#computer activity tracker

[teamtrackmaster]

The New Era Of Work: How Activity Tracking Is Shaping Employee

The effective tracking and management of activities of employee requires the use of various tools and techniques, including time tracking software, project management systems, communication platforms, and performance evaluation metrics. Time tracking software enables organizations to monitor the amount of time employees spend on specific tasks or projects, helping to identify areas of inefficiency and optimize resource allocation. 

Project management systems allow teams to collaborate on tasks, set deadlines, track progress, and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that projects are completed on time and within budget.

Communication platforms such as email, instant messaging, and video conferencing tools facilitate effective communication and collaboration among remote and distributed teams. These platforms enable employees to share information, exchange ideas, and coordinate work activities, regardless of their physical location. Performance evaluation metrics, including key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance reviews, provide valuable insights into employee productivity, quality of work, and adherence to company standards.

Monitoring employee activity also plays a crucial role in ensuring compliance with company policies, industry regulations, and legal requirements. By tracking activities of employee, organizations can identify and address issues such as unauthorized access to sensitive information, violations of data security policies, and breaches of confidentiality. This helps mitigate risks and liabilities associated with non-compliance and safeguard the organization's reputation and integrity.

How Employee Activity Tracker Helps A Business?

An activities of employee tracker serves as a valuable tool for businesses in several key ways. Firstly, it provides insight into how employees allocate their time and resources, enabling managers to identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and optimize resource allocation. By monitoring activities of employee, businesses can track progress on projects, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources effectively to ensure projects are completed on time and within budget. 

Additionally, an activity tracker helps businesses ensure compliance with company policies, industry regulations, and legal requirements by monitoring employee behavior and identifying any potential violations or risks. This helps mitigate liabilities and safeguard the organization's reputation and integrity. 

How Activity Tracking Is Shaping Employees According To The Current Environment?

In the current environment, characterized by widespread remote work and distributed teams, activity tracking is playing an increasingly pivotal role in shaping employee behavior, productivity, and overall performance. With the shift to remote work, employers are relying on activity tracking tools to monitor employee engagement, measure productivity, and ensure accountability in virtual work environments. 

By computer activity tracker, such as time spent on tasks, project progress, and communication patterns, businesses can gain valuable insights into how work is being performed outside traditional office settings. This real-time visibility allows employers to identify potential bottlenecks, address productivity issues, and optimize workflow efficiencies to adapt to the challenges posed by remote work. 

Moreover, activity tracking tools fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, encouraging employees to stay focused and accountable for their work even in remote settings. As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent, activity tracking is shaping employee behavior by providing the tools and insights necessary to thrive in the evolving work landscape.

Top 03 Employee Tracking Software

Toggl Track: Toggl Track is a popular activity tracking software that allows employees to log their work hours and track tasks and projects. It offers features such as one-click timers, customizable project tracking, and detailed reporting. Toggl Track is suitable for businesses of all sizes and integrates with various project management and productivity tools.

Hubstaff: Hubstaff is a comprehensive employee monitoring and time tracking software designed for remote teams. It offers features such as automatic time tracking, GPS tracking, activity monitoring, and productivity tracking. Hubstaff integrates with project management, accounting, and payroll tools, making it suitable for businesses looking for advanced time tracking and management capabilities.

Time Doctor: Time Doctor is a powerful employee time tracking and productivity software that helps businesses monitor activities of employee track time spent on tasks, and improve productivity. It offers features such as time tracking, screenshot capture, website and application tracking, and reporting. Time Doctor is suitable for businesses of all sizes, particularly those with remote or distributed teams. Also Watch: Leading Employee Engagement and Workforce Productivity Tool

Conclusion!

In conclusion, the concept of employee activity stands as a cornerstone of modern workforce management, particularly in the context of evolving work dynamics such as remote and distributed teams. 

Activities of employee tracking serves as a powerful tool for organizations seeking to optimize productivity, streamline workflows, and ensure accountability among their workforce. 

By monitoring activities such as task completion, project progress, and communication patterns, employers can identify areas for improvement, address productivity bottlenecks, and allocate resources more effectively. This real-time visibility into activities of employee enables businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimize workflow efficiencies, and drive organizational success.

[efficiencytracker]

Beyond Busywork: Measuring What Matters In Employee Activity

From the bustling energy of daily tasks to the collaborative efforts that shape the future of businesses, the actions of individual employees collectively form the heartbeat of any thriving enterprise. In today's dynamic work environments, where competition is fierce and innovation is paramount, understanding and optimizing employee activity is not just advantageous—it's essential.

Employee activities encompass a spectrum of actions, ranging from routine tasks to creative problem-solving, from team collaborations to individual initiatives. It's the fuel that propels projects forward, the catalyst for innovation, and the cornerstone of workplace culture. In this article, we delve into the multifaceted nature of activity of employee, exploring its significance, its impact on organizational outcomes, and strategies to nurture and leverage it effectively.

As we navigate an era defined by rapid technological advancements, shifting market landscapes, and evolving workplace dynamics, the role of activity takes on new dimensions. Beyond mere productivity metrics, it reflects the engagement, motivation, and commitment of individuals towards shared goals. 

Moreover, in an increasingly interconnected world, where collaboration and adaptability are prized assets, understanding how to harness and channel activity of employee becomes a strategic imperative for businesses seeking sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

From the traditional office settings to the virtual realms of remote work, the dynamic activities of employees are undergoing profound transformations. As organizations embrace flexibility and embrace diverse work arrangements, the challenge lies in fostering a sense of purpose and connection that transcends physical boundaries. 

How can leaders inspire and empower employees to bring their best selves to work, regardless of their location or context? How can technology be harnessed to facilitate seamless collaboration and communication, enriching the tapestry activities of employees?

Is Using Employee Activity Tracker For Your Workforce Is Essential? 

Using an activities tracker for your workforce can be highly beneficial and, in many cases, essential for maximizing productivity, optimizing resource allocation, and fostering accountability. By implementing such tools, organizations gain valuable insights into how time is spent, which tasks are being prioritized, and where potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies may lie. 

Moreover, these computer activity trackers can help identify patterns and trends in employee behavior, enabling managers to tailor support and resources accordingly. 

Additionally, in remote or distributed work environments, where physical oversight may be limited, activity trackers provide a means of maintaining visibility and ensuring that work is progressing as intended. 

However, it's crucial to balance the benefits of monitoring with respect for employee privacy and autonomy, ensuring that these tools are used transparently and ethically to support—not surveil—workplace productivity and well-being. 

Ultimately, while not essential in every context, activities of employees trackers can be valuable tools for enhancing organizational performance and empowering both employees and managers to achieve their goals effectively.

Benefits Of Activity Tracking Tool

Insightful Data Analysis: Activity tracking software provides valuable insights into how employees spend their time, which tasks they prioritize, and where productivity gains can be made. By analyzing this data, managers can identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, enabling informed decision-making and resource allocation.

Optimized Resource Allocation: With visibility into employee activities, managers can allocate resources more effectively, ensuring that tasks are assigned to the right individuals based on their skills and availability. This helps prevent bottlenecks, minimize idle time, and streamline workflows, ultimately enhancing overall productivity.

Performance Evaluation And Feedback: Employee tracking software facilitates objective performance evaluation by providing concrete data on employee output and contributions. This enables managers to provide targeted feedback, recognize achievements, and address areas for development, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

Enhanced Project Management: By tracking the progress of tasks and projects in real-time, activity tracking software enables better project management. Managers can monitor project milestones, identify potential delays, and allocate resources strategically to ensure timely delivery and successful project outcomes.

Remote Work Facilitation: In remote or distributed work environments, activity tracking software provides a means of maintaining visibility and accountability. Managers can monitor remote employees' activities, track their progress, and offer support as needed, fostering collaboration and communication across geographically dispersed teams. Also Watch: Leading Employee Engagement and Workforce Productivity Tool

Conclusion

As we conclude this exploration, it becomes evident that beyond the surface level of busyness lies a realm where meaningful contribution, strategic focus, and purposeful engagement intersect. Organizations that recognize this reality and embrace a holistic approach to measuring employee activity stand to reap significant rewards.

Firstly, by shifting the focus from mere activity metrics to outcomes-driven analysis, organizations can gain deeper insights into the value generated by individual and collective efforts. This shift enables leaders to identify high-impact activities, optimize resource allocation, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Moreover, by measuring what matters in the activities of employees, organizations can cultivate a workforce that is not only productive but also engaged and motivated. When employees understand how their contributions align with broader organizational objectives, they feel a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment in their work. This, in turn, leads to higher levels of job satisfaction, increased morale, and ultimately, improved retention rates.

[workhubsoftware]

Beyond The Surface: Exploring The Depths Of Employee Activity

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to optimize productivity and efficiency in today's fast-paced digital age. One area that has garnered significant attention is employee activity. Beyond the surface-level tasks and projects, lies a treasure trove of insights waiting to be discovered. Let's delve deeper into the realms of employee work and explore the tools and techniques available to unearth its true potential.

Understanding Employee Tracking Activity

Employee tracker activity encompasses a wide range of actions and behaviors within the workplace. From completing tasks and attending meetings to communication patterns and collaboration efforts, each interaction contributes to the overall productivity and performance of the workforce. However, traditional methods of tracking employee work often fall short of providing comprehensive insights.

The Rise of Employee Tracker's Activity

Enter employee work tracking software – a powerful tool designed to capture and analyze various aspects of employee behavior. Whether it's monitoring computer usage, tracking time spent on specific tasks, or assessing overall productivity levels, these trackers offer a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of employees.

Unlocking Insights with Activity Tracking Software

Activity tracking software goes beyond simply monitoring keystrokes or mouse clicks. By leveraging advanced algorithms and analytics, these tools can provide valuable insights into employee behavior. From identifying patterns and trends to detecting potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies, the data collected can help organizations make informed decisions and optimize workflows.

Enhancing Productivity and Performance

One of the key benefits of employee business tracking software is its ability to identify areas for improvement. By analyzing how employees allocate their time and resources, organizations can pinpoint opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate distractions, and enhance overall productivity. Additionally, by identifying top performers and replicating their strategies, businesses can foster a culture of excellence and drive better results.

Balancing Privacy and Transparency

While the benefits of employee occupation tracking are undeniable, it's essential to strike a balance between privacy and transparency. Respecting employee privacy rights and ensuring transparency in the use of attendance tracking software is crucial to maintaining trust and fostering a positive work environment. Clear communication, establishing guidelines, and providing employees with control over their data can help alleviate concerns and build confidence in the system.

Empowering Employees with Insights

Beyond its role in optimizing organizational performance, workforce activity tracking can also empower individual employees. By providing visibility into their own behavior and productivity metrics, employees can gain valuable insights into their work habits and areas for improvement. This self-awareness can drive personal growth and development, leading to greater job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Harnessing the Power of Data

In today's data-driven world, the ability to harness and analyze vast amounts of information is a game-changer. By leveraging workforce work data, organizations can gain a deeper understanding of their workforce dynamics, identify emerging trends, and anticipate future challenges. This strategic advantage enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing market conditions with agility.

The Future of Employee Tracking Activity

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of employee occupation-tracking software. From artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to advanced biometric sensors, the future holds exciting possibilities for unlocking the full potential of statement of work activity data. By embracing these innovations and harnessing the power of data-driven insights, organizations can drive greater efficiency, productivity, and success.

Navigating the Depths of Employee Tracking Activity: A Continued Exploration

As we navigate the depths of employee tracking work, it becomes increasingly evident that the journey is ongoing. With each new technological advancement and organizational evolution, there are new insights to be gained and new challenges to overcome. By staying vigilant and adaptive, businesses can continue to uncover hidden efficiencies, optimize workflows, and empower their workforce for success. In this ever-changing landscape, the quest to understand and leverage workforce work remains a vital pursuit, driving continuous improvement and innovation across all facets of the modern workplace. In this pursuit lies the promise of unlocking the true potential of employee tracking work, propelling organizations toward greater heights of productivity and success.

Conclusion

Employee work tracking software represents a rich source of untapped potential for businesses seeking to optimize performance and productivity. By leveraging the capabilities of activity-tracking software and embracing a culture of transparency and accountability, organizations can unlock valuable insights and drive meaningful change. The journey beyond the surface of employee activity is one filled with opportunities for growth, innovation, and success.

[employeesproductivityhub]

Beyond The Surface: Exploring The Depths Of Employee Activity

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to optimize productivity and efficiency in today's fast-paced digital age. One area that has garnered significant attention is employee activity. Beyond the surface-level tasks and projects, lies a treasure trove of insights waiting to be discovered. Let's delve deeper into the realms of employee work and explore the tools and techniques available to unearth its true potential.

Understanding Employee Tracking Activity

Employee tracker activity encompasses a wide range of actions and behaviors within the workplace. From completing tasks and attending meetings to communication patterns and collaboration efforts, each interaction contributes to the overall productivity and performance of the workforce. However, traditional methods of tracking employee work often fall short of providing comprehensive insights.

The Rise of Employee Tracker's Activity

Enter employee work tracking software – a powerful tool designed to capture and analyze various aspects of employee behavior. Whether it's monitoring computer usage, tracking time spent on specific tasks, or assessing overall productivity levels, these trackers offer a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of employees.

Unlocking Insights with Activity Tracking Software

Activity tracking software goes beyond simply monitoring keystrokes or mouse clicks. By leveraging advanced algorithms and analytics, these tools can provide valuable insights into employee behavior. From identifying patterns and trends to detecting potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies, the data collected can help organizations make informed decisions and optimize workflows.

Enhancing Productivity and Performance

One of the key benefits of employee business tracking software is its ability to identify areas for improvement. By analyzing how employees allocate their time and resources, organizations can pinpoint opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate distractions, and enhance overall productivity. Additionally, by identifying top performers and replicating their strategies, businesses can foster a culture of excellence and drive better results.

Balancing Privacy and Transparency

While the benefits of employee occupation tracking are undeniable, it's essential to strike a balance between privacy and transparency. Respecting employee privacy rights and ensuring transparency in the use of attendance tracking software is crucial to maintaining trust and fostering a positive work environment. Clear communication, establishing guidelines, and providing employees with control over their data can help alleviate concerns and build confidence in the system.

Empowering Employees with Insights

Beyond its role in optimizing organizational performance, workforce activity tracking can also empower individual employees. By providing visibility into their own behavior and productivity metrics, employees can gain valuable insights into their work habits and areas for improvement. This self-awareness can drive personal growth and development, leading to greater job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Harnessing the Power of Data

In today's data-driven world, the ability to harness and analyze vast amounts of information is a game-changer. By leveraging workforce work data, organizations can gain a deeper understanding of their workforce dynamics, identify emerging trends, and anticipate future challenges. This strategic advantage enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing market conditions with agility.

The Future of Employee Tracking Activity

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of employee occupation-tracking software. From artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to advanced biometric sensors, the future holds exciting possibilities for unlocking the full potential of statement of work activity data. By embracing these innovations and harnessing the power of data-driven insights, organizations can drive greater efficiency, productivity, and success.

Navigating the Depths of Employee Tracking Activity: A Continued Exploration

As we navigate the depths of employee tracking work, it becomes increasingly evident that the journey is ongoing. With each new technological advancement and organizational evolution, there are new insights to be gained and new challenges to overcome. By staying vigilant and adaptive, businesses can continue to uncover hidden efficiencies, optimize workflows, and empower their workforce for success. In this ever-changing landscape, the quest to understand and leverage workforce work remains a vital pursuit, driving continuous improvement and innovation across all facets of the modern workplace. In this pursuit lies the promise of unlocking the true potential of employee tracking work, propelling organizations toward greater heights of productivity and success.

Conclusion

Employee work tracking software represents a rich source of untapped potential for businesses seeking to optimize performance and productivity. By leveraging the capabilities of activity-tracking software and embracing a culture of transparency and accountability, organizations can unlock valuable insights and drive meaningful change. The journey beyond the surface of employee activity is one filled with opportunities for growth, innovation, and success.

[wanywheresolution]

Activity tracking software is a tool designed to monitor and record employee activities on devices and applications, providing detailed insights into productivity and time usage. It tracks actions such as website visits, application usage, task durations, and idle times. Used by businesses to improve workflow efficiency, ensure accountability, and identify bottlenecks. It can also help individuals manage their time better and optimize their daily routines.

[ms-demeanor]

any thoughts on the new post that staff went scorched earth on which is now making the rounds abt tumblr live? it basically screenshots all the tos and claims if you've ever opened the app (or in some rbs, unsnoozed live) tumblr has gotten your data. on the one hand i feel like this is fearmongering, but on the other its true that MOST sites have your data as is so its pretty standard. you seem pretty knowledgeable abt data gathering so i was wondering abt your take

This is going to be pretty unkind but watching tumblr users interact with staff and live is a great primer on how conspiracy theories happen.

Nobody on this fucking website knows how to read a ToS, nobody on this website knows how anything fucking works (sorry, this is not a dig at you but how would tumblr "get" your data from you clicking or unclicking live; the only data that tumblr has on you is the data that you have put on tumblr what data do people think that clicking the "new" button is scooping up that is anything beyond interactions or posts or IP addresses which are the things that tumblr already has information about like you do not introduce new information into the tumblr ecosystem by clicking a button you haven't installed anything you haven't changed permissions on your browser if everyone is so goddamned scared about live stealing their data i strongly recommend they stop using anything but public internet through an anonymizer and making sure location data is shut off on all of their devices and anyone who is flipping their shit about the type of data that live is collecting but who is using chrome on any device needs to chill the fuck out about live and flip the fuck out about google)

this is like that post about twitter's content policy that circulated the other day or that post about deviantart's content policy that circulated ten fucking years ago nobody knows how to read legal documents and nobody knows how to read technical documentation and this comes together into unholy matrimony on the no reading comprehension at all moral panic website

live never violated the GDPR it was just rolled out in the US first but the entire userbase decided that because it hadn't been rolled out simultaneously in the EU and the US that it was SO UNSPEAKABLY PRIVACY VIOLATEY THAT THE EU HAD BANNED IT FOR ITS CRIMES with, like, nothing whatsoever backing that up because, again, even at its most intrusive Live collects about as much data as Twitter or Yelp, both of which are *capable* of meeting GDPR standards with that level of data collection (even if musk sometimes makes decisions that violate GDPR).

Live is significantly less intrusive than any facebook product, than Amazon, and than any Google product. If you use youtube logged in, don't worry about live, the horse is out of the barn and tumblr is the least of your worries *regardless* of live. If you regularly use Google as a search engine please god learn how to evaluate and compare risks across platforms because Live is like a coughing baby compared to about a dozen things that most highly online people interact with every single day.

If you don't want to use live don't use live. Clicking the button doesn't magically transfer your secret FBI file to tumblr and even agreeing to the ToS doesn't share anything that tumblr doesn't already have if you don't continue to interact - if you don't interact with live after agreeing to the ToS it's not collecting any data except your non-interaction.

For everyone who is losing it over Live just turn off your goddamned location on your fucking cellphone and turn off your location on your goddamned computers and that's it, you're good, you're fine, relax. If your response to "turn off your location" is "but I need it for _____" then don't worry about Live, whatever "_____" is was already collecting and selling your data.

Do you use an activity tracker? Congrats, you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about than tumblr live.

Okay but also I yelled about that post and the very many ways in which it was incorrect in January.

And I happened to take an archive of the page at that time because I'm a paranoid motherfucker.

And if you want my guess as to why staff went "scorched earth" on that post it's probably because if you scroll down to the bottom of the page on the archive, OP calls on everyone looking at the post to send a kind fuck you to the CEO then tagged his tumblr.

If you look at the other posts that went scorched earth in relation to tumblr staff they were also posts that very pointedly directed a lot of ire at a single staff member.

I don't think that any individual tumblr staff members are above criticism and I don't think that staff as a whole is above criticism but part of learning to read a ToS is understanding that someone can be shitty and vague and use TERF talking points and skirt the line and be technically okay under the ToS while someone can have a legitimate gripe about another user being horrible and manage to violate the ToS by accidentally spinning up a harassment campaign or suicide baiting someone.

Shitty people like nazis and terfs thrive on being edge cases. They are very good at finding a boundary and standing juuuuuuuuust on this side of it and going "la la la I'm not violating the ToS, you can't stop me!" and that blows and it leads to a lot of people encountering a lot of shitty stuff on a lot of websites but personally I'm pretty glad that there's a lot of gray area because when you cut out gray area that's when you see things like It's Going Down getting banned as extremist content alongside white supremacists. Please continue to report nazis and terfs, and when possible go deep into their pages to report because a pattern of behavior is more likely to get recognized as hate speech than a single post that gets reported a hundred times. Please block as many people who it's harmful for you to interact with as possible because it's clear that staff is not going to do the kind of work protecting users that users would like staff to do.

However I just can't get angry on behalf of a blogger who got nuked for saying "Hey everyone who hates this feature that we all hate please go tell the CEO to fuck himself at this URL specifically" - that is an extremely clear violation of the ToS because it is absolutely targeted harassment.

So now tumblr-the-userbase is going off on its merry conspiracy way skipping through fields and lacking reading comprehension and saying "users are getting banned for reporting the crimes of tumblr live and its gdpr violations" and ignoring the fact that the post was nuked because the last line was saying "hey everyone, let's all individually tell the CEO to fuck off in messages sent directly to him that are certainly not going to include any threats, exaggerations, gore, etc. etc. etc."

If I were to make a post that had 50k notes and the last line was "and while you're at it, please send tumblr-user-ms-demeanor a personalized message telling them why they're a terrible person so they know what we think of them" it would absolutely be reasonable to say that was harassing that user. And that post did it with the CEO. Who is not above criticism (and I have my criticisms! I don't think he really gets tumblr and that's a problem!), but jesus fucking christ don't tag the goddamned CEO or any other staff member in a call to action asking users to send them messages saying "fuck off" this is literally the stupidest thing I've ever seen a tumblr conspiracy theory coalesce around.

Anyway thank you for giving me a place to vent i've been getting more and more pissed about this for three days. Everyone feel free to kindly tell tumblr user ms demeanor to fuck off.

[pretty-little-mind33]

Tangerine x fem!reader

Summary: You've been the Twins' handler for years now, and when Tangerine blows up at you one evening after a mission, he apologizes in an unconventional way.

Epilogue

Genre: SMUT (nsfm)

Warnings: implied fuck boy!Tangerine, bitchy!Tangerine in the beginning, reader is named Peach, unprotected sex, passionate sex, not much foreplay (they're desperate lmao), swearing, insecurities, praise kink, degradation, emotional, Tangerine is all over the place and bad with his feelings!

~ i'm so sorry i feel like this took forever <3 enjoy! @j23r23 ~

TANGERINE MASTERLIST

"He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not," you smile, your nails drumming on the desk as you pick at the petals of the roses in the jar near your computer. "Ah ha, he loves me. Knew you were so full of shit," you hum happily. 

"Piss off," Tangerine loudly grunts in your ear and you tilt your head, scrunching your nose. You've told him not to yell like that—you've warned him that the earpiece is sensitive and you'll lose your hearing if he continues like this—but he never listens.

Being the Twins handler for almost four years now you've learned how to deal with their quirks.

Lemon, as ruthless as he is, is too trusting. He's also loyal to a fault and he'd die for Tangerine in seconds; something you've had to account for in your missions so it doesn't happen. 

Tangerine on the other hand? Recklessness under the guise of control. He'd burn the entire world down for Lemon without hesitation, his temper as bright as the flames of a wildfire.

Unexplainably however, you were drawn to him the most.

While he pushes your buttons like no one else, you also tend to push him in ways that leave him wanting—no needing—more.

"Tan," you warn again, "don't talk so loudly, they'll hear you!"

"Stop your yapping in my ear then, luv," Tangerine snaps, his comment snarky and you hear a loud humph as it sounds like someone crashes into something.

Tangerine sounds out of breath and you use your mouse to click on the map on your computer. You zoom in and ask, "Where's Lem? You aren't supposed to meet any security for a while—"

"He's busy, darlin'. And your little shortcut turned out to be not so short after all," Tangerine says and you hear a loud grunt. It's obvious he's in the middle of a fight.

Your blood runs cold as you chew on your lip. Your hands quickly dance over the keyboard as you try and find another way for them—an easier way—

"Hey, Peach, will ya stop breathing so damn loudly, it's distracting me," Tangerine's voice interrupts your worry and you hold your breath when you hear a loud thwap and then a grunt—immediately accompanied by cursing and more hoarse shouts. 

"Tangerine!" his name spills from your lips as you hear louder blows. "Tan?" you whisper when the line disconnects and a low buzz is heard in your ear. You fumble to discard the earpiece onto the desk in front of you and then you focus on finding Lemon. 

If anyone can help Tangerine, it's Lemon.

With a frown, you activate the tracker you'd promised not to slip into Lemon's jacket, and a little red light blinks on your computer screen. He's not far from where Tangerine is. You lean over and connect to the microphone on your computer.

"Lemon?!" 

You hear a crack and then the shuffling of clothes against the microphone in the tracker. "Peach?" Lemon grunts, "Ya cheeky lil' bird, I told ya not to track me," he lets out a breathy laugh, and another smack is heard, "Fuck me, these fuckers just don't die easily!" 

"Lem? Where's Tan?" you ask, seeing that the tracker Tangerine wears voluntarily on his suit hasn't moved in a while. "Is he okay? I think the earpiece broke."

Something must have happened to his tracker too if it's malfunctioning.

"Yeah, which is why I say I should wear it—but he's bossy and he's your favorite," Lemon says. 

"I don't have favorites!" you insist, your cheeks burning.

"Sure, whatever," Lemon chuckles and then adds, "Ah, speaking of the devil—I can see 'im now. Damn, he's beat up ain't he. Bullocks. Y'know your little plan was shit, Peach, security swarmed us almost immediately!"  

You pinch your eyes and guilt settles in your stomach. "I know, I know, I'm sorry,"

You hear Tangerine's voice distantly as he grumbles, "Fuckin' arsehole broke my earpiece when he punched me—I lost contact with Peach," he complains and you hear shuffling. Your stomach fills with unwanted butterflies at the sound of his voice and how your codename rolls off his tongue. 

"She can hear ya," Lemon says, his smirk evident in his tone, "Say hello, Peach."

"She tracked ya?" 

"Yeah, and bugged me too apparently."

 "What the fuck, my tracker doesn't do that," Tangerine says and you hear an infliction in his voice. 

"Yeah, cauz you always have the earpiece."

"Because she likes me better,"

"That's what I said!!" 

"Oi, you wankers, I can still hear you," you interrupt, "Will you just come back to the van now? The mission's a bust," you finish. While they continue to bicker for a moment, Lemon finally shuts down the tracker—by breaking it you assume—idiot—and it isn't until the van door slams open that you hear and see them again. 

"Oi, now you're takin' the piss," Tangerine exclaims, glaring at his brother as he runs a hand through his mussed hair. He enters the van and you stand. Your eyes scan over his appearance; his suit is torn and bloodied and he has a gaping cut on his forehead. His ear is also bleeding from when you assume the broken earpiece had shattered. 

"Christ," you whisper and walk over to him. Lemon smirks as he walks by the both of you and collapses onto the second chair near your desk. He's less beat up than Tangerine—who'd taken on more men you assume—but you remind yourself to check on him later anyway.

Tangerine senses you come up to him and he tenses when you hold his cheeks in your hands and check his wounds. "Tan, this looks bad," you say. 

"Peach, I'm fine," he grumbles and turns his head away. He sounds grumpier than usual.

"Look, I'm sorry—I'm sorry I messed up, I—"

Suddenly, Tangerine explodes. His hand comes up around his ears as he scrunches up his nose. "Will ya just stop talkin' for one fuckin' second?!" he yells and even Lemon, who had been a silent bystander to the conversation, looks up from where he's bandaging his hand. 

Your eyes widen and you blink at Tangerine. "W-what?"

He presses his index on his temple and narrows his eyes at you. "I have a fuckin' headache 'cause of you and you talkin' my fuckin' ear off all the damn time! And now I can barely hear because it's ringing so fuckin' hard!" he points to the blood inside his ear. 

You flinch at his tone and try to control the tears threatening to spill as he harshly berates you. 

"Right," is all you say, "sorry," your voice sounds small and you push by him and out to the front of the van to start the engine. 

* * * 

When you arrive outside their house—well, your house too since you've been living with them for the past three months—you don't talk to Tangerine. You don't even look at him.

Instead, without a word, you walk up to your room, tears still brimming, and slam the door behind you. 

Your stomach hurts and your nails dig into your palms as you run a shower. You desperately want to wash away any memory of what happened tonight. 

It isn't uncommon for you and Tangerine to fight—but he's never shouted like that and never in response to your worry.

Once you finish with your shower and walk out of the bathroom, just a towel wrapped around your body, you jump when you see Tangerine standing in the middle of your room.

He'd clearly freshened up too but, unlike yours, his hair is freshly dried. You aren't surprised—you know he hates sleeping with it when it's wet. 

He's wearing a casual pair of beige slacks and a white T-shirt. The fabric strains against the muscles in his arms as he crosses them across his chest and you look up, feeling a burn in your cheeks.

Tangerine's ear has been bandaged and his cuts and bruises look kindly tended to. Lemon, you assume, he's always been soft on his brother even when he's acting like a jerk. 

Tangerine is staring at you intensely, his blue eyes shining a shade darker than usual. 

"Shit, stop being creepy," you grumble, holding your towel tightly around yourself. "Have you come to say you're sorry for acting like a prick or just stare a hole into my head?"

Tangerine's eyes narrow and he shakes his head. He stalks closer to you, pink lips parted and his hands find your hair near your nape. He pulls you in, seemingly unbothered by the squeal you make or how you're unable to move your hands to push him away. 

Not that you'd want to push him away anyway.

"The fuck you think you're doing?" you hiss, staring at him, "have you gone mad?"

Tangerine just continues to stare into your soul. "You're so damn annoying," he mutters.  

"I'll scream and Lemon will come and beat the shit out of you," you threaten, challenging him. You know Lemon would never do such a thing and you'd be a fool to scream. 

"But, fuck me, I like you so damn much," he finishes his sentence, and then his lips find yours. His hand tightens in your hair as he kisses you. There's no tenderness in his kiss, no hesitation or remorse, just pure passion as he wraps his arms around you and holds your back as he pulls your chest to his. 

You clutch the towel, making sure it feels secure, and kiss him back. You make a small sound behind his lips but you can't deny the heat in the kiss or how badly your stomach tightens just right. The steam coming from your bathroom is taunting as it surrounds you; sticky and warm. 

"Tan," you mumble as his hand comes around your jaw and he turns your head to kiss your neck. 

"Shut up," he growls, "you talk too damn much." He squeezes his eyes shut and the words fall easily from his lips as they press to your skin.

"God, you don't understand how hard it is for me; hearing your sweet voice in my ear while I'm trying not to get fuckin' stabbed or shot to death! You don't know what you do to me, darlin'. You have no fuckin' clue. It's fuckin' torture," he says as his hand tightens in your hair and you whimper.

"Tan, m-my towel," you tell him, struggling to hold it up as his body presses against yours.

This makes Tangerine snap out of whatever trance he's in for a moment and he looks down at you. His eyes have softened just a little and his tone is sultry when he asks, "Let it fall. I don't care. Do you?" His lips quirk up. "I've dreamt of you naked a thousand times, luv."

Your eyes round at the intensity of his words. You want to tell him to fuck off—that you've never thought of him like this. Never imagined his lips on yours or the way he'd feel inside you. But then you'd be a liar, and you aren't a liar. 

Instead, you drop the towel, your eyes still intensely locked onto his. The cold air sends a shiver up your spine and Tangerine's hands find the skin on your back instead of the towel. His eyes haven't left yours and he looks surprised that you'd done it. He hasn't looked down and his cheeks have turned a dusty pink. 

"What?" you move your hands up to his cheeks and hold them, "you said you'd dreamt of this. Well?" With as much confidence as you can muster, tilt his head to your naked body. You can feel your hands tremble against his cheeks, all kinds of insecurities and uncertainties bubbling inside you and just as you're going to pull away from sheer embarrassment, Tangerine speaks; 

"Fuckin' hell, you look so much better than in my imagination," his hands slide up the curves of your hips and breasts. His touch is surprisingly gentle for how passionate he'd been in the beginning.

You watch as his eyes roam around your body and he runs a hand over his jaw, staring at you with pure admiration. "You belong in a fuckin' museum," he whispers behind his hand. 

"Alright, lover boy," you roll your eyes and shift to move away but his hands find your hips and he hoists you up into his arms. You gasp, your arms finding his shoulders and your legs cling to his waist as your wet hair sprinkles water over his face. It's a weird position to be in considering you're naked.

"Tangerine!" you cry as he carries you over to your bed and you squeal when he drops you and hovers over you. 

"Let me worship you, darlin'," he whispers as his knee slides in between your legs and he kisses your lips again. He disconnects them and looks at you seriously, "Please," he pleads and your eyes widen.

Tangerine never says please.

You find yourself nodding, too lost in the haze of it all to hear the small voice in your head screaming how stupid this is.

He'll throw you away after. He doesn't care. He'll hurt you. He'll break your heart! 

You kiss him again, his lips moving against yours rhythmically. You're so lost in pleasure that when he sits up on his heels to strip his shirt, you whine and grasp at his arms. "Shhh, I'm here, dove," he chuckles, enjoying the power he has over you. When he leans over you to kiss you again, this time your hands find his abs and you can't help but explore them. 

"You countin' them, luv?" he chuckles after a moment and his lips find your nipples as he squeezes one of your breasts in his hands. You make an embarrassed sound that quickly turns into a moan when he positions your hips just right so the fabric of his slacks hits your clit. 

"I know, I know," Tangerine teases as he senses how needy you're becoming. "Shit, you're just a little slut, aren't ya, luv? Knew you'd wear those dresses to tempt me—didn't ya?"

You nod. You had. You didn't think it worked—he always played it so cool.

"You should know I would wank one out after seeing you—your thighs so visible and," he pauses and uses his hands to spread you open until he sees what he wants, "and that pretty pussy. So fuckin' pretty—

—you let me have a peek sometimes didn't you, naughty girl? Knew you did it on purpose," Tangerine says. He sounds satisfied with himself that he'd found you out and his grin widens when you nod. 

"Just for you," you whisper, looking up at him with hooded eyes. "Please, Tan," you whine, you're already so wet for him. 

"What do you want, hm? Tell me," he smirks and dips his head down to kiss your neck as his hands wander around your skin. He sits back up and removes his slacks and boxers. Your eyes downturn on his cock and you bite your lip. God, is he really this beautiful everywhere? How fucking unfair. 

Tangerine's hand comes up to your chin, "Where do you want me?" 

You look into his eyes, unsure how to ask him for what you want. Tangerine smiles, his thumb touching your lip. He's gentle, his eyes softer now, "Peach," he leans in and kisses just behind your ear. You shiver. "It's okay. Tell me where you want me," he smiles against your skin. 

"Inside me," you say, your voice small

Tangerine hums and tucks some of your hair behind your ear, "Where inside you, luv? I want to hear you say it for me."

You feel your cheeks warm and you stare up at him. "In my pussy," you say and Tangerine's eyes light up and he smirks.

"My pleasure," he says and shifts his hips until you feel his cock press against your pussy. He feels you tense as your hands tighten around his shoulder.

"Hey, it's just me," he says, pushing in slower now. He looks concerned as one of his hands finds your hair and pushes the strands away from your eyes.

Yeah, that's the issue, you want to tell him but you just nod, squeezing your eyes shut. 

"Look at me," he says as he pushes inside you fully. You gasp, arching into him and your breathing becomes harsh. He's so thick and long. Tangerine doesn't move and you let out a whine, your eyelids fluttering. "I said, look at me. I won't move until you look at me, darlin'," he whispers sternly. 

When you finally look at him he smiles, "Do you trust me? I'm not gonna hurt you—promise." 

You nod, biting your lip. Of course, you trust him. "I trust you," you answer breathlessly. 

"Good girl," Tangerine praises and kisses your forehead. He starts to move his hips, pulling in and out of you with torturous strokes. He feels so good.

As he fucks you, he leans his forehead on yours, occasionally whispering praises into your ear as he tells you how pretty you look with him buried inside you. 

"So fuckin' pretty with my cock inside your pussy, hmm," he grunts, continuing the pounding of his hips. "You close, luv? Already?" He teases you with a smirk and kisses your lips. You let out small moans, skin warm and sticky as you nod. 

"Good," he smiles and uses his thumb to rub your clit, adding pressure as he fucks into you. "So good for me. All for me, hmm?" 

"Y-yes," you groan, squeezing your eyes shut. 

"Open your eyes, Peach," he demands and you do so instantly. "I want to look into your eyes when you come apart around me."

With that, the tension breaks inside you. Your body feels weak from the pleasure and your chest rises and falls rapidly once your high finishes. You let yourself relax into the mattress for a moment, ignoring the sudden stream of thoughts—good and bad—that race into your mind. Tangerine's lips touch your forehead again and then he pulls out, finishing on your stomach with a grunt. 

You blink, feeling the bed dip and then his warmth disappears. You panic a little but you're too weak to move. If he wants to leave, let him, you convince yourself as you stare at the ceiling. However, when you feel something cold and wet across your stomach, you flinch and scramble to sit up. 

Your eyes are wide and Tangerine pauses, removing the washcloth from your skin. He frowns a little, "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks softly. You stare at him. He's still shirtless but he's pulled up his trousers.

"You aren't leaving?" you ask, looking around the room and you suddenly feel very bare. 

Tangerine's frown deepens but he doesn't speak for a moment as he washes away his cum from your skin and, after discarding the washcloth, he reaches behind him to hand you his shirt. You accept it without thinking and put it on, wrapping your arms around yourself as you continue to stare at him. 

He shifts, sitting beside you with one leg off the bed. He still hasn't answered and you start to feel an impending pit in your stomach. 

"Why would I leave?" he asks calmly, his voice doesn't have a hint of concern in its tone. 

You fiddle nervously with the hem of his shirt, looking down. Your hair, now half-dried, is a mess from the pillows and you push it down and around your ears in an effort to compose yourself in front of him. "Well, I- I just assumed that you would—" 

Tangerine tilts his head. "You think I would fuck and ditch, did ya? Ya think so low of me, Peach?" It feels like he sounds almost amused.

You shake your head but your nerves don't stop. "I mean, what do you expect me to think, Tangerine?" you look into his eyes and continue, "You come in here, all pissed at me—you yelled at me earlier and made me feel all shitty about myself—and then out of nowhere you kiss me and then we—"

"Fuck." Tangerine finishes bluntly. 

You narrow your eyes at him. "Yeah, that," you let out a breath, "So, please, tell me. What am I supposed to think? What do you want from me now? Because I can't be one of your fuck toys, Tan. I refuse to be that girl. I- I care about you—" you feel your emotions get caught in your throat and you feel your eyes sting. Furiously, you wipe your eyes with your hands, refusing to cry in front of him. 

Tangerine hasn't said a word. He's looking at you but you can't read his expression. You hate it. You shut your eyes, ready to call it quits, and tell him to leave, but then you feel the bed dip again and you feel his hands cup your cheeks. Your eyes snap open.

"Don't cry," he whispers, his thumb sliding under your eyes and catching your tears, "Please, don't cry because of a stupid bastard like me," he cracks a smile, hoping you'll smile too but when you don't and he sighs, "Okay, I was a dick, a real fuckin' dick, and you didn't deserve any of that. I'm sorry." 

You nod, still listening to him, "You really were a dick," you whisper. 

Tangerine chuckles and nods too. "Yeah. I was," he pauses and moves his thumb across your cheeks as if admiring you some more, "Do ya really believe I'd fuck ya for this to be a one-time thing, luv? That I'd just throw ya away after?"

Your cheeks feel warm. "I- I don't know," 

"You do know. You think I would do that to ya," Tangerine says, his voice low. 

"I mean—that's what you do don't you? I've known you for years, Tan. All those girls—"

Tangerine suddenly laughs and his hands drop from your face. "Peach, you aren't those girls," he says, suddenly serious, "I wasn't just making it up when I said how hard it is for me to listen to you in my ear all the time. Not because you're annoying—which sometimes you are but that's beside the point—but because I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for years. You're all I goddamn think about. Do you understand how hard that is for me?"

You just frown, shaking your head a little. "No. This doesn't make sense. Why now—why not yesterday? Or months ago? Or years ago?"

 Tangerine runs a hand in his hair and lets out a breath. "Because I didn't want to but I snapped, I snapped, okay? I'm not fuckin' proud of it. I yelled at you and I felt so bad after I didn't know what to do with myself anymore—

—you're always there for Lem and me, and I realized, after that fuckin' earpiece broke, that I hated not having your pretty voice in my ear anymore. It felt like I'd lost you—do you have any idea how scared that made me feel, even when I knew it was irrational and that you were completely safe?" His words come out jumbled and strained. "I fuckin' hated it, I hated feeling like that so I snapped," he finishes. 

You stare at him, his words hitting you hard. You've never seen him like this and it scares you, but it also turns you on some more. Why does he have to be so fucking hot? "And I'm sorry. I am. I would never throw you away. I don't want to throw you away after this—especially after fucking you—that's the last thing I would want! I– I-" 

You stare at him some more, your eyes wide, "You what—?"

Tangerine pauses, "I love you," he says, articulating every word so you hear him clearly. 

"You love me?"

"Yes."

"As in love love?"

"Fuckin' hell Peach, ya want me to scream it at ya or somethin'? I'm in love with ya. I love ya more than anythin' I fuckin' have. You're my everything. I love you so damn much."

All your anger, doubt, and shame instantly vanished into thin air. He loves you. All this time he'd loved and he was just shit at expressing his emotions? You laugh, covering your mouth with your hand as happiness overwhelms you. 

"Are ya laughing at me?" Tangerine's voice cuts in the air and you focus on him. He looks surprised and hurt. 

Your smile falters and you shake your head. There is so much you want to tell him that you're at a loss for words. He looks so pretty like this, sitting in front of you, and your hands find his cheek instead of using words.

Your fingers skim the bandage that's still wrapped around his ear and you want to ask him if it still hurts. You want to ask him so many things. He's staring at you, chest heaving, and you don't think as you kiss him. 

It's softer than the previous passionate kiss you'd shared. Only, Tangerine reacts with as much eagerness as earlier. His hands find your back and he presses you against him, your lips sliding against yours. It's intense and lovely all in the same. 

"I love you too," you say quietly between kisses. 

"Say it louder," Tangerine suddenly hums, his eyes shut in pleasure. You think he needs you to talk louder because one of his ears is bandaged and hurt.

So, you do as he asks and it earns you another kiss, however when Tangerine mutters, "I wanna hear ya say it again," you know he heard you fine. His voice is so love sick you just grin and wrap your arms around him, your hands bunching in his curls.

"I love you, Tangerine," you say breathlessly, "I love you."

"You have no idea how happy ya just made ma, luv," he responds instantly, running his hand over your cheek as he looks into your eyes. "God, I'd die for ya," he mutters and you frown, slapping his arm a little. 

"Don't talk about you dying, you git," you reprimand, and Tangerine smirks. 

He kisses your neck and with a teasing tone he reassures you, "Ya have nothin' to worry about, luv. I'd much rather live for you. You have all of my heart, darlin'. It's all yours," he guides your hand to press your palm against his chest and you feel how quickly his heart is beating.

"This beats for you."

You smile and kiss his lips once more as you bring his other hand to your chest too. "And I'm yours," you whisper. "Only yours."

And until then, you'd never seen Tangerine's grin widen as widely as it did when you said those words. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Social media needs (dumpster) fire exits

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/14/fire-exits/#graceful-failure-modes

Of course you should do everything you can to prevent fires – and also, you should build fire exits, because no matter how hard you try, stuff burns. That includes social media sites.

Social media has its own special form of lock-in: we use social media sites to connect with friends, family members, community members, audiences, comrades, customers…people we love, depend on, and care for. Gathering people together is a profoundly powerful activity, because once people are in one place, they can do things: plan demonstrations, raise funds, organize outings, start movements. Social media systems that attract people then attract more people – the more people there are on a service, the more reasons there are to join that service, and once you join the service, you become a reason for other people to join.

Economists call this the "network effect." Services that increase in value as more people use them are said to enjoy "network effects." But network effects are a trap, because services that grow by connecting people get harder and harder to escape.

That's thanks to something called the "collective action problem." You experience the collective action problems all the time, whenever you try and get your friends together to do something. I mean, you love your friends but goddamn are they a pain in the ass: whether it's deciding what board game to play, what movie to see, or where to go for a drink afterwards, hell is truly other people. Specifically, people that you love but who stubbornly insist on not agreeing to do what you want to do.

You join a social media site because of network effects. You stay because of the collective action problem. And if you leave anyway, you will experience "switching costs." Switching costs are all the things you give up when you leave one product or service and join another. If you leave a social media service, you lose contact with all the people you rely on there.

Social media bosses know all this. They play a game where they try to enshittify things right up to the point where the costs they're imposing on you (with ads, boosted content, undermoderation, overmoderation, AI slop, etc) is just a little less than the switching costs you'd have to bear if you left. That's the revenue maximization strategy of social media: make things shittier for you to make things better for the company, but not so shitty that you go.

The more you love and need the people on the site, the harder it is for you to leave, and the shittier the service can make things for you.

How cursed is that?

But digital technology has an answer. Because computers are so marvelously, miraculously flexible, we can create emergency exits between services so when they turn into raging dumpster fires, you can hit the crash-bar and escape to a better service.

For example, in 2006, when Facebook decided to open its doors to the public – not just college kids with .edu addresses – they understood that most people interested in social media already had accounts on Myspace, a service that had sold to master enshittifier Rupert Murdoch the year before. Myspace users were champing at the bit to leave, but they were holding each other hostage.

To resolve this hostage situation, Facebook gave prospective Myspace users a bot that would take their Myspace login and password and impersonate them on Myspace, scraping all the messages their stay-behind friends had posted for them. These would show up in your Facebook inbox, and when you replied to them, the bot would log back into Myspace as you and autopilot those messages into your outbox, so they'd be delivered to your friends there.

No switching costs, in other words: you could use Facebook and still talk to your Myspace friends, without using Myspace. Without switching costs, there was no collective action problem, because you didn't all have to leave at once. You could trickle from Myspace to Facebook in ones and twos, and stay connected to each other.

Of course, that trickle quickly became a flood. Network effects are a double-edged sword: if you're only stuck to a service because of the people there, then if those people go, there's no reason for you to stick around. The anthropologist danah boyd was able to watch this from the inside, watching Myspace's back-end as whole groups departed en masse:

When I started seeing the disappearance of emotionally sticky nodes, I reached out to members of the MySpace team to share my concerns and they told me that their numbers looked fine. Active uniques were high, the amount of time people spent on the site was continuing to grow, and new accounts were being created at a rate faster than accounts were being closed. I shook my head; I didn’t think that was enough. A few months later, the site started to unravel.

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2022/12/05/what-if-failure-is-the-plan.html

Social media bosses hate the idea of fire exits. For social media enshittifiers, the dumpster fire is a feature, not a bug. If users can escape the minute you turn up the heat, how will you cook them alive?

Facebook nonconsensually hacked fire exits into Myspace and freed all of Rupert Murdoch's hostages. Fire exits represents a huge opportunity for competitors – or at least they did, until the motley collection of rules we call "IP" was cultivated into a thicket that made doing unto Facebook as Facebook did unto Myspace a felony:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

When Elon Musk set fire to Twitter, people bolted for the exits. The safe harbor they sought out at first was Mastodon, and a wide variety of third party friend-finder services popped up to help Twitter refugees reassemble their networks on Mastodon. All departing Twitter users had to do was put their Mastodon usernames in their bios. The friend-finder services would use the Twitter API to pull the bios of everyone you followed and then automatically follow their Mastodon handles for you. For a couple weeks there, I re-ran a friend-finder service every couple days, discovering dozens and sometimes hundreds of friends in the Fediverse.

Then, Elon Musk shut down the API – bricking up the fire exit. For a time there, Musk even suspended the accounts of Twitter users who mentioned the existence of their Mastodon handles on the platform – the "free speech absolutist" banned millions of his hostages from shouting "fire exit" in a burning theater:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martineparis/2022/12/17/elon-musk-bans-journalists-on-twitter-as-more-flee-to-mastodon-heres-who-to-follow/

Mastodon is a nonprofit, federated service built on a open standards. Anyone can run a Mastodon server, and the servers all talk to each other. This is like email – you can use your Gmail account to communicate with friends who have Outlook accounts. But when you change email servers, you have to manually email everyone in your contact list to get them to switch over, while Mastodon has an automatic forwarding service that switches everyone you follow, and everyone who follows you, onto a new server. This is more like cellular number-porting, where you can switch from Verizon to T-Mobile and keep your phone number, so your friends don't have to care about which network your phone is on, they just call you and reach you.

This federation with automatic portability is the fire exit of all fire exits. It means that when your server turns into a dumpster fire, you can quit it and go somewhere else and lose none of your social connections – just a couple clicks gets you set up on a server run by someone you trust more or like better than the boss on your old server. And just as with real-world fire exits, you can use this fire exit in non-emergency ways, too – like maybe you just want to hang out on a server that runs faster, or whose users you like more, or that has a cooler name. Click-click-click, and you're in the new place. Change your mind? No problem – click-click-click, and you're back where you started.

This doesn't just protect you from dumpster fires, it's also a flame-retardant, reducing the likelihood of conflagration. A server admin who is going through some kind of enraging event (whomst amongst us etc etc) knows that if they do something stupid and gross to their users, the users can bolt for the exits. That knowledge increases the volume on the quiet voice of sober second thought that keeps us from flying off the handle. And if the admin doesn't listen to that voice? No problem: the fire exit works as an exit – not just as a admin-pacifying measure.

Any public facility should be built with fire exits. Long before fire exits were a legal duty, they were still a widely recognized good idea, and lots of people installed them voluntarily. But after horrorshows like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, fire exits became a legal obligation. Today, the EU's Digital Markets Act imposes a requirement on large platforms to stand up interoperable APIs so that users can quit their services and go to a rival without losing contact with the people they leave behind – it's the world's first fire exit regulation for online platforms.

It won't be the last. Existing data protection laws like California's CCPA, which give users a right to demand copies of their data, arguably impose a duty on Mastodon server hosts to give users the data-files they need to hop from one server to the next. This doesn't just apply to the giant companies that are captured by the EU's DMA (which calls them "very large online platforms," or "VLOPS" – hands-down my favorite weird EU bureaucratic coinage of all time). CCPA would capture pretty much any server hosted in California and possibly and server with Californian users.

Which is OK! It's fine to tell small coffee-shops and offices with three desks that they need a fire exit, provided that installing that fire exit doesn't cost so much to install and maintain that it makes it impossible to run a small business or nonprofit or hobby. A duty to hand over your users' data files isn't a crushing compliance burden – after all, the facility for exporting that file comes built into Mastodon, so all a Mastodon server owner has to do to comply is not turn that facility off. What's more, if there's a dispute about whether a Mastodon server operator has provided a user with the file, we can resolve it by simply asking the server operator to send another copy of the file, or, in extreme cases, to provide a regulator with the file so that they can hand it to the user.

This is a great fire exit design. Fire exits aren't a substitute for making buildings less flammable, but they're a necessity, no matter how diligent the building's owner is about fire suppression. People are right to be pissed off about platform content moderation and content moderation at scale is effectively impossible:

https://www.techdirt.com/2019/11/20/masnicks-impossibility-theorem-content-moderation-scale-is-impossible-to-do-well/

The pain of bad content moderation is not evenly distributed. Typically, the people who get it worst are disfavored minorities with little social power and large cadres of organized bad actors who engage in coordinated harassment campaigns. Ironically, these people also rely more on one another for support (because they are disfavored, disadvantaged, and targeted) than the median user, which means they pay higher switching costs when they leave a platform and lose one another. That means that the people who suffer the worst from content moderation failures are also the people whom a platform can afford to fail most egregiously without losing their business.

It's the "Fiddler on the Roof" problem: sure, the villagers of Anatevka get six kinds of shit kicked out of them by cossacks every 15 minutes, but if they leave the shtetl, they'll lose everything they have. Their wealth isn't material. Anatekvans are peasants with little more than the clothes on their back and a storehouse of banging musical numbers. The wealth of Anatevka is social, it's one another. The only thing worse than living in Anatevka is leaving Anatevka, because the collective action problem dictates that once you leave Anatevka, you lose everyone you love:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/29/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms/

Twitter's exodus remains a trickle, albeit one punctuated by the occasional surge when Musk does something particularly odious and the costs of staying come into sharp relief, pushing users to depart. These days, most of these departures are for Bluesky, not Mastodon.

Bluesky, like Mastodon, was conceived of as a federated social service with easy portability between servers that would let users hop from one server to another. The Bluesky codebase and architecture frames out a really ambitious fire-suppression program, with composable, stackable moderation tools and group follow/block lists that make it harder for dumpster fires to break out. I love this stuff: it's innovative in the good sense of "something that makes life better for technology users" (as opposed to the colloquial meaning of "innovative," which is "something that torments locked-in users to make shareholders richer).

But as I said when I opened this essay, "you should do everything you can to prevent fires – and also, you should build fire exits, because no matter how hard to you try, stuff burns."

Bluesky's managers claim they've framed in everything they need to install the fire exits that would let you leave Bluesky and go to a rival server without losing the people you follow and the people who follow you. They've got personal data servers that let you move all your posts. They've got stable, user-controlled identifiers that could maintain connections across federated servers.

But, despite all this, there's no actual fire exits for Bluesky. No Bluesky user has severed all connections with the Bluesky business entity, renounced its terms of service and abandoned their accounts on Bluesky-managed servers without losing their personal connections to the people they left behind.

Those live, ongoing connections to people – not your old posts or your identifiers – impose the highest switching costs for any social media service. Myspace users who were reluctant to leave for the superior lands of Facebook (where, Mark Zuckerberg assured them, they would never face any surveillance – no, really!) were stuck on Rupert Murdoch's sinking ship by their love of one another, not by their old Myspace posts. Giving users who left Myspace the power to continue talking to the users who stayed was what broke the floodgates, leading to the "unraveling" that boyd observed.

Bluesky management has evinced an admirable and (I believe) sincere devotion to their users' wellbeing, and they've amply demonstrated that commitment with capital expenditures on content moderators and tools to allow users to control their own content moderation. They've invested heavily in fire suppression.

But there's still no fire exits on Bluesky. The exits are on the blueprints, they're roughed into the walls, but no one's installed them. Bluesky users' only defense against a dumpster fire is the ongoing goodwill and wisdom of Bluesky management. That's not enough. As I wrote earlier, every social media service where I'm currently locked in by my social connections was founded by someone I knew personally, respected, and liked and respected (and often still like and respect):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast

I would love to use Bluesky, not least because I am fast approaching the point where the costs of using Twitter will exceed the benefits. I'm pretty sure that an account on Bluesky would substitute well for the residual value that keeps me glued to Twitter. But the fact that Twitter is such a dumpster fire is why I'm not going to join Bluesky until they install those fire exits. I've learned my lesson: you should never, ever, ever join another service unless they've got working fire exits.

[popp1n]

GHOSTING THE GOVERNMENT

|masterpost| ao3

Chap 1: A Not-so-Ghostly Getaway

Pt 2

It took about an hour of slow, methodical driving with the headlights off before they neared city limits. To little to no surprise, there was a GIW outpost masquerading as a toll station a couple hundred meters from the town's welcoming sign. Tucker initiated the cloaking device and turned off the camera interference for the time being. Danny and Sam tried their best to appear asleep as agreed upon a week earlier.

Jazz turned the headlights on before entering the outpost's line of sight. She cruised to a stop as she was flagged down by an attendant, and rolled down her window.

"Evening, ma'am," the attendant said, a forced smile stretched across his face. His eyes, however, were cold and sharp, darting into the darkened interior of the van. He wore a conspicuous version of the more standard GIW uniform, crisp and bright white, with a ecto-ray fastened to his wrist and a communicator clipped at his hip. "Just a routine check. Anything to declare?"

Jazz, ever the picture of innocent charm, offered a polite smile. "Just heading through to college out of state. No, nothing to declare, officer." She made sure her voice was light, casual, betraying no hint of the simmering tension within the vehicle.

The attendant leaned in slightly, his gaze lingering on the forms slumped in the back. "Long drive, huh? Your friends look dead to the world."

"They had an emotional rollercoaster of a day," Jazz improvised, trying to sound a little exasperated, a little amused. "Preemptive homesickness on top of graduating, you know how it is."

He straightened, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes before the forced smile returned. "Alright then. Drive safe, ma'am." He waved her through.

Jazz gave a small nod and slowly pulled away, her heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs. As soon as they were out of the outpost's immediate vicinity, Tucker disengaged the cloaking device and reinstated the camera interference, the hum of the systems a quiet comfort.

"Think they bought it?" Tucker whispered from the backseat, cracking his computer back open. "They let us through," Danny muttered, opening his eyes. "That's something."

Sam sat back up and looked at each of them before settling her sight on the nearest window, the city lights beginning to twinkle in the distance. "Too easy," she said, her brow furrowed. "He looked at us too long. And he didn't even ask for ID."

"That's not their usual MO," Tucker agreed, his fingers already flying over his keyboard. "They usually go for the full pat-down, search the vehicle, the whole nine yards." He paused, a muscle in his jaw ticking. "Wait a sec."

A series of rapid beeps and blips emanated from the device. "Sonar scan. There's an active low-frequency signal. Consistent, steady pulse."

Jazz tilted her head backwards, her eyes still on the road. "What does that mean?"

Danny's eyes narrowed. "It means they put a tracker on us. Probably when he was leaning in. Probably a magnetic one, stuck right to the undercarriage." He looked up, meeting Jazz's gaze. "They didn't just let us go. They let us go so they could follow us."

A collective groan filled the van. The easy escape had been an illusion.

Sam sighed, "We can't remove it immediately because that would draw attention." The rest hummed their agreement.

"Alright." Jazz said, taking upon that particular authoritative tone reserved for older siblings, "Here is what we are going to do. We are going to leave it be until we stop for gas. At that time, we will locate and detach the tracker."

"However," she continues, "We won't disable or destroy it until we find a scenario of probable cause. Wait until we reach a storm of some sort. If need be, I'll stop at a car wash before Jersey state lines."

"Sounds good," Danny huffed, mirroring the affirmative hums and sighs by his friends.

This quiet escape was quickly turning into a ghost of a chance at slipping away unnoticed, if they hadn't already.

<prev | next>

[mochinek0]

Daminette December: 11-Cat Crimes

Damian was worried. Alfred the cat had been wandering outside more and he would go missing for hours. He wasn't eating at home, as much, but when he took him to the vet, the claimed he was completely healthy. Out of concern, Damian fixated a camera and a tracker onto Alfred's collar. After a few hours, he noticed he was nowhere in sight and rushed to his computer. He was in downtown Gotham and it was pinging him at someone's residence.

'Was Alfred catnapped? No. He comes back every night. This isn't one of Selina's hideouts.'

Damian quickly activated the camera, only to hear at feminine voice.

"Oh, hello again." They spoke.

'Definitely not Selina. Turn around, Alfred!'

The apartment didn't look horrible for the location they were at. They likely keep to themselves to avoid being robbed.

'A bit of a mess, noticing papers in the floor. Hopefully school or work related.'

Alfred meows broke him out of his observation.

"You want food again?" They asked.

'He's getting food elsewhere. Explains why he's not hungry.'

A small bowl of fish was placed in front of his view.

'Healthy food for a cat. Likely, they own one as well.'

"Oh! You have a collar on today! So you don't belong to someone. I'm so glad!" They cried out, "I was worried you have been living on the streets."

'Someone with compassion for animals, or cats. Good find, Alfred.'

"Let's see your name." they spoke.

He was greeted by a ravenette with long hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a Gotham University shirt and black leggings.

"Um, hi. If you're watching......sorry. I had to do emergency laundry because of my cat and I haven't really fixed up the place." She stated, blushing, "You're welcome to come and pick up your cat, but he normally leaves after two hours. Plagg, you are so grounded."

'Plagg must be her cat.'

Utilizing the GPS tracker on his cat's collar, Damian arrived at an apartment complex. As he was figuring out how to locate the apartment, he spotted the girl from before.

"Miss!" he called out.

She looked down from the fire escape, confused.

"Can I help you?" she questioned.

"I'm here for my cat." he answered, "You invited me over."

"Oh! Uh, unit seven on the fourth floor." she called out, entering her window.

As she opened the door, he noticed she hadn't tried to change anything. She didn't try to impress him. Even her clothes remained the same. Something brushed up against his leg.

'Alfred!'

Damian picked up his cat, "So, this is where you have been coming."

"I'm sorry if we had you worried." the girl spoke.

"He wasn't eating at home." Damian announced, "I took him to the vet."

"Oh kwami!" she shouted, before rushing to grab her phone, "Let me pay you back! I'm so sorry!"

"There's no need." Damian replied, " Thank you for taking care of him. The vet said he was very healthy. You mentioned your cat....Plagg. Do they require medical attention? You mentioned an emergency."

The girl sighed, "Thank you, but no; Plagg the Glutton is around here....somewhere. Lazy thing. Maman fully enjoys spoiling g her furry grandchild. We lived in Paris, until last year, and she found out he loved camembert."

"The cheese most people tend to avoid?" Damian questioned.

'Is it not known for its rancid stench?'

"Yeah. He loves it." She answered, rolling her eyes, "Every once in awhile, she will send some and like a psychic, he starts meowing. I'm not kidding! Like the second it touches down in Gotham, it's like he can sense it and won't stop meowing, until I confirm that she sent him cheese. Once I tell him, he sits by the door until it gets here."

Damian smirked, amused by her cat's joy.

"Maman sent some the other day and I was in a rush to class. I had just finished laundry and I didn't close my bedroom door." She continued, "Plagg had taken some of the cheese and ate it on my laundry pile. The clothes were warm when I left so it melted the cheese."

"How unfortunate. " He declared.

She nodded, "Luckily I don't have classes, tonight. Oh I'm sorry; I haven't asked your name."

"Damian Wayne." He answered.

'Here we go.'

She smiled, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"I should get my criminal cat home." Damian spoke.

"Criminal?" Mari asked, confused.

"Breaking and entering. Loitering. Theft of property. Abandonment." He explained, as if it made perfect sense.

Marinette giggled, "Well, I'm happy to welcome Alfred the Cat back, anytime." as he turned towards the door.

Damian paused and pulled a business card out of his jacket. Marinette stared at it confused.

"Let me know when he returns so I can keep track of his eating habits." he spoke.

"Okay." she smiled.

Damian sighed, annoyed mostly. He had expected Marinette to message him constantly and act as if the were friends, due to Alfred's visits. Three weeks had passed and all Marinette had done was text 'Alfred is here' or 'He just left'. Marinette even included some pictures of what he was eating, as well. She hadn't acted like he expected her to after hearing the Wayne name. He hadn't returned to her apartment either; he had no reason to. Damian found himself somehow co-owning his own cat.

'Let's see how she likes it.'

"Oh my Kwami!" Marinette shouted, "I'll call Maman right now if it will make you stop! It's been five hours Plagg and I have a test in two days!"

"Marinette." Sabine answered, "How are you and Plagg?"

"Maman." she whined, "Did you buy him cheese?"

"No." Sabine answered, confused."

"Plagg!" she shouted, "Grandma didn't buy you cheese!"

"Is he crying?" Sabine giggled.

Mari sighed, "I….I thought it was his psychic powers working, but I guess I was wrong. I'll make an appointment to the vet."

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Alfred entering her apartment, from the fire escape.

"Oh! Hello, Alfred. I-" she began, only to be stopped by the doorbell.

"Hold on, Maman." Marinette spoke, opening the door, "Oh, hello, Damian. Alfred just arrived. I was just about to text you. Uh….quick silly question, you wouldn't happen to have camembert with you?"

"I do." Damian smirked, "I'm assuming the cat at my feet is Plagg."

Marinette looked down to see Plagg rubbing against his legs.

"Kiss ass." Mari frowned, making him smirk.

"It seems Plagg's senses were correct, Maman. Alfred the cat's Dad brought him some." Mari spoke into her phone.

'Dad?'

Sabine just laughed, "I'll talk to you later, Dear."

"Bye, Maman." Marinette replied, "Say hi to Papa for me."

Mari waved Damian into her apartment and glared at Plagg as she hung up the phone.

"You know," she spoke to Plagg, "you really are a glutton. If you had been an orange cat, I would have named you Garfield."

"Why that name?" Damian questioned.

'Garfield? Reminds me of Beast Boy.'

"Have you never seen the show?" She asked, brining up a clip of Garfield stuffing his face with lasagna and pizza, "Instead of lasagna, .....camembert."

Plagg chirped, hearing his favorite word. Damian chuckled as Marinette took the cheese into the kitchen, with Plagg at her heels. She opened the container, cut it i to quarters, and set a slice into Plagg bowl.

Marinette and Damian took a seat on the couch, as they watched Plagg eat like his life depended on it. When he was done, he prance over and laid on Damian's lap.

"My statement stands....kiss ass." She declared, shaking her head in disbelief.

"We have criminal cats." Damian spoke up, "Extortion, bribery, breaking and entering."

Marinette laughed, not noticing the blush that quickly vanished from the Wayne heiress cheeks.

"So, what made you come today?" She asked, curiously.

"You." He answered.

"Me?" She gasped, blushing red.

"You peaked my curiosity. I wanted to see if Plagg was psychic and it appears you were right." Damian smirked back.

Marinette giggled, trying to calm her heart.

"I also brought you some pasta." Damian continued, "It did not seem fair to feed only him and not you."

She smiled, "I'd love some. Let's eat at the table, while the criminals enjoy their naps."

Damian nodded, setting Plagg down on the couch and taking her hand. Plagg looked to Alfred and then to his owner. He laid back down and closed his eyes.

'Maybe two owners.'

@maribat-calendar-events

TAG LIST- DAMINETTE: @meme991001 @umbreon-worshipper @stainedglassm @jasmine-the-fox @psychicdelusionwerewolf @vixen-uchiha @mysteriouschar @missmadwoman @kanamexzeroyaoifangirl @dissarraymania @tundra1029 @abrx2002 @mrsjacuinde @ledalasombra @animegirlweeb

UNSPECIFIED- @animeweebgirl @a-star-with-a-human-name @alysrose-starchild @fandom-trapped-03 @dood-space @moonlightstar64 @saltymiraculer @marveldcedits20 @09shell-sea09 @icerosecrystal @insane-fangirl-of-everything @blueblossombliss @nickristus-dreamer @megawhitleycalderonpaganus @tigresslily @legodetectivemalsblog

[csuitebitches]

2024 Planning

I started planning for 2024 today. I’ve learned a lot this year, made mistakes, had some successes and now it’s time to take all my learnings, good or bad, and go to the next level.

I prefer starting next year’s routine from 2023’s November and December so that by the time January rolls around, I’m settled into the routine. If there’s any revisions necessary, I can do them without starting my new year on the wrong foot.

I maintain my goals on mostly short and medium term basis. This includes daily, weekly and quarterly planning (I don’t do monthly because it doesn’t work for me).

This may seem complicated (actually, it looks more complicated than it is but it’s just what helps me) but let me show you how exactly I do things.

I keep two diaries. One for daily and weekly and one for quarterly. I have a habit tracker on my phone for my daily non-Negotiables (exercise, meditation, reading and language).

The quarterly diary is my big big diary. Every quarter, it lists out all the big plans, what i want to do and who i want to be. It’s all the messy thoughts I have, all my dreams, my weaknesses, my strengths, etc etc. The only “practical” part of the diary is that there is one general plan made at the end of my mad scribbling. It has the general idea, feedback I’ve received from other people and compilation of all the advice I’ve gotten from my mentors.

2. The daily - weekly diary breaks the plan into manageable bits. I write out the week’s plan (who do i need to meet, who do i need to follow up with, any major presentation coming up, any assignment, what am i reading this week) and write a one sentence daily update on it.

I can’t use a habit tracker for this because i’m not tracking meditation or exercise on here. I’m tracking my career goals, my ambitious goals, into smaller goals. A habit tracker wouldnt cut it because I would have to elaborate more on certain things.

For example:

“20-27th Nov: Weekly list

budget presentation on Monday

1 event to attend on Tuesday. Topic: XYZ

Reading: the inheritors

reach out to mentor, schedule a meeting

7 language essays and 7 videos

Monday, 20th Nov.

work presentation: complete.

Feedback received: i need to work on XYZ.

points they raised that didnt cross my mind: XYZ

follow ups required and if yes, with who: XYZ

reading: complete. Interesting point they brought up: XYZ

essay for the day: complete.

Video complete:

Tuesday, 21st Nov

mentor meeting scheduled

event went well. Met: A, B, C who work in XYZ companies. Follow up with them next week for coffee/ drinks.

essay: complete

video: complete”

Having two diaries helps me because i can find my bigger goals without having to go through the daily entry mess. I like having the two separate.

Nov ‘23 + Dec ‘23 + Q1 2024’s goals include:

Social (meeting new people, maintaining networks)

Intellectual (biographies, documentaries, industry reports)

Personal (soft skills, language studies)

Work (presentations, courses, conferences)

A major change I’ve making this year is actively working on every single weakness I have that I know is a potential strength. I’m ignoring weaknesses that I know are 100% weaknesses like coding because there’s just no way I can sit in front of a computer and learn all that, it’s absolutely not my cup of tea and does not make me happy.

I made a list of every single weakness i have and I’m embarrassed about and ashamed of. 2024 is the year of NO shame. I’m not letting my intrusive thoughts win.

Next to each weakness I wrote out a potential solution.

Ex: not picking up the language i’m studying as fast as i want to -> write 1 short essay and a 1-2 minute video of me talking about anything in that language every single day

I’m not allowing any unnecessary negative self doubt or self talk happen. Constructive criticism is one thing, being a bitch to yourself is another. I plan to learn a lot next year.

I’ve created a manageable exposure therapy plan for myself - I aim to meet 3 new people every month and follow up with 5 new connections every month, whether it’s over chat or irl.

I’ve made a list of business biographies I’m going to read. This year I reached my reading target earlier than anticipated which I’m very happy about. Next year I’m focusing on books that are solely about business, technology and psychology.

[teamtrackmaster]

Keystroke Tracker: The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring Employee Activity

Do you ever sit back and wonder what's happening on your company computers when you're not looking? Are employees diligently hammering away at tasks, or are there occasional detours into the world of online shopping or social media? The truth is, you might be surprised. But what if there was a way to gain complete transparency, to see every keystroke and action with crystal clarity?

Enter the world of keystroke tracker. These powerful tools are revolutionizing employee monitoring, giving employers an unprecedented view into their workforce's digital activity. But are keystroke trackers the ultimate answer to boosting productivity and ensuring security, or is there a darker side to consider?

In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve deep into the world of keystroke tracking, exploring its benefits, drawbacks, and everything in between.

What is a Keystroke Tracker?

A keystroke tracker is a software application that records every keystroke typed on a computer. This data can include:

Letters and numbers typed

Special characters used

Punctuation marks entered

Program commands and shortcuts

The software runs discreetly in the background, capturing this information and storing it for later review.

How Does Keystroke Tracking Software Work?

Keystroke tracking software operates in two primary ways:

Kernel-Level Monitoring: This method involves the software installing itself at a deep system level, granting it access to the raw data stream from the keyboard before it reaches specific applications. It provides a comprehensive record of all keystrokes, including login credentials and messages typed in chat applications.

Application-Level Monitoring: This method tracks keystrokes within specific programs or applications. It offers less intrusive monitoring but might not capture activity outside designated programs.

Here's a breakdown of the typical functionalities of keystroke-tracking software:

Real-time Monitoring: Certain programs allow employers to monitor employee activity in real-time, providing immediate insight into their work habits.

Keyword Filtering: Employers can set up keyword filters to flag specific phrases or activities, allowing them to identify potential security breaches or misuse of company resources.

Activity Logs and Reports: The software generates detailed logs and reports that categorize keystrokes, track application usage, and measure overall productivity.

Benefits of Using Keystroke Tracking Software

Proponents of keystroke tracking software tout several potential benefits for businesses:

Enhanced Productivity: By monitoring application usage and identifying unproductive activities, employers can encourage employees to focus on work-related tasks.

Improved Data Security: Keystroke trackers can detect suspicious activity, such as unauthorized login attempts or sensitive data being copied, helping to prevent data breaches.

Compliance Monitoring: In industries with strict regulatory requirements, keystroke tracking can ensure employees adhere to data security protocols and record-keeping regulations.

Training and Development: Analysis of keystroke data can reveal areas where employees might require additional training or support, allowing employers to bridge skill gaps and enhance overall efficiency.

Legal Considerations of Keystroke Monitoring

The legality of keystroke tracking software varies depending on geographical location and specific company policies. Here are some key factors to consider:

Employee Consent: In most jurisdictions, employers are required to obtain explicit employee consent before implementing keystroke monitoring. This consent should be clearly outlined in a written policy detailing the monitoring scope and purpose.

Data Privacy Laws: Regions with stringent data privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, impose limitations on how employee data can be collected, stored, and used. Employers must ensure compliance with relevant data privacy regulations.

Transparency and Trust: Open communication with employees regarding the use of keystroke monitoring software is crucial for building trust and fostering a positive work environment.

Alternatives to Keystroke Tracking Software:

While keystroke trackers offer a comprehensive approach to employee monitoring, some businesses might prefer alternative methods:

Website Blocking and Time Tracking Software: These programs restrict access to non-work-related websites and track time spent on different applications, promoting focused work.

Employee Productivity Monitoring Tools: These software solutions analyze document creation, email activity, and meeting participation to gauge employee productivity without resorting to keystroke monitoring.

Performance Reviews and Open Communication: Regular performance reviews and open communication channels can foster a culture of accountability and productivity without infringing on employee privacy.

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Conclusion

keystroke tracker presents a powerful tool for employers seeking to monitor employee activity and optimize workflow. However, it's crucial to weigh the potential benefits against legal considerations and employee privacy concerns. Businesses should explore alternative solutions and prioritize clear communication with employees before implementing keystroke monitoring practices.

By carefully considering these factors, businesses can leverage technology to enhance employee productivity and achieve their organizational goals while maintaining a culture of trust and transparency.

[hers-underwraps]

They are all literally just a little Desert family

(Because they're both from deserts (Australia and the Artic)

Look guys, they're all one big family and you can't convince me otherwise

Let me explain

First you've got the father-daughter relationship between Natquik and Dashi. They go on so many missions together and Natquik adores Dashi so much. He's even got a photo of her hanging up on the wall in his den!

She's always out there doing supply runs in risky weather, doing Artic research and they even set out on a lil mission with just the two of them to check out seismic activity! It really helps affirm the father-son relationship with Natquik and Barnacles. Look at how happy they are when dropping him off.

They're just like "Bye Dad!"

The way Dashi and Natquik always talk to each other out of genuine interest/concern as well! For example when Natquik's calling about the fox situation and Dashi says "What the Captain meant to say is how are you enjoying your vacation" or when Natquik calls them to check that dashi got home safely and had some hot coco. They are just the cutest!

Second, you've got the Koshi and Barnacles big brother-little sister relationship. These two are such a wholesome duo because I feel like these two are just on the same frequency. Also the fact that Koshi is always stealing Barnacles's mannerism (e.g. pose/catchphrase) very much reminds me of younger sibling behaviour.

The way Koshi is able to talk to Barnacles like they are equals and call him out on stuff makes their dynamic a lot more fluid.

Barnacles is definitely able to take off his "children serious" filter and can be a little bit more like himself around her. For example, in the raven's episode where he says "A conspiracy, you mean they're plotting against us?!?!" and Koshi says "Nah, you know that's what you call a group of raven's."

Also when they do their little bluff with the raven's it's so funny because two aren't naturally the best actors (ngl Barnacles's acting is abysmal have you seen the bald ibis episode).

These two have definitely got something wrong with them but they are also so obsessed with learning and understanding other behaviour and I think they have an unspoken bond over that which I think is really neat.

Third, we've also got this rarepair Tracker and Koshi duo! They lowkey give me “omg it’s my favourite cousin” vibes because they instantly click really well. These two get an entire episode together (the billabong mystery) and they are such a good combo. Between their shared excess knowledge and wits they work well together.

Koshi invited Tracker to go and study Australian birds (also I love that she knew that he loved birds) and they both end up causing a bit of chaos. Koshi also helps Tracker by showing him the ropes of Australia is great to see.

The "Home Run" moment for me in terms of their dynamic was when Koshi gave Tracker her mystery sister's notebook to write their adventure in. This book means a lot to Koshi, she takes it everywhere and she usually uses it to write about her adventures with Dashi. So for her to give it over to Tracker meant that they’d formed a pretty strong bond.

Tracker taking the time and care to write their adventure in her notepad shows that he really likes Koshi as well. These two are the duo I never knew I needed.

Fourth, speaking of Tracker admittedly, he and Dashi haven't had a great deal of interactions, most of them being computer calls. Their relationship is definitely one that's formed around mutual friends. If I were going to put a label on it I'd say they're giving off that "third cousin that I see once every few years but also happens to know everything about me" vibe.

Their most notable interaction was their first call in the deep freeze special. Tracker definitely takes a liking to Dashi (as to what type of liking that is based on his tone...) but generally, they seem to have positive interactions in the calls they do share.

Tracker said it was “really nice to meet you” and honestly it would be really nice if these two get an episode together in the next season of Above and Beyond.

Fifth, obviously we've got the Dashi and Barnacles power duo here. Their bond is probably the foundation of this little desert family. Ironically I also don’t want to put a label on it because theirs so many ways to go about interpreting it (I could go into a deeper dive for them but that’s for another post…).

These two have genuinely been in the trenches together. They were quite literally parenting the original squad in the original series and they now share major leadership roles in above and beyond. They’re got each others backs, they’re keeping everyone (including each other) alive and managed.

They express so much genuine concern for each other and are usually there as when the other is in strife. Barnacles is literally having a full on mini meltdown when Dashi first flying to Natquik, clearly they mean something to each other. Whether it’s a “trauma bond so strong we founded a family” or “Bestied so hard our families combined” situation these two are like this 🤞.

There are also other examples I could talk about like Koshi and the cubs hanging out and getting along nicely or characters that aren't probably going to get a chance to interact like Koshi and Natiquik since Natquik never leaves the Artic and I highly doubt Koshi has a reason to go there but my point still stands. These two "families" of characters have had several interactions and entire episodes dedicated to them to the point where it could almost be interpreted as a deliberate choice. Nearly all above-and-beyond episodes with Professor Natquik feature Dashi. Tracker and Koshi got an entire episode dedicated to them despite having limited interactions before. There are also several episodes that feature a 2 artic + 1 aus trio or 1 aus + 1 artic in them.

The nail on this coffin for me personally for the desert families was definitely the "Artic Blizzard" episode with "Billabong Mystery" further solidifying it.

For example, take this scene where Dashi's first priority is making sure that the cubs are ok once the wolves are scared away instead of running to see if Barnacles is ok. She understands that the cubs are vulnerable and highly protected members of the "Artic family" hence genuinely worries about them despite them not being her own "Blood" family, which is what most of them are more naturally inclined to do.

She's worried about their safety throughout the whole thing and has to entirely place her trust entirely in Natquik and Tracker as most other options are not viable due to the nature of the Artic.

(Also off topic, Dashi driving into the wolves honking at them and shouting on the speaker to get away from the polar bears was so in the character of her I genuinely giggled)

Thinking about this from a practical perspective, some octonauts/agents would be far better suited to handle missions in the Arctic, yet Dashi is chosen by the writers reoccurring in these adventures which I think is a great way to allude and represent the struggles of family. The trusting in them to show a new culture, to get you to safety, the fear surrounding unfamiliarity and anxieties surrounding acceptance when you are completely out of your depths is illustrated through the forming the "desert family"

This idea is then continued in the Billabong mystery episode where it's Tracker having to trust Koshi in an alien environment. Furthermore, the episode is told through a flashback, which gives Tracker the power of having the dominant narrative voice. His recalling of the events, despite being filled with mishaps and miscommunication leading to problems is generally positive. This episode can give insights into the importance of forming strong and positive connections with others when learning to adjust to the many complications and quirks that come with families. By being able to create a sense of belonging for others within the preexisting family structure in an organic way (e.g. by using commonalities and demonstrating both the highs and lows), the idea of the "desert family" being an intentional choice.

Also, I love how the stronger bonds with the "desert family" structure are upheld throughout the group interactions. They had all three of them lined up and proud of the cubs during the badge ceremony. They could've left them out and made it a personal thing with just the cubs and barnacles but they instead chose to celebrate family achievements with the whole (which we love to see). Furthermore, looking at the snowball fight, for example, they all instinctively split up into teams (Dashi+Natquik) vs (Tracker+Barnacles) vs (The Cubs) which I think is just stinking adorable and has also been repeatedly shown as a strong duo with "familiarly connotations" in previously episodes.

So that's why I think these guys are a "Desert family" and I think that this should be appreciated more.

I have a method to the madness. No this is not some delirious delusion, but I think an intentional choice in order to educate others on complex topics in accessible ways and further develop the characters.

Now, all thats left to do is hope for an episode of all of them together!

Peace out!

<3

[workhubsoftware]

Virtual Witness: Solving Mysteries with Computer Activity Tracker

In the realm of solving mysteries, technology has become an indispensable tool. While detectives of old relied on keen observation and meticulous note-taking, modern investigators have a powerful ally in the form of computer activity tracker software. These virtual witnesses provide valuable insights into the actions and behaviors of individuals, shedding light on otherwise opaque situations.

The Rise of Computer Activity Tracking

With the proliferation of digital devices in both personal and professional settings, the need to monitor and track computer activity has never been greater. Whether it's ensuring productivity in the workplace or investigating suspicious behavior, computer activity tracking has become a crucial aspect of modern life.

Understanding Computer Activity Tracking

Computer activity tracking software monitors and records various actions performed on a computer. This can include websites visited, applications used, documents accessed, and even keystrokes typed. By compiling this data into comprehensive reports, investigators can reconstruct timelines and uncover patterns of behavior.

Solving Workplace Mysteries

One of the most common applications of computer activity tracking is in the workplace. Employers utilize employee monitoring software to monitor employee productivity, identify potential security breaches, and investigate incidents of misconduct. For example, if sensitive information is leaked, computer activity tracking can pinpoint the source of the breach and provide valuable evidence for disciplinary action or legal proceedings.

Enhancing Security Measures

In addition to monitoring employee behavior, computer activity tracking plays a vital role in enhancing overall security measures. By identifying unauthorized access attempts, detecting malware infections, and flagging suspicious activity, tracking software helps safeguard sensitive data and prevent cybersecurity threats.

Uncovering Digital Footprints

Just as every physical action leaves behind a trace, every digital interaction leaves behind a digital footprint. Computer activity tracking allows investigators to follow these digital breadcrumbs, piecing together a comprehensive picture of an individual's online behavior. It can be invaluable in criminal investigations, corporate espionage cases, and various other scenarios where digital evidence is crucial.

Balancing Privacy and Oversight

While the benefits of computer activity tracking are undeniable, it also raises important questions about privacy and oversight. Employers must strike a balance between monitoring employee activity for legitimate purposes and respecting their right to privacy. Implementing clear policies and safeguards, such as obtaining informed consent and restricting access to sensitive data, can help mitigate concerns and foster trust within the workplace.

Ensuring Compliance and Accountability

In regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and law, compliance with industry standards and regulations is paramount. Computer activity tracking software helps organizations ensure compliance by monitoring employee productivity actions and enforcing adherence to established protocols. Additionally, it promotes accountability by providing a transparent record of activities, mitigating the risk of fraud or misconduct.

The Future of Computer Activity Tracking

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of computer activity-tracking software. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning will enable more sophisticated analysis of data, allowing investigators to uncover insights and patterns that were previously inaccessible. However, with these advancements come new challenges and ethical considerations, underscoring the importance of responsible use and oversight.

In Conclusion

In an increasingly digitized world, computer activity tracking has emerged as a powerful tool for solving mysteries and uncovering insights. From workplace productivity to cybersecurity, its applications are diverse and far-reaching. However, it is essential to approach its use with caution, balancing the need for oversight with respect for privacy and individual rights. By harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can navigate the complexities of the digital age and unlock solutions to the most challenging mysteries.

Exploring New Horizons

Looking ahead, the potential of a computer activity tracker extends beyond its current applications. In the realm of law enforcement, for instance, it holds promise as a tool for tracking and apprehending cybercriminals. By analyzing patterns of online activity, investigators can identify suspects and gather evidence to build stronger cases. Similarly, in the field of psychology, computer activity tracking offers opportunities for understanding human behavior in unprecedented ways. Researchers can use data gathered from digital interactions to gain insights into cognitive processes, emotional states, and social dynamics. As technology continues to advance, the possibilities for computer activity tracking are limited only by our imagination. By embracing innovation and harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can unlock new horizons and propel society into a future where mysteries are solved with greater precision and insight than ever before.

[employeesproductivityhub]

Virtual Witness: Solving Mysteries with Computer Activity Tracker

In the realm of solving mysteries, technology has become an indispensable tool. While detectives of old relied on keen observation and meticulous note-taking, modern investigators have a powerful ally in the form of computer activity tracker software. These virtual witnesses provide valuable insights into the actions and behaviors of individuals, shedding light on otherwise opaque situations.

The Rise of Computer Activity Tracking

With the proliferation of digital devices in both personal and professional settings, the need to monitor and track computer activity has never been greater. Whether it's ensuring productivity in the workplace or investigating suspicious behavior, computer activity tracking has become a crucial aspect of modern life.

Understanding Computer Activity Tracking

Computer activity tracking software monitors and records various actions performed on a computer. This can include websites visited, applications used, documents accessed, and even keystrokes typed. By compiling this data into comprehensive reports, investigators can reconstruct timelines and uncover patterns of behavior.

Solving Workplace Mysteries

One of the most common applications of computer activity tracking is in the workplace. Employers utilize employee monitoring software to monitor employee productivity, identify potential security breaches, and investigate incidents of misconduct. For example, if sensitive information is leaked, computer activity tracking can pinpoint the source of the breach and provide valuable evidence for disciplinary action or legal proceedings.

Enhancing Security Measures

In addition to monitoring employee behavior, computer activity tracking plays a vital role in enhancing overall security measures. By identifying unauthorized access attempts, detecting malware infections, and flagging suspicious activity, tracking software helps safeguard sensitive data and prevent cybersecurity threats.

Uncovering Digital Footprints

Just as every physical action leaves behind a trace, every digital interaction leaves behind a digital footprint. Computer activity tracking allows investigators to follow these digital breadcrumbs, piecing together a comprehensive picture of an individual's online behavior. It can be invaluable in criminal investigations, corporate espionage cases, and various other scenarios where digital evidence is crucial.

Balancing Privacy and Oversight

While the benefits of computer activity tracking are undeniable, it also raises important questions about privacy and oversight. Employers must strike a balance between monitoring employee activity for legitimate purposes and respecting their right to privacy. Implementing clear policies and safeguards, such as obtaining informed consent and restricting access to sensitive data, can help mitigate concerns and foster trust within the workplace.

Ensuring Compliance and Accountability

In regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and law, compliance with industry standards and regulations is paramount. Computer activity tracking software helps organizations ensure compliance by monitoring employee productivity actions and enforcing adherence to established protocols. Additionally, it promotes accountability by providing a transparent record of activities, mitigating the risk of fraud or misconduct.

The Future of Computer Activity Tracking

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the capabilities of computer activity-tracking software. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning will enable more sophisticated analysis of data, allowing investigators to uncover insights and patterns that were previously inaccessible. However, with these advancements come new challenges and ethical considerations, underscoring the importance of responsible use and oversight.

In Conclusion

In an increasingly digitized world, computer activity tracking has emerged as a powerful tool for solving mysteries and uncovering insights. From workplace productivity to cybersecurity, its applications are diverse and far-reaching. However, it is essential to approach its use with caution, balancing the need for oversight with respect for privacy and individual rights. By harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can navigate the complexities of the digital age and unlock solutions to the most challenging mysteries.

Exploring New Horizons

Looking ahead, the potential of a computer activity tracker extends beyond its current applications. In the realm of law enforcement, for instance, it holds promise as a tool for tracking and apprehending cybercriminals. By analyzing patterns of online activity, investigators can identify suspects and gather evidence to build stronger cases. Similarly, in the field of psychology, computer activity tracking offers opportunities for understanding human behavior in unprecedented ways. Researchers can use data gathered from digital interactions to gain insights into cognitive processes, emotional states, and social dynamics. As technology continues to advance, the possibilities for computer activity tracking are limited only by our imagination. By embracing innovation and harnessing the power of virtual witnesses, we can unlock new horizons and propel society into a future where mysteries are solved with greater precision and insight than ever before.

[natashaslesbian]

Nats daughter is going on her first mission and it doesn't go well. She's hurt and lost somewhere until Nat finds her and brings her back home

Send Out An Army

Word Count: 1.4K

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Natasha was beside herself with worry. Her one and only baby girl off on her first solo mission. You’d been arguing with her for weeks, trying to convince her you were ready. It was only natural that she was worried but you had gone through the academy training just like everyone else. Natasha finally agreed to let you go when she sat in on your training session with Steve and you managed to knock him on his ass three times. You left a few hours ago and so far Nat had tried training, reading and even resorted to doing her paperwork to keep her distracted. She was in her office now, trying her best to keep her eyes off the clock.

It was quiet in Natasha’s office, so the sound of her mobile ringing took her by surprise. An unknown number appeared on the screen so Nat was skeptical about answering. She brought the phone up to her ear whispering a hello and listening to the crackle coming from the other end. “Hello?” Natasha asked again, being met with the same silence. She was about to hang up when a small voice called through “mama?” It whispered. “Y/n?” Natasha said, pulling the phone back up to her ear “baby are you okay?” She asked with a panicked voice. “Hurts mommy” you mumbled “what hurts baby? What’s happened where are you?” Natasha frantically asked as she made her way to find Tony and the rest of the team. “Lost” you coughed through the phone.

Natasha came bounding down the stairs where she met Clint and Steve in the kitchen. “Natasha?” Clint said, seeing the fear in his best friends eyes. “Y/n baby talk to me, where are you? What hurts?” The redhead said as she dragged the boys down the hall with her. “I don’t know mama” you cried as Natasha switched her phone to loud speaker “baby have you activated your tracker?” Your mom asked as Clint filled Tony in best he could of the situation. “Lost it. I’m scared mommy” you mumbled. “It’s alright sweetie we’re gonna find you I promise” Natasha cooed down the phone. “Stark where is she?” Steve asked as he joined Tony at the computers. “I’m not sure, somewhere in Bulgaria” he said. “How can you not know where?” Steve said frantically “it’s not standard procedure only Fury knows the exact location” Tony said, trying his best to hack into S.H.I.E.L.Ds files as quickly as possible. “Then call Fury!” Clint shouted.

You began coughing loudly over the phone “mommy” you cried. “It’s okay baby girl take some deep breaths for me alright we’re gonna find you” Natasha said as calmly as she could. Tony continued to scan the files as Steve headed off to gather the rest of the team and prepare the quinjet. “Mm tired” you said through the phone “y/n I need you to stay awake for me okay sweetheart” Natasha said, fighting back her tears. “Y/n?” She questioned when you failed to answer her “y/b baby talk to me” she pleaded. “Tony find her now!” Clint shouted, taking the phone from Nats hand “y/n its uncle Clint, can you tell me where you are? What’s around you bug?” He asked, pleading for you to respond. The silence was deafening as the three waited desperately for your voice to come back through the phone. “She’s in Yambol!” Tony cheered as he finally cracked your location “okay Steve’s on the jet let’s go” Clint said. “She’s dead I know she is” Natasha cried “hey don’t go there yet, we’re gonna find her” Clint comforted as he guided the redhead to the jet.

~~~~~

It felt like weeks you had been lying in the grass, the sharp pain had long ago turned into a dull ache and you were struggling to keep your eyes open. Your cries fell into the open space and you fought to keep your breath, the warm pool of blood being the only thing keeping away the cold. “Mom” you whined into the empty space, pleading for your mother to come and find you. You held on for as long as you could until your eyes finally fluttered closed. In your last consciousness your ears began to ring, sounding like a small crunch of leaves along the ground. Your mind started playing tricks on you, the sound of your mom calling echoing through your head.

Your shoulders began to shake and a soft hand against your cheek pulled you back into reality. “Y/n come on open your eyes baby” a familiar voice called. “Mommy?” You mumbled as you pealed open your eyes “I’m here sweetie, mamas got you” Natasha cooed as she lent over you protectively. “You found me” you smiled up at your mom “yeah we did baby” Nat said as she gently stroked your hair “we?” You sleepily asked. “Hey kid” Clint said as he came to your side and began tending to the open wound on your abdomen “we’re gonna get you home alright” he said. You groaned as your uncle pressed down on your injury, quietly crying out in pain. “Shhh sweet girl it’s ok, you’re okay now” Natasha comforted you “thought I was gonna die mama” you weakly said.

Natasha lent her body down beside yours to give you a tight hug, avoiding your wound “oh my baby I’m so sorry” she said. “I should never have let you come this is all my fault” your mom cried. You slowly reached up your hand to wipe away your mamas tears “no mommy” you whispered “you saved me” Natasha took your hand in hers and gently kissed it. You cried out again as Clint pressed down on your abdomen “sorry kiddo” he empathised “so tired” you groaned, eyelids fluttering closed “no no come on sweetie keep your eyes open for us ok” Natasha pleaded “you’re gonna be alright baby we’re gonna get you home” your mom cooed. You tried to keep your eyes open but being back in your mamas arms you couldn’t help but bask in her comfort. Before long you lost the battle, falling into unconsciousness. “we need to get her to the jet” Clint said to Natasha.

~~~~~

You felt a gentle scratch along your scalp as you began to wake up, unsure of where you were and almost who you were, until you opened your eyes. “Hey baby girl” Natasha said as she rose to her feet by your side. Her red hair was messy with loose pieces falling by her face, the bags under her eyes were a give away as to how long you had been out. “Mommy” you croaked out “you look tired” you said. Natasha let out a small laugh as a stray tear fell from her eye “oh y/n, I’m okay I promise, you’re the one who needs looking after right now” she said “we look after each other mama” you smiled, attempting to sit up but stopping as a sharp pain shot through your abdomen, reminding you off why you were in the infirmary. You sighed loudly as Natasha softly took a hold of you “easy baby, just lie back ok” she said as she helped you to lay back down “you get some rest ok, we’ll talk later when you’re properly awake” your mom said as she placed a soft kiss on your forehead.

It was a few hours later when you woke up again, your mom still sitting by your side. “There’s my girl” Natasha said “look who’s here to see you” she said as she pointed to the man on the other side of your bed. “Uncle Clint” you smiled “thanks…for what you did” you said sadly “hey none of that” Clint said as he saw your eyes well up “don’t you dare go blaming yourself kiddo, missions go wrong, whatever happened wasn’t your fault” he said. “It was” you cried “what did happen sweetie?” Your mom asked. “The brief said the facility was abandoned, but when I got there it was crawling with agents” you began, your mom placed a comforting hand over your own. “I set off the alarm trying to get in through the back door, I tried to get away and I thought I’d managed but when I stopped in the woods an agent came up behind me. I didn’t think he had any weapons so I fought him without mine but he pulled out a knife. I fell down when he cut me and I thought he was gonna kill me but they called him back to the facility” you sobbed.

Natasha felt the anger rise in her chest “the brief was wrong?” She asked “imma kill Fury” she said, answering her own question. “Mommy don’t go” you called after her as she headed for the door. “I’ll go, you stay here” Clint said as he guided Natasha back over to your bed “you’re not as scary as me” she giggled as she sat back down with you “no” Clint said “but the least I can do is warn Fury of angry mama Nat” he said as he pulled the door closed. Your mom turned her full attention back to you as she sat next to you on the bed “I’m here baby girl” she cooed “it wasn’t your fault ok” she said as she brushed your hair away from your face. You dropped your gaze, still feeling guilty despite what Natasha said. “Hey” your mom said as she lifted up your chin “I am so proud of you” she said “why? I failed” you whimpered. “I’m not talking about the mission, I’m proud of you y/n” Natasha said, leaving a soft kiss on your hairline.

“How did you find me?” You sleepily asked “Tony hacked into S.H.I.E.L.Ds data base” Natasha said. “He did?” You questioned “yeah he did” Nat answered “everyone was so worried “I’ve never seen Bruce move so fast” your mom giggled. You let out a small laugh at the thought. “I didn’t think they’d all come” you said “I knew you’d find me mama but I didn’t think everyone else would come to get me” you mumbled, almost falling asleep again. “They’re your family baby, of course they’d come” your mom cooed “you know they care about you right?” Natasha asked “I know” you smiled up at her “you’ve got a whole army of love and protection behind you y/n, don’t ever forget that” Nat said as she tucked you up in your baby blanket, she made sure you had it the second the team brought you to the medical bay. “Rest up okay baby” your mom cooed. “Can you read to me mommy? Please?” You asked with half closed eyes. “You never have to ask twice sweetie” Natasha said as she pulled your book from her bag, another essential she’d grabbed along with your blanket. Her soft voice lulled you into a comfortable and deep sleep. The deepness with which she spoke her words causing a gentle hum throughout the room. Your mom continued to read long after you had fallen asleep, comforting both you and herself.

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Taglist<3

@saraaahsstuff / @dannipotatoo / @tobiaslut / @a-simpfortessa-lesbriean / @marvelnatasha12346 / @yelenasdiary / @mousetheorist / @ashadash0904