Also I have no idea why it veered into a discussion about a moth’s DNA. That was unexpected, but very tumblrish.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    8 hours ago

    Because I randomly had a conversation about this some weeks ago:

    That account is not a bot.

    It says in their profile they are not a bot, just neurodiverse.

    They just … eithery manually, or via use of an unoptimized regex code, or something, remove most characters other than ATCG from a post…

    …and copy paste it into a nearly 20 year old freely available (but woefully underpowered and incomplete) API for genome matching.

    Then they copy paste the output manually.

    The account also posts non genome matching comments.

    Its just a person with a unique hobby.

    Unfortunately they are using such an old and underpowered API… and not even formatting their input into this API properly… that it is likely the equivalent of a random species output.

    EDIT: Not calling you out personally, as you admit your memory is hazy, but 99% of the people that talk about this account seem to do the most tumblr thing possible:

    Do absolutely 0 research or investigation, make up a bunch of personal headcannon (falsehoods, baseless speculation), and then run with it as fact.

    • Gabe Bell@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 hours ago

      I was honestly just curious – it just seemed so out of place. Even in the full post (the source – not the version I posted) I couldn’t figure out how it got from werewolf periods to the moth string.

      Thanks :) :) :)

    • hydroptic
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      8 hours ago

      […] the most tumblr thing possible:

      Do absolutely 0 research or investigation, make up a bunch of personal headcannon (falsehoods, baseless speculation), and then run with it as fact.

      That’s just humans in general