pay respects” is an Internet meme that originated from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, a 2014 first-person shooter in Activision’s Call of Duty franchise. It originated as a set of instructions conveyed during an in-game quick time event at a funeral service. Widely mocked by critics and players due to its forced element of interactivity that was not perceived to be tastefully executed, the phrase would later become a notable Internet meme in its own right. It is sometimes used by Internet commenters to convey solidarity and sympathy, either sarcastic or sincere, in response to unfortunate events.

I never thought I’d be tagging a post with “Call of Duty” again, but here we are in 2025!

This Reddit is a private community

The moderators of r/programming have set this community as private. Only approved members can view and take part in its discussions.

In a dramatic turn of events, a wave of subreddits has gone dark today, making their presence disappear from the digital landscape. These virtual communities, brimming with discussions and camaraderie, have taken this drastic action to protest against recent changes to the pricing of the Reddit API for third-party mobile apps. It’s a bold move that could potentially alter the Reddit landscape forever, for the worse.

Among the affected applications is Apollo, a highly regarded iOS Reddit app. The developer of Apollo would have been burdened with an astonishing $20 million annual cost to keep the app running. Such a financial blow would have undoubtedly crippled their operations. As for me, I’m an avid user of Reddit is Fun, a cherished app that has become an integral part of my daily routine. Unfortunately, the costs associated with maintaining this beloved app have also skyrocketed, forcing the developer behind it to announce its impending shutdown on June 30th.

I tried the official app, but it’s not as polished as RIF. The second post I saw was a promoted post, which is, of course, one of the reasons for pushing users towards that app. Many point out that Reddit wouldn’t be Reddit if it wasn’t for all the volunteer moderators who keep the site running. Annoying those moderators isn’t going to encourage them to volunteer more time.

I hear that the Reddit app can be modified and patched (no, I won’t link to it) but I’ll probably visit Reddit a lot less now. There’s always Hacker News, where there are already two threads this morning about it. In one of these threads, a user conjectured that Reddit may be intentionally shedding its current user base to appeal to a less technically inclined, more advertisement-friendly demographic. It begs the question: who will shoulder the responsibility of moderation in this new era?

As well as the protest, Reddit seem to be boycotting themselves. The site went down today for a while. It might be all the private sub Reddits don’t cache that well, and the traffic to so many of them is bringing things down. Ouch.

I guess I’ll be reading more books. That will be good for my peace of mind.

Backup your social media accounts

I’ll keep this short. You should download your Twitter data, Facebook data, and as you probably have that too, your Google data. You never know when you might be banned from using them, even accidentally.

After you’ve saved that data, go to Instagram and Reddit and do the same!

Twitter

Download your data from Settings->Your Account->Download an archive of your data.

Facebook

Download your Facebook data from Settings->Privacy->Your Facebook Information->Download your information. I like that they offer HTML and JSON options.

Google Takeout

Google Takeout is where you download your Google data. There is a lot there. At the time of writing, it shows 53 products, which includes YouTube, Gmail and Google Photos.

Instagram

Download your Instagram data from their Privacy and Security page where you will find the request page.

Reddit

And finally, Reddit. You can download your data from their data-request page.

Keep that data safe. Don’t leave it in your download directory. It potentially has lots of private information you won’t want to be shared with anyone who uses your computer.

Google lets you schedule up to 6 data downloads per year, but it might be worth setting a calendar reminder to do this at least once a year. Store your downloads in dated directories to make it easy to keep track of when they were downloaded.

Split screen on your phone

A thread on Reddit asked what you use the new split screen functionality in Android Nougat for. Apparently people use it to browse Reddit and watch YouTube at the same time. 

Samsung Android phones have had this functionality for a while but I rarely use it however I decided to try this, and it works fairly well!

‘course I don’t know how you can concentrate on something else and watch a video at the same time..

Hey! It even works with the WordPress app! 

I guess it would be useful for picking out quotes from articles, and it would save lots of tapping on the multitasking button to change apps when copying text.

Have you used the split screen feature of your phone if it has it?

Is there a PHB at Reddit?

When I read about what what happened to the remote workers at Reddit my blood runs cold. Did management take a lesson from the Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert’s office?

227839.strip.sunday

I can’t imagine how poisoned the workplace at Reddit must be now that everyone has had an ultimatum to move to San Francisco or be fired. I’m a big fan of the site but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. There’s a boss there somewhere who wants to make life as difficult as possible for the people who helped make that site what it is today.

Xbox One Reveal in 2 Minutes

If, like me, you missed the fantastic Xbox One reveal yesterday or whenever it was here it is in all it’s glory, but cut down to two minutes.

Via this post on r/videos where you will find such witty comments as:

I welcome our new $1000 HDMI repeater overlords

COLLAR DUTY: NOW WITH REALISTIC DOG GRAPHICS? AND PHYSICS.

Be sure to follow @collarduty too for the latest collarduty news.

I can’t see myself buying one of these, not when I have a keyboard and mouse on my PC and I looked in vain for decent replacements for those when I did play games on consoles. The thought of going back to using a controller for anything but flight/car/platform games makes me shudder.

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