Also I have no idea why it veered into a discussion about a moth’s DNA. That was unexpected, but very tumblrish.

  • @JetpackJackson@feddit.org
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    301 month ago

    There is/was a tumblr bot that would reply with a closest DNA/genome string and a picture iirc (my memory on this is really fuzzy)

    • sp3ctr4l
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      1 month ago

      Because I randomly had a conversation about this some weeks ago:

      That account is not a bot.

      It says in their profile they are not a bot, just neurodiverse.

      They just … eithery manually, or via use of an unoptimized regex code, or something, remove most characters other than ATCG from a post…

      …and copy paste it into a nearly 20 year old freely available (but woefully underpowered and incomplete) API for genome matching.

      Then they copy paste the output manually.

      The account also posts non genome matching comments.

      Its just a person with a unique hobby.

      Unfortunately they are using such an old and underpowered API… and not even formatting their input into this API properly… that it is likely the equivalent of a random species output.

      EDIT: Not calling you out personally, as you admit your memory is hazy, but 99% of the people that talk about this account seem to do the most tumblr thing possible:

      Do absolutely 0 research or investigation, make up a bunch of personal headcannon (falsehoods, baseless speculation), and then run with it as fact.

      • @hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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        141 month ago

        […] the most tumblr thing possible:

        Do absolutely 0 research or investigation, make up a bunch of personal headcannon (falsehoods, baseless speculation), and then run with it as fact.

        That’s just humans in general

        • sp3ctr4l
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          21 month ago

          Yeah, but it is especially common to, and very often very extreme, with Tumblr users.

      • Gabe BellOP
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        71 month ago

        I was honestly just curious – it just seemed so out of place. Even in the full post (the source – not the version I posted) I couldn’t figure out how it got from werewolf periods to the moth string.

        Thanks :) :) :)

    • @ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      21 month ago

      a closest DNA/genome string

      To what? As in - what in that thread is it relating the moth to? (it’s fine if you don’t remember, but if anyone else does, I need my confusion eased lol)

      • sp3ctr4l
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        1 month ago

        The ‘idea’ is that a post … of any length … is stripped of all characters other than ATCG, and that what remains constitutes a possible genome sequence.

        bark moth couple dingo

        becomes

        atcg

        Then you run this ‘sequence’ against a database of genomic data, and get a nearest match to some species.

        The actual problems with this are many.

        Actual genomic sequences are orders of magnitude larger than even a lengthy, stripped down tumblr post.

        Actually running a nearest match search of a short string / sequence will likely match many, many different species.

        Running an exhaustive, ie, accurate, nearest match search against an actually comprehensive database would require using a supercomputer, or at the very least, a lot of powerful, networked computers.

        EDIT: There’s no real relation to the content or context of the post or thread to the ‘genomic match’ species. None.

        Its about as legitimate or useful as trying to decipher the ‘Bible Code’ by running any number of pattern matching algorithms on a modern, English Bible.

          • @Denjin
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            41 month ago

            Strange, it was literally the first explanation I thought of, I then spent 10 minutes confirming that was in fact the sequence of ACTGs in the original post before coming into the comments to find out that it is indeed what happened.

  • Ricky Rigatoni
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    211 month ago

    Why does this post not have any of the reblogger names? This must be incomprehensible to people who don’t use tumblr.

    • Gabe BellOP
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      31 month ago

      I need to put this in my user name because every time I post something someone asks me.

      This is how it appears on my dashboard. If you don’t like it, take up with tumblr.

      • 3 dogs in a trenchcoat
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        11 month ago

        Doesn’t look like that on mine. I remember seeing something in the settings for showing blog icons so it might be that. Can’t find it rn though

        • Gabe BellOP
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          11 month ago

          shrug It’s always looked like that, and I haven’t done anything to make it look like that (if that makes sense – I didn’t go in and tick a setting that was captioned “make it look as confusing as possible”).

          I just never bothered to investigate the settings, except for the one that makes it scroll forever and ever. That one I turned off because ARGH!!!

      • Yep, not worth commenting on. The only other question is whether they’re just assigning gender roles to teaching kids skills but they obviously just want to talk about themselves with that bait so the best option is ignoring it.