A silly user flair as a reward for sticking around while the subreddit was MIA! This community is truly so delightful, I always look forward to checking the weekly discussion thread, and it's just nice to be around people on the internet who are just here to have a silly goofy time - thanks for sticking around!

Flair will be up for this week only before it too...Gets. Locked. Up. Shoutout u/thunderingparcel for the inspiration

Howdy, Freebies! Looks like the sub got abandoned, and thanks to the lovely folks over at r/MaximumFun, I was able to get moderator privileges for the sub. Now it looks like it may take 24 hours for Reddit to turn off the sub's "restricted" setting, so if you still can't post or comment, fear not, your time is coming.

In the meantime, if you would like to be a mod, please comment here or DM modmail! It's not, like, hard or a crazy amount of work, but I am someone who has moderated quite a bit so I do expect people I add to do basic things like check reported comments, ban dickheads, join Maximum Fun Dot Org Forward Slash Join Free With Ads, etc

Jordan and Emily: I am more than happy to add y'all as mods (Matt if you're out there, you too) in order to prevent the subreddit from getting locked again in the future. Y'all can be involved in as much or as little as you'd like, but definitely want to make sure you secure this platform for the pod!

Anything y'all would like to see different on the sub? Couple things I'll do for now:

• Keep up with the weekly crossposting from r/MaximumFun for the episodes and pin the latest episode discussion
• Open up flairs so they can be user edited and y'all can make it your personal fave FWA quote (just be chill and cool and don't abuse the privilege)
• I'd love to maybe host a monthly Freebies watch along? Be fun to get silly with y'all, bet there's lots of people

Chime off in the comments!

I miss my beloved weirdos!

ETA: looks like I own the subreddit now y'all - MWAHAHAAHA! Sub should be public again in the next 24 hours, Reddit is processing the request, so head back on over Freebies r/FreeWithAds

I got locked out two weeks ago and can't get back in 😭 If it's an issue with moderation I would be happy to apply! Where else am I supposed to go to discuss what masturbation lore my favorite podcast hosts have dropped this week???

I turned 30 a couple weeks ago and it hit me that every heart has like a limited number of beats it can have before it gets worn out right - but as someone who has ADHD and has been on a stimulant for the last 16 years, does that mean my heart is going to run out of steam faster because it's always pumping way way faster than average??

I've taken 60mg direct release generic dextromethamphetamine since freshman year of high school, and I'm getting paranoid maybe this is going to hurt me more than it helps. Have any of your transitioned to something else to mitigate the impact?

Okay so, as a PR coordinator, I feel like noting my experience with crisis communications would be relevant and important, right? Like y'know, showing I'm a good man in a storm, learned skills on the fly, anything that can be thrown at me I can do, etc whatever.

Soooooo that being said...how do I phrase the experience of being a PR assistant at one of the largest nonprofit events in my state when the first shooting in its 100+ year history happened, annnnd then coming in at 5 am with our big comms team to support our leadership as they developed a statement and learned the value of silence from my media coordinator lmao. (And then spent three full days combing Cision.)

Howdy y'all! Visiting today in the big red boat. I'm not sure how deep the water is in the harbor/surrounding area, do orcas or whales swim up here? Or, any other marine mammals for that matter? I have heard there's sea wolves around town lol. Thanks!

*A1C, typo. I had lost a couple pounds and honestly thought I was doing better health wise overall, but I guess not. Baking is one of my favorite hobbies and now it feels like I basically don't have a choice but to stop baking on the weekends because I can't afford to eat sugar anymore, and have to just eat chicken cutlets and vegetables forever. And I already have so little free time, now I'm going to have to lock in and work out everyday too, and I HAVE to sleep 8 hours minimum or my brain decides it won't work, so I'm going to have to just accept living with like 2 hours of free time per day and having to eat a meal I hate at the end of it. It's so unfair that my husband and I live basically the same lifestyle but I have to keep cutting foods and taking pills for my mental health and losing time to sleep while he gets to stay up as late as he wants and eats whatever he wants and has no consequences from it.

I'm feeling pretty miserable.

I am a brand new player and the main reason I became interested in this game is the random spooky events. However, after 23 in game days, I am starting to feel somewhat deflated because I have missed so many of the paranoia events due to not being able to locate them in time ):

Yes, I do go to all the places the tips setting suggests, but I still have only witnessed 3 of the many paranoia events because this map is HUGE. It's difficult to know what direction to even go in when it doesn't have a radar blip + the added frustration of knowing the more time you spend searching, the more time eats into your daily tasks.

Now to be clear, I am NOT asking the game to hold my hand or add yellow guidelines. But I think a way to subtley move the player in the right direction would be extremely helpful (and could be toggled off for those who don't want it). Example concepts of the feature for getting players to look / run in the correct direction:

• A sort of "shimmer" appears, similar to how heat reflects off really hot asphalt, or the wavy invisible way arirals look but larger, and it stays in a fixed position in front of the player until they arrive within close proximity to the event.

• The edges of your vision get slightly red / staticy and grow as you get closer before disappearing upon arriving to the event.

• The paranoia music grows louder the closer you get to the event location and has spatial sound correlated with looking in the correct direction.

• A heartbeat sound that grows louder and faster the closer you get to the event.

• The fireflies function as a sort of will-o-wisps and a small, shapeless, more dense "ball" forms in the direction of the event, almost like they're being pulled by it too.

• The built-in compass needle stays in a fixed position pointed at the event (yes this would impact doing tasks, but not being able to save / pause implies players should prioritize investigating the event over tasks, so the temporary freeze would support that). ETA suggestion from comments: an overlaid "ghost" / glitch arrow pointing towards the event.

• ETA2 suggestion from comments: the same way your gaze drifts to the insomnia demon from lack of sleep, after a certain amount of time passes during the event without the player engaging, a similar paranoia demon could appear in the correct direction.

• ETA3 suggestion from comments: small differences in the save error could go a long way:

> 'Im being watched..'
> 'Something is looking for me'
> 'The sky looks.. Wrong'
> 'Do I smell shrimp?'
> 'Are there more dots on the radar?'

And I would love to hear from those of you who also have suggestions for how this feature would work!

Again, cannot emphasize this enough: this feature would be a toggle, you don't have to use it if your gaming experience is not impacted by this issue, that is A-okay! So pls no snide "skill issue" remarks from those of you who have not gotten lost in the backwoods of the Swiss alps for 2 days while searching for the ATV you parked God knows where, surviving only on crackers and a nutrient bar, because YOU have the directional sense of a migrating bird. Some of us are built different (worse) and still want to engage with the world of the game but just need a little shove in the right direction<3

So I accidentally parked my ATV somewhere in the woods on night 3, so sure I could easily find it again - annnnnd then I could not. I'm not on day 12 and it's highkey throwing a wrench into my gameplay loop. Is there a way to get the ATV to respawn? Or do I need to start a new save? Thank you!