#i know a lot of people are migrating from other apps

[mistressemmedi]

Just an FYI you're a new follower, this is not a safe space for Verstappen fans.

[justaboutsnapped]

If I see one more naive white queer speaking over actual Chinese queers people and proclaiming xiaohongshu/rednote or even China in general is somehow a fucking wonderland incapable of violent bigotry I’m gonna explode

1) a lot of the queer related tags have suddenly become usable again after the great migration

2) the #le tag for lesbians literally comes from the #lesbian and #les tags being banned so to act

3) the welcome you’re receiving by chinese people isn’t what actual Chinese queers have experienced (we experience a bombardment of loud angry homophobes/transphobes every single fucking day) and every single Chinese queer I know has been ranting about this for days. Unfortunately a lot of people are hypocrites who are only nice to the guests in the house

4) not only is this rhetoric of don’t ask don’t tell being the main consensus in China FALSE (I don’t even want to get into the media’s suppression of hate crimes and how many queer activism accounts are being banned left and right), passive queerphobia is still FUCKING QUEERPHOBIA…

The audacity to come into OUR HOUSE and speak over us after 3 days of being pampered on this app just for being western is vile and so fucking demoralising because we’ve been yelling about our condition for so long and you guys would rather not miss out on social media brainrot than to actually apply some nuance for once… you guys wanted to distance from the sinophobic propaganda take of China being unequivocally evil so bad that you’ve swung to the other end

[thegalleonsnest]

OK since I haven't seen too many people talk about this since twitter news usually strikes pretty fast over here whenever e'usk does anything ever, let me give ya'll the run down on two things that will go live on NOVEMBER 15TH and why people are mass migrating to Blue Sky once more; and provide resources to help protect your art and make the transition to Blue Sky easier if you so choose:

The Block function no longer blocks people as intended. It now basically acts as a glorified Mute button. Even when you block someone, they can still see your posts, but they can't engage in them. If your account is a Public one and not a Private one, people you blocked will see your posts.

They say because people can easily "share and hide harmful or private information about those they've blocked," they changed it this way for "greater transparency." When in reality, this is an extremely dangerous change, as the whole point of blocking is to cease interaction with people entirely for a plethora of reasons, i.e. stalking, harassment, spam, endangerment, or just plainly annoying and not wanting to see said tweets/accounts. or you know, for 18+ accounts who do not want minors interacting with them or their material at all (There is speculation saying these changes are specifically for Elon himself so he can do his own kind of stalking, and honestly, with the private likes change, it lowkey checks out in my opinion)

Also, this straight up goes against and may violate Apple and Google's app store policies and also is straight up illegal in Canada and probably other countries as well.

If this ACTUALLY goes through, twitter will only be available in select countries, probably exclusively in the US, which would collapse the site with the lost of users and stock, and probably be the last push it needs to kill the site. And if not, will be a very sad and exclusive platform made for specific kinds of people who line up with musk's line of thinking.

2. New policies regarding Grok AI and basically removing the option to opt out of Grok's information gathering to improve their software.

And anything you upload/post on the site is considered "fair game" with "royalty-free licenses" and they can do whatever they please with it. Primarily using any and all posts on twitter to train their Grok AI. A few months ago, there was a setting you can opt out of so they couldn't take anything you post to "improve" Grok, but I guess because so many people were opting out, they decided to make it mandatory as part of the policy change (This is mainly speculation from what I hear).

So this is considered the final straw for a LOT of people, especially artists who have been gripping on to twitter for as long as they can, but the AI nonsense is too much for people now, including myself. Lot's of people are moving to Blue Sky for good reason, and from personal experience, it is literally 10x better than twitter ever was, even before elon took over. There is no algorithm on there, and you can save "feeds" to your timeline to have a catered timelines to hop between if your looking for something specific like furry art or game dev stuff. It's taken them a bit to get off the ground and add much needed features, but it's genuinely so much better now

RESOURCES

Project Glaze & Cara

If you're an artist who's still on twitter or trying to ride it out for as long as you can for whatever reason you have, do yourself a favor and Glaze and/or Nightshade your work. Project Glaze is a free program designed to protect your art work from getting scrapped by AI machines. Glazing basically makes it harder to adapt and copy artwork that AI programs try to scan, while Nightshade basically "poisons" works to make AI libraries much more unstable and generate images completely off the mark. (These are layman's terms I'm using here, but follow the link to get more information)

The only problem with these programs is that they can be resource intensive for computers, and not every pc can run glaze. It's basically like rendering a frame/animation, you gotta let your pc sit there to get it glazed/nightshade, and depending on the intensity and power of your pc, this may take minutes to hours depending on how much you wanna protect your work.

HOWEVER, there are two alternatives, WebGlaze and Cara

WebGlaze is an in browser version of the program, so your pc doesn't have to do the heavy lifting. You do need to have an account with Glaze and be invited to use the program (I have not done so personally so I don't know much about the process.)

Cara is an artist focused site that doubles as both a portfolio site and a general social media platform. They've partnered with Glaze and have their own browser glazing called "Cara Glaze," and highly encourage users to post their work Glazed and are extremely anti-ai. You do get limited uses per day to glaze your work, so if you plan on doing a huge backlog uploading of your art, it may take awhile if your using just Cara Glaze.

Some twitter users have suggested glazing your art, cropping it, and overlaying it with a frame telling people to follow them elsewhere like on Bluesky. Here's a template someone provided if you wanna use this one or make your own.

Blue Sky Resources and Tips

So if your a twitter user and your about to realize the hellish task of refollowing a massive chunk of people you follow, have no fear, there's an extension called Sky Follower Bridge (Firefox & Chrome links). This is a very basic extension that makes it really easy to find people on Bluesky

It sorts them out by trying to find matching usernames, usernames in descriptions, or by screen name. It's not 100% perfect, there's a couple people I already follow on Blue Sky but the extension could not find them on twitter correctly, but I still found a huge chunk of people. Also if your worried that this extension is "iffy," they do have a github open with the source publicly available and the Blue Sky Team themselves have promoted the extension in their recent posts while welcoming new users to the platform.

FEEDS and LABELS

OK SO THE COOLEST PART ABOUT BLUESKY IS THE FEEDS SYSTEM. Basically if you've made a twitter list before, it's like that, but way more customizable and caters to specific types of posts/topics. Consolidating them into a timeline/feed that exclusively filled about those particular topics, or just people in general. There's thousands to pick and choose from!

Here's a couple of mine that I have saved and ready (down below). Some feeds I have saved so I can jump to seeing what my friends and mutuals are up to, and see their posts specifically so it doesn't get lost in reposts or other accounts, and also specialized feeds for browsing artists within the furry community.

The Furry Community feeds I have here were created by people who've built an algorithm to place any #furry or #furryart or other special tags like #Furrystreamer or #furrydev. They even have one for commissions, and yes you can say commissions on a post and not have it destroyed or shadow banned. You are safe.

If you want, and I highly recommend it to get visibility and check out a neat community, follow furryli.st to get added to their list and feeds. Once your on the list, even without a hashtag, you'll still pop up in their specialized feeds as just a member of the community there. There are plenty of other feeds out there besides this one, but I feel like a lot of people could use one like this. They even got ones for OC specific too I remember seeing somewhere.

And in terms of labels, they can be either ways to help label yourself with specific things or have user created accessibility settings to help better control your experience on Blue Sky.

And my personal favorite: Ai Imagery Labeler. Removes any AI stuff or hides it to the best of it's abilities, and it does a pretty good job, I have not seen anything AI related since subscribing to it.

Finally, HASHTAGS WORK & No need to censor yourself!

This is NOT like twitter or any other big named social media site AT ALL, so you don't have to work around words to get your stuff out there and be seen. There are literally feeds built around having commissions getting and art seen! Some people worry about bots and that has been a recent issue since a lot of people are migrating to Blue Sky, but it comes with any social media territory.

ALSO COOL PART,

you can search a hashtag on someone's profile and search exclusively on that profile as well! You can even put the hashtag in bio for easy access if you have a specialize tag like here on tumblr. OR EVEN BUILD YOUR OWN ART FEED FOR YOUR STUFF SPECIFICALLY!

So yeah, there's your quick run down about twitter's current burning building, how to protect your art, and what to do when you move to Blue Sky! Have fun!

[cleverthylacine]

The TikTok Migration to RedNote

On TikTok, I lurk, and now I'm lurking on RedNote. (I'm not searchable yet. Will let those interested know when that changes. Still figuring out the settings.)

A bunch of people got mad about the TikTok ban and decided that they would take their cookies and leave and go to an ACTUALLY Chinese app. I'm not sure why they picked RedNote rather than DouYin, but I think it was a good choice. I'm following other lolitas there mostly, because I don't need any Mandarin to like people's outfits. I did have a semester of Mandarin and am wondering how hard it would be to pick up some more, though, especially since I'm seeing all kinds of Americans from every imaginable background type doing so.

All over YouTube there are videos now of TikTokers on RedNote crying because we have been welcomed onto the app and treated kindly.

There is a lot of very expected anger about people discovering that no, in other countries it's not normal to pay more than half your paycheck for rent and half of what's left for food. Chinese people are saying that they thought it was government propaganda when they were told that Americans are expected to pay for ambulances, and healthcare, and that a $200 grocery bill for the week is not unusual.

I'm glad to see people getting radicalised about the class system in this country, but that's not actually the main thing I'm talking about in this post, though.

There are people who are deadass shocked that they haven't been insulted, trolled in a mean way, or been exposed to explicit unsolicited come-ons (there's one guy who posted shirtless selfies who is a little @@;; that he has 16000 gay male Chinese followers, but he's not getting spammed with raunchy photos).

So I value freedom of speech on political matters very highly, but there are two things I think are going on.

The first one is that yeah, a lot of Chinese people probably are better socialised than Americans, BUT

The second one is that Americans put up with a lot of shit in the name of freedom of speech that we shouldn't and after the changes on Meta last week I will only be using IG to communicate with Japanese brands and Facebook not at all, because they're going the other direction.

I think that if some chode did send me a nasty DM on RedNote and I reported it, something would be done about it. It's not that I don't think people will be nice and kind if they're not forced to be.

It's that chodes and Nazis and frankly racist and misogynist people will run everyone else off a platform if they are allowed to, and this app has somehow stopped that from happening, probably by not letting people be completely predatory bullies and assholes to one another.

English-language social media probably needs to stop letting people do that. It is not a violation of your free speech rights to tell someone they can't use a platform to be abusive.

I saw a video of a person of mixed race and unclockable gender who was wearing loose, oversized clothes sobbing because nobody was insulting them horribly, everyone who had commented on their post had been genuinely nice. Their experience of every other social media platform has been unchecked bullying everywhere. I don't know whether they'd ever been here, but we all know bullying does happen here, too, even if we're loads better than any of Meta's products.

People should not EXPECT to be viciously harassed every time they join a new site. That's horrible. It's also something I never really questioned before.

And I still think (always will) that you should be able to post any content that you want on AO3 in the works, but it's not okay to bully people in the comments.

[axuanmii]

americans are moving from tiktok to xiaohongshu and i am absolutely praying this doesn't go wrong.

or at least fandom/artist tiktok because i don't think i can stand watching people who "want to be respectful" flip their lid when chinese people have different opinions from them.

there's so many stereotypes (mostly racist) and just wrong information in general that americans believe about chinese people and ive already seen the open curiosity people are having and sometimes they get a sarcastic answer and sometimes it's genuine confusion. it's like most usamericans either believe china still looks like ppl wearing straw hats with their sleeves tucked into each other or, on the opposite end, a highly futuristic countrywith no love for it's people.

just, do not fuck this up america. i hate the general vibes of tiktok and i better not see any american start yapping about how chinese people are weird or demand that the app start speaking english only. you came into a chinese space; you are not the majority. sit the fuck down and be nice.

(also the thought of genshin tiktok migrating has me giggling and sweating on my knees when they find out chinese people have a very different mindset towards genshin (and also ppl who ship kaeluc))

im approaching it mainly from a fandom artist perspective bc that's what i use xhs for, and dni lists, content warnings, and all that jazz don't exist on xhs because people using xhs (and chinese people in general) know how to look for stuff that they like and avoid stuff they don't. chinese haters are a different level (see, why ao3 is banned in china bc of mdzs) and i'd really hate to see people be driven away from what feel like the greatest cultural exchange that might finally change how americans see people who look like me for the better

(also these people don't know a lick of chinese and don't even know where to start learning so a lot of "teachers" are popping up and it's gonna be so awkward to see people only know slang chinese and have such disregard for the rest of the language)

[mayzcozycorner]

Thoughts on TikTok -> Xiaohongshu(Rednote)

First I’d like to say yes, I did have tiktok from 2017-2024 and Xiaohongshu in 2023. Everything I am about to say is my personal opinion.

For the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of TikTokers saying to move to Rednote or Xiaohongshu, which is a Chinese social media platform. I had this app before in 2023 but soon deleted it. I used the app for fashion inspiration, beauty guidance, and to explore the culture. It’s a really nice app, and I feel it is very, very similar to Lemon8. Lemon8 is the app TikTok was pushing for a while. Comparing both Lemon8 and Rednote, they have the same layout and I believe the same benefits of a social media platform.

Though it is not TikTok—I understand that—with TikTok gone, I don’t think there will be another platform exactly like it (unless it gets unbanned). But I don’t understand why so many users ran to Xiaohongshu(Rednote) when Lemon8 offers the same concept they’re getting from Rednote. Xiaohongshu is a Chinese app made for Chinese users. While many people likely don’t mean disrespect, treating Xiaohongshu(Rednote) like a TikTok replacement can unintentionally disrupt its original purpose for Chinese users.

I’ve also seen mixed reactions from Rednote users. Some Xiaohongshu (Rednote) users appreciate the cultural exchange and exposure to American trends, while others feel the platform is losing its original focus. Lemon8, which TikTok pushed, has the exact same layout and feel as Rednote, so why was Rednote chosen?

And then to go on the app made for Chinese users and expect them to speak English—it feels inconsiderate. Of course, this isn’t the case for every person, but it’s happening enough to notice. Let’s put it into perspective: imagine TikTok wasn’t unbanned, and suddenly it’s filled with entirely foreign content. None of your favorite TikTokers appear on your feed anymore and you couldn’t understand anything. As an American, you might feel frustrated or confused, and let’s not ignore the unfortunate potential for entitlement or even racism to surface in those situations.

I just don’t understand why it had to be Xiaohongshu(Rednote). If you’re moving to another app, at least respect its original purpose and users. There are so many alternatives, including American-made apps, that could work just as well.

I’m curious to know what you think about this. Was Xiaohongshu really the best choice, or could Lemon8 have served the same purpose?

Edit:

I just found out that Lemon8 has also been shut down because it was powered by TikTok. This definitely shifts the situation and makes the move to Xiaohongshu more understandable. With both TikTok and Lemon8 gone, people are looking for a platform that offers a similar feel, and Xiaohongshu(Rednote) seems to fit that.

That said, I still believe it’s important to approach Xiaohongshu(Rednote) with respect for its original purpose and users. It’s a platform created for Chinese audiences, and treating it solely as a TikTok replacement could unintentionally disrupt the experience for those who have used it long before this migration trend began.

I completely understand the need for people to find a new social media platform like tiktok, but I think we should be mindful of how our presence impacts platforms designed for specific communities.

Thank you for reading

[plantsandpies]

Banning TikTok has so many consequences that I don’t think people know about, so let’s get into it!

Let’s start off with the non-government related stuff!

1) small business owners who were using TikTok to advertise are going to have their sales down plummet even if they do post on more than one site as a creator could have 10k on YouTube but 100k on TikTok, meaning their audience has shrunk by a lot.

2) adding to that, anyone who made income off of TikTok in general is going to be scrambling to either a) make it on a different platform which is more difficult because of the algorithm or b) have to find a new job really quickly. This is going be difficult given the job market, their very public social media presence, and a gap in work. I have a feeling a lot of them will loose their homes or have to move back in with family/friends or get a large rise in homelessness (which has already happened given the la fires).

3) we are going to be seeing a lot of content from these creators on YouTube. They might move to instagram, but it seems unlikely given the difference in how payment works and how influencing works. TikTok influencers are more likely to do better on YouTube, so prepare to see more people on shorts or even long form videos.

4) we are loosing easy contact with a lot of the world, keeping us and other countries in the dark about what is happening in and outside of the country. Obviously we are not completely blocked, but it will be much harder.

5) many people will migrate to red note, which is lovely, but the Chinese government already has a problem with this. This might cause a split and then we will be in this same situation again but with a different app.

6) Either, a) people’s brains will become less serotonin dependent on swiping videos (Washington post collected data showing the people who gave the data have swiped over nine hundred miles I believe) or b) this is the far more likely scenario, other apps will try to recreate this feeling, which they already have just not to TikTok’s extent.

!Now we are onto politics!

1) this case will now be a reference for other cases involving social media and data collection. This means should another app like red note go through this, it won’t be as much of a fight because of this case.

2) Trump is playing good guy, which is going to sway younger citizens who don’t have good analysis skills and putting two and two together. If he somehow makes it so he runs again, I think more people will be on his side because of this, despite his horrible views and leadership.

3) TikTok will most likely (if it becomes unbanned) will be monitored by the us government. Not that it wasn’t already in some capacity, however it will be looked at more closely. I have a feeling if something similar like the trump seating prank from 2020 is trying to be organized again, they will immediately shut it down. Negative news about the government will probably be blocked and our lives will be much more controlled. If any news about police brutality, feminism, or racism is trying to spread around, it won’t be. Or at least, not at the same reach it had before.

!My WISHFUL thinking of events that will NEVER happen!

I really hope that red note stays and that trump gets his rep burned throughout his presidency despite him “saving” TikTok. I also hope that this will have people fighting more against the government and how the work system works if red note does get banned. Because now that there’s less serotonin people will realize how much their job actually takes and a revolution forms.

To end this all, I leave you will this,

“If anyone ever says, “the government wouldn’t do that!” Oh yes they would.”

[natalieironside]

hello ms. comrade Ironside, longtime reader, first time caller.

as a fellow writer of queer erotica, I was wondering if you had any thoughts/spoons to share those thoughts on wordpress being swept into the AI debacle under automattic? (I think that’s what you use to host your cool website, forgive me if I am mistaken.) I’m trying to figure out where to set up an author website of my own so I don’t have to host my stuff on tumblr anymore, but I’m a bit gun-shy in the current moment. I know AI trawling is inevitable in today’s internet, but as someone who’s been doing the indie author thing for some time (and admirably!), is there something you would recommend, best practices or otherwise, to someone just trying to get their metaphorical kite off the ground? or anything you wish you knew when you set up your own author-type socials? any thought at all would be genuinely appreciated.

thanks for your time, and I hope you and yours are as well as can be expected 🖤

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but afaik nothing approaching best practices has been figured out yet; it's all already happening and there's precious little as can be done to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Of course I uncheck all the little boxes in settings and deny them my consent or whatever, but I don't think a gaggle of unimaginative piss-bellied technocrats who decided it was a sensible use of vast amounts of water and power to teach a computer how to write very badly are what I'd call trustworthy. I'm still gonna move all my website shit off of Wordpress because they won't let me get rid of the stupid AI assistant thing, but that's more a case of their UI being ugly and dumb than me thinking it'll actually do any good.

Best I can tell you on that front is to try to find yourself a niche and develop yourself as an artist from there; "Write the kinds of books you wish other people were writing" is good general advice, and a human operator is always going to be capable of things a predictive network just isn't. Other ppl are gonna disagree with that, but they're wrong. Their understanding of resource allocation and scarcity is just childishly naive and you shouldn't waste your time listening to people who think we're gonna solve climate change with apps or whatever.

Far as social media goes, this is still the best one for hocking books as far as I can tell. I'm hearing a lot of good things about Cohost and Pillowfort, but their user bases are still quite small, and I haven't found the indie author community on Bluesky yet. If Tumblr goes belly up I'll probably end up migrating to one of those first two primarily b/c I think longform blogging is the secret stuff for ppl like me who are just too crabby and agoraphobic to be Twitter influencers; I may not be any good at videos or regular quick posts or documenting the writing process (which is too bad, b/c a lot of my friends who do that stuff seem to be having fun with it), but I sure can Lay Out Some Thoughts in A Few Paragraphs and I like to think that's something ppl expect from a novelist.

Also, never get in a public argument, don't go posting Your Thoughts On The Issues unless someone asked or you feel like you've got something interesting to say, and be very selective with how much and what personal information you give out to the hoi polloi. Those are my 3 rules for how to do social media good.

[copperbadge]

Have we found a tumblr replacement yet? Apparently the latest “live” shenanigans were the thing that it took to break me. I’m not trying to stir shit, I’m just mostly here for you and a couple other blogs, so I’m going wherever you go.

I wish, but unfortunately not so far. I mean, I've talked a little about how I'd like to find one but there aren't really any viable ones right now, and there may not be a fandom mass-migration for years still. I'm more likely to follow the crowd than blaze a trail in this case, so it may be some time. For now my only real tactic is to simply not engage with staff or support at Tumblr in any way, and accept the changes as gradual steps towards the site's demise with as much serenity as I can muster.

I've already accidentally opened Tumblr Live twice while trying to navigate the app, which I'm sure is intentional, given I've now suddenly opened Tumblr Live twice since its inception instead of Zero. Relatedly, I would love to see them redirect that passion into making the "Mute Notifications" button actually work, but mine is not to reason why.

Anyway. There are options available, like obviously there are other social media platforms, but none have quite the combination of "easy to use" and "has a lot of people on it" and "Offers the same functionality" (photo and video hosting, an app, etc) even with an "ease of use" and "functionality" that are as crap as Tumblr's.

For example, Dreamwidth is great, but it's a Livejournal code fork so it's a very different format from Tumblr, more labor-intensive to make and share posts (no reblog function, image embedding can get a bit complicated, etc). CoHost is new and very promising but a bit of a ghost town right now -- I'm there and I've had a bunch of people find me there but still exponentially less than are on Tumblr. Pillowfort I still need to re-investigate; I'm there as well but it's been a while since I looked in, and I was struggling with the functionality previously. I had a look at Mastodon, but as positive as decentralized servers could be for the future of social media, I actively dislike the idea, and it also seems difficult to set up and complex to maintain. Discord is....there, and a lot of fandom stuff has shifted there, but its structure is very different and it's also decentralized, and also I hate it passionately and refuse to use it, so that's a no-go for me, though I suspect it's where fandom might end up.

If you're struggling with accessing tumblr directly, you might consider feeding the blogs you follow to an RSS reader -- I know people who do that and find it pretty functional, because then if they want to comment they can just pop open the specific post and deal with it directly. I don't know how much you know about RSS and I don't have the energy to fully explain it right now, but NetVibes is a pretty decent free RSS reader and it's what I use for certain blogs outside of Tumblr.

In any case, if I do find a place, or if I see the migration beginning, I'll sound the alarm :) In the meantime I'm still reading through my tumblr, stashing away posts to save off when I leave, even if that'll be a while.

[unseemingowl]

It’s been so jarring seeing the takes that are showing up in my feed after the great rednote migration.

Americans congratulating themselves on switching from one app with massive privacy concerns to another app with possibly even greater privacy concerns is a weird flex, but whatever. What’s less easy to stomach is people seem to act like they’re doing activism by watching their meme videos on another social media platform, and saying omg, living under communism actually seems great.

Like, are these people truly so social media brain rotted that they think the content they see on any social media platform isn’t curated? That rednote doesn’t also come with a fun sprinkling of censorship a la the Chinese communist party in addition to all of the algorithm fuckery?

Like if people are in doubt about how censorship works in China and how benevolent the fucking CCP is, I’d love to tell them a story about a place called Hong Kong and censorship.  

I was living in Hong Kong when the pro-democracy 'umbrella' protests broke out in 2014. Thousands upon thousands of students in the city blockaded main thoroughfares and made one of the busiest cities in the world grind to a halt. It was truly inspiring to see.

One day I was heading into one of the major protest sites with a bunch of students. I got to talking with one of them, a mainland Chinese guy. Let’s call him Henry. He was there to take pictures and videos of the protests to send to his people back home. Because none of them knew anything about what was actually going on in Hong Kong. Everything was being censored on the mainland.

But, I asked him, impressed by his conviction. Can’t that create serious trouble for you back home if the wrong people find out?

“Yeah,” he said, and – here I’m paraphrasing – it’s a good thing I’m here right now, but I can’t just sit around and do nothing and let people back home be ignorant.

I often think about Henry.

Five years later I followed the online live streams during the 2019-2020 protests, watched the streets I’d walked decent into violence and chaos, bars and restaurants I’d spent my nights in shuttered or razed. And then as the people involved got locked up or fled the city.

As late as this fall, 45 of the people who had been instrumental in the protests and efforts to get pro-democracy candidates elected were imprisoned in an effort to scuttle and destroy the pro-democracy movement in the city. Because that is what the Chinese Communist Party does to opposition.

If using rednote has made you understand that Chinese people are just people like everyone else and not the monsters that a lot of American media apparently wants you to think they are, that’s good. Better late than never, I guess. People getting to know people from other cultures is never a bad thing. That’s great and that’s beautiful.

But if you found yourself thinking that the Chinese system isn’t all that oppressive actually, you need to put your phone down, put your fucking critical thinking hat back on and read some of the reports on the very well documented human rights violations that the CCP inflict on their own citizens.

[alarrytale]

Can you give us an update on how you like Bluesky? I don’t know much about it but Twitter has become a cesspool over the years and some of the things I’ve seen about “fans” treating the boys lately is so disgusting. This is in addition to El*n m*sk is a gross human.

Hi, anon!

I made an account last night and i've been off the 'net all day, so i haven't got a lot of experience with it yet. I need to find out how to turn of the notifications lol.

What i did notice right away was that all the usual people i see on my twitter tl have migrated, and i didn't need to search hard to find them! I also really like the user interface. I also love that you can have different feeds! Not just followers and discover/for you page, but you can make your own! I still miss some of the accounts from twitter, like news and media accounts, that haven't moved to Bluesky yet, but other than that it's basically twitter like it was back in 2015. I don't think there's a trending page either, so that's a bummer. I like to know what the discourse of the day is lol. I feel like i'm going to go back and forth between the apps to not miss anything, but Bluesky seems like, at least for now, a much gentler and friendlier place. It seems much easier to curate your feeds and avoid what you don’t want to see. The algorithm seems based on your interests and posts you like, rather than paid for, promoted and popular accounts.

[abbiistabbii]

A TWITTER REFUGEE'S GUIDE TO MASTODON

OK So...What's Mastodon?

So imagine if Twitter and Email had a baby...no NO RULE 34 ARTISTS PUT DOWN YOUR FUCKING PENS!!!

Mastodon is not a single site, but a load of separate sites called "instances" that can talk to other instances meaning that you can be on one instance and follow people on another. This has a lot of advantages like you know...a single man not being able to buy the whole system up and ruin it like a certain South African Trust Fund Kid.

Instances?

So Mastdon is what is known as a Federated service, meaning that rather than being a single site (like twitter) it's a whole collection of separate sites that can talk to each other (like email) called instances. Someone on one instance can follow someone else on another instance by typing their full mastodon handle into the search bar (@[username]@[domain].[TLD]). For example, my full Mastodon handle is @abbiistabbii@mastdon.scot.

What this means is that you can find an instance that fits you, there are instances that location based (like the one I use) or LGBT based, tech based, art based or even just general use ones. Mastodon has a server directory if you are a little confused.

You're not trapped on a little island, you can follow other users from other mastodon instances easily and even view the firehose in the "federated" tab.

OK, and what are the main advantages of this "federated Service" you speak of?

If the Mods or the Admin act like arseholes you can simply migrate to another Instance.

Because everyone gravitates to an instance that matches their interests, it's usually a lot more chill. You're a lot less likely to encounter a Terf and a Terf is a lot less likely to run into you if you are on separate instances, they have to seek you out rather than just run into you and start trying to fight you.

It's easier to see things that are more relevant to your interests while at the same time being able to seek out users you want to follow from outside the instance.

So what happens when an instance starts going rouge with trolls and arseholes?

Instances can block entire instances by doing what is known as "Defederation", basically cutting off a server from their instance, so don't worry, if 4chan starts a mastodon, they can be blocked.

Can...can I start my own personal Mastodon?

Sure! If you can get the server space and have the technical knowhow, you can!

Any other features I should know about?

Large Character Limits (my instance is at 500 characters).

it's Open Source!

Instances have their own custom emojis (yes, you heard).

Lotsa app options (I use Tusky for Mastodon).

Great Community.

Great! Where do I start???

Find an instance that suits you at https://joinmastodon.org/servers. Once you're all set up, come follow me! Just put @abbiistabbii@mastodon.scot into the seachbar!

[suikared]

Not many people talk about Moments: Choose Your Story.

It started more than 5 years ago, with small, sweet stories. Some awkward drawing style... That migrated to a more realistic style almost photographic style for art.

As they released tons of stories, the characters would be reused on other stories as extras and side characters. It might sound lazy to some people. I think it's funny as you have a photographic MC and then, their mother is drawer and painted in the old style.

They started giving us stars to play, and charging Rosy Diamonds for premium choices.

The stories became more s*x driven. But some stories got set aside. And we're left with no sequel or a proper closure. Like The Flower and Thorns one. I really loved playing it years ago. At that time, I was still able to buy diamonds on Google. Now it's not allowed in Brazil anymore. They never gave me an answer why they left Brazil. What made me stop playing the game, since I couldn't farm enough diamonds to play things properly. Even though I know the choices doesn't matter that much. It's like:

"annoying character is calling you. Pay 12 diamonds to answer it. OR don't answer it for free"

You choose the free option, just to read the next panel telling you someone picked your cellphone for you, answered it an made you talk to whoever was on the other side of the call.

A couple months ago I restarted playing it.

Here's my question: what story is ILLREN from???

Seriously we make the worst fandom ever. There's no Wikia on the stories, there's no images about the stories. Even Stardust Works' social media is kinda dead. Last post is like from 2 years ago.

I even started a Google Sheet listing all the 271 books they have inside the Moments App. (9 are openly LGBTQIAP+, the others are probably a side LI, if any)

It's a lot. I may have started and / or ended around 30 books.

I need your help guys! Does anyone knows about ILLREN?

[purplesurveys]

1783

How long has it been since you moved out of the house you grew up in?    I haven't moved out.

What color shirt are you wearing?    It's light purple.

The last time you ate leftovers, what was it that you were eating?    I think it's been a while since I have a terrible habit of keeping leftovers and then never coming back for them ever again... BUT OH I think it was a double cheeseburger from McDonald's? sometime earlier this week. I still have a handful of other paper bags in the fridge that I need to get to soon.

What was the last flavor of ice cream you ate?   I had Aice's coffee popsicle when we went to Tanay over the weekend which I was super stoked about since it's my favoriteeeeeeeeeee and I haven't had the chance to have it since 2021 ehehehe. I must have finished it in 5 minutes and chewed my way through the ice cream for the most part lol.

Do you regret anything you've done in the last 24 hours, and if so, what?    Not charging my laptop last night because I had to painstakingly migrate from one outlet to another today, given that I was out all day for work.

What is your favorite type of soup? 🍜    Miso soup, mushroom soup, and this last one is more stew than soup but I love kimchi jjigae.

When was the last time you saw a beautiful sunset? 🌅    It's honestly been ages. I haven't had the time to pause and simply watch a sunset happen and silently soak in those few minutes in a while. The last time may have been all the way back in June when my friends and I had dinner on a tiny cruise boat in Bangkok.

What is your favorite song at the moment?    Cult of Personality by Living Colour for reasons that anyone who even slightly follows wrestling would know, haha.

What is your favorite board that you've made on Pinterest?    I'm not that deep into Pinterest to have boards. I only ever use it for quick searches when I need certain pegs for work Powerpoints.

Do you get on Facebook or Instagram more?    I'm on the Reels tab on Instagram more frequently than I would like to admit, lol. I'm connected to more people on Facebook but it's also still more boring, so when I'm on there I typically just look at the first 10, 15 posts on my feed to see what people are talking about then already close the app.

What color is your favorite sweater?    I don't have a favorite sweater.

What are three things people would never guess about you just by looking at the photos you post on social media?    I don't talk to my brother; I don't know how to ride a bicycle; I was deep into the British YouTuber invasion of the early-mid 2010s.

What is one thing you have too much of?    Right now that would be boxes of my fave coconut-scented reed diffuser but that's only because that's what I got my workmates this Christmas and I have yet to wrap them and give them out, haha.

What was the last thing you ate or drank that was blue raspberry-flavored? It must've been months or years now; raspberry is definitely not something I encounter a lot.

What are three of your favorite scents?    Vanilla, anything that's being baked, and apparently coconut.

What was the last flavor of tea you drank? ☕️    Lemon.

When was the last time you wore your hair in a fishtail braid?    Almost exactly a year ago.

What is one annoying thing your computer does?    I'm so attached to this laptop and it's my baby that I don't even have the heart to say anything bad about it lol. It's extremely slow and the 10 hour battery life has turned into 1 hour in the last six years and it barely has any storage left and has stopped becoming eligible for updates, but IT'S MY BABY DAMMIT.

What type of fruit do you eat the most?    I avoid fruits.

How often do you go out to eat?    Once or twice a month, I would say.

What would your dream wedding dress look like? 👰‍♀️    I'm too lazy to describe anything in detail as it is 10:30 PM and I'm too tired from work lololol but I would love anything that'd channel Audrey Hepburn. Something that'd be able to accentuate the waist with verrrrrrry subtle sleeves and a quiet yet elegant train that doesn't try to steal attention.

Which fall flavor do you prefer: pumpkin spice or apple cinnamon?    Pumpkin spice. Got to try the Starbucks drink when they were randomly giving out pumpkin spice free samples and I came out of that store a changed and converted woman.

What is the most annoying thing about your life right now?    All other PR/ad agencies are going on shutdown by the end of this week and my fuckin workplace isn't starting ours until next Friday.

Which holiday treat do you like better: candy corn or conversation hearts? Candy corn I guess, but I'm not a big candy person to begin with so eh.

What is your favorite apple-flavored treat?    Chewy candies, like Mentos.

What are you counting down the days to right now, if anything?    Our office shutdown. I'm so excited for it that I've started to stop exerting 100% effort at work lol.

What was the last book you read about?    It's an autobiography.

Have you been daydreaming a lot lately about a scenario you wish would happen?  I've been dreaming about it a lot, frustratingly enough.

What are three of your favorite things about camping? ⛺️    I've never gone camping before.

If you could choose what month to be born in, what month would you have chosen as your birth month, and why?    My birth month has never really been an issue to me and I wouldn't change it even if I could.

...and what is your actual birth month?    April.

What are three of your favorite things to do on a rainy day? 🌧️    If I had it my way I'd turn on the aircon, make my room as dark as possible, and take a long nap.

Would you rather eat strawberries 🍓 or watermelon 🍉?    Neither.

Do you prefer smoothies or milkshakes? 🍹    Milkshakes.

Do you prefer hamburgers 🍔 or hot dogs 🌭?    Burgers.

When was the last time you felt nauseous?    I had the most awful motion sickness last Monday.

What was the last thing you ate that made you feel nauseous?    The bagnet and bone marrow dish I had two weeks ago didn't necessarily make me feel nauseous but it did give me awful heartburn.

Do you enjoy going to your local county fair?    We don't have one in my city.

How far away do you live from the place where you were born?    I'd say it's a 1.5-2 hr car ride.

Do you prefer zebra print or cheetah print?  Cheetah.

[pyretta666]

hi! i'm doing a presentation on the impact and community of tumblr for my media studies final and i wanted to reach out to my mutuals with some questions that relate to my topic. i would so totally love and appreciate if you could answer some of these for me.

it would be so totally rock and roll and awesome and amazing and i'll literally love you forever and ever and ever! :)

thank you thank you thank you!!!!

the questions(i know it's a lot, im so sorry):

1. how is tumblr different from other social media platforms?

2. how has the tumblr community affected you as a person/online presence?

3. do you feel more inclined to post more personal or private aspects of your life and or opinions on tumblr rather than other apps? as in do you feel you are less likely to be judged on tumblr than other platforms?

4. what are your favorite aspects of tumblr?

5. what would you do if tumblr got shut down?

6. what are some things that only tumblr bloggers would know/understand?

or

7. are there certain traditions on tumblr that you think other media sites wouldn't understand?(an example being our site wide celebration of the ides of march)

8. what are some of the largest fandoms/inner communities on tumblr? are you apart of these fandoms/communities? if yes, what is that like for you?

9. do you find tumblr to be educational in terms of academics? among other things such as politics and general life experiences?

10. all in all, how has this app changed your perspective on social media, the world, your life, and so on.

please add anything else you find to be important!!

hello! 1. tumblr is different from other social platforms because i think there is no algorithm (like tiktok, youtube, etc.) that shows us content on our dashboard. it is mostly from the blogs we follow. i think there is also more tight knit communities here.

2. tumblr had made me feel more understood online.

3. i do feel more inclined to post more personal stuff here. this is one of my only social medias that i do have. i feel A LOT less judged here if i were to post something personal.

4. my favorite aspects of tumblr are probably the communities here and the customization of blogs/themes. i also enjoy creating things to post!

5. if tumblr got shut down, i'd probably be very upset. i don't think i'd migrate to any other social media apps, i'd most likely stick to pinterest and that's it.

6./7. i think there are many things that only tumblr bloggers would know/understand. i cannot think of any good examples, but it feels a lot more focused on community here. i'm not sure how to phrase it

8. i am part of the goth, metal, and horror communities here. personally, all of the people i have interreacted within these communities have all been super nice and genuine.

9. i wouldn't say i necessarily find it educational, but it definitely can be for other users. i like hearing about other's experiences and things they have gone through. it makes me feel less alone.

10. tumblr has given me a little community that i love interacting with. i trust tumblr more than other social media apps. it's also oddly relaxing sometimes because the corner of tumblr that i have experienced has been overall drama free compared to other social media sites.

i hope this could help, sorry for the later response!

good luck on your presentation! :D

[luvether]

ARHGGH i just woke up its like 7:44am here but i just wanna say this before i finish schoolworks — happy birthday dearest kou !!!! i know you’re busy in college rn & i’m hoping you’re not swamped w work yet esp on your bday 🥹🥹

we’ve been moots since our w*ttp*d days and i’m not gonna lie, reminiscing about it makes me feel a little melancholic & nostalgic bc it literally was our prime, at least, in the aspect of writing and reading. i had all the time in the world to read your fics — i loved your hq oneshot collection, and even more of your bonten fic. (which, by the way, its still on-going. ASHSH ITS BEEN YEARS OMG). and i can vividly remember how i reacted when we first became moots, and you told me you read my stuff which was ??? mind boggling ???

and then we migrated here on tumblr !!! we don’t interact regularly, but when we do, i swear it’s so meaningful to me. being your moot is like one of the memorable things i cherish, and i don’t think i’ll ever forget either.

i mean, you’re my inspo kou. 🥹🫶 your writing is literally like no other. your love for your fics is something i can also feel through the manner of how you weave your words. you don’t make content, you make art — which is something i also stand by. its this passion that really pulls me in, and when i read your works, i feel a little bit connected to you, to the author.

honestly you deserve the love you beautifully convey. read that again. read it and know that i genuinely mean it. there’s nothing else i would want but for you to have all the love & happiness you deserve.

and with you celebrating your birthday, let that sink in. let the day be filled with many greetings from your family and your lovely friends and mooties, let your day be filled with joy. 🤍 i love you kou, hehehe happy birthday again 🫂🫂

I just finished my deadlines and came to check tumblr only to find this? Solvia i’m honestly speechless.

First of all, hope you had a good-ish morning!! it’s probably around afternoon for you rn (and midnight for me) and second, this is probably the most genuine birthday wish I have ever received and I’m glad that it came from you of all people.

I’ll return my own sentiment and say that you’re probably like, one of my longest mutuals, yes since our first meeting back in that tangerine app. I also cannot wrap my head around the fact that we’ve been moots for about two-three years now? and even if we don’t actively interact a lot these months—and every time we did, it also something I truly treasure.

Thank you so much also for the things you said 💌 I sometimes forget that whatever I write inspire some people—and i’m saying this in all honesty, and I guess it’s really easy to forget it as a writer and you telling me this actually grounded me on that revelation. I’m happy that whatever silly thoughts and writings I did truly inspired you (because it actually makes me happy that people look up to me)

Love you lots as well Solvi!! can’t believe I’m getting really sappy on my bday but it’s very much welcomed <33

For the record, you’re the one that introduced me to alien stage so you also had such a massive impact on me as well 🫶