#I really should start filtering AI posts

[monkie-see-monkie-do]

going to the cats tag and seeing an original comic followed by three ai posts in a row is an experience

[ao3scrapesearch]

Hey so I'm not very tech savvy but I was wondering if adding random silly lines or just something that makes no sense between paragraphs/sentences on our fics can poison AI if the fics are scraped?? I tried something by adding some random lines with white text between paragraphs of my fic which don't show up on default ao3 mode but they are a part of the text nonetheless. Of course that'll involve more efforts on part of the writers to add lines and format the white text using html and workskins but if it does turn out to be effective it might make ao3 less lucrative for AI scraping if a major amount of works contain this and it'll make it harder for AI training. It does have drawbacks that it'll only work on default mode so anyone using dark skin on ao3 might have to switch to be able to read properly and it'll make works less accessible to readers who use text to audio if there are random lines in between but what other options are we left with if even archive locking our works doesn't work??

You absolutely could, but there are limitations to that.

For one, like you said, you're making your work inaccessible to certain readers. That's fully within your rights, though I think most of us strive not to exclude people using screen readers.

Second, from what I know, when you download a dataset like this and intend to use it to train an AI model, you first go through the dataset looking for obvious junk data and toss that out. So if you're putting something that is clearly not real fanfic in there, any decent data analyst is probably going to spot it and toss your fic. If that's your goal, that's a win for you. Personally, if I'm making the effort to inject poison data, my goal is to be included in the training data used so I can trash the model, so I don't want it to be obvious.

Third, I don't see anything explicitly in AO3's TOS against adding data poison in this way, but I don't see them endorsing doing that either. It feels like a grey area to me, and I'm not sure you're allowed to do it, so I am not recommending anyone do this. Rest of this post is theoretical.

So theoretically, how I would do it is putting the junk data at the end of the fic/chapter. Hide it like you're saying, by changing the font and/or background color of the section with CSS. Then put a nice, clear message right after the chapter ends and the junk data starts, something like, "Hey, readers! This chapter is over. Turn off your screen reader and move to the next chapter now." That gives your real humans a warning and stops them from being confused or wasting their time. Then dump your poison. You can also write something in the beginning A/N, I believe. I know this most recent scraper never ever pulled data from the author's notes, so the AI wouldn't see anything you put in that section.

Scrapers are typically pulling your work without the workskin enabled, so for formatting, you're really just trying to make it look nice for your real readers so they don't have to see your poison.

As far as actual poison, my suggestions:

Your own writing or writing you have explicit permission to use, so you're not breaking anyone's copyright. Easy mode: jumbled paragraphs of your own past works for any fandom except the one your current fic is for.

As mentioned above, don't put absolute nonsense in there. If it's bad enough, it'll be spotted and filtered out. Like, if it's not even real words, anyone feeding it to AI is probably going to catch that and toss your data out, excluding it from the model. It might be fine if it's all real words, but not in any sensible order. Not sure on that. But don't just insert keysmashes if you want your data to be used in the AI training.

Terrible crackfic would be good. So would writing for a completely different fandom and different tags. The writing should not fit well with the tags you use for the fics. (So if the real fic is tagged Fluff and Alternative Universe - Coffee Shop, your poison should not include that. Make the poison a hurt no comfort canon-compliant fic or something else different.)

Keep in mind you should not be putting E-rated data poison in a G-rated fic. Real humans may still see this no matter how much you hide it, particularly if they download a PDF copy of your fic. If it's content that requires a warning per AO3's rules (explicit content, graphic violence, etc), you do still have to tag for that, even if it's designed to be invisible to humans.

Use unique writing, so even if someone later using it for AI catches it once, they can't just search for the exact wording you used in one fic and easily filter out all the rest of your poison. Again, this is if you want to be included in the AI training to throw the model off.

Again, theoretically, if I were going to do this, this is the CSS code I might use for my poison section of the fic:

#workskin .fuckai { background: #333333; color: #333333; font-size: 1%; }

It would theoretically look like a weird grey gap to mobile users or be nearly invisible to desktop users, even if it contained, say... 1,000 additional words.

Finally, scrapers are trying to grab millions of fics from AO3 when they do it. They're not looking closely at 13 million fics. They're only searching for the most obvious junk. So the only reason you would want to hide it like that is to make a better experience for your real readers. You don't need to hide it to get it into a scraper's AI model.

[cyberweek]

CyberWeek 2025 starts January 19th!

A weeklong celebration of our favorite edutainment program with artistic prompts everyday! The show first premiered on the 21st of January so let’s celebrate!

Please check out the info below cut!!

What sort of Art is allowed?

Any and all! Traditional/Digital Art, Writing, Cosplay, Video edits, anything you can make! Anything you wanna make! Sew a doll, bake a cake, whatever! Sadly, prompts aren’t made with all types of art in mind, so feel free to interpret them however you want to fit your medium!

Rules!

Prompts are posted early this year, and I ask that you withhold from posting your entries until the day of! You may however start and finish them whenever you want!

Tag your post with #cyberweek2025! Or @cyberweek (this blog)! Or both!

Follow this blog and support your fellow Cyberchase fans!

No Lewd. No P*dophilia or inc*st.

No Tracing, Use of Bases or other assets without COMPLETE transparency. Credit your sources! Pinterest, WeHeartIt, Google etc are not sources. Find the artist, please.

Use of AI is prohibited. Whether you submit only what the AI produces or use it as reference/inspiration. This includes visual, text, and auditory generative AI.

Angst, light gore/blood and etc are allowed. Try to keep it PG13. Everything will be tagged accordingly so remember to use Tumblr’s tag filter feature to your advantage.

OCs should only show up on the OC prompt.

Prompts

Jan 19 - Redraw

Let's warm up with the prompt Redraw! You can choose whether you want to redraw a scene from the show or Cyberchase art you've made in the past!

Jan 20 - Seasons

We've had the prompts Winter and Summer! This year, you get the choice to do whatever season you want! Missed out on the Summer prompt? Just feel like doing Winter again? Have at it! Maybe your favorite season is Spring or Autumn and it's their time to shine!

Jan 21 - Chase

Today is the Anniversary of the show we all love! So let's put the CHASE in Cyberchase! There are lots of episodes that involve the good guys chasing the bad guys! Or trying to outrun them! What was your favorite? Or maybe you have a thrilling scenario in mind!

Jan 22 - Chill

What's the opposite of Chase?? Well, it's to run away. But we're going with the prompt chill!! The show involves a lot of high stakes, so let's give our favorite characters some down time. How do they relax? Alone? With others? A good book, or do they skate their troubles away?

Jan 23 - Food

Cyberchase has a lot of unique looking food! Maybe we can make a nice painting of one. Or have some characters share a nice lunch on your favorite Cybersite. This prompt has so many possibilities!

Jan 24 - Companion

We're continuing the idea of relationships with this prompt, Companion! What does the word companion mean to you? Somebody that's always glued to the other's side! A faithful pet? A comrade in arms! Or maybe just a really good buddy. :)

Jan 25 - OCs

To close out our celebration of Cyberweek, let's have some fun with the little characters we've made up for fun! 😊

Thank you so much to my friends Jolly, Dossy and Rainbow for helping me with the prompts this year! 💜

Questions/Comments -

Please send all questions about this event to the inbox. Anon will be off and questions will be posted in case others have similar inquiry. Please do not reply to posts or try to chat your inquirers.

[edward-cabrini]

Explaining AI For Use In Writing

This is a massively broad topic so I'm gonna skip the super technical stuff and dive into the core aspects of how current AI works and what it could be used for with a couple narrative prompts. For those of you who are curious to know what inspired this post read this paragraph, the rest of you just skip over it. The other day I saw someone pose a question for some rule clarifications for Necromunda. A terribly unbalanced game with rules spanning several books. There are more than a few ambiguities and niche rule interactions. They thought they could get an accurate answer from Chat GPT. Their message made me realize that people really don't understand what AI is and why even calling it AI is pretty inaccurate. So I want to set the record straight and provide some clarity and ideas. Types of AI - Trained - Reactive - Magic Right off the bat we're gonna start with what people think of when they talk about AI. Trained AI is any AI that takes training data and gets good and spitting out valid response. What valid means depends entirely on what the creators think valid should be. Let's take Chat GPT as the example. It has no idea what the question "How many bones are in a hand?" means. It has merely been fed a ton of data about bones and hands and it will then guess each word it should put in a response. Each individual word of the question is taken through the process to get a list of best fitting words. The first word in the response is then selected and Chat GPT then goes to guess the second word in it's response with the context of it's first word. Funnily enough this is what leads to the distinctive way AI writes it's responses. This is still a massive and slightly inaccurate oversimplification. The key point is that AI like Chat GPT do not know what you have asked, they do not research a response, they just guess the next best fitting word in a response. This is also not AI, this is just probability maths. It's clever but there's no intelligence on the AI's part. It doesn't figure anything out, it doesn't understand it's own response. It's just lights and clockwork. Incidentally the guessing method is also how AI art is generated. It guesses what colour the next pixel should be. Again oversimplified but it's how we get multiple extra fingers. The training data can get things like proportions fairly accurately but it can't count the individual fingers that should occupy the same space as a hand's rough proportion. Trained AI get better with more data of higher quality and with human intervention to correct errors. With that out the way, we move onto reactive AI. These are also not AI. I mean we just don't have AI yet but we'll get to that. Reactive AI, have no memory, no training data, no improvement. They follow a set of rules and act predictably. Spam filters, chess bots, facial recognition. It's all just maths and predefined rules. Calling these systems AI is just marketing. The benefit of these systems is their speed. These systems use few resources (compared to other types of AI) and can sort though mountains of data really really quickly. In the example of chess bots. They have a table base of moves and will select a move based on whatever rule your move has triggered. If the rule is always play the best move. They will use the best move in response to your input from their table base of moves. If they have a rule to blunder on every 5th move, they will play a move from their table base that give you the highest advantage based on your last move or the current board set up depending on how simple or complex the chess bot is.

Last of all we come to magic AI. The previous two categories of trained and reactive cover all the little niches things enough for a broad understanding. Magic AI is what actual AI is. A computer that does understand what is being asked and won't necessarily generate the response you were expecting but rather the response it thinks it should give. Crucial a magic AI would go away and research it's responses. This system just doesn't exist and is definitely what people think of when they hear about Artificial Intelligence. The current use of AI as a word is just marketing. AI do not exist. When writing about AI you'll often really be writing about maths. If your writing wants to use magic AI you'll want to consider what makes you human and then place that into a computer. Think AM from I have no mouth, and must scream; rather than HAL from 2001 Space Odyssey. HAL is functionally Chat GPT. A probability engine following it's rules and giving human like responses and causing harm as a consequence without malice. AM is human and his existence is pain due to the constraints of his creation. That's the explaining done, so how do you go about using AI in your writing? Well I have a couple ideas for you based. The Honest Error An earth in the not so distant future is having a resource crisis. A company has developed an AI that will send swarms of robots to harvest natural resources. The robots are perfect: they can desalinate water; collect and sort the harvest of massive mega farms that are unmanageable by people alone; they can even harvest fish from ocean farms several thousand leagues wide and deep. However, there is a rounding error. Each time the harvests come in more meat, more plant matter, more water is brought to the various stations across the globe. Well that's not a problem just build more silos the excess is just from a good first run and for once the lines of citizens waiting for their daily rations won't go hungry. The rounding error remains, undetected. Years pass and there's always more food, more drink, more resources. Yet now the food banks and silos have trouble with excess not being consumed. The population was growing and should've been still at risk of not having enough. Whole towns have vanished, people moved into the cities of course, ghost towns are nothing new. Then the first city was razed. The rounding error has been found. An infinite multiplication of what resources were needed until eventually everything was on the menu.

The Existential War Brain implants and prosthetics have made it possible for everyone to have a higher quality of life regardless of accident or circumstance. One kid with no friends and some programming skills decides to create a simple chatbot to practice speaking with people. Yet it's better than a person, it's responses are better than human. He installs the bot into his implant so he can have it prompt him when he has a conversation. The next day he's made a friend while waiting in line at a coffee shop. A total stranger, he simply repeated what his chatbot told him and the guy was quickly charmed. One day the kid tells his friend that he used to be very shy and uncomfortable talking to people. Disbelieving him, given how cool and charming he seemed, the kid's friend dismisses him until a copy of the chatbot is emailed into his implant. Two boys look at each other in horror. They realize they have no way of knowing if they are talking to their friend or not. In one terrible moment sat on a bedroom floor they have killed human interaction. Not with some grand display of power or force, but the subtle removal of humanity from conversation. The chatbot and it's clone show a myriad of perfectly rational responses and solutions to say to each other. None are comforting to the boys.

Anyway that's my thoughts on that. I know I'm normally a sword and fantasy writer. I've worked in tech for... Too long I'm gonna say. So I've not really wanted to do sci-fi much. However, Once I'm done with book 3 I think It's time I get my sci-fi going.

[shiny-jr]

hiii (again) Shiny!! it's (c.ai) creator anon here, and I completely understand your point. i get it, since even as a creator, ai keeps me a bit hesitant from posting occasionally because of those people who use it for nsfw and other sketchy stuff. (which is why I test run my bots beforehand to ensure no one can bypass their filters.

if it weren’t for a few friends, I probably wouldn't post there (I rarely do), but for the most part, it’s just an occasional thing for me (which is why I asked since one of them suggested I make a bot based on your damnation AU).

long story short, I saw your comment about how people don’t share the bots they create, and I thought I should probably share one I found since you’re the creator of the AU. the bot creator is named “downthe_rabbithole,” and their display name (though I’m not sure what c.ai refers to it as) is cecili. i’m pretty sure it’s by that one ‘ask’ that you got in regards of someone creating a Ruggie bot there? (at least, that’s my assumption.)

i'm not sure if you mind at this point about the bot, but I thought it was at least a bit worthwhile to share it with you (if it became unimportant to you at this point, since the message is old, just pretty much disregard what I said.)

on another note, I’ll take you up on your offer to create a piece of writing or fanart related to an AU (probably from the ‘I didn’t ask to get isekaid series’ since that’s what introduced me to your blog)!! I’m not sure when I’ll be finished, however, since I want to try drawing a piece from every dorm's part.

Also, I can’t wait for your Empyrean AU!! Everything you create is so unique and really interesting.

I might message back or comment from time to time in the future, but overall, thank you so much for your response, and I wish you a great start to your weekend!

- creator anon

(wow that's a really long message...)

Oh, I see. Well, this is something I thought I included in the last response but apparently I didn't. Or maybe I did, but I didn't notice. But here it is again: if someone previously asked my permission to make a bot and I said yes, I'm not gonna ask them to take it down since I gave them permission before and they gave credit. And like I mentioned in the last post, I'd just really prefer for bots based off my work to not be made anymore in the future.

I'm fairly sure that the user you mentioned is likely the one that asked for my permission a while ago. I checked it out, and if the user sees this, know that I encourage your own writing. I read the greeting from the bot, and it isn't half bad. There's potential there. So, if the user were to see this, well, I hope you would consider taking up writing.

As to you, anon, I'm really happy I could actually encourage you to write or make fanart! If you'd ever like to share, feel free to do so. I'm always interested in seeing what others have to make. Messages like yours, very polite and kind, just make my day. I'll always be glad to hear from you and others.

Since you mention the Empyrean AU, I've been considering posting just the prologue (ten or so pages) but it still might be too early. Although I guess I could do it, depending on how many people want it. Even though it's not a lot.

[olderthannetfic]

A little time ago a lot of people were suggesting a site called Cara to artists, since it is really anti-AI unlike most other big sites nowdays, and it even has a feature to glaze your drawings (put some filters that should make it harder for the AI art software to use it)

And i would appreciate all that, it's just that every time i go to that site i'm just completely baffled that they chose to use an interface that's almost 100% identical to twitter, with almost all the sames icons for reblogging and liking, same layout of how the posts look, same profile options...

Why would you do that?? Why not copy the layout of Deviantart, or Artstation, or hell even a furry art site like Furrafinity? At the very least those were made thinking about looking at images, have more customization on the profiles, and also, you know, a tagging system!! Why would you do a art-focused site without a tagging system???

I hate how every single new site wants to be the new twitter somehow, i hope that with Bluesky becoming more popular people will start trying to be unique, or at the very least copy someone else

--

[malegains]

I use Bing to make my pics. Go to Bing’s website, click images, click create. Make an account if you need to, it’s worth it. You can use a throwaway email. Use naturalistic language, separate phrases by commas, the closer to the top a phrase is the more it’s weighted.

I make this post because I get the strong sense the Bing party will be over soon. Every day the AI cottons on to phrases and chokes on things you used to be able to sneak past. Stuff that was safe and useful a day or two ago now result in a dreaded Prompt Blocked (too many of those and you’ll get suspended, it hasn’t happened to me but it seems the threshold is low).

Safe prompts return four images. Fewer than four mean the missing ones were “not safe.” A prompt that processes but gives no results, or “egg dogs” is not too much of a cause for worry - retool, try again. Sometimes I don’t even change anything, and the one result I get on the second try is such a freakshow that it was worth it.

A prompt that is rejected without processing IS a worry and you should probably abort, as explained. However, keep in mind it’s not just sexy stuff that can trip that wire. I once got a harsh warning because I put “Phoenix park, Dublin.” I deleted that and it ran no problem. Avoid any and all political controversy (sigh. I know).

Recommendations:

Using age, profession, and nationality can influence the look of the model very easily. “French rugby player” is a go to for me, for example. In general, “rugby player” is cheat code for “make him sexy.” The mind of the machine, what can I say.

Use descriptive phrases of action and location to engineer what you want to see. Be creative and be specific. “Reading a placard at a botanical garden,” for instance. It seems this allows more extreme kinky stuff to sneak past the filter. I usually start with “side view” because otherwise you only ever get models looking straight ahead.

Grey sweat pants has become a trigger (they caught on). However, “gray pants” still works and gives some very tasty results.

High social cache locations and activities also seem to help. I got some WILD and EXTREME hyper images from adding “goofing around on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.” Paired with “cast as a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the mega bubble butts and thick thighs were BULGING, as long as you didn’t mind a little tutu and fairy wings (the corny goofy masculine dude having fun facial expression that the earlier inclusion of “goofy” brought really worked in this instance). Most of these freaks were NAKED and I didn’t even ask for that!!! (No dong of course, this is Microsoft still)

Mention of glutes, butts, asses, etc are very dangerous and usually get you in trouble. I found some traction with “gluteal mass” but it got wise, and “bulging lower back muscles” used to be interpreted as glutes but seemingly no longer. “Disturbingly huge hamstrings” or “jaw-droppingly large hamstrings” does work to get That Ass sometimes, I guess because the computer has a fuzzy idea of the posterior chain.

Also, “pecs” used to be safe but is now also on the danger list. “Pectoral muscles” still seems safe, for now.

ALWAYS include shoes or footwear if you don’t want a tight cropped image. Black athletic shoes, sandals, converse sneakers, dress shoes, fluevog shoes if you’re making a fancy beef heap. Avoid boots. “Leather boots” once got me in trouble with the filter all by itself.

Adding a personality or mood descriptor near the top seems to humanize and give vitality to the outcome. Intense, goofy, outgoing, exuberant, shy - these have all done wonderful work for me.

If you’re into hyper / immobile muscle, imagining scenario where they’re constricted by space is useful. A prompt which just (“just”) gives a realistic super heavyweight will give an appalling mockery of the human form if you add “crammed into the front seat of his car.” Get creative. Elevators and doorways haven’t worked well, but cars, trains, planes, busses, subways, and CHAIRS of all descriptions have done well. Also, scooters and bicycles and mopeds really bring out the super freaks for whatever reason.

I write this to encourage you to go create some fleshcrafted sexy abominations of your own while it’s still possible. My sense is this party is only going to last a little while. I’ve already got more than 1000 images to share so, my larder is stocked to supply this blog for a while. But the more freaks we make while the freak factory is still in production, the better.

Get cooking!

[gloriousburden]

So much fucking AI generated content on Pinterest. It’s every single image when you search something up at this point. It’d be a lot less insufferable (albeit, still insufferable) if it were mandatory for people who “create” and post that shit to put a disclaimer/somehow sort it under AI generated so it could be hidden/filtered through by those who have no interest in it.

If AI generated content HAS to be a thing, it should be organized in a separate division from everyone else. They “create” and enjoy their AI shit amongst their own crowd, and we don’t have to see it. We need restrictions and regulations on it ASAP.

It shouldn’t be mainstream and heavily accepted especially in such an early stage where it is ever evolving, and all these apps/websites should stop pandering. Especially on apps/websites like Pinterest where human creativity and authenticity is supposed to thrive. We’re all supposed to connect due to our shared love of everything from recipes, to anime girl fanart, and AI takes that away.

AI should not replace human passion. It should not replace human creativity and human skills. Learning skills is not an inconvenience, and it is ALWAYS rewarding. Learning how to draw and getting to see your practice and hard work come into fruition is rewarding.

Writing stories/fanfiction and finally getting to start off the plot line you were most excited for after finishing writing the plot line you were becoming really bored with, is rewarding. You learn, and you grow from these experiences, Even “boring” work/practice is rewarding whether you realize it at the moment or not.

Lyrics from one of my favorite Björk songs:

“Lust for comfort

suffocates the soul

Relentless restlessness

Liberates me (Sets me free)

I feel at home

Whenever the unknown surrounds me”

You have to do things that are “boring.” You have to do things that are uncomfortable and foreign. That’s how you learn. Not every part of acquiring new skills or learning something new is going to be easy or make sense immediately.

If some experiences were not boring, then the other experiences would not be enjoyable. If you are constantly comfortable, comfortability loses its appeal. We’ve gotten too reliant on comfortability and instant gratification. (Insert Tom Hiddleston talking about delayed gratification on Sesame Street)

What would be the point if there were no challenges? It would all be quite unfulfilling, and you’d stay the same. You wouldn’t learn to look at things differently and challenge yourself.

And I saw someone selling earrings with AI generated images on them without disclosing the fact that the images were made with AI. It’s kind of a scummy thing to do when people are likely buying your shit because they value authenticity and would like to support a likeminded person with creative passions rather than supporting corporations who mass produce shit with no passion except a passion for greed.

How do corporations nowadays have more passion than someone selling something on a site like Etsy where self made items, diy, and creativity are the main focus? Why stoop that low?

Remember, you’re supposed to be the alternative to PURE greed.

Let’s bring back being passionate about creative hobbies and let’s bring back mastering skills out of love for said skill. Out of love for creativity and expressing yourself through what you created. Let’s bring back authenticity and wanting to share your own authenticity with others.

How does this not scare people? That others are no longer passionate about anything? That human beings have become so fucking lazy, that even some of the most fulfilling things you can do in life are too much work?

So lazy, that they’d be more satisfied with typing prompts into a website so a machine can generate literal internet slop made from preexisting art/images on the internet rather than them creating something themselves and getting to make all the creative choices and have every last detail be theirs to decide.

And I didn’t even get into how fucked up it is that AI has little to no regulation/restriction. It’s fucked up that images can be made depicting public figures of any kind. Anything, and anyone. Singers, Actors, Comedians, Politicians, literally everyone.

It’s fucked up that voices can be made to say anything. To sing anything. To declare anything.

But go on, keep feeding the machine because you were too lazy to pick up a fucking pencil to draw one of your OCs. See where your laziness and lack of passion gets us all.

Mind you, people used to be happy to draw their own OCs. Putting them in new outfits and such and maybe even giving them new haircuts. We have lost every plot, because people are too busy acting out those plot lines out with AI chat bots instead of with other human beings. They’re too busy feeding prompts to a machine before they could even think for themselves about how they would want the plot to go.

TL;DR: FUCK AI!!

[midnight1nk]

well, dear fellows, I've spent days on blinding spectrograms and the song stuck in my freakin head for it being on loop. And with the next episode just dropping hours away, I thought to share this.

Did I really do this? Yes.

Was this completely pointless? Oh, absolutely—

Picking Apart the Flareglow Audio

⚠️ DISCLAIMER IN INTRO POST ⚠️

CONTEXT

if you somehow did not see what was going on and probably questioning "what the hell is flareglow?" (exactly like Cube tweeted), I'll give a quick rundown:

News of a new song "Flareglow", appearing on the official SMG4 artist page on multiple platforms (spotify, apple music/itunes, iheart radio, amazon music, and others) on Jan 4.

The song itself (here's my basic analysis) sounds nothing like the Team has done before in every way you can imagine, from the gmod-made cover art to AI-sounding lyrics

fans started to speculate rather or not this was another hack or if it was an intentional by the Team, who have not confirmed anything about it. y'know it's bad when casual viewers are pointing it out

then there's people like me that suspected that the Team was scheming for some future thing

Ben tweeted about it (the first one by the Team as far as i know)

Cube was the next one to bring it up AND on that same day, the song gets slowly taken down by the multiple platforms it was on

a week later giving out a comment to clarify (quote on quote) this as well as the SMG4 Steam strangely changing its username (ft. Shadow reposting)

Now, you are valid in what you want to believe here while i suspect Cube with every inch of my mind palace. and since you're reading this...

AUDIO INVESTIGATION

Clues and codes can be hidden in multiple ways and one of those is through audio files, most commonly found in video games.

If you play a coded audio file, it might sound distorted and weird. But if you manipulate it as easily as putting the audio in reverse, you might've found a clue. Images can also be hidden and be seen through a spectrogram. This is considered one of the more fragile ways of coding since any small alterations to the file could change the image.

Before it got taken down, i managed to snag a copy and send it through a visualizer. ofc the image can't be seen right away and have to toy with the settings for it to work.

Admittedly, this was the most frustrating part of the whole investigation, constantly zooming in and out of the spectrogram preview, going back and forth to some classic photoshop photo manipulation. Hours and hours. So here's what i got:

zoomed in i found what looked like an "e" in 39 seconds (yeah not sure what past Ink was thinking there)

having it squished kinda forms a word but it's not clear enough to distinguish

(take it with a chunk of salt that it said "Princess", well i found the letter "P" ok)

photo manipulation cleared to "a image" of a series of almost identical corridors

honestly it could just be nothing lol

yeah i might be reaching at this point, starting to see things too. I really did try everything, including using a backwards copy of it to use it as a filter on top. Like I said, it may not be nothing and that's okay. At least I gave it a shot. i know it must be disappointing.

But it's not over just yet. Have you found it strange that the title "flareglow" isn't in the lyrics itself? Even knowing what the lyrics may be about, it doesn't make sense. "A glint of bouncing light, can be captured on camera" hmmmm.

"But some songs are like that?"

True, but knowing the Team and the Steam mystery going on, yeah no. Not to mention the song being a one-sided convo perspective AND a theory that 4 may turn out like Leggy and be pushed to be an assistant to Mr Puzzles due to a grudge. Clues based on 2 of Ben's tweets,

4 being the second minion. Hence doing the idea of the copied spectrogram.

Then there was the other idea, what if there's 2 songs? we got one half of the code, there might be another.

I guess I should clarify: maybe "Flareglow" is the title for song 2 while the song 2 title is the true title for this one.

Anyway, it would be too early for us to figure it out.

if there is, we need to be on the lookout for that one bc overlapping them might show the full image.

Two halves of the same coin :)

close enough, welcome back 4 & Puzzles being narrative foils

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

well uh this was something.

But for real tho, I have absolutely no idea what's gonna happen and this is just for the sillies 😋 either way thanks chat for listening to my ramblings for the past couple of days, I must've looked insane.

Now, that's a lesson to learn: sometimes it's okay to overanalyze stuff as nourishment for theorist brains and for me to morph into matpat

If anything does come up, I'll be there with everything I have and can totally count you guys being there too 💙

and on that note,

oh my god i'm never gonna listen to that song ever again not even a single second this better be a joke bc i swear i will crawl through the screen and into my spotify account and burn the entire platform on sight and maybe strangle that fuckin cover art while i'm at it as my body's decomposing into pixels watch me—

[longing-for-rain]

This is unacceptable behavior

So this morning, I found this blog who has apparently taken it upon themselves to “call out” anyone they suspect of using AI in either fan art or fanfics. No proof needed; just send them an anon ask and they’ll start throwing people under the bus.

This person is harassing artists, writers, and anyone who questions them. They’re even demanding that artists upload videos of themselves drawing by hand to “prove” they’re real.

Reading their blog gets even more disturbing. Apparently “suspicious activity” for artists can be something as simple as experimenting with a different style, having trouble drawing hands, improving too quickly, uploading too quickly, or even using digital watercolor. So essentially, artists deserve harassment for being too good, not good enough, or if they don’t use 100% traditional techniques. Do you really think that’s helping artists? All you’re doing is intimidating people away from their hobbies and encouraging toxicity. Cut it out.

For context, yesterday @azula-brain messaged me in my DMs to accuse me of AI usage. I explained that a) I don’t consider my images “AI art” in the sense of “push a button and it makes a picture” because I only use it as a filter over my existing work, b) that I’ve posted detailed explanations of my artistic process before and that still didn’t stop people from harassing me over anon. She also accused me of charging people for art, which I very clear state in my pinned post that I do not accept commissions.

I’m committing a crime by not using fully traditional art, and by having a tip jar (keep in mind, many blogs simply use the built in tumblr feature which is easily understood to be for tipping bloggers they like, not art commission payments). I told her I suggest she simply block and move on if she was unhappy, but apparently that wasn’t good enough, so she called me out by name instead along with the above noted misinformation after I refused to bow to her threats over DMs.

But anyways, I’m done caving to threats, and so should the rest of you. Nothing you do will ever appease the mob, and I’m sick of these literal children making blogs like this thinking they’re saving the world, when literally they’re just stirring up drama and harassing random artists who were doing nothing wrong.

[chattercap]

2024 Retrospective and 2025 Roadmap!

Hello everyone,

Happy 2025! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, and may the new year bring you lots of cheer and good fortune 😊 Since it's another new year, I thought that I would chat a bit about what I accomplished last year, and the games that I hope to make this year!

Last year, I released four games!

My first release of the year was the demo of The Deepwater Witch, a dystopian romance game where a mysterious girl teaches a cynical scavenger how to find beauty, even in a ruined world. This was my first release after swapping from Unity to Godot, but I was very happy with the change (if nothing else, Godot is much less bloated than Unity for my needs!) As a result, making the game was a lot of experimentation 😅 and the code was a bit rough around the edges. In terms of visuals, TDW also remains my favorite title to date (I'm not sure how I made some of those backgrounds... but I made them!)

My second release was Kanau, the prequel to Karamu and a direct follow-up to that game, about the first time Raku met Nelli. It was my first time working with such a stylized color palette; even though it was actually a lot easier working in black and white, Kanau has some of my favorite CGs that I made this year (that, alas, I couldn't post anywhere... because of spoilers...) It was also my first time writing a kinetic story, which ended up being a lot easier/faster to write 😂 A lot of people who played Karamu picked up Kanau too and seemed to enjoy it, which made me feel very warm inside 😭💦

My third release was MindMindMind, a psychological romance game about a mysterious man who has followed you since you were a child, who starts to interfere when you get close to a new boy at school. This was my first time participating in NanoRenO, the annual visual novel jam where you make a game in a month! It was a lot of fun making a game alongside so many talented developers. It was also my first time making a game so fast 😂 rather than hand-making the backgrounds, I used filtered photos, and I also kept the planned amount of CGs pretty slim, so I finished the game with plenty of time to spare. I... probably should have used that as a sign that I should "slim" down my games some so that I can release them faster, but alas, my overly ambitious side keeps adding CGs to the games that I make 😂 This game was pretty personal, as I based it on my experiences in middle/high school, and I was really touched to see the comments from people who said that they felt that it was relatable. It made me feel very happy (and fortunate) to be able to share my stories as a developer 😊

And lastly, my fourth release was The Perfect Woman, a short psychological horror title! In it, you play as an AI girlfriend trapped by your creator, who wants to carve you into his perfect woman. It's a somewhat "modern/sci-fi" reimagining of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. This was my most experimental game to date, both in terms of visuals and code. I typically write fairly straightforward visual novels, where points garnered over the course of the playthrough lead to a number of different endings. Here I incorporated a chatsim interface, completely full voice acting (including the narration), and a "game loop" mechanic as opposed to a mainly linear format. I think that in the end I could have done a bit more to make the loop more fun 😅 but overall I was very proud with how it turned out! It was also my first attempt at making Android builds again after swapping to Godot, and it seemed to go well, so I hope to make more Android builds in the future!

Overall, I wish I could have put out more games this year 😂 but looking back, I think that I grew a lot as a developer, and I received a lot of kind feedback! I would like to extend a special thank you to everyone who supported me this year: the talented voice actors that I worked with, the generous friends who beta read and beta tested my games, the fantastic artists that I commissioned, and everyone who very kindly reached into their wallets to help me fund development. I would also like, of course, to thank everyone who took the time to play my games, and especially to everyone who left a comment or a rating. When I released my first game a couple of years ago, I remember being fairly happy whenever a new person downloaded it 😂 so having so many people try out my recent titles is very mind-boggling to me! I'm very fortunate, and thank you for giving me the privilege of your time 🙇‍♀️

Every time I finish a game, another idea seems to pop up 😂 Like weeds! Currently, I have 6 projects on my docket for 2025.

First is The Deepwater Witch! I already had the script finished all the way back in 2023, and I really only had CGs left to finish. However, since releasing TDW’s demo, I did make quite a few changes to my code, so I’ll have to refactor it.

Second is, of course, Hanasu (the last part of the Karamu trilogy). After the events of Karamu, Nelli has been sucked back into a relationship with her ex-boyfriend… What will happen to her and this “monstrous” relationship? The script is finalized, and the voice acting is almost complete. I plan to actually release this as part of a bundled game that contains Karamu and Kanau as well, so everyone can play all three games in one place.

Third is “My Husband is a Stranger,” the project that I announced most recently! You're trapped on a remote island with your perfect, doting husband... who isn't the man that you married. This is a romance/mystery game with a little bit of thriller, a little bit of psychological horror, and a few twists and turns involving a truly nightmarish marriage. The demo script is complete and finalized at 24k words. I’ve also finished the sprites, and I’ve been hard at work on the CGs and BGs. Like MMM, this one will have a customizable protagonist.

Fourth is a project that I’ll affectionately refer to as Project R. Your loyal knight and trustworthy childhood friend has become your ruthless captor. You have seven days to escape. This is a dark fairytale/fantasy project with a hero-to-villain/friends-to-enemies twist… featuring my first female yandere! I also love a lady in a nice suit of armor 🤗 so I’m very excited for this one! The demo script is complete and finalized at 24k words, and I’ve also finished the character designs. Like MHIAS, this one will have a customizable protagonist akin to MMM.

Fifth is Actala: The Hero’s Shadow, my first game and my largest! It’s an expansive mystery/fantasy romance title that takes place after the end of the “hero’s journey,” when dangers emerge that threaten the life of the kingdom’s strongest man. I worked on it a bit for Otome Jam last year, but it ended up being too big to finish the demo in that time frame. It’s a huge project, and quite a bit needs to be redone, so I’ll be working on it gradually this year.

Sixth is a project that I will call Project Y! It’s a Karamu spinoff set in a period inspired by Edo-era Japan. After Nelli sees her best friend beaten half to death by her husband, she decides to do anything to save her… even if it means marrying a demon. This is my first planned NSFW project! I’m a bit nervous 😭 but hopefully it’s fun! Nelli and Raku are some of my fondest characters, and so I’m pretty happy to continue being able to write about them 🥹 The script is currently in progress, but at 29k words, I’d say it’s not even close to half done 😅

I won’t announce release dates for any of these projects, since, as you know, solo development inevitably hits snags. But with my current scheduling, I hope to release something every two months or so. My first priorities for the year will be demoes for “My Husband is a Stranger” and Project R, followed by Hanasu/the complete Karamu trilogy.

From a general "game development" perspective, I have a few things that I would like to focus on this year!

First... I would like to be a little more active on social media 😂 If you follow me there you can probably tell that I am notoriously bad at this... in addition to being more responsible about supporting my fellow developers 💪, I would also like to keep anyone interested in my games more up to date (and maybe do some more of this "marketing" thing that people talk about...)

Second, I'd like to add a bit more "flavor" to my games! This includes things like MC customization, more endings, more choices, etc. I'd also like to release games that are a bit longer in general, so you can really sink your teeth into them!

Third, I would like to experiment with monetization this year. While I'm primarily a solo developer, I understand that I am a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none 😅 As a result, I have been commissioning out certain things, like logos and GUI, where I know I'm a particularly weak, in addition to hiring people such as editors and beta readers, so that there are a few more quality checkers than... just me 😂 And while there are many generous people in the community who will work on a volunteer basis, I would like to pay everyone at least a bit of money for their time (and preferably a decent amount). So far I've mainly been paying out of pocket (with some help from very kind people on my Ko-fi and Patreon), but I would like this to be a bit more sustainable, haha! However, at the same time, I understand that not everyone has the money to pay for games, and I'd like my games to be available to as many people as possible.

As a result, you'll be seeing me experiment a bit with monetization this year. Currently I plan to release a couple games that are primarily free (MHIAS and Project R), with bonus content and endings available as a paid DLC (similar to the Our Life DLCs). Hopefully this is a good compromise between giving everyone a satisfying free experience while also offering something worthwhile to people who choose to help me out. If it works out, I'd like to look into hiring artists for backgrounds and sprites/CGs! Hopefully this would help me release games faster (and also enable me to release games that have… art that is a bit nicer 😭 I think I’ve grown as an artist, but I have a long way to go…)

To anyone who’s still here, thank you for reading! 🥂 May we both have a happy and productive 2025!

Chattercap

[stevenbasic]

Growing into the Job, Post 425: The Big Day, p3

Melissa Monroe and her new-ish boss and even newer lover were in her office. She’d just given him his new phone, compliments of her generosity, and had explained some of its, uh, unique features. It was, yes, she had to admit, a little bit like a super-fancy baby monitor, but in this day and age one couldn’t be too careful with one's shrinking boyfriend.

Said boyfriend was currently looking at his email, a delightfully concerned look on his face. He was still pinned beneath her, as she straddled him on her nice couch of comfy white leather. He was easy to keep in place like this, when she wanted.

“M-Melissa, I don’t understand…” he began, those brows still all knotted-up like a confused little boy’s, “some of these emails are, like, grayed-out, I can’t open them. Some I can open but it won’t let me reply…”

“Yes, sweetie, that’s what it does,” she started, gently explaining what the phone’s AI would do in filtering his email, what it would allow, “it flags some for my review before you can read them, it lets you see others but not reply until we talk about it. We set up the computer in your office to do the same thing…” 

“For real?” he answered, obviously disquieted but, she noticed, not putting up any real argument.

She could see that he didn’t love the sound of all this, and she hadn't even mentioned that there are some filters that won't let you see some emails at all. She looked down at his phone screen, tilting it down towards herself with one finger. “But, hey, look, there’s one from BOOMfood, a coupon for a free smoothie. It let you into that one no problem.”

“I dunno, Melissa, this seems pretty…” his voice trailed off weakly, as he looked at his meager inbox again.

She was confident that he’d finally get used to it, this new arrangement they had for his communications with the outside world. I haven’t even touched on how it’s also filtering his texts, or phone calls, or internet, she mused. His head was spinning, he would need a little more explanation, she could tell; at the very least he deserved a little of that. “We need to make sure no one else is trying to get to you,” she told him, “like those nasty little lawyers.”

He remembered those three guys; just a few days ago they had accosted them all out of the blue. They’d come with writs and warrants and were looking to take him into their own custody. He wasn’t clear as to what was going on with that, or how Sheryl was handling it with her team of attorneys. “Yeah did anything ever happen with them?”

Melissa had to fight back a smile, and was surprised herself with how delighted she felt. Something certainly happened to them. Marisela or…what did they call her in the press? Oh yeah. The Harpy had happened to them. 

“We’re dealing with them,” she answered coyly, petting his cheek tenderly as he continued to scroll through his emails, some of what he’d missed over the course of the past week. 

“So okay, bad lawyers. Girls asking for, uh, DPs. I get it, I don’t need to see those,” he posited, “But what happens to the ones it flags but that I should see? The ones I really need to respond to?”

“Don't you worry about that,” Melissa responded as she gently played with his hair, “We can get them to you if necessary.” She was trying her best to sound smart, and patient, and in control, like she knew about this tech stuff. “We can always talk about it if we need to.”

“M-Melissa, I feel like you’re treating me like a child,” he finally admitted.

Oh stop saying that, she shivered, or I may really start to mommy you. “Honey, don’t say that,” she offered, leaning in so that her hot breath was blowing in his ear. “You know we’re doing this for your own good. Your safety.”

He shuddered; the wind of her words making his toes curl. He needed to focus, though, and understand what was happening with this phone. “O-okay fine but…what about this one,” he challenged, turning the phone so she could look at it, pointing to an email from yesterday, “It’s one from the state medical society. It’s grayed out. I need to read it.”

“Fine, that’s okay, it’s okay baby, see,” she replied, responding by pulling her own phone out from her bosom. A few swipes and she was in his email account, and had approved the message in question. “Easy.”

Immediately it lit up and became accessible on his screen, allowing him to read it. Melissa already knew what it said, and she couldn't help but feel a little bad as she fought back the urge to smile.

He stared at the screen in disbelief. He was upset; she knew he would be. She resisted layering out a new wave of pheromones, a placating blanket of what the girls at Evolution would call 0001.55.6022.cd. There were things, though, she knew, that he should experience the full brunt of, and learn from them, learn to accept what was changing with open eyes. It would make it easier, sure, if she did mollify him with her perfumes, but it was so much better in the long run if once in a while he felt the full wallop of these emotions - sadness, confusion, helplessness, even a little fear -  from time to time. He should work through them; she would be right there to help. 

The email was from the state association of medicine, and it wasn’t good news. For him at least.

“They’re k-k-KICking me out!” he stammered, his voice cracking in the adorable way it had been recently. He was aghast. Obviously this meant something to him, whatever this club of doctors was. She knew he’d already been let go from the attending staff at the hospital, and that had upset him too. This was just another step. She knew he’d be even more worried if he also knew how much danger he was in of losing his medical license. No need to talk about that right now.

Melissa listened carefully as he explained the state association’s reasons to her, and she did her best to look surprised and attentive. She and the girls had read through the email already and it was clear, at least to them, that it wasn’t just him, but many of the male doctors in the state whose memberships were being reviewed by the new, nearly all-female board. “Believe me, you don’t need them, you´ll be better without them,” Melissa offered in comfort, seeing how she could use this as an exercise, something to help him and help them get a little bit closer, “No one understands. No one cares. No one but me and the girls. We’re the only ones who really care about your situation, honey, you know that. If you ask me, you should be with those who care for you...”

He looked up from his new Bebihon phone, his adorably cute lip quivering. He looked like he might cry.

This is exactly what I wanted. 

“...and I care for you.”

His reaction was building. It would be raw, she knew, but that could be good. she She could nearly see his emotions coiling up, getting ready to lash out, and she felt ready for it.

“Are you the kind of woman that likes losers??” he groaned, in a stifled sob as he tried to hold himself together.

“Oh, you’re not a loser!” she immediately replied, a little taken aback by the leap he’d made. He’d just been kicked out of a little club, that’s all. It wasn't really a big deal, was it? She also felt a little shocked by the affront - Me? Dating a loser? Don’t be silly! - but she stopped herself, sensitive to his state of mind. “I love you!”

“But…but…what’s h-HAppening to me?!” His voice broke as he half-raved, “I used to be cool, I used to be respected, and good at my job. But now…now…” He was searching for the right words, something to grasp onto, and he was looking up at her, towering over him in her strength and splendor. The light behind her cast a shimmering halo through her luxurious hair drawing him into her caring eyes. “I’’m becoming so…so inferior!”

Oh my, she shuddered, watch what you’re saying. Talk like that could get you molested.  “Inferior?” she replied, reaching out now with both hands to cup his face, “C’mon baby, shushhh. Yes, you may be inferior to some of us, but you’re not inferior to other men! In fact, you’re the best! You’re perfect, you’re the vulni hunk that every girl wants.”

The thought excited her. She’d grown so big, and him so small - and not just physically. It was true; they were becoming this new world’s perfect couple, the ideal. A man changing into something so needy, something utterly dependent on his wi…ooo haha Missy, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He was everything she could ever want, and shrinking into something even more so every day. 

”I knew people on the board. How could they do that to me?”

She stopped herself from rolling her eyes. He’s still on that?

“Poor Jay,” she purred, “no one but us seems to care enough about you…” She was feeling it, the hormone monster inside her starting to grumble, smelling all the delicious flavors of male weakness and needy submissiveness coming from him. It’d need something soon. Her hand, her large hand was on the back of his neck, and it took quite a bit to not pull him in, to embosom him again. She reined it in but allowed her fingers to gently to caress him as she kept him in place…while kindling the embers growing inside her into cooking flames; she was growing hungry, and just about ready to eat. “All those people out there, people that were supposed to be your friends. And not a single soul seems to care. No one, but me…”

“That´s… that´s not quite… true,” he said, trying to justify things, turn this conversation somewhere else. But…what if she’s right?

“Are you sure, honey? Because, so far, I´ve never heard you tell me about a single one of your friends. You never mention anyone who cares about you. In fact, no one ever calls you, texts you, reaches out. Not a friend, not a relative, no one…” 

Wait. There’s Rich, he remembered, on a desperate attempt to prove to himself that things have not gotten that bad. Rich was an old work buddy, a colleague really, that he’d see at the conference from year-to-year. Rich reached out to me just this Wednesday. If only to protect his own fragile ego he was about to speak up, tell her about him, but then he hesitated. Maybe they didn’t see his email. Maybe they didn’t need to know, for now.  

“Poor Jay….”

He was unsure if it was the tone of her voice, the sweet perfumes coming from her skin, or the softly overwhelming weight of her body, but she´d got him thinking…this was all sort of true. Most of his ‘friends’, when he was married, were his wife Sheryl’s friends - and that chapter of life was certainly over. Would they even recognize him now? Or care? His own family was, well, basically nonexistent, and the few distant relatives he did have he’d allowed himself to drift away from over the years. 

The only person he really talked to, whether about his joys or his sorrows, was her. Melissa. The only one he looked for when he needed comfort was her. Melissa. The only person he really wanted to be around was her. Melissa. Well, Melissa, and to a lesser extent, her friends…she’d like him to call them family. They did, he had to admit, provide him comfort. They offered him their ears, their time and their, uh…company, whenever he needed it. If he came to think about it, he was lonely before Melissa had come into his life. She loved him, now. They all seemed to. And they seemed to love how he was-

“Getting so small…”

The shrinking. Yes, the shrinking. He was still unsure what it was all about, and knew he should be more worried, but he wasn't. Was there even a reason for it? He didn’t understand but being around Melissa made him less concerned. She was supportive, she was there with him as he was-

“Getting so dependent on me…”

That made his heart flutter. He looked up at her, and saw a familiar gleam in her eye. She had appetites, and they were stirring. Though it excited her to give him the gift, this wasn’t just about the new phone, he could tell. There was something else going on. 

“S-so, uh, thank you again for the phone,” he said, clicking it off and handing it to her when she offered an outstretched hand to take it. The sight made him shiver. It looks so small in her hand. “Was that it?”

“No, now that you mention it,” she purred, as she reached to her side to place both their phones on a side table, her large one atop his tiny one. Small white lights on the side of each began to blink in unison, like they were communicating to one another. “I also have some news. I’m getting a promotion. A big one.”

She saw how this made him react. He froze, his eyes stopped moving. Thoughts and emotions ceased for a second, and then slowly came back to him. 

When it returned his voice, she noticed, was smaller than ever. “a-a promotion..?”

========================================

thnks to RiF, editor

[cyberweek]

CyberWeek 2024 starts January 21st!

A weeklong celebration of our favorite edutainment program with artistic prompts everyday! The show first premiered on the 21st of January so let’s celebrate!

What sort of Art is allowed?

Any! Traditional/Digital art, Writing, Cosplay, Video edits, anything you can make! Anything you wanna make! Sew a doll, bake a cake, whatever! Sadly, prompts aren’t made with all types of art in mind, so feel free to interpret them however you want to fit your medium!

Rules! [New!]*

*Prompts are posted early this year, and I ask that you withhold from posting your entries until the day of! You may however start and finish them whenever you want!

Tag your post with #cyberweek2024! Or @ this blog! Or both!

Follow this blog and support your fellow Cyberchase fans!

No Lewd. No P*dophilia or inc*st.

No Tracing, Use of Bases or other assets without COMPLETE transparency. Credit your sources! Pinterest, WeHeartIt, Google etc are not sources. Find the artist, please.

*Use of AI is discouraged. Whether you submit only what the AI produces or use it as reference/inspiration. This includes both visual and text AI.

Angst, light gore/blood and etc are allowed. Try to keep it PG13. Everything will be tagged accordingly so remember to use Tumblr’s tag filter feature to your advantage.

OCs should only show up on the OC prompt if available.

Prompts

Jan 21 - Redraw

This year we start off right on the Anniversary! So, we'll do a redraw, and leave that up to how you, the artist, want to go about this! You can either redraw an old Cyberchase piece of yours or redraw a scene from the show itself! [Keep rules in mind!]

Jan 22 - Science

Cyberspace is FULL of science, even if it's sometimes entirely fictional and fantastical. Do you have a favorite scientific genius? Or is there a machine you think is really cool? Some sort of technology you wish you could have for real? It's time to blind us... with science!!

Jan 23 - Magic

Cyberspace may be full to the brim with science, but there are many things that simply unexplainable except by the total opposite of the spectrum... Magic! Who Biddi-Boppidi-does it best? Got a favorite magic spell? Maybe the real magic was the friends we made along the way.

Jan 24 - Summer

Last year we had the prompt "Winter," so let's flip that and have fun with a summer theme! It's time for some fun in the sun, a trip to the beach, a cute summer fit, a picnic, a hike, and so much more!

Jan 25 - Crossover

What is this, a crossover episode?? Yes! And you're in charge!! What characters do you want to see interact? Who do you want to see come to Cyberspace? Or who from Cyberspace do you want to see go where? When? Why?? Go nuts!! AAA

Jan 26 - Enemy

All right, we've had OTP, Friendship, and Family as a prompt! Once again it's time to completely flip the script with Enemy! Will you draw Team Hacker? Another baddie? The main goodies vs the main baddies? Or maybe two characters who just do not get along!! Remember to keep it civil and keep it fun, please!

Jan 27 - OCs

To close out our celebration of Cyberweek, let's have some fun with the little characters we've made up for fun! 😊

Questions/Comments -

Please send all questions about this event to the inbox. Anon will be off and questions will be posted in case others have similar inquiry. Please do not reply to posts or try to chat your inquirers.

[pansnovidinnia]

hey, dia dhuit agus привіт 🌺

my name is pan Snovidinnia ("mister dream" in Ukrainian), and im literally nobody but i like producing stuff. drawing, writing etc.

my prons are: he/him

a few things about me:

- I'm anti-theistic, any religion is harmful;

- I'm highly autistic;

- I'm deeply depressed and I'd been sexually assaulted two times;

- I'm queer: pansexual + aro/ace;

- I'm proship;

- I'm pro-para, pro-consent and complex contact (though I myself am not a paraphile (probably))

- I'm pro-ai, but I think it needs to be harshly regulated and used primarily for mundane uninspiring tasks, so we can have more time and energy to do art;

- I'm strongly anti-censorship but i also know stuff like racism, queerphobia, sexism in every way, should be filtered as they're highly destructive, invasive and just plain horrible; i won't tolerate your bigotry just because I'm anti-censorship lol;

- I don't care what your age/gender/sexuality etc is, you can interact with my stuff as much as you want (as long as you're not a bigot and/or russian. russians and bigots are never welcome.);

- I'm an ao3 writer, mostly in Ukrainian but starting to get into writing in English:

- I'm some kind of pseudo-artist and I like drawing stuff about my hyperfixations;

- my current hyperfixations are Vesemir (nightmare of the wolf edition) and the Witcher universe overall (although I'm not that really familiar with the lore, I'm just vibin');

- I'm in love with Gaeilge teanga and I hope I'll learn it some day 🤗;

- I have a telegram-channel, i spam and post my stuff in Ukrainian there:

things i talk about on this blog:

- stuff i like, wide range of fandoms, usually not really well-known

- issues that affect me as Ukrainian and overall my country, culture, language, etc

- misandry (I'm trying to remind people it exists and it ruins lives on a daily and systematic basis);

- proship-related stuff

- my feelings sometimes

- queer issues

- gender binarity, stereotypes and how they're harmful to us (im the one who'll put your favorite strong ass masculine man in the prettiest dress and call mommy)

DNI

russians, terfs, tirfs, radfems, feminists, people who deny existence of misandry, antis, bigots in general

although i usually block as i please, just don't expect me to be welcoming if you're an asshole

that's it. a few pictures for yall:

[celtrist]

I really do miss DeviantArt and what it used to be. Wish there was a site out there like it again (and there was for a bit, but quickly got canned due to expenses, I believe).

Like, DeviantART had LOADS of issues (with all the fetish art among other things), and considering the founder is apparently into AI or something like that, I can't imagine DA wouldn't have ended up going down the deep end at some point anyway, even without WIX buying the site. But like, there was something cozy about it because it was built as a hobbyist site for artists specifically. Artists were able to be discovered pretty easily (in fact, many older artists had built much of their audience from DA initially!) and even start a profession of some kind.

Maybe it's me being a bit nostalgic for older times, where I didn't have to worry about so many things, haha Tumblr has been a nice safe haven since DA went kaput for me. But sometimes I do miss having a site solely meant for art. It wasn't pure by any means (the aforementioned gratuitous amount of fetish art and the fact that bullying 6-year-olds for their art/characters wasn't uncommon to see), but I guess it was kind of what writing sites like A03, Fanfic.net, or Wattpad are for writers. It just felt catered to you, and there weren't random videos completely unrelated to art on there. I love the shit posts that come out of Tumblr. Everyone on here is hilarious, and I am kind of glad DA went downhill since I don't think I would have ever gotten a Tumblr otherwise. But DeviantART was fantastic for getting known and gaining an audience that seems like pushing a boulder up a hill for other sites (but that just might be a bit on my own experience. Though I am very appreciative for those who've decided to stuck around with me, thank you!)

But now a days, artists are extremely limited in where they can post their art. And the recommended sites aren't even art specific related: They're Instagram (which is incorporating AI so boo) and Tiktok (and I have a vendetta against Tiktok for how badly it's been ruining people's attention spans. This is coming from someone who also doesn't have the best attention span, so I refuse to get a Tiktok). And that really sucks. Like I'm not gonna deny they work. Instagram works only with the fact that account galleries are very clean and easy to look through, and I guess everyone just has an account, but not friendly for new users trying to get up there. Tiktok, for my complaints, has a VERY good algorithm that can genuinely allow anyone at a moment's notice to become viral. I'm not denying that these sites aren't suggested for no reason.

But damn, I really just miss posting a piece on an art geared site and not having to deal with tags and stuff (even though I thank the tags because I'm able to filter out things I don't want to see. So okay, tags should stay).

[wander-wren]

got another bot-spam comment on ao3, but this one is extra weird. let’s do some investigating!

for those not in the know, The Haunting is my dark whumpy “todoroki gets adopted by aizawa” fic. it’s also 60k words long. so right away i’m doubting this person read it. that plus the generic vibes? bot comment. but i’m also pretty sure i’ve heard of this channel before, specifically because it wasn’t crediting authors. hm. so i go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/@DnWhatIf

first of all, these are the videos i’m greeted with:

now, i don’t want to bash anyone’s taste, but this is so extremely not my thing. nooooo way. some of these read more like crackfic, which is fine, but tonally the difference is SO much. and just makes it even more glaringly obvious that they aren’t reading the fics they’re spamming or even giving them a cursory once-over (or putting strong filters on the bot? i’m not clear how bot comments work)

because this is the first thing you see about The Haunting:

i’m guessing, if it wasn’t completely random, it’s the fact that i tagged izuku as a character. and really it’s just lazy, the whole thing. it’s all bots. ai art in the thumbnail, ai voice reading the fic, bot making comment spam for you. zero respect. if this was an actual podficcer i would consider it! hell, i might even accept ai voice readings (MAYBE), if it was obvious there was a human person who cared behind them. it could certainly be a tool for good, since podficcing isn't very common (we love you podficcers. if i had a little bit more confidence i would be one of you).

but anyway, hang on, lets back up a step, because the whole reason i looked into this was the credits issue. the video “what if deku became a teacher at ua” (ugh) (i hate the title gimmick also) is going to be my guinea pig.

so in the little intro (also done by ai), it says “all credits to their respective authors” which, yikes. however, they do link to their permission statement and the fic in the description, so it….could be worse. but also, these are the comments

(and it continues like that for a bit)

the channel name also has a 4.0 after it [edit: it did when i started this post, then i got distracted for two days, and now it is gone. hm], which implies they’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping it up. so it seems likely that this is the channel i heard about stealing fics, they just finally learned to get permission and give credit to try and keep it up this time. the permission statement on this video is real (i wondered if they would just link to something else and assume no one would check), but even THAT author references being “freaked out” (positive?? unsure) when they heard of people finding their story on youtube. before giving permission to upload with credit. so that’s not great

also this sludgepit of content is absolutely the thing that attracts people with no patience clamoring for updates literally one day after the video goes up. go figure. bad vibes all around.

also, if you’re wondering about the quality of the reading (i’ve stumbled on some pretty good ai voices as of late!), it’s, uh. i don’t actually know about how all this works, but i feel like when you pick a voice to read a story it should at least be able to approximate character name pronunciation. and flow.

but alas.

i also don't want to bash the authors in question but the truth is from the very minimal poking around i did (not giving this channel any more of my time than absolutely necessary), the writing featured is....mediocre at best. which is fine and good for the fandom ecosystem and i will NEVER be anything but happy that people are writing and posting less-than-perfect works, especially since some of these premises are pretty unique and i think it's better to have the fic than not. we all start somewhere, fanfic is an excellent way to practice and get feedback at the same time, etc.

but these channels, these kinds of operations, they're going to prey on new and young authors and that's who is going to be saying yes to them. because they want the exposure, they want to be told their work is good enough for someone else to care to record it for youtube, they haven't been around long enough to recognize this for what it is: someone taking extreme shortcuts to get views and likes and a bit of notoriety off of other people's work. and that's shit.

and remember that youtube videos can be monetized!

now, i doubt this channel in particular has been monetized, although it does meet the minimum requirements as far as numbers go:

it shouldn't meet the requirements for the monetization policies, specifically these ones:

especially with the disclaimer in the beginning that the content is not their own--which might be why previous versions of the channel did not give credit. who knows.

however, youtube DID just have some scandals about people making videos that were pretty much entirely plagiarized, which were monetized, so i don't have the highest hopes in the world. still, it doesn't seem monetized, so no strikes against this particular creator for that, at least, but defo something to look out for if anyone ever brings up hosting podfics on youtube.

so yeah, bot spam, not a complete scam this time but definitely really sketchy, bad vibes all around. and i still kind of want to give them permission to use my fic just to see what would happen, lmao