#not really tbc its meme

[13o7billionyearsinthemaking]

Your version of Gordon humanized is just absolutely gorgeous! Listen I don't care if he is a monster or not- I am loving him and his dark side, I'm not kidding! 🥰

Also, as a side note, your art is absolutely amazing! Like the graphic designer in me is just going nuts! 😍💞

You as a graphic designer, that cool of my Gordon inspiring you . I'm not sure what your indicating if Gordon is a "monster" or not. I'm curious on what makes your concluded that , is it by appearance or personality? but here's a comic skit for it.

Here! Humanoid engines used to be categorized as monsters. By the 20th century, They have been recategorize as..

As for having a dark side..we can't testify that.¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[triinitas]

MUNDAY: GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better!

ROLEPLAYER NAME: bun or bunnie. always has been - started because i had an overbite that was uncannily like a rabbit's, my zodiac sign is the rabbit, and my auntie always called me "little rabbit" when i got to visit her at pow wow.

ROLEPLAYER PRONOUNS: she/her is preferred but i don't mind they/them either.

MUSE NAME: zorah, demenia, and freiora.

PREFERRED COMMUNICATION: i dont really mind ! discord is usually my fave but the it really doesn't matter to me. im just happy to chat with people wherever theyre most comfy :)

EXPERIENCE: i started rping a very long time ago, i think i was around 10 or 12? my step-aunt (?) introduced me to the world of writing and then rping and ive been at it since. that's just wrtten rp, too; i started playing d&d and other ttrpgs before that, introduced by my brothers.

PREFERRED ROLEPLAY TYPE: oh gosh i'm not sure what this is supposed to mean?? i guess para-style lit rp. the experience of essentially writing a story with someone is what i crave. its soooo rewarding.

PET PEEVES & DEALBREAKERS: no rules, no age mentioned in them, witch-hunting/callouts for petty stuff.. anything that tends to disrupt the sense of peace i try to maintain in my little corner of this site. ive been around long enough to see some absolutely insane stuff happen - i was literally stalked as a minor due to someone acting crazy on this site - and i want to avoid that kind of thing at all costs.

PLOTS OR MEMES: yes yes yes. i love both. memes are always fun; the spontaneity is a blast. but im also a sucker for plotting - tbc, i don't mean like... we have to literally storyboard the whole dang thing or whatever, i just like knowing what the general premise/goal of the thread is going to be. it helps me keep up motivation.

LONG REPLIES OR SHORT REPLIES: it depends? i usually fall in the multi-para realm, but that doesnt mean novella length replies. sometimes, especially in casual threads or conversation based threads, i'll manage one decent paragraph and call it good. i rarely (unless doing crack or something silly) will only eek out a few sentences.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: whenever i have the motivation ! or less so motivation and moreso time. im an extremely busy person && real life always comes first for me. i'm in medical school, juggling that with a part time job, and trying to deepen my relationship (i think i may be getting proposed to soon?????) so that definitely takes precedence. my partner is a firefighter/paramedic and works 48+ hours a week so anytime i have with them is precious and when they're home i will always prioritize time spent with them.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES: in small ways. i think it's normal to have characteristics shared. having multiple muses means i'm not really like any one of them, but certain traits i have are dispersed among them. i have the nerdiness and sweetness that demenia has (i try to at least!!!!), the ambition and "constantly working" that zorah shows, and frei was more inspired by my partner && is sort of an outlet for me to empathize with their chosen profession.

tagged by: @shdwtouch tagging: @accultant @grief-worn @ceruleanscarred @tamestray @likemosaic @dcviated && whoever wants to!!!

[laufire]

july reading meme!

BOOKS

Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces by Angela Carter. TBC is more ~My Thing~, but I nonetheless enjoyed this other anthology. It felt more experimental, in terms of language and structure. The stories I found most memorable were "The Executioner's Beautiful Daughter" and, especially, "The Loves of Lady Purple."

The Bloody Chamber and other adult tales by Angela Carter. I skipped the ones I'd already read ("The Bloody Chamber," "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride"). The titular story will always be my favourite, but I found "The Lady of the House of Love" particularly inspiring. "The Snow Child" and "The Erl-King" caught my eye to, for the way the played around with tenses and pov.

COMICS

Batman Annual #14 "The Eye of the Beholder." One of those tragic Harvey Dent tales, and probably the most emblematic one about them (I'm pretty sure this one inspired The Long Halloween). As I've recently watched the new animated show, Caped Crusader, it offers an interesting point of comparison with that new Harvey. The original version, who wanted to do his job and do it well, and fixated on it as a copying mechanism, and who wasn't interesting in climbing the ladder beyond his chosen profession, is a more interesting character, though there are parts of the new one's narrative I enjoyed.

The Invincible Iron Man (2022). A GOOD RUN??? IN MY IRON MAN COMICS??? I'm going to miss it :))). Fail marriage of convenience with Emma Frost! Tony writing a book and its launch going terribly wrong! Lots of Tony fighting to keep his head above water! And maaaaaybe a new West Coast Avengers team with him and Rhodey in the future? We'll see.

Birth of the Demon trilogy. Calling it a trilogy is a stretch; the first and second one are easily connected (Bride of the Demon obliquely references Talia's "miscarriage), but the third one is on its own. For example, in Son of the Demon, Talia witnesses her mother's murder, like Bruce did, but in Birth of the Demon, we're told she died of an overdose (and that Ra's didn't choose to use the pit on her). Sidenote, as a Jason-centric person, I side-eyed when Bruce, faced with a grieving father who wanted Ra's help to resurrect his son, thinks of his parents instead of thinking of Jason, so shortly after his death xD (Tim was around but not yet Robin, officially). It is quite an interesting saga for the al Ghuls, Talia above all (though, Ra's origin story is fucking horrifying!! Love it). Son of the Demon remains my favourite, but each of them are going to be good sources of inspiration in future stories.

Titans: Titans Forever. Four wacky adventures of a Titans team that includes Jason for some reason LOL. Mixed characterisation on him, but it was fun. Nothing much to say, other than that. Other than Donna having some pseudo-twincest kink xDD (said Jason and Dick looked identical and wanted them to kiss and make up xD).

Batman: Family. I love it when Martha Wayne gets even a little bit of focus, and other than The Ultimate Evil, this run (only 8 issues long) remains the one story I've read that's actually interested in saying anything about her. It was really good; I liked the narration style, with each issue told from the POV of one of the bad guys, and it really showed off a lot of the bat characters at the time (Helena my beloved), and the villain, as well as her connection with Bruce, was quite interesting. It's a pity this story is basically Athena's only appearance, but I'm definitely keeping her character in my back pocket.

Wonder Woman (various comics from John Byrne). I wanted to read Cassie's appearances as I go through YJ98. A+ choice, I really enjoyed a lot of what this quite chaotic run had to offer LOL. Everything regarding Hyppolita, Diana, Cassie, Artemis... but most of all, Donna. Her origin here is the one I already knew from reading Titans99, which starts shortly after this, and it's absolutely mind-blowing. I also liked Hyppolita's time travelling shenanigans being used to explain away continuity issues lol.

Suicide Squad: Get Joker! Eh. I definitely know how I interpret the ending. Sns, but I just don't buy such a lame form of manipulation working on Jason. All that aside, the only part of this comic worth noting is Harley and Jason's dynamic. It caught my eye.

Batman: Three Jokers. There's a scene early on where Barbara runs sooooo hard on a treadmill, she breaks it. It's not the first time she's done it, as proven by this one very impressed guy in the gym. The moment I read that, I knew this comic was going to be absolutely worthless. And I was right! Jason looks quite good in it, though. I'm going to start mentally replacing his modern suits with this one (no bat!!).

Red Hood: The Hill. Things happened. I didn't care for them. The art wasn't even cute. And somehow, not only is this a Red Hood story with next to no Red Hood; not only did it end up being more about Batman than about Jason; but it's, quite literally, not going to amount to anything, story-wise, continuity-wise, you name it. I agree with people that say it's not so bad, that it's not hateful or meanspirited the way other modern Jason stories have been... but that's just not enough for me. And whatever else those other stories do with Jason, at least there's something about them worth discussing.

Batman Chronicles #8 "The Prison". There were other two stories with this one (one about the origin of the cave's dinosaur, another about Gordon and Two-Face), but they're unimportant lol. A story about Ra's ordering Talia to kill Bruce!!! About the struggle between duty and a yearning for freedom (the source of her love for Bruce) in Talia!! If you like it, and you like Brutalia, do yourself a favour and pick it up.

[mallowstep]

not me reading all of ur fics instead of sleeping 😳😳 no but seriously i love all of ur fics. the worldbuilding. its so good <33 and ur writing style is just. so distinct?? idk how to describe but in ur serious fics theres just this air of melancholy and its so good... and the way you write romance... i love... and your also so funny,, r.i.p stonefur for finding night and misty on sunning rocks xd

ahhh HUGE compliment i mean i hope ur not really staying up...my fics will be there in the morning...but thank you very much!

my worldbuilding has been lacking lately ngl...i feel it sharply. the urge to do a good sink your teeth into the world piece is coming round again, and while i don't plan on working on it 'til i'm done with ashes, i have not forgotten the next po3 au is "would you say you depend on the weather." anyway.

thank u so much!! i'm really glad you like my style. i definitely. like. i think i've got a very strong voice and distinct vibe like. i've never wanted to post something anon/orphan, but i have laughed bc while i doubt anyone pays enough attention to notice, i feel like my writing can be so distinct y'all would know.

i'm REALLY glad you like my romance too! i'm --- if y'all are wondering why my fics have had such a Vibe lately, it's because i'm on a one man quest to write some half-decent romance into this fandom. (yes it has all been very Ahem of late, but trust me, i've got all sorts of other nonsense in the works as well. uh. sneak peak and i don't know when any of this will be done if ever, but we've got heatherholly, jaybriar, and shadepaw (avos) having an apprentice crush she's cute about even tho it's completely unattainable and she knows that.) so i'm really glad you enjoy!

(n while my joke writing chops r not Quite up to par of say the wonderful excellent perfect kudo, i also appreciate that! i've --- idk, i like to think i'm funny. i got uhh "mutual who i think is funny but they think they are hilarious" or smthn in an ask game and i was like 😔 i AM funny tho. i'm meming tbc i did not take that to heart or anything.)

adsflja;ds fSTONEFUR yeah YEAH he's so like "aw fuck." i think the way i described. well. i think i was describing a scene from "swear my ever-dying love and then tear it apart," but it works here too. but it's like he's having an entirely normal conversation w his sister except she's on her knees. which is like. just. a very specific kind of awkward.

anyway thank u SO much <333333

[toasterfuloftoast]

Heads up for those who read this. I got really into the Ace Attorney franchise but I dont know it that well. This is just an alternate universe thats a little different. I find it a little funny and I will list some of the pros and cons. Thank you for understanding.

AU: Everything is the same except Phoenix Wright is blind/ is going blind

Clarification: As in, he literally can't see without someone describing to him what something is.

Notes: Some quality memes of Phoenix getting dunked on.

Some more wholesome good between Wright and Edgeworth.

Maya is the right hand man in everything when she can be.

He's still a disaster himbo but add extra clutz

He attempts to hide the fact he's blind by saying he's sensitive to light.

He rats out Dahlia once he recognizes that its not Iris.

While losing his sight, Phoenix only ever tells Larry about and the two start learning Brallie.

Phoenix can sort of make out shapes but those are blurry.

When he looses all of his sight, Phoenix is torn.

Miles figures it out and becomes a little less prickly.

TBC

Pros:

A lot of good wholesome memes and moments

Everything is a fun challenge

Nick is sassier than before

The whole patrol team and maybe some investigators know Phoenix and are friendly.

Maybe able to see in later games.

Trucy knows about his condition and loves her papa.

Cons:

Messes the timelines up

Probably would have Phoenix go through different route of careers

Some plot points wouldn't make sense

Major points in the story would be missed without seeing them.

Everyone would probably figure out his weakness quickly.

[grey-arage]

((Title TBC, its 1am.)) - Christmas Drabble - Lord and Imps

((I wanna start putting little drabbles up here as well as rps n ask memes so here’s my first one of those I guess!! Format for the title is gonna be Title, What it is, Who’s in it.))

Lord heard the commotion in the castle long before he saw it. It was pretty hard to miss excited chatter from over 2000 children, honestly. The villain sat up in his bed, surprised to see it devoid of the children that had been piled around him when he'd fallen asleep. That meant they were plotting something. He couldn't be sure what it was, but he knew he'd be proud no matter their plan. They always seemed to be able to work together better than any of his other creations, their ingenuity and teamwork skills surprising even him at times.

He opened the door to his (expectedly) massive bedroom and drifted out into the hallway, looking around he couldn't help but smile. The kids had been hard at work, filling the castle with Christmas decorations. Tinsel was pinned to the walls, glittering with every crash of lightning. Hung on every door was a lush wreath, dotted with bright red (hopefully fake) berries and gold tinted leaves. From the ceiling hung massive baubles, hung just high enough that Lord didn't have to float lower than he liked to. He had to admire their attention to detail, they always did a fantastic job with making the castle ready for the season. While he liked Christmas as much, if not more, than the next guy he did find it a bit strange that the castle had been done up quite so early... his exit from his bedroom attracted the attention of the cluster of imps in the hall, their eyes practically glimmering with excitement seeing him. "Dad!! Dad look!! We decorated!! Do you like it?" He was bombarded with questions, his sons seeking his praise. He ruffled their hair with his hands, easily catching them all with both of them, and grinned. "It's fantastic! I can always count on you lot to get the castle ready for me." They all began to chatter again, zipping in to hug their father tightly. "Thank you!! Thanks Dad!! You're the best!!" Lords nonexistent heart swelled as he returned the hug, holding his children close. "You're more than welcome. Although I do have one question.." His voice trailed a tad as he looked around.

The imps and fiend collectively tilted their heads, confused. "Huh? What is it? Something wrong?" Lord quickly shook his head at the last question. "No, no, nothing's wrong. I'm just a little confused.. it's still November, isn't it a little early for Christmas?" They'd barely had the Halloween and Birthday arrangements down a month. Considering that his birthday just so happened to BE Halloween they generally combined the two into one. The children giggled, confusing Lord even more. "Hehe! No? It's December! Didn't you know?" Already? He hadn't gotten any of his planning done! He needed to buy (read : Steal) his presents for people, considering those parties he'd been to he'd need to get more than usual. He didn't just have to think about his kids and Cindah, but Chimi, (and Charles, he supposed. To keep up appearances for the "man") Luna and that Boat Lady. Maybe even that Brynjarr guy Arage had mentioned, considering how close he seemed to be with the boy already... and he had to make sure Cindah had transport to his castle, assuming she could even make it.. that said, she hadn't missed a year yet.

A scythe tapping gently against his face broke him from his racing thoughts. He blinked a couple times and glanced down at the one eyed fiend responsible. "You alright, geezer?" It asked, slightly worried, but mostly in its usual monotone. Lord gave a single solid nod. "Yeah, thanks for asking. I'm just thinking about what to get you all for Christmas. That and it reminded me I need to call Cindah." Their eyes collectively lit up once more at mention of the Chef. "Cindah! She's coming right? When's she coming? I can't wait!!" The children's excitement again shot up. The villain couldn't help but chuckle seeing them so happy. Letting Cindah visit for the season was one of the best ideas he'd had for the kids, they'd really bonded with her while she was in the castle the first time and he was admittedly quite glad she felt the same adoration for them that they did for her.

"I'm gonna see if she can be here for the 27th or 8th. That seems to be the earliest she can easily get away from those losers she's partied with." The kids couldn't help but snicker as Lord described the party the way he did. While they shared his total disdain for the still growing group they always found hearing their dad insult them funny. "She should live with us, not them!" One piped up, inciting a chorus of cheers from the others. "Yeah! She's way better than them! Way cooler!" He raised an eyebrow with a smirk, the boys preempting a joke. "Cooler, hm? Don't you mean hotter? She works with fire magic." His quip had the cluster of kids giggling, which in turn brought a chuckle up from him. If anything made him happy it was that laughter.

That said, anything his kids did made him happy. Made him feel important. They needed him and if he was being honest, which he usually was with them, he needed them too. Before he opened that box and released the curse he was nobody.

But now?

He was significant in this world, everybody knew his name, his title, his conquest on this realm and there wasn't a chance in hell anyone was forgetting it any time soon. His legacy would long outlive him. But even more importantly than that, he was a proud father to many. His children were his pride and joy and guardian spirit be damned he would make sure they had the best lives he could offer them. Sure being the son of the Dark Lord didn't leave them with many opportunities but it hadn't seemed to have stopped Gavvin. His features fell a little thinking about the boy...

Tap Tap Tap. The scythe was back again. "Dad. Come on. Quit it. Moping is our thing." The Fiend attempted a joke. Something Lord appreciated from him, considering how... emotionless they sometimes were. "How about we make it neither of our things, huh? I'll get some time scheduled for you and some of your brothers soon, don't worry." A tinge of excitement brimmed in his eye, which made Lord beam. He was already looking forward to spending time with a group of the Fiends. Connecting with them could be difficult but it wasn't impossible, and it was unendingly rewarding.

"Now, why don't you all show me what you've been up to and then we can all do the tree together. Assuming you lot haven't gotten to it already." The villain snickered, his smile widening further seeing how excited the request made the group. "Of course we haven't done the tree, we were waiting for you!" He knew they would've waited. "Let's go!! Come on, Dad! I did these ones!" They zipped around pointing at everything and chattering away, the Fiend clutching at a finger on one of his hands and a pair of imps dragging him forward by the other. Lord couldn't imagine spending Christmas any other way.

[sanhatation]

Does Aroha have any inside fandom jokes?

as a fandom where memes are our roots and eternally ingrained in our programming, yes, you have come to the right place ! 

THE HISTORY OF AROHA: A BRIEF TIME(ME)LINE

Predebut/To Be Continued

- minions ; the very first aroha meme, somewhat rare to see today unironically, it haunts us just look through the linked tag thats not even a percent of them

- where’s Clap Clap

- eunwoo’s thick

- all of us having a FIT at the thought of debut

- doryongi 

- throwback to when we knew Nothing about Fantagio and feared them and begged them to be nice 

- that’s it that’s literally all we had predebut honestly one of the inside jokes was the fact that we had nothing and that if u searched “astro” all u would get was astrology + astro boy posts

Spring Up

- aroha went in an UPROAR when we found out that Ok!Ready wasn’t going to be released through vlive…a BOYCOTT

- do NOT trust maknae line with shopping

- european bagel

- eunwoo as a rich mother to a chaebol

- headband!mj supporters vs. headband!mj antis

- blush!sanha supporters vs. blush!sanha antis

- aroha once again in FLAMES as bin’s tummy kept flashing during Hide & Seek performances ; a common conversation among the fandom

- this.

- “three smol three tol”

- the realization of the Chaos that is The Birthday Season

- “well at least they didnt debut with bad hairstyles”

- the fact that majority of us were under the age of 20

- WHEN SOMEONE JUST….STARTED CALLING BIN “KIM MOON BIN” AND IT SPREAD… YALL WTF FHJDFKDS

Summer Vibes

- the goose 

- Fantagio forgetting literally every password….Spotify, YouTube, Twitter….

- the overalls supporters vs. the overalls antis

- SANHA IS THE TALLEST

- where’d rocky’s earrings go 

- where’s Clap Clap

- “who’s that girl”

- birth of svtstro

- cicada ddoca no need to say more

- literally The Most happened during SV i cant even remember her its all a blur

Autumn Story

- really flipped a lid thinking Confession was gonna be bad boy!astro

- WHEN THE TRACKLIST DROPPED AND FOR A SOLID FIVE MINUTES WE WERE IN CHAOS THINKING THE TITLE TRACK WAS “GO BACK” FROM TBC

- mj in SHORTS

- the Theories begin

- seojeong (sei) kinda looks like sanha in a wig????

- where’s Clap Clap

- when eunwoo was in that random EXID vcr and we flipped a lid (a reoccurring theme) 

- astro are bad at games

- what……….even was astro asc 2

- chicken mania

- where’s the dance practice 

- the entirety of boyfriend milk….minions make a tragic comeback. 

- jinjin likes pretty things

- eunwoo exposed 

Winter Dream

- THE most dramatic era

- the entire music video Fiasco ; astro clicked “delete” instead of “publish” on the Again mv ; fantagio once again forgot youtube password, etc.

- astro: kings of starting and ending winter in one day 

- where’s Clap Clap

- this entire era was centered around crying over the dance practice + rioting over the lack of a mv 

- eunroach. 

Dream Pt. 01

- JINJIN VISUAL 1 TOP

- mwave meet & greet

- the show fan pd (aka: the chocolate game)

- what the freaking frick even happened during Baby

- rocky swag

- where’s Clap Clap

- STRONG BERRY.......

- shirtless astro FIASCO….jinjin + bin plotting memes

- seriously what in the diddly darn frick even happened during Baby

- let rocky sing

- “favor” drinks

- S T R E A M  B A B Y !!!!

Dream Pt. 02 it sure has escalated

- tbt to when we thought we were getting a nightmare concept 

- buff bin

- eunwoo watches hentai

- bin is a furry 

- how did it become this way 

- there is SOMEONE running a secret stan twt account….astro could be on tumblr 

- new astro family tree “my son” 

- HOW COULD I FORGET THE BOWLING FIASCO OF 2018

- mwave meet & greet

- noh taeyoon

- hp sorting…we dont talk about that anymore

- buff bin x10000 literally every aroha wants bin to crush their skull ! 

- this era was a hot MESS and i dont even know how half of these memes originated and quite frankly i dont want to know

- where’s Clap Clap

in conclusion: there is by far too many aroha inside jokes to even capture…all we know is Tomfoolery 

[viralarcadian]

cataclysm had the unfortunate luck to come our smack dab in the middle of "pop culture references are the joke, set-up, AND punchline" era of media, when family guy was at its peak popularity and everyone wanted a slice of that pie

this had the knock-on effect of a bunch of zones filled to the brim w pop culture references and LE EPIC MEME references that otherwise cluttered the storytelling

going thru westfall once as a newb was cute because i didn't know the lore behind the zone and heh hehe csi miami joke, but now it's like. grating. the lore of westfall is really interesting and it got screwed over and forgotten

same w uldum. people were, from what I gather, super duper interested in what exactly was beyond this big locked gate in tantric, and when we finally get to go there half the zone's storyline is just the plot to raiders of the lost ark, because they'd added a minor NPC to the game back in TBC that was an indiana jones reference. like, the lore of the cool cat-taur people is COOL but we only get such a small slice of it because HAHAH REFERENCE PLEASE CLAP

not to say pop culture references are ALL bad. you can have NPCs named after silly things and have them act out scenes from popular movies, but like, there's an art to knowing when and where to put them

to the dev's credit they've reigned this in a lot, so now you have to actively hunt for the little references again instead of having them be front and center

[sassysavagesanha]

Get to know me tag????

Tagged by @blueberrybins sorry this took ten million years I had it started as a draft right when you tagged me I just never got around to finishing it bc life got busy but its done now!

1) 5 favorite groups? why must you hurt me this way??

Astro

Seventeen

Day6

B1A4

Nine Percent/UNB/Weki Meki/a billion others don’t make me choose

2) Top 5 on your bias list? (no particular order)

Jeonghan

Dowoon

Sanha

Chen Linong

Sandeul

3) Ult Bias group and why you love them?

Astro!

These dorks will always have a special place in my heart because they were the first kpop group I ever got into. They pulled me in with their lovely voices, chipper songs, awkward acting (tbc anyone?), and lovable personalities. Honestly they are all such hardworking people and they put everything they have into creating content for their fans and thinking about us everyday. I guess the main thing I love about them is how genuine they are in everything that they do. Also they are huge memes

4) Ult Bias and why you love them?

Jeonghan!

I debated a lot about my answer to this (some may even say I debated too much) but I eventually came to the realization, that while I still love Sanha with my whole heart, I don’t have quiet the same attraction to him that I do to Jeonghan. Sanha is like my child and I want to love, protect, and see him grow into a wonderful young man, but Jeonghan is already a grown adult. 

But enough about Sanha this is about Jeonghan. Honestly where do I begin? I’ll be honest but what first drew me to Jeonghan was his hair. It was an eye catching look and really made him stand out in a group full of talented people. That said, I’m still really happy with his short hair and I am convinced that he can not have a bad hair style because everything looks good on him. But he is more than just his hair. He is an incredibly smart and innovative person when he wants to be and I just love that the majority of when he wants to act on those traits is to mess with his members. Its the way he shows he cares about them and its so cool that he wants to share his love by making people smile. This is gonna get too long so I’m gonna stop, but just know that I also love his voice, style, and that he is a deeply layered person.

5) Favorite Kpop Meme

6) Favorite pic of your ult? (I dare you to only pick one)

I really like this picture becasue this was one of my favorite hair styles, Pretty U is my favorite Seventeen song, and I just really like this shot with the umbrella 

7)  Favorite Kpop MVs

Spring Day - BTS

Only One - UNB

Hi, Hello/I’m Serious - Day6 (just all of every day6 tbh)

What’s Happening? - B1A4

Rain - KNK

Flame of Love - Taemin

8) 10 Favorite Kpop songs? ( no particular order because that is ha r d )

Pretty U - Seventeen

Lie - Astro

Goodbye - 2NE1

Wind - FT Island

Re-bye - AKMU

Beautiful Target - B1A4

I Need Someone - Day6

My I - Jun & The8

Sorry - The Rose

Hot Potato - N.Flying

9) Favorite Kpop crack video?

Either https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL0gDskL84 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6KKnJ8jTs because both of them never fail to make me laugh

10) Favorite content creator(s) within the fandom?

tbh i’ve been absent from tumblr for so long idk who even does what anymore so @snibnoom @jinwoostro @vonseal I guess? You all make content right?

11) What fandoms would you say you’re an active member of?

Pretty active member of Aroha, but I’ve been hyping up Nine Percent and UNB a lot lately too...

12) Take your top 3 biases- fmk

....I hate this

F - Dowoon

M- Jeonghan

K- Sanha

I really want to marry Jeonghan, and I don’t want to do the sex with Sanha (or any of them really) so I married Jeonghan and killed Sanha and Dowoon got fuck by default 

13) If you could be best friends with any idol, who would you choose?

So many to choose from! Tbh I’d have to go with Sei or Sandeul for very different reasons. I choose Sei because Sei and I share a similar personality and she is someone that I could see sharing a quiet moment with but also having fun when we felt like it. I choose Sandeul because it would never be a dull moment with him and I would love to hear him sing in person. 

14) If you could date any idol, who?

Tbh I don’t really look at an idol and go “wow I would date them!” most of the time I just don’t see us working out or I would much rather be friends than have any personal relationship with them. That said, essentially the only person in all of kpop that I can see myself having even a slightly successful relationship with is Joshua. 

15) What’s one Kpop album you think everyone should have listened to?

 Sunrise and Moonrise both by Day6 because Day6 can’t make a bad song and I can’t choose between those two albums.

16) Are you a soft or a hard stan?

I am the softest stan. Just give me soft couch cuddles and butterfly kisses and leave the hard stuff to other people.

17) An idol that makes you go into soft mode?

DOWOON, Kijoong, Sanha, NONGNONG, Guanlin 

18) An idol that makes you want to smash the empire state building with one single punch?

Jun (Svt) becasue that boi is rude and soft at the same time and I can’t handle it

19) Favorite vocalist?

SANDEUL I mean have you heard him sing?????

20) Favorite Rapper?

Most of my favorite songs are ballads or lack in significant rap portions so I’m just gonna say Young K just for his rap in Hunt because I don’t really have a strong opinion 

21) Favorite dancer?

Euijin or Feeldog all of performance unit

22) Things you have in common with your ult?

We both tease the people we love as a sign of affection and we both like to sleep

23) The most beautiful trait any idol can have?

A thoughtful personality with a dash of playfulness

24) Songs that will always make you jam along?

Voodoo Doll - Vixx

Damdadi - Golden Child

I.P.U - Wanna One

Just Do It - BSS

Mind Control - Top Secret

Jelly - Hotshot

Hero - Monsta X

Ei Ei - Idol Producer

What’s Happening? - B1A4 

O Sole Mio - SF9

Don’t Tease Me! - SPEED

Black Suit - Super Junior

How People Move - AKMU

I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend - Weki Meki

I’m just gonna stop myself here, but just know that there’s about ten million more I didn’t mention 

25) Your worst wrecker?

JUN

26) Any kpop concerts you’ve been to?

I wish fam

27) Favorite choreo?

No F.U.N - Seventeen because umbrellas and suits and kingsman

28) Favorite live performance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KiW1Xuxa7k or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEE0pPXoSdQ because the duality 

29) Favorite debut mv?

Feeling/Sense - UNB

30) Recommend a rookie group

UNB PLEASE GIVE THEM LOVE AND SUPPORT AND STAN ALL THE GROUPS THEY COME FROM

31.) A kpop song you could listen to every day for the rest of your life?

Solo Day - B1A4

32) Tag some cute mutuals you’d like to get to know better (and to do this challenge)!

@mingews @parkminhyuk @jinjinxed @binnieheart @assstro @sanhatation tbh i’m just tagging random usernames at this point so hi! do this if you want to or don’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[aion-rsa]

10 World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Moments We Can’t Wait to Relive in Classic

https://ift.tt/2NlytM4

Much like the reveal of Diablo 2 Resurrection, many Blizzard fans were anticipating the eventual release of The Burning Crusade Classic as the follow-up to WoW Classic. It seemed inevitable that Blizzard would revisit the first WoW expansion following “vanilla” WoW‘s recent success.

And yet, there’s something undeniably magical about the confirmation that we’re this much closer to the essential re-release of WoW: The Burning Crusade. Not only was TBC the first of many expansions in WoW history, it is what many consider to be one of the best eras in the history of one of the best video game franchises ever.

So as we prepare to dive back into Burning Crusade, let’s also look back at the Burning Crusade moments that we can’t wait to relive.

1. The Opening of the Dark Portal

The opening of the Dark Portal is undeniably a special moment in the history of Warcraft lore that is partially elevated by the memory of experiencing something truly new in a game that is genuinely beloved.

Yet, there is something genuinely special about this moment that lives on to this day. The feeling of watching hundreds of people wait at the threshold of this monolith that teased players since WoW launched is one of those moments that’s never quite been replicated.

Despite their best efforts, Blizzard has never crafted a transition between expansions quite as brilliant as entering the Dark Portal. It will be a purely magical moment to relive.

2. The Theatrics of the Karazhan Raid

It’s not that Karazhan is the first great raid in WoW history (far from it), but this was the raid that really proved to everyone what the team was capable of when they were at their best.

As what could be described as the party that never ends, Karazhan not only featured one of the most unique thematic concepts of any WoW raid before or since but a thematic quality that could only be described as one of Blizzard’s best environmental storytelling efforts ever.

Karazhan is still rightfully used as the measuring stick for even modern WoW raids. It’s a piece of operatic brilliance that hasn’t aged a day.

3. The Fight Against Kael’thas Sunstrider

Some of the best boss fights in old-school video game history features a multi-phase structure that teased victory just often enough to keep you on the hook. The battle against Kael’thas Sunstrider replicated the best elements of those old-school battles.

This marathon of a raid boss sees you navigate five distinct stages that often force you to deploy unique strategies. From brawls with unique melee weapons to a timed DPS check, the fight against Kael’thas Sunstrider is a truly epic encounter.

It’s not the hardest boss fight in TBC (more on that later), but in its own way, this is the boss fight that set a standard that so many tried (and often failed) to match.

4. Illidan and the Black Temple Raid

Few villains in WoW history were ever as hyped as Illidan Stormrage. He was the clear face of the Burning Crusade expansion and one of the clearest threats that WoW had ever known.

It’s a small miracle, then, that the battle against Illidan didn’t disappoint. While working your way up to Illidan, there’s a real sense that you’re working your way toward this ultimate presence that has been lingering somewhere above you for your entire journey.

Even if Black Temple isn’t the absolute best raid and Illidan isn’t the best raid boss, the combination of those two elements come together to form something that truly feels special in the way that the best raids should.

5. Burning Crusade’s Arena Battles

When WoW Classic‘s PvP scene finally debuted, many players felt like there was a little something missing. It turns out that little something may have been Burning Crusade‘s Arena battles.

TBC‘s introduction of team-based battles forever shaped WoW‘s PvP scene by alerting gamers to the fact that assembling the perfect PvP squad and sending them into battle captured the best elements of PvP conflict and PvE character building.

Was TBC‘s Arena meta perfect? Absolutely not. However, for millions of WoW Classic players who have spent hours building the perfect character, it’s going to be the first real chance to introduce them to the PvP scene.

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6. Making That First Horde Paladin or Alliance Shaman

From a sheer lore perspective, you could certainly still argue for Blizzard’s decision to limit the Paladin class to Alliance players and the Shaman class to Horde fans. It was a fantastic way to add a little extra incentive to the idea of choosing one faction over the other.

Even still, there’s a larger argument to be made for how the decision to let both factions create characters for those iconic classes ultimately helped the balance of the game. That blend of lore and mechanics was never quite as perfect as it was when TBC finally let you create Alliance Shamans and Horde Paladins.

Granted, they weren’t the most “viable” classes at the time, but the novelty of being able to finally bridge the gap is going to inspire a lot of players to make these their first TBC alts.

7. Earning Your First Flying Mount

While playing through WoW Classic, you really started to feel the things that you truly missed. For many, one of those things was the ability to acquire flying mounts.

TBC‘s addition of flying mounts was considered to be one of the expansion’s best ideas at the time of its release, and that sentiment remains strong years later. It turns out that investing a huge amount of gold into the ability to fly around a zone is worth the investment.

Even modern WoW players will be able to appreciate how earning that first flying mount feels in TBC.

8. Finally Beating M’uru

Some of the most beloved WoW boss fights in the game’s history are also the most frustrating. There’s just something about a truly difficult challenge that brings people together like nothing else.

There are few better examples of that concept than M’uru. While not the best example of a WoW fight from a lore or thematic perspective, the sheer mechanical challenge of M’uru haunts players to this day. It’s one of the most intimidating WoW boss fights Blizzard ever crafted.

M’uru is going to challenge WoW players in a way that even the toughest WoW Classic fights never really did. We’ll see if this one ends up being a true guild breaker or a moment of pure triumph.

9. Showing off the Twin Blades of Azzinoth

Look, the fact of the matter is that some of the best gear in WoW history has been reserved for melee classes. There’s just something fundamentally cool about wielding a truly distinct weapon in your hands.

There are few better examples of that concept than the Twin Blades of Azzinoth. Not only are the thematic weapons of Illidan Stormrage one of the greatest WoW flexes ever from a purely visual standpoint, but they were some of the most powerful weapons that WoW players could ever dream of at the time of the TBC‘s release.

It takes a lot of effort and a lot of luck to unlock the Twin Blades. Thankfully, it all proves to be worth it for the simple pleasure of showing off.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

10. Seeing True Class Diversity in Dungeons and Raids

Look, the truth of the matter is that high-end WoW players are always going to find the optimal class compositions for any scenario. That philosophy will almost certainly apply to the re-release of a WoW expansion.

Yet, there’s absolutely something to be said for how TBC made more classes more viable than ever before. While the balance changes that Blizzard made to classes like Druids are the most obvious example of this benefit, the more lasting benefit of this change may be how TBC‘s enhanced difficulty level made it more important than ever to invite the right players rather than the right classes.

High-end guilds will still look for specific compositions, but TBC will help ensure that those who prefer certain builds won’t be limited to the meme tier of raid invites.

The post 10 World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Moments We Can’t Wait to Relive in Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/37vlz5b

[jello-squid]

OWO He-hewwo

srsly-stopprocrastinating said to jello-squid:Your lemon candy video??? Is so aesthetically pleasing???? Your characters are so soft and beautiful I'm in love

blackcatinapinkvest said to jello-squid:I love your art style! I found you through the Hellfire animator and haven't looked back! I have to admit, I'm envious of your curvatious women! They're so pretty!!

masterofalchemy5 said to jello-squid:(1/2) Hi. I made a Tumblr to make this post, so idek if this is the right place to do this, and I'm sure you get this all the time, but... I watched annapantsu's cover of "Hellfire", and of course I cried. But watching your accompanying animatic made me weep. I normally use such a phrase lightly (i.e omg i'm crying this is so cute/funny) but not this time. Even typing this, its hard to see the screen cause I just watched it again and am crying once more (lawl). The way you captured this (tbc) masterofalchemy5 said to jello-squid:(2/2) desperate pleading of a heart caught between devotion to the church and her own undeniable feelings shook me to my very core. I cannot begin to express how cathartic it was to see something that moved me to tears. It doesn't happen nearly often enough anymore. Thank you.

that-blu-eyed-guy said to jello-squid:Not much of an ask but I️ just want to say I️ really love your work! Idk how to really say things to people so I️ shall also say the word flabbergast. That is all.

unaestheticallydispleasing said to jello-squid:Um I love you and your art. plz love me. I uh happy early day of being birthed by your birthgiver

diehardpizzer said to jello-squid:Oh my gosh I lovr your art so much!! And that animation meme you made is just amazing!

THANK YOU ALL I LOVE YOU GUYS <33333

[mallowstep]

another au ask but do you have any tbc au’s?

not a ton...

i'm going to put the rest of this under a read more, because it's impossible for me to talk about tbc without talking about abuse, and like, i'm not gonna get graphic about it, but i'm also not gonna pull punches, y'know?

for stuff i already have, "may there be no sadness of farewell" is a squirrelstar au and it's got a lot planned for that au! i've got i think 7 chapters left, + two side fics, one of which is supposed to be 5 chapters/20k words.

and "make moonshine out of moonlight" is a canon compliant tigerheart & dovewing focused au.

i probably have other stuff? i don't know off the top of my head.

anyway.

as for stuff in progress...

the next au i have is untitled and basically:

"sandstorm doesn't die in avos and instead lives and when bramblestar drops her daughter off the highledge she drop-kicks him into the sun"

feat. sandstorm still alive during lost stars/whatever the next book is i always forget, and when bramblestar is physically abusive, instead of being okay with it like the rest of the clan, she drop-kicks him into the sun.

is this a squirrelstar au too? i'm not sure. mtbnsof is a weird genre cross of "squirrelflight grappling with abuse" and "intense political thriler" and like...

i love writing squilf, but i don't want to burn out of squilf angst, y'know? there's only so many times you can explore the exact same content in a row.

that said, i think this would be from sandstorm's pov. i want to see her deal with her daughter's abuse. if i can get personal, i relate heavily to squilf because i have seen my mom be her, and i have been her but we don't talk about that here that's main blog shit

so i've also seen my grandmother react and like. yeah. i'd want to write that.

for related reasons, i have at least a one shot planned where sparkpelt has to deal with her father's abusive behaviour. i don't know a ton about it yet, just that it is going to exist.

i actually have several ideas related to that concept, but some of them are for existing aus/plans, so i'm not going to talk about them in detail.

oh! i want to write an au where squilf runs away to skyclan bc leafstar realizes that bramblestar is an abusive pos

i want to do a cross-time and clan piece about time in the pit. there have been a lot of trauma pits. i want to write about it.

oh! an au where everything is the same dovewing just rips lionblaze a new one for how he treats her son.

and i was inspired by a tumblr post about ferncloud's ghost helping shadow + root?

(i do save all of my tumblr posts for inspiration, btw. i intend on citing my sources, so to speak.)

similarly, i have a loner squilf au saved, but i'm not sure how i feel about it. i have to sort out what/why happens. part of why squilf is so personally relatable to me is because she doesn't realize what's going on because yeah, abuse survivors often don't.

uh, i wanna explore the concept of "if you die in the dark forest you die in real life"?

and i wanna do a lot exploring ivypool & bristlefrost's relationship, but that isn't really, like, an au at all

oh! and yes, okay, i do want to do this: i want to do a slightly-crack au where shrewpaw and ashfur are wrestling for control of bramble's body, because shrewpaw just wants to treat squilf right and ashfur is trying to do his canon thing and here's the thing!

i say slightly-crack bc it's meme-y, but like, in reality, it's going to be terribly traumatizing to squilf as they act out the cycle of abuse in all of its glory, and she's powerless and confused and terrified. very angsty.

it will have a happy ending, tho. she deserves it.

and...i think that's it?

sorry this wasn't as like, detailed as the other au posts, i just...i generally like tbc? like it raises so many interesting dynamics to explore that i'd rather do that than write an au.

don't worry tho in a year i'll have 14 million ideas like i do for po3.

[mynameishorny]

I’m going to be discussing science today; modern science.

It is necessary for my project to continue progressing.

I do know (sufficiently) all scientific knowledge necessary to moving post-pre to an actual implementation phase event (yes, I know that sounds weird, but that’s actually what I want it to sound like).

I’m Going to get high first (post-9am.S.P)

(Written over an hour ago)

Thanks. “

~ n - ‘

5 major topics

General physics;

Chemistry:

Biology;

Mathematics;

& Government (I.e Social/political Law) “

(This may be for tumblr) ’

I know all other fields are base categories. ‘

:)

Shall we begin?

👿😈👿😈

Physics is your ability to organize your physical actions (technically)

As minimalistic as that sounds. I get it. It’s lame. But it is technically accurate.

Breaking bad had it right: Chemistry is change.

But specifically something losing its capacity for an alternate unit’s merging into something’s compromised state. ‘

Biology is simple. It is principally psychological. While the body is a sub-set of psychology.

We experience the body though the mind (but both are equally valid. ‘)

That being said, natural selection is inevitable.

Dawkins got it right.

👍

Mathematics:

Introverted calculus (the Godfather Of modern Mathematics)

It explains arithmetic (determination)’s marriage to algebra (speculation) to become calculus (generalized inference)

Government:

😍

Thanks for the $1235.42 a month, 🇨🇦

; )

Government is the ultimate category.

Cat = mind : a - something : gor - memory : y - that which refers to something’s memory with/to a mind ’

Government is how memetics (or memes) concentrate/confuse to a point-placement within general discourse.

(Point placement is something’s reductionist state for /[a] detection unfrom point-placement). ’

It is the natural selection of all medias.’

:)

This works mathematically through understanding the science of aesthetics. ’

The science of aesthetics: ‘’

🏚 ?

Pristine/teen. ’

Thank you.

~ n. - ‘

No - really.

The relationship between a line and uninferred meaning is palpable. (tbc) ”

[technicalsolutions88]

Facebook has produced a report summarizing feedback it’s taken in on its idea of establishing a content oversight board to help arbitrate on moderation decisions.

Aka the ‘supreme court of Facebook’ concept first discussed by founder Mark Zuckerberg last year, when he told Vox:

[O]ver the long term, what I’d really like to get to is an independent appeal. So maybe folks at Facebook make the first decision based on the community standards that are outlined, and then people can get a second opinion. You can imagine some sort of structure, almost like a Supreme Court, that is made up of independent folks who don’t work for Facebook, who ultimately make the final judgment call on what should be acceptable speech in a community that reflects the social norms and values of people all around the world.

Facebook has since suggested the oversight board will be up and running later this year. And has just wheeled out its global head of policy and spin for a European PR push to convince regional governments to give it room for self-regulation 2.0, rather than slapping it with broadcast-style regulations.

The latest report, which follows a draft charter unveiled in January, rounds up input fed to Facebook via six “in-depth” workshops and 22 roundtables convened by Facebook and held in locations of its choosing around the world.

In all, Facebook says the events were attended by 650+ people from 88 different countries — though it further qualifies that by saying it had “personal discussions” with more than 250 people and received more than 1,200 public consultation submissions.

“In each of these engagements, the questions outlined in the draft charter led to thoughtful discussions with global perspectives, pushing us to consider multiple angles for how this board could function and be designed,” Facebook writes.

It goes without saying that this input represents a minuscule fraction of the actual ‘population’ of Facebook’s eponymous platform, which now exceeds 2.2BN accounts (an unknown portion of which will be fake/duplicates), while its operations stretch to more than double the number of markets represented by individuals at the events.

The feedback exercise — as indeed the concept of the board itself — is inevitably an exercise in opinion abstraction. Which gives Facebook leeway to shape the output as it prefers. (And, indeed, the full report notes that “some found this public consultation ‘not nearly iterative enough, nor transparent enough, to provide any legitimacy’ to the process of creating the Board”.)

In a blog post providing its spin on the “global feedback and input”, Facebook culls three “general themes” it claims emerged from the various discussions and submissions — namely that: 

People want a board that exercises independent judgment — not judgment influenced by Facebook management, governments or third parties, writing: “The board will need a strong foundation for its decision-making, a set of higher-order principles — informed by free expression and international human rights law — that it can refer to when prioritizing values like safety and voice, privacy and equality”. Though the full report flags up the challenge of ensuring the sought for independence, and it’s not clear Facebook will be able to create a structure that can stand apart from its own company or indeed other lobbyists

How the board will select and hear cases, deliberate together, come to a decision and communicate its recommendations both to Facebook and the public are key considerations — though those vital details remain tbc. “In making its decisions, the board may need to consult experts with specific cultural knowledge, technical expertise and an understanding of content moderation,” Facebook suggests, implying the boundaries of the board are unlikely to be firmly fixed

People also want a board that’s “as diverse as the many people on Facebook and Instagram” — the problem being that’s clearly impossible, given the planet-spanning size of Facebook platforms. Another desire Facebook highlights is for the board to be able to encourage it to make “better, more transparent decisions”. The need for board decisions (and indeed decisions Facebook takes when setting up the board) to be transparent emerges as a major theme in the report. In terms of the board’s make-up, Facebook says it should comprise experts with different backgrounds, different disciplines, and different viewpoints — “who can all represent the interests of a global community”. Though there’s clearly going to be differing views on how or even whether that’s possible to achieve; and therefore questions over how a 40-odd member body, that will likely rarely sit in plenary, can plausibly act as an prism for Facebook’s user-base

The report is worth reading in full to get a sense of the broad spectrum of governance questions and conundrums Facebook is here wading into.

If, as it very much looks, this is a Facebook-configured exercise in blame spreading for the problems its platform hosts, the surface area for disagreement and dispute will clearly be massive — and from the company’s point of view that already looks like a win. Given how, since 2016, Facebook (and Zuckerberg) have been the conduit for so much public and political anger linked to the spreading and accelerating of harmful online content.

Differing opinions and will also provide cover for Facebook to justify starting “narrow”. Which it has said it will do with the board, aiming to have something up and running by the end of this year. But that just means it’ll be managing expectations of how little actual oversight will flow right from the very start.

The report also shows that Facebook’s claimed ‘listening ear’ for a “global perspective” has some very hard limits.

So while those involved in the consultation are reported to have repeatedly suggested the oversight board should not just be limited to content judgement — but should also be able to make binding decisions related to things like Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm or wider use of AI by the company — Facebook works to shut those suggestions down, underscoring the scope of the oversight will be limited to content.

“The subtitle of the Draft Charter — “An Oversight Board for Content Decisions” — made clear that this body would focus specifically on content. In this regard, Facebook has been relatively clear about the Board’s scope and remit,” it writes. “However, throughout the consultation period, interlocutors often proposed that the Board hear a wide range of controversial and emerging issues: newsfeed ranking, data privacy, issues of local law, artificial intelligence, advertising policies, and so on.”

It goes on to admit that “the question persisted: should the Board be restricted to content decisions only, without much real influence over policy?” — before picking a selection of responses that appear intended to fuzz the issue, allowing it to position itself as seeking a reasoned middle ground.

“In the end, balance will be needed; Facebook will need to resolve tensions between minimalist and maximalist visions of the Board,” it concludes. “Above all, it will have to demonstrate that the Oversight Board — as an enterprise worth doing — adds value, is relevant, and represents a step forward from content governance as it stands today.”

Sample cases the report suggests the board could review — as suggested by participants in Facebook’s consultation — include:

A user shared a list of men working in academia, who were accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior and/or abuse, including unwanted sexual advances;

A Page that commonly uses memes and other forms of satire shared posts that used discriminatory remarks to describe a particular demographic group in India;

A candidate for office made strong, disparaging remarks to an unknown passerby regarding their gender identity and livestreamed the interaction. Other users reported this due to safety concerns for the latter person;

A government official suggested that a local minority group needed to be cautious, comparing that group’s behavior to that of other groups that have faced genocide

So, again, it’s easy to see the kinds of controversies and indeed criticisms that individuals sitting on Facebook’s board will be opening themselves up to — whichever way their decisions fall.

A content review board that will inevitably remain linked to (if not also reimbursed via) the company that establishes it, and will not be granted powers to set wider Facebook policy — but will instead be tasked with facing the impossible of trying to please all of the Facebook users (and critics) all of the time — does certainly risk looking like Facebook’s stooge; a conduit for channeling dirty and political content problems that have the potential to go viral and threaten its continued ability to monetize the stuff that’s uploaded to its platforms.

Facebook’s preferred choice of phrase to describe its users — “global community” — is a tellingly flat one in this regard.

The company conspicuously avoids talk of communities, plural — instead the closest we get here is a claim that its selective consultation exercise is “ensuring a global perspective”, as if a singular essence can somehow be distilled from a non-representative sample of human opinion — when in fact the stuff that flows across its platforms is quite the opposite; multitudes of perspectives from individuals and communities whose shared use of Facebook does not an emergent ‘global community’ make.

This is why Facebook has struggled to impose a single set of ‘community standards’ across a platform that spans so many contexts; a one-size-fits all approach very clearly doesn’t fit.

Yet it’s not at all clear how Facebook creating yet another layer of content review changes anything much for that challenge — unless the oversight body is mostly intended to act as a human shield for the company itself, putting a firewall between it and certain highly controversial content; aka Facebook’s supreme court of taking the blame on its behalf.

Just one of the difficult content moderation issues embedded in the businesses of sociotechnical, planet-spanning social media platform giants like Facebook — hate speech — defies a top-down ‘global’ fix.

As Evelyn Douek wrote last year vis-a-via hate speech on the Lawfare blog, after Zuckerberg had floated the idea of a governance structure for online speech: “Even if it were possible to draw clear jurisdictional lines and create robust rules for what constitutes hate speech in countries across the globe, this is only the beginning of the problem: within each jurisdiction, hate speech is deeply context-dependent… This context dependence presents a practically insuperable problem for a platform with over 2 billion users uploading vast amounts of material every second.”

A cynic would say Facebook knows it can’t fix planet-scale content moderation and still turn a profit. So it needs a way to distract attention and shift blame.

If it can get enough outsiders to buy into its oversight board — allowing it to pass off the oxymoron of “global governance”, via whatever self-styled structure it allows to emerge from these self-regulatory seeds — the company’s hope must be that the device also works as a bolster against political pressure.

Both over particular problem/controversial content, and also as a vehicle to shrink the space for governments to regulate Facebook.

In a video discussion also embedded in Facebook’s blog post — in which Zuckerberg couches the oversight board project as “a big experiment that we hope can pioneer a new model for the governance of speech on the Internet” — the Facebook founder also makes reference to calls he’s made for more regulation of the Internet. As he does so he immediately qualifies the statement by blending state regulation with industry self-regulation — saying the kind of regulation he’s asking for is “in some cases by democratic process, in other cases through independent industry process”.

So Zuckerberg is making a clear pitch to position Facebook as above the rule of nation state law — and setting up a “global governance” layer is the self-serving vehicle of choice for the company to try and overtake democracy.

Even if Facebook’s oversight board’s structure is so cunningly fashioned as to present to a rationally minded individual as, in some senses, ‘independent’ from Facebook, its entire being and function will remain dependent on Facebook’s continued existence.

Whereas if individual markets impose their own statutory regulations on Internet platforms, based on democratic and societal principles, Facebook will have no control over the rules they impose, direct or otherwise — with uncontrolled compliance costs falling on its business.

It’s easy to see which model sits most easily with Zuckerberg the businessman — a man who has also demonstrated he will not be held personally accountable for what happens on his platform.

Not when he’s asked by one (non-US) parliament, nor even by representatives from nine parliaments — all keen to discuss the societal fallouts of political disinformation and hate speech spread and accelerated on Facebook.

Turns out that’s not the kind of ‘global perspective’ Facebook wants to sell you.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2ITIviC Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

[sheminecrafts]

Facebook’s content oversight board plan is raising more questions than it answers

Facebook has produced a report summarizing feedback it’s taken in on its idea of establishing a content oversight board to help arbitrate on moderation decisions.

Aka the ‘supreme court of Facebook’ concept first discussed by founder Mark Zuckerberg last year, when he told Vox:

[O]ver the long term, what I’d really like to get to is an independent appeal. So maybe folks at Facebook make the first decision based on the community standards that are outlined, and then people can get a second opinion. You can imagine some sort of structure, almost like a Supreme Court, that is made up of independent folks who don’t work for Facebook, who ultimately make the final judgment call on what should be acceptable speech in a community that reflects the social norms and values of people all around the world.

Facebook has since suggested the oversight board will be up and running later this year. And has just wheeled out its global head of policy and spin for a European PR push to convince regional governments to give it room for self-regulation 2.0, rather than slapping it with broadcast-style regulations.

The latest report, which follows a draft charter unveiled in January, rounds up input fed to Facebook via six “in-depth” workshops and 22 roundtables convened by Facebook and held in locations of its choosing around the world.

In all, Facebook says the events were attended by 650+ people from 88 different countries — though it further qualifies that by saying it had “personal discussions” with more than 250 people and received more than 1,200 public consultation submissions.

“In each of these engagements, the questions outlined in the draft charter led to thoughtful discussions with global perspectives, pushing us to consider multiple angles for how this board could function and be designed,” Facebook writes.

It goes without saying that this input represents a minuscule fraction of the actual ‘population’ of Facebook’s eponymous platform, which now exceeds 2.2BN accounts (an unknown portion of which will be fake/duplicates), while its operations stretch to more than double the number of markets represented by individuals at the events.

The feedback exercise — as indeed the concept of the board itself — is inevitably an exercise in opinion abstraction. Which gives Facebook leeway to shape the output as it prefers. (And, indeed, the full report notes that “some found this public consultation ‘not nearly iterative enough, nor transparent enough, to provide any legitimacy’ to the process of creating the Board”.)

In a blog post providing its spin on the “global feedback and input”, Facebook culls three “general themes” it claims emerged from the various discussions and submissions — namely that: 

People want a board that exercises independent judgment — not judgment influenced by Facebook management, governments or third parties, writing: “The board will need a strong foundation for its decision-making, a set of higher-order principles — informed by free expression and international human rights law — that it can refer to when prioritizing values like safety and voice, privacy and equality”. Though the full report flags up the challenge of ensuring the sought for independence, and it’s not clear Facebook will be able to create a structure that can stand apart from its own company or indeed other lobbyists

How the board will select and hear cases, deliberate together, come to a decision and communicate its recommendations both to Facebook and the public are key considerations — though those vital details remain tbc. “In making its decisions, the board may need to consult experts with specific cultural knowledge, technical expertise and an understanding of content moderation,” Facebook suggests, implying the boundaries of the board are unlikely to be firmly fixed

People also want a board that’s “as diverse as the many people on Facebook and Instagram” — the problem being that’s clearly impossible, given the planet-spanning size of Facebook platforms. Another desire Facebook highlights is for the board to be able to encourage it to make “better, more transparent decisions”. The need for board decisions (and indeed decisions Facebook takes when setting up the board) to be transparent emerges as a major theme in the report. In terms of the board’s make-up, Facebook says it should comprise experts with different backgrounds, different disciplines, and different viewpoints — “who can all represent the interests of a global community”. Though there’s clearly going to be differing views on how or even whether that’s possible to achieve; and therefore questions over how a 40-odd member body, that will likely rarely sit in plenary, can plausibly act as an prism for Facebook’s user-base

The report is worth reading in full to get a sense of the broad spectrum of governance questions and conundrums Facebook is here wading into.

If, as it very much looks, this is a Facebook-configured exercise in blame spreading for the problems its platform hosts, the surface area for disagreement and dispute will clearly be massive — and from the company’s point of view that already looks like a win. Given how, since 2016, Facebook (and Zuckerberg) have been the conduit for so much public and political anger linked to the spreading and accelerating of harmful online content.

Differing opinions and will also provide cover for Facebook to justify starting “narrow”. Which it has said it will do with the board, aiming to have something up and running by the end of this year. But that just means it’ll be managing expectations of how little actual oversight will flow right from the very start.

The report also shows that Facebook’s claimed ‘listening ear’ for a “global perspective” has some very hard limits.

So while those involved in the consultation are reported to have repeatedly suggested the oversight board should not just be limited to content judgement — but should also be able to make binding decisions related to things like Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm or wider use of AI by the company — Facebook works to shut those suggestions down, underscoring the scope of the oversight will be limited to content.

“The subtitle of the Draft Charter — “An Oversight Board for Content Decisions” — made clear that this body would focus specifically on content. In this regard, Facebook has been relatively clear about the Board’s scope and remit,” it writes. “However, throughout the consultation period, interlocutors often proposed that the Board hear a wide range of controversial and emerging issues: newsfeed ranking, data privacy, issues of local law, artificial intelligence, advertising policies, and so on.”

It goes on to admit that “the question persisted: should the Board be restricted to content decisions only, without much real influence over policy?” — before picking a selection of responses that appear intended to fuzz the issue, allowing it to position itself as seeking a reasoned middle ground.

“In the end, balance will be needed; Facebook will need to resolve tensions between minimalist and maximalist visions of the Board,” it concludes. “Above all, it will have to demonstrate that the Oversight Board — as an enterprise worth doing — adds value, is relevant, and represents a step forward from content governance as it stands today.”

Sample cases the report suggests the board could review — as suggested by participants in Facebook’s consultation — include:

A user shared a list of men working in academia, who were accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior and/or abuse, including unwanted sexual advances;

A Page that commonly uses memes and other forms of satire shared posts that used discriminatory remarks to describe a particular demographic group in India;

A candidate for office made strong, disparaging remarks to an unknown passerby regarding their gender identity and livestreamed the interaction. Other users reported this due to safety concerns for the latter person;

A government official suggested that a local minority group needed to be cautious, comparing that group’s behavior to that of other groups that have faced genocide

So, again, it’s easy to see the kinds of controversies and indeed criticisms that individuals sitting on Facebook’s board will be opening themselves up to — whichever way their decisions fall.

A content review board that will inevitably remain linked to (if not also reimbursed via) the company that establishes it, and will not be granted powers to set wider Facebook policy — but will instead be tasked with facing the impossible of trying to please all of the Facebook users (and critics) all of the time — does certainly risk looking like Facebook’s stooge; a conduit for channeling dirty and political content problems that have the potential to go viral and threaten its continued ability to monetize the stuff that’s uploaded to its platforms.

Facebook’s preferred choice of phrase to describe its users — “global community” — is a tellingly flat one in this regard.

The company conspicuously avoids talk of communities, plural — instead the closest we get here is a claim that its selective consultation exercise is “ensuring a global perspective”, as if a singular essence can somehow be distilled from a non-representative sample of human opinion — when in fact the stuff that flows across its platforms is quite the opposite; multitudes of perspectives from individuals and communities whose shared use of Facebook does not an emergent ‘global community’ make.

This is why Facebook has struggled to impose a single set of ‘community standards’ across a platform that spans so many contexts; a one-size-fits all approach very clearly doesn’t fit.

Yet it’s not at all clear how Facebook creating yet another layer of content review changes anything much for that challenge — unless the oversight body is mostly intended to act as a human shield for the company itself, putting a firewall between it and certain highly controversial content; aka Facebook’s supreme court of taking the blame on its behalf.

Just one of the difficult content moderation issues embedded in the businesses of sociotechnical, planet-spanning social media platform giants like Facebook — hate speech — defies a top-down ‘global’ fix.

As Evelyn Douek wrote last year vis-a-via hate speech on the Lawfare blog, after Zuckerberg had floated the idea of a governance structure for online speech: “Even if it were possible to draw clear jurisdictional lines and create robust rules for what constitutes hate speech in countries across the globe, this is only the beginning of the problem: within each jurisdiction, hate speech is deeply context-dependent… This context dependence presents a practically insuperable problem for a platform with over 2 billion users uploading vast amounts of material every second.”

A cynic would say Facebook knows it can’t fix planet-scale content moderation and still turn a profit. So it needs a way to distract attention and shift blame.

If it can get enough outsiders to buy into its oversight board — allowing it to pass off the oxymoron of “global governance”, via whatever self-styled structure it allows to emerge from these self-regulatory seeds — the company’s hope must be that the device also works as a bolster against political pressure.

Both over particular problem/controversial content, and also as a vehicle to shrink the space for governments to regulate Facebook.

In a video discussion also embedded in Facebook’s blog post — in which Zuckerberg couches the oversight board project as “a big experiment that we hope can pioneer a new model for the governance of speech on the Internet” — the Facebook founder also makes reference to calls he’s made for more regulation of the Internet. As he does so he immediately qualifies the statement by blending state regulation with industry self-regulation — saying the kind of regulation he’s asking for is “in some cases by democratic process, in other cases through independent industry process”.

So Zuckerberg is making a clear pitch to position Facebook as above the rule of nation state law — and setting up a “global governance” layer is the self-serving vehicle of choice for the company to try and overtake democracy.

Even if Facebook’s oversight board’s structure is so cunningly fashioned as to present to a rationally minded individual as, in some senses, ‘independent’ from Facebook, its entire being and function will remain dependent on Facebook’s continued existence.

Whereas if individual markets impose their own statutory regulations on Internet platforms, based on democratic and societal principles, Facebook will have no control over the rules they impose, direct or otherwise — with uncontrolled compliance costs falling on its business.

It’s easy to see which model sits most easily with Zuckerberg the businessman — a man who has also demonstrated he will not be held personally accountable for what happens on his platform.

Not when he’s asked by one (non-US) parliament, nor even by representatives from nine parliaments — all keen to discuss the societal fallouts of political disinformation and hate speech spread and accelerated on Facebook.

Turns out that’s not the kind of ‘global perspective’ Facebook wants to sell you.

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[ayssina-blog]

So let me tell you about my day, my work day to be exact, my Monday till Friday,

At 5 o”clock in the morning, my alarm will play the song from my old iPhone 4 that had shattered screen and can no longer connect to WiFi, it also has no sim card on it. So it’s actually like an old updated iPod, and the songs list is a collection of mine from apple music before 2012-ish, before spotify become my apps to listen to music with it’s variant playlist and making me once again the cool kids who can keep up with latest good music and reminiscence old music in on cool freakin apps.

Then I will try my best to collect my soul and try best to check my phone (iPhone SE FYI, I know it’s bad to reach for your phone early in the morning. But its the only thing that could help me to force my eye and brain to start working, and by 5.30 at the latest usually I get off my comfy but slightly curved bed to start my day of habit.

Sometimes I do my bed, sometimes I just don’t feel like it. Sometimes I take showers sometimes I just clean up the best since I usually take night showers. Then sometimes I just pick my clothes that I already prepared on Sunday for the work week, sometimes I rushin try to find something to wear or iron my shirt halfheartedly since It’s not my favorite thing to do. But before I put on my clothes, still in my undies (deepens it’s black or nude week laundry), I wear my roll on, my perfume, then I start with my skincare, sometimes power water, always essence, always moisturizer, and definitely always SPF. Then continue with always lip balm, sometime foundation, mostly always mascara, sometime bronzer, sometimes blush on, and occasionally highlighter. After that if I just washed my hair I will put hair vitamin or even flat iron my hair if i had the time and want to look good before I arrive in the office, also body lotion is also part of the routine if I really in the mood of “taking care of your body”. Then the last thing before I left my room, I put on earrings (almost always) and my watch (also almost always).

Then my uncle/aunt/cousins will drove me off to the bus stop with their bike, I always make sure I leave my house at 6 of 6.15 at the latest. Once arrived in the bus stop (5 minutes from my house with bike), if i feel naughty I will but the coco-cheese bread that I love so much in the bakery near the bus stop. But if I control my self well I will just choose the best seats available in my bus and put my pink pashmina, get my phone out of my bag and put the headset on, listen to my current fave spotify playlist  and then start browsing furiously on all my social media account for latest gossip, news, meme, silly quizz, or what my star say on that day/week/month. There was a time I would start opening my whatsapp and type my morning greeting and wish him to have a good day and check whether he had his breakfast or not, but it’s no longer in my habit since two months ago.

It could take 2,5 hours in a bad day to arrive at the office, but once i a blue moon it could be just one hour max, but with average traffice 1,5 -2 hours is the usual time it takes for my bus to reach Sudiman trans jakarta stop.

TBC