#galacticwiseguy

[nebulations]

Why add an ID to a post whose image is already described in alt text? Isn't that exactly what alt text is already for? I was under the impression that image descriptions were an awkward substitute that we only had to use because Tumblr didn't use to have alt text/because not everyone adds it.

Hi!! I copy out alt text because alt text isn't the best option for everyone who needs IDs-- the feature can be buggy or hard to use, there's an issue with text sizing which I haven't heard of being resolved (as of November of this year), not everyone uses screenreaders, etc. Plain text image descriptions are definitely important tools for everyone who doesn't prefer alt! It's mostly a matter of competing access needs; what I've seen as the most broadly accessible practice is to write a concise description in alt and then add detail as needed in a plain text ID.

Here's the post which I used as a resource about one of the current issues with alt!

[bigbigtruck]

hi! longtime fan, very excited to read your new comic :D is there an rss feed for it? i couldn't find one. i know you JUST started but i don't want to miss any of it...

I plan to make one later this week! I had no idea so many folks still used RSS after Google Reader died. Good thing, though, since I may not be able to post pages to Webtoon due to the implied nudity at the beginning.

Edit: damn, none of the RSS feed creation widgets I've found are cooperating. I was able to generate a sample feed, but no way to embed a subscription link or anything... This will take some time

[argumate]

I really don't get why you keep equating capitalism being more economically productive or efficient with it being a necessarily better system to organize your country around; even if we assume that a capitalist country will always outproduce an equivalent communist one (far from settled!), simply producing more doesn't mean "best for human flourishing." Cancer will always outproduce healthy cells, too. A country can, and should, simply choose to make less steel and instead treat people better.

right, the Omelas situation where we torture orphans to generate cheap energy obviously isn’t the society we want to live in, nor one where we live large for a while on gains that come to an abrupt end when we chop down the last tree / harpoon the last whale / push the planetary climate into a new stable equilibrium that is inhospitable to humans.

but if you go back a hundred years or so many people took it for granted that the technocratic management of “scientific socialism” would naturally outperform the alternatives by eliminating wasteful competition and frivolous consumption, and I suppose the experiment lasted from “we will bury you” in 1956 up until 1989.

now it’s kind of a myth that the alternative to socialism is unregulated free enterprise, never more visible than today when the coronavirus has abruptly put every government in the role of propping up vital industries and figuring out how to support the unemployed (!) the differences are clearly one of degree.

economics aside, the questions that matter are all political anyway: how do you resolve disputes, how do you deal with discontent, how do you handle succession, how do you maintain popular legitimacy, and so forth.

[prokopetz]

Totally understand if this is too close to your "no reviews on demand" rule, but do you have any recommendations from Square Enix's current Switch sale? Practically their whole JRPG back catalog seems to be discounted but I don't know which of them still hold up and which ones are too dated/weren't good in the first place.

As far as their JRPG back catalogue goes, Collection of Mana is definitely worth a look if you haven’t played anything in the series before, though Trials of Mana is the only game of the three included n the collection whose mechanics really hold up against modern competition. Final Fantasy IX and Romancing SaGa 3 may also be worth a look if you’re interested in dipping your toe into old school turn-based JRPGs; the gameplay’s kind of clunky by contemporary standards, but not so much as to be actively frustrating. Star Ocean: First Departure, too, if you don’t mind that it’s a remake (though still a fairly old one, being from 2007 -- the original came out way back in 1996!).

[nostalgebraist]

Does "mooncrash" have a previously-existing meaning that I don't know about? Or is the recent release of "Prey: Mooncrash" just a really wild coincidence? icymi: It's about someone trapped in a fluctuating, strange computer simulation of reality, which keeps them safe while all humans in the exterior world are being attacked by extradimensional invaders. So it really would be a hell of a coincidence

That is a hell of a coincidence, wow.  IIRC think I came up with the name “mooncrash” in 2008, and the general concept (with the house, night, wondering about the end, etc.) dates back much further than that.

The stuff you mention, which the game shares with AN, is of much more recent origin, to integrate this concept with the AN plot.

[prokopetz]

What do you think of the concept that got floated during early playtests for DnD 5E for a "modular" DnD? I think the concept of a slim core book with a very stripped-down DnD, and then a series of entirely optional plug-in books for "tactical grid 4e stuff," "logistics puzzle treasure-focused 0e/1e stuff," "storeygamey shared-narrative-control roleplay stuff" etc. was a wonderful idea, but i think the way it was flirted with then ditched is a large part of why 5e is so unfocused.

(With reference to this post here.)

I do think that discarding the modular approach mid-development is a major contributor to why different parts of 5E’s core rules seem to be talking about different games, yes. However, I also think it’s important to bear in mind that the modularity thing was a non-starter right from the outset. D&D is ultimately owned by Hasbro, and Hasbro’s corporate culture is very keen on standardising the experience of play; basically, they want every table to be playing exactly the same D&D so that every group will - at least in theory - be prepared to buy every supplement. A game where some supplements would be needless for some groups because they’re not using that particular module at their table was never going to be allowed to make it to the shelves, and 5E’s designers failing to recognise that from the start was a misstep on their part.

(Whether or not this is a reasonable position for Hasbro to take is largely beside the point; remember that this is the same outfit that refused to allow any digital distribution of 4E for the first two years of its publication because they had a bug up their collective ass about PDF piracy.)

[nostalgebraist]

hi! read TNC last year and loved it, reread it just now and loved it. Both times I thought that there was something being very implied by how similar Lugnut's screeds were to Salby's journal--they leapt out at me as similar immediately. Consistent shorthand and missing letters or strange spellings, especially noticeable on "Choicecurt/chscrt." Disdain for grammar. Repeated asides to disparage either specific people's views or modern society in general ("2day's YUTH"/"modern, degraded theories.")

(cont.) At one point Lugnut even deliberately groups himself in with Salby and Chen. But, that story thread never really goes anywhere (except for paul's vague implication that he's getting in touch with him?) and then in your tag I read that Lugnut was just a reference to a commenter you used to see. So...did I imagine the whole thing/read too much into it? (Would be very appropriate to the work.) Or did you start with a random parody of Internet commenters and then expand it as you wrote?

You’re not reading too much into things, don’t worry.

Lugnut’s nature and role in everything are meant to be mysterious -- is he just some internet weirdo, or does he have some special insight into (or connection to) Salby-related stuff?  But for that to be an open question at all, the latter possibility has to suggest itself to the reader, as at least a possibility.  So you’re not wrong to notice that it’s a possibility.

[featherquillpen]

galacticwiseguy replied to your link “Compatibility Questionnaire for Human Applicants to the Human-Yeerk...”

OUCH

:O omg you’re reading my fic, you don’t even GO here buddy!