#Substack Community on Reddit

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Invitation to Elevate Your Substack Newsletter and Medium Stories a New Reddit Community

Welcome to r/Substack_Mastery Let’s discover how Reddit can amplify your reach, connect you with engaged readers, and seamlessly integrate your Substack newsletters with Medium stories for remarkable growth. Dear Writers and Readers, In 2020, I faced an unexpected setback when I was banned from one of my favorite Reddit communities. My “offense” was sharing my personal journey with autophagy…

[iamrhyme]

Listen 🎧 to, download ⬇️, hit the heart- shaped like button ♥️, comment 🗨️ on and share episode 346 of the Narrative Podcast across all platforms at the link below

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-346-the-narrative-podcast--60808467

The Narrative Podcast promotes positive reinforcement about original people and original people culture. The Narrative Podcast provides positive frames of reference about original people and original people culture.

The Narrative Podcast: Changing the Narrative one episode at a time by destroying negative stereotypes about original people and original people culture.

Tune into the Narrative Podcast and become a Narrator.

Let's change the Narrative!

Visit the virtual online bookstore on Poetizer.com and purchase my original book of poetry "The Black Card." Purchase The Black Card today or get your black card revoked!

[bitbybitwrites]

ShadowDragon sells a tool called SocialNet that streamlines the process of pulling public data from various sites, apps, and services. Marketing material available online says SocialNet can “follow the breadcrumbs of your target’s digital life and find hidden correlations in your research.” In one promotional video, ShadowDragon says users can enter “an email, an alias, a name, a phone number, a variety of different things, and immediately have information on your target. We can see interests, we can see who friends are, pictures, videos.”

The leaked list of targeted sites include ones from major tech companies, communication tools, sites focused around certain hobbies and interests, payment services, social networks, and more. The 30 companies the Mozilla Foundation is asking to block ShadowDragon scrapers are ​​Amazon, Apple, BabyCentre, BlueSky, Discord, Duolingo, Etsy, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, FlightAware, Github, Glassdoor, GoFundMe, Google, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, OnlyFans, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Strava, Substack, TikTok, Tinder, TripAdvisor, Twitch, Twitter, WhatsApp, Xbox, Yelp, and YouTube.

[ekingston]

Hello! So sorry to bother, but have you had any updates on the Word-Stream/Speechify situation?

Just one: like I posted on Xitter and Bluesky last night, as of yesterday afternoon, the links to individual works as they were listed on WordStream are gone from both Google and Bing. Hurray, right? Surely we’re all sick of this whole debacle and there’s far more important things to worry about. If all is well that ends well, surely there’s no need to still be angry.

Well, I am. Here’s why:

When I checked on Wednesday, the links to my own work on WordStream were still listed. So rather than it taking a week after Cliff Weitzman first hid the fanwork from view, it took a little over a week from the moment he first promised privately that they would be deleted. Which, fine. Perhaps Cliff didn’t really know what he was talking about when he gave that timeframe. Or maybe he told a little white lie to create the impression that he always intended to do the right thing. It seems more likely to me, though, that Cliff still believed—even after the backlash he received—that he would get away with honoring only individual takedown requests. Or worse, that he needed just a little bit more time with the stolen material to figure out an alternative way to profit off it—preferably without us noticing, this time.

But who knows? I certainly don’t! All we can do is speculate, because publicly, Cliff Weitzman has remained completely silent on his copyright infringements. All we got was the initial justifications he and his sockpuppet accounts used in comments on the original Reddit and Tumblr posts. After those were so understandably ill-received, Cliff only ever communicated with a few individual authors who contacted him directly and repeatedly, blocking people who addressed the issue on Twitter and quietly distancing himself from WordStream by deleting a blog he’d posted to Speechify.com dated December 20th—where Cliff promoted WordStream’s platform specifically to fanfiction readers. (See my enormous timeline post for details and screenshots of said posts before they were taken down.)

And this is why I’m still angry: As long as Cliff Weitzman faces no real consequences for his actions, he won’t see a need to own up to his mistake; and as long as he’s able to delay taking responsibility, this isn’t over. This didn’t end well.

After all, wasn’t this the next-best scenario for Cliff, second only to him turning WordStream into a (for him) effortless, infinite money-making machine? He took something we provided for free and fed it to AI so he could more easily put it behind a paywall; we found out and protested; Cliff quietly erased all evidence of his crime; and we went—almost equally quietly—away.

I want to make sure you know that I continue to be genuinely amazed and intensely grateful for how quickly the news about WordStream’s copyright infringement was shared—and continues to be shared—throughout fandom, on tumblr in particular. If it hadn’t been for our collective outcry here and on Reddit, WordStream would very likely still be up in its original form, and Weitzman would be reaping the benefits (those subscription prices were steep) today.

But it’s been frustrating to see that, with the exception of mentions in articles on Substack and Fansplaining (the latter of which is a particularly awesome and thorough read on fandom’s decontextualization) and a Fanlore listing, our outrage never really spilled out beyond the safely insulated, out-of-the-way spaces that are tumblr, a handful of subreddits and bluesky. And I believe that—unfortunately—we are collectively responsible for that part, as well.

Most of us seemed content to only spread the word by circulating the same two posts on tumblr. (Have we all given up completely on every other social media platform? Am I the only remaining straggler?) And soon after Cliff Weitzman hid WordStream’s fanfiction category from view, our interest in the issue took a sharp dive even there. Are we genuinely deceived into believing the issue has been fully resolved? Do we truly fail to realize that Weitzman’s refusal to admit that what he did was wrong left the door wide open for the next greed-driven tech bro to wander through? Or is the true naivety in thinking that, as a community, we can keep this kind of attack on fandom from happening again? Has our disillusionment already gotten that bad?

However the situation spins out from here, Cliff’s actions will set a precedent. If we fail to show Cliff and his ilk that attempts to profit off fandom’s unpaid labor have consequences, their tech companies will keep trying until something eventually sticks. They might be a little smarter about it next time; obscure their sources a bit better, maybe leave the titles and the authors’ names off. Or maybe they’ll go a bolder route: maybe next time they cross the line they’ll do it boldly enough for IP holders to take notice and stop tolerating fanwork entirely.

Doesn’t that make you angry, too?

There’s this whole other mess of thoughts I would love to be able to untangle about how commercial influence is contributing to the steady erosion of fandom’s foundations, but I’m tired, and other people have said it all much more eloquently than I ever could. Seriously, go read that article on Fansplaining. Or listen to the podcast version of it. Better yet, as long as you’re wearing your noise-canceling headphones, go listen to a podfic of one of your favorite fandoms’ works, and enjoy the collaborative joy and creativity of the people who Cliff Weitzman refuses to believe exist. (In one of Speechify’s other blogs, Cliff claims there are only 272 podfics on AO3. Would you like to run that ChatGPT prompt again, Cliff?). Honestly, much like Cliff Weitzman’s infuriating denial of the fact that fandom fucking has this covered, thank you very much, there’s so. Many. More. Things for us to talk about. There’s the connotations of WordStream’s dubious ‘upload’ button, for instance, or the fact that the app scraped (and in some cases, allegedly, still lists) copyright-protected original fiction as well, or WordStream’s complete lack of contact information, which is illegal for an internationally operating app. And oh! Has anyone reported more thoroughly on Cliff’s app’s options to ‘simplify’ or ‘modernize’ uploaded works, or—my own very favorite abomination—to translate them into something Cliff calls ‘Gen-Z Language’? Much like his atrocious AI book covers, it would be hilarious, if it didn’t make steam come out of my ears.

Anyway, there it is. I highly recommend you do all of that. And then, if you aren’t familiar with it already, go do some research re: fair use and your rights as the copyright owner of your works. A good number of people commenting on this controversy expressed stunned surprise or fearful hesitation about claiming any sort of ownership of their fanfiction. The more informed we are about our rights, the more willing we will be to defend them.

Please don’t stop writing or sharing your work. If you can’t bring yourself to work on your WIPs today (trust me, I get it), post about this situation instead. Tweets, skeets, whateverthefucks—about WordStream’s theft, about how this reflects on Speechify’s already shady business practices, about how Cliff’s actions and justifications have personally affected you. You’re welcome to share or copy my posts on these platforms, but since Cliff already blocked me, I very much prefer you post your own. If you do, call Cliff Weitzman by his full name and tag or include both WordStream and Speechify to ensure Weitzman will recognize he has both a personal as well as a professional stake in handling the situation with integrity. Leave your concerns in reviews on the Speechify app. (We weren’t provided with a more appropriate place to put them, after all!) Consider calling for a Speechify boycott until Cliff accepts accountability for his actions.

Do avoid making exaggerated claims, and don’t call for physical retaliation against Cliff’s person or his property. We don’t want to give him or Speechify even the weakest of grounds to claim defamation or threats of violence. Focus on the facts: they’re incriminating enough by themselves. Show Cliff that we’re determined to keep bringing up his company’s wrongdoings in public spaces until he demonstrates that he understands why taking these freely shared fanworks and monetizing them was wrong, and takes steps to ensure it won’t happen again.

One last thing—and this is really more of a general reminder—please stop suggesting I handle this situation for you. People have come to me asking for action items. The resulting flashbacks to my days as an office assistant were extremely upsetting. In all seriousness, casting me as some sort of coordinator or driving force behind this backlash actively hurts the cause. Not only does it downplay fandom’s collective efforts, it also makes our message extremely vulnerable. It would be all too easy for Cliff to silence one singular source. Wikipedia will not maintain mentions of this controversy as long as it leads only to Easter Kingston’s attempt to summarize what happened as it was happening. You only know my name because I stumbled upon WordStream’s theft and decided to get my friends involved. I am not more knowledgeable, more skilled or more angrily invested in this issue than you are (or can, or should, be). I draw pictures and I write stories and I worry about the shift I’m seeing in fandom after having been on this ride for even a few pre-livejournal rounds.

I’m not going to stop doing any of those things. But I am going to allow myself to step away for a bit, make my wife dinner, and catch up on our shows.

I trust you’ve got it from here.

[yonahsienna]

This Was Supposed to Be Fun

Or: WTF happened to the online Commons, and where do we go now?

Let me start by saying that I don't want to be a "content creator" or “online influencer”. I don't want to "optimize engagement" or “build an agile social strategy”. I don’t even particularly want to Start a Blog or Podcast. I just want to f#¢&!ng hang out with my friends and community online, and I feel like we should have The Technology to just do that by now.

Of course (infuriatingly) we did have that technology! I first connected to the World Wide Web in 2001 when I was ten years old. Back then, the whole family shared one computer, which I mostly used to play Age of Empires, Bugdom, and Oregon Trail. Connecting to the Internet meant that nobody could use the phone, so we would log on quickly (accompanied by a symphony of discordant whistles and beeps), check emails and/or MSN messages, and then pass the computer to the next person.

As our access to the Internet grew through my teens, so did the diversity of content we consumed, shared, and bonded over. eBaum’s World and Newgrounds hosted a plethora of simple, free webgames we'd play once we got bored with the handful my parents were willing to buy, as well as the first viral videos like Numa Numa and Star Wars Kid. We also connected in new ways with a growing “social web” — profiles on sites like Myspace and Livejournal and eventually the early Facebook were a way that anyone could have their own site on the web, a little virtual locker that you could decorate and fill up to your liking, and have your friends stuff with virtual notes.

In my late teens and early twenties, the Internet was mostly for research and keeping up with student government and clubs via long weekly emails stuffed with hyperlinks and attachments. It wasn't until I was well into my twenties that I got my first smartphone. At university, the only way to connect to the Internet “on the go” was to tweet my on-the-go thoughts by sending an SMS text message to Twitter at 21212. I also hardly used the social web anyways, other than for a quick dopamine distraction or break from long study sessions in the library. I had even deleted my Facebook account that I'd had since high school, since the campus coffee shop and bar served as more than enough of a hub for socializing, philosophical and political debates, and important announcements posted on cork boards or delivered by intercom.

I know I probably sound like a stereotypical Millennial, whining about the “good ole days”, but I wanted to spend this time on memory lane for a reason. I think that no matter when you grew up, this feeling is probably close to universal: from the early 2000s to early 2020s, the Internet and social web seemed to just work. There were a lot of things wrong with the world, but the Internet was where we went to complain about other problems, not a source of them. But of course, even back then we were living on borrowed money and time. The virtual Commons we had grown comfortable in never actually belonged to us, the users. From the moment they incorporated, the big sites belonged to venture capital, who sold them out to the oligarchs, who sold them out to the fascists. We were never the customer, always the product.

Flash forward to 2025. The “big four” North American social media outlets (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok) have all been captured by the Trump administration. Smaller sites, like Reddit, Telegram, and Substack have long been a hotbed for bigotry and hate speech. Searches on Apple, Google, Microsoft, and even Pinterest are serving up LLM “AI” slop before authentic and unique human creations. Ads, suggestions, sponsored posts, and cookie pop-ups take up far more space than the content I came for. And if I ever want my family, friends, and community to actually see my updates, I either need to send them to each person directly, or market my posts not to them, but to an algorithm optimized not for users or even businesses, but shareholder profit. On top of all of this, there is a pervasive sense of how uncomfortably public, permanent, and surveilled it all is. (In parallel to all this: efforts to gather in person are cut at the knees by a lack of coherent and safe public health policies, the dismantling of Third Spaces and affordable public transportation, and the militarization of the police.)

It is horrifying that exactly when the biggest thing we need for survival is to build and strengthen community, that the only accessible tools to do so, are hostile to our very existence.

Obviously this isn’t a coincidence. Every time we, the people, can talk to each other directly, we start getting dangerous ideas about the fact that the ultra-wealthy and hyper-elite are so few, and the rest of us are so many. Pamphlets facilitated the French and American revolutions, the telegraph and radio hastened the collapse of the Russian and German Empires, and Twitter fanned the flames of the Arab Spring. And here in America, The Powers That Be, Red and Blue alike, overwhelmingly want the American government in strict control over where and how we can communicate with each other.

And here I am, just hoping for a single F#¢&!NG site on the whole World Wide Web where I can just hang out with family, friends, and community that isn't owned and operated by literal fascists, kept behind a paywall, or too technical for our Elders to use. A comfy virtual coffee shop with announcement boards, conversations, the occasional performance, and a locker nearby for collecting memories and passing notes.

I don’t really know what the Takeaway/Call to Action is here. Yes, I’m already on Tumblr, Mastadon, and Bluesky, and would love it if we all continued to grow these kind of alternatives while divesting from profit-driven social "platforms". I’m still on Discord, Snapchat, and Signal and even have accounts on Loops, Pixelfed, and Xiaohongshu, in case the center of gravity ever moves over to those places. All of them still feel very "under construction" though, so I don't even know which (if any) I feel comfortable asking friends and family to "switch over" to. In the meantime, I'm just feeling lost, sad, lonely, and adrift; and wanted to share these musings with y’all. Just in case anyone has any advice you want to share, or are feeling the same way and want to commiserate.

xposted to Facebook, Tumblr, Medium, and WriteAs. God, I hate the Internet right now >:(

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Heyyyy totally random but if Tumblr ever goes up in smoke, is there another place you hang out online?

There are a few places I lurk, but none where I actually post besides here. A couple of Discords, but even there I'm not really active in posting, just use them for specific purposes.

There are many things wrong with Tumblr, but I don't think the internet has an equivalent to it. I like that you can post anything you want on any topic, instead of following each specific subsection's rules like on Reddit. I guess Instagram allows that too, but Instagram has actual celebrities on it, which is horrifying to me. Same with other mainstream social media options. And even if it weren't for the political connotations, can you imagine me trying to distill my ramblings into a Twitter thread?

Discord has a similar thing to Reddit, in that you're posting in a community thread with predetermined rules about the topic and responding to other people, rather than just being able to say anything. Also, while Discord's private nature is very useful for some things, I do use my Tumblr posts to try to find people who share my niche interests and want to chat about them, and I don't already know enough of those people to want to take this out of the public sphere. I just want to be in a part of the public sphere that's only for nerds and does not contain any of the actual famous people I write about.

There is a comedy message board where I lurk quite frequently and occasionally I'll get annoyed enough about something that gets said there so that I'll come on Tumblr and respond to it to people who don't have the context and it doesn't make sense. But I haven't got the confidence to actually post on there.

If Tumblr did go up in smoke, I might start a substack or a WordPress or something. But they don't have the same social functions as Tumblr, and like I said, I like using this site to make friends. But making friends entirely on my own terms, by posting my own thoughts that don't have to follow any existing discussions. There's a reason this place is the autistic people's sanctuary.

I've actually hardly posted on Tumblr for the last couple of weeks, I got very busy + fell down a couple of rabbit holes that made me so busy consuming comedy I didn't have time to stop and write about it. But I have a few posts I'm working on at the moment, and I'll be back. I'll keep coming back here until this site goes up in smoke.

[mydogatemymotivation]

So tiktok is back.

If you're going to delete it, refuse to log on, etc., that's smart, that's understandable.

If you're going to stay on the app, please keep this in mind: we don't know what happened. There's a lot of speculation, but the simple fact of the matter is, we don't know. We do know that this was political theatre, we know that DT started this crap in 2020 and now he's trying to take credit for "saving" TT. He's not the savior and anyone who falls for his bullshit is unfathomably stupid. Sorry, not sorry. We don't know what's going on with Shou. He could've bent the knee, he could be playing the long game. I don't know, you don't know, we don't know. I don't think we're going to know for a long, long time what all happened here. Please don't spread misinformation, please don't give into the fear tactics of either side.

If you're on the app, block all meta profiles. Meta quest, facebook, instagram, snap chat, etc. Block fox news, unfollow any politicians you might have previously followed (why were you following politicians). Remember, any politicians that voted for this ban still voted against American's first amendment rights. That hasn't changed.

Use this window of "nothing has changed that much" (YET) to find people and news sources you trust on other platforms. I think we all realized that, if you were on tt, we all used tt as a bit of a crutch and when it was threatened we all felt way too backed into a corner. Everyone needs to be active on different platforms. YouTube, Substack, Reddit, Discord, BlueSky, Tumblr, and nothing zuckerburg or musk owned. You need to find community off of that app, and try to combat right wing ideology where you are. You're a soldier in a digital age, tbh, and the fight is with information. I think YT is a big one because a lot of kids are on that site and a lot of redpill is on that site so kids are getting that crap directly. Report stuff, block people, etc., be more active in those regards. It might be difficult to control the narrative, but it will be worse if there's no one there to fight right wing crap at all.

Take all information from tt with a grain of salt and double check with news sources you trust: as in, nothing mainstream because they're all owned by the same fuckass billionaires. For example, I could be wrong but I'm reasonably certain cnn and fox news are owned by the same people.

It's at this juncture we need to be on the offensive, instead of passive. I think jumping ship every time isn't actually a good practice, its just surrender after surrender. But at the same time be very, very cautious. Use tiktok, but don't use ONLY tiktok and communicate with people on other platforms in other ways. Stay on the places you went to when you thought you were going to lose tt. Pay attention to what's getting violations and what phrases you need to work around to communicate with a larger audience and still get accurate information across.

It's dystopian, but we live in a dystopia. I don't know what else you expected it to look like.

I also know that there's a lot of fun to be had on tt, frankly. There are people you followed because of their food or their craft, or just because you liked them as a person that you're happy you still get to check in with. I don't think its fair to act like that's silly. The human brain wasn't meant to process so much doom and gloom from so many different places. Being happy in dark times is rebellious. Just don't let it distract you from the real fight. Don't let it take over your entire algorithm until you realize that you haven't seen any news in a long time.

There's a lot of nuance, there's a lot of confusion, and people are going to feel the way they feel. But it's unrealistic to act like every single American is going to log off of tt permanently, so while people are getting back on, know what's going on around you, know that something happened to the app while it was down. Please, and I know people aren't good at this but please, be smart.

Spend less time on that app and more time reading books. Yes, books. Get news from more than one place. Spend more time on other apps as well. Find more community online AND on the ground. Stay smart, stay safe, and remember the block button is rated E for everyone. I've blocked people because I didn't like the way they edited their videos, okay? You can block them if you suspect they might be right wing. You can block if they say something suspicious.

It like those scenes in TV shows where a character we thought was in danger comes back and while the main characters have their back turned we see the the kubrick smile that tells us that the "friend" that has returned is an imposter. We know. The audience knows. Sometimes the imposter is going to help. Sometimes the imposter is going to lie. Know it's an imposter, and act accordingly. Do what you feel you need to. Log on and snipe misinformation/disinformation, or stay off permanently and use other apps more. Both are vaild, but know that something is wrong and different.

[liftingtheirspirits]

I spent years of my life processing my pain and experiences the wrong way. I’ll spend the rest of my life writing about the way out.

Hi, I’m JR and I write Lifting Their Spirits

33, Workforce Development Director, guitar junky, obsessed with writing, psych, dark-art/dark academia vibes.

Trigger warning.

The first time I wrote other than to learn, I sat down in my room and wrote down my most recent encounter; getting the shit kicked out of me by my birth mother. I folded it up and tucked it away in a little blue suitcase (my Irish twin sister had one to match).

From that moment on, I was a writer… I just didn’t know that’s what I was.

In 2011 I made my first Reddit account and started posting in communities I liked with an account bio that said “I like to say meaningful things” and over the years had many hundreds of conversations, lifting fellow men/women/they/them just by meeting them where they were at. Often, it wasn’t even a lift, it was just being someone there with you to sit and to listen.

In that same year I began my career in medicine, moving through an array of therapeutic areas, gleaning immense insight into the lives and suffering of thousands of people.

Around 2013 I made social media accounts and began to volunteer and connect with my little community in rural Northeast US. I’d often write long form posts about patient encounters, working with the homeless, lessons I learned along the way and the compassion I was cultivating in myself and my little world.

In 2020 I narrowly escaped death for the fourth time, which sparked a massive spiral of self doubt, insecurity, isolation, and sadness. This was made worse by that thing in 2020, and the insecurity of becoming a parent after a lifetime of insisting that I did not, I WOULD not, be like my birth parents.

Just a few months ago, November 2024, my therapist recognized that I’ve been showing signs of healing (8 C’s of Self Leadership for those interested or informed) and that I was beginning to bloom back into my old self.

Wiser; a bit more physically decrepit, but ME.

And what a lovely time to be so - I have hundreds of little writings, ideas, lessons, parenting pillars, songs, poems, and fucking heartbreaking stories collected in a conglomerate of places that I simply could not share because of where I was in my mind.

Creating this page is me, living up to the man a friend believes me to be.

David, I don’t know if you believe in this kind of thing, but when we met, I needed you.

If you read this far, please, know that every single thing that I write on this blog comes from a place once horrifically broken, and sharing is my effort to mend…

…Me.

And hopefully share things that are deep and meaningful for you too.

I’m here for the broken shit. The quotes about heartache. The poems about loss. Touching the profoundly good. Reconnection. Grounding. Hopelessness. Finding ourselves. Getting lost in the music.

Today, I RETURN.

If you’d like to read more, consider giving this article a look, where I discuss similar landmarks in greater depth on my Substack.

Take good care of yourself, and we’ll talk again soon.

JR

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

Do you know any websites or maybe tumblr blogs where one might advertise or share their lesbian writing, by any chance? I'm writing a story about two lesbians who are different species and thinking a lot about it, but I'm kinda averse to posting straight to tumblr because the reblogs can't be deleted, and I live in a homophobic country so that could be of issue unfortunately... Soo maybe you or any of your followers know a good place?

I sadly don’t know if any on tumblr in particular but maybe someone on here would know !

You could also potentially try websites like bluesky (I haven’t had a chance to use it yet so I’m not fully sure on its layout) or SubStack. I’ve seen people post fiction on there !

There might be some discord groups as well? If you go reddit and find a lgbt , sapphic , lesbian and or writing community there might be some with a discord group you could join.

If you want to go on a site dedicated to writing maybe ones like Wattpad or AO3 would be a good choice.

I hope you are able to find one ♥️

Also your story sounds so cool!!

I hope you have a wonderful day ♥️♥️

[spiderfreedom]

Politics is for power - towards radfem organizing

There is a lot of amazing radfem theory on here but it usually stays within our circles. Now the nature of Tumblr is that within 5 years, it will inevitably leak out somewhere else, but we must speed that up.

The major people who would be sympathetic to our cause are gender critical feminists. Not all of them, but some of them would definitely be interested in some of our arguments. We should find gender criticals who we think might be interested in some of our arguments and start communicating with them. A lot of gender critical women are on Substack. We can comment on their pages with extra resources, Substack writers are usually grateful for more material to reference. We can subscribe to them (if you have the money) and contact them directly with experiences that they can then further write about on their platforms.

It’s time we become active political forces. Any successful political movement requires action on multiple different fronts. We need to reach out to influential people. We also need to be active on social media as active as the enemy is. If you can’t post publicly with your current account, then make a new one using a new email and start posting. Don’t just post about radfem stuff but post about other things. We are full human beings, and radical feminism is just part of us, and we need to show the world that. Use your accounts (use emails from gmail or protonmail or other email services) and then post on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, etc. Because this is not your main account, do not be afraid of being banned. We are fighting a digital war as much as anything else. We are fighting things like Sh1n1gam1 Eyes which literally try to censor us. We know people like our ideas when they don’t know it’s coming from us. Take advantage of that.

If you have money, donate to people you trust in and believe in. I strongly recommend AGAINST working with conservatives or Republicans. In the long run, they always pervert our arguments, and it ends with most people not trusting us. Working with conservatives is NOT realpolitik or pragmatics, it is short term satisfaction at the cost of long term control. There are more of them than there are of us, which means they are the ones who have the power to control the narratives on their platforms.

Finally, if you are lucky enough to have real life radical feminist networks near you, take advantage of that! If you are good at organizing in real life, try to start one near you. We need a real division of labor to cover short term tactics and long term strategy. Your city may have a local feminist group that is working on something like violence against women. This is worth getting involved in. It will take a while to build up large institutions that we can use for long term strategy.

Whether you have a thriving local scene or can only do digital activism, there is a role you can play. You don’t have to stop posting theory, but let your imagination soar - how can you take theory beyond radblr? How do we do the work of long term convincing people? There are a lot of motivated and intelligent people in this scene. It’s time for the next big wave of feminist organizing.

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

The Strategic Move: ILLUMINATION Community’s Commercial Arm for Charitable Success

The ILLUMINATION publications have been providing full free service to all community members, now made up of 32,000+ freelance writers globally through our volunteer workforce on Medium.com since March 2020. It has been an absolute pleasure for our team o

Discover the Strategic Benefits and Impact on Our Nonprofit Mission and Join Our Exciting Journey for Freelance Writers Globally Dear Writers and Readers,  Medium is a wonderful community and now we are integrating and enhancing its value it with Substack community to give a competitive advantage to our writers and delight our readers better with new synergistic input. Collaboration for writers…

[teryyyg]

Intro post :3

Hey everybody! Here's the proper introduction post I never got around to doing since I resurrected my tumblr account:

I'm Tery (she/her) and I draw and make comics. I'm 24 (turning 25 TOM). I've been on this site since I was in high school and this place is pretty close to my heart. I'm so glad I've made the decision to return.

I like to either sketch whatever or make comics in the morning as it is the only time I'm free.

Some things I love right now (not an exhaustive list):

Ranma 1/2 (remake)

Dandadan

Moomins

Smiling Friends

Things I love still (also not an exhaustive list):

Adventure Time

Inuyasha

OG Ranma 1/2

Skins UK

Freshmeat

other british teen shows/movies

Community

FRIENDS

B99

BBT

the midnight gospel

studio ghibli

00s/90s teen movies

pinterest, tumblr, reddit

Right now, I'm getting into a lot of new things like:

movies (I've just started going through this list from letterboxd)

keeping a physical sketchbook

classic lit (i used to read a lot of philosophy and nonfic...and wattpad)

music (i used to either listen to podcasts, yt vids, white noise or piano, or same old songs over and over again)

making more playlists

GETTING MORE SOCIAL (irl and in socmed)

physical books and building my own library

chinese language

taiwan (going there next month)

blogging like it's y2k

Stuff I love to draw:

fan art

stills from movies

memes

human bodies

any colorful things

comics

i like to put speech bubbles on everything

~~~

I'm here to socialize and be part of the community. I want to make more friends and support other artists. I reblog excessively the things I love. I don't have organized tags yet, so my blog is a mishmash of my art, other artists' and misc.

I'm on substack and bluesky (at least where I'm active the most). The rest are on this link.

I'm also doing DREWSCAPE's diary comics and archive them in here. Also doing A Doodle A Day Challenge.

I'm not the most organized person so things will be chaotic in my blog, but I'm working on the tags now and I hope that will straighten things out a bit.

YAY, finally did my intro post! Nice to meet you! :3

[xxdreamscapes]

diary 041125 | 5:30 pm

On seeking connection in the digital age;

The personality and connection you’re looking for aren’t going to be found on Letterboxed or Reddit Airbuds or Substack

Although I appreciate the intended purpose of these platforms, the whole convenient, curated, irony-ridden, pseudo connection aspect of them all heavily outweigh any pros for me. I know not everything is made for or meant to *serve* me

Sometimes I wonder if I’m sick of constant advertising, or products, or rather, the people on there pretending to be people they’re not or think they should be instead. *Dora voice* Can you show me the people who need to try out the *be YOU* 🫵🏻 aesthetic???

I’ve been off of traditional, algorithm-infested social media for sometime now and it’s starting to feel so surreal. Like a dream, another life. Sometimes I feel like an extraterrestrial being when people look at me crazy for not knowing the current TikTok trends or whatever AAVE / queer / ballroom scene phrase they co-opted this month. You know the coolest thing about being chronically online? You don’t have to! It doesn’t meant that you don’t care about world issues or other people. Despite what lazy, over-compensating keyboard warriors lecture you about, you can make intentional choices to stay informed and make a difference offline ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

I think that social media is great when it’s about connecting with people and causes you care about. There are still good, genuine people in many corners of the internet, but I can’t ignore the blatant takeover and corruption pushed by corps anymore. The rage-bait. Echo chambers. The contrived, gender/generation/culture wars. It sucks the soul and the creativity out of me. It has been for years.

I’ve gained more than I lost. 

A stronger sense of self, better connected to my child selves. 

Deeper, enriching relationships rather than the illusion of choice and friendships of convenience.

Leaning into my natural inclinations, developing new hobbies, and discovering what I truly love untouched by influencers and hyper-consumerism. 

I’ve been shown and validated in my thinking that the people who are good, and the people who really want to know you, will make the time, space, and effort. The people who intentionally misunderstand, or misconstrue — because they are arguing with their past traumas and NOT YOU — will show themselves out the door. The trash does take itself out. And though it fucking hurts, because they cover themselves in glitter and empty grand promises, I know I am better for it. Look for connection not on apps, but in your own lives and communities. Live for you and not for random strangers. Subconscious comparison kills.

To a slower, more human life.

˚₊‧˗ˏˋ ⋆｡ˎˊ˗‧₊˚. ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆

mood of the moment: “Modern Loneliness” and “Changes” by Lauv

[behind-the-scenes-of-danelle]

Going back to Tumblr. ❤️

I’m just tired of Instagram. I realized over the past few weeks and even the past year how I hate the app but still continue to use it because of reasons. Now, I feel like I can really leave it and not care about it at all. I’m not gonna delete it and I’m gonna come back from time to time but I’m going back with more intention. Hopefully. I do tell myself this all the time but I still get sucked in but I plan to leave it eventually. Having a small art business and still seeing a big art community on instagram is what is still holding me back so I wanted to slowly grow a community in real life and online like here on Tumblr, Discord, Substack, Youtube, and even Reddit (in moderation since I still sometimes get sucked into a rabbit hole). I feel like going to healthier alternatives of social media will be a lot more fun to use the internet for than doom scrolling for ages with no little to no value in my life.

Consciously curating what enters my life, the power to choose what content to see, and enjoying real life experiences and moments and enjoying hobbies is very gratifying and makes life so much better.

[linkablewritingadvice]

Where can I post or share my writing?

First, figure out why you want to post your writing.

Do you just want to put it somewhere, anywhere, on the internet where people could see it? 

Understand that it is rare for readers to look for books or short stories on random people’s blogs, reddit, or social media. It is unlikely that simply sharing your writing online will lead to much attention to it. You’ll need to do other work to drive traffic to your work and encourage people to read, comment, pay, or whatever else you want them to do.

But if you just need a place to host your work for whatever reason, there are tons of options for creating a blog or personal website where you can post your work - here’s an overview of some of the top platforms. 

Some people like to make a personal subreddit to post their work. I don’t recommend this because reddit is not meant to be a static content hosting site, but if that’s what you want to do, go nuts.

Some people suggest using Archive of Our Own to post original works. This is a violation of their TOS. While a lot of people do post non-fandom writing to that website, I absolutely don’t recommend using that website in ways that its creators have explicitly said that it is not for. 

Do you want to monetize your writing and post it somewhere where people can pay for it?

Understand that it is very difficult to monetize (make money on) writing just by posting it online. But there are websites that let you do that, if you can consistently share quality content that readers want, and do the marketing work to attract paying readers.

Some platforms you can use to try this include Substack, Patreon, or Wattpad.

Always be careful to read the terms or contract of any website you upload your writing to. Some platforms that make big promises about helping you profit off your writing can get you stuck in predatory or scammy situations.

See more about making money on fiction writing here.

Do you want constructive feedback from other writers to help you improve your work?

Simply posting your work anywhere you can find, including various writing forums, will not guarantee you quality - or any - constructive feedback. You’ll need to find a community explicitly for this sort of thing, and you’ll need to make sure you are following that community’s rules.

Always polish your work as best you can and make sure it’s the absolute best you can make it before posting for feedback - that ensures that you get more useful feedback and are not wasting people’s time. 

Remember that spending the time to read someone else’s writing and give them helpful feedback, for free, is not something anyone else is obligated to do, and if they do it, it’s a huge favor! Be respectful of communities you’re posting in and follow all their rules. Give critiques in addition to asking for them. 

Places to share writing for constructive feedback:

Scribophile

Destructive Readers

Writing.com

Critique Circle

However, just posting your work to a general critique forum may not get you quality, in depth, helpful feedback from someone who understands your genre. You’ll be better off cultivating one or two close collaborators and friends who are interested in and excited about your work and can help you out with it. If you do happen to find someone on one of those critique sites who seems to get what you’re doing and what you’re trying to do, consider reaching out to them personally to see if they want to be friends and critique partners.

Here’s my post about how to find “beta readers” or critique partners. 

Do you want help attracting readers with a focus on prestige, attention, and portfolio building?

Instead of posting your work on any website or platform that just lets anyone upload their writing, you can submit your work for publication to an online magazine. This means anyone who reads or subscribes to that magazine can find your work, and you get a “publication credit.”

(This really only applies to short work like short stories, poems, or essays - for information about publishing a novel, see here.)

You’ll want to find a magazine or publication that takes writing in the same style, length, and topic that you’re trying to publish. Their website will have instructions for how to submit to them for consideration.

Advice on submitting to lit mags and other magazines:

How To Submit To Literary Journals

Submitting To Literary Magazines

How To Submit To A Magazine

Platforms to search for a place to submit:

Duotrope

Poets & Writers

Submission Grinder

Driftwood

[discuit]

Introducing Discuit: An Easy-to-Use, Open-Source Social Media Platform

Welcome to Discuit!

We are an open-source alternative to Reddit, although we have steadily been gaining a bigger audience from all over the internet.

On the 16th of June, 2023, Discuit was launched as a reaction to the Reddit drama regarding the forced shutdown of practically all of its 3rd-party apps and tools. It was a pretty barebones platform at first, with only one main community, and only text posts.

Now, about 8 months later, Discuit has over 5000 users, and is still slowly but surely growing. We've gotten many more features, such as different post types, the ability to request your own community, and several 3rd-party tools are being developed!

Right now, you might thinking "Hey, this platform seems nice, but what makes it different?" It is, after all, made as an alternative to Reddit- it's not really its own platform, some could say.

And, well, there are a few things!

First of all, one of Discuit's main goals is to prevent the enshittification that caused Reddit's decay. This means that our monetisation strategy will not revolve around ads, ever. All we have in terms of monetisation at the moment is a Patreon, the proceeds of which far exceed our current hosting costs. In the future, we might add things like Discuit Premium (similar to things like Discord Nitro), which adds some cosmetic options. We may also add a feature similar to Reddit's Awards, but at the moment, neither of these are necessary.

Another of Discuit's core goals is quite similar to what makes Tumblr so beloved among its users; a lack of algorithm. There are no addicting strategies to keep users here: no requiring registration simply to view content, no popups asking you to sign up every single time you navigate to a new page, a mobile browser experience that doesn't suck in order to drive people to the app, the ability to turn off infinite scroll- it's all here, and more will come in the future.

Discuit is not designed to be as attention-grabbing possible, unlike most platforms nowadays. It's simply a community, and that's what makes it so awesome.

The third of our core principles is the ability to customise as much as possible about your experience. Right now, these options are relatively simple, and mostly include the ability to disable infinite scroll, but they will be expanded upon in the future. Users will eventually be able to filter out all low-effort/meme content, for example, and only see the really good stuff. Or the inverse, if you're just looking for the memes.

Communities will also have more customisation options. These will include things like a "point" (somewhat like Reddit Karma) requirement before being able to join or post in a community, options for more experienced users to be able to help the moderation team using a flagging system, and much more.

If all of this sounds like your cup of tea, then come on over to discuit.net! We have a wonderful community there, and we'd love to see you there!

If you're still curious about the site, we have a few places where you can find more information:

Discuit's Substack (Note that the few posts we have here are relatively old, and may be outdated.)

Discuit's GitHub repository (Not necessarily for finding information, but you can look/add to the code behind the platform here!)

Discuit's most official community, Discuit! This is where all major announcements regarding the platform are posted, and where you can find the latest version of the roadmap.

Thanks a ton for reading! We hope you have a good time with us.

With love,

The Discuit Admin Team