Plus: If you have this type of email, you won’t need to verify your age online ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 25, 2025 | Read online
# Indie game seller bullied, Ggl lnk shrtnr klld and what Sizzlers are saying Plus: If you have this type of email, you won’t need to verify your age online
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2382
"Please enjoy this photo of my desk from I think 2004 (maybe 2005) (Mastodon: decryption)
Folks, have a belter of a weekend.
# The News
### Indie game seller bullied into hiding games because of overzealous puritans
Popular indie game marketplace Itch.io has suddenly deindexed many of its adult games following a campaign by Australian group Collective Shout (Itch dot io). With no warning, Itch.io made games marked as “NSFW” invisible in its search because of “scrutiny from our payment processors”. While Collective Shout’s campaign started with No Mercy, a pretty gross game which I covered in a previous Sizzle, this decision means that many games that don’t feature abuse or torture have been essentially disappeared (WIRED, $). Even Elon — sigh — has weighed in on the debate to push back against the campaign (Australian, $)
| Kat Marchán @zkat.tech |
itch.io/updates/upda... I just read this and you should too. Itch is doing literally everything right right now, both for themselves and for the creators on their platform. They were handed a shit sandwich and I don't think there's anything better they can do than what's described here.
6:37 AM • Jul 24, 2025
14 Likes 3 Reposts | 0 Replies
The Sizzle: The WIRED article above does a good job of pointing out how Collective Shout — a group that was obsessed with trying to get lingerie store Honey Birdette to stop showing ads of women in underwear in shopping centres (god forbid!) — has a history of conflating truly abhorrent material with normal, adult stuff that puritans don’t like. Even if you ignore their targets, the result of their actions is kneecapping many indie creators who’ve done nothing wrong. They are not a good faith group, and we should not accept a debate about the bounds of what is culturally acceptable being set by them.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Ggl’s is kllng its lnk shrtnr
Google’s short link domain Goo.gl will stop working a month from now, meaning that all existing links will die (The Verge). Google first said it would stop shortening links in 2018, and last year said that 99% of the links had no activity in the last month (Google Blog). Google will continue using the domain for its own, internal services like Google Maps.
The Sizzle: I know there’s a joke about Google shutting down services with like 100 million users because it’s too small for them, but I gotta say this is pretty annoying. Sure, running the link shortener is another problem for them with no benefit, and it’s a free service so you get what you pay for, but sucks to know that a little piece of internet infrastructure that holds together old websites will break in a month.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### What Sizzlers are saying
Sizzlers in the forum were fired up about the data on how Google’s AI answers is killing the web by essentially ending search referrals. mvyrmnd on Slack shared his go at the “now industry standard test” on Proton’s new private LLM app. Andy linked to an AI crawler’s fuck-up while summarising an article. Meski corrected me on the NSW Health banning Copilot story which wasn’t clear enough that the policy was specifically about people logging in with their individual accounts. Heaps of people like RaymondPierreL3 on Mastodon were enamoured with a Sizzle picture of what I’m now learning were called “washing machines”.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
What OpenAI’s Sam Altman suggests you do to keep your job (AFR, $) Exclusive Australian interview NBN Co to axe millions of useless planned outage notifications (ITNews) Explainer: The potential legal battle brewing over Nintendo’s new Switch 2 terms (Infinite Lives) Starlink satellite internet back after 2.5 hour outage, Aussie users struck with no Internet or Remote SMS services (EFTM) Is the new ChatGPT agent really a weapons risk? (Information Age) Shazam has viral charts from what people hear (Pickr) What are the new UK online safety rules and how will age checks on adult content be enforced? (The Guardian) Nvidia AI chips worth $1bn smuggled to China after Trump export controls (FT, $) Apple iOS 26 public beta arrives (TechCrunch) Introducing the Google Trends API (alpha): a new way to access Search Trends data (Google) Google rethinks search results with its new AI-curated ‘Web Guide’ (The Verge) OpenAI prepares to launch GPT-5 in August (The Verge) NFTs qualify for trademark protection, Ninth Circuit rules, sending Yuga Labs case back for trial (The Block) Graphene OS: a security-enhanced Android build (LWN) The VTuber world is in crisis over ‘owed’ donations (The Verge) No, of Course You Can’t Actually Play the New Lego Game Boy (WIRED, $) How to defeat AI crawlers with a HTML zip bomb (Ache)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### If you have this type of email, we won’t need to verify your age online
With the UK having various age checking requirements coming in today, Elon Musk’s X has put up some details about how it’ll comply. One estimation method that caught my eye: “users’ email address will be used to estimate their age.”
Immediately, I started thinking about what email addresses would prove your age? The serious answer is probably emails like .gov, but then I started thinking of ones like @bigpond.net.au or @ozemail.com.au that I associate with the more mature, wise types. I thought I’d throw it to the Sizzlers: What are the signs that might reveal the age of an internet user? Email addresses, choice of browser, whether they know how to use a file directory? Let me know!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Waterproof Portable Charger with Light - Black - 10050mAh for $15 at Kmart Gwydre 200w Car Power InverterDC 12/24V to 230V AC Inverter3 USB 1 Type-C Ports Charger Adapter for $39.99 at Amazon Prime Yipoyilo Air Tag, 4 Pack Black for $48.99 at GuangZhouTianSheng via Amazon AU Babylisspro Whitefx Skeleton Lithium Hair Trimmer for $199 at Barber Temple DJI Osmo Action 4 Standard Combo for $298 at Amazon AU Bosch Unlimited 7 Cordless Vacuum White Bcs711wau & Free 18V Impact Drill for $304 at The Good Guys Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler & Dryer Complete Long (Bright Nickel/Rich Copper) for $419 at Dyson eBay (Box Damage) Samsung Galaxy Watch8 40mm (LTE) Sports Band S/M for $549 at Telstra JVC 65" Mini LED 4K 144Hz Google TV (2025) for $999 at TVSN LG 42" OLED EVO Flex for $1440 at JB Hi-Fi
Computing
Logitech Studio Series Desk Mat (Mid Grey) for $15 at Amazon AU Verbatim Store'n'Go 256GB Portable SSD for $19 at Centre Com TP-Link LS105G 5-Port Network Switch for $22 at Bunnings Stutter Edit 2 (Stutter effect audio edit Plug-in) for $45 at iZotope FL Studio Fruity Edition for $289 at Image-Line Software Producer Edition for $449 at Image-Line Software Signature Bundle for $619 at Image-Line Software All Plugins Edition for $699 at Image-Line Software Ubiquiti UniFi Routers Express 7 Router for $379 at Centre Com Cloud Gateway Max 2.5GbE Router for $483 at Centre Com Dream Router 7 for $502 at Centre Com Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE 5G 128GB (Grey) for $444 at Samsung eBay TP-Link & XGIMI Products TP-Link Deco X80 5G AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Router for $470 at Mobileciti XGIMI Horizon 2200 ANSI Projector for $1099 at Mobileciti Apple iPad Air M3 11" Wi-Fi 128GB for $837 at JB Hi-Fi / Officeworks Lenovo Thinkbook 14 G8: Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, 32GB RAM (2x16GB), 14" 1920x1200 WUXGA for $1499 at Landmark Computers
Mobile
iOS app White Noise+ Relaxing Sounds for Free at Apple App Store Motorola Phones Motorola G24 4GB/128GB for $129 at BIG W HMD Pulse Pro 6GB/128GB for $179 at BIG W Motorola Edge 50 Fusion 5G 12GB/256GB for $299 at BIG W Oppo A5 and Oppo buds3 for $236.55 at Big W Motorola Moto G85 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $239 at BIG W Samsung Galaxy A56 5G 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $432 at The Good Guys Motorola Edge 60 Fusion for $537 at The Good Guys Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (256GB, Black) for $879 at digiDirect via eBay
# The End
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