As has been said I'm sure without Yahtzee the site is basically over.

Which is too bad I really enjoyed extra punctuation and the Slightly Something Else podcast. The whole point of having a subscriber model is that you're not beholden to advertising or the algorithm or nebulous corporate goals, as the hosts have aid many times.

I guess it goes to show getting acquired by a corp only ever benefits the corp

I find the decisions made so far entirely understandable and I really appreciate the transparency and updates.

Late to this discussion, but speaking as a Reddit refugee and a very average user, I'll follow beehaw wherever it goes...

...but I will probably also fire up my nearly-forgotten kbin account as well.

The fediverse is far from ready for the challenges that it faces but I'm very interested in its development and future. I really think it or something like it is what the internet is trending towards. I'm quite lucky being in some of priveleged categories so I don't face the level of harassment many fellow beeple do very day.

I think we have a good thing going here and it's so freeing to read and comment without having to read past all the usual hate and bad behaviour.

So Im happy to lurk in one place and be myself in another. Do what you guys have to do. I'm in.

You know, of all the ways AI could threaten us, I never imagined it would be chat programs madly spewing falsehoods.

Seems obvious now but like everyone who grew up watching movies like Terminator I figured the threat would be killer drones or meddling with financial markets, or even replacing too many jobs.

I believe that that "cancel culture" is really just "consequence culture." At one point users could hold powerful entities to account. The flattening of the public sphere twitter provided was a feature.

Absolutely there have been people who got targeted who did not deserve it - regular folks who posted a shit take that caught the mobs attention. But I think one of the motivations for Elon acquiring twitter and threads' non-chronological feed is to clamp down on this kind of of organizing and centralize power.

As for hate speech, the problem that is that any solution at scale means AI and that reveals the biases of those who wrote it. These solutions can't serve everyone.

And outrage fuels engagement - these companies are incentived to allow that.

So basically I think large networks can't solve the problem. What's needed is a decentralized approach with small interoperable communities vetting their members. Even if you get a hate filled instance it can be locked off so it can't spread. Hate-motivated jerks have always existed, they just had no real access to the discourse until the internet. I really think the answer is the fediverse of tomorrow - if we make it that far.

You're dead right. If $$$ are Spez's priority then that's what we should target. A knock on effect is that it catches the attention of the casual redditor. I have a couple friends who read reddit but were clueless on these issues. Until the NSFW content. One DM'd me tonight

""I was on lunch, and I was like "WTF happened to my reddit feed??""

so that's working

Why not a commune IN the city?

Not saying this is you, but I feel like a lotta people who wanna live in the country also want all the city amenities - internet, garbage pickup, municipal sewage, etc.

To me, the problem isn't cities, it's late stage capitalism - gentrifying neighbourhoods, driving rents beyond reach, displacing communities. Plus its zeal for car-focused infrastructure, conspicuous consumption. All that stuff.

Anyway communal life is very appealing - I long for my college days of living in a house full of peers. Even if i'm off-base with my capitalism ruins the city argument, I think we'd all do better at coping with modern life with a wider support network.

I hear they are growing more popular in the bay area? Gideon Lichfield, outgoing editor-in-chief at Wired, mentions he spends half his year living in a commune of sorts and would like to do it full time in this podcast.

https://www.wired.com/story/have-a-nice-future-podcast-19/

As many have said there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and you can't know everything about everyone, so no matter what you're going to end up supporting something unethical at some point.

That being said, all I can do is act on the information I have, and when I learn about some situation like this, I don't have an easy answer or decision flow chart. But I do ask myself two questions.

How much will my support enable more of the behaviour I find abhorrent? And how much will the knowledge ruin my appreciation of the thing?

I cannot read Ender's Game even though I always meant to since I found out about Orson Scott Card's politics about ten years back. And while there's (somehow) way, way worse people out there the knowledge, especially the holocaust denial, just ruins any enjoyment I could get from the books or movies, regardless of any separate-art-from-artist arguments.

But I am a huge Lovecraft fan, and he was also just the worst. But the guy's dead, it doesn't matter if I buy his books or not. And even then despite his popularity across Geekdom he's a relatively niche author. His views aren't going to reach a lot of people.

I think this works out differently if the creator is someone current and powerful or influential. If we can blunt the impact of a popular creator spreading toxic views that prevents a lot more bad than than the same frome someone dead or niche. Even if that's only lack of support, that's still more.

I guess what I'm saying it is has less to do with the details of the bad views or actions, and more about much my support helps enable those. The less I contribute by watching or buying or clicking, the less I'm concerned about it. Unless it just personally bothers me.

I don't know if that's the right answer but it's the one I've got right now

I think there was a "snarkiness" to the earlier web that I still appreciate. I'm fine with a one-word answer or a shit post if it's funny and not hateful. I think the tone became a more extreme and worse version of itself over time. The internet is a place for everyone, not just enthusiasts, we gotta do better.

Problem is, as other comments have rightly said, we're incentivized to do the opposite. And bad actors find it useful to encourage extreme opinions and division.

While i think something has been lost now that twitter, reddit and centralized communities are in decline, i also think this is an opportunity to build better communities with different incentives. While i don't the fediverse is going to take over the internet, i think it's part of a broader and encouraging trend.

"um, akshully, it's not genocide, but it might still be bad or whatever." Ridiculous

Setting aside whether Israel's attacks, killings, civilian casualties and mass displacement meet a particular definition of genocide, what possible reason does the author have to quibble on this?

Either they're merely being pedantic (which I find hard to believe) or they're trying to blunt outrage over what I think any reasonable person would call a genocide. They're reaching for any means possible to make these crimes seem less heinous. Seems like a move of desperation to me.

there's a conspiracy theory - use the fee as a way to normalize paying X for things and then pivot to paying through X for things until it's the fascist super app of elon's sweaty fever dreams.

Canoeing. I'm not an outdoorsy guy at all but everytime I see US tourists in a canoe they just spin in circles. It feels like Canadians are just born knowing.

Is that Aftermath? I just started reading it today.

I'm also a fan of 404 media, started by motherboard defectors.

I worry about subscription fatigue setting in, but I do think it's exciting that breakway independent media is seemingly having a moment right now

Moving to a user supported service IS a good way to cut down on spam and wrest control from advertisers...

...IF you do it before you destroy all value, branding, community and cultural relevance

As so many others have said, this move at this point sounds like he's trying to finally end this fiasco.

As I said in the OG thread, I will stick with beehaw, but I'd also keep an eye on the fediverse with an alt. I would also support an eventual return to federation when/if some of the issues have been sorted.

For those who support the proposed move, this isn't about mere technical issues. It's about safety - it's very easy right now for a bad actor to cause a lot of damage the way things are set up. The reasons things are as good as they are here is the tireless work of the admins and mods and they if they say enough is enough I believe them.

While I think something like the fediverse is where the internet is going, Lemmy on activity pub may or may not be the way. Well just have to see. I'm not gonna leave a positive community in favour of a certain tech, that's backwards.

I've been rocking it for a couple weeks now. So far it's been great

i agree completely, and i've said it before, a small fee goes a long way to stopping spam and the bad kind of shitposting. It's barrier that a lot of actors, good and bad, can climb, but they'll be at least someone who can't or won't.

thing is, twitter has already eroded so much trust and relevance that i think for a lot of folks this might be the last straw. we'll see - much like the reddit rebellion it's hard to tell how many folks will actually quit from the noise alone.

For the fediverse i'm not certain at all. on the one hand many of us want the fediverse to grow and become more diverse. Fees are a barrier to entry. but i also agree, as you say, that mods and admins deserve something for their trouble - especially since their job is a lot harder on lemmy.

i hate to say, but maybe discord has it right? monetize cosmetics and stuff? i really don't know. Disclosure i am nitro subscriber, mostly for the emoji.

And if you don't mind hard games with a lot of dying. I died about 600 times on the first boss, no joke. But the game doesn't make you wait between deaths, and they all felt fair. It's the good kind of hard game.

I play a lot of boomer shooters, some of the more nostalgic ones give me that feeling.

But the cozy exploration, and childlike wonder of Sable are feelings I yearn for long after completing it. So far nothing else has scratched the itch.

I quit smoking by gradually stepping back until I got to the last 4 darts, which I just couldn't shake. Then I moved to vaping, not trying to quit, but to be less worse for my health.. Then my vape broke repeatedly in a short period and I realized going without wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Certainly not as bad as other methods of quitting it tried. So in this way I finally quit.

So I don't recommend vaping as a way out really. It's more that if you consciously realize which cigarette is your last you're gonna freak out and relapse. It's more that if you reduce your intake, then replace, you can step off more easily. Don't focus on quitting or changing your lifestyle drastically, just keep taking steps. Eventually one will be the last.

Very good article. I found my way to them through Not Just Bikes and resonated with many of their ideas - removing stroads, undoing car culture, even localism in the broad sense. This lifted the veil from my eyes.

They don't actually mean Strong Town in the sense of strong communities, they mean local capital having more freedom to extract wealth more productively. Guess a broken clock and all that. Since it does happen to be true that denser building will results in more uses of the same land, and that means less car culture, etc.

Still I think the word for them is useful - they are popularizing some important ideas. But we can't forget who they're trying to empower in the end.

Fascinating stuff. I think we'll see a new category emerge in studies like this for Steam Deck, ROG Ally, a Sony's (ridiculous) project Q. I think these devices have more to do with each other than they do with PC or console - at least when it comes to player behaviour and use case

That game blew my mind when I played it back in the day. Despite all the clunky mechanics it achieved a sense of place I don't get from most modern games. I'm surprised they haven't revisited or revived it in some way.

I mean, Bungie's remaking Marathon! Anything is possible in this crazed timeline

darren korb is unparalleled

Bastion and Hades especially

I think there can be an intermediary step where things get a little better before they get much worse. I'm thinking of Youtube, which pre acquisiton, iirc, was getting slow and bad. Google infrastructure made it faster, but then, well...

This is really just the first step of enshitification - first they make things good for users, then introduce advertisers, then claw back all the value for themselves.

Or put another way

• "don't worry you favourite thing will stay the same - we don't want to mess with a winning formula!
• "these changes will benefit users!"
• "we have to comply with industry standards and best practices. please read our updated terms of service."
• "in order to compete in a dynamic marketplace, we're introducing an add supported tier!
• "we've made changes to our subscription model!"
• "we've made changes to our subscription model and we're introducing adds on paid tiers! suck it!"
• "sure, you paid for it, but our agreements are expiring and we don't value you as a human being!"
• "really, where else are you going to go? lololololol"

It makes even less sense considering the pivot to an "original franchise." If they're cynically trying to print money, why not cash in on something with an established active fanbase? Seems like less of a risk.

I'd have bought a new Deus Ex game, regardless if it got badly reviewed. Not really interested in whatever they're cooking up now. I'm sure most of us fans probably feel the same way.

It's a song that speaks to your flavour of depression. Makes you feel like someone feels the exact same way you do. That in turn makes you feel sane. Like you're heard. Even understood.

Over time, songs (or movies or other things) can become a ritual - you feel awful, listen to the song, eventually you come out the other side as the depressive episode fades. Then the next time it happens you associate the song with your recovery. So over time it becomes What You Do when you Feel That Way.

Kinda sounds like Night City from the Cyberpunk games too. These guys read the science fiction and miss the point entirely.

Elderborn. In its own words, a METAL AF SLASHER. Kind of like a first person souls-like. rolled straight out of beating it into a new game+

When I open a post with a link and OP has a written a novel I usually just move on. For me the link is just the seed for organic discussion. If OP has opinions that's for the comments. Depends on the community I guess. I'd offer more personal insight in Music post than a News post.

Or FATE and its numerous incarnations. I feel like I get as far as saying "it's like DnD except..." before it veers off irrevocably into talking about DnD

This is what I do, with one more category - I tip 22 or more to small, local businesses I use. Box stores or large franchises, not so much.

During covid, when I did order takeout we kept it to our favorite two places, hoping they'd survive, which they did. When we went back to in person it turns out I was known - it was a funny way to become a regular. So I feel like it must have made a difference.

Anyway. The landscape is increasingly complicated and I think we've got to choose the one or two things that are important.

Clutch is a stoner rock band with some really unique lyrics - Neil Fallon has the manic poetry of someone who has seen The Truth and has lived to tell the tale. The first 3nsongs of their 2015 album Psychic Warfare are presented as the singer recounting a weird tale to the authorities after the fact.

The Affidavit is spoken word opener where a cop or someone asks the singer to just write down everything that happened.

X-ray visions launches into the tale pychi warfare, conspiracies and the vengeful spirits of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Firebirds continues the tale: the singer encounters a strange girl who demands classic automobiles and energy weapons or else.

For extra credit a subsequent album revisits the same speaker years later trying to explain it all to his young son - In Walks Barbarella

Probably most clutch songs have this storytelling style and I can't recommend them enough

Remember when Discovery was an oasis of informative content in a desert of reality TV? I wonder how long before curiosity stream goes the same way

Lol cancerous is right. Thanks, that's the link i'll be sharing elsewhere

Awesome

Battle for Wesnoth!

Fantasy themed turn based strategy game with simple mechanics. And it's (probably) already in your repo! Ships with some good campaigns, some not so good, but there's more floating around.

I'm mostly an fps-rpg guy but when I get a tactical itch it's hard to do better honestly. I unapologetically save scum my way through it and have a blast.

Wishlisted!

As a fan of the Culture series and really any far, far future stuff, this looks to be my jam.

I met my wife playing Mage: the Ascension. Truly one in million. I know. Never got to try out M20 though. That should put a rough date on when this happened...

I prefer using a firefox PWA but I have the scrolling bug no matter what browser I use - the page keeps jumping to top when I'm trying to read.

So I've started using liftoff this morning and so I agree with others in this thread, it looks the best to me. It's not as smooth but I find it each much easier to tell which post comes from which instance than with connect. The community icons and titles are larger and the cards seem more separated.