I don't want to single anyone out, but whenever I browse Lemmy for new communities I feel like it's not uncommon to find ones that only have 0-2 posts in them from months (or even as much as 2 years) ago.

I get why it happens: every time Reddit or some other platform does some crazy anti-user shit there's a big flood of interest in Lemmy and the Fediverse again, and with it a rush of people making communities (often trying to quickly clone popular subreddits).

But it seems that after some time they either get bored or disappointed that they weren't able to grow things as fast as they wanted, and then they just take off, leaving nothing but a ghost community behind--nobody posting anything and effectively unmoderated from what I can tell. That's my experience at least.

Of course, people can always create entirely new servers with an entirely new set of communities. But it feels like a shame that there are so many effectively dead communities on otherwise popular servers due to the fact that the people who created them never put any work in and just up 'n' left.

• Have you run into many "ghost communities" during your time on Lemmy?
• Do you think it's a problem now?
• Will it be a problem in the future?
• If so, what can/should we do about it?

Following up my discussion on [https://lemmy.world/post/24254749](0080 War in the Pocket), I've recently watched 08th MS Team and the Witch from Mercury, both for the first time in anticipation of the new Gquuuuuuuux Gundam series.

Overall, I quite liked it.

It wasn't perfect and the story was a bit hit-or-miss for me personally. I also felt it occasionally got a bit lost in the sauce of the whole meaningless corporate school battles thing. But at it's best the drama was really engaging and good.

The Good

Suletta and Miorine were great characters that were really well acted. I think a lot of my positive feelings for this show rely on the fact that Suletta was just a very likeable and relatable character, a true underdog who got brutally fucking bullied and manipulated, and definitely went through some shit, but ultimately tried hard and elevated herself. Where this show really shines above all else is the drama around these two characters in particular.

The Bad

I think the plot could have been more effective and meaningful had it been a little bit simpler.

In the first half of the show I felt like Prospera had a strong and simple motivation for what she was doing--revenge. But over the second half she turned into a weird overly complicated Gendo Ikari facsimile. I liked the somewhat Armored Core nature of a solar system governed by corporate oligarchy (and it's a good reflection of the times we live in), but multiple times throughout the series I found myself wondering who people and corporate names were referring too.

Complexity doesn't always equate to depth, and I feel like this story could have been more effective to me if it had been simpler. Suletta works well because her motivation is simple; to be accepted and loved by family and friends, and to stop needless killing.

The UGLY

Dystopian corporate oligarchy is bad... or is it good?

At the start of this series I was really excited to see a modern anime story dare to be critical of the mega corporate Japan and Earth that exist today, and the oligarchs, investment and business politics that govern almost every aspect of our lives. After all, this series starts off with the idea that corporate dynasties are using kids to essentially demonstrate the power of weapons in order to gain shareholder value and conglomerate clout. Surely these kids would eventually realize that all of this company bullshit was not only against their personal interests, but also against the interests of everyone in the solar system, right?

Unfortunately by the end I lost any sense that there was an overarching message. The premise was interesting and good, but I feel like this series completely backed away from saying much about the world they lived in at all. We see characters like Guel learn and grow from his experiences on Earth and the conflicts within his family, only to at the end revert into the same system that tore his life apart for no reason.

I won't spoil the ending, but I felt that the show never really puts its foot down on whether the corporate oligarchy that they all live under is BAD or GOOD for society, and whether it's worth saving or not?

I think there's a simpler and better version of this story that could have existed, in which Prospera uses Suletta and Ariel to usurp the corporate structure of the Benerit Group (purely in the name of revenge), only to throw the entire solar system into war and chaos as the Earthians rise up against a weakened Spacian oligarchy.

But with all that said, I did like the show. Mainly because I liked Suletta, Miorine and the drama that unfolded around them. It's certainly an entry that's worthy of the other Gundam series that I've checked out so far.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Joe Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

Biden's order required developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they were released to the public.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Joe Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate deal on Monday, removing the world's biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.

As a follow-up to my previous post asking for Gundam recommendations, I figured I'd open up a discussion about the OVA I finished tonight, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.

I'll start by restating that I'm a longtime anime fan but a relative Gundam noob, having only just recently watched (and enjoyed) the original Mobile Suit Gundam (0079) original TV series. As a big fan of Gainax/Khara and Kazuya Tsurumaki (FLCL, Diebuster, Evangelion) I've been looking forward to the upcoming GQuuuuuux series, and I've been looking forward to checking out a selection of different well-regarded Gundam shows and films before the new one debuts.

That makes Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is an interesting one for me; not only is it pretty highly regarded by fans, but it also has some solid early Gainax connections, as the screenplay was written by Hiroyuki Yamaga (Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise, Gunbuster) and the character designs were done by Haruhiko Mikimoto (Gunbuster).

Anyway... Having just finished it a few minutes ago, I feel like it was only alright and maybe a little bit overrated.

To start with the positives, I think the OVA mostly looked great. Character designs are peak 80s anime that remind me of Gunbuster in all the right ways, mobile suits look super cool and detailed, the animations were generally pretty great especially during the battle sequences, backgrounds were mostly good. Having just come from MSG 0079, it really felt jarringly impressive how far the craft of Japanese animation had come over the span of a decade. I also liked the overall scenario and concept of the story--growing up as a middle-schooler during the context of the One Year War between the Federation and Zeon. I think the meta narrative about the idealization of weapons of war was also solid and worth exploring.

But here's where it lost me a bit...

1. Let me get this one out of the way: the soundtrack sucks, both in terms of how unbelievably cheesy the tracks are, as well as how they affect the overall tone of the scenes. This OVA is just packed full of really mediocre and generic 1980s synth (and maybe early rompler) sounds, which alone isn't that much of a problem (I have nothing against synth or romplers, and I love video game music). But when you combine the super cheesy and oddly upbeat sounding music with what's happening on screen it massively detracts from the mood of whatever is happening. Throughout the entire thing I found the music to be distractingly out of place and a major step down from the great soundtrack of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

2. Despite being a fan of Gainax (or maybe because I'm a fan), I've never really liked Hiroyuki Yamaga or his work. This OVA feels a lot like his film, Royal Space Force, in the sense that you'd be forgiven for thinking it's great because it has some good moments and certainly looks great at times. But a lot of the stuff that happens either makes no fucking sense at all or lacked any emotional resonance (for me, at least).

3. This is a minor complaint, but I think the pacing of this OVA is nowhere near as good as the other ones that I've mentioned above (Gunbuster, FLCL, and Diebuster). War in the Pocket felt a lot more like a film that was broken into 6 parts than it felt like 6 stand-alone episodes telling a short story. I just feel like the available time could have been used better to tell the story from multiple perspectives. (For example, episode 1 being the setup, episode 2 and 4 focusing on Al/Bernie/Zeon, episode 3 and 5 focusing on Al/Chris/Federation, and then episode 6 being the dramatic conclusion that ties it all together.)

Overall, I mostly enjoyed it for what it was. Don't get me wrong!

It was an impressive looking show with an interesting premise relative to the original Gundam 0079 UC series. In so far as I understand the essence of Gundam as a noob--that robots may be cool but war is bad and only hurts people--I think War in the Pocket is a worthwhile story, only held back by sloppy writing and a terribly vibe-killing OST. It's still a pretty easy recommend to Gundam fans, because of how it looks and how it slots into the UC setting, but the flaws are big enough that it would be hard to recommend as someone's first Gundam experience.

What do you all think about Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket? Do you like it? Does it live up to the hype, in your view? Am I being overly harsh (granted it was just my first watch, and some things are a lot better during a 2nd or 3rd watch)?

As a big fan of the Gainax and Khara teams, I'm looking forward to checking out the new Gundam Gquuuuuux. And so, in preparation I've decided to watch some other Gundam stuff, starting with Mobile Suit Gundam (0079) which I've just finished.

So my question for the fediverse today is: having just watched the original MSG '79, what do you recommend I check out next?

Should I just go chronologically? Jump between the "best" ones? Get a sample of series from the different timelines/continuities? What do you all think?

It's not on Steam so I can't find anything out about it on ProtonDB, but does anyone know how well this game/version runs on Linux?