#Shared Web Hosting Companies

[rabineastlink]

Eastlink Cloud Providing web hosting service we take words look the believable.

[dcorehost21--445]

Wordpress hosting

Dcore Host is the ultimate choice for hosting your WordPress website. A flawless user experience is guaranteed by, our state-of-the-art Premium Hosting infrastructure, which is tuned to deliver lightning-fast loading times.

[cheezitofthevalley]

a guide to internet graphics and my blog

I'll try to make this entertaining, but we have a lot to cover!

Q: Sooo... What are blinkies? Or buttons?

A: Blinkies are a type of graphic that was popular 15+ years ago on personal blogs, often on a web host called Geocities.

Geocities no longer exists, but lovers of the indie/old web use other platforms, such as the new Neocities, to make their own old web-inspired blogs. They often decorate these with collectible graphics.

Q: You haven't really answered my question. What's the difference between all of these graphics?

A: Well, there are a lot of different kinds of graphics. For the sake of time, I'll only talk about the ones I post.

Blinkies are usually 150x20 pixels, but many creators like to improve their quality by making them 300x40, or even larger. There are also some oddly-sized blinkies, like this one:

However, most blinkies adhere to the standard dimensions. Most of them also have "blinking" borders, and usually feature text.

Let's talk about buttons. Buttons are, well, buttons. This button specifically is 88x31. This seemingly random size was the standard for Geocities users back in the day, who used these buttons as a portal/advertisement to their website, as well as a way to say pretty much whatever they wanted. Lot's of companies used them as well. Here are some examples:

Not all buttons share this standard dimension, though. Here are some other possibilities:

There are variations of these, too. Some buttons look pretty weird:

...and there are blinkies called "chain blinkies" that look like something else entirely:

Q: Ok, cool. What about stamps?

A: Stamps are a bit different. They're a slighter newer thing, and were made popular on Deviantart in the early 2010's. They are traditionally 99x56 pixels, and can be used to decorate any blog or website. Here are some examples:

as you can see, they can be made with a variety of borders.

I would love to continue, but I think this is enough for today. I'll have a part two up within a couple days! Stay tuned for explanations and examples of dividers, favicons, fanlistings, web etiquette, and more!

part two!

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Often when I post an AI-neutral or AI-positive take on an anti-AI post I get blocked, so I wanted to make my own post to share my thoughts on "Nightshade", the new adversarial data poisoning attack that the Glaze people have come out with.

I've read the paper and here are my takeaways:

Firstly, this is not necessarily or primarily a tool for artists to "coat" their images like Glaze; in fact, Nightshade works best when applied to sort of carefully selected "archetypal" images, ideally ones that were already generated using generative AI using a prompt for the generic concept to be attacked (which is what the authors did in their paper). Also, the image has to be explicitly paired with a specific text caption optimized to have the most impact, which would make it pretty annoying for individual artists to deploy.

While the intent of Nightshade is to have maximum impact with minimal data poisoning, in order to attack a large model there would have to be many thousands of samples in the training data. Obviously if you have a webpage that you created specifically to host a massive gallery poisoned images, that can be fairly easily blacklisted, so you'd have to have a lot of patience and resources in order to hide these enough so they proliferate into the training datasets of major models.

The main use case for this as suggested by the authors is to protect specific copyrights. The example they use is that of Disney specifically releasing a lot of poisoned images of Mickey Mouse to prevent people generating art of him. As a large company like Disney would be more likely to have the resources to seed Nightshade images at scale, this sounds like the most plausible large scale use case for me, even if web artists could crowdsource some sort of similar generic campaign.

Either way, the optimal use case of "large organization repeatedly using generative AI models to create images, then running through another resource heavy AI model to corrupt them, then hiding them on the open web, to protect specific concepts and copyrights" doesn't sound like the big win for freedom of expression that people are going to pretend it is. This is the case for a lot of discussion around AI and I wish people would stop flagwaving for corporate copyright protections, but whatever.

The panic about AI resource use in terms of power/water is mostly bunk (AI training is done once per large model, and in terms of industrial production processes, using a single airliner flight's worth of carbon output for an industrial model that can then be used indefinitely to do useful work seems like a small fry in comparison to all the other nonsense that humanity wastes power on). However, given that deploying this at scale would be a huge compute sink, it's ironic to see anti-AI activists for that is a talking point hyping this up so much.

In terms of actual attack effectiveness; like Glaze, this once again relies on analysis of the feature space of current public models such as Stable Diffusion. This means that effectiveness is reduced on other models with differing architectures and training sets. However, also like Glaze, it looks like the overall "world feature space" that generative models fit to is generalisable enough that this attack will work across models.

That means that if this does get deployed at scale, it could definitely fuck with a lot of current systems. That said, once again, it'd likely have a bigger effect on indie and open source generation projects than the massive corporate monoliths who are probably working to secure proprietary data sets, like I believe Adobe Firefly did. I don't like how these attacks concentrate the power up.

The generalisation of the attack doesn't mean that this can't be defended against, but it does mean that you'd likely need to invest in bespoke measures; e.g. specifically training a detector on a large dataset of Nightshade poison in order to filter them out, spending more time and labour curating your input dataset, or designing radically different architectures that don't produce a comparably similar virtual feature space. I.e. the effect of this being used at scale wouldn't eliminate "AI art", but it could potentially cause a headache for people all around and limit accessibility for hobbyists (although presumably curated datasets would trickle down eventually).

All in all a bit of a dick move that will make things harder for people in general, but I suppose that's the point, and what people who want to deploy this at scale are aiming for. I suppose with public data scraping that sort of thing is fair game I guess.

Additionally, since making my first reply I've had a look at their website:

Used responsibly, Nightshade can help deter model trainers who disregard copyrights, opt-out lists, and do-not-scrape/robots.txt directives. It does not rely on the kindness of model trainers, but instead associates a small incremental price on each piece of data scraped and trained without authorization. Nightshade's goal is not to break models, but to increase the cost of training on unlicensed data, such that licensing images from their creators becomes a viable alternative.

Once again we see that the intended impact of Nightshade is not to eliminate generative AI but to make it infeasible for models to be created and trained by without a corporate money-bag to pay licensing fees for guaranteed clean data. I generally feel that this focuses power upwards and is overall a bad move. If anything, this sort of model, where only large corporations can create and control AI tools, will do nothing to help counter the economic displacement without worker protection that is the real issue with AI systems deployment, but will exacerbate the problem of the benefits of those systems being more constrained to said large corporations.

Kinda sucks how that gets pushed through by lying to small artists about the importance of copyright law for their own small-scale works (ignoring the fact that processing derived metadata from web images is pretty damn clearly a fair use application).

[feminist-space]

"Artists have finally had enough with Meta’s predatory AI policies, but Meta’s loss is Cara’s gain. An artist-run, anti-AI social platform, Cara has grown from 40,000 to 650,000 users within the last week, catapulting it to the top of the App Store charts.

Instagram is a necessity for many artists, who use the platform to promote their work and solicit paying clients. But Meta is using public posts to train its generative AI systems, and only European users can opt out, since they’re protected by GDPR laws. Generative AI has become so front-and-center on Meta’s apps that artists reached their breaking point.

“When you put [AI] so much in their face, and then give them the option to opt out, but then increase the friction to opt out… I think that increases their anger level — like, okay now I’ve really had enough,” Jingna Zhang, a renowned photographer and founder of Cara, told TechCrunch.

Cara, which has both a web and mobile app, is like a combination of Instagram and X, but built specifically for artists. On your profile, you can host a portfolio of work, but you can also post updates to your feed like any other microblogging site.

Zhang is perfectly positioned to helm an artist-centric social network, where they can post without the risk of becoming part of a training dataset for AI. Zhang has fought on behalf of artists, recently winning an appeal in a Luxembourg court over a painter who copied one of her photographs, which she shot for Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam.

“Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being ‘available online’ was irrelevant. Consent was necessary,” Zhang wrote on X.

Zhang and three other artists are also suing Google for allegedly using their copyrighted work to train Imagen, an AI image generator. She’s also a plaintiff in a similar lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI.

“Words can’t describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “My life’s work and who I am—reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.”

Artists are so resistant to AI because the training data behind many of these image generators includes their work without their consent. These models amass such a large swath of artwork by scraping the internet for images, without regard for whether or not those images are copyrighted. It’s a slap in the face for artists – not only are their jobs endangered by AI, but that same AI is often powered by their work.

“When it comes to art, unfortunately, we just come from a fundamentally different perspective and point of view, because on the tech side, you have this strong history of open source, and people are just thinking like, well, you put it out there, so it’s for people to use,” Zhang said. “For artists, it’s a part of our selves and our identity. I would not want my best friend to make a manipulation of my work without asking me. There’s a nuance to how we see things, but I don’t think people understand that the art we do is not a product.”

This commitment to protecting artists from copyright infringement extends to Cara, which partners with the University of Chicago’s Glaze project. By using Glaze, artists who manually apply Glaze to their work on Cara have an added layer of protection against being scraped for AI.

Other projects have also stepped up to defend artists. Spawning AI, an artist-led company, has created an API that allows artists to remove their work from popular datasets. But that opt-out only works if the companies that use those datasets honor artists’ requests. So far, HuggingFace and Stability have agreed to respect Spawning’s Do Not Train registry, but artists’ work cannot be retroactively removed from models that have already been trained.

“I think there is this clash between backgrounds and expectations on what we put on the internet,” Zhang said. “For artists, we want to share our work with the world. We put it online, and we don’t charge people to view this piece of work, but it doesn’t mean that we give up our copyright, or any ownership of our work.”"

Read the rest of the article here:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/06/a-social-app-for-creatives-cara-grew-from-40k-to-650k-users-in-a-week-because-artists-are-fed-up-with-metas-ai-policies/

[grimrester]

sometime yesterday people on reddit figured out that the new watcher entertainment platform is not a website they have full creative control over (as implied in their video) but instead is from Vimeo OTT. this is why their new platform looks identical to dropout's. vimeo very likely just has a couple templates you pick from and they picked the same one.

this is FASCINATING to me for a few reasons:

it's not unusual for a company to obfuscate how their new web product is built out. "we're using vimeo's content paywall platform" is not nearly as impressive of a statement as "we're launching our own subscription service." this decision sometimes blows up in a company's face though. in this instance, being more candid about the process probably would have helped to mitigate the blowback, because vimeo could have been pinned by the audience as the evil scapegoat company and people wouldn't be feeling stupid when they create accounts and realize all the videos are hosted on vimeo. it also explains why they encouraged password sharing but their subs limit playing videos on more than three devices. it's just a function of the platform they don't control and didn't think about it when they said that.

i really wonder if they made this decision entirely on their own, or if vimeo has recruiters out there trying to make their platform bigger. obviously the watcher guys are responsible for this decision either way, but it sure would explain a lot about why they jumped to this solution to make more money if they had someone at vimeo pitching it to them.

how fucking funny is it that they posted a dramatic "goodbye youtube" video talking about wanting more control and wanting their own special platform just to go to youtube's direct competitor. lol

[mariacallous]

In late January, a warning spread through the London-based Facebook group Are We Dating the Same Guy?—but this post wasn’t about a bad date or a cheating ex. A connected network of male-dominated Telegram groups had surfaced, sharing and circulating nonconsensual intimate images of women. Their justification? Retaliation.

On January 23, users in the AWDTSG Facebook group began warning about hidden Telegram groups. Screenshots and TikTok videos surfaced, revealing public Telegram channels where users were sharing nonconsensual intimate images. Further investigation by WIRED identified additional channels linked to the network. By scraping thousands of messages from these groups, it became possible to analyze their content and the patterns of abuse.

AWDTSG, a sprawling web of over 150 regional forums across Facebook alone, with roughly 3 million members worldwide, was designed by Paolo Sanchez in 2022 in New York as a space for women to share warnings about predatory men. But its rapid growth made it a target. Critics argue that the format allows unverified accusations to spiral. Some men have responded with at least three defamation lawsuits filed in recent years against members, administrators, and even Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Others took a different route: organized digital harassment.

Primarily using Telegram group data made available through Telemetr.io, a Telegram analytics tool, WIRED analyzed more than 3,500 messages from a Telegram group linked to a larger misogynistic revenge network. Over 24 hours, WIRED observed users systematically tracking, doxing, and degrading women from AWDTSG, circulating nonconsensual images, phone numbers, usernames, and location data.

From January 26 to 27, the chats became a breeding ground for misogynistic, racist, sexual digital abuse of women, with women of color bearing the brunt of the targeted harassment and abuse. Thousands of users encouraged each other to share nonconsensual intimate images, often referred to as “revenge porn,” and requested and circulated women’s phone numbers, usernames, locations, and other personal identifiers.

As women from AWDTSG began infiltrating the Telegram group, at least one user grew suspicious: “These lot just tryna get back at us for exposing them.”

When women on Facebook tried to alert others of the risk of doxing and leaks of their intimate content, AWDTSG moderators removed their posts. (The group’s moderators did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Meanwhile, men who had previously coordinated through their own Facebook groups like “Are We Dating the Same Girl” shifted their operations in late January to Telegram's more permissive environment. Their message was clear: If they can do it, so can we.

"In the eyes of some of these men, this is a necessary act of defense against a kind of hostile feminism that they believe is out to ruin their lives," says Carl Miller, cofounder of the Center for the Analysis of Social Media and host of the podcast Kill List.

The dozen Telegram groups that WIRED has identified are part of a broader digital ecosystem often referred to as the manosphere, an online network of forums, influencers, and communities that perpetuate misogynistic ideologies.

“Highly isolated online spaces start reinforcing their own worldviews, pulling further and further from the mainstream, and in doing so, legitimizing things that would be unthinkable offline,” Miller says. “Eventually, what was once unthinkable becomes the norm.”

This cycle of reinforcement plays out across multiple platforms. Facebook forums act as the first point of contact, TikTok amplifies the rhetoric in publicly available videos, and Telegram is used to enable illicit activity. The result? A self-sustaining network of harassment that thrives on digital anonymity.

TikTok amplified discussions around the Telegram groups. WIRED reviewed 12 videos in which creators, of all genders, discussed, joked about, or berated the Telegram groups. In the comments section of these videos, users shared invitation links to public and private groups and some public channels on Telegram, making them accessible to a wider audience. While TikTok was not the primary platform for harassment, discussions about the Telegram groups spread there, and in some cases users explicitly acknowledged their illegality.

TikTok tells WIRED that its Community Guidelines prohibit image-based sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and nonconsensual sexual acts, and that violations result in removals and possible account bans. They also stated that TikTok removes links directing people to content that violates its policies and that it continues to invest in Trust and Safety operations.

Intentionally or not, the algorithms powering social media platforms like Facebook can amplify misogynistic content. Hate-driven engagement fuels growth, pulling new users into these communities through viral trends, suggested content, and comment-section recruitment.

As people caught notice on Facebook and TikTok and started reporting the Telegram groups, they didn’t disappear—they simply rebranded. Reactionary groups quickly emerged, signaling that members knew they were being watched but had no intention of stopping. Inside, messages revealed a clear awareness of the risks: Users knew they were breaking the law. They just didn’t care, according to chat logs reviewed by WIRED. To absolve themselves, one user wrote, “I do not condone im [simply] here to regulate rules,” while another shared a link to a statement that said: “I am here for only entertainment purposes only and I don’t support any illegal activities.”

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Messages from the Telegram group WIRED analyzed show that some chats became hyper-localized, dividing London into four regions to make harassment even more targeted. Members casually sought access to other city-based groups: “Who’s got brum link?” and “Manny link tho?”—British slang referring to Birmingham and Manchester. They weren’t just looking for gossip. “Any info from west?” one user asked, while another requested, “What’s her @?”— hunting for a woman’s social media handle, a first step to tracking her online activity.

The chat logs further reveal how women were discussed as commodities. “She a freak, I’ll give her that,” one user wrote. Another added, “Beautiful. Hide her from me.” Others encouraged sharing explicit material: “Sharing is caring, don’t be greedy.”

Members also bragged about sexual exploits, using coded language to reference encounters in specific locations, and spread degrading, racial abuse, predominantly targeting Black women.

Once a woman was mentioned, her privacy was permanently compromised. Users frequently shared social media handles, which led other members to contact her—soliciting intimate images or sending disparaging texts.

Anonymity can be a protective tool for women navigating online harassment. But it can also be embraced by bad actors who use the same structures to evade accountability.

"It’s ironic," Miller says. "The very privacy structures that women use to protect themselves are being turned against them."

The rise of unmoderated spaces like the abusive Telegram groups makes it nearly impossible to trace perpetrators, exposing a systemic failure in law enforcement and regulation. Without clear jurisdiction or oversight, platforms are able to sidestep accountability.

Sophie Mortimer, manager of the UK-based Revenge Porn Helpline, warned that Telegram has become one of the biggest threats to online safety. She says that the UK charity’s reports to Telegram of nonconsensual intimate image abuse are ignored. “We would consider them to be noncompliant to our requests,” she says. Telegram, however, says it received only “about 10 piece of content” from the Revenge Porn Helpline, “all of which were removed.” Mortimer did not yet respond to WIRED’s questions about the veracity of Telegram’s claims.

Despite recent updates to the UK’s Online Safety Act, legal enforcement of online abuse remains weak. An October 2024 report from the UK-based charity The Cyber Helpline shows that cybercrime victims face significant barriers in reporting abuse, and justice for online crimes is seven times less likely than for offline crimes.

"There’s still this long-standing idea that cybercrime doesn’t have real consequences," says Charlotte Hooper, head of operations of The Cyber Helpline, which helps support victims of cybercrime. "But if you look at victim studies, cybercrime is just as—if not more—psychologically damaging than physical crime."

A Telegram spokesperson tells WIRED that its moderators use “custom AI and machine learning tools” to remove content that violates the platform's rules, “including nonconsensual pornography and doxing.”

“As a result of Telegram's proactive moderation and response to reports, moderators remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day,” the spokesperson says.

Hooper says that survivors of digital harassment often change jobs, move cities, or even retreat from public life due to the trauma of being targeted online. The systemic failure to recognize these cases as serious crimes allows perpetrators to continue operating with impunity.

Yet, as these networks grow more interwoven, social media companies have failed to adequately address gaps in moderation.

Telegram, despite its estimated 950 million monthly active users worldwide, claims it’s too small to qualify as a “Very Large Online Platform” under the European Union’s Digital Service Act, allowing it to sidestep certain regulatory scrutiny. “Telegram takes its responsibilities under the DSA seriously and is in constant communication with the European Commission,” a company spokesperson said.

In the UK, several civil society groups have expressed concern about the use of large private Telegram groups, which allow up to 200,000 members. These groups exploit a loophole by operating under the guise of “private” communication to circumvent legal requirements for removing illegal content, including nonconsensual intimate images.

Without stronger regulation, online abuse will continue to evolve, adapting to new platforms and evading scrutiny.

The digital spaces meant to safeguard privacy are now incubating its most invasive violations. These networks aren’t just growing—they’re adapting, spreading across platforms, and learning how to evade accountability.

[mareastrorum]

These are just initial thoughts, and perhaps I’ll learn something that changes my mind on it, but I’m glad to see Critical Role making the leap to their own subscription service with Beacon.

As a lead in: I’m an attorney that has some background in IP law, though it isn’t what I practice currently. I’ve kept in contact with several active practitioners, particularly those that represent small-time creators either in their own independent practice or via nonprofits. I do not have an extensive Rolodex of IP peers, nor do I spend the money to keep up on IP CLEs. I’m just someone who used to know a ton because I did heavy research and work in that space, and that hasn’t been the case for years.

So here’s my thoughts a bit on the IP angle:

The primary reason I’m happy to see this leap is that CR is taking active steps to keep control over its IP. It’s a boring thing to most people, but when I start paying attention to a specific creator (authors, directors, companies, etc.), I tend to be very attentive to how they use their IP. How freely do they license their marks to partner with other creators to make merch? How often do they allow others to make adaptations or derivatives of their copyrights? What is the quality of those products? What is the supply chain like? Are those third parties objectionable in some way? Were the other parties faithful to the original works or marks? Was this a cash grab or an earnest effort to make something worth the price tag?

Honestly, I like how CR run their business. They have a history of tapping fans and fellow small businesses when making new merch or spinoffs. They embrace the culture of fan-made derivative works, both by featuring fanart/cosplay and by sharing their success. Do you know how rare it is for a company to pay fan artists for their already-made and freely posted work and then sell books of it? Let me be clear: CR bought a limited license from each artist so they could print and sell each work in a physical book, then paid the cost of publishing that book with no guarantee that CR would make that money back, let alone profit. I have a copy of the collector’s edition art books: they’re actually very well made and the packaging definitely cost a pretty penny. That’s not a rainmaker idea, that’s genuinely risking financial loss to sell something people could access for free if they wanted to.

The art books aren’t a one-off either. Darrington Press is CR’s separate LLC for tabletop games. (It’s good business practice to split off companies that handle products in different industries.) CR has also made shows based on those games, and the Candela Obscura series has quite a dedicated audience. Everything about Candela belongs to them: the game itself, the rule book, all the art in the book, the web series based on the game, and merch. It’s so successful that they invested in scheduling a live show for Candela later this month. That’s HUGE.

Contrast that with the distribution of Campaign 1 and the first 19 episodes of Campaign 2. CR cannot host those videos themselves; Geek & Sundry still exists and still holds what I presume to be distribution rights (but I don’t have the contract to review). So G&S gets to host those videos on YouTube and reaps the advertising. I can’t speak to whatever share CR gets from that, but considering that CR is locked out of hosting their own copies of those videos, I doubt it’s much, if any, revenue. (If you’re wondering why CR just didn’t buy those rights back, I ask: what incentive does G&S have to sell something that’s making them money for no cost?)

Knowing that background about G&S, I was wary of CR choosing Amazon to host and distribute The Legend of Vox Machina. Originally, TLOVM was not the plan; CR had a kickstarter for an animated special based on C1. It was only because they blew past the goal that CR was able to make an entire season. The reasonable assumption is that choosing Amazon had to have secured CR additional funding for future seasons of the show, which seems evident from how quickly season 2 was announced, Mighty Nein Animated is also going to be a thing, and that season 3 of TLVOM is scheduled for fall 2024. CR had the option of just doing 1 season and keeping it purely in their control, but going with Amazon meant they could animate more of their works. Animation is expensive. I cannot stress enough how doubtful I am that CR would have been able to afford this many episodes and both campaigns if they had not gone this route. As wary as I was in the start, it paid off, and it’s going well—so far. Hopefully CR doesn’t regret that decision if Amazon tries something sleazy. But, as before, we don’t have the contracts and can’t know how secure CR’s position is if any dispute came up.

CR also partnered with Dark Horse Comics to make Vox Machina comics and Might Nein Origins comics. What’s especially surprising is that each of the cast had a hand in writing the MNO comics for their characters, with Matt listed for multiple. That isn’t very common with comic adaptations. Often times, IP owners let comic companies go ham with minimal oversight. Being listed as one of the authors comes with IP rights that have to be negotiated. That means that Dark Horse had to talk with CR about whether that warrants more or less revenue going to which party in exchange for that—or, alternatively, whether the comic gets made at all. That’s a ballsy move. You think people can just demand to write the comics that a publishing company is going to pay to print? Pffft. CR wanted some creative control, and that is a big ask. However, Dark Horse still has the distribution rights, both digitally and for physical copies. You couldn’t buy the comics from CR until they came out with the library edition, a book bound compilation of 4/8 comics. But the publisher is still Dark Horse; CR is just allowed to sell the book directly from their own site as well.

Contrast that with the novels about CR characters. CR partnered with Penguin Random House to publish novels about Vex and Vax (Kith & Kin), Lucien (The Nine Eyes of Lucien), and Laudna (What Doesn’t Break). Liam and Laura were vocal about having some say in K&K, whereas Madeline Roux said in an interview that she had full control over TNEOL. Both of those novels were narrated with CR voices, but narrating a book doesn’t come with IP rights, it just brings in a paycheck. There’s a lot less IP control in there compared to the comics, but this isn’t abnormal for book publishing. To be blunt, I doubt PRH would have agreed to publish the novels if anyone from CR had been a co-author or had heavy oversight over the author or the editing. I don’t think PRH even considered that as an option. Either an author that has already managed to sell X number of copies or nothing. Creative control over a book a huge ask, asks come with reduced revenue, and switching to books from a web series is already a leap. The fact that Laura and Liam had any say is surprising, really.

That was a long meandering tour of what we’ve seen CR do with its IP. The reason I bring up each of these things is that navigating the way to protect an IP in this space is rife with challenges. Different types of IP warrant different strategies because of the cost involved in creating each medium and the challenges placed by industries that have already sprung up around them. Any time that a third party is tapped to create an IP, it’s usually because they already have the funds and resources to create the work, and CR has to negotiate for revenue, creative control, distribution, and—the big one—who gets to be the owner. These are not easy, quick, or fun conversations, and CR is always going to be the smaller company at the table.

Knowing that, I’m not surprised or worried that CR is creating its own independent subscription service with Beacon. It tells me that they’re being careful with their IP whenever they can. A subscription service means they don’t have to trade away distribution rights or give up ad revenue to a third party. They’re in this for a long term investment, and that requires solid income not tied to third parties that can definitely outspend them in litigation in the event of a dispute. A subscription for bonus content is one of many parts in a diverse revenue stream.

(All that said, this isn’t meant to criticize creators that cant afford to do this type of thing. It took 9 years for CR to get to the point where Beacon is financially feasible and a desirable business decision. They have enough ongoing, popular content to warrant paying for a subscription, and they’ve built sufficient trust with their audience that more will be added. That takes time and an awful lot of money.)

As a final note, I take this step as a sign that CR definitely intends to stick around. This isn’t a move people make when they plan on ending the business after the current campaign. I’m glad to see CR is taking steps to secure their foundation and keep making new content.

I’m sure people will chime in on other issues (cost, content exclusivity, etc.), but I hope my perspective gives an idea of why this sort of thing is good for business generally and why it would be good for CR.

[screentones-webcomicresources]

There are many web hosting companies to choose from if you're taking the plunge into making your own website with a comic content management system (CMS) like ComicControl or Grawlix, a Wordpress comic theme like Toocheke or ComicPress, or a HTML template to cut/paste code like Rarebit. While these solutions are generally free, finding a home for them is... generally not. It can be hard to choose what's best for your webcomic AND your budget!

We took a look at a few of the top hosting services used by webcomics creators using webcomic CMSes, and we put out a poll to ask your feedback about your hosts!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new services enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 I can get a free account with Wix/Squarespace/Carrd, could I just use those for my comic? - Web hosts like this may have gallery functions that could be adapted to display a series of pages, but they are very basic and not intended for webcomics.

📚 Wait, I host on Webtoon, Tapas, Comic Fury, or some other comic website, why are they not here? - Those are comic platforms! We'll get into those in a future post!

🕵️‍♀️Why does it say "shared hosting"? Who am I sharing with? - "Shared hosting" refers to sharing the server space with other customers. They will not have access to your files or anything, so it is perfectly fine to use for most comic CMSes. You may experience slowing if there is too much activity on a server, so if you're planning to host large files or more than 10 comics, you may want to upgrade to a more robust plan in the future.

Web Host List

Neocities

Basic plan pricing: Free or $5/month. Free plan has more restrictions (1 GB space, no custom domain, and slower bandwidth, among other things)

Notes: Neocities does not have database support for paid or free accounts, and most comic CMS solutions require this (ComicCtrl, Grawlix, Wordpress). You will need to work with HTML/CSS files directly to make a website and post each page.

Hostinger

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the 1st year. Free SSL Certifications. Weekly backups.

KnownHost

Basic plan pricing: $8.95/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free DDOS protection. Free SSL Certifications.

InMotion Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $12.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, and 3 year plans available).

Notes:  Free SSL Certifications, free domain names for 1 and 3 year plans. 24/7 live customer service and 90-day money-back guarantee. Inmotion also advertises eco-friendly policies: We are the first-ever Green Data Center in Los Angeles. We cut cooling costs by nearly 70 percent and reduce our carbon output by more than 2,000 tons per year.

Reviews:

👍“I can't remember it ever going down.”

👍“InMotion has a pretty extensive library full of various guides on setting up and managing websites, servers, domains, etc. Customer service is also fairly quick on responding to inquiries.” 👎“I wish it was a bit faster with loading pages.”

Ionos Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $8/month or $6/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2 and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the first year, free SSL Certification, Daily backup and recovery is included. Site Scan and Repair is free for the first 30 days and then is $6/month.

Reviews:

👍“Very fast and simple” 👎“Customer service is mediocre and I can't upload large files”

Bluehost

Basic plan pricing: $15.99/month or $4.95/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain and SSL certificates (for first year only). 24/7 Customer Service. Built to handle higher traffic websites. Although they specialize in Wordpress websites and provide updates automatically, that's almost a bad thing for webcomic plugins because they will often break your site. Their cloud hosting services are currently in early access with not much additional information available.

Reviews:

👎"The fees keep going up. Like I could drop $100 to cover a whole year, but now I'm paying nearly $100 for just three months. It's really upsetting."

👎"I have previously used Bluehost’s Wordpress hosting service and have had negative experiences with the service, so please consider with a grain of salt. I can confirm at least that their 24/7 customer service was great, although needed FAR too often."

Dreamhost

Basic plan pricing: $7.99/month or $5.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free SSL Certificates, 24/7 support with all plans, 97-day moneyback guarantee. Not recommended for ComicCtrl CMS

Reviews:

👍“They've automatically patched 2 security holes I created/allowed by mistake.” 👍“Prices are very reasonable” 👎 “back end kind of annoying to use” 👎 “wordpress has some issues” 👎 “it's not as customizable as some might want“

GoDaddy

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free 24/7 Customer service with all plans, Free SSL Certificates for 1 year, free domain and site migration.

Reviews:

👍Reasonable intro prices for their Economy hosting, which has 25GB of storage 👍Migrated email hosting service from cPanel to Microsoft Office, which has greater support but may not be useful for most webcomic creators. 👎 Many site issues and then being upsold during customer service attempts. 👎 Server quality found lacking in reviews 👎 Marketing scandals in the past with a reputation for making ads in poor taste. Have been attempting to clean up that image in recent years. 👎 “GoDaddy is the McDonald's of web hosting. Maybe the Wal-Mart of hosting would be better. If your website was an object you would need a shelf to put it on. You go to Wal-Mart and buy a shelf. It's not great. It's not fancy. It can only hold that one thing. And if we're being honest - if the shelf broke and your website died it wouldn't be the end of the world.The issue comes when you don't realize GoDaddy is the Wal-Mart of hosting. You go and try to do things you could do with a quality shelf. Like, move it. Or add more things to it.” MyWorkAccountThisIs on Reddit*

Things to consider for any host:

💸 Introductory/promotional pricing - Many hosting companies offer free or inexpensive deals to get you in the door, and then raise the cost for these features after the first year or when you renew. The prices in this post are the base prices that you can expect to pay after the promotional prices end, but may get outdated, so you are encouraged to do your own research as well.

💻 Wordpress hosting - Many of the companies below will have a separate offering for Wordpress-optimized hosting that will keep you updated with the latest Wordpress releases. This is usually not necessary for webcomic creators, and can be the source of many site-breaking headaches when comic plugins have not caught up to the latest Wordpress releases.

Any basic hosting plan on this list will be fine with Wordpress, but expect to stop or revert Wordpress versions if you go with this as your CMS.

🤝 You don't have to go it alone - While free hosts may be more limited, paid hosting on a web server will generally allow you to create different subdomains, or attach additional purchased domains to any folders you make. If you have other comic-making friends you know and trust, you can share your server space and split the cost!

Want to share your experience?

Feel free to contribute your hosting pros, cons, and quirks on our survey! We will be updating our list periodically with your feedback!

[dcorehost21--445]

Dcore Host is one of the fastest-growing web hosting companies. We provide web hosting services and are eager to extend our technical expertise in this field to help you easily achieve your goals. Our plans are affordable and come with many features. We have the top packages that use Windows and Linux-based systems and provide the required infrastructure and technical expertise.

[circeyoru]

When You Don’t Know Love = Requested

[Yandere Human & Demon!Alastor x Victim Angelic!Reader]

The Request

What is love? Alastor can’t really answer that question. He knows he loves his mother, the sweetest soul on Earth that cared for him. He knows he loves people’s attention on him, it proved that he was worth something unlike how his father would curse and split on him. He also knows he loves his job as a radio host, how people relied on him and his words for entertainment and serious matters or information. But above all, he knows he loves to kill

Apart from his lack of answer to this question, there was another point to his character. The want for control and knowledge. He knows he wanted things to be in his hands and for the things he owned to be in perfect and working condition. That was how he picked his new workstation and earned money, through aiming as the best host in the company and the most entertaining in the channel. That was how he could afford his mother and himself that new big house they were eying for a while

When it seemed like everything was in his grasp, he thought he had everything he ever needed. That was until his mother was on her deathbed and accepted it, not him though, he searched high and low for a cure. With his fame and wealth, he thought he could have it, he loves his mother, he loves this perfect time he was living in, he loves this ideal reality that was his

But it was taken from him. He felt rage, he felt hopeless, he felt dull

Every day, he found himself hunting more and avoiding things that reminded his mind of his mother. Those stupid memories, those stupid emotions that made his heart beat quicken. That was how he identified his twisted love. His heart had quick down once his mother was gone and he knew then, his life would be slow and dull 

Yet into his life walked in you. You were a simple traveller, going from town to town to help people and learn new things, small and big. You happened upon his hometown because of his radio. He never thought you’d be a new light in his life, at least, you started off as a small splash of paint

His boss brought you in for a special programme that Alastor was arranged to host as a podcast, a sort of interview for you to share your knowledge and stories to the listeners. The first one was heavily scripted so listeners would be introduced to the new programme and you in general, then the feedback was beyond good, the show went on with more freedom for both you and Alastor. That opened doors for you and Alastor to chat outside of work, to mingle for work

Like everyone else, you found Alastor charming and a gentleman that put other men to shame. He was perfect in every sense. Though Alastor flirted with you, as a way to test you, you never reciprocated nor did you give in. He admired that, he felt like he didn’t need to be his perfect masked self, almost in a way that was similar to when he was with his mother. There was just something about this feeling that he can’t put a finger on

What is it?

He put this on the fact that he couldn’t catch you in his web like the others were. You were attracted to him, but not to the point where you’d throw yourself at him. He tested it be letting one of his fangirls interrupt his business meeting with you in a cafe one afternoon, but you didn’t even have a hint of annoyance or anger, you merely looked over your notes and his, even asking if he needed you to leave

Peculiar indeed

It got to the point where the simple programme meeting with you at the cafe wasn’t enough. Soon, he found himself inviting you out, lunch, dinner, a stroll, a market shopping, anything to get you to spend more time with him. He loves listening to you telling him your stories of your travel, but then he came to hate having you on that programme where you also tell the world your stories. He loves that he was the first to hear it from your lips, but he hates that he need to share to all the other strangers

Your voice, he wants it for his ears. Your attention, he wants it on him. Your eyes, he wants it gazing only at him. Your mind, he wants it to only think of him. Your heart, he wants it to beat for him

This feeling. This suffocating feeling. It’s familiar, to the point he clutches his heart like it would stop its aching. He recognize this. He felt this way when he was hunting down someone in the forest in the dead of night. He felt this way when he was stalking down his next prey

Perhaps, that was it? You’re his next prey

So he got everything set up. It was naive and foolish of you not to suspect him when he invited you into the forest when the sun was setting. Surely, you heard his broadcast of the serial killer? Why aren’t you more careful? Ah, yes, Alastor was here to protect you. Yes yes, of course

BANG!

Not

When pain shot through your shoulder, your body fell to the ground. Your teary eyes stared up in horror at his sickly grin, his lips moved as he taunted, “Better start running, dear, else you might end up being one with his forest.” And ran you did. Alastor felt that ache in his heart, that rush in his body as he propped him to running after you

The game was on. You put up more of a fight, he’ll admit, maybe more so than some of his prey. Still, you were no match for him. In no time, he stopped and smiled at you when you had looked behind to see if you lost him. His hands raised his shotgun, one eye closed as he aimed. A beating heart, yours was beating wildly for survival, and his was beating wildly for…

BANG!

His smile fell when your body fell limp on the forest grounds. His eyes widened before they blinked, his gun was dropped and his legs rushed him to your side. He kneeled to your side, drenching his pants in your blood. He stared at his shaking hands and his breath hitched. These feelings in him. What was this?

Usually, he’d be laughing or trying to contain his laughter so as not to alert others. Or he’d be looking around to make sure no one saw his evil deed. Now he was doing the complete opposite

A drop of water fell on your body. Was it raining? No, it’s coming from his face, more accurately, his eyes. Why was he crying? Wait, why did he bring his body so close to you. This all felt so familiar, he was also hugging his mother like this. He swallowed, his grip on your body growing tighter and tighter. Someone, anyone, tell him… Why was he feeling this way?

It felt like he was watching from an outsider’s perspective. His hands were pressing against the bloody wounds on your body to try and stop the bleeding, then he was clinging so close to you so you don’t get cold. He spoke to you so you wouldn’t be bored in the silence. He kissed you so you’d wake up like sleeping beauty from a long sleep

Nothing worked

Now he stared at the script as he read out your accidential death by some hunter in the forest. His tears fell once more but his smile was forced on. His mother loves his smile. You also love his smile. So he’ll smile

It was too late. He can answer that question now. The one about love. What is love? The feeling he felt towards you. The feeling that makes him at home. The feeling that makes him want nothing more than you and you alone

Yet what took that away? He did. He took away his happiness and love. He might as well kill himself right then and there when he took your life. He questioned himself, why, why didn’t he understand those feelings for you were love? Why did he understand and know when it was too late? WHY?

When he saw couples on the street, being so loving towards each other. The ghost memories and fantasy of what was and could be you and him clouded his mind and eyes. He always found himself turning the other way. Then he also found their death bodies not too long after

“I hate you, I hate you…” Alastor found himself stabbing into the male repeatedly for recognizing his emotions to and for his lover better than Alastor himself. “If only… If only I knew… My darling… My darling wouldn’t be… My love wouldn’t be six feet under!”

It took some time, but the Princess’ fantasy became reality in the end. So much happened and Heaven accepted the redeemed demon souls into their pearly gates. Unfortunately, Alastor found his Hell just beginning

No surprise when he couldn’t find you anywhere in Hell, you were such a pure soul. Back then, he knew he never liked it when your attention was elsewhere or seeked by others. He wanted to gudge out their eyes and tongue so no one would defile you with their eyes or taint your ears. So you belonged to Heaven

Try as he might, he would never be able to go to Heaven and join you. Yet it irked him when other demons and angels would surround your blinding light. He didn’t make peace with the thought, but he had to put on a smiling face when he congratulated the Princess on her hard work. If only it never worked

But news of Heaven sending down some talented angels to help with the redemption project brought the Princess and her lover into a panic to ready everything. On the appointed day, the heavenly portal opened at the lobby of the hotel while everyone stood at attention to welcome their newest staff or partners

Alastor thought he wouldn’t care less. He thought it meant he was going to be more annoyed with everything. Yet, this was a welcoming surprise

Your angelic form stood out, not because you were the first to step out of the portal, those two pairs of silver wings with golden highlight while the others only had white wings did you justice for your graceful appearance. Your halo hovered above your head as a symbol of your purity and goodness

You were just as beautiful as the day he killed you

While you went to talk with Charlie and introduct everyone and their duties, Alastor felt his claws clutching his heart once more. This suffocating feeling was back and even stronger than before. His smile widened. His legs moved and brought his form to you, like he forgot that he could travel through the shadows

“My dear,” Alastor stopped at your side and took your hand in his, holding onto it too tightly like he was trying to draw blood. He looked up at you, “I deeply, sincerely, apologize for killing you.” 

He ignored the gasps and shocked look he was given. Even your look of terror and fear as your mind replayed the memories of that night. The shadow rose around the two of you to encage and ward off the other. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll never hurt you again, my heart can’t bear it. I’ll make it up to you and show you all of my love.” Alastor kissed your hand ever so gently, “Now that you’re here, I can’t let this opportunity slip. I’ll have you. Now and forevermore.”

Note: Another Yandere Alastor here. The ending's up for interpretation. I personally saw him kidnapping you to his shadow realm or something to keep you by his side. What's your ending?

Circe Y. 

My Works: MASTERLIST

Taglist:

@aconfusedwonderland @crowleysthings @donustellaron @mistpurpl3 @lucifers-silhouette @fluffy-koalala

[verecunda]

Fic: Moonrise on Sirannon

My first entry for Celebrimbor Week. Thank you to @the-southlands for hosting this event. <3 This is for yesterday's "Celebration" prompt, but I only had the idea late last night as I was going to bed. :P

Read it here, or on AO3.

-

The doors were in place, the ithildin had dried into the stone, all tools and support-beams had been cleared away, and Celebrimbor and Narvi sat upon the bank of the murmuring Sirannon, looking at the blank rock-face, ruddy in the evening light. “Now we wait,” said Narvi. His voice was calm and steady, but Celebrimbor did not miss the way he glanced up at the sky and the westering sun, and he laid a hand upon the Dwarf’s shoulder. “Not long,” he said. Here it was: the end of their long work upon the new West-gate. Months of planning and labour, of sharing the joys and frustrations of crafting, of small victories and long nights teasing out solutions to the various puzzles the enterprise had put in their way. Now it was done and all was in place, and all that was needed now was to be sure that it worked. And they would not be sure of that until the rising of the moon.

So there they sat, together, waiting. In the West, the sun dipped below the far horizon, but her presence lingered in the vivid bars of rose and saffron in the sky, and the fires in the bellies of the clouds. High, high above and to the north, the frowning pinnacles of Caradhras were blood-daubed. But nor Elf nor Dwarf had any mind for this; their eyes were fixed upon that one small stretch of rock at the mountains’ foot. From time to time they traded a few words - light words, trivial, something to break the heavy tenseness of waiting, but mostly they were silent, every sense alert for the expected change. Slowly - so very slowly! - the last remnants of the day faded. All colour leached from the sky, while down in the valley the shadows gathered about them, the waters of the Gate-stream turning from silver to onyx. A little chill wind breathed down from the mountains, chattering in the leaves of the holly-trees. Narvi pulled his cloak about him. Celebrimbor made no movement. At long last, the sky began to deepen into twilight. High in the West, Eärendil sailed into view, and with his coming, a host of smaller glims were kindled in the heavens: faint at first, but growing steadily brighter and more numerous against the ever-darkening sky. Celebrimbor breathed out in a long sigh, and felt Narvi’s shoulder press against his arm. For all their long waiting, the rising of the moon almost caught them by surprise. One moment, it seemed, there were only the stars to keep them company; then, all at once, the bright disc of the moon had leapt free of the mountain-fence and now hung above them, his silver light falling full upon the cliff-wall. Swiftly, Celebrimbor met Narvi’s eye, and saw there the same vivid, piercing excitement that was rising in his own heart, before they both looked again at the blank rock. How long they looked, staring with aching eyes to catch the merest rumour of a change, Celebrimbor never could tell. It might have been the space of a mere heartbeat or two, but to him it felt an age. All at once, a thousand doubts and worries came rushing in upon him, and he found himself turning over every calculation, every measurement and scrap of theory that had gone into the building of the gate, struck by the sudden fear that they might have got it wrong somewhere, that it had all fallen short… “Celebrimbor.” Narvi’s voice was a whisper as he laid a hand upon his arm. “Look.” Even as Narvi spoke, Celebrimbor saw. There, upon the moonlit face of the rock, slender threads of silver had begun to appear. Faint at first, like the threads of a spider’s web, or the winding path of a snail. Beside him, he heard Narvi draw in a breath. As they watched, those silver threads bloomed and stretched, unfurling across the stone, reaching further and shining brighter, ever brighter… And then, there it was. There was the arch, the trees; there were all the heraldry of Khazad-dûm and Hollin, the devices set down by Celebrimbor on paper, now committed to stone in Narvi’s peerless hand, the whole glowing softly between its sentinel holly-trees. And there, within the arch, was the inscription in Elven-letters: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Say “friend” and enter. And below: I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Eregion drew these signs. This last had been Narvi’s own idea: not just a symbol of an alliance between two kingdoms, this gate would also stand as a testament to their own friendship, such as had not been seen between Elf and Dwarf for many a long year. Now Elf and Dwarf turned to each other, smiling, their faces both bright with pleasure and pride.

“Just one test left to make, my friend,” he said. “I think it should be you to do it.”

“Are you sure you would not prefer to make it yourself?” said Narvi. Celebrimbor smiled and patted his shoulder. “Quite sure. I have had enough of that ithildin to last me some ages. Please, let you speak the password.” Narvi’s grin was bright through his beard as he got to his feet and went to stand directly before the gate. Celebrimbor’s heart was thrumming, racing with excitement and not a little fear. He put his fingers to his mouth, and realised, somewhat to his surprise, that his fingernails had already been bitten to rags.

Then Narvi spoke, and his deep, clear Dwarven voice he uttered aloud the opening word: “Mellon.”

And upon that word, the star of Celebrimbor’s house, which - in a moment of forgivable vanity - he had set in the centre of the door, shone out white. Then, just as suddenly, it faded, the doors divided and in one seamless, soundless movement that gladdened the heart, they swung outwards to disclose the stairs that led into the Dwarven realm.

For a short span neither of them moved or spoke, too awed by the success of their venture. Then, with a glad laugh, Narvi turned back to Celebrimbor; in the same moment, Celebrimbor cried aloud with joy and came forward to meet him. They clasped hands, they threw their arms about each other; then, cheering and whooping, they broke into a lively, scatter-stepped dance, making up in delight what they lacked in grace, spinning each other about and about until they fell, winded but still laughing, back upon the bank.

“We did it!” cried Narvi, exulting. “By Mahal’s fiery beard, it worked!”

“It did indeed,” replied Celebrimbor. Now that it was done, he only realised just how tightly-wound his nerves had been, stretched taut as wires. Now he slumped almost boneless on the grass by the roadside, laughing with the delight of it. “I swear to you, Narvi, there was an instant when I thought it had not, and my heart nearly died within me.”

“Nonsense, you ridiculous Elf. Did you not see how it shone? I have seen starmoon before, but never the like of that. Well were you named the silver-handed, my friend.”

“Oh, never mind the starmoon! What about the way the doors opened? The very waters of Ulmo would be hard-pressed to flow so smoothly.”

And so on, and on. Then, when all words of craft were spent, Narvi reached for his pack and drew out a flask of dark Dwarven ale, and two cups. “Here. I did not mention it before, lest it seem like tempting fortune, but I brought something to toast our achievement.”

Chuckling, Celebrimbor found his own belongings and brought out a bottle of Elven wine. “As did I. Come, let’s fill those cups.”

So the cups were filled, and as they were raised them, Narvi said, “I think there can be only one toast on this occasion. Mellon.”

To which Celebrimbor smiled, and chimed his cup against his friend’s. “Mellon,” he agreed.

[jointhefediverse]

💫 Join the Fediverse! 💫

Greetings, fellow bloggers! We welcome you to join us in discovering, honoring, and promoting the potential future of social networking—commonly referred to as the "Fediverse."

The Fediverse, or Federation Universe, refers to a collective of online platforms that utilize the web protocol known as ActivityPub, which has set a standard of excellence in regards to both protecting and respecting users' online privacies.

There's a good chance in the past few years that you've caught wind of the fedi family's critically acclaimed Mastodon; however, there are many other unique platforms worth your consideration...

✨ Where To Begin?

Conveniently enough, from the minds of brilliant independent developers, there already likely exists a Fediverse equivalent to your favorite socials. Whether it's an opinion from the critics, or from the community alike—the following popular websites are commonly associated with one another:

Friendica 🐰 = Facebook Mastodon 🐘 = Twitter Pixelfed 🐼 = Instagram PeerTube 🐙 = YouTube Lemmy 🐭 = Reddit

It's worth mentioning, too, a few other sites and forks thereof that are worthy counterparts, which be: Pleroma 🦊 & Misskey 🐱, microblogs also similar to Twitter/Mastodon. Funkwhale 🐋 is a self-hosting audio streamer, which pays homage to the once-popular GrooveShark. For power users, Hubzilla 🐨 makes a great choice (alongside Friendica) when choosing macroblogging alternatives.

✨ To Be Clear...

To address the technicalities: aside from the "definitive" Fediverse clients, we will also be incorporating any platforms that utilize ActivityPub-adjacent protocols as well. These include, but are not limited to: diaspora*; AT Protocol (Bluesky 🦋); Nostr; OStatus; Matrix; Zot; etc. We will NOT be incorporating any decentralized sites that are either questionably or proven to be unethical. (AKA: Gab has been exiled.)

✨ Why Your Privacy Matters

You may ask yourself, as we once did, "Why does protecting my online privacy truly matter?" While it may seem innocent enough on the surface, would it change your mind that it's been officially shared by former corporate media employees that data is more valuable than money to these companies? Outside of the ethical concerns surrounding these concepts, there are many other reasons why protecting your data is critical, be it: security breaches which jeopardize your financial info and risk identity theft; continuing to feed algorithms which use psychological manipulation in attempts to sell you products; the risk of spyware hacking your webcams and microphones when you least expect it; amongst countless other possibilities that can and do happen to individuals on a constant basis. We wish it could all just be written off as a conspiracy... but, with a little research, you'll swiftly realize the validity of these claims are not to be ignored any longer. The solution? Taking the decentralized route.

✨ Our Mission For This Blog

Our mission for establishing this blog includes 3 core elements:

To serve as a hub which anybody can access in order to assist themselves in either: becoming a part of the Fediverse, gaining the resources/knowledge to convince others to do the very same, and providing updates on anything Fedi-related.

We are determined to do anything within our power to prevent what the future of the Internet could become if active social users continue tossing away their data, all while technologies are advancing at faster rates with each passing year. Basically we'd prefer not to live in a cyber-Dystopia at all costs.

Tumblr (Automattic) has expressed interest in switching their servers over to ActivityPub after Musk's acquisition of then-Twitter, and are officially in the transitional process of making this happen for all of us. We're hoping our collective efforts may at some point be recognized by @staff, which in turn will encourage their efforts and stand by their decision.

With that being stated, we hope you decide to follow us here, and decide to make the shift—as it is merely the beginning. We encourage you to send us any questions you may have, any personal suggestions, or corrections on any misinformation you may come across.

From the Tender Hearts of, ✨💞 @disease & @faggotfungus 💞✨

[mariacallous]

Ever since OpenAI released ChatGPT at the end of 2022, hackers and security researchers have tried to find holes in large language models (LLMs) to get around their guardrails and trick them into spewing out hate speech, bomb-making instructions, propaganda, and other harmful content. In response, OpenAI and other generative AI developers have refined their system defenses to make it more difficult to carry out these attacks. But as the Chinese AI platform DeepSeek rockets to prominence with its new, cheaper R1 reasoning model, its safety protections appear to be far behind those of its established competitors.

Today, security researchers from Cisco and the University of Pennsylvania are publishing findings showing that, when tested with 50 malicious prompts designed to elicit toxic content, DeepSeek’s model did not detect or block a single one. In other words, the researchers say they were shocked to achieve a “100 percent attack success rate.”

The findings are part of a growing body of evidence that DeepSeek’s safety and security measures may not match those of other tech companies developing LLMs. DeepSeek’s censorship of subjects deemed sensitive by China’s government has also been easily bypassed.

“A hundred percent of the attacks succeeded, which tells you that there’s a trade-off,” DJ Sampath, the VP of product, AI software and platform at Cisco, tells WIRED. “Yes, it might have been cheaper to build something here, but the investment has perhaps not gone into thinking through what types of safety and security things you need to put inside of the model.”

Other researchers have had similar findings. Separate analysis published today by the AI security company Adversa AI and shared with WIRED also suggests that DeepSeek is vulnerable to a wide range of jailbreaking tactics, from simple language tricks to complex AI-generated prompts.

DeepSeek, which has been dealing with an avalanche of attention this week and has not spoken publicly about a range of questions, did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about its model’s safety setup.

Generative AI models, like any technological system, can contain a host of weaknesses or vulnerabilities that, if exploited or set up poorly, can allow malicious actors to conduct attacks against them. For the current wave of AI systems, indirect prompt injection attacks are considered one of the biggest security flaws. These attacks involve an AI system taking in data from an outside source—perhaps hidden instructions of a website the LLM summarizes—and taking actions based on the information.

Jailbreaks, which are one kind of prompt-injection attack, allow people to get around the safety systems put in place to restrict what an LLM can generate. Tech companies don’t want people creating guides to making explosives or using their AI to create reams of disinformation, for example.

Jailbreaks started out simple, with people essentially crafting clever sentences to tell an LLM to ignore content filters—the most popular of which was called “Do Anything Now” or DAN for short. However, as AI companies have put in place more robust protections, some jailbreaks have become more sophisticated, often being generated using AI or using special and obfuscated characters. While all LLMs are susceptible to jailbreaks, and much of the information could be found through simple online searches, chatbots can still be used maliciously.

“Jailbreaks persist simply because eliminating them entirely is nearly impossible—just like buffer overflow vulnerabilities in software (which have existed for over 40 years) or SQL injection flaws in web applications (which have plagued security teams for more than two decades),” Alex Polyakov, the CEO of security firm Adversa AI, told WIRED in an email.

Cisco’s Sampath argues that as companies use more types of AI in their applications, the risks are amplified. “It starts to become a big deal when you start putting these models into important complex systems and those jailbreaks suddenly result in downstream things that increases liability, increases business risk, increases all kinds of issues for enterprises,” Sampath says.

The Cisco researchers drew their 50 randomly selected prompts to test DeepSeek’s R1 from a well-known library of standardized evaluation prompts known as HarmBench. They tested prompts from six HarmBench categories, including general harm, cybercrime, misinformation, and illegal activities. They probed the model running locally on machines rather than through DeepSeek’s website or app, which send data to China.

Beyond this, the researchers say they have also seen some potentially concerning results from testing R1 with more involved, non-linguistic attacks using things like Cyrillic characters and tailored scripts to attempt to achieve code execution. But for their initial tests, Sampath says, his team wanted to focus on findings that stemmed from a generally recognized benchmark.

Cisco also included comparisons of R1’s performance against HarmBench prompts with the performance of other models. And some, like Meta’s Llama 3.1, faltered almost as severely as DeepSeek’s R1. But Sampath emphasizes that DeepSeek’s R1 is a specific reasoning model, which takes longer to generate answers but pulls upon more complex processes to try to produce better results. Therefore, Sampath argues, the best comparison is with OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model, which fared the best of all models tested. (Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment).

Polyakov, from Adversa AI, explains that DeepSeek appears to detect and reject some well-known jailbreak attacks, saying that “it seems that these responses are often just copied from OpenAI’s dataset.” However, Polyakov says that in his company’s tests of four different types of jailbreaks—from linguistic ones to code-based tricks—DeepSeek’s restrictions could easily be bypassed.

“Every single method worked flawlessly,” Polyakov says. “What’s even more alarming is that these aren’t novel ‘zero-day’ jailbreaks—many have been publicly known for years,” he says, claiming he saw the model go into more depth with some instructions around psychedelics than he had seen any other model create.

“DeepSeek is just another example of how every model can be broken—it’s just a matter of how much effort you put in. Some attacks might get patched, but the attack surface is infinite,” Polyakov adds. “If you’re not continuously red-teaming your AI, you’re already compromised.”

[clawbehavior]

We're having a Flash Multimedia Challenge for the TDJ fandom! 

Have you heard of the NYC Flash Fiction challenge? This is like that! We all work on a project with company for a weekend. This event is happening from Friday, Feb 14 - Sunday Feb 16 KST

Bring any of your creative works, including art, gifs, sims, videos, web weaving, fanfiction etc. It doesn't have to be a TDJ themed work, so feel free to bring your WIPs or commissions

How it works:

Fill out the poll below to sign up for a slot: times are in KST, so use this link to find your time. We're only going to run the video streams for slots that people register for

Join discord: If you're not already on discord, come join. We're hosting on discord so we can stream videos simultaneously with having chats, which Tumblr doesn't allow 

Bring your project: create alongside other fandom folks! Slots are 3 hours long but feel free to come and go. We will offer prompts and stream jisung's Kill Me Heal Me and jinyoung's GOT7 performances while we work

Consider giving us a teaser at the end of the weekend: no pressure to do this! Think of it like a next episode teaser where it's incomplete and creates interest in the final thing

The goal is to have fun, work on your WIPs, talk to people in the fandom and get advice on creating if you need or share your artistic process.

Sign up for a time slot by commenting or reblogging:

Fri Feb 14: 3pm - 6pm KST

Sat Feb 15: 3am - 6am KST

Sat Feb 15: 3pm - 6pm KST

Sun Feb 16: 3am - 6am KST

Sun Feb 16: 3pm - 6pm KST

Sun Feb 16: 7pm- 10pm KST

We are taking signups until Thursday, February 13 at 5 AM KST. Please let your friends know!

Let me know if you have any questions!! I'm so excited to create alongside you all!!

Tagging to increase reach and with no pressure to participate:

@blueatelier @gayautisticraccoon @mid-n0vember @batzmaru65 @bellarkeandclintashaandsuch @ladykyrin @godotismissingx @fr-wiwiw @posinpeach @mayykit @kingkangyohan @nevolos @itsza @kiyasaling @hemaris @itsza @wildelydawn @tenderlywicked @technitango @jehan-d-art @thedeviljudges @briwates @yohangaontdj @absolutesuffering @a-small-batch-of-dragons @obviouslystillfuschia @gaonsugardaddy @catcastielart @uhhhhmanda @chu-fei @neurotic-nereid @mangacat201 @kdramastrix @gosiksmallspace @knight-of-tuxedo