#how to start a WordPress website

[rightnewshindi]

वर्डप्रेस पर वेबसाइट कैसे बनाएं: एक आसान स्टेप-बाय-स्टेप गाइड

How to Create a Website: आज के डिजिटल युग में अपनी वेबसाइट होना एक जरूरत बन गया है, चाहे आप ब्लॉग शुरू करना चाहते हों, बिजनेस को ऑनलाइन ले जाना चाहते हों या अपना पोर्टफोलियो प्रदर्शित करना चाहते हों। वर्डप्रेस एक ऐसा प्लेटफॉर्म है जो बिना कोडिंग ज्ञान के भी आपको एक शानदार वेबसाइट बनाने की सुविधा देता है। इस लेख में हम आपको बताएंगे कि वर्डप्रेस पर वेबसाइट कैसे बनाएं, वो भी आसान और व्यवस्थित तरीके…

[wjmdigitaldesign]

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the Difference and Which One Should You Choose?

If you’re thinking about launching a website or starting a blog, chances are you’ve come across WordPress. But there’s a common point of confusion: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. At first glance, they sound like the same thing — but they’re actually quite different platforms with distinct features, pros, and cons.

In this blog post, we’ll break down the differences between the two, help you understand which one suits your needs, and guide you toward the best choice for your website goals.

What is WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress. It’s the open-source software that anyone can download for free and install on their own web hosting server. With WordPress.org, you have full control over your website.

Key Features:

Complete Customization: Install any theme or plugin, modify the code, and design your site exactly the way you want.

Ownership: You fully own your website and all its content.

Monetization Freedom: Use any ad network, sell products, offer memberships, or add affiliate links with no restrictions.

Advanced Functionality: Great for eCommerce (using plugins like WooCommerce), custom development, SEO tools, and more.

Pros:

Total control and flexibility

Thousands of free and premium plugins/themes

Full access to your site's backend and data

Ideal for business, large blogs, and complex websites

Cons:

Requires web hosting (usually $5–$15/month)

You handle security, backups, and updates (though plugins can automate much of this)

Slightly steeper learning curve for beginners

What is WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is a hosted platform created by Automattic (the company behind WordPress). It offers a simplified, all-in-one solution for building a website without worrying about hosting, maintenance, or technical tasks.

Key Features:

No Hosting Needed: Hosting is included. No need to buy a separate plan or domain (though custom domains are available on paid plans).

Easy to Start: Perfect for beginners who want a fast and simple setup.

Maintenance-Free: WordPress.com handles updates, security, and backups.

Pros:

Free basic plan available

No setup or maintenance required

User-friendly dashboard

Great for hobby blogs, personal websites, or simple portfolios

Cons:

Limited customization (especially on the free plan)

Cannot upload custom themes or plugins unless on Business or higher plan

Limited monetization options on lower-tier plans

WordPress.com branding unless you upgrade

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Quick Comparison Table

Feature

WordPress.com

WordPress.org

Hosting

Included

You provide (self-hosted)

Cost

Free with paid upgrades

Free software, hosting cost

Custom Themes & Plugins

Limited (paid plans only)

Unlimited

Monetization Freedom

Limited

Full control

eCommerce

Only on paid plans

Full eCommerce support

Maintenance

Handled for you

You manage it

Suitable For

Beginners, personal blogs

Businesses, pros, devs

Which One Should You Choose?

Choose WordPress.com if:

You want a hassle-free experience and don’t want to manage hosting or security.

You’re a beginner with no technical background.

You just need a simple blog or portfolio site.

You’re okay with limited flexibility or willing to pay for premium features.

Choose WordPress.org if:

You want full control and the ability to customize everything.

You’re building a business website, store, or scalable project.

You need to monetize your content freely.

You're comfortable (or willing to learn) about managing your own hosting.

Final Thoughts

Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org offer powerful tools for creating websites, but the right choice depends on your goals. If you’re starting out or want something easy and low-maintenance, WordPress.com is a solid option. If you're aiming for maximum control, customization, and scalability, WordPress.org is the way to go.

Still unsure? Start with WordPress.com to get your feet wet — and when you’re ready for more freedom, you can always migrate to WordPress.org.

Need help deciding or building your site? Contact WJM Digital Design for professional guidance, custom WordPress development, and support tailored to your goals. info@wjmdigitaldesign.com

[mtech4you]

Free Secure Web Hosting for Students or Individuals for Learning Purposes

दोस्त आज मैं आपको बहोत ही खास जानकारी देना चाहता हूँ जो शायद अभी तक आपको इसके बारे में पता नहीं होगा और इसीलिए आप इस आर्टिकल में आये है, अगर आपके पास होस्टिंग और डोमेन खरीदने के पैसे नहीं हैं, तो घबराने की जरूरत नहीं है। आज के इस आर्टिकल में मैं आपको बताऊंगा कि कैसे आप Free Resources का इस्तेमाल करके ब्लॉगिंग, वेबसाइट डिजाइनिंग, और वेब डेवेलपमेंट जैसी Skills को बिना पैसे खर्च किए सीख सकते…

[luckycaricature]

I just stopped liking posts altogether tbh

this is assuming its on art you normally wouldn't jump to reblog. i myself only rb stuff i really really like so .

The 'rude/demanding' tone would be stuff along the lines of "if you like but don't reblog I'll [threat]" which i see surprisingly often, both serious and more silly

[dashcon-two]

DashCon 2 Venue Announcement, Vendor's Hall, and More!

The DashCon 2 team is thrilled to announce the concrete answers to all your biggest questions. Where it is, when it is, how to buy tickets, and more. You ready?

TL;DR

Where: DashCon 2 will be held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in North York, Toronto

When: July 5th, 2025

What: Tickets will go live on February 22nd. Vendor Applications will be open on February 1st, and Panelist Applications on February 10th.

Our Venue!!

[6 Sakura Way, North York, ON M3C 1Z5]

Image belongs to Bartman905 on Wordpress

The JCCC has previously hosted plenty of other fan conventions, notably the Anime North Halloween Event and Pretty Heroes. Given their experience with convention hosting and gorgeous venue space, we think they’re the perfect fit.

So, why did this take so long?

Well… the JCCC wasn’t our first pick. Our first pick, who we won’t name, dropped us unexpectedly after months of negotiations. Why? Original DashCon’s reputation. We literally got DashCon’d before the convention had even started!!

While we were expecting this and had backup plans, we were blindsided by a rejection this late into the negotiation process. After reaching out to our other contacts, we settled on the JCCC, but we had to restart the entire process. So much of our planning had to be restarted or paused, which set us way behind schedule. Naturally, we didn’t want to say anything about losing our venue spot until we’d adequately replaced it.

We’re happy to say that the Classic DashCon Venue Struggle is over and done with - and our rental with the JCCC is paid in advance. No $17k hostage situation necessary.

However, all this provokes another obvious question: why did you go public with the project when you hadn’t signed with the venue yet? In short: Strange Aeons’ DashCon: An Extensive Oral History video. We were already knee-deep in the project behind the scenes before finding out she was making a YouTube video about DashCon, pushing the story into the public eye again. The team was concerned that declaring we were organizing DashCon 2 soon after Strange Aeons’ video would imply it was a rush-job inspired by her video. We were far enough along in the initial venue negotiations that we decided to go public with the video rather than after it.

Date & Time

DashCon 2 will be held for one day: Saturday, 5th July 2025. We alluded to using the same weekend as the original DashCon when we first went public, but unfortunately this date wasn’t available at our venue. This does mean it’s pretty close to the American 4th of July - in our defense, we didn’t really think of that, we’re Canadian.

The convention will open to the public at 9:30 AM and close at 9:30 PM. All this information and more will be available on our website.

(These hours may be subject to minor changes, please always check our website for our most recent info!)

Admission

Ticket sales to in-person DashCon 2 will open on Feb 22nd! Mark your calendars…

We’ll be processing ticket sales through Simpli Events, an all-Canadian competitor to Eventbrite. You can click here to find the events page.

We’re working on the feasibility of expanding DashCon 2 into a hybrid event, with live-streams of the most anticipated panels/events and some other informal online panels hosted on a private Discord. More information on those will come at a later date.

Vendor and Panel Applications

DashCon 2’s Artist Alley/Vendor's Hall is a space for independent artisans who create print media, handmade crafts, or other merchandise. If you want the opportunity to sell your merchandise at DashCon 2, then you’ll be excited to learn that vendor applications will open on February 1st!

Please see www.dashcontwo.com/dealers-hall/ for more details about tables, prices, and merchandise. The link to the application form will be posted there.

We’re also happy to say that we’re opening panel applications on February 10th! We have a few guest panellists already lined up (including a few we can’t talk about yet), but we’re excited to open applications to everyone with a good idea! All DashCon 2 panels will be moderated by our volunteer team, and we’ll put out more info soon about volunteer sign-ups!

[ktempestbradford]

I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me

It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:

At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.

On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."

Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:

But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:

It gets worse.

"Tempest, how could it possibly--"

source of this video that also includes this charming description:

Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'

There is already a meme.

Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:

Who has already done an interview!

As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!

Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.

The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.

Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!

I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.

Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:

I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.

Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:

Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future? A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.

Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.

Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.

I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.

This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.

Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:

With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"

"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:

There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.

The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.

Even better, this weirdly grainy image?

From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.

If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.

As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.

And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...

This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.

Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.

As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...

Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.

You cannot make this stuff up.

But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.

Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.

HE LIVES IN THE WALLS, Y'ALL.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Could you tell me a little more about any strategies/tactics you use or have used to start and maintain your writing income from Patreon/Ko-Fi? Or if you happen to have any recommended reading for aspiring writers who might want to follow that route? Thank you!

sign up for Patreon and/or ko-fi (this is free). Set up your page.

start writing your web serial. Update regularly -- this is the #1 most important factor. Have a SCHEDULE, and STICK TO THE SCHEDULE. If you vanish for months at a time, you will fail. Andrew Hussie can get away with that shit. You're not Andrew Hussie.

You can put your web serial on a website designed for it, like Royal Road. Or you can have your own website, which is what I did. Places like Wordpress will let you build a website for free. After I started making enough money to pay for a website, I switched to that, but you absolutely can start with a free one. I used a free one for years.

Market it, I guess? I don't really know how to do this part. I just mentioned it and linked from Tumblr and that seemed to work. Offer bonuses to Patreon/ko-fi supporters; their name in the credits and access to chapters in advance are popular bonuses.

Over time, you should gain momentum. At least, I did. I don't know what the average success rate for this it. I can tell you that it took four years for my writing to start paying my mortgage; I don't know if that's fast or slow.

That's basically it. Get started, be consistent, make it easy for people to find and support you. There's no reason not to get started as soon as you have the time to write consistently, because getting started is free and time is a big factor in building momentum.

[fligniuz]

Idk why but all I can think about is how lu is probably the type of bf who’d be so in love and obsessed with his girlfriend. Like he’d be the type of bf who is very supportive of what his girlfriend does. You wanna start working out? He’s going with you to your gym sessions and Pilates classes so you’re not on the journey alone, you wanna start eating healthy? He’s looking up healthier recipes to cook for you both. You speak another language? Mans is already on Duolingo as we speak learning as much as he can! I also saw a tiktok recently of a bf cooking his gf steak when she’s on her period so she can get iron and that screamed ‘lu’ to me lmao

i just wrote this whole thing out and thought it posted but it didn’t UGH whatever let’s try again

YES NONNIE!!! luigi is the definition of active boyfriend!

he loves to get involved in all your hobbies and activities. you like biking? luigi will be doing research for a whole fucking week narrowing down the best brand, seat size, and tires for the kinds of rides you like to go on. def will surprise you with a little bow tied on the seat, like in the ice cream pic :-) his sweet smile. and you know he’s got his own bike to go with you every time!

heavy on pilates classes ORRRR we know he did yoga for some time? would absolutely come to yoga with U! you get jealous because all the girls in class stare at him but you KNOW that man is all yours so you’re not too worried. if U like cooking/baking i can see him organizing a digital recipe book for U, adding new things you mention wanting to try whenever he can (and sneaking in his own suggestions, of course☺️). if you’re outdoorsy, he is too!! loves hiking with U!! is the most prepared when it comes to this shit too, since we know he likes the idea of having an efficient one-bag lifestyle. he brings extra water for the both of U, sweat rags (LOL☹️sorry), a change of clothes in case you’re somewhere kinda messy, and absolutely has scoured some perfect walkers with the best tread on them so you’ve got a reliable pair of shoes! everything U need for an adventure with him, he’s got two bags packed and ready to go, and he’s never going to miss out on an opportunity to explore nature with his fav person. he loves seeing new things with U

i can imagine that he’d like to play video games with U!! i like animal crossing and he made his own wordpress post about the og version for the gamecube so i know he likes it too! don’t know if he ever tried new horizons out but he’d like the summery feel of it and the setting of the island. would set up his own house on your island although he never gets around to upgrading it completely and it’s just filled with fish he’s caught (in that post he said his favorite part was fishing!) and waiting to sell to the nooks😭but i think he would use that one website that allows you to make your own pictures into custom designs, and he would have his favorite image of you guys together hanging on the wall!!! would lowkey be the breadwinner in your little animal crossing family. he likes the simpler, more nature-focused aspects like collecting materials, bug catching, and crafting, while U appreciate the creative parts that allow customization and design. he stocks up on bells for U and is always trying to help U complete your catalog! asks shit like “i know you’ve been looking for that one wallpaper and it’s finally in stock at the shop, you want to take some of these bells off of me?” :-) i’ve seen a few fics where U play mario kart together and he always wins which makes me mad because personally i would be whooping that ass AND laughing at him for it but whatever🙄 (the sex after a hard match would be…well i’ll let U imagine it ehehehe)

i’ve got a stomach bug rn so i’ve been thinking a lot about him being your caretaker when you’re sick or just hungover🥺stays in bed with U, keeps fluids in U, reminds U to take meds when needed, ties your hair back when U vomit, just constantly worried about his baby’s health. tries to be very careful about what he says and how he reacts so he doesn’t make you feel embarrassed or bad about being all icky. never forces U to eat if you don’t feel like it because he understands completely, but will gently encourage U to take some bites of a banana or toast, just so you have something in your stomach

“baby i know you’re dehydrated and probably thirsty, you want some water with ice? maybe some juice? i could go get some gatorade, that’ll replace all these electrolytes you’re losing!”

and when U do have a drink he reminds U “little sips, honey, little sips. too much at once will make that nausea worse”

definitely coos at U like “ohhhh my poor baby” or “i’m so sorry” or “it’s okay, mia cara, it’s okay. i’m right here with you, baby. i wish i could take all the pain away from you.”

sorry this got kinda self-indulgent😭i do NOT feel good

[rigelmejo]

learning to code!

When I was 9 years old, I learned enough html to code neopets pages, my own geocities websites, and I even made forums on my own sites so my friends could all roleplay together or rant together lol. And then? I forgot so much. I no longer no how to make a forum, or even a 'next page' button - so even the dream of just making a simple blog or webnovel site feels like a huge hurdle now. (9 year old me could probably figure it out in 2 hours).

So I'm relearning! I figured this would be a fun post to place resources I find for coding, since there's coding languages, and I figure maybe if you like running you're blog then you also might be interested in tools for making blogs!

First, for those of you who miss the old geocities and angelfire type of sites to make your own free site on: neocities.org

You can make free sites you can code yourself, the way 9 year old me did. A lot of people have made SUCH amazing sites, it's baffling my mind trying to figure out how they did, I definitely wish I could make an art portfolio site even a fourth as cool as some of the sites people have made on here.

And for those pressed for time, who aren't about to learn coding right now: wix.com is the place I recommend for building a site, it requires no coding skill and is fairly straightforward about adding pages or features by clicking buttons. I used it to make my art portfolio site, I am testing out using it for my webnovel - the alternative is Wordpress, but wix.com is letting me basically make a wordpress blog Inside my own site. It's very beginner friendly in terms of "how the fuck do I set up a 'sign up for updates' message and have my site actually email these people my novel updates?" and "I need a 4x20 grid of my art down the page, that lets people click the art to see it's information and make it bigger."

I did neocities.org's little html tutorial today, it's the part of html I DID remember (links, paragraphs, headers).

My next step is to go through htmldog.com's tutorials. They go from beginner, to intermediate, to CSS. Unlike many a coding tutorial I've seen, they explain what program on your computer you need to WRITE the code in and then how to save it and how to open it. (You'd think this isn't a big deal but I've been looking into how to learn Python for months and I can't find a tutorial explaining what fucking program to write my python in... notepad? do I need something else? I don't fucking know!! My dad finally gave me a printed textbook which supposedly tells you what to download to start... I learned C++ in college and for that you needed Visual Basic to code C++, so I figured I needed Something to Write the fucking python IN.)

[ms-demeanor]

I've been poking around your website, I really like it.

I'm inspired to put together my own silly site, you've made a lot of posts about that. I know how to get started with a website builder or whatever, but that's kind of boring.

I'd like to imitate the look of Ao3's log in page.

I have several specific Ao3 searches that the 'favorite tag' section just can't manage. I have all of those links in a google docs but it's boring and clumsy. I want buttons to press.

Your website mimics wiki, so... can you point me in the direction to get started mimicing Ao3?

My website doesn't just mimic wikipedia, it is a MediaWiki site, which means that from the ground up the software it's running on is the same software as Wikipedia. When I write pages, I'm using wiki markdown ==Like This== for section subheads and [[like this]] to direct to other pages on the site, etc.

The reason that I chose to do this is because it's relatively easy to set up a site this way; I don't know enough about CSS to get a site to look like Wikipedia without running it on mediawiki software, and I don't know enough about CSS to get something to look like Ao3 without running it on OTW software.

Like MediaWiki, the OTW archive software is also open source, so you theoretically could set up a literal archive of your own, but it is not *easy.*

Walter from Squidge.org has created documentation for implementing OTW's software and has talked about helping others to set it up as well, so that is one option.

If that's not the kind of labor you're looking for (and it won't be for a lot of people! it certainly wasn't for me!) you could try something like using a site like wordpress and building a custom template. That would *also* be a lot of work (in terms of learning CSS) but might be easier than figuring out the whole backend as well as getting the visuals you want.

[beatingdrumspouringwine]

Hi there! I've recently taken more of an interest in Hellenism, but I don't at all know where to start. I've never really been religious before, only really knowing the basics of Christianity. I did see you created a post of advice for beginner Hellenists, but I was wondering, if it's not too much trouble, if you had any additional information for someone like me who's just starting out.

Hello anon! Sorry for how long it took to write this up, I definitely went a little bit wild on this one :)

First off, welcome to Hellenic Polytheism! It's definitely a wild ride, but depending on what sect of Christianity you come from, it's not completely and totally foreign.

Starting off with a list of some websites, general resources, and accounts that I have found helpful:

theoi.com

Apostolos Athanassakis translations of the Orphic and Homeric Hymns

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship by Labrys

Hellenion.org

@khaire-traveler's Subtle Worship Master List

@thegrapeandthefig's Wordpress

And now breaking them all down, because I love when people justify their choices to me :)

theoi.com The nice thing about this website is that it's about as much information about the Gods as you can possibly want in one place. Not only does it seemingly have just about every possible deity in the Greek pantheon, but it has an incredibly good collection of historical references, family trees, and even artwork from ancient Greece.

Apostolos Athanassakis translations While theoi.com is good, I'm not the biggest fan of the version of the translations that they use for the Orphic and Homeric Hymns - they're a bit too "translated" for me. This meaning that the translations in question don't sit too close to the original text, and in my opinion, if you're trying to understand a deity through some ancient work, you want to get the closest translation to the original, even if that means sacrificing some of the flowery language. And Athanassakis' translations are some of my favorite for those "close translation" hymns. You can find his work on the Internet Archives.

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship I think this is one of those staples that every Hellenic Polytheist should take a look at at least once. It's pretty dry, but within it, there are plenty of rituals and general information on Hellenism as a religion. I don't use most of the rituals in it, but even still, I keep a copy on hand for the future when I'm able to practice more freely.

Hellenion.org This is a pretty good resource for more modern Hellenic Polytheist prayers, as well as rituals. This is a more heavy reconstructionist lean (which focuses on an accurate recreation of Hellenic Polytheism, as opposed to revivalism, which focuses on recreating it for the modern day), but still incredibly helpful, and a bit easier to understand than Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship.

@khaire-traveler's subtle worship masterlist Honestly, if a resource like this existed when I was first starting out, I would be light years ahead of where I am now. Stag has managed to fit just about every idea you'd need to get started with worship/offerings into an easy-to-digest format, and I find myself going back to it time and time again when I start incorporating a new deity into my practice.

@thegrapeandthefig's Wordpress I don't even think I could summarize how amazing Aurora is into one little paragraph. There's everything on her Wordpress from historical offerings, to modern festivals, to dissections of various ancient customs. One of the things which has helped me the most from her blog has been her Attic calendar, which shows the schedule of the various religious observations throughout the year (and there are a lot).

Finally, a few extra words of advice that I might not have included in my original post that you mentioned in the ask:

Try to have one prayer memorized for each deity, if you're easily able to memorize things. Chances are, after about a year or so, you'll probably have a prayer or two that you really like and will have memorized because you've said it enough (I definitely have my fair share). And there's definitely something nice about finding yourself in a situation that reminds you of your deity and being able to just rattle off a prayer.

Try to avoid TikTok for your spiritual knowledge. But, if you want to add a bit of Hellenic flair to your FYP, I'd recommend Bria Melitta and hesiodic (who's also on here and maybe on TikTok as well [I might be wrong, haven't been on TikTok in a hot minute] under the name @olympianbutch). Both of these creators are really good, and I especially love Dagan for his devotion to Zeus, who often gets a bad rap from new practitioners because of behavior attributed to Him in myths.

Other than the resources I mentioned, some good stuff for casual reading would be: the Iliad and the Odyssey, any ancient Greek plays (I'd recommend starting with Aristophanes, if the tragedies are a bit too heavy), and Hesiod's Theogony.

And that's about all I can possibly think of throwing at you right now! I hope this came in handy, and as always, if you have more questions, please feel free to drop more in my ask box :) I'm always more than happy to answer questions and help to the best of my ability!

[mysimsloveaffair]

Tami walks past Maia in the hallway.

Tambara: Bye, mommy! It's time for school.

Maia: See you later, Tadpole!

Maia's smile fades as Tami disappears out of the front door. The more challenging part of losing her father is over, but Maia isn't feeling any better. Instead, her emotions have compounded into new fears and worries. During one of her last conversations with him**, he warned her that if she keeps putting off her plans, she'll soon be too old to pursue them. And she knows he's right. It's been years since she's accomplished anything. She recalls the pride on her father's face when he came to her frog museum exhibit in Brindleton Bay**. She believed it was just the start of the fantastic things she would achieve in her lifetime. But those beliefs have since faded. Her best days will remain behind her unless she does something about it now.

Maia walks over to the computer to search for a new freelance job.

I've edited and uploaded my newest video and can see my goals laid out in front of me as I check them off one by one. But a big one on my bucket list is still waiting to be addressed. And I'd need Maia to help it come true. I leave my office to find her and see her sitting at the computer desk in the foyer.

Wade: Hey, babe. Are you busy?

Maia: I was looking at a few freelance gigs, but I have a minute.

I sit down in the chair nearest the desk.

Wade: There was something that I've wanted to talk to you about for a while, but it never seemed like the right time. And maybe this isn't a good time either, but we've experienced so much loss lately that I thought maybe…

I realize that I'm rambling, partially because I'm afraid of what she might say... and I'm terrified of things going wrong between us again.

Wade: You know what... I can save it for another time.

Maia: No, it's okay. What do you want to talk about?

It's now or never. There's no room for rambling. I blurt it out.

Wade: How would you feel about us having another baby?

**Links take you to my WordPress website

(Do ya'll remember this poll I posted - What if? Well, we're about to get the final answer...)

[spotofmummery]

Once More - On Creating a Personal Website

Over the weekend, I wrote the above post on my main blog about a new FREE webhost called Nekoweb. While I still use Neocities myself, I just wanted to toss this out here as an alternative, especially given where sites like this and WordPress are going in terms of the lack of your content's safety and your control of your work.

Learning basic HTML is pretty straightforward, and there's lots of templates out there to get you started. Once you get the hang of it, you might surprise yourself with how much fun you have designing your own site and not being held back by anyone else's design and content choices!

The cool thing is, you can make your own website, then link your stuff here (like I did above) to share it to any social media you like. But it's not TIED specifically to Tumblr or X or Bluesky because you host it somewhere else. So, you can still post it to social media to get the word out about your writing or art, while maintaining control of where it lives in the long run.

HTML files can be backed up. So if something happens to your host, as long as you keep your website files on your computer or other media, you can always turn around and upload it to a new host. No fear of having your stuff wiped forever because it's locked in a social media account database you can never reach.

Just some considerations!

[talenlee]

The Whole Sort of General Mish Mosh of AI

I’m not typing this.

January this year, I injured myself on a bike and it infringed on a couple of things I needed to do in particular working on my PhD. Because I had effectively one hand, I was temporarily disabled and it finally put it in my head to consider examining accessibility tools.

One of the accessibility tools I started using was Microsoft’s own text to speech that’s built into the operating system I used, which is Windows Not-The-Current-One-That-Everyone-Complains-About. I’m not actually sure which version I have. It wasn’t good but it was usable, and being usable meant spending a week or so thinking out what I was going to write a phrase at a time and then specifying my punctuation marks period.

I’m making this article — or the draft of it to be wholly honest — without touching my computer at all.

What I am doing right now is playing my voice into Audacity. Then I’m going to use Audacity to export what I say as an MP3, which I will then take to any one of a few dozen sites that offer free transcription of voice to text conversion. After that, I take the text output, check it for mistakes, fill in sentences I missed when coming off the top of my head, like this one, and then put it into WordPress.

A number of these sites are old enough that they can boast that they’ve been doing this for 10 years, 15 years, or served millions of customers. The one that transcribed this audio claims to have been founded in 2006, which suggests the technology in question is at least, you know, five. Seems odd then that the site claims its transcription is ‘powered by AI,’ because it certainly wasn’t back then, right? It’s not just the statements on the page, either, there’s a very deliberate aesthetic presentation that wants to look like the slickly boxless ‘website as application’ design many sites for the so-called AI folk favour.

This is one of those things that comes up whenever I want to talk about generative media and generative tools. Because a lot of stuff is right now being lumped together in a Whole Sort of General Mish Mosh of AI (WSOGMMOA). This lump, the WSOGMMOA, means that talking about any of it is used as if it’s talking about all of it in the way that the current speaker wants to be talked about even within a confrontational conversation from two different people.

For people who are advocates of AI, they will talk about how ChatGPT is an everythingamajig. It will summarize your emails and help you write your essays and it will generate you artwork that you want and it will give you the rules for games you can play and it will help you come up with strategies for succeeding at the games you’ve already got all while it generates code for you and diagnoses your medical needs and summarises images and turns photos of pages into transcriptions it will then read aloud to you, and all you have to focus on is having the best ideas. The notion is that all of these things, all of these services, are WSOGMMOA, and therefore, the same thing, and since any of that sounds good, the whole thing has to be good. It’s a conspiracy theory approach, sometimes referred to as the ‘stack of shit’ approach – you can pile up a lot of garbage very high and it can look impressive. Doesn’t stop it being garbage. But mixed in with the garbage, you have things that are useful to people who aren’t just professionally on twitter, and these services are not all the same thing.

They have some common threads amongst them. Many of them are functionally looking at math the same way. Many or even most of them are claiming to use LLMs, or large language models and I couldn’t explain the specifics of what that means, nor should you trust an explainer from me about them. This is the other end of the WSOGMMOA, where people will talk about things like image generation on midjourney and deepseek (pieces of software you can run on your computer) consumes the same power as the people building OpenAI’s data research centres (which is terrible and being done in terrible ways). This lumping can make the complaints about these tools seem unserious to people with more information and even frivolous to people with less.

Back to the transcription services though. Transcription services are an example of a thing that I think represents a good application of this math, the underlying software that these things are all relying on. For a start, transcription software doesn’t have a lot of use cases outside of exactly this kind of experience. Someone who chooses or cannot use a keyboard to write with who wants to use an alternate means, converting speech into written text, which can be for access or archival purposes. You aren’t going to be doing much with that that isn’t exactly just that and we do want this software. We want transcriptions to be really good. We want people who can’t easily write to be able to archive their thoughts as text to play with them. Text is really efficient, and being able to write without your hands makes writing more available to more people. Similarly, there are people who can’t understand spoken speech – for a host of reasons! – and making spoken media more available is also good!

You might want to complain at this point that these services are doing a bad job or aren’t as good as human transcription and that’s probably true, but would you rather decent subtitles that work in most cases vs only the people who can pay transcription a living wage having subtitles? Similarly, these things in a lot of places refuse to use no-no words or transcribe ‘bad’ things like pornography and crimes or maybe even swears, and that’s a sign that the tool is being used badly and disrespects the author, and it’s usually because the people deploying the tool don’t care about the use case, they care about being seen deploying the tool.

This is the salami slicer through which bits of the WSOGMMOA is trying to wiggle. Tools whose application represent things that we want, for good reasons, that were being worked on independently of the WSOGMMOA, and now that the WSOGMMOA is here, being lampreyed onto in the name of pulling in a vast bubble of hypothetical investment money in a desperate time of tech industry centralisation.

As an example, phones have long since been using technology to isolate faces. That technology was used for a while to force the focus on a face. Privacy became more of a concern, then many phones were being made with software that could preemptively blur the faces of non-focal humans in a shot. This has since, with generative media, stepped up a next level, where you now have tools that can remove people from the background of photographs so that you can distribute photographs of things you saw or things you did without necessarily sharing the photos of people who didn’t consent to having their photo taken. That is a really interesting tool!

Ideologically, I’m really in favor of the idea that you should be able to opt out of being included on the internet. It’s illegal in France, for example, to take a photo of someone without their permission, which means any group shot of a crowd, hypothetically, someone in that crowd who was not asked for permission, can approach the photographer and demand recompense. I don’t know how well that works, but it shows up in journalism courses at this point.

That’s probably why that software got made – regulations in governments led to the development of the tool and then it got refined to make it appealing to a consumer at the end point so it could be used as as a selling point. It wouldn’t surprise me if right now, under the hood, the tech works in some similar way to MidJourney or Dall-E or whatever, but it’s not a solution searching for a problem. I find that really interesting. Is this feature that, again, is running on your phone locally, still part of the concerns of the WSOGMMOA? What about the software being used to detect cancer in patients based on sophisticated scans I couldn’t explain and you wouldn’t understand? How about when a glamour model feeds her own images into the corpus of a Midjourney machine to create more pictures of herself to sell?

Because admit it, you kinda know the big reason as a person who dislikes ‘AI’ stuff that you want to oppose WSOGMMOA. It’s because the heart of it, the big loud centerpiece of it, is the worst people in the goddamn world, and they want to use these good uses of this whole landscape of technology as a figleaf to justify why they should be using ChatGPT to read their emails for them when that’s 80% of their job. It’s because it’s the worst people in the world’s whole personality these past two years, when it was NFTs before that, and it’s a term they can apply to everything to get investors to pay for it. Which is a problem because if you cede to the WSOGMMOA model, there are useful things with meaningful value that that guy gets to claim is the same as his desire to raise another couple of billions of dollars so he can promise you that he will make a god in a box that he definitely, definitely cannot fucking do while presenting himself as the hero opposing Harry Potter and the Protocols of Rationality.

The conversation gets flattened around the basically two poles:

All of these tools, everything that labels itself as AI is fundamentally an evil burning polar bears, and

Actually everyone who doesn’t like AI is a butt hurt loser who didn’t invest earlier and buy the dip because, again, these people were NFT dorks only a few years ago.

For all that I like using some of these tools, tools that have helped my students with disability and language barriers, the fact remains that talking about them and advocating for them usefully in public involves being seen as associating with the group of some of the worst fucking dickheads around. The tools drag along with them like a gooey wake bad actors with bad behaviours. Artists don’t want to see their work associated with generative images, and these people gloat about doing it while the artist tells them not to. An artist dies and out of ‘respect’ for the dead they feed his art into a machine to pump out glurgey thoughtless ‘tributes’ out of booru tags meant for collecting porn. Even me, I write nuanced articles about how these tools have some applications and we shouldn’t throw all the bathwater out with the babies, and then I post it on my blog that’s down because some total shitweasel is running a scraper bot that ignores the blog settings telling them to go fucking pound sand.

I should end here, after all, the transcription limit is about eight minutes.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[bittysfoodbaby]

ok so on top of me being a diet film major at school i'm also on the executive staff of my school's college radio station and that combined with omgcp means it's headcanon time!

you're listening to 91.7 WSMU-FM. don't turn that dial!

lardo started doing radio to keep up the promise to do something technical to her parents after becoming an art major. she chose radio tech ops and programming because it was a chill and easy gig that didn't take too much time out of her day. she ended up being pretty decent at her job and later became known for her cable management skills.

jack first met lardo when he was dating camilla and eventually got involved with the station as a graveyard shift dj to hang out with camilla more as friends (#studentathletethings). lardo often took on the late-night shifts for tech ops, which is just making sure the station doesn't go down in the middle of the night, and noticed that Jack wouldn't use the automated software and do everything manually from spinning tracks to doing his talk breaks live. eventually they became friends over "the old days of radio" and jack referred lardo to becoming the smh team manager.

holster acted as a consultant to the promotions and PR team for one of his finals and observed a morning shift as part of the project. the "bro, we should start a podcast" part of his brain was promptly activated and convinced ransom to do a morning show with him. they mostly talk about college sports and get very heated over college hockey and how much cornell has fallen as a hockey team.

shitty grew up listening to wsmu and used radio as another way to be rebellious against his family. he appreciates the community service and outreach the station does and is ranked the best voice on the station. he hosts a show about local music in samwell and the greater boston area.

bitty joined the promo team after smh found out about his blog and convinced him to join radio after they all realized they did radio together. eventually he became the webmaster of the station's website because he was the only one other than shitty that knew how to use wordpress. his ego grew after he forced hosts to write blog posts during their shifts for the station website and be active on twitter.

chowder used to dj local events in high school and was a pretty decent dj and producer back in the day. when he found out the rest of the team was pretty much doing radio he convinced a radio show about live dj sets boiler room-style.

(side note: farmer finds out about chowder's secret life as a dj through a girl on the volleyball team who's friends with a wsmu sportscaster who knows holster.)

dex found himself working in tech ops after a freak accident involving the station's backup recording software went down. he ended up staying because it's the only non-hockey or non-school thing he had.

nursey was approached to be on the station's student spotlight show for his poetry and found out that the whole team was working on the station. he then romanticized the image of analog radio in his mind and what being a late-night DJ was like. he immediately switched to a mid-day jazz shift the next semester.

i swear i have more but i still have fics i need to write before posting more LMAO