Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this.)

BlueMonday1984

2024-12-09 00:00:11

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 15th December 2024

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @[url=https://awful.systems/u/dgerard]David Gerard[/url] for starting this.)

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 17 March 2024 - awful.systems

Lemmy

^{awful.systems}

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this.)

Heute ist der 1. Dezember und damit wieder der Beginn unseres alljährlichen „Last Christmas“ Game.

Christkindlesmarkt in Nürnberg – Stand

Die Regeln sind einfach: über die letzten 12 Wochen haben 48 Freunde und ich je zwischen 5 und 500€ in einen Fonds eingezahlt. Dabei sind etwa 2500€ zusammengekommen, die jetzt in den Händen unserer geliebten Mitstreiterin Rachel ruhen.

Ab heute morgen 8 Uhr gilt: wer „Last Christmas“ hört, der verliert und ist raus. Last Person Standing darf dann entscheiden, wo am 24. Dezember die gesammelte Beute gespendet wird. In meinem Fall wäre das, wie jedes Jahr, Cap Anamur Deutsche Not-Ärzte, eine Organisation, die sich der weltweiten humanitären Hilfe geflüchteter aber auch von Naturkatastrophen und Krieg betroffener Menschen verschrieben hat.

Nicht erlaubt ist das absichtliche Absingen oder Abspielen des Liedes von anderen Teilnehmer, und es zählt auch nicht, wenn z.B. ein Kind (wissend, dass man teilnimmt) aus Spaß mal das Lied abflötet.

Für mich ist das dieses Jahr schwer. Ich habe mir vorgenommen, mindestens 24 Weihnachtsmärkte zu besuchen und zu fotografieren. Gegenwaffen sind vorsichtiges Vorgehen und, naja, extra 500€ in der Hand, falls ich verliere. Das sind keine 2500, aber immerhin etwas.

Persönlich schätze ich, dass ich so gegen 10. spätestens raus bin. Aber sehen wir mal.

Jetzt sind mittlerweile alle Kartons aus dem alten Haus und dem Zwischenlager eingetroffen, was sich besonders durch einen zugestellten Keller und ein ebenso zugestelltes Wohnzimmer bemerkbar macht. Den Schwedenofen konnte ich daher auch beim Schnee erstmal nicht aktivieren, aber bald bin ich ja „frei“ und kann mich um den Rest des Einzuges kümmern.
Der erste SchneeMein Arbeitsplatz
Meinen Arbeitsplatz habe ich, wie ich es mag, spartanisch gestaltet. Seit 2011 nutze ich schon keinen Desktop mehr, das hat damals mehr wehgetan als es heute tut, aber ich mag das Gefühl mit meiner Arbeit „eingesperrt“ zu sein, so ganz und gar nicht. Ich will wissen, dass ich genau jetzt einfach alles abbrechen könnte und mit kleinem Gepäck in ein Café gehen, oder in einem Zug weiterzuarbeiten.

Das kann man auch mit ganz viel Scripten und Kopieren machen, aber einfach den Laptop zum Arbeitstier erheben ist so viel einfacher.

Hach, wo wir gerade davon reden… bin gleich wieder da.

Ok, Mikka aus dem Café hier. Mit einem Kaiserschmarrn vor mir, einer dampfenden Tasse Kaffee, und meinem Computer. So muss Leben sein.

Mein Kaiserschmarrn, so muss das.

Und weil das Leben so sein muss, denke ich viel über die nächsten Schritte nach. Die kommen am 1.1.2025, wenn ich offiziell… ach, machen wir’s doch mal publik.

Ab dem neuen Jahr bin ich ganz offiziell nicht mehr angestellt. Ich werde mich, mehr oder minder, zwei oder drei Jahre in die Selbstständigkeit begeben, um in dieser Zeit ein Studium der Medizindidaktik abzuschließen, vielleicht ein wenig YouTube zu machen, viel zu reisen, viel zu wandern, und mich auf den, wie ich das jetzt sehe, letzten großen Umschwung in meinem Leben vorzubereiten.

Vor etwa fünfzehn Jahren habe ich mal ein Video auf dem jetzt toten Medimikka Kanal auf YouTube gemacht. Eines der wenigen, von denen ich wünschte ich hätte es gespeichert. Es ging um die Arten der Veränderungen.

Da gibt es Treppensteiger, die sich durch stetiges Steigen verändern. Sie wissen schon am Anfang, wo sie am Ende sein werden und wollen, wenn nichts dazwischenkommt. Der Aufwand ist absehbar, das Risiko auch. Viele Menschen sind Treppensteiger, und nicht wenige haben Gründe (oder Ausreden) warum es auf genau dieser Treppenstufe genau richtig und gut ist, und man erstmal nicht weitersteigen will.

Dann gibt es die Lianenmenschen. Ich bin so einer. Man schwingt von Ziel zu Ziel, von Veränderung zu Veränderung, aber immer mit einer Liane fest in der Hand. Die lässt man erst dann los, wenn die andere Liane ebenso fest umfasst ist. Und auch hier kann es sein, dass man lieber an dem alten Strang festhält, lieber einfach da bleibt, als die Energie und den Schwung aufzubauen, zur nächsten Liane zu schwingen, diese fest zu greifen, und dann von der lieb gewordenen ersten loszulassen.

Und dann gibt es die BASE-Jumper. Chute gepackt steht man an der Kante und springt einfach. Man hofft, dass er eigene Skill ausreichend ist, dass der Chute richtig gepackt ist, und dass man alles richtig macht, bevor man am Boden ankommt oder aufschlägt. Hochrisiko, aber auch seht belohnend, wenn man es schafft.

Der eigene Skill und das eigene Risiko steigt von Treppe über Liane zu BASE-Jump. Wie gesagt, war ich bisher immer ein Lianenmensch, aber das hier wird ein BASE, und mir geht ordentlich die Muffe.

Naja, erstmal einen Monat noch einziehen, das Haus auf Trab bekommen, den Schwedenofen anmachen, und dann sehen wir weiter. Wenn alles schlimm auf schlimm kommt, kann ich immer noch wieder als Tellerwäscher oder Koch anheuern. Die braucht’s auch immer.

Earlier this month, we made a call for participation for the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025 . I’ve also been contacting the leading Free and Open Source software developers working on ActivityPub, Mastodon clients, tools, frameworks, and libraries to make sure they’re aware of the event.

One of the main questions I’ve had is: “I’m a software developer, not a marketer or product manager. I’m not used to giving presentations about my work. What should I say, and how should I say it?” Instead of answering a dozen emails and DMs with the same info, I thought it would be good to provide some guidelines in a public blog post, for anyone who’s planning to submit a proposal.

These are meant to be helpful hints to people who are feeling blocked about giving a presentation, not absolute requirements. If you don’t want or need this advice, skip it!

Audience

The audience at FOSDEM roughly breaks down into two main groups: Free and Open Source software developers, and Free and Open Source software superfans. There is a big intersection between these two sets!

Regardless, there are just a few things that the members of the audience are there to find out from your presentation:

• Should they become a contributor to your Free and Open Source software project?
• Should they build something interesting using your software as a base?
• Should they install or use your software to solve a problem that they have?
• Should they recommend your software to someone else to solve their problem?
• Have you learned something important that they need to know?

Everyone at the event will be familiar with Free and Open Source software; most of the people in the room will be familiar with the advantages of the Fediverse over siloed social networking. Many will be Fediverse developers themselves.

Style

For your presentation, try to follow these guidelines:

• Include visuals. Try to include images on every slide, if possible. Screenshots are a great way to convey a lot of information quickly.
• Use speaker notes. Not everything you say needs to be on the slide.
• Be personal. Social software is about connecting people. Include information about yourself, your team, and your users, to your level of comfort.
• (Almost) no code. Avoid code samples on your slides, unless your project is a library or toolkit and code is the primary interface.
• Be specific. Use real dates, real statistics, and real measurements if at all possible. Name names of projects or commercial software or services.
• No live demos. Don’t try to demo your project live. You can convey most of this information as screenshots. We believe your code works; you don’t have to prove it. We can download it and test it ourselves if there’s any question.
• Be exactly as important as you are. Don’t downplay the importance or quality of your project, but also don’t try to puff it up into something it’s not. It’s OK to solve a specific problem for specific users. If you care about it enough to work on it, we will care about it.

Outline

This is a sample outline for a 25-minute presentation with 20-30 slides. You don’t have to follow this if you have better ideas for flow; this is just a guideline for those who need a skeleton.

• Introduction
  
  • The project you are going to talk about
  • The part of the project that you are going to focus on (or general)
  • A one-sentence explanation of what your project does
  • Your name, affiliation, location, and your relationship to the project
  • Number of team members and names

  
  

• Context
  
  • The area of functionality your project works in
  • Why that functionality is important to people
  • What other projects, commercial software, or commercial services provide that functionality
  • Statistics showing that this functionality matters
  • Examples or anecdotes showing that this functionality matters

  
  

• Challenge
  
  • What problem does your project intend to solve?
  • Whose problem is it?
  • Why is it a hard problem?
  • What other problems arise when you try to solve it?
  • Who else has tried to solve it? Why didn’t it work well enough for you?

  
  

• Overcoming
  
  • How you and your team started working on this problem
  • What tools you used
  • The first version: when and how
  • New problems that arose after first implementation
  • The next version: how you fixed those problems

  
  

• Learning
  
  • Did your team solve the problem? Show numbers and examples.
  • What has surprised you? Who used the software in a way you didn’t expect, or made something that delighted you?
  • What new challenges have come up now that your project exists?
  • What do you wish you’d known before you started?
  • How can the devroom audience learn more of what you learned?

  
  

For an 8-minute lightning talk, keep it super tight! Here’s an 8-slide presentation outline:

• Introduce yourself (name, affiliation, location)
• Introduce your project (name, one-sentence explanation, team info)
• Context on the area of work
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• Who came together to overcome the problem
• What tools and techniques did they use to overcome it
• How did it work (so far)?
• What will you do next?

Preparation

The key to a successful presentation is preparing well ahead of time. Make an outline early, and then transfer it to slides. Add speaker notes. Make placeholders for images; don’t work too hard on visual aspects until you’re sure of the structure and content. Practice just the words for yourself, and make sure to check the time. Practice at least once for an audience, even if it’s your mom or your cat. Do the visual aspects last, once you know the structure and the text are correct. Practice words and names that might be challenging.

Conclusion

We’re all going to be in the Social Web Devroom because we care about the Fediverse. If you can show how and why you think the Fediverse matters and your project will make it better, we’re going to be right there with you. Thanks for considering a proposal!

Evan Prodromou

2024-11-02 00:32:12

FOSDEM 2025 – Social Web Devroom – Call For Participation

The Social Web Foundation is pleased to announce the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025, and invite participants to submit proposals for talks for the event.

FOSDEM is an exciting free and open source software event in Brussels, Belgium that brings together thousands of enthusiasts from around the world. The event spans the weekend of February 1-2, 2025 and features discussion tracks (“devrooms”) for scores of different technology topics.

The Social Web Devroom will take place in the afternoon of Saturday, February 1.

Format

There will be two available talk formats:

• 25 minutes – for bigger projects, followed by 5 minutes of questions.
• 8 minutes – lightning talks on smaller or newer projects, in groups of 3, followed by 6 minutes of combined questions for the group.

Topics

The Social Web Devroom is open to talks all about the Social Web AKA the Fediverse, including:

• Implementations of the ActivityPub protocol or ActivityPub API
• Clients for ActivityPub-enabled software like Mastodon
• Supporting services for the Fediverse, like search or onboarding
• ActivityPub-related libraries, toolkits, and frameworks
• Tools, bots, platforms, and related topics

Important dates

• Submission open: 1 Nov 2024
• Submission deadline: 1 Dec 2024
• Acceptance notifications: 10 Dec 2024
• Final schedule announcement: 15 Dec 2024
• Devroom: 1 Feb 2025

Submissions

Submit talk proposals to pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2025… . Select “Social Web” from the “Track” dropdown, and include the length of your talk (8/25) in the submission notes.

Code of Conduct

All attendees and speakers must be familiar with and agree to the FOSDEM Code of Conduct fosdem.org/2025/practical/cond….

Contact

Questions about topics, formats, or the Social Web in general should go to contact@socialwebfoundation.org.

FOSDEM 2025

Schedule, talks and talk submissions for FOSDEM 2025

^{pretalx.fosdem.org}