#but we have different tastes when it comes to certain media types so i cant even say if his assessment would even

[butchniqabi]

Hiiiiii! As a trusted sci-fi enjoyer, what are your thoughts on enders game? I’ve never read it, but I see a lot of people put it on their essentials lists. I know the author is very mormon, so I’m just if it’s still worth a read or not.

oh goodness. it's been probably a decade since i read ender's game! my friend was obsessed with the series at the time and so before the movie came out i read it and honestly hm. i remember being SHOCKED by the twist like. SHOOK to my CORE, the intergalactic implications the ramifications the DRAMA. the story itself was mostly "meh" but this was before i started to really Love scifi (didn't happen til i was around 15-ish?) and hated reading scifi novels, so i can't say if my view is the most reflective of the quality! i had no idea he was a mormon though omg? odds are theres shit i missed at the time. im pretty sure that it and its successive novels are pretty staunchly anti-war and anti-genocide (like not even subtly) which is why i was initially confused as to why the marines sometimes have their recruits read it ? cant think of what message *they* get out of it considering it ends with a child being traumatized after being manipulated and used by the military (like???). but anyways! this is all to say that conceptually i fucks with it and upon reflection what i can remember was very cool and fascinating, but i cant in good conscience say either way because i dont have a solid view :pensive emoji:

[freebooter4ever]

i’ve seen the discussion going back and forth on boundaries and sexual objectification, and i don’t have much to add to the conversation other than to say everyone is allowed to determine their OWN ‘lines’ and just because we don’t vocalize them doesn’t make them any less valid. but here’s the limits i set for my blog if anyone feels it is important for them to know (<3):

personally I consider ‘characters’ fair game for anything goes, with ‘public personas’ a little more iffy. ‘RPF’ isn’t new - it just takes on a new more accessible/visible form nowadays. i remember reading my first fic about a ‘real person’ back in my LOTR fandom days - it was a story in first person perspective about the main character meeting orlando bloom on a plane before he was ‘famous’. like a lot of these types of stories, it wasnt so much about the person as it was about the meet cute. the actor was just a convenient placeholder with a handsome face and some personality quirks thrown in to make the romance/dialogue more specific. i personally dont read much xReader fic nowadays, but mostly only cause i’m an old fart who can’t relate to the ‘you’ format. i miss the good old days when people actually created OC’s and then inserted them into things LOL. but also LOL if you think i’ve gone an entire year of quarantine without some imagined personal fantasies of joe mazzello (or steve aoki in the years before)(ramilicious can attest to this. she can also attest to most of these fantasies ending in friendship rather than anything explicit cause that’s just how i roll these days lol). the line i draw is i would never post these types of fics in a place where the subject could accidentally find them - you have to go looking for this stuff on tumblr, most fics are given explicit ratings and under read-mores. with the blacklist tags it’s pretty easy to filter things out. its even easier to add filters to ao3 searches. i am NOT going to do something like message steve aoki and say ‘yeah i watched that movie Ibiza like five times, here is my 1k fic where you’re the dj and i’m the one night stand’. but obviously people still enjoy imagining scenarios like these otherwise movies like Ibiza wouldn’t exist?

for art, i consider anything already on display up for grabs, we all know a certain person’s ass is all over the place...all you have to do is google ‘need for speed’ and rami’s name. HOWEVER, in the case of actors i personally would not draw anything more explicit than what’s already there. i’m not gonna draw full frontal nudity for rami (unless he gifts us with it in a movie, i suppose) or anyone. this is 100% a personal choice for me. 

i was a sophomore or junior in college when i volunteered as a figure drawing monitor where i’d time the nude model’s poses and help them set up the stage and lighting and such. there was this one guy in his mid forties probably, a regular who came every week, and i always thought of him fondly till one day (the day after i ran into my Hot Programming TA during dinner and later sent him an email begging him to go on a date with me because i was desperate for kissing experience)(and Hot Programming TA emailed me back within minutes saying yes) this artist guy who i saw all the time and thought i knew fairly well, decided to draw me instead of the model. which would have been fine except he drew me naked. i was NOT naked at the time, i was wearing a shirt, and a bra, and a full prairie skirt with alternating calico and floral patterns. he drew what he imagined was underneath all that. he came up to me after the figure drawing session and showed me his drawings and told me i had been ‘glowing’ and my response was to laugh it off awkwardly and get the hell out of there as soon as i gave the model their pay check. but inwardly i was thinking a) i was NOT glowing for this creepy man twice my age and b) i did NOT give him consent to sexualize my body under my clothes and then SHOW me that objectification. i never said anything to him or anything else, i continued to be the monitor, and i continued to field off creepy advances from him including multiple job offers, but when i finally realized i could just...stop..and i passed the student volunteer monitor job on to my friend naeem, i also realized that what that older male artist did was NOT ok in my book. and it was probably not something he would do while naeem was monitoring.

nowadays im working in an industry that regularly objectifies female bodies. in the past year alone i have had to deal with requests to make breasts bigger, i have been given character rigs that in addition to the usual elbow, knee, and spine joints also have ‘nipple’ joints but ONLY for the women (to make them jiggle for animation), every time i send out a female pose i get it back with notes that push it further into the sexy type of body language reserved for women (twist the spine more! sway the back more! give it ‘energy!’), i have been told to erase wrinkles and fat and pores but ONLY for the women (men you ADD pores bc realism! and manliness!) and this is all me working for a company that is actually fairly progressive in terms of sexism compared to OTHER studios.

like it or not, sexual objectification is a huge part of specifically women’s lives and how we react to that is our business. for me, turning the tables and putting men on display feels like fair’s fair. i cant stop the men from doing it, so if i want to enjoy sexualizing male bodies, damn it im gonna! like dang it, boy do i want to send steve aoki a thank you note every time he posts a video of himself doing those ice baths during the sunset golden hour bc holy shit gorgeous or working out in his gym wearing VERY little clothes, but i dont because i know what its like when someone imposes their personal fantasies on the subject. or, god, there was that time i had to unfollow nicole’s insta for a while bc i had a very explicit dream about her and realized, shit, i need to take a break and get my emotions under control before i can refollow. and god some of the stuff i see dudes sending her during her live videos on mental illness/meditation is TOTALLY gross and not something they should be confronting her with. and she’s not even ‘famous’ famous. or how some fans send their idols explicit direct messages without consent. THAT feels inappropriate to me.

a part of me feels like i shouldn’t have to defend this. men don’t. they’re even encouraged in mass media to sexualize women. but i also recognize the importance of talking about consent. the importance of recognizing that a celebrity deserves to have their boundaries respected. these are my lines in fandom. other people have different lines they won’t cross, and that’s okay to me. i block or blacklist any blogs or tags i think go over the top.

heck, even in fandom-only spaces i still try to keep my own more sexual fantasies off this blog and only in private messages with my friends and mutuals, and i feel like that might come across as unintentionally prudish or judgmental sometimes. i’m not ‘horny on main’ very often. but like...every time i reblog that particular ‘washing machine’ gif of joe mazzello am i thinking about him naked and thinking about how he’s got very loooooong feet, and ‘gee i wonder if that means /other/ things are Too Big for my tastes’ but also ‘gosh wouldnt that make a pretty picture to draw’???? hell yeah.

i dont know who is gonna actually read this essay but yolo i guess :)

[cs-discourse]

here we go

https://cs-discourse.tumblr.com/post/179953845684/uuuuwuu-every1-whos-concerned-abt-biased-judging

ok this attitude has been pissing me off long enough that it's time for one of my Big Ole Posts (tm) about how shitty this is! thanks. 

uuuuwuu every1 whos concerned abt biased judging in comps is just soooow entitled !!!1 i cant bewieve ppl wouldnt want some1 whos literally explicitly stating at this point that they trust their friends more to "demonstrate dedication to the character" they assign to a design to b an influence in judging comps !!!!!11 bc artists Never weigh in on other artist's comps, so obviously thes ppl just want fwee merc designs !!!1!!1 also my last braincell just died pleas h

so here's the og post in question for quick reference

i honestly have no idea why people keep bringing up this idea of bias in judging competitions because, while i do think there is a type of bias that certainly exists, i think a lot of so-called "bias" that people have is ... not whatsoever like what people think it is lol. artists are people and there's always going to be SOME kind of bias no matter what you do, because it's literally fuckin impossible to NOT be biased. by that i mean:

your taste in plots/types of characters/medias influence your judging

quality of writing or art can influence your judging

the person who's applying for the adopt you may have previous judgement about

even if you say you aren't biased, you STILL have preferences and tastes in things that you prefer more than others, which in of itself is a kind of bias

people who know you (friends for example) will naturally know what your taste is. 

a competition is judged based on what form the artist thinks is best, right? 

NEWSFLASH EVERYONE'S IDEA OF "WHAT'S BEST" IS DIFFERENT FROM PERSON TO PERSON ..... "BEST" is literally the most subjective thing there is, and while i agree that there are certain aspects of art and writing that you can use as objective measurements of tangible skill, it's... still subjective. what people think is "best" will vary from person to person because we all have different tastes. so, essentially, this boils down to the idea that the winner of an adopt competition will ALWAYS be the form the artist liked best, because that is what the artist perceives as best. so like. when people appear biased in adopt competitions towards friends or certain circles, it's probably because they're literally friends because they have similar tastes in things, and therefore the form the artist likes best is naturally going to be from someone who shares similar tastes. 

so whenever i hear about """bias""" in competitions i just kind of roll my eyes tbqh because it's usually followed by complaints of "BUT I PUT IN SO MUCH EFFORT" or "I WROTE SO MUCH MORE THAN THE WINNER" uhhhh. if adopt contests were won by effort alone it wouldn't be a contest, it'd be an endurance test lol. literally just "who has the most time to waste writing out 60000k words of absolute meaningless fluff"... because, i hate to break it to you, but ANYONE can write 5000 words of mindless drivel that has literally no substance to it. 

now in caps for emphasis. takes a deep breath

THERE IS NO SKILL NEEDED TO BLOAT YOUR WORD COUNT. 

YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE WELL TO WRITE 5000 WORDS.

YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW HOW TO TYPE AND PUT SENTENCES TOGETHER.

quality > quantity, always. like, i'm sorry you put in so many hours of effort but, those people who win with MUCH smaller wordcounts... did they not work to get as good as they did with writing? you put in 5 hours into one tryout. but others, take me for example: i have been writing for over 10 bloody years. i've worked hard to improve my writing, so you can't tell me i "didn't put in as much effort" as you because i did. i put in YEARS of work to get better so doing simple things would take me LESS time now. inb4 IT'S UNFAIR! dude, the literal definition of a contest is for the best to win. it wouldn't be a contest if it wasn't like that lol. it'd just be charity. what you should be doing instead of complaining about it is ASKING FOR CRIT and WORKING TO IMPROVE like a good sport? i get that it's discouraging but you should be prepared to lose when you join a contest. it's valid to be upset about but the moment you say you deserve it more than others JUST because of your effort, then i have a problem. 

and you know, there's gonna be times where i think a comp winner is objectively less skilled than other tryouts. honestly i just kind of shrug that off on account of different taste lol. sometimes that's just how it be, bc of those predetermined biases i mentioned before, and maybe a judge and i are just in completely stages of life so what i call quality might not appeal to the judge. that's also fine. anyway this really got off on a tangent but i'm leaving it in bc i think it needs saying. back to the og post

 > i cant bewieve ppl wouldnt want some1 whos literally explicitly stating at this point that they trust their friends more to "demonstrate dedication to the character" they assign to a design to b an influence in judging comps !!!!!11

wtf didn't i address this in a different post

here let me link it for you

https://cs-discourse.tumblr.com/post/179841459154/post179838988303-the-difference-is-that-you-have

which was replying to this: https://cs-discourse.tumblr.com/post/179838988303/179837734509-idk-anon-i-kinda-agree-with-the

i said it once but i'll say it again: artist entries aren't main adopts lol. people don't work for artist entries. all you fucking do is post on one like "can i have this pls" .. there is... no effort put into that lol. main adopts you WORK for. it's a CONTEST. claiming an artist entry is NOT a contest. if a bunch of little nasty gremlins come running up to me like a hungry horde trying to be the first one to claim my design, i think giving friends first pick is COMPLETELY FINE, BECAUSE WHAT DID ANYONE ELSE DO TO "DESERVE" THAT DESIGN? nothing. you did. nothing. you're literally coming here with this attitude that NOT GIVING THINGS AWAY TO STRANGERS FOR FREE SOMEHOW EQUALS BIAS? i literally do not understand your logic whatsoever. like. i'm trying really fucking hard. at least with main adopts the "payment" is the effort you put in trying to answer the artist's prompt. i know i sound super dumb repeating myself but i don't know how much simpler i can make this concept tbh

and this is EXACTLY why i say ya'll are fucking entitled because merc and any of the kal artists could be making REAL $$$$ selling their own designs and adoptables and art and NOT deal with all the bs ya'll throw at them. they're literally here because the ENJOY MAKING ((( FREE ))) CONTENT for you, and they're not obligated to do this. they can stop whenever they want. if you had to pay per hour for the length of time collectively worked by ANY species artist staff, the lot of you would be fucking broke. i'm actually constantly shocked that species artists work like, 8 hours or more on some of these gorgeous designs just to give them away for free in a contest. 

so, yeah, as someone who hasn't spent my entire life on CS (i've only been here for a year and a half), ya'll seem pretty fucking entitled to me lol. the world outside CS rarely gives out such gorgeous designs in write-to-adopt contests so i'm honestly baffled at the amount of bloody entitlement i see

>bc artists Never weigh in on other artist's comps, so obviously thes ppl just want fwee merc designs !!!1!!1 

this part i don't actually understand what you mean. do you mean they... help judge other comps? or like, enter them? i don't get what you mean by "weigh in" but listen, lol. just because something DOES happen doesn't mean it gives you a good reason to assume the worst. i mean... of course it happens. it's statistically impossible for skewed contests and bias to NOT happen, because there's always going to be cases of it happening. but like, what proof do you have that merc will be biased lol? like, real proof? because your main point i've basically debunked and don't believe in at all. do better than "i cant bewieve ppl wouldnt want some1 whos literally explicitly stating at this point that they trust their friends more to "demonstrate dedication to the character" they assign to a design to b an influence in judging comps !!!!!11" because this doesn't make any sense to me for the reasons i already listed above lmao. if artist entries were supposed to be contests they'd be contests. what the hell makes you important enough to get first dibs on a stranger's work. ARTIST ENTRIES AREN'T EVEN MADE TO BE GIVEN AWAY, THEY'RE MADE AS ARTIST ENTRIES.... LIKE.... JESUS i struggle to understand ya'll

anyway im done here, if you wanna actually talk and debate this hmu on discord at lysander#9229 bc if you actually talk to me instead of spew this hot mess on the blog i might actually listen to you and change my mind and be nice about it instead of being a condescending bitch. 

wait one more thing

>also my last braincell just died pleas h

yea clearly

p.s., why do you ppl keep going to the blog to give critique on merc's designs when on literally every other design merc makes there's this:

https://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3950980

here i even linked it for you. idk why it's so hard for yall to give constructive crit like decent human beings

[lonelycitybrokenheartedboy-blog]

But why?

And as I thought about what he said yesterday I kept on wondering why?

He said he was used to the actual “relationship” of a gay couple and I thought well what is that? What is the norm of that?

And then I understood, see in this day in age gay couple can have a weird fluidity to it 

And I have heard multiple of times that - “when you are in a relationship for that long you will see how boring it gets” 

Really it gets boring? How does it get boring? The person does not look attractive enough anymore (No shit they age) the sex is not good (no shit you have been with the same person for a decade - its normal now) You fantasize about someone younger (of course you do)  You always do the same thing ( well its life - its up to you to make it different) 

And then I realized we have been indoctrinated to believe that a “normal” relationship for a gay couple is that of - working out so other gays wont judge you, of having valuables compared of that to heterosexual people so you feel eye to eye with them, feeling overachieved so to tell the world that you are not oppressed, going to bars and clubs because you feel like you belong, checking guys out in front of your partner because YOU CAN ( I mean you both like the same sex, so why not?)

Then I hear the age old story of - its ok to have an open relationship. Is it? The very one thing that people made up in the feudal ages has apparently backfired. Yes marriage was used as a political tool to unite kingdoms and let the flow of riches and names transcend from generation to generation in heterosexual norms. 

But have I really romanticized the idea of a pairing of people? Has Disney really made a disordered of my idea of love? Well I am not sure ...

What bothers me is this - what is so easily to accept must also be easily able to be forgotten or override right? Why is it ok to “like” a picture on instagram, is that the new way of catcalling or staring? Is it any different than real life now? Are we just making excuses? Because would you really stare at a person whom you think is attractive while you are with your significant other?

Lets put a scenario - you and your partner are at dinner and then you so happen to catch a glimpse of a really attractive person on the other side of the room. Do you stare and smile and give attention or quickly remember that your significant other is in front of you and then give them your attention. What I believe in is that you as a person will act with integrity and remember that your partner has feelings, an ego and deserves respect. So why would you give another person the time of day? And yes while we are alone we will always come across people that we believe are attractive, and that is human nature at is best! What is not fair is to show that kind of attention knowing that your partner might feel hurt. 

So why do it on social media, where the impression is ever so big? Is it jealousy? Maybe, maybe not. 

How can you conceal the animalistic traits of being a human being when nowadays everything is about how you look and how others perceive you?

Why is it ok for two men to be ok with constantly being objectified by their “niche” society? I don’t understand. 

And then I think, well why are so many of these people in what they call open relationships?

Why is it ok for young adults to look up to these relationships? I think its self destructive. Because where is the sense of belonging? In the way your partner says they love you? To me what it signifies is that neither of these people actually has a grip on what love or commitment look like. And maybe I am wrong, because just maybe both individuals like this type of life. But its not for me. 

Is it just a growing pain? Is it just the juxtaposition of growth between being able to be free in society and the internal part of wanting to look for what else is out there? I mean isn't that what our society is about now a days? If you cant find it on one app then go the next - at least 100 more people, experiences, and catalogues will be available to you. 

What is to choose complete monogamy? Are there really two parts to monogamy? That one that is feelings and sexual monogamy? So you cant fall for someone else but you can have sex with them? What is that about? When you love someone don’t you love them because they somehow make you feel a certain kind of way? And because you are attracted to them? I mean lets be honest here, you don’t start eating a salad thinking its going to taste like a burger. And then afterwards when you don’t feel bloated you tell yourself “yummy that was the best salad in the world I will have it more often” come to think of it it does makes sense. But if we see an appetizing burger and you are hungry and it looks and smells delicious you might go for it. The same with people if you like what you see then your pursue - and they match your checklist per say of what you want in a partner then you really like it. Where was I going with this?

Yes! The fact that at first we like a person for what they look like - sexual attraction. Then we like the person based on whom they are and the way the mix with you. Then you realize (hopefully) that this person is a great person, that they share some common ground, that they make you smile, that you see yourself turning soft and emotional around them. That you crave their smile, their eyes on you, their kiss and holding their hand. That you imagine yourself during dinner talking about the most maniacal things but you still love it. You start to care - A LOT. You begin to see a future, making plans and constantly trying to improve yourself for them. Then you know you are in love - and it happens this person is good for you. Could go both ways though... not everything is perfect. 

But what is monogamy in this day and age? This day and age of the next best thing is always lurking behind your partner? That you know if they don’t completely relate to what you want you can just switch it off and look at the best next thing. 

What happened to values and being adults about feelings? I feel that not many people are willing to let go of pride and past experiences. I feel that people are taught to not be strong and stick through rough patches. Because if you are willing to make it past a storm then the next day might be the clearest and fairest of them all. People now have lost all credibility of owning what is something that can be fulfilling and precious - a love story.  

[willow-salix]

Finding your Writers Voice

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We write for many different reasons, there is no real answer to the question of why do we write. For some of us it is a need, something we cannot ignore, the story just wont leave us alone until we get it down on paper.

I am that type of writer, my world is in my head and if I want any hope of staying in touch with the real world, I have to write to keep them happy.

Writers, as a group tend to come in many shapes and sizes, and, as with any walk of life, you will find some that are just dicks for the sake of being dicks. They will be the elitist, judgemental and unsupportive ones.

They will make you feel inferior with their big words and writers terms that can make you feel like you are an idiot for not knowing all that they do. In short, they will think themselves better that you and will present themselves as so. But you know what? That’s bullshit. No one is better than anyone else, everyone deserves to feel proud of their writing, its just that your writing might not be to everyone’s tastes. You cant please everyone.

One of the things that you will hear the writing world talking about is your writers voice. Everyone seems to think that as soon as they find their voice, their writing will become effortless and perfect. Not true.

Your writing coice isn’t something you can just ‘find’ like it’s a lost puppy, you don’t find your voice, you develop your voice. And that is something that can only happen with time and practice.

When we are starting out on our writing journey, it is extremely common to try and emulate, to copy a writer that we particularly enjoy or admire.

And while there is nothing wrong with this in itself, you will probably find that you will be concentrating so much on keeping their voice and style, that your own wont have a chance to shine through.

Honestly, the best way to deveolope your voice is with practice and experimentation.

Look at the kind of books that you enjoy reading or that you wish to write and then look online for some writing prompts for that genre.

Pick a prompt that inspires you and start to write.

Your voice will be unique to you, it will be your style and it will include your personality.

At first, stop thinking of your story as a piece of writing work -remember everything can be edited- think of it as what it really is, a story.

Write it as if you were sitting down with a friend, having a good old gossip session over a cup of coffee, and youre telling them all about the latest drama and filling them in on the backstory, of Mrs-down-the-street.

By forgetting it’s a piece of writing that you want to be perfect, you can relax and try to enjoy the process. Just tell the story.

Do this as much as you can stand, picking a prompt, conjuring up the story in your head and then telling it to your best friend, just in the form of the written word.

The more you write, the more your voice will develop and mature.

You can try the same exercise with other genres too if you want, but don’t feel pressured into it. Try it and see, but if you find that you don’t enjoy it, don’t write it. Writing should be an enjoyable experience, not a chore.

The most important thing is to be natural. A lot of novice writers will fall into the trap of trying too hard.

They will write like they have swallowed a dictionary and are randomly coughing up words. Bigger is not always better, it doesn’t make you sound more intelligent, in fact, it can have the opposite effect. It is hard to know when to use new words or in what context and easy to actually misundersant the definition. This will make you look ridiculous and your writing will suffer. If you don’t use a word in your everyday conversations then its probably not a good idea to use it in your writing.

Another way in which novice writers can make mistakes is by trying to either over complicate their writing or to be overly descriptive.

I know that a piece of writing with vivid descriptions can be a joy to read, it will draw you in and make you feel like you are part of the story. But too much description can have the opposite effect. Again, bigger is not always better.

As always, there are a few writing tips and tricks that are worth following and trying to incorporate into your writing or to try to learn to avoid, but I don’t see them as your writers voice, I see them as editing and again, practice. They are sdjustments that you can make to polish your work into the masterpiece you want it to be.

Just as in real life, you can learn manners and etiquette, you can learn how to behave in certain situations and how to speak to different types of people, but underneath it all, you are still the same person. That’s exactly how it is for your writers voice, you can be aware of the things you shouldn’t do within writing, but the tone, the style and the flow of it will be all yours.

All in all, I feel that the most important thing to remember when you are developing your own voice is to have fun and be patient. It doesn’t happen over night, you cant force it to come, there is no quick fix. Just time and practice.

People might make it into a big thing, but its really not, its only as big a thing as you make it.

Don’t worry too much about having to sound a certain way or to write a certain way. Just be you, you is great, you is natural and that’s how your writing should be.

Editing will sharpen up your writing and polish it, and I promise you your voice will develop the more you write.

I will cover editing in another video, along with things novice writers should try to avoid but until then, practice, write and be happy.

Do writing challenges, do prompts, do games, mature and develop until you become the writer you want to be.

As always I am more than happy to answer questions, to offer advice or just to chat if you hit me up on any of my social media accounts.

Ill see you soon, blessed be and happy writing.

[icodogio]

How the VC Cartel is destroying ICOs (Episode 1)

How did we get here?

Remember the time when people did not race each other to  dump tokens first day of listing? Exchanges nowadays look more like a Black Friday Market, everybody ready to kill each other, out of fear getting dump on. Its a phenomena of 2018.

There are many reasons for this behavior in the market. One of them is obviously the crypto recession of over 70% since January, however I would make the argument that there is a deeper roots to this problem. ICOs have outperformed the market by a long shot, most of the now proclaimed shitcoins lost 95% of their value leaving a lot of ICO Investors with heavy bags.

Before pointing fingers at people and call out Bullshit, lets first take a look at what potentially can give ICOs value and what can cause them to dump.

  The three Pillars of ICOs

ICO investing is sadly all about speculation, and there are some indications that investors can use to help them decide between one project and another. Every infuencer has a different weighting system but most if not all follow the same model:

Team Experience in Relative Field

Type of Project (Potential Market Value)

Token Metrics (Company Evaluation)  

  Most investors would argue that the strength of the Team is the best indication of a projects success although I would argue otherwise, but everybody can have their opinions.

The next is the type of project, people kind of realized not to invest in Dapps because its much too early and the potential market size is not that great. So the only projects that still get funding are infrastructure or crosschain projects with large backing of exchanges and famous funds/VCs.

Last but not least the Metrics. Token Metrics are more important than anything else and they are what makes ICOs fundamentally different to traditional stocks. With equity there is a number of shares and you can buy a certain amount for a certain price. To provide additional clairtiy to investors projects that want to sell securities to investors need to publish something called a prospectus. 

A Prospectus is a formal legal document that is required by and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that provides details about an investment offering for sale to the public. The reason that this document is required is because before we had something call the Securities act of 1933 a lot of shady shit was going on. 

Exchanges, large funds abused their power to misguided mom and pa Investors. In easy terms the prospectus is issued to give a degree of transparency in the projects expenses to determine if it is operating efficiently enough for the investor’s taste.

Ok now lets look at how ICOs changed from 2017 and 2018.

  The 4 stages of ICOs

Phase 1:

So back in 2017 a lot of things were different. It was still a great time when you could have breakfast watch some reviews go to the ICON ICO website, whitelist wait for the countdown to end put a few 100 of 1000s bucks inside, no VCs, no pools, no stress. I miss those times. 

There were much fewer investors that cared about ICOs enough to realized the potential of some of these things. Especially large funds and venture capitals did not know about the potential gains of ICOs. There were always a handful of respected VCs in the Blockchain startup space, but the real VCs crave only started in flooding in only around February of 2018. 

ICO investing was fun, if you were good at it you could have become a multi millionaire quite easily, 10x returns were the norm and 100x ROIs happened several time a month. 

Phase 2:

After the start of the downtrend in January, EVERYBODY stared to flood into the ICOs space, people that  missed out on Bashillas 100x projects all had the Gold rush. It became harder and harder to get into good projects and some point it was almost impossible to make it into the public sale of a top 10 ICO. It was emergence of the presale pools. Everybody was high on the gold rush. Millions were lost in scammy pools or just sent to scammers in the telegram channels. It was the wild west of ICOs. ICOs started to decrease their public sale allocation and increased their private sale deals. Together with the pools, venture capitals started to flood ICOs.

I remember reading this early this year which got my super existed:

Today, I want to talk to you about a startling similarity that I’m seeing in the cryptocurrency market and the technology market of 1994 to 1995.

  Now, what was interesting about 1994 to 1995 was that, even though the market was acting as if the opportunity in tech was over—very similar to the way this market is acting right now—what was interesting is that while stocks were going down, private investment and venture capital (VC) dollars were going up and they were going up a lot.

So, between 1994 and 1995, the whole Nasdaq got crushed. Companies like Oracle dropped like 50–60%; it was a blood bath. But you saw this huge increase in VC money coming into the market, like 30%. And $8 billion back in ’95 was a lot of money.

  Generally speaking, VC money is very, very clever money, so normally when you see a market collapse, VCs run for the hills. But just like in ’94 and ’95—when the market did collapse and it was a horrible sell-off—we’re actually seeing VC money increase. So right now, VCs are on track to do 900 deals this year in the space, and last year, they did less than 300.

The pace of deal-making and the pace of money coming into the market is actually increasing, and it’s improving. That is an incredibly bullish sign for the long-term value of the market, because again, once you got through this 1995-kind of debacle, you just had this massive bull market take place.

Ico investing started to become more difficult most project would go below ICO, but if you were good at picking the right ones you still had a decent chance at getting at least 500% returns days after their first exchange listing.

  Phase 3

After a rough year in 2018 most ICO investors lost faith in the system. Its August of 2018, two of the most anticipated ICOs Atonomi and One ledger hit the exchanges and lose 70% of value. The last bit of hope that investors had got destroyed. This was the beginning of phase 3 of ICOs. All ICOs dump hard on exchanges, not even the best projects have any chance of making any returns for their investors, well at least most of the investors. 

ICO investing became pointless. Most investors lost most if not all of their funds. Although investors became more educated and careful in their investment choices the returns were just as bad as getting into a scams. 

  So what the hell is going on? 

Lack of Liquidity:

There are several reasons for this steep decline. One of the leading forces was the lack of liquidity in the market. ICOs did extremely well because there were always traders around that were willing to trade the coin or token post exchange listing. Traders cant be bothered with ICO investing. They prefer to trader the news, new listings and progress. No traders meant no profits. On top of that many investors that used to be traders became ICO investors themselves, increasing the hardcaps and decreasing the buying pressure on the exchanges.

Too many shitty Projects:

In 2017 fewer projects listed on exchanges. There was simple less choice were to put your money into. So more choice with less liquidity is a bad combination. A lot of ICO investors became bag holders of bad projects and left the space.

  Massive Discounts and lack of Transparency:

Now this is the one that everybody wants to hear about. Something interesting happened in 2018. They reduced their public sale allocation and increased their private sale allocation. Many ICOs thought its more beneficial to sell to a few large contributors than to decentralize their funding. Although it does defeated the purpose of building a Decentralized Application and an ICO to that matter, most projects preferred this method of fund raising.  

Venture Capitals flooded the space and started taking over most if not all of the Hardcaps for projects. Leaving retail investors with nothing more than a Airdrop for promotional purposes. The only way retail investors had a chance to get a piece of the cake was by joining a pool and hanging themselves to VC allocations, often sold for large premiums up to 200%. 

VCs realized a lot of profits could be made in reselling allocations without any risks, the pool business was born. Millions were resold, resulting in often 5 intermediaries between the ICO and the investor. It was a mess.  

Venture Capitals have been in the business of making money and a lot of money was to be made in the ICO industry. Many realized that they could demand ridiculous discounts and lockups from projects and they usually would get it. As there are no clear guideline or regulations for ICOs, projects did not have to disclose any information to the public. The VC & Exchange Cartel would then continue to hype the project to investors until the project listing. Once on exchange VC & Funds would dump their tokens that they bought 10 times cheaper than the price on the exchanges on unknowing investors.

This was the beginning of Phase 4:

The Manufactured PUMP & DUMPS, being in the business of raising funds, instead of being in the business of building business.

  Next Episode we will go through some manufactured PUMP & DUMP ICOs in detail, outline some of the “Bad Players” in the space and explain why it was something like this had to happen eventually. 

  If you liked this article please share it on social media or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. 

        The post How the VC Cartel is destroying ICOs (Episode 1) appeared first on ICODOG.

source https://icodog.io/news/how-the-vc-cartel-is-destroying-icos-episode-1/

[fashiontrendin-blog]

Tribalism: The Rising Phenomenon You Can’t Unsee

http://fashion-trendin.com/tribalism-the-rising-phenomenon-you-cant-unsee/

Tribalism: The Rising Phenomenon You Can’t Unsee

“If the enemy of my enemy is always your friend, you’re opening yourself up to friends you’re really better off not having.” -Ezra Klein

First, an introduction: I believe that whiskey drinkers care more about symbolism than taste.

When I first moved to Portland from Chicago, a friend made the kind gesture to invite me out to meet her local friend group. It turned out to be a cohort of post-college adults who I later learned refer to themselves as a “clique” and buttress their self-appointed label by doing things like work for the same company, date each other and exclusively wear black.

We met up at a cool bar. The type of place with a vintage photo booth used primarily for making out and taking topless pictures behind the parodied privacy of a half-curtain while a DJ spins the Drive soundtrack across the dance floor. As we shuffled through the order line I was introduced by my friend as a mom, which is never a great conversation starter.

That night, in keeping with my aforementioned ideology, I eschewed what everyone else was ordering (whiskey soda) in favor of a Piña Colada. It was a decision made firmly with the understanding that it would 1.) taste good and 2.) sport an umbrella (which I confirmed with the bartender because I’m the worst). If my drink costs north of $14, I prefer it to come with festive accouterments — e.g. fruit stuck through with a tiny bamboo sword adorning a mai tai, or a half a banana cut into the shape of a dolphin swimming in a daiquiri, maybe even a miniature Ty Beanie Baby clutching the stem of a glass of Franzia. I’m tacky, not picky.

We continued to chat as whiskey after whiskey was handed from bartender to clique and I had successfully begun to steer the focus off of being a mom and onto more relatable topics. Then my drink landed on the counter — umbrella, violently proud, stood conspicuous. The vibe shifted sharply from minimalist chit chat to early 90s sitcom after one of them loudly scoffed, “Who ordered the Piña Colada?” When everyone laughed pointedly, I realized I wouldn’t be making any friends that night. After a few half-hearted attempts at furthering the conversation, I finished my island escape, pocketed the umbrella and bounced.

Ultimately, that moment and the people in it held no influence over my life. I was turned off by their judgment and insensitivity toward a newcomer and they were turned off by what I can only assume was me in all of my Jimmy Buffet glory. It’s fine. I made other friends.

But this memory does exist to serve as a reminder that humans often feel more comfortable placing artificial values around certain acts or preferences rather than welcoming something or someone different, even if they pose no apparent threat. Even when they are in a vulnerable situation. My experience as an outsider to a tribe in this instance was annoying, but nothing further. This, unfortunately, is not always the case. Tribalism is nothing if not expansive in its scope, shifting from harmless inclinations to dangerous policy in a heartbeat.

Postmodern society broke the thick black lines we had previously drawn around what was socially acceptable, like the unquestioned reverence of capitalism or the willful ignorance of inequality in America. This progress has largely been for the better, but it hasn’t been without its growing pains. One critique of postmodernism is that it signaled the end of the individual. American literary critic Fredric Jameson referred to this notion as the “death of the subject,” which has lead to today’s cultural ache of tribalism.

My experience with cliquish attitudes was trivial, but there is an entire end of the spectrum that breeds far more nefarious attitudes. The recent example of the family separation crisis has been particularly illuminating for me in how the community around arbitrary markers (party affiliation) can take precedence over what I once believed to be a universal truth (do not harm kids). I can’t help but feel like the Overton window (the boundaries society places around acceptable discourse) is being stretched to a breaking point, while the arc of justice flatlines.

We all have the capacity to set aside reason in support of the tribe. That’s why a whiskey neat is okay, but a Piña Colada is an embarrassment. That’s why Grimes and Elon Musk confound us as a match. That is why my white child is precious, while brown children aren’t our concern.

That’s the thing with tribalism (or, as modern parlance would have it, cognitive bias): It’s hardwired into us, making it seem natural and valid. But people tend to forget that evolution isn’t intentional. It’s inefficient and random, which may mean that our instinct to team up is as necessary today as our appendix. And given that it pairs so easily with the artifice of advertisers or politicians, this instinct, like the appendix, can be just as dangerous when infected. Because what bias does most mercilessly is strip us of our reason.

In “Why Pure Reason Won’t End American Tribalism,” author Robert Wright presents the concept of tribal antagonism by explaining that “people in opposing tribes don’t like each other.” Wright posits that “the more you dislike the other tribe, the more uncritically you trust your experts and the more suspiciously you view the other tribe’s experts.” This, he says, is easily observable in your own self by a simple scroll through an ideologically mixed social media channel. How does it make you feel when you see evidence presented from a perspective you don’t agree with? It probably makes you mad, or perhaps you’ll feel superior. I know that I’ve certainly felt those things. What it often doesn’t make you feel is considerate or empathetic.

Wright’s piece was written in response to Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now, a book that focuses on the Age of Enlightenment from a secular humanist perspective. Wright’s critique is that this particular work focuses too much on the idea that you can sway someone with facts, science and reason. But what sway do those Enlightenment-era qualities hold over a post-truth world? One that will arguably become harder to navigate when advancements in machine learning and technology mean it will become more difficult to discern reality from manipulated audio and video. He goes on to suggest that only by teaching the Buddhist practice of mindfulness alongside the scientific method do we have even a glimmer of getting back our reason.

Mindfulness is the act of being aware of your thoughts and emotions and choosing to explore why you may be having them. It’s critical analysis of the self. Wright suggests that as “long as you remain truly mindful, you will be less inclined to reflexively reject evidence at odds with your views, less inclined to uncritically embrace—and impulsively retweet—evidence supportive of your views.”

I, especially lately, have struggled with the impulsive retweet. It’s difficult not to given the tenor of this administration. Even now, I don’t know how two people can hear the tape of imprisoned kids crying and not feel the same horror and disgust that I feel. But there is credence to what Wright is saying, even in situations like these, where tribalism is being manipulated and used to support the oppression of the most vulnerable. Allowing emotion to overwhelm reason, when they should live in balance with one another, is to risk causing additional convolution. Those missteps, made from the emotional act of unchecked trust, ultimately undercut and distract from the very real tragedy at hand.

With all of this bad-mouthing of tribalism, I do want to clarify that I believe community is important. A healthy one provides material and emotional support, brings out the best in its members and encourages service, love, humility, artistry and ingenuity. But I wonder if it’s possible to take the best parts of a community and weed out the parts of ourselves that tend toward acts of othering.

Truly, who do those “othering” acts serve? What inherent value does a storied glass of scotch hold over its raffish cousin, the Piña Colada? What justice is served in blindly trusting the draconian policies of your party? What is gained from sacrificing arguably the most human trait — our sense of reason — on the altar of association?

Not much from where me and my tiny umbrella are sitting.

Photos by Carsten Schanter and Tomas del Amo via Getty Images.

[csk0049]

I've always wondered..

If things between you and I were different, would we be much happier than we are today? Would we be able to open freely to each other without having any problems to tip toe certain topics? If you weren't set in your ways, would you be more open minded about everything around you? The things that were suppose to teach us a lesson in our past, were they meant to harm us in our present and future? Are we set in our ways for good? Is there nothing that can ever change us or grow us out of our way? What is true happiness? How do we know that we are truly happy? Sometimes I wonder if the things that are going on in my life are supposed to happen the way they are coming. The journey I walk, is this the journey that was given to me? There's no doubt in regards to the decisions I've made. I've given much thought and effort into it. I just wonder, if I have done things differently in the past, in regards to myself would I be much happier? I look back and I might of felt like that was the "true me" that wanted to party, be carefree, "not give a damn" about anybody's feelings. But how did it went from that, to me being very reserved, shy (well I have always been shy), non-confrontational. Instead of fighting physical, I would rather have an adult conversation. But it seems like the things that have happened towards me in my past and I'm sure I had some type of cause in it, I just cant instantly trust or become the person that I use to be where I can hold a conversation with a stranger with no attachments and just be okay and not think anything negatively about that person. At times, I want to be the person who is not so guarded and just letting go of everything. I think that's the problem with me, I hold on to what I want to be fixed or I feel like should be fixed when I should be letting it go and letting it be. I also feel like its social media. I constantly compare myself to these people I can careless about and it slowly, slowly deteriorates my character and makes me become weaker. This isn't what I want. I know I'm a strong individual and I'm independent, very smart. But with everything that I have seen and everything I have heard, it does influence me a bit and gives doubt within myself. I wonder, if social media wasn't so big, just like how it was when I was growing up, would it be different? I wasn't into checking my myspace because I did not care so much for it or communicating with others. But once I started Facebook, it felt different. Then I had an instagram, just because I love the filters but never thought or knew that it was another social platform. Now it's Snapchat, keeping up with everything. Once upon a time I had a twitter, but I deleted it because certainly there was a gal who envied the relationship I have with my (now) husband and she felt the need to display subliminal messages which I felt was too negative in my taste; so I got rid of the thing itself. That - is something I know I have to deal with, because it comes along with the package. However, you can't make a hippo do flips, when it can only lay. If you get what I mean. I've tried to do my peace before we both gotten married and [for me] it came from sincere place. The recipient did not come from the same, it just sounded a bit hypocritical and malicious. At first I said fuck it. But I think what got to me was the constant "contact" of if things did not go as what she wanted it to go. And my husband just stepped in and said not to deal with it. How can I not? This is a part of me that I have to deal with. But there's no relationship. And I don't think there will be any relationship. It's a bit awkward and the other party hasn't grown out of their "petty" ways. Where does pettiness get you anyway? Nowhere. You'll be laughing, but in the inside you're obviously bothered to be petty right. But if this was not going on between us, then would this actually be a great coparenting experience? Anyway, we don't have to be friends. It was never intended for us to be friends but just to be civil and cordial. I think I'm just more bothered of the things that are said about me or towards me. I know I shouldn't be bothered, but sometimes I am. And those are some things that I do and AM able to let go, for the time being. I don't have a problem bringing up though. But I usually don't because I wouldn't want others to bring up things that I have done or said in the past. I just wonder if things were so much different and actual positivity was spread, would everything I have to deal with be less stressful and bring more happiness? I'll just keep wondering or better yet, I'll learn to let it go, because these are empty promises I'm bringing to myself and it's setting myself up for disaster. Whether the situation is, I'll try my best to stay positive. Speak clearly and get my point across. No more small fights. It gets no where.