Butts Are Difficult

Oh hey it's been a while.

Hi, I'm qdot, founder of buttplug.io and author of Butts Are Difficult, the ethics page in the buttplug.io docs.

I also wrote the rest of the buttplug.io docs but this is the part that I'm proudest of, both because I was really happy how it turned out and also because unlike the parts of the docs involving the API, this one doesn't go out of date as quickly.

Ask me anything!

I was expecting lulz but this was actually very well written and gets into a lot of the softer aspects of human-computer interaction.

Also the double entendre of "plug" in technology contexts, subtly brilliant.

The hard thing about this is that it's not all software. Just look up what can go wrong with "the handy."

The thing is a pinch hazard and a user could get their scrotum sucked into the slit of the machine, or get pinched as it vigorously slides back down.

Just look up the reports of what can go wrong --it's not pretty. ("do not press it on your scrotum" is the frequent community refrain.)

AFAIK, most of these devices do not have pressure sensors and feedback mechanisms. They're output only.

No amount of software develpper empathy will help as when things go wrong it will happily slice your genitals off and keep chugging away.

"Having a CoC in place guides moderation of situations where interests may conflict.

As for which CoC to use (if looking for a prewritten one), you can check out ours as an example."

Haha, not sure if intentional.

This is actually a think that Oculus / Meta feels like they didn't consider and still don't, even tho by their own statics it's the number one use for VR

Some of this I'm sure is my particular usage but still...

Examples: When the controller batteries are low I get a warning in the middle of my session and it sticks around way too long. If a battery dies in a controller the message is undismissible. The software I use works fine with one controller but instead I have to stop what I'm doing, remove the headset, find a battery, install it, put the headset back on, resume the software, and often reset the view because anytime you take the headset off it resets it's orientation.

There are also times where it just says "Fatal Error" and exits when the battery dies.

Another issue is I have 2d software I use in VR because having a giant screen is nice. But, Oculus insists on playing some annoying hum sound in the home screen with the built in desktop viewer. Note: I'm not using the 3D environments as my home screen because that ads more time to get stated. So, in any case, I have to launch something to get rid of the sound. I usually pick a video viewer app because it's very small and then pop up the desktop over it without selecting a video. But, Oculus is apparently unaware of this use case because they break this in some new way every few releases.

The latest is, if you bring up the desktop in the middle of an app, after about 5 seconds it automatically takes you back to the VR app. It's almost like they forgot the feature exists. Other issues in this area are it went from a fairly rock solid feature to one out of 3 times entering into some bug loop where it flips between paused mode (desktop) and VR app mode. Being able to get out of this loop bug has about a 1 in 4 chance. Fixing it removing the headset and restarting the Oculus software on the PC. Then starting whatever apps you were in.

Note that I'm using a Rift-S. I tried using a Quest 3 with Link which tries to give you the same experience but the Link was way way too flaky, crashing 1 of 3 times, when I pulled up the desktop.

Another feature that broke, which I used frequently, was pulling up the desktop and pinning it so it stays visible while a VR app is running. It was a great way to goon.

And, all of this is using porn software which makes it hard to make bug report that will be taken seriously.

I’ve loved the Buttplug project. I was hitting an issue with their Bluetooth library controlling a we-vibe, and someone offered to drive over from the other side of the bay to help debug it. Bluetooth sniffer, and all.

One of the best posts of the year!

Tech, caring and humor in butt one in and out

And there's even an acceptable self-plug!

How do they test this stuff? Acceptance/integration testing?

Is something like the Nogasm/Edge o Matic using this technology for evil? ;) Food for thought.

This guy takes butt plugs more seriously than ClowdStrike does CI/CD.

top tier saturday night HN post

From reading the docs I see a pretty generic device fleet management framework. What makes this software specific to sex toys besides the intention of the authors and the name? Couldn't you just as well manage - i dunno - a fleet of corporate e-scooters with it?

Folks like you are responsible for degrading the competitive integrity of chess players:

https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/05/chess-grandmaster-accused-of-...

https://boingboing.net/2023/12/26/chinese-chess-master-accus...

would love to know more about the author's time as artist-in-residence at Autodesk. Blog looks promising.

Serious question. Do you put buttplug.io on your CV? :)

Bravo on the title. Oh what a world we live in

“Don’t be horny on main (branch)”

I dunno about you guys, but about a decade ago, I just stopped having to _absolutely know_ the truth value of statements, webpages, satire, ignorance , conspiracy the, and other aberrations that appear on the internet.

This is one of those times.

I only read half of this, BUTT it CRACKED me up.

> These hopes have to be tempered by the issues of the general sterility of software, though. GitHub, StackOverflow, Glitch, and other community sites were not really made with NSFW content in mind.

Yes and I hope it stays that way. Teenagers or even children may use those platforms and I think we're oversexualizing everything too much already.

Maybe that's an opportunity for a new developer platform focused on NSFW uses.