Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.
First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.
You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.
If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.
A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil.
Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.
Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)
And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is the unofficial Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv
Pledge: paint. paint. and drink. because it’s hot.
Before I do my answers here is a great example of one company using social media to great effect.
I do use in one way or the other:
Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Discord, Instagram, PixelFed, PeerTube and YouTube.
Apart from Instagram (which currently works best on mobile) all other social media are on my PC. And I do look at them every now and again. Use them to promote my streams, share my pictures and follow creators and manufacturers.
I really don’t know… ease of use? Some of the people?
No music tonight from me as I am barely awake. Way to hot here.
Not heard of half the social media you listed and I don’t use the other half 🙂
See previous answer.
Nothing.
I’m old and grumpy.
Edit: I do use whatsapp… but only to show wordle solutions with a wordle group and share photos with friends and family. And I do watch some stuff on youtube (but loathe and despise the constant barrage of adverts… which is often bad on weekender).
Luckily I couldn’t use much of social media for “reasons”; and now that the restrictions are lifted, I just can’t be bothered. It seems like a massive waste of time. Dis/misinformation, algorithm spin – no thanks.
Stuff I use: I think I look for whatever provides more content than what social media it is.
* Various forums: Hobby discussions.
* YouTube: Current affairs (eg. Ukraine and China), plus infotainment. Comment fields often add information not in the video.
* Twitter: CNN Fear and Greed Index for USA stock trade timing. Mostly using it to clear out the portfolio of small stock positions.
* Imgur and Reaper: Image storing. Mostly pics for hobby reviews.
* RPG.net : RPG, miniature, and some game reviews.
* Kickstarter: Comment fields for helping and arguing. (:
* Facebook: Hobby fan groups. Posting pics and occasional fan stuff for games.
Twitter’s oddly useful as a lazy mini-blog. I’m using it to test out using the CNN Greed and Fear Index to “time” the market, although this really means to trim back on stocks I have small positions in, and buy stocks I might want. Market economics I’m interested in post there, so I’ll kill time reading their tweets when I’m in front of the computer in the morning monitoring the index. (The index only has a buy or sell signal once every three months. I find this keeps me from constantly wondering if I should be in the market!) Browsing other user’s tweets sometimes finds an interesting economic article, or topic worth flaming about. 😀
I also read manga on my tablet, and will look at artist twitter accounts to download far more art as wallpapers for my tablet than I will ever need. 😛
Stuff I don’t:
* Discord: Seemed like more of a chat room. Haven’t found one that added content I didn’t have elsewhere.
* NextDoorNeighbor: Should use this more often to keep track of local services I may need for our houses. Too many comments questioning the IQ of my neighbors, though. 😛
Always a relief to see another thread at the weekend! I just that one day it’ll simply dry up and we won’t notice until the following Wednesday and then it’ll be too late to recover 🙂
For what it’s worth, I’ve had a completely hobby-free weekend so far. I went to a family “thing” in Brum, but to make it bearable for both my wife and I (neither of us particularly wanted to go) I booked us into The Pig Place camping site in Oxford on the way home. It’s brilliant.
A campsite on a working small-holding. With a canal running along the bottom of the grounds. And pigs and chickens that roam freely across the site. On hot days (like we’re currently experiencing in the UK) when people leave their camper van doors and windows open (with just mosquito nets and curtains for privacy) it’s not unusual to wake up with a chicken in your van (or a pig truffling around through your footwells). As the sun goes down, we all sit around campfires on “outdoor settees” and then the music begins. It’s been brilliant.
Now I’m home, I decided to use my remaining few hours of the weekend to change the FEP on my Anycubic Mono 4k.
Only to release you can’t just change the film – you have to buy a completely fitted film and tank “ring” as a single unit.
So that’s as much “hobby” as I’ve got done this week – I dismantled my printing vat.
Onto the questions:
What other social media platforms do you use?
I use Facepage and Twitter. And of course Youtube.
How do you use them?
Usually by clicking on a few icons 😉
In all seriousness, I use Facebook and Twitter like “brain crisps”. You know when you just fancy something but you know it’s not “proper food”? You might just want a change of taste in your mouth or something? That’s what I use them for – if I’m working on something (especially if it requires Hard Thinking) I’ll often just do a bit of doom-scrolling to clear my brain.
For Youtube, it’s mostly guitar tutorials, magic tricks, chess, and miniature painting. Youtube is great for both entertainment and learning stuff. But, jeez, stay clear of those comments sections!
I use social media to get something from it, but try not to engage (too much).
On the basis that most people – unless I know them personally – are probably idiots, there’s no point.
You wouldn’t try to teach a labrador about quadratic equations; some things just don’t deserve too much time investing in them.
What do you like about them?
I get to find out what’s going on. I long ago gave up on using them to inform or educate or (worst of all) trying to find either news, or (worthwhile) opinions on any topic. They’re absolutely dreadful for that. But if there’s a jam night on locally, or a special offer in a local eatery, there’s a chance I’ll find out about it on one of Facebook or Twitter.
I like that I can whip out my phone while the kettle is boiling, and decide if I’m going to need to re-string my guitar that afternoon for a gig in the evening, or if it can wait and I can stay home in front of the gogglebox/computer.
I like that Youtube has more or less replaced normal telly for me.
I still like that it curates content for me (here’s stuff we think you’d like). But it feels far less passive than just gawping at a box in the corner of the room (the downside, of course, is that you then miss out on the shared experience of lots of other people all watching the same stuff).
And, of course, Youtube gives us music.
There was a strong folky-vibe at The Pig Place last night. So I played lots of Americana/country. This one had the whole place not only cheering, but asking for it again and again. Having thirty or so well-oiled bikers bellowing “play that drinking one again!” was quite flattering – if not a little intimidating too!
@pagan8th – that’s a pretty harsh take! I can’t bring myself to concur. I’ve used AI to create scenarios for (tabletop) RPG games *a lot*. I love cyberpunk type scenarios but wouldn’t come up with any of the ideas I’ve had generated for me (or that I’ve read in my many DriveThru RPG downloads tbh). Our imagination is fed only by the stuff we read/see. Very few people can dream up truly unique ideas for games – they’re almost always based on something we’ve seen/read before. I haven’t time to invest in reading too many books and watching loads of movies.
I know what I like, so giving a prompt and asking “give me some ideas in this vein” is a great way to start a game and set the scene. I think you’re being too harsh here!
Hard to believe some people really keep themselfes away from SM. More power to you @pagan8th Also I don’t see WhatsApp as social media per se as it’s a mostly private way of sharing stuff.
That is basically it. Some extra bells and whistles. And they tried to make some “inside forum” but I don’t go there. It’s a smelly place XD @ced1106
Always a relief to see another thread at the weekend! I just that one day it’ll simply dry up and we won’t notice until the following Wednesday and then it’ll be too late to recover
As long as OTT doesn’t ban me for being a very naughty boy… not going anywhere. I like consistency. @blinky465
So that’s as much “hobby” as I’ve got done this week – I dismantled my printing vat.
They do say it’s a hobby on its own XD
that’s a pretty harsh take!
Harsh but not completely wrong I think. There is some truth to it. But at the same time adventerers books, campaing settings and all those lovely dead trees with words written in them that expand a set of rules could be seen in a similar way. It helps the GM. So using AI (or glorified batch scripts as I like to call them) to get yourself inspiered and have a different take on things is fine. Just letting ‘it’ do the work for you is wrong.
Here is something with music in it though I feel this would be more something for @lloyd
@blinky465 You could be right about me being harsh and the way you suggest ‘give me some ideas in this vein’ is really no different than making a google search when looking for inspiration.
However… I agree with @sundancer in that having it do the work, write your room desriptions and fill in the blanks is not they way I’d go.
Personally I’m going through a bad creative patch… I get campaign start ideas, but can’t forge them into anything usable… and I think work stress is shattering my focus…
Or it could just be that I’ve been GM for 40 years. Out of those 40 I’m been the main GM for about 30 of those years and the player for 10. Maybe I’m just burnt out…
This weeks pledge is to maybe paint if the weather cools. I know from experience if I try to paint when it’s this warm the paints dry too quick and my brushes get ruined.
Also in heat and 3D printing news, I had a resin bomb go off in my display cabinet today: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1794968/
What other social media platforms do you use? – Youtube (though I hardly class it as social media) and LinkedIn for work (sparingly).
How do you use them? – Wathching lots of videos.
What do you like about them? – Youtube is the only real source of online videos (except adult only ones of course…) and LinkedIn really just to help promote the company I work for from time to time.
I guess we’ve all got to go through it: ask yourself “really, how much harm can it do to leave some liquid resin in there after all…?”
If it doesn’t burst out, it’ll eventually just leak and weep out and make everything sticky. Anyone who has hollowed their own minis has probably been here. We feel your pain. But also know you won’t do it again now! Just as we don’t any more either.
sundancer 1 year ago.
