Hmm, Except most chat applications have an indicator that already answers all those questions in the basic sense. When I set myself as "in a meeting" or "busy", it means... just that. "hey I see you are busy, are you available?" doesn't make a lot of sense.
Furthermore, I can't actually answer in the shorthand, because I don't know anything about it. "can you talk?" - for how long? about what? with who? I have no idea how to respond to you.
Please, just tell me what you want - "Hi, wondering if you have 5 minutes to chat about <topic>?".
Your comment implies the youth refs are the exception, but the VAST majority of play are at these lower competitive levels, and it is FAR more common to have youth or inexperienced refs than otherwise.
I’m saying that when you get to have games involving kids older than 10, that having teenage refs is more uncommon.
In my area, there are a number of leagues. Only one has a large number of teenagers in the ref pool and they only are center refs for the youngest players. For the more competitive leagues, you almost never have a ref crew made up of only teenagers. Here, young refs are generally protected by having older refs as part of the crew. There is a whole system behind referee scheduling that most people don’t know about.
(Also, this about soccer in the US, I have no idea how other sports schedule their officials)
When you say “teenage” refs I assume you are meaning kids 16or younger. A lot of adult-sized college-age teenagers ref games and you probably don’t realize it.
You’re right about the scheduling aspect. If you’re in a healthy area and the leagues are playing according to US Soccer rules (using the IFAB bible plus approved grassroots modifications), the scheduling system is good and makes sure to keep refs assigned to appropriate matches (pro-tip: they keep track of the worst teams for abuse and only schedule the most grizzled refs. If none are available, then “sorry no refs are available for your match”).
Also, I don’t know if it’s US-only thing or a worldwide FIFA thing, but for the past few years refs with less than 2 or 3 years of experience are supposed to be wearing a special armband that coaches are supposed to recognize - if the ref gets abuse from fans they tell the coaches and the coaches have to go deal with it. If it’s not dealt with, the match is abandoned.
The ref is impartial and their only job is to manage the game according to law. If a team's fans are misbehaving to the point the game must be abandoned, it doesn't matter one iota to the ref if those fans are tanking on purpose. The league can deal with that.
I doubt many refs want this responsibility, even if it were feasible. And I don't think it is feasible in most cases. For instance, how is the ref going to pick out the problem fans while also managing the game itself? And how is the ref supposed to enforce the removal?
Keep in mind these refs are often volunteers, working solo, have no official connection to the teams or field owners.
And there is a ref shortage virtually everywhere, at all levels and sports. Making it more difficult just isn't realistic.
From my experience, the refs typically assign responsibility to the head coach of the team the fans represent. It's not the refs job to manage the fans. They are there to manage the game. If the coach or staff determine the problem fans should be removed, they can do that.
Presumably these ads are targeted using the algorithm. Thought crime is scary and all that, but it's an interesting part of this system to consider. And then there's the question of these images living in your cache if you happened to be shown one. "Welcome to the internet.."
The "Kompromat" angle should not be ignored in this day and age.
"In cases of kompromat during the early 21st century, Russian operatives have been suspected or accused of placing child pornography on the personal computers of individuals they were attempting to discredit." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kompromat
The only real question is how easy it would be to target the undesired via the ad placement targetting options on social media platforms. On the one on which I've run ads (LinkedIn), pretty hard. At least on a technical level, because if your audience size is too small it asks you to expand your criteria. Maybe other platforms are less strict?
For sure would be a more comfortable approach for state operatives than physical access.
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Aside. Watch the movie with the same name. Use an ad blocker, religiously.
I’ve got a Facebook account that doesn’t feature my real name, has no friends and follows no pages. The algorithm decided that I would most like to see CSAM, flat earth theory and Sovereign Citizen nonsense.
Surprised it hasn't been closed already. Sometime back before I left entirely in 2017, I tried making an account that wasn't tied to my real name, email, phone number, etc. and after a few days they asked for proof of ID because they couldn't tie me to their "social graph" or whatever. Didn't give ID and they disabled the account.
That's interesting. I've noticed similar things on youtube. It seems like by blocking most of the tracking, it automatically falls back to AI slop and wellness gurus. I've tried watching some of these ads out of curiosity and it's often difficult to even figure out what the actual product is. It feels very scammy. Certainly light years from the early promises of google offering text-only ads when everyone else had malware laden banners and toolbars.
The only things I can think of that have pushed these into my viewport are that I follow multiple AI news pages, and multiple photography pages, same with my IG.
I can also recommend Wholphin if it is available (and you are the type of person who actually allows your TV to connect to a network). It's much faster than the official(?) jellyfin android client.
I disagree with the assertion that Valve is responsible for the death of physical game copies.
First off, console games have gradually moved away from offering physical copies for years. This had the (probably deliberate) effect of killing the used game market. Earlier attempts to kill that market were driven by the proliferation of digital content that could not be resold.
Second, physical copies on the PC have not been guaranteed for a very long time. I would suggest it was actually the wide-scale proliferation of indie games that did more to kill the physical copy market than any deliberate transition from AAA studios. There are thousands of indie games out there now. Without digital copies, it would be impossible for anyone to actually purchase any of them.
And the momentum to move away from physical copies for PC gaming has been there for a very long time. No one was going to Best Buy to pick up a physical copy of minesweeper. There have been other factors as well, such as the popularization of MMORPGS which provided years of content from a single physical copy.
Really though, the idea that without Valve, the PC gaming market would still be chugging along on physical game copies just isn't realistic. It goes completely against the momentum built over the last 25 years of PC gaming.
I also enjoyed wrapped, but at some point they made it only viewable in the app. It was previously available in the browser. That was the last time I thought about it.
Furthermore, I can't actually answer in the shorthand, because I don't know anything about it. "can you talk?" - for how long? about what? with who? I have no idea how to respond to you.
Please, just tell me what you want - "Hi, wondering if you have 5 minutes to chat about <topic>?".
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