#so that i don't have to keep fighting social media algorithms at all

[bob-artist]

Just found you via your funny dream comic. Good stuff 😆. Definitely gonna read the rest, and I was surprised you had your own website. Looks good on mobile too. I’ve got a comic that some friends keep trying to build me a site for but I’ve been telling them no because it seems like between webtoon and social media nobody is interested in personal sites anymore.

Have you noticed an uptick in engagement from your site? Would you recommend going that route? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

I’m also interested in how you decided to build/host it, if that question isn’t too lame.

Anyway, glad I found your comics!

Ah thank you for checking out Into the Smoke's website!!

Oh, I have SO many thoughts about independent webcomic sites and why people should have them. I have so many thoughts, and I'm so so sorry.

Why did I decide to have my own webcomic site?

First of all, this is not a lame question and I wish we could all have this conversation more often, so I could maybe write just a paragraph instead of this whole dissertation!

1. Because I lived through webcomics history.

I launched my first webcomic in 2011. I watched the webcomics scene shift over the years from self-hosted sites to third party sites, and I saw what it meant for independent creators. We lost vital infrastructure, relationships, habits, and control over our own work. I think self-hosted sites are an important backbone for creators, even if/when their largest *numbers* come from a third party site.

We’re all supposed to be helping each other, not fighting each other to satisfy the algorithm. Our early tools (webrings, link trades, comic databases, sharing each other’s posts) were small but meaningful, and they also helped us maintain a community mindset in a long and sometimes lonely line of work. When we started leaning on hosting sites, we let a lot of those tools and relationships decay. And now a lot of people are locked into imbalanced relationships with hosting sites that leave them with very little agency and control over their work and how it’s shared (or isn’t shared).

Hosting sites are great for removing barriers to entry (cost/time to build a site). And a lot of them have large built-in audiences. But the big ones aren’t run by people who care about creators. They’re designed to extract the maximum value from your work while giving you the least they can get away with. Use them if you want (I do), but don't be dependent on them.

2. Comics are the main thing I do for a living, and a website gives me the tools to promote my work and build relationships with my readers.

Most apps and third party sites actively prevent or suppress these things. On your own site, you can share all the info you want about your upcoming Kickstarter, your tradpub book release, your merch, etc. You can collect email addresses for your newsletter. You can literally just talk about your weekend, and you’re not gonna have a 150-character limit.

Yeah, not everyone wants to read a wall of text (ha ha...), but acting like a person reminds readers to treat you like a person. This is one of my main gripes with the apps and social media - they suppress human connection and present you like a cog in their machine that only exists to churn out free content.

3. I have a consistent home base and full control over how my work is displayed.

I don’t have to fight against an app that’s trying to direct my readers toward whichever content is most profitable for them. On an app, the readers “belong” to them, not you. (Who has their email addresses?) So if I'm putting effort into promoting my comic, I'm promoting my own site. (oh look, I just did it.)

Hosting sites/apps aren't designed to showcase your work. They showcase the app’s collection, and they're designed to keep readers on the app, jumping from creator to creator. This can help readers find you, but it also devalues your work and dilutes its impact.

And the app might not show your work to anyone anyway. Tapas is a great example; they recently redesigned their site to prioritize their Originals, and independent creators are hidden away in a “community” tab with barely any discoverability anymore. This is always the struggle on a third party site.

4. I hate censorship.

Into the Smoke is Teen 16/17+ and Demon of the Underground is R/18+. My comics aren’t even explicit, but I still can’t post my true, uncensored vision for either story on third party apps governed by Apple’s App Store and Visa/Mastercard’s tight content restrictions.

If webcomics exist exclusively on apps with heavy censorship, we’ll never have the diversity of storytelling and freedom of expression that’s necessary for groundbreaking or subversive art to happen. And that’s bad for everyone.

Adult brains need to engage with adult concepts. Difficult and triggering topics need to be explored in creative spaces. Artists need freedom to stretch their creative muscles without falling into the damaging patterns of self-censorship that come from having to tiptoe around arbitrary platform rules.

We can’t let the rules of like 3 American companies dictate what every webcomic reader around the world is allowed to read.

5. An independent website can’t easily be taken away from you.

Just make regular backups! You can always move to a new web host and redirect URLs if needed, and you won't lose your readers. On the other hand, you can easily lose the bulk of your audience on a third party site based on circumstances outside your control.

Let’s talk about Smack Jeeves, a formerly popular webcomic hosting site that was bought out and then shut down, leaving lots of cartoonists homeless. Or we can talk about the Tumblr NSFW purge of 2018, where I lost a huge chunk of my first webcomic’s following and most of my webcomic mutuals, even though my own account stayed within the rules. Or Musk buying Twitter, the platform where I once found my literary agent through a publishing event but now get no traction at all.

Have I noticed an uptick in engagement from my site?

I don’t have analytics on my site yet. But, up until a few days ago, that's where people were reading, thanks to my own efforts and the support of my comics friends and all of y’all who shared my ITS posts. (THANK YOU ALL!) I didn't have any discoverability on Webtoon or Tapas yet.

I got 10-15 new patrons between May 25 and June 5. Up until a few days ago, I even had more ITS newsletter subscribers than Webtoon subscribers.

What happened a few days ago is my Webtoon mirror suddenly blew up with 100+ new subs a day. I don’t know where I’m being featured, but I know I’m only getting those readers because Webtoon suddenly chose to grant me visibility. That can end just as instantly with an algorithm tweak or them deciding not to show my comic anymore. (When my first webcomic was in one of their pay programs in 2018, I went from $300 or $400/month to $0 overnight due to a policy change.) So I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but I won't de-prioritize my website.

The new Webtoon readers are awesome and supportive, and I’m 100% thrilled to have them. But the Webtoon influx isn't resulting in a Patreon influx like my website launch did. I wouldn't expect it to, this early in the story. But it's consistent with my past experience polling my patrons: even when 50% of my readers came from the apps, 90% of patrons read on my website. (Your audience may vary.) And since I depend on crowdfunding for my comic, that's important to me.

Would I recommend going the route of having your own site?

For anyone who’s just testing the waters with webcomics, it might be overkill.

But for anyone who’s committed to their webcomic, I recommend having your own site AND mirroring on every third party site you can, provided you’re cool with their terms of service. It's important to meet readers where they are. Let those hosting sites lend you their readers. Some readers will even want to visit your home site where they can read ahead, read the uncensored version of your comic, get more info, or sign up for your newsletter.

Just remember, no one will discover your independent website all on their own. They’ll only find it through the work you put into promotion. But the reader that cares enough to come to your home site is a special type of reader.

So how do you get readers to visit an independent webcomic site?

Find your allies

These are people who work in similar areas as you who want to help you succeed, and whom you want to help succeed. Chat with each other, help each other, promote each other, boost each other, link to each other (psst, my links page just went live!), be there for each other - behind the scenes and in public.

God, I am SO bad at approaching people, but this is important, and not just for comics.

Be part of a community

Really, this is an extension of the above point. It's easier to find your allies if you're part of a community.

I’m a member of the Cartoonist Cooperative, and they’re a GREAT group of talented people all across the comics industry. The mission of @cartoonistcoop is to help create better conditions for comic workers through cooperation and collective action, and I’ve found so much help from them with Into the Smoke and comics as a whole. (JOIN! They're great!!)

The goal of the co-op isn't to drive traffic to your website. But being part of it has helped me at every level of crafting my comic, including promoting it and making it good enough that I can take pride in promoting it. And it's helped me ground myself as part of a community after I lost so much of mine in past years of burnout and platform enshittification.

Another option: @spiderforestcomics is a great webcomic collective full of supportive creators, and I believe they’re open to submissions till the end of June! They also have an awesome collaborative community mindset, and I've known some of their members for years.

Direct readers to your RSS feed and newsletter

Getting readers to your website is great, but they need to keep coming back for future updates, and it’s hard to remind them without an app notification. You may need to teach younger readers what RSS feeds are. Inoreader is a great RSS reader for the 2024 era.

The dreaded SEO

That’s Search Engine Optimization - optimizing your website so that people can easily find your comic via search engines. That’s a topic for another day, but feel free to research it!

Paid promo

This can be tricky, and I really only recommend spending promo money if you’re making a comic on a professional basis, because then it’s an investment you'll make back.

That said, Comicad.net is a great independent site where you can buy banner slots on other creators’ sites. I just ran small campaign myself. (And no, I won’t ever be offended if you outbid me!)

I haven’t bought any Tumblr Blaze slots, but I got BOPPed (blaze other people’s posts; apparently that’s what it’s called, lol) once on this account and once on a side blog, and both were highly impactful. (Thanks, friend!!) So I consider it a solid option, and it looks really cheap compared to other social media sites. (Never trust Meta.)

And where can you learn more about building a webcomic site?

I know you didn't ask, but if I'm gonna share all this, I might as well give folks a starting place to actually do the thing.

Now, I’m *bad* at offering cheap and easy web solutions. My specialty is hard and expensive. But my one piece of advice: PLEASE make your webcomic site mobile friendly for the current generation of readers! When we talk about barriers to entry, remember that more people have phones than computers, and many can't afford computers.

Anyway, here's some webcomic website resources from OTHER people!

The Cartoonist Co-op has LOTS of great resources on building webcomic sites! Several of them! Check them all out!

@screentonescast has a podcast episode on webcomic web design and one on RSS feeds!

@jeypawlik also has a great comic about how RSS feeds work.

So, congrats if you made it this far. Go make a website, y'all! And if you read any indie comics, go visit the creator's website!

[sigilmint]

entering the my-art-is-fucking-trash-and-everyone-is-too-nice-to-tell-me phase of the artist cycle. normally I try my best to keep this phase as private as possible bc I KNOW it's brainworms but.... fucking hell I am feeling it so hard. I've been trying to have an art career for over a decade what the fuck am I doing. why am I trying so hard and working so hard when no one wants my art.

[briarrolfe]

Recently, I was sent a job listing. It called for a graphic designer "to produce direct response static & video ads for various social media channels, such as Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube." So, even though it was asking for a graphic designer, it wasn't a graphic design job—it was an advertising/social media/videography job. The career I've dedicated eight years of my life to is the bit the ad referred to as 'static'.

Ever since, I've been thinking about this idea that video is the future, and also I have been (not coincidentally) extremely depressed. Not to be all "you kids and your phones," but...

In advertising, your consumer's attention is money. Video is THE most attention-demanding form of advertising and therefore the most bang for your buck. It's why Facebook fudged their own stats for the effectiveness of pivoting to video so aggressively in the first place. If your consumer is reading something—a magazine, a poster, a book, something on their phone—then they're still listening, and if something else demands their attention, they'll just look up. If they're listening—to somebody talking, to music, to a podcast—then their eyes and hands are free to do whatever they like. They can look at the world around them, which involves many forms of competing visual advertising.

Video is a media form that doesn't stop. It keeps talking when your consumer looks up, and then keeps moving to grab their visual attention again. The best method for advertising is one that a consumer has to exert energy to not pay attention to.

(—This is why I hate video so much as somebody with ADHD. When my dopamine and blood sugar are low, focusing past someone playing TikTok audio is hard enough for me that it hurts. I've never had the same problem with radio or with like... idk, billboards. And TV is kind of bad, but at least it makes predictable sounds, whereas every person who films a TikTok with sudden screams or yelling in it is, in my opinion, going to hell.)

This is why the UI for platforms like TikTok and Instagram have autoplay, algorithms that disappear things you've seen so quickly, no scrub bars, and don't have skip or pause buttons. Your consumer has to keep their phone in hand to keep swiping or scrolling to properly engage. If that consumer can't stop a video or go back, then the platform can train them not to look up until the video is over. Anxiety that a user will lose their place or not be able to keep up with what is happening is part of what keeps them from looking away.

This is also a reason to be suspicious of why so many tech companies are obsessed with VR in general. A phone that people have to hold and look at and listen to is pretty good, right? But they can ultimately still put it down when an ad plays. It would be way better if we could put the advertising somewhere that tracks and follows their eye movements so that they literally can't look away.

We all know that text is still a better, faster, and more information-dense delivery system. Sometimes I see people mourning the pivot to video because it's a worse way to consume information. They're right! It is! But social media platforms have NO INTEREST in providing their users with like, actual reliable information. If they did, then social media companies would have no interest in AI.

(—This is also why they have no interest in fighting misinformation on their services. People who get radicalised are very engaged platform users. And the people who radicalise them come with massive budgets for ad spend.)

All social media platforms want is to get consumers hooked on their content so that they'll continue to deliver ad revenue. Video is the best way of achieving that. That's why we're all pivoting to algorithms and video. That's why Tumblr Live exists and Snapchat miraculously has not died.

Anyway. I chose to become a graphic designer.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I forget sometimes because I have my own friends and tumblr bubble where people are more reasonable, but yesterday I made the mistake of going on twitter and its algorithm noticed I had an interest in AI, and, man it's bleak out there.

I'm actually fairly despondent about the way that AI has firmly and probably irreversibly been cast as an ontological evil being inflicted on society. I hate that the industry I've studied to enter, that I truly believe can do a lot of good, is going to get me socially blacklisted in a lot of contexts.

I have got into fights with my own family over this. The other night I was out at an LGBT social meet and a couple of people there were illustrators or in media and the whole time I was like, "please don't ask me what I studied".

It's so grim. I could never have predicted this in 2018. I just want to build useful intelligent systems, reduce human labour burden, and explore the potential of cognitive computing for creative expression (no, not "AI art", at the end of the day I don't really give too much of a shit about that as a specific application. But building an agent that can express itself is the purest form of artistic creation there is).

Fuck society for not even giving us a chance to get this right before starting in on shutting it all down. Most people didn't even try to engage with deploying AI systems and cognitive automation maximally ethical ways, weren't even paying attention while those discussions were first happening, and now the people researching core capabilities the bad guys while y'all happily work to keep the rat race running in place where it was circa 1999.

(Fucking grey as hell future people online seem to want. Nothing revolutionary about doing nothing for decades and saying "wouldn't it be nice if things were different, but of course we can't actually risk trying to change them". Capitalist realism is a black hole for hope tbh.)

[shonpota]

Twitter Re acquisition Startegy Things that can be done to get Elon out from Twitter for good

(It is can, and it doesn't meant to be taken seriously anyway)

Please be kind when commenting and reblogging

Everything here are just options, not step by step:

Twitter blue or not, whenever Elon tweet something just make spam of pollings with questions or rephrased of "Do you want Elon Musk to be in Twitter in any job title? Yes or no." If you are afraid of getting accounts, then make dummy accounts. Remember to always vote "no" 😆 we can do it! Flood Elon's reply tweet sections woth that polling and nothing more, only interact with polling and like other polling with alike question to fight against bootlickers algorithm.

^This question is basically improved version of Elon's polling about whether he should step down from CEO position. Which he used the "no" As to move to other job position. This improved question will leave him no space to slip to other job position or even to just exist in Twitter.

Gather information about former twitter employees, make a group chat with them. Ask them about new and old twitter, the good and the bad. Make articles about it, go publish it everywhere.

Make all public posts settings on other social media about how bad twitter is for business and advertisements, tag local and international news and other influencers and request them to do the same.

Make one day or few days without twitter campaign to make social interest in it goes down, notify any local and international news media about this so they put it on news to make twitter popularity goes down and harms also humiliated Elon's megalomaniac and egomaniac side.

😇 Alternative "Good guy" Route😇 : Work together with HQ building owner (because Elon is renting it) to kick Elon out but keep everything intact.

Warning: ?? Unknown??

👽 🍹 Raid 51 But In HQ 🍹👽: Let's hold a gathering party to goes into Twitter San Fransisco HQ on Market Street! Go get barbecue, ice cream, juices, cold snacks and hold a picnic there and try to hold it in the HQ too (you can ask the building owner to open up the door cuz Elon doesn't pay the office) . The polices and armies will less likely arrest such a peaceful fun raid. Go feed the workers and passerby but not Elon.

If this is done then hold an open public job open requests to everyone in around the world and US to be engineers, website and logo designers, codings, etc. Twitter has branches around the countries

DELETE ELON MUSK ACCOUNT/S. Ban his phone number and e-mail.

If possible: Collect money to set a lawyer against him. Remember that Elon is stupid enough to challenge Wachtell (a big name in lawyer world). Go open public fundraising. Demand a high cost compensation from Elon.

News that hold information about lay offs:

More idea to try! 💡 if possible, you can ask the journalist in the news about name details of who got lay off

CEO: Parag Agrawal

Chief Financial Officer: Ned Segal

Head of Legal Policy: Vijaya Gadde

There are also people who get unemployed in Ghana as told in CNBC, the journalist who interviewed is Elliot Smith.

For news about the lay off, The Verge, Euronews, etc can be used.

HQ Location:

Xspace office

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XxtfQNmz3sNp4H1W6

Tesla Factories

Potential Allies for Twitter Take over:

Microsoft:

Meta

Wachtell

Warning: Don't publish this in Twitter, on DMs is fine. It is better if Elon Musk doesn't know about this so he can't prepare anything. Make sure that each accounts unfollowed and block elon musk Twitter too.

Oh anyway a good read:

[astraltrickster]

Y'know I have to wonder...I'm not the first person who's noticed that the push toward algorithmic Content Delivery(TM) pretty much EVERYWHERE but here and AO3 is probably at least partially responsible for a lot of no-problematic-content-allowed-on-any-social-media-ever kind of thinking. I'm not the first one to notice that "you need to curate your own experience" probably rings pretty hollow to people who "live" primarily on Twitter and TikTok and YouTube and Instagram and Pinterest and wherever else just decides to throw stuff related to ANYTHING you've glanced at into your "personalized" feed - easier said than done! Like, this is an underappreciated part of why those of us who remember it miss the internet's wild west days - people fell down radicalizing rabbit holes, but those rabbit holes didn't come incessantly banging on their doors, filling up their autoplay lists, all because they accidentally clicked on some troll link once. Imagine if your morbid curiosity about why everyone was grossed out by that 2girls1cup video (don't Google that), your desire to prove you were Tough Enough to laugh through your disgust, or even just your foolhardiness in clicking an unfamiliar link that happened to lead to it ended up filling your feed with extreme scat porn for months - because that's what would happen today, along with a whole bunch of other shock porn, some gore, all that "fun" shit that tended to be related. You see Tubgirl (don't Google that) once, you probably go "EWWWWWW LMAO GROSS HOW AND WHY WTF" and move on with your life...maybe with a lingering twinge of morbidly amused curiosity through your disgust as to how the FUCK someone figures out they can DO that - but if you see her or someone similarly, uh, talented every 20 posts, to the point where you can't browse your feed in public or around your friends or family anymore, because the algorithm is convinced, well, you clicked through out of morbid curiosity as to whether that thumbnail was REALLY as gross and graphic as it looked so OBVIOUSLY this is a good way to keep your attention, yeah that's a LOT worse. Hell, imagine if a 4chan troll stole your friend's account, sent you a link to a beheading video pretending to be them, and suddenly you're FLOODED with snuff vids because you DARED to trust a link that was sent by "your friend"! If we had the culture and in many cases lax rules we had then with the infrastructure we have today, that would very likely be a daily occurrence. That shit had the potential to be traumatic enough then - well, if you lived through it, now imagine if the internet would never let you escape it from then on, the algorithm would keep chasing you down with more and more material running the gamut from just plain gross unless you share some very niche fetish to outright traumatizing just on its own; this faceless, unfeeling entity coldly retraumatizing you again and again and again and again and again.

If that's your template for the ONLY way the internet works - hell, if you're so spoiled by these Jitterbugified content discovery methods that you don't know how to find things you like manually anymore and the very concept sounds like too much work - then of course you're going to end up wanting most sites to be pretty conservative in what content is allowed. There are, of course, better solutions; we HAVE them and HAVE had them in the past, but it is very human for better and worse to look for the easiest quick fix.

But what I can't help but wonder is if this norm is having a cultural effect that's broader than just internet fights, and making people more sympathetic to far-right calls for censorship in the real world.

Look. It's not 1998 anymore. The internet isn't some niche thing that stops affecting people the moment we log off. It's rarer to find someone without social media than with anymore. Sure, okay, some people have VERY distorted ideas of the importance of individual posts and petty arguments between 5 people, but just because the stakes of your ship war or your debate over model train scales or the argument over whether that blurry bird photo is a crow or a raven may be exaggerated doesn't make it suddenly untrue that online disinformation has severely harmed public health, or been used for election interference, or all kinds of other awful shit with SERIOUS real-world consequences in recent years. In fact, the signs of the regressive movement we're facing now WERE visible in the rhetoric being used to justify some of those terminally online takes about inconsequential subjects months to years before the same rhetoric started being entertained on national stages, with gradually increasing frequency until those ideas became Acceptable To Say In Meatspace - the people who mastered the delicate balancing act of being Online Enough to see this but Offline Enough to recognize what rhetoric was at risk of breaching containment from those petty online nothing arguments, THOSE were the people who saw this shit coming!

So, when the internet has this potential to have this kind of stochastic impact on culture, I then have to wonder...is Silicon Valley's obsession with algorithms and ads and bridging the physical world and the digital world actually convincing people on some level that even offline, if something is allowed to exist at all, they're OBLIGATED to see it, try it, and welcome it into their homes, more than conservatives already were before? And if it is, is this particular layer intentional, or is it just a happy little accident for these tech corporate fucks that it ends up pushing people farther and farther to the right without realizing what's happening?

[zee-rambles]

Hi Zee! new follower that came across your pinned post by chance very recently. Maybe a weird ask ahead, totally fine if you don't answer,

Do you really believe rise can still be saved? Because a part of me is still holding on, and the new andy sketches have been torturing me too. Ive signed all the petitions, done everything I can, I feel like its not enough. It's weird and been bothering me for the last few months, though I've never felt this way before about shows that didnt make it. How do you cope with the feeling, as a long time rise fan? Do you? Obviously not a therapist lmao just curious, trying to learn how to deal with a three year long obsession. Thank you.

I don’t know how many people are going to read this, but here goes.

So, I really tried to think of a nice, clear way to answer this question, but then I realized: it will never be perfect. All I can do is be genuine.

Yes. I do believe that Rise can still be saved. The same way that I hope that many of my favorite shows can return. And I do this because I simply choose to believe it. I choose to have hope. I don’t know, I can’t promise it will come back, but if I’m being true to myself, I choose to hope for the future that I want, and that future includes Rise in it. I once thought I would never get to see the Hey Arnold Jungle Movie, thought I joined the movement too late to bring it back…but it happened.

And I thank you for doing what you can. I did a lot for this show in the last two years. Been recommending it in real life, posting about it anywhere I can, supporting and uplifting other fans, liking as much art, and advertising projects as much as I can. I even put Rise related gifs in the comments of things I react to on social media, hoping that someone will get curious and give it a chance. I’ve sent emails, signed petitions, rewatched as many good videos as I can so that the algorithm can recommend it more. I’ve done a lot. I’m just…slowing down right now because I have a huge project I need to complete in order to graduate from Uni, and because it is hard to advocate for something on your own.

Unless someone is a billionaire and has ties to Hollywood, no one person can bring back Rise. It has to be a collaborative effort from as many fans as possible.

And I’m a lot like you. I’ve never felt this strongly about bringing a show back before. I didn’t even think I would be the person that most fans come to for hope. I just saw that no one was doing what I was hoping they would do: encourage fans not to give up. So I became that person.

I’m not going to lie. I did go through a grief process at first. I was genuinely heartbroken, especially when I notice that slowly but surely, people move on. That happens. It’s normal. But I don’t want to move forward without knowing that I did something. I didn’t just sit there and cry that things were unfair. I gave it my best shot. Sure, I may be wrong, and I may be disappointed, and nothing may come out of it. But I tried, a it’s a 1000 times better to try something, and fail at it, then to never give it a shot.

If I got just one person to fight for Rise, to sign those petitions, to make an effort, that’s enough for me. A victory is a victory, no matter how small. I remember when that petition was only 3 thousand signatures and now it’s over 10 thousand. I think that, as long as we don’t give up, as long as we keep spreading the word, as long as we try our best to bring in new fans, there is a chance. Someone sees a video with the hashtag #saveROTTMNT or #unpauseROTTMNT on YouTube, or insta, or wherever, and digs into the story, falls in love with the show, and tries to get in on the action.

Spectacular Spider-Man fans haven’t given up. Teen Titans fans haven’t given up. I don’t see why we should. And yes, there is always a possibility that the show may never return. But, just as much as there is a possibility of something bad happening, there is also a possibility of something good happening. We’re just pre-disposed to notice the negative, because part of survival is keeping our resources. We could gain 10 good things but still be heartbroken if we lose 1 thing, even if that 1 thing was a bad thing.

At the end of the day, I’ll say this. It’s okay to love something. It’s okay to be sad that it’s over. It’s okay to have a passion for something. It’s okay that a show inspires you, is there for you when you’re alone and scared, that it gives you hope, that it makes you happy, and so on. It’s okay to fight for it if you love it…and it’s okay to let it go, if you need to, or step back if you need to. There is no right way to enjoy a piece of media.

It’s all a choice. At least for me. I choose to do something. And I choose to forgive myself if things don’t work out. I understand that I’m human and there is only so much one person can do. There is no harm in hoping, or believing. I just do it because I want to. Because…well, hope is a ninja’s greatest weapon.

I don’t know if this answers your question, or if it was what you were hoping for. Sometimes we need to figure out an answer for ourselves. That was my answer.

I hope you keep finding things you love and that they bring you joy.

[pteren]

New to Tumblr what is a mutual.

And how do I get people to interact with me?

well met! *shakes your hand with both of mine* i love your url :o

on paper a mutual is someone you follow who also follows you. but it's so much more than that. on Tumblr the term is interchangeable with lover, ally, inseparable friend, mortal enemy, not-so-secret admirer, partner in crime- the list goes own.

Tumblr is very different from other social media sites. people will usually only see your post if they are following you or if one of their followers reblogs it. this means everyone starts out invisible. so you have to say things!

"reblog" posts you like to add them to your blog and show a copy to everyone who follows you. you can add "comments" as well, but comments will only be seen by the poster and anyone who looks at the post closely. if you want to share your thoughts on something or just think other people should see it, reblog it.

don't be afraid to have conversations by reblogging the same post back and forth. it's pretty much impossible to keep your blog "tidy"- if you want a focused clutter free archive of posts you should make a side blog.

"liking" posts is a friendly tap on the shoulder and nothing more. the intended way to use Tumblr is without an algorithm, so there's no weights and dials to adjust behind the scenes. it is simple and pure, devoid of implication or expectation <3

send asks to ppl you think are cool- Tumblr as a community is fighting back against the fear of being observed. doesn't matter if you know them- most people love receiving questions about anything at all. you're doing great at this so far ^^

finally, make original stuff and talk freely about what you love, what makes you happy, what you're obsessed with, what's on your mind. Tumblr combines the intimacy of a teenager's diary with the anonymity of an international government agent. be totally yourself here. nobody can stop you.

if you put yourself out there and share your beautiful mind, soon people will see you and think "that person is cool" and they will come talk to you too :)

[2isted-chocol8-art]

I have been pretty out of social media lately, and although I don't usually make personal text posts, I wanted to write something to the people that still follow this small art blog on the internet. I draw as a hobby and as a way to have fun. I love fandom and seeing what others create. But since all the AI shit started going down, stealing other's drawings and real people's jobs, I became hesitant to keep posting. I have stopped drawing as much, and every time I think about uploading a drawing I have to think about the possibility of feeding a stupid, greedy algorithm. It makes me so mad. And yet these past few months I've been able to see precious art from other people. Drawings, fanfics, animations, songs... it's what gives my everyday flavor. I love fandom, and I love seeing what people create. So I might start drawing again; at least, I'll try to post whatever drawings I haven't yet. I can't fight corporations nor their greediness, but I can at least share my silly drawings with people on this corner of the internet. What I love about fandom is that people create for other people. And I still want to be part of that.

[trickstarbrave]

"this is to say nothing of the grown adults on social media who make discoursing on the "opposite side" their full time hobby when really they are only making the situation worse in an effort to feel morally superior" Lol these are the people who are defending the ability to enjoy things in fiction without being policed. I can't believe you can have such an insight into the problem and then completely miss the point by acting insufferable to the people advocating for just letting people enjoy what they like. You're no better than the people who send death threats honestly since you want to ally with the people who want to police every online space and censor people. They'll come for you next, and none of us will be there to defend you from the antis when they decide your fiction is morally reprehensible

i debated not answering this because you are being rude and annoying and i dont like this kind of pointless arguing, but let me make this clear:

you are not helping address the problem. acting morally superior and righteous in the same brand of obnoxious is just about as much of "activism" as the "pro-shippers" who do it too. all you are doing is picking fights to get high off the rush of anger and dopamine. you are not "advocating" for anything. you are not addressing any of the problems. you are not fundamentally changing anyone's minds.

you are working on a bland, black and white mentality that ignores the complex reasons behind stuff. just by me saying that you have jumped to "so obviously you like sending people death threats and support it and are no better than the people do that" just like how the people who don't like your weird incest ships think you must obviously be an irl abuser.

"anti" means nothing. neither really does "pro-shipper". this us vs them mentality has to die before we see any progress. we cannot just keep using the internet for outrage. instead of arguing with people online and making stupid arguments about how actually your fiction IS moral and is actually better than other people's stuff and that everyone who doesn't think exactly like you do must love sending people death threats, you could try doing something actually fucking productive. push back against censorship online. disrupt algorithms. educate people that engaging with content they don't like on algorithm websites means they will see more of it. create a forum to freely share stuff with less harassment and vitrol. stay educated on what bills have lead to this censorship and push back against them or protest about new ones that keep being introduced.

all i can see from asks and posts like this is: you dont want things to change. you don't really care about the reasons behind it. you are right and other people are wrong because you don't like them. you like arguing online because you get a rush from it. you are doing this because you like fucking "winning". you dont care if you don't change a single person's mind because you enjoy the moral superiority you imagine you have. which are all the reasons the equally obnoxious people you hate and insist you are nothing like keep arguing with you. it is an endless cycle because you all enjoy the cheap thrill of arguing and bitching online that feeds into our worst impulses as human beings. i know im not one to fucking talk because i've also been known to jump into internet arguments, but i can at least recognize the problem and try to address it.

so long as you continue to act like this and act like your behavior is self righteous activism, this kind of shit will create a feedback loop. literally deactivate your fucking discourse blog, stop getting into pointless arguments online, and do literally anything else to address the problem. stop thinking that when i am addressing harmful mentalities online that feed into negativity and bullshit that you are immune to it because you're smarter or better than the people you disagree with. you're not. you're obnoxious.

if you send another anon i will be blocking you. knock it off. grow up.

[uncanny-tranny]

unusual question but what social media do you think is trans-friendly (and no, imo terfblr isn't)

I mean, I've personally accepted that because most social media is, in some ways, a reflection of broader society (even in small ways) that there isn't any one social media that's "clean" of any bigotry, even transphobia.

Instead, what I think people should do is work with the tools a social media platform gives them. Essentially, curate your experience. I used to pride myself on never blocking people, never fighting back, being docile and letting people say the most unhinged things they wanted about me and my transness, but the only person who hurt in the long run was me. I thought that the more "accepting" I was for anything, the better I was as a person because I never was a person. I didn't allow myself to experience anything, and so I kind of let social media be just as unwelcoming as my real life felt.

Maybe there is a small social media that I'm not aware of, but in terms of larger ones (e.g., twitter, facebook, instagram), I don't think they are at all free from transphobia, especially when algorithms are based in engagement, and seeing how anger and division drives so much engagement.

If you want to use these more well-known social media, I think you have to not let yourself be passive. You have to moderate your experience if you want it to be pleasant. Block people, leave groups if you find any hint of bigotry, keep debates about transness to a minimum if you're the debate type, report things that go against ToS, know that you don't have to deal with anything that doesn't make you comfortable.

I know of some smaller platforms, but I have not tried them. I have the most experience with larger, more well-known social medias, and I don't believe any of them are broadly trans-accepting. I know from experience, however, that this isn't the whole of the platform you choose. There will always be people who want to be trans-accepting, you sometimes just have to find them.

[joshua-beeking]

I'm very sad that fandom spaces (particularly mdzs it seems) have been unkind to you. I absolutely adore your original work but your fanarts have a special place in my heart because that's how I found you and your art is just so absolutely beautiful and I love it so much

I hope you're having a good day, you deserve to have just such a good day

That's incredibly sweet of you, I thank you kindly! It was a really thoughtful gesture and a nice thing to wake up to today.

I'm very sorry that I won't be drawing any MDZS anymore, the attitude of the fandom just killed any inspiration I had to draw for it and I won't force myself to do something I don't want to do anymore, I tolerated a lot for a long while. I know it made me "boring" now to so many people who used to follow me, but I'm far from the first one to "leave" because of harassment or from entitled attitudes for ridiculous reasons. ( Daring to draw " uncanon dynamics" and all that ridiculous debate about it, having Ace headcanons, etc, etc...)

People should take that time to think about recent fandom entitlement regarding artists in general, we are already exhausted from fighting against reposters/fraudulent companies stealing our works for profits/ expected to do -everything- for free and not asking a dime for it and live off sunshine and rainbows/ never getting acknowledged for anything original we make/ having to keep an inhuman pace of posting or be lost to the algorithm/screwing up my body as a multiple times chronically ill artist to keep said pace/social media screwing us OVER AND OVER/ Not having one single place viable for artists/ AI art now adding a big layer of crap over it all...

We are exhausted of swimming against the current and now even drawing things " for fun" gets you crap. It's tiring.

That's part of why I decided to concentrate on my original webcomic now, because there's no " debate" to have over something I created. It's very simple. ( The biggest part being that I am fond of the story I want to tell and want to draw and tell it.)

I'll be doing some fanarts here and there when I feel like it because something particularly inspired me, but I won't feel forced to anymore now that ( Thank goodness, I'll be forever grateful for that opportunity) I have a steady art contract now that will allow me to pay my bills at least. I gain a lot of freedom that I can draw what I truly want now instead of being forced to draw whatever is popular so that I can make sure I get the bare minimum of commissions that keeps me afloat. It takes a lot of time away from my webcomic work so chapters will take a lot more time to update but work is maintained, no worries!

The biggest compliment anyone can give to me right now is to keep on enjoying my works, whether that be my webcomic or my artworks in general. I give my entire gratitude to people who -stayed- regardless of fandom, purely because they enjoyed my works, and truly understand the struggles an artist face on the internet now.

Thank you.

[princessazalea17]

On the topic of gatekeeping and how social media turns childhood and teenage nostalgia/trauma/interests into memes and trends

This is a hot one. I got into a fight with an ex-friend about this, which was a big thing that led to the death of our friendship. Looking back, I don't blame the guy. I have had my fair share of songs that I used to have on repeat back in high school and got made fun of for listening to. Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me The Horizon was a big one, now known as a sigma male meme song. Another one is King For A Day by Pierce The Veil. A third one is Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade. Take any emo nostalgia song that you hear being played all over social media, and you have a peek into my high school playlist.

If you're into core music, specifically deathcore, you have To The Hellfire by Lorna Shore, now made a meme by thousands on TikTok, highlighting Will Ramos's pig squeals towards the end of the song. If you're on emo or metal TikTok/Reels in general, you will hear the same nostalgia songs over and over. The same can be said with goth tiktok and any other alternative subculture. Even if you're not part of a specific subculture, there will always be that one song or artist that used to be a huge part of you growing up that has now turned into a trendy internet meme, which is why a lot of people have expressed their frustration on the app about "songs being brought to TikTok and turned into ___" (coquette, sigma, scenecore, big titty goth gf, e-girl, etc.)

I will admit that I have gotten so sick of hearing Pierce the Veil and Bring Me The Horizon on social media that I have stopped listening to them entirely. At the same time, social media has introduced me to new songs and artists - Violent VIRA, La Dispute, Destroy Lonely, Odetari, 6arelyhuman, Crystal Castles, Aphex Twin, Whirr, Lana Del Rey, Cocteau Twins, and Alex G, to name a few.

The same can be said with fashion trends. It's like every year (or every few years), there's a new trend. As of right now, it's Stanley Cups, even though I still have my hydroflasks from university from back when VSCO girls were still in.

I remember the era of TikTok when everyone was a mallgoth, indie kid, or a bunny hat scenecore kid, a.ka. the Brooklyn Bloodpop era - this was the year that introduced me to artists like Jazmin Bean, Sewerslvt, and Crystal Castles. Then I noticed a bunch of lovetheflex drainer girl lookalikes-- this is when I got introduced to artists like Yeat, Bladee, and DestroyLonely. Then, the year after that, I noticed an uptick in people on my FYP dressing in trad-goth attire - this is how I got introduced to post-punk bands like Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Now, I'm seeing a lot of "lainpilled coquette" "grippy sock vacation" "im so silly :3" "femcel" content and "Deftones girls" - this is how I learned about artists like Fiona Apple, Salvia Palth, Radiohead, Deftones, Bôa, and Aphex Twin.

Coquette is the new trend, and it has been associated with pushing harmful agendas like EDs/fat phobia and glorifying mental illness, even linking young women to the alt-right pipeline by pushing trad-wife lifestyles. Keep in mind that a couple of years ago, e-girls were the ones who were previously thought to be the ones who were falling down this pipeline, given YouTube's algorithm of linking gamers to right-wing videos (hello, 2016!). Some people will even liken the coquette or cutecore aesthetic to a more feminine, soft version of being a sigma male or a femcel.

Will finish this probably tomorrow since I'm tired. But this is a huge topic that I have been dying to address.

[renagato]

So here I am, coming back from the dead of every possible social media app (maybe expect pinterest..).

- rising from the dead to write a post about how I absolutely suck at posting.

Note: I'm writing this on a whim, without even making notes, so I might NOT make sense at moments. But I will write this sht anyways. No one can stop me.

So here's my short story:

I started posting art more than a year ago on insta, it wasn't that bad actually. But I was posting the kind of art I had no connection to (to make more likes) so,, i burned myself out and stopped posting. After a year of break I decided to start sharing my art again (art that I actually enjoy creating) BUT I suck at posting. And it's not like I don't have art to post but I'm still doing horribly..

Then, du-du-du, what is it? What's stopping you? What is your problem?

Well, the first answer is "tf I know" but let's ponder on this a bit.. What makes it difficult for me to post and run a proper account?

Reason number one! The sole act of posting is stressful (and also bothersome in a way?). It's stressful because I already think about how many likes I'll get (or how I won't get any bruh), plus I have to write a shitton of hashtags to even hope to get some. To add to that, there's that thought that I'm sharing my art with complete strangers in the back of my head and I get scared of judgement.

Stop! You can fight this fear, and put up with hashtags somehow, right? Actually, I did pretty well for some time. But alas, then comes the reason numberrr-

Two! The algorithm (maybe not here on tumblr but you know the deal). If you're irregular, it'll take you years to build your account. And I'm irregular af. I draw irregularly, and thus post even more irregularly or I don't do it at all. So I can say goodbye to a proper account, I guess, and chances of somebody finding me.

Well, I could go back to the "posting" part as I got a random thought - the act of posting somehow kills the fun for me? Firstly, you have to watermark your piece if you don't want it stolen (and it doesn't guarantee its safety in 100% anyways, bruh) and I don't watermark my arts AT ALL. Thus, even if I know I should, I end up forgetting to do it anyway and I get frustrated over a pretty much silly thing that a watermark is. Secondly, the stress that I talked about already.

Let's go to reason number three! And maybe this one is my main problem? I get discouraged easily and I struggle with keeping up with things (being irregular, as I mentioned before + simply forgetting to do things). And well, I can only blame myself on that, I guess 💀 I have lots of ideas but committing to anything is a big pain for various reasons - everything I discussed above + a bit of perfectionism too, I'd say. That's kind of a bad mix,,

So, we got 3 big reasons and everything in-between I probably didn't think of! If anyone has read all of this, thank you.

And since I'm struggling but still would like to run some sort of account/blog, I'd like to ask for any sort of advice! Or maybe you relate to what I wrote. In any case, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas!

Ahh, now I need to put the tags, good heavens..

[somenerdfromwhatever]

Talent Drives The World - The four words that drive my passion.

Hi. This blog ain't dead! Last week, I heard of a subreddit called r/AutisticPride. It's a subreddit that promotes the idea of Autism Acceptance. I decided to take a the plunge of using my Reddit account to post on their sub. For those that don't use Reddit or stumble upon this by chance of the algorithm, here is my reddit post that I want to share here as well:

I have witnessed a lot more struggles than ever before within the autistic community. More so than ever. The challenges we all face in securing jobs, pursuing goals, and realizing dreams are all too real. Despite continuous efforts to seek acceptance, amplify our voices, and share our stories, society continues to hold onto organizations that undermine our messages and continue to spread ignorance about our community, leading to discrimination, ostracization, etc.

Some organizations, such as Autism Speaks, still persist despite the overwhelming evidence of their harm towards autistic individuals. These organizations are still operational. We had hoped that by now they would cease to exist, but their persistence and ongoing contribution to the harm they cause are truly mind-boggling.

I have spent this year, gunning and being out there to land my goal of working in the entertainment industry someday and at the same time made active efforts of getting that dream of working on my favorite show. That show in question if you've seen this profile, and my cosplays on social media... is Wednesday.

Very recently, I made a long video discussing how a certain cast of characters get treated in their small town, and I parallel it to the struggles we face! I explain my story, and share the connections to what we face on the day to day basis. If you know from seeing the show, these are the outcasts.

These harmful organizations like Autism Speaks that don't speak for us, discrimination, bullying, "cringe culture", etc. are sickening and it needs to stop. There is a reason why I said I am an outcast and that we are all outcasts in this world. Everyone on this planet is not normal, we are all unique, that is why we are all outcasts, and being an outcast is a good thing. We are all unique in this world, and humanity needs uniqueness to function. When it comes to us autistics, these same people never give us the time and day. They often fail to give us the recognition and opportunities we deserve.

The other reason why I made it, is to showcase my video editing skills in full display as a pitch to the industry just to say "hey, even us autistics have the talent! Hire us!". Even if my dream is falls through, my story and the talents I showcased in the video drive home the point of what I have done to chase this dream. I even talked to people on the project and told them about said video and what I have done. They applauded me being open, transparent, and downright passionate, recognizing my skills.

We need recognition for all of us. I heard that 85% of us autistics are unemployed. Even with the talents we got, we go unheard off. That needs to change. We need to be loud. We have the talents, why can't they just accept us for who we are? Why would companies choose to overlook such a vast pool of untapped talent of us autistics? Our voices, skills, and contributions deserve recognition, not dismissal, discrimination, and harm.

Keep in mind, those same companies treat accommodations like a bad thing. Accommodations are not a bad thing, and they should stop treating it like it is. They are essential to make society function. They need us now more then ever.

We just want to be heard in this world. Talent drives the world, we shouldn't be ignored over us being neurodivergent. We are needed in society, they need autistics like us to make their society stable and functional. They should stop ignoring us, and just accept us.

Talent drives the world. That is a sentence I will continue to fight for, and die on. We, as autistics, need to amplify that and make it known.

My reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticPride/comments/187okr6/i_am_sick_of_people_and_organizations_ignoring/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[spookygayferret]

Things I like about Cohost so far, after having used it several months

So first of all, I've been trying to find another place to go that isn't Tumblr (Pillowfort is always an option of course), I actually made a Cohost account months ago during another big "Tumblr might actually choke to death for real this time" scare. And in light of all the bigotry going around (particularly from the staff), I've been thinking about making Cohost my permanent main social media platform. I like my Tumblr mutuals, but that's...honestly about it? Like the only thing keeping me here at this point is the community I've curated and I'm sure it's the same for most people. Yeah, I enjoyed the boops as much as everyone else, but it hardly makes up for Tumblr being a shit platform.

So here's what I like about Cohost so far:

It feels like a cross between Tumblr and Twitter, except with a lot of the bad parts stripped out? There's no algorithm, not even a For You page, it's literally all just pages and tags you follow. Completely curated experience.

There's no app, but the website actually works well on mobile! And there are options for installing it as a shortcut/webapp on mobile, if that's important.

They actually allow NSFW stuff, you just need to put a content warning on it.

No pornbots, at least not that I've seen.

I haven't run across a single racist shithead, TERF, or right-wing dipshit. Not yet anyway. I'm aware that Cohost isn't perfect, it has it's problems and it's not like bigots don't exist on there, but it's nowhere near Tumblr or Twitter (again, far as I've seen).

No AI bullshit.

The OFMD tag is basically completely dead at the moment, not a lot of gay pirate fans on Cohost. Same for Good Omens and What We Do in the Shadows. But with your help--!

Other than that, I don't have a lot of complaints about Cohost. I know some people do and that's fucking fine, there is no such thing as "good" social media anyway (fight me on this, idc) and in an ideal world we'd all have our own personal websites without a big corporation staffed by racist queerphobic asshats looming over our heads. But as far as social media goes, Cohost is the better option among what we've been offered.