I had originally been following an open source Diablo 1 project called Freeablo, but apparently he stopped because DevilutionX had basically finished before he did. I've been wanting to replay Diablo 1 for a while now, but now that I know this project exists, it's definitely something I'm going to try out soon.

I was trying to help a former coworker figure out why an assembly seemed to be missing when an application was copied from one computer to another, as the application directory usually contains all the assemblies it needs with it. As part of my research, I found this article which specifies ALL of the rules of how the .NET Runtime locates them.

I figured I would share, since a lot of people can get tripped up by this.

In my quest to prepare myself for reddit's usefulness significantly declining come June 30 / July 1st, I've essentially been having to brainstorm solutions to what I've been using it for.

While I'm attempting Lemmy for the discussion forum side of things, (It's not the only thing I'm trying, but it's the most promising so far), it has been a challenge to replace the link-aggregator aspect of reddit due to the distributed nature of Lemmy. I can no longer just rely on others to find information for me to stay informed. (Not that that was especially a great idea, looking at that statement now, I will admit I just got complacent and lazy)

I randomly remembered RSS feeds were a thing, and decided to look back into it. While definitely not as prevalent as it once was, many places still support it. (Including both Lemmy and reddit; though with reddit who knows for how long)

RSS is probably my best bet, but admittedly, I will have to remember how to use/search the internet again (I really let myself get way too lazy) to find sites that I'm interested in and that support RSS. There's also the issue of finding an appropriate RSS reader, which has proven slightly more complicated than what I was hoping for.

My first RSS reader attempt was the Feedly reader for android. However, I couldn't create an organized feed list to my satisfaction without paying a subscription fee. That may be fine for most people, I personally didn't want another subscription service. Especially when there may be open-source alternatives that I could try to figure out myself (Even if it's a hassle to learn).

After that, I tried to make my RSS reader criteria much more narrow (I believe I included open source as part of my search terms). While I didn't make a list of everything I found (sorry), I did find one that is next on my list of things to try: Tiny Tiny RSS

I have done some preliminary research and testing on this, so I will post some pros, cons and unknowns to this application.

Tiny Tiny RSS Pros, Cons, Information, and Unknowns

• Pros
  • Free / Open Source
  • Has many application clients that can connect to Tiny Tiny RSS instances that are free (I have not tested these yet)
    • Windows Store: Tiny Tiny RSS Reader 2
    • Android: TTRSS-Reader
    • iPhone: tiny Reader RSS
• Cons
  • Unless you know of a public site/instance, a person who wants to use this would have to administrate it themselves.
  • Looking over the installation guide, "general" users would likely find the install process to be very involved
  • Platform Specific
    • Windows
      • Tiny Tiny RSS uses docker, which, according to the documentation will still end up using a form of linux
        • This is not an issue for me, but could be for other less-savy users, especially if something goes wrong.
  • While not explicitly required, having networking knowledge can make it easer for others to use it.
  • If self hosting on your home network
    • Unless you're willing to allow outside connections to your network in some way, would only be available for that network
  • If hosting elsewhere
    • Very unlikely to be free, which would defeat the purpose of using this, IMO
      • Yes, techincally hardware isn't free, but the costs are at least up front (if you exclude the somewhat minor increase in the electricity bill) if you buy it yourself, and not another subscription to deal with
• Extra information
  • Windows
    • To install on windows, it will require docker, which requires either
      • Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
        • Every currently surported edition of windows supports this, provided it is up to date
      • Hyper-V
        • Cannot be used with Home Edition
  • Linux
    • Uses docker, but no odd subsystems or Virtual Machines
    • Ideas
      • Tiny Tiny RSS can be installed on a Raspberry Pi
        • Don't forget to consider storage requirements, Tiny Tiny RSS is downloading from RSS feeds
        • Probably one of the cheapest setup options, unless you already have another linux machine available
  • Outside access thoughts
    • Could theoretically set up a VPN to your home network to access your RSS Feed safely
    • If you understand the security implications, you could also make it publicly accessible through port forwarding
      • The advantage to this is that you could have friends use your RSS feed as well
      • If you decide to do this, make sure you really do your homework for computer and network security
• Unknowns
  • What public Tiny Tiny RSS sites may already exist
  • I have not tested each Tiny Tiny RSS client application that I have listed above

Looking at the list above, there's certainly a lot of downsides for most people, but I don't think it should deter the determined.

Although, the more I think about things like this, the more I consider just setting up my own homelab. But I think Tiny Tiny RSS can at least fulfill my needs for the short term.

Due to Character limit, an explanation for this post will be appended below this post as a comment.

Ideas

Federation

This section is devoted to improving the Federation experience. Part of the advantage of Federation is that you don't need to belong to any instance in particular, but still be able to access other instances/communities. Now the basic problem with this is just the initial connections, it takes time and searching to find everything you may be interested in, in which there are tools to support this. That being said, I definitely think there can be ways to better support this process, and to create a more quickly connected experience while still allowing granular curation of an instance/site.

Curation Tools

This section is essentially to assist both the ability for users, site admins and site moderators to shape the experience of an Instance/Community/Subscription.

Instance/Site Tools

Concepts and powers that belongs to a site owner or administrator.

Whitelist, Graylist, Blacklist, CustomList for Instances and/or Communities

This sort of exists, but I want to add some more granular control.

• White List
  • To those familiar with the concept, this is pretty straightforward, but I would like for this to be more featured.
  • This is to explicitly federate with another instance, and have at least their community names show up when clicking on communities.
    • I would say provide an option to automatically federate whitelisted communities for whitelisted instances, but not required. This will just help sites/instances get up and running fast if they share interests/values.
  • Could also do this for specific communities in an instance.
• Gray List
  • This is may be an odd one, but I think it's important.
  • When sites federate with one another, as far as I can tell, it's just automatic, as long as it's enabled.
  • My thought is that this list would simply be sites/communities that have not been vetted/explicitly approved by the admin
  • This ties in with another idea I have, where in addition to a Subscribed, Local, and All, there is another tab called Recommended or Curated, or Linked, which will be described later.
  • In addition to Admins, my idea is that users can choose whether they see communities that belong to the graylist by default.
• Black List
  • This is kind of already a thing, but I'd like it to be slightly more granular in control
  • Not just site blacklisting, but community, just in case it's just one community that's annoying.
• Custom List
  • A custom list that is somewhere between White List and Gray List.
  • Could be used for more curated listing_types, as the URL would seem to imply.
  • Perhaps users could create something similar for themselves, a concept not too dissimilar to the way multi-reddits work back in reddit.
  • All lists should have these controls, honestly. You could make multiple White List types, if you felt like it.

Community tools

This would be similar to instance/site tools, but more specific and limited in scope. These settings would not override site/instance settings.

• Connected Communities
  • When on an instance, a community can explicity "connect" to another instance's community to have that other instance's community appear alongside the local one.
  • Users can override this setting for themselves.
  • A local community could theoretically allow moderators from another "connected" community to moderate the local one as well
    • Local moderators would always have the final say for what is allowed/posted in that community.

Site/Instance "Name Server"

This is inspired by a couple of technologies/ and ideas I have seen in the past. This is somewhat of a "meta" (Not the Facebook kind) idea, and to some degree, it kind of already exists with sites like Lemmy Community-Browser. However, I think it would be a good idea to have something with at least a "standard" approach.

Not dissimilar to a DNS, a separate, central server with a given standard whose purpose it is to serve Lemmy instances/sites. A site would register with the "Name Server", and a Lemmy instance could then point itself to it to "lookup" other sites automatically. These name servers could also be aware of other name servers, and ask other name servers if it cannot find what is being requested, and then update themselves if found on another name server. Distributed searching and federation.

A site/instance could choose not to do this, of course.

Searching, Sorting

Ideas that make finding and connecting to known communities easier.

Community Tags / Labels

When it comes to federating and searching sites, being able to find what you are looking for is essential. I think that being able to identify a community a tag or label would make finding an relevant community much easier.

Tags/Labels should have two aspects/properties:

A "name", and a "type"

A type should specific what kind of Label/Tag it is.

Label Tag Type Examples:

• Franchise / Intellectual Property
  • Obviously this tag type name could use some work
  • Example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • Star Wars
    • Marvel
    • DC
    • Lord of the Rings
    • Final Fantasy
• Person
  • About a specific person
  • Example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • George Lucas
    • Keanu Reeves
• Career / Job / Role / Profession
  • About something someone does
  • Example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • Author
    • Firefighter
• Group
  • As in a collection of people, rather than a specific person
  • Generic example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • A Political Party
    • American Labor Party
      • Chosen from the wikipedia category Defunct US Political Parties
    • A Business or Non-profit
      • Such as Square Enix
    • An Organization or Club
      • Maybe too close to Business/non profit?
        • I was thinking of a group of people that isn't necessarily a legal entity of some kind, but those are rare
• Hobby
  • Special Interests, done for leisure
  • Generic example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • A Sport
      • Rugby
    • A genre of Games
      • Table Top Roleplaying Game
      • Video Games
      • Card Games
    • A Crafting/creating task
      • Knitting
      • Woodworking
• Industry
  • A category that labels an economic category
  • Example tag names that could fit this type:
    • Finance/Banking
    • Public Safety
    • Restaurant
      • McDonalds or Wendys is an Example
    • Hospitality
      • Hotels would be an example
    • Information Technology
    • Software / Programming
• Science
  • Example tag/label names that could fit this type:
    • Biology
    • Computer Science
    • Geology
    • Chemistry
• More!
  • Feel free to give me more Label/Tag type ideas, this is kind of open ended, I admit

Full Label/Tag Examples:

Template:

- Name
  - Tag Type

• Minecraft
  • Hobby
• Biology
  • Science
• C#
  • Industry / Hobby
    • Cases like these annoy me, because this can fit both.
      • I mean, technically almost anything can fit into Hobby, but I feel as though the majority case is Industry.
      • Perhaps tag/label names can have more than one type, and you can choose to be specific or not.
        • The purpose is to make it more searchable/identifiable, so having more than one type wouldn't be a bad thing.
      • Need Feedback
• Writing
  • Profession / Hobby
• Teaching
  • Profession

This part is a bit more subjective, and could warrant further discussion. I like this idea below, but it could have flaws. Feel free to give feedback to this.

When I originally envisioned tags, Communities should be able to pick one tag as the "Main" tag, but can have as many "lower power" or "sub" tags as they want. Then, a user could search by a "Main" tag name or "Main" tag type, and if they want something more specific, add rules that search the "lower power" or "sub" tags.

This could be built into the "Name Server" idea listed above.

Lemmy Concepts

These are ideas to improve features that kind of already exist in Lemmy, but would be expanded.

Custom listing_type

Originally, my idea was to have some new defaults which is still a good idea, but I have a better idea on how to implement them now.

Currently, there are three options for viewing communities on an instance: Subscribed, Local, and All

I just want an option to create and configure more of these, whether it's at the site, user level, or both.

For example, a site/instance configured "Related" listing_type that lists communities, from both Local and All that the site/instance admin configured to be "Related" to the site.

• Other options for naming this configured listing_type could include: Recommended, Curated, Linked

This is different from All, because All contains all federated communities, whether it's related to a site/instance or not. Another filter could be related to the "White List" idea above.

A user can choose to not use those custom filters, or create their own personal filters.

Ideas for Filterable fields:

• Instance/Site
• Specific Communities
• tag/label
  • Theoretical field from the ideas above
• List (White, Gray, Custom)
  • Theoretical field from the ideas above
• Filter Operators
  • AND
  • OR

Max limit reached, appending Usability Improvements as comment below.

Is a request being made? No exceptions in JavaScript, no captured network requests.

I'm sharing this link here because I did not know much about BSD, except a few odd facts.

For example, the PlayStation 4's OS is based upon FreeBSD.

Something I learned from the article:

Operating systems needs kernels. Linux is a kernel, which is why there are many operating systems for it. (Red Hat, Debian, Arch, etc)

I don't know why I was confused about that considering I recently was at school for it, I somehow thought of operating systems and kernels as being interchangeable for some reason.

Also, macOS is apparently based off of BSD as well, which I did not know either.

I'm so excited, I'm finally getting to build my computer that I've been wanting to build, while some parts are already bought, this is essentially my build list:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Hn4gRv

I've also decided to mount the new monitor I'm getting on the wall with this:

https://mount-it.com/products/height-adjustable-monitor-wall-mount-full-motion-gas-spring-arms-mi-3753b?_pos=5&_fid=74cd7f447&_ss=c

and lastly, I have a Micro Center near me, so I decided to look there for the case:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/652904/msi-mpg-gungnir-120r-tempered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black

This is the first time I'm building a higher-end computer for both price and capabilities for its time. I cannot wait for it all to arrive!!!

This post is mostly for myself, honestly. These are communities I like from reddit, but are likely not a great fit for this instance. Since I was documenting all the communities I was a part of, I figured this was at least worth posting. If you find any of them are interesting, feel free to add it.

Want

Pets

• parrots / birbs

Self-improvement, Skills, Advice

• ADHD
• DIY

News / Entertainment

• news
• webcomics
• business
• worldnews

Kind of Want

Social

• askreddit/equivalent
• self
• IAmA
• offmychest
• unsentletters
• mildlyinteresting
• mildlyinfuriating

Creative Communities

• polandball
• photoshopbattles

Self-improvement, Skills, Advice

• frugal
• writing / write

Passing Interest

Self-improvement, Skills, Advice

• college
• cooking
• parenting
• dance
• singing
• fitness
• bicycling
• flexibility
• socialskills
• malefashonadvice
• loseit
• explainlikeimfive

News / Entertainment

• economy
• upliftingnews
• Chicken_thoughts
• NPR

Maybe too specific

Self-improvement, Skills, Advice

• backtocollege
• LearnJapanese
• keto
• frugalmalefashion
• buyitforlife
• bodyweightfitness
• DatingAfterThirty

Location-based

• gmu - (A University)

Meta

• bestoflegaladvice

Social

• Idontworkherelady
• dontyouknowwhoIam
• maliciouscompliance
• funnyandsad
• Pareidolia
• okcupid
• retiredgif

Creative Communities

• historicalwhatif
• IAmAFiction
• armoredwomen
• vexillologyCircleJerk (A silly community based upon flags, I would want to rename it if I wanted something similar)

Trading / Sales

• gameswap (While maybe technically a good fit, it's probably not a good idea here)
• animedeals

Location-based

• PrinceWilliamCounty
• Japan
• Australia
• Seattle
• UnitedKingdom
• Virginia
• nova

Historical

Just for reference.

• PartyParrot (A celebration of birds, essentially)
• inthesoulstone (Back from reddit's snap event. I just want to remember.)
• C_programming (Already exists here, but I'm subscribed on Reddit)

This post serves two purposes:

• To discuss possible communities for this instance.
• To archive communities that I was previously subscribed to from reddit.
  • My memory is really bad, and it's possible that I could lose my ability to find the kinds of things I'm looking for.

This post is not comprehensive, I just think these particular communities have the most relevance to what I've seen here so far. It is ordered by my personal preference, then by category/subcategory.

Feel free to throw out ideas for consolidation. Since this place is relatively small at the moment, I figure it's better to be more general than specific right now.

(Are tags/labels a thing in lemmy? That could help organize more general communities)

Want

Communities that I really like, and think would be a good fit, though some consolidation might be necessary.

Tech

• technology
• gadgets
• geek
• technews
• electricvehicles (Maybe?)

Development / Administration

• programming
• learnprogramming / askprogramming
• csharp
• dotnet
• linux / linux4noobs
• PowerShell
• gamedev
• webdev

Gaming

• boardgames
• games/gaming
• webgames
• outside (Maybe too specific, but I love this place)

Kind of Want

Communities that I browse, but don't participate in that often.

Tech

• buildapc (Perhaps should be a part of PC Gaming, but there's many reasons to build a PC)

Development / Administration

• typescript
• fsharp
• programmerHumor
• homelab

Meta communities

Communities about communities/instances.

• bestof One for this instance, perhaps)

Loose fit

Communities that may or may not fit this instance, but has some overlap or adjacency, at least.

• movies
• anime
• audiobooks
• personalfinance
• jobs
• cscareerquestions

Passing Interest

Communities that I'm subscribed to, but probably needs some consolidation or renaming.

Tech

• rust (the programming language)
• devops
• amateurradio

Gaming

• gamesociety (Like a book club for games. Perhaps could belong to retro, but I'm not sure)
• gamemusic

Retro

Possible consolidation candidate. RetroGaming, intended for games/consoles out of support/no longer being made.

• RockinTheClassics

Specific Genres

Perhaps too specific, but I'm not sure if this is easily consolidated. Ideas welcome.

• flightsim

Loose fit

Communities that may or may not fit this instance, but has some overlap or adjacency, at least.

• ted
• khan (khan academy)
• swords
• GameDeals
• datasets
• futurology
• justrolledintotheshop (Sort of like IT work, IMO)

Maybe too specific

These are communities I'm subscribed to, but they are usually very specific. If possible, I'd like to consolidate these, but it's tricky.

Tech

• AMD (Probably belongs to buildapc or PC_gaming, but could be a tag, if that's a thing in lemmy)

• Ubiquiti (Tech brand)

• cableManagement (Maybe this and the two below could belong to a homelab type thing, related to buildapc, perhaps)

• cableadvice

• deskCableManagement

Development / Administration

• CollaborateCode
• ADHD_programmers (This is so specific, but I fit into this category. I don't know where I'd find something similar)
• programmerTIL
• learncsharp - (Too specific, learnprogramming should be sufficient)
• darknetplan
• keepournetfree - (Technically could be considered a political issue (Related to net neutrality), but it's very specific. Up to you.)

Frameworks / Engines / Software

There has to be a better consolidated name for this kind of thing.

• angular2
• vulkan
• openGL
• Unity3D
• Unity2d
• unity_tutorials
• godot
• RPGMaker
• electronjs
• vmware
• ansible
• puppet
• azuredevops

Gaming

• linux_gaming (A subset of PC_gaming, perhaps, but it's a good niche, IMO)
• soloboardgaming (A subset of boardgaming, I don't know if lemmy supports tags)
• incremental_games (Perhaps belong to a genre type thing?
• gamernews (Probably unnecessary here, really, if we can tag posts)
• ludology (Probably unnecessary here, really, if we can tag posts)
• playdate (Not sure how this would work here, if it could)
• SteamPlay

Retro

Possible consolidation candidate. RetroGaming, intended for games/consoles out of support/no longer being made.

• dreamcast
• vita
• wiiu
• sega32x
• 3ds
• gameboyAdvance
• xlinkKai (Allows network play for older console games)

Modern

This is another candidate for consolidation. Games/Consoles that are still supported or being made.

• nintendoswitch

Specific Games

Probably too specific to make a community here, but I at least want to document it.

• anotheredenGlobal
• Fallout
• acecombat
• Starcraft
• Minecraft
• ffxiv (Perhaps could make a more general sub like MMO_Games)
• civ
  • theeternalwar (About a very specific game of civ3, only here for documentation purposes)
  • CivPolitics
• factorio
• simtower
• DissidiaFFOO
• sc2mods
• cityofheroes
• Freespace (Perhaps could inspire a more general community, OpenSource_Games or something)
• Wasteland

Content/Content Creator (?)

Loose fit, these are specific discussion forums I go to about people I follow or sites/content I pay attention to.

• TheWeeklyRoll
• TheCompletionist
• gametheorists
• Phelous