Mastodon
Mastodon is often a valuable source of interest and inspiration. I am currently very happy, nuzzled into the Linuxrocks.online instance and I follow a number of active folks there and across other instances, usually centered around topics that have become dear to me. Topics like:
- Linux
- Free and Open Source SOftware (FOSS)
- Privacy
- Security
- Console and PC Gaming
- Roguelikes
- Cyberpunk games and culture
- Roleplaying games
I have supported interest-based communities on the Internet since I took my first baby steps online back in the late early 90’s. Currently, I curate news items for two fairly niche gaming genre’s namely, (traditional) roguelikes and computer based wargaming.
Join MASTODON Join Linuxrocks Online
(Traditional) Roguelikes
(2020 update: I should add that my ethical issues around privacy and twitter have now become mutually exclusive and led me to make the ascii curious roguelike feed dormant)
I run a “human curated” twitter feed of (traditional) roguelike and roguelike developer news (both established and aspiring devs). My ethical issues with privacy on that platform are constantly being challenged. Running any sort of privacy related tools to safeguard your data, causes a deluge of twitter specific checks and alerts and I’m not sure how long I can keep it up. At some point, I can imagine, protecting your privacy and being on the Twitter platform may become mutually exclusive. My main problem being that the popularity of Twitter means the majority of roguelike news and roguelike developers are present and are very unlikely to make a move to Mastodon.
Computer based wargaming
(2020 update: I am still an owner of the subreddit and I post news items now and then, but thankfully I am not the sole moderator/provider of content for the community)
I also run a moderated sub-reddit for computer based wargames, where my monitored RSS feeds of niche news sites and youtube channels supply a healthy dose of curated wargaming news, guides and “let’s plays” every day - as well as providing a home for a growing community of computer based wargaming enthusiasts to discuss these games. The Reddit platform, like Twitter, is also likely to infringe privacy and Reddit has a really bad reputation for some of it’s questionable sub-reddit content. It is a problem for me, because I forged these small communities when my knowledge and appreciation for privacy concerns was limited. Moving small niche communities to other platforms is almost a guarentee that they will fragment and die.
SFG (now spelk.online)
My blog site has evolved over the years from a niche enthusiast blog site, where I documented After Action Reports (AAR) of my computer wargaming exploits (basically written accounts of play with accompanying screenshots explaining situations and decisions made) to a gaming journal of sorts with opinion pieces on other topics.
Finally after my “liberation” from the shackles of web content management systems and javascript heavy interfaces, I decided to whittle my blog down to a place where plain and simple information could be presented, without paying any privacy or security cost to myself, the users, or access to the information. This liberation was inspired by a number of key people I’d followed on Mastodon from my early days there. Mastodon has been a great place to be introduced to new ideas and has helped me forge a better way to work and comport myself online.
(was sugarfreegamer.com)
(2021 update: I should also mention that the smallweb or the “smolweb” idea is perfectly encapsulated in the gemini protocol and hence you may be reading this on my gemini site)
So here I am, inspired yet again, by a person I follow on Mastodon, to participate in a call to action, to jump start my blog posting again, alongside many others.
Kev Quirk and #100daystooffload
Kev Quirk come up with the idea for #100daystooffload - encouraging a community of others to post their musings in a 100 day window, relaxed, with no pressure and no expectations. As Kev says… “Just. Write.”
Well this post constitutes my 1 of 100.
(2020 update: obviously my days to offload didn’t make it past 5, but I still support the idea, for those with the stamina to blog for 100 consecutive days).
And my recommendation on this day is to follow Kev on Mastodon via the Fosstodon instance