#big disclaimer this post refers to TUMBLR FEATURES/UPDATES ONLY

[southcodes]

support/staff: we- some of yall: this is the worst thing that you have ever done to this site you ruined my life killed my family called me names

[tohwitchesduels]

Pick a name

Testing here how the polls work now that I'm going to use them, plus I need to make some decisions so buckle up everybody.

So first things first, since I know I can add a poll at any placement, here's my first question: since I intend to add information on what each competitor is capable of in their respective duels (what spells they use, what mindset they have, what tools are allowed) should I put such information first and then poll would be underneath them or should poll be traditionally on top and following information hid under the cut so to speak.

Now, I want people to take into consideration background info FIRST before voting, especially since I have a feeling some people coming here may just jump to conclusions. While I don't doubt people's intuition or knowledge on where characters stand, there's also the fact that some folk may not always know the rules and would pick their faves based on bias, not their strength (I do intend to add disclaimers for this at the top which I feel would be a good solution though background info could cool people down too), plus some background info can also help even the odds at times or make people reconsider things. However, I know that usually polls in Tumblr appear first pretty much always and there would be a lot of info regarding what characters are and aren't capable of so I wonder if you would prefer for such info to indeed be under the cut or screw that and be it front or center.

The second thing is I can't also add multiple polls, outside from picking a battle name, you can also pick the background for my bracket template in the comments, just refer to the pictures with numbers (like number 1 is the first photo):

Heck, I can make it its own post or perhaps I would change backgrounds depending on the qualification rounds. Let me know in the notes

Explanations for each and how potentially the data stats/propaganda would look like in battles (the above detour could also serve as such):

Witches Battles! - Technically speaking, lore-wise it was all the Collector's idea to watch the most powerful teen witches clash and they did refer wrongly to witches duels as witches battles.

Battle Witches! - just a reference to the original idea meta-wise, which is Battle Bladers (if you know, you're a legend). plus rolling the tongue kinda nice if you ask me.

Witches Duels! - classical, but it's not my top pick as witches duels are a custom, so naming this tournament just witches duels feels weird as there is structure to those battles as organized events instead of just random battles. But I will understand if you prefer this name and this reference to the show.

Granted when usually highlighting characters I will use big headers, but there's no need for short explanations of the names here

So anyway, here's the update, a bracket will appear soon (once I make it) and battles shall be announced along with it. Now that I will have a spring break I will try to get into that. It will be a new pinned post (but I will post a link to the first post which explains ALL the rules along with a disclaimer explaining the basic ones) and I will be also adding character profiles. Now, those will always appear underneath each duel, but as I explained in the first post, there will be Battle Royals featuring at times 8/9 people and I don't want for posts to get too big so occasionally I will be just sending links to read, but as they're battle royals, by that point I think people will have memorized the general info and I will add only more unique one separately. It's also worth noting that profile posts will have all the information, while specific duels will have a specific set of information at times (like how they do with palismen for example) so I will also add links to them despite already giving long explanations. Plus I'm also open to adding new information regarding the capabilities of characters featured in battles, so let me know in notes or asks if I miss anything that can determine how could battles potentially turn out.

OK, I think that's all for now y'all.

[localshxrkteev]

˙ . ꒷ ミ . 𖦹˙— Welcome To My Blog!

╰🦈 . 𖦹˙— Please note that this post is on editing! 🡰

Note: I'm a very busy school student, so I usually update or post whenever I can or when I'm on a month/week break, holidays, or in my free time. <-

☕ Support me on Ko-Fi! ☕ 🏦 Support me on PayPal! 🏦 💲Support me on Patreon!💲

-> I don't have Twitter because of nsfw everywhere, very problematic, and the fact that I'm a minor. I'm on YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr only. -> Also TikTok <-

-> Please DO NOT REUPLOAD my art nor use my characters for any sexual fanfiction, NSFW purposes, or x readers. It's not appropriate. I'm just here to have fun. (-_- ) All spamming hate comments will be reported and blocked!!

╰🦈 ALL MY DRAWINGS. ╰🦈 ALL MY WRITINGS. ╰🦈 JADEN x RED ⚽🫀- PLAYLIST 🎼 ╰🦈 CALL OF DUTY : MODERN WARFARE : NEW WAR MASTERLIST. ╰🦈 SCHOOL RIDEM BLUES (S.R.B) MASTERLIST ╰🦈 LONG WAY HOME MASTERLIST

╰🦈 INFORMATION : 1) UPLOAD SCHEDULE (currently inactive at the moment) 2) Who is the Team "9INE" (09)? > Information ⚔ 3) Eden Minds London Elite Academy - E.M.L.E.A > Information 🏫 4) [redacted...]

╰🦈 EQUIPMENTS/SUPPLIES I USE : Art Supplies - A Plane Sketchpad and Click Pencil (0.5) Editing Apps - CapCut | Alight Motion Laptop - Samsung Google ChromeOS

⚔ ORIGINAL CHARACTERS : 🦈 Call of Duty Modern Warfare New War OCs :

Bianca "Red" Scarlett Baneblood -> #bianca scarlett baneblood

Thomas "Jaden" Jael Riley -> #thomas jael riley

Jay Girasol Riley -> #jay girasol riley

Samuel Lorenzo Magana Riley -> #samuel lorenzo magana riley

Kayden "Vox" Laswell -> #kayden laswell

Josephine "Jinx" Price -> #josephine price

Ali "Viper" Mohammed Keller -> #ali mohammed keller

Arran "Hunter" John MacTavish Harper -> #arran john mactavish harper

Jaice "Scoot" Gerrick -> #jaice gerrick

Blanca "Cotel" Vargas -> #blanca vargas

Pearl "Jewel" Graves -> #pearl graves

Yuri V. Makarov -> #yuri v. makarov

Call of Duty Modern Warfare OCs :

Valentino Rolkins Reidins (Red's Govern) -> #valentino rolkins reidins

Baxter "Kinger" Gonzalez Baneblood (Red's Father) -> #baxter gonzalez baneblood

Chyou "DanDan" Mei Baneblood (Red's Mother) -> #chyou mei baneblood

Call of Duty Black Ops OCs :

Bartolo "Sixx" Bernabé Baneblood. (Red's Grandfather) -> #bartolo bernabé baneblood

🦄 CHARACTER SHEET, AND ASSETS : 🦈 Character Introductions 📄🖋 Full Body Concept Art/Character Sheet/Reference 🖼📄 Color Palettes I Use for Coloring 🎨

TATTOO/MARK ASSETS : 🦈 Red's Tattoo & Mark🫀 Kinger's Tattoo & Mark 👑 Sixx's Tattoo 💵

╰🦈 VISUALS + RANDOM : Random things in pockets and bags 🎒 - Featuring: Team 9INE (09)!

╰🦈 MY DIARY : 000 - 001 - 002 - 003 - 004 - 005 ╰🦈 MY THINGS : #shxrk updates #shxrk rambles #shxrk answers #shxrk thoughts

You might come here or follow me after seeing one of my arts, posts, or memes. My blog mostly posts about my arts, thoughts, memes, or comics related to CoD, my life, or the bible. Let me introduce myself (´ᴗ ` )

This post isn't that long, but please read until the disclaimer.

╰🦈 GENERAL :

I am a 16-year-old in form 3 secondary school student! also minoring in P.O.B (Principal.Of.Business) along with writing!

Creating OCs in writing is what I like to do (I can't draw but I'm learning to)

I like writing and drawing stories and art about my characters or any other people's OCs (We all wanted to have comfort characters in our life or we wanted to comfort them and make them have a happy ending)

I am currently busy at the moment. So please don't expect me to be active all the time.

Proud Trinidadian based in the Caribbean. (Big up tuh allyuh! 🇹🇹 👉😎👉)

I really love making OCs on any fandoms that is base with the Indigenous sides (Mostly the Trini ones) and would love to share my culture with you guys on here.

I love making comics, usually; angst (I'm allergic to angst but at the same time I'm never against it, I just love to make myself suffer lmao) or comedy-themed. I'm a fluff and hurt/comfort advocate (^.^)

I'm an INTJ as well who's OBSESSED with dark and green aesthetics.

I technically can't see so well with my eyes (very VERY blurry) so I wear strong glasses lenses.

I usually listen to music when I draw or write when I'm off of school. If you're like me who's bored and staring at a screen all the time or stressed out due to school work, feel free to follow my Esounds playlist (Since I'm too frickin broke to afford Spotify) and my playlists are yours to hear! (my playlists are my stuff) (￣\/￣.) They are my main inspiration for writing and art.

╰🦈 FANDOM/INTRESTS : ANIME : Naruto, Boruto, Demon Slayer, SpyxFamily. (Multifandom1) GAMES : Free Fire, Call Of Duty (og lover since 2017!), GTA. (Multifandom2) FAV YOUTUBERS : CoryxKenshin (my fav fr!), Mikeeey, Markiplier, ManlyBadassHero, EmortalMarcus, Rotten Mango, Jschlatt. LIKES: Analog Horror, True Crime Storytelling, Studying, Reading, Art, and Music.

╰🦈🦴-> NOT INTERESTED IN : Politics/social issues NSFW (Please keep in mind that slight Nude Art isn't sexual or p0rn0graphic, it shows the beauty of others and makes them come out as confident in their own body WITHOUT being provocative or perverted.) Any form of rape/abuse/sexual assault, incest/pedophilia, Pro-shippers. General negativity (I will fight you)

╰🦈 DISCLAIMER :

I welcome all interactions as long as it is done in a kind and respectful manner. I want to clarify that I am a Christian, but I do not intend to impose my religion on anyone. My purpose here is to express my enthusiasm for the things that I love and am passionate about. I am happy to interact with anyone, regardless of their identity or who they love. However I do have some limitation on what I can or cannot draw, and I hope you understand this.

If you want to send me DM's or ask to belittle me or say something mean then please don't bother. I'm broke, I sleep short hours a day, my eyes hurt, my back hurts, my butt hurts cuz I'm sitting in a class, my feet hurt because I have to walk very far to school and very far to home, I got loads of school work/assignments and I don't need more problems. Please don't waste your time being rude. If you hate my work then don't interact with it because Tumblr will suggest more of it to you.

please don't demand(in an aggressive way) or rush any stories/art from me! I appreciate people being excited but there are ways to ask if I am going to write/draw something other than commanding me to do it!

DO NOT repost OR translate my works on other sites. I reserve all rights to my works. If you do this I will block and report your accounts on the respective platform you’re using. (exp: Wattpad, ao3, Pinterest, or any other platform)

Thank you for reaching out to me. I read every single ask and DM's you send me. If I don't answer or reply, that means I don't know how to answer because I'm awkward, I'm busy with schoolwork, and I have a lot on my plate. I live in D/P, Trinidad (UTC−04:00), so if I haven’t replied to your message, that means It’s night and I’m asleep. I will reply as soon as I can! (´－ω－)人

I am happy for you to use my artwork as your profile picture or header or anything else publicly, but please remember to give me credit or put my name @localshxrkteev. Do not repost, nor claim it as your own. It is a basic art and writer rules. Thank you for understanding.

All in all, welcome to my blog! Stay positive, stay happy, and have a nice day dear! ヽ(o＾▽＾o)ノ 🦈

[tittyblade]

tumblr etiquette 101

a list that is nowhere near exhaustive, from yours truly.

First off, welcome! Whether you’re a twitter veteran looking for anything but whatever twitter is, or a new user just done signing up, glad to see you in our ranks beloveds! Welcome home. Refer to this quick tour to make sure your fandom experience (or tumblr experience in general) is a positive one!

Disclaimer: I know it’s long, but please try to read or skim through til the end if you’re new here! This is by no means meant to be a rule book (for the most part lol), only a guide to help you get settled easier!

1) Your blog

This is where people will see and interact with you, so put some effort into it!

Try to choose a name (url) that’s simple. You can see it as your brand, it’s how people will perceive you and remember you. If you’d like to interact with other users here (and not use the site just for the content) it’s better to have something short and sweet, preferably without spaces. (Of course, these are only suggestions.) Rest assured, you can change it literally any time you want.

Have a theme. Utilize the tool that lets you edit your blog’s color or the font of your bio! You can make it match your profile picture, or your blog if it has a theme of its own. Make it feel homey :]

Fill in your bio. People will be checking out your profile probably more often than you think. Don’t leave it empty! Put in any information you’re comfortable with sharing and isn’t too personal (like your age if you’re a minor, or other TMI that can be found on other people’s carrds). It’s always better to add a name/nickname people can use to refer to you by, but feel free to use your blog description to shitpost still.

You can have an intro post. More often than not, you’ll see a blog have a pinned post, a post permanently appearing at the top of a blog until you pin another post or unpin it. You can make one of those, if you’d like to introduce yourself in more length, link any other socials or a carrd, and show others visiting your blog how you tag things so it’ll be easy for them to navigate. Not an obligation.

Keep your anonymity and your safety. It should go without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it just in case. Your comfort, privacy and safety has the utmost importance. Don’t share any information you don’t want to. Don’t share your age if you’re a minor, or any other incredibly personal info. I’d encourage you to go by a nickname that’s not your real name, (blog name, your brand, remember?) since there’s safety in anonymity, and that’s lowkey one of the big deals of tumblr, but that’s up to you still.

Choose what you want to be visible. Your liked posts and who you follow are all things you can set to keep to yourself and hide from the publics eye, how handy! You should go through all the setting while you’re at it, set it to your comfort.

Side blogs are a thing. You can have multiple blogs that you can use for different things (see: different fandoms, art blog, etc) to keep them organized or away from your followers. Just remember that the replies and off-anon asks you send will be from your main blog, as well as where you follow other blogs from.

2) Interacting with others

You’ve set up your account, now comes the fun part!

Follow to your heart’s desire. If you care about others seeing who you follow, fear not! In tumblr, usually only two types of blogs keep their following visible to others: newbies, and big blogs using it to point people on other good blogs’ direction. Just turn it off, and go ham following people.

Customize your dashboard. Gonna mention just two things here: this is another reason why it’s really important that you follow blogs without sparing, your dash will collect dust otherwise; and you should turn off “best stuff first” in your dashboard settings, to have a better community here and all.

Follow tags. You can set it in your settings that posts with your followed tags appear on your dashboard.

You can check the og post for edits and context. When you see a reblogged post you don’t understand the context of (or don’t recognize the character in case of fanarts), click on the profile so it will take you to the original post. From there you can check the original poster’s tags to get the context, or see if there have been any edits made to the post, since when you edit a post it doesn’t update any past reblogs.

Send people asks... This is how you make mutuals, people! Do it off-anon if you’d like them to know your blog, or anon if you’d rather not! (You can still end your messages with a signature to show you’re the same person, -[name] is one example.) Send them nice messages, ask their opinion on something, discuss things, or just straight up shitpost lol. Go wild. The sky’s your limit and it’s definitely more than 280 characters.

...and let them ask you! You can set your preference in the settings, do it on desktop tumblr to access more settings tho! What you can customize on mobile is limited (like letting people ask you things anonymously, that’s only on desktop settings). In my personal opinion, it’s always better to tag their username (or a nickname you give them, if they’re a friend) on that post, since you wouldn’t want your interactions with your friends to get buried in your blog forever.

Comment on posts. If you have something to say but don’t want the post to appear on your blog you can add a comment. The owner of the post will get a notif for it, but for anyone else you need to tag them.

For the love of god, reblog. People will only see your liked posts if you have it visible to public and they specifically go on your blog to look at them. You like something? You reblog. It’s already hard for posts to circulate properly, if you don’t reblog them literally no one will see them. If not for anything do it for the artists. Just hold and drag on mobile to fast rb.

3) Your Posts

Finally here! Don’t be a lurker, post and engage!

Make use of “read more”. If your post is long, add it. That’s what you clicked on earlier to expand this post. On desktop leave an empty line and you’ll see three dots appear, and on mobile type :readmore: on that empty line.

Draft a post to come back to it later. Pretty self explanatory.

Queue your post. Whether it’s your own post or you’re reblogging, make use of the queue feature to a) not spam reblog and fill up the dashboard of people following you and b) keep your blog active while you’re gone. Mess around in the settings, it’s fairly easy to set up.

Schedule your post. Same as queueing, the only difference is you get to choose the exact time your post will go up. Handy if you want to schedule a post for certain dates like april fools, or 5 years in the future for some reason. 

Format your texts. You can do all kinds of fancy stuff here (that’s a link, try pressing on it). Twitter doesn’t have this, make use of it. Changes depending on whether you’re on mobile or desktop. (Desktop has less features.)

Check your stats. If you’re trying to understand the algorithm better or want to look at some pretty graphs you can get your data on that on desktop tumblr.

@ people in comments. You’ll get all the notifs when people comment on your posts but they won’t see your reply unless you tag them in your message.

4) Tags, and tagging a post

This is where my earlier statement “this isn’t a rule book” stops being applicable. It’s not a war crime to go against these, I won’t come chasing you (don’t take my word for this) but you’ll work up a bad rep. Just saying lol.

Do NOT crosstag posts. It’s really tempting to add unrelated tags to increase your posts’ interaction, I know, but that’s not what tumblr is about. Don’t be a dick and make other communities’ experience worse for them.

Always tag your posts with “crit/critical/discourse/etc” if it calls for it. There’s no exceptions to it. This is the reason you see people migrating to tumblr. Let people enjoy things.

Don’t main tag a critical/negative post. If your crit post is about “Thing”, you add the “Thing critical” tag, but not the “Thing” tag. People block crit tags if they don’t want to see it, don’t shove it in their faces by main tagging it. 

If you don’t want to see something, just block it. Another reason why people are able to survive on tumblr. You don’t start discourse, you don’t make call-outs, you block. You can find something for every community you can think of if you go looking for it. The worst of the worst probably won’t ever appear on your dash, but if you’re worried or feel the need for it, you know where the block button is.

Feel free to shitpost or ramble. More often than not you’ll see people rb a post with a comment, and their elaboration will be in the tags. The tags are only visible on your profile and the notifications of the owner of the og blog. Just a thing people do.

Reblog artists’ posts with nice comments in the tags! Commenting on a drawing is usually done through the tags (Not an obligation, again, just a thing people do. Feel free to add your comment on the rb itself if you’d want other people to see it tho!) and leave nice messages for the artists! It’s a win-win for everyone involved. 

If you have more than a single follower, always use the common tw warning tags. You don’t need to tw everything, but tw’ing some common things is the bare minimum human decency. Keep it safe for others. 

Tag a post “long post” if it’s really long. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t make people scroll through all that please lol. 

You can use them to organize your blog. This is more of a pro tip, if you’d like to not miss a post in your blog, cause they will start pilin’ up soon enough.

#Liveblogging is pretty fun. If you’d like to talk to people during streams, don’t forget to add the relevant tags still! Again, you won’t show up on people’s dash otherwise.

Whew! That got out of hand. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Check out blogs like @heritageposts and @hellsite-hall-of-fame to honor our past o7. @mcytblr-hall-of-fame too maybe :eyes:. Anyways, don’t forget the most important rule of them all:

Enjoy your stay! You’re meant to have fun on here while also making friends (if that’s your thing). Just be kind and respectful of others, you’ll get the hang of the rest! <3

[finalproblem]

Ye Olde TFP Reaction Poste

“A Gift to Friends and Hate-Readers Alike”

I promised I’d do this post this weekend, so I am. But fair warning that this is going to be much more about me than about the actual episode.

It will also be at least 2/3 longer than it should’ve been.

I think some people are assuming they know what my reaction to that episode was. That I’m really upset or hate the show now or something. But that’s not true. My primary feeling is exactly the one I said it was a week ago: I feel tired. I am tired.

To give a little bit of context, I decided pre-TFP sp0iler lockdown time was a good chance to update my About page. So I did.

I hadn’t looked at the page in a long time (hence the update), but here’s what it said at the top:

This is the blog I write about the BBC/PBS television drama Sherlock when I am half-asleep. (WHY IS THAT ALWAYS STILL TRUE EVERY TIME I UPDATE THIS PAGE?)

I realized that was still true. Yet again. Which is why it’s still on the page.

So to be perfectly, 100% clear, I was tired going into this thing.

And I knew it. Which is why I was really hopeful about the show finally wrapping some things up--or beginning to move toward wrapping things up--in episode 3 like the writers implied on multiple occasions.

I like it a lot here, and I don’t regret anything about having this as a hobby. But I do also have other skills and commitments and interests that I don’t discuss here since this is a single-topic blog. Plotlines maybe kinda sorta starting to get wrapped up felt like a great opportunity for some mental crop rotation, if you get what I mean.

That’s not to say I was going to pack it in and leave fandom. I wasn’t then, and I’m not now.

But, like... I’ve been here doing this on Tumblr for 5 years. I’ve had a few gaps, sure, but I’ve been more consistently posting about Sherlock and only Sherlock than just about anyone reading this during that time. (Don’t yell, I said almost anyone.) It’s healthy to change things up sometimes. Or to borrow a creepier turn of phrase... “If Tumblr fandom is a balance sheet--well, I believe I’m in credit!”

So I was ready to see the big “story we’ve been telling from the beginning. A story about to reach its climax” whatever-it-was and then take that opportunity to free up a little space in my brain attic.

And then I actually watched The Final Problem.

Did I hate the episode?

No.

But it takes a lot to get me to hate something fictional. (This is also covered on my About page.)

You know that saying, though? “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.” It’s more like that.

TFP is a giant bowl of indifference stew for me.

And I say that while allowing--as I always, always have--that this story belongs to the writers and they get to do whatever they want with it. This is not the first, “well, that’s not how I would’ve done it” moment for me, either. If I ragequit every time that happened, I wouldn’t have even made it to The Great Game.

I also say that knowing full well many people LOVE the things I am indifferent to about this episode. And if you got just what you wanted here, I am genuinely happy for you! That’s great! That’s a rare thing in fandom life. Enjoy it. (Enjoy it the way I enjoy canon Holmes retiring alone with bees, which I think is fantastic and makes all the sense even though I’m aware almost everyone else here thinks it’s a terrible tragedy.)

But with those disclaimers in place, here is an incomplete list of stuff I am very, very indifferent to:

A secret third Holmes sibling

A single childhood trauma being the primary driver for a complex adult’s personality

Redbeard being anything other than a sweet doggy

Angst in general

Kids getting murdered

Whatever was being expressed about mental illness

Mind control

Random characters dying a whole lot so that main characters can avoid any real damage

Jim Moriarty secretly being anyone else’s pawn the whole time

Big solves coming out of info that was mostly hidden from the audience

Having Sherlock and John in 221B forever with nothing ever changing (I was ready for them to blow something up this series if they needed to, or barely escape blowing it up if they wanted to, but I didn’t expect the result to be “blow it up but put everything back exactly how it was.” I mean, I can appreciate the possible canon reference there to the magically non-harmful fire in the original story, but this ended up a little on the nose with the voiceover and everything.)

Horror movie format

The horror movie thing is probably the closest to an actual “nope” there. It may sound weird since I’m obviously cool with watching murder mysteries, but horror typically doesn’t sit well with me and that aspect alone will make it harder to rewatch the episode and therefore less fun. (Again, I only say this for me. Personally. There is nothing wrong with anyone else being into horror. You do you.)

I could maybe have talked myself into getting on board with the “oh, this is all about what Sherlock would’ve been like if he didn’t have a friend” analysis angle, but then I think about how Sherlock did have a friend and that friend was murdered and how Mycroft (allegedly) doesn’t have friends and is not murdering anyone (and in fact is less murdery than previously anticipated) and end up annoyed about how there’s no real control group and what a badly designed experiment this was. So that doesn’t really help.

It’s definitely not a shipping issue for me, because I don’t ship anything in this show and never have.

And it’s not really a characterization issue because I am a canon-reading Doylist and have long-since become used to not giving a crap about that. (The exception being if characterization is an intentional clue in a mystery, but we’ll come back to that eventually. Maybe.)

And it’s not really about my theories being wrong because--and I know, I KNOW this will sound like such an asshole thing to say, but there’s no way around saying it--technically they aren’t wrong yet. Sure, maybe specific theories I had about this episode that I came up with in the week before it were wrong, but not the ones I really care about that I’ve had for up to 5 years. I mean, you are totally free to interpret this episode as proving me completely wrong about everything. That’s fine. But, for example, saying “Jim recorded some video clips for Eurus” is not actually disproving my theory about what was going on with the “Miss me?” messages. They certainly seemed to want to lead viewers to assume that, but then why not just come out and say it if that’s the answer? Why be coy? (Especially when they’ve left contradicting clues in other episodes of this very series.)

This is where we get to the true heart of the matter. And the part where it becomes even more relevant that I’m tired.

Because they’ve done this to me before. Magically skipped through and managed to neither prove nor disprove any of the theories I’ve been waiting for resolution on. So on the one hand, I probably shouldn’t be surprised.

Which makes it all the more exhausting that the honest truth is...

Deep down...

I still think they’re going somewhere with this.

AND I GET IT, now a bunch of you are looking at me like I’m

Zoidberg: Amy, take off these rubber bands and I'll show you how normal I am! Amy: Fool me seven times, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me.

Which is probably fair enough, because that’s how I feel, too.

But the rarely-pure-and-never-simple truth is I think there’s more to all of this plotwise than it seemed like there was. The same pieces of the mystery I cared about are still open. It’s not so much that I hope that’s the case, because again--I was really and truly looking forward to the freedom that would come from being either definitively right or wrong.

The reason I nicknamed this episode The Patience Grenade is because that’s how it felt. Like they were trying to blow up my patience.

Wait for answers? Don’t get answers. But get just enough hints that you walk away believing there still might be answers coming. At some indefinite point in the future. If the show even continues. Which no one is promising it will.

Meanwhile, the entire episode will be themed around the idea that if someone has you trapped in a twisted game, the best option is to refuse to play.

Tick tick tick tick... BOOM.

(It also doesn’t help that I usually adopt the final featured pop song of each series as a theme song to put on loop while I write up theories and such, and this time the one they chose starts with the lyrics: “I want to break free / I want to break free / I want to break free from your lies / You're so self satisfied I don't need you / I've got to break free / God knows, God knows I want to break free.” SALT IN THE WOUND, MUCH?)

If this was back when I just watched the show and didn’t talk to anyone about it, it would be one thing. But now I do talk about it? Almost every day? And short of deciding to storm out of here, which again is not my plan or goal... How do I get through the next few weeks or months or years?

I’m not going to lie and say I loved the last episode.

But I’m also not going to lie and say I think all semblance of plot is irretrievably off the rails or that the writers are just bashing randomly on a keyboard to come up with this.

And the one specific theory I’m most interested in post-TFP is... um... Short of some kind of hail mary play from the writers in the near future that gets rid of the “oh no, there are no more loose ends” business and starts other fans thinking in the same direction as me, it’s one that I know is going to sound kind of unhinged in a way that’s beyond anything I’ve posted before just because of its nature.

Which leaves me in a really awkward place, fandom-wise.

Because now I get to be looked at as the person who is being negative about the show AND SIMULTANEOUSLY as the person who is naively believing the writers aren’t totally clueless or stringing us along with no goal in sight AS WELL AS the person who even a lot of the remaining theory-type-people are likely to think is chasing ghosts. So basically there is nothing I can do that won’t have some camp rolling their eyes at me. (Unless I want to only post Hudders gifs from now on. Which, believe me, is tempting. But there still aren’t quite enough of them to pull it off.)

I guess my answer is to follow the same advice I’d give to someone else--it’s my blog and my hobby. I should do what entertains me.

Which, for the record, will be pretty much the same thing as always. If you find anything that I do on this blog in the near future a radical departure, the fact is you probably haven’t looked back far enough in my blog archives to understand how I work.

1) I will acknowledge plot holes and inconsistencies and  poke some fun and indulge in some fandom crack posts.

This is not hating the show or attacking the writers. You can certainly decide it’s not the kind of thing you want to see on your dash and unfollow me. But from my side, it’s all in the spirit of believing the writers are actually building to something and trying to figure out what that something is. Plus, for the record, I poke fun at ACD canon even though I love it. As do Sherlock’s writers. It’s okay to be a fan of something in ways other than writing essays about how great every aspect of it is.

2) I will post theories, and just try not to worry too much if they sound kind of out there. (Which they will this time. They will.)

Theories are how I have fun with this show. And if you read or write fanfiction (like most of the fans on this site) but somehow feel it’s worthwhile to scoff at a theory I write up and point out that you think I’m wasting my time... Maybe stop first and think about why one interpretive/transformative fan activity that entertains me is a bigger waste of time than the interpretive/transformative fan activity you prefer. Because it doesn’t freaking matter, y’all. This is my designated hobby time, and writing up a fan theory--even one you think is super-duper-wrong--isn’t changing anything about how much I am or am not trying to do worthwhile things or save the world with the rest of my time. I simply have a marginally different hobby than you do.

And just to make one little adjustment because it was coming anyway...

3) I’m not going to rush.

If they can patience-grenade me and not guarantee anything will ever be resolved beyond this episode, I get to let myself take my sweet time getting my ideas out of my head this go-round. I have fun with this stuff, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff in my life that needs to be attended to soon. (And some of it’s actually more fun.)

Remember The Empty Hearse? That was a tiring time. Sherlock “explained” how he survived the fall, but a small handful of us were like... “No, that actually makes no sense?” We slowly made our case, and by a few weeks ago, it was probably more common than not for someone I bumped into in fandom space to be on board and believe that we still hadn’t seen the true fall solution. (Though I do expect those numbers to readjust again now that the writers are claiming everything’s all wrapped up, the end.)

To me, The Final Problem feels most like The Empty Hearse. Only I know it’s going to be waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy more of a tiring slog to change anybody else’s mind about what happened there. Or at least to get anyone on the same page as me since I’ll be living in my own little rapidly-shrinking theory bubble. Luckily, my primary goal is to entertain myself rather than convince others, but even figuring out where I stand now that the show has dumped in memory-inhibiting drugs and mind control at the last minute is going to be more of a slog than usual.

So slog it I will, but I’m not going to hurry. Or even promise to make sense for a good long time. If ever. I’m not going anywhere just yet, but I’m not signing up to make myself more tired either.

If you’re cool with all that, we carry on as always.

If not, then you know what to do.

xoxo

[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

Paid content syndication: The complete guide for 2019

Don’t do it.

That’s our three-word assessment of paid content syndication in 2019. The search engine optimisation benefits are non-existent, the tactic is incredibly click-baity and it doesn’t work well for a modern audience.

Your money would be better spent on new mousepads for everyone in your office.

But don’t just take us at our word. Let’s examine the facts:

What is content syndication?

Content syndication (unpaid) is when you republish content that appeared on your company’s blog or website elsewhere on the web. The syndicated content could be a full article or a snippet that links back to the original piece.

This is different from guest blogging, which involves creating an exclusive piece of content for a third-party outlet; the guest article does not appear on your site. That said, some publishers have content syndication networks they might use to promote guest content.

The benefits of content syndication include reaching a larger audience through off-site distribution networks, earning links back to your original post to help build page authority, gaining brand recognition, improving traffic to your site and also expanding your social media presence.

A common path to free content syndication is to pitch articles to websites such as Business Insider, Huffington Post, Forbes, Lifehacker and other online sources that welcome contributor content. Often, the repurposed post will have a disclaimer stating, “This content originally appeared on [insert blog here],” that links back to the original article, video or graphic.

Businesses can also self-syndicate by republishing their blog posts on one or more of the following channels:

LinkedIn Pulse.

Medium.

Tumblr.

SlideShare.

WikiHow.

BuzzFeed Community (must use as an individual and not as brand).

Quora Blogs.

Business2Community.

Facebook Instant Articles.

Pinterest.

ZergNet.

YouTube.

Vimeo.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is another example of content syndication whereby users can receive updates from blogs. It was useful in the early days of the web – and it remains the distribution mechanism for podcasts – but social media and free aggregators have made it fairly easy for users to curate their content without RSS feeds or readers.

Content syndication may also refer to syndication of a headline whereby a link to the original post is listed on a third-party site. ZergNet is an example:

Each of the headlines and blurbs in the screenshot above links to a different content source.

This is different from, say, republishing on the Huffington Post. Content syndicated to HuffPost actually lives on the website. It adopts a HuffPost URL and uses the same font and header:

The fact that content syndication can refer to two very different things is a common source of confusion.

While both methods are valid, republishing content on a website or blog that’s well-respected in your space gives you the chance to tap into that source’s existing audience.

Case in point: More people reading this have probably heard of HuffPost than ZergNet.

What is paid content syndication?

Paid content syndication is content syndication that you pay for.

One example might be paying an online industry magazine to publish an article on the site as a means of building thought leadership and brand awareness.

This is perhaps the only form of content syndication that’s maybe worth the investment.

More commonly, though, paid content syndication refers to the use of services such as Taboola, Outbrain and Zemanta. You’ve probably noticed something like this at the bottom of an article before:

This is an example of paid content syndication via Outbrain. The cost-per-click service uses algorithms to determine which content channels (CNN in the example above) to advertise your blog content on.

Placement is typically based on inputs from the customer, such as ideal syndication partners. A headline and image that links back to the original content is then posted on channels that align with those expectations.

Relative to CPC for paid search, the expense is fairly low, with rates at around $0.25 to $0.50 per click in many cases. Each time a user clicks on paid content, the customer is charged, and the user is navigated to the original source.

Potential benefits of paid content syndication

Paid content syndication only works if you’re already creating original and useful content. Otherwise, you have nothing to distribute or promote.

Content creators attempting to get a new blog or resource center off the ground can use paid content syndication to earn early traffic through third-party sites that already see a lot of it.

Many other marketers might use content syndication to hit a monthly or quarterly traffic quota.

And that’s about it as far as benefits go.

The SEO downsides

Beyond potentially aiding in content discovery, there are few if any advantages of paid content syndication.

The reason? rel=“nofollow”.

Developers created this attribute to prevent advertisements from having an outsized influence on search rankings.

Paid content syndication is a form of native advertising, one that, because of the nofollow tag, does not affect organic search rankings.

In other words, paid content syndication networks like Outbrain and Taboola don’t give you any of that sweet, sweet link juice that will help you build page authority.

For the uninitiated, high-quality backlinks are critical in SEO. Google sees a link from any site that has high domain authority as an indicator of that content’s usefulness, credibility and trustworthiness.

All of that goes out the window with paid referrals thanks to the nofollow tag.

So while on paper it looks like CNN is linking to your content, Google doesn’t see it that way. Paid content syndication networks offer literally zero concrete SEO benefits.

Again, the one potential upside of paid content syndication is that it can generate traffic. More eyes on your content can theoretically mean more lead generation, especially if you’re using email-capture resources.

But paid traffic for the sake of traffic means very little if you’re not landing qualified leads, which is often the case since many syndication networks automatically generate headlines that don’t precisely match the content.

Content syndication services will nevertheless go to great lengths to convince you that your articles are getting in front of the right people.

A (weak) case can also be made that a user who sees a paid article from a website or blog may be more likely to click on organic links to your site in the future. However, this type of influence is incredibly difficult to measure.

Long story short, paid syndication makes a negligible contribution to inbound marketing and a non-existent one to SEO.

The other big pitfalls of paid syndication? It’s basically in-line spam to users

The average click-through-rate of a modern display ad is less than 0.1 percent, partly because of ad blockers, partly because users just don’t trust them. But the bigger culprit is banner blindness, which refers to a type of selective attention on the web.

Simply put, people have learned to ignore ads and ad-like content.

Eye-tracking research conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group found that many web users will instinctively overlook banners that resemble ads, including content that appears in the margins or bottom of the page. Incidentally, that’s where the bulk of paid content syndication links are displayed on desktop.

(You see where I’m going with this.)

The click-through rate for native advertising (including paid content syndication) is admittedly higher than display advertising, but still less than half a percent.

Why so low? Because paid content placement is easy to spot, and even easier to ignore, so much so that you probably don’t give those spammy articles a second thought. If anything, you run away from them.

Maybe this point is better phrased as a question: How often do you click on paid content featured on CNN.com?

Barring accidentally opening in-line paid articles while scrolling through a mobile news feed, probably never.

Is paid content syndication ever OK?

Other than maybe paying for a sponsored article in say, Forbes? Only on social media, and only if we reeaally stretch the definition of paid content syndication.

A sponsored post on Facebook or a promoted tweet on Twitter intended to call attention to your blog content serves a similar function to paid content syndication: to use an external or offsite platform to generate traffic to a piece of content.

The difference with social media is that you’re targeting an existing network of people who are ostensibly engaged with your brand for a reason.

The purpose of a sponsored post on Facebook, for example, is to “boost” that post so it appears more prominently in your followers’ or fans’ newsfeeds.

In this sense, you inherently have more control over who sees the post than you would with paid content syndication.

So does regular old content syndication help SEO?

It certainly has more potential than paid content syndication to provide real SEO value since it’s a form of organic content distribution.

Republished blog posts and videos, for example, typically link back to the original article.

When that link comes from a site with strong domain authority, you get some link juice. Referrals from that backlink (users clicking to see the original source of the article) gives you even more SEO value.

Your brand is also credited for the content, which helps make it more top of mind for readers.

As an added bonus, many content syndication sites have large social followings since that’s how they distribute and promote content. Consequently, you may see a potential boost in impressions and in overall social engagement.

Avoiding duplicate content penalties when syndicating

Duplicate content is generally bad news for SEO, so the idea of republishing your original content on another blog or website may seem counter-intuitive.

But it’s not.

Let’s go back to the tags. When syndicating content, make sure that the publisher featuring your article, video or graphic uses the rel=canonical tag. This tells Google which version is the original source of the content.

More importantly, the rel=canonical tag ensures that your website gets the search benefits generated from the syndicated article. This means:

You get the aforementioned link juice that the syndicated content will help to attract.

The syndicated posts don’t start to outrank or outperform the original content.

The other option to prevent your content syndication from backfiring is to use the meta “NoIndex” tag for the syndicated versions of posts. This informs Google not to index the content, meaning it won’t show up in search results.

Always try to go with rel=canonical tag over the NoIndex tag.

You may run into situations where the publisher refuses to use either. In those cases, transparent attribution and a backlink to original content is your last resort.

A note on content quality

You’ll have a much easier time syndicating content with third parties if your content is good. That means:

It needs to be relevant to the publisher’s audience and align nicely with reader intent.

The actual content needs to be well-researched and well-written.

The copy needs need to be accurate and clean.

Remember, content syndication with a third party is a two-way street. The third-party publisher is giving your content free exposure to their readers. Therefore, it needs to provide insights, instructive advice, thought leadership or some value to the audience that wasn’t already there.

Closing thoughts: Organic syndication beats paid in almost every way

We’ve made our feelings about paid content syndication abundantly clear. And while organic content syndication is demonstrably superior, it still represents a fraction of any content marketing strategy.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 27 percent of marketers use some form of syndication technology to assist in content marketing management. (The stat is admittedly vague about what qualifies as syndication technology.)

Granted, a little over a fourth is nothing to scoff at; however, the “ideal content marketing mix” is typically made up of 65 percent content creation, and 25 percent content curation (e.g., sharing relevant articles through a social media platform or curating user-generated content).

That leaves about about 10 percent for content syndication.

And again, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Content syndication can be a powerful distribution and promotion resource, and one that’s good for SEO to boot.

But it should never be the focus of a content marketing strategy.

More importantly, it should almost never be paid. Content marketing has come a long way since the days of keyword stuffing. Paid content syndication is, if anything, a step backward and away from well-rounded content strategy.

In the majority of cases, it does little to meaningfully contribute to inbound marketing, and even less to improve SEO.

This is all to say, be careful about how much you spend on paid content syndication in 2019.

Now about those mouse pads …

from http://bit.ly/2UZfzu0