So. Thought exercise.
Most of the previous postfurry worldbuilding attempts I've been a part of have been designed at least in part to mimic the medium they were designed for.
PBX and 12Fold incorporated the weird topology, immortality, and metaphysical consent rules of a MUCK. Fluorocrash is supposed to be a world that's somewhat aware it comes in "splatbooks", and shopping for new equipment and powers upgrades is an innate acknowledged part of the culture (kinda like Finn's swords in AT).
Based on the above principles, if we ever do put together any kind of IC-only Mastodon instance, I think it'd be good to continue this tradition, and knowingly model it after the Mastodon "reality."
So let's start the brainstorming here and now, even if it never goes anywhere. What kind of world would pop up in a Mastodon instance? Could we play with its connection to the "real, human world?"
What kind of settlement can you build in a world that exists only 500 characters a time?
@egypturnash @zebratron2084 look all you gotta do is dump some data in the cloud and toot out 500char hashes of pull request IDs, it's easy
@egypturnash Oh man, the idea of place and identity being established via image links is giving me a serious La Jetee vibe that is making me real happy. A world of montage and pastiche. Yeah. I can do this. n.n
@zebratron2084 anyway NO REALLY GOING TO STORE NOW /vroom
@zebratron2084 Tight-beam broadcasts in the asteroids. You've got a window of 500 characters to hit the next satellite over before you're either out of range or blocked again. Any thought you want to share, you have to fit in that space or wait for your next window of opportunity to share it.
@literorrery This is exactly the right kind of logistical thinking, but note last comment to Ulfra -- how would you feel about making the tech level lower, at least on the surface? I'm thinking less overtly high-tech and more like urban metafantasies like Dark City or China Mieville's work.
I'm still open to damn near anything, though! If people want something leaning a little more towards hard sci-fi, I'm OK with it! Maybe some kind of surreal reimagining of the Belt from 12Fold?
@literorrery Note to self: if it does end up pulling from buni and Velryn's ideas, maybe consider rolling in some stuff from some of the more profound sci-fi anime, Madhouse and Studio 4ºC stuff...
@literorrery The idea of everything being dispatches from isolated homesteads, even isolated dimensions, really appeals though, in an "aliens delighted to find their SETI projects finally worked" kind of way. There's probably something we can do with that, maybe sort of a pirate radio/CB-era culture kind of concept. (Note to self: Craig Baldwin's Spectres of the Spectrum as source material?)
@zebratron2084 http://gizmodo.com/5677377/theres-a-usb-stick-in-my-brick-wall
https://deaddrops.com/
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgebern137460.html
Sending data between Layers is easy. Sending people is hard, and expensive. Most people don't believe in other Layers, but I've got files. Footage. Images and words that can't have come from here. Instructions on how to carve the tiniest hole in the Walls and send messages through. Proof that other realities exist.
@literorrery Oh, both those links are VERY inspiring! Thanks, buni! Yeah, the particular romance of this metaverse is starting to take shape in my head, might be time to frump up an early mediography to better illustrate where I'm thinking of heading... Something that jams with my lifelong fascination with amateur radio, CB, and diplomatic telex. Maybe a tiny bit of Crying of Lot 49 thrown in too, some cosmic/psionic Silent Tristero system that shouldn't work but somehow miraculously does...
@zebratron2084 A radio embedded in a brick wall that still broadcasts Morse. A USB stick jutting out of the side of a building that leaks the secrets of its occupants like a rusted drain. A field stone barrier with a staff sticking out whose tip flickers like a nixie tube. All around us are the Walls. We're burning out our spoons trying to dig new holes ahead of their patches. I can still hear you. Can you still see me?
@zebratron2084 I'm about to go offline for a while (probably couple of hours), and I'll be chewing on this idea, but the image that jumped on me and pummeled me badly was of--floating platforms and tethers. a "tether line" is a link, any kind; a platform is a personal space. the platforms link together like refugee ship islands; people link on or cast off as they please.