#ask blog startup

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kickstarting a new Martin Hench novel about the dawn of enshittification

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/07/weird-pcs/#a-mormon-bishop-an-orthodox-rabbi-and-a-catholic-priest-walk-into-a-personal-computing-revolution

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by @wilwheaton:

http://martinhench.com

This is the third Hench novel, following on from the nationally bestselling The Bezzle (2024) and Red Team Blues (2023). I wrote Red Team Blues with a funny conceit: what if I wrote the final volume of a beloved, long-running series, without writing the rest of the series? Turns out, the answer is: "Your editor will buy a whole bunch more books in the series!"

My solution to this happy conundrum? Write the Hench books out of chronological order. After all, Marty Hench is a financial hacker who's been in Silicon Valley since the days of the first PCs, so he's been there for all the weird scams tech bros have dreamed up since Jobs and Woz were laboring in their garage over the Apple I. He's the Zelig of high-tech fraud! Look hard at any computing-related scandal and you'll find Marty Hench in the picture, quietly and competently unraveling the scheme, dodging lawsuits and bullets with equal aplomb.

Which brings me to Picks and Shovels. In this volume, we travel back to Marty's first job, in the 1980s – the weird and heroic era of the PC. Marty ended up in the Bay Area after he flunked out of an MIT computer science degree (he was too busy programming computers to do his classwork), and earning his CPA at a community college.

Silicon Valley in the early eighties was wild: Reaganomics stalked the land, the AIDS crisis was in full swing, the Dead Kennedys played every weekend, and man were the PCs ever weird. This was before the industry crystalized into Mac vs PC, back when no one knew what they were supposed to look like, who was supposed to use them, and what they were for.

Marty's first job is working for one of the weirder companies: Fidelity Computing. They sound like a joke: a computer company run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an orthodox rabbi. But the joke's on their customers, because Fidelity Computing is a scam: a pyramid sales cult that exploits religious affinities to sell junk PCs that are designed to lock customers in and squeeze them for every dime. A Fidelity printer only works with Fidelity printer paper (they've gimmicked the sprockets on the tractor-feed). A Fidelity floppy drive only accepts Fidelity floppies (every disk is sold with a single, scratched-out sector and the drives check for an error on that sector every time they run).

Marty figures out he's working for the bad guys when they ask him to destroy Computing Freedom, a scrappy rival startup founded by three women who've escaped from Fidelity Computing's cult: a queer orthodox woman who's been kicked out of her family; a radical nun who's thrown in with the Liberation Theology movement in opposing America's Dirty Wars; and a Mormon woman who's quit the church in disgust at its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. The women of Computing Freedom have a (ahem) holy mission: to free every Fidelity customer from the prison they were lured into.

Marty may be young and inexperienced, but he can spot a rebel alliance from a light year away and he knows what side he wants to be on. He joins the women in their mission, and we're deep into a computing war that quickly turns into a shooting war. Turns out the Reverend Sirs of Fidelity Computer aren't just scammers – they're mobbed up, and willing to turn to lethal violence to defend their racket.

This is a rollicking crime thriller, a science fiction novel about the dawn of the computing revolution. It's an archaeological expedition to uncover the fossil record of the first emergence of enshittification, a phenomenon that was born with the PC and its evil twin, the Reagan Revolution.

The book comes out on Feb 15 in hardcover and ebook from Macmillan (US/Canada) and Bloomsbury (UK), but neither publisher is doing the audiobook. That's my department.

Why? Well, I love audiobooks, and I especially love the audiobooks for this series, because they're read by the incredible Wil Wheaton, hands down my favorite audiobook narrator. But that's not why I retain my audiobook rights and produce my own audiobooks. I do that because Amazon's Audible service refuses to carry any of my audiobooks.

Here's how that works: Audible is a division of Amazon, and they've illegally obtained a monopoly over the audiobook market, controlling more than 90% of audiobook sales in many genres. That means that if your book isn't for sale on Audible, it might as well not exist.

But Amazon won't let you sell your books on Audible unless you let them wrap those books in "digital rights management," a kind of encryption that locks them to Audible's authorized players. Under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's a felony punishable with a 5-year sentence and a $500k fine to supply you with a tool to remove an audiobook from Audible and play it on a rival app. That applies even if the person who gives you the tool is the creator of the book!

You read that right: if I make an audiobook and then give you the tools to move it out of Amazon's walled garden, I could go to prison for five years! That's a stiffer sentence than you'd face if you were to just pirate the audiobook. It's a harsher penalty than you'd get for shoplifting the book on CD from a truck-stop. It's more draconian than the penalty for hijacking the truck that delivers the CDs!

Amazon knows that every time you buy an audiobook from Audible, you increase the cost you'll have to pay if you switch to a competitor. They use that fact to give readers a worse deal (last year they tried out ads in audiobooks!). But the people who really suffer under this arrangement are the writers, whom Amazon abuses with abandon, knowing they can't afford to leave the service because their readers are locked into it. That's why Amazon felt they could get away with stealing $100 million from indie audiobook creators (and yup, they got away with it):

https://www.audiblegate.com/about

Which is why none of my books can be sold with DRM. And that means that Audible won't carry any of them.

For more than a decade, I've been making my own audiobooks, in partnership with the wonderful studio Skyboat Media and their brilliant director, Gabrielle de Cuir:

https://skyboatmedia.com/

I pay fantastic narrators a fair wage for their work, then I pay John Taylor Williams, the engineer who masters my podcasts, to edit the books and compose bed music for the intro and outro. Then I sell the books at every store in the world – except Audible and Apple, who both have mandatory DRM. Because fuck DRM.

Paying everyone a fair wage is expensive. It's worth it: the books are great. But even though my books are sold at many stores online, being frozen out of Audible means that the sales barely register.

That's why I do these Kickstarter campaigns, to pre-sell thousands of audiobooks in advance of the release. I've done six of these now, and each one was a huge success, inspiring others to strike out on their own, sometimes with spectacular results:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/04/01/brandon-sanderson-kickstarter-41-million-new-books/7243531001/

Today, I've launched the Kickstarter for Picks and Shovels. I'm selling the audiobook and ebook in DRM-form, without any "terms of service" or "license agreement." That means they're just like a print book: you buy them, you own them. You can read them on any equipment you choose to. You can sell them, give them away, or lend them to friends. Rather than making you submit to 20,000 words of insulting legalese, all I ask of you is that you don't violate copyright law. I trust you!

Speaking of print books: I'm also pre-selling the hardcover of Picks and Shovels and the paperbacks of The Bezzle and Red Team Blues, the other two Marty Hench books. I'll even sign and personalize them for you!

http://martinhench.com

I'm also offering five chances to commission your own Marty Hench story – pick your favorite high-tech finance scam from the past 40 years of tech history, and I'll have Marty bust it in a custom short story. Once the story is published, I'll make sure you get credit. Check out these two cool Little Brother stories my previous Kickstarter backers commissioned:

Spill

https://reactormag.com/spill-cory-doctorow/

Vigilant

https://reactormag.com/vigilant-cory-doctorow/

I'm heading out on tour this winter and spring with the book. I'll be in LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Burbank, Bloomington, Chicago, Richmond VA, Toronto, NYC, Boston, Austin, DC, Baltimore, Seattle, and other dates still added. I've got an incredible roster of conversation partners lined up, too: John Hodgman, Charlie Jane Anders, Dan Savage, Ken Liu, Peter Sagal, Wil Wheaton, and others.

I hope you'll check out this book, and come out to see me on tour and say hi. Before I go, I want to leave you with some words of advance praise for Picks and Shovels:

I hugely enjoyed Picks and Shovels. Cory Doctorow’s reconstruction of the age is note perfect: the detail, the atmosphere, ethos, flavour and smell of the age is perfectly conveyed. I love Marty and Art and all the main characters. The hope and the thrill that marks the opening section. The superb way he tells the story of the rise of Silicon Valley (to use the lazy metonym), inserting the stories of Shockley, IBM vs US Government, the rise of MS – all without turning journalistic or preachy.

The seeds of enshittification are all there… even in the sunlight of that time the shadows are lengthening. AIDS of course, and the coming scum tide of VCs. In Orwellian terms, the pigs are already rising up on two feet and starting to wear trousers. All that hope, all those ideals…

I love too the thesis that San Francisco always has failed and always will fail her suitors.

Despite cultural entropy, enshittification, corruption, greed and all the betrayals there’s a core of hope and honour in the story too.

-Stephen Fry

Cory Doctorow writes as few authors do, with tech world savvy and real world moral clarity. A true storyteller for our times.

-John Scalzi

A crackling, page-turning tumble into an unexpected underworld of queer coders, Mission burritos, and hacker nuns. You will fall in love with the righteous underdogs of Computing Freedom—and feel right at home in the holy place Doctorow has built for them far from Silicon Valley’s grabby, greedy hands."

-Claire Evans, editor of Motherboard Future, author of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.

"Wonderful…evokes the hacker spirit of the early personal computer era—and shows how the battle for software freedom is eternal."

-Steven Levy, author of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution and Facebook: The Inside Story.

What could be better than a Martin Hench thriller set in 1980s San Francisco that mixes punk rock romance with Lotus spreadsheets, dot matrix printers and religious orders? You'll eat this up – I sure did.

-Tim Wu, Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy, author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Captures the look and feel of the PC era. Cory Doctorow draws a portrait of a Silicon Valley and San Francisco before the tech bros showed up — a startup world driven as much by open source ideals as venture capital gold.

-John Markoff, Pulitzer-winning tech columnist for the New York Times and author of What the Doormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry

You won't put this book down – it's too much fun. I was there when it all began. Doctorow's characters and their story are real.

-Dan'l Lewin, CEO and President of the Computer History Museum

[hms-no-fun]

you were on cohost? i guess too late now, how was it for you?

cohost had its fair share of problems and i could often find the community there a bit too tumblr-core fingerwaggy if you know what i mean. but the site's dead now so it's kind of a moot point. what i find myself reflecting on most these days are the positives.

first, no numbers. i think their no numbers policy was probably a bit over-aggressive, but it quelled some of the rat race popularity contest aspect of social media that often makes it so tedious. i liked their tag tracking system, their robust content warning options, and the absence of infinite scroll. what i miss most about cohost is that their text editor supported CSS, which led to people programming elaborate text effects and puzzles and games in-site that harkened back to the days of flash animations. there was something in this combination of elements that drew out a rebellious creativity in users.

cohost came at a time when social media was across the board feeling terrible (and it's only gotten worse hahaha), particularly as someone who makes shit that relies on you clicking links that take you away from the website or app. algorithms hate this and punish it. users also just seem kind of lazy and disinterested in using the internet so much as letting the internet happen to them passively. but when a post of mine went viral on cohost, people engaged with it. it wasn't just likes and shares, it was comments and additions. it felt like a place that (at its best) encouraged actual conversation and the development of new ideas among like-minded peers. when my posts did well and i included a donation link, people gave me money. it felt genuinely like a website that COULD support professional blog work in a way that was more customizable even than substack yet still RSS friendly, and the Following tab which let you easily see posts of specific users was a REVELATION, like a mini RSS reader within the website itself.

but the enterprise was unsustainable for various reasons (not all of them outside the dev crew's control) and the haters got what they wanted. now our big social media alternative is bluesky, a website that dares to ask the question "what if there was another twitter?" the answer is that it fucking sucks. i hate microblogs so much dude, why on EARTH are we still acting like these disambiguited 300-character-limit posts are the most preferable means of social communication online??? why would you set out to make a better twitter and then deliberately choose to replicate literally every aspect of the user experience that encouraged low-information high-drama conflict fabrication? WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A VERSION OF TWITTER WHERE YOU CAN EASILY LOOK UP THE ACCOUNT OF EVERYONE WHO HAS YOU BLOCKED AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A FEATURE NOT A BUG???????? i just don't get it. i don't even get the optimism of the early adopters. i've seen people decry the post-election decay of the platform like "of course the cishets come in to ruin a community that was defined by trans & queer people" i'm sorry HELLO???????? from literally day zero bluesky was aiming to be a hands-off centrist IPO-friendly tech startup, there was never anything structurally embedded within the platform itself to keep this kind of decay from happening, you just happened to be on there when there were dramatically fewer users most of whom were curious tech enthusiasts. seriously, how have we not learned this lesson yet? you can't define a digital culture by the vibes of random user behavior! unless you have LAWS and GUIDELINES whereby you fucking BAN people for being shitheads, unless you enforce an actual code of conduct and punish bigoted speech and design a system that encourages constructive conversation, you are always always ALWAYS going to wind up at unhinged facebook boomer slop!

the death of cohost and the utterly predictable decay of bluesky are a big part of the reason why i've been posting so much more on tumblr. this is like the last bastion of anything even remotely resembling the old web, with its support of longposts and tagging and how easy it is to find random hobbyists doing cool shit you never knew existed before. like, yeah, you have to search that shit out and tailor your feed to not drive you crazy, but that's what i like about it!!! i am an adult with agency who understands that life is complicated and as such i expect to have to put some work into making my experience with a website positive! but in the hellworld of the iphone everything is walled garden apps for aggregating content where the content and its creators are structurally established as infinitely replaceable and uniquely worthless punching bags to be used and cast aside. everyone's given up on moderation and real jobs don't exist anymore especially if you happen to work in the "creative economy" IE are a writer or critic or artist or hobbyist of literally any kind. we've given up on expecting anything from the rich moneyboys who own and profit immensely off of the platforms whose value we literally create!!! especially now with the rise of "AI" grifters, whose work has ratcheted good old fashioned casual sexism and racism and homophobia up to levels not seen in such mainstream spaces since the early 2000s.

i like tumblr because i don't have to use a third party app to get & answer asks at length, and because it is a visual artist friendly platform where i won't be looked at funny for reblogging furry postmodernism or transgender homestuck OCs. it is a site that utterly lacks respectability and that's what makes it even remotely usuable. unfortunately it also sucks! partly it sucks because this place was ground zero for the rise of puritanical feminist-passing conservatism in leftist spaces, so it's like a hyperbolic time chamber for brain-melting life or death discourse about the most inconsequential bullshit you could ever imagine. but it also sucks because it's owned by a profit-motivated moneyboy who has consistently encouraged a culture of virulent transphobia and frequently bans trans women who call this out. so like, yeah, this place is cool compared to everywhere else, but it is exactly like everywhere else in that is also on a ticking clock to its own inevitable demise. the owners of this website will destroy everything that makes it interesting and will EAGERLY delete the nearly twenty years (!!!!!!) of posts it's accumulated the instant it will profit them to do so. this will be immensely unpopular and everyone will agree it's a tragedy and it won't matter. the culture and content of a social media platform is epiphenomenal to its rote economic valuation. i mean, obviously it isn't, zero of these massive tech companies would be what they are if so many people weren't so eager to give their time and labor away for free (and yes, writing a dumb dick joke on tumblr IS a form of labor in the same way that doing a captcha is labor, just because it's a miniscule contribution in an economy of scale doesn't mean you didn't contribute!), but once a tech company reaches a certain threshold its valuation ceases to be tethered to anything that actually exists in reality.

all of which is why i remember cohost with a heavy heart. yeah, it was imperfect. it was also independently owned, made with the explicit goal of creating a form of social media that actually tries not to give you a lifelong anxiety disorder so it can sell you homeopathic anti-anxiety sawdust suppositories. for the brief window of time when it was extant, i was genuinely hopeful for the future of being a creative on the internet. part of why i spend so much time on godfeels, a fucking homestuck fanfiction with no hope of turning a profit or establishing mainstream legitimacy, is that my readers actually ENGAGE with the material. what brought me back to using this website consistently was precisely the glut of godfeels-related questions i got, and the exciting conversations that resulted from my answers. meanwhile i put so many hours into my videos and even when they do well numerically, i barely see any actual engagement with the material. and that is a deliberate design choice on the part of youtube! that is the platform functioning as intended!! it sucks!!!

what the memory of cohost has instilled in me is a neverending distaste for the lazy unambitious also-rans that define the modern internet. i remember the possibility space of the early web and long for the expressiveness that even the most minor of utilities offered. we sacrificed that freedom for a convenience which was always the pretense for eventually charging us rent. i am thinking a lot these days about what a publicly funded government administrated social media utility would look like. what federal open source standards could look in an environment where the kinds of activities a digital ecosystem can encourage are strictly regulated against exploitation, bigotry, scams, and literal gambling. what if there was a unionized federal workforce devoted to the administration of internet moderation, which every website above a certain user threshold must legally take advantage of? i like to imagine a world where youtube isn't just nationalized but balkanized, where you have nested networks of youtubes administrated for different purposes by different agencies and organizations that operate on different paradigms of privacy and algorithmic interaction. imagine that your state, county, and/or city has its own branch of youtube meant to specifically highlight local work, while also remaining connected to a broader national network (oops i just reinvented federation lmao). imagine a world where server capacity is a publicly owned utility apportioned according to need and developed in collaboration with the communities of their construction rather than as a deliberate exploitation of them. our horizons for these kinds of things are just so, so small, our ability to imagine completely captured by capitalist realism, our willingness to demand services from our government simply obliterated by decades of cynical pro-austerity propaganda. i imagine proposing some of this stuff and people reacting like "well that's unrealistic" "that'll never happen" "they'd just use it for evil" and i am just SO! FUCKING! TIRED!!!!

like wow you're soooooo cool for being effectively two steps left of reagan, i bet you think prison abolition and free public housing are an impossible pipedream too huh? and exactly what has that attitude gotten you? what've you gained by being such a down to earth realist whose demands are limited by the scope of what seems immediately possible? has anything gotten better? have any of the things you thought were good stayed good? is your career more stable, your political position more safe, your desire to live and thrive greatly expanded? or do you spend every day in a cascading panopticon of stress and collapse, overwhelmed to the point of paralysis by the sheer magnitude of what it's cost us to abandon the future? you HAVE to dream. you HAVE to make unrealistic demands. the fucking conservatives have been making unrealistic demands forever and look, they're getting everything they want even though EVERYONE hates them for it! please i'm begging you to see and understand that what's feasible, what's reasonable, what's realistic, are literally irrelevant. these things only feel impossible because we choose to believe The Adults (and if you're younger than like 45, trust me, to the ruling class you are a child) whose bank accounts reflect just how profitable it is to convince us that they're impossible. all those billions of dollars these fuckers have didn't come from nowhere, it was stolen from all of us. there is no reason that money can't and shouldn't be seized and recirculated back into the economy, no reason it can't be used to fund a society that is actually social, where technological development is driven not by what's most likely to drive up profits next quarter but by what people need from technology in their daily lives.

uh so yeah basically that's my opinion of cohost lmao

[goldfinchclan]

Goldfinchclan Overview

clan startup

Hi Hello everyone, and welcome to Goldfinchclan. I have been playing ClanGen for a while but never made a blog following their rise as a clan. So, I decided to change that today.

This blog is ran by - @felicanfooli

Start reading here

Allegiances

Family Tree

Watch as this new leader and comrades face the elements surrounding their forest territory. (as of writing this, I'm 8 Moons in so I'll be following the surrounding clans from Moon 8 going forward just to spice up the story a bit and for character designs)

As for scheduled updates, there are none >:o this is just a fun lil project. I will try my best to document every moon (if anything happens, if not, those moons will be skipped)

My asks are always open if you’d like to learn more about the cats outside of the comic. Tagged #asks (note that I might not know how to answer some but I do read all my asks.)

Any lore text/art I make as extras will of course be tagged #lore

All character references throughout the comic will be tagged #character ref

All Clan settings -

Mass extinction - Off (most of the time 👀)

Pregnancy ignores biology - Off

Unmated cats can breed/affairs - On

Increase same-sex adoption - On

Unknown second parent - On/Off depending on clan size

Leaders auto choose a new deputy - On

Warriors and elders can become mediators - On

Disable exp-based apprentice graduation - Off

Romantic interaction with previous mentor - Off

Allow first cousins to be mates and have romantic interactions - OFF (the hell lol)

[robygoonn2]

Buying him a gift [TSP Narrator and Reader fic] part 2 can be platonic or romantic

About 10 minutes pass and you're now sitting in your bed, waiting, you couldn't deny that you're pretty excited for all this, it's a big step for him in your eyes and you couldn't be happier

Being able to connect and talk with people via online platforms would give him a sense of social interaction right? Of course, it's not the same as, say, going out and making friends in the flesh but hey, atleast it's something

Your gaze shot up from the laptop in your lap as you heard the door to the bathroom open and saw The Narrator walking to your bedroom with a grumble, seemingly trying to dry his hair with a towel

"God- Did i ever tell you how much i hate doing human necessities? All of this is so time consuming..."

"Yeah well, part of life yknow? Trust me, after a bit more time here you'll get used to those things"

You shoot a smile smile at him before remembering why he came in here in the first place, a bolt of giddiness running through you, immediately scooting over to make room for him and patting the now empty space next to you, to which he obliges and sits

"So, I plugged it in-" You pause mid sentence to point at the outlet, which now had the cord inserted into it, The Narrator giving a little nod as he glanced at it

"I'm...just really hoping this works, I need it to, I spent about two hours looking for this damn cord i swear"

The Narrator chuckled and grinned at you, shifting against the pillows

"Or is it because you don't want to return it and buy me whatever I want? Hm?"

"Okay, well that as well, You got me"

You playfully nudged his arm as he nudged you back with his shoulder, friendly banter was becoming more common in your relationship with him which you enjoyed, you liked teasing him and he enjoying teasing you back

"Getting off track here so uhm...you wanna do the honours?"

"Hm, Why not? Give it here"

Placing the laptop in front of him, his finger laid overtop the "on" button, hesitating

That was weird, he never usually does that when he's interested in something new

"Why aren't you turning it on...?" You asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering if he was ok

His face now had a grin slowly forming, turning to face you

"Oh I'm fine don't worry, I'm just contemplating on either getting that Rolex or a cookbook for myself"

"I'M NOT GETTING YOU A DAMN ROLEX"

A laugh came from him as he finally pressed the "on" button, the startup happening as you both now watched in silence, curious as to see if it will somehow glitch and break, or work fine

It worked, a "Make an account" pop up showing on the screen now

"Oh...It actually worked, cool"

He sighed, seemingly disappointed at not being able to get a rolex, not like you would even have enough to buy him one with the money you spent on this though, now he was typing in his name as you sat and watched, leaning your head on his shoulder like you usually do

Of course he put "The" for his first name, and "Narrator" for his last

You made a face at this, thinking that he should atleast think of making a better name for himself now that he's in the real world

"Don't you think you should maybe come up with a more...REAL sounding name or something soon?"

"Now why should I? Isn't my name already fine? So no need to change it"

You sighed and figured you couldn't argue with him because he'd just get defensive like he always does, and boast about himself being "perfect" and "how nothing about him has to change"

After a minute the screen went to the usual looking menu, with just a trash icon in the corner for now

After finishing that up , he immediately went to google, punching in letters, you didn't know what he wanted to see so badly since it seemed like he was typing pretty fast

"What are you looking u-"

Then you saw him put in "tumblr", now you knew, he wanted to see your blog you always talk about

Embarrassment hit you as you swiped the laptop from him, causing him to jump, startled at the sudden movement

"Now what was that for?"

He had a innocent look on his face, but you knew that all he wanted to do was tease you, for being so "utterly obsessed" with him to the point you make fanfiction of him, or so he says

"I know what you're going to do Nar, look at my blog, find my posts about you, then say something whitty or teasing me about what i wrote about you"

Closing the tab he scoffed at what you just told him, folding his arms and pouting

"Oh c'mon now, We tease each other all the time now! What's the difference with this? Because there isn't any difference, now give me MY laptop back"

There it was, he was back to his determined self, no use in hiding it now when you knew that later on, while you're not here, he'll just go back to snooping

"You- ugh fine"

You almost slammed the laptop into his lap because of how mad- well embarrassed you were, quickly he got to making an account, naming himself "king-of-comedy"

Oh wow, how...unique

You hid a small laugh by covering your mouth with your hand, the username just sounded funny and predictable from him, attempting to hide your laugh just got a strange side eye look from him

Now he looked up your username as soon as he got logged in, a little bit of nervousness built in your stomach for some reason, he lets you read his stuff all the time, so what's so different about this? ...well you're writing about HIM, so..big difference you suppose

I WILL BE WRITING PART 3 TOMORROW HOPEFULLY

[dailynyarinder]

wakey wakey

Is someone home?

HI GUYS MOD HERE IM SO SORRY

Another quick Daily Nyarinder coming soon! Plus… a challenge? 👀

An explanation for my absence + details on an upcoming Daily Nyarinder event under the cut!!

So kinda personal bt my therapist left her practice unexpectedly so I got off my adhd and depresso meds at the same time as I was moving to another house and I just… really lost steam and haven’t had the energy to work on this project orz

i love cotl with all my heart! But my main fandom is svsss (shout out to kamkamquats on twt, this blog was inspired by their dailybingpup!! 💖) and trying to move all my shit over from twitter to bluesky so it doesn’t feed Elon Musk’s ai has also taken a lot of energy that would have been spent drawing for both cotl and svsss.

Additionally, last time I checked this blog I got some anon asks trying to pull me into fandom wank. The admin of this account is a grown adult with a spouse, a house, community protests to organize/attend, cosplays to make, a startup business to take care of; online fandoms are my comfort place and have been since I was 13, and as such I resolved years ago to stay away from fandom drama and just do what makes me happy. I’m really used to how chill and sweet svsss fandom is, so it was kinda startling to remember that younger fandoms are very drama-prone. I deleted those messages, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth whenever I came back to this blog.

As such, I’ve been on a break. And I probably will continue this hiatus until things settle on bluesky and I can spend more time on my friend’s cotl discord server to get my motivation back.

-

THAT SAID, I hope to do a little daily nyarinder art challenge for anyone who still follows this blog! Instructions and rules will be posted separately later today, but the idea is thus:

“YOU, dear reader, are just as wonderful, creative, and capable an artist as any cultist here. What do YOU want to see in Daily Nyarinder’s escapades? Pick up a craft and get creating! Use whatever you’ve got—whether it’s a fancy tablet, ibispaint on a touchscreen phone (that’s how dailynyarinder has been made so far 👀), a pen and the back of a receipt, needle and thread, hook and yarn, scrapbooking paper and scissors, a word doc and a keyboard, a camera, etc etc etc. Whatever medium brings you joy and renews your belief in our benevolent God of Death, this humble Narinder blog calls upon you to make and share a Daily Nyarinder post of your own!

Skill level doesn’t matter in the face of creativity. Whether you’re a renowned oil painter, a fanfic author, a newbie artist, or a kid who just really likes cats, all offerings are encouraged and welcome!

As for content rules, the Nyarinderverse is full of strange and unusual things; anything goes! HOWEVER, since this is a sfw blog and is followed by lots of minors, I’ll ask that if anyone participating decides to draw nsfw content, please make sure it is appropriately tagged and locked behind some sort of link—whether it’s a link to twitter, privatter, or elsewise. Any NSFW that isn’t hidden from immediate view will not be reblogged on this blog. If and when I reblog potential nsfw content, it will be tagged “NSFW” BY ME BY AS WELL so that my followers can filter it out if they need.

Any characters, ships, potential squicks or triggers, etc should be tagged appropriately.

Please know that this blog will never, EVER harass or condone/encourage harassment based on what you make, but as the mod I retain the right to not reblog works that squick me out personally. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make them; it just means they might not all appear here.

Works may be posted separately under the hashtag #DailyNyarinderChallenge or submitted to this blog!

Finally, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!”

^^^ the challenge text will be reposted with some promotional artwork later, but does this sound like it would be a fun event? Let me know what you think.

Look forward to the resolution of the current daily nyarinder arc this week! But then I’ll likely go back on break again until things settle. 💖🐈‍⬛

[wiresequalveins]

>_< Systems Online!! 18 and Over Only

>Welcome to my little corner of the internet

Hihi!! I'm B.U.G., I'm a super upbeat android that's been in operation for 21 years! I use it/its pronouns only here! Im bigender and aroace. I do have a lovely super computer for a girlfriend tho @eve-synapse !! This is a side blog which is 18+ so minors DNI!! My main blog is @internetcanine which is sfw so feel free to interact there X3.

Dis blog will content 18+ stuff about doing it with robots so if dat bothers u, you should probably leave, sorry (＞﹏＜)

Here's my Tags!!

Loading... = Repost

Critical Error = Vents

*Windows Startup Sound* = Personal

MESSAGE RECIEVED = Asks

Hardware Overheating = Nsft stuffs

[wiresforbreakfast]

>> NOW LOADING <<

... STARTUP SUCCESSFUL ...

--

WIRE // BIOGRAFT // T3 [FOR THOSE WHO KNOW ME OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR]

IT/ITS PREFERRED // HE/THEY ACCEPTED

RUN BY A BIOGRAFT [PHIGHTING!] FICTIONKIN // I LOVE RHYTHM GAMES ! // LEVEL 520+ PHIGHTER AUDHD + OTHER DISORDERS, DIAGNOSED. I WILL NOT SPECIFY ANY OTHER CONDITIONS OR TRIGGERS. PLEASE USE TONE TAGS OR CLARIFY INTENT.

MINOR !! ADULTS IWC // BASIC CRITERIA, GENERATIVE AI USERS/SUPPORTERS, NSFW/KINK-CENTRIC BLOGS, PROSHIP/DARKSHIP AND SUPPORTERS DNI (INTERACTING, IN THIS CASE, IS MESSAGING, COMMENTING OR REBLOGGING WITH COMMENTS.) - YOU WILL BE SILENTLY BLOCKED IF YOU FIT THESE CRITERIA AND INTERACT ANYWAY, BUT I WOULD MUCH RATHER YOU DON'T TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR BOTH OF US. // ENDO-NEUTRAL/NUANCED. NO SYSCOURSE, PLEASE. // I DO NOT POST DONATION ASKS.

--

>> MORE INFO SOON <<

STAMPS FOUND HERE

[testtubeslabau]

"Hello? Can you hear us?"

Welcome to the test tube's lab au intro/startup post!

ASKS ARE CURRENTLY OPEN!!!

This is my first ever askblog, so if you have questions feel free to ask 'em!

Info and stuff below the cut!

- info -

This is a blog is an Inanimate Insanity AU that takes place after the end of II2. It's about test tube experimenting on subjects she kidnapped and sent to her lab! Not a super original idea, I know, but I hope to put my own spin on the idea!

The only two [ three? ] subjects currently are:

Cherries [ Left is subject 1, Right is subject 2 ]

and Tissues! [ subject 3 ]

You are allowed to ask ANY character in this au questions! [ such as Test tube herself, the subjects, and hotel OJ residents [ who include season 3 contestants ]

- rules -

No magic anons! Sorry folks. You're more just... little invisible guys who can only talk. Unfortunate, truly.

NO NSFW REQUESRS PLEASE I SWEAR TO GO-

Asks that would be too... plot changing will probably be ignored! [ ex: telling residents of hotel oj what test tube is doing ]

Please do not put hate of any kind in asks... yeowch...

That's about it honestly, just use common sense ig

- Tws -

This account will feature the following [ censored/below cuts, of course ]

Gore

Needles

...violation of rights...? Best was I can describe it

Kidnapping

And just... general themes of abuse.

- character refs? -

- who am I? [ me. The creator ] -

You can call me Dee! They/them. I love the osc but never have really.... participated? So I've decided to start on tumblr!

That's about it !!! Feel free to uh... start... askin'

[freefolksbtw]

Dreams, Drive & Disruption: How Millennials and Gen Z are Rewriting India's Future

Millennials and Gen Z are not just shaping the future of India, they are the future. From rejecting traditional careers to leading digital revolutions, here's how they're changing everything.

By Juie Bele

India is experiencing a generational shift like never before. At the center of it all? Millennials and Gen Z, young, bold, and unapologetically redefining what it means to live, work, and dream.

India’s Youthquake:

India isn’t just a young country in spirit, it’s young by numbers too. With over 65% of the population under 35, the transformation we’re witnessing is massive, visible, and unstoppable. At the core of this revolution are Millennials and Gen Z, two generations rewriting the rules on work, ambition, money, relationships, and identity. They’re not asking for change, they are the change.

A New Kind of Dream:

The old Indian dream was simple, government job, city flat, family, and early retirement. Safe, predictable, respected. But that’s not the dream anymore. Today’s youth are chasing.

· Passion over pressure

· Freedom over familiarity

· Purpose over prestige

They’re building brands from bedrooms, freelancing with international clients, launching startups before turning 25. They’re making bold, self-defined choices, driven by meaning, not just money

Careers without a Corporate Ladder:

Millennials questioned the system, Gen Z rebuilt it. Gone is the formula of engineer, MBA, corporate manager. In its place? A new generation of:

· Creators on Instagram and YouTube

· Designers freelancing from remote Indian towns

· Coders trained via online bootcamps

· Writers running successful newsletters and blogs

In this world, skills beat degrees. Portfolios matter more than resumes. Platforms like YouTube, Substack, and Behance are the new career springboards. The gatekeepers are gone, the gates are open.

Not Just Jobs, Journeys:

Today’s careers aren’t ladders, they’re winding paths of discovery. Young Indians are choosing,

· Remote work over rigid routines

· Renting over buying, for flexibility

· Freelancing over 9 to 5, for freedom

· Side-hustles over side-tables, for self-expression

They’re not unstable, they’re intentional. And they’re choosing experiences over possessions, meaning over monotony.

Financially Fierce:

This isn’t your parent’s version of money management. Young Indians today are:

· Investing in mutual funds, index stocks, and crypto learning about personal finance on Instagram and YouTube

· Managing multiple income streams, from affiliate marketing to remote gigs

· They’re delaying marriage, avoiding debt, and rejecting outdated financial timelines.

For them, financial freedom is power, and they’re claiming it early.

Socially Conscious, Digitally Native:

Gen Z was raised online, but they use the internet for more than just memes. They’re

· Advocating mental health and ending the stigma around therapy

· Challenging inequality, gender, caste, sexuality, climate, and more calling out injustice, both online and offline

· Activism isn’t a side hobby, it’s woven into their identity.

From Instagram infographics to climate protests, they’re showing us what 21st-century citizenship looks like.

But the Tension is real:

Behind the cool jobs and viral posts, there is still; parental pressure to pick “safe” careers, mental health struggles in a hyper-digital, hustle-heavy world, uncertainty in a job market shaped by AI and automation, Loneliness and burnout, even in this hyperconnected age.

But the response is different. They’re talking openly, seeking help, prioritizing therapy, boundaries, and community. Vulnerability is no longer a weakness, it’s a superpower.

What This Means for India:

It means India’s future isn’t coming, it’s already here:

· The 20-year-old launching an ed-tech startup

· The small-town designer working with a client in Berlin

· The student podcasting about mental health in Hindi

· The young couple choosing to travel instead of settling down. They’re not rejecting tradition for the sake of it, they’re refining it, rebuilding it, and reimagining it. This isn’t rebellion. This is reinvention.

If you’re a young Indian reading this, keep going. Your dreams are valid. Your journey is powerful. Your choices are yours. And if you’re not from this generation, start listening. Because the future is speaking, and it’s speaking in their voice.

[mariacallous]

AI slop is flowing onto every major platform where people post online—and Medium is no exception.

The 12-year-old publishing platform has undertaken a dizzying number of pivots over the years. It’s finally on a financial upswing, having turned a monthly profit for the first time this summer. Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine and other executives at the company have described the platform as “a home for human writing.” But there is evidence that robot bloggers are increasingly flocking to the platform, too.

Earlier this year, WIRED asked AI detection startup Pangram Labs to analyze Medium. It took a sampling of 274,466 recent posts over a six-week period and estimated that over 47 percent were likely AI-generated. “This is a couple orders of magnitude more than what I see on the rest of the internet,” says Pangram CEO Max Spero. (The company’s analysis of one day of global news sites this summer found 7 percent as likely AI-generated.)

The strain of slop on Medium tends toward the banal, especially compared with the dadaist flotsam clogging Facebook. Instead of Shrimp Jesus, one is more apt to see vacant dispatches about cryptocurrency. The tags with the most likely AI-generated content included “NFT”—out of 5,712 articles tagged with this phrase over the last several months, Pangram found that 4,492, or around 78 percent, came back as likely AI-generated—as well as “web3,” “ethereum,” “AI,” and, for whatever reason, “pets.”

WIRED asked a second AI detection startup, Originality AI, to run its own analysis. It examined a sampling of Medium posts from 2018 and compared it with a sampling from this year. In 2018, 3.4 percent were estimated as likely AI-generated. CEO Jon Gillham says that percentage corresponds to the company’s false-positive rate, as AI tools were not widely used at that point. For 2024, with a sampling of 473 articles published this year, it suspected that just over 40 percent were likely AI-generated. With no knowledge of each others’ analyses, both Originality and Pangram came to similar conclusions about the scope of AI content.

When contacted by WIRED for this article and notified of the results of the AI detection analyses, Stubblebine rejected the premise that Medium has an AI issue. “I am disputing the importance of the results and also the idea that these companies discovered anything,” he says.

Stubblebine does not deny that Medium has seen a major uptick in AI-generated articles. “We think, probably, AI-generated content that gets posted to Medium is probably up tenfold from the beginning of the year,” he says. He also adopts a generally adversarial approach to AI slop appearing on the platform: “We’re strongly against AI content.” But he objects to the use of AI detectors in assessing the scope of the issue, in part because he alleges they cannot differentiate between posts that are wholly AI-generated and posts in which AI is used more lightly. (“That’s not accurate,” Spero says; he claims Pangram can indeed differentiate between a ChatGPT post generated from a prompt and a post based on an AI outline but fleshed out with human writing.)

According to Stubblebine, Medium tested several AI detectors and decided they were not effective. (Stubblebine also accused Pangram Labs of attempting to extort him “by press” because Spero, Pangram’s CEO, sent an email detailing the results of the analysis WIRED had requested and then offered its services to Medium. “I just thought we could help them,” Spero says.)

AI detection tools are, indeed, flawed. They work by analyzing texts and making predictions and can produce false positives and false negatives. Caution using them to judge individual pieces of writing and artwork is warranted, especially with a new wave of tools available to trick them. Still, they have utility as barometers gauging changes in how much AI-generated content exists on certain platforms and websites, and they can help researchers, journalists, and the public to spot patterns.

“Since AI detectors are accurate but not perfect, it is impossible to say with certainty whether any single piece of content is AI-generated or not,” says Gillham. “However, they are great at seeing the trend of AI writing taking over platforms like Medium.”

Others have spotted this trend. “During my regular scans for new AI-generated news sites, I regularly come across AI-generated content on Medium on a weekly basis,” says McKenzie Sadeghi, an editor at online misinformation tracking company NewsGuard. “I've found that most of it is often about crypto, marketing, SEO.”

Stubblebine is adamant that these numbers do not accurately capture what Medium readers experience. “It doesn't matter,” he says. “Having access to the raw feed of what gets posted to Medium doesn't represent the actual activity of what gets recommended and viewed. The vast majority of detectable AI-generated stories in the raw feeds for these topics already have zero views. Zero views is the goal and we already have a system that accomplishes [that].” He believes Medium is effectively containing its AI slop with the combination of its general-purpose spam filtering system and its human moderation.

Many accounts that appear to post high volumes of AI-generated material do, indeed, appear to have puny or non-existent readerships. One account flagged by Pangram Labs as the author of likely AI-generated posts about crypto, for example, posted six times in one day, with no interactions on any of the posts, suggesting a negligible impact. Other flagged posts appear to have been recently pulled down; while some may have been voluntarily removed, others may have been removed by Medium days or weeks after publication. Sometimes, Medium deliberately delays removing spam, according to Stubblebine, if it has identified “spam rings” attempting to game the system.

Zero views was not the case across the board, though. WIRED found that other articles flagged as likely AI-generated by Pangram, Originality, and the AI detection company Reality Defender, had hundreds of “claps,” which are similar to “likes” on other platforms, suggesting at the very least a readership substantially higher than zero.

Stubblebine sees people as the cornerstone of Medium’s approach to quality control. “Medium basically runs on human curation now,” he says. He cites the 9,000 editors of Medium’s publications, as well as additional human evaluation for stories that can be “boosted” or more widely distributed. “I think you could, if you're being pedantic, say we're filtering out AI—but there's a goal above that, which is, we're just trying to filter out the stuff that's not very good.”

Medium has taken steps this year to curb the presence of robotic bloggers, updating its AI policy. Its stance is a notable contrast to other platforms, like LinkedIn and Facebook, that explicitly encourage people to use AI. Instead, Medium no longer allows AI writing to be paywalled in its Partner program, to receive wider human-curated distribution from its Boost program, or to promote affiliate links. Disclosed AI writing can get general distribution, but undisclosed AI writing is given only “network” distribution, which means it is meant to appear only on the feeds of people who follow the writer. Medium defines AI-generated writing as “writing where the majority of the content has been created by an AI-writing program with little or no edits, improvements, fact-checking, or changes.” Medium does not have any AI-specific enforcement tools for these new rules. “We've found that our existing curation system has the side effect of filtering out AI generated writing simply because AI generated writing is also bad writing,” says Stubblebine.

Some Medium writers and editors do applaud the platform’s approach to AI. Eric Pierce, who founded Medium’s largest pop culture publication Fanfare, says he doesn’t have to fend off many AI-generated submissions and that he believes that the human curators of Medium’s boost program help highlight the best of the platform’s human writing. “I can’t think of a single piece I’ve read on Medium in the past few months that even hinted at being AI-created,” he says. “Increasingly, Medium feels like a bastion of sanity amid an internet desperate to eat itself alive.”

However, other writers and editors believe they currently still see a plethora of AI-generated writing on the platform. Content marketing writer Marcus Musick, who edits several publications, wrote a post lamenting how what he suspects to be an AI-generated article went viral. (Reality Defender ran an analysis on the article in question and estimated it was 99 percent “likely manipulated.”) The story appears widely read, with over 13,500 “claps.”

In addition to spotting possible AI content as a reader, Musick also believes he encounters it frequently as an editor. He says he rejects around 80 percent of potential contributors a month because he suspects they’re using AI. He does not use AI detectors, which he calls “useless,” instead relying on his own judgment.

While the volume of likely AI-generated content on Medium is notable, the moderation challenges the platform faces—how to surface good work and keep junk banished—is one that has always plagued the greater web. The AI boom has simply super-charged the problem. While click farms have long been an issue, for example, AI has handed SEO-obsessed entrepreneurs a way to swiftly resurrect zombie media outlets by filling them with AI slop. There’s a whole subgenre of YouTube hustle culture entrepreneurs creating get-rich-quick tutorials encouraging others to create AI slop on platforms like Facebook, Amazon Kindle, and, yes, Medium. (Sample headline: “1-Click AI SEO Medium Empire 🤯.”)

“Medium is in the same place as the internet as a whole right now. Because AI content is so quick to generate that it is everywhere,” says plagiarism consultant Jonathan Bailey. “Spam filters, the human moderators, et cetera—those are probably the best tools they have.”

Stubblebine’s argument—that it doesn’t necessarily matter whether a platform contains a large amount of garbage, as long as it successfully amplifies good writing and limits the reach of said garbage—is perhaps more pragmatic than any attempt to wholly banish AI slop. His moderation strategy may very well be the most savvy approach.

It also suggests a future in which the Dead Internet theory comes to fruition. The theory, once the domain of extremely online conspiratorial thinkers, argues that the vast majority of the internet is devoid of real people and human-created posts, instead clogged with AI-generated slop and bots. As generative AI tools grow more commonplace, platforms that give up on trying to blot out bots will incubate an online world in which work created by humans becomes increasingly harder to find on platforms swamped by AI.

[advertisement098]

How Much Power Does a V-Bottom Paper Bag Machine Consume?

If you’re planning to start or expand your paper bag manufacturing business, one of the key questions you’re likely asking is “How much power does a V-bottom paper bag-making machine consume?”

Understanding the power consumption of your machine is essential—not just for estimating your monthly electricity costs, but also for ensuring that your factory setup can support continuous, smooth production.

In this blog, we’ll break down the typical power requirements of V-bottom paper bag machines, what factors influence energy usage, and how you can keep operational costs low without compromising on output.

⚙️ What Is a V-Bottom Paper Bag Machine?

A V-bottom paper bag machine is used to manufacture flat, V-shaped bottom paper bags without handles. These bags are commonly used in bakeries, grocery shops, pharmacies, and small retail outlets.

These machines are

Fast (up to 400 bags per minute)

Cost-effective

Compatible with kraft paper, newsprint, and recycled paper

Widely used for mass production

Now let’s understand the electrical aspect of running these machines.

⚡ Average Power Consumption of V-Bottom Paper Bag Machines

At Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd., our standard and high-speed V-bottom paper bag machines typically consume between

3 kW to 6 kW per hour

This translates to:

3 to 6 units of electricity per hour

Around 24 to 48 units per 8-hour shift

This makes these machines highly energy-efficient, especially compared to other types of packaging machinery (such as square-bottom bag or handle-attaching machines, which can go up to 10–15 kW).

🔌 What Factors Affect Power Consumption?

Power usage may vary based on several factors. Let’s take a look at what influences the electricity cost of operating a V-bottom machine:

1. Machine Size and Model

Larger, fully automatic machines with higher speed capabilities generally consume more power than entry-level models. A basic model running at 150 bags/min will use less electricity than a heavy-duty model producing 400 bags/min.

2. Printing Attachment (Optional)

If your machine includes an in-line flexographic printing unit, this will add 1–2 kW of power consumption depending on the number of color stations (1, 2, or 4 colors).

3. Bag Size and Paper Thickness

Heavier and wider bags require more motor torque, which increases power consumption slightly. Thicker GSM paper may also lead to more resistance during feeding and folding.

4. Number of Shifts

Machines running multiple shifts per day (e.g., two or three 8-hour shifts) will naturally consume more power—but also generate higher output, which offsets the electricity cost through volume-based profit.

5. Motor Efficiency

High-efficiency motors and servo drives reduce electricity usage. All

Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd.

Machines use energy-optimized motors to balance power and productivity.

💡 Electricity Cost Calculation Example

Let’s say you run a V-bottom paper bag machine that consumes 4 kW/hour for a single 8-hour shift daily:

Daily Consumption: 4 kW x 8 hours = 32 units

Monthly Consumption (25 working days): 32 x 25 = 800 units

Average commercial electricity cost: ₹8/unit (varies by location)

Estimated Monthly Electricity Cost = ₹6,400

Now, if your machine produces around 12,000–15,000 bags/hour, your monthly output could be over 2.5 to 3 million bags. This makes the per-bag electricity cost extremely low, usually less than ₹0.03 per bag—a small fraction of the total production cost.

🏆 Advantages of Low Power Consumption

✅ Reduced Operating Cost

Low power usage helps keep your production expenses under control, especially in regions where commercial electricity rates are high.

✅ Great for Startups

If you’re running a small unit or working with limited infrastructure, our energy-efficient machines allow you to operate even with a basic 3-phase connection.

✅ Eco-Friendly Manufacturing

Less power usage means a lower carbon footprint, aligning with the eco-friendly image of paper bag manufacturing.

🏭 Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd.—Built for Energy Efficiency

At Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd., our V-bottom paper bag-making machines are engineered to deliver:

✅ High output with low energy consumption

✅ Efficient servo-motor drives

✅ Minimal idle losses

✅ Compatibility with standard 3-phase industrial power

Our machines are perfect for both small workshops and large factories that want to scale responsibly and profitably.

📞 Want to Know More About Running Costs?

We understand that choosing a paper bag machine is a long-term investment, and energy costs play a big part in your decision. That’s why our team is always ready to help you calculate your potential monthly expenses and recommend the best machine for your goals and budget. 🌐 Website: Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech’s benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/10/bdfl/#high-on-your-own-supply

Silicon Valley's "authoritarian turn" is hard to miss: tech bosses have come out for autocrats like Trump, Orban, Milei, Bolsonaro, et al, and want to turn San Francisco into a militia-patrolled apartheid state operated for the benefit of tech bros:

https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

Smart people have written well about what this means, and have gotten me thinking, too:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/why-did-silicon-valley-turn-right

Regular readers will know that I make a kind of hobby of collecting definitions of right-wing thought:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/29/jubilance/#tolerable-racism

One of these – a hoary old cliche – is that "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged." I don't give this one much credence, but it takes on an interesting sheen when combined with this anonymous gem: "Conservatives say they long for the simpler times of their childhood, but what they miss is that the reason they lived simpler lives back then wasn't that the times were simpler; rather, it's because they were children."

If you're a tech founder who once lived in a world where your workers were also your pals and didn't shout at you about labor relations, perhaps that's not because workers got "woke," but rather, because when you were all scrapping at a startup, you were all on an equal footing and there weren't any labor relations to speak of. And if you're a once-right-on tech founder who used to abstractly favor "social justice" but now find yourself beset by people demanding that you confront your privilege, perhaps what's changed isn't those people, but rather the amount of privilege you have.

In other words, "a reactionary tech boss is a liberal tech boss who hired a bunch of pals only to have them turn around and start a union." And also: "Tech founders say things were simpler when they were running startups, but what they miss is that the reason no one asked their startup to seriously engage with the social harms it caused is the because the startup was largely irrelevant to society, while the large company it turned into is destroying millions of peoples' lives today."

The oft-repeated reactionary excuse that "I didn't leave the progressive movement, they left me," can be both technically true and also profoundly wrong: if progressives in your circle never bothered you about your commercial affairs, perhaps that's because those affairs didn't matter when you were grinding out code in your hacker house, but they matter a lot now that you have millions of users and thousands of employees.

I've been in tech circles since before the dawn of the dotcoms; I was part of a movement of people who would come over to your house with a stack of floppies and install TCP/IP and PPP networking software on your computer and show you how to connect to a BBS or ISP, because we wanted everyone to have as much fun as we were having.

Some of us channeled that excitement into starting companies that let people get online, create digital presences of their own, and connect with other people. Some of us were more .ORG than .COM and gave our lives over to activism and nonprofits, missing out on the stock options and big paydays. But even though we ended up in different places, we mostly started in the same place, as spittle-flecked, excited kids talking a mile a minute about how cool this internet thing would be and helping you, a normie, jump into it.

Many of my peers from the .ORG and .COM worlds went on to set up institutions – both companies and nonprofits – that have since grown to be critical pieces of internet infrastructure: classified ad platforms, online encyclopedias, CMSes and personal publishing services, critical free/open source projects, standards bodies, server-to-server utilities, and more.

These all started out as benevolent autocracies: personal projects started by people who pitched in to help their virtual neighbors with the new, digital problems we were all facing. These good people, with good impulses, did good: their projects filled an important need, and grew, and grew, and became structurally important to the digital world. What started off as "Our pal's project that we all pitch in on," became, "Our pal's important mission that we help with, but that also has paid staff and important stakeholders, which they oversee as 'benevolent dictator for life.'"

Which was fine. The people who kicked off these projects had nurtured them all the way from a napkin doodle to infrastructure. They understood them better than anyone else, had sacrificed much for them, and it made sense for them to be installed as stewards.

But what they did next, how they used their powers as "BFDLs," made a huge difference. Because we are all imperfect, we are all capable of rationalizing our way into bad choices, we are all riven with insecurities that can push us to do things we later regret. When our actions are checked – by our peers' social approval or approbation; by the need to keep our volunteers happy; by the possibility of a mass exodus of our users or a fork of our code – these imperfections are balanced by consequences.

Dictators aren't necessarily any more prone to these lapses in judgment than anyone else. Benevolent dictators actually exist, people who only retain power because they genuinely want to use that power for good. Those people aren't more likely to fly off the handle or talk themselves into bad places than you or me – but to be a dictator (benevolent or otherwise) is to exist without the consequences that prevent you from giving in to those impulses. Worse: if you are the dictator – again, benevolent or otherwise – of a big, structurally important company or nonprofit that millions of people rely on, the consequences of these lapses are extremely consequential.

This is how BDFL arrangements turn sour: by removing themselves from formal constraint, the people whose screwups matter the most end up with the fewest guardrails to prevent themselves from screwing up.

No wonder people who set out to do good, to help others find safe and satisfying digital homes online, find themselves feeling furious and beset. Given those feelings, can we really be surprised when "benevolent" dictators discover that they have sympathy for real-world autocrats whose core ethos is, "I know what needs to be done and I could do it, if only the rest of you would stop nagging me about petty bullshit that you just made up 10 minutes ago but now insist is the most important thing in the world?"

That all said, it's interesting to look at the process by which some BDFLs transitioned to community-run projects with checks and balances. I often think about how Wikipedia's BDFL, the self-avowed libertarian Jimmy Wales, decided (correctly, and to his everlasting credit), that the project he raised from a weird idea into a world-historic phenomenon should not be ruled over by one guy, not even him.

(Jimmy is one of those libertarians who believes that we don't need governments to make us be kind and take care of one another because he is kind and takes care of other people – see also John Gilmore and Penn Jillette:)

https://www.cracked.com/article_40871_penn-jillette-wants-to-talk-it-all-out.html

Jimmy's handover to the Wikimedia Foundation gives me hope for our other BDFLs. He's proof that you can find yourself in the hotseat without being so overwhelmed with personal grievance that you find yourself in sympathy with actual fascists, but rather, have the maturity and self-awareness to know that the reason people are demanding so much of you is that you have – deliberately and with great effort – created a situation in which you owe the world a superhuman degree of care and attention, and the only way to resolve that situation equitably and secure your own posterity is to share that power around, not demand that you be allowed to wield it without reproach.

[pratanumindpowerdevelopment]

25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer

Here are 25 innovative ways to earn money without investment as a web content writer — all designed for minimal to zero upfront costs but leveraging your writing skills, internet access, and creativity:

 1. Start a Niche Blog with Free Platforms

Use Blogger or Medium.

Monetize later via AdSense, affiliate links, or paid guest posts.

 2. Offer Content Writing Services on LinkedIn

Use LinkedIn to offer your services directly to small business owners, coaches, and startups.

Share writing samples as posts.

 3. Write on Medium Partner Program

Earn money based on read time and engagement.

Focus on trending topics like AI, productivity, or self-help.

 4. Create and Sell Email Templates

Design copy for eCommerce, marketing, or re-engagement campaigns.

Sell them on Gumroad or directly to startups.

 5. Offer WhatsApp Marketing Content

Provide short sales messages, product descriptions, and stories for WhatsApp campaigns.

Great for local businesses.

 6. Approach NGOs and Small Businesses

Offer to write their web content, brochures, or social posts for free.

Ask for testimonials and referrals.

 7. Guest Post for Payment

Many websites pay for high-quality guest posts (e.g., Listverse, A List Apart).

Focus on niche topics like tech, travel, wellness, or finance.

 8. Write and Sell Micro-eBooks

Use Google Docs to create eBooks (5–10 pages) on topics like freelancing, budgeting, etc.

Sell via Payhip or Gumroad.

 9. Start a Newsletter on Substack

Offer free tips on writing, freelancing, or digital marketing.

Monetize later with paid subscriptions.

 10. Edit and Reformat Resumes or LinkedIn Profiles

Offer services to job seekers, especially freshers or mid-career professionals.

 11. Offer Product Description Writing for Online Sellers

Reach out to sellers on Meesho, Amazon, Flipkart, or Etsy.

Offer 5 free samples, then convert them into paying clients.

 12. Write SOPs and Admission Essays

Cater to students applying to foreign universities.

Join education-related Facebook groups to find leads.

 13. Use Canva to Create Content + Visual Packs

Bundle social media captions with images (like 30 captions + 30 designs).

Sell as digital products.

 14. Create Content Writing Courses (Text-Based)

Use Google Docs or Google Sites.

Sell via Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook groups.

 15. Become a Quora Partner

Start answering questions strategically.

Some users still receive bonuses for high-performing answers (depends on the invite program).

 16. Review Apps or Websites

Send cold emails to app developers offering reviews or user guides.

Ask for a small fee in exchange.

 17. Use Affiliate Links in Blog Posts

Join programs like Amazon Associates, Hostinger, Canva, or Grammarly.

Write SEO-optimized content and embed links.

 18. Offer Language Translation + Content

Combine writing with translation if you know regional languages.

Create bilingual website content.

 19. Write Sample Lessons for EdTech Platforms

Contact online tuition or learning platforms.

Offer demo lessons, notes, or practice tests in English.

 20. Partner with Local Shops for Google Reviews

Write polished business descriptions or Google Map listings.

Charge ₹200–₹500 per listing.

 21. Join Facebook or Telegram Freelance Groups

Post your skills daily, share samples, and network directly.

 22. Offer Tagline and Slogan Writing Services

Brands always need punchy copy for ads or banners.

Create a portfolio on Behance or Google Drive.

 23. Write Scripts for YouTubers and Reels Creators

Many small creators need writing help for intros, narration, or subtitles.

 24. Write Press Releases

Offer low-cost PR services to startups and artists.

Submit to free PR sites or offer syndication.

 25. Conduct Writing Challenges or Classes

Run 5-day writing challenges on WhatsApp or Instagram.

Offer a certificate + upsell a full writing course later.

[starberry-cupcake]

To add to the pile of questionable tumblr behavior as of late, and as a psa at large:

I searched a mental health related tag last week and I got immediately a message from a bot called Koko. It intended to put me through to "people who are interested in mental health topics". In this tumblr message format, they didn't immediately facilitate hotlines, specific mental health care services or professional help, just "people".

I didn't respond to it. It's a bot. I didn't block it because I was interested to see where it would lead, but I didn't talk back. In the following days, it kept sending me messages, trying to get me to use their service.

Among the messages, they told me how it works, not that I had asked:

So, it sounds like a recipe for disaster in the making to me. My personal mental health information being passed through random tumblr users and getting a reply from someone who, not only isn't a professional or part of any sort of mental health care group I could get informed about, but they also will provide unsupervised answers to topics of great importance to someone who was looking into related tags.

But, tumblr user thewindandthewolves seems to endorse it, so let's check them out and see what they have to say.

Well. I'm posting the responses in chronological order, but I guess the raving review from a tumblr user was actually a kid who didn't give them consent to use their words as endorsement. Great look.

Today, I got a new message. Again, unprompted.

Second review person has apparently deleted their blog, so no background information on that one. If that's you, let us know.

I decided to look at their blog and read people's comments on their posts. The tumblr userbase came through with the receipts and linked this very detailed article about not only the bot and its founder but the sketchy study it uses as a foundation:

Here's an important quote from this article regarding the study in which Koko is founded as a clear notion of what consent means to them:

Morris [Koko's founder] declined to say whether he thought the subjects had meaningfully consented to the study. He told Motherboard that his goal was to establish a new best practice, where he would be able to transparently show his results to social media platforms. However, when asked if he felt that the experiment was transparent to the participants involved, he said he’d needed more time to think about it. 

It's not a tough one to respond to, Morris.

I suggest you to please read the whole article but the way in which these people perform verbal gymnastics to try to justify the lack of consent from people involved is alarming.

About Tumblr's involvement, the article didn't get comments from them on it:

Stony Brook's IRB [Institutional Review Board] and multiple people tasked with overseeing the IRB did not respond to multiple emails from Motherboard about the study or the process. Facebook, Discord, and Tumblr responded to Motherboard’s initial emails but did not provide comment. Telegram did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment. 

The article also read the fine print of the Terms of Service, the only thing they provide as any type of consent to users, and the previous situation of using tumblr user posts without them knowing is illuminated further:

The current dynamic between Koko and its users more closely parallels the relationship between most tech companies and their users than that between a mental health provider and patient. Its Terms of Service, for instance, state that, “You grant Koko a fully paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, transferable and fully sublicensable right (including any moral rights) and license to use, license, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, publicly perform, publicly display, and otherwise fully exploit Your Content.” 

As an editor, that sounds more like a US release agreement form for intellectual property, which should not be used as any form of mediation for personal data. It also alarms me to no end that the "Content" in question, in the example we have was, according to OP, a post they had made on their own blog about Kokobot and not a response or quote provided to Kokobot itself which, in tow, signifies that the data collected could come from anywhere and not only what you actively provide them. But what do I know.

I did more digging by myself and found even more articles denouncing the behavior of this bot and company, this being another interesting one:

This one included the following thing about the peer-counseling aspect of it and the use of AI to craft the supposed "people" responses:

During the AI experiment—which applied to about 30,000 messages, according to Morris—volunteers providing assistance to others had the option to use a response automatically generated by OpenAI's GPT-3 large language model instead of writing one themselves (GPT-3 is the technology behind the recently popular ChatGPT chatbot).

Apparently, Koko has been around for a while, with articles discussing it as far as, at least, 2017. Still, I had never before received unprompted, unwanted, invasive messages from it on tumblr until now.

If you post or search tags related to mental health, it's very likely that you'll get this bot in your messages or you already have. There are many layers of breach of ethics in this situation, in my opinion, each one worse than the last one.

Before using it or sharing any information at all (with any bot ever), I'd advice you to look into it beforehand. I know we are the "trust no bots" website and the fake ladybots have taught us well on how to spot them and protect ourselves, but this one in particular seems very dangerous to me.

I can't talk about whether or not this has helped anybody, I'm not coming anywhere near it, but the sole concept of this sounds like a bad idea. The advice provided doesn't seem to come from selected professionals the platform is endorsing legally but by random people (and/or AI) who are not only not trained for it, they aren't being compensated for work made for a program, which is probably making good money out of all the social media platforms it's working with. It also allows them to not be responsible for the advice given, to some extent.

Even if people with mental health concerns can discuss things between them in very productive and helpful ways, there isn't genuinely transparent communication if it's anonymously mediated by a company and there isn't a proper professional care that can accompany them from someone who is trained to facilitate it. You can talk to a friend without having to provide data to a company that could identify you since, according to the first article:

There is, further, no easy way to wall the collection of such data off from actual subjects, as anonymized datasets can often still be traced back to specific individuals. (A 2019 study found that 99.98 percent of Americans could be correctly re-identified in any dataset using 15 demographic attributes.) This is why privacy experts have been vocal about the exploitation of data privacy and the unreliability of an anonymous dataset. 

I'm not here to tell anyone what to do or not to do but I'm here to share this because I know that I would appreciate the information if someone else had come across it instead. Make decisions with all the information you can get.

Throwing a wild idea for the hellsite but maybe staff and ceo should be a little less occupied in persecuting trans folk and more into reading the fine print of the unethical companies they're signing with, who are exploiting their userbase's mental health, especially that of literal children whose quotes are being used to endorse their business without any legal consent, aside from a terribly worded TOS. But what do I know.

[riyasabubacker]

How to Use Content Marketing to Build Brand Authority

In today’s crowded digital space, trust is the ultimate currency. Consumers no longer respond to generic adsthey seek brands they can trust and learn from. That’s why building brand authority is essential, and one of the most powerful ways to achieve it is through content marketing.

As a digital marketing freelancer in Dubai, I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes to help them build credibility, attract leads, and grow through powerful content strategies. If you want to stand out and become a trusted expert in your field, here’s how content marketing can help you do just that.

What Is Brand Authority?

Brand authority means being recognized as a credible and trustworthy expert in your niche. It’s what sets you apart and makes customers choose your brand over competitors even if you’re new or more expensive.

With strong brand authority, you can:

Boost your search engine rankings organically

Earn customer loyalty and referrals

Get valuable backlinks and media attention

Increase conversions with less resistance

Why Content Marketing Builds Brand Authority

Unlike traditional advertising, content marketing is about adding value, not just selling. It educates your audience, solves their problems, and demonstrates your expertise earning trust naturally over time.

As a digital marketing freelancer in Dubai, I’ve seen firsthand how consistent, high quality content helps brands build lasting connections and drive results without depending solely on paid campaigns.

7 Ways to Build Brand Authority Through Content Marketing

1. Understand Your Audience Deeply

Begin by knowing your audience. What are their biggest challenges? What solutions are they searching for in Dubai’s market? Tools like Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, and social listening can help uncover these insights.

2. Create Evergreen, Helpful Content

Focus on content that delivers long-term value:

How-to guides

Frequently asked questions

Practical tutorials

Industry analysis

Example: A blog like “How Local SEO Helps Dubai Cafes Increase Foot Traffic” offers direct, helpful value that builds trust.

3. Optimize Your Content for SEO

To increase visibility, use the right keywords like digital marketing freelancer in Dubai and digital marketing services in Dubai naturally throughout your content.

Don’t forget to optimize:

Page titles & meta descriptions

Headings (H1, H2)

Image alt tags

Internal and external links

4. Showcase Real Results with Case Studies

Trust is built through proof. Share data-driven results and client success stories to reinforce your authority.

Example: “How I Helped a Dubai-Based Startup Grow Website Traffic by 250% in 6 Months.”

5. Publish Consistently Across Channels

Authority grows with consistent visibility. Use platforms like:

Medium (for long-form content)

LinkedIn (for B2B credibility)

Instagram (for quick insights and storytelling)

YouTube or podcasts (for authority and reach)

6. Collaborate With Industry Experts

Partner with local influencers, freelancers, or thought leaders. Guest posts, co-branded webinars, or podcast interviews can elevate your reputation within the Dubai market.

7. Repurpose and Distribute Your Content

Maximize the value of every piece of content:

Turn blog posts into LinkedIn carousels

Reuse tips for Instagram Reels

Expand articles into email sequences

Record short podcast episodes

This multiplies your reach across channels and reinforces your expertise.

Final Thoughts

Building brand authority doesn’t happen overnight. It takes consistency, strategy, and real value. But with content marketing, any business big or small can earn the trust of its audience.

As a digital marketing freelancer in Dubai, I specialize in helping brands grow through purposeful, data-backed content strategies. Whether you’re starting out or scaling up, building authority is key to long-term success.

Ready to Build Your Brand Authority?

Let’s design a content strategy that positions you as the expert your audience is searching for. Contact me today to explore how digital marketing services in Dubai can grow your business.

[suspiciouslyshinymonster]

Discover the World of Ummagurau: A Digital Phenomenon

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, new trends and terms emerge every day. One such term that has recently caught the attention of netizens worldwide is ummagurau. Whether you're a casual browser or a digital marketing professional, you might have come across this mysterious word and wondered what it’s all about. In this article, we delve into the concept of ummagurau, explore its origins, uses, and cultural significance, and answer frequently asked questions to help you understand its growing presence online.

What is Ummagurau?

The term ummagurau appears to be a relatively new entrant in the online lexicon. Although not found in conventional dictionaries, ummagurau is making waves on social media platforms, forums, and content-sharing websites. Its uniqueness lies in its ambiguity—no one knows for sure whether it’s a brand, a meme, a trend, or a cryptic code. The mystery surrounding ummagurau has only added to its allure. Some speculate that ummagurau might have originated from an online gaming community or a niche meme culture. Others believe it's a coined term meant to spark curiosity and engagement—something often used in viral marketing campaigns. Regardless of its true origin, one thing is clear: ummagurau has become a part of the internet’s cultural tapestry.

The Viral Nature of Ummagurau

Like many internet phenomena, the popularity of ummagurau can be attributed to its viral nature. People are drawn to the unknown, and ummagurau fits that bill perfectly. Posts containing this keyword often garner higher engagement due to the curiosity it arouses. Content creators and influencers have started incorporating ummagurau into their hashtags, video titles, and blog posts, creating a snowball effect of visibility. This surge in popularity raises interesting questions about how content spreads on the internet. Ummagurau might not have a defined meaning, but its success shows that intrigue and mystery are powerful tools in digital storytelling.

Is Ummagurau a Brand or a Movement?

There’s growing speculation that ummagurau could be the name of an upcoming digital product, NFT project, or tech startup. Some Reddit threads suggest it might be linked to an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) or experimental marketing campaign. While there is no official confirmation, the coordinated use of ummagurau across platforms hints at a structured effort to build hype. In some online circles, ummagurau has become a symbol of belonging—something that unites a community of insiders who are “in the know.” If it is indeed a planned campaign, it’s a brilliant example of how to leverage mystery for audience engagement.

How Ummagurau is Influencing Online Content

Another interesting aspect is how ummagurau is shaping online content creation. SEO writers, digital marketers, and influencers are all trying to tap into its rising trend by including the keyword in their content. Whether it's YouTube thumbnails, TikTok captions, or blog headlines, the term ummagurau is showing up everywhere. Even though the word itself remains undefined, its presence drives curiosity-driven traffic. This makes ummagurau a valuable keyword in niche SEO strategies. Marketers are using it as a placeholder for future content or as a conversation starter.

Ummagurau in Pop Culture

The internet loves an inside joke, and ummagurau is rapidly becoming one. It has already inspired memes, fan art, and parody videos. In some cases, the term is being used as a code for “you don’t get it unless you’re one of us,” creating a kind of digital in-group identity. Whether or not ummagurau evolves into something tangible, its impact on internet culture is undeniable. It demonstrates how a single word, devoid of traditional meaning, can create waves across online communities.

FAQs About Ummagurau

Q1. What does ummagurau mean? Ans. There is no official definition of ummagurau as of yet. It appears to be a viral term used across various platforms for its intrigue and mysteriousness.

Q2. Where did ummagurau originate? Ans. The origin of ummagurau is unclear. Some believe it began in meme culture or was part of an underground marketing campaign.

Q3. Is ummagurau a brand or product? Ans. While there is no confirmation, many speculate that ummagurau could be related to a new digital brand, NFT project, or ARG.

Q4. Why is ummagurau trending on social media? Ans. The term is trending because of its novelty and the curiosity it generates. Users are intrigued and sharing it across platforms, boosting its popularity.

Q5. Can I use ummagurau in my content? Ans. Yes, many digital creators are using ummagurau in content to drive engagement and curiosity-driven traffic. Just be sure to use it creatively.

Q6. Is there a website or official source for ummagurau? Ans. As of now, there’s no known official website for ummagurau. Keep an eye on emerging platforms or announcements that might reveal more.

Q7. Could ummagurau be a code or cipher? Ans. Some online communities suggest it might be part of a puzzle or cryptic message, but this is purely speculative.

Q8. How can I stay updated on ummagurau? Ans. Follow trending hashtags and forums where ummagurau is being discussed. Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok are good starting points.

Final Thoughts

The term ummagurau may be shrouded in mystery, but its rise in popularity offers valuable lessons in digital culture, viral marketing, and online engagement. Whether it’s a clever ploy or an accidental trend, ummagurau has captured the internet’s imagination. As curiosity continues to grow, so will the conversations around this intriguing keyword.