#cool faq

[indiesellersguild]

Q3 of our COOL Online Act analysis FAQ: "How will I know if my handmade product counts as a new product that I made?"

You have created a new product, with the country of origin now where you are, if you substantially transformed the item. “Substantial transformation means that the good underwent a fundamental change (normally as a result of processing or manufacturing in the country claiming origin) in form, appearance, nature, or character, which adds to its value an amount or percentage that is significant in comparison to the value which the good (or its components or materials) had when exported from the country in which it was first made or grown.”

So if you take fabric, thread, a zipper and buttons and make an item of clothing, you have substantially transformed those supplies into a new product.

Read the full FAQ and analysis of the bill here.

[atthecenterofeverything]

illustrations from lectures on ventilation (1869) by lewis w. leeds

[hotvintagepoll]

Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS poll blog! This blog runs tournaments based on movie stars who were working from 1910-1970. We have now wrapped the Hot Movie Men and Hot Movie Women Tournaments, as well as the Scrungly Little Guy contest. The Pride and Prejudice Fancast will start May 15th, 2025. If you have suggestions for casting (particularly actors of color so we can have a diverse cast), please send them to my inbox—I can't include every suggestion but I'll do my best.

All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds, old tournaments, the various shadow brackets, the Dracula Daily polls, and fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag.

FAQs:

"Define vintage?" I only post about people who were working in movies from 1910-1970. My knowledge is mostly classic Hollywood, but a lot of people have been kind enough to submit international vintage stars and I include them whenever I can.

“Who won the hottie tournaments?” Toshiro Mifune won Hottest Movie Man, Eartha Kitt won Hottest Movie Woman, and Diahann Carroll & Sidney Poitier won Hottest Movie Couple.

"Who is the scrungliest little guy?" Elsa Lanchester won that!

“Has [this vintage hottie] ever been in a tournament?” Please do a tag search for them (for example, put in my search bar #james cagney). If they don't turn up after a tag search, either no one submitted them or they did not fit the criteria of being a movie person from 1910-1970.

"How do I submit propaganda? What propaganda do you boost?" you can send propaganda to my ask box, tag me in it, or reply to the poll post with it. I don't boost everything I see but I try to boost the cream of the crop. I don’t boost propaganda that’s from after 1970. I also don’t accept propaganda of TV appearances unless it’s clearly a cameo where they’re playing themselves (ie, I'll boost an Eartha Kitt appearance on a late night show, but not a clip of her playing Catwoman). If you have a TON of photos to submit, please send a few asks instead of one long one. I watch every video I receive so I can add trigger warnings, so please don't send long videos—I don't have time to review them.

If I see repetitive, trolling, or bigoted remarks in the comments, I will block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a competitor’s problematic aspects in the replies, that’s fine, but if I see bad-faith trolling, you will be blocked. I will also block if you start harassing other people voting on the polls. If you really hate that someone is winning, please post positive propaganda for their opponent instead.

The views expressed in the propaganda are not my own. I don’t submit my own propaganda, and I don’t change what’s submitted beyond fixing spelling mistakes. If you hate a poll bio or a pic, let me know and send me something I can use instead. Complaining about the poll photo without offering alternatives gets blocked.

"Hey! Some of these people sucked and they shouldn't be here!" Yes, some of these people sucked. I agree with you. For reasons I've gone into before, I don't exclude anyone from the contest for moral reasons, even if I personally think they were garbage. I do this because I cannot responsibly research and vet every competitor's background and legacy, and I'm not comfortable being the moral barometer for everyone, even in cases where I think it's really obvious. You are welcome to vote against people for moral reasons, but as mod I don’t post or boost negative propaganda about anyone.

“What's this shadow realm I keep seeing?” All hotties who fail to continue in a tournament are sent to the shadow realm, far below the veil of the earth, in gloom ever-lingering and not-hotness evermore. This is normal.

“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the tournament.

current schedule:

Now finished: Hot Men Tournament, Hot Women Tournament, Dracula Daily casting polls, the Hot Couples Mini Tournament, and the Scrungly Little Guys [gender neutral] Contest

Upcoming: Pride & Prejudice fancast

TBD: Ultimate Hottie Tournament (top brackets of the hot men & hot women competing together)

TBD: Dandy Detectives (Marples, Sherlocks, Nancy Drews, etc.)

TBD: Horror Hotties (Frankensteins, Draculas, and Brides)

Fun mini polls that pit sets of characters from the same movie together, like the Philadelphia Story or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ones (these can usually be found in the #minis tag)

good tags to know:

#hotvintagepoll—all polls

#minis—polls not connected to full tournaments, usually involving hot movie casts (ie who is the hottest character in casablanca)

#silly times—what it says on the tin

#housekeeping—admin posts, like this one

hot man polls are organized #round 1, #round 2, etc

hot woman polls are organized #ladies 1, #ladies 2, etc

scrungly little guy polls are #scrungly 1, #scrungly 2, etc

all the dracula polls are under #dracula casting

the narnia debacle is under #why would you ask us a hotvintagepoll blog this

occasionally i have open ask box nights where we all hang out and chitchat. those are under #coffee night

when people share propaganda that involves their families—ie Sidney Poitier Drove My Dad to the Hospital Once or My Grandma Was Obsessed with Tyrone Power—I tag it #family lore

if you send in pics of a pet named after a movie star I tag it #hollywood creatures

i take mod neutrality really seriously but in between tournaments i sometimes recommend movies. those can be found under #recs

[dailyhomestarfacts]

Fact 295:

Out of all the times in toons where there are alternate versions of dialogue or looks that are picked at random without any choice from the viewer, only five characters are used for any of them. These characters are Homestar (First Time Here?, Marzipan's Character Video), Strong Bad (Email FAQ, Homestar Runner's Character Video), Senor Cardgage (sbemails fan club, kind of cool), Marzipan (also Marzipan's Character Video) and Homsar (also sbemail fan club)

[howlsnteeth]

✧ pinned post ! ✧

hi, i'm howls/lup ! (29, australian) i don't really care about pronouns but usually go by it/they/he ! i have autism, ocd, did (am a system), and depression/other stuff ! i've had this blog for many years and have done hundreds of requests and artworks ! most of my stuff is animal/otherkin/therian/nonhuman, and vent/trauma artworks !

my commissions fluctuate in being open/closed, but for the moment they're generally open ! my prices range from a full, detailed piece being 100usd, to a detailed headshot that ranges from 30usd to 50usd ! feel free to contact me if interested, i spend a lot of time on commissions !

this is a sideblog, main is @lupmon ! i have a discord server !! common tags are barks for text posts, faq for. faq, cool cats is my commissions tag ! and a large portion of my past requests are tagged ty! !

thank you and thanks everyone for the support :D

[withdrco]

Send me ask for my birthday!! Or send me ask as Marauders 🥲

[bowithoutadaemon]

It's 32°C and I need to prepare a presentation I'm giving tomorrow.

So many regrets. I didn't have to do a presentation, I wanted to. I didn't have to wait until the last day before the due date to start prepping. But I did and I did. And the universe decided to add the fucking 32°C for extra suck I guess.

[darkwood-sleddog]

Could you talk more on your thoughts on malinois as service dogs? I follow someone who has one so I'm curious as to your thoughts on it as someone who isn't familiar with the breed

I'm not ~in~ service dogs OR Malinois for that matter, but its been told to me by others that Malinois are quite sensitive to their handlers so are often not a good option depending on the type of service work that is needed. Malinois are also a high energy breed and need a lot of physical and mental stimulation. They can be challenging to average dog people (I wouldn't own one if you paid me even though I think they're cool). Both of these indicate to me a high potential for washing out of service work and generally, I'd hope that people don't recommend them to others for service animals.

For me it also comes down to this: a majority of modern malinois are bred to bite. Working malinois lines are often bite sports, personal protection, military, police dogs. To me, this type of dog directly conflicts with what a service dog should be when doing public access. In fact the AKC standard even states this regarding temperament: "He is naturally protective of his owner's person and property without being overly aggressive." (although this was recently rewritten in 2021 to omit this language so as to reflect the malinois temperament in "positive terms" (AKC malinois club words not mine)) and the FCI standard says this: "As well as its innate skill at guarding flocks, it also possesses the highly prized qualities of the best guard dog of property. Without any hesitation it is the stubborn and keen protector of its owner."

So somebody getting a Malinois for service work is probably going to want to go with a dog bred for show, but again, these dogs can be handler sensitive and even by their standard should not be "overly aggressive" when in IMO the correct amount of guardian behavior or people aggression a service dog, which is medical equipment, should display is ZERO. This is why golden retrievers and labradors make such popular service animals and this is why there are service dog programs that have been breeding dogs specifically for service work for generations (not to say there aren't dogs from these programs without issues, but that's another rabbit hole...)

I know a lot of "off-breeds" that are service animals and i think that's great when it happens successfully, but it's a lot different to have a unique individual who is up for the task, often an outlier in their breed, than to say a specific breed makes a good service animal. I know a few malamutes in service work, but that does not mean the breed as a whole makes good service animals and it does not mean I would ever recommend them specifically for service work (bc, hell, we have dog aggression in our breed standard!).

And regarding my last post, it's mostly the fact said service dog was cross trained in both service work AND personal protection which is a huge no-no and a big red flag to me. A service dog is medical equipment and a personal protection dog is a weapon. I've known service dogs that participate in bite sports, but that is different than being trained in personal protection. If an animal is going to be going into public access I expect them to be able to ignore other dogs AND other people, to be aggressive to neither, be non disruptive in public, and to focus on their actual, medically necessary job. But that's just my two cents.

[altruistic-meme]

the way i wish that you could add links to images on tumblr....... how cool i could make this if that was possible..........

[beachyserasims]

Just a little life update for you all...

I've been struggling a lot lately with being motivated to work on my series, Geneva Island Legacy, because I've been really ill the past couple of months. Reason being, I'm pregnant in my second trimester!! So for now I'll keep posting my series as often as I can (i try to post every Monday and Friday but I've been failing bad at that) until my queue runs out. I've written up until Chapter 9, but after that, I don't really know for sure if GIL will be as consistent as it has been this year. Just thought I'd give a heads up to anyone who has been possibly scratching their heads at me lately and also I have so much love for this community, I don't want to slowly fade out ♡♡

[trickstersaint]

hey hi hello! first of all i'd like to say i took your patron saint uquiz and it. Changed my life unironically it's so good. i follow you now because every line in that quiz was a gut punch and i loved it. top tier hurt honestly

my question is this - i am a fanauthor. on the side i also write my own original fiction but i specialize in fanfic. Am I allowed to use your poetry for a reference folder? I wouldn't use your poetry in a fic without explicit permission and without linking back here of course, and I'd never use it for commercial work outside of maybe taking inspiration without copying, but I wanna have a ref folder of Things That Made Me Feel Things about a character. It's not planned to be public as of yet, it's just supposed to be a bunch of screenshots in my drafts, but I'd like to maybe one day make it public once the fic was complete. (I already have your blog linked in my drafts actually, so if it goes public I'm not gonna forget.) I just want to make sure you're comfortable with me using your poetry for fanfic of all things

It's cool if not and have a great day! I still think your poetry is great and evocative and all

hi, anon! you're all good, i prommy. so glad you like the quiz + the poetry, and i would always prefer people come and ask questions if they're uncertain! no trouble at all.

my general stance is that as long as it's clearly credited, i am totally cool with my work being used in personal projects. like you said, i've got a tag for the things that people make! i love to see what people create. if it's for a noncommercial creative project then i would say there's no need to ask beforehand (unless it would make you more comfortable to ask, in which case go ahead and i'll almost certainly say yes <3). my only thing is that if you post it, please tag me in it/send it to me so that i can reblog it here for people to see!

if there are any questions about using my work that anyone has, feel free to ask. i don't think i've got anything particular going on outside of common practice! same way you'd treat, like, a richard siken poem or smth: you wanna credit it so that people can find the source material, and make sure you're not using it for profit unless you have an understanding with that author. i trust you all to be decent about it <3 kiss kiss go out and make your cool little things so that i can be delighted and amazed with them

[indiesellersguild]

Q6 of our COOL Online Act analysis FAQ: "I am a seller in a country other than the US, will this bill apply to me?"

Yes, it will apply to any products you sell to consumers in the US.

Read the full analysis and FAQ here.

[shepscapades]

Hermitcraft Character Design Event Drawing to a Close

As we finish up Week 4 of the Hermitcraft Character Design Event, I just wanted to write up a little post thanking everyone for participating!! It means so much to me that so many people had fun doodling, writing, or sharing ideas for prompts, and it made me really happy to see all of the different interpretations of the prompts and how creative everyone was :] I would absolutely love to do something like this again, for character design, or just straight up fun prompts, or whatever! But yeah, I just wanted to express my gratitude for everyone who participated, and I hope everyone had a good time <3

Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, please feel free to continue to use these prompts as inspiration— just because the event is “over” doesn’t mean you can’t still post, share, and use them for a fun challenge! You’re welcome to continue to tag me with posts, and I’ll do my best to continue to like or reblog them :]

I also wanted to give a huge thanks to @myketheartista, my good friend and the mod for my streaming discord server, who’s been helping me run things behind the scenes, proofreading the weekly infographics, keeping me sane, all of those things!! So, thank you for inspiring me throughout the event and keeping me on track!! <3333

But yeah :] Thank you to everyone again and thanks for sharing your super cool creations :]]]

[kamil-a]

lrb re the shen gender (shender) discourse im fully on the belief team of "if anythings going on/whatevers going on, shen has it basically figured out + has no interest in sharing it with online + but has enough inner certainty and selfconfidence to do a little trolling"

[duckprintspress]

For the monster anthology, do robots/androids count?

It would depend on how human they look. If the creature, whatever its nature, can pass for a human, then it's not a monster for the purposes of this collection. A robot/android that was monster-shaped could potentially count, though.

That said, as I've mentioned in reply to a previous ask: the purpose of this anthology is stories of monsterfucking. The further a prompt strays from that, regardless of if we "technically" classify the creature as a monster, the less likely we are to respond positively to it. What's going to be monstery about this robot/android?

Again, not directed specifically at you, but as I get more specific-case questions asking me to draw a line on what is or isn't a monster... to you and anyone else reading this... We want monsterfucking stories for this collection. Including stories about a variety of entities, which may potentially apply to a robot or android, would be lovely, and a good pitch could definitely potentially sell us on including a non-human-shaped robot or android, and I can't speak for every potential reviewer, but well. We want stories about monsters courting and having sex. The best way to success isn't to get us to say "well, I GUESS that could be a monster..." but rather to embrace the theme.

-unforth

[vyladromeave]

would an aphtober faq be helpful for anyone??? i feel like every year i get a question of "can i use these prompts to make something for ___ instead of mcd" and the answer is always "do whatever you want forever." Just wondering if putting an organized information page for something beyond like. what the prompts are by year would be useful