By R. Byrd, CNN
Updated 5:00 p.m. Pst, October 9th 2023
In a world already grappling with unprecedented geopolitical shifts and the escalating effects of global warming, scientists conducting routine satellite surveys of Antarctica have made a startling discovery. A large structure, previously hidden beneath the ice, has been partially uncovered near the South Pole. This discovery has sent ripples through the scientific community and beyond.
The structure, which appears to be of considerable size, has emerged due to the rapid melting of Antarctic ice, a consequence of global warming. The discovery of such a structure in one of the most inhospitable and unexplored places on Earth raises a multitude of questions about its origin, purpose, and implications.
Preliminary investigations into the structure have yielded intriguing results. While it's still early days, some scientists suggest a possible connection to ancient legends and mythologies. This theory, while speculative and based on very preliminary findings, adds an element of mystery and intrigue to the discovery. If there is any truth to this connection, it could potentially rewrite our understanding of history and the Earth itself.
This discovery comes at a time when the world is witnessing significant transformations. From the fragmentation of the United States to the formation of new political entities in Central and South America, and significant developments in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, the world is in a state of flux. The uncovering of this mysterious structure in Antarctica adds another layer of complexity to an already tumultuous period in human history.
As scientists continue to investigate the structure, the world watches with bated breath. The implications of this discovery are potentially far-reaching and could reshape our understanding of the world. As we navigate these uncertain times, one thing is clear: we are witnessing history in the making.
​
​
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
​
​
​

Claim Submission Thread

**OPEN UNTIL Monday 1400 PST (06-12-2023)
2200 PST
0100 EST
1500 GMT
​
Please refer to the updated Claims List for choices.
​
Additionally, note the following important information,
Claim Expectations (IMPORTANT)
The following will be some advice, created to help new players and returning-players alike when selecting claims. Due to some expectations, it is imperative that you seriously think about the claims you are interested in and are prepared to showcase a working knowledge of your claim. As always, due to the limited number of desirable claims, it is doubly important that you have a basic idea in relation to your plans and your claim in general.
​
As always, we encourage you to claim whatever you believe to be the most fun! But please understand that we will be expecting you to showcase some basic info. Furthermore, once claims have been distributed (Friday) - you will be expected to do the following within 7 days.
​
Requirements of the [CLAIM] Post
​

1. For S11 - every player will be expected to submit a claim post after having received your claim via the claim distribution results. This can be done anytime within 7 days of you receiving the results. But will be your first post as you will not be permitted to play until your [CLAIM] has been submitted and approved. The [CLAIM] post can even be submitted before the season officially starts, which will allow you to begin playing immediately when we open the season for play. (This applies to the mods as well). Failure to submit a [CLAIM] within that 7-day period will result in further action being taken by the mods.

​

1. You can write your [CLAIM] post in nearly any format so long as it is not a META one. It could be formatted as a News Report, as a "narrative story", or in any way you can think of (nearly).

​

1. Within this [CLAIM] post, you must list or otherwise specifically note the following information in order to prove to us that you have a basic understanding of the claim. This goes doubly so for the US Successors which will, like all players, enjoy plenty of freedom in RP.

​
Information that must be noted in your [CLAIM]
Head of State
Your claim's form of government (Of course this can be expanded or altered at any time once the season starts).
A basic overview of the claim at large and its history between 2022 and 2023.
Further - claimants will be expected to detail the basic economic situation (structure), government structure, etcetera in further detail at some point.
​
NOTE: Failure to meet these expectations can result in your claim being denied.
​
It is highly likely, that if you fail to meet the 7-day requirement - your claim and any others like it will be entered into a tertiary phase for claim submission. Meaning it is possible you will have lost your claim.
YOU MUST RENAME YOUR CLAIM.
ALL COUNTRY NAMES ARE TEMPORARY PLACEHOLDERS - CLAIMANTS EXPECTED IF NOT REQUIRED TO CHANGE THEM.
​
Additionally -
There will be a 2-week grace period once the season starts. During this time, no new wars may be started. This is to allow all players time to figure out their claims/countries and establish themselves (Also do your WIKIs). This will run from Jan1 2024 - Jan 1, 2026
​
CLAIM SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
In order to have your choices counted, please submit in the following format.
To make it easy for the mods, you are encouraged to please submit in a format roughly akin to below.
Claims List (In priority of first pick to last pick)

1. Example Country (Put your first pick on this line naturally)

2.
3.
4.
5.
You are not required to have 5 picks, however, it should be noted that your 1st pick should absolutely be your first choice as most times, G8/G20 countries are gone by the time it reaches your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th pick.
This claim phase will be open until Monday - 1400 unless otherwise specified.
Relating the process of claim distribution will be conducted by the mods (myself most likely), and will be via RNG when there is more than one competing player for a claim. Note that this requires the two players to put the claim in question in the same numerical position.
​
CLAIM LIST FOR REFERENCE (MAP)
​

AFRICA	Name	Population	GDP (billions)
Central/East Africa	Central African Federation	367,575,704	$448.01
Horn of Africa	Horn of Africa Alliance	185,605,002	$218.11
North Africa	Magrebi Union	214,846,171	$838.98
Southern Africa	Southern African Union	222,212,495	$680.24
West Africa	West Africa Federation	456,283,945	$817.99
ASIA-OCEANIA
Saudi Arabia	Arabian Gulf Union	88,501,892	$2,114
The Caucasus	Caucasian Federation	18,345,996	$121.7
China	People's Republic of China	1,474,368,607	$19,454
India	Republic of India	1,869,509,065	$4,659
Iran	Islamic Republic of Iran	173,779,803	$738.65
Japan	State of Japan	123,719,238	$4,410
The Levant	Jordan-Israeli Federation	25,461,306	$610.29
Korea	Republic of Korea	78,039,165	$1,738
Malay Archipelago	Republic of Nusantara	447,125,011	$2,845
Oceania	Oceanic Federation	33,156,035	$$1,967
Southeast Asia	Southeast Asian Union	199,337,793	$1,068
Taiwan	Taiwan/Republic of China/Chinese Taipei	23,588,613	$790.728
Central Asia	Federation of Turkestan	66,273,018	$362.86
Turkey	Republic of Turkïye	106,527,014	$1,040
Europe
Alps	Alpine Confederation	17,544,613	$1,392
Poland	Baltic Commonwealth	43,672,033	$916.18
Romania	Carpathian Federation	31,246,868	$553.24
Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovak Republic	16,131,561	$458.02
France	Republic of France	72,804,962	$3,215
Germany	Federal Republics of Germany	108,930,853	$5,784
Iberia	Iberian Federation	57,531,231	$1,764
Italy	Mediterranean Union	78,564,631	$2,497
Russia	Russian Federation	151,082,776	$2,289
Scandinavia	United Kingdoms of Scandinavia	27,695,817	$1,860
Ukraine	Republic of Ukraine	43,306,477	$151.10
British Isles	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	73,823,347	$3,781
Balkans	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	26,164,676	$367.09
Latin America
Brazil	United States of Brazil	243,163,461	$2,263
Caribbean	Caribbean Federation	27,765,042	$210.62
Central America	Central American Federation	50,594,071	$321
Colombia	Republic of Gran Colombia	129,778,212	$800.548
Argentina	Southern Cone Federation	65,171,304	$958.69
North America
Canada	Dominion of Canada	80,309,224	$4,246
Mexico	United Mexican States	161,477,219	$ TBD
United States	United States of America	87,110,098	$ TBD
Pacific Coast	Pacific States Pact	57,204,168	$ 4,678
Midwest	Heartland Republic	39,852,287	$ 2,097
Dixie	Free States of America	90,458,708	$ 3,788

​

​
I'm analyzing every bowl season from 1974-1997. Check out the link below for prior seasons.
https://www.reddit.com/CFB/comments/13rssrf/bowls_and_the_race_for_the_mythical_national/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
​
​

Team	Record	AP	Coaches
Penn State	11-0	1 (47)	1 (36)
Miami	10-1	2 (3)	4
Oklahoma	10-1	3 (5)	2 (1)
Iowa	10-1	4 (3)	3

​
Important Games

• September 7th: unranked Miami lost it's season opener at home to #5 Florida, 23-35.
• A week later Florida would suffer the first of 2 ties, this one at the hand of unranked Rutgers, 28-28. These draws would ultimately take them out of national title contention.
• October 19th: unranked Miami upset #3 Oklahoma in Norman, 27-14. This would be Oklahoma's only loss
• October 19th #1 Iowa hosted #2 Michigan and won, 12-10
• November 2nd: #8 Ohio St upset #1 Iowa in Columbus, 22-13. This would be Iowa's only regular season loss. Michigan would tie unranked Illinois two weeks later, 3-3, which would take them out of national title consideration.
• November 9th: #1 Florida was eliminated from national title contention by #17 Georgia, 3-24. Given their bowl ban, #1 after the bowls was probably a long shot anyway.
• November 23rd: In a de facto Big 8 championship, #5 Oklahoma routed #2 Nebraska in Norman 27-7
• Florida and Tennessee each went 5-1 in SEC play with Florida winning the head to head. The Gators were still on probation due to recruiting violations, allowing Tennessee to get the Sugar bowl bid instead.
• Bo Jackson won the Heisman. His Tigers were #1 early in the season but finished 8-4.

​
#1 overall Penn State entered the bowl season as the only unbeaten, which gave them the inside track to claim a 2nd consensus national title in 5 years. The Orange Bowl quickly snatched them up to create a de facto national title game vs Big 8 Champ Oklahoma, who was #2 in the Coaches Poll. One problem, Miami, who beat the Sooners head to head, was ranked ahead of the Sooners at #2 in the AP Poll. This created the potential for a split national title. If Oklahoma won the Orange and Miami won the Sugar against SEC 'champ* Tennessee, its more than likely the AP would have awarded the national title to Miami, and the Coaches to Oklahoma. Also, because of the Orange Bowl match up, #4/3 Big Ten champion Iowa's National title hopes were slim to none.
​

The Bowls

Rose Bowl #4/3 Iowa vs #13 UCLA (January 1st, 4:30PM EST)
In all reality, Iowa was probably playing for, at best, 2nd in both polls, which would match their highest final ranking ever at #2 in 1958. Maybe just maybe, a route of UCLA would give them some first love too? Unfortunately, Iowa would end up participating in a decade plus time honored tradition of Big Ten teams losing to lower ranked Pac 10 teams. The game was tied at 10 mid 2nd, when UCLA scored two unanswered TDs to lead 24-10 at the half. The Hawkeyes would get within 7 in the 3rd quarter, but UCLA's offense was too much as the Bruins would go onto win 45-28.
​
Sugar Bowl #2/4 Miami vs #8 Tennessee (January 1st, 8PM EST)
Despite getting little love from the AP, a #1 rank in the Coaches poll and a split national title was very much on the table for Miami. This would still mean a 2nd championship season in 3 years for the burgeoning dynasty. Their opponent was Tennessee, who also suffered its only defeat (not counting 2 ties) at the hands of Florida. Although this game was the same time as the Orange, it was pretty obvious that Penn St and Oklahoma were playing for a national title by the 3rd quarter. Tennessee spotted Miami 7 in the first but scored 14 apiece in the 2nd and 3rd to go up 28-7, before cruising to a 35-7 win.
Orange Bowl #1 Penn State vs #3/2 Oklahoma
Penn State knew a consensus national title was on the line, while Oklahoma knew a win meant at least a split for them with Miami. The Nittany Lions drew first blood with an early first quarter TD. The 2nd quarter was dominated by the Sooners who scored 16 unanswered thanks to 3 field goals and a 71 yard TD pass to lead 16-7. Penn St managed to get it back to 16-10 with a late field goal to make it 16-10 at the half. Entering the 4th quarter, up 9, the fans likely knew how the Sugar bowl was going and that their Sooners were in the drivers seat for a consensus natty. The defense led by Brian Bosworth pitched a 2nd half shutout and the offense iced the game with a long TD run in the 4th to win 25-10. By the time the clock ticked to 0 the Sooner players would also know that a consensus championship was there's. Also, Oklahoma's place kicker was named the game's co-MVP. A kicker winning MVP in a title game? How neat is that?!
​

Final Results

​

Team	Record	AP	Coaches
Oklahoma	11-1	1 (55)	1 (41)
Michigan	10-1-1	2 (1)	2
Penn St	11-1	3	3
Tennessee	9-1-2	4	4 (1)

Of course there has to be contrarians, as 1 voter in each Poll had a different #1, but the Sooners were an overwhelming, if not easy choice for #1, which would make it their 6th overall national title and 3rd for head coach Barry Switzer. I imagine both Tennessee and Michigan, like many others before them, lamented the fact that overtime did not yet exist since, since their ties likely cost them any real shot at a title.
Sources and recommended reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_rankings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985%E2%80%9386_NCAA_football_bowl_games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_season#AP_Final_Poll
​

We los a ranked game and i invited him to form a team after that, then he called me trash or something and to 1v1 him. I never listen to these guys but i said fuck it why not. Long story short i beat his ass 2-0 and he left without saying a word. He had an est. 2015 tag. I kinda feel sorry for this guy, i really wanted to play with him because he had good mechanichs but i got better 50's than him. PS: Elemtgamer2010 hit me up so we play together

Hey everyone, I'm looking to make my five person party into a 6 person party. We play more or less every week from 8pm EST to at the latest 1am. the party is level 9 and 44 sessions deep, so expect a plethora of lore, history, and inside jokes to hit you like a freight train immediately.
We use Roll20 for a virtual tabletop, Discord for voice, Dndbeyond for character sheets(roll20 is fine too) and beyond20 to tie everything together. Party composition consists of a rangerogue multiclass, Druid, Cleric, Paladin, and wizard.
To give a brief description of where the party is at right now:
The village of Elkden is under siege by a number of Barbarian tribes. The walls have fallen and barbarians have entered the city. The party has teleported in to assist the town from the onslaught of berserkers. Your character will also likely have been either from or in Elkden and are now defending yourself/your home.
So far the party has gone on a number of adventures, and has claimed a small kingdom for themselves, now owe favors to a number of sketchy people across the world, and almost killed a lich(who isn't too happy about that). To prove that you've read the post, please enter Pineapple in the fruit question in the form below.
If this campaign at all interests you, please fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/hXsZwqE1ecosPMpZ7
I will close this post when a new person is suggested, so if this post is still open, please feel free to respond!

Happy Friday everyone. Or, Happy Saturday depending on where you live. Thought I might give you all an update on how Bitcoin did this week.
We started on June 5th at around midnight with the value of BTW being at $26818 US.
The trend was lower a bit until about 10:40 PM EST (3:40 PM UTG).
Then the news hit the SEC was suing Binance. That lead to a freefall just before 11 AM EST US (4 PM UTG) down to just under $25,450 US at 8:15 AM EST US (1:15 PM UTG) on the 6th.
That didn't last as by 7:30 PM EST US (12:30 AM UTG the 7th the price of Bitcoin had recovered it's losses for the day and more hitting almost $27,300 US.
The rest of the week was bearish.
Currently, June 9th, at 11:33 PM EST US (June 10th at 4:33 AM UTG) Bit coin sits at about $26.330 US.
Not quite a $500 US loss for the week.
Everyone enjoy your weekend.

Hey gang,
Summer is here, and while I haven't been able to afford a "proper" upgrade for my computer yet, my CPU/mobo are running at 75C+ on idle and will shut down if factorio and youtube run at the same time when it's hot outside.
Hoping for some advice on cooling options that won't require me upgrading my case/changing my MOBO, but with upgrade paths for when I get the money.
I'm ok with spending around $200 CAD on the cooling if i can use them in my next build.
Also, any advice on thermal paste would help, as that needs changing too
Thanks!
​
current build: [PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6n8jMv) TypeItemPrice :----:----:---- **CPU** [AMD FX-8350 4 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ykphP6/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox) - **CPU Cooler** [Corsair H60 54 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Vwdqqs/corsair-h60-54-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-h60-cw-9060007-ww) $238.36 @ Amazon **Motherboard** [Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZNtCmG/asus-motherboard-m5a97ler20) - **Memory** [Patriot Signature 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BwBv6h/patriot-memory-psd38g16002h) $15.99 @ Amazon **Memory** [Crucial CT102464BA160B 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nF7wrH/crucial-memory-ct102464ba160b) $20.00 @ Amazon **Storage** [Kingston SSDNow V300 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QHCwrH/kingston-internal-hard-drive-sv300s3n7a240g) - **Storage** [Western Digital WD_BLACK 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Fz2kcf/western-digital-wd\_black-1-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-wd1003fzex) $49.99 @ Lenovo **Storage** [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mwrYcf/seagate-barracuda-computer-2-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm008) $49.99 @ Amazon **Video Card** [Zotac GAMING Twin Fan GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/CVBhP6/zotac-geforce-gtx-1650-super-4-gb-twin-fan-video-card-zt-t16510f-10l) $339.99 @ Amazon **Case** [Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4tV48d/corsair-case-cc9011041ww) - **Power Supply** [SeaSonic Platinum 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WTwqqs/seasonic-600-w-80-bronze-certified-atx-power-supply-ss-600et) $128.04 @ Amazon **Optical Drive** [LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PWNp99/lg-optical-drive-gh24nsb0) $43.99 @ Best Buy **Operating System** [Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wtgPxmicrosoft-windows-10-home-oem-dvd-64-bit-kw9-00140) $119.99 @ Newegg **Monitor** [Asus VE247H 23.6" 1920 x 1080 Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RQH323/asus-monitor-ve247h) - **Monitor** [Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ 27.0" 2560 x 1440 165 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGqBD3/asus-tuf-gaming-vg27aq-270-2560x1440-165-hz-monitor-vg27aq) $300.00 @ Amazon **Keyboard** [Razer Anansi Wired Gaming Keyboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9nDwrH/razer-keyboard-rz0300550100r3u1) - **Mouse** [Logitech G502 HERO Wired Optical Mouse](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/7RbwrH/logitech-g502-hero-wired-optical-mouse-910-005469) $39.95 @ Amazon **Headphones** [Razer Kraken Headset](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/26M323/razer-headphones-rz0401200100r3u1) $139.99 @ Amazon *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* **Total** **$1486.28** Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2023-06-09 22:29 EDT-0400

Hello, I’m looking for someone to run a pbp/text Dnd 5e solo game for me, whether it’s a prewritten module or a homebrew game. I’m pretty easy and laid back.
I’m looking for a DM that can post a few times a day, preferably in the afternoons EST (GMT -5). I like to use Dndbeyond for my character sheet. I like to use Discord for our platform.
I just want to have a fun time and watch my character grow. Thanks for reading this and I hope to hear from you.

me (20m) and a friend (18m) are looking for more ppl who want to play stardew valley! we're pretty casual players who don't take it 2 seriously, but we love playing with others! we're also in that yearly month long minecraft phase if anyone wants to play that too! we're on pc (we use. steam) and mostly use discord to communicate. dm me if interested!!
p.s. forgot to mention but we're in EST time

I (19 f) had a roommate (21 f) this past semester at college who was just short of a nightmare. My main gripe with her was cleanliness. She’d leave a cup of water out on her desk all day, let food rot in our shared fridge and never cleaned up after herself. She never vacuumed or dusted or took out the garbage when we agreed it’d be a shared effort. I’m quite particular about my garbage in my dorm room, which is not well ventilated, and can attract bugs as we were on the first floor. Because of this, I asked her to throw out all food trash in the garbage room below us, and she agreed. Things seemed fine, with the occasional ramen stink, until the second semester. She began heating up food in our microwave every night and stinking up the room, and wouldn’t bother to open the window because the room would be too cold. I had communicated that this bothered me with her and she didn’t seem to do anything about it. The last straw was the chicken wings. She bought them fresh from a restaurant on campus, walked them back to our room (a good 5 minute walk) and ate them in our room. I walked in on her doing this at 8pm, and when i came back to the room at 12 am, the room stunk just as it had before. She had left the chicken wings with meat still on them in our tiny garbage can. Seething, I went to bed that night and woke up to the same smell. That morning, I took out the basically empty garbage because I couldn’t handle the smell. I met up with some friends after this for breakfast and had to let my frustrations out. Brianna (22 f), Camilla (19 f) and Leon (19 m) (not real names) told me I was overreacting. They said she had every right to eat in the room and throw it out in the bedroom garbage. I understand that she has every right to eat in the room - that’s not my issue. My issue is that she completely disregards the boundaries I’ve set and has no respect for me sharing a space with her. That whole time at breakfast they made me feel like I was being malicious and over dramatic, but I feel like I have a right to be upset as I’ve set this boundary multiple times. aita?

Hey guys , im looking for people who want to play some survival games with me. These include games like valheim, minecraft, terraria, ark , dont starve and what not, im just a casual player so it should be a slow relaxing playthrough. If you are interested dm me and il add you on discord.
18+ would be prefered and vc is a requirement since its lonley to not talk over vc. I usually get on at 9am -5pm est but can also do afternoons.
(PS: im going to bed now so if I dont respond right away im probably asleep 🫡)

As the title states I'm looking for people who play League often. It's the only game I play. I've dabbled in WoW, FFXIV, and Overwatch but I always seem to return to League. I enjoy playing arams, and norms. Plat 4 support main trashcan.
I would love to make a friend from this post. Irl I'm pretty lonely. I'm open to other games if I click with somebody, you'll have to drag me along and hold my hand of course if you're up for that challenge! No voice at first cause I'm shy, hopefully you understand. :3 I play after 9 pm EST, but can chitchat throughout the day through messages if you're a talkative person.
Feel free to add me in game! Thanks for reading.
IGN: Cheadle

Source
I'm Iskarel. I maintain the PvE Thief builds and guides on Snow Crows
With a PvE perspective, I'm going to run through the changes, discuss their impact, and talk about current meta builds and how they're impacted.
Want the build-by-build cliff notes? Skip to the bottom, search for "tl;dr"
I know this is a lot. Think of it as a reference document.
A LOT has changed. The builds aren't unrecognizable but the texture has changed almost across the board.

Flanking is Dead (for most endgame bosse)

To make them more reliable in endgame PvE content, all effects that benefit when the player strikes from the flank or from behind now always apply their benefits when striking defiant foes.

Not all players know that "flanking" or "from behind or the sides" just means—don't be in front of the target.
Ever used a build with Thief runes? Just don't stand directly in front of the target.
What fewer players will know is that there's a small set of skills that actually need you to be ~180-degrees behind your target.

• Thief Backstab (deals double damage from behind)
• Thief Sword Stealth Attack (only dazes from behind)
• Ranger Greatsword Hilt (dazes from the front, stuns from behind. This basically doesn't matter in PvE)
• Mesmer Downstate phantasm (deals more damage if the phantasm hits from behind. Hey it's like a Thief!)

Which way does Keep Construct face when it descends back to the arena after the orb-rift-push phase?
Which way does Sabetha face during her Flame Wall?
I'm not going to answer these questions because the answers don't matter anymore! This skill expression is now gone.
Just backstab from any angle.
Ah but "defiant foes"? What isn't included there?
Can you backstab Primordus in the Harvest Temple strike if your group stays on the left vs right side, when looking from the center towards the dragon?

You would have to be on the right side. The left is the dragon's face.

Which way does Conjured Amalgamate face?

When approaching CA's platform, it is facing to your right. This also applies to the hands. Stand on the left side of the platform, and "above" the hands (closer to the portal leading away from this encounter).

Which way do the hands on Adina face?

2 o'clock (north), 5 o'clock (northwest), 7 o'clock (south), 10 o'clock (southeast)
No, I don't know why.
Just use your rifle and pierce two hands with Spotter's Shot + Death's Judgment! That's better than remembering these facing positions.

These are non-defiant "prop" type enemies. Also included here is Drakkar, the Octovine, and Tequatl. IIRC.
BTW Drakkar is made up 17 prop pieces, and you can only cast Deadeye's Mark on one of them. Don't play Deadeye here, you're trolling yourself. :D

Acrobatics Mental Gymnastics

Yeah this ain't it, chief. This is still a defensive and mobility-oriented traitline.
The damage modifier in Endless Stamina can't compete with Deadly Arts or Critical Strikes, even when combined with the Power in Swinder's Equilibrium.
The other stuff is maybe interesting for solo open world champions but Shadow Arts is already quite capable at that, and Condition Thief has a lot more toys to work with when solo compared to Power.
It's something but this traitline still feels ironically directionless.

Improvisational Theater of War

Interesting! We can now use this traitline predictably, resetting the cooldown of all or utility skills. On the surface that's good because it means we'll always get value out of the reset...unless our skill uses are staggered. More on that later.

Mag Bomb Delenda Est.

Currently this skill's damage-per-cast-time is roughly double that of Daredevil Staff 2, Weakening Charge. Notably, the cast time is short because it pulses damage.
The coefficient we have on the wiki, drawn from the Game's API, is 4.10. ANet lists a 1.50 (per hit, so 4.50 total) nerfed to 0.70. So... Uh...
Let's say Throw Magnetic Bomb's damage is nerfed to 50% of its current damage. Or there about.
So next patch, one Throw Magnetic Bomb is close to the damage of one Staff 2, but the damage comes out over time (during our Assassin Signet burst) and the cast animation is faster than Staff 2.

But is it worth losing Executioner?
Probably not. Executioner is approximately 9.52% damage on a fight that spends 50% of its time above 50% target HP and 50% of time below (due to Ferocious Strikes).
That's a lot of damage to be made up by another use of a stolen skill!

Daredevil's Bound to be Good

Bound: Increased power coefficient from 1.75 to 3.5

This ratchets up the damage of our dodge so that it beats the damage-per-cast-time of Punishing Strikes (skill 1 part C) and Staff 5, while still losing to Staff Strike and Staff Bash (skill 1 parts A/B), Staff 2, and Fist Flurry/Palm Strike.
This damage increase is valuable because

• (A) it makes dodging better for damage, on top of the damage modifiers provided by Havoc Specialist and Bounding Dodger
• (B) if we get excess endurance from our helpful allies, burning it off to maintain our modifiers hurts our DPS less on the future patch.

Auto chain go brrrr

Staff Strike, Staff Bash: Increased power coefficient.

... Uh oh.
This increase the DPS of the first and second part of the chain well beyond the last hit.
The optimal DPS rotation now involves interrupting the chain after the 2nd hit.
That's not easy to do on most professions, which have a limited number of viable interrupts, but we're Thief, baby!
Staff Strike, Staff Bash, Weakening Charge. Repeat. Throw in a Fist Flurry. Save your Palm Strike. Yeah. This sort of thing.
Calculations done by REMagic42 ( training-accident-36 ) show the following

• new auto chain interrupt rotation: 40,252
• old benchmark rotation: 38,593

A not insignificant DPS increase provided by this (unintended?) balance predicament.
You could just not do this. That's up to you. The build is getting buffed by ~4,000 DPS next patch but it still has all the old problems. Don't know those? Read here

Let's Get Physical (Lights out, follow the noise)

Various Physical Skill cooldown reductions

These are neat and strictly a positive.
Left, a great player who provides benchmarks for Power and Condition Daredevil, already tested Condition Daredevil with cooldown-traited Impairing Daggers and found them simply worse in group content vs Devourer Venom. You can read more on his benchmark.
So the Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction (CDR) doesn't matter to us.
A cooldown reduction for Channeled Vigor would've been cool!

This skill basically gives you a get-out-of-jail-free dodge if you're ever scared that burning all your dodges for Havoc Specialist will leave you vulnerable. You can get a dodge with Withdraw on a shorter cooldown but that travels backwards from your facing direction which can be scary.
This skill is also very useful for maintaining Lotus Training uptime when playing Condition Daredevil. If you can't keep hitting the boss with your auto-attack chain and F1 Steal, you will run out of endurance and lose your condition damage buff. Use Channeled Vigor to maintain buff uptime when you can't hit the boss. (This tip comes from Left!)

Impact Strike is still worse defiance-bar to cooldown ratio vs Basilisk Venom, but any improvement is nice. This skill is good when you can't guarantee all hits of Basilisk Venom will hit your target, or when you need to CC more frequently than Basilisk's cooldown allows.

Death-onate Plasma and "Boon Thief"

Farewell, Boon Thief. Without Quickness, we can no longer role-compress all those shiny boons in Plasma into a Quickness Build.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the damage of Detonate Plasma will not be worth its cast time purely from a DPS perspective, especially on a Condition Build, but you might still get some boon uptime from Daredevils on fights like Matthias and Twin Largos' Kenut.
You can now permanently sunset your Celestial/Ritualist gear for Boon Thief. Will you use it for Alacrity Specter later? I don't now, I don't know how much Alacrity is given by that trait. We'll talk more later. :)

Also Icebrood Saga exists

These really don't matter. Unstable Reagent is maybe a DPS increase, I don't have a log with it for cast time.
This is NOT Unstable Artifact BTW. That skill is still worth using for both Power and Condition DPS.
Cursed Artifact is like throw-Plaguelands, and an Ethereal field at that. It's free real estate on the Condition Build.
Time in a Bottle is squad-wide alacrity AND quickness. Take that, Chronomancer! It's only found in Cold War and randomly in EoD strikes. :)

Dumbed-down-eye

Deadeye Stolen Skill splash support

Stolen Skills now grant their beneficial effects around the caster.

These are mostly "splash" uptimes of boons, but you can also get superspeed and a modest heal. Neat! Deadeye providing a token amount of squad value beyond its DPS and CC output.

Deadeye Malicious Intent buff

Malicious Intent: Increased Malice gain from 1 to 2 in PvE only

This is actually big!
Firstly, this increases the damage dealt by the lower difficulty Be Quick or Be Killed Dagger Deadeye rotation (if you've ever heard someone described Dagger Deadeye as 5111151115111, that's this).

1 more Malice pip after each Mark and Stealth attack boost the damage modifier of Malicious Backstab. I don't have a quick estimate for this increase yet.

Secondly, this is wonderful for the Dagger-Dagger Maleficent Seven rotation.

All Power Dagger skills (Heartseeker, Dancing Dagger, Cloak & Dagger) are single-damage packet skills (with the exception of Dancing Dagger when bounced from your main target, to another enemy, and back to your main target). This means they have only one chance to score a crit, and thus only one chance to earn 2 Malice instead of 1.
Power Thief derives 15% critical chance from Critical Strikes' Keen Observer trait, which demands the player stay above 75% HP. You won't have 100% uptime of this trait in many raid fights, especially if your healer is slacking. If the current Dagger Deadeye benchmark was performed at 75% player HP, without drastically altering gear to accommodate for the missing critical chance, the benchmark could lose up to 12,000 DPS!, dropping it nearly into support territory.
This Malicious Intent buff gives you a safety cushion for one of those Initiative skills to score a non-crit, making the rotation more robust in endgame encounters. It does NOT reduce the minimum number of Initiative skills needed to reach maximum Malice: that is still 3 with Malicious Intent and 4 without. It does reduce the maximum needed by 1 skill, which is also great!

Quickly Fire For Effect

This trait no longer requires a target to grant boons to allies.

Er, it doesn't require one right now. Specifically, if you Mark a target, you can use your F2 and gain boons even if your stolen skill is obstructed by terrain. If you have your enemy targeted while outside 1,500 range you will get an out of range error that stops you from casting F2, but simply untargeting the enemy will let you use the skill to get boons. If you are obstructed or out of range, you don't hit the target.
I assume what this means is that if you do NOT have a marked target, you can cast a cantrip to get a new F2. That's cool and rather handy for the new Quickness build.

Shadow Flare isn't real, it can't hurt you

Shadow Flare: Reduced cooldown from 30 to 20 seconds. This skill only damages once instead of pulsing. Activate the flip-over Shadow Swap to trigger another damage instance from your original location.

Deadeye dumbed down. Navigating self-reveal with pulsing damage skills on DPS Deadeye has been a hallmark of modern builds for several years—Shadow Flare for Power, Thousand Needles for Condition.
That problem is now eliminated for Power. You don't need to know the timing, you don't need to know where to throw Shadow Flare. Just Do your backstab, cast Shadow Flare for one damage packet, cast it again, go for another Backstab. No fuss, no skill expression, no frustration, no learning curve.
I don't like this change, I understand why other people like this change. I think it's dumb to change this. If you don't like self-reveal, consider not playing the class that uses Stealth and Revealed for its DPS output.

Fun in the Chamber

One in the Chamber: This trait now also increase the damage of F2 Stolen Skills in addition to its previous effects

In case anyone is unfamiliar with Deadeye—it doesn't have access to any core Stolen Skills. No Mag Bombs here!
This is a nice perk. The important thing is that this trait gives us an extra F2 charge every time we use a Stolen Skill...That's for Quickness.
This trait is also valuable to Condition Deadeye builds (particularly since there's a 4/9 chance they get a stolen skill that applies damaging conditions!) and to Power Pistol-Pistol Deadeye. See more of that here.

Binding Shadow, my beloved

Binding Shadow - Reduced cooldown from 30 to20 seconds in PvE.

Cool! I love—

This skill now immobilizes marked targets instead of knocking them down

Oh. Uhhh it already immobilized them. I assume it immobilizes them more? That sucks, this was an amazing breakbar skill, particular on Condition Deadeye where it applied several poison stacks (natively, and via Panic Strike with Immobilize) and gave an extra F2 charge from One in the Chamber.
It's lower cooldown on boonstrip which is neat? Matches No Pain No Gain time in Fractals, I suppose.
Just use a Power Mesmer, they passively breathe boonstrip.

Quickness Deadeye builds

Three options!
Oops! All cantrips

This option will spam out cantrip like nobody's business to meet the voracious demand of Might uptime.
Fire For Effect grants 8 stacks of Might for 12 seconds. The with-Alacrity cooldown of Cantrips are: 16 (Binding Shadow, Shadow Flare), 20 seconds (Malicious Restoration heal), 25 seconds (Mercy, Shadow Gust). When using Mercy, the cooldown of F1 is effectively the cooldown of Mercy, plus minimally the cast time of the F2, plus the cast time of F1 again.
So some of our Might is locked behind 25+ seconds. Building for 100% Might Duration would be devastating for our DPS output. We could cover 100% Might uptime with a single trio of F2 casts anyway—Binding Shadow, Malicious Restoration, Shadow Flare—but that would not take tactical advantage of the natural Deadeye's Mark cooldown.
Instead, we'll cover Quickness with two sets of F2 casts, staggered across the duration of our Might stacks. Left has an old benchmark demonstrating this technique.

So that's our 24-might upkeep option. It's not pretty, and it's Cantrip spam. ANet said we wouldn't have this in the game anymore.
Well, what if we don't have to generate Might?
Then we have two options:
3 cantrips with no Improvisation

This option will maintain a burst of 24 might as we apply quickness, or we can space out the stolen skills to maintain at least 8 stacks indefinitely. Sounds pretty good!

Improvisation

We'll probably still be using Shadow Flare because it's just good damage, and Improvisation selects for builds that use active utility skills, not passive signets. We might even be able to use Malicious Intent instead of One in the Chamber for this build, earning us more damage on Malicious Backstab.

So we have options.

Quickness Deadeye weapon options (We don't have those! )

Maleficent Seven is the only equalizer at work that allows bad weapons to do somewhat okay, and without that, we're back to shopping with the to the usual harsh restriction of "the best single skill out of all these weapons crushes the validity of all other options".
Stealth attacks? Naw, just spam F2s without Malice.
"Filler" initiative skills used to build up to an Initiative reset at max Malice? Nope, don't care, whatever has the best initiative-to-damage ratio is what we're running.
Thief Dagger is about matched with Thief sword for auto attack damage but Dagger is home to the centralizing Cloak & Dagger → Backstab combo. This does huge damage from any direction—flanking is gone!
Sword, by contrast, suffers a DPS loss when using any dual wield skill, Headshot, or Black Powder. The only DPS gain skills are Cloak & Dagger (but the stealth attack for sword is BARELY worth using, you could actually just cast Cloak & Dagger twice in a row and do just as well), and Sword 2...without using the return-to shadowstep. Meaning Sword 2 has a 15-second cooldown. Just to do slightly more than the auto-attack.
Need CC? Pack an off-hand pistol and fill time with auto-attacks, they're very good.
What about Pistol?

It's just weaker.

Shortbow?

It sucks really bad against single targets.

Rifle? This is the sniper spec!

It sucks if you don't have Maleficent Seven for infinite Initiative and either stealth utility skills or Silent Scope to unlock Death's Judgment.

Specter, rant about single-target/ally-target support

Ally-targeted scepter skills now also grant a lesser effect to additional allies in a radius around the target.

I don't know why ANet is so obsessed with single target support for PvE Specter, but they'll learn its untenable eventually. They've been gradually walking back the single target focus ever since release, and we are now about 15 months past Specter's official release and coming up on 2 years since it's beta.
Ally-targeting is clunky.
Single-target support is nonviable. We have encounters that apply arena damage to all players, and each player in the squad can take damage from the same AoE and it's the healer's job to keep the whole team up.
A "lesser effect". Reduced duration? Great, what's the point of that? You might as well just make it all the reduced duration.
Does "splashed" Shadow Sap not even grant protection to the other allies? Great, we won't use it.
Hopefully this will just be something like reduced Barrier or Healing, and the Boons are intact, but it's already been confirmed by the new member of the design team, Trig, on a Twitch Stream (Mighty Teapot's?) that Endless Night will not give Quickness to "splashed" allies.
Maybe this skill shouldn't give quickness at all. Why is the design team not skill splitting? What are they afraid of?

The Dark Side of Scepter Splash

If you paid attention to Specter during its beta testing, you might be aware of a very weird build that used Endless Night (Scepter Pistol dual wield beam skill that granted quickness and 7-packets of Barrier to 3 allies, if you could pierce through the allies).
This rotation was initially theorycrafted by Left when Specter was first showed off. I did some early proof-of-concept on the build, then Left took it over and improved it to around 51,000 DPS.
That's a lot of damage!
Watch that video briefly, and notice how I swap between the enemy and my allies, applying one skill to the target then the Endless Night beam to my allies.
When Specter applies barrier to an ally, they receive a stack of Rotwallow Venom, which applies a short-duration stack of torment to a single enemy just like normal venoms.
Each cast of Endless Night back then was 21 applications of Rotwallow Venom, with more Torment duration than we have now.
ANet killed that build back during beta by making the beam target a single enemy, nerfing the quickness application, nerfing Rotwallow Venom duration, nerfing Specter's Torment damage modifier, nerfing Consume Shadows to require charging up.... The list goes on.
Why do I bring this up?

Scepter Autos on Allies

Currently the scepter auto chain applies 54 seconds of Torment (in the form of multiple stacks). If the scepter auto chain can instead apply barrier to 3 allies, then this balloons to 72 seconds without Strength of Shadows, or 108 seconds with Strength of Shadows.
Yes.
The auto-attack chain will be twice as strong when targeting allies, vs targeting the enemy.
Endless Night is not worth using against an enemy target, but it might be worth using on allies. This rotation won't have room for auto attacks, so I'm not pinning any hopes to this.
No, the optimal damage rotation will probably be Twilight combo, Siphon, and Shroud skills on the enemy, then filling time with Scepter skills on allies. We will probably spend less time in Shroud because those autos are just so cracked...

Second Opinion, moving away from Consume Shadows

Ever since beta all forms of Specter have run Consume Shadows—Alacrity, DPS, Heal. This is because Consume Shadows can apply barrier to allies, giving them Rotwallow venom. The other adept traits are purely defensive, so they're not used by the DPS and Alacrity builds...and Consume Shadows is an extremely potent healing tool. So potent, it's been nerfed repeatedly!

Charged time reduced from instant to 4 seconds, maximum shroud cut by more than 50%, conversion ratio reduced from 100 to 50%

Second Opinion will grant bonus Condition Damage, more with a Scepter. This should be, at minimum, +80/+80, which will beat the ~800 DPS provided by perfect Rotwallow Venom application from Consume Shadows.
Perfect?

If your allies are too injured and Consume Shadows only heals them overflowing into Barrier, you won't give them Rotwallow.

Traversing Dusk no longer gives Alacrity

This is just a heal trait now. That's just what it does.

Shadestep is the new Alacrity trait

Oh. Uh. I'll keep it quick.

1. This reduces our gameplay from 2 separate rotations with their own quirks and different Shroud lengths, to 1—the DPS rotation.

How do you give alacrity? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
How do you do DPS? Just go into shroud and push buttons.
Alacrity Specter's Well cooldowns were inaccessible inside Shadow Shroud because we inherited a shroud, not just a kit like Druid's Celestial Avatar or Holosmith's Photon Forge.
Druid Spirits off cooldown while in CA? Don't care, you can push em.
Specter wells off cooldown while in Shadow Shroud? You might be gaining DPS from shroud skills, or healing from Consume Shadows, but you're losing Alacrity uptime. Is that tradeoff worth it?
Doesn't matter anymore. Just do the benchmark DPS rotation.
You're too slow? Then your alacrity uptime will suffer. You need to be on pace with going in and out of shroud, just like the DPS rotation. Difference is, if you're bad at this, it's going to frustrate other people.
This is not the hardest rotation in game to optimize and you of course have the option to make it easier with Ritualist gear (which you should do anyway if you plan to still run Consume Shadows, will be a two-fold personal DPS loss).

\2. Ever been kicked out of Shroud by incoming damage in a raid/strike/open world meta? No more Alacrity uptime for you. Better refill your Shadow Force quickly—and Larcenous Torment generates Shadow Force FAR more slowly than Traversing Dusk

Fun fact: Traversing Dusk's 1% Shadow Force per ally in your shadowstep scales indefinitely, not just up to 5 players. That gives you colossal Shadow Force generation in crowded metas and even raids.

Want to use your Siphon on ally? No you don't, that's valuable Shadow Force generation you need to maintain tempo for Alacrity.
Again, you can wear Ritualist gear to soften this loss.
Want to have the utility of Well of Bounty? Well, previously that utility was tied to your Alacrity uptime, your DPS uptime (lingering outside shroud for Well of Bounty was a loss), and your healing output (Traversing Dusk, and maintaining tempo in/out of Shadow Shroud for Consume Shadows).
Now you can take Well of Bounty and have it on demand, at a DPS loss.
Previously you could have just take advantage of the long Stability duration to cast this well early, or delay it slightly to cover the mechanic.

How much DPS will ANet allow this build to have?
We don't know. And now it's DPS is very closely tied to the DPS build because they're doing nearly the exact same thing.
This has never happened to Firebrand, trust me.

tl;dr It's dangerous to read all that up there! Skip to here!

Condition Daredevil

Unchanged by Impairing Daggers cooldown reduction

Power Daredevil

Buffed to ~38.6 if you do the old rotation.
Buffed to 40.2 if you do the new degenerate 1a 1b 2 1a 1b 2 rotation that interrupts our auto chain.
Still screwed by all the usual stuff.
Mag Bomb damage normalized. Cool. Still amazing utility on that skill.

Boon Thief

Dead. Deadeye killed it.

Power Dagger Deadeye

Much easier to play. Splashes some cute boons onto its subgroup, at random. Have to see if Shadow Flare is still worth using. Hopefully, right?

Power Rifle Deadeye

Silent Scope uses Shadow Flare, I hope that's still worth using.
No need to flank with Premeditation Rifle is nice. Swapping Impact to an Accuracy sigil (or not doing that, and losing crit chance) was ~1,200 DPS loss, so that's avoided. I don't mind losing flanking here that much because Flanking wasn't make-or-break adrenaline pumping like dagger. It was just a boring loss.

Quickness Deadeye

I hope you like pushing 5 and 1 a whole lot because that's almost all this is. Also pushing cantrips for F2 charges to provide quickness.
It will play okay, but pretttttttttty similar to utility-spam builds that people hate, with the added bonus of casting TWO skills for every application of quickness.
You can tune this to your liking BUT

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MANY WAYS THIS GAME'S ENEMIES CAN APPLY REVEALED TO YOU THEN YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT WHEN YOU PICK UP QUICKNESS DEADEYE NEXT PATCH :D

It won't really prevent you from applying quickness but it will tank your DPS and fracture your soul.
One of us. One of us!
This is getting no changes, by the way. It'd be a huge amount of effort from the studio's programmers for one elite spec, for one profession, largely in one game mode (instanced PvE), with a small player base.
Probably just not happening. Not a question of "want to", it's a question of resource management AND doing this right.
Remember stealth-tanking Old Lion's Court? Because they didn't apply Revealed, then they only applied Revealed once and Deadeye just Shadow Melded out of it?

DPS Specter

Buffed by Second Opinion, dubiously buffed by targeting allies with the auto chain.
You can still run Consume Shadows for team healing/barrier.

Alacrity Specter

I don't know. Presumably the shroud skills will allow us to provide at least 50% uptime with a non-degenerate rotation (one that doesn't have us spending all our time in shroud). Said degenerate rotation is naturally policed by the fact our shroud absorbs incoming damage.
Will it run Consume Shadows? Not for optimal damage anymore.

Alac Share Specter

Just change your grandmaster from Strength of Shadows to Shadestep and do the normal rotation. Should do at least 50% uptime, unless Alac specter is just nonviable and can't maintain Alacrity.

Hi all,
You may have seen some of the recent news about subreddits going dark for 48 hours starting June 12th in protest of Reddit’s changes to their API pricing. The moderation team on seventeen is also in favor of going dark, but we realise this could cause an inconvenience for the community, so we wanted to inform you about our reasons for wanting to do this and hear thoughts from you.
This poll will run for the next 24 hours.

Why are subreddits protesting?

On May 31st, Reddit announced that they would change the cost of accessing their API (“application programming interface”) from being free to paid, but at a level far beyond what most third-party app developers can afford. Some third-party apps for Reddit that currently function using the Reddit API include:

• Tools for web accessibility, such as many screen readers
• Tools improving quality of life, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite
• Alternative mobile apps, such as Apollo, Reddit Is Fun, Narwhal, BaconReader and RedReader
• And tools for Reddit moderation, such as toolbox.

Many third-party developers voluntarily develop these products for free or are supported through some self-generated ad revenue, and this level of pricing effectively “kills” many of these apps as the costs to maintain them would be unsustainable.
Third-party apps provide many quality-of-life features not currently seen in the official mobile app/mobile web/desktop site – this is what it’s currently like to moderate posts in the official mobile app. Additionally, the loss of these third-party apps and tools would severely limit a redditor’s ability to customise their experience, being able to only use what is officially provided by Reddit.
Lastly, probably the most affected group will be the disability community, specifically the blind and visually impaired. Reddit simply does not provide them with the accessibility features they need and deserve, nor the tools that would make browsing and using Reddit possible within Reddit’s own website and app. Most, if not all of the community, relies on third-party apps with accessibility features to effectively interact with Reddit and mod their subs. Reddit also shows no intention of allocating funding or providing resources to further develop their accessibility features: therefore, starting July 1st, they are cutting off an entire community from their platform.
Thus, the seventeen moderation team supports the 48-hour protest of Reddit’s API changes and wants to join the thousands of other subreddits in solidarity. We hope that this site-wide protest will send a message to the Reddit admins to reconsider their proposed changes and make them more reasonable.

What does this mean for me?

In the short-term, seventeen will go private and be completely inaccessible for 48 hours, starting on June 12th, 12 am PDT. How skipped updates and other sub-wide events will be handled is addressed below.
(We did discuss methods for doing a softer, less disruptive blackout, but did not feel like this was ultimately in the spirit of the protest.)
In the long-term, if you are using any third-party mobile app, you will need to switch to the official app on July 1st (when the pricing will go into effect). Many subreddits are planning on going on an indefinite blackout until more reasonable action is taken.
As an average user, you may not notice much difference in your browsing experience. For those using external moderation or accessibility tools, though Reddit has announced that tools/apps focusing on accessibility and moderation will not be negatively affected by the pricing changes, many of these tools are already provided by third-party apps that will be affected. Sites such as Unddit (for tracking post/comment edit history), which run on APIs like Pushshift, that are not quite covered under the vague criteria of being “legal, non-commercial, and [helpful to] mods,” are likely to no longer work as intended going forward.

I don’t use third-party apps or tools – why should I care?

That’s fine – if the official stuff works for you, don’t fix what isn’t broken!
However, the seventeen moderation team wants you to know that currently, you have other options besides the default. If the future API pricing changes are implemented as is, the official Reddit app will likely be the only option you will have in the future for browsing – any bugs, glitches, or quality of life issues you may encounter will primarily depend on the Reddit admin to resolve, and there will be limited alternatives in the meantime. (Imagine if you could only ever use your default Web browser.)
Additionally, although your experience might not be affected, the experience of many others will be – for example, 14% of the kpop community use third-party apps to browse the site. The Reddit mobile app of choice for many will be shutting down indefinitely, including the many that implement accessibility features not currently being done so in the official app. (Worth pondering why there is such a sizable number of users using non-official apps.)
Finally, this is an upsetting continuation of large apps pushing out small, hobby, and non-profit developers that contribute so much to user experience: Reddit’s proposed pricing model is similar to that of Twitter's enacted in Feb 2023. Notably, much of Reddit’s current audience was grown due to the work of small developers – Reddit did not have an official mobile app until 2014 (9 years after its founding) when it acquired the popular third-party app, AlienBlue. (Reddit discontinued development of an in-house app as other third-party apps became more popular prior to AlienBlue’s acquisition.)

How will missed updates/other sub events be handled?

This is what the moderation team is currently planning, but we welcome alternative suggestions or ideas.
Hoshi countdown:
seventeen would be going dark on multiple days of Hoshi’s birthday countdown: Therefore, we plan to collate the usual birthday discussion posts into one single post on June 11th (KST), D-4. The banner and stickied birthday messages post will stay up for an additional 48 hours.
Missed update posts:
The moderation team will not be actively posting Seventeen’s updates during the blackout, and users are free to post them to the sub once the blackout has ended, on a first come first serve basis. For those who want to stay updated during the blackout, we recommend resources like svtcontents on Twitter and the SNS calendar on the qoo.
We will approve submitted update posts for the missing days. We highly encourage submitters to prioritise the missing days first to maintain some chronological ordering of posts, but will not strictly enforce this.
Please note that reposts will be removed. Users should check if a post has already been posted beforehand.

What else can I do? Where can I learn more?

Before the blackout, read up more on the issues:

• Sign the ModCoord open letter
• Read developer takeaways from API meeting held between Reddit founder and CEO u/spez and other developers on Jun 8 (EDT)
  • See the public meeting notes
• See the following from Save3rdPartyApps:
  • Summary of the issues, the protest, and what you can do
  • Infographic on how third-party apps and tools are affected by the pricing
  • List of demands
• Description of what is happening on explainlikeimfive
• APIs explained on learnprogramming

On June 12-14, you can:

• Reduce traffic to Reddit by not using the site at all!
• Rabblerouse and spread the word to your favorite non-Reddit platform about the protest! Make that viral TikTok video!
• Enjoy some time away from the screen!
• Plan out a modmail to send to u/reddit about your thoughts on the API pricing after the blackout is over! (Feel free to customise this template!)

We welcome any thoughts in the comments. - The seventeen mod team
View Poll

This will be my first time traveling since sleep training. My son is 7mo, our 2 nap schedule is 7-7:30 wake-up, then 3/3/4. He’s usually in bed by 8-8:30.
Tomorrow I will be getting on a plane at 5pm and we’ll be landing around 8pm our time so right around bed time. I feel like it’s impractical to try and keep him awake for the whole flight. What should I do? Just accept that sleep is going to be whack for the first couple days?

Background info: We're progressing well on a house, est. to close on 7/3.
I want to put 5% down on the $245k house shown (Midwest MCOL), to get the monthly payment at a comfortable level (below $2k), but that also drags our most liquid form of savings down to a questionable amount. We have other near- liquid assets we could leverage in emergencies, but ofc would like to avoid that. With our monthly payment, we'd still be looking at putting $1000-1500 back in savings per month (probably not counting the first month or two - assuming it will all be spent on moving and buying things) and I'll be getting a $3k bonus next month.
We have a very full 2bdrm/1 bath apartment, going into a 3 bdrm/1.5 bath house.
We know we need a fridge, washer, and dryer - so budgeting around $3k there. All the other appliances are good and new, so - makes sense to round out the set and get the remaining needs new, too.
We're being given a lawn mower and are supposed to make a list of other smaller things our parents can help get for us or give us from hand-me-downs or dupes.
My ask: Please please help me think of a list of other lawn care, basic maintenance (we have a solid full toolbox), and must-haves I'll need the first month to help me figure out what I should plan to ask for from family vs. buy on our own! That'll help me nail down the down payment percentage and budget out the rest.
Thank you!

Nous sommes Canadiens francophone, mais tout le monde qui peut communiquer en français ou en anglais est le bienvenue.
We are french Canadian, but everyone who can communicate in french or english are Welcome.
• Quebec WonderLand est un serveur PvE! Le PvP est cependant autorisé à quelques monuments. Veuillez lire les règlements pour en savoir plus.
• Nous sommes plus axés sur l'entraide, mais ce n'est pas obligatoire. Solo, duo, trio, quatuor, etc... C'est à vous de voir.
• Le serveur est moddé. Il y a entre autre, une lotterie, l'event Guarded Crate, l'event Dangerous Treasures, Skins, Building Skins... Et bien d'autres. Une liste et une description des mods est disponible sur le panneau d'information à la connection.
Le serveur est encore très jeune et il est encore en construction. Mais, c'est déjà jouable et les joueurs ne s'ennuient pas.
N'hésitez pas à rejoindre notre discord pour plus d'interaction. https://discord.gg/T69zdrZnH4
__________________________________________________________________
• Quebec WonderLand is a PvE server! However, PvP is allowed at certain monuments. Please, read the rules carefully.
• We're more focused on helping each other, but it's not mandatory. Solo, duo, trio, quatuor, etc... It's up to you.
• The server is modded. There's mod like lottery, Guarded Crate event, Dangerous Treasures event, Skins, Building Skins... There's a list and description of the mods on the informative panel at connection.
The server is still very young and under construction. But it's already playable and players don't get bored.
Don't be shy, join our discord for more interaction https://discord.gg/T69zdrZnH4

I'm looking at finally doing a full new build from my current 1060 6gb. I'm trying to keep costs below $2,000 CAD - lower the better.
TLDR:: It's between RX6800XT, RTX4070, and RX6950XT.
I'm re-using my storage drives and fans, but kinda stuck on the GPU right now. Been through a rabbit hole of which of the 3 I should get and figured i'd drop a post here to see what people think of the build so far.
Timing isn't an issue - I don't mind keeping an eye on deals.
I guess one big question I keep running into is "If prices all being equal, which of the 3 should I be getting if I don't plan on upgrading in the next couples years?" I don't care that much about RT or DLSS or FSR, just looking for the best option right now, but I do use my PC for editing photos using adobe (not sure if that matters much)
Why i'm hesitant on each one? RX 6800XT -- mainly want to do some SLIGHT future proofing. The RX 6950XT is only a little more expensive so why not spend a little bit more for the extra performance?
RTX 4070 -- Lower VRAM. Might be an issue in the future because I do enjoy some of the AAA games and would like to play those with higher visuals. A little more pricey it seems but looks like the price is dropping to be similar to the other 2.
RX 69050XT -- Giganto card and reading about how much power it uses. I'm not entirely sure it's that big a deal to me but wanted to hear other people's thoughts about it. Is the extra cost worth it including the power consumption?
General build using RX 6950 XT:
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$309.98 @ Amazon Canada
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler	$74.95 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard	ASRock B650 PRO RS ATX AM5 Motherboard	$229.99 @ Newegg Canada
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory	$169.99 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 6950 XT 16 GB Video Card	$869.00 @ Canada Computers
Case	NZXT H5 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case	$119.99 @ Canada Computers
Power Supply	*Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 TT Premium 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.99 @ Memory Express
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1923.89
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$1893.89
	*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-09 23:02 EDT-0400