#I should probably make a tag for these text posts

[bonesandblood-sunandmoon]

Tumblr has been working on implementing a Communities feature here, and they've gotten to a Closed Beta stage. There's more details in this post, but basically, some people will be getting emails with information about filling out a form if they're interested in a community and ideas will be selectively approved and created. There will be a community member cap while in Closed Beta, and taking part in feedback will probably be inevitable.

I'm honestly not sure if there's an underlying reason for who gets sent emails or if I was randomly chosen, but I have the opportunity to fill out a potential community form. Someone would have to approve it, and at this stage, allowing duplicates or communities that are very nearly duplicated with minor differences will probably be unlikely. Considering the tag spamming in Jumblr, I thought it might be a good idea to suggest some sort of Jewish themed Community.

If anyone else has gotten an email about creating a Community and has had this idea, I would absolutely like a response about it. (I have no idea if this is a 'first come, first serve' sort of thing, but I'd rather not make a duplicate suggestion.)

There is a note in the email that not every suggestion will be approved, and they're looking for a spread of different types of Communities. However, it also can't hurt to at least put forward the suggestion.

I haven't looked at the form in great detail yet, but it will probably ask for a name, description, community guidelines, and if the Community will be public or private.

Name: I'm not 100% sold on using 'Jumblr', 'Jewish', or 'Judaism' since those are so broad and general. However, if enough people like using 'Jumblr' or something that does seem personally broad, it's still on the table for consideration.

Description: A space for Jewish Tumblrites...? (Jews of Tumblr?) To be determined, really. (Should it be a space also open to gentile allies? Probably see the private vs public section.)

Community guidelines: Some will be the usual matters of what posts will not be allowed, how to tag for certain topics, and what conduct could lead to being removed from the comm. Specific guidelines to this comm are definitely where I'd appreciate some degree of input, though.

For example, it's entirely possible that someone interested in joining this potential Jewish themed Community will want to avoid examples of antisemitism. Does this look like a guideline about not posting antisemitic anon hate or reblogging conversations with antisemitic responses in the reblog chain into the Community? Does this look like needing to use a specific tag so other community members can blacklist or use Tumblr's filtering feature? What if someone wants to talk about antisemitism they've recently faced?

The Israel-Hamas war. Do the community members want a space free from news updates? Or would a guideline about not showing gory imagery or videos, but allowing text only updates, be alright? (Do community members want a space free from larger I/P discussions? Or as long it's tagged for filtering purposes, do they want to be able to talk about I/P without having trolls and random antisemites wander into the replies/reblogs?)

Zionism. I don't want this to be another space where people face the 'are you a Good Jew or a Bad Jew' sort of questioning. However, does this look like a statement in the description welcoming everyone including Zionists, or does there need to be a guideline about talking about anti-/non-/Zionism within the Community?

Other: I don't know what the community member cap will be in the beginning, so I have no idea whether there'll be a need for mods immediately or not. The only language I'm comfortable doing any modding in is English, so at the very least, I'd probably need someone who knows Hebrew at some point.

Public or private: I like the idea of a public community that's not dissimilar to the Jumblr tag, but you know, I'm not sure about how comfortable community members will be with a public community given the compilation of blocklists based on interacting with a particular post/user.

From the Communities Help page:

Public communities can be seen and visited by non-members, logged in or logged out. However, only the feed of posts in each community tab, and the About page, are accessible. Non-members cannot view the member list, see who reacted with what, or see community comments. Non-members with an invite can see everything a member can see, but cannot interact with anything until they accept the invitation. Private communities cannot be seen or visited by non-members at all. The existence of a private community is not hidden, however, if someone has the URL (they’ll see a message like “this is a private community”). Non-members with an invite can see everything a member can see, but cannot interact with anything until they accept the invitation.

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Not directly related but notable enough to mention: I can easily imagine that some people will not be enthusiastic that I'm volunteering for this effort. This is the main associated with a conversion sideblog, but I have not felt comfortable with revealing my sideblog, especially after October 7th. However, I don't think a Tumblr Community can be associated with a secondary account, so I can't really change that my not-really-Jewish-looking account is the one associated with this idea. If someone likes this idea but still would rather have someone else try to implement it, I guess we'll cross that bridge if we get there in the response to this.

[dukestewart]

I actually have a question, I'm wanting to start a webcomic at some point in the future myself, do you have any recommendations or advice for me?

Okay, I have a million things to say on the subject but to save you a lot of scrolling I’ll cut it down to the main things I wish I knew when starting my webcomic.

Don’t overprepare

It’s easy to fall into the trap of perfecting your art style or developing your character arcs before you actually, like, make the thing. The truth is you get diminishing returns on the pre-production phase, and too much planning will just waste your time. I once wrote an entire script and sketched out 200 pages for a graphic novel version of my webcomic Roundhouse, 90% of which is now redundant or contradictory. Probably took me hundreds of hours. Whoops. Make a basic plot line and some concept pictures by all means, you gotta start with something, but you’ll be much more motivated to make the comic when you’re already making it.

Collect references

This might sound kind of contradictory to my previous advice but bear with me. It’s important to prioritise creation over planning but gathering a compendium of your favourite artworks and writing techniques will save you time in the long run. If I’m ever stuck on how to draw a certain expression for example I know I have a folder full of expertly drawn faces to remind me how nostrils work. Personally I keep separate reference folders for colour, anatomy and character designs. Fantastic cure for artist’s block, swear by it.

Get someone to proofread

You have no idea how important it is to get a second opinion. No one in the history of media has ever been better off without a different pair of eyes to catch a mistake. They’ll see the obvious things you missed, a typo, a pacing issue, a joke that makes no sense… if you’re embarrassed to show it to anyone in your life then get an internet friend to have a look. Hell, I’ll have a look. Send me a message, I’m easy.

Even the most talented creators struggle to be seen

A good comic will always have a better chance of success than a crap one but that’s only a part of the equation. We’re forgetting our two troublesome neighbours, Monsieur Marketing and Lady Luck. It stinks, but we operate in an algorithm-based economy, and getting things out there takes a lot of hard research. I hate the marketing side of things, personally. I’d much rather make a page every week and not care whether it’s seen or not but such is the nature of capitalism that I have to try and monetise my work any way I can. Knowing someone in the business can’t hurt either.

Look, I’ll never be able to condense everything I know about webcomics in a single post so consider this my declaration to give advice to anyone who asks for it. Got a specific question about comics? Message me.

[bitterflames]

"fei liu's surname is fei" "feiliu has no surname" i propose a third, stupider option: feiliu's surname is either mei or lin, but lin chen and mei changsu refuse to agree on which. it's like the schrödinger's cat of surnames. it's both simultaneously until someone asks (and depends on which one of his dubious quasi-parental figures you ask).

[korattata]

PLEEEASSSEEE look at my neopet's lookup i just spent way way way way wayyyyy too long on :3 https://www.neopets.com/petlookup.phtml?pet=Pixelium

you can't see lookups unless you're logged in tho so screenshot under the cut but they fixed animations on lookups so it's kinda cool to see the very slight animation

[theneighborhoodwatch]

update on my neocities wiki idea (or at least, non-fandom.com wiki idea): was mulling over which info i would want to have in the main article for each character (generally, anything that can be found within the site itself) and what i would want to relegate to the trivia section (generally, anything that can only be found via word of god, at least for the time being) and that got me thinking about the livestream trivia i managed to gather. so, question for y'all:

[wings-of-waffles]

clay's siblings headcanon/rewrite

So the aging system in wings of fire kinda sucks. That's why i like to give all my dragons their equivalent human age when i write with them. The problem with this, is when a character's age is treated inconsistently within the series. This has forced me to resort to an increasingly random series of rewrites and headcanons, starting with this:

Umber, Marsh, and Sora are half-siblings to Clay, Reed, Crane and Pheasant, and are several years younger than the others. This would make them teens, an age that actually makes sense for them to be attending JMA (a middle/high school) while their brother is also actively working there.

The two clutches were merged because of the younger three's clutch being either a) abnormally small right out of the gate or b) killed off by either i) disease or ii) collateral damage from the war when they were younger.

I'm sure there are still continuity problems with it but it's better than the 18 YEAR OLD wanting to pursue a relationship with a 14 YEAR OLD because the author forgot how their own system works and just said "eh they're both teens, right? uhhhhh close enough"

This isn't meant to be hate towards the series/author, I still love this series. However I am very aware of how messy it can get in places because I have devoted so much time to writing and thinking about it.

[quinn-pop]

Mayta Knight 17-19

17 - Vs. Galacta

this is the result of me trying to avoid drawing a fight scene

18 - Unmasked

the most found family ever

19 - Kirby

[verraising]

me yelling at myself to just FUCKING level a tank already so i can finish the shb role quests

[l1ghtn1ngstr1kez]

i think i've been lurking around tumblr long enough... it's about time make myself known and actually use this blog!

[jacksintention]

I'm thinking again on the fact that so often comments, criticism and readings on Jack dwell a lot on how he is barely human/a person/doesn't have a personality at the point of the story and, while I somewhat understand these points, I find them so lacking. I find them... ableist? I'm always doubtful to use the word here because I'm not sure if it's applied in this kind (mental health) of context, but something like that. And I find them extremely simplistic.

However, honestly, a big part of the reason for these readings being so popular is that the manga itself words it that way. But that's one of the problems I find in the manga. When I say P.andora Hear.ts is very good but unfortunately it is very manga-like at times, besides the 2000s homojokes and the like, I'm usually thinking about things like this. I feel like often characters and situations that are (potentially) very intricate instead of getting insightful deep overviews often get screwed by the writing itself, which falls into very manga tropes a lot in a bad way (not that every manga has to fall into them, or that every manga trope has to be bad or written badly).

I don't know... For instance, I'd argue R.askolnikov's capacity for love in Cr.ime and Punishmen.t is debatable, but it's never treated as if it made him less of a person, a human being or made him not have a personality. I'd say not even Svidrigailo.v, who is as much a Bad Guy™ as a character can be, gets that treatment by the writing. I'd say that even him or Mikol.ka are written as fully fleshed human beings with their intricate internal lives and feelings. Svidrig.ailov's last scene with D.unya is fascinating for both characters and spins the whole dynamic and makes you question the entire narrative and veracity of not only those two characters, but brings to mind several other conversations among different characters and throws light (and doubt!) on the main plot between R.askolnikov and Porf.iry.

In similar situations, Jack's humanity, personhood and personality are debated, doubted and even full on accepted as vanished. No one reads Crim.e and Punishmen.t and comes to the same conclusions about Raskolni.kov, Svidrig.ailov, Sony.a or Razu.mikhin. The writing doesn't allow it. The writing doesn't allow you to forget that humanity is diverse and multifaceted, that it can be sad and cruel and loving and monstrous, even all at the same time, or that a person may struggle with feeling at all; and one is still a person.

[olive-riggzey]

Listen. I haven't even finished chapter 4 of Ulysses and I'm going absolutely feral and need to ramble before I explode

The first sentence. THE FIRST FOUR WORDS. Am I reading too much into it? Maybe. But I will die on the hill that the first four words starting with the letters S, P, B, and M are referencing the main(?) characters. Stephen, Poldy, Buck, Molly. Please let that be intentional because holy FRICK I can't get over it

Stephen indirectly describing Buck Mulligan as what can be interpreted to reference the Trojan Horse??? Absolutely incredible. Also Buck is so unhinged and falls into my favorite trope of "Man that always loudly clowns around is also very witty and gives off vibes that make you not quite want to trust him" AND HE'S A MED STUDENT. (I promised I would try to push Faulkner out of my brain but come on. There's no way Faulkner wasn't vaguely referencing Buck and Stephen when he wrote Shreve and Quentin. I mean maybe it's just a coincidence but I'm pretty sure Faulkner went to Paris on his honeymoon specifically to try and find Joyce to meet him.)

"Yes, my love?" adsfhasfAHDAHFOAIFHOIAF ON FREAKING PAGE 4 YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!! And referencing Wilde??? Also Hamlet??? Absolutely lost my mind when Buck told Haines that Stephen "proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own father." Because WHAT. WHY ALGEBRA.

Just. The prose in general. Absolutely obsessed with the way the writing slowly gets taken over by Stephen's thoughts to the point that it's almost entirely internal with a few external things scattered here and there.

Anyways I'm going to have to physically restrain myself from reading ahead because I'm supposed to stay on pace with the rest of the class but. What if I just read as far as I want and then go back and read again to make sure I don't reference too far out. Because this is 100000% a resurfacing hyperfixation on books of this sort and I'd like to entertain it for a while longer.

[aimless-passerby]

Need a separate list of fics where hobbits don't praise Yavanna on each occasion 😭

[forlorn-plushie]

My fantasy heartbreaker project has bug-people 'fairies' as a species. They're MTG-color-pie Red, and so I've named the red-like (blasting) magic "carmine", a color named for an insect from which dye is made

[the-nightmare-theater]

why is this bed so hard to draw its literally furniture

[iseel1]

I just saw Barbie, and I thought that it was pretty good

[sanstropfremir]

I love the fact that Yunho stayed true to his artistry throughout the years. Sadly the same can’t be said for younger male idols like Taemin or Kai, in my opinion, who strayed so far away from what we saw of them doing in their groups. And it got me thinking; how much of it is them and how much of it is SM’s marketing strategy? How can their group self and solo self be soooo different? For me they’re not selling their solo self well enough to convince me that that them you know what I am? It feels almost like they’re acting (yes, every performer acts a little bit) but with Kai and Taemin it looks like they’re both playing a role…