Mars2k21
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Mars2k21

@Mars2k21@kbin.social

Employee at the Black Mesa research facility in New Mexico. Recently we've dealt with 2 aliens trying to steal snacks out of the pantry outside the laboratory.

Hope your day is going well.

To those genuinely interested in moderating

@Ernest has pushed an update which allows users to request ownership/moderation of abandoned magazines. Ghost/abandoned magazines were fairly prevalent after the initial wave of hype due to users either squatting magazine names or becoming inactive for other reasons. Now is your chance to get involved, if you were waiting to do...

Mars2k21,
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Glad to hear this was added! Probably the feature I've been waiting on the most, ghost magazine issue finally has a resolution.

Mars2k21,
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You know, I'd feel happy about this but I hear a voice from the back of my head telling me "You know this driver isn't coming out for the next 20 years."

But seriously, I think its cool to see Nvidia actually making strides towards an open source driver (if they are actually serious about it, which I'm still skeptical about for no reason in particular beyond past history).

Mars2k21,
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Glad Flipboard is expanding in the Fediverse, I've been following their various news accounts on Mastodon for a while now. It especially helps the fediverse feel more complete as a social media platform.

Sure, these don't really matter for Lemmy and Kbin, but they are a huge deal for microblogging platforms like mastodon or misskey.

Mars2k21,
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This goes for most business laptops (e.g. Latitudes, Thinkpads, etc). Literally unbreakable.

The consumer lines...eh. Even for Dell. I have an Inspiron tower and it has a strange issue with the BIOS claiming the fan isn't working on startup (no overheating though, so I'm not sure what's going on).

Mars2k21,
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I really don't understand why so many advocate for Linux, FOSS, and an overall open web while actively making Linux and other free software as complicated and "tech-y" as possible.

If Linux isn't growing, what's the point? If it remains stagnant, its getting closer to fading away. We've seen the impact of Linux becoming more mainstream and known to the general public through the Steam Deck, and it has done wonders for the platform. Why do people actively not want it to grow?

Helping it grow doesn't mean being annoying like Edge pop-ups, simply throwing out suggestions to try easy-to-use distros here and there. And let's be honest, the average internet user can use an easy distro like Ubuntu or Mint proficiently after 20-30 minutes of playing around with it. We need to make it seem accessible so that more people will actually be interested in the first place.

Really happy to see a post being made about this.

Mars2k21,
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Debian for most of my machines, rock solid and works. I've had 0 problems with Debian on any computer its downloaded on. And I personally don't need very up to date packages.

On my main computer (currently Windows due to hardware compatibility issues on Linux), I've flip flopped between Pop and Fedora depending on how much I need 3D graphics applications.

Mars2k21,
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Do you guys think Elon would let me take his SpaceX Starship in a time machine back to 2021 so I could fly to Mars and survive?

No, I do not have $4 billion to pay for this endeavor, I'll just take out a loan and tell the bank its for a scientific breakthrough.

Mars2k21,
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I don't personally use Linkedin so I can't really comment on how a federated alternative would work or be useful for professionals and networking.

What I will say is that paid/business-related and the general fediverse culture/design seems like oil and water. Especially the paid part. It simply won't take off unless there is a mass exodus of people from Linkedin (very unlikely). And even then, having multiple instances for something as focused on Linkedin doesn't seem viable. It's probably better off centralized and disconnected from a large network like the Fediverse, in my opinion.

The closest the fediverse can get to this is professionals using Mastodon or something in the same way they used Twitter before it imploded. Interesting idea though.

Mars2k21,
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Cyberpunk dystopia, main character who is constantly suffering, no music (only ambient sounds), pretty much no smiles

THE doomer anime.

Mars2k21,
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I've watched a little over half of the show...it has some music, but much of it is pretty ambient. Maybe there is more music in the latter half.

Mars2k21,
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Looks like the hard work paid off. Congratulations!

Mars2k21,
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They look fine to me. Same as windmills creating a certain aesthetic in the places they are built.

It's much better than having a giant power plant blocking the view of the landscape.

Mars2k21,
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That's a pretty huge move right there, hopefully this is the first of many migrations of apps to Activity Pub software (besides Threads).

Also...the name NERV kind of threw me off for a second. Tell the anime crowd on Twitter that NERV moved to Mastodon full time and we'll probably get an extra 2 million people in the Fediverse.

Mars2k21,
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Same here. Been stuck with Windows on my *main laptop for about a year now. For about a year, I had a dual boot setup with PopOS as my main OS and Windows for gaming and apps that don't run on Linux. Unfortunately, the battery life and hardware support on PopOS was subpar. Battery life decreased as well despite me running TLP and auto-cpufreq in the background, and given that I have a gaming laptop (Lenovo Legion 5) I need every minute I can get.

Just a week ago I started thinking about switching back to Linux, likely Pop with KDE rather than Cosmic/GNOME. Spent my 1st year with this laptop on Windows, 2nd on Linux, and the 3rd on Windows. This may be the year of the Linux desktop for me, especially if hardware support has gotten better since then.

Alright, I'm gonna "take one for the team" -- what is with the "downvote-happy" users lately?

Title. “lmao internet points” and all, but what is the point of participating in a community that sees assumptions and other commonly non-harmful commentaries/posts as “bad” this easily? Do folks in here are really that needy of self-validation, even if it means seeking such from something completely insignificant like...

Mars2k21,
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Unfortunately, this is a problem that can't really be resolved. As long as there is a downvote button, it will always be viewed as a dislike button by some people (and I don't know if removing it is a good alternative for such a large social network). It's a problem that would eventually arrive here from Reddit as the community on the Fediverse grew.

There's really nothing we can do about it.

Mars2k21,
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welp, another has joined the ranks

welcome

Mars2k21,
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Showers help you come up with ideas? Guess I'll start taking showers from now on, seemed pointless before.

Mars2k21,
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Tech geeks and nerds (no offense, I'm one too) tend to be the first people to populate any sort of new online social network. Just the way of the internet.

While I do like Linux and talk about it pretty often on the fediverse, I do realize that 96% of internet users don't care about it and the lingo is...incomprehensible for most people. Even I get kind of sick of talking about Linux on here sometimes lol but unfortunately many of the things I wish I could build a community around simply don't have the fanbase needed on the fediverse to begin a community for the moment. While not impossible, building a community for relatively niche subjects on a small platform like this that is in direct competition with sites like Reddit is very difficult and easier said than done.

My advice is just try to search around and find things as close to your interests that have active people as possible. Looking for broad communities can help out here, for instance, just go to /c/art of whatever instance instead of trying to find a /c/painting. Also, for Mastodon especially, use hashtags if you haven't begun to already. Mastodon was wack until I started using hashtags extensively, they somewhat make up for the lack of a recommendation algorithm.

Its pretty rough around here if your interests aren't related to tech/FOSS/linux, but that should make things a little better. Hopefully there will be more diversity in subjects on the fediverse in the future.

FlorisBoard | FOSS keyboard that respects your privacy (florisboard.org)

I came across everyday topic on Techlore Discussions about free and open source keyboards for Android and discovered this little gem. It is FlorisBoard, a virtual keyboard for Android which respects privacy of the user. I can sigh with relief and finish my search for that singular keyboard for typing stuff on the go....

Mars2k21,
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I've been using it for a couple years now. It's been a good experience, and it works completely as a keyboard. Customization is great, and there are a lot of implemented features thay have made it my go-to Android keyboard.

I switched from Gboard since I wanted to use an open source alternative for something as simple as a keyboard. It works fine as a basic keyboard, although its a bit unpolished otherwise. Swipe typing is buggy and there hasn't been many updates recently. I don't expect a ton from an open source keyboard to begin with, but this one provides a lot and could be even better if it starts being developed often again. It feels unfinished in its current state.

It used to have text suggestions, but now they are gone for me. Not sure what happened. I'd have to check again, but I'm not sure if they were taken out a while back or something.

Flawed, but it its awesome to have an open source keyboard with this much capability.

Mars2k21,
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Wait another one? Surprised given that the original live action flim is one of the few live action anime films I really liked. Can't wait for this one then, will most likely be a huge improvement.

The original's biggest downfall was the lack of Eurobeat. If they add that, instant 10/10 movie.

Mars2k21,
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Usually I bought it when it was buy one get one free ever since they cancelled the $5/month Nitro Classic most people had (and replaced it with that pointless "oh please buy the more expensive nitro!" $3/month Nitro Basic).

This month, I accidentally forgot to cancel my Nitro and canceled it the day I was charged but didn't get my money back and had to keep Nitro for the month. Lesson learned, I likely won't be paying again. Maybe my memory is hazy, but I swore it was supposed to give your money back if you cancel quickly after being charged again.

I use Discord heavily, so I didn't mind paying the $5/month for Nitro Classic back when it was a thing. Discord was quite good at the time and wasn't in the process of enshittification like it is now. I can't wrap my head around paying $10/month for Nitro though.

Matrix sounds great and all and I'd love if the communities and people I know were on it but that just isn't the case, and this isn't a part of my internet usage where I can use FOSS unfortunately.

Mars2k21,
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Building something this large completely as a volunteer service is commendable, honestly. Most people wouldn't think of taking up something like this.

This place is completely usable for me and bugs have become noticably less frequent. Most features I need are on here. You've done a good job, especially for so much of the work being done by a single person. I can only write a simple script of code, lol. In the future, just consider bringing in some people to help out on Kbin (especially with moderation).

If you need to take a break, delay some updates, or just step back, do so. Your personal matters need to be resolved first, and us random internet strangers can come later. You can stick to the deadline if you'd like, but I think it's more stress you don't need at the moment. It won't kill Kbin if some features took longer to come out.

Mars2k21, (edited )
Mars2k21 avatar

I actually joined Tildes before the API changes, back in February of this year. Before that, I had been a lurker on the site since 2020, so nearly 3 years.

Tildes is...interesting compared to any other social media. Its completely its own thing and there is a heavy focus on the philosophy of the site and the Tildes docs, which is basically the constitution of the website. Long form discussion is encouraged, posting images isn't even an option, and its very focused on providing for its users a great, streamlined experience. The interface is my favorite of all the Reddit cousins, its simple and it loads extremely fast. The software is great, no bugs at all and the interface is simple and lighting fast and the voting system is really well designed in regards to maintaining activity on threads that can be days or even weeks old. The people there are friendly and I've never even seen a bad interaction on Tildes.

However, this comes because the whole site is heavily moderated and controlled by the admins and mods. Long form discussion just isn't really my thing when it comes to online discussions, so I don't talk there much. I don't really like writing a paragraph or more in response to every question online versus having a long in-person discussion or on a real-time messenger like Discord (I'm doing it now of course, but I don't like doing it for every post). I would if every topic there interested me, but that's just not the case and that won't be the case on any site. My last post was 2 months ago, and I've just been very inactive there since making my account. I like reading on there occasionally, but not contributing much. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the site. Like another poster said, its very tightly controlled. While that prevents many trolls from appearing despite the few moderators that are actually on the site and encourages long form discussion, it also hampers the diversity of the people there. Sometimes I criticize the whole "We don't want people from Reddit or other social media" take when it comes to Kbin/Lemmy's growth, but its much worse on Tildes because the site actively wants a certain type of individual. No image support on purpose already filters out a lot of people who could bring great content to the site, and the lack of an ability for users to create topics affects it more. You can't make a topic on Tildes like you can on Kbin or Lemmy, there are strictly defined ones created for you, and they are quite general. You won't see much OC as you will just links and random conversation topics, and that kind of just makes for a lukewarm experience in my opinion. If you want to talk about a specific niche, you're out of luck. Kbin/Lemmy/the Fediverse and Reddit have that, and its a large part of the appeal for me. The lack of user diversity in interests also just makes the experience a little worse. For example, I like space and anime, and the space and anime communities on there aren't the most active, maybe a post weekly or biweekly. I'm also interested in tech, and you can imagine that community is booming 24/7. Compare the ~space community to /m/space, and you'll see the difference. This issue went away somewhat while the Reddit migration was in full effect, but now its returned as activity on the site has dwindled down a bit.

Tildes cares about the users, no doubt, but it doesn't really give them much power over the site. I wish it were less controlled.

I highly suggest you just take a look at it and lurk for a few days on there. What you see is what you get. Its not ultra politically focused like you said Raddle was (I have 0 experience with any of these sites other than Tildes, Kbin and Lemmy), its has equal activity in most of the communities. However, there are only 20 or 30 to actually choose from, and if you want something niche you'll just have to post in one of the communities and see if someone knows about it. If you don't like it, I wouldn't be expecting it to change much, the site culture isn't dynamic like the Fediverse or Reddit for instance. The conversation there is unparalleled by any other platform though. You can find some truly inspiring and deep conversations on there. Its not for me, but you may like it a lot. Its a flawed approach, but the site fulfills what it intends to do very well. For me, Lemmy and Kbin, while not perfect, are the best alternative to Reddit. Tildes is open source and anybody could make an instance of it, but it hasn't happened yet as far as I know.

Ironically, that's the longest thing I've ever typed on Kbin.

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