links 🌌 Silver's Garden of Dreams

links

wip as many things are here! art-related links are in "resources" under the "creative" section in the main navigation dropdown.

general links

Bread and Roses: queer-friendly and generally not shitty alternative to Reddit.
Industrial Workers of the World: join a union! know your rights! stand together!
Library Genesis: a free online library of all kinds of digital reading material, including comics and scientific articles
Naturing Nuturing: a long-running blog for the Creatures series of games maintained by a close friend of mine, who has also written a bunch of useful agents to use in your Creatures Docking Station game!
Waterfall: a growing Tumblr-like site maintained by Patreon funding and with a friendly community (in my experience, anyway; your mileage may vary.) Also vastly less shitty than its more well-known counterpart.
Vimm's Lair: a huge collection of older classic games!

fun stuff

things of interest and entertainment!

Inspirograph: remember those awesome Spirograph things from your childhood? well now you don't have to just remember with this Spirograph simulator! or alternatively now you can play with them if you never got to before.
These Are The Mysteries: the best anime* ever to exist. a modern masterpiece and must-watch. 11/10.
* not actually an anime
SaltyBet: absolutely one of my favorite things on the entire internet, that often requires some explaining: there is a 2D fighting game called Mugen which has powerful create-a-fighter options even including the ability to write AI for your custom fighter for when they're not directly controlled by a player. Saltybet is a server running constant AI-only Mugen matches and even tournaments entirely of fan-made fighters, where people commentate in chat and bet fake money on which AI fighter will beat the other. it's better than it sounds in writing honestly, especially as the fighter database is enormous and contains a vast amount of hilarious fighters made from characters of well-known game series and even some inexplicably powerful joke fighters that are entirely terrible internet memes. (the music played over the matches is also vast and generally very excellent too, in my opinion!)

internet privacy

internet privacy is woefully not cared much about by many people on the modern web, which is exploited by large companies looking to gather this data to sell and trade amongst each other. privacy is important! if you'd get angry at strangers overhearing and commenting on a sensitive conversation you're having with a friend, or peering through a crack in the curtains on your windows to record what you're doing in your own home, big tech companies doing the same thing to your online life with the intent to SELL this should be equally disturbing. if you're looking to put up some digital curtains to block online surveillance and data collection, here are some places to start:

Decentraleyes: many sites rely on large, commonly used javascript files to function; this addon for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera stores and serves these files straight from your computer's hard drive rather than allowing them to be pulled from a server. why is this an important difference? sites that use these javascript files will collect data about you through your computer's request to access those javascript files from their servers! having them stored and served right on your own computer circumvents this type of spying entirely, protecting your privacy.
Distrowatch: looking to replace your spy-laden install of Windows or Android, or seeking a Unix-like OS not made by a company as horrible as Apple? this website lists an enormous amount of alternate OSes, primarily Linux and BSD/Unix-adjacent but even some unusual ones not based on any of these, along with user ratings and commentary. be sure to read about anything you'd like to try if you're new to alternate OSes! some of them are only for advanced users, require a lot of additional setup, or are made for very specific hardware.
DuckDuckGo Blog: privacy-related news and tips from the DuckDuckGo devs
Privacy Tools: comprehensive privacy info and a thorough listing of open-source privacy-respecting software alternatives to common popular software and services. as much as i highly suggest Firefox over all other browsers (the link to download Firefox itself is below this list) there are still things within Firefox to disable to further protect yourself which Privacytools wraps up all in one page here.
RiseUp: communication resources and protection for activists and other people who are made vulnerable by working for social change, or suffering from censorship in their country.
Switching Software: more privacy-respecting software suggestions
Ublock Origin: the only adblocker left that doesn't privately feed you their own ads, covertly collect and sell your data, or allow "acceptable" ads that pay them money. open-source and widely trusted, available on a bunch of browsers, and can even be configured to do more than block ads if you're an advanced user!

as with other link collections on my site, none of these websites are affiliated with me or my own web content in any way unless they specify otherwise on their own. also as with other link collections, i don't take suggestions for things to add here; this is meant to be a curated list of things i personally like and find interesting.
if your content is featured here and you would like it removed, please send me a message on one of the accounts listed on my contact page.