site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2213 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 25, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Yes. I've curated a large 500 song "Best of 80s" Spotify playlist since 2018 which I exported to .csv and just dumped to Spotify with "analyze this and suggest additions that ". Then I gave it feedback on those additions and continued with free form conversation (eg. "I've been a huge fan of Mark Knopfler since seeing him on the Live Aid broadcast" and "I notice sharp decline around 89-91 and complete stop around 96. Explain why") so it ended up asking me a bunch of clarifying questions. It probably helps that I can usually articulate why I like or don't like some song (even if it's just "The song has nothing for me to grab onto" / "it's too bland" / "Catchy AF and I love how intentionally cheesy it is"). I set thinking to high so it wouldn't do only cursory analysis and spent some actual time doing the analysis.

The limitation is that ChatGPT doesn't seem to have much (if any) builtin understanding of the actual musical details of individual tracks, so if you want "guitar riffs exactly like in song X", it can't help you much if nobody has written a review that talks about said riffs in other songs. It does seem to be able to read tabs / sheet music.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats