• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing unfiltered topic list. Back to normal view
    1. The "go fix a minor annoyance" togetherness topic

      There's something small that you've been meaning to do but, for whatever reason, you haven't done it. Rather than just forgetting about it, however, your brain has decided to make it take up a...

      There's something small that you've been meaning to do but, for whatever reason, you haven't done it. Rather than just forgetting about it, however, your brain has decided to make it take up a minor amount of space in your awareness -- not enough to make it an immediate concern or something you plan to act on, but still just enough to be annoying.

      Well, this is your call to address the issue head on! Pull that mental splinter out and get rid of it for good!

      Maybe you need to...

      • change an air filter
      • tighten your showerhead
      • go through that stack of mail
      • box up a return
      • put more air in your bike tires
      • rearrange a bookshelf
      • throw out some expired cans
      • vacuum behind the couch
      • clean the dust out of your computer fan
      • etc.

      Whatever it is, this topic is your call to GO DO THE THING.

      And then, come back here and tell us what you did.

      One minor annoyance solved for only one person? Not a big deal.

      LOTS of minor annoyances solved for LOTS of different people? GIGANTIC DEAL!

      This topic is our space to communally revel in the glorious shared feeling of being slightly more annoyance-free, together.


      IMPORTANT: Clearing up multiple annoyances is explicitly allowed!

      47 votes
    2. What are your favorite custom games?

      Custom games/game modes/rulesets give gamers the ability to enjoy some games nearly infinitely. Gary's Mod, Rust, Minecraft, Robolox, Fortnite, and many others keep people coming back as people...

      Custom games/game modes/rulesets give gamers the ability to enjoy some games nearly infinitely. Gary's Mod, Rust, Minecraft, Robolox, Fortnite, and many others keep people coming back as people create new ways to play.
      When I was younger I played a ton of Warcraft 3 custom games. I remember there being a solid ~2 years when that was almost entirely what I would play whenever I was able to use the computer and then another 3-4 years after where I would play at least a couple of times a week.

      I remember loving custom games like:

      • Defense of the Ancients (DotA)
      • Island Troll Tribes (also Jungle Troll Tribes to a lesser extent)
      • Risk (and it's many versions)
      • Wintermaul and Wintermaul wars (along with all the other tower defense and tower defense wars)
      • Vamperism
      • Pest Control
      • Many others as this list would drag on

      I remember chatting with a lot of interesting people, though I didn't have any friendships I made move past Warcraft 3 in to other games.

      I know there are many other games with custom games or customer game modes that the community developed, with DotA 2 coming full circle from being the sequel to a custom game to having custom games of its own.

      To get the conversation going:

      • What games had your favorite custom games?
      • What custom games were your favorite?
      • Did you make or contribute to any custom games?
      • Any favorite memories?
      14 votes
    3. What about having an LLM teach you to code?

      My daughter (11) is doing a week long Python class, which is not using LLMs. It got me thinking about how I learned to program in the pre-internet days (laboriously, from books), and then what a...

      My daughter (11) is doing a week long Python class, which is not using LLMs.

      It got me thinking about how I learned to program in the pre-internet days (laboriously, from books), and then what a marvel it was when you could just search for information, especially for troubleshooting. But for her, the first answer in the Google search is going to be the AI summary, and most of her search tools are going to be AI tools.

      I wonder if it would be possible to make an LLM that has a didactic/socratic mode. So if you said, "help me write a program to do madlibs" maybe it would give you a skeleton of a function, then prompt you to come to with a plan, then critique that plan. Or if you said, "I'm getting this error", it wouldn't just fix it, it would explain what the error means and nudge you towards the answer.

      Thinking in a larger sense, it could have a rubric of important concepts, even tiers of understanding. It could be using the interactions to track the user's understanding, which could let it then tune how it answers future questions, or even be used to customize assignments.

      I recognize that this is potentially replacing a teacher with a machine, which wouldn't be my goal. Good teachers are more holistic in their teaching than a machine is ever likely to be. But for people who don't have access to good teachers, or need more directed support than is available from a teacher, or just want to self study, it seems like it could be a valuable addition.

      Until they solve the obsequiousness problem, it would be vulnerable to prompt hacking, so really more of a tool for someone who recognizes the value of learning over just being given the answer.

      What do folks think about using such a tool? What would you want it to do, or not do?


      Aside: I forgot until I reached the end of this post, but this is also (somewhat) the plot of The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrates Primer by Neal Stephenson.

      25 votes
    4. Does generative AI have a natural limit without a major innovation?

      I was musing about this recently with the recent models becoming more capable. The core of gen AI is the model, which is trained on a massive dataset. To date, gen AI has improved because the...

      I was musing about this recently with the recent models becoming more capable. The core of gen AI is the model, which is trained on a massive dataset. To date, gen AI has improved because the models have become larger, more efficient, the data they are trained on has become better and the software/harnesses around them has improved to help query them.

      As I see it, surely the bottleneck will soon become the data they are trained on? If we imagine a scenario where a models could consume an infinite amount of training data, and there is no limit to the training time or quality. The sum of human skill/knowledge is the limiting factor. Gen AI should (in theory) never be able to out preform or push the boundary of the sum of humanity at time of training.

      Or, counterpoint, is there enough randomness and speed to iterate that gen AI can actually step change and improve if training times/cost were less prohibitive? Most companies/models today will save good output and feed it back into the next iteration, but right now that's taking months. What if that took minutes?

      What do you think?

      Is gen AI going to take us to general intelligence?
      Will gen AI get to a place where it's "intelligence" and reasoning is actually better than the sum of Humanity?

      26 votes
    5. What is your eleventh favorite video game?

      Now that we know everyone's favorites, I'd love to hear about games that are further down the list -- the ones that don't necessarily rise to the high heights of definitive favoritedom. So, share...

      Now that we know everyone's favorites, I'd love to hear about games that are further down the list -- the ones that don't necessarily rise to the high heights of definitive favoritedom.

      So, share your eleventh favorite game this time. You know, the one that doesn't quite make it into your top 10.

      Feel free to share your top 10 if you like as well, but lead with your 11th, as those are the ones I'm interested in seeing highlighted.

      41 votes
    6. Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (May 2026) — Version 1.6 adds "Find in comments"

      This topic is for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app. I'll summarize the major updates at the start of each similar topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care...

      This topic is for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app.

      I'll summarize the major updates at the start of each similar topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates and user feedback.


      Recently:

      [iOS] Version 1.6.1 (May 21, 2026): Improves on the Find in Comments feature. Fixes some UI bugs related to the Find Comment bar, and with potentially stale votes showing in the UI. Also adds the iPad pane toggle on iPadOS 18 and earlier, to bring the behavior closer to iPadOS 26, and fixes some iPad animation bugs.

      [Android] Version 1.6.3 (May 20, 2026): Added "Find in comments" to "..." menu. Fixed first search position in comments. Fixed tapping links in collapsed details summary. Fixed stale vote rendering.

       

      Version 1.6.0 (May 13, 2026):

      • Added Find in comments
      • Improved markdown tables rendering performance
      • [Android] Fixed drafts not loading in some cases
      • [iOS] Fixed keyboard bugs on iOS 26
      • [iOS] Fixed iOS 12 support

      On iOS, currently TestFlight only for the next week or so.

       

      Following version 1.5's addition of searching for posts, Three Cheers 1.6 adds a bar to find text in comments. It changes the comment bar a bit which took some work, and it was pretty tricky handling the edge cases with highlighting the matched text. Might have some leftover bugs, or configurations I forgot to consider, so please report those here.

      There was an Android bug with drafts not loading in some cases, reported last time. Should be fixed now.

      Also I'm happy to report that I was able to fix some long-standing iOS bugs, some keyboard bugs specific to iOS 26 that have been reported on TestFlight intermittently for quite a while, and an iPad rare crash that likely went even further back. So this version should be pretty stable on iOS.

       

      Previous topic: March 2026

       


      Where to get it

      Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes

      Or sideloadable APK at https://www.talklittle.com/three-cheers/

      iOS version on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/three-cheers-for-tildes/id6470950557

      Join TestFlight for iOS beta testing: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy

      76 votes
    7. What’s something that didn’t work for you?

      Something that generally works for most people, but you were an exception. Something you were expecting to help, but it didn’t. Something that promised a lot but failed to deliver. Something that...

      Something that generally works for most people, but you were an exception.

      Something you were expecting to help, but it didn’t.

      Something that promised a lot but failed to deliver.

      Something that fell through.

      Something you couldn’t get used to.

      Could be an item, a piece of advice, a plan, a path, a relationship, etc.

      Whatever it was, it didn’t work and that was significant.

      What was it? Why do you think it didn’t work? How do you feel about it?

      34 votes
    8. Tildes Minecraft Weekly

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 26.1.2) Verification site: https://tildes.nore.gg BlueMap: https://tildes.nore.gg/map/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TildesMC Plugins and Data Packs...

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 26.1.2)
      Verification site: https://tildes.nore.gg
      BlueMap: https://tildes.nore.gg/map/
      Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TildesMC

      Plugins and Data Packs Data Packs:
      • Age Lock [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Armor Statues [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Bat Membranes [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Cauldron Concrete [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Cauldron Mud [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Custom Nether Portals [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Husks Drop Sand [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Mini Blocks [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • More Mob Heads [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Nullscape - End terrain upgrade
      • Player Head Drops [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Renewable Dragon Stuff
      • Silence Mobs [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Terralith - Overworld terrain upgrade
      • Wandering Trades [Vanilla Tweaks]

      Plugins:

      • BlueMap - Provides a live 3D rendering of the game world
      • Clickable Links - Makes http URLs in chat clickable (only for registered players)
      • CoreProtect - Records all block/container/mob changes (Anyone can look up changes with /co inspect)
      • DebugStick - Gives the ability to craft debug sticks in survival
      • DistantHorizons - Provides distant LOD map data to players running the client mod
      • EasyArmorStands - GUI for editing armor stands
      • GSit - Sit on stairs/slabs!
      • Hexnicks - Enables Tildes usernames to be displayed
      • hsrails - Allows for 4x speed rail travel
      • LuckPerms - Locks down unregistered users
      • Otherside - Fix for mob farms involving Nether portals
      • Rapid Leaf Decay - Increases the speed of leaf decay by 10x
      • WorldEdit - Used for occasional admin stuff
      • WorldGuard - Prevents unregistered users from changing anything in the world

      The server operates on a soft whitelist. Anyone can log in and walk around, but you need a Tildes account to gain build access.


      We recommend you install our mod web-chat so that you can chat while in your web browser. It turns the server into an old-school chat room.

      <- Previous Thread Next Thread ->

      13 votes
    9. Why emoji picker default on?

      I'm running a nixos linux machine with Hyperland as my window manager and a few month back (likely after an update) I noticed that firefox started showing a emoji picker when I pressed ctrl+.....

      I'm running a nixos linux machine with Hyperland as my window manager and a few month back (likely after an update) I noticed that firefox started showing a emoji picker when I pressed ctrl+.. This was a bit annoying since the firefox extension for my password manager is activated by that key shortcut. I figured this was some update for firefox, but now that I dug into it to fix it it turns out that it is a gtk thing that apparently each app has to opt out of! I could disable it by flipping widget.gtk.native-emoji-dialog in about:config, but this seems like a really bad choice by gtk. Two gripes with this:

      1. Them adding a global keyboard shortcut for all gtk apps that is ON by default (for a kind of niche usecase).
      2. Overriding shortcuts on a desktop wide basis with no meaningful (afaict) way to disable it.

      Anyone knows if this is intentional? Maybe it's already been reverted upstream and I just need to update... anyway end rant!

      17 votes
    10. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      4 votes
    11. So I fell for a phishing

      In a moment of distraction, I fell for a phishing phone call and compromised my Google account. It took me 13 minutes to realize how catastrophically stupid I am and begin frantically changing...

      In a moment of distraction, I fell for a phishing phone call and compromised my Google account. It took me 13 minutes to realize how catastrophically stupid I am and begin frantically changing passwords. I've run the official Google "secure your account" process probably 10 times (though 9 of those times there was nothing to do). I've checked all my financial info, changed passwords on all sorts of things. As far as I can tell, other than gaining access to my Gmail, I don't think anything else was compromised.

      How boned am I? I've got 2FA on basically anything remotely important, and I've had decent password hygiene (although I do use the Google password manager, so that's probably comprimised). Is there something else I should do or be on the lookout for?

      51 votes
    12. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      15 votes
    13. We're so back

      Had to spend my whole day without refreshing Tildes every 5 minutes 😔 My browser already renamed the Tildes link on my new tab page to "502 Bad Gateway"

      107 votes
    14. What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist?

      Greetings everyone. I'm currently in the process of getting a Computer Science degree for two primary reasons. 1.) Because I want to get a stable development job where I'm currently employed, but...

      Greetings everyone. I'm currently in the process of getting a Computer Science degree for two primary reasons. 1.) Because I want to get a stable development job where I'm currently employed, but most importantly to me 2) Because I want to make video games and have the educational credentials to confidently do so.

      I know I know, you don't need a computer science degree to create video games, and my program doesn't even teach game development. So I have a long journey ahead learning game dev alongside my program in my own time. Also I have no intentions of working at an actual game company.

      So my question today is,

      What is a game that you are dying to play, that nobody has made yet?

      I'm trying to get some inspiration. It's hard to think about something that truly doesn't exist, because there's so many amazing games already. I'm genuinely curious.

      If you're struggling like I am, feel free to list a game that's been made exactly once but no ones been able to reproduce it's genius.

      I'll start,

      I am DYING to play a factory builder game, but with ARPG gameplay. So Factorio / Dyson Sphere Program meets Diablo 4 & Path Of Exile. I just think this would create such a dopamine addicting game that would be impossible to pull away from if done right. My idea would be to have the factory be the loot crafting mechanic for progressively better armos, while the ARPG is what you use to get the materials needed to craft truly insane gear. Idk, if done right I think this could have legs.

      44 votes