#following the creator and their socials; people just jumped on the bandwagon

[unexpectedbrickattack]

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[mariacallous]

The past few weeks have been a fever dream for the online conspiracy world. Wild claims about Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, went from fringe corners of the internet to mainstream social media platforms, and people who don’t usually dabble in conspiracies found themselves leading the charge. Basically, the whole world fell down the rabbit hole.

WIRED talked to researchers, TikTok creators, and experts on conspiracies about what exactly happened, and how so many people so willingly threw themselves into the story. It was the perfect storm: A combination of gamified social platforms, distrust in media and government, unprecedented levels of conspiratorial thinking, and even a bot influence campaign on social media all played a part. Even now, following Middleton’s announcement that she has been diagnosed with cancer, the conspiracies have continued.

Until Friday, Middleton was last seen in public on Christmas Day. Kensington Palace later announced that she was undergoing an abdominal surgery and said Middleton was in the hospital for two weeks before returning home to recover. Conspiracies surrounding Middleton’s whereabouts had been bubbling online since early January, but they became mainstream after the palace issued a doctored photo that was retracted by AP, Reuters, and other agencies. “They were dishonest, and then they put out at least one doctored photo. So of course, at that point, they're gonna lose all credibility,” Melissa Ryan, a disinformation researcher, tells WIRED.

It seemed like the whole internet quickly became obsessed with figuring out what happened.

On social media platforms, videos discussing this issue exploded. TikTok investigators and content creators, along with their huge fanbases, obsessed over dimples on grainy photographs, images of hands, and AI-enhanced pictures. Creators who don’t typically post about royals jumped on the bandwagon because of the level of engagement this topic was receiving. These conspiracies were also able to thrive because of the unwillingness of the royal family to speak openly about what was happening, creating a void which was quickly filled by everyone from TikTok creators to blue check grifters on X and died-in-the-wool conspiracists on Telegram.

“The topic is an ideal mainstream conspiracy theory: It's low stakes, easy to obsess over, and endlessly iterative,” Caro Claire Burke, a journalist and TikTok creator based in Virginia, tells WIRED. “There's no easier build-your-own-adventure story than the one that can be built around a woman who is simultaneously famous and unknown. She's a perfect lightning rod for this kind of obsession.” Burke, who is a producer with Katie Couric Media, recently switched from posting about tradwives to Kate Middleton; she’s seen huge engagement on these posts, including several videos which racked up more than 2.5 million views each, and one which has been viewed more than 6 million times—much more than any of her previous videos.

While the volume of conspiracy content around Middleton has dramatically decreased since her statement was released on Friday, it has far from disappeared entirely. On Telegram channels and X over the weekend, conspiracies claiming that Middleton’s video statement was AI-generated spread quickly, while others claimed that her cancer was caused by the Covid vaccine which she was photographed getting in 2021.

But influencers looking for likes and clicks made up just one aspect of this perfect conspiracy storm.

WIRED found that Middleton conspiracies were being amplified by networks of bot accounts on X, with one comment posted by thousands of accounts. The comment referred to a conspiracy about a video published in The Sun of Prince William and Middleton walking at a farm shop. “Why do these big media channels want to make us believe these are Kate and William?” read the posts.

Joe Ondrak, regional investigations lead with Logically, a company that uses AI to track conspiracies and disinformation online, also discovered the same comment being shared on other social media platforms, as well as message boards and much darker conspiracy corners of the internet. Ondrak has not been able to identify who was behind the campaign, but said it could be a “bot farm for hire,” which is a company that sells services to push whatever disinformation narrative you desire on social media platforms. While most of the X accounts spreading this message are based in the UK, the ones with the highest reach are based in India.

The campaign, Ondrak believes, could have been undergone, in part, to “undermine trust in mainstream media sources.”

In the US, trust in mainstream media and government is at all time lows, meaning that these kinds of comments or explanations can be eagerly accepted and shared. A Gallup poll published last year found that 39 percent of Americans had no confidence at all in the mainstream media, a record high. Months earlier, a survey published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that 49 percent of Americans agree with four or more conspiracy statements related to topics like antisemitism, vaccines, climate change, and white supremacy. That figure dramatically increases to 69 percent among US teens.

“Conspiracy frameworks and the conspiracy mindset are more readily present in the cultural mindset now than it was pre-2020,” Ondrak says. “The way in which Covid [conspiracies] led to the Great Reset and led to everyone knowing someone in their family who has referenced it or shared things on Facebook—it's now just much more present.”

The British royal family is a topic that has been at the center of the conspiracy universe for decades, from wild claims that they are lizard people to QAnon’s claims about Princess Diana still being alive. The palace is also a subject of intense scrutiny from the media across the globe, meaning that audiences have been primed for years to engage with this story.

“There is no weirder Twitter than people who either love or hate the royal family, and the battle that plays out online every day,” says Ryan. “I follow it just because I've written about Meghan Markle and the hate targeting her so much. So there was already an audience sort of primed for this content.”

Now, experts who track how people are radicalized into more troubling conspiracies by seemingly benign ones worry that some of those who were captivated by the Middleton speculation in recent weeks could now find themselves obsessed with other conspiracy communities.

“I see a lot are having fun with it, but as with many conspiracy theories there's an extremity scale here,” says Brent Lee, a former conspiracist who now works to help people escape the rabbit hole. “This sliding scale always runs the risk of losing people to the extremities of the rabbit hole. It depends how far people are willing to go.”

Ondrak believes that the lack of trust in institutions and government means more and more people are susceptible to this type of thinking.

“We've seen in the past the true crime community getting far too into things that lead to Satanic Panic, and then true crime becomes QAnon.” says Ondrak. “There is always the risk that one or two people might accidentally find themselves on an on-ramp and not be able to get off.”

Still, it may not necessarily lead to anything. Since Middleton’s cancer announcement, backlash against Burke and creators has been swift.

“I genuinely did not think that people would turn this story into what they turned it into, which was that a young woman, a young mother of three, had been bullied into revealing a medical diagnosis and we should all be ashamed,” Burke said on a podcast on Sunday. “On Instagram in particular, and TikTok, I received a sudden rushing wave of profound vitriol.”

Other creators believe some, however, deserve the blame. “I do think there are a handful of creators who took advantage of the hype, spread horrible theories, and made bold claims without any fact to back it up,” says a TikTok creator known as Alyssa R from Illinois. Alyssa R has 115,000 followers, and her videos on Middleton amassed hundreds of thousands of views. “Those creators absolutely should feel ashamed for partaking in spreading misinformation and potentially putting pressure on the Princess to reveal her diagnosis.”

Ashamed or not, these creators could have inadvertently sent some of their new followers down a conspiracy rabbit hole that could be difficult to escape from. Lee says that for those teetering on the edge of looking into more extreme conspiracies, it’s important to ask basic questions: How likely is this to be true? How many people would have to be involved to pull off this conspiracy? How many people would have to be involved in covering up this conspiracy? And have I jumped to conclusions because there is a gap in my knowledge?

“It's so easy to get caught up in the hype of the rumor mill,” Lee says. “It's nothing strange or new. It's what we do. I believe the genesis of almost every conspiracy theory is gossip. My advice to anyone, be they prone to conspiracy theories or not, is to stop and think for a minute. Occam's razor is your friend. Ask yourself these questions and see if you can find easy logical answers without making assumptions.”

[itservicesindia]

TikTok vs. YouTube: Which Is Better For You?

TikTok and Youtube are two well-known video-sharing platforms. But which is better for content marketers, and should one be preferred over the other?

Video content is being used by content marketers more than ever before.

86% of businesses will use video as a marketing tool by 2022.

Aside from the rise of TikTok, particularly during the pandemic, more marketers are creating videos, with 46% citing the ease with which videos can now be developed in-house.

Should you jump on the bandwagon as a content marketer?

What about YouTube’s more “traditional” channels?

YouTube is one of the top three social media networks in the world. TikTok isn’t there yet, though it’s steadily rising to №5.

TikTok is the newest kid on the block, but that doesn’t mean you should devote all of your video budget to it.

Choosing between the two necessitates careful consideration and thought. Content type, target audience, engagement rates, and influencer marketing spend must all be considered.

So, which of these two viral video platforms is better for your company?

Let’s get started.

What Exactly Is TikTok?

Musical.ly’s technology was ported after Chinese tech company ByteDance acquired it in 2017. As a result, TikTok was born.

TikTok (also known as Douyin in China) is a simple social media platform that allows users to make short-form videos.

Anyone can use a free video editor in-app to add filters, stickers, and text-to-speech to a 15-second video. Creators are using TikTok to spread straightforward content in memes, educational content, lip sync, and dance videos, making bite-sized content more digestible than ever.

These frequently include specialised content series, such as Random Amazon Finds That Just Slap or Things I Just Found Out In My 30s, or professionals linked to a specific hashtag with content dedicated to one specialty.

TikTok has more than a billion monthly users, making it the most downloaded app in the world in 2021.

What Exactly Is YouTube?

The video-sharing platform has been around for a long time, with over 2.1 billion monthly active users. Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has been the go-to platform for sharing video content.

YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees as a way for people to have fun sharing their home videos. (Do you remember the first viral YouTube videos?)

YouTube videos are much longer than TikTok videos.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Between TikTok and YouTube

TikTok videos are limited to three minutes in length. TikTok suggests a video length of 21 to 34 seconds to keep viewers interested, but most videos last 15 to 60 seconds.

TikTok vs. YouTube Algorithm Comparison

There is content that is suitable for both platforms.

Nonetheless, here are the content types for which each channel is better known.

To learn more about TikTok’s powerful search algorithm or how YouTube’s search results have recently changed, we recommend following the links provided.

Ad Formats on TikTok

You can choose from the following TikTok ad formats: (see TikTok Ads For Beginners: A Complete Guide & Steps To Success to learn how to use them).

· TopView is a 60-second video format that is both attention-grabbing and distraction-free.

· In-Feed Ads: A native-inspired ad type that will blend in with a viewer’s “For You” page.

· A UGC (user-generated content) challenge using your brand’s hashtag campaign.

· Personalized Effects: Personalized stickers, filters, or special effects.

Ad Formats on YouTube

The following video ad formats are available for YouTube business accounts for videos with ad monetization features.

For a comprehensive guide on how to use them, read The Complete Beginner’s Guide To YouTube Video Advertising.

· Skippable video ads are those that allow viewers to skip after five seconds.

· Non-skippable video ads: Viewers cannot skip this typically 15–20 second video.

· Bumper ads: These ads, which can last up to six seconds, must be watched before watching a video.

· Overlay ads: Only seen on desktop, these ads take up the bottom 20% of a video’s screen.

· YouTube videos can be monetized and earn a portion of the ad revenue.

On both platforms, creating a business account is free. Keep in mind that TikTok requires a minimum ad spend of $50, whereas YouTube Ads provides $100 in free credits when you spend $50 on video ads.

Conclusion

Should one be preferred over the other?

TikTok.com has 318.2 million organic visitors, while YouTube.com has 646 billion.

TikTok has 643,600 paid users, while YouTube has 65.1 million.

YouTube and TikTok are here to stay, and while YouTube appears to have more traffic, TikTok’s rapid rise to the top is one to watch.

Typically, both are ideal for marketers who invest in video marketing; 87% of marketers say video has helped them increase traffic, and 82% say video has helped them increase dwell time.

The best platform for your brand is determined by the type of content you have available, the customer purchase cycle, your social media goals, and your budget.

More Visit Us Website:-https://www.itservicesindia.com/

[logicabeans]

Warning: These Mistakes Will Ruin Your TikTok Marketing

If we want to market a product properly then we need to market it at a place where the maximum audience is. At present that place is digital. There are approximately 7.753 billion people on earth. And about 4.95 billion of them are online. So, to meet the audience where they are, we need to take the marketing to the digital space. Hence, digital marketing exists for the same purpose.  

Any marketing efforts that are done online are called digital marketing. It has different models and platforms that brands and people alike can use and implement. From search engine optimization to social media marketing, digital marketing has different aspects that the brands can take on as per their need. Among all the digital marketing types, TikTok Marketing in Nepal is growing day by day.

What is TikTok?  

TikTok is a social media app where everyone can be a creator. No matter which profession one belongs to, if they can touch the heart of people or make them laugh, their chances of growing as a creator are as high as Burj Khalifa. Although previously known as musical.ly, it gained much more traction after getting rebranded as TikTok.    

According to its parent company Bytedance, TikTok has 1 billion active monthly users each month. This app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times on the android play store and has 50.5 million reviews there. TikTok, at present, is one of the most popular apps with one of the most active user bases. This makes it one of the best social media platforms that are there for digital marketing.  

Introducing TikTok Marketing  

The process of promoting any product, brand, or service on TikTok is known as TikTok Marketing. Lately, every business has been jumping onto the bandwagon of promoting their brand, product, or service through TikTok. Why you may ask? Well, the algorithm of TikTok makes it the best platform for promoting anything. A candle store, real estate, pressure cleaning, jewelry making? This platform has audiences for absolutely any content. The way TikTok's algorithm is designed every video has an equal chance of going viral despite how low its followers are. Here the audience wants to watch raw, unfiltered content and if your brand can give just that, your brand will be the talk of the town.  

Why use TikTok Marketing?  

The answer to this question would be because that is where the audience is. However, there are also other benefits as to why your brand should be doing TikTok marketing. The first reason is the direct connection that you can establish with your users, consumers, or customers. Through TikTok marketing, you can create a loyal community of people who love your product. With the comment section and the duet option, your customers/consumers can directly give you feedback on the product. The next is word of the mouth marketing. When everyone on the app is talking, making, or sharing the content of your brand people are bound to be curious. This can ultimately lead to an increase in sales. Similarly, with TikTok marketing in Nepal, you can reach out to a wider audience. Some may follow you because they liked your creativeness of the content, and some may reach out to you because of your product itself. Regardless, it is sure that with TikTok Marketing your brand can grow to newer heights.  

As easy as TikTok marketing sounds, it is quite hard if you don’t know the how-tos of TikTok. If you want your business to grow hiring a TikTok Marketing Strategist might be the best investment you can make. If you are based in Nepal or anywhere in the world and need help with TikTok marketing, we at FEAT International can be of help. Anyhow, if you are already doing TikTok Marketing and your account or brand is still not growing, here are a few of the mistakes that you need to avoid.

1. Promoting the wrong target audience  

TikTok has 1 billion users and the high chances are not all of them are your ideal audience. If your brand is not growing you need to check your insights. What is the demographic of people who are watching your content and from which geographical region are they watching. Then, analyze whether the content that you are making for your brand is relevant to them or not. TikTok marketing will and can give you headaches if your content is not reaching out to the correct audience. So, take some time and see where your TikTok marketing strategies are going wrong.

2. Using other’s content  

TikTok is an app where people come to watch raw and unfiltered content. The more authentic your content is, the better it will work. With the diverse content that there is on TikTok, it can be tempting to copy someone else’s content or content strategy. But just because the same content worked for them does not mean it can or will work for you. Also, the audience of TikTok is quite smart. They can and will drag down your content and brand if they realize that you are using unoriginal content. Hence, make sure that your brand is posting content that is true to your brand, or just hire us to do it for you.

3. Not sharing user-generated content  

TikTok and TikTok marketing are not only about making content but it is also about building a community and keeping them engaged. Not engaging with them and not sharing their content can drag down your brand engagement. With the duet function of TikTok, make sure your brand is sharing user-generated content along with the brand reaction. It will certainly keep your users and audience engaged.

4. Not participating in Hashtag Challenges  

In TikTok, there is always one or another hashtag challenge going on. Some might be just trending songs with hashtags or some an actual challenge. These hashtag challenges usually garner millions if not billions of views. Participating in these challenges is sure to bring in more traction for your business. So, make sure that your business has an agenda for keeping up with the challenges in your TikTok marketing strategy.

For example: Branded Hashtag Challenges are mostly used by brands to increase their brand awareness. On September of 2021, Sunsilk started a campaign with the hashtag #SunsilkDashainVibes. This campaign ended up becoming one of the most successful Nepali influencer campaigns. At present this hashtag has approximately 27.7 million views.

5. Not Spending on Influencers  

Influencer marketing, when done right, is more of an investment than an expense. It can give you access to a bigger audience and a steady increase in sales. With TikTok, influencer marketing has been on the rise. So, having a budget for your TikTok marketing strategy for spending on influencers will be a gain for your brand. With TikTok there are audiences for every field, similarly, there are also influencers for every field. With good research, your brand can find influencers whose audience matches your target audience.

For example: For Fonepay’s Jhatta Transfer Chatta Car Campaign we worked together with 29 influencers and were able to generate a total of 1.9 million Impression and Reach altogether. Along with brand awareness we were also able to influence Fonepay’s per day transactions.

Embrace with Feat International For TikTok Marketing

Even by following all the tips given here, it is hard to keep up with the changing algorithm and trends of TikTok. If your brand is looking for an agency that can handle your TikTok marketing for you, choose us, FEAT international. We are a digital marketing agency in Nepal doing 360 Degree marketing. With our experience of working with several clients from different fields and different backgrounds, we will make sure your brand image and positioning on TikTok are on point. Here, we will draft your TikTok marketing strategy closely based on your target audience, brand image, and most importantly, your product or service. Let us help you make your brand grow with a customized TikTok Strategy!

[thepaininurneck]

Okay, wow, never in my life did I think a music video involving giving Satan a lap dance would delve into a conversation about gay rights ( and how gay men are portrayed in media ), but Lil Nas X broke the world with MONTERO, so here I am. We’ve got three things here that I think are important - Internet culture, religion, sexuality. These are the things that I think people are getting too uptight over/not upset enough over, and I wanna rant for a bit, so bear with me on this one.

First, I LOVED MONTERO. I’m a whore for religious imagery/theming/etc. being used in media, and as a former Christian and an openly gay woman, it makes me very happy to see it used in a spiteful manner. MONTERO was gorgeous - sexual, unapologetic, and so clearly pulling straight from Biblical stories. The religion used commonly against us ( here in the US, at least, because I know other religions can be just as oppressive, if not worse, and Christianity isn’t the dominant religion everywhere ) being used in a way that’s expressive of our lives is beautiful. The very clear message of “Oh, I’m going to hell? That’s okay,” is perfect - for so many LGBT people in this country, we’ve been told that we’re condemned to eternal punishment because of something we can’t help. LNX took that in stride and made it art, with MONTERO and the video. I am in full support of it and will be throwing it on my horny playlist.

But here’s why I think this is so important - MONTERO’s release has exposed, in my opinion, where the real issues lie in Western culture. WAP did this too, a little - both of these songs, and their accompanying videos, were criticized using children. “Children watch you”, “how could you expose kids to this”, etc. were complaints hurled at Cardi B and LNX over their music. And in LNX’s case, people used his previous success with Old Town Road - I saw one tweet saying Old Town Road is “every kid’s anthem”, and that their children love Old Town Road. Which is problematic - how can you complain about MONTERO, but allow your child to listen to a song with lyrics such as “Lean all in my bladder”, “Cheated on my baby, you can go and ask her”, “Bull riding and boobies” - Old Town Road is not a child-friendly song by any means, but LNX didn’t include naked breasts, or ( as far as I’m aware ) market the song in a way that showcased those lyrics. So parents let their children enjoy their funny horse song, never looking into the words their kids were hearing daily. But with MONTERO, because they saw at a glance that it was an issue, they assumed this meant the previously “child-friendly” artist LNX, the man behind the funny horse song, was suddenly trying to indoctrinate their children. When in reality, LNX has never catered to kids. He’s always been open about his music and himself, and it’s entirely the parents’ faults for not better monitoring what media their children take in. It is never the responsibility of the creator to change their content for an audience they didn’t want. MONTERO, and WAP, both exposed just how internet culture has allowed parents an excuse to be lazy, hands-off pieces of shit, and demonize creators further.

MONTERO also exposed how homophobia continues to follow us, in how many comments there were calling LNX predatory, claiming he was indoctrinating children and pushing agendas - and, with Kaitlin Bennet’s actual racist comments, now he’s being slandered. ( if you didn’t see that beef, TLDR: Kaitlin asked “do you still see your dad?” w/ blatant intent to hurt, LNX replied with “yeah and I’ll fuck yours”, to which Kaitlin accused him of threatening to rape her father and several small, conservative ‘journalists’ ran with it ). I don’t like throwing around the word homophobia, but this isn’t new - gay men have been called predatory for a long time and demonized for even small gestures like holding hands. And now, an openly gay man made a video celebrating his sexuality ( which isn’t a new topic: look at any music video from the early 2000s for more examples of people expressing sexuality ) and given fuel to these idiots to continue pushing their narrative of “gay man predator, gay man bad”. Fortunately, it’s a lot less than it would’ve been thirty years ago. But the fact that it still happens on this scale, enough that journalists pick it up as a story, and governors, Candace Owens and other prominent homophobic conservative figures jump on the bandwagon....it’s sad. A man celebrating his sexuality shouldn’t be demonized the way it is, and MONTERO is doing an amazing job at spitting in people’s faces.

Cutting myself short here, I think MONTERO was a gift. It’s a work of art in many ways, but the social response it generated is also a blessing in that it shows what we need to prioritize - which is self responsibility. No one is forcing you to watch the gay man give Satan a lap dance, nor are they forcing you to buy his shoes. No one will ever force you into that - you, a consenting adult/teenager, willingly watched it. You’re reading this now of your own choice. If your child is watching MONTERO, you should blame yourself if you’re mad - why didn’t you monitor them better? Teach them to avoid things they don’t recognize online? You failed as a parent to protect your child from what you deem harmful. That isn’t anyone’s fault except your own as their active guardian.

Sex, talking about sex, grinding, lap dances....those aren’t new to music videos. They’ve been happening for decades, actually - early 90’s and 2000’s videos had a lot, and I think some 80’s had them. MONTERO didn’t invent NSFW music videos, the only difference is it’s gay and dared to use religious imagery ( which also isn’t new, but that’s another rant I don’t want to get into ). For once, I actually agree with the masses - this outrage was mostly fueled by homophobia and dumb Christians. And to any Christians reading this ( that didn’t get offended, because if you got genuinely upset by this drama, fuck you ); you’re cool.

Anyways, yeah. I think MONTERO was awesome, LNX killed it as always, and I hate conservatives. Goodnight.

[kuriquinn]

Dear Mr. Kuri, thank you so much for your recent post concerning the young artist who was effectively censored from sharing his/her/their art on a particular subject (just... so sad). I was hoping to get your thoughts on how adults might navigate interactions with minors in this space. Specifically, extending our support for their work w/out necessarily... engaging with them. I know this sounds crazy stupid but before tumblr I wasn't really active on any social media and I had no idea (cont'd)

there were so many users under the age of 16 on this site. I've even come to learn that some identified users I had interacted with early on were as young as 13, and as someone in my 30's - tbh that scared the shit out of me. I totally agree that someone that young and impressionable would be crushed by the kind of criticism that poor artist faced, and would likely never create or share again... to their detriment. The thing is though, I feel really hesitant following any creator (cont'd)

that isn't 18 or older... What are your thoughts on following/reblogging/interacting with minors in fandom? I fully agree that they need support, especially from older users who don't care what some stranger on the internet has to say... but I just feel... like I don't know how to go about that the right way. I really REALLY don't want minors on my blog at all... sorry to bother you with this, just wondering how you'd suggest handling this. I didn't comment on the post bc I didn't (cont'd)

want to risk that young artist reading my inquiry and feeling even more alienated. As always, thank you for your time and insight. - Birk

I may go a bit off-topic here, but let me give this a try:

I think in, In the end, it all comes down to communication and mutual respect.

Adults have this pervading mentality that until a child hits 18, they need to be infantilized and sheltered, but once they pass that magical number, then it’s a free for all. So, for eighteen years, it’s all about sticking a Potemkin village in front of any idea, person or situation that a child might find uncomfortable (read: they don’t like the feelings it gives them; very different from actual harmful ideas/persons/situations). Then, these sheltered almost-adults enter public spaces and expect society to keep doing that…when it turns out that’s not how it works, they become toxic.

This is how poisonous movements like purity-culture develop online, or new fans who demonize older fans and adults as being perverts for enjoying the very same pastimes they have.

For those of us interacting with these people, the automatic reaction is to “cancel” that person, thereby alienating and isolating them even more in their bad behavior. Instead of taking the time to talk with and try to show them through actions that the world isn’t limited to what they know.

As adults in fandom, we know that a large majority of the fandom is younger, because we were them once. We were that 12-year-old discovering fanfiction existed or sharing drawings we made of our original Harry Potter characters or quoting our favorite movies and televisions ad infinite. We got shit for it in real life, so we had to create spaces of our own online.

We, in effect, built fandom so that it would be more welcoming for the generations that came after us. And while a lot of us stick to that unwritten knowledge, as the years pass, a lot more become gatekeepers. They set a standard of what a fan must know or do to be considered a “real” fan, and they’re mean about how they do that.

Is it any wonder that new fans coming in experience this behavior and then jump on the “adults in fandom is creepy” bandwagon?

These new fans coming in, especially tweens and teens, they still live in this false reality where they only get to enjoy themselves and be kids for a limited amount of time, and once they Become Adult they have to give it all up—and can’t figure out why all those old creeps online are still a part of such “childish” things.

That fault lies squarely on our society, which pushes kids from a young age to be thinking of what they want to do when they grow up so they can get out there and start producing, producing, producing for the state and becoming a “useful” member of society.

We as fandom veterans, need to do our best to teach them differently, and that comes right back to my point: communication and mutual respect.

Older fans need to respect newcomers, as much as the new baby fans need to learn to respect their fandom elders. There is no maximum age for fandom; there’s no minimum age, either, although the younger the fan, the more their parents should be keeping an eye out for the truly damaging stuff and teaching their kids how to avoid that stuff on their own.

Now, obviously, people don’t always announce online how old they are (though it does happen more frequently now than when I started writing), but regardless, there should be a certain etiquette to it.

When you interact with someone online, you don’t know if they are 15 or 50. And the way you interact with them shouldn’t change based on knowing their age. We should maintain the same level of respect for the new fans as the older fans.

So, as to how adults might navigate interactions with minors (especially when you know they’re minors)?

Treat them as any other intelligent human being: with respect.

Because how else are they going to learn?

My mom always used to say to us, “I’m not raising children, I’m raising adults,” which basically meant she was teaching us how to be adults. Kids don’t pop out of the womb magically knowing how to interact with the world, they take their cues from the adults that are already there.

Fandom babies learn how to be active participants in fandom from the people who are already there. And they’re more likely to listen to and look up to someone that treats them as a mature and capable being, than someone who dismisses them as too young or too green, or dismisses their knowledge and experience because they haven’t earned their metaphorical stripes.

Remember, a lot of these kids are coming to fandom because they need an outlet. In this age of helicopter parents, this is the only place where they get to be treated as an individual adult-in-the-making instead of the overly protected child or student that must be shielded from the world. A lot of them are trying to figure out how to deal with the horrors that happen to them or around them every day. That 16-year-old girl writing a rape/non-con fic under a pseudonym? She could be exorcising her own demons through the only way she has because no one in her life is listening to her. That 14-year-old writing about homelessness might know more about it than someone twice his age.

Expertise and experience knows no age, and as adults, we need to not fall into the trap of thinking it does. There are some kids out there that have seen and endured more than I can even imagine.

In recent years, there’s been this trend of treating kids like sexless beings until we, the adults, deem them capable of having a sense of sexuality. When the reality is, once kids start puberty, they’re developing that sexuality, and are trying to figure out what it means to them and how to navigate it, and the world. It doesn’t matter if adults are uncomfortable with it, this is what our human biology has decided for us.

And chances are, as much as adults try to curate the world and keep kids from seeing the darker, less safe stuff? They’re already doing it. I saw this when I was teaching, the kids are already accessing and interacting with stuff like sex, drugs, relationships… Whenever a faceless censor tries to block that sort of thing, they find a way around it. Humans are funny like that—we want the things that are kept away from us, whether harmful or not.

It’s our responsibility to help them think critically about what they’re seeing, and teach them to express themselves about it in a respectful manner.

So by all means: follow that amazing artist even if they are only 15. Their age doesn’t negate the fact that they have talent that needs to be nurtured and encouraged. Reblog the images and the fics that strike you, even if you find out the person writing it isn’t 18 yet. Send a shoutout via DM or review or comment to someone that you admire whether you know they’re age or not.

Unless you’re being actively creepy and offensive (and seriously, don’t do that, it’s gross whether the recipient is a minor or not), chances are these creators are desperate for some assurance that the medium they choose to express themselves in is having an effect on people—and that they have the power to make even adults sit up and listen.

So…TL;DR:

When interacting with younger fans, do so with respect. And if they say something problematic, don’t automatically cancel them and write them off as “obviously too young and immature to understand”. They understand more than you think and will seek out their interests whether adults think it’s appropriate or not. That’s how freedom works. But if we’re going to nip bad behavior like purity culture and agism in the bud, we need to start by treating minors in fandom as adults developing their worldview, not as infants to be sheltered.  

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2019

i mean, everyone's doing these write-ups, right? might as well hop onto the bandwagon

towards the end of last year i had one of my typical existential crises about my media consumption: am i slowly disappearing up my own ass because i no longer care about most of the pop culture people like to discuss ad nauseam? but on the other hand, isn’t it more responsible to find the niche items made by non-mainstream and marginalized creators? on the third hand, wouldn’t i be much happier if i just watched FMA Brotherhood over and over again, preferably while starting a new Mass Effect playthrough at the same time?

the answer to all these questions is probably “yes,” but i decided to try something different going into 2019. for every week of the year, i would try to get through a year’s worth of content for some kind of media, be it comics, video games, TV, etc--they didn’t all have to be recent, or even new to me, but once i was done with that week i’d be done, even if i didn’t finish the content, and i’d make a judgement based what i’d seen on whether i want to continue. mostly, i was trying to avoid what happened to me with video games in 2018, when i was hating every second of playing Uncharted but still felt obligated to finish because everyone and their houseplant liked Uncharted or listlessly doing the Master Hunter achievement in RDR2 because the main quest made me miserable.

the actual outcomes of this Project(tm) are a little more complicated than anticipated--some media i could finish in a day, while trying to play through ALL THE CONTENT OF AN MMO understandably took much longer than a week--but it all kind of evened out. in the end i did 48 weeks of this, and used December as my catch-ups month to follow up on some things i didn’t get to finish. i thought i’d give my thoughts on each of the things i consumed this year as part of this project below in a concise manner--and yes, i know the people who’ve read even one (1) thing i’ve written are probably laughing right now, particularly given how long i took in this introduction just to get to me point, but i really am going to try!! it’s all an exercise in shameless self-indulgence, basically, but hey: if any of you want to chat at length about any of this stuff below, hit me up.

(quick note: you’ll only find media that i chose for this particular project below, so things i watched socially with friends--like certain film properties slorping me back into Disney’s gelatinous monolith--are not included)

Devilman Crybaby (anime, finished 1/5/2019): honestly i should have twigged onto what the year was going to be like when the first thing i drew from the metaphorical barrel was demon tiddies and apocalyptic existentialism. i was determined to dislike it for most of the year due to fundamentally disagreeing with its main thematic thrust, but i kept THINKING about it even months after. at this point i’ve kinda mellowed out. it’s definitely not a must love, but there’s enough queer metaphor and philosophical richness in it to make it worth checking out.

Attack on Titan (manga, 3 volumes finished 1/12/2019): this is the second time i’ve tried to get into this franchise and...yeah, no. i still don’t see the appeal. the fascistic overtones juxtaposed with absolutely no one having a sense of humor wigs me out to no end.

Young Justice (TV, 2.5 seasons finished 1/31/2019): honestly, what even is there to say? they’re my kids. they’re back and grown up and making even more terrible decisions. i screamed when i saw Babs in her wheelchair.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (book, finished 2/10/2019): i tried VERY HARD to like this book, given how much i liked Brief History of Seven Killings, but it just...didn’t click for me. which honestly is fine, since i don’t think it was made for me either.

Dragon Age (3 games, finished 2/28/2019): i feel like there’s always a part of me that’s going to think of this series as “the other one,” but y’know. it’s good. it’s my second playthrough (as a mage for all three) and it’s good! i even went around killing all the dragons in Inquisition because Knight Enchanter was a blast. appreciate the higher queer content vis-a-vis Mass Effect, even though i couldn’t care less about any of the plot. Dragon Age II is the best one, do not @ me

Bitter Root (comic, 4 issues finished 3/1/2019): i love intergenerational dramas and i love stories about vampire slayers, so this was aces. my only complaint is the pacing was a little slow for a story that was going on hiatus after five issues.

Pearl (comic, 6 issues finished 3/3/2019): i know that he’s done great things and grudgingly admit that he’s probably a net positive in the industry but Brian Michael Bendis can suck my entire dick

Lazarus (comic, 5 trades finished 3/ 4/2019): i really thought this was going to clench the position for comic of the year. it’s Rucka doing Highly Relevant Dystopia! it’s a corporate Lannisters AU! it’s a highly personal story about a woman with high privilege and little agency! what more could you want

Immortal Hulk (comic, 2 trades finished 3/ 4/2019): i vibed with the horror feel, but i don’t honestly think it’s THAT exceptional. being set in 616-verse means there was still ton of baggage i didn’t know or care about, since i’ve now swung more to the DC side of things

thank u, next (album, finished 3/5/2019): didn’t Ariana Grande get canceled this year for some reason? oh well, i liked her album

When I Get Home (album, finished 3/13/2019): i vividly remember listening to this for the first time and feeling vaguely disappointed that it wasn’t more like Seat at the Table until i realized that i was covered in goosebumps. still don’t understand the magic but it is Good

The Bird King (book, finished 3/23/2019): pretty much everything you’d expect from a G. Willow Wilson book--spirituality, the female lead finding Themselves and the Answer and learning they’re the same thing, etc etc. i’m slightly resentful that her Wonder Woman was so lackluster while this was so good, but whatevs

Psychodrama (album, finished 3/29/2019): possibly my favorite album of the year? dense and emotionally raw in a way i really appreciate. Dave has a Mercury and he’s younger than me

Mass Effect (4 games, finished 4/7/2019): wow guys did you know that Mass Effect is good! it is. all of it is actually, even the Mass Effect 3 ending, another controversial finale to a big franchise that i will obstinately defend. even Andromeda, which isn’t AS good as the trilogy but still has a lot of heart. all its bugs have been exhaustively patched since launch anyway

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV, 4 seasons finished 5/13/2019): i’m...still kind of mad about this finale, but can’t exactly deny that this show is one of the best things to ever happen to me, or television probably. i didn’t even mind new!Greg that much! tho he was probably the nail on the coffin of me jumping onto the Nathaniel train.

Knights of the Old Republic/The Old Republic (3 games, finished 7/4/2019): did you guys know that KOTOR II was my first ever video game? i feel like that...explains a lot about me. anyway, the first game is a classic and the second is a deconstructive classic and playing either of them is basically a fun way for me to turn off my brain these days. even the MMO wasn’t as much of slog as i worried it would be. the Imperial Agent storyline had some nice surprises and i dig the general atmosphere of ruthless pragmatism and crushing loneliness.

Wanderers (book, finished 7/13/2019): Chuck Wendig is a very well-intentioned man in dire need of a strict editor. still good tho! some VERY punchy emotional bits and an ending that still leaves me with vague existential terror.

Code Geass (anime, 2 seasons finished 7/20/2019): i feel like this is on the polar opposite of the spectrum as Devilman Crybaby, because i don’t think Geass is GOOD on like, any basis, and i actually find its central moral message kind of abhorrent? but some part of my lizard brain LOVED the High Imperial Family Drama (it’s been a good year for me and Lannister types, hasn’t it? well, with the obvious exception of--never mind), so...yeah. have i discovered the true meaning of guilty pleasure

The Farewell (movie, finished 7/23/2019): how could i not a) watch this and b) love this and c) feel emotionally cold towards this at the same time because the situations depicted were so similar to mine that i ended up feeling kind of alienated

The Nickel Boys (book, finished 8/8/2019): i STILL haven’t read Underground Railroad, but here i am a book late and a dollar short to appreciate Whitehead’s new book. the man’s stylistic versatility is jaw-dropping and i appreciate the plotting in contrast to like, 90% of the litfic out there that’s just “protagonist sad in different milieu”

Durarara (anime, 2 seasons finished 8/31/2019): it’s fucking bonkers and i loved pretty much every second of it? even the second season, where i finally got the BruceNat AU i deserved??? the first anime i’ve seen where everyone was relatively soberly dressed. the answer was love and having feelings and asking your middle school best friend to hurl you like a projectile so you can chop your girlfriend’s head off with a demon katana

Lover (album, finished 9/1/2019): i feel like with all the Discourse surrounding Taylor Swift re: she’s the devil incarnate or re: she’s good, actually the fact that she makes fucking bops gets kind of lost in the conversation. i have no vested interest in her as a person but i liked Lover, even though London Boy was “what if Style but stupid”

Are You Listening (comic, finished 10/2/2019): my actual choice for best comic of the year if i were giving out awards like that. it’s coming of age! it’s grief! it’s queers! it’s trauma! it’s magical realism! it’s cats! it’s expressive gorgeous art! Tillie Walden has an Eisner and she’s younger than me

High School DxD (manga, 2 volumes finished 10/10/2019): i don’t even know how to talk about this series?? i actually kind of came around to the whole “main character is a perv but goes hard for consent” by the end of the second volume, but it’s still...bad. i only can have lingering conflicted feelings about one Japanese adaptation of Christian mythology per year

Ghosteen (album, finished 10/18/2019): much like Immortal Hulk i thought it was fine but over-hyped. it’s Nick Cave doing his Nick Cave ethereal music thing. i still can’t tell what any of the lyrics mean, except Jesus is there sometimes

Watchmen (TV, 2 episodes finished 10/29/2019): i am nOT FUCKING CAUGHT UP so please watch out for spoilers. it is on my high priority list of things to be caught up on tho--i appreciate that the plot is blatantly unsubtle but still manages to give me aneurysms and i appreciate the political overtones just kinda...balances on a razor thin wire and also gives me aneurysms. i wanna say i have no expectations and would be fine if it does a full dive into the horrible bland depths of the both-sides porridge, but i’m sadly a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof

Syllabus/Making Comics (2 comics, finished 12/24/2019): it’s funny--even before Making Comics came out i was like “man i miss Lynda Barry” and then BAM. it’s incredible how her work just makes me feel taken care of, even when we’re wrestling with tough topics or she’s demanding that i draw a Batman in 30 seconds. kudos for immediately shooting to the top of my gift list for my sister also

Allegiance/Choices of One (2 books, finished 12/24/2019): fun and largely inoffensive, but i was honestly hoping for more. the level of Empire apologia going on was too much for me, someone who thinks Mara Jade is the best Star Wars character of all time (still?????? still). it reeked a little of Zahn believing his own hype as the only valid guy in Star Wars Legends of whatever

Aldnoah.Zero (anime, 1 season finished 12/24/2019): turns out i also can only have “trash but my trash” feelings about one Japanese mecha show with higher art pretensions and patriotism verging into jingoism per year, and this one ain’t it. it’s not as good as Code Geass and Code Geass ISN’T GOOD. at least Geass attempted character complexity and moved at enough of a breakneck pace to distract me from its questionable bits. Aldnoah is just...bland, and nothing gets accomplished or revealed in 12 episodes, except the baffling and contradictory motivations of the main bad guy.

Baldur’s Gate (game, unfinished): yet again something i really wanted to like, given *gestures at all the BioWare above*. i think it’s mainly the Seinfeld issue, where it actually predates my own experience with video games and was so formative for the Western RPG genre that what was innovative just comes across as kind of staid now. i didn’t DISLIKE it, and will probably play the sequel since it’s supposed to be more character-driven, but by the time i finished the vanilla campaign i just didn’t have it in me to squint at more tiny avatars on the screen, so the expansions ended up a no-go.

most prominent thing i noticed about this list is that only one 2019 movie made it on the list and ZERO 2019 video games did so. the former i’m okay with because i currently live with two film people with whom i’m happy to tag along to the cinema. the latter bums me out a little more, because there WERE a few things i wanted to play this year, but all of them came out just as my semester was reaching its catastrophic boil, so i had no time. maybe i’ll use my free time after the New Year festivities to catch up on those.

to conclude: this worked out pretty well! i ended up finishing all but one of the things, and only a few were bad enough that i have no interest in seeking out more content. i’ll probably do this again in 2020--we’ll see if the scheduling can withstand a full year of grad school hell

[thetrashywritingwitch]

Cancel culture and jumping on a bandwagon to cancel people on social media over a single mistake is fucking toxic and there’s no getting around that

cancel fascists, bigots, assholes, literally people who are morally disgusting with their behavior and ideals.

The parasocial/one-sided online relationships we have with creators we follow and interact with is incredibly fickle and one mistake can absolutely ruin someone if it blows up and things get taken out of context. It’s like if you have any sort of social following and you make ONE MISTAKE you’re done, it’s over, people hate you. 

Talking calmly and rationally about an issue is far more effective at changing people and helping them learn and become better people than sending them threats or messages about how awful they are. That just makes people double-down because who is gonna listen to some anon telling you in the most aggressive way that you’re terrible and wrong?

The whole “don’t take criticism from someone you’d never take advice from” is true. Be very aware of how your words affect the people behind that twitter or tumblr profile. 

that’s Friday’s tea

[jaerie]

I would encourage you to continue writing. The issue here is not with weird and dark fics- I enjoy your weird and dark fics. The issue is fics with underage elements. Avoid these, and there’s not going to be the issue that happened over the Big Bang fic. No one is saying you can’t write weird stuff- they’re just wanting people to stop writing fics having to do with minors/underage characters. That’s the issue here. I encourage you to keep writing the weird. Just avoid that.

I wasn’t going to answer any asks about this,but I started to think that it is important to state where I’m coming from andthat this is not a snap decision I’ve made just because I’m upset.  I also received another ask this morning thatmade a good point about my own fandom/fanfic history.  So here we go.  

Is the underage factor really the issue here?  At the end of the day, I don’t think it is.  

I’ll tell you what happened to me in regards tothis specific issue.  I was at work and tumblrwas open on my browser from the day before. I said “oh a new big bang and I know who did the art! I’m going to likethis post to look at when I get home”. Honestly, based on the picture, I thought it was going to be a kid fic wheretheir child looked like Louis.  I camehome to anons asking me to address my involvment and accusing me of being a nasty person, that I was going to beblocked and blacklisted for my involvement in this post, etc.  I hadn’t even read the summary of this ficyet at this point (you can see this from the first ask I answered saying “thewhat fic?”) and then thought it was a Benjamin Button-ish idea.

The underage issue quickly went from being a “we’reconcerned about the content of this fic” to “adult fans are fucking disgustingand shouldn’t be here”.  I then watchedas a mob went after my friends and me just because we are adult fans writingadult content or “playing victim” by defending that our adult content is properly tagged, etc.  

Full disclosure- I’m 34.  I’ve never claimed to be otherwise.  I didn’t enter this fandom until 2 weeksbefore Harry turned 20.  I wasn’t a partof the fandom when he was a minor.  Ihave a career and a life outside of this fandom.  I’m a normal person who has always enjoyedcreative writing as a hobby.  

I have beenon both sides of this situation in my life with a few key differences.  I started reading fanfic when I was probablyabout 13.  This was in the days of AOLchatrooms and fics on geocities pages.  Backthen I remember lying about my age and pretending to be older to RP and accessfics that, in retrospect, were not appropriate for my age.  The difference?  Back then you didn’t know you didn’t want tosee something until you’d already seen it, until you’d already read it.  But none of us ever caused a fuss about it becauseit would have taken away our access to everything.  We just quietly closed that page and moved onto the next because we knew we weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.  (whether because of our parents or because weknew they were older fans, whatever the reason)

Now AO3 has a wonderful tagging and warningsystem to safeguard people from seeing what they don’t want to or shouldn’tsee.  But what happens?  People disregard this and instead come afterthe creators for publishing something they are personally offended by.  Not only do they attack the creator, theygrab a megaphone and proclaim that if you don’t agree with them and jump ontheir bandwagon then you are just as bad as they personally think this creator is.  In this fandom, this is becomingmore common and people are quick to jump on this bandwagon without looking atthe facts for themselves or forming their own opinion because they are afraid of being labeled and judgedfor questioning whether or not it’s a legitimate cause.  Worse yet, being attacked themselves.  

Since the internet has become a part of dailylife for everyone means the number of legitimate threats has also increased.  It is true that there are nasty and disgustingpeople in the world and they’re all on the internet now.  When I was lying about my age in AOLchatrooms as a 13 year old, my parents were upstairs having no idea what an AOLchatroom even was.  Since these threatsare now known, I’ve seen hover parents/teachers/etc create a controlled environmentto protect minors.  However positive thismay be in many instances involving protecting minors, I also see it creating amindset that it is every adult’s job to protect and shield minors.  Is it my job as an adult to protect minors?  In some cases as an adult with morals and asocial obligation, absolutely!  On aplatform that has multiple warnings about explicit adult content beforeaccessing it?  No.  On my adult tumblr account that states I’m anadult posting mature content?  No.  

Yet here we are.  Because this is really the issue, isn’t it?  That we aren’t protecting the minors?

Now we’ll get to why I made the decision Idid.  

 Over the last 6-9 months especially, I have received an increasing number of comments/asks accusing me of bestiality, of “givingrapists ideas”, of “encouraging rape culture”, just to name a few (I’m saying these in a nice way, not how I actually received them).  It is obvious in many of these cases thatthese people have not read my fics.  Manyof them cite things that directly contradict what is actually in the fic sothey very obviously did not read the fic. They are trolls who go through the rape/noncon or similar tags and harassthe authors and accuse them of terrible things without warrant for some self-righteousgreater good they think they’re serving.  I laugh some of them offfor their ridiculously inaccurate arguments, I delete some of the comments whenthey obviously haven’t even read the fic, I respond to some of them when I getangry and can’t bite my tongue.  

But they all pile up in the back of my mindwhere they start making me question myself and what everyone is thinking ofme.  Does everyone think this?  Do people think the themes of my fics are areflection of me as a person?  Do peoplethink my fic topics mirror things I do in my real life?

I do not know the author of this particular fic,but I can say with a fair amount of confidence that they aren’t molestingchildren or are someone that people need protected from. (I’m not addressing theactual fic, I haven’t read it, I’m just saying it this way because of howpeople reacted)  Why?  Because I’m not raping and castrating peopleor fucking animals.  People don’t need to be protected from me as a person for writing fictional scenarios that make them uncomfortable. 

But in the list of things this most recentgroup of people believe minors need protecting from, rape/noncon, bestiality,etc are on that list.  If I’m alreadygetting hate from people assuming things about my fics and me as a person, whenis someone going to launch a similar campaign against me?  I’m not just someone getting anon hateanymore.  I’m on their hate list.  I’ve been labeled as a disgusting adult.  If they are going to go to our twitters,etc to find things to hold against us, it’s just a matter of time before someonedecides to use one or more of my fics against me.  

The massive scale that I lost followers and receivedhateful asks showed me how influential this small but vocal group is on thisfandom.  I have ALWAYS over tagged andover warned when it comes to my fics but that doesn’t seem to matter rightnow.  

I don’t WANT to stop writing for this fandom, Ihave 24 WIPs in my google docs that I’m really proud of and want to finish.  Icried writing that last night and I cried this morning waking up to all the wonderfulmessages from people not wanting me to go. I hope that someday it will be safe for me to return.  But right now, I don’t feel it’s safe for me torisk that type of character assassination or hate campaign that will leave myreputation a smoldering mess over a hobby I enjoy.

I will still continue to write, it will just be in places that are notso hostile and threatening right now.

[a-redqueenofthewolves-love]

Just a thought.

I have to say something... and I’m not going to dwell on it for long. Just this once because I hate seeing our smart and classy fandom the subject of public shaming.

I’ve been seeing a lot of negative attention towards Jonsa fans at the moment. I can’t seem to escape it, my feeds are littered with it. It seems the antis are peaking all over social media, especially big-name YouTubers tweeting about how ridiculous it is and straight out insulting the people who like it. 

One thing that I learned about how to deal with this type of mob mentality is to simply pretend it doesn’t exist. Clicking and commenting even defending yourself with a well-versed argument is a waste of time. Because most of their followers are so brainwashed that they don’t listen, they just jump on the trending bandwagon. 

Retweeting their comments and giving attention and focus to their ignorant statements just fuels their influence and gives those comments more momentum which is exactly what they want. Energy flows where attention goes. Wise people don’t argue with fools. Why waste time pointing out the obvious? It says enough about the person making the tweet, I mean they’re utilizing their influential platform to insult a seemingly rather small fanbase, doesn’t that tell you all you need to know?

 I’ve read some bogus theories like Varys is a merman and little finger isn’t really dead and I know they’re bogus they don’t fill me with anger. I chuckle, scroll past them and that’s it. Why would I get angry and make a big splash about how stupid these theories are and insult the person who came up with it and then do it publically to boot? I also saw someone’s jonsa artwork on a well-known YouTubers twitter and he basically says that anyone involved with this will be blocked as if it was the most atrocious thing he’s seen. Like who cares? Really?Why even give light to it if it’s so stupid? What does that tell you?

When I was being bullied as a child the best thing that was ever said to me was this: Remember one thing, they may be bigger than you and more popular, but really they’re cowards because everybody knows that they can beat you up. You know it, they know it and everyone around them knows it. You're smaller and more vulnerable than them so at the end of the day what are they really trying to prove? That they can beat up a dead dog? What does that tell you about their mindset? It tells you they’re weak and they thrive on what other people think of them. It’s the reaction of the mob that gives them their strength because without an audience to cheer them on they get nothing out of it, with no one there to validate their performance there is simply nothing to be gained.

So what I suggest is this, let them make their bold statements afterall fools are always overly cocky it’s the wise ones that are often filled with doubts because they know that they don’t know everything. The overly cocky ones with the loudest voice that always have most to say usually know the least and it’s only their presence that they want heard not their words, so ignore their presence and they lose their influence. 

Don’t get me wrong, on your own blog express yourself and rant away - I do. But stay away from engaging with these people on Twitter and Youtube. You have the right to your own voice and opinion but also try to recognize what these content creators are actually trying to do and be wise about it - don’t give them what they want and what they want is your reaction. Don’t waste your valuable words on people who don’t listen because they don’t deserve the effort.

Just my two cents. Carry on.

[goatyuzuru]

Thoughts on 2018/2019 Season

Actually, I am supposed to be on a figure skating fast because I want to take a break, take a step back, and remove my feelings from this sport. It’s helped me a lot this week. But I think before I refast, I want to say I’m just so glad this season is finally over. The way the corruption of this sport escalated was beyond what I even expected. I knew about the corruption, the politicking, the amusement of the way judges score skaters, however, I didn’t think it took less than 1 season for it to get to a new level. I see skaters getting low 80s to mid 90s throughout 1 season. I see robbing everywhere. I see selective calls. I know it will not change even after this season ended, but having this off season will allow me to breathe.

Over the past weeks of grieving about World Championships 2019 Men’s event results, I am now in a mix of stages among bargaining/depression/acceptance. I think I ranted too much on twitter and Planet Hanyu last two weeks that I don’t think I need to talk about my denial or anger stages. 

Bargaining

There were many what ifs that went through my mind during these couple of weeks.

“What if Yuzu was never injured? not at cor 2018, not at nhk 2017, or not even his many other injuries that he’s decided to never share with the public? He would probably have been invincible by now.” But that is such an unrealistic and greedy expectation for an elite skater. Also, Yuzu is a human who simply makes the most out of what he has. I don't want to think of him as invincible or superhuman. We are all human who think we are subhuman trying to be superhuman. Yuzu is already inspirational by being his full potential. He allows me to love both the weak Yuzuru and the strong Yuzuru.  

“What if I never discovered Yuzu in 2016? What if I never discovered figure skating in 2010? When I first came to know Yuzu I thought because he won so much, the sport actually rewards talent. After a while I slowly discovered the ugly truth that even when he did win a lot in his life, he’s been robbed and underscored chronically. It was he who earned those titles, snatched those scores off from the judges’ dirty hands, challenged the system, and fought his way to be above the scoring corruption and above the sport. So when I found out the truth about what this sport really is, I really wished I never knew about it.” But then to know Yuzu is also one of the best things that happened to me. He inspired me as a person in so many ways. And to know Yuzu means I have known what true figure skating is. There is real figure skating in Yuzuru Hanyu and the figure skating that ISU is promoting. 

“What if he never won at PyeongChang? That might have been better for me to quit watching figure skating at that time." But that would be super selfish and stupid. The gold medal is one of the best compensations that happened to Yuzu throughout his competitive life as a skater.

“What if he retired after PC? The sport doesn’t deserve him. Everyone benefited from his presence except the man himself.” But I am not Yuzu and I can’t walk his journey. I can’t feel his pain or happiness so how would I know he won’t still enjoy his difficult road ahead. 

“What if Yuzu changes the way he skates? What if he tries to go with Nathan’s or Vincent’s strategy? The system doesn’t judge program components correctly or penalize incorrect techniques, so why bother following the rules when you’re not rewarded? Or "what if he changes his nationality to Canada, Japan doesn’t deserve him anyway?” But I realize from Yuzu’s interviews that while he hates losing the most, he would never change himself in order to win. I realize that it is as hard for Yuzu to empty his program for the jumps as Nathan delivering a complete program. Likewise, it is as hard for Yuzu to cheat his techniques as Vincent trying to correct his. And even if Yuzu did all of these things Nathan or Vincent did, he isn’t an American to get this treatment. Yuzu isn’t the one who should change, should lower his standard. It is the ISU, the judges, the tech panelist, the federations. Yuzu does not need a new passport to win. He did it before to be beyond the corruption, he can possibly do it again. 

After bargaining so much, I realized none of the what ifs will do any good for Yuzu, for the other skaters, for the sport, or myself. I was led to a stage of depression.

Depression 

I guess to many spectators, the scoring discourses on social media and among fandoms seem very silly or “not that deep”. But as someone who thoroughly invest my time, energy, and emotion as a fan for it, I find the necessity in having these voices so that even if the scores don’t stand or the system collapses, the true figure skaters can be remembered, the message of unfairness can be reached to new fans. Seeing myself, who is this much invested into the sport just as a fan, I wonder how much more the many figure skaters, who’ve gone through such pressure and discipline, financial hardship and injuries, emotional breakdowns and sacrifices, have been robbed of their potential titles/scores/sponsorships.

The problem I’m seeing is not only the skaters who don’t benefit from the corruption are negatively affected, the skaters who benefit from the corruption also get hate from many people. Look, I don’t hate the American skaters like Nathan/Vincent/Bradie or the Russian skaters from Eteri camp/Samarin...etc. When I don’t like someone’s skating I am usually just indifferent to them, meaning I don’t bother following them. That’s simple; if you don’t like something, you stop watching it. The problem is these skaters are being shoved into my faces and the way they are being overscored robbed me of my enjoyment for the sport because I find it unfair. That’s also very simple. So I hate to see people generalizing all of the rants are coming from a place of biasness or antis. That is not true. Also, as soon as you are a fan of certain skater, in my case a Yuzuru Hanyu’s fan, you are automatically being labeled as a sore loser or hater. The thing is, many fans who truly study figure skating would agree that the scores don’t match with what are being seen. But it happens that they might be a smaller part of a fandom and don’t get too vocal about this. So instead of seeing everyone as an obsessive fanyu, perhaps the reason many of them fight so hard is to see someone like Yuzuru Hanyu, who is the epitome of a figure skater, gets rewarded deservedly. Perhaps it’s because we value great technique and great skating and the skaters who won happen to not have those? I think it is fair to say a lot of people would get hurt because their favorite skaters did not win and the initial reaction could be a bit overwhelming. That’s normal. But if what they are witnessing in the sport that led to their criticism are fair, they should have the right to vocalize their criticism in order for justice to be heard, especially the rulebook to back their criticism. 

Yet over and over, no matter how reasonable many people have been. No matter how much effort in putting up videos to compare skaters’ programs or to explain the discrepancies in the way the tech panel called or didn’t call certain elements, the ISU and general public decide to be ignorant about it. They create their own narratives or put up media play to benefit themselves. They take down videos to remove the evidences. I even think of proposals on how to change the scoring system/format. Maybe the skaters shouldn’t get the scores right after they skate? Maybe we should only have 1 panel of the same judges? Maybe the judges/tech need more time to review the elements and program components? Maybe ice scopes should be inplemented for all jumps and in all countries. Every single element will be put into video cuts for the judges and tech to review and mark the bullets accordingly so the GOEs will autopopulate? The definitions in the rulebooks need to be given more objective, quantative metrics based on collective data or stats? Maybe the scores should be temporarily announced 2 hours after the competition (if the scores get announced later, the competition will be shortened) and the public can vote for what scores need to be reviewed. They can ask the judges to write a review at the end of the day on why they score the elements/PC and if the public do not agree they judges will get a strike. After 3 strikes in their career, the judges will be banned from judging? If any fed decides to bribe the public, at least someone can report it? I thought about all of these possibilities...

And I realize the products are not going to change as long as the creator isn’t willing. There will always be some loopholes.

Acceptance

I am slowly accepting all of this, what I cannot do and what I can do. Accepting neither means that I am agreeing with the results or scores nor normalizing the way the sport plays out. I only know that I cannot change the way ISU/feds politicking or how the general public’s view about certain skaters/achievement stans bandwagon on the glory of its beneficiaries' achievements. But what I know is I will not give them what they want: my attention/money/support. I don’t want to give attention to the undeserving skaters whom I feel like they try to promote. Rather than giving these skaters attention through my ranting, instead, I can just go back to how I should, which is stop watching them. It will be hard since Yuzu will be competing against some of these skaters and that I will follow his career as long as he allows me to, which makes it inevitable that I would see other skaters somehow. But if I would just really ignore, it would allow me to stop feeding on my hatred/bitterness toward other skaters, who aren’t bad people and are pretty talented per se, and just support Yuzu as his fan. I want to spread the love so that even if he perhaps might not always win or get the highest scores on paper, his greatness could still be felt and seen. Because of the love that is spread for Yuzu on twitter, Olympic Channel acknowledges him as the biggest star. Laureus twitter now actively tweets about him. Figure Skating is such a low profile sport but Yuzu is often compared to other greats like Rogers Federer or Tiger Woods (lol) or even Ronaldo by commentators. That shows how he really beyond this sport.

At the end of the day, I console myself that whatever Yuzu has achieved does not even define everything about how great he is as a skater. So I will just try my best to enjoy his career when I can. 

[chessrushcheats-blog]

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide is a guide for a popular new game. Auto Chess is the newest trend for mobile gaming at the moment. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, from Drodo Games, creator of the original Auto Chess, to Valve, and now, Tencent with Chess Rush. Chess Rush basically popped up out of the blue, without any major announcement or tease leading up to its release. It provides a fairly customary Auto Chess expertise with 2 notable exceptions: a Turbo Mode that can condense the normal long battles into 10-minute affairs and co-op for people who prefer to play with their partners. It doesn't require some investment and now you can appreciate playing Chess Rush on PC easily and serenely. Each auto-chess game offers a comparable ongoing interaction component. The accompanying instructional exercise will kick you off rapidly and it covers the essential of how to play Chess Rush. Ideally this will give you enough information to bounce in. Chess Rush is a methodology autobattler game where players fabricate a development by picking among more than 50 legends and go up against 7 others. The fight happens on a chess leading group of eight squares by eight squares. With this, the tanks or if nothing else the tankier saints should be deliberately situated at the cutting edges. Run legends, regardless of whether toxophilite or mages are commonly great harm sellers yet come up short on the barrier esteems to endure a ton of harm. Thusly they ought to commonly be arranged at the back however not excessively a long ways behind the front liners so they can add to arrangement harm to the foe's cutting edge legends. With various saints that can cause AoE harm just as monstrous status impacts, you ought to likewise avoid lumping each one so near one another. Much the same as the Chinese precept which generally meant "Know thy foe, know thyself, and in each fight you will be triumphant", it is very pivotal to find out about the qualities and shortcomings of the considerable number of pieces. Chess Rush as of now sports an enormous list of more than 50 saints, you can find out about their capacities, class and race cooperative energies by essentially tapping the legends symbol at the lower left half of the principle menu, and you will have the whole library for you to process. He is Gurru and he is exceptionally adorable and "peaceful". All in all, what use would he be able to be to players? Well, he is exceptionally valuable as he acts like a trump card. You can utilize him to redesign legends. In the event that you have two indistinguishable legends and you can't locate the third one, yet you have Gurru, at that point you can utilize him as the third saint to update that character. Continuously recruit Gurru whenever you see him on the enlistment screen. Alongside developments, Chess Rush likewise prescribes different lineups. There're 8 Elf pieces altogether. The "blend" in this technique alludes to the way that it's anything but difficult to branch into different Combos. It's anything but difficult to the point that two of the Elf pieces would already be able to actuate Druid. Two others would already be able to give you 2 out of 3 pieces required for the Assassin Combo. The Moonlight Dragon can be your begin for having the Dragon Combo. The Unicorn Cavalier can be your begin for having the Rider Combo. The Stinger and Sword Dancer pieces are 2 out of 3 to pick up the Assassin Combo. The summoner's strategy is particularly viable on the off chance that you confronting adversaries with relatively few AOE units. To exceed expectations in this system, beside social event the proper pieces is that do you have Spellbane Staffs? The gear quickens the gathering as it adds extra mana to the summoners dependent on the harm they do. What's more, you need to organize equiping units like Werewolf and Nightowl. In case you're meaning to be the ace Summoner, you ought to likewise work in the 4-piece Beast reward, so as to amplify harm yield for all partners (counting your request). (Trolls) or Hunters is by all accounts an extraordinary thought at this moment. Chess Rush appears to have cleaned looks and great creation quality generally speaking, which isn't amazing thinking about the assets of Tencent. It is put intensely into the anime/manga-motivated cartoony visual style run of the mill of Asian titles. The primary disadvantage is that some unit plans begin to mix together particularly on high star levels. Basically each of the three-star units have bright sparkling molecule impacts. Joined with conspicuous spells, this makes the front line somewhat jumbled and difficult to understand: Above you can see the visual mess - spells, sparkling units, and stars. It's four groups of two all duking it out in exceptional, vital fight to be pronounced the best of the pack. There are more than 50 legends accessible at dispatch for you to pick and look over. Figuring a definitive group is the genuine test here, however you'll additionally need to choose when precisely to utilize every legend. On the off chance that you need to get strategic, consolidating three of a similar legend will trigger fondness rewards that enable them to take amazing, detail boosting things into the combat zone. Try not to stress, Chess Rush's Goblins are something very similar. There are a couple of new thoughts to a great extent. Enthusiasts of Dota Auto Chess' Beast units may appreciate a comparable class in Chess Rush. It can gather token Pet units and is called... Brute. There is additionally a Furry unit class. That is all I am going to state about that. Things are a thing in this game as well, and they work in a manner like things in Teamfight Tactics. Units can prepare various things each, and joining duplicates of a similar one makes a more grounded thing. With the Auto Chess showcase rapidly going to a point of sarutation, a game needs to do its best so as to stick out, and truly, what Chess Rush has is about on a par with it can get. Toward the day's end, how much time you spend on this game will rely upon the amount you like the Auto Chess classification all in all. Chess Rush doesn't do anything momentous, however it offers a fair option with its cleaned visuals and new game modes. The outcome is an a lot quicker paced experience that doesn't really settle on the ongoing interaction. It's precisely the same experience, simply quicker. So the majority of the procedures you've grown so far will at present work. At that point there's the center mode, Tencent's other commitment to the class. Once more, this is a flash of brilliance as Tencent comprehends that portable is a social stage. Portable gamers love playing with others - just take a look at any of the top diagrams and you'll see multiplayer titles like Clash Royale, PUBG Mobile, and Brawl Stars sitting at the top. It is frequently successful to have a semi-tanky unit to be put at the far back, this is to counter contradicting professional killers where they can hop over your cutting edge and go directly to the throat of your squishy DPS units. When confronting adversaries with AOE strat, it is likewise savvy to spread out your development. Along these lines, make sure to consistently focus on rivals' sheets, realize what they're up to and adjust appropriately. That is it for the time being yet make certain to return later, as we will be refreshing this guide with future Chess Rush updates and fixes. Created by the Chinese gaming mammoth, Tencent Games, Chess Rush versatile game effectively accumulated a monstrous number of players. On Google Play, it currently outperformed 14 thousand votes and stands at 3.8 stars. On the iTunes App Store, the game likewise has 3.8 stars and is #33 in Card sort, however being in a card type isn't exactly a precise method to retire this title. On the off chance that this is the first occasion when you are catching wind of it, Auto Chess kind jumped up in mid 2019 from a mod players made in DOTA 2. Fundamentally, the decision is to either spend it on a saint or spare it for later as better ones may end up accessible on the following round. It might appear as though the decision would rely upon the underlying arrangements of decisions spread out for you, yet then there are general principles to pursue to raise your odds of improving at some point or another inside the match. First of all, put your focus on a restricted assortment of legends that has combos because of their classes or races. Managing 400/550/700 enchantment harm to close-by adversaries inside 3 matrix and dazzling them for 1.4 second. Void Doom is astonishing warlock. Since When you send various voids, 2 voids abatements arbitrary's foes wellbeing by half. Additionally Deal genuine harm equivalent to 5-7-9 percent of their maximum wellbeing consistently. General Puffer Fires planes of water a 2 arbitrary foes and managing 150/225/300 harm and lessening objective's protective layer by 75/150/225 for 20 sec. Sword is helpful hero.If you have Level 1 sword artist then it work DECENT.

[socialmedianow]

Leave Britney Alone: Sexuality Perspective on Social Media

In this chapter, Dustin kid analyzes the differences social media has on sexuality and its relation to society as a whole.  Believe this is one of the most important topics in the book. We are at a time when tensions are at the highest level, when people are literally fighting for the right to be able to get married, receive benefits, and generally be received by society the same as heterosexual couples.  Furthermore, there is an issue with the acceptance ion the display of sexuality, especially when it comes to social media. I believe there are some archetypes that people fit into and play on social media commonly, although they may not always be aware.  Certain things that would not be OK for me to post, as it was signal to others that “I am not straight.”  There are many problems here. For one, why do I care? It seems as if many have developed a deep sense of worry over the opinions of others in terms of social media.  How big will my account get? Am I popular on this website? Did this random person (who just so happens to be famous) follow me back?  These questions become increasingly important in many young minds as they develop an online personality.  Some even go as far as to profit off of these sites with content and through connection to others through these platforms.  However, I don’t think the scales are equal.  For “freaks” as Dustin Kidd talks about in Social Media Freaks, it is much harder to be accepted in many social media platforms.  It seems as though they are set up against marginalized groups, even though the internet is not a conscious unit and therefore has no opinion as a whole.  It says something greater about society, and something much sadder indeed.  As a whole, I believe society outcasts someone who is different, until a large enough group accepts that difference, and then it is replicated.  

Kid goes on to discuss Chris Crocker, and the viral video that brought him fame.  Crocker was a 19-year-old living in Tennessee, who decided to post a video one day defending Britney Spears, in light of all the negative criticism she was receiving from the media.  Was due to the fact that she had been experiencing increasing mental fatigue and was placed under a conservatorship with her parents.  In his video, Crocker was hysterical, crying, begging, and pleading with society at large to “leave Britney alone”.  In response, many poked fun, asking whether the content-creator was male or female.  Some comments were just downright derogatory, whereas others would provide meaningful input to the cause Chris Crocker was trying to bring light to.  It should be noted that the video received 2 million views within the first two hours of posting. This shows the sheer power social media has, and how quickly information can spread in this “network society”.  Furthermore, it further exemplifies the fact that society at large will, when given the chance, alienate someone that is different. Sure, some may have had certain feelings against his sexuality, but that is besides the point.  Many who did not care or who did not feel passionately “jumped on the bandwagon” because the continent seemed funny, or because many other people were interacting and reposting the video.  The one thing people neglected to realize was, how will Chris handle all of these responses.  A nineteen year old gay man living in Tennessee surely had not had the easiest time growing up.  It is a sad truth that non-heterosexual beings face a different reality living in modern society than promised by our governments and teachings.  Although we claim we are looking for true equality, many laws have even ben repealed as of recent to enforce the marriage of only heterosexual couples.  This is beyond sad and makes me worry for our future.  

[coinwealth]

How to Make Money with NFT

So, you’ve heard of NFTs and how some people have made money on them. NFTs are the latest cryptocurrency sensation to go mainstream. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business that creates some form of digital content, it makes sense for you to learn the ropes of making money through NFTs. 

You may have heard of the 24-year-old artist who made over $300,000 selling her art as NFTs or Rob Gronkowski selling NFTs of his best Super Bowl moments. With this news hitting social media, it’s no surprise how quickly NFT rose to fame with more people jumping on the bandwagon. 

The first step to making money with NFTs is to understand them. We’ll provide a brief explanation of NFTs and guide you on how to make money with NFT by selling them. Let’s first start by explaining what exactly NFTs are. 

What are NFTs?  

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are pieces of cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain. They’re used for real-world items like artwork, music art, and even real estate but in a virtual capacity. Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs cannot be traded or exchanged because they are not identical to one another. 

Think of baseball cards or a rare coin collection. NFTs create scarcity among assets that are otherwise infinitely available. They are typically used to buy and sell digital items like tweets, artwork, gaming skins, and virtual real estate. 

2021 was a year of growth for NFTs, with sales hitting $2.5 billion in the first half of the year. There are two ways you can make money with NFT. The first is to sell your original content as NFT.  

How to Sell NFTs?

NFTs are generally sold on marketplaces with different processes depending on the platform of your choice. Essentially, you’ll upload your content to the marketplace, turn it into NFT, and wait for it to sell. It’s very similar to Amazon or Etsy. If you already have a digital content portfolio for which you own the copyright, here’s what you need to do next:

1. Select Your Marketplace, Mint the NFT, and Link Wallet  

There are dozens of marketplaces for you to choose from. These include OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Rarible, SuperRare, and Mintable. Have a quick look at these marketplaces and select one that best suits your content. 

Your next step is to “mint” the NFT. In simple terms, minting an NFT is the process of turning the digital file into a crypto collectible or a digital asset on the Ethereum blockchain. Though this may sound confusing, most, if not all, marketplaces will provide a step-by-step guide on minting your NFT right on their platform.  

Once you’ve selected the marketplace, you’ll have to link your funded cryptocurrency wallet. After that, upload your digital file and follow the process on your chosen marketplace. Each platform will have different processes and allow you to either sell the item as a one-off purchase or earn royalties. 

2. List NFT for Sale 

Once you have filled out the information and your file is uploaded and minted, it’s time to list it for sale. After listing it for sale, you’ll notice the marketplace will calculate “gas fees.” This is an Ethereum blockchain network fee to record the transactions. This fee will vary depending on how busy the network is. The best way to reduce this fee is to list your product during non-peak hours, depending on the marketplace. 

Can I Trade NFTs? 

Yes, you can. This is the second option to making money with NFT. Selling NFTs isn’t just for creators. Some entrepreneurs and investors utilize NFTs like stocks and profit by buying and selling them. If you have already purchased a collection of NFTs and don’t need them anymore, you can easily sell them the same way you would if you were to create them yourself. The only step you’ll skip is the minting process. 

The trick to trading NFTs is when to sell them. The right time to sell an NFT will depend on what it is, why you bought it, and if there’s any other interest in the item. Quick research on the internet and marketplace can help you determine this. 

You’ll also have to factor in price appreciation or depreciation. Calculate your potential profit and loss by including additional costs like gas fees, marketplace listing fees, and royalties paid to the original owner. These fees will ultimately reduce your final take-home amount.  

For more complex NFT trading that requires in-depth knowledge of the cryptocurrency industry, you may want to consider consulting a professional. As NFTs are relatively new, you can scout freelancer sites to hire someone who can help you with this. 

What is the Future of NFTs? 

The future of any blockchain experiment is unknown. However, experts predict that NFTs are here to stay and will continue to grow beyond the art and gaming realm, especially if wealthy investors continue investing money. 

The growth of NFT can also be attributed to its features that can represent proof of ownership, provide social status, grant exclusive access, manage licensing, and certify authenticity. It allows you ownership of your products the way Bitcoin enables you to be your own banker. 

In Short… 

It’s important to remember that while the process of selling NFTs may be straightforward, it may not be as easy as it seems. Minting your content and selling it will incur marketplace and Ethereum costs which can be considerably high depending on when you’re putting it up for sale. Trading NFTs can come with uncertainty, given the volatility of this young market. 

The best way to make money with NFT will differ by person. If you or your small business have money to spare, you can choose to buy an asset that will gain interest as time goes on and sell it when it appreciates. If you’re a content creator, your best option would be to use NFT as an alternative way to monetize your talent. 

Image: Depositphotos

source https://usapangbitcoin.org/how-to-make-money-with-nft/

source https://usapangbitcoin.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/how-to-make-money-with-nft/

[christinesdigitalcommunity]

Online conflict.

The picture that is painted of digital communities is often a positive one. We often talk about groups of people with similar interests coming together to discuss and collaborate or even people jumping to social media to fight injustice. However, this is not always the case. Often online conflict can quickly get out of control as people run to defend their beliefs or even those who jump on the bandwagon just to hate a celebrity or cause.

The consequences of creating conflict online compared to reality are vastly different. Social media sites allow individuals to hide behind their screen and speak their opinion. These people can stay anonymous and avoid real conflict. One example of this kind of behaviour is when an individual or a group of people create an account with the sole purpose of bullying another person. The creators of the bullying page remain anonymous whilst they continually abuse someone. Although behaviour like this is heavily frowned upon by social media sites and the general public, it continues to happen.

However, online publics are fighting back in a brutal way. The term is Cancel Culture. Aja Romano (2020) defines Cancel Culture or the idea of someone being 'cancelled' as being "culturally blocked from having a prominent public platform or career." The cycle often goes something like this; a person (often a celebrity or public figure does something offensive (often racist, homophobic etc) and as a result of their actions the online community will 'cancel' them. This can mean reporting their account, unfollowing them, written offensive comments on their posts etc. This kind of online security can translate to the offline world. Celebrities can often loose brand deals, reputations can be absolutely demolished and even regular people can loose their jobs or university scholarships if their establishment gets wind of the conflict.

Cancel culture is a perfect example of how easily online conflict can get out of control. Although many feel they can hide behind their screen and fly under the radar when they are online, this is not such an easy task for users who have a larger following.

Romano A 2020, 'Why we can’t stop fighting about cancel culture', Vox, August 25, viewed 24 May 2021 < https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/30/20879720/what-is-cancel-culture-explained-history-debate >

[altscifi]

When a snake named "Slander" turns and bites its own tail: ending the online slander campaign against AltSciFi

Every conversation naturally reaches its end, when you realise that you're repeating what you've already said.

Now is that moment for the Twitter-based slander campaign against AltSciFi.

Since the facts have been revealed to show that their claims are nonsense, the campaign’s perpetrators are using desperate last-ditch attempts to distort the meanings of facts themselves.

Thankfully, those distortions are easy to spot, and that's what this blog entry is all about.

Beyond this blog entry, there's nothing else to say about the slander campaign. That snake can only continue to eat its own tail from here on.

One good outcome of this situation is that AltSciFi is now also dedicated to helping artists protect themselves against being taken advantage of online -- that includes dealing with copyright issues intelligently without harming other artists or fans, and protecting themselves against being slandered by malevolent groups of trolls. Both of those are major problems on the web and in social media especially. AltSciFi can now speak about both from the perspective of first-hand experience.

Distortion #0.

Distortion #0: "Your faux intellectualism is a continual self-perpetuating narrative stroking your overinflated ego."

Aside from being a tortuous sentence of near-gibberish, its creator barged into a conversation that was about helping another artist in order to post this little gem of muddled prose. Talk about an overinflated ego.

Here's the more insidious point, though. This frames any attempt at self-defense by AltSciFi as "a continual self-perpetuating narrative." Notice how it not only ignores the fact that this "narrative" exists to fight back against people like him who slandered AltSciFi -- it also pretends that any attempt by AltSciFi at defending itself is due to "overinflated ego". This is a classic tactic used by emotional abusers, called "gaslighting". The term gaslighting has also been distorted and misused in service of slander, as you’ll see below.

Distortion #1.

"Look, we all know you stole and tried to steal art...."

This is a rhetorical gang attack called an appeal to popularity. Whenever someone says "we all know that..." or "everybody knows..." without presenting any evidence, you know they're probably lying (or being manipulated, as someeone has lied to them and they chose to believe it).

Distortion #2.

"The facts were presented prima facie...”

This is an amusing attempt at legalistic jargon that backfired completely. “Prima facie“ means “at first glance, without further investigation“. Facts presented "prima facie" are not evidence until you discover the story surrounding the little bits of data visible at first glance.

Distortion #3.

“...you don't get to backpedal and cite them as rumor because it's convenient in painting your side as just."

The "facts" are detailed at length, here (click here). Read them yourself; that was the whole point of writing the blog entry.

Notice the tactic here: they can't disprove the facts, so they try to distort what the facts mean. AltSciFi has never needed to "backpedal" nor cite facts as rumours. Read the blog entry for yourself. These are the facts.

Distortion #3.

"There was so much evidence presented by multiple parties involved..."

Wrong. There was only one incomplete AltSciFi website, on a site for web development, with four pages that a few people mistakenly believed were "selling art". The rest of the slander story was based on a complete lack of "evidence" (because there was no "evidence" to be found, and never was any). This distortion unintentionally reveals the problem itself: no one knew what they were taking about before trying to slander a project that hadn't even started yet. Even worse, no one bothered to ask before jumping on the slander bandwagon. That was the scary part. Everyone swallowed the rumours and no one asked for the context surrounding the “evidence”. The excuse given was "it's not my job to find facts". Wrong again. That's always your job -- also known as basic adult critical thinking. Facts are meaningless without context.

Distortion #4.

"...and your interactions with them that the public lambasting your project received was justified."

Notice the grandiosity here. "The public lambasting" refers to a campaign that began with a few bored artists on Twitter, starting with one who manufactured a disingenuous "white knighting" campaign -- a borderline conspiracy theory to save the "The (Twitter) Artist Community!"  -- that turned out to be factually false and full of nothing but mean-spirited trash-talk.

Distortion #5.

"Be careful what you post AltSciFi, the art community doesn't soon forget."

Yes, darling, thank you for the reminder that these blog posts were written and posted publicly for a reason. Nice little stalkerish implied threat, there, too.

Notice how the person impersonates "the art community" when in fact, his “community” is a few artists on Twitter who took the opportunity to loudly bully a group they knew nothing about. That phrase should read "the art community (of bored idiots on Twitter with deficient reading comprehension skills and too much time on their hands that would be better spent creating art)".

Distortion #6.

"The easy shortcut you could've done is to just say "hey, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'll fix it." and then fix it. But that's not who you are and not what you did. Quite the opposite in fact. "

As usual, completely wrong. From the very first conversation on Twitter, even before the slander attack began, AltSciFi apologised for mistakes made -- but also held the artist accountable for her decision to send a mob of Twitter users instead of finding out the facts first.

The original tweet is timestamped 7:36am - 17 Jan 2018:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_  - Jan 16

Here's the grown-up perspective: We both made mistakes here. You made a dramatic mess for no reason. And the bit about a strawman is nonsense because you're just misusing the word, along with "gaslight" and "victim-blame" in a victimless situation.

Followed by:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_  - 7:41am - Jan 17 2018

Your reaction was valid, yes. As a professional, it makes you look like a bitter spoiled child to act like a Twitter bully, misleading hundreds of people, instead of simply finding out what was actually happening. Are you adult/professional enough to accept your responsibility?

And:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_  - 8:27am - Jan 17 2018

Don't pick a fight, and you'll get a very different response. When you talk about being a professional, does a professional send a Twitter mob against people? Or is that a juvenile thing to do? Ask yourself what response you intended to get.

Unsurprisingly, she gave no answer to these questions.

Since the perpetrator is a narcissist (and quite likely a sociopath, given recent events involving another artist),  the mere possibility of her not being seen as "saviour of The (Twitter) Art Community" only enraged her further. She couldn’t admit her own mistake, and instead dug herself in deeper.

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So now you see the tactics behind this game of rumours, distortions and lies.

For the artist being taken advantage of by the perpetrators of this slanderous mess, AltSciFi only has one note of caution. It applies equally to all indie sci-fi artists and writers, perhaps including you:

Be careful who you call "friends" -- especially if you paid them before they befriended you.

Beyond that, the slander campaign is now eating itself; AltSciFi will play no further role in it. There are more important things to do, and hopefully you'll join us. In the meantime, enjoy creating art. We’ll have more exciting news to share soon. :)