Signal Group, Bluesky and links
Hello there
A brief follow up to yesterday’s Cardstock, as promised to all in attendance, but useful to everyone on this list…
Signal Group
A few years ago, we set up a Cardstock Group on Signal, which is a handy backchannel for the community to share and discuss card-based things. Here’s the link - please do join if you’re interested, and say hello when you join:

Signal Group
Follow this link to join a group on Signal Messenger.
Bluesky Starter Pack
Bluesky is a thing. Given the increasing numbers of people there, and the lovely ‘Starter Pack’ feature means we can collect together everyone who is part of the Cardstock Community.
If you would like added to the starter pack, just reply to this email with your Bluesky profile (or nudge @willsh on Bluesky)
Bluesky
Join the conversation
Cardstock Committee
The year ends with John stepping out of the rotation for Cardstock Organising Committee for 2025.
Which means that there’s a least one place to join Matt, Rina and Stephen in deciding the topics and things we do each month.
If you’re interested in helping out, just drop Matt Ballantine a note.
Dealer out
The Cardstock Committee
BONUS: All the links…
This week was a particularly link-heavy week. As Lisl often points out, Cardstock is the most expensive meet-up you might ever go to, given the brilliant decks of cards shared.
I thought I’d experiment with pushing the zoom-chat through Claude AI, to see if it could make sense of it. And it has, sort-of. so I thought I’d share it here…
Here are the web links from the text, along with brief descriptions:
1. https://mastodon.social/@stephenpa
- Stephen Anderson's Mastodon social media profile
2. https://linkedin.com/in/BennoLoewenberg
- Benno Löwenberg's LinkedIn profile
3. https://medium.com/adams-notebook/notes-on-susanna-clarkes-jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-2004-442e6cb754b5
- A Medium article about Susanna Clarke's book "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell"
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_MANIAC
- Wikipedia page about "The MANIAC"
5. https://real-eod.mtak.hu/12390/1/AkademiaiKiado_003423.pdf
- A PDF document, appears to be an academic publication
6. https://boardgamegeekstore.com/products/ux-for-tabletop-games
- A store page for a UX (User Experience) book about tabletop games
7. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296334/heckadeck
- BoardGameGeek page for a game called "Heckadeck"
8. https://collectibleplayingcards.com/products/alphabet-blocks-green-playing-cards-1
- A product page for green alphabet block playing cards
9. https://artifactscanner.com/
- Website for Artifact Scanner (no specific context provided)
10. https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/workshops/2024/10/detroit-imagines-harder-2024/
- A workshop page about Detroit from Near Future Laboratory
11. https://unexaminedtechnology.substack.com/p/microwave-ovens-were-never-as-good?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=55j9p&triedRedirect=true
- A Substack article about microwave ovens
12. https://rootoftwo.com/
- Website for Root of Two (mentioned in context of a game called Agency)
13. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110981216/html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAoMKhRD_qflbGtQeasxRaVa93LE7V&gclid=CjwKCAiA6aW6BhBqEiwA6KzDc6PHII1UZhhDrPLRVMU0DscKTgq7tm1zVlAMkhTei7YI-4mfVTC76hoCdBMQAvD_BwE
- A document on De Gruyter's academic publishing platform
14. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/hexdek
- A page for a game called Hexdek on The Game Crafter
15. https://newsletter.themightymindsclub.com/82-pebble-talk-the-mood-meter-3-styles-of-play-a-convection-simulation-an-electoral-college-simulation-and-what-if-america-had-6-political-parties/
- A newsletter about various simulations and play styles
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nusrmeSC0oY
- A YouTube video (context suggests it's about cones)
17. https://uxdesign.cc/creativity-requires-just-enough-confusion-eecb6c720130
- A UX Design article about creativity and confusion
18. https://bsky.social/about/blog/06-26-2024-starter-packs
- Bluesky social media blog post about starter packs