Wallace Shawn’s hands would often tremble as he walked onto the set of "The Princess Bride" (1987). It wasn’t the challenge of delivering Vizzini’s complex, fast-paced lines that unsettled him it was the paralyzing fear that, at any moment, director Rob Reiner would decide he was the wrong choice for the role. This fear wasn’t abstract. Shawn was well aware that he hadn’t been the first choice for the character of the self-proclaimed genius Vizzini. Danny DeVito, a towering name in comedy at the time, had been Reiner’s original pick. While scheduling conflicts had taken DeVito out of the running, Shawn felt like an impostor who had lucked into a role meant for someone else.
Shawn’s anxiety wasn’t baseless in his mind. He viewed DeVito as a giant of comedic timing and larger-than-life energy, someone whose every movement commanded attention. Shawn, by contrast, had built his career on intellectual, understated humor in films like "My Dinner with Andre" (1981). He was deeply self-critical, believing his quieter, more cerebral style was entirely unsuited to the flamboyant, arrogant nature of Vizzini. Every take on set was overshadowed by the nagging thought that his performance lacked the boldness the character demanded.
During the filming of the now-legendary "Battle of Wits" scene, Shawn’s insecurities reached their peak. In this pivotal moment, Vizzini engages Westley (played by Cary Elwes) in a duel of logic over poisoned goblets. The scene, layered with rapid dialogue and comedic absurdity, required Shawn to deliver a near-operatic performance, alternating between smug superiority and flustered frustration. While the crew laughed at his pitch-perfect delivery of "Inconceivable!" and his frantic attempts to outsmart Westley, Shawn remained convinced he wasn’t funny enough. He later revealed that he spent much of the scene preoccupied with thoughts of DeVito in his place, imagining the crowd laughing harder and the scene landing better.
What Shawn didn’t realize was how his very fear was shaping his performance in extraordinary ways. Vizzini, after all, is a character who masks deep insecurity with bluster and bravado. Shawn’s real-life unease brought an authenticity to the role that even Reiner hadn’t expected. His voice, with its distinct nasal quality, became an instrument of comedic precision, capturing Vizzini’s arrogance and fragility in equal measure. Every exaggerated hand gesture, every strained attempt at sounding confident, carried a subtle vulnerability that elevated the character beyond mere parody.
Co-stars like Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin observed Shawn’s anxiety on set but admired his commitment. Elwes later described how Shawn’s internal struggle mirrored the intensity of the story itself, making his scenes electric. Reiner, meanwhile, never once doubted his casting decision. He saw in Shawn a unique energy that no other actor could replicate. DeVito may have brought a louder, more physical comedy to the role, but Shawn’s version of Vizzini became something more layered a study in the comedy of overcompensation.
Years later, Shawn admitted that his fear of being replaced never fully left him during filming. But it’s this very fear that transformed Vizzini into one of the most iconic characters in "The Princess Bride." The tension between arrogance and self-doubt became the heart of the performance, making Vizzini not just a comedic foil but an unforgettable part of cinematic history.
Remy Rose likes this.
Les soeurs K
Cérémonie burlesque et magique.
Hello world!
Well, I really don't know what to say as I haven't been that active on social media for the last, say 5, 6 years (I totally lost my mojo).
So I decided to share a pic from April 23 when I went to
Andrew Brennan likes this.
Good morning also from UTC+1
So there doesn't appear to be any way to manage/delete files uploaded to #Friendica through the Compose window Browser!?
When I click the little document icon it says the path is "/Files" and I see a list at the bottom of the files I've uploaded. Each one is listed twice per line like "filename.ext filename.ext" (but the first one is actually an image of the text, implying these could be managed like photos). Clicking any of them attaches them to the post as you'd expect.
But there isn't a "Files" manager like there is for "Photos" and the "Media" tab doesn't seem to do anything useful either. I get that this is for small files, I uploaded some CSS files to share, which works, but now I can apparently never, ever delete them? Am I missing a setting somewhere, or is file management a missing feature?
Cătă likes this.
@Kristi H. Yea, you sadly can't delete the files under Files. I generally avoid uploading anything on the files space, as apparently only server admins can delete these files (not sure why a way to do this as a user hasn't been done yet, as you can easily delete your photos).
I never even figured what to do with the files tab either before finding you can add videos as attachments this way. Really sucks in this regard.
If you don't wanna learn other things the hard way, I've compiled a list of resources and basic knowledge that I've gathered all these years since I've been here.
Hope that helps :D
libranet.de/display/0b6b25a8-2…
Friendica beginner help megathread
Hello, everyone! As we know what Zuck's place is going through, I decided to create a post with all the resources I found online all these years I've been on this place, in a bid to help more people board. Here we go:
List of guides/presentations/quick start
- @anubis2814's excelent guides for Friendica. Available as a playlist on YouTube:
youtube.com/watch?v=-4wsAmXnaE…
or on Peertube:
peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEY…
(6 videos)- The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 3: Friendica) by @Elena Rossini ⁂
- The Beginner’s guide to Friendica by @Tio
- no less important, The Friendica Wiki also available under the help section of your instance (click on your pic and name on the top-right where you're logged in -> help)
- The @Friendica Support group for any questions or issues (yes, I intended to post this here).
All of these should be more comprehensive than this guide.
Short Q&A with the most common problems
How do I post stuff?
Easy, on your profile, click the button in the top right that looks like this:
A pop-up window will open, and you can type anything. Make sure to set the appropriate permissions by clicking the tab at the top. If you want your post to be public then choose public, if you don't, select limited/private and add the exceptions or add who can see it. Make sure you properly select these permissions, because you cannot change them later. If you format your post (see below), you can also check the preview pane to see how your post will look. This also applies for comments.
How to format my text?
Unlike Facebook, Friendica allows you to format your text, just like you'd do in a Word document. It uses BBCodes for text formatting like bold text, italic text, underlined text and many others. You can find more example on the usage of it in the Wiki or under
https://your-instance-address/help/bbcode. You don't have to style your text, but you can do some nice stuff with it. You can also get suggestions for formatting by typing[and selecting an option from the drop-down menu, or typing out your option to narrow your search. But do check the wiki, though. Generally, BBCode looks like[option]your-text-here[/option].If there is any text where you don't want to add any tags on by accident, slide it between these tags:
[noparse][/noparse].How to upload an image (and how to add alt-text to it)
Just drag&drop it into the composing page. Simple. Easy. No frills.Also, to note is that you can also re-use an image you previously uploaded if you go to the Browser tab in the compose window.
Finally, you can link to any image you find online, without downloading&reuploading it in the 1st place. Right-click an image, click "copy image link", then go to your post and type
[img]paste-your image-link-here[/img](of course, you paste your image link instead, between theimgtags). This is generally how images are displayed via BBCode.I personally use an external site to host my media and link it this way, whenever there is something I want on the internet for as long as possible in order to save some space on my instance. I mostly use postimages.org, but I also used
Meta and now also Reddit like to change the URL string to the media posted on their platforms, so don't rely on these if you want your post to still stay relevant after a few days.
You can also add Alt-Text to your image if, instead, you type
[img=your_image_url]Your Alt-Text here[/img]. Alt-Text is generally an image description that is displayed when the image fails to load/before loading, and is useful to visually impaired people using screen reading software which can read this out loud. The latter is the reason why it is highly recommended by many people all across the Fediverse (not just on Friendica).How to upload a video or other media
Just like you do with an image. However, the video will be posted under Browser, and then the "Files" icon:
Select your file, and it will be posted with an tag.
However, there's currently no user facing way to delete these as yet, so feel free to upload them on any other external service and share the direct link to the audio/video if you care about this.
You can use the tags
[audio]your-link-to-the-audio[/audio]and[video]your-link-to-the-video[/video]for that.How do I make a poll/vote at polls
Polls are currently supported by a few Fediverse platforms, but not by Friendica fully, right now (you can see them, but you cannot vote on them and create them).You can again use an external service for creating polls, such as poll-maker or Strawpoll.
Okay, but do I need to add a title?
No, you don't. I didn't add one either here. You can if you want your post to be more fancy and want to turn your profile into a more of a personal blog. Which would be cool, but it's not necessary. You do you!
How to post to a group
Groups on Friendica, as well as any other ActivityPub platform, are generally just some special accounts that automatically boost/reshare whatever post you added while tagging them. Therefore, just create a regular post and tag them with the
!or@signs (one of these tags should suffice). The former one creates a post that is visible on the group but unlisted wherever else (i.e. in a public feed). The latter takes account of your permission settings. You will see how you can find groups somewhere below.How to find various people
There are multiple ways; One is to use any of the established lists:
- Fedi.db's list
- Most followed Mastodon accounts by Stefan Hayden
- Fliboard federated accounts (for news organizations on Flipboard who enabled AP integration) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
- [Public] Popular/famous/notable Mastodon accounts (also available as a website) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
- The Friendica directory (only for people on Friendica)
- Follow @FediFollows for suggestion
You can also go to Settings>Profile>Miscellaneous and scroll all the way down to add some tags to the profile. Then, you can also go to Contacts and choose "similar interests" in the left pane, get friend suggestions or a random profile.
Finally, you can also follow hashtags to get posts from people that also share your interests directly in your feed, and then follow them from there.
I'm posting stuff here, but how can people discover me?
Just like on Mastodon, you can enhance your posts with #hashtags. Other people who follow the same hashtags can find you and connect with you if they want.
But that's not the only way. You can also add yourself into the aforementioned Friendica Directory or to your server's one by going to Settings>Account>Security and Privacy Settings and check any of these two options:
This way anyone can find you according to your interests.
If, however you would like more privacy, you can check the following box below:
This limits the visibility of your content to only instances that are made aware of it, and people that have access to it based on your privacy settings. Unlogged users will not be allowed to find your content. E.g., open my profile in a new tab to see how this feature works: libranet.de/profile/petrescatr…
How do I find groups?
Same as with regular people. There are multiple lists:
- Friendica Directory (for groups that are on Friendica).
- Check the list of @Fedi.Tips available here.
- Lemmyverse (For Communities on Lemmy - a decentralized Lemmy alternative - be wary of this though)
- Check out the servers of other Fediverse software like Mbin or Piefed. These are more forum-like platforms, centered around communities. Generally, each of these communities has a Fediverse address. Copy that, paste it in the search bar, and you should be able to find it. If it doesn't work the 1st time, try a few more times. If it still doesn't work, look whether the server is not on the banned list by accessing
your-server-address/friendica, and/or contact your admin for clarification.
How do I use the search? Is it any useful beyond just searching for people and groups and other accounts?Yes. Check the Wiki for more information.
Are there any mobile apps?
Yes there are. From my personal experience, Raccoon for Friendica gave me the best results. Relatica is also a great option, as well as Fedilab (the latter is more of a Mastodon client, but you can disable the display of reply in the feeds and enable BBCode - fiddle out in the settings). There are other apps for various platforms as well. If you don't find any of them fitting, you can just access your Friendica server in your browser (e.g. friendica.world, nerdica.net etc.). It's very responsive and easy to use.
I hope this Q&A covers the most common aspects of using Friendica
Bonus: Text colors
One aspect that hasn't really been touched on in the wiki is the colors. You can have text in any color if you type the text like this[color=color_name_or_value]your text here[/color]. Hex values are accepted, however there are also some human readable names that can be used (based on this thread):
Antiquewhite
Aqua
Aquamarine
Azure
Beige
Bisque
Blanchedalmond
Blue
Blueviolet
Brown
Burlywood
Cadetblue
Chartreuse
Chocolate
Coral
Cornflowerblue
Cornsilk
Crimson
Cyan
Darkblue
Darkcyan
Darkgoldenrod
Darkgray
Darkgreen
Darkkhaki
Darkmagenta
Darkolivegreen
Darkorange
Darkorchid
Darkred
Darksalmon
Darkseagreen
Darkslateblue
Darkslategray
Darkturquoise
Darkviolet
Deeppink
Deepskyblue
Dimgray
Dodgerblue
Firebrick
Floralwhite
Forestgreen
Fuchsia
Gainsboro
Ghostwhite
Gold
Goldenrod
Gray
Green
Greenyellow
Honeydew
Hotpink
Indianred
Indigo
Ivory
Khaki
Lavender
Lavenderblush
Lawngreen
Lemonchiffon
Lightblue
Lightcoral
Lightcyan
Lightgoldenrodyellow
Lightgreen
Lightgrey
Lightpink
Lightsalmon
Lightseagreen
Lightskyblue
Lightslategray
Lightsteelblue
Linen
Magenta
Maroon
Mediumaquamarine
Mediumblue
Mediumorchid
Mediumpurple
Mediumseagreen
Mediumslateblue
Mediumspringgreen
Mediumturquoise
Mediumvioletred
Midnightblue
Mintcream
Mistyrose
Moccasin
Navajowhite
Navy
Oldlace
Olive
Olivedrab
Orange
Orangered
Orchid
Palegoldenrod
Palegreen
Paleturquoise
Palevioletred
Papayawhip
Peachpuff
Peru
Pink
Plum
Powderblue
Purple
Red
Rosybrown
Royalblue
Saddlebrown
Salmon
Sandybrown
Seagreen
Seashell
Sienna
Silver
Skyblue
Slateblue
Slategray
Snow
Springgreen
Steelblue
Tan
Teal
Thistle
Tomato
Turquoise
Violet
Wheat
White
Whitesmoke
Yellow
Yellowgreen
Kristi H. likes this.
Respecting a person's pronouns is suicide prevention.
Respecting a person's pronouns is suicide prevention.
Statistics from Trevor Project: thetrevorproject.org/resources…
#mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalwellness #mentalhealthmatters #mentalwellbeing #canadamentalhealth #canadawellness #youthmentalhealth #childmentalhealth
Jean Cappello likes this.
#amazon #bezos #lgbtrights #bipocrights
#amazon #bezos #lgbtrights #bipocrights
truthout.org/articles/amazon-q…
Amazon Quietly Rescinds Pledges to Protect Black and LGBTQ Rights
“Seeing DEI being rolled back so aggressively by so many companies is jarring,” said LGBTQ researcher Allison Chapman.Zane McNeill (Truthout)
Teteisu likes this.
Hello Folks!
Another Meta/Corporate Social Media escapee here. Nice to meet you all. Found this site from Lemmy, but remember hearing it years ago. Looking to find, use, and support community-driven open source media and sites. How? I'm not quite sure yet, going to figure it out as I go.
Love history, love genre fiction, and New York City (Let's Go Mets!). Hope everyone is well, and thanks for having me.
like this
What happens when wildland fire reaches the city?
"Wildfire" is the word we tend to use when we talk about what Los Angeles has been dealing with the past week.
But Lori Moore-Merrell, the U.S. Fire Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency used a different word, when she spoke to NPR this morning.She described a "conflagration." Saying they're not wildland fires with trees burning. They're structure to structure fire spread.
They may have started at the suburban fringe, but they didn't stay there. Which prompts a question: what happens when fire meets city?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org
Email us at considerthis@npr.org
#news #npr #publicradio #usa
posted by pod_feeder_v2
Teteisu likes this.
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Hello World
The mobile website interface seems rather clunky, so I might have to almost exclusively use this on desktop, and there’s no way I’ll be able to move family members off of Facebook and onto here since most of them aren’t all that tech literate…
Anyway, I’m Kira, I’m ‘weird’ and ‘mentally ill’ (read: queer and autistic with clinical anxiety and depression), have an ecletic yet childish array of interests and I’m gonna see how this place turns out - shoutout to @/l1vy.bsky.social for pushing this site into my radar
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@halyihev @kawaiimiraclewitch
Raccoon seems nice, I've been trying it since I saw OPs post and remembered having seen something in F-droid next to Voyager (for Lemmy).
So far, the only issue I've found with Raccoon seems to be with notification settings. Although there is a setting labeled "check for notifications in background" (which implies a different behavior for foreground updates, when the app is opened), I discovered that the setting applies to both closed and in-app scenarios. I set it to pull notifications each 10 minutes (the smallest value in the drop-down menu), but I had to manually access the post list in order to see the new interactions. The "1" badge appeared over the notification icon a couple minutes later. For comparison, Tusky (for Mastodon) and Voyager update almost in a real time fashion when the app is open. I'm not sure if it's a Friendica limitation or a Raccoon limitation.
However, it's understandable that there are still things to be fixed, given that the project (on GitHub) is still about 5 months old (first commit was August 4th). It's an app with potential, especially given that it's possible to use it for Mastodon as well.
Edit: I'm fixing my typo "Raccoon" instead of "Racoon"
Uh.. hello!?
So I found this Friendica instance through the post "Meta Risks Mass Exodus: Is #HelloQuitMeta the Next Viral Movement?" (I saw the post being shared on Lemmy) and decided to sign up. Question is: how populated is here?
I've been hopping from platform to platform here in the fediverse, trying to find a good instance within a good platform... Mastodon, Lemmy, Pleroma, Mitra, Friendica... This is the second Friendica instance I'm trying, the first one was... devoid of social interaction. This is one of the reasons I've been keeping hopping between platforms and instances, you know...
A thing I like here in Friendica is the character limit and text formatting. Sometimes I write things (dark and occult poetry, philosophical thoughts, etc) and it doesn't fit the Mastodon's default 500 char limit... and Lemmy isn't focused on creative content.
I don't expect this profile to last long, maybe it lasts, I'm not sure. Time will tell... 🤷
----------
So, in the meantime, greetings, you can call me Daemon. I'm Brazilian. I used to be a developer (full-stack JS, Python, Shellscripting, etc). I'm philosophically nihilist. I'm spiritually syncretic (my closest "label" would be "Luciferian", although my devotion/worshiping isn't focused on Lucifer, I used to be more "Lilithian" (as in "worshiper of Lilith") a couple months ago, but sometimes my spirituality leans towards Thelema, sometimes it leans towards Umbanda... it's not a very definite/clear belief system, that of mine).
Deep down, I don't really fit nor like to fit labels and human definitions, so I don't feel fitting anything specific (that's lonely and all but... whatever). You can just call me Daemon and try to decipher the deep and multifaceted layers I sometimes bury within my texts... Because I do sometimes bury layers of meaning within my texts.
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phle (has very dry winter hands — I'm sorry for all the accidental 👎's)
in reply to Teteisu • •Welcome!
... and
you're not alone in #TeamNotSuperActiveOnSocialMedia
(even though I personally have been more active as of lately, while exploring this "#NewShinyThing" 😅).
Teteisu likes this.
Teteisu
in reply to phle (has very dry winter hands — I'm sorry for all the accidental 👎's) • •I hope I enjoy being on social media again. 🙂
phle (has very dry winter hands — I'm sorry for all the accidental 👎's) likes this.
Ruud
in reply to Teteisu • •Teteisu likes this.
Teteisu
in reply to Ruud • •