#Activity Stream

[colombinaa]

men have a physical advantage over women in sports because most sports - like everything else - are made by men for men. competitions also follow the male circadian rhythm (24h cycle).

our biology is different. we are built for survival, endurance, resistance. we are made to last through time. you can see this in so many aspects of female biology.

imagine how cool it would be to have our own sports that highlight our physical power properly. or like competitions last an entire month so we can compete at the appropriate phase of the cycle and we’re all judged fairly. imagine if we had different sports created on the different phases to embrace how we change in a month. i’ve got so many ideas going through my head of how it could be.

i’d like physical activity way more like this. i wanna live in a world like that.

[wolfziedraws]

Blue Prince

[asvidema]

quick kiss before you go

[linktoo-doodles]

cheers. happy wine stream theyve ruined my life forever

[ekingston]

Hello! So sorry to bother, but have you had any updates on the Word-Stream/Speechify situation?

Just one: like I posted on Xitter and Bluesky last night, as of yesterday afternoon, the links to individual works as they were listed on WordStream are gone from both Google and Bing. Hurray, right? Surely we’re all sick of this whole debacle and there’s far more important things to worry about. If all is well that ends well, surely there’s no need to still be angry.

Well, I am. Here’s why:

When I checked on Wednesday, the links to my own work on WordStream were still listed. So rather than it taking a week after Cliff Weitzman first hid the fanwork from view, it took a little over a week from the moment he first promised privately that they would be deleted. Which, fine. Perhaps Cliff didn’t really know what he was talking about when he gave that timeframe. Or maybe he told a little white lie to create the impression that he always intended to do the right thing. It seems more likely to me, though, that Cliff still believed—even after the backlash he received—that he would get away with honoring only individual takedown requests. Or worse, that he needed just a little bit more time with the stolen material to figure out an alternative way to profit off it—preferably without us noticing, this time.

But who knows? I certainly don’t! All we can do is speculate, because publicly, Cliff Weitzman has remained completely silent on his copyright infringements. All we got was the initial justifications he and his sockpuppet accounts used in comments on the original Reddit and Tumblr posts. After those were so understandably ill-received, Cliff only ever communicated with a few individual authors who contacted him directly and repeatedly, blocking people who addressed the issue on Twitter and quietly distancing himself from WordStream by deleting a blog he’d posted to Speechify.com dated December 20th—where Cliff promoted WordStream’s platform specifically to fanfiction readers. (See my enormous timeline post for details and screenshots of said posts before they were taken down.)

And this is why I’m still angry: As long as Cliff Weitzman faces no real consequences for his actions, he won’t see a need to own up to his mistake; and as long as he’s able to delay taking responsibility, this isn’t over. This didn’t end well.

After all, wasn’t this the next-best scenario for Cliff, second only to him turning WordStream into a (for him) effortless, infinite money-making machine? He took something we provided for free and fed it to AI so he could more easily put it behind a paywall; we found out and protested; Cliff quietly erased all evidence of his crime; and we went—almost equally quietly—away.

I want to make sure you know that I continue to be genuinely amazed and intensely grateful for how quickly the news about WordStream’s copyright infringement was shared—and continues to be shared—throughout fandom, on tumblr in particular. If it hadn’t been for our collective outcry here and on Reddit, WordStream would very likely still be up in its original form, and Weitzman would be reaping the benefits (those subscription prices were steep) today.

But it’s been frustrating to see that, with the exception of mentions in articles on Substack and Fansplaining (the latter of which is a particularly awesome and thorough read on fandom’s decontextualization) and a Fanlore listing, our outrage never really spilled out beyond the safely insulated, out-of-the-way spaces that are tumblr, a handful of subreddits and bluesky. And I believe that—unfortunately—we are collectively responsible for that part, as well.

Most of us seemed content to only spread the word by circulating the same two posts on tumblr. (Have we all given up completely on every other social media platform? Am I the only remaining straggler?) And soon after Cliff Weitzman hid WordStream’s fanfiction category from view, our interest in the issue took a sharp dive even there. Are we genuinely deceived into believing the issue has been fully resolved? Do we truly fail to realize that Weitzman’s refusal to admit that what he did was wrong left the door wide open for the next greed-driven tech bro to wander through? Or is the true naivety in thinking that, as a community, we can keep this kind of attack on fandom from happening again? Has our disillusionment already gotten that bad?

However the situation spins out from here, Cliff’s actions will set a precedent. If we fail to show Cliff and his ilk that attempts to profit off fandom’s unpaid labor have consequences, their tech companies will keep trying until something eventually sticks. They might be a little smarter about it next time; obscure their sources a bit better, maybe leave the titles and the authors’ names off. Or maybe they’ll go a bolder route: maybe next time they cross the line they’ll do it boldly enough for IP holders to take notice and stop tolerating fanwork entirely.

Doesn’t that make you angry, too?

There’s this whole other mess of thoughts I would love to be able to untangle about how commercial influence is contributing to the steady erosion of fandom’s foundations, but I’m tired, and other people have said it all much more eloquently than I ever could. Seriously, go read that article on Fansplaining. Or listen to the podcast version of it. Better yet, as long as you’re wearing your noise-canceling headphones, go listen to a podfic of one of your favorite fandoms’ works, and enjoy the collaborative joy and creativity of the people who Cliff Weitzman refuses to believe exist. (In one of Speechify’s other blogs, Cliff claims there are only 272 podfics on AO3. Would you like to run that ChatGPT prompt again, Cliff?). Honestly, much like Cliff Weitzman’s infuriating denial of the fact that fandom fucking has this covered, thank you very much, there’s so. Many. More. Things for us to talk about. There’s the connotations of WordStream’s dubious ‘upload’ button, for instance, or the fact that the app scraped (and in some cases, allegedly, still lists) copyright-protected original fiction as well, or WordStream’s complete lack of contact information, which is illegal for an internationally operating app. And oh! Has anyone reported more thoroughly on Cliff’s app’s options to ‘simplify’ or ‘modernize’ uploaded works, or—my own very favorite abomination—to translate them into something Cliff calls ‘Gen-Z Language’? Much like his atrocious AI book covers, it would be hilarious, if it didn’t make steam come out of my ears.

Anyway, there it is. I highly recommend you do all of that. And then, if you aren’t familiar with it already, go do some research re: fair use and your rights as the copyright owner of your works. A good number of people commenting on this controversy expressed stunned surprise or fearful hesitation about claiming any sort of ownership of their fanfiction. The more informed we are about our rights, the more willing we will be to defend them.

Please don’t stop writing or sharing your work. If you can’t bring yourself to work on your WIPs today (trust me, I get it), post about this situation instead. Tweets, skeets, whateverthefucks—about WordStream’s theft, about how this reflects on Speechify’s already shady business practices, about how Cliff’s actions and justifications have personally affected you. You’re welcome to share or copy my posts on these platforms, but since Cliff already blocked me, I very much prefer you post your own. If you do, call Cliff Weitzman by his full name and tag or include both WordStream and Speechify to ensure Weitzman will recognize he has both a personal as well as a professional stake in handling the situation with integrity. Leave your concerns in reviews on the Speechify app. (We weren’t provided with a more appropriate place to put them, after all!) Consider calling for a Speechify boycott until Cliff accepts accountability for his actions.

Do avoid making exaggerated claims, and don’t call for physical retaliation against Cliff’s person or his property. We don’t want to give him or Speechify even the weakest of grounds to claim defamation or threats of violence. Focus on the facts: they’re incriminating enough by themselves. Show Cliff that we’re determined to keep bringing up his company’s wrongdoings in public spaces until he demonstrates that he understands why taking these freely shared fanworks and monetizing them was wrong, and takes steps to ensure it won’t happen again.

One last thing—and this is really more of a general reminder—please stop suggesting I handle this situation for you. People have come to me asking for action items. The resulting flashbacks to my days as an office assistant were extremely upsetting. In all seriousness, casting me as some sort of coordinator or driving force behind this backlash actively hurts the cause. Not only does it downplay fandom’s collective efforts, it also makes our message extremely vulnerable. It would be all too easy for Cliff to silence one singular source. Wikipedia will not maintain mentions of this controversy as long as it leads only to Easter Kingston’s attempt to summarize what happened as it was happening. You only know my name because I stumbled upon WordStream’s theft and decided to get my friends involved. I am not more knowledgeable, more skilled or more angrily invested in this issue than you are (or can, or should, be). I draw pictures and I write stories and I worry about the shift I’m seeing in fandom after having been on this ride for even a few pre-livejournal rounds.

I’m not going to stop doing any of those things. But I am going to allow myself to step away for a bit, make my wife dinner, and catch up on our shows.

I trust you’ve got it from here.

[hplonesomeart]

No surprises here that Evil Ragatha was one of the greatest highlights for me while watching episode five. Cannot get enough of villains who cackle in that over-the-top posh accent. And the flawless rolling of her ‘r’ pronunciations? Peak enunciation all around she absolutely killed it. I’d love to hear her yap some more; go on another long monologue or boisterous spiel. Yes I pick favorites and she is by far my favorite evil counterpart >:3

(Side note: the fact that Gangle got completely skimmed over and left without any evil version absolutely sent me. The comedy in this show has been perfected to the highest degree)

[nuclearloop]

Happy bday @padabana! It was so much fun to keep up with Balloon SMP this past month watching you and the rest of the team and I was wanting to doodle your sona anyway so, perfect timing. Yay nukes!

[ruehyte]

I cannot explain how deranged I feel with words

Iam going to throw up I think

[koffeenoe]

[norriszn]

BK STREAM december 2024

lando: oh wait, you can't hear me, hehehehe. you're a noob! max, don't reply if you're an idiot. max: ... lando: what? no reply? okay, i take that back. max: ... lando: max, if you don't reply it's cuz you suck at tarkov. max: *trying to speak* lando: what was that? what was that? max: i can hear the pc sounds but not you guys. lando: oh you're not replying to me, max?

[chainsawctopus]

The princess slayyyyyed

Drew all the different princesses @savedatateam got so far on their first stream! I am once again asking you to go support them right now they're great guys please I swear

[gempearlrpf]

geminitay deciding she hasnt been gay enough so just. insists on signing pearls ankle (after a chat suggestion, which is. minimum excuse??)

it always comes back to the ankles somehow...

I feel like this is just the weird form of flirting 'for the bit' that they keep coming back to because its silly enough that its much easier to play off

(and its lowkey the same with gem doing that 'pathetic' bit when they record together ngl)

[jossun-kyyneleet]

Happy anniversary of the Olympia gig for those who celebrate 🥹💚🩷

[petrichormore]

Rewatched the stream where Lullah and Richas fight over q!Bad and wow. Originally I scolded q!Bad for how he handled it but yeah no his confusion was fair actually

Richas: I’ll always be his favorite nephew lol. Lmao.

Lullah: what if I fucking kill you.

Bad, completely baffled: hey do you kids wanna like. fingerpaint or something

[project-sekai-facts]

Pre-Broadcast Station commentary

The next Broadcast Station stream will be on the 26th, featuring Chiruriin, Yukki, Honchan, and Minoringo. The guest during the VOCALOID Music SEKAI segment this time will be Aoki Gou.

Next month is definitely going to be an N25 event and an MMJ event. Given the 2-part nature of Where Does the Path of Thorns Go?, the N25 event will be Ena's 5th event. This event is incredibly likely to be this month's limited event as well.

That means the MMJ event will be a permanent event in December. This is likely to be a Shizuku banner, though there's a slim chance that it could be Haruka.

As for the new years mixed event, it seems likely to feature KAITO as a limited card, most likely for his MMJ variant. This means that another MMJ member should be on the gacha, which will be Airi or Minori, though most likely the former. In terms of bfes, An is looking pretty likely.

[st-santana]

the gang's all here!! kerchow!