scrawling-stardumb - Tumblr blog

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Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner. 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option. 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc. 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

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So, what is the OGL and why are DnD creators thoroughly screwed?

Tumblr has not been doing a great job at talking about this, but:

With OneDnD, Wizards of the Coast has decided to update the Open Game License (OGL). Said license is what allowed people to create homebrew DnD content and sell it, and even larger companies to use certain sorts of content. Pathfinder, for example, is built on said OGL. This also allows streamers and artists to exist and benefit from said content.

With OneDnD (sometimes called “dnd 6e”), WOTC wants to create a much more restrictive OGL, which will, amongst other things:

Make WOTC take a cut for any DnD-related work (according to Kickstarter, a whole 25% of the benefits)

Let WOTC cancel any project related to DnD up to their discretion

Let WOTC take ANY content made based on their system, and re-sell it without crediting you, or giving you a single cent

And most importantly, revoke the old OGL, which will harm any company or game system that used it as a base, such as Pathfinder. And it means they GET ownership over any homebrew content you may have done for 5e in the past!

It’s important to note that OGLs are supposedly irrevocable. They were planning to use it for OneDnD initially, but they want to apply it retroactively to 5e, somehow. Which is illegal, but lawyers have mentioned there’s a chance they may get away with it given the wording.

This means that anything you make based on DnD (A homebrew item? A character drawing? Even music, according to them?), can get taken and used as they deem appropiate.

These news come from a leak of the OGL, which have been confirmed by multiple reputable sources (including Kickstarter, which has confirmed that WOTC already talked with them about this), and was planned to be released next week.

So, what can we do?

Speak against it. Share the word. Reblog this post. Let people know. Tumblr hasn’t been talking much about this matter, but it’s VERY important to let people know about what is WOTC bringing. 

Boycott them. Do not buy their products. Do not buy games with their IP. Do not watch their movie. CANCEL your DnD Beyond subscription. (Btw, they ARE planning to release more subscription services too!). They do not care about the community, but they care about the money. Make sure to speak through it. 

And maybe consider other TTRPG systems for the time being, Pathfinder’s Paizo has been much nicer to the community, their workers are unionized and are far more healthy overall

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Take it from someone who has been around the fandom block: 

fanfiction.net is dying.

all the signs are there. 

if you have no other record of any fics you have there… you might wanna… like… do something about that. 

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you better watch out

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Your window of opportunity has closed.

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BILL! BILL! BILL!

Leave a tip! (Ko-Fi) | Etsy Shop | Twitter

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If you don’t mind me adding onto this, one trick to keeping narrative flow when doing scene cuts, escorcially when it comes to radical shifts from high to low action, is to make sure there’s a reoccurring concept or theme in all the scenes that threads them together. Ideally, each scene should in some way answer a question posed by the scene that preceded it - whether it be a direct answer or a metaphorical one.

A great example of this in action I would say is the series Archer, since it has the most literal yet seamless examples of this in every episode. For instance, they often have transitions like so:

"And those were his last words, right before he bled to death on the rug."

[SCENE CUTS]

"Which rug?"

How do you know when to switch from high action to low? I'm working on a (non-avatar) fic, where a character got hurt in an explosion. The audience has no idea how bad it is, and I'm trying to decide whether to go straight to the rescue/medical scene, or build suspense by switching to another character who has no idea what happened.

Is the character critically hurt? You can maintain the tension either in their own POV or with a POV switch involving the care/continuing the story arc.

I'd caution against a POV switch to an unrelated arc unless you've been building the tensions/stakes for that character in parallel to the injuried one.

AKA: Is the new arc, at this exact moment, going to be equally compelling for readers?

In general: do what's going to be most viscerally satisfying for your readers, with the understanding that readers like to be emotionally tortured every bit as much as they like seeing characters suffer, but they expect payoff in equal measure. Don't switch just to drag things out, that's lame sauce. We won't be angry with you, we'll just be disappointed.

And if the character is NOT critically hurt, same lame sauce rules apply: don't hype your readers up for something that is gonna disappoint.

PS: Note that this is from the reader's perspective. Totally cool to keep the character's friends thinking they're critically hurt when they're actually fine; just let the readers in on it so we can enjoy the sweet sweet emotional wringing-out as the other characters, in their ignorance, SUFFER.

Ko-fi

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lovecore this. cottagecore that. what about the reactor core its going to explode

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The best mystery stories are the ones that become thrillers upon a second reading

Hi! I was wondering something. In regards to a murder mystery, would you rather know who the killer is in the beginning do you can track them through the story, or have them introduced as a normal character with clues throughout the story so you can figure it out on your own?

Broadly speaking, you're taking about the difference between a thriller and a mystery. Figure out which one you're interested in writing and the genre conventions of each, those are marketed to different audiences!

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Comfortember Day 22: Kisses (Platonic)

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i know kyoshi already got an animal companion in the novels but like please consider...

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It’s all fun and games until your older bro breaks out the baby pictures in front of your fans

Since you acknowledged detective Maijing as The Boulder's older brother, does this mean we're gonna see him show up in DNiBSS?

THE BOULDER enjoys CAMEOS

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Voting is now open for the Stanuary 2021 themes! Vote here!!

You can vote for as many as you want, but only the four with the most votes will be used for the main themes. However, don’t despair if your choices don’t win! All additional themes will still be listed on the Stanuary blog as extra prompts.

Special thanks to @endae, @fordanoia, and @pinesbrosfalls for helping to combine some of the theme ideas!

This poll will be open until Sunday, November 29th, and the winning themes will be posted on November 30th.

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Piandao: Head of White Lotus HR

(Please click for better quality, lol.)

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“Ah, there’s the old man’s head now!”

Ever since I saw the deleted original opening to Dreamscapers, I wanted to try to recreate the scene where Bill and Dipper are falling past the giant stone head of Stan in Dipper’s dream. I just love that scene! The perspective and all that jazz is off a bit, but it was fun to create. Way to much time was spent on this, especially removing parts to fit the darn tumblr gif limit (goodbye seamless background).

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Though another thing about King Kuei that doesn’t get touched upon a whole lot is that apparently he ascended the throne at the tender age of 4 after his parents died under mysterious circumstances that were never explained... and just-so-happened to make Long Feng his regrant until Kuei was old enough, with the implication that along Feng also raised Kuei to some extent.

Which I’m sure if Zuko or Iroh ever heard that would start to think that sounds awfully familiar

I’ve seen Zuko mindbent by the Dai Li AU’s, I’ve seen Lu Ten mindbent, I’ve seen Iroh and Azula and the Gaang mindbent, but somehow I have not seen a single word about King Kuei being mindbent, which is kinda weird considering Ba Sing Se’s whole ... that.

I have always assumed it to be implied canon that he got regular Dai Li touch-ups to keep him happy in his naive little world. A season pass to Lake Laogai would explain a lot about him.