This probably sounds ridiculous, but I gotta say it out loud anyway because it’s been driving me bananas for the past few days. I want to create an information resource specifically for Star Trek meme creators. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head, so I think I gotta just build it already.
What would this site even have on it, you ask? Off the top of my head, I’m thinking the contents would consist of: the list of official Trek fonts for all shows (already in progress), links to screencap sites, links to the few Trek meme generators that are out there, software recommendations by platform, maybe a few guides here and there. Basically, all the stuff that would make it possible or easier to make your own Trek memes. Most of us here already have our own workflow set up just the way we want it, but not everybody does, and I’m also thinking a resource like this could help lower the barrier to entry a little.
I write code and documentation for a living, so it’s kinda in my wheelhouse. It would be a fun thing to do on the side, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a platform and host already in mind.
But I’m wondering if this would actually be used? And would anyone here be interested in contributing?
I don’t have any coding skills to offer, but I’d be happy to share meme making tips and which tools I like using. I’m always curious to hear other people’s processes too.
I don’t have any coding skills to offer
Depending on how it all shakes out, this technically shouldn’t be an issue from a content contribution perspective; I’m actually looking at lightweight solutions that render from markdown, which we all use to post and comment on Lemmy (and the Bad Place). But you’d likely have to sign into a code repo, set up ssh keys, and do the things developers do, and that’s not everyone’s cup o’tea. If this changes and if I do happen to find an ideal platform where you can just login in your browser and start editing, I’ll let you know!
@[email protected] there’s been some movement on the meme-making site, and plans have changed; Jawa21 recommended a wiki-based solution that fits the bill, so I’m gonna go with that. I’ll send you a DM in a minute.
If you really want a challenge, building a Frinkiac for Star Trek would be a memers heaven
That’s amazing. They have captions and screen captures synced for the first 17 seasons? Holy shit!
Don’t forget the Morbotron
This is also amazing. What a time to be alive!
ffmpeg would make that really easy. The hard part would be storing it all.
The hard part to me would be indexing the show’s subtitles so that they’re searchable, and then grabbing the appropriate frame for whatever they searched
Add social media and upvotes/downvotes to attract the kids. Maybe videos that are, max, 15 seconds?
Wait no lets just do porn.
I didn’t think I’d get to use this one more than once.
Let’s see just how fully functional that yellow eyed bastard is.
Sometimes those eyes are red, but that’s just from makeup getting into Spiner’s eyes.
Oh we will put something in his eyes.
I am more than willing to contribute what I can. This seems like something that could turn into a megathread here similar what the piracy community has. I’d recommend a free wiki setup for ease of access and contribution.
That’s a great recommendation, a wiki would definitely be easier. I was big on the idea of editing .MD files since I’m used to that, but in the interest of increasing access (kinda like what this resource is supposed to do for meme makers)…yeah, this should also be easy to contribute to. Aight, I got some stuff to think about.
On the other hand, the advantage of using markdown platforms (like Docsify) is that they can be hosted directly from the repo without having to be deployed on a host; yeah, hosting, I forgot to mention, can be a bear to maintain and is not something I’d like to take on or pay for. That shit can get expensive. There are wiki service providers like Nuclino that have a free tier of hosting, but they all look like they’re closed source. One of my requirements is it be open source so anyone can fork it and do what they want with it (also addresses the “what if I get hit by a bus” question). The same goes for other collaborative CMS packages, I don’t wanna deal with hosting.
So something like Docsify would have a higher barrier to entry, but it’s also something I am comfortable with/capable of managing. Even if we had someone volunteer to take on a DevOps role and set up & manage a deployment pipeline, there’s still the issue of the hosting costs. Yeah lol, it sorta comes down to money, and I unfortunately I think I gotta draw a hard line in favor of free open source over free proprietary. omg I don’t know if that sentence makes sense. I’m so baked, what time is it? Is it tomorrow yet?
It’s always tomorrow somewhere :p As for proprietary vs FOSS (typing this from Arch, btw) - I really get it. However, with things like hosting in general which I’ve struggled with finding good solutions for my edits a lot I’m not sure there really is a good solution here. I’d argue that since this is meant to potentially be a resource for all Trek meme editors and/or content creators, then odds are that pure accessibility and low maintenance/hosting costs are going to have to be considered first and foremost. The point I’m trying to make is that IMO this should be able to benefit everyone that could use such a thing, which will unfortunately (IMO) require something proprietary - especially if it actually takes off and eats up a good amount of bandwidth per month. If someone hosted it on their bare metal at home, there could be a lot of a) security risks and b) down time.
Also, this looks promising at a glance. Take a look: https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Miraheze Admittedly not FOSS, but it is opensource.
Lol jawa21 you missed a great “I use Arch BTW” opportunity. Hmmm, Miraheze, I didn’t know it existed! I think technically it might count as a FOSS implementation, as it is free and uses Mediawiki. Since they manage the hosting, there wouldn’t be any direct access to the instance’s code, but there’s still the option to do a data export in the event of a necessary migration.
This does look good on paper, lemme look at this some more. I’m trying to picture how this would work for this use case, and I don’t see any red flags just yet. Yeah, solid so far.
odds are that pure accessibility and low maintenance/hosting costs are going to have to be considered first a
Omg I feel called out. Haha, the context of accessibility is slightly different here, but I’m actually the resident web accessibility expert at work. Yeah, I use a screen reader to test functional WCAG compliance for some of our products and have to make recommendations for fixes, if not fix it myself, amongst other things. I’m actually working on a presentation about it. Yeah, this thing would serve others best if it is inclusive. Aight I gotta jet, lemme get back to you on this.
Any other thoughts that come to mind, don’t hesitate to post it here.
I created an account at Miraheze and put in a request for a wiki, which has to be manually approved. The queue has a three day backlog at the moment, so it might be a hot minute before I can give it a test spin. That is, if it’s approved.
I’m probably showing my age, but I really miss Geocities, you know? You had all kinds of cool niche special interest sites about all kinds of things, and this would’ve fit right in there.
Cool. I’d like to see how things turn out. And NeoCities is there if you really want to hand code a wiki lol.
omg I didn’t know that was a thing
@[email protected] Hey, quick update. I’ve been tinkering with the Miraheze wiki… and you know what, I think this will work. Great recommendation! I’m gonna send you a DM in a few minutes, let’s chat.
I’m a web dev, happy to lend a hand if need be.
@[email protected], Just a heads up about the Trek meme-making web development idea, as you offered your services earlier. I’ve decided to go in a slightly different direction than I initially thought; it’s gonna be on a FOSS wiki that lives on the provider’s (Miraheze) free managed hosting solution. We don’t have source code access and thus won’t be doing typical web dev stuff.
I still kinda wanna do some collaborative development for something Trek-related one of these days, so if/when that happens, I’ll let you know!
aight np
While I’m not able to help you with the setting up part, I’d use it and I like the idea :)
Though I don’t think it’s mainly the missing abilities that keep me from creating memes myself; it’s the fact that I feel I have too little knowledge compared to everyone else, but I’m on my way to change that, currently trying to watch all of Star Trek that I haven’t seen and rewatching the part I have seen.Have fun and take a break when (not if) you need it. All of Trek is a lot. I’d advise breaking it up.
I appreciate the advice but don’t worry too much about me; I’m currently doing one, max. two episodes per day and while it’s still semester break at my uni right now I don’t even manage to watch one every single day and when classes start again it’ll be even worse :') Plus I (presumably, still on the search for a doc to diagnose me) got ADHD so I gotta make the most out of the obsession while it lasts, the last time I was this obsessed with something it only took 2 years for the obsession to wear off…
But I’ve been more or less (mostly less for the past 8 years) invested in Star Trek since I was like 10 so I assume this is gonna be a life long thing for me :)
