#good ole tumblr functional website

[im-still-watching-anime]

enemy: you aren’t even pretty

ino: lmao yes i am

enemy: fine. sakura isn’t even pretty

ino: lmao yes she is

ino: i’m still going to kick your ass for saying that though

[hollow-dweller]

Talk Shop Tuesday: as someone who is involved in a lot of fandoms (and has seen a lot of horrors), has there been a significant shift in how fandom is today compared to the “good old days” as much as people say?

there are. SO MANY.

to start and to be entirely clear, there is no good old days of fandom. there are things i miss about fandom tendencies of the past, which i'll get into, but as many many many marginalized fans have and will continue to say, Ye Ol' Fandom was as much if not more of a cesspit of racism, misogyny, and queerphobia as it is today. because fandom platforms were more diversified, they were also more gatekept--and i mean actually gatekept, not just "people are mean about this thing i like" gatekept. to an extent this was necessary--fandom itself was much more culturally stigmatized, and existed largely in a legal gray area, so fandom spaces needed to be semi-closed communities for their own protection. however, if you were a fan who tried to bring up systemic fannish issues--such as racism--you could and would be kicked out of whatever fannish space you were in, and there would very rarely be other places to turn.

also as a caveat: this is not anywhere CLOSE to a comprehensive view of the changes in fandom nor the myriad factors that contribute to those changes. fandom is a cultural ecosystem existing within a broader cultural ecosystem, and the ways those things interact with and inform one another are literally innumerable. anyone who claims they know the One Thing That Ruined Fandom is oversimplifying the issue. anyone claiming they know the Twenty Things That Ruined Fandom is oversimplifying the issue. fandom is a living system, and living systems exist in a constant state of change.

but broadly speaking, i think there are two major changes that have informed The State of Fandom.

Consolidation of Fandom Platforms

as mentioned, fandom used to exist as a variety of closed or semi-closed forum spaces, blogs, archives, and other websites, each dedicated to its own fandom or, more often, subsets of a particular fandom. authors/artists had their own sites, particular ships had their own sites, fic had its own sites, art had its own sites, discussion/meta had its own sites, and any or all of these could be hosted in any combination across any number of websites depending on the fandom. some of this was the result of the structure of the early internet, and some of it was, as mentioned above, a function of necessity.

as the internet evolved and fandom platforms became consolidated, this necessarily changed fandom norms and behaviours. the way we write fic is different because of the advent and dominance of ao3, the way we construct meta is different because of the nature of sites like reddit and tumblr, the way we build community is different because of sites like discord, etc. notably, most of the changes we've seen are not created by social media or mass fandom platforms, but rather enhanced by them. ship wank, whether masquerading as legitimate analysis or not, has always been a cornerstone of fandom--it like all things is simply much more accessible to people now than it used to be. the subdivision of fandoms into different subgroups, even within a ship or media, has also always been a thing--people form friend groups with like-minded people and that's normal, actually. the types of conversations and conflicts fandom has have not changed that much--just the places and manner in which we engage with them.

modern fandom platforms are both more accessible and more comprehensive than they ever have been--so fans can more easily than ever be exposed to different corners or subsets of fandom. but also. fans can more easily than ever be exposed to different corners or subsets of fandom.

The Scarcity of Long Running Media and the Dissolution of the Monoculture

the type of media that fandom now orients itself around has changed drastically as a result of changes in the broader media landscape, and this also changes fandom norms and behaviour. it is increasingly more rare for a fandom to develop over the course of years, because long-running serialized (or even episodic) narratives are becoming less common. tv shows especially are released with vanishingly short promotion cycles, and with less and less certainty of continuation. creators have to therefore hedge their bets--the binge model means there is no room to pivot mid-season if things aren't working out, and the lack of certainty around renewal means that seasons have to be relatively close-ended in order to try to deliver a satisfying experience. similar trends affect book publishing--we are seeing fewer and fewer multi-part series being released, and fewer books dominating cultural discussion in the way blockbuster series of the past have.

thinking of cornerstone megafandoms of the past (and present), we tended to see a couple essential elements that contributed to both fandom engagement and sustained fandom activity: they were released over a longer period of time, and they took up a larger portion of the dominant cultural landscape. the Harry Potter books were released over a period of ten years and were, of course, a huge cultural moment. Twilight was released over a shorter period of time, but was similarly a cornerstone of the monoculture, enhanced by the immediate and almost-eclipsing (heh) release of its movie counterparts. The X-Files was released over the course of, again, a decade, and they will be releasing new Star Treks until the mountains crumble into the sea and the stars turn to dust. these fandoms all have greater and lesser degrees of longevity and output, but they and fandoms like them all had the benefit of time and cultural dominance in order to enable the development of the fandom.

this is not universal (nothing i'm saying is universal), but fandoms nowadays tend to be a lot shorter-lived and migratory simply because they have less material to work with and less time in which to work with it. Voltron, as one example, was a megafandom that developed rapidly and burned out quickly, and while it had a decent amount of material, its eight seasons were released over the course of two and a half years. fannish momentum can only be sustained on so much material for a certain period of time, and fannish investment is necessarily going to be curtailed if fans live in uncertainty about the continuation of their favourite media.

this also is reflected in the type of fanworks that we see proliferating. while AUs were not absent from Ye Old Fandom, i do think they were a lot less common/prominent. the longer release cycles and difference in structure between releases (open-ended finales as motivation to hook viewers into the next installment that they knew/were pretty certain was going to happen vs close-ended finales that hedge bets if a series is cancelled) led to a lot more speculative fanworks set within the canon, imagining what was going to happen next. a famous example is of course the HP fandom's Three Year Summer--the period of three years between the release of the fourth and fifth Harry Potter books that was intensely productive for that fandom. fanworks in that period were famously long and plotty canon divergence/canon speculation works branching from the return of Voldemort in book four, and that tendency towards long and plotty canon-based or canon-adjacent fanworks persists within the HP fandom to this day.

fandoms nowadays do tend more towards works that are stripped from their canon contexts (the infamous coffee shop au, media fusion aus, modern setting aus, no powers aus), and while these works did exist in Ye Old Fandom, they were both more rare and their reach was more limited.

Some Kind of Conclusion Because This Is An Essay Now I Guess

to present a synthesis scenario: a particular trope is generated and popularized by one fandom. due to its presence on consolidated platform sites, it becomes ubiquitous within that fandom, spawning further derivatives, copycats, reimaginings, and variations. as people migrate from fandom to fandom, both as a result of the media landscape itself and the ease of doing so on social media/multi-fandom sites, the trope or AU spreads to other fandoms, and is again further transformed by those fandoms. this continues ad infinitum.

this pattern is not limited to tropes in fanworks--it is applicable to every element of fandom, from discourse to meta to creative works to behavioural norms. the state of modern fandom is interconnected to the platforms on which fandom is hosted and the media on which it is based. no longer is the one common unifying element of fandom the source media--the unifying element is fandom itself. this is why we see, for example, people stating they get involved in fandoms for media they have no experience with--they do not know the source text, but they know fandom.

i could literally go on and on--i didn't even touch on things like the destruction of the fandom fourth wall, or the relationship to the practice of filing off the serial numbers, or the existence of BNFs (actual BNFs not people like you seek who just Have Friends and Make Things), or the connection to nostalgia, or the relationship to commentary and analysis-based fandom outlets such as rewatch podcasts, or-

there are literally so many elements here. i could talk about this forever. i probably will be talking about this forever. please god someone let me out of here HELP-

[helicarrier]

If someone asks me about my issues with DNIs, I think I’ll just refer them to this post from now on.

Tumblr, as a website, is designed for quick, casual content sharing. You can follow blogs, then immediately like and reblog posts from them. New posts are even recommended to you directly on your dash, so you don’t even need to look at their originating blogs to interact with them. DNIs put a wrench in this intuitive manner of using tumblr. They force someone to stop and detour and read a page before they touch any posts from a blog they don't know, and that contradicts how tumblr is intuitively meant to be used. If you see a post and you like it, and if there’s an icon right underneath it, your first reaction is to click the icon. I’m sure most of us have instinctively clicked “like” (or “reblog”) on a post we found interesting.

DNIs prevent this kind of “casual” interaction. Their existence means you have to stop yourself before you interact (in any way) with a cool post, find the DNI page of the person who reblogged the post and, if applicable, find the DNI of the person who made the original post as well (because they’ll also receive the notification, unless they deleted the post on their blog), read it, then return to the post. Nothing about DNIs are baked into the functionality of tumblr in an intuitive way; if anything, the only real “do not interact with me” function you will find here in tumblr’s infrastructure is the block function.

Because DNIs are so antithetical to how tumblr functions, they're an inherently futile way of preventing interaction with certain groups of people, too. Most people aren't going to read my rules or my pinned post before they interact with my content. I would not expect them to, because it doesn't occur to many people, and it's a lot of wasted time. Even people with certain kinds of users in their DNIs routinely interact with posts made by those very people, proving this point. It is so inconvenient and absurd to read a page every time someone so much as likes a post by a random blog. Those people you don't want interacting with you? They're probably reading your blog; liking your posts even if they don't expressly say they're x group from your DNI. They're doing the same to my posts, too. That's just the price we pay for being in a public space focused on content sharing. And I accept this. Other peoples' behaviour is completely out of my control. I just block people when needed, because it is my responsibility to curate my space.

And that is the crux of the matter: I refuse to pass the responsibility of curating my space onto strangers. I refuse to make it someone else's problem when they are using tumblr in the way it was meant to be used. Ideologically and functionally, it does not make sense to me.

Just think about it: tumblr is a public website. Unless your blog is password-protected, people can find it anytime, and if they really want to interact, they'll interact regardless of your DNI. It’s not like most people will say, "oh, drat, I'm a racist, I should leave!". Maybe they’ll just interact because the labels you dislike are not visible on their blog, so they'll fly under your radar. And at times where peoples' labels or behaviour are visible, the good ol' block button is the golden standard. It always has been.

If I become mutuals with someone, sure, we'll agree to scratch each others' backs, and tag whatever the other person needs tagged. But that's different from expecting every stranger who comes across my content, wherever it shows up, to follow demands that are all the way over here, on this blog. If someone reblogs one of my photosets way over in the Stranger Things fandom, and people see the reblogged post, they shouldn't need to come to my Marvel/Random Shit™ blog and read my pages before clicking the stupid little heart button. But imagine needing to do this with every single person, every single post of theirs. Sure, maybe you’re familiar with the DNIs of the people you follow. But what about all the posts they’ve reblogged? Those posts have OPs. Do the OPs of those posts have a DNI that’s favourable to you, too?

DNIs aren't even optional reads now, and everyone suffers because of that. The proliferation of DNIs has made a culture where if someone accidentally forgets to read a DNI, doesn't know that DNIs exist, or misinterprets the contents of a DNI, it’s considered acceptable to harass them for it. It's anxiety-inducing.

“...Shit, I forgot to like their DNI.”

It doesn't help that I never know what "basic DNI criteria" means, or what the "etcetera" means either, because it changes from person to person. Folks, I’ve seen homophobes with “basic DNI criteria” in their pages. That aside, you can say "bigots DNI", but a lot of transphobes don't believe they're bigots, so you could still get radfems liking your posts. You could say "bullies DNI", but many fanpols don't consider themselves bullies, because they believe if someone writes fanfiction from the perspective of Hannibal Lecter, of course their reaction to it isn’t “bullying”, it's just justified shaming!

Everyone is the hero of their own story, and everyone thinks they're the exception. They will be the exception to your DNI, too. Again, this all goes back to the "you can't control who interacts with your content" thing. It's maddening to try and think of all the angles, all the ways to "catch" people, all the ways to plug up all the holes. You may not want to hear it, but you never will. You can get the broad strokes, but you’ll never get everyone, you won’t even get close. Even if you do somehow manage to fit all the exact terms into your DNI, and you end up with a DNI longer than a CVS receipt, you’re still going to run into all the people who... Simply don’t read it. Meanwhile, you look a little too preoccupied with who’s looking at your blog on a public website, and even if a well-intended person comes across your blog, they may just check out because they’re uncomfortable with the micromanaging.

...If they can read the DNI. Look, I’m all for creative formatting, but I see so many DNIs (and carrds in general) that have hot pink writing on a red background, or baby pink on baby blue, or yellow on lime green, and I can’t read any of it, not to mention it’s a migraine risk among other things. I’m not reading dozens of these pages every other day.

It doesn't help that many DNIs are rude, angry, hostile pages that tell people to kill themselves. That's not right. When someone volunteers to read an information page, they are doing that person a courtesy. It is shameful people need to read things like "kill yourself", "swallow a knife", and other verbal sewage. It doesn't matter if it's directed to them or not. Simply looking for people to follow and interact with, simply liking a post, should not be an exercise in mental fortitude. Needing to read awful threats over and over again should not be a requirement for engaging on this site. Imagine having depression, intrusive thoughts, and so on, where this stuff could land twice as hard. It's gotten to the point where my eyes immediately gloss over when I open a DNI, because my mind simply doesn't want to see any more shit and is trying to protect me. I'm at the point where I don't want to open DNIs at all.

But as you guessed, there's a problem with that. Because DNIs are almost compulsory on tumblr now, ignoring them has two possible outcomes: one, you annoy a ton of people, because maybe their DNIs say they don't want you around, but you're interacting with their stuff anyways. Maybe you get labelled as the person who ignores DNIs. Two, you stop your browsing in part, or as a whole, meaning almost nobody gets likes or reblogs from you anymore, because you’re trying to not waste your time, you’re trying to preserve your sanity, etc. And this hamstrings content creators.

One of the biggest flaws in DNIs is that nobody is obligated to reveal information on themselves. Minors can easily hide their age. Bigots can hide their bigotry. People can remove info from their description until they're clear of someone's initial "new follower vibe check", then put it back. Nobody knows you're a dog on the internet. It's naive to assume people will be honest about themselves, and adhere to a DNI.

DNIs are often so incredibly vague and their attitude so charged that people can't even ask for clarification, because the writer of the DNI could be radicalized and have very unhealthy views, and absolutely attack someone for reaching out. A DNI might say, "don't interact if you support incest", but it never clarifies in real life, or fiction. There has been an enormous uptick in moral panic over fiction lately, so lots of people might ask for clarification, but if they do, the person could say "in real life and fiction, duh!", flame them because they "didn't know something so obvious, it must mean they're sus!", then flame them again because they viewed the poor person's blog and saw lots of mature content they think people shouldn't write. It's absurd, but unfortunately, that kind of panic has spread. Many people use DNIs as extensions of their unhealthy interaction, media consumption, and browsing habits.

So I usually avoid DNIs.

All in all, I don't mind if someone politely asks other people to not interact, or if they say they block for certain stuff, if there’s a clear awareness that it's not a be-all, end-all solution, and that people will still interact. As long as they put the onus on themselves, rather than other people, to curate their space, it’s cool. For example, if someone is an 18+ blog, and they ask minors not to interact? Cool, if they don’t “punish” or otherwise attack minors who find posts of theirs on other blogs, and “like” them from there without going all the way over to the OG blog to see if they’re allowed to do like it. Because again, that’s a bit of an unfair requirement to impose on people. And whatever.

Because people shouldn’t feel like they’re playing minesweeper when they want to click a heart. Between the terfs, racists, and all the other issues, we have enough on our hands already.

[anthropwashere]

Uh, had 2 inbox notifications when I hopped onto the good ol' functioning website that is our dear Tumblr, but nothing new was there when I looked? So if you asked me something you wanted a reply to you'll have to ask me again

[robntunney]

I'm a bit lost, but what's happening on twitter? And what does it have to do with tumblr? Never been on twitter, so that's probably why I'm asking

Oh nonie, idk if I’m even qualified to answer this but I’ll give the good ol college try.

Basically since billionaire Elon Musk took over after buying the website, he has done a bunch of things that has over the past 2(?) weeks to run it into the ground. With the latest being sending out an email to all remaining employees with a deadline of last night, either demanding that going forward they agree to unrealistic and terrible work conditions or they quit. Shocker… most quit, as they should. So the future of the site is very much in question because they don’t have the necessary staff to keep it going.

So as it realities to tumblr, lots of people are making tumblrs now because who knows how long twitter will be able to function.

[partyinthemysterymachine]

tumblr is a functioning website

🥚✨ i’m Harvest; i also go by Chester, or Ches. ✨🥚

36

he/him/she/her (never they/them, please)

Gemini

an absolute delight

everyone else’s problem

🎨 my art tag is full of shit you will absolutely love, and that is a fact (commissions forever closed)

(art tag is chock full of Silent Hill art, specifically Harry/James; pls enjoy!)

📕 my writing tag also fantastic and contains many pieces of coveted lore if one digs deep enough

(and a shitload of Silent Hill!)

and let’s just put the ol’ SH tag up in here:

Silent Hill

📻 Get Out Of My Town [73/?] (Silent Hill; Harry Mason/James Sunderland; SLOW AS GODDAMN FUCK BURN) on ao3 is my pride and joy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOMT! (PUBLISH DATE: October 3, 2019) you are 4!!! years old now. i love you so much and i am stabbing my eyes out ❤️ (FOUR(!!!) WHOLE FUCKING years in and we haven’t even BEGUN to get to the stuff we’re all here for.) (.. or have we? the glaciers: they’re moving.. we’re all still suckers, tho.💖🙏)

📻 GOOMT (Get Out Of My Town) now has a blog where i’m throwing updates, aesthetics, inspiration, poetry, pictures, screenshots, and art specific to GOOMT!

☀️🌙 FNAF: Security Breach finally got me 😩😔 i (sometimes) run a Sun and Moon sideblog now!: @celestial-mean-girls 🌙☀️

✨🌸ooh i’m on Twitch ooh!! come watch me play Minecraft and other nonsense!🌸✨

i’m on discord! send me a message for my fancy little name :)

header artwork done by myself.

art in icon by @heather-garland

cheers xoxo 🥚*

*egg emoji serves a purpose: not only is it my favorite emoji, but there’s a saying - “you’re a good egg” - that is a compliment and endearment, and i often use the egg emoji as a way of saying that, denote something i’m fond of, as thanks, or as a well wishing! the egg emoji always comes in peace :)

{| ko - fi |} <- and it's the right one this time! LOL

[littlebabycrybtch]

tbh tumblr ‘activists’ and autism support on this website is just already such a  fucking Joke like its a Travesty ive never been more disappointed with yall but beyond defending ‘cringe’ traits tbh we need to defend the more inconvenient symptoms too. the ones that are awkward, create conflict, require learning new things so you can stay vigilant and accommodate others, or require unlearning certain social responses as universally understood. like. im so fuckin tired of seeing you clowns make sarcastic shitposts and then when someone comes in with a response that takes it seriously you literally... have such little functioning braincells or sympathetic reasoning you dont take the Half of a second it would take to think abt responding like a normal human person that recognizes other humans around you. you gotta be condescending, you gotta fuck with them and confuse them more, you gotta be funny and entertain the masses and get those notes yes god. you HAVE to be that way in your mind, theres no other way, you cant imagine responding with a genuine solution to clear it up. bc nobody will like that. and bc its a contest. its always a contest. theyre not a person online talking to you, theyre an opportunity to clap back and be funnier for an audience that craves drama. so you exploit them for public mockery and KNOW how awful its going to be for that person, but how awesome it’ll be for you, so then you actually try to defend yourself even when you see the unnecessary harmful consequences. 

“well they were rude! they should have asked for clarification!” okay when you bitches see an ‘i dont get it’ you do the same thing. you pull the exact same fuckin shit. if you get an ask about it begging you to answer privately, you post it with a reaction image. you give a “nobody tell them lol”, or an “its simple, [repeats absurd sarcastic statement again to be funny for nt ppl]”, or even a dismissive “keep scrolling then”, like. nah, its not about your huwt feewings by the mean ol abrasive autistics getting confused, theres flat out no way to win. if you get it you get it, if you dont fuck you. thats how it is. bc you arent educated and dont Want to be. you want your inside joke to be exclusive and you dont wanna Have to care abt autistic people ‘ruining’ it. truth is you probably just dont want autistic people talking to you at all because you dont want to have to put in the effort of developing accommodating communication skills. and thats not acceptable. the people you hurt by that get to call you the fuck out for that, to expect them not to is just dehumanizing and mindless. that mindset makes you selfish and immature. it makes your morals underdeveloped, it makes you lazy, it makes you brain rotted by ridding yourself of any visible humanity trying so hard to match that stupid fucking copied funnyman persona that doesnt mean shit in the real world. and it makes you a bad activist, if one at all. 

its gross and its sad that these ppl claim activism when you literally. Just wanna be a clown. you wanna honk your lil clown shoes for your circus and pretend you’re a depthful good person underneath so you arent limited to the ‘funny’ people you find uncharming. you dont wanna attract just Any funnyman, you want the Fake Good Funny People, who will let you be gay and listen to weird indie music and support the people you feel comfy associating with, making You feel secure and free to do w/e you want, but only so long as they keep out the people you dont want to understand. thats not selflessly moralistic, its about your comfort, and other peoples comforts that will benefit you, its not ‘activism’, its not helping other unrelatable suffering groups feel that comfort. this shits a party to you. its abt collecting the people you simply Want around you, and dismissing anyone else at all costs, even when it means invalidating their struggles. you just want praise and relaxation. you want laffs and good noodle stars. its a pathetic display and you all need to get your ass beat in a parking lot by 5 autistics flapping against your bones until you become dust bc you dont get to disrespect the ppl your group tortured in abusive hospitals and murdered with eugenics, you just dont get to keep whining abt that. abt how hard it is for you to keep up. like. well. start with an ounce of effort even when its inconvenient for you, actually. start by condemning the r word the way you show you are capable of with other slurs, start by educating yourself on autism the way you show you are capable of with other groups, start by Not reblogging chains with obvious mockery of autism traits, start by not CREATING those chains. it is NOT asking too much of you to forsake a tiny bit of your sense of humor to support oppressed vulnerable groups you have power over. if you have a problem with that, again, you are not an activist, you’re basically a self trained entertainer. activism includes fighting ableism of all kinds.

[anico-art]

Okay so with tumblrs new rules who knows what’s gonna happen so I’m gonna list some of my other social media accounts juuust in case.

My art Instagram: anico__art

My art Twitter: anico__art  And also my other twitter: gilbroken_raven

My Redbubble: anico-art

My Threadless Item Shop: AnicoArt

My website (which isn’t fully functioning quite yet but you can always bookmark it for now. I’ll be selling my merch there eventually and hopefully it’ll be open sometime in the new year!): anico-art.com 

My many other miscellaneous tumblr accounts ‘cause why not: @befreebehappya012 @shady-popsicle-business @prince-soma-asman-kadar@beb-whishaw @good-ol-tommy-f

If anything happens you know where to find me. Keep on keeping on!

[studiotheophilus]

Common Route Beta available!

The time has finally come! Common Route is available to our Kickstarter backers and those who have pledged for beta access via Backerkit/Paypal. Those who pledged externally should have received an email with the download link, while backers should have access to an exclusive post. (If you haven’t received anything, please contact us immediately.)

WARNING. Common Route contains some disturbing content regarding violence and mental health.

While everything theoretically ought to run smoothly, this is a beta version. I highly recommend you save frequently. Also, please don’t use your old save files. They have old data that will crash the game, so delete or overwrite them. You can use the “skip to next choice” function in the quick menu to quickly get back to your previous spot in the demo :]

I would absolutely love to hear from you! Please inform me of any bugs, issues, or feedback. We’re fastest at responding to Twitter and the new live chat on our website, but also have Tumblr and a good ol’ contact form.

If you enjoyed it, connect with us and post your thoughts, or discuss with fellow readers on the Studio Theophilus forums or our sparkling new Gamejolt page! <3

Please also note that the credits sequence is not updated and will not be updated until the game is released.

Feedback

If you’re able, I would really appreciate comments on the mystery segments. Were they logical? Did you get stuck on any of the text input sections? Would you like to suggest any terms added to the list?

I would also love to hear anything you particularly enjoyed.

Announcement

I also have an important announcement.

Due to recent personal circumstances, I have to ease back from developing Zodiac•Axis full time, and balance the development cycle with freelance design and music composition to gain some income.

I’m very sorry for this inconvenience. However, Zodiac•Axis is by no means cancelled. It’s not out of money and I’m still working on it for the majority of every day. But unfortunately, I do have expenses to pay, and working on Zodiac full time does not currently provide a source of income (as every penny of funding naturally ought to go to the project).

What this means:

Delays.

Nothing more, nothing less. The quality of the game will retain, but it will have to develop at a slower rate. The game itself doesn’t need extra funding or specific resources. I just won’t be able to create assets as fast as I have been doing.

As to how extensive the delays are, I’m currently projecting an additional year until full release, but I’ll get a better idea as I start taking on contract work and learn to balance my time.

Thank you so much for your continued support, and again, I apologize for all the delays and inconvenience. I only hope that the final product will be worth waiting for!

Quick Thanks

The amazing programmer Ian has worked extremely hard to smooth out the game, implement the new and entertaining features, and overall keep everything actually running!

A huge hat off to Elphaze, my darling honey nugget artist friend who’s helped in massive ways. She created sketches for all extra character sprites, speeding up the workflow 2x! And she also drew AMAZING flashback sequences.

And a big thanks to John Wesley Go and Katie Dagnen, who playtested the buggy alpha of Common and tromped through errors in your stead.

— Luna <3

[curewimdy]

i wish every website had a built-in blacklist function as robust as good ol tumblr savior. there are few things as satisfying as right-clicking an annoying tag and collapsing every post with it off your dash forever

[earthtojuli]

rules: answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people

my love @thenameisfame tagged me in this last week and i almost forgot about it

— What was your last…

1. Drink: water

2. Phone call: i think my boss? my phone is in a different room and it’s far too much effort to get up to check.

3. Text message: probs to either mils or sidney. or both

4. Song you listened to: rollin around--nat&alex wolff

5. Time you cried: probably the other day at a commercial or something

__ Have you ever…

6. Dated someone twice: no

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: nah man

8. Been cheated on: no

9. Lost someone special: No one’s died but like friendships end rip in peace

10. Been depressed: every fuckin day

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: nope

— Fave colours

12. red

13. black is technically a shade

14. i really like blue

— in the last year have you…

15. Made new friends: yes hello friends

16. Fallen out of love: nope

17. Laughed until you cried: THE FUCKING GEESE. but also lots of other times. i cry a lot

18. Found out someone was talking about you: sure but like wtf does it matter

19. Met someone who changed you: “nothing of me is original. i am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known”--chuck palahnuik

20. Found out who your friends are: not in any way that is implied

21. Kissed someone on your facebook friends list: nope

— General

22. How many of your facebook friends do you know irl: all of them

23. Do you have any pets: certified fur mom

24. Do you want to change your name: nah it’s a good

25. What did you do for your last birthday: mils bought me sushi and we walked around denver and looked at christmas lights

26. What time did you wake up today: 8, but i got out of bed at like 930

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping. like a functioning human (jk im not functioning i’m just an old lady)

28. What is something you can’t wait for: im really excited for warped this year

30. What are you listening to right now: indie acoustic music

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: i know lots of toms

32. Something that’s getting on your nerves: shitty coworker

33. Most visited website: tumblr

34. Hair colour: black

35. Long or short hair: short but getting longer

36. Do you have a crush on someone: nah

37. What do you like about yourself: im genuinely working to better myself as a person and a friend

38. Want any piercings: i want to get my industrial done in the nearish future

39. Blood type: B+

40. Nicknames: Jules

41. Relationship status: single but like really okay with it

42. Sign: saggitarius

43. Pronouns: she/her

44. Fave tv show: parks&rec is my ride or die

45. Tattoos: have some, want more

46. Right or left handed: lefty

47: Ever had surgery: noppppe

48. Piercings: ears, nose

49. Sport: no

50. Vacation: just got back, let me sleep in my own bed for like 6 months and i’ll think about leaving again

51. Trainers: got them good ole classic chucks

— More general

52. Eating: adult-sized gushers

53. Drinking: water

54. I’m about to watch: probably some weird indie movie on netflix

55. Waiting for: a will to live

56. Want: some mother fuCKING MOTIVATION

57. Get married: probably never

58. Career: yes

— Which is better

59. Hugs or kisses: hugs

60. Lips or eyes: eyes

61. Shorter or taller: both either whatever

62. Older or younger: older

63. Nice arms or stomach: arms for sure

64. Hookup or relationships: relationships

65. Troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker

— Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger: nope

67. Drank hard liquor: my go-to

68.Turned someone down: yup

69. Sex on first date: nope

70: Broken someone’s heart: he had it comin

71. Had your heart broken: nah

72. Been arrested: nope

73. Cried when someone died: yeah

74. Fallen for a friend: temporarily

— Do you believe in

75. Yourself: FUCK YEAH I AM AWESOME I CAN DO ALL THE THINGS

76. Miracles: Sure

77. Love at first sight: yes

78. Santa Claus: no

79. Angels: no

— Misc

80. Eye colour: Brown

81. Best friends name: Emily

82. Favourite movie: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

83. Favourite actor: Aaron Tveit

84. Favourite cartoon: ATLA

85. Favourite teacher’s name: Mr. Farner

I have like 1 friend and she tagged me in this, but i’ll tag @reillygrey and @thesingerandthebassist and anyone who wants to tell the world the most mundane things about you

[kendrixtermina]

Typing Misadventures - IN edition

So, typing and the difficulties therein.

Aside from person-specific ad-hominems, some that have been elaborated upon in attempts to explain them on this very website.

Sensors: Bad Sensor descriptions written by NPs, combining with the fact that Sensors rely a lot on developing a practical experential “feel” for things. A bad, vague and overly abstract description that doesn’t relate to their life is gonna be not very useful. (especially for SFPs for whom what they relate to is srz bzness) - Interestingly I’ve seen a lot of Sensors saying that they easily indentify particular types once they have encountered them IRL. (Speculation: With intuitives it probably depends more on wether they have their definitrions straight.)

Ne-Doms: Type-hop and doubt their type alot because they know they always could be mistyped and possibilities are the primary facet of reality for them. The “creative” nature of the auxillary, and their auxillary being a function that generates and handles belief systems,  means they can always reinterpret the evidence by redoing their reasoning or reassigning meaning, also the lack of Si leads to less constancy in their thinking, they change opinion easily, which is normally an asset, but not so much for self-typing as every input generates new ideas. (The auxillaries also have this but to a much lesser degree - b/c)

—

But today, I want to talk about INs (I know, boring - but those are what I know the most about since I am one.)

You may have seen me caveat my posts with “Unless I am actually an xNFP or something” as of late Yeah. It went about like this:

Troll: Haha you’re mistyped!

Me: Why?

Troll: because X.

Me: I have an alternate, more fitting explanation for X and a lot of things which my current typing explains betters especially when you get into the nuance of mbti theory.

Troll: (*hamfistedly applies overreductionistic function definition*) “Anyone who ever quotes a source ever is a Te user”. Just like anyone who ever mentions memory is a SJ amirite?

Troll: *shifts the topic to my person and then accuses me of talking about myself*

Me: *blocks troll largely to curttail own tendency to waste time & energy with internet arguments*

So at my best,  I believe in not dismissing inconvenient PoVs and double-checking, and the main point of replying them was to leave an alternate opinion for future readers hence no point in continuing after that had been done.  

At my worst damn inf Fe makes it hard to ignore input even if I don’t believe it’s justified (except when it fails to pick them up - as inferior functions are wont to be its either sluggish or AHH with little inbetween. ) and that lil 8 fix of mine doesn’t want to “stand down quietly”.  

So I ask a few reasonable, knowledgeable, non-troll person, one of which said “Hm, could be, you anecdote alot which X type also does”

I believed this was better accounted for by simple ol’ Si and w4-self revealing tendencies, but, how could I know for sure? I never denied having a pronounced 4wing and fix, but I thought that sufficiently explaining their perceived discrepancies insofar as I found them consistent with reality and indeed all data collected so far. Too much would just be filed away as “inf Te” as a blanket term, the way any sign that [fan favorite character] is ST rather than INFJ is “inferior Se” though that supposed “inferior” is 80% of what she does and all moments claimed for F or N are the sort of situations where anyone would display emotion or philosophizing and what intuition they display is distinctly Ne instead. 

Like the proverbial man who dreamt of being a frog I couldn’t cast the doubt from my mind and went over reinterpreting my thought patterns throughout the day. How do I know I’m NOT X type? After all my idea of and criteria for type are based on the definitions I extracted from various mbti sources when first familiarzing myself with the topic… how do I know I understood it correctly? How can ANY human correctly understand a definition if they have to deduce/reconstruct/guess what the other meant with their own flawed mind?

(At this point the non-INs in the audience might be rolling their eyes)

I still thought my type made the most sense but the person, through trolling in that particular instance, was not alltogether clueless and had some good insights, and also, some ppl agreed with them (theres that Fe again) - I was pretty sure I was in the holographic-panomramic thinking style but I could be wrong,  thats a fairly rarely used concept which I simply started using cause I thought it made sense. ENFPs can mistake themselves for introverts. I have been mistaken for extrovert b/c of my lack of filter… but I was pretty sure I was a very pronouncedintrovert and had Fe, and so I went over it over and over again.

They said I didn’t comprehend _ i had some theory as to why they thought the way they did (not just bias against xNFPs but assuming all Ti is like aux Ti. After all, an introverted function as a dominant builds a framework and may be reluctant to accept or need time to withdraw when said framework clashes with reality to the point of needing a full revamping, purportedly resulting in a certain stubbornness particularly if it’s a Ji function.  )

but what if I really Didn’t comprehend? Then all my reasoning would be worthless! I dont think I have the skills of an INFP, but what if i misunderstood those? Was a lot of what I’d attributed to Ti just Ne? i thought I had rather typical Ti speech patterns (it was hard to unsee, like my brain used a highly predictable parsing alghorithm to make thoughts into words) but they disagreed and pointed to what they thought was Fi. 

I thought that despite all the differences introduced by  shared preferences and  there were differences between I and the Fi doms I knew. The 9 and the 6 were much more lowkey, non-confrontational than I and way more perceptive in line with how socionics describes Fi as the “Ethics of Relations” and how Nardi calls it an “Inner state of listening/reacting”; I mostly listen to the contents of someone’s words; I’d spot a liar by contradiction or unbeliavable statements, or by deducing what beliefs they are operating from. Feelers supposedly use primarily tone of voice... but I have sure noticed tone of voice a few times, and this is a qualia. I can’t compare what “Fi” or “Ti” feel like without making assumptions of which one I am using. 

Supposedly

The 4! INFPs should be the most similar to me, on the other hand, they tend to have a certain...absoluteness in their beliefs and statements in a way I wouldn’t be comfortable with. I’m more hesitant, more relativizing, adding qualifiers etc so bI don’t say anything incorrect. 

I don’t mean to bash the INFPs here, they are usually just processing their specific feels and do not mean to imply things about others. (Tumblr INFP: “I, an INFP, experience X.”. Tumblr xxFJ: “Are you saying that other types don’t????? You can’t say that! How self absorbed are you?” Immature  Tert Fe User:*distantly feels the same urge toward ,moral condemnation as FJ,but couldn’t care less if INFP offends anyone -  settles for calling them a snowflake instead. * TJs and Ti doms: *roll their eyes, half-assedly consider correcting whoever they disagree with but ultimately just keep scrolling*) Of course Team Fe sometimes has a point if the INFP in question is young and/or irresponsible. 

Example: 

One INFP 4w5: “I be those shallow fake bitches look down on you just because you don’t wear as much makeup. I don’t think anyone who wears makeup can be trusted, unless it’s like,halloween makeup or something like that, they’re just putting up fake faces to be popular.”

Me (let’s say, presumed INTP 5w4): “I dunno... Like I agree that those girls are shallow bitches,if they had spines, they wouldn’ perform arbitrary fake behavior just to be popular.* But not everyone is the same - maybe some people might just wear makeup because they like how it looks. The real problem is people being judged by arbitrary conventions on principle. What does is matter whether someone wears makeup or not? Its a made-up convention with no real reason.  It’s none of anyone’s business.”

* for the record I have since realized that there’s nothing bad about wanting to be popular as long as yopu dont harm anyone, and that for some people its genuinely what they want. I was, like,  13. Common (w)4 pitfall I guess. 

As you see both I and this middle school friend of mine are expressing 4-ish povs, but I used to think  the difference in our reasoning highlighted some differences. 

Granted this is more 5w4 vs 4w5 than necessarily Ti vs Fi,  Could just be the 5′s general disconnect toward action and desire to “know more first”. 

There are 5 INFPs. after all. Mostly sx 5s and as such differentiable from the relatively intense, dramatic sx 4 as long as you’re certain enough that they’re sx. Thinking about how to describe them. More second-guessing and ‘drifting’ than the 4 ones but like them in their analytical nature. A different kind of contemplative.  Still reasons distinctlylike an INFP - See, One of them was religious, for example, and I’m pretty sure an INTP would have had more posts about why they were religious or not, though it’s one of the types most likely to be a non-believer, the religious ones tend to have a theological bent and talk about the perfection and incomprehensibility of god, how god is totally logical etc. (Thomas Acquinas is a famous example) - their faith will be an ordered self-consistent system. A bit like that example of copernikus assuming the orbits must be perfectly circular because natture as he understood it would tend toward the most “perfect” forms. I’m not religious and I could likewise talk about that at lenght.

Arguments that convinced me:  “This is how these beliefs came from, not an actual god” and “If were made out of single celled organism who die all the time as shed skin cells, how would the rest of them dieing at once be different?” “Even if your religion is true that means many, if not all others are not. So at least all some must be myths. How is your “true” religion different from them?” 

Arguments made by famous Te-Fi users: “Occams Razor.” “We can’t disprove a giant sucker on the back of Pluto either, but its no reason to suppose one.”“Belief in god hampers human development and creates dependent, slavish mentality”

That 5!INFP’s attitude toward their belief reminded me more of another Fi dom I know (albeit an ISFP). “Yeah, I know the common objections, but look, it’s what I believe. Don’t come into my house and be a jerk to me about it.” or “[Assholish behavior] is not actually in line with my religion. My religion, and this aspect of it, are actually about love/peace/duty/etc” 

If, while conversing,  you hit a hard disagreement, that is,  an axiom that’s not up for debate, your Fi-dom friend may change the topic/agree to disagree/ “It’s just the way I feel” 

[This could apply to other moral or ideological questions religion is just an example; This is not supposed to be about religion it’s just here to illustrate a perceived difference. . I’m not implying all INFPs have the same approach to religion or even have to be religious.]

Another conversation I remember having with them actually on the very subject of Fi vs Fe. IDK how we got to that topic but I mentioned something I initially thought was an enneagram thing (my memory is vague on the details) but I mentioned something like lowkey feeling guilty for receiving praise that I believe was undeserved. 

She deemed it a Fe thing and said that for her, as a Fi dom/ fe opposing type, a bit of praise she did not agree with might not cause any reaction at all unless she thought they had a point  or otherwise had a reaction from her end, like deciding the criticism was unfair - why should she feel guilty b/c of what someone else says? 

Granted that’s just an anecdote, but what am I to do? INFP 5s are not super common. Also I’m not making this decisionbased on any single of these examples but... not even from the “preponderance” so much as to how they can be best explained. 

And  of course, if I really did get everything wrong after looking into the topic for years, what guarantee is there that I typed any of those people correctly? None, as one of the trolls/claimants correctly pointed out. 

After all what I want is the truth, it doesn’t matter what it is. Or at least that is what I strive for as much as human frailty allows. so what if I’m an INFP? INFPs are awesome. I even considered the type early on, I just thougnt INTP fit better especially once I found out about inferior functions.  And I have always held that a person has no obligation to follow their “talents”. If I don’t have a “talent” for reason (which isn’t the same as mbti thinking anyways) all the reasons why I believe that it is a good way of life to aim for would still stand. Reason is a method to correct for human error and bias, after all, the error and bias we all have, no matter what Ji function we use.

Type insofar as it can even be said to be a real thing is a classfication of emergent qualities, not a hard measure you can get in an instrument. 

As much as I’d want to figure this out, there comes a point where you just have to like step back and put it in context.  it’s just a personality test/ little tool to facilitate communication in which “maybe this or that” is more helpful than nothing. 

Striving for it despite not being handed talent at birth is all the more worthwhile - and if reason was only for certain kinds of people what’s the point of it? Regardless of what tropes people associate with “science” or “logic”, what they actually are by definition are simple basic methods.

Last but not least there was a moment

Soo, existential crisis. At least they can’t doubt that I’m a melancholic or an oldham ideosyncraticXD

Then,  my doubt crumbled away to the “ mostly sure, dont think it could be anything else but im not omnicient” levels at which it was before.

What happened? Well, a rare event:

Well, I went outside and talked to people.

I visited my folks, saw new places, got into a few unscripted situations in other words. 

I’ve seen one post detailing that INs may mistype because they analyze themselves as a whole, feature in less apparent traits and second-guess their reasoning worrying about bias, noticing what sticks out more than the norm etc.  and so on and that may be it in part but I don’t think it’s only this relatively “noble”, too-much-of-a-good-thing mistake.

- It’s a matter about how we are all about ~extrapolating~ from data and using multiple data points and less about decisiveness and practicality. We brood away endlessly trying to come up with interpretations and conceptualizations that makes all the data points fit rather than just going with what they themselves largely seem to suggest. 

One good description I once heard is that Intuitives think in networks while Sensors think in puzzle pieces - I went overboard trying to build ever more complex networks instead of going “Yeah, with all the puzzle pieces so far it’s probably this.”. 

Sometimes the latter approach can be incomplete and miss game changing interconnections - but just as often, the former gets convoluted and therefore, both uselessly vague and too far removed from the actual data its meant to interpret. 

Aaaand, well, almost every sentence I said was “Did you know that...?” or “I think so/ don’t think so because of [observation followed by possible deduction].

Sure, I could be biased in my observation or unconsciously “doing it on purpose to appear a certain way” even if I don’t think I am or care about that, , but some critical mass of “doing it on purpose” would itself be equivalent with 5 (or a 3)

I was a little afraid one time; I reacted by withdrawing and looking at the whole thing as an observatrion and it was a highly temporary thing. And as much as I complain about Fe users playing police, I may have been guilty of one moment of overreacting, unwanted/socially-chiding “help” myself there. (The person perhaps justly called me a know-it-all. They were wrong about one thing but I may have handled it all more constructively) I repeatedly expressed vague undifferentiated preferrences that were closer to analyzing what factors were at work rather than having clear like/dislike reasons readily available. .

I critiqued a TV show (myself and the local INTJ annoying all the non-NTs with our loud, animated critiquing ) and a big factor to being unabvle to enjoy it fully was the lack of High-Concept abstract sci fi content and mostly the lack of consistency - normally a lot of my enjoyment would come from extrapolatinmg and deducing what the world is like and how it, the themes and charactzers “work”, but here I coulnd do that because it was tacked onto a ‘verse it did not fit into. I observed how said INTJ and I reacted to us correcting each other on small things with like a brief thanks or apology & just moving on whilst similar things had gotten annoyed snarks out of our otherwise patient Feeler sister...

The nails in the coffin were those 2 tumblr posts, one about differences in how Fi and low Fe argue (the latter pile including 3 phrases I used verbatim in the last discussion with my SO just hours earlier) and a post by the afore mentioned “resonable poster” about, as she called it “oversharing in soc variants vs soc blinds” though the correct amount of sharing might well be in the eye of the beholder.

But that was the one objection of the troll I didn’t have a non-vague satisfactory reply to, what rly kept me wondering rather than “eh not gonna reinvent the wheel again”, something about “sp/sx woldn’t have long descriptions or emo rants” Apparently they do when they never have to dea with the person again (such as on the internets. )

IDK I did move the description so no one’s forced to read it but lots of peeps have one (This is like... a blogging site??) but the reasons for its existence had more to do with “completionist urges related to then-current obsession (typology)” and “So I like X, bite me.” sort of sentiment than whatever it was they presuposed. 

Dear Causal-Deterministic peeps (ENTP, INFP, ISTP, ESFP): Instances of the same behavior can be caused by different causes! Look at this: 2 4 8.

What’s the pattern? - Could be “powers of 4″.  Could also be “even numbers” or even “any increasing integer”. 

Of course this whole mess is an example of where we H-P folks (INTP, ENFP, ISFP, ESTP) look at everything from multiple angels/Povs, (”Is it like this? Is it lika that? It COULD be seen this other way...”) rather than, well, decide which ones are most relevant here/ “Pick one”. At least the SPs have Se to “just grab one” or whatever it is they do. 

Whereas we just stand there speculating XD The ENFPs sorta do it too but in a whole different way/ area of life? 

Me: “Either he is nuts or I am nuts because we can’t both be telling the truth!”

ENFP: “Well I empasize with both of you so I don’t think either of you is nuts?”

Me: Sorry but this is a real dichotomy here for once. If he dun nothing wrong, then I would be wrong for accusing him thus, just as he says..

ENFP: Can we all agree to disagree and chil maybe? plz??

Might also be why there`s this overlap between ENFPs and Universalists? Though obviously not all ENFPs are universalists and vice versa. 

So yeah. Kinda comical in hindsight. I started out all second guess-ey and entertaining both possibilities in parallel but in the end, well, I do think it’s INTP after all, at least, I’d say its the most probable by a considerable margin. Most definitely 5 tho. For all the occasionall 4 ness its by far the most overwhelming tendency in day to day life/thinking ugh cant I NOT spew nerd facts about everything in sight. What are other conversaton topics? 

Bottom Line: By thinking about your own thinking you alter your thinking, and that way lie 2nd order chaotic systems, the Uncertainty Principle and Goedel’s Theorem...

So going outside both threw me out of that recursion and added new, raw data as a means to test the competing hypotheses. It forced me to see what I actually act like by and large in a natural setting rather than the many ways I could interpret or read the way I act like, which like, is not actually all that mysterious lol

[queerofcups]

why do u think tumblr is trash for fandom? not that i disagree lol, i've just never noticed u talking about it and would be interested in hearing your thoughts

 terrible for fanfic writers - i’m biased obviously but tumblr is a really terrible format for any kind of text based art. 

formatting - theme fonts are really variable and i’ve seen countless writers blogs (usually younger/newer writers who need the attention) with fics that I won’t read because I *can’t* read them. 

getting people to read your fic - Also, if you’re posting to tumblr only and not to the Ao3 (which I totally understand especially for drabbles) there’s a strong chance only your followers will see those as opposed to posting in a community where, if its a central fandom comm you’ll probably get decent traffic from folks who’ve never heard of you. and if you want more people to see something you have to keep reblogging it because it gets pushed down by your other blogging because you can’t have pinned posts (which is way easier than creating a separate masterlist page). also tags work like 60% of the time

feedback - if you get feedback on fic on tumblr its either a. a reply that you may or may not be able to reply to easily depending on if tumblr/xkit is freaking out or b. in a reblog that you then have to reblog to reply to cluttering your/your followers dash further

 terrible for building community

If I go to someone’s tumblr and they don’t have an intricate tagging system, chances are pretty good I don’t know shit about them other than their name/age/maybe pronouns. Y’all don’t know shit about me as an actual person unless you happen to catch the one post or hell, the one tag where I talk about being from the American southeast or the weirdness of planning a wedding while feminist, or how I’m working up to weightlifting. Meanwhile, I have a friend that I friended in 2007/8 when I was in bandom who just graduated with her PhD! She was just starting her program when we met. She also just proposed to her boyfriend whom she’d just met when I started following her. I know her, as a person, not just a fic producing machine.

Which brings me to my next point. Tumblr’s great for being a lil bitch without accountability. Don’t get me wrong. Wank is as old as fandom. Where there is fandom there will be wank, bet on that. And its not like the journal-based websites and forums didn’t often have an anonymous function. But anon hate on tumblr is so normalized and so easy-- you don’t even have to log out to ask a question on anonymous on my blog! And even if you aren’t leaving hate. I talk to 2.5 people regularly via tumblr chat regularly. I think of them as my friends. I know their names. They know mine. They call me by my name. You could be the same anon that’s asked me an anon question since I started this blog. We could be well on our way to fandom besties and I would have no idea. To be a lurker on tumblr is to be anonymous, whereas to be a lurker on your livejournals and dreamwidths still came with some name recognition. 

Also tumblr is great for BNFs. Which like. Whatever, I don’t think there’s any one unifying quality I can place on everyone who’s The Most Popular in a fandom (...and I’m not sharing my phandom bnf opinions with an anon) but I do think that tumblr makes it feel like you either have many thousand followers and a constant stream of anons or you’re Nothing and that’s some ol’ bullshit. 

Livejournal and Dreamwidth (the ones I’m most familiar with) had community functions where one person created a blog to which lots of people could submit fanworks. The bandom one I was most familiar with was called bandslashmania (go check it out!), there was minimal modding and it was on you to post your fic, post it with the correct formatting, tag it so people could find it later, etc. And it was a hub that everyone could go to. It could be your daily stop, congrats now you have a selection of the fic that got posted that day. And if you miss a day, or you read a fic and want to go back to it weeks (or even years) later, you can just go to the tag. I’m having very strong feelings about how much fic we’re going to lose because of fucking tumblr (seriously. post your shit to Ao3. Also if you have a favorite fic? C/p that shit and save it to your computer. That’s the only way to (sort of) guarentee you’ll always have it) and the fact that you can accidentally delete your blog.

You ever made friends in the replies or reblogs of a tumblr post? If you did you’re a rarity. That shit happened every day in forum/journal based 

And I love IDB, I think its a really cool space to have more extended conversations, but I still don’t think its a great place to get to know people unless you have time to be really active on there and pay a lot of attention to peoples usernames, lol.

This is. A delicate one. I’m not going to shit on the tumblr’s contributions to people’s growth in awareness of social justice and the experiences of marginalized folks. Its been a really integral piece to amplifying the voices and communities of people who, previously, would have been shut down and made to talk about their issues only on their blog. That’s a statement. And I think tumblr likes to get on a high horse. There’s some shit fandom does that I have real problems with (the fact that I have to block extreme underage on Ao3 is A Problem for me. The blatant racism of who fandom chooses to write about over and over again is A Problem for me. I could go on). But I do think that there’s a subset of fandom that’s like oh, I don’t like this thing, lets use social justice language to talk about why its Bad and Morally Wrong, rather than just not reading it. And that gets extra annoying because they then sound like people who are trying to point out some real ass problems and so people lump these groups together and I have to ask myself before I follow someone if they’re disagreeing with the idea that fandom’s collective love affair with whitecock is problematic, or if they just want to write their fucking otayuri fic.

This is probably way more than you were expecting! I don’t hate tumblr (...mostly). I just find it really frustrating that we’ve decided that this (and a little bit twitter and a little bit instagram which i’m just flummoxed by) is our fannish home when its actually The Worst for a hobby of which one of the main tenants is community building. Like we’ve glued and stapled shit together, we’ve adapted like fandom always does but like Dreamwidth is right there. We could have it all, we just don’t take it. 

Lol, other Fandom Olds that follow me, feel free to hop on this post, I’m sure you have other shit about fandom on tumblr that you hate.

[warronblogs]

Accessibility, UX, & LibGuides - The Minimum

The following is adapted from a training session I gave for my workplace’s Hump Day Huddle Up training series. It’s a primer in basic stuff to do to avoid your LibGuides being a hot mess.

Accessibility - How to Avoid Being an Ableist Loser

Fonts Fonts Fonts*

*to be sung to the tune of Motley Crue’s Girls Girls Girls

1em allows font to automatically resize according to user preference - if you must use pixels, 16px is good.

Fonts should be sans serif for screen use.

Examples: Calibri, Arial, Franklin Gothic

MIND YOUR CONTRAST

When in doubt, black on white or white on black.

Tool to check colour contrast located here

Follow these rules to avoid your users going full SpongeBob.

[image: spongebob with red bleary eyes from eye strain]

Images

Every. Single. Image. Needs. Descriptive. Alt. Text.

For an example of how to do this, check out my alt text below the embedded image. In Tumblr, you sometimes have to place it below the image - in LibGuides, you right click on the image and put it under alt text in “Image Properties”.

[Image: An image of a brown Australian shepherd cuddling a small plastic Pikachu, illustrative of how cute the author’s dog is.]

Make sure your alt text is descriptive of both the image's contents and any function it may serve!

Multilingual Pages?

Switching languages? Use language tags! Language tags can be attached in <p> for paragraphs or <span> tags for sentences/words.

<p> This sentence is in English. </p>

<p lang="en-GB"> This sentence will be read with a British accent </p>

<p lang="es"> Esta frase es en español. </p> (Spanish)

<span lang="fr"> Cette phrase est en français </span> (French)

To Find Your Language Code, Use the Following Tables: ISO 639 Code Tables

PDFs and Documents

You MUST use only accessible PDFs and documents.

Click here to access some accessible document tutorials.

If you HAVE to use an inaccessible document, place an active offer to make said document accessible on demand and prepare to follow through.

Videos

Closed caption all your videos!

It’s super easy with YouTube and a script handy.

Not scripting? Idk what to say to you.

jk I do it’s “start scripting your videos bruh”

Provide descriptive video or a text-only descriptive option for your visually impaired users.

A brief rundown on descriptive video here.

Fancy Web Stuff 

Limit Tabs - 6 or less is good!

Avoid creating content that refreshes the page without user input.

It’s real rough for users with voice controlled mouse movement. 

If you must use a slider it should be for an image reel and not for functional content. 

Sliders cause difficulties for people with mobility issues.

Test Your MIGHT

Test your LibGuides for screen reader compatibility to avoid formatting errors that make your page unusable internet swampland.

To test for free:

Click here to learn about testing with Firefox and NVDA

Click  here for testing with Firefox and FANGS (a visual display of screen reader interpretations of websites)

General UX - Don’t Look Like a Mess

Your Users Don’t Have to Read These You Know

Users skim information - build so they can skim!

Use subheadings, lists, etc.

Avoid paragraphs or lists longer than 6-8 bullet points.

Write like a person, not an academic.

“We” offer services. “You” can use them. 

Plain, concise language and a personal tone go a long way.

Simplicity is key.

Avoid overwhelming users.

You’re Making a Functional Tool So Design Like It

Remember the F shape of user eye patterns when designing!

Most important content is top and to the left

Make each page as if the person using it has never been trained on subject guides, libguides, or libraries before.

If you can do this, you’ve attained the minimum standard in LibGuides accessibility and UX! Of course, you should still conduct user testing to determine your layouts and content are working as intended, but at least this way they can use what’s there to begin with.

[deepspacestudy-blog]

You should probably be studying - but instead, you’re scrolling down tumblr. You let out a deep sigh of discontent. Studying is probably a good idea, but you have no motivation and it’s killing you inside.

So, here to help you out... I have created a guide to help you with software, websites and apps for all your studying needs! Software is listed by platform, then type, then A-Z with links to their websites. Please enjoy!

I’ve classified things by their platform, although some of them will have alternate options. I’ve put where you can use them in their descriptions. Just use the search tool in your browser to search for your OS or platform.

I’ve also added dollar signs next to the ones that cost something. If you have any suggestions, please send them to me in my askbox! :)

FOR YOUR COMPUTER

Blender - Oh, Blender. 3D modelling software that’s free to use. Windows, Mac, Linux.

FocusWriter - A desktop application that gives you a no-nonsense writing space. Linux, Windows, Mac. Note: App is totally free if you can’t afford to tip - just click the box that says “$5 tip” and change it to $0.00.

GIMP - A fair alternative to Photoshop. If you’re willing to search online for scripts, it can also do a lot of what Photoshop does natively. And with the cost of Adobe CC, this is definitely worth considering. Mac, Windows, Linux.

LibreOffice - Can’t afford Microsoft Office? Your school doesn’t provide it for you? LibreOffice is a good alternative - and totally opensource, and therefore free. Mac, Windows, Linux.

PomoDone - A pomodoro timer that takes your to-do lists from other sites and makes it easy to keep track of time. Mac, Windows, Linux, Web.

FOR YOUR PHONE

Forest - A timer tracker that blocks you from accessing certain apps (coughtumblrcough) for a certain amount of time. Basic functionality is free although if you want more there’s a small fee to upgrade. iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox.

Pocketcasts - iOS users seem to have podcasts built in, but either way this is an amazing app for keeping track of your favourite podcasts. Android($), iOS($).

FOR YOUR BROWSER

LeechBlock - Blocks time-wasting apps. Firefox.

Momentum - “Oh, Norah,” you say, “what are all those pretty apps with names and times that people use in their studyblr photos of their laptops?” “It’s Momentum, child,” I respond, and my voice is as smooth as the white, white writing paper below your hand. Chrome, optional $.

Pocket - A bookmarking tool that syncs between every device you have. If you save something on your phone, you’ll see it two minutes later in your browser. Useful as well due to its tagging tool. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone. You want it? You got it.

StayFocusd - A timer tracker that stops you from accessing certain sites after you’ve had your specified allowance. Kicks your ass and makes you feel bad about it too. Chrome.

ON THE WEB

Convert Case - Site that converts UPPERCASE to lowercase, Sentence case to Title Case. Web.

Google Drive - The most useful thing to exist. Think Microsoft Office, but free, and all online. You can share documents, PowerPoints, Excel sheets, with friends/peers and see them being edited in realtime. Also has a free backup feature for all 8,000 of your photos. Web, Android, iOS.

Hemingway Writer - Site that shows you where your writing is wordy and too complicated. Useful, but flawed. Web, Mac ($), Windows ($).

Online Text Correction - Same vein to Hemingway Writer, but totally free. Web.

Prezi - Good ol’ fancy PowerPoint maker, without the need for PowerPoint. Web.

Realtime Board - A real time whiteboard, like Google Docs, to share ideas. Web.

Tomato Timer - A website to keep track of your pomodoro timing. Web.

Tomatoid - Website with login to keep track of pomodoro timing. Web.

Wolfram Alpha - Stuck on a maths problem? Want to see how to do the steps? Wolfram Alpha can help you out with that. Web.

A BIT OF FUN

Rubber Duck Debugging - A widely used site and technique. Highly recommended.

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Barron Cuadro of Effortless Gent, a men's style publication.Some stats:Product: Men's Style PublicationRevenue/mo: $8,500Started: November 2009Location: New York, NYFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?I’m Barron and I run Effortless Gent, a men’s style publication focused on helping guys feel confident and look sharp in the clothes they wear.Through our written articles and video content, we teach guys how to build a Lean Wardrobe, which essentially is a versatile set of clothes unique to every guy’s situation that easily mix and match and make dressing well much easier.EG generates on average $8,000/mo through a combination of ad revenue (display ads, brand sponsorships), affiliate revenue, digital products (an eBook and self-guided style improvement program), and 1-on-1 online or in-person styling consultations.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Growing up, I’ve always been interested in my own personal style.I loved being experimental and trying new trends. I learned through experimentation that how you dress can change the way you feel about yourself, as well as how other people perceive you.Because of this, I was usually who my guy friends turned to when it came to questions on matters of style.Throughout high school and college, I noticed the same questions were being asked over and over, and I remember thinking that I should start a simple website with all the answers to these questions so I wouldn’t have to repeat myself over and over… I could just point them to my website.So in 2009, I was looking for a side hustle project where I could combine my love of design, clothing, and my coding skills, and Effortless Gent was the result.At the time, I was working as a front-end developer at a San Francisco-based technology company. I was in my mid-20s and still at the beginning of my career, but I’ve always had an entrepreneurial side. I didn’t love the limitations and restrictions that came from working at a job.I knew I wanted Effortless Gent to be my full-time business one day but I wasn’t entirely sure how I would make that happen in the beginning; I just remained open to any and all possibilities.I worked at my job during the day, and in the evenings, after dinner until 1 or 2 am every night, I would work on my site.At first, it was just planning and strategizing, then actually designing and building the site, and finally, creating content regularly.I remember keeping up this routine almost nightly for a long while… at least the first 2 years. I never felt forced to work on this; I loved it, enjoyed it, and found it both exciting and challenging. Exciting because of the possibilities, and challenging because of my limited time to work on it.Take us through the process of getting started and launching.I should mention I have a web design and development background, and back in 2009 it definitely came in handy, but nowadays it’s so much easier to put together a website that actually looks good.Back in 09, most people used Blogger, Tumblr, and Wordpress.com sites, and even Wordpress themes weren’t as robust and easily customizable as they are today.When I officially launched, it was literally me just flipping the switch and making my site live on effortlessgent.com. I double-checked everything and made sure my first post was already published before I made the site live.(screenshot of the site in the very early days, via Wayback Machine)My main goal back then was to create content consistently, week after week. Since it was a brand new site with no readership, I didn’t know what would resonate and what wouldn’t, so I covered a wide range of topics within the realm of men’s style.Experimenting allowed me to figure out what worked and what didn’t, and helped me hone in on both what I wanted to write and what resonated with my readers.I started with 3 shorter articles per week, and eventually moved to 2, then 1 longer piece per week tackling a specific topic. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong amount of content to produce when you’re first starting out, though consistency is definitely key.In those days, I promoted the site mostly through Twitter. I believe Gary Vaynerchuk once talked about how back in the Wine Library TV days, he would use Twitter’s search functionality to find conversations related to wine and engage with people. I did the same thing, but for men’s style… like if guys were tweeting about outfit- or style-related things, I’d jump in on the conversation (assuming I had something relevant and useful to add), maybe I’d send them a link to an article I wrote, and repeat. I would do this over and over.I also used my Facebook page to promote new content. It’s a little different nowadays since organic reach is practically nonexistent and you have to pay to boost your posts to your own audience. Back then, there were no restrictions and everyone who followed your page could see what you posted to it within their own feed.Today, I continue to promote new articles and YouTube videos through Twitter, our Facebook page and smaller group, as well as via our email list.As far as effectiveness, social as a whole is our smallest traffic source, accounting for maybe 12%. Google search is our largest, at around 82%, so because of this, we focus on optimizing SEO as much as possible. I wasn’t always the best at this, and admittedly have only taken an active approach these past few years, so my editor and I are constantly going back to older articles and adding focus keywords, optimizing titles, updating the content, and so on.One piece of advice is, if your business is reliant on good content, make sure you optimize your SEO for everything you publish. In fact, I suggest doing keyword research before even writing down your first word. Doing keyword research will influence the direction you take the article or video, and it’s much easier designing a piece of content around a good keyword or phrase people actually search for, than it is to retrofit a keyword to an existing piece of content.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Consistently creating helpful, entertaining articles with actionable advice, as well as working to build relationships with my readers.Currently I’m producing one piece of new content per week, either a written article or a video for the YouTube channel. And the rest of the week is spent either promoting it, brainstorming a new piece of content, or updating and republishing old content.I’m a bit smarter with my approach to SEO nowadays, but I still keep it really simple. First, I think of some ideas I’d like to create content for. Then, I dive into keyword and keyphrase research.I use the webapp AHREFs for my keyword research–this tool is $99/mo but is incredibly detailed and granular with data. It helps me nail the perfect keywords to target. A good free option is Keywords Everywhere, which I also use… as well plain ol’ Google Keyword Planner.After gathering my target keyword or phrase plus a few related keywords, I can then write the article, the message and takeaways will be clear, and there’s a much better chance that Google will know what my article is about.A lot of the SEO best practices and strategies I picked up from sites like Moz, or friends who know a bunch more than I do. One course I do recommend because it’s super simple to follow along and implement is called SEO For Bloggers. My friend Matt (course creator) has built a number of successful niche sites and he’s all about white hat, long-lasting, Google-friendly SEO practices, no shady practices or tactics that try to game the system.I do most of my communicating with readers via my email list. Every week I send out a note. I keep it very simple and casual in tone, text only, and include a link to the content I want them to check out.Usually I’m letting them know about a new article or video, or perhaps a big sale at one of our recommended stores, or I’m doing a digital product launch for our eGuides and course.To grow my list and attract subscribers, I created a eGuide called The Lean Wardrobe, a PDF all about putting together a no-nonsense wardrobe, that's sent directly to them once they subscribe. My thinking behind this is that no one wants another email newsletter subscription, but my target reader has a specific problem he’s trying to solve (he wants to dress better) and this free guide will get them started on the right path.What’s the business model and how you do make money?I knew I wanted to create digital products, so in the beginning, as my audience grew, I would talk to them constantly, either through email, Twitter, or within the comments section of each article.I needed to learn what their struggles with clothing were.I also wanted to understand how they thought and the words they used to describe their struggles. I knew that speaking their language, using the phrases they did, would be helpful when describing what my product was and how it would help them.I discovered my audience was mainly guys my age (at the time, mid-20s), usually coastal, and either in school or getting their first jobs. They knew dressing well wasn’t their strong suit, and they felt the pressure of adulthood and the necessity to dress the part.So I took what I learned over the first 2 years of writing style articles regularly and getting feedback from my readers and put together my first eGuide which was called Graduating Your Style. In it, I laid out the basics for leveling up your wardrobe from a college kid to a young adult man heading to his first serious job.I took my readers along for the ride during the whole process of building out the eGuide. I got their feedback with titles and content, and in general, updated them regularly leading up to the launch. I did this, of course, to let my readers know I did have a product coming out, and that I wanted them to buy it.Graduating Your Style launched for $26. I gave a $10 off code to the first batch of buyers, and in the first month, made $6,100 in sales. I can’t remember exactly what my list size was at the time, but I’m almost certain it was no more than 1,000 people.So not a ton of money, but selling my first product validated the idea and I knew I could continue to evolve, create more products, and monetize in other ways as well.I created several other products since then—a few other eGuides, a membership site, a style improvement course—and diversified the income streams with display ad revenue, as well as brand partnerships, affiliate relationships with brands, and personal styling both in-person and online.As far as traffic growth, it’s been slow but steady. SEO is one area I regret not being more strategic about earlier. In 2016, after 7 years of consistent growth, I saw traffic plateau and even dip a little. I did a bit of research and realized I lost ranking and referral traffic on a few keywords that were bringing significant traffic.So in early 2017, wanting to prevent any more loss of traffic and knowing I could be much more proactive, I started taking SEO very seriously and formed a strategy to optimize every piece of content I created. I’m also going back to old content and consolidating posts around a strong keyword or phrase, or simply updating and re-publishing articles that are already good, but just needed to be refreshed a bit.(traffic from the day I started the site up to Jan 2019)There’s still a lot of work for me to do here, but I’m hoping that with these improvements to the content and my overall on-page SEO strategy, traffic will break out of that plateau and continue its upward climb.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?So diversifying income streams definitely helps, but can also distract (insert analogy about spinning plates here), and I’m learning the longer I do this, the better it is to focus on 2-3 streams and really dedicate time and effort into both maximizing and refining those.For example, one of my largest revenue generators over the past 2 years has been brand partnerships. This is when I create a piece of content and a brand or product sponsors it (the sponsor has no say over the content).But recently I’ve taken a step back to consider where I want the business to be in the next 1-2 years, and what I want to spend most of my time on, and I decided it wasn’t brand sponsorships.So for 2019 I’m actively scaling back on those types of projects, and instead re-focusing my energy on selling my own products as well as continuing to create great content for my readers and viewers. Coincidentally, my display ad and affiliate revenue grows the more I create and promote good style content that brings readers to the site.What platform/tools do you use for your business?We use so many different tools to run the site and business. A few of note:Effortless Gent is built on WordPress and hosted by WP Engine.For our sales pages and opt-ins, I use LeadPages. For affiliate link management within WordPress, we use Earnist (which recently has become free, the founder is launching a new affiliate link management WordPress plugin called Lasso).I use ConvertKit for email and Asana for tasks and communicating with my editor and writers.For drafts and edits, we work within Google Docs before moving the whole article into a WordPress draft.For keyword research, I use AHREFS and a Chrome plugin called Keywords Everywhere.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?When I was first starting out, the two books that influenced me the most were The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and Crush It! By Gary Vaynerchuk.The 4-Hour Workweek introduced me to the idea of location independence and the possibilities with an online business, and Crush It! teaches you how to become a brand, choose a medium for your message, and focus on authenticity in everything you do.I feel like the messages of both books are still very much applicable today, and are a good place to start if you’re still toying with the idea of starting a business, a brand, a blog, anything.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?I think the most common advice would be to just start, but I’d say doing your research, establishing both your point of view and your target reader/customer avatar before writing and publishing your first piece of content is really important. I really like Donald Miller’s body of work that teaches you how to build a story brand, if you need a framework for how to do so.And that’s not to say your avatar or point of view won’t change, but knowing what you stand for (or against) and who you’re trying to reach is monumentally important, otherwise, what are you even doing?I’d also advise to start small and be consistent. So if you’re going to be a content creator, focus on producing content regularly, whether that’s 1x a week or 1x a day. This is especially important in the beginning because if it’s something like a YouTube video or a blog post, your fans will tune in regularly on those days you commit to publishing. Also, it helps to establish that habit in your own routine.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I’m currently looking for more freelance writers to join the team. This is a paid position, and I’m looking specifically for writers whose focus is solely within the men’s style and lifestyle vertical, or who have experience writing these types of articles.Where can we go to learn more?Our homebase is always at https://effortlessgent.com.Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM