#to wanting to service as many different users as possible

[thefailureartist]

I HATE this tech rat race we're all stuck in. Want to access your bank account? You need an app for that. You need a PHONE for that. And fuck your perfectly functioning phone, only new tech allowed. Access to all your apps will be straight up denied if you don't participate in the ever increasing unethical consumption.

[pastadoughie]

many people were confused about some of my previous posts, so for the sake of clarity i am condensing everything! tumblr has extremely transphobic moderation practices, often flagging completely innocent posts as explicit, solely for containing trans women in them or mentioning transgenderism. while letting untagged porn in sfw tags (ive literally seen porn tagged as "sfw agere") and blatent hatespeech, especially twards trans people (just look at the "gender critical" tag) go completely unchecked recently the CEO of tumblr had a big public hissyfit about people (rightfully) calling him transmysogenistic, going into random trans womens dms to harrass them, and saying that predstrogen saying she "hopes he explodes with hammers and then explodes again and hammers fly everywhere" is a death threat and saying he is calling the FBI on her (repeatedly misgendering her and calling her "it") and many bloggers, apon speaking out about it or even making harmless jokes (one trans woman posted a picture of a car and a hammer with the caption "reblog to scare matt" and got nuked for it) and many are very very angry (rightfully) about this whole affair and tumblr in general. if you would like to look into it i reccomend scrolling the "predstrogen" tag as she is the case most people are talking about at the moment. So, what can we do? this is clearly an ongoing issue, and, dispite having lost a lawsuit about their transphobic moderation in the past (see : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21274288-tumblr-nycchr-settlement) its clearly not gonna stop with just user complaints, as staff members are perfectly content to just go scorched earth on users who even so much as lightly poke fun at them well if you want to help you should contact the human rights commision (i will give clear details further down) ! you dont have to be in the US, nor be an adult to file, and it only takes a few minutes. this is the best and most effective method to fix this, because it hits tumblr where it hurts. human rights acencies have a lot of legal and financial power and tumblr CAN NOT just ignore them, and given that this will be the seccond time this is happening, the commisions shouldnt be playing nice anymore eaither. its really important that AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE FILE, and with different examples! while maybe your case might not be enough to prop up a lawsuit on its own, we need to prove a general trend. so every little bit counts! to respond to another question abt this ive gotten, as for what exactly to report, you should a) write about an act of discrimination youve recieved on tumblr that was eaither administered by a staff member OR that staff refused to give adequate moderation action in for example : a terf posted some blatent hatespeech targeted twards you, and you reported them, and staff looked at the issue and refused to persecute it. example 2 : you were unfairly flagged, deleted, or otherwise punished by a staff member and you are queer ( AND the post they banned you for has some kind of tie to your gender, ex : a sfw transition progress photo ) OR b) if you have not personally recieved something like that, please look for other peoples stories (THEY SHOULDNT BE HARD TO FIND, within the last couple of hours trans people have been being banned LEFT AND RIGHT for trying to speak on this. i would reccomend checking some of the tags related to what happened with predstrogen) and you should describe that incident as best as possible (be sure to disclose that you are speaking for someone else, ideally you should tell the story of someone you know, if possible.) you can also mention any reports you have made twards people posting blatent hatespeech that, opon reveiwing tumblr refused to prosecute dispite it being very obviously against terms of service. just so nobody gets confused about the filing process, im laying it out in more plain languadge!!

first you should email the SF HRC (san francisco human rights commision), at hrc.info@sfgov.org and say something along these lines :

Hello, I am [full name] from [country or state] and I am filing a complaint against Tumblr, witch is owned by the parent company Automattic Inc. located at 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110.

Tumblr has had previous issues with the NYC DHR for their moderation being unfairly biased against trans women (see : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21274288-tumblr-nycchr-settlement).

Despite a legally binding agreement with the NYC DHR, staff members still regularly harrass users based on their gender or sexual orientations. For example : on [date of most recent infraction] [describe incident] (if you are describing an incident that did not happen to you specifically, say something like) This incident involves the user [username] who I am not affiliated with (or/) who I am filing on behalf of.

I can be reached for further inquiries about this incident at [email you want to talk over] or [phone number you want to talk over]. (if you would like to be anonymous) However, In the event of legal prosecution against Automattic I would refer to be kept anonymous, where possible, in court proceedings. alternatively, you can also call the SF HRC at : 415-252-2500, you can use the above text as a starting point for this as well, next you want to fill out the form for the NYC DHR (new york city department of human rights) here : https://www.nyc.gov/site/cchr/about/report-discrimination.page for company you wanna put : Automattic and/or Tumblr for address you wanna put : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 for phone number you wanna put : (646) 513-4321 and for category of discrimination you can put : Discriminatory harassment and basis of discrimination you can put : Gender; Gender identity you can then use a similar script on the written section of the form. when describing a specific incident, you should attach as many screenshots and links as possible! (for links, include both a live link and an archival link, so take a capture with the internet archive and have that as an alternative, incase a staff member gets petty.) this should only take a few minutes at most, and it helps alot! you can fill this out if you are a minor, and you dont have to be a us resident, please please take the time!!! and, just to clarify because there are many posts going around that are confused about this tumblr moved offices to san francisco recently, so their main HQ is at : 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110 they DO still have an office in new york city, and thats where their PREVIOUS HQ was, the address is : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

[scamarchive]

Red Flags: How to Identify a Tumblr Scam (Pet Edition)

Has someone sent you a message requesting that you boost their sick pet fundraiser? Have you seen someone reblog a post like that? It could be a scam.

Check out this list of red flags before you boost or donate!

🚩 Red flag #1: Someone you don't know has sent you an ask out of nowhere, requesting that you boost their fundraiser

Scammers like to cover as much ground as possible. To do this, they find completely random, unrelated people through the trending and popular posts. If you reblog a trending or popular post and receive an ask soon afterwards, that's probably how they came across your blog!

Example: you watch a new release movie like 'Puss in Boots', and you reblog some trending fanart. You receive an ask about a fundraiser a few days later.

Example 2: you like some fanart of characters from the recent 'The Last of Us' episode, which is trending on tumblr. You receive an ask about a fundraiser that night.

Example 3: you reblog some cottagecore photography or another post that contains a trending aesthetic. Hours later, you receive an ask about a fundraiser.

🚩 Red flag #2: They tell you to answer their ask privately

Scammers love spamming the same copy-pasted ask to hundreds of people! They also love to reuse asks from previous scams. To reduce how many people notice the similarities between their current asks and asks from previous scams, they'll tell you to answer privately, to stop more evidence from getting out there. Also consider: if someone really has a sick pet, they should want as much exposure as they can get! Telling someone not to publish their ask seems counterintuitive, unless they have an ulterior motive.. Which a scammer will definitely have.

Knowing these red flags, check out the six scam asks below. What do they have in common?

🚩 Red flag #3: Comments are turned off in the fundraising post, or there are removed comments

Scammers preemptively turn off comments in their posts so people can't call attention to the fact they're scams. People who have real fundraisers, on the other hand, are usually glad to talk to you in the comments! Sometimes, scammers let people make comments, but there may be a message that 'some comments have been deleted or removed'. These were usually warnings from people who realized it was a scam.

🚩 Red flag #4: Their ask box is closed

Scammers preemptively turn off their ask box because they can't provide proof that the pets and vet bills belong to them. They also want to avoid angry messages from people who realize they're a scammer.

🚩 Red flag #5: They ask you to send money through paypal's 'friends and family'

On paypal, you can send strangers funds using 'goods and services', or 'friends and family'. Scammers will often ask you to send through 'friends and family' because you have very little protection and you'll have a hard time getting your money back! Scammers like to spin it as being 'faster', and they'll try to appeal to your emotions to create a sense of urgency and guilt, convincing you to send money using that option.

🚩 Red flag #6: Their posts have no tags. Their posts are all reblogs of trending posts. They don't seem to be reblogging consistently from any specific blogs

Scammers make a fresh blog for every new scam. They want to set up their blogs as fast as possible, so they cut corners, meaning that aside from their fundraising post, all their posts will be reblogs, and they won't usually have tags. The reblogs will often be of trending, easy-to-find tumblr posts! In most cases, scammers reblog posts from as many different blogs as they can, unlike the typical tumblr user who usually reblogs from select people they follow, over and over.

🚩 Red flag #7: They only have ~40 posts on their blog

Scammers know that most people won't spend more than a moment scrolling through a blog to verify its age, so they'll only populate their blogs with just enough posts to convince someone who only scrolls for a short time. Usually, the posts are all made within a few hours at most. If a blog is run by a scammer, usually you can scroll through all the posts within five minutes.

Remember: scammers want you to think 'eh, good enough'! If you're scrolling through a blog and you start to think this, scroll for another minute or two!

If you're on desktop, you can quickly get to the end of someone's posts by tapping the 'end' or 'page down' keys.

🚩 Red flag #8: Most of their posts are reblogged directly from the original poster

Scammers will usually reblog posts directly from the person who originally posted them, unlike most tumblr users, who tend to see posts reblogged by their friends and reblog them from those friends instead.

🚩 Red flag #9: Most of their posts have very high note counts

This is another indication they were fabricating their blog activity. It's way easier to find super popular posts than smaller ones! This is not a rule, most scam blogs will have posts with ~40 notes mixed in with posts with ~40k notes.

🚩 Red flag #10: The timestamp of the oldest post is only a few days old

Most scam blogs don't last more than a week before tumblr deletes em. Once you've scrolled to the end of the blog, check the timestamp of the oldest post by clicking on the 'meatball' (three dots) icon in the corner of it. If that post is only a few days old, or if it's so new that you don't even see a date (only a time), the blog is probably run by a scammer!

🚩 Red flag #11: The blog is dash-only

Scammers disable their blog's main theme so people can't see their archive and instantly see how new all their posts are. They want you to have to scroll, then get tired of scrolling (or say 'good enough'), so you never reach the end of their very sparse posts and realize it's a fabricated blog.

🚩 Red flag #12: The reblog notes have warnings that say 'this is a scam'

When people reblog a scam post and realize it's a scam, they'll often edit the post to warn people who see it in the future. You can look for these warnings by checking the 'comments and replies' reblogs, and the 'comments only' reblogs! Scammers count on people to reblog instinctively and not check these notes.

🚩 Red flag #13: You check the 'other reblogs' tab and notice that many unrelated users reblogged the post directly from the original url

This indicates the person sent copy-pasted asks to many unrelated people (this ties into red flag #1 and #2!). An unknown blog shouldn't have this many direct reblogs for their post, especially if the post and blog itself is super new.

🚩 Red flag #14: You check out their url tag at tumblr.com/tagged/URLHERE and see posts warning that they're a scammer

Sometimes, upon searching for the person's url (you can do this by going to tumblr.com/tagged/URLHERE), you'll see a bunch of people who have outed the scammer. Keep in mind even if you don't see any warnings, it doesn't necessarily mean the person isn't a scammer! Sometimes a blog is just too new for anyone to have posted about it yet.

🚩 Red flag #15: The post uses strong emotional buzzwords and language

Scammers like to use a post template that involves many colourful emojis, and phrases like 'my poor (pet name)!', 'he deserves to live!', and 'help us save a (cat/dog/etc)!' to appeal to emotion and make people feel empowered to help. This is so someone will share the post as quickly as possible, and not spend as much time carefully vetting the blog. The language is designed to make people feel guilty if they don't share. Not all posts containing this language are scams, but scammers employ it a lot because it's super effective at getting results!

🚩 Red flag #16: They don't have established history with anyone on tumblr

If nobody knows who the person is, chances are it's a scam. There's no shame in asking around to see if people recognize the blog! Make sure if someone comes forward to confirm, that their blog is older and they're well known in the community. Scammers don't really go through the hassle of astroturfing real interactions with real people before making their scam posts.

🚩 Red flag #17: The currency on the vet bill doesn't match the currency of the country that appears when you hover over the paypal link

This is a big one! For example, imagine there's a post with a photo of a vet bill. You notice the costs are all in US dollars ($). Next you check out the paypal link at the bottom of the post by hovering over it with your cursor (or pressing and holding with your finger, if you're on mobile).

When you do this, in the bottom corner of your screen (or in a popup if you're on mobile), you see the url attached to that paypal link. This url reveals the paypal user's country using a short abbreviation! In the example below, you can see 'PH', which stands for 'Philippines':

Therefore, the post in this example is almost certainly a scam, because the currency in the Philippines is pesos (₱), not USD ($).

You can also look carefully at the vet bill to find the location of that vet. In this example, the vet is located in Richmond Virginia, US. That is a red flag too because again, the paypal recipient is located in the Philippines!

🚩 Red flag #18: They have both a venmo and a paypal link, but the names aren't the same

Scammers make sock puppet accounts for venmo and paypal, and they'll often reuse those accounts between scams! Because of this, their links won't have identical names. For instance, in the example scam above, their paypal said 'aatuck1', but their venmo said 'evan-naeher'. This is probably because they made a new paypal to match the name on the vet bill they stole, but they still had a working venmo they wanted to reuse.

Other handy things to remember:

Just because someone proves they aren't a bot, it doesn't mean they aren't a scammer!

Many scammers do manually send asks to people, do reply to people who ask questions (without giving any actual verification), and even block people who reveal them to be scammers. Many scammers have been confirmed to have 'waking hours' and 'sleeping hours'.

💡 When in doubt, ask the person to write some words of your choice on a sheet of paper, put it next to the animal, and send a picture of it to you. 💡

If the person actually owns the pet, this will be easy for them. If they can't produce a picture, it's a scammer. Remember: if someone gives an excuse for why they can't send a pic, stay skeptical! Excuses are not a substitute for proof.

When in doubt, answer their ask firmly and skeptically.

This is the 'tough love' version of the above approach!! If someone sends you an ask, say firmly that their blog 'looks suspicious', and that you aren't comfortable sharing or donating. Often, scammers will block you as soon as you say this, because they know they can't provide any verification (unlike people with real fundraisers, who will be happy to give it) and because you've given them the impression you're tough on scammers and not an easy sell, they won't even try to convince you! Now if they don't block you? Awesome- now's the time to ask them for the sheet of paper photo.

Scammers use stolen, but legitimate, photographs of pets and vet bills!

The bills are real, the pictures of pets are real. But they're stolen from real fundraisers that other people made on facebook, gofundme, etc. Because of this, you can't rely on a vet bill picture alone to tell if something is a scam! You need to look at the context of the entire post, and check for red flags in the person's blog, etc. That's where things fall apart!

You won't always find a source for pet pictures if you reverse-image search them!

Scammers often take pictures from facebook and other websites that are behind login walls, and these sources won't show up on google. If you reverse-search a picture and nothing shows up, remember to still check for other red flags!

Lastly: If you want to report a scam, you can select 'report something else' > 'unlawful uses or content' > 'phishing'.

Just remember these red flags, or save em for reference, and you'll be a scam detective in no time!

Reposted with permission from @coulsonlives.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The (open) web is good, actually

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library tonight (Monday, November 13) at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

The great irony of the platformization of the internet is that platforms are intermediaries, and the original promise of the internet that got so many of us excited about it was disintermediation – getting rid of the middlemen that act as gatekeepers between community members, creators and audiences, buyers and sellers, etc.

The platformized internet is ripe for rent seeking: where the platform captures an ever-larger share of the value generated by its users, making the service worst for both, while lock-in stops people from looking elsewhere. Every sector of the modern economy is less competitive, thanks to monopolistic tactics like mergers and acquisitions and predatory pricing. But with tech, the options for making things worse are infinitely divisible, thanks to the flexibility of digital systems, which means that product managers can keep subdividing the Jenga blocks they pulling out of the services we rely on. Combine platforms with monopolies with digital flexibility and you get enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

An enshittified, platformized internet is bad for lots of reasons – it concentrates decisions about who may speak and what may be said into just a few hands; it creates a rich-get-richer dynamic that creates a new oligarchy, with all the corruption and instability that comes with elite capture; it makes life materially worse for workers, users, and communities.

But there are many other ways in which the enshitternet is worse than the old good internet. Today, I want to talk about how the enshitternet affects openness and all that entails. An open internet is one whose workings are transparent (think of "open source"), but it's also an internet founded on access – the ability to know what has gone before, to recall what has been said, and to revisit the context in which it was said.

At last week's Museum Computer Network conference, Aaron Straup Cope gave a talk on museums and technology called "Wishful Thinking – A critical discussion of 'extended reality' technologies in the cultural heritage sector" that beautifully addressed these questions of recall and revisiting:

https://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2023/11/11/therapy/#wishful

Cope is a museums technologist who's worked on lots of critical digital projects over the years, and in this talk, he addresses himself to the difference between the excitement of the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector over the possibilities of the web, and why he doesn't feel the same excitement over the metaverse, and its various guises – XR, VR, MR and AR.

The biggest reason to be excited about the web was – and is – the openness of disintermediation. The internet was inspired by the end-to-end principle, the idea that the network's first duty was to transmit data from willing senders to willing receivers, as efficiently and reliably as possible. That principle made it possible for whole swathes of people to connect with one another. As Cope writes, openness "was not, and has never been, a guarantee of a receptive audience or even any audience at all." But because it was "easy and cheap enough to put something on the web," you could "leave it there long enough for others to find it."

That dynamic nurtured an environment where people could have "time to warm up to ideas." This is in sharp contrast to the social media world, where "[anything] not immediately successful or viral … was a waste of time and effort… not worth doing." The social media bias towards a river of content that can't be easily reversed is one in which the only ideas that get to spread are those the algorithm boosts.

This is an important way to understand the role of algorithms in the context of the spread of ideas – that without recall or revisiting, we just don't see stuff, including stuff that might challenge our thinking and change our minds. This is a much more materialistic and grounded way to talk about algorithms and ideas than the idea that Big Data and AI make algorithms so persuasive that they can control our minds:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

As bad as this is in the social media context, it's even worse in the context of apps, which can't be linked into, bookmarked, or archived. All of this made apps an ominous sign right from the beginning:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/01/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either/

Apps interact with law in precisely the way that web-pages don't. "An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

Apps are "closed" in every sense. You can't see what's on an app without installing the app and "agreeing" to its terms of service. You can't reverse-engineer an app (to add a privacy blocker, or to change how it presents information) without risking criminal and civil liability. You can't bookmark anything the app won't let you bookmark, and you can't preserve anything the app won't let you preserve.

Despite being built on the same underlying open frameworks – HTTP, HTML, etc – as the web, apps have the opposite technological viewpoint to the web. Apps' technopolitics are at war with the web's technopolitics. The web is built around recall – the ability to see things, go back to things, save things. The web has the technopolitics of a museum:

https://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2014/09/11/brand/#dconstruct

By comparison, apps have the politics of a product, and most often, that product is a rent-seeking, lock-in-hunting product that wants to take you hostage by holding something you love hostage – your data, perhaps, or your friends:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

When Anil Dash described "The Web We Lost" in 2012, he was describing a web with the technopolitics of a museum:

where tagging was combined with permissive licenses to make it easy for people to find and reuse each others' stuff;

where it was easy to find out who linked to you in realtime even though most of us were posting to our own sites, which they controlled;

where a link from one site to another meant one person found another person's contribution worthy;

where privacy-invasive bids to capture the web were greeted with outright hostility;

where every service that helped you post things that mattered to you was expected to make it easy for you take that data back if you changed services;

where inlining or referencing material from someone else's site meant following a technical standard, not inking a business-development deal;

https://www.anildash.com/2012/12/13/the_web_we_lost/

Ten years later, Dash's "broken tech/content culture cycle" described the web we live on now:

https://www.anildash.com/2022/02/09/the-stupid-tech-content-culture-cycle/

found your platform by promising to facilitate your users' growth;

order your technologists and designers to prioritize growth above all other factors and fire anyone who doesn't deliver;

grow without regard to the norms of your platform's users;

plaster over the growth-driven influx of abusive and vile material by assigning it to your "most marginalized, least resourced team";

deliver a half-assed moderation scheme that drives good users off the service and leaves no one behind but griefers, edgelords and trolls;

steadfastly refuse to contemplate why the marginalized users who made your platform attractive before being chased away have all left;

flail about in a panic over illegal content, do deals with large media brands, seize control over your most popular users' output;

"surface great content" by algorithmically promoting things that look like whatever's successful, guaranteeing that nothing new will take hold;

overpay your top performers for exclusivity deals, utterly neglect any pipeline for nurturing new performers;

abuse your creators the same ways that big media companies have for decades, but insist that it's different because you're a tech company;

ignore workers who warn that your product is a danger to society, dismiss them as "millennials" (defined as "anyone born after 1970 or who has a student loan")

when your platform is (inevitably) implicated in a murder, have a "town hall" overseen by a crisis communications firm;

pay the creator who inspired the murder to go exclusive on your platform;

dismiss the murder and fascist rhetoric as "growing pains";

when truly ghastly stuff happens on your platform, give your Trust and Safety team a 5% budget increase;

chase growth based on "emotionally engaging content" without specifying whether the emotions should be positive;

respond to ex-employees' call-outs with transient feelings of guilt followed by dismissals of "cancel culture":

fund your platforms' most toxic users and call it "free speech";

whenever anyone disagrees with any of your decisions, dismiss them as being "anti-free speech";

start increasing how much your platform takes out of your creators' paychecks;

force out internal dissenters, dismiss external critics as being in conspiracy with your corporate rivals;

once regulation becomes inevitable, form a cartel with the other large firms in your sector and insist that the problem is a "bad algorithm";

"claim full victim status," and quit your job, complaining about the toll that running a big platform took on your mental wellbeing.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/18/broken-records/#dashes

The web wasn't inevitable – indeed, it was wildly improbable. Tim Berners Lee's decision to make a new platform that was patent-free, open and transparent was a complete opposite approach to the strategy of the media companies of the day. They were building walled gardens and silos – the dialup equivalent to apps – organized as "branded communities." The way I experienced it, the web succeeded because it was so antithetical to the dominant vision for the future of the internet that the big companies couldn't even be bothered to try to kill it until it was too late.

Companies have been trying to correct that mistake ever since. After three or four attempts to replace the web with various garbage systems all called "MSN," Microsoft moved on to trying to lock the internet inside a proprietary browser. Years later, Facebook had far more success in an attempt to kill HTML with React. And of course, apps have gobbled up so much of the old, good internet.

Which brings us to Cope's views on museums and the metaverse. There's nothing intrinsically proprietary about virtual worlds and all their permutations. VRML is a quarter of a century old – just five years younger than Snow Crash:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML

But the current enthusiasm for virtual worlds isn't merely a function of the interesting, cool and fun experiences you can have in them. Rather, it's a bid to kill off whatever is left of the old, good web and put everything inside a walled garden. Facebook's metaverse "is more of the same but with a technical footprint so expensive and so demanding that it all but ensures it will only be within the means of a very few companies to operate."

Facebook's VR headsets have forward-facing cameras, turning every users into a walking surveillance camera. Facebook put those cameras there for "pass through" – so they can paint the screens inside the headset with the scene around you – but "who here believes that Facebook doesn't have other motives for enabling an always-on camera capturing the world around you?"

Apple's VisionPro VR headset is "a near-perfect surveillance device," and "the only thing to save this device is the trust that Apple has marketed its brand on over the last few years." Cope notes that "a brand promise is about as fleeting a guarantee as you can get." I'll go further: Apple is already a surveillance company:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

The technopolitics of the metaverse are the opposite of the technopolitics of the museum – even moreso than apps. Museums that shift their scarce technology budgets to virtual worlds stand a good chance of making something no one wants to use, and that's the best case scenario. The worst case is that museums make a successful project inside a walled garden, one where recall is subject to corporate whim, and help lure their patrons away from the recall-friendly internet to the captured, intermediated metaverse.

It's true that the early web benefited from a lot of hype, just as the metaverse is enjoying today. But the similarity ends there: the metaverse is designed for enclosure, the web for openness. Recall is a historical force for "the right to assembly… access to basic literacy… a public library." The web was "an unexpected gift with the ability to change the order of things; a gift that merits being protected, preserved and promoted both internally and externally." Museums were right to jump on the web bandwagon, because of its technopolitics. The metaverse, with its very different technopolitics, is hostile to the very idea of museums.

In joining forces with metaverse companies, museums strike a Faustian bargain, "because we believe that these places are where our audiences have gone."

The GLAM sector is devoted to access, to recall, and to revisiting. Unlike the self-style free speech warriors whom Dash calls out for self-serving neglect of their communities, the GLAM sector is about preservation and access, the true heart of free expression. When a handful of giant companies organize all our discourse, the ability to be heard is contingent on pleasing the ever-shifting tastes of the algorithm. This is the problem with the idea that "freedom of speech isn't freedom of reach" – if a platform won't let people who want to hear from you see what you have to say, they are indeed compromising freedom of speech:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

Likewise, "censorship" is not limited to "things that governments do." As Ada Palmer so wonderfully describes it in her brilliant "Why We Censor: from the Inquisition to the Internet" speech, censorship is like arsenic, with trace elements of it all around us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMJb3AxA0s

A community's decision to ban certain offensive conduct or words on pain of expulsion or sanction is censorship – but not to the same degree that, say, a government ban on expressing certain points of view is. However, there are many kinds of private censorship that rise to the same level as state censorship in their impact on public discourse (think of Moms For Liberty and their book-bannings).

It's not a coincidence that Palmer – a historian – would have views on censorship and free speech that intersect with Cope, a museum worker. One of the most brilliant moments in Palmer's speech is where she describes how censorship under the Inquistion was not state censorship – the Inquisition was a multinational, nongovernmental body that was often in conflict with state power.

Not all intermediaries are bad for speech or access. The "disintermediation" that excited early web boosters was about escaping from otherwise inescapable middlemen – the people who figured out how to control and charge for the things we did with one another.

When I was a kid, I loved the writing of Crad Kilodney, a short story writer who sold his own self-published books on Toronto street-corners while wearing a sign that said "VERY FAMOUS CANADIAN AUTHOR, BUY MY BOOKS" (he also had a sign that read, simply, "MARGARET ATWOOD"). Kilodney was a force of nature, who wrote, edited, typeset, printed, bound, and sold his own books:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-late-street-poet-and-publishing-scourge-crad-kilodney-left-behind-a/

But there are plenty of writers out there that I want to hear from who lack the skill or the will to do all of that. Editors, publishers, distributors, booksellers – all the intermediaries who sit between a writer and their readers – are not bad. They're good, actually. The problem isn't intermediation – it's capture.

For generations, hucksters have conned would-be writers by telling them that publishing won't buy their books because "the gatekeepers" lack the discernment to publish "quality" work. Friends of mine in publishing laughed at the idea that they would deliberately sideline a book they could figure out how to sell – that's just not how it worked.

But today, monopolized film studios are literally annihilating beloved, high-priced, commercially viable works because they are worth slightly more as tax writeoffs than they are as movies:

https://deadline.com/2023/11/coyote-vs-acme-shelved-warner-bros-discovery-writeoff-david-zaslav-1235598676/

There's four giant studios and five giant publishers. Maybe "five" is the magic number and publishing isn't concentrated enough to drop whole novels down the memory hole for a tax deduction, but even so, publishing is trying like hell to shrink to four:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/07/random-penguins/#if-you-wanted-to-get-there-i-wouldnt-start-from-here

Even as the entertainment sector is working to both literally and figuratively destroy our libraries, the cultural heritage sector is grappling with preserving these libraries, with shrinking budgets and increased legal threats:

https://blog.archive.org/2023/03/25/the-fight-continues/

I keep meeting artists of all description who have been conditioned to be suspicious of anything with the word "open" in its name. One colleague has repeatedly told me that fighting for the "open internet" is a self-defeating rhetorical move that will scare off artists who hear "open" and think "Big Tech ripoff."

But "openness" is a necessary precondition for preservation and access, which are the necessary preconditions for recall and revisiting. Here on the last, melting fragment of the open internet, as tech- and entertainment-barons are seizing control over our attention and charging rent on our ability to talk and think together, openness is our best hope of a new, good internet. T

he cultural heritage sector wants to save our creative works. The entertainment and tech industry want to delete them and take a tax writeoff.

As a working artist, I know which side I'm on.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/13/this-is-for-everyone/#revisiting

Image: Diego Delso (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_Mimara,_Zagreb,_Croacia,_2014-04-20,_DD_01.JPG

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[lenixsocial]

Watcher (and why nothing matters anymore):

So, in case you've been locked away under a proverbial bridge for a few days, Internet personalities Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara, and Shane Madej (known as Watcher) have elected to begin their own streaming service and ditch YouTube.

On the surface, that mightn't even seem like news at all.

After all, this sort of thing seems to happen all the time: The Try Guys left Buzzfeed to create their own company, Rhett and Link took the dive and diversified into paywalled entertainment a few years back with Mythical Society. Both of which however still rely on YouTube itself to generate views on the main channels, which funnel viewers into a FOMO type situation where "you can't miss" a special airing on the app (Mythical Society) or Patreon (Try Guys).

Watcher, in its infinite wisdom (stupidity, carelessness, unparalleled greed - take your pick) has decided that YouTube is pointless, and has moved ALL their content behind a paywall, claiming that the service was amping up to provide "TV quality programming", leaving only old content and the first episodes of the new shows up on their YouTube page as a subtle tease as to what you could get for $6/month.

It's now quite apparent from reading the comments section of their (now infamous) YouTube video, their official subreddit, and the tag on X that the fans were...not thrilled. The fingers began to be pointed within minutes. Name calling soon after. Then this blossomed into dissertations on why this was a horrible idea.

Then we found out that there was no app. Just a website. So you're paying for website access. Not a full blown streaming service to rival Netflix. Oh, and they don't even have their own servers, the videos are hosted by Vimeo. The deeper the comments section dug, the nastier the attacks got. Steven soon became the whipping boy. His past, his interviews, scanned and mercurially dug up for juicy tidbits (although all anyone gleaned from these was he's rich, was born rich, drives a Tesla in LA, likes fancy food, and has friends whom he values who are racist and possibly sexist and will not sever ties with them).

Then came the cries of incongruity. Shane Madej repeatedly said to "Eat the Rich", and here he was schilling for a platform that cost $6 a month. The cries began to pirate all of the new Watcher content because maybe he was under duress and was secretly telling them to do so. Fact is, I don't know if he was or what, but I'm certain he's under contract and wants his job.

Then came the videos from other internet users analyzing the video, and comparing this to the Try Guys situation with Ned a few months back. Both are disasters, each in unique ways with different players, and such like but here's the vast difference: none of this will even matter in a month.

Let me explain: We are in the total free fall stage of Watcher's Internet Streamer Service. What they do in the next 24-48 hours is crucial. If they revert back to their YouTube channel and apologize, they'll be fine. People will probably poke fun at them, but they'll be forgiven, eventually. But if they don't and they keep on, ignoring the fans, dousing the haters, and make it a month, I doubt we will see any resistance outside of a terse article or two.

Why? The collective memory span in this day and age is extremely short, many have likely already made judgment in their head and have passed said judgment. Therefore, they'll avoid the channel, and the streamer and will be blissfully unaware of any changes. Those who have joined up and paid will remain members, and those who have elected to remain subscribed will likely remain so and will watch the free content until they can afford the $6/month.

The thing is like it or hate it, if they decide to do nothing and ignore the public at large, they most likely will be fine. Maybe they will not have the hugest subscriber base, but people will forget about this. Something else major that is more salacious will spring up in the months ahead. Will there be lingering anger? Sure, but like I said before, these people have already passed judgment so they're already gone.

In an era of "nothing fucking matters" when your choices are sometimes entirely out of your direct control and are (at best) two sides of the same coin, it should be of absolutely no surprise to anyone that there is a fairly good possibility even after all that has transpired that nothing bad will happen. Lest we forget that old adage: "there is no such thing as bad PR".

Personally, I feel $6 is a tad much for a non-app based web streamer with little to no content. It was disingenuous to announce its launch internationally where even more people can't afford it, and some can't even view it. Steven wasn't upfront with who was in charge and now it really does seem like he's using the subscriptions to fund his international gallivanting. It's clear nobody wanted TV-show quality Ghost Files to take place in another country, nor did they want an old show revived with votes when you pay the first month's dues. They say it's a case of Watcher "not reading the room".

[justaz]

post magic reveal, post magic ban lifted, arthur gets to see merlin in all his glory and somehow falls deeper in love with him than he ever thought possible. merlin who is free and accepted and loved and ecstatic by it all, but there's that thought lingering in the back of his mind that only half of their destiny has been fulfilled. magic has returned to camelot but albion is still fractured in many different kingdoms, many of which are still holding onto the hate that uther spread which is seeping into the very fabric of the earth itself. druids and magic users and even magic creatures are still persecuted all across the realm and yeah camelot opened her arms to them but not everyone trusts it (justifiably).

arthur who is choking on the sheer amount of love he has for merlin and promising himself that he'll tell merlin, he'll confess, even if he feelings aren't reciprocated. merlin will know. merlin who has been chewing on an idea for some time now and is planning on bringing it up to arthur. its night as merlin is dressing arthur for bed and they're both quiet and tense. they break at the same time and end up speaking over one another. arthur allows merlin to go first since his nerves are eating away at him. then merlin speaks of leaving.

arthur feels his nerves rot and decay and fall into a bottomless pit. merlin is rambling about how every magical being in albion is still being targeting by various kingdoms and as the prophesied emrys, magic incarnate, druid king, should he not be doing more to help? he doesn't want to leave arthur's side, but he does want to help his people. he's seen only a fraction of the atrocities committed against them and he wishes to protect them, give them somewhere completely safe, a kingdom of magic so to speak. he promises that he'll only be gone for as long as it takes to establish a kingdom (a year? two? three?) but he promises to write and visit often...as long as arthur gives him permission and allows him to leave his service for the time being.

arthur of course agrees, half unhappy about it but completely understanding. surely, out of everyone, he is the one who can understand the weight of responsibility weighing on merlin's shoulders. he mentions that merlin will need someone with experience wearing the crown to guide him. plus, balance. merlin was always there for arthur, guiding him on how to be a better man, a great king, someone worthy of the praise he constantly spewed. it's only right that arthur gets to return that by helping merlin establish a safe haven and home for his people. and politically, camelot being the first kingdom to recognize merlin's and establish some trade agreement or treaty with them will strengthen merlin's kingdom's status and send a message that camelot stands with magic.

merlin smiles wide and asks what arthur was going to say. the king hesitates before biting his tongue and requesting that merlin bring up the honey cakes that had been prepared earlier that night. two of them. since merlin was no longer in his service, he didn't have to stand by and watch arthur eat - not that he ever did, the idiot loved to steal his food. shamelessly!! he never even tried to hide it. they both sat at the table in his chambers until late in the night, nibbling away at the sweets, chasing it down with wine, and chatting away.

arthur wasn't able to confess, but it did not change his feelings. if anything, merlin's heart and the decision he made only added fuel to the raging inferno of love and devotion within arthur. he knows that merlin will keep in contact and will return to his side one day. he gets through the tough days/nights by rereading merlin's letters and imagining seeing him again in royal garb and donning a crown.

[hyperlexichypatia]

I think the way nonprofits and public agencies are funded leads us to adopt some of the worst aspects of a capitalist mindset towards our service users.

In a business, the goal is clear: Generate profit. Sell more product, to generate more profit. Recruit more customers, to generate more profit. Upsell customers to a more expensive product, to generate more profit. Convince customers to keep coming back and buying more things, to generate more profit.

Manipulation is built into the process, and it's understood by all parties. When a business does something "for you," it's in the hopes that you'll buy (or keep buying, or buy more of, or persuade other people to buy) their product. When a company offers free ice cream with your insurance quote, it's not because they like you and and want you to have ice cream; it's because they want you to come for the ice cream, stay for the insurance quote, and buy their insurance policy before you leave, so they can get your money. Everybody knows this.

Nonprofits and public agencies theoretically don't have this motive. Theoretically, the services we offer are for you, the service user. Theoretically, there is no profit motive, and thus no motive for manipulation. Theoretically, whether or not people choose to use the services we offer has no effect on us, so our only goal in promoting or raising awareness of our services is so that potential users can know about them and decide whether or not to use them.

Theoretically.

But in reality, public agencies and nonprofits are funded by governments, foundations, and donors. They demand "data" to justify their funding, and a major source of "data" is the number of service users. Markers of success have to be measurable and numerical, even if that metric doesn't really make sense. So even if there's not directly a profit motive for recruiting service users as "paying customers," there can still be a financial incentive for recruiting as many service users as possible, including using "sales" techniques like giveaways and gimmicks.

Now, this isn't inherently a bad thing -- after all, people in the nonprofit sector want people to use our services, so we want to get the word out about what we have to offer. I'm not saying it's inherently wrong for a nonprofit to use a raffle or a giveaway or a pizza party or whatever to get the word out and recruit new service users.

But since the services we offer are supposed to be for the service users' own benefit, sometimes the attitude around promoting them slips into the idea that the people we're ostensibly trying to serve have to be manipulated or bribed or tricked into accepting services for their own good, because they don't know or care what's good for them.

This can get into some really unfortunate implications territory in the context of the demographics of people who tend to work at nonprofits and public agencies, compared to the demographics of people those agencies tend to serve.

Attitudes can quickly morph into "Those People don't care about their children's health/education/etc., so we have to trick and manipulate and bribe them with food and prizes."

There's a difference between "Giveaways are a fun way to get the word out about our services" and "Those People don't care about their children's diabetes risk unless we make them sit through a lecture before we give them food." And way too many public agency and nonprofit workers, in private, in what they think is a sympathetic audience, are way too open about saying the latter.

[pillowfort-social]

Pillowfort now has over 150,000 registered users!

Hi everyone. We are very excited to announce that as of June 2023 we now have over 150,000 registered users who have made our little platform their home.

Pillowfort launched in 2017 and we weren’t sure where the journey would take us. What we did know, however, was that we want our platform to be known as a user-friendly safe space on the internet for creativity, communication, and content-sharing. 

Pillowfort’s success and existence would not be possible if it wasn’t for your continued support. By funding us, telling your friends about Pillowfort, signing in to Pillowfort, or even just giving us feedback: You have made a difference. You have made a direct impact in keeping us online. Thank you so much. 

As each day passes we are watching in real time more platforms become restrictive. The censorship of BIPOC, LGQBTIA2S+, NSFW artists, and sex workers in social media spaces continues. Some platforms have even disappeared without giving their users notice. 

We realize now more than ever our platform needs to be the counterbalance. We are one of the few platforms available that is staunch about moderating bigotry and hate speech, and we will continue to provide an outlet for fans and creators to have freedom of expression. We’re not going anywhere– as long as we have your help. 

For those new here, Pillowfort has been entirely user funded since the beginning. That means we have received no assistance from large investors or venture capital funding. While it is much more difficult to operate & grow a platform with limited funding, it keeps us accountable to the desires of our users instead of investors or shareholders. Your support has helped us continue to compensate our teams working on the platform, begin development of a progressive web app, and finally release our optional subscription service: Pillowfort Premium.  

In the next few weeks we will be sharing how we are going to tackle abandoned/modless Communities, provide an update to our discussions regarding AI Generated Images on Pillowfort, and release a Site Update with several bug fixes. We are also still tackling our 2023 Development Goals. 

Development Goals 2023

Goals with priority release / currently under development: 

Additions to subscription service: credit-only subscriptions, applying custom credit amounts

Post Drafts

Post Queue & Scheduling

Goals for completion by the end of this summer:

Progressive Web App for mobile with push notifications (!!)

Rebuild the post image uploader widget to be more good and less bad

Rebuild the way notifications are logged & retrieved in the back-end to be more efficient & reduce errors

Onboarding Guide for new users

Goals for completion by end of 2023:

Paid post promotions

Multi-account management/linking

2-Factor Authentication

Community Membership Applications

Community Topics/Organization Options

From the bottom of our hearts thank you again! We hope our community continues to grow and we are excited to share as many updates as we are able to. Stay tuned.

[maya771]

A sincere request

All I can ask for is you reading my email carefully and that's all . I'll be thankful if you do . I know that paying money for games is important for it to continue and I respect it . And it's possible in the Japanese sever . But in the English server , there are too many countries that paying online is prohibited or impossible . Because of that and because the time difference of lucky time , we continued sacrificing our sleep and time to play ikemen games no matter how much it becomes harder . Making two and three accounts and paying so much effort just to enjoy the few moments we spend with our favourite character that made us want to live and face tomorrow . But recently everything is changing . Starting by the birthday event , you made the story card too expensive to the point one whole year of saving diamond won't be enough . And you removed x3 lucky time in collection event while making the story card 300 instead of 280 . Do you know that 280 was barely reached by an f2p who sacrificed every single other thing to get it ? Then u put the last chapters at 500 so f2p would never ever be able to reach . And removing x3 lucky time in story events . And the 3rd anniversary sets 3500? If it's one click for jpn sever people it's days of crying then giving up in English sever . What will you loose if you make the set for single character instead of two , just with 2000 or 2400 diamonds ? Who want many characters would buy the big set anyway . This is not a way to bring benefits for the company , it's a way to make the users sad and encourage them to leave the game . Not like you don't know how the over encouragement on paying money would make people feel empty right ? I'm not complaining, I'd spend days of crying then give up because I can't help . But it will make me sadder that my favourite game is loosing their users because of this . I know that it's hard on you when other games are ending and closing services , but in this pace , even ikemen prince will be closed too . All I can ask for is you trying to think again about your methods because it's bringing only negative results . I hope that this letter finds you successfully and you understand that I'm saying this for the sake of the game more than selfish desires . That's all

[princess-of-purple-prose]

Wifeplot #XXX: The Bell Of True Origins

The PIDW origin story (heh) of the pivotal artifact of my Scum Villain fic "on all my dying days (I swear)"!!! This is quite long, so the rest is under the cut <3

The Plot: The Bell of True Origins is a small bronze bell which, when rung, reverts the user in form to what they looked like when they experienced a turning point in their life, and brings them back to their current self once rung again

Specifically, it casts a mental manipulation spell on the user to subconsciously create a self-perpetuated illusion of that past self. This means that the illusion might not be a perfect recreation-- the illusion might be better-looking or thinner than they really were at that point. Or, if you're, say, Yue Qingyuan reconstructing what you felt like while qi deviating to death in a cave, even bloodier!

The Wife: Li Shuangjie is a non-cultivator whose younger twin sister (Shuangjue-- you can throw rocks at me for the name puns now) was killed was by some villainous rogue cultivator many years ago, and she's been hunting for revenge since

MANY years ago. Lsj is, at the LEAST, in her thirties, but I've been imagining her in her mid fifties. Battle between Airplane and pidw fans' perceptions of older women vs mine akdkfk

Lsj narrows in on this villain, finally, at just the time Bingge happens to roll into town. She befriends Bingge at an inn pub (he's undercover as a regular guy and is doing spywork for himself or something, idk). They hit it off, and Bingge is intrigued by how lsj clearly has something going on, though she won't share what. Lsj is drawn to him too, but she's too on-edge and too focused about being on the cusp of achieving vengeance to fall for his flirtations. (Yet)

Lsj comes across the Bell of True Origins-- I'm imagining an unscrupulous merchant pawning it off to her without explaining what it does besides it nominally being a cultivation tool-- and it reverts her to the dashing twentysomething year old she'd been when her sister was murdered

Lsj can't risk ringing the bell again, because to her knowledge this just deaged her by full decades, and she can't afford blipping herself out of existence, not now. But her efforts to find that shitty merchant again are unsuccessful, so her plan is now ruined; the rogue cultivator wouldn't have recognized her at her real age, but he'll definitely recognize her current appearance. She's devastated, and she goes back to that pub in abject shock and despair, at a loss for what else to do

Lsj meets Bingge again, who immediately recognizes her despite her looking oh so different, and she breaks down and confesses everything. Bingge valiantly swears to carry out her revenge instead, to lsj's astonishment

He indeed kills the villain and returns to lsj at her room in the inn (I'd say with the guy's severed head, but idk if Airplane can write romance like that)

At this point lsj has of course fallen madly in love with Bingge, and she tearfully tells him that he's done her a great service and there is nothing she can do to repay him

Obviously, Bingge proceeds to reveal that he's the Junshang and hits her with a few devastating come-ons, but lsj protests that this isn't her ~true~ self and he couldn't possibly want the real her

Bingge somehow produces the Bell of True Origins (he definitely murdered the guy who gave it to her) and solemnly tells her how it works, giving her the chance to use it on herself again

After great and serious contemplation, lsj decides to keep her young hot body, in the name of reliving the life she could not while hunting for her sister's murderer. She and Bingge immediately have sex. End of arc <333

This is widely seen as one of the more feminist wife acquisitions solely bc lsj is a milf and Bingge, gasp, even generously gave her the opportunity to keep looking the part!!!

Peerless Cucumber, of course, furiously reviled the arc for the ill-defined effects and unreasonable strength of the artifact, for stealing lsj's chance at the final blow against the man who ruined her life, and for lsj's personality doing a 180 as soon as she turned young again. But he did appreciate that Bingge and lsj actually spoke like companions before the arc devolved to papapa, and he thought her reasoning to stay young was actually pretty decent, even if it was obviously another sign of Airplane's lack of integrity 🙄

There was so much fanart and fanfiction about what the bell would do to Bingge. Hahahaha.

[clorofolle]

Hello! I just found your post on pirating. I'm relatively experienced and I think most everything you suggested is smart.

I just wanted to ask, in regards to the VPN, do you have in particular gripes about Proton in regards to the privacy aspect?

I was trying to find a good VPN recently and thought that Proton's offers were pretty good, if expensive in comparison to the competition.

(I promise I'm not a shill, I'm actually wondering if I should regret my purchase lol. I also get that the post is dated last year and things may have gotten worse or better with them since)

Hi!! Sorry for the very very late reply, I didn't check tumblr for months.

To be honest, I did write that post a while ago and should I write it now, my position would be different and much milder. While throwing shade at Proton I was thinking of this incident specifically where, facing a court order, Proton was asked to log and provide the IP address of one of its clients, a French climate activist.

I take issue with companies that market themselves as useful tools to keep you safe and protected instead of actually disclosing what their service truly is about and what data they do have about you, as people might fall into a false sense of security and have no idea what they're actually paying for.

I am generally more warm towards Mullvad since they're extremely transparent about what kind of data they have on you and actively try to get as little data from you as possible, even favouring payment methods where they won't have to store any data on you whatsoever. They also allegedly were subject to a search warrant and were simply unable to give any data whatsoever as they truly had none, which if we want to assume good faith that they aren't making that up, is a good look on them as a whole. Though they've recently started to market themselves as some kind of saviours from "mass surveillance and censorship" in a way that seems... to be really alarmist and out of nowhere and might fool more people into thinking they need a vpn than they actually do, and I'm not happy about that direction at all, though their services still seem like some of the best around.

Still - I recognize that this is a big discussion, one I don't have enough knowledge over to completely discuss it either! And that for torrenting... this doesn't matter at all. In fact, Mullvad is not being recommended for torrenting anymore as it dropped support for port forwarding - for some apparently legit concerns - and it makes the torrenting experience much worse for many people. (My internet is slow as shit so I don't notice either way lol!)

All in all, I'm not a very experienced or savvy user at all. I try to learn about things as much as my lil brain allows me to understand, but were I to rewrite that post now, I wouldn't mention things that are still so murky/difficult to understand for me as well. Hope I sent you some interesting links to start some more research from though! Here's to understanding more of how things work as we go on :D

[thecreaturecodex]

Protean, Cthilpuk

"Naga Rei" © Fur Affinity user TrinityLight, accessed at their gallery here

[Posting this has been a fucking chore, believe me. The hidden character limit for tumblr counts HTML tags, whether you put them in yourself or copy them over from another document. And although it used to be able to break up the text into different blocks internally for its coding purposes, it no longer can with the new draft saving program. Which means that the formatting is going to be slightly different from now on, with more spaces within each stat block. I'm still going on hiatus; I'm traveling this week. But normal service should resume next week, rather than me having to find a new hosting service. Fingers crossed.

So the monster in question. The mesmerist is one of my favorite classes in PF1e, because it's so versatile. You can use it for everything from a sinister manipulator to a wacky stage magician, a faith healer to The Shadow. I wanted the cthilpuk to be similarly versatile. I intend these to be able to be allies to some parties, enemies to others, and even change allegiance over the course of the game.

A few miscellaneous notes. The anagrams I'm using for protean names are getting weirder and more obscure; I'm going to post a list of all of them when this project is over. The art itself is not NSFW, but the gallery page is in its description of this character; be prepared. And there's a teaser of one of the other proteans I have yet to stat up but have planned.]

Protean, Cthilpuk CR 14 CN Outsider (extraplanar) This blue-scaled serpentine creature has a humanoid torso with four clawed arms. Its head has a cobra-like hood, and both its hood and its eyes swirl with mesmerizing colors.

Cthilpuks are proteans that represent one of the most changeable of things; the emotions of sapient creatures. A cthilpuk can be a counselor, a rabble-rouser or a terrorist, depending on its mood. They are comfortable in urban spaces, and often live in mortal or planar cities in disguise for months or years. Undercover, they are often very friendly, going out of their way to talk to people and then using the information they gather to adjust the person’s moods and behavior. Cthilpuks are strong believers in self-actualization for chaotic individuals, but enjoy driving lawful people into spirals of doubt and despair.

A cthilpuk would usually prefer to avoid combat, instead using its hypnotic stare and psychic magic to influence a creature’s mood, and then talk them into doing something that the protean wants them to do. Still, sometimes violence is the appropriate solution to their problems. The bite of a cthilpuk locks the mind into an emotional pattern, typically a self-destructive one. In a fight, most cthilpuks try to bite as many creatures as possible with different decoctions of emotional venom, cast a spell or two into the fray, and then sit back to watch the chaos. In their natural form, they can even split their hypnotic gaze, working their will through the stare of both their real eyes and the eyespots in their hood.

Although a cthilpuk will gladly toy with the emotions of everyday people, they do most of their work in places of high tension and chaotic potential, always to instigate further changes rather than to uphold the status quo. They are often beloved of revolutionaries and despised by governments, although they do not particularly care about the moral status of either revolutionaries or governments they interfere with. In this role, they often work as underlings for heputwisa proteans. They are patient in their work of manipulating emotions; they appreciate a sudden shock as much as any protean, but know that the most useful minds are ones that have convinced themselves of their course of action, rather than having it forced on them from outside.

Cthilpuk CR 14 XP 38,400 CN Large outsider (chaos, extraplanar, protean) Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect chaos, detect law, Perception +22, thoughtsense 60 ft.

Defense AC 29, touch 13, flat-footed 25 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +16 natural); +2 vs. lawful targets hp 195 (17d10+102) Fort +11, Ref +14, Will +16; +2 vs. lawful targets DR 15/lawful; Immune acid, emotion effects; Resist electricity 10, sonic 10; SR 25 Defensive Abilities amorphous anatomy, freedom of movement

Offense Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect) Melee bite +22 (2d6+6 plus emotional venom), 4 claws +22 (1d4+6), tail slap +17 (2d8+3 plus grab) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Psychic Magic CL 14th, concentration +20 (+24 casting defensively) 30 PE—calm emotions (2 PE, DC 18), crushing despair (4 PE, DC 20), emotive block (3 PE, DC 19), euphoric tranquility (6 PE, DC 22), fear (4 PE, DC 22), good hope (3 PE), overwhelming grief (4 PE, DC 20), rage (3 PE, DC 19), reckless infatuation (3 PE, DC 19), smug narcissism (5 PE, DC 21), serenity (6 PE, DC 22) unadulterated loathing (3 PE, DC 19), unshakeable zeal (6 PE, DC 22) Special Attacks bold stare (allure, sapped magic, susceptibility, timidity), hypnotic stare (-3), split stare Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +20 (+24 casting defensively) Constant—detect chaos, detect law, protection from law (DC 17) 3/day—empowered chaos hammer (DC 20), confusion (DC 20), greater dispel magic 1/day—greater teleport, word of chaos (DC 22)

Statistics Str 23, Dex 19, Con 23, Int 18, Wis 22, Cha 22 Base Atk +17; CMB +24 (+26 disarm, +28 grappling); CMD 38 (40 vs. disarm) Feats Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Empower SLA (chaos hammer), Improved Disarm, Intimidating Glance, Psychic Virtuoso, Quicken Spell, Self-Sufficient Skills Appraise +16, Bluff +21, Diplomacy +21, Fly +22, Heal +25, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (arcana, history) +16, Knowledge (local, planes) +19, Perception +22, Sense Motive +22, Spellcraft +16, Survival +22 Languages Abyssal, Common, Protean, Undercommon, telepathy 100 ft. SQ change shape (greater polymorph), undersized weapons

Ecology Environment any land or urban (Maelstrom) Organization solitary, pair or council (3-6) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Emotional Venom (Su) The bite of a cthilpuk injects emotions, not traditional venom. A creature bitten by a cthilpuk must succeed a DC 24 Will save or be affected by one of the following emotional states. This lasts for 1 minute. A creature so affected can attempt to control its emotions by making another DC 24 Will save as a move action; if it succeeds, it dispels this effect, and gains a +4 bonus on all future saves against that cthilpuk’s emotional venom for the next 24 hours. A creature may only suffer the effects of one type of emotional venom at a time Anger: A creature under the effects of anger emotional venom must make an attack of opportunity against its allies whenever its allies take actions that would provoke an attack of opportunity from that creature. These attacks count against the affected creature’s attacks of opportunity in a round. Dedication: A creature under the effects of dedication emotional venom cannot move away from an adjacent opponent unless it succeeds a DC 24 Will save. Success on this save allows the creature to move, but does not end the effect. Despair: A creature under the effects of despair emotional venom suffers a -4 morale penalty on attack rolls and damage rolls. Fear: A creature under the effects of fear emotional venom is shaken. Hatred: A creature under the effects of hatred emotional venom takes a -4 penalty to AC, but gains a +1 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls. Jealousy: A creature under the effects of jealousy emotional venom must attempt to make saving throws against all spells, including harmless and beneficial spells. Zeal: A creature under the effects of zeal emotional venom must succeed a DC 24 Will save each round or be compelled to take the same action as it took last turn. If unable to do so (such as casting a spell that has been expended), it must mimic those actions as closely as possible (i.e. cast another spell on the same target). Succeeding this Will save allows the creature to choose a new action, but does not break the effect of the venom. This is a mind-influencing emotion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Hypnotic Stare (Su) A cthilpuk has the hypnotic stare and bold stare class abilities of a mesmerist with a class level equal to its racial HD. Mesmerist levels stack with cthilpuk Hit Dice for the purposes of the stare class feature, but not other class features, such as spellcasting or mesmerist tricks. Split Stare (Su) A cthilpuk may use its hypnotic stare on two opponents at once. When it does so, it inflicts a -2 penalty to one target, and a -1 penalty to the other. Using its split stare is mentally taxing—a cthilpuk suffers a -4 penalty to Concentration checks while using this ability. A cthilpuk can only use this ability in its natural form.

[ss-tech-services]

The Importance of Local Social Media Marketing Agency To Your Business

In the present day and age especially in terms of the world of digital marketing, social media comes in handy for most of the businesses and their target market. Many companies decide to work with large national marketing Agencies, however, it is also more than evident that more and more companies are looking towards local social media marketing agencies. The reason is that such agencies tend to be more proficient on certain issues than more centralized ones, which is vital for the development of one’s business. In this blog, we’ll discuss the ways in which a local social media marketing agency will work in your favor, on top of exploring the differences between local and international agencies.

The Rise of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an overall business approach for nearly every company. Bringing billions of active users from Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok and the like makes social media the most promising for promotion activities. However, how successful you are in your social media activities will depend on the winning choice of the marketing partner you are going to work with.

Importance of Local in Social Media Marketing

Here’s why engaging a local social media marketing agency can be more beneficial than dealing with the bigger companies that operate at a national scale:

In-depth Appreciation of Local Market

For a local social media marketing agency, having context is nothing out of the ordinary. They understand these things because they know the region, its culture, and even its people, thus developing relevant and insightful content strategies. This localized approach helps in executing campaigns efficiently without wastage of time and effort since the audience is likely to respond better to such campaigns.

Incremental and Individualized Response.

Local agencies gradually are capable of offering an individualized approach in terms of the services rendered. Having little clients to handle in comparison to big companies, much attention and resources can be given to them. This means more focused, inclusive, and rapid plans towards results when gearing towards a particular approach as reasonably suggested by the client. Such closeness can also foster creativity as more insightful and targeted solutions that meet the client’s goals are provided by the agency.

Strong Network Within the Community.

Local organizations having been on the ground may have formed links with community members in regard to press, opinion leaders, businesses, among others. These relations can then be put into good use by enhancing the social media advertisements or campaigns that you have been doing. Additionally, supporting a local agency can enhance your brand’s image as a community-focused business.

Enhancing Accountability and Transparency

Let’s tackle the issue of zero aggressors and business129 accountability. If you have to work with a local agency, chances are that you are going to be more accountable and will observe higher levels of transparency. Local agencies are dedicated to their image within the locality and thus they will want to achieve the best possible outcomes targeting you. You’re going to easily reach your account manager, then reporting will be more detailed, and the ads performance will be even clearer than ever.

Agility and Flexibility

When it comes to the region level, such agencies are usually very flexible in implementing recent changes as well as recent developments. Local firms are prepared to implement changes in their campaigns and even respond to emergency circumstances. This quick adaptability is very essential in this fast and ever changing tomorrow that is social media marketing.

How a Local Social Media Marketing Agency Can Help Grow Your Business

Working with a local social media marketing agency will yield effects which will be beneficial to the business.

Innovative Campaigns

Local agencies build Facebook marketing plans for a specific audience. Because of the knowledge of the local population by location, age, interests, and behavior. They create campaigns that are more people-oriented and hence improve implementation. This type of targeting gives a higher engagement rate and better results.

Increased Brand Recognition

That is the reason why, turning to local residents for your social media campaigns can prove beneficial in improving your visibility amongst the targeted audience. It is important to know that whether you are coming up with these local events, regional efforts or advocating for participation or sponsorship, a locality agency will help you achieve that.

Affordable Marketing Strategies

Most of the characteristics of local agencies include lower rates and greater customization of service offerings compared to bigger agencies. Trusted they provide custom economical options within one's range estimates without compromising on work quality. One particular sensitivity is applicable to small and midsize businesses that aim at the highest profitability bands of advertising.

Local Marketing Agency

Establishing a deep connection with the locals is useful to your brand in terms of loyalty and growth. Local agencies have realized this and thus come up with marketing strategies that incorporate the community and not just sell to the community. This ultimately increases the amount of loyalty, positive feedback and the brand’s penetration in the local market.

Innovative Campaigns

More often than not, local agencies tend to be more creative and come up with new concepts. They capitalize on such and other trends to enable them come up with attractive and appropriate advertisement campaigns. Their creativity can help you separate your company and its products from competition in the plough of prospects.

Choosing the Right Local Social Media Marketing Agency

When choosing a local social media marketing agency, the factors to consider include the following:

Experience and Expertise

Focus on an outside agency with plenty of years of practice in social media marketing. Look at their portfolio and, if available, case studies to determine their experience and expertise. A reputational local agency that has been involved in social media advertising will be in a position to address your needs.

Local Knowledge

It is important that the agency has a rich knowledge of the local market and the people who reside there. Having knowledge of local fads, customs, and populations will help in devising better social media campaigns.

Client Testimonials

Refer to client testimonials and reviews to evaluate the agency’s image and level of client satisfaction. It may be a wise decision to review how trustworthy other businesses found the agency.

Communication and Collaboration

Select any agency which believes in coming to the table with an open mind for communication and collaboration. Strong partnerships require an uncomplicated work process and a well articulated common goal of the campaign. Make sure that the agency is proactive or rather defers to you.

Creative Approach

Determine the agency’s level of creativity when it comes to social media marketing strategies. Seek out the most creative and out-of-the-box social media campaigns that will achieve your organization’s objectives.

Conclusion

Partnering with a local social media marketing agency can provide significant advantages for your business, from a deep understanding of the local market to personalized service and community connections. At SS TECH SERVICES, we specialize in creating tailored social media strategies that drive engagement and deliver results. Our local expertise and commitment to excellence ensure that your business stands out in the digital landscape.

If you’re ready to take your social media marketing to the next level, contact SS TECH SERVICES today. Let’s work together to enhance your online presence and achieve your marketing goals.

[rogha]

I think a lot of subscription services would be doing a lot better if they were more flexible for people to build super custom packages for their needs. like especially software packages like Adobe - like you can get in touch and they’ll sort something out alledgedly but literally if they pushed even something like buy one get one half price without having to reach out I think they would find a lot of people who are like using one Would Get Another if it wasn’t so expensive and are getting by on something else or a moveable license where you can switch to a different software once every 28 days.

This transcription software i was recommended has a certain number of hours per month depending on the tier but allegedly you can get in touch to buy more hours? Like that is a better service. I am using the free version because the only thing I need this software to do is transcribe audio recordings but as soon as my hour for the month is up a window should pop-up directing me to where I can buy more time. I don’t need ten hours a month I need 4 hours every six all at once. I’m tired of looking through long lists of features per tier to see what Paid Tier Gets Me The Handful Of Features I Actually Want Plus A Million I Don’t.

Some of these companies are hoping I’ll use a free trial and forget to cancel so they can have 24 euro or whatever off me per month of my forgetfulness whereas if they were offering closed short term contracts or more personal packages they would have that 24 euro and also. some goodwill. like I don’t wanna jump through so many fucking hoops to use a software for one project and not pay for it for the rest of my life if we are renting these things at least let me say ‘hey I will give you 24 euro to use this for one month and after the month is over revoke my access.’

Maybe it’s all back end stuff and I’m not computer literate enough to understand that all this is far to complicated to execute on in reality and Celtx is actually three different softwares pretending instead of one in-browser software where features could be turned on and off for individual users depending on a personal package they build, but christ on a bike must i be fighting for my life for every single service.

And not to be working in customer service but quality service comes not just from individuals on the metaphorical/actual floor dealing with people but the policies and structures put in place to make accessing that service and that service meeting my actual needs as easy as possible.

[transformatives]

The Gift Must Always Move: AI Commodification and the Fanwork Economy

Introduction: Artificial Intelligence

When you think of a fanfiction writer, what do you think of? Perhaps a teenage girl on her bed, wrapped in a blanket while typing furiously on her computer at 3 am when she has school the next morning. Or maybe some friends giggling between themselves as they brainstorm ideas. Possibly, you think of a neuroscience professor in a cozy sweater editing her Star Wars draft before uploading it. But you probably don’t think about an AI bot. You also might wonder what these things have in common with each other. However, the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence in online fandom spaces could provide an interesting look into the socio-economic practices of fandom and how AI might be contributing to online isolation. 

On November 30, 2022, the AI software known as “ChatGPT” was released, marking the start of the AI Boom. Trained on large language models, this allowed users to chat with the program, ask questions, prompt responses, make it write poetry, complete homework, and translate text. The list goes on. As with most shiny new things, the denizens of the internet quickly adapted AI into their own interests, playing around in the seemingly endless sandbox that it provided.

Fandom response, much like everyone else, has been varied. Some people immediately flocked to this new technology, gleefully typing in prompts for fanfictions and fanart they wanted to see. In addition to ChatGPT, websites like Character.AI popped up where you can “talk to” an AI based on a character, similar to classic self-insert fanfictions. Some audio-based AIs can even replicate the voices of actors, making it so that these AIs can “act out” scenarios the user requests. Many shy fans argue that AI is a way for them to interact with their interests without the anxiety of requesting fanfiction from a writer or roleplaying. Like any new toy, people just want to play with it. 

But the writers and artists themselves felt very differently. Ask a fanfiction writer their opinions on AI writing, and they’ll probably say something along the lines of “‘For fun' or not, AI fics should be banned from AO3 [a popular fanfiction website] all together” (quoted from Reddit).

These AIs work by scraping internet data and using pattern recognition to replicate it, a process that Dazed describes as, “creating software that automatically collects data from various sources, including social media, stock image sites, and (maybe most controversially) sites where human artists showcase their work, such as DeviantArt”. There’s the problem: artists and writers cannot give their consent for their works to be included in these scraped datasets, and many companies are not transparent about where they’re getting their data from. 

But what does this mean for creatives, and how are online fan-spaces responding?

A Community of Gifts

The backlash against AI comes in many forms, but has been considerable within the general online fandom sphere, especially from fan artists and fanfiction writers. I’d like to propose that this attitude towards AI art and writing is intertwined with the economic model of fandom spaces, which might be classified as a “Gift Economy”. 

A gift economy is defined by economist Paul Krugman as “an economic system based on gift-giving, in which goods or services get exchanged with no expectation of remuneration, reciprocity, or quid pro quo”. Gift economies often exist alongside other economic systems, but have also been observed in some cultures as the primary system, such as in some pre-colonial Indigenous North American tribes. Another example would be blood drives, in which a donator gifts their blood to hospitals and they might “receive the gift” again if they need blood. 

Unlike more traditional forms of art, fan created art such as fanfiction, fanart, and fan edits (henceforth referred to as “fanworks”) exist in a legal gray area. Since fanworks are often created in reference to copyrighted works, it is difficult to create any profit from it. The legal battle between fan-writers and copyright holders is infamous within fandom. 

There are, of course, exceptions. Copyright holders will usually turn a blind eye to fanart, and in Japan published fan-comics are sold alongside the canon works. But generally, it is taboo in fandom spaces to profit from fanworks. For example, in response to a recent uptick of Etsy bookbinders selling printed copies of fanfiction for hefty prices, writers deleted their works and said things like “I hate these sh*tty vultures who are destroying fandom spaces to make money before moving onto the next grift once we are burned to the ground”. The fandom consensus: you cannot and should not profit from fanworks, both because there are legal restrictions and because on a deeper level the gift economy maintains art as art, not as a commodity. 

So if there’s no monetary reason for writing fanfiction, then why would anyone do it? Well, for love of the craft, of course. That, and for the cultivation of community. Fans contribute to the gift economy by providing their creative works, which they give without expectation of a return. Except, of course, there is a return, one that comes in the form of interactions and the strengthening of inter-fandom relationships. As Potawatomi author Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “From the viewpoint of a private property economy, the "gift" is deemed to be "free" because we obtain it free of charge, at no cost. But in the gift economy, gifts are not free. The essence of the gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.” (Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass)

The Death of Gifting

Now, the gift economy that was subliminally understood by fans seems to be dwindling. “Fandom Etiquette” asks that readers and viewers of fanworks interact with the art, whether that be liking, commenting, or sharing it with others. By doing so, they strengthen connections and expand the web that makes up fandom. But recently fan creators have been discussing the lack of response fanworks get. Long-time fanfiction writers talk about how they receive less and less comments, which almost any writer will say is more encouraging than a like. Meanwhile, newer fans feel hesitant to comment on these works, seeming to believe that it won’t be received well, especially if it’s an older work. However, an aspect of a gift economy is that no immediate response (or response at all) is expected, so longevity is created through delayed and continual reciprocity. This is in contrast to the capitalist emphasis on trends and relevancy. In the case of fandom, this means giving back and interacting with older fanworks. Even the “lurkers”, the fans that don’t post their own works or thoughts, are asked to simply reblog, as that is deemed the minimum amount of interaction. There’s a disconnect there between those who do understand the importance of reciprocity in a gift economy such as fandom and those who don’t yet understand. 

I would like to submit that this lack of fandom reciprocity is indicative of a larger trend online where people feel more isolated in spaces made for community. When art is approached from a market-economy viewpoint, it forms a wedge between fancreators and non-creator fans, without realizing that in the same way that readers are hungry for writing, writers are hungry for readers. The gift is art, and the gift is reciprocity. Both positions are equally important because they are the same: fans.  

The Consumer, The Readers, The Givers

When non-creators see themselves as viewers and readers instead of consumers, they realize that they can also be likers, commenters, dm-ers, and friends. Perhaps, they will allow themselves to be creators as well, even if their beginning is less impressive than those they look up to. There is no need to scrape other people’s art and writing to mash together something that they think “deserves” to be consumed by others. This is because they know that their art is not a commodity to impress with or sell, but a gift to be passed among a community. As Lewis Hyde writes, “We may not have the power to profess our gifts as the artist does, and yet we come to recognize, and in a sense to receive, the endowments of our being through the agency of his creation” (Lewis Hyde, The Gift). You give, you take, you pass along, you build community. 

Fandom cannot be analyzed without acknowledging the alternative nature of its gift economy in relation to the domineering western capitalist culture. When AI is used to scrape data from writers without their knowledge or consent, it creates a contradiction in the fandom economy. The reader turns into a consumer again, and the role of the writer is undermined. It is a product without purpose or thought behind it, made in an instant to be consumed without reciprocation or community. Even if there is no profit created in most cases, it turns others’ art and mixes it into nothing but a commodity. AI poses as a capitalist and isolating force within fandom spaces, furthering the idea of fandom as a solitary activity. 

A consumer accumulates, they do not share. The “gift” does not move. It remains stagnant and solitary, rejecting the integral nature of communal creation in the gift economy of fandom. Art is something that needs both a giver and a receiver. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “To name the world as gift is to feel one’s membership in the web of reciprocity.” A consumer is lonely, while a gifter is part of a community. The gift must move. 

[hindahoney]

Hey, I go to a combined Liberal and Reform shul and wanted to debunk some of those misconceptions on your post.

Being Reform/Liberal is not at all, even slightly, about level of observance. We have many, many men in kippot and tzitzit with payot who come to our synagogue to pray every single week. We wear kippot out and about in town, we wear Magen David proudly. We sing our prayers with all of the life and vigour of any Jews. Many of the people who pray with us also attend classes with the rabbi twice per week, in their own free time. I personally study Talmud and biblical Hebrew with my Reform rabbi every week. We have people who keep kosher extremely strictly, more than people who don't. Jewish history is hugely important to us and we honour our ancestors every single day.

Reform Judaism is just about having slightly different values to Orthodox. In shul, we are taught that the difference between us and Orthodox Jews is that Reform Judaism adapts expectations of Jewish people to be reasonable for living in the modern world, whereas Orthodox values tradition and keeping things the exact same way they have been for thousands of years. The rules about electricity use on Shabbat are loosened to allow people with hearing aids to be spoken to, to allow powered wheelchair users to leave their homes, to make sure every Jew has the opportunity to get in touch with their emergency contacts. There is no "better" or "worse" denomination, only ones that fit each individual Jew best, if any.

We still abide by kosher and the teachings of Torah, but we do not place pressure on other Jews to do the same. We do not shun or scold others for not abiding by these laws, and are open-minded to the possibility that they have very good reasons for not doing so.

We adapt some traditional ceremonies, such as holding a B'nei Mitzvah for non-binary children, and adapting conversion ceremonies for trans and non-binary adults. Jewish law is much more de-gendered in a Reform setting, with the same expectations and freedoms afforded to both men and women. Many of us choose to keep to traditional gendered roles and expressions, but queer Jews are celebrated even though they are different.

We are absolutely not Jewish "in name alone". A Jew is a Jew is a Jew. Some of us are very very religious and frum, others are not, but every Jew is always welcome at our shul, because this is a community space that does not ask any Jew to 'prove' they are Jewish enough to join in with our customs, and pray with us during service.

I am disabled and queer, and due to my circumstances I must choose how to live my life Jewishly in a way that suits me. I would not be able to do nearly as many mitzvot if I tried to meet Orthodox standards -- because my needs for care and assistance would break the laws of shabbat, and I could not live up to gendered Orthodox standards very easily as a non-binary person. This is why I choose to pray at a Reform/Liberal synagogue instead of an Orthodox one -- I am more able to do mitzvot in a Reform/Liberal context. While I know there are many Orthodox synagogues that would accept me anyway, it's always a case of trying to work out which congregations I can feasibly become part of, whereas with Reform Judaism I know that I will almost never find any difficulty or judgement.

Being Reform is just another way of practicing Judaism. It isn't lesser, and it isn't less serious, or less religious, or less frum. Really, we are just like you. I think the world would be better with less segregation between denominations. Anti-Orthodox sentiment makes me sad, but I very rarely encounter Orthodox Jews who respect Reform Judaism for what it is. A lot of us don't feel safe in Orthodox synagogues because we are shunned there.

I understand feeling more comfortable in a reform shul because of their gender or sexual identity. Though it has changed pretty drastically in the past few decades and there are many more groups to help gender non conforming and queer people feel more comfortable in orthodox spaces, there are still many who hold strongly to gendered traditions.

However, I need to point out that orthodox Jews do still wear hearing aids and use motorized wheelchairs and pacemakers. If it is a medical necessity it is permitted. In any case, I do not forsee anyone judging someone else for using a medical device on Shabbat.

Thank you for sharing. I do feel like this cleared things up for me!