Tsirist's recent activity
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Comment on Votes on the left in ~tildes
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Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - should inviter/invitee info be public? in ~tildes.official
Tsirist LinkThe meat of the issue for me, personally, is that the current system creates two problematic questions at certain times. When inviting a user, I must decide whether I will ever post anything on...The meat of the issue for me, personally, is that the current system creates two problematic questions at certain times.
- When inviting a user, I must decide whether I will ever post anything on the site that I wouldn't be comfortable with them seeing. They could be someone I trust and who I think would get a lot out of the site, but if their presence would influence my experience here, I have to make an unfortunate decision. A difficult problem here is that it's not always possible to know whether you'll end up wanting to discuss something out of their earshot. A new topic could arise that's of interest to you, or your relationship with them might change, culminating in difficulties with your prior assumption that you'd never discuss anything on here that would be worth hiding.
- When making a post, I must decide whether I would be uncomfortable with any of the people I have invited reading the post.
Of course, these are really only issues that exist during the invite-only phase of the site. But if the site ceases to be invite-only anyways, I don't see much utility in the invite tree in the long run.
It's a minor issue to me that the inviter/invitee relationship has some asymmetry, as noted by Deimos, but I think that should be symmetric regardless of what decisions about privacy are made ultimately.
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Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - future daily Tildes discussions in ~tildes.official
Tsirist Link ParentYeah, I've definitely seen those as well. Could a compromise be possible where users' nodes still appear in the public tree, just without their names on them if they desire privacy? This would...Yeah, I've definitely seen those as well. Could a compromise be possible where users' nodes still appear in the public tree, just without their names on them if they desire privacy? This would take away a bit from the fun of that information, and I think even this solution compromises privacy a bit in some ways since some data is still leaked about a person (since a person could potentially identify who else their inviter has invited), but I guess that goes to show that there are a lot of options to consider.
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Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - future daily Tildes discussions in ~tildes.official
Tsirist LinkWhile there's been some minor discussion on this, I haven't seen you mention it yet and I think it still deserves more attention than it's getting. I and others have privacy concerns about the...While there's been some minor discussion on this, I haven't seen you mention it yet and I think it still deserves more attention than it's getting. I and others have privacy concerns about the connections between users that are visible through the invite chains. Others have expressed a desire for the public not to know who invited them. Personally, I'm more interested in my invitees not knowing my username, which would mean I would need control over whether my name appears on their profiles.
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Comment on How do you manage your tasks, keep focused in ~life
Tsirist Link ParentAfter making that comment I took some time to go searching again. It seems like Thinking Rock and Everdo might be pretty close to what we're looking for. Thinking Rock is pretty old and according...After making that comment I took some time to go searching again. It seems like Thinking Rock and Everdo might be pretty close to what we're looking for. Thinking Rock is pretty old and according to comments from a few years ago, their mobile apps left much to be desired, but it seems to have a decent set of features. Everdo on the other hand is shiny and new but is still lacking some functionality. It looks like it has everything I could want planned for the future but it's not quite there yet.
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Comment on How do you manage your tasks, keep focused in ~life
Tsirist LinkI've had trouble finding the ideal app for tracking tasks. The more robust apps that have better feature sets tend to require your data be uploaded to the cloud for sync purposes, which makes me...I've had trouble finding the ideal app for tracking tasks. The more robust apps that have better feature sets tend to require your data be uploaded to the cloud for sync purposes, which makes me uncomfortable. If an app were to allow specification of the local database for notes, it would be easy to sync it between devices using something like Unison. Even better, if the app used an encrypted database, the files on disk could just be dropped into Dropbox or something.
Maybe I haven't searched hard enough but I'm usually discouraged by things like Todoist and Evernote because, while they look very nice and are cross-platform, I'm not comfortable with using them.
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Games alike to EDF 4.1?
My friends and I just finished our first run through EDF 4.1, and we had a blast. We each accumulated about 60 hours in the game doing so. Some of that was probably spent goofing around on other...
My friends and I just finished our first run through EDF 4.1, and we had a blast. We each accumulated about 60 hours in the game doing so. Some of that was probably spent goofing around on other classes or strengthening up a bit for the three or four missions we got stuck on. All in all though, I'm amazed that it took us that long to get through.
Actually, I'd say that's my response to this game in general. For something I had never really heard of, it was surprisingly good. The game was ridiculous at the start with the giant bugs but as it went it somehow just got crazier and crazier. The scale of the game was just fantastic in terms of enemy variety and size. The hilarity of the B movie writing paired with the outrageous gameplay made it an uproar between the four of us.
The progression system was decent and probably the weakest point. The sheer amount of equipment was a big plus, since it's always exciting to see something new at the end of a mission and find out if it's any good or not, but it was pretty easy to identify an optimal strategy for each mission. There were some classes of weapons (for ranger at least) that were outright useless in a practical sense, which is disappointing. The variety in weapon design is great, but it's unfortunate that it couldn't be more balanced.
Are there any other games that really scratch this itch? I can think of a lot of four-player co-op games that don't really fill that void. EDF is too fast-paced, has too many good "wtf moments", and has too enjoyable a progression system. For those of y'all on ~ who have played it: what other games did you enjoy that were sort of alike to EDF 4.1?
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Comment on Any EVE Online players here? in ~games
Tsirist LinkI've "played" since about 2007. In reality I probably only have about 200 or 300 hours in the game. I've been on and off of it many times over the years. Generally I've just had a hard time making...I've "played" since about 2007. In reality I probably only have about 200 or 300 hours in the game. I've been on and off of it many times over the years. Generally I've just had a hard time making space for it in my life, as unlike many of my friends I've never really wanted to commit to a "raid schedule" for MMOs. Besides that, I just haven't had enough free time to throw at it to get really involved regularly with larger fleet actions or corporations. I've been a member of a few but mostly in a passive capacity.
It's a really cool game, and I'm weird enough to have fun playing it solo I guess, but I find it difficult to make time for it.
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Comment on Are any of you familiar with/practicing lucid dreaming? in ~talk
Tsirist LinkI have! I'll share some unique experience with it. I'm certainly not alone in this but it's a side of lucid dreaming I didn't hear much about before digging into online groups about it. Even then...I have! I'll share some unique experience with it. I'm certainly not alone in this but it's a side of lucid dreaming I didn't hear much about before digging into online groups about it. Even then it wasn't much discussed. Be forewarned though: I'm gonna detail some mental mistakes I made that I never really recovered from. I'm sure many would consider them trivial, but for me they were an unnecessary roadblock that put me off of it indefinitely. For fear of instilling the same behavior in yourself, you might not want to read this!
Most people go into lucid dreaming expecting the hard part to be becoming lucid. This is certainly challenging, and it takes discipline and time to achieve that. When I first did, the best word to describe the feeling would really be one of euphoria. I was sort of surprised by the sense of fullness and color that it brought during the dream. Unfortunately, in my case another issue would arise that would render that effort null.
In that first dream, the moments preceding my lucidity were a bit weird. My dog was having a coughing fit/dog hiccups (something he has occasionally in the real world), and I was comforting him as I usually would to try and get him through it. That was about the time I realized something felt amiss. To see if I was dreaming, I checked my hand and counted the fingers one by one, and found that they didn't sum to ten. I pinched my nose shut and tried inhaling deeply through it, and found that I could still breathe. At this point I was becoming truly lucid, but I felt this sort of malevolent presence creeping along my skin.
It seemed like an unfriendly aura was emanating from my dog at this point, and it was a little scary in the way it directly touched my feeling of fear. It wasn't that there was something to be afraid of that was making me feel that way, it's just that I knew that my dog had this intent that I should feel that way. He started to growl, baring his teeth. At this point though, I sort of told myself that it was all in my dream, and that for that reason I could control it. I sort of commanded that he should stop, and it just worked. I guess the confidence carried through, because the fear was gone and I felt electric instead.
I wandered around just taking things in and was sort of amazed at the quality of it all. It was very raw somehow, and really it was just my house (so nothing unfamiliar/new), but stepping out the front door everything was just saturated in some sort of good feeling. It was fantastic.
But somehow I feel like this first step into lucid dreaming didn't carry the lesson that it should have. As I continued to try lucid dreaming again in the future, I would find elements of the dreams that were malevolent somehow. In my head I even started just calling it that. It wasn't just a quality of the things, there was a genuine malevolent presence that reared its head whenever I began to realize I was in a dream. And it wasn't different each time; it was the same entity, just in different shapes. It would be things like a strange, unfamiliar child at a family gathering that just would want to hurt me, or just an air from down an empty hall. The second time it appeared I think I mentally geared myself to start expecting it, and I think at that point I was doomed.
Early on I knew I should be able to control it, but every time I would be too distracted by it in the dream to complete a reality check and really become lucid. It would just become a nightmare. Later on, the malevolence would actually trigger lucidity, because its personality was so familiar to me that I came to associate it with my dreams, but I would be so afraid of it during the initial shock that I would just want out, and I'd simply wake myself up. Even today, years later, I'll sometimes have a dream with that feeling of someone dragging a finger along my spine, deep under my flesh, and I'll have that moment of realization. In that moment, I'll impulsively imagine the worst possible thing that it could take the form of and basically kick myself out of my rest.
Way back then I read a few posts about "lucid nightmares", as some might call them. I think some folks had it worse. I can't remember if anyone ever felt sort of trapped in them, but that wasn't an issue I ever had. I just couldn't control them. I did try a few times, in the commanding way that I did the first time. I think, however, that there was some uncertainty that I could never truly shake. Am I really in full control of my mind? Are there not corners where those impulsive thoughts hide, that I would normally reject as if they were no creation of mine? Insofar as the subconscious was concerned, I was never able to fully convince myself that I could perfectly shape my thoughts and feelings, and every single time I tried to face that presence in the dream, there would be just a sliver of doubt. And it would immediately, with no delay and with absolute power, attach itself to that doubt, and everything would crumple around that.
To be honest, the experience of all of it was really something. I have no regrets about any of it. It was exciting, and I loved writing about the feelings and the fears and the shadows when I woke up. But it wasn't the lucid dreaming experience that I expected. I never really managed that.
And that's my lucid dreaming story. :)
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Comment on Option to hide "invited by" in user page in ~tildes
Tsirist LinkTo add to this, you should have control over whether your name appears on the profile pages of people you have invited. I think that, aside from moderation purposes, what information is available...To add to this, you should have control over whether your name appears on the profile pages of people you have invited.
I think that, aside from moderation purposes, what information is available about you here should be controlled by you where possible. I'd like it if it were up to the user to decide whether the person who invited them is visible on their profile, as well as whether the user shows up on the profiles of those they've invited. Of course, this information could still be available to moderators and admins since it is useful information, but for reasons others have mentioned (and that I've discussed in other posts) I think this should be a privacy option.
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Comment on How many of you are supporting ~ on Patreon? Why or why not? in ~tildes
Tsirist Link ParentAs they say, nothing is free, and if the users aren't paying for it directly with money then they'll be paying for it some other way. Deimos obviously has the capital to start with to host the...As they say, nothing is free, and if the users aren't paying for it directly with money then they'll be paying for it some other way. Deimos obviously has the capital to start with to host the site for a small collection of users; that isn't too hard. Unfortunately, if the site is to become something larger, then it will be impossible to just come in with some set amount of money already allocated to it (out of the sheer generosity of the site's operator, no less) and run off that until the end of time (unless Deimos is a billionaire, I suppose).
I think based on the site's goals, the users who will be most interested in this place will appreciate that a monetary sacrifice is a lesser one than a sacrifice of privacy. If all users contributed just a little bit, the site ought to be quite sustainable.
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Comment on How many of you are supporting ~ on Patreon? Why or why not? in ~tildes
Tsirist LinkI made a donation, but not via Patreon. The initial sell for the site has me convinced that it's a decent idea, but before I set up anything recurring I want to see everything working out for a while.I made a donation, but not via Patreon. The initial sell for the site has me convinced that it's a decent idea, but before I set up anything recurring I want to see everything working out for a while.
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Comment on Is there a reason why I can't see who invited me to ~? in ~tildes
Tsirist LinkOn this note, I think it would be beneficial to have some control over whether the people you invite can find out who invited them. In the long run this probably isn't a serious issue since ~ will...On this note, I think it would be beneficial to have some control over whether the people you invite can find out who invited them. In the long run this probably isn't a serious issue since ~ will eventually open up, but if the invite system is maintained for a long time then I think this should be considered. I haven't invited anyone who I would mind having my username, but I imagine there are some people who want to maintain their anonymity while sharing the platform itself with friends.
As it stands, the invitee is the sole beneficiary of any privacy in this area, since as best as I can tell the inviting party cannot find out what user corresponds with the person they invited unless they were to stumble across the invitee's user page. This could possibly be automated with scraping, admittedly. On the other hand, the invitee can find the user that invited them quite simply by using a second account to view their own profile or asking another user to inform them.
The asymmetry disturbs me!
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Comment on Are there any scientists on Tildes? in ~science
Tsirist LinkI failed my computer science PhD qualifiers. Made some bad strategic decisions trying to save time getting through the program. Getting out of school I got a nice R&D job though so I kinda like to...I failed my computer science PhD qualifiers. Made some bad strategic decisions trying to save time getting through the program. Getting out of school I got a nice R&D job though so I kinda like to imagine I'm a scientist. :)
Hoping to get back to the PhD sometime for sure. If anyone reading this is just now getting to that for the first time, take it from me: take your time getting into it and deciding what you want to research. Things like qualifying exams (if your institution requires them) may rightly seem like annoying obstacles, and you may feel like you're bleeding time and money preparing adequately for them, but they stand in the way of something important and should not be taken lightly in the slightest.
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Comment on Dwarf Fortress hype! in ~games
Tsirist LinkI'm definitely interested in trying it out sometime! Lately I've been trying to learn Aurora, which I stumbled across after looking around for something deeper than Stellaris. I've read that...I'm definitely interested in trying it out sometime! Lately I've been trying to learn Aurora, which I stumbled across after looking around for something deeper than Stellaris. I've read that Aurora can be compared to Dwarf Fortress in terms of depth and complexity so I'm looking forward to seeing what DF has to offer. I had always assumed it was a sort of low-tech implementation of something like Rimworld but now that I have something to compare its reputation to I'm a lot more interested.
I wonder if it isn't in keeping with the philosophy of the site to have it on the right though. We have the comment box at the bottom to psychologically nudge people to read before they write. I wonder if the same might be said for having the vote button follow the post title?
I bet the effect would be much diminished by comparison though, so it probably doesn't matter quite as much.