#listen... reddit is good for some things there are some subreddits i really genuinely like and go on regularly

[corvidshipping]

so starved for content im going on the fucking subr.eddit for this show god help me

[genericpuff]

What the actual fuck are they thinking-

Okay, the caption might seem overblown but... this is not good.

The main LO subreddit has been closed for weeks now. It closed due to the API protests but considering the options in the community poll were to either "stay open indefinitely" or "stay closed until the decision is reversed", there's a tinfoil hat theory going around that the single mod that overlooks that place saw the API protests as an "easy way out", especially considering how hands-off those mods are. By the time the main sub decided to take part in the protests (after the height of the protests were over) it had already been stated by u/spez that they were not going to reverse the decision. Essentially, the LO subreddit is done.

Do you know what's been happening since it closed? Activity in ULO has been skyrocketing, but we've also been seeing a lot more discourse from people who have been forced to stomach the ULO content after having their main community shuttered.

Listen, I've got a lot of issues with the main sub and the things they've done over the past year. There are definitely some really shitty folks in there who have ruined things for those who are just casual readers by just being way too protective of this comic. But that doesn't mean the main sub shouldn't exist. The main sub, as dead as it was by the time it closed, was still an option for people who didn't want blind praise or relentless criticism/shitposting. Though there were people who tried to gatekeep the shit out of the main sub (attempting to make it a "positive vibes only" space) the main sub was never explicitly designed for only praise, and by the time it closed, it was seeing a lot more balance between praise and criticism (to no one's surprise, because criticism has become a lot more mainstream in the LO fandom, simply due to the comic's undeniably tanking). All that said, it made for a nice middle ground. Even I enjoyed going in there and reading people's takes on new episodes every week, whether or not I agreed with them. ULO was not designed to be the only route for discussion concerning LO, it's very specifically run for one specific purpose and that purpose will not line up with those who are now without a space.

Without the main sub, there are people with nowhere to go. Some people casually grin and bear it through ULO, others have gone to /r/LowSodiumLoreOlympus, but considering how dead that sub is also, it's clear the popular opinion is swaying more towards criticism. I can't imagine what it's like to be a community refugee right now.

So what does that leave for those who don't want to use ULO? The Facebook groups, and the Discord. The Facebook groups are probably the most accessible communities - not everyone uses reddit, not everyone knows how to use Discord, but everyone uses Facebook.

So the fact that the Facebook groups aren't going on a small break, but are going on their own 4 month hiatus?

Not only does this further reduce the options for fandom interaction, but this is terrible for the comic. Hiatuses like this can kill long-term retention, and fandom communities are often the best way to keep that retention on some form of life support.

Think of it this way - if I didn't have the ULO community, I probably would have dropped off LO ages ago, cut my losses, moved on. But it's the fact that I have a community to keep in touch with and have fun with that keeps me on this series. This goes the other way as well, into the casual and praise communities - while I'm sure many will still eagerly return in October, for those who are more casual readers, Lore Olympus will essentially be out of sight, out of mind. And that is NOT something you want to happen to a comic that is already losing traction.

I genuinely do not know what Rachel is thinking closing these groups. And yes, I am pointing to Rachel on this decision because she literally runs the official LO Facebook groups. LO going on a mid-season hiatus over the summer when HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC IS HOME FROM SCHOOL is already such a huge risk that will likely kill her numbers; but to go and cut off her official groups from being able to stay connected and talking about the comic during the hiatus, on a platform OCCUPIED BY THE OTHER HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC, LITERALLY ADULT WOMEN ?? What is that supposed to achieve? If she wants to give her mods a break, sure, okay, do that for a few weeks, but four months? Is she so allergic to fans being able to theorize or "figure her out" (because god knows Rachel doesn't like being predictable) or, god forbid, is she worried about giving them too much "freedom" to reflect and discuss the comic during this time without the weekly dopamine distraction hits that they actually stop and realize how shitty the comic is right now?

All I can say is, as much as we're theorizing that LO is going to be getting a 4th season, I really do hope this midseason hiatus is its last. Whatever life this comic has left is being choked out by Rachel and Webtoons' own hands.

And when it does go out, it better go out with a bang. That's the least it can do for itself and its community at this point.

[mecachrome]

for an incredibly new f1 follower, what would you recommend for getting up to date with teams and racers and performances and history? apart from dts lol

oh that is a good question!!! i don't think i'm even the best person to answer this but honestly i think it all comes naturally if you pick a specific thing/team/person you're interested in and set out to learn more about that topic, because everything is so connected and with time you can fill in those knowledge gaps pretty quickly :') more under the cut:

dts is imo perfectly acceptable for learning names and faces for the first time and basically creating a vague outline of a given subject (i've said it's like using duolingo for learning a new language lol), so if you watch it and are like oh—i'm interested in charles or mercedes or learning more about technical regulations or whatever, then you can just dive deeper into that via wiki / youtube / podcasts + published media + old race archives and build up from there!

otherwise i think the main thing is just to start watching the actual races when the season gets underway, and in order to properly appreciate them then also read up on + watch videos about the technical/strategy side of the sport as well. back in the day i used to really like chain bear and i still always recommend it to anyone who asks! after that i would just seek out like... a community/server/place where other people are discussing news real-time; this could be meeting people on tumblr and twitter, but personally i'm subscribed to r/formula1 because it's the most active composite source of f1 news and Discourse. if you're reddit-averse i also just keep a big list on twitter with a bunch of random data accounts, official driver/team accounts, journalists, etc. that helps me keep up with the season in a tidy fashion—though honestly f1 journalism is so unserious that you don't really need to do that because most journos regurgitate the same three quotes in slightly different formats, so if you want to follow One Guy who won't disseminate bs info i'd recommend chris medland. or just general sport publications like autosport, motosport.com, the athletic if you're already subscribed to it (pretty lacking for f1 though since it's american lol), etc... some sites like the-race are very contentious though so i'd say just tread with caution!!! on the data side i personally enjoy fdatanalysis and f1telemetrydata (i've also used f1-tempo to do my own telemetry analysis but idk if that's useful). but again i'd highly recommend the subreddit since it keeps everything i just mentioned in one place anyway 😭

other media recs:

f1tv, if it's available in your area, has pretty much everything you need to follow f1 in its entirety. i hate to shill for paid media but i genuinely think it's good; you can watch every f1, f2, f3 session real-time, as well as go to the archives and revisit old races for each series from most seasons. it also has technical shows and a whole host of minidocs with bite-sized info that are probably less sensationalized than dts. if you don't have f1tv though then a lot of decent content is cross-posted to the f1 youtube so honestly the official channels are all pretty good for keeping up with the sport.

podcasts: if you're an auditory person then podcasts are a great way to deepdive into f1 history. personally i believe that 80% of men running f1 podcasts should be legally barred from ever having an opinion on motorsport, so i don't listen to that many, but i do enjoy the official f1 podcast beyond the grid (i listen to it on spotify but you can also find full transcripts on the f1 site) since, you know, they get official personnel on and i appreciate the wide range of personalities interviewed—from drivers to tps to various types of engineers. i've also heard good things about shift+f1, the race, and engine braking, but i haven't checked them out so i'd recommend just looking podcasts up yourself and seeing what vibes with you! though some podcasts are just like... I'll eat this because you're interviewing my guy but i would never watch/listen to you otherwise. (cough pit stop...)

books & autobiographies: again if you want to dive more into old f1, then you can always read a book!! i read jenson's autobiography life to the limit earlier and was very endeared, it's a super breezy but charming read ❤️ adrian newey's memoir is also a decent overview of a clearly brilliant and accomplished mind, i enjoyed the technical details and found his early career path especially interesting.

docus, movies, tv: there's also plenty of f1 media outside of f1tv, so you can always check those out; f1 movies aren't necessarily that accurate or frankly good but sometimes it's fun just for the Vibes and the love of the sport. for ex rush (2013) covers james hunt & niki lauda's rivalry, netflix has a schumacher (2021) doc, the brawn gp miniseries ft. jense came out last november, just things like that... some current individual drivers also have their own random miniseries so you can always seek those out, for ex i watched maxv's anatomy of a champion the other day just for the fun of it LOL.

i don't know whether any of this is helpful... but maybe other people can reply with their own recommendations!!!

also if you're interested in f2, f3, etc. then honestly just follow feeder series on whatever platform since they cover everything pretty well; feeder_series on twitter, r/f1feederseries, plus they do interview podcasts on youtube/spotify so i like watching those to keep up with young drivers. you can also watch chasing the dream for succinct f2 narratives; it used to only be on f1tv but it gets uploaded on youtube now so it's fairly accessible. lmk if you have any other questions or something specific you'd like more info about!!!

[burr-ell]

Hello! It's New Fan again. I hope you're doing well. I'm still slowly making my way through Campaign 1 of CT but I have a concern.

When you said that One Guy will go away soon, how soon are we talking about? It wasn't bad at first and I found Tiberius to be a bit charming but there are moments when it feels like it is not roleplay anymore and the player is genuinely being a dick.

Maybe I'm getting confused because they are pro-VAs and he's just really into it but I just cannot stop the bad feeling.

I'm debating on whether I should skip until he's gone or just endure it.

it's never that bad at first, is it

The thing about Tiberius is that the cast had been playing together for two years prior to the start of the stream and had known each other for longer because they were colleagues. And while I can't speak to who they are as people, they at least seem genuinely kind and forgiving, especially Matt, which is probably why Orion was allowed to stick around as long as he did. (And in fairness, Orion was also dealing with cancer and substance abuse issues during this period, which doesn't excuse his behavior but also helps explain why the cast gave him so many chances.)

But you are not at all alone in feeling that way, anon. I feel secondhand embarrassment sometimes even thinking about what he was like and how uncomfortable some of his behavior made everyone. For what it's worth, to give you a timeframe, Orion leaves after episode 27, and episodes 18 and 19 also don't have him (and the change in vibe is palpable). His last episode is really the nadir and it's pretty skippable. Personally, I'm messy and live for drama and found that reading people's salty YouTube comments helped get me through it (as well as the fact that I always listen to the show while I'm doing something—early C1 was for either portfolio work or support grinding in FE Awakening), but it's not for everyone.

If it gets to be too much? Skip to 18 and 19, then to either 24 or 28 depending on what you think you're up for. 24 is the actual start of the Briarwood arc and it opens with the scene where Percy reveals his backstory, which is excellent, and as an added bonus, Tiberius isn't in that part at all because when Vex said they should all go down to the workshop to check on their friend Tiberius just left to go do his own thing. (A microcosm, if you will.) 28 is when he's actually gone, and again—the change in atmosphere is pretty visceral. 25 is also worth watching, in my opinion; Orion tries metagaming with the Briarwood fight and Matt immediately has Delilah hit him with Feeblemind to take him out, and then #NoMercyPercy reveals himself and it's just as incredible as it is in the animated show—honestly, in my view it hits even harder.

If you want my opinion, the Orion episodes are still worth watching at some point...but no one in the fandom blames you if you don't, or if you decide to skip all his episodes and then go back and watch them later if you like everyone else enough to suffer through him. If you do decide to skip ahead, this reddit post has a pretty good rundown of what happened (with a few incorrect minor irrelevant details); it's not on the CR subreddit because fun fact! Discussions of Orion got banned in any context there outside of the first 27 episodes.

[subjectsix]

Hitman 2 and 3 theories

OKAY so I’ve been reading about Hitman 2/3 theories and thinking on the ending of the Haven level a lot and decided to make a post about it because analyzing stuff is fun dkfjghdjkfhg

Spoilers for the end of Hitman 2/the Haven level below the cut! (y’all its so much I’m sorry KJLDFHGKJFHG its Hitman Lore And Meta Time)

FIRST lemme just say. Y’all I’m very aware I’m a big Lucas Grey fan dkjgfhkdjhg BUT I did my best to make sure that wasn’t getting into my analyzation too much, I like being as objective/unbiased as possible bc the Hitman storyline is wonderful (and if Lucas is the villain oooo Drama™)

anyway this is gonna be a long ramble so here’s the TL;DR

Big point: I don’t think we can accurately piece together any sort of an answer currently, and IO wants us to doubt everyone and everything for the “hook” into the next game, and they did a lovely job at it! Thank you IO <3

My three running theories with the info we have:

None of the main four are working with the constant, and he is manipulating them all to try and turn them on each other, making them doubt each other to cause dissension among them (see: him telling Diana about the hit on her parents, the concept that he’s making Lucas out to be a traitor) which could result in Lucas’ death (or not)

Lucas is being “held hostage” in a way by the constant-- Edwards has him by some threat or pressure point credible enough to make Lucas work for him

The least likely in my opinion due to evidence and Lucas’ character, but still possible maybe: Lucas made a deal with the constant somehow (when he would’ve found the time, I don’t know) because he’s got it in his head that he and 47 should be the providence leaders-- somewhere along the way he got so obsessed/focused on this all he got his view skewed and genuinely thinks he’s doing a good and helpful thing

So what prompted me was this specific comment on a hitman subreddit theory thread:

So to me, the idea that Lucas has been a traitor from the start doesn’t seem to add up. If you look at everything we've seen from IO about him, it shows that Lucas is on a path of vengeance-- suddenly allowing The Constant off the hook seems like a massive shift in character, especially considering the comic and what we've seen of Lucas and 47 as kids (more on this in a bit)

So the only leap you can make after that to blame Lucas is the second comment on that reddit response, but that seems like such a big cheesy sci-fi stretch to me. If you look at Lucas and 47 knowing they’re clones, you can clearly see the resemblance. They aren’t just brothers, they’re like. They’re near exactly the same in appearance (save for the fact that 47’s in much better shape and like. Bald DFHFDJHG). You could argue that Lucas had his face changed to appear to be a clone, but you have to consider that they both have the hand scars from the pact they made as children, the comic confirms Lucas/6’s existence, Lucas has a lot of Ort-Meyer knowledge others don’t have, and 47 is remembering Lucas

Any leap past that gets wackier, like...

- Maybe 47 has DOUBLE fake memories from his time in the institute and this has been planned from the beginning? Doesn’t seem satisfying nor IO’s style, plus it seems rather out of character for 47.

- Ether antidote somehow gave him fake memories? Also nah, seems just too out there/odd/improbable 

So from here, the only thing that I can personally add up and understand in the vein of Lucas being a traitor is the concept of Lucas maybe having a bent concept of like... morality? I can see him maybe getting a bit too over the edge, too bent and obsessed on Providence and taking them down, and somehow talking himself into thinking he and 47 need to be in control of Providence because they’re the only ones that can make things “right”. From what I’ve seen, he hasn’t exhibited behavior that tells me that in full, but that makes much more sense than him being A Complete Snake™ because if he was a traitor it would defo be in the “he fully thinks he’s doing the right and good thing for 47”

ANYWAY consider this evidence in game:

- Lucas being shown repeatedly to go to great lengths to avoid collateral damage/citizens getting hurt or killed (you can overhear this being talked about on Hawke’s Bay, Columbia (and from Lucas himself in Rico’s office), and I think Colorado, but I’m not sure. I’m sure there’s other locations as well).

- Lucas' genuine concern for Olivia to the point that he gives her her whole own security detail (seen on Colorado, thank u @olliemander for showing me that!!!), as well as the fact that he met her when she was 7 (can somebody say father figure), and she's the only person in the whole militia to have both seen him and know his real name, not even Sean Rose knows his name and those that have seen him have all been killed (Viktor, the Providence member in the cutscene after Sapienza) 

- His seemingly genuine reaction to realizing he killed Diana's parents (seen in the cutscene before Sgáil)

- His seemingly genuine concern over 47's wellbeing after the ether antidote (seen in the cutscene after Whittleton)

- His seemingly genuine reaction to/at the institute (the man is genuinely emotional over it all)

- The Constant's complete bafflement at Lucas' actions-- you can overhear this on Sgáil-- and I suppose you could argue that this is just fake so Edwards and Lucas can play the long con, but that seems unlikely to me

- also this is less of a piece of evidence but still interesting, Lucas’ man on the island that gets him the info on the poison chip and the Washington Sisters comes from a genuine NPC you can listen to, who calls Lucas to give him more info and tell him their debt from their old CICADA days is repaid and to just leave him alone now AKJDLFHGKJDFHG

I mean, yeah, it could all be things to mislead us, but I don’t think so-- his behavior lines up throughout the years of his life that we’ve been shown, and 47 isn’t one to blindly trust people.

This leaves the idea that Lucas has been working with Edwards from the start, but that too seems like a long stretch to me-- Lucas seems to hate what he and 47 had to go through (as seen in the comics and just his behavior we’ve seen), and he carries that weight (like he mentions in the cutscene before Sgáil, and in the Homecoming cutscene). He seems to really struggle with survivor’s guilt over his escape from the institute. Plus Lucas doing a double side switch seems a bit Much™ (but I totally could be wrong akdljfhgkjdgh)

Ultimately tho, here's the thing: I don’t think we can solve this puzzle yet, because IO wants us to wait for Hitman 3. What good is it if we bust it before the game comes out?

They did this with the end of the Sgáil mission-- it was a big ominous cliffhanger but then we just sorta scooted along (so they could keep building the story, it was well done IMO)

My most likely theory at the moment is the idea that Edwards is trying to turn 47, Lucas, Diana, and Olivia on each other because he realizes they’re a threat. Bc If I’m real, I currently don't think any of the core group are working with The Constant, which is terrifying, because it means the constant is way more powerful than we thought and way less helpless than we thought he was in his current position. (So that means the text/phone call/whatever Lucas got in the end cutscene was from Edwards posing as someone else like Olivia). Plus, if Diana gets into contact with 47, she’s going to tell him Edwards is gone. If for some reason 47 can’t contact her, he’s going to be suspicious and on high alert.

Edwards is a scheming, smart dude and I don’t doubt him being able to do that at all. He knows Diana and 47 are close and trust each other (“in his own special way, he cares about you”) and felt the need to mention to her that 47 and Lucas were behind her parents’ deaths-- that’s not just bonus information, he did it for a reason. This also puts his line of “Do you really want to do this to me?” to the Partners in reference to being under scrutiny and needing the poison chip under a SUPER terrifying and ominous light. What sort of power does this man wield?

I would personally love to see Lucas survive these games AKJHSFJGH but I can see the story leading to 47 have to make a call to shoot Lucas (thinking he’s a traitor), playing hard against the emotions of it all, especially with the reveal that this was all a set up by The Constant, making 47 go after him with a vengeance. (also not to be angsty™ but can you imagine Lucas and 47 talking after 47’s shot him? Oof ouchy my heart) 

Another possibility I can see is like my friend Synth suggested-- Lucas wanting to go in violently and take it all out on The Constant, while 47 holds him back for tactics sake 

In terms of Lucas and Edwards working together, sans them planning it from the start, there really would’ve been no time for Lucas to talk to The Constant between his capture and the departure for the bank. I also can’t currently make sense of many reasons why Lucas would side with him and not tell 47 or Olivia

My final idea that plays into the idea of Lucas as a traitor is the idea that, somehow, The Constant is holding Lucas hostage in a way? That if by chance they got to speak to each other, The Constant lorded some threat over Lucas that was serious enough to him to agree to help him (like a threat against 47 or Olivia, etc). I’m not sure though, but the idea is interesting to me :Oc

aNYWAY big ol’ rant over! Here’s some pics of Lucas’ voice actor in Alice and Wonderland enjoy fdjgkhdfkjghkjfh

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Suspiria remake review from a shitty movie-goer

(this review is posted too late so excuse me for some timing inaccuracies I couldn’t be arsed to edit)

(IF YOU HATE TL;DRS JUST SKIP AHEAD TO THE “THE REVIEW” PART. YOU’RE WELCOME)

I actually hate to admit why was I interested to watch this movie in the end, but for once SOMETHING motivated me to go to a movie after countless tries from my family to get me to watch something in theatres at a “reasonable time” (daytime is what they mean, this movie was at 8pm our time, and this is when the cross-city bus transport (it goes from one big city to another) stops doing their service lmao).

I myself have a lowkey interest in moviemaking (I’m already getting there by editing my phone-recorded videos because whatever). I come up with my concepts in my head and I am mostly willing to put them down somewhere in my computer so I don’t forget it years later if I want to make that concept a thing in the end (because none of my concepts are finalized... well except for one short horror-ish story I posted on DeviantArt (see mom, I do like some horror stuff!). Reddit as of lately inspired me to edit some of my movie’s plot-lines based on irl events (not related with anything too SJW), and I’m not sure how an usual movie-goer would see this concept but I am going to try to execute it... whenever I have enough equipment to shoot my own little films or skits or whatever.

What’s that? There are people who scrolled past this and already yell at me that “YOU ONLY WENT TO SEE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE OF THE MAN WHO COMPOSED THE SOUNDTRACK~~~”? Ugh yes you exposed me, tea all over. I even had “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” on a bit of a repeat as of lately (how fucking come I wasn’t too couragerous to listen to this song before?? And “Pyramid Song”??? Man am I discovering their pearl(ie)s(*) too late). And I’m occasionally on the band’s subreddit as well. And the man himself is touring ‘round the USA, signing material of fans and have genuinely warm chats with them. Admireable.

But that’s only half truth.

I never thought I’d see Suspiria on cinema theatres in here. Until one time when I saw an ad on a completely random Lithuanian website that said this movie is coming to our theatres 14 December... I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. I made my goal to see Suspiria since then. I even dared to ask a couple of my new college ‘friends’ to see it with me, but one of them fell off the deal when I revealed that I’ll be going to see it on Saturday, and on the weekends he’s usually at home, far away from the city the college is in (he lives in college dormitory on mostly the work-weekdays). So my only movie companion ended up to be this 28-year-old coursemate (actually we both study different things but sometimes we attend some of the same lectures) who was intrigued by the Suspiria trailer herself so at least I’m gonna have her by my side of the movie, so I thought. Sweet.

I already envisioned seeing this in a mall cinema theatre but my companion offered me a cheaper alternative - her suggested cinema theatre was actually in renovation so the business is temporarily happening inside an actual drama theatre’s long theatre hall. I had to wait long until the ticket box opened and because of that I was lowkey frustrated as I finished my English test writing a little earlier, so I spent my time walking around the city until the time came and I wandered off to the old building of the cinema so then I remembered it was moved and I found the moved place. Yeah I bought the tickets before my companion could but I’ll skip ahead to the time that I almost lost the tickets because they were put down on a windowsill outside some children activity centre (Suspiria and children?? lol). I came back home late at night and was ready for the movie to happen the next day. Oh and before buying the tickets I coincidentally saw dance classes going on nearby that building... weird, as Suspiria has dance elements in there

The day came (December 15) and my family went together with me because they saw this as an opportunity to see the Christmas tree of our city (but not the movie). Needless to say, they were still visibly pissed at me orchestrating this idea, as I planned everything BUT the transport to go by. Well at least my mom and my sis. Dad was cool with it as he returned home to watch Home Alone. Aside all that, the cinema hall was cozy, Christmassy, not too small, there were a few trailers before the movie, no snack-seller places (as this is not a mall lol) - my companion was glad she wasn't at the mall as she found this place where we were at way lovelier.

Now with all that unnecessary long intro off my chest, let’s begin:

THE REVIEW

(definitely not spoiler-free, if you are sensitive to spoilers please watch the movie for yourselves before reading my review. But if you like being spoiled, I’m your friend then I guess lmao)

The intro to the movie felt like I ended up booking a wrong movie - I didn't expect that to be set somewhere in Germany, especially an American/Italian-shot one. Was that a thing in the original Suspiria? I don't know... (apparently it is, but the cities are different, never the country though)

Patricia (I didn’t know it was Chloë Grace’s role until reading the Wiki) looked like to be a really big deal here, with the dance pupils discussing her disappearance the other day and Susie overheard them, then Sara mentioned the Patricia thing to Susie after Susie revealed she was kind of chosen as the lead dancer for the Volk play... is it because Patricia was THE saviour that unfortunately knew a little too much?? Idk, it’s perhaps the reason we get to see the Klemperer guy subplot happen (I didn’t know it was Tilda Swinton behind him all the time either, must be because the way the male German accent was put on her lol). Turned out she was captured and kept under some dungeon where Sara had gone later in the movie, but looking like an almost melted and grotesquely old human being (or if Mary’s mother from “Chocolate with Nuts” was a person). Speaking of which, there is one more later in the movie, but I won’t tell just yet - we will need to get into such scenes discussion first.

Interesting deaths here, despite of them being grotesque and horrifically detailed. It almost felt like Susie, whilst doing her first dance as the probable lead dancer, temporarily turned into Olga’s voodoo doll or a violent bloodbender (that old lady from Avatar that could bloodbend was incredibly uncanny, damn) and left Olga completely fucked up, and the foam mouth later on... is this the effect myxomatosis has on a human being if it was ever humanly? She was twitching and salivating afterall. :P But no, she’s not dead until she gets to plead her death later in the movie! :O Several others occur throughout, but none is more prominent than this key scene I described, well at least according to TV Tropes.

The search for the evil person in this movie without Wiki helping me much was definitely a nice game for me to play. I kept thinking that Blanc might be that one, then I thought she’s not the one until she looked at Carolina (I think that was the tall tomboy’s name??) suspiciously and then she later passed out on the floor violently, with rabies foam and everything.

Anyway, don’t tell me Tilda Swinton wouldn’t make out a pretty good Thom Yorke post-Pablo Honey. She’s 8 years older than him, ffs! Also played a man before (e.g.: this movie I’m talking about) so the make up won’t be an unjumpable-over hurdle.

The sighs were for sure unsettling, especially because they oddly sounded like orgasm here and there. IDK why. I know fucking is referenced twice in this movie (well only fucking once and sex another time). Speaking of random things, the nightmare shots were completely random themselves, following up with some imagery we never see in the movie again, and some of that we see only a little (like the worms and bloody organs).

3 long scenes that were note-worthy for me. One is the Olga mutilation/Susie's first dancing scene that I already noted, and it was driven by music (the others will be too. Soundtrack of this movie still rules). Then there's the Volk play itself - girls go from one place to another, take poses of each other, dance individually, let their minimalistic red rope dresses flick in the air, interspersed with Sara in the underneath area and her broken leg (so broken, the bone went out of her skin!), and then the matriarchy getting her back on stage, but healing her leg with her witch powers before that. I haven't really listened to the rest of the soundtrack but I gotta check the song out so that I won't end up labeling it as a Kid A reject. No but seriously - intense dancing needed some intense drumming and painful instrument sounds just to project out the massiveness of the whole play.

Then I keep remembering the scene where Madame Blanc commands Susie to jump higher and higher in the mirror hall, up until she jumps as highest as possible. Also my companion’s favourite scene was the stare exchange between these two ladies during the part where people were singing some drinking song in a bar to celebrate ‘Volk’’s success - you hear them singing and then some chilling background noise slowly mixing and creeping its way into the atmosphere, then I think it leads into a scene where some sparkling aura entity wakes Susie up (and she’s nude) in the middle of the night and gets her to go down to this... dungeon orgy full of random stuff going on, complete with an Asian man doing something beyond explanation (I could say lewd but not quite), even more strange ritual dancing and the very much frightening Madame Helga... who looked like Jabba the Hutt for some reason. And then of course everyone slitting, slashing and twisting each other, and by the end Susie throwing us all a plot twist which makes her THE evil one who can finally let her ‘friends’ go of all that suffering they have been through thanks to the damn witches (and yeah apparently her dance friends haven’t completely died? THAT’S how they do - they tell Susie to end their suffering and she does). Also she cracks her chest open to reveal a... very graphic part of a female body that will by no doubt get this whole text review reported without consent so I refrain from any illustrations. Oh and this scene mostly has the possibly favourite this movie’s soundtrack song of mine, if not one of them, play - titled Unmade. It was a mind-boggling decision to do so but the movie editors do them I suppose, but still. I felt sad for the song having to be the background of such absurd but fair enough events? (Oh and I didn’t mention that everyone who voted for the other woman than Madame Blanc to be the leader of the witches (iirc) were rid of in this movie. Damn.)

Oh and the ending is rather an interesting detail, not talking about post-credits because as always I have to be this one movie goer who wants to do it but can’t because they’re urged to go back out of the movie theater. We turn into modern day Germany with a love heart carved on a brick wall with the letters A and L (perhaps?? at the time of finishing this review my memory towards it kind of erased some parts of the movie for me), a nice little remembrance of Lutz’s (the old man’s) love for his dear Anke, with which they have reunited during the movie, but Lutz was dragged out by some people related to the dance academy for probably wandering elsewhere than needed and somehow Lutz ended up as one of the sex dungeon victims, stripped of clothing and lying down quite powerless. That and before the modern day shot we are subjected with Lutz in hospital with Susie coming to visit, they discuss something related to the plot, Susie touches the guy speaks some more, leaves and according to the Wiki, Lutz “suffers from a violent seizure” that was nothing more than just a hard seizure. And it even erases his memories!

Anyway, as a whole, I felt more underwhelmed of this movie’s experience despite really wanting to see it. Like, “uhm yeah gore blood people getting slashed everyone’s a witch and everyone’s watched over by the witch and if you expose the witches you die” kind of underwhelmed. I didn’t want this movie to blatantly go through my head, but it did, that’s why I wanted to make notes everytime something notable happens. There was one startling moment, and it just was an innocent scene transition. And something within Olga’s mutilation scene made me chuckle (and made some other people leave the cinema hall ASAP). It’s more of a disgusting watch than scary. Also feels too dragged out in parts.

I’d only recommend it if you are gore-tolerant (there are people that can’t stand looking at blood so this might as well not be for you, especially if you’re younger than 16), like intense choreos that can impact other people literally, and... the soundtrack. Yes of course. If you dare to get through the movie with feeling its soundtrack, sometimes you might as well feel it right, but some of the soundtrack song usages might as well make you go “hmm” as much as me.

I'll remind myself to never watch a movie in theaters for soundtrack again (unless they're not THAT late). And the other 'trilogy of the three witches' movie remakes, especially if they come out at the time I haven't moved houses by now, because for sure as hell will my parents not like me going to cinema late once more. The movie is lowkey 7 out of 10 for me, can sometimes it's on the verge of falling down to 6 becaude of no completely proper comprehension of some directing choices... so 6.7/10 is good - as it still has 6 in it, but totally leans on to the 7.

Will probably watch it again. I need to remember some more of this movie sometime later. And looking for online uploads of this movie is unrecommendable - I'll wait until Lionsgate distributes it to America for wider audiences so that anything could surface 2 months (or even a few days) later from now. Though if I didn't need all that, I'd definitely not watch it again for a long time... unfortunately I want to.

Post movie feelings: my companion liked the movie, initially said to never watch it again but now wants to watch it again because it was so "wtf" she felt like re-experiencing it at some point. She liked the music (another bonus point for Yorke). She wished she could film the reactions of other people who watched this, as they mostly were confused, all being like "wtf did I just watch???". I'm already feeling bad for the 3rd companion who didn't join us but would also like to watch this - he’ll likely be one of those confused movie-goers.

[thatqueerpodcastfan]

Ongoing Horror Anthology Podcast Cheat Sheet

One particular kind of podcast that deserves a bit more attention is the horror anthology. I feel like horror can easily be lumped into one blob of a genre (especially when drawing from multiple authors) but the subtle differences in anthology type and stories that these podcasts tell can really make or break listener experience. So! For people looking for a good spook but want minimal trial and error, I hope that this post can help.

Note that unless mentioned, these anthologies do not have trigger warnings or transcripts, please proceed with caution when selecting a horror podcast to listen to! A few of the podcasts listed here will be/have been reviewed in more depth in this blog.

Anthologies

PseudoPod: This podcast is one of the longest (if not The Longest) running horror podcast, with all 500+ episodes featuring free-range ethically sourced, independently written and/or performed horror stories and thoughtful but brief analysis for each featured story. The podcast site has a list of recommended episodes (http://pseudopod.org/new-to-pseudopod/) but most any episode you pick will be good. Stories featured go back to the 1800′s to modern tales, contain POC, disabled, and queer authors and/or characters, and always contains information on further works by the writer and narrator. 

All episodes have transcripts on the podcast site, trigger warnings are minimal

The NoSleep Podcast: All episodes are sourced from Reddit posts in the NoSleep subreddit or writer submission, with 11 seasons and options for season passes and/or additional content. If you want a list of recommended episodes, the podcast “About” page has one https://www.thenosleeppodcast.com/new-to-the-nosleep-podcast. There are genuinely good stories within this podcast. However, I would proceed with at least some caution as the episodes I listened two had content ranging from cosmic horror to heavy body horror with little to no content warning.

All episodes have trigger warnings on the podcast site

Knifepoint horror: This podcast is a collection of minimalist stories written by Soren Narnia that I call “dad horror” (i.e. most characters seem to be middle aged men, calmly recounting their experiences) starting in 2010. Due to the single author and first person retrospective mode of narration in almost every episode, there are not many jump scares and very little body horror, as well as a very distinctive almost-calm method of telling these truly unsettling, sometimes meandering tales. Podcast website can be found here: https://knifepointhorror.libsyn.com/

The Lift: This podcast is a series of stories written by independent stories that all have a few things in common; a young girl named Victoria, a seemingly decrepit apartment, and a Test of Character for all the characters who venture in. I’ve already given my opinion on the podcast here, but I would at least give the first episode a try as it deals heavily in moral ambiguity and contributing authors often twist its central theme in several interesting ways.

Honorable mentions (anthology-like with central narrative that ties into shorter stories being told)

The Magnus Archives: The new archivist for an institution dedicated cataloging encounters with the supernatural goes about his job, recordings statements of those with encounters and investigating their validity. What starts off as an almost-anthology chock full of people from all walks of life grows into an intriguing mystery with almost too many facets to keep track of.

No trigger warnings or transcripts, but a thorough Wiki where episode summaries can be found.

The Dark Tome: In this short (9 episodes to date) but sweet show, a disillusioned teen finds a mysterious book while assisting the elderly man who runs a local bookstore. The book is a gateway into stories ranging from the tale of a trapped West Virginian coal miner to a fae ball. Episodes are interspersed with longer horror stories, all of which are choice.

I will be adding to this list and adjusting as I listen on.

[sertralineandcbd]

IX of pentacles

again, another cryptic title...but i promise, it’s relevant.

ever since my third or fourth day being back “home”, i’ve been reading my daily tarot reading on my phone. i’m not much of a believer in that stuff but it’s kept me in a state of wonder and it gives me something to expect. the IX of pentacles states: “after much hard work, this card indicates a time of opulence and luxury, all resulting in a feeling of satisfaction, emotional comfort, and peace. all of this is due to one’s intelligence and self-control and represents an achievement that has lasted over a lifetime.”

i’m hoping this reigns true in some sort of way. i feel like my life so far has just been bad luck back to back. it seems like i can’t even get a glimmer of hope of something stable and that positively affects me without getting let down soon after. even with the whole job offer thing -- i had my fingers crossed -- i was like, “please please please just give me this. just give me something to work hard on. give me a platform to fuel my career...” but no.

i’m not even sure what this post is about really, i think it’s just me reflecting on how distraught i am and how hopeless i feel once again.

i got back from the studio not too long ago and the journey back home can be quite difficult yet reflective. i always listen to music my entire journey, so it’s nice, but it also forces me to be sort of alone with my thoughts and feelings. sometimes i think about how hurt i feel, how sad i feel, how much i wish things would just work and all the things that happened. sometimes i’m typing or thinking or on a train of thought and it just all short circuits. i’m not sure if it’s because i genuinely forget or that my brain is choosing to: 

avoid avoid avoid.

right now just writing about stuff and putting myself in this position is making my jaw ache and clench up. my body constantly feels like i’ve been hit by a truck, especially when i wake up first thing. recently i’ve been having some stomach pains and i’m not sure if its the post traumatic stress or nothing. 

but yeah, im lost. i just wish i was happy.

despite everything, i’m still sticking with what i’ve always believed to be true: everything happens for a reason. i know that although me and no. 3 had so much compatibility in terms of interests and the way we view many things/our opinions, he wasn’t a good partner emotionally nor in a true love sort of sense.

i actually saw something today or last night that spoke on abusive relationships - an infographic that displayed it all. the title is: quick telltale signs of an abusive relationship. the text reads:

- the relationship progressed very quickly

- you’re always looking for signs your partner is about to get angry

- you often feel like you’re walking on eggshells

- you sometimes feel afraid of your partner’s reaction to something

- you see friends or family behind your partner’s back

- deleting innocent emails and messages as you don’t want your partner to get the wrong idea

- you feel responsible for your partner’s feelings or actions

- you do things you don’t want to do to keep the peace

- your partner often overrides your feelings or wishes when making decisions

- you avoid bringing up subjects that may set your partner off

- you feel that you are worthless and that no one else would want you

- you feel like you can’t do anything right

AND ALL OF THESE WERE TRUE.

honestly, i’ve written several posts on this blog but i haven’t felt as distressed as i do right now thinking and feeling and talking about it all. i feel as though i’ve also become a lot more irritable - not only around family but around friends too. i don’t want to be that way and that’s certainly not what i’m like, but the high stress, tension, and trauma kill me inside and i guess that’s how it manifests.

i think i also dissociated for the first time today. i was sitting in the studio creating music with the group and i just started drifting away, eyes glazed over, kinda stepped outside of my body for a bit.

these are reasons why i think things are getting worse in a way. in a way they are also not as i am not in quarantine like i was when i first arrived -- i have less of a schedule (aka stay home and watch youtube, make food, work, or do my embroidery stuff), i don’t cry every day, i don’t wake up at 4, i’m not sleeping on a couch, i’m not as heartbroken in the way i was (it’s a different sort of “hurt”), i’m not having serious suicidal thoughts like i was, i’m able to scroll on reddit (after unfollowing MANY subreddits), i’m not intruded CONSTANTLY with TERRIBLE thoughts where i have to distract myself so intensely that i can’t even take a shower....so, in many ways it’s gonna better when it comes to the day to day...

but in terms of the lasting effects and the PTS, i don’t believe so. it’s in fact the opposite.

[meltedmagazine]

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEL WATER GAP

      “IN THIS WIDE AND PERILOUS ALL-TOO-BIG WORLD DEL WATER GAP WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR BEING CLOSE.” Close through their music, close through their emotionally raw lyrics, close through the heartfelt voice mails piling up on the band's answering machine. If there's one thing the trio isn’t, it’s far away. Grounded in their own blend of folk rock and the occasional trumpet appearance, they’re always just a phone call away according to their new EP title: 1 (646) 943 2672. I had the opportunity to talk to lead singer Holden Jaffe about the EP, the good ol’ days, and voice mails.

_____________________________________________________________

What's the significance of the place Del Water Gap? You guys are from New York so how did you end up with that name?

     Good question, I admittedly have never been to the Del Water Gap. However when I was 16 or so I was in a noise rock band called Great Blue Heron that was based out of New Jersey, Morristown and so I ended up driving around that area a lot and saw a lot of signs for DWG and one day we were driving and I was sitting shot gun and I saw it written on a box truck and it was written in sort of like primitive handwriting, it looked like it was scratched in and I just thought it looked really cool so I added it to my growing list of band names cause I was trying to start my own band and it ended it up at the top of the list and it has remained!

You put a phone number as the title of your newest EP and you can call it and leave a message, what was the purpose of that?

    We were turning in the EP and I had a few names and I was really stressing over it trying to come up with the right name. The EP had to come out soon and I started thinkin and I was like i don’t know the names of any EP’s, I know some album names but the bands I like the most as far as EP’s go I don’t know the names so I was like okay maybe we can do something different here and right around that time I lost my phone. I left it on a plane and it was in rural New Hampshire and I felt very off the grid and I didn’t have my phone for the first time in years. I didn’t have a computer and I realized in trying to get in touch with my parents I didn’t know their phone number anymore and I didn’t know anyone's phone number and I was like wow this is really interesting we’re living in this time where you don’t need to know anyone's phone number which was probably a really intimate thing to know at one point, you know the 1950’s you probably knew everyone's phone numbers, all your best friends your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your parents, your grandparents. You had to so I was like yeah you know that's such a gesture to give someone a phone number right and know it and I think in the era in music right now where's there's so many bands and there's spotify you're constantly being exposed to bands and it's sort of a blur and i thought it would be an interesting gesture to sort of offer access to me and the rest of the group and sort of as an experiment too to see if people would reach out. People have reached out so.

Any really unique messages?      Yeah I have. I decided that I wasn’t going to pick up the phone unless I’m in my room because I didn’t want to take the phone outside because I was like if I lose this phone like you know so I’ve gotten a lot of messages, I get about 20 a day. I try to go through them and I’ve been sort of collecting them and listening to them. A lot of them are really interesting, a lot of them are people being very genuine and sweet and calling from all over the world and just sharing messages about finding music at a certain time in their life when it meant a lot and a lot of people very surprised like ”wait what this actually works.” A lot of stoned people on spotify calling. I picked up the phone once, I’ve only been there once for an actual phone call, I picked it up and it was a kid from Nova Scotia and he said “hello” and I was like “hello” and he was like “who is this” and I was like “dude you’re calling me who are you” and he was like “I’m so and so I saw this on spotify and thought i’d call this” and I was like “yeah dude whats going on” and we just talked for a bit. To me it sort of proved my experiment was a success I was able to connect with some stranger and it was a really pleasant and he texted me later and was like “yo I love the record,” it was nice.

Song off the EP that means the most and why?

    There is a song, the last song on the record that's really special to me, it's called “Love Song For Lady Earth” and I’m really proud of it as a song but also I just wrote it at a really formative time for myself. I was staying in Charleston with my mom, in Isle of Palms, it was like the off season, not the tourist season so there wasn’t really anyone there and it was really cold and I was dating this girl at the time and we weren't really getting along and we were cooped up in this house and she flew back to New York and I was there with my mom for another week and a half and I just wrote a lot over that 2 weeks for whatever reason. Some of the best songs to this day, something about just being holed up there and not being able to leave and feeling sad but in a really comfortable way, and I ended up writing that song and it's just one of the few songs I never edited, it just sort of came out well and yeah it feels good, it feels like a good summary of a few years of life into a few minutes.

What was it like to play your new songs at the Sofar session you guys did a while back? What was the emotional change to play it live?

     It’s funny because I sort of cut my teeth as an acoustic singer/songwriter boy, you know doing a lot of acoustic guitar and vocals just playing shows by myself playing guitar and singing. Once I started playing in a rock band I sort of realized in a lot of ways bands can be a crutch as far as what you can get away with, how clean you have to be with your playing and your signing and I just find it much easier to talk in front of a room with a band behind me and that's nice but it's also nice to be reminded that you know you have to treat it as a craft. At Sofar sounds and those types of shows, it's a good opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone. I really like playing Sofar, I’ve done a few of them and it’s always been a good experience and it  reminds me which songs are actually good cause you know everyone's sitting there staring at you reacting in real time which isn't always true at venue shows, people are always talking and texting and it's whatever but at Sofar the expectation is that you engage.

What is it like to be an artist in the 21 century?

    You know it's obviously changed everything about our society and it’s had the equal effect on the music industry. It’s changed more in the last 2 years then probably the 60 years prior. The main thing I’ve seen in being a band in the era of social media or whatever you want to call it is image. It's obviously really prevalent in music and affects people's willingness to click anything in this age of content it's so based on image so it’s obviously challenging but it's also a challenge in that we have to create content that's a little more challenging and innovative even within its own world. Like if you’re going to be another white guy making guitar rock then you need to do it well and I think it’s a healthy thing but there's definitely times when it can be distracting. There's been periods of time for myself and I can speak for my friends in bands where the music falls behind to a lot of other work and it needs to maintain a certain level of presence in the social sphere.

So for “Hightops” and “Vanessa” you used a zoomed in part of the picture that you used for the album cover, what's the significance?

    Well actually there's a really interesting story behind the photo so I’m just going to tell you about that first. I was on reddit and there was a subreddit called ‘old school cool’ and I saw a photo and was like this is a really completing photo, something about that, the red gloves right in the middle, the look on this woman's face, this is a really cool photo. Naturally I was looking for content so I messaged the user and was like “hey shot in the dark I was wondering if you own this photo I was wondering if I could license it from you for my album cover” and I get this email back within 30 seconds and it's this guy like “yo this is so crazy i'm 14 years old I live in the mountains in china and yes this is my mom she’d be honored if an american band would use her for your album cover” and I was like what? It was such a funny and immediate response but he was like yeah the one thing is he wanted his dad's name on the album cover because he took the picture and I was like “ah i don't know if we can do that I don’t know if I can put your dad's name on the front but I can credit him.” I had that picture and I was thinking about how to put together the singles and I just thought about the idea of what it would look like to have 2 single album covers and then the full album cover together in a line because the way they’d present visually as a package as if they were 2 sort of 7 inch single sitting on a self and what would that look like and so that's what I thought would be a good angle.

So “Hightops” was the last song released before the full EP. What was it about that song that made you want it to be the last thing people heard before the release?

   The few people I played it for thought it was special so naturally I was like okay maybe this is special. I wrote it with a  guy who I really admire named Michael Tighe, who was Jeff Buckley's guitarist, and he’s just a reallyseasoned musician, he’s played on a lot of great records.  I met him and became friends with him and this was the first song we wrote together and it was very indicative to me personally of this friendship and mentorship so that obviously affected it and it seems a little different than the other songs I structure, the writing was more classic and it just felt right

That song as well as “Be My Own” stuck out to me, can you tell me a little bit more about that one too?

    “Be My Own” is on the record we put out 2 or 3 years ago and that song I wrote in Hawaii.  I was in Hawaii with my best friend and at that time he was living in this very open lofty house and his sister's bedroom didn't really have walls, well it had walls but it kind of ended 2 feet before the to of the ceiling, so we were in the kitchen hanging out trying to be quiet in case she was sleeping there. We were just sitting on the floor and I was messing with this song and I was with this girl at the time who I really liked and she was sort of the first girl I brought home to my parents so I was like ‘wow so romantic the idea of domesticity like wow isn't that romantic like you can have breakfast and make the bed together wow you know.’  I’ll never forget just sitting there with him writing it and he was helping me out and finished it. I wanted to put it on that record and it was my freshman year of college and I was living in this dorm room with the sweetest guy but he was always in the room. I said “hey what's up dude you're still here you know I’m trying to record a little bit.” I actually recorded, I made myself get comfortable with recording when he was in the room. I was like “hey just be quiet for like 3 ½ minutes, it’ll be chill” and so I recorded that song and he was walking in and out of the room and I just managed to get through a take without him ruining it and that was the one that ended up on the record so once again very indicative of the time and the living space.

What's the NYC music scene like?

     Well I went to NYU so I’m very much apart of the NYU scene which is very mixed. I went to this school for Clive Davis and it’s a very pop centered program, so there's a lot of bands that were in my class that are really doing impressive things in the pop world and equally there's a lot of indie bands and rock bands like Del Water Gap who play shows here and tour constantly and go to college. It’s a good place to be for music. 

LISTEN TO DEL WATER GAP HERE

interview by SAMANTHA SULLIVAN

photo by CAITLIN MESSINGER

[topicprinter]

A bit about why I am writing this:I am a conversion-optimization specialist. I have optimized lots of websites (mostly small-business and start-ups) for better conversion-rates, as a professional conversion-consultant. (I do copywriting as well).My line of work makes me see hundreds of business landing-pages every month.I see so many of un-optimized and scrambled-together landing-pages, whose business owners are frustrated due to getting very low conversion-rate. Still, they keep throwing more money on Facebook/Google ads, just hoping it will change magically if they only run more ads and bring more traffic.Most often, I see this on the websites of small-businesses and start-ups, which is understandable as they usually can’t afford to hire a consultant to look at their website landing-page or conversion-funnel to optimize it.There are so many small-business owners on reddit who need to get their landing-page/home-page optimized for maximum conversion-rate before continuing to throw money on bringing traffic with Facebook and Google Ads, that end up being wasted.By not optimizing your landing-page, you are squandering money on ads more than you should be. If you continue doing that, you are basically decelerating your business and getting closer to running out of fuel(money) to run your business.I have distilled my framework of putting together a landing-page that really converts, something which I have implemented for dozens of clients resulting in visible improvement in conversions.Here is a No B.S. guide for you to learn how to build a landing-page that will bring you real conversions:(with practical steps & methods to implement on your website & get more conversions)THE FIRST LOOK:The first look(i.e. top section of your landing page) is what a first-time visitor sees on your landing-page. This sets the tone of what impression you leave on your new visitor. It’s the digital equivalent to saying Hi to someone(who you’d like to be friends with) on the first day of the school or introducing yourself at a networking event lunch crowd.What you don’t want to do:You don’t want to throw everything about yourself in detail on the first meeting. You don’t tell about your brothers’ dog’s therapy right away when you meet someone first-time, do you?Let the information flow in a easily-understandable sequence and with context.What you want to do:You want to clearly inform them of who you are and what you do(only the part relevant to them), as clearly & concisely as possible. At the same time you want to inform the listener/reader why he/she should be interested in listening to you or in other words, not bouncing off your landing page within next 5 seconds.Here’s a good example of how Airbnb does this well: Imgur_Airbnb First lookTHE GLUE OF TRUST:So you just made your (and your business’s) introduction. Most probably, the introduction included that ‘you offer something of value to your prospect in exchange of money or some other valuable thing’.The next thing that pops-up (right after your introduction) in the mind of your visitor/listener is “Why should I trust you?” .You can try to explain in 1000 more words and still they won’t trust you. Why would they? They are so many strangers on the internet offering one thing or other, many of them scammers. After a ton of scam stories that come out of internet, Internet users are now understably into their dont-trust-anyone mode: so they are cynical, sarcastic and defensive when you, as a stranger, offer them something new.What you DON’T WANT TO do:You don’t want to try to explain to them in long-explanations, mostly basing everything on your word. If they wanted to trust you, they would have done that in the first two sentences. Only thing you will do by entering into long explanation is bore/annoy them, which means, losing their attention, hence any prospect of building a relationship & doing any kind of business with them.What you WANT TO do:If you want to make them trust you, be on their side. Show them that in the US vs THEM distribution from their perspective, you are the on their side. The most effective way to achieve this is making them read/hear/watch what people like them are saying about you/your business.Social Proof is the glue of trust that makes your first-time visitor stick and not bounce off right away.Feedback/Testimonial Reviews can be in text or audio/video format. Audio/Video testimonials are hard to get but more effective for business who sell high-priced or more complex products/services. For most consumer businesses with pricing under $100, text feedback works fine as long as they are genuine and there is contextual identity of the feedback giver: name, designation, location.Apart from feedback from your real customers, Quotes from trusted authority sources( known publisher media/ expert/ rating agency) work as well, as long as they are sourceIs trustworthy and the quote includes you/your business in a direct manner.Tip: Don’t wait to give the Testimonials at the end of the landing-page; after explaining your service and all about yourself. Trust needs to be established in the first note, first meeting. So, throw the social proof in your visitor’s face in big/bold, right after the introduction.If you want to verify if this works or not in real, test it yourself for one week by excluding ( the social proof from your landing-page/homepage or relocating it to the end of the page. Or if you have been doing it wrong till now, test by making it right as I explained. You will see the results yourself.How do I know this works?I have done this for my own website projects and lots of other businesses whose websites I’ve optimized for conversions as a consultant. And it has shown dramatic difference in on-page time and bouncing-rate in User Behavior stats.THE HOW-IT-WORKS PITCH:Now you have introduced yourself and established the trust, now you have their attention. You have made it to the point where they consider reading/listening/watching your pitch worthy of their time and consideration.Bringing new traffic to read this section is not easy and only a fraction of your total visitors will be here reading this, so when they do, you don’t want to waste this opportunity.What you DON'T WANT TO do:You don’t want to occupy this section just with your blabber about yourself or your product’s features or ingredients of your service:I know you are craving to share all about what you have worked on but your prospect is never the right ear for that.THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED. PERIOD. Do that sharing with your friend, partner or your team instead.You don’t want to make sky-high promises which are obviously unattainable.This will dilute their trust in you. Why would you don’t want to lose the chance to offer them genuine, realistic value, that you can rightly deliver and better their lives?Be straight-up with them and even admit a flaw, this increase your authenticity/believability. But remember: the flaw that you admit should be strategic (like how you failed in something which made you strive to learn more about that thing and now you are better at what you do).Don’t be a sympathy seeker, this will backfire. Don’t reveal things like you still pee in your bed at 23 if you do.(unless that is relevant to your pitch somehow).This particularly applies to content creators (YouTubers/Bloggers)You don’t want to be too broad & generic in your offerings.(This requires you to having done your research about the customer segment and shortlisting what are the things they want.)Differentiate yourself by being specific. Solve specific problems. Provide a product/service that can benefit your customer right now.Find your niche. Even better, create your niche. Instead of being a generic copycat of hundred other competitors, being niched would give you a better chance to find, acquire and retain loyal, paying customers as you will be able to serve them well, to the degree they aren’t getting served by anyone else right now.What you WANT TO Do:This is almost a cliche now, but very true: Talk about Benefits not Features.but, you can go one step further:Feelings:What feeling those benefits will generate in your customer? (Will they feel much more confident wearing that leather jacket that you are selling? )Go even one more step further:Emotions:What emotion that feeling invoke in your prospect?The core emotions (Desire, Fear, Anger, Joy, Disgust, Lust, Surprise etc) are the root of the mechanism that we humans base our decisions on, and your prospects are the same humans. You want to have it clear in your mind which core emotion(s) you are invoking/aggravating when you write this section, i.e. present your pitch.Will wearing that leather jacket help your customer in fulfilling their desire to get someone’s number in the club?The DESIRE is the emotion you are after here.If you are selling automated home-security systems, the Feeling that you should be selling is of safety and the core emotion that you should target should be the FEAR of getting attacked.Here’s a real example: a website selling premium polo shirts that I came across in a post on r/Entrepreneur subreddit last week. It is well-written, with a detailed infographic, but still fails to capture attention.Why?Because it goes into every little detail about how the material they use to make their shirts to explaining every step of the process they go through to make their shirts different.However, they do just that, they don’t talk about how it benefits the buyer, how can it make the buyer feel when they wear it. There is no core emotion targeted/invoked here. 99% of premium items are sold with emotional purchases.Have a look on this website’s ‘sales-letter’ yourself here to see what I am talking about: Niccolò P. premium polo shirtsIs it a surprise now if I told you this website is struggling to convert the expensive traffic they are bringing by spending heavily on pricey Facebook and Google Ads?REMEMBER:FEATURES < BENEFITS < FEELINGS < EMOTIONSMake your pitch pleasant to read and easy to scan.Text wall: No No.Images & Illustrations: Yes Yes.White Spaces: Yes Yes.(not more than 4 sentences without white space or bullets)Conversational Tone: Yes Yes.Writing in Third-person: No NoInvoking the Problem/Pain : Yes Yes (Dig it in, make them see how frustrating or painful it is for them, without your solution)Visualizing the Pleasure: Yes Yes (Let them imagine and almost feel how good it will be with your solution, give them a picture: real or with words)Presenting you as the solution: Yes Yes (It should be natural to want your solution after showing the problem/pain)Stay on the point. Talk about What’s in it for them? And How your product/service is the key to get their pain removed and to access that promised land of pleasure.THE CALL-TO-ACTION:This is the step you have been waiting for.Introduction is Done.Trust is Established.Pitch has been presented rightly.Now will they buy?At this point, the ones who are willing to pay and are able to pay will separate from the rest and these are the people who will supply the fuel(money) to your business.You want to treat them like Kings. And how do you a treat a King? Do you make them run around checking 4 different pages to find out where & how to buy your product or subscribe to your service? NO. You don’t do that.Instead what you do is make it the most convenient experience of their lives to give thier money to you. Put on a very visible sign/button which calls them (actually, implores them) to take that action (opt-in/buy/register/subscribe). Make the buying process as convenient as possible. This includes ordering page, shipping & billing process. Make it very very easy to give you money.Extra Tip: Add Secure Payment trust badges at payment stage to add more credibility.----------------------------------------------------------------------If you followed this, Congrats, you have reached the point of conversion.Now go implement this framework on your website’s landing-page and start enjoying better conversion stats for your website.--------------------------------------------------------If you have more questions on conversion-optimization of your landing-page, ask in the comments. I will answer as many as I can.If you have already implemented it for yourself, do a favor to someone you know who can use this framework to improve their website conversions, by sharing this post with them.

[datingadviceonreddit]

This is the most selfish thing I’ve ever written.A few weeks ago, I was driving my car and I realized that the driver seat seemed a little low compared to the rest of the car. Was my seat crooked? No, the seat was fine. Suddenly, I felt a pit in my stomach. I got out of the car and hoped that it wasn’t what I thought that it was.It was. The tire went flat. Welp.To make things worse, it was below freezing outside and I had not put on nearly enough layers to keep myself warm. Double welp.With no other options, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. However, it turned out that the lug nuts were frozen in place and could not be easily removed. That’s how I found myself stuck on the side of the road with a flat in subzero temperatures. Triple welp.My reaction? I ain't even mad.I’m a calm and gentle person by nature and it takes a lot to get me angry. So, when something does get me ticked off then you better believe it’s a big thing.This ticks me off. Buckle up because it’s about to get real.Recently I came across a post on Reddit where the poster asked “How much of the Red Pill is true?” and “Do women really respond to this quite well? Which type of women? All of them? I'm actually now scared to continue dating this girl now because I feel like eventually I'll be the boring guy she is dating and she'll cheat on me eventually with the Red Pill guy. The rock hard built guy who has lots of friends and social dominance.”Ugh! It ticks me off that The Red Pill exists!!What is The Red Pill?If you don’t know what The Red Pill is then consider yourself lucky. I hope you hang on to your innocence for as long as you can.Okay, okay. I get sarcastic and I start swearing when I’m angry but I’ll try to put that aside for the sake of writing a coherent article. No promises, though!The Red Pill is a subreddit on the Reddit internet forums that purports to be about “Discussion of sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men”. In reality, it’s ridden with misogyny and sleazy tactics that are utterly disrespectful to women.An actual post on the subreddit is called “7 Tips on keeping a Plate”. They don’t even recognize women as human beings. They refer to women as “plates”. FUCKING PLATES! And it’s got OVER 100 UPVOTES!!Here’s a few examples of what they preach:They teach “dread game” or making your girlfriend fear that you’re about to break up with her in order to make her do what you want her to doWomen are hypergamous and that they instinctually seek out the best Alpha male available, even if that means leaving the man that they are currently dating (or are married to)Alphas make up 20% of the male population and have sex with 80% of womenIf a woman is hesitant about having sex then you need to push past her “last minute resistance”They believe that “All Women Are Like That” and that she’ll constantly throw “shit tests” at you to determine how much of an Alpha you really areAbout that last bullet. According to The Red Pill, if she says: “I’m mad at you!” then it’s a shit test. The incorrect or Beta response (apparently) is to ask her what’s wrong or how you can make it better. Supposedly, the correct or Alpha response is to say something like “Good”, “I like you better mad”, or “That’s too bad. Frowning causes wrinkles.”Does that sound like a bunch of nonsense to you? If so, that’s a good thing because it means you’re a decent human being. Common sense tells us that a lot of their ideas are wrong, that dread game is a scummy tactic, that women can’t be blanket generalized as hypergamous, and that shit tests are idiotic.The truth about “Alpha” and “Beta”According to The Red Pill, the “Alphas” form 20% of the men and they get to have sex with 80% of the women. This is commonly referred to as “Alpha Fucks/Beta Bucks” by random weirdos on the internet who have no formal education in human behavior and yet who claim to understand women better than women understand themselves. If you pass her “shit tests” then you can prove yourself an alpha but if you fail then you’re a beta.The Red Pill claims that this is how wolves behave in nature. The Alpha wolf is the leader of his pack and has the first choice of female wolves to choose from, while the Betas get his leftovers. They use this to justify acting like a jerk in real life because that’s supposedly how Alphas behave.That’s also wrong.Alpha and Beta don’t even exist in nature. The terms alpha and beta were first popularized in part by Dr. David L. Mech in 1970 based on his observations of wolves—in captivity. However, in 1999 he realized that wolves don’t naturally behave that way without human intervention and has since renounced the concept of alpha and beta. That’s right, The Red Pill is based on concepts that have been disproven for almost 20 years!Why do this, then? Why use the terms alpha and beta when they’ve been demonstrated to be false? What’s really going on is that alpha and beta are used as a recruitment strategy. It forms a sort of club, and anyone who is a part of their in-crowd is labeled an “Alpha” and anyone who isn’t is labeled a “Beta”. The people who have swallowed The Red Pill and accepted the alternative facts as objective facts become their own clique, like the way that the jocks or cheerleaders or nerds form their own groups in high school.After all, you don’t want to be a beta do you? You don’t want to lose your woman to one of the alphas who are having sex with 80% of the women right??Forming their own clique allows them to rationalize away any logical argument against their ideology. If someone tells them that alpha and beta don’t actually exist in nature, they can just say “Oh, don’t listen to what he’s saying. He’s just a beta.”It provides a way for blame someone else for your problemsAs Dale Carnegie writes in How to Win Friends and Influence People, the infamous gangster Al Capone never thought himself guilty but instead saw himself as an unfairly persecuted man who only wanted to help others. When we fail at something, one of the hardest things we can possibly do is to take an honest look at ourselves and try to identify what we did wrong. It’s much, much easier to find someone or something else to blame for our shortcomings.That guy who was my classmate in school and is now getting paid more than I am? He’s just a brown-nosing suck-up. I’m having trouble getting a date? It’s because I’m short and/or Asian. My friends keep beating me in Mario Party? They’re just lucky. As the Joker said in The Lego Batman Movie, “I’m not your worst enemy. Your worst enemy is you.”(On second thought, that one about Mario Party might actually be true...)This kind of sleazy advice is prevalent because it offers men who are struggling with women an alternative explanation to why they aren’t having success with women. Some men struggle with women because they’re socially awkward, or they’re not presenting themselves well, or they have a negative attitude that women find unattractive. That’s a tough pill to swallow.An easier pill to swallow is to simply blame other people for your failures. It’s much easier for them to blame feminism, or to claim that women don’t like nice guys, or to say that women are all irrational creatures and that’s why they can’t get a girlfriend. It doesn’t matter to them whether or not that’s actually true. The Red Pill offers them the dark promise of being able to get success with women without having to take that hard look at yourself and admit that you may be doing something wrong. The cost of admission is that you become a terrible person in the process. You sell your soul to the devil.The price you pay for following The Red PillOkay, let’s get right to the Million Dollar Question. Does The Red Pill work?It “works” in that you might be able to get a woman to stay with you in the short term. But after that you’ll begin to wonder why all of your relationships feel so unfulfilling.The Red Pill is flat out emotional abuse. If you’re seeing a woman and you start to use dread game, she might wonder why you’ve suddenly started to act all cold and distant. She’ll wonder, “Is something the matter? What’s bothering you?”The Red Pill will tell you that this is a shit test. Don’t fall for it. Hold your frame. Keep doing what you’re doing so that she’ll recognize you as an alpha and not a beta.Maybe she’ll try harder to make you happy. Not because she’s trying to trick you but because she’s genuinely trying to make you feel better. “What’s gotten into you?” she thinks. To you, it looks like The Red Pill is working. But every dread game you play cuts her emotionally. She can’t feel the warmth or the secure, trusting bond that comes with a healthy relationship because you’re too busy waging psychological warfare with her. She may stick around for a period of time, hoping that you see the light and stop playing games with her.But you don’t, because The Red Pill tells you not to look like a beta. And eventually she’ll get fed up and leave. Maybe not today. Maybe in a matter of weeks, or months, or even years. But she cannot be happy in such a relationship and every game you play just pushes her that much farther out the door.You turn to The Red Pill forum. You post about your experience. Are the other guys there going to think for a while and say to themselves “Maybe this Red Pill isn’t working after all?” Nope. Instead, they’ll encourage you to double down on your beliefs!“All Women Are Like That. AWALT,” they’ll tell you. “She fell in love with Chad.” You weren’t alpha enough, so she left you for someone who was. And you buy even deeper into The Red Pill philosophy in order to make yourself more alpha, unwilling to face the fact that it was The Red Pill that messed you up in the first place.“The Red Pill is just incomplete! You can just take the good and leave the bad!”*sigh* Here’s where I really get ticked off…This is something I’ve heard from people defending The Red Pill. The Red Pill is not bad, they say. It’s just incomplete. You can just take whatever good advice you find there and ignore the misogynist parts.Here’s the thing, though…NO OTHER SELF-HELP LITERATURE REQUIRES YOU TO DO THIS!! If you’re reading Models by Mark Manson or* Mate by Tucker Max or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopl*e by the late Stephen Covey, you don’t have to filter out the misogynist parts to only try and find the good parts. All of it is good advice! None of it is misogyny!!Also, how are you supposed to filter out the bad stuff in the first place if you’re inexperienced and you don’t know anything about dating? You need to already be knowledgeable about dating in order cherry-pick the good gems of advice out of the bad stuff. But that’s why you were looking for advice in the first place…because you weren’t knowledgeable about dating yet and you wanted to be! How are you supposed to pick out the good advice from the bad if you don’t already know what the good advice is!?!Finally, the people you surround yourself with influence your perception of reality. Even when you don’t think it does. In a 2005 experiment conducted by Gregory Berns of Emory University, volunteers played a game where they were shown two different objects on a computer screen and asked to decide whether the first object could be rotated to match the second. When played alone, the volunteers were incorrect only 13.8 percent of the time. But, when played with a group of other people—who were actually actors instructed to unanimously give the wrong answers—the volunteers were incorrect 41 percent of the time.Here’s the kicker. Were the volunteers consciously giving the wrong answer to fit in with the group? Or, did the group’s opinion actually change the way they saw the shapes? We know the answer, because the volunteers had MRI scans as they were doing the activity. The volunteers weren’t consciously trying to fit in with the group.The volunteers gave the wrong answers because the group’s opinion changed their perception of reality!The people you surround yourself with influence the way you see the world. Many of us think we’re immune to marketing, even as we are unconsciously influenced by it. If you swallow The Red Pill thinking you’re smart enough to just ignore the misogyny, guess again. That’s when it really gets you.“But I used The Red Pill and it helped me!”That might be true. If you have used The Red Pill and accomplished some sort of self-improvement, congratulations. I mean that. There’s no need for me to belittle your accomplishment in any way.I will admit The Red Pill does have some good gems of advice. Abundance mentality. Not putting women on a pedestal. Working out and being healthy. All good pieces of advice to follow.Here’s the thing about taking advice from The Red Pill, though. All of those good gems of advice are buried under mountains and mountains of misogyny. And if you’ve successfully applied advice from The Red Pill to better your dating life, then you could have gone to any other place that offers dating advice and gotten those same gems, but without all of the woman-hating.Seriously, go read something like Models by Mark Manson or How to Win Friends and Influence People by the late Dale Carnegie.“There will always be people being extreme or callous but why the charge against the actual philosophy? It's like hating the whole of Islam because of the actions of a small sub-group.”Finally, I’m sure some people will think I’m being too harsh with The Red Pill as a whole. That it’s not worth dismissing the entire philosophy just because some of its follows have decided to be all misogynistic and women-hating.And to that I have to say…It refers to women as "bitches" ON THE FUCKING SIDEBAR!!*sigh*Alright, alright. Calm down u/QuietlyRomantic.Is it too optimistic for me to believe that the 2,400 words I’ve written above are going to convince anyone to spit out The Red Pill? Probably. Red Pillers have an amazing capacity to ignore logic, even though they claim that women are the illogical ones.No, I don’t honest believe that any of this is going to convert any Red Pill followers away from the cult.When I was little, I used to be afraid of many things that my adult self would think was silly today. I used to be afraid of the dark. Of monsters hiding in my closet. Of that freaking piano guarding the red coin in Big Boo’s Haunt and that giant eel in Jolly Roger Bay.Today, the things that scare me are different. What scares me is the idea that a well-meaning gentleman might stumble upon The Red Pill. Perhaps he doesn’t have a lot of dating experience. Or maybe he’s been burned a few times in the past by women who didn’t respect him. So he goes looking for dating advice. And he comes across The Red Pill.It makes him feel uncomfortable at first. “Is this really true?” he wonders. He doesn’t feel too good about the advice, but he doesn’t have that frame of reference to dispute the things he’s reading. He doesn’t have enough experience to argue against what they’re saying. So he tries to implement what he comes across. And it seems to work, at first. He gets more dates. More women going out with him. He feels a little better about himself. But his relationships are rocky and filled with drama. Has he started to become a jerk? An asshole? Should he start to reconsider his beliefs?“All Women Are Like That. AWALT,” The Red Pill tells him. They reassure him that it’s not his fault. That the reason for all his dating hardships is because women are little emotional creatures who are unable to use logic. They’re not even human beings. They’re “plates”. And at that crucial moment when he begins to reconsider the way he interacts with women, The Red Pill persuades him otherwise and instead encourages him to double down on his beliefs. To “alpha” even harder and stop being such a “beta”. Then she’ll get the tingles for him and do anything that he wants. And all of his problems will be solved. So he sinks even further into the cult and loses any shred of self-awareness, blaming women for his problems while simultaneously being the cause of them.To me, The Red Pill is complete and utter nonsense. And I hope that it’s nonsense to you as well. I didn’t write this article to convince any Red Pillers to leave their cult. I’m not that optimistic. Like I said before, I’ve written this post for selfish reasons.I wrote this on the off-chance that the well-meaning gentleman sees this post first. I want him to know that there’s an alternative to all that sleazy advice out there. Before he accidentally stumbles upon The Red Pill. Because that idea scares me. It keeps me up at night and makes it hard to fall asleep, knowing that this sort of misogynistic darkness exists. So maybe…just maybe…he’ll see this post first before he wanders off into The Red Pill.If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you NEVER take advice from The Red Pill. Ever.Maybe now I can fall asleep tonight.Anyway, thanks for reading! If you liked what I wrote here, why not check out my blog www.quietlyromantic.com where I write about dating advice specifically for introverted and highly sensitive gentlemen.Also, if you actually read all 3,000+ words of this post than you deserve a cookie! via /r/dating_advice

[robertusc-blog]

Anonymity Rough Draft

Robert Sanders

Professor Dunn, WRIT 150

January 26, 2017

Anonymity Essay

Anonymity without rules leads to chaos because many people use anonymity online as a platform for trolling and spreading hate. However, anonymity is essential to important discussion about identity because in face to face conversations people often keep their thoughts to themselves for fear of misspeaking or being outed as bigoted and politically incorrect. With the right guidance, anonymity can allow for honest, productive conversations about issues surrounding identity. 

Reddit is hugely popular website a conglomerate of threads called “subreddits”, moderated by users, who can join for free. According to the website ranking resource Alexa, as of 2017, it the 4th most visited website in U.S.. Users on Reddit create usernames that often have no real “names”, establishes a higher level on anonymity than other social websites like Facebook, which requires users’ real names. As of May 2016, there were over 11,400 active subreddits, whose content ranges anywhere from news to cat videos to opinion threads. Users participate in subreddits by posting comments or media, by upvoting or downvoting each others’ posts, or by creating their own subreddit. If a post becomes popular enough, regardless of what thread it was posted into, it can end up on the website’s “popular” page. Commonly found on a subreddit is a brief explanation of the purpose of the thread, as well as a list of rules for posting comments. Typically, these rules encourage users to be respectful and friendly to one another and discourage spam, advertising, and trolls. Jargon, sarcasm, and inside jokes run rampant within subreddits, like any close-knit community. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, where users can often mindlessly scroll through memes, pictures and videos for hours on end, people who visit Reddit tend to feel genuinely passionate about an issue, and wish to have meaningful conversation with others.

Productive conversations happen in many ways.  Is it changing somebody’s mind, is it a space where people are listened to, is it agreeing to disagree. The evidence should be used to support this. Find a objective source about what a productive conversation looks like. Are we ruining our conversations with online communication?

A great example of a way anonymity with rules leads to productive conversations is the subreddit “ChangeMyView”. The purpose of the website isn’t to assert their beliefs - it’s to ask others to change it for them. A user submits their stance on a particular topic and other redditors comment on it. Usually, these people provide some sort of anecdote proving or disproving the questioner’s held stance. If someone changes their opinion the other person is awarded a delta, a sign of concession. The number of deltas you have determines your place on the leaderboard, creating incentive to have honest productive conversations rather than mindless and insulting trolling.

One recent conversation on CMV tackled the issue of “traditionally black” hairstyles in the workplace. A user, who goes by “trajayjay”, states that they are looking to have a career in applied maths, where formal dress code and professional appearance is enforced. Although they are not currently in the workforce, they have heard that people regard “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, box braids, corn rows, afros, Bantu knots” as unprofessional. They explains that they have long curly hair, which “makes [them] feel closer to my ethnicity and roots.” They say, “I wish that hair like mine and the other hairstyles I described could be considered acceptable...Is there a good reason they aren't/shouldn't be?”

The first response is from a user named “I_am_the_night”, who agrees with the “spirit” of her post, but points out that in certain work environments, having long hair can prevent an employee from effectively performing work tasks. They provide an anecdote about working in a hospital and how an employee was forced to cut their long, voluminous hair in order to properly wear a facemask required for their job. “Trajayjay” responds by accepting their point, saying, “certain hairstyles can pose a physical barrier to the tasks at hand”, but clarifies that “[i]t wasn't the "blackness" of the employees hairstyle that failed her it was the volume. MY concern is that hairstyles associated with blackness are subsequently associated with unprofessionalism.”

The comment that “I_am_the_night” propels the conversation because it makes “trajayjay” clarify their definition and the premise of their argument. Another redditor, “nashvortex” adds a new perspective on the topic. They state that history plays a role in professionalism in the workplace, saying, “History shapes society's perception. You may disagree with that perception, but you have no right to expect that other people should too. As a result, much of professionalism also revolves around being most effective at your job. It is is about projecting appearances, whether you like it or not...Most people will be very cautious of handing over their accounting contract to accountants in shorts with Cheetos on their shirt. It signifies lack of meticulousness. For historical reasons, accountants must be serious, quiet and focused. Because that's the kind of person who is least likely to screw up my money.”

“Trajayjay” responds, “Regarding societal perception, 60 years ago, simply having black skin would be sufficient reason to consider someone unprofessional, our norms are always changing, and usually towards more acceptance.” Another user, “renderdoodles” responds, “I work in an office with several men, both black and white, who have hairstyles that could easily be considered unprofessional. White man has long hair and a beard, but his beard is kept short and his hair is brushed and pulled back. Black man has dreads that have been kept up with, held with a hair tie, and a beard that is neatly trimmed. I think a lot of the presentation relies on a generally neat, clean, and "kept" look.” “Conservative hairstyles for women do not include most ways black women can style their hair naturally. If someone has to chemically alter their hair or wear a weave to be “conservative or reserved,” there’s something wrong with our definition of professionalism. A woman’s option shouldn’t be either damaging their hair or cutting it all off just to be considered as professional as a white woman whose hair is straight.” Mr_SlingShot provided a link to a Supreme Court ruling that concerned whether or not companies can required their employees to shave their beards. “Snozzberrypatch” linked some images of hairstyles that still support the desired ethnic identity and look, but are seen as professional in the workplace. “Oldamog” says, “The more serious professions require a more homogenous look. You could become a CPA and sport a multi colored dread-hawk. The problem is that I might be distracted and judge you one way or another because of it. Keeping up to a dress code smoothes out personal quirks while also making sure fashion choices don't ruin a deal.”

Anonymity is essential to this conversation because the question is something that cannot really be figured out in the workplace. In business, professionalism is expected and a new worker who doesn’t have a solid foothold in their desired industry might refrain from bringing up this issue with their boss or their colleagues, for fear of being seen as problematic. However, by remaining anonymous, she can ask difficult questions and raise controversial points. She can gain advice and wisdom from people who have spent time in the workforce and understand the current climate surrounding her issue. She can do further research by looking into the sources that others provide. Conversely, the people responding to her points who may agree or disagree with her may learn from her frustrations and see the problem differently with her. While throughout the discussion I noticed that several comments had been deleted by the administrators of the subreddit, which were accompanied by a brief explanation of why the comment was deleted as well as an opportunity to appeal, the majority of the comments were based on facts, anecdotes and solid evidence relevant to the topic at hand. The end result is this controlled anonymity is creation of a small community of people, those participating in the discussion and following the rules set by the subreddit, who now have a more complete and fully-flushed out understanding of blackness and hairstyles in the workplace.

Some people believe that Reddit’s intervention and rules regarding comments are unlawful because they believe is obstructs every person’s right to free speech. However, the reason that Reddit shut down r/fatpeoplehate, r/transfags, r/neofag and others was for “banning behavior, not ideas.” The company stated that its goal is to enable as many people as possible to have authentic conversations and share ideas and content on an open platform,” the post read. “We want as little involvement as possible in managing these interactions but will be involved when needed to protect privacy and free expression, and to prevent harassment.”

Rules are essential for anonymity to lead to productive conversations because it weeds out of the people who just want to troll and say hurtful things.

[anautisticdragon-blog]

A Feint Effort; The Source of Hate

Wordplay, not a typo. I'll get to why. The ever deceptive and manipulative voices of sociopaths on the alt-right would have us believe that a.) they're just a harmless ideology and b.) those left leaning 'SJWs' they hate so much are the real monsters, here. It, rather obviously, is a very base projection effort. It's little more than 'I am rubber, you are glue.' They weren't ever all that clever or imaginative in the first place, so that's not surprising. What they're great at, though, is filibustering. Just arguing in loops and making claims about a lack of evidence to support a given argument. So let's just get straight to the evidence, eh? Twitter has purged all alt-right accounts. [Time] Reddit bans the two most prominent alt-right subreddits. [Verge] Why doesn't this happen to the left? Here's a clue: The left isn't lead by pus-filled bubos fuelled by hate, spewing forth the most toxic bullshit the Internet has seen since its inception. All of the harassment, the hatred, the bullying? Those on the political right own it all, every bit of it, and they know it. So the next time someone says that SJWs are the real nazis, that the alt-right is harmless, or anything equally as absurd and draped in layers of horse manure? Ask them why the SJWs weren't the focus of a Twitter purge. Ask them why Reddit isn't removing SJW subreddits. It's kind of obvious, really. Alt-right is just another word for Nazi. And if there's anything the political right excels at, it's pumping out new waves of hate groups. If they weren't just being the witless pawns of sociopaths, they'd do something about it, like reclaiming the right and making it a more honourable institution where this kind of thing isn't tolerated. Sadly, there's just something about right-leaning ideologies that attracts and empowers sociopaths, whereas left-leaning ideologies seem to repulse and de-fang them. I don't know why, honestly, it just seems to be a thing going by the obvious evidence. So I'm unsure as to whether the right could be a good thing. I think the right would really need to up their game and guard themselves against the influence of sociopathic incursions to even begin to fix this. Otherwise the political right will be recorded in history as 'the ideology of hate.' If you're on the right? You have to own this. You have to fix this. Stow the deceptions, the lies, and the bullshit. You know you guys are overrun with manipulative sociopaths, and you know that these parasites are using you as a platform for spreading hate. It's up to you to do something about it. So do something about it, okay? I don't know why but I'm still somewhat optimistic that those of right-leaning ideologies are redeemable. I want to think of them as being human beings, just as I am, so I won't dehumanise them. I do know, however, that they're patsies, pawns, and fall-guys for toxic sociopaths. I don't think that makes them less human, just less... aware of their own problems. When I look at most people on the right -- especially with groups like the alt-right -- I see people being played like fiddles, fools who have absolutely no mental fortitude who can be tricked into thinking just about anything. This is why the alt-right has a large number of conspiracy theorists (Sargon and 9/11 et a), as it's easy to convince them to believe just about anything. I don't even think that right-leaning thinkers are monsters. I dare say that most of them aren't. I just think that the majority of them are very, very weak-willed and lacking in the specific sort of self awareness that allows one to mount a defence against being puppeteered. You can't help those who won't help themselves, though. So it's really up to the right to fix their shit and stop being the source of hate group after hate group after hate group. I mean, it's not even like you have to be good at manipulation to fuck with the right. Anyone could do it. 'Tubers (yams!) regularly do just to get some views off of countering that hate. It's not hard, you guys. I know the cognitive dissonance here is going to deny my words, but the evidence really is in my favour. Look at it this way: The world sees you as parasites, some of the nastiest examples of humanity we have. You don't see yourself that way. Why is there a disconnect? Do you genuinely believe the entire world is wrong? I suppose that's part of the issue, isn't it? Your sociopaths have you believing that everyone but you has been played. You love the feeling of power that that gives you, as the exclusive rebel who's been 'redpilled' and 'knows the truth.' In reality, though, it's more a case of the rebel without a clue. A more correct connotation for being 'redpilled' is that you're now an ensorcelled drone. The sad part is is that you sound exactly like flat earthers and 9/11 truthers to us when you're spouting that brain rot. I know that some of you even are flat earthers and 9/11 truthers... Y'see what I mean? Sigh. If you want to make the world a better place, you need to take a look at yourselves, and make a change. Batman is very wise. Try listening to Batman instead. Or MJ! Whichever you prefer.

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It doesn’t matter what kind of business you run.At some point, you’re going to need content. If you think about it, the internet is nothing more than a giant web of content.So if you just learn the skill of generating quality content that people love, life is going to be pretty profitable for you.“Content” can refer to a bunch of different media -- video, infographics, even gifs -- but in this post I’m going to focus specifically on text content because that’s where my expertise lies.Ebooks. Blog posts. Landing pages. Sales letters. Text for social media posts. Email newsletters. Stuff like that.Even your text messages are technically considered “content,” but that’s a topic for different time.Over the years, I’ve hired over a hundred freelancers, and published hundreds of books on multiple publishing platforms.Eventually, I generated a sizable passive income, which actually was enough to quit my day job. So I think I know a thing or two about creating quality content.I used to write all my stuff. Not only is it cheaper, but if you want something done right, do it yourself.But after a while, I noticed there was a ceiling to how much content I can produce in a given day. If you've ever run a content-driven website, or if you've done the whole "freelance content writing" thing, you know exactly what I'm talking about.There's a limit to what one man can write in a day.That meant a ceiling to my income because in some ways, how much quality content you produce is related to how much money you’ll make -- at least in terms of what I was doing to make money.It was downright stressful after a while. Ever try writing multiple full-fledged ebooks in a day? Or like 15 full length blog posts?It. Is. Exhausting.The occasional high output day? Hell yeah. But not every single day, day in and day out.You will burn out.I was getting genuinely stressed at that point. I needed volume. My business model depended on it. (If you're wondering, I'm in the Kindle publishing space.)I like money. But I don't like spending it. So I was hesitant to get help.But once I took that leap and started hiring people, things got a whole lot easier.I am going to give you another strategy you can immediately use to build your business faster because I used to get so stressed about this topic. Hopefully it’ll make your life a bit easier.Some businesses are more content-heavy than others, of course.If you’re running an affiliate-monetized site with product reviews, you’ll need a lot of it.Sometimes, content marketing is essential to a business. Other times, it takes a backseat to other forms of marketing and advertising. It really just depends.The standpoint I’m writing this from is essentially focused on online businesses, specifically because that’s what I have the most experience with, myself.A lot of people know they need content, but aren’t quite sure where to even start.Look around a little, and it can get kind of overwhelming.You’re not always sure where to look. Do you write it yourself? Upwork? Freelancer.com? Guru.com? None of the above?And to make things even more complicated and confusing, you’ll notice that rates for content writing and copywriting vary substantially.You’ll see rates as low as $0.01/word in some places.On the other hand, if you check out /r/freelanceWriters here on Reddit, you’ll notice that within the freelance writing community, people actually discourage one another from working below a certain rate.And in most cases, that rate is around $0.08/word.You’ll also see rates even higher than that. Some top tier copywriters charge a lot.This copywriter charges $600 an hour.This guy is a direct sales copywriter. He charges $10,000 for a sales letter.**So if you’re new to hiring content writers, it’s hard to tell who you should listen to, or what you should believe.How much should you actually realistically expect to spend?**Check out those links above, and you’ll notice something: those super expensive copywriters charge based on the ROI they can bring their clients.Spending $10,000 is worth every penny if it makes you $100,000.But you may not be in that kind of position at this point.You’re probably on a more modest budget.So, I’m going to go over a couple of things here:How to determine what kind of content -- and what kind of content writer or copywriter -- you need right now. Where to look for the right person for the job. How to decide if you should work with a freelancer one on one, or outsource your content or copy through an agency that provides those services.You don’t have to break the bank, necessarily.At the lower end of the price scale -- think $0.05/word or under -- you’re looking at hiring someone who isn’t necessarily an experienced, seasoned copywriter with years of experience.And in a lot of cases, that’s totally fine.Let’s be honest: you don’t need to be Gary Halbert himself to write an informational blog post, or even a detailed product review for an affiliate site.What I’m saying is that you don’t always need to pay more to get the best writers around.What you do need, though, is someone genuinely competent.At the lower end of the scale, you’ll find a couple different types of freelancers.The “beer money” crowd. These are people like college students or stay at home parents, who do a bit of freelance writing here and there for some extra cash. It’s not generally their main source of income, nor is it generally something they intend to scale into a full fledged career. A lot of them are excellent writers, though.Inexperienced freelance writers who are just starting out. A lot of beginning writers will work less expensively, since they need experience and they’re trying to get some initial work to start building a portfolio.These people are ideal for blog posts, product reviews, ebooks, and more.Think In Terms of Your ROII cannot stress this enough. I know it’s trivial, but seriously: make more than you spend.That’s all there is to it.Don’t spend $500 on an ebook that only makes you $100.But at the same time, don’t be afraid to double down if your investments are working.When to Work With An Individual FreelancerIf you just need a bit of content -- say, you have one or two sites that need blog posts -- I’d recommend working with an individual writer one on one, rather than going through a content writing agency.Here’s why.You’ll get more bang for your buck.If you’re paying an agency $0.05/word, the writer’s getting around $0.02/word.And honestly, the amount you pay does affect quality.A freelancer’s time is money. At low rates, they can’t afford to give your content as much TLC as they could if you were paying more.I’ll talk about agencies further down, and there are good reasons to use them. But if you need content on a smaller scale, why pay $0.05/word for $0.02/word quality? (And trust me, there is a difference.)Where to Find Freelance WritersSo where do you actually find these people, anyway?Here are some of the places you can go.Upwork.com. Over the last few years, Upwork’s reputation has declined somewhat. But, it’s still the leading bidding site. If you need freelancers, it’s a good place to check out. Basically, you post your gig, with your budget, and freelancers bid on it with a proposal and a price quote. You can choose the person you like the most. Their escrow system protects both clients and freelancers financially, too. I use it a lot.Freelancer.com. I’ve had good experiences here, but I’ve also heard some negative feedback on the platform -- especially from freelance workers. But it’s worth taking a look.Guru.com. Like Upwork and Freelancer, this one is another freelance bidding site. It doesn’t get quite as much activity as the other two, but it definitely has an active user base./r/forhire. Reddit is actually a surprisingly good place to find talented freelancers. With that said, though, you might get some flak if your budget is considered too low, so do be aware of that fact./r/HireAWriter. I recommend crossposting here, as well as on /r/forhire. It’s the same thing, but specifically for writers./r/WorkOnline. This is another place where you can make a post looking for freelance writers. In general, it tends to be more amenable to lower budgets than the previous two subreddits./r/slavelabor. This is for when your budget is super, super low, to the point that you’re having trouble finding a writer at all.The ProBlogger job board. It costs $50 to post here, but it has a solid reputation among freelance writers as a good place to find work. If you’re looking for quality, this might be the place for you.There are probably other places, too. If I’m missing anything, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add them to the list.When to Consider Going Through a Content Writing AgencyAgencies are great for when you need volume.Let’s say you’re running a bunch of content-heavy affiliate sites, or you’re publishing Kindle ebooks at scale. (The latter is where my experience lies, though I generally find writers through Upwork.)Working one on one with a freelancer or two is pretty manageable overall. But when you have tons of work -- far more than one single person can really handle -- it can get tough trying to juggle communications with a bunch of different contractors.What you can do instead is go through an agency that provides content writing and copywriting services.Agencies You Can Consider[Rightly Written](www.rightlywritten.com). This agency does good work, and their rates start at $0.05/word. They offer all kinds of content and copy, in just about any niche or industry. Their writers don’t make a whole lot per word, but they have a high level of editorial oversight. Again, you end up with good content.Article-Writers.co. This agency works with clients across a wide range of budgets, from as low as $0.02/word to as high as $0.25/word. They work with a bunch of contractors at various price levels and skill levels. When you work with them, they’ll reach out to writers on their team who are right for the job. They do great work, and I definitely recommend them.[Codeless.](www.getcodeless.com). They guys specialize in SaaS companies. If you’re familiar with digital marketing, and you follow some of the more popular blogs in that space, you’ve read some content from them. They write for some of the bigger names in the marketing SaaS world. They’re definitely quite premium, so they’re not for beginning solopreneurs on a shoestring budget. But with that said, I wanted to give them a mention, because they really do provide truly outstanding content.There are probably others. I came across a new one recently, solvd.la.Let me know in the comments if you've had good experiences with an agency I haven't mentioned, or if you run a content agency yourself.You can get decent content on a budget.I’ve mentioned that there is a time and place for truly top-tier content writing services.There are times and places you really don’t want to cheap out.But much of the time, you can get solid blog content from beginning or part-time freelance writers at prices you can afford when you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of money to spend yet. It’ll get the job done.As you scale up your business, you may find you have more money to invest in a higher caliber of writing services.And you may also find that it makes sense to start looking for pricier writers, because the quality difference has a positive impact on your ROI.Again, this stuff can vary substantially from business to business.I hope this post has been useful for you guys.I realize I kind of focused more on beginners who are not only new to hiring writers, but who don’t have a ton of capital to invest in them.If you’ve got any further questions, let me know in the comments.Or, if you have some techniques or resources you use to create / outsource your content, write it in the comments. Let’s make this post a resource for others and help them out.Some of you guys have been asking me if I have a PDF file of my posts whenever I posted them before. If you’d like a copy, message me and I’ll send one over to you.Best of luck to all of you on your entrepreneurial journeys!