#but every day this site gets worse

[recklessmoss]

i'm so unironically baffled at the amount of downgrades this site pushes out on a nearly weekly basis at this point. Near half if not all of them are almost completely useless and give absolutely zero benefit to user experience, if anything @staff is quite literally distancing their userbase.... do you think i want another twitter? Like what purpose or benefit does taking away dash avatars has... what's the benefit of taking away basic accessibility features.. fucking genuinely. I hate it here. I don't know how many more feedback letters I have to send in order for all this shit to stop... i'm so tired.

[cruelsister-moved2]

btw the fact that butch/femme relationships arent 'replicating heterosexuality' doesnt mean you as a feminine woman are incapable of having desires+expectations rooted in internalisation of the male gaze & then projecting that onto masc women. it means masc women dont "have a male gaze" & are in no position to actually benefit from it, it doesnt mean that you as a feminine woman fantasising about being a tradwife and regurgitating tiktok divine feminine bimbo nonsense needs no further exploration as long as u construct an internal voyeur in the shape of a masculine woman rather than a man

[dreamlogic]

musing in the tags about the view two years out from my hysterectomy and the shifting nature of neuropathy. i asked my PT for recommendations/resources pertaining to pain science and that's been a very helpful lenses to have. i'm still not back to normal, will never be unmarked by this experience or return to my pre-op self, but my baseline has been gradually increasing over the last few months, and it feels good to look back on the last two years and say "i have no idea how i managed to function while living with that, but i did!"

[dreamings-free]

BMG is taking direct control of its streaming business in a move the company describes as the biggest change to its recorded music strategy since launch 15 years ago. 

BMG and its current distributor, Warner Music Group’s ADA, have agreed to part ways, enabling both companies to focus on growing their businesses and margins.

It will see a phased in-sourcing of distribution to all major streaming platforms, beginning at the end of this year with Spotify and Apple Music. BMG will continue to outsource physical distribution in a new deal expected to be announced shortly.

BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld said: “This is a new chapter for BMG and marks a significant milestone for the music industry more generally as BMG becomes the first new global-scale full-service music company to emerge in the past two decades which controls its key routes to market. Taking direct control of our relationships with streaming services is a major leap forward in our mission to offer artists the most effective and efficient service. The new set-up will enable us to better market, service and advise our great artists and will further improve BMG’s relationship with key digital and physical partners.”

-> full article here at musicweek.com

[lizeon]

after once again months of not checking my email every day like i used to, i have gone through almost all them! now it's down to just..... *checks number* 1,154 of what gmail decided goes into the 'updates' category :')

[ateliaers]

i’ve just logged on & tumblr has notified me that i have messages by shaking the little chat bubble at the side of my dash, & then immediately wiping all notifs about it away from both the bubble & the messaging icon in the topbar. i haven’t even opened the chat to read the messages yet. functional website strikes again.

[rotshop]

this new layout is the ugliest shit ive seen and also the worst decision ever actually. everything should be on the right can you bring back the void on the lef. this is claustrophobic you'e stressing out the posts they're going to start pulling their notes out.

[morgana-pendragon]

i cant fucking believe y’all are doing that crab thing

[dyketubbo]

also heres the full picture the cartoony t'surots is from feel free to ask about any of them because im going a little insane in this school

[boysnberriespie]

Absolutely obsessed with the way people will be misogynistic in the same breath that they use to say “stop being misogynistic.”

[ktempestbradford]

I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me

It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:

At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.

On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."

Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:

But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:

It gets worse.

"Tempest, how could it possibly--"

source of this video that also includes this charming description:

Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'

There is already a meme.

Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:

Who has already done an interview!

As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!

Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.

The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.

Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!

I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.

Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:

I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.

Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:

Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future? A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.

Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.

Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.

I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.

This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.

Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:

With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"

"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:

There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.

The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.

Even better, this weirdly grainy image?

From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.

If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.

As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.

And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...

This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.

Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.

As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...

Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.

You cannot make this stuff up.

But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.

Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.

HE LIVES IN THE WALLS, Y'ALL.

[dr-piss-thief-phd]

One thing I hate about this site is that when I block someone their reblog a with comments still show up on my dash so I have to see their annoying fucking takes all the time still

[undisaster]

thinking about deleting twitter and posting full time on here

[riftless]

I love Tumblr blog

[dante-mightdie]

requesting blue collar price thoughts, bonus points if it’s thoughts on how he literally can’t say no to his wife bro is whipped isn’t he

ur just so pretty and he loves you so much he can never say no :( and it gets x10 worse whenever you’re pregnant

what is he supposed to say when you waddle up to him, baby catalogues folded under your arm as your curl up next to him, showing him all the things you found for the nursery? no? don’t be ridiculous. he’ll buy you whatever you want and he won’t bat an eyelid until his bank statement comes in

is he supposed to tell you you’re being too needy when you’re in your second trimester and need to be around him constantly? not letting him take a shower when he gets back from a day on the site in the summer, instead just pushing him onto the bed and climbing into his lap to huff at his sweaty, musky scent

when you’re nearing the end of your pregnancy, this man is basically your servant. he’ll handle all of your mood swings and snappy comments bc you’re literally about to push a tiny human out for him. doesn’t understand your logic sometimes but happy wife, happy life

won’t complain when you snatch up the duvet and then proceed to just throw it on the floor completely, leaving you both without a blanket but telling him to leave it there because it’s overstimulating and uncomfortable. completely his fault, he’ll call the company that makes them tomorrow. picture him curled up fetal position with no pillows or blanket because you needed all 4 pillows. two to rest your head on, one for under your belly and one between your knees

he will take the blame for every single thing that upsets you during the day. the shop didn’t have your favourite snack? his fault, he should have accounted for that when he ordered their stock for them. stuck in traffic because of a car accident up ahead? don’t worry, he’ll make sure to drive the car for them next time so this mistake doesn’t happen again! the show you’re watching ended poorly? thanks for your feedback, he’ll remember that next time he writes the scripts

it’s not all bad though because sometimes you just wanna coddle and take care of your man :( your maternal instincts are through the roof and he works such a dangerous and difficult job. he’s not gonna say no to his lady cradling his head to her chest, cooing on his ear about what a good man he is. a good, hard-working honest man. gets his cock hard listening to you praise him for being such a good husband :)

[willgrahamsipodnano]

the way i cannot scroll tumblr and listen to music at the same time bc something with their ads is fucking with my spotify???