Another "haunted domain" check is by trying to post about it on social media. I ran into this with my current project's domain name. After building an MVP and trying to test the social sharing functionality, I found that Facebook was blocking the domain outright. Turns out there was some spamming from it years ago. Getting it unblocked was extra fun, as the page to request manual review was itself broken! Thankfully I knew someone on the inside who alerted the relevant team, but the whole experience was quite the novel speedbump.
It's not that the smooth path you can get via nepotism is the base way things work which people who don't "know a guy" are excluded from. Rather, everything is falling apart and shitty, and if you're lucky, you occasionally get to circumvent that shittyness.
> It's not that the smooth path you can get via nepotism is the base way things work
Well, obviously it isn't if you're not in the 1%. If you're in the 1% then that's the way the world has always worked and you don't know anything differently.
Meritocracy is great and all, but there's a gap between having merit and others seeing the merit.
I don't believe that human society can, practically, get particularly close to the ideal. I question the choice of fatty meat as a substrate for minds.
For my money, I'd suggest that merit will get you further today than in the days of letters of recommendation, but that failures of meritocracy are more visible.
I would really like to see it fixed too, especially as regards these faceless behemoths which nevertheless worm themselves into dictating important parts of real peoples' real lives with absolute authority and no recourse
The fix is called "legal system", or rather, also making it accessible for individuals and small businesses against the large mega corporations without risking getting bankrupt in case of losing. And companies that continuously lose in judgements get fined progressively until they establish enough support infrastructure to not be a burden on society.
Small claims court often works, depending upon jurisdiction.
Where I am there is no forced disclosure, no costs costs assigned, and it is $150 to file.
And while a lawyer can represent a large firm, an employee has to be present, and the lawyer cannot use excessive legalise, the court is carried on in plain language... with the judge expaining things to you if you don't userstand.
That's pretty accessible.
The biggest risk is not knowing about no required discovery, and costs. Lawyers for big corp will ask for things, and hope you work your tail off. I just say no.
They will also elude to how expensive this will be, to which I typically snort.
Said large companies typically spend 50k to 100k on lawyers, and I spend $150 and a dozen or two hours of my personal time.
Depends on the context. Forming a real human connection with someone who has proven they can be trusted is a feature. However, people oftentimes feel they are connected to others based on identity, and then treat those people favorably regardless of merit. The latter is such a major detriment to society that it needs to be actively countered by regulation (and is to some extent).
