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Nordcon 2019

Seit 1997 bin ich eigentlich fast jedes Jahr auf dem Nordcon. Da ich Mitglied eines der veranstaltenden Vereine bin, meistens auch in irgendwie aktiver Rolle - beim ersten Con hab ich spontan Tische getragen und am Infostand ausgeholfen, danach einige Jahre die Spielrunden verwaltet oder sonst irgendwie mitgeholfen. Später kam

thinking

Data is radioactive money?

we should think about data as if it were radioactive money. Whoever controls it can use it to generate wealth with it, but if it spills, there will be long lasting unfathomable damage.

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Visiting the Kodama office

Let's start with some context: I'm a Kickstarter backer for the Kodama Obsidian 3D printer. The thing is long overdue, as so often happens for hardware crowdfunding campaigns. The backer communication was spotty at best, but two weeks ago, CEO Michael Husmann started posting video updates

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Darth Poppins, here we come...

Last year, on a whim, I backed the Rainsaber on Kickstarter: Then, while waiting through the inevitable Kickstarter Project delivery delay, we watched Mary Poppins Returns - a movie that is sort of ok, but Emily Blunt ain't Julie Andrews, sorry. Anyway, while watching the movie, we riffed

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Small-scale pods as moderation advantage

Yesterday, I had a lengthy discussion with a proponent of big centralised social media platforms. Not because they have a particular love for big companies, but because moderation is actually one of these issues that are hard to do right. The numbers I could find say that about 20% of

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Online Interaction types - what is there, what do I look for?

While going through the Spreadsheet I created as a tool after writing the last blogpost here, I realized that what was completely obvious to me, isn't necessarily to others. Mostly because the whole argument about the details was mostly in my head. So, let's write it

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Social Media, from a persons perspective

I do love participating in social media. It was around 1994 when MiGri introduced me to the world of BBSes, the Fido net and everything online. To be honest, I haven't regretted a single thing from that. At some point, I ran my own BBS, I joined Usenet,

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Indie in Bielefeld

I'm sitting at home, having just returned from the regular gaming meetup in Bielefeld. While I did pack but not play Dusk City Outlaws, I did get to play two other games: The Skeletons by Jason Morningstar and Thorny Games' Dialect. Both games are very much focused

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Playing at an open table

Harald runs his bi-weekly game in a slightly unusual fashion. It is an open table where he runs for whoever shows up. That in itself isn't that unusual and the West Marshes style of running a campaign is based on a similar foundation. The difference is that he

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That incel nonsense...

At some point I will write a lengthy explanation why prohibiting private cars in inner cities will become an inevitability. All the green folks will rejoice over all the newfound clean air and all and will conveniently ignore that it was the dreaded fear of terror that finally brought this

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Du willst also auch mal Rollenspiel ausprobieren?

Keine Sorge, es geht jetzt nicht um Cosmopolitan-Tipps um Euer Sexleben aufzubessern, sondern um diese tolle Hobby von dem alle reden: Fantasy Rollenspiele, Erzählspiele, Pen&Paper RPGs.. err.. Moooment! Hey, JollyOrc, Dein Blog ist voll von Rollenspielbeiträgen. Warum erklärst Du das jetzt nochmal? Ganz einfach: Das hier ist ein

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Spielen mit Szenen

Drüben beim Rollenspiel-Blogs Forum gibt es eine Diskussion über "Szenenbasiertes Rollenspiel". Das mäandert ziemlich, aber es stecken auch interessante Dinge drin. Insgesamt brachte es mich dazu, darüber nachzudenken wie ich Rollenspiel leite und meine Abenteuer, Szenarien und Kampagnen plane. Wer mich kennt, weiß dass ich sehr gerne in

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Horror in Bielefeld

I spent the last weekend at a semi-regular gaming meetup. The beauty of this thing is that while it does host more than a few dozen people, but all of them are invited known persons. Friends and family one could say. Blechpirat and me usually use this gathering to playtest

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Crowdfunding and me...

For a bit over 5 years, I'm more or less regularly participating in Crowdfunding campaigns. Most of the stuff is geeky technology or gaming things, but there were also art, music or fashion projects. Kickstarter alone counts 89 successfully backed projects. Of those, these actually failed to deliver

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - Advertising

A while ago, I explained how we have fewer adbreaks here in german TV. Of course, we cought up a bit over the years, but it's still a socialist paradise in comparison. But there is also of course a distinct... german-ness to the ads I was seeing as

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - Subversiveness

Today, I'll tell you about the close relationship of the really popular "Schlager" genre and, well, critical anti-establishment voices. But first, I need to take a slight detour. With cat content. Well, cat-and-mouse content. Regardless if you're a german or US-american reader of this

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Bob and the Internet

This is the story of Bob: Bob is active in her chosen field, which exposes her to some wider audience. As Bob does things that people value, she has a podium on which to speak and she uses it to some effect. Alas, Bob has a problem. For some reason,

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Warum verschwindet der Link von meinem Kommentar?

In der letzten Zeit, und auf verschiedenen Blogs und Foren in denen ich involviert bin, trudeln Kommentare ein, die auf den ersten Blick hilfreich und on-topic ausschauen. Ihnen gemeinsam ist aber: * sie tauchen in recht alten Beiträgen auf * sie enthalten einen Link auf eine Seite, die im Endeffekt ein Sammelsurium

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - Country AND Western

To understand the following, you have to keep in mind that basically all germans for several generations have grown up with the stories of the brave and noble apache chief Winnetou, and his friend Old Shatterhand. The german author Karl May penned those, claiming they were the novelized diaries of

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Terrifying German Culture Hour: Think of the Children!

If you ever looked at one of these Buzzfeed lists like "10 dark original endings of Disney princesses" or similar things, you certainly know that european, and especially german fairy tales are dark. Gloomy, doomy, dark. You might know of old-school things like the Struwwelpeter: An educational book

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Terrifying German Culture Hour: Dinner for One

If you've ever spent new years eve in germany, you probably have encountered this: Dinner for One This sketch, performed by two british variety actors (and tumblers) is a german ritual for generations by now - despite the fact that it is indeed performed in english, without any

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Terrifying German Culture Hour: Hip Hop

Disclaimer: Those who know this genre, please forgive me for simplifying things A LOT, and probably getting even more wrong and for certain omitting key players. This is not my music, nor my scene, and I have no clue what I'm writing about. For quite a while, HipHop

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - Ad Breaks!

While I was doing research for Terrifying German Culture Hour, something occurred to me: German TV, especially in the 70ies and 80ies had way less advertising than comparable shows in the US. That sounds like a trivial "so what?" insight, but it is actually huge: For starters, they

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - The other Punk Edition

Even germans often mistake the phenomena known as "New German Wave" for just an assortment of weird stuff. In reality, this cambrian explosion of new styles and bands paved the way for a variety of genres in Germany. Most bands went away quietly afterwards, some got (in)famous,

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - "Music"

Music is the universal language, they say. And every country and culture has their equivalents of grand symphonies, dirty ditties and horrible songs. Germany is no different... ...you'd think. And you'd be wrong. Especially in the 70es and 80es, there was a union of music, showmanship