#no other site has that kind of art reach

[hannahhasafact]

Man I don’t care what anyone says this is the best site for art

Some art I posted a month ago that only had like 18 notes or something got randomly reblogged and now has over 200 this shit rules

[budgebuttons]

There's a lot of reasonably frustrated but ultimately misdirected psa-style posting about how viewers NEED to start reblogging things rather than just liking them because that is the primary mode of post circulation on this site. The modern manifestation of this sentiment seems to miss the fact that, if you've been here for ~15 years, were here prior to, during, and after the exodus to the bird app, you already know that likes have always been more common than reblogs, that many people simply don't want to put your art on their blog, and that guilting end-users into using a microblogging site A Specific Way absolutely does not work. If it did, the trend would have shifted a decade ago. Because this conversation really is that old. Regardless, the modern discourse of how difficult it is to be Seen specifically on Tumblr isn't productive because I think it ultimately misses the reason being an artist online feels so Bad, now.

The social media era has funneled Looking At Stuff on the Internet into an economy of engagement that encourages end-users to treat everything we/they see as quick, cheap, and disposable. This is just another fun and flirty way that capitalism devalues art. It's nothing new. Trying to force masses of users to behave in a way that is healthier for the circulation of art isn't going to do anything to solve the discontent we all feel when we hurl something into the void and it is ultimately ignored. I swear up and down: A higher notes number won't feel better, either. Popularity is just as demoralizing as radio silence, but it manifests differently. Instead of 4 likes and maybe 1 reblog from Old Faithful Mutual, you get a horde of people who treat you like a content machine. You keep hoping for an impossibly Bigger Number. The notifs on the first Big Number Post haven't even settled, and people are already asking when the follow-up is coming. You get anons, but most of them are trying to passively convince you to give them More Content.

It's really, really hard to make people care about art. If there was a silver bullet for making the average person appreciate the enormity of human effort behind every beautiful thing they encounter, we would have found it centuries ago.

The best thing creatives can do for their lives online is to be friendly, or at least kind, with other creators. "Big" artists don't form in-groups because they're snobs. They find each other because they casually showed each other support, and their mutual appreciation for that Thing that wound them up in the same tag becomes a foundation for connection, and in many cases, the ever-illusive Bigger Audience as they introduce themselves to each others' circles. We get more eyes on our work by building community with each other.

Where does that leave people who are just here to look at things, not post them? I think the answer is almost identical: COMMENT!! Please, comment! The first step to engaging with art on a more meaningful level is to point out something you particularly enjoy about a given work. It can go in the replies, it can go in the tags, doesn't matter!! If you notice some symbolism or make some connection, there is all likelihood that OP put it there because they desperately wanted somebody to notice it. Let them know why you like it!

Reaching for the nebulous, impossible goal of better post circulation isn't going to make being a creator online in 2023 suck less. Meaningfully connecting with each other can, will, and does. You can make someone's day just by passingly letting them know that their effort is worth more than a number.

[cowgurrrl]

Dawns

Pairing: Joel Miller x fem!reader

Author’s note: Selena Quintanilla I miss you every day

Summary: The Morning After [2.9k]

Warnings: loving descriptions of Joel Miller, a whiff of angst, I think that’s it this is literally just fluff

Joel is a heavy sleeper. You kinda knew he would be, but he proved himself when you got up halfway through the night to get water, and he didn't so much as flinch. The only thing that roused him from his sleep was you sliding back into bed and kissing his jaw. He groaned and rolled onto his back, pressing you into his chest and bringing you with him. So, you're not surprised when you wake before him once mowers start working around your apartment building. He stays asleep, and light snores leave him every so often as he dreams. It's weirdly endearing.

In the morning light, he looks like a lost Adonis. His broad chest moves with his breaths, and his muscles contract whenever he moves, showing off the strength of his body, which has been forged over years on sites and by carrying kids around. He has a tattoo over his heart that you hadn't noticed before. It's small enough to hide easily, but you make out the letters easily: initials. One is Ellie's, and you assume the other is Sarah's. His girls forever close to his heart. His curls create a halo of amber salt-and-pepper around his head, and his beard is unruly in a way that people try to emulate to get the perfect "messy" look. On him, it doesn't look messy. It just looks like him. His heavy hand rests on your waist while the other lies above his head, almost in a pose. He's so fucking beautiful. 

There are lots of versions of Joel you'd like to draw: him on his knees at the foot of your bed, kneeling in a type of worship that the church would never condone; him smiling at you from across your apartment with orange fridge light shining on half his face; him tapping a beat into the steering wheel of his truck as the wind tousels his hair. But this version with the relaxed features and golden sunlight might be your favorite. It's private and unguarded, something only you have the privilege of experiencing. It's only fair of you to try to capture it.

You manage to wiggle out of his grasp enough to reach for your sketchbook on your bedside table, the water cups and snack wrappers from last night still lingering nearby. You lay on your stomach and uncap your pen as you glance between the empty page and his sleeping face. You start with his face shape, which is undeniably kind of easy to draw, before moving on to his features. His nose crooks a certain way, and you want to make sure you get it exactly right. Your eyebrows furrow as ink stains your pinky and the page fills up, and the morning slowly rises around you. 

It would be easier to take a picture and reference that instead of looking up and down, straining your neck in the process, but you like noticing the way his face moves so subtly in his sleep. This feels more intimate than sex. Art has a funny way of doing that. Guilt pools at the base of your neck, and you're about to shut your sketchbook and get some breakfast when he shifts, his hand blindly searching the sheets for your body. 

You freeze as he rolls over and opens his eyes, blinking through the light to find you lying there. When his vision adjusts, and he's rubbed enough sleep from his eyes to see you clearly, he smiles, and the guilt is quickly replaced with that dizziness that only he can induce. You smile back and throw your sketchbook on the floor, the pen still twirling in your fingers.

"Hey," you say softly as you get closer to him. He welcomes you into his arms and pushes the hair off your shoulders so he can see you. 

"Hi." His voice rumbles in his chest, deep and gravelly with sleep, and you want to wrap the notes around you like a warm blanket. You settle for leaning down and kissing him, his hands sliding around your body in the process. "How long've you been awake?"

"Not long." You say, a smile stuck to your lips. He glances over, taps his phone to check the time, and groans as he rests his head back on your pillow. You giggle at his reaction, and he looks at you like you're crazy. 

"How can you be this happy this early in the mornin'?" He asks and you shrug as you push a curl out of his face. 

"I woke up to a view." He hums at your compliment but doesn't say anything else. Every time you've complimented him in one way or another over the past few months, he's shrugged it off or barely acknowledged it. You wonder if he's just not used to being told regularly how pretty he is or what a great person he is. You wonder how long it will take him to believe your words. 

"What were you workin' on?" 

"Nothing, really. Just had to get something out of my system."

"Can I see it?"

"My sketchbook?" You ask, that same guilt clawing its way back up your spine, and he nods. 

"You don't have to show me if you don't wanna. I just... I dunno. I like seein' your work." Well, fuck, you think. How am I supposed to say no to that? You take a deep breath and chew on the inside of your cheek.

"I'll show you a few."

"Just a few?" 

"For now," you say, and he smiles. You kiss him before you move to retrieve the Moleskine from the floor. He curses under his breath like he's hurt, and you quickly look up to see if you somehow elbowed him or something. 

"Now, that," he says as he sits up to trace the edge of the tattoo that wraps around your shoulder. "Is a pretty sight." You laugh and relax into his touch as you watch him become entranced by the ink.

"Tattoos really do it for you, huh?"

"Everythin' bout you does it for me," he says, and you shake your head, heat rising to your cheeks at the quip. "You do this one in a dorm room?"

"No, I had a friend who was apprenticing at a studio near the school. They gave me half off because she was an apprentice, but I think it turned out pretty good," you explain. His fingers follow the delicate lines around until he gets close to another one, and then he skips over and traces that one, his calloused hands much softer than any tattoo needle you've encountered. You let him follow the curves and bends of your different tattoos, but not before you press onto your elbows and lift a hand to trace the initials on his chest. "You were hiding this one from me."

"I think you were hidin' a lot more than I was." He says, and you laugh. He's not wrong. The juxtaposition of your covered skin versus his blankness is a little comical. Where you have deliberately placed art pieces, he has scars, freckles, and chest hair save for the letters above his heart. "Got it before Sarah went off to school. Figured it might be one of the last times my girls would be together."

"That's not true." You tsk.

"I know that now, but... I don't know. It's different than when they were younger. Good different, but still different."

"How so?"

"When Sarah was still home, Ellie had another woman to talk to. We were even numbers in the house. They would get to have their own days where they hung out and did whatever, which was really good for the both of them. But when she left, Ellie got really shy, like she didn't know what to do without someone guidin' her. Tommy and I tried, but I knew we weren't as good as Sarah. Nobody said anythin' bout it to Sarah, though, cause it wouldn't be fair to ask that of her. She has enough on her plate as it is, and she doesn't need us makin' her feel guilty." He says. He's so in tune with both girls that it almost blows your mind. It makes sense because you've seen him in action, and you know how he parents, but hearing him talk about the nuances of their relationships and giving them each space is refreshing. It would've been so easy to place blame on Sarah and ask her to help parent Ellie, but he didn't. 

"What changed?" You ask. He traces the lines going up the back of your neck until his hands frame your face, and he's smiling.

"This really great teacher started lookin' out for her. Changed our whole lives around." He says. You shake your head and force yourself to look away from his big, brown eyes.

"I was just doing my job."

"Don't do that," he scolds quietly. "I'm not sayin' anythin' that's not true. You helped Ellie in a way nobody else has done so far. You should've heard her tellin' Sarah bout you at Christmas. She couldn't say enough nice things."  

"I wish I could've met her," you say. "Sarah." 

"She really wanted to meet you, too," he says. "Next time." You smile at the idea of having him and Ellie around for long enough to meet this missing fourth member of their family. You hope he's right. 

Finally, you hand him your sketchbook and watch as he flips through the first few pages in silent awe. His eyes move around the page like he's trying to decipher a message when it's really just your sloppy scribbles you managed to get down between grading papers and working at the bar. To you, they're nothing revolutionary. They're just rough drawings that have this thing wrong with them or are missing that essential piece. When you look at them, all you see is what they lack. When Joel looks at them, all he can see is the art already there. He asks about certain things and points out different techniques he recognizes from Ellie's portfolio, like the hatching you did on a portrait of a stranger sitting in your bar. 

Sharing your art, no matter what medium, with anyone can be daunting. Someone you love might think you're a talentless hack but smile and tell you otherwise to not hurt your feelings, or they just don't pay attention to it at all. It's sacred. A piece of your soul materialized in the real world and left out in the open for anyone to come by and kill. Those emotions are still in the back of your mind, but as you watch Joel scan your work, you see admiration and reverence instead of disdain. He stops himself from looking at the whole book, remembering your words about only showing him a few, and looks at you when he's done.

"Baby, these are amazing." He breathes. The gentle tone in his voice makes your throat feel like sandpaper, and you have to breathe deeply to keep tears from welling in your eyes. You hide your face in the sheets, and he tsks as he grabs you and pulls you to him. You land on his chest, and then it's impossible to hide from him. Sometimes, it's annoying how strong he is. 

"Thank you," you say instead of listing off all the things you want to say about how bad the sketches are, how they're unfinished, and whatever else. He smiles as he gently puts your sketchbook down on your bedside table and kisses you. You straddle his waist as he cups your jaw and holds you close. You're vaguely aware of the sun rising higher and higher in the sky and the fact that he has a kid at home who's probably wondering where he is. His hands skate down your lower back as the kiss turns a little feverish and desperate, but you pull back before anything can start.

"It's getting late," you say. He sighs and rests his head on your shoulder. "I can make you some breakfast before you go."

"You really want me out that bad?" 

"No, of course not, but Ellie-"

"Is fine. She's with Tommy, and she's bout fifteen goin' on twenty. I guarantee you she's out with her friends at the movies or somethin' right now." He says. He's right; Ellie has become hyper-independent in the past few months and is almost always with a group of the art kids, but Dina and Jesse seem to be the ones she's closest to. Granted, Jesse isn't technically in the art club, but the bumbling basketball player always seems to find a way into your classroom despite never taking a class with you. Still, you can't shake your anxiety.

"What about when she asks where you were all night?"

"That's for me to worry bout, not you," he says. "If you really want me to go, I'll go but don't think you have to kick me out 'cause of my kid. She's fine, and even if she wasn't, I'd have already heard bout it." 

"Are you sure?" You ask, and he nods. 

"Positive," he answers. It's going to take a lot more for you to stop worrying about Ellie, but you let it go for now. If he's sure, then you have to trust his parental instincts. "Now, I think you said somethin' bout breakfast?" He says, and you smile. 

"I think I've got eggs and bacon." You say, and he groans at the thought.

"A woman after my own heart."

"You're a mess." You laugh as you climb off of him. You grab his shirt from last night off the floor and tug it over your head before grabbing a clean pair of underwear from your top drawer. Meanwhile, Joel throws on his briefs and the sweatpants you stole from him on New Year's Day and follows you into the kitchen. You get out the carton of eggs and hand him the package of bacon for him to put on the stove, a job he volunteered to do, as the coffee brews a few feet away. 

It's strangely domestic. Sharing the same space for the same goal as the dull hum of the city starts up outside. In your small apartment, you're safe from the demands of school for a few more weeks, and you don't have anything better to do than walk around your kitchen half-naked with him. He pours the perfect amount of creamer into your coffee and even pours a glass of water to accompany the caffeine. You push and pull him around the kitchen so you can reach certain things or show him where you keep plates. Any lingering doubt about your physical closeness has been dispelled and replaced with the ease of this morning. You could get used to it. 

You're in the process of making scrambled eggs when he starts playing music on his phone, a familiar explosion of sound coming over the speakers. Joel looks pleased even though he's the one who chose the music, and you laugh as he starts dancing toward you. Selena starts singing, and he sings along. Before you know it, he's grabbing your hand and spinning you into him. You struggle to match his feet when he takes steps you're not prepared for, and he laughs.

"I don't know this dance!" You defend, and he gives you a look.

"C'mon, don't tell me you've lived in Texas for this long, and nobody's ever taught you how to dance cumbia."

"Sorry to break your heart, maverick." You tease. He sighs dramatically but steps back enough for you to track his steps and copy them. Once you get the hang of it, he takes the spatula out of your other hand and takes you into his arms.

"You just do the same thing I'm doing but in a circle. It's not that hard, I promise." He instructs, and you raise your eyebrows at him.

"You have too much faith in my dance ability." 

"It's just a different kinda art," he says as he spins you. You manage to keep up with him and smile alongside him. You're not sure where Joel got so good at dancing, but you're sure it has something to do with the number of quinceañeras he's been invited to, if he's not been a part of one. He's gentle in reminding you of the steps and doesn't complain when you accidentally step on his toes or miss a step. It's fun and sweet and tinged with perfectly timed drum beats and Selena's effervescent voice.

He only lets you slip away from him once you remind him of the eggs cooking on the stove, but he's never far away after that. He helps you set the table and even makes your plate once everything is ready, so you don't have to. He refills your coffee and water without being asked and even pushes you out of the kitchen when you're done eating so he can wash the dishes. You like learning more about his little habits and nuances, and you think he likes seeing you in your own environment, too. 

You're not ready for him to go home and burst this bubble you've created. You're not ready to go back to school and reckon with possible repercussions. You're not ready for the real world to seep back in. You just want this morning with him and whatever other mornings he might be generous enough to share with you. Is that too much to ask?

TAGLIST: @abbyhaslongshorts @kiwiharrykiwi @sumsworldz @myloveistoolittle @anavatazes @marantha @cosmoscoffeee @shyminnie07 @beezusvreeland @eddiemunsonsbedroom @harriedandharassed @doodlebob-mp3 @ignorethisplz2004 @buckyispunk @d1lf-loverrr @vee-bees-blog @moel-jiller @anoverwhelmingdin @casssiopeia @maried01

[devsgames]

"Is Tumblr Blaze Worth It For Promoting My Indie Game?" - a Postmortem

Lately I've been thinking about marketing and promotion of my games and wanting to explore new avenues. Tumblr Blaze was one of those things I wanted to dip my toes into a bit to understand how it works and if it has potential for advertising my sort of stuff. Like as not, there's no point in making games if nobody actually plays them after all!

Conversely I have also heard bad things about Tumblr Blaze; that it's not very targeted, the reach is fairly limited, and people on this site generally hate anything that is Blazed to them.

I wanted to test all these waters a bit to see if it's something worth investing in, and share what I found for my own benefit and the benefit of others. Finding various info on topics like this for indie dev can be a pain, so why not share my findings?

The Plan and Goal

While Centauri Dark is still in development and is the thing I actually want to advertise more of right now, Bombing!! 2 is already out and is much more marketable with some cool art made by community members. I think as a first impression it tends to show well, so I decided to make my test post with that to get exposure to it and see how it goes.

My goal was mostly to see what a Blaze post does for advertising a launched indie game and how much "eyes on" it actually gets in terms of actual engagement.

Posting

From the outset I knew I wanted to make a post that 1) wasn't annoying to people just looking at the webbed site 2) featured a call to action of some kind I could measure 3) wouldn't break the bank.

Here's what I came up with:

The intention was to flash some cool looking art to grab their attention, explain what they're looking at, and then link the game a couple of times while mentioning "Buy or Wishlist" for good measure as a call to action.

Since Bombing!! 2 is such an art-forward game, I found the coolest art pieces made by community members that felt the most "Tumblr" to match the audience, and would also show off the range of art you could make in the game. I also wanted to make it personal, like me writing a message to whoever would read it instead of something that sounded like a standard ad. Generally I think it was a fairly reasonable little post that catches some interest and doesn't overstay too much of a welcome. What I think also helps is it's explicitly a "hey this might interest you" sort of framing (as opposed to a more "why am I even seeing this" sort of post you tend to get from Blaze sometimes).

I also think it's worth emphasizing that writing a posted explicitly intending to be Blazed was a much stronger approach than just Blazing some random post I had made for my own followers months ago, because I could align it to my promotional goals. It also assumed that random people on the Internet would be the ones seeing my post, and not the followers and friends who already know me and my work.

Blazing

As I looked into Blaze early on there was actually a few key things I wasn't fully aware of about the system.

It guarantees a minimum amount of views

It guarantees it will be Blazed for a minimum of 24 hours no matter how many views

You pay a single base rate for the whole campaign (great compared to some ads which tend to price based on views/engagement).

You can define an audience explicitly (some info that was floating around lead me to believe this wasn't the case).

Campaigns come in a few amounts:

I paid for the 2nd tier; $17 USD for a campaign, which amounts to $25 CDN. I wanted to go a little more into it than the lowest tier offered, since I figured the lowest wouldn't give me as much data as I would've liked and I wanted to know what to reasonably expect should I decide to do it again in the future.

Since Bombing!! 2 sells for ~$20USD I also figure if the Blaze campaign prompts at least two people to buy the game then the Blaze would have paid for itself.

Blaze lets you use tags to define which audiences you want to reach. Unfortunately it doesn't let you view that data after you've applied it, but the tags I chose were generally anyone who spoke English and has an interest in Digital Artist or Video Game circles.

The campaign ran for 24 Hours, starting yesterday and ending today.

The Results

I definitely noticed a sharp uptick in engagement during the campaign! It hit the target audience of ~7k around one hour into the campaign, after which point I noticed engagement take a sharp decline.

Here's the Blaze campaign analytics provided by Tumblr (which was also very helpful to have):

So it seems ~12.5k views from Blaze, ~370 likes, ~80 reblogs, 5 shares elsewhere. The post itself has ~520 notes, so I assume there's some reblogging and liking happening from beyond the Blaze campaign that isn't pictured here. The good thing is that despite having reached its 7k target after only 1 hour, it continued to circulate and be Blazed until 24 hours later. Eventually the post made it to ~12k views overall, which was nearly double the amount promised by the campaign - I attribute this mostly to a strong post/target audience/subject matter and I'm sure it's not standard.

Here's the general velocity of engagement around when the post was Blazed:

It jumped much more than I honestly expected, but you can tell Blaze seemed to put it in front of people's faces more than my regular posts do. You can see it drops off sharply as I hit the quoted amount as well, back down to the normal amount of engagement I get on Tumblr.

But this stuff isn't really what I was looking for; I was looking for sales and keeping an eye on 'conversions' - or how many users followed my call to action because of the post. Likes and stuff are fine and cool, but how many people bought or wishlisted the game on Steam as a result of seeing the post on Tumblr?

Tumblr and Blaze obviously have no way of telling me this, so I'm looking to Steam to show me changes there.

Here's what Steam shows me happened to the Bombing!! 2 views yesterday:

That's not nothing! This shows the last month's worth of traffic to the Bombing!! 2 page, and that number was at least double yesterday as it was regularly. It's very cool to know a number of people did actually click through to the game page in order to view the game from the Blaze post.

But the real REAL question is how many bought or wishlisted the game because of this post?

I'll start with Sales, on a graph of 1 month of data:

Flat line :( Which is fine though, as the game wasn't on Sale and was just reaching people for the first time. I didn't honestly expect any immediate sales from this, and was more focused on other engagement anyways. Honestly I would be surprised if someone saw the game on a Blaze post and bought it immediately. I mean it's good but it's probably not THAT good!

Now to Wishlists, which can be a good indicator of who might likely buy your game in the future. Basically if someone has added a game to their wishlist, there's reason to believe they might buy it in the future, which is good for your game.

Here's the Wishlists for Bombing!! 2 from the last month:

That's 23 Wishlists in one day! That's roughly ~18 Wishlists more than an average day!

It's hard to know if some of these are because of the post or just a statistical fluke. However, when compared to previous trends on the game page that's quite a noticeable difference. It means even if no one bought it now, they were interested enough to add it to their shortlist. Looking at it another way, if two people who Wishlisted decided to buy the game in the future the campaign will have paid for itself.

Conclusions

I think like any advertising if you go into it with a plan in mind and try to build something around a specific action, Blaze seems pretty worth it to me especially if I just want to get eyes on something. On top of the obvious data telling me people were interested in the game, there was a few folks who just plain complemented the game or acknowledged it 'was the first Blaze post they were actually interested in', which felt worth it in it's own qualitative sort of way. It's also worth noting my game sells for $20USD, so the margins are large enough that making it back isn't too challenging.

I think having an idea of the message I wanted to send really helped, and I'm sure I'd happily do this again with a larger audience and another plan (and probably will do it for when Centauri Dark releases).

[godbirdart]

You don’t have to answer this question as it’s probably dumb to ask…but do you know what platform(s) would be a good starting point? Particularly for original content rather then fanart? I heard deviantart is a good place where alot of ppl got there start on but there’s lots of art thrives and such.

don't even worry, it's not dumb at all! it's hard to gauge where to Begin in the vast hellscape that is the online world. i do get this question [and some adjacent questions] often so please allow me to use your ask as an excuse to post a few of my site rankings for various art things!!

for reference, these are the sites I'll be addressing because i have used them at some point within the last year. please note: my information on Cohost and Itaku specifically may be out of date as I haven't used them in a long while. naturally, this is all solely my perspective. i run both a furry/original content account and an anime/fanart account on most of these sites and run them reasonably independently from one another. these rankings are based on how well each account fares on each site.

I will be talking about Patreon and Ko-Fi as if people will only be posting paywalled content there. you Can publicly post on both sites, but for the sake of this post i'm only going to treat them as paywalled sites since well, that's kind of their purpose.

POSTING ART IN GENERAL

the A-tier list sites here are the ones that are most practical, with a decent member presence and little to no algorithms impairing your reach. the only sites here with any sort of algorithm are tumblr and deviantart, but i feel they don't ruin your reach that much.

B-tier list is mostly centered around popularity. there are massive audiences on both masto and twitter. twitter can be really good if you're posting certain content. mastodon has countless instances [read: servers / subdomains, however you want to call them] that can help narrow down an audience and like-minded people. for example, i use mastodon.art whereas many furries may use meow.social. you Can be discovered by people on other servers than yours.

C-tier has been sorted in accordance to audience. this is solely in my experience, but not a lot of new people are flocking to cohost and itaku. we also just hate facebook in this house and i will never give a facebook products a high rating.

F-tier: if you are a new or growing artist, putting your art behind a paywall or making it a chat platform exclusive thing can really hinder your growth. you can still do this of course, but you won't get as many eyes on your work as you would on a public gallery. threads is there solely due to privacy issues that Cannot be overlooked. i will not recommend it.

POSTING ORIGINAL CONTENT / CHARACTERS / NON-FANWORKS

here's how i'd grade these sites for posting Original content, characters, stories, etc. your best sites will likely be furaffinity, deviantart, and tumblr. i've put these three here for their tag use, discoverability, and audience presence. tumblr can be a little glitchy with its tags, but they DO function.

A-tier is entirely centered around audience presence. these sites are great for showing off your work, but they don't have the same population as the S-tier. mastodon can be good as the quieter instances give you more discoverability. bluesky has been THRIVING when it comes to the furry community as of late [i'm personally on there daily] - the only reason i don't put it as S-tier is because it's invite-only AND you need to rely on your work being found through the Feeds feature if you aren't an already established artist.

B-tier: useful, but population may hinder your growth. toyhouse is GREAT for posting your original characters and stories, but it is invite-only and not necessarily gallery-focused [it can be USED for a gallery, but it's not the main purpose]. you can also post stories and lore to toyhouse. discord and telegram are Good, but again it can be hard to gain an audience through sites that require invites.

C-tier: it is DIFFICULT to grow on paywalled sites with original content. cohost [to my knowledge] has been stagnating with the release of bluesky.

F-tier: threads sucks, the end.

POSTING FANWORK, FANFIC, FANDOM CONTENT IN GENERAL

S-tier here is sorted because of audience presence. while twitter does suck, i'm finding a LOT of success there with fanart. tumblr is The fandom site of course. furaffinity is great for a surprising range of fanart that isn't exclusive to furry, and deviantart's Groups feature is still going strong which can give you that extra exposure.

A-tier is: fans Go here, but the population or algorithm can make things tricky. instagram is good for fanwork but the algorithm and the speed that things are posted there can make discoverability an uphill battle. patreon; if you make comics or art with fan characters [especially 18+ content lmao] you can grow pretty rapidly there. patreon, like any other paywalled site, should be a secondary site and not your Primary posting location. artfol and pillowfort are still growing. pillowfort has a Communities feature - sort of like deviantart groups - that you can submit your art to which gives you that extra exposure. artfol is just a nice gallery site and the tagging system is,, decent enough. a little confusing because the tag system looks up keywords in posts and titles First, you have to tab over to hashtag searching specifically.

B-tier: invite only and audience reach. again, bluesky relies on your art to be picked up in Feeds, as there's currently no tag search. inkblot is growing but has a decent audience. ko-fi isn't as known as patreon for exclusive content but it's still a good site. mastodon has tagging that makes discoverability easier, but mastodon and its many servers can make things confusing for some people. itaku's not as commonly used so it may be harder to gain new eyes there once you establish yourself.

C-tier: posting fanart to these sites Can Work. toyhouse focuses on posting and sorting original characters, so treating it as a gallery site won't get your far fast. it isn't impossible to grow as an artist there, but the site isn't intended for fanart posting. i cannot say much on cohost here. telegram and discord, again, it's harder for people to discover you out of the blue unless you mention your server / channel on another site.

F-tier: fuck threads.

lastly, to address thieves,

thieves are gonna be everywhere. i'm sorry to say, but there will always be shitty people. i recommend the following:

watermark your art. not in the corner, don't just sign in one spot, place a Huge translucent watermark over the WHOLE art. i recommend making it a colour gradient too instead of one solid colour or greyscale.

also: sign your goddamned art! put your username on there!

post a low resolution when sharing online. less than 1200px wide or tall. 72dpi. JPEG format. keep the high res privately for yourself.

add a subtle noise filter over your art. it doesn't have to be high opacity, and it'll make your art a little grainy, but it's good for fucking with AI bots and ruining any print quality potential.

i hope this offers some insight! if you have a different experience on these sites, please feel free to add your testimonial in the replies or reblogs! not every artist is going to have the same experience and growth rate.

[girlfromthecrypt]

𝕊𝕦𝕔𝕙 ℍ𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 ℂ𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤

[Interactive fiction, Demo TBA]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪

You play as a counselor for the understaffed and underfunded Cloverleaf program. Your job is to organize and oversee a cabin camping holiday for children from troubled homes. Working hard alongside you are your four allies (and potential friends/lovers) Basil Laurier, Anita Merrick and the siblings Flo and Reem Malak.

Unfortunately, the campsite you're tasked with preparing is nothing short of decrepit. Still, you'll make the best of it, right? As you and your colleagues undertake repairs and cleaning efforts (and possibly get to know each other a little better), you keep finding yourself in increasingly unsettling situations.

But surely there's no reason to worry, right?

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Welcome to Camp Solace!

This picturesque cabin campsite is situated in the middle of nowhere, directly next to the beautiful Lake Solace and flanked by acres of woodland, far removed from the bustle of civilization. In fact, it'd take you quite a while to reach the nearest town in case of an emergency. You'd best make sure nothing goes wrong.

Camp Solace was established in the 1980s. In 2022, the site was bought out by the wealthy Laurier family who plan to overturn it to appeal to “a higher class of customers”. But not before offering it to the Cloverleaf program for the season, free of charge. The things people do for their public image…

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤

For the duration of the holiday as well as its lengthy preparations and follow-up work, you will be relying on the support of your four closest colleagues.

Basil Laurier (M, trans, late twenties): The eldest son of the Laurier family. He's volunteering at Cloverleaf. Wealthy, though he tries not to seem it. Van-lifer, nature lover and dedicated spiritualist. Skilled craftsman. Enjoys building things and blowing them up after. Harmonious, cheerful and snarky.

Anita Merrick (F, mid twenties): Student of psychology doing her internship with the Cloverleaf program. Has a bachelor's degree in information technology. Smart, kind and chronically sleep-deprived. Enjoys a good book and fancy coffee. Certified softie. Easily scared (she's in for a bad time, the poor thing).

Reem Malak (F, early thirties): Music teacher, band guitarist and vocalist. Volunteering at Cloverleaf. Flo’s older half-sister. Also plays drums and percussion, sax, piano, bass… and bagpipes. Impulsive, passionate and energetic. Enjoys doing yoga and lifting weights. The cool girl. Very tall.

Flo Malak (M, late twenties): Martial arts teacher who gives classes for both adults and children. Also volunteering at Cloverleaf. Taekwondo, Krav Maga. Silent, kind and not without his quirks. Reem calls him “socially challenged”. Enjoys obscure media and monster movies. Even taller than his sister.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣

Your player character's age will be kept ambiguous, though it’s implied that you’re in same age range as the romance options (meaning your twenties to thirties). 

Play as M, F or NB; gay, straight, bi, ace or keep your orientation undefined (Note: Such Happy Campers is very character-driven with a focus on romantic love and interpersonal connections).

Customize your looks and vibe; choose your strengths, personality and outfit!

[batshaped]

twitter stop fucking up for one second challenge (impossible)

well,

here’s the thing. it feels like social media is changing lately. every social media site seems to be fucking up or getting worse in its own special little way. i recently read and thought a lot about this article which coins the term “enshittification” and describes the process by which every social media platform eventually becomes so greedy as to become unusable. it makes me wonder if the social internet is due for a big shift in the near future. 

for a long time, twitter was the best place for me. for all its issues, it had the audience that i could reach the easiest, that was the most invested in my art. i got (still get) a lot of awesome replies and really great analysis of my work on twitter, which i didn’t receive on any other platform. i was able to encourage those readers by retweeting their comments and theories to show that i liked hearing their thoughts. i could use the Moments feature to organize my art and make my comic easily readable in order. and anyone could look at my twitter, account or no.

ever since the site was bought out, twitter is getting worse. i can’t use the app on mobile anymore because every reply section is drowned out by blue checks and choked with ads. the Moments feature was disabled and people couldn’t easily read my comics in order anymore. and this is without even touching on the bigger/more serious issues the buyout has brought to the app. these are just the ways it has made my personal experience of being an artist on there worse. and now, apparently, you can’t even look at my work unless you have an account.

it’s been pretty common in the past year for the new management to implement a bad feature and then undo it after backlash, and maybe this too will be reversed. but even if it is unimplemented, the platform will continue to get worse. all platforms are getting worse right now. all of them are becoming untenable to use without 7 bespoke browser extensions to block ads, hide specific unwanted content, force chronological order, and so on. on mobile i don’t even bother. apps are unusable. 

on top of that, i have the personal issue of not being the type of creator who is particularly good at staying on top of more than one or two platforms daily. twitter has been my main for years now, so i’m pretty good about updating it very regularly. instagram is trailing behind, i usually remember to post there daily (especially as i’m remaking mine right now and posting my entire backlog) but sometimes i forget. and that’s kind of my limit. every other site falls by the wayside because i just don’t want to spend my whole day or life updating platforms. i know there are tools that can do it automatically for you but i don’t want to do it that way and then i’d have to figure out a new tool and get yet another account on yet another app and install yet another extension to use it.

i just want to draw. i don’t know how we arrived at this place where we need to be 700 other things when we are just artists. i draw and write, isn’t that enough? if i wanted a presence on tiktok i’d also have to be a video editor who pays close attention to trends and makes sure to transform my artwork into something people on that app are interested in. even if i just wanted to have a strong presence on say, twitter/instagram/tumblr/tapas/webtoon i’d have to take on another (unpaid) job as my own social media manager, meticulously managing my uploads across 5+ apps and making sure everything is up to date and tailored to what “works” on each particular platform. i already have a day job—i’m a storyboard artist. the art i post online is supposed to be made and given freely for my own enrichment first and foremost, and for the joy of sharing with others as a close second.

i wonder if we’re due for a mass rejection of this increasingly draining cable-wars-style model of spreading ourselves thin across multiple platforms just to reach the exclusive audience each one provides. i’m starting to feel done with that concept, but i still want to share my art. i want to hear my readers’ thoughts. i want to create things that connect with others. i want to do it without these ever-mounting obstacles.

what i’m doing about it is creating my own website at my own domain that belongs to me. i doubt i’ll be quitting social media when it’s done. social media is still where the audience i cherish lives. but you can bet that when that website is ready to be shared, i’ll be talking about it on every social media account i own. i’ll be telling everyone there’s a place to look at my art where you don’t need an account, you don’t have to struggle through a morass of ads, and you don’t have to line the pockets of a billionaire who bought a social media app on a whim. it’ll just be you and my art. alone together.

by the way, to @whatthehelljake​ i apologize for writing a fucking SAT essay on a screenshot of your reply. any exasperated tone here is not directed at you at all. it’s directed at this sea of obstacles that disrupt the simple concept of “i made art and i want to share it with you.” your reply is how i found out today that twitter made this change. i cherish the fact that you want to connect with my art so much that you alerted me to this. i wish that wasn’t necessary. i want to make my work on my own terms—and want you to be able to experience it on YOUR own terms.

all that to say, i think the website is going to be the main answer to this issue. i don’t see myself having the energy to update tumblr that much more often than i already do, though maybe i’ll try to pick up the pace a little now. we’ll see. holy shit if you read all this go drink a glass of water or something get up and stretch. ok thank you bye <3

[38sr]

I’ve been seeing Cara being talked about recently as a good instagram/deviantart alternative and was wondering what’s your opinion and or if you have a account- Pirate anon

Hmmmm well to be honest I’m a bit indifferent? Mainly because when things like new social media platforms pop up they don’t last very long. That’s not to say Cara is bad, that we artists shouldn’t migrate there or anything but rather I just don’t know if it’ll stay relevant within the next month or so. I think of Bluesky and Threads and how they were a hot thing for a moment, but we still choose to use Twitter and Insta anyway.

I think another reason why I’m not so gun ho right off the bat is because Cara is so artist-led/driven (which isn’t a bad thing). I believe artists should have a safe space to present their work (like DA and art station once was). But at that point, Cara is just a portfolio hosting website and not really a social media platform. The thing about sites like Twitter, Insta and hell even Tumblr that makes them such powerful tools to artists is because they are online public spaces that connects them to an audience outside of the artist realm/bubble. The general public aspect might very well be how artists are able to make a living off their art. Since Cara (at the moment) seems very much an artist only space, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people aren’t joining because it wouldn’t actually help sustain their livelihood like Insta or any other platform has done for them. I can only speak for myself but almost every job I’ve gotten was because of Insta and Twitter’s ability to reach beyond online artist focused circles. And recruiters do see that stuff and take note of it. It’s so hard to build an audience for your art (especially if it’s not fanart stuff) so starting from scratch isn’t a good selling point for some artists who spent years building what they currently have. So then they end up in a shitty situation of they can’t literally afford to leave the platform for a new one.

And if Cara were to make changes to become more like Insta let’s say, then it could diminish the entire reason why the site was created in the first place (artist-led/driven). I hope it doesn’t change cause yeah artists deserve a safe space but at its best Cara could be a site industry recruiters can use to source/hire talent like Artstation. But I don’t really think it can replace Insta (or any social media platform) as much as some people might want it to.

Sorry Pirate this was a long winded way of saying I don’t have a Cara account haha. We’ll see what happens but for right now I’m kind of just watching to see if it actually sticks around.

[megaderping]

Late night SALT activated...

Disclaimer: This post is mainly about really aggressive/hostile fans. Disliking stuff is totally valid and curating one’s online experience is important, but... I’m very strongly convinced that the majority of people who vehemently hate Goro Akechi or Shuake to a really hostile degree either haven’t played Royal, haven’t moved on from base game, haven’t maxed his confidant, or really lack reading comprehension. ‘cause disliking a ship or a character? Super valid! Everyone has their preferences and comfort zones. I would never shame someone who genuinely just... doesn’t vibe with it, finds it uncomfortable, and wishes to avoid content or posts w/ the character or pairing. I also completely understand the frustration of wanting Goro content that isn’t ship-focused, since sometimes fandoms can make a pairing consume a character in fanworks (though I’d argue you can have the pair and still give him agency outside of it, at the end of the day, there will always be people who just don’t want it). But when I see factually incorrect arguments like, “Joker and Akechi hate each other,” I just go... “Did we play the same game?” The game where Joker’s greatest wish was to see Akechi again. The game where Morgana outright states that Akechi doesn’t really hate Joker and Akechi himself laments that they didn’t meet years earlier, and if they had, how they could’ve been friends. A game where it’s made very clear that despite the stupidity of going with the revenge plan with Shido and the lives taken along the way, there was still a disgusting power imbalance with Shido, a grown man in politics, effectively molding a broken teenager into being a hitman... And even the betrayal toward the PT- I feel like Akechi’s offer to have Joker join him was genuine as a sort of last ditch effort to get him out of that situation. The SIU director notes how the plan is way too callous even for Akechi, and after it happens, Akechi tries to downplay the dangers of the PT to Shido, suggesting a part of him, even if only a small one, does feel some remorse.

There’s this messy complexity to Akechi and his relationship with Joker and the PT... and people try to strip it of all of its complexities to make it a bland, black and white matter, and it sucks. It feels like those kinds of people want to turn Akechi into a hatesink when Shido is literally right there. And Kamoshida, and Okumura, and many other awful adults in P5. It’s weird how little flak they get by comparison? And I’m biased- Akechi was a character I developed an attachment to as I reached third sem and his character just came together for me. But it’s so freaking annoying to try and search up art of the character or ship on sites like twitter only to find the worst takes possible. Folks gotta separate their personal feelings from the feelings of the characters. The actual canon interactions and relationships are infinitely more compelling than “Joker/the Phantom Thieves all hate Akechi.” I much prefer what the game presents us- with characters like Haru and Futaba not forgiving him, but still sympathizing with his situation and (perhaps reluctantly) being willing to work with him when it’s absolutely necessary. The friction is just so compelling, because even if he’s a tragic person, his actions still robbed them of loved ones. ...but also, President Okumura requested many shutdowns himself and was an awful person, which also adds to the messy complexity for poor Haru.

Anyway, this is just a late night ramble because I went to find fanart and found annoying tweets. Argh.

[jayahult]

A Brief Announcement About Heresiarch

When I started Heresiarch several years ago, it was my baby. It was maybe the best idea for a story I had yet, and I quite enjoyed writing it and people liked it. Unfortunately and fortunately, the former two points are no longer true. I think the real point of decline was when I got COVID a bit over a year ago. I experienced severe aftereffects from it, not enough to be what is called "long COVID," but long enough to severely affect both my ability to write in my off-time and my abilities in academics. I also had to transfer colleges during that time, so there was very little time for my hobby horse.

What this resulted in was a downward spiral. I slipped further and further in my schedule, and felt more and more ashamed that I was unable to keep up with the demands of something that I felt so passionate about. Furthermore, on rereading to keep myself from losing the plot, I kept noticing flaws in the story - places where I was overly cute with the dialogue, or left plot threads hanging without much meaning, things that wouldn't be woven back together because plans changed and because I was trying to meet the deadline more consistently than keeping things coherent. And the worst part was and is that I still quite love Heresiarch. It is still my baby. I love the characters, I love the setting, I love that it landed the way I wanted with audiences by and large. But in order to fix those flaws, major re-writes would be required, from the bottom up. Compounding this is a major issue with site infrastructure - I've never been the most technical person, but I felt like I could handle WordPress, until suddenly I was attacked by a level of anxiety and annoyance that was kind of unprecedented when I tried to improve my workflow and make it easier to get a chapter out.

When it's all taken together, I think it's best that I put Heresiarch on an official and indefinite hiatus. I do intend to finish it, in some form or another - I want very much to put Ana and Edam's story to a proper end - but it's not a story for me right now. To all those who were hoping for a swifter conclusion, I hope I have not disappointed you too much. This also isn't the end of writing for me. It probably isn't even the end of web serial writing for me - I've been seriously considering just starting a different story while Heresiarch is on the backburner and I hone my skill further, and I've actually been drafting a novel for traditional publishing, so you can keep an eye out for those. I would also like to thank you all for your support. Your kind words about Heresiarch mean all the world to me. Before I was publishing Heresiarch I was deeply afraid that I was not a competent writer, not able to resonate or reach other people with my art because of how idiosyncratic it could be at times. Seeing otherwise has helped me immensely as a writer.

Thank you all again. Keep tuned for more news. Remember - this isn't an ending, just a pause to let something new grow.

[funkygaypeopleinmyphone]

Nothing gets me into a fiery rage more than thinking about 343 has handled the Halo series after Bungie left it off on such a high note. 1, 2 and 3 were good, ODST and Reach were godlike, and they expanded on the universe quite a few times with books and comics and all that. And then 343 came in and just completely gumbled most of it up. CEA was cool, but basically just kitbashed Reach and upscaled Halo 3 assets together and lost some of the original touch the game had back in 2001.

Halo 4 was, ok? The best part was Cortana's story, going into more depth about rampancy and how it affects AI, especially one that we've known and loved for over a decade at that point. The Forerunners were fucking stupid personally, it's hinted to and LITERALLY SAID IN HALO 3, that humans are forerunners, just after the shitshow that was all the rings firing off. 343 Guilty Spark literally says that Chief is a forerunner, and then they just whipped it around and said "well actually he's a reclaimer because blablabla" ok whatever, they do flesh it out more in expanded works and explain it in Halo 4 so atleast theres that. Del Rio is an asshole to the savior of humanity for no reason. The sudden art style change that makes no sense is stupid, like you could've delayed the change until the Infinity rolled around. The Diadact is just space voldemort turning humanity into NFTs after being on r/nofap for 100,000 years, who then dies pretty unceremoniously to a shit ass grenade in a quick time event.

Halo 5 is.... fucking just Halo 5. The Cortaba story is so bad, why did you bring her back as an antagonist? Why didn't you stick to the marketing that was actually a really cool idea about Chief going rogue and hunting the truth. Where are the Marines? Why do I have to fight the Warden Eternal like 20 times? Better balancing than 4 i guess, but god the plot is just all over the place. And that fight scene with Chief, Chief was abducted as a child and forced into the spartan program and trained to be a cold brutal killer of the UNSC's foes. Without Mjolnir armor he straight up merked 2 ODSTs in hand-to-hand combat. This 7-foot-augmented-out-the-ass man had an equal match in a mass produced Spartan 4? Sure Locke is ONI so he's got some spice to him and he's still a Spartan wearing similar armor to Chief, but come on, you can't tell me a guy who saves humanity for breakfast is on a similar level to Halo Nightfall guy.

Infinite is strange. They basically drop Halo 5's characters for the most part, give Chief new (remastered Mk.6) armor, bring back older models of guns and stuff with a new coat of paint (Reach AR, Battle Rifle, now the DMR) and blow up Cortana and the Infinity within the first like, 30 minutes of the game. Ooooo the Banished except wait after Atriox's not-death they're pretty incompetent and are gettinf roflstomped by Chief and are really only good at killing UNSC off screen. The open world shit was ok, but for Halo i dont think its entirely the best idea to go for whatever Far Cry ass shit they pulled. Bringing back the old designs was really cool and much better than the sterile, clean, sharp edges of 4 and 5. Their armor and weapons looked like brand new toys while Infinite's look more realistic and have a bit more wear and tear to em. But its also missing a ton and just kind of ends off on a weird half note for the story. Like where are they gonna go with this? Idk, its just weird.

343, make more stories without Chief. I know Chief is the figurehead of the franchise, but for god's sake please please please make side stories in the universe. I want to see how humanity recovered after the war, how the different species in the Covenant took the end of the war. Exploring Forerunner sites? Side stories in the human-covenant war with ODSTs and Marines! You could totally make the Harvest campaign into a game! Give us the origin story for Sgt Johnson and how he and others did during the opening months of the conflict! Give us more on the Insurrection! You've done it before, Halo Forward Unto Dawn was actually a really cool movie, why don't you do some more stuff like that??

Idk, I love Halo but 343 gotta step their game up

[niconebula]

I want to turn focus to speculating on what Eda and King are dreaming about, because we are shown very little of their respective dreamscapes. But first I do want to preface with: these dreamscapes are almost certainly figments of entirely their own imaginations, and not concepts that the Collector created personally for each of them.

I see this sentiment a lot, but the Collector does not know either Eda or Luz personally enough (and not ever having deep conversations with King), so he has no clue as to what their deepest held fears are. Besides that, the idea of him forcing the roles and stories upon them versus the nightmares serving as mini personal character studies is much less interesting.

Now, where is Eda? You can see she’s visibly behind bars, and from the context of her literally breaking out of the conformatorium later on… well, she’s locked up inside.

What are Eda’s greatest fears throughout the series? Not having the freedom to do what she wants and be her own person, failing to protect her family, dealing with her curse, and the fallout of her relationships with Lilith and Raine.

Her nightmare might be the alternate turn of events from O' Titan Where Art Thou, where she and Luz really did end up captured and in jail. Eda has failed to protect Luz, doesn’t even know where King is, and is now locked up with no escape. I’d find it even more interesting if she manifested the prison guards as Lilith and Raine, because of them both previously working with Belos and the nightmarish humiliation of failing so visibly in front of two people you used to care a lot about. At some point she remembers to embrace her Harpy form, calling back to her acceptance of the Owl Beast curse. By doing so, she’s able to break free of both the Conformatorium and the dream.

Where is King? The two pillars at his sides have distinctive yellow-green bowls on top of them, which puts King back on Titan Trapper island at the site of the Collector shrine.

What are King’s greatest fears? Not finding a place to belong, being underestimated by others, and conversely being viewed upon too highly and idealized or even feared of as a tyrant or god.

I wonder if King has woken up in an alternate reality where he can truly be a King, but at the cost of his morality. Instead of looking at the shrine and corresponding skulls of the (baby) Titans the Collectors killed, King looks horrified upon a graveyard of his own making and a shrine dedicated to him. People killed in his 'honour'. I think this possibility would be an incredibly interesting callback to the stories he used to tell about his imaginary past - the ideas are already there in his head, and his best dream has now become his worst nightmare. It would also temporarily put him in the same head space as the Collector, and might aid in the conversation King wants to have with them by reaching out with this kind of empathy.

I do have to say this one may be too similar to Luz's nightmare, and King's actual reality relating to this location is already horrific. They could potentially give him a nightmare of an accurate reality; but at the same time - I find that option a little bit boring.

[alternazine]

Time for our second "Questions and Answers" session!

I, Rebi, will once again help you out. It's always lovely to see you! Here, us scientists will resolve all doubts. Remember you can ask us anything via our Curious Cat, Twitters DMs, Tumblr ask-me-anything or email. Now, let's begin! . . . «The following questions belong to: CONTRIBUTOR APPLICATIONS.» 1.- “If we, the artist submitting an application, created an artwork we believe fits in our top 3 after sending the application, are we allowed to change it before said applications close?” R = Applicants should be able to edit their form to do any changes they wish to. If this is not the case, feel free to reach out to us through Twitter, Tumblr or our email! 2.- “Are applicants going to be sent emails regardless of acceptance?” R = Yes! All applicants will receive either an email on March 11th with their acceptance, pinch hitter role or rejection. 3.- “It seems that this kettle/site is missing, is this a mistake?” R = All missing kettles/sites have already been claimed by guest artists and staff. This is to avoid someone picking most, if not all, taken kettles. 4.- “Are we allowed to use our own ocs as agent 3?” R = All contributors are allowed to use their own Neo 3 OCs in their pieces, as well as any interpretation of the canon cast, other agents and involved OCs. 5.- “Any word on the research figuring out if squids are real or not yet?” R = That’s classified information we cannot reveal at the moment. ----- «The following questions belong to: CURIOUS CAT.»

1.- “hello! I never saw the musician option before, was it in your Interest Check? I wanted to ask what is expected of a musician contributor. What kind of music are you accepting and the overall guidelines! I am also slightly concerned as I do not see a music Moderator, are mods knowledgeable about composition/production? Would there be any specific assets provided to make my music?” R = It was not, but we received some answers proposing musical involvement and we are happy to oblige! We think all art forms should be celebrated and given proper space to shine, we are just facilitating the stage.  Any kind of music is accepted. For example, you can make a melody that can blend seamlessly with the alterna soundtrack, a remix, full lyrical song about the story mode, acoustic, acapella.... It can be something as small as a ringtone or big as an album... It's all up to you! You own all rights for its publishing and distribution, we are just sharing it with your authorisation on the zine and not anywhere else. Changes to our carrd have already been done when this answer is published to reflect these guidelines. As for experience, host Rebi has received musical education and was part of an orchestra and a choir not so long ago as well. Although she no longer plays music due to health concerns and time restrictions, she is happy to help in any way to the best of her abilities. Host Tari has dabbled in composing and has musical education not only themself, but their family too. If by assets you mean music sheets or programs and alike then no, assets aren't provided. At this moment, Rebi works only with synthesisers and Tari with free chiptune/composing sites. Please keep in mind that this zine isn't serious, just a fun project to show off the members of the splatoon community and how they interpret the artificial land of Alterna!  2.- “If multiple people have the same level as their first pick and their portfolios are roughly equal, how will it be decided who gets the stage? by better pitch, other level pick availability, randomizer, smth else?” R = Stage assignment is decided solely on the chosen level availability, pitches are just for us to see how people think. 3.- “For pieces featuring Neo 3- does it have to feature the “canon” version of the character, or are OC interpretations allowed” R = All contributors are allowed to use their own Neo 3 OCs in their pieces, as well as any interpretation of the canon cast. 4.- “Hi! Ummm When we fill out the application forms and send it, do we automatically receive an automated email saying the form was sent?  I'm unsure whether or not I actually sent it after filling out one since I never received anything saying it was sent unlike other forms.” R = Please feel free to reach out through our email or social media DMs to check if your application went through or if you wish to edit something! 5.- “Do you need a social media presence to join? I plan on posting more online, but i only have a few posts on public social media so far” R = You do not need a social media presence to apply! It's an alternative if we cannot reach you through email when sending application results. 6.- “Is a downloadable pdf or a google document ok as a portfolio format?” R = Yes! As long as we can clearly see your work, it counts.

. . . This has been all for today. We thank you all for your interest and support. Now, I must go back to the Alterna center… One must keep an eye on the researchers. Some are still missing- Please look forward to our application results on March 11th!

« Art by @calatarii. Graphics by @rebiisea. All rights reserved. » « Information Hub: https://alternazine.carrd.co » « Open Contributor's Applications: https://www.tumblr.com/alternazine/741452328861908992/contributors-applications-start-now?source=share »

[mintinol]

Genuine question...

What are your thoughts on people migrating to tumblr after twitter going to shit, finding your account, and following you?

I'm just kind of upset abt the whole twt thing in general because ive never found much success on any other platform so it does feel like i have to start from ground up and i'll never reach the same audience as i did on twitter

But in terms of ppl following me on here, I really appreciate that there are ppl who like my art enough to support me on other sites!! It's hard to believe anyone even likes my art at all so it surprises me in a good way ;w;

Hh if more ppl migrate on tumblr i hope this place can foster an art community that attracts commissioners and isn't just for fandoms and fanart. My fridge has been empty for a month rofl

[punskina]

gender rant /cw?

I think it's been well over 10-12 years of my life that I've been struggling with coming to terms with my gender identity. It's been a constant thought I've had for literally EVERY DAY since at least the start of my teenage years.

Been trying in vain--so hard--to push these feelings down down down down.....

I tried telling my mom when I was 15, and her reaction made me panic; it wasn't explicitly negative, but it was enough for me to tell her "never mind, I think I was wrong after all haha....." just a handful of weeks later. I kind of get why, but the way she sighed in relief after that really stung... Hearing how she and most/all the rest of my family talks about people similar to me (especially non-binary people) has done anything but boost any confidence in myself and my will to come out to them.

Ever since then, I've only expressed my feelings about gender through my art and on this site, and a few select friends outside of this space. Only two people have I told directly any concrete feelings that I have about my body and how I actually want to be seen, and even that took a lot for me to do and be open about because of how much I've been doubting myself and trying to "dumb down" the way I present myself.

I think I've reached a breaking point.

I can't live like this any longer. I need things to change.

I don't want to think about all these things EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. anymore... There are so many other things that I want to do besides dealing with these feelings and thoughts, and I'm so indescribably tired of it.

I want to get help to become comfortable in my own skin. I want the clothes I wear to be a way to express myself; not to hide under. I want to enjoy the way my body feels under my hands or someone else's without the urge to flinch away when they get too close to parts that remind me that my body is not the way it should be. I want to no longer feel like I'm wearing someone else's skin, or speaking with a voice that sounds nothing like me. I want to no longer have to feel restraint for every single decision I make.

I want the world to see me the way I see myself.

I want to be free.

[shadowron]

Troll Bodyguard: A Better Troll Archetype for Shadowrun (1st Edition)

Art by @skullchicken

In my experience, Trolls are like Deckers: everybody basically makes the same one.

Trolls are the only metatype that get modifiers to all of their attributes, and the only one to get a -2 penalty (to both Charisma and Intelligence). This naturally cuts out several runner roles: 

deckers and riggers (quickness/intelligence/reaction based), 

magicians (willpower/charisma based), and 

rockers (charisma).

Rockers! They make the most useless archetype suck even more

Sorry Bambi

Which isn’t fair! 

For 1st edition, they are the only metatype worth playing!

Trolls get +5 Body and one level of natural dermal armor, so really +6 Body: the most fragile troll is more rugged than the buffest human. Between that, the +4 Strength and +1 Reach - trolls are made for melee combat. 

So what kind of troll character builds do we see in 1st edition?

Core rulebook: None. No dwarf either.

Street Samurai Catalog: Troll Street Samurai

Who, famously carrying an Ares MP Light Machine Gun and Panther Assault Cannon, is ranged combat primarily, with only an Armed Combat of 3. Want to make a real samurai?

Give them one of these:

For those who didn’t bother to click through and read my razor sharp take on the Troll Sam - give them a pole arm (like the actual historical samurai weapon shown above), (Strength)S3 damage with +2 Reach, so against non-trolls with non-reach weapons they’re at Target Number 2. With Armed Combat 6 they’re getting 5 successes on average, staging up the damage to Deadly.

For an unarmored target, this will mostly likely remain fatal. An “average” troll will have a Strength of 7; rolling a Body 6 will only get 1 success on average. Sorry! Need 3 to stage it down to Serious.

But hey - this is why you wear armor! Need at least an Armor Jacket (Impact 3) to survive a troll pole stabbing, and Full Heavy Armor (Impact 6) to have a chance to stab it back.

Pictured: Troll Pole

Sprawl Sites: Former Troll Bounty Hunter

Not sure if this is an improvement over the Troll Street Samurai -- too much reliance on ranged combat.

Also from Sprawl Sites is the Troll Bouncer contact:

While this would actually be a great background for a character -- after all, how many adventures include a club or bar? But I think we can do better. We will do better. 

Let’s make a better troll shadowrunner.

Troll Bodyguard

Following in the tradition of the Decker & Elven Decker, Merc & Ork Mercenary & Dwarf Mercenary, we’re going to make this the metatype counterpoint to the Bodyguard:

Gotta have the Tres Chic clothing...

The human Bodyguard archetype has Attributes at Priority 4 (30 points), Tech at Priority 3 (400,000 ¥), Skills at Priority 2 (24 points), with Race (human) and Magic (none) taking up the rear. Looking at the table:

Always look at the table.

The Troll Bodyguard will have Race at Priority 4, and can still have the same Tech Priority as the human Bodyguard; we can just take the exam same set of equipment and cyber. Take Attributes at Priority 2 (20 points, a ten point drop) and Skills as Priority 1 (20 points, a four point drop). 

Here’s were we blatantly abuse the rules.

Trolls get -2 to both Charisma and Intelligence, but ability modifiers are assigned after attribute points are assigned, with a minimum of 1 and maximum of 6. Other than Essence, which can take on real number values, all other attributes must be positive integers. So if you assign 3 points to Charisma, it drops to 1. If you assign 2 points to Charisma, it still drops to 1, since that’s the lowest it can go. So unless you’re going to assign 4 points (to get a 2), you may as well only assign 1. 

Yes, this erases the attribute penalty, but you are ending up with a 1 for an attribute, so it’s not so bad.

Attributes

Body: 9 (12) Quickness: 3 Strengh: 8 Charisma: 1 Intelligence: 1 Willpower: 5 Essence: 0.2 Reaction: 2 (6)

Since we’re just porting over the Bodyguard’s stuff, we have factored in Wired Reflexes 2 (compensating for the low Reaction) and Dermal Plating 3 to factor in, on top of the natural troll dermal armor of 1, giving us a body of 12. 

Plus Partial Heavy Armor. 

And Skillsofts! 9 of them, to be precise, which will compensate for the loss of skill points. 

Skills

Armed Combat: 6 Firearms: 4 Negotiation: 4 Unarmed Combat: 6

Cyberware

Air Filtration: 5 Dermal Plating: 3 Skillwires: 3 Smartgun Link Wired Reflexes: 2

Gear

Skillsofts:

Bike: 3

Car: 3

Computer: 3

Electronics: 3

Etiquette (Corporate): 3

Etiquette (Street): 3

Etiquette (Tribal): 3

Etiquette (Military): 3

Projectile Weapons: 3

Colt Manhunter (Smartgun Link, Firepower Ammo, Reactive Trigger, Extended Clip) Ammunition (Heavy Pistol, 50 rounds, Explosive) Armor Clothing Tres Chic Clothing Partial Heavy Armor High Lifestyle (2 months prepaid)

Contacts: Choose 2 from

Bodyguard Gang Boss Ork Mercenary Mr. Johnson