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I hear you, man.

You are really good at capturing the absurdity of all this.

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Thanks.

Unfortunately, I’ve been thinking about all of this on and off since 1996. I was 18 then and realized that if I either wanted to become a writer or still be a musician I’d need a day job. And I’m OK with having a day job, because it lets me avoid monetizing my joy.

But capitalists and workers who drank the Koolaid aren’t content to let a day job be a day job.

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If it helps, Ren’Py is in the Debian repos (also Inform 6). For plain hypertext fiction, another option is to use Feather Wiki or similar. Still runs in the browser, but it’s much lighter than the Twine IDE.

I love introducing my students to Twine. They also get a kick out of messing around with Ren’Py (Visual Novel Engine) and transforming the tutorial game and assets into stupid nonsense :joy:

I haven’t managed to show any of them Inform though. Maybe one day…

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Well, Debian does have Ren’Py packages, but you wouldn’t want me doing my own artwork for a visual novel. I’d make Wojack look like Caravaggio.

Of course, if I’m releasing my fiction under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license there’s nothing stopping people who actually want to make games from adapting my material. (And if they want to go commercial, that’s also fine as long as I get my cut.)

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Your idea for your nonlinear epistolary work through websites sounds like hypnospace outlaw. It’s not exclusively letters and transcripts (there is the occasional puzzle) but for the most part it’s just excavating a story from people’s fictional websites, blogposts, and IRC chats. Highly recommend it.

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Speaking of nonlinear games: I wrote about Her Story!

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Ah fuck, I fell for the bait.

That post is down now, but I remember it being just a really normal post about blogging being fun, nothing that smelled of clickbait or SEO games, just an interesting and shareable headline.

I guess this guy’s game is ā€œwrite blog posts that will go viral in indie web circlesā€ and I want to judge him but like, isn’t that implicitly what all of us are also trying to do?

I can only speak for myself, but I explicitly fight any desire to go viral. That influences what you’re writing about, how you’re writing about that topic, and more generally, your voice. Writing for an audience works if you’re trying to build a following, whether that’s for fame, fortune, etc., but I like to believe that most people use personal blogs to express themselves. Connections can be an added perk, but they aren’t (for everyone) the goal.

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new post: The problems with Cyrillic domain names
https://рина.орг/190225.html

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agreed 100%. i definitely am not trying to go viral, build an audience, or get popular, but i don’t judge anyone who wants to build an audience! that’s okay~ but that’s not Why Everyone Should Blog, you know?

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Sure, if you interpret ā€œgo viralā€ in the narrow sense of ā€œget loads and loads of readers,ā€ but I was referring to something more general, more like ā€œconnect with at least one reader who really cares.ā€ There’s a reason I have a blog (actually three) in addition to a journal, right?

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I wouldn’t consider that ā€œgoing viralā€ (virality implies more than one person is involved yknow?), but even then - not necessarily. I blog because I want to get my thoughts into the void, whether or not people reply is a secondary concern.

Not saying this to brag ā€œha I am more Pure than youā€ or whatever the fuck, just to say that it’s totally possible to post for an audience or entirely for yourself.

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No, yeah, my post was written in a hurry. What I should have said is this:

I’m tempted to judge him for trying so hard to go viral, but ultimately, the reason anyone has a blog is because they want to connect with between 1 and 7 billion readers, so the difference between him and all of us is really only a matter of degree.

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So I made a change in my usual posting habits, by writing in the afternoon while I’m mentally well. I notice I tend to write blog posts typically when I’m at my worst, I don’t want to do that all the time, it hurts to read. I wanted to make something a lot more reflective and positive(?) lmaoo about how my mental illness has affected me and my creative endeavours, and that I don’t need it to be ā€œinterestingā€

THIS ONE LIFE HACK SAVED MY LIFE (REAL) (NOT CLICKBAIT)

The title is a joke lmao. I swear I have more detailed thoughts in the post.

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I mean to some extent yeah, but honestly I have seen people who have blogs that don’t have that purpose. I remember coming across a website that encrypted their own blog posts and hasn’t told anyone the code. Sure, you could probably make a diary so no one will read, but sometimes people just do things because they want to. Sometimes the reasons change too. Why do I blog now? Because I need some way to gather my thoughts in a productive/concise manner that isn’t yapping hours upon hours in chats/forums.

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I’m just sharpening my intellectual and rhetorical claws by speaking my mind and exercising a fundamental human right, that of freedom of expression. Whether I attract an audience is a secondary concern that is slowly and organically taking care of itself. I write on my website, I participate on forums like this one, and people find my site.

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I think I bought the PlayStation4 version when it was on sale, but never really got into it. Probably because I bought it when Final Fantasy XIV was down for maintenance and then got back into FFXIV once the patch was out.

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I wrote two posts today. Or more accurately, wrote one and finished a draft. I finally responded to @fLaMEd tagging me in the Blog Questions Challenge that’s been circulating.

https://yequari.com/blog/2025/02/blog-question-challenge/

https://yequari.com/blog/2025/02/motion-sickness-accessibility/

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I :heart: Fibbing! I bet he feels so velvety soft. Nice website! The purple background is mesmerizing.

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