#page authority checker

[digital-marketing-chronicles]

Understanding DA and PA Checker Tools for Enhanced SEO Strategy

Introduction

In the world of digital marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in driving website visibility and organic traffic. Two key metrics that often help evaluate the performance and authority of a website are Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA). In this blog, we will explore the importance of DA and PA checker tools, how they contribute to SEO strategies, and how businesses can use these tools to strengthen their online presence.

Here are five key topics, each with newspaper-style headings, to structure this blog and make it comprehensive and insightful.

What Are DA and PA? A Quick Overview for SEO Enthusiasts

DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority) are metrics developed by Moz, an SEO software company, to predict how well a website or web page will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). DA evaluates the overall domain or website, while PA assesses the authority of individual pages.

These scores range from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater ability to rank. However, it’s important to note that DA and PA are not used by Google directly but serve as valuable comparative metrics for website analysis. Websites with high-quality backlinks, engaging content, and a well-structured site tend to have higher DA and PA scores.

Why You Should Use DA and PA Checker Tools for Your Website

DA and PA checker tools are essential for businesses, marketers, and SEO specialists who want to evaluate the strength of their website compared to competitors. These tools provide insight into how search engines perceive the authority and relevance of your website and individual pages.

Here’s why using DA and PA checker tools is vital:

Competitor Analysis: By checking your competitors’ DA and PA scores, you can gauge their SEO strength and identify opportunities for improvement.

Backlink Strategy: DA and PA are closely tied to your backlink profile. The more authoritative websites that link to your site, the higher your scores will be.

Content Performance: PA checker tools can help you understand which pages on your site are performing well in terms of ranking potential and which need improvement.

SEO Monitoring: Regularly checking DA and PA helps track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts over time.

Top DA and PA Checker Tools You Can Use Today

Several tools are available to check your website’s DA and PA scores. Some of the most popular and user-friendly tools include:

Moz Link Explorer: Moz’s official tool, Link Explorer, allows you to check both DA and PA along with detailed link metrics. It’s known for its accuracy and in-depth analysis.

Ahrefs: While Ahrefs is primarily a backlink analysis tool, it provides insights into DA-like metrics such as Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR), which are equivalent to DA and PA.

SEMrush: SEMrush offers a comprehensive SEO suite, including authority scores that can help in understanding a website’s ranking potential.

Small SEO Tools: This is a free online tool that quickly checks DA and PA, providing instant results for beginners or those with limited resources.

Each of these tools has unique features, and many offer free versions to give you a taste of their capabilities before investing in premium services.

How to Improve Your DA and PA Scores: Proven Strategies

Improving DA and PA requires a consistent, long-term SEO effort. Here are some key strategies you can adopt to increase your scores:

Quality Backlinks: Focus on obtaining backlinks from authoritative and high-ranking websites. Avoid spammy or low-quality links, as these can harm your scores.

Create Engaging Content: High-quality, shareable content attracts more backlinks and social shares, improving both DA and PA over time.

Optimize On-Page SEO: Ensure your site’s technical SEO elements, such as metadata, URL structure, and internal linking, are well-optimized. These factors influence your PA scores.

Improve User Experience: Fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, and a clean design contribute to better engagement, which in turn positively impacts your SEO metrics.

Disavow Toxic Links: Use tools like Google’s Disavow Tool to remove harmful or low-quality backlinks that may negatively affect your DA.

By following these strategies, you can boost your website’s domain and page authority, ultimately leading to better search engine rankings.

The Future of DA and PA in SEO: Are They Still Relevant?

While DA and PA are widely used in SEO circles, some experts argue that their relevance is fading with the rise of new SEO metrics. Search engines like Google have evolved, using complex algorithms that take into account hundreds of ranking factors beyond just authority scores.

However, DA and PA still serve as useful comparative metrics for webmasters and marketers. They provide a simplified view of how a site might perform in SERPs, especially in relation to competitors. As long as DA and PA continue to provide value in evaluating link-building efforts and competitor analysis, they will remain relevant in the SEO landscape.

Conclusion: Mastering DA and PA for SEO Success

In conclusion, DA and PA checker tools are valuable for assessing the authority of your website and individual pages. By using these tools to analyze your site, implementing strategies to improve your scores, and regularly monitoring your progress, you can enhance your website’s visibility and ranking potential.

Remember, improving DA and PA is not a quick fix—it requires ongoing SEO efforts, quality content creation, and a focus on building strong backlinks. With the right tools and strategies, you can position your website for long-term success in search engine rankings.

[freemicrotools]

Page Authority Checker

[webseotoolz]

Check your Website PA(Page Authority) with the help of Webseotoolz Visit: https://webseotoolz.com/page-authority-checker

[praveshpatels]

3 Best SEO Tools To Check Domain and Page Authority

Google counts various aspects to upgrade your website, and numerous factors are essential to rank and get traffic on it. Getting backlinks from other pages, using quality keywords, and increasing your website’s speed are important. But one of the key factors with which google will give it a full mark is its domain authority. Domain authority is the crucial role that helps make the website…

[simplitools]

SimpliTools - Page Authority Checker by SimpliTools Via Flickr: Page Authority Checker is one of the 160+ tools, available at SimpliTools.

[edutechbits]

What is Domain Authority? DA

What is Domain Authority? DA

What is Domain Authority? DA   What is Domain Authority: Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. Domain Authority is calculated by evaluating multiple factors, including…

[ao3-shenanigans]

hello! One of my friends has recently gotten into writing, and wanted to know if there were any I quote " laws of this land that I need to know?"

He really wanted to know what the expectations were for an AO3 author before he " jumped ship ".

He just wanted a 'professionals' word on ao3 because he is very stubborn.

Tell him congrats on the writing!

Honestly, most of it sums down to “be a nice human”

Some little things:

- read the ao3 page on how to tag things properly

- don’t offer unsolicited advice in the comments*

- leave kudos often*

- extend grace to both yourself and the other strangers out there

- put breaks between paragraphs and run your work through a grammar checker for optimal reading

That’s the majority of it! Best of luck to your friend!

*note: these apply to reading more so than writing

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

DC Draino, aka Rogan O’Handley, is a horrifying right-wing influencer who has been driving the anti-trans/trans terrorism narrative. Right-wing Republikkkan politicians and other figures have been following his lead. He had the redacted Facebook page of the shooter hours before the press yesterday and today he released a picture of the shooter’s body ahead of anyone. He callously added was/were after commenting on the shooter’s preferred pronouns. The checker board pattern was added by me to cover the graphic nature of the body.

This troll is being fed inside information and there needs to be an investigation by authorities.

[easternmind]

Inside the office of Fumito Ueda

This is a sequel of sorts to a post of mine from last year where I spotted a number of telling items on Fumito Ueda's office shelves, while more closely inspecting a picture from the Material Book included with the Japanese First Limited Edition of Hitokui no Ōwashi Trico. I'm calling this harmless voyeurism, coming as it does from someone who is exceedingly interested in this author and his work and appreciates the difficulty of such self-imposed challenges.

This new post will be looking more carefully at a this page size picture from The World of Fumito Ueda, a book Kadokawa released earlier this year, from which some detail can be extracted. The photo is stylized with a checkered transparency which makes this exercise substantially more difficult. Should you recognize any item I failed to identify, I ask that you use the comment box so I may improve this entry.

This is a rather pristine-looking 1976 Nintendo Kôsenjû Duck Hunt, a sophisticated light gun toy from Yokoi's R&D department consisting of a battery-powered projector and a plastic rifle whose objective was for the player to shoot at the duck whenever it appeared on the wall.

To the left is Nintendo's Custom Gunman toy, also designed by Gunpei Yokoi in 1976, consisting of a plastic cowboy figure with a receptor in its chest at which the player needed to aim with precision in order to score.

I remember reading about these in Gorges' L'Histoire de Nintendo. Both may have been toys that Ueda had as a child, but this is mere speculation from my end.

Two PSP games stored on this shelf: Metal Gear Acid (2004) and Lemmings (2006), a remake of a game which was highly influential to him, as he as indicated on multiple occasions. In the previous post I wrote, I spotted a big box copy of the original game.

An unexpected find here: a DVD entitled The Animal Motion Show, a visual library meant as reference for artists containing thousands of video clips animals in motion, no doubt very useful in key framing Toriko's unique animations.

A pair of books stand out to me and confirm many of my long-held suspicions on Ueda's influences: Hyperion's From Myst to Riven hardcover from 1997; and the 1974 Dover Publications' Doré Bible Illustrations.

The US and European versions of Shadow of the Colossus sitting beside Saints Seinaru Mamono, the Japanese edition of the Sony Cambridge Studio 2004 game, Primal.

More books, including the 2014 volume The Birth of Rockin' Jelly Beans. If you are not familiar with this reference, he is a Japanese lowbrow erotica artist who wears a mask in public appearances and whose identity remains unknown to this day.

Tucked in a lower shelf are the Gameboy Color edition of Prince of Persia, the Japanese version of Abe's Exodus (ABE '99) for the Playstation and the Wonderswan version of Toshio Iwai's Tenori-On.

Last but not least, here is the the Limited Run Games Limited 20th Anniversary Edition of Another World (either the PS4 or the PSVita edition, it's impossible to tell).

[digital-marketing-chronicles]

Unveiling the Power of Free DA and PA Checker Tools: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction: Why Free DA and PA Checkers Are Essential for SEO Success

In the ever-evolving world of SEO, keeping track of your website’s Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) is crucial for improving your search engine rankings. While many tools come with hefty price tags, free DA and PA checker tools offer a cost-effective way to monitor and enhance your SEO strategy. This blog will explore the benefits, features, and best practices for using these free tools to boost your website’s performance.

Understanding DA and PA: The Metrics that Matter

Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are metrics developed by Moz to gauge the strength of a website and its individual pages in search engine rankings. DA measures the overall authority of a domain, while PA focuses on the authority of a specific page. Both metrics are scored on a scale from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater ability to rank.

DA: Reflects the overall strength and potential of a website.

PA: Indicates the ranking potential of individual pages on the site. The Advantages of Using Free DA and PA Checkers

Free DA and PA checker tools provide several advantages, making them invaluable for anyone looking to optimize their SEO strategy without breaking the bank:

Cost-Effective Monitoring: These tools allow you to keep track of your DA and PA without incurring additional costs.

Accessible Data: Get instant access to critical metrics that help you understand your site’s performance.

Competitive Analysis: Evaluate your competitors’ DA and PA to identify opportunities for improvement and strategic advantage.

Top Features to Look for in Free DA and PA Checker Tools

When selecting a free DA and PA checker tool, consider the following features to ensure you get the most accurate and useful insights:

Comprehensive Reports: Look for tools that provide detailed reports, including historical data and trend analysis.

User-Friendly Interface: Choose a tool with an intuitive design that makes it easy to interpret your data.

Additional SEO Insights: Some free tools offer supplementary features like backlink analysis and keyword tracking.

How to Use Free DA and PA Checkers Effectively

To maximize the benefits of free DA and PA checkers, follow these best practices:

Regular Monitoring: Frequently check your DA and PA to track progress and adjust your SEO strategy as needed.

Benchmarking: Compare your metrics with those of competitors to gauge your standing and identify areas for improvement.

Actionable Insights: Use the data to refine your SEO efforts, focusing on building high-quality backlinks and optimizing on-page content.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Using Free DA and PA Checkers

While free DA and PA checker tools are useful, avoid these common mistakes to ensure accurate and effective use:

Over-Reliance on Metrics: Don’t focus solely on DA and PA; consider other factors like traffic quality and user engagement.

Ignoring Quality: High DA and PA don’t guarantee quality content or user experience, so balance your metrics with content strategy.

Neglecting Updates: Regularly update your tools and strategies to stay aligned with the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes.

Case Studies: Success Stories with Free DA and PA Checker Tools

Real-world examples illustrate how businesses have leveraged free DA and PA checker tools to achieve SEO success:

Small Business Growth: A local business used a free DA checker to identify and address weaknesses, resulting in a significant increase in search visibility and website traffic.

Competitive Edge: An e-commerce site utilized PA checkers to analyze competitor pages, leading to a targeted strategy that improved their search rankings.

Conclusion: Harnessing the Power of Free DA and PA Checkers for SEO Excellence

Free DA and PA checker tools are essential for anyone looking to enhance their SEO strategy without a substantial financial investment. By understanding and effectively utilizing these tools, you can gain valuable insights, track your progress, and make informed decisions to boost your website’s authority and search engine rankings.

[charlie-lec-stories]

Dirty Little Secret - Part 3: Maud // CL16

Pairing: Charles Leclerc / Original Female Character

Series Summary: Charles' wife went to The Other Side and came back, but her past did too.

Chapter Summary: Max and Y/N dirty secret needs to be brought to light. Who is Maud?

Series Warnings: Death, descriptions of CPR and a car crash, sexual comments and implied sexual acts, mentions of blood, mentions of suicide and depression.

Author’s Note: This is a special I decided to write inspired by Halloween and the Qatar GP, it's five parts long. It's the first time I write something for this page instead of editing thing I have written before, I hope you guys like it. Rate: +16 (descriptions of medical procedures).

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Ik kan hem niet uitstaan". (I can't stand him). Max complained as he walked into the room, not even bothering to greet his friends.

"Leclerc?". Maud asked, earning a scoff from Max, who threw himself on Maud's bed and closed his eyes trying to contain his anger.

"Hij is zo'n eikel". Y/N raised an eyebrow, her dutch was not that good when it came to insults.

"What does that mean?". Max opened his eyes again and looked at the redhead, he didn't want to do the translation, a part of him refusing to be the one teaching that language to his friend.

"He called Leclerc a jerk". Maud explained as she braided her long blonde hair in front of her mirror, and Y/N just nodded, pensive.

"I know that we hate him a bit-". She started but Max cut her off.

"A lot, Bunny, we hate him a lot".

"Okay, a lot, but I have never met him! How come I haven't in all these years racing? I'd like to meet him". Maud shrugged her shoulders, finally sitting on the bed next to Max.

"I guess it's just bad luck. I raced him a few times when I was younger". Max scoffed again.

"Bad luck? She's lucky she hasn't cross paths with him!". Max sat straighter. "He pushed me off into a puddle after the checkered flag was out! It was so unfair! And do you want to know what he said about that?". The two girls nodded eagerly. "'Just an INCHIDENT on the race'. The idioot can't even speak properly". Now he was just looking for excuses to be mad.

"Inchident? He said 'inchident'?". Y/N giggled. "That's cute".

"No, it's not cute. It's just-". Max's new rant was cut off by the sound of a Facebook direct message incoming. The three 14 years-old quickly got up and ran to the computer. Maud sat in front of it, opening her inbox and smirking.

"This is cute, Y/N, not Charles' terrible English". Maud said smugly as she opened the message, Connor Lee's name big on the screen. Connor was an older boy, he was 17 and every girl on their school liked him. Usually, Connor never talked to anyone on Max, Y/N and Maud's year, but Maud had liked one of his posts and then he sent her a message from his second account, one he had to talk to his closest friends. She was 10 days away from turning 15 and that meant that her age gap with Connor "wasn't that bad", or at least that was what she thought.

"He's not that great. You both have horrible taste". Max, who secretly had a crush on Maud, stated as he rolled his eyes. Maud was extremely pretty, her mother was an ex Beauty Queen and her father a model, and she got the best of both of them. It was genuine surprise when she told them that she wanted to race cars and not be a model like everyone guessed she'd want to be.

"Shut up". Y/N instructed Max and then looked over Maud's shoulder, trying to read the message. "What did he said?"

"He keeps insisting on meeting tonight". Y/N smiled excitedly, her best friend was going to date the most popular guy in the school and maybe that meant that she had a chance with Lucas, Connor's best friend and Y/N crush since she was 12.

"You should go". Max frowned at Y/N comment.

"She shouldn't. Going out with an older dude is the most stupid idea you two ever had!". This time it was Maud's turn to scoff.

"It's not like I'll be going out with a stranger, Max. It's just Connor". Y/N nodded her head in agreement.

"If he's so great why doesn't he ask you to join him for lunch or something like that? He ignores you at school, Maud!". Connor had told her that other people wouldn't understand that they liked each other, so he asked for her not to approach him at school.

"Oh, shut up, Max. You know why. You're just being negative because Chales Leclerc drove you into a puddle in front of everyone". Max sent her a deadly stare.

"Your parents won't let you go anyways". He said after sighing. He knew that he being petty because he was jealous, but he wasn't admitting that in front of the girls. Maud smiled wide.

"They don't need to know". The other two didn't like where this was going. "Y/N can tell them that I'm staying at hers and I just go to the date. Connor can drop me off at Y/N's and I climb through her room window". She looked at them as it was a master plan. "Easy".

"I don't know, Maud...". Y/N hesitated. "I don't like lying to your parents". They had done that before and it always made Y/N feel bad. She liked Maud's parents as her own and she felt like she was betraying them every time they lied.

"Please, Bunny". Y/N looked at Max, who didn't seem to like the idea either, but since he didn't refuse out loud, the redhead said yes.

"Okay".

That night the three of them told their parents that they were having a sleepover at Y/N home. Max and Maud were dropped off there by 5 pm, with their bags full of snacks and DVDs. They displayed everything on Y/N room to make it look like the three of them were sleeping there, Max's Sylvester the Cat's blanket on the ground over his sleeping bag and Maud's Lola Bunny's one on the bed next to the window. Max and Y/N were supposed to stay awake and wait for Maud to get back from the date so they both brought some Rock Star energy drinks and a lot of candy to stay up late. Maud and Connor agreed to meet by 8 pm, he was picking her up from Y/N's house and dropping her off back there at 10 pm, since it was just getting some ice cream together. The next day they had a local race and Y/N parents were supposed to take them all to the track in the morning. Even though they were going to be tired the next day, the date with Connor was a once in a lifetime opportunity in Maud's eyes and her friends just wanted to be supportive. After a nice dinner, they all excused themselves to "go to bed early for tomorrow". In the room, they put some pillows under Maud's blanket and when a car stopped in front of the house, Max and Y/N helped Maud out the window.

"Have fun". Y/N said and Maud smiled.

"I owe you guys!". She jumped down the remaining height and ran off to the car.

Maud sent them some texts though the next hour, telling them how much fun she was having with Connor. Max and Y/N played their part, feigning sleep when Y/N's parents checked on them around 9 pm. But as the night went by and 10 pm got closer, Maud started to tell them that she didn't want the date to finish just yet. Max didn't like it one bit, but there was nothing he could do about it. The blonde just told them to go to bed and she would call them when she was on her way back so they could help her up and through the window. Max and Y/N just followed her advice and went to bed, making sure that their phones weren't on silence mode so they could hear Maud calling. They woke up the next morning at 7 am and when they looked at Maud's bed they found the pillows still there. Max checked his phone, but no call or message was there, Y/N did it too, with the same luck. They called her but the calls went straight to voice mail, her phone was off. Panic started to set into them and now they had to explain to Y/N's parents why Maud wasn't there. They both walked down to the kitchen, their palms sweating and stomachs aching.

"What do you mean she snuck out?!". Y/N's mother yelled at them. The teenagers just looked down at their laps, sinking into the couch as far they physically could. But the hardest part was explaining to Maud's parents that their single child was nowhere to be found.

Before they knew it, Max and Y/N were explaining to the police that Maud was last seen the night before and that she was on a date with Connor Lee. It was as simple as going to Connor's and pick her up from there, but when the police made it to Connor's house, Maud wasn't there and Connor assured them that he had never talked to Maud before. A few hours turned into a day and the day turned into a week and Maud was still missing. It turned out that she wasn't talking to Connor and that Facebook account wasn't his. Max and Y/N soon realized that they were all played by a stranger, but the guilt of helping Maud sneak out never left. Maud's parents didn't blame them, which was something that surprised them a lot, because they did it themselves. Both of them deleted their Facebook accounts and for some time they spent countless hours of their weekends looking for Maud. They searched the woods close to their school, hoping to find her hidden there, probably freezing and hungry. Maybe she got lost escaping from her attacker. Those weren't thick woods but you still could get lost in them. The police was looking for a dead body, but they were not losing hope, not when there were people who had gotten lost in the woods and came back. The young two drivers grew even closer than before in the next few months. They spent all of their time together, not letting the other out of their sight. Y/N started to fear men and Max became extremely overprotective when it came to her. That's how they dealt with everything that happened. That same year, Y/N saw Charles for the first time, but when he walked towards her to talk, she ran off to Max, too afraid to get closer to anyone else.

Maud was never found, not even her body. Time went by and the police assumed that Maud was kidnapped for sexual trafficking. Her parents did all they could to keep the case alive and even moved to Amsterdam to see if she was there. Max and Y/N went on with their racing careers, but on every summer break they went back home and spent four days camping in the woods, looking for Maud. They didn't expect her to be alive, but they needed to find her. There was this guilt inside of them that even after a decade hey couldn't shake off. Max paid every private investigator he could find, but no one succeeded. Maud was the love of his life, he fell for her when he was 10 years old and never stopped loving her. He just couldn't move on and Y/N felt like terrible that she knew that Maud liked him back and never said anything. She used to be afraid that if Max and Maud dated, they would leave her alone, so she kept the secret. On the fifth anniversary of Maud's disappearance, Y/N confessed to Max all of this and how she felt like she pushed Maud towards her horrendous end by being selfish. Max forgave her, but she had trouble forgiving herself.

"I'm so sorry, Maud!". She cried looking at the decaying image of her childhood best friend, standing at the other side of the living room, behind a pale Max. "Please, please, please!". Maud just looked at her accusingly, like she had been doing for the past few days, since Y/N was brought back to life. Charles kept asking Max questions but the Dutch just couldn't answer. What could he say? What could they say? How could Charles understand? She was so ashamed of what happened, of what they did, she couldn't admit it to Charles. She couldn't loose him. In a blink Maud was standing in front of her, her mouth open, but no words came out of it. A worm moved under her skin and Y/N felt like throwing up. Maud lifted her rotting hand, a single finger pointing at Y/N and the redhead knew what she had to do:

She had to find Maud.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[cassieuncaged]

Nyx Mortal Kombat Mechanics & Bio

Based on the MK character wiki pages. More beneath the cut.

About Nyx:

Born Rachel Rogers, she grew up in Colorado to a mother and father though her father died of cancer shortly after her younger brother was born.

Her mother struggled to make ends meet and worked multiple jobs to support her family. Rachel started selling drugs to help make more money. She was often arrested by local authorities and spent a lot of time in juvie.

Instead of going to college after high school, she enlisted in the military before assigned to special ops. She sent money home to her family.

After being discharged, Rachel found a hard time making ends meet and relocated to Los Angeles as began working for different underground crime syndicates to make ends meet.

Not much is known about her at this time other than she began working with Kano as a hired gun. She wasn't a member of the Black Dragon but spent most her time at the club and with other members.

She also had a short term casual relationship with Kabal.

Kano keeps her at his beck and call by black mailing her with her past, being the person who gave her tabula rasa. Because of this, Nyx feels like she has to submit to her boss.

Paths cross and she eventually meets General Sonya Blade of the Special Forces. Officially betraying the Black Dragon for immunity, Nyx hands over intel she's acquired over the years in an attempt to clear her name.

This puts Kano on the warpath who eventually enlists help from Outworld to begin a war with the Special Forces. Nyx's betrayal isn't the inciting factor but is more of the straw that finally broke the camel's back.

Appearance:

Has pale skin and has been compared to an uncooked shrimp by both Johnny and Cassie Cage. However, Nyx takes this in stride as she likes her ivory complection.

She has aquamarine eyes though she wears black, purple, and red contacts to add to a the mystique around her entire character. She also wears smoky eye shadow, black lipstick, and sports two piercings (one in her left eyebrow and a septum) as well as several on either ear (3 on each lobe, daith, helix, and industrial).

Skins:

Original - black leather pants, black combat boots, fingerless gloves, a plain black, white or red t-shirt under a black leather jacket decorated with goth band buttons (Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, Joy Division, etc.), a plain choker, a studded mask covering the bottom of her her face, half black/half white hair that falls halfway down her back.

Moshing - ripped black jeans over fishnet tights, checkered creepers, hair down accept for two small space buns on either side, all make-up and piercings on, long sleeved fishnet top covered by an oversized band tee (most likely Bauhaus or Joy Division) and a choker with an o ring.

Red Carpet -hair down, makeup but no piercings, hair down, wears long black velvet evening gown with one slit up the side with matching spike heels that are used as a special finishing weapon.

Powers & Abilities:

Nyx may not possess any supernatural abilities, but she does both military and underground street fighting training. She prefers using weapons from a distance as compared to hand to hand combat since she doesn't like blood (which makes any battles between her and Skarlet very interesting).

But she's practiced both Judo and Karate since high school before integrating Krav Maga into her regimen. Nyx is very elusive and can move in credibly fast which makes her practically untouchable. Kano used her as a hired gun for these reasons as her agility mixed with the cover of night (i.e. her code name) made her chances of escaping undetected that much higher.

Fighting Styles:

Krav Maga

Karate

Judo

Thrown Weapons

Tactical

Weapons:

Sig MPX K with a silencer

Ducati Panigale Matte Purple

flat kunai style throwing knives

herself

Fatalities:

Road Kill - Uses her Ducati to eviscerate her opponent's face with the front tire. Can be any distance from opponent to trigger.

Straight to the Heart - Throwing knife to the chest, far distance.

In My Sights - Uses her Sig with silencer and scope attachments from a far distance to effectively

Single White Female (special) - Similar to Straight to the Heart. Removes her black Stiletto before jabbing into her opponent's eye. Mid to close distance. Must be in Red Carpet skin.

Friendship:

'You're probably wondering how I got here' followed by a record scratch. Cut to Nyx playing The Cure on a record player before collapsing into a bean bag chair before inviting her competitor to join her.

Trivia:

has a white ferret named Ghost

practices yoga

secretly loves the color pink which Cassie mercilessly teases her about

despises going to Johnny's movie premieres but attempts to be supportive for her wife

enjoys vintage video games (specifically Dos Box games from when she was a kid) Her favorite was Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Was never able reunite with her mother after going underground. Eventually finds her younger brother Noah with whom she has a close relationship

Secretly misses her friends at the Black Dragon. She really only hangs out with Cassie and Jacqui on base which gets kind of lonely.

Never rides her Ducati without a helmet

favorite bands are Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure.

Has a collection of vinyl records. Her favorite is Bela Lugosi's Dead

Doesn't care for horror movies. Her genre of choice is neo noirs, likely for the vaporwave aesthetic.

Recovering alcoholic

Johnny Cage Announcer Names:

Daughter in Law from Hell

Elvira

[strangebiology]

Creatives: How much of your work is...the creative work?

A lot of people in the process of being an author, or who recently published, say they spend most of their time laying out pages, printing, asking for reviews, marketing, marketing, marketing...

Since I'm trad publishing, I'm not doing that stuff. I'm pretty much only responsible for the text (and the cover but only because I wanted to & I have some artists I'll be contacting when the time comes.)

Obviously, I'll be asking you all to buy my book Carcass when it comes out, and then again across all my other platforms, but I'm not gonna go to a book marketing conference or pay for ads or buy a storehouse to keep stock. Very glad that's not my job!

But I'm still spending less than half my writing time putting words on a page! If I were doing all that other stuff listed above, I'd probably be spending, maybe 10% of my time writing.

My last book milestone was securing a fact-checker and writing a contract for her. And now I've almost finished a review of my Culture chapter but it's FULL of [TK]* and [confirm with source] and [add interview here.] That's ok, I just find it funny, and that was the same when I was a staff writer. Not complaining.

It's tons of research! To the point where I almost feel like the research skill is more important for a nonfiction book than the writing skill, assuming the writing meets a decent bar.

But it's fun. I really love being able to write something that no one else has written about these specific topics from this perspective and put it together in this format. Then I'll have a fact-checker review it, and I'm supposed to have a science checker review it too, and my publisher has "peer review," although I'm not sure what that looks like yet. I really hope it's as accurate as humanly possible by publication time! *TK, sometimes expanded to TKTKTK etc, means "to come." I know it doesn't make sense.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Yes, all of it) - November 1952

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

Nov 5, 1952

Oh hey, we've reached Schulz making comics about Schulz making cowait a minute.

Waaaaait a minute...

~googles~

I knew that punchline looked familiar!

Has Schulz been making gnus jokes that whole time? Or did our man just randomly decide to make the exact same dad pun 24 years later?

Time will tell I suppose.

Nov 7, 1952

I hope you find the word “fussbudget” inherently funny because Schulz sure as hell did.

Nov 13, 1952

More snowman comics that Bill Watterson probably took inspiration from.

Nov 16, 1952

First football gag (that actually features Lucy)!

Nov 22, 1952

Another interesting new aspect of the strip which is going to become fairly common is making multiple jokes on the same subject repeatedly over the course of about a week. There are 4 of these checkers comics in a row with this being the last one.

Also is this the first checkers strip? It's so hard to remember with these smaller gags? That's another thing you'll see come up a lot over the next few years.

Nov 23, 1952

“Don't slaughter me, Charlie Brown!” would be a great name for a Treehouse of Horror style TV special.

Nov 24, 1952

Thumb sucking has been established. Also he has his official outfit now!

Thoughts:

Speaking of Bill Watterson, I got his new picture book The Mysteries the other day and I think it's pretty decent. It's fairly small and not terribly long but the art is good (a mix of painting and physical sculptures apparently) and it's clearly a work of passion by the authors. I'd say it's worth grabbing if for no other reason than to support Bill Watterson making things.

Peanuts was written and drawn by Charles Schulz and is owned by Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Please support the official release.

[manonamora-if]

ive been looking at the ifcomp and i think im gonna do it. any advice for a firsttimer? what should i expect? what was your experience?

Hi Anon!

First of all, congrats on taking the leap! I know it can be quite daunting to participate in one of the biggest and oldest IF Competition there is currently. Takes quite a bit of guts to do it! Yay, you!

Suuuper long ask answer because you asked questions requiring long answers, where I probably repeated myself multiple times.

IFComp Advice

What to expect?

What was my experience?

TLDR: it's hard but also fun. Def recommend at one point (unless ranking makes you go blerg... then do the SpringThing or an unranked game jam).

IFComp Advice

I do have some advice for you, especially if you are planning on submitting a game to the IFComp this year, which is less than a month away:

Be Ready for your work to be judged and reviewed by people. Some will be harsh, some will be kind, most will be fair. If you are not fully open to criticism, especially negative one, the voting period will sting like hell. It is also fine not to read any review or comment about your entry, but a head's up is important.

Be prepared to rank low. If you follow the advice below, you probably won't end up last place. But the competition is stiff. Authors often spend a year or two on their entries before they submit. If you know you can't handle rankings, go for the SpringThing instead. More chill.

Submit your intent to participate NOW! The deadline is Sept 1st, but it's easy to put it off and forget. And intent to participate doesn't mean you have to submit something. You can back out at any moment (even during the voting period).

Check the rules and timeline of the comp (@ifcomp). You don't want to disqualify yourself by mistake...

Keep it short: 15 to 30 min of gameplay. There is less than one month left, and you want plenty of time to make sure your entry is as polish as possible! I took 3 months last time and it was a buggy mess on Day 1 of the voting period.

Use a program you know, or a simple one with good documentation or guides. You might have time in a month to learn how to use a complex program, but I wouldn't recommend it. List at the end.

Create something simple but airtight. You are racing against time. Shooting for the moon with something complex could work, or it could land you in the bottom. Usually, it is best to create a game which is doing little, but doing it very well, than submitting a behemoth that can't even do its core gameplay loop right every time (dissing myself, yes). Sam Ashwell has some good article for choice-based, Emily Short for parser puzzles.

Your prose should have as little grammar mistakes as possible. Pass your text through as many grammar checkers, and maybe some human testers (beta). The more eyes you have on it, the better. Hate to say it but, avoid word crimes there...

Have some impactful interactivity, that makes sense with the story. Puzzle, branching of variation, etc... Even if all of it is fake, and you are pushing the player through a linear story, the player shouldn't feel like they are just flipping pages of a book. I am not talking about the quantity, but the quality of the interactivity. Emily Short has some great article about that stuff.

Don't have bugs. Should be obvious, but you know... I didn't follow that one and got (rightly) roasted for it in the reviews. Test your game (and have people test your game) A LOT.

Style your project a little bit (if possible). It doesn't have to be fancy, but as simple as changing the colour of the background and the text, maybe the font of the text as well (!!! it should still be readable) can go a long way. Also appreciated but never mandatory: different formatting for different bits of text, some animation in the text, having images, having audio, having accessibility settings (theme, font, visual, audio)... Again, those are pointers. Leave this for last.

Credit where credit is due. Code, assets, beta-tester, etc... anything you did not make from scratch, or anyone helping you along the way, should be added in a credit page. Also credit yourself for what you did :P you deserve to show off your efforts!

Test your game relentlessly. Yes it bares repeating, I've done that mistake. Don't be me. Test your stuff again. Have people break your game.

Edit your submission page with care. Have a grabbing hook for your synopsis, an eye catching image, and any relevant documents the players would need (i.e. walkthrough). DON'T FORGET TO ADD A WAY FOR PLAYER REACH YOU FOR BUGS!

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Have fun! If you have fun making your entry, it will show in the writing and how the game is constructed.

Hypertext/Choice-based: Twine (Harlowe, SugarCube), Ink/Inklewriter, Moiki, ChoiceScript Parser: Adventuron

Oh... and good luck. You'll need it :P

If you are thinking of next year instead, most of these advice applies. You can just rule out the intent submission for now, the length of the game (1h gameplay is usually the sweet spot), and the program to use (though take one you understand). The rest could work for any comp honestly.

What to Expect?

The IFComp period in an exciting time where many people gather to play games and talk about them. Many people submit stuff yearly, sometimes with good results, sometimes it's atrocious. Sometimes, authors who haven't been seen in a while reappear to show off their labour of love or review other people's games. It can be very intense and overwhelming if you are participating (author or player).

As an author, you should expect (not exhaustive):

deadline (intent/game/voting),

potentially getting comments for bugs (and having to update, which you are allowed to),

seeing reviews and discussions about your entry (mainly on the IntFiction Forum, but sometimes on blogs too): good stuff, negative stuff, and people missing the point entirely or having bad take, or takes you didn't think about.

seeing people rating your entry on the IFDB (rating =/= vote, but can be a flawed indicator)

feelings galore (good, bad, ugly, anxious), especially stressing about the results

having to remind yourself that no one can judge everything completely objectively (expect when it comes to bugs, it is or it isn't), and that people vote for what they like.

following the rules on the IFComp website

a special private group on the IntFiction forum to discuss with other authors when the voting period starts, as well as posting reviews,

maybe get a prize at the end? (depends on your placement)

Honestly, it can be pretty rough. This is not an easy competition. Most people have been working on those projects for months or years. Some have for just a few weeks, but their pieces can be out of this world. Only the organisers have an idea of who is competing ahead of time, and how competitive it could be from year to year (i.e. did big names come out or not).

While reviews and ratings can give you an indication of how your game is faring with players, you will not be able to know until the votes are actually out (case and point: me, thought I did much better than reality). Either way, it will be a surprise, good, bad, disappointing...

Speaking of reviewers, most will try to be as partial as possible and going into every entry with an open mind. But, there are harsh reviewers out there, as well as kind ones. It is not unusual to see blunt reviews, especially if something ticked the player (bugs usually).

But also, it's loads of fun! You have a bunch of very serious people debating on minor things, newcomers trying out the comp and sometimes even reaching the stars, oldcomers popping by for a cup promising they will review ever game and then disappearing after three, a lot of very very very good games to play, so many different perspectives on what if IF, and feeling like you have a voice in what should be crowned the best of the competition!

It's weird, it's serious, it's goofy...

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best... but most importantly, have some fun. And do what's best for your mental health!

What was my experience?

I think I've talked about it quite extensively in my Post-Mortem for The Thick Table Tavern. Read that before the end of this, for context.

And almost a year after this experience (on this day, I was frantically writing), I think my feelings have changed quite a bit. I went into the competition guns-blazing without understanding the importance of things (bugs/grammar especially) and thinking I had done the absolute most and breaking the genre, believed I did sooooo much better than any other entry, got very dramatic when the first non-positive reviews came in, and was about to throw my shit when I saw the 1s in the voting curve. I am only a bit over-exaggerating here.

I definitely deserved the placement I got. Don't misunderstand, I am incredibly proud of what I achieved there! But... there were major issues for sure. And I've come around to recognise those.

Those 1s-2s were warranted, those negative comments were warranted: the first version was buggy as hell (which I think was the version in the mass downloadable packet? and I updated the game like 20 times), there are still a bunch of issues with the prose (I learned my em dash lesson!), the pacing is aaaalll the way off (I thought I was being cheeky, but didn't always land)... This was something way different for the comp, maybe more experimental than people expected (I mean, who does a click-only bar for a text-based comp...)? But most importantly, while it looked polished, you just needed to play a few minutes to see the varnish crack...

To say the least, I got slapped back to reality. HARD. This was a mediocre good-looking game. Real pretty, big flaws. And that's ok (not putting myself down). Not every game can be winners (unless it's La Petite Mort or DOL-OS :P), not every game will work as intended. You can rack all the trophies all the times. Sometimes you're just at the bottom.

All this might sound hella negative, but I am incredibly grateful for this experience. I have learned so much about game creation, coding, writing, what to do and avoid... There are things I probably wouldn't have learned had I not participated (or not as early). I have created friendships (and rivalries /jk) and found a community where I feel comfortable being this experimental with my work (hey, it worked for DOL-OS!) and continuing breaking the codes. It's renewed my drive to create and do more: games, experiments, trying new program, but also for the community, helping out, creating guides and templates, giving advice...

And I've found a bit of love for reviewing stuff it turns out.

I've made my peace.

And I have plans for a new pretty weird game for a future IFComp ;) I will make people cringe again :P Hopefully not because of bugs!

Final sidenote: I am still not taking my advice. No one tested DOL-OS before it was submitted, and it won. But also, other games placed poorly... I am still speed-running through competitions (not the IFComp this time), and tripping all over all the time. I still submit thing thinking I'm the hottest stuff and that no one else will be better than me. Completely delusional here. Be better than me, for your sake.