#.....................................the algorithm is evil though so it makes me not want to post.................................

[perceremade]

I don't know what to do with my instagram account because it makes my tummy hurt............ Ahh it's hopeless but I don't want to delete it

[seaofreverie]

Back in the mood for reflecting on how it all started and honestly this exchange with my TMBG pal might be one of the earliest, if not THE earliest recording of the slow descent into Sparks madness. And also.....

Translations of the Sparks-specific bits:

"And now I feel a little bit obligated to check out the output of the band Sparks, since Flansburgh is such a fan of theirs and they [Sparks and TMBG] are also playing together soon...."

"A couple days ago I had the opportunity to listen to some Sparks since the Spotify algorithm so nicely presented them to me. And I gotta say that it was pretty interesting!!! So I'm definitely going to look into them further :D" (lmao)

"It's a nice coincidence that I'm getting more into Sparks right about now. In terms of full albums, Kimono My House, Propaganda, Angst In My Pants and The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte are those that I've heard so far, and I can definitely recommend them all 👍 But Propaganda is my definitive fav so especially that one. Kimono and Propaganda are fundamentally pretty similar to me but yeah, I prefer the latter."

(Also yes that's a Lemon Demon mention in there too. Lifetime Achievement Award still the song of all time to me)

[thewakingcloak]

Trying Some Stuff

So I said I would Try Some Stuff last time, and the most valuable thing I've been trying is talking with friends about all this stuff. Who knew?

In review: I need some kind of sustainable, healthy way to communicate online about the stuff I'm making. That is how I want to connect with people, via my games.

But in talking with my friends, I realized it had to be more than just "sustainable," it has to actually drive the engine forward. It has to be fun. Whatever this ends up being, I have to look forward to working on it, and working on it has to push forward the game development, which will fuel the devlog, which will fuel the game development.

So if you caught that, I'm just going with calling this future strategy thing a "devlog". Not "marketing," not "engaging on social media," not "feeding the algorithm beast." I don't know what form a devlog will take. I mean it could just be this, what I’m doing right now (and this will certainly continue). One friend suggested doing devlog videos. A long time ago I did gamedev streams, and that was fun, and I also cut together little highlight reels, and that was fun. So that may be A Thing. It may not, too, because I don't know if I can actually consistently do something like that. Editing videos is a lot of work. Streaming is, too, especially with our baby's feeding/sleeping schedule. But I'm enjoying thinking about it.

And that's really good, because every time I've thought about online presence recently, I've just wanted to shrivel up and die. Maintaining social media, to me, is misery, is bowing before an algorithm, sacrificing my wellbeing to a human-made god that doesn't care. "If you're Really Lucky, I might show your sacrifice to the other sacrifices, and if you're Astronomically Lucky, a few might like it. Now let me drink your blood and fill your veins with toxic liquid instead via my evil ritual. Also, you have to post all your stuff in gifs, the worst image format known to humankind, but not that way, this way. No not like that, like this."

I'm over that.

If a social media platform doesn't fit what I want to do, I'm going to cut it.

(wow that gif is old… nice to see Tav though, right?)

I'm starting with Twitter (I'm not going to call it X). Twitter is not fun for me and never has been. So I'm actually, 100% for real, deprecating my Twitter account. Do you know how much pleasure I get from this idea? Do you have any idea how much lighter I feel, having decided to get rid of it? Twitter has given me a few dear friends (whom I now talk to via routes other than Twitter anyway), but also nearly ten years of grief, and this platform is not getting better. Oh, the algorithm actively suppresses my posts now? Fine. Let it die. I'm not carrying that burden anymore.

(just constantly bashing my head against social media)

And I don't want a Twitter-like. If that format works for y'all, great, please keep doing what you like to do, but I'm not going to spend my time trying to recreate the evil rituals somewhere else (I've never enjoyed evil rituals). (To be clear, I'm not calling you evil if you engage on social media. I am calling social media algorithms evil.) My time on any remaining microblogging sites, if I even continue those, will now be devoted to simply directing people to the devlog, the thing I actually like and want to do. Does that mean just like a static post on each of them that has a few (shudder) gifs and some links? Maybe! Maybe!!

I'm not going to make any sweeping declarations of The Plan, partly because there isn't a firm one yet, and partly because I've done that before to little success or consistency. However, I know I want to do stuff that makes me want to make stuff, and I'm excited for that. I think it's gonna be fun. I think it may also be sort of a return to form, at least in ways that I can now that I've got my family. So stay tuned…

Oh! Don't forget to wishlist ProtoDungeon: Episode I and ProtoDungeon: Episode III on Steam! (II is in progress!)

[perinjuryy-cleaned]

I guess this person blocked me on this blog so I ended up being able to see his post but not being able to respond directly. And, although block evading(?) is considered a bad thing, I actually find it worse to intentionally misrepresent what someone said to you to dismiss someone's experiences with marginalization. Shit-talking someone in this way and then blocking them for correcting your bigotry is something I don't feel the need to respect, so I won't. But I doubt OP will see this post as a result of the block. I spent a lot of time on it anyways, and it could potentially be of interest to other people, so here's the preserved form of the original reply:

You cut off the actual demands I made in that post. That was simply the origin motivating my statement, which would be true and important regardless of whether or not I had seen a lot of that form of content.

It was not my algorithm, and that's an assumption on your end. I encountered these things through normal radqueer tags and scrolling through profiles of people who I wanted to read the recent posts of - each instance was divorced from algorithm and solely the result of raw frequency.

You are quite literally denying the experiences of a marginalized person recounting her experiences related to her marginalization. I am intersex, I see a lot of intersexism in the community. I will talk about that. Of course, you want to deny how real that is, and then make up a reason why to discredit me.

"You don't have to be comfortable with everything" I'm sorry for being uncomfortable with intersexism. I'm just some whiny motherfucker who needs to sit down and shut up so the perisex people can have fun.

The entire first post is so weird because you both want to deny the prevalence of intersexism I have observed AND defend it. So, classic bigot moment. And I feel comfortable saying that now, because you denied my attempts at offering you alternatives and holding off on any labels your way.

The second post is great at entirely avoiding what I'm criticizing to paint me as some identity tyrant. Okay, can you personally call yourself your AGAB if you want to? Whatever. I still have my qualms with it, but I guess that's a lesser issue. That's not what I'm complaining about, though. You know that's what I'm not complaining about. I'm not criticizing you for using the word AMAB, I'm criticizing you for conflating AGAB with appearance and sexual characteristics.

No, it's not like telling trans elders they can't identify as transsexual. What the fuck? I guess that's on the basis of you thinking this is a matter of identity. It's not, this is about the misusage of AGAB. And AGAB has a very bloody history that perisex trans people can't really reclaim, so it's not like the word transsexual. And misusing AGAB has so many consequences, both socially and medically. Someone calling themselves transsexual, at worst, makes someone uncomfortable.

Now actually address the main point of the criticism, not side nitpicks you can use to make yourself look like a victim of my evil anti-self-expression ways. Being radqueer does not mean you are no longer bigoted. Being radqueer involves having your bigotry pointed out and being willing to fix it. If you are stuck in your prejudices - unchanging and stubborn - that is definitional bigotry.

So here's the main point: What does something like transAMABbust mean? What are you trying to describe with this label? More directly - what is an "AMAB bust?" I genuinely cannot comprehend a potential extended definition of this that does not hit on transphobic and/or intersexist marks. And, further, why can't it just be redefined using a word that actually expresses what I know you mean?

[marta-bee]

Chris Hayes, one of the MSNBC hosts, recently wrote a book about what he calls "the attention economy" - basically the way social media and most other things besides are vying for our attention and crowding out space for us to be alone with our own thoughts. It sounds a bit luddite when I put it like that, but hearing him talk about it, he's clearly thought it through and has something intelligent to say about it all.

At least one of his points is we should carve out time away from our phones and other screens. Like, take a twenty minute walk and leave your phone, your MP3 player, all that at home and just Be with ourselves. Which is a really good idea, actually. Fanfic authors know how easily Tumblr can kill the muses. It's like the scrolling taps into a very different part of my brain than what I need to actually tell a story. They pull against each other, and honestly, the easy fun of the Tumblr scroll usually wins out.

But the media landscape being what it is, the conversations so quickly turn to the evils of kids and screen-time. Or how The Algorithm (TM) blasts our mental health. Or the way we're alienated from our real-life communities because Twitter (or whatever) is Right There.

My whole life, so much of the relationships I value the most play out over a screen. Growing up, I had a hard time with the family I was born into, but was close with a particular part of my extended family in Germany, and between visits my cousin and I would write just absolutely mammoth amounts of email and chat on AIM every day. The Kid is in a different city than me, and though we can and do call, chatting and texting is so much easier. And more generally, growing up I just never really connected with people in person the same way I did with geeks online. But, like, specific geeks. The same specific geeks over years, to the point I knew their kids' names and visited a few of them in real life.

There's just something about having something in common that I cared about, and also having the time to think about what I wanted to say and how to say it. Maybe that's the little neurodivergent person I've always had in me. Maybe it's being a bit anxious and not easily understood by the people in my offline life. I don't know. It's clearly not the same, but it felt Real all the same.

Don't get me wrong. The algorithm really is evil and damaging, and the push to just keep scrolling needs to be reckoned with. I manage it by using RSS rather than the Tumblr dash, which takes a lot of set-up work and limits who I can follow, but also means I'm looking at and enjoying specific posts rather than trying to keep up with whatever people are posting. It makes it easier to do it for a certain time and then step away and do something else, knowing the new posts will still be there whenever I check back. And the news is the worst! We really do need to keep ourselves informed, but also set limits so it doesn't overwhelm our whole day. When I'm good, I check into Google news once or twice a day for maybe 15 minutes, and increasingly I'm seeing it as one more water-drop in a larger bucket rather than fresh outrages every damned time. On good days.

So, yes, there are dangers that need to be managed. I worry for teens who don't yet have the skills to do that. Heck, I worry for a lot of adults I know for the same reason. I actually agree with Chris on quite a lot of what he's said in those interviews. But also, I worry about that twelve-year-old Marta, if she hadn't been able to find people she was actually comfortable with on Prodigy message boards and listservs. And I certainly wouldn't have come out so well if my parents were always monitoring what I said and did. I needed that, and I'm sure other people did, too.

I don't know the solution. God help the parents and the teens navigating this all today; it really is a much less safe world in so many ways than the one I grew up in. But I worry for the little geeklets, and hope they find a comfy corner to grow up into proper geeks. Somehow.

[skullamity]

I opened Facebook to check something, an activity I generally avoid because The Algorithm + the intentional inability to block shit I don't want to see + the default view being 90% that, 8% paid advertisements with the remaining 2% being people I actually follow and want to see updates from makes it functionally unusable. I was on there for less than 5 minutes before the algorithm was like hey, do you want to be enraged? Do you?

May I present to you, the image:

This was presented to me with the caption "the protected account is the 16 year old artist who made this shit" (paraphrasing here because I closed the app and the way the algorithm works is that I'll basiclally never be able to find this again). Notably, it did NOT remove usernames, a thing I did for both of the accounts in the screencap.

So why am I mad?

There were NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED COMMENTS on this, and nearly all of them were shitting on a minor who committed the crime of *checks notes* recolouring and doing some minor edits to some DanDaDan art. As far as I could tell, ALL of the comments were from actual adults, and 90% of them were scrutinizing the motivations of an actual kid for fucking around in Photoshop or whatever. The few people defending this kid, for the fact that they were a kid and this is the biggest fucking nothing burger? Were being pissed all over for "not caring about cultural appropriation, 'racist blackwashing,' how unoriginal making fanart is, how fanart is 'basically stealing,' etc."

Can I just say, as someone who draws for a living? If you are ever tempted to pile on some kid for any one of these things, nevermind all of them, you should instead consider deleting every avenue of social media you have on your phone and touching some grass.

If I had had that sort of scrutiny on me at all time in such insane numbers when I was 14-16 and just learning how to draw (got internet at 14, yes, I'm old)? I would simply have quit forever. Because when kids are learning, they do stuff like this! I remember outright stealing poses from art I liked and found on ye olde Anime Web Turnpike, and using them like paper dolls to make my own characters over top.

Someone called me out on it once when I dared to upload a drawing I did to fukken like...Elfwood or whatever that art site was? And I took it down and never did it again. It was embarrassing even though I rationally knew that I was a kid learning on my own with zero direction, and this behaviour is expected for kids! It is forgivable! Especially since kids aren't making money off this shit is it literally just for fun!

If I had that one person do that and it made me go, oh, actually, I shouldn't do that unless I want to feel embarrassed over and over, I can pretty confidently say that if hundreds or thousands of adults called me out on it and ALSO left paragraphs about how I'm a horrible person, I would have quit drawing, which again, has been my career for almost my entire adult life, and also probably burned my social media to the ground and moved one town over after changing my name.

If you come across someone doing something to or with art and you don't like it, consider:

1) is it hurting anyone in a meaningful, tangible way? you being annoyed or disgusted does not count as meaningful or tangible because you can literally just block them and go on with your day.

2) is it breaking the rules/TOS of the platform that it has been posted on?

3) will going nuclear on this kid actually help anyone in any meaningful, tangible way?

If you are able to be honest with yourself, 99% of the time the answer to all three of these is going to be NO. I would argue that if any single ONE of these is a NO, you the course of action you take should begin and end with blocking them and moving on with your life. Giving some kid who just wanted to see some characters that looked more like her and thought it would be neat to race swap some comic characters a nervous breakdown isn't praxis, it's just fucking evil and you should feel bad for even considering it, nevermind actively contributing to it.

Being in the Internet is going to present you with a lot of situations where your brain is going to encourage you to swoop in with righteous fury and mete out an epic smackdown on some unsuspecting kid because it will make you look and feel like The Good Guy--you're making a difference AND you'll get that sweet, sweet dopamine hit + quick gratification the second those likes and agrees start flooding your inbox. That is the devil taking--you're not thwarting some evil by strangling it at the root level, you're killing some kid's enthusiasm for creative exploration and ruining something that they might have really come to love and put a lot of hard work into if you could have just chosen to walk away over feeding your greedy little ego.

Who are you protecting, here? NOBODY. Every pro artist I know, and I know so, so fucking many of them, would tell you to fuck all the way off if they ever heard you harassed a kid on behalf of our profession. Most of us WERE that kid, and the only difference is that many of us grew up without the looming presence of social media and the kind of bloodlust that fuels these weird public trials and shaming.

Consider doing literally ANYTHING else! He'll, if you are so sure that you know the "correct" way to draw, maybe you should take up drawing yourself and instead of raining down social mob "justice" on teens, you can draw a picture instead and pat yourself on the back for doing something productive instead of destructive. Fuck!

[inconsideratekidney]

10/17/24

hey gamers,

i wanna be a gamer, i wanna be up in here gaming on a thursday afternoon, double-monitored up, hella snacks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yoohoo big summa blowout. it's fall and it's amazing. loving my sweater moments because i exist in sweater weather. it is a time for seasonal depression, but also for cute and bulky sweaters! my favorite accessory. I consider them accessories because they are very much a part of my outfit. i am my outfit. i am the main attraction. just kidding...the sweater is the main attraction, i'm not that egotistical...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

anyway....i don't have much to say to be honest. i have talked to people and had my fill of spill-ing out my brain. i am content with my state of mind right now (i have no big assignments due tonight or tomorrow night). i am stressed about next week with 2 midterms and more big work coming in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the adhd brain is such an interesting thing--how can one be so distracted and yet not be able to distract oneself when necessary? trauma is one thing, but intrusive thoughts are so dumb and stupid. why have a brain if it can't function well enough to do what you tell it to do?

figures, i have so much on my plate and so much death in mind. my uncle's, my friend from high schools--which makes me think of the students last year who died and all others, and liam payne from one direction???? like what???? that's crazy. i can't strip that down for him the same anymore. wtf. like i can't take death in general, but this one is so different. it's like when cameron boyce died. so young and so out of the blue. i was shocked when i heard the news and it's just so terrible. fucking TMZ, ofc they posted a partial picture of his body, like wtf. no composure/demeanor like my interpreting gang knows. just odd behavior.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i am into watching House MD and honestly it's so interesting. my mom was on general hospital and dr. quinn medicine woman, which i'm sure no one knows about and probably one other show i can't remember, but i am into House right now. i like the dynamic, for now, and might get sick of it soon, though, cause i've been watching it a lot lately and might be overindulging. it's whatever. the show is witty and informative. i enjoy seeing the ways that the doctors develop their personalities and i wish there was a bit more drama relating to each of the doctors, but it's mainly about house and his group of doctors. oh shwell. maybe i am more into drama hospital shows than i thought. my youtube shorts feed sure thinks i am (and i keep liking them). i hate algorithms sometimes.

i have been instagram-free for a couple of years now! and tik tok free for some handful of months! but i am terribly addicted to youtube shorts.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rock, paper, scissors, says shoot! i picked scissors what did you pick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

give me good recommendations for a laptop. i will bother everyone about this. i want a good computer that runs windows. pretty pls. my computer is giving me such a headache and i hate it. just anything with windows and that is somewhat light and somewhat cheap pretty pls. :prayer hands:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rawr. i am the evil tiger of the wicked west. i will be taking all of your cookies. mwhahahhhahhaahhaha. om nom nom. they're mine now and in my belly. mmmm mmmmm. yummy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i need a brain break. rahhh hiyaa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tips on how to go insane?

step one: exist

step two: do life

step three: repeat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

td:lr?

um, not much folks.

not much this time

gamer

(sweat)er

talking and death

house md and addiction

lappytoppy

mushy brain

sanity

need a break, goodnight

kD :3

[jvstheworld]

The Buffy Re-watch: S1E9 (part 1)

What's my Line?: Part 1

Career fairs. We had one at my school, never went to it. Those tests weren't a part of it though, from what I know. More just stalls and people chatting.

Even here Buffy does not think she would have have a life beyond slaying and an early death.

Spike has a Latin translation book. Yet he wasn't thrilled at getting a Italian phrase book from his trip in season 5 in Angel.

Spike immediately apologises to Dru for being angry and rushes to help her when she is struggling. He's supposed to be evil but he's a sweetheart really.

He's obsessed with Buffy, we know it even now.

Ermm... Can I be kissed like that? Because that was hot. And then he picks Dru and dances with her. Again, evil but romantic.

Angel just casually hanging out in Buffy's room, cuddling Mr Gordo. The hanging out in Buffy's room is weird, like why not wait on the bench on the porch? But the cuddling the pig was cute.

So in my last post I said that I would make a very long point. It will get a bit personal, so here it is: I hate how schools and parents try to make you have an idea about your future at 16. it's stupid and puts unwanted pressure on teenagers. Let's face it, no one, especially nowadays, knows what the fuck they are going to do with the rest of their lives. I was one of those people that never knew at that age and that was 11 years ago. I've only recently figured it out, which is why I write these posts. Not because it's fun (it is but that's not the main reason) but because I am practicing to hopefully do this as a career. But, with the advent of AI journalism and writing, there might not be much of a job for me, and that's terrifying. It's why I support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, not just because they deserve to be paid, residuals and have all the safety protocols they need, but for the job security that AI can take away. You should not be able to replace humans with algorithms that churn out mis-mashed, stolen work. Kids and teenagers are still learning about their place in the world, some might have a clear idea of what they want to do, and they should be helped to achieve it. For people like Buffy and myself, we need more time. We need to believe that we might have a future before we can plan for one. I know that Buffy does eventually get a future and a job she is proud to do in the comics, but it is an extremely long road for her to get there. Struggling and finding your place in the world is normal, more so in recent years. I don't know how many times I have listened to my dad talk about how he knew at 18 that he wanted to join the RAF. He signed up when he could after being turned down for working at the local coal mine (this was in the 80s). He knew what he wanted to do and did it. However, I can not ever seem to make it clear to him that I struggle with this and I don't think he approves of my choice to do this sort work because he doesn't understand the interest I have in films and TV. Some of my favourite YouTube channels are Cinema Therapy, Cinema Wins and Dead Meat because they get it. They have that passion for film and TV and that interest into how it's all made. Now if I had the confidence to create and run my own YouTube channel, I would. Unfortunately due to my anxiety, depression and chronic health issues that like to cause me problems I have to stick to just this. But there is nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do when you're 16 or older. You can work it out as you go, it might just take some time and maybe better circumstances . Just focus on getting through school and go from there. Don't let anyone pressure you into making decisions about your life if you're not ready for it.

If that made no sense, sorry. If it did, yay. I wrote it in my notes as almost one long stream of consciousness. This happens on occasion.

Back to regular scheduled programming tomorrow.

[redtail-lol]

This is just disgusting. And stupid. Fuck you writing-prompt-s

Gazans are coming to tumblr users asking to boost their campaign because Tumblr is a platform that has a big base of pro-palestine users. You'll get genocide supporters harassing Gazans and in the notes of posts and on their accounts but the majority of Tumblr users are for Palestine. It's one of the social media apps that actually documents the genocide - I've been off insta for a while but when I open it, I don't see a lot about Palestine. When I open Facebook, I see nothing about Gaza. It's not in your face on YouTube even though there are creators for Palestine. Reddit? Also nothing, since topics are sorted the way they are. You'd have to be following a subreddit about Palestine already to see a lot. Tumblr is the place I see all the documentation. Twitter and TikTok? Don't have 'em. So if Palestinians want to find people who will share their campaigns, they're gonna come here.

On top of that, algorithms in apps can bury Palestinian content that gets shared. Tumblr is unique in the algorithm being only what accounts you follow share, unless you specifically look at the for you section. By default you see the stuff posted by (and sometimes liked by) people you follow. So sharing a campaign won't get buried. How they find our accounts? Well, writing-prompt-s is a popular account, so that's easy. Mine? It's probably because I reblog content related to Palestine, and I answer asks for donations by sharing if the campaign is vetted (and if it's not, I'll ask the asker to seek it. Scams are a problem and Palestinian bloggers have said to not spread unverified campaigns, but I wouldn't accuse them outright without proof either). It's probably not very popular but I did also create a communal document full of free resources for people like me who are unable to donate ourselves, but want to help Palestine. That might also make people want to come to my account. I have a fairly sizable following too, so that might also help

90-ghost was a serious resource for verifying campaigns. Now we have lost a major verifier, and it's gonna make it harder for Palestinians to escape Gaza. Nothing short of evil!

Thank you everyone for reading and sharing my pinned post. Hate mail went from 50+ per hour to 0! Back to writing prompts soon <3

[starshapedbandaid]

i don't really care about the algorithm; i like spotify for the social aspect of it. i like being able to share playlists with my friends and compare wrappeds, and i hate having to pay $10 a month just to listen to full albums without random songs and advertisements shuffled in. this isn't supposed to be some poor-me post about how i actually desperately need to waste money that doesn't even go to the people making the music but i don't think people really talk about how alienating it is to not have an account here or a subscription to this or that app on your phone. obviously it depends on your age and where you live but for the most part it's near impossible to find someone who's entirely- or almost entirely- offline. you can't even really function in society without a smartphone (you can get away with a non-iphone, but it's so much less convenient! who would ever want that!), and if you try you're considered a freakish closed-minded luddite for even wanting to. most (young) people live between the digital world and the in-person one: they keep up with fandom news through twitter; they announce real-life events on instagram; they hear about concerts in emails from spotify. the shows they watch are only on netflix or hulu or amazon prime and their favorite manga's author posts little side story comics that you can only see on twitter, unless they're reuploaded elsewhere. and sure, you can ask friends to fill you in on what you miss, but the thing is they won't tell you if you don't bring it up. most people assume you've already seen the post, already heard the new song, watched the show that's suddenly popular again even though it's been out for years, and in a few minutes you'll be just as sick of all of it as they are. so you have to download the app and buy the subscription because even if you find some other way to see the thing you'll never come close to experiencing it the way they do- sure, your way is better and it doesn't give anyone you hate anything you don't want to give away, but you're doing it alone in a way they aren't. yes the current internet is a hellhole and yes you probably see more ads in five minutes of scrolling than you would insects on a walk in a rainforest and yes i really do wish random companies weren't collecting my data to sell stuff to me. if it were entirely up to me social media would just be a fun thing to do instead of a business or ultra-curated hell on earth and there wouldn't be premium subscriptions or advertisements for anything and the "algorithm" that's actually a million different things wouldn't operate in the evil villain way it does and we'd all hold hands (or not, germs) and love each other and the worldwide web but sadly the people who own things wouldn't like that a whole lot. so so much for that idea.

[lavelled]

The Prince of Ladders, the Duke of Sussex, born holding a butcher knife, seems most upset over the technical tools being used. While I was beaten down by your misleading ancient history and the shifting of blame, yet you showed sprightliness with your wife, rented from a pleasure box, in a reciprocal personal life of enrichment producing two little kiddos, I was documenting the Twitter journey.

I’m that melodramatic.

Algorithms, by definition, are calculations based what you’ve already viewed, clicked or ordered as a consumer and nothing else. Or, a lovely woman gives birth to her husband’s mold, a seedy criminal, the evil remains of a virus, the dirty end of a rope, the skeleton after a shark attack and that boy grew up to be chained to a computer of his own volition, pretending to hack Spotify and Zoom from his workhouse side of the dark web.

Prince Harry is why you sometimes experience the frustrating slowness of a website.

Tom Cruise didn’t make Prince Harry Mountbatten-Windsor become a vindictive tech entrepreneur. Tom Cruise didn’t make Prince Harry Mountbatten-Windsor marry actress Sparkles at age 33.

Imagine that the stranger in question as to why you’re keeping all these balls in the air isn’t because of Tom Cruise but because of your own craggy, creepy father. Everybody knows the true story told chronologically. For him to be so much older than me, so many dimensions of life away from me, makes the Windsor male trio, from lip to lap, rotten liars with math problems.

Prince Harry has been looked upon—and awarded amidst shouts of hurrahs and applause—as a leader, a humanitarian, an instructive CEO orator, a normal human. His intellectual gladiatorship in response to my last posting on Ukraine, as an example, was to not only hack two websites for the sole purpose of a work-stopping outage to prove his Daddy is a pedophile, but his instinct was to type on Reddit things like: Have you ever done anal nitrate? I annexed my wife's armpit to secure free passage to her boobies. Balls in my mouth, deepthroat circus. Who here wants my salty nuts? Apricots. What does AIDS smell like? Do Gay French Men bake their baguettes together? Overall, which race produced the best slave? Who the fuck eats mint jelly?

That’s him.

How’s life for the prized Prince in England and meh Megs all the way over on the West Coast though not in Montecito? How’s life as soldier, chef, pastry shop owner, cupid, dad, dogged, taxidermied, meat inspector, babysat, hustling gynecologist who’s never been photographed California poolside? From your antique roll-top desk, you write first sketchy grade school revisions and your breadcrumb cum-work, yet you’ve erased an entire identity and don’t even feel guilty about it. Your father happily passed the baton to you, the dumb-dumb ne'er-do-well low-ranked cyborg seat belted to his laptop, tap-tap-tapping away, not realizing, of course, that he inherited a wedge between the one person who would be his downfall.

That’s what you inherited. A distant wedge. The enabled placated trust-fund boy-­prince just had to realize that other people experience heartache and unfortunate death in their family, too. And that people seemed to be dying prematurely all over the world. Or, to calculate it, that writer girl can’t get those years back.

I’m guessing he did realize all of it and said, Nah, fuck that.

There are quiet moments of messaging on full display for Tom within cinema. Red-green neon flashing adrenaline-laced do-something crosswalk lights. At the center of it all, there are heroes, villains, styles, attitudes, atmosphere, landscape, even casting and location choices that serve as three-act grand gestures for Tom. By design, a few of the green-bean movies: The Tree of Life, The Sea of Trees, The Emerald Forest, which is a 1985 British adventure film, and Gorillas in the Mist, a 1988 film with a Mum main character that proves I was a choiceless baby by the mere fact that goddess and actress Sigourney Weaver is 75-years-old. There are green creatures in movies such as Shrek and The Incredible Hulk. The Pixar film, Brave, set in the Scottish Highlands, tells the story of a young red-headed tomboy and archer named Princess Merida who runs free among moss-covered nature, she defies an age-old royal custom and rejects all three candidates of an arranged marriage and turns her overbearing Mum into, well, a bear. In the movie, House of Flying Daggers, the color green is the dominant hue on the cinematic palette while both bamboo and the bamboo forest are used for swordplay fighting. One of its stars was in the 1994 policeman film, Chungking Express. The Netflix documentary, Harry & Snowman, is about riding instructor Harry deLeyer and the horse he rescued from slaughter with $80, going on to win the triple crown of show jumping in the late 1950s.

How about the chop shop of all 10 SAW movies? After all, they were created by the Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and the first one starred British actor Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride.

The movie, Aquaman, which sounds like aquamarine, stars Jason Momoa and rising star, Nicole Kidman.

Indiana Jones’ Harrison Ford in the movie, Regarding Henry. ET actor Henry Thomas in the movie, The Haunting of Hill House. Superman’s Henry Cavill in the movies, The Cold Light of Day and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. How about singer-actor, Harry Connick Jr. in the movie, Life Without Dick.

Then watch the British actor, Tom Hardy, act in literally anything and notice how his movies are gleaming one-word titles and the results are: Deserter, Bronson, Legend, Lawless, Locke, RocknRolla, Minotaur, Inception, Capone, Dunkirk, Venom, Havoc, and, nonironically, his first movie credit was for Black Hawk Down.

Also nonironic was actress Charlize Theron in the crime-drama movie, Monster, which was released on December 17, 2003.

The businesses of Sweetgreen, Mint Mobile, Lime e-bike, Uber, Uber Eats; the Starbucks logo is a green mermaid or siren that resembles the Sicilian flag; the satirical site, The Onion, looks like a green scallion; the Amazon Fresh logo is green; the Amazon Ring Camera video audio voice recording doorbell is green. The Nutrisystem logo is a green leaf and was founded by Harold Katz when I was an embryo. The streaming media service, Hulu, founded by Jason Kilar, has a green logo and was launched on October 29, 2007. The word hulu in Mandarin Chinese means gourd.

Larry the Cat is the much-loved and long admired Chief feline who has worked and lived in his Cabinet position at 10 Downing Street in London, England since 2011. As first feline and media savant, he’s living with his sixth Prime Minister. Sir Keir Starmer, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, moved in with a family cat named JoJo and then adopted a Siberian kitten, a tiny ball of white fluff, and named him Prince. Huh. Larry. Jojo. Prince. I believe that’s a green go-ahead of prime ministership from a political nobody right up the street from Prince Harry.

Then, there is one of the greatest singers and performers in the world who taught a daughtered generation about feminism, sexuality, identity, and individualism. When she founded her record company in April 1992, she named it Maverick Records. There’s also Maverick Films which produced the Twilight films. Madonna Louise Ciccone could have named her company anything she wanted. Something Italian. Sicilian. Studio 54-ish. Basquiat art. Instead, it shares the name with a famous 1980s Tom Cruise character. That made films with the word lie in the title about high school vampires. Madonna, like Michael Jackson, has been artistically outing the Windsor family for decades. I’d love to tell my sisters that The Madonna sings a 2015 song called Joan of Arc for a reason, but they wouldn’t believe me.

Same goes for a lot of songs.

I was sorry to hear of the passing of actor, Nicky Katt. His birth name was Agustin Islas. He was a talented actor who had been in the business as a kid, playing the character of Scott Spencer in the 1980s tv show, Trapper John, M.D., working steadily to gather an impressive filmography that included the movies Dazed and Confused, Boiler Room, and A Time to Kill among others and was in the television series, Boston Public, where he played the character Harry Senate in 49 episodes. On April 8, 2025, he died by suicide by hanging. He was 54-years-old.

Lisa Lynn Masters was an actress, model, writer and news reporter. She attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and continued to balance both reporter and acting careers. She guest-starred on the shows, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. She was on assignment in Lima, Peru when she committed suicide. She was found in her hotel room, in the closet, where she hanged herself with her skirt. She was 52-years-old.

Dave Mirra was the most decorated BMX star in X Games history, turning pro at 17. He joined the Haro Bikes BMX team in 1987. He set the record for most medals, 24 medals, in BMX Freestyle at the X Games and earned at least one BMX medal at the event in all but one year from the start of the competition in 1995 until 2009. In 2000, he became the first BMX rider to land a double backflip in competition, and was soon featured in ads for Burger King and was sponsored by Slim Jim. He was the host for two seasons of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He was the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with CTE, a brain disease linked to head trauma. He surprised friends by telling them he was planning a comeback to the sport, at middle-age, building a new ramp for training. But on February 4, 2016, in Greenville, North Carolina, he climbed into his black Ford F-150 Raptor and shot himself in the head. He was 41.

These suicides were brought to you by not doing something. The cubhood code from the deepest circle of hell that advertises life-stopping pedophilia, hanging on these words, the shooting script, carved, recarved, flipped, flipped again, wash, rinse, wrap, and repeat, all the angles and lies and computations of a netting that was agreed upon four decades ago without my knowledge or consent and if people could say it, they’d say that this should’ve stopped after Columbine, September 11th, Sandy Hook, Parkland and now Florida State University and it should end soon as everyone from the pulpit to presidents to prime ministers to generals to Kings to Princess Kate Middleton’s siblings and their spouses all give Tom Cruise the green light.

Prince Harry is going to keep talking about his parents as the pivotal inspiration. This was put into place before a car chase. I’ve said no, hell no, nope, no idea why this is still going on. This is blog number 50 and the worst slow motion ending. Since when does a Baker Sexter Soldier Liar who writes about attics and pea soup and mouths and cocks on the internet ingratiate himself into anything, anything worthwhile, anything feminine, let alone determine when an educated middle-aged woman should get love, a relationship, kids, a career and happiness?

K

Her Deleted Instagram.

Her new Instagram, her As Ever website, her As Ever jam products, her Confessions podcast are operated by Prince Harry. Duchess Sparkles cannot read the news, internet, or send work email. She cannot speak freely per royal contracts. Her so-called feminist projects are commodities to help push her husband’s freshman life theft and inequality.

Shampoo bottle. Shake well. Then, conveniently forget that she’s right here, a real human, in the middle of all this with nothing...

Remember how I mentioned that the beekeeping from Harry’s As Ever cooking show is blueprint Windsor code for calm, cum, no cum, honeypot, honeydew-talk? She knew who did this. She knows cusp.

Sweet couple...

I usually choose photos with her as the primary hypocrite subject matter because I don’t think her Suits co-stars anticipated blogging or her marrying the enemy. Even though there’s a friend here, there’s no name attached. This is a reference, like the Katie Holmes’ dessert plate, to pen-pal Maverick himself and a dig at CHARLES.

Her future father-in-law, as evermore...

This is Prince Harry, the royal bigwig, acting like a pauper with a sketchbook.

Did you dip your quill into toilet water before drawing in a sickly basic instinct? I’m no fan or friend of the made-up fictionalized Duchess but this is rude, dumb and an outright insult to a beloved princess’ memory…

They were only dating. But everyone knew it was fake and cruel.

Getty does it artfully… 

Everything about the actress is used for vengeance against Tom Cruise, even her jewelry.

Three months before the royal wedding…

I honestly thought you had altered this Getty Image for Twitter, but, no, there’s a familiar brunette, with your dots, imprinted by her second white husband…

This is an ordinary cafe chalkboard menu welcoming the Duke & Duch—waitttt a minute.

If you look to the left-hand side, you’ll see British hieroglyphics spelling out something to the tune of: you’re not her, a pregnant belly, a green baby, hoe (both), you’re going down (Harry), on the 23rd, seven dots…

This smoker is unimpressed with their small talk baby news and I love it.

You’ll see flags, 12 tassels, a horse in the sport of dressage, and what looks to me like the pub rendering of a vaginal coupledom…

In 2013, on the steps of the hospital where William and Harry were born, a tote bag, a cane and a gent named Terry…

If you were detached from society, and you were conversing with the prince for years across all internet platforms, and he was intentionally revising history — you’d think, aww, the poor orphaned bereaved ginger, at least they let him have a concert for his Mum. This is Harry on Twitter. This isn’t the entire photo…

This is it.

Getty Artwork captures the real pose and lighting effects, and oh my, it’s Regal Leopold and Loeb. The triangular arrowpointing upward and over Diddy’s shoulder/collar and its greenness; over Kanye’s shoulder as well; and blue + pink lights over William.

Notice how Kanye’s looking up. Hold that thought…

The terrible twos. The Whalers. Oh hey you’re near a pool, not in California because you don’t live there, but, still, a pool. The royal firsty clause was decreed way before a car chase. I’ve said it over and over. Red shoes that do not match the evil toddler. Reaching for a green stem and, of course, a blue slide that is telling Prince Charles that he liessss…   

Aww. Her Charles.

Yes. A man with white hair in his 70s or 80s is neither Tom Cruise nor my cousin. Do you see how Prince Harry revises old writing to appease his rape prostitution fantasies?

You and your family are misogynistic rats… 

His rape memoir, Spare, displayed in a Dublin, Ireland bookshop with pedo book spines, a protective U2 Tom and a well-placed sticker…

His rape memoir, Spare, displayed in a Rome, Italy bookshop. 4, 7, 10.

Novità means newness or recentness. Rhymes with Lolita. Amongst the Italian-language titles, there’s a John Grisham book…

I don’t mean any disrespect to the sleeping person, but what caught my eye was another London, England book display with pointed clues to the human psychology of Prince Harry in the country where he lives: cake-lunch on what looks like time on a clock, black handrail up the stairs, 5 on the green sticker, no smoking and a grey shirt or rag tossed aside on the right…

The vague and fleeting 1980s references of throat duress or thumps on the street didn’t help me. Remember Kanye looking up? There’s the house balloon in the movie, Up. The 5 Step Up dance movies. Knocked Up. Up in the Air. Don't Look Up, the movie. There’s Last Christmas where Henry Golding tells Kate to look up. The Hangover Part II where Bradley Cooper tells Zach about his bald head and Zachary Knight Galifianakis reaches for his beard while Bradley instructs, “No, no. Up.”

Then, there’s Getty. One thing not to do as a Windsor when invited to the 9/11 Memorial is to look up where the towers used to be. The idiotic son is outing his father’s place in all this and confirming the twin causes.

Towers, as in flowers…   

This looks like a sepia-toned picture from our Grandpawpaw. Creepy as shit.

Is he saying: fuck her, son?

A lying life-thieving sexting charitable humanitarian and married father of two…

Tell Me Why Prince Harry has a thing about height. I don’t get it. But I like this picture.

Feeling like a tiny, petite, little, bite-sized, wax grape?

I think Getty is saying that Tom is gigantic because he put himself between me and you…

Visiting a Kiwi Bird Hatchery while the husband of paperwork was let’s have sex sexting communiqué with me everywhere online, during a royal duty revenge trip where they together announced their pregnancy as I watched from a computer screen in middle-age with nothing...

This was among the Getty Montecito news.

The Duke & Duchess of Sussex and their two kids do not live in Montecito, Santa Barbara, California. The Duke & Duchess live apart, in different countries.

I’m a city gal and I know for certain this isn’t a lizard…

This is the King of Denmark. His official title is King Frederik X of Denmark. His ascension to the throne happened after the formal abdication of his mother Queen Margrethe II, when she broke with Danish royal tradition and retired on January 14, 2024. It wasn’t radical or surprising, given that throughout her reign, she was a strong proponent for equality and women's rights. However. She said she was retiring due to the major back surgery she underwent and I remember thinking, huh, that’s medically specific. From a balcony, Frederik said he hoped to be a king of tomorrow. Dammit. I had left Twitter and knew I got it wrong.

Have I mentioned that the King lived up the street from me when we were in college and he was a visiting student at Harvard for two semesters?

This was in 2016… 

The Now-King Frederik X of Denmark, my friend, is giving Tom the green light…

This is the right way to look up. His then-wife, Mimi Rogers, seven years older than Tom, with a pointed finger, the little girl hair clip, the two lights, all from photographer Barry King…

Another Prince Harry Celica account with the N-word and Modern Family actors that represent an agent, Tom Cruise and himself. An account that Harry has since deleted.

Why would he delete it?

Celica are the letters in Charlie…

I thought, oh good, Is It Over Now, I figured it out, Tom’s the bad guy. The Ruiner.

A Royal Lady account where we communicated. I’ve removed the real picture of the real woman that he stole from somewhere.

Harry’s trying to pin blame on Tom and an Uncle at the highest point up there and out-trend a Hollywood marriage… 

Haunted melodies. Ah! It’s my birthday again. Why wouldn’t I think someone was trying to hurt me? I’ve had nothing in life, a bit outcasted, online there are thousands of mentions about convent school, and all I see are pictures of violence against women who kinda-sorta resemble me. That’s not a picture of Tom; that’s a girl.

Above her are U’s on his main log-in account of Archillect... 

The Queen’s funeral. A couple of green-trimmed things: the lone tree on the left; the license plate that goes from sultriness to ick due to The Brothers Grimm; one real couple that looks fake and distressed while the personal-ad maternity couple looks real; pointing on gravel; and red in the corner. An illusion, visual mumblecore without the heart that was probably a Getty Image that he manipulated in the margins of his own website.

I highlighted the tweet because I can recognize a 1990s picture from anywhere. Oatmeal, as in sowing wild oats/sewing/sawing. Expert...

To squander a girl’s career, dreams of a family, and then exile her in the process. Usually, it’s just one of those things, and in a horror film. Welp, not the career I had hoped for. Or, gosh, not the partnership I envisioned for myself. But to be without everything. And told it’s because of invisible noncode and a pale butchered typist in a different country. I wonder why there are unhealthy patterns at home and at work, fights, depression, and so many divorces. The illegal deportations, campus shootings, terrorism and wars. Prince Harry.

[puppy-desperately-in-love]

Thanks for clarifying 👍 , what do you usually watch on shorts? It's a bit eccentric to ask, but I'm curious since I barely watch them... + That's one step closer of knowing more about you (or I guess, how much you tell me 😶‍🌫️).

Ooh competitive plays? What have you done before? For me, i never quite had the opportunity to be in theatre always - but hey, i *was* given a role to be a cloud once in like.. 5th grade on a play about photosynthesis. I often feel embarrassed with my own writing work as well eventually over time - but I guess that just shows how far we've come with the skill of words!

I see, I see.. for me, i definitely think people can be redeemed (perhaps this sounds a tad happy-go-lucky or optimistic, but it's mostly because I've done many things that I've regret over the years - mostly regarding relationships - so I try to/tend to give people second chances). Romantic love often blinded me as well; kind of like a washing machine, honestly - just washing away the bad parts of a person to become completely idealised to my liking. I think that even if someone's brain is fully developed, I don't think it makes them immune to fully understanding what harm they've done (without sympathising with their actions ofc). What do you think of that?

Side note - I wanted to ask you a tiny random question - how about you assume something about me? I'm curious what you'll say. Oh, and do you want to ask me any query?

YouTube shorts are alot less....like, algorithmed, but usually videos reading off like.....tumblr posts........ I know i'm on tumblr, but it's so much easier to see that stuff there than change my tumblr algorithm to see it! Haha, awww. I suppose so! Although I am curious how I seem in your mind at this point.

Well, I started as Chrysanthemum in the play Chrysanthemum! And then I played a child in this like, country type play. I've done a few songs for Hamilton, and I also played this like, rich big city wife in another play! And exactly! In time, our past works simply good to show our current improvements. It shows how far we've come and the beauty of what we can create now!

That's the thing though! (At least in my perspective) those things, because you regret them, mean they weren't done out of evil. That regret is what makes you good. (Or neutral, depending on the severity) true evil feels no regret. And I've met people who truly can never be redeemed. But also people like, child predators and knowing rapists, those are people who can never be redeemed.

That's the worst part about love for me. I don't even like.....idealize them. I see exactly every fault and bad thing about them....and then I decide that it doesn't matter. I very conciously know its there, but they could do whatever they want...and I wouldn't be able to stop loving them.

You make a good point! But I find that people who aren't fully developed seem to change constantly. They circle between good and bad, regret and ego. And most things a person does are forgivable in the long run from a younger age. (Once again, that excludes preying on children or knowing rape). And even after someone is fully developed, it all depends on if they did it knowingly. Someone who does something bad, truly not understanding how much it can hurt, or! Having a disorder which makes those impulses almost impossible to control, aren't evil. They're natural, they feel regret or remorse, or they wish they didn't do whatever the action was. The flip flop of the moral code becomes extremely prevelent around this stuff lol

Ooo, okay, that's hard. I'm always so scared to assume stuff about people. Welllll, you seem to have a complicated relationship with family (and probably religion), which causes you to branch out in search for understanding in other places. You want to be known, and seen, but at the same time, you're scared people won't like what they see. You try to be a positive person, likely because you dont think you could live in a world of pessimism and survive. (Is that what you meant? I did my best, I'm super sorry if I'm wrong!)

Aaaand, a question for you! Oh! Okay, so this is my favorite question because it tells so much about a person. To you, what is love?

[raynebou]

I really don’t know what’s going to happen to me these next few years. I’m a locked in lib4life with a mix raced disabled family whose family relies on social security with no plans to flee the country. I’m scared I might become straight up evil and soulless. I hope my loved ones will remember me fondly before I turned evil….

Embarrassing country….i stay on twitter (and I like Bluesky!!) even though ive curated a nice not evil algorithm i do occasionally see posts that right wing freaks make so im not entirely in an echo chamber but damn…..I’d hate to be associated with r*publicans right now I know they aren’t all evil ignorant racists but damn……

And there’s only one immigrant I want d*ported :🚀🌌

[maximuswolf]

Gamer Hate Trains can be just as toxic as Hype Trains.

Gamer Hate Trains can be just as toxic as Hype Trains. Hype Trains are an issue because people stack too many expectations onto a game. I see this term being used so much less now. But the game Doom: The Dark Ages isn't even announced yet and we already have people getting ready to shit on this game. Hate Trains are also toxic af. And this is peddled by content creators. No one goes around saying "I watch XYZ and ABC, and yeah they influence me" because we all watch content creators... probably. Just not all to the same degrees. It doesn't help that console warriors are peddling this as well. Sometimes there are multiple separate camps that all support something, even though the camps actually disagree with each other. The Sony Fanboys- Who create a hate train for literally anything Xbox. Critical fans of said game- Who participate in the hate train for other reasons but they're still wanting the game to be good. These 2 groups of people are at odds except for hating on whatever game is being made at that time. Like Starfield. The console warriors waged a fight over it... while genuine fans of Bethesda were just grieving. What I hate is that people who are more vulnerable just read this garbage and don't realize there even are multiple camps and they just go around spread hate without the context whatsoever. The amount of people I know who never even watched gameplay of Starfield, yet heard from friends the drama, is the majority. There are more gamers that exist that aren't on social media right now to watch all of these discussions. Yet everyone knows about the drama because they might only read a single article or post in passing and just make all the assumptions from it. Even Senua's Saga 2 has hate as well. And it's typical because I see it from people who say they don't like Xbox. Yet Senua's Saga 2 is not a bad game... at all. There's nothing wrong with it. It's only 1 hour less than Resident Evil 2 remakes time to beat on average. Content creators are now looking for games to hate on for their own profit and algorithm benefits. Don't participate. Don't watch Hate Train videos. Don't peddle the hate trains. Don't participate. And disagree with it wherever you find it. If game is bad... you don't need activists online to peddle that reality. Especially content creators making a profit from said drama. We talk shit on companies being greedy for profits as gamers united, then go around and our biggest content creators look for drama and peddle these hate trains. I've seen accounts of people that are clearly not bots, and for the past 2 years all you see scrolling through their posts is daily shit talk about games. This has become the majority. What happened to days when people focused on games they happened to enjoy, share their grief, then move on to what makes them happy? Submitted May 25, 2024 at 08:58AM by Acorn-Acorn https://ift.tt/Hu4a8cL via /r/gaming

[olderthannetfic]

It’s not a Protestant work ethic

That other post is hella long, so I’ll make this a new one.

The reason some barriers to entry—but not insurmountable ones—are desirable is because they make people behave better.

Basically, when a space is completely open, whether in a literal technical sense or in a cultural sense, it means that it’s likely to be overwhelmed with new people who don’t understand the local ways at any moment. Youtube comments are not only full of assholes having wrong political opinions but also people who just fundamentally don’t understand the video they’re looking at. I’ll get people going “I don’t remember this clip from the show” about a fanvid.

Human communities do not thrive in a fishbowl.

Tumblr fandom is all out in public, pretty much, since the site doesn’t really have privacy controls. Yet using Tumblr is such a labyrinthine process of figuring out the social landscape that it chases off the less dedicated. As a consequence, Tumblr feels very different from other sites, and people who like this particular culture tend to stay here.

Even though we’re in public, we feel a certain sense of intimacy, like we have some idea what sorts of people are listening. It’s closer to hanging out with your classmates or people from a club than to standing on a stage.

When you make a space too easy to get into, it turns into an “educate the newbies” space 24/7 with no room left for people who want to do something else. Poorly-thought-out “maximum inclusiveness” ends up excluding a lot of people, and they’re often the people who form the backbone of a community. Such an easily-accessed space also often turns into a place for drive-by rudeness from people who don’t actually care about the topic at hand.

Complete openness is very bad, actually.

--

This is not saying “You should have to work harder because work is moral”. This is saying “You don’t have default access to me.”

If you want to join my community or be my friend, it takes at least a little work because that is how social things and reality function.

AO3 is somewhat opaque if you don’t know the kind of fandom it was built by. That wasn’t intentional. To us/them it looked like the default and obvious way to do things. But to make it far more “accessible” would be to tell its core audience it’s for clueless outsiders and not for them.

The problem with algorithms, aside from the fact that they’re currently used for corporate evil, is that they replace the social connections that normally allow one access to a subculture. Trying to automate social ties and offload them to technology does not work.

An algorithmically-driven experience of fandom is one where there are Content Creators and Audience.

AO3, oldschool fic fandom, and any subculture I would want to spend time in are places where many peers share with many peers.

[demonac]

Hey, so there's some crap going on about D&D and the OGL scandal.

If you have not been following along, the OGL (Open Gaming License) is a legal thing where, about 20 years ago, WotC (the company who owns Dungeons and Dragons, now a subsidiary of Hasbro) promised that anyone could use a bunch of their content (spells, classes, etc), by adhering to some pretty basic, loose terms, and nobody would come after you for calling that content "D&D" whatever [gross oversimplification].

Well now, Hasbro/WotC feels D&D is "undermonetized" (according to their CEO who doesn't know or care about RPGs, and their head of digital, who IS a gamer, but doesn't play TTRPGs and wants to make D&D more like the various video games he's worked on), SO they are trying to "de-authorize" the old OGL and replace it with a new one that takes away all the security 3rd party creators thought they had, and gives WotC powers to cancel content... mostly so they can kill off other virtual tabletops (like Fantasy Grounds, roll20, etc) and charge big monthly fees/microtransactions for their new admittedly cool-looking service.

Anyhow, a lot of people argue that even the old (non-trash) OGL wasn't really necessary for 99% of creators between Free-Use and the fact that you can't copyright game rules, and even with their army of lawyers, they might not win court cases trying to go after content created before the new evil license goes live, but with big corporations and algorithmic enforcement, I don't trust that being right is a good enough defense (and you'd be a FOOL to trust them when they promise "we won't go after X and Y" after they tried to pull this crap in the first place).

Will this affect TDDC? Probably not - in fact, I never claimed to be using the OGL for any of my stuff, even if its existence was a comforting indication of what USED to be WotC's philosophy. But since I happen to be starting a whole new series right at this moment, this is the time to strip out mentions of WotC's copyrighted names, just in case. I was actually already leaning that direction for Warforged (calling them Mechs/Mechanicals) and Dragonborn (Drakks), but I'm going to go a step further, and get strict about not using those terms, nor the name "Dungeons and Dragons/D&D". So when I use the initials TDDC going forward, I'm referring to "Tales From Demonac's Deathfin Campaign". But the official title in the videos (and when I say those dreaded words: "Next Time") it's going to be Tales From My RPG Campaign". Hopefully the change won't be too annoying, trust me, it bothers me much more to stop saying Kua-Toa/KTs (too similar to Kuo-Toa, which IS one of the "product identity" terms they have identified and guard jealously). It's easy to refer to them as Deluvians and Illud most of the time, though I'm still waffling on what term (if any, but there sure OUGHT to be one) to use for their shared heritage. I'd go Children of Baal, but that makes the Sons of Baal monitors really sound like dumbasses...

Anyway, that's the update; I'm still working on the first episode of SoS (and despite my "tight 15 minute" guideline, it's probably going to be closer to 20min); I hope to get some little music reveal videos for the PCs in collaboration with my music person, Cool Boy Shane, so stay tuned for those.

If you're one of my Patrons, though, I posted the cold open - the first few seconds of Sea of Secrets, to grab viewers' attention, so you can check it out here. It will answer ZERO of your questions: https://www.patreon.com/posts/77653972