#and if you're willing to Finagle a bit:

[postmakerkiwi]

🧊 Crystal Glacier Expedition - Neon Cave Tour ❄️

This extensive cave system circling underneath the center of the glacier is home to several large pools of subzero waters, brightly illuminated from below. Try not to lose sight of the guide, but if you do, just watch your step and follow the sound of crunching snow from the group's steady march.

photos by CatbatQuartet

[glassprism]

Hii!! I found out about trading an hour ago and am a bit confused. Like, how do you even find the bootlegs if not on youtube? Also, why trade instead of posting publicly?

I have a YouTube page where I post slime tutorials and the like of shows I have watched or proshots I have downloaded. Why gatekeep? I'm literally just curious, I don't mean to offend.

So, the thing that I really, really want to emphasize, because I feel like it'll make everything make more sense, is that bootlegging is illegal. It is against the law, people can and do get arrested for it, and there have been many recorders (mostly filmers) in the past who have been caught and simply disappeared, taking with them any unreleased boots and all potential boots they could have filmed in the future.

And I say that because I REALLY want to emphasize that when people, especially filmers, say, "Hey, can you not post these on YouTube or anywhere else publicly?" it's NOT because they are trying to "gatekeep". Many of them are making their bootlegs as accessible as possible by making it available for purchase and/or trade down the line. They are doing it for their own safety. They are risking legal repercussions getting these bootlegs to you and are asking you not to get them into trouble by blatantly posting their stuff on the most accessible video-sharing site out there. THEY ARE TRYING NOT TO GET FINED, ARRESTED, OR WORSE.

Okay, got all that? Great! Now I can answer your questions.

First - many traders, myself included, have trading sites where we post everything we have available to trade. That is a great place to find bootlegs, and even better, people who have those bootlegs and might be willing to trade or (if you're polite) gift them to you! Here's mine. How do you find these sites? Honestly, a lot of times I just stumble on them by Googling something like "[name of show] bootleg trade". What I also personally do is start bookmarking sites of traders that have large collections of shows I'm interested in (like Phantom) or the sites of people who record bootlegs, so that I can easily check up on them every week or so.

There are also many areas where traders congregate! Musical Exchange on LiveJournal is one of the easiest to find. There was a Yahoo board back in the day that has not turned into a Groups io thing. There's Encora Reprise (I don't use it and I feel like it keeps going down but some swear by it). There are also several Discord servers devoted to trading or set up by filmers. Those are also great places to find other traders and newly released boots.

Second, I partially answered your question about posting publicly with the safety issue, but the other answer is, simply, that trading is decentralized because it's illegal. I don't think there's any one person who has every bootleg ever recorded, it's all spread out amongst us, and it's going to be extremely difficult to get everyone to pool it all together because, well, this is also a hobby, not a job, and we just don't have time for that. And even if we did, there probably is no person with enough space and money and time to upload every bootleg in the world and maintain it, because they will not get enough benefit out of it because musicals are a relatively niche interest.

Here's another way of thinking about it. I'm at the point of trading almost exclusively Phantom. I don't have every bootleg in the world, but my collection of Phantom boots alone is 2.7 TB. That is Phantom alone, I haven't even considered every other musical in the world and all their bootlegs. If you want me to have all these available publicly, I would basically need to get my own server. If I want my own server, I'm probably going to pay money. Hundreds of dollars of money. And I will have to maintain this, which will also cost money, with possibly the only way I get money back being to use, I don't know, ads or making users pay money for accounts, and unless I finagle things legally I could also be responsible if the site gets found and taken down, and you want me to do this, constantly, for bootlegs that 99% of people won't download? (You really think some people are raring to get the blurry 1992 video of Jun Sawaki, for example?) Yeah, that looks like a lot of work and trouble for me to do something that probably won't save others a lot of trouble either.

Anyway, I know you don't mean to be rude and I hope the above didn't come off as aggressive, it's just that, well, I've seen these arguments time and again and it never really seems to cross people's minds that, at the end of the day, this is a hobby that is technically illegal, that just about all the rules and limitations around are done for the safety of the bootlegger and not because they enjoy waving the boot out of your reach, and that trading is done because it's the safest, most anonymous way of, well, getting theatre bootlegs, that people have come up with. At any rate, I hope that answers your questions!

[stars-mischief-archive]

I’m still pretty new to tumblr. But should I start an ask blog for Farmer Juice? It seems fun. Also if you have any tips, since I’m thinking about doing one

i say go for it!!

i know myself and others really enjoy interacting with juice!

as for tips.. you can always make it a side blog, if you don't want to make a whole new blog (however, be careful and make sure to check which blog you're reblogging something to! )

[ to do this, you click your blog name at the top (it should pop up a little arrow thing) then you hit the plus sign & create the blog with a unique name!

however, it is important to remember that side blogs cannot send asks or like posts (this will all be under your main account, unfortunately)]

make sure to set up a pinned intro page that kinda gives a background on your character + some rules / boundaries for interacting, especially if you want to use your character for shipping purposes.

remember, it's your blog, you can block anyone if you need to. you can also block anons!

another thing is never feel obligated to answer a question - especially if you think it'll make yourself / your character / other people uncomfortable.

ask blogs are supposed to be fun! so don't force yourself to answer things or post constantly, you will definitely get burnt out that way.

as for portraits, i know several people (myself included) use the jazzybee sdv portrait maker as a base, however the options on this are quite limited.

you can also make them from scratch! but this takes quite a bit of finagling..

kebby has a very good explanation about editing portraits over on his alex blog! it's really talented so the explanation is a good one!

we also have a stardew discord full of a lot of the ask blog mods! if you ever want a link, you can always ask one of us and we'll send it over!

tagging things (for example how i used #ask star ⭐️ on all posts) is a good way for organizing things! you can add up to 30 to a single post & about ~25 featured on your blog that people can search through!

and, if you ever have questions, there's a huge ask blog community that is more than willing to help ya out!