The blog post critiques Microsoft's OneDrive design as manipulative dark pattern that restricts user choice and invades privacy. The content advocates for consumer awareness of such practices and questions corporate responsibility in technology design. The evaluation engages primarily with UDHR provisions on free expression, privacy rights, education, and preventing abuse of digital power.
Instead of Windows Backup (which relies on M$ OneDrive), you can enable (in Control panel settings) and use Windows File History.
File History is a backup feature in Windows that automatically saves copies of your files from specific folders, like Documents and Pictures, to an external drive or network location. It allows you to restore previous versions of your files if they are lost or damaged.
To enable File History in Windows, connect an external drive or network location, then go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup, and select "Add a drive" to choose your backup location. Finally, turn on File History to start backing up your files automatically.
This stuff is increasingly normalized across platforms.
I'd say "vote with your wallet", but when all the tech platforms are doing it, there's not much choice. PCs / laptops are probably the last hold out: Just switch to Linux (but be careful which distro you pick) or MacOS (for now).
The political pendulum is going to swing far left in the US given the disasters that are playing out in DC. Hopefully this sort of crap will be banned when that happens.
[0] for the most part because nothing - not even macOS where Apple controls the entire stack from CPU up to the OS - is without problems. Though i'm doing weird stuff with my PC - on my laptop i just threw it in ~3 years ago and it has been working without issues since then
I used to use Windows Backup with One Drive years ago but it just really pissed me off, especially with how My Documents is handled.
There was that time I discovered several GB of screenshots had been automatically saved to My Pictures from some setting they snuck into the printscreen screen grab tool and then that of course those were automatically uploaded to the cloud. After disabling the option it would sometimes reenable itself.
And game devs throwing random shit into My Documents was also fun. Ubisoft were terrible for this, after playing a game I'd notice a bunch of cache files they dumped into My Docs being uploaded. I mean putting save games and config files inside my docs is annoying enough, random cache files is just taking the piss.
Also windows backup would mess up my desktop between systems on occasion which was also very fun!
I disabled most of the shit but it was still annoying on occasion. Then a year or two ago I solved the problem by just using Linux for 90% of things, Mint at first but now Fedora, and grudgingly booting back into Windows for the other 10% of my needs.
Since no one mentioned how to actually dismiss the notification forever:
OneDrive is treated as a normal app that is installed by default, you can actually just uninstall it through Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
Hope the PM in charge with the scammy copy designed to trick people into turning this on is happy with the boost in free users falling for it.
My dad turned it on not knowing what it meant and it completely messed up his workflows and now I have to figure out how to safely disable it and move his files back.
I will remember Microsoft causing this problem for him every time I think of or get asked if someone should use a Microsoft product or service.
Last time I tried to restore a file from a customer's onedrive it just failed with a variety of 500 errors or just blank pages. The reason I was trying to restore it was because windows had moved all of their files into onedrive without their informed consent and (at least) this one was no longer accessible.
onedrive is not a backup: like all automatic sync systems it is a liability. It may be useful but it is still a liability.
I recently was forced to get Windows 11 because my new build's motherboard only supported UEFI and there was some incompatibility with my 10 year old Windows 10 boot disk. Windows 11 is an abomination; I paid $200 for a Pro license and I still get ads. My kids will be learning computing on Linux.
It baffles me how many people on HN cannot operate with a simple deny-all firewall. The windows version and updates I install are the only updates installed. The files I back up are the only files that back up. Nothing can connect to the internet. Not Windows Update, Not google chrome update, Not onedrive, Nor any virus or malware program.
Reliance on the internet is the problem. No windows version including windows 11 REQUIRES the internet to operate. Install your OS from disk. Activate by phone(or don't bother...). Install seasoned updates from catalog. If the program wont specify the ports and servers it uses, DON'T USE IT AND DONT WRITE CODE FOR IT.
This is the worst part of modern computing: Companies trying to get you to do things (or trick you into doing them, or worst: forcing you to do them as a condition of using the product). What ever happened to the user being in charge and deciding what to do with his computer? These dark patterns are getting so tiring. Companies need to butt out and offer features, not coerce people into using them.
It's the same with Apple OS updates. I hardly ever want to update my Apple devices. The odds that such an update will actually improve my UX are indistinguishable from zero nowadays, and the odds that it will break something that I rely on are very nearly 1. (And yes, I get that I'm not getting security updates. That's a risk that I'm wiling to take in order to have an otherwise stable system.) And yet, I cannot get my Apple devices to stop nagging me.
At this point, the OS is mostly on autopilot for home users, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing - Google defaults to saving everything in a cloud, and the experience of Google Drive is pretty similar.
The corporate user and the power user are expected to use group policy to control their OneDrive, and they do. You can also sort-of force turn it and other components off with their App Locker system.
The home user probably should just allow it? If you want to plant a flag in the ground and say, no, the computer is mine and it shall obey, I can't argue on that ground except to say indifference among consumers outnumbers you. We accept less than total control in phones, cars, refrigerators...
I do a fair bit of pro bono help with small businesses and older people and the expectation that your computer should just save your stuff is pretty strong. Perhaps it was trained it by non-free software, but I think MS product managers are correct in betting people want Windows to be batteries included when it comes to saving peoples stuff.
Again, the power user has control, you just have to exercise it.
Back when I was using Windows, I had enabled this feature too (before I knew much about privacy) and when I finally decided to get rid of it, I remember consistently failing to disable OneDrive. I would log out, uninstall the app and then try to move my Desktop folder out of "OneDrive" in my home directory and next boot I'd have 2 folders again (with the "OneDrive" one being used, of course). I ended up reinstalling for another reason, but that finally fixed the problem.
I deleted everything from my OneDrive today and got especially mad that the Android app shows a download icon in folder details yet it's disabled. There's absolutely no way to get your files through there. Had to log in on the web just to get a ZIP of everything (it's surprising that's still possible). As soon as I move off Outlook I'm out of this ecosystem.
Where I work we start using OneDrive for backup, even on macOS. It hijacks your Documents folders, as well as a few others. I suspect most people don't even realize they're using OneDrive.
I've had to tell dozens of people to move their git repos to folders that aren't managed by OneDrive. I've seen where someone will change branches and OneDrive will start pulling files back down from the old branch. It's quite the mess.
IMHO Linux Mint keeps being the strongest option to recommend when the intention is a clean transition with the least amount of fiddling. It just works, it is reliable, and it doesn't play games with changes of basic technologies that can only cause confusion (e.g. none of the Ubuntu shenanigans like their confusing desktop or their non-Debian packaging)
It's almost like monopolies aren't good for the consumer. We need some real power for enforcing the Sherman act. Too many companies have been able to buy all their competitors
I really want to see a tweak to the California and EU privacy rules that requires opting in to data collection / sharing to be at least as hard as opting out.
For the first 5 years, the processes would be swapped, and set in stone. So, you'd need to call a number, sit on hold and be disconnected a few times to get a mailing address. Then you'd buy some stamps and an envelope if you want to submit a "Please sell my personal information" form. Grocery stores would charge you more if you used a loyalty card, and so on.
Of course, a better approach would make the collection, sale, querying, possession of, and engaging in transactions involving consumer marketing databases illegal. (All those protections are needed since Google redefined "sell personal information" to not include any of their revenue streams.)
My Android tablet keeps bugging me about updates and what not. Wish I could install my preferred flavor of Linux on it, but it seems infeasible at this moment.
Windows 10 was indeed offered free worldwide to users already using older licenced versions of Windows.
Microsoft even touted Windows 10 as last version of Windows.
But it was typical bait-and-switch gambit by Micro$oft, and support for Windows 10 is ending in Oct 2025 (rejecting the pleas from thousands of companies worldwide to extend its Win10 support for longer while), because M$ thinks everyone will migrate to Windows 11 (not free).
However, many Win10 users will remain on Win10 for years (just as they had stuck around with Win7/Win8 for years), and many will migrate to Linux or MacOS instead.
Microsoft will out find the hard way that people can be as stubborn as it can be.
- Microsoft Office, mainly PowerPoint, Excel and Word for creating and interacting with other companies' docs. Libre/OpenOffice mangled them/were missing features I depend on
- Issues with my laptop's Nvidia card (screen tearing etc.) last time I tried to switch, and rabbit holes that I don't have time for anymore (solopreneur)
That said, I would love to switch back. I loved rofi [0] last time, for example.
Can anyone speak to the above? What's the status of running Windows apps like Adobe, Resolve, Office, for instance? Or AutoHotkey or equivalent?
It's very similar to Bazzite, which you listed, but not gamer focused. You get an easy install, auto updates (without reboots), and a bulletproof, immutable OS that is nearly impossible to break.
Agreed about switching to Linux. I don't agree on macOS though. Apple is nasty in its own way and has a ton of anti-user patterns no one should be dealing with. If you want to decide for yourself and not things being decided for you because "we know better than you what you really need", just use Linux.
Despite the fact that it mostly runs in powershell, it still has a better UX then the majority of Microsoft apps. (Except for the confusion about their only GUI pop-up window, you put a check mark next to the built-in apps you want removed, which was led me to reread the instructions to make sure I had it right the first time I used it).
It has both built-in sane default for people who just want to debloat Windows 10/11, along with a "custom" option which takes less than 60 seconds to get through but gives you all the customizability you need.
(No connection with the author except mad respect.)
This work is 10x more effort than it sounds too due to how severely mistakes are penalised (i.e. unrecoverable files), necessitating extreme caution.
When uploading 10k photos from macOS to Google Cloud using the Google Cloud macOS app, it said syncing had completed about 2 hours earlier than my back-of-the-envelope calculations predicted. "Great", I thought, but was still a bit suspicious, so just in case, before deleting the local copy, I closed the Google Drive app and reopened it, and it immediately started syncing - there were 2k photos/videos to go (!!). That's how insanely easily it could be to lose precious memories due to a tiniest bug in cloud software.
Surgical precision and extreme thoroughness are the only ways to approach these seemingly simple operations of moving files from one computer to another.
It's interesting how ChromeOS respects your choices more than Windows here.
There is a setting to disable Google Drive and it just works. It won't auto-enable, no popups or nags or anything. Even Google Docs/Workspace falls back to a trimmed down offline version.
Eh, lots of us use Little Snitch or the equivalent. But I confess that seems like victim blaming to me. Users shouldn’t be expected to watch their freaking OS vendor like a hawk. That’s the one vendor you kind of have to trust: if they’re lying to you about what they’re doing, all bets are off.
This to me sounds like “I check my tire pressure every 8 miles because I don’t want them to explode catastrophically like they do for other people. Everyone should be doing this!” No. No, everyone should not have to do this.
It enables in non-consensual manners, break apps and games(because paths change and APIs work differently), clings onto your files even if you tried to save them from the OneDrive folder, and throws a tantrum and irreversibly delete your files if you dare unlink the PC and disable it.
I don't know why they commit to especially the last part. To me, it feels like that is why Microsoft's Windows efforts are getting a lot of negative press lately; there must be lots of writers and media individuals who had lost data to that exact behavior who are now perpetually biased against them for that reason.
> It baffles me how many people on HN cannot operate with a simple deny-all firewall
What is the barrier IYO, is it that awareness (or technical knowledge) just isn't there, or that installing isn't the issue but doing day to day work with a restrictive firewall becomes an inconvenience?
I do not believe it is reasonable to use an OS where you need to do hostage negotiation on a daily basis. If you need to go this far, what will you do when an MS update adds a bypass for the firewall you’re using?
The only reason I use Windows is for playing some old games (primarily Age of Empires II: DE) that only work well on Windows. In the AoE2 case, I also need CaptureAge that only works on Windows.
The point is that even though I have 95% de-Microsoftized my life for the past 2 decades, I still need to run Windows for a few specific flows, and I run into the same issues as the article author here.
Maybe just don't use Windows and dont write code for it... and especially don't give them $200 for the Pro version, because that is nothing but a signal that you're willing to keep letting him fuck you while you write them a check.
In my opinion, “Maybe Later” buttons are actually useful if implemented for the user's benefit. For example, maybe I do want to hear about OneDrive but I don't have time now. It's a reasonable middle ground between Yes and No.
But the problem is that modern tech companies are using it as a dark pattern to completely eliminate the No option. Sadly, I think this just might need to be regulated out. I don't see any reason why there shouldn' be a regulation that a “Maybe Later” button can't appear in a prompt as the only alternative to Yes, there needs to be a No/Never option as well.
Or turn off all OneDrive notifications as a less intrusive method. It has worked for me well enough so far.
Editorial Channel
What the content says
+0.30
Article 12Privacy
Medium Advocacy
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
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Post criticizes practices that invade data privacy through unwanted cloud backup promotion; advocacy for privacy autonomy implicit in frustration with persistent invasive prompts
Observable Facts
Post describes repeated prompts to enable OneDrive cloud backup despite prior decline
Author states Microsoft has 'embedded it so deep into Windows' that removing it is difficult
Inferences
The frustration with persistent data collection attempts implies concern for privacy autonomy
Critique of being pushed into cloud backup suggests opposition to invasive digital practices
+0.30
Article 19Freedom of Expression
Medium Advocacy Practice
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
+0.17
Blog post is itself an expression of critical opinion about technology practices; advocates for consumer awareness of manipulative design techniques through detailed critique
Observable Facts
Blog post presents detailed critical analysis of Microsoft's OneDrive UI design
Author poses rhetorical questions that encourage critical examination of design choices
Inferences
The post advocates for consumer awareness of dark pattern design techniques
The blog platform enables free expression of technical and corporate criticism
+0.20
Article 26Education
Low Advocacy
Editorial
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SETL
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Post educates readers about dark pattern design through concrete example of OneDrive prompts; implicit advocacy for understanding manipulative design tactics
Observable Facts
Article explains concept of dark patterns through detailed example of UI behavior
Inferences
The content serves educational function in teaching about manipulative design practices
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Article 30No Destruction of Rights
Medium Advocacy
Editorial
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SETL
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Post explicitly critiques dark patterns as abuse of design power; advocates against misuse of digital platforms to manipulate user choice
Observable Facts
Author explicitly labels Microsoft's design approach 'Dark patterns at their finest'
Post describes choice system as 'illusion of choice' rather than genuine autonomy
Inferences
Author views the design approach as abuse of corporate power over users
Critique frames dark patterns as violation of user autonomy principles
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Article 17Property
Low Framing
Editorial
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SETL
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Post implies concern about control over one's own machine and software; question 'What if I just don't want OneDrive?' relates to ownership autonomy
Observable Facts
Author asks rhetorical question 'What if I just don't want OneDrive?'
Inferences
The question suggests concern about ownership and control over one's own machine
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Article 29Duties to Community
Low Advocacy
Editorial
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SETL
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Post implicitly advocates for corporate responsibility by critiquing Microsoft's behavior; questions whether companies should manipulate users
Observable Facts
Post questions the ethics of Microsoft's design approach
Inferences
The critique implies that corporations have duties to respect user autonomy and choice
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Article 1Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
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Article 2Non-Discrimination
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Article 3Life, Liberty, Security
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Article 4No Slavery
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Article 5No Torture
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Article 6Legal Personhood
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Article 7Equality Before Law
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Article 8Right to Remedy
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Article 9No Arbitrary Detention
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Article 10Fair Hearing
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Article 11Presumption of Innocence
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Article 14Asylum
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Article 15Nationality
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Article 20Assembly & Association
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Article 23Work & Equal Pay
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Article 24Rest & Leisure
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Article 25Standard of Living
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Article 27Cultural Participation
Right to participate in cultural life and scientific advances not discussed
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Article 28Social & International Order
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Structural Channel
What the site does
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Article 19Freedom of Expression
Medium Advocacy Practice
Structural
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Context Modifier
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SETL
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Website platform enables free public expression of technical critique without apparent censorship or restriction
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Article 12Privacy
Medium Advocacy
Structural
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Context Modifier
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Blog uses Google Analytics indicating data collection; no privacy-protective structures observed
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Article 17Property
Low Framing
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No relevant structural signals observed
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Article 26Education
Low Advocacy
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No relevant structural signals for educational provisions
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Article 29Duties to Community
Low Advocacy
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No relevant structural signals
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Article 30No Destruction of Rights
Medium Advocacy
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No relevant structural signals
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PreamblePreamble
No structural provisions relevant to preamble evident
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Article 1Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
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Article 2Non-Discrimination
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Article 3Life, Liberty, Security
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Article 4No Slavery
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Article 5No Torture
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Article 7Equality Before Law
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Article 8Right to Remedy
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Article 9No Arbitrary Detention
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Article 10Fair Hearing
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Article 11Presumption of Innocence
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Article 13Freedom of Movement
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Article 14Asylum
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Article 15Nationality
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Article 16Marriage & Family
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Article 18Freedom of Thought
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Article 20Assembly & Association
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Article 21Political Participation
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Article 22Social Security
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Article 23Work & Equal Pay
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Article 24Rest & Leisure
No relevant structural practices
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Article 25Standard of Living
No relevant structural practices
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Article 27Cultural Participation
No relevant structural practices
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Article 28Social & International Order
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Supplementary Signals
Epistemic Quality
0.44
Propaganda Flags
1techniques detected
loaded language
Author describes Microsoft's approach as 'Dark patterns at their finest'
Solution Orientation
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Event Timeline
15 events
2026-02-26 20:02
dlq
Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
--
2026-02-26 20:00
dlq
Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
--
2026-02-26 19:59
rate_limit
OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b
--
2026-02-26 19:59
eval_failure
Evaluation failed: Error: Unknown model in registry: llama-4-scout-wai
--
2026-02-26 19:59
eval_failure
Evaluation failed: Error: Unknown model in registry: llama-4-scout-wai
--
2026-02-26 19:58
rate_limit
OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b
--
2026-02-26 19:57
rate_limit
OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b
--
2026-02-26 19:52
eval_success
Evaluated: Mild positive (0.14)
--
2026-02-26 19:49
eval_success
Evaluated: Neutral (0.01)
--
2026-02-26 19:40
rater_auto_disable
Model llama-4-scout-wai auto-disabled: 5 consecutive parse failures
--
2026-02-26 19:40
rater_validation_fail
Parse failure for model llama-4-scout-wai: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'find')
--
2026-02-26 19:11
dlq
Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive