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Colin Ferguson

@fearlessson

Senior QA Engineer at Epic Games working on the Unreal Engine, cosplayer, human-simulacrum. He/They.

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28.07.2023
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Latest posts by Colin Ferguson @fearlessson

“Don’t move, human, I’m getting comfy.”

06.03.2026 05:52 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
05.03.2026 21:35 👍 2104 🔁 487 💬 32 📌 14

It gives very, “You better be grateful we’re shaking you down for protection money,” vibes.

05.03.2026 21:18 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

This is why you shouldn’t give them your credit card information.

05.03.2026 21:10 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Trans rights win fights.

04.03.2026 06:13 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

we were probably all up last night staring at the ceiling with our own version of the same thought running on endless loop, but mine looked something like this:

I hate these people to a degree that feels simultaneously corrosive to the soul, and also the only righteous response to this kind of evil

28.02.2026 21:30 👍 3716 🔁 790 💬 7 📌 36
"The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are AMerican, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same..." - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

"The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are AMerican, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same..." - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

28.02.2026 22:31 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Hollow Knight.

I didn't enjoy it the first time I played it. The first area felt so dreary and empty, nothing in it really grabbed me. I got bored and bounced off. It was only because people kept singing its praises so often that I felt pressured to give it another try and pushed through that time.

28.02.2026 01:11 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
a man in a suit and tie is wearing a helmet with the words marathon time on it Alt: A man in a suit and tie is wearing a helmet with the words Marathon Time on it.

Original Marathon mentioned, I have been summoned:

28.02.2026 01:08 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Beat me to it.

28.02.2026 00:56 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I think we could bring some anti-trust laws to bare on the problem. Yes, we have a tradition of free press, but we also have leverage to promote deconsolidation to reverse the elite capture we've seen happen to it.

27.02.2026 16:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

There is a real tendency to be against good technology when the problem is capitalism. Being able to stream movies is good. Being able to order food online instead of having to call is good. Being able to call a taxi with an app and see where it is rules. The issue is not the tech, it's capitalism

25.02.2026 16:46 👍 129 🔁 15 💬 3 📌 0

Gavin Newsom & the New York Times are doggedly working to strip rights and human recognition from transfolk, while insisting anyone who *doesn't* share their obsession is obsessed with "pronouns". Trust no one who claims to oppose Trump while taking delight in bullying the same people Trump bullies.

24.02.2026 19:31 👍 1035 🔁 409 💬 4 📌 5

Is Matt from the same Gradwohl clan as the guy who ran The Gauntlet back at Bungie? Because I was on a team with his nephew. Seemed like a family business.

24.02.2026 19:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
24.02.2026 04:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

There's this couple I see frequently at the gym. One part of the couple is a pretty swole guy, and when I saw him tonight I noticed he was wearing a Bungie shirt. I asked him if he'd worked there too. Said he worked in recruiting around '19-'22 or so. I told him I worked there '13-'14.

Small world.

24.02.2026 03:07 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The political effects of X's feed algorithm
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2
Received: 16 December 2024
Accepted: 4 January 2026
Published online: 18 February 2026
Open access
• Check for updates
Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m
Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects.
Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

19.02.2026 18:57 👍 6411 🔁 3197 💬 159 📌 401

It's not the military I'm worried about, it's the civilian 3%er types who are just itching to feel like they've been given permission from above to murder other citizens they don't like.

'Course, I'm sure plenty of them jumped at the call to join ICE so they had an official sanction to do so...

21.02.2026 07:23 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

They tend to just assert "The left went too far!" and don't elaborate any further than that.

If you try to unpack it anymore than that, they end up stammering something like, "I was all for equal rights until those leftists demanded I give [specific minority] equal rights! That was going too far!"

18.02.2026 02:51 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

correct! every post about fixing a broken games industry that involves [specific games industry tweaks] and not [destroying a speculation-mad executive class and using their bones for compost] is just wasting everyone's time

16.02.2026 00:11 👍 1234 🔁 345 💬 1 📌 0

I think to reestablish trust with former MAGA they would first be required to acknowledge that they were willfully wrong. They were warned, repeatedly, including by the people they elected. I can’t accept any redemption until they can humble themselves enough to admit they wanted to believe lies.

16.02.2026 15:36 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"Pay unto evil."

16.02.2026 14:01 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh, @isaachannaford.com for starters.

14.02.2026 16:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Good job!

12.02.2026 23:45 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

“The plural of video game is vidyjajames.”

12.02.2026 21:57 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Without downloading any new pics, describe your gender.

12.02.2026 21:48 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The only solution is to ensure we have no more elites capable of this kind of influence. I want to tax and regulate them into non-existence.

10.02.2026 18:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A screenshot from the 2001 game Uplink, by Introversion Software.

A screenshot from the 2001 game Uplink, by Introversion Software.

10.02.2026 15:55 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh yeah, and information can be a weapon. Going out of your way or spending resources to get intel on someone or something can open up new dialogue options, give you buffs versus a specific enemy, or change the distribution of items or enemies within a mission.

09.02.2026 06:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

And different characters require different approaches, which you need to feel out. For example, one character will say flirtatious things to the player character. If you flirt back though, it lowers her opinion of you, but if you respond with polite professionalism then she respects you more.

09.02.2026 05:38 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0