this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
164 points (100.0% liked)
196
6527 readers
695 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is the kind of comment where when I (clueless) read it, after the second sentence, the third is reduced to a stream of words bouncing around in my mind
The ELI5 of my comment:
I would rather work on something that's 13,000 volts as opposed to something that's 480 volts. Because 13,000 volts is a bad shock if I fuck up. Whereas 480 volts could be a bomb going off in front of me, not because I fucked up, but because it could just spontaneously combust (not entirely true, but I've seen plenty of arc flash incidents where it doesn't seem like anything happened but all of a sudden an electric panel blows up).
If you're morbidly curious, emphasis on morbid, feel free to look up some arc flash videos. They're crazy big explosions when bad. Fucking scary to see the aftermath of, let alone to be apart of.
Anyways, the NFPA is the governing body of electric. Arc flash wasn't talked about in the electric code till like the 90s, so its a relatively new discovery, in an already relatively new industry (vs say food prep/food code). There's a lot that needs to be learned and improved upon.
Transformers take one voltage and make it a different voltage in the same box. The code doesn't have a standard way of labelling the arc flash hazards, which means you get stupid things like the original picture.
If you read the top label it tells you to wear thick (class 2) gloves and as long as you do that you're safe. The bottom label tells you if you work on the equipment, there is no level of ppe that can protect you. Both labels are technically true for what they're talking about. But someone without experience might stop after the first label, put on gloves and then get vaporized in a catastrophic explosion. In my comment I pretended that the explosion level was 39kcal (instead of 391) because there is a safe level of PPE that would protect someone from an explosion that big - it's basically a bomb suit - just gloves wouldn't keep you safe. The gloves the bottom label tells you to wear wouldn't keep you from getting shocked though. So you would want to wear the top label's gloves and the bottom labels bomb suit to be fully safe.
The code books don't standardize how to communicate the required PPE which makes people do stupid things like in this picture: show conflicting requirements for safety. Shitty labeling like this can kill someone, but its not necessarily wrong labeling because the code leaves it up to interpretation.
That's actually really interesting. I've seen the styropyro videos but grid-level power sounds like it's something else entirely. Thanks for taking the time!
No problem! This is actually more in the factory level of power than it is grid. 480v is the common voltage inside plants.
But sometimes you'll see different voltages (like 380 and 720). 600v and below is considered low voltage, but sometimes 720 is considered low too if its feeding machinery. Everything above that is usually considered high voltage. But the mysterious medium voltage exists too, I'd call that somewhere up to like 20kV.
The 13kV in this picture is controlled by the plant. Some equipment uses 13kV, but usually plants just get 13kV (or other distribution voltages) and distribute it themselves. It's really fun equipment to operate, big switches that you have to put your body into, and it makes big mechanical thuds and you'll hear the electric make and break connections before the switch dies. It sounds like bzzzTHUDmmmmmmm