If nothing else, it’s “look at all these people using our services, that’s proof we’re awesome, even on the free tier, so imagine what you’ll get if you pay us!” ¯\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯

Fümpf.

I come from a teeny tiny village in Germany where, when I still lived there, the only commercial establishment was a bakery and I think that’s gone now too. It’s not because of any deliberate planning though like they seem to do in the US.

Hi, yes, that’s a very USian issue. We here don’t believe in the separation of residential and commercial areas.

Unlike humans, the entities who process those aren’t capable of mentally compensating on the fly for deviations from the standard so “wrong words” are immediately punished and can’t proliferate.

Not insular enough to be isolated, hence that saying about it being three languages in a trenchcoat.

Fuck your opinion, clearly womb-ists need to die, wume-ism is the only truth!

You do you.

All I’m hearing is “If my shitty behaviour as a tourist in your country towards people in the service industry makes a person in the service industry feel bad, that’s their own fault (also here are some truisms about connection that seem neither here nor there)” and I SERIOUSLY hope that’s not what you’re saying.

Okay, cool, you did understand me though, yeah? Gonna explain what you meant earlier? The feeling of being scolded for something I said and not knowing what is one up with which it’s hard to put.

Sorry, I don’t know what you’re referring to.

Doesn’t mean the encounter will necessarily be particularly pleasant.

I mean, I get that it’s utter shit right now and has been for some years and I don’t envy anyone who can’t get out. But this wasn’t yesterday. And you don’t see other nationalities going around being very loudly nationalistic and frankly antagonistic like that after they had some national tragedy.

I will never forget that group of tourists that, many many years ago, came to see the Pope in Germany and, while waiting for the underground, for reasons that elude me, started chanting: “USA! USA! USA!” 😐

HAH-hah ur old

Same energy:

Is what I’m asking.

I haven’t seen that type of response, at least not at any significant frequency, but let me speculate wildly while accepting your premise for the moment.

People in general are less mentally resilient than they were 6-10 years ago, what with The Everything And All That In The Everywhere At All Times. That might manifest in less patience and less willingness to indulge beginners. So I don’t think it’s a conscious thing meant to gatekeep anything, people just don’t have the capacities to explain things again and again in detail (especially when they think the answer is easily found using the search engine of your choice) and are more easily exasperated if things don’t go smoothly.

Again, this is all assuming your premise.

Huh? What difference does it make to them…?

Wait, thinking about it, is it because name at gmail is easier to remember for them? Because gmail is the “standard” in their minds?