#site has always been a dumpster fire

[ashacadence]

Creators we gotta do somethin

I mean we are trying but this is just sort of a vent post of my overall views as an artist/creative person growing frustrated of how the big popular art sites are literally just going down the drain due to the malicious AI train or just really unclear or super clear problematic content being allowed. I “closed” my furaffinity account but have a active profile in case FA changes its mind. I’m not a furry, the community has been nothing but generous and an amazing source for work and supportive income over the years that I can only praise and give my thumbs up on for where to look for work when times are tough. However the site itself has undergone a recent rule change/clarification that’s seriously so damn hypocritical that they are pretty much on that tipping point of just saying “ANYTHING GOES DRAW WHATEVER!” 

SIGH.

I’m just still lingering on twitter for the most part. I’m considering tumblr, but it’s not really all that...reliable of an art site. 

@/inkblot-app I do have a profile set up on inkblot.art as it’s still new and competing to be the next big art site. I like their rules and faqs and worth to check it out and at least put a presence in there while we are all in this waiting and seeing on where to move next. The thing is sites don’t just magically become popular alone so people need to literally start moving and going to it to make it more active and give it the traffic it needs to be the next platform. I have seen inkblot being more active on my twitter feed than others so I say they are worth it. 

If there’s other sites comment and I’ll consider. I’ve heard of a couple (mastodon i think was one of them, but i haven’t heard much) in the past but my memory is fuzzy on which. I’m mainly looking for at least maybe up to 2-3 max going forward to be active professionally with other recreational funsies sites that I follow some stuff or indulge in like tik tok or here for example. 

[xxsabitoxx]

xxSabitoxx is now archived. 

After some heavy consideration over the last few months, I have come to the conclusion that I am going to be archiving xxSabitoxx. 

I have poured nearly three years of my life into this blog. I have seen several friends come and go. And most of all, I have been blessed with such a large following that I truly don’t deserve. 

However, my love for writing has slowly diminished, just as my love for this site has. I am not going to go into boring detail as I do not want it to seem like I am searching for pity.

But, before I go, it has been brought to my attention that many are displeased with the way I handled a particular anon ask last week. I wanted to take a second to apologize, as I agree that I could have answered that question much more level-headed and maturely. It has since been deleted because I did not like the way I was spoken to, and I especially disliked the way I spoke to them. 

I could have responded to that ask in several ways and I chose to be rude, and for that I am sorry. 

With that being said, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs on Tumblr over the last decade under a few other usernames and aliases. I’ve witnessed the steady dumpster-fire decline of Tumblr etiquette and people's genuine disregard for others on here.

I am simply one person with a life outside of the stories I choose to write. I have several priorities that will always outweigh my hobbies.

After all this time, I can say I am finally done. I’m over it. There is no point in putting effort into a hobby I no longer have a passion for. So I am closing this chapter today to start fresh tomorrow.

I cannot begin to thank you all enough for choosing to read my work and support my blog. Whether you’ve been with me since the start or just followed me today, you supported me in some way and I’m forever thankful for that. 

I’m deeply sorry I couldn’t do more, and I am especially sorry for those who were waiting on stories that will never be written. I hope you can forgive me but I understand if you can’t. 

It has been both a wonderful and terrible journey as xxSabitoxx / May. And as much as I would love to be done with this and simply click the “delete blog” button in my settings – I know many of you enjoy the stories I’ve posted and quite frankly I have grown attached to this blog as well. 

So, it shall remain an archive that may one day revive itself but please do not hold your breath. If the day comes that I decide it’s time to delete this blog, I will take the time to move as much of my work as I can over to ao3 before doing so. 

So, until we meet again, take care.

- May

[omgsuperstarg]

My Knight in a Shining Ferrari Racesuit-Lewis Hamilton x Caribbean Black! Reader

The author's note-This is my response to the bombshell that occurred last week. Sir Lewis flipped the table, SET IT ON FIRE AND THREW IT IN THE DUMPSTER. Legendary moves yet again.

The bombshell decision heard round the world, the landscape to all who knew it will forever be altered. Lewis Hamilton is parting ways with the team he aided in building and carried on his back for over a decade. You knew that this decision hurt him, especially for the team and fans who love and look up to him.

As you scroll through the internet and its various sites reporting on the news, you can definitely say he broke the internet. You slowly step outside to the porch of the temporary dwelling you're both retiring in as your mind drifts off and the memories begin to play like a home movie. Your time with him has been a short one since you fell in love and became a couple in the golden age of his career and you couldn't help but worry for his mental health. The last few years at Mercedes haven't been kind but, he stuck out knowing his team could've pulled through this time, he just couldn't make it.

You suddenly smell his scent as you can feel his tattooed arms wrapped around your frame. Your orbs slowly opened and you whispered

"How are you feeling lewis" you inquired.

"As well as I can be. I spoke with Toto he understood but I can see that he's a bit heartbroken along with everyone back at Brackley," he responds solemnly.

"I don't blame them. Their golden boy and son is leaving the nest. Moving on to greener pastures and I can't help but be scared for you'', you respond concerned.

"You have nothing to be scared of darling. ill be fine,'' he speaks determinedly.

How do you know that, You're going into a completely different ballgame here. Learning everything from scratch as well as earning your favor with the Tifosi whose loyalty to the team and Charles runs deep. I dont want you to be spinning Top in Mud'', you express finally turning your gaze to your love.

"I want you to get that 8th title you've been fighting for and end this career ON A HIGH and enjoy this sport for a little while longer because we all know it's only a matter of time...........", your voice trails off after that.

"I know that you're scared, but I have a lot of strength and can do this . All I want to do know is try to get through this season the best way we can and have one last hurrah before departing and beginning a whole new chapter. Besides, we can visit the factory ever so often as well as Toto & Susie, who always have space for us to visit them." He says hopeful.

"Alright, I can't say no to my Knight in a Mercedes Racesuit, soon to be Ferrari. Now common, I have your fave vegan cupcakes to cheer you up and a new toy for Roscoe.", in which the mini icon pet comes racing in to join you two on the balcony.

This may be a continental shift,but you prayed that the future is somewhat kind to the little life you've developed with him.

[freyanistics]

I think because we don’t have much content surrounding atsv and btsv won’t be coming out to the unforeseeable future we have gotten to the point in the fandom that we’ve turned over every leaf both films had to offer. Since then we’ve begun to start overthinking and looking too hard into things to the point there’s arguments over every little thing. The ship wars, the hobie age discourse, debating if Miguel is racist, all of these things make up like 75% of the fandom now compared to when atsv first dropped.

I’m not saying it’s like that throughout the whole fandom as we still have those who still draw fanart, their spidersonas, actual theories, and just being goofy with the characters like we were doing in the beginning but if go on sites like Twitter you’re gonna see a dumpster fire where people are arguing over these little things. There’s a big difference between the ATSV fandom on Twitter versus the fandom here. It feels like people on Twitter want to be right so badly to the point they’ll paint people as horrible for having different opinions about certain topics. Then again Twitter has/always has been a dumpster fire of housing hive mentality.

Point of the post is this is just something I’ve noticed and speculated. Not saying that the spark or magic of what the fandom has died because it hasn’t but it’s definitely been overshadowed by people who are so desperate for new content that they’re just trying hard to find something to complain or argue aggressively over.

[khadgarbignaturals]

i know tumblr has a strong anti-tiktok bias which is entirely fair but bear with me on this

with the continued genocide of palestinian people, like every social media platform has a ton of people trying to boost content to raise money for families escaping gaza, tiktok is much the same. there’s a sight problem though; tiktok does not like people trying to boost content like that, so tiktokers have been finding ways around it. the main one is content creators starting fake beef with each other to get people hooked in for some juicy tea (which tiktok’s algorithm likes) and then hit ‘em with the go fund me link to the family they’re helping. also the watermelon 🍉 emoji has become a symbol of being pro palestine.

i think this is really cool! but it’s brought smth up that i’ve been thinking for a while in relation to how people on tumblr view tiktok. this is not hate, this is not criticism, this is just something to think about

i’ve been on tiktok since 2018 so i’ve seen a lot of shit including how the app has transformed over the years. one of these things is the growing censorship of “controversial topics” like racism/homophobia/etc. there wasn’t really much restriction on content for a while but in 2020 that changed. the black lives matter protests spread like wildfire on tiktok because news outlets we not reporting what was actually happening, or not acknowledging it at all beyond surface level shit. during that time i got information and news about the protests through tiktok users on site at and participating in protests because we just couldn’t trust any major news outlet (and honestly even some tiktok users with large accounts).

the censorship started to really take off because tiktok didn’t want those kinds of videos gaining traction, and did not want people organizing through the app. there are any number of reasons for this, but it’s not really relevant. regardless of why, tiktok started suppressing or removing videos that have the “problem words” in them (including comments). some of these “problem words” are: death, kill, names of any drug, boost, comments mentioning boosting the video to raise awareness of something, etc.

over the years tiktokers have adapted to this, from substituting letters, using similar but disinfected words (like the famous “unalive”), and even speaking in code to get around the increasingly strict content moderations. some examples are: “gardening” instead of smoking weed, k!ll, di3 (and other l33tspeak), 🔗🌲 instead of linktree, etc.

the problem most people have with tiktok users is when they’re outside tiktok. a lot of the criticism of these people is definitely valid, but the extent has always given me a little pause. a lot of these tiktokers that people make fun of the behavior of are children and teenagers. they tend to be chronically online, have very little conception of privacy and online barriers, form parasocial relationships, etc. this stuff is all true, but why?

these kids have spent a huge chunk of their formative years interacting mostly online because of covid. theyve been dunked headfirst into the internet in a way that has really damaged their social skills, hence them being called “chronically online.”

my point here is to just get people thinking about tiktok itself in addition to its users. its users are the way they are because of the platform they’re on, and tiktok as a platform itself fucking sucks. we all know twitter (i’m not calling it x) is a dumpster fire, tumblr staff sucks, facebook is, well, facebook, you get my point. the absurdity of the censorship on tiktok shouldn’t be overlooked.

[gloombeauty]

I discovered something about Lana's show in Fenway Park in Boston. It's not sold out at all. You can Google it and check other sites but here are the tickets for Lana's show for sale at Stubhub. Some are descent prices like $200 and some tickets are almost 3k. But tickets are there to buy and some are being sold by bots. Her fans were complaining on her managers page. His name is Ben. He deleted all the comments but one stan confronted him and I found the screenshot on X. I don't understand why lanaboards and Ben shamelessly lied about the show being sold out. Lana has stayed silent so far. 🤷‍♀️

Okay.

Let me swallow all this in.

So, the official tickets from Ticket Master are 100% sold out.

However, the tickets are being sold at these sites:

1 - Vividseats

2 - Ticketboxofficesales

3- Seat Geek

The prices are ranging from $200 to $5,000.

So technically, it's sold out but not really sold out because ticket scalpers are now re-selling them.

I solely blame this on Lana Del Rey.

If The Cure, Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Yungblud, Greta Van Fleet, Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, AC/DC, Radiohead, Pearl Jam and many more artists can stop ticket scalpers, why can't Lana do it too?

All Lana has to do is click on a button online that says "do not allow re-sale of tickets" and that's it. Taylor Swift could have done it as well, but she let that slide through because what does she care? She made her coins. She couldn't care less that some poor dad working 60 hours a week has to pay over 10k to get his 3 daughters Taylor Swift Era's tickets. Taylor is a multi millionairess as is Lana. These people couldn't care less for the common man or how expensive concert tickets are. That's just how rich people are. It's rare when they do care, like Pearl Jam and the other artists I mentioned above.

Lana's manager Ed is an asshole. Always has been. He deletes comments all the time for the stupidest reasons. Of course these are gone. All this just makes Lana look bad because she is basically sitting back and watching her fans spend thousands of dollars on re-sold concert tickets.

Lanaboards - don't even get me started on that dumpster fire cesspool trash site. The chick who runs that page literally looks like a blowup doll.

Anyway, all this drama just to watch a 38 year old woman sing the same exact tired setlist. Adding the fact that she only whisper-sings nowadays and points the mic at the audience so they can sing her songs. She doesn't even do the whole song. She whispers-sings a little, does a little half-ass shimmy move and cuts the song onto the next one. All this while a back track vocal recording is playing in the background with 15 tacky dancers.

People actually are willing to pay for this?

It's one thing to buy the albums and watch the videos, which is all I do - but what else is there to do? I'm not putting any of my hard earned money to see this boring mess. That is where I draw the line.

I won't even buy any of Lana's official merch tees because the designs are so hideous. Overpriced hideousness. No thanks.

Lana is a great singer (in the studio - not in concert) and songwriter. Nobody can take that away from her. In a live setting? Boring as hell and not worth all the money fans are paying to see her whisper and half ass shuffle on stage.

This is the Lana worth every penny to go to:

This Lana Del Rey is gone. Has been gone for 6 years.

The last time Lana sang with heart and soul was in 2018 for this concert in Brazil:

That's all I really have to say on this sad subject. I miss the old Lana Del Rey. The Lana who use to sing and made an effort on stage.

Lana was at her best on stage during the years 2011-2016, although that 2018 Brazilian show wasn't bad. It just wasn't her best. It was the last time she actually opened her mouth and sang which is why I added it here.

There is an interesting thread on Reddit about artists preventing this re-selling crap from happening. It's a good read.

[dontforgetyourmedstoday]

I want to thank you for your response — I searched your blog and went back weeks, and found so many without sources, and no mentions of you using creative Commons or free use images. And with two weeks of no response, I decided that that meant you were ignoring the message, and got angry — so many people steal artwork, and so many claim they can't find the source, and then I open tineye, and one sort change later, I have a source for it.

In hindsight I definitely should have waited longer. I'm sorry for that. And that art isn't mine, I just hate seeing unsourced art.

It may be beneficial to specify either in your pinned or in the posts that it's free use/creative Commons.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for this blog <3

Hello again Anon,

I've been thinking about how to reply to these messages for nearly a day now and I've spent more than an hour (make that 3 now) trying to write a reply. I've written and rewritten this multiple times. I'm finding it hard not to see these as a continuation of the accusation that I am deliberately and maliciously stealing other people's work so I'm going to take a step back and just say this:

Despite my early promise to myself that this would always be a safe space where people could anon with questions, queries, wins, worries, or whatever-related to health things, I'm turning off anons. Unfortunately, my various flavours of neurospiciness mean I will always want everyone's approval and for them to like me and so even if I don't respond publically I will still ruminate on things - for, well ever.

I'm going to let my current queue run out and then, most likely, won't be posting again - I may or may not deactivate the blog. This has been in the wind for a while now, I have found that something that was meant to be relaxing for me has become super stressful - particularly with feeling like I have to do it perfectly and not offend anyone, and make sure I give attribution (that I'm giving it to the right person), and add all possible triggers and warnings, include image descriptions, etc. etc.

While I agree with anon that attribution is important, I will not be going back through all my posts to add attribution in a format that works for everyone. Partially because this is Tumblr - the site renowned for being a complete dumpster fire to navigate and just use in general (I say this as someone who had some oranges I crocheted for my niece's Very Hungry Caterpillar present blocked during the great nipple witch hunt). But mostly I'm busy, permanently tired, and filled with forks (It's a variation on spoon theory people - not a swear!). However, if anyone wants to go through the posts and add attributions where they are missing or add them in ways that people on mobiles can see them - great - thanks :)

Lastly, let me just say be kind to yourselves and each other and,

Don't forget your meds today xxoo

[godstrayed]

1. what’s the biggest pet peeve you have in regards to tumble? 6. what’s one thing the rpc has to realize? 12. what’s overrated in the rpc? 17. what’s your least favorite trope? 24. what’s one fandom you regret getting into and why? 25. what’s the worst rule you’ve seen on tumblr?

TRUTHTFUL TUESDAY ; accepting.

1. what’s the biggest pet peeve you have in regards to tumblr?

I have a lot of pet peeves. I've been writing on this site since 2013-2014 on various blogs, fandoms, and niche communities. I think the most prevalent is people who approach me with no idea and no effort in regards to coming up with a plot and leave me with the burden of coming up with it alone. At that point, I tend to just unfollow / soft block because I do not have any interest in solely being responsible for the interaction. I want a collaborative effort. This being said, I understand that plotting is hard at times and we're not always in the right headspace for it. But I think we should be conscious it's a two-way thing. One person shouldn't be carrying the burden of it.

6. what’s one thing the rpc has to realize?

No one owes them anything. No one has to like their writing, characters, or want to interact with them without it being anything deeper than that.

12. what’s overrated in the rpc?

Trends. Although I fall victim here and there. Trendy aesthetics, popular overused words (remember when ethereal was on every blog omg), icon trends, and so on. Sometimes I see very simplistic blogs but really good writers overlooked because they do not adhere to making everything 'pretty'.

17. what’s your least favorite trope?

I am not sure I have a least favorite. I tend to be okay with all cliches as long as it is well-written.

24. what’s one fandom you regret getting into and why?

At times, Stranger Things. Billy has become one of my favorite muses but over all my brief experience with the fandom has been ... well, iffy. It feels very cliquey and everyone trying to distance themselves from that while also participating in it. I think particularly in my experience it was always a variation of a few different types of people approaching me. 1. People wanting to blatantly ship off the bat because I wrote a character they liked without any regard to how I depict him or 2. People approaching me for popularity or weird online rp clout reasons despite me being a nobody.

That being said, I did make a few good friends from that community that I will always cherish. For the OVERALL experience?? Dumpster fire.

25. what’s the worst rule you’ve seen on tumblr?

I do not think I vividly recall any rule I did not like from anyone. I tend to think at times my own are a bit over the top & obnoxious but carefully curated after many, many, many bad experiences.

[practically-an-x-man]

🔥 Copia (because I want to know..), the current state of Star Wars, Tumblr updates, any discourse in the hedgehog pet community?

ooh thank you!

on Copia... honestly, the only reason I know the distinguishing parts of the Papas beside their makeup is from what you've said. But I really hope Copia sticks around for a while, I really like him as a Papa and I don't want him getting hurt for your sake

on current Star Wars... I mean, I liked Ahsoka, but I also have trouble keeping up with all the shows and lore and everything. I can see how people love it and I can see how people hate it, but I only want them to slow it down a little. And... maybe give the makeup artists more resources, because the SFX is nowhere near as high-quality as it used to be.

on Tumblr updates... the site has always been a dumpster fire, so a bad update or two doesn't really irk me that much. However, this current trend of trying to make Tumblr just like all the other social media is starting to annoy me. Tumblr is Tumblr for a reason!

on hedgehog discourse... as far as I've seen, there's really not much. I mean, there's a constant discussion about what diet is healthiest for them and other care things, but it's largely a very positive discussion rather than a derisive one. At least in the groups I'm in, people are really just trying to give their exotic pets the best life possible, and a lot of the posts are new owners asking for advice so they can do the same. There's not really discourse lol

(that being said, my opinion on pets of any kind is to do your research and make sure you're prepared to handle the animal before you adopt them. the animal doesn't know any better, it's relying on you. treat it properly)

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

[lazylogic]

Okay, here are some words, yes it's long

This drawing started as "homework" my therapist gave me to try and draw myself more, just to like...have more of a sense of self, but it kinda turned into somewhat of a vent doodle because I was feeling gloomy yesterday. I think I'd like to make an alternate version of this that's much more cozy and colorful when I'm feeling better, though. Now...updates? Or I guess a ramble, rant, whining, whatever: I'm still not 100% on coming back to posting art, and on top of there really not being any good art site to post on (FA is fine but I know it has its own issues, I just subsist on nostalgia), every single social media platform now seems like a dumpster fire - way more than they already were - that I don't wanna go back to, so I'm not sure if or when I'm gonna change anything anytime soon. I'm already bad at being social in communities but I super do not know where to turn right now if I wanted to be "present online" again. Way back in the day, Twitter and Tumblr were actually fun, but it's all long since become stressful and anxiety-inducing. And at this point, it really doesn't seem like it's gonna ever improve. Frankly, I do kinda prefer living under a rock anyway, but there's definitely part of me that still misses the positive and warm interactions I used to have with people online. Unfortunately, I still feel like there's really no part of the internet anymore where I feel like I belong, or even want to be. This is all very possibly my gloomy mood at the time of posting and seasonal depression talking, but I really just don't feel motivated to post, participate, or interact online much anymore. Partly a good thing, I think, because I have a lot of fun working on my website and hanging out in the small web community, away from the centralized web. But I know it's also partly due to my bad, chronic habit of isolation - because right now I'm not even interacting with said small web community. I'm just talking to my friends on Discord and Telegram, which typically is all I need. But idk, maybe it's FOMO, maybe it's just another art angst wave, but I miss having a place to go for art...just not the way it's been for the past 6 years or so. I wanna be here, for people to know I'm still alive, but at the same time I don't wanna be here and I don't want to be perceived at all. This feeling changes constantly. I don't know why I'm saying all this and I think I just need to stop thinking about it entirely. Ultimately, the internet is really not important in life and there are countless other things about life that I should focus on. I have a life full of love and precious things, and that is really the most important thing. The fact that I'm an artist who decided to start posting online so many years ago just makes this complicated. Being an artist makes me neurotic, and I'm also just so fucking overwhelmed with the way the world is right now that everything feels like an alien place, online and offline.

And I just care about people too much. I wanna give back to the people who always showed me kindness and support online, just for them to know that they've all been remembered and seen and I'm thankful for them. I think that's why this is such a floundering issue for me. I still think that I'm better off not being an artist online, at least most of the time. But idk. I think I'm just doomed to always have overthinking, neurotic turmoil over stupid shit. Time to stop thinking! At the very least, art IS starting to be fun again, so there's that. I absolutely do better when I'm drawing without worrying about perception and opinions. I think the problem arises when I start bringing commissions into the mix...I hate marketing myself, but you have to do that to have any hope of getting clients, so I should either not do comms at all or just not try to rely on it for income. Damn this shit was easier when I was a teenager with no bills drawing people's fursonas for $30

[soul-music-is-life]

i just sent an ask about a chapter not loading, but it finally did! sorry to bother you.

Actually, I'm glad you did. I work in IT and have found work-arounds for not only my story, but many others.

The first is to clear your Fanfic cookies and reload with an entirely new page. That cleared up blank pages for a lot of people and a lot of stories. If that doesn't work there are more tricks. But just so you know...it's a huge sitewide problem.

As someone who works in IT, I have never seen a site run so poorly in a very long time. If I had access to the servers I know my team would be able to fix it within a day or two (we literally had a migration bigger than this less than a month ago and nothing went down like this did, but then again I have a highly competent team). It's been over a month and the site is a dumpster fire in the middle of an apocalypse with a comet hurtling towards the planet. That's why I realized I needed to start posting the work on AO3 with my other Emison fics.

But also...as someone who has always grown up in a digital age I always keep copies of my work in more than one place. I have back-ups of my back-ups. So never worry about the content. I promise I've got it.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi Wqa! The "about Wqa" link doesn't work for me. I'm not sure if it's a problem on my side, but I thought I should let you know.

The link doesn't seem to work on mobile and that's a tumblr problem, unfortunately. Nothing I can do about that. The programming on Tumblr is hot garbage, and the app programming is a whole dumpster fire of hot garbage. This is what the "about WQA" page says, in case you were still wondering:

Writing Questions Answered began in 2013 when I saw a need for a writing blog focused on answering questions. By fall of 2017 I had more than 30k followers and an inbox bigger than I could manage. I was frustrated and I closed the blog for a year, but I missed it and reopened in February of 2018.

If you’re wondering about me… I’m a published indie author who has been writing seriously for over 30 years. In that time, I’ve written tons of fan-fiction, lots of bad poetry, hundreds of original short stories, eleven novels (currently working on #12), articles for indie author publications/web sites, posts hosted by other indie authors, and thousands of writing-related blog posts over ten years time (with hundreds of thousands of notes between them).

I try to answer every question as quickly as possible which is typically anywhere from a few days to ten days after I get it. It just depends on how full the inbox is. I answer questions in the order they are received unless they are time-sensitive or relevant to a recent post. Please be patient with me as I’m only one person and am here on volunteered time. I’m also human and ND, so sometimes I misunderstand questions or make mistakes. Please remember to be kind when that happens. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[aeternamente]

giving money to tumblr will just show them that the changes they are making are good. unless you like the twitter layout they're trying and you like censoring trans women then pop off ig. also op is pro-life and transphobic

Ok I'll answer this. I mean, I figure you're probably a roving askbox spammer sending this to any blog you find mentioning crabs, and you probably won't even see my response, but my response isn't really for you.

So yesterday I went into the crab day tag just to confirm that today was the right day, and I saw all of the criticisms you bring up, and how people were talking on both sides of the crab day issue, and ultimately I came out of it still pro-crab day.

The meat of the issue, I think, is the effect that our money has on tumblr making the changes we want, and I've been convinced that the whole "don't give them money because they haven't yet done what we want" argument is backwards. Because tumblr is going to make their site more palatable to the people their money IS coming from, not the people their money COULD BE coming from if they're perfect unproblematic angels (which they will never be for everyone). If the money isn't coming from us, it's coming from advertisers, who will push for more censorship and don't give a shit about accessibility, so the situation we're looking at is not one where the userbase actively withholding money is going to make a positive impact.

As for the layout, I've been on tumblr for a decade. Do you know how many layouts have come and gone in that time? There's always a vocal group of people who hate the new one, but I just figure out how to get to all the things I want to get to and move on with my life. Actually I like this one a bit better than the last one, but mostly I don't care.

And I did see people talking about the person who originally came up with the idea for crab day, and I looked at their blog and it is indeed a dumpster fire, but the idea went beyond that person very quickly, and ultimately the way I figure, a good idea is a good idea, it doesn't really matter who came up with it.

So yeah, I spent 3 bucks and gave someone crabs, and I blazed a post a few months ago, and I bought a domain for one of my side blogs. I think it's a good thing for us as users to establish ourselves as a viable way to fund our own platform, and that this will lead to us having more of a say in how this website operates, not less. I could be wrong, but that's the conclusion I've come to.

[edmarinourhearts]

Dark, stormy night (rated E --- RPF)

It's a dark night. Clouds covering the moon. The streets are quiet except for the sound of distant sirens. There are two men sitting by a dumpster fire. They are probably no older than 30, but life has been hard on them. They used to be famous, but with the uprising of communism, their main source of income, Webflix, had crashed like that Air France flight 447. The only remnant of capitalism still standing was a porn site, AllFans. Perversion is the strongest human instinct. One that can withstand any philosophy. Any ideology. Any government. They look each other in the eyes. The blond one looks at the other with a mirthless smile. "Remember when we did that show, Royalteen or something?" "The one filled with parallels?" The curly haired one moves closer to the fire to warm his hands. "Yeah. Good times." "Good times." The other repeats. They both look up at the same time. "We should remake it, if only there was a place for it." Scoffs the curly haired one. "Wasn't there a sex video involved?"

They look up meeting each other's gaze. "AllFans." They say at the same time.

"You sure about this?" The blond one asks. "Edvin, come on. We've done this a million times just to keep warm in these goddamn winters." "Do we play the parts?" Edvin asks. "Do you remember the names?" Says the other, raising his eyebrows. Edvin shakes his head. "ok, then. We play Omar and Edvin." Edvin nods. Reaching over and kissing Omar gently on the corner of his mouth. "The video is ready. The quality is crap, but it'll do the trick." He runs his hand through the other man's curls. "Do I open you up on camera?" "Nobody has the patience for that. Open me up now, and then we do what we do best." Omar gently moves Edvin's hand out of his hair, and kisses the knuckles, pushing a bottle of lube into his hand. "We act."

"Lie down, then." Edvin says. "This part is just for us."

"Ok, camera will start recording in 30 seconds and live cast this." Omar says. "Remember, don't look at it. We don't know it's being broadcast."

"Here we go, then."

Edvin hands Omar a bottle of alcohol, they're both laughing, purposefully looking away from the camera. "Finally, a warm place." Edvin says. "Thank goodness I found it." Omar puts the bottle down. "What do you mean you found it? I fucking had to suck a dirty dick for this." "Oh fuck no. You are not gonna take credit for this one. I fucked a 70 year old pussy to get us this." Edvin pushes Omar onto the bed, "you always just want credit for everything. Screw you." Omar pushes himself up, as he grabs Edvin's torn shirt, trying to throw him off the bed. "I take credit because it's my work." "Screw you, Omar." Edvin pushes him again, but with Omar's hands still clutching his shirt he falls on top of him. "Fuck." They exclaim at the same time. "I think it went in." Edvin says. "Well, get it out!" "I'm trying." Edvin says, "why the fuck are you so tight?! I think it's stuck." "Well, move a bit, maybe it'll loosen it up." Omar says. "Fine." Edvin says, almost begrudgingly, as he moves in and out trying to free his cock from Omar's tight hole. "Faster, try going faster." Omar says, pulling his legs up to his chest to make it easier for Edvin to move. "Fuck, fuck." Edvin says. "I'm gonna come." "Good. Keep going. Then it'll slip out." Omar says, grinding himself into Edvin's shirt. "I'm coming." Edvin moans. "Me too." Omar grinds harder as Edvin quickens his pace. "Aaahhh" They scream almost simultaneously as they come. Edvin then easily slips out. "Oh shit." Omar says, looking up at the camera. "Shit, shit." "What?" Edvin asks, trying to catch his breath. "You idiot. There's a camera in this room. It's flashing red."

Edvin looks behind him, staring directly at the camera, before jumping off the bed, half naked and turning it off.

Edvin laughs as he lies down next to Omar, entwining their fingers. "I think that went well." Omar rolls on his side, and rests his head on Edvin's chest. Placing a kiss on his now bare skin. "I think so. We're gonna have enough money to stay here for some time, now." He laughs. "That was fun." Edvin kisses the top of his head. "Round two?" Omar looks up at him with a smile. "I'm filled with cum and ready to go."

+++++

[nachoscheesy]

Matt Mullenweg

I recently read @photomatt post about why casual porn doesn’t work in the current era of the internet. While I understand what he is getting at, I do not agree with the way he’s framing the issue. He claims that companies are anti-porn and that the stringent rules enacted by app stores are what makes managing porn on social media sites so difficult. I think this is an oversimplification and what the real issue is.

To his first point, Credit card companies are not strictly anti-porn, they are in fact anti-illegal porn. I mean who wouldnt be? This includes things like, child porn, revenge porn, and nonconsensual porn. Companies like Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal didn’t just decide to no longer deal with Pornhub anymore, they saw reports that these things were on Pornhub and decided to pull out. More than likely to avoid, what I can only imagine to be a legal headache for all parties involved. These are also the same exact things that Tumblr was having huge problem with in 2018, instead of dedicating the resources to fixing the problem Tumblr pulled the plug on it all together. This was also something users had been telling Tumblr about for a long time, but a mix of a bunch of different issues made it impossible for them to handle it effectively internally.

Like I said I understand where Matt is coming from, but instead of acting like it’s out of everyone’s hands maybe just admit plainly that dealing with porn is a massive headache that Tumblr doesn’t have the resources to deal with right now. (Which he KINDA does at the end of his post.)

His second point is true however, Apple has been historically anti-porn for a long time. However, I think this has more to do with the fact that Apple knows how big it is and how much power it has to shape the tech landscape. That’s why Apple gets to basically do whatever it wants with anyone who wants to deal with them.

Why do Twitter and Reddit get to have adult content and still exist on the app store? Well that’s because Twitter and Reddit managed to get around Apples rules by not allowing someone to just see NSFW content without at least logging in to the service. As well as not being exclusively advertised as apps/sites for porn, although I don’t think Apple personally cares if Reddit or Twitter are on their store or not.

Matts point on a dedicated service or company does not make a lot of sense to me, because these services already exist, online and most adults would not have any issues finding it if they really wanted. The issue comes back down to content moderation and verification, this isn’t just a porn specific issue but an internet issue.

Not to mention the fact that Matt seems way to into the crypto hype that will surely bring about a magic bullet that fixes all of the online issues that come along with running an online space of any kind. but thats a post for another time.

I'm not criticizing @photomatt expertise or insight on how difficult content moderation is, let alone adult content moderation. My criticism is that he tells users to go and bang on the doors of these corporate giants to enact change. While @photomatt and @automattic have the full power in their hands to lobby themselves for these changes.

If Matt wants that crypto-utopia to come to life, he should acknowledge that the foundation for that is being built on sand. As we've seen with Meta and the rest of these services, this includes the current dumpster fire that Elon Musk has created over at Twitter. In the end I want to see Tumblr grow and be the comfy website I think its always been, but that wont happen until they pull up the rug and address the foundational issues that are leading all other sites down the drain.

[cyriusli]

So I heard a rumor everyone is leaving the bird app for this dumpster fire site again. Jokes on you, I never left. Went quiet, sure. Worked on OC projects -- self-published two books so far. But I never left.

Also been dealing with a lot of medical stuffs, but ya know, what else is new. Sorry my writing has been shitty and inconsistent. I'm finally off the meds that were making me loopy, so I'm trying to get back into a writing routine.

Small prompts would be cool, if you want, no pressure.

As always: zosan, lawlu, zolaw, and some others. If it's something I don't write, I will let you know.