#crowdsourced part of this answer

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Ah, we meet at last. Will you stand beside me as allies united under the same name, or do you seek to challenge me, believing that there can only be one...?

You.

Over a year after this account was created, we finally meet face to face. I am honored to make your acquaintance on this cursed website.

We are better than allies and worse than enemies, dear internet stranger. We are mutuals, now. Brothers, even. Brothers under the same name, the likes of Cain and Abel.

Whether our fates are similar to theirs is up to you, dear Hot Cheeto Hatred. And choose carefully: it may not be the older brother that prevails this time. That would be quite the boring story.

In the meantime, I am glad to be in your company.

Sincerely, HotCheetoHatred(WasTaken)

[interact-if]

Happy New Year everyone!

I’m delighted to announce that Interact-IF is officially back in business! I (Allie @allieebobo) will be taking the reins as the new mod, and I’m very excited to get this blog up and running again!

First, a heartfelt thank-you to the original mod team for everything they’ve built. Interact-if has become such an invaluable resource and hub for interactive fiction fans and authors alike. It’s a tough act to follow, but I’ll do my best to keep the spirit of this wonderful space alive :)

A little bit more about me: I’m the author of two WIP interactive fiction games, @collegetennisoriginstory and @merrycrisis-if. Interact-if was one of the first blogs/places that I discovered almost three years ago now, and it led me to so many amazing stories, authors, and resources.

When I saw that the blog was going into archive mode, with a call for a new generation of mods, I wanted to do my best to help out. I reached out to the original mod team and worked out a gameplan for the future of Interact-if, which I’d like to share with all of you today.

P.S. If you would like to join me, I’d love to have you on the team! Scroll down to the section on ‘open call for mods’.

Without further ado, here’s the plan!

My goal is to focus on retaining the aspects that made Interact-IF so special: spotlighting diverse authors, and creating a warm, inclusive space to talk about and share wonderful games.

🟢 Active:

Game Updates & Intros: If you’re an author with a new game or demo update, or if you’re organizing a game jam or event you’d like to share with the community, simply tag @interact-if in your posts, and I’ll reblog them. It would also be helpful if you added tags stating the IF's genre (e.g. horror, romance), has a demo/no demo.

Themed Author Features: I’ll continue the tradition of spotlighting authors and games based on monthly themes (e.g. Pride Month, Disability Month). These interviews are such a great way of celebrating diversity and inclusivity in the IF community, and I’d love to keep these going! Stay tuned for a detailed post on this soon!

Community Spotlight: Once every quarter, I’ll also do a call for reader recs around certain categories/themes (e.g. Fave RO, Fave Worldbuilding/setting, Fave plot-twist etc.) and compile these recommendations to share. Think of it as a bulletin of crowdsourced faves and a way of sharing a little note about an IF you love!

🟡 Remain open/active, but not modded:

Game directory: The Interact-IF repository of games (excel) will remain open for authors to update/list their games and/or readers to discover their next read. (Feel free to continue to update/populate the repository, though do note it will remain completely crowd-sourced/author-updated).

Discord: The discord will remain open and active for discussions, resource sharing, and casual chats, though again, this will not be officially modded (though I, and some of the original mods like roast, may be active from time to time)

🔴 Not active:

Asks: I will not be answering asks except for specific submissions (e.g. for author features, reader recommendations etc.). If you would like to ask for specific game recommendations, or have questions/just wanna chat, the discord channel is a great place to do just that! :)

Keeping track of events/game updates: As mentioned, I’ll rely on authors / readers to tag me in updates posts and/or flag any games with questionable content/anything that might need my attention, as I won't be able to search out update posts or do any extensive vetting.

Open call for mods:

Finally, I’d love to have some company! If you’re interested in helping out—whether with reblogs, interviews, or brainstorming new features—please reach out. Having a small team would make this space even more vibrant!

Thank you for your support, your enthusiasm, and for being part of what makes Interact-IF such a special corner of the internet! :)

If you have any suggestions or ideas on how Interact-If can be improved, feel free also to drop the blog a direct message or an ask. I look forward to getting to know all of you better. Here's to an awesome year of interactive fiction (and many more!)

[andhumanslovedstories]

I know this is a very big question that I might also be overthinking (I am), and crowdsourcing answers on tumblr is not gonna be my only input, but I’ve been getting in my head about it and I think outside opinions might help. I’ve been tutoring a teenage boy from Ukraine—we say “tutoring” lmao we quickly devolved into just talking so much about video games once a week. Call it English practice. Anyway, I’m gonna have dinner with his family soon, all of whom have limited mastery of English. I met them through volunteering with a refugee organization.

Do people with experience leaving countries due to war or other big events like that have any insight into how much or little to discuss the past? I know I am overthinking this and that all human beings are unique, etc etc, but I have such little personal framework for this major part of their life that I keep trying to figure out if there is a really obvious misstep I could make without knowing. Or really more importantly: I’d like the dinner to go as well as possible and to give them a very nice time. I hope that will happen regardless, but like…I wanna really crush it. You know?

I guess very broadly speaking: if you can relate at all to the family’s situation, is there something someone could have done to make you feel particularly welcome? Or is there anything…Ukrainian we could do that they might enjoy? These feel like kinda silly questions, but I’d very much appreciate insight.

[todays-just-a-daydream]

starting a post for crowdsourcing any oasis reunion videos/audio coming out of cardiff tonight. i suspect we will be getting a mess of crappy snippets of audio or video from phones first, maybe a complete song or two, until some pro recorder uploads a complete file. that may take days. i trust there will be several for this show eventually since it’s the first. however if anyone finds a decent livestream up and running we want eyes on that fast. so like or save this post in your drafts now. then any decent links you find share them in the comments (or reblogs). i’ll edit this post to add any links found and build a list. starting below with the l4e thread for the gig since it’s already hopping. adding the reddit one too although it’s already become a sprawling mess.

if you’re lucky enough to have tickets and are in cardiff what are you doing get off your phone and enjoy yourself!

Cardiff Night 1 (4 July) Links

L4E gig thread | Livestream thread Reddit megathread

Livestreams Livestream recording of the beginning of Oasis set (cuts out halfway through Fade Away) from @HAZEYDAZE youtube channel (also has the Ashcroft and Cast sets)

Tiktok livestream from @glowyamy Alternative Tiktok livestream (includes postshow answering qs) from @itssslori

Twitter livestream (streamed full gig, ended now) from @simplemellie

Instagram livestream (good quality) from @officialgreenattic

Full gig: video // alt // multicam | audio only

NG LG walking up backstage clip

Official walkout clip from Big Brother Productions // cropped // barricade POV | photos: full band from official Oasis Insta // close up of NG & LG from Absolute Radio // rightstage POV // backstage POV 🤍

Introduction video + walkout + Hello (full) // opening notes of Hello // mid song | Acquiesce (full, upper right stage POV) // pro clip // screens | Morning Glory (full) | Some Might Say (full) | Bring It On Down (full, far) | Fade Away (full) 🤍 // alt | Supersonic (full) | Roll With It (full, far) | Talk Tonight (full, far) | Half The World Away (full) 🤍 | Little By Little (full, far) | D'You Know What I Mean (full) 🤍 // alt1 alt2 | Stand By Me (full) | Cast No Shadow (full) 🤍 // upper right stage POV | Slide Away (full, upper right stage POV) | Whatever (full) | Live Forever (full) | Rock n Roll Star (full) | Band Intros + Dedication + The Masterplan (full, far) // alt (song only) alt2 | Don't Look Back In Anger (full) 🤍 | Wonderwall (full) // upper right stage POV | Champagne Supernova (full) 🤍 // zoomed in // upper right stage POV

‘was it worth the 40 thousand pounds you paid for a ticket?’ clip | NG & Bonehead interaction | NG face during let me be the one part of Slide Away | take me there part of Slide Away | DLBIA guitar solo | NG LG fistbump after Roll With It

onstage photos: LG // NG // Bonehead // Gem // Getty images archive

Bros hug clip at the end of Supernova | other angles: barricade POV1 // barricade POV2 // right stage // left stage POV | photos: silhouette // wider silhouette with sea sunset // pit POV // LG face after

Press reviews of Night 1

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts/oasis-tour-cardiff-review-liam-noel-gallagher-review

some comments i saved while going through the youtube videos:

(https://youtube.com/watch?v=eJolgjngi3Q&lc=Ugy95bDJS31qIzsyQct4AaABAg&si=B130ImWoKS5M23bf)

(https://youtu.be/ujmuo4w_BlE?si=lOIFjPL_wc0fZHLp)

Cardiff Night 2 (5 July) Links

Livestreams: Youtube | Twitter

Walkout Night 2 with NG & LG locked hands in the air and mutual bows // center stage POV // left stage POV | photos: close up right // LG reaction to NG bow

Cigarettes & Alcohol (far, screens) | Live Forever (left stage POV) | Rock n Roll Star | The Masterplan (left stage) | Don’t Look Back In Anger (mid center, screens) // left stage POV | Wonderwall | LG Remarks + Champagne Supernova (full) // alt (far center, screens)

Octopus’s Garden ending to Whatever | close up NG reacting to LG singing Octopus’s Garden

Bro hug clip Night 2 (!) | gifset | photos: close up NG face // HQ close up

Bonehead postgig tweet: ‘that was emotional’

[skythealmighty]

haha i love when i struggle with multiple hyperfixations at once. i am a coward for not making a crossover between allnof them but like. worldbuilding hard stfu

#rocket talk #the hyperfixes: #tmnt #inanimate insanity #bfdi #dsmp #the last one mostly spurred on by the stupid shit dreams doing #love clowning on that fool

(0 notes)

🤍 notalwayssecondplace Follow

i love how people are reblogging gi's hit post like it isnt a sign of his crippling inability to deal with change or to come to terms with his own self

anyway on other news i have a bunch of ideas for a new d&d campaign!

#i love my cousin but he really really needs therapy #like REALLY really

(12 notes)

🔧 warp-pipe-sfx Follow

I just realized... why do we call it "humanity"? Shouldn't it be "objectity"? IS it that in some universes? Can we claim universes that use "humanity" all once had humans???

⛳ bossy-bot Follow

Hello! Golf Ball from the BFDI universe here. I can confirm we use 'humanity' because we have, and also have had, humans. I cannot say for other universes though.

💥 fans-fantastic-features Follow

Fan II at your service! we use both- humans are kind of a myth for the most part. depends on how religious you are sometimes

💊 the-cringe-one Follow

Cringe Pill, TDOS- 'objectity' is the main term we use. Hadn't even heard of humans until Real Life Battle, honestly

👓 the-nerdiest-glasses Follow

guys, you're way overthinking this. here one sec

add in the tags what universe you're from (and if you picked humanity, if you know why add that too)

🔧 warp-pipe-sfx Follow

Oh, hadn't even thought of that...

#Goes to show you can be as smart as you want and still be stupid 😅 #Very curious to see the responses

(351,294 notes)

🎩 not-a-magician asked: Hi, I've been seeing people ask you for advice on auras and mental wellness and things... do you have anything for sleeping? I don't know if I have insomnia, but I've definitely had some trouble sleeping lately. I'm tired as hell but can't seem to just. Do it. Any advice at all would mean the world to me, really

🕯 litwick-in-real-life Follow

(Reminder to all: my advice on here is not meant to replace professional help by any means. If this is the cause of underlying trauma, please turn to therapy and not Tumblr. I'm not licensed yet.)

Thank you so much for the ask! While I'm sorry to admit sleep habits are not something I'm particularly versed in, I will give advice to the best of my ability as always. Best wishes on your journey to heal ^-^

Full advice below the cut to save space, as always!

Keep reading

#mental wellness #sleep habits #sleep #candle's light advice #not-a-magician

(14 notes)

💥 fans-fantastic-features Follow

ive come to a realization

you're welcome

#tpot #gravity falls #bfdi #one bfdi #bill cipher #i spent way too fucking long on this #if anyone's done this before me don't tell me please #also please dont come after me one THIS ISNT AN INSULT

(931 notes)

👿 darkness-reigns-supreme-3882 Follow

WHY THE FUCK AM I GREEN NOW?!

👿 darkness-reigns-supreme-3882 Follow

GREEN ISN'T INTIMIDATING. GREEN IS STUPID. GREEN IS ~nature~ AND ~healing~ AND PEOPLE WHO GET STUCK UP ON MOUNTAINS!!!!!

👿 darkness-reigns-supreme-3882 Follow

there will be hell to pay for this.

#i SWEAR if who i thought did this did this.

(2 notes)

✅ marker-the-green Follow

Ummm why did I just get a bunch of hate dms after I changed my username? I thought these were over :[

#It's the same guy too.... #oh wait right I unblocked him since he stopped

(7 notes)

📱 phone-guy-not-fnaf Follow

Finally getting therapy ✌ unfortunately my therapist says it's not productive to be literally dancing on my dead father's grave. that beign said tune into my next stream where we do dares at his gravestone

(374 notes)

🗒 meme-pad Follow

how to stop water in pot from burning? tried to cook ramen and failed

🗒 meme-pad Follow

i did not mean to type this in google im crowdsourcing

🎩 not-a-magician Follow

What the hell did you do?!

🗒 meme-pad Follow

NOTHING

#wait u have a tumnlr?

(1,279 notes)

📛 loud-and-proud Follow

i know this is ironic because of my username but uh. does anyone have any advice for being in love w your best bro and not knowing how to say it

🎚 all-about-dat-bass Follow

bro... im right here...

📛 loud-and-proud Follow

bro... so... is that a yes?

🎚 all-about-dat-bass Follow

hell YEAH, bro!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

📛 loud-and-proud Follow

no way... i love you dude ❤

🎚 all-about-dat-bass Follow

love you too man ❤

📕 imnotafuckingdiary Follow

Fucking finally

#They were SO BAD off screen #Definitely didn't expect this on Tumblr of all places though.

(72 notes)

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

time sensitive question: is it possible to get sued by algebraliens

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

this was posted literal months ago why are you idiots still reblogging it.

1️⃣ theoneandonly Follow

I mean~... if you want help not getting sued, I could always lend a theoretical hand?

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

no soliciting

1️⃣ theoneandonly Follow

That's not what "no soliciting" means, you know.

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

suck my dick

1️⃣ theoneandonly Follow

Haha, rude! I'm only offering help, you know.

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

go away you bill cipher wannabe or ill bite into you like a stale dorito

1️⃣ theoneandonly Follow

I can find you, you know.

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

lol

#im about to do whats called a pro gamer move

(240,163 notes)

🥧 threepointonefourwhatever Follow

i blocked her 🎉

[avoliot]

Querying

I got an ask on querying, which I answered privately as it had personal details in it, but thought the info might be useful more widely. As I didn't officially query I have crowdsourced some tips from my agented friends who did (ed: the group chat would like me to say i have 'consulted the sages') so here is the collected wisdom, which I have sorted into categories.

Please note that this is largely based on querying US agents.

Before you start:

Prepare yourself emotionally for rejection. if at all possible, write another book. Really common not to get rep for your first novel and really common for the book you got signed for not to sell. Honestly a lot of the confusion around querying is like, this is not about getting a good mark in writing a book. This is starting a career.

Don't jump the gun - make sure you've polished your book as much as possible yourself, sought feedback from beta readers and critique partners etc.

Finding agents:

Use manuscript wishlist, query tracker etc to build a list of agents, research their sales history in your genre.

If you can: spring for a publishers marketplace membership for at least a month (it's $25 and you can cancel any time). That way you can see who is selling comparative titles and whether they are selling to reputable publishers.

Don't query anyone you're not actually prepared to sign with. No agent is better than a bad agent.

Query letter:

Make sure you actually understand your genre, are reading recent releases, and know where your book would sit on the shelf, the number of people trying to query 200k game of thrones clones and getting nowhere because the industry moved on from there two decades ago is shockingly high.

Have a really solid idea of what the marketable hook for the book is. Which doesn't have to be what you personally like about it or what makes it good.

Use resources to both read a lot of query letters and, if you like, get yours critiqued. QueryShark archives are free and incredibly helpful. r/pubtips is, despite being reddit, a pretty good place to get specific feedback on your query

Pubtips also has wiki resources on query letter structure, vetting agents etc.

More details:

Even if you've got a series ready to go, you'll probably get further querying it as a standalone with series potential, 'this is the first in a seven part series and I love my characters so much and blahblah' isn't as appealing as you'd think.

Don't editorialise and praise your own manuscript, let people decide for themselves whether it's sensitive/gripping/lyrical.

This is a business letter, you don't need to be SUPER formal, but also be polite and professional and don't get overly familiar.

Referring to other authors the agent reps and how you see your work fitting in with that list also can be effective, but on the whole, personalisation is only necessary if there's something you really want to say to that particular agent. "I'm querying you with my fantasy book because you rep fantasy" can just be left out.

Don't comp the absolute no. 1 bestseller in your genre, comping Sanderson for your fantasy book (or, even worse, Tolkein) will make you look wildly out of touch.

Misc:

be prepared to wait a billion years for a response, it is a shitshow right now

also if you don't know anyone in publishing that's normal but if ur serious about writing professionally please god make friends with some writers at the same career stage. not a query tip but truly essential for ur sanity

[romione-summer-bangers-fest]

Romione Summer Banging Bangers Fest Rules and Timeline

Important Links

🌴 Romione Summer Bangers Fest Collection Link 🌴

🚨 Save this form! 🚨 This is the all-purpose form for the fest. Please use it to confirm your claims, suggest song prompts, and/or sign up to help with the fest.

The Rules

Prompting: 

Prompts will consist of summery songs that evoke common themes in Romione: longing, repressed lust, communication problems, profound love, jealousy, etc.

The moderator, with input from a small group of Romione writers, pre-selected a handful of prompts, and hopes to added additional prompts with input from readers!

There will also be a “wild card” prompt where creators can choose their own song that they believe fits summer vibes (this is open to interpretation).

Claiming: 

Creators must select a prompt through the collection and confirm each claim via the above form.

After submitting their work for the prompt, creators can select another prompt.

There is no limit to the number of claims per creator, but the creator must fulfill one prompt before claiming a new one.

Works accepted: We are open to all sorts of fan creations, including — but not limited to — fanfiction, fanart, moodboards, fan videos, and podfics. If you decide to produce a podfic of existing work, please make sure to clear it with the author.

Fic guidelines: 

Fics of all ratings are allowed.

This is a fluffy summer fest, so works must fit the vibe: a happy ending for Romione and labeled as “no archive warnings apply.”

No AI.

Minimum word count is 100 words to encourage new writers to participate.

Entries must be standalone works; they may be part of a series as long as it’s not necessary to read other fics in the series to understand the fic. Multi-chapters are accepted as long as the first chapter is completed by the deadline.

Age restrictions: 18+

The Timeline

April 20: Initial prompts are revealed and claiming starts; crowdsourcing for additional prompts

April 27: Voting for additional prompts begins on Tumblr and Reddit.

May 3: Voting for additional prompts ends

May 4: Readers' top prompts available for claiming, as well as wild card prompt

June 29: Last day to request a deadline extension

July 6: Works due

July 13 to July 19: Reveals

Questions?

The ask box 🗳️ is totally open! The "asks answered" tag will be updated as I get asks.

Happy creating! Please submit additional prompt ideas for voting and join the Woolly Bladders server to brainstorm and create alongside other participants!

[hellsite-proteins]

hi everyone! i know this isn't the kind of post you followed me for, but i am starting to Overthink Things, and i was hoping i have a big enough following that i could crowdsource some answers.

i'm looking into masters programs, and part of what i am stuck on is where i want to go. i'm canadian, and i have lived in the same big city my whole life (which i love), but i am also considering other parts of the country.

my more specific concern that i would really appreciate some help with is about what the vibe is like as far as trans acceptance? where i live isn't perfect, but its pretty good and i'm really lucky to be here! i know moving to a new city would already be very overwhelming, and i don't want this to be another added complication.

if anyone has insights about a particular city or school i would greatly appreciate it <33 thanks so much in advance, and more peptonominations will be posted again soon!!

[blazing-butterfly]

My Super Sentai fanseries masterpost, part 2: crowdsourced colors

In alphabetical order. Entries with bold titles are ones I've put the most thought into fleshing out, but I'd happily yap and answer questions about any of them (yep, again). For these, I invited people on a forum to give me sets of colors and other stipulations that I'd challenge myself to come up with teams for, since I wanted to rely less on the red-blue-yellow-green-pink standard.

Angoka Sentai Stealthman (Encryption Team Stealth-man) - Fifty years ago, a team of cyborg ninjas fought a high-tech crime syndicate, but their existence was covered up. Now when their enemy returns, a new team must uncover the secrets of the past and take up the mantle (early computers and ninjas) (red, blue, yellow, green, pink, robotic white, evil black, 80s-90s scifi and ninja themes)

Chosa Sentai Tanteiger (Investigation Team Detective-ger) - A team of genius private detectives investigate crimes caused by otherworldly criminals, and the whole show homages film noir aesthetics (detectives) (red, yellow, green, blue, pink, orange, violet, but mainly gray suits)

Gokuhi Sentai Uragiranger (Top-secret Team Betrayal-ranger) - Aliens from an invasion force decide to go rogue and fight for Earth instead, but are driven by their own ambitions rather than justice (aliens/monsters) (red, blue, yellow, pink, green, but mainly black suits, antiheroes)

Hayashi Sentai Meisaiger (Forest Team Camouflage-ger) - Descendants of a ninja clan protect their sacred forest from the servants of a demon lord (trees and ninjas) (red, pink, white, green, purple)

Hitori Sentai Hououger (Firebird Team Phoenix-ger) - As a phoenix dies in battle with a great evil, he entrusts his power to a team of humans so they can continue the fight (birds and fire) (red, pink, white, orange, violet, gold 6th)

Hyogaki Sentai Yajuman (Ice-age Team Beast-man) - University students are recruited by a frozen prehistoric sage to fight machines turned monstrous by the ghosts of a dinosaur civilization (cavemen and prehistoric beasts) (red, violet, orange, brown, yellow, cyan, prehistoric megafauna theme and ice-blue armor)

Jonetsu Sentai Shumiranger (Passion Team Hobby-ranger) - A group of hobbyists unite to fight a corrupt corporation that seeks to drain the joy and passion from peoples' lives (hobbies) (red saber, blue violin, black swallow, green willow, pink pig, gold trinity)

Kamimono Sentai Isanger (God-beast Team Legacy-ger) - The heirs to elemental tribes that have watched over the world in secret unite to end the war between their tribes and the dark force that masterminded it (elemental beasts) (red, blue, green, yellow, black, silver, tribal theme "a la Gransazers")

Kogane Sentai Renkinger (Golden Team Alchemy-ger) - The students of an alchemist fight monsters created by her rival while also trying to overcome their personal flaws (alchemic elements) (red, blue, yellow, green, pink, but mainly golden suits)

Ronin Sentai Buraiger (Masterless-samurai Team Rogue-ger) - In a setting like medieval Japan with a tokusatsu twist, a ragtag band of outlaws fight against an oppressive shogunate (samurai) (blue leader, red, yellow, pink, black, silver 6th)

Senritsu Sentai Johinger (Melody Team Elegant-ger) - A princes from a world powered by music gathers people with songs in their hearts to protect earth from the evil general who conquered her homeland (classical music) (red, yellow, pink, white, black, orange sixth, music theme)

Tamashi Sentai Tenshinger (Soul Team Angel-ger) - In a dark fantasy world ravaged by demons, a rogue angel descends and recruits heroes to fight back (angels, knights and fantasy beasts) (red, blue, yellow leader who upgrades to gold, green, black, knights vs demons theme)

Tokkan Sentai Kiheiger (Charge Team Cavalry-ger) - A post-apocalyptic biker gang become motorcycle-riding knights to fight a warlord's cybernetic army (bikers, knights and mythical beasts) (red, female blue mermaid, black, male white pegasus, pink)

Tokuten Sentai Playranger (Score Team Play-ranger) - Champion gamers in different genres are recruited to stop a game villain who's escaped to the real world (videogames) (red, blue, green, violet, orange, pink, white, black gold, videogame theme)

Tomerarenai Sentai Koshiger (Unstoppable Team Photon-ger) - A team of racers competes in the interplanetary Galaxy Prix against rivals both honorable and unscrupulous (futuristic cars) (red, blue, yellow, green, pink, black, gold, silver, white, white is the true leader)

Yume Sentai Yoruger (Dream Team Night-ger) - High school students who've been troubled by nightmares become heroes to fight the monsters from their nightmares when they appear in real life (nocturnal animals) (red, blue, black, violet, white, gold sixth)

[waitmyturtles]

The Old GMMTV Challenge: The Master Post and Explainer

Updated: March 21, 2025

Hello! Welcome to The Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC), my personal syllabus and journey through the most important, and/or impactful, and/or seminal of Boys Love (BL)/Series Y dramas from Thailand.

I started watching Thai BL series in 2022 with the airing of KinnPorsche. From there, I dallied with shows that were referenced across Tumblr -- but I didn't dig into learning about the genre as a whole until I watched 2021-22's Bad Buddy, and was thoroughly moved by it in countless ways.

I subsequently learned that Bad Buddy was, in large part, constructed to communicate with tropes and expectations established previously by the genre. In order to get to a point where I could appreciate Bad Buddy in all of its historic glory, I therefore decided to start from the top -- to watch Thai BLs in chronological order so as to help me better understand the tentacles of this young genre. I was also impacted by a post from a BL Tumblr lifer, @absolutebl, who talked in 2022 about current shows by the GMMTV network, the biggest producer of BL dramas in Thailand, that were answering for mistakes made in the early Thai BL days.

Bad Buddy is a GMMTV show -- but in order to learn fully about the genre, I've created a syllabus of shows and movies that spans well outside the GMMTV network and sphere of influence. In the spring of 2023, I crowdsourced information about Thai BLs from the INCREDIBLE BL community on Tumblr, and came up with the syllabus below.

This syllabus is ever changing, especially as this young genre (which was arguably born in 2014 with the airing of Love Sick) continues to explore itself outside of its male-and-male romance genre boundaries, by centering women and/or non-binary individuals, and even leaving romance behind for horror, suspense, mystery, crime, and more.

Besides watching dramas on this syllabus, I'm also in the process of reading English-language books and articles about the Thai BL genre and its influences in Thailand and across Asia on queer and non-queer communities, as well as on the most marketed-to BL audience in young women. Links to reading materials are below the syllabus.

If you're looking to learn more about BL, this is but one resource to use. There's an incredible community of bloggers here with vastly more knowledge than me about the history of this genre. This is only my path, and I encourage you to explore the corners of Tumblr to create your own Thai BL journey!

The Drama Syllabus and Review/Meta Links

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) Yes or No (2010) (movie) (to be reviewed with GAP the Series) 3) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 4) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 5) Love Songs Love Stories: Pae Jai (2015) (Thailand’s first serialized GL) (to be reviewed with GAP the Series) 6) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 7) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 8) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 9) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 10) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 11) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 12) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 13) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 14) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 15) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 16) The Fallen Leaf (2019) (not a BL; adjacent to the project as Thailand’s first lakorn featuring a queer/transgender main character) (review here) 17) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 18) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 19) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 20) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 21) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content at GMMTV) (review here)

22) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 23) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 24) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 25) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 26) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 27) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (review here) 28) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 29) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 30) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 31) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here)

32) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 33) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 34) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 35) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 36) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: preamble here, part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4) 37) Secret Crush On You (2022) (review here) 38) The Miracle of Teddy Bear (2022) (review here) 39) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here)  40) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist (part 1 and part 2) 41) Triage (2022) (review coming)

42) Honorable Mention: War of Y (2022) (for the sake of an attempt to provide meta BL commentary within a BL in the modern BL era), with a complementary watch of Aam Anusorn’s documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy (2020) (thoughts here) 43) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 44) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine "Genre BLs," Along With a Critical Take on Branded Ships (review here) 45) Khun Chai/To Sir, With Love (2022) and Laws of Attraction (2023) (watching) 46) Love of Secret (2022) (a GL that preceded GAP) (I will not be watching this, but it's on the list to precede GAP) 47) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL with a branded pair and ship) (review coming) 48) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023), Coupled with a Speed-Watch of My Love Mix-Up Thailand (2024) to Comment on GMMTV Trying to Make Magic Happen Twice  49) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 50) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 51) La Pluie (2023) (review coming) 52) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 53) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 54) Only Friends (2023) (tag here) (not technically a BL, but it certainly became one in the end) 55) Last Twilight (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as Thailand’s first major BL to center disability, successfully or otherwise) 56) Cherry Magic Thailand (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as the first major Japanese-to-Thai drama adaptation, featuring the comeback of TayNew) 57) Ossan’s Love Returns (Japan, 2024) (adding for the EarthMix cameo and the eventual Thai remake) 58) 23.5 (2024) (GMMTV’s first GL) (thoughts here) (I am not finished with this show; I will finish it when I get to it on this list) 59) Spare Me Your Mercy (2024) (thoughts here) (added as the finale of Sammon's medical trilogy in Manner of Death and Triage, and as a major lakorn starring two of Thailand's biggest actors in Tor Thanapob and Jaylerr)

Additional Reading Material

Dr. Thomas Baudinette, Boys Love Media in Thailand

Dr. Peter Jackson, Queer Bangkok

Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific -- Issue 49, Thai Boys Love (BL)/Y(aoi) in Literary and Media Industries: Political and Transnational Practices, June 2023

(Fandom reference) "Fan Leaders' Control on Xiao Zhan's Chinese Fan Community," Transformative Works and Cultures

(Fandom reference) "Xi Jingping Versus the Stans," Vox

[auroramancy]

I think one tangible think you can actually do & encourage your friends to do is stop using generative AI and I mean it. And part of that will have to mean being there to crowdsource answers to your friends’ kind of stupid questions tbh! So much of AI marketing is like “how do I write this?” or “what’s normal here?” or “help me draft this email” or even things like. Talking. Role playing. We’ve grown increasingly lonely and isolated because of capitalism and now they want to sell you back a planet-killing way to ask an “objective” unjudging and supposedly all-knowing thing to talk to who will answer your questions. And the best way to counter that and I mean that so seriously is to let your friends ask you stupid questions without judging them or being condescending and actually teaching and helping them. I will help you write your essay, I will help you write your email, I will help you !! And you can do the same for me!

[interact-if]

Briefly started a game and can’t remember the name of it for the life of me - could you help me crowd source if anyone knows what the game is?

I remember that:

1. it was on itch.io and had two parts

2. Part 1 was like 600k words and Part 2 had a demo out with like 100k+ words

3. Involves magic and demons - at the start of part 1 an old man (our teacher) threw us with magic and almost killed us (stopped just short of letting us hit the ground with magic)

4. Fairly early in part 1 we’re chased by demon wolf like creatures and a redheaded guard saves us

5. Itchio background was red as default in game and I think there was music?

Crowdsourcing answers

[nocek]

i've been getting into rogue/gambit lately and i'm wondering if you have any thoughts on who they'd be as petvengers! (pet-x-men?) porcupine rogue? platypus rogue (poison claws)? cat remy?

apologies if this is totally irrelevant to your interests lol

I'm so sorry for the late answer. I'm bad at asks >.< I only ever notice them at desktop which I rarely use >.<

TBH I'm not that knowledgeable about xmen and choosing the animal was always the hardest part 😅

But lack of knowledge would never stop me when we can go on vibes alone :D

tbh for Rouge we can go two ways based on powers. So taking the powers would go the poison route but all that comes to my mind is blue ringed octopus and that tiny green uber poisonous frog i cant remember the name of. But both of those dont translate well to petvengers. I'm mostly keeping with mammals and occasional birbs. Speaking of birbs the utilizing of absorbed powers is kinda mimicking so parrot? or maybe a raven.

But on the other hand I like the way you think with porcupine. No touchy extravaganza here. Except idk how to draw that. Although porcupines aren't spikey all over like hedgehogs. So maybe I can draw the needles (are they called that?) more in the back a bit like a very deadly peacock lol

sorry for a rambly train of thought but I guess I just talked myself into it lol

But now back to Gambit. I so want to make him a bird. No reason besides would look cool throwing cards around XD also hilarious to have wings and still doing card tricks which require ridiculous amounts of hand dexterity.

but besides me amusing myself idk more serious approach would be maybe connecting more beck to new orleans? I guess there should be a lot of cool birds in Louisiana swamps? because the obvious default animal other that that is gator lol and nah, won't look good.

oh! Otter!? They surely live nearby and that goes close to your idea of cat which is also fitting but is tad bit more local

what do you think? Sorry I'll post it to crowdsource the ideas and feedback a bit here and I'll try to find time during xmas to draw them. It's been a while since I've drawn petvengers and it's time to remedy that ;)

I don't know them super well so prompts for anything about them are also very welcome!

[nikoniclove]

Ok, I’ve got a very strange request, given what you write. BUT… Do you have some fluffy works? With a lot of love, hugs, kisses and comfort?. Thank you !

Umm….

Maybe?

Honestly, we might have to crowdsource the answers. I know these three are fluffy: Spooky Scary Skeletons, Twinkling Lights and Holiday Delights, and Dancing Through Life.

I’m sure there are fluffy one shots buried in the Different Kinds of Firsts Parts 1 and 2, but I’m not sure which chapters they’d be.

[mariacallous]

The algorithm has won. The most powerful social, video, and shopping platforms have all converged on a philosophy of coddling users in automated recommendations. Whether through Spotify’s personalized playlists, TikTok’s all-knowing For You page, or Amazon’s product suggestions, the internet is hell-bent on micromanaging your online activity.

At the same time, awareness of the potential downsides of this techno-dictatorial approach has never been higher. The US Congress recently probed whether social media algorithms are threatening the well-being of children, and new scholarship and books have focused fresh attention on the broad cultural consequences of letting algorithms curate our feeds. “I do think it reifies a lot of our cultural tastes in a way that at least I find concerning,” says Ryan Stoldt, an assistant professor at Drake University and member of the University of Iowa’s Algorithms and Culture Research Group.

In response to the growing sense of unease surrounding Big Tech’s mysterious recommender systems, digital refuges from the algorithm have begun to emerge. Entrepreneur Tyler Bainbridge is part of a nascent movement attempting to develop less-fraught alternatives to automated recommendations. He’s founder of PI.FYI, a social platform launched in January that hopes to, in Bainbridge’s words, “bring back human curation.”

PI.FYI is born out of Bainbridge’s popular newsletter, Perfectly Imperfect, and a simple conceit: Humans should receive recommendations only from other humans, not machines. Users post recommendations for everything from consumer products to experiences such as “being in love” or “not telling men at bars you study philosophy,” and they also crowdsource answers to questions like “What did you read last week?” or “London dry cleaner?”

Posts on the platform are displayed in chronological order, although users can choose between seeing a feed of content only from friends and a firehose of everything posted to the service. PI.FYI’s homepage offers recommendations from a “hand-curated algorithm”—posts and profiles selected by site administrators and some carefully chosen users.

“People long for the days of not being bombarded by tailored ads everywhere they scroll,” Bainbridge says. PI.FYI’s revenue comes from user subscriptions, which start at $6 a month. While its design evokes an older version of the internet, Bainbridge says he wants to avoid creating an overly nostalgic facade. “This isn't an app built for millennials who made MySpace,” he says, claiming that a significant portion of his user base are from Gen Z.

Spread, a social app currently in closed beta testing, is another attempt to provide a supposedly algorithm-free oasis. “I don't know a single person in my life that doesn't have a toxic relationship with some app on their phone,” says Stuart Rogers, Spread’s cofounder and CEO. “Our vision is that people will be able to actually curate their diets again based on real human recommendations, not what an algorithm deems will be most engaging, therefore also usually enraging,” he says.

On Spread, users can’t create or upload original text or media. Instead, all posts on the platform are links to content from other services, including news articles, songs, and video. Users can tune their chronological feeds by following other users or choosing to see more of a certain type of media.

Brands and bots are barred from Spread, and, like PI.FYI, the platform doesn’t support ads. Instead of working to maximize time-on-site, Rogers’ primary metrics for success will be indicators of “meaningful” human engagement, like when someone clicks on another user's recommendation and later takes action like signing up for a newsletter or subscription. He hopes this will align companies whose content is shared on Spread with the platform’s users. “I think there's a nostalgia for what the original social meant to achieve,” Rogers says.

So you joined a social network without ranking algorithms—is everything good now? Jonathan Stray, a senior scientist at the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, has doubts. “There is now a bunch of research showing that chronological is not necessarily better,” he says, adding that simpler feeds can promote recency bias and enable spam.

Stray doesn’t think social harm is an inevitable outcome of complex algorithmic curation. But he agrees with Rogers that the tech industry’s practice of trying to maximize engagement doesn’t necessarily select for socially desirable results.

Stray suspects the solution to the problem of social media algorithms may in fact be … more algorithms. “The fundamental problem is you've got way too much information for anybody to consume, so you have to reduce it somehow,” he says.

In January, Stray launched the Prosocial Ranking Challenge, a competition with a $60,000 prize fund aiming to spur development of feed-ranking algorithms that prioritize socially desirable outcomes, based on measures of users’ well-being and how informative a feed is. From June through October, five winning algorithms will be tested on Facebook, X, and Reddit using a browser extension.

Until a viable replacement takes off, escaping engagement-seeking algorithms will generally mean going chronological. There’s evidence people are seeking that out beyond niche platforms like PI.FYI and Spread. Group messaging, for example, is commonly used to supplement artificially curated social media feeds. Private chats—threaded by the logic of the clock—can provide a more intimate, less chaotic space to share and discuss gleanings from the algorithmic realm: the trading of jokes, memes, links to videos and articles, and screenshots of social posts.

Disdain for the algorithm could help explain the growing popularity of WhatsApp within the US, which has long been ubiquitous elsewhere. Meta’s messaging app saw a 9 percent increase in daily users in the US last year, according to data from Apptopia reported by The Wrap. Even inside today’s dominant social apps, activity is shifting from public feeds and toward direct messaging, according to Business Insider, where chronology rules.

Group chats might be ad-free and relatively controlled social environments, but they come with their own biases. “If you look at sociology, we've seen a lot of research that shows that people naturally seek out things that don't cause cognitive dissonance,” says Stoldt of Drake University.

While providing a more organic means of compilation, group messaging can still produce echo chambers and other pitfalls associated with complex algorithms. And when the content in your group chat comes from each member’s respective highly personalized algorithmic feed, things can get even more complicated. Despite the flight to algorithm-free spaces, the fight for a perfect information feed is far from over.

[thegeminisage]

okay WHEW it's star trek update time. last night* we watched tng's "interface" and ds9's "the siege." *i'm typing this at fuck o clock and scheduling it to go up tomorrow when i'm not here <3

interface (tng):

i don't want to talk about it

actually wait no yes i do but mostly i just want to complain. i wish there was perhaps some sort of skip/watch list with the dead parent episodes labeled. for star trek. i mean i know i'm making one but not that one i can't use that until it's too late. i can't crowdsource EVERY dead parent episode of star trek through my tumblr followers. though i will say whoever warned me about 4.02 of ds9 (i forgot which person it was, i'm so sorry 🙏) has my deepest gratitude. ok. complaint lodged.

what else...um, geordi and data. emptiness. Yeah

yeah. that's all. sorry. my spidey senses started tingling about halfway through the episode and i googled whether or not his mom really was dead and upon receiving my answer we stopped the episode to go directly to ds9.

the siege (ds9)

LOVED this one. where do i even begin

well i will begin at the obvious: women! kira and dax in the shuttle. mwah

what i loved most about kira and dax in the shuttle wasn't even the homoeroticism, though i did - of course - deeply enjoy the homoeroticism. what i loved MOST was that they seemed to have invented a personality for dax at last! i have no idea what was going on in this episode or who this dax was or where she was during s1 but i REALLY liked her. it's shocking bc i almost gave her LAST PLACE in the character rankings, but she was so fun here?? and also kind of like...airheaded and weird. "i might keep the nose." seems like they really DIDN'T know what to do with her in s1, but better late than never. i will continue to try and forgive her really terrible hair even though it makes her head look soooo weird and offputting

big spider bad. actually it was too stupid looking to be scary but i still didn't like it

quark and odo's gay little goodbye <3

julian FUCKING bashir pretending he was hot shit when he held those guys up. KING.

actually all of the action sequences in this episode were great. all three of season 2's episodes have been really funny even as they're also very serious at the same time, i fucking love it

love also the little nod to o'brien's service record on the cardassian front in the way of wartime rations. not only is it funny but it is, again, a great reminder of his cardassian trauma, and why he might feel obligated to stay behind

SPEAKING OF. everyone in ops, down to the last person, agreeing to stay at ds9, even though some of them have families like o'brien does. i'm SO glad they didn't forget his family, that they actually showed him and keiko arguing about it, but he STILL felt morally that he had to stay - that it was more important than his own life, and the risk of his family having to continue on without him.

PLUS the fact that not a single person wanted to leave, even after sisko assured them that they SHOULD think of their families...girl he is literally the best captain or commander or whatever. that's stone cold loyalty. they all trust him or love him or both.

i was a little ambivalent on li nalas as a concept but he actually was used finally...i think "off the hook" was a great way to take care of that arc neatly, because making him live the lie would have felt cruel, but him just ghosting would have made him look like an asshole, no matter how justified. i hope there's a bajoran afterlife he can chill out in

did we get set up for season-long villains with winn and jaro? that would be fun. the concept of "storylines" feels so foreign in a star trek show but there it is........

TONIGHT: tng's "gambit part i" and ds9's "invasive procedures," which with any luck will hopefully be about subjects besides dead parents 🤞