Marketing on Zero Budget

enefi · 2021-07-14T13:16:34+00:00

Solid tips. I don't particularly like Discord, but I can see how those mentioned approaches like giveaways and minigames can get people in and interested long(er) term.

enefi · 2021-06-12T10:06:17+00:00

It's sad new AAA games almost stopped doing editors / mod support. I can only think of Valve and to some extend Blizzard (custom games in Overwatch).

enefi · 2021-05-28T06:54:58+00:00

Remember SteamOS? Valve has been pushing linux gaming for years, but it's only as a response to business threats. The windows marketplace, if it had taken off, would have destroyed Valve's business model.

That was quite some time ago. If it was only as a response to the threat, I wouldn't expect Valve to continue to work on Linux stuff as much as they do. They made a lot of work with Proton which pushed Linux from being able to run few percent of games to tens of percent. And it's not only Proton (DXVK, Wine), they are making contributions to graphic stack and I think even kernel. As far as I know they are the only VR that supports Linux (not perfectly, but it's usable). I believe they have further plans for Linux, either another attempt at Steam Machines, or some console like those rumors mention, I don't think their long term Linux support is only to keep MS in check.

Their 30% cut is obscene.

When Steam started it was very cheap compared to physical distribution which was what, 80%? Feature-wise, for users and developers, Steam has no competition, everything else is barebones and/or anti-consumer garbage (e.g. Epic Store - last time I checked it had no basket, no community tools, publishers could disable scores, bribing publishers to move games from other stores to be exclusives on ESG and the list goes on). Since Steam is large, even with that cut I am pretty sure it's still worth it to release on Steam just because of the sheer number of users and if you do your store front right, you could get a lot of advertising by algo very cheaply. Sure, Steam/Valve is not perfect either (e.g. few questionable bans of games or "off-topic" periods in reviews), but compared to everything else it's damn near close and currently is the best, miles ahead of competition.

enefi · 2021-05-27T08:25:16+00:00

Could be huge for Linux gaming. If the rumor is true and would get some adoption, this could actually be the tipping point of AAA publishers to start taking Tux seriously.

enefi · 2021-05-04T07:56:42+00:00

DPS is from "damage per second" (most important stat of that role), aka DD = "damage dealer", sometimes just referred to as "dmg" or "damage". It's a role that focuses on bringing health of enemies down, killing them.

Just to clarify, holy trinity is not only used in RPGs. For example it's used in Overwatch which is a hero shooter - a multiplayer team PvP (player vs player) game with heroes (classes) without any progression giving you power (no increasing stats or more and more powerful items) and virtually no story.

enefi · 2021-04-14T16:12:31+00:00

I'm a gay liberal atheist so im practically an alien here and what you people would most likely consider a demon. im assuming white christian male??

According to several political tests I am a (classic) liberal with a bit of nationalism. No, I am not a Nazi as "enlightened" twitter users would instantly write (on most tests just 5-10% off center), I am just not a fan of open borders, uncontrolled immigration and my country losing its identity. I am not a christian, but yeah, I am a white heterosexual male.

Im assuming most people here are so fucking poor they dont even have access to "real" white western culture and some liberal monkey with rainbow clown hair acted so retarded that it pissed you off and now you're here.

I am not wealthy, but I wouldn't say I am poor. I am here, because I believe in free speech and strongly dislike censorship and manipulation which currently overflows on mainstream "social" networks like Reddit, Twitter or YouTube and spills into fields and hobbies like software development, series and gaming. No, no "liberal" pissed me off, I am mostly a lurker (most negative experience was someone calling me evil because I used a clown pepe as a test image in a documentation of my tiny application, that was pretty mild and I am still unsure if it wasn't a troll). I was born into a communism and while I don't remember much from it, I learned a lot about it from older relatives, in school and from documentaries. I dislike how authoritarian are becoming countries in EU and US, so I am here to see how things really are, reading news and opinions of others without filter forced by big tech. My opinion of the future has become a bit more negative, seeing how many "conspiracy" theories turned out to be true, seeing how much information is being twisted if not outright suppressed.

When i look at this site, i see anti vaxxers, retards, christians... no, your alternative is POOR, degenerate, POOR, christian, POOR, dirty, POOR, uneducated right wing republican POOR people culture easily manipulated by corporations by paying someone like ted cruz to lead you.

When it comes to rushed covid vaccines, I think a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted (it's not just "conspiracy theorists", many doctors are recommending to not get the vaccine unless you are in a risk group). By retards I guess you mean trolls, who are everywhere on the internet. This site is virtually moderated by enthusiasts, they are not getting paid and are nowhere near the level of power tripping of reddit moderators (who most likely live from it, and unemployment benefits). I personally prefer this freer model of moderation. As I wrote, I am neither christian, nor uneducated (I hold a degree from STEM university, so at least at something I should be educated), nor republican, nor a fan of corporations (especially big tech), maybe a degenerate (definitions of that word differ a lot)?

Many, if not all, "social" media alternatives have similar problem with content - it's usually dominated by politics, because that's the thing which is being so heavily policed in mainstream. Sadly, more and more things are getting kicked into the politics category (e.g. in large tech and hobby subreddits political posts and comments are very highly upvoted and removed as off topic only if they support the "wrong" side). I don't know a solution for it (while I was on Ruqqus I tried to foster few non-political guilds without success, here I am not posting much, but I try to share non-political stuff every now and then). Maybe as more "normies" are fed up with censorship on mainstream platforms and start trying alternatives, hobby, tech and other non-political subs could start to grow?

enefi · 2021-04-09T04:34:28+00:00

Too bad it's not FOSS (I'll wait with trying the extension). Not sure who is behind it, if the party is trusted. If I understand correctly, then it works by sending links of all visited YT videos to their server(s) which could be a privacy issue.

enefi · 2021-04-08T15:07:41+00:00

Solid tips. If you are on Linux I would recommend starting with Godot (at least for small 2D things, editor is more polished compared to Unity).

enefi · 2021-04-08T12:48:38+00:00

That's impressive, it would take me at least several times longer. I am obviously not a game jam material :D.

enefi · 2021-04-08T08:43:48+00:00

Just wow, monitoring room to count users. And to trust them the data will not be used with face recognition, for advertising or sold. If this thing goes mainstream, I just stop watching new stuff (not that there are many good new movies/shows) and forever will be rewatching old good classics.

enefi · 2021-04-06T08:21:29+00:00

I wish AAA companies would stop putting in overly-aggressive DRMs/ACs. In popular games it never stops pirates/cheaters and only brings tons of downsides, like security and privacy concerns, and incompatibility with Linux.

enefi · 2021-03-31T08:02:22+00:00

Can't say I agree with majority of points.

Lack of video game support

Not really true anymore. Yes, Windows is better in this regard, but Valve improved the situation in a few years by leaps. ProtonDB reports 75% of top 1000 games to be playable on Linux. IIRC only games with rootkit anti-cheats (EAC and BE) are a problem and I don't think many Linux users want rootkits to be supported by Wine anyway.

fucking Wine - it had problems running even 20 year old games

Funny, because I read quite a lot of people praising Wine for being able to run these ancient games when current Windows no longer supports them. Yes, you read that right - for old Dos/Windows games Linux might be a better choice than current Windows.

Bad documentation In Linux, "help" means reading barely intelligible man pages - and even then, you have to know what you're looking for. Though some distros do have real help, it's online and usually low quality anyway. What remains for a newbie user are elitist internet forums that will tell him to RTFM (which doesn't exist). On the other hand - Windows, since at least 98, has included a great, interactive help tool that can diagnose and fix problems with audio, graphics, internet, everything.

Seriously? You have Arch wiki which is really good. And if you use distro appropriate to you level (e.g. Ubuntu), then you have plenty of places to get advice - for example Ubuntu has that QA site. If you are using distro which is out of your league (e.g. Arch, Gentoo), then it's your fault (you can still find people willing to help, but you will most likely suffer). Another thing is, you have to know how to ask questions. If you don't show any signs of trying to solve your problem, or omit all details, or are blaming Linux, then you can't expect community members to be friendly.

No system restore

Just use timeshift or stable distro.

Software installation

Well, yes, Linux landscape is a bit fragmented, but as a normal user you should be totally fine with Ubuntu or PopOS!. If you are dev/tinkerer/impatient gamer, then Manjaro is a sweet spot for me. You have available vast majority of software through AUR, one command away. And you even mentioned it - a lot of software (especially the gui clicky one) started offering appimages, snaps or flatpaks.

Lack of certain software ... commonly mentioned ones are AutoCAD, Photoshop, as well as video editing software.

We have FreeCAD and for video editing kdenlive or Blender (pretty sure I am forgetting another one well known). Photoshop is partly true (only for professionals), most users who use pirated version are newbies, so Gimp or Krita would be enough. That said, I heard Blender with grease pencil is starting seriously endangering Illustrator. Inkscape is fine for smaller stuff, possibly even professional (I would guess it depends on what exactly you are doing).

No focus on security ... By default, Linux doesn't really care about your security or anonymity (unless it's a niche distro like Qubes or Heads) - any application can do whatever it wants within the permissions it's been given

Looks false. There is AppArmor and SELinux, from arch wiki:

Ubuntu, SUSE and a number of other distributions use it [AppArmor] by default. RHEL (and its variants) use SELinux which requires good userspace integration to work properly.

No actual firewall

No user friendly per-application firewall, yeah, I agree with this one. There were attempts and it should be possible to implement (IIRC kernel supports marking packets with processes via some option), but I haven't seen a usable project yet (only few dead experiments).

Hard to "rice" ... while Windows has an easy to use color editor

I am pretty sure there was only one color to customize few years back and I think currently there is only light and dark theme (I don't use Windows, so I might be wrong on this one). Linux has the most customizable DEs. Yes, it may not be as user friendly as picking a color from GUI, but ricing is the domain of Linux.

No GUIs to configure basic things ... OpenVPN connections or keymappings

OpenVPN is not a basic thing and I remember that in KDE there is a GUI thingy to configure keymappings.

Still controlled by big corpos

Well, yeah, but still better than Windows. At least source is foss and it's more corporations, not just one.

Fragmentation

For all of Windows' faults, it for sure benefits from at least one thing - it is consistent. If you know how to use it here - then you can do the same there, and elsewhere.

Not really. Remember those tiles which they forced to remove from desktop? Or the myriad of configuration dialogs from different eras, often doing similar/same things? Some people are still using XP and 7.

On the other hand, Linux is a bunch (really, hundreds) of distributions which differ in philosophies, target audience, installation, available functionality (e.g FDE) by default, intended usage (server-only, live USB only, gaming...), type of package manager (different ones are incompatible unless your distro is from the same family - many now choose to roll their own), default software.

Only few are commonly used and only couple could be recommended to beginners. Also majority of distros are just building on top of other distros, so in reality you have a few distro families and the rest, those hundreds, are just variations, flavors, usually not differing much from their parents. And again, there are appimages and similar technologies (Valve is working on their own for Steam) which mostly solve the problem.

GTK3, which changed everything from GTK2

GTK2 is still being used? I thought virtually all maintained software has already been updated.

made programs dependent on the two versions look and behave completely different since not all GTK software has good KDE replacements

This issue is present in Windows as well. I would say on Windows it's even worse - there are modern looking configuration dialogs/windows easily accessible, but they often lack a lot of options and you have to cumbersomely navigate to a similarly named dialog from nt/95-era with much more options. And of course consistency in applications on Windows is pretty bad too - a lot of software is multiplatform and/or uses their own UI tech (e.g. Blender, Electron applications and I am pretty sure Photoshop too), so it isn't really that different from Linux.

And of course, choosing a distro is a struggle in itself that Windows users don't have to deal with.

True, but it's not difficult. There are quite noob-tolerant and active communities like r/linuxquestions.

A lot of things are blown out of proportions, half-truths, or a thing of the past. It makes me wonder if the author isn't on MS payroll.

enefi · 2021-03-30T16:55:32+00:00

I am a fan of older Star Treks and kinda like older Star Wars movies. I tried watching those new ones (half season of STD) and saw two or three SW movies and it's just so bad. Why so much lore needlessly rewritten? Why the change of genres? Why are main characters so often bland and mery sue? What the hell is wrong with writing? Those new shows and movies are ST/SW mostly, if not only, by name, and only good quality IMO are effects, but that alone can't save it. 😞

At least there is Orville...

enefi · 2021-03-29T13:26:52+00:00

It would seem "progressives" are much more likely in danger of cancelling themselves. I don't know if it's just because I see more hypocrisy from big names in public on left, but it sure appears center and right folks to be more rational and consistent.

I have to say that after reading comments, I am disappointed by some companies siding with pushing identity/"progressive" politics - obs, debian, tor :/

enefi · 2021-03-15T20:24:21+00:00

Here's a blog post about HTTP basics (or this article on MDN, it's a bit more techy though).

I am not familiar with Rust, but from a quick search it looks like there's a lot of libraries you can choose from. I would recommend picking some popular, simpler and alive (updated in last few months) one.

enefi · 2021-03-11T05:58:40+00:00

I am sorry, but I am only the author of the images (in their base form, they both have color), not those css styles currently being used. I made one newer attempt with animations and I used grayscale in off state, because the effect was already used on the site and I thought it looks kinda good (you can see at a first glance if you have voted just by the yellow). I believe d3rr is still working on the styles.

enefi · 2021-03-10T20:38:02+00:00

I fucking LOVE them!

Thanks!

Sorry I'm late to chime in. I don't expect many to notice or care.

I noticed ;). I always check back at least few days when posting something I made. Also I never was/am very good at these "social" networks, so I am happy for any comments/votes my work gets :D.

enefi · 2021-03-10T11:43:06+00:00

They [svgs] look about equally blurry compared to the png versions

If you have a system (scaling in OS/DE) and a browser set in a way, that it renders 1:1 (pixel size of the rendered image is same as virtual pixel size of a page in browser), then they should look pretty much same. But I think QHD, 4k and other higher resolutions on desktop are becoming more common; on mobile icons and graphical elements are usually bigger naturally. Maybe I could increase stroke width slightly (rays of a bulb look a bit thin/dark)?

Alter the existing CSS background colors of div.arrow. unfortunately this covers both the button and the score that displays beneath it for post/link voting buttons

svgs with colored backgrounds depending on vote state, the old saidit approach*

voted and unvoted svgs

I think combining those approaches would work fairly well - a voting "box" (including score) changing background color and different on/off svg pictures.

adding another div or span to hold just the vote icon, to more cleanly style it with CSS. I opt out of this, it's at least an 8 hour project requiring javascript changes. but I can guide anyone interested in going this far

It's cleaner (personally I would use just img tag), but in itself it doesn't bring much value. Unless those svg files are inline (svg tag with all its data inside), I believe insides cannot be styled, meaning it cannot be animated (only inline svgs can be; either inserted directly to HTML by backend, or later by frontend).

I am willing to donate more free time. I think making those static (non-animated) svgs shouldn't take too long, I'd guess 1-2 hours?

I could try setting up local instance of saidit and try to integrate the animated icons, but a result is not guaranteed (I am not proficient in back-end stuff and never done anything in that templating thing which is used). That would most likely take much longer (because of the setup, I don't think the modification of styles and templates would take longer than 2-4h, I should be able to reuse a lot from the browser extension). But as I wrote earlier, I am not sure if admins/devs/users actually want those animations.

I can't say when I could get to it, at soonest Thursday afternoon (CET), but more likely on the weekend.

I would like to avoid an awkward situation of making something which in the end wouldn't get used. Can I get an official word on how should I proceed? (To be honest, I am not entirely sure who calls the shots, m7?)

enefi · 2021-03-09T18:39:11+00:00

Keep in mind that your media access control (MAC) address and accounts that you are logged into can still uncover your anonymity. For that reason, VPN work best when combined with secure browsers and ad blockers.

Isn't mac address being stripped on a first network device, so likely ISP's modem/router?

enefi · 2021-03-09T16:05:39+00:00

Yeah, they are unfortunately still bitmaps, not vectors :_( I guess that's what d3rr meant by

mistakes were made.

https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/comments/7i8v/toying_with_vote_icons/saig

enefi · 2021-03-09T15:26:45+00:00

I have made another pass on the images (tweaked eyes, lighting up of the bulb, separated elements in SVGs) and made two simple animations in CSS. Not sure, if people of SaidIt would want this (I know there is a lot of folks who prefer simpler UI). Nevertheless, if anyone tech savvy wants to try, head over to the gitlab repo (browser capable of loading non-signed unpacked extensions is required).

I hope I managed to address all the issues of the previous version :).

perma link to images

PS: It seems SaidIt doesn't support gifs in preview, so you have to click on the image to see the animations.

enefi · 2021-03-09T08:15:57+00:00

I am afraid I don't understand :D.

I am working on minor fixes and simple animations, hopefully later today (it's morning now for me) I'll share results.

Edit: Oh, I see. I don't think png or jpeg will cut it, for the extra crispness it has to be svgs. Well, maybe overscaled bitmap (png) versions would help a bit (e.g. 2x times resolution and downscaling it to half in css).

enefi · 2021-03-08T20:41:51+00:00

WTF? So instead of actually doing something, like fixing sluggish dev tools or implementing new tech (to lure back lost core users), they made a sexist cheap extension, just to score some political points? And if their description is accurate, then it's cheap not just figuratively, but literally as well, couldn't took more then 1 work day.

What is this world, why me, a FOSS fan, ended up using a half-proprietary browser? Why can't big tech companies stay away from censorship, virtue signalling and politics in general? -_-

enefi · 2021-03-07T09:01:47+00:00

I have added a link to repo to my original comment, you can get icons there and look at the style hacks I did. But I am not sure how easy it will be to integrate. I am more of a front-end guy, that's why I went with a browser extension (setting up local instance of saidit seemed daunting and I was unsure if saidit devs would welcome my changes, so going the extension path was a safer option). If you have any front-end related questions, feel free to ask :).

PS: If you think older version were better, they should be in a git history in the repo.

Edit: Forgot to write: styles generation is in src/content.ts.

enefi · 2021-03-07T08:51:50+00:00

Don't know why it wouldn't work in dark mode.

I mean that my current style ~~modifications~~ hacks aren't working well in dark mode. But dark mode support should be possible to add, I think quite easily (I hope I didn't jinx it :D).

Looks great.

Thanks :).

I can help fine tune them if you like, if I can, perhaps add them to the CSS of /s/PhoenixForum? ... If you don't mind I could share them on https://infogalactic.com/info/SaidIt_gallery

Feel free to remix, use and share them ;). I have added a link to a publicly accessible repo to my original comment, so you can download them there. I am not sure if you can use them only via css (my extension injects svgs as inline svg tags; in the past I had issues with non-inline svgs and also it was easier to do).

This fall/winter I tried many browsers and discovered some have minor issues with custom CSS, and I can't even imagine what mobile devices do, so I'm no longer keen on customizing.

In the past css incompatibilities were way worse, nowadays it's mostly just flipping Apple with Safari and their "clever" heuristics. I didn't really test my prototype on anything else than Vivaldi, but my educated guess would be that Chrome-based browsers will work fine.

enefi · 2021-03-07T08:23:53+00:00

Yeah, the bulb is just one image and I used invert filter from css (was a bit lazy), that's why it isn't lit up 😅. I consider this just a prototype, didn't expect such positive responses. I already made another pass (shortened "stem" of a bulb and slightly moved face to the left so it's closer to the original)

By the eye shapes, you mean rotate them a bit so they point more at a nose area or something else?

enefi · 2021-03-06T16:05:47+00:00

So, do you like it or hate it?

I remember when seeing first time SaidIt to be put off by those smudged icons (and not really stunning overall visuals). It discouraged me from even trying SaidIt and I ended up on other alternative forum. So, here I am trying to (hopefully) improve it.

Made in Inkscape, had to tweak styles a bit. Currently I don't plan to release it. It has a lot of issues, e.g. only compatible with light theme and default styles (pretty sure it won't play nice with most subs' custom css), it's injected via an unsigned browser extension so only few users could actually use it (Vivaldi and maybe Chromium supports that).

If devs are interested, I can send the svg files.

Edit: Wow, I wasn't expecting such interest (remixing?) nor a response from the devs. Spent some time with readme, polished icons a bit (I might give the bulb another pass to be properly lid), added I think pretty free license, so there it is: https://gitlab.com/enefi/pyramidion . svg files are in src/assets. The project is a bit messy (e.g. the build configuration is all over the place), so please don't judge too hard :D.

Perma links:

First version (screenshot in this post): https://gitlab.com/enefi/pyramidion/-/tree/af5989721ea514e42b2d42d9ba9ae1b3e54f7980/src/assets
Second version (shortened bulb socket, slightly moved face): https://gitlab.com/enefi/pyramidion/-/tree/1b8cd8b0d226e7410188a14ae45eb86e1fbca907/src/assets

enefi · 2021-03-06T10:33:38+00:00

but don't assume that shills don't exist

My point was to also not assume anyone being against censorship or other actions of admins must be a shill. (After all shills may be, and I would guess are, on both sides of a drama. Furthering suspicion, distrust, trying to stoke the flames, increase division of userbase.)

Certainly take any claims with a grain of salt

Yep, that was what I meant. :)

enefi · 2021-03-05T12:12:17+00:00

... but the people complaining about bannings make a lot of nonsensical arguments. They inject nonsense into any conversation that gets interesting. They behave like shills, create alternate accounts, and when asked "why did you get banned" they lie. Expect to see a lot of claims of censorship, don't take it too seriously.

And usually on free speech platforms there is also a group of defenders who has no problems labeling anyone a shill. I saw it on Ruqqus. Even with clear evidence (public logs, public comments and posts, confirmed [by admins and other users] screenshots from discord) there was always a few users blindly defending admins. On Ruqqus at least admins in the case of bans usually eventually did the right thing, making those blind defenders look stupid in the end.

I am speaking generally. I saw some long time saidit users complaining about it, so I have my doubts about them being shills, but I don't really know what is happening currently on saidit, I am not that invested (got burned by Ruqqus, I have no intention of investing hundred+ hours of my free time and then finding out admins lied in their official statement what the platform is supposed to be about, and their actions and inactions are in direct contradiction with their supposed believes/goals; I am taking it slow this time).

enefi · 2021-03-03T08:19:55+00:00

Nice to see a truly new browser in the making, not just another Chromium/Firefox spinoff. Oh, it's not FOSS?

enefi · 2021-03-02T15:41:16+00:00

That hearth attack gun is pretty scary.

enefi · 2021-03-01T13:00:56+00:00

Wow, had no idea ET is still alive and kicking. And under FOSS license? I am tempted to try it, I guess it's nostalgia (how long has it been, 15 years?). Thanks for sharing.

enefi · 2021-02-26T08:01:40+00:00

I love how most upvoted comment is negative, from a guy who plans on implementing an addon to reverse reddit's bs and also he got banned from the sub :D

enefi · 2021-02-25T11:03:05+00:00

CF does it on a large scale (many servers around world) and I am pretty sure they have much, much more bandwidth and faster hw to fend off majority of attacks easily. On the other side is saidit - I think they have some cheap hosting/server, so you can't really expect to build their own infrastructure which isn't cheap at all (I am not that knowledgeable, but my guess would be few servers, some heavy duty switches/routers and tons of manhours to make it work, and then someone would have to watch over it constantly).

enefi · 2021-02-03T18:47:09+00:00

It's pretty basic and slow, but it seems to work and doesn't cost ungodly amount of money.

enefi · 2021-02-02T10:39:36+00:00

Was looking for an alternative to more mainstream translators/dictionaries and that dict.cc might be somewhat usable. Only downside is, the database is not under free license, so I don't really have a motivation to contribute translations (small projects often die and in this case, all translations would be lost).

enefi · 2021-01-25T10:14:14+00:00

I don't know, it seems to me that the author isn't really on board with FP (Haskell), so why is he using NixOS? It looks like he picked a wrong tool for him and/or the job. While I know some Haskell (probably between beginner and intermediate level), I wouldn't use NixOS on anything important (e.g. my machine which I use for a day job).

enefi · 2021-01-22T20:44:27+00:00

Isn't Slax no longer maintained?

enefi · 2021-01-22T09:39:57+00:00

Also available on a more free alternative to YouTube: https://odysee.com/@TimcastNews:0/trust-in-media-hits-record-low-most:c

enefi · 2021-01-21T19:32:05+00:00

There is a lot of "catch all" items. I wonder what item represents addons blocked because of "hate speech", because I don't see Dissenter anywhere.

enefi · 2021-01-21T12:17:16+00:00

Made in Blender + Sverchok, took around 4 hours (wasted over half an hour because of the stupid buggy Vertex Color node not working properly and throwing unhelpful errors). It was a blazing fast render (despite some reflections and high resolution, but very simple geometry), just over 2 minutes.

enefi · 2021-01-20T16:45:35+00:00

I remember I somewhere saw that Wayland (or sway?) has some issues with NVidia cards. Has anyone heard about that? Also gaming used to be a problem, not sure how much the project progressed.

enefi · 2021-01-18T20:39:13+00:00

You have no evidence of pollitical bias.

Just read http://www.historyofgamergate.com or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wt8k-3xD5s, and then read what's on wikipedia. Another example of a wiki page with strong bias is Nazism - they (left) didn't like that people were pointing out striking similarities to far-left/progressivism, so they removed offending parts and I believe even redefined some terms. It's still available on archive sites for comparison. If that isn't political/ideological bias then I don't know what is. Even the founder of wikipedia was disgusted with how the site turned out (I think he left and now he's working on an alternative to wikipedia, something which is supposed to be more objective and not so easily manipulated by wikipedia <-> msm circlejerk).

enefi · 2021-01-18T05:44:11+00:00

website is well-known for spreading disinformation

and a source is https://en.wikipedia.org? You realize that description fits wikipedia too (e.g. gamergate). Just checked the first linked article what were the basis for Google to ban the site, and its snopes, another politically biased entity. I stopped wasting my time at that point.

enefi · 2021-01-17T09:05:32+00:00

It's unbelievable that from a short description it's able to generate pretty good images. 😯

enefi · 2021-01-17T05:51:59+00:00

I am currently using Manjaro on a desktop for over a year and I was/am pleasantly surprised - I expected it to break more often while in reality it breaks less than Ubuntu did. I used Ubuntu on a desktop for I think 4 years, but old versions of software, GPU drivers and tangled web of dozens of PPAs pushed me to try Manjaro on a new pc. I have to say, it's pretty good for dev (mostly web) and gaming. AUR is great, like 98% of all software I wanted to install is either in Manjaro repos or AUR.

I am running CentOS on a home server, for I think 5 years and I was satisfied with it (previously ran Debian for over 10 years, but for me its releases weren't supported for long enough time). Since CentOS got killed, I'll have to migrate to something else - I'll probably wait how Rocky turns out.

enefi · 2021-01-13T06:16:57+00:00

Maybe it's from Bruce Lee? I don't know, I saw very similar quote from Buffett I think and in the pic there isn't any author, so I left it out from the title. I hope that's okay.

enefi · 2021-01-13T05:44:34+00:00

I don't think I agree with

eventually they'll turned nazi

but yeah, everything else is pretty spot on.

I left Gab after Torba had a fit on Twitter about porn (non stop posting for hours, constantly insulting, even Gab users), how it should be censored everywhere. That's not what I imagine under free speech, I want less content banned/illegal, not more. Sure, if you don't want porn on your platform, just say it's too hard to manage and not worth the risk, you don't have to alienate half your user-base and make yourself look like a nut. He made a few enemies which managed to troll him on Gab so well, he have banned them even though they didn't break ToS. IIRC Gab had issues with free speech when it came to other religions, I believe they banned a few people (muslims?) because of that.

https://i.ibb.co/JqLgDdZ/gab-porn-censorship-03-merged-lower.jpg

enefi · 2021-01-12T12:42:28+00:00

dissenter is based off chromium, which is just a free open source framework. It doesnt mean its based off chrome

Yep, it's based on open-source parts of Chrome (= Chromium). I am not that familiar with Chrome-based browsers, but I was under the impression they follow Chrome very closely (each release is based on Chromium and they add [reapply] their custom parts).

youre not actually supporting chrome or google since its not harvesting your data

That's true, but you are still supporting Google indirectly (and I admit to a lesser degree than running vanilla Chrome) - you are using a browser with Google's core, you are using their rendering and JS engine (and probably more) thus maintaining their grasp of market share. This is giving Google more power over the internet (dictating standards [like trashing new svg], aggressively pushing their new tech [like their spying amp or DRMs]).

So yes, running an alt. Chromium browser is slightly better than running Chrome, but it's incomparable to an ideal scenario of having one or more fully open-source browsers (each with their own code) whose owners/maintainers don't try to limit/censor users' of these browsers and operate in the spirit of open-source.

enefi · 2021-01-12T09:17:19+00:00

TLDR: He got kicked from main (?) Mastodon instance after in one of his latest videos he said that Trump is not a white supremacist (which I believe is factually correct).

enefi · 2021-01-12T09:08:25+00:00

Pretty neat device. Too bad they only support Windows.

enefi · 2021-01-12T05:42:58+00:00

But which browser? It's either Firefox (which has major issues too) or some Chrome-based browser like Brave or Dissenter. You would still be supporting Google or Mozilla.

Well, that is unless you want to go with some slow and incomplete "alternative" (majority of people use sites heavy on JS with new CSS), I don't see much of a choice.

enefi · 2021-01-12T05:29:22+00:00

They have been "woke" for some time, but now they are planning on censoring content of their browser (at least that how I read the article): We need more than deplatforming. They have shown a bias in ~~curating~~ censoring which extensions you are allowed to install and use into FF (e.g. the Gab extension; not only they kicked it from store, they also revoked the dev account for signing the package, so the extension cannot be installed and kept enabled between Firefox restarts; essentially killing the extension for normal users).

enefi · 2021-01-11T18:59:12+00:00

I have been using FF for like 15 years now. I don't understand their decisions at all. It started as the most customizable and open browser, but now, it's hardly recognizable. They killed so many useful extensions when they "upgraded" to electrolysis. Extensions can no longer be installed (and kept enabled) unless they are approved by Mozilla (even if they are not installed from their store). And they are ramping up anti-freedom rhetoric past few years (maybe more, it's possible I was just not paying much attention). Yeah, I should start trying alternatives :/.

enefi · 2021-01-11T08:25:03+00:00

Pretty good series. I found some of his other projects interesting as well (e.g. water cooling an air cooler).

enefi · 2021-01-09T12:44:17+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I quite like CP2077 (despite the bugs and major instability on Linux). But the hype, promises, launch and other problems surrounding this game should be talked about. I hope CDPR is taking steps to fix all their issues (with the game and in the company), I hope they will learn from their numerous mistakes.

enefi · 2021-01-09T05:52:17+00:00

Unfortunately it was to be expected. I remember Gab getting axed from app stores, even Mastodon clients who didn't block Gab had a serious problem. Nice double standard there with Web browsers.

Same thing with browser extensions which are actually more controlled than Android apps. An Android app can at least be installed from a 3rd party app store (e.g. F-Driod) or totally manually after a user enables it in settings, but extensions in FF and Chrome cannot (if it's not cryptographically signed by Mozilla/Google then it will be disabled on a next launch of a browser regardless how the extension was installed, there is no off switch to disable this).

enefi · 2021-01-08T17:19:44+00:00

I personally happen to like pure FP (much more composable, testable and reusable compared to OOP in my opinion). But yeah, there are other ways. I was recently reading about Scala 3 and there was a bunch of new interesting things I quite missed few years back when I was writing in Scala, e.g. export clauses and context functions.

enefi · 2021-01-08T08:27:59+00:00

even though I ain't a gamer

I can see why - the video is somewhere between s/gaming and s/censorship (or tiny s/freespeech). I have to say, some of the cases were to be expected (China), some were to me a bit funny (Fallout's brahmins), and some look arbitrary and inconsistent (push from high places or competition?).

enefi · 2021-01-07T08:45:43+00:00

What a legend. I remember playing that game as a child, but I don't recall the trailer. Man, 3D rendering and animation have moved a long way since than.

enefi · 2021-01-06T20:55:58+00:00

Maybe I misread that, but isn't PEG for quite some time being used in vape juices/cartridges?

enefi · 2021-01-06T10:21:08+00:00

Quite a few that I find promising. Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Pragmata, Scarlet Nexus, Evil West.

Not sure about those comics ones. Trailers might look great, but a lot of comic stuff (series, movies and games) lately is hit and miss. Similarly Mass Effect, I finished I think 2 and 3, but Andromeda was really bad, played only a few hours.

Too bad some are console exclusives, the previous God of War looked really good, seemed to be fun to play.

enefi · 2021-01-06T06:05:15+00:00

I'm a 3D animator preparing some projects. Perhaps down the road you might be interested in participating in some of these.

I am just a hobbyist learning Blender. I have done only some very basic animations, pretty sure I should continue learning modelling :D. I should probably focus on the classic way of modelling, but about a month ago I started experimenting with Sverchok (Blender addon) and while probably not very practical, I quite enjoy working in it (wrote a bit about it on ruqqus).

Wanted to do a mascot. But I've pretty much given up on trying to help improve SaidIt in that realm.

Oh, may I ask for the reason you have given up?

Checked your subs and subscribed to a few. Yeah, I know the feeling, I tried growing a few hobby/niche guilds (subs) on ruqqus and very rarely saw interaction from others. I know I personally should comment more, but since I am not a native speaker, it takes me a lot of time to put together even shorter pieces of text. Maybe I am just terrible in written word in general. :D

enefi · 2021-01-06T05:33:51+00:00

Thank you for sharing, didn't know about this page. Started reading and wow, it's quite detailed, that must have took a lot of time to put together.

enefi · 2021-01-05T21:42:18+00:00

Eh? Have no idea what you mean 😳

enefi · 2021-01-05T21:35:58+00:00

You don't seem to be the usual "got banned from Reddit for saying gas the jews" type

Yeah, I haven't been banned from Reddit nor Ruqqus. I just didn't like admins' actions and the direction of those platforms, I felt like I should try something else. I sometimes enjoy reading conspiracy stuff or dark/edgy memes, but I guess it isn't in my nature to troll or post too offensive stuff.

You seem like the kind of guy who actually contributes

I don't usually write/post that much. I was a little bit more active on Ruqqus, creating some fanart 1 2 and was developing a userscript (something like browser extension) named RuqES similar to Reddit's RES (a bit simpler). It started with me missing an expando button and infinite scroll, but since than I added a lot of features, I didn't even use all of them :D.

posting Chinese vacuum pump ads (true story)

o_0

Your English is actually pretty good, so don't worry about that.

I am glad it's understandable. I wasn't sure if it isn't a bit long, but it looks like at least few people read it, so I call it a success. :D

Didn't know about the Magnora history. To the Ruqqus bias, it has become a bit complicated, because admins seem to push against more extreme right - e.g. they virtually quarantined many their subs with first version of categories, only after public backlash admins were forced to modify categories, undo hiding of those guilds (subs). You simply can't do such things when the slogan of your platform is "without censorship".

I ain't noticed the graphics, since they're small on my screen

Yep, it depends on scaling from OS and zoom in browser. It's too small for me on 100% (browser) zoom, so I am usually using 133%.

but somebody (u/JasonCarswell ?) should make them into SVGs, so they can work at any size.

If nobody else is interested, I could try to vectorize it. I have some limited experience with Inkscape (not a pro, but I did few simpler logos). I wanted to learn grease pencil (2D drawing tool) in Blender, but I think currently svg export is broken, so I am using Inkscape for vector graphics now.

like how Mexican Spanish has words in {curly brackets} all over the place

Maybe missing translation files, or in incorrect version, or new strings were added but not translated to all languages? I think internationalization (translations) are done on the backend (the server part), I am more of a front end guy and also don't like python that much, probably won't be able to help with this.

I was asking about the mascot because I really enjoyed making those ruqqies (the ruqqus mascot). Working on something I can share later (even if it isn't very good) gives me motivation to learn/practice in Blender (it's just a hobby).

My major problem with the site is that there's no political content. There are non-political subs, but they're mostly dead. If you want to revive them: make sure to post there. People mostly come here because they're banned from somewhere else, and want to talk politics, which really drowns out everything else.

Yeah, that's a common theme on platforms like saidit. On Ruqqus I really missed multireddits, I like when I can categorize subs as I want, e.g. hobbies and politics apart. It seems multireddits on saidit are implemented, will have to try them later :). I am planning on posting at least videos I find interesting (mostly gaming, tech, sometimes programming and math).

Have a good time!

Thanks, so far I like it here :).

enefi · 2021-01-05T08:13:06+00:00

But ... I thought Trump was anti-China, why would China pay for articles casting doubt on vote counting when pro-China candidate won?

enefi

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