Enttropy

Are Androids picky with this? Shouldn’t 64-bit devices be able to run 32-bit just fine?

Having kbin.social direct straight to your subscribed magazines just started working since this last update, and yeah, I spent my first day curating my subscribed/blocked mags, but even after weeks, it’s like playing wack-a-mole. You block one community and the next day you go to “All”, and it is there, except now it’s from another instance. Right now, I have six “196” magazines blocked, but what the hell… that’s the current way of the Fediverse, and I’ll accept it.

It’s cool to witness how Kbin takes shape, and hopefully it becomes an easy and attractive platform for the regular Joe, so we have all kinds of neat and diverse communities over here. 😁

Yeah, I had to go back to Reddit.

To be honest, I never had issues with the official app as I barely used it since 95% of my Reddit time was via Safari on my iPad Pro. Slide for Reddit was the only iPadOS app anywhere close to Sync for Android, which I adored, so after trying multiple times basically every single app, I never could stick with any but the official.

I deleted my 30K karma account in solidarity with the people who used third party apps and because I was incredibly angered at the stance that moronic rat-face of a CEO took, but so far the demographic of the Fediverse is huge on topics I couldn’t care less about. My Kbin frontpage was filled with LGBTQ+, US Politics, Ukraine, shitty meme communities, people mourning about their deleted Reddit accounts, and massive circle jerks regarding Reddit, while the communities I used to follow are non-existent here or are depressingly abandoned.

The biggest Solo RPG community on the Fediverse has been running for over a year, and it has ~40 posts, mostly made by a single dude. Others have said “Be the change!” but I’d end up repeating the Solo RPG case of posting literally for my own eyes. I’d definitely do it once Ernest can figure out how to make Kbin show embedded images on posts, instead of just creating hyperlinks to them, but in the meantime, all my communities are still on Reddit and I doubt that will change for a long time.

Oh and tips to keep them engaged, well you need to read the room and identify which parts of the game they enjoy the most and the least, and the reason behind that.

Give them what they want and make all of them participate. With adults it also happens, but it’s way more prominent with kids: some will talk much more than the rest, and some will be ashamed or have shyness to let themselves go. You need to kindly guide the shy ones into the spotlight and reward them for participating.

Also, when you narrate the places and events, ask them to complete your idea. For example: “As the group follow the trails, a vendor interjects them and tries to sell them micro-hamburgers, but Player #4 doesn’t loose focus and realizes that just around the corner, drenched in the glow of the neon lights from the skyscrapers, is the vehicle that Mr. Jenkins gifted to the group… What does this vehicle looks like, Player #4?” Do this every now and then for places, NPC descriptions, the smells and sounds, etc. Make them have as much agency as possible in the world building, instead of just having them react to your dice checks.

Hell yeah! Your daughter is a crunchy-gamer in the making! I can relate to her in the sense of her wanting to play things with a solid structure that she can study and master, to keep her engaged. I think that she will enjoy Savage Worlds.

If 5e is rules-heavy, then SWADE is a rules-medium system. The slowest part is making a character because the system is universal and there are a ton of options, but as a DM, you can curate the options for your players. Also, there are Savage Settings and one of them is “East Texas University.” Teens will be able to relate to the school setting but “rad-idfied”. They get to role play as university students who then solve mysteries, join fraternities, hunt monsters, drive and modify badass combat cars, etc.

Also, maybe it’s time to introduce the kids to Cyberpunk RED. It’s not hard to learn or teach and the game itself is fairly lightweight.

Otherwise, for the smaller, Index Card RPG or EZD6 can work. Both are super streamlined and they retain that D&D feeling. Also, games using the LUMEN system can give the kids a nice dopamine rush. The creator basically states that his system is meant to make players feel like Overwatch or Diablo characters. In contrast with 5e, in which players often hoard spells and powers for the “right event”, LUMEN makes everyone use their spells and special skills all the time in fast paced combat that resolves super quick. Check out ”Nova" and “Light”.

And personally I don’t like them, but you can also show them the FATE and Ironsworn/Starforged systems to broaden their horizons and make them experience a different perspective which they might love.

Though choice! I choose Sagrada just because of how much I like the real game and how well made is the digital version, but Ascension, Mystic Vale, and Through the Ages are close.

The notifications are flooding you because you turned them on or were on by default. If you go to your Kbin’s settings at the bottom of the page there are two checkboxes for subscribed magazines’ notifications. Just turn those off.

Also, make sure you set your homepage to your subscribed magazines and you’ll be good to go.

And about the other stuff, it’s not just about having a desire to be taken care of without having to lift a finger. I don’t care about having to learn how all of this fediverse stuff works because it’s fun for me, but that isn’t the case for the overwhelming majority of internet users that genuinely have zero problems with the platforms they use, and barely use. For example, my 70 year old parents barely know how to use YouTube and that’s the place they use to consume and discuss the topics they care about. I tried to teach them about Reddit and other forums, but it’s simply unnecessary when the reliable and easier thing already exists.

Same thing when you expect someone who uses their computer because of 2 or 3 applications, to ditch MacOS and all their neatly integrated hardware, to then spend hours and months on end to craft themselves an OS with Linux in which none of their specialized hardware works anymore.

Also, a ton of teenager to middle aged people will think the same about the Fediverse, when Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and other websites already provide them the platforms they need to express themselves and are “too casual” on those, to genuinely not have an issue with the platform itself. All of those users have valuable inputs and content to offer to the platform, and we’re not going to have them here, just because of how complex this platform is not only on paper, but in infrastructure ie: search engines are going to have a terrible time indexing the Fediverse, the content is mirrored in some instances but not EVERY piece of content is, and not amongst all instances, etc.

If cats grew thumbs, we would be fucked, lemme tell ya.

Nope. This website has a very specific demographic and a ton of more “casual”, non-tech/internet topics see zero activity in here, for the simple reason that there’s virtually no interest or demand for them amongst the Fediverse users.

Deleting my Reddit account made me look for already stablished forums on certain topics tho.

Also, what some people here don’t understand (@OpenStars did), is that the Fediverse is not this huge global revolution that they assume it is. At this point, the Fediverse caters to a VERY specific demographic, and trying to make a “Mezcal” or “Trip Hop” community on the Fediverse is just like trying to create a Board Game Design community on Subaru’s Post-sales forum.

Case and point: soloRPG on the Fediverse has existed for over a year, and amongst all the Fediverse instances, the interest and demand for this community is so small, that 99% of its contents have been posted by a single dude.

And regarding shitposting and cringe circlejerking, I don’t know about other instances, but since the latest update, the default landing page of Kbin is whatever you set as “homepage” in your profile’s settings. Also, blocking magazines and users is pretty easy and does wonders to stay away from shit you don’t want to see.

Thanks! Yeah, I’ve already blocked a bunch of topics and users, and I’m still playing whack-a-mole with loose ends on my start page.

And you’re completely right. The Fediverse is still very much a niche thing and, by nature, not the best place to expect living communities for certain topics when it’s already hard to find them in much more popular, casual, and easy to find websites.

Yeah, that’s exemplary and very inspirational, but we’re on completely different pages. I never complained, nor I’m expecting any change or have content being fed to me.

The reality is that the demographic of this site (a tiny niche of Reddit, which on itself is already a niche) + the terrible time search engines are having, and will have to index the Fediverse, just makes communities for non tech-savvy / internet culture people, virtually impossible to grow.

Like, good luck forming a Fediverse community about Paella, Bubble Tea, Mezcal, or your neighbourhood, in which John and Jane Doe who barely ever use the internet, join. Communities of a ton of topics are already incredibly small in first-place search result sites such as Twitter or Reddit, and are going to be impossible to have on the Fediverse, until the day you can ask the corner shop grandma about the Fediverse magazines she’s subscribed to, and you get an answer other than “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Such good content”? I see zero content for what I like.

I never saw a single shitpost on the subs I followed, and their equivalents on the Fediverse are either completely empty, or having it’s own moderator post every single thread on the magazine with zero engagement from the 20 or so subscribers.

I don’t think that’s going to be the case.

The fediverse instances are just lacking a few things here and there to be Twitter/Reddit clones.

Most open source software sans few exceptions like Blender are like 15 years behind the curve in terms of features, workflows, and design.

Not as of now, as far as I’m aware. You have to do it manually per instance, per magazine, and per user.

It took me a while but my /all is mostly free of the topics I don’t give two shits about. Every now and then I still have to whack-a-mole users and mags, but sadly that’s how it is.

Edgy

I adored the original XBOX but when 360 and PS3 dropped, one was a literal toy with everything stripped down and sold as proprietary extras, and the other was an amazingly powerful and open entertainment system with state of the art tech from out of the box.

Then yeah, the exclusives sealed the deal for me.