kfwyre's recent activity
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Comment on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker in ~tech
kfwyre (OP) Link -
Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker
18 votes -
Comment on I'm not ready to let this place go in ~tildes
kfwyre Link ParentI would 100% appreciate something like this. I’d love to be able to archive all that I’ve written here.I would 100% appreciate something like this. I’d love to be able to archive all that I’ve written here.
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Comment on Epic Games Store will support Linux "soon" in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentCongrats on the switch! I’ve heard good things about CachyOS. And Plasma is indeed awesome. Honestly, I think Linux has SEVERAL banger DEs and that’s one of its very best features. Don’t like the...Congrats on the switch! I’ve heard good things about CachyOS.
And Plasma is indeed awesome. Honestly, I think Linux has SEVERAL banger DEs and that’s one of its very best features. Don’t like the look and feel of your computer? Get a completely different one!
I’m currently running COSMIC on my main computer, Cinnamon on my couch laptop, and Plasma on my Deck (I spend more time in my Deck’s desktop mode than anyone probably should). I used to run GNOME and it’s also awesome. Seriously, we’re spoiled for choice over here.
Meanwhile Windows 11 is only just now considering the idea that I might want to move my taskbar to the side of my screen instead of the bottom.
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Comment on Over 1000 games on GOG lack updates, languages, and additional content in ~games
kfwyre (edited )LinkBack in the mid-2010s I briefly switched to GOG as my main gaming platform, trying to move away from Steam. So, I got to experience this firsthand. The article mentions Nuclear Throne...Back in the mid-2010s I briefly switched to GOG as my main gaming platform, trying to move away from Steam. So, I got to experience this firsthand.
The article mentions Nuclear Throne specifically, which was one that I personally got bit by. I bought it when it released on GOG, and then it didn’t receive updates for literal years, putting it well behind the Steam version. It soured me on the game, the devs, and even GOG itself a little bit. I don’t really fault GOG for it, but it made me more gunshy in buying things from them. The same went for a lot of games’ Linux builds on GOG, which were often non-functional or out of date.
That said, it’s worth pointing out on balance that GOG has some better versions of games as well. For example, the recent Dino Crisis re-releases have DRM in the Steam versions but none in the ones on GOG.
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Comment on Over 1000 games on GOG lack updates, languages, and additional content in ~games
kfwyre LinkI wrote the title here myself instead of using the published one. If anyone feels it needs edits, let me know.I wrote the title here myself instead of using the published one. If anyone feels it needs edits, let me know.
The spreadsheet catalog contains a list of 1,140 games with at least one issue. There are 1,531 issues in total. Those numbers are not typos. Sure, some of the issues are less severe than others, but that doesn't mean GOG customers should receive an inferior product.
The catalog tracks the following issues:
- Missing updates (308 total issues)
- Missing languages (100 total issues)
- Missing free DLC (51 total issues)
- Missing paid DLC (200 total issues)
- Missing features (111 total issues)
- Missing soundtrack (439 total issues)
- Missing builds (278 total issues)
- Region locking (12 total issues)
Sources are provided for many of the games listed as having issues, and others are sourced directly from first-hand experiences.
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Over 1000 games on GOG lack updates, languages, and additional content
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Comment on Epic Games Store will support Linux "soon" in ~games
kfwyre LinkGenuine question: did Windows/Microsoft do something recently to spook companies into Linux support? Both GOG and Epic have announced that they’re leaning that direction (though these could easily...Genuine question: did Windows/Microsoft do something recently to spook companies into Linux support?
Both GOG and Epic have announced that they’re leaning that direction (though these could easily be empty words), and I’m reminded of when Valve first started putting real resources into Linux because the Windows Store was an existential threat to them.
I’m curious if these recent announcements are just coincidences, if they’re a product of Linux actually gaining mindshare, or if they’re a response to something Microsoft has done recently.
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Comment on Epic Games Store will support Linux "soon" in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentHeroic is indeed awesome. The only thing a native launcher would add for me would be playtime tracking and achievements. Neither are truly necessary for me, but they’re nice to have.Heroic is indeed awesome.
The only thing a native launcher would add for me would be playtime tracking and achievements. Neither are truly necessary for me, but they’re nice to have.
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Comment on What's happening in Kansas should alarm us all (gifted link) in ~lgbt
kfwyre LinkArchive link (because NYT has moved to requiring a login even for gifted links) I know that archive has its own problems, but I genuinely looked for an alternate mirror and couldn’t find anything....Archive link (because NYT has moved to requiring a login even for gifted links)
I know that archive has its own problems, but I genuinely looked for an alternate mirror and couldn’t find anything. Also I think this article is important enough that I want to remove as many barriers to reading it as possible.
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Comment on What lesser-known sci-fi reads do you recommend? in ~books
kfwyre Link ParentI’m honestly asking because I think it’s an interesting question, not because I’m looking for something specific to read. (Though I will invariably end up adding at least 10 or so books to my...I’m honestly asking because I think it’s an interesting question, not because I’m looking for something specific to read.
(Though I will invariably end up adding at least 10 or so books to my reading list once this topic is over though.)
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Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
kfwyre Link ParentYou (and everyone) can Spartacus as much as you like! Nothing would make me happier than seeing Deimos get the appreciation he deserves for the near decade of time, effort, and wisdom he’s put...You (and everyone) can Spartacus as much as you like!
Nothing would make me happier than seeing Deimos get the appreciation he deserves for the near decade of time, effort, and wisdom he’s put into this place.
I think we all seriously underestimate how difficult it is to consistently make tough judgment calls on our worst moments as a community. That would be draining for any of us, and he’s done it without complaint for years now.
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Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
kfwyre Link ParentAmazingly well said (as usual for you, aphoenix!) To take your Point #2 further: So many people, when expressing a frustration or difficulty, will have someone point out a separate frustration or...Amazingly well said (as usual for you, aphoenix!)
To take your Point #2 further:
So many people, when expressing a frustration or difficulty, will have someone point out a separate frustration or difficulty as a way of minimizing the first one.
This, to me, is completely ironic, because that means those two people have just found common ground! If anything, they should understand each other better and be able to empathize with one another.
In the context of the topic: if being a tall man sucks in some ways (and as someone who just spent many consecutive hours in tiny cramped airplane seats, let me assure you that it does), that should help us better understand what women are saying when they're complaining about, say, opening jars. This feeling is awful for me; that feeling is awful for you; we now understand each other better because we both know how that awful feeling feels.
Where it goes wrong is that people go "your awful feeling doesn't matter because I also feel awful sometimes too." Instead of finding common ground, it becomes a line in the sand that gatekeeps problems and separates us from one another.
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Comment on Canadian wildfire that forced 20,000 to flee may signal ‘new normal’ in ~enviro
kfwyre LinkA wildfire that forced more than 20,000 people from their homes in western Canada moved so quickly that crews had to abandon firefighting to help residents escape, a pace British Columbia’s premier said Wednesday may represent a “new normal.”
The Bald Range wildfire erupted Friday near Summerland, a community of about 12,000 in British Columbia’s Okanagan region. By Wednesday, it had grown to about 184 square kilometers (71 square miles) after destroying homes and killing an 80-year-old woman.
“There’s an important set of lessons for us to take about how quickly this moved and that this may be our new normal for fire speed,” Premier David Eby said. He said the blaze outpaced wildfire modeling and left some residents with little time to evacuate.
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Canadian wildfire that forced 20,000 to flee may signal ‘new normal’
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What lesser-known sci-fi reads do you recommend?
Warning: this post may contain spoilers
We all know the big-name ones: Dune, 1984, The Martian Chronicles, etc.
What are some sci-fi books that you loved that you never hear about or that won't be making those top-of-all-time lists?
Why do they stand out to you?
What do they do well?
Why do you think they didn't get wider appreciation?29 votes -
Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of August 9 in ~games
kfwyre LinkDigiphile VR Games Showcase: The New Essentials Caveats: I haven't played anything from this so I can't recommend anything, and its price is higher than usual for a bundle. On the other hand, I'm...Digiphile VR Games Showcase: The New Essentials
Caveats: I haven't played anything from this so I can't recommend anything, and its price is higher than usual for a bundle.
On the other hand, I'm really liking what Digiphile is doing so far. Their bundles are fewer and farther between, but they seem to be trying to lock in high quality, not-previously-bundled games.
Also, I can't predict when the Steam Frame will come out nor how much it will cost, but if it's on your radar, this looks like a solid selection of games to have for it. UnLoop looks like the standout for me, though I'm going to wait until it's out of early access to play it.
It's also worth noting that Humble also has a current VR bundle available as well.
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Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
kfwyre Link ParentI'm late to this, so I hope you're still around to see it, but I'll miss you TSP. I hope nothing but the best for you as you move on, and know that you're always welcome back here if you ever do...I'm late to this, so I hope you're still around to see it, but I'll miss you TSP.
I hope nothing but the best for you as you move on, and know that you're always welcome back here if you ever do decide to return.
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Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
kfwyre (edited )LinkHey everyone, I just got back from vacation! Part 1 Honestly though, it looks like a lot has happened in the past week(s)? I don't really have the full context for all of it as I haven't been...- Exemplary
Hey everyone, I just got back from vacation!
Part 1
Honestly though, it looks like a lot has happened in the past week(s)? I don't really have the full context for all of it as I haven't been following everything directly, but as a long-time Tildes cheerleader, I'll toss in my two cents.
One of the things I love about this place is that there's a pervasive, nearly universally held ideal that things can be better. Like, the moment we run into any sort of friction, people are looking at and hashing out solutions both social and technical. It's sort of in our DNA at this point, which makes a lot of sense, as the site itself was founded explicitly on the ideals of being better than the all the other rage factory data funnels people spend their time on.
Looking forward is a good thing, but I think it's important not to lose sight of what we do have, and I think that Tildes has been around long enough that some of its merits have become largely invisible -- we take them for granted.
There isn't another site I know of that has an audience as willing to engage in good faith as Tildes. There isn't another site I know of where the norm is to calm down and disengage rather than fire up and hit hard. There isn't another site I know of where my clicks and mouse movements and demographics aren't being slurped up and sold off to data brokers and AI companies.
Some of this is the technical background on which the site has developed, but a lot of it is the social state we exist in, largely because we have a lot of people willing to actually live up to those ideals.
Like, finding a reddit alternative is not difficult these days. It feels like someone's spinning up a new one every day (even moreso now that they can be vibecoded). However, nearly all of these fail to find a critical mass of users and die off. Even if they have some great technical stuff in place, they lack the most important part of any social network: the people.
We've got the people, y'all. We're here. Many of us have been here for years!
Is it a ton of people? No. But is it enough? In my opinion, yes.
The site has already reached enough activity where I can no longer read every article and comment. It is most certainly not a ghost town. If you don't believe me, check out nearly anything posted to /r/redditalternatives in the past few years and you'll see that we've actually got genuinely good traction and retention.
Part 2
Unfortunately, it does look like we're losing some people. Others are frustrated. Long-standing resentments have boiled up and maybe over.
This has happened to us before. We exist on a wider internet that treats people, ideas, and comments as disposable and inflammatory. I cannot stress enough how much this is now the general background of wider internet discourse, to the point that it's genuinely amazing to me how little we actually see of it here.
So, when it does happen here, it hits harder.
It hits harder because we care more about what we say here, because our ideas and identities don't feel disposable here, and because there's still a social cost to escalating. We feel it in ourselves when this happens. It goes against our guiding principle that things can be better.
I understand the want to turn to technical solutions. I genuinely do. Tildes was founded on some amazing technical decisions that make it the rock solid stable experience it is today.
But a lot of this site's special sauce is what we do here, not how the site runs.
Choosing to act in good faith is something we all do. Choosing to disengage is something we all do. Choosing to push back in ways that we feel is fair is something we all do. We're not perfect at it, of course, but more often than not this place functions because of conscious individual decisions of its userbase that come from a shared set of values about how people should interact with one another.
The cool part about this is just how powerful it is. The same forces that make the bad stuff hit harder here also make the good stuff feel bigger as well. We're all just psedonymous handles, but users here feel like they know one another. People have actual, honest-to-goodness presence on the site, which is truly amazing for something entirely text-based. Someone leaves, and their absence is felt, maybe even mourned.
Seeing that the site's technical side is effectively in stasis does bring me a bit down, in part because I love it here and would love to see it keep improving, but I simply don't think it's a death knell or anything. For one, it's already how we've been operating for years now, so genuinely nothing has changed. Way more than that, however, is the idea that we're here and have been here because of each other.
Part 3
It's with that in mind that I'm going to implore two different groups of people to consider something.
- The first is the people who are here:
We, us, the people who choose to spend our time here are what make this site work. Without us, this would be a technically incredible but functionally dead space. With that in mind, I ask you to do the following: please treat other users like they're the most valuable thing here. Because they are.
That means when you find yourself getting heated, or you want to shout someone down, or you just sick and tired of
something, please do not take it out on others. Whether that's by speaking your difficult truth kindly or flat out stepping away is entirely up to you, but eroding the experience of others here has a tangible human cost. Please keep that in mind.Also, let's say that you posted something that you genuinely didn't know would be controversial or get pushback, and now it's heating up. Try to listen, understand, hear with grace, and, if needed, write your difficult response kindly or, in some cases, not at all. It's okay to step away too, or simply say "hey, I might be missing some perspective on this" and leave it at that. Not everything has to be drawn out to a protracted and ugly conclusion when an easier, healthier conclusion is available earlier in so many other forms.
- To the people who are leaving or considering leaving:
You are under no obligation to stay, of course, and I am not trying to guilt trip anyone. What I do want to point out, however, is something that I think often goes unseen. Remember how I said people have actual presence on this site? I encourage you to consider that it's true for you too. You have an identity and standing here.
Leaving means stepping away from that, and again, I have to stress that I mean this not in a guilt-tripping way but in an "it's easy to lose sight of the good stuff when angry or frustrated" kind of way. Time and effort here are generally rewarded, honored, and acknowledged in a way unlike most of the rest of the internet. It makes us not nearly as disposable as we are on other sites. So, I'd encourage anyone considering leaving to think about whether they feel that their time and efforts here are truly being wasted.
If so, that's on us to fix -- not with labels or technical solutions, but with social ones.
Also, I know that there are certain topics and discussions that tend to erupt and light fires. I've been around for plenty of them, and it looks like I missed a few while I was away.
I think what we have to remember is that there is always going to be some non-zero rollover of topics and discussion patterns from the wider internet. People here are going to occasionally fall back to engagement-centric, inflammatory commenting styles. People are occasionally going to touch on controversial topics.
I say this not to excuse bad behaviors but to acknowledge that we have to measure our success not by a goal of zero friction but instead by a goal of meaningfully handling that friction when it arises.
If that means disengaging, go for it. If it means speaking your difficult truth kindly, go for it. If it means speaking your truth then immediately disengaging, that's okay too -- probably even ideal! Erosion doesn't happen as a one-off thing -- it's the repeated exposure that wears people down. If our waters are wearing away your shoreline, then I cannot recommend enough getting out of those waters for a bit. Find another place to dip into the stream -- there are plenty here, nearly all of which are still and calm.
Part 4
A lot of what I've said above comes from me being a longstanding Tildes cheerleader and even apologist.
That's because I love it here.
Do we have problems? Of course. Those will also always be non-zero. People are messy and inconsistent and frustrating. Anything that centers people will invariably have its difficulties. Navigating these is what makes all the good stuff possible and worthwhile though. I think it's why there's a palpable sadness at this announcement. I feel it too. The guiding principle of ours that things can be better sits on the shoulders of change is possible, so when we're presented with a closed, locked door, it stings. It feels like we can't navigate difficulties as well as we could. It feels like maybe things can't be better.
But, just like I encouraged people above to properly account for things, I want to make sure that I do that too.
Which is to say, that, if Tildes were to officially shut down tomorrow, I would still be happy with the time I spent here. At this point I've been here far longer than I was on reddit, and because of Tildes I feel like I'm a calmer, more thoughtful, more relaxed person. This community has had a non-negligible positive impact on me, to the point that even if it goes away I would still think of it fondly.
I'd be sad too, of course, but putting all my stock in an immediate feeling rather than the YEARS of time I've been here isn't the right way to look at things. Proper accounting means I have to take stock of everything and give it the weight it deserves.
So, with that in mind, I'm going to end this with a message directly to @Deimos:
I've told you this several times before, but I want to reiterate it again because you
probablydefinitely don't hear it enough.Thank you.
From one human to another, for making the best online community I've ever been a part of.
I know it didn't turn out the way you wanted, and I'm sure you're beyond tired of moderating us constantly. I'm not saying this to try to pressure you into keeping things going or whatnot -- if you need to formally sunset this place, then I completely understand.
Just know that I'm incredibly grateful for the wonderful years I've had here. I hope for more, of course, but I understand that nothing is forever -- especially not a small, volunteer-run social network that exists on an increasingly hostile internet.
Thank you for the EVERYTHING that you've done: the guiding principles, the code, the ongoing moderation. It's an honor that I get to spend my time here, and I choose to do so because of everything you've built. You've helped establish that the guiding principle of "things can be better" is an actual, actionable thing instead of just a pie-in-the-sky ideal.
You made a better place, and I can definitively say that I'm better for it. Thank you.
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Comment on Sanity check - always-on machine + laptop with remote desktop in ~tech
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentI’m still thrilled with my Sunshine/Moonlight setup! I use it literally every single day, often between multiple different devices. I even stream games to my treadmill TV so I can play them while...I’m still thrilled with my Sunshine/Moonlight setup! I use it literally every single day, often between multiple different devices.
I even stream games to my treadmill TV so I can play them while walking.
Thanks again, creesch!