Quark's

1097 readers
11 users here now

Come to Quark’s, Quark’s is Fun!

General off-topic chat for the crew of startrek.website. Trek-adjacent discussions, other sci-fi television, navigating the Fediverse, server meta (within reason), selling expired cases of Yamok sauce, it’s all fair game.


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
151
152
 
 

I'm seeing a lot of blank images when looking at posts from startrek.website through Lemmy-UI, but when I look through Photon/Sync the images are there. It seems to only affect images uploaded directly to startrek.website instead of images uploaded to a separate website. Is there something I can do to fix this on my instance?

EDIT: copy-pasting my comment to another question here so you know the "solution"

I solved the cause of the issue (I think), it being caused by my browser caching the images/pict-rs urls weirdly (whenever i would clear the cache or open an incognito/private it would work fine), but I wasn't able to really fix it on the default UI. Not saying it isn't impossible to fix, just that I'm not smart enough to do it lol (though I have told the sysadmin). If it isn't working on Liftoff too though that's strange, since Liftoff seems to work fine for me. The best "solution" for me on desktop seems to be to just using an alternative UI like Photon, since it pulls the image in a different way which makes it load correctly (that and the fact that Photon is just great all around and the dev is cool). For mobile, I would think Liftoff would be working since it seems to work for me, but I don't mainly use Liftoff (Photon FTW), maybe try using a different app and see if you have the same problem?

BTW this is what I see right now on the default UI:

And on Photon:

I think I answered everything (?), if I didn't ask and I'll try to answer

153
 
 

Leaving aside bias towards the American market and critics, this latest criticism of Rotten Tomatoes influence comes from this September 6th piece from Vulture. The report provides new evidence of PR firms paying critics and persuading them to keep negative reviews off of Rotten Tomatoes tracking.

The Bunker 15 employee replied that of course journalists are free to write whatever they like but that “super nice ones (and there are more critics like this than I expected)” often agreed not to publish bad reviews on their usual websites but to instead quarantine them on “a smaller blog that RT never sees. I think it’s a very cool thing to do.” If done right, the trick would help ensure that Rotten Tomatoes logged positive reviews but not negative ones.

Collider has its own overview and retrospective on previous examples of corruption in reviewing, headlined “Rotten Tomatoes has always been mouldy at its core.’ It notes the inherent vulnerability of RT as it is owned by NBC Universal and Warner Brothers. Collider summarizes the recent criticism and analysis of RT as follows.

THE BIG PICTURE

Rotten Tomatoes' binary system oversimplifies complex works of art and diminishes the role of nuanced film critics.

The recent controversy surrounding Rotten Tomatoes reveals the site's susceptibility to manipulation by PR companies.

The dominance of Rotten Tomatoes in film discourse has led to a diminished appreciation for the human element and individuality in film criticism.

154
 
 

Earlier this week Disney announced (whinged) that it expected a $ 300 million revenue loss attributable to the strike.

Today, The Hollywood Reporter says sources are reporting cost-cutting at Warner Brothers Television Group.

the studio has suspended a number of overall deals for its top creatives including J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot (Duster), Greg Berlanti (Superman & Lois), Chuck Lorre (Bob Hearts Abishola), Bill Lawrence (Shrinking), John Wells (Maid), Mindy Kaling (Sex Lives of College Girls). Sources say Lorre’s multiyear pact with his decades-long studio was quietly suspended in May, a week into the strike, with Wells’ deal a month later.

Deadline has a similar report but interprets the news as more likely ‘suspend and extend’ arrangements.

One has to wonder why the major content producers are continuing side with Netflix, Amazon and Apple which are primarily streamers.

155
 
 

I was initially delighted to see BBC amplifying the celebration of TAS’ 50th anniversary. Then I read this piece.

Half a day later I’m still annoyed at the number of easily verifiable errors and that with the BBC’s trusted source credibility, the power that this piece can have to create uncertainty on settled issues.

First there are 22 episodes of TAS not the 20 claimed in the article.

Second, it’s established that Gene Roddenberry’s rejection of TAS as canon was overstated or at least inconsistent (and that Richard Arnold’s own view was a factor in magnifying this question in early TNG production). The BBC article overstates this as fact.

Third, it ignores the fact that Paramount as the rights holder has decided to treat TAS as canon. The article concludes with a statement that this continues as an open question. While it might have been fair to say that for a number of fans, this remains a question, it’s not accurate to portray this as an official position even just implicitly.

Anyone else irritated by this?

156
 
 

This is thanks to a project called mlmym (Github link) for those of you old enough to remember the good ol' days...

FYI- you'll have to log in separately (still using your regular startrek.website account).

157
 
 

Labour Day statement from guild/union leadership as cited in article …

Keyser called out these contentions on Monday, emphasizing that, “These things must be resolved. And not with contract language that has a one-to-one ratio of promises to loopholes. Truly resolved.”

“Of course, that’s not the AMPTP way. And it’s a hard thing to give up on something that has served them so well for 40 years,” he continued. “They are in the process of wrestling amongst themselves, ramping up their public relations, and coming to terms with the fact that – with writers on strike – and actors on strike behind them – this negotiation is different. And they are going to have to do more – offer more – than they usually do. Much of our frustration with how long this is taking stems from that – from their internal bargaining. But they will get there.”

158
 
 

Thank you for everyone's patience while we were migrating hosts . I know I said "a few hours" and it turned out to be over a day. Clearly I need to work on my Scotty estimates. During transport the team found a backlog of extremely low effort memes caught in the pattern buffer and we had to go through the copies one by one determining which were the evil versions.

You may notice some wonkiness/slowness the next 24hrs as we get re-federated with everyone. Basically every other Lemmy instance will bombard us with traffic for a while.

Our new host is designed for Lemmy in particular, meaning in the long run we should see increased stability, improved load times, and better scaling as we inevitably become the dominant Lemmy instance!

159
160
161
162
 
 

This is probably old news to other people but I only just noticed this. Seems like a pretty interesting guy!

163
 
 

What potent drink recipe can we create for inclusion in the remake of the show?

reference, south of Equator in December... bushfires: "The most severe fires peaked from December 2019"

Since gasses in the air seem to be a heat factor leading to surface fires... a better name than "fire-baton" that has planetary gas-buildup in the name theme?

164
 
 

Couldn’t resist sharing this video trailer.

Horak continuously overturns preconceptions about integrating differently-abled actors.

Apparently, in addition to the upcoming run of Goblin: MacBeth at Stratford Festival, Rebecca Northan (Horak’s collaborator) is already working on developing Goblin: Oedipus for an Alberta production next year.

165
 
 

Beats negotiating, I guess...

166
 
 

I kept thinking all day, isn't there something I should be doing today?

167
168
 
 

I’m somewhat more understanding of Goldsman’s approach to character development after reading this.

169
 
 

As many of us here migrated from Reddit during the blackout, I thought some here would be interested in the calls for Facebook and Instagram blackouts in Canada in response to Meta’s blocking of links.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/3673419

Non-Paywall Article

170
 
 

Here’s something to fill some gaps in your viewing schedule. While not science fiction, this show could appeal to SNW fans and deserves a bigger audience.

SurrealEstate is a Canadian live-action supernatural drama with a light leavening of horror, produced for CTV Sci-Fi Channel, and picked up Syfy. The first season also ran on Hulu in the US after its linear run. It was canceled by Syfy US, then uncanceled when it got picked up by the Syfy channels in Europe.

It’s quirky, full of gentle ironic humour, in the way Canadian shows can be. Tim Rozon of Wynonna Earp stars along with Sarah Levy of Schitt’s Creek. Melanie Srofano (Captain Betel in SNW) directed two episodes in the first season and was reportedly back to do more.

Similar to SNW, SurrealEstate mainly episodic with light serialization coming from character arcs. It has a generally positive vibe, with a team of intriguing and diverse characters solving mysteries and clearing houses of supernatural detractions so that they can ‘achieve their true market value.’

From the season one promotional listing:

Real estate agent Luke Roman is the owner of The Roman Agency, a boutique residential real estate brokerage specializing in "metaphysically engaged" properties, also known as haunted houses. Luke has a special connection to the spiritual realm; he can not only sense the presence that might inhabit a client's house, he can often communicate and negotiate with it. Along with his team, Luke takes on the houses nobody else can or will.

If you haven’t seen season one, I firmly recommend catching it on demand on CTV (which is offering it currently offering it free to non-subscribers), on the Syfy app or on Hulu.

171
 
 

Bruce Horak (Hemmer) is a long-standing theatre performer. He and some longtime colleagues have come up with an innovative and eccentric Goblin: MacBeth.

Beyond its initial run in Bruce’s hometown of Calgary, the production is scheduled for a two week run at the Stratford Festival in October and is just starting a run at Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach festival.

From the Stratford Festival listing…

"Goblin:Macbeth is a blast of pure creative genius. Unpredictable, unrestrained and uninhibited, it is the stage equivalent of a theme park funhouse ride." Calgary Herald

Enjoy the Scottish play like never before with Goblin:Macbeth, coming to the Meighen Forum!

In a tale of three goblins stumbling upon the complete works of William Shakespeare, Rebecca Northan, Bruce Horak and Ellis Lalonde blend improvisation, fantasy and tragedy in an electrifying and fresh interpretation of the classic play. When goblins come to the Stratford Festival, anything can happen!

172
 
 

This is very off topic for a Star Trek focused instance, but I thought some of the Quark’s regulars might be interested in the public interest issues raised in this situation.

For context, the Canadian federal Parliament passed legislation that would tax very large internet aggregator platforms that monetize news links without entering into payment arrangements with news sources. The law is not yet in effect, and the regulations make that work that haven’t even been put out for formal public consultation (a lengthy process). Meta and X have proactively blocked links to anything they believe are Canadian news sites. This includes access to the Canadian Parliamentary Access Channel (CPAC) and the national public broadcaster CBC and other private sources that are carrying required emergency broadcasts.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/967873

The NWT government and city of Yellowknife are describing in tweets, Instagram messages etc. how to search key evacuation information on CPAC and CBC. The broadcast carriers have a duty to carry emergency information, but Meta and X are blocking links.

While internet access is reportedly limited in Yellowknife, residents are finding this a barrier to getting current and accurate information. Even links to CBC radio are blocked.

173
174
 
 

So whats everyone watching on Thursday (nights) now that SNW has wrapped up? I'm looking for recommendations

Edit: I'm currently watching outlander, waiting for the wheel of time s2, DISCO and snowpiercer s4

175
 
 

This is interesting, and perhaps a signal of some evolving thinking between Sheri Redstone and Baklish.

view more: ‹ prev next ›