So last night at around 11pm, my partner and I ended up with an European goldfinch - most likely a fledgling - sitting on our balcony, backed into a corner and in a total state of shock. My theory is that it couldn't fly properly, and hit the floor hard enough to cause a serious concussion, then tried to stay as safe as it could while it recovered.

We had zero idea how to handle the situation, and it was too late to call anyone, so we heeded the internet's advice and set up a safe shelter for it - a shoebox with some holes punched into it and a towel laid down, which we took inside and placed in a dim, quiet place, in hopes the bird was just lightly concussed and would be able to sleep it off.

That wasn't the case - in the morning we found the bird awake, huddled in the corner of the box, puffed up and unresponsive. I took the box outside next to a tree where some sparrows usually love to sit, and lifted the lid. After a few minutes it started looking around, but would not move from the corner of the box at all. I waited for 10 more minutes to see if it would try anything, and saw that it had no plans of leaving the box, so I covered it back up and took it back inside.

Plan B was to seek professional help immediately, and that's what I tried to do.

However, it turns out the Romanian government has no resources to rescue and treat injured wildlife. Unless it's large-scale animal abuse or environmental damage, there is no one to call.

So I turned to the NGOs and volunteer groups. I reached out to all the resources available in my area, hoping someone would have the time, capacity and desire to take the poor bird in and give it the help it desperately needed.

One doctor was unfortunately out of the country, and his clinic didn't have capacity to help, especially in his absence. A second doctor never returned my call or responded to my message.

I reached out to the emergency number of a wildlife rehabilitation center, and heard nothing for hours. I called a different center, and got a response, but their only contact in my area was the doctor that is currently out of the country; their center was 3 hours away by train, too stressful for both me and the bird. I called a veterinary clinic, and got a quote for ~25 euro, for a consultation with a spot at 2pm.

I then finally got an answer from the first rehab center, who asked me to try to take the bird outside again. However, at 1:30pm I checked the box, trying to follow the instructions I was given, and I was met with a bird that unfortunately passed away.

It really sucks - I tried to help this poor critter but there just aren't sufficient resources; wildlife is the least of the government's priorities, and NGOs by their nature are never sufficiently staffed nor have the funds and capacity to sustain the demand. Especially with the heatwaves hitting Europe, I'm sure my bird wasn't the only one having accidents this week.

Nobody is at fault here - it just was the wrong timing for everyone involved - but I can't help but feel guilty anyway.

I don't even know what the point of this post is besides to complain, and I guess to grieve a tiny soul that deserved more. Maybe we should all take a moment and appreciate the birds chirping outside. They're beautiful, and we should protect them as much as we can.

Rest in peace, little bird.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

Yesterday I saw a mention somewhere online a story, maybe a book, maybe a short story. It was:

• science fiction
• literary is uncommon (actually illegal?)
• the main (?) character is obsessed with film and learns to read based on the words that appear in the background of the films he watches
• there are robots?

Does anyone know what this is? I tried search, but search is worthless nowadays.

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:

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

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

[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

[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.

[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

July 2026's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.

Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

I wanted to share something I’ve experienced most of my adult life but never quite realized: modern abstract art makes me angry.

There is something about it that makes me unable to even tolerate it. When I go visit the modern art section of a museum, I get annoyed. No problem with the other sections, there is classical art that I like, some that I don’t, but it doesn’t make me angry the way modern abstract art does.

Thinking about it, I wonder if it’s not the fact that it feels like massive waste and absolute snobbism. Thinking that a museum spent hundreds of thousands or even millions on a bunch of material that has no depth or meaning beyond the BS the artist (scammer?) came up with, when that money could have been better spent on virtually anything else (classical art, poverty, climate change…) really gets me.

Or the ridiculous “explanations” about the piece that pretend to be way deeper and smarter than it really is. Chill, it’s just some paint splatters on a surface, it doesn’t mean anything and there is no depth or layers to it.

Or monochromes. Come on. That’s just plain lazy and disrespectful to even call this art and put it on the same level as the masters’ classical paintings.

I’m not only talking about paintings, but also sculptures or installations. I was standing in front of broken glass recently and that was “art.“

I’m sharing this here to discuss, see what others think and feel on that matter.

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.

Hey team, wondering if anyone on tildes be keen to play Slay The Spire 2. I'm in Melbourne, Australia, so that's my rough time zone. But yeah none of my friends play it, I'm obsessed with it, I'm pretty close to buying the physical boardgame, but would love to try multiplayer.

This is the sixth Tildes Book Club Discussion for 2026 and the twenty-sixth overall. We are discussing How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Wexler.. At the end of July we will discuss A Psalm for the Wild Built by Chambers.

I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.

And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

Hi all, I'm looking for a copy of a student film called "Helpline" that was made in 2016. Here is the IMDB profile if it helps: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6841114/

I know it's a longshot but thought maybe tilderinos would have some idea of how I can find it. Suggestions on how to find it are also welcome!

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.