Notices by Doctor Popular (docpop@mastodon.social)

TIL that @mmasnick has released a new social media-themed card game with my buddy @randylubin

One Billion Users: The Social Media Card Game is on Kickstarter now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mmasnick/one-billion-users-the-social-media-card-game?ref=butts #BoardGame

Or maybe this text is better?

Sketching out some sticker ideas. Thoughts?

@foon @jwz according to that chart, bike and pedestrian collisions are down. Scooters accidents are triple what they used to be though... right?

If so, that could be because more folks are using scooters now (especially food delivery services). I might be bad at understanding the chart, but it looks like it's showing safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians. And it's still trending downwards even though bike ridership has been going up.

@godzero @jwz sort of. It's a big rubber bumper and some plastic poles. Enough to discourage most drivers, but not enough to actually stop a car.

@jwz I think you should. It''s 100% safer than it used to be. We might have hot-takes on where the protected bike lanes should be, but there's no doubt the old unprotected lanes were far worse than what we have now.

"Save the Valencia Center Bike Lane"

These new stickers are popping up along #ValenciaStreet in response to the city's plan to move the bike lanes to the sides.

I hated the center lanes at first, but they've really grown on me. I’ve noticed more people warming up to them, especially when I talk to pedestrians, who appreciate how the center lanes help reduce conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists.

The QR code points to https://biketoeverything.com/2024/10/31/save-the-valencia-center-bike/?utm_source=butts #SanFrancisco #MissionDistrict

#SlowSanchez is such a treasure. One of the few Slow Streets that really got the respect it deserves and the result is vibrant street that neighbors love. I feel so lucky to live close to here and I’m bummed the city didn’t put the same effort into other Slow Streets in the neighborhood (like Slow 20th). They could have been amazing.

The ActivityPub for WordPress plugin now allows you to preview how your post will appear in the Fediverse. Great work, @pfefferle! #ActivityPub #WordPress

Whoa, just saw Mastodon slip a "who to follow" suggestion in my feed for the first time. I'm guessing they are playing with no ways to keep new users engaged. I'm going to nope right out of that real quick, but I think other users might find that sort of thing helpful. It's nice to see the Masto folks trying new things.

@mekkaokereke like you said, these issues aren't limited to technical limitations, so it's a bummer that folks spun up a new protocol instead of adding them to the existing systems. When I chatted with ActivityPub and Mastodon folks about some of ATP's features, the main thing I heard was, "these are cool ideas and we could totally add them if we had more developers."

I'm 46 and never listened to a Cure album before. I fixed that today. "Songs Of a Lost World" is a pretty good album. Not sure if I'll be playing it again, but it was better than I expected.

@evan @okpierre @Mushi @galactus @bnewbold.net @mmasnick.bsky.social fascinating convo. It's interesting to say "open source" is not the same as "open standard" and that both are needed for true decentralization. That makes sense, but I'm not understanding what BSKY needs to change in order to be open standard.

Are you saying the code is open source, but still requires a proprietary piece (like a company-controlled server)?

You're never too old to learn how to wheatpaste.

New #yoyo trick. I'm calling it "Touching Grass".

I post a lot of #yoyo videos here and frequently get asked "what's a good starter yo-yo?"

So I put together a special starter-pack, just for my friends here in the fediverse. This pack includes a Bolt yo-yo, a starter comic, and string. I've also customized each of these Bolts, so the art on each cap is unique.

I've put up 10 of these starter packs on my site for $55 each. https://doctorpopular.com/shop/yo-yo-starter-kit-for-fediverse-friends/

A game developer shared a new project on X a few weeks ago and said she built it with Unreal Engine, to which some dude replied, "Woke studios always use pre-built engines to make games because they can't build their own engines."

It was an INCREDIBLY stupid reply, which quickly became a meme in the gaming community.

Godot then posted "Apparently game engines are woke now?" (an objectively solid post, TBH) and gamers claimed the post was "too political". That's the post this is all about.

Some assholes are even leaving negative reviews on great games simply because they were built with a "woke" game engine. Fuck these bullies. https://mastodon.social/@AlexandreGilotte@mastodon.gamedev.place/113249738133699607

BTW, Gobs and Gods is on sale and looks fantastic. It only has two negative reviews (which both complain about the game engine being "woke", not the game itself) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2506900/Gobs_and_Gods/

@dogfox that's how I read it too, but then I saw it was a negative review. Confusing that they used hearts there.

@evan most folks download it directly from https://godotengine.org/ but putting it on Steam provides a nice distribution alternative along with some added chat and messageboards that some people might like. The big advantage of using Steam is auto-updating.

I have a few art and non-gaming apps connected through Steam just so I can get those auto-updates.