The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Raid]

Man, I know complaining about social media algorithms is like trying to put out an oil rig fire by urinating on it, but trying to show off your work in creative hobbies these days is bloody painful. I don't have any actual friends that participate in Gundam model building, nor are in-person events really a thing for them in the UK (not that I'd want to travel with mine anyway, they're too fragile), so my only outlet for sharing my work is online. I think I'm pretty good at it these days - the Reddit Gunpla community is made up from about 80% straight builds with no painting or posing, about 15% box posts ("look at this product I purchased using my currency!"), and maybe 5% reasonably high-quality painted builds, of which I'd like to think I fit the category of. I posted my most recent build there yesterday, and it barely made any traction at all. It's a hobby that attracts tons of new people (because it's a mecha series where rule of cool trumps everything else), I don't want to sound big-headed or anything, but I've been building these for 20 years and after a while you do tend to get tired of seeing the more ordinary stuff.

I don't build these things to impress other people, but recognition and discussion is definitely part of the hobby. I want to share skills, best practices, just talk about these things I spend 50-80 hours on each. There's no obvious rhyme or reason for who gets shown your work anymore, it's not like a web forum like this place, where engagement (urgh) automatically makes a post rise to the top of the pile; there's some sort of arcane art of posting your work at the right time of day, on the right day of the week, with an attention grabbing thumbnail that I just don't care to practice.

It doesn't make the hobby feel futile or anything, but it's a bit demoralising knowing that you're the only one (who cares) that's going to see the things.

[Rusty]

And we're more than happy to view ya shit.
Just looking now. And it's sweeeet
We still need a 'thumbs up' button

[Mantis]

You can usually find forums for niche hobbies like that quite easily.

[Stormbringer]

Yeah, old-school niche forums is the only way to connect with real people, I find.

Social Media is just vapid, disposable trash.

[Alan]

Ive become increasingly annoyed by this, for want of a better phrase, war on the poor and the ill informed. Now none of these actually affect me I just hate this shit....

The ill informed.
Lidl near me have "upgraded" their carpark so now when you drive in it takes your number plate. To leave without a fine you must, fucking must buy something, scan your receipt at a tablet near the checkout and enter your numberplate to bestow 100mins of free parking time apon the lowly peasant lidl shopper. They dont have what you went in for? Better go buy an apple or I dunno... go rake through the receipt bin and hope the one you pull out hasn't been used? The signage isnt great and woe betide you if you are a tech illiterate elderly person who even if they read the signs would have trouble with the use of the tablet. Its a disgusting system that is crafted to put the onus on the shopper in the hope of catching them out and hitting them with a £90 fine. A £90 quid fine thats non-enforceable in Scotland but they dont know that and will buckle to the threats the parking company send out. There was nothing wrong with the old system of camera records your reg on entry and gives you 90mins to shop before recording you leave that most places used. These new systems are cropping up everywhere, theres a italian place in Musselburgh where if you dont pay for parking within 5mins of entering the car park you get fined! What the actual fuck?

The poor
First, LEZ zones. Cant afford a newer vehicle with lower emission levels? Well fuck you theres a fine you cant afford. Get the fuck out of Glasgow city you peasant, its too clean for the likes of you! I jest of course, Glasgow centre is a fucking disgusting pit of shit compared to how it was 15 years ago. Central station is minging, Sauchiehall Street is a corpse painted to look healthy for its funeral, Trongate is a state and basically if you wander off of Buchanan Street youre heading into what the Gorbals was like in the 90's. Anyway I'm getting side tracked. Yeah theres public transport but the bus drivers are psychos its not always an option for people. Its also very easy to come off the wrong sliproad on the M8 and get twatted straight into a LEZ zone if you dont know the area.

Secondly, Parking permits. Now I think each home should get one permit free, you should not have to pay to park at your fucking home. A permit used to be 45quid a year but now thats going up to £85 but again, if you cant afford a new car and your old car emits too much carbon then fuck you, that'll be £200 a year that you also probably cant afford. If it must be a tiered system a permit should be based on the list price of the vehicle so we can charge these wankers driving 4x4's they dont know how to drive extra and if your hatchback goes brumbrumbrrummm on purpose because you have a tiny dick it should be double.

Now I'm all for helping the environment but targeting the people that cant afford it so the council can make money and pretend they are environmental is not the way.



Bonus moan.
They decided to beautify my street. It wasnt really bad to start with and there are many other places that need it more but here we are. It started in November and would be finished by Christmas. Guess what? Theyre still bloody at it. 1.4million quid theyre spending on this and my street is only maybe 250meters long.



Bonus moan part 2: Return Of The Grump.
Cycle lanes.
They've ripped up Byres road to add a cycle lane and in doing so made the traffic twice as bad so now its just a bunch of idling cars queued back where there used to be more room to get everyone through and the bikes dont even use the bloody cycle lane! It must be a quota Scotland has assigned its self because theres a road in Inverness thats only just two cars wide and they have drawn a cycle lane in paint down either side. I'm honestly not sure if were suppoed to ride the central line and dip into the bike lane when there is oncomming traffic or if youve to stay in and move out when there is a bike there like you would fucking do without the bike lane painted there!. Its fine, I'm sure the poor folk theyve fined the shit out of are super happy with them pissing away money.

[Animalmother]

That Lidl car park scam is fucking disgusting. That's when your local MP or city council should be stepping in and crushing it.

[Raid]

Royal Mail have delivered a parcel to my home address, I'm currently in the office. I had told them twice not to do so; once after I got the initial "your delivery will be tomorrow" email, yesterday, a few minutes after receiving it, and again when they ignored that and emailed me this morning to say it would be arriving today. Both times I asked them to deliver it tomorrow, when I'd arranged to be at home to receive it. It's now stuck outside my house for several hours, and it's been raining on and off all day, and it's not an item I expect to be water resistant. This isn't the first time it's happened either, it happens every time they tell me they'll be delivering something on one my days working from the office. What's the bloody point of them emailing you specifically so that you have chance to leave delivery instructions when they make zero effort to follow them?

[Wrathbone]

Seems that RM changed the process for how delivery instructions are handled so that it's now the responsibility of each postie, but they haven't shown some posties what to do.

[Raid]

It shouldn't even have gotten to the postie though; they had the instruction yesterday morning. I checked the tracking history, and it shows the timestamps of when I submitted my requests to deliver it on Friday, and it's scanned at least twice between that point and being out for delivery. Surely there's a more efficient way of removing items that shouldn't be delivered that day than when they're being scanned onto a delivery van.

[Wrathbone]

Is there a job for common sense efficiency consultancy? Because yes, I agree it seems like a very poor system, and it’s one of many examples in modern life that needs someone external to turn up and ask WTF are you doing?

[Mantis]

It took me almost a month to get one parcel off them because they kept ignoring my safe space request and once you've changed the delivery options once the app and website won't allow you to make another change. Ringing their helpline just puts you through to an automated system which isn't really fit for purpose either. Utterly useless courier.

[Alan]

Well today I got “your parcel has been delivered to a safe place above the door”. Dafuq does that mean exactly?

Spoiler

Yeah that’s it, on the outside of our entry door. In that safe place in a decently busy area. The buzzer was never pressed. Yodel are the worst.

[Lenny Solidus]

[Sly Boots]

Clearly there's a gang of oompa loompa porch pirates operating in your area mate, you should thank your posting for having the foresight to keep valuables out of their reach...

[Animalmother]

That level of "Couldn't give a fuck" is almost an art form, effort went into that lack of effort.