u/NotATem

So I keep seeing people say that Welcome Home is an ARG "about a cult" and I am... really, really unsure where this is coming from. Nothing I have seen- in either the ARG itself or the list of content warnings accompanying it- makes me think that there's a cult involved in this story, at all.

Clown is a Tumblr user. The list of content warnings on WH's landing page is incredibly detailed. And "cults and religious violence" are very common triggers that many people have- about as common as "gore" or "flashing lights". If this was a story about a cult, don't you think there'd be... you know... content warnings about that? About religious abuse or coercion or something in that vein?

As for the content within the ARG proper- I can't watch the videos (flashing lights!), so I might be overlooking something, but... as far as I know, there's been no mention of anything that could even vaguely resemble a cult? There's been monsters, there's been homophobia, there's been a weird pregnancy metaphor, there's been drug use, we've had some big reveals- you'd think we'd have at least some mention of a secret god behind the walls of the world by now?

Why is it a common theory that this is a cult story? Is it fucking MatPat again? He's not a reliable source for anything and I know he did a "welcome home is CULTS??????" video but that was, like, right at the beginning of all this and going off concept art that isn't necessarily canon anymore, right?

I recently found some mods that help me play Morrowind even though it's not super friendly to my disabilities, and I thought I'd want to share in case anyone else is having the same problems.

So I have pretty severe migraines, exacerbated by flashing lights. If I run into a thunderstorm in Morrowind, I have to put the game down and go get pain relief. These migraines also make it really hard to think and remember things. On top of that, I have zero sense of direction- to give you an idea, I can still get lost going from Whiterun to Windhelm in Skyrim, and I've been playing that game since 11.11.11.

But I gave in and decided to play with mods this time. I picked up Devilish Weather Magic and LivelyMap, and between those two mods, it's been making it so much easier to enjoy the game.

With Devilish Weather Magic, I console-commanded myself the Fog spell. When a thunderstorm rolls in, I turn on god mode (so I don't need high-level alteration) and cast Fog; this keeps the atmosphere, but means that I don't get flashbanged and have to stop playing.

With LivelyMap, I'm having a much easier time seeing where things are in relation to each other and having an easier time navigating. I'm still getting lost.... frequently.... will I ever get out of Vivec City?.... but I'm not going a hundred miles in the exact wrong direction because I have no idea where Hla Oad is and asking for directions is more difficult than it seems.

I'm considering picking up a quest tracker, but most of them seem to come with quest markers, which I don't want. A to-do list mod that's entirely player-created would be positively divine, though.

But yeah, I'd like to thank modders for making it so I can actually play this game and enjoy it, instead of never getting out of Balmora because thunderstorms make me stupid and in pain.

Just to let you know where we're at:

- The sub is currently restricted- meaning only approved users can post. I set this up through Reddit because I was worried about the potential for brigading, and have since asked to undo it. Unfortunately this is something that has to go through Reddit, so we need to wait for a human to see the request and undo it. Hopefully it shouldn't take too long.

- I am working on a new mod recruitment form and a revised set of sub rules. I am also working through a migraine. The lack of the first is related to the second.

- I would like to get you guys' (and others') pulse. Where do you think the sub should go from here? What changes would *you* make if you were king of OldCootFashion for a day? I can't promise I will make any of those changes- in particular, I am not reversing any of the mod actions I've had to take recently- but I'd like to know where you're at.

So I promised you all an explanation about the current situation last night.

TL;DR:

• You guys are right- I've been modding this sub alone way too long, and I have made a lot of mistakes. I am sorry for my lack of transparency, lack of clear rules, and neglect of the sub.
• I am not reinstating the user who's been banned, for the reasons I'm about to lay out. I recognize that this is an unpopular decision, but neither his content nor his conduct are a good fit for this sub.
• I'm going to recruit more mods this week. This sub has gotten too big to moderate alone. I'm going to post a Google form as a sticky; if you'd like to mod, please fill out the form.
• The rules need cleaning up and fixing. We need community guidelines that are straightforward, clear, and easy to read. I will draft them this week and run them past the other mods when they are recruited.

I created this sub about a year ago. I was tired of going to the 'standard' men's fashion subs and being greeted with confusion or derision. At the same time, oldhagfashion was the kind of cozy space that I wanted, but posting there felt like misgendering myself. I wanted a space where I could be masc, but also dress in a fun offbeat way and talk about fashion with people who 'get it'.

And I wanted this to be a cozy space- something of a safe haven. I don't talk about it much on here, but I'm (obviously) a genderqueer trans man. I have been watching the world become more and more homophobic and transphobic over the last five years; I really wanted a place where we could be ourselves without fear or shame, and without bigots and bullies mocking or harassing us.

When the user who was banned yesterday began posting to the sub, he was constantly posting about current events- and specifically, about heinous crimes committed by the people in power. I suggested a general-purpose ban on negative political content, not because I wanted to target this user, but because I wanted to create a specific kind of space. I did not want bigots or bullies to have any power here, and someone posting about them every single day gave them more power over this space than I wanted to give them. I do not constantly want to be reminded about how my rights are under attack and how frightening the world is right now, in what was supposed to be our cozy fashion haven. However, I did not want to censor this user just because I was frustrated with his politics.

The trouble is, the banned user was also repeatedly pushing the limits of the sub's rules. There are many, many examples of this, but here's a clear-cut one: a few months back, I implemented a flair for content that might be uncomfortable or triggering for some people. The banned user has repeatedly posted about bigotry, Nazis, and child sexual abuse without using this flair. I should have removed those posts....

....But the banned user was the target of an ongoing harassment campaign. Every day, I'd get multiple requests to have his posts taken down and multiple people pointing out that he was bending the sub's rules again. Some of these requests were valid. Many were not. I felt like I could not take moderation action against this user, even if it was entirely justified*,* without implicitly condoning this harassment campaign.

To be perfectly frank: if I was applying the same code of conduct to every user, I would have banned this user much earlier in the sub's lifetime. I did 44 "mod actions" last week - removing posts or comments, removing spam, that kind of thing. 38 of those mod actions were related to this user's conduct. And these numbers have been similar over the past six months. Many of the requests for me to take mod action pointed out genuine issues that I felt like I had to ignore, because they were either coming from the harassers or were sandwiched between harassers' spam reports.

I gave this user many, many more chances than I would have given any other user. I frequently contacted him directly to ask him to make changes or remove posts rather than just taking those posts down and counting them as a strike. I ignored a lot of his behaviour I should not have ignored.

But this meant I found myself between a rock and a hard place. Both the banned user and the harassers were having a huge impact on the sub's culture in a way I didn't want. If I recruited more mods, I felt like I would fully lose control of the sub's culture, and could not guarantee that I'd have the space I worked so hard to make. Yet I didn't have the capacity to maintain that space on my own.

I stopped being active on the sub, except to moderate. And, bluntly, I wasn't doing a very good job of moderation. I was mostly using Reddit on my phone- and I hate typing on mobile keyboards- so I was only updating the rules if there was an emergency, and using too few words to do it. I hadn't updated the community greeting, and didn't want to. I felt like this wasn't the space I wanted to create, but the things I would need to do to curate that space would be so unpopular that implementing them might destroy the community I had built. So, I avoided taking mod action unless it was absolutely necessary.

Yesterday, it became necessary. The banned user posted a picture of himself posing with a wood splitter and a chainsaw, in a way that was clearly meant to evoke a zombie movie protagonist or a slasher villain. He was not posing with a pile of logs in a forest; he was brandishing them. After the incident a few months back with the other user who posted a picture of himself posing with a gun, I thought the sub's consensus was that weapon-related content should be banned, because it could be triggering for users who'd experienced violent crime or abuse. I personally don't agree with this rule (I'm a sword guy), but in the interests of making sure everyone was comfortable here, I was happy to add it. I thought I had updated the rules accordingly; it seems that I posted the 'no violence' rule, but did not specifically implement the 'no weapons' rule in the correct place.

I removed the post. As a courtesy, I warned the banned user that he was on his second strike, and that he would be at risk of a permanent ban if he broke the rules again. Any user who posted similar content, under the current rules, would have incurred a strike.

(To be clear: This warning is not something I normally do, and that is a mistake. I ought to warn users when there is a strike against them, in the interest of transparency. But apart from this user, most of the people I've had to ban have committed three strikes in a single comment thread, or have used enough slurs in one message to warrant a ban outright. Because I did not want to censor this user, I thought I would do him the courtesy of warning him.)

The banned user chose to argue with me. The excerpt of the message he showed was not the full message. It's against Reddit's mod code of conduct to post the contents of a mod mail without the user's permission, so I'm not going to do that- but please trust me, you have not gotten the full story. Let's just say he was very unwilling to accept my decision.

I did not want to argue with this user anymore. I did not want to continue to let him push the limits of both my personal boundaries and the sub's rules. I chose to take that argument as his third strike, and thus ban him from the sub.

Here's what should have happened:

• I should have dealt with this issue when it began six months ago, and not let it continue to fester.
• I should not have let a double standard develop because I did not want to condone the harassment campaign.
• I should have enforced the sub's rules both on the banned user and the people harassing him. I should not have just deleted their spurious reports and let the banned user break or bend sub rules to avoid supporting the harassment.
• I should have realized my growing burnout was a sign, not that I needed to step back from the sub, but that I needed to get outside help from more moderators.
• I should have realized that the fact that I was having so many mod actions and so much trouble meant that the rules I had created were not building the space I wanted to build, particularly if I was having to enforce them over and over again on the same people.
• I should have been more transparent with the community in the moment- this was a result of my chronic health issues and I am not going to apologize, but it is something that should have happened and didn't.

For the reasons I've laid out, I am not going to reverse the ban.

It is incredibly unbecoming for a mod to discuss the behaviour of a specific user with someone who is not on the mod team. I hate that I even have to make this post- it feels like a breach of mod etiquette and privacy, both for the sub and for the user in question. And because it is unbecoming and unprofessional, there will be no further arguments over whether or not this decision was justified. This is the explanation you get. I recognize that this is an unpopular decision, and I wish I had been clearer and more transparent about what was happening while it was happening. But this ban was the inevitable result of the choices the banned user made. Please respect that.

As for the future of the sub-- I really love this place, and I love the thing it was meant to be. In the wake of this situation, I've had a bunch of people tell me how much this sub means to them and how much they want to help support it. I like you guys. I want to keep this thing we've built going. But last week, we got 11,000 unique visitors- that's a lot of people. I can't mod a sub this big on my own, and the current situation has made me realize just how much I was struggling with the job.

I need your help.

I'm going to be recruiting more mods over the next week- I'll post a google form (as a sticky). If you love the sub and want to help out, fill out the google form and I'll get back to you ASAP.

I'm also going to be reworking the rules to both establish what kind of space we want this to be and to handle some of the common problems we keep running into. No one wants to get hit by the 'Be Kind' rule; it's vague and ineffective. At the same time, the current ruleset was mostly built piecemeal as situations came up that I had to deal with; it's also ineffective. And if I want to make this the kind of space I was trying to create, I need to make it so that we're not discussing current events here. I'm not saying you can't make political statements- fashion is art, art is political- but for my own sanity, and the sanity of anyone who is triggered by the state of the world right now, we need to put some work into making this a safe haven. And that means keeping the bigots in power out of our space.

I'm going to clean up the back end and make it easier to mod this sub, and generally sort things out so that this place is still a good place to hang out and post fun outfits. I hope you guys join me for the adventure.

If you read all this, thank you so much. I appreciate your patience and kindness while I sort all this out.

I am not going to comment on the current situation at the moment beyond saying this:

I am one guy. You are right- there should be more than one mod on this subreddit. However, recruiting more mods takes time, and I cannot do that overnight. In the meantime, I am still one guy, I have a migraine, and I don't currently have the capacity to deal with the ongoing incident with the clarity and transparency you deserve.

I am restricting new posts and comments to the sub til tomorrow to prevent things from getting further out of hand. I am not going to take down the larger post, although I have locked comments on it at this time. However, any duplicates of that post will be deleted.

We can all come back to this in the morning. Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE: Thanks to u/Karel08 and u/gamemaniax I was able to create the article! You can find it here. Thank you guys so much- you saved me several hours of stress-googling.

Hi, all! I'm a Wikipedia editor trying to do some research on an Indonesian publishing company called Indira.

Indira apparently published the Nancy Drew series in the 1980s, translating and reprinting the newest entries in the series for an Indonesian audience. I'm having some trouble finding information on the company-- I don't speak Bahasa Indonesia and the English-language internet just sends you to information about Indira Gandhi or other famous women with the same name.

The publishing company I was able to find information on seems to have closed in 2006, and seems to be most famous for publishing the Tintin series and other comics. These Nancy Drew books would have been cheap paperbacks for children, and I could see a comics publisher printing them- but I don't know if the Indira that published Tintin is the same Indira that published Nancy Drew and I can't find a source.

I'd be incredibly grateful if you guys could point me towards more information about the company- and specifically could help me find proof that they published these Nancy Drew books? They don't have an article on English-language Wikipedia and Wikipedia really doesn't like it if you cite another language's version of Wikipedia.

Thank you so much!

So, obviously, it's not great to spoil metroidbranias for people when you're recommending them, you don't want to tell them about, like, the goal of the game or the deepest lore or what have you. But I'm starting to think that you should set some expectations for how to play the game when you recommend it.

My partner and I recently started playing Blue Prince together. We'd previously played Outer Wilds together- they'd played before and I hadn't, so they got to experience me seeing it for the first time. We've been having a lot of fun unwinding the mysteries together! But we're getting close to the game's ending/>!first off-ramp, !<and my partner suddenly got really hesitant! Their first experience with this genre was Outer Wilds, and >!that is a game you can really only play once- once you've seen the credits, you have seen the most impactful part of the game, and if you go back to uncover secrets you will feel kind of hollow and melancholy about it. You want to unravel everything in one playthrough!<.

But when I heard people recommending Blue Prince, and occasionally heard them talking about it without their dang spoiler tags, I learnt something important- Blue Prince is a roguelike, and as such, >!you are not going to beat it in one run, or one playthrough. You're meant to come back again and again, and there are multiple places where you can decide you've had enough and don't want to solve any more of this mystery and be satisfied. Getting to Room 46 is more like getting to the Hades fight in Hades I than the ending of OW- I've even heard people call it the end of the tutorial.!<

We're going to hit that ending soon and I'm really excited to see what happens when we do. But I am glad I had that element spoiled- otherwise, I would have played a lot more cautiously, like my partner did, and had a lot less fun.

I think that it's important to let people know what kind of experience they're going to have when they play a game, and details like that can really help them set their expectations so that they can have a good time. Things like 'this game has a couple off ramps, the credits are the end of the tutorial' or 'this is a game you can only play once, take it slow and explore everything' or 'this is a roguelike and you will die a lot but that's not a setback' or 'there's no combat in this game'-- those will all help you figure out whether it's a game you'd like to play.

I've seen people spreading some misinformation about what save corruption is, how it works, and what you can avoid it. I'd like to tell you how it actually works and what you can do about it.

TLDR: Save corruption is less under your control than anyone would like. The best way to manage it is to back up your game regularly.

My credentials: I'm a game dev, and while I'm not on the Paralives team, I know a fair bit about how code works. I'm also an avid Sims 2 player, and we spread a bunch of myths about save corruption for decades before realizing what was actually happening. I'd like the PL community to avoid the same fate.

So, what is save corruption? Save corruption happens when something about your paras, your builds, or your hood gets saved in a way the game can't handle. It's called "corruption" because the data gets screwed up- kind of like that one messed up Windows start screen. When the game tries to open a corrupted save, it finds something it doesn't expect and freaks out. It will either refuse to read the file or crash when it gets to the part it can't read.

The thing is, most of the time, the problem is not anything you've done. A lot of the time the issue is literally just "the game copied over the wrong info to the wrong place". Like, if it saves the number for your sim's money over your sim's skills, it not only thinks you have 5076898 Guitar skill, but that number can leak into other parts of data and mess with it, too. That's not something you did; the save process fucked up.

And, obviously, custom content can't really touch any of this. A new hair or skintone is not going to change your sim's info badly enough to make the save corrupt. The game recognizes them just like it recognizes any other hair and acts accordingly; they follow the rules it expects.

Well, what about mods? Mods edit your game, but they usually do this by changing the rules for what the game expects. This keeps the data in line with what the game can handle (and is thus generally not a problem, unless the rules they're changing are rules about how paras/houses/etc are saved). If you want to be super careful, I'd avoid mods that change paras' relationships- add new relationship types like 'third cousin', allow paras to remove or ignore family relationships, etc.- and mods that remove build mode limitations. I'd also avoid anything obviously vibe coded and anything with a description obviously written by AI. But a mod that, like, adds a new skill that works like every other skill? Game expects it; probably not gonna be an issue.

...A lot of people think of save corruption like it's black magic that you have to ward off with rituals. Don't save while your sim is at work or outside, don't ever delete sims, don't let your sim marry the mailman, don't add mods to your game and nuke any custom content that breathes funny.

Most of the time, these rituals aren't based in any kind of fact. The people making them up are going off of what happened when their save corrupted. They're well intentioned, but often wrong- and wrong in ways that hurt other people's ability to have fun.

The crux of the problem is this: Paralives is unstable right now because it's in early access. Save corruption bugs are hell to debug because they sneak up on you- they can take a while to pop up and when they do you might not notice them until your save bricks.

Keep backups and save regularly. But save corruption is generally not your fault, or under your control. It is a thing that happens when data gets messed up, and in a stable game, there isn't all THAT much the player can do to mess up their data.

A good rule of thumb: if anti-corruption advice feels like magical thinking, it probably won't do anything about corruption, good or bad. If it's not obvious how it affects your save, and the devs haven't said anything about it? The person telling you to never save at midnight and remove all your mods might as well be telling you never to cross a black cat's path or break a mirror.

Hey, guys- I love Supergiant's games, and I can play Transistor and Bastion and even Pyre no problem. But Hades I is giving me trouble because of all the flashing lights- they give me migraines. I want to be able to get past the third zone and maybe take on the final boss.

It looks like there are a number of mods that serve various accessibility functions, but not one that cuts down on the flashing lights- would it be possible for me to request, or put out a bounty for, a Less Flashing Lights mod? I literally just want to be able to play the game without being in horrible mindsearing pain.

So, hey! I'm trying to create a game about ancient Assyrian doctors where you diagnose a sick patient. I'm writing a series of dropdowns that look like this:

HEAD

(dropdown: 2bind $head1, "nothing", "fever", "dizziness", "shortness of breath")

{(if: $head1 contains "fever")[(set:$head1Diag to true)]}

And then, on the next page, trying to use the results of the dropdowns to create a challenge the player has to pass, like this:

(set: _symptoms to (array: $head1diag, $head2diag, $torso1diag, $torso2diag, $legs1diag)

)

(if:(all-pass:_symptoms where _symptoms is not false))[

(set:$diagnosed to true)

You think you've got a good list of the King's symptoms now.

[[Let's put them together.|diagnosis3]]

]

(else:)[That doesn't sound right. If you're having trouble remembering what ails the king, check your [[case notes.]] ]

This isn't working. Every time, regardless of what I put in, the game lets me through.

Can I get some advice about what it is I'm doing wrong?