1. OP mentioned this also happened outside in the parking lot and was implying active blocking.

2. There’s ways for stores to work with telecoms to get service broadcast inside the warehouse/building as well to get around the natural passive blocking from the building materials.

I was well aware of the difference between active and passive blocking.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement#:~:text=Jamming Prohibited&text=The use of a phone,classroom%2C residence%2C or vehicle

This is more likely a coverage issue than Walmart illegally blocking wireless signals (per to FCC regulations).

Report the coverage issue to Verizon and your local Walmart. Both of which will want to increase coverage of where people are gathering. This is because if bad coverage areas are in places where people gather this will cause affected people to switch services or stop going to those gathering areas if there’s alternatives.

You’re right. Had to dig into my memory for this one and fact check myself.

IRC, BBS, and most forums (of the era) used PM or SP. MUCKs and a few other tools used Whisper. ICQ introduced “IM me”. Part of me remebers using the term “DM” for IRC messages, but I used IRC fairly regularly well into the 2010s.

However, the forum I spent a ton of my younger years on used “Direct Messages” which has likely polluted my memory. Since it was a technology related forum, that was probabaly a customization from the operator to distance everyone from the idea of “private” since everything was clear-text and unencrypted back then. That or I’m confusing “IM me” from the ICQ/AIM/MSN days.

Point being, nobody thought “PM” meant secure and not visible to the server operators back then. It just meant that only you, the recipient, server operators, and 1337 h4xx0rz could see your messages.

What a trip down edited memory lane that was. Thanks for fact checking me.

Umm… People have been using the phrase “Direct message (DM) me” since forever in the game and online comms world. Private message wasn’t a concept until after DMs were later encrypted. And we always knew, that if we didn’t control the servers, even encrypted, those messages were subject the server operators.

Your logic is giving me the impression that you’re younger and didn’t go through these experiences.

I just wish it was an either/or situation.

I don’t always need my lawn mower/blower/weed trimmer on batteries. I wish I could easily plug them in when doing light dut work close to the house. But then they couldn’t tie me into their battery ecosystem as easily.

Do one of the following:

1. Tell your mother you’re not comfortable hosting that type of content as a non-believer.
2. Lie and hand back the propaganda movies and say you couldn’t rip them to some unknown rip protecting they use and there’s not enough resources online to figure it out.
3. Host the content and let your mother liver her life and don’t say anything.

I’d personally use option 1, but you do you.

The more I see you post, the more I like you.

TBH, I never dug into rational wiki. However the timeline is fairly accurate from what I watched what happened to my friends both in the game industry and my former friends that were gamers (hint, i worked in games when this shit was unfolding).

Unfortunately, no other “timeline” source exists, with Wikipedia starting its paragraphs of history with Zoe Quinn creating Depression Quest, and many many other articles starting there as well. Some people like to attribute a slightly earlier event of a handful of journalists critiquing gamers over their reactions to the Mass Effect 3 ending, but that doesn’t really fit with how quickly things snowballed after “The Zoe Post”.

I stand against gamergate buddy.

Your timeline of events and triggers are off though.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Gamergate

I vividly remeber this time period and witnessing these events unfold live. I lost a good deal of people I considered friends at the time due to the misogyny that rose out.

You’re right though, gamergate followers were radicalized by what we now know as the “Alt-right”.

Gamergate started with “The Zoe Post”, not the removal of jailbait.

“The Zoe Post” is a hit piece from an Ex-boyfriend of game developer Zoe Quinn that alleged that she slept with a notable game reviewer to get positive reviews for her game. Said reviewer never actually reviewed her game.

Please don’t re-write the history of these events. Especially since jailbait had been removed for around a year when “The Zoe Post” dropped.

Needs to have a facemorph of Seal (the singer).

To resell them on Amazon for $4.99 a pop to rubes that don’t buy a box on AliExpress for $4.99

And the jobs are rarely worth the stress of picking apart the terribly designed, chock full BizDev rushed ads-on features due to foolish promises, and a manager that’s stressed out due to how few experts they’re are that’s going to try and micro-manage you because his skip-level is breathing down his neck about when something is going to be fixed.

No thanks, not again.

BBS predate chatrooms and are proto-forums.