yes, when submitting i guess the link was eaten–this is now fixed:

https://longreads.com/2026/03/26/craft-in-defiance-of-ai-peter-wayne-moe/

this feels like a good example of how rentier capitalism is totally cooking everyone’s brains. what are we doing here

As reported by Gamemakers and GameSpark and translated by Automaton, Fontworks LETS discontinued its game licence plan at the end of November.

The expensive replacement plan – offered through Fontwork’s parent company, Monotype – doesn’t even provide local pricing for Japanese developers, and comes with a 25,000 user-cap, which is likely not workable for Japan’s bigger studios.

The problem is further compounded by the difficulties and complexities of securing fonts that can accurately transcribe Kanji and Katakana characters.

the interview in question, which opens with the following exchange:

Newton: You have joined us today to talk about this new age-gating policy that Roblox is rolling out to protect kids. And I think we should start by just talking about the scope of the problem here. What has led you to this point? And how do you think of the problem of predators on Roblox?

Baszucki: We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well. (emphasis mine) How do we allow young people to build, communicate and hang out together? How do we build the future of communication at the same time? So we, you know, we’ve been, I think in a good way, working on this ever since we started. And when we were — this was almost 18 or 19 years ago — when we first launched the company and we had just four of us sitting in a room, we were literally the moderators, like we would rotate all the time. And so fast-forward to where we are today, it’s just like every week, what is the latest tech? At the scale we’re at, 150 million daily actives, 11 billion hours a month, like what is the best way to keep pushing this forward? And as you correctly note, we’ve just started adding that we’re going to be using facial age estimation with A.I. to complement that.

Children can still protest, fundraise, and engage in other forms of direct action. Children are not helpless or incapable.

you are shadowboxing with things i didn’t say and are the only person inserting the terms “helpless” or “incapable” here, but also once again: this is a game marketed at literal children. i stopped playing Roblox at 14 and doing some research i’m led to believe that would be quite old for a Roblox player. probably half or more of the player-base is 13 or younger. do you honestly expect the average 13-year-old (or younger) to be capable of anything other than performative activism relating to the genocide in Palestine?

Holding a pro-Palestine candlelight vigil in Roblox, for example, whilst there are still Palestinian civilians being murdered is a woefully inadequate use of time and effort if you actually want to help.

the people holding a vigil like this are probably literal children, because Roblox is a game for and overwhelmingly played by children, so i don’t understand the criticism here–it’s unlikely they can help in any material way you could as an adult, but they can be politicized into understanding who deserves their sympathy and who is perpetrating harm that must be ended, which such a rally helps affirm

long-time Beehaw users might see much of this article as the offline corollary to one of the works that influences our community philosophy, which is “Killing Community”

If you want to absolutely destroy a website that is all about building communities and meeting new people, then aim for the site and all communities to always be growing as much as possible. Make that a design goal of the site. Pump those subscriber numbers up.

What you’ll get is a place where everyone is a stranger, where being a jerk is the norm, where there is no sense of belonging, where civility and arguing in good faith is irrelevant because you’re not talking to someone, you’re performing in front of an audience to make the number next to your comment go up so you can briefly feel something that almost resembles belonging and shared values.

feels like Stop Antisemitism is really underrated in the “most evil domestic Zionist organization” department right now, this is literally a McCarthyist tactic

Seems like a pointlessly gendered classification.

sports bars by default cater to a male clientele, male sports, and male interests and therefore tend to have a “bro”-ey and “masculine” atmosphere that can often be offputting or outright hostile to the presence of women–women’s sports bars by contrast don’t, and generally have more interest in being inclusive community hubs and/or acting as substitutes to gay bars

in other words: no, it’s not really a pointlessly gendered classification in the current situation. it certainly is not what i’d call the norm (nor has it been my experience) for sports bars to have a code of conduct which tells you being homophobic or chauvinistic or ableist isn’t cool and could be grounds for your removal, as one of the women’s bars downthread has

i mean, you can research this for yourself. here’s what i found with about three minutes of Googling and following links

The Sports Bra:

The bar, which opened in Portland, Oregon, just last month, has already become a popular haunt for women and the LGBTQ community, especially since the city has lost all of its lesbian bars, a trend that has grown across the United States over the last several decades. There are only about 20 lesbian bars left in the country, compared to about 200 that existed in the 1980s. […] But Nguyen, who is gay, stresses that the bar is welcoming of everyone. While a majority of its patrons are women, she said, the Sports Bra is an inclusive space that also attracts a large number of families and even quite a few men — many of whom, according to her, say they prefer watching women’s sports because female athletes “give 110 percent all the time.”

1972 Pub:

1972 Pub represents more than just a place to gather — it’s a symbol of progress, representation, and the power of community. Having a women’s sports pub in Austin means more spaces where everyone, regardless of gender or identity, can feel seen and celebrated. ⛹️‍♀️🏆

A Bar of Their Own:

• has an entire code of conduct that is gender inclusive

the names and addresses of many of these bars: right here

i’m not exactly a fan of gender roles or the nature of “manhood” or “masculinity” or gender expression generally myself and am supportive of their total de-emphasis, so my presumption is that the case for this is something like “manhood as a concept is so toxic and so intrinsic to the worldview that creates patriarchy and men oppressing themselves and others that we cannot create a better form of it, we can only get rid of it.”

the problem is that this is almost exclusively the purview of radical feminism, and this was not productive for them historically (mostly it just took them very weird places, the SCUM manifesto being the most infamous manifestation of this). to say nothing of the fact that most radical feminism–and radical feminists–suck and have bad politics and analysis on queer issues in large part because of how that space of politics developed

Manhood ultimately will have to die though

bizarre take; i don’t see why this is true or necessary at all

well… no, because you’ve just described removing several of the distinct things that define what a karaoke bar is, lol

It’s bizarre but many cities are run by folks with no real knowledge of how cities are run, so it makes sense why it happens.

i don’t think this is particularly true–i think a lot of it just boils down to simple, short-term economic math. frankly, a lot of US land area is in an economic death spiral that makes a Walmart much more appealing than trying to maintain the existing local business community. you can’t count on people keeping businesses in the family in the middle of nowhere–but you can safely assume if you bend over enough for Walmart they’ll stick around and employ people. lotta mayors will take that consistency every time

i think contextually this article would make the point that it’s directed at white people considering wearing dreads and not other non-white groups, but yes it is pretty corny to effectively frame black people as the only group that has a cultural tradition of locked hair

i’m sorry but this is not the place to have a meltdown over this. you’re not the center of the universe and not everything is a personal affront to you because it doesn’t frame things in a way you would prefer

this is, respectfully, the goofiest objection i’ve ever seen. stop being so fragile over a headline

unfortunately i do not

this does not strike me as an article worth keeping up between its dubious quality and the (generously) cringeworthy opinions of its writer