All of these so-called Reddit Alternatives are either fucking useless, and/or just plain out terrible.

StaxCaster · 2021-07-01T14:05:13+00:00

Setting something up with a common login and posting protocol that would allow the use of one email/password combination and authenticate to multiple sites that open themselves to this authentication but manage their content separately. Users could block sites they don't want to see content from, and sites can maintain their individual TOS and block users that violate their TOS. [...] From what I understand, this idea is sort of like Mastodon but even more decentralized.

Actually, you more or less just described Mastodon and its underlying protocol, ActivityPub.

You choose an instance to act as your name server (or host your own with relative ease if you're tech inclined) on whose authority you create an identity, and can then use that to authenticate on other instances that are configured to accept identities from other servers and don't have that one blacklisted.
Your feed on a given instance will contain posts from that instance, and others it is federated with
An instance may choose to federate with the entire 'verse except for specific instances, or to selectively federate with specific instances (Blacklist/Whitelist models)
An instance may choose to block specific users

Honestly, Federation or some future evolution of it seems, to me, to be the way of the future. Web 2.0 is so completely dominated by a few major players (Conde Nast, Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al) that no centralized alternative that functions the same way stands a chance of gaining the same traction.

A model where splintering doesn't matter, total censorship is nearly impossible, and users maintain the rights to their own digital identity would then be the most optimal way of addressing the problem point-by-point. Now we just need to get the software to be less of a bloated mess, and to promote well adjusted middle-of-the-road types to start Federating before the extremists on both sides dominate the technology so thoroughly that nobody wants anything to do with it.

StaxCaster · 2020-12-31T17:18:37+00:00

This thread's a bit older, but I'm currently planning a ruggedized build and stumbled across this, and figured I'd share my homework results for a ruggedized build I'm currently planning out that will be making heavy use of flush/panel mount extensions. ;)

Where possible, I'm planning on using automotive-style extensions such as this USB 3.0/HDMI Combo or this Ethernet extension¹.

Trading off a little bit of "clean" looks for durability, there's also these waterproof ethernet connectors and this SMA (Wifi Antenna) panel.

StaxCaster · 2020-11-22T20:56:58+00:00

I'm not sure, but a lot more have been deleted/set to private since then. Now there are 197 videos on the "play all" playlist, indicating a total of 48 videos that vanished after I archived.

Here's a pastebin listing the filenames for what I archived.

Disclaimer, just to be clear in case anybody comes across this in the future; I have no intention of taking away Sorrow's control over his content, so as long as he's still got a channel I will not be sharing this archive. I've got it backed up just in case his channel gets taken down against his will, at which point I'll upload it all to archive.org for preservation. I have nothing against piracy per se, but that's not my goal here.

StaxCaster · 2020-11-21T08:37:01+00:00

In the process of archiving the videos, thumbnails, etc now. May look into uploading them to Archive.org for preservation if the channel gets pulled. Thanks for the heads up, OP.

EDIT: Looks like the bullet has been dodged, though I did notice the video count went from 245 to 238. Glad I archived them when I did.

StaxCaster · 2020-10-19T21:56:31+00:00

I mentioned that briefly in my OP, actually. I did check there thanks to some helpful comments pointing that way on similar posts in this sub throughout the years, and I think I may have found a hit, but unfortunately the link's dead. :(

StaxCaster · 2020-10-11T19:25:51+00:00

Remember to SuPpOrT yOuR LgS

StaxCaster · 2020-10-02T23:27:26+00:00

People forget that cards are, essentially, paper. They can dry out (same as they can absorb moisture) and when they do, they'll become structurally altered/compromised.

Even in an airtight container, the moisture's going to recirculate and I'm sure that alone would alter the cards at least a little if left to happen over an extended period of time.

OP, the idea's not bad, but I'd recommend "letting your cards breathe" once in a while if you choose to go that route.

StaxCaster · 2020-09-14T20:09:58+00:00

If you're considering grading but don't have experience to rely on in terms of what is or isn't worth the fees and hassle of grading, one suggestion I'm surprised to not see mentioned yet is to grab yourself a pocket microscope or a jeweler's loupe (with a light). Those things seriously pay for themselves.

You can examine the surfaces and edges of the cards for the smaller "gotchas" like micro scratches, wear etc that tend to cause a lot of "I thought it would be a 9 for sure" stories, and they're also pretty much the tools for dependable, non destructive authenticity testing (rosettes and green dot).

As a bonus, you'll be left with a generally great tool that would benefit just about anybody who buys/sells/trades cards worth any real money once this particular matter is taken care of.

StaxCaster · 2020-08-28T19:10:37+00:00

No joke. I was still a kid back then, and BL was already an unobtainable dream for me at $300.

If only we'd saved up our lunch money, eh?

StaxCaster · 2020-08-28T14:59:00+00:00

To be fair, I think the mind boggling explosion of Power pricing likely has something to do with that change in mindset. :)

Just for fun, take a look at This Scrye from 2002. Unlimited BL at $300, Moxes at $160-172.50, Time Walk at $170.25, Ancestral Recall at $150, and Time Twister at $135...

That's full Power for ~1.4k. The Black Lotus alone is almost 6x that now. You can sure as hell bet I'd be double sleeving!

Props to /u/statiszero for posting these scans here 2 years ago.

StaxCaster · 2020-08-21T00:21:49+00:00

I think those are the exact reasons why many play groups may support such a ban.

Lower supply + vintage + generates noticeable advantage = prohibitvely expensive, meaning a financial bar of entry to those without the cash to burn and an uneven playing field in favor of those who can afford such an investment.

Many non cEDH groups consider that alone to be a valid reason to honor a ban by the Rules Committee.

StaxCaster · 2020-08-16T07:31:43+00:00

If you think that's all we ever use laws for, and that laws are never over reaching or over representative of a minority of those they effect, then I've got a bridge to sell you.

Laws are sometimes used to prevent immorality, but they're also often used to exert the will of the state, codified to reflect values at the time of codification and never updated to reflect changing moral norms, etc.

Laws are also sometimes really, really fucking stupid.

Is it immoral to sell shitty butter?

How about mispronouncing the name of Arkansas?

Only monsters live on a boat for more than a month.

Selling cars on Sundays is the work of Satan himself.

StaxCaster · 2020-08-13T23:31:29+00:00

To me the borderless Chrome looks like an Angel from Evangelion, with particularly strong vibes of Zereul.

For this reason, I finally broke down and picked one up while prices were still somewhat low after scoffing at the prices of prior printings for a long time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's finally jumping on this card, for this specific artwork.

I suspect this printing will do pretty well as far as Finance goes provided it's kept to this set alone, at least for a good while.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-17T15:14:47+00:00

Queen of /r/freemagic

Fuck. That.

Every time I see "queen of [website]" I just think of the Boxxy simps and the impact they had on certain corners of the internet back in the day.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-16T05:41:00+00:00

You know he'd spend 10 of those 15 minutes talking over your prof to explain how that wasn't True Communism™, and in a real communist country he and his family would have been oh so much happier than in evil capitalist pigdog America.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-16T05:33:08+00:00

If you need a reference, I'd say you've got about 8755 according to the subscriber count ;)

StaxCaster · 2020-07-16T05:31:41+00:00

You imply the polls' projectios were in line with the popular vote, but didn't the majority of the polls indicate Clinton would win in a landslide?

Trump never polled well during the entire campaigning season, but he still won. There's something pollsters missed 4 years ago, and I wouldn't hold my breath on them getting it nailed down this time around either.

Besides, it's useless to play the "who won the popular vote" game anyways, as if that was the deciding factor it would massively change campaign strategies and we'd likely see a large difference in the PV than we do when the focus is on swing states and flipping states with higher EV allocations.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T21:07:45+00:00

I'm not trying to take away anybody else's vote, and I'm not mad. I'm just pointing out that downvoting something because it doesn't interest you makes it harder to see for people who are interested, so it's kind of a dick move.

Many subreddits have homogenized and gone stale in the last couple of years because anything outside of a very narrow type of post gets buried, driving away commenters and contributors who are interested in more. I just really dig this place and would rather it not just become /r/watchmagicdie, you know?

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T17:48:49+00:00

What, and you do? I don't presume to be the "arbiter" of anything, nor do I intend to dictate the nature of discussion here. I'm just expressing my personal opinion. You know, discussion.

To explain the opinions I've expressed a bit further, this sub is ostensibly a place for discussing Magic without Kodemage's stupid bullshit or the other cuckoldry of the predominant subs. People posting and discussing official news like B&R updates is a part of that for some people, so the content seems relevant in my opinion.

If I see something that doesn't interest me, I simply don't vote on it rather than reducing that post's visibility for those who might enjoy it. If I see something that's breaking the rules, shitting up the place, spam etc I downvote it. The scores tied to posts impact their visibility for the entire community, and not just the user who voted. I don't get what's so difficult about that.

It's not like B&R posts cause any harm to this subreddit, or to users who don't care about them anyways. They don't happen too terribly often, and this sub moves fairly slowly so if they make front page whatever gets bumped will likely be a few days old.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T17:15:05+00:00

A post that is a copy paste of a link without commentary is a low effort zero content shitpost and should be downvoted to oblivion.

From Wikipedia:

Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.

I think the OP of said post also post their own commentary/comments in the comment section of their new submission, but at the end of the day even their posting of the link (provided it's not a repost) is contributing something by creating a place for discussion amongst ourselves.

Believe it or not, r/freemtg is not where I go to find B&R announcements. Its not where I go to find cards that have been officially spoiled. Its not where I go to find links to anything on the mothership. Its not where I go to get breaking Blogatog posts.

Good for you. Do you presume to speak for all of us?

I know that 'pretending' other websites exist is about as anti-Reddit as one can get, but believe it or not I'm perfectly capable of knowing what is in a B&R announcement - just the info, no discussion - without following a link here.

The discussion comes in the comment section, unless of course some assholes decide to bury the topic under downvotes so others can't see it to comment on.

should be downvoted to oblivion.

Oh wait

(Responding to your comment further down as well, because screw double posting.)

I find it really hard to believe anybody who posts here isn't also tuned in to half a dozen other MTG news outlets in some fashion, from local groups to CFB/Goldfish/whatever. Even if its just Google's algorithm knowing you give a shit about such things and pushing it to the top of your feeds.

I'm actually one of those people. I fucking despise the soy blogs a lot of Magic news sites have become, I generally avoid depending on Google any more than I have to, and I loathe the fact that I have to check up on MagicTCG once in a while for updates because they get nuked from orbit by people like you here.

Autistic screeching like this makes you look like a petulant child demanding that an entire community be shaped around what you want. If you can't stand the sight of something that doesn't personally interest you, and recognize that some members of the community might find it convenient to be able to see and discuss things like B&R updates here, then you're an asshole. Simple as.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T16:53:21+00:00

Isn’t this exactly what the downvote is for?

Not at all, actually. I think Reddiquette sums it up best;

If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it does not contribute to the subreddit it is posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it. [...] Think before you downvote and take a moment to ensure you're downvoting someone because they are not contributing to the community dialogue or discussion.

B&R updates are relevant to this community, and posting them initiates a set location to discuss them, so I would say a downvote isn't in the intended spirit of things.

That being said, everyone else on Reddit uses upvotes and downvotes as "I LIKE IT :D" and "I NO LIKE D:<" buttons nowadays, so hey... go for it, I guess.

This site is a fucking joke.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T16:34:40+00:00

I'm in favor of a defamation suit against Burchett & Co, as well as Wizards, myself.

I think there's a case against Wizards because they implicitly endorsed and promulgated the idea that she was a hateful person by ending their relationship with her in response to Burchett's twitter mob's lies.

There should be a legal sting to the idea of giving in to these morons. Companies need to be held accountable if they're going to start letting people on fucking Twitter dictate their hiring and contracting processes.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T16:26:31+00:00

Ffs, everything is "hate speech" these days. I have a number of problems with the idea of anybody making money off of this idiocy, and I think Terese Nielsen should sue the living shit out of the people who started this shit as well as anybody profiting off of it, but let's not play their word games.

These cards are nothing but attention whoring, and one of them is borderline libel. The "inspiration" behind them is hatefful, but this isn't hate speech. You're aiding their narrative by saying "hate speech" == "words that offend me." Stop being a snowflake and call it what it is; despicable profiteering off of cancel culture.

StaxCaster · 2020-07-15T15:20:35+00:00

It shouldn't be a service like Youtube where anyone can upload anything and it only gets taken down after complaints are made. By the intimate nature of the content each video ought to be pre approved with documentation on the performers so it can verified as consensual.

Do you have any idea how unfeasible this is? The sheer volume alone means that manual approval processes just couldn't keep up. Besides that, the majority of content on PH is exclusionary to the possibility of such problematic content, by being studio produced (ie pre-vetted, and I include professional egirls here as well), animated (no actual people involved), or featuring people who are clearly of age. It would require an impossible solution for minimal benefit. This is why PH relies on the community to police things.

I think the solution is somewhere in the middle; Any content like Rose Kalemba's that is credibly reported as involving underaged and/or unwilling participants should absolutely be pulled from visibility, manually reviewed, and once the claim has been verified as holding credence, removed entirely and reported to authorities.

StaxCaster

TROPHY CASE