#my ad algorithm has just always been questionable

[faunandfloraas]

Trivia fact about me is I actually know those underwear changbin was sent by lee know very well bc for a significant portion of 2021 I continually got ads for men's frilly jockstraps/underwear and those were certainly included in many of those ads. See:

[storkmuffin]

Yunho's Way of the Live #6 (Ekangmo)

The Yeosang Influence (Part 2/3- You can find part one here.)

*this is my usual rpf that i'm making up based on available materials written in the form of a tumblr essay/blogpost. pls be advised that if you disagree with something i say, you are right and i am wrong. enjoy.

Where we began

So Yunho had this coquette side since he was a little (very tall) thing but (see part 1 and his whole ang-dae-yeooo baby voice) but unlike Yeosang, Geisha Coquetry was not always his initial impulse. Take for example this early interview, where in response to a question that must've been along the lines of, Do you think I can tell my parents about my stanning Ateez? from an Atiny evidently young enough to need to care about that (Why do people romanticize being young by the way? Extreme youth sucks ass. Being a grown up is incomparably better.), he gives a very ambiguous, smart ass, mean-oppa sort of answer, using something very close to his Real Yunho Voice (tm - See discussion here)

Yunho: Would Mother and Father like our Ateez Oppa? The ones who always flip their eyes like this and go Auugh? Would they like them??

The date on this video is July 2, 2021, which means the actual response was given sometime earlier than that. I mean, this is a great answer, but it walks that line between negging the asker in a tantalizing way (Why, little girl who will be upset I call you a little girl, do you give a shit what Mommy and Daddy want you to listen to? ), and a smart-ass boy being a smart-ass in a not quite appropriate setting. It also fits the rougher image that Ateez has always had. I know International Atiny get very frustrated by the limitations placed on Ateez by the mores of Korean audiences, but from where I am sitting these people seem pretty free to run about as wild as Idols are allowed to be and still be Kpop Idol.

The thing is, unlike Wooyoung's flirty banter with his Youngbuin that went viral enough to catch my eye in my previously Kpop-free algorithm, if this footage of Yunho being a smartass was the first clip I'd seen of any of the Ateez members? It would have turned me off of Ateez. I do not find boys who get sarcastic enticing enough to pursue down a Youtube rabbit hole, even if they look like Yunho.

Showing You, Yes, You, Especially You, A Good Time

A comment that both K-Atiny and the commentary editrixes at KQ keep repeating, almost like a slogan, is 그래, 니들이 즐거우면 됬다. Which in translation is something like, Well, all right, I guess, as long as you guys are happy/ enjoying yourselves, that's enough. In the case of the employees at KQ who have to make the content, this often applies to when the members stop engaging with the camera (and the viewer) to instead break out into fits of giggles at some inside joke they never explain. From the K-Atiny, this phrase is applied to when a government pairing (ooh look at me use new vocabulary!) gets too into BL Fanservice on stage or in (often deceptively, it must be added) edited content to an extent that the fan feels left out, or in the worst instances, turned off altogether. It's a lament, when a fan says it, because if she was happy with what she was given, she could just take the thrills and apply it to her IRL boyfriend or her vibrator or whoever. Having to say, I'm happy for you means, in actuality, The rules of fandom engagement dictate that I can't actually complain but this content makes me feel alienated.

And one pair, that does function as a team but isn't encouraging you to ship them, Ekangmo, Yeosang and Yunho, are excellent at never ever forcing the K-Atiny to have to feel that 그래, 니들이 즐거우면 됬다 (I'm happy if you two are happy) type of resigned acceptance. They are working as a team to make us happy, rather than each other. The very consistent audience orientation, which is I think a discipline that Yeosang is actually really great at practicing because it just comes naturally to him (whereas Yunho has to be deliberate about it), is just so fizzy and fine.

WHERE IS THE EKANGMO UNIT SONG?

But until then, we have these joint lives of Yeosang and Yunho. (I'm not going to liveblog these, but only discuss the highlights. I don't think. )

Initially, Yunho Tried Out a Protector of Yeosang Type Persona

First up, because I picked it, is this one, where at 1:57 Atiny ask Yunho what Yeosang is doing, and Yunho calls him over.

Did you ffw'd to where I said? Because you hear Yunho using his real voice to call for Yeosang, and Yeosang also answer in his real voice and cadence. Yunho's voice is much lower and deeper than his 'for-showbiz' voice, whereas Yeosang's is much more sing-song and lighter than his Please I'm a Doberman Please voice.

And of course, on brand, on theme, par for the course, for the two of them address nakedness. The chat starts with Atiny asking why Yunho's shirt is all ripped up, and he answers by saying that he's trying to meet a certain level of skin exposure in tiny cumulative bits. Then he asks Yeosang if he's naked, and Yeosang replies that he's going to put something on in his singsong voice, which Yunho reaffirms.

Yunho, ever business minded, wants the pairing to have a slogan as well as a pairing name, and he solicits the Atiny to come up with something. Because their totemic mascot animals are both canine, there's a lot of barking and dog related puns in response, which Yunho disapproves of quite sternly. At 4:30, Yunho readjusts his glasses in a disappointed manner to ask, rhetorically, "You call that a slogan, everyone?" (Mean oppa could clearly have been his persona, but that wouldn't sell, you see.) Yeosang has the correct Geisha response - he evidently doesn't like the suggestions either, but he says, in his very dulcet voice (at 5:05) that "It's not necessary to come up with or finalize something right this minute. It would be nice to have something that's novel and unique feeling though." Yunho, Mean Oppa, picks the one that is based on an Ateez lyric, deciding for everyone, because he doesn't think anyone can come up with a novel and unique one that would pass muster. Because he's a mean oppa.

Yeosang, being the chakhae oppa, agrees. He wants there to be peace. They say the slogan together, which is very dorky, by the way (5:40 - 5:49). Yunho is many things but he's not actually cool, alas.

They ask the (very kind) Atiny (who are also paying to see this) what they think, and they get a very polite version of Y'all are Dorks, which is "It's cute." For different reasons, Yeosang and Yunho both object: Yeosang is for a variety of reasons sick of being called cute, and Yunho knows what they really meant to say. Then Yunho goes into mean oppa mode to Yeosang (at 6:00)- when Yeosang says what they were going for was something cool, he tells Yeosang that declaring yourself cool is what makes it cute (diminutive). Yoesang goes, Oh is that so? while Yunho laughs.

At this stage, Yunho is reactive to Yeosang as much as he is in sync and tuning himself to Yeosang. He keeps breaking out of Geisha mode to be disapproving, or sarcastic, or sharp. At 7:18, for example, they engage in a discussion about how it is that Yeosang ends his fanchats, because Yunho is very invested in the correct way to run his own fanchats. Yeosang loves being asked questions by someone who is actually going to let him answer and listen, so he gives a pretty detailed answer, but then the Yeodoongie that followed him into Yunho's chat start to tease him, gently.

And something interesting happens. At 7:44, Yunho reads some of the chatter and goes, "Wait, why are you making fun of our Yeosang? What is this? Are you playing Who Can Tease Yeosang The Most? Who? Who is teasing our Yoesang??" He drops out of 존댓말 into informal speech, defending Yeosang, because everyone must be very gentle to Yeosang (despite Yeosang being kind of savage whenever he feels like it tbh).

At 9:30, we go back to the Ekangmo perennial topic of nudity. (This is not the only reason I want the unit song and video. I swear.) Because their food had been delivered (as announced by the manager that lives with them) they were trying to wrap up, so Yunho was promising to do more of these joint fanchats - "We promise that if one of us calls the other one will come running over." Yeosang agrees, but then Yeosang says the phrase 팬티 바람으로 달려 올뻔 하다가 about this time - "I almost ran over here in nothing but my panties" - and Yunho laughs at his word choice, then he says " 서로 팬티 바람이어 가지고 조심해야 해. 어쩔수 없어." - we're constantly in nothing but panties so we have no choice but to be careful - which makes Yeosang laugh.

Korean language note: As with most other languages, there's a bazillion ways to describe being in just your underpants, as well as words that describe men's, women's, and other different types of underpants. These two guys - aged what, 25 in 2024, one very muscular, the other one very tall, using the word "panty" to describe their constant state of deshabille is a deliberate CHOICE.

Yeosang then "innocently" kicks it up a notch to say that the manager hyung is also in constant states of undress, (in just his panties) which makes Yunho give him a LOOK. Yunho tries to bring things to some sort of order, so he gives an explanation that they both turn on fanchat/livechat as their last to-do item of the day before washing up and going to bed, which is why they are in just their panties whenever they do a live. It's not that they are constantly in just their underwear in their dorm.

Yeosang doesn't concur, which makes Yunho give him a look. "That's wrong?" he asks. Yeosang laughs, then says, he dresses properly always. Yup. Suure.

Then, within a month, Yunho began imitating Yeosang outright. (to be continued in part 3. Or 7. Whatever the number should be)/

[coxxxmo]

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝

[0] 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿

Masterlist

Dear Future Husband,

To you who has taken away my solitude through the storms in your eyes, to you who has taken over all of my living dreams,your gaze is a tempest that renders my world beautifully chaotic - I hope this letter finds its way to you dearest one.

Tell me, is there a new envoy in your company? Passing my messages to you? Does the moon whisper to you the musings I’ve shared about you? Has it told you of my deepest desires? In the quiet of the night, lately I have been finding solace in the company of the moon. I’ve been telling it all about you - your beautiful smile that makes my heart stop, your laughter that resonates like a melody in my mind, your eyes that stir something unknown deep within me, your voice that echoes within me and the heaven knows, I just can’t seem to get you out of my head.

Like the faceless man in my dreams, you have been haunting me; You have been haunting me with your whirlpool of existence which is sure to stir up my entire world if I get too close. 

But Isn't it romantic that, beneath the vast expanse of the same sky, we share a celestial connection? As we both look upon the stars that decorate the night sky, the same moon that graces your night sky also bathes mine in its gentle glow, creating a luminous thread that connects both of us. 

I’ll be honest; I’m not exactly sure how this love letter thing works, but all I know is that I can’t stop thinking about kissing you. Archons, I crave you, and I crave your touch. The idea of us kissing feels like a storm inside me, and I can't help but want you close to myself.

When I think about holding your hand and drawing little patterns with our fingers, it feels like magic. There's something pulling me towards you, and it's stronger than anything else. These feelings feel new to me and I'm still figuring them out like getting lost in a maze. Even then my heart always seems to point toward you, and each day, that pull becomes even stronger.

With each word, I'm sharing a part of my heart. As I fold this letter and seal it with a kiss, it holds not just my words but the promise of the future yet you come. Until our paths cross, and until the day I can call you mine. I send this letter off to the unknown, leaving it at the hands of the fates weaving our story.

Yours Lovingly.

⤷ Synopsis :

In a world dominated by algorithms and measured affections, where love is dissected as a complex equation, Will the pursuit of love transcend the boundaries of logic? Can the heart, guided by a mere letter, lead to a connection that defies reason?

Are you willing to take the journey where the lines between reason and romance blur? Will you be drawn into a completely different world, or will your story continue along its familiar course?

But above all, the burning question remains: whose doorstep will become the final destination for this seemingly innocuous letter?

Modern!au

⤷ pairing : genshin men x reader

⤷ taglist : @sako-mii @oni-girx @chevcore @moonlybxbe @rachoka @sangoqueenkoko @veekoko

⤷ a/n : AHHHHH IM DONE WRITING THE LETTER AFTER AGES. It was harder than it seemed I'll be honest....BUT now that the story starts It'll be much more fun, trust me. Hoping that the other parts are more regular..

Likes and reblogs are appreciated ♡

Lmk if you wanna be added to the taglist!!

[rewvyu]

An Update On Infinity Nikki Protest

This is for those that are interested in or following the Infinity Nikki protest, especially what is happening on the CN side.

While Papergames has been silent since they last issued the apology statement, many more issues had risen such as; players realising the main story opening retcon, the most recently Sea of Stars currency bug, and more bugs.

────────────

Before I begin, this is for those that are unaware of the protest or need to catch up, I have covered some of it on my other posts below (not everything about the protest or boycott are covered, but the main gist of it): 1. The Beginning Of The Protest 2. Summary Of Papergames Apology Statement (For the protest) 3. CN Stylists Protest Continues (After the Papergames Apology) 4. CN Stylists Consensus On Papergames Apology Statement 5. Protest/Boycott/Girlcott Misinformation & Trolls

────────────

The Current CN Stylists Sentiment

Disclaimer: This is my interpretation after reading and watching multiple CN Stylists' posts/videos on Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Douyin, and Bilibili. I do try to be as unbiased as possible, but most posts and videos are usually recommended by algorithm or just more popular than some of the lesser known ones.

In recent days, many CN stylists have continued to voice out their discontent on how Papergames are treating them by ignoring the issues raised and for not fixing the bugs in-game fast enough.

From what I have seen, is that CN stylists that are protesting and boycotting have begin to break into two groups. The first group are those that continues to strongly protest and boycott Papergames. The second group are those that have given up hope that Papergames will ever address their concerns.

For the first group, not much has changed as they are still making the similar demands that were from the beginning of the protest with some added demands such as reverting the opening story and UI, and to compensate for all the bugs that are still not fixed.

As for the second group, they have been voicing out hopelessness of Papergames ever going to address their concerns. Leading to many of those that are in this group considering to completely abandon Infinity Nikki and Papergames' IPs, or some chose to continue playing, however they have pledge to continue only as free-to-play and not spend any more money.

With all that said, there are still a lot of CN stylists protesting in Infinity Nikki Official social media post's comment section.

────────────

Additional words from myself

Please be aware of misinformation and trolls that are trying to fan the flame. I have written a post on this topic recently, however misinformation and trolls continue to spread like wildfire (such as encouraging stylists to chargeback, etc) within the Infinity Nikki community, and this is happening in both CN and Global side.

I have also seen mainstream media websites that are covering the protest and boycott. However I do need to warn everyone that based on what I have read so far from the mainstream media, a lot of their coverage are very shallow and can be easily misunderstood. Especially most of the coverage sources originate from Reddit and poorly machine-translated Xiaohongshu posts, which sometimes can be inaccurate and/or biased.

My word of advice would be to always fact check and question those internet posts, articles, videos (and mine is no-exception to this advice).

Lastly, please do NOT attack anyone (inclusive of the developer's employees) because they do not share or disagree with your view/opinion.

Everyone is trying and doing their best for Infinity Nikki, and I believe Papergames employees also want the best for Infinity Nikki (just like an artist would always want to put out their best work).

[hopeinthebox]

how do u curate your playlists? they're so good (listening to the glen powell one rn lol)

dearest anon, please know you've made my entire summer with this ask <3333 (here's the playlist in question)

now while i recognise you probably weren't looking for a legitimate breakdown of the process here, you've inspired me to take a deep dive, and i'm prone to getting carried away (and yes, i read high fidelity recently and rewatched the film and the series. but i'm sure that has nothing to do with it). so here goes, under the cut:

Lizzy's Guide to the Delicate Art of Making a Playlist

#1 - What's the Point?

There has to be a theme or mood or connecting thread for the playlist. That being said, as long as it makes sense to you, you've pretty much got this covered.

What's the story? Is it based on a mood, an event, a time in your life, a person, a character, a genre, an era, etc. etc. There's plenty to choose from, so there's plenty of playlists to be made. Go crazy, get weird with it.

(In this example, the overarching theme is: Glen Powell Hot (Twisters Edn.) with a sub-theme, if you will: Country Music for Beginners.)

#2 - Song Selection

Once the theme is set, I gather a few tracks that spring to mind immediately. In this instance:

• Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That - Dolly Parton

• Cowboy Take Me Away - The Chicks

• Country's Cool Again - Lainey Wilson

All of these are fairly self-explanatory if you have been caught up in the Twisters press tour at all recently. No further comment.

From here I flesh out the ~general vibelist~ with more tracks, some classics and some deep cuts. I'm cross-referencing my own musical knowledge, previous playlists, spotify mixes (god forgive me, the occasional algorithm picks), and other user's Powell playlists (topgun-heavy, but you certainly can't blame them).

#3 - Order Matters

There's got to be some sort of flow to the playlist front to back, unless your theme is audio whiplash, for example.

Now here I am a devout follower of the High Fidelity rules, which are as follows:

Track 1 - Open with a killer - sets the tone, gets people invested

(Here, Lady Gaga's You And I ~ it's a banger, and it's country enough to get away with. Can't bring out the banjo prematurely, we'll lose people)

Track 2 - Bring it up a notch - let them know we're just getting started

(Alannah Myles, Black Velvet ~ country-ing it up a notch but staying firmly in the mainstream, because again, we don't want to scare anyone)

Track 3 - Cool it down - now we're settling in

(Chris Stapleton ft. Dua Lipa - I Think I'm In Love With You ~ Dua keeps us firmly rooted in the crowd pleasers, and we can sneak in some Stapleton)

N.B. There is a rule here that I don't abide by, the "only one track per artist" - there's three dolly tracks in this lineup alone and i stand by all of them. Provided you're not adding an entire album or two, I think you can get away with it.

Anyway, this three-track run fires us into a classic (Islands In The Stream) which melts into Tyler Childers and suddenly we're knee deep in Kentucky and you didn't even know it.

The trick is to not overthink it, which is always easier said than done. Ordering only has to make sense to you from start to finish. This journey's gotta go somewhere - throw in a few peaks and troughs, and the songs are just connecting the dots along the way.

#4 - As Does Shuffle-ability

Now, having said all that, I feel like this is a safe space to admit I am a chronic shuffler, so a degree of shuffle-ability is required.

All this means is that your underlying theme is evident throughout. Any wildcards are going to make sense wherever they pop up.

With this one, the thread of country through all of these tracks is what ties the theme together (saving a horse). There are some classics (Faith Hill, Willie Nelson), soul-heavy tracks (Secret Sisters, Leon Bridges), and and few more pop-adjacent (Haim, Ashe) but they've all got that twang - so it's shuffle proof.

#5 - Points for Presentation

A good cover, title and description can offset a multitude of sins. Don't underestimate the power of presentation.

Duration comes into play here also, where anything shorter than half an hour feels like it has nowhere to go, but over three hours feels insurmountable. Unless you're going for a compilation, year in your life playlist, or some background low-fi stuff, keep it tight.

And there you have it folks, my (lengthy) guide to playlist curation. Final note, don't love it and leave it. If you come across something new, jostle things around to get it in. Similarly, if something doesn't fit anymore, toss it. The beauty of the modern mixtape is you can edit it as little or as often as you like.

If you made it this far, I'm personally sending you a little kiss on the forehead. And to the anon who inspired this article of a response, I can only apologise. MWAH

[brehaaorgana]

You still do not understand the point. You are not Black. Therefore your analysis of the situation is not warranted or needed. You should instead, reblog Black bloggers, repost (with credit and links) from Black users of other social media and donate to Black people in need. Adding another non Black voice on the topic of antiblack racist violence is never helpful. You are not the exception.

Okay, so first, I think this is inherently going to be a difficult conversation since you're anonymous.

second, I think we're talking past each other here, and genuinely, I'm not really sure why you think it's unhelpful for me to tell non-black people to stop and ask themselves some questions about a call by a non-black person to go watch a black woman be murdered by the police. I didn't make a huge callout post or demand anything or insist anything.

this is i guess point three, but: in all my time in the world thus far, it has been understood that I, as a non-black person, should tell my fellow non-black people when they don't have the right to decide something or say something or demand something regarding antiblackness or black people.

Like...genuinely, did we stop doing "Somebody come get your cousin?" on the social justice internet in the last decade for some reason?

Was I NOT supposed to say anything when fellow non-black people were trying to make choices/claims/whatever that aren't theirs to make, because we're not black? am i not, as a non-black person, supposed to speak up if i see something potentially problematic about non-black people's behavior towards violence against black people, particularly police brutality and murder, and ask them to THINK ABOUT IT?

also this is just....a Real Take. Like.

i've had my literal (mexican-american, cop) uncle blocked on facebook since Freddie Gray was murdered in 2015 because I told him he was being antiblack, which he was.

was i supposed to just phone a black friend to do the emotional labor of telling him he was being antiblack since non-black people can't speak on the topic of antiblack racist violence? That's sort of what you're implying here.

anyways anon i edited my other post, so here you are:

Black Voices on the topic of Viral videos of Police Killings of Black People:

PBS: White people don’t understand the trauma of viral police-killing videos by Dr. Monnica Williams.

Al Jazeera: Videos of police brutality can perpetuate Black trauma — The wanton display of footage of violent Black deaths re-traumatises Black communities and promotes racist tropes.

Sage Perspectives: When Black Death Goes Viral: How Algorithms of Oppression (Re)Produce Racism and Racial Trauma

Jstor Daily: Viral Black Death: Why We Must Watch Citizen Videos of Police Violence

This whole book: Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism

What to Consider before Watching Videos of Police Brutality

the New Republic: What Does Seeing Black Men Die Do for You? (Apparently re-titled as: Videos of Police Killings Are Numbing Us to the Spectacle of Black Death)

NPR's Codeswitch: A Decade Of Watching Black People Die

hope that works.

edit -- also for context my full comments:

brehaaorgana

2h

Genuinely (as someone who has handled graphic original photo print documentation of genocide/war crimes before)*** I don't see a reason to make a spectacle of a video recording of a black woman's murder by cops in order to understand what happened. It's just not necessary to do. Being a direct eyewitness to this kind of thing is not always necessary or even something desired by surviving family/community/friends.

bolding my own. Generals and specifics my own.

Someone replied:

I mostly agree with you, but I do think there's something to be said about how disconnected most of us feel from these issues, I think sometimes it does help to actually see it, if you can handle it, and if it's done respectfully with intent to educate. I have a lot of thoughts on this that won't fit in a reply.

My response:

that's fair, I also have a lot of thoughts that won't fit in a reply. Another (less about ethics) concern I had was jury contamination when this goes to court. But in general I think it's not…great to encourage people to make a spectacle of black people being murdered, especially in the US, & especially given the horrific history of using black murders as a recreational visual consumption activity by non-black ppl in the US. basically I would say there's a lot of questions I believe ppl need to ask of themselves if they do this. "who decides if, how, and when it is respectful for you/me to watch someone's murder? How does seeing it in the wild on the internet ensure an educational understanding? How is watching a black murder today different from when people made souvenir photos of black lynchings in the past? What makes it different? Does watching murder teach me something new? like ultimately I don't need an answer from anyone or even your answer specifically. That's all hypotheticals. but there's a huge amount of labor, ethical & legal guidelines, praxis theory & usually multiple degreed people that goes into things like "presenting [community traumas and state violence] the Atlantic Slave Trade or Holocaust or Trail of Tears in meaningful, educational, and respectful contexts" and ppl encouraging folks watching a horrific murder online aren't…engaging in any of that.

Someone else just replied to me:

@brehaaorgana thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such a thoughtful, understanding, & appropriately serious manner. You never admonished but you certainly didn't mince your words/hold back from implying that this is anything but superfluous, unnecessary, and garish. Watching is nothing but gawking, when details and precise relaying of the event exists. One doesn't need to watch to understand that the cop is repellent & unqualified to be armed w/ authority. I don't care how much it helps you to "engage"; you've now admitted that you're watching the butchering of a human life for a self-serving purpose, even if that purpose is part of an otherwise commendable effort to remain informed and critical.

idk i feel pretty okay saying i, personally, am wary of personally making a spectacle of black people being murdered by police.

***I've obviously been to holocaust museums, native american museums, black american history museums, and so on, but I am referring specifically here to personally handling albums of photos taken and developed by Japanese soldiers during World War II while working in a museum research context.

[vague-humanoid]

Recently, a startling piece of information came to light in the ongoing antitrust case against Google. During one employee’s testimony, a key exhibit momentarily flashed on a projector. In the mostly closed trial, spectators like myself have only a few seconds to scribble down the contents of exhibits shown during public questioning. Thus far, witnesses had dropped breadcrumbs hinting at the extent of Google’s drive to boost profits: a highly confidential effort called Project Mercury, urgent missives to “shake the sofa cushions” to generate more advertising revenue on the search engine results page (SERP), distressed emails about the sustained decline in the ad-triggering searches that generate most of Google’s money, recollections of how the executive team has long insisted that obscene corporate profit equals consumer good. Now, the projector screen showed an internal Google slide about changes to its search algorithm.

I was attending the trial out of long-standing professional interest. I had previously battled Google’s legal team while at the Federal Trade Commission, and I advocated around the world for search engine competition as an executive for DuckDuckGo. I’m all too familiar with Google’s secret games and word play. With the trial practically in my backyard, I couldn’t stay away from the drama.

This onscreen Google slide had to do with a “semantic matching” overhaul to its SERP algorithm. When you enter a query, you might expect a search engine to incorporate synonyms into the algorithm as well as text phrase pairings in natural language processing. But this overhaul went further, actually altering queries to generate more commercial results.

There have long been suspicions that the search giant manipulates ad prices, and now it’s clear that Google treats consumers with the same disdain. The “10 blue links,” or organic results, which Google has always claimed to be sacrosanct, are just another vector for Google greediness, camouflaged in the company’s kindergarten colors.

[clairelsonao3]

Happy Tuesday!!

Do you find AO3 OC friendly?

Also -

What scenes do you find the hardest to write?

Do you find AO3 OC friendly?

Happy Tuesday (Wednesday now!) Thanks for the ask! Wow, that's quite the question! Back when the Reddit Ao3 board was still a thing, I used to see questions like this a lot from people wondering whether Ao3 is a good place to post your original fiction. And my answer is always an overwhelming YES, with a few caveats.

My journey posting original fic on Ao3 has been overwhelmingly positive; the response has been beyond my wildest dreams, considering I only started posting Good Slaves Never Break the Rules as an experiment to see if anyone would read it. Over 3,000 hits may not sound like a lot when compared to fanfics from huge fandoms and popular pairings, but for original fiction, it is. And part of the beauty of Ao3 (as opposed to some other sites :cough: Wattpad) it has no algorithm that insists on only showing you what IT wants you to read instead of what YOU want to read. Thanks to the tagging and search system, everyone has an equal chance to be seen, and you almost certainly WILL get readers no matter what. Furthermore, some of my favorite fiction I've found in recent years has been original fiction I found on Ao3. There's great stuff out there!

You'll sometimes see people try to argue that original fiction goes against the Ao3 terms of service. Do NOT listen to these people. The ToS explicitly allows original works that are "fannish in nature," but the ToS also doesn't specify what makes a work "fannish in nature," which essentially means that they're leaving it up to you to determine that. In other words, you CANNOT be reported or kicked off the site for posting original fiction, as long as you're not violating any other part of the ToS. I feel like that's very important, because as writers we tend to stress about this kind of thing unnecessarily.

That said, Ao3 is, and will always remain a fanfic-focused site. For a writer of original fiction who obviously wants eyeballs on their work, that means that you have to keep in mind that the audience will largely be looking for the same tropes they look for in fanfic. (And of course, just as in fanfic, porn without plot tends to get the most hits of all [although surprisingly few comments], but for the sake of this post, I'll assume you're not writing porn and are writing standard fiction, whether or not it includes spicy scenes).

For example, GSNBTR, is a romance with slavery, whump, hurt/comfort, smut, angst, and pining/idiots in love, which are all tropes that show up frequently in fanfic and tend to be fairly popular there. That means that if readers are searching for those tropes in general and not in any particular fandom (which they do more often than you would think!), they'll come across my work. If your work doesn't have popular fanfic tropes (or doesn't mention them in the tags), it will be at a slight disadvantage, but it doesn't mean you're doomed. (If I'd included a tag like, say, BDSM, I'd probably have 10 times the hits I currently do😬). That's just simply the nature of the site. People are looking for certain things and they reward writers who give them those things.

So my first caveat is that if you're writing romance, Ao3 is THE best place to post your work if you want the best chance of finding an audience. However, if your story is fantasy or sci-fi and contains no romance or isn't focused on romance, you may want to check out another site like Royal Road, which is more focused on those genres and has a slightly different audience (I've read that the audience there skews male whereas Ao3 skews female, which would make a lot of sense). RR also has the added advantage that it allows you to monetize your work if that's something that interests you, whereas Ao3 (understandably given its fanfic focus) disallows that.

My second caveat concerns tagging. I gave myself a further advantage by learning how the Ao3 tagging system worked and using it effectively. That means tagging using standardized tags (many of the most popular of which can be found on this page), tagging using terms that people might actually search for, and not rambling in the tags (which just makes your tags harder to parse and doesn't help more people find your work). You can do this even if your work doesn't contain a lot of the most popular tags!

Thanks so much for the question, and I really hope this monster of answer helps! A good portion of what I currently read is original fic I found on Ao3, and for that reason, I think the site needs more, not less! Good luck with your journey!

What scenes do you find the hardest to write?

Sometimes spicy scenes are the hardest to write because well, you have to be in the mood for that! Other times scenes that require a lot of description to set the scene I don't find particularly fun, and usually, I save that type of writing for last (I think dialogue is the most fun, so I usually write that first!) Or sometimes, scenes I really WANT to write but I'm unsure whether I'll be able to pull it off, so I procrastinate. It depends on my mood!

[thediktatortot]

RE: Your "fandom wasn't always like this" post Fandoms ending when their source did used to be a VERY BAD SIGN that the series had utterly belly flopped. It really didn't start being standard until.... at least after dashcon, but probably closer to the end of the second phase of the MCU. I think Avengers Endgame was the real final death knell of "extended fandom", but even before that, the MCU dragging us along by the hair on the back of our necks seemed to be what killed having a long-term fandom.

You aren't wrong with assuming that specific fandoms were some of the major downfalls of what we had going for us, but the answer is definitely more nuanced than that unfortuntely.

I've had a lot of time to sit and think about the subject of the post I made, and I genuinely think that the true answer to the downfall of Fandom as a whole, is social media.

I hate to sound like That Old Person at a ripe age of 31, but that is my honest answer.

I myself did not get a phone until I was 18 years old and was able to buy one for myself, a little sidekick that let me text my friends when I wanted to hang out, but that wasou f about it. I didn't even get a home computer in my house until I was about 13 years old because we were fairly poor and didn't really need it for anything other than emails and bills.

The first thing I discovered on the computer was Neopets and Gaiaonline, two 'gaming' websites (I'm not assuming your age, but I'm going to talk as if you don't know about anything I'm speaking of just in case other people read this who do not know about it.) that focused heavily on dressing up your avatars, mini flash games and forum role play. The hottest social media at the time was Myspace and it wasn't until I got into Highschool that I even ended up making one.

There were no real algorithms that fed you 'content' on a front page outside of the things the people you followed posted, no way to get fed news ads unless it was in the sidebar where ads were usually placed, and there was no instant updates to every person's lives both small or famous unless you went looking for those updates yourself on google.

Now we have social media that is both forcefully placed in front of you in the form of genuine 'content' in both long and short form on absolutely every platform you can imagine. This isn't even going with the discussion that talks about ads on the TV and how for decades, America has been putting more and more emphases on pharmacy ads on TV and extending commercials to the point where people would rather pay 10-40 a month on streaming services to access movies and TV that might not exist at the whim of the streaming services, than watch cable tv with ads lol

Anyway, when Fandom first began its slow descent into madness, it was about the time that the new style of social media began to get big (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Tiktok, etc) all places that were designed and created to make you want to See More.

I'm not one of those people who are like "We have no more focus because of social media arg!" but there is a grain of truth to the fact that, if you are fed bite sized pieces of bee information at a faster rate, it's harder to get yourself to slow down and actually delve into a topic further without incentive.

We have catchy news headlines that people read and never take the time to look into the matter further, we have facebook posts where people make crazy claims and no one verifies to check if it's true because that takes time and effort and understanding of how to perform basic search tasks and reading comprehension to ask the right questions, we have instagram breaking the concept of art and life experiences into bite sized, perfect square windows of moments to make your instagram feed look pretty enough to have thousands of followers, we have Twitter that has always been somewhat of a fast websites, but is easy to spread misinformation around on at light speed, Snapchat makes photos disappear, never allowing anything you do to be permanent unless someone manages to save it, Vine and TikTok made attention sinks were it's so easy to just get lost for hours of time into maybe not useless, but an exhaustive stream of information that encourages doing the same finger action for hours on end.

Marvel/MCU/Disney whatever we want to call it, including all the other major production companies, are just one symptom of a bigger problem. They've ridden the waves of instant gratification and people's inability to think outside the boxes for years, but unfortunately our primary source of entertainment in a world that wants to kill us all the time and keeps us inside the house more often, just happens to finally align with the companies and programs that are designed to squeeze more and more out of us until we die.

Unfortunately, Capitalism is killing Fandom as a whole, we are just seeing it more because our primary sources of communication and our major routes of entertainment for ourselves are finally working together to bleed us dry.

[fallouttboy]

Growing Up Queer and Online: an introspective essay (by a queer person)

content warning: queer slur use (fag/faggot/tranny) as commentary from online language used, as well as **solely** internalized homophobia and transphobia

Growing up in online spaces as a queer person in the early 2000s was an experience that I don’t fully know how to put into words. It was great to be able to be in like-communities from such a young age, seeing people my age and a few years older in the queer community instead of being thirteen and newly questioning surrounded by comfortably queer middle aged people (not that there is anything wrong with that, there is just a need for similar aged socialization, of course). The online-ness of it all opened up doors to the queer youth that the elder queers simply did not have, and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, just as older queer people face(d) violence and uproar in public places, queer youth also face(d) harassment online.

While there is a large number of queer people online as of right now, it wasn’t always like this. The internet now is incredibly customizable- anything you click on creates an algorithm specified just for you, social media is largely algorithmical now (especially with the rise of short form video platforms like Tiktok and even Youtube), even ads are catered to your eye because of what you’ve looked up or downloaded. Everyone is watching, all of the time.

When I was younger, say, 2011, I vividly remember logging into Youtube and watching a new video by some guy who would later be known as a Youtube Star, or an Internet Celebrity, or some equally impressive yet entirely useless title (I say useless, because while it can pay well and it can gain you fame and therefore notoriety, it is entirely based on algorithm now. You can be a Youtube Star and not get the view count in one month that you needed and you are back to grinding out videos just to hit an algorithm at the right time), make a joke at the expense of queer people. What’s one guy though, right?

It wasn’t just him. It was his friends, it was his colleagues. They all made jokes at the expense of queer people. It wasn’t just the known media presences though, it was so incredibly difficult to go anywhere online that had an open forum or comment section without seeing a barrage of people saying “that’s so gay!” or “ur gay” as an insult. Gay as an adjective was then presented online as something synonymous with bad things and became an insult that many people dreaded being called.

Being called queer and any of its specific terms has historically been used as insults, yes, though that was not in the online world. Before the rise of the internet and the public forum and ability for any person to gain a voice, either through text or other means, harassment could generally be contained. There were people of power (and without) who spoke negatively about queerness and reached a large scope of people, and we cannot forget the riots that queer people have been beginning in opposition to those people’s treatments, for decades. This is simply a new means of harassment, and unfortunately, this one could be accessed by anyone, at any time. It could not truly be contained; the sheer magnitude of people on the internet at any given time combined with the censorship laws currently and previously active, so much can and could have been said. So much was said.

I remember hearing the videos of people that I looked up to making queer jokes. I remember hearing them say faggot and dyke and other terms for queer people that are generally considered offensive. I remember them saying these things and laughing about it, clearly showing that they do not care about the implications of what they are saying. I remember reading comments on Youtube and in the journals on DeviantArt and LiveJournal saying that things were “gay” or that an effeminate man was apparently gay or that a more masculine woman was a “tranny” or “dyke” and I wasn’t even old enough to know what those words meant, all I knew was that they were insults, and things that I should avoid being called.

Cut to when I turned twelve or thirteen and I started understanding that I was queer. People were still making these jokes. People were still being insulting at the expense of queer people. Thankfully, the musicians I was listening to at the time had stopped using derogatory language, but not everyone had. There was a rise of queer people, it seemed, and they were all angry. Angry at the government, angry at the state of things, so they started talking about it. Some people made blogs for it, some people made Youtube channels or started talking about it on their preexisting channels. But the harassment continued.

Since I was questioning and researching queerness and how it potentially would impact me, I also began to realize that oh no, I am what they’ve been saying. It’s a troubling thought to have as a freshly turned teen. It’s a big thought to have, ever.

I know I’m not gay, I’m not flamboyant and I don’t speak with a lisp or kiss boys (I don’t kiss anyone) or “suck dick”, whatever that means. I don’t think I’m ill natured or cruel or offensive or stupid, or whatever else the negative connotations explore. I’m not a tranny; I don’t shove things in my pants or down my shirt, I don’t want to be a boy, I don’t look like them. But…even if I did, why is that a bad thing? I’m a girl…and I want bigger boobs and longer hair. If I was a girl but wanted to be a boy…then of course I’d cut my hair and hope and pray that I never get boobs. And if I was a boy and wanted to be a girl…then yeah, I’d put oranges in my shirt and try and wear shorter shorts or grow my hair out. Why are people so mean to them? Girls who want to be girls get to want to look like a girl, and boys who want to be boys get to want to look like a boy…why can’t the people who don’t want to be that?

I was thirteen. I shouldn’t have had to be thinking like that. I ignored a lot of the queer harassment because I simply told myself that I was not those things. I wanted to kiss girls, but I wasn’t gay. I wanted to be less girly and more boyish but still be a girl but not A Girl, but I wasn’t a tranny. I didn’t know these things yet either. I didn’t know who I was, but I knew I wasn’t that.

Throughout my teenage years there was a lot of questioning and false identifications that would later be amended. I saw gay marriage become legal in America and I cried at my laptop because that meant that one day, maybe I could get married. I saw the queer people that I had followed on various social media sites rejoice and cry and get married. I saw wedding pictures of women kissing women and men kissing men for the first time in my entire life at age fifteen. Even though I didn’t quite understand, I knew the magnitude of this event. I had kissed girls before, but now something in the air shifted, and it didn’t feel as taboo anymore.

I was twenty one when I went to my first pride. By this point, I had seen the fall of what seemed like improvement and the rise of ignorance and sheer cruelty take over once more. I remembered the Pulse nightclub shooting. I made a collage for my final project in my AP art history class in high school that was entirely focused on queerness. It was a direct oppositional creation to Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan by Varvara Stepanova. I was fifteen in gym class walking around the commons area of my school with my then girlfriend, not holding hands or anything, being followed from behind by a classmate dragging a trash can calling us faggots, spurred on by his friend standing on the sidelines calling us dykes. My school was not inclusive-forward on the queer front, though I am aware that others have it much worse. All of that to say, when I was at my first pride, I was overwhelmed. I had my group of friends who, all but one, were queer. My uncle and dad had one gay friend that I have known since my childhood, but that is it. I had never seen that many queer people in my life. Further, I had never seen that many happy queer people in my life. In a dark part of my mind, I didn’t think it was possible.

And slowly, the internet has become a safer space for queerness. There are still an abundance of trolls and cruelty online, but there is also an enormous boom of queer youth that puts up with none of it. There are parts of me that hate the censorship of queer terms like fag/faggot/etc, but I also understand where it is coming from; as a kid growing up online, I just knew those were bad things. And they’re slurs, yes, but they also have a deep connection with identity within the queer community.

As queerness became less taboo online, more creators from my childhood began coming out. Probably the most prominent ones for me are youtubers Dan and Phil. I’ve been watching them for years, over a decade now, about half of my whole life. I have watched them make jokes that are in bad taste, apologize truthfully, and move on with grace. And they came out, and to say I was in shock is an understatement.

Like any preteen, chronically online, fandom obsessed girl, I loved the idea of them being a couple. I shipped it. I’ll say it. But more than that, the reality is that they truly are just the best of best friends that I had ever seen. To spend ten plus years of your life with a stranger you met online was truly the dream for me; socializing is hard and scary in real life but online I can say anything behind a screen. That’s proven with the half-assed apologies that other Creators have posted time and time again, paired with their empty promises of changing. That is to say, I was always sort of hoping that they were gay, if not to appease my silly little fiction, then to connect with them on a deeper level that I already parasocially did.

I wept when Dan came out. Basically I’m Gay is a beautiful, devastating coming out that hits almost too close to home for me. So much of the things Dan talks about, I have also gone through. Being a queer kid is difficult. Being queer and online is difficult. Being a queer kid online is impossible. Everything you see hurts you in ways that you don’t fully even understand why. You just feel a dull, heavy throb and a hairline fracture in your heart. You don’t know why. You assume it’s empathy. You never assume it’s because they’re part of who you are. That would mean admitting the worst: I am gay.

Now that they are both out, the duo joke about their queerness and pop dirty remarks about gay sex here and there, and it isn’t out of cruelty. It is oneness. It is a hate comment on a video that says “suck a dick” and a response of “when and where, baby ;)”. It is a joke, yes, but it’s laced in honesty. In openness. In bravery.

Being queer in online spaces has been less of a rollercoaster and more of a ride that goes down the side of a mountain and then slowly creeps up the hill. We are in the creeping stage, I believe. Media as a whole was downright disgusting to queerness in the early 2000s, ranging from music to television to movies and games and even the internet. Something shifted, though, and now it seems that things might be getting better. There will always be creators who joke insensitively. There will always be hate commenters. But there will also always be the Dan’s and the Phil’s. There will always be you and I. There will always be the ones who stand up for injustices. Sometimes you just have to get through the shit to see the sun.

[thedurvin]

A shitpost about the future that ran long:

I was working in the kitchen on fixing some dinner, listening to Spotify on the new model of Alexa smart-speaker. The new one had a 3D display projected right into your space, no goggles needed, and this was my first time plugging it in. I had been splurging on higher and higher tiers of Spotify membership so they’d stop playing ads at me, but with the latest system update that was no longer an option. Even so, I was shocked when the fifth song ended and I found myself face-to-face with a little old lady in a pink pantsuit. “Hi, there, I’m Betty White, speaking to you via hologram from beyond the grave to tell you about the new hamburger sandwich they have at McDonald’s,” she said. “It’s got bacon, and cheese, and a couple of other things we just know you’ll love. You can even have them leave the pickles off, since we know you don’t care for them.” “Great,” I said, unnerved but still going about my business. I was prepared for holo-ads floating above the smart-speaker, but not full-body ones standing next to me. “So, how about it?” she asked. I noticed she was staring me directly in the face. “Can you hear me?” I asked. “Sure, I’m fully interactive,” she smiled. “In my capacity as a hamburger salesperson, at least. If you want to ask me questions about my life or career, you can visit Encarta.com or IMDb.com. Would you like to do that? Affiliate links may apply.” “Uh—no thanks,” I said. “So are you asking me if I want to order a burger right now?” “I sure am!” Betty White replied cheerfully. “Your new smart-speaker’s air filters indicate you’ve over-spiced the pasta sauce again, you silly goose, and I can have one delivered by one of our new Uber-affiliate drones in just a twinkle.” “No, no thank you,” I said again. “Sorry, did the company really think this was a good idea, projecting celebrities into people’s houses to make sales pitches at them?” “Oh, absolutely, the marketing algorithms all agree it’s the way to go,” she said. “When ads were just audio, we could tell from the built-in microphones that are always on that people were always yelling at them and just being really mean. They did some research and found that they’re far less likely to get angry with their favorite inoffensive dead celebrities.” “Couldn’t you just be a head floating above the speaker?” “No, it has to be full-body, standing right next to you in real space to minimize or negate adversarial attitudes,” she said. “And it doesn’t strike you as bad that you’re having to go to this much work to ‘minimize or negate’ people’s reaction to you?” “Look, we’re doing this whether you like it or not, buster,” she said, hands on her hips, with an adorable little pouty stomp of one pink pump. “The marketing algorithms know better than consumers what will get them to buy things, and you can just like it or lump it. Now do you want the hamburger sandwich or not?” “Not really!” I said. “You know, I might have a better attitude about this if I didn’t feel like I was being emotionally manipulated. Maybe it would work better if it was somebody I didn’t mind yelling at.” “Hmm,” Betty White said. “We at Google-Meta-Amazon are always supportive of innovation; let me run this by the administrative algorithms and see. Calculating. Calculating. Okay, they said it was fine, we’ll do a trial run of a million consumers for the next twelve hours. It’ll just be a second while the marketing algorithms figure out who you’d be most willing to shout at but somehow still not turn you off from the products.” “Okay—“ “All done,” she smiled. “Enjoy! Bye-bye now!” She shimmered out of existence, replaced by a squinting Byrlcreemed man in a mustard-yellow suit. “Hiya, ACCOUNT_HOLDER_NAME, I’m Gilbert Gottfried, and you just gotta hear about this new freakin’ burger they got down at the McDonald’s—“

[thisismeracing]

I use my old tumblr from like 10 years ago and I have no f1 followers - do you still want me to reblog bc I will if you want me to it’s just nobody will see it lol🫶🏼

Hi, love!!! I melted with how kind this ask sounds, thank you so much for considering reblogging/interacting even though you don't really use your account that much 💖

And answering your question: Yes, I still want the reblog. The thing is, Tumblr's algorithm is terrible, and most of the time they're not delivering the content properly, so when you reblog (even though you don't have many followers) you're increasing the chances of the app showing my content to others. Do you know that "top" section when you search from a tag? They usually leave it for the pieces that have more interaction, and so when you not only like, but also reblog, you're -again- helping people get my stuff. Also that "for you" section is based on the stuff you consume, so you're also increasing the chances of getting very specific recommendations from the app (though they usually only recommend what already has tons of notes, not necessarily what you'll like the best, you get what I'm saying right?).

Plus: there's always someone who's gonna be curious about your profile (either your URL, your profile picture, or a comment you left) and when they open it they're gonna see the stuff you've been reading and maybe that's what they would like to be reading too, so yup.

To some, when people like our work (only like, only heart button, no comments, no reblogs), it's like "I find it good, but not good enough to want others to see or display it on my profile" :( I do understand that each reader works in a way, maybe they're shy, maybe they just really prefer a blank blog, but it's nice to get an ask saying you liked an imagine/mood board/post in general, and it's even nicer get a reblog and then see that someone else saw your work because of that one reblog. Most of the things here are for free, so showing love and appreciation for content creators is the only payment some ask for.

I'm adding screenshots of the stuff I mentioned, and also this new feature Tumblr gave us, it shows a reblog chart and how one reblog can actually turn into two, and then three, and possibly over ten.

But basically, a short answer: I still want your reblog, and I'm really flattered and happy that you considered doing it even without this whole dimension of what it means to us content creators. Thank you so much and I hope this whole answer and my other rants do not sound like me complaining, it's just it is nice to get some love when you work so hard on something. I think I'm posting a small "guide" on how you can interact and why it is important and leave it on every post just so people can understand the way you're probably going to with this ask 💖 thank you again, nonny!! ily *mwah*

(reblog chart - here's a post that explains a bit more about it).

[trendiny]

Empty perfume bottle in drawers, wardrobe is the hack that’ll keep your clothes smelling fresh Finishing up the last dregs of your favourite perfume can be devastating, but there is a way to hold on to the scent for a little longer – as well as the bottle that’s too pretty to throw away. One woman has uncovered a no-effort hack that costs nothing that she learnt from her mother, leaving her clothes smelling heavenly. Watch the video above READ MORE: Aussies warned to stock up as common cooking ingredient faces global shortage She finally threw away her stash. (Facebook/Georgie Hopkinson) Posting to a Facebook group, she shared, “My late mother taught me to put empty perfume bottles in my underwear drawer, so my undies would smell nice! Today I had a clear out and put 18 bottles in the recycling!” Alongside it she shared a picture of her bag filled with empty bottles of the perfume Ghost. The post garnered hundreds of comments, many of which shared similar advice. “I put soap in a sock in mine. And in the wardrobe too,” said one. “I always used wax from wax melts after I changed it to a new wax I put the heart in a piece of wax in the drawer,” another added. “My mum always had perfume samples from magazines in her underwear drawer. I think they are hard to find now adays,” one shared. READ MORE: ‘A lie can’t last forever’: Meghan’s brutal swipe at royal family “My nannie used to have a bar of soap in hers. It was a teddy bear soap she got when she was younger her self (1940’s) When she passed I kept it as a memory of her and it lives in my underwear drawer still,” another admitted. “I have satchels of lavender and other herbs I keep in my clothing drawers!” one added, drawing on the ’90s trend of putting potpourri inside little bags to keep inside drawers. Some were concerned about the effects of the chemicals in such close quarters to clothes and especially undergarments. “Isn’t this awful for your lady bits?” questioned one. “This is a good way to get some infections ma’am,” another added. “I wish I could do this but I’d for sure get a UTI,” one said. For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here. The best bathroom cleaning hacks that actually work “Bra drawer? Sure! But not the undies…keep it clean ladies!” another said. Others were just amazed she has been able to get through that many perfume bottles in the first place. “I don’t think I’ve even gone through 10 perfumes in my entire life. And I’m 50. This is impressive,” said one. “I’m afraid to ask how many sprays you apply every day,” another added. “I honestly don’t think I’ve ever finished a bottle of perfume and I’ve never thought about that until this exact minute,” one remarked. It’s a no effort and no spend hack. (Getty) If there is a scent you’re still using but also want to replicate in your wardrobe, you can always take advice from Aussie TikToker Renee, who sprayed her favourite perfume onto an adhesive felt pad and stuck them into her drawers and wardrobes for the smell to permeate. This hacks also works for other closed areas such as cars, with one commenter sharing, “my aunt taught us to put a high end hand soap in your car and it smells amazing and lasts forever! Forget those expensive air fresheners that last 2 days!” FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details. https://ift.tt/HRil3cu

[isa-ghost]

@staff​ out here once again saying the dumbest, most untrue shit about their site in the universe. When the fuck are you guys going to listen to your userbase? We’ve been telling you things that ACTUALLY could improve this site for eons and again and again you start trying to speak Miserable Corporate Data-Mining Hellscape at us like we’ll be stupid enough to listen.

Maybe read the above reblog and rethink this trillionth post spewing utter bullshit. I don’t know where you get your analytics for these claims, assuming they aren’t completely baseless (which wouldn’t surprise me), but I have never read something that fails to understand the Tumblr climate more in my entire 6+ years of being on here. Tumblr is SO INSANELY EASY TO USE. Literally any site is “hard to use” if you’ve only been on it for like 3 days and haven’t taken the time to fuck around and find out how it works. Have y'all seen ANY of the super helpful, lengthy posts from veteran users giving new users tips on how to have a good time and use this site properly? I swear to god we do a million times more work than you bumbling shitheads do when it comes to user experience. It’s laughable.

And on the note of new users, do you like. Realize that Tumblr has become a SANCTUARY SITE? Reddit is crumbling under greed, Twitter I don’t even have coherent words for without turning this into a novella. And guess where the users on those sites who don’t want to be tormented by algorithms, ads, and other corporate soulless “content” bullshit escape to? HERE. Why and how the hell are you going to sit here and claim Tumblr is failing and confusing and clunky when you’re getting floods of refugees from other falling sites who are immediately in love with the climate and culture here? I’m seeing nothing but positive feedback from posts that cross my dash and yet here you are claiming there are masses of users saying Tumblr is a terrible site with awful interface. Which is blatantly false.

You know what parts of Tumblr have become terrible and clunky and hard to use? The ones you changed despite there being nothing wrong with them, like the tags or moving tons of shit around on the mobile app. For the umpteenth time: Start following the concept of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” Time and time again you’ve made completely unnecessary and at times totally tone-deaf changes to Tumblr as if there aren’t countless posts with bullet points of ideas that would ACTUALLY improve how Tumblr works; some which have existed for longer than some of us have been on this site because there have always been certain features users widely agree would be amazing to add.

Like the above reblog said: stop treating your users like they’re stupid and incapable. In fact, that attitude feels like you’re implying users are brainless and need constant streamlined and instant content no matter it’s quality or source, like a bunch of needy monkeys straight out of some dystopian sci-fi movie. STOP. Tumblr isn’t a fucking feeding trough and we aren’t pigs who’ll just devour whatever gruel you put in front of us be it ads or actual user-made stuff. We know how to curate our own experiences on here and we do it well. We do it strictly. We even implement add-ons made by fellow users to make doing so even easier, since you can’t. We curate our things CONSTANTLY.

For once, just actually fucking listen to input from your users for once. Put out feelers, ask questions, just SOMETHING properly communicative that takes genuine and intelligent effort so you can get REAL, factual feedback rather than taking these ridiculous leaps in thought and action based off claims that your core userbase cannot for the life of themselves figure out where the fuck you got them. Maybe if you did this, you’d stop being met with nothing but venom and spit in your faces from every user who sees you spout this kind of stupid shit.

Oh, and, as always: Maybe forget dicking around with things that don’t need changing on this site and START TAKING ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE STEPS TO ERADICATING YOUR STUPID FUCKING BOT PROBLEMS. If we started a drinking game where every user takes a shot every time you start fiddling with something on this site that doesn’t need to be fiddled with instead of solving the bot problems somehow finally, Tumblr would ACTUALLY collapse then because we’d all die of alcohol poisoning. You can start being actually useful instead of spouting out buzzword-ridden capitalism algorithm bullshit that’s untrue about the site literally any time. We’re all waiting.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[ashadowofburnedoutstardust]

Genuinely going to be putting a lot more effort into spending more time on TikTok after the Americans have to vacate

I'm in an interesting position where I know that the entire reason they're pushing for a shift to YouTube is so that they can target you with ads while putting money into the pocket of American companies which I have no personal interest in participating in

Basically the plan is to replace TikTok with YouTube shorts

I don't even spend time on YouTube now and the algorithm on there has always been complete and utter crap because it keeps trying to push a bunch of stuff I'm never actually interested in

So I'm looking forward to the experience of what it's going to be like not being constantly bombarded by American consumerism in marketing on at least one online platform

Given the cost of shipping from the USA I have literally never in my life bought a single thing from the place, and unless I actually physically visit (which I never have) I probably never will

Given my locale in the world it's a lot easier to order something from China, or India, or Australia, and the shipping is half the price

That of course comes with a limit to what I'm willing to pay for shipping and some things are simply not worth it, and then if they don't have it in the store I simply won't buy the item in question

I'm also looking forward to comparing what the marketing algorithm is like comparatively between these things. I already understand how it works on Twitter, I already understand how it works on Instagram

I've seen how tiktok targeting works so when the USA is no longer able to use it the way they have been previously I'm very curious as to what the differences will be and how that affects my experience as a user

I expect that every other country, given that the USA is the only one banning them, will experience the same thing so I won't be alone in that

It's a curious decision for the United States to withdraw completely from a global platform in terms of marketing and influence, especially given it's been the go-to to get away from right-wing Twitter, and AI run Instagram, which I guess is going to make TikTok a bigger vestige of free speech for those who do not live inside the USA which may in the end attract a bigger audience especially those who are chronically online and/or content creators who often get flooded out by American content

YouTube may be familiar to my generation but I have to say I never really took to it. I'm not really interested in any kind of social media at all to be perfectly honest as the majority of it is just hot air.

I pirate my music like a proper Millennial, funnily enough most of the time it's taken straight off of YouTube, never to be played through once, and never to be played again because all I need is the link

[theadistic]

Latest SEO Trends 2024

Introduction

Hey there, fellow digital marketers and SEO enthusiasts! Can you believe we’re already talking about 2024? Time sure flies when you’re busy optimizing websites, doesn’t it? Well, buckle up because we’re about to dive into the exciting world of SEO trends that are shaping the digital landscape this year. From innovative content approaches to competitive SEO strategies that will give your brand the edge, 2024 is all about staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of search engine optimization. By keeping up with the latest SEO trends in 2024, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the rapidly changing digital landscape and ensure your brand stays ahead of the competition. Trust me, you won’t want to miss out on these game-changers!

Adapting to the latest SEO trends 2024 is key to staying ahead of the competition.

AI-Powered SEO

Machine Learning Algorithms

Remember when we used to spend hours analyzing data manually? Those days are long gone! In 2024, machine learning algorithms are doing the heavy lifting for us. They’re getting super smart at understanding search intent and delivering more accurate results. It’s like having a brainy assistant who never gets tired!

Natural Language Processing

Speaking of smart assistants, natural language processing (NLP) is taking center stage this year. It’s all about understanding the nuances of human language, making search engines more intuitive than ever. I’ve noticed that my voice searches are yielding much better results lately. Have you tried asking your phone a complex question? It’s pretty impressive!

Video SEO

Video Content Optimization

This is the ideal moment to start producing video content if you haven’t before. Video SEO is huge in 2024. It’s not just about adding a title and description anymore. We’re talking about optimizing the entire video experience. From transcripts to timestamps, every detail counts. I recently started adding chapters to my YouTube videos, and wow, the engagement has skyrocketed!

Video Search Results

Have you noticed how many video results are popping up in regular search queries? It’s not just YouTube anymore. Search engines are prioritizing video content across various platforms. So, if you’re not thinking about video when planning your SEO strategy, you might be missing out on a big chunk of traffic.

Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile User Experience

I can’t stress this enough – mobile user experience is everything in 2024! Google has been telling us for years, but now it’s do or die. If your website isn’t responsive, you’re essentially non-existent. I learned this the hard way when my old site’s traffic tanked. After a mobile-focused redesign, it was like night and day!

Page Speed Optimization

Speaking of mobile, let’s talk about speed. In the age of 5G, users expect lightning-fast load times. Even a one-second delay can send visitors running to your competitors. I’ve been obsessing over my site’s Core Web Vitals lately. It’s a little technical, but the work is well worth it, I promise.

Voice Search Optimization

Conversational Keywords

“Hey Siri, what are the latest SEO trends?” You’re losing out on a developing market if you’re not optimizing for voice search. It’s all about conversational keywords now. Think about how you’d ask a question out loud, not how you’d type it. I’ve started incorporating more question-based content into my blog, and it’s really paying off.

Featured Snippets

Have you heard of ‘position zero’? It’s the holy grail of SEO in 2024. Featured snippets are those nifty boxes at the top of search results that give quick answers. They’re gold for voice search because they’re often what virtual assistants read out loud. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to snag these prime spots.

E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Author Credibility

Remember when you could just write content and call it a day? Not anymore! Google is all about E-A-T now. They want to know who’s behind the content and why they should trust them. I’ve started beefing up my author bios and linking to my social profiles. It’s not just about what you say, but who’s saying it.

Content Quality and Depth

Forget about churning out thin content just to hit a keyword. In 2024, it’s all about quality and depth. Google wants to see comprehensive, well-researched articles that truly answer users’ questions. I’ve been focusing on creating fewer, but more in-depth pieces, and my organic traffic is loving it!

Local SEO

Google My Business Optimization

For brick-and-mortar businesses, local SEO is more important than ever. Google My Business is your new best friend. Make sure your listing is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. I helped a friend optimize her bakery’s GMB profile, and her foot traffic doubled in just a month!

Local Search Rankings

Did you know that “near me” searches are through the roof? People want local results, and search engines are delivering. If you’re targeting local customers, you need to be thinking about local link building, reviews, and location-specific content. It’s a whole different ballgame from general SEO.

The latest SEO trends 2024 are reshaping how we optimize websites for search engines.

Discover how we can help you stay ahead with the latest SEO services by visiting The Adistic for more details.

Conclusion

Whew! We’ve covered a lot of ground, haven’t we? Adapting to new technology and user behaviors will be the key to successful SEO in 2024. From AI and video to mobile and voice, there’s so much to keep up with. But don’t worry – we’re all in this together! Keep experimenting, stay curious, and most importantly, always put your users first. Here’s to dominating the SERPs in 2024!

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