It sounds like a similar situation I had learning Spanish. In english, I’d say “It’s hot”. In Spanish, that’s “Hace calor”, which translated literally means “makes heat”. And it was strange to me because I wanted to know what was meant to be making this heat

Multiple tattoos! I used to have multiple piercings as well, but they all ultimately rejected, so now I have none

Do you need to be an activist? Absolutely not. You have a chance to live on your own terms in a world that made that really hard. You don’t owe it anything.

That being said… Visibility makes a huge difference, and it’s super important that some vulnerable folk are visible and loud. But remember, they’re the ones putting themselves on the line, so that in the future, it won’t be as bad for those that follow, and that needs to be respected.

For me, being trans was always just a medical issue

This isn’t helpful. Whether you see it that way or not, being trans is not “just a medical issue”. The fact that you were able to live your life as if it were, gives you a position of relative privilege that most trans people don’t share. The truth is, if you get publicly outed one day, it won’t just be a medical issue for you either. So whilst you don’t have to be an activist, you shouldn’t be downplaying the reality that other trans folk do have to face, and honestly, you shouldn’t be pretending to yourself that you are immune to them either.

Live your life on your own terms, and do so without guilt. But even if it’s just in the privacy of your own thoughts, make sure you build your visible peers up rather than mentally separating yourself from them

Australia

Would like to end up in Argentina or Uruguay though!

The best help you can give someone in distress is hearing them, whilst you redirect them to a place that can help with empathy and compassion.

Any form of automated message comes across as the exact opposite of empathy and compassion.

In addition, speaking as the admin of a trans and queer community, I don’t have any special tools or abilities to help people. Sending the report to me doesn’t let me help them, because they’re almost certainly not in my country, and I don’t have any special access that enables me to contact them or reach out to them. The tool I do have, is the instance itself that we host, that allows people to connect with their community and their peers, that allows them to struggle, and that shuts down anyone who would try and add to the hurt of someone on the edge.

Which is to say, I don’t think a reddit style feature has a place here. It will let people think they’re helping, without actually doing so, as well as providing a new vector for abuse (though that would be less of an issue than on reddit). In theory, an automated list of resources that could be called on could be useful, but again, if someone is struggling, they need to feel heard, and automated replies can come across as dispassionate and uncaring.

Thank you! I’ll be watching with great interest! Lots of potential :)

A couple of questions. If I was trying to keep a consistent workspace to build a community around, would it be persistent after the host logs off, and are their tools to protect it from trolls etc who discover it a workspace?

It does voice via Jitsi https://matrix.org/blog/2020/04/06/running-your-own-secure-communication-service-with-matrix-and-jitsi/

5:30 or so

Yeah, it’s extra work, and doesn’t change the infuriating aspect of enshitification, but it’s an option if you absolutely do not want to sign in to the app

For what it’s worth, you can generally record a GPS tracking in another app or on another device and then use your photo editing software to add the coordinates to the photos after the fact.

Westworld

My RC hovercraft! I loved that thing, but it had such a short battery life, it was basically unusable

The hot water tap in my shower turned itself completely off one day.

The whole gender thing? And I say that as a trans person. It’s real, but I can’t explain it…

That feels off somehow, or at least, the unsolved problem part isn’t as narrow as that makes it seem.

I can recognise a place, just like a face. I don’t eliminate options, I just recognise it. I can recognise voices the same way.

I don’t understand how faces are different in this context?

Comprehensible input! Start with simple content in that language you’re trying to learn, without any use of languages you understand. And then try and actively understand what you’re hearing, and work out how it all fits together!

Friendica, and to a lesser extent, misskey and it’s forks

Faux outrage isn’t playing around though. They’re not doing it for fun, they’re doing it for social capital.

I don’t drive, so a full tank of petrol wouldn’t be of much use to me.

Butch implies they’re sapphic, tomboy does not.