Swim team sayings

We’re supposed to turn a blind eye to their hypocrisy and lies, when Walter is found to be tricking on escorts and Myron having a girl with bikini pics and defending it saying that happened before him we’re supposed to just ignore these contradictions and support them.
They never want to take accountability but blame everyone else. Your team is full of fat people but even then us calling you out for this makes us haters. You hold total strangers to a higher standard than your own employees. And when you get called out you defend them and try to gaslight us.
I’m glad that people are finally waking up and not falling for this bullshit. Let them feel the heat until changes are made.

I'm so confused, I need all the advice I can get in deciding what to do. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
So here is my dilemma. I started a new job (Job A) three months ago. It's a role where a big group of us all started together and hence, I've made some strong bonds and good relationships with a lot of my colleagues. We have a lot of laughs and banter. It's very long shifts, however, as I like the job, time seems to fly quite quickly and also that means I only have to work 4 days a week with 3 days off each week. It's a 25 mins drive from my house, get free hot meals during my breaks. The negative thing about that role is the salary is just ok and also, I'm not allowed my phone in my work area and so have to leave it in the car, but even with that, even though I thought it would be a major issue, I've kinda learnt to live with that.
Now prior to starting Job A, I had also applied for Job B. However, with Job B, there was an enhanced security check which means it was a very long pre-employment process before getting the final contract. So about three weeks ago, I finally got a call from Job B to confirm that I'd passed my security check and to start the week after. As I was already employed in Job A, I took a two weeks holiday so I can start Job B to see how it is.
Now some information about Job B...it's an hour drive from my home. I'm the only new person who's started in this team in the last couple of years. And hence, all my other colleagues have already formed their bonds, know each others traits etc. Also, it's a lot more relaxed compared to Job A. In Job A, I'm constantly working and as I'm a naturally active person, I really like it. However, in Job B, I may work for a couple of hours then it's basically hanging around the office until my finish time. Moreover, I was told I would be issued a full uniform when I started. But when I started, I was then told I would need to go out and buy the uniform myself then submit the receipt to them and they will re-imburse me. Moreover, for the last couple of weeks in Job B since starting, even though I submitted my bank details so they can pay me, on our work server, it says my bank details is empty and so been emailing and phoning so many different people and departments to try to rectify it and it's still not done. The positives about Job B is the pay is £6,000.00 more than Job A in terms of basic salaries. But like I said, they're already messing with my money which I really don't like. And also, there is a chance to earn more in Job A if I work overtime. Also, with Job B, I've already noticed some of my colleagues gossiping about me, I guess because I'm the new guy. Whereas with Job A, most of us are new and started together so that isn't an issue. Oh yeah, I must admit, Job B looks better on my CV. I don't know, I'm now ranting. Please help with any advice you may have. If you need any more info, please ask and I'll expand. Thanks in advance.

A few weeks ago I filled out an application for a job but this weekend, I found a better position that starts in a couple weeks and decided not to go with the other application that starts this week but it won’t allow me to withdraw anymore!! It’s asking me to setup the A-to-Z app and the first day checkmark is now checked. I called ERC and they couldn’t find me because they said I’m not an employee yet; so I called the candidates team and they’re telling me I am an “active employee” so they cannot withdraw it for me. They told me my only option is to not show up for the shift and then the system will delete that shift, but they’re also saying that it’s going to delete my other confirmed start date as well!!! The job I wanted…. I’m not going to fill out or complete any more steps on the other job and hope that the system does not process me completely. On the chat help, they told me that the other job that I wanted will NOT be removed only the job I no show for and to go ahead and go to that shift that’s confirmed. I’m getting mixed answers. Has anyone gone through this?

I’m not good at being particularly open with many people, but I can be open to an extent/friendly on a basic level. But sometimes I meet people I feel I can open up to that bit more and would like to be closer with (non-romantic, I’m not interested in relationships) and I just don’t know how to do that. Like if someone were to say “open up, tell me what’s bothering you” I can do that to an extent because it’s clear, but I don’t know how to go about fostering closer friendships between others.
Eg at work - I work with some really lovely people who I feel I really trust and we all seem to have eachothers’ best interests and work well together as a great team. I feel I’ve become a lot closer to these people throughout this school year (I work in a school) and it’s really nice to have them around. They’ve been incredibly supportive of me and I’m openly very appreciative of that.
But I feel like there’s boundaries in friendship that I don’t know how to cross if that makes sense? Like I was thinking recently, and I notice a lot of people will go into others’ classrooms and have a chat first thing in the morning, often they’re all chatting and I’m on my own but I don’t know how I can just waltz on in there and say good morning and start a chat without just being awkward and it being like ‘why is she here’ although I know they’d be too nice to say that - I feel like maybe they have important things to catch up on and I don’t? And like today, one of the colleagues I get on well with was talking about a child getting in another’s personal space and demonstrating, nearly used me for the demo but then said something and used someone else instead - I feel like maybe she thinks the closeness would have made me uncomfortable when actually, when I feel comfortable with someone like I do her and the others, I like physical connection. She could very possibly suspect I’m autistic (undiagnosed and don’t talk about it) based on her knowledge from work and things I’ve shared online. But I feel I’m giving off the wrong signals, like maybe implying that I don’t want any more than necessary closeness, like I’m doing something wrong and I don’t know what? I feel like I’ve built up my relationships more with them a lot recently due to a situation where I had to report someone at work, and their unwavering help and support throughout that - but it was easier as it was a very black and white situation and they hold the same opinions that I do and were more than happy to support me.
It’s hard for me to say accurately, as the depression/generalised anxiety disordeOCD (these are diagnosed) have been acting up a lot lately and I don’t think the most recent meds I’m on have been working for me but there’s hurdles to jump before trying something different. But I feel so different and left out even though I think I’m just being unnecessarily sensitive and based on their attitudes towards me I feel like they don’t want me to feel that way at all.
Idk what I’m expecting by posting this. Replies, advice, listening, anything all welcome. Thanks for reading
EDIT: changed wording to clarify

Hopefully this isn’t downvoted instantly, because I know people seem to get strangely very defensive about Beast’s characterization in this run. I think there is a lot of miscommunication whenever a Beast fan complains about how he was depicted here. Often times people will discount those complaints because they think Beast fans just don’t want him to go bad, when that doesn’t really seem to be the whole truth from what I’ve seen. Ultimately, the complaints I raise and I have seen others raise are more about thinking the writing of his spiral in X-Force 2019 was not done well rather than that said spiral shouldn’t have happened at all. With the Krakoa era coming to an end, and “From the Ashes” having the now-rebooted Beast who is pulled all the way from his time on The Defenders, I don’t see any of the flaws here being addressed beyond characters casually referring to how bad he became. So I wanted to take this time in the in-between, where our new Beast is apparently just chilling on Wonder Man’s couch while the rest of the X-Men fight against Orchis and Nimrod, to once and for all lay out the flaws of Beast’s villainous era, and establish not that it shouldn’t have happened, but that it could have been way better.
Problem 1: A Lack of Pathos:
Most X-Men fans who have been reading for awhile will agree that it’s honestly surprising more mutants haven’t gone down a dark path. Their history is one of striving for acceptance, putting their lives on the line for people who would rather see them dead, and being rewarded with not one but multiple genocides on their population. Some of the most interesting stories can actually come from a formally “upstanding” mutant finally deciding enough is enough. When Cyclops went down his “villainous” path, it made a lot of sense. We’d seen him becoming more disenfranchised with the dream for years. We’d seen his trust in Xavier erode time and time again, and so when he decided to stop asking for acceptance and start demanding it, it was hard to blame him. Even as we saw most of his friends turn against him, that didn’t stop people from declaring “Cyclops Was Right,” because his perspective could easily be understood, and he did achieve results. More recently in X-Men ‘97, we saw Rogue go down a dark path in the wake of Genosha being wiped out, including Magneto and Gambit. Again, this was understood, and it was an interesting direction for her character.
This sort of turn would also make a ton of sense for Hank McCoy. Did you know that back towards the start of the original Uncanny X-Men run, Hank was actually the first X-Men we ever saw to leave the team and say that Magneto was right, after he and Bobby were attacked by an angry mob because Hank used his powers to save a young child? Over the years, one of Hank’s most recurring struggles and arcs is self-loathing and eventual acceptance of his condition. Hank has always been at his darkest when he’s trapped in his spiral of self-loathing, but when he comes out the other side, he tends to be one of the most optimistic mutants when it comes to coexistence with humans. He was out making connections and fighting alongside non-mutants before anyone else. Joining the Avengers and Defenders, speaking on behalf of mutant rights before congress, dating human women who were able to accept his appearance, blue fur and all. Until they weren’t… looking at you, Trish Tilby.
So with all of this in mind, it would honestly be an extremely interesting arc to see Hank, this optimistic mutant who has spent his life building bridges and making connections with humanity, to be slowly beaten down and start to believe peace is not an option. As one of the original X-Men, he has been there through every tragedy that struck the mutant population. And as one of the smartest X-Men, he has usually been at the center of these crises. He has seen advancements in science meant to eradicate the mutants. He has fought against viruses that threaten to drive them extinct. He was there in the wreckage of Genosha. He has seen countless friends killed again and again. He has suffered his own mutation evolving and making him less and less human-looking. He saw the development of a mutant “cure” and was tempted to take it. He has seen it all.
And so that brings us to Krakoa. This is the moment where the mutants as a whole decided enough was enough. If they could not be accepted by humanity, they would pack up and form their own nation, and they would force humanity to accept that they exist by developing life-saving drugs that other nations would have to rely on. And what is one of the first things that happens after the establishment of Krakoa? Hank witnesses assassins infiltrate the island and assassinate Charles Xavier. This right here is honestly the perfect setup for Hank to go darker than he has before. Even after literally segregating the mutant population from humanity, like humanity seemed to want, they still decided to come and kill the man at the forefront of the movement. And Hank, recently placed in charge of mutant black-ops, would likely see that all options are on the table.
Unfortunately, Hank’s actual pathos surrounding the decisions he would go on to make is not explored by the book itself. The book has no interest in detailing Hank’s fall from grace as we saw with Cyclops before him. The book just wants us to accept that Hank has already fallen. And in fact, according to the writing, maybe he never had anywhere to fall from. Any time a character in X-Force tries to ask important questions to understand Hank’s thought process, they are cut off. Usually by Wolverine saying “He’s always been like this.” And then on one occasion, when Wolverine asked Hank why he was doing all this dark shit, Hank said, “Didn’t you read the script? I’ve always been like this.” There is no attempt to examine Hank as a character. We don’t need to know why Hank makes the decisions he does, because this book wants Hank to be a black and white villain and so that’s what he will be. Why? Because he’s always been like this.
Problem 2: Rapid Escalation:
One of the major defenses people have when it comes to Krakoan Hank is that he has apparently been on the road to his villainous self for over a decade. The X-Force run itself loved to have characters spout a list of Hank’s previous “crimes” without any context involved, as justification for why he was acting the way he did in the current run. The problem is, that context is very important. Because it shows the disparity in the Hank of previous stories who made mistakes with good intentions vs the Hank of X-Force who did heinous shit because he wanted to. This was less a plane making a slow descent and more a plane that was slowly descending, but then its engines shut off and it plummeted into a fiery explosion.
To make this case, we need to briefly analyze the previous perceived transgressions of Hank McCoy to show what they actually meant for his character and how they differ from the Bond villain X-Force would present us with. Let’s start with Threnody. Somehow, Threnody became a bit of a buzzword for the beginning of the end for Hank. When people talk about the history of Hank and Threnody, they will usually present it as one of Hank’s worst sins, saying something like “Hank callously handed Threnody over to Mr. Sinister so he could experiment on and abuse her!!!” It kind of makes for some whiplash when you actually read the Threnody story people are talking about. Here is a brief rundown of what actually happens:
Threnody is a young woman who cannot control her powers. It causes her no end of grief, and when we are introduced to her, she is homeless and constantly in danger of hurting herself or others. Beast, Rogue, and Iceman come across Threnody who has been found first by Mr. Sinister. Sinister actually has a vested interest in curing the Legacy Virus, and believes he can help Threnody master her powers, at which point she will prove vital in his efforts to study said Virus. Notably, Threnody wants to go with Sinister here. While Rogue disapproves, Hank does believe that Sinister is actually Threnody’s best option, openly stating Sinister can actually help her gain control and the X-Men cannot, because, as Hank directly says, Sinister is willing to damn parts of his soul in pursuit of scientific enlightenment, and the X-Men are not. A few issues later, when breaking into Sinister’s base, Hank encounters Threnody again. She’s happy. Sinister did indeed help her control her powers, and she has been able to use her abilities to help mutants the world over, while also undermining Sinister’s more evil operations from the inside. Hank expresses relief, saying he was kept up at night by his decision to let her go with Sinister, but Threnody actually thanks him for letting her. And that’s it. That’s Hank’s big “crime” here.
Hank’s other “sins” are also of varying levels of severity. There’s the time “Hank worked with his evil self to cure the Legacy Virus!” when the actual story in question is Hank asserting that he won’t stoop to the levels of Dark Beast and compromise his values in the name of science. There’s the time “Hank sided with the Inhumans against the X-Men!” when the actual story is Storm sending Hank to Attilan to find a way to end the conflict between mutants and inhumans before war broke out. Hank runs out of time to find a cure for the terrigen mist cloud, suggests mutants get off-world in the meantime rather than go to war with the inhumans, is thrown into a cell by the other X-Men for his “betrayal”, and then freed at the conclusion of the war by a repentant Storm when it comes to light that the whole conflict was manipulated by Emma Frost. There’s the time “Hank risked the timestream by bringing the original X-Men to the present day!” A decision that was made on his perceived deathbed with the hopes of bringing his old friend Cyclops back to his side. Hank wants to take the young mutants back right away, but they refuse. And instead of others enforcing that they need to return, we actually see Kitty Pride decide to lead them in the present in memory of Charles Xavier. Notably, Kitty would be one of the many mutants in future issues who would yell at Hank about this.
The point of this post isn’t to absolve Hank of all fault. He has made countless mistakes and bad decisions. Regardless of the culpability of others, the pulling of the O5 to the present was his decision. During Secret Empire, Hank would turn a blind eye to Hydra’s activity simply to keep the mutants under his care safe. During all of this, however, Hank’s character was not compromised. He expressed despair and regret over his worse choices, and struggled with thinking he was a good person any longer. Again, going back to his recurring struggle with self-loathing. He had pathos behind his decisions and how they affected him, and would often reunite with Wonder Man as an opportunity to recenter and declare he would “be better tomorrow than he was yesterday.”
You would think, if the aim of X-Force was to turn Hank into a full-on villain, it would take advantage of the long-form storytelling of comics to chronicle that escalation. Like I said, the assassination of Charles Xavier is a great starting point for Hank to start going darker than he ever has before. The problem is, we don’t get an escalation. Hank starts the run by doing some of the most heinous shit imaginable. Regardless of your thoughts on the severity of Hank’s previous mistakes, none of them compare to his opening volley in this run. Hank uses telefloronics to override and genocide an entire country, leaving various people either completely dead or braindead. We later find out that during this time he also established a space station where he ran unethical experiments on prisoners like Krakoa’s very own Dr. Mengele. He then accuses his old ally Cyclops of conspiring with Russia against Krakoa, and calls forth the mutant population to witness as he parades a shamed Cyclops through its streets. Then he kills Wolverine and resurrects him as a mindless animal who he uses as an attack dog against his perceived enemies. This isn’t an escalation, this is a different character. And the aforementioned lack of pathos means that we don’t get to see him struggle with these choices. We don’t see his thought process as he becomes darker and darker. Why would we? “He’s always been like this.”
Problem 3: No Personality:
One of the most fun aspects of turning a protagonist into an antagonist is seeing how their personality works with a more villainous mindset. When Cyclops became an “antagonist” to the X-Men, he was still Cyclops. He stuck to his convictions, he was a great leader and tactician, and he was able to turn many mutants to his side because of this. We’ve seen an evil Beast before. The creatively-named Dark Beast is from an alternate future where Beast went down a dark path lacking ethics. The fun of this character, besides comparing his ideologies with our Hank McCoy, is seeing how Hank’s penchant for jokes or quotes now become far more sinister and cutting.
There’s a strange narrative that the jokey Hank is reserved for the Avengers while the Hank with the X-Men is all business and science. This isn’t entirely true. Early on when he was a member of the Defenders, Hank talks about this sort of thing. He essentially says that he wears different hats. While working with the X-Men, he used big words essentially to gain respect from both his teammates and humanity. But with other teams, and in his then-new furry form, he dropped all of that. His speech became more naturalistic and he was much more of a goofball. The thing is, it’s the speech patterns that truly change depending on who Hank is hanging with, not his personality. Hank with the X-Men and Hank with the Avengers are both jovial characters who like to tell jokes and quote philosophy. You can see Hank being a bit of a clown among the X-Men in various runs. So it’s not like it’s a given that Hank is some entirely different dry doctor devoid of any sense of humor when among the X-Men.
But this is how Hank is portrayed in X-Force. Part of why this version of Hank is so hard to reconcile with the rest of his history for fans of the character is that he just doesn’t act like himself, even when he isn’t actively committing war crimes. In one early issue of the run, we get a glimpse at Beast’s journal where he accounts a meeting he had with Forge. Now, Beast has been known to be a very physical character. He is often known to sweep others into a hug, or even plant a big kiss on their face in the case of characters like Wonder Man or Iceman. Meanwhile this one page where we read his thoughts on Forge is clearly pretending this is not the case:

I paid Forge a visit in the Armory – and I must say that he can be, like Logan, rather impossible. There is a certain locker room bravado about him I find perplexing, like a language I only half understand. For instance, he refused to shake my hand but instead dragged me into what he called a “bro hug.” Then he challenged me to a “feat of strength,” asking if I would test out this sappy “muck bomb” he had developed that – or so I gather – glues one in place. He wondered if a “big boy” like me might be able to thrash free of the binding. I refused him and said I very much would prefer to get down to business. He then referred to me as a “bookish peckerwood @#$%” but did so with a friendly laugh and clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stagger. I’m not sure how to process this, honestly. Is he being friendly or cruel? Is it possible to be both?

Needless to say, this doesn’t read like Beast. It reads like an android that has never before felt human emotion. I remember before reading this I was theorizing that Hank had been switched with Dark Beast once more to explain his sudden escalation, but after this I realized that couldn’t be the case. Because this sounds like neither Beast nor Dark Beast. Dark Beast understood how to properly write Hank as a villain. He doesn’t suddenly become your typical made scientist devoid of emotion, humor, or basic human understanding. He still makes jokes that are now cruel. He still quotes literature in a way that paints him as a god among men. Hank going bad can be a fun read, but this run was not.
Problem 4: No One Cares:
Another important angle to consider when writing a story of a good person breaking bad is how it affects those around them. Those who are close friends to the person and find themselves disturbed by their current actions. Again, I return to Cyclops. Regardless of where you stand on if he was right or not, he was very much positioned as an antagonist to the mutants at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Yet we see various friends of Cyclops still caring for him and wanting to pull him back from what they perceive as the dark side. Like I previously said, Beast’s whole reason for messing with the timeline was because he felt he was going to die and wanted to try to appeal to his old friend and bring him back around before he passed on. When someone good goes bad, part of the emotional core is seeing former friends try to appeal to their better nature, and even eventually deciding they’ve gone too far to turn back.
Not so with Hank in X-Force. Like I said, this run posits that this is not any kind of heel turn for Hank. This is how he’s always been. “Hank this isn’t you!” “No, he’s always been like this.” “Hank, turn back before it’s too late!” “Turn back where? He’s always been like this.” None of Hank’s friends give a shit. Hank’s best friend amongst the X-Men is Bobby Drake, Iceman, and we never once see any kind of confrontation there. Cyclops and Angel similarly doesn’t care. Now you could argue this is because X-Force is a secretive organization. Bobby and Scott don’t even know what Hank is doing. There are two issues with this. First, things reach a point where they would know. Hank’s actions become public knowledge, and Wolverine goes off to hunt him down while the rest of the X-Men just kinda look the other way. And second, there is someone with a lot of history with Hank that was a part of X-Force and did see everything that was going on. Jean Grey.
But we never get to see Jean wonder what’s happened to her close friend. Jean who was always incredibly close to Hank. Jean who, it was confirmed during the All-New X-Men era, had mutual feelings for Hank and might have started dating him had things been different. But no, Jean, like every character in this run, accepts that Hank has always been like this. That’s the answer to everything. So instead of some kind of emotional confrontation where she tries to appeal to his better nature, we instead have Jean yell at Hank, use her powers to throw him against a wall, and quit X-Force. And then most recently, we see her tell Firestar without hesitation to throw Hank under the bus for any heat that comes her way from her undercover mission. Because everyone will believe Hank is responsible for all the bad shit. Who the hell cares about Hank? According to this run, no one.
Conclusion:
I hope you can see the larger issue here. When Beast fans complain about his Krakoan era, people assume they just don’t want to see their favorite do bad things. But it’s practically accepted at this point in comics that most heroes will have a villain arc. Hell, Iceman is the only one of the original five X-Men who hasn’t gone down a dark path at this point. The problem is that everything about the writing of Hank during this time was just not done well. There is no exploration of Hank’s descent into villainy, and any questioning down that line is immediately shut down by the assertion that this is just who he’s always been. There isn’t any slow escalation because his first move is genocide. Hank is not even written as himself during this era, but rather as a generic bond villain. And none of Hank’s former close friends even show any emotion about his turn to villainy. An evil Hank story could easily work. We saw it with Dark Beast. A story where the former optimistic member of the X-Men has been beaten down so many times that he takes on a “whatever it takes” mentality could be interesting and emotionally resonant as we both understand what drove him here yet hate the man he’s become. But that isn’t what we got. We got a run that wrote him as a complete stranger and then had all the characters tell the reader that they were wrong for ever thinking he was anyone else.

Hey friends, I'm just looking for a little insight from a hiring manager and maybe a little solace from folks who have experienced something similar to my situation.
In February, a former colleague asked me if I would be interested in applying for a role on a new project working for my former company. This person is now leading Product, and the company has since been bought out; as such, it's a lot bigger, with more resources. Things have changed since I left, though I've heard mixed reviews from colleagues who are still there.
In March, I went through interviews with the person I know and a PO who would lead the project, and everything went great. They didn't have many questions, and expressed such since they knew me and my work. They even stated, "This is exactly what we would expect from a candidate in this role [Lead Prod. Designer]."
A few days later, I spoke to a recruiter, and everything sounded great...except the offer was very low.
Like many, I am actively and hurriedly looking for a job as I was laid off last year. I was willing to accept a cut, understanding there could and would be room for me to grow and have mentorship. So, I requested to speak to the person I know once more... to verify that I want this to be a growth opportunity for me and that I will have solid mentorship - unlike before with a different manager when I worked there; it's worth noting, this person was very aware of management problems in the past, and several people left because of it. We spoke, and that conversation also went well, albeit more candidly, since it was just the two of us. This person said they would follow up with recruitment to let them know we spoke, and they'd be in touch.
I still hadn't heard anything two weeks later (around the first week of May at this point), so I contacted the recruiter to say, "Hey! I'm super excited about this opportunity. I had a great time talking to [the person I know]—let me know if you have any questions or need anything else from me...I think I'd be a great fit because of xyz reason, etc." as you do when you follow up.
The recruiter responded a day later, letting me know that I for sure caught the attention of the person I know and the other interviewer and they were a bit delayed in the process because of work/scheduling/etc; that they would contact me once they received 'any' word to let me know, and they would be in touch. I responded saying "Great, thanks, look forward to hearing from you..." and I've heard nothing since.
I'm bummed. Almost 3 months after the initial conversation, I cannot help but feel like they found better candidates and aren't following up.
But I suppose it could also be taking a long time; the project and teams they're hiring for are quite large (about ~15-20 members on Design alone)...in which case, I'm hoping to hear soon.
What does this sound like to folks in this sub who have been hired before? Has anyone else gone through something similar? How did you handle it?
In the meantime, I'm looking and applying elsewhere, so hopefully, something clicks soon...but if I'm honest, it's not looking great. Fingers crossed!
Cheers!
Edited: formatting and punctuation

im unable to create teams, invite people if given leader, hear people, or talk. I can join public teams, but if invited manually it says "that player is not accepting invites at this time." it also says that if i try to make my own team. my in game audio works fine in every other way besides being unable to ever hear anyone talk. ive tried every combination of audio settings and it still doesnt work. i play on microsoft store and have messaged both bethesda and microsoft support. they both confirmed i have no bans of any kind. microsoft even sent me through multiple tech support agents who helped me try everything including but not limited to messing with services, registry files, verifying, reinstalling, etc. the microsoft guy basically said "im the most knowledgeable person youre going to talk to and i have no idea whats wrong. youll have to message bethesda." bethesda hasnt said anything besides "ask microsoft if youre banned from comms" ive checked all over the itnernet and everyoens issues seem to be slightly different. if it helps, i do use voicemeeter. but even if that was causing it. i feel like i wouldnt be able to hear the game. and my mic and uadio work in literally every other program. ive honestly tried everything i could think of and have no idea how to fix these issues. any help would be greatly aprpeciated because id really love to be able to socialize in this game. also i just remembered i have a friend who plays on microsoft store and has none of these issues

I have played for several hours today and had exactly 2 games where I didn't encounter someone who played like they were applying for a job at IGN.
I understand that people are new to the game and trying new characters, but the "protect me and then I'll heal you" line doesn't work when we can actively see you trying exclusively to get kills as Resonance Ying and you end the game with 4 digit healing numbers.
I understand that this game is kinda buggy and connection is unstable, but if the team loses the first engagement because you didn't leave spawn for 10 seconds, don't try and say "oh it was only 10 seconds, why didn't you just take cover"
And lastly, if you are the type of person to just immediately AFK or throw the moment a match gets challenging. Uninstall. There is no worse player on a team than someone who gives up.

I was lucky enough to go to a Taskmaster filming yesterday! It was fantastic, no spoilers on the episode, but the warm up act (was going to say who it was, is that a spoiler?) in a break asked us if we had any Taskmaster questions. There was maybe half a dozen questions answered by Mark, one was if Greg has a favourite prior contestant? He does, but he wont tell apparently! But a complete mystery was solved. Someone asked what on earth Chris and Ardal were singing about in series thirteen. ‘He put an aubergine in my mouth’. Mark didn’t know. No one in the audience knew. Alex came out from backstage and answered. There was a team task where they had to get an aubergine from one place to another. However, the footage was deemed way too dirty and they didn’t make the ladies do it. Maybe for the best after the licking task?
Edited out the warm up acts name incase people consider it a spoiler

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of different work in the games industry. I want to start this off by saying that I do NOT consider myself a marketing expert; maybe intermediate. I’m making this post to address the most common misconceptions my clients have had regarding marketing. Quite frankly, this is the biggest point of failure for indie games. Take it all with a grain of salt, share your own experiences, and please: correct me wherever you feel I may be wrong.
Marketing should start at the same time as development. You have a great idea for a game — awesome. Do you know who else is going to want to play it? Do you know how you can reach large numbers of those people? How can you make branding and messaging appealing to those people specifically? This should be day one stuff. It almost always isn’t.
Going viral on social media is an outdated concept. Social media wants you to pay for ads. That includes X, Reddit, and everything in between. Many will throttle you for unpaid self-promotion.
Don’t spend money on short-term engagements with content creators. Even if you catch them on a day when they are energized and having a blast playing, their first priority is their audience, not your sales numbers. A one-time payment will not change that.
Don’t hire unverified marketing help. Unfortunately, the indie games space is full of scams. Lots of people offering marketing help have no experience. Ask to see multiple case studies and successful campaigns.
We’ve gone over a lot of stuff that doesn’t work. Let’s cover a few things that do!
Know your ultimate goal. You should strive to create enough of a presence on multiple platforms to start getting noticed organically. Throwing a few hundred bucks at some ads isn’t going to do it. A somewhat successful post on Reddit isn’t going to do it. Align multiple marketing actions in such a way that they help amplify each other — make a new trailer, use it in your media outreach, promote it in various ways, use it to announce a demo and a contest — now we’re talking!
Optimize your Steam page. Make sure all of your art is high-quality, distinct, and gives a player an idea of what they can expect from your game (capsule art especially.) Figure out what the best tags for your game are. https://games-stats.com/steam/tags/ is a decent place to get some insights. Do this ASAP.
Create a community hub. I like to use Discord for this. All of your socials, Steam page, your game demo if you have one, and just as importantly, the game itself — everything should funnel players into one place. This will become an invaluable resource. The first committed members of your community will help provide insights into how to reach your demographic, help you find bugs and quality of life issues, and keep your team motivated. Don’t wait to do it — a year or more ahead of launch is ideal!
Reach out through content creator platforms. The ones I have personally had good results with are drope and lurkit. Your mileage may vary. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few content creators that love your game and want to keep engaging with it.
Reach out to content creators for free promotion. This is really a numbers game — you might send out 100 emails and get 2 or 3 people who cover it. Focus on creators that absolutely love your genre, and love showcasing promising new content. Send them a free key along with a personalized message. The odds of success are honestly pretty low… Nevertheless, if a sizable YouTuber covers you and is genuinely intrigued by your game, this will be well worth your time.
Run contests, giveaways, or tournaments. Let’s face it — you have a lot of competition. If you want people to line up to try your game, a little extra incentive might help! Make sure that your prize(s) are hefty enough to overcome any barrier-to-entry. A caption contest would have a low barrier-to-entry, while a leaderboard competition would have a fairly high barrier-to-entry. Keep in mind that the likelihood of winning a prize is a barrier-to-entry factor as well. “Winner receives $100” < “10 random contestants receive $10.”
I hope someone finds this helpful. This is not a fully comprehensive guide, just an opportunity to compare notes. If you have questions about any of the things mentioned in this guide, feel free to DM me! If you have something to add or correct, please let me know in the comments.

Hi, I am a dropper or can say going to be a dropper as the exam is tomorrow and I can score 150-160 which 100 can be from Quants and 40-50 can be from VA. I need some advice for my drop year as I have some ideas and expecting some ideas from you all. As a PCM student, I scored 95 percentile in jee mains and 98 percentile in maths and got selected in different engineering colleges like VIT(rank-9k), MIT(104 marks), Bitsat-(160), comedK (94), Kalinga (90%ile), SRM(rank-3k)but I have decided not to do engineering as have no interest in it and have decided to pursue eco and finance to study further as a keen interest in maths so going impact and sscbs(getting nearly 540 in cuet but will try to get 615 next year) as both have a same syllabus. Now, for drop year as you can see I have a good hand in maths and have solved all books of Cengage and just need some continuous practice till ipmat 25 so decided to solve Cengage again this year and complete till Jan(30 chapters overall and got 28 weeks so 1 week one chapter) and side-by-side questions from ipmat quants books also of same chapters or related chapters like solving trig first from Cengage and then go for quants book so suggest some books also for that. but living in Bihar and studying at CBSE caused my English to be ruined I needed to improve it I got books like Wren and Martin and Word Power Made Easy and decided to solve that and also have a book which has more than 120 RCS of competitive level exam and decided to read Hindu newspaper which comes in my house on a weekly basis so need suggestion for English also and how to improve that while reading the passage you couldn't understand because using Grammarly for it. recommend books for it. I can buy some courses but not costly ones because I don't want to ask my father as he already spent more than 3L for 4 years of jee prep and because of that I can only spend 25k-30k which I saved in my account so I saw the courses such as supergrads,ims, TIME and some other more which cost upto 50k-1L for a year and there are just two which came in my sight which cost low which are receipt(30k) and univoyage(24k) so give advice on this also which to choose because I need to just practice question for the whole year for quants but want some serious lectures for VA so please give advice for me. This year I can get into Tapmi and Nirma but I didn't want to get it because I want to give a shot for Iim Indore with full concentration this year. I got certificates in cricket, swimming, and spelling bee and also running 3-4 NGOs and 2 Blind schools, not mine but in my family so there would be no problem in getting something from there

Thanks to some incredible mismanagement, PSNY is on the edge of being delisted. The CEO, CFO and anyone else connected to this debacle needs to go, that much is clear.
BUT, what isn’t clear, what isn’t being talked about is how a company like Polestar can keep pumping out good cars that people actually want to buy. Their delivery numbers are better than a lot of their small competitors. They have a very unique advantage with having access to global markets (China but also abroad) thanks to their partnerships with Geely and Volvo, combined with manufacturing located outside of China. They are running ads and trying to make headway in North America. They are doing all of this, despite poor leadership. Can you imagine what they could achieve if they actually right the ship and push forward with a proper management team in place?
PSNY in my opinion is worth $2 a share in its current state, and could easily see north of $5 a share if the company can get their crap together and avoid this delisting nonsense. They are currently closing in on being 1/5 of Rivians market cap, despite putting up much better earnings numbers. (RIVN 4.9B rev, -5.7B operating income vs PSNY 2B rev, -1.3B operating income). Yes yes, there are many other ways to compare their numbers. I’m not going to fill 20 paragraphs with analysis here. The basic point is this: aside from being smaller, PSNY is better than RIVN from every angle numbers wise.
I am not saying RIVN is a bad company, I am saying they are finding success despite being run in a far riskier manner. Burning through cash, saddled with debt, and yet the market loves them. Are they going to have a hard year? Yeah, the whole sector is. But are they worth 5x what PSNY is worth? Not a chance. So either RIVN is wildly overvalued (it isn’t), or PSNY is trading at a steep discount due to short term issues.
To the point: PSNY will survive, and they will get their compliance forms filed. They will not be delisted. But, the stock is going to continue to get smacked around a bit with earnings on Thursday. It is currently shorted into oblivion, 8 dtc short interest and building. It is trading like it’s going out of business, and it’s not. Therefore, it is on sale, and the market is overreacting. I like the stock at $1, and I plan to buy more shares if it dips further in the short term. This is a unique company with a global reach, and Geely knows it, they will not allow this to fail or be delisted. See you all at $2 and beyond down the road :)

I have long had a policy that I am not going to share my personal cell phone number with coworkers. This is a boundaries and work/life balance thing. Last year, my bosses asked my team to put our contact information in a shared Excel sheet "for emergencies" and I did it because I didn't feel comfortable saying no. It was a small team (5 people) so it wasn't the end of the world. They were relatively good about respecting boundaries, only texting outside work hours on very rare occasions mostly for things I thought were reasonable.
We were acquired last year, and now folks on a new team we are working closely with are asking for us to put our numbers in the internal company directory. Apparently it's "unofficial policy" for our org. One woman was freaking out about not being able to get in touch with me while I was in an appointment and not answering Slack, so my boss just gave out my number to her.
I have since told my boss that I don't want others at the company having access to my number and that I have Slack on my phone which makes me just as available as text/calling with the benefit of being able to turn it off outside of work hours. He said he understood, that I'm not the only person on the team who feels this way, and that he would talk to our leadership about it. Shortly after, he came back saying he "fought and lost" and that he had to ask me to add my number to my company profile.
Is it even okay for them to ask this? Feels like a huge crossing of boundaries to me, but I also don't want to be unreasonable and refuse to do something that's pretty standard.

So the Timberwolves starters have an average member length of 6.68 as opposed to Dallas who have and average of 6.46 😳 But come on guys we all know it's how you use it...
So at the end of the Gafford day, at the end of May we will find a way.
Mavs in 6!!
Yes it's safe to say im going full delusional but we made to to the WCF again, this time on the back of a deep team not just on Lukas! Let's fucking go!
Luka is just going to assist nutmeg through Gobert... Il go back to drinking my tea now thanks Mffl ✌️

I main top and I can play lux support but she has a very high pick/ban rates. I also play a bit of jax jungle but as a farming jungler that needs to scale I never manage to stop my team from feeding.
Some say that top and mid are good roles together because of the fundamentals being fairly similar so I might consider getting it 1s my second role but I have no idea what it's like.
With this information what do you think I should choose. Also no offence but NO ADC.

Yeah, a bit of ranting. But I'm really tired of trolls and people who constantly say "Yo it's just qm".
Yes, it's QM and it's almost the only game mode besides ARAM(Because you can't even play ranked since you have to wait 1 hour to find the game.).
If you are bad g go to AI's and learn a bit. You don't care about winning or losing, if you are high, drunk etc - go play with AI's. Don't ruin the game for other players. As simple as that.
I'm tried of one sidedgamesp because people in one team are actually trying to play the game and the other team is "It's just QP" or completely clueless about the game despite somehow having 300+ lvls
UPD: Also, people like this are the reason while everyone playing in groups!

So first of all i would like to say thank you to our cappy Pat Cummins for this brilliant off-guard season. Our journey is unofficially over i clearly don't see our team making to the Finals as we don't have the best bowling attack neither the best batting battery but there is always hope. Thanks to Abhi and head this season became one of the most memorable season of ours. Hopefully our management would retain Abhi and Nkr don't wanna loose them. Looking forward to the next Auctions 2025 ;

My son plays D, he's about to turn 10 and once in a blue moon he will skate down the ice rather than pass. I will say that yes he does pass, he's by no means a puck hog, but he's a very good skater, fast and sometimes passing all the time just might bore a 9 year old....he skated the puck ONCE at a tournament this weekend and the coach spoke with him. Other D also skated the puck and they did not get spoken to...I don't think I got the whole story from my spouse but apparently the coach retracted his statement later and said he shouldn't have said that. This has come up before with this team and it's getting annoying. I can understand if he did this all the time but he is constantly passing then the few times he takes an opp to skate the coach is a kill joy. I'm worried about his confidence at this point. Thankfully this is a spring team and we won't be dealing with this coach again, but I don't know why the coach can't pick his battles better. There were MANY other mistakes made by kids that caused us to lose games but as far as I know nothing was said to any other kid.
Ugh...I hate being mad about crap like this

You asked for it, so here it is. I've compiled a ranking of all of the rankings since roughly when the season ended. How did I find them? I searched 'Ranking' in the search bar for 'Search in CFB' . The search gave me results as far back as January. I then used intuition to distinguish between what were rankings and what weren't. These rankings include media and community-made ones.
Before I show the rankings, let me just say that y'all love your rankings. Even the ones with negative upvotes still get a significant engagement. The 34th most commented post has less than 1 upvote. The least engaged post with less than 1 upvote isn't even in the bottom 20. The ranking posts were also the most popular in the month proceeding the end of the season and has picked up a lot in this past month. Enjoy:
Metrics
I rated based on comments and upvotes where the other serves as the tiebreaker.
Here's some stats:
110 posts have been recorded.

Upvotes	# Comments
37 posts have over 100 upvotes	56 posts have over 100 comments
16 posts have less than 10 upvotes	30 posts have over 200 comments
11 posts have less than 1 upvote	10 posts have over 300 comments
11 posts have over 200 upvotes	4 posts have less than 10 comments
5 posts have over 300 upvotes	3 posts have over 400 comments
2 posts have over 400 upvotes	1 post has over 500 comments
1 post has over 500 upvotes	0 posts have over 1000 comments
0 posts have over 1000 upvotes	0 posts have less than 1 comment

Top 5 Posts by Upvotes

Title	Upvotes	Comments
CFB Flair Census Final Update: Scraping Every Game Played	798	448
9 College Football Stars Who Should Get the Cover of EA Sports' NCAA Football 24	459	467
College Football's 15 Toughest Schedules in 2024	377	688
Ranking the Top 10 College Football Quarterbacks for 2024	335	327
College Football's Easiest Schedules for 2024	312	358

Bottom 5 Posts by Upvotes (tiebreaker with # of comments)

Title	Upvotes	Comments
Ranking All 31 Head Coaching Hires for the 2023 Offseason	0	39
On3: Big 12 Head Coach Power Rankings	0	47
Biggest Surprises & Disappointments: Analysis of the 2023 Season	0	52
Ranking All 27 Head Coaching Hires for the 2023 Offseason	0	55
Non-B10/SEC Team Media Value Rankings for Football	0	79

Top 5 posts by Comments

Title	Upvotes	Comments
College Football's 15 Toughest Schedules in 2024	377	688
9 College Football Stars Who Should Get the Cover of EA Sports' NCAA Football 24	459	467
CFB Flair Census Final Update: Scraping Every Game Played	798	448
Ranking Relevant East Coast Teams in Conference Realignment	150	391
Ranking College Football Coaches Using Only Win-Loss Records	256	375

Bottom 5 posts by Comments (tiebreaker with upvotes)

Title	Upvotes	Comments
Illinois OL Isaiah Adams Headlines CFL Scouting Bureau's Final 2024 Draft Rankings	28	4
College Football Sweetheart Rankings: 2024 Roster Quality	5	5
2023 Troy Football Uniform Rankings	17	5
2023 Postseason Big 12 Uniform Tracker: The Gang's All Here	36	8
On3: College Football ACC Head Coach Power Rankings	19	12

Note: I will add this ranking in 48 hours.