Well hello again everybody! This has been a wonderful past couple of days. I want to give a huge thank you to everybody who participated in my Under New Management post from Thursday. There was a lot of great feedback, and it will go a long way to helping me better understand all of your wants and needs for this community. Yay!

Yes, this will be wordy. Read it anyway. I will try to be concise.

I spent the entirety of Thursday afternoon and evening working through the over 600 reports that existed for the community. There are still a little less than 200 more left to work through. To be fully transparent, I was given the option of simply mass clearing all of the reports so that I could start with a clean slate. Halfway through, it was very tempting to take the powers-that-be (PtB) up on their generous offer. 😅 But, I wanted to see the reports and see what was being reported (and also by whom). Again, this is my way of learning about this community and its members.

The first thing I want to say is this: for the time being, I have decided that @beep@piefed.world is allowed to stay – with conditions. I have reached out privately to them about their past behavior, and they conveyed that they will respect the rules going forward. I have conveyed back to them that their continued use of the community is contingent on their ability to not break the rules going forward (especially with the alteration of comics). With this said, I fully expect this to ruffle quite a few of those proverbial feathers. But, for better or for worse, the decision is made. Please do not report their posts/comments merely because of who they are. If you do report them for anything, do it because it actually breaks the rules (be sure to be specific about what rules).

With this out of the way, I also want to take a moment to welcome the following people to our moderation team:

• @TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
• @Harvey656@lemmy.world
• @slazer2au@lemmy.world
• @Otter@lemmy.ca
• @cannedtuna@lemmy.world
• @18107@aussie.zone

They have each reached out in some capacity to ask for this job, and I see no reason to not bring them aboard to help out. I expect that they will do their very best to ensure that this community, and its visitors, are treated fairly and with the upmost respect they deserve. Let's be sure that they get the same in return. Everyone made it a strong point that we are all adults here, so let's be sure to act like it.

Update 1: I edited the 📽️ Credit Where Credit is Due rule to be more clear about attributions, watermarks, and cropping of comics. Also I fixed some spelling mistakes.

Update 2: I edited the 🧬 Keep it Real rule for clarity. Keep it coming!

Update 3:
I edited the 🏘️ Community Standards based on user feedback.
Updated the formatting of the rules to remove spoiler tags.
Be more concise with some rules.

Good day/evening folks!

Note: Please read until the end; there is a lot here, so if you want to skip straight to business you can search for "Call to Action" and "New Rules" to get right to it. I won't be terribly offended. 🥹

Last night (2026-04-08 America/New_York time) I was approached and asked to moderate this community. It seems our esteemed @lawrence@lemmy.world has found themselves otherwise occupied and unable to commit time necessary to maintaining the community. Whatever their reasons, we thank them for their service and wish them well in whatever they are doing now.

My name is @dohpaz42@lemmy.world. You may call me dohpaz42, dohpaz, doh!, jerkface (with love!), or whatever; just don't call me late for dinner. I have been a Lemmy user since July 2023, and it's been a wild ride. Love me or hate me, know that I took this post with the intention to be a fair and impartial mod. I do understand that I ~~may~~ will make mistakes, but I promise that if you come at me respectfully, I will listen. I may not agree with you, but I will listen. I only ask that you do the same for me and my (eventual) team.

A little about moi:

• I am a divorced father of two young boys
• I am a web developer who dabbles in devops
• I am not an arch user (sorry, not sorry 😏)
• I enjoy hobbies like: 3d-printing, household DIY, video games, woodworking
• I like to watch Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror (Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, Star Trek (TNG, DS9, etc), Night/Dawn/Day of the Living Dead, Paranormal Activity, etc)
• Cooking (Send me gluten-free recipes!)

Call to Action

If you are interested in helping to moderate this community, please let me know by DM. I will evaluate each request on the merits of the person making the request. This will mostly involve a user's post/comment history and modlog history.

Note: Having a modlog history does not automatically exclude you from being a moderator, but I do want to make sure that whomever helps helms this community can do so in a respectful and positive manner. Mods will be held to a higher standard than regular users.

I also have a modlog history. Some of it was (in my opinion) unwarranted, and some of it (upon reflection) was very much warranted. I believe in second (and possibly third) chances. I've been there too, and I've still been given this opportunity. So to honor that opportunity, I am willing to give (almost) anybody a chance.

New Rules

I have decided to start out with a rewrite of the rules. Nothing dramatic, but I feel there are a couple of things that can be refined and improved upon. Before I make it official and update the sidebar, I am open to your feedback first (see below). Once the feedback is given, and any revisions made, I will post the new rules to the sidebar. I will accept feedback (comments in this post) until Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 3PM EDT (19:00 UTC).

Note: If you moderate a similar community, and wish to be linked in our sidebar, please leave a comment and I would be happy to add it to the list.

And without further ado, here are the new rules:

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

Rules

1. 😇 Be Nice!

   • Treat others with respect and dignity. Friendly banter is okay, as long as it is mutual; keyword: friendly.

2. 🏘️ Community Standards

   • Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.
   • Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances.
   • Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.
   • Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as appropriate. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.

3. 🧬 Keep it Real

   • Comics should be made and posted by real human beans, not by automated means like bots or AI. This is not the community for that sort of thing.

4. 📽️ Credit Where Credit is Due

   • Comics should include the original attribution to the artist(s) involved, and be unmodified. Bonus points if you include a link back to their website. When in doubt, use a reverse image search to try to find the original version. Repeat offenders will have their posts removed, be temporarily banned from posting, or if all else fails, be permanently banned from posting.
   • Attributions include, but are not limited to, watermarks, links, or other text or imagery that artists add to their comics to use for identification purposes. If you find a comic without any such markings, it would be a good idea to see if you can find an original version. If one cannot be found, say so and ask the community for help!

5. 📋 Post Formatting

   • Post an image, gallery, or link to a specific comic hosted on another site; e.g., the author's website.
   • Meta posts about the community should be tagged with [Meta] either at the beginning or the end of the post title.
   • When linking to a comic hosted on another site, ensure the link is to the comic itself and not just to the website; e.g.,
     ✅ Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
     ❌ Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/

6. 📬 Post Frequency/SPAM

   • Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 🖐) comics a day. This can be any combination of personal comics you have written yourself, or other author's comics. Any comics exceeding five (5 🖐) will be removed.

7. 🏴‍☠️ Internationalization (i18n)

   • Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
     Sí, por favor [Spanish/Español]

8. 🍿 Moderation

   • We are human, just like most everybody else on Lemmy. If you feel a moderation decision was made in error, you are welcome to reach out to anybody on the moderation team for clarification. Keep in mind that moderation decisions may be final.
   • When reporting posts and/or comments, quote which rule is being broken, and why you feel it broke the rules.

Web of Links

• !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
• !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)

And for anyone interested in a template:

Actor: Dwight Schultz

I was watching the 2010 version of the A-Team (great movie imo), and I wanted to know what cameos there were (because I suck at recognizing actors). Lo and behold, to my delight, the cross-over of all cross-overs: Star Trek and A-Team.

~I love it when a plan comes together.~

Edit: This just keeps getting better!!!! 53:58 on Netflix.

For so many years, I've struggled with a myriad of symptoms that have (at times) severely affected my quality of life: dizziness/fainting, fatigue (both physical and mental), shortness of breath, tension headaches, and lack of motivation. I have seen many doctors about these symptoms for many years, and I have been given a myriad of suggestions:

1. It’s just obstructive sleep apnea
2. Use a regular sleep schedule
3. Reduce caffeine intake
4. Exercise regularly
5. Maybe you’re depressed
6. It’s all in your head

I have dealt with each of those suggestions (for that last one, I fired that doctor immediately; problem solved!), and I still have problems to varying degrees. To be fair, some of those have gotten better, but have not completely gone away. So I resigned myself to just living with it.

I recently made an appointment to have a colonocopy, and I was reading through my clinical summary, when I fell upon my blood pressure (120/86). The doc wrote "Your blood pressure reading was elevated at your visit today. It is suggested that you visit your primary care for further evaluation." He never actually mentioned this to me. Not even the nurse who took my blood pressure, nor the PA. So I got curious, and I looked up what my blood pressure should be for my age (120/80 and below for the curious).

I found this neat little chart that tells about blood pressures, and what is considered elevated, and stage 1/2 hypertension. According to that chart, my blood pressure is not elevated (because my bottom number is not less than 80). My blood pressure is stage 1 hypertension! Never once had any doctor I had ever seen ever muttered the words "stage", "one", or "hypertension" in the same sentence. Ever.

Anyway, I am just a lowly pleb who knows nothing (i.e., "I am not a medical professional"). But, because I feel that my doctors failed at doing their jobs at the most basic level, I felt compelled to tell you all my story so that you all can check your vitals and decide whether or not you should have a conversation with your medical professionals. Be safe!

Hi, my name is @dohpaz42@lemmy.world and I am a HomeKit user.

My draw to HomeKit is the ecosystem, and its ease of use for me and for my kids (we are all iOS users).

I have been reading about the differences between both Home Assistant (HA) and HomeKit (HK), and I do like the idea of having more control over everything, and exponentially more devices available to me through HA.

In fact, what inspired my research is to look for an alternative to myQ for my garage door opener. And while I have found ratgdo that can do everything myQ can do, and more, it’s my basic understanding that HK support is not as great as HA.

I do understand that to use HA, I will need something to use as a dedicated hub; I have a few Pis running in my house already that I could easily make into a dedicated hub. So that’s not an issue.

I am also tech savvy, but I do not wish to spend all of my waking hours tweaking things. More importantly, I want to know if my kids can easily use HA devices without them having to be tech savvy.

Can HA be set up in a way that my kids can just point and click using apps on their devices? Can anybody help show me (screenshots, videos) what that might look like?

Thank you in advance.

A few months ago, I bought an American Standard brand toilet seat that soft closes. It was nice. But apparently after about 6 mo of normal use, the plastic piece for the lid broke; a week later, the seat ripped apart from the hinge. That’s the American Standard for you I guess. /s

So today, I go get a different toilet seat, and as I’m trying to adjust it to fit on the toilet, I notice that they gave me two left brackets.

So now I have to go back to the store and hope they will open boxes until we find me the correct right bracket. And before anyone suggests flipping the left bracket over: you can’t. Each bracket has grooves cut into one side that fit in the specific side of the mounting bracket that attaches to the toilet.

I hope y’all’s day is going better than my week! 🤣

Hi! I am aware of tools like top, htop, atop, and sar that can be used to monitor usage. The *top programs seem to only do any reporting in real time, while the latter sar tool can provide historical usage data only (as percentage by CPU).

The problem that I am trying to get information on is what processes are running, and their stats, at times when the system is unresponsive (making the *top programs impossible to use).

What is the best way to log process stats in real time so when the system becomes unresponsive and requires a reboot, we can go and look to see what state the system was in to hopefully troubleshoot what causes the system to become unresponsive?

Thank you!

My 12 yo has recently gained an interest n learning to skateboard. I have a board already, but its trucks and wheels are rusting out. I would like to replace them with new ones, and I wanted to ask what would be good (economical) trucks and wheels to get?

The current trucks and wheels don’t have any branding information that I can see.

First question: how would you handle situations where you show interest in someone by writing a thoughtful blurb (maybe even witty), and they liked it enough to match with you, but not actually respond?

Second question: for those people out there who have someone show interest in you by writing a thoughtful blurb (maybe even witty), why would you not at least also say hi or some other basic acknowledgment? What is the expectation?

She brought her oldest daughter (22) with her. Her daughter had surprised visited her and I guess she didn’t want to tell either of us no to tonight. Her kid was pretty cool, and apparently gave me a glowing review by calling me “a walking green flag”. 🤣

She paid for dinner, which was unexpected. I knew I should’ve gone for the lobster. 😏 To be fair, I paid for drinks.

After dinner, and after her daughter went back home, we sat outside and talked for a couple of hours. We eventually decided to go back inside to get drinks, and she ran into a friend of hers at the bar. So we three spent the rest of the night talking and shooting the shit; we all shared our “war stories” from our marriages and raising our kids as single parents, and I got some good insights about women that I didn’t know I needed, and I found out that I’m a pretty boring guy. 😝

We walked her friend to her car, and my date and I sat on the tailgate of my truck and just talked until 3; then I drove her home.

What made it super interesting is that she flat out said that she feels she would have nothing to bring to a relationship, and that if anything she wants to be friends. But as the night went on, she also kept touching me (non-sexual) over and over, and even leaning against me at one point. When I dropped her off, she even said how she wanted to do this again soon.

Make no mistake, I did not feel any mixed signals. I believe her when she said she wants to be friends, and I’m okay with that. But I also had a good time, and enjoyed how unconventional everything was. It made the evening more pleasant because I didn’t have to stress about this or that; I just went with the flow and was myself. No preening or posturing. Just two single adults getting to know each other, and maybe becoming friends.