#i hate algorithms as a creator and as a viewer

[bleaksqueak]

It is so unbelievably frustrating how the algorithm timeline keeps defaulting in a place that has been free of algo bullshit for so long. I cannot tell if it’s a glitch or if they’re just pushing it intentionally. It’s at least easy to go back to the following feed, but with bluesky users more and more depending on the discover feed and tumblr defaulting to the algorithm timeline it just feels like ‘be twitter’ is the shitty destiny being pushed everywhere.

Important video anyone should give a watch:

[transgenbur]

i have so many thoughts about the tommy song/video and theyre a jumbled mess. i wouldnt call this an analysis this is just. most of my thoughts surrounding the video and what it shows about tommy

one of the things that stuck out to me (outside of how depressing and just like. is this guy okay) is something that ive always respected tommy for because he's always stuck with it and its his like. fervent conviction in people doing things theyre passionate about. thats always been one of the things he talks about all the time!!!

when AI started appearing he was talking about death of creativity, with the internet he's always talking about how the real tragedy is the algorithm killing people's passion by driving them with views and money, and even when he talks about youtube itself, and nowadays standup, its so full of passion.

and i think thats really important because it would be extremely easy for someone like tommy, who's in the process of maturing his online image from a very loud, immature and PASSIONATE persona, to make fun of it. it would be so easy to do like so many other creators and laugh at how "cringe" it was and make a quick cash/attention grab with a funny clip of him laughing at himself. but he never has. well don't get me wrong he's laughed at himself or old videos but it's always just. good natured taking the piss out of himself, it's never this like. mocking your younger self who was so excited to do what they did only because now its "cringe".

not only is he constantly giving that advice to other people (its been years of him replying, to any kid in his chat or donations asking advice on how to be a creator etc, "just go and do it if you love it!!"), he's coherent with how he applies it to himself. he realised he was making cash grab tiktok react vids and hated it so much he just stopped uploading for a while.

i dont know i just think there's something admirable about being able to still be sincere in a time where everything especially online has to be processed through a layer of irony. and its even funnier because he's more sincere THROUGH the irony i mean he's literally going into standup.

letting yourself create something that "means" something is fucking hard especially when half the internet still sees you as a kid who screams around. except the thing is that kid DID make stuff that mattered and that meant something because he was, in his own words, having fun.

i think thats what the format of the video was about too. i mean i think it was pretty clearly not a song thats meant to be streamed, its not purely music, its also a video because tommy is also first and foremost an editor who went to film college. its also not a "comedy" song like he's made some before, because those were all intentionally created to land as many jokes and make a big buzz— which doesnt mean they were bad! im philza is a contemporary lyrical masterpiece. but they had a specific purpose and it was to make people laugh and i think this video was completely like. opposite of what peoples expectations are of tommy. the "wow hes not a child anymore hes being mature🤓" reactions are the most obvious aspect of this (which, like, its been a while, get with the program).

i think the point of this was to make something that genuinely meant something but that was also like. as unpalatable to the algorithm and to the TommyInnit Viewer as possible. even now that he's gone into making quieter, more reflective videos, we've never had the flashing texts and the projector images and just all of that. hes always talking about how he hates the way the "youtube formula" has dictated the course of content and stolen all creativity for youtubers. its not meant to be a YouTube Video tm. its just meant to mean something to someone, and obviously process some sort of personal emotions, and i just think thats. yeah. yeah

i mean he even says so outright. "this needless, self indulgent spiral of self gratification" is pretty damn explicit. its not meant to be funny content its really a cry for help or for just. anything at all really

it was also a lot about perception, yknow the "entertainer" dilemma, "its all attention porn"... theres a layer of this point thats universal, everyone struggles with how they're perceived and i think any "artist" or "entertainer" figure can see themselves in it, but there's also a layer thats completely impermeable to most of us because it touches upon the sheer absurdity of a "youtuber". especially one of tommy's popularity. especially one who blew up so so fast so young. i honestly think its IMPOSSIBLE to process that. its about the ethics of having millions of people's time so readily available to you if you just press the right buttons to make the algorithm happy and then you've got them. im like 75% sure i remember him saying this on stream once, something like "your time is valuable" and if a fan didnt value him as an entertainer they should drop him.

and even here^ thats the saddest "lmao" ive seen in my life SORRY LOL but its really just. yeah im not gonna repeat myself it speaks for itself. perception and internet expectations and all that

one of the other images that stuck out to me was also this:

"yeah i know its too much like bo burnham but it wont be in a year though. in a year it will be like tom simons. just let me figure out what that means, ok?"

a lot of the video is about. influences and inspirations. the bo burnham references are so obvious he's poking at them, but i think he's raising a good point about the creativity that he's constantly praising. its never something that springs up on its own, its all about looking at others work and making it your own and feeding yourself with all those experiences and slowly, surely building your own way of doing things (tommyinnit "minecraft talent show" and "a tribute to dream smp" serial quackity + schlatt impersonator would know all about that) ->

and its daunting! its fucking scary to move away from that! which is also the main vibe i got from the video which, outside of his own issues with how he's perceived online, was the sort of existential dread that comes with actually creating. its one thing to preach you need to be passionate and create, its another to sit down and create something thats BY you. its a part of growing up! and we're literally seeing him do it live (well the bits that he chooses to show obviously)! thats also part of why i think tommy's so relatable to so many people is that he's so like. honest and real about what it's like to grow up, simple as that, and growing into yourself.

"this was everything to me" and using the picture of his younger self... man. theres obviously so much sadness underlying the whole thing but i think the nostalgia and melancholy in mourning being someone who was only inspired/excited by your interests and role models is universal. and obviously for tommy a lot of those influences turned out. well i think it was pretty damn clear who/what he was referring to here. ->

i don't think i need to go too in detail about that, especially cause a lot of the video was clearly a way to process his own personal emotions. especially with those next few images. i just hope he's okay and that god doubles his pain and gives it to mr beast to quote my friend bronzetomatoes. man.

of course he had to end with a funny clip about a hot anime girl and i think that kinda. sums it all up in a way. if that makes sense. at the end of the day its about the fact that he has to use humour to make the thing work when its out in the open, even when he tries not to and to be actually honest, but theres also the fact that hes literally a comedian and creating something "honest" IS through humor. its kindof a double edged sword

right well that was my jumbled mess of psychoanalysing tommyinnit i hope he is alright and all that because well that was. something

[tobeabatman]

Freeform fat activist post

Did you know that weight discrimination has increased by 66 % during the last decade and is one of the only forms of discrimination actively condoned by society? (From Adressing weight stigma and fatphobia in public health by Amanda Montgomery, RD, LDN, at publichealth.uic.edu)

And it’s like, it makes me so mad. It makes me so angry to see a bunch of thin people spreading bs without our fat people’s opinions, worsening the social conditions of people like me. It makes me mad that the first time I experienced medical fatphobia was at age 7. It makes me mad that it feels like there’s nothing I can do.

I can’t go to public transport without hearing casual fatphobia, I can’t study without hearing fatphobia, I can’t go online without seeing fatphobia, I can’t even film certain things online because of fatphobia.

I try escapism. I read a bunch of books: No fat characters, casual fatphobic comments.

I watch a bunch of videos on Youtube: Most fat creators are disencouraged from filming by either the algorithm or by viewers. The left-over thin creators casually act like fat people are lesser-than, when something triggers the topic of fat people.

I flinch, I wait, whenever a topic comes up that could possibly elicit fatphobia. The word ”lifestyle choices” makes my heart beat just a bit faster.

At school, I have to sit through an entire 115 minute lesson on how fat people should lose weight. I am the only ”obese” kid in class, there is one overweight person besides me.

I can’t look the teacher in the eye for the whole class. All my future lessons I sit in his class thinking, ”You don’t say it out loud, but I think you think of me differently than my thin classmates”.

I surround myself activism. Disability justice, anti-racism, feminism, -ism -ism. Justice is important to me.

..But I notice there’s no attention to people like me. Even though there’s so many different communities, fat people have a small and incomplete one. Even my leftist friends don’t note our struggles.

I continue my activism, but I’m getting more tired.

Someone lists different communities, says that medical bias is bad against those groups. I notice that mentioning fat people would fit right alongside those other communities. But I remember we’re invisible.

Another person says that confidence is sexy. I think it must be easy to see it that way if you’re not statistically more likely to have lower self-esteem.

Third person is concerned about my mental health for living in a fatphobic society. ”Who am I supposed to get help from?” I ask. Body-positive therapists are easy to find, but most of them don’t understand the pressure of living in a body hated by most.

—

The future I want is where no one is oppressed. That includes fat people. Get rid of your ”what about” thinking, and realize that fat people are human too.

And if you’re fat, then you deserve none of the sh*t this world has manipulated you into thinking you deserve (until you change your body, of course). I know you most likely had super low self-esteem growing up, maybe you got bullied, maybe that bullying continued into your work life.

I wish I could say it gets better, that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. But for that, we need the help of everyone. Are you willing to help?

Thank you for reading.

[crazymuffin1]

more or less the full tiktok situation

okay so im not tinfoil hatting because its pretty obvious when you think about it

2020 trump wants tiktok banned im pretty sure the people who overlooked the whole spiel thought that there wasnt anything wrong with it and it and continued on as normal

then for some curious reason the stupidest most tech incompetent people of the congress are part of the hearing with classics such as asking the ceo 10 different ways of "are you chinese" making the viewer think that the next question is going to be whether or not the CEO has ever eaten chinese food. there are of course the other classics (and these are all real questions) "does tiktok read your brainwaves when you put on headphones" "does it record your eyes dilating to figure out what videos to boost via the algorithm" "does tiktok access your home wi-fi network" "are you chinese" "if you turn on airplane mode while in a plane, can tiktok talk to the plane"

im not making this up. these are real actual questions. its not word for word but im not changing the meaning of the questions it really was that bad

then of course beause they took the dumbest people in the congress they made a rule that basically boils down to "apps from countries we dont like have to be owned by america" (so we can censor it) (this is while also being racist towards china and yknow being all 'china censorship bad!')

now there hasnt been an official announcement of tiktok having been bought, BUT!

while it was down for americans, these messages appeared

message 1 ID: Sorry, Tiktok isn't available right now A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned! End ID oh yeah the same trump that got it banned in the first place, right? about 15 hours later the app is up again

Message 2 ID: Welcome Back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok End ID.

heres the part where you gotta put the clues together! the tiktok page of the tiktok CEO no longer has "CEO of tiktok" on his profile

facebook/instagram is all of a sudden having popups of "link to tiktok" and an official tiktok page too. if youre on tiktok you get an add facebook friends promo (this hasnt happened to everyone yet, rolling out feature)

convicted felon donald trump is holding his inauguration indoors, probably because last time he got all pissy that the crowd size was small, but you cant take aerials indoors and indoors have limited seats anyway(maybe as a last fuck you, tiktok will once again reserve a bunch of seats that are left empty? oh please do that!). also its easier to check for weapons and not have snipers when indoors, which is important when first lady elon musk is going to be there, and his fellow oligarch mark zuckerberg is also going to be there. theyre reaaal scared of the snipers since their egos are so big they become an easy target!

but we all know the drill by now. "saving" tiktok is just a failed way to make the younger generation like him. even if he set it up and everyone on tiktok knows. its also a way to make people overlook whatever this weeks war crime is going to be. probably the mass deportation. forgot to add this thing but facebook recently removed fact checkers so tiktok is probably going to have even more (worse) misinformation

TL;DR facebook is going to announce they bought tiktok any day now and give the glory to trump even though he is the reason it was banned in the first place

also as a bonus on the last day, a lot of influencers and stuff like that were having the "since we're all getting banned anyway" moment so a lot of them said stuff like "i never used the products i promoted" "i hated collabing with this creator" "i was never xyz" people who did masked thirst traps (male presenting) were women all along. and then 15 hours later theyre unbanned and have to be like... yep...so that just happened.

anyway tiktok was one of the last few places people got news that werent completely filtered through the right wing lens of whoever owned the newspaper. even if there was a lot of misinfo. think of the ceo shooter and think of how the media portrayed it vs the people. "rich man is murdered in cold blood by some vile monster. he was very beloved" vs "this guy is a vile human being who is responsible for millions of deaths, and he was finally killed"

[roxspoxs]

I'm going to say it cause nobody else will.

Placing your energy into blaming the friends of the wrongdoers is taking away the punishment that is deserving to the wrong doer.

This Cody Ko situation is AWFUL, and everyone on this God damn hell internet are focusing so much time and energy at BARKING UP THE WRONG TREES.

Stop ignoring Tana's story, victims should be validated, heard, and supported.

Stop blaming people who weren't involved in the drama, like Brittany Broski.

TURN YOUR RAGE AGAINST CODY KO, THE PEDOPHILE AND ASSAULTER.

I don't care what Brittany said in regards to the situation. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What's getting me is that instead of focusing on our efforts to bring Cody Ko to justice, people are shifting their hate towards an individual; WHO AT THE END OF THE DAY IS A NON FACTOR.

Just like when Kurtis Conner was held accountable for another dude's actions for racial discrimination and blackface.

Kurtis and Brittany aren't the fucking zoo keepers or handlers for these disgusting people and I'm sick of time being wasted on shit that doesn't matter.

Do you really care what they have to say about shit they weren't even involved in?? No, it just makes viewers watch the video. It's a ploy to get views and algorithm at the end of the day, and it gives the poster some sense of self-importance before people go back to ignoring them after one hit piece. It's exhausting how these creators want to talk about everything and everyone who isn't the problem instead of targeting their efforts on the original person who started the mess TO BEGIN WITH.

Imagine this, let's say you are friends with an individual who does something problematic, right? How would you feel if HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS of motherfuckers all up in your ass about it? You would be utterly confused on how this individuals actions is suddenly placed on you instead.

It's absolutely fucking mental, isn't it??

So how about we focus on actually solving the issue instead of causing more drama that won't solve a literal criminal offense! Okay? Okay! Great.

[lastoneout]

Everyone: YouTube is such a garbage platform! It only cares about ad money and exploiting creators, and they have frankly draconian rules about what you can say or show, and sometimes even if you follow all the rules you'll either lose your money and viewerbase to demonetization, and there's basically no way to fix that unless you are a huge creator who makes a massive stink about it on Twitter, or to the algorithm just deciding your videos aren't worth promoting anymore. I hate how many ads there are too, 2+ prerolls, midrolls, and ones at the end?? Tons are unskippable and they often contain triggering content with NO warning. And like, half the sponsorships are for corrupt scams and full of lies. And ugh the switch to prioritizing short from content is fucking over anyone who doesn't want to make discount tiktoks. Plus they're trying to stop people from using adblocker in fucked up ways. And on top of all that Google is just straight up evil. YouTube really does suck these days :/ I feel bad for the creators I love who are stuck using it.

Watcher: YouTube was a good place for our shows at first, but as you all know if you want to make money here you have to compromise the types of content you want to make to please the algorithm and advertisers, and we don't want to make content for them, we want to make quality TV shows for and supported by our viewers, so we can grow and offer even more, much higher quality stuff, so it's time to open our own independant streaming service. It's as cheap as we can make it, and we also want to give our fans more control and so there's a deal if you sign up now where you get 30% off for the first year and can vote on our next show, plus we will never implement any measures to prevent account sharing, one person can share with whoever they want. We're still going to upload trailers and premiers on YouTube, and we will NOT be deleting anything that's already up here. We hope you can support us, because it's your support that matters to us more than anything else.

Everyone: Oh my god you guys are such assholes who hate poor people, what the fuck is your problem!! How dare you abandon us, here's a huge paragraph about how your shows are the only thing that makes my life worth living because [xyz systemic issue], just so you know you're actively ruining our lives by trying to get rid of ads, make better content, and focus on what the viewers want. Why didn't you switch to Nebula or something?? Idc if that's not how it works. Fuck you all, I'm going to go review bomb all your videos. This is so evil and scummy. Also, I'm pissed because people are claiming this isn't avaliable in the rest of the world, even though no one has offered a single source to back it up. Anyway back to watching Dropout, a service you have to pay for, which I'm not mad about at all.

Me:

[thrown-away-opinions]

So I made the mistake of watching the hbomberguy plagiarism video. I don't know why, because I kinda hate him and his entire shtick and his entire sanpaku-eyed desperate style of presentation that screams "please think I'm smart and that I am a moral cool guy who does good things!"

Anyways, the dumb fuck kinda missed the mark by a mile and the urgency and drama he tries to invoke amounts to being very angry that some people have made careers out of regurgitating other people's work. There's a few reasons why, but let's set this right up front: Yes, plagiarism is bad. It's a terrible thing to steal someone else's work, pass it off as your own, and then try to weasel out of it when caught. It's also an extremely stupid thing to do, especially if your job is writing reviews or giving your own opinions on some piece of media and plagiarism leads to reciting factually incorrect information.

That said, there's a few assertions and implications in this retardedly long video that stuck out to me and I want to talk, at length, about them. That these people have made a lot of money and are therefore bad. That citations or crediting sources would have changed something. That people careers have been damaged or somehow denied big piles of money because they were plagiarized.

Making a lot of money seems more like a vague sort of "rich people bad" but it's such a hollow assertion to make. Youtube financially incentivizes content creation or a certain type, quantity, and regularity. The algorithm is a slot machine. Ad revenue is just money on the table, and if someone disables the ad revenue on their videos, youtube runs ads anyways and the channel just doesn't get any of the money generated. As for stuff like patreon and parasocial simp behavior, you can't really stop people from doing what they want with their money. Hasan Piker became a millionaire because retards like throw money at him to watch other people's youtube videos and occasionally say the dumbest shit imaginable. If we could stop people from watching, let alone financially supporting dipshits, we would, but we can't. Being mad that they're making money from is just petty, especially if the implication is that being rich makes someone evil and bad, but at the same time, wishing that other people whom Hbomberguy ideologically jive with should be the rich ones instead. It's moronic.

It sounds reductive to just say "don't hate the player, hate the game" because the sort of shameless scumbags who will eagerly plagiarize and openly steal other people's work are detestable. I don't want the takeaway here to be that I think they are harmless or absolved of guilt. The problem is simply something far larger than youtube or social media. It's something that is not caused by the temptation of getting easy money from stealing ideas, but something that is inherent in the sorts of opportunistic scumbags that have always existed all throughout human history. Trying to shame them or expose them can only accomplish so much when they are already shameless to begin with.

Moving on to the value of citations, aside from being a genuinely nice and professional thing to do, it would not meaningfully change the profitability of content mill channels who largely use other people's work to rapidly produce videos faster than a real writer/researcher could script them. At most, it would add a slight bit more runtime and put more text in the very easy to ignore "about" section of a video, which would never get seen by 99% of viewers. Trying to impose some sort of labor speedbump by demanding citations and credits won't meaningfully stop these people from profiting off other people's work at a speed honest creators couldn't match anyways because they've been burdened by a sense of self-respect and honesty.

Furthermore, properly cited credit will not divert viewers and fans towards monetarily supporting the sources, nor encourage the diehards on patreon to stop donating. Youtube will still give the payout for the views and clicks and engagement on a video that can be 100% regurgitated, copied content, cited or not, regardless.

Additionally, the reasons people watch certain youtubers and types of content is often totally divorced from any thoughts about academic ethics. Most of the time, the audience doesn't even care because that doesn't even factor into their enjoyment of some background noise video or hearing a youtuber they like talk about something they might be mildly interested in.

Not to mention that there are countless successful youtubers who making a living reading reddit posts, reciting lore from fan wikis, reading 4chan greentexts in funny voices, or just "reacting" to other people's videos, just literally reading things other people have written word for word. This is content that is both directly cited and stuff that has no author to credit or cite at all but is still stolen. Despite knowing the content is stolen, uncited, plagiarized, etc, people watch them anyways and ad revenue payout happens regardless. There's functionally no difference, credited or not, but one is seemingly permissible because it's open about using other people's writing or research or ideas.

Is it a huge fucking problem that is turning the internet into a terrible place? Absolutely, but it wouldn't make a fucking difference if they cited the content they were reposting, because the core problem is actually the way youtube and other social media sites tell people they'll pay them for generating that sludge content, even if it's stolen, reposted, or purposefully made in a way to abuse the algorithm.

The last point I feel like covering is the idea that the specific plagiarists are denying money and career advancement to others by stealing from them. The implication being that because someone thinks the guy who makes awful video essays about Disney and Queerness who lifts his scripts almost 100% from books he never credits, the writers of those authors are being denied money and their careers as "voices of the queer community" or whatever, have been kneecapped because one other guy took all the credit. Implying that they would be the recipients of all the success, money, and career growth that Queer Plagiarist man, and others, have gained if they hadn't be plagiarized from.

This is moronic for a number of reasons, most of which I've already discussed. The most obvious reason being that they are often competing in completely different areas. The audiences giving clicks and views to the plagiarist aren't making the choice between purchasing a book or watching a youtuber. Published books aren't listed in youtube searches or recommendations.

People can both read books and watch youtube videos, if they want, but clicking on a youtube video isn't at all the same as shopping around to decide which creator is the most ethical and deserving of any sort of financial compensation. Even if the books were cited and listed, at most it amounts to a few sales, if any. However, the supposed outrage is the lack of citation and credit, not that we should be demanding promotion and advertising from youtubers or that every quotation or idea lifted from someone else needs to come with a proportional amount of reimbursement

If it's an article instead, like the case with the 'Man in Cave' video, there's nothing being sold and and the youtuber's career maintains the same trajectory, even if clearly cited and credited, still gains the same audience, the same patreon donors etc. At best, the article might get a few more clicks, so the outrage there is that some clickbait factoid site like Mental Floss didn't collect more ad revenue of its own, which is especially interesting since most of what Mental Floss does is repost articles from other sites with a little link at the bottom that shows you they didn't write shit. Fancy that.

But there's also this direct assertion that other people making similar content about, for example, queerness in Disney media are being denied the fame and success they rightfully deserve because someone else got more popular by being a plagiarist. While there may be a finite amount of time in the world for people to watch youtube videos about stupid bullshit, it is not so finite that it is an all or not situation. People can subscribe to more than one person about a given subject. One person being successful through plagiarism does not exclude anyone else from also being successful on their own merits. If they aren't successful, you can blame the algorithm, lack of interest, or the quality of their actual work.

A similar implication is that if someone were properly recognized for their work through being credited on a video that gets millions of views, that more job offers or interviews or some kind of improvement to their general socioeconomic status would be dropped in their lap. That may be true in matters of outright content theft where a relatively unknown creator loses all views and clicks on something that got stolen by a bigger channel, but not when we're talking about someone who already had a book publishing deal or peer reviewed research.

This kind of echoes the first point about money, but with popularity instead. Impotently whining that someone else got famous when what he wants is for someone better, less objectionable, to get the popularity... and I think that's what's really at the core of hbomberguy's stupidly long video (and this stupidly long rant). He only wants people he likes to be successful and is upset that he can't take that away from them. Plagiarism is just a convenient moral cudgel to wield and a convenient way to whip up his simple minded fans into another witch hunt.

If you go and check Internet Historian's latest video, you can see a significant amount of dislikes, and the comments section is full of people screaming about plagiarism and Tommy Tallarico, who was another target of hbomberguy's obnoxiously elaborate bullshit previously. There's no chance in hell that these people are actually outraged that mentalfloss wasn't properly credited, but they love that sensational self-righteous high they get from joining the latest angry mob whipped up by famous internet smart guy and maker of pretentious videos, hbomberguy.

Now, where does that leave us after all of that shit I just wrote? Well, if there's anything to take away, it's to understand that there are shameless, opportunistic scumbags out there who are constantly looking for their chance to exploit a system for personal gain. Not just on youtube, but everywhere. Crypto. Life coach sigma male shit. Politics. Twitter engagement farming. etc etc. As long as their behavior can be rewarded, they will continue doing it. So get better about spotting it and learn to block, filter, and excise it from whatever feeds you use and expect the same of your friends.

When it comes to the creators you follow, hold certain standards, but know that there is a limit to the moral purity you can expect from them. For most of the big ones out there, the goal is to make money. You can demand proper citations and such from all of them, but then they'll go and take a sponsorship deal from Established titles or Better help or some NFT scam, and that's exponentially worse than presenting information in a way that may making the audience incorrectly assume they've done exhaustive research on a topic when they're just quoting someone else.

And lastly: stop watching Hbomberguy. He's a sanctimonious retard.

[mod-doodles]

Quick rant but i‘m struggling with the bear fandom and cast/show runners response to sydcarmy or in general romance? why is everyone so pretentious i saw someone on twt say people who ship sydcarmy need to get out because this is not riverdale and it pissed me off so much what’s with this assumption of two main characters falling in love makes the show less serious or something. Ayo‘s interviews are also still a bad taste in my mouth because i feel bad openly shipping them now idk i don’t want this to be one of those shows were the actors/creators hate their fans/fandom :/

Firstly confession I never watched an episode of Riverdale I tapped out that YA genre when I stopped watching PLL, TVD and the originals, so I don’t get the reference.

With fans of the show who hate the ship it’s layered: apparently people hate love, the romance genre, interracial love, Carmy being in love, Sud being the one he’s in love with and much more lmao. Some of these people have intersecting thoughts on this.

The articles from the cast and crew it’s a catch 22 situation, I’m a cynic so my approach to life is ‘expect the worst and be prepared for the best’. What they’re saying does not align with what I’m seeing and I’m aware that what I’m seeing is not say a stereotypical Redditor is seeing and that’s fine. I’m also aware that show runners need to keep viewer’s attention and want for more, hence cliffhangers and plot twists; they aren’t going to give us a play by play of the stories progression.

My suggestion is to do whatever you think is best for you and your mental health! That might be avoiding certain platforms where they engage in those conversations that might enrage you or it might be silent shipping.

For me it’s knowing what I’ll yet from each platform so if I go look I now what to expect

Twitter: is mostly a good time if you stay to the fandom tags, idk what anyone else is doing. I do know Twitter was fighting on the frontlines of the anti ship battle at one point and god bless them for their service.

TikTok: is great at helping you be delulu with all the fanedits lol but I know the algorithm is suggesting is anyone who is remotely interested in the show the the comments while mostly pro ship have some anti ship viewers as well.

Instagram: idk anything besides the official instagram for the show so you’ll get everyone’s opinions on everything.

Tumblr: is a safe space, all the ships have their own tags and mind their own business 🤍 that but also after having interacted with people who ship sydrichie / sydmarcus there wasn’t any animosity so great.

It’s a show, we’re experiencing escaping reality don’t let anyone ruin the fun for you. Be unbothered and delulu!

[lunarsilkscreen]

The Algorithm Fallacy

I've spoken before on Analytics and Heuristics lacking context and the shortcut taking by marketers and politicians which lead them to believe we care about certain things that we really don't.

But why else does the algorithm suck?

Before Algorithms were used for more than search engines; we, as internet denizens; used bookmarks and listicles to categorize and save the content we cared most about.

But today; the algorithm can censor large portions of the massive amounts of content creators online.

Because of this; curated content is more or less all Algorithmically generated. And since algorithm generated content is generated by the most popular keywords of the last nanosecond; and the curation algorithm hosts content that it thinks you want based on those same keywords.

Guess what happens? You get served a lot of junk content you don't want because the algorithm actually sucks at both jobs it has been tasked to perform.

Literally everybody is complaining about this; while tech companies keep talking about how good it is for everyone and in reality Elon Musk actually has *tons* of friends, not algorithmically generated friends.

Millenials Tech Enthusiasts have long since developed methods of avoiding being served garbage by the algorithm. But as time goes on; our ability to control what the algorithm feeds us is becoming all about wasted effort.

"What are some of these techniques?" you might be asking "and why don't they work anymore?" you're definitely also asking.

Well; many Nerds like myself started with a few steps, which was easier with less people.

We would stop subscribing to content creators; because that simple step would alter your feed. We would stop liking or disliking content or comments online; because that *too* would alter your feed. Then; we stopped watching videos all the way through; because doing that would alter your feed!

And now the algorithm thinks we only want 10 seconds videos that have no likes or dislikes.

Do you see the problem here?

Viewing, Liking, disliking, commenting and subscribing to comment; the tools that content creators needs to gauge if people enjoy their content; are also the things that alter your feed and cause censure of other content you want to actually see.

So content creator analytics don't work for content creators, they especially don't work for viewers, but you know what they do work for?

Algorithm generated content.

Which means we're only a few steps removed from complete censor of anything that the algorithm doesn't generate for us to watch.

Isn't that an odd issue tech companies?

You really need to start removing algorithms instead of adding more. Because; not only are you acting as content host, you're also acting as a negligent curator, and you're not even giving us content we *actually* want to see.

Thanks. I hate it.

[cosmikazie]

can i be entirely real.

i fucking hate the rhythm we’ve all fallen into of trying to play social media like a game. but like, not just in the sense that some people get left behind while others are elevated. i also hate it in the sense that it feels like there’s hardly anything that’s worth intaking, viewing, reading, etc. anymore because it’s all just one big feat to compete for attention.

algorithms didnt just mess us up by pushing genuinely good people down, but there’s now all this content farm garbage at the top whose genuineness is completely undermined or outright demolished by the pandering garbage it sets out to be. thumbnails are engineered to be the most attention-grabbing things out there. titles are misleading. everyone does the same “content creator” voice inflection. we’ve invented a billion different ways to beg for followers or subscribers. and dont even get me started on engagement traps.

ultimately, thats actually what got me riled up enough to write this in the first place. i fucking LOATHE engagement traps. there’s people outright telling you to do things with their page, and then there’s the “comment ___ if you ___” stuff, the “double tap to lock in” stuff, the “share this to x other people or else” stuff, and most notoriously the RAGEBAIT. things specifically engineered to get the biggest rise out of their viewers or the biggest incentive to do what they want in order for interaction.

im over it. im over the lack of genuineness on social platforms. you could be posting cool stuff you made. you could be posting updates about your life. you could just be showing something interesting in general. but no, instead we get shit like lankybox, a million “if the ball does x then y happens” videos, and the same 36 dropshipping sellers purposefully using their products wrong to make you mad.

please. for fucks sake. make more stuff thats just genuine and true

[torchiiko]

can i say smth. im so sick of platforms trying desperately to be "advertiser friendly" & making it harder to address situations with serious subject matter. i hate that youtubers need to soften their language or even outright censor words so that they dont get demonetized, bc demonetization not only means they dont get any money for the effort spent making the video, but it also means youtubes algorithm will go out of its way to Not promote that video. which is bad if the topic is smth that ppl need to be aware of

it makes the creators trying to address things sound childish by using words like "unalive" or dancing around the subject. but its hard for them to inform anyone if their video gets held back bc they described things accurately. youtube doesnt like words like rape or kill, so creators have to avoid them or they get punished. its incredibly frustrating as a viewer & no doubt even more so as a creator

no swearing too early in the video, no excessive swearing in a video, no text with swears in it, no "scary" words like murder, or your video is as good as dead. its only getting harder & harder for creators to be able to express themselves or address serious topics, all for the sake of appeasing advertisers

[mannishboywrites]

What the hell is going on?

The internet has been pissing me off lately. It seems like it's impossible to log into my Twitter account (fuck off, Elon, I'm not calling it X) to say "ratio+L+get gud" to a journalist without being shown some blue-check misogynist with a marble bust avatar telling me that I must save my sons from the degenerating forces of public school, Netflix, and indoor plumbing. I can't open Instagram without seeing a LinkedIn evangelist telling me that the only way to success is to start your day with a five mile run at 3am and block off two hours before lunch for something called "deep work" in between liquid meals that will run you $50/day. I just wanted to watch videos of some guy showing me how to play "Supernaut" by Black Sabbath on the bass. Instead of three hour video essays about one specific armor piece in Dark Souls 2, YouTube wants me to watch two guys with questionable hairlines sit in a studio and debate how high a woman's body count can be before she has been gone from NPC to refuse in their eyes.

It may sound like I'm complaining about The Almighty Algorithm, but I really hate the idea of being that boring. As someone who has a working understanding of Marxian social theory, I promise that I will be more annoying than dull. As such, what has really been fueling my consternation has been the feeling that nobody really knows why they're doing what they're doing, nobody knows where they are going, and everything feels like an artifice. Other people are not people in the way you are, they're obstacles, foils, marks, rungs on a ladder, predators, or prey. Seeing them as anything other than an object with a use value at least and ideally an exchange value is a sign of weakness best avoided.

If you've spent even a second on the internet, you've certainly seen the various hacks that people smarter, sexier, richer, and more skilled than you have to offer, all for the low price of a Patreon subscription. It's not a get rich quick scheme, it's an optimization method. It's not how to make friends and influence people, it's how to become an Influencer with a powerful Brand. You're not having a crisis of identity, you're just a Beta in need of some guidance on how to develop the Sigma grindset. You have so much to learn, and a bald man with HGH gut can probably teach you.

Until I forget or lose interest because I started another character in Elden Ring, I'll be exploring the various ailments of what Marx would call alienation and how they manifest on social media in the form of content (another concept I'll probably talk about because I hate it so much) designed to be consumed, regurgitated, and consumed again in a cycle that not only radicalizes the viewer, but the creator themselves. In post-industrial capitalist society within the Imperial core, people have lost the concept of class as a scientific term. We don't share spaces with people we don't already think we'll get along with, we don't bond over things that aren't commodities, and we don't have relationships that aren't transactions. When you've been steeped in that brew from birth (usually sometime in the Reagan administration or after), it's not hard to see why Andrew Tate isn't rejected as a psychopathic cancer to a civilized society or why Jordan Peterson's vapid, half-baked Jungianism can't be laughed off as the mumblings of a charlatan. The fact is, people are desperately looking for something that just isn't there, and when they aren't armed with a truly social set of ethics or basic media literacy, anybody with any confidence or semblance of authority will do as a surrogate role model.

I can't say this blog is going to be well-planned or even well-sourced all the time. Hell, I'm not even sure how long I'll keep up with it. Hopefully, I'll get some of you thinking about how dangerous it can be to distance yourself from your fellow people. At the very least, we'll get to gawk at some real freaks. That's what the internet should be for, I think.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Exactly, my point is different. I argue that tropes are not harmful, not that they aid the story. They are useful to readers/authors/viewers to understand how to approach something. I also understand that is not the point made in the confession.

I don't understand the argument in the confession and I'm explaining why I do not understand it by defining what charadesign/looks serve as in a storyteller's POV. The "equated" word seems strong. How can people do that? Different medias, different characters, different ships. "Compare", maybe. If people equate two different things to say they are the same, yeah that's annoying. The appearance/looks depends on a storytelling tool tho, so I argued that it's only normal to see similitudes in some ways, and it might be the creator's goal actuality.

I agree with everything you say but there is something I don't understand.

Do people expect all tropes to apply the exact same way on every single character that could belong to a specific category..? I don't know, it sounds like science fiction to me. Dystopic, even. What's the point to even try anything else, then? I don't invalidate your point. I just don't understand it. It is stupid to expect someone who likes bananas to also like strawberries. And kinda insensitive. I get it. But it's actually just as important to me that people understanding fries, mashed potatoes and tartiflette are absolutely not the same thing. Do we really need to point it out is my question ? It's just common sense that those don't have the same texture and flavour. It's not the same recipe. Fact is, it still is potato 🥔

"Once things are grouped, typically one only focuses on the similar aspects, not the differences. We thus lose out on the unique aspects of each duo's relationships. These unique traits are incredibly important in both story and how we interact with the world."

Once again, yes, totally, the details are what make each ship interesting and important. Unique. No ship is exactly the same. (Again, what would even be the point to create/read/watch anything at all if lt was?) You misinterpreted what I meant: the interest is in the difference. Just like we can think "oh that's a show about time traveling" but the reason we stay is how that trope is used and developed and the consequences on the characters.

The point that I was making is, I do not, personally, in my humble opinion, think it hurts any ships or medias or characters to attach tropes to them. This is what I don't understand. How does it hurt the original media? The worst thing that can happen is losing time trying something new. Stupid thing that can happen is deciding not to try tartiflette because we don't like mashed potatoes. Cheese is good, trust me, it changes everything, but it's okay if the onions disgust you 😂

Following your reasoning the issue isn't this trope but all tropes, then. What we're really arguing about seems to be that categorizing media is reductive. It's not really the point of categories in my opinion. Netflix's algorithm is reductive. Ao3 classifications are helpful. Tropes are not supposed to be reductive, it's supposed to help us understand a concept, what we're dealing with. It's a starting point, not a finishing line. It's a narrative tool. Some of it might be overused or used badly, but then the use we make of is annoying, not the tool itself. And this, I do understand. Hate the player, not the game, and all that haha.

Tropes are a theme or a motif: a metaphor. It's not meant to be taken literally.

I don't have any particular issue with the confession itself. I just don't think trope means what people tend to think it means. Not the person in the confession but the type of people the confession is about. Agreeing with you on every one of your arguments just proves to me the problem isn't the fact we associate a concept with a character. The problem is not the trope itself but the fact people tend to read everything too literally. My only real issue with that is that maybe one day, because of this, complex and audacious storytelling might disappear because fans are just not equipped to deal with the codes attached to it. Just like our parents couldn't understand some codes we did while watching a movie in the 90s. That's what I meant when I said media literacy. It's just how it is, I guess.

lowkey i'm kinda sick of shiguang being equated to every other set of characters with black&white colour schemes when most of the time they're not even similar as actual characters beyond the appearance trope. I can see the appeal a bit, but it strikes me as reductive more than anything.

[sumiez]

so.. hear me out.. you know how kurt says he’s “all about love” on his stream? how about reader is almost as unhinged as he is, showing up to every stream and viewing every video. they understand and worship the lesson. now that he’s all about love reader is too and tries to get him to love them back

- n.e

paparazzi | kurt kunkle

warnings: typical spree stuff, obsessions, hit and runs, makeout sessions

a/n: first kurt request.. i hope i did him justice!! love the idea btw i love when readers are just as cuckoo as him

to call yourself obsessed with kurtsworld96 is a grave understatement. you weren't sure exactly how you discovered such an obscure influencer, it was likely youtube's algorithm being generous, but it was one of the best things to ever happen to you.

every video of his would receive a like from you. every stream would result in you two chatting about anything and everything before it inevitably ends with his mom calling him down for dinner. but that was the extent of your relationship—a fan and content creator.

you're enamoured with the idea of becoming his number one fan, his ride or die, his most loyal follower. every time he greets you on stream your heart soars.

once he began the lesson, however, you became determined to meet him. a real, genuine meeting, and you were going to win him over for good. you worship the lesson, it's not staged prank content like his friend bobby, it's real. it's gritty. and, in your opinion, incredibly attractive.

who cares about the people you left behind to travel all the way to outside LA. kurt is all that matters in your lovesick state.

opening the gogo app, you frantically search for kurt's description. according to his stream, he should be searching for unlucky victims right about now, despite spree being suspended.

you're about to grow frustrated until you see your saviour's profile appear. you couldn't possibly be happier.

immediately requesting a ride, you fish out your handcrafted, shoddily made kurtsworld hat and drop it onto the top of your head. you cannot wait to see the look on his face when he catches you adorning it.

after a few minutes of listening to him ramble to the camera about how he's surprised no passengers have recognized him, you hear him announce that he thinks he has his eyes on the prize—you.

you enter the stolen vehicle with a skip in your step, except this time you find comfort in the passenger seat.

"whoa whoa w—hey, wait, is that a..?" he stammers out, initially apprehensive at your choice of seating but you see him ease up once he notices your headwear.

"yes, kurt, i'm literally your biggest fan," you answer breathlessly, showing off your hat to the camera. "i loved watching you kill all those jerks, but now that you're all about love it's even better, you know? i've been watch—"

you're interrupted by kurt laughing out of pure glee. he's never felt this loved before. "holy shit you guys, we actually ... we have a real fan in the house," he trips over his own words out of unfiltered excitement. he made it. fuck his other tens of thousands of viewers, this person, this angel, is all that matters.

the two of you spend what feels like an eternity chatting, just like old times.

"what's your favourite video i've made?" he asks, and if your vision isn't deceiving you, he's blushing. hard.

"gotta be your horror movie reviews. i liked you before the lesson too. but your water bottle tutorial was really useful too, i know a few people who really need to drink one." you reply instantly, as if you planned out the whole conversation.

in truth, you did rehearse your answers to certain questions, you're infatuated with your plan to impress kurt and win him over. some may call you unhinged, but you're the kind of person who'd do anything for love.

the chat isn't too fond of your friendly behaviour with each other. they're begging for something gory to happen, and honestly, a death at kurt's hand isn't something you'd hate that much.

he listens for their pleas to start driving and places his hands on the wheel. "you want to go to the...construction site, right...?" he asks with a raised brow.

"yeah! i loved the gummy bear part of the stream, i'd love to check the place out myself." a smile graces his features in response to your words. he's still shocked that someone actually likes his content enough to spend time with him.

as you drive down the bumpy road, he pipes up. "so, like, what's your handle? i'll follow you back,"

"we've been mutuals for years, kurt."

"wait, you're—" he repeats your username, the one person other than bobby who continuously tunes into his content. "damn. that's so cool. it was always...neat seeing you pop in,"

you perk up as your face grows warm, "you really think so? it means a lot."

"of... of course i think so. i couldn't have done it without... well, you..."

as he steers, you embrace the boldness kurt gives you and you peck him on the cheek. the skin is flushed beneath your lips, and he nearly crashes at the contact.

"i... oh god, you just.. i really... i really want to.."

"look! some dumbass is crossing the street! hit them, hit them!" you jump out of your seat and point towards a middle aged man, and kurt speeds up.

he's so flustered that he's still registering the kiss, but he complies, hitting the pedestrian with a bone—chilling thump.

his viewers are growing every second, the chat congratulating him for getting some action, while others toss insults at the life you two just ended.

"our first kill," you say as you two lock eyes and he has the giddiest grin on his face.

finally reaching your destination, he opens the driver side door and does a loop around the car to open yours. such a gentleman.

with his clammy hand in yours, you step out.

"sooo, this is the spot where i ran that douchebag over," he points around the area, shuffling his feet. "i can... show you the junkyard with the dogs too, if you want."

you nod enthusiastically, "i'd love to see that."

"great, great. uhh.." as he thinks of what to say next, you approach him. draping your arms around his neck, you press a kiss to his chapped lips. he can't help but groan at your touch, never having kissed anybody like this before.

he instinctively pulls you off.

"i... that was..."

"nice?"

"yeah. nice. do you wanna take this to my...back to my car, or something?" nodding again at his words, you reach for his hand again and stroll to the vehicle with him.

you crawl inside and kurt immediately gets comfortable on top of you, shoving his face into yours. you can tell he's inexperienced when it comes to kissing, but you return the touches, fingers finding refuge in his tufts of hair. his kisses are sloppy but passionate, his longing to be loved presenting itself in each action.

"i've always wanted to..." he mutters as he pulls away for air. "...kiss someone like that. i'm glad it was a fan and not some jerk at one of bobby's parties,"

your heart hammers in your chest as you respond with another breathless kiss. you're actually kissing your idol, and his entire stream is watching. kinda forgot about that.

without warning, a police car skids into the lot, and you and kurt exchange glances of horror.

he rushes to the driver's seat, yelling at you to put on a seatbelt as he preps for blastoff.

he peels out of the area, driving to god knows where.

"well, my little... partner in crime... do you wanna finish what we started somewhere else?"

"of course."

[gh0stfellow]

RSS for Artists and the People Who Follow Them

RSS is the best thing for artists that you didn't know still existed. Tired of trying to figure out what new thing you have to do this week to get your posts seen? Tired of keeping up with 8 different websites to follow all the artists you like? Do you hate Musk/Zuckerberg, the general social media experience for artists, endless scrolling, or fractured communities? Use RSS! It's a super simple and comfortable way to experience social media.

Keep reading below for the full how-to!

What is RSS and why should I care?

RSS is a standardized format at a URL that computers can read to monitor updates to a website. When a post gets made, the RSS feed gets updated containing the post's information. An RSS reader is the app you use to view these RSS feeds and subscribe to them. It displays updates to the RSS feed similar to a normal social media dashboard.

There are many more specifics we could get into, but the technical details aren't really what matter here: the main point is that you can use an RSS reader to follow all your favorite people from almost any site and never miss an update, all while being able to view the content at your own pace.

Through simple steps outlined further down, you can follow twitter, instagram, deviant art, youtube, and tumblr accounts, subreddits, personal websites, newsletters, and more! The cool thing is, unlike your twitter or instagram feed, the RSS reader has powerful tools to display the posts exactly to your liking with filters, sorting, AND posts that won't disapear until you mark them as read, so you can kiss FOMO goodbye. Of course, this does mean I don't necessarily recommend you use RSS for your general meme accounts where an endless feed is somewhat ideal, it's much better suited for following creators or others you want to keep up to date on.

I use Inoreader as my RSS reader because it's free (though you can pay for more features), has a good mobile app as well as a browser version, and a good UI that is comfortable for post viewing.

Benefits as a viewer

No algorithms (but you can set filters)

Posts stay until you see them, so you don't have to be online 24/7 to see art you followed for

You can follow people on any* site and see it all in one place

No logging into multiple accounts or checking websites for updates

No ads, sponsored posts - nothing you don't want to see

Benefits as an artist

No algorithms! Format posts any way you like without worrying about getting nerfed

Freedom to post where ever you want

If RSS became standard, you wouldn't have to worry about posting on every social media in existance; anybody can follow you easily, no matter where you are

You'll be able to reach your audience no matter the whims of social media changes

Like having a newsletter without any extra work

How to subscribe to social media feeds through RSS

Here's a quick run down of how subscribing to an RSS feed generally works:

A website exists that has RSS

You type website.com/rss/ into your RSS reader and it sees an active feed

You hit subscribe

Peace on earth is achieved

Of course, sometimes it's not that simple and a website's feed is at a different URL. There might be a little RSS button on the website you can copy the link from, or readers like Inoreader can be given the basic URL and it'll try to find if any RSS feed is attached to it.

In the past, most socials had RSS built in, but this has slowly been phased out in favor of notifications/algorithms. So unfortunately, it's not as simple as it used to be anymore. Fortunately, however, websites like rssbox or RSS-Bridge can automatically turn twitter and other social media profiles into an RSS feed.

Before we get to that, however, there is some great news: some sites, such as tumblr and DeviantArt, still have RSS built in to each profile!

Tumblr feeds are at: https://blogname.tumblr.com/rss (god bless tumblr)

DeviantArt feeds: https://backend.deviantart.com/rss.xml?type=deviation&q=by%3Adeviantname+sort%3Atime+meta%3Aall (as usual, DA likes to over complicate things)

Enter the user name of the person you want to follow in the URL where indicated, remove the asterisks, pop it into your RSS reader and you're good to go.

Youtube channels can also be followed by pasting the channel URL into your reader, where it'll grab the feed for you to follow automatically.

*Note: sometimes, there appears to be small discrepancies between someone's tumbr.com/username url and username.tumblr.com url, and you must use the second for the rss feed link even though clicking on their profile name usually send you to the first link version. If you're having trouble, I recommend going to the user's archive on tumblr and then replacing the word "archive" with "rss" in the URL you're at. This way you'll know your formatting is right.

So what about twitter and other bastard sites? That's where our friends on github who make open source projects come in. As mentioned above, rssbox and RSS-Bridge are both great options. You can host them on your own server, if you're into that kind of thing, to ensure you never lose service and your feeds might get updated faster, but both have free to use websites that make it as easy as:

Copy the profile URL of the person you want to follow

Locate the corresponding social media section on the rssbox/rss-bridge webpage and paste the URL in

Adjust any settings you want

Copy the URL it gives you and subscribe to it in your RSS reader

*Note: Many RSS readers mention having twitter and other social support (usually with a paid subscription), but I've yet to see one that doesn't cap you at like, 20 accounts. This is a ridiculously small number. That said, Feedbro is a reader that is available as a browser extension only and DOES offer real, free, endless social media to RSS feed conversion. Personally, I hate its UI as well as the way it automatically marks things as read, but it's up to you and what works best for you. I probably just missed a reader when I was looking around, so if this matters to you do your research on what reader you use.

Another feed source of note is newsletters. Again, many readers will do this automatically for a price, but I enjoy the website Kill the Newsletter that'll do this for free. You can type in what you want to call the newsletter feed, click generate, and then sign up for the newsletter with the email address it creates for you. You'll then copy the second URL on the page (the one that ends in .xml) and this is what you'll plug into your RSS reader. Done! This is helpful for cleaning out your inbox of emails that you do want to see, but aren't important, and would otherwise end up cluttering up your inbox and burying time sensitive items.

Most websites, RSS feed or not, can have an RSS feed created for them if you're okay with it being a bit hacky. So I highly recommend doing some googling if you're interested in something I haven't mentioned here. You can also sometimes find RSS feeds for a website (if they aren't up front about it) by Inspecting the page and looking in the html head element for a .xtml or rss link. I'm passionate about this, so feel free to send me an ask if you have questions! (but also try to figure it out for yourself first)

How to get your own RSS feed

If you're on any kind of social, someone can follow an RSS feed of your art using the steps outlined above. However, I highly recommend you start posting your work somewhere with RSS built in! You don't have to do any extra work as your RSS feed is automatically made/updated on websites like tumblr and deviant art that still support RSS. I believe cohost might also be adding RSS support soon as well. I recommend following your own RSS feed so you know what is getting sent out.

If you want a space to truly call your own you can easily make a tiny website or blog. There are a lot of options for this, but if you're looking for simplicity I recommend bearblog.dev! Just make an account and start posting and your RSS feed is automatically made at: https://yourblog.bearblog.dev/feed/

Wordpress and Neocities also have built in RSS feeds, and likely a lot of other platforms that advertise blogging.

Now you have an RSS feed! And no worries about engagement from followers - it's easy to click the post link in your reader to a post, comment/like it, and then hop back into your RSS reader. It's made for that, even. Remeber to advertise your RSS feed; I hope they become the norm again, but until that happens you'll probably have to let people know it exists.

Closing Remarks

Listen, I'm realistic about this. I don't think I'm going to make this post and then RSS will return in full force to the internet like wolves being introduced back into Yellowstone. However, I spent years being dissatisfied with how I was forced to engage with artists on social media - the endless scrolling, feeling like "if I don't look at the next post I'll never see this piece of art again", the usual horrors of the internet we've fallen into - and if I can introduce a real solution to that for just one person I'll be happy.

I was born in the 90s and so can remember personal sites and forums, but never learned what RSS was and thought it was only something for power user programmers or stuffy business men. I have a feeling a lot of people have the same misconception, and it pains me to think of people out there that could benefit so much from this if only they knew of it properly. If you have ADHD, this is a game changer, I assure you.

I wish someone would've told me about this years ago. RSS is the answer to a lot of problems artists have. It's been there all along, it just hasn't been properly introduced to the wider community.

So I might not have much reach, but I feel so passionate about this; for the people this could help and the community we could create if we wiggled out from under what corporations have turned the internet into.

And oh, people have tried to fix this, sans RSS. I've watched many art websites come and go claiming to be the one to fix everything, but they usually fail because they divide the community and don't gain traction quickly enough. That, and non-artist support is extremely valuable and usually alienated in these attempts. RSS, on the other hand, is everywhere! Anybody can use it, anybody can follow it, and you aren't restricted to just one thing.

I say RSS is the solution because it's not just RSS. It's a tool that allows you to have the flexibility to make whatever solutions you need and be where ever you need to be on the internet.

RSS used to be everywhere, it used to be advertised - but of course, RSS feeds don't display ads, so it's only natural their head was on the chopping block. So my advice is such: pressure websites to add RSS back in! Make a tiny blog or website! Follow some feeds! Help reclaim the internet and regain control over the content you want to see. You don't have to be stuck in one spot, forced to use platforms you don't like, to see what you want and have your work be seen. Companies want us to consume more and more of what we don't want to see, to make us want to scroll endlessly into a stupor, and they'll do everything in their power to make us think we want it too.

So I dunno, follow some RSS feeds. Could be fun.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Ens*tification

[reference link] whenever somebody says something like this, it means they're criticizing the vibe of the space and not the space itself. Because they won't address their own numbers and instead discourage*other* users from using the platform.

"Seat's taken."

This happens in all sorts of social settings as well. Including Bars, Clubs, Coffee Shops, Public Spaces in General, and even Public Playgrounds (F*ing tiger moms dude.)

Not because of any tangible reason, just because the overall vibe has changed.

Let's start with the privatized dislike button: First, bigger creators had a penchant for attempting to *ratio* certain creators. Usually smaller creators, because they felt fear that the smaller creators were better than them and they *needed to control their territory* like they were a f*ing member of the crips, and some new guy would stop their growth. Some random users would also use bot farms just because they didn't like somebody.

Howard Stern did this too at one point in his career. And, what it ended up doing was encouraging people that hated his type of content into listening to other creators who were polar opposite him.

But it also encouraged *other* creators to act this way, and, ironically; Ens*ified radio into this bizarre place where it seemed like *only* shock Jocks could thrive. Unless you lived in Texas, then it was 24/7 Christian radio. (Because they banned the Shock Jocks.)

Censure by any other name...

Google is a near internet monopoly, Bigger than Amazon in scope and power. They have control over large portions of the backend of the internet. But "it's not a monopoly" because another monopoly controls access to those backends.

Even Amazon is beholden to the gatekeepers and Google's backrooms.

So it's not like I care about what happens to YouTube. But the fact they can produce this content AND get an audience, AND not be demonetized, should mean something to them.

And no matter how much activism there is for a public shared, equal access internet, it's nearly always ignored. Because of technology illiteracy. And these shock Jocks who, I don't want to say pollute the space, because that's kinda their whole shtick.

They obfuscate things that would benefit their shtick, because they constantly feel the pressure of being under attack for their craft.

They focus heavily on what people see on their home screen. They don't realize that the algorithm dictates that on purpose. Sharing child-safe content with children, and spicy content for spicy content viewers. (And, like hot ones, has multiple spice levels depending on what you can stand.)

If you want to address a larger, or more different audience, you could always create a new channel that follows those specifics. But they'd rather have a single channel with all their content.

If you're using clickbait for your videos, you're targeting ignorant people and small children. YouTube started a campaign on removing certain more spicy creators from the "children" space, because parents were complaining about contrapoints and philosophy tube *literally getting undressed on camera* and doing shows naked, and all the parents said was "just don't be in the child spaces."

Writers would call this *the hook*, and what you don't know, thats all clickbait is. But when you rely too heavily on clickbait.... There is no hook.

The same problem occurs with other sites. certain other shock jock creators, and twitch as a whole which, when I signed up, had an entire front page of bathtub streamers and voice actors from porn spaces (still doing porn acting).

"No really, I joined Twitch for the gaming, I swear."

That's some real HQ content there guys.

"WHERE ARE ALL THE VIEWERS GOING IF ALL OUR CONTENT IS NSFW!?"

There's a lot of people manufacturing all this "small creators can't even make money anymore and are financially dependent on viewership!!!"

But here's the thing, no they most likely are not. Having been funded by alternate sources. Or they make content in their spare time. Or saved some money in order to go job hunting and make money on the side.

If they're financially dependent on youtube, they are not a small time creator. They have an established audience, and can't be cancelled.

But since they're all making their chosen content creation spaces an objectively worse place to make content, the question remains; what will these spaces do about it? They're not going to cave to their demands. They likely can't afford to pay more. And creators can't leave the platform and make content elsewhere. (Because they're too reliant on the platform and can't afford it.)

They're intentionally trying to make it a worse place in order to build up subscription services to drive customers to themselves. But the only customers they will get, are the ones who're already fans *and* can afford it.

But they don't see that either. But they do know they can't just leave the service they're a part of. Because they've tethered themselves down.

I have written about the internet, the current problems the internet faces, and possible solutions for those problems. But, alas, nobody is listening.

Or are they?