Posts made by Sunny

@saosmash

My phone has started sending me notifications when items on my wishlist are on sale. Siiigh.

TFW your favorite game publisher has a Steam sale and you cheer only to discover you freaking own everything they made (that's on Steam) already. Siiiiiiiigh. Fine. DON'T take my money.

I am trying to decide if I want to continue my D:OS2 playthrough right now or go see if I can get through BG1 and BG2 again. They held up pretty well.

@Arkandel said in General Video Game Thread:

Baldur's Gate 3 confirmed, suckers!

That noise the entirety of North America just heard that shattered windows and made small dogs howl? Yeah, that was me squealing with glee.

I got Frostpunk 'cos I got a coupon for it 50% off. Holy crap it's a- good and b- hard.

Still really appreciating this discussion, folks; I am really interested in the topic, and I love seeing all of the different perspectives on what can/should/shouldn't be done around this.

I am 100% in agreement that it would not / should not directly translate. I think the conversation is worth having, though. Thanks for the opinions / perspectives so far, folks! I find it a really interesting topic, especially to see where other people stand with comfort levels.

Tabletop / convention gaming concept that's starting to work its way into the games themselves:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SB0jsx34bWHZWbnNIVVuMjhDkrdFGo1_hSC2BWPlI3A/edit

It's pretty interesting, and I wonder about ways to apply it in the hobby. We do it already with RP prefs in some ways and consent in other places, but this is a different-ish approach. Maybe.

@Auspice

Congratulations!!!!!! Fingers are crossed for you, but yay good feedback!

@Ghost said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

@Sunny That's...not entirely accurate, either.

Were someone skilled and malicious were so inclined, having your name and email address provides a vector for an entirely different set of attacks. It provides a location for email information to pen test, your name and surname which could be used to affect family or other contacts gleamed through a successful pen test against your email. Background checks are cheap. In some cases this is how elderly family members are identified as targets for phone scams. Facebook runs this risk, too.

With decent network protection, your IP could still be backtraced for attempts on your router, but could be blocked and your devices kept safe. Howeeeeeeever. Default telnet use isnt just dangerous because of sniffing. It's also a port that you have told your system is an acceptable pipe in and out of your device.

Telnet is insecure because with some know-how (and mushes aren't tokenized), a spoofed signal with port information that you have approved could be used as an attack vector, as well. At that point it's approved communication through your router, so could potentially go unnoticed. At that point any virus or malware software would be your last line of defense.

In the end, it all comes down to:

1. How much information you're willing to share over an insecure protocol
2. Your level of trust in the mushing community as a whole that some RANDO wolf with some knowledge and capability doesn't feel like being a motherfucker

Not tryin' to scare, but thems facts.

Placing my picture, name, and hometown on Facebook without privacy settings locking them down and making them !searchable puts me at far more risk than anything else you have mentioned.

@Ghost

Again, 'sharing my email with my name in it' and 'existing on facebook' are the things being compared here. Yes, absolutely, hackers are scary and telnet is bad. I'm gonna mush though, so -- hey, actually, that makes a really good point.

My IP address, which is actually as scary or MORE scary than my email, is not at all secure on login into a mush, because HACKERS.

So you're at more of a risk just logging in than you are by sharing your email with your name on it.

ETA: "If you're in IT" -- I am. I just said that.

@Ghost

I am also in IT.

You don't know how I have FB setup, what I'm doing with it, or whether I'm an average user / careful.

ETA: Thanks for the explanation about my own RL profession, though!

ETA2: Every bit of 'social engineering' mentioned there could easily apply to FB in addition to mushing. I did not say 'existing on MSB', I said 'sharing my email with my name in it' and 'sharing my email with my name in it' is not more dangerous on an everyday risk level than 'existing on Facebook with my name, town, and picture listed'.

@Quinn

I use my RL name in my email and other places about the hobby. While I've had bad experiences with folks online, I have had far, far, far, far worse experiences with people who knew me in meat space first. Yes, bad things happen, crazy things happen, people do terrible things. Someone who thinks NOT sharing their email is actually keeping them safe? I'm pretty sure they're actually the one with the false sense of security.

I use Facebook. I mean, at all. I use it. It has my name, my town, and my picture on it. I am way, way, way, way, way more at risk just existing on FB than I am using my name in my email and sharing that with people. This is 2019. Google knows what I ate for dinner yesterday, even though I don't remember. Making a personal choice to be particularly private? I can understand that, absolutely.

Refusing to understand/acknowledge why someone might make a different choice, or saying that someone making a different choice is engaging in risky behavior does not take into consideration the realities of the digital world that we live in these days.

@Ganymede said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

Telling people that words only have the power they're given is exactly like telling someone who is depressed to go outside.

I disagree, but I recognize that in such matters perspective is important.

Yah. My angle on it: It's a helpful reminder for everyone, but doesn't solve any problems or actually help when there's an active issue going on, and in fact makes somebody more upset, having the precise opposite effect that your assistance was attempting.

ETA: It's a lot like 'never in the history of calming down has telling someone to calm down actually helped them to calm down'. It's not necessarily BAD advice (even if walking outside won't help my depression, walking outside will help me in other ways that might make my depression easier, just like it would make it easier for anyone ever dealing with anything because a walk outside is, barring disabilities or snow or other issues, always a good idea for EVERYONE), but it's also not HELPFUL advice.

Going to repeat my point:

Telling people that words only have the power they're given is exactly like telling someone who is depressed to go outside.

"Words only have the power you give them to hurt you" is a lot like "oh, you're depressed? You need to spend more time outside!"

Yes, but that's not actually the problem, here.

@Ganymede said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

In my Mod Voice, loudly: if you feel threatened or stalked on this board, please bring it to our (Arkandel and I) attention immediately. Arkandel and I agree on few things, but we absolutely will not tolerate stalking. We may request that you help us understand what's going on, but we promise you -- I promise you -- we will take that shit very, very seriously.

Thank you.

@Ominous said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

The real question is do I enjoy this hobby more than the other hobbies I am able to pursue, and sadly the answer is yes.

That's a really interesting response and I appreciate it. This is not sarcasm; thanks for sharing. It's definitely good food for thought.

@Auspice said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

To be perfectly frank, I feel like a lot of people around here may not be receiving the level of honesty they think they are. Especially if everyone around here is as anxious as it appears.

Oh absolutely, I have no doubts about that, and I will say that I resoundingly agree even without the 'especially' note there, and it's based not on folks' behavior but just people being people and human behavior amongst ANY sort of social group.

All you can do is the best you can do to try and do the right thing.

@Auspice said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

But at the same time: I'm dealing with my shit. I'm there to support my closest friends. I don't have the capacity for everyone else's, too. So if you (general you) come to me wanting to go on about a bad situation....my advice will generally be: gtfo that situation. Walk away. What's best for your mental health is usually just to leave. And also btw to stop trying to drag me in because it ain't my circus damnit.

This is good advice. Good to do for yourself, and a good way to handle the general you in that circumstance. To me, it should look like this:

1. Identify problem
2. Sanity check problem off trusted individual who is willing to tell you you are wrong (just in case you are)
3. If trusted individual who can be relied upon to be truthful tells you that it is indeed a problem, take a deep breath and go to staff.
   3.b If trusted person tells you it is NOT a problem: Let. It. Go. Do whatever you need to get over it/yourself. That's why you asked them.
4. If staff deals with the problem, great! /end
   4.b If staff does NOT deal with the problem:
   i. Escalate if possible (if there is some sort of an appeal system / you were not originally talking to the headstaff)
   ii. Leave

That is how I feel that actual, genuine problems should be dealt with from a player perspective, every single time.

ETA: Added 3.b, forgot that step!