I suspect as with many here it was Reddit’s API nonsense back in 2023. I joined another instance back in mid '23 but it took me until this year before I started using it regularly.

OIC that explains a lot. I had heard that Lemmy.ml had a lot of CCP sympathizers but was unaware they wore it on their sleeve like that.

Another good suggestion is to click on the “communities” link on the homepage and that will give you a list of all the communities on that instance, then sort by “new” or “scaled” to see new stuff.

!worldbuilding@lemmy.world needs more love. If you like getting lost in other people’s imaginations it’s a great place to go.

Comms dedicated to specific animals are nice, mostly pictures. I lurk on !foxes@lemmy.world, and I wish there were a comm for orangutans so I could stop lurking on /r/orangutan.

I feel like I’m opening a can of worms by asking but what is “non-ml”?

I write some short fiction, mostly just worldbuilding with a thin plot attached to make it more palatable. Sometimes just sitting down and forcing myself to put one word after the other helps. Sometimes I read similar stories to get inspiration. Sometimes I browse images to get in the mood. I have a mood board using Pureref that I fill with sci-fi stuff like mechs.

Since I’m first and foremost a world builder, not an author, I’ll try other media besides writing to express my imagination. Visual art is hard for me for various reasons but I try anyway. I’ve tried pixel art as well as 3D models (hooray for Blender!)

It can be hard. I have yet to see an elegant way to navigate threaded chains of comments. It’s like “UltimateGamer386 <tab> <tab> <tab> <tab> <tab> [actual content]”. On Reddit, at least Old Reddit, the upvote and downvote controles were the only buttons and were located immediately before the actual comment, so you could go from button to button, then press down arrow to read the comment.

I have enough vision to navigate to some degree, at least on a desktop. For laptop or phone it has to be a screen reader. I really should be reading braille more.

I was just thinking the other day that a dedicated semantic tag for user replies like <comment> or <reply> or <post> would be nice, and they could be nested.

Agreed. In a way though I should expect this. Most people on the fediverse are here for ideological reasons, including myself. We dislike the corporate platforms that the fediverse seeks to replace. Simply having an account here makes a statement. But what exhausts me is when I go onto a community like mildlyinteresting expecting to see pics of three-chambered peanuts and yellow stop signs but most of it is stuff like “French President explains the political consequences of AI” or “There’s a selection bias baked into US democracy that most people never stop to consider. Owning a car significantly increases the likelihood of voting.” Like I can even attest personally to that last one as I don’t own a car and that makes it hard to get out and vote, but that’s not why I came here.

I actually didn’t know you could block users on Lemmy until now. I’ve been blocking all the big communities so my main page isn’t clogged with stuff I’m not interested in.

What are your thoughts on AI powered screen readers?

One of my biggest gripes with AI is that it requires a cloud connection most of the time, and I’m all about my PC being my personal computer.

In terms of usefulness I can see it maybe for image description.

I was born blind.

I admin an instructional data center at a community college.

Probably NVDA for Windows. Microsoft has tried to flesh out Narrator but it’s still the MS Edge of screen readers IMO, you use it just to download another screen reader. The fact that VS Code is built around NVDA and not Narrator should show how MS feels about it.

That is incorrect. Certainly at least not a bare hand. I’ve heard of people catching it midair with a bagged hand but that was when the dog was having an accident IIRC.

Sí

I hate those sayings that nobody ever finishes. “Speak of the devil” didn’t make sense until I learned the rest “…and he shall appear.” “Better the devil you know…” is another one. There are more I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Trump is sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Biden was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Obama was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Dubya was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Clinton was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Bush 1 was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Reagan was sending us to Hell in a hand basket.

Forgive me if I’m a little numb to it all.

Guide dogs have bathroom breaks at set times, and in my experience if their diet is healthy they’ll drop a duce at the same time each day. In any case, the dog is kept on a leash and given a command to relieve itself. It’ll usually sniff around, then stop to do the deed. Straight back means pee and arched back means poop. The posture can be seen if the handler has sufficient vision or felt with a hand if not. If poop is indicated, you find the dog’s south end and use your foot to mark ground zero. When the dog is done it’s a simple matter of bagging it using your foot as the landmark.

It’s not even always that I disagree with what people on here say, I’ve been a 3rd party/independent voter most of my adult life, hardly a Trump fan, but if I post about where to find good fajitas in Dallas I don’t want to hear a manifesto. A fanatic is someone who won’t change their mind and won’t change the subject, and a lot of lemmings fit that bill as evidenced by this very thread.

It’s not an ideal situation, but that’s partly on us. Back in 2008/09 or so there was talk of making money more accessible, and the National Federation of the Blind came out against it because they thought it implied we couldn’t handle money as is. Honestly I don’t associate with either the NFB or ACB, but that goes back to my aversion to politics.^[1]

Coins are already tactilely distinct, bills are the problem. Assuming we know the denomination, we usually fold them in different ways to differentiate them. Singles may be left unfolded, fives folded hamburger stile, tens hotdog style, etc. There’s no set way to do it, it’s up to the individual. There are bill readers, both standalone and as phone apps. TheiPhone may have one built in as part of VoiceOver or the magnifier app, but I’m too lazy to check right now.

I personally avoid using cash where possible as I don’t like keeping track of change.