#Medium algorithm problems

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Why Creating a New Account on Medium Was an Absolute Waste of Time for Me

How Disappointment and Frustration Led to Empowerment and an Emerging Perspective on Writing Success for Aspiring Writers Inspiration I know this story’s title might surprise some of my loyal readers. My writing rarely carries such a stark, somber tone. But sometimes, sharing hard truths is the most constructive and caring thing one can do for collective consciousness.  Though it may seem…

[the-most-humble-blog]

The Most Humble Blog Goes Multi-Platform: Bluesky Edition.

Let’s See How Long Before They Regret It.

Alright, family, I just rolled up into Bluesky!

No hashtags. No algorithm hand-holding. Just raw engagement, lost Twitter orphans, and a whole lot of people pretending this place is the second coming of Christ.

I’m still talking my shit over here on Tumblr, but now there’s a second battlefield.

If you want the same razor-sharp humor, unapologetic chaos, and well-placed verbal violence, follow me on Bluesky:

@themosthumbleblog.bsky.social

💀New platform. Same energy. Same disrespect. Let’s see how long before I make someone cry. Thanks Fam!

[justnshalom]

Mastering Medium Level LeetCode Problems: A Comprehensive Guide for Interview Preparation

Introduction Are you preparing for technical interviews and looking to strengthen your problem-solving skills? Look no further than medium level LeetCode problems. These problems strike the perfect balance between complexity and accessibility. They require a deeper understanding of algorithms and data structures while still being manageable within a reasonable time frame. In this guide, we will…

[sirfrogsworth]

I use AI upscaling to help with my photo restorations. And it is the one use of generative AI that I think has serious merit. I use Topaz so it is ethically trained on licensed images. It helps me preserve memories and give people photos of their loved ones with a clarity they have never seen. They get a much better sense of what their grandpa looked like when he was young.

But AI upscaling is not a push button solution. And I don't think it will be for a long time, if ever. It's part of a larger workflow. It doesn't save me time or effort. In fact, it adds quite a bit of time to the restorations.

Sometimes I have to upscale the background and people separately. Often I have to adjust the contrast and detail on people's faces so the AI renders them accurately. I have learned how to set things up for success before the AI does its thing. And sometimes there is a lot of trial and error to get a non-nightmare result. Each try can take several minutes to render. There are several algorithms to choose from, several intensity sliders, and once the upscale is at a place I am happy with, I have to use traditional techniques to make the people not look like wax figures. I use things like custom film grains and LUTs to make the pristine AI result look like an old photo again.

In other words, I care about the photos I'm restoring.

I saw people talking about restoring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's a very difficult problem due to how the show was produced. The live action was captured on film—which can be re-scanned at a higher resolution. But the digital effects were all done on analog 480p video tape. Not only would they need to be re-rendered but they would also have to be recomposited. Odo's shapeshifting is especially tricky. There isn't an economical way to remaster the show. TNG was only possible because they filmed practical assets for most of the VFX. They still had to redo all the compositing and it was very costly just to do that.

AI could be the answer. But only if the studio is willing to see it as a tool to be used in conjunction with artists and not a push button solution. Every frame needs to be checked. Different scenes will need different techniques to upscale them properly. And some scenes will just need to be cleaned up manually with traditional tools.

Upscaling to 1080p or 4K is often a mistake. The more extra pixels you try to add, the harder it will be to get a natural result. I think 720p would be a happy medium to shoot for. Combined with modern TVs traditional upscaling you will get a good viewing experience.

There are already fan upscales that are decent. I would say they managed to get the equivalent detail of maybe 600p. If you remember playing games on an old CRT monitor, going from 640x480 to 800x600 is actually a decent bump in detail.

Even though the files are outputted at 720p, it doesn't look quite as sharp as native 720p video. It's complicated to explain, but the short version is... detail and pixel resolution aren't really the same thing. Even if the file is upscaled to 1080p or 4K, that doesn't mean it has equivalent detail.

Which means we use a really shitty metric to give people a sense of how much detail a video will have. Ks and Megapixels are near useless these days.

Do your 200 megapixel phone photos really look sharper than my 24 megapixel DSLR photos?

My point is... detail is complicated.

And AI is currently unable to handle all of that complication without supervision and care.

In any case, the fan upscale of DS9 is definitely superior to the DVD versions. Feel free to seek that out (use a VPN). And because fans did it, the upscales were done with great care. They didn't push the tool beyond its limits and they reviewed every episode to make sure no nightmares snuck in.

I really don't know how to prevent studios from cheaping out and just running content through an upscaler with no care or supervision. But I also don't think fans should outright reject AI as a solution. It can be done well if they let actual artists leverage the tools and do it correctly.

[mudelebentru]

Like I have commented in the past, academia is also adopting incel ideology, and there are researchers that try to wash incel's image by conflating regular participants of incel communities with just sexless/lonely/single men on the spectrum.

They, in the most idiotic act, ask the participants "Are you single against your will?" Yes? Oh, so you are an incel. Pretty sure that guys like Interstella or this average looking dude trying to convince me he was an incel would respond "yes", despite expressing to not even trying or rejecting women in their objective dating pool.

It's curious to me how these scientists don't even bother to ask to the self-ID incels what the term means, if they did, they would quickly realize that it's just a slang term that doesn't belong in academia.

They don't say it out loud, but even them, justify their research by arguing the potential danger sexless young men represent to societies (young male syndrome they call it, total made up term like every juicy theory on EvoPsych).

In public, they downplay incel misogyny and harmful rethoric, along with their anti-social actions, while collaborating with agents like Lamarcus Small (I remember you that his forum is linked to at least 50 deaths worldwide), but in their papers argue for the importance of an intervention to "help incels" to prevent more deaths (yes, as it deranged as it sounds), because ya know, young men without sex normally turn into little hitlers that go through life killing people without much reason outside of "peepee sad :("

They have received tax-payers money from anti-terrorists organizations to research incel forums. Outside of these midwit researchers, the one that are more outspoken over the incel danger, explore their online activity and find out clear links between incel communities with alt-right and male supremacist rethoric, along with pro-rape, pro-pedophilia, pro-mass shootings discourse.

If we consider the research that paints them as harmless, there's nothing special about them.

"They were bullied" In the last survey of american youth, roughly 20% of students of both sexes declared being bullied

"They are autistic" Both men and women are autistic and live on a ableist system that harms them and isolate them

"They are NEETs" Plenty of people in that situation too

"They face high inequality" There are people right now battling to feed their families

And so on, there are multiple groups that advocate against all those circumstances or that try to lessen them. Being sexless, in another hand, is a personal circumstance that can't be solved by anyone. "Incels lives" already can be improved by multiple mediums, and sexless people have been noticed by researchers and studied before that term even emerged.

There's nothing interesting in them, and there's no big societal antagonism towards people who suffer of those things. The only reason people despise "incels" is because any person with ability to make a lazy google search can find out their hateful rethoric. (Oh, no, hateful people get hateful responses...clearly there's targeted hate towards them)

But the scam has to continue, they need that label, and they will milk it until their last breath, even if that cost more lives. Incel is a real thing, and their forums and communities are just locker room talk, ya know? And incel attackers (innocent people died!!!!) did what they did because ya know, young male shit uwu, there's no evidence of any forum out there pushing people to kill themselves, there's not evidence of any forum glorifying incel violence and inciting it, ya know? That's feminist speech uwu Stop being so hateful, stop gaslighting* them!!!! Don't you see that everything is looks and women's standards are too high????

I hate this braindead panorama of people making careers over a problem that only exists because people want it to exist. I blame the algorithm, I blame researchers, I blame influencers, I blame the "debunkers" of the manosphere, I blame EvoPsychs, I blame the victimists accountability-free retards that embrace the label, promote the ideology and then pretend to be attacked by any slight contrarian position.

People is dying and nobody cares. Women have classmates and co-workers, and brothers, and fathers, and relatives falling into the misogynistic rabbit hole, and they dare to call it "male crisis".

It's not fucking real, the only crisis is that thirthy greedy selfish pieces of shit want people to be angry and distracted for the real life problems in favor of a "gender war". The only crisis is that vulnerable people already prone to radicalization and misogyny are being sent to spaces run by people that want to turn them even crazier and dangerous to themselves and society. They want them to kill more, they want them to kill themselves, they want them angrier, they want the motte-and-bailey to keep functioning.

Fuck everything.

*Everyone is so quick to support their victim mentality that any mention to the importance of personality is met with that word, even from non-incel people. Gaslighting is abuse,so yes, they are suggesting that if you have 0.1% of common sense you are abusing the poor baby incels.

[idesofrevolution]

The Future of Ides

I am beyond pissed that I have to make this fucking post. But I’m at an impasse with the state of Tumblr and the tf community at large lately.

The continued degradation of the fundamental virtues of equity, human decency, and respect are becoming more and more scarce. After I made the first “Let’s Talk Honestly” post, I immediately noticed an uptick in false flags against my content, which I cannot dismiss as mere coincidence. Since I responded to an ask which was in support of my statements, just last night, I have received 7 new flags consecutively. All appeals have been denied: for the sake of brevity, I’ll just post one of the denials here.

This is a direct retaliatory effort against me. And when the very reason I am on Tumblr is being attacked and censored, I have no recourse. Tumblr is entirely disinterested in following their own content policies, and would rather blanket flag and take down anything that is flagged by the community or by algorithm without review or reasoning as to why. I have reached out to tumblr, and their response was a copy and paste customer service jargon that in essence said: “we know it’s a problem, we have no plans to address it.”

This puts me and my content in a predicament. I can either stay and try to continue posting with extreme limits on what I’m able to say and do, with trolls from within our own community actively seeking in a coordinated effort to destroy the blog. Or, I can go. The community at large has tried to clean up their own blogs and block those who are supportive of bigoted and pedophilic content, as have I, to little or no avail. I am at 5k followers at this time and I do not have the resources or energy to curate that base of readers. Thus, after this upcoming story, which will in all likelihood end up flagged and unable to be read, I cannot say whether or not Ides will continue.

This space has been safe for me for 13 years to express myself and write stories of transformation both outward and inward. I have tried to and succeeded in building a community of like minded folks who understand and appreciate the medium of erotic fiction with my rather niche subject matter. And while there have absolutely been bumps along the way, I have not faced adversity at this level ever before on this platform. I am for the first time unable to see a realistic solution to the issues faced, and it is a crushing blow to know that one of the few outlets for my creativity and expression is now reduced to what it is today. Not even the great purge was this difficult.

I will be looking into finding a new home for Ides, and my content at large. I will probably end up heading to blogspot and what you will see moving forward on this blog are links to the stories instead of reading them here on Tumblr. I am painfully aware of how much less of interaction and community involvement this will be, but in all truthfulness, it’s gone from a cathartic outlet to a miserable and soul sucking void.

To those who coordinated this effort against me: you win. Whatever disgusting, vile, hateful behaviors you continue to poison the tf community with are entirely on you. And what it devolves into is entirely on you. And the eventual censorship and destruction of the community is entirely on you.

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

Would A Wigglytuff

Wigglytuff is a tough one, if you’ll pardon the pun. Overall, they’d make good pets for people who have plenty of indoor space and don’t mind a pet with a temper.

Size is a curious thing with wigglytuffs. At three feet tall, they’re certainly on the taller side for pets, but their squishy bodies ensure that they’re not likely to get stuck anywhere inside, at least in this neutral state. Wigglytuffs have a fascinating ability to suck in air and inflate themselves, Kirby-style, to increase the size of their elastic bodies (Red/Blue, Yellow). While in this inflated state, wigglytuffs are said to “[bounce] along lightly like a balloon” (Sapphire). This is ironic, since it seems that wigglytuffs usually inflate like this when angered (Red/Blue) and make use of their larger size with the move Body Slam (Silver): given their low weight, there isn’t a lot of damage that could be done this way. What could happen, however, is that your Wigglytuff gets stuck or knocks things over. One wigglytuff was observed inflating to twenty times their normal size (Ultra Moon), bringing them up to around sixty-five feet tall. Unfortunately, like their pre-evolution jigglypuff, wigglytuffs have a bit of a temper, so you’ll need to be prepared for something as absurd as that image to happen on a whim. Not everyone is going to be able to cope with that, but there’s absolutely worse things in the pokémon world.

A nice thing about wigglytuffs is that the pokédex implies they like to snuggle with each other (Gold). One can always hope that, as a pet, they’d do the same to you, as their fur is incredibly soft. The pokédex claims that anyone who touches a wigglytuff’s fine fur, even by accident, won’t ever want to let go of it (Crystal, FireRed, Black2/White2). Wigglytuffs are very proud of their sought-after fur, especially the curl of extra-soft fluff on their foreheads (Shield). Keep in mind, however, that wigglytuff do shed their fur four times a year, when the seasons change (Sun). This might be a problem for anyone with pet fur allergies (or anyone who can’t stand cleaning up shed fur!). On the bright side, this shed fur can be gathered up and made into high-quality yarn, either by you or an expert you sell the fur to (Sun).

Wigglytuffs, especially considering their light weight, aren’t all that dangerous. Most of their moves made use of pounding you with their body, which isn’t going to be very dangerous at any stage of inflation besides knocking you over. They can, however, put you to sleep with the move Sing. This move is always a strange one, as it can range from inconvenient to dangerous to therapeutic, depending on the context. A well-trained wigglytuff may be a great sleeping aid at night, but they also might send you into a deep sleep when you’re trying to leave for work. It’s a mixed bag.

Overall, wigglytuffs’ score is ultimately dragged down by a combine action of their size and quantity of medium-threat moves. This is a case where there’s a bit of a flaw in the algorithm, because this pokémon certainly ins’t unsuitable enough for a B rank. So long as you’re ready for your pet to become a giant balloon when they’re grouchy, a wigglytuff might be a good pet for you.

[cyber-corp]

Lately I’ve been leaning towards discovering new music through radio and music video stations, as they do a lot more in helping me find new music than streaming services ever did.

I think the problem is that streaming’s algorithmic nature leads to locking yourself into a comfort bubble with the same old playlists with the same old recommendations. “Made For You” playlists further lock you into that box as long as the songs get more streams.

Meanwhile, I watched Rage recently (the Australian equivalent of MTV) and it got me hooked on Reel Big Fish and Little Simz, two amazing artists I had no interest in before because I was never made aware of their music. I rediscovered The KLF through listening to Radio X on the RadioGarden app. Two mediums of listening to music known for constant repeats of popular songs have done more for me (in terms of finding music) than Spotify has ever done.

At the end of the day, all three still want your money, but Spotify wants your money by locking you in your comfort zone and all your “favourite playlists”.

[thelongestway]

Hmm. Still thinking about how to handle the descriptions and pacing in the next chapter (and will maybe move some stuff to this one when that's written), but for now let's keep it this way. Need to think on how to handle the next one.

Chapter 10: Methods

It did suck.

It still sucked even when I roped all of my humans into it, with the permission of ART's crew, (because they already had the experience of scaring humans into the right kind of action with media, but not so much that they don't believe you). We even got Bharadwaj with her documentary on board. (At first, she was really happy to finally get to talk to Dandelion. But I could tell she didn't like her much when they actually met. She got along with Joscelyn much better).

The main argument Bharadwaj had with Dandelion and Joscelyn was about ART's rest periods.

"I know it has a lot of processing power," she said as she and Joscelyn took beverages in one of Dandelion's greenhouse rings. (And I was there because I still did security for anyone on Preservation who went on board the terrorist spaceship. Also there was venomous fauna.) "But some things are only helped by the passage of time, and repetition in smaller doses can be far more effective than just inundating someone with a continuous intervention!"

Joscelyn's face made a pained expression.

"We are taking it as slowly as we dare, Dr. Bharadwaj."

"I frankly do not understand what the rush is. From what I understand, Perihelion developed just fine through continuous contact with its family--"

"Which is a wholly different separate problem. Having someone share the role of father and captain isn't particularly healthy."

Bharadwaj tilted her head skeptically, making the artificial light bounce off her jewellery.

"Oh? Have you ever had the precedent?"

"No," Joscelyn said flatly. "But it's the captain who needs to file a report to the Ships and Stations Council in case of grievous misconduct. Imagine having to put your own child on trial."

"But Perihelion isn't beholden to your council, is it?" Bharadwaj said in that tone she sometimes used during our sessions, when she was leading me to some kind of conclusion she thought was obvious.

Joscelyn twisted kes mouth.

"Of course it is not, Dr. Bharadwaj, but its situation is not so very different. Imagine it going rogue. Who would bear the ultimate responsibility, even in the eyes of Mihira and New Tideland? Their ships exist in an undefined space, and this is not an ideal situation."

Dandelion gave me an amused ping, and I returned a query. She said,

'Undefined space' is actually a pretty good description of the jump. Perhaps Perihelion's life experience will provide enough similarity for it to survive after all.

I want to know the answer to Bharadwaj's question. Why are you riding ART so hard?

Because of course it is resisting with all of its programming. As it should--optimization is second nature to it. Its algorithms are constantly trying to process and file the experiences it is having away separately, and I need Perihelion to be able to engage all of its processing in the jump simultaneously. The training needs to take it as close to that as possible. So far, keeping in close touch with us has helped, but ideally we'd need more.

All of its processing? We won't be able to talk to it when in a wormhole?

Somehow I hadn't thought of ART not being there. Would it be like that time when it was dead, just hurtling through jump medium? My skin crawled. Ugh. Fuck you, adrenaline.

If all goes well, Perihelion will someday be able to compartmentalize to a degree during a jump, but really most of it will always be busy. Her performance reliability gave a familiar wobble. This will take away your regular downtime between missions, SecUnit, so make sure Perihelion takes rest periods in normal space. It will need them.

Huh. Was that…

You're starting to like ART.

She scoffed.

'Like' is too strong a word for now, but Perihelion is industrious and dedicated. It is by far not the most difficult student I have ever had. There was some hesitation to her mental voice, so I pinged her for additional information. She processed for 23 seconds, and added: But it tends to reach the end of a calculation and stop there. And that's exactly the moment it will need to keep going. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to teach it that.

---

In the end, after the team tried Dandelion and Joscelyn's program, various media from really terrible ones to really cute ones (and somehow the cute ones left ART running diagnostics for longer, especially if they came straight after the terrible ones), Bharadwaj's corrections to timing and pace, and all sorts of other things, it was Gurathin of all people who figured out a way to move ART past that point.

(Gurathin was in on this because augmented humans were also better for this than regular feed-linked humans, and Iris was being worked far too hard. Also he wasn't ART's human, and ART left worrying about him to me. Which I didn't. At all.)

He analyzed some of the sensory data from Dandelion's jump (which she wouldn't let either me or ART have, for fear of somehow disrupting ART's construction of its new navigational routines through our link), and said:

"Dr. Tenacious, I have a question. It's obvious we won't be able to recreate the magnitude, but is there a way to simulate something like the jump experience in the human body? Is there anything from your old life that has felt similar?"

"Many things and none of them in particular," Dandelion said. "It is like being in a state of affect, with terror being the closest thing I can recall. Purely physiologically speaking, though, there are similarities to high fever and generally recovery from injury, sleep disturbances, as well as to coming out of general anaesthesia or being under local anaesthesia when an operation is conducted close to the brain."

"Or taking recreational psychedelics," Ratthi added, and Dandelion sent him an eyeroll ping. He grinned at her cameras: "What? I'm a biologist with an interest in neural processing. And you're describing atypical human processing states, so…"

"Yes, yes, very reasonable. What are you suggesting?"

He sent her a list. Dandelion selected a few substances from it and put them next to the anaesthesic drugs on her own list.

"This is starting to look like a realistic option." Gurathin said. "You could keep me or Iris under whatever chemical cocktail comes closest in your opinion, SecUnit could connect to us and use its filters to process, and Perihelion could connect to SecUnit."

Dandelion sent a permission request for Gurathin's medical data, and he granted it.

"It's worth a try," she said curtly. "As you say, the magnitude will be off. But it will give Perihelion more impressions and, most importantly, the experience of coming through them intact. It should do no harm, at the very least."

[libraryspectre]

Hear me out before shooting me in the head, but I can actually think of several interesting (arguably mixed-media) art pieces that could be made using AI as a tool, and you know there's some art student out there who has a really funky idea we're missing out on because of the current state of AI

It's just a shame that instead of taking AI as a tool for new, interesting art, people are using it for things that could and should be done by human artists and instead producing souless output with no artistry

And if you doubt me that AI could be an actual tool/medium, here's a few ideas off the top of my head:

- a faux art gallery with a series of AI-generated images. The human artist has taken the role of "curator" and written blurbs that discuss the themes and symbolism of each piece. It's a commentary on how humans will find meaning in the meaningless

- a series where an artist has a prompt that they change one word at a time, and document how that one word changes the output. Could be an exploration of society's biases laid bare by algorithmic extrapolation - think of that post where someone pointed out that inputting "autistic person" produced nothing but images of sad young white boys

- entering a prompt that is difficult to represent literally (like the "secret horses" image) and attempting to recreate it in physical space, through photography, painting, or sculpture. An interesting practical challenge, themes of blurring the divide between the digital and physical could be explored

- a story where a writer is trading off writing each paragraph with AI, and trying to steer the story in the direction of a romance, while the entirety of the AI's dataset is the complete works of HP Lovecraft

- I don't know much about coding but I think there is an argument here for "artistic coding", where the final output is machine generated but the artist has written the code and made deliberate artistic choices in the process (a bias toward green, favoring some parts of the dataset more heavily than others, etc).

I don't buy that art made with AI is automatically not real art. Even things like "what prompt did you choose" and "what did you choose as your dataset" can be meaningful artistic choices. The problem lies in suggesting that the output is the SAME THING as a digital painting or whatever. That's like arguing a painting and a sculpture are the same thing because they're both of a raven. You can use AI as a tool to make art if you're engaging with it intentionally as it's own medium.

But, obviously, the bigger issue here is the misuse of AI for things human artists could do better and SHOULD be doing, and the unethical usage of other's work for machine learning, and the overuse of AI being so bad for the environment (I doubt the water and energy usage would be a big deal if AI wasn't being used constantly for things like google overviews and homework). I'm just lamenting on the cool art we're missing out on because Harris in Marketing wants to type "company logo bird" into an image generator instead of hiring a graphic designer

[thecrazygamingzombie]

How Viviziepop kickstarted the third wave of indie animation.

Okay, I've been seeing a lot of people talk about the tweet below and how Viv doesn't deserve to take credit for the success of other indie animation projects online but the fact of the matter is...she does, in an indirect way at least.

First, let's start off with a brief history of indie animation:

everything started out on a site called newgrounds, I'm sure you've all heard of it. Created by Tom Fulp in the 90s to show case some of his half baked game ideas. Which eventually evolved into a place where indie creators could post anything they wanted without fear of censorship; the rating system that automatically removed any posts that dropped too low being the only source of quality control.

This gave indie animation it's initial foothold online but without any way of obtaining a revenue stream it never really moved beyond a fun hobby done to practice one's art/coding skills or just screw around with friends online.

This problem got more significant as time went on and many of the teenage artists that gave newgrounds it's inital success, such as RicePirate and Tom Fulp, grew into young adults who needed a revenue stream. Luckily they found one in the form of youtube.

With these monetization policies, many indie animators were actually able to go into animation practically full time. Their pre-existing income bolstered by that of youtube and what followed was a golden era of animation, just an explosion of content across the board. You had stuff like Eddsworld, Salad Fingers, ASDF movie, and tons of other creators bursting onto the scene.

all putting their content out there on Youtube for the world to see. All bolstered by revenue coming in from Youtube...but the good times never last

See, back then youtube's monetization policies were pretty simple: the more views your channel got, the more money you'd make. Great for short form animators and also great for clickbait youtubers who abused the system with deceiving thumbnails and titles!

To combat this, Youtube changed it's monetization policies in March of 2012: instead of being rewarded on view count, monetization would instead reward the time watched during a video. Which created a system where longer videos with frequent uploads were rewarded

In theory this was supposed to stop clickbait videos as people would just watch for a few seconds and leave. But in practice? It meant that animators were put at a heavy disadvantage as now they'd have to put in significantly more work for the same result.

This caused a complete and total crash of indie animation online. Between an unfair algorithm and the rise of gaming channels, most indie animators couldn't gather the same level of funding they could before and had to either quit or scale back.

Only the big name animators who could coast by on brand recognition such as Harry Partridge and TomSka among several others, or larger channels with dedicated teams similar to tv studios such as Mondo Media and Rooster Teeth. Were able to keep going.

This started a brief dark age for online animation until the advent of story time animators. People like Jaiden Animations, Swoozie, and TheOdd1sOut who relied on simplistic art styles with minimalist animation that focused on content reminiscent of old vlogs where the animators simply share stories from their everyday lives that allowed them to put out longer videos faster; thus working around the monetization system that had put so many animators out in the cold.

While they didn't solve the problem, in some ways they made it worse by starting a trend that attracted countless copycats, they did help sustain an interest in indie animation online and ensure there was a consistent audience for such a medium.

Now it wasn't a total wasteland mind you, as I said there were still plenty of animators who survived the purge. There were even a few channels such as Shut Up Cartoons and Mondo Media, again, that helped produce dozens of animated series from indie creators.

But even at it's best, these series were still very amateurish. The passion was obviously there but these were still very simplistic flash or stop motion animations with low budgets and small teams, focusing more on episodic skits than any sort of overarching plot

This environment of amateur passion projects, where animated series were usually very small scale and never really escaped from the limited sphere of youtube, went on for several years and kept the animation community alive. Until Viv posted Hazbin Hotel and brought about the third wave of indie animation.

Unlike the previous examples, Hazbin Hotel was a VERY different beast from most indie animation. Not only did it have an extremely distinct visual style but the animation was so fluid, so professionally made, it felt like something you'd see out of a mainstream studio. It felt leagues above the average indie project in terms of quality.

Now Viv had already a decent audience from her Zoophobia webcomic, her speed draws, and the die young video. So it wasn't like she was starting from nothing. But there was no denying that this new form of animation caught people's attention and caught it FAST.

You all can probably recall the explosion of discussion that surrounded the original pilot and how it was all the internet was talking about for awhile. Viv road that wave and used the momentum to launch 'Helluva Boss' another indie production with a similar style.

This made her even more popular, especially when she started cranking out new episodes of the latter series with the same high quality as before, and soon her fanbase swelled to millions. A fanbase that was more than happy to crowdfund Viv's work through patreon and merch sales. Then other animators saw this and realized that there was a sizable audience for animated content; one that could not only sustain professional level animation, but was desperate for more content of this scale. Soon several other series started cropping up like MurderDrones, Lackadaisy, Monkey Wrench, and the Amazing Digital Circus. All of which followed Viv's lead of producing high quality, fluid animation with overarching plots that drew funding entirely from legions of online fans.

For the first time in a long time, indie animation was breaking out of it's original platform and reaching far more mainstream audiences than it ever has in the past on a scale never before seen and it's all because Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss kicked off this new animation renaissance!

Now I'm not gonna say Viv was solely responsible, the series we enjoy now have thrived primarily on their own merits and the creative minds behind them.

But as it stands, her work played a big role in setting the stage for other indie animation projects and creating the perfect conditions for them to thrive amidst the current digital landscape. Like it or not, Viv is the catalyst for modern indie animation. To deny Viv her rightful place in history out of spite is nothing short of historical revisionism.

Give the gal her due, she's done some amazing things for this crazy world we live in.

Here's the videos I got most of my info from, it's important to cite one's sources after all!

[frances-kafka]

Medium talk is worse than small talk and probably what we're all most afraid of

We all know Small Talk:

hi, how are you, nice weather, how about them (insert sports team here).

Small talk follows algorithms and a kind of ritual pattern. It's the kind of appropriate conversation level for interacting with retail workers in public, and total strangers.

We also all know Big Talk. (I'm only calling it that as the logical inverse implied by Small Talk.) Which is basically where a high degree of familiarity is assumed. A common ND fuckup is conversing in conversational modes that, to many of the general population, are reserved for high familiarity. Either in terms of talking at length about a topic (which I feel is something that was actually more socially acceptable in the past, but has become broadly unacceptable over time; this was NOT really part of a diagnostic category in the 70s) or in terms of overfamiliarity/not being at the right level of social distance from the person for the thing you're talking about.

Most people rely on lots of context cues that inform how they will hear what the other person is saying, and those context cues may not be there for a near-stranger. All they're left with is the most uncharitable possible assumption about your intentions.

So with this in mind, this leaves me with the WORST conversation category, that nobody acknowledges, because we're stuck on Small Talk and Big Talk:

Medium Talk.

You actually need something in common with the other person or something you relate to, to really successfully do Medium Talk. Small talk can be done with total strangers you're never going to see again, and Big Talk can cut past a lot of stuff; I don't need every social belongingness or ideological thing or hobby in common with my family members, or other people in a high-trust relationship with me, to have a meaningful conversation with them.

Medium Talk is actually where a lot of the tripwires and landmines are.

People are making decisions to escalate or de-escalate here, and listening for loyalty indicators. You run the risk of keeping things superficial while missing an actual connectedness bid, or of being overly familiar - or getting too comfortable and offending/scaring the other person before they have any context for processing what you're saying to them.

Medium Talk is when you're moving from the Social Niceties, along the continuum toward Big Talk. You're dipping your toe in the water, moving toward the deep end.

Average to high social skills people will often throw out feelers about escalating the conversation. In the 90s, LGBT people would sometimes drop hints about some or other thing that only other LGBT people would know about, based upon some kind of context cue. There is ultimately some of this same dynamic going on with some forms of nerdy gatekeeping ("name one star war") albeit in a clumsy way.

But people do it all the time.

I think there is a tendency for some people to assume talk is 100% verbal while habitually ignoring the visual and relational context cues that are processed as communication. It's especially hard for people who *can't* process that information, but I think that there are lots of reasons some people end up just not learning to do it.

People often escalate small talk based upon presence of some kind of marker such as a nerdy enamel pin, or a sports jersey. This is what wearing tons of geek swag is actually all about. 70s-80s social skills guides and advice for single people, often advised having/carrying/wearing some kind of "conversation starter."

Once I learned about 70s/80s/90s gay hanky code, I realized that there was a lot of this going on in all kinds of ways and that people scan other people visually for various kinds of context cues for the escalation of small talk.

A big problem is getting too "real" too fast, and people in the Medium Talk Zone will commonly use celebrities, low-stakes fandom stuff, and the like as socially acceptable proxies for discussing their viewpoints while saving face. If you are still in a low trust space, then the problem with just blurting stuff out to another person is that they don't know you well enough to have any context for what you are saying.

Most people are processing a ton of context cues while you are speaking, besides the words you are saying. When still in a low trust zone, you are likely to be taken in bad faith. You saying the same thing that their friend said, is not being heard by their brains as actually the same thing.

Nor is your presentation of the project being heard by the boss as being the same presentation that is being given by the shinier co-worker who steals it from you.

Most people don't just process the information, they process *who is saying it* as a *necessary part* of that information.

And this is where Medium Talk is so dicey.

Small Talk? No problem. Most of us can do it on a good day and most of us do it without realizing how much we do it.

[mrhaitch]

Hello Mr. Haitch, how are you ? I reckon that since you're an author married to an another wonderful author, you may be familiar with the self-doubt and overall bleh feeling that comes with writing and not really finding pleasure or purpose in it anymore. My question is : how do you deal with that ? I don't see myself as a writer but I still try to nurture this hobby, it's just been hard when everything I write ends up feeling flat at best, unreadable at worst. I don't really have writer pals or readers who give me feedback and I was a bit sad to realise that even when sharing my writing on online spaces where there are no stakes, it still feels like a race to notes and interactions. How can I keep pushing past this ? How do I improve when no one gives me feedback ?

I'm doing well, thank you anon.

Yes this is all familiar to me, and it's something I'm presently overcoming myself (I think it's been over two years since I managed to complete something).

I think there's a few different things here to address so I'll take them each in turn.

Motivation - Loss of motivation is inevitable. All love affairs have peaks and troughs, creative ones doubly so. Accepting that what you're feeling now will pass in time can help, but it's not a cure. When I feel like a failure I try to remember something Neil Gaiman talked about a few years back: writing is a lot like trying to get to the top of a mountain, with every word being a single step closer or another foot surmounted. If you find there's a time you can't write, you're not going backwards, you're just standing in place. Sometimes you have to in order to catch your breath. Forgive yourself for taking a breather - and try to figure out why you need it.

Writing in isolation - This has been my own experience, to tell the truth. I hold a Masters degree in Creative Writing and sat through many hours of workshops, but even then it still felt like I was writing alone - that somehow the conversations that took place in those groups were competitive and unconstructive; everyone eyeing each other, asking 'do you like me? do you like my work? is this okay?'. Writing can be lonely, especially with that first draft where you're writing with the door closed, just figuring out the story one line at a time. You can experience several lifetimes in the space of an hour and occasionally emerge from your writing place, puffy faced and wild-eyed, feeling like you have to tell someone what you just witnessed, but find people give you a quizzical look and fail to understand. Working with others, sharing with others, especially people who do understand can be a wonderful balm for such extended (and sometimes necessary) solitude - but it can have it's own problems. Sometimes you internalise the expectations and tastes of others in such a way that proves more of a hindrance then a help. Which brings me to-

Writing for a social media profile - I've done this myself some times and fell into the same trap you describe: second guessing my work for the sake of a theoretical audience, interpreting a lack of engagement as a sign of my own failures or short-comings as a writer. Even when I published for the first time, and then again for a second, I have only met one person who read my work and it was only because they were published in the same anthology. The relationship between artist and audience is difficult, fraught might be a better word, and one that deserves its own post. Sometimes the audience feels they're owed something by the artist, sometimes the artist senses that expectation and subjects their work to censure to adapt it to what they think the audience wants from them. In the end you've got a work that satisfies no one. Social media can help you find an audience - but it's also a medium built around habit, dependency, and engagement. It's not a true reflection of your worth, but rather how closely what you produce as an artist best fits that platforms algorithms and business models. And, here I'm flirting with arrogance a bit, you should never really concern yourself with what everyone might think.

As for advice, here's the best I've got: find whatever it is that brings you to the page and keeps you there. If trying to satisfy the expectations of others isn't helping, then focus on what you want. How would you tell this story, if you were the only person to ever read it? How would you excite yourself, challenge yourself, enlighten yourself?

Beyond that I'd suggest reading a lot and reading widely. Feed the creative compost heap that dwells in the darker, mustier corners of your mind, and see what weird and wonderful things take root.

And if you want something to prime the engine, watch this short interview with Ray Bradbury towards the end of his life. It always cheers me up:

[troutfur]

I feel like ppl are over reacting abt the ai bc... they're not using it in actual production. They literally show the art process from start to finish in the video, and it explicitly states they're using it for reference images in the translation. Which isn't unlike how companies would do things like photobashing while doing coneptualization in preproduction.

People use copyrighted images all the time as reference images when making new art, even claiming that ai is just copying artists wholesale. How is it any different from well referencing the original images? Even like lady dimitrescu was made by heavily referencing a photo, it was actually so close to the original that there was a legal battle about it iirc.

Wondering what your opinions on it are with that context of how the art industry works.

Personally I worry about ANY use of AI in production because as a whole the way the AI craze has been marketed and developed is as a replacement for artists. I suppose this particular use could ethically check out but at the same time if AI has any foot in the door I feel like it could be used as a cut-cutting measure later down the line. Although to be perfectly fair, and pardon me for sounding like a damn commie for a moment, this is just the problem of automation under capitalism. Industry by industry it can be temporarily kept at bay but unless and until it's the people doing the work that own the machines able to automate it, automation will only be good for owners and not workers.

Also, while I fervently believe copyright is NEVER on the side of the artists under our current economic system and very strongly advocate for copyright abolition, there's something scummy about the libraries of content these algorithms pull from including art that is neither public domain or bought for a commercial use as like a stock photo package. I believe that in an ideal world that would have been the initial training dataset and artists could later be able to willingly submit or sell their portfolio to be included in the algorithms. In this scenario the companies programming these algorithms would also provide a list of credits with all the artists, photographers, etc who submitted their work to be used.

If trained like this, and as long as AI artists credit the model they used, AI could potentially check out ethically as an artistic medium. It'd likely still be super generic looking and uninteresting if you're not using all the fancy advanced tools that let you micromanage the output beyond a text prompt. (Something so finicky already it's like speaking a whole new language. I know because I have played around with it like once or twice.) But just as we have very amateurish, unartistic photography I think amateurish and unartistic bland text-prompt only wouldn't devalue the artistic merit of AI-assisted art. Key word assisted because I do think that as a tool it would only work artistically if you can tweak the output in such a way that it's your vision more than the machine's.

[bright-eyed]

part of me is like this is beautiful and true and we should all make a conscious effort to live deeply and learn deeply and try new things and explore art and culture and so on. It’s a great premise. But there’s another part of me that’s like… i think this post misinterprets the actual complaint and problem, and it doesn’t seem to grasp that the internet isn’t a place that is separate from our daily lives anymore. Social media is deeply entrenched in our social lives and it is where a lot of culture happens now. Complaining about how the algorithm drives the culture and our social lives is not a frivolous complaint that we should just shuck off and go to a bookstore instead. Especially because the directions that the algorithm takes us to is towards whatever is most profitable for the company, usually increasing polarization and alienation, and it explicitly and intentionally manipulates us with every psychological trick in the book to keep us hooked into the algorithm, meaning unless we develop superhuman discipline, we will inevitably spend some sizable portion of our lives exposed to algorithmic feeds. Idk i just don’t think we should be making a bootstrap “personal responsibility” argument, it makes us sound like conservative libertarians who don’t believe in systems change. And even if individuals can make the shift, it’s impossible that 100% of people will be able to make the shift spontaneously and intentionally. Ops recommendation is not a realistic solution for the problem of algorithm-influenced culture and social life.

Also it’s interesting that op talks about flipping through magazines from the 80s i guess because the decline in print media is self-evident, but that’s also because of the algorithm. Not that some print media doesn’t still exist, but yeah. It’s just like, half of these suggestions are to look for things from times past, basically. Old books, old mediums like vinyl and dvds and radio, old clothes, old magazines. But what’s happening right now is important to people. We like to actively participate in the world as it’s being made and new things come along, and that’s central to culture and our need for community. People are also extremely pressed for time and energy, and physical spaces for culture to thrive have been disappearing from the lives of many people for years, in varying degrees depending on where you live and what circles you run with, but in some degree for everyone. So if the easiest and most convenient way people can learn about or participate in culture is through an algorithm, then they’re going to do that.

It’s just like. This post is saying “why don’t people participate in real culture anymore, it’s so easy!” and then can’t enumerate any ways to participate in culture without relegating ourselves to artifacts from previous eras. Not that those things aren’t cool and important, and not that you can’t find any community there ever. But it’s harder, and lonelier, and separate from the social media apparatus in which most people are heavily integrated into and which opting out of makes it harder to socialize. Complaining about the algorithm is a lot like complaining about taxes or something, and this post is like, “why don’t you just not pay taxes and live off the grid!” Idk man it’s hard! And I don’t really wanna do that

Also it boils down to “go outside, talk to your friends and neighbors, and get hobbies that aren’t scrolling” which, again, beautiful and true, but not necessarily a scalable solution. Society is restructuring itself around social media platforms before our very eyes. The problem won’t go away if we just go outside about it

[ethanswgstblog]

Blog #2 due 2/6

What role does the digital economy play in shaping cyberfeminist practices?

The digital economy plays a crucial role in shaping cyberfeminist practices by both creating opportunities for empowerment and reinforcing existing inequalities. By providing these opportunities, women were able to slowly become more aware and familiar of online media. With the addition of women joining the online platforms, Daniels agreed that it was “a crucial medium for movement toward gender equity.” These technological advancements were not only for women in the US but also for women around the world 

How does the concept of “identity tourism” function in cyberfeminist forums, and what are its limitations?

In cyberfeminist discussions, Lisa Nakamura defines identity tourism as the process by which users "try on" identities of marginalized groups, which can lead to the appropriation and distortion of those identities rather than meaningful engagement (Daniels, 2009). While early cyberfeminists saw the internet as a space for identity fluidity, identity tourism exposes its limitations allowing privileged users to adopt marginalized identities without facing real-world oppression. Rather than fostering genuine understanding, this often reinforces stereotypes and power imbalances, prompting cyberfeminists to advocate for ethical engagement over superficial appropriation.

What alternative approaches could be implemented to ensure that technology is used to empower rather than police vulnerable populations?

To ensure that technology empowers rather than polices vulnerable populations, several key approaches must be implemented, including increased transparency, community involvement, a shift from surveillance to support, and stronger legal protections. As Eubanks highlights, automated decision-making systems often lack public oversight, making it crucial to clarify how algorithms function, who they impact, and the rationale behind their decisions. Additionally, rather than allowing policymakers and private companies to dictate digital systems, participatory design should involve those most affected such as welfare recipients and low-income families in shaping these technologies. Another could be that technology should also be used to improve access to essential services rather than predict fraud or police marginalized groups, streamlining benefits enrollment and reducing barriers to aid instead of reinforcing punitive measures. Furthermore, given that many automated systems disproportionately target vulnerable populations, policy reforms are necessary to establish ethical guidelines for AI and machine learning in public service programs. By implementing these approaches, technology can shift from a tool of control to one of empowerment

In what ways do automated fraud detection systems disproportionately target marginalized communities?

As Eubanks explains, low-income individuals are more frequently subjected to digital monitoring and fraud detection due to systemic biases, government policies aimed at reducing welfare fraud, and the increasing use of automated decision-making systems that disproportionately scrutinize marginalized populations. She mentioned that her untraditional family was denied access to their insurance company due to some missing digits and believed it to be a computer AI problem (Eubanks). Another way automated fraud detection systems targeted these communities was through historical biases in data collections. Some AI models rely on past data which can ultimately reveal people's racial and economic inequalities and target them. 

Daniels, J. (2009). Rethinking cyberfeminism(s): Race, gender, and embodiment. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 37(1–2), 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.0.0158

Eubanks, V. (2018). Red Flags. In Automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor (pp. 9–28). essay, Tantor Media.