#algorithm update history

[optidan]

Algorithm Updates and Their Impact on Your eCommerce Store

Algorithm updates have a profound impact on eCommerce stores, shaping how they rank in search engine results. These changes can significantly affect visibility and traffic, making SEO strategies crucial for survival and growth in the competitive online retail landscape. Search engines like Google continually update their algorithms to enhance user experience and relevance of search results. For…

[leveragehunters]

I have ditched Spotify. I know, I know, it's not an airport etc etc. But I had some thoughts.

A big part of making the decision was the 20+ years of MP3 files sitting disorganised and abandoned on various hard drives and old devices. I spent this past week or so organising them all onto one hard drive, updating file names and tags and folder structures so I could load them all into Plex.

I have a lot of music. Most of it ripped from CDs, some bought as MP3s, and some recorded from cassette tapes using an audio jack and a dream. There's bands I haven't thought about in years; ones that, once reminded, I missed terribly.

It made me realise in the 6 or so years I've had Spotify I've listened to less and less music overall and certainly to fewer once-beloved bands/albums. (I didn't even realise Linkin Park had a new album with a new co-lead singer, a woman, who is incredible.)

Now my music is all set up in Plex, I'm listening to it through PlexAmp, a fantastic music app I'm running on an old tablet, bluetoothed to some decent speakers instead of the crappy computer ones.

Result? I've maybe listened to more music this past week than in all of 2024.

Now there's obviously a novelty factor at play, having everything easily available for the first time in so long, but I think there's something else going on.

Algorithmically, Spotify fed me music. I had a few playlists, a few bands saved, but I didn't have a collection of my music. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge music buff, so without my music in front of me, without being able to flip through my personal musical history, the music I'd curated, it was just kind of lost. Listening to Spotify was more like walking through a record store or listening to the radio. I forgot about what I enjoyed and just listened to what was convenient.

Having all my music at my fingertips is making me happy. Happy listening and happy looking through my collection and happy remembering that yeah, that is an awesome album! It makes my brain feel good and I remember when I first heard it, who I was with, what was happening in my life!

It's awesome.

[vocagathering]

To all vocal synth producers, listeners, and enjoyers...

Introducing... ✨Vocagathering BETA!✨

TLDR:

Vocagathering is an upcoming posting festival for songs featuring vocal synths for the international community. Songs will be posted at the same time and ranked on the Vocagathering website. The event aims to help listeners discover new songs and producers! Please fill out our interest check to help us plan it!

Lengthy version under the cut!

What is this new project? 🤨

Vocagathering is an online posting festival for original songs featuring vocal synths. The event aims to facilitate discovery of vocal synth songs and producers and to promote vocal synth creative culture, especially to the international audience.

How does it work..? 🤔

Vocal synth producers will upload their song on an agreed-upon date to YouTube and submit the upload on our website (more details of upload requirements and the website will be released later). Afterwards, the song will automatically be ranked and potentially added to our rankings page. Rankings will be periodically updated for a few days until the event ends, upon which the top ranked songs are solidified into history. We also hope the event uplifts and provides momentum to unranked songs through a bigger audience and algorithmic connection to other songs!

How do I get involved right now? 🤝

Please fill out our interest check to help us determine the event date and other details! If you have any questions, our ask box is open~

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (Updated daily!)

Researchers report that a new AI tool enhances the diagnostic process, potentially identifying more individuals who need care. Previous diagnostic studies estimated that 7 percent of the population suffers from long COVID. However, a new study using an AI tool developed by Mass General Brigham indicates a significantly higher rate of 22.8 percent.

The AI-based tool can sift through electronic health records to help clinicians identify cases of long COVID. The often-mysterious condition can encompass a litany of enduring symptoms, including fatigue, chronic cough, and brain fog after infection from SARS-CoV-2.

The algorithm used was developed by drawing de-identified patient data from the clinical records of nearly 300,000 patients across 14 hospitals and 20 community health centers in the Mass General Brigham system. The results, published in the journal Med, could identify more people who should be receiving care for this potentially debilitating condition.

“Our AI tool could turn a foggy diagnostic process into something sharp and focused, giving clinicians the power to make sense of a challenging condition,” said senior author Hossein Estiri, head of AI Research at the Center for AI and Biomedical Informatics of the Learning Healthcare System (CAIBILS) at MGB and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “With this work, we may finally be able to see long COVID for what it truly is — and more importantly, how to treat it.”

For the purposes of their study, Estiri and colleagues defined long COVID as a diagnosis of exclusion that is also infection-associated. That means the diagnosis could not be explained in the patient’s unique medical record but was associated with a COVID infection. In addition, the diagnosis needed to have persisted for two months or longer in a 12-month follow-up window.

Precision Phenotyping: A Novel Approach The novel method developed by Estiri and colleagues, called “precision phenotyping,” sifts through individual records to identify symptoms and conditions linked to COVID-19 to track symptoms over time in order to differentiate them from other illnesses. For example, the algorithm can detect if shortness of breath results from pre-existing conditions like heart failure or asthma rather than long COVID. Only when every other possibility was exhausted would the tool flag the patient as having long COVID.

“Physicians are often faced with having to wade through a tangled web of symptoms and medical histories, unsure of which threads to pull, while balancing busy caseloads. Having a tool powered by AI that can methodically do it for them could be a game-changer,” said Alaleh Azhir, co-lead author and an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

The new tool’s patient-centered diagnoses may also help alleviate biases built into current diagnostics for long COVID, said researchers, who noted diagnoses with the official ICD-10 diagnostic code for long COVID trend toward those with easier access to healthcare.

The researchers said their tool is about 3 percent more accurate than the data ICD-10 codes capture, while being less biased. Specifically, their study demonstrated that the individuals they identified as having long COVID mirror the broader demographic makeup of Massachusetts, unlike long COVID algorithms that rely on a single diagnostic code or individual clinical encounters, skewing results toward certain populations such as those with more access to care.

“This broader scope ensures that marginalized communities, often sidelined in clinical studies, are no longer invisible,” said Estiri.

Limitations and Future Directions Limitations of the study and AI tool include the fact that health record data the algorithm uses to account for long COVID symptoms may be less complete than the data physicians capture in post-visit clinical notes. Another limitation was the algorithm did not capture the possible worsening of a prior condition that may have been a long COVID symptom. For example, if a patient had COPD that worsened before they developed COVID-19, the algorithm might have removed the episodes even if they were long COVID indicators. Declines in COVID-19 testing in recent years also makes it difficult to identify when a patient may have first gotten COVID-19.

The study was limited to patients in Massachusetts.

Future studies may explore the algorithm in cohorts of patients with specific conditions, like COPD or diabetes. The researchers also plan to release this algorithm publicly on open access so physicians and healthcare systems globally can use it in their patient populations.

In addition to opening the door to better clinical care, this work may lay the foundation for future research into the genetic and biochemical factors behind long COVID’s various subtypes. “Questions about the true burden of long COVID — questions that have thus far remained elusive — now seem more within reach,” said Estiri.

Reference: “Precision phenotyping for curating research cohorts of patients with unexplained post-acute sequelae of COVID-19” by Alaleh Azhir, Jonas Hügel, Jiazi Tian, Jingya Cheng, Ingrid V. Bassett, Douglas S. Bell, Elmer V. Bernstam, Maha R. Farhat, Darren W. Henderson, Emily S. Lau, Michele Morris, Yevgeniy R. Semenov, Virginia A. Triant, Shyam Visweswaran, Zachary H. Strasser, Jeffrey G. Klann, Shawn N. Murphy and Hossein Estiri, 8 November 2024, Med. DOI: 10.1016/j.medj.2024.10.009 www.cell.com/med/fulltext/S2666-6340(24)00407-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2666634024004070%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

[eddiemunsonsmiddlefingers]

Hello Wheel of Time fandom

3/16 edit:

I have heard through the grapevine that some folks are saying I have doxxed people with this post, or that I should be sued for libel.

tl;dr: There is no merit to either of these accusations.

I am reporting actions and events that actually happened, and which I personally witnessed and/or have hard evidence to support, to the best of my abilities. I have made edits to clarify where my initial statements were unclear, and I've been transparent about the edits made (unless it was simply to clean up grammar) even though it makes this post looks super chaotic.

I will say that I overstepped when I claimed that the CEO "supports Trump." I know she is conservative, because I saw her talking about it in a space with ~40 people in it late last year. I know she has voted for Trump in the past, because others have seen her talking about it in a similarly sized space in the past. However, jumping from those two pieces of information to "she supports Trump" in present tense is a slippery slope fallacy that I absolutely should have known better than to fall for. That said: concern about her politics versus site demographics did not begin with me, let alone with this post. I believe that while those concerns were not expressed respectfully (largely due to rapidly deteriorating trust), they should have been addressed quickly and respectfully by leadership and they were not.

I have also gone out of my way to avoid causing harm to the people I'm discussing; that's why I reference titles and time frames instead of names (or even pseudonyms), and why I have edited this post rather than bumping it to the top with updates. I have done exhaustive testing to confirm that it is not possible to find this post unless you are actively looking for it on Facebook or Tumblr (Search algorithms mean some people may have different results, but the flat truth is that if I can't find it with all my Tower-related cookies tossed all over the place, people who aren't connected to the Tower definitely can't).

Ironically enough, the ONLY person whose full, real name has been publicly associated with this information is in fact me (by my choice, as a gesture of sincerity to the founder of the community).

This leads me to another (related) major issue that I want to address:

I have given my full name, phone number, AND address to a grand total of three members of the Tower. I gave one of those three my resume as well, because they offered to help me with my job search last year. One other member has my one page resume, and the Board has my full work history and phone number, but none of them have my address to my knowledge. When I left the site I went through chat logs and deleted my information retroactively, but I have no way of knowing whether those individuals saved that information where I cannot delete it.

This is of extreme concern to me because I have screenshot evidence that one of the three individuals with all my information has posted on TarValon.Net claiming that I am lying / this post was made in bad faith / that I'm out to cause harm for harm's sake (paraphrased). He also made a threat of physical violence against those who criticize admin, which he changed to hoping that they are "fucked by the dildo of consequence" when the mods told him the prior violence was unacceptable. Moderators allowed this sexually violent metaphor to remain visible for over 24 hours; in the end he received a 24 hour "timeout" from that specific forum for forcing the mods to edit his post.

The man in question has known me for at least 7 years and has known of me for just shy of 13. It is unquestionably true that he knows my strongest values are my integrity and caring for others. He knows that my partner and I are trans and therefore have a lot to lose given the state of this country. He knows that I have been raped and sexually assaulted in the past. Finally, he knows that someone else in the community has already had their world turned upside down because someone at the Tower suggested that their work should be contacted (and someone did).

It baffles me that he thought it appropriate to say something he knows is dishonest about me, and at least appear to post a material threat to my safety, in nearly the same breath that he accused me of libel. It baffles me even more that the sexually charged threat he made was allowed to remain in the forum for as long as it was (and received little more than a slap on the wrist for a completely different reason) when a former Director of Moderators was suspended from the entire site for two weeks and from community feedback for another two weeks after that (starting 3/15) for making an off topic observation.

I'm just…appalled. And hurt. And very, very done. I will not be editing this post further. If the current CMO wants to reach out to me, I'm open to a conversation. Otherwise…I hope I never have to interact with these people, or anyone who supports them, again.

In the Light, Jaryd

PS: I put the original content/edits under a "read more" because this post is now absurdly long. See below.

The current leaders of the website TarValon.Net just completely shut down the site, deleted and remade their forums, and rewrote their rules, because 50+ members of said site objected to damaging actions taken and hateful words spoken by said leadership.

EDIT: I want to make it abundantly, explicitly clear that the founder of TarValon.Net is not in any way, shape, or form associated with what I have written below. I deeply respect and appreciate the love and effort she put into this place, and much of my distress now stems from mourning the loss of what she created. Additionally, my statements about the "leadership team" are generalizations for brevity, but as with every generalization, there are exceptions. I would like to note specifically that the CFO and Director of Marketing have never been positions that are expected to take a stance on membership issues (and therefore it is neither surprising nor upsetting to me that they did not openly do so in this case). To my knowledge none of the individuals in question have ever engaged in or encouraged the behaviors described below. I have made some other clarifying edits throughout, marked in red.

Telling every single detail of the bullshit that has occurred would take hours. Some of what has happened includes:

The current CEO supports Trump, and has on two separate occasions had emotional melt downs about how she feels like people think she's bad for doing that. Her political affiliation is of concern because a sizable chunk of the community she is in charge of is female, queer, trans, BIPOC, some variety of neurodivergent, disabled, and/or in an economic lower class. See my note about this above.

The current leadership team (plus the immediate former Director of Membership) have protected (and continues to protect) aggressively antisemitic individuals, while actively disregarding and disparaging the concerns raised by their Jewish members and informed allies. 3/16: The Chief Membership Officers who have served since December have not actively engaged in this behavior to my knowledge.

A member of the site was doxxed as a direct result of criticizing the leadership team in the forum designated for giving site feedback. The CEO performed a cursory investigation (I personally got an email asking me to confirm I did not doxx the member in question. Staff were told to respond to a post in their respective forums. I don't have much insight into how higher-up administrators were addressed), announced they couldn't find the perpetrator, and then banned the person who was doxxed for allegedly lying about it. (This is an extreme simplification, but the long and the short of it is that he WAS doxxed, he did NOT lie, and he WAS banned).

The CMO serving until November of last year had a public meltdown that included presenting events in a purposely unfavorable light (as determined by review of contradictory evidence from the other side) swearing at members of the site, saying it felt good to punch down, and refusing to apologize for her behavior. The current CEO and several other Officers and Directors (including the last Director of Membership) supported this behavior, and an investigation occurred only after significant pressure from members of the site—and ended with no acknowledgment of poor behavior or disciplinary action taken. She is only a "former" CMO because, when outraged members of the community refused to accept that decision, she had another public meltdown and demanded to be removed and her account suspended. Her account has since been reactivated and she is active in the community. In early March she admitted to acting in bad faith in joining an unofficial Discord server dedicated to addressing these issues (plus many others).

A member was recently chosen to serve on the Board of Directors who had only weeks before recruited members into a quasi-secret club that supported the current CEO by mocking a woman of color whom they dislike. This information was known to the current CEO, who initially did nothing (and got noticeably huffy when asked to take action...and no disciplinary action occurred at all), and was later shared with the Board, who also chose to do nothing.

The current leadership team (presumably minus the CMOs who have served since December, who to my knowledge were not part of the primary spaces this behavior took place) has not only allowed, but has actively and consistently participated in and encouraged, the abuse and harassment of disfavored community members across a lengthy period of time. 3/16: I have no access to know if this behavior has continued since I left. The group of people targeted the heaviest by this behavior includes nearly every Black, Brown, or Jewish person on the site, many openly trans members, and many neurodivergent members. To date, none of the site's current or recently former leaders have taken accountability for their actions. The victims of this behavior were and are being blamed for the site being in conflict.

A different former Director of Membership was removed from her role because she shared private information about a member she disliked with a student therapist friend in order to obtain a "diagnosis" which she then used to justify an unwarranted ban of that individual. It was just announced that this former Director of Membership is now the moderator in charge of disciplinary decisions in the community.

The CEO, COO, and former CMO (served until November) changed the rules to protect themselves, which they retroactively applied to suspend two members, one of whom they specifically dislike. Most recently, this meant shutting down the entire site for several months, dismissing the Head Moderator in favor of hiring someone known to support leadership (in full transparency: it is possible she may have been hired for the role had she applied for it, but she chose not to; I cannot speak for her, but given the conditions we were working in I cannot blame her for choosing to stand aside), trashing the updated Code of Conduct that the mod team had been tasked with creating (and that I put considerable effort and research into drafting) to address the issues the site was facing, and instead implementing a set of rules tailor-made to cover their own asses. This was done with the support of the Board despite the concerns and distress about Officer behavior expressed by a large portion of active membership.

(Note that most of these events happened just since September of last year, and from September 10th to December 7th, I was putting in 50+ hour weeks as a moderator trying to problem solve and hold the community together. I was personally in one of the spaces where unethical behavior occurred; I consistently and actively tried to put a damper on it despite resistance from officers, executives, and administrators. I put in the work, followed the chain of command to express my concerns, and ultimately left the site entirely because it was tearing me apart.)

I joined TarValon.Net in February of 2003, and I finally gave up the ghost this last December when I realized that neither the Board nor the Executive team were going to accept responsibility for the condition of the community.

In my 22 years of membership I gave them thousands of hours of volunteer service across dozens of roles, and thousands of dollars in open and anonymous donations (edit: to be clear and honest, some of these donations were to individual members or to support specific projects/events, not to the site's maintenance fund). I have made life long friends there. I once moved across the country to live with someone I met there. I have babysat for people I met there. I have loaned my car to people I met there. I have been a reference for people I met there, putting my own job and integrity on the line to help them get a leg up. I have helped members of that community escape abusive relationships. I've laughed, cried, been drunk, been sober, attended weddings...whatever it is a human can feel and do with a group of friends, I have felt and done it with at least one other person in that group, and often with many.

It has been profoundly painful to watch this small group of arrogant, selfish people tear that place of safety, service, and love into hateful dust for the sake of protecting their own pride. They are doing everything they possibly can (and then some) to bury their unethical and genuinely horrendous behavior where no one can see it, to protect the people they like, and to chase the people they dislike (and who might call out the truth) away. It is crazy-making to think that they're absolutely going to get away with it; after all, it's "just" a fandom community. Who cares?

All I can do, really, is tell the greater fandom community the truth about what happened in a place where the people destroying my former home-away-from-home can't delete my words. So...that's what I'm doing. Maybe I'll add more later? Maybe I'll leave it at this. Either way...at least some of it is out there.

Peace.

[langernameohnebedeutung]

A few years ago I was working for a research department that studies regional history and I was also managing their social media (instagram, facebook and twitter). Now, for the most part, the work we did was primarily interesting to other academics studying regional history as well as some excited lay people and we also sometimes worked with schools etc.

When I stopped working there, a co-worker took over the social media accounts for another 2 years or so. Then, about 1 year into the Muskification of Twitter, my then-former boss (we are still friends) told me that they would no longer be posting on Twitter because it sucked now and the engagement was dropping, so it wasn't worth paying someone to manage the account. But that the account would remain up as a resource for anyone who was interested.

Now, I still got access to that account. I'm actually still logged in on one of my devices (because that's my 1 functional Twitter account, if I want to look at stuff).

And it is honestly insane that when I go on there these days, almost the entire fucking feed is EXPLICITLY far-right content (it's literally the vilest, most card-carrying upfront racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and so on) - and, it's almost completely in English and is about American politics. Now, this is an account that has never posted in English, and never engaged with English content, most of the accounts it follows are from German-speaking countries and if they aren't, they're usually Dutch or French or Belgian + about regional history - nothing American and certainly not current politics. And when German content does show up on the feed, it's also usually racist shit AND political things - filtered for an account that has never engaged with political content.

And the thing is, obviously this is not the stuff I look at there. Sure, I'm forced to look at it when I open the app but usually I just go on twitter to have a look at some important trending topics or to get live updates about some event like elections or catastrophes.

No one is actively using this account to actively engage with any content at all (all the likes are strictly content about regional history events, responses to our own tweets, tweets by university faculties or academics, livetweets from conferences etc and nothing has been added since the account went functionally dead). So I'm just saying that this is my field study of how fucked Twitter is these days and how propaganda is literally funnelled at people. (And especially how the algorithm equates "interested in history" with "interested in far-right content")

[not-the-conversation-starter]

The Death Of A Website.

tl;dr click source to see an AU of my blog.

As many of you may not have heard, Cohost has gone read only. The website infamous for "Zero Discoverability" and its users "Not Being Funny." Servers will close down at the end of 2024, if not earlier, being backed up on the Internet Archive before that. Since their user counts were still low after 2 years (about half of all sign ups ever were from people evacuating twitter, which then didn't know how to use the site so most left almost immediately. Kind of hilarious) they didn't feel like anymore money bleeding OR the fact that a staff of only four people being on call 24/7 was worth it anymore.

However,

the people who DID use the site loved it. And they did some genuinely cool things on it, far cooler than anything I ever saw even in the glory days of Tumblr. You know, like Finn and Jake hi-fiving between 2 posts. Stuff like a playable maze, or a fully navigable 3d room you move around in with your mouse entirely within a post. They really did some cool stuff.

There were also a ton of really talented people, people like the composer Lena Raine(Celeste/Minecraft) who loved the site because you could just. Actually talk to people on it! Without an algorithm to boost their posts, the only people who saw it were genuinely looking for it.

Also some of them were just good posters, we did get Pikmin 18 billion and eleven from Cohost after all.

The point is, I think if anyone outside of Cohost actually knew what was being done on Cohost, it would of succeeded. There would of been enough active users for them to invest more. If I knew about all of this I would of been there way more!

But rather than just you blindly believing me, I decided to spend (almost) every hour I would of on Tumblr, on Cohost instead. Clicking that link, or the source, or the link on the source above in the tl;dr, will take you to my Cohost blog. At least while it's still read-only.

You should check it out. I reblogged a lot, but the first page or 2 (every 20 posts, I kept trying to stop but I got sentimental and reblogged more) is pretty much just people's last posts. I'd say give it 3 pages to see if you're interested or not in exploring more of what the website has to offer.

If you've ever wondered what people would post on a dying website,

If you ever wondered what some of the best posts people were making on Cohost that got shared again in its last dying moments were,

If you want some reference for what inside jokes would look like to an outsider,

If you're just bored and need something to scroll through,

if you ever wondered what I would of reblogged on that website if I remembered my password easily enough to log back in easily...

You could think of my blog as a small encapsulation of a small website. There's only 60 pages, including the ones from before the announcement from me just rarely using the site!

I reblogged all kinds of posts. Goodbyes, sarcastic hellos, mourning, long speeches about the spirit of Cohost set to sad music, nothing burgers, inside jokes I didn't understand, The New Garfield, posts I flat out didn't read past the title because they were too long and I just wanted to move on really there's a lot of posts to archive, CSS crimes, stuff I found funny, "Where to find me" and webrings and website posts for people I never knew, Love Honk, reviews for movies and games I never intend to play or watch, 88x31 buttons, music recommendations and history, entire games, signing up for RSS feeds, asks and answers related to other stuff I didn't share on accident, regular memes, Intern Secretary Eggbug, a post that's just an image hosted off-site so it'll update even after readonly, and so on.

(Nothing overtly NSFW. Tag search still works if you want that)

One that I, personally, am sad is gone. That I'm glad I got to see at least in its dying days. That I genuinely hope someone makes another attempt at creating.

[dykecubes]

god the more that I think about it the more I do genuinely wish the qsmp would just temporarily shut down the server and go on hiatus for a couple months, not just because it would give them time to slow down and work on resolving the admin situation but because it also benefits everyone in other ways, think about it:

a lot of streamers have reached a point where they feel fatigued or burnt out with the qsmp, taking a few months off gives them the opportunity to relax and come back later on, refreshed and with new ideas

it gives a similar break to the admins and gives those behind the scenes time to plan lore or work on things like builds and mods for the server at a more relaxed speed

fans often have very little time to catch up on streams or vods with things like school and work, a hiatus gives them an opportunity to catch up

similarly, there are a lot of people who want to get into the qsmp, but the sheer amount of content overwhelms them and they often don't even start because of the fear that they'll never catch up, a hiatus gives them the opportunity to start

by the time the server finally comes back online, hype will have built over the course of the months until reaching an all time high on the day the server reopens

I think there's this sort of aversion to hiatuses nowadays because of the demand from video hosting and streaming platforms for daily content to appease the almighty, ever-changing algorithm. I think this caused fans to also fear the hiatus, considering a piece of media "dead" every second it isn't actively streaming or being made, but the past several decades of fandom history have shown that media, especially long form media, thrive off hiatuses, the original Homestuck fandom, for example, was literally built off of multi-year long hiatuses, which fans complained about, yes, but it allowed fan content to thrive and new people to get into the webcomic without the pressure of trying to keep up with some kind of daily update schedule

hiatuses are also somewhat of an under-appreciated and, I would argue, essential aspect of any kind of media production or fandom, long breaks helps prevent burnout and generate excitement towards that piece of media

idk, again this is all hypothetical, I don't think the qsmp would actually go on a break like this but the more that I think about it the more I want it 😭😭

[boggywitchin]

I just uninstalled tik tok.

I loved that app- I would not be the same person without it.

The algorithm showed me I was autistic, then held my hand through the process of unmasking and learning about myself. And on a related note, it also told me I was bisexual then held my hand again as I navigated the grief that comes with comp het and allowed me to explore my sexuality in a safe place. It helped me sort out my religious truma and helped me through my grandma's death. It provided videos about gentle parenting and allowed me to discover communities of neurodivergent parents with neurodiverent kids. I discovered new fandoms, books, TV shows, and music. It kept me updated on world events and showed me first hand accounts of genocide and war, things I wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to. It taught me my country's history and role in hundreds of other genocides and global atrocities.

But tonight I uninstalled the app that shaped my life so throughly the last four years. The CEO has made it clear that he's in bed with Trump and his fucking goons, and even if tik tok is allowed back it'll never be the same. It'll be a propaganda machine spewing out far-right vitriol to please a man known for having to wear diapers in public. Disappointed isn't nearly a strong enough word to describe how I feel about Shou selling out to the rich.

The ban was a sham, our legislators cowards and traitors, our justices corrupt beyond measure, and the everyday people have to suffer for their greed. It won't end with tik tok either, because it was never about 'the dancing app'. It's about controlling the narrative while lining their pockets.

Fuck them all. Every last one of them.

[platoniccereal]

some notes on the wanderer/scaramouche's characterisation~

i first and foremost made this for myself since every time i touched upon the wanderer's speech something felt amiss. but i also hope these notes may be of help to any content creator in their characterisation of our favourite an-emo boy!

while writing these notes i went through phrases scaramouche/the wanderer utters to establish his choice of words and thoughts that may be hidden behind them! i also provided utterances themselves for almost every point i made so that his speech can be copied easier. besides, i tried to guess how this can be utilised in our head canons! :)

please keep in mind that these are still my notes of something that stood out to me, not absolutely everything. additionally, i still may misinterpret something + our interpretation may be different + you can see something as a stretch. that's ok! also, i listened to the english va + i speak of the balladeer and the wanderer as Two Different hypostases of a character, not the same continuous character.

hope you find it helpful!

INVERSION OF GENESIS.

★ when the balladeer/the wanderer is angry, he rarely raises his voice. he starts to whisper and even speak softer instead (it's about the english voice, but afaik it's also true for other voices, too). when he wants an emphasis on certain words, he whispers, too. this isn't true for battles, though, as he is very loud in his wanderer and shouki no kami hypostases.

★ his usual sarcastic structure is to state something he'd expect and then illustrate that someone is acting against it (as in, stupid). e.g. «ah, so if it were up to you, you'd finish the job? guess i had you all wrong. there i was thinking you were just getting cold feet,» «it's not every day you see people questioning the god of wisdom's judgment. just when you think you've seen it all.»

★ when he wants to threaten a person or make them do something, he isn't necessarily uses imperative sentences. he uses «i'd like you to» in «in return, i'd like you to answer a question for me» and still gets what he asks for. other examples are his «so why don't you relax your guard a little?» «let's cut each other a little slack, shall we?» and «so maybe you should think about backing off a little.»

as illustrated, instead of describing painful consequences, he undermines them instead. («a little» is his favourite word, it seems.) as evident later, it is coupled with his, err, laid back attitude towards threats to him. basically, he just lets people act stupid and walk into his traps.

from what we've seen from dottore, he also uses the same structure: «i suggest you keep your true feelings to yourself.» maybe, he was the one scaramouche copied.

★ overall, his sarcasm is what you'd usually see from people. it should be kept in mind that sarcasm is his initial response and he will use it as often as possible even if he could simply explain. there won't be any examples here, though, as there would be too many. but his conversations with nahida, paimon and signora illustrate it well. i believe sarcasm is his way to assert power since it builds on «common knowledge + the inversion of that» hence implying the opponent doesn't have this common knowledge -> they are stupid, he is not.

★ he is extremely professional and focused on completing the task successfully. he knows how operations (which the traveller suggests he was assigned when he was the harbinger) are carried out and follows the strict algorithm. e.g. «(to nahida) we will now proceed to the heart of irminsul», «permission to begin searching for information?»

he isn't easily swayed when he works and tries to get this attitude out of the traveller and paimon, too, just asking them not to fall behind.

★ he follows the agreement with nahida: how they will walk into the irminsul and what his tasks will be. he completes them without any chatter and keeps nahida updated as he should. even after the revelation about the tatarasuna's history, he still is able to proceed with his task.

★ «you can't have your prisoner knowing too much,» «i understand that prisoners have to put up with harassment from the guards,» it may be a stretch, but from these sentences + how he talks about his relationships with the fatui i can conclude that he easily justifies abuse towards himself. the balladeer/the wanderer isn't the person who just lets people do that, but whenever abuse happens, he easily explains it by the natural order of things and weaklings suffering from the strong ones because they deserve it. hence, whenever he ends up being the weak one, he believes he deserves this abuse. this can seep through into in his further interactions with people who care about him should any fight occur.

★ «sometimes it's you using them, other times it's them using you.» it comes in a direct parallel to niwa's words about dottore's attitude towards kabukimono: people of tararasuna didn't want to use him, hence it's the doctor who altered scaramouche's perception of human relationships. the balladeer/the wanderer believes in mutual gain and uses it to: 1) get what he wants from the traveller, 2) pay back for nahida and the traveller's help.

thus, it's safe to conclude he uses this principle as a moral compass in every social interaction he comes across. he could use this law to navigate his personal life instead of his emotions.

★ «most of human relationships are this way… certainly the stable ones are.» it is easier for him to predict when he stops being valuable to someone and toss other people out when they are not useful to him, so there is no sudden abandonment. it is easy to see how it corresponds with his trauma. this principle gives him the illusion of control since he can calculate everything, and gaining control over situations that may lead to the repeated trauma is a response real abuse survivors have. hence, it's safe to conclude the wanderer will try to find what other person gains in his more sincere relationships and, what's worse, may use other people who care about him out of habit since it's a natural order for him.

★ even though he earned the reputation of someone who doesn't bite his tongue when he should he doesn't backtalk or lie when it isn't beneficial to him.

★ he admits to managing «cordial conversations», so while the wanderer may avoid participating in small talks at all, it isn't unreal to picture him having one and not imploding. this is also something confirmed by his first appearance in the unreconciled stars event where he handles a friendly conversation perfectly - so the friendliness is just something he knows (and studied intently as kabukimono) but ignores on purpose. social skills are there.

★ the balladeer and possibly the wanderer, too, is sadistic in a classical sense of the word. he admits to enjoying stomping on the pests, meaning bringing pain and destruction to people. this can also be confirmed by one of the husk of the opulent dream's pieces. there, it is stated that «he also loved watching expressions of terror and helplessness play across human faces, and it was perhaps precisely because of this imbecilic underling's expressiveness that he had kept them around.» as the balladeer, he let some of his subordinates stay not because of their usefulness, but because they were funny to abuse. (also. hot.)

thus, it can be possible that in a less hostile environment of the akademiya the wanderer can struggle with this side of himself, hurting people on purpose. this can also become something he has to fight in relationships with people he cares about.

★ before his memories are restored the wanderer is polite and reserved. he apologises, calls his boss properly and tries to do his part. we can notice the similar behaviour of the balladeer but weaponised to imitate friendliness (e.g. unreconciled stars). there isn't any features of a classical shy character, he doesn't stutter or use abrupt phrases.

★ «i ran into him out in the wilderness during the storm, and he let me take shelter in his cart. in return, i said i'd be his helper for a while.» even before he gets his memories back and remembers principles the fatui likely taught him, the wanderer navigates his relationships with others through understanding what he gets and what he must give in return.

it is clear that he spent some time in the shop already and made enough work to make the merchant uncomfortable for exploiting him. thus, the «for a while part» isn't quite true. the wanderer has nowhere to go so he has every intention to pay back more than he needs to, to just stay somewhere.

hence, he can continue using this principle in his relationships with others, creating a conflict where he is dead set on paying back with little to no regard for his own feelings.

★ «i don't deserve your protection.» it seems that even before he restores his memories and is only told about his sins, the wanderer already despises himself enough to reject help. this attitude may exist later, when the wanderer restored his memories, with an added «i'm not that weak» but this is only my speculation.

however, this phrase may be another example of him carefully weighing what others give to him and what he should return.

★ «(uttered by the jester) what you are, truly, is a weapon, one that can be wielded with an iron will…» to further ingrain the thought that the balladeer is a tool, not a person, the jester proposes the idea of seeing himself as a weapon to kunikuzushi. coupled with dottore saying someone will eventually use kabukimono, it seems this was the strategy that was used to keep the balladeer in the harbinger ranks.

thus, we can see that the balladeer continued to suffer abuse due to 1) his beliefs in the strong dominating the weak, 2) his illusions that he is a person shattered by events of tararasuna, hence he perceives himself as an object, a weapon that must endure. the latter is a bit of a speculation but i don't think it is far off the mark:

★ «now that i've had a taste of just about every flavour in this world, i've found that actually… bitterness is the one i like best,» and the whole bitterness discussion in the teapot are the example of him pushing himself to his limits in order to being able to handle the true bitterness of life. (also, it lies in a nice parallel with ei/shogun's «illusions shattered» thing, but i diverge.)

★ «(uttered by the jester) or, you could continue to drift aimlessly.» another tactic fatui used to win kabukimono over was his obvious lack of any goals and place to go. we can see that the wanderer finds himself in a similar position, staying with the merchant because he had nowhere to go. long time ago, the balladeer stayed for these very reasons with much, much more dangerous people than a common merchant.

★ «i'm harsh on myself and everybody else.» while the former comes from the low self-esteem and believing himself to be weak, the wanderer also won't be patient with anyone's blunders. i suspect especially if it's about someone in his charge or if it's about work. i also suspect that an easy way to get on his good-ish side is to act this way as well and not let any mistakes slide.

★ «utility to others is what makes me worth.» as soon as his memories were implemented into him, he is reverted back to his harsh principles ingrained into him by the fatui. it seems there isn't any other tool he could use to measure his worth. the base principle that any life is worth something does not exist for someone who didn't see himself as an alive being for several past centuries.

hence, it can lead to reckless behaviour driving him to his limits which will cause stress to someone who cares about him.

★ «oh right… i almost forgot. you're the good guys. you're into justice and all that.» this is his answer to the traveller trying to argue with how the wanderer sees his own worth. i believe there's some division between what he thinks good guys deserve/what the wanderer himself deserves. thus, while it is possible he will agree that life's worth is life itself after some long argument, he still won't apply this to himself. i believe it's a somewhat common coping mechanism to think «people don't deserve X, but i deserve X.» (i'm not talking about his crimes, btw.)

★ «no nonsense. i like it.» he approves when the traveller doesn't argue with the «let them stab the blades into my chest if they so desire. maybe that's how it always should have been.» while the wanderer might need support in his life and changing his self-destructive perspective might be of great help to him, it seems he still wouldn't appreciate a direct approach to that.

VOICE LINES.

★ one of the most consistent features of the wanderer is despising the idle chatter, as evident in this idle voice line, «it's rather pathetic to force a conversation just to occupy silence.» another example is the husk of opulent dream's description: «the youth, hating chatty humans the most, gave his subordinate a backhand slap.»

so, the balladeer/the wanderer despises small talk even if he can participate in one. he would likely appreciate people who are just focused on the task and don't say anything that isn't related to their common goal at the moment. perhaps, it can be used to form a wordless bond between him and people who hang out with him.

it seems that he is quite harsh in his criteria for the idle chatter since his subordinate asks quite a normal question of where the harbinger is heading next.

★ looking through every voice line about other people, it can be argued that the wanderer's initial algorithm to describe someone is to trash them. but i believe we should also remember most of his voice lines are about the harbingers, and he's never had particularly warm feelings towards his colleagues. other four are yae miko and raiden shogun, and he isn't fond of them both, and kazuha and nahida. last two are the only people he doesn't despise, and these voice lines are pretty tame, while not an open praise.

★ «i have no need for food. save me the trouble and take care of yourself and that small thing floating next to you.» this can be perceived both as him not wanting the traveller getting in his way like the balladeer's subordinates, or genuine, poorly expressed care. thus, the wanderer may say dubious phrases with that intention whenever he expresses his care.

★ «so, you're still stewing over our run-ins from before? huh. well, what are you going to do about it? take your time. i'm in no hurry.» the wanderer's attitude to threats is quite unique. other examples of that are his lines from the trailer, where he answers «sure i will» and «i look forward to that» to the threat that he will pay for his attitude. also, «fine by me – come one, come all, i say. as a matter of fact, i'm somewhat looking forward to it.»

basically, you can read his behaviour as «you can be stupid enough trying to attack me, and i won't stop humans from being stupid, and the outcome is their fault.» it's basically all over his trailer where he waits until the fatui attack first.

★ when it comes to answering for his sins, though, i would rather see it as accepting his punishment. it is also evident in his falling voice line, «the price for my sins.»

★ «the gods aren't guided by any kind of rationality or moral compass. haven't i shown that to you already?» i believe he doesn't mean ei or nahida here, two archons he is connected with, because he didn't show us anything in regard to them. (we dealt with problems with them ourselves) what he might mean is shouki no kami. this also may be evident in his battle ost and, «(about his actions) after all, gods have never been needed to be reasonable.» so this phrase may indicate irony he feels regarding his actions as an archon.

★ overall, it seems that he's rather profiling everybody for us rather than giving his pure opinion.

★ «anger, whether it be from others or myself, is too convenient and useful as a tool.» while the balladeer went as far as becoming a god only to become emotionless, he now learns an actually legitimate way to deal with anger. the first step to do it is to learn that anger is a normal emotion and how to channel it instead. thus, he can also learn this about other emotions and that each one of them is ok. knowing he uses the utility of everything as a compass, the utility of emotions may be something that will help him accept them.

★ «don't you know that's only asking for trouble?» coupled with the phrase from his birthday letter, «has she ever stopped to think about what an «experience» it is for others to meet me?» it is apparent that while behaving highly unsociable due to detest for idle chatter, he also wants to shelter others from his presence since he believes it is nothing pleasant. i believe he also thinks it will only bring suffering in the end – to them.

★ «it's not so much that i have nothing to say… i just have nothing fun or positive to share,» explains another reason he avoids conversations – he just doesn't believe himself to be someone people would usually have as an opponent.

★ «if you don't mind, perhaps… we could sit here together for a while,» coupled with «the scenery here should be quite breathtaking» from his birthday voice line lets me think that his favourite quality time with others is to peacefully enjoy some scenery (he truly is a cat who just likes to be in someone's presence).

★ «are you so dumb as to have forgotten that i'm not human?» this is a less useful observation but i find it rather funny that he is annoyed not by the fact that the traveller may try to poison him but by the fact that they chose an ineffective method. if we wanna extract something useful, though, it can be said that if the traveller tries to kill him and fairly wins, he is ok with that as he is the weak one in this situation. but that's quite a stretch.

★ «i can see the great deal of effort you put forth,» «thank you for trying to look out for me. go get some rest,» and «it's generous of you to host me in your home. the least i could do is be grateful,» show pretty clearly that even after the wanderer restored his memories he is still able to express gratitude without exploding, and i don't believe he finds it useful to be mean when it isn't of any need.

★ «hey, you own this place. what are you so nervous about? it's not a good look,» coupled with «look at me, coming around here, criticizing your lifestyle choices.» everybody noticed how nice the wanderer is in the serenitea pot (as shown in the previous point). but this also reveals that while he enjoys being painfully straightforward and kept people around just because they suffered prettily, he doesn't enjoy when at least the traveller doesn't put up any fight. maybe it's about the subordinate/the equal difference. basically, he seems to respect people with strong personal boundaries. the ones who don't try to justify their own home where he is just a guest, at least. that would be logical since it's evident he navigates his life through «weak/strong» division.

★ «this is your home. arrange it as you wish,» this and previous voice lines illustrate once again that he isn't unnecessarily mean, at least not all the time. he understands the dynamics of a place he is in and how to be a grateful guest instead of shitting on every player's choice.

★ «the fact that things didn't work out doesn't make my past self a fool for hoping in vain that they would, does it?» and «you're a god. do you think i'm evil?» depending on whether we see the former as rhetoric or not, this may show that even though he is quite old, he still looks for guidance whenever it comes to more vulnerable topics. he looks for this guidance in people he respects, such as the traveller and nahida. and at least with nahida, he listens intently because the answer truly matters to him. maybe, if there wasn't any mechanic restrictions, he would listen to the traveller, too.

PRE-IOG SCENES.

★ «for just a small price, they get the feeling of controlling the world. trading their life for supreme power… pretty good deal, don't you think?» there isn't much to analyse as the utterance is pretty clear, but i just find it funny because this is what he ended up doing with shouki no kami. so either he fell into the same trap or he truly believed in what he said then and wasn't just mocking teppei.

★ «[haypasia] peered into my consciousness and saw my past. someone like that is qualified to become my first follower.» while this qualifies haypasia as a follower, having one also qualifies him as a god. but this can be perceived differently. haypasia saw his past and stayed devoted and didn't leave her god. it is my speculation, but this may be something scaramouche is after - this is a twisted form of acceptance. as the wanderer, he still may harbour such desire to be seen and accepted, leading him into healthy relationships or unhealthy obsessions. still, the whole haypasia sequence demonstrates that scaramouche is still a loyal individual, he just didn't have anyone to grant this loyalty.

★ on the same note, it should be said that scaramouche openly admits and expresses affection to haypasia. a mortal, a feeble human, mind you. because, of course, she is his first and only follower. thus, he can show such feelings honestly and without shying away if he deems it necessary, which might be useful for creating his future bonds with other people and maybe he will be much more open with them than we'd initially thought.

★ «has anyone ever told you that you're not good at sowing discord?» and «you're still too naive if you think a few words will be enough to convince me to destroy the doctor,» imply that before the revelation in 3.3, scaramouche wouldn't let just anyone get him on bad terms with the doctor and manipulate him into that no matter how much abuse by dottore he endured. no matter how bad his relationships with his colleges are, he will handle them himself. this is a note purely for me and my future writing of the wanderer, but it seems that even after 3.3 getting him out of the dottore's mental grasp will be a demanding task.

SMALLER DETAILS.

★ his idle emotion and his character picture are him smiling, so it isn't unusual for the wanderer to do it and even more natural - maybe, at least when he is alone.

★ whenever the wanderer finishes the task, he prefers to shortly say «done» without any chatter.

★ when it comes to speech, he doesn't divide his sentences much and uses compound, very complex ones freely. whenever he needs to explain something, if it isn't something he deems stupid, he does it fully and doesn't hold back.

★ scaramouche always calls nahida buer, perhaps as the way to show himself being above «demon gods», while the wanderer calls her lesser lord kusanali, which sounds more respectful as it is her title.

★ overall, i think the approach hoyo use for their characters is choosing one main characteristic (if you think about any character, you can remember One main thing about them) and then building their interactions around situations where it feature shows and situations where it is an exception and they act against it.

if we focus only on one type of these situations, we mischaracterise the character. thus, if we choose, say, the wanderer being mean as his main feature and focus on it, we miss out on times where it isn't true. for example, his respect for the traveller's realm or his desire to help others in a parade of providence. if we focus only on nice exceptions like that, we mischaracterise him as well.

updates:

★ now that we have both the second birthday story and his tcg lines, it appears to the wanderer is no stranger to doing something just to make someone happy. and then say it was only because he's got nothing to do. e.g., reading books someone recommended to him, «some vahumana students were trying to push some book recommendations onto me. i don't have anything else to do, so i'm just idly flipping through them» or playing a duel because he thinks it makes the traveler happy, «can a game like this really make you so happy? childish... if you want to play, then be quick about it,» «all smiles after winning a game like this? ha, so easy to satisfy,» «and the boring game is finally over... you happy now?»

[abbysimsfun]

Simblr Bingo Question!

What made you want to become part of the simblr community?

It all started for me with an algorithm suggestion on YouTube for @rinseesims Ultimate Decades Challenge. SO GOOD, I don't have enough words for how good this series is, and if you can stomach the UDC and it's massive death tolls for all ages, I dare you to watch and not get into it. It has romance, an erratic heir to the throne, and Leoric Weild, who I placed into my In Bloom save in the background and is truly an iconic sim of Rinsee's creation. She's on hiatus at the moment, but without this series I wouldn't have known about Simblr at all.

I pre-ordered Sims 4 in 2014, played it for a month, maybe, when it first came out, and went back to Sims 3 for the next decade, never needing to update the game, glitch-free, totally happy, mod settings perfect. It was blissful ignorance, but I had my beloved open world with no neighbourhood loading screens.

Rinsee's series showed me what I was missing and got me back into Sims 4 in a BIG way. I realized as I got into mod and cc hunting that Simblr was the place I could connect with people who would feed my interest in this content I'd become engrossed in, and the rest is very recent history!

[tardigradetv]

(This post is gonna be edited in the future because I haven't finished it yet! I want to add some stuff, but I'm too tired to do it now. Sorry if things are cringe here. Please don't judge!)

Since I got tagged by @thedragonofbadasstemple , I'm gonna share 9 games I got into in 2024! I actually didn't watch many shows/movies last year because that year was a "worker's year", I'd say. I was busy most of the time and when I had free time, I'd rather go outside or do something, like creating or playing games (or studying 🙈) (yes, I think it can be fun studying for a few hours a day 😂). That means I barely had any days I'd just... do nothing. 😭 Yeah, on those few days when I actually just lay in bed, I watched documentaries (and I can't remember titles, so Idk how to share in this case 🤦‍♂️).

Some games are "childhood comebacks". (Games I've known since childhood but lost interest in them and got into them again years later)

I try to be as chronological as possible, but just keep in mind that my memory is such a mess. 😭 So I guess everything worth mentioning was said for now. Let's dive in!

Early beginning of the year:

1 - That's not my neighbor

Last year started with my "Fran Bow comeback". What I mean is that I watch analysis videos and think my part on the whole thing (that doesn't cover how the stuff I do look like, but whatever... I write stuff about it... It's called by that game's name because that game got me into analysis videos about anything regarding gaming or artists' works. So I started looking for other people's thoughts on things, too, instead of only interpreting things on my own) At the same time, I was looking for more games/franchises to think about (and writing analysis). Somehow, I stumbled upon That's Not My Neighbor through YouTube videos on my feed (so yeah... you could say the YouTube algorithm got me into the game lol). The concept/the idea behind the game inspired me to write and do my research on topics relating to the game. What I can say about the gameplay is that it's simple yet effective. It's the ultimate "find the difference" game with an interesting lore behind it. I haven't checked if there came any new updates out regarding gameplay or game modes lately, so it can be that I'm talking crap now. 🤡 Well, let's actually get what I want to tell... To keep it short, the game has a lot of potential, even with its few content gameplay-wise. I imagine that they could add a longer story mode where they provide a better insight into the lore.

Spring 2024:

2 - Needy Streamer Overload

Around the time when it was my old "friend's" birthday, I heard from this game for the first time. It seemed interesting to me, so I looked deeper into it. And no surprise, the game has caught my interest since then. The game's art style inspired me to try new things in my art, and the deeper meaning behind specific features/hints is thought-provoking, exactly what I like. Though I don't relate much to Ame, the protagonist, I really liked how much I could analyze and theorize in her story. So many connections make sense and indirectly told me to do some research about mental health topics I wasn't really educated on. Overall, the iconic character Ame taught me bits of wisdom I carry on my journey of life. Yeah, the game was an experience. My my, I couldn't process my early times of getting into this game back then. 🙈 It was a little bit too much for me at first, but after a few months, I could enjoy the game without any further issues.

3 - My Child: Lebensborn

Summer 2024:

OMG, as a German... 😭 Well, that game hit hard... But I love that there's a game that touches that dark, historical period from an insiders perspective. In times when we fear that history could repeat itself, this game helps reflect the harsh reality some people like to deny.

(Gonna write more about this later)

4 - D4DJ

When I installed the Hypmic ARB in February 2023, I got into rhythm games for the first time. Yes, I've never played any rhythm games before, so Hypmic ARB gets the title "my first rhythm game". Since then, I've started liking rhythm games as a genre. In summer 2024, I spent time with a "friend" (who isn't my friend anymore, sadly), a rhythm game enthusiast, especially when it comes to rhythm games for consoles. When I asked them which mobile rhythm games I could try, they gave me D4DJ as a recommendation. I played it for a few months, but one day... it just didn't work on my phone anymore. I couldn't get through the title, and I couldn't even save my account, which meant I had to say goodbye to the game... Yes, I could've started from the beginning again, but as I've experienced before, most games don't even work on my phone once such issues start to occur (I had this with Project Sekai). But in the end, I don't have anything on my phone anymore that could remind me of my old "friend", so I see it as a plus to some degree... 😭 Now, to my feedback! The game has an innovative system that made my gameplay experience really enjoyable. The different notes while playing a show made me think really quickly how to calculate where I should position my fingers. I also like how the game uses the screen you play on. It's important to have your whole screen in view to know how to hit some notes. (That makes the decorative feature of designing your stage so cool imo). The game also has Touhou songs that I enjoy, so I often played these (along with internet yamero). What I certainly like in the game is that... I could actually feel rewarded for just playing. To be more clear, you can get diamonds (or whatever they're called again, I forgot 😭) by just playing a song for a specific number of times. If my phone just worked... Yeah, but something that really bothered me is that... I easily got overstimulated from playing this game. The game is fun, but it won't once I get overstimulated...

5 - Snake Pass (childhood comeback)

This game is peak childhood! And the soundtrack 😭 I love it so much! I can't think of any other games where you play a snake with a humming bird as a helping companion to explore different areas of an in-game world. Also that you can change the facial expressions of Noodle (the snake) is such a nice detail! I spent hours on this game trying to get the 100%. Yes, the controls are a bit... uh, hard to get used to at first, but once you do, you have lots of fun solving puzzles. Since David Wise is the composer of the soundtrack, you could expect that there are gonna be bangers. (I mean, think of Donkey Kong...) I remember how I used to listen to the soundtrack for HOURS when I first discovered this game years ago! 😭🫶 It's also one of those games where I just enjoy playing without trying so hard to master it immediately. Sometimes, I take a look at all those details I can find... and I love every single one of them. For example, Noodle is a coral snake, an extremely dangerous snake. And as far as I know, coral snake venom contains neurotoxins that can lead to paralysis and death. So I think you can guess why the small crabs you can find in the game flee when they see Noodle... (kinda funny to think about when you compare that to the game's innocent appearance.)

Fall 2024:

6 - Team Fortress 2 (childhood comeback)

It's a classic. I think many people have at least heard of it through memes. I've been into this game since childhood (but other, new interests gained higher priority, so I kinda forgot about this franchise). Back then, I had a proper device to play it, ah... 😭 Well, before my recent computer died, I had the opportunity to play Team Fortress 2 again. What a wonderful experience it was! There's so much about this game that I've forgotten in the time I didn't touch it that it felt like a complete new experience. Oh, and reading all the chapters of the comic again... (including the recently published one) It brought tears into my eyes. Compared to other games of the same genre, TF2 isn't as competitive as some others. I used that as an opportunity to have fun and just enjoy the game! Especially the casual experience can be so chaotically fun, which gives the game its unique charm. I don't think there's any other game that has the same charm as TF2, so if you like ego shooters where you can be goofy and laugh your ass of in voice chats, this one is for you! Besides, the characters are *chef's kiss*, and the game can be counted as a cultural phenomenon. I mean, when voicelines become memes that reach countless people (probably outside the fandom), then this game is an internet milestone.

7 - Sally Face (childhood comeback)

With my old Fran Bow fixation, of course, I'm gonna find this game sooner or later. I can say that I don't regret finding out about this game at all! The art style, animation style, and lore captivated me. And not to forget, the soundtrack... I still listen to sometimes. I first discovered it a few years ago when I wanted to play something different. As you probably know from my introduction, I'm a Nintendo fan who plays mostly their games, but I touch other games from time to time, too. One of the first games I started getting into besides the Nintendo ones was Fran Bow, to be honest. And I mean by "getting into" that I CONSUMED the game's content like crazy.😭 (That's why this game has a connection to some others I've mentioned here). Well, back to Sally Face. Sal Fisher, the protagonist himself, is such an icon. I really grew fond of him from the early beginning. His personality and his background touched my heart, so it was no surprise that I'd feel devastated after finishing the story. What I really appreciate about this game is the atmosphere. Besides the lore (which I was deeply invested in when I first found out about the game), the atmosphere of the game makes you lean back and think about what is happening while you play. You slow down for a moment to investigate a certain spot to find more information. You might put your device beside to take a moment to process what just happened. Truly breathtaking. The further you get in the game, the more you feel like you're losing yourself in the scenario. It's an unforgettable experience with moments that can you almost make you cry. The strange art style highlights this uncomfortable atmosphere even more. After Sally Face has become a significant part of my childhood, I can say that this game touches many topics that are worth discussing. I could endlessly ramble on any character's specific traits, their background, and context to the story (if I actually could share my thoughts properly 🙈). Exploring the depth of this game back then was an important part of "getting used to thinking". And now, having found my way to this game again feels like I time traveled back to the time I was younger, a time when my life looked so different. To look back and say goodbye to those times, I'd imagine visiting my younger self and just telling that boy how grateful I am he kept going. Thanks to my determined younger self, I could grow into the person I am today. May Sally Face stay a wonderful memory...

Winter 2024:

8 - Yume Nikki

The strange game that made me reconsider all my thought patterns and my life in general. I have to admit, strange things always captivate me, so it's no surprise I got into it so quickly. The soundtrack captures the feeling of endless isolation so well... ah, I know that feeling. Listening to it gives me comfort. The reason why I feel like this is... sad. Well, how should I say it? I... grew up in social isolation, you could say... My childhood wasn't the worst... but it is the foundation of a person's personality, so... Oh- that's not the topic I should talk about right now...

9 - Everything (the game)

Somehow, I've never heard of this game before someone mentioned it not so long ago. It's exactly my taste! I'm sad I didn't discover it sooner! Games with great wisdom behind it always have a sweet spot in my heart. It's really interesting how the game is made. Such a simple style with an intense/immersing atmosphere. The soundtrack really makes me forget everything around me (though the animations in this game make me laugh as hell. The first time I saw how the animals "walk" here got me almost falling from my chair.) I personally think that this game challenges your experimental abilities/creativity. The more you use those abilities, the more fun you're going to have playing this game. Everything seems so aimless (pun intended), but this makes the player think about what the game tries to tell you.

(Gonna continue later)

[sak-supernatural]

AO3 is not social media!

Ao3 is a public library for fanfiction. There is no algorithm that dictates what you see (frankly I would riot if there was) and there are no adds. Fanfiction is not content, it is a gift born out of love and shared to bring joy, nobody can ever profit off ao3 like you can off social media. It is a fan created, fan run, and fan funded website. Comments, kudos, and hits mean nothing in terms of where your fic will appear in the search, even date updated means little when people are using the tag filters. You cannot interact directly with other users, only via comment section of someone's fic where the author retains controle of whats going on. I will never view ao3 as a social media site, its just not!

This post is born out of my frustration with people in the ao3 news post insisting that the archive is a social media site and therefore an appropriate place to spew political garbage in the comments. An algorithm is the worst possible thing that could happen to ao3. I don't want to be fed works similar to what I searched for one week when by the next I want to read something completely different. I don't want my ao3 history being processed to recommend new fics to me. That is a private affair and not even I need to know what monster it generates.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)

Researchers say new AI tool sharpens diagnostic process, may help identify more people needing care While earlier diagnostic studies have suggested that 7 percent of the population suffers from long COVID, a new AI tool developed by Mass General Brigham revealed a much higher 22.8 percent, according to the study.

The AI-based tool can sift through electronic health records to help clinicians identify cases of long COVID. The often-mysterious condition can encompass a litany of enduring symptoms, including fatigue, chronic cough, and brain fog after infection from SARS-CoV-2.

The algorithm used was developed by drawing de-identified patient data from the clinical records of nearly 300,000 patients across 14 hospitals and 20 community health centers in the Mass General Brigham system. The results, published in the journal Med, could identify more people who should be receiving care for this potentially debilitating condition.

“Our AI tool could turn a foggy diagnostic process into something sharp and focused, giving clinicians the power to make sense of a challenging condition,” said senior author Hossein Estiri, head of AI Research at the Center for AI and Biomedical Informatics of the Learning Healthcare System (CAIBILS) at MGB and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “With this work, we may finally be able to see long COVID for what it truly is — and more importantly, how to treat it.”

For the purposes of their study, Estiri and colleagues defined long COVID as a diagnosis of exclusion that is also infection-associated. That means the diagnosis could not be explained in the patient’s unique medical record but was associated with a COVID infection. In addition, the diagnosis needed to have persisted for two months or longer in a 12-month follow up window.

The novel method developed by Estiri and colleagues, called “precision phenotyping,” sifts through individual records to identify symptoms and conditions linked to COVID-19 to track symptoms over time in order to differentiate them from other illnesses. For example, the algorithm can detect if shortness of breath results from pre-existing conditions like heart failure or asthma rather than long COVID. Only when every other possibility was exhausted would the tool flag the patient as having long COVID.

“Physicians are often faced with having to wade through a tangled web of symptoms and medical histories, unsure of which threads to pull, while balancing busy caseloads. Having a tool powered by AI that can methodically do it for them could be a game-changer,” said Alaleh Azhir, co-lead author and an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

The new tool’s patient-centered diagnoses may also help alleviate biases built into current diagnostics for long COVID, said researchers, who noted diagnoses with the official ICD-10 diagnostic code for long COVID trend toward those with easier access to healthcare.

The researchers said their tool is about 3 percent more accurate than the data ICD-10 codes capture, while being less biased. Specifically, their study demonstrated that the individuals they identified as having long COVID mirror the broader demographic makeup of Massachusetts, unlike long COVID algorithms that rely on a single diagnostic code or individual clinical encounters, skewing results toward certain populations such as those with more access to care.

“This broader scope ensures that marginalized communities, often sidelined in clinical studies, are no longer invisible,” said Estiri.

Limitations of the study and AI tool include that health record data the algorithm uses to account for long COVID symptoms may be less complete than the data physicians capture in post-visit clinical notes. Another limitation was the algorithm did not capture possible worsening of a prior condition that may have been a long COVID symptom. For example, if a patient had COPD that worsened before they developed COVID-19, the algorithm might have removed the episodes even if they were long COVID indicators. Declines in COVID-19 testing in recent years also makes it difficult to identify when a patient may have first gotten COVID-19.

The study was limited to patients in Massachusetts.

Future studies may explore the algorithm in cohorts of patients with specific conditions, like COPD or diabetes. The researchers also plan to release this algorithm publicly on open access so physicians and healthcare systems globally can use it in their patient populations.

In addition to opening the door to better clinical care, this work may lay the foundation for future research into the genetic and biochemical factors behind long COVID’s various subtypes. “Questions about the true burden of long COVID — questions that have thus far remained elusive — now seem more within reach,” said Estiri.

Link to preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.13.24305771v2

[metaphoricgibberish]

Dawn: Chapter Three - Blue Jeans

"The sun was dipping down, closer, and closer to the horizon, the big Texas sky a painting of oranges and pinks, but she couldn’t seem to get herself to look anywhere else, anywhere other than at him, because for the first time since he returned, his eyes looked familiar, soft and warm, chestnut brown. She’d told him once that was her favorite color, sometime between her twelfth and thirteenth birthday. He hadn’t asked why that was her favorite color, rather than blue or green or pink like all the other kids, but she thought he might have known."

pairing: javier peña x ofc rating: 18+ mdni word count: 7.8k a.n. i know these updates are coming out really fast, and the fanfic gods are chanting about algorithms and steady updating schedules, but I DON'T CARE. i normally have to build a relationship from scratch and that takes a lot of work and a lot of carving my chest open, but since these annoying fucks (omg i love them sm) already have decades of history, it's a lot easier for me to write. i hope you like this as much as i'm enjoying writing it. it's honestly kind of a breath of fresh air after the difficulty of writing 'To the Light'. i'll stop babbling now, you're pretty and smart and perfect <3

Read on AO3

[mcmiji]

Oh look the algorithm suggested watching a compilation video of some streamer/V-tuber? person called ShirosakiShiba! So of the many gems from Zangetsu streaming include:-

🪦 [When getting bodied in-game] “I didn’t lose. I strategically returned to the realm of the dead for lore accuracy.” 👻

🥛 [Chat: ‘Do you hydrate?’] “Yes. With the tears of my enemies. Sometimes almond milk if I’m feeling delicate.” 🥄

🧃 [After a character betrayal cutscene] “Trust is like spiritual pressure—if you don’t sense it coming, you’re already dead.” 🔪

🐉 [While customizing character appearance] “I gave my dragon horns to match my trauma. Aesthetic synergy, babe.” 👑

🌕 [Randomly at 3am stream hour] “If the moon can control tides and werewolves, don’t tell me it’s not watching me flirt with disaster.” 🌘

🎙️ [Stream Rant — After a truly cursed match + bad dev update] "No, no, no. You don't get to call it a balance patch when it’s just glazers begging to make their comfort pick meta again. ‘Skill issue?’ Bro, your skill issue is thinking aim assist makes you a god. You ever touch grass or just auto-lock it?"

"And don’t even get me started on the devs—how y’all gonna act brand new when this is literally the same team from that last disaster of a game? It's like they forget the game devs are from the same team from the game they ran away from. Going from banging the mom to banging the daughter and then being surprised Pikachu face when they see them act the same way. SAME. BLOODLINE." 🐉🔥

"You play stupid games, you get spiritual trauma. That’s the rule."

...your suggestions are flooded with his face now, the algorithm has betrayed you somehow.

〘楓〙

"......" It takes a few seconds to register what she's looking at but nonetheless, she takes a few screenshots before clicking the arrow on this guy's username then hitting her chosen option of "BLOCK ShirosakiShiba."

Oh look, she mousing over to her account settings. What's that? She'd like to delete her whole account? She clicks yes with no hesitation, now taking out her phone and texting her classmates pictures of this guy.

[TEXT:] Kurosaki-san, I think someone stole your identity. You should go to the police.

She clears out her browser history, deletes the browser profile and starts all over again.