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unforth · 2 years

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How to Use Tags on Tumblr

I frequently see people tag their works things along the lines of “sorry I don’t know how to tag,” and I also frequently see people tag badly while at least appearing to know what the fuck they’re doing, so it’s been on my mind to write up a post like this for a while, and with the influx of Twit-ugees, now is as good a time as any I suppose.

Advance warning that I’m the most long-winded bitch up in this place and just neurodivergent enough to never know how much to cut/what details don’t matter so apologies that this just goes on and on and I just hope that if you bear with me you’ll learn a thing or four.

Also note that any time I say "A thing will work this specific way" that is always subject to Tumblr's spontaneous habit of breaking and I can never guarantee that things will actually work at any given moment.

(this is fucking 5,000 words about using tagging on this blue webbed site so. Read more it is.)

Tagging 101

Okay, I’m gonna start at absolutely baby, sorry. The first thing you need to know is where tags go. You don’t tag in the “type text here” box where you’re talking about whatever. This isn’t like twitter, where if I start going hey everyone I’m writing a post about how to #tag things on #tumblr, everyone will see it if they go to #tag and #tumblr. Nope, you gotta put your tags in the box thingy at the bottom if you want people to actually see them when they use tag-search-related options.

You can write #whatever in the body of your post til the cows come home and it won’t do jack shit unless you put it in that bottom #add tags box. So. Do that.

Once you know how to tag, the two most important things to know about tags are:

1. Anyone can see your tags. Everyone can see your tags. Not just your followers. Not just OP. Any random stranger who pokes around in a post can see them, AND they’ll appear in the OPs “new activity” notifications, AND they'll be in the "view all reblogs with comments and tags" button that anyone can select, AND, if it’s an original post and you’re the OP, they’ll appear in the searchable tags on Tumblr. Like. Seriously. We can all see you. So always bear in mind that anything you say in a tag is subject to public scrutiny.

2. If you use a tag on an original post, your post will appear in that tag search. Anyone can search by tag in Tumblr. You go to that bar up top…(note that I’m using MDZS as my example for this post, but you can easily substitute your fandom of choice). (Reblogs that use a tag do NOT, EVER, appear in the tag searches.) So yeah, you're searching for a tag...

…and you get three types of search results. The first, with the #, shows the tag-ified version of your search, and clicking that will take you directly to tag search (and therefore show you posts that have that tag, and specifically exactly that tag - if you go to #mdzs, you won’t see #mdzs fanart, because tag search is narrowly defined). The magnifying-glass marked searches are common and related searches, and will show you posts that have those words in their text AND in the tags, so a magnifying-glass search for MDZS will show you things tagged mdzs, and also #mdzs fanart, and any random-ass post that includes mdzs anywhere in the main text or tags. You’ll get a lot (and you’ll have the chance to narrow that search by top posts vs. latest posts, recent vs. ever, type of post - as in picture vs. text vs. video etc., etc., though note that these searches are always busted and always lean heavily toward recent stuff). If you know you want the tag, you can click #mdzs, but even if you go to search instead (for example, if you just hit “enter” it’ll take you to search, not the tag), you can still see related tags:

Now, see how that says 21k followers? On Tumblr, you can follow tags! Anyone can follow tags! Popular tags often have tens-of-thousands, and occasionally hundreds-of-thousands, of followers! What exactly following a tag means depends on how any given individual sets up their feed, but for many people it means that random posts from that tag will appear on their timeline. Which means that if you tag your original posts (NOT reblogs - this applies to posts for which you are the originator) with a given tag, anyone who visits that tags and/or follows that tag can see it and might even have your post appear on their feed even if neither of you knows or follows the other.

Anyone who visits a given tag will be able to see your post (or, well, almost anyone - a. if you have them blocked or they have you blocked, they won’t see - though if you block a main blog/side blog, and they post from a different side blog, you CAN still see - if you really want to block someone you’ll need to block all their alts too, which is often a challenge since people tend not to be super public about their alts; b. if the tag is in the last 5 allowed tags on a post - more on that later - it won’t show up, uh, basically anywhere, good luck with that; c. if the tag search is broken, which it basically always is at least a little, welcome to our duct-taped hellsite enjoy your stay).

If you want people to see your post, this functionality is fantastic! It gives you a lot of ways to get your content out there. If you don’t want people to see your post…well. It is absolutely critical that you understand that there is absolutely nothing private about tags, and that even though we all frequently clown in tags, you need to be aware of the potential consequences of that clowning, namely that people will see you clowning, including complete strangers, and so you might not want to clown quite that hard.

Personal Blog Organization

But, I hear you say, I want to organize my own blog! If I don’t tag my mdzs posts #mdzs to avoid everyone seeing them because I Don't Want That, how will I find them when I want them later?

Well, first, don’t expect to ever be able to find things easily on Tumblr, lmao. We do have search and tag organization options (more later!) but in the end always assume things you post might become unfindable; if you really want to be sure you can find something again, find another way to store it (I personally keep “things I don’t want to lose” in drafts; some people also use likes, or private side blogs).

That said, this is one of the main reasons a lot of people use personal tags to denote their own content. For example, if I want to post something but I don’t want it to spread too far, I will avoid using the fandom tags and stick to my personal blog organization tags. I personally use “unforth rambles” for my “whatever the fuck this is” kind of posts, “whine whine whine” if I’m complaining, “unforth writes” for my fiction, etc. Lots of people have a personal tag, and not only do they make it easier for you to find your own stuff, they also make it easier for other people to find your stuff.

Want to post about mdzs, want to be able to find it again, but don’t want it in the tag? Try “yourname’s mdzs thoughts” or something similar.

Do you create a thing, and want people to be able to actually find it if they come to your blog, instead of it getting buried under a billion other reblogs and shitposts? Try “yourname art” or “my yourfandom fic” or whatever. Trust me, as someone who routinely tries to find art on people’s blogs? People who have specific tags make it much, much easier, and believe it or not I guarantee there is SOMEONE out there who’d like to be able to interact with your stuff more easily, and if you make it impossible you’ll never even know they wanted to.

Likewise, of course, a personal tagging system can make things utterly unfindable cause sometimes that’s Goals. Take this knowledge and use it as you will.

Aside to the above: queue tags. If you’re on Tumblr for more than 5 minutes you’ll see that a lot of posts have tags like “my queue” or, more often, ridiculous “queue”-related pun tags (when I used to use one, it was “#q hoo hoo”). Why do people do this? Well, there’s surely a lot of reasons, but as far as I know the main one (my own reason, at least), was pretty simple: Tumblr has a messaging system, and a lot of us use it, and if we post something, people will think we’re online and might message us and then get upset that we don’t answer. Using a queue tag makes it very clear “this posted when I wasn’t actually present.” Then, you can (like me) go back to ignoring your messages for days and pretend you haven’t been on Tumblr until you’ve actually got the whatever to answer them.

ETA: it's been pointed out that, depending on what search settings someone is using, using "my thing tag" may still show up in searches, so if your goal is to keep your posts out of the main tags, you'd be better served to avoid using the same full text as the common tag(s).

Tag Limits

It’s also important to know that you don’t have unlimited tags, and they can’t be of unlimited length. Tags have a character limit (...I never remember how much it is, though, maybe 200-something?) and you can’t have more than thirty tags on a post. Conventional wisdom is that if an important tag (such as a fandom tag or character tag that you WANT people to be able to find) isn’t in the first ten tags, it won’t appear in search, though I’ve definitely seen things in tag search that had the tag farther down than that. That said, if you put anything in between Tag 25 and Tag 30, don’t expect to ever be able to find it again. Trust me. I’ve tried. Tag 25 to Tag 30 are a tag black hole, and anything in that range might as well not exist because it won’t be searchable. (Sometimes - but only sometimes - search will be able to find things in that hole, subject to all the bugs that normally make search nigh unusable). Note that on mobile, at least, Tumblr yells at you if you try to tag more than 30; on desktop I honestly don’t know if it does cause I always use XKit reblog features instead, lmao. (more on that later!)

A couple other tag limits include:

1. various punctuation breaks tags, though which has varied over time. For example, currently if you try to make a tag with quotes (#I told him “shut up”) you will NOT get a tag that says that, you’ll get two tags: #shut up and #i told him. And, they’ll be in that order - the tag in quotation marks will end up first, before anything else. For a long time, hyphens also just absolutely murdered tags; theoretically they fixed that recently though in practice I’ve noticed it being hit-and-miss, so if you want to be sure things work well don’t use a hyphen. Further, at least on desktop, a comma tells it “this is the end of the tag” so if you enter a comma it won’t put in a comma it’ll just end your tag and take you to the next one. Honestly, if you want to be sure that your tag doesn’t break your best bet is to stick to…not. Forget grammar. Surrender to the void. People will figure out what you mean…or they won’t. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We never said this was a great site but you’re stuck with us now, lmao.

2. you can’t edit tags. They recently teased that they’d introduce tag editing, but at least as far as I’ve been able to tell it’s never actually been unrolled, or maybe it’s only been unrolled to some users (we often only get features for some folks, or only on mobile or only on desktop…). An addendum to this is the simple rule that no matter how careful you are you will inevitably make a typo in your last word, often the last letter, right before you hit enter. I’m sorry. It’s a law of nature. On the plus side everyone knows that tags can’t be edited so no one’s going to care if your spelling is janky. (ETA: just to be clear, since it was pointed out in the notes: you CAN delete a tag and retype it. so, it's up to you if you feel like doing that. I meant you can't go back and edit the text entered as a tag, you can only delete it and make a new tag)

Censoring Tags

Do not censor tags. ESPECIALLY trigger warnings. Sometimes people will censor letters intentionally so things won't turn up in the tag search options (for example, if they're saying something negative), and while I think that's valid I also think there are better ways to handle it (like just use a different fucking tag). But if you censor tags, and especially if you censor warning tags, you make it MUCH HARDER for people to consistently blacklist. Just call things what they are (except n s f w - more later), and tag accurately (so if you want to post anti use "anti thing" tags instead of censoring), and make it possible for people to ACTUALLY avoid things and blacklist. Please. I'm begging you.

Finding the Tag for The Thing You Want

Often, finding a relevant tag can be super easy, especially if what you like is common. If you’ve been in online fandom at all, even on other platforms or forums or wherever, you likely already are familiar with common abbreviations for The Thing, and those are usually a great place to start (for example, #mdzs, #mcu for Marvel movies, #spn for Supernatural, #lotr for Lord of the Rings, etc.). However, since people do often use multiple tags (like, they may tag #mdzs AND #mo dao zu shi, AND #grandmaster of demonic cultivation, AND #gdc) you can always try putting in The Full Name For The Thing, and then seeing what tags are on the posts that pop up. Then, once you see that, you can click through a few and check them out. Every tag’s page will have a box like this:

…and it says right there how often the tag has been used “recently” (no, I have literally NEVER figured out how “recently” is…recently). If you want to find the most popular tags for a given fandom, the easiest way is to just poke around in the tags people are using and see which ones have the biggest number in that “XXX recent posts” box. Those are the ones people love and use, and emulating them will lead you in the right direction (assuming you want people to be able to find your stuff).

On the other hand, what if you like something rare, something obscure, something that doesn’t have a consistent naming structure, etc.?

That can get a little harder, but the challenges can be cut through fairly easily.

1. search for every variation of The Thing that you can think of and look through the results until you find The Thing You Actually Wanted.

2. see how that post is tagged.

3. check those tags for more of The Thing You Actually Wanted.

4. keep doing this until you find the tag where people who are into The Thing You Actually Wanted congregate.

5. winning!

Creating Tags and Space

…okay but what if that last step 5 ended with losing instead? Well, BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.

A lot of people on Tumblr use personal tags for their own blog organization…but many also use tags and tag-tracking to create a personal tag meant for publis use. So, source blogs (blogs that act as “clearing houses” of stuff for a specific fandom, character, ship, etc.) will say “we track #thisisourhashtag, use it so we can see your post!”

You can do that! If you really love something narrow and specific, you can at least try to get the word out. It takes a lot of work though - because you’ll need to get the word out yourself. “Hey, I love This Obscure Thing! Do you also love This Obscure Thing? Come join me, use #thisisyourhashtag!” is a start. But just “building it” won’t be enough - you’ll also need to do the leg work to find more of The Thing, reblog it, interact with the people making it, etc. Often on Tumblr, the difference between a really vibrant small fandom community and a small fandom that’s absolutely dead silent is one person taking the initiative to say “I’m going to do whatever I have to, community-building-wise, to find other people to talk to about this.”

(The best example I know of for this is the Daomu Biji fandom. Like seriously, they’re a fucking case study on how to take a tiny group of people who are Really Into A Thing and turn it into a vibrant, supportive community that is, frankly, a joy to be a part of. If someone wants more info on kinda…how this works…I think it’s outside the purview of this post but I’m willing to babble about it some other time.)

Navigating Tumblr, Your Own Blog, and Other People’s Blogs Using Tags

One of the cool things about tags on Tumblr is that every tag has a static, usable link, which - if your own blog or a blog you’re trying to access has a consistent tagging format - can make it much, MUCH easier to find things. ESPECIALLY because static tag links constant and consistently work about 80 bajillion times better than “search.” Posts that are unfindable using “search” WILL (usually) be findable using the tag’s link. (Exceptions include if the OP has blocked you or you’ve blocked them, and if the tag is in the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, or 30th tag slot; ETA: another exception is that in the PAST this wasn't the case; Tumblr has greatly increased the visibility of tags over the years, and may do even more in the future). So, how do you do this?

For all of Tumblr: the link you want is https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/(THE TAG)?sort=recent (or ?sort=top for them in order by most popular. Note that this is one of the cases where what’s after the ? ISN’T A TRACKING LINK ffs it’s not ALWAYS tracking you can’t ALWAYS delete it without consequences sometimes the internet is exhausting).

For your own blog: https://yournamehere.tumblr.com/tagged/thetagyouwant

For someone else’s blog: https://theirnamehere.tumblr.com/tagged/thetagyouwant

A lot of people use this for personal blog organization, and it’s especially common for source blogs to have very structured tag lists to help with navigation. For example, in the art sideblogs I run, anyone can look up any tag using links like this, and it’ll enable them to find every post with that tag. See? https://www.tumblr.com/mdzsartreblogs/tagged/mod%20post

NOTE: Tumblr, in the last few weeks, changed how this feature is set up. As you can see, the link is now structured differently than what I typed, BUT the original link formatting still works, just how it appears has changed. That said, because Tumblr can never change a thing without breaking it, there’s now sometimes a problem where if you type the link in, it’ll replace a space ( ) with a plus (+) instead of with a fake-space (%20 is how browsers classically translate spaces into Internet Speak so that the urls don’t break). If your space gets made into a +, Tumblr will say there are no results, so you’ll have to manually go into the link and change it back to a space and THEN it will work. Yes, really. No, I don’t know why. Also, if you try to get rid of the plus in the search bar instead it will NOT work correctly, because if you remove the plus, put in a space, and then hit “enter” on text written in the search bar, it’ll switch you from “show all posts with this tag” to a standard search (which will have all the bugs that standard searches usually have in Tumblr).

But, basically, once you know the tag that someone uses for a thing, or have established what tag YOU want to use for a thing, navigating your own or other people’s blogs to find Every Post Tagged With The Thing is really easy, and can be a great way to find niche content, a user’s own creations, or That Thing You Posted Two Years Ago That You Need Again For Some Reason.

ETA: Someone mentioned in the tags that if you add /chrono to the end of these links, it'll show you all the same info BUT it'll show the OLDEST posts firsts instead of the newest and I did not know that and that is A.MAY.ZING and thank you to the person who told me and now y'all know too.

Blacklisting Tags

You’ll see me talk a lot in this post about the ways that Tumblr is broken and how that can make it harder to accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to do. There is one notable exception to the brokenness. At least in my experience, and in the experience of basically everyone I’ve ever spoken to about it, Tumblr’s internal/built in blacklist works pretty darn well.

Don’t want to see a tag?

Go to Account Stuff -> Settings. Scroll down to “Content you see,” which is where Filtered Tags and Filtered Post Content are.

Filtered Tags will only filter The Thing if it’s literally #the exact tag you put in filtered tags.

Filtered Post Content will filter any post that mentions the thing.

Note that Tumblr blacklist is actually over assiduous. I personally ONLY use filtered tags, and I’ve found that it will often filter a post even if the current reblog of that post doesn’t HAVE the tag - like, if anyone has EVER tagged The Post with The Thing, it’ll get blacklisted. Also note that while theoretically, filtered posts will still show up as a box you have the option to show, in practice some will just. Not show. I’ve absolutely had blacklisted things just Not Even Appear. Which can be annoying, if it’s actually a post you want to see, but there’s no perfect system.

Also, never EVER let anyone tell you that “blacklisting is only for things you hate.” Look, you curate your own experience. If your bestie is posting about a fandom you’re not in, and it’s clogging up your dash, you’re not obligated to scroll through their 80 posts about that thing. Just blacklist it. It’ll make your experience using this website much happier. (if your bestie doesn’t tag the thing…you can try post content filtering. But yeah that’ll make it harder). I personally blacklist a fuckton of fandoms that I’ve got nothing against, I’m just not IN them, and seeing content for them is of zero interest for me, and if I blacklist them then I have more time to interact with the things I DO want to see.

And yeah I know I prefaced this section by saying blacklist actually works. Take this entire section as what my ten-years-on-this-site ass sees as “functional” on Tumblr.com.

Making Tumblr Actually Vaguely Useable

Do yourself a favor and download XKit. (It’s on Chrome too, but fuck Chrome. Y’all Chrome users can go find the link yourself sorry not sorry). XKit includes a fuckton of REALLY DAMN USEFUL functionality for making tumblr (on desktop, not mobile!) function better…

…and especially, Quick Reblog, Quick Tags, and Tag Replacer can help with tagging and tag management. Quick Reblog gives you the ability to rapidly reblog things without having to click through to the reblog window, and it gives you a box to type in all your tags when you quick reblog. Quick Tags makes all existing posts on your blog and sideblogs have an extra little button that lets you add new tags to it without having to open the edit screen for the post. Tag Replacer lets you swap a tag you no longer want to use for a new tag. Get XKit. It’ll help you. I promise.

Okay, so now you know something about how tags work, time to learn some tag etiquette.

The most important thing to remember when trying to figure out how to tag an original post is that people follow tags because they want to see The Things About That Tag. This has some obvious consequences, namely:

1. They won’t want to see things that Aren’t About The Thing.

2. They won’t want to see someone Hating The Thing.

So that leads to…

Tagging for Fandoms

DO: tag fandoms that are relevant to your post. Feel free to tag variations on that fandom - you can tag #mdzs and #modao zushi and #mo dao zu shi, or #spn and #supernatural. No one will mind.

DON’T: tag fandoms that aren’t relevant to your post. Yes, even if it’s a fandom by the same author (looking at you, people who tag #mdzs, #tgcf, and #svsss on every mxtx post you make, I see you and I seethe). Yes, even if it’s a different version/adaptation of your work. If you create a sub-fandom-specific work (for example, to stick with MDZS for now, if you create a work for The Untamed that includes the Yin Iron, don’t tag it MDZS; there’s no Yin Iron in MDZS, and while yes some people who follow the MDZS tag will want to see it, there will also be plenty who don’t. This is especially true when there’s a popular adaptation that a lot of fans of the original don’t like. People who adore the BOOK of the Hobbit? May be pretty reticent about seeing things about the MOVIE if they didn’t enjoy it!) Try to maintain awareness of this; it’s courtesy not to just tag Every Vaguely Relevant Fandom. You won’t make people happy they’re seeing your stuff. You’ll make them annoyed that you spammed irrelevant tags.

Tagging for Ships and Characters

DO: tag the characters ships that feature in your work. Doing variations of their name is fine as long as those variations are relevant. So, if you make a piece of “wei wuxian” for example, you can absolutely tag that “wei wuxian” and “weiwuxian” and “wei ying” and “weiying” and “mdzs wei wuxian” etc. But.

DON’T: tag every single iteration of a character. If someone is following a tag for a specific variation of a character (to stick with MDZS, maybe they follow the “yiling laozu” tag) then they want to see that variation, not…NOT that variation. So don’t post your, idk, fluffy Lotus Pier Wei Ying pre-canon thing to the “yiling laozu” tag. And I know this sounds like gibberish to people not in this fandom, but like. Just extend it to your own fandom. Lots of characters have different fandom nicknames or self-presentations for themselves at different points in canon. People who specifically follow the "pre-serum steve" tag isn't going to want to see "post-serum steve." That's the entire point of following a specific tag instead of an over-arching tag. So, when you tag your original stuff, stick to the ones that actually have something to do with your piece.

DO: tag the ship in your piece in multiple ways. Like, to use a non-MDZS example, does your piece have Destiel? Go ahead and tag Destiel and CasDean and DeanCas. It’s okay. WITH THE ADDENDUM THAT: in some fandoms and in some parts of the world, it is common that writing Character A x Character B is actually NOT the same as writing Character B x Character A. Especially for East Asian and Southeast Asian fans, people often list them in a power-dynamic related order. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not (I personally think it’s a silly but whatever, they can do them, it doesn't effect me) is irrelevant; you need to understand that if you tag every order of a ship, you might have people ??? you over it. (Yes, really. It’s happened to me.) And that doesn’t mean don’t do it! Just. You should know. Knowledge is power. Or something.

DON’T: tag ships that aren’t in your piece. I don’t care if Wangxian is the most popular ship in the fandom; if your piece doesn’t show Wangxian, people who like Wangxian don’t need to see it in the tags. You’re doing no one any favors. Often people will say “if your piece doesn’t feature a ship PROMINENTLY don’t include it,” but that one imo is a bit more flexible. It depends on what your work is “doing” with that ship. Which leads to…

Sharing Your Negative Opinions

Please. For the love of fucking god. Do NOT post hate in the main tags. Yes, it’s just your opinion. Yes, you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. But it’s fucking rude. People go to tags because they enjoy the thing being tagged. You’re just being a dick if you therefore use that tag to shit all over that thing.

Now, this is NOT to say “don’t post negative shit,” but rather more importantly: if you want to tag negative shit, find the tag that people use to tag that specific negative shit and use that tag instead. Like. if you hate Jiang Cheng from MDZS (you’re wrong and I will block you) you do you! But don’t tag your hate #jiang cheng. People follow #jiang cheng because they LOVE the angry grape. Instead, do a little tag research (see above on how to find tags for That Thing You Like, and yes it applies even if it’s “That Thing You Like to Hate”) and find out what tags people who Hate The Thing use. Often just “anti (thing)” is a good start, though commonly the biggest groups of haters/"popular" anti opinions will have a tag they favor that’s different (for example, “canon jiang cheng” and "grape hate" are the common anti-Jiang Cheng tags; “destiew” is a commonly used anti-Destiel tag, I’m sure there are loads more but those are the ones that spring to my mind after a decade on this hellsite).

Using an anti tag is a MUCH better way to handle your hate, anti-ness, negative opinions, etc. You can find other haters to wallow with, and everyone else (like me) who just want to enjoy our shit in peace can do so. And like, I’m personally very against antis, but I also absolutely respect the right of people to have negative opinions AND to share those negative opinions, which is why I’m explaining this. It really does help like-minded people come together, and also enables people who want to avoid the vitriol protect themselves. It’s a win-win.

Tagging Trigger Warnings and Other Warnings

Tagging triggers and other potentially challenging material (such as flashing images) is a courtesy. It’s not required, but it’s certainly polite. There are some standard rules (for example, don’t use “tw epilepsy” because it’ll show up on epilepsy-related searches which is the exact opposite of the point of tagging it; tag “tw flashing” or something similar) but there’s generally NOT a “one size fits all” tag system. Instead, most people just establish their own system and make it clear somewhere “this is the system I use” so people can blacklist. Alternatively, you can see what tags your mutuals are using, and use those. Alternatively, alternatively, people will sometimes put “please tag X tw” in their pinned posts or bios - though always remember that there are risks involved in publicly advertising what someone with bad intentions can do to hurt you!!!!

Standard trigger warning formats on Tumblr include: “tw thing,” “thing tw,” “thing,” “thing for ts,” “cw thing,” “thing cw.”

Note that tw - “trigger warning” - is usually used for things that are likely to be triggering (such as blood, gore, etc.) whereas cw - “content warning” - is often used more for things that some people may want to be aware of (such as flashing or depictions of food) but that isn’t necessarily a common “trigger” per se, especially in cases like food where even calling food a trigger can often itself be triggering for people who have are recovering from ED-related challenges.

Also as an aside, the “ts” is generally a sign that someone is a Tumblr Old, as it stands for “Tumblr Savior,” which is a blacklisting extension a lot of us used before Tumblr had built-in blacklisting features. So if you see “long post for ts” (which is when I see it most) it’s like seeing a fossil, a tag that’s become so standard for a type of post that a lot of people still use it even though the use of Tumblr Savior isn’t very common anymore (at least…I don’t think it is???)

When in doubt, if you want to respect people, listen to them - see how people are tagging The Thing you’re worried about, and follow those tagging conventions. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to - someone who triggers to something will already have the most commonly used tags for it blacklisted (and may not follow you if you aren’t willing to also tag for it) - so you make the site more usable for everyone if you use “tw eye trauma” instead of “this is my personal eye trauma tw tag”.

Also also as another aside, don’t use n s f w. Don’t even type it in your posts. They’ll get buried. They’ll go where tumblr posts go to die, and none of us even know where that is, because they're that gone. They won’t appear in regular searches. They won’t be in tag searches. They won’t even be discoverable on your own blog. Yes it’s fucking annoying. Yes it makes it harder to avoid explicit material. But. Find another tag. “lemon” is a common one, as is “nsft” (not safe for tumblr).

Tagging Systems and Spoilers

For the most part, if anything has been out for a month or so, you should assume that no one will tag spoilers. Don’t get me wrong - a minority of people still will, definitely! - but if, for example, you’re in the first chapter of MDZS, and you don’t want MDZS spoilers…don’t go into the MDZS tags. Just don’t. You’ll see everything you don't want to see. (Unless like me you WANT to see spoilers, in which case HAVE AT.)

For fandoms that still have new content being released, spoiler tags are often determined by community consensus, and a lot of people will put up posts saying “this blog isn’t spoiler-free for Thing. Blacklist #spoilersforthething to avoid spoilers.” It’s generally fairly standard to have a spoiler tag be “#thing spoilers” or “#episodenumber spoilers.” When in doubt, yet again, look at what everyone else is doing and emulate that.

hoookay. 2.5 hours after I started writing this, I am finally done. I hope folks find it helpful, and hopefully I didn't miss anything obvious. Feel free to hmu with asks if you want to know more!

#unforth rambles #long post #no seriously like stupidly long post #tagging #tumblr tags #tagging on tumblr #resources #tutorials #hellsite (affectionate)#hellsite (derogatory)

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verdemoun · 1 month

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Don't know if you've already talked about bill but how is he coping with modern times? I always imagined a modern bill becoming a car mechanic, or something adjacent, maybe even becoming a small influencer where he posts abt trucks and such (and also his dog. I just know that man gets a dog in any type of modern au)

i have not spoken about bill because bill as a character just makes me so sad fam like was he doomed to be the power hungry bastard of toxic masculinity we see in rdr1 or did the events of rdr2 actively make him that way why was everyone so mean to him like you can see the way people treats him chipping away at him it makes me want to scream but back to timewarp au

therapy. my otp is bill and therapy. man needs anger management and to unpack that emotional baggage. it would take a while but once bill made the connection sometimes when he feels angry and acts out he's actually feeling sad/upset he'd start to develop as a person really quickly.

he would be so conflicted about seeing the gang again. why does no one talk about what happened to bill in the gap between rdr1 and 2?? dutch fucking left him behind bill would've followed dutch to the ends of the earth and been the perfect obedient loyal son he always wanted and dutch just threw him away because hunting down arthur and john for betraying him was more important!!

the new main gang would've picked him up because they knew he was going to be timewarped but it would be so uncomfortable.

poor kieran would've been so terrified he had to stay with annabelle and grimshaw until bill left. he usually regresses a little whenever someone timewarps because he has obvious reason to be nervous about the gang but it would've been a full breakdown just knowing bill was coming back. bill would've felt bad about it too because he never made the connection between how the gang's teasing made him feel vs what his bullying was doing to kieran.

the rest of the gang would've gone straight back to teasing bill because that was the dynamic last time they were all together. he would've hated it and lashed out a lot. he became something after they died they better respect it but of course they just don't. bill would've barely understood modern era before he bounced.

happy stuff now i promise. he ended up hitchhiking for a bit and learning about the modern world from truckers. he would love going to bars and truck stops and dodgy mom and pop diners along the highway.

he ends up getting a job on a ranch (ironically the modern day MacFarlane which became a massive multimillion dollar operation) and still gets to ride horses almost every day. he picks up herding super quickly and gets all the validation and care he deserves. the owners love him and are really supportive and patient when it comes to dealing with his temper.

he gets a little power trip out of learning to drive the semi-truck and unlike most of the hands is always super excited and happy to go on cross-country road trips delivering things to processing facilities. his favorite thing though would be the combine harvester he will work 14 hour shifts without complaint harvesting grain.

bill loves dogs almost more than he loves his horses he cannot drive past a sign that says puppies for sale without at least stopping to look. this habit has resulted in him having five dogs and they are his new gang. his first dog was a stray he picked up on the side of the road it's a wire-haired gundog mutt just called Mutt. he also has two cattle dogs (Clem and Roanoke), a long hair shepherd called Mercer and finally a catahoula called Abel. they are all working dogs and he does not go anywhere without all of them. they all sleep on his bed and are just as happy to go on cross country road trips in the semi as he is.

he can control all of them with a whistle or non verbal commands and they are insanely well trained. Micah fucking hates him sure Baymax can bark and growl and look scary on command but the second one of Bill's dogs curls up its lips Baymax is hiding behind Micah terrified and Bill is so fucking smug about it.

through therapy and having his ideals challenged bill starts making an effort to be less racist and sexist and actually confronting some of the gang about the way they treated him in 1899 and mending those relationships because look yeah he went off the deep end after the VDLs but he does still care about them and wants to have good relationships with them he's just got to work through a lot of issues go bill i believe in you

and most importantly he finally got over the internalized homophobia and admitted to himself he's a bit/lot gay. he's not wearing beads at pride levels of comfortable with it yet but he is a classic bear who will protect the gaybies from violence with violence.

it's like a many, many years slow burn but him and alden get together because charlybird's art is one of the only reasons i gave bill a chance as a character and i am a better person for it

#rdr2 timewarp au #bill williamson

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ladyloveandjustice · 2 years

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I’m wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about it since I’m not incredibly interested in debating it, but it’s bothering me and it’s my blog so

I saw a lot of posts in the dracula daily tag that was like ‘all of that feminist analysis that said Lucy was supposed to be bad as a vampire because she turned sexual is WRONG, the horror is that she’s turned into a different person’ and even calling that feminist critique shallow or less nuanced or connecting it to second wave feminsm (and for some reason citing Kate Beaton who is 1. a cartoonist giving quick takes on several books in a funny way and 2. not from the second wave lmao please learn your history guys)

and look, I get wanting to look at Dracula through different lenses, especially since you like it now, but it’s not some be a wacky coincidence that Lucy’s human personality is ‘innocent ingenue who is the apple of every man’s eye yet would never act so seductively’ and her ‘monstrous vampire’ personality is seductive and sexual and it would be dangerous to kiss her, you’ll die. It would be incredibly unlikely in the Victorian era (or even today!) that it would ever be written the other way around, the good woman the flirtatious one and the bad personality innocent of sexuality. Whether Stoker was doing it consciously or subconsciously, societal feelings about women and sexuality are all over that.

It’s also not a wacky coincidence that the three vampire ladies menacing Jonathan are very sexual and seductive and scary and up for a four way,or that Dracula's own monstrousness is sexually coded, and part of it is his implied three lovers he doesn’t love but probably fucks (even if I love them and prefer to interpret them as weird roommates, I can acknowledge that likely wasn’t the intended interpretation).

Sure, Lucy can think about how cool it would be to marry three guys, but she’s willing to follow society’s rules. It’s when she’s a monster that she isn’t. And there’s a lot of of analysis to be had in how the scary sexually-coded predation of Dracula as a man and a ‘foreigner’ is handled vs the female vampires of the story, because it is presented very differently!

Just as there’s pretty disturbing racism and antisemitism all over Dracula, there’s gender and sex stuff too. It is, in fact, all over vampires in general, and analyzing how they’re wrapped up in anxiety about sexuality, especially anxieties about what were considered ‘fringe sexualities’ (whether internalized or externalized) and how that was wrestled with and played with through the years, is pretty fascinating! And you’re doing yourself as disservice if you ignore it. It’s often very interesting, it’s not all bad, we love our monsters, it’s part of a proud tradition, but there was a society that created it that you shouldn’t dismiss. These are very basic takes, but apparently they’re still important to talk about it, since you guys are now actively dismissing them as soon as you start liking the characters.

Just because you want to look at things from a character motivation perspective doesn’t mean the social perspective and social mores aren’t at play. It can simultaneously be true that “the horror is the Lucy is a different person” and “the horror is Lucy’s sexual forwardness”. It can be true that “there’s more to Lucy than trepidation about sexuality’ and ‘that’s almost certainly meant to be a part of her tragedy for sure’. Multiple things can coexist. If you want nuance to exist you can’t just say interpretations that conflict with you having an entirely fun time are somehow more shallow. We can love the monsters, and love the characters, but realize the way we love them now doesn’t always reflect how it would have come across to many of those who first read about it, or even most people who read it today.

#dracula daily #like i said i'm not down for an intense conversation but needed to get this off my chest

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strayg0dss · 5 months

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Tecchou vs Tetchou: on spelling and romanization

Have you ever wondered why the official English manga uses "Tetchou"? And official merch from Japan "Tecchou"? Why is the fandom so split on spelling? What is correct?

I'm hoping to answer some questions here :)

[Tl;dr at the very end]

Please note: I'm not a native Japanese speaker. I am, however, a linguist. I've dealt with Japanese linguistics (everything from spelling and syntax to phonology) on an academic level and I'm actively learning Japanese at university. Okay? Okay. Then let's dive into this!

1) Romanization?

Romanization is the act of translating Japanese words that are originally in kana/kanji into the Latin alphabet. The romanization that's mostly used (in English manga & anime) is the Hepburn romanization. It's based on English spelling and pronunciation!

This mostly goes for consonants, meaning the J in Jouno is pronounced like the J in Jungle. Vowels are a bit different but we won't get into that now. Important is: based on English spelling and pronunciation.

2) The っち in Tet/cchou?

てっちょう

-> Te "sokuon" chi "yōon" u

Let's break it down: the first hiragana is a small tsu っ (called sokuon). It makes the following consonant, in this case, the ch of chi ち longer. Usually, it simply doubles the consonant in writing:

っこ -> kko

っし -> sshi

But for っち, according to Hepburn, not cch is used. But tch. Why? ...🤷‍♂️ (the actual explanation given on Wikipedia is "because the perceived consonant that's doubled is [t]" but then why is the s of shi doubled, and not shsh? But I digress...)

If you're not familiar with this specific rule, it wouldn't occur to you to use tch and not cch! Because it usually doubles the written consonant!

According to strict Hepburn romanization, Tetchou is more correct:

But there's more!

3) Tetchō? (A small detour on ou vs ō)

According to Hepburn, vowels presented in Hiragana (as in ちょう chou) can be translated separately as ou, or using ō. There are more variations of this that are correct. But these are the most common ones.

But then... wouldn't Tecchou be wrong? Well...

4) Spelling (and fandom)

As I mentioned, the spelling is based on English pronunciation. tch and cch are the same in that sense. You would pronounce them the exact same way. And, as mentioned, cch is the more intuitive translation. Japanese publications use it. Fans use it. And that's okay!

Fans have always chosen spellings selectively. When did you last read Gojou instead of Gojo? Chousou instead of Choso? Both are more "correct" according to the Hepburn used.

Essentially, it doesn't matter if people use Tetchou/Tecchou/Tetchō or any variant. As long as you don't use Techou. Because that means notebook (てちょう). Don't do that. The っ does very much make a distinction in meaning here and must be translated one way or another.

5) Romanization and linguistics

Japanese linguists (those who speak Japanese natively and write about Japanese) often write their academic papers in English. They tend to use different romanization methods depending on the paper. And they're inconsistent as hell.

You can read a paper on Japanese morpho-syntax and a word can be transcribed a certain way on one page, then in a slightly different way on the next!

This is just to put into perspective that romanization is simply a tool that people tend to use however they want. Even scholars!

As long as the meaning doesn't get lost, cch vs tch doesn't matter that much. Again, Japanese publications use cch! English ones use tch. It's okay!

There are cases where it matters for the distinction of meaning!!! But Tecchou vs Tetchou isn't one of them.

Tl;dr:

According to strict Hepburn romanization, Tetchou is correct. But Tecchou is a more intuitive translation when you follow most Hepburn rules except for this special one, which is why lots of people and Japanese publishers use cch. The double consonant tch/cch is a meaning distinction from other words, so it must be used. But which one you use doesn't really matter, it has the same outcome.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #tecchou #tecchou bsd #tecchou suehiro #bsd tetchou #tetchou suehiro #tetchou #my posts

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hedgehog-moss · 2 years

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what are your favorite books in terms of prose? curious after you wrote about how many modern writers lack a sense for good writing, which i’ve also felt for years. so who do you think writes especially beautifully :-)

(Warning: long post ahead pondering what is perceived as beautiful prose in English vs French!)

The first books that came to my mind are the ones listed below, and it got me wondering why they were all by French authors, when I read a lot in other languages. I think even if you can read foreign literature fluently, it’s easier to detect & appreciate beautiful prose in your mother tongue, not just because you know it so intimately (so you know how many different ways there are to convey an idea and why this particular way was a great choice in this context), but also because languages develop their own criteria of what constitutes good writing, and we aren’t really taught about this—we're taught about our own language's criteria for good prose as if they were universal and objective, and it can be hard to move beyond that, especially when you're happily lost in a book and not actively trying to analyse the subtleties of the writing.

At the risk of giving the least hipster answer ever I really like Victor Hugo's writing because there are whole passages that sound so good I need to go back and re-read them to figure out what's happening in terms of plot (usually nothing, so it's ok), because I was too busy enjoying the flow of language the first time around (my favourite of his is The Man Who Laughs)

I read Pierre Assouline's 500-page book about the Book of Job even though I have little interest in biblical analysis or religious history, because there were sentences that were so pleasantly paced and balanced I just got carried by the momentum...

I love Annie Ernaux's writing in Les Années even though I'm not a fan of her other books, because the sentence construction and rhythm are so perfectly suited to the theme of the book.

I find Anatole France's books rather dull but the language is hypnotising (I talked a bit in this post about how his grammar is graceful as a dance...)

^ looking at this I realise I always come back to movement—grace, balance, flow, rhythm (not the pace of the story but of each sentence), and I know these are the criteria that French deems Terribly Important. I mentioned at the end of this post how (and why) English tends to be less interested in the motion of language and more in the imagery; in Goodreads reviews by native English speakers, beautiful writing is more likely to be described as ‘vivid’ than melodious. That's not to say English speakers can't appreciate (or prefer!) other kinds of prose, obviously, it's just, in broad strokes, what each language likes to focus on (at the present time.) There's a lot of appreciation in English for the kind of prose that you could easily make a moodboard out of—evoking sensations, colours, atmosphere—while French highly values the kind of prose that you can easily trace out in the air, with your hand rising and falling, tapping the beat, following grammatical twists and turns.

That's just my understanding, but it's something I notice a lot because I like to read French books along with their English translation (and conversely), to see how translators handle a tricky turn of phrase, or what I would have done differently. And it happens time and time again that the English translation lovingly preserves the imagery of a French sentence (even when a metaphor is difficult to translate) while coldly abandoning the rhythm and sound (even when there are easy English equivalents). Meanwhile French translators often completely ignore (or miss out on) subtle sources of mood and imagery because they are too busy picking the words and sentence structure that sound or flow best. It's really quite funny when you start to notice it.

I would have dozens of examples if I actually took the time to note them as I read, but just two recent ones off the top of my head—

French -> English

I'm currently reading Sylvain Tesson's La Panthère des neiges (The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet in English) (I needed a 'cold’ book during the heatwave...) At one point the author draws a comparison between religious worship and observing wild animals. For an example of what I was saying re: "tracing out sentences in the air", there's the sentence "La prière s'élève, adressée à Dieu." The two halves are 5 syllables - 5 syllables (6-6 if you read it formally.) The last word of the first half is "s'élève" — "rises". The last word of the second half goes down, since it's the end of the sentence. There's a clear rising and falling motion to it, which is also perfectly balanced in terms of syllables / rhythm; it makes a nice symmetric pattern in the air.

Now, the translation aspect—you've got the sentence "A genoux, on espère sans preuve." Then, shortly afterwards: "A l'affût, on connaît ce que l'on attend." The author is comparing the acts of kneeling (to pray) and lying in wait (to watch animals); so he chose phrasings and sentence structures that create a clear symmetry ("A genoux" / "A l'affût", 3 syllables, starting with the same sound, followed by a comma, then “on” + verb + clause.) The English translation? "To kneel is to wait in expectation without proof" [...] "Lying in a hide, the object of the wait is known."

This is bad!

Now the two sentences have different grammatical structures, they don't contain the same pronoun and don’t start with the same sound or phrasing even though the translator could have chosen to write "Kneeling" and "Lying" to preserve a tiny bit of the original intent. The translation obliterates the similarities of sound & rhythm in the grammar and word choice, which were here for a literary purpose—to link and compare two concepts.

On the other hand, every sentence in the book that's ripe with vivid imagery of wild animals is very conscientiously translated. In the next page, Tesson describes yaks as "taches de jais saupoudrant—", the English translator: "[the yaks] appeared as jade smudges scattered—" It's word for word ! The translator clearly thought visually striking phrases are essential and must be preserved as faithfully as possible, but phrases that are striking on an auditory / rhythmical level are less important (or less likely to be appreciated by an English-speaking reader.)

English -> French

I was reading The Bear and the Nightingale last year and I remember a contrast so blatant it made me laugh—the sentence "The ground was thick with snowdrops" in the original, was translated in French as "Le sol était parsemé d'une nuée de perce-neige." (The ground was scattered with a mist of snowdrops.)

In terms of French prose, this is good! In terms of faithful translation of English prose, this is bad! The translator went for the complete opposite when it comes to imagery—"thick" which evokes weight, vs. the weightlessness of "scattered" and “mist.”

But you know what? "Parsemé" and "perce-neige" have the same syllable count and nearly identical consonant sounds— [p]-[sə]-[m] / [p]-[sə]-[n]. It's pleasing to the ear and symmetrical. The “mist” bit might seem unnecessary (you could say “scattered with snowdrops”) but it was added because it contributes to this—rather than having two similar words right next to one another, they are now the last word in the first and second half of the sentence, making each half end on a similar sound, like poetry. The two halves "le sol était parsemé" and "d'une nuée de perce-neige" have 7 syllables each (with a mute e, the way most people would read it.) So the sentence sounds nice and is well-balanced, and what could be more important than musicality and balance?? Surely not imagery.

It's good writing in terms of what French deems important. It's terrible at preserving what the original English deemed important—"thick" associated with snowdrops as if the flowers were an actual blanket of snow—this evokes weight and quiet—the next sentence then opens with the trill of a bird, and the light, airy sound feels all the more vivid thanks to this clear contrast.

Which is obliterated by the French translation. But the French sentence flows nicely, and it really highlights what each language finds beautiful and essential, in terms of prose. I mentioned in this post that one of the reasons French takes up more room as a language is that it loves grammatical redundancy while English hates it—and I think it's because expanding or repeating a grammatical structure can add symmetry and balance, while it dilutes / drowns out the imagery. I don't think translators make an active choice all the time to overlook one aspect of the prose and pay more attention to another—I think as they mentally chew on the original text and try to come up with the best equivalent, they instinctively tend to fall into this pattern of favouring their language’s Good Writing criteria (probably because it’s assumed readers favour them as well.)

I should write these kinds of examples down in some Word doc, because they’re everywhere, and while there are so many writing styles and translation styles in both languages, there really is a pattern here—French being obsessed with balance and assonance, i.e. the beauty of motion & sound (which are twin concepts when it comes to language), how to make the flow of a sentence linger in your mind; English being obsessed with the beauty of imagery, the ways to make it 'pop', how to make an atmosphere linger in your mind.

Sorry for this very long answer that only briefly touched on your question, but I really love to observe the ways people use their languages so similarly yet differently!

#ask #language tag #i already made this disclaimer in one of the posts linked here but obviously there is good imagery in french writing and #musicality and rhythm in english prose #this is just a general pattern / preference that's noticeable

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sizzlingpatrolfox · 9 months

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TH had almost more streams in Thailand than they have active Spotify users. Does that sound organic? 20% of Slow Dancing’s entire day one streams came from Thailand. 20%. Almost a quarter of his streams came from one country, a country that has a small Spotify user base. US has the largest amount of Spotify users. I think like 80mil? Whatever it is, it’s a lot. SD got like, 380k streams from the US and then dropped off the charts day two. The US is the biggest music market, with the highest number of Spotify users, and he couldn’t even stay on the charts more than a day, with a debut lower than Jimin’s b-side.

And let’s not act coy and pretend like a lot of SEA fans aren’t widely known as monster streamers. It’s not a big deal. A lot of ARMYs appreciate and rely on those streaming methods for good debuts and longevity, and obviously it’s not all or even most SEA fans. All fans are equally valuable and appreciated. But if we’re having a conversation about how successful TH’s debut was, I think it does matter that he underperformed in the biggest music markets, and it’s relevant the bulk of his streams came from places known for their aggressive streaming methods, and that a third of his albums came from a single country known for bulk buying.

Also longevity? Dropping a whopping 4million streams on day 8 aside, Taehyung’s debut just showed he completely failed to break outside of the ARMY bubble (which is the same for most of them tbf). And actually, I wonder if all those loyal tkkrs are even watching his ‘super amazing’ tiny desk performance looking at the views. Literally no one outside of ARMY cares about his “live” performances because no one is even watching them, so what does that have to do with longevity? And maybe the fact that the majority of his fans are shippers could explain why his music seems to have tanked on all relevant charts. And I hate billboard and I wish it didn’t matter because they suck and this competition with numbers is stupid. But it’s what the company is paying attention to, aggressively marketing towards, and obviously BTS cares. Remember how they reacted to their first #1? The way they flexed all the #1s that followed? TH did fine, but he definitely didn’t gain any substantial achievements that made his debut stand out. And if you’re going to talk about album sales, then you better be saying that Stray Kids and Seventeen are bigger than BTS.

And Jimin will be just fine. He gained so much prestige and clout from that bb#1, as well as his big and surprising success in the UK and other charts. And the way he did that without major company push? Just the bare bones rollout they all got (with the expedition of JK)? For an album that was more of a personal project for him than anything else, with just a small in-house team from BH? Yeah. And then look at the kind of impact he had on their stocks, an impact that was directly attributed to him. No one cared about the stupid encore outside of kpoppies who all have LC on their playlists anyways, or antis who are always desperately looking for things to drag. Now every time Jimin does something he has that highly coveted bb#1 artist attached to his name, and that’s a huge boon for him and his solo career, as stupid and obnoxious as billboard is. Not to mention how incredibly pleased his fans were by his music and performances, which is the most important aspect. I’m sure there are TH stans who really love his music but… well… we all saw the ARMY reception to SD vs LC. TH's music is divisive at best, and no, that doesn’t mean he has more artistry or whatever you want to say. Because Indigo was also more alternative and niche, but had a completely different and more positive reception. Also R&B is an incredibly popular genre.

And let’s not even get into a conversation about artistry. Taehyung’s lyrics literally had no depth, he didn’t have a single credit on his album, and he didn’t even have choreography to add any layers to his performances. His MVs were pretty, but weren’t even interesting. One of his gimmicks was literally having his dog walk out on the stage? It was very cute and I love how much he loves Yeontan, but artistry? When we were decoding German poetry and talking about philosophy, gender identity, escapism, psychology? Interpreting lyrics and choreography and even the name of the album and the promo material? It’s not even close. Tell me what was Layover even about? What was the story? What in there was personal or meaningful to him? Nothing wrong with just doing fun, shallow music sometimes, it can be awesome and I hope JM dabbles in that, but KTHs are the ones trying to spin this whole narrative about artistry to put down other members and feel better about an album that got a lukewarm reception and actually has little to no depth. It’s just surface and visuals and aesthetic. Not to mention the actual music aspect where JM tried and explored different genres, experimented with his voice, and pushed himself as an artist... All my respect to TH who did just fine, who did amazing by any non-BTS ML standard, all that should matter is if you like the music at the end of the day, but let’s not pretend his debut was something it wasn’t.

I'll just post this because you wrote so much 😅 but it really shouldn't have been turned into such a big deal because it wasn't. Like crazy also gets "bots streams" accusations and I'm surprised a Taehyung fan wouldn't know that, since it was actually them who spent years saying pjms bought streams for Jimin.

And one more thing I'll say is that I live in a 3rd world country. We've had more than 100% inflation rate this year so far, and the year isn't even over. A dollar costs 70 times more than our money, and Spotify cashes us in our local money, but it's the equivalent to the price in dollars. Add to that the government taxes, which is the price in dollars + 65% of it in taxes only. It ends up being a lot. I only have one family premium Spotify account that I share with my cousins and siblings.

So I didn't take their pity party seriously because 1) they were rude for no reason instead of trying to have a conversation about it 2) I obviously never meant it that way and I would never make fun of underdeveloped economies since I'm literally living in one lmao

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bellalegosee · 4 months

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A brief introduction to the lore of Honkai Star Rail (literally just a post of me talking about the Aeons, I am so desperate to have someone to talk to about this.)

"brief" 💀

Anyway, I recently created a EU server account for Honkai Star Rail and had to rewatch the opening cutscene, and I forgot how much happens immediately, how much gets thrown at you, and how much is just left unexplained to new players. The lore gets thrown hard and fast at you, and unfortunately a lot of it isn't explained through dialogue so a lot of people just will remain confused or won't care. And as HSR is actively developing plot line and will be for at least a few years, the time to start getting into the lore is now. (If you are reading this far in the future and want to know the lore without a huge confusing lore dump, I hope this is the beginning of your journey.) Starting with a base foundation of knowledge of what we know now, vs how big the story can get in the future...one is definitely easier.

As you open the game you meet a very important person immediately, Kafka. And just meeting her and understanding why she is on this ship, where an explosion just happened, and loud blaring alarms going off is already a huge amount to explain to any person. And while I could explain the lore as it gets explained to you through the game, I'd prefer, as a world builder, to start with more baseline knowledge.

The universe of HSR has a series of gods, like Genshin, called Aeons. These Aeons are these forms of immortal beings who are a physical representation of different world views, morals, or ideas. (There wasn't always Aeons in the universe but we will get to that and the lore we receive from the Simulated Universe wayyyy later.) For example, we have Qlipoth The Preservation.

The Preservation stands for the protection of all cultures and people. Another example is Qlipoth's almost perfect counter point, Nanook The Destruction.

As his name states, he stands purely for the Destruction of the entire universe. These two are not the only Aeons I will talk about and are certainly not the only ones to exist.

"Why are Aeons important?" Fucking great question, so while the Aeons almost never actually interfere in mortal affairs, they're very existence creates something called a Path. A path, like the Path of Preservation or the Path of Destruction, is a like a moral compass for non-Aeons or the mortal beings who follow them. Once a mortal treads on a path for long enough of strong enough, they receive almost weird powers that relate to the paths they are on. This is kinda the foundation of the power/magic system. While there are religions around some of the Aeons, it is important to note that following the Path of an Aeon is not the same as worshiping them, it's more just agreeing with or subscribing to the morals of that path. (Really fucking confusing sometimes.) So for example the people of Belabog do Worship the Aeon of Preservation, (the only Aeon who's teachings did persevere through a 700 year isolation from the rest of the galaxy) but as individual people not everyone follows the path of preservation.

There is a point in following a path in which you are looked upon by the Aeon of the path and become a Eminator of that path. An Eminator is basically like a extremely favored follower, they have weird fucking powers, and they embody or literally enimate the morals of the path to an extreme. The Eminators of Nanook are feared across the galaxy for this very reason. Nanook uses his Eminators, such as Phantylia the Undying, as generals for his army of destruction.

So these Aeon's also have a bunch of people worshiping them or following their path at any point in time, right? These people tend to fall into factions and almost every faction in the game falls under the different Aeons. But not everyone who follows a certain Aeon will all be apart of the same faction. While I will make a post here in a while explaining a lot of the factions, their interactions with each other and what not, I do wanna very lightly touch on some of the factions here. And I'll use, again, Qilpoth and Nanook as the examples here.

The Amber Lord, Qlipoth, has multiple factions underneath him, the one you will hear the name of first in the game is the IPC, the IPC stands for the Interastral Peace Corporation, an ancient company whose many tendrils go in many directions, they sell weird shit, they create advanced defense technologies, they also...are trying to recreate a very advanced bomb in which to explode worlds... Yk normal corporate stuff. The IPC had good roots, just protecting people under their cars in a militaristic fashion but they definitely got too big and too greedy eventually and it spiraled into what this is now, a mega conglomerate who control everything and are continually trying to grab as much power as they can. The other faction underneath Qlipoth is the Architects from Jarlio VI, over 700 years ago they were the people, the leaders of Belabog, who built the great city in order to be humanity's last stand against the great freeze. They were...not all great, as Cocolia... Anyway.

Nanook has a few factions underneath him as well and these ones are more interesting and fight each other often too. Nanook's favored are among the army of The Antimatter Legion, his Eminators are the generals, and his fucked up creations are at the forefront of every fight, The Antimatter Legion is one of the first villains presented to you in the game. And then there's the Annihilation Gang. The Annihilation Gang is more disorganized, they worship Nanook and follow his path but Nanook does not look upon them, they are not Nanook's favored. If these two factions were like Nanook's kids, Nanook paid for the Antimatter Legion's college tuition, his wedding, went to his graduation and every piano recital, and the Annihilation Gang got left at his soccer practice 7 years ago and no one has noticed yet. There is in fighting inside of the Annihilation Gang too, which is funny. Once I get around to the Stellaron Hunters, we will go over their crimes and dive a little more into the Jepella Rebellion. And in the factions post, I will go over the Jepella Brotherhood and the infighting with Duke Inferno and how Nanook and the Antimatter Legion probably looks at them with distain.

Anyway, all of that to talk about the Aeons without even talking about each one of them...which is insane. So here's a list of every Aeon so far, their paths, and factions underneath them so far.

-Akivili The Trailblaze

Akivili is the source of the path of the Trailblaze, the main followers of Akivili are the Nameless, all members of the Astral Express crew, current and previous are all The Nameless. Akivili's disappearance and assumed death are a mystery in the game thus far. Akivili's teaching revolved around traveling from world to world, experiencing different cultures, enjoying the differences in the universe and getting into mischief. Modern day crew members go around and help out different worlds while experiencing and documenting all manner of information from different worlds.

- Aha! The Elation.

The Elation is known for spreading chaos and insanity through the universe, he takes joy in sharp turns of fate and watching others suffer. Aha! Is closer to humanity then most Aeon's and likes to fuck with people...a lot. Also other Aeons. Think of Aha! as the troll of the universe. They at once point blew the Astral Express in half for shits and giggles. The Elation has two branches of factions which are... different for sure. The Masked Fools are the most prominent ones, they are chaos bringer's across the galaxy, Sampo Koski is one member you meet early on, to the Masked Fools life is but a script they can write and living is a stage made to appease the other members of the Fools and Aha! themselves. And then the Mourning Actors, this faction...hates the Elation, they push away everything in relation for Aha! and their teachings however, The Elation looks upon them and they are considered to be apart of the Elation Factions. Aha! is the biggest troll.

-Ena The Order

Ena was a previous Aeon who lived during the Swarm Disaster. They were ancient being who only wanted to put an end to the endless wars in the universe, she helped to defeat Tayzzyronth The Propagation. After the end of that chapter she was eventually assimilated into Xipe The Harmony due to overlap in ideas and Paths. The followers were called The Beyond the Sky Choir, they created a bunch of records to be played on phonographs and most of the records have been lost to time.

-Fuli The Remembrance

Fuli the Remembrance embodies memories in their purest form, they think that memories of proof of existence. They preside over all memories and all those things forgotten and prepares them for the rebirth of the universe. The Garden of Recollection worships Fuli. They gave up their worldly forms and traverse the stars in the form of memetic entities in search of memories to prepare, Black Swan is one member of this faction. Then there's the Cremators, they are not the antithesis of the Garden of Recollection keepers, but more...they see the Keepers are hoarders. The Cremators rank memories by importance and then steal the memories that they deem, arbitrarily, are unimportant and destroy them.

-HooH The Equilibrium

HooH their followers seek to bring full balance to the universe... whatever that means. Karmically, physically, spiritually, ect. The Arbitrators teach HooH's teachings, and have people try to give up their extremes, like beauty and ugliness, poverty and wealth, ect.

-IX The Nihility

IX believes that existence is meaningless and therefore no action has any meaning in itself. Their existence is a mystery and they never interact with any of the other Aeons. Anyone who looks upon this Aeon feel numbed and dejected. The Doctor's of Chaos are a group of people who have treaded on the path of Nihility and are dedicated to trying to convince IX that there is meaning in the universe. The Self-Annihilators are, on the opposite end of the Doctor's of Chaos, have totally given into the meaningless of the universe. Device IX is a unknown group of people who just...live in the void of the universe, supposedly in an attempt to get closer to IX. Little is said lore wise about these 3 factions. (IX is my favorite Aeon, such a little guy.)

-Idrilla the Beauty

Embodies all that is beautiful and seeks out the inner beauty in all things in the universe. She disappeared well before the game's timeline began and The Knights of Beauty, like Argenti, traverse the universe to find them and on the way protect all things beautiful. The Mirror Holders believe, unlike The Knights, that Idrilla is dead and they seek artifacts of beauty around the universe in order to revive her.

-Lan The Hunt

The Rainbow Arbiter seeks to destroy all undead beings created by The Abundance and seeks to eventually destroy the Abundance. The people of the Xianzhou Alliance fleet of ships follow Lan and help with his search. Unlike The Destruction, Lan The Hunt seeks a singular target and a singular goal. The Galaxy Rangers are followers of Lan the Hunt but don't seek out to only destroy the Abundance, they seek to use Lan's policy of using violence against violence to uphold justice. (As we know for now, Acheron is the only Galaxy Ranger in game rn, she may not be a Galaxy Ranger but we will have to wait to find out.)

-Long The Permanence

Long is deceased from when the story starts off, but Lan's descendants live on, Long was the creator of all dragons and the Vidahardrya, as seen on the Xianzhou Loafu, have their own version of immortality, in which they rebirth every 700 years.

-Mythus The Enigmata

The Enigmata looked upon the Erudition and decided to create even more questions and mysteries in the universe. They challenge Nous at all times regardless of consequence. The Riddlers under them dedicate their time to deconstructing languages, creating metaphors, and generally being really fucking hard to understand. The History Fictionologistics want to enshroud the past and let history remain in the past.

-Nanook The Destruction

I have talked at length about Nanook already here, but yeah, Seeks to end the universe, Fuli is preparing the memories for whenever Nanook destroys the entire universe, probably the main villain of the game if I had to put a face to that title, also creates all of the Stellarons that are creating chaos throughout the universe.

-Nous The Erudition

Nous was originally an Astral Computer made by the creator of the genius society Zandar in order to seek out the answers to the universe. Nous then ascended to Aeonhood. Now the members of the Genius society worship Nous in hopes he answers all the questions in the universe.

-Oroboros The Vorecity

Before the Aeons were the Leviathans, and Oroboros is the only one to be both an Aeon and a Leviathan. They are the unsatisfied devourer of worlds. They have disappeared as well, but are generally assumed to be alive.

(I ran out of photo room on the post...)

-Qlipoth The Preservation

The Amber Lord is one of the oldest known Aeons and is known for their indifference. Commonly sharing their power with the Zealots of the Interastral Peace Corporation.

-Tayzzyronth the Propagation

In their life, they sought to propagate the universe with their Swarm, a huge storm of destruction loving bugs which reproduced a lot (I hate these bugs, glad you're dead Tayzzyronth.)

-Terminus The Finality

Terminus, I believe, may be a bigger part of the story later, but for now, we know almost nothing about this Aeon. They travel backwards through time whispering of a prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled. The Omen Vanguards believe that Terminus represents the end of the universe and seek to derive prophecies from their words. The Creed Exequy, while almost not mentioned at all, are most likely a group of people trying to communicate with Terminus, probably to understand his prophecies.

-Xipe The Harmony

Xipe seeks to encourage all individuals in the universe to fuse together into one melody, by becoming one and joining into the choir they believe peoples will preserve. The Family, which consists of all governing bodies within Penacony and the Dreamscape, follows Xipe, calling out to other worlds to join them in the Family.

-Yaoshi The Abundance

In their search to cure the universe of all sickness and poison, they believe that death is a poison and they have the cure. Creating their undead beings and trying to rid the universe death, they are eternally chased by Lan the Hunt for their precived crimes against the universal balance. There are four factions on the Xianzhou Loafu alone that worship the abundance, The dispels of Sanctus medicus seek to embrace the gift Yaoshi gave them and turn into the monsters of Abundance faster, along with bringing other people down with them. All of the followers of the Abundance are like that in some way or another, protecting the creations of the Abundance, embracing the Abundance, none of them can be just normal and wants to help cure sickness huh...

Anyway if you read this far, you deserve a break. And so do my fingers. The next lore dumb will likely be about the different Factions and how they interact with the Astral Express. All of this to explain the first cutscene in the game, and I haven't even brought up the Stellaron Hunters yet, as they don't, as far as we know, follow an Aeon. It's crazy. Lots of love! Byeeeee~

#honkai star rail #honkai posting #honkai lore #honkai star rail lore #aeon #aeon lore #Bella explains it all

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angelsdean · 1 year

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It's funny for me that fanon Sam is, following his time at Stanford, thee greatest of ally and defensor of human rights, while canonically college turns him into a judgemental snob - frowning upon winning money as a hunter, saving the prisoners, etc, etc (snobbish s1 Sammy my beloved !!!) (PS: also his alternative self in Lebanon XD)

no literallly. sam wanted to fit in so hard at stanford he drank some of the snobby rich kid kool-aid. and like, dissecting that is infinitely more interesting to me than perfect liberal and allyTM fanon sam. like i wanna know what sam's problem is sjdkfdfk. s1 does a great job of creating this dichotomy, esp in the very early eps, where dean represents the hunting world, the fringes of society, the outcasts and Other, and sam is coming out of this perfect idealized world that was college, where he absorbed some of those snobby ideals, as a way to reject his family / lifestyle (tho mostly as a way to reject JOHN and john's ideas of what sam's life should be). But then we see sam throughout those early episodes making choices that actively lead him further down the road of hunting, choices that have him rejecting "normal society" and choosing this journey, this quest, taking up the mantle and following john's path.

(there are lot of examples and maybe i'll make a post abt them all one day but one that always stands out to me is in 1x06 Skin, where the conflict is about the isolation of hunting vs the desire for community and connection to the outside world. it seems like dean is pro-cut ties with the world, but why? well, we later learn in 1x13 he tried to let an outsider into his world and cassie rejected him for it. but sam, at the start of the ep, is trying to have the best of both worlds. he thinks he can keep his outsider friends while still hunting. then by the end of the ep, his friend now knows all about hunting and wants to stay in touch. and sam shuts her out and says she probs won't hear from him anytime soon. and it's just so bonkers to me !! but he's making that choice, he's choosing hunting and slowly rejecting and cutting ties to his idealized stanford life.)

and he wants it, is the thing. he's on a one track mind: find john, find the demon, kill it and avenge jess and mary.

this got long-winded but anyway, i think all that s1 snobbery is SO crucial to sam's journey, it's important we see it, it's important we see where he was coming from, how stanford had begun to change and shape him in different ways, how stanford was symbolic of this total opposite to hunting, it's the snobby rich who don't care about the people on the fringes, it's studying LAW while holding beliefs that all people in prison are not "innocent" and a ghost killing them off isn't the biggest deal. and then dean + the hunting lifestyle is meant to be the juxtaposition to that. he's living on the fringes of society, he's Other. That's why the shifter in Skin identifies with dean so much, aside from the queer metaphors. The shifter choosing fresh-off-of-ivy-league sam would not make for the same kind of parallel, as much as sam has his psychic kid stuff going on, that's only barely begun at this point. He doesn't yet think he's a freak for being psychic or the demon blood stuff, he doesn't even know abt any of that. But paralleling the shifter with dean highlighted the isolating, othering nature of hunting, in an episode where the "brother conflict" was isolation vs community. And through the shifter we learn that dean didn't Want to be a hunter either. He had dreams, wanted friends. And sam hears all of this, and still at the end of the episode chooses to reject his friend's offer to keep in touch. Taking another step away from the idealized stanford life and another step down the path of hunting + his revenge quest. And it's so goddamn interesting and delicious and fascinating to me !!!! fanon sam could never

#canon sam is like. i rejected my family's lifestyle in a fit of teenage rebellion but now i want back in bc my gf died and i want revenge #classic hero's journey shenanigans and all that #while fanon sam is like. noooo my brother is dragging me back into hunting against my WILL !!!!!!#sam studies #mymeta #vics spn rewatch #replies

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your-old-sins-tournament · 6 months

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12 YEAR OLD OCS; SIDE A

Aldara [@kozzax]

I've carried her with me as long as she's existed. Even just doodling her in the corner of a notebook has gotten me through some of my roughest days. She's everything to me. Her story and world have developed so incredibly far from her original creation-- which, for the record, was for a school assignment --but she's always, always been here for me. Yeah, she's changed over the years as I've grown as a storyteller and artist, but the thing about change is that it's not always bad. She's still Aldara, she'll always still be Aldara at her core. When I draw her as a comfort for myself, it's like a piece of me from a time when everything was just that little bit easier has come up to the present and told me that everything's going to be alright. When I work on developing her story, it's a gift to that younger version of myself. A promise that we can grow and develop and change and yet we can still keep the parts of ourselves that are the most important. She means the world to me.

As for propaganda about her, on her own-- she was originally meant to be a "little sister" sort of character. Kind and caring and bubbly and happy, with a naivety that followed everything she did. Her original story had her simultaneously being the protagonist of the story who couldn't read, when everyone else could, and being old enough to have had kids that were stolen from her by her ex-husband. She's never been an active player in the plot, which is now an intentional choice but in my childhood was very much not.

Back when I was twelve, she'd been part of a group trying to free a bunch of cats who had been experimented on by humans, except her group just kind of naturally had magic powers as well. While her powers were never overly powerful, she was always good enough to stand alongside people with far more training than her and who were objectively more powerful than her without much, if any, consequence.

I've refocused her, now. She's kind, still, and she cares about people in a way that a lot of my other characters just don't quite reach. She's still naive, and still a sweet person who lights up any room she walks into. At her core, she hasn't changed. All that's changed is that the world she exists in suits her better, and the role she fills in it makes more sense for her.

I don't think she'll ever change, at her core. Her design changes on a regular basis, but the core concept will always remain the same. Her personality has never changed, not as long as I've had her, besides fleshing it out further. She'll always be Aldara. She'll always have the bits of myself that I put into her when I was twelve, and I'll always love her for that. She's maybe the best thing I ever started creating, and I will always consider her and her story to be a love letter to my childhood self and the way the creativity that poured out of me at that age let me develop into who I am today.

Description: No matter how long I've had her, she's always kept the same set of colors. She's always kept the way her tailtip is colored, and the arrows on her forehead and chest. She's always kept the colors on her wings, though they have changed locations over the years, and she's always kept her ear tufts. While her design may have grown more complex over the years, I've fought hard to keep the essence of what makes her recognizable as herself. I don't want to erase the character that I created when I was twelve. I never want to erase that character. She holds the shards of my twelve-year-old heart, and I will never let myself forget that.

Dan (Hanson Ōkami) [@cabincryptid51]

My trans awakening. I played as him in a Maximum Ride Amino even though I didn't know anything about it! My friend made me join so I could play their love interest and Dan is who I made. He already had a name in the lore but I didn't like it so he ended up having about 20+ secret identities. At some point his evil brother kidnapped, making everyone believe that he was dead and then the role play group stopped. But my friend and I had lore that continued because we wanted to have an arc were he died then came back to life where he would loose his arm and get dragon wings (I have a picture of this but I literally have no idea where it went). Anyway, I love him <3 My silly goofy himbo boy!

#oc #ocs #bracket tournament #polls #side a #old sins #ocs you made when you were 12 tournament #dan #hanson ōkami #aldara

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dyemelikeasunset · 6 months

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Hi naf- I've been following you and bee for almost a decade now, and I can say 100% that you changed my attitude towards art, queerness, characters, and representation and I wouldn't be the artist/writer I am today without you and bee's influence. I wanted to ask this bc I recently started long distance dating someone when I had never expected to, and I feel so happy and giddy when I just think of them. It's all very new to me though, and I'm afraid of messing up or putting too much pressure on them or the relationship, esp bc our irls are less than ideal. do you have any advice for ldr dating given ur experience? Thank you, and you deserve 100% the attention youve gotten for dom&mor and more!!

Hi and thank you so much!! It really means a lot to know my art could have an impact on you and your journey 🥹🥹

All relationships really require communication, but in LDR, the communication is even more important. This doesn't necessarily mean you two have to be talking 24/7 though!! Learning the distinction between proper communication vs excessive communication is probably the key. Talk about HOW you two prefer to communicate-- thru text, thru calls, thru gifts?-- and how often as well. For example, when me and Bee were long distance, we agreed to always have a goodnight call if we could, but that everything else was up to chance. Of course, bc we wanted to hang out, we would find plenty of other times to do it too, but our agreement was on night calls. It's so important to have proper boundaries because it helps you stay mentally healthy, while giving you both the opportunity to be as present and genuine as possible when you are hanging out

I also want to suggest LDR-friendly activities, like playing games online together, streaming movies together, or if you are both artists, having draw dates over discord or something! In all relationships, it's important to add some variety so there isn't too much pressure on one avenue of interacting, so I hope these help you brainstorm cute dates you can have

Good luck and thank you again!! I'll be sending you and your boo all my love

#text heavy /#long post /

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most-annoying-sponsorship · 8 months

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Any submitted propaganda under the cut

BetterHelp - 44

the ads are unilaterally either cheesy 'everyone needs help sometimes pardner' stuff or a therapist who works for betterhelp saying how good betterhelp is. notably was an uptick in ads AFTER it was revealed how bad betterhelp is for actual mental health and how it doesnt vet its therapists lol

It’s overpriced, they underpay their workers, they have fake 5-star reviews and they sell your info. So many big YouTubers still promote Betterhelp to this day when most this info came out in 2018-ish. Fuck Betterhelp, all my homies hate Betterhelp

I guess it’s more of a podcast sponsor in my experience but OH MY GOD it’s such a bad business, but more importantly for this poll I just hate hearing youtubers/podcasters put on a serious voice to talk about Mental Health and how they themselves have struggled with Burnout and blah blah it literally all sounds the same. It’s like a psa in the middle of your video.

not only is it annoying bc it’s everywhere but it also sucks ass & exploits people

not only annoying, but a harmful service as well!!

It's being sued or smth rn (class action I think?). The program has been sketchy af and exploiting people who are experiencing mental illness or trauma, falsely claiming they have a full scale psychiatric team when they don't, selling data, etc. All for profit. Every other sponsorship is annoying, sure. But I instantly lose a little bit of respect when I hear a YouTuber talk about the importance of mental healthcare and then point you to BetterHelp.

The motherfuckers at Betterhelp call it ""'therapy""" but it sells your data. Youtubers I like promote this bastard of a conpany without a care in the world. I don't know why it is legal, I don't know how they get away with it, and I'm going to rip Betterhelp molecule by molecule

Its a scam trying to get your data and they dont even follow HIPPA laws or vet their therapists and they've had so many scandals that I'm shocked they still get sponsors unironically

Doesn’t even work like they’ve had a ton of controversy and the Youtuber is always like “lemme get real with you guys for a second… ok… phew… I go to therapy” and it’s like OKAY WELL YOU SHOULD GIVE A SHIT THAT THE COMPANY SUCKS THEN 💀

Takes advantage of people needing access to mental health care, when in reality BetterHelp is a terrible company that treats therapists AND clients like shit. The FTC recently gave them a huge fine for selling client health data to for-profit advertising corporations like Facebook but they still deny wrongdoing and haven't stopped the shill campaign. At least when a meal kit service or w/e is poor-quality usually all it means is you wasted your money, but if you trust the wrong therapy service there is a lot more that can go horribly wrong. (Cerebral is even worse since it was essentially all the problems of BetterHelp mixed with handing out addictive controlled substances like candy, but I haven't seen it on Youtube as much)

This is the only sponsorship that has actively made me unsubscribe from anyone that advertises it. While others like raycon or squarespace are usually annoying. Betterhelp is actively harmful to both their patients and their therapists, sells personal health data of their users to ad companies and it isn't even cheaper than real therapy at this point like they claim to be. It makes me see red when I see another youtuber saying how "good" it is and how it helped them (which it honestly looks like a script at this point) and telling their usually young audience to sign in. And then they dare to ignore the thousands of comments telling them about how bad betterhelp actually is. Like, I thought we all knew about their shady practices. It has been common knowlege since 2018, why are you acting surprised when you get called out. But I guess they pay really well so I hope those 1000$ were worth it I guess. Sorry for the ramble.

I've never tried it so I can't know for sure, but by all accounts the app is shit, yet everyone talks about it as though it's the best thing ever

There are sooo many controversies with BetterHelp and youtubers stopped accepting (not medically trained professionals, highly unethical and unprofessional and rude etc) sponsorships with them until recently like they all just forgot how shitty it was and it makes me dislike the youtuber every time i see they accept one

A shitty company taking advantage of those struggling with mental health (overcharging, horrible therapists, sharing data with third parties etc.) and yet everyone is sponsored by them

It harms both the therapists and the patients using it and is particularly evil to do that during the current times

Fake therapy and unqualified folks

they literally prey on mentally ill people for their money. their therapists seem extremely unqualified. i have heard so many horror stories including therapists telling (non-religious) clients to pray their problems away, talking about their own problems to the client for the entire session, and sitting on the toilet mid appointment. i genuinely don't understand how otherwise respectable creators can take their sponsorships in good faith because i have ONLY HEARD BAD THINGS

Shit company that abuses their “patients” and takes their money, and youtubers REFUSE to listen to their audiences on this

Not only is it incredibly fucking common and annoying, but it preys on and is advertised to people with mental illness. It apparently isn't very helpful for this (it seems like therapists don't even have to be licensed) but still presents itself as therapy. People have also said it sells your data and isn't confidential at all

It's everywhere and I heard it's actually a little harmful sometimes.

THEY STEAL YOUR INFO??? YOUR DEPRESSION IS LITERALLY BEING MONETIZED FUCK THESE GUYS JUST DO A NORMAL SCAM LIKE ESTABLISHED TITLES INSTEAD OF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SUICIDAL PEOPLE

It's a legitimately harmful product and it is /everywhere/

It's basically a scam and can cause actual harm!

Evil fucking service, straight up dangerous

Its not even real therapists

IT DOES NOT VET ITS THERAPISTS. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH, BETTERHELP DOES NOT VET ITS THERAPISTS. It also doesn't pay nearly enough.

it's a scam that preys on people trying to get help with their health

Literally sold user data from THERAPY SESSIONS

somehow it doesn't matter how many times there's articles about how better help abuses patients personal data, uses counselors who aren't licensed therapists, does conversion therapy on ppl who ask for lgbt sensitive counseling....ppl STILL take the money and i hate it

It's a scam and people (even some professional therapists have promoted it). "Despite its credible presentation, BetterHelp was caught selling data to Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest. The company recently settled for $7.8 million. The FTC confirmed that BetterHelp pushed people into handing over health informatio" quote is from this article which sums up the problem pretty well: https://www.themarysue.com/betterhelp-controversy-explained

It turns out they sell user data for advertising purposes which GOES AGAINST WHAT THERAPIST GROUPS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!

always feels really dystopian to get advertisement for scammy corporate mental health services... like what a sign of failure for society if ppl have to rely on such expensive and potentially unprofessional ways of getting the help they need. get that thang away from mee

therapy site with bad therapists on it

It's actually bad morally speaking

AWFUL SERVICE !!! every youtuber who still takes this sponsorship is cringe to me

Jim Beam "People Are Good For You" Ad - 1

I hate this ad. 1st of all, as an autistic person, being in a loud crowded bar would be a sensory nightmare for me. Also I don't like the taste of alcohol. So borboun is probably gross anyways. 2nd, I wouldn't want to go a bar because I would concerned about getting sick. That's because it's flu and cold season where I live, and Covid-19 is around. Lastly, I've seen this ad enough times now that it's annoying. So no Jim Bean, I will not be going a bar or buying your bourban (or anyone else's) anytime soon.

#polls #sponsorship smackdown #round 1

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