Dikiyoba

The old link has expired, so here is the new Discord invite: https://discord.gg/rr9kfPu

Even though Chessrook's Spiderweb Software Fans server already exists, I'm going to keep this one separate, because it's more for people from this forum than about Spiderweb games. We don't really talk about SW games, just random stuff. So feel free to pop in and say hello.

Dikiyoba.

Hey all, I am back (for the moment). It's been awhile (is anyone even left?).

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I am testing out a Discord server for SW and CalRef members to hang out and chat. It's very minimalistic and experimental at the moment. Swearing is okay, bigotry and hate speech is not. You do need a validated Discord account to join.

If you're interested (and this is definitely in the testing phase at the moment), click on the invite link: https://discord.gg/rr9kfPu. If there is a problem, DM me on Discord (need a friend request first) or send me an e-mail and I will try to help.

Dikiyoba welcomes you and your spammy, chatty ways. Just play nice, please.

A couple of suggestions for the next survey:

1. Add an "other" option to the music genre question.

2. Since depression and anxiety seem to be pretty common among SW members, it would probably be worth asking a question or two about mental health. Anything about specific disorders should be optional or come with a "decline to state" option, though.

Dikiyoba.

From Part 1, the low number of rural members. From Part 3, the fact that the average SWer appears to have lost some wealth compared to their parents, even for those at high education levels.

Dikiyoba would like to know whether this is the last thread, or whether a Part 4 is forthcoming.

15 hours ago, Soul of Wit said:

I'm perfectly fine with the word cisgender (and its shortened form) existing. I don't have a problem with someone identifying me as cis. I just don't call myself cis.

The problem with choosing the "neither" option when you are cis is that you provide inaccurate information about yourself and (far more importantly) overwhelm the accurate responses of an often ignored group with particular characteristics. Also, it's a little bit... weird. Like, Dikiyoba doesn't particularly identify with Dikiyoba's age (it's just a number), but Dikiyoba still fills out forms with Dikiyoba's actual age, instead of "opting out" by claiming to be 5 years old.

3 hours ago, sylae said:

 

9 hours ago, Arachne-Mole said:

Calref, OTOH, is distinct from the general survey-taking population and FULL of correlations.  Members are on average younger (by 9 years), poorer and less connected to family (each by half a step), and more likely to be LGBT (59% vs 19%).  Predictably, they are more likely to socialize with friends in this community (82% vs 25%) and enjoy silly memes (71% vs 23%), but are less likely to analyze game mechanics (29% vs 58%).  They are less often drivers (35% vs 55%).

give me your tired, your poor, your huddled gays yearning to [redacted].

Let's face it, some days CalRef is basically Tumblr: The Chatroom. Trash posts everywhere!

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Being LGBT in general correlates with being poorer and having worse family relationships, so LGBT status is probably the underlying factor driving many of the socioeconomic-related correlations.

Dikiyoba.

2 hours ago, sylae said:

8 hours ago, Arachne-Mole said:

Extraverts are more likely to express interest in almost everything, naming themselves a fan, on average, of 2 more music genres, 1 more game, and half a TV show.

I might have missed this, but is there a relation between intra/extraversion and economic class?

Alternative hypotheses:

1. Introverts may be more likely to have obscure interests that are not reflected in the poll.

2. Introverts may invest in fewer interests, but invest more time and energy in those interests that they do engage in.

3. We don't have a representative sample of extroverts, and this is just a false positive.

Dikiyoba.

21 hours ago, Choins Poice said:

Personally, I don't think the whole series deserves such low ratings.  The first game in particular, while it had flaws, was one of the most creative things Spiderweb has produced since Geneforge 1 back in 2002.

Avadon is far more of a generic fantasy world than Avernum (underground! Non-human races--or maybe that's just me?) or Geneforge (make your own monsters!) are. The more unique aspects (tinkermages, the corruption) don't appear until Avadon 2. The companions aspect is newish, but not completely new (because it shows up in Geneforge first), and the characters aren't crazy memorable or likable. So while it's more creative than a sequel or remake, it's less creative than Avernum or Geneforge were.

Plus, SW games feel increasingly homogenized. The interface is the same, the art assets are the same, the combat is the same, the monsters (hello, worms and giant rats) are the same, the style of leveling and adding skill points is the same, the items are the same... it's getting harder to tell different series apart, and Avadon doesn't have any way to stand out. It doesn't even have a original-sounding name.

Dikiyoba.

6 hours ago, Triumph said:

Congrats, Slarty!

How did you (Diki AND Slarty!) connect milky and opalescent??? I mean, doesn't milky = white, and opalescent = multicolored?

It has been a very long time since Dikiyoba came up with the clues (it's been sitting on Dikiyoba's computer for at least a year), but certain definitions of opalescent define it as a white iridescence (similar to mother-of-pearl and other pearl-related words), and certain thesauruses include "milky" as a synonym of opalescent. So it's not the most accurate of translations... but bad translations were sort of the point.

The scores are as follows:

Duck in a Top Hat: 10 points
Randomizer: 12 points
Sylae: 13 points
Chessrook: 14 points
Dintiradan: 21 points
Triumph: 32 points
Slarty: 38 points

The bonus submissions for "Nethergate" are as follows:

Slarty: Chthonic Turnstile
Chessrook: Crotch Door
Triumph: Basal Entrée

I liked all the submissions, but my favorite is Slarty's. So Slarty gets a bonus point, bringing his total to 39 points. Congratulations, Slarty, you have the highest score. You win... absolutely nothing! But good job figuring out all the answers.

And now, for the answer key:

1. Firm Fedora -> Hardhat
2. Indigo Chimes -> Bluebells
3. Celebrity Minnow -> Starfish
4. Beige Choker -> White collar
5. Kitty Crook -> Cat burglar
6. Total Thespian -> All-star
7. Inferno Warrior -> Firefighter
8. Marijuana Jumper -> Grasshopper
9. Lust Parrot -> Lovebird
10. Arachnid Internet -> Spider web
11. Robert Feline -> Bobcat
12. Donkey Wasabi -> Horseradish
13. Contraband Yam -> Hot potato
14. Footprint Guardian -> Stepparent
15. Soil Baron -> Landlord
16. Depressed Io -> Blue moon
17. Molar Select -> Toothpick
18. Princess Glitch -> Ladybug
19. Yaw Jacket -> Turncoat
20. Endorse District -> Backward
21. Nude Birthmark Defector -> Naked mole rat
22. Navy Fruit -> Blueberry
23. H2O Barn -> Watershed
24. Opalescent Route -> Milky Way
25. Angry Stride -> Crosswalk
26. Oleo Glide -> Butterfly
27. Stratosphere Scratcher -> Skyscraper
28. Dilute Autumn -> Waterfall
29. All Stuff -> Everything
30. Banister Boulevard -> Railroad
31. Ankle Sphere -> Football
32. Flame Mosquito -> Firefly
33. Jaundiced Windbreaker -> Yellow jacket
34. Zealous Muskrat -> Eager beaver
35. Mug of Joseph -> Cup of joe
36. Egg Plucking -> Nitpicking
37. Chai Snuggle -> Teaspoon
38. Velvety Merchandise -> Software

Dikiyoba would like to thank everyone for playing. Hopefully you all had fun.

The game is officially over. No more submissions will be accepted.

Dikiyoba will post the answer key and everyone's total score soon.

On 7/22/2017 at 2:10 PM, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

Huh. Dik-diks are pretty interesting. I never cared much for deer in general though, except for moose.

Dik-diks are true antelope, just very small and somewhat unusual ones. They live in Africa, eat leaves instead of grass, are monogamous, and the female is bigger than the male. One of their calls is transliterated as "dik-dik," hence the common name.

The particular individual in the photo comes from the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. I think the presences of horns means it is a male. The black spot in front of the eye is some kind of scent gland.

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Pronghorn are one-of-a-kind (or rather, the last of their kind). Although they superficially resemble true antelope and fill a similar niche, their nearest living relatives are the giraffe and okapi. The horns grow from the tips (enabling the prong), unlike true antelope where the horn grows from the base. They are the fastest land animals in North America. They probably evolved their speed due to the need to escape from the now extinct American cheetah (not related to the African cheetah). They are unable to jump well, so barbed wire fences and other obstacles pose a conservation threat to certain populations and subspecies. A partial solution has been to remove the lowest wire of the fence, enabling pronghorns to crawl underneath it.

This pronghorn was part of a herd found near Chino Valley, Arizona. They might have been foraging for cactus fruit at the time.

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Dikiyoba thinks everyone who posts in this thread sucks, and should be ashamed of themselves. Ashamed! (But deer are not armadillos.)

2 hours ago, Triumph said:

Hogwarts houses: wow! That's a crazy majority favorite. Why?

Of the four houses, Ravenclaw is the place for nerds. Spiderweb is also a place for nerds.

Plus, ravens are cool. Dikiyoba has seen ravens flip over and glide upside down, apparently just for fun. Who wouldn't want to be associated with ravens?

24 hours (more or less) until the game ends. Your opportunity to play the game is rapidly dwindling. Get those responses in!

(So... many... e-mail... notifications... Dikiyoba may have made a mistake in leaving them on...)

2 hours ago, Triumph said:

59 responses? Excellent! I feel like the forums are a bit quieter than they were five years ago, so it's neat to see there are still people around to put up a similar response total, even if it doesn't manifest in terms of number of posts in General per day.

The number of responses is a bit higher than regular forum-goers because Slarty contacted some oldbies who haven't been around in a while to come back for the purposes of taking the survey.

Dikiyoba, for instance, doesn't normally visit SW regularly.

Rule clarification: You can make more than one guess at a time for a single clue.

Dikiyoba.

Dik-dik! Dik-dik!

Dik-dikiyoba!

(Note: This game will probably be very difficult for anyone who doesn't know English very well. It's okay if you have trouble! Do the best you can, and feel free to ask me questions.)

Common English compound words and simple phrases have been separated into their component words and then run through a thesaurus. The results were recombined... but they no longer make any sense! The following list is the result of this bizarre translation. Can you figure out what the original words were? You may have to think laterally, because the results were chosen based on what sounded good, rather than for accuracy. Here are some examples to get you started:

a) Frog Bench = Toadstool
b ) Chromosome Workshop = Geneforge (This is the only explicitly Spiderweb word; there are none in the list below)
c) Negative Location = Nowhere

Rules:
The game is open from now until Tuesday, July 25. I don't have a set time, but expect it to be sometime in the afternoon for those of you in the US. So later if you're in Europe, or in the morning if you are in Australia. Submit your answers to me in a private message. DO NOT POST GUESSES IN THIS THREAD. You can make as many guesses as you want (although I would prefer lots of guesses in a single message, since that makes it easier for me to handle). A correct guess is worth one point, and I will reply to you in the private message your correct guesses and current score. You may use a thesaurus or any other resource you wish. You may ask questions or bounce ideas around in this thread or anywhere else, but please do not post or pass along the answers to anyone (although it's not like I can really enforce it). I will post the full list of answers and everyone's score in this thread once the game is done. If a translation is only answered correctly by one person, that person gets two bonus points. But this is meant to be fun, not a serious competition.

Again, send guesses to me in PMs. NO POSTING GUESSES OR ANSWERS IN THIS THREAD. Thank you.

1. Firm Fedora
2. Indigo Chimes
3. Celebrity Minnow
4. Beige Choker
5. Kitty Crook
6. Total Thespian
7. Inferno Warrior
8. Marijuana Jumper
9. Lust Parrot
10. Arachnid Internet
11. Robert Feline
12. Donkey Wasabi
13. Contraband Yam
14. Footprint Guardian
15. Soil Baron
16. Depressed Io
17. Molar Select
18. Princess Glitch
19. Yaw Jacket
20. Endorse District
21. Nude Birthmark Defector
22. Navy Fruit
23. H2O Barn
24. Opalescent Route
25. Angry Stride
26. Oleo Glide
27. Stratosphere Scratcher
28. Dilute Autumn
29. All Stuff
30. Banister Boulevard
31. Ankle Sphere
32. Flame Mosquito
33. Jaundiced Windbreaker
34. Zealous Muskrat
35. Mug of Joseph
36. Egg Plucking
37. Chai Snuggle
38. Velvety Merchandise

Bonus: Come up with the best mistranslation (at Dikiyoba's discretion) for "Nethergate".

4 hours ago, Edgwyn said:

As to the so called "Muslim Ban", the executive order effects around 13% of the world's Muslim population.  So calling it a Muslim ban is a pretty far stretch.  If its purpose is to prevent the movement of Muslims into and out of this country, it is completely ineffective.

If the only argument you have is a silly semantics game about how "sure, it predominately effects Muslims, but it doesn't effect all Muslims so it's not a Muslim ban," then you might as well concede now. It may not impact every Muslim, but it impacts 13% of them, and it does so almost exclusively. That's what discrimination is.

Dikiyoba.

4 hours ago, Blink of Terraxia said:

So, forgive me for being a little surprised by the complaints this time around.

Come on, it wouldn't be Spiderweb if we weren't pointlessly arguing semantics about something. 

Question: Is there an option for displaying a public e-mail contact in one's profile information? Perhaps Dikiyoba is just being dumb, but Dikiyoba cannot find a way to do that.

5 hours ago, Triumph said:

Really?! Perhaps you have an unfair view of some people if you think "trample minority rights" is a substantial part of what it means to be "socially conservative."

 

Thinking something is wrong doesn't necessarily mean that one hates people who do it or wishes to trample on individual rights.

Dude, the USA elected a president who was endorsed by the KKK and went out of his way to ban Muslims from entering the country. American conservatives are all about trampling minority rights. They've just deluded themselves into thinking that they aren't trampling minority rights, or rationalized said trampling as "justified."

Dikiyoba.

13 hours ago, sylae said:

yeah because trans people and gay people dont exist outside of america

 

?

The concepts and labels of various queer identities are different in different cultures. Think of the hijra of India, or the two-spirits of various Native American tribes. Are hijra trans women, or non-binary? It depends on the individual, when you introduce them to the Western identities. The concepts don't always map well. Or look at how labels and definitions have changed through time in the Western world. Do you separate sexual behavior from sexual identity/attraction? Sexuality from gender? Gender roles/performance from gender identity? Sex from gender? We do in Western cultures (sort of), but historically we didn't always, and some cultures have entirely different ways of looking at these identities. Heck, even the switch from "transsexual" to "transgender" and "trans" happened within a generation, and there are still people who identify as transsexual because that was the most common concept around at the time they were developing their gender identity.

Dikiyoba repeatedly misspelled generation as "genderation" while typing this post. Make of that what you will.

On 7/9/2017 at 7:04 AM, sylae said:

I mean, I know at least 8 trans people who frequent or have frequented this board...if we put all the trans people into our own subforum we would probably have more activity than, like, all of nethergate.

"Having more activity than Nethergate" means very little, though. A subforum consisting entirely of posts made by cats walking on the keyboard would have more activity than Nethergate.

On 7/9/2017 at 7:00 AM, Iffy said:

Coming out as trans is a spiderweb tradition now? 

Coming out as a woman is an old Spiderweb tradition. Being trans as well is just a new wrinkle to it.

Dikiyoba thinks that's the reason we have more trans women/CAMAB non-binary people on SW. Before people starting coming out as transgender, the community was significantly biased toward men, with women being something of a rarity. There's just not nearly as many members who could theoretically be trans men/CAFAB non-binary people.

1. What is your favorite Internet meme?

2. What is your least favorite meme, and why?

3. ???

4. ???

5. Profit!

And now, without further ado, the best meme in the world:

Dikiyoba offers thanks to Iffy for indirectly making this thread posssible. So cool! Much thanks! Such muffin!

Muffin-gate! Muffin-gate! Muffin-gate!

My artistic interpretation of what I am henceforth calling Muffin-Gate:

 

Six men are gathered in a Victorian style garden. They are gathered around a plate of muffins.

Nik: These are probably the worst muffins I've ever tasted, is this bran? Who the hell made these?

Kel: Just shutup and eat them.

Nik: Whatever happened to good old bannana nut? I think mine must have fallen in the toilet or something, that one over there looks promising.

Nioca *Around crumbs in his mouth*: MMff.

*Nikki reaches across table for a new muffin. *Kel smacks his hand.*

Kel: You'll eat what you're given!

Nik: Geeze.....

Laz: This is pretty much the Arby's of muffin platters.

Thuryl: Mmmmmmm, muffins.

Laz: I think mine has a hair on it, I'm sending it bac-- wait a second, is that a blueberry?

Thuryl: Mmmmmmm, blueberries.

Nik: Blueberries?

*Ephesos enters*

Eph: I've received complaints about unruliness and anti-muffin activities. This brunch is over!

Kel: Relax, we're just trying to enjoy our early morning meal in a peaceful fashion.

Laz: They have blueberries! -- although Nikki's might have fallen in the toilet.....

Eph: Blue.... berries...?

Nioca: Yeah, that's right.

Eph: I-- I was too hasty, I think I owe you gentlemen an apology.

Laz: Shutup and eat a muf--

Some Guy: Would you stop blathering already and fix the window?

Eph: We're in a garden, there are no windows. There's a gate right over there.....

Some Guy: Talk to ma' hand.

-Exeunt-

 

Edit: I'll be signing autographed copies tomorrow.

From https://pied-piper.ermarian.net/topic/18/974/p1

Dikiyoba doesn't think anything more needs to be said, except congratulations.