My phone is a Samsung A55. Fully updated.

I have ADHD and autism, which is to say that I have a very obsessive personality. I have used various blockers over the years to prevent me from wasting time on apps and websites.

Lock me Out has helped me for many years to curb my smartphone usage. Unfortunately, it stopped working, as it became easy to circumvent by either forcing the program to stop or uninstalling it. I have been in contact with the developer, but they weren't able to find a solution and eventually stopped responding to my emails.

So I need an app that prevents me from disabling blocks at all.

While I can pay for an app even if it is a little expensive, I cannot justify an expensive subscription priced in US dollars (although I might do so if there's no other alternative).

Any suggestions that could help me out? I'm using my phone 24/7, I can't stand it anymore. And I cannot simply turn it off because I have a toddler, and I must be accessible to my wife for emergencies when she leaves the home with him.

There are also many ways to use a smartphone that are actually useful, positive, and non-addictive. And I'd rather be able to access these functionalities.

Thanks!

I have a group of work friends where we were playing D&D 5e (pretty infrequently) for a year and a half. We've been on a long hiatus from TTRPGs since last year after a couple problems with the game came to surface that some of them didn't like. One of which is the 5e gameplay. Out of the 3 players, none had any hands on play experience with any TTRPG. I had extensive experience with 5e so naturally I was the GM and it was the simplest way to jump in a play with my solid grasp of the rules. One player in particular did not have experience with games (table top or video games) beyond a few simple card games and classic games like chess and was more there to be happy to socialize and have fun with a story. She had a lot of trouble grasping the rules and feeling comfortable with polyhedral dice sets. The other issue was mainly the infrequency of playing and the players remembering the story and previous sessions, so that isn't really related to the system.

Having said all of that, several months later that less familiar with games player came to me and said one of her main issues was she would get stressed when told to roll, then blanking on which dice is which and what she is rolling for. She thinks a big fix to this is playing a game "like" D&D 5e with story and socializing (a TTRPG), but with "normal" dice (D6's). Until then I had given up on the idea of a TTRPG with them but that reinvigorated me. I wanted to find a game that is D6's only, with simple enough rules for those inexperienced, but preferably with some numbers, crunch, and customizable characters to satisfy those with more gaming experience. Do any come to mind as favorites of yours that you'd suggest?

TL;DR suggest your favorite D6 only games. Preferably simple on the surface for the inexperienced, but enough numbers and customizable characters underneath to satisfy more experienced gamers.

I just rewatched the movie Constantine. It's one of my favorite movies. I can always watch it again. But I'm sure the ending was different. I didn't find any record of an alternate ending online.

I know each person is different and if there's one autistic person's experience that's one person's experience. I'm aiming to spread a wide net here and gather stories to see the diverse range. What I'm looking for is something beyond the "well, you just do it / you start with small steps" experience: assume one can't.

Second hand accounts welcome if you know someone who has difficulties they were able to overcome.

I was talking to someone who could visualize something with microscopic clarity in their mind and that's why they couldn't draw, because any approximation, no matter how close, is not 100%, and that produces enough internal suffering that the task can't be done.

That the sentence "if it's good enough it's good enough" is nearly offensive and also nonsensical: there is the perfect and then there is failure which causes suffering, nothing exists in the middle.

So I'm curious: as an individual, do you have difficulty with .....

• breaking down a complex task into smaller achievable tasks?

• competing very simple tasks that have been broken down for you that leads to that complex task, whether because it's trivial or because now you're being told or some other hurdle?

• mentally being okay with practice / rudimentary exercises because it's not the whole completed perfect thing?

How did you learn to do something that requires practice [from you] to become good at? Do you tend to over rely then on skills that came "for free" to you? If you can see yourself getting better with practice doing that free talent, and you have a hard time learning a new thing that you couldn't also instantly do, why does the experience of improvement from one area doesn't translate into feelings of possibility that it could apply to another?

Hi, my family is moving to Japan in November, from US Midwest to Noto/Kanazawa area, and I’m wondering if there are things recommended to specifically bring from the US or things to wait to buy in Japan due to quality or price differentials (or straight up availability).

I’m 6’3”, so I’m buying shoes/boots/sandals in US, as well as pants/shirts. My wife is similarly tall. Kids are tall for their age, but still will get clothes in jp.

We are moving solely by plane, so no shipping containers or other moving services— it has to fit in suitcases.

If anyone can speak to online shopping in rural Japan, let me know if that’s as ubiquitous as it is here (it’s something I personally almost never do here, but i assume I’ll have to do more in jp just for sizing when it comes to clothes, though I’m not a big wardrobe guy anyway).

Bonus question: family cargo ebikes in Japan? Is that common yet? I’ve got an Urban Arrow here and it’s probably by favorite object of mine, and would love to get something similar (or long tail passenger rack) in jp.

Thanks!

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.

What's new:

[Android] Version 1.7.1 (Aug 10, 2026): Improved HTML parsing speed. Reduced installation size. Fixed rare crashes.

[iOS] Version 1.7.1 (Jul 31, 2026): Added light/dark theme setting. Improved HTML parsing speed.

Version 1.7.0 (Jul 27, 2026):

• Detect expired sessions and prompt to re-login
• [iOS] Combined external browser settings for clarity

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

Version 1.7 fixes a long-standing problem in the app: the interface pretty much completely broke when login sessions expired (after a year), with no obvious way to fix it from the user's perspective. Now the app will detect expired sessions and show a prompt to re-login.

I promoted this from quiet bugfix to a more prominent release, because it was pretty terrible user experience, and anyone using the app for more than a year has run into it.

I had to test thoroughly on Android and iOS, since I don't want to ever break users' legitimate login sessions. I also had to change approaches partway: originally I wanted the app to automatically re-login, but that doesn't work for 2FA-enabled users. Also there were too many error-prone edge cases when trying automatic re-login, whereas a user-visible re-login prompt avoids most of those silent error cases.

Previously:

[Android] Version 1.6.8 (Jul 15, 2026): Fixed crash when searching for topics on Android 12 and earlier.

[Android] Version 1.6.7 (Jul 9, 2026): Fixed comment interactions after double-tap to vote.

[Android] Version 1.6.4 (Jun 18, 2026): Indicate when replying to a deleted comment, fixed minor UI bugs in topics feed, fixed networking bugs, fixed rare crashes, support Android 17

[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.

[iOS] Version 1.6.3 (Jun 27, 2026): Indicate when replying to a deleted comment.

[iOS] Version 1.6.2 (Jun 14, 2026): Fixed comment scroll bugs, fixed networking bugs

[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.

Previous topic: May 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

There's been a fair amount of discussion lately about the way Exemplary tags are used. Speaking only for myself, it seems like they're increasingly being used as a "super-agree" button rather than a "this post is really good" tag. That always has been (and always will be) a problem, but I think it's been getting worse - particularly when threads turn argumentative.

That's not good. It makes contentious threads more contentious and it contributes to polarization -- I've seen users explicitly say that it feels like a slap in the face to see a poorly-constructed post get tagged "exemplary" for what seems more likely to be ideological reasons than the actual quality of the thing.

There's an easy fix for all this. Not a technical fix, but a cultural one: if the majority of us resolve to only give exemplary tags to people we disagree with, but who deserve it anyway because they are posting compassionately, cogently, coherently, or whatever else we think constitutes exemplary behaviour, it will improve the discourse immeasurably.

I'm not saying that needs to be (or should be) a hard-and-fast rule. But as a general principle like "don't be an asshole," I think "save exemplary tags for posts you don't agree with, but which deserve it anyway" will do a lot to resolve the issues we're seeing. It shifts the reward signal from "demonstrate ideological alignment" to "write posts so good and so fair that even your opponents like them."

I've caught myself giving the tag to opinions I agree with for something along the lines of "finally, someone's saying it." That is bad, it's exactly what polarizes the site, and I'm going to try not to do it any longer.

Hope you'll join me.

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like positivity, browsers and dungeons and dragons. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was inquisitive.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

With the announcement of Tildes maintenance mode, it's finally official. Tildes has an expiration date. We don't know when it'll be, but we'll surely know when it's passed. I... I don't want to go. I love this place. I love the people on it.

I got here after Rexit, like many of my peers, because reddit was my home online. I participated in discussions. I spent so much time there. I met my husband. It was my little corner of the internet, because it had exactly what I wanted and nothing else.

All that's gone now. When Apollo shut down, I deleted my account out of protest. I regret that now. People pointed me here, to Tildes, and for a moment, just a moment I could smell the musty carpet of the first websites I was ever on. This was it. This was it. A tiny forum with just enough modern convenience to tolerate using it, full of people who were interesting, discussions that were respectful, little to no drama, and a minor legend of the former web at the top, generally content with ruling as a benevolent dictator.

I posted. I participated in discussions. I had such a grand time talking to people, Season One of the Minecraft server will forever be in my heart as the "golden days" of it all, if I had to look back. I check this place religiously. It's in my favourites bar. I still post. I still comment. I still like the people. It's small enough that I can go "hey, there they are!" when I see Creesch or Bauke or Tea. For the first time in a long time I could call a communal web space my... home. It's cheesy. I know.

And now I hear that it's supposed to end? That the experiment has run its course, that sooner or later, but probably sooner than I'd like, it'll all be gone? That I have to pack up all my shit again and find a new place, a new community? What a sick joke, I say, with metaphorical tears in my eyes, because getting mad is at least something. Getting mad is more than removing the stupid bookmark and forgetting about this place like I forgot about LiveJournal, about MySpace, about Blogger, about fucking Ello.

I don't want to go. And I know nobody's asking me to go. But everyone expects everyone else to go at some point. And even though none of you actually know me, truly know me, I still feel like we're familiar. We have tiny, tenuous, brittle relationships that could snap at any point, be it from hostility or apathy. I know that none of this is real, but god damn it, I liked it.

Now you'll say, oh god, Delphi, shut up, this is a forum, it's not that deep, and you're right, so damn right, I couldn't agree more, none of you should mean anything to me, I have friends, I have a life, I have people who love me out there, for real, I shouldn't care about this, but then tell me, why do I have tears in my eyes?

What's the point of this post? Catharsis? Maybe? I didn't expect to feel this way about a little corner of the internet that's sometimes a little snobbish, sometimes a little too high on its own farts, sometimes a little too elitist, but that's where I'm at.

I don't want to let this place go. But I also know that I won't be the last one here.

So if this is the last time I see some of you, I don't blame you. Just know you were part of my life, and that I quite liked that part.

—-

A little edit after crying it out: You’re all right. I hope that Tildes won’t change. I certainly won’t, I’ll stay here, and I hope we’ll have many more years together. This entire thing just dredged up memories of losing online spaces before, and… well, you can imagine the rest. Love y’all.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films 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.

I'm not strictly talking about adherent vegan or vegetarian lifestyles, though those certainly do count towards this discussion.

I feel like there's an absolute plethora of good, different reasons to reduce animal based proteins. The big one for most people right now is obviously cost. Simple meals like meatloaf or stroganoff simply aren't worth it (to me) to make with beef when beef is $8/lb for 70/30. But lots of other reasons like the environment, animal welfare, and health consciousness exist.

As far as a lifestyle goes, it definitely feels like the winds have shifted considerably. While IRL here in the southeastern US you do still have those "I'll eat 1 steak for every vegan who cries about it" types, online, that type of talk is extremely cringe in most contexts and circles. Now I just feel like when people say they are vegan, there isn't an instant visceral reaction from everyone like there used to be. I recall not too long ago, everyone's favorite joke was "how do you know someone is vegan? Because they'll tell you!" when all that person did was decline a burger. In fact, quite the opposite seems to happen today. There's a lot of "good for you/I wish I could do that" type comments. Just seems like things are shifting culturally.

I'm not personally vegan or vegetarian, but I have drastically reduced my animal products. I make black bean burgers instead of regular burgers. I make my fried rice without any meat. I make a lot of curry that just happens to be vegan. I just bought groceries for the next 2 weeks and the total amount of animal products is 1 pound of ground pork, 1 pound of scallops, and 8oz of mozzarella cheese. That's it. Years ago I would eat animal products pretty much for every meal.

Is it just me? Or have most people reduced their consumption too? It's hard to tell because everything at the grocery store is "protein protein protein" and there's a lot of social media content of body builders eating a dozen eggs and 3 rotisserie chickens for dinner and that type of content, but I'm not sure how much of that actually exists in real life. Seems too expensive for the average person.

I have found a yixing teapot at a consignment store in the US, and despite the usual advice of "assume it to be bootleg," it seems to be handmade, and from yixing clay.

However, I am having trouble ascertaining identity beyond "yep that's a handmade clay teapot." It has some bamboo motifs that do not seem to fit in any of the online examples I have found concerning teapot shapes, and I have also had trouble in identifying the 3 makers marks present on the teapot. The marks themselves are under the lid, under the main body, and at the 'root' of the handle. Took pictures at multiple orientations for lighting purposes, and frankly, because idk which side is "up" for the characters. I have also included some images to indicate that it's made from clay, and that it's handmade, or at the very least not something pulled from a mold. The black and white and red flecks in the up close shots, the grooves in the bottom interior of the pot indicate it was made with hand tools, no dimples in the interior wall facing the handle to indicate use of a mold, as well as the bamboo branch 'loops' themselves all indicate to me that this had to be made by hand.

Link to the album to the teapot in question: https://ibb.co/album/Zp9BnC

It's a nice mystery to have. I can't imagine it to be anything worthy of a museum, the bamboo motifs certainly do make it seem like it's something quite special, however they also make it hard to discern what the exact geometry of the pot to be when looking at a chart like this: https://www.cnteaspirit.com/shapes-of-yixing-teapot-the-ultimate-guide/ (the closest I think is "Fang Gu" but it could easily be the "Zhu Gu" or "Zhu Duan" special forms, due to the bamboo). I have not seen any bamboo branch loops in any of the examples I have found, so my curiosity is piqued even more.

I am curious to see what anyone can make out of the translations!

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

All previous Save Point topics

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