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@[email protected] @[email protected] ​(for context, NextCloud can be self hosted and is open source but the fact they offered paid for enterprise options to schools and universities suggests they think it can take the place of classroom in at least some ways)

@[email protected] @[email protected] To get the ball rolling, NextCloud do offer an education product (including a hosted option) and are based in Germany, I believe. That said, I haven't used it and I don't know where the hosting happens. nextcloud.com/education/

@[email protected] @[email protected] ​# LibreClassroom sounds good, it doesn't seem like a thing that would need to be EU only (as long as solutions are able to be hosted in the EU). I'd be interested in this as well.

@[email protected] hmm. I think there's a difference here in that the cave was explicitly a story​ for teaching purposes, while the Babylonian exile was a record of historical events (of whatever accuracy, but it definitely wasn't considered made up to teach a specific point). No arguments with the commentary on the hypocrisy of effectively exiling people and then being surprised they find more truth in the old testament than your 'helpful' theology though...

@[email protected] all those ghouls cursed with empathy are out there looking for the unsavoury savoury people​

Made university life a lot cheaper too...

One thing I'll be forever grateful for my mum teaching me is not to be afraid of turning ingredients into food (and some basic rules for helping the results not be disgusting). We've opted for a rather more planned take on food than my family of origin in general, but sometimes you're tired and you haven't had time to shop and it is so powerful to be about to just grab a handful of ingredients and make 'a meal'.

To all of you who love your old school parser based #interactivefiction , the smack talk in this 1-1 game jam style competion over at the IntFiction forums is why the chef's kiss emoji exists... intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-s...

That’s not a verb I recognize.

@[email protected] I don't actually know the context of the emails, but from the quote it does seem that the exact wording is both second hand and ambiguous; is it the poorness that is suppose to go away, or the people?

Not that I'm feeling generous enough to the people involved to assume the nicer option, but I'd feel dirty to not at least acknowledge both exist.​

New round of courses for under 18s interested in #writing #visualnovels starts next week, so it's time to start releasing the improvements to VisualInk that we discovered would be useful in the last run through of the course.

bonfire.mavnn.eu/pub/objects... ​

You can play through the exercise that's shown in the screen shot here: visualink.mavnn.eu/published... . Use the menu at the top to switch between the two types of view.

VisualInk now lets you swap seemlessly between cinematic and our new illustrated screenplay format while you're playing your #visualnovels . This allows readers to quickly check the history of the story so far, and authors to view parts of the story with context. And it just looks pretty snazzy (in our opinion).

Starting next week, we'll be hosting a writing club for under 18s doing something a bit different: writing interactive fiction. This is a space for people who want to actually write a piece of interactive fiction, so it does assume you'll be putting in time between sessions so that we can all share our progress each week.

More details at thinkersmeetup.com/service-p...

#writing #fiction #interactivefiction

@[email protected] @[email protected] On the flip side, I was once asked by a policeman to carry a (prop) sword more openly because they had to take potential 'hidden' weapons much more seriously than openly carrying a prop. It's hard to win sometimes...

@[email protected] I'm sure you'll succeed, but looking at my own history I'm not so sure about the staying sane part.​

Prototyping a new view for allowing readers to view their history, and authors to quickly got an overview of the script.

It's not quite ready for release yet, but it is starting to get there. Just needs a bit more love to get it formatted more like an actual movie script, and to include scene change markers for when the background changes.

#visualnovels #interactivefiction

@[email protected] @[email protected] oh my word.

The first time I ever met a published author in person​ ('98, I think? Hi @[email protected] !) I remember being completely gobsmacked when she showed the US version of her first book cover, where the heroine had mysteriously became a red headed model on a background that resembled nothing within the story at all.

It wasn't quite this bad.

Know someone 9-18 who loves stories? Week starting 23rd February is the next round of "Coding Games with a Story", a five week introduction to creating #visualnovels using our very own VisualInk. We're also hoping to host a writing club for under 18s who have decided to build a full game now that two cohorts have already gone through and enjoyed the course (writers using other #interactivefiction tools are also welcome to join the writing club).

Read more about the person leading the courses and their content at thinkersmeetup.com/scholars/...

@[email protected] To be fair, it's not like the banks don't take an interest as well. And... I even have some sympathy for why, given that fraud and money laundering are a thing. I've known some people who worked in fraud protection in banks and they were both horrified by how much information they had access to and rightfully proud of how much theft they had managed to prevent/people's savings they'd been able to return. But yeah... you're not wrong.

I had the misfortune to be reminded today that in the US it is still common to pay fees on domestic bank transfers. Not actually the biggest current issue in the US, but... seriously?

(context for those of you in the US: while cross currency transfers or 'instant' transfers can incur fees in the UK/EU, in general you can make a free transfer to anyone with a bank account in the same currency if you're willing to wait 1-3 working days)