#user queries

[dominateeye]

Why don't you like the mcelroys?

Some of these are objectively bad things, some of them are petty, some are in between, all of them are my reasons. In order of (recalled) recency:

Travis' tweets about serious issues really being about him/performative allyship/being creepy to people online

Travis' Among Us incident

The loan shark MBMBaM sponsorship

Their history of working with other people I don't like, for example Lin-Manuel Miranda who is antiblack and helped implement austerity in Puerto Rico

Me actually giving them a chance and getting into their content to find out that they have a history of working with people I don't like as well as the loan shark thing

Badmouthing the Green Party US in that really infuriating arrogant way that liberals like to do where they pretend the Democratic Party is God's gift to the world

Calling giving money to Maximum Fun, a for-profit company, "donations" in a "fun(d) drive" <- this one really bothers me because I do actual nonprofit community radio and our station often isn't making enough in donations meanwhile people are "donating" money hand over fist to a for-profit company (just fucking call it a sales event or something and I won't have this problem anymore)

They're fucking everywhere and I'm sick of hearing about them

[tutorialinhindi]

Google introduces 'Bard,' its AI chatbot powered by AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). This experimental conversational AI tool, based on Google's LaMDA technology, aims to provide accurate responses to user queries. Currently in testing with select users, it's set to become widely available after the trial phase.

[stealthnoodle]

I see there's a new post on AO3 on AI and data scraping, the contents of which I would describe as a real mixed bag, and the sheer number of comments on it is activating my self-preservation instincts too much for me to subject myself to reading through them. Instead I'm thinking about how much daylight there is between does or doesn't constitute a TOS violation and what does or doesn't violate community norms, and how AO3 finally rolled out that blocking and muting feature recently, and how I think it would be good, actually, if most people's immediate reaction to seeing a work that announces itself as being the product of generative AI was to mute the user who posted it.

That's my reaction, anyway!

[radjerda]

Tron's Notes on User Children: Do not expect a child to wait to receive all instructions before acting on them. Any instructions should be delivered clearly and concisely before a child is given any opportunity to act on them. Expect particularly unforeseen results when the User children involved are related to K_Flynn82 or Alan-One. Especially when both are present.

Sometimes Tron gets more than he bargained for when he agreed to a task. Sometimes Flynn gets his questions answered in the riskiest way possible.

A big thank you (and nothing but compliments!) to @graedari for allowing me to use her Tron design in this piece!!

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Dear Agents, Writers are not Psychic, please auto include YOUR Trigger Warning Policies

Some background, because no one is going to click on the profile part of the page. I'm aware of that.

The first part of this is that I have an Anthropology degree, which the majority of the classes are concentrated in Systems, such as racism, sexism, etc. The BA would have had a certificate if I didn't have to travel 2-3 hours one way in order to get the certificate.

The second part is that I've been around the publishing industry inside of it, published by it, reading up on the history of it, reading an astounding number of writing advice manuals to track down one diagram and crying over that, to know how the industry works. I know I don't list all my credentials, but seriously, how long do you want a bio?

The third part is that I've worked with websites, UX (User Experience) and the whole idea of User Experience is that even if it functions, it doesn't mean it works without the ability to interface with humans.

And lastly, I have C-PTSD. I know how fucked up PTSD can be. And what a trigger feels like. What a flashback feels like. It's not OMG, I feel icky and have no emotional toll. It's I need a therapist to manage my triggers because it wears me out to have an anxiety/depression attack. And I know how fucked up triggers can be. I've written blog posts about it.

You are not everyone.

User experience is about Empathy. This means you realize: You are not everyone else. Everyone else is not you. They are not going to do what you think is best, so how do you make everyone happy through best practices?

Other agents aren't going to WANT what you want. They are selling different genres, they have different life experiences. Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for anyone else. By saying, Well, every agent should do as I want, isn't helping anyone.

History

Before the 1900's, most stories were serialized, and only the popular ones got full books. Before the 1960's-1970's according to Steven King's On Writing, there were no Agents. You simply submitted to the publisher. (Agents should know their publishing history, I'm just saying... you should know the history of your own profession.)

Agents became a requirement in the 1990's, not the 1980's. Before that, you could hire a lawyer. And many early agents were lawyers.

This meant because of print tech, and the requirement to join a union, the way to submit to an agent was EXACTLY THE SAME.

The Neurdivergent rejoice. They are happy with this.

But then the internet hit in about the mid-2000's and then agents started to be paid more and more like crap. And then with the plummeting enjoyment, and the publishing industry realizing that they could dump people from their staff and PUT IT ALL ON THE AGENTS, the standardization of the forms fell with it.

Why would this be in UX terms? Well, now agents aren't doing it "for the money" and in basic psychology this means they want more individualistic things. You're likely to do it for the side money, you want to have it the way you want to have it, because what's the point if it's not fun? Thus the standardization in the industry falls apart as people put forth their own individualistic wills. (Do you need the fancy psychology terms. I can do that.)

And then with the internet the industry and everyone started to MAKE UP THEIR OWN RULES.

The ND people are crying. WTF.

Especially the autistic people who like structure and rules that are even and easy to understand. (I had a long conversations about this. I did the research.)

Why would someone want a different trigger policy than me?

People represent different genres and have different aims

This is where the empathy and the ability to actually go through other agent blogs comes in. You need to be able to read other agents, their genres and realize that writers have different genres and combination of genres they are submitting to.

You might be looking ONLY at contemporary Romance, but there are agents that represent Horror, Thrillers, and Mystery and dark fantasy. Even without that, there are subgenres of fiction that might *require* triggers be included. Abuse Romance is a thing (50 Shades) and there is Dystopian SFF.

The agents that rep these genres want the thrill of the surprise. The agent wants to not have to know what's up front to experience the story first hand. This is what I've read from those agents. The ones that rep Horror are more than likely to not want trigger warnings from my asking over and over again. And they are less likely to list a no list to the trigger list.

But those self-same agents *also* represent things like Romance. Because like everyone else on the planet, people like more than one genre.

BTW, out of all of the agents, the agents that rep Romance from my asking around, because no one else is crunching data are more likely to want trigger warnings, but I'm telling you it gets tricky when you're mixing Romance with Supernatural, Mystery, and Fantasy.

BTW, Fantasy and SFF as genres, RANGE WILDLY. So the triggers are going to be all over the map.

And for the people who rep Horror, etc, the reason why your (US) romance agents want trigger warnings is because romance works on a totally different emotional basis compared to Horror. Expecting your potential clients to know that and your fellow agents to follow suit when they have a totally different agenda is not reasonable.

This is where UX comes in. YOU, agent, Have do the work to bridge the gap between you and the other agents. If you all are going to have different policies about triggers, then writers are going to also do their best guesses and try for a middle.

People have different triggers than you.

I have a trigger around melamine floors. Do you have a trigger around melamine floors? Does it make your spine go cold it makes my spine go cold. Do you get a mild headache thinking about them especially if they are white? No? You don't?

Would it be reasonable for me to ask you to guess that about me?

Would it be reasonable for you to take all of my feelings about it because I never informed you this was the case?

If you're getting my drift:

LIST YOUR TRIGGERS. Not everyone has the same triggers. Write it out. Asking people to manage and guess your invisible triggers is unreasonable. It does harm to others. You don't want them to do harm to you, it's your responsibility to let people help you by making it known. 100% I know this as a person with C-PTSD and also with Sensory issues. It's not other people's responsibility if they don't know about it. It is 100% mine to let them know if I have an issue and it's too much. If they don't respect you after you have let them know, then the onus is on them, not before then. It's also anti-ND to expect people to *guess* your triggers. But it's also better for your mental health so people don't submit something you don't want.

Trauma *is* fucked up. But part of recovery is taking control and taking control of your triggers and processing them. So let people help you by you listing your triggers you don't want to see or be warned about in fiction.

Set clear boundaries

Goal-setting: Ask yourself questions like “What is the goal in setting a boundary or needing to set a boundary?”

Start small: Setting boundaries can be hard and uncomfortable. The key is to start small and focus on one at a time.

Be clear: Focus on what you want as clearly as possible.

Practice: If thinking about setting a boundary makes you nervous, write out what you want to say beforehand or practice stating a boundary in the mirror.

Keep it simple: Less is more with boundary setting. Try not to overload someone with too many details at first. Just pick the main thing that is bothering you and focus on that.

From the website.

Make your boundaries clear. If you don't list triggers, don't ask for a trigger list on your forms, don't make it known on your website, assume everyone is going to do it that everyone agrees with you, and don't put it where people can see it, then you are responsible for the result and in making it more clear. You can't act like a victim if you haven't set clear boundaries.

Act like an adult and set your boundaries.

BUT WHY would anyone write it/not want a warning as an agent?

Some people like to deal with their triggers in fiction. It's distant, not real, it gives them a sense of control, like a safe word in BDSM. A lot of reading of horror and thrillers in particular are when people are anxious. This is according to Stephen King that greater fear means a spike in his sales. (Interviews, Writing Excuses). You should be paying attention to that... just saying. This is marketing. You are also (unfortunately) part marketer, not only lawyer.

Some people are using it to ask for rights. Buy being clear as a victim of abuse, etc that helps people feel empowerment by *stopping it*.

If people want to stop homophobia, that means they have to talk about homophobia. Taking power back from the oppressors feels good. This is like step 3 of recovering from trauma, though. I've covered previously that after victimhood, you should be aiming for survivor, but the aims of a social justice person are transformation of trauma and that has to be somewhat different and is somewhat opposed to being a victim.

Everyone is healing in a different way and speed than you are. Again, everyone is not you. This is marketing too.

BUT OTHER AGENTS SHOULD DEAL WITH MY POLICY

No, they shouldn't. You are not everyone else. See the UX rule.

How Do I Fix it?

Put on your forms a trigger policy. Try to get other agents to also put on a trigger policy standard.

You can copy-paste the following and cut the irrelevant:

Trigger Warning Policy

I would like you to give a trigger warning: Yes/No.

I would like you to give a trigger warning:

In the query

When I request fulls.

You should not submit if your manuscript has:

You can submit if your manuscript has, but warn me:

Skip trigger warnings for these genres:

[List genres]

Listed nicely and UXed like that with the bold? Yes. Makes it easier to read.

Where should I put it?

There's a fancy UX term for this, but the basics are: If it's important to you, you will LIST it in multiple places. And since writers, even if they wanted to be aren't psychic at grand distances and are submitting to you from places like Australia (because you should know that) and from other countries. They will have no clue what you want if people want different things. So all of these places.

Manuscript Wishlist

Your Profile on your website

Query Manager (You can put it at the top and sometimes with the query part)

Submissions Guideline Page (especially if you don't have Query Manager)

Why not on Twitter?

No one is going to read thousands of tweets and work through your tweets that are going to disappear to find your trigger policy. !@#$ No. Too much time, too much effort, those things disappear, and those are not for permanent information.

If it's Absent...

The user will assume if it is absent in the query manager, especially, there is none, and they can do as they like or guess. Absence is assumed this way.

If you need the long psychological reason why, in UX this is true, then imagine it this way (extended analogies are my jam):

Cashier A is not labeled. Cashier B is not labeled in a store.

You want to check out of the items you've collected in the store and not steal things. You're likely to do as you like. And choose between Cashier A and Cashier B.

Cashier A is labeled now: Returns.

Cashier B is labeled with a cart icon.

You want to check out. You're likely to choose Cashier B.

Therefore, if it's absent on the form, people will do as they like. Basic marketing, psychology and UX. If you want it to be known, you label it.

Mechanically list it. Put it visible everywhere.

Make the form standard on Query Manager and Manuscript Wishlist

Even better yet is to make it standard on agent websites.

Here is the contact for them.

MSWL: https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/contact/

Query Manager: https://querymanager.com/contact.php

Here is what you can write:

Hello,

[Honest reasons you love their website]

I would really like a standard form for trigger warnings. The form would look like something like this:

I would like you to give a trigger warning: Radio buttons: Yes/No.

(Require) If no, then the rest of the form doesn't need to be filled out.

I would like you to give a trigger warning:

If yes require...

Radio buttons for:

In the query

When I request fulls.

You should not submit if your manuscript has: (Optional)

You can submit if your manuscript has, but warn me: (Optional)

Skip trigger warnings for these genres: (Optional)

[List genres]

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name]

BTW, I put programming and UX info into the letter to make it easier on them. Because again empathy and again, I'm HSP, so I can't help it. I want to make implementation as easy as possible.

Please don't abuse the word "Trigger"

BTW, Please do not for the sake of people with C-PTSD and PTSD say something you "dislike" is a "trigger." Dislike should be Content warning. And in that case just list it with your usual "Don't send me this."

Saying something is a trigger because you dislike the trope–please don't abuse the word trigger this way.

Yes, there are low level triggers that don't make sense. I've covered melamine floors before as a trigger for me and institutions. But usually I don't trip out if it's in fiction. But that might be you. Again. Not everyone has the same triggers for fiction, because you are not everyone. Or as Mr. Rogers liked to say loosely You are unique.

While you're at it...

BTW, I also listed other things that agents disagree on. Just do it as a part of your policy to list them.

Conclusion

To me, at this point, if you don't list it and rep a bunch of different genres, I'll choose what I guess is best. If you hit more than one, then yeah, I'm left guessing.

And as an HSP, agents getting really mad at both ends, to the point they are willing to get irritated, I can't take that on. Writers are left confused and in the middle. So instead, just use the form I listed. I mean, it's not that hard to copy-paste.

Your little bit of work up front will help everyone else. Make it a standard that all agents list a trigger warning policy EVERYWHERE it can be visible. We can't guess and no one is going to read all of your Twitter.

Marketing ideas also work towards your clients. You want them to do a certain behavior, then you have to also market yourself well, which means you need to be making your trigger policy known and visible.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Honestly it makes zero sense that Fintan doesn't have burn scars.

Like even if he found a way to be immune to everblaze when he blew up Oblivimyre he definitely didn't know how to do that when he first started messing around with it.

My only possible (but weak) argument to that is that I'm assuming Fintan, in order to be able to call down everblaze at all, was already very proficient and skilled in typical pyrokinesis. So even though the flames don't behave the same, he's not a complete novice and may be able to take things step by step based on the vast knowledge he already has. Being very controlled as he familiarizes himself with everblaze's unique properties before ever using it in a larger capacity, and thus avoiding burns.

However, the thing about learning is that you make mistakes, so it would make a lot of sense for Fintan to have made said mistakes and have burns. Although! Just thought of a second thing! Just because he's not immune to the burns doesn't mean he has to scar. With the Lost Cities advances medicine, who's to say they don't have very effective burn treatment that prevents scarring--provided it's not too severe and is administered in time. So perhaps those mistakes while he was being cautious were minor enough they could be healed, and now he's proficient enough to not burn himself.

Slightly related thought: do you ever wonder how the fuck the elves discovered/created frissyn? The one and only thing able to stop everblaze? it's such a complicated recipe, but it's also the kind of thing you only discover via necessity. They're not going to make a solution to an unstoppable fire...unless there's an unstoppable fire. So sometimes I wonder what went down and how on earth they came up with frissyn.

Back to your point though! It would make more sense for Fintan to have burn scars, you're very right. Perhaps they weren't because they're considered visually unappealing? Or because it would create more similarities than wanted between his and Brant's character design? Whatever the miraculous reasoning, it would be realistic if he had them and also provide more consequence and intrigue to his desires and character.

[elite-amarys]

Peliper Mail for rollo

A tm, the move seems to be explosion

I have Peilipper mail blocked on this account. However, clearly the bird still took your item, and simply chose to fly overhead while showing it off.

This was incredibly cruel. Rollo now very badly wishes to learn Explosion, which is not an available TM here. I will have to pick something up for her when we go traveling this summer.

[nameless-triune]

Oooh Query in 115 for the color palette challenge, please

Here you go :)

[coffeeworldsasaki]

ALMOST A WEEK OF AGONIES BUT IT WORKS NOW I CAN RETRIEVE DATA FROM THE DATABASE AH

[nordstarr]

love that i just started my new job in may and i'm already being asked if i can temporally help out (for probably close to a year) in yet another department because they're having so much trouble finding someone for a vacant position

i'm not even necessarily opposed to it, i spend like 6 months in that department already when i did my apprenticeship and i like the people there and the work is fun, but it kinda sucks that i literally just learned the ropes for this department and now i have to start anew in another one

[dominateeye]

Anarchism is flawed, people use tankie because they don’t understand the science of Marxism Leninism. Marxist-Leninists call Anarchists ‘anarkiddies’ because they don’t understand actual revolutionary theory and are often pulled into working with nazis thru their flawed ideology

Arrogance, as displayed by this anon, is part of the problem too. Does anyone genuinely believe they're going to convert anyone to their particular subideology by going "we're right because we're scientific and you're just too stupid and uneducated in revolutionary theory to understand that"?

Most members of the working class in the world today don't have time to dedicate to learning the "science" of Marxism-Leninism, or to read anarchist theory. They're focusing on surviving. Telling them that they're stupid when they go "hang on, I think there might be some flaws in only having one official political organization in a society" is not going to win them over, and no matter what your subideology is, you will have to win them over. Violent subjugation only works for so long, and ends either in another revolution or in total collapse. You need hearts and minds to build a stable society, and to win them you need to respect and listen to them.

That's to say nothing of members of other subideologies. Do you really want to be wasting resources on stopping anarchist organizing every week? Isn't there anything better you could use that time and energy for? And wouldn't it be nice to have those anarchists willingly participating in your society instead of working against it? The only way to achieve that is to allow free and open debate of theory and policy, and to allow anarchists and other kinds of socialists to make their cases and compete for the people's trust in governance. Whether that's through elections or through debates that influence direct democratic votes, or whatever system is in place. People shut out of a society will always find ways to survive in spite of it. Make sure you're only shutting out the people who are worth shutting out (i.e. capitalists and fascists), otherwise you risk stretching too thin and not being able to shut anyone out.

I'm not trying to disrespect this anon's ideology. I have reached the conclusions I have because there are Leninists on this site that I know are smart people, good people, who I want to work alongside without having to defer to them on everything. I believe that there are some good ideas in Marxism-Leninism. But there are also some bad ideas. I also believe that there are some good ideas in anarchism, and there are some bad ideas. I think the answer to "how do we build a compelling vision of the future and follow through on it" is to establish mutual respect and value each other's approaches to solving problems. There have been attempts to build anarchist societies and Leninist states, and both have seen some success and some failure, but none have brought about the demise of capitalism. I believe there is no more risk in building a cooperative, multitendency society than there is in building a single-tendency one. The only people with anything to lose are those who will espouse any position in order to grab power and will do everything they can to hold on to it, and those people are a danger to any society, no matter its ideology.

[abowlofpetuniasandawhale]

i was about to make a post like “do you ever get 95% of the way through a project and then stop because the last 5% seems unbearable?” but then i remembered that’s literally just the first question on the ADHD screening so

[gargelyfloof118]

Is anyone else on mobile using dark mode, but suddenly all the posts are white? I don't know how to fix this, it hurts my eyes. Is goth mode darker?

@staff what's the dill, pickle?

Attaching picture as proof that it's supposed to be dark mode...

[frogcoded]

the only good thing about elasticsearch though is that since it requires a specific version of java it let me set up a specific environment variable es_java_home so i don't have to change the path for the regular java_home every time i use the program like i have to do for other software (killing cassandra with my mind)

[ruddyrose]

.//tag dummmmp

[bookwyrminspiration]

:D

“You keep freezing when I touch you. Why? Should I stop?” They started pulling back.

“No,” they managed, voice suddenly hoarse. “No, please don’t.”

“Alright, love. I won’t.”

want a wip line? send me an emoticon!