TIDU: Today I don't understand

[strawman]

Why do bill collection companies still stick with phone and mail to collect their debts? Today's youth and young adults are all about the facebooks and texting. Some don't even bother to have a voice line and only have email because so many online places require one.

Just got a call from a bill collector trying to reach someone, and they had the wrong number - my number - for some reason.

Go find them on the internet and bug them there! Stop calling me - they aren't at this number.

(though now that I consider it, I suspect that there are legal protections to using the phone and postal mail for debt collection.)

 

[DarkAudit]

Why do bill collection companies still stick with phone and mail to collect their debts? Today's youth and young adults are all about the facebooks and texting. Some don't even bother to have a voice line and only have email because so many online places require one.

Just got a call from a bill collector trying to reach someone, and they had the wrong number - my number - for some reason.

Go find them on the internet and bug them there! Stop calling me - they aren't at this number.

(though now that I consider it, I suspect that there are legal protections to using the phone and postal mail for debt collection.)

That is assuming that the debt collector is pursuing a legitimate debt. More and more often, they aren't.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

It's also a lot easier to mark email as spam than phone calls.

 

[Emrys]

Why do people "Reply to All" when RSVPing an email invitation for a work event? There is no reason for you to assume that I need to know that status of your invitation. I wouldn't know you if I ran over you in the street, which is probably a good thing, because if I did know you, I would likely back up to run over you again. Stop filling up my inbox with crap I don't care about!

 

[Ravenpoe]

Why do people "Reply to All" when RSVPing an email invitation for a work event? There is no reason for you to assume that I need to know that status of your invitation. I wouldn't know you if I ran over you in the street, which is probably a good thing, because if I did know you, I would likely back up to run over you again. Stop filling up my inbox with crap I don't care about!

Things I hate that bosses seem to love. "Here's a memo sent out to the ENTIRE company, please reply all that you understand."

Oh god, no....

 

[GasBandit]

Things I hate that bosses seem to love. "Here's a memo sent out to the ENTIRE company, please reply all that you understand."

Oh god, no....

The owner of my company is really bad about "reply all to confirm receipt." E-MAIL HAS A RETURN RECEIPT OPTION, AND WHY DOES EVERYBODY NEED TO KNOW EVERYBODY ELSE GOT THE E-MAIL

 

[PatrThom]

We get the occasional "reply-all" bombs here at work, which are then usually followed by dozens of "I don't think this applies to me, please remove me from this list" emails.
Then the memes and animated .GIFs start.
I always want to reply to these things to contribute, to inform, to educate, but I don't want to be denied a promotion or something because I got caught in a reply all trap.

--Patrick

 

[WasabiPoptart]

Pseudoscience! Seriously people the comparison of 2 handfuls of cashews to a prescription dose of Prozac in itself is wrong. What is a "prescription dose"? There is no universal "dose" of Prozac. Where is the research to back this up? Real research, not Dr. Oz's words of wisdom. Plus, if you believe Prozac is bad for you, then what makes the anti-depressant chemical in cashews better? Tryptophan, which is found in cashews, is involved in the production of serotonin but they aren't the same thing and don't work similarly on the brain. "Big Pharma is evil!" Why not question the people/persons/web sites who publish this bullshit instead?

 

[Enresshou]

Pseudoscience! Seriously people the comparison of 2 handfuls of cashews to a prescription dose of Prozac in itself is wrong. What is a "prescription dose"? There is no universal "dose" of Prozac. Where is the research to back this up? Real research, not Dr. Oz's words of wisdom. Plus, if you believe Prozac is bad for you, then what makes the anti-depressant chemical in cashews better? Tryptophan, which is found in cashews, is involved in the production of serotonin but they aren't the same thing and don't work similarly on the brain. "Big Pharma is evil!" Why not question the people/persons/web sites who publish this bullshit instead?

Pretty much this. I'm doing my PhD in the biology of mood disorders and it is absolutely maddening when people claim there's no evidence of chemical imbalances, and that people need to try this one weird trick instead of listening to reams of medical science.

Similarly, the wife is currently a third year veterinary student. She has no trouble with good animal breeders, but she (and most others in the vet/vet tech profession) end up wanting to strangle people who ignore their advice because, "Well, that's not what my breeder said..."

 

[WasabiPoptart]

Pretty much this. I'm doing my PhD in the biology of mood disorders and it is absolutely maddening when people claim there's no evidence of chemical imbalances, and that people need to try this one weird trick instead of listening to reams of medical science.

Sometimes I wonder how much the stigma of mental illness plays a part in this. You aren't sick. You just need to snap out of it. Therefore you don't need to take medication.

 

[Enresshou]

Sometimes I wonder how much the stigma of mental illness plays a part in this. You aren't sick. You just need to snap out of it. Therefore you don't need to take medication.

Pretty much. Whenever I meet people who are unsure about why mental illness is considered an illness, something I've found very helpful is to frame it as a physical--rather than "mental"--illness. Everything we know about brain function (including mental state) derives from a physical basis, so I find it helpful to point out the physical symptoms of these illnesses. For instance, in depression there may be increased cortisol, decreased serotonin, increased adrenaline/noradrenaline, decreased dopamine (all of which fall under "chemical imbalances," and I DETEST that term because it's very imprecise and "chemical" is a dirty word for a lot of people) as well as physical changes to the brain. The hippocampus ( brain region controlling memory/mood) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex (cognition/mood) are smaller in people with depression, and the cells making up these regions actually change shape and size depending on the severity of the illness.

There's lots more, but I think you're in the ballpark. It's easy for people to call something an illness when there's an obvious cause--cancer = tumor, diabetes = difficulty producing insulin, etc. Not everybody has a frame of reference for these illnesses, so it's easy to see how it's a disease. However, everybody has a frame of reference for emotion and being sad sometimes; it's more difficult to understand how something can be an illness because, well, everybody's sad sometimes--why can't they just get better?

 

[Cajungal]

What the hell happened to Dr Oz? I heard he used to be an actual doctor who was respected, and now he makes my daytime TV watching aunts buy green coffee or whatever is the miracle now.

 

[Null]

What the hell happened to Dr Oz? I heard he used to be an actual doctor who was respected, and now he makes my daytime TV watching aunts buy green coffee or whatever is the miracle now.

Money.

 

[PatrThom]

Pseudoscience! Seriously people the comparison of 2 handfuls of cashews to a prescription dose of Prozac in itself is wrong. What is a "prescription dose"? There is no universal "dose" of Prozac. Where is the research to back this up? Real research, not Dr. Oz's words of wisdom. Plus, if you believe Prozac is bad for you, then what makes the anti-depressant chemical in cashews better? Tryptophan, which is found in cashews, is involved in the production of serotonin but they aren't the same thing and don't work similarly on the brain. "Big Pharma is evil!" Why not question the people/persons/web sites who publish this bullshit instead?

Not to mention how badly they'll mess someone up who has a Poison Ivy allergy.

Also:

I DETEST [the] term ["chemical imbalances"] because it's very imprecise and "chemical" is a dirty word for a lot of people)

"Chemical Imbalance" can mean soooooo many things, especially when it comes to the brain (and surrounding environs).

--Patrick

 

[Chad Sexington]

Sometimes I wonder how much the stigma of mental illness plays a part in this. You aren't sick. You just need to snap out of it. Therefore you don't need to take medication.

There's this, for sure. There's also, from my own feelings, the desire that I can just be 'cured,' and depression will be gone, and I'll be healthy and normal. If medicine means a regimen for years, or maybe forever, then I can appreciate why people hope they can just take a supplement which restores them 'naturally.' I'm a huge sceptic, and also I love reading research, but no one is totally disinterested and dispassionate, so it is understandable why someone wants to say, "Well, I will try this anyway." It's not an excuse, but it is an explanation. I understand the temptation to believe that sort of thing, I understand it deeply because the wish for it is rooted in my heart.

As with most of these pseudoscientific things, I understand the believers much more than the teachers. It's the latter I find to be morally offensive. Yes, one has a responsibility to some extent not to believe everything one's told, but also it's not necessarily wrong to accept what an authority says. It's easy to laugh at or pity someone who uses cashews to fight depression, but in my mind I can empathize with them, while Dr Oz, or whoever, is the villain, and one at whom I can't laugh or pity: I think what he does is unconscionably cruel, as it gives so much false hope which is so carefully media-managed into the appearance of truth.

 

[DarkAudit]

Apparently there's a war between the Steven Universe fandom and the bronies, and it's spilled out onto my tumblr dash. I really don't want to dig to deep into this. Does anyone else know what's going on?

 

[GasBandit]

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's the fault of the Bronies.

 

[checkeredhat]

Who the hell is taking everyone's photos on dating sites? It's so weird to me that anyone has photos of JUST themselves. Cameras don't come out of my friends' pockets/ purses except to take group photos.

 

[bhamv3]

Who the hell is taking everyone's photos on dating sites? It's so weird to me that anyone has photos of JUST themselves. Cameras don't come out of my friends' pockets/ purses except to take group photos.

"Hey, could you take a picture of me doing this? I think it'd make a nice profile picture."

 

[figmentPez]

Apparently there's a war between the Steven Universe fandom and the bronies, and it's spilled out onto my tumblr dash. I really don't want to dig to deep into this. Does anyone else know what's going on?

Apparently there are some idiots who want to make "brogems" and "gemtlemen" a thing. That's it. Shock of shocks, asshole fans of one popular cartoon have some spill-over to other similar fandoms. While I get that both terms are monumentally stupid, because Steven Universe isn't aimed at young girls like MLP is, I'm not sure why the very idea is so abhorrent that it deserves anything more than an eye-roll. Just ignore it, and don't let yourself get trolled. Bronies are, apparently, the Tumblr boogey man.

Seriously, though, I'm not sure how the nice "bronies" (and, yes, they do exist) are expected to have kept assholes from using that term. It's like holding feminism accountable for everything that Jezebel.com puts in an article. It's just not possible to stop vocal assholes on the internet from giving an informal group a bad name. Unless you're a legally recognized group with leadership that can kick out members, how do you stop vocal idiots from claiming membership?

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

Apparently there are some idiots who want to make "brogems" and "gemtlemen" a thing. That's it. Shock of shocks, asshole fans of one popular cartoon have some spill-over to other similar fandoms. While I get that both terms are monumentally stupid, because Steven Universe isn't aimed at young girls like MLP is, I'm not sure why the very idea is so abhorrent that it deserves anything more than an eye-roll. Just ignore it, and don't let yourself get trolled. Bronies are, apparently, the Tumblr boogey man.

Seriously, though, I'm not sure how the nice "bronies" (and, yes, they do exist) are expected to have kept assholes from using that term. It's like holding feminism accountable for everything that Jezebel.com puts in an article. It's just not possible to stop vocal assholes on the internet from giving an informal group a bad name. Unless you're a legally recognized group with leadership that can kick out members, how do you stop vocal idiots from claiming membership?

TIDU every word above

 

[HCGLNS]

Why do bill collection companies still stick with phone and mail to collect their debts? Today's youth and young adults are all about the facebooks and texting. Some don't even bother to have a voice line and only have email because so many online places require one.

Just got a call from a bill collector trying to reach someone, and they had the wrong number - my number - for some reason.

Go find them on the internet and bug them there! Stop calling me - they aren't at this number.

(though now that I consider it, I suspect that there are legal protections to using the phone and postal mail for debt collection.)

The bill collectors are bound by law as to how they can contact you. The laws have not been updated to include modern technology.

 

[fade]

These bill collectors, they ring my phone
(ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling)
They bother me when I'm not at home

 

[Squidleybits]

The bill collectors are bound by law as to how they can contact you. The laws have not been updated to include modern technology.

Someone with my same name and a similar birth date has some issues including a very unpaid PC Mastercard. The collections people would call constantly and ask for her and I would say no that's not me, yes that is my name but no, you can't have my social insurance number. I realise that it must have sounded lame but GIVE IT UP!

 

[PatrThom]

Every 10-15 months or so, the debt collectors come after some guy who must've had a phone number similar to mine.
I've given up trying to fix it. I just don't answer any more. A phone number is no proof of identity, stop wasting your time.

--Patrick

 

[Yoshimickster]

Yeah, "Gemtlemen" doesn't make much sense, I prefer "Steventhusiast". One: Not gender specific, two: sounds fancier.

 

[checkeredhat]

"Hey, could you take a picture of me doing this? I think it'd make a nice profile picture."

Is this the reality? People actually ask their friends "hey can you take my picture because i look really good right now" ? That just seems gross to me.

 

[Bubble181]

Is this the reality? People actually ask their friends "hey can you take my picture because i look really good right now" ? That just seems gross to me.

I regularly walk by the Atomium (see picture) to work. You wouldn't believe how many times people have asked me to take a picture of them for a profile shot. No different from taking a regular touristy picture, really.

 

[fade]

Plus now you have a sweet collection of phones.

 

[Fun Size]

I'm a parent, so all hope is lost.

 

[Bowielee]

Why do bill collection companies still stick with phone and mail to collect their debts? Today's youth and young adults are all about the facebooks and texting. Some don't even bother to have a voice line and only have email because so many online places require one.

Just got a call from a bill collector trying to reach someone, and they had the wrong number - my number - for some reason.

Go find them on the internet and bug them there! Stop calling me - they aren't at this number.

(though now that I consider it, I suspect that there are legal protections to using the phone and postal mail for debt collection.)

I'm gonna go ahead and bring my 13 years of debt collections experience to bear here. I don't get to do it often.

Yes, there are legal ramifications in regards to electronic attempts to collect a debt. It is illegal to disclose a debt to someone other than the debtor or someone who is a designated affiliate of the debt (spouse, anyone who has provided paperwork that they handle the finances of someone, such as someone who is developmentally disabled or otherwise unable to conduct their own finances) per the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act).

We were able to do it at the hospital ONLY because their account was tied to them personally through their medical records. Mail is permitted because it's a federal offense to open someone else's mail so it's not the agency's fault if someone jacks your mail illegally.

Debt collectors DO use a vast array of people searching software and there is a great deal of skip-tracing done to track down debtors who have fallen off the grid. This is entirely legal as long as the person calling doesn't disclose that they are attempting to collect a debt. It's HIGHLY illegal for them to do so.

The core of the FDCPA is that you may ONLY discuss a debt and its collection with the debtor themselves or the aforementioned representatives or spouses.

Emails break this law because there is no way of legally proving that the account belongs to the person that you think it does.

All that being said, there are really horrible collection agencies that will break these laws and eat the fines associated with them if anyone actually gets the yin to actually attempt to pursue legal action against the debt collector.

Also, the FDCPA doesn't apply strictly to first party collections, so if it's the business that you owe money to, they have much more leeway.

 

[GasBandit]

TIDU how the gaming blog I all but abandoned last year (and really hadn't seriously updated since 2013) has made more ad revenue over the last 28 days than my periodically updated youtube channel. I mean, I knew that ad revenue would trend downward over time on my youtube channel as my major draw (the Space Engineers tutorials) got older and more outdated, but somebody in Canada is clicking the hell out of banners on the old blog. I mean, yesterday's statistics: 2 pageviews, 6 ad impressions.... 101 clicks. Wuh. Tuh. Fuh?

 

[Ravenpoe]

TIDU how the gaming blog I all but abandoned last year (and really hadn't seriously updated since 2013) has made more ad revenue over the last 28 days than my periodically updated youtube channel. I mean, I knew that ad revenue would trend downward over time on my youtube channel as my major draw (the Space Engineers tutorials) got older and more outdated, but somebody in Canada is clicking the hell out of banners on the old blog. I mean, yesterday's statistics: 2 pageviews, 6 ad impressions.... 101 clicks. Wuh. Tuh. Fuh?

Well, if a banner asks a canadian to click it, they're going to say ok.

 

[Null]

Well, if a banner asks a canadian to click it, they're going to say sorry.

FTFY

 

[Emrys]

Awww, you beat me to it.