#general internet stuff

[mikauhso]

Small fandom rant, feel free not to read.

I don’t really care what an artist has done as a person, unless they’re like literally hitler or someone who you’d punch in public for their crimes, I find it a bit sad and annoying how so many artists online are willing to tear down someone else’s art to say “I did it better.” It’s one thing to give constructive crit in good faith, and it’s another to make an OC-ified version of canon out of your love for something, but creating something out of spite will almost always ring hollow for me. I see so much good art duct taped to posts about how “here I fixed it” or “lol you can’t draw” and I think back to the time when I learned the phrase, “you’ll attract more flies with honey than vinegar.” It disheartens me to see artists and people I’d know to be kind and constructive not extend the same kind of care hey show irl to someone online based on their parasocial relation to them. It’s such a low-stakes game and people will act like a mid show having characters they enjoy is the end of the world, and in doing so will take personal snipes and make insults at the art instead of addressing the actual problem head on, because it’s easier to derail and funnel attention and love towards yourself instead of ask that others improve. I love redesigns born of love. I love rewrites that try to see an artist’s vision, but at a certain point I wonder if people even like what they’re making art about or if they’re slapping something recognizable over top of it in order to ride trends.

The internet normalizes clout chasing to the point where I feel like we do it almost instinctively. That little insult or sly comment at the end of a post, that’ll sway people to your side. Saying why you don’t like some person despite not knowing them. It’s valid to have your opinions but I wish people would act like they would in the real world. You wouldn’t go around and scream at someone who you saw post this one thing one time. You wouldn’t punch someone based on a rumor, or verbally berate them in a restaurant. Yet people post so much shit online and it’s so normalized that we don’t even register it as a sign to log off anymore.

I feel like social media is something incredibly important for communication, but it’s currently designed in a way that centers ourselves and how much dopamine we can get, whether it’s at the expense of others, ourselves, etc. And we’re part of the problem too, we refuse to change and recognize that maybe internet points aren’t worth it and maybe it shouldn’t matter what people think of us. And maybe it’s an opinion I have but I shouldn’t judge someone based on what fraction they put out on the internet of themselves. Maybe I should cook myself a snack or go out for a walk or sit on the balcony or in the yard, talk to a friend face to face. Again, I love what the internet has done for accessibility but every accessible thing is locked behind a service designed to ignore vitriol and anger towards one another.

I guess I fall prey to this too, but I’ve seen this pattern happen again and again and again. There are people behind everything that’s made, and unless it’s ai or something stolen, an artist put their time and heart into it. It’s part of the game to have tough skin but I wish it didn’t have to be a necessity because of spiteful people.

I guess I should add an addendum, this is about a pattern I’ve seen in many a fandom. This isn’t about the morality of a show’s crew or whatever, that’s a conversation for another day that I’m not getting involved in because the personal lives of others are no business of mine. Hah, there I go again. But in all seriousness. I’ve seen it in Hazbin Hotel. I’ve seen it with High Guardian Spice. Velma. Steven universe. The owl house. Any new show I’ve seen come out where someone decides to have a moment and say “I will create out of spite and a need to be seen.” I wish artists didn’t feel the need to ride trends and that we’d value each others’ work as much as something put out by Disney. But that too, is a post for another day.

[fernsnailz]

chipset and database learn about internet scams

[inkskinned]

we were sitting on the floor and i was cutting out tiny pictures to make a collage for a friend's birthday. you were on your phone and you laughed about something, and i was still in love with you then, so i asked what had you giggling.

"sorry. i was just..." you took a moment and went back to texting. "i was telling someone about how you're afraid of the dark."

i'm afraid of the dark because something bad happened. "oh." i felt a little slinky of shame crawl down my throat.

you glanced up, and maybe it showed on my face, because you rolled your eyes and held the phone to the side casually so i could see the group chat. "what? was it a secret?"

i looked down to the scissors in my hand. "i just..." no, it's not a secret. it just felt like something private, something serious. saying why would you tell someone that just feels like an accusation. it's unfair. i honestly am not even ashamed of it, it's just a fact about my person that i don't usually share.

what a strange experience. is this a human thing or a generational thing? for our grandparents: did they need to worry about how quickly someone can just... share your personal information? again, i didn't even really have a true objection. what could i say? i want any person in my life to feel they can be honest with their friends. it's not like i said don't tell anyone this.

i cut out another letter to complete the rainbow happy birthday, started hunting for the exclamation mark. i heard you sigh dramatically.

"don't make a big deal about this," you said.

this entire conversation was a pattern for us, and this was when we got to my least favorite part of the pattern. i would get my feelings hurt in some oblique not-technically-terrible way, and then it would be making a big deal about something. you'd get frustrated for me for being soft, but i was born soft. you knew i was soft when you pierced me. it's one of the things that made controlling me so easy.

"i'm not," i felt my voice crack. the question came without my wanting. "why are you guys talking about me?" and why are you saying that thing? why not like - i'm telling them how you're generous and kind and pretty.

you let out this low, tragic groan. "oh my god." you tossed the phone away from your body. "there, see? i just won't talk to them if you don't like it."

the rest of the hour went the way it always went, between us: i said i don't actually mind if you talk to your friends but -, you found a way to call my minor expression of discomfort "being dramatic." you got upset that i had been offended. i ended up apologizing, even though i hadn't actually done anything.

afterwards, you picked up the phone again. after texting for a little bit, you snorted. "okay," you said, "but it is kind of funny you're afraid of the dark. i mean, when you think about it."

[applesaucesims]

1930s Horror Film Posters

This was a huge project, and now they're finally all together: A collection of 10 posters for horror movies from the 1930s - with a personal, legally distinct twist! Having my legacy feature actors in the 1930s gave me the perfect idea for Simblreen. Horror movies (especially monster movies) were a huge genre in that decade, so I just had to make my characters star in some of the most famous ones. The text is entirely in Simlish, but the (main) actor names have been changed to the ones of the sims shown on the respective poster, while the others names are the same. Also, whenever a studio is credited, I've changed it to the Plumbob Studio.

bgc

4 swatches each (bg poster frame colours)

custom thumbnails

merged, zipped and separate files to pick and choose from

DOWNLOAD [sfs] (alt. link [gdrive])

Disclaimer: If you've previously found and downloaded the Mummy poster, please redownload, as I've noticed an editing mistake, which has been fixed now.

Comparisons between the original posters vs. mine below.

[jingerpi]

hey so I know the Internet is scary and children can see things that might be difficult to process but one of the absolute most important elements of child abuse and indeed abuse in general is isolation and controlling information. banning phones for kids will probably have minimal impact on whether they see porn or violence but it WILL make them drastically easier to miseducate and abuse

-sincerely, a homeschooled girl who has not spoken to her parents since she turned 18

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

got a worm nibbling my brain. can someone help me find a piece of obscure media?

webcomic/indie comic from the 2010s. basically a sci-fi short story about a young girl (with red hair?) who was being raised by scientists as part of an experiment. she receives a haircut/has her head shaved, in preparation for her annual brain scan/testing. it is revealed that while her body is human, her "brain" is artificial, made of computer implants throughout her skull and spine. at some point her biological mother (also a scientist on the same campus?) encounters her and is repulsed, viewing her as a machine who has murdered her daughter.

it was very poignant and it bruised my heart and i can NOT find it anywhere

[brackenferns]

i know i'm not the first to say this, but the acolyte's cancellation has confirmed how tired i am of disney's decision-making when it comes to their content. i know nostalgia is the easiest way to a big payout, but we can only take so many spinoffs before the universe starts to feel too small. but then fresh content—content that's building on the canon by looking to old star wars lore while asking new questions—fizzles out.

it's the sequel trilogy all over again. we're promised something new, something that actually expands the canon rather than just recycling it, even bringing in concepts from legends, and then the rug is ripped out from underneath us & we're punished for ever caring about any of it. silly babygirl! palpatine was always the big bad (don't worry about the fact that this is thematically nonsense and not foreshadowed in any way), and rey isn't a nobody ("your parents sold you because they loved you"), and this isn't a story about how the force transcends human categories and dynasties (represented by a grey jedi force dyad between a legacy skywalker and a nobody orphan from a backwater planet, fulfilling not only balance between light and dark but also transcending the old to become something new). silly idiot!!! rey's a palpatine by birth and a skywalker by self-adoption and god forbid she create her own identity outside of these names our fans recognize. watch as she stands alone on a sand planet that has no personal significance to her, ending her arc almost exactly as she began. but look!! two suns! neat

i don't even know if fanservice is the right word. at a certain point, it just starts to feel like they're quaking in their boots at the thought of doing anything new. i had my gripes with some of the choices in the acolyte, but at least it was unique. it explored a new era and asked questions that star wars has only ever flirted with. like: what happens to the children who are uprooted from their homes at such a young age, yet can't find their place in the jedi order? how does one survive in a supposedly honorable system that nevertheless relies on the repression of some of humanity's most fundamental emotions? is it possible that an organization dictating exactly how one ought to interact with the very life force of the universe... could perhaps be faulty and shortsighted? what happens when the ways of that order clash with other cultures and worldviews? (spoilers: space colonialism). and that's not even to mention the ideas they play with re: the force itself (vergences! plagueis! force witches!)

i know not everyone loved the show, but a lot of people really did care about it. a lot of people, like me, were excited to see these new questions being raised. but forget it—the disney gods have decreed that it didn't hit some magical threshold of streaming hours or reach a "broad enough" audience in the two months it's been out. but don't worry guys. turn your brains off and tune in for the next spinoff 2 chewy 2 bacca

[solongshrimp]

Pancaketiffy's Squidbob comics in English (google drive link)

I've been able to track down almost all of the Squidbob comics created by Pancaketiffy in English! Huge thanks to @lake-fmoli for sharing a majority of these with me ^^

Included in this Google Drive link are the comics Squidward's Birthday Gift, Tiki Ceremony, Vacation, Nautical Disaster, Squelly, The Secret Formula, and The Fantastic And Expansive Life Of Squilliam Fancyson, as well as some mini-comics and miscellaneous art.

Tiki Ceremony had a few pages only in Spanish -- pages 30-33 and page 68 -- and since I know it's going to be VERY hard to find those original pages, I've taken an English translation I found and edited those remaining Spanish pages back into English; those pages I've labeled as "retranslated." I'll still be looking for those original pages, and I'm hoping I can find someone who has them, but for now this is the best way to complete the English version of the comic. (Thank you to the people who uploaded the Spanish-translated pages to a NSFW site along with accurate English translations, lol)

I have included two versions of Vacation -- the version where Pancaketiffy took out the NSFW pages, and the original version with the NSFW pages intact. The NSFW version has been labeled "EXPLICIT." The censored version was taken directly from an upload on Internet Archive -- so big thank you to the person who uploaded that! The only things missing from these are the English chapter covers.

Natural Disaster, Squelly, and The Secret Formula were never completed, and as far as I'm aware I've gathered all of the completed pages. I THINK it's the same for The Fantastic And Expansive Life Of Squilliam Fancyson, but I'm unsure. Secret Formula and the Squilliam comic were retrieved from a drive that I can't find anymore 😅 but thank you to whoever uploaded those in the first place.

Some pages are higher-quality than others, but I'm just glad I've found readable English versions of the comics in general. If anybody has or ever finds higher-quality pages, the original English pages of Tiki Ceremony, the English chapter covers for Vacation, or anything else that's missing, please send them to me. I'm gonna try to keep this thing updated, as well as figure out the best way to upload this stuff to Internet Archive.

Again, big thank you to everyone who saved and shared the art with me!

!!! UPDATE 5/24/2025: All the English pages for these comics have been found! As far as I know, at least. Now all I'm looking for regarding Tiffy's Spongebob art would be any higher-resolution images as well as any other missing pieces of art.

I have also decided to archive the rest of Pancaketiffy/Hysterysusie's other art, in a new folder titled Non-SB Art. This includes other fan-works and original series. I'm mostly looking to find more pages of her original comic Alan And The Final Star; this comic had over 100 pages, but I've only been able to find the first 16. I'm also interested in finding any art regarding her Sonic OC comic for Zati The Rebel, which I've only been able to find mentioned on the Wayback Machine. More info in the text file in the google drive.

[moon-mage]

I’m sorry I ghosted there for a while. Had a lot to juggle irl and just needed time away from the internet IN GENERAL 😂 I miss all of you so much! I’ll be catching up on the lovely art and shinanegans I missed soon uwu To make it up…he’s some of my shenanigans.

Another random AU scene thought up by me and @eeveelution4567 Azul got stuck riding on a broom with Floyd and Floyd can’t help but saying some fuck shit. (Earlier it was Floyd driving the broom with Azul and Jade on holding on for dear life and yes they almost died…I need to draw that sometime.)

Brah I need to draw more Octotrio shit. I love those three way more than anyone would expect 😂 Can’t wait till the next chapter comes out in EN.

Sorry for ghosting again! I’ll try to catch up and sorry if I miss things u-u

[atomicradiogirl]

i found this blog from a soldier in iraq named mitch writing about his experiences from 2003 to 2004. it’s so fascinating from an early internet perspective and like an “in the moment” personal reporting that journalism doesn’t do.

[froggerland]

In honor of me finding the edition of the kids magazine with the article that first got me interested in the franklin expedition back in 2011, here's some images from it that are permanently edged into my brain

This man has been haunting me for the past 14 years im so serious. I could've drawn from from memory

This dude lying dead in the snow was also something (I was 9 btw)

I love this fuckass franklin portrait

VICTORY POINT NOTE MENTION!!! I also found this green bone very fascinating

[archivlibrarianist]

"Bots on the internet are nothing new, but a sea change has occurred over the past year. For the past 25 years, anyone running a web server knew that the bulk of traffic was one sort of bot or another. There was googlebot, which was quite polite, and everyone learned to feed it - otherwise no one would ever find the delicious treats we were trying to give away. There were lots of search engine crawlers working to develop this or that service. You'd get 'script kiddies' trying thousands of prepackaged exploits. A server secured and patched by a reasonably competent technologist would have no difficulty ignoring these.

"...The surge of AI bots has hit Open Access sites particularly hard, as their mission conflicts with the need to block bots. Consider that Internet Archive can no longer save snapshots of one of the best open-access publishers, MIT Press, because of cloudflare blocking. Who know how many books will be lost this way?  Or consider that the bots took down OAPEN, the worlds most important repository of Scholarly OA books, for a day or two. That's 34,000 books that AI 'checked out' for two days. Or recent outages at Project Gutenberg, which serves 2 million dynamic pages and a half million downloads per day. That's hundreds of thousands of downloads blocked! The link checker at doab-check.ebookfoundation.org (a project I worked on for OAPEN) is now showing 1,534 books that are unreachable due to 'too many requests.' That's 1,534 books that AI has stolen from us! And it's getting worse.

"...The thing that gets me REALLY mad is how unnecessary this carnage is. Project Gutenberg makes all its content available with one click on a file in its feeds directory. OAPEN makes all its books available via an API. There's no need to make a million requests to get this stuff!! Who (or what) is programming these idiot scraping bots? Have they never heard of a sitemap??? Are they summer interns using ChatGPT to write all their code? Who gave them infinite memory, CPUs and bandwidth to run these monstrosities? (Don't answer.)

"We are headed for a world in which all good information is locked up behind secure registration barriers and paywalls, and it won't be to make money, it will be for survival. Captchas will only be solvable by advanced AIs and only the wealthy will be able to use internet libraries."

[dailypokemoncrochet]

What if there's a Japanese me out there crocheting all the Pokemon and they're farther along than me and I would never know or find them because idk how to search that or where they'd even post or if they're even posting.

[stranded-ziggy]

Tumblr can still be scraped even if you opt out of this particular scraping, your stuff's not safe.

Glaze and nightshade are the best way to go, even for memes.

Don't let these dickwads use our creativity for their benefit.

And yeah, if you support AI you're a dickwad, fuck you, unfollow me.

[demonlorddante]

It’s all “I love yaoi” this and “I love yaoi” that online until it’s actual yaoi anime and manga. Curious

[sillydeimos]

btw i turned anon off a while ago cause turning it off has been wonderful for my mental health, but i am sorry to any shy people who use anon cuz sending asks without it on is scary