I have been in a group chat with 2 of my closet friends for more than 10 years now, and we have been using Facebook messenger for that entire time. However, there has always been interest in migrating to a different platform, but so far we have not been able to land on a good alternative. We have gotten very used to some of the messenger features and have disliked alternatives for lacking these features. I was wondering if anyone could suggest some solutions here, up to and including a DIY (maybe IRC?) approach.

The features we really liked from messenger:

• Nicknames, and ability to tag by nickname
• Emoji hotkey (where you have quick access to a selected emoji, we use this for a lot of in-jokes)
• Chat theme and customization
• easy cross-platform or browser based (we are a mix of mac/pc, and iphone/android users)

Features we really do not need and in fact get in the way:

• Different channels or rooms
• voice/video
• screen sharing

Features that aren't necessary but could be nice:

• bots

Does anyone have suggestions for alternatives to messenger that hit these points? We have tried Discord, but found it was way too feature heavy for how we use it, and lacked some really basic features we liked from messenger. Whatsapp was a decent replacement, but lack of themes and emoji hotkey made it less enjoyable for us than messenger, plus it is also a Meta platform which eliminated one of the main reasons we wanted to switch.

I have half a mind to set up an IRC channel for us, but it's been many years at this point since I've used IRC, so I don't know what that ecosystem is like these days, and how easy it would be to get my non-tech-savvy friends on board.

(perhaps this is better suited to ~tech, but I am posting here with an eye towards DIY solutions, although to reiterate I would also be happy with an out-of-the-box alternative)

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.

We are up for another round of nominations for Colossal Game Adventure, Tildes' very own retro video game club!

These nominations will form the ballot for the next round of voting, in which will we choose the next SIX games to play after March's Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls).

Nominations for CGA do not start fresh each time. We rollover the top 50% of nominations from the previous round, and we decay their vote totals by 30%. So, many of the previously nominated games are still eligible to win in the upcoming voting.

Procedural Details

Nominations will be open for 96 hours (4 days) from the time of this posting.

Anyone can nominate. You do not have to have previously taken part in CGA in order to participate.

Anyone nominating in this topic will be added to the CGA notification list if they're not already on there (unless you request otherwise).

There is no hard definition for "retro." Choose whatever you feel fits that label.

Games that have been nominated in the past but were cut are still eligible for nomination again. They do not get "locked out" of CGA.

Voting will follow in a separate topic, and I will also be trying out a "lobbying" topic this time around to see how that goes. More on that in the comments.

Nomination Process

Everyone has the ability to take one (and ONLY one) official action for the nominations topic.

EITHER: Boost a rolled-over title.

This will add 3 points to the title's rollover points from the previous round.
You will also be able to add points to the game during the voting round.
The purpose of this is to limit new nominations if there are games already in the list that strongly interest you.

OR: Nominate a new title.

This will add a new game/arcade special to the ballot.
An arcade special is a group of shorter/smaller games meant to be played together.
Any new title starts at 0 points.

Nomination Formatting

Please do the following:

Bold your action (boosting/nominating).

If nominating, please link to your title on MobyGames. (You do not need to do this for boosting since the links are already in the list.)

Examples:

Boosting a game:

• Boost: Lode Runner

Nominating a game:

• Nomination: Portal 2

Nominating an Arcade Special:

• Nomination: Windows in the 90s
  Minesweeper
  Chip's Challenge
  JezzBall

It is recommended (but not required) that you share why you are nominating/boosting a particular game as well.

Rollover Titles

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

              ____----------- _____
\~~~~~~~~~~/~_--~~~------~~~~~     \
 `---`\  _-~      |                   \
   _-~  <_         |                     \[]
 / ___     ~~--[""] |      ________-------'_
> /~` \    |-.   `\~~.~~~~~                _ ~ - _
 ~|  ||\%  |       |    ~  ._                ~ _   ~ ._
   `_//|_%  \      |          ~  .              ~-_   /\
          `--__     |    _-____  /\               ~-_ \/.
               ~--_ /  ,/ -~-_ \ \/          _______---~/
                   ~~-/._<   \ \`~~~~~~~~~~~~~     ##--~/
                         \    ) |`------##---~~~~-~  ) )
                          ~-_/_/                  ~~ ~~

Yokohama

1999

You've got big shoulders and big dreams

Headlights flash

I challenge you to a race

 You            Me

START          START
  |              |
  |              |
  |              |
  |              |
   \              \
    \              \
     \              \
      ----           ----CRASH
         |               
         |
         |
         |
       FINISH

Drat! It's always those hard turns, isn't it?!

You and your big shoulders win

Take your prize from my loser car

                          ______    ______   __                     
                         /      \  /      \ |  \                    
 ______ ____   __    __ |  $$$$$$\|  $$$$$$\| $$  ______    ______  
|      \    \ |  \  |  \| $$_  \$$| $$_  \$$| $$ /      \  /      \ 
| $$$$$$\$$$$\| $$  | $$| $$ \    | $$ \    | $$|  $$$$$$\|  $$$$$$\
| $$ | $$ | $$| $$  | $$| $$$$    | $$$$    | $$| $$    $$| $$   \$$
| $$ | $$ | $$| $$__/ $$| $$      | $$      | $$| $$$$$$$$| $$      
| $$ | $$ | $$ \$$    $$| $$      | $$      | $$ \$$     \| $$      
 \$$  \$$  \$$  \$$$$$$  \$$       \$$       \$$  \$$$$$$$ \$$      

For those that didn't play the game, that's basically Racing Lagoon in a nutshell! Except, well, the plot gets more involved (and... weird), and there's a city map you get to cruise on, and you can save at a gas station, etc.

But the key points are all there:

• Racing
• Getting new parts
• Big shoulders

Anyway, let us know what you thought of the game!

Next month will be hosted by the inimitable and incredible @J-Chiptunator and we'll be playing Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls).

Source for the ASCII art car
Source for the prize text
Source for the race art (It's me, I drew that. Art is my passion.)

1

We are the funny men
The laughter men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with mirth. Alas!
Our wavering voices, when

We giggle together
Are loud and senseless
As hyenas in dry grass
Or gales stirring shards of glass
In our dry cellar

Form of clay, color of slick.
Fictitious force, turbulent motion;
Those who have crossed
With eyes darting to and fro,

To death's other kingdom
Remember us -- if at all --
Not as grasping, violent souls
But only as
The funny men

2

Eyes I dare not meet in ads
In death's advertisement kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Blinding light on a broken column
There, is a tube man swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More shrill and more booming
Than a cancelled star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's advertisement kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
(Thinnest phone, cleanest drip, slickest rizz)
On the grass
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer--

Not that final meeting
In the Find Out kingdom

Here you go! I’ve rewritten the text to avoid direct reference to the theme:

III

This is the slop land
This is swamp land
Here, the seed rounds
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a gilded man's hand
Under the twinkle of a parasite star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Fully sure that
We and our money are soon parted.

4

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of choking stars
In this hollow valley
The worms atop our kingdoms' bones.

In this last of meeting places
We wail together
A barbaric yawp
Gathered on this beach of the sunken river

Sightless, unless
The flames reappear
As the perpetual star
Tetraethyllead rose
Of death's Find Out kingdom
The hope only
Of unserious men.

5

Baby shark
Mommy shark
Daddy shark
Grandma shark

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Comedy

                Don’t want to meet your daddy

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Comedy

                Just want you in my Caddy

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Comedy

                Don’t want to meet your mama

Just want to
I’m just
Just want to make you

Grandpa shark
Where’d they go
No one’s here
Sleep again

A good friend of mine recently released his latest game, Social Caterpillar.

I will choose 3 random people who commented on this post by February 25, 2026, 06:00 UTC (unless you say in your comment that you don't want to join the giveaway)

This is the first time I've done a giveaway like this, but from what I saw online, if you win, I'll have to add you as a friend on Steam and wait a few days until Steam lets me send you a gift (unless someone tells me there's a different way of doing this!). I have no issues - and even expect - that you'll unfriend me once this is done. No hard feelings.

I will either edit this post or make a comment with the winners when they're selected. Will send a private message with my steam username for the friend thing.

Why I'm doing this giveaway?

I just really liked this game (and I enjoy his games overall). It hooked me for way more hours than I thought it would, and I loved the puzzles.

I told him I'd do a giveaway on Tildes, but I didn't know back then that I'd need an invite to join (I was - still mostly am - a lurker). So now that I have an account here, it's time to do it!

This game has a lot more to it than it seems at first glance. If you're still unsure whether the game is for you, but you like what you see on the store page and you like puzzles, click below for a tiny bit more about it. I hid it for those who don't want to read anything more than what's in the store page.

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like privacy, andrew mountbatten windsor and audiophiles. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was out of the loop.

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!

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?

Not just books from the 1800s or 1900s, but even older. 1400s, 800s, 100s, books from BCE, etc. It can be fiction or non-fiction.

If a small blurb about the book could be provided and its significance that would be great.

Additionally, if you could help direct me or provide guidance on where I can get a hold of the book (digitally or physically), that’d be appreciated.