I don’t know anything about gnomes and barely anything about TTRPGs, but this question makes me think about social vs. medical models of disability. In our modern-day society, the social model would mean that autism is only a “disorder” because society doesn’t accommodate our needs well enough (or, sometimes, at all). It isn’t a disorder to be allistic because it’s “normal”, “the default”, nothing more than that. For example, in a hypothetical society where people widely use language very literally, the behaviour of not taking things literally could be labelled a disorder. Or if the vast majority of people had sound sensitivity, then someone without it who often forgets to keep their voice down might be seen as disordered. So if you do decide to go with this idea, I think there might be something to explore there when gnomes are interacting amongst themselves vs. with other groups.

If you’re concerned about “game author compares autistic people to gnomes”, is there a different class to use that might be a better choice? (I have no idea, but it sounds like maybe gnomes have a negative stereotype?)

I’d love to have this feature, too. I typically use the in-app browser (web view), but sometimes would rather open a link in Safari proper. Probably so I can leave the tab open for two months until I finally admit I’ll never read it. 😅 But seriously, I’d use this feature, too. Even just a “Copy URL” to clipboard option would be helpful!

Oh nooooooes, a disaster!!!

🙄🙄🙄

Congrats!! 🥳

No, really, I used to end with negative scores all. the. time. 😅

Good question! Whether it’s actually infringement is a legal judgment I’m certainly not qualified to make. 🙂 But my understanding is that it hinges on whether a court thinks a “reasonable person” could be confused. For example, a clothing brand called “Firefoxy” would probably be in the clear since Mozilla isn’t in the clothing business. And maybe even a clothing brand named “Firefox” might be okay! For example, Apple Computer and Apple Records (founded by The Beatles) coexisted nicely for a long time until Apple Computer started getting into the music-selling business. I forget how it got resolved (maybe a licensing agreement?) but The Beatles’ music wasn’t available on the iTunes Music Store for a looooong time while that dispute was going on.

Firefish is an online service and software package, the very space Mozilla operates in, so there’s at least a case to be made that reasonable people might incorrectly assume it’s from Mozilla. It’s come up many times in this discussion already, and we as active Fediverse users are already pretty well informed about this!

The name is way too similar to the Firefox trademark and could create the impression that Firefish is associated with Mozilla. I suspect some lawyers are currently in a huddle trying to figure out how to send a Cease and Desist letter that won’t completely piss off the community.

(Trademark law, at least in the US where Mozilla is headquartered, requires organizations to actively defend their trademarks. So just ignoring Firefish would be risky, even if they don’t actually mind the similarity.)

The pride icons rock. 🏳️‍⚧️ Rest well!

Sending best wishes that your family will be safe and sound soon. 💜 If you choose to do any work on Memmy during this time, please let it only be because you need to do it for yourself, like as a distraction or just to feel some sort of normalcy. You don’t owe us a thing.

not supplying them to Ukraine gives russia an advantage, thus being against the US supplying them to Ukraine is de-facto a pro-russian stance.

I strongly disagree with you here. I’m not against providing any weapons to Ukraine, I just believe there are better options than cluster munitions — options which won’t still be killing civilians in the decades to come. I don’t believe that cluster munitions are in any way essential to Ukraine’s defence.

Ukraine and its allies can’t do anything (short of surrendering, which I certainly don’t advocate) to stop Russia’s use of them, and there will be long-term consequences. But that doesn’t make it a good — or even neutral — idea to add on additional long-term consequences. The more unexploded ordinance, the more danger to residents in the future.

I think I prefer the old one, honestly, and I’d switch back if the option were available. But hey, it’s just an icon and the new one certainly isn’t bad or anything. 🙂

I read this more as a condemnation of the US (as opposed to Ukraine) for enabling further use of an indiscriminate weapon that will have civilian consequences for decades to come. But alas, it’s what I expect from those warmongers to our south. 😔

It’s all good, whenever the fix comes is fine, you’re already super on top of things. 😄

I get the same error when I accidentally downvote (I often slide too far since I’m on an iPad) and the instance I’m on definitely has downvotes disabled.

I’d just like to say thanks for taking OP’s question so seriously and going beyond mere transparency and into genuine user education. Understanding your decision-making process on this is really awesome from a “can I trust this app?” perspective, in addition to the source code being open to all.

Look for an instance that has adopted the Mastodon Server Covenant, points 3 and 4 deal with this situation. It’s just a promise, not a guarantee, but most people running such instances are doing it because they care deeply about their community.

What, you don’t think a self-professed “former therapist” is an expert on infectious disease and vaccine development??? 😂

I do have to agree that the medical and scientific community’s consensus shouldn’t be “beyond reproach”, but only because the scientific method requires being open to new evidence that shows past theories to be flawed. (Key word evidence.)

Alas, a common tactic for spreading misinformation can be summed up as “a mosquito doesn’t care if the window is only open by an inch or all the way, it’ll fly inside regardless.”

Oh hey! I just went to some trouble to explain something similar for you and everyone else in some depth last night…

One thing I should add here is that there’s often no one person who’s “best for the job”. Different people have different strengths in ways that often don’t directly compare. The idea that we can stack-rank candidates of similar knowledge and experience is misguided at best.

I used to think along similar lines, but later came to understand structural inequality. You see, we don’t all start on an even playing field. The children of wealthy adults have far more opportunity than children of working-class adults, for example. Children from families living in poverty may struggle to keep up with their peers in school if they aren’t getting adequate nutrition. (School lunch programs help, but don’t fully address the problem.) Our lineage and our luck play a large role in what we might think of as “merit”.

When it comes to racial equity programs for college admissions or the like, these programs exist because we acknowledge that people of colour — especially Black people — have been systematically oppressed for generations in ways that impact the following generations.

• Chattel slavery in the US wasn’t all that long ago, and when it finally ended, the former slaves didn’t receive any reparations — the slaveholders did, and Black people with no wealth and no land were essentially forced to work for what we’d call pennies in today’s money.
• The Jim Crow era is still part of living memory. The 1921 Tulsa race massacre was literally just a single lifetime ago and decimated one of the few communities were Black people had managed to accumulate wealth, killing an estimated 150 to 300 Black people and caused massive economic losses for the survivors, not to mention the immense trauma and the implicit threat it sent to similar communities.
• The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s is quite recent history, and there are still many people alive today who remember when Dr. King was assassinated while advocating and organizing for equal protection under the law.
• The War On Drugs was predominantly focused on Black communities in its 1980s heyday. Plenty of white people used the same drugs at the same time, but law enforcement disproportionately targeted people of colour. Aggressive policing of Black communities continues today, resulting in a lot of children with jailed parents.

Try to imagine being a Black child growing up today. You’re more likely to be in poverty and going hungry than your white peers, more likely to need to drop out of school to earn money, more likely to have a parent jailed, the list goes on, all while constantly getting subtle (and sometimes blatant) messages that you’re “inferior”.

You and I obviously didn’t create this situation, but the fact remains that we don’t all start life on equal footing. Yes, there are plenty of white people who grow up in poverty, have parents in jail, etc… but it’s not systematic for white people. Affirmative action in education is a way we can ensure more of the most talented Black minds can access the education and experiences they need to help break this repeating cycle and someday, hopefully, build a society without such immense barriers beginning from birth.

(edit: I’m Canadian now, but I grew up in the US so I’m much more informed about its history.)

If you want a more authentic experience, Retro-Bit made some officially-licensed Saturn and MegaDrive replica controllers including USB and Bluetooth versions. Or you can get a DIY Bluetooth conversion kit for Saturn controllers from 8bitdo.