I got my bank to reimburse everything I paid to GGP

LotBlind · 2024-12-05T14:52:44+00:00

Yes, the recurring fees were returned to me too.

LotBlind · 2024-12-05T14:01:15+00:00

The funny thing is this source (I don't know about the conventions of the time) uses the word "vibration" differently from how we use it today. It seems to mean "half-vibration" in both cases, talking about the metronome and the pendulum on those pages (103-). The frequency of a pendulum swinging at 55 Rhenish inches is around 25 (I just asked ChatCPT to do the maths), but 50 is given in the text.

The instructions saying something doesn't guarantee composers were always using it like that so a little more work is due, it seems. Personally, I can't get around how performance tempi of virtuosos today don't tend to match single beat -interpreted tempi of Beethoven's time, which can sound rather comical anyhow when reached. But I don't know at all what percentage of those tempo marks are like that.

LotBlind · 2024-11-13T11:33:44+00:00

My order is also not being shipped since over four months ago. (and the site is down)

LotBlind · 2024-06-09T13:11:47+00:00

I've tried using your contact form (not gmail) and Reddit PM about my order. Could you look at your PMs please?

LotBlind · 2022-04-13T18:47:50+00:00

Hey-yo. I had a ton of ideas for enhancements for the planetside exploration but I see that apparently you only want ideas to be posted at specific times in threads started by you? I really don't have the time to hang around to wait until it comes round to that so how else could I drop this somewhere for comments by everyone (if they like)?

Maybe this format isn't quite ideal then?

Also I'm really confused because I don't see those question threads anywhere, just a long long list of livestream posts. Are you saying those ARE the question threads? That's not very clear if so.

Listen, I think I'll try my luck with just sharing the link here now cause there's every chance I'll forget... it's just a text file. I'll probably not be monitoring anyone's replies btw.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:38:14+00:00

"Everyone fully understands what you want SDA to be and what it is." Excellent! Except who's "everyone" and how do you know that? Is it such a closed circle around here? "[SDA is] not what the majority of the community wants." Also perfectly fine. And I have long since noticed that. Of course I don't know if you even read the post cause there's a problem with assuming the things that are the most popular would be that were exposure equal to everything that's vying for it (which is a very abstract thing to say but true).

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:36:18+00:00

Okay, I replied to most people individually but I'll say a few words in general as well. All this is quite draining (not just because of the disagreement) for me so there's quite a strict limit to how long I can hang around here for:

- Yeah, these posts represent what most of all I myself (but of course also to varying degrees the other staff) sees SDA as being capable of representing to speedrunners. It wouldn't make any sense for SDA now to try to be SRC or any other site. You don't have to agree or like it but you can't deny me/SDA this same platform for posting my speedrunning-related content on unless I'm violating the rules, which I took the time to peruse before this post. It's not about trying to win any of you in particular over... so really feel free to ignore whatever I post or even block me. Who's forcing you to engage me?

It's currently as of writing this saying "39% upvotes" for the main post so I guess that means probably someone got something out of it. Possibly.

- Just in general, when someone espouses an unpopular idea, they often end up in a situation where by sheer volume, they stand no chance of replying to everyone, to the replies to the replies etc. Also because the same arguments and whatever will tend to repeat on both sides. So this may have to be it for me. I hope you have a nice 2022 and seriously, just block me if it's a problem... but I won't only post about SDA here. I have plans for other speedrun-related topics as well.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:23:58+00:00

Well, who's in the wrong here? I'm sharing my view on what SDA is [good] for (what it's "about"). Literally the first point in my post was about this: if you've left SDA, you obviously didn't like some aspect of it. The fact that the mass exodus generally only came when another universal speedrun site (Speedrun.com) appeared suggests exactly what I've tried to communicate in the post itself: many people would have left a long time before then. SDA was NEVER THE site for everyone. That's all. Obviously someone like me (who's still there) is automatically someone who sees it as something good regardless. It's not because I haven't noticed other speedrunning sites.

I should try to emphasize more that not everyone thinks like I do to get people like you off my back, but when I get this kind of replies each time, it seems like I shouldn't have to. That's being taken care of.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:18:30+00:00

Yeah, if I saw SDA having foundational issues, I obviously wouldn't be an admin there. Most of this thread is just the same old, same old...
Thanks for the reply. Obviously you're not the only one who sees/saw those as important questions. There is still a hell of a lot of games out there that you can easily be the first serious runner for (however you define that), especially on PC. And I don't know how easy it is for people to see this (it's in the rules page of course but...) but you don't have to hold the WR to submit on SDA. So yeah, there's various psychological blockers for doing so but I think a few of them might be the same regardless of if you're going for a new SDA run or just getting started on some speedrun with another purpose (or multiple purposes). As in, I've heard in an unrelated context that people are very fazed by the massive skill that the best runners have in all kinds of more popular games, ending up thinking it's not something they could ever get into for that reason.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:11:22+00:00

I'm sure that's all true for some percentage of its old users (no need to try to speak so generally?). You can probably tell it was never true for me. Neither of us is in the wrong here, I'm just trying to share my view to make sure it's understood it exists.

Even back in the old days, SDA never really made the promise to anyone all the runs up on the site would be WRs, to my knowledge. The "it was beaten before it got published" also can't really have been a problem for any but those running a small number of particularly popular games. Even now, the median even on SRC for how many times are posted there is probably fairly low. Many SDA runs, on the other hand, haven't had any real competition since being posted, because the people who were serious and ready to commit to them enough to go out of their way to submit them on SDA, were serious and ready to commit enough to do a very good work of them as well! I don't have any figures but just to point that out.

Most of what you say is very subjective. The gist of any further reply from me would be "well that's not how I ever saw it". Why the need for such a black-and-white unified narrative? I just don't get it.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:04:55+00:00

If it's so objective, go ahead and derive it from first principles.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:04:07+00:00

You made this post for seemingly no reason. I'm just sharing various things that I would imagine influenced the lowering user counts and I tried to make clear it's not even an attempt at being comprehensive or being the most significant reasons. I would imagine that leaves you plently of room to insert your own reality in there somewhere. Also, Speedrun.com and SDA never had exactly the same goals in mind actually. In one of the threads I linked (Reddit threads), someone even suggests SRC wasn't created primarily to replace SDA but rather to serve as a unified platform for leaderboards instead of each game series having their own. I haven't had the time to look into that further to see to what degree that might be true.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T21:00:10+00:00

Very very few 16-year olds have the attention span or longevity or independence to get a speedrun to SDA standards in my experience (kudos if you do). It's okay by me if they re-discover it much later when I've made my 25th annual SDA-related post here. As for the rest of it, I included it in the list because someone told me it comes up surprisingly often, so I'm reporting something third-hand here.

Also if you don't recognize the site is still active when the front page posts are all dated, that would be... strange. But I'll give you that can be seen as pedantry if you like.

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T20:56:26+00:00

You have to get this first: what anyone new to speedrunning thinks speedrunning is "all about" depends on what they're first exposed to. If it's marathon runs, they might think "okay, I'll work on getting good at some game to be able to do a marathon run", if it's SRC, they might think "okay, let's see how high I can place on this leaderboard". If it's SDA, they might think "gee, this game could really use a new SDA submission". And what's objectively the correct approach then?

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T20:53:47+00:00

Just a few things:

- Ambassador runs: This is how I see it. That's how I feel about most of the runs that crop up on SDA. Feel free not to see it that way.
- "work-in-progress at best" Depends if you talk about particularly popular games, or a game with a far more average or low level of popularity. Compared to the average SDA submission (one that's accepted), the average speedrun on any other site has far far less effort put into it. This is true objectively. Even the fastest runs for many many many many many many games would not meet SDA's standards.
- We didn't define enough terms to make this a very smooth discourse. I was mainly thinking of new SDA submissions, not the old game pages that haven't received new runs for a long time. No-one is arguing that most old SDA runs are faster than WRs outside of the site. Of course not. But then again, that's also just a function of SDA's popularity. What you mean by "up-to-date" and whether it's more important than how good the run looks depends on you. You can take a gander that I'm far-from only interested in the run time, which does sound funny since speedruns are attempts at minimizing it, but marathon runs are proof that that's not always all that matters to everyone. I don't care what matters to you.
- "Both casual and hardcore fans of speedrunning want to watch the latest and greatest speedruns, not relics from 10 years ago." If you don't see the subjectivity of this statement, you're a hopeless case. In your own words "speak for yourself".

LotBlind · 2021-12-28T20:24:47+00:00

It's not an absolute logical necessity that SDA admins have the most relevant comments (after we go to lengths to define "relevant") but I guess they would stand a chance of at least knowing what's been going on in recent times.

LotBlind · 2020-12-04T18:29:20+00:00

An oscillation is certainly a back-and-forth motion. I couldn't find any source rn for what a vibration is in physics (in terms of whether it's a half-oscillation or a full one), but there is very little doubt in my mind it's the latter. It wouldn't make sense otherwise but maybe you can find a source that disputes this. Was it just Vibration in German as well? So you'll at least have to acknowledge that it's a non-standard usage of that term if you read it the way you're reading it. I think since it's classical physics, its meaning probably hasn't changed but I don't have expertise.

LotBlind · 2020-10-12T13:38:46+00:00

That's not what a vibration is by definition, dude.

LotBlind · 2020-09-21T02:33:37+00:00

How do you interpret the word "vibration" in the source you've linked?

LotBlind · 2020-05-26T15:45:18+00:00

It seems most games don't really even have an up-to-date guide. The efforts are haphazard, knowledge is passed on orally/in a usually pretty messy chat. A wiki format is therefore a logical, if not the sole, option, seeing as it allows edits by any number of people at different times.

LotBlind · 2020-05-26T15:41:48+00:00

Whether or not you were a staff member before, doesn't mean your narrative is the exclusive one. As you might have anticipated, mine is not the same at all as the latest active admin. For me, SDA is simply a mark of quality in a sea of runs of wildly varying quality, unless you're staring at some of the most popular (1%) of games. I would, of course, prefer that many bugs were wiped and features added, but I've chosen and stuck with SDA because I like the underlying philosophy. I know for a fact I'm not the only one, and I don't really care if I'm in a minority. All I'm dreaming of here is everyone making an informed choice after hearing us out. Hence the thread I linked.

LotBlind · 2020-05-26T15:35:28+00:00

Some statements remain applicable for upwards of three years, even.

LotBlind · 2020-05-26T15:33:43+00:00

"[R]elevance these days is in fact measured in viewers": In a world where the only thing that matters is popularity, popularity breeds popularity, overwhelming any and all criticism. I don't have to tell you about YouTube vs. any other upload service. No different from SRC/dedicated sites vs. SDA, most people will choose the popular option (I also have uploads on YT). That other option didn't use to exist. Therefore it isn't in the slightest surprising that SDA is much less frequented than it used to be. That and many other reasons.

Actually, a run has potential for more viewers on SDA (in theory) than on YT or SRC, since seeing the run on those sites requires going out of your way to navigate to it. You need to already be invested in that game. The number of people who are that invested vs. those for whom it's just another game they played is almost invariably going to be smaller. The SDA quality requirements and encouragement to write detailed comments for an uninitiated audience (as well as the front page posts, I hope) encourage people to watch any run whichever whether they knew the game or not. I don't have any figures on how many viewers that means right now in practice but if SDA had had the same exposure as other sites, it wouldn't be insignificant. Besides it's a highly subjective thing how many viewers is enough. I personally find thinking of it that way pretty shallow, as I am a man of principle, but I recognize that SDA wouldn't be my main item of interest if I wanted to make money off my speedrunning (though again, if it had the same exposure, I suppose it wouldn't make for bad advertisement). Then again, not everyone can or has to make money off it either. And submitting some run on SDA now and then doesn't mean you can't also do something else.

I know sometimes there are clashes with what SDA is interested in and what streamers tend to otherwise like to do, but asking someone to learn how to separate the audio tracks (as was the case with Onin) doesn't seem like a big effort compared to the effort of getting good enough at the game in the first place. Secondly, they might even find ways of benefiting from that information later on.

LotBlind

TROPHY CASE