#but Tumblr and Twitter serve very different functions for me

[yukipri]

I joined Threads! Unfortunately my reach on Insta is still the most limited of all of my socials, and that’s the account Threads is directly attached to.

If you’re on either Insta or Threads, would love if you could stop by🙏

Direct linking to Threads doesn't seem to work...so here's

my Instagram

through which you can find my Threads account!

Edit: You actually can link to Threads, ironically through the icon at the top of individual Instagram account pages on desktop. Though Desktop viewing is currently limited to individual pages, and you can't necessarily scroll the feed. So here's my Threads page!

~~

Next, some initial thoughts on the platform for those who are kinda curious what this new thing is. Not at all an expert, just some info I've gathered myself, that I'd personally have liked to know before joining:

On Threads

・It launched July 5~6, 2023. Rollout varies by country.

・Twitter's already upset about it, apparently there's a lawsuit. So I guess it considers Threads a possible threat.

・It's run by Meta, same folks as Insta and Fb.

・The accounts are directly linked to Instagram, which has its pros and cons. You need an Insta account to make a Threads account, but if you already have an Insta account, it's very easy to make a connected Threads account. However, once linked, they're linked; you can't disable your Threads account without also disabling your Insta account. You can also automatically follow all the accounts you're already following on Insta, to be activated as they make Threads accounts. You can also share Threads posts to your Insta stories.

・Currently only on mobile app, hoping the'll make it desktop accessible soon

・The current audience mostly seems to be folks who have come direct from Instagram. This means yes, a lot of official/influencer accounts, but also a lot of artists/small creators too.

Functionality

・Right now, the "feed/dashboard" is a hot mess. It's just one massive algorithmic spew, no way to curate it, no way to see just the posts by the folks you're following, not even chronological. These are things that i personally require in a social media, so yeah it sucks rn. HOWEVER, they did state that they're working on a "followers only" feed, much like the one on Instagram. If they implement a Followers Only feed like Insta, it'll at least be much better than Twitter's current "Following" feed. There has been no timeline provided on when this may launch.

・It functions much the same as Twitter, with options to create new posts, and like, retweet, quote retweet, and reply to posts made by others. (There's still a lot of floundering about the exact terminology to use, since it's not twitter so you can't "retweet" etc)

・500 Character word limit per post, which is much more than Twitter, ey!

・Up to 10 images per post, doesn't seem to cause image quality reduction either. Rather than being able to arrange the images like on Tumblr though, they're all automatically in a carousel that you can see by swiping.

・Your bio can be the exact same as what's on your insta, but currently only shows followers. In order to see who you follow, you tap "followers" and then when the menu opens, swipe to "following." Then, you can tap on the individual accounts to view their pages. This is currently the only way to ensure you see the posts from certain accounts, because there's no guarantee they'll show up on your feed, and it's a huge pain. But again, they're hopefully working on a fix for this.

My understanding is that the app rushed to launch now, since Twitter is a dumpster fire and people are fleeing. (why is it a dumpster fire? Well, Musk implemented a randomly fluctuating tweet view limitation, which is dumb af, but means it's essentially become unusable to folks who use the platform a lot)

I'm hoping that there'll be improvements to Threads and it'll become a viable Twitter alternative, but until then...yeah we'll keep an eye on it.

Now that I've probably completely turned you off from downloading the app, if you do, a nudge that again I'd appreciate if you stopped by my account, YukiPri_Art on Instagram, and/or YukiPri_Art on Threads!

[ballsballsbowls]

I suspect my insights into the new tumblr Core Product Strategy are no dumber than anyone else’s. To be fair, I workshopped an idea in my gc a couple of years ago that was nearly identical to Blaze, so while I don’t have my finger of the pulse of the youth, I have had a few good guesses what would fix tumblr. 

I understand they are kind of frantically balancing the needs of Someone Like Me (a 2013 sign-on who will be here until they shut the lights off and posts a good bit if not in a way that gets viewed and reads a lot more than 25 posts on the average day AND is like 80% browser user which like...seriously, use fucking browser it’s so much better) with the kind of Line Go Up forever growth that justifies spending money on a fucking sinkhole like tumblr.

I am also very interested in seeing if they can improve their algorithmic content because I’d be interested in the algorithmic content (explore, for you, even if they added something else I’d be interested as long as I have a chronological followers-only feed as one of my options). But I don’t use these things unless I’m desperate to Look At Post because...the algorithm is either very very good or very very bad, in that it nearly always serves up posts I’ve been seeing all day (so points for guessing what I am already seeing) but had no interest in interacting with. 

Please tumblr I WANT to see more posts I am not already seeing. I cannot look at the same out of context undated twitter screencaps passing as political commentary all day every day. I just also want the option to not see that shit in my chronological dash. In tumblr’s heyday I never hit my post limit but I was posting upwards of 100 posts a day, and now you rarely get double digits from me because there is simply not that much interesting content.

Unsure about the threaded comments. I think it COULD work but I’m unsure if it will depending on how it’s implemented.

ALSO pleased to see The App on their list. The app is dogshit and it’s been dogshit for a couple of years now. It’s genuinely hard to SEE more than 30-40 posts on the app in an WHOLE DAY of intermittent scrolling because of the app’s tendency to freeze/crash/only show you those 30-40 posts no matter what you do. I have mutuals who LEFT TUMBLR because they were app-only users and the app just got so unpleasant to use they quit tumblr, and I’m sure they are not the only people who did so.

I desperately would like more control over who follows me/who can interact with me/who can interact with my posts. I’d love a native mute function, especially something that would let me choose how long I don’t want to see posts for. Sometimes I just need like five days so they can get their untagged blorbo stuff out and I don’t have to see it, you know? 

I’d love an option to not allow blank blogs to follow me, or blogs newer than 7 days, or blogs that have NEVER generated an original post (which also tend to be spam). You have everyone’s birthdays now, you should be able to generate a “nobody under 18 according to the account birthday can follow” (I care less about that but I also am not generating much of my own content.) 

tl;dr I am not sure the issue is tumblr is difficult for new people, but I think a slow, buggy app and the lack of new and different stuff on the site is what keeps them from coming back. 

[fashionablyfyrdraaca]

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience.

Okay, so I for one, DO NOT believe this remotely. If this was the case, then how is it so many people have come from Twitter and Reddit recently due to the Twitter limit and Reddit API scandals and survived ? How is it that the 400+ people I personally follow were able to learn to use the site if it is so horribly difficult?  Also, most apps/sites require some learning to use. Most people are not born knowing how to use Facebook, Twitter, 4chan, Reddit, etc. Many kids have had to help their friends learn how to use Tiktok or Musically back in the day.

Even so, if it IS SOOO hard, then why do you have this page when a user makes a new account? 

This is obviously meant to be showing them different things they can try looking at, thus simplifying the user experience. This opening sequence makes it much easier than to have nothing happen at all like when I joined the site in 2013. And have another example of what happens when you sign up: 

the site clearly tells you that you should start following blogs and helps you find some. These must be failures if you think the site is still too difficult.

Sometimes the most rewarding experiences are the ones that require some learning to do. I was not born with the ability to make gifs and yet I find it rewarding, for example.

If it is so difficult, provide an in depth tutorial for new users that automatically pops up when they finish making their account. Many other sites, apps, and programs do this and function perfectly fine. Many of the people interested in this site also play videogames and as such, are able to understand tutorials.

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. 

A good way to start this would be by having it so that people can view posts/tags without needing to be logged in. The reason many people avoid sites like pinterest, twitter, or instagram is because they require you to make an account simply to view what the site even has on it.

If you are also struggling to find new users, start advertising. Many people think Tumblr is completely dead due to the porn ban. 

Advertise on fandom forums, advertise on 4chan’s banners, advertise on Facebook, advertise on Reddit. If people think the site is dead or do not know of it at all, they will never come here if they don’t get lucky on Google searches. Relying simply on someone getting lucky by word of mouth or through a fandom search on google, is shooting yourself in the foot. I can honestly say I have never once seen a Tumblr ad. I learned about the site through word of mouth on a comics forum I browsed as a teenager. I would imagine many of my mutuals learned through similar avenues.

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

This is actually a great idea because I frequently use the search engine to help run my side blogs and the search engine as it is almost never shows me what I want. It is very, very poorly optimized. I would imagine many of my friends who also assist in running big, group-run blogs would support a repaired search feature. 

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application.

Also what does this even mean? This is an extremely IT oriented statement and belittles the intelligence of the average person. How stupid do you think your userbase is that they cannot figure out how to search up their fandoms or to follow a blog? Especially when you already provided semi-tutorials at sign up? If you want your userbase to not respond to you so viscerally, using tech-bro language such as this would be something you must stop. People will continue responding with anger and cursing if you continue communicating in such a way.

Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

If this is the case, repair your search engine as hinted at in your earlier point. I am always confused when I search up the game Firewatch or other small fandoms and I get five thousand KPOP gifs/fanfictions and Character X Reader pornographic fanfictions. I am often getting completely unrelated content even for big fandoms.

On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr.

One point that might be leading to this is the existence of side-blogs and alternate accounts. Many users I know have alternate accounts to maintain curated interests. If I am popping in and out of accounts, I really wouldn’t see more than 25 posts and that is okay. 

I want the first 25 posts on my dashboard to be by people I follow. NOT by ANYBODY else. I also want it to be the most recent reblogs/posts. A non-chronological dashboard is completely antithetical to why I use this site. I and many other veteran users WILL leave if this is altered.

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

I largely do not have an issue with this one as I do enjoy using Tumblr to communicate with my mutuals/other people I follow. However, I cannot agree with this point:

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed.

I DO NOT care about duplicates and I would wager many other users do not. My reasoning for this is that I can easily skip duplicates with the ‘J’ key and also, often there are new, interesting tags on each reblog that I would miss if duplicates were cut entirely. If this anti-duplicate feature were something that could be toggled, it would be more acceptable and many users would probably turn it on. However, I could keep it turned off which would be to my preference and would be the most equitable for the entire userbase. 

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base. 

This is entirely true when many people do not reblog creations and you have staff members like cyle who actively discourage reblogging in favour of ‘liking only’ which any gif creator, fanfic writer, or artist could tell you is entirely useless.

We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

If you want to foster creators, return the legacy editor. There have been an endless amount of gifmakers who have listed the various ways the new editor is unintuitive and actively harmful to the graphical quality of their gifs. Even JPEG, PNGS and art is harmed by the new editor as it actively lessens the quality of the image.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”),

If a post from someone I do not follow shows up on my main dashboard feed, that goes ENTIRELY against the purpose of the dashboard. The dashboard, for me, is for chronological posts from people I follow or tags I follow. I NEVER want to see random, unrelated content on there. This WILL make me leave the site if any algorithm or unwanted content shows up on my feed. If I wanted a completely random feed, I would go on reddit or facebook. Many people from those sites have complained about algorithms and random content. So beware! 

perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. 

Most of the blogs I follow are not popular. I have many people I follow who are under 1k and even under 500 followers. They are the ONLY people I want to see on my dashboard. If you want new creators to get their gifsets/art pieces found, encourage them to use the tagging system. Many do not tag their content appropriately which leads to their works never being discovered. For example, if I made a gifset for Overwatch of one of its characters and I never tagged it with the game’s name, the character’s name or any of the gaming-adjacent tags, it will NEVER be found. That would be my fault entirely for failing to use the system in place. Provide a tutorial for new creators perhaps. Don’t ruin someone’s curated dashboard because people don’t use tags for their gifsets.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Simplify the reporting system and blocking system. Right now it is very easy to see blocked users on your dashboard. Also, it is extremely difficult to report stolen artwork or gifsets on this site and often users have to argue with the thieves themselves in order to get anything done. I had to report a user who kept posting nude selfies in a tag frequented by children/teenagers for over a month before anything was done. That is not acceptable.

Though I will admit, there was an improvement to the blocking of anons by having anon be requisite on being logged in and by blocking the user behind the anon. So that was definitely a good thing!

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Encourage new users to use tags and encourage new users to actually reblog content. Creators WILL stop if their works are never reblogged. And actively listen to creators’ hatred of the new editor. Putting your thumbs in your ears on the issues of the new editor, will NOT make creators stay as they will get frustrated and leave over it as many already have or are currently considering. 

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

I have no issue with the section on emails and notifications as long as users are given an option to opt out as I would be doing.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

I have no issue with this as I primarily use desktop and have no experience with the mobile performance.

Also if you want users to stay, do something about the insane amount of pornographic blogs that run rampant on the site. I have had to report over 600 from one of my side blogs and I am frequently getting new porn bot followers and now even likes from such bots on my gifsets. I do NOT want my gifsets to be liked by porn bots as I do not want to associate with them.

Also, it is ironic that this post was made with the legacy editor considering how much staff loves to force the new editor.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[fancy-rock-dove]

My two cents on the recent Tumblr Strategy Post

Some thoughts about the recent Tumblr Core Product Strategy summary post:

This? Genuinely kinda exciting. I know we all joke about the search function but it really would be nice if it were easier to find things again.

Tumblr please, please, if there is ever a possibility to let me search within my own liked posts? That would be so, so useful.

This? Is this what they call the increasing move to make Tumblr inaccessible without a login? This has been so, SO annoying recently, trying to share things with friends who are increasingly unable to see the content.

I support them incentivizing the ability to like things and find them later (rather than the screenshot platform cross posting that I think most people seem to use instead, e.g. Pinterest pins or twitter posts of Tumblr posts). But I think this would be far better served by the above point, making things generally easier to find within the platform, than trying to keep other people from seeing things.

NO. Please NO.

It’s the “all feeds” part of this that I hate.

Please do not touch my “Following” feed. One of the huge appeals of Tumblr is my control over what I see via rules which are known and predictable to me. Please do not change every available option such that it shows me things I didn’t ask for and hides or de-prioritizes things it’s decided I don’t want.

The organic, interactive nature of the site grows partly out of the fact that my experience is dynamic depending on the interests of the people I interact with, and isn’t some algorithmically-enforced horror that only shows me content for things that have interested me recently. I like having my horizons expanded thanks.

If this means they’re not showing the same post if more than one person has reblogged it? Then please don’t do this.

Seeing who among my mutuals has also found the same thing, and what each person is saying about it, is part of the real time conversation surrounding that thing.

What they say above this about keeping better track of different conversational branches on a reblog chain? That I could get behind. That I could be excited about.

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about this one.

Lots has been said about how dismissive this is of the fact that this is a microblogging platform, not social media.

I get what they’re saying about the difficulty of being very small and new, but I hope they’re talking about adding more to the “For me” feed, specifically. I feel horror at the prospect of losing my algorithm-free, chronological “Following” feed.

DO NOT.

THIS IS SO UNNECESSARY.

If I want to be here I will be here. I HATE this assumption that products need to insert themselves and be omnipresent and constantly remind me of their existence.

That apps and products in general have a right or even a duty to reach out and poke me, to grab my attention while I’m doing other things.

I WILL TURN THIS OFF IMMEDIATELY AND WITH PREJUDICE

Sure, yeah, theoretically this will get you more of my attention, this will advance the baseline goal of more engagement hours, but it belongs to the same class of thought that wants to expect absolutely no buy-in effort or knowledge from new users: maximizing certain blind metrics of “engagement” in ways that fundamentally change the nature of that engagement.

To me, this feels like Tumblr leaning into the mindset that it’s their job to shape what specifically people do and experience on their platform just because they’re doing it with a product provided by them. It’s the thing that, IMO contributes both to the wild engagement and the mindless, “junk food” feeling of both Twitter and TikTok.

Yes, it’s less work for users if you expand platform functionality to curate content for you, to start conversations for you, to want to open the app for you, to check for new content for you.

But the thing is, all of these things that we’re used to doing manually? That’s the essence of what engaging with the content here *means*. That’s part of the stuff we put in. It forms the core of the activity we are coming to tumblr.com to engage in. Right alongside writing posts or creating art or what have you.

Doing this stuff manually is part of what makes actively engaging with Tumblr more an act of creation and less an act of blind, thoughtless consumption than on other platforms.

The latter is easier, it maximizes engagement numbers, but in being easier it also loses substance.

Not to be over dramatic, but what is wrong with just providing a platform and letting people use it?

This is like buying a sewing machine and being told I don’t even need to do all those cutting and sewing steps because the machine will do it for me.

Like, thanks, but that’s kinda missing the point.

[raiaue]

Welcome to tumblr! Allow me to give you a little introductory guide, it can be a bit difficult to understand the site if you're used to ones like instagram, twitter and tiktok, its very different here!

Your dashboard (feed) is Not algorithm based like it is on other sites, you will only see the reblogs from the people you follow. On tumblr, you and the people you follow Are the algorithm, you control what you see on your dash! There are some algorithm based functions on here, though none of them are self-learning-AI based. The for you tab, unlike on tiktok, is not your main feed, the Following tab is. The for you tab is mostly posts from the blogs the people you follow reblog most from, as well as stuff from your explore page. So, the for you page isn't like tiktoks fyp. They're all based purely on what the people you follow are following, reblogging and liking, it's just allowing you some insight into their dashboards more or less!

The explore page, and all the other pages, won't infinitely update with new posts each time you refresh the page. If you look at your explore page now, and check back tomorrow, most of the same posts will still be there. Basically, tumblr isn't as fast paced as other apps, and won't cater to short attention spans like other apps will, which is great! It's good to slow down! If you want more action on your dash, follow more blogs!

You can find more blogs about topics you like using the search function of course, as with any social media site. The search function isnt the best, it's more or less impossible to find specific posts, but if its keyword or tag based searches you're good to go!

Liking posts does nothing for the creator of the post, likes dont equate anything, they have no "worth". Reblogging is what makes a difference on here, and it's the only thing that will let your followers see that post, though it seems you've understood this already, good job! Likes only serve a purpose in the "based on your likes" tab, which I haven't seen in a while, maybe its not a thing anymore, who knows! Other than that, likes are typically used by users for the sake of saving posts so you can find them later!

We generally dont add our own thoughts on posts as an addition on the post, we do that in the tags, so the person reblogging from you won't have to reblog your addition to the post as well. Sometimes we do add regular text to posts, but generally it's a bit frowned upon, you'll learn when and what to comment on, and when to use the tags! Don't think of the tags only as hashtags, the tags is your personal thought space, say whatever shit you want in there! all your completely irrelevant thoughts!

You can customise your desktop blog with different themes, if you go to raiaue.tumblr.com on desktop you'll get to the customisable desktop blog, have fun!

the queue! You can queue posts instead of reblogging them instantly, it's by no means necessary, but some people like to do it to keep their blogs active 24/7, but it really doesn't serve a purpose, it won't gain you more followers, but it will allow all your followers from different time zones to see you on their dash more consistently, but again, won't serve a purpose with follower count, which is something we really dont care about on tumblr, since we can't see other peoples follower counts! we're all equals on here, no verification checkmarks, no follower counts, lovely!

Have fun on here, dont bring the twitter drama, just follow and reblog things you like, make friends, go ham!

(and if you want a glimpse into tumblr history, follow @heritageposts, this site has a wild history, might be entertaining to see!)

OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS HELPS SO MUCH

[mariaiscrafting]

A little bit ago there was a burner account that claimed Quackity had made/laughed at sexual assault jokes, and the Quackity Updates account retweeted it. It was only around 5 hours later that anyone fact checked the claims in the thread to find that he didn't make any jokes, he was genuinely talking about how Hollywood is predatory and scary, and also that he didn't laugh at the dono saying a sims character looks like a sexual predator.

In the meanwhile, thousands of people were already making threads with "what he did really hurt me and he needs to address this :'(" which is so infuriating because what were you affected by. I swear people on mcyttwt are so quick to weaponize their own trauma.

"people on mcyttwt are so quick to weaponize their own trauma"

This, I think, gets to the crux of the issue, and was also a massive issue on Tumblr, back in the SJW era, circa approx. 2016.

If y'all would let me get a bit pedantic for a second, the way I view it, cancel culture is an alternative to due process, right? As an alternative process to due process, it goes through different channels, has different rules for who judges and serves as jury, how defendants are meant to defend themselves, how evidence is presented, etc. So, the issue in this particular situation is the difference in the basis for accusations, and what evidence is let into the "jury's" eyes. Through due process, to put it very simplistically, a charge is levied against a defendant, and evidence is only admissable if it's relevant to the case, provably authentic (that is to say, it's not based on hearasay), reliable, not too confusing, and not unfair (i.e., too prejudicial). Because due process functions through a formalized, regulated legal system, all of these criteria can be ensured before evidence is allowed into the court, and allowed to be reviewed by the jury before they state their verdict. Cancel culture has no such formalized channel through which evidence can be rejected or accepted based on the criteria that would deem it fit to be admitted. Cancel culture allows for any evidence, whether baseless or not, to be admitted, and immediately reviewed by the jury - aka, Twitter stans - regardless of its veracity, relevance, etc.

The issues, then, are numerous. They include the acceptance of evidence regardless of its admissability, yes, but it also includes: the speed with which the jury decides its verdict; the reasoning the jury uses to reach that verdict; the ability of the jury to reach a verdict before the defendant even gets to defend their self; the consequences/punishment the defendant incurs, regardless of if they're actually guilty or not. There is very little chronology when it comes to the process of cancel culture. An accusation is made alongisde the presentation of evidence, and then the jury reaches their verdict, all in a matter of minutes or hours. There is no necessary step for the evidence to be reviewed, for the jury to convene and agree to base their verdict on sound evidence rather than emotion, for a judge to verify that the jury is fit for trial, for the defendant and prosecution to agree upon the jury that will be used, for a judge to choose a fitting punishment, for the defendant to even defend their own character. All of these things could happen through cancel culture, but they are not at all necessary steps for the jury to reach a verdict and enact a punishment they see fit.

SO, to get back to your original ask - for which I'm sorry for getting away from; I really needed to rant lmao - that's how we get a mess such as the one you described. You have an accusation that is based on an inaccurate and prejudicial interpretation of past events, an accusation and "evidence" that weren't even fact-checked until after the jury (aka, the Twitter mob) made its decision, a jury that based its verdict upon feelings and their own trauma, and a punishment (cancelling) that was doled out within minutes/hours and without any of the necessary precautions taken to ensure the punishment was even fitting. Yes, people on all of Twitter are very quick to weaponize their own trauma, and that's because it's so easy, fitting, and acceptable for them to do so in the process of cancel culture justice. Weaponizing your own trauma is allowed in a system where admissiable and factual evidence isn't a necessity for judgement. Weaponizing your own trauma is easiest when you're allowed to come up with a verdict in such a short amount of time, as it allows you to work on a trigger and doesn't require you take the time to rationalize, confer, or fact-check. Weaponizing your own trauma to judge the morality of someone's actions has become the norm in current Twitter cancel culture, and mcyttwt isn't an exception.

[punksandcannonballers]

point of this being the new desktop interface is unnecessary and an obvious copy of twitter but imo is a side-grade and not actually, functionally, appreciably worse than before. yeah it doesn’t improve anything either and no one wanted it but it’s not like twitter is failing because of its desktop interface, it probably has a couple bugs right now bc they’re still rolling it out, but overall the layout serves its purpose and works

but people have always wanted to frame every change as the death knell for tumblr and are very diligent in providing reasons why it will be and ultimately it never has been up to this point. I think the truth is most users DO eventually just get used to website changes and move on, like I don’t think most people actually use things like xkit (I gave up long ago) and tumblr knows that

so there’s a culture of expecting every change to be the one to kill tumblr and I suspect that deadens the impact when users complain about stuff like the new upcoming changes for collapsed posts and stuff. like, personally, that sounds like it might actually be a significant structural change that stops me from using tumblr, or at least really limits how much I use it and affects the way I use it. but again, from a pr perspective users have a history of complaining and then continuing to use the site, meanwhile tumblr is in the red and clearly needs to do something about their business model and trying to capitalize on the apparent looming collapse of twitter makes some amount of sense when you imagine it being pitched in a board room

obviously tumblr isn’t unique in any of this, people always complain about website updates regardless of what they are. it’s just on the whole users are very poor at initially judging the difference between and responding proportionately to useless interface rearrangements, minor quality of life improvements, and actual, functional, structural changes to how the website is used

problem with tumblr updates is that no matter what the update is people will initially complain loudly even if the change is neutral or even positive. for example when nested reblogs were ditched for the linear style I remember there was a lot of backlash over it being too much like mobile design, how it messed up the format of some existing posts, having to load so many icons would slow down the page etc., even though now you look back and it’s like posts would get unreadable in the old style and it’d be impossible to tell who was saying what

I also recall a bunch of people saying “who asked for this” when polls and messages were introduced but now polls are everywhere and messages are wholly benign. this is all purely anecdotal of course and naturally tumblr has introduced lots of godawful changes that people rightfully complain about but you can see from a pr side how it looks a lot like users just complain about everything at first but get used to it

[jamiemackenziefraser]

All That Was Fair

Chapter 23: Wings of a Flutterby

Summary: “Jamie had always considered the presence of a flutterby to be a blessing.”

Read on AO3

Read chp 23 on tumblr below the cut

Previous, master list, next

A/n: After seeing a very cute thread on twitter about how Jamie canonically calls butterflies "flutterbys," I had to make the addition to this chapter because it was too soft to pass up. So, inspired by @Sassenach7471, thanks for reminding me of this sweetness!

Chapter 23: Wings of a Flutterby

***

Claire lay on her stomach in front of Jamie in the middle of the living room floor, her arms folded underneath her head as she lazed. Jamie, for his part, sat cross-legged behind her, completely and utterly enamored. 

The dress she was wearing had a large open back, covered only by tiny straps, which left her beautiful, translucent wings exposed. Jamie’s fingers were delicately tracing the edge of them where they lay flat on her back. They were so incredibly soft, so delicate, that Jamie could only bring himself to give them the barest hint of a touch. But he was entranced. 

He’s always been told never to touch the wings of a flutterby for fear of damaging them, so when Claire had given him permission to touch hers (after he'd gaped open-mouthed at her in that dress), it felt so deliciously forbidden. Even though he’d never exactly touched a flutterby’s wings before, he’d felt them flap against his skin as the flutterby hovered around him, the flitting sensation of softness before it was gone, out of reach. Claire’s wings felt much the same as he’d imagine a flutterby’s would if he could touch them in this way, only Claire kept hers still and on display for him to pay due reverence. 

Jamie had always seen the presence of a flutterby as a blessing— if they were near him, it was because of their choice, not his. He remembered as a kid being out in his mother’s garden, sitting as still as possible in hopes that one might land on him in passing. 

Claire was much the same. An ethereal creature that somehow had landed on his life, had chosen him… him… over anything else, giving herself fully and utterly without hesitation. 

Growing more bold, he trailed a finger down across one of the silvery veins that stretched across her wing. Claire gave a little shudder, making Jamie pause, but it was followed immediately by a contented sigh. 

“How does it feel?” Jamie asked as he continued to wander the surface of her wing with gentle exploratory touches. 

“Hmmn… nice,” Claire hummed. 

Jamie spared a glance up at her face to find her eyes were closed. Her cheek was squished just slightly where it lay against her arm, and Jamie nearly melted at the sight.  

“Like when I touch yer skin?” he probed. In demonstration, he brought his fingers to the skin of her back in between her wings, smoothing them down along the bumps of her spine. 

She shivered again, shifting her head, and then answered dreamily, “no. It’s different. I can’t really explain, it’s like… my wings are more… sensitive.” 

Jamie hummed in acknowledgement and returned his touch to her wings. They fluttered a little at the unexpected sensation, flitting against his hands, and that only served to make him more eager. As they settled again, Jamie began drawing absent circles over the surface with his fingertips. 

They weren’t paper thin, but still so heartbreakingly delicate. Their golden hue seemed to shimmer in the light from the window, although it was soft and barely noticeable if he hadn’t been studying them so closely. He couldn't get enough. 

It was unreal. 

His body was nearly trembling with excitement over this strange experience. As relaxed as Claire was, Jamie was pulsing with energy, thrilled by this newfound intimacy. He could touch her forever and never tire of it— wings or no. The thought that this strange creature was his awed him to no end... 

Absorbed as he was, he barely even noticed Claire was moving until she had sat up, her wings fluttering freely as she did. Jamie drew back, not wanting to hurt her as they moved, and he sat watching like a besotted fool as she turned to him. 

Her eyes seemed glazed with serenity, her whole posture carefree and relaxed. His touch had melted her into a puddle of soft warmth, and Jamie came to the realization that she was about to be all over him the second before she did just that.

She moved slowly but nonetheless insistently, and Jamie found himself absolutely covered in faerie a second later. She had straddled him and pushed him down on the floor as Jamie obediently relented. He let her drape herself over him as he leaned back, staring up at her in enrapturement. The second he was laying on the ground, Claire spread out at length upon him, she purred, “It’s your turn.” 

A dhia. 

“What?” He sputtered, his brain having halted all proper function at the feeling of her body spread on top of him. 

Lord give him strength. 

“It’s your turn,” she repeated, “On your front.” 

Jamie’s brain snapped back into his head as he realized what she was asking. Getting himself in check through some monumental force of will, Jamie managed to smile up at the hooded eyes above him. 

“Lass, I canna turn over when ye’re on top of me.” 

Claire was too tranquil to laugh or flush. She just hummed in acknowledgement, brushed her nose against Jamie’s once (making his wame twist), and then removed herself from his body. 

Jamie mourned the loss instantly, but he turned over onto his stomach as ordered, mirroring the position Claire had just been in, lounging on his front. 

As soon as he was settled, soft wee hands slid under his tee shirt, pushing it up. Then, lips met skin. 

He had to resist the impulse to jerk away as she kissed the scars, her lips warm and tender. No one had ever touched him fondly there— before her— and never in his life had he imagined someone kissing him the ugly evidence of his pain. 

Her lips touched the scarred flesh again, this time further up, and Jamie shivered. Gooseflesh broke out along his arms as her hand smoothed down the length of his back. She took her time, her touch gentle and intentional. 

“You’re so beautiful,” she said reverently. 

Every insecurity in Jamie screamed at him to deny it, to say something to the contrary, or even just joke about getting her eyesight checked. But the next brush of lips made the words die in his throat. He simply remained silent as tears gathered in his eyes. 

Her fingers traced the criss-cross of his scars for a long time, easing the tension from his muscles with her soft touch until Jamie was just as relaxed as his faerie. 

He wasn’t expecting it when a solid weight rested on his back, and he realized she’d laid her head down on him. 

“I love you,” she said softly, her fingers still tracing over his shoulder blade, “all of you.” 

Jamie wished that he were sitting up— or anywhere that he wasn’t trapped like this— so he could embrace her as he answered, “that means more than ye know, mo nighean donn.” 

Her hand smoothed back and forth over his side in response. He could feel her breathing— slow and deep— against him. 

“Dinna fall asleep on me there, lass,” he joked quietly. 

“I’m not.” She answered so softly that he wasn’t entirely convinced of the validity of the statement. “I just want you to know that I love every part of you.” 

The warmth in Jamie’s chest could have melted even the most ancient ice. Claire’s loving his scars couldn’t take away his insecurities— couldn’t magically heal the years of hating his body— but she gave him hope that one day he might be able to love himself with even a fraction of the intensity with which she loved him. 

Jamie pushed up on his elbows (Claire letting out a displeased noise at his disruption), and he hastily sat up to take her into his arms as he’d been wishing to do ever since she’d begun her ministrations. 

She went willingly as he pulled her into his chest, and they stayed pressed together as two parts of the same whole, serenity wrapped around them with the comfort of a blanket. 

*** 

Later that day, Jamie finally had the chance to introduce Claire to the wonders of literature. After finding out weeks ago that the fair folk didn’t have a written language, Jamie had been positively itching to introduce Claire to some of his favorite books. The choice had been brutal—Jamie being the book lover that he was— but finally, he had decided on Lord of the Rings. 

As soon as the decision had been made, he’d begun to prepare Claire, telling her everything he could think of about reading and books and human literature so she’d be ready before hearing the story. 

When the time finally came— and Claire had draped herself over Jamie’s lap, holding onto his neck and laying her head on his shoulder so she could stare the book as he read— Jamie found it rather hard to concentrate on the words. He had to block out her touches and reactions in order to give her the proper experience of hearing him read. After not too long, Jamie began to get the hang of it— it’d been a long while since he’d read aloud to anyone, but the story came alive as he grew more comfortable. 

Claire had hummed with excitement the whole time, stifling her wonderment into Jamie’s shoulder as he read with enthusiasm. 

“You’re a wonderful story teller, Jamie,” she praised during a break at the end of a chapter. 

“Thank ye, lass, but it isna so hard when the story is just here in front of me.” 

“You’re getting all that story from there?” she asked, pointing dubiously at the page. 

“Aye, much easier than remembering the whole thing,” he answered. 

She’d pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You humans are so sweet,” she said fondly, “we just treasure everything worth telling inside of us.” 

“Oh lass,” Jamie said, “I canna wait until ye hear more. There’s so much out there, more than we could ever remember ourselves. I’ll make a bookworm out of ye yet.” 

Getting back to business, Jamie squeezed Claire closer with his free arm and resumed reading. Her attention soon shifted from the page (which was meaningless to her) and instead rested on Jamie’s face as he read. He found himself distracted by her regard and her wandering hands that were doing their best to draw him away from his reading. 

“A nighean,” he said at one point, looking away from the book to level her with a mock stern look. Her hand froze over his nose where she’d been tracing up and down the bridge of it, “I canna concentrate on reading.” 

“Oh,” she said, abashed, withdrawing her hands, “sorry.” 

“Are ye enjoying the story so far, a leannan?” he asked. He had to prepare himself for the possibility that he was boring her, although hearing her say out loud that she didn’t like Lord of the Rings would probably break his heart. 

“I love it!” she exclaimed quickly, straightening herself against him, “it’s amazing. I’m sorry, please keep going.” 

“Okay,” he chuckled, “maybe jes’ let me focus on the reading for a bit, aye?” 

*

After they’d finished their section of reading— Jamie closing the book as if parting from an old friend— Claire pressed a sweet kiss to his cheek. 

“Thank you for telling me your story,” she said softly. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at hearing it referred to as “his,” but he didn’t have it in his heart to correct her outright. 

“We’ll read more of Tolkien’s story another time. Would ye like that?” 

She nodded enthusiastically, her curls bouncing and her smile melting his heart all over again. How could anyone ever look at her and not love her?— he wondered. He would spend all day, every day pouring out his soul just to see a glimpse of that smile. 

“Would ye tell me a story of the fair folk?” Jamie asked suddenly, longing to experience a part of her world as she was experiencing his. 

She raised up from where her head had just rested back on his shoulder. 

“I would love to tell you a story, Jamie,” she said, but something about the tone of her voice seemed… off. Was she sad? Had bringing up her home been a mistake? “But later. I don’t know, I… I don’t really feel much like storytelling at the moment.”

“That’s alright, a leannan,” Jamie reassured, “I just want ye to ken how much I care about yer stories too.” 

Claire wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her head underneath his jaw, squeezing tightly. 

“I love you, Jamie,” she said. 

“I love you more, mo nighean donn.”

***

Next

[ci3342blog]

Social Media & Participatory Culture

Henry Jenkins defines participatory culture in this video as “a world where everyone can participate...where we have the capacity often to produce media, share media...” 

A culture in which everyone is able to produce media and share the media that other people have made is obviously very present in the world of social media.  From selfies to videos to stories to art, virtually anything can be both produced and shared on the internet.  In order to provide some structure as to how these things are shared, different social media platforms provide a space to share different types of media, and often these platforms do not serve to share just one type of media.  While the function of youtube is to share videos and not much else, Instagram provides a platform to share photography, videos, and artwork.  People wanting to find a platform on which to share content can pick from a variety of services with varying degrees of specificity.  For example, someone who wants to share videos that they made could choose to use YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, or a combination of all three.  Someone who wants to share stories they have written could use Archive of Our Own, a popular fanfiction website, or Tumblr, which has a variety of content that is not limited to writing.  Whichever form of media a person wants to share, there is at least one social media platform where they can do so.

My own level of participation on social media is a fairly common one, I believe.  I do not post very much of my own content aside from the occasional picture on Instagram.  However, I do spend a lot of time on social media consuming other people’s content.  I spend a lot of time watching videos on Youtube and scrolling through Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.  

Determining what causes me to interact with the media I consume is pretty straightforward.  I tend to watch videos and follow accounts that center around things that I’m interested in, like a video essay on a movie that I like, or memes about a book series I’ve read.  Another way I engage with social media content is finding something I think is funny or topical and sharing it with my friends.  I also think I make a least somewhat of an effort to perform what Hinton and Hjorth describe in “Understanding Social Media” (2013) as “click activism.”  I try to follow and engage with people that I agree with and that I think are using their platforms to do good, and I actively avoid content made by users that I think promotes things I don’t agree with.

Overall, I think social media is the perfect vehicle for participatory culture to take place.  Most social media platforms are free to both share and upload content, and the algorithms and search functions employed by these sites can make finding specific content very easy.  I would say that participatory culture is bigger and more connected than it ever has been in the past.

[wolfgrowlwrites]

Tribe of Rushing Water Analysis

Since people were curious both on my thoughts about the Tribe of Rushing Water in Canon and how I’ve rewritten them in my fic Ties that Bind, here’s the massive post on it. If you read this entire thing, thank you.

--- 

Alright so I’m not much of an internet funnyman but I was an English Major and someone with a hyperfixation on the Warrior Cats series so it’s time to analyze the Tribe! The following post will include Spoilers for Watership Down (yeah the rabbit book, I’ll come back to this) and I will speak openly about the Warriors Series as a whole with the assumption that the people reading have already read the books in question. The goal of this is to discuss the Tribe’s narrative placement in the story, and what I’m doing with them in my rewrite.

Now Warriors was originally just going to be one book, and then six, and then first three books of the second arc. The weird effects this has on the narrative and tone is best explored elsewhere, but I bring this up because Midnight, Moonrise and Dawn were meant to be a trilogy ending the series. And this trilogy was based on nothing other than Watership Down, all of which is important to consider when we talk about the Tribe. The Tribe was meant to only appear briefly, which means there was no need for fleshing them out, and they are the Warriors parallel of Cowslip’s Warren.

For those of us who haven’t read Watership Down, it is a story about a bunch of rabbits who have a prediction of the destruction of their home and set out on a quest to find a new one. (Sounds familiar right?) One of the dangers they run into along the way is what originally appears to be a friendly warren run by a rabbit named Cowslip. The rabbits immediately find themselves on edge, as while this warren is exceptionally friendly there is the underlying evidence that something is wrong. When they ask questions the natives to the burrow deflect and dance around answering, and while their customs seem similar, they’re different enough to be unsettling. Behold, I’ve described the Tribe in Moonrise. And like the Tribe, the fact that Cowslip’s Warren is hiding is that there’s something extremely dangerous hunting them. Cowslip’s warren is being maintained by humans who are actively snaring the rabbits, and the Tribe has Sharptooth who is also hunting them. In fact, the snares almost kill one of the traveling rabbits, while Feathertail does end up dying to Sharptooth.

(Thank god I’m doing this on Tumblr not Twitter, god this thread would be unbearable.)

(For those who have read Watership Down, Brook is probably supposed to be Strawberry.)

So narratively, the Tribe are there to be a hinderance to the traveling cats who seem friendly and similar to them but have a danger to them that will put the traveling cats at risk. That is the role they’re meant to play, and as the series was meant to end after Dawn, the Erins didn’t need to flesh the Tribe out really beyond that.

But then money and the publishers spoke and the series continued and we returned to the Tribe except uh… huh. Honestly I kinda don’t want to get into this because it’s the same thing every time. The Tribe, who when we first meet them are described as huge and able to fight eagles, and are well adapted for life on the mountains, have encountered some problem and only the Clan cats can save them. Rinse and repeat. And as someone who has attempted to figure out the Tribe’s Allegiances, if you thought they were bad about remembering details for the Clans oh boy. For specific citations of the Tribe needs the Clans help, oh no, please see Moonrise, Outcast, Sign of the Moon, and Tawnypelt’s Clan. Sign of the Moon in particular because a Clan cat straight up choses the Tribe’s new leader. Can you imagine how the Clans would react if a Tribe cat tried that?

But it’s okay right because of the whole time-travel thing which means that Jayfeather actually founded the Tribe and named the first Stoneteller. I could write an entire essay on how much I hate this plot point, but that’s not the point here. The more important part is that some how the Tribe went from names like Stone Song, Half Moon, Lion’s Roar, Clear Sky, Gray Wing, etc. to names like Brook where Small Fish swim. I, as a white guy, don’t want to touch the racism there, I’m pretty sure other people have explained it better than I can, but the short version is that a group named the Tribe with names like Jagged Rock where Heron Nest comes off like a stereotype for Native Americans, at least from my white American experience. So, uh, solid yikes on that one, especially when those aren’t even the names they use (because of course not they’re a fucking mouthful) which gets to the world building point I’m gonna touch on instead.

The Ancients become the Tribe but somehow the names grow so long that they all have to go by nicknames that… almost resemble what Ancient names were to begin with? I understand this is because the Tribe’s naming convention got established before the time loop thing, but honestly, there is no reason they should’ve been named like that and in fact more reasons why they shouldn’t have. Between the racism and then from a writing perspective, what is the point, of having names like that if they’re never used? Like narratively it makes no sense from the start, and the Time Travel plot only makes that more obvious.

All that said, I actually super adore the Tribe! I wish they’d been handled differently in a lot of places but they had so much potential to be cool that got lost along the way. So thus, we come to my rewrite. If you’re just here for Tribe Analysis you’re free to go, but if you’re here for how I’m rewriting the Tribe than settle in.

---

In my rewrite the Tribe has Ancient names from the get go, because it makes more sense and allows for the Tribe to serve its original narrative function, that is, a place similar to what the Clan Cats are used enough to be comfortable, but different enough to be unsettling. The Tribe has ancestors not unlike StarClan but I have the Tribe’s worship working very differently. Stone Tellers are raised from birth to serve as a guiding force for the Tribe because they are the ones that can speak to the ancestors, and every full moon, when the Cave of Pointed Stones glows, they lead their tribe to speak with their ancestors, in something not unlike a gathering, but it is meant to be a form of remembrance, as they are sharing news with their ancestors instead.

The Tribe has very extreme views of their ancestors, refusing to take the Tribe of Endless Hunting’s name in vain. It is also believed that a Tribe cat that has passed cannot move on to the Tribe of Endless Hunting until a final task has been completed. This task is something the cat would’ve wanted to do while alive, but didn’t get to, so now one of their family, or a close friend, does it in their place. (To a reasonable extent, for example telling someone that the cat who died was in love with them, not settling down with them to raise a family because that’s what the dead cat wanted to do.) Those who have not moved on linger as ghosts. They don’t have stars in their pelts, and they don’t have the ability to see the future to warn their Tribemates the way StarClan or the Tribe of Endless Hunting do. They are capable of speaking to those who can see them, usually Stone Teller, but otherwise they tend to simply watch and wait for someone to help them move on.

The Tribe believes that the future is chosen by the Tribe of Endless Hunting, to challenge their omens is the most heretical thing a cat can do. The current Stone Teller decides a cat’s future when they are born, Cave-guard, Prey-Hunter, or rarely, the next Stone Teller. Those kits are taken by the current Stone Teller once they’re old enough to be weaned and raised in the Cave of Pointed Stones. Their name is chosen by the current Stone Teller and stripped from them when they become the next Stone Teller. Stone Teller is meant to be the ancestor’s conduit to the living and an impartial leader to the Tribe. However, not every leader can live up to those expectations, and should the Tribe begin to doubt the current Stone Teller’s capability to guide them, they can make a new cat leader. This cat would do the job of leading the Tribe, while Stone Teller continues to serve as the medicinal and spiritual leader. This rarely happens, and when it does it is rarely so clean cut, as no one particularly enjoys admitting they’ve made a mistake and need to be replaced as leader.

The Stone Teller is assisted in leading the Tribe by the head of the Cave-Guards and the head of the Prey-Hunters, these are seen as the cats that are best at that job and capable of quick decision making and good judgement calls. They often work together to organize hunting patrols and discuss issues in the territory, often presenting Stone Teller with their solutions alongside problems.

Honestly the Tribe won’t be playing a very large role in my rewrite as a whole, but since they have an entire arc dedicated to them, I wanted to make sure I had them well fleshed out. There’s a few details I’ve left out because this is long enough, but if you’re curious about anything I’ve said either about the Tribe or my rewrite, hit me up.

[bakugourarepairzine]

Our first mod spotlight is for Mod Kuro, the co-founder of the Bakugou Rarepair zine - who also functions as the co-head, writing/beta and graphics moderator.

If you want to know more about them, check out their mini-interview beneath the cut, or find them on their AO3, Twitter, Tumblr or Carrd - but if you have other questions about the zine itself, check out our Carrd or Tumblr for our FAQs or Schedule, or drop us a question at our Curious Cat!

Tell us a bit about yourself. I’m ChiaRoseKuro, better known as Kuro or Chro (since Kuro is a fairly popular name for fairly unsurprising reasons) - or the one person who never shuts up. I tend to write whatever comes to mind, which results in a lot of angst, crack and/or unusual rarepair combinations, and my zine graphics tend to involve a lot of edited manga/sketch screenshots. If you’ve read anything involving IiBakuShou (Iida, Bakugou and Shouji), AoBakuMono (Aoyama, Bakugou and Monoma) or BakuMonoKuro (Bakugou, Monoma and Kuroiro), then my name will probably be familiar to you… but you could honestly put any combination of characters in front of me and my brain will come up with a scenario for you, like your very own demented plot bunny factory. Mod Suga will be able to tell you about my weird superpower - accidentally making myself (and other people) ship pairings nobody needed, wanted or thought about prior to their existence.

What experience do you have with zines and/or moderating? I’m the founder of Phoenix: From the Ashes (a BnHA post-apocalyptic AU zine that’s currently in its creation phase) and I serve as its co-head and writing/beta mod, though I was also responsible for most of the graphics prior to the contributor application period. I’m also a mod intern (for organization and social media) in BnHA x HQ Vol. 2 and was the communications mod for one other zine (though I parted ways with them due to internal issues). As a moderator, I’ve organized and moderated exchanges and mini-bangs on my own, but I’ve also helped moderate larger exchanges and fandom Discord servers - and more recently, I’m contributing to six zines as a writer (four BnHA, one Haikyuu and one Naruto). If you’d like to know more about my experience in zines and/or moderating, you can check out my general Carrd or my zine Carrd.

What is your favourite Bakugou rarepair? My AO3 will indicate that I like BakuShin - which isn’t necessarily incorrect - but I love permutations of BakuMonoKuro far more. I really enjoy the different brands of assholery that is Bakugou, Monoma and Kuroiro put together in some fashion, so anything involving them gives me a lot of amusement. One day, I hope that people will begin associating BakuKuro with Bakugou and Kuroiro (and not Bakugou with Kurogiri, or Bakugou with… me).

What do you like about Bakugou? (asked by Sierra) I hated Bakugou when I first started reading the manga, but as I’ve gotten to know him better through roleplaying, fanfiction and character analyses… I guess I like his determination. Even if he has terrible ways of going about his life, I really admire his drive to do good in the world and to remain focused on his goals, even in the face of what almost everyone else says.

What would you do if you got to meet Bakugou in real life? (asked by Kuro) I would probably end up punching him in the face within five minutes of talking to him - if I don’t become best friends with him instead. He’s exactly the sort of person I find myself hating unequivocally or liking right off the bat, so it’s even odds as to whether I’ll hate or like him. Honestly, though, I feel like I’d probably punch him. He’s not exactly endearing, after all.

What do you look forward to seeing most in this zine? More representation for super rarepairs! Even if there’s only one new story or work of art for relatively unknown ships, it’ll still be one more to add to the small selection in the world. I’m also excited to see how people characterize Bakugou, because it’ll be interesting to see how many different facets of Bakugou we’ll end up getting in the zine.

Tune in for the next mod spotlight on May 6! Until then, if you’d like to join our mod team, we’re still looking for a finance/production moderator here.

[streamworthytv]

“Ableism as Plot Device” in Netflix’s “Locke & Key”

So...as noted, I have a beef with Locke & Key, and the way certain characters were handled in the show (remember, this has nothing to do with the comic, which I haven’t seen...I have no idea if it’s fraught with the same problems).

I first watched the show as part of my Streamworthy TV venture (currently set up & being fleshed out on FB/IG/Twitter/Tumblr & Snapchat, with YouTube in progress...give me a follow, if you care to help someone AWESOME, that can’t work a traditional job...even part time). I myself am on the spectrum, and have mobility issues that require a chair often, due to EDS. So just putting it out there that people without these issues may not immediately have noticed the problems that I’ll be mentioning...but if you’ve seen the show, you’ll know what I’m talking about (you can also see my other, previous post on general crappiness, as well as LGBTQ issues, that are present in the show).

But this post will focus on ableism, and misrepresentation of neurodiversity and disability. (Please know that this is a PURPOSEFUL separation, as I don’t see my OWN Aspieness as a “disability,” but rather, an advantage. **I know that not all people may feel that way;** however, those of us that benefit from/appreciate the autistic aspects of ourselves ALSO have the right to not see autism as a “disability.” Autism is different for everyone, and thus it shouldn’t be forced into the box of “disability.” (Example: my hyperlexia from a young age served me VERY well with reading, writing papers, and test taking, for many, many years. But back to Locke & Key.)

The reason I brought up the above point was because, through the first season, L&K uses the “autism as disability only” angle, which many of us in the ASD community are used to seeing (and being annoyed by). And despite ZERO character development over the course of the series, I’ve seen “AUTISM AS PLOT DEVICE” employed THREE times, at LEAST. I was dragging through the show, annoyed at the portrayal and usage of the character, as well as a different character, who is wheelchair-using, and nonverbal. But suddenly the “realization of ableism” bolt hit me about the larger problems with the portrayals and usage of ASD here - and I got PISSED.

Maybe we have interests that may SEEM to others to “not be age appropriate” (...when, give me a break, how many NT adults/older teens love stories or movies from comics, or collect Funkos, or went hunting for Pokémon...? It’s NOT just us, y’all). Also, older kids CAN INDEED hang out with younger kids in a mentor-type way, without it being a situation of “welp, ASD = emotionally stunted, so character only hangs out with young child.” But those tropes aren’t enough.

We DON’T innocently extrapolate situations outside our head (in front of others!), ESPECIALLY if it breaks a safety rule we were told, i.e., “well, my mom said I’m not supposed to say if I’m home alone...but you’re a friend, so...no, she’s not here.” Before you tell me otherwise, keep this point in mind - if we have the ability to be home alone, SAFELY taking care of ourselves...then we wouldn’t slip like that. NOPE. If we DID, it wouldn’t BE safe for us to be home by ourselves.

As well, if we REALLY care about an item, we don’t let it go missing (the ASD character doesn’t, but someone else uses said character’s autism to blame for “needing to go looking for the toys he left behind, then got ‘upset’ about,” - also inferring a “meltdown” - every time she needs to go to someone’s else’s house). **If something is related to one of our SpIns (special interests), we DON’T MISPLACE THOSE ITEMS HAPHAZARDLY!!** I’ve been that way since I was a kid. Ugh!!! You also see someone destroy one of his treasured items, just to be cruel. This shows us how important the items are to the character...so he WOULDN’T be forgetting them.

So, we see a mother using tropes of her son’s autism, to manipulate herself into certain important areas/situations, more than once. That, and the fact that the character with ASD is able to let someone know they were home alone when a crime occurred (thus making the person that lives with them a suspect), because of their completely unrealistic, verbalized musing of “the ASD thought process”...mix it all in with the total lack of character development, and you come to the final conclusion:

“This character is only here as a plot device. They’ve been given zero character development, and have been shown JUST enough to ESTABLISH THAT THEY ARE NEURODIVERSE, and then are thereafter ONLY in ways that FURTHER THE PLOT...in ways that would only occur BECAUSE the character is neurodiverse.”

So yeah. This is lazy writing of the worst degree, and I’m more than a little annoyed. I’m sick and tired of “DISABILITY AS PROP OR PLOT DEVICE” (whether that disability is a assumed or not), as well as disabled or neurodiverse characters ONLY being shown as tropes. This does a disservice to not only the ASD community, but to society as a whole; people will expect us to act a certain way, and not be understanding of those that are “higher functioning” - for lack of a better term - than those that are portrayed on television. As well, it’s part of the reason why females with autism are still VASTLY under-diagnosed (as they can have VASTLY different presentation). Not only do people get used to seeing a particular suite of “symptoms,” which they equate to ALL people on the spectrum...but those shown in media are almost NEVER female.

I’m not sure if the comic is set up this way as well, and it’s just poorly executed on TV...but I’m peeved AF😡 There is also the poor acting/treatment of the wheelchair-using, institutionalized character, & how her being non-verbal is ALSO used to further the plot (yikes, my hands are shot...but I’ll get out what I can, here).

I’ve worked with MANY non-verbal children (it was actually my specialty, before physical & mental health issues of my own)...and I’ve also had my OWN bouts of being non-verbal, due to trauma/illness. On BOTH sides, I have always found a way to communicate. Even when my Dad was on a ventilator and life support (mostly for breathing/kidney function, due to sepsis...we sadly lost him a few weeks later), I was able to communicate with him...because, with my background, I saw that he was able to respond with the wiggling of a toe, or squeezing of a hand.

So the use of a non-verbal character that “can’t tell her important secrets,” as another necessary part of the plot, is just MORE lazy, insulting, ableist scriptwriting. The character is NOT catatonic, and is aware of what’s going on all around them; so, by what you see in all interactions with her, it makes you wonder what’s happening to her when she doesn’t have visitors. Is she just rolled into a back room, or off to the side, where no one gives her ANY adaptive equipment?

Any research would show that one with speech issues can build sentences with an eye-gaze machine, or even eye-gaze itself, with symbols. I’d like to think that in real life, a CENTER for those that are disabled, of all places(!!!), would have at least ONE of those machines, or some other means of communication, available.

This is another point that is sad for society at large to view, as it makes people think that they “shouldn’t bother with” people that are non-verbal, as there’s “no way” to let them be part of communication, besides the method used in the show (which I have used as well, but you would think this poor character would be getting SOME type help/services/etc!) It was just CRINGEWORTHY AF...I’m SO sick of shows/movies where someone needs to address someone thrown in the back of an institution alone, to rot (off the top of my head, I remember this from “Dark” on Netflix, as well as on “Orphan Black,” amongst others).

So...yea. I just wanted to post this, for if anyone asks for a link, or anyone stumbles across this, and themselves saw these issues, and got upset. Trust me - it wasn’t just you. This is a comic that was supposedly quite successful...the television adaptation of this could’ve been MUCH better. If there were tropes of other marginalized groups in the comic, you can be SURE that those would be righted for TV. But the ableist train keeping chugging right along, as more people than EVER claim to be “woke”🙄 YIKES.

[lovemesomesurveys]

What was the brand of your first ever cell phone? Cingular Wireless. 

What are your 3 favorite internet sites? Tumblr, YouTube, and Twitter. 

Do you have a favorite pair of blue jeans? Describe them. I like all my jeans, they’re all dark wash skinny jeans. 

What profession do you respect? Anyone who works with the disadvantaged and is paid pennies for it – social workers, homeless/domestic violence shelter employees, animal rescuers, etc. High-stress jobs with no financial reward, basically. <<< Yes!

Have you ever been the recipient of a practical joke? No.

Have you ever ate something you’ve dropped on the floor, if so what? Nooo. That 5 second rule is a lie.

Would you consider being an Uber driver if you needed to make extra money? I don’t have a car, nor can I drive, which are both kinda necessary. IF I could, I still wouldn’t. I’d be scared to have strangers in my car.

How do you know when you’re in love, what’s the main sign? I actually want to be around the person for long periods of time. <<< Ha, yeah that’s definitely a sign for me as well. 

Have you ever gotten anything autographed, if so by who & what was it? Jim Carrey, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Drake Bell.

Do you prefer Walmart or Target? Target.

What do you long for? My vacation next year. 

If you could be a personal assistant to anyone, who would it be? No thanks.

What is the most important thing you can do to improve yourself? Take better care of myself.  What makes it hard for you to keep your focus? My mind will just start to wander after awhile and if I focus on trying to stay focused, I become too focused on being focused. Did you follow any of that? lol.

Do you think society has become too PC (politically correct)? I think in some cases people are too quick to attack others. Some people truly may just be ignorant about a topic or accidentally misspoke about something, but people are so quick to attack and make them out to be the worst person in the world. Try educating others instead. Some people act like they know everything and never say the wrong thing ever.

What tragic love story do you relate to? None.

Has your intuition or “gut” served you well? In some cases.

What’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line for something and what was it? Midnight premieres. My friends and I would get there an hour or two early and you just hang around until they start letting people in. It was fun, though. We’d bring blankets and a bunch of snacks. 

Who is your favorite model? I don’t have one.

What have you done that is out of character for you? I used to be the friend everyone could come and talk to. I was dependable. A few years ago I pushed everyone away and became distant and withdrawn. I’m not that dependable person anymore.

Would you rather get a gift card or a gift that someone bought for you? I appreciate either one.

Who is the most visionary person in your life & how do they inspire you? Uhhh.

How do you handle a betrayal? I’d be hurt, but I’d also likely blame myself.

What do you feel strong enough to protest about? I’ve never protested before. 

What’s the biggest blooper you’ve never lived down? My life.

If you owned a restaurant what kind of food do you want to serve? To play along with your hypothetical game I’d have a cafe. 

What will we find if we look in the bottom of your closet today? Medical supplies and shoes. 

What kind of car did you learn how to drive on? I still haven’t learned how to drive.

What is the best thing you have done just because you were told you can’t? I don’t know.

Have you ever had to go to court or testify and if so what for? No.

Do you believe in karma? No.

Are you more worried about doing the things right, or doing the right thing? I can worry about both. They are not mutually exclusive. <<< Yeah. They’re not even the same thing. Doing things right can be like following instructions and such, while doing the right thing is like what you think is morally right.

Do you believe in the term “Mother knows best? My mom often does. If I would have just listened to her advice some things would certainly be a lot different. Even now. I’m so damn stubborn. 

Who is your favorite movie action hero? Iron Man, Spiderman, Ant-Man, Star Lord, and Thor.  

What is one thing you can get in your hometown you can’t get elsewhere? Hm. Nothing is coming to mind, honestly. 

How important are looks in someone you’re in a relationship with? I just answered this in another survey. They’re not the most important thing, it’s gotta be deeper than just looks, but I can’t say they don’t matter at all.

What freedom do you feel is not really free anymore? Uhhh.

What are you most thankful for? My family.

Do you have any favorite talk shows or talk radio programs without music? Well, as far as talk shows go I like to watch Daily Pop and Dr. Phil. Sometimes The Talk as well.

What was the last book you read? Because of Bethlehem by Max Lucado.

What’s your favorite online store? The places I shop online the most are: Hot Topic, BoxLunch, Kohl’s, Amazon, and Etsy.

What band would you love to tour with or be a roadie for? I don’t wanna do that. I couldn’t handle it.

If you were to throw a message in a bottle into the ocean, it would say? “Hi.” lol.

Do you have common sense or do you think people are lacking in it? It doesn’t seem to be very common sometimes. You either got it or you don’t, and it does seem to be lacking.

What’s your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Coffee.

How do you feel about thrift shops or flea markets? Not my thing.

What do you like to put gravy on? Mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, and ham. I love country gravy on my eggs. 

Have you ever gone canoeing/kayaking? Nope.

What one thing in particular makes you feel good about yourself? Nothing.

What is priceless to you? Time with my family. 

What do you wait for discount sales to buy? I always look for a good sale and use coupon codes whenever I can.

What is one thing you know about your family history you’re proud of? I honestly don’t know a whole lot. I’d really like to do that ancestry test.

What 3 songs will always be found at the top of your playlist? It changes.

What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done for someone? Hmm. 

Do you keep a budget? I try. 

If you could cast a spell on someone what spell would you cast and on who? Nah.

What makes you feel rested and refreshed? Spending time at the beach is the only thing that can make me feel that way.

What is the funniest joke you have ever heard about? I don’t know what I’d say the funniest joke I ever heard was.  Who depends on you the most? No one.

Could you ever be someone’s bodyguard? Ha, no. I’m very thin, weak, and in a wheelchair. No offense to anyone else who may also be any of those things, but I know I couldn’t protect anyone. I’m also a scardy cat, easily intimidated, and non-confrontational, so... I’d really be of no use at all.

Has one of your biggest fears come true? Yes. And some will eventually... they’re inevitable. :(

Is there anything about the opposite sex you just don’t understand? There’s a lot I don’t understand about people in general.

Did you create a checklist for your ideal spouse? If so, what were two things you wanted? I only list things like that when asked in a survey. It comes up a lot.

Have you ever ridden on a subway or train an what did you like about it? Nope.

What song on your playlist gets played the most? My Spotify wrap up thingy listed all that, but I don’t feel like checking it again right now.

Do you prefer sporty or academic members of the opposite sex? Academic.

Do you have to experience something to fully understand it? No. I have a strong instinct for empathy. <<<

Has anyone in your family ever served in the military? Yes.

Finish the next line in your style: Roses are red, violets are blue… I’m tired, how are you?

What embarrasses you instantly? When I start mixing my words around when I speak. <<< Saaaame. I trip over my words, too. 

Do you think you could be a firefighter, why/why not? Nope. Well, there’s the wheelchair for one.

Do you often read your horoscope? I never do.

What current event are you tired of hearing about? Trump.

Are you a daredevil? Ha, nope.

What common pitfalls do you find yourself dealing with in your work life? I don’t have a job.

Describe your “poker face”. >> My resting face is a poker face. People tend to read all kinds of things into it (usually negative things), because I guess they can’t stand a simple blank slate. <–Me. We’re so misunderstood. Haha. <<< Me, too. 

What do you think should be censored? I don’t see the issue with curse words being censored. I just never understood why you can say some, but not others. 

Are you related to anyone famous or historical, if so who? Possibly.

Would you ever donate a kidney to anyone, and who? I don’t know.

How do you encourage yourself when you go through hard times? My relationship with God.

Have you ever fired a gun? Yes. I went to a shooting range once with friends.

Do you think people, including yourself live up to their full potential? I’m not doing anything with my life. :/ I don’t feel like I have much potential, either.

How are you different from most people? I’m different from people I know in a lot of ways. Like, people I know are functioning adults and I’m not.

What is the main quality you think makes a great parent? Understanding is definitely one. There’s a lot of things, though.

What creature do you admire for its ability to adapt? Dogs.

Have you ever stayed up for an entire 24 hours, why? Yeah. I’ve stayed up for over 30 hours. I honestly don’t know I ever did that. I could never now.

Who is a female role model in your life? My mom.

What childhood dreams have you neglected? The ones where I was doing something with my life.

How often do you reevaluate your life? I don’t. I am aware of what my life looks like at any given time. I don’t need to sit down and think deeply about it to realize I need to change something I’m doing; I am well aware of my faults and negative habits.  <<< Just gonna keep all your answers.

What’s your favorite place just to hang out? My bed.

What gives you a zest for life? This makes me think of this thing I saw on Twitter that said something like, “I thought it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy, not stressed, depressed, lemon zest”, ha.

What do you have trouble seeing clearly in your mind? My mind is a jumbled mess. 

What three things do you think of most of each day? God, my health, and my life.

Would you travel to space if possible? Nopeeee. Just the idea of space is terrifying to me. 

Name a famous person you wouldn’t mind for a business partner. I don’t want a business partner. I’m not doing anything in business. 

[hopevalley]

Hi everyone! I hope you’re ready for another Tumblr Special™.

Let’s talk about some stuff that’s been on my mind lately.

I’ve been working on my pet project, When Calls the Heart: Reimagined, and my bud @trash-god has assured me that the current first draft isn’t complete garbage, but the discussion we had eventually led to talking about Mark Humphrey and then character-related stuff and as usual I couldn’t shut up.

Before that, I just wanted to drop the update about Reimagined. I don’t know if that’ll be its actual title or not. It’s hard to title a novelization. On one hand you have the option to title it the same as the show, but it’s not the show, so then you’re kind of stuck feeling like you have to come up with something at least slightly different, but it’s still also technically fanfic, and—

Yeah. There’s also the potential for something like this to really blow up in a big way, at least word-wise, so that makes a title even more important. I’ll definitely be out there barking my wares like a peddler on the street, but like...here on Tumblr and especially on Instagram where there are a ton of fans. Twitter too, probably. Considering I have to type this five billion times across social media to try and garner some attention (and hopefully feedback) for it, I’d rather not be embarrassed by the title, or turn people away from it because they think it’s a regular fanfic and not a novelization of the show.

Which leaves me with very few options.

When Calls the Heart: The Novelization

When Calls the Heart: Reimagined

Some other title with a subtitle of “A When Calls the Heart Novelization”

It sounds simple but it’s not. “The Novelization” makes it sound like it’s following the show super precisely. “Reimagined” makes it sound as if it deviates in a big way. Something else could just be too much to type but at least it implies it’s an interpretation. What if this ends up getting absolutely huge and needs to be split up into parts, though? That makes it more difficult.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve made it about five minutes into the first episode, time-wise, and have four thousand some odd words. It’s not even a complete chapter—more like an introduction and the beginning of the first chapter.

But something I noticed in those first five minutes of the television series is that...everything is so incredibly rushed. The pacing is awful. I think I might have talked about this a bit in my ‘episode write-up’ of the first episode, but even though it works well enough for this series (especially considering its S1 budget and everything) it would all be terrible for a narrative choice.

I mean, sure, the first chapter could start with Elizabeth on her journey thinkin’ ‘bout where she’s going, ruminating on her own hubris, and then BANDITS. Cut out and back in to her arriving in town without much of an explanation or showing how she personally handled the whole bandit thing. Then have Abigail, Cat, and Florence steamroll the heck out of her while the narrative laughs at rich, silly Elizabeth who isn’t afraid of hard work but is scared of a mouse.

But that isn’t what I want. Elizabeth as a character, especially the introductory character we’re going to get to know and love over the course of hundreds of thousands of words (in theory, of course), deserves better than that. The narrative cluster from the TV show served its purpose; it flung us right into the thick of things. Which is fine for TV and less fine for what would essentially be a book.

Again, don’t get me wrong, but I want Elizabeth to be the kind of character we don’t know everything about right away. I don’t want to spill every detail of her life right from the get-go. I don’t want her to come off as too obviously rich, especially in her own narrative. I want her observations and mannerisms and attitude to reflect the fact that she comes from money without stating it outright.

I also feel that Elizabeth as a character lacked a lot of attention in the show that, again, worked okay for a tv show, but would be doing her a disservice in a novel. She needs hobbies, passions, random relateable thoughts, habits, joys (especially the quiet kind), and motivation. Not to be That Person, but she needs a personality. As the main character it would just be completely unforgivable to have hundreds of thousands of words dedicated to a character that is dull to read about. Remember, books don’t give us the visually appealing scenes that the TV show does. Elizabeth’s smile, her hair, her fun outfits and hats... Those things can’t distract a reader from the fact that she isn’t a very well-fleshed out or understood character.

It also can’t distract from an insanely rushed narrative.

Tons of people watch WCtH for Erin’s performance of Elizabeth. They won’t be reading this novelization for that reason, because Elizabeth is not Erin.

(Though of course you can imagine her in the role if you want to and most readers will; it’s just not the kind of thing that can carry a book the way it can a piece of visual media.)

-

Reimagined is, as of right now, just a slight deviation from what we’re used to. Elizabeth has hobbies, interests. She is a passionate teacher who took the position in Coal Valley for Reasons You’ll Read About.

I really liked aspects of the Elizabeth portrayed in the film by Poppy and in the novel by Janette Oke, and some of those tiny things can and will work their way into this version of the story, too. I’m on board with Elizabeth being a writer, but I’m not on board for that being used as journal exposé writing for Narrative Ease and not to really go all-out in showcasing it as something she’s truly and honestly passionate about. If I want to see a movie that did a great job of showcasing a passionate writer, it’s Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea. Sure, Anne’s flair for flowery writing and drama was embedded into the voiceover bits and had some narrative function, but it was SO clearly a part of WHO SHE WAS that when you thought about who Anne was, you thought, oh, she’s a teacher for her job but she’s a writer at heart—especially when she learns to write from the heart (instead of what she thinks will make her successful).

I don’t expect Elizabeth to be that type of character (she’s far too sensible), but I need her to have a passion. A person doesn’t just take a teaching post in Nowhere Valley, Canada, in 1910 and not have a good reason for it. What drives her? What motivates her? What makes her happy? 

And when it comes to writing...what is it about writing that she likes? Enjoys? What’s the best part of it? The worst? I wanted to like Elizabeth’s writing arc because duh, I’m a writer, but it didn’t spark any joy in me because it was just too flat. If you give me half a chance I’ll tell you all the best parts of writing, and the worst, and the most frustrating, and the most rewarding. I’ll talk about character growth and development. I’ll talk about cadence. I’ll talk about self-indulgence.

Elizabeth’s passion for writing existed for one reason: “she writes in her journal for easy skips in the narrative.” 

I think she’ll keep her writing passion in Reimagined, but she’ll have other things that matter to her, too, and hopefully if it’s consistently presented it won’t feel like it’s there just to carry a plotline (only for it to disappear afterward).

It’s been fun so far! Elizabeth has been surprisingly nice to write. I won’t lie, though; it’s hard to follow the show enough to make things feel like a novelization while still deviating where it makes sense to. One small example is the conversation that Cat, Abigail, and Florence have with Elizabeth when she gets to town; the TV show didn’t do a bad job with it at all, but when it’s written out exactly the same it feels intensely rushed and out of character/unrealistic. Again, it’s something that got the job done in the TV show, but is nigh unreadable in novel format. 

And it’s not the info dumping, either. It’s just the way the characters go about things; it’s not hospitable, it’s not kind, it’s not thoughtful... and we know from later episodes that Abigail is the pinnacle of hospitality and kindness, and Cat isn’t too far behind her! Even Florence isn’t a monster.

So there has been an attempt on my part to twist things slightly, where mayyybe what Florence says that sounds so rude is really just Florence Being Florence (and observing a truth/reality, not always being awful), and where Elizabeth isn’t mocked on top of being doubted, and of course where some concern is shown for her well-being after her stagecoach was robbed and no doubt didn’t show up in town IN THE FIRST PLACE. I mean, how could they NOT know why Elizabeth was late? Being late by a few days or a week was NOTHING back then. It happened ALL THE TIME. (Thanks, weather!)

So yeah! The project is going. I was really getting into writing it last night, and I’d be working on it now, but I’m just too tired to feel useful.

-

For those wondering about Abigail...she’ll be there. I like the original character and I’ll try to move forward with that person in mind.

-

But back to the whole thing with Mark and et cetera. It’s really interesting how many WCtH characters got the short end of the stick when it came to character development. They have too many characters for the amount of episodes they get a season, which resulted in like...everyone dating for absurdly long periods of time (that had nothing to do with character-reasons until they felt they had to add that stuff in there to force it to make sense). It wasn’t just Jesse and Clara, either. Obviously Elizabeth and Jack took way too long to get together...and Abigail and Frank dated for literal years and should have had something related to that being..a plot for them. I think it might have been interesting in ways Jesse/Clara can’t be, just because Abigail had a long marriage with Noah and she’s much older than Clara, so she brings all that into a new relationship. Clara’s got different issues and sadnesses to work through.

Obviously it didn’t just result in characters dating for insane lengths of time; it also gave us a lot of just..nothing. This conversation started with Frank, because we were talking about Mark Humphrey, but he’s just one example of a handful. The series focused a LOT more on plot driven stuff than character driven stuff, which makes sense, but look at Frank’s character. He got an arc, and then when it was over, he just kind of became a very backseat background character. We might as well have named him Abigail’s Boyfriend at that point, because he hardly did anything that wasn’t related to Abigail DIRECTLY. He didn’t even really get scenes with Cody, which...c’mon. We deserved those. (The best we got was the Christmas movie where the peddler has his old Bible from prison but that whole thing was...not nearly as good or meaningful as it could have been, and of course IT DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE.)

But then it also happened to Lee, and Jesse, and Clara, and Carson and Faith and—yeah, you get it. I feel like if we had 20 episodes a season this wouldn’t be so bad (each recognizable character could easily get a two part episode plotline), but it’s a symptom of plots > character storytelling. More episodes won’t fix that if they just dump in even more bad plots.

S6 was a large improvement in many areas but they REALLY dropped the ball with Bill overall (easily one of the worst parts of S6 just because he went from being such an involved character to kind of a joke/rag doll that nobody knows how to include in a sensible way) and the children aren’t characters so much as tiny plot devices...that frankly aren’t even particularly interesting.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with S7. I hope it’ll be good! I really want them to get their footing onto solid ground and do the best they’ve ever done. They have something really wonderful and I want to be able to tell people “this series found its way and is worth checking out even if it’s usually not your speed.”

But it’s hard to do that when the characters always end up feeling secondary to the (poorly constructed, not very engaging) plots.

So we’ll see! These are things I can improve upon in Reimagined, but I’d really like the show to do some of that work, too. (Better late than never, right?)

[shima-draws]

★ SIMULATOR AU MASTERPOST ★

Well, here it is! You all have been asking for it--the ultimate Sim AU guide!! Below is everything that you need to know about the AU. Thanks for all of your amazing support ^^

So what exactly is the Sim AU? The Simulator AU, shortened to just the Sim AU, (sometimes also referred to as the AI AU) is a canon divergence to the end of season 2 of Voltron. However unlike the last episode Team Voltron actually defeats Zarkon in battle definitively, managing to destroy his empire and free the universe from his reign. Prior to the final battle, for unknown reasons Lance asks Pidge to create a very complex simulator installed with all of their memories and tons of other data. He also has her create a simulated version of himself, a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence program containing all of his memories, personality, appearance and abilities. This AI version of Lance is given one task, programmed into his very core and is his sole reason for existence—protect Lance’s most important person. Later on this person is revealed to be Keith, and during the final fight Keith is gravely injured and put into the simulator (which also serves as a healing and escape pod) and is shot out into space to protect him from further injury while the other Paladins finish up the final fight. Keith awakens inside the simulator, thinking that he’s still in the real world with Lance, and back on Earth after having won over the Galra empire. However this is all a ruse to protect him from the truth, as he is being kept company by the AI version of Lance while the real one and the rest of Team Voltron have mysteriously disappeared. Soon after the simulator begins to malfunction and Keith crash lands into a planet, he is thrown into a crazy battle against the Galra uprising, the remains of the Galra empire, and is accompanied by lookalike versions of all of his friends and a now-physical embodiment of AI!Lance. The AU is basically a tale of all of his adventures falling in love with the AI and getting into crazy shenanigans with his new but familiar comrades along with the Galra Resistance.

The rest is under the read more to save space!

What’s the background on AI Lance? AI Lance, as previously stated, was created to protect Keith and serve as a moderator over the simulator. After Keith wakes up on an alien planet and encounters the lookalikes of Pidge and Hunk, the two of them work to make a physical body (a highly advanced robot, basically, think Westworld) for Lance’s consciousness to be put into. Once Lance gains a physical body, he has the same appearance of the original Lance but with a few minor quirks. Exposed wires poke out of the back of his neck and when referring to himself and his actions he often relates them back to his internal systems, all machinery and mechanical parts. He frequently gets checkups by Katy and Hunk so that they can update his systems and check his inner circuits to make sure everything’s running okay. Due to this the three of them become quite close, similar to how the original Hunk, Pidge and Lance were all friends back at the Garrison. Throughout the AU Lance struggles immensely with his identity, not wanting to be labeled as a copy of the original Lance and wanting to form his own identity outside of that. He constantly battles within himself, asking “Am I Lance or am I just me? I don’t know” and that struggle is one of the main conflicts of the story!

What is Keith wearing around his neck? That is an AI cube! It serves as a storage system for all of an AI’s data and programming. Lance’s core is an AI cube, which serves as his “heart” and is basically what keeps him functioning. The one that Keith has is a gift from Lance and contains all of his backup data. Katy fashioned it into a necklace for him for safekeeping. So not only is it a sort of accessory (I mean, it’s really pretty to look at), but it’s something for Keith to protect since a lot of Lance’s extra data is in that cube.

Who are the lookalikes, exactly? The lookalikes are all similar to the original Paladins but with minor differences! It’s still a mystery why they’ve shown up and where the original Paladins have gone. On the roster, we have Katy, a Pidge lookalike but not disguised as a boy, Hunk, who isn’t even human but looks just like one, being of a mysterious alien race, Allura and Coran, both humans and the leaders of the Galra Resistance Army, and Shiro, an Altean with a tragic past. It’s difficult for Keith to meet these people, who so resemble his teammates, and have to completely reforge his bonds with them since they obviously aren’t the same Paladins he knew before. (But, well, at least he has Lance.)

Why can’t you reveal the secrets of the Paladins’ whereabouts and why Lance had Pidge make the simulator? Because I don’t want to give everything away! All of that information will soon be revealed in the story, so please be patient! Once that stuff is written out and explained I’ll update this post about those secrets I’m keeping.

Is there a fanfiction for this AU? Yes, there is! It’s called A World of Zeroes and Ones (the title is based off of a Vocaloid song of the same name) and starts out with Keith waking up in the simulator. Everything else about the background and Lance’s identity as an AI has yet to be revealed to Keith but he’ll figure it out soon! You can read it here over on Archive! It’s still in progress, updates are slow but I’m chugging away at them :’) Thanks for all the support so far! And yes, if it wasn’t obvious already I do have an actual storyline in mind for this AU, from start to finish I have the entire plot written out, it’s just a matter of getting down and actually writing the entire thing...!

Who is Error Lance? Error Lance is basically what I’ve dubbed an “evil” version of AI!Lance where he has completely malfunctioned and been corrupted beyond saving, his entire systems being reduced to an error code. In this mode he loses all sentience and thought, only being driven to destroy and cannot tell friend from foe. Error Lance is basically just a lost confused child who doesn’t know what he’s doing or who he is or why he exists—he only knows how to kill. This mode is usually triggered if something contradicts with his core programming and his reason for existence—Keith. If Keith is somehow injured horribly or even killed this will set Lance off and totally wipe out his systems; it reduces him to the errors that are caused by his reason for existence being compromised. The only thing that can successfully snap him out of this mode and restore him to his previous “version” before he was corrupted is Keith—therefore proving his reason to exist is still there. Hopefully that makes sense? It’s sort of hard to explain haha

Who is Zero? Zero is AI!Lance’s prototype, the original original first AI that Pidge created. (Hoh, you thought that our regular AI!Lance was the first? Nope!) Due to a whole bunch of malfunctions and bugs, Pidge scrapped the prototype and created a better version, which is the Lance we all know and love now. (I mean she can’t get it perfect on the first try it was her first time creating an Artificial Intelligence, especially one of this caliber!) She meant to delete the prototype permanently, but…a whole bunch of crazy stuff happened and interrupted the process so Zero was never actually fully deleted. He sleeps deep, deep within the simulator’s core data, only longing to meet Keith at least once, since that was the reason he was created. This poor kid. He’s really scary since he’s…a huge mess and just broken. Broken. But he honestly loves Keith and sincerely hopes for his happiness, even going so far as to use all of his power to help Keith and Lance when they get into sticky situations. Like original Lance, Zero is dismayed that Keith is in love with AI!Lance, considering Zero was supposed to be the one made for Keith, but was scrapped. Maybe one day he’ll get a happy ending...

What inspired this AU? The song Shelter by Madeon and Porter Robinson! The whole idea for the simulator originated from the animated video for that song. You could say it’s become sort of the themesong for this AU haha

Can I repost the art of this AU? Nope, sorry! This AU is very very important and special and personal to me so I’m not comfortable with other people using the art from it or reposting on other sites. I appreciate your enthusiasm and support but I won’t be changing my mind about this;; Please don’t go against my wishes and repost it anyway, because if you do I’ll report you without any hesitation. Let me repeat: DO NOT REPOST ANYTHING REGARDING THIS AU ON OTHER SITES. This AU has only been shared on tumblr, so if you see any of the art for it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. please let me know right away!

Can I make fanart of this AU? YES!! Yes, please, please do! There is nothing I would like more! Please, if you do end up making fanart, tag this blog or submit it here, my submission box is always open! Either way I’m gonna want to show it off to everyone else and shout about it, so yes, it’s highly encouraged and greatly appreciated!

The AU so far:

The overall tag/The tag in chronological order

Introductory post Crashlanding Arm sword Lance Concept sketches and doodles No, my circuits are humming You can’t spell AI without Mcclain! System overheating. Love you! Katy doodles *Chirr* Valentine’s Day Dorks Pixel animations He’s glitching out of happiness! Happy birthday, Lance! The master of sarcasm Embarrassed kisses When will I be seen as myself? Laughing smooches Human Error Happy boy! Take your boyfriend and make a run for it Soulmate AU to the AU (this doesn’t have art, but a cute mini fic I wrote if the AU also involved soulmates as well!) Kisses kisses KISSES Lance, you’re sparking! Floorplan/layout of Lance and Keith’s room Error Lance appears! Smol Error boy (and Eruba) Happy birthday, Keith! (This also has a short fic attached to it too! It’s very very fluffy and sweet) Error boy Lance flirts with a mysterious boy?! Zero’s Introduction Would you kiss this sweet broken Zero boy? Zero dabs My sensors can’t handle this! Klance kisses Klance kisses KLANCE KISSES ,,˙͡ɥ͢ʇ̴ᴉ͘ǝʞ̡˙˙˙͞ƃu͡ᴉʇ̛ᴉ҉ɐ͟ʍ ͠ǝ͟q̵ ͢l̨l,I˙˙˙u̶oos̢ ̕n҉oʎ ɥʇᴉ̨ʍ ͟ʇ̡ǝǝɯ͟ ̧ǫʇ̶˙̵˙˙ʇ͞uɐ͘ʍ I ¿́no̕ʎ ̡ǝ̶ɹɐ˙˙̶˙͢ǝɹǝɥ͟M,̡, 100% Form In love in love in despair Favorite place with you (This one’s animated!)

I’ll update this post with any additional art I make as we go along!

And if you have any other questions, please, don’t hesitate to ask! I love talking about this AU, it’s my heart and soul ❤️

[worksmartshow-blog]

JOURNEY DOWN THE BLACK HOLE OF... TWITTER! A few days back, Jeremiah and I recorded two episodes of the Work Smart Show outlining our experiences with and advice for certain social media platforms. It really got me thinking because we both use, almost entirely, different platforms with Facebook being the only crossover. He uses Snapchat, Instagram and Reddit where as I use Twitter, Tumblr and Minds. It really got me thinking about where people actually spend their time and the way that certain platforms trend, eg. Tumblr and Pinterest’s overwhelming female user ship. So I wanted to share some of my experiences on each platform so follow me as today I journey down the black hole of… Twitter. I first found Twitter several years ago as a way to follow several of my favourite CHH rappers and was amazed to find that many of them would talk with and to me directly. There is nothing like the feeling, as a kid in New Zealand, of talking to Trae the Truth in a different time zone, hemisphere and so much more. If I was to go his show I would have to pay hundreds, if not thousands for a backstage, VIP meeting with him and that wouldn't be a conversation but a quick meeting. Twitter provides an amazing resource to quickly and easily talk to your followers in a way that can be really memorable. There are many issues with Twitter, including what Gary Vee call’s the “firehose” effect. This is the concept that if you follow 100 people you will see every single one of their posts in your feed meaning it can be all consuming. To contrast this Facebook only shows you curated content that the algorithm thinks you will enjoy. However if you get too far behind with your Twitter feed the ‘New Posts’ button becomes available and skips you up to the most recent posts. This means you can easily miss huge swaths of what you would have otherwise seen. This necessitates really serious users, marketers or anyone looking for followers to be posting almost constantly. There is a lot of useful tools for Twitter to automate tweets and to create a content library, manage your follow-backs and such and they are all very useful. However I have found, when first starting out, that building a follower base was largely due to connecting personally with people. Genuinely thanking them for their follow and often referencing something in their bio or recent posts. This is not simply a self serving task as it allows you to see what sort of people are following you and you will find some great articles and posts. However it will also build your numbers as the person will often reply of retweet your comment, especially if it is complimentary of their work, to their thousands of followers. You will notice that if someone with over 50 thousand followers retweets your post then it is good for at least 10-15 followers of your own or further retweets and it’s not that hard. Now let’s address another aspect of Twitter, DM’s - where it all goes down. Now there is only a few people I have actually talked to through DM as normally you would do so directly and openly on Twitter. The other nuisance is that most people you follow send auto DM's with offsite links, which I have never - NEVER - not even once clicked​. Even for people that I like! I don't even open the DM tab on my phone or laptop. There must be a hit rate for DM’s but it will be very low as most people simply ignore them. I have written previously about one, just one, I opened and engaged with the person as they didn't promote anything but simply asked something interesting like “I struggled with automation at first, do you think it is needed or can you get around it by manual work?” Try that approach, just because this is an automated message doesn't mean that a robot wrote it. I am happy receiving a DM sent by a robot so long as it does not also read like the said robot wrote it themselves. I have never understood the relatively new story function for individual users but it can be great for looking at many different users posts on a particular topic or issue. Similarly the ability to put followers into ‘Lists’ is something that I underutilise but has amazing potential for marketing and feeding varied information to specific groups of people. In short you can gain a lot of great benefits from Twitter; such as organic website traffic, well targeted advertising, fascinating interactions with or between mega stars - or even presidents! It is not something to be neglected and if you want to know more read Gary Vee’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook! and check out this really fascinating article about Twitter stats and the best ways to use it. Have your say on Twitter, Facebook, Anchor, Tumblr, Minds or Medium! Listen and download our Work Smart Show Podcast hosted by Access Manawatu!