u/Mozintarfen

The thing that has always made Inkarnate special has been its collaborative foundation. There are plenty of other map making tools that have no sharing function, and can replicate much of what Inkarnate can do. The Explore tab used to be more than a gallery, it was a place where map makers and DMs/GMs could find maps that are close, clone them and modify them to fit their needs - assuming they lacked the skill to create impressive maps in the first place.

Inkarnate has shifted away from its foundation, though. As a result, many have returned to the old way of Googling the maps that they need, because it provides a much larger selection and an increased likelihood of finding a fitting map. The problem I am talking about is Patreon. It is completely understandable that people want to monetize their work, but the result is that a large majority of the explore tab is no longer usable, or adaptable. Instead, it has become a place for Patreon promotions.

I strongly believe Inkarnate would benefit greatly, and reclaim many of its lost subscribers, if ALL published maps were cloneable. Creators can still freely mark their work and promote their websites, but users could still adjust those maps for their specific needs - which again, is the heart of what made Inkarnate so collaborative and popular in the first place.

I am not asking to limit creators; if custom assets are used, those will obviously be lost upon cloning, and sure, a creator can make the entire map a custom asset so that it is effectively not cloneable, but that really comes down to a question of character I suppose.

If all maps were cloneable, those of us who have been driven away from Inkarnate (I stay because I too make maps for others) would return because it would once again be the best place for TTRPG maps. Unfortunately, due to the influx of Patreon promotions and non-cloneable (paywalled, effectively) maps, that crown has returned to Google Images.

- For the record, I see absolutely nothing wrong with promoting Patreon. I just believe that Inkarnate is going to fall by the wayside due to lost subscribers for this very reason. If you want to promote, and do not want people cloning a map that you made, simply due not publish it on Inkarnate. Instead, come here, and post your map instead - or one of the many other TTRPG battlemap/worldmap subreddits, which have far more viewers than the Explore tab of Inkarnate anyway.

I am curious about something; I see a lot of posts talking about what people *happened* to experience during a lucid dream, like it wasn't a choice. Is that the case?

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That has never been the case for me. If I want to have a lucid dream about something (a place, activity etc.) prior to falling asleep, I always use the same method - fall asleep, "wake up" in the same position in my bed, get up, and walk out of the room, then *switch* to whatever it was I wanted to experience. Worst case scenario I don't do my reality checks and accidentally wake myself up, but then its just a matter of restarting.

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As a side note, because I never talk to anyone about these things - does anyone else use sleep paralysis as a gateway to lucid dreaming? Physiologically there isn't much difference, so its just a simple step from one to the other I've found, and sleep paralysis is extremely easy to induce.

Hey y'all! I am a Mechanical Engineering student, currently writing a paper on engineering pathway choice for a class. I am not sure if this post is allowed, but I need a primary source to gather information on why engineers and students chose the path that they did. I saw on the rules that posting surveys here is not allowed, so I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas on where I could post it?