jan75

Yup, Bandcamp. You can also click on "Genres", then clicking on any genre will propose further subgenres. So currently i'm in a atmospheric black metal phase. Going to "metal", "black Metal", then "atmospheric black metal" shows me bands i might like.

Obviously genres are very fluid and sometimes subjective, but as a general tool to find music they work for me.

It's the middle thing between not gifting something specific but also no just giving money. Sometimes you are not sure what exactly a person wants, but giving money directly might feel too unpersonal? Other than that, i completely agree with you that it sucks. Stores must love them though, they already have the money without having to provide a service / product and then many people will forget, the gift cards expire etc. I'm of the opinion that the cards shouldn't expire, or at least have a very high expiration date (like minimum 10 years).

I've written a bash script i'm using daily, maybe you can adapt it to your needs. I'm using pipewire-pulse. It's probably not perfect but it does the job:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
DEVICE=$1

# read input, parse list of available sinks (outputs)
if [ "$DEVICE" = "pc" ]
then
	OUTPUT=($(pactl list short sinks | awk '{print $2}' | grep -i -E 'hdmi|samson|Targus' -v))
elif [ "$DEVICE" = "tv" ]
then	
	OUTPUT=($(pactl list short sinks | awk '{print $2}' | grep -i -E 'hdmi'))
else
	echo "No valid input (must be either 'pc' or 'tv')"
	exit -1
fi

# get all currently connected streams
INPUTS=($(pactl list short sink-inputs | awk '{print $1}'))

# change default sink (for new audio outputs)
pactl set-default-sink $OUTPUT

# switch sink for existing audio outputs
for i in "${INPUTS[@]}"
do
	pactl move-sink-input $i $OUTPUT
done

# use notify-send to send a visual notification to the user that the sink changed
notify-send -c info "Default sink changed" "Changed default sink and sink-inputs to $OUTPUT"

If you are "forced" to use WhatsApp because many of your contacts are using it, you could use it to run WhatsApp and set-up a bridge to Matrix: https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/setup.html?bridge=whatsapp

Not exactly the same, but the swiss administration have their own mastodon instance: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/swiss-authorities-to-join-social-media-alternative-mastodon/48808086

Link to instance: https://social.admin.ch/about