So I was trying to download a torrent (while seeding like 5 others) when I noticed my rates just kept gradually falling to 0B upload/download until spiking back up to 1-2MB before falling again. I check my Proxmox SMART test of my drives and then it shows one disk was degraded. When I try to view the overall "disks" tab in Proxmox it just times out and shows an error [communication failure (0)]

So I try to do a zpool scrub tank_name, which started Monday May 4 22:02:21 2026....

While scrubbing the checksum errors on the online repairing disk (wwn-0x5000c5004d033fc1) just keep climbing... I made the degraded disk go offline. Here's the current status of zpool status tank_name:

root@nova:~# zpool status Orico2tera4
  pool: Orico2tera4
 state: DEGRADED
status: One or more devices has experienced an error resulting in data
        corruption.  Applications may be affected.
action: Restore the file in question if possible.  Otherwise restore the
        entire pool from backup.
   see: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/msg/ZFS-8000-8A
  scan: scrub in progress since Mon May  4 22:02:21 2026
        3.53G / 378G scanned at 36.9K/s, 3.47G / 378G issued at 36.3K/s
        9.61M repaired, 0.92% done, no estimated completion time
config:

        NAME                                              STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        Orico2tera4                                       DEGRADED     0     0     0
          mirror-0                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-ST2000NM0011_Z1P2D6SC                     ONLINE       0    13     1
            usb-External_USB3.0_DISK01_20170331000C3-0:1  ONLINE       0     0     3  (repairing)
          mirror-1                                        DEGRADED     0     1     0
            wwn-0x5000c500357c0b91                        OFFLINE      0     0    21
            wwn-0x5000c5004d033fc1                        ONLINE       0     1 2.00K  (repairing)

errors: 49 data errors, use '-v' for a list

I haven't used these disks for super long, it's only been about 5 months of my homelab actually being used, and I wasn't doing constant torrenting until February. The disks are refurbished, 2TB each, and they're stored in a USB connected drive bay. my usage is pretty low, just 432.80 GB of 4TB (11.13%)

I've looked at my snapshots with zfs list -t snapshot, not sure when I should try to restore from a snap, but I've never done it before. I'll make sure to take backups more seriously from now on, don't be me...

Update:

Turned off the machine and bay, realized it had shit ventilation and that the drives were pretty hot, let it cool and gave everything a quick dust down. Nothing seemed to be bad or visibly fucked up?

After letting it chill out for about 2-3 hours I put the drive bay in a better vented spot and did a scrub, then resilvered the drive, then did another scrub. About to do some SMART tests.

Here's zpool status -v:

zpool status -v Orico2tera4
  pool: Orico2tera4
 state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices has experienced an unrecoverable error.  An
        attempt was made to correct the error.  Applications are unaffected.
action: Determine if the device needs to be replaced, and clear the errors
        using 'zpool clear' or replace the device with 'zpool replace'.
   see: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/msg/ZFS-8000-9P
  scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:56:51 with 0 errors on Wed May  6 23:37:43 2026
config:

        NAME                                              STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        Orico2tera4                                       ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-ST2000NM0011_Z1P2D6SC                     ONLINE       0     0   199
            usb-External_USB3.0_DISK01_20170331000C3-0:1  ONLINE       0     0   125
          mirror-1                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            wwn-0x5000c500357c0b91                        ONLINE       0     0   100
            wwn-0x5000c5004d033fc1                        ONLINE       0     0   462

errors: No known data errors

And then it again after a clear:

zpool status -v Orico2tera4 
  pool: Orico2tera4
 state: ONLINE
status: Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool.
        The pool can still be used, but some features are unavailable.
action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
        the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
        the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
  scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:57:18 with 0 errors on Thu May  7 01:28:30 2026
config:

        NAME                                              STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        Orico2tera4                                       ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            ata-ST2000NM0011_Z1P2D6SC                     ONLINE       0     0     0
            usb-External_USB3.0_DISK01_20170331000C3-0:1  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            wwn-0x5000c500357c0b91                        ONLINE       0     0     0
            wwn-0x5000c5004d033fc1                        ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
root@nova:~# 

What have we learned?

• Do biweekly scrubs
• Put your drives in a not shit location
• Do trims like, once a month maybe
• Make way more frequent snapshots
• Backup your shit!!! NOW!!! To literally anywhere else but just do it!!!

Another great video from Reject Convenience, you should especially watch the part (7:29 - 10:15) about how specific location data can get with precise location on (spoiler alert: a literal battery width radius, please only allow precise location for your map app 🤢)

He also has a great tool he explains throughout the video, his privacy visualizer which you can click as you go through a site's privacy policy to mark what they collect and how they handle the data (just collected, traded/shared, or sold?)

If you want a starting point, try looking at the permissions of the apps you have downloaded. Or try looking at Terms of Service; Didn't Read to figure out who the biggest offenders are first and work your way up to the least creepiest providers.

I just wanted to link to this awesome channel, as I think his videos are educational and very encouraging to help people increase their privacy rather than shaming or scaring them into privacy by making extreme changes. He's also done videos on VPNs, various privacy policies, dumb phones, cookies & fingerprinting, etc. He hates ads and sponsorships, so that's another +1

Plus his blender animations are simple and cute, kinda like Miis!

I have a friend who's thinking about checking out the fediverse, and is looking for more aerospace (& maybe mechanical?) engineering-focused spaces. Do you guys have a suggested Lemmy, Piefed, or Mastodon instance/community that focuses on those topics? Maybe even a STEM community could be good enough. I know most of us are tech nerds on here, but we're more computer focused tech nerds 😅

My only requirement is that the instance can be viewed without sign-in, as I don't want to force them to make an account to check it out.

Thanks for the suggestions on the router post I made a few weeks back! I think I'll try to repurpose a no longer in use Mac Mini into being my OPNsense router on a VirtualBox VM! If that doesn't work then I'll consider buying one of the devices ya'll mentioned in the last post.

But now I'm trying to look for an access point to flash Openwrt on and a managed switch to do my VLANs. I looked at supported devices on the Openwrt hardware list and looked them up on ebay and started saving some to my watchlist, and now I have a lot of sale offers that are gonna end in 1-2 days.

Based on Openwrt's suggestions, I tried looking for devices that have at least 128 MB (1024 Mb) of RAM, 32 MB (256 Mb) of Flash, 2 cores, and support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connectivity. The specs need to support up to 1 Gbps Ethernet speeds, I haven't really thought much about the Wi-Fi speed. Mesh isn't required but I guess it'd be nice for future purposes. We use Cox, but we're thinking about switching to T-Mobile, idk if it will be fiber (SFPs are expensive right? Sigh...). I want to find something that's under $100, shipping included. These are the ones I have saved in my list so far (these are the regular listings):

::: spoiler Access Points

• Linksys Velop MX4200 (Tri-band, Mesh Wifi 6) - ebay link

• Zyxel NWA110AX (Wifi 6, Dual-band) - ebay link

• Cudy AX3000 (Tri-band, Mesh Wifi 6) - ebay link

• Linksys Velop MX5300 (Tri-band, Mesh Wifi 6) - ebay link

• Ubiquiti UnFi U6-LR (Wifi 6, Dual-band) - ebay link

:::

As for switches, I just need it to be managed (VLANs), have 4 ports (one for homelab PC, one for the AP, two extra for future). Here's the ones I looked at:

::: spoiler Switches

• TP-Link Omada ES206GP (6-port, 4 ports are PoE) - ebay link

• Ubiquiti UniFi USG-PRO-4 (4-port, does include two SFP ports) - ebay link

• HP NJ5000-5G (4-port, 2 ports are PoE) - ebay link

• HP MSM720 (4-port, 2 additional SFP ports) - ebay link

• TP-Link ES205GP (5-port, 4 ports are PoE) - ebay link

• Cisco RV220W (4-port) - ebay link

:::

EDIT: I talked with a guy and totally forgot an important point, does reflashing the hardware prevent me from using features with the vendors i listed? I know companies can suck

Mostly a "mildly infuriating" thing, but I had to setup my testing environment for a midterm.

First issue, my room is messy af lol, so I don't wanna be there and have the auto proctor be like "YOU COULD BE CHEATING!1!11!" because I've got stuff in the background, so I try to find a spot at my campus library, but bitches are loud af even on the upper floors.

Second issue, "Windows, Mac, and ChromeOS only" Sigh. Not suprised but, now I have to boot into my Windows partition that I haven't used in about half a year. And then redownload the coding environment again... Also fuck Microslop's file management and Onedrive. I love digging through folders figuring out where shit.

Third issue, the fucking testing environment just won't work when I do the device check. Had to download a bullshit extension to "lock down" the browser and get camera/mic access for the test, but it couldn't get my camera permission for some reason. Reload and re-setup like 5 times, no dice.

Fourth issue, even after disabling like every extension I had on UNGOOGLED chromium, I give up and download Google Spyware Chrome from scratch, re-login to everything, download the extension, and then FINALLY the rest of the setup works. Do a sweep of the room I'm in with the cam, and then test. Basically wasted like 30-40 mins setting up and downloading shit.

I was unsure if the proctor who reviews the footage would disapprove of me using the school computers because they're typically in an open environment (noise, people, books), so that's why I used my laptop instead of downloading the spyware to the school PCs. Similarly I did this test kinda last minute (due Sunday) so I couldn't just schedule an in person time on campus (I don't wanna drive on the weekend lol)

Hi, it's me again. I like to think that my endless questions help fuel community engagement to feel less bad :sweat_smile:

So like the title says, I'm interested in running an OPNsense router for my home network so I can do better firewall filtering for both security and privacy (ad-blocking, phoning home, etc.) purposes. I found this video by Dave's Garage that talks about running OPNsense in Transparent Filtering Bridge mode. I also researched that it's better to use a switch and APs for any wireless traffic rather than having the router/firewall combo do it, so any hardware suggestions there? Here's info about my network:

• 500 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload speeds (stick with 1 Gbps ports right?)
• My Proxmox homelab is wired connection only, so I need to use one of the switch ports for it
• We do have a door camera (I pray it's not Ring...), so I should set up VLANs right?
  • VLAN ideas: Guests, Family/Home, IoT, Homelab specifically? (any others suggestion VLANs/segmentation???)
  • Maybe I'll do selfhosted IoT devices in the future because of this? The homelab must grow
• My mom watches a lot of YT on our FireTV, so any guides on what IPs to block for that?

So what Mini PC should I stick with (just 2 ports for WAN & LAN is fine right)? Do I need to avoid any specific brand NICs (do Mediatek cards suck)? What 4-port switch would be good? What wireless AP is recommended? Furthermore, how do you go about running cables in your home? The coax plate that my modem is connected to is literally in the corner of my house. The Wifi is bad in some spots because of this, so we've thought about extenders. But if I do my homelab and have a wireless AP, I can just run an Ethernet cable from the switch to a properly placed AP (I guess I'd need PoE then...) right? My mom is afraid of tripping on wires and while I say to just run them along the baseboard, she's doubting me.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/39351554

Samtime tries out a Fairphone 6 running Ubuntu Touch and it seemed pretty fine. Noted issues were the second camera not working, GPS/Map app being a bit weird, and imo, the screen showing all the apps you have open is terrible. But with the reg app store and waydroid, I think it could be almost managable to use.

My mom is a battery life fiend though, so that part she won't let go of. What's your thoughts?

Samtime tries out a Fairphone 4 running Ubuntu Touch and it seemed pretty fine. Noted issues were the second camera not working, GPS/Map app being a bit weird, and imo, the screen showing all the apps you have open is terrible. But with the reg app store and waydroid, I think it could be almost managable to use.

My mom is a battery life fiend though, so that part she won't let go of. What's your thoughts?

Just adding another good video to the list of people covering the Discord age-verification issue. He mentions Discord's ties to Palantir and Peter Thiel, Trump's desire to destroy Section 230, and some helpful links:

What is section 230?

Contact your lawmakers: https://www.stoponlineidchecks.org/ https://www.badinternetbills.com/

jaubrey’s peter thiel series

The model is an HP Presario CQ57 Notebook PC:

• AMD C-50 Processor (1 GHz)
• 2 GB of DDR3 RAM (obviously I need more)
• 64-bit
• Ralink RT5390 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (It also has an Ethernet port but I'm unsure of how to find the details for it)

Currently I'm running Cockpit in Proxmox, which works fantastic by the way. But I saw this guide where they suggest splitting your compute and NAS, so I figured I could finally put this dusty win7 laptop to work.

The battery definitely has an issue, as it only works when plugged in. Should I bother with this laptop, or should I just buy a Pi or something? If I do use this, should I stick with Cockpit, or switch to something else like TrueNAS or Openmediavault? I have my 4 drives in a ZFS striped mirror configuration, with data traveling over USB (which sucks considering the non-USB 3.0 ports on the laptop...)

Once again, thanks for your guidance!

Some strange faces in my Immich...

Here's another:

I think my personal fave is the nun in the bottom row. Like she looks HELLA concerned.

I have a Netbird account I have tested and used to remotely access my network, and I plan to keep that account restricted to just me. Netbird has a free tier that's limited to 5 users/accounts and 100 peers (devices). I recently set up a Minecraft server on my Proxmox so I can play with a group of friends, but I obviously need more than just 4 accounts. Has anyone ever made a second account to share with multiple people? If you did, did you have MFA also turned on?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54239102

offline magic earth requires now a 15€ subscription

I liked using it but 15€/year for navigation is too much for me. I'm going to stick to osmand now. At least osmand is open source. It has roughly the same features. It's just not that beautiful. I paid for osmand btw. What's your alternative?

Edit: And I like paying for osmand because it is open source.

TL;DR: Unsure if I should just run Syncthing, or do a Nextcloud. Tailscale seems at risk of enshittification, so do I find alternatives or just use it for ease? Is Immich easy enough to set up without Tailscale? Stick with docker or podman for ease? Are externsl drives easy to work with? Should my RAID1 be NTFS or Ext4?

Starting My Selfhosting Journey I recently got my drive bay and Optiplex and have already flashed Proxmox onto it so I could eagerly spin up some local services to see what I wanna stick with. Or at least I tried anyway 😅

Jellyfin in a debian container was quick, painless and seems to work fine. But I was trying to set up Nextcloud and I felt lost, with the many different ways people go about it. When I tried to set up Nextcloud AIO in a Debian VM with docker it forces you to set a domain for your instance, but I only want to do local for now (ease and security until I get the hang of things). Which then runs into the hosting a domain via Tailscale problem. 90% of guides, videos, scripts, etc. seem to only focus/support Tailscale, but they force you to use third-party accounts for logins, and I started this whole thing to distance myself from Big Tech. Is Headscale or NetBird a better idea (when I do decide to remotely access)? Who's more beginner friendly? Similarly, docker or podman?

I do know the difference between Syncthing and Nextcloud, but I wonder which I should stick with. I want to start being better about backing up my phone and laptop, and I know I could use syncthing to share these backups with each other, but I thought it'd be nice to try to replace my minimal Google Drive and Onedrive usage with Nextcloud and just put everything there. I'd still have to backup that data to an external location though if I want to follow the 3-2-1. So should I just do encrypted backups and put them in a cheap provider's cloud, and drop the idea of a selfhosted cloud?

Similarly related to the Nextcloud issue, is Immich another heavily Tailscale dependant service?

Side note: How easy is it to use external drives with these services I've mentioned? I plan to use my drive bay that currently has 2TB (4 drives running in RAID1), so I can only connect to it via cable. Can I have most of my media stored on the drives, or will that not work? Also, I swear I had to keep verifying my login every few mins when accessing my drives on ext4 format? I switched it to NTFS recently but Windows can't read/see the drives at all (does it not like Linux formatting it?)

Future Ideas: Once I get these first few down, any suggestions? I'm feeling the power rush and craze from being free and able to run my own stuff, and I want to prove to my mom how useful it'll be. I want to move away from YT Music, and I've heard Jellyfin + Jellyamp works good, but is there another I should run (Navidrome)? Should I get into the arr services and torrenting (I do have ProtonVPN)?

I tried looking at previous posts but I just wanted a little more personalized advice. I'm extremely greatful for any help and I will make sure to post my beautiful setup later once I get it going after y'alls input. It's really exciting thinking about the possibilities!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/33597700

I know that I want to major in Cybersecurity, as it's been a passion of mine since middle school, and I really like my classes so far (Sophomore). But I'm starting to think about what to minor in because my degree leaves a lot of credits open for electives or other classes. My mom has stressed to me the importance of backup plans in case the cyber field crashes for some reason, and I understand, but it's stressing me a bit.

I'm trying to think about both my strengths, likes, what is relatively AI resistant, and is projected to have decent growth according to the US BLS. I've considered data science or a similar field, but I don't think I'm a huge business person.

What I'm good at:

• Sciences, specifically bio, chem, marine, and earth. I never did physics nor want to (it sounds boring...)
• Math, although my degree only required pre-calc at max. But it's always clicked for me as long as I do some short practice
• Writing, even if I hate it sometimes
• Tutoring/teaching others
• Being detail oriented (read: perfectionist)
• Leading a project (if no one else wants to)
• Public speaking

What I like:

• Biology is the best, I love learning about DNA/genetics, cells, viruses, animals
• Learning Japanese is a fun hobby, but I try to take it seriously too (with what extra time I have)
• Writing when I get to pick a topic I want to research
• Music and art. I did Orchestra (viola) most of my academic career, and I can't draw but I'd like to learn. I do like making infographics and presentations. I do like a little photography, but I don't have fancy equipment or know special techniques
• Tech, duh. I got very into computer networking, and I like learning about privacy and self-hosting.
• Helping people, although I'm not sure if I'd be good at being a counselor or community worker

What I hate:

• English. Specifically writing about shit I didn't pick (book reports, forced topic paper). Also how open-ended it can be ("Oh, A isn't wrong per se, but B is the best answer")
• Not a huge hands-on person, outside of exercising and gardening. I don't build stuff or want to be an engineer.
• Not a social butterfly, so hospitality wouldn't work. Despite being introverted, I also don't like talking to people via text, social media, and phone. I like being in person with people if I have to talk to them.

Need more practice/time:

• Coding. I really want to make wonderful software to help others, but I'm still a noob. I need to practice more to at least get comfy with Python...

• Apparently I was one of the few weirdos to like the trial week of learning SQL in high school, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd do for life or am good at

Any Cyber professionals think I should just go all in and minor in IT or CS? Or does spreading out a bit more sound good? I feel I could learn the additional useful skills (programming) in my own time rather than majoring in CS.

I know that I want to major in Cybersecurity, as it's been a passion of mine since middle school, and I really like my classes so far (Sophomore). But I'm starting to think about what to minor in because my degree leaves a lot of credits open for electives or other classes. My mom has stressed to me the importance of backup plans in case the cyber field crashes for some reason, and I understand, but it's stressing me a bit.

I'm trying to think about both my strengths, likes, what is relatively AI resistant, and is projected to have decent growth according to the US BLS. I've considered data science or a similar field, but I don't think I'm a huge business person.

What I'm good at:

• Sciences, specifically bio, chem, marine, and earth. I never did physics nor want to (it sounds boring...)
• Math, although my degree only required pre-calc at max. But it's always clicked for me as long as I do some short practice
• Writing, even if I hate it sometimes
• Tutoring/teaching others
• Being detail oriented (read: perfectionist)
• Leading a project (if no one else wants to)
• Public speaking

What I like:

• Biology is the best, I love learning about DNA/genetics, cells, viruses, animals
• Learning Japanese is a fun hobby, but I try to take it seriously too (with what extra time I have)
• Writing when I get to pick a topic I want to research
• Music and art. I did Orchestra (viola) most of my academic career, and I can't draw but I'd like to learn. I do like making infographics and presentations. I do like a little photography, but I don't have fancy equipment or know special techniques
• Tech, duh. I got very into computer networking, and I like learning about privacy and self-hosting.
• Helping people, although I'm not sure if I'd be good at being a counselor or community worker

What I hate:

• English. Specifically writing about shit I didn't pick (book reports, forced topic paper). Also how open-ended it can be ("Oh, A isn't wrong per se, but B is the best answer")
• Not a huge hands-on person, outside of exercising and gardening. I don't build stuff or want to be an engineer.
• Not a social butterfly, so hospitality wouldn't work. Despite being introverted, I also don't like talking to people via text, social media, and phone. I like being in person with people if I have to talk to them.

Need more practice/time:

• Coding. I really want to make wonderful software to help others, but I'm still a noob. I need to practice more to at least get comfy with Python...
• Apparently I was one of the few weirdos to like the trial week of learning SQL in high school, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd do for life or am good at

Any Cyber professionals think I should just go all in and minor in IT or CS? Or does spreading out a bit more sound good? I feel I could learn the additional useful skills (programming) in my own time rather than majoring in CS.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/23565790

Hello! I'm currently working on a research paper for my English composition course, and we were given free reign on the topic. I decided to do my topic on the history of queerness in gaming, and I'm not only talking about queer characters, but also the gaming community too. So far, my major sources focus on things like:

• Demographics of games with queer characters (which identities, created in what country, what year was the game made, etc.)
• I want to try to find more stuff about trans, enby, and ace characters as I feel their representation is a little underepresented
• Opinions of queer and non-queer gamers on queer representation in games
• How fan interpretations, fanon, and external content (like social media posts) is important to gaming too
• What games do right and wrong with representation, especially when it comes to "non-gendered" character creators
• How localizations/translations are sometimes used to censor queerness. Also about how queerness can be seen differently around the world.
• Some info on Gamergate, but that's not a major focus of the paper
• A pinch of info about feminist gaming, but not necessarily lesbian-women-only gaming

I want to make sure I'm hitting what people find important to explain and teach to others, as the goal of this paper is to be read by anyone who's curious to learn. So if there's any topic you deem extremely important that shouldn't be missed, please tell me! Also, I'm a little more knowledgeable about JRPGs compared to popular western games, so character recommendations to bring up are appreciated greatly.

I plan to promote a survey about this stuff later on, I just need to get my questions together :). I will crosspost this to other gaming or queer communities, so you might see me there too!

This post is also on Reddit, although due to it being a new account I'm going to struggle to gain traction there with the low karma bans :(

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/23565790 Cross-posting here to target gamers in general!

Hello! I'm currently working on a research paper for my English composition course, and we were given free reign on the topic. I decided to do my topic on the history of queerness in gaming, and I'm not only talking about queer characters, but also the gaming community too. So far, my major sources focus on things like:

• Demographics of games with queer characters (which identities, created in what country, what year was the game made, etc.)
• I want to try to find more stuff about trans, enby, and ace characters as I feel their representation is a little underepresented
• Opinions of queer and non-queer gamers on queer representation in games
• How fan interpretations, fanon, and external content (like social media posts) is important to gaming too
• What games do right and wrong with representation, especially when it comes to "non-gendered" character creators
• How localizations/translations are sometimes used to censor queerness. Also about how queerness can be seen differently around the world.
• Some info on Gamergate, but that's not a major focus of the paper
• A pinch of info about feminist gaming, but not necessarily lesbian-women-only gaming

I want to make sure I'm hitting what people find important to explain and teach to others, as the goal of this paper is to be read by anyone who's curious to learn. So if there's any topic you deem extremely important that shouldn't be missed, please tell me! Also, I'm a little more knowledgeable about JRPGs compared to popular western games, so character recommendations to bring up are appreciated greatly.

I plan to promote a survey about this stuff later on, I just need to get my questions together :). I will crosspost this to other gaming or queer communities, so you might see me there too!

This post is also on Reddit, although due to it being a new account I'm going to struggle to gain traction there with the low karma bans :(

Sidenote: Lemmy.zip is actually my home instance on my personal account, love it here!

Hello! I'm currently working on a research paper for my English composition course, and we were given free reign on the topic. I decided to do my topic on the history of queerness in gaming, and I'm not only talking about queer characters, but also the gaming community too. So far, my major sources focus on things like:

• Demographics of games with queer characters (which identities, created in what country, what year was the game made, etc.)
• I want to try to find more stuff about trans, enby, and ace characters as I feel their representation is a little underepresented
• Opinions of queer and non-queer gamers on queer representation in games
• How fan interpretations, fanon, and external content (like social media posts) is important to gaming too
• What games do right and wrong with representation, especially when it comes to "non-gendered" character creators
• How localizations/translations are sometimes used to censor queerness. Also about how queerness can be seen differently around the world.
• Some info on Gamergate, but that's not a major focus of the paper
• A pinch of info about feminist gaming, but not necessarily lesbian-women-only gaming

I want to make sure I'm hitting what people find important to explain and teach to others, as the goal of this paper is to be read by anyone who's curious to learn. So if there's any topic you deem extremely important that shouldn't be missed, please tell me! Also, I'm a little more knowledgeable about JRPGs compared to popular western games, so character recommendations to bring up are appreciated greatly.

I plan to promote a survey about this stuff later on, I just need to get my questions together :). I will crosspost this to other gaming or queer communities, so you might see me there too!

This post is also on Reddit, although due to it being a new account I'm going to struggle to gain traction there with the low karma bans :(