Regarding spoiling the fun, were this a world without enshitification and/or corporate malfeasance that might be a good consideration. For the world we currently actually DO live in, my initial reaction is usually one of mistrust - and I strongly suspect I’m far from alone in that.

As such, I normally might’ve not ventured forth with exploring your offering, but instead waited for someone to give me more of an idea what I was walking into before potentiality giving out information I didn’t want to inadvertently. However, at the moment I came across your post I guess I was feeling gregarious enough (and less concerned with this identity since I’ve only recently created it) to toss my normal inhibitions aside, and share the kind of info I myself would have been wanting to see before taking the risk.

TL;DR: There are an number of psychological factors at play here as well as real-world concerns, so IMHO the more up-front you are in letting potential users know what to expect, the more comfortable they’ll be with giving it a shot. They’ll also be better informed about what to look for in features they might not have otherwise discovered with a quick spin.

There are positives and negatives to everything - highlighting just one side is the modus operandi for manufacturing consent.

A poorly educated public is one of the major underpinnings of a fascist dictator state. It’s why school funding has been on the decline for decades - capitalist alpha-type one-percenters have been pulling the politicians’ reigns (particularly the willing Republicans, but over time the Democrats have been bought, too) & playing the long game, and it’s now reached fruition.

I’m sure it’s an attempt at intimidation for the upcoming election.

Isn’t teletherapy the same? It can work IF done right (and, yes - that’s a BIG “if”).

Ironic: I think the idea is to indicate how open you feel at that moment to being social. I get how doing that without actually socializing seems ironic, but I can also see how this would help avoid social interactions going needlessly bad because one participant just wasn’t in the right mood.

I have strong doubts about people keeping this up to date, however. I could see it being used as a kind of S.O.S. by someone who needs some support, but doesn’t want to impose on others who might not be up for providing it.

You’re absolutely right about the lack of integration into other platforms that actually facilitate that socialization, however.

Quick intro for those wondering how it works:

1. It does ask for an email first thing, but it’s presented as just an optional backup for your account.

2. Then comes the explanation I was looking for in my other comment.

Your Social Battery - Drag the dial to set how social you’re feeling — from drained to fully charged. Your friends see this in real time.

Share Your Invite Link - Tap “Share your link” and send it to friends. When they join via your link you’re connected automatically. https: //socialbattery. space/?ref={username}

See Friends’ Levels - Once connected, you both appear in each other’s friends list with live battery updates.

Then you’re plopped on this screen:

Settings lets you select a profile picture, nickname (so you can show your real or gamer name presumably, but since your username is part of the link you share it doesn’t do anything for security or privacy), and light or dark mode. ETA: I think the nickname feature should also be on a per-friend level, not global.

I think that should be sufficient to give people an idea what to expect when deciding whether to give it a try.

ETA: I am curious what happens when you don’t have the PWA open. Do your friends just perpetually see what you last selected, or is there a timeout where it’ll just say “offline” (and what is that timeout)?

I’ve made several edits/additions to this throughout, so you may want to scan it for those if you’ve already read this.

Would be nice if your mention of the site was actually a link, although I’ll admit I’m just scrolling through “all” and have no idea if that’s against the rules in this community (which would seem silly if a self-promoting post was allowed to begin with).

ETA: some explanation, and/or demo of how it actually works in practice would also be helpful so we can decide whether we want to invest the time.

I’m well aware, and I’m sure most users of the term are aware as well. Language is always evolving, however. There are numerous words that been made up, but eventually enter the official lexicons due to popularity. Others like “cool” that have had additional interpretations added depending upon context which have little association with their original meaning.

The examples you quoted are words people are actually trying to use with the full original meaning, but misspelled (sometimes deliberately). While “sike/psych/syke/etc.” falls into a similar vein, it’s not quite the same because - as you noted - it doesn’t just mean the same as “psychology,” but to use it in a particular manner.

MN is the postal abbreviation for Minnesota in the USA.

I’ve seen several variations of it. Since it’s slang, there’s no formal proper spelling.