#great data transfer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ms-demeanor · 2 years ago

Note

any thoughts on the new post that staff went scorched earth on which is now making the rounds abt tumblr live? it basically screenshots all the tos and claims if you've ever opened the app (or in some rbs, unsnoozed live) tumblr has gotten your data. on the one hand i feel like this is fearmongering, but on the other its true that MOST sites have your data as is so its pretty standard. you seem pretty knowledgeable abt data gathering so i was wondering abt your take

This is going to be pretty unkind but watching tumblr users interact with staff and live is a great primer on how conspiracy theories happen.

Nobody on this fucking website knows how to read a ToS, nobody on this website knows how anything fucking works (sorry, this is not a dig at you but how would tumblr "get" your data from you clicking or unclicking live; the only data that tumblr has on you is the data that you have put on tumblr what data do people think that clicking the "new" button is scooping up that is anything beyond interactions or posts or IP addresses which are the things that tumblr already has information about like you do not introduce new information into the tumblr ecosystem by clicking a button you haven't installed anything you haven't changed permissions on your browser if everyone is so goddamned scared about live stealing their data i strongly recommend they stop using anything but public internet through an anonymizer and making sure location data is shut off on all of their devices and anyone who is flipping their shit about the type of data that live is collecting but who is using chrome on any device needs to chill the fuck out about live and flip the fuck out about google)

this is like that post about twitter's content policy that circulated the other day or that post about deviantart's content policy that circulated ten fucking years ago nobody knows how to read legal documents and nobody knows how to read technical documentation and this comes together into unholy matrimony on the no reading comprehension at all moral panic website

live never violated the GDPR it was just rolled out in the US first but the entire userbase decided that because it hadn't been rolled out simultaneously in the EU and the US that it was SO UNSPEAKABLY PRIVACY VIOLATEY THAT THE EU HAD BANNED IT FOR ITS CRIMES with, like, nothing whatsoever backing that up because, again, even at its most intrusive Live collects about as much data as Twitter or Yelp, both of which are *capable* of meeting GDPR standards with that level of data collection (even if musk sometimes makes decisions that violate GDPR).

Live is significantly less intrusive than any facebook product, than Amazon, and than any Google product. If you use youtube logged in, don't worry about live, the horse is out of the barn and tumblr is the least of your worries *regardless* of live. If you regularly use Google as a search engine please god learn how to evaluate and compare risks across platforms because Live is like a coughing baby compared to about a dozen things that most highly online people interact with every single day.

If you don't want to use live don't use live. Clicking the button doesn't magically transfer your secret FBI file to tumblr and even agreeing to the ToS doesn't share anything that tumblr doesn't already have if you don't continue to interact - if you don't interact with live after agreeing to the ToS it's not collecting any data except your non-interaction.

For everyone who is losing it over Live just turn off your goddamned location on your fucking cellphone and turn off your location on your goddamned computers and that's it, you're good, you're fine, relax. If your response to "turn off your location" is "but I need it for _____" then don't worry about Live, whatever "_____" is was already collecting and selling your data.

Do you use an activity tracker? Congrats, you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about than tumblr live.

Okay but also I yelled about that post and the very many ways in which it was incorrect in January.

And I happened to take an archive of the page at that time because I'm a paranoid motherfucker.

And if you want my guess as to why staff went "scorched earth" on that post it's probably because if you scroll down to the bottom of the page on the archive, OP calls on everyone looking at the post to send a kind fuck you to the CEO then tagged his tumblr.

If you look at the other posts that went scorched earth in relation to tumblr staff they were also posts that very pointedly directed a lot of ire at a single staff member.

I don't think that any individual tumblr staff members are above criticism and I don't think that staff as a whole is above criticism but part of learning to read a ToS is understanding that someone can be shitty and vague and use TERF talking points and skirt the line and be technically okay under the ToS while someone can have a legitimate gripe about another user being horrible and manage to violate the ToS by accidentally spinning up a harassment campaign or suicide baiting someone.

Shitty people like nazis and terfs thrive on being edge cases. They are very good at finding a boundary and standing juuuuuuuuust on this side of it and going "la la la I'm not violating the ToS, you can't stop me!" and that blows and it leads to a lot of people encountering a lot of shitty stuff on a lot of websites but personally I'm pretty glad that there's a lot of gray area because when you cut out gray area that's when you see things like It's Going Down getting banned as extremist content alongside white supremacists. Please continue to report nazis and terfs, and when possible go deep into their pages to report because a pattern of behavior is more likely to get recognized as hate speech than a single post that gets reported a hundred times. Please block as many people who it's harmful for you to interact with as possible because it's clear that staff is not going to do the kind of work protecting users that users would like staff to do.

However I just can't get angry on behalf of a blogger who got nuked for saying "Hey everyone who hates this feature that we all hate please go tell the CEO to fuck himself at this URL specifically" - that is an extremely clear violation of the ToS because it is absolutely targeted harassment.

So now tumblr-the-userbase is going off on its merry conspiracy way skipping through fields and lacking reading comprehension and saying "users are getting banned for reporting the crimes of tumblr live and its gdpr violations" and ignoring the fact that the post was nuked because the last line was saying "hey everyone, let's all individually tell the CEO to fuck off in messages sent directly to him that are certainly not going to include any threats, exaggerations, gore, etc. etc. etc."

If I were to make a post that had 50k notes and the last line was "and while you're at it, please send tumblr-user-ms-demeanor a personalized message telling them why they're a terrible person so they know what we think of them" it would absolutely be reasonable to say that was harassing that user. And that post did it with the CEO. Who is not above criticism (and I have my criticisms! I don't think he really gets tumblr and that's a problem!), but jesus fucking christ don't tag the goddamned CEO or any other staff member in a call to action asking users to send them messages saying "fuck off" this is literally the stupidest thing I've ever seen a tumblr conspiracy theory coalesce around.

Anyway thank you for giving me a place to vent i've been getting more and more pissed about this for three days. Everyone feel free to kindly tell tumblr user ms demeanor to fuck off.

9K notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

Text

The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

Let's take a sec here and notice something genuinely great happening in the US government: the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's stunning, unbroken streak of major, muscular victories over the forces of corporate corruption, with the backing of the Supreme Court (yes, that Supreme Court), and which is only speeding up!

A little background. The CFPB was created in 2010. It was Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, an institution that was supposed to regulate finance from the perspective of the American public, not the American finance sector. Rather than fighting to "stabilize" the financial sector (the mission that led to Obama taking his advisor Timothy Geithner's advice to permit the foreclosure crisis to continue in order to "foam the runways" for the banks), the Bureau would fight to defend us from bankers.

The CFPB got off to a rocky start, with challenges to the unique system of long-term leadership appointments meant to depoliticize the office, as well as the sudden resignation of its inaugural boss, who broke his promise to see his term through in order to launch an unsuccessful bid for political office.

But after the 2020 election, the Bureau came into its own, when Biden poached Rohit Chopra from the FTC and put him in charge. Chopra went on a tear, taking on landlords who violated the covid eviction moratorium:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

Then banning payday lenders' scummiest tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

Then striking at one of fintech's most predatory grifts, the "earned wage access" hustle:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

Then closing the loophole that let credit reporting bureaus (like Equifax, who doxed every single American in a spectacular 2019 breach) avoid regulation by creating data brokerage divisions and claiming they weren't part of the regulated activity of credit reporting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Chopra went on to promise to ban data-brokers altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/#material-misstatement

Then he banned comparison shopping sites where you go to find the best bank accounts and credit cards from accepting bribes and putting more expensive options at the top of the list. Instead, he's requiring banks to send the CFPB regular, accurate lists of all their charges, and standing up a federal operated comparison shopping site that gives only accurate and honest rankings. Finally, he's made an interoperability rule requiring banks to let you transfer to another institution with one click, just like you change phone carriers. That means you can search an honest site to find the best deal on your banking, and then, with a single click, transfer your accounts, your account history, your payees, and all your other banking data to that new bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

Somewhere in there, big business got scared. They cooked up a legal theory declaring the CFPB's funding mechanism to be unconstitutional and got the case fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, in a bid to put Chopra and the CFPB permanently out of business. Instead, the Supremes – these Supremes! – upheld the CFPB's funding mechanism in a 7-2 ruling:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/05/supreme-court-lets-cfpb-funding-stand/

That ruling was a starter pistol for Chopra and the Bureau. Maybe it seemed like they were taking big swings before, but it turns out all that was just a warmup. Last week on The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner rounded up all the stuff the Bureau is kicking off:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-07-window-on-corporate-deceptions/

First: regulating Buy Now, Pay Later companies (think: Klarna) as credit-card companies, with all the requirements for disclosure and interest rate caps dictated by the Truth In Lending Act:

https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2024/06/cfpb-applies-credit-card-rules

Next: creating a registry of habitual corporate criminals. This rogues gallery will make it harder for other agencies – like the DOJ – and state Attorneys General to offer bullshit "delayed prosecution agreements" to companies that compulsively rip us off:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-creates-registry-to-detect-corporate-repeat-offenders/

Then there's the rule against "fine print deception" – which is when the fine print in a contract lies to you about your rights, like when a mortgage lender forces you waive a right you can't actually waive, or car lenders that make you waive your bankruptcy rights, which, again, you can't waive:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-warns-against-deception-in-contract-fine-print/

As Kuttner writes, the common thread running through all these orders is that they ban deceptive practices – they make it illegal for companies to steal from us by lying to us. Especially in these dying days of class action suits – rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to "mandatory arbitration waivers" that make you sign away your right to join a class action – agencies like the CFPB are our only hope of punishing companies that lie to us to steal from us.

There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world right now, and much of it – including an active genocide – is coming from the Biden White House.

But there are people in the Biden Administration who care about the American people and who are effective and committed fighters who have our back. What's more, they're winning. That doesn't make all the bad news go away, but sometimes it feels good to take a moment and take the W.

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/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

#pluralistic #cfpb #consumer finance protection board #rohit chopra #scotus #bnpl #buy now pay later #repeat corporate offenders #fine print deception #whistleblowing #elizabeth warren

1K notes · View notes

ice-man-goes-bwoah · 2 months ago

Text

Protective Bob||Bob Reynolds x reader

Summary —you and Bob like each other but instead of being open about it you’d rather pine.

Word count-998

Warnings —club setting and mentions of a mocktail (it’s just cranberry juice, Sprite and a lime)

You weren’t supposed to be paired with Bob Reynolds tonight. Normally, it’s you and Walker, your usual rhythm, your usual snark, your usual cover stories. But he’s tied up in Prague with Yelena, and the extraction clock in Budapest doesn’t care about partner preferences.

So here you are. In a grimy underground club that smells like cheap vodka and cheaper cologne, running recon with the one member of the Thunderbolts who looks like he should be curled up with a book rather than lurking in the shadows of organized crime.

Bob Reynolds.

He’s tall, quiet, awkward in a way that isn’t unconfident so much as… gentle. You’ve never worked closely with him before, but you’ve seen how he treats the team. Always carrying an extra pair of gloves in case someone’s hands get cold. The only one who apologizes when briefings run long. The guy who’d rather take a hit himself than let anyone else get bruised.

The guy who makes you smile when he doesn’t realize anyone’s watching.

You glance over at him now, pretending to sip a mocktail that was a mix of sprite and cranberry juice while scanning the crowd. He’s posted up just a few feet behind you, pretending not to be tense, sipping soda through a paper straw like it’s part of his cover.

Your target’s contact hasn’t shown yet.

What does show up is trouble.

A man you don’t recognize definitely not on the op sheet sidles up beside you, reeking of cheap whiskey and bravado.

“Hey there,” he says, leaning in far too close. “You look a little too good for this place.”

You shift your weight but don’t respond. Eye contact is the fastest way to encourage someone like him.

He grins. “That’s not a no. You here with someone?”

Before you can shut him down, there’s movement behind you.

Bob. Barstool scraping. Boots against sticky floor.

Then he’s there right between you and the man, shoulders squared, hands clenched at his sides.

“She said no,” Bob says, voice just loud enough to cut through the noise.

The man snorts. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m her… bodyguard.”

You nearly choke on your drink.

Bob, who spent ten minutes apologizing for bumping your elbow in the elevator earlier, now stands puffed-up and awkwardly firm, like someone trying to look like they know how to fight without actually wanting to. His chest rises and falls in short bursts nervous adrenaline, definitely. But he doesn’t back down.

The man sizes him up. Bob’s taller, sure, but not exactly threatening. Still, there’s something… off. Not dangerous, exactly, but unpredictable. Bob’s eye twitches. His fingers twitch. He looks like someone trying very hard to act normal and failing.

It weirds the guy out.

“Right. Whatever. She’s all yours, man,” he mutters, retreating into the crowd.

Bob turns to you, eyes wide. “You okay?”

You raise a brow, biting back a grin. “Terrified. You’re so intimidating.”

He blinks. “Wait—really?”

You loop your arm through his and tug him toward a darker corner. “Oh yeah. Especially that ‘I’m her bodyguard’ bit. Classic.”

“I panicked,” he says sheepishly.

You laugh under your breath, finally relaxing. “You were great.”

The rest of the mission goes off without a hitch. Contact shows, data transfers, you ghost out the back with Bob on your heels like a big loyal retriever.

By the time you get back to the safehouse hotel, it’s well past midnight.

You’re exhausted, and apparently, your room’s keycard doesn’t work.

“Seriously?” you mutter, jiggling the handle again.

Bob peeks out of the door across the hall, already changed into sweatpants and an oversized NASA tee. His glasses are off, blonde curls a bit messy. “Everything okay?”

“Locked out,” you sigh.

He hesitates. “Do you… want to crash in mine? Just until the front desk reactivates it?”

You blink at him.

His ears turn bright red. “Not—not like that. I’ll take the chair. Or the floor. Or you can have the bed—I mean, I wasn’t—”

“Bob,” you interrupt gently, smiling. “I trust you.”

His mouth snaps shut. Then curves upward.

Inside his room, it’s warmer than yours ever was. Lived-in. A book with a cracked spine sits open on the nightstand. Two mugs on the desk. He shrugs out of a blanket draped over the armchair and tosses it your way.

“Bed’s yours,” he says, sitting on the floor without argument.

“You can sit on the bed,” you offer.

He looks scandalized. “It’s your—”

“Bob. It’s just a mattress, not a holy relic.”

He huffs a laugh and finally perches beside you, both of you facing the muted TV, shoulders barely brushing.

You pull the blanket tighter. “Thanks for earlier, by the way. You didn’t have to step in.”

“I wanted to.”

His voice is quiet. A little hoarse.

You glance at him. “Even though it made you all twitchy and weird?”

He chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Kinda hard to miss. You’re not exactly subtle.”

He fidgets with a thread on his sleeve. “I just… I don’t like the idea of someone making you uncomfortable. You deserve better.”

That makes you pause. Your breath catches just slightly in your throat.

You nudge his knee with yours. “Thanks, Bob. For caring.”

He turns toward you really looks at you. You can see it now, in the soft focus of the room. The way he holds himself differently around you. Like he’s always on the verge of saying something more.

Your heart thuds.

You want to lean in. You almost do.

But then he moves first awkwardly, shyly offering the hoodie that was bundled at the end of the bed.

“You looked cold earlier.”

You take it. Pull it on. It’s warm and smells like detergent and something soft and boyish.

You sit there like that, shoulder to shoulder, both of you pretending the silence is easy.

And maybe, just maybe, it is.

#marvel x you #marvel x reader #marvel cinematic universe #marvel x y/n #marvel #bob reynolds #bob reynolds x reader #bob reynolds x you #bob reynolds x y/n

178 notes · View notes

gojirarity · 4 months ago

Text

Wait?! I thought we were rivals?!?!

My name is Kim Blank. Just call me Blank. See, I have this problem. When I was in elementary to middle school, I have always been number 1. Lotsa awards, medals and recognitions. It all changed when she transferred, Kim Taeyeon. I'm not even going to lie, I thought she was cute at first. But when started to take my spot as the number 1 in school, it's like everyone else forgot about me.

2948 Words. Genre: Smut, with a li'l bit of a story.

Chapter 1: Self-Introduction

This continued to high school. My friends eventually turned to her because of how easy it is to talk to her. So I isolated myself from everyone else. I studied harder. I tried to ace every quizzes, projects and exams but she was just better. Even the college schools that I was aiming for offered her scholarship. It should've been me. But no matter how hard I tried, I seemed to be falling behind her everytime.

In shame, I applied to a modest computer college. I gotta be honest, I lost any goals I have in mind. I dunno where to start from there. During my last days in high school, I found my drive again when I was watching pro-wrestling. The colorful characters in the sport made me think that life doesn't end just because I fail.

During graduation practice, I was watching pro-wrestling alone in the abandoned storage room. The data seems to be good, no interruption. I can put on my earphones and watch uninterrupted. Someone tapped my shoulders. I got shocked and immediately check who it is. It was my mortal enemy, Kim Taeyeon! I've put down on of my earphones down and hear what she has to say. "I was just asking if you're watching porn?". I felt hot and most importantly, embarrassed. The nerve of this woman to call me out like this when this is the first time we really talked to each other.

"I'm just kidding. Wait, is that pro-wrestling you're watching?" Wait, how does she know pro-wrestling?

Blank: Y-Yeah.

Taeyeon: Wow. Never knew you were into it. I am an avid fan since I was a kid. Who were you watching? Tanahashi vs. Naito huh? Love that match more than the main event. Can I watch?

I hesitated. Why is little miss perfect here and should I take her offer? She just took the other earphone to her ear.

Taeyeon: Come on, let's press play. I wanna watch it again.

So we watched. I guess she can be a cool gal. Maybe I just judged her too quickly. So we watched. The two wrestlers locked up, the other is a respectable hero (which Taeyeon corrected me that he is a face), the other is a nonchalant villain (which she told me was called a heel). The match was exciting. Both men can showcase athleticism and power using their patented moves. As the match goes on, my shoulders felt heavy. When I looked at it, she rests her head on my shoulders. It made me smell her. I can smell her shampoo and perfume. Wait, I hate her, but why do I feel something strange? It can't be, right?

Taeyeon: Do you know what you'll do next?

Blank: What do you mean?

Taeyeon: Your next step in life.

Blank: Yeah.

Taeyeon: Can you tell me?

Blank: Computer college. I want to learn about coding.

Taeyeon: Sounds cool. Have you prepared for it?

Blank: Not yet. I might just hang around before I go to college.

Taeyeon: Great. Can I ask you a favor?

Blank: Why?

Taeyeon: I just wanna know you more. I think you're the only person here in our batch that I don't really know. Whenever I ask what kind of person you are, I always ended up with nothing. Some can have the faintest idea from when you were in middle school, but that was like from a long time ago.

Blank: Just tell me what your favor is.

Taeyeon: Can you come to my house? I'll be hosting a party after graduation.

Blank: I dunno Kim, I think I might be busy around that time.

Taeyeon: Just come. I'll provide my address. Speaking of.

She paused the matched and went to my contacts. She punched in a number and send a missed call. She then pulls out her phone and saved the number.

Taeyeon: Just come there at the party. Everything will be provided.

She then stands up and fixes her uniform. She flashed that stupid smile on her face and shakes my hand.

Taeyeon: It was nice finally meeting you Blank. I hope you'll come to that party.

Once she walks out of the door, it finally sunk in. She took my number and forces me to come to that stupid party. The audacity of that woman to order me around.

************************************************************************

Graduation was okay to be honest. Teachers, students and parents cried that day. I gave my speech and my parents seemed to be proud of what I've accomplished. The weird part is when Taeyeon finally gave her speech, she mostly was looking at me. We just met, why would she look at me while giving her speech?

************************************************************************

The next day comes and I've arrived at her house. It is 5:41 pm when I arrived and there's loud music and people of our age scattered in every part of her house. Some just nods at me, acknowledging my presence. Some just looked on, clearly they don't have a clue who am I, not that it matters. I went straight to her kitchen, but before I do, someone pulled me in for a hug.

Taeyeon: I thought you were never going to come!

Blank: Well, here I am.

Taeyeon: The party would be over by 6pm. Didn't I tell you?

Blank: I was asking through text, yet you weren't replying.

Taeyeon: Sorry, I was busy accommodating everyone here. But please, have some booze. Let's drink!

Blank: Oh I don't--

Taeyeon: Underage?

Blank: No, I've just never ha--

Taeyeon: Have this then.

She gave me a red cup. I immediately smell something awful from this drink. It made me throw up a little bit. She just laughs. I do try to sip in this cup from time to time. Observed people as I drink it little by little. And little by little, people were disappearing. That's where she showed up again, only this time, it seemed only her and me were the only ones in her house.

Blank: Where's everyone?

Taeyeon: They left. I told you the party is up to 6pm.

I looked at my phone, 6:24pm.

Taeyeon: No pressure though, want to just drink some more before you go home?

At this point, I am getting used to this liquor that she handed to me.

Blank: Sure, why not Kim?

Taeyeon: Just call me Tae. No need to be formal to me.

She then closes the gate and locked their front door. Now it makes me curious, her parents are not showing.

Blank: Did Mr. and Mrs. Kim went to bed early?

Taeyeon: Oh right, I didn't tell you. Dad is kinda out of town due to unforeseen business trip. Mom is off to my relatives, which is to another town. They know I held a party though.

Blank: Cool. Cool....

I dunno what to talk about now. Hmm. Observe the surroundings like I did a few minutes ago. Nice kitchen. A bit disorganized due to the party that happened. But the house is nice. Some good paintings with red and gray motifs. Wallpaper's nice too. Taeyeon is nice too. She's wearing a grey croptop I think. High waisted black pants. It accentuates her curves. Really sexy I should say. Wait.

Taeyeon: Are you ogling Blank?

Shit. She caught me. Time to make an excuse!

Blank: I just zoned out. I wasn't really ogling. You know I consider mysel--

Taeyeon: Lying makes it worse you know?

Shit, she's right. Why she's gotta be so sexy tonight? I hate her!

Taeyeon: Blank, you know....

Shit, she sat beside me. Now I get to see her face a bit closer. Her cheeks are too rosy, her eyes looks too lovely, her lips looks delicious. I wanna--

Taeyeon: Are you listening to me?

Blank: Y-Yeah. Totally.

She just looks at me for a minute.

Taeyeon: I never took you for a liar. But here we are.

She pulls me downstairs and turns on the AC. Why do I feel like my heart is running too fast? Why do I expect that we'll do something here. Wait, that can't be right. I hate her. Yes. But why do I feel like it's waning. Like I want her to do something? No, I am not attracted at her. I shouldn't be.

Taeyeon: Blank, look at me. Eyes up.

Fuck! She caught me staring at her cleavage.

Taeyeon: Am I attractive?

Blank: W-wha--?!

Taeyeon: You heard me.

Blank: Y-You are...

Why am I stuttering? When did I became a blabbering idiot?

Taeyeon: I need you to listen first. I want you. Ever since when I transferred in middle school. But I think there's tension between us and I want to address it before we move forward.

I looked into her eyes. It is stable. It only looks at my face. Unlike mine which looks at every part of her body. Is the AC turned on, or am I? Maybe it's the alcohol.

Taeyeon: But I think, I want you even more now that you are like a kid in a candy store. You don't know where to look even when I told you to look only at my face. Like my ass? Like my belly? Or this cleavage?

Blank: Ta-Taey-- I'm sorry! I just didn't know...

Taeyeon: I thought you hated me, with the way you've been avoiding me at school.

Blank: I did!

Finally! I didn't stutter. Ha! In your face Kim Taeyeon!

Blank: I hated how you beat me at everything. Hell, you even know a lot more about pro-wrestling than I do. I hate it. I was all fine before you transferred. So why am I--

She stood up straight at me. Her eyes is shaking. I don't know if she's going to cry or shocked at my statement. But what is this I'm feeling. Why do I want you Kim Taeyeon? For all I know, I hated you since I met you. But now, why do you look like a potential partner? I want something to happen between us. Something primal. Something wild. Am I this shallow now? I drink the last vestiges of my drink. I stood up right in front of her.

Blank: Why am I attracted to you now? Why do you look like the most beautiful and sexiest woman in the world?

As if her rosy cheeks weren't enough, that redness spread across her face. She then lunges at me. No. She kissed me. I should follow her right? I let our tongues dance. I closed my eyes too. I want to feel this moment with her. My arms wrapped behind her as she does the same thing to me. I sat down on the chair and she straddled my lap without breaking our kiss. I feel more hotter now. I need to pull away from her. Wow. This face. I want Kim Taeyeon. This face, this eyes, this lips. I don't know her, but I want to know her more.

Taeyeon: Blank...

Blank: Yeah?

Taeyeon: You're my first kiss.

Blank: You're my first too.

Our eyes didn't break any contact. Her arms then move to take off her shirt. I did the same. She stood up and took off her pants, I did the same thing. These curves are to die for. She's something out of a sexy magazine. And when she unclasped her bra, I can feel my cock at its hardest. She lets the bra fall on the floor to reveal her tits. The right amount of perkiness, the shape, and the brown areola, I can't help but capture it with my mouth right away.

Taeyeon: Fuck! Oh! Blank! Yes! Suck my tits!

No need to ask me twice. While sucking her tight tits, my left hand played with her other tits and plays with it. I can hear her moan lightly. She holds my head and grabs on it.

Taeyeon: This is more than what I fantasized.

She pulls me in the sofa and takes of her panty. Fuck, I'm going to fuck her.

Blank: Taeyeon, I don't know how to have sex.

Taeyeon: Me too.

She grabs her phone and types something. She then rests her phone at the table. A porn is playing on her phone.

Taeyeon: Let's copy what they are doing.

The guy is currently putting his cock in the girls wide pussy, so I stood up and take of my pants and boxers. My cock sprang up when I took off my last clothing.

Taeyeon: Wow, your cock is as big as that guy in the porn.

Blank: Yeah, but your pussy is not as wide as the girl.

Taeyeon: No need to be a coward. Let's try.

I tried inserting my cock from behind her, it's hard. Not my cock, but the insertion is hard. I can feel a bit of dampness in her entrance but it is not enough for me to put my cock all the way in. She repositions herself to take my cock better, but I can hear her grunting.

Blank: You okay there?

Taeyeon: Wait. Can you spit on your cock? I feel we need some more liquid in it for you to fuck me better.

So I did. I put saliva in my palm and spread it on my cockhead. The insertion is a bit better but I can still hear her grunting so I stopped getting my cock in her.

Taeyeon: Fuck! It's big!

Blank: Are you okay?

Taeyeon: Yeah. Just give me a minute.

I can hear her slowing her breathe. I dunno what to do so I just waited. After a few seconds, she herself tries to push my cock deep. I grab her waist so I can control her more. Little by little, I can hear her struggling. When my cock is fully inside her, her mouth is so wide. She's reveling in the feeling.

Blank: Want to stop now?

Taeyeon: No. Fuck no. Just give me a minute.

I started to comb her hair. I looked at her, and she looked back at me and smile.

Taeyeon: Thank you Blank.

Blank: No Taeyeon, I'm sorry. Just lemme know if you want to st--

She grabs my arm and started to move. Fuck. This is it. A bit dry inside. But after a few movements, her pussy is starting to get wet. It is getting better. Her grunts are now replaced with moans.

Blank: Fuck Taeyeon, this feels good.

Taeyeon: Yes. This feels great.

She lifts her ass so I picked up my pace a bit. Her moans are now more louder. She even compliments the way I fuck her. But still, I need to restraint myself. I don't want her to feel any pain.

Taeyeon: Blank. Let's change our position.

Blank: Sure.

He lies down and spreads her legs. I inserted again my cock inside her and her eyes and mouth widens. I start again with slow thrusts. Once she got used to it, I thrusted faster. Once her moans were louder than before, she touched my nipples. It urged me to fuck her relentless.

Taeyeon: Fuck you Blank. This is better than before.

She played with my nipples as she takes my relentless fucking. I looked at her and this fucking woman smiles. She even locks her legs around my waist.

Taeyeon: Blank, I'm going to cum. Please give me your cum too.

Fuck! I forgot! No condoms. I stopped fucking her. We need protection. Fuck fuck fuck!

Taeyeon: Why?

Blank: We don't have condoms.

Taeyeon: So?

Blank: I might impregnate you.

Her walls fucking tightened around my cock. Oh this woman wanted to bred.

Taeyeon: Yes. I'd love that. Make me yours. Breed me Blank. Please. I want my cunt to drown in your cum.

Her legs even urged me to move again. So I did. I fucked her faster and rougher. The idea of breeding her sounds so hot. Fuck this woman. Yes. Fuck this wet and sloppy cunt. Fuck I'm close. Her eyes are just looking at me.

Taeyeon: That's it Blank. Fucking breed me. Let's make a family. Fuck my cunt everyday. I want it. Blank! Oh.... Oh!!

Fuck! I fucking came along with her. I feel it. Both of us. Fuck!

Blank: Fuck Kim Taeyeon. Yes I wanna fuck you everyday.

I leaned in and kissed her aggressively. Our hands are all over each other. Fuck. I fucked my rival. And I loved every second of it.

*********************************

The next day, I am still recounting the events of last night. Taeyeon is wake too and resting on my chest. When I looked at her, I can see her smiling. It suits her. Makes her more attractive.

Taeyeon: Blank?

Blank: Yeah?

Taeyeon: Did you mean it?

Blank: Mean what?

Taeyeon: Fucking me everyday?

Blank: I'd love to.

Taeyeon: Then why not?

Blank: Well, let's make it work?

Taeyeon looks at me and smiles. She hugs me tightly. Our naked body pressed together. I can see her blushing again.

Taeyeon: Can I be yours Blank?

Blank: I already told you, let's make it work.

She nods with a grin on her face. I know she's over the moon, and so am I.

************************************************************************

Pictures used are not mine. Credits to the rightful owners. Feel free to comment about what I should improve on or anything you feel about this.

And this is a re-upload since I wasn't able to put the title properly. Same work though.

#kpop smut #snsd smut #taeyeon smut

143 notes · View notes

opencommunion · 2 years ago

Text

please read & share on all platforms. Palestinian resistance groups have asked us to pay close attention to the plight of imprisoned Palestinians, as the occupation believes that since all eyes are on Gaza they can abuse and assassinate prisoners out of sight

Statement issued by the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and the Wounded of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, via RNN Prisoners:

“Horrific testimonies about the crimes committed by the occupation and prison administration against prisoners and detainees in its jails.

The information and data we receive from inside zionist prisons about the systematic crimes committed by the occupation's prison administration against prisoners, since October 7th, are terrifying. There is a systematic decision to assassinate the prisoners through punitive measures carried out by the prison service, and evidence of this is the martyrdom of several prisoners.

The magnitude of crimes, both collective and individual assaults on prisoners—which occur during the raids on sections and cells and which are continuously escalating—is alarming, in addition to the adoption of a starvation policy against them, as the prisoners only have tuna, corn, and sometimes inedible eggs as food.

The aggression against the prisoners began on October 7th. The prisoners face ongoing aggression, with continuous punitive operations and retaliatory measures affecting them and their families.

The Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and the Wounded for the PFLP is closely following the issues of prisoners and detainees, which is challenging. We consider the silence of human rights, humanitarian, and international institutions unjustifiable. They must fulfill their humanitarian duty and what their conscience dictates, obliging the occupation to respect international laws and conventions established for this purpose. We hold them fully responsible for their lives.

The Office highlights the measures that the prison administration continues to impose on prisoners. The prison administration cuts off electricity to the prisoners' cells and rooms, deliberately cuts off their water supply, enforces a starvation policy, has withdrawn food supplies from prisoner sections, reduced meals to two times a day, closed the canteen, and deprived prisoners of other basic necessities.

Furthermore, heavily armed suppression forces raid all prisoners' sections and rooms, maltreat them, physically assault them, and use police dogs. They have escalated policies of depriving prisoners of medical treatment, forbidding visits from families and lawyers, and denying them treatment in hospitals, especially for sick prisoners. The prison administration also reduced the space available to a prisoner inside a cell, where the number of prisoners in one cell reached more than ten, and many prisoners were transferred to solitary cells. Solitary confinement was imposed on prisoners and some sections were isolated from others.

We note that the prison administration has removed available television sets and electrical appliances, destroyed all of the prisoners' belongings, confiscated their clothes, leaving only one change of clothing for each prisoner. They have also confiscated radios, blankets, and shoes from them, prevented them from bathing and going to the courtyard, closed the sinks used for washing, and carried out collective transfer operations, including moving prisoners from one section to another and from one prison to another.

We, in the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and the Wounded of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, want to reassure our people that the General Secretary of the Popular Front, the comrade, leader, and prisoner Ahmed Saadat, and his comrades are well. They are at the heart of the battle with the prison administration, and they will achieve a great victory over the jailer and will soon gain their freedom. We are closely following all the developments inside the prisons, as well as the ongoing communications and negotiations for a prisoner exchange process being carried out by the Palestinian resistance to empty the prisons and release all the prisoners.

Freedom to our heroic prisoners.

Glory and eternity to the martyrs.

Speedy recovery to the wounded.

Victory is the ally of our people, and the occupation will inevitably come to an end.”

#palestine #I’m so worried about the prisoners and my posts about what they’re facing consistently get a fraction of the notes on anything else I post #probably because white westerners are conditioned to view incarcerated people as disposable 🫥

2K notes · View notes

grunckle · 1 year ago

Text

Qualia and Ascension in Rain World

(To clarify I'm mostly talking about base-game lore and not including Downpour, but honestly most of these things can transfer over)

Qualia

One thing that’s relatively hidden in Rain World’s text and subtext is the concept of qualia. Qualia is described as being, “sensory experiences that have distinctive subjective qualities but lack any meaning or external reference to the objects or events that cause them.” It’s a personal sensory experience that cannot be comprehended by another person other than the individual themself, and are often hard to convey via language.

Qualia is a reoccurring motif in Rain World, but what’s more important is the way in which it’s conveyed to the player. The picture that’s painted is that of a world or civilization that placed a great importance on the individuals’ experience, and it’s shown through pearls or environmental details.

Here are some examples of qualia appearing in the text through pearls.

“It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone, and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.”

“A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.”

“This one... is authored by Five Pebbles, when he was young. There has been an attempt to scramble the data, but it's sloppily done, and most is still somewhat legible. It's written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand.”

But the most prominent examples of qualia and it’s importance in this world are the Memory Crypts and possibly ancient naming conventions. The deep purple pearl (shortened) found in Shaded Citadel states,

“In this vessel is the living memories of Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel, of the House of Braids (…) Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel nobly decided to ascend in the beginning of 1514.008, after graciously donating all (ALL!) earthly possessions to the local Iterator project (Unparalleled Innocence), and left these memories to be cherished by the carnal plane. The assorted memories and qualia include:”

Ancients likely mutated their own neural tissue into the cabinet beasts we see in Shaded, which were used to store their memories and qualia before ascension. Even james said once "how 5 pebs got the rot is a good hint here" in response to someone asking how cabinet beasts work, and how they're made.

Adding on to this, ancient (and iterator) naming conventions seem to be built off of the concept of qualia, with them focusing on individual images or experiences.

Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections

Droplets upon Five Large Droplets

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets

Looks to the Moon

Generally, this all points to a world focused on the expression and preservation of the individual experience. You could even consider some of the echo dialogue as more evidence for this running motif, but I already have too many quotes lol.

Ascension

So now time to talk about my interpretation of ascension. In short, you turn into a worm, but I should probably explain more than that.

So its been surfacing on rw-tumblr that the light in the end of the game is called the egg in files. Although file names shouldn't be taken as fact or canon, it is pretty obvious given the birth imagery.

But something a little lesser known is what happens to the worm that takes us down to the void-sea depths. Void worms normally have a bright glowing effect, on their body, which is present for ours as well. But after it unhooks us, it swims down, and when it passes us on it's way back that glowing effect is gone.

To be honest, I don't really think this can be interpreted in many ways, but the most obvious one and the one I personally subscribe to is that the worm laid the egg. Biology and spirituality really aren't that different in Rain World, it's implied that karma is stored in the brain through Five Pebbles's slideshow. Adding on to that, we see voidspawn after eating an iterator neuron. One's spiritual state is innately tied to their mental state, and that dictates what and what they can't perceive.

And for that reason I decide to take a more biology leaning approach to what happens in the ending. At face value, we are fertilizing the egg of a void worm to be reborn into a voidspawn.

Not only do void spawn and void worms have multiple characteristics in common, (worm like bodies, tendrils/tentacles, glowing heads, void spawn look microbial and void worms are likely some of the oldest "life" in game)

but voidspawn are seen inside egg-like coverings and share the same egg light seen in the end of the game, confirmed to be the same thing by Videocult in a livestream they did.

I believe that all this points to ascension being re-birth into a voidspawn, which eventually undergoes metamorphose into a worm. Higher-dimensional beings, who manifest and give birth to a new world.

So how does this tie in with qualia? Another thing you might know is that the area in which void spawn are most plentiful is Shaded Citadel and areas in Shoreline near Shaded. And shaded is absolutely packed with Cabinet Beasts, even outside Memory Crypts. I believe these qualia-storing creatures are what manifest voidspawn.

From what we see in ascension, it still looks physical and largely based around the real world. Hunter still has his scars and see's an iterator, survivor sees the slug tree in a more mystical and formless state, and monk sees survivor frankly just looking like a normal slugcat. I think that ascension is a product of qualia. We transcend our earthly knowledge via the egg, and our own qualia is used to give birth to a new world. This is why voidspawn appear most in Shaded Citadel.

Now I won't be getting into Void-Worm theories too much here, I'm mostly focused on ascension but I can't ignore the Gnosticism parallels. For those who don't know, Void Worms heavily resemble the Yaldaboath from Gnosticism, along with sharing some similar celestial motifs.

and running with that some people theorize that, like the Yaldabaoth, void worms are responsible for manifesting the material world. Ascension seems to be a mix of the concepts of Gnosis and Nirvana, but I believe it might lean more on Gnosis.

From my limited knowledge, Gnosis is a few things, some of which being a state achieved from experiences or intuitions, and an essential part to salvation is personal knowledge. While researching a bit, I came across this text by Peter Wilberg called "From NEW AGE to NEW GNOSIS" which brings up some comparisons between Gnosticism and qualia as well.

"Gnosis is subjective knowledge of an inner universe made up not of matter, energy, space or time but of countless qualitative spheres or ‘planes’ of awareness – a knowledge obtained directly through inter- subjective resonance. It is the subjective science of this inner universe."

One thing though that has been brought up when discussing this is how this can be consolidated with the tone of the ending. It is pretty un-ambiguously happy, but if we're going with the Void worm Yaldaboath theory then that would put a bit of a sour twist on it right?

I agreed with these for some time, but now I actually think it ties in perfectly with Rain World's core themes as stated by the devs, "overcoming differences and finding empathy." I don't think the void worms are "evil" or malevolent, but I think they (and subsequently us after ascending) play a key role in demonstrating this theme.

By manifesting the physical world, we allow these souls to experience life and develop their own qualia so one day they can ascend themselves. We are shown compassion, and pass it forward.

#rain world #rain world lore #lore #rain world spoilers #gnosticism #gnosis

782 notes · View notes

newbiespud · 6 months ago

Text

Okay, I lied. One last set of Warframe 1999 spoiler thoughts to get them out of my system:

Bookending the story with Transference into Arthur (once very rudely without permission to start off on the wrong foot, once begrudgingly with permission to bring them home) is just great theming structure. Building thematic parallels into your story isn't hard, it's just so much better when the characters' and their growth reinforce their meaning.

On the surface, the Drifter's "help" to the Hex looks like a mere cheerleading pep talk, but that's not how I took it. Who knows more about fully matured Warframe powers than the Tenno? How can they lend that expertise to the Hex in their desperate moments? Eleanor can wrangle the Infestation within with a little willpower boost; Tenno do it all the time, or else their Warframes would be out of control. "Quincy, remember, your frame has the Seek power and it's busted." Aoi especially just needed a bit of support from someone who's used a fully kitted-out Mag before and mastered her magnetic powers. "Amir, here's something you would have never found out on your own: Your Warframe body has a Parazon, which doubles as a hidden blade AND a data-link!" And, of course, Arthur - if your body can't move, then I can move it for you. It's all the Tenno being an experienced Tenno to help the Hex.

I was definitely in the camp of "wait, I thought Albrecht shot Amir- OH THANK GOODNESS WE STOPPED THAT."

It's so incredibly great that the instant-messenger stuff allows us to discuss and digest a lot of Warframe's weirder lore in an in-character way, on top of all the other ways it's great. Love me a game system that accomplishes multiple goals at once for different player interests.

My absolute favorite thing overall? Thematically, this is a mirror-image of The Sacrifice. Somehow, through sheer empathy if nothing else, the Tenno have the power to share their inner strength with troubled, broken, hopeless beings, take away their pain, and unlock their full potential. The Operator did it with Umbra (and by extension every other fully converted Warframe), and now the Drifter's done something arguably even more impressive - using that power on partially still-living humans, with understanding, consent, and mercy.

Look, I'm arguably a writer by trade. I love analyzing story structure, and I especially love seeing action genres take a stab at being emotional, vulnerable, and empathetic while still being kickass action. That's a delicate balance, but oh boy does it make for a delicious dish for my particular palette.

#warframe #warframe 1999 #warframe spoilers #warframe 1999 spoilers #okay that's it #enough rambling about Warframe for a little while #back to thinking about Griftlands and Kingdom Hearts and Leverage

171 notes · View notes

marigold-hills · 9 days ago

Text

your hands; mine Part 1

Milk, potatoes, camera film, body wash.

Remus writes his shopping list down on a little piece of paper. He keeps the pad in the glovebox. The pages are decorated with yellow flowers and cute cats. He’s running low on those, too.

Organiser pad, bread, eggs.

He’s writing against the steering wheel and the words are coming out all wonky. The pen starts to stutter ink half way through the list

Pens, cigarettes, courgette, peppers.

He’s trying to eat a little more healthily - been subsiding on a steady diet of Sainsbury’s lunch meal deals for a smidge too long and he’s starting to feel it. Makes him sluggish, a bit too pale. Iron deficient, probably.

Spinach, beef, beetroot.

He’s a bit sick of their meagre sandwich selection anyway.

It’s just after five. The office buildings around where Remus is parked are steadily emptying, depositing suited workers onto the still-sunshine filled street. Sirius always leaves last, hyper fixated on whatever data set he’s analysing, stretching out his work hours as long as it’s reasonable.

Remus doesn’t mind. He’s not in any rush.

Cat food, water, laundry detergent.

Remus doesn’t work. His bad hip and bad spine and bad heart prohibit any kind of gainful employment. He makes a bit of money selling stained glass portraits of dogs on Etsy, and the rest he gets from the Department of Social Security and Disability. A neat little bank transfer on the twenty second day of every month, ever since he was eighteen and the money started coming to him instead of to his parents.

It’s not really enough to live on. Remus crosses off the water. The one from the taps tastes a bit funny but it’ll do, if he boils it first.

Spinach, beef, beetroot canned beetroot.

Sirius comes out forty minutes past five, once the rush hour traffic has dissipated. He looks beautiful and so Remus texts him to let him know: you’re beautiful, he writes. He’s written texts like this one countless times, a wall of blue messages he can scroll through endlessly. From across the road he can see Sirius taking the phone out of his pocket (nice black work slacks, such a contrast to the leather jacket). He reads it and doesn’t respond. His face does the thing it always does when he sees a text from Remus: a grimace, an exasperation. A twist to his pretty lips that would look ugly on anyone else.

Remus loves to see it. Snaps a quick photo with his camera, makes sure to get the way the afternoon’ sun hits Sirius’ hair.

Sirius’ car is parked close enough that Remus can see him clearly - getting in, taking a deep, grounding breath. A little post-work ritual, like Sirius wants to breathe the office out of his body and replace it with fresh air. Only then does he drive away.

Remus follows.

It’s a Friday afternoon. On Fridays, Sirius goes to the pub with his friend James. James sometimes brings his wife along, and sometimes just countless pictures of his son. Sirius sees the kid at least twice a week but still he looks at each photo as if it were a great treasure.

Remus goes in fifteen minutes after them, sometimes half an hour. Sometimes he doesn’t go in at all and sits in his car instead, waiting for the bartender to call last orders. Twice he felt brave and sent a drink to Sirius’ table, but left before it was delivered. Both times the bartender told him the same: this is a pub, mate. You want to talk to him, go talk to him, I ain’t doing table service.

A good tip changed his mind. Remus lived on boiled eggs and toast that week, but it was worth it to imagine Sirius drinking a pint (Moretti, his usual order) that Remus had got for him. Enjoying something that Remus provided.

Maybe he’ll be brave again. It feels like a good day to try. There’s something about sunny weather that brings out a recklessness in people, and Remus is not immune.

Before going in, he takes a quick shot of Sirius through the pub window, where he and James stand around a pool table. Sirius doesn’t like playing pool much, but he’s a good friend. Indulges when James whines for it. Fine, but you’re getting the next round, is usually his only condition.

Remus parks his car three away from Sirius’. He always walks home after Fridays, leaves it there to pick up in the morning. Responsible driver, Sirius is, never gets behind the wheel after drinking. Remus appreciates that about him.

There are two more men with Sirius and James by the time Remus gets into the pub. They put their two pound coins on the table to secure the next game but one of them - stocky, bearded - seems more interested in Sirius than in pool.

Remus sits at the bar. Orders himself a soda water and some peanuts. The tall stool isn’t very comfortable on his hip, but he can see Sirius and the man in the mirror behind the drinks shelves. They’re talking. The man leans forward as James takes his shot. Hands Sirius a drink and Sirius takes it, clinks their glasses together.

Someone else’s day to be brave, then, Remus thinks. Maybe next Friday it will be his chance again. He fancies doing this, flagging down the bartender and asking pint of Moretti, please, and walking it over there himself. How many steps it would be between the bar and the pool table, how many breaths would he take before the air became one Sirius had breathed already.

Sirius takes his shot and fumbles. It’s beyond endearing, the way he laughs it off, the way he pushes James’ arm away when he gloats.

Remus can’t hear their conversation but it’s obvious from the body language: the stocky bearded man suggests he can help Sirius get better, teach him how to play. He reaches one meaty hand to Sirius’ hip and the gesture is so suggestive Remus can feel it as if it was on his own skin.

Sirius laughs it off and pushes the hand from him. The man doesn’t get the hint. When Sirius turns to the table again, he positions himself behind him. Helping Sirius line the shot, hand on the lovely slope of Sirius’ spine where it bends, the other on the divot of his waist.

It happens quicker than quick. James doesn’t get a chance to react. Remus is so very gratified to have a seat with a view.

One moment, the man is groping Sirius, and the next the sharp end of the pool queue is digging into the skin of his cheek, just below the eye - a suggestion of violence. Sirius still has that same smile on his face, something bordering bored politeness, but his eyes are cold now. Ruthless.

He’s so beautiful.

PART 2

✨✨✨✨

Fair warning: this one will get a bit violent.

hi! Hello! Little new fic I’m so so so excited about. Stalker Remus my beloved him and his boiled eggs ❤️❤️❤️

Let me know if you want to be tagged in future parts

#fic: your hands #stalker Remus au #wolfstar #remus lupin #sirius black #marauders #remus x sirius #dead gay wizards #fanfic #marauders era #stalker Remus Lupin

66 notes · View notes

simaddix · 4 months ago

Text

Opening TS3 Medieval Market

Hello, my lovelies! Today I would like to talk about an opportunity for our beloved medieval (and historic) TS3 community!

Interested? Well, I guess let’s get into it and see how far it goes.

Why Discord, rather than a Tumblr Community or a personal page?

That’s a great question – and one that might be better explored as time goes on. However, here are a few perks that I’ve noticed.

1: A discord server as a download market presents an ideal solution by combining accessibility, organization, and engagement.

2: Organization – less scattered forums/websites. Discord allows structured categories and channels to keep content well-organized. We have the option to create additional channels or categories to keep content separated – so there’s less confusion when people stop using a tag, or add a new one that other’s aren’t tracking. There are also transferable roles assigned by moderators, so if someone wants to leave – there is no data lost, and the server stays active as usual.

3: Direct downloads – requiring no additional host/server. If you’re a part of the creator discord pages, then you’ll notice there is a hoard of available downloads that bypass the need to go to an alternate download site. Creators can upload their content directly into the appropriate category.

4: Discord servers have little to no spam bots (that I’ve noticed, anyway), and if there are issues, it’s relatively easy to remove those pests and keep the community protected.

5: By centralizing downloads in a dedicated server, creators can upload their content, receive immediate feedback, and build faster relationships with their community, and followers can immediately engage, comment, or download. Discord mimics Tumblr in that it allows for real-time interactions, sneak peeks, polls, events and more.

Here's what I've established so far inside the server:

A welcome channel established for people to drop into the server, and members to say hello!

More channels to host discussions, show off real life/other games/hobbies/etc. And of course, everything TS3 - because we like seeing people play!

All the "Market" tabs you could want! (And if it's not there, we'll add it to the list - free of charge lol)

The "Cargo" section mimics the creator discords a bit in that it allows you to ask WCIFs, make CC requests, trade and barter another member/creator for CC (I.E - swap CAS for BUILD/BUY items, etc), start collab projects, and more.

I highly recommend also keeping up to date with the other creator discords, there's already so much activity there!

_____________________________________________________________

Is the market meant to replace Tumblr pages, other creator discords, or personal pages?

Absolutely not! As we all know, there are many Tumblr pages/websites/servers dedicated to the TS3 community at large. Ts3 has thrived for so long partly because it has such a dedicated modding community, and hosts player-made content. However, distributing and protecting all of the content effectively while also fostering a sense of community is challenging. There has been a massive amount of effort put into the community through wonderful pages such as @katsujiiccfinds and @pis3update, (as well as all the other CC pages out there), I am personally a member of two creator discords that have been essential to me as I’ve learned to create, and now tumblr is exploring the new community options. However, the fallback of this is that hosts get burnt out, stop creating themselves, or abandon pages/websites all the time. There are many of these “ghosts” haunting Tumblr as we speak – though we all love a good comeback story, so to those who have returned, or will return, we all welcome you back with wide open arms! Right? Right! Huzzah! The point is, this discord is not meant to replace any of these options, but it might help us find a centralized location.

Modern/electrical CC will be booed – but possibly tolerated lol

This Discord is being opened as of right now – so don’t be surprised if you pop in and there’s no CC yet. These things take time – Rome wasn’t built in a day.

You will need a Discord account to follow the invite!

Paid only content will not be allowed on this discord. If you would like to upload paid content - you can always start free servers on Discord! When your content is free - absolutely feel free to add it to the market!

See you there! (Please let me know if there are any link issues!)

Personal Letter of Invitation: https://discord.gg/e6skNu9t

#ts3 #ts3cc #s3cc #ts3medieval #ts3goestodiscord #ts3community #ts3medievalmarket

92 notes · View notes

errorid-mt7lt7k7unfr9ttfua5 · 2 years ago

Text

me when companies try to force you to use their proprietary software

anyway

Layperson resources:

firefox is an open source browser by Mozilla that makes privacy and software independence much easier. it is very easy to transfer all your chrome data to Firefox

ublock origin is The highest quality adblock atm. it is a free browser extension, and though last i checked it is available on Chrome google is trying very hard to crack down on its use

Thunderbird mail is an open source email client also by mozilla and shares many of the same advantages as firefox (it has some other cool features as well)

libreOffice is an open source office suite similar to microsoft office or Google Suite, simple enough

Risky:

VPNs (virtual private networks) essentially do a number of things, but most commonly they are used to prevent people from tracking your IP address. i would suggest doing more research. i use proton vpn, as it has a decent free version, and the paid version is powerful

note: some applications, websites, and other entities do not tolerate the use of VPNs. you may not be able to access certain secure sites while using a VPN, and logging into your personal account with some services while using a vpn *may* get you PERMANENTLY BLACKLISTED from the service on that account, ymmv

IF YOU HAVE A DECENT VPN, ANTIVIRUS, AND ADBLOCK, you can start learning about piracy, though i will not be providing any resources, as Loose Lips Sink Ships. if you want to be very safe, start with streaming sites and never download any files, though you Can learn how to discern between safe, unsafe, and risky content.

note: DO NOT SHARE LINKS TO OR NAMES OF PIRACY SITES IN PUBLIC PLACES, ESPECIALLY SOCAL MEDIA

the only time you should share these things are either in person or in (preferably peer-to-peer encrypted) PRIVATE messages

when pirated media becomes well-known and circulated on the wider, public internet, it gets taken down, because it is illegal to distribute pirated media and software

if you need an antivirus i like bitdefender. it has a free version, and is very good, though if youre using windows, windows defender is also very good and it comes with the OS

Advanced:

linux is great if you REALLY know what you're doing. you have to know a decent amount of computer science and be comfortable using the Terminal/Command Prompt to get/use linux. "Linux" refers to a large array of related open source Operating Systems. do research and pick one that suits your needs. im still experimenting with various dispos, but im leaning towards either Ubuntu Cinnamon or Debian.

#capitalism #open source #firefox #thunderbird #mozilla #ublock origin #libreoffice #vpn #antivirus #piracy #linux

697 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 8 months ago

Text

Shifting $677m from the banks to the people, every year, forever

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

"Switching costs" are one of the great underappreciated evils in our world: the more it costs you to change from one product or service to another, the worse the vendor, provider, or service you're using today can treat you without risking your business.

Businesses set out to keep switching costs as high as possible. Literally. Mark Zuckerberg's capos send him memos chortling about how Facebook's new photos feature will punish anyone who leaves for a rival service with the loss of all their family photos – meaning Zuck can torment those users for profit and they'll still stick around so long as the abuse is less bad than the loss of all their cherished memories:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

It's often hard to quantify switching costs. We can tell when they're high, say, if your landlord ties your internet service to your lease (splitting the profits with a shitty ISP that overcharges and underdelivers), the switching cost of getting a new internet provider is the cost of moving house. We can tell when they're low, too: you can switch from one podcatcher program to another just by exporting your list of subscriptions from the old one and importing it into the new one:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/#read-receipts-are-you-kidding-me-seriously-fuck-that-noise

But sometimes, economists can get a rough idea of the dollar value of high switching costs. For example, a group of economists working for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau calculated that the hassle of changing banks is costing Americans at least $677m per year (see page 526):

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_personal-financial-data-rights-final-rule_2024-10.pdf

The CFPB economists used a very conservative methodology, so the number is likely higher, but let's stick with that figure for now. The switching costs of changing banks – determining which bank has the best deal for you, then transfering over your account histories, cards, payees, and automated bill payments – are costing everyday Americans more than half a billion dollars, every year.

Now, the CFPB wasn't gathering this data just to make you mad. They wanted to do something about all this money – to find a way to lower switching costs, and, in so doing, transfer all that money from bank shareholders and executives to the American public.

And that's just what they did. A newly finalized Personal Financial Data Rights rule will allow you to authorize third parties – other banks, comparison shopping sites, brokers, anyone who offers you a better deal, or help you find one – to request your account data from your bank. Your bank will be required to provide that data.

I loved this rule when they first proposed it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

And I like the final rule even better. They've really nailed this one, even down to the fine-grained details where interop wonks like me get very deep into the weeds. For example, a thorny problem with interop rules like this one is "who gets to decide how the interoperability works?" Where will the data-formats come from? How will we know they're fit for purpose?

This is a super-hard problem. If we put the monopolies whose power we're trying to undermine in charge of this, they can easily cheat by delivering data in uselessly obfuscated formats. For example, when I used California's privacy law to force Mailchimp to provide list of all the mailing lists I've been signed up for without my permission, they sent me thousands of folders containing more than 5,900 spreadsheets listing their internal serial numbers for the lists I'm on, with no way to find out what these lists are called or how to get off of them:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/22/degoogled/#kafka-as-a-service

So if we're not going to let the companies decide on data formats, who should be in charge of this? One possibility is to require the use of a standard, but again, which standard? We can ask a standards body to make a new standard, which they're often very good at, but not when the stakes are high like this. Standards bodies are very weak institutions that large companies are very good at capturing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Here's how the CFPB solved this: they listed out the characteristics of a good standards body, listed out the data types that the standard would have to encompass, and then told banks that so long as they used a standard from a good standards body that covered all the data-types, they'd be in the clear.

Once the rule is in effect, you'll be able to go to a comparison shopping site and authorize it to go to your bank for your transaction history, and then tell you which bank – out of all the banks in America – will pay you the most for your deposits and charge you the least for your debts. Then, after you open a new account, you can authorize the new bank to go back to your old bank and get all your data: payees, scheduled payments, payment history, all of it. Switching banks will be as easy as switching mobile phone carriers – just a few clicks and a few minutes' work to get your old number working on a phone with a new provider.

This will save Americans at least $677 million, every year. Which is to say, it will cost the banks at least $670 million every year.

Naturally, America's largest banks are suing to block the rule:

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/cfpbs-open-banking-rule-faces-suit-from-bank-policy-institute

Of course, the banks claim that they're only suing to protect you, and the $677m annual transfer from their investors to the public has nothing to do with it. The banks claim to be worried about bank-fraud, which is a real thing that we should be worried about. They say that an interoperability rule could make it easier for scammers to get at your data and even transfer your account to a sleazy fly-by-night operation without your consent. This is also true!

It is obviously true that a bad interop rule would be bad. But it doesn't follow that every interop rule is bad, or that it's impossible to make a good one. The CFPB has made a very good one.

For starters, you can't just authorize anyone to get your data. Eligible third parties have to meet stringent criteria and vetting. These third parties are only allowed to ask for the narrowest slice of your data needed to perform the task you've set for them. They aren't allowed to use that data for anything else, and as soon as they've finished, they must delete your data. You can also revoke their access to your data at any time, for any reason, with one click – none of this "call a customer service rep and wait on hold" nonsense.

What's more, if your bank has any doubts about a request for your data, they are empowered to (temporarily) refuse to provide it, until they confirm with you that everything is on the up-and-up.

I wrote about the lawsuit this week for @[email protected]'s Deeplinks blog:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/no-matter-what-bank-says-its-your-money-your-data-and-your-choice

In that article, I point out the tedious, obvious ruses of securitywashing and privacywashing, where a company insists that its most abusive, exploitative, invasive conduct can't be challenged because that would expose their customers to security and privacy risks. This is such bullshit.

It's bullshit when printer companies say they can't let you use third party ink – for your own good:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-ceo-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-fights-viruses/

It's bullshit when car companies say they can't let you use third party mechanics – for your own good:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

It's bullshit when Apple says they can't let you use third party app stores – for your own good:

https://www.eff.org/document/letter-bruce-schneier-senate-judiciary-regarding-app-store-security

It's bullshit when Facebook says you can't independently monitor the paid disinformation in your feed – for your own good:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#quis-custodiet-ipsos-zuck

And it's bullshit when the banks say you can't change to a bank that charges you less, and pays you more – for your own good.

CFPB boss Rohit Chopra is part of a cohort of Biden enforcers who've hit upon a devastatingly effective tactic for fighting corporate power: they read the law and found out what they're allowed to do, and then did it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

The CFPB was created in 2010 with the passage of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which specifically empowers the CFPB to make this kind of data-sharing rule. Back when the CFPA was in Congress, the banks howled about this rule, whining that they were being forced to share their data with their competitors.

But your account data isn't your bank's data. It's your data. And the CFPB is gonna let you have it, and they're gonna save you and your fellow Americans at least $677m/year – forever.

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/2024/11/01/bankshot/#personal-financial-data-rights

466 notes · View notes

reality-detective · 5 months ago

Text

Where are all those people who were telling us there is no plan and nobody is coming to save us?

I used to be inundated with them telling me I was fool for following Q and it was a psyop to get us all to be complacent and comply with the globalists agenda of total enslavement.

They wanted us to rise up violently and remove the government.

They wanted a civil war.

We didn’t take the bait.

Instead, we are witnessing a complete dismantling of the insurgency in real time. Faster than ever.

How?

Q told us to “follow the money.”

That’s the “keystone.”

Q drop

“FOLLOW THE MONEY, it’s the key.

What is Pelosi’s net worth by way of one example. Why coincidentally is her memory apparently going?

Cover for possible future indictment to plead what?

What if John M never had surgery and that was a cover for a future out if needed against prosecution?

Why did Soros transfer his bulk public funds to a NP? Note this doesn’t include massive slush funds that are pulled by several high ups.

Why did Soros’ son have several meetings with Canadian PM and how is that related to Clinton’s?

Can you rely on being able to board a plane and fly away?

Why is MS13 a priority _ nobody got this.

Could people pay such gangs to kill opponents and why / how to insulate against exposure?

The truth is mind blowing and cannot fully be exposed.

Also many are thinking from one point of view, US only, this evil is embedded globally. US is the first domino.

Have faith.”

Following the money will reveal the entire web of corruption going back many decades. It has always been the KEYSTONE.

Q drop

167

POTUS opened the door of all doors.

Expand your thinking.

What is the KEYSTONE?

DOGE was planned for a long time.

By making Elon and his data investigators “Special Government Employees,” it allows them to access every department and agency.

Trump knew that when all of this theft of taxpayers money is proven, the American people will scream for justice.

Trump’s team didn’t just hit the ground running, they have hit the entire insurgency with an offensive “blitzkrieg” that they never expected.

They have called Trump “Hitler” for eight years and now he’s hitting them with another boomerang.

Blitzkrieg

Military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in matériel or firepower.

Aren’t the democrats and RINOS in shock and don’t they look totally disorganized?

Why were they so unprepared for this complete dismantling of their entire corrupt system?

Q told us.

“She was never supposed to lose.”

Here’s a Q drop by Trump himself. Trump is Q+.

Q drop

1834

THEY NEVER THOUGHT SHE WOULD LOSE.

NOW THEY ALL LOSE.

Q+

When Trump won the presidency in 2017, the game was over.

Here’s a portion of

Q drop 2

“POTUS knew removing criminal rogue elements as a first step was essential to free and pass legislation.

Who has access to everything classified?

Do you believe HRC, Soros, Obama etc have more power than Trump? FANTASY.

Whoever controls the office of the Presidecy controls this great land.

They never believed for a moment they (Democrats and Republicans) would lose control.

This is not a R v D battle.

Why did Soros donate all his money recently?

Why would he place all his funds in a RC?

Mockingbird 10.30.17

God bless fellow Patriots.”

Trump chose to play the long game because he knew that just removing all of the insurgency, without first exposing all the corruption, would be a high risk for civil war.

The enemy desperately wanted a civil war because that would help them to escape justice.

This is why some of those big influencers on social media were attacking Q followers.

We “trusted the plan” and they were trying to get the American people to arm themselves and rise up to take on the government.

They failed...

I know a lot of people will call me crazy among other things because they think dates came and went with nothing happening... Well what people failed to understand is those so-called dates, we're NOT dates! They were chapters and paragraphs in the "Law of War Manual." I have posted about it before.

I can't change anybody, change is your job🤔

63 notes · View notes