• JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    8 hours ago

    I’m a little confused how OOP is moving the welcome mat without triggering the camera. Though I’m sure this story is $100% real.

  • Ecen@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Can someone explain why there are so many stories of bad HOAs in America? Don’t everyone in the HOA get to vote on who will be on the board and what rules there should be? Why do many of them seem to have strange and petty rules? What makes them able to issue fines for so small infractions? Where does the fine money go? Who sets up the HOA in the first place and what is the motivation to do so?

    We got plenty of similar associations where I live (both for apartments and houses, though not so often for fully detached homes) and they usually work great. Basically you pay a monthly fee to your HOA that the board use to keep the plumbing and outside areas maintained, pay for tv/internet for everyone at a much reduced cost or maintain other common areas like laundry rooms, guest apartment, parking garage, workshop etc. There are of course some restrictions too you need to follow, but those are usually minor and common sense anyways (like you shouldn’t play very loud music too late in an apartment in the middle of the week) and that you don’t get to do whatever you want to the outside of your place.

    (Another common rule is that you need HOA approval to sublet your apartment. This can be occasionally annoying to deal with, but is good because it prevents people from buying up apartments just to rent them out. And most of the time the HOA will approve you if you’re just moving away for a year or similar.)

    • cpaq47@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      That was the original intent, yes. Then they were tainted by greed and now most of them are in place before anyone lives in the neighborhood, so owners have no choice if they want to live there. Many are owned and operated by private companies that profit off petty fines like this. I once got a letter threatening a fine because I parked my car in my driveway and it had expired tabs. This was during early covid when the DMV was slower than usual. I almost lost my shit.

      Check out this episode of Last week tonight if you wanna get more upset.

      Last Week Tonight HOAs

      • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        That’s not the original intent. In the US, HOAs were mostly created after the end of segregation to keep black people out of white neighborhoods, an origin story that puts into context the modern of pettiness and desire to control others we see in stories like this.

        In the early postwar period after World War II, many [HOAs] were defined to exclude African Americans and, in some cases, Jews, with Asians also excluded on the West Coast.

        A racial covenant in a Seattle, Washington, neighborhood stated, “No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any Hebrew or by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay or any Asiatic race.”

        When these were found unconstitutional in 1948, they became private contacts until those became illegal in 1968, but because HOAs had to approve new members/buyers, the rules stayed in effect until the majority of a community decided to stop being racist. On top of that, in 1963 the Federal Housing Administration said they would only insure mortgages on homes with an HOA which is really what created suburban sprawl and the ghettoization of the American inner cities.

        If you look at the history of HOAs it’s really a long and protracted fight on all levels by racists and bigots against the Civil Rights movement.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association

        TL;DR: Although conceptually HOAs are a good idea, even trending towards communalism, actually existing HOAs are, with a few exceptions, downright regressive, often criminally so.

      • Ecen@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Thanks! I will give it a watch.

        It does seem to suck. I hope it can get better.

        Edit: Right, so in summary there is no regulation at all on American HOAs and they are also easily taken over by private companies. Makes sense they are bad. Though it’s still astonishing that an organisation can be so unregulated that it can enforce more fines than the local government, without any oversight.

  • Ugandan Airways@lemmy.zip
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    13 hours ago

    Anybody have any neighbor revenge tips? As in my neighbor is a fucking psycho who tried to break into my house, but is also rich, so he paid a lawyer and got a hand slap?

    Obligatory, ACAB and fuck America. Can’t wait to take a position overseas again.

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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    13 hours ago

    Check every morning if the cans moved.

    Notice they move Wednesday night.

    Set alarm for middle of the night (3AM) and check if they moved.

    Didn’t move? Next week set alarm for 4.30AM.

    Moved? 3.45AM.

    Moved…

    Shoot the guy trespassing on your property in dark clothes in the middle of the night.

      • LwL@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        HOA plus calling a priest to have the house blessed certainly point in that direction though. But I don’t think that would be legal everywhere even there. Isn’t much use to you though if the neighbour is the kind of psycho to shoot someone over this.

        • mirshafie@europe.pub
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          10 hours ago

          I imagine all neighborhoods have some local association that fills this function. It’s just that the USA cosplays as libertarians while being authotitarians.

          I hate to drag in Iran into this, but that’s a country where property is respected. You owned a piece of land in the 60s that you never developed, then the revolution came and you fled to LA? Well your plot of land is still sitting there, untouched, in the middle of Tehran, now worth tens of millions of dollars.

          As a homeowner in Iran, you own a cone with its tip in the Earth’s core and its base emanating to the edge of the universe. The same applies if ypu own an apartment. You have a veto, changes can only happen by consensus.

        • BogeyTheSwear@lemmy.zip
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          12 hours ago

          I live in an andelsboligforening, thats kind of the same i think.

          Imagine if an association owned an apartment complex, and the association was owned by the members.

          So i dont technically own my apartment, i own a specific part of the association, that is connected with this specific apartment.

          We have the same for city gardens called Kolonihave, its actually very common in Northern Europe.

          • Ananääs@sopuli.xyz
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            2 hours ago

            We have taloyhtiö which is similar. The one I live in at the moment is pretty good, we even have our own janitor which is rare nowadays. Today I called the janitor about a leaking pipe and they arranged a plumber for tomorrow, no hassle.

            The housing cooperative is much liked and there are elderly people living here that were born in these houses and never lived elsewhere. It’s not a posh neighbourhood either, which is nice. Just normal people.

            But of course it varies a lot. Here most of the people who own the flats live in them, and the board members too, but the housing cooperatives whose boards are filled with landlords tend to minimize the upkeep and services. And when also the tenants change all the time the community that would look after itself doesn’t have a chance to grow.

    • VinegarChunks@lemmus.org
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      23 hours ago

      A LLM that does not understand that you can’t avoid being seen by a ring camera by ‘approaching from a blind spot. ‘

      • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        You’re making the assumption the cameras can see the bins. Might just look at a driveway.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        22 hours ago

        I mean its perfectly conceivable for any camera to have a blind spot. The lens can only see so much. Heck given its a Ring camera its almost certainly on a wireless connection so its trivial to briefly disrupt the connection if you’re okay with violating FCC regulations

        • VinegarChunks@lemmus.org
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          13 hours ago

          A camera was put up explicitly for the purpose of seeing who is moving the bins, and the guy can’t see who is moving the bins, and the guy never thinks to reposition his camera?

          No, that’s AI slop.

        • uienia@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          If a camera is pointed directly at the trash cans, there would be no blind spot from which they could move them.

  • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Not HOA but similar. I was living in a different city during covid. The city closed the outdoor parks in the poor and working class neighborhoods, the rich folk parks remained open.

    They started to wrap the swings at the park around the top bar. I’d unwrap them each day and that went on for about two weeks. Then they went to zip tying the swings together so they couldn’t be used. So I would cut the zip ties each day. This went on for another few weeks. Then they brought a sign post and a sign saying the park was closed and using the swings was prohibited. I dug the sign post out and threw it in the woods. Then they chained the swings together with a pad lock so I went to harbor freight and bought very heavy duty bolt cutters and lopped the chain off. That daily chain lopping lasted a week or two then they just took the swings away. I debated about buying swings and attaching them but figured the gambit went on as long as it should have and called it. I had fun.

    Meanwhile the whole time the kids in the rich neighborhoods could swing to their daily content.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I love it. Perhaps it would have been more effective to just do whatever they did to the swings at the other parks? Either way it’s good stuff

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        My park was close to my house and it was closed by ordinance, the other rich ones were not. There is no difference in the parks at all other than the property values in the neighborhoods in which they sat. I wasn’t going to go to city hall and complain since the mayor and council people were all from the rich neighborhoods. Rule of law is downwards in our class based society.

      • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        Are you saying sabotage the rich kids swings? Thats awful. Like something done shit to your park so you’ll pay it forward to other innocent kids. Terrible behaviour. You should be mad at the people doing it and take it out on them or the rule makers.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          22 hours ago

          I think the removed signs should’ve been liberated and re-placed at the rich neighborhood park, and chains should’ve simply been set by the swings there. Make them see what they’re doing and explain to their families why this is happening (if they even bother to use their parks)

          It doesn’t damage the park, it doesn’t prevent its use but it does clearly place the problem they created at their doorstep

        • BrickEater@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I mean if the city is gonna actively punish poor kids then fuck them rich ones, they should suffer just the same. Teach them some humility instead of the upper class bubble they’re in.

          • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            The correct response is to find out who is responsible for the chaining/closing and start chaining/closing their stuff. Randomly messing with another park doesn’t hurt anyone and just means another park is closed.

    • DeadPixel@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Good effort! Hopefully some of the local kids got to enjoy the swings after your heroics each day, & that the council/city eventually put them back after restrictions loosened again.

  • socsa@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    Imagine being so fucking basic you care about trash cans being visible from the street.

  • mrnobody@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    I don’t believe it… Moving a welcome mat when the guy has a camera doorbell? C’mon…

    • Bababasti@feddit.org
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      14 hours ago

      In the whole of Europe? That thing that‘s made up by a big bunch of countries, all with very different laws and regulations? Bold claim.

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      My parents kinda has one where they live in Sweden. Except everyone is welcome to the meetings. And it’s mostly about planning, upkeep, and budgeting for snow ploughing, play parks and things like that, instead of relying on the local council to do it. And it’s only for the one street they live on. Definitely no where near what an american HOA is like 😅

    • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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      17 hours ago

      We Germans sadly have owner’s associations in appartment buildings that can pull similar shit with the house rules, and also crazy restrictive building codes in some places, dictating how your driveway is allowed to look etc.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      1 day ago

      Of course there are home owners associations in Europe. They’re just not crazy.

      • Bababasti@feddit.org
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        14 hours ago

        For real, Switzerland does not nearly get enough shit for being exactly like the stereotypes that actually exist for Germany but even more so

  • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The term Gaslighting gets thrown around a lot, but if this story were actually real it would be the perfect modern day example of it.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Ya no way this is real. My ring doorbell detects the damn trees when the wind blows too hard. Not a chance he avoids the camera.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        22 hours ago

        My ring doorbell

        Obligatory get that police state spyware off your home and use something else (if cameras are even at all necessary!)

        • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          If the neighbor is concerned enough to call a priest after exhausting all natural means of dealing with the problem, he’s surely going to point the camera right at the trash cans.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            22 hours ago

            I’m imagining there’s some setup to how the cans were placed that creates a blindspot where the OOP can move them without himself being seen, so the camera will simply pick up the cans moving each night without any clear source of the movement

  • Deacon@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This would be me if I ever moved to the suburbs in an HOA, which I would never do on purpose.

    I am enraged by proxy at the very existence of HOAs even though I have never been part of one or indeed interacted with an HOA or even (knowingly) a member of one. I just hate them for existing.

    • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      I have had some shitty HOAs and I now live in a home with no HOA for a reason. Fuck those overbearing shitheads.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        IDK. I’ve had good and bad experiences with them. But overall more positive than negative. It’s all about which HOA you’re talking about. Yes, you can say you should be able to do what you want with your land. But that isn’t how any kind of land ownership works anywhere on Earth. There are always some entities regulating how you can use it, as you inevitably have neighbors and you don’t have a right to damage the enjoyment of their property.

        Can they be overbearing? Sure, the wrong ones can. But they also keep mean that I don’t have to worry about my next door neighbor turning his property into a junkyard.

        • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          22 hours ago

          I’ve had 2 and they were both far, far more than just overbearing (yes, I realize that I used that word in my previous comment). My first HOA had a pair of elderly sisters that were both on the board that would walk around the subdivision a few times a week with clipboards just looking for anything that they would come at you with. One time they had the board lawyer send me a threat of putting a lien on my property because I had left a paint can on my driveway for a few hours… while I was literally painting a room.

          The only people that HOAs serve are authoritarians and people who only think of their home as an investment whose value is more important than anything else. I just won’t play that game anymore.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            Respectfully, you’re painting with far too broad a brush. I don’t consider it authoritarian to not want my next door neighbor to turn their front lawn into a junkyard. Again, it really depends on the HOA. I know that goes against the Lemmy party line, but it’s my lived experience and the experience of millions of American homeowners.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      22 hours ago

      I’m the kind of person who would go full rules-lawyer on them, get myself elected to the board and generally rip out every silly rule they have if not completely disband the HOA if needed