#Fresh start. Less annoying to have to log into a different account

[federfleisch]

This is literally the "be annoying" website yet I still occasionally get self conscious about being annoying

[suzuberto-alt]

I read a lot of the comments and I agree with a lot of users: please don't add algorithm feeds like other sites, the chronological feed is one of the different and strong points for the users that come here, and I personally think that the suggestions of blogs in ad-like spaces or even the trending option in tags are enough for user experience. Adding even the option of algorithm feed will most likely make new users (not used to how the site and config works to turn it off and coming from algorithm controlled sites so they're used to it and probably will not search the option) to just see the suggestions (that usually just put already popular posts in your face, making small ones less visible) and that may/will discourage small accounts that want to start again here as it happens in every other place

I heard that the new IG TW-like app doesn't divide content you follow from algorithm and it's making a lot of fresh users to drop it or wait for a more controlled environment (that says a lot) so it would be nice if you... just don't do it.

Personally droped my accs in FB and IG bc got tired of seeing just ads and suggestions, if I do log in I go directly to search something specific but I have thought a lot of times to just delete them and have very weak reasons not to do it. Also all social media working and looking the same is tiring, the customization of tumblr blogs is other of the strong points of here.

About the email or any other new and pushy notification type please DON'T, I'm one of those ppl that toggles off EVERY notification except chat and comments (and prefer most times to have it just toggled on when inside the site/app, not outside) dude, I even find it annoying to see so much unnecessary notification dots and numbers like new posts in feed, I don't need that notification and if I can toggle that off I haven't find it to when I'm writing this. The thing is, if someone doesn't want notifications DON'T send them notifications, it just adds reasons for people to go away

I forgot if I had more stuff I wanted to write about other points as these two hit hard dsdsf and I understand the worries as a platform of other of the points mentioned but don't know ways to make them work, also I know nsfw can't be bringed back as they use payment methods that ban that stuff (bc that was the reason to ban it years ago as I remember when I dropped here) but if they can somehow make it back for nsfw artists would be a great option as is difficult to find places that allow it anyways, the end. Hear your users(?

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[kimnamjooonz]

Blank Space - Episode 2.

‘’Look what you made me do 

Second episode of this.... fictional work. 

Songs used in this Episode:

Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift 

Change - Taylor Swift 

I’m A Mess - Bebe Rexha 

‘’But I got harder I got smarter with the nick of time, baby I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time’’

Amanda and Taylor arrived at King's Cross station in very different states of mind. Taylor was looking fresh, ready to start the day while Amanda even though her make up and clothes were flawless, looked sleep deprived and annoyed. She had eaten all the food that Clint had given her in Cardiff but she was still hungry. To make things worse for Amanda, the day was pretty hot and was making her head hurt. And also Taylor was completely into the role of Amanda's agent/manager/mum and was keeping her under close watch. She had confiscated Amanda's phone as the last thing she needed was her protegee getting upset over that insanity of Sebastian Stan dating someone. Who even cared about that? Well, apparently Amanda, judging by her whole sleepless night listing to Beyonce's revenge songs probably imagining that she hit Stan with a baseball bat. Even though Taylor was just a couple of months older than Amanda, she was a lot more emotionally mature. She had been in an stable relationship for months, unlike Amanda, who didn't even try to make this a reality. If Amanda Ward-Prowse was obsessed with something, it was acting and she spent all of her free time perfecting her craft, dedicating only one night a week to go out with Taylor. That was why Sebastian Stan was the perfect man for her: he didn't know she existed, he didn't waste her precious time like a real boyfriend would do and he was a sort of a motivation for her. He was just the object of Amanda's affection. Both girls knew London pretty well as they've been there quite often in the last months thanks to Amanda's auditions. They stopped to eat something before making their way to the hotel, that was in Greenwich, a bit far away from where they were but it was one of the few places that wasn't so pricey and was quite nice. ''I still have no idea how can you climb stairs with those heels of yours'' said Taylor with admiration. ''Years of practice, pain and injuries. Now I can even run with heels'' Amanda had a self sufficient smile on her face.

Only when they were at the hotel Amanda noticed how tired she was. She threw herself on the bed, kicking her heels away. Taylor was in the bathroom so she took advantage of that to get back her phone. She needed to see Twitter to see what the hell was going on with Sebastian. She was about to tap on the blue bird on the screen of her phone with her pointy finger when she had  it taken away by Taylor, who tapped something on the screen and put it back in her purse before Amanda could complain. ''Before you say anything...'' Taylor warned her. ''I logged you out of Twitter and you're not logging in after your audition tomorrow.'' ''What was that for?'' Amanda was a bit annoyed. ''You're not spending another sleepless night stalking Sebastian Stan's love life.'' Amanda had the decency of looking confused. Any person that wasn't Taylor would have believed that she truly had no intention of doing exactly that. But Taylor knew her too well. ''Taylor! I was not going to do that! I don't even care about it... how can you even think of that? Sebastian is just someone I truly admire.'' she said with a conviction that was truly believable. ''I was going to see if I had any notifications.'' ''Amanda, you have a fan account. What notifications aren't you expecting to get that are not related to that guy?'' Amanda didn't have any explanation so she just sulked. ''Okay, you win. For the last time'' If there was something Amanda hated with a burning passion was losing. From a card game to her favourite team's football match. That was one of the reasons she was upset about the Sebastian Stan situation: someone else had won his heart even though she had absolutely no say in this. She didn't even know the guy in person, to begin with. ''You have everything ready for tomorrow?'' Taylor asked and Amanda just nodded. In her mind she was planning the audition again and again. But she was confident as she had had the audition planned for months. Amanda fell asleep almost immediately and she had to thank the previous sleepless night for that. She was so tired that there wasn't room for feeling nervous or anxious but the next morning those feelings kicked hard. She was trying to convince herself that even if she didn't make it into the RADA it was not the end of the world and she could audition again next year. But she couldn't lie to herself, she wanted to get into that school more than she'd ever wanted anything. It could be the beginning of a nice career in acting. Taylor tried to make her eat something with little success as Amanda seemed to be completely immersed in what was going to happen in the next few hours. ''Are you ready?'' Taylor asked and Amanda just nodded. They were in complete silence during the whole underground ride. Both of them were nervous: they knew that this was the end of the process, the now or never, the final audition. ''Here we are'' Amanda mumbled to herself when she and Taylor crossed the doors of the giant and imposing building that was the RADA. So many successful people had been exactly in the place she was right then. She could almost see a young Gemma Artenton or Tom Hiddleston being nervous wrecks just as she was right now. There were other auditionees at the place and no one was talking or even glancing at each other. There were limited places (only 14 men and 14 women) so it was natural to see the other as competition and no one really wanted to know against who they were competing. At least Amanda didn't want to. Them both took seats, far apart from anyone. Amanda immediately stood up. ''I need to go to the bathroom.'' Amanda basically ran there and locked the door immediately after getting in. Sorry if someone needed to get in but she needed to be alone and think for a second. And she was convinced that it wasn't the first time that someone had locked themselves in there. It was the RADA after all, full of dramatic people. ''You got this'' she said to herself, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She looked beautiful even if she was paler than death. This time she was not going to be defeated because she was in charge of the result. This was no football match or the Sebastian Stan situation in which she could do nothing about the outcome. She remembered the lyrics of one of her favourite Taylor Swift songs, Change. ''And it's a sad picture, the final blow hits you, somebody else gets what you wanted again, and you know it's all the same, in another time and place, repeating history and you're getting sick of it.'' But not this time. She smiled at her reflection. She wanted a place at the RADA and no one was going to take it from her. She had to laugh at the irony of it all. 24 hours ago she had been listening to Beyonce's Sorry, imagining that she was dedicating it to Sebastian Stan. Now she couldn't care less even though those emotions were going to come in handy for the audition. A little wound in the heart (and her ego) was enough to get extra motivation. Thank you very much, Sebastian. She had to laugh again, remember the next lines of Taylor's Change: ''Because these things will change, can you feel it now? The walls that the put up to hold us back will fall down, it's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win.'' With much more confidence she left the bathroom.

''Better?'' Taylor asked her when Amanda got back to the seats. ''Yeah. I was having an epiphany.'' Taylor tried not to laugh. She was used to Amanda coming up with the weirder stuff. Like that time when they were twelve years old and Amanda hadn't got the lead role in the school's winter musical and she had tried to jinx the girl who had got the part with a pentagram. It had been a total coincidence that the girl had caught an stomach bug and couldn't do the play, Amanda ended up doing it (and shining) and to put the icing to the cake, a talent agent from the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama discovered and invited her to get acting lessons there for the next four summers. At that time Taylor had been totally on Amanda's side because the girl who had originally got the part only got it because she was the daughter of the school's principal, not because she was more talented than Amanda. And she really wasn't. ''You don't need epiphanies to ace this. You're a triple threat, you can act, dance and even sing. You have training and experience. You've got this.'' ''Yeah... but all of this people have training and experience too. Some of them more than me. Never underestimate them. They're here for a reason.'' Amanda looked around for the first time. Everyone there looked nervous, some were rereading their lines, other were praying and just a few were talking to whoever that had accompanied them. ''Do you know the order in which they are calling you all?'' Taylor asked. ''No. But they like to torture us so I guess the order is just random.'' She had just finished saying this when a formal looking woman that Amanda had seen before in the previous auditions, approached the room. ''Hello, people'' no one greeted her back. Everyone was just too nervous to speak. ''The order of today's audition was especially arranged by the examiners. They have their reasons, I suppose. More details will be given to you soon.'' she looked at the list. ''Amanda Ward-Prowse, you go first.'' ''Damn'' she cursed. ''Better first than last'' Taylor whispered. ''Go! You got this.'' Feeling in a sort of daze, Amanda followed the woman. ''There'' the woman pointed to a room and Amanda got in. The thing that surprised her the most was that there were five examiners instead of the usual two she already knew, that luckily were there. Maybe it was like that in the last stage of the auditions. ''Miss Ward-Prowse. You can take a seat. You probably remember us, Edward Branton and Sylvia Smith for the RADA panel of admitions.'' Amanda nodded. They were the ones she knew. ''And this is Katherine Mellows from The Juilliard School in New York...'' he pointed to a middle aged woman who greeted her with a smile. ''Christine Gilbert, a casting director...'' he pointed to an strict looking woman. ''...and Damien Chazelle, a director.'' Amanda thought she had heard that name before but she couldn't picture where. ''Miss Ward-Prowse'' said Sylvia Smith. ''I don't want to put pressure on you but these three people came all the way from New York City just to see you.'' Amanda didn't believe that for a second but she had to admit it was a nice way to make the auditionees work under pressure. Nice one there, RADA. ''I'm honoured'' she just said. ''They want to ask you a couple of things'' said Mrs. Smith. ''Do you mind?'' ''Not at all.'' she said. She wanted to start with her audition but if these people wanted to know more about her training in Cardiff and her experience at the Globe Theatre or in the Royal Shakespeare Company, better for her. ''Your resume says that you started doing summer courses at the Royal Welsh College Of Music and Drama at just twelve years old.'' said Mrs. Mellows and Amanda nodded. ''Impressive. And you've been in numerous Shakespeare plays at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre since 2010, some minor roles in television and three plays at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. '' ''Exactly'' that was her favourite story to tell. ''I was Lady Anne in Richard III, Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.'' she tried to look humble and too proud of herself. Gilbert and Chazelle just looked at each other, as if they were sharing a secret message. ''And you shared the stage with Ian McKellen in Macbeth'' stated Mrs. Mellows. Amanda had no idea how she knew that. That information wasn't in her resume. ''Yes. It was a fantastic experience'' she was being humble again and with great difficulty. Mrs. Gilbert nodded and Chazelle looked impressed. ''That's fantastic'' he said. ''Even I want to work with Ian McKellen. You're really lucky, Miss Ward-Prowse.'' Amanda had no idea of what to say so she was relieved when Mellows started to talk again. ''There were strong rumours of a possible nomination to a Laurence Olivier award for your role as Lady Macbeth.'' This time Amanda was genuinely surprised. She had had no idea about those rumours. She had never read the critics of her performance as back on May 2016 she had been too busy planning how she could get to the Captain America: Civil War premiere to see the actors walking the red carpet and with good luck get Sebastian Stan's autograph. Of course that never happened as the night of the premiere she was on the stage being Lady Macbeth. She was cursing herself for being distracted with Sebastian's beautiful blue eyes and not noticing a possible nomination to a bloody Laurence Olivier. Maybe it was for the best as she hadn't got the nomination after all. ''They were just rumours.'' she said after a long pause. ''I wonder why you're not famous yet'' said Chazelle with admiration in his voice. ''One more question'' this time it was Mrs. Gilbert who spoke. ''If you could choose a dream role in a play, a movie and TV show, which one you chose?'' ''I'd like to be in one of those movies that become modern classics and no one ever forgets. I'd love to lead a movie like that'' she answered and by some reason the five examiners looked content. ''I'd love to play Elphaba Thropp in Wicked and... in TV, I'd love to be the fourteenth Doctor.'' ''So... if it's everything said... let's start with your audition'' said Mrs. Smith. ''What did you chose for the monologue? Classical of contemporary?'' ''Classical'' Amanda had decided to play it safe and do one of her best rehearsed monologues. ''Lady Macbeth Damned Spot from Macbeth. Act 5 Scene 1.'' Smith and Branton smiled at each other. ''I've been waiting to see this for months'' said Mellows with an excited voice. Chazelle clapped a little and smiled. ''Smart girl'' said Gilbert with an smile, knowing that Amanda had done that scene numerous times in the past with a bigger audience than five examiners. All this reactions sparkled Amanda's curiosity but she immediately took it out of her mind. ''Whenever you're ready'' said Branton. She stood up and with confidence walked to the centre of the room. She had done that scene so many times that it was natural to be under Lady Macbeth's skin again. And very relieving. When she ended her monologue she felt a mixture of relief with triumph. She knew she had aced it and judging by the examiner's faces she was not wrong. Damien Chazelle and the woman from Juilliard were not even trying to hide it. Both of them were clapping. The examiners whispered between themselves for a couple of minutes and Amanda stood there, waiting for instructions. ''Okay...'' it was Chazelle who spoke. ''We're going to chance the second part of the audition to something that you'd maybe like. Can you read this?'' he handed her a sheet of paper. ''It's a monologue from a movie that, of course, you don't know. Imagine that you're auditioning for it.'' She started reading, too concentrated to feel intimidated or overwhelmed. There was a whole paragraph explaining the settling of the scene.

New York City, 1985. Young Meredith Hathaway finds herself walking down under the icy rain of New York's winter, frustrated by another failed attempt of having just a little success of Broadway. She wondered if the best thing was to pack her things and go back to her country of origin. She had lost once again and she was tired about everything being so unattainable. At the front of Broadway's most famous theatre she vents out every single one of her feelings.

Amanda almost laughed. She could relate to Meredith Hathaway in so many ways... well, fifteen minutes before the audition she was almost having a breakdown in a bathroom singing Taylor Swift songs in her head. It was more or less the same.   ''I think I got it'' she said with a smile. ''Go ahead'' said Chazelle who, by some reason looked very happy. ''By the way, can you read it with your original Welsh accent? I think that'd go perfect'' the other four nodded and Amanda wondered what was this all about. Not that she cared, she was probably scoring extra points. Amanda took what she could about Meredith Hathaway's and started reading the monologue. The piece of writing was very witty and painful at the same time. Amanda could feel Meredith Hathaway's anger and frustration in those words. She could relate to it and at the same time go and shake Meredith's shoulder and help her to make her dreams come true. Of the whole paragraph the phrase ''It's not the first public breakdown people have seen in New York City'' got stuck in her mind. Playing Meredith Hathaway in a play or in a movie was what Amanda considered a dream role. When she finished the five examiners looked at her with unreadable smiles. ''Okay Miss Ward-Prowse, you finally finished your audition process'' said Mr. Branton. ''We'll call you back in twenty minutes to tell you the result.'' Amanda was more confused than ever. ''But aren't the results given to us in a month via email?'' she asked. ''Change of policy'' said Mrs. Smith. Amanda just nodded and left the room, still confused. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts was the most traditionalist place in the world, it was hard to imagine that they were changing the policy from one year to the other. As long as she made it she didn't care about that at all. She found Taylor waiting at the same place she had left her. ''How did it go?'' she asked. Amanda thought about that for a second. ''It went well. Like, really well. But it was weird. There weren't just Smith and Branton, as usual. There was a woman from Juilliard and couple of directors. One of them a casting director. All of them from New York.'' Taylor covered his face with her hands. ''Oh my God, maybe they want you for Broadway!'' Amanda laughed. ''Don't make hyperventilate, Taylor. Just the thought of it its overwhelming. Damn, being on the West End would be a dream, I can't even imagine Broadway.'' ''But what was a woman from Juilliard doing at your audition?'' Taylor was thinking. ''For God's sake, maybe they want you there! Just imagine the RADA and Juilliard fighting for you!' Amanda laughed again. ''That'd be like having Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan fighting for my hand in marriage'' she rolled her eyes. ''I mean, I have some talent but I'm not Meryl Streep. Still... if that were the case, I'd choose the RADA. Yeah, I know that getting into Juilliard is harder than getting into Harvard but... I can't sustain myself in New York, I have no money for that. At least here in London I'm just two hours away from home. By the way, did you know that I almost got a Laurence Olivier nom for Lady Macbeth?'' Taylor almost choked. ''WHAT? I know you were good but... an award.'' ''Well, you're supposed to check on that, you're my agent after all. Anyway, I would have lost against Judi bloody Dench. You know that I hate losing but I wouldn't have minded losing against Dame Judi!'' Taylor suddenly imagined Amanda in the award ceremony pulling a Kanye West and interrupting Dame Judi Dench mid speech stating that it was her who deserved the award. Not that Amanda was capable of doing that as Judi was among the people she absolutely admired. ''I was thinking about inventing that stage name'' Amanda suddenly said. ''Now?'' ''Yeah, you never now what may happen next, God knows I had enough surprises today. I want a name that stands out, something that people will remember.'' Both of them cracked their skulls for five minutes. ''A witch name'' Amanda suddenly said. Taylor didn't question anything. She found the idea a bit insane but all of Amanda's insanities ended up being good ideas after all. She just started looking for witch names in her phone. ''You have Agnes...'' Taylor started reading and didn't look convinced at all. ''...Cerys... Glinda... Lily... Minerva... Morgan Le Fey...'' ''This one'' Amanda almost jumped from the seat. ''It's perfect'' ''Morgan Le Fey?'' Taylor was more lost than ever. ''Just Morgan'' Amanda kept thinking out loud. ''In the legend she was King Arthur's sister and a bloody powerful witch. And she was sort of an antihero, I mean, she wanted to see Arthur's dead body but at the end wants to save him.'' That was the image she wanted to give to the world: someone who trustworthy and nice but also powerful. Someone you didn't want to mess with. Taylor found funny Amanda's interpretation of the character. Of course that she was justifying the villains. ''Amanda, Morgan Le Fey was a villain. She betrayed King Arthur multiple times; fell in love with Lancelot and, as he was in love with Guinivere, she kidnapped him and not once but many times; sent one of her minions to seduce Merlin and steal his powers; exposed Lancelot and Guinivere; made everyone fight each other and only at the end when Arthur was dying she tried to save him. She was responsible for the destruction of the kingdom. She's the root of all evil! Yeah, that kind of fits you. You'll rock the name and make justice to it.'' Part of that rant was just Taylor roasting her friend. But she also knew that Amanda Ward-Prowse was a damn difficult person. She wasn't a goody-two-shoes, kind and humble girl. She was ambitious, had a big ego and could be manipulative if she needed. But that was just her dark side She had many good qualities too. ''I love it, I love it, I love it!'' Amanda started pacing up and down the hall. ''Now I need a last name. Something Welsh.'' Taylor started looking on her phone. ''I guess you want something with a meaning...'' Amanda nodded. ''You should use Llewellyn, that means 'leader' and was the name of several kings, including Llewellyn the Great that was the king of Gwynedd, the county we both come from.'' ''Taylor, you're a genius! 'Leader' has the word 'Lead' in it. Good omen. I love it.'' She kept repeating the name in her mind. Morgan Llewellyn. It had ring that she liked. She was silently clapping like a seal when the formal looking woman that had called her to the audition interrupted her. ''Miss Ward-Prowse, the examiners want to see you.'' With a nervous face, she looked at Taylor and followed the woman. At least she was going to have an answer, she just hoped it was a positive one. The five of them were talking with a more relaxed look than twenty minutes ago. It seemed that the only one that was tense in that room was Amanda. ''Miss Ward-Prowse!'' Chazelle looked absolutely thrilled for something she didn't know. ''Take a seat.'' Amanda sat down and looked at Branton and Smith. Her future depended from their answer. How nice was this. ''And...'' she shyly asked. Sylvia Smith smiled. ''Well... before Edward and I say something I think you need to hear something else. These two...'' she pointed at Chazelle and Christine, the casting director. ''...want to make you an offer I'm sure you won't reject.'' Amanda tried not to freak out. Maybe Taylor was right and they wanted her for Broadway. No, stop. She shouldn't get her hopes up because maybe they wanted her just for a Tesco publicity spot. Not that it was bad. Then she remembered that these people were from New York. Well, maybe it was a Target publicity spot. That wasn't bad at all. She just knew that nothing made sense anymore. ''I don't know from where to start'' said Chazelle, excitedly. ''I talk'' said Mellows, who surprisingly had managed to remain quiet for ten minutes. Amanda still didn't know what was her exact role in this mess but she guessed that the woman was the connection between the directors and the RADA. Somehow Amanda was in the middle of it all and she didn't know why. ''You may have noticed, Miss Ward-Prowse that this wasn't a normal audition. And you're still probably confused about what a woman from Juilliard, a C.D and the director of La La Land were doing at your audition.'' Amanda almost fell off the chair. That was why the name rang a bell. She had been standing in front of a goddamned Oscar winner without noticing. Add it to the list of the times Amanda Ward-Prowse had been an absolute idiot. It seemed that between the audition, the Sebastian Stan drama and being in the border of a breakdown, her brain had decided not to recognise Oscar winning directors. And then she remembered that Damien Chazelle had looked quite impressed with her audition. And he probably was not going to direct a miserable publicity spot for Target. It was something bigger than that. Damn. ''Yeah, I was wondering that'' Amanda decided to play it cool. ''It's a honour, Mr. Chazelle.'' ''The honour is mine, Miss Ward-Prowse. Soon you'll know why.'' he motioned Mellows to keep talking. ''It all starts with Ian McKellen. You see, he's a friend of mine and we get together to talk. One of this times he talked to me of an incredibly talented young woman from Wales that had starred with him in Macbeth. That was you.'' the fact that Ian McKellen had mentioned her name to influential people from the acting industry in New York City made Amanda feel a bit dizzy. ''He was the one who told me about your almost nomination to the Laurence Olivier. What is more, he seemed quite bothered that you hadn't got it. Then Christine and Damien enter the story.'' ''The thing is...'' Damien started. ''...I've been looking for the lead of my next movie, literally everywhere for the last two years. The lead character is a foreigner and I don't want an A-List American actress pulling an accent. I've met many people, well known and people who were just starting. But no one seemed to be the right person. Until my search led me to Juilliard and Katherine here who told me the story of a talented Welsh young woman that Ian McKellen swore that she was good. And I trust Ian's word. As I had nothing to lose, me, Katherine and Christine decided to find out more about you and learned that you were in the process of auditioning to the RADA. We called the director and asked if we could come and see your last audition and here we are. We also saw the tapes of your two previous auditions. We really came all the way from New York for you and let me tell you we're not disappointed at all.'' Amanda was speechless. What they had said didn't make any sense at all. Since when she was so important that the goddamned director of La La Land wanted to see her in person? She hadn't done anything remarkable yet, apart of working with Ian McKellen. Apparently that was enough. ''I'm making this shorter'' said Christine, looking at Katherine and Damien as if she was reprimanding them for extending the story too much. ''Remember the monologue we asked you to read before?'' Amanda nodded. ''That was Meredith Hathaway, the lead of The American Dream, Damien's next movie. And we want you to play her.'' Amanda wanted to laugh hysterically. That couldn't be happening to her, it was too good to be true. ''But... why me?'' she managed to mumble. Of all the questions she had in her head that was the only thing she could say. ''To be honest, I don't know'' Damien looked at her with sincerity in his eyes. ''But you're perfect for the role. During this journey I met incredibly talented people but all of them lacked something that you have: the star factor. You are a star, Amanda. You're absolutely mesmerizing when you act, and damn girl, you're going to melt the screen. You'll go far in this business and if you take good decisions, you can be one of the greatest.'' Amanda was still waiting for the moment when she had to inevitably wake up from the dream. She had had dreams before of being cast for the role of her dreams or even some minor role for Marvel. But this seemed to be very real. And she still couldn't believe it. ''Well...'' said Christine snapping her fingers. ''...now we have to wait for your answer.'' Deciding that this was very real and not one of her dreams or an hallucination caused by heat mixed with lack of sleep, Amanda didn't need to think too much to get the answer. ''Of course, I'm in.'' Katherine clapped and both Christine and Damien looked incredibly relieved. ''I knew you were going to say yes.'' said Sylvia with an smile. ''Fantastic...'' Damien clapped like an excited kid. ''Now, the overall details... we'll be talking about the more the more complicated stuff with your agent.'' Amanda thought of Taylor. She was probably going to flip herself to the sun. ''We'll start filming in the middle of September in New York.'' Damn, New York. Amanda wanted to laugh out loud. ''I want you there the last week of August so you can settle there, then we'll have the read through and the rehearsals. We'll be premiering this movie at Cannes next year.'' ''Wait a second... am I going to Cannes?'' this was one surprise after the other. ''Yes you are.'' Amanda wanted to jump with joy. Goodbye peace and quiet, say hello to the star treatment. ''This is incredible'' she said with all the calm she could muster. Now she had the doubt of who on were the rest of the cast for this movie. Thankfully Damien seemed to be reading her mind. ''You're probably wondering about the rest of the cast. I won't tell you yet, I'll leave the surprise for later. What I can say is that I still haven't found your male co-star. I have a couple of names around. I want someone quite known but not a Leo DiCaprio or a Ryan Gosling...'' Leo and Ryan. That was too much. ''Someone like Tom Holland?'' she said without thinking. ''Yeah, that's a good idea! Thank you Amanda! Christine, write it down. We have to talk with his agent tomorrow.'' Tom Holland. One of Amanda's golden boys. Now he was a potential co-star. The world had gone mad. ''Another name, Damien? Remember we're still in talks with Timothee. And are you still considering Sebastian?'' ''Absolutely. The problem with him is his goddamned agenda. The guy is booked, believe me.'' Amanda was on the verge of having another mental breakdown. If that Sebastian was Sebastian Stan, she could start considering herself a dead woman because for sure she was not going to make it. She would melt into a puddle at the sight of him. He had been his celebrity crush for years and working with him was stuff right from her wildest dreams that Amanda seriously thought that was never going to happen. ''Let's talk about this later, Damien. Now we have to talk to Amanda's agent.'' Christine reprimanded him. ''Can I use my stage name?'' Amanda asked before standing up from the chair. Damien smiled. ''Of course. Vin Diesel didn't make himself famous with the name of Mark Sinclair. You're really smart, Amanda. You probably have a remarkable name planned, I don't doubt that.'' With a wide smile she stood up, ready to go and find Taylor. ''One more thing...'' this time she looked at Sylvia and Edward. ''Would I have made it into the RADA?'' ''You were in since the first audition'' said Edward. ''You'd have made it into Juilliard in the blink of an eye.'' added Katherine. ''So, I suffered in vain'' ''Maybe...'' Damien looked at her, apologetically. ''But everything happens for a reason.'' She left the room, trying not to jump, followed by the serious assistant. Taylor, just had one glimpse at Amanda's smiley face and knew that she had good news. ''Taylor! They want to talk to you.'' Amanda was literally glowing. ''Why?'' she wondered what was going on. ''I may have been offered the lead role in a big movie... so, they want to talk to the agent'' she explained as if it was no big thing. ''That is you.'' ''What the hell?'' ''What I just said, Taylor. Oh, and remember that my stage name is Morgan Llewellyn. We'll get used to it sooner or later.'' With the most confused face in history, Taylor followed the assistant. The next twenty minutes were the longest in Amanda's life. She was waiting for Taylor to confirm that what had just happened was real and not her mind playing games. But she felt incredibly relieved and excited. Her life was going to change for the best. She'd have to say goodbye to the peace and quiet of Caernarfon and say hello to New York, the city that never sleeps. Everything was happening too fast. She didn't even dare to daydream yet. When Taylor got back she had the most stunned expression ever. ''I don't know how you did it. But you did it.'' she looked at her with her eyes shining. Amanda's triumph was in part Taylor's too as they were in this together. ''Are you a witch? Did you make a pentagram again? How did you do this?'' ''I have no idea'' finally, everything was starting to sink in. She was going to be in a movie. Her dreams were a reality. They left the place in silence, still processing what had happened. Taylor was starting to plan the next steps in Amanda's career because in less than a month she was going to be in New York City. They ended up at an Starbucks. Taylor was still thinking and Amanda couldn't stop talking. Suddenly, Taylor remembered something that darkened a bit her mood. ''What about Josh?'' she asked. Josh was her long time boyfriend, an accountant from Caernarfon that Amanda found horribly mundane. ''Who cares about Josh?'' Amanda seemed to be more focused on her pink frapuccino than on her friend's inner turmoil. ''I do care! He's my boyfriend! I can't leave him alone for God knows how many months!'' ''Of course you can. You're going to New York with a future celebrity and you'll meet dozens of people, all of them from the jet set of the acting industry, that are a thousand times more interesting than Josh Barrowman from Caernarfon.'' ''You can't be serious! I'm sure you won't be saying this if you'd have to leave your beloved Sebastian Stan for months.'' Amanda almost choked with the frapuccino. ''I'd leave Sebastian or any other person for a chance like this in a heartbeat.'' She didn't mention to Taylor that there was a chance that Sebastian himself was going to be her potential co star. And Taylor didn't want to admit that Amanda was right. Settling down with Josh in Caernarfon at just twenty five years old was mediocre, at its best. Going to New York with Amanda sounded much more tempting. ''Can you give me my phone back? There's no danger now.'' Taylor had forgotten that she had taken Amanda's phone over the Sebastian Stan drama. She gave it back. Taylor doubted that Amanda cared for that anymore. Amanda was about to log in her Twitter account to update herself on the drama but at the last moment decided that it was not necessary. Sebastian Stan wasn't not her unreachable celebrity crush anymore. Now she was in the same league as him. She was his colleague and she was convinced that they'll eventually cross paths something. And she couldn't wait for that day. Taylor noticed the sly smile crossing her friend's face and it was unsettling, to say the least.

P.S. I’m trying hard to cast someone as Amanda but I really don’t know someone that’d fit with the character’s personality.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/lawyers-hate-timekeeping-ping-raises-13m-to-fix-it-with-ai/

Lawyers hate timekeeping. Ping raises $13M to fix it with AI

Counting billable time in six minute increments is the most annoying part of being a lawyer. It’s a distracting waste. It leads law firms to conservatively under-bill. And it leaves lawyers stuck manually filling out timesheets after a long day when they want to go home to their families.

Life is already short, as Ping CEO and co-founder Ryan Alshak knows too well. The former lawyer spent years caring for his mother as she battled a brain tumor before her passing. “One minute laughing with her was worth a million doing anything else” he tells me. “I became obsessed with the idea that we spend too much of our lives on things we have no need to do — especially at work.”

That’s motivated him as he’s built his startup Ping, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically track lawyers’ work and fill out timesheets for them. There’s a massive opportunity to eliminate a core cause of burnout, lift law firm revenue by around 10%, and give them fresh insights into labor allocation.

Ping co-founder and CEO Ryan Alshak. Image Credit: Margot Duane

That’s why today Ping is announcing a $13.2 million Series A led by Upfront Ventures, along with BoxGroup, First Round, Initialized, and Ulu Ventures. Adding to Ping’s quiet $3.7 million seed led by First Round last year, the startup will spend the cash to scale up enterprise distribution and become the new timekeeping standard.

“I was a corporate litigator at Manatt Phelps down in LA and joke that I was voted the world’s worst timekeeper” Alshak tells me. “I could either get better at doing something I dreaded or I could try and build technology that did it for me.”

The promise of eliminating the hassle could make any lawyer who hears about Ping an advocate for the firm buying the startup’s software, like how Dropbox grew as workers demanded easier file sharing. “I’ve experienced first-hand the grind of filling out timesheets” writes Initialized partner and former attorney Alda Leu Dennis. “Ping takes away the drudgery of manual timekeeping and gives lawyers back all those precious hours.”

Traditionally, lawyers have to keep track of their time by themselves down to the tenth of an hour — reviewing documents for the Johnson case, preparing a motion to dismiss for the Lee case, a client phone call for Sriram case. There are timesheets built into legal software suites like MyCase, legal billing software like Timesolv, and one-off tools like Time Miner and iTimeKeep. They typically offer timers that lawyers can manually start and stop on different devices, with some providing tracking of scheduled appointments, call and text logging, and integration with billing systems.

Ping goes a big step further. It uses AI and machine learning to figure out whether an activity is billable, for which client, a description of the activity, and its codification beyond just how long it lasted. Instead of merely filling in the minutes, it completes all the logs automatically with entries like “Writing up a deposition – Jenkins Case – 18 minutes”. Then it presents the timesheet to the user for review before the send it to billing.

The big challenge now for Alshak and the team he’s assembled is to grow up. They need to go from cat-in-sunglasses logo Ping to mature wordmark Ping.  “We have to graduate from being a startup to being an enterprise software company” the CEO tells me. That means learning to sell to C-suites and IT teams, rather than just build solid product. In the relationship-driven world of law, that’s a very different skill set. Ping will have to convince clients it’s worth switching to not just for the time savings and revenue boost, but for deep data on how they could run a more efficient firm.

Along the way, Ping has to avoid any embarrassing data breaches or concerns about how its scanning technology could violate attorney-client privilege. If it can win this lucrative first business in legal, it could barge into the consulting and accounting verticals next to grow truly huge.

With eager customers, a massive market, a weak status quo, and a driven founder, Ping just needs to avoid getting in over its heads with all its new cash. Spent well, the startup could leap ahead of the less tech-savvy competition.

Alshak seems determined to get it right. “We have an opportunity to build a company that gives people back their most valuable resource — time — to spend more time with their loved ones because they spent less time working” he tells me. “My mom will live forever because she taught me the value of time. I am deeply motivated to build something that lasts . . . and do so in her name.”

[culturespotting]

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