#many more fandom text posts in the sidebar to my blog :)

[morganaconda]

[wasongo]

I think I got a lot of new followers recently because twitter keeps going to shit. However, as you probably know I can't and don't post nsfw art here.

You can find my NSFW socials on my pinned post. I think a lot of people are hesitant to join platforms which aren't fully available to the public yet but if you'd like to keep up with my nsfw art I'd like to:

Urge you to visit my website and subscribe to my RSS feed for gallery updates!

Suggest you follow me on either Pillowfort or Cohost (18+).

In the last year I have started using PF and Cohost more than Mastodon, as they've implemented new features and their posting system is more in line with what I enjoy: robust tagging and filtering, ability to post MANY images, and readmores for long posts.

If you've been hesitant to join either of those platforms since you don't know what to expect here's a small-ish review of both purely from my experience as someone who: a) enjoys profile customization b) likes to have an organized art gallery that is filterable by tags.

This review is aimed at artists looking for NSFW spaces to post! UI screenshots might have suggestive terms and images. Proceed with caution.

Edit: Good grief tunglr, if you open this on the web dash the images aren't shown in the neat galleries I put them in to make the post shorter. Head on over to the permalink if you'd like a better looking post!

Let me just say that if you're looking for a review on more technical aspects of these platforms, like security and moderation policies. I'm not your guy. You'll have to look elsewhere for that. I'm focusing on QoL UI and community aspects.

Though both these platforms allow nsfw, please make sure to read their ToS/Community Guidelines for rules on what is and isn't allowed. Though as far as I'm aware they have pretty similar rules.

Pillowfort

Overview::

Pillowfort has more years under its belt being available to users than Cohost does, as such I THINK the artist/fandom userbase atm is larger, which means you might see more activity there. UI as of right now is very comfortable and the site runs pretty smoothly. Loading times are very decent. Posting is easy, though the image uploader is a little wonky (they are working on fixing this). You are able to create and manage communities based on interests or themes, which people can follow or join and all post in the same space. You can personalize your profile by adding images, links, and formatted text to your sidebar, as well as customize your own profile colors. Tag searches in my experience yield results of both art and aesthetic irl porn and gifs. If that's something you miss from ye olden tumblr days it might be worth a look.

Pros:

Posts have privacy options (everyone, logged in, followers, mutuals, only me)

Has a DM system

Posts have Commentable, Rebloggable, NSFW toggle

Can post MANY images on a single post

Readmore feature for long posts

Robust tagging system

Robust filtering system: hide or click-through warning (by installing Tassel userscript only)

Customizable profile colors, Light/Dark mode for whole website

Communities you can follow/join for shared interests

You can filter posts on profile by tag

You can filter posts on profile by "original poster" or "reblog"

Cons:

wonky image uploader, cannot upload multiple images at once

Cannot search for multiple tags at once

Search for terms with periods in them is currently broken (ex. "D.Gray-man" will not yield any search results)

Communities have few moderation features atm

Without Tassel installed the filtering system is pretty garbage atm (you can either show or hide nsfw or filtered tags completely, with no click-through warnings)

No multiple account/side blog feature yet

Some inline image formatting options are broken atm

Default endless scrolling

No progressive web app for mobile atm

For a more in depth explanation of PF's UI and features you can check out this official post.

Here are some images of the UI.

---

Cohost

Overview::

Cohost feels like it has a small artist/fandom userbase at the moment. However, to make up for that it has a pretty slick UI, it works great as a progressive web app on mobile, and it recently implemented an ASK system similar to tumblr's! Everything loads pretty quickly, and you can switch between your "latest posts" feed and your "bookmarked tags" feed. You can access your likes as a bookmark system, but as a whole "notes" and engagement numbers except for comments are not visible anywhere (this is wonderful for my personal mental health). It has a simple post editor and though the image uploader only allows 4 images that will load with lightbox, there's a workaround to upload MANY inline images if you want. The catch is you'll need to use a bit of markdown or html to do that. (more on that below) Though you can't personalize your profile colors, you can add personality to your page by making very cool pinned posts and adding images to your sidebar.

Pros:

Animated avatars! (listen i like having my animated komui icon)

You can make multiple "pages" (blogs) which function independently for comments/asks. switching between pages is effortless

Ask system, with anon toggle (you cannot reply privately atm tho)

2 Factor Authentication

Progressive web app for mobile works like a charm

You can preview your post before you post it

Posts have a NSFW toggle and you can save drafts

Can post MANY images in a single post (bit of a workaround as you'll need to upload your images to a draft first and then add them to a new post with some markdown or html code)

Readmore feature for long posts

Robust tagging AND filtering system (show, click-through, hide completely), plus CW system to give your posts additional click through warnings you deem necessary

You can do incredibly cool things with HTML and inline CSS on your posts

You can filter posts on profile by tag, and you can have pinned tags

Toggles for hiding reblogs, replies, and asks on profiles

Paginated browsing instead of endless scrolling (things load faster)

No engagement numbers visible ANYWHERE

Cons:

Image uploader does not let you upload multiple images at once. Limit to 4 images (can upload more as inline images with code)

Advanced post formatting (ex. bold, italics, bullet list, inline images etc.) has to be done through markdown or html + css which is not the friendliest for those who don't know any code (there's a button for a markdown cheatsheet when you post tho!)

No dark mode, or customizing profile colors atm (however there are workarounds to changing site colors with Stylus extension)

Cannot search for multiple tags at once

Cool things you can do with CSS on your posts might look very bad on mobile

Since you can do some crazy things with CSS on posts, you might come across eye straining visuals and movement on some posts. There are settings to tone this down, and people are pretty good about tagging things, so with some good filtering you should be able to avoid this however.

A little quieter on the artist/fandom front (but we can change that)

Here are some images of the UI.

If you made it to the end of this review thanks for giving it a look! If there's something vital you might want to know that I missed in regards to UI and posting features let me know and I will try to answer. But again, this is not a technical/security issues/bugs review so don't ask me about that.

Lastly, I've been seeing a handful of NSFW artists I follow on twitter hopping on bluesky. I REALLY suggest you do a little research on the owners and platform to see if you think joining is worthwhile, since I have a feeling many artists might not want their alternative to be a site owned by crypto advocates (and also a billionaire). Some basic research will get you there. Just take heed and use your best judgement. On that note Cohost is strictly against crypto (I'm guessing PF might be too but I don't have a link that I can point you to confirming this atm).

I believe community driven and supported platforms are the way to go. If you end up thinking either of these two places are worth your time, do consider getting your friends and favorite artists on board or supporting them! You'll get added perks on both platforms if you become a supporter. PF recently added the ability to have MULTIPLE AVATARS (PFPs I think they're called nowadays) which I think is super cool (i really miss that from LJ days).

Again, thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you there!

[ky-the-squiddy]

*Private* Hi there, I hope you're doing well and having a good day. I was wondering if you could help me by boosting my donation post for me? I'm so sorry if I'm bothering you and I completely understand if you can't or don't want to help. No worries, thank you. Take care and happy holidays 💖❤️

Sorry, I won't be boosting your post, and I'm going to be posting this publically so that both you and other people can see my reasoning behind it, come to their own conclusions, and hopefully learn something from all this.

Firstly, there is currently a massive wave of scam artists and spam bots on tumblr invading people's inboxes with messages exactly like this. I've already had three in the past few weeks that were clear and obvious scams, so they just got deleted and the user blocked. If you are a genuine person in need, this is the absolute worst method of gaining attention.

And there is the strong possibility of you being genuine! Your blog has lots of posts on it scattered neatly on a near-daily basis, dating all the way back to May last year, and with a more-or-less consistent (as far as tumblr goes) themeing to them. You've made a number of original posts, mostly text, and they're a good mix of fandom, personal complaining about tumblr, and requests for money. Your highly inconsistent tagging, however, did send up a red flag, as it seems to be mostly no tags on 90% of posts, and then occasionally copying the tags of the person you reblogged from. Which could indicate a bot copy-pasting things, or it could just be xkit's 'keep original tags on reblogs' function. Many of your reblogs also all seem to have a timestamp of under 15 minutes from the person you reblogged it from, which again is a red flag as it could indicate a bot using tumblr's Post Date function to backdate reblogs, or it could just mean that you don't tend to scroll too far down your dash. There's also the fact that you do actually have a number of posts on your blog from 2015 before a 5-year-gap, which isn't a red flag? But it isn't not a red flag either.

Apologies if all these observations sound pretty clinical, but this is the sort of thing that people should be looking for when trying to spot fake blogs fishing for donations.

Secondly, and making this statement clearly on my blog is a major reason I'm posting this ask publicly, I do not reblog personal donation posts. Basically ever. I do not reblog them whether they're for medical needs, housing, pets, bills, or anything, and I certainly don't reblog them for strangers.

I will occasionally signal boost commission posts for friends or mutuals, or I'll reblog funding posts for cool projects, and very occasionally I'll help spread 'a major disaster has happened/is happening and here's how you can help the people involved' post that may happen to include donation links, but I do not reblog personal donation posts.

I am saying this as someone who knows what it's like to be flat-fucking-broke for years at a time. As someone who had their entire meagre savings completely wiped last year by the UK government. As someone who has anxiety attacks when I see the total at the end of my grocery bill every month. It is because of these things that I avoid those posts to the best of my (and blacklist's) ability.

Genuine or no, I'm sorry that you're in a shitty enough situation that you feel begging for funds on tumblr from strangers is your only real option. If you haven't already, I recommend checking out Copperbadge's fundraising primer, and filling out the Radio Free Monday form linked in the sidebar. You're much more likely to find help there than by sending out random and worrying asks.

[whileyoureinschoolidothisallday]

yuh hello I decided to pin an info post so let’s get into it

♥*♡∞:｡.｡ 𝔸𝔹𝕆𝕌𝕋 𝕄𝔼 ｡.｡:∞♡*♥

WELCOME! =D 

My name’s Arisa Cliché! You can call me Risa for short! This blog has been my humble corner of tumblr since 2010! I am a 30-something Adult, so if that makes you uncomfortable, don’t feel obligated to stay. 99% of the time this is a SFW blog tho, and any other rare discussions or fandom pics will be tagged as such. This is my personal blog and I typically fill it up with text posts about my life, reblogs, fandom content, human rights/political posts, aesthetic pics, and anything else I’m into! I consider myself a cripplepunk anarchist and those vibes will be present to the best of my ability in the social justice flavored takes I reblog or post. If you don’t like any of these things, I wouldn’t hit the follow button. Also, feel free to block me!

I’m a writer! I typically write original YA/NA Fantasy, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction, but I also dabble in Fanfiction and fan theories when the mood hits me. If you’d like to support my work, I post everything on AO3 and on my sideblog, Writing with Chaos. I’ve been writing a YA book called Cynical Chaos since I was 15, and if you wanna know more about it, or meet my precious OCs, click here!

Admittedly, I don’t post as much on tumblr as I used to. I’ve mostly migrated to twitter since the 2020 Purge, but I stick around here for a safe haven when things get a little too fast paced over there (and let’s be honest the memes are way better here ;p) and also to visit the communities I’m part of! I got a lot of side blogs and there’s many things I’d miss if I completely left. I’m afraid I’m here till this place burns. If you wanna follow me anywhere else, I’m @chaosonwheels23 on both Twitter and Instagram.

My ask box is always open and I love hearing from y’all so feel free to say hi! ^_^ The only rules I really have is if you try to start arguments with me about any of the ridiculous tumblr shit/harmful irl ideologies present on this site, such as terf/swerf beliefs, anti-blm or other racism, any radical feminist stances, exclusionism/gatekeeping of any kind, puritan behavior, ableism, or shipping discourse, I will simply block you without a response. I have absolutely zero interest in debating these things. I don’t vet much except to check if you’re a bot--so if I block you and you don’t fit any of the following, it’s cause your blog was empty or you had a sus name--but if I find out you are a terf, swerf, fash trash, rad fem, or you post l*licon, I will block on sight. I do not follow back unless we’ve had friendly interactions a decent amount of times. These rules apply to all social medias.

If you’re still here after all that, click the read more for a little more about me and tag suggestions! Feel free to also read the full tag list on the right!

I hope you have a good, safe day and thanks for stopping by! （＾－＾✿）

*°:⋆ₓₒ 𝔽𝕌ℕ 𝔽𝔸ℂ𝕋𝕊 ₓₒ⋆:°*  

Some small things about me that aren’t listed on my sidebar!  

-I’m Taurus Sun and Moon, Libra Rising, Aries Venus, Mars Cancer

-INFJ

-I graduated college (undergrad) in Fall 2019 with a BFA in Creative Writing. Eventually, I also want to go back and finish my BA in Gender and Women’s Studies so I can work in domestic violence counseling.

-I am the cutest Lolita on four wheels ;p I started wearing the fashion actively around 2017

-I have two pets: A GSD named Sahara and a black cat named Luna Rae

-The reason why I use a wheelchair is because of a neuromuscular degenerative disorder that I was born with

-I practice witchcraft and identify as a Pagan since 2013/2014. All talk about that goes over here. I like cottage and sea witchery, tarot, sigils, rootwork, and kinda gettin’ into astrology.

-I love to sing!!!!

*＊✿❀𝔽𝔸𝕍𝕆ℝ𝕀𝕋𝔼 𝕋ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔾𝕊 ❀✿＊*

✧･ﾟ 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬

-Thrice

-ADTR (at least before the Incident...) 

-Underoath

-Paramore

-MCR

-All Time Low

-Kings of Leon

-Issues 

-Four Year Strong

-State Champs

-Homesafe

-Teenage Wrist

-Loathe

-Sleep Token

-Meet Me @ the Altar

-Fox Lake

-Marina and the Diamonds

-Lorde

-Rihanna 

-Beyoncé 

-Halsey

-Willow

-SZA

-Kesha

-Lil Nas X

-BTS

-Meg Thee Stallion

-Rico Nasty

-Tyler the Creator

-Kilo Kish

-Kendrick Lamar

-Childish Gambino

-Flo Milli

-JPEGMafia

-Jidenna

-Obviously my favorite genres are metalcore/post-hardcore/pop-punk and I identify the most with that, but clearly I listen to literally everything lmao

✧･ﾟ 𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓻𝓼

-Pink 

-Red

-Purple

-Silver

-Black 

✧･ﾟ 𝓥𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓸 𝓖𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼

-JRPGS (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, etc)

-RPGs (Bioshock, Fallout, Detroit: Become Human, Undertale)

-Platformers (Sonic, Jak and Daxter, Kirby, etc)

-Adventure (Pokemon, Zelda)

-Fighting/Beat ‘Em Ups (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Scott Pilgrim)

-Action (Devil May Cry, Last of Us, Uncharted, Hades)

-Indie Horror/Psych Horror (Little Nightmares, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Doki Doki, OFF)

-Simulation/Survival (Don’t Starve, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Papers Please, Not Tonight)

-Dating Sims/Visual Novels (Obey Me, Mystic Messenger, Dream Daddy) 

-Dress-Up/Light-Hearted Games (Love Nikki, Rhythm Heaven, Cooking Mama)

✧･ﾟ 𝓐𝓷𝓲𝓶𝓮

-Sailor Moon

-Yu Yu Hakusho 

-Dragon Ball Z 

-Lucky Star 

-Princess Tutu 

-Little Witch Academia 

-Jujutsu Kaisen

-Link Click

-Demon Slayer

-Fire Force

-The Case Study of Vanitas

-My Hero Academia

-The Way of the Househusband  

-Full Metal Alchemist 

✧･ﾟ 𝓣𝓥

-Skins 

-That 70s Show 

-Living Single 

-The Magicians 

-Pose

-Gravity Falls 

-Over the Garden Wall

-Parks and Rec 

-The Good Place 

-Vampire Diaries 

✧･ﾟ 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼

-Going Bovine

-Heir Apparent 

-Hunger Games 

-Wuthering Heights

-Practical Magic

-Hell Followed With Us

✧･ﾟ 𝓕𝓸𝓸𝓭, 𝓓𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓽𝓼, & 𝓓𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓼

-Pasta

-Pizza

-French Fries

-Steak and Fried Potatoes 

-Most chicken dishes

-Curry

-Tempura

-Quesadillas

-Junk Food(TM)

-Seafood

-Fresh bread

-Cheesecake 

-Blueberry Muffins 

-Banana Bread

-Chocolate 

-Caramel 

-Lemon cake, bread, bars, etc

-Cookies

-Apple juice

-Hot cocoa

-Sparkling Grape Juice

-Strawberry Soda

✧･ﾟ 𝓐𝓷𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓵𝓼

-Elephants 

-Tigers

-Puffins

-Snakes

-Bunnies

-Foxes

-Fish

✧･ﾟ𝓐𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓼

-Punk/Cripplepunk

-Emo

-Nu-Goth

-Pastel Goth

-Glam/Baddie

-Lolita

-Kawaii

-Cottagecore

-Witch

-Dark Academia/Light Academia 

-Barbiecore

-Pixel Art

-Vaporwave

‧̍̊˙˚˙ᵕ꒳ᵕ˙˚˙ ℝ𝔼ℂ𝕆𝕄𝕄𝔼ℕ𝔻𝔼𝔻 𝕋𝔸𝔾𝕊 ˚˙ᵕ꒳ᵕ˙˚˙‧̍̊

° 𐐪𐑂 𝓓𝓪𝓲𝓵𝔂 𝓛𝓲𝓯𝓮

Real life with Risa - texts posts from me!

Ask box! - Y’all send me comments!

Helpful links - various websites and resources 

Helpful tips - tips for tons of different subjects 

Adulting - How to be Responsible 101

Things to remember 

Me - #relatable

° 𐐪𐑂 𝓢𝓸𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓮 

ORGANIZE - the main tag. Tips on self-sustainability, protest safety, links for charities and donations, general resources, etc

Disability rights - posts discussing ableism and how we can fight against it 

° 𐐪𐑂 𝓐𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬

FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! - Foodie pics

Disabled Lolita - my Lolita fashion journey! Includes aesthetic pics and history about the fashion

Pretty pictures - main aesthetic tag

Pretty art - Art with no fandom tag

Pretty spaces - Aesthetic rooms

Pretty words -  Words I like (Not all of the words are happy, just a warning)

Aesthetic - various vibes

What a wonderful world -  Beautiful places and things on Earth

Music, playlists - Tunes, bruh

° 𐐪𐑂 𝓕𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓸𝓶

The Furry Scare of 2005 - Sonic

Bible Fanfiction - Obey Me! This is a 16+ tag for suggestive art! (see also: rad resources, demonic headcanons, RAD Library, and RAD Library: Restricted Section (that one is 18+ only please!!!!))

X-men but Anime - My Hero Academia. (See also: MY EXPLODEY SON for Bakugou, I C E Y H O T for Todoroki, The Pure Son for Midoriya, and The Evil One for Dabi (this one has nsfw fics and pics so 18+ only!!!)

POKEMON 

kny - Demon Slayer. See also my tag for the best skrunkly demon boy, gyuutarou simp hours (there are nsfw fics in here so this is an 18+ tag only please!!!)

Kpop Koolaid - BTS

gone to the underworld bbl - Hades

Stardew Valley - includes mod links!!!

Undertale - also includes Deltarune

Risa liveblogs

[anamatics]

can you add anything about studying tiktok academically? That sounds v interesting. I just saw you post on a text post about it. apologies if you’ve mentioned it before; I just started following you.

the post in question 

To specifically address that post:

Firstly, I think we need to divorce ourselves from the idea that it is just “Zoomers” or “Children” on TikTok. I don’t have specific statistics on the demographics, but there there are certainly as many Millennial, Gen X and Boomer users of the platform as there are Gen Z and younger users. 

Secondly, let’s talk a little bit about the mirroring discourse between 2014 Tumblr and 2021 TikTok. The commentary on this particular post does a poor job at framing what the actual problem is on TikTok. So let’s start there. 

Tumblr was a website of networks. You follow people and you see what they share on their blogs on your dash and you can share your own content into that stream. It produces what are called information flows, where content flows across various nodes (blogs) through interconnected edges (the person to person connection made by act of you sharing something). Here’s a blog explaining how this works. Here’s a good book that discusses virality and  information flows. Tumblr is also a bit complicated, as people can add to posts. This is why there are like 5 versions of every great tumblr meme with different people riffing on the OP. As the post grew, as did the spread of the people who commented below it. But here’s the thing. You, as a user on Tumblr, a conscious choice whether or not to reblog a post and to your blog and therefore your followers. "Discourse"* on Tumblr was curated by social networks of individual users that individual users self-selected into by following various blogs.

TikTok, on the other hand, is curated by an algorithm. You, as a user of TikTok, can shape what you see on your For You Page (FYP). The whole purpose of the FYP is to show you what you want to see, to keep you on the platform. As per TikTok themselves, you are put into a specific space based on what you consciously or unconsciously directed TikTok to believe you fit into. This is done consciously by following people, liking/commenting on/sharing content. It’s done unconsciously too, by watching TikTok content. This is why sometimes you’ll see people complaining that all they’re getting is like, queer discourse. It’s because you watch it. Maybe multiple times to get everything that was said because the app has no built-in captioning feature.

What this means, in essence, is that unlike Tumblr, the user has no real and/or direct control over where, potentially, their content could flow to. In interview studies that I've done with TikTok users, I've found that many TikTok users are careful about the content they produce because they're afraid of it attracting "the wrong kind of attention" - this could be say, a BLM activist getting harassed by white supremacists, or a Native American creator getting harassed by WitchTok for discussing how using certain kinds of sage is appropriative**. The pile on can be aggressive, as that post says, but what that post is missing is that you, as user on TikTok have no control over where that information goes or flows to. This gets more complicated with stitching and dueting.

So, if Tumblr has a more linear flow of information from node to node, TikTok takes information apart, splices it together, and all of it is made more complicated by peoples' faces being attached to it. Then it essentially pingpongs around an essentially closed network determined by algorithmic identity derived from measurable types. This is the part that concerns me. That post is right, people's faces make it more complicated. It complicates privacy. It complicates repercussions for people because it doesn't allow people to learn and grow and change. With video evidence, however, these things get harder. Which the internet writ large needs to get fucking better about. 

However. I was on Tumblr in 2014. I essentially content moderated a fandom for three years as a side gig to my day job. The conversations that are being had on TikTok are the exact same ones that were being had on Tumblr half a decade ago because -- get this -- a whole new generation of young, emergent thinkers, are trying on theory. They're trying on identities, they're experimenting with who they are and they're trying to talk it out***.  It is as mean and as nasty and as unpleasant and we should sit with the fact that Tumblr was fucking toxic because we made it that way. The problem is that the kids have picked the world's shittiest platform to do it on. Like Twitter, TikTok is limited in what you can do/say. So nuance is lost. What this means is that pile-ons can spin out of control, because these are kids who've just discovered debate and theory and ugh, "discourse" and therefore wield it with gusto when they could be more humane, more gentle, and more understanding of the fact that no one's perfect. 

(*sidebar that I high-key hate how discourse has gained a negative connotation because of this hellsite.

**And it is appropriative so stop doing it if you are.

***Baby leftists plz stop being Tankies do you have any idea how many People Stalin/Lenin had killed.)

[susuwatari-kompeito]

Getting to Know You - Tag Game

I was tagged by the awesome @rinielle!! Thank you for the tag, I had fun doing this. <3

1. Why did you choose your url? 

I chose my URL because I’m a fan of Studio Ghibli films. “Susuwatari” refers to the soot sprites that are in Spirited Away, and “kompeito” refers to the colorful star-shaped candy they are fed.

2. Any side-blogs? If you have them, name them and why you have them. 

So I started a 2ha sideblog, but I only have one post on it so far and its just a housekeeping one haha. It was in anticipation for the release of HYX/Immortality. However I don’t think I’ll have the capacity to manage two blogs so I decided to just save the URL and have all my mess on my main blog.

3. How long have you been on tumblr? 

So I created my blog years and years ago, probably in 2010? But I never used it, and had only a few things posted. In June 2020, I wiped everything and started reblogging The Untamed content. 

4. Do you have a queue tag? 

I do, but it’s really boring. It’s just “q” because it’s quick and easy to type.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? 

No clue haha. I think it’s because I liked anime and wanted to look at gifs? But again, I never used my blog so I can’t really say for sure.

6. Why did you choose you icon/pfp? 

My icon that shows in the dashboard is the manhua version of Jiang Cheng. I chose him because he’s my most favorite MDZS character (since this is a mostly CQL blog) and also my favorite fictional character in general. 

I also have an icon on the sidebar of my desktop theme, which is circular gif of HuaLian. I chose that because I love that pairing so much (third-most favorite) and also I wanted TGCF representation on my blog.

7. Why did you choose you header?

I have two headers, one for my dashboard/mobile, and one for my theme.

I recently changed my header (it used to be Jiang Cheng gripping Sandu) to a gif of the Twin Jades from the MDZS donghua. I chose that because I love the character design of them in the donghua. I think they are really ethereal and I love how graceful they are in that scene.

My desktop theme header is a BingQiu gif from the Scumbag System donghua. I chose that as my header because I love that ship so much, I love that scene, and I love SVSSS in general. They are my second-most favorite ship so I wanted to represent them on my blog somewhere. 

8. What’s your post with the most notes? 

So I just started making my own content like a month ago, so I haven’t had that much time to build up notes (and none of my text posts got particularly big at all). The post with the most notes is this Nie Huaisang birthday edit which has just over 1K notes. Honestly, I was shocked when it reached that number because I didn’t feel that good about the set when I posted it. But the comments in the tags have been super encouraging and I am thankful that people like the set.

10. How many followers do you have? 

More than I could imagine! I’m still a growing blog, so I don’t have a whole lot, but I’m thankful for each and every one of my followers. 

11. How many people do you follow?

Around 200! I feel like that’s not a lot....but I’m following new blogs pretty consistently.

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

No, my brain is not big enough for that. Though I have an idea for one...but I don’t think it would be very funny or anything. 

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

Too often. I use it as procrastination. 

14. Did you have a fight/argument with a blog once? 

Never, because I don’t really get a lot of asks and I only use messaging/askbox/tags for saying positive things. I don’t believe in starting fights, and if someone were to try start one with me...I think I would probably try to diffuse it as quickly as possible. 

15. How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this post’? 

I don’t feel one way or another, I just simply scroll past. If people choose to reblog it, that’s up to them. 

16. Do you like tag games?

Yes! It’s a fun way to get to know others.

17. Do you like ask games? 

I’ve never done any because I don’t think I would get any asks...haha. But I do think they are fun, and would consider doing them in the future as I grow my blog.

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? 

Hmmm....not really sure how to answer this question. A few of my mutuals I think are popular within the fandom, but idk what “famous” means in terms of Tumblr.

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? 

Not in the literal sense! Just “their content is super nice I look to them for inspiration and they seem to have a nice online presence.” 

20. Tagging some newer mutuals: (don’t feel pressured to do this!)

@yibobibo @purplexedhuman @candicewright @huigusu @suibianjie

[yourultraarchive]

Using Jisho to Translate Verbs, Adjectives, and Nouns for Names

So, there was definitely a lot going on in my “Creating a Name” guide, and after a couple of asks and private messages on creating names I realized that this part deserves its own more digestible post.

In one of the asks I got, I mentioned that this section of the names guide might have gotten lost in all the background context hubbub (it’s found in the first subsection in the “Types of Names” section; the following quote is edited for brevity):

A common thing I see in people naming OCs after verbs to give them that “name that matches the quirk” quality is that they [...] just use that verb as a name, with the verb ending and all [...]. Most verbs have a hiragana character at the end which changes depending on how the word is conjugated, but for a name it’s easy to just cut that part off and just use the singular kanji. When doing that, make sure to find an alternate reading or a name reading for the kanji by itself [...].

For people who don’t know how to read Japanese, this might be confusing or hard to do. So, the following is a step by step guide on how to use Jisho.org to properly translate an English word into a name worthy of an MHA character. (Unfortunately, this post does not account for punny names, just how to use jisho to make names. See the names guide for more on punny names, though.)

Disclaimer: This is just a guide for how to use jisho in the context of creating a name as referenced on this blog/in the names guide. This is not the recommended use of jisho, nor how you would normally create names for characters in other media/fandoms... though you can if you want to.

Note: I will not be defining words like kana or hiragana in this post. Please see the names guide or google for more info!

1. Translate your word. (And also, understand how Jisho works.)

If you have a lot of ideas, translate many words. Anything related to the character’s quirk or personality, whatever works.

Using the example from the names guide, here’s what jisho looks like when you look up “dragon”:

The anatomy of the above image is as follows:

Orange: the English word you’re looking up

Blue: the Japanese word relating to the English word you’re looking up (the image only shows one entry, but there will be multiple on the actual jisho site), with “furigana” above the kanji to show you how to read/say it

Keep in mind that this word may not actually mean what you think it means, hence the next bullet point of “green”...

Green: the definition of the Japanese word (blue), which usually has the English word you looked up (orange) somewhere in there, to give you a precise idea of what the word actually means, and may even give you multiple definitions if the word has more than one meaning

Note the small grey word at the top that says “Noun”! This tells you what kind of word the entry (blue) is, and this is going to be especially important when I get to talking about verbs and adjectives...

Red: the kanji which include the word you looked up (orange) in its translation, but keep in mind that kanji themselves have multiple definitions and may not just mean the one thing you were looking for

This section might actually be the most useful to you in making names, since you won’t get caught up in all the multiple definitions of actual words, but sometimes actual words are useful, so using just the kanji list to create a name is another starting point to go from rather than using the definitions/actual words as a starting point

Check the “More Kanji >” link toward the bottom of this list if you’d rather use a kanji as a starting point for your name rather than a word (for future reference, you can also skip directly to this list by looking up your word with the “#kanji” filter: “YourWordHere #kanji”)

Check the “Details >” link in the lower right corner of the box to see more info about the kanji, its readings (kunyomi, onyomi, and nanori/name readings), and some other words that may include this kanji somewhere in its beginning, middle, or end

Now, after you translate your word, there’s a couple ways this can go:

You probably started with a noun so you have your kanji to create a name with. Skip to STEP 3!

You decided to use the kanji list at the sidebar rather than using a word. Skip to STEP 3!

Your word was an adjective or verb, so there might be more work to do. Proceed to STEP 2!

2. Cut off the kana, extract the kanji.

So, say the word you looked up wasn’t as simple as a noun. There’s probably extra kana tacked on, which isn’t really the norm in a name. So you need to cut those off.

For quick reference like in my proverb names post, these are kana!

For an adjective that’s also a noun like “白 shiro” (white), there’s no extra kana, so you’re good. But some adjectives like “楽しい tanoshii” (fun/enjoyable) and “可愛い kawaii” (cute) have kana at the end, and the same goes for verbs like  “寝る neru” (to sleep), “泳ぐ oyogu” (to swim), and “死ぬ shinu” (to die). The occasional noun will have a kana too, like “眠り nemuri” (sleep), but the same rules apply--cut off the kana!

Extra information, feel free to skip this section:

Japanese usually have two types of adjectives, “i-adjectives” and “na-adjectives”, which you’ll see in the definitions section (green from before) in jisho. The “i-adjectives” are the ones that usually have extra kana.

There’s a sort of third type of adjective, “no-adjectives”, which are basically nouns that can be adjectives too. You don’t have to worry about any extra kana showing up with these, for the most part.

There are three types of verbs, “ru-verbs”, “u-verbs”, and “irregular verbs”, but jisho calls them different things like “Godan verbs”. There are other classifications like “Transitive” or “Intransitive” and other such things listed in jisho, but you don’t have to worry about them (they’re mostly for understanding usage/grammar, which isn’t what we’re focusing on here). In regards to the “ru” and “u” verbs, verbs are categorized by how they’re conjugated. In Japanese, the ending kana changes for tense, negative, potential, etc. which is why the kana is at the end of the kanji rather than part of the kanji itself.

Now once you have just the kanji, we can proceed with creating a name as outlined in the names guide. I’m gonna illustrate what the steps look like so you have a better idea what to do!

3. For a simple name, look up the kanji with the “#names” filter.

After you’ve got your kanji, copy it into the search bar and either type “#names” after it or manually click the filter button (green in the below image) and select the “Names” option (blue in the below image).

That will give you a whole list of names, with romaji included so you know how to read the kanji. It will also tell you whether it’s a male or female given name, a family name/surname, an unspecified name (usually for unisex given names, but sometimes those kinds of names also work as surnames), or the name of a place or known public figure (the latter-most two options you should ignore--naming a character after a place is unconventional, and you really probably shouldn’t be naming characters after real life people).

To narrow down your search so you don’t have to look through all the categories you don’t need, you can use these advanced search options by typing in these tags after adding the “#names” filter:

“#surname” for surnames

“#given” for given names, unisex or first names of any gender

“#fem” for feminine/female names

“#masc” for masculine/male names

“#unclass” for unclassified names (these can be any of the above)

So if you’re looking for names for a boy with a dragon quirk, for example, you could search “竜 #names #masc” or “竜 #names #given” or “竜 #names #unclass”.

EXTRA OPTION: Homophonous Names

In the “How to Create a Name for your OC” section of the names guide, one of the tips about creating a “name that sounds like another word” name is to take the pronunciation of the name that includes the kanji you want and using a name spelled with different kanji instead. It’s really easy to use the “#names” filter on jisho to do this!

Once you find a name you like, simply take the romaji spelling (green below), put it into the search bar (red below), and add the “#names” filter. This will show you a whole list of names that sound the same but are spelled differently (blue below)! You can pick the spelling you like, but be sure to check what it actually means with STEP 4!

Anyway, this step is pretty simple, but for a name that’s more than one kanji long, proceed to STEP 4. Otherwise, see more options in STEP 5.

4. Translate the name back to see the meanings of the other kanji in the name.

So say you found a name with more than one kanji that you like, including the one you were looking up in the first place. Great, now to see what the full name actually means!

Copy the kanji in the brackets of that name (green below--note that you shouldn’t be copying the kana directly to the left of it!) and put it back into the search bar (replace the text in the red below).

After that, either type “#kanji” directly after the name or manually click the filter button (green below) and select the “Kanji” option (blue below).

You’ll be taken to a page with lots of large text and technical info on it, but the most important bit is the definition of the kanji (green below). The image only shows the first kanji of the name, but if you scroll down you’ll see the others (one example in red below).

If that’s what you want your name to mean, great, you have a name! Otherwise, you can go back to the other steps and start over, until you find a name you like.

Proceed to STEP 5 if you want to manipulate the name some more to give it some uniqueness or possibly make a pun out of it.

5. Make a name out of a combination of kanji of your choice, or find alternate kanji readings.

So you have a kanji you like, but the options in the list of names in the “#names” filter don’t really fit your character: ie. you have a dragon quirk user but you don’t want to name them just “竜一 Ryuuichi” (one/first dragon) or “竜鼻 Tatsuhana” (dragon snout) or something.

One of the things you can do is just put together 2-3 kanji that don’t actually make a “real name” and come up with your own reading for them. For instance, “竜夜 Tatsuya” (dragon night) may be homophonous with a “real name”, but the spelling is unusual and if you look it up on jisho with the “#names” filter, nothing will come up.

It’s possible to make up names like the above example by combining the the different readings of the kanji. For example the 夜 can be read “yo”, “yoru”, or “ya”. To find the readings of a kanji, you can either look in the kanji list when you’re looking up a word, or you can check out the specific kanji details to find the kunyomi, onyomi, and nanori. (All the different areas to find kanji readings are in red in the images below. Nanori is called the “Japanese names” reading in the last image, but be aware that not every kanji will have nanori available.)

(The names guide outlines this a little too, as well as list other ways to find kunyomi, onyomi, nanori, etc. and their romaji readings, but I will not be getting into that here since I’m only focusing on jisho in this post.)

Of course you have to know how to read a little kana to figure out how to pronounce the kanji and its readings, but you can either reference the kana sheet above, google or wiki, or use google translate. The image below is going to be the only non-jisho image here I promise, but this part is important for people who don’t know how to read kana so I’m including it. (Be careful not to use the actual translation, in red below. The green and blue are the kunyomi and onyomi respectively, just to show you where in the romaji reading they are, as google translate doesn’t use line breaks in it. You can see why it’s not a good idea to use the red area since it tried to translate “rou” as an actual English word “low”--this also illustrates the importance of kanji, since all of those readings technically mean “dragon”!)

Once you have your kanji readings, you can combine them however you think sounds best. For example, 竜夜 (dragon night) can be any of these given or family names (this is not a complete list, and not all of them are necessarily homophonous with real names):

Tatsuyo

Iseya

Iseyoru

Ryuuya

Ryuuyo

Ryouya

Rouya

Rouyoru

Riuya

Riuyo

Riuyoru

You can also do this to names that aren’t made-up mashed-together kanji. For instance, take the real name “竜ケ江 Tatsugae”. With alternate readings, you can use “Isekemi” as a surname and still spell it the same as the traditional “Tatsugae”. This is useful to make a name look normal but change the pronunciation to be appropriate for a pun (my example is not a pun, however--I was just demonstrating how to do it). An example of this is Mina Ashido’s name, as the surname “芦戸” is normally pronounced “Ashito”.

Alternate readings are usually how puns are made, but I won’t get into that here. Check the names guide for more in-depth stuff on that, but the info from STEP 5 is particularly useful for the “name that matches the quirk” subsection of the “How to Create a Name for your OC” section.

Congrats, you made it to the end!

Welp, that’s all you need to know about using jisho to make a name! Please check out the “Creating a Name for your MHA Character” guide that this post was made to supplement. This post was just “how to use jisho”, the names guide will really get into the meat of how to create a name befitting of an MHA character.

If anything about this post was unclear or confusing, let me know and I’ll try to clarify. Hope this helps you name your character!

Go beyond and PLUS ULTRA!

[argentdandelion]

Remember to Spread the Love!

Remember to Spread the Love!

The following is a somewhat emotional plea relating to the massive popularity of "Physiology of Skeletons (For Non-Naughty Fans) Part 1 of 3: How Realistic Are We Talking About?". 

----

My latest post about levels of biological plausibility in approaches to skeleton monsters ("Physiology of Skeletons (For Non-Naughty Fans) Part 1 of 3: How Realistic Are We Talking About?") has gotten really popular: at time of writing it's 79 notes.

Most of the people who do spread the love to other posts lately have liked "The Multiverse is Terrifying: The Sans Suffering Rule", which is even more Sans-focused and "Sansdom"-applicable than "Physiology of Skeletons (For Non-Naughty Fans) Part 1", as well as recent and easy to find relative to other Sans-focused content.

Admittedly, Sans is a very popular character in Undertale, and loving Sans is no crime. However, I feel conflicted about these two posts' immense popularity over others. "Physiology of Skeletons Part 1" is ten times more popular than other, equally deserving posts that took the same amount of effort to make, if not more. I get the idea this immense popularity is almost impossible to get for text posts in the Undertale fandom outside Sans-centered works and "Sansdom" applicability, and I'm...troubled by this.

I only chose to develop that particular post because my main computer had been kaput for weeks, and among the 2018 files I could presently access, "Physiology of Skeletons for Non-Naughty Fans" (originally one post) was one of the most well-developed and least controversial.

Now, I don't know the character nor taste of my newest followers, or all those who enjoyed my latest post. But, if people follow me purely for Sans-focused content, to the exclusion of any other Undertale character...they will likely be disappointed. I write about many topics, after all.

This isn't the first time people have disproportionately given attention to a Sans-focused post, to the exclusion of more or equally deserving ones. It's part of a pattern.

Again, loving Sans is no crime, but it stops being fun for me to write Sans-centric stuff if I feel that's the only thing that will get significant traction. If my other posts don't get more appreciation...I don't think it would be good for me to continue with the rest of the "Physiology of Skeletons" series.

----

Note I said “most people”. I’m happy that a few people did, indeed, check out other posts lately. I give special thanks to those people.

[abra-ka-dammit]

Pillowfort Is Coming!!

hey yall PF is opening up to the public soon (was gonna be the 15th, they just announced theyre pushing it to the 25th) and I REALLY want people to follow me away to there instead of everyone exhausted by twitter just coming back to this.... place

I have 3 weekly invite links if anyone wants to get in pre-open to get their blog set up to be ready for the incoming noobs to follow!

WHAT IS IT THO?

oh, right, so pillowfort.social is a blogging platform much like tumblr. while its not yet at the slick polished stage of tumblr (tumblr has a several year advantage), it is already offering its users several things tumblr does not, such as:

NSFW/18+ content OK (within law, so no fuckin CP allowed ya creeps)

Blogs toggleable as NSFW, as well as INDIVIDUAL POST NSFW toggling

edits to the original post changes all reblogs of the post across the site--so no “fuck they reblogged my drawing already but i just noticed i fucked up and need to fix smth”

toggle reblog-ability and comment-ability per post

if u make smth unrebloggable after its already been reblogged, u can either let the old reblogs stay but be unreblogable any further, or delete all reblogs!)

choose who can view each post if u dont want it just public (only me, only mutuals, only followers, only logged in users)

toggle whether non-logged-in folks can see ur NSFW content (bless)

if multiple people/communities you follow reblog the same thing it compiles it into one post on ur dash so u dont scroll past the same thing 6 times

“communities”, which are basically like, uh, a group? so it has its own little discussion area and its own feed (that also shows up on ur dash ofc) but any group member can contribute, theyre themed on certain things...

for example, i made one for WoW Goblins specifically! :^)

there’s art communities for showing off your stuff to people who arent even following you, great way for artists to attract attention, theres LGBT+ communities, fandom communities, all sorts of stuff so u can find a nice user-made compilation of the kind of content you wanna see

tells u how many mutuals u have, and u can click to see a list of only ur mutual followers

replies on posts can be replied back to, encouraging conversations instead of just random comments (and letting artists thank ppl for saying nice things <3)

replies can also be “like”d!

filter the posts on a blog ur viewing to show only original posts or only reblogs

can put more than 10 images in a post (idk the limit, I have a post w 12 at least tho)

easy access toggle to if u wanna see nsfw on ur dash or not, so u can Safe It while ppl can see ur screen and switch back real quick later

u can put images in ur blog sidebar lol

only show notifs for replies, if u want that i guess

AND SO MUCH MORE I CANT REMEMBER OR MAYBE EVEN DONT KNOW ABOUT!

It also has stuff we like from tumblr, such as:

searchable tagging system

direct messaging (via inbox, not like the chatboxy tumblr IMs) that you can disallow based on follower/mutual status or disable entirely

blessed validating notes

images in text posts

Things they’re working on adding in the near future:

Sideblogs

More blog customization (atm it’s pretty minimal)

Queues & drafts

Whatever people ask for, pmuch*

*They listen to community feedback & recommendations for features, etc, adding things people WANT instead of random bullshit, and are much more responsive to users concerns than the cold corpo feel of tumblo

[roleplay-salt]

About; Rules; FAQ

Welcome to Roleplay Salt! This is a blog for roleplayers to vent & rant anonymously about the things that peeve or hurt them in the roleplaying community.

GENERAL

Your submission will always be posted anonymously; no exceptions. (This includes positivity submissions & shoutouts.)

Your submission’s text will be placed in a graphic and then copied as plain text as its caption for accessibility purposes.

Topics must be roleplay-related. (This can, of course, include experiences with partners doing things that may be unrelated to roleplay, but would still be considered relevant if it impacts your roleplaying experience with that particular partner.)

Anyone following our blog will be allowed to leave replies on submissions, whether in agreement or disagreement, and everyone is allowed (even encouraged) to reblog submissions, with or without their own commentary. However, we will delete any spamming comments, including ones that are or are similar to “Why don’t you come off anon and say that?” Such comments provide nothing to the discussion. In fact, they usually shut down discussion and it completely disregards the entire point of this blog’s existence. No one has to “come off anon” nor are they “cowards” for seeking safety behind anonymity. Your aggressiveness with that sentiment only reinforces the reason why they want to be anonymous in the first place. ADDENDUM: We will delete salt replies that involve simply telling others to, essentially, “shut up and move on already” and “stop sending salt replies in about this”. You’re more than allowed to say this things in the comments, but we will no longer be making them a part of any future debates.

We actively edit and restructure the wording of submissions. We read every single one of your submissions and we care about consistency and readability. We will correct any spelling errors, grammar errors, and odd sentencing structure, and we will often lengthen abbreviations and slang, and we will fill out any curse words or sensitive terms that were originally 'censored' in the submissions. Do not take it personally! Again, we aim for consistency. We will never just copy/paste your submission and then post it. That's terrible.  

T Y P E S    O F    S A L T

Vents & Rants

Complaints

Negative Confessions

Callouts

T Y P E S    O F    S U G A R

Advice & Suggestions

Critique

Positive Confessions

Shoutouts

T Y P E S    O F    F L O U R

The “Flour” category is reserved for any submissions that do not appropriately fit under “Salt” or “Sugar”, often involving personal confessions and storytelling.

C A L L O U T S    &    S H O U T O U T S

A callout submission is specifically speaking nastily and meanly about someone else, regardless if it’s the truth or not.  All URLs & names in a callout submission will be marked out to preserve the other party’s anonymity as well.  We are a safe place for you to release your anger, frustration and hurt, even if it’s towards someone and not something. But we cannot and will not participate in the true nature of a callout. That will need to be something that you do for yourself if you believe that it’s important for you, your friends and your fandom community.

A shoutout submission is specifically speaking kindly and positively about someone else.

All URLs & names in a shoutout submission will remain visible, and the person will be tagged & mentioned on the post so as to better the odds of them seeing it.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

“Who are the moderators?”

Currently, there is only one operating the blog: Moderator Bull.

“Am I allowed to know your roleplay/personal blogs?”

Unfortunately, no. To preserve our own anonymity (for many of the same reasons as the submitters), we have agreed on the terms to never give out our URLs if requested. If we are interested in your blog, then we will follow you at our own discretion!

“Will you remove a submission for me?”

That depends on the type of submission, what it is about, and what your reasoning for wanting it removed is. The whole point of anonymity is that nothing gets tied back to you. The only cases where we will greatly consider removing a submission is if it’s involving a shoutout about you and you don’t want to be affiliated with us. 

“Will you remove my comments on a submission?”

Of course! However, we will not remove any corresponding responses to you (except in instances where, if yours is removed, the next comment is made to look like it’s being directed to the person prior to your comment. We don’t want to cause unnecessary conflict.) We will also not be relied upon to keep deleting comments you regret leaving behind. If you’re wanting to leave a public response on submissions, then you must be prepared to have others possibly publicly disagree with you.

“Can I ask you for roleplay advice?”

Go right ahead! But we can’t promise the best or most insightful of answers, or that we’ll get to them relatively soon! Chances are, we will post your questions anonymously so that others in the community can help.

“Why did you follow my blog?”

To make our existence known to you and, if you like us, hoping that you will send in a submission of your own or tell your roleplay partners about us!

“How did you find my blog?”

Most likely through the Recommended sidebar feature, a mutual, or just the good ol’ search function.  

“Could you unfollow me?”

If you don’t want to be associated with us, then we recommend blocking the blog so that we don’t unintentionally follow you again!

“Hey, could you do something about the people leaving rude, mean responses on the submissions?”

Unless they are throwing bigoted slurs, threats, or suicide-baiting remarks at the anonymous submitter, they are not doing anything wrong. They have just as much right to disagree with your submission as you had when you sent it to us. We are, first and foremost, a place to vent frustrations or hurts behind the safety of anonymity, and we are also a free-speech blog. We are of the belief that discussions, no matter how heated, is healthy and brings the community together as a whole. Just as your submission may provide someone else with the awareness that they are not alone in similar frustrations, someone disagreeing with your submission may provide a new perspective to you and others that had not been considered before.

“How does name-calling and swearing and being mean add to a discussion? You and your blog are what are wrong with the roleplaying community!”

Just because someone isn’t being nice to you as they give their side of the argument, doesn’t mean that it cancels out their actual argument. You’re choosing to be offended and distracted by how abrasive they are, and that’s no one’s problem to deal with but your own. You have the ability to block anyone so that you no longer have to see their comments on future submissions. Why would we police what people say, the endgame of which would be to ban them from ever reblogging or commenting on submissions again if they don’t listen to us, if you’re not even willing to try solving the problem first by just blocking them? Wanting to have the last word or being upset that your submission didn’t receive the feedback you wanted is not a reason for us to step in and step on someone else’s right to speak, rudely or otherwise. If you’re not going to block them, then why should we?

“Could you not post submissions on sensitive topics like noncon, incest, and pedophilia?”

We have started tagging posts that we believe might be sensitive and controversial in nature with the tag “#twcontroversy”. We recommend blacklisting this tag. If that is still not enough, then we recommend unfollowing/blocking us. These are topics just as relevant in the roleplaying community as anything else.

“Could you promote me?”

Certainly! But only if you are another community-involved blog (a blog that provides a ‘service’ to the community, such as advice, roleplay help, a place for confessions, etc.), and it must be relevant to the roleplaying community to some degree! If you want to promote a roleplay blog, then we suggest sending in a shoutout submission!

“I sent a confession in weeks ago. Where is it? How long will it take for it to get posted?”

It’s either sitting in the queue or sitting in our drafts, waiting to be queued. We have 1,200+ followers so far, and on average we’re sent 15+ submissions a night. We only post between 5 to 8 submissions at night. Your submission is on a wait list. That’s all we can tell you.

“Why don’t you just close your submission box until all the current confessions are posted?”

Because we’re a vent blog first and foremost. If we close our ask/submission boxes, then we’re no longer an option for people who might desperately need to vent or talk about something that could have happened to them that day but have no other options. We want to be a healthy alternative to just bottling it up or possibly lashing out at the wrong people.

“I don’t believe you! I think you deleted my submission because one of you didn’t like it! You’re not unbiased at all!”

We’ve posted submissions about highly controversial roleplay topics like noncon, racism, transphobia, and pedophilia. We reassure you that your salt submission about OCs, theme trends, blog selectivity, etc. is not on that same level, least of all to the point that one of us would delete it. The only submissions that we have deleted, so far, are the ones that have included racial and homophobic slurs.

“[insert OP/commenter] is obviously a rapist/pedophilie!”

If we find that you have accused someone of being a rapist, pedophile, or apologist of either because of their defensive views on noncon/pedophilic ships or roleplay, your comment will be removed and you will be blocked. These are serious accusations that you shouldn’t be throwing at people over fictional content and we refuse to to let you use this blog as a platform to spew such slanderous accusations.

[inu-fiction]

PSA: Stuff You Maybe Didn’t Realize You Can Back Up To AO3, And How To Tag it

Tumblr seems to be in potential death throes or at least, incredibly volatile and unreliable lately, but we’ve done some pretty good and informative work on canon analysis and reference guides so I was looking for ways to back it up without losing it...and the solution became obvious to me: Archive of Our Own, aka AO3.  “What?” you might ask if you are less familiar with their TOS. “Isn’t that just a fanfic archive??” No! It’s a fanWORK archive. It is an archive for fanworks in general! “Fanwork” is a broad term that encompasses a lot of things, but it doesn’t just include fanfic and fanart, vids etc; it also includes “fannish” essays and articles that fall under what’s often called “meta” (from the word for “beyond” or “above”, referencing that it goes beyond the original exact text)! The defining factor of whether Archive of Our Own is the appropriate place to post it is not whether or not it’s a fictional expansion of canon (fanfic), though that is definitely included - no, it’s literally just “is this a work by a ‘fan’ intended for other ‘fannish’ folks/of ‘fannish’ interest?”  The articles we’ve written as a handy reference to the period-appropriate Japanese clothing worn by Inuyasha characters?  The analyses of characters? The delineations of concrete canon (the original work) vs common “fanon” (common misconceptions within the fandom)? Even the discussion of broader cultural, historical, and geographic context that applies to the series and many potential fanworks?  All of those are fannish nonfiction! Which means they absolutely can (and will) have a home on AO3, and I encourage anybody who is wanting to back up similar works of “fannish interest” - ranging from research they’ve done for a fic, to character analyses and headcanons - to use AO3 for it, because it’s a stable, smooth-running platform that is ad-free and unlike tumblr, is run by a nonprofit (The OTW) that itself is run by and for the benefit of, fellow fans.  Of course, that begs the question of how to tag your work if you do cross-post it, eh? So on that note, here’s a quick run-down of tags we’re finding useful and applicable, which I’ve figured out through a combination of trial and error and actually asking a tag wrangler (shoutout to @wrangletangle for their invaluable help!): First, the Very Broad: - “ Nonfiction ”. This helps separate it from fanfic on the archive, so people who aren’t looking for anything but fanfic are less likely to have to skim past it, whereas people looking for exactly that content are more likely to find it. - while “Meta” and “Essay” and even “Information” are all sometimes used for the kinds of nonfiction and analytical works we post, I’ve been told “ Meta Essay ” is the advisable specific tag for such works. This would apply to character analyses, reference guides to canon, and even reference guides to real-world things that are reflected in the canon (such as our articles on Japanese clothing as worn by the characters).  The other three tags are usable, and I’ve been using them as well to cover my bases, but they’ll also tend to bring up content such as “essay format” fanfic or fanfic with titles with those words in them - something that does not happen with “Meta Essay”.

- I’ve also found by poking around in suggested tags, that “ Fanwork Research & Reference Guides ” is consistently used (even by casual users) for: nonfiction fannish works relating to analyses of canon materials; analyses of and meta on fandom-specific or fanwork-specific tropes; information on or guides to writing real-world stuff that applies to or is reflected in specific fandoms' media (e.g. articles on period-appropriate culture-specific costuming and how to describe it); and expanded background materials for specific fans' fanworks (such as how a given AU's worldbuilding is supposed to be set up) that didn't fit within the narrative proper and is separated out as a reference for interested readers. Basically, if it's an original fan-made reference for something specific to one or more fanworks, or a research aid for writing certain things applicable to fanworks or fannish interests in general, then it can fall under that latter tag. 

- You should also mark it with any appropriate fandom(s) in the “Fandom” field. Just like you would for a fanfic, because of course, the work is specifically relevant to fans of X canon, right? If it discusses sensitive topics, or particular characters, etc., you should probably tag for those. E.g. “death” or “mental illness”, “Kagome Higurashi”, etc. 

Additionally, if you are backing it up from a Tumblr you may wish to add: - “ Archived From Tumblr “ and/or “ Cross-Posted From Tumblr ” to reference the original place of publication, for works originally posted to tumblr. (I advise this if only because someday, there might not be “tumblr” as we know it, and someone might be specifically looking for content that was originally on it, you never know) - “ Archived From [blog name] Blog ”; this marks it as an archived work from a specific blog. And yes, I recommend adding the word “blog” in there for clarity- Wrangletangle was actually delighted that I bothered to tag our first archived work with “Archived From Inu-Fiction Blog” because being EXTREMLY specific about things like that is super helpful to the tag wranglers on AO3, who have to decide how to categorize/”syn” (synonym) various new tags from alphabetized lists without context of the original posting right in front of them.  In other words, including the name AND the word “blog” in it, helps them categorize the tag on the back end without having to spend extra time googling what the heck “[Insert Name Here]” was originally. 

Overall, you should be as specific and clear as possible, but those tags/tag formats should prove useful in tagging it correctly should you choose to put fannish essays and articles up on AO3 :) Oh, and protip sidebar for those posting, especially works that are more than plain text: you can make archiving things quicker and easier for yourself, but remember to plan ahead for tumblr’s potential demise/disabling/service interruptions. The good news: You can literally copy and paste the ENTIRE text of a tumblr post from say, an “edit” window, on tumblr, straight into AO3′s Rich Text Format editor, and it will preserve pretty much all or almost all of the formatting - such as bold, italics, embedded links, etc! But the bad news: keep in mind that while AO3 allows for embedded images and it WILL transfer those embedded images with a quick copy-paste like that, AO3 itself doesn’t host the images for embedding; those are still external images. This means that whether or not they continue to load/display for users, depends entirely on whether the file is still on the original external server! As I quickly discovered, in the case of posts copied from the Edit window of a tumblr post, the images will still point to the copies of the images ON tumblr’s servers. What this means is that you should back up (save copies elsewhere of) any embedded images that you consider vital to such posts, in case you need to upload them elsewhere and fiddle with where the external image is being pulled from, later.  Personally, I’m doing that AND adding image descriptions underneath them, just to be on the safe side (and in fairness, this makes it more accessible to people who cannot view the images anyway, such as sight-impaired people who use screen readers or people who have images set to not automatically display on their browser, so it’s win-win)

[lumiellle]

hi there, i'm considering giving pillowfort a try and have been informing myself a bit about its features etc. if you have a few minutes to spare, can you tell me a little bit about it? just general stuff like the atmosphere, the fandoms/communities, is it comfortable to create posts, how does the dash look like, what are big big similarities/differences between pillowfort and tumblr? just trying to get a better feeling for it. thanks & have a nice day :)

hi hi! i have to admit that i haven’t used pillowfort much in the recent months! what i can tell you is that it’s very similar to tumblr in its essence. there’s a tagging system and personal blogs, you can reblog and comment on other people’s posts! however, it’s pretty barren so far? there aren’t many options to customize your blog yet and it all feels a little bit clunky to me, but i’m sure there’ll be improvements in the future. the messaging system is also pretty nice.this is what a post looks like on my blog right now! (i know it’s too tiny to read ^^; also, don’t worry, the content body isn’t as far on the right as it looks, i just cropped the screencap)

there isn’t much going on in terms of decorating your blog (as far as i’m aware of), but i do like the overall look! i think we can put images into our sidebar as of two weeks ago, though i can’t say i’ve tried it. there’s also a community system in place, a little bit like sub-pillowforts (?), like tumblr’s haikyuu!! tag for example, and you can post directly into these communities or reblog a post from your own blog into them, if i remember correctly. posts in communities you follow appear on your dash, which looks like this:

also, you can mark your own posts as nsfw if you want to (without using a tag)! lastly, you can directly see someone’s own posts on their blog if you want to skip out on their reblogs, which is neat! that way, you don’t have to make a separate tag for your own content, unless you want to of course.

creating posts is easy enough, even though i hecked up trying to use the read more feature just now ^^; i definitely like pillowfort though, especially for text posts! i hope this helped a little bit! have a good day

[fleurdeneuf]

How to X-Kit

I made a general How to Tumblr post a while ago, and while I did mention the importance of x-kit there, I did not go into much detail.  I drafted this x-kit tutorial for a new to tumblr friend more recently, and it’s just been sitting in my documents ever since.  I’ve decided to dust it off and clean it up for posting, in case it can help anyone else out there.  

So, here are the x-kit extensions that I find most useful, grouped by “essential” or “nice to have.”  Of course, everyone uses tumblr differently, so these are my personal preferences, and ymmv. 

Essential:

One-click reply: Lets you reply to people who have replied to your posts (you can also reply if someone has reblogged or liked a post).  A little arrow shows up when you hover over a note in your dash or on your activity page.  Click on the arrow, and it’ll draft a reply post for you.  You can select multiple notes by holding down Alt when clicking on arrows.  The default reply posts look like this, which will tag you, but not @ you, so they are easy to miss.  If you add the options to add the person’s avatar and @ them for good measure, they look like this.

Tweaks: 1) Wrap tags for easier reading (In the past, you had to scroll all the way across to see people’s tags, which was terrible.  Tumblr has added those  “see all” links now, which wraps tags, but only to a certain point, and then you have to click to see the rest.  I hope that xkit will one day fix that so the wrapped tags are all in one block again, which is why I still have this extension and will never get rid of it.)  2) Add a separator line for Tag section on editor. (In an update a while back, tumblr made it impossible to see between the tags box and the text box of a post, and this redefines the boundaries.)  3) I am fond of the “move to top” button on the queue page.  4) & 5) Hide the explore button on trending posts and Hide the explore link at the top of the page and in the side bar (because we don’t need that garbage).  6) & 7) I like Always show the scroll to top arrow, and Make small text in reblogs the same size as small text in my own posts.  8) & 9) Hide the tumblr radar and Hide recommended blogs, because we don’t need that garbage either.  10) Show Mass post editor and blog settings buttons (another old thing that I don’t remember exactly what it does, because I no longer remember what tumblr looks like without it).

Blacklist: You probably know how this one works, but I do recommend a few of the options, like: Don’t block my own posts, Use improved checking, and definitely definitely Show tags on blocked posts (so you can see people’s tag rambles even if you don’t see the post itself). (Note: tumblr did just roll out that new blacklist of its own, but you can’t see people’s tags that way, which is why I still use x-kit’s blacklist.)

Go-to-dash: View a post on someone’s blog in dash mode so you can view without someone’s theme and access more options than are usually on someone’s blog.  Click the eye symbol at the top of a post on someone’s blog (you have to be following the person for this to work).

Mute!: Lets you not see someone’s posts for as long as you like, without having to unfollow them.  You can choose which type of post to not see: OPs, reblogs, text posts, photo posts, etc.

No Recommended: Get rid of recommended likes and blogs.

Open in tabs: Opens links and blogs in new tabs, rather than in the sidebar thing.  Note: this does not always work, depending on the blog settings of the person you’re trying to visit, but it does work on most.

Outbox: Saves sent messages to an outbox!  Only works on the computer you have this x-kit installed on, though.  (At work, you’ll only see messages you sent at work; at home at home)

PostBlock: Block posts you don’t like.  (I do this when pron or anti- stuff shows up in tags I track.)

Read more now: Lets you click on a read more and the post will expand in your dash, rather than making you go to the person’s blog to see it.

Reblog as text: Honestly, I don’t know if this is still a problem, but tumblr used to reblog long posts as if they were links (so all that you would see on your dash was a link, not the actual post), and it was hella annoying.  If tumblr is still doing this stupid thing, then get this extension.

Reblog yourself: Lets you reblog a post from yourself.

Reply viewer: A little speech bubble button appears at the bottom of posts and if you click on it, you can view all of the replies to that post - good for looking at post history.

Retags: Shows you people’s tags in your notes so don’t need to check each person who reblogged from you to see what their tags were.

Tag replacer: Lets you replace or remove tags on your posts.  For example, when I realized that tags with dashes in them do not work, I changed all of my tags that had dashes in them to tags with spaces between words instead.  Also handy if your friends change their URLs or if you realize you have five different tags that say something like “I love CE” but you only want one.

Tag tracking+: At the very least, you should track your URL (with no dash, if your URL has a dash in it, because dashes don’t track) to see when people tag you in things.  Any fandom things you’re into are also worth tracking, once you find their “official”/most popular tags.  Boxes to check: Show a [new] indicator, Redirect the followed tags to tagged instead of search, and Show tags on sidebar (which adds a sidebar menu so you can see all of the tags you’re tracking).

Tag viewer: Similar to reply viewer, but shows you all of the tags of people who have reblogged a post.  If it’s an old or popular post, lots of great things to be found!

Old sidebar: Gives you back a sidebar menu so you can find things easier.

Nice to have extensions below the cut:

Xinbox: Has some nice options in it, like “tag published asks with their usernames”, which is very helpful (so people will see your reply in their tag).

Activity+: Group notes by post, filter notes by type, show timestamps on notes (TIMESTAMPS ARE THE BEST).

Anti-Capitalism: Remove sponsored posts, Terminate...sidebar ads, Remove framed ads, Hide the asktime banner, Hide sidebar ads.

Blog tracker: Lists someone of your choice’s blog in your sidebar as if they were a tag you were tracking, so you never miss their posts.  Helpful if you don’t scroll through your entire dash, but you want to make sure you never miss something that a friend posts, for example.

Drafts+: Another old thing that I don’t remember exactly what it does, because I no longer remember what tumblr looks like without it.

Enhanced Queue: Lets you shuffle queue posts to mix them up, and a few other things.

Header options: Makes the header look like what it used to before tumblr “improved” it.

Mass deleter: Unlike likes/delete drafts en masse.

Mass+:  Another old thing that I don’t remember exactly what it does, because I no longer remember what tumblr looks like without it.

NotificationBlock: If a post of yours goes out of control and you don’t want to see the notes anymore, it’ll block them.

Notification+: Highlights notes from people you follow.  (It also used to show number of notes when you hover over a notification, but the newest tumblr update broke that.)

Post crushes: I LOVE this.  It lets me make these posts. 

Scroll to bottom: Lets you get to the bottom of your likes or drafts, though crashes tumblr if you try to use it and you have too many posts (like me).

Search likes: This would be amazing if I ever remembered to use it!

Separator: Puts a horizontal line through your dash where you left off before, though it does not always work.

Timestamps: I LOVE TIMESTAMPS.

User Menus+: another old thing that I don’t remember exactly what it does, because I no longer remember what tumblr looks like without it.

View on dash: View blogs in dash mode rather than going to the blogs and dealing with their theme.

[breeeliss]

Alrighty, so if you haven’t heard from July 2nd until July 15th, people from the fandom will be participating in Miraculous Content Creator Blackout ( @miraculousblackout ) in order to protest the rampant art theft that has been affecting many creators in the fandom. In essence, people are committing to pausing content creation, freezing any ML related blogging, and spreading information about art theft. 

Now, for the sake of transparency, I will say that I am personally choosing not to halt my blog and will continue to post my writing. This is a personal decision and is in no way meant to delegitimize the protest. Many of you follow me for my writing, and I do not wish to deprive you all of that. I also want to continue to support ML artists and writers by continuing to reblog their work.

However!! I do want to say something about content theft and what can be done to prevent it. 

Etiquette

There’s really murky legalities around fanart/derivative works and copyright claims over the owners of the characters depicted. To save the legal jargon, I feel like this boils down very easily to a certain standard of respect and etiquette for people who put labor into creating any form of content. 

You do not have any right to decide how art/writing is used if you do not own it/did not create it. Very simple. Not yours? You don’t have a right to decide how it’s used. That right belongs entirely to an artist. This means that an artist can decide how they wish for you to interact with their creations, and it is basic etiquette and decency to respect those wishes. 

Acceptable forms of interaction usually involve interacting with the original post. So liking/reblogging/retweeting/etc. the original post, leaving comments, sending the artist messages about the post, etc. are great ways of appreciating art. It gets the artists hits and notes and it’s a great way to ensure they’re getting credit for their work. 

Now if you want to post art somewhere else, put it in a video, translate a fic you found, etc., always ask the artist for permission first just to be safe. It’s best to ask and get permission rather than assume it’s okay and upset an artist. Now if an artist says no, your job is to respect that decision and interact with their art in the way they’re comfortable with. If you’re thinking of interacting with an artist’s work in a way that they have not explicitly approved of, always always always ask to be sure. 

This also goes for tracing, taking another person’s art and putting it into your own creation, slapping art on merchandise without the artist’s permission, etc. Don’t do it without express permission. 

If ever you find yourself asking, “but I said it’s not mine!,” “I’m giving publicity to the artist,” “it’s art on the Internet I can do what I want,” refer to the bolded text: you do not have any right to decide how art/writing is used if you do not own it/did not create it.

What do I do if I’ve found stolen/reposted art?

First, make sure that it is indeed stolen/reposted. Good way to tell is to check watermarks, check posts, and check tags. A very quick and easy way to make sure the poster of the art is actually the artist is to check the art for watermarks and see if it matches the username of the poster. Now this often isn’t ironclad, so another good way to check is to read the posts of the original work. If you see someone saying “credits to the artist,” “look at this pretty art I found,” etc. you can be sure it’s a reposting. Checking the tags is another good method that I’ve used. A lot of artists tend to tag their art with things like #mine, #myart, etc. and that’s a good way to tell if the post is original. 

Now, if you can’t figure out who the artist is or you’re not sure if this is stolen/reposted, another good method is doing a reverse image search on Google. Google allows you to search by image rather than keywords and will show you every website in which the image appears. This is usually a very good way to try and see not only where else this image appears, but where it originated from. This is also good for people who find art randomly on Google and want to find the original artist to ask them permission to use their art. 

If you think art you’ve seen is stolen/reposted, it’s best to notify the artist right away before taking any action on their behalf. Simply sending them a link to what you think may be reposted art is often the best thing to do so that they’re aware and they can proceed from there. Be very careful about sending reports on behalf of others until you’re positive that is the method they wish to proceed with. If you know for sure that the artist does not condone reposting, you could report art “on the behalf of the artist.” 

Now, not only is it very possible that a thief/reposter will refuse to take down the stolen art, but it also happens quite often if the constant art theft posts made by fandom artists wasn’t enough of a hint. If talking to the thief/reposter first doesn’t work, that’s where you report the post/user. 

So how do I report stolen/reposted art?

@wintermoth has this really amazing comprehensive guide for artists that want to report their stolen/reposted art that you can find right here. As mentioned before, if you are not the artist of the stolen art, it’s usually best to notify the artist first and make sure to submit reports “on the behalf of the artist” if you’re 100% sure they do not condone that method of theft/reposting and are fine with fans reporting on their behalf. 

What about fics?

Same policies apply. If you want to translate a fic or throw it up on another website (such as Wattpad) that is something you need to ask the writer first and give them the proper credits. When it comes to fanfiction, the best thing you can do for a writer is reblog, like, comment, bookmark, gives kudos, and circulate links to the original piece. Anything past that needs the express permission of the writer. I don’t think I need to say that outright plagiarism of fics is nothing short of theft. 

This also goes for fandubs, using fics in comics, etc. Ask the writer! Sometimes we’re happy to let you dub over our work, translate it, and put our fics in comics so long as you let us know, credit us, and link back to our original writing. If a writer happens to not be okay with that under any circumstances, that is something that you need to respect. Once more:  you do not have any right to decide how art/writing is used if you do not own it/did not create it.

When it comes to reporting fics, you’re likely going to be doing that either on AO3, Fanfiction.net, Tumblr, or Wattpad. 

AO3: you can use this Report Abuse Form to file a complaint if you think that your writing has been plagiarized. This usually works for unauthorized posting of your fics and outright stealing your fics. Have links available and be as specific as you can in explaining what sort of offense was committed. 

Fanfiction.net: you can visit their Support page and email their support team with a complaint about abuse by putting the word “abuse” somewhere in the subject of the email. Again, provide as many links as you can and be thorough in your explanation (typically it suffices to say that you believe your story has been plagiarized or resposted without your permission)

Wattpad: you can visit their page on How to Report a Story. Essentially what you’ll want to do is go to the description of the story that you’re reporting and find the “Report this Story” link on the sidebar on your right hand side. When you reach the portion where it asks you to choose the issue you’re having, you’ll select “I have a Copyright violation” and follow the instructions that follow.

Keep in mind that with Wattpad, you have to have an account to see the stories on Wattpad and only the original author can submit a report. So make sure that you notify the original author of the fic if you happen to see their stolen fics on Wattpad. 

Tumblr: similar to stolen/reposted art, you can file a Misattribution/Non-Attribution Abuse Report through Tumblr’s Abuse Page. They make it very easy and simply ask you to provide the link to the stolen fic and the original fic in order to submit the abuse report. 

Again, please visit @miraculousblackout for more information about the blackout. Click these links if you need more Info or want to make a post and need to use Graphics (shoutout to @squirrellygirlart for the one I used above). If you’re an Artist or a Writer and you want to get involved, also check out those links. 

[siirensung]

Hello :) My name is Dani and first of all let me tell you that I LOVE your writing. I literally sit and read how you interact with others for HOURS and seeing you and a couple of the people you write with gave me the inspiration to create an indie blog for my bb Reyes. That being said, I've never had an indie rp before but I've figured the basics with the rules, verses, etc. Could you please give me some suggestions on how to approach people or get this thing started? I'd thank you forever

asldkfh that’s so sweet of you omg what the fuck

HELL YEAH OKIE DOKIE first thing first: the best way to learn how to indie rp is just to follow a bunch of people and sort of pick and choose the different techniques you like to resemble. that what i did. i came from a long experience of closed group rping with no formatting, and just sort of floated with the indie trends that came and out, and kept the ones i like. i’m gonna tell you how I consider indie rping, which isn’t law or bible or anything, but this is what i look for when i’m looking to follow people!

first, the technical shit

RULES. i’m gonna go over things you say you already know, because there are some. hidden things that people sort of silently expect. in your rules, you must have your name/alias, your pronouns, your age (the terms ‘minor’ or ‘18+’ are sufficient, you don’t need to give your exact age but you NEED to tell people if you’re a minor or not), and your triggers (again, no detail necessary, just tell us what we should tag for you). these are the necessities and the rest is up to you. make your rules clear and concise, and on the short side. it helps to bold important things so people can skim and find them easily. personally, i like seeing people’s shipping policies. bc i’m a shipping slut. are you single ship? multiship? do you prefer not to ship? are you exclusive?

SELECTIVITY. on that note. let people know about your selectivity. do you want to play with anyone who follows you? do you only want to play with mutual followers (people you follow who follow you back)? i, as well as (almost) everyone i follow, are mutuals only. don’t feel guilty if you want to follow this route, and don’t let people talk you into playing with people you don’t want to play with. this blog is yours and your time is yours. spend it how you choose.

EXCLUSIVITY. along the same vein, let people know about your policy on exclusivity – which basically means that there are certain blogs of characters and theirs is the only blog of that character with whom you will play. this is entirely up to you. personally, i don’t do it and i never will. but be sure to let people know if you do! make sure to be honest. make sure you’re comfortable with your rules.

then, the aesthetic shit

REPRESENTATION. the first glance. the first eye contact. generally, this is the mobile preview. have a cool looking mobile banner! it attracts the eye! you don’t need to be a photoshop god for this, either. minimalism is in. a dark screenshot of your character that blends in with the color of your mobile background is hella neat. make sure the color is eye-friendly. black, white, cream, soft tones. if a mobile preview is lime green or shocking blue, i won’t give it a second look. My Eyes, They Bleed. then make sure you have SOMEWHERE on your mobile preview the bare minimum of your blog’s explanation. it doesn’t need to be long. in fact, i tend to like short ones. minimalism, man. for example, mine: ‘multimuse rp blog: dragon age and mass effect canon and ocs’. i’m saying what this blog is: an rp blog. i’m saying what KIND of rp blog: a multimuse. what fandoms i cater to: dragon age and mass effect. what characters you expect to find here: canon and ocs. sometimes people will put their name, too. (also, warn people if you have an autoplay. just write ‘ap’ or ‘autoplay’. people know.)

REPRESENTATION PART 2. piggybacking on all that: promos. gotta have a promo. this is how people find you, and how you can spread the word about your cool new blog. (tag it with the audiences you want to attract. such as: mass effect rp, mass effect roleplay, bioware rp, bioware roleplay, star wars rp, etc etc. the mass effect fandom isn’t all that huge. consider expanding with crossovers to other space fandoms, such as star wars and star trek. we’re buddies.) it can be as simple as the icon promo trend, where you have a horizontal line of icons of your character followed by ‘like/reblog if you’re interested in playing with (character name)! written by (your name).’ it can be that chill. sometimes it can be dramatic. just make sure it’s tasteful. try to avoid gaudy. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS (this is my pet peeve) INCLUDE YOUR CHARACTER’S NAME AND THE FANDOM NAME. i die inside every time i have no idea who this promo is for.

THEME. the second glance. your blog’s handshake. first – and sometimes last – impression. same rules as the preview and the promo, make it tasteful or make it minimalist. make it easy to follow. if you’re not confident in your aesthetic or ps skills, the white blogs with a simple pic of your character in the sidebar is in right now. leave it open to interpretation. theme-hunter is where i get all my themes, for the most part. if you want some cool theme suggestions, let me know! you may end up interested in html through theme aesthetic and wANTING IT TO BE PERFECT. like me. hehe. anywho – you’ll see a lot of Hyper Aesthetic Themes. try not to get worried about them. the most important thing is that your links to your rules, verses, dossier (if you have one), and ask are clear. the writing is easy to read.

also, the replying shit

FORMATTING. okay so formatting is a Minefield right now. personally, i really enjoy formatting! my formatting trick is: twenty spaces before each paragraph to simulate tabs, bolding quotation marks and putting a space between the marks and the dialogue, ( doing this to parentheses and quite frankly using Way too many parentheses ), BOLDING AND CAPSING emotive words or phrases, italicizing things for emphasis, using small font (and sometimes tiny font). but DON’T overdo it. still, the point is legibility. it’s your choice to use formatting at all. i like it a lot, it helps me Feel the writing and reply. it’s also your choice to use small or tiny font, but… i’ma be honest. i really really do prefer when people use small or tiny font. people are pushing back against tiny font bc it can be really hard to read, so i tend to just use small font (unless my partner uses tiny font). to small font (on pc): select all the text, ctrl shift minus sign. to use tiny font: use small font, then ctrl comma. 

ICONNING. again, another minefield. as we speak, rp icons are getting smaller and smaller. my icons at 80x80 with a 2px border, and i often times use a psd. if you get your icons from somewhere, credit that place. i frequently make my own, but not always. as a personal favor, don’t go smaller than 75px… the icons… they’re shrinking…

SPEED. go at your own speed! i cannot stress the importance of this. i’m currently suffering from depression and some Shit, so i may be on the dash a lot, but my reply speed is frequently outstripped by passing snails. don’t write if you’re not feeling it. don’t feel pressured to do it. personally, the majority of the fun of rping is plotting with your partner and obsessing over your character. people love to see people enthusiastic about their kid. that’s why they followed you. bc they love your kid, too. if you have a thread you’re not feeling, be honest! TALK TO YOUR PARTNER.

COMMUNICATION. on that note! get to know your rp partners. love them. cherish them. tell them they’re wonderful. tell them when you’re not feeling a thread. don’t suffer in silence. drop threads. treat yoself. also, follow ALL THE PEOPLE. they may not follow you back. don’t tug at them if they don’t. follow people and make sure you have examples of your writing on your page, even if it’s just a long headcanon or drabble. like a cover letter. 

WRITING. third person. i think i can be pretty confident about this: only third person. i use present tense for the most part, but present or past tense. sometimes there are oneliners (replies that are usually just dialogue, maybe with a lil but of narrative for actions, usually spur of the moment and dropped after the moment is gone). there are short paras (generally 1-3 paragraphs of varying sizes). there are long paras (4-6 paras, usually for plotting). there are Novella (6+ for the Intense Future Tolkiens i can’t do this i’m a dr seuss). 

TAGGING. can be pretty simple. as a multi, i have too many characters to have thorough tagging systems. a lot of people have different tags for like. aesthetic, musing, visage, headcanons, etc. mine is simple. each character has an in character thread tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ character: scott. ⦆. also, a musing tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ musing: scott. ⦆. a headcanon tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ headcanon: scott. ⦆. sometimes a ship tag: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ scott & liam: just frame the halves and call them brothers. ⦆. and you MUST have an out of character tag, where it’s just you talking, and you must tag every post of just you talking with it: * ｡✧ ━ ⦅ out of character. ⦆. it must be clear. you can make them fancy and pretty like this. i like them. it’s not necessary. also: tag any triggers. important. search your partners’ rules for their triggers. if someone asks you to tag a trigger, do it without a second thought.

lastly, the important shit

HAVE FUN! we’re all here for the same reason. we love mass effect. WE LOVE SPACE. there will always be aggression and elitism and hurt feelings in the indie rp community. always. try not to let it bring you down. play nice. kindergarten rules. enjoy!

let me know if you have more questions/want more detail!

don’t reblog this

[faeriegardenz]

🌷🌸🌹💐 name: denise | face tag: /tagged/my-face | pronouns: she/her | sexuality: het

🌷 detailed blograte

url //

do i get it? yes / no / kinda / aesthetic

length? too short / perfect size / too long

rate? 8/10

icon //

do i get it? yes / no / kinda / aesthetic

color scheme? too bright / perfect / too dark

rate? 6/10

mobile //

header by itself? /10

matches icon? /10

theme //

too crowded / perfect / too much space

sidebar? 7.5/10

color scheme? too bright / perfect / too dark / not matching

posts //

my fandoms? no / some / yes

colors? too bright / perfect / too dark / not matching or cohesive

post type? too many text posts / perfect

overall theme: 7/10

updates tab //

style? not my fave / good / perfect

organized / disorganized ?

rate? 6/10

overall blog:

60/100

do i follow? no / yes / just followed! / forever!

🌸 name playlist:

D - Did It Hurt // Never Shout Never

E - End Up Here // Cher Lloyd

N - No Good Deed // Wicked

I - I Love You 5 // Never Shout Never

S - Say Something // Pentatonix (Cover)

E - Everything About You // One Direction

💐 blog advice:

i would recommend a new updates tab, i’m more of a simple person and i don’t fancy all the tabs, also maybe make it a bit less crowded that way and with maybe getting rid of the little tree in the bottom left?

🌹 fancast + ship

fancast: alicia spinnet, so pretty !!!

who i ship you with: harry potter

CELINE’S 5 YEAR BLOG CELEBRATION !!