queer_scribbling | Entries tagged with tech scribbling

Squidge.org is proud to bring you FenRecs.com - a new site that's designed to share fanfiction and other fanworks recommendations, as well as places for community discussion, from writing advice to beta requests to fandom and pairing recommendations. The site uses open-source software called Lemmy, and it is designed to be much like Reddit. If you don't know what Reddit is, it's a website that allows people to have different communities (subreddits) where they share things - from pictures to news to stories.

Additional info
For privacy reasons, you won't be able to access FenRecs.com unless you have an account. This seems to be the best way to keep people's privacy requests fulfilled. The site allows you to block other accounts, but the one thing it does not have (at least at the moment) is tags. So you cannot search for or add tags to posts, nor can you block tags. We'll be continuing to research and see if we can add this in the future. Additionally, there is the ability to have downvotes for posts, but it is disabled at the current time. If and when the site rollout goes smoothly, downvotes may be rolled out as well.

If you are familiar with Reddit, then FenRecs.com will be second nature to you. You'll find Fic Recs and other discussions that you can upvote. A post with lots of upvotes will mean to the casual visitor that this is a fic that many people like. A post with fewer upvotes doesn't mean the work is any less valuable than a higher upvoted fic. It just means that not enough people have red it to recommend it.

User registration is going to be fully open from 10am Pacific Time until 4pm Pacific Time January 2nd, 2025 - just a six hour period. We're doing this because we do need an influx of people to come in, poke around, create some communities, and add in some fic recs and/or other discussions. After 4pm Pacific Time 1/2/25, registration will still be open; however registration will need to be approved by admins.

On the one hand, a forum place for community discussion that is not joining a dozen separate Discord servers. On the other hand, six hours to make a decision about a site that I can't see a demo of before joining. Hm.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

Keeping track of some links from @the-final-sif [alternate link]:

Also, if you're someone who'd like to customize your Discord further, or remove Nitro garbage or bypass it, Better Discord (an open source project) can be used on desktop for a lot of fun results: BetterDiscord home page.

Plugin options can entirely replicate nitro stuff, and enhance privacy, such as:
RemoveChatButtons - Remove annoying buttons like the Gift button from the chat box.
InvisibleTyping - Enhanced version of silent typing.
SplitLargeMessages - Allows you to enter larger Messages, which will automatically split into several smaller Messages.

I haven't tried BetterDiscord myself, but it might be something I want to look into at some point in the future.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

Just keeping track of something:

Bypass Paywalls Clean - Browser extension [Mozilla] that allows for automatically bypassing paywalls for listed sites after going to a link. It isn't only for news sites strictly speaking, but I do mostly use it for supported news sites.

Paywall Reader - Website that collects different paywall removing tactics in one place. You paste the URL into the bar, click an option (Google Cache, Internet Archive, Archive.today, 12ft.io, or Remove Paywall), and it loads a new window that either works or doesn't.

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

Firefox is trying to develop Privacy Preserving Attribution (PPA) as an alternative to advertising that collects information about individuals, and I can understand why someone would want to try that. I found out from ~Laridian's post that this PPA feature has been rolled out in the latest Firefox update with everyone opted-in, and I can't say that was the way I'd want to find out this information. It's possible that someone could suggest actually reading the update info that shows up in the browser post-update, but I suspect I'm not the only one that skims or skips over that since it's usually not something like 'we've automatically opted you into this PPA experiment'.

I'm not currently interested in trying out a different web browser, but I did want to keep track of the options mentioned in the comment section of ~Laridian's post:

~ Ladybird, which is a browser still in development that was started from a browser for SerenityOS (it's described as not using any elements of code from other browsers);

~ LibreWolf, which is an independent version of Firefox focused on "privacy, security and user freedom" first released in 2020;

~ Waterfox, which was started as a 64-Bit browser based on Firefox in 2011 and then focused more on privacy and customisation.

LibreWolf and Waterfox sorta sound the same in the basic description, but from my curious poking about, I think LibreWolf makes a few concessions on usability in favor of security and privacy, while Waterfox errs a bit more towards maintaining usability. Some people may care more about OS and device options: Ladybird is currently described as being compatible with Linux and MacOS; LibreWolf has Linux options, Windows, and MacOS; and Waterfox has Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Android releases.

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

Prompt #4: Daisy

Keyword: New beginnings (and 'an ability to keep things secret').

I've been feeling a bit non-physically restless since I've tried to do this Sunshine Challenge. In the sense of wanting to delete a non-Pillowfort blog or create a new blog or change usernames - or something like that. (And in the sense of not being able to pick just one keyword from the prompt. I left the last draft in the comments section below.)

But I know that I don't want to literally delete the blogs I've been poking at. I wouldn't blame anyone for forgetting that I even have a WordPress, but right now, that's the top of the restless energy list. I created it about eight years ago. There's content that isn't terrible and would be useful for showing personal growth, and there's some content that I'll probably consider making private, at least.

Examples:

Put a Text widget where the Categories widget is, so I can list out only the categories I want to actively use going forward.
Put a Text widget where the Tags widget is, so I can link to only the tags I want to actively use going forward.
Double check my menus to make sure I haven't left an old page visible in a drop-down selection.
If necessary, change post view settings so that it's one of the private options instead of public.

I can't guarantee that this will solve the restless feeling, but it seems a bit more measured of a response than outright deleting. Even just transferring some stuff to a new WordPress to use going forward would probably be less of a 'future-me will regret this' move than deleting eight years of stuff. (Well, basically. I have been wondering if I should just cave and create a Dreamwidth, but that's a different thread of the jumbled idea pile in this restlessness.)

The original post on Pillowfort is view-locked to "login only".

Current Mood: restless

Someone mentioned Privacy Guides in a Tumblr post, so I casually skimmed through some of it, and Email Aliasing Services caught my eye.

I'm sure this is something a little more serious for some people, but my first thought was 'I don't have to worry about giving out my ridiculous, made in middle school email' for certain things anymore.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

I'm fairly confident that ~eiriee's post about LEO (gemini web ring) was my first introduction to Project Gemini and the Gemini protocol (alternative to HTTP, which has a 'web' presence in Geminispace).

{Insert "It makes no damn sense. It compels me, though." gif from Knives Out.}

Occasionally, I circle back to the idea, but I definitely have not decided on carefully poking Geminispace. As with looking into alternatives to other centralized 'Big Tech' websites, I keep running into the issue that I just don't have very much to put on these smaller alternatives (whether it's a federated site or a Gemini capsule).

In the event that I ever want to circle back around with a little more intent on dipping a toe in, I'm copying over some stuff from the FAQ:

3.1 I'm curious about Geminispace, how can I check it out?

The lowest commitment way to explore Geminispace is to use a web proxy or "portal", such as one of the following:

This will allow you to use your regular web browser to explore Geminispace. If you like what you see, you might want to consider installing a dedicated Gemini client, which will typically offer a better and more complete browsing experience. You can find a list of clients (and other software) at the link below. There are even clients available for mobile platforms like Android and iOS!
Gemini software list

(Note: Anyone who glanced at ~eiriee's post above will notice that Yesterweb also has a proxy. This clearly isn't a comprehensive list of every possible option.)

3.2 Okay, I've got a client, where can I find content?

For now, Geminispace is still small enough that it's feasible to use directories as a way to discover what is out there. Some of these are listed below:

If you are looking for something in particular, Gemini has one search engine:

geminispace.info, the Gemini search engine

There are two public aggregators which attempt to make it easier to find recently-updated material in Geminispace:

3.3 How can I put some content of my own in Geminispace?

If you do not feel comfortable with the technologies needed to make use of pubnix hosting (ssh or sftp, terminal text editors, unix file permissions, etc), you can get free accounts at the services below which will allow you to maintain a capsule via a web application:

Of note: Flounder has a Text Guide and Tips and Tricks, which might be helpful. (A gemlog doesn't quite use Markdown as experienced elsewhere, and there is a way to draft without posting immediately.)

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

"Signal is 'starting to phase out SMS support' from its Android app" (12 October 2022; posted here on 23 February 2023).

Signal is beginning to phase out support for sending and receiving standard text messages from its Android app after years of supporting the ability to have them alongside your Signal messages, which are end-to-end encrypted and sent using data. The company says that if you have its app set as your default SMS and MMS client, you’ll have to pick a new app to handle those duties.

According to a Wednesday blog post, users will have "several months to transition away from SMS in Signal" and to migrate their messages to a new app. Of course, the post also recommends trying to convert the people you were texting into Signal users. If you do use the feature (you can check by going to Signal's settings screen, then to Chats > SMS and MMS and seeing if 'use as default SMS app' is enabled), you'll start seeing notifications reminding you that you'll have to change over soon.

I put my decision making in the comments, but I mostly needed to have this as a post to remind myself to actually find a new SMS app.

Current Mood: tech weary
Current Music: MyNoise - Irish Coast (Default Audio)

Even though I am aware that a subscription, hits, or kudos count on AO3 isn't supposed to be the absolute most important thing on AO3, I still feel kind of anxious when I can see, for example, the user subscription count decrease. I recently realised that I could just put all that CSS that most people talked about putting in a site skin into a Stylus theme for AO3.

( Hiding stats on one's own Statistics page. )

( Replacing the numbers of blurb statistics with something else. )

Shared on Tumblr.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Playlist - Blood Orange on the Seder Plate

Archival note (31 December 2023): It's kind of a thing to use Stylus and tweak things on Pillowfort. I'm honestly not sure if it started out as a DIY version to get a Dark Mode before the official Dark Mode was released [in 2022] or not. It's also possible that people who missed theme customisation available on other sites wanted to have fun. However, I don't really want to copy over every post about various Stylus tweaks here on Dreamwidth.

There are holdovers from pre-Dark Mode, on the off chance that it gets turned off for whatever reason. This first section is for the sidebar when viewing the Home Feed.

.sidebar-num {
color: #FFF
}

[Holdover: This makes the Inbox and Notification number white.]

.sidebar-bottom-num {
display: none;
}

[Holdover: This gets rid of all the numbers in the bottom sidebar (follower, following, and mutual count).]

body.dark-theme .site-sidebar .sidebar-num {
color: #6F96BC;
}

[This makes the Inbox and Notification numbers match the Dark Mode light blue.]

div.sidebar-bottom.sidebar-expanded .sidebar-bottom-left > a {
color: #6F96BC !important;
}

div.sidebar-bottom.sidebar-expanded .sidebar-bottom-left > a:hover {
color: #F377B3 !important;
}

[This makes the 'About & Contact' line match the rest of the bottom sidebar; the text is light blue and turns pink when you hover over it. Specifying the "div.sidebar-bottom.sidebar-expanded" in the front is a new addition in order to keep a different sidebar tweak from overlapping here.]

body.dark-theme .site-sidebar .donate-link {
color: #6F96BC;
}

[This makes the 'Donate!' line match the rest of the bottom sidebar's light blue, but it doesn't turn pink when hovered over.]

This section is for the sidebar when viewing my fort.

.user-sidebar .expanded-bar-show {
background-color: #5E5E5E;
}

[This turns the background of the top portion that lists my username a medium grey, so the black font of my username can be read.]

.user-sidebar .sidebar-bottom-left {
background-color: #5E5E5E;
}

[This turns the background of the bottom portion that lists my Original Posts, Reblogs, and Page Style a medium grey.]

.sidebar-bottom-left > a {
color: #000 !important;
}

.sidebar-bottom-left > a:hover {
color: #6F96BC !important;
}

[This turns the lines for Original Posts, Reblogs, and their numbers black. When 'Original Posts' and 'Reblogs' are hovered over, the links turn the Dark Mode light blue.]

.user-sidebar .style-button {
color: #000;
}

[This turns the 'Page Style' black. It's not a link, so there's no hover color change.]

This section is miscellaneous.

body.dark-theme img.svg-pink-light, body.dark-theme img.svg-pink-dark, body.dark-theme img.svg-pink-light:hover, body.dark-theme img.svg-pink-dark:hover {
filter: invert(51%) sepia(94%) saturate(392%) hue-rotate(70deg) brightness(93%) contrast(93%);
}

[This changes the areas where pink are used in Dark Mode to a certain green. I used a Hex Color To CSS Filter Converter for the green that's #36B534. I specifically did this in order to have a green heart when I use the Like/heart button, so I'm not sure if I'm keeping this change forever. Keep in mind that it affects certain other pink stuff as well, such as the link symbols on the Notifications page [that take you to said link if clicked], certain privacy icons at the top of posts [for the different view-lock settings], and the symbols on the Create A Post page for different post types.]

.comment .header .comment-subheader a {
font-size: 1em;
color: #000;
}

[Holdover: This increases the size of usernames in the comments and turns the font black.]

body.dark-theme .comment .header .comment-subheader a {
font-size: 1.1em;
color: #6F96BC;
}

[In Dark Mode, this turns the usernames the light blue used throughout this theme. The font size is a little larger than non-Dark Mode.]

blockquote {
color: #808080
}

[Sort Of Holdover: When Dark Mode was originally released, this turned the font of blockquotes in the comments a light grey. An update to fix the original font color issue - which does not work while previewing posts on my own fort - currently overrides this.]

body.dark-theme .post .tags .tag-title {
color: #AEAEAE;
}

[When browsing my own fort, the 'Tags' title at the start of the tag section is not currently visible. This turns the font color a light grey. Note that it does seem to also apply when browsing the rest of the site.]

This section increases the size of different things.

div.reblog-success-container {
font-size: 20px;
}

[The 'Reblog Submitted' line when you've successfully reblogged something. Originally 16px or 18px.]

.post .timestamp2 {
font-size: 16px;
}

[The timestamp at the top right of posts. Originally 10px or 12px.]

.post .tags {
font-size: 16px;
}

[The size of the font of tags at the bottom of posts. Originally 14px.]

.post .header {
font-size: 16px;
}

[The header is the 'username' or 'username reblogged by username' bit in the top left of posts. Originally 14px.]

.post .post-nav .tag-text {
font-size: 16px;
}

[The numbers for comments/reblogs/likes section at the bottom left of posts. Originally 14px.]

.post .post-nav .edit-img {
min-width: 25px;
min-height: 25px;
}

[The size of the edit icon at the bottom right of posts. Originally 18px in both width and height.]

.post .post-nav .report-img {
height: 25px;
width: 25px;
}

[The size of both the 'delete'/bin and 'report'/flag icons at the bottom right of posts. Originally 18px in both height and width.]

#notifs-dashboard .header .comment-buttons img {
width: 20px;
}

[The size of the Notifications page link symbol. Originally 18px.]

.post .link_post img {
height: 20px;
}

[The size of the link symbols at the top right of posts. Originally 18px.]

.post .priv-svg {
height: 22px;
}

[Privacy icons in the top right of the post. Originally 18px.]

.post .hidden-reblogs-icon {
height: 22px;
}

[The three dots you hover over to see redundant reblogs. Originally 15px.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Playlist - Blood Orange on the Seder Plate

I got an email about my Photobucket account being marked as 'inactive'. I'm not sure if I could tell you if I logged in within the last decade or so. So, I went ahead and gave it a try to see if I would cringe at the old embarrassing photos. Apparently, I had more than 250 photos, so I was over the new storage limit.

After getting around the large redirect to pay for more storage, I finally deleted 500 and some photos. 2008 to 2010 did not just call - they body slammed me into listening to someone do some emo covers. (I nearly felt the urge to log into my deviantART and check on my friends' questionable fic on FF.net.)

I'm fine. I'm fine.

Archival note (31 December 2023): I've gotten enough warnings about my account possibly being deleted that it's, finally, been deleted, since I wasn't going to pay for what was left. I truly didn't store incredibly important images on Photobucket anyways, but I do wonder if anyone's old early aughts avatars were affected.

Current Mood: okay

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January 2026

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Page Summary

FenRecs
BetterDiscord
Login Remover
Privacy Perserving Attribution & Non-Firefox Web Browsers
Sunshine Challenge 2023
Email Aliases
Geminispace
Link: Signal is 'starting to phase out SMS support' from its Android app
Stylus & AO3
Stylus & Pillowfort
Photobucket (Reminder)

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Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

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Page generated Tuesday, 6 January 2026 11:45 am

Because in the darkness

there be dragons

Entries tagged with tech scribbling

FenRecs

BetterDiscord

Login Remover

Privacy Perserving Attribution & Non-Firefox Web Browsers

Sunshine Challenge 2023

Email Aliases

Geminispace

Link: Signal is 'starting to phase out SMS support' from its Android app

Stylus & AO3

Stylus & Pillowfort

Photobucket (Reminder)