#[Observations || Dashboard Commentary]

[midnight-and-sapphire-variables]

𝓩-

I sense...

I disturbance in the force.

[astrcthesiai-archived]

“Wolfwood, stop trying to eat him! What is that thing?” Upon closer inspection it’s Vash in creature form.

[awoosmusehorde]

"The Handsome Monkey King and Great Sage Equal To Heaven, Sun Wukong~!" You can shapeshift, do you even count???

[isladeroda]

Walks out of her office. Hears the current clamoring going on around the other Doctor.

Turns on her heel and heads right back into her office.

[melodicbreeze]

Skincare... does it really need all that stuff? How odd, yet interesting.

[clavicula-ovis]

    ❝ Someone's clearly never had dino chicken nuggies and it shows. ❞

[cabernet-and-calculations]

For once, I wish that my schedule was incorrect and indicated a date later then it is.

[cliffandthekid]

"Caturday", huh? Guess that's why Cliff is seeing so many felines around this morning...

[alfida]

Tag Dump / Character Based

[Spear of Lyria || Muse]

[Alfida || In Character]

[Whispers of the Aesfyr || Mun & OoC]

[Aesfyric Decree || OoC Answer]

[Missives || Inbox]

[Another Soldier || Promo]

[A New Mission || Prompt]

[I am Alfida Spear of Lyria and I have never known these feet || Crack]

[In my repose time passes slowly || Queue]

[Memoirs of the Halberd || Drabble]

[We are not the weight of our memories || Saved]

[Let There Be Fire || Wishlist]

[Let Us Begin || Starter]

[Observations || Dashboard Commentary]

[Legend of the Sunlit Halberd || Headcanons]

[Playing Hero || Dash Games]

[A Halberd Forged from Sunlight || Art]

[In Darkness I Shall Fly Anew || Spoilers]

[Lands of the Aesfyr || Worldbuilding]

[rnalum]

“do it.”

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

Would you consider pulling the summary/blurbs of these books for inclusion in the polls? I’d love to discover new books through this blog! And it seems from some of your commentary on submitted books that you’re already doing a small bit of research and pulling covers, so it maybe wouldn’t be (much?) more work on your part?

hello! I appreciate the suggestion, but for multiple reasons I’m going to stick with the format as it is.

first, as I discussed on the fantasy poll blog, including blurbs feels like doing promotion for books (even more so than the polls already are to some extent doing), rather than simply asking a factual question about them, and there are certain books and/or authors I categorically do not want to do that for, like Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow are both currently queued) and other tithing Mormons.

it also becomes complicated when dealing with non-English books, which are often more difficult to find reliable information — like blurbs — for. I’m thinking for example about older books and books in smaller languages, like Augo Lynge’s Ukiut 300-nngornerat, for which I can’t even find a Danish blurb at the moment, let alone a Greenlandic one, just French and English (ironically, given there’s no English translation). meanwhile some submitted books (like Dave Duggan’s Makaronik, which I just queued this morning) aren’t available in English; would I give just the Irish blurb for it? it creates logistical complications I don’t want to deal with, since queuing things is already a somewhat time-intensive process. (it would be a bit easier if I weren’t committed to my spreadsheets, lol, but still not fast.)

(edit: I actually can find a blurb for the Danish translation of Ukiut 300-nngornerat, but compare the Danish —

I år 2021 fejrer den grønlandske hovedstad 300-året for Hans Egedes ankomst, men uvejr og bankrøveri truer med at spolere festlighederne og ødelægge tilværelsen for flere familier.

— with the French:

En lisant ce roman, le deuxième de la littérature groenlandaise, le lecteur découvrira la vision de l’avenir de l’Arctique en 2021 telle qu’imaginée en 1931 par Augo Lynge, auteur né à Qeqertarsuatsiaat. Selon Per Kunuk Lynge, qui en signe l’avant-propos, « à la lecture de ses anticipations, dont certaines se sont réalisées longtemps après la publication de son roman, on ne peut s’empêcher de voir en l’auteur le chaman inuit d’autrefois, qui voyageait librement autour du monde et était capable de prédire l’avenir ». La vision que nous offre Augo Lynge dans cette intrigue policière entre les villages et l’immense inlandsis glacé est celle d’un pays technologiquement avancé et socialement serein, où les personnages inuits sont devenus ce que sont les Groenlandais d’aujourd’hui : une preuve vivante d’un peuple qui a la capacité de « s’adapter à l’un des climats les plus froids et les plus rudes de la planète » tout en conservant sa langue et sa culture.

leaving aside the no-Greenlandic-blurb issue, this kind of blurb-disproportion was something I observed even just in the first few hours of queuing stuff for the fantasy blog.)

finally, the #1 goal of the polls is for the posts to be as straightforward as possible. the more information I add, the more distracting it gets and (at least speaking from my own experience with polls on my dashboard) the easier it becomes to just scroll by the poll.

[awoosmusehorde]

"I'm a One-Hand-Clapping Tree." Oh gawd, she's awoken -

[afterthelambs]

Appreciate you for tagging all your posts! Makes it easy for me to curate my own dashboard. Can I ask how your tagging system works? Some of your tags are different than the others

Sorry it took me long to reply to this, I needed the free time to compile them all. How I tag fandom stuff follows this format:

(fandom name/acronym) + (what it is)

some examples using Bungou Stray Dogs:

bsd fanart

bsd analysis

bsd + (character name) ex: bsd akutagawa

bsd spoilers

For ship tags i dont put the fandom beside it and I just put the ship name or acronym if it has one. Ship acronyms also arent fixed dynamics. So for example, when I tag 'kghn' for kagehina it also can mean hinakage. I tend to be chill with any ship dynamic. Sometimes I have preferred dynamics so I'll just tag whichever dynamic I prefer slightly more

Other tags I commonly use:

hehe = stuff i found funny

writeblr = writing tips/notes

writings = poetry/literature/textposts/shitposts that are well written and make me pause and say whisper "damn thats good"

tumblr = tumblr-related posts (tumblr tips, stuff talking about the site itself, etc)

ao3 = ao3 related stuff

fandom = mostly observations abt fan activity, behavior, etc. di ko sure how to classify, finefeel ko lang :DD

art = nice art that isnt fandom related

politics = anything that's kinda about society/social commentary

my post = anything i make personally

nsfw = i never reblog or post anything nsfw but like just in case this is my go to

info = anything i find informative or educational

ref = art/writing ref or other similar stuff

tropes = interesting writing tropes or techniques

ship dynamics = similar to tropes except specifically about character dynamics

other stuff = literally anything else/ randomness

I think that's it? I might edit this in the future if i start using other tags

[tangleweave]

6.

[ By the Numbers / Accepting ]

"Excessive OOC."

This phrase is a bit pejorative. Ask any member of the RPC and they'll give you a different definition as to the word 'excessive'. For myself, I tend to feel OOC is excessive on a roleplay blog when it becomes the majority stake of that blog (which is to say, if OOC posts comprise >50% of its total activity). If you're going to say it's an RP blog, then for goodness' sake, let the RP be its clear purpose! And it's perfectly fine if you would rather write observational and topical commentary most of the time on your blog, that's just as valid a purpose as any other we might have here, but it would be courteous and wise to make that clear to those who might follow you hoping for fantasy-based interactivity.

Do I think there can be exceptions to this? Sure, with caveats. Any member of this community can look at their Followers lists and easily find mutuals who are currently inactive. There's more than a handful on mine. If you're anything like me, you'd rather not be one of those absentee players, so to avoid looking like we have no intention of returning, we might instead turn to sharing pictures, quotes, or other contextual tidbits that don't necessarily fall into the scope of a currently active roleplay, but serve as reminders to ourselves of our characters -- their appearances, motivations, successes, failures, slices of life, everything in between. That's "out of character", since it's not being written as part of an active tale, but it's not beyond context.

Honestly, I like seeing OOC chatter show up on my dashboard. It reminds me that there's a flesh-and-blood person on the other side of the screen, writing (and sometimes scrambling frantically to write) their heart out, and sometimes that heart needs a break, even from the universe it wanted to escape to... and just talk on its own terms.

But for anyone who reads this and wonders if maybe they're being excessive with OOC stuff, I can only say, judge for yourself, and do your best to strike a balance that works for you. The ones who vibe with you will respond accordingly. Those that don't will find other fish in the sea.

[clavicula-ovis]

     ›› Elsewhere in the Devildom, a sorcerer lets loose a heavy sneeze and takes a moment to reorient himself.

    ❝ ... Now which one of them was it this time? ❞

[cabernet-and-calculations]

Common Tags

#a question answered (Answers)

#personal observations (Personal)

#excerpts (Stories/Writing Prompts)

#a planned occurrence (Scheduled Posts)

#depictions of encounters (Art)

#dashboard commentary (Dash commentary)

Other Tags

#colleagues (Bastardverse O5 Council Members)

#aesthetic (Aesthetic Reblogs)

#ooc.post (General OOC posts)

Characters will be tagged with their blog URL.