Gay scalie game dev!
the way i see it, “folks” can refer to a more traditional group of people, most likely rural, and you wouldn’t call nobles or people of other high status “folks”.
but also i doubt people think it is problematic; it’s just a quirk of the English language that “chat” emerged basically out of nowhere with the closest analogue being “audience”.
i mean, “habit” is a weird word for it. i’d call it more of a trend. “brain rot” seems like an adequate description.
it comes from streamer culture where streamers would refer to their audience as “chat” because the chat box is the main way for viewers to interact with whoever they are watching.
psst just letting you know that surfshark doesn’t have ip forwarding, so you can’t seed while torrenting with it
i’d call them “pricks” but you do you