#Webpage optimization

[seohabibi]

Explore the world of on-page SEO with our ultimate guide. This checklist is your key to unlocking the strategies and techniques that can enhance your webpage's visibility, relevance, and ranking on search engines. From keyword optimization to user experience enhancements, discover the steps to ensure your webpages are optimized for success.

[kinglazrus]

LAZ!! I have a question!! And I feel a little silly for this, but I read through your fic "The Survivalists" and it inspired me to write a found footage fic myself! I was wondering if you'd be ok with me listing your fic as an inspo once I post it??

IK it's being rewritten, but y'know fhjhgsdhgfs Also, I'm still kinda new to AO3 so idk what the etiquette surrounding this sorta thing is, so I thought I'd ask to be polite!!

Anyway, I really enjoy your writing!!! I think you have a lot of interesting concepts!

Omg absolutely!! Hearing my fic inspired you is probably one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever gotten. I can’t wait to check out your fic when you post it!

As for Ao3 etiquette, I know it would have been a welcome and wonderful surprise if I got a notification out of the blue about my fic being listed as inspiration, and I’m sure many other Ao3 writers will agree!

Thank you so much!

[stargktechno]

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[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).

[aibidil]

I keep seeing this really milquetoast take about the state of the enshittified internet, especially in the past few days of the horrors: "It's more important than ever that we teach kids media literacy"

I mean. Sure. I support teaching "media literacy." But consider

algorithms not showing us things (whether for traditional reasons of targeting or more corrupt reasons, e.g. Tiktok returning "this search goes against our terms of service" to the "trump election stealing" search)

generative AI content (whole webpages, images, videos, posts) that is more and more indistinguishable from reality

a cultural divide chasm in which fact-checking others in conflicts is futile because no one can agree on what counts as a reputable source (see most recently M*sk saying that Wikipedia is biased because it uses "legacy media" as sources)

a "media literate" person who wants to check things is faced with search engine results that are dominated by sponsored content, ads, AI summaries, and dozens of pages of search-optimized nothing drivel

So, yes. Let's teach our kids how to be skeptical of what they come across, how to identify propaganda and AI fakery, etc. But that's nothing. It's nothing in the face of what we're dealing with.

This is not a problem that can be solved on the individual level (teaching each person to guard against it). It requires a systematic, institutional change that will require regulatory intervention to change the incentives of powerful actors.

[lanayrucodes]

Immortales: Skin Bundle ($20)

I've been wanting to branch out into a more minimalist style for a while, and found the opportunity to do so when I was struck by the coding bug over the weekend and began to experiment with a more semi-transparent style of index that eventually evolved into this. I tried to keep the skin as light as physically possible, with minimal Javascript or Jquery inclusions, and instead tried to optimize it to build off of HTML5 elements as best I could without needing to weigh it down with more external resources.

The Immortales skin is a dark themed, responsive skin for Jcink forums, and is optimized for Google Chrome. (Cross-tested in Opera GX and Mozilla Firefox.)

You can purchase the skin here: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/6f663cfe6e

Bundle Includes:

All custom HTML structures

a forum index a topic row for threads a post row with a sticky/hover mini profile a main profile custom board stats, with the five (5) recent topics appended a member list, sortable by filters

Full set of DOHTML templates

x1 general announcement/admin template x1 application template (tabbed, for threads) x4 thread templates x5 development templates x1 miscellaneous codes for TW/CW x1 tabbed webpage/guidebook

Custom Userlinks Menu

Easy to add/modify group variables for color coordination (five groups already included)

Responsive to smaller monitors

Upon purchase, buyers will receive an installation guide with editing and customization instructions, as well as any XML/HTML files.

Support & Refunds:

Refunds or returns are not offered on pre-made skins. Due to the nature of how they're distributed and the fact that they're digital files I cannot offer refunds for a purchase if you buy a skin from me.

If you encounter bugs or skin-breaking issues, please reach out to me and I will do my best to fix them and provide you with updated files.

I do not offer coding support beyond initial problems with my skins at install. (i.e. Finding a bug when you install a fresh copy of the skin onto your site, etc.) If the skin breaks during modifications you make on your own, I am willing to help restore the skin to it's original state. I do not provide support for third party coding that is not mine.

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 21st of March, 2024

This is speculation only

Cards drawn on the 21st of March, 2024

Question: Why is Harry still on the royal website?

Interpretation: Because The King refuses to have him removed.

Card One: The Emperor in reverse

The Emperor represents The King, so this card is talking about King Charles.

In the reverse, the Emperor energy is stubborn, rigid, and domineering. It can also represent a tyrant. I don't think that King Charles is a tyrant, but I do feel that he is being stubborn and insisting that Harry stay on the royal website 'because he is my son'. The energy of this card is very rigid. It is the energy of someone who is insisting on having things his own way no matter what the cost.

The Emperor in reverse is the Emperor person acting out of their shadow side or their worst side. In this case, it is King Charles who is acting out of his worst side. The energy here is of someone who is very spoilt, who is used to getting their own way in everything, and they are tired and cranky and unwilling to consider doing anything that is not exactly what they want. If they were a two year old I would be expecting tantrums and early bedtime, but this is a 75 year old man we are talking about.

This is the first time I have seen a similarity between the King's energy and Harry's energy. The energy this card is giving me is a more refined version of Harry's usual petulant, sulky, spoilt brat energy.

Card Two: The Sun

The Sun is a card of optimism, warmth, positivity, success, believing that everything will be all right in the end. It can also be a card for children.

This card is giving me golden child energy. There is no other way to describe it. The energy is of a child who can do no wrong, who will always be protected, pampered and adored, and who will always be cosseted by his parent. This tells me that Harry is the golden child of King Charles and that the King will do whatever he can to cosset, protect, and smooth the path of his favourite child. This reflects the picture on the card, of the god Apollo, who was the favourite son of the chief god Zeus.

In answer the the question, this card tells me that Harry is the favourite child of King Charles and The King is not removing his favourite son from the royal website. I sense that it was a struggle to get Harry in the last position on the page, as The King wanted him right under Prince William, and only other people insisting on having all the working royals first, and all the royals on the page in rank order, prevented this from happening. So having Harry on the page was a compromise to prevent him being listed under Prince William (I could be wrong about this, but there is definitely an energy of being elevated above all others coming from this card).

Card Three: The Wheel of Fortune in Reverse

This card is about your current position and whether you are rising or falling in esteem. In the reverse, it says that your fortunes are falling, you are declining in esteem, you have no control or are clinging to control, and you face unwelcome changes.

Harry has obviously fallen in public esteem, so this card applies to him - he is not favoured by the public and as per his actions there is no reason to favour him by having him on the website or any higher on the website.

The energy of this cardis of someone facing unwelcome changes. I think this refers to King Charles, who is not happy about Harry being last on the website page. I think he may have had to compromise to keep Harry on the page at all, as per the energy of the previous card.

The reversal of fortune energy of this card could be an argument that was used to have The King agree to have Harry in the bottom position on the webpage - that to have him any higher would outrage the general public, who (quite rightly) have no good opinion of Harry after everything he has done, and the BRF can not afford the hit to their reputation if this happens.

Card Four: The King of Cups in Reverse

The King of Cups is a card that represents Scorpio, and in this reading it represents King Charles, a sun sign Scorpio. It represents King Charles as a person, not in his role as King.

The card being in reverse tells me that King Charles is very unhappy about the changes to the royal website with respect to Harry, not just as a king (the Emperor card in reverse) but also as a person. There are waves of unhappiness coming off this card. King Charles did not get his own way with respect to Harry and he is very upset about it.

The card in reverse also tells me that King Charles as-a-person is operating out of his shadow side in this matter. With the King of Cups reversed that means someone who is selfish, emotionally manipulative, over-emotional, making decisions with the heart and not the head, moody, volatile emotionally, and seeking vengeance on all who he sees as wronging him.

I expect repercussions from the decision to put Harry at the bottom of the page (and not return him to under Prince William). The King will be looking for someone to blame and possibly to punish that person in some way for not allowing his darling boy to be in his rightful place as a prince and son of the king.

Underlying Energy: The Five of Swords.

This is my card for duty. As a general card, it is a card of not being able to win for losing, of arguments, aggression, bullying, conflict, hostility, and stress.

This card tells me two things: Firstly, that an argument about duty was used to keep Harry on the website (maybe something like "He is my son and it is my duty as a father to have my sons on the website"). Secondly, that the decision to keep Harry on the website caused a lot of arguments, that The King got his way by 'pulling rank' or something similar, and that this has caused a lot of hostility from his advisors and perhaps other members of the BRF. The King has won the battle to keep Harry on the website, albeit in a compromise position (possibly), but his behaviour during the conflicts that arose has alienated some of his supporters and advisors. The end result was not worth the hurt feelings involved, and everyone can see this except The King.

Conclusion:

Harry has been kept on the website because The King wants him there. The King is not concerned about how this will appear to the general public, he wants his favourite son on the royal website and that is what happened. The King's insistence on this and his method of winning the arguments over this (riding roughshod over everyone) has caused a lot of hostility among his advisors and supporters.

There are suggestions in the energy that Harry's position on the page is a compromise and the King wanted him under Prince William. If this is the case, then The King is very hurt because he didn't get what he wanted, he is brooding over it (?sulking?), and he is looking for someone to blame and punish in some way.

In this reading The King was acting out of his shadow energy, his worse side, both in his role as King and as a person/parent. He came across as overly emotional, emotionally manipulative, almost a bully (pulling rank to get his own way), stubborn, rigid, and domineering. His energy was of a spoilt brat sulking because they didn't get exactly what they wanted, and very close to throwing a tantrum to get it. It is the first time I have seen the same energy in The King and his son Harry.

[petervintonjr]

"One of the five bravest American soldiers in the war."      --Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

This Decoration Day/Memorial Day we remember the heroic career of U.S. Army Sergeant (William) Henry Johnson. This particular trading card will be the last (for now) of my series-within-a-series of "mysteriously" absent biographies that aren't showing up on .mil and .gov websites anymore.

Born in 1892 North Carolina, Henry Johnson moved to Albany, New York and worked a number of jobs --including as a redcap porter at Union Station -- before enlisting in 1917. Signing on with the famed all-Black 369th Infantry ("Harlem Hellfighters," previously covered in Lessons #36, #60, #143, and #151 of this series); Johnson saw front-line action almost immediately in 1918.

At the time the 369th was brigaded with a French army colonial unit in the Champagne region, along the notorious western front. On the night of May 15, 1918, Pvt. Johnson and fellow Pvt. Needham Roberts were attacked in the Argonne forest by a German raiding party of approximately 12 soldiers. Roberts was wounded and very nearly made prisoner, but Johnson fought back in close-quartered combat with a French bolo knife, killing four of the enemy and managing to get Roberts to safety, though sustaining many wounds himself.

In the aftermath of his heroic actions, France awarded Johnson and Roberts the Croix de guerre with star and bronze palm; making them the first-ever American soldiers in World War I to receive such an honor. Pvt. Johnson's valor was even publicly praised by Gen. Pershing in an article in The Saturday Evening Post, and he was discharged in 1919 at the rank of Sergeant, complete with a victory parade in New York City. Unfortunately Johnson's notoriety would be of little use to him upon his return to civilian life; due to his wounds he was unable to return to work, even to his old porter job. For a time Johnson conducted a brief series of lecture tours but these soon became unpopular as he was unwilling to stick to many of the established fictions (such as the notion that white and Black American soldiers harmoniously fought side-by-side in the trenches), and he died in relative obscurity in 1929... though he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

On June 2, 2015, Johnson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama. On June 5, 2023, the former Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana was formally renamed to Fort Johnson in his honor.

(A glimmer of encouragement this Memorial Day --mind you, it is only the merest glimmer): the army.mil biographical page about Sgt. Johnson, at least as of this month, includes a prominent banner that reads: "We have deliberately taken some of our webpages offline in order to comply with Executive Orders and OSD Policy. The intent is to preserve our history, and we are working to re-publish content as soon as possible." While this is still a far cry from undoing actual censorship of Black history, it is at least a tacit acknowledgement from the U.S. Army's policymakers that there are some problematic regulations currently getting in the way of an honest historical reckoning. Whether or not anything more decisive is to happen in the coming months, is of course still an unknown. But when I pair this development along with this week's announcement that the U.S. Naval Academy library has restored most of the 400+ books that had been yanked from its shelves because of "DEI," there is cause for minuscule amounts of optimism.

Heaven knows it is certainly a far more appropriate --and respectful-- way of honoring U.S. military service than staging an expensive Third World dictator-style military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C.)

[infinity-lunacy]

Infinity Nikki: Diamond Activities

There have been a couple of posts over on r/InfinityNikki during the last two banners about how/where to get more diamonds for pulls. Figured it would be helpful to pull it all together in a quick tip post and a link to the Pear-fect Guides Diamond Guide!

Some helpful players have already done the wizardry (aka math) for you and created a Pulls Calculator!

Daily: Completing Daily Wishes nets you 90 diamonds a day (3 pulls every 4 days).

Biweekly: The Mira Crown Pinnacle Styling Contest resets every 2 weeks. Getting at least 21/24 stars = 800 diamonds! Very easy to complete once you have a 4-star or 5-star outfit in every style (Sweet/Sexy/Elegant/Cool/Fresh) glowed up (resets after every maintenance period) [Glow-Up Optimizer].

Monthly: The Mira Crown rewards shop and Tranquility Droplet exchange offer 3 crystals each every month (resets on the 1st day of the month).

Chests: There are chests stored all around the Wishfield and Fireworks Isle maps! They do not replenish, but you can track your progress using the official Miraland World Map (Click on [World Map (Closed Beta)] at the top of the webpage to access it.).

Minigames: You get 10 diamonds for every first clear + 30 diamonds for first perfect clear for every minigame on the map! The map adds checkmarks next to the flag icon for games you have already perfect cleared.

1.4 Revelry Season Event Diamonds:

Nonstop Revelry: Log in for 7 days before April 8th, 2025 to claim 10 Revelation Crystals.

There are 3 levels of the dancing minigame - Wishing Dance Moment - faewish, human, and special guest. (25 diamonds for clear, 45 diamonds for perfect clear, 210 diamonds for all 3 stages).

There are 7 levels of the platforming minigame - Illusion Zone - that unlock daily. (Play after completing the [Shine! Party King!] quest for 80 diamonds per level, total 560 diamonds for all 7 levels).

Mira Crown will reset on April 8 + Alison's Travel Shop will arrive and you'll be able to exchange for 5 Revelation Crystals.

Diamonds that are tucked away in menus & quests:

Check your Courses to see if there are any achievable ones you haven't gotten yet.

Outfits: Each completed 3-star sketch outfit sets - from Styling Faction battles and sketch chests - provides 10 diamonds in the compendium.

After you complete the Well of Fortune dungeon, there are additional broken lampposts scattered around Florawish. Repair for 30 diamonds each (does not refresh, find by running around Florawish with your ability set to Electrician).

You can exchange dews of inspirations for diamonds and other rewards with Kilo the Dragon for up to 36 levels.

On the Fireworks Isles, you can exchange whim balloons and dews for diamonds with Vita on Fireworks Isle. As of 1.4, the official map also tracks chests, dews, and whim balloons on the Fireworks Isles!

The Firework Isles also have an optional quest to unseal the cavern doors in every cave for a room full of chests and lore!

If you haven't talked to Ciceto - the box game npc in Florawish - he has additional diamonds for completing the sets when you talk to him. Click all of his conversation options to make sure you get all of them.

As of 1.4, Eureka color sets (head + hands + feet) give 30 diamonds each in the Compendium! Navigate to Outfit compendium > Exploration Season > Radiant whim > Eureka collection.

Getting your lore and creature compendium to 100% might push you over to the next compendium level (30 diamonds per level).

The above are all f2p (free to play) tips, but if you are willing to pay to play a little:

The $5 monthly pass provides 90 diamonds a day (2700 total) + 300 stellarites. Very good bang for your buck for pulls and if you are tempted to buy any of the cheaper store outfits!!

The $10 battle pass Distant Anthem - Mira Journey upgrade - total rewards are: 1360 diamonds, 10 energy crystals (800 total vital energy), 4 Revelations crystals, 960k bling, 3.3K shiny bubbles, 3.3K threads of purity, 1.3K shining particles, AND a unique momo cloak. (It gives you rewards for whatever Mira Journey level you are currently on, so personally I don't buy unless I hit level 50.)

I've never bought Miracle Epic, but it's an additional $10 for 980 Stellarite, 10 energy crystals (800 total vital energy), and a unique avatar frame.

Tip: Don't bother exchanging stellarite directly for revelation (pink) crystals. The exchange is awful and not worth your money. Save stellarite for store outfits and items instead!

The pull packs in the store can be a good deal. If you purchase on PC using Epic, the Epic store has cashback rewards that will usually amount to $1-3 which is enough to purchase the cheapest packs.

[tanoraqui]

last night I dreamt that the US military had made a public educational webpage called “How We’d Shoot Them.” It had an interactive map and a search bar, and worked kinda like a trip planner: you could search for any location on Earth, and little icons and arrows would appear on the map, explained in text below, showing how the US military would go about invading and/or destroying that target, all the way up to which base they’d optimally launch ICBMs from.

I woke up and realized that this would be unworkably terrible for operational security, which is unfortunate because it was pretty cool.

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo 2023 wrap-up

And finally, after the hectic period of Christmas and the New Year, we are here and ready for our wrap-up!

Warning: this devlog may include some typos. As per usual!

Honestly, I can't believe we are here. This year has been wild for so many reasons. We have made so much progress, perhaps not as much as we would have wanted, but we have come really far. I'm very proud of my team and thankful for the people we have met this year that have made this journey easier.

So...let's see what we have done this year and our plans for 2024!

✦ First of all, we made our itch.io page debut!

And this was perhaps the hugest milestone for us. It got a wonderful reception even if there's nothing to play yet, so we can't be grateful enough for that. This of course includes the key art and the screenshots we managed to get ready for the itchio page!

✦ We launched our official webpage!

Another amazing milestone for us! I remember tirelessly working with Raquel for weeks to get this done the way we wanted it to be.

✦ We welcomed our editor, Allie Vera, to our team!

They are not only a marvelous person but someone I'm having the privilege to learn from. Her editing skills are amazing and the script has done nothing but improve since we got it in her hands. We have started editing together and she has been working so, so hard, I'll be doing my best to keep up. Please send a lot of love their way, because they deserve it!

✦ We began working on the CGs!

Raquel has been working super hard and right now we have five CGs ready and one in process. The last one will likely be ready for next month, and with that the CGs for the demo will be finished!

✦ The UI was implemented and it's fully functional!

For someone who was a total stranger to programming, I think I've done a good job this past year! The game menus finally look like they should (with a bit of changes needed here and there) and everything is working well. I'm sure the code could be optimized greatly, but for now I'm happy with how it is (as my skills are, well, what they are!).

✦ We finished the demo script and have started the editing process!

That was a huge step for us as many changes were done to the script before we could consider it done. We sadly had to cut chunks of content because we felt like, for a demo, it was better to get to the juicy parts and meet the LI's as soon as possible. Some adaptations had to be made, some ideas had to be scratched, but here we are now, with a finished script ready to be coded, and being edited by Allie!

✦ We got some nice backgrounds done!

Work on backgrounds has been slower than we would have wanted to, but taking into consideration we were studying a master (that was pretty hard on us) and there's only four of us, I'd say it's a victory! There's still some backgrounds left, but as Astro and Raquel work on that, there's other areas of the game that keep moving forward.

✦ We opened a ko.fi page!

This was one of our 2023 goals, so high-five!

✦ We met amazing people, made new friends, and learned from a lot of fellow devs!

What a ride has it been! People I used to admire from a distance, enjoying their projects and gushing over them, are now part of my personal life. A lot of fellow devs have come forward in 2023 with new projects, new inspiring and incredible ideas, and we have been supported by all of them and welcomed as if we had always been a part of the Indie visual novel community.

Just to name a few of inspiring and amazing devs, the sweet folks at Foxglove Games (who have released Trouble Comes Twice!), Velvet Cupcake Games and their progress with Made Marion, Best Laid Plain Productions and their amazing work with Save the Villainness, and of course our beloved Crescence Studio with Alaris and Intertwine, which now has an Extended Edition!

As per usual, Lem (Crescence) has a special spot in this devlog because they have been the absolute highlight of this year. What a loving, sweet, amazing and creative individual. We all are very lucky to have them with us, but specially me; their friendship has meant so much for me this year, and I hope we can only grow closer with time! I LOVE YOU LEM!! 💜

✦ On a personal note...

On the personal side of things, I got diagnosed with OCD in late November. I had been suffering the symptoms since July, knowing something was wrong but thinking it would pass. It has changed my life and the way I see things and myself, and I'm on a long journey that has, unfortunately, affected my work on Lost in Limbo. I have not worked as much as I had planned, but I'm lucky to have my friends, my family and my partner, who are walking this path with me.

I'm sharing this because I think it's important. My experience will hopefully give someone who is reading this the push to seek help; I thought it was nothing and I ended up going through the hardest year of my life. Thankfully, I now have the help I need; I have been going to therapy since October, been diagnosed, and I'm now on my way to learn to live with OCD and heal from it. Some days are harder than others, but I'll get there! 💜

On a happier note, Astro and I will be adopting a cat from a shelter very very soon, if things go as planned! Raquel has taken the plunge and opened a sticker store! She has been doing great so far and is overworked but happy. We are so proud of her!

Also, we finally, FINALLY had the chance to get together for New Year's Eve and celebrate together after more than seven years of friendship! Sadly Kayden couldn't make it in the end because of COVID, but hopefully this is the beginning of a lot of years of celebrating together!

Mostly, the team and I have been doing fine, all things considered. Astro wants you all to now that even if he's not very active on social media, he appreciates your support a lot and will do his best to return that love! Thank you all for your support through the year, as always 💜

We had a bunch of goals set for 2023, and my God if they weren't ambitious. This year has taught us a lot about limits, about being realistic with our expectations and with the amount of work needed for a visual novel, and has overall humbled us.

There's one sprite remaining, the LI's expressions, plus one CG and finishing the backgrounds that need a bit more polishing. That and editing the script into its final state and code it accordingly.

With that being said, I want to be positive and say the demo may be ready for April - May, but I don't know if that'll be possible. We made the mistake of being too excited and too positive when it came to the work we would be able to do, and we apologize for that. We are still learning and we hope you can still support us and make this journey with us as you have been doing since we started.

Still, the demo WILL release this year. That is for sure. As we keep working —and the team has been working very, very hard— we'll decide when the demo will release, giving it time to be beta tested, sent to streamers who are interested, etc.

So the main objective of this year is...

✦ Release the demo!

Obvious, right? But with it comes some smaller goals!

✦ Code the script!

The editing process is going well —thanks to Allie who works tirelessly, honestly— so I hope I can step on the gas and get those corrections done as soon as possible!

✦ Finish all the assets!

As soon as Raquel is done with the CGs, we'll start working on the expressions together (I have already been toying with it) and the remaining sprite. Astro will finish the remaining backgrounds!

✦ Open a casting call for our LIs!

We want the demo to be at least partially voiced. When the whole script is done and more or less coded, we'll open a casting call to give our LIs what will be their official voices for the whole game. What an adventure!

✦ Open our steam page!

Pretty self-explanatory, but there it is!

What a year, huh? We have worked so much and so hard while studying, and that studies are now over. This year has been one of self-discovery, of new challenges, of some goodbyes and some new faces and friends. My only wish for 2024 is for it to be gentler to everyone. Hopefully we can all heal from whatever hurt us in 2023, laugh a lot with our loved ones, and learn more about ourselves and our lives in this 2024! 💜

With that being said, thank you for reading once more, and let us hope this year brings us a lot of amazing games and memories! 💜

[mufos-photo-album]

A little peek at what my headcanon webpage will look like. All of the posts I've made thus far have been copied over, but I still need to work on optimizing the images.

[koncodes]

ATLAS OBSCURA (60$)

ATLAS OBSCURA is a fully flex skin optimized for Chrome but has been adjusted for compatibility across Firefox and Safari. A low contrast, dark background is recommended. A live preview can be requested at any time through my support discord. PURCHASE HERE: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/740013f3a4 WEBPAGES HERE: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/07654e42a0 TEMPLATES: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/020489ee5a

Includes:

light/dark toggle sidebar that auto transitions to a module for mobile custom forums, topics, memberlist, posts (optional larger post avatar with sticky) tabbed, popup application profile member group colors set up across the skin css variables set up for images, fonts, and colors for ease of editing guest to member links on login for easy navigation various indicators for messages/alerts customized tooltips tabbed header basic post template with all basic styles (bold, italics, h1 through h7, blockquote, hr, lists, etc)

Files:

full xml file html templates xml file easy to import field set json file general installation guide pdf skin specific instructions with member group prefix/suffix codes and user fields

Policies:

credit must remain intact and unchanged you may not claim my codes as your own at any point, nor may they be used as a base for other projects I offer unlimited support for bugs present at purchase

Please review the rest of my my policies prior to making any purchases: koncodes[DOT]tumblr.com/policies For questions or a live preview, you can contact me through ko-fi or my support discord: discord[DOT]gg/MXD5nDgDzq

[spiribia]

fallout 4 feels weirdly out of touch with what a gamer does in a roleplaying game or even a game in general at times, which almost can't be the case because bethesda has made games before, lots of them. yet it has the kind of visual streamlining sensibilities you'd see on a webpage instead of an open world RPG. i've never in my life heard gamers express discontent with having to press an interact hotkey to initiate NPC dialogue windows, and i can't help but cast doubt that the more optimal vision is that if you walk close enough to an NPC or if they run up to you they will automatically vacuum you into their dialogue window without your input, and talking to them does not pause in-game time, leaving you vulnerable to attacks while you're trying to tug free, and exit options all either have the extra wait time of making your character verbally say an exit line (where an exit line would in the past function as an instantaneous Close The Dialogue Box button) or of trying to simply walk away from the conversation to cancel it, a feature that was advertised as cool and efficient but is practically kind of annoying because they don't want you to exit by accident so they kind of magnetically cling the conversation to you even if you try to distance yourself from it, and meanwhile NPCs will sometimes walk away from you mid conversation, continually aborting the quest pertinent conversation they were having with you. also also, they apply this proximity-triggered hover menu to every container, from corpses with loot on them to the random drawers and cabinets you'll walk past in houses, and while these menus are open on your screen - and mind you, you do not manually open them, if you're standing too close to something and looking near it it will open - you are unable to use your hotkeys, which things like health items can be tied to. now, can you think of a situation in a video game where you might have a ton of corpses around you, limited time, and need to use combat-related hotkeys? that's right, we call that Combat, and the

[supernaturalfreakout]

— A Chance Encounter (History on Your Side—Chapter 1)

Sam Winchester x OCfem!reader/You

Chapter summary: Sam and Dean are stuck with their current case. Sam searches for leads and gets more than he bargained for. *Please see the masterlist for entire work summary and tags* Masterlist | Read on AO3

Frustration tainted the air of the bunker, radiating from the library walls. As the clock ticked past midnight, blue-white light mingled with the orange of the table lamps, bathing Sam's face in a steady glow as he hunched over his laptop, engrossed in a tireless search. Dean, meanwhile, paced the floor, book in hand. Each footstep reverberated inside his skull, adding to the collective headache. The brothers' current case—a woodland haunting across state—had led them down a dead-end, fueling their late-night study.

Sam furrowed his brow, silently mouthing as he read the contents of his latest webpage. "Dean…" he called, eyeing the screen in concentration. "Think I’ve found something… a Dr. Y/L/N at KU, Lawrence. Might be a long shot, but his research might tie in with our case."

Dean glanced up from his book with a raised eyebrow. "A doctor? How's he connected to our ghost problem?"

"Not a medical doctor, genius... A History PhD… His studies focus on historical folklore. There could be a link between the local legends and our haunting. It's worth a shot, right?"

"Okay, well..." Dean nodded, clapping his book shut. "It's the only lead we've got right now. Let's hit him up."

Sam danced his fingers across the keyboard, crafting a persuasive pitch in their email. "Alright, here goes nothing," he muttered, hitting 'send' with hopeful anticipation, his eyes strained, heavy. 

"Hey, we're not just any journalists," Dean interjected, reading over Sam's shoulder. "We're the duo that digs deep into untold stories. Our quest? Unveiling the hidden truths woven into the fabric of this town..."

Sam smirked at Dean's embellishments. "Right, 'cause nothing grabs a scholar's attention like a good ol' fashioned mystery. Hopefully, this Dr. Y/L/N will bite."

Dean chuckled, slapping his brother on the back. "Lighten up, Sammy. Who could resist the allure of two charming reporters like us?"

Sam rolled his eyes, closing his laptop with a yawn. "Sure, whatever. Let's just hope for a response. I'm off to get some shut-eye."

---

The next day, after his morning run, Sam sat in the bunker's kitchen, opening his laptop to a reply in his inbox. Taking a sip of his coffee, he ran a hand through his hair, optimism growing with each word he read. 

"Dean!" he yelled, a spark of excitement coloring his voice. "Dean... We got a reply!"

Dean emerged from the hallway with a yawn and creased pajamas. He had only just got up—having medicated last night's headache with trash TV and beer. "Sup?"

“We've got a meeting... this afternoon." Sam rose an eyebrow, eyeing the screen with intrigue. "Dude seems pretty interested..."

Dean stretched, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Great, well... better hit the road, I guess. But Sammy, we're grabbing grub on the way."

After a few hours' drive—including a pit stop for food—the Winchesters arrived in Lawrence. Clad in their finest 'reporter' outfits, they paced the university corridors where they eventually located the history department. There, amidst the academic bustle, they requested to meet Dr. Y/L/N. 

"Y/N!" the receptionist called, turning her head to the staff room behind her. "Your 3 o'clock is here!"

"Thanks Janice, I'll be right there!"

You emerged from the staff room carrying a large pot of coffee, your presence immediately capturing the attention of the brothers.

"Hey! You must be Tom and Jack. Nice to meet you, I'm Y/N." You greeted them warmly, charm evident in your smile. "Come on in, take a seat… I hope you like coffee!"

Sam and Dean exchanged a surprised glance, momentarily taken aback as you beckoned them to follow you into a nearby office. You were not what they had expected, that's for sure.

"You're Dr. Y/L/N?" Sam asked, as you closed the door of the small room behind them. 

"This is she," you said, sensing their unexpected reactions. "Is... there a problem?"

"No, no!" Sam reassured, trying to mask his surprise with a charming smile. "We just expected someone... older."

You smirked, taking a seat across from them behind the small desk. "And... with a penis?" you questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Sam coughed, smiling awkwardly, clearly embarrassed by his sexist assumption, whilst Dean scratched his head, trying to think of a witty response.

"I'm just messing with you...” you teased, chuckling at their reactions. “I get that a lot. Anyway, how can I help? Your story sounds interesting..."

Over cups of coffee, the brothers tactfully explained their ‘research’ and the answers they were seeking.

“Hm, from what you’ve told me, the haunting sounds connected to an old legend rooted in the area…” You pulled out a book from your bookshelf, tracing your fingers over the weathered text. “Ah, here!” You placed it on the desk in front of them, gesturing to the page as you spoke. “This passage here... it speaks of spirits being tied to the ‘earthly realm’...”

The brothers listened intently, their focus on the information you provided, but Sam couldn’t help but feel uncharacteristically distracted, stealing small glances at you as you spoke. 

“According to the lore of the local tribe,” you continued, running a hand through your hair, “the spirit seeks ‘retribution for an ancient injustice.’”

Hm, interesting... Sam mused, darting another glance your way.

“Is there any way to stop it?” Dean leaned in slightly, urgency lacing his words. 

You straightened in your seat, taken aback by this new line of questioning. “What paper did you say you worked for again?”

“The Eureka Herald”, “The Wichita Eagle,” they replied in unison, gritting their teeth for blowing their cover.

You paused for a moment, eyes twinkling with amusement. “You’re ghost chasers, aren’t you?” you asked, eyeing them with suspicion, leaning back in your chair. 

Sam and Dean shared a look, a mixture of surprise and caution in their eyes. 

“What makes you think that?” Dean asked, his posture more guarded, his tone casual, yet wary. 

You took a sip from your mug. “It’s not hard to put two and two together,” you said, trying to hide your smirk as the brothers faltered over their cover story. “Plus, you’re not the first ghost chasers I’ve encountered…”

Sam and Dean exchanged another glance, a silent agreement passing between them. They were used to keeping their true identity under wraps, and were surprised by your directness—your ability to see through their façade. But there was something about your demeanor that made them feel a level of trust…

“Okay, you got us,” Sam admitted, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “But we’re not exactly ‘ghost chasers’… we’re hunters.”

“Hunters?” You raised an eyebrow.

Dean nodded, his expression more serious. “We’re not the kind of hunters most people imagine... We’re here to make things right, to put spirits to rest, to protect people from the crap they don’t even know exist.”

You listened intently, shifting slightly as you processed their words. “So... you hunt the things that go bump in the night? And in this case, you’re here to put an ancient spirit to rest?”

“That’s the plan,” Dean confirmed. “So... think you can help us, or what?”

You hesitated, chewing on your lip as you considered their request. You’d known ghosts were real, yes, but, hunting them...? This was all new, and... exciting.

“Alright,” you relented, undeniably curious. “I’ll try my best to help, but promise you’ll respect the history, the people involved?”

Sam leaned in, interjecting your thoughts, gently. “We promise,” he affirmed, his tone earnest, as he looked into your eyes. “We’re not just seeking closure for the spirit, we’re aiming for closure for the tribe, too.”

You paused for a moment, your gaze softening as you regarded the younger brother with a newfound respect.

“Yeah, exactly,” Dean added, nodding towards his brother. “What he said...”

You took a deep breath, giving in to the excitement you couldn’t deny. “Okay then... let’s uncover the truth behind this thing.”

“Great!” Dean exclaimed, visibly relieved as he slapped his hands on the sides of his chair.

Sam smiled, silently mouthing a gentle “thank you” in your direction.

You smiled back, but quickly averted your gaze, feeling a sudden blush rush into your cheeks. “Well,” you rose from your seat, trying your best to ignore whatever that was. “I’m afraid my office hours are over… I have to head back to work, but, I’ll be in touch.”

Sam stood, unconsciously mirroring your stance. “Yeah, yeah—of course.” He cleared his throat, reaching for the book on the table, directing you a gentle glance. “Would it be okay to take this?” 

“Yeah, sure... anything that will help. In fact... here... have these...”

“Thanks,” Sam smiled, as you passed him a few more books from your bookshelf.

“We’re staying at a motel just out of town for a few days,” Dean explained, handing you a scrap of paper with their contact details on it. “Let us know if you find anything.”

“Of course,” you said, glancing at the note in your hands. “Sam and Dean Winchester?” You swear their names sounded familiar...

“You can never be too careful in our line of work, lady,” Dean joked, as they finally introduced themselves properly.

As you walked them out of the department, Sam turned to you, shifting the pile of books under his arm. “See you soon, Dr Y/L/N, thanks again.”

“You’re welcome, Sam, but please, call me Y/N. I’ll never get used to being called Dr... it sounds waay too formal.”

Sam smiled, but quickly looked away as you returned his gaze, suddenly feeling rather warm.

“Right, let’s make a move.” Dean slapped Sam on the shoulder, snapping him out of his haze. “See ya later doc,” he saluted, turning to walk away, Sam by his side.

You chuckled as they left, your eyes lingering on the taller brother as they faded from your view, disappearing round the corner.

Back in the Impala, Dean turned towards his brother with a sly grin. "So, Sammy... You seem to have taken quite a liking to Dr. Y/L/N back there... not just interested in her research, huh?"

Sam's eyes widened, trying to mask his embarrassment. "What? No, Dean—it's not like that."

Dean chuckled, giving Sam a playful nudge. "Come on, man! I saw the way you were blushing back there. I've never seen you stumble over your words like that. Plus, you've been staring more than the ghost we're hunting."

"I... I wasn't stumbling, or staring!" Sam contested, despite knowing full well that his attempts to deny it only made it more obvious.

"Sure Sammy, whatever you say," Dean teased, enjoying every moment of his brother's discomfort.

Sam rolled his eyes, trying to play it off. "I was just being polite! She's knowledgeable and helpful, that's all."

"Uh-huh, sure… whatever helps you sleep at night… Bet you'll be dreaming of that helpfulness tonight, huh?" Dean smirked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "I mean, she's hot... I'll give you that."

Sam groaned, realizing there was no getting out of this conversation. "Can we just focus on the case, please? We have a haunting to solve."

Dean laughed, giving his brother a playful punch on the arm. "Alright, alright, Mr. 'I-Don't-Have-A-Crush’. Let's get back to business..."

Despite his attempts to steer the conversation away, Sam couldn't shake off the heat rising to his cheeks, knowing full well Dean would continue to tease him for the rest of the day. But as they drove off to pursue the leads you had provided, he couldn't help but feel optimistic, wondering what might come of this partnership.

Chapter 2 | Join the taglist

[punk-pins]

fundamentally you need to understand that the internet-scraping text generative AI (like ChatGPT) is not the point of the AI tech boom. the only way people are making money off that is through making nonsense articles that have great search engine optimization. essentially they make a webpage that’s worded perfectly to show up as the top result on google, which generates clicks, which generates ads. text generative ai is basically a machine that creates a host page for ad space right now.

and yeah, that sucks. but I don’t think the commercialized internet is ever going away, so here we are. tbh, I think finding information on the internet, in books, or through anything is a skill that requires critical thinking and cross checking your sources. people printed bullshit in books before the internet was ever invented. misinformation is never going away. I don’t think text generative AI is going to really change the landscape that much on misinformation because people are becoming educated about it. the text generative AI isn’t a genius supercomputer, but rather a time-saving tool to get a head start on identifying key points of information to further research.

anyway. the point of the AI tech boom is leveraging big data to improve customer relationship management (CRM) to streamline manufacturing. businesses collect a ridiculous amount of data from your internet browsing and purchases, but much of that data is stored in different places with different access points. where you make money with AI isn’t in the Wild West internet, it’s in a structured environment where you know the data its scraping is accurate. companies like nvidia are getting huge because along with the new computer chips, they sell a customizable ecosystem along with it.

so let’s say you spent 10 minutes browsing a clothing retailer’s website. you navigated directly to the clothing > pants tab and filtered for black pants only. you added one pair of pants to your cart, and then spent your last minute or two browsing some shirts. you check out with just the pants, spending $40. you select standard shipping.

with AI for CRM, that company can SIGNIFICANTLY more easily analyze information about that sale. maybe the website developers see the time you spent on the site, but only the warehouse knows your shipping preferences, and sales audit knows the amount you spent, but they can’t see what color pants you bought. whereas a person would have to connect a HUGE amount of data to compile EVERY customer’s preferences across all of these things, AI can do it easily.

this allows the company to make better broad decisions, like what clothing lines to renew, in which colors, and in what quantities. but it ALSO allows them to better customize their advertising directly to you. through your browsing, they can use AI to fill a pre-made template with products you specifically may be interested in, and email it directly to you. the money is in cutting waste through better manufacturing decisions, CRM on an individual and large advertising scale, and reducing the need for human labor to collect all this information manually.

(also, AI is great for developing new computer code. where a developer would have to trawl for hours on GitHUB to find some sample code to mess with to try to solve a problem, the AI can spit out 10 possible solutions to play around with. thats big, but not the point right now.)

so I think it’s concerning how many people are sooo focused on ChatGPT as the face of AI when it’s the least profitable thing out there rn. there is money in the CRM and the manufacturing and reduced labor. corporations WILL develop the technology for those profits. frankly I think the bigger concern is how AI will affect big data in a government ecosystem. internet surveillance is real in the sense that everything you do on the internet is stored in little bits of information across a million different places. AI will significantly impact the government’s ability to scrape and compile information across the internet without having to slog through mountains of junk data.