Nostr notes by Jürgen Hubert

Here is your usual reminder to regularly back up your #Mastodon ...

2026-04-17T04:43:23Z

Here is your usual reminder to regularly back up your #Mastodon user data (from settings/export).

This is particularly important for users of European instance - because if the #EuropeanUnion really makes age verification for social media mandatory, I suspect that a lot of admins will close their instances down rather than take on the legal risk.

#EUDIWallet

Magical methods of murder always have their downsides. #Germany ...

2026-04-16T00:00:46Z

Magical methods of murder always have their downsides.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #magic
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Blood_Bullets

The "scaling" will primarily be done by publishing more ...

2026-04-13T18:19:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…h39n
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The "scaling" will primarily be done by publishing more books. The niche "translations of German folk tales" is already specific enough, and as far as I know I am currently the only person who is filling it.

Since I work for myself and not for others, I don't really have "rates" as such. And I think my book prices and Patreon levels are fine as they are.

I've never tried to hide that I want to build up my side ...

2026-04-13T09:40:45Z

I've never tried to hide that I want to build up my side business of translating old German folk tales into a significant side income. "Quit your day job" levels are unrealistic, since my day job pays decently and I quite like the benefits, but maybe it will be possible to work reduced hours one day.

Currently, I earn about €200 per months. I do have some expenses - commissing cover illustrations, hiring a copywriter, and pay for domain and website maintenance (which has gotten more expensive as of late - thanks, #LLM scrapers!).

https://sunkencastles.com/the-books/

Right now, my books are primarily a marketing tool for my Patreon campaign, although I do get some money from them.

My sales per year are:

2020: 71 (Release of "Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles")
2021: 69
2022: 133 (Release of "Lurkers at the Threshold")
2023: 78
2024: 50
2025: 52

Even though I haven't released a new book since 2022, book sales haven't declined nearly as much as is usual for books. I assume that this means that knowledge of their existence is spread by word of mouth - thanks to everyone who has recommended them to others! Still, I really need to get "Old Goatfoot" out (the next book) - and I have enough material to start on the manuscripts for "Magic in Theory and Malpractice" and "Unnatural Taxonomies" as well (with "Spirits in Motion" not far behind). While publishing my weekly translations on Patreon remains the first priority, this is the second highest one.

https://graphtreon.com/creator/sunkencastles

Speaking of my Patreon campaign, it has generally plateaued since its high point in 2023. I suspect the reason for this, too, is the lack of new books, which are the visible representation of all the work I do. If my people see more of my books on the shelves, they will be more intrigued in the early release material I publish there.

And once my Patreon campaign grows big enough, I hope to use it to pay for custom illustrations for the tales - but alas, I am not there yet.

But of course, I do further marketing beyond selling books. After I abandoned/fled Twitter, I focused on #Mastodon as my primary marketing tool. I tried a #Facebook page for two years or so, but that was a waste of time - I never attracted even a hundred followers, and I refused to pay Meta for advertising. Better to stick to the #Fediverse, where there is no algorithm that hates you.

Still, even my Mastodon-based approach has seen some refinement. I used to share my tales as screenshots, but that was not ideal from an accessibility point of view. Thus, I spent seven months on building up a wiki repository, and now share invididual tales as links:

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Main_Page

This required a lot of effort which distracted me from working on the book manuscripts. But now it is functionally complete, and I think the end result is worth it.

So here you have it: My focus for the rest of the year is to get my next book published, and hopefully this will bring me a further increase in revenue.

Does anyone have any further questions about my work as an independent author/translator, and my future goals?
#amwriting

#WritersCoffeeClub 13: What do you borrow from other fiction (or ...

2026-04-13T06:36:36Z

#WritersCoffeeClub 13: What do you borrow from other fiction (or nonfiction!) genres?

From Terry #Pratchett, the explanatory footnotes.

From academia, the extensive citations.

From #TTRPG , a perspective on oral storytelling conventions that many "traditional" folklore researchers lack.

Once, giants lived where the city of Heidelberg now stands. They ...

2026-04-12T16:01:40Z

Once, giants lived where the city of Heidelberg now stands.

They may be gone, but they still left their mark.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #giant #Heidelberg
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Giants%27_Stone

Drudes are malevolent spirits who feel an overwhelming need. The ...

2026-04-10T12:01:58Z

Drudes are malevolent spirits who feel an overwhelming need.

The need to squeeze.

#PhantomsFriday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Trudes

There are so, so many reasons why we cannot trust the #LLM hype. ...

2026-04-07T12:53:19Z

There are so, so many reasons why we cannot trust the #LLM hype. And a major one is that tech companies spend billions into keeping the hype going. If their products were really that great, then they wouldn't _need_ tho spend that much money on hyping their products.

I mean, consider battery systems, which are clearly more important to the world economy and human civilization as a whole. When was the last time you have seen an ad for _them"?

#AIBubble
https://slate.com/business/2026/04/openai-podcast-sam-altman-tbpn.html

Eine gute Nachricht: Die #COVID -Viruslast im #AMELAG ...

2026-04-06T06:18:15Z

Eine gute Nachricht: Die #COVID -Viruslast im #AMELAG -Wochenbericht für Deutschland ist auf dem niedrigsten Stand seit Beginn der Aufzeichnungen im September 2022 gefallen.

I don't want the #Fediverse to grow because I see ...

2026-04-04T19:21:52Z

I don't want the #Fediverse to grow because I see "growth" as an intrinsic good.

I want the Fediverse to grow because I see commercial social media as a major threat to the long-term survival of human civilization. Thus, we need to replace it - and right now, the Fediverse seems to be the best alternative we have.

I want this year to finally be the year where I get away from ...

2026-03-27T17:15:59Z

I want this year to finally be the year where I get away from #Amazon as the only marketplace for my books. So tell me: What platforms would you recommend for selling self-published English-language books on folklore?

I am looking for both Print On Demand and Ebook options.

Important: The platforms must allow non-exclusivity - that is, I must be able to sell the books on other platforms as well. This is non-negotiable.

#amwriting

Shipboard spirits are created when a murdered child is buried ...

2026-03-25T18:02:11Z

Shipboard spirits are created when a murdered child is buried beneath an oak tree, and that tree is then used for ship construction.

#WyrdWednesday
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Klabautermann

A house in Osterode was once haunted by an ambulatory wall clock. ...

2026-03-18T01:00:35Z

A house in Osterode was once haunted by an ambulatory wall clock.

It's probably for the best that no one started a song-and-dance routine while investigating this house.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #ghost #ghoststory
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Cursed_Officers

Yeah, I also only learned of them yesterday.

2026-03-03T07:42:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…eg00
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Yeah, I also only learned of them yesterday.

It's the latest iteration of "Watch this two-hour video, ...

2026-03-02T11:21:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…6t4g
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It's the latest iteration of "Watch this two-hour video, which will counter all your arguments!"

Flooding the zone with time-wasting bullshit, rather than actual engagement with the discussion.

The #Epstein clique didn't create everything horrible on ...

2026-02-26T10:10:19Z

The #Epstein clique didn't create everything horrible on Earth, but it sure seems like they were in the thick of it all.

Here is an article on how they promoted #sexism in #STEM .

https://19thnews.org/2026/02/epstein-files-academic-research-women-scientists/

I could use some suggestions for a public domain or Creative ...

2026-02-26T06:23:11Z

I could use some suggestions for a public domain or Creative Commons-licenced image representing #LLM processing data.

My initial idea was "trash compactor", but that might be a bit too unsubtle.

The living and the dead CAN co-exist, if everyone puts in just a ...

2026-02-24T09:01:08Z

The living and the dead CAN co-exist, if everyone puts in just a little bit effort.

#Germany #folktale #folklore #ghost #ghoststory
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Haunting_Housekeeper

I maintain a trio of fairly small websites. By my estimate, they ...

2026-02-24T04:16:02Z

I maintain a trio of fairly small websites.

By my estimate, they get at least 10,000 requests every day from #LLM scrapers.

And that's only those which announce themselves for what they are. There are a bunch of very suspicious requests from #Safari browsers with changing IP addresses which I suspect come from anonymous scrapers.

To the #VoteBlue people in the USA: Yes, voting for the ...

2026-02-19T12:41:35Z

To the #VoteBlue people in the USA: Yes, voting for the #Democrats _is_ necessary in all upcoming elections. But you also need to realize that the anger at the Democratic Party establishment is both real and entirely justified, and you should understand where that anger is coming from.

To quote the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":

'First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”'

https://letterfromjail.com/

#WritersCoffeeClub February 15: How big are your settings? Well, ...

2026-02-15T12:55:53Z

#WritersCoffeeClub February 15: How big are your settings?

Well, this is the current size of my interactive map with the locations of all the folk tales I have translated and added to the wiki.

Of course, "globe-trotting" tales are rare - most German-language folk tales take place in a single village and its surrounding regions, or even in a single building.

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Main_Page

Eine Bekannte hat einen familiären Notfall. Hat jemand ...

2026-02-14T14:51:28Z

Eine Bekannte hat einen familiären Notfall. Hat jemand irgendwelche Tipps, wie man möglichst günstig von Düsseldorf nach Südafrika fliegen kann?

#FedHelp

Mainly I hope to make some real progress on my book manuscript.

2026-02-14T04:23:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…7xkl
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Mainly I hope to make some real progress on my book manuscript.

Yeah, I will leave the analysis to others who are better at this ...

2026-02-13T13:36:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…ty0n
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Yeah, I will leave the analysis to others who are better at this kind of thing, and concentrate on the details that are of the most relevance to me.

There are a lot of claims by political leaders and pundits on ...

2026-02-09T14:34:49Z

There are a lot of claims by political leaders and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic that the #USA and #Europe are united by a common "European culture". And I really think we should stop saying that.

For Europeans, this was a useful way of flattering their American hegemon by emphasizing common bonds. But the American hegemony is fraying, and staying within it does not withstand a cost-benefit analysis. Another motivation is #racism - when the same people talk about "Judeo-Christian values" of the "West", it was usually not because they actually cared about Jews or had any understanding of Judaism - but because including Jews was a convenient way of deflecting racism when they excluded European Muslims.

For the white elites of the USA, emphasizing "European culture" as the center of the USA was a way of reinforcing #WhiteSupremacy , and downplaying or dismissing the contributions of non-white people. This current was always there, but has risen to the forefront of the #TrumpAdministration who now support European fascist allies in order to supercharge White Supremacy in Europe as well.

So by supporting the notion that the USA and Europe are part of the same culture, we support the propaganda of some pretty horrible people. This alone should be enough reason to stop doing so. But there is more.

"The USA has no culture!" is a common claim among Europeans, which is pure snobbery and bigotry. And by reducing the USA to a cultural appendix of Europe, we deny the agency of Americans throughout the centuries.

The USA of today _have_ some European roots, but these were never the _only_ cultural roots the USA have. And over the course of the past few centuries, they have diverged greatly from Europe, and have become a cultural powerhouse in their own right. We should respect and accept that they _have_ these political differences, and that Europe and the USA are now largely different cultural zones.

We can only move forward if we see each other clearly.

#USPolitics #EUPolitics

And there are a lot of folklore-related works out there in the ...

2026-02-06T09:55:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…a643
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And there are a lot of folklore-related works out there in the public domain. There's an amazing link list on the German Wikisource project, and a few years ago I started a similar one for English-language works:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Portal:Folk_literature

To avoid this particular issue, I always work with digital scans ...

2026-02-06T09:44:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7qn9
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To avoid this particular issue, I always work with digital scans of public domain works rather than reprints, since these are clearly free of copyright (as multiple court cases in both Germany and the USA have made clear).

I'm doing something similar: I am translating old German folk ...

2026-02-06T09:41:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…9eq6
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I'm doing something similar: I am translating old German folk tales into English, using public domain works as sources.

Since the translation is added creative work on my part, I do have copyright for it. For the most part, I release the translations as Creative Commons Zero material (as a German, I cannot make my writings "gemeinfrei" or "public domain" as such, but this license does pretty much the same).

However, there are a bunch of truly vile stories, mostly those featuring antisemitism. Right now, my approach is to _not_ release them under a Creative Commons license, but to retain copyright in order to ensure that they aren't shared without added commentary.

I am still willing to allow others to reprint them in their own works for legitimate scholarly reasons, and of course scientific quotations are always an option. But I don't want some Nazi asshole to rerelease them without commentary.

6/ But if the Capitalists can rewrite laws to change our property ...

2026-02-05T14:52:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…me3h
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6/ But if the Capitalists can rewrite laws to change our property rights, then it follows that we can also change laws and cultural norms to redefine property laws in a way that emphasizes the "public goos" that the German Basic Law mentioned.

Nothing about the way things are is inevitable. /fin

5/ Nowadays, of course, "property" is redefined in new ...

2026-02-05T14:50:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…jhkf
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5/ Nowadays, of course, "property" is redefined in new ways - i.e.:

"Capitalists still own whatever products they sell, and using these products in a way they do not approve of is a crime!"

( Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) has written extensively about this, and I recommend the following article as a primer:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/ )

4/ But the notion that the owners of property have total freedom ...

2026-02-05T14:45:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…p7d0
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4/ But the notion that the owners of property have total freedom to do with it what they want is not universal even in "Western Culture". For example, the German Basic Law says:

"Property entails obligations. Its use shall also serve the public good."

(Although the capitalist sellouts currently running the German government would be quite offended if someone points that out to them, but I digress...

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0084

3/ But that was never really the _only_ approach. From what I ...

2026-02-05T14:41:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…fwe4
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3/ But that was never really the _only_ approach. From what I understand, many indigenous peoples around the world had a more communal approach to land ownership, before colonizers arrived and said:

"Nope, your legal traditions are invalid, and thus we are free to take it and distribute it amongst ourselves into discrete units belonging to individual settlers!"

2/ "Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary ...

2026-02-05T14:38:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…70r7
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2/ "Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone!" says the Bible (Deuteronomy 27:17)

This has been firmly embedded in so-called "Western Thought" for a very long time - something I realized when I started researching and translating German folk tales, and found many accounts of the horrible punishments that befell "field boundary desecrators".

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Category:Field_Boundary_Violation

So the notion of individual land which the owner can do with whatever they want has a lot of cultural reinforcement.

1/ Once again, @npub1fdr…lvhs 's latest column has struck a ...

2026-02-05T14:32:23Z

1/ Once again, Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) 's latest column has struck a chord with me. He points.out that many of the conceptual underpinnings of our economy and society which we assume to be "eternal" and "universal" are actually nothing of the sort - they merely reflect our current cultural context.

A good example of this are "property rights" in general and "land ownership" in particular.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/05/contingency/

Okay, maybe we have just been talking past each other due major ...

2026-02-05T13:55:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…g4r7
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Okay, maybe we have just been talking past each other due major differences in cultural and legal traditions.

According to my limited understanding of German law - which follows the Civil Law tradition, like most European countries - if a court determines that you broke the law at some point in the last (based on the laws that were in force during that time), then the court merely formally acknowledges the fact that you were breaking the law at the time, instead of making you suddenly into a law-breaker at the time they pass their verdict.

But it seems that the USA - which follows the Common Law tradition, like most of the Anglosphere - does this very, very differently.

I mentioned _specifically_ the parts which I _haven't_ ...

2026-02-05T13:05:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…kut2
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I mentioned _specifically_ the parts which I _haven't_ released under CC0, and over which I thus retain full copyright.

Is it okay to share these without my consent, too?

...so by the same standards, US companies aren't violating my ...

2026-02-05T12:50:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…lqd3
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...so by the same standards, US companies aren't violating my privacy rights unless they are convicted in an US court?

Okay, sure, whatever. If that's your understanding of the legal part of what they did, then you do you.

So let me tackle this from another perspective.

I am a self-published author.

I have released a very large portion of my work under a #CreativeCommons Zero license. I am generally in favor of the free flow of information.

But I still wouldn't want others to freely share my work in its entirety - that is, including the parts for which I retain #copyright - without my consent.

Even if our legal perspectives differ - do you agree that consent matters?

'You're also talking about an organization that, when it ...

2026-02-05T12:40:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…v2p8
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'You're also talking about an organization that, when it launched said "National Emergency Library", was not breaking any Copyright law.'

They distributed more digital copies of books than they actually bought, without any agreement to that effect with copyright holders. How is that "not breaking any copyright law"?

What about the "National Emergency Library"?

2026-02-05T12:29:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…lkt5
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What about the "National Emergency Library"?

RE: https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/116015180016712361 I ...

2026-02-05T08:59:08Z

RE: https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/116015180016712361

I have been thinking for quite some time that we need a decentralized network for preserving public domain works. The #InternetArchive is important, but they are one single American organization and thus vulnerable (and the fact that they are playing fast and loose with copyright sometimes doesn't help). We need to spread those works out more.

quoting
note15ql…nxgh

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/the-world-factbook/

I've been thinking: To a large degree, #FOSS is developed by ...

2026-02-03T09:56:30Z

I've been thinking: To a large degree, #FOSS is developed by volunteers.

Ideally, a functional society would support FOSS developers financially so that they could focus more of their energy into FOSS development. But how would you organize this? How would you determine who gets financial support?

(Yes, UBI would be an option, but that would require a far greater political and cultural shift than supporting FOSS supporters in particular.)

A winter #bicycle trip is not for beginners, but it has its own ...

2026-01-31T14:04:56Z

A winter #bicycle trip is not for beginners, but it has its own charms.

An excellent essay by @npub1fdr…lvhs , as always. And it ...

2026-01-29T13:34:00Z

An excellent essay by Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) , as always.

And it underscores an important point for #USPolitics : " #VoteBlue ", in itself, is not a useful strategy for stopping fadcism in the USA.

Because it won't do much if those elected Democrats are not afraid of the wrath of the voters each and every time they give in to Trump and the other oligarchs.

If they are not afraid of the voters, a lot of them will just do what they have kept on doing - as their voters for donations while selling out democracy and civil rights to their corporate donors.

True reform in the USA will not come without powerful organization outside of the party apparatuses.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/29/post-american-canada/

Though places reinvent themselves often enough. Take #Oldenburg , ...

2026-01-27T17:27:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…px94
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Though places reinvent themselves often enough. Take #Oldenburg , where I live - it used to be a remote provincial town for centuries when it belonged to the Danish crown, but in the 19th century it became the seat of a Ducal court, which had a massive impact on the character of the city.

First, a disclaimer: I love worldbuilding as an expression of the ...

2026-01-27T17:20:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…8z9g
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First, a disclaimer: I love worldbuilding as an expression of the #ttrpg hobby, and putting a lot of effort into this makes it easier for me to improvise setting details when the PCs go off-script.

For me, random tables are a useful starting point which allow me to break out of my own habits and assumptions, similar to how I assign NPC gender randomly these days.

As an example, let's say I want to add a village to the map. I use the random tables from p. 159 in "Worlds Without End" to get a basic idea of what the village is all about. I get:

Rationale for the Village’s Existence: (8) "A bandit camp that went legitimate"
Who runs it? (8) "A pragmatic warlord"
Significant Locals: (10) "Native hedge mage"
A Current Pressing Problem: (1) "Vital food stores have been lost or stolen"
Local Likely to Interact with Adventurers: (3) "Gentry who wants no local gossip about their need"
Interesting Things the Place Can Offer Heroes: (1) "An unusually large amount of saved coinage"

And within a mere minute or two, I already have a vision of the place and some local flavor which I can use to improvise things when the PCs are poking around the place. And I can build upon these concepts and make the village more fleshed out if the PCs stay there for an extended time. I find this _tremendously_ useful.

I dunno, I think there is something magic about a good set of ...

2026-01-27T15:22:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…2e0z
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I dunno, I think there is something magic about a good set of random tables. For me, they really get those creative juices flowing.

I buy pretty much anything from Sine Nomine Publishing, for instance, even though I am not keen on OSR rule systems as such.

I still have it on my bookshelf, because I am a sucker for ...

2026-01-27T15:16:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…s5z5
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I still have it on my bookshelf, because I am a sucker for worldbuilding tools. But I have neither run nor played it.

Apropos of nothing, RPGNet currently has a thread on "Aria: ...

2026-01-27T15:10:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…0sfa
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Apropos of nothing, RPGNet currently has a thread on "Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth".

So, how _can_ the #Fediverse protect itself against malicious ...

2026-01-27T14:32:42Z

So, how _can_ the #Fediverse protect itself against malicious swarms of agentic #AI and #LLM , like this article describes? How can we protect ourselves from bad actors trying to sway public opinion in this manner?

We do have an advantage here because such swarms cannot easily manipulate the underlying feed algorithms - most (though not all) of the Fediverse does not have any such algorithms other than a strict timeline feed. But this advantage does not confer immunity.

I think we haven't seen many of these attacks on the Fediverse because the Fediverse is ultimately too obscure to matter much to the attackers. But "Security by Obscurity" is not a great design philosophy, either. Besides, I do want the Fediverse to have a growing user base - but that would mean that the Fediverse would become more tempting for attackers.

In the long run, we might have to defederate Open Registration instances, as these are the most likely to attract bad actors. Indeed, we are already seeing things like this on a smaller scale with Mastodon.social. Yet we also need a good entry point to the Fediverse for newcomers.

What are your thoughts on this?

#FediAsk
https://arxiv.org/html/2506.06299v4

Again and again, I see the notion that humanity is committing ...

2026-01-14T10:18:36Z

Again and again, I see the notion that humanity is committing "collective suicide" because we are not acting on #ClimateChange and other forms environmental destruction.

I do not accept this thesis. This is not suicide, it is murder - perpetrated by the oligarchs of this world and others who want the #FossilFuel economy going for their own profit.

And they have invested _massive_ amounts of money into propaganda to keep this system running. Not just by funding climate change denial - but also by promoting the concept of the individual "carbon footprint". Essentially, they have socialized the risks and privatized the profits, tricking us into believing that _we_ are to blame for not doing enough as individual persons, rather than _them_ for creating and perpetrating the system.

This is part of the "personal responsibility" ideology pushed by those who already own most of the world, but still want more. If _we_ as individuals share in the blame for _their_ decisions, even though _they_ gain all the benefits from them and we do not, then that means we would have to fight _ourselves_ to save the world - rather than the true villains of this story.

So let's put the accountability where it belongs, okay?

Mind you, some snake tales do get _really_ disturbing. (CW for ...

2026-01-09T17:29:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…ycpm
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Mind you, some snake tales do get _really_ disturbing.

(CW for body horror.)

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Snake%27s_Salvation

Interestingly, in German folklore snakes are _not_ portrayed as ...

2026-01-09T17:25:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…709g
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Interestingly, in German folklore snakes are _not_ portrayed as universally evil.

Even their "snake kings" and "snake queens" are mostly harmless, unless someone takes their stuff. Which is fair.

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Category:Snake_Monarch

Yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, I love a TTRPG Monster Manual ...

2026-01-07T06:12:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…k229
_________________________

Yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, I love a TTRPG Monster Manual as much as the next guy, but they too often try to impose structure where there is none.

A "toolkit" approach might be best.

Remember, folks: If you have a nasty cold, wear a mask on public ...

2026-01-03T06:11:22Z

Remember, folks: If you have a nasty cold, wear a mask on public transportation even if all your COVID tests have turned up negative. You don't need to spread the viruses of the common cold around either, and wearing a mask helps with that.

It's what people in civilized countries would do.

Alas, the Nazis were also very incompetent, and this did not stop ...

2025-12-23T15:09:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…dq2c
_________________________

Alas, the Nazis were also very incompetent, and this did not stop them.

Personally, I don't think it should be either expected or ...

2025-12-20T12:08:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…6t65
_________________________

Personally, I don't think it should be either expected or required for Ugandans to know all that much about white Europeans who have been dead for more than a century.

I mean, how much do even educated white Europeans know about black Africans who have been dead for more than a century?

Remember: If you have #Acrobat Reader installed on your work ...

2025-12-18T05:25:17Z

Remember: If you have #Acrobat Reader installed on your work computer, periodically check it to ensure that its #AI features are switched _off_, because the software will switch it on even after you have previously switched it off.

Unless your bosses are okay with sensitive business documents ending up in the Acrobat Cloud for analysis, of course.

I still have to deal with #WebsiteOutages , and currently I have ...

2025-12-17T05:40:16Z

I still have to deal with #WebsiteOutages , and currently I have another massive one which won't go away by purging the Varnish cache. As usual, the outage started between 23:00 and 24:00 UTC, which is _weird_.

I have asked Gandi.net customer service a few weeks ago, but beyond suggesting blocking a random crawler, they said the following:

"Personally, I would check the plugins on my various websites and the scheduled tasks (especially backup plugins)."

I don't remember installing such plugins manually. Does anyone know of such processes that are installed on either #WordPress or #MediaWiki sites by default? (Or perhaps this is done by #SemanticMediaWiki ?)

In three days I will be leaving for a vacation, so this is the last opportunity I have to improve this situation this year.

#WebsiteAdministration
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/

The dwarves of the Petersberg near Goslar have hidden many things ...

2025-12-15T08:01:04Z

The dwarves of the Petersberg near Goslar have hidden many things within their hills - from treasures to giant babies to sleeping emperors!

#Germany #folktale #folklore #dwarf
https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Dwarves_in_the_Petersberg_Hill

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

2025-12-14T05:37:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…sw8y
_________________________

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

The "convenience" is how easy it is for you to get hooked ...

2025-12-11T14:02:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…vjnn
_________________________

The "convenience" is how easy it is for you to get hooked into new stuff you have to pay for.

Leider sieht es so aus, als hätten wir den Höhepunkt der #COVID ...

2025-12-11T07:39:52Z

Leider sieht es so aus, als hätten wir den Höhepunkt der #COVID -Welle in Deutschland für diese Saison doch noch nicht erreicht.

Also, lasst Euch rechtzeitig vor Weihnachten #impfen !

https://robert-koch-institut.github.io/Abwassersurveillance_AMELAG_-_Wochenbericht/#/

Ja, die letzten drei Jahre bin ich immer zur Apotheke gegangen. ...

2025-12-11T07:32:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…2fka
_________________________

Ja, die letzten drei Jahre bin ich immer zur Apotheke gegangen. Da gibt es kein Blah von wegen "Wir impfen rein nach RKI-Empfehlung!"

Eine Frage an die Runde: Ich habe Kontakt mit einem jungen ...

2025-12-10T08:10:27Z

Eine Frage an die Runde:

Ich habe Kontakt mit einem jungen Einwanderer, der in #Gerolstein lebt - also mitten in der #Eifel . Und er hat große Probleme, gleichaltrige Freunde zu finden - es gibt nur wenige Gleichaltrige in der Gegend, und die meisten sind in ihren alten Cliquen aus ihrer Jugend integriert.

Habt ihr irgendwelche Ideen, was es da für Möglichkeiten gäbe?

I am not autistic - at least, as far as I know - but I am good ...

2025-12-03T13:28:27Z

I am not autistic - at least, as far as I know - but I am good friends with someone who is, and our friendship has now lasted for 13 years (which she frequently notes "is a rarity").

I have learned a lot from her - among other things, that I should check my assumptions on how the world "should" be navigated at the door. While we have common ground, there are also a lot of differences in what is and what is not easy to do for either of us.

I can tell her what _I_ do in any given situation, and she has found that useful often enough (for instance, I am regularly sharing copies of my grocery store receipts with her, which is apparently very helpful with her own food and budget planning), but I have learned to refrain from suggesting that she should do things the same way as I do.

#autism

1/ Okay, I have to ask: What is it with #Fediverse developers ...

2025-12-03T11:13:52Z

1/ Okay, I have to ask: What is it with #Fediverse developers running lousy #crowdfunding campaign?

I mean, I thought that the one for #Pixelfed wasn't great, but the one for #Bonfire is truly appalling. The Indiegogo campaign has been going on for what, almost a month? And yet there has not been a SINGLE update on their campaign page!

Look, if you want support, you need to actually talk to your supporters repeatedly, especially during an active crowdfunding campaign! How else are they going to be enthusiastic enough to spread the word about what you are doing? Give us some extra details about your plans beyond your initial description, or _something_! Make us _care_!

https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/bonfire/community/updates

A lot of people are resistant to any kind of business uses for ...

2025-12-02T16:56:49Z

A lot of people are resistant to any kind of business uses for the #Fediverse , but consider this:

- While most of us here are rightfully scornful of #Capitalism , the notion of a "market economy" is not going to go away. There are innumerable small to midsized businesses in the world who _aren't_ like the Capitalists we know and loathe - they haven't established any monopolies, they haven't managed regulatory capture, and they are oppressed by Big Tech just as much as ordinary people are.

- For many such businesses, maybe even the majority, a #Facebook Business Page is more important than a website, and thus many such small businesses _only_ have a Facebook Business Page, since it is far easier to set up than hosting your own website on your own domain, it is easier for your customers to find you there (because #GoogleSucks ), and it is easier for you to interact with your customers as well.

I think it would be very worthwhile if the Fediverse would develop an alternative to Facebook Business Pages for such businesses.

A good example for an industry that could benefit from such "Fediverse Business Pages" would be the #TTRPG industry. While some gamers might whine that "RPG books cost too much these days!", the reality is that this is an industry that has razor-thin margins, and only the very biggest TTRPG companies have employees that number more than in the single digits. Every business decision they have to make must involve the question:

"Is this worth the effort?"

Well, if there _was_ a Fediverse Business Page system that was either easy to self-host, or easy to join on larger instances, and which had a similar design to Facebook Business Pages, then there wouldn't be much effort involved in adding the same material to the former if they already maintained the latter. And as #Meta declines, the Fediverse could gradually take its place.

What would such a Fediverse Business Page require? It would need an ActivityPub-enabled feed, of course. It would need a configurable link list that would point towards their product pages or sales platforms, as well as space for all the usual business information. And it would require a robust scheduling system with a calendar view (I used the one provided by Meta for a time, and I think it is possible to do better).

Did I miss any important features?

Oh, and the same system would work well for non-business organizations as well - whether clubs, NGOs, or even political parties!

Or, heck, studying overseas in a place with no tuition fees.

2025-12-01T04:36:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…utty
_________________________

Or, heck, studying overseas in a place with no tuition fees.

Stories like these make me appreciate my comparably sane ...

2025-11-27T09:29:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…6cu4
_________________________

Stories like these make me appreciate my comparably sane employers that much more.

I've said again and again that I consider it to be of the ...

2025-11-24T12:01:35Z

I've said again and again that I consider it to be of the utmost importance that the #Fediverse grows far beyond its present size. My reasoning is thus:

All major commercial social media platforms are either owned by #fascists , or by people who are only too happy to bend their knees to the fascists for the sake of profits - and thus are also fascists for all moral accounting purposes.

And they have used the power of these social media platforms to heavily promote fascists, or opened the door for fascists to promote their agenda. The resurgence of fascism we are seeing in the world these days was largely done with the aid of social media - outrage farming is an _extremly_ effective tactic for promoting fascism, especially when the social media algorithms actively support you.

I think we can all agree that fighting fascism is important (and if you _don't_ agree, go away - I don't want to talk to you). Thus, we need to attack the mechanisms that allow fascism to grow - i.e. commercial social media.

Now, maybe there is a future where we won't have any kind of online social media, but barring a complete collapse of civilization I am not seeing it - humans are a communicative species, and have always used the latest technology for that purpose. Thus, I don't see the concept of "social media" by itself to go away any time soon.

But replacing _commercial_ social media seems much more achievable - after all, the problem is #Capitalism, not #SocialMedia itself. Thus, we need to grow _noncommercial_ social media until can replace corporate social media. And as far as I can see, the Fediverse is the most viable noncommercial alternative out there.

The main objectiion to "growing the Fediverse" that I have heard is this:

"#X, #Facebook , #TikTok and the others are full of assholes. If the Fediverse grows as big as they are, all the assholes will come here as well!"

And I can understand that fear. We need to be careful about _how_ we grow the Fediverse, and there is much work to be done. Our moderation tools, for instance, could be much better than they are (just ask #BlackMastodon ...). However, of all the social media systems out there, the Fediverse alone actually has the potential to develop _better_ moderation in the long run - while commercial social media platforms see good moderation as _hostile_ to their business models (as recent revelations about #Meta have shown). Thus, fear of failure should not stop us from making the attempt.

Furthermore, while the (algorithm-boosted) fascists might be the loudest people on commercial social media right now, I believe that the majority of people using social media in the modern world are _not_ assholes, and we want to encourage these not-assholes to come to the Fediverse in large number. Or do you really think that the (predominantly white and European/North American) Fediverse bubble represents the only not-asshole group left on the planet?

And consider the stakes. Not only will the fascists become increasingly violent towards marginalized groups of people, they are actively hostile to any efforts to fight threats to Earth as a whole - #GlobalWarming first among them. We need to wrestle the microphone from them before they doom us all, and that means wrestling social media away from them - but we cannot do that without replacing commercial social media with non-commercial social media.

At least, that's what I think. If you have any better plans to fight the social media power of fascists, feel free to share them!

As a reminder, the notion that people should be able to maintain ...

2025-11-21T16:35:25Z

As a reminder, the notion that people should be able to maintain "a clean, well-organized household" came from the 19th century Western "upper classes" where the wife was expected to stay home and do this full time - and this was used as a status symbol and status marker to distinguish the affluent from the working classes, where women almost always had to work in (poorly paid) jobs in order to keep the household budget afloat.

Therefore, this notion is not only #Sexism but also #ClassWarfare . Thus, when someone presents this kind of "lifestyle" as something you should aspire to (whether a tv show, an Influencer, or a glossy magazine), you should really contemplate what kind of political agenda they are trying to sell to you.

Now, if you _enjoy_ keeping a household in a good, clean order, more power to you! Everyone needs their passion projects, after all! But it should not be the _expected_ thing - particularly for people who are already overwhelmed by the demands this late-stage Capitalist hellscape places on us!

Zu viele Deutsche verdrängen, daß vieles in Deutschland ohne ...

2025-11-19T10:07:25Z

Zu viele Deutsche verdrängen, daß vieles in Deutschland ohne #Einwanderung zusammenbrechen würde, da Einwanderer all die prekären, schlecht bezahlten Jobs machen, die die meisten Deutschen nicht machen können oder nicht machen wollen.

Wie zum Beispiel wissenschaftliche #Forschung .

...I can feel the embarrassment all the way from here in Germany. ...

2025-11-19T10:00:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…x8td
_________________________

...I can feel the embarrassment all the way from here in Germany. 😬

Wir suchen für meine Abteilung einen IT Support Engineer für ...

2025-11-07T09:00:52Z

Wir suchen für meine Abteilung einen IT Support Engineer für den Standort #Karlsruhe oder #Oldenburg ! Wir entwickeln Leittechnik für Stadtwerke - die zentrale Steuersoftware für Strom-, Gas-, Wasser- und Fernwärme-Netzwerke.

Wenn ihr schon immer mal wissen wolltet, wie unsere Versorgungsnetze funktionieren, dann ist das der richtige Job!

Bei Fragen zu der Stelle könnt Ihr euch bei mir melden!

#GetFediHired #JobAlert #JobSearch #Hiring #SCADA #Energy
https://www.kisters.eu/de/job-vacancy/it-support-engineer-w-m-d-energie-leittechnik/

Hier in #Oldenburg wurde kürzlich eine #Baumschutzsatzung ...

2025-11-06T07:35:24Z

Hier in #Oldenburg wurde kürzlich eine #Baumschutzsatzung verabschiedet. Und wie zu erwarten laufen sie üblichen Verdächtigen dagegen Sturm und haben ein Bürgerbegehren gestartet.

Leider gibt es in Oldenburg keine Statistik darüber, wie sich die Anzahl der Bäume im Verlauf der Jahre verändert hat. Daher habe ich eine Frage:

- Hat jemand irgendwelche Werkzeuge oder Verfahren entwickelt, wie man mit Hilfe eines #Satellitenbild die Anzahl der Bäume oder zumindest den Anteil der Grünflächen in einem bestimmten Gebiet errechnen kann?

- Wo könnte man zu diesem Zweck vergleichbar Satellitenbilder aus unterschiedlichen Jahren bekommen?

#Umweltschutz #Wissenschaft

Im Gymnasium war ich immer im Deutschunterricht mit der Literatur ...

2025-11-04T07:24:53Z

Im Gymnasium war ich immer im Deutschunterricht mit der Literatur die wir gelesen haben auf dem Kriegsfuß. Aber es gab _einen_ Roman, der mir damals wirklich gefallen hat: "Der Untertan" von Heinrich Mann. Dieses Buch ist eine hervorragende Satire des wilhelminischen Kaiserreichs, und der Protagonist Diederich Heßling entspricht den typischen Emporkömmlingen dieser Epoche - nach oben buckeln, nach unten treten.

Was mir jetzt klar geworden ist: Friedrich #Merz _ist_ "Der Untertan". Wie seinerzeit Diederich Heßling verachtet er alle, die "unter ihm" stehen - daraus hat er nie einen Hehl gemacht, und er stellt dies weiterhin durch Wort und Tat klar. Dagegen buckelt er vor "denen da oben" - den Finanz-Oligarchen der Welt. Wie damals bei #Blackrock ist er immer noch ihr Vermögensverwalter. Das "Vermögen", das er verwaltet, ist nun die Bundesrepublik Deutschland - aber er verwaltet es im Sinne der Oligarchen, und nicht der Bürger Deutschlands.

Die Oligarchen finden Merz sicherlich sehr nützlich, aber werden sie ihn dafür respektieren? Wohl kaum. Er ist kein Milliardär, und damit keiner von ihnen - nur ein nützlicher Idiot, den sie auf die richtige Position gehoben haben um ihr eigenes Vermögen noch weiter zu vergrößern.

Aber Merz will das nicht wahrhaben. Die Anerkennung des "gemeinen Volkes" ist ihm egal, und deswegen hetzt er nur der vermeintlichen Anerkennung durch die einzigen Leute hinterher, die er respektiert - die ihn aber nicht respektieren und nie respektieren werden.

I've now witnessed second hand how #harassment and ...

2025-11-03T05:52:58Z

I've now witnessed second hand how #harassment and #CyberStalking works on the #Fediverse . The offender simply creates a new account on an open instance, and immediately replies one of the person being harassed. This account is then quickly reported and closed - but they simply create a new one.

What are the options for fighting this kind of harassment beyond the obvious "stop/block open instances"? How do admins deal with this kind of thing?

A #history question: I am currently translating some tales ...

2025-10-30T13:44:21Z

A #history question:

I am currently translating some tales featuring monkeys which were kept as pets at large ducal courts in Germany, where they entertained the residents.

Does anyone know what species of primates would have been popular at these courts?

#monkey

I've come to the conclusion that, while I am still using ...

2025-10-29T10:01:55Z

I've come to the conclusion that, while I am still using #Windows 11 out of inertia, it's time to contemplate an exit plan towards #Linux . The switch won't be any time soon (I have too much other stuff on my plate for the foreseeable future), but I do want to avoid paying further license fees to #Microsoft .

Major areas of concern:

- My #Steam library. I am by no means a heavy gamer, but I want to check if the major games I enjoy are known to work on Linux.
- Migrating away from #GoogleDrive towards #NextCloud is going to be a major chore, but it's something I can start in advance.
- I am a very heavy user of Notepad++ for my #TeXLaTeX typesetting, so I need a replacement whose user experience comes close (and no, neither vim nor emacs count).

As for what distribution to choose... I dunno. Lots of people at my place of work use #Debian , so maybe that would be a good idea?

I have often seen criticism of the protests against the #Gaza war ...

2025-10-29T08:48:59Z

I have often seen criticism of the protests against the #Gaza war in the Western World which boil down to:"

"Why do the protesters only protest against #Israel - and not against the genocide in #Sudan or other places?"

To which I reply: Usually, protests are done to influence the actions and behavior of your own government. Western nations have little influence on Sudan, and have not provided substantial military support to the belligerents in this conflict. But Westen nations have provided _massive_ military support to Israel in the Gaza War, and protesting that absolutely makes sense.

Now, there are other criticisms one can levy against many of these protests - like the way some of them protray #Hamas as "heroic resistance fighters" instead of the murderous thigs they are, or calling for the destruction of Israel itself, or how the protesters too often draw upon antisemitic stereotypes.

But protesting against the military support their own governments have provided Israel in this conflict absolutely makes sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_aid_to_Israel_during_the_Gaza_war

Here is an interesting tidbit on how often the #Fediverse calls ...

2025-10-27T19:40:54Z

Here is an interesting tidbit on how often the #Fediverse calls up websites.

I'd like to think that I have a fairly popular account - as of this writing, I have 3,730 followers.

About 3.5 hours, I posted a link to a wiki page of mine. So far, this post has received 3 favorites.

I just checked the logs of my website. And this single link has triggered 1,103 "GET" requests to that wiki page. The vast majority seems to be from different Fediverse instances - #Mastodon and otherwise - as the post propagated from server to server, and each instance tries to get information for a preview card.

I do not have much experience with website administration, so I don't know if 1,103 requests (almost all of which seem to have occurred within a few minutes of the initial posting) count as "a lot".

But it might be worth remembering when considering the resources the Fediverse consumes.

A question: There has been a long-running issue with #Mastodon ...

2025-10-23T07:32:53Z

A question: There has been a long-running issue with #Mastodon preview cards for links. Essential, each instance fetches the information for the preview card on its own, which with popular posta will look like a #DDoS attack.

Has this been fixed in recent versions? The fix was delayed to 4.4.0 at some point, but I am not sure if it has actually been implemented yet.

#FediHelp
https://www.golem.de/news/wie-ein-ddos-angriff-mastodons-link-vorschau-ueberlastet-webserver-2405-184830.html

The heathen wild women of the Grossarl valley fled the area out ...

2025-10-22T07:01:20Z

The heathen wild women of the Grossarl valley fled the area out of fear of the approaching glaciers.

#Austria #folktale #folklore
https://www.patreon.com/posts/wild-women-of-124969757

I have a problem, which is: My websites (a #Wordpress site and a ...

2025-10-20T13:01:29Z

I have a problem, which is: My websites (a #Wordpress site and a #MediaWiki installation) are slow as hell.

So I need to identify the cause. The problem is that I don't know nearly as much about website administration as I ought to be.

I contacted the support people at my website provider, who looked at my (Apache) logs and suggested that my Wordpress site might suffer from a "pingback xmlrpc attack". I did the proposed remedy, which made things a little better. But I don't know enough about reading website logs to identify such problems myself, which I ought to.

So what I am trying to say is: Is there some kind of beginners guide for reading website logs, identifying malicious traffic, and what to do about it?

One of the things that I love about putting all my folk tale ...

2025-10-19T09:18:28Z

One of the things that I love about putting all my folk tale translations into a wiki is that I am also using this as an opportunity to remove another #Google service from my life.

My old interactive map was done with Google MyMaps:

https://sunkencastles.com/german-folklore-map/

My new interactive map (still a work in progress) is created dynamically by a combination of #MediaWiki with the #SemanticMediaWiki and Maps extensions, and displayed via the #Leaflet API (which uses #OpenStreetMaps ).

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Main_Page

This gives me _far_ more flexibility in how to construct my interactive map - and it will give me the opportunity to dynamically create thematic maps, too!

One of the reasons why I vastly prefer local legends to fairy ...

2025-10-11T08:12:58Z

One of the reasons why I vastly prefer local legends to fairy tales is that the former are often set in recognizable real world locations which are fascinating in their own right.

For example, I am currently researching a tale about a #dragon , and I just learned that in its #cave there were discoveries of human remains that date back several tens of thousands of years, as well as the remains of more than 30,000 cave bears.

#history #bear #folklore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachenh%C3%B6hle

I am trying to build a #StarterPack for #ttrpg players. If you ...

2025-10-10T05:25:12Z

I am trying to build a #StarterPack for #ttrpg players. If you want to join, you must fulfill the following:

- You must post about ttrpg fairly frequently
- Your profile should be more about just promoting your ttrpg products
- You must have set your profile so that it shows up in discovery algorithms (see the screenshot), or else I won't be able to add you.

Post below to apply!

And remember, joining this Starter Pack is a great way of demonstrating your loyalty to Alpha Complex and Friend Friend Computer (npub1trl…cgye) !

https://fedidevs.com/s/NjY1/

Because of recent, er, discussions, let repeat me it once more ...

2025-10-09T04:23:59Z

Because of recent, er, discussions, let repeat me it once more time for those in the back:

Being an ally to a marginalized group means to LISTEN, first and foremost. Do NOT propose solutions in advance of actual data. People from marginalized groups have almost certainly thought about their marginalization in oppressive spaces (which, yes, can include the #Fediverse ) longer and harder than you have, and thus your proposed solution is likely something that they have already discussed at length.

So listen to them. And when they are done talking, your reaction should not be:

"Here is how to fix your problems!"

but

"How can I help?"

With the recent influx of newcomers from #Bluesky , it behooves ...

2025-10-07T09:33:35Z

With the recent influx of newcomers from #Bluesky , it behooves us to contemplate what we can do to improve #moderation on the #Fediverse - something that has been a problem in the past, and is one of the major reasons why the Fediverse is not as big and as diverse as it could be.

The first and most important step is a cultural change - we need to be _aware_ of how harassment operates, _especially_ if we are not its target. Thus, everyone around here - admins most of all, but really everyone - needs to drill the following into their brains:

If you are not a member of a marginalized group, you are unlikely to ever see much of the #harassment they are experiencing. Heck, you might not even be able to recognize it as such! Thus, if members of said group talk about their experiences with harassment on the Fediverse, _take them at their word_ instead of reacting with disbelief or demands for explanation and elaboration.

It is this frequent reaction disbelief that has done more than anything else to harm the reputation of the Fediverse. Because let's face it, we are still a space that is overwhelmingly white and European/North American. If we want to change that - and it is my fervent belief that we should - then we need to take the lived experiences of others seriously.

Once we have accepted that we need to expand our understanding of how harassment on the Fediverse occurs, _then_ we can work out what tools are needed to improve the situation. Because I too often see the reaction:

"If someone experiences harassment on a large scale, they are not using the tools of the Fediverse correctly to prevent this."

This is blaming the victims of harassment for the problem, and not the Fediverse as a whole. And then we will have the same trainwreck as before, and the Fediverse will remain the same hobbyist's collective rather than the serious challenge to commercial social media platforms it should be if we ever want to stop the world's plunge into #fascism .

Is there an entomologist in the house? I would like to know if ...

2025-10-02T12:08:19Z

Is there an entomologist in the house?

I would like to know if this is an ordinary #silverfish or a paper silverfish.

#Entomology #insect

Out of curiosity, what German #folklore -inspired #ttrpg setting ...

2025-10-01T14:12:14Z

Out of curiosity, what German #folklore -inspired #ttrpg setting would interest you more?

- Set after the Thirty Years' War, using #Pathfinder 2E
- Set after the Napoleonic Wars, using Basic Role-playing #BRP

Something we underestimate these days is how important oaths were ...

2025-09-30T12:47:00Z

Something we underestimate these days is how important oaths were in previous centuries.

It shows up again and again in #folklore . I know a lot of German folk tales where a bandit who has kidnapped and abused a woman for years lets her go for a day to visit her home village if she swears to come back to him and not reveal his hideout. And she actually does try to keep the #oath, although the bandit usually gets revealed thanks to some technicality.

Or sometimes a woman is forced into a marriage she doesn't want, or join a monastery and swear monastic oaths. It doesn't matter if the oath was sworn under duress - you spoke the words, so you are bound to it.

And in the Third Reich, starting in 1934, soldiers and civil servants had to swear oaths of loyalty and obedience to Hitler personally (the "Führereid"), instead of Germany as a whole. That was powerful, and a lot of people felt themselves bound to this oath - no matter how many atrocities they participated in.

And bringing this to the modern day, I expect #Trump to try to force the military to swear oaths to him personally (or at least "The President"), instead of to the #USA as a whole or its Constitution. After all, this is a fairly important milestone for fascist takeover, and might compel members of the military to comply with orders that would otherwise be illegal.

But we shall see what today's meeting at the #Pentagon will bring.

#fascism
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-hegseth-military-leaders-meeting/

It's been about two months since I started creating my wiki ...

2025-09-25T13:58:17Z

It's been about two months since I started creating my wiki for the German folk tales I have translated. Since then, I have put about a fifth of all my translations on it. At my current speed, it will take me until late May to add them all - although by that date I will probably have a hundred further finished translations.

But once I have reached that stage, I can expand the wiki in new ways. For instance, I can add short essays to popular narrative tropes in German folk tales. A lot of these aren't exactly clear to the casual reader (or do _you_ know what a "Wahles" is?).

I also want to add links from the tales to places where people have used them in other media, such as Astrobach :breadified: (npub15g3…ce7d) 's excellent "Fireside Fairytales" (really, watch his show on YouTube!).

https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Main_Page

I have a #science question. A major challenge in #climatology and ...

2025-09-23T18:09:57Z

I have a #science question. A major challenge in #climatology and climate models is reconstructing historical weather and climate data from incomplete and fragmentary data sets and many different sources. I know that there is a lot of thought put into these models, and that they largely do it well. But to outsiders, this process of reconstruction can often seem dubious and thus is frequently used to cased doubt against both these reconstructions and the field of climatology as a whole.

So what I could use for such discussions are other examples of mathematical reconstructions of historical datasets from fields _outside_ of climatology, to show that this is not a unique process but a widely used approach. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

#math #mathematics #statistics

My study of old #folklore gets more and more relevant to ...

2025-09-23T07:49:34Z

My study of old #folklore gets more and more relevant to current-day affairs.

Example: All of these narratives about "Things That Cause #Autism " are basically recycled folk tales about #changelings .

Right now, we are at the: "The child is WRONG somehow - the mother must have been careless!" stage.

And it's only a very small step to: "My child is WRONG somehow! Thus, I must abuse it until I get my REAL child back - the one I always wanted!"

The context changes, but the underlying narratives stay the same.

#ableism #tylenol

Did you know about #Fediverse #StarterPack ? ...

2025-09-22T14:05:57Z

Did you know about #Fediverse #StarterPack ?

https://fedidevs.com/starter-packs/

Since the demographics on the #Fediverse tend towards middle age, ...

2025-09-22T03:27:55Z

Since the demographics on the #Fediverse tend towards middle age, what are we doing for youth outreach?

I could use some help for someone from outside who doesn't ...

2025-09-19T14:45:32Z

I could use some help for someone from outside who doesn't have much experience with the #Fediverse , but is intrigued by #Peertube . He is mainly interested in "let's plays, video essays, and sketch comedy". Can anyone give any good recommendations?

(Also, "no Nazis". Which I only mention because the first PeerTube instance he came across was full of Nazis.)

#FediHelp

And now we need some smart phone clients who can display these ...

2025-09-18T09:38:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…eppg
_________________________

And now we need some smart phone clients who can display these quotes!

Question: Are there any services similar to #Patreon that are ...

2025-09-18T03:34:46Z

Question: Are there any services similar to #Patreon that are based in the EU?

I am increasingly uncomfortable with having such a huge chunk of my side income being reliant on a US-based company, and would like to develop a Plan B.