In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.
In a flight sim board, I once witnessed a heated debate over the HE111. The argument was over whether the first HE111s to drop torpedoes were field modified or had torpedo hardware mounted at the factory.
This thing went on for pages, and there was plenty of primary source documentation posted. And it was heated, personal, and vicious.
Programming and Linux. Oh boy, what to pick…
Terminal text editors: VIM vs Emacs is the main debate there. (There are others but these are ones people argue the most about)
Linux Distros: Arch, Debian, Mint, CachyOS, …
Init Systems: Systemd vs OpenRC. Honestly, probably the most toxic debate on this list.
Programming Languages: Python, Shell, but the heated one is C vs Rust
A non-exhaustive list of ones I couldn’t think of a category for:
- Tiling vs Floating Window Managers
- Chromium vs Gecko-based browsers
- Bash vs Zsh vs Fish
I love computers and Linux, but man, the amount of toxic in-fighting and gatekeeping is a real turnoff. Just use what you want. At the end of the day, we are all nerds doing what we love.
Completely forgot an even better example. Is FT8 ruining ham radio? Think of FT8 like a glorified ping using modem noises. You pipe those modem noises over a radio and someone pings you back with a signal report, and that’s it. There are many people who want to have more substantive conversations and think FT8 is automating the fun out of the hobby. Others argue that the people using FT8 aren’t the type to want to ragchew anyway, so they can hang out in their little corner and leave the rest of the bands clear for those who do want to chat.
There’s two in my hobbies.
First is in DnD. I’m going to ignore the obvious version wars but a lot of people debate who is and isn’t fan of DnD. A lot of people just watch Critical Role or Dimension 20. Some in the community say that doesn’t count and you’re not a fan unless you actually play.
My take is everyone is welcome, and if all you do is watch then I’ll just talk about storytelling with you and discuss mechanics with someone else.
The other big one is Chinese fountain pens that clearly mimic more well known brands. Are they good pens? Should they be shunned? Does it matter since most of the brands haven’t made the specific model in ages? So much back and forth.
My take here is some people will never have the money for a Pelikan M1000 and those who do are going to go for which writes better. There’s only so many ways a tube can be made unique.
I can’t believe people still argue over whether or not Balrogs have wings when the text unambiguously says they do. You can have wings and also have a shadow that looks like wings.
His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings. ...suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall...Like two vast wings but then he explicitly says its wings were spread, clearly stating it has wings. To be the most generous you could try to say the wings are made of shadows, but based on the text they’re clearly still wings.
Yes, Balrogs have wings.
I don’t have an opinion on the matter. I’m much more into the worldbuilding and languages than the books themselves, though I’ve of course read and enjoyed them.
I collect coins, and there’s always debates about what a coin is.
For those who don’t know, a coin is usually defined as an object with legal tender status somewhere; as opposed to a token that has a face value but is issued by a non-state actor; and a medal, which is anything that looks like a coin but doesn’t have any face value.
Now, aside from the expected debate over what is and isn’t a state, there’s also the issue of NIFC (not intended for circulation) coins. Many mints sell coins that are legal tender, but are never put into circulation, some people (often those that could be characterised as “old school”) take the position that as these aren’t intended to be used as legal tender, they aren’t really coins.
It doesn’t help that there are tiny island nations like Niue and Samoa that will basically let companies make anything legal tender if they pay them. This leads to the rather silly situation where a batarang, and a literal statue of hogwarts, are technically “coins”. (I’ve been told this is done as a import tariff dodge as the USA doesn’t charge import taxes on coins)
Should the hobby continue to be about both the act of printing and tinkering with printers, or is there a reasonable place for people who want “3D printing” as a hobby but not “3D printers” as a hobby. As part of this, is it okay for a company to lock down its firmware and prevent people from using their printer over a network without going through their software first?
Bambu Lab has made remarkable progress in “mainstreaming” 3D printing but they’ve done so at the expense of a lot of the “soul” of the space. Unlike many of their consumer-facing predecessors and competitors, they are closed-source and proprietary. They make a good product, but you don’t get to have control over it the same way you do with other brands. And that just means other brands are likely to follow suit, now that Bambu Lab has shown it to be an effective strategy.
I mourn the loss of common purpose the hobby once had, but at the same time I do think it’s a natural progression for something new and complex to eventually become consumer-grade. Look at how computers have evolved into rectangles we keep in our pockets.
I think it’s like cars for car guys vs cars for people who just want to get from place to place. I started with Elegoo and got really sick of all the fiddling it took to get a decent print. I got a Bambu and it just works. I know it’s a “walled garden” but in the end I can print whatever model I want and it comes out great most of the time.
I want the printing to be the hobby, not the printer, but I also don’t want the consumer-hostile stuff that Bambu is doing to spread.
I’m stuck with an A1 mini and don’t know where to go from here. I’m not an engineer and haven’t had much luck designing anything more complex than a single static part, and I think you really have to be good at making your own stuff for a printer to be a good purchase. But at the same time I’d really like more than a 7x7x7 inch build volume.
Star Trek (Voyager): Was it murder to split Tuvix back into Tuvok and Neelix?
I’ve got a long and complex possible solution to offer regarding this ethical clusterfuck, and I’m willing to elaborate if someone’s interested to hear it.
Edit (possible solution): Voyager’s database should include the Enterprise D’s information regarding Riker’s duplication incident. While Voyager’s crew already found a way to separate Tuvix, they could’ve searched for a possibility to repeat that process and then split back the copy Tuvix a few milliseconds into the original Tuvok and Neelix before said copy became self-aware.
That’s what makes it a good story though - an ethical dilemma with no clear “right” answer.
The longest and most complex solutions are usually right (yes, please share).
Im curious, please share
Two characters got merged into one completely new character the had traits of both, but was their own person. Decision was made to forcibly (against the new character’s wishes) undo the accident and restore the two people. In so doing the new character no longer existed.
In the Sonic fandom, there’s a debate over which is the “authentic” Sonic: the Western version or the Japanese one. It’s not about design, but rather personality, values, and attitude.
The thing is, the differences between the two are very subtle. Unless you’ve been in the fandom for years and have seen enough material on the subject, they’ll seem exactly the same to you.
My opinion is that “It doesn’t matter”~♪. At this point, there are countless versions of Sonic (the classic, the modern, Sonic SatAm, Sonic X, Archie Sonic, IDW Sonic, Fleetway Sonic, Sonic Boom, Sonic Prime, Movie Sonic…), all with their differences, but in general they share the, let’s say, “essence”* of the hedgehog, and that’s what matters.
*(If you’re not from Latin America, you won’t know how funny it is that I used that particular word)
with Sonic, it would be faster to list what isn’t a big internal debate
Sonic the hedgehog actually existing in fiction might not be a big debate
The Magic:the Gathering community is constantly bickering about what cards to be banned/unbanned. A lot of modern (modern as in the format, not present day) players agree a card from Titan needs to go but they disagree over which. Personally I think Amulet of Vigor needs to go. If you do that then energy probably needs a ban and I think goblin bombardment would make them weaker against removal and board wipes, though Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury is also a good option because it’s egregious with Arena of Glory
The Sims fandom: whether The Sims 4 is a good game or not. Some love it and it’s the only Sims game they play; others hate it and it’s the only one they don’t play. It’s very divisive. Personally, I love 2, 3, and 4 equally, though I’ve never played the original.
I’ve only played Sims 3 and 4. 4 has way better mods, while 3 has better gameplay.
Did you know Sims 4 has certain low-tier items be less performant to ensure players buy more DLCs? Alsp I think early paychecks are smaller too, but that maybe art imitating life.
That said, theoretically it was harder to survive in 2.
The original is my fav simply for the vibes. The music is great, the graphics are charming and the gameplay is simple and fun. Great expansion pack content too. I still have all the original CD copies from when I was a kid.
Sims 2. 4 It’s a bit too complex and realistic for me. I like the very simple models and ideas behind the older games.
Recently got an allotment. No dig or not seems to be a fairly big one right now. It sounds nice but I don’t have the same Amazon addiction as some people so I don’t have 100m² of cardboard that I can lay across the plot.
Buying a shitload of cardboard and mulch isn’t an expense I am interested in right now. Over time I do want to move towards more perennial and larger plants so there won’t be much digging required anyway other than when replacing something. Or tubers/bulbs that you have to dig to harvest and plant anyway.
I got all my cardboard for free just asking stores if I can take their boxes, small businesses especially are happy to get rid of boxes especially if they don’t have to cut them up
Suppose it depends on how it comes, but wouldn’t it be pretty bulky to carry if you wanted to cover a large area?
Would dead leaves be any good? Could just take loads of those from the floor around trees in parks and fill the bags on my bike. About 70L between them. Still think it would take a while to cover an allotment though.
Also got a compost bin but while nearly full it’s going to be a while to rot down.
I tell people all the time for moving that nursing homes have the best boxes if you don’t mind it saying weird things like xxl adult diapers. Probably also true for killing preventing weeds/grass.
On top of the free cardboard as the other poster suggested (coffee shops are my preferred because I can get grounds for compost too) My friend got free mulch through Chip Drop. Arborists need to get rid of mulch and just want it gone.
My friend is in the US but they have an activity checker and I just through in Manchester and they say there’s mulch there so I’d imagine it’s semi global.
I think chip drop can be massive volumes though. I don’t have enough space for a huge drop. My allotment is off the path and the site would require someone being there to take the delivery to unlock the gate. Both make chipdrop impractical from what I can tell where they want a place that is available to dump any amount at any time.
