My webserver had some spare capacity so I started my own instance.

General rule of thumb that aligns well with what you do in English: “Sie” goes with last names, “du” goes with first names.

There are very rare exceptions, for example sports reporters tend to address some athletes with “Sie” and first name for reasons that nobody can explain. Those are not very relevant in everyday conversation, especially not if German is not your first language.

Is it a big deal to start using the informal?

It used to be a cliché that you would call coworkers by their last name and “Sie” until that one fateful office Christmas party where your boss gets drunk and asks you to call him Fritz and “du”.

These days, things are a lot more relaxed. Many companies are adopting a rule that all employees should address each other as “du”, including upper management.

It’s absolutely essential. Otherwise every single defendant would claim “I’m sorry, your honor. I didn’t know that murder/rape/stealing is illegal”. It’s almost impossible to prove or disprove general knowledge so we must assume - at least from a legal perspective - that everybody knows the law if we want to apply that law at all. Of course that doesn’t mean that any random person on the street needs to be familiar with every single law that applies to forestry but that they are required to read up on those laws before they pick up a chainsaw and head into the forest. There may be a few obscure laws that could apply to you without your knowledge but those are mostly so low stakes that we can give people a warning for the first offense and then reasonably assume they will know and follow that law in the future.

Now, that all applies to ignorance of the law. On the other hand, there is ignorance of your own actions which indeed can get you out of a conviction because it indicates a lack of intent. A simple example: if you visit someone and on the way out, you grab their jacket because of your own because they look similar, it’s very likely that you haven’t done anything illegal, it was just a mistake. Same if you’re not aware that something you’re doing might endanger others. Those might still get you in trouble for negligence but one could reasonably construct a case where you do something that looks perfectly safe to you but out of pure coincidence ends up killing someone. In those cases, you’re clearly not guilty of a crime.

May I ask how much that cost you? You say things are cheap there so if it’s in the range of what you would have otherwise paid for a hotel or for your general cost of living at home, it sounds more like a mutually beneficial situation. You get to extend your vacation for relatively cheap and they get to keep what you’ve bought when you leave.

Just make sure to keep an eye on the situation. People can get used to your generosity and you don’t know how their disappointment will manifest when you eventually decide to leave. They might just be grateful for what you gave them, but they might also ask you to stay for longer than you’re comfortable with, they might ask you to buy them more stuff before you leave or they might ask you to take the girl home with you. Not even out of greed or any bad feelings but just because what you gave them feels nice and wanting more of that is just natural.

As long as you set limits for yourself (important edit: and communicate those limits) and are prepared to leave within the hour if they don’t respect those, I see no harm. Best case, you have made new friends that you stay in contact with and can visit some time in the future. Worst case you have to leave in the middle of the night and never see them again.

If it is because you’ve never asked: not at all.

If he actively refuses to talk about it: at least a bit weird.

Oh yeah, the guy who fights for fair wages, universal basic income, free healthcare and equal rights for everyone criticizes that your favorite „non-profit“ organization looks more and more like a for-profit corporation every year and comes begging while wearing a gold watch. He must be a fascist.

My argument is that nobody needs 500k to do their job right and there is no justification for paying a manager five to ten times as much as an engineer, especially not on donation money.

I‘d rather give to a smaller project where the money actually ends up with the people who do most of the work.

Then pay the people who actually keep the website running. I bet they don’t earn half a million per year.

And pretty high compared to what most donors have.

Next time you think about donating to a foundation, look at their CEO‘s salary, then think again.

It may still be missing stuff from before the first person from your home instance joined the community which can make younger communities feel empty.

HEMA, though I haven’t found much time to practice lately so it’s becoming more of a sword collecting hobby.

You just want to make sure the meal you get from me via the other thread includes bacon, don’t you?

With a bit of luck I can reach one of my swords. If not, bash in the first one’s head with a skateboard or stab them with a pocket knife, then move a step and grab a sword. Maybe some armor if I can manage to get to the other room.

Edit: I tried it and could indeed reach a viking sword from where I’m sitting.

Granted. For the rest of your life, every well or similar water source will have its water turned into feces as soon as you come within 100m of it.

How did you figure out this was on the list?

Granted. Your selection has now been reduced to a list of a thousand very specific wishes. Any wish not on the list will be deducted from your remaining wishes without further effect.

I can offer a selection of board games and music of assorted genres on vinyl. If you’re lucky, I can conjure some food.

Depends on how they behave. If they get right up in my face and immediately tell me their whole life story how they’re sick and hungry and have twenty children to feed, I’m usually skeptical. On the other hand, if someone is polite and especially if they ask for food instead of money, I’m more inclined to help.

Overall, I’m happy to help those who really need it but I’ve had too many bad experiences with people who were in it out of greed more than necessity. Prime example, some time last year I was on my way home from a vacation and had to wait at the train station for a couple of minutes when a guy came up to me and asked me for money because he was hungry. I told him I had no cash with me but I could get him a sandwich from a nearby vending machine where I can pay with my credit card. On the way to the vending machine, he asked me if something from the bakery at the other end of the station would also be okay. That was already a bit weird but okay. I left my partner and my luggage at the platform and took him to the bakery. On the way there, he pointed out that there was an ATM where I could get cash for him which I refused, then at the bakery he asked me for two of the most expensive snack they had plus something to drink, a total of over 20€. Quite the difference between that and the 4€ sandwich I had initially agreed to. The whole situation was so uncomfortable, I can’t even remember what I got him in the end. And from the way he acted, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just threw away the food once I was out of sight and asked the next person for money.

It’s sad. There are so many people who ask for what they need and are genuinely happy when they get help and then there are greedy assholes like that guy. And because I usually can’t tell the difference at a glance, I’m often overly careful and don’t help even though I feel I should.

Explore stories with lower stakes that focus on different aspects of Star Wars. Not everything needs to be an epic galaxy-wide conflict that somehow includes ten OT characters as fanservice.

There are millions of planets, trillions of sentient beings, all with their own motivations and philosophies.

As controversial as Acolyte was, I really liked that it showed us force users that were neither Jedi nor Sith and how incapable the Jedi were of accepting that.

Hire Kai Patterson who did an amazing job fan-editing some of the shows into movies. He is of course still limited by the source material but especially his version of Ahsoka was a lot more enjoyable than the show.