#want to start selling your stuff on market sites?

[ladyelainehilfur]

The world is so cruel to people who don't have credit cards...

[dashiellqvverty]

there’s stuff i’m actually mad about re: tumblr rn and the MAIN one that pisses me off is the prev tags chain thing. like even before ‘prev tags’ took off and became a hot topic it was still common to just click back through to see other people’s tags. and while there is now a way to click back through to OPs post or the previous post by clicking the right part of the post, you can’t then go back to the blog BEFORE that one. which fucking sucks (actually i haven’t updated the app since this started and i’m using xkit on desktop so idek what state this is all in rn)

but anyway i don’t even hate it as much as other things it just makes me the angriest bc there is NO reason for it, and no reason not to listen to the userbase and switch it back. and it frustrates me when i see complaints about it on staff posts right next to complaints about tumblr live bc like… you know that’s never gonna change right?? obviously no one uses tumblr live, everyone wants to be able to turn it off permanently and not have to snooze it every week - but given all of that, i think it’s pretty clear that it’s executive-level decisions that tumblr is being made to implement?? like, the fact that there is a “snooze” option at all, to ME, says “we know none of you want this so this is how we compromised”

and similarly the fucking new viewer for pictures/gifs (why anyone thought it was a good idea to include images and gifs in this rather than just videos, i don’t know). that’s probably what i hate the most but i can see why there is pressure to do something like this and i don’t think feedback is going to make a difference. the reblog chains thing just fucking baffles me and i hate that they haven’t listened on that one - they did with the marketplace icon!!!

[ao3commentoftheday]

do you ever wish it *was* allowed to monetize fanfiction? obviously i know all the otw rules about not and stuff and why but it just seems ... unfair, i suppose?

[standard disclaimer that I am not a lawyer and this is as far from legal advice as it gets]

The OTW / AO3 does not allow monetization on their site. This is for two reasons:

1) the legality of it is still somewhat unsettled in the USA where OTW is based and 2) (my conjecture), the people who started it wanted a place that was not part of the capitalist ecosphere

However, the OTW having this stance doesn't mean that's just the way things are. Lots of spaces outside of AO3 monetize fanfic. It's a robust tradition in some areas of fandom. It's just the fact that AO3 has become so huge that people assume AO3's Terms of Service are the same thing as... I guess, international law? A moral code of fandom? Who can say.

If you want to monetize your fanfic, go for it. Just don't mention it on AO3 and don't link out to your monetized platform from AO3. Not because it's illegal but because it's against the site's Terms of Service and if you get reported, your fic could be taken down.

Create a commission price list. Start up a patreon. Sell printed copies of your work. Whatever you want. Just don't talk about it on AO3. Not in your author notes. Not in the comments. Not on your profile.

If you decide to write fic for money, you'll run the risk of the original creator potentially suing you, but Anne Rice is dead now and I'm betting George RR Martin has calmed down in the last decade or so. These days, fandom is seen as part of the capitalist engine. It's free marketing. Even if an author or show runner or director really does hate fanfic, they probably won't actually say that near a microphone in case that hype machine disappears.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Where do you find all your neat little trinkets and such? Is it just accumulated over the years, or do you use marketplace, or antique malls, commissioning stuff? I want to add more to my home, but I don't really know where to look outside of hyper specific ebay searches.

I guess, more succinctly, how do you Find Things?

Heya! Finding cool stuff is a lot about doing just enough research. I'll show you how my mind works.

Let's say I saw this cute cat in the wild. I want to buy it, maybe see if it's something fun to collect.

If I use Google lens on the photo, I get some promising results - this is something that was mass-produced!

Let's click on a result.

I've learned something! This ceramic is called "redware" and the figure is from the 1950s. So, off to another web search.

Oh! A maker name! "Shafford." This will make future searches easier. And look - there are other related cats - it looks like as various household items! (If you further researched the original cat, you'd also learn it is a tape measure and was made in Japan.)

Now, let's say you don't have a photo to start with, or just a vague idea of something you might want. Let's hop to Facebook marketplace and see if anyone is selling cute ceramic black cats.

All of these results could go down their own research paths, but again, I'm using the example of the Shafford cats.

Armed with some knowledge, it takes just a few searches to find an impressive haul. Honestly, if that wasn't 5 hrs away from me, I'd buy that lot in a heartbeat, selling/gifting what I don't want.

For future searches, you now have two paths:

Search for things using basic terminology to find sellers who aren't super knowledgeable. So, something like "vintage kitchen cabinet". You might luck out and find a seller who just wants the thing gone, they don't know its value, and it might be a steal for you!

Search again using the specific terms you have picked up from your research. So, "jelly cabinet." This will get you in front of listing from experts, where you are likely to find a better quality item at the current market price.

That is how I found this for my kitchen, btw.

Learn the common synonyms and mispellings. Bookcase, bookshelf. Captain's desk, secretary desk.

Click on seller stores and profiles to see related items. As you research, you will start to stumble across other items and figure out your sense of taste. You will find cool shit you never knew existed. You will learn new search terms as you pick up bits of history. You will also start stumbling across online speciality sites, or local resources, like antique shops and vintage fairs. You might learn what estate sales are, or about auctions open to the public. You start developing a habit of scouting out shops and sales when you're in a new town. You put big fairs and small swap meets on your calendar. You build relationships with contemporary artists who make things you like.

My sense of style is something I've actively been refining for decades now, and it isn't just vintage tchotchkes. I do this for clothing, for the crafting I'm into, etc. Curiosity and style go hand in hand and the best part is that your eye and research chops will only improve, even if you're just window shopping.

I hope this helps!

[therobotmonster]

Let's talk about Toys in Cereal

This is a part of several posts of mine that have gotten big, but I figure it's best to address the phenomenon itself in a new post.

If you want to just browse a ton of cool old cereal toys once we're done, go to: www.cratercritters.com. It's a neat site.

Cereal toys are a long-standing American tradition. Some tag-questions asked if they went away because of greed or because of regulations, and that's complicated.

There are food regulations that complicate things. You may have heard that Kinder Eggs are not legal in the US.

This is usually framed as a "fear the stupid American Kids will eat the toy" kind of thing. This is not the case.

The actual regulation that blocks the Kinder Egg is about food safety from bacterial and undisclosed allergen contamination. Inserting a baggie with a toy into that exposes everything in the cereal bag to the outside of the toy package, and that's a no-no in the US market. The rare thing we're more strict about than the EU.

But that doesn't affect cereal toys, because they can get around it by having it in a separate package outside the food bag, between the inner back and the cardboard box. Much easier on the parents to find when you open the box, too.

Kinder has, themselves, addressed the US Kinder Egg problem the same way, with the Kinder Joy.

Splitting the package. into two sections that are individually sealed.

But a big blow to the practice was the end of the Australian R&L Toy Company.

R&L made tons of simple pack-in Premium toys from the 60s through the 80s. They were the primary supplier to Kelloggs, and made everything from simple one-piece figurines to little build-yourself-action-toys.

For instance, these "Wacky Walkers" worked by tying a string to the figure and the weight, then dropping the weight off a table. The figures would hobble forward on their feet, pulled by the weight. Neat-o!

Then there's stuff like these Toolybirds. I'd sell any one of you to the goblin king for a set of these, because I sure can't afford them at $25 apiece or more. I'll probably just make some dinosaur-knockoff version or somesuch to 3d print, eventually.

R&L went out of business in the 80s and its molds were sold to a toy manufacturing company in Mexico that produced their stuff as bag toys for awhile, before everything just faded away.

Meanwhile, the cereal market was forced to contract elsewhere without a devoted company doing essentially just that.

Liscenses came to the rescue. Fun fact, if you wanted toys from most of the Disney Afternoon, your only hope was Kellogg's.

As time went on, you started even getting software in cereal.

Chex gave out a free, PG-version of DOOM for free. Not a couple of demo levels, a whole game, run on the doom engine, with aliens you zap with a spoon.

But as time went on, companies got less and less into the idea of enticing with freebies, and parents started objecting to the marketing of sugar cereals with toy surprises, because given the opportunity, most parents will blame the company for making something the kid wants for their unwillingness to say "No."

The eternal conflict:

Cool thing the kid would enjoy that you might have to put your foot down over because enforcing moderation is a parent's job, verses unobjectionable conformist mush designed to increase your kids' "goodness levels."

I think the banning of cartoon mascots for snacks in certain countries is also ridiculous.

Thing is, any company could bring them back at any time.

The Monster cereals did figurines of their mascots in cosplay in 2021. Of course, they did it as a limited edition bullshit thing where the actual monster cereal mascots were chase figures, but they made them, they could do them at any time if they wanted to.

They could bring the magic back. Nothing is stopping them.

'cept there's no room for joy on the spreadsheet.

Gotta hit you with a little ennui. It's that ambergris stink that makes the perfume truly sweet.

[willpowers]

literally obsessed with tumblr learning all about the batshit stuff happening on neopets. the seasonal attack pea drama, while it may actually be the funniest thing to happen this year (saw a girl on fb cry about wanting to burn down TNT hq over it), is not even half of it.

basically, it all started a few months back with the Faerie Festival. It is a yearly event, and it usually roughly follows the pattern of people donate items, each item being equal points regardless of rarity. Those points can be spent on exclusive, high value, rare items that can either be only found during the festival, or are normally extremely expensive and hard to obtain. So every year, people would fill their safety deposit boxes with junk items such as driftwood, bottles of sand, kelp, other items that you could barely sell for a single neopoint, in hopes of being able to make bank during the festival.

this year, however, was a curveball. now, there was a daily limit on donating items, as well as points being awarded based on rarity classification. All in all, now there was a finite amount of points you could get, and all these hoarders now found themselves with piles of items that were useless even in the event.

also, every day you could receive a faerie quest.

for those who don't know, faerie quests happen one of two ways. either you get randomly assigned one as a random event when browsing the site, or you spend real money (about a dollar fifty USD), to get a fortune cookie which gives you faerie quests.

each faerie has a different pool of items requested, and will give a specific prize. Some will increase speed, some level, ect ect. However, there are some that offer more valuable prizes, and are therefore the rarest to get, which is the faerie queen herself, who offers great stat boosts all around, and the fountain faerie, who gives the incredible boon of being able to use her fountain, which allows you to change your neopet into any color imaginable without having to spend millions on a paintbrush.

now, getting a daily quest sounds reasonable, after all, what are the odds of getting the elusive fountain faerie or faerie queen?

well! in this event!

it was 100%.

so that meant EVERY DAY of the month long festival people were able to most likely get a free dip in the rainbow fountain, tanking the value of paintbrushes, and greatly inflating the value of the potential things she could ask for.

things were CHAOS.

in response to the chaos, what did the devs do? they increased the pool of items the fountain faerie could ask for SIGNIFICANTLY, making people hoping to scalp these items unable to predict exactly what she would ask for, and what items they should raise the price of.

now this pandemonium only lasted for a few days before they also made it more likely to get requests from other faeries, still with a focus on the rare ones, as a way to calm things down a bit.

also, every day, you could receive a gift box. inside the box was a random item of INCREDIBLE rarity. for instance, I got a sword I was able to quickly sell for 10 million neopoints. More neopoints than I had ever seen in my years on the site.

so not only were things fucked up by the faerie quests, now most high ticket items in the game were quickly tanking in value now that every player had a chance to get thirty of them within a month.

for a poor player like me, it was great fun! i finally got the chance to get neopets in colors i have always wanted, and was able to get a good chunk of neopoints in my bank for things i wanted to start collecting. things were well.

however, the players that had spent hundreds of real life dollars securing their spot in the neopian elite, were not happy.

many a discussion thread on the site and off were battles of peoples opinions on the changing of market value for items. however, the festival ended, and so one would assume things would go back to normal, right?

wrong.

SO wrong.

the people who were running neopets almost IMMEDIATELY AFTER sold the company to new hands.

thus, more changes begin to happen.

some were amazing all around! the new team seems very dedicated to slowly restore functionality to the games, and have cut ties with all NFT bullshit their predecessors did. in a public statement they have enthusiastically announced that they plan to gain profit from the site by putting more investment into real life merch, some of which started quickly to happen!

in fact, hot topic started selling collecter blind box pins! once again could i go into a mall and walk out with neopets merch, ah, those were the days.

(well, actually, people would buy the entire stock and resell it at an upcharge, causing a whole debacle about that, but thats real life drama, not the neopian kind im talking about)

now, it all seems good. people are positive. they even have a great new idea to raise activity and add structure to your daily use of the site!

daily quests!

now it is structured as so. Every day you get about 5 daily quests, and completing all of them gets you 20k neopoints. not a shabby amount, but not nearly enough to make you a neo-billionaire.

every day you finish all your quests gets you one day closer to a weekly prize, given if you complete seven days of quests in a row!

and! every quest you complete has ITS OWN prize! talk about incentive!

however. guess what those prizes were? both the weekly mega prize and the daily prizes, some given out simply for feeding your neopet?

SOME OF THE RAREST ITEMS IN THE GAME

before people would spend their entire neopian career trying to get a petpet like a krawk, or a kadotie, or a rare paintbrush, or even a great battledome item

now people were being handed them like stickers at the dentist!

so once again, the billionares are mad, the poor people who simply want to enjoy fun items that were once out of reach are happy, and all in all the entire economy is in shambles!

and now, here we are! at the yearly advent calender! a daily chance to get prizes!

AND THEY DO IT AGAIN

to explain the huzzah over the seasonal attack pea, know that it is in fact the second most powerful battledome weapon, going routinely for tens to hundreds of billions in neopoints. something that most players would never dream of being able to acheive.

and it is being randomly handed out like candy! (until they decided to remove it from the prize pool, which caused riots, so they put it back)

so once again, pandemonium!

if youve ever been interested in starting or rejoining neopets, nows the time! things are getttting interesting!

[netherworldpost]

Hey Atty, I've seen a few creators starting to use Substack for their stories. I was wondering if you'd heard anything/have any opinions on it since i usually find your take on this sort of stuff interesting

I actually wrote a huge, long, rambling review --

-- VERY POSITIVE REVIEW UNTIL--

via SUBSTACK SUPPORT

...what. I'm sorry. What?

"Note: Substack charges a one-time $50 USD fee to use a custom domain for your publication."

Without exception: If you are creating content, you need to own your domain.

The gears behind-the-scenes will almost certainly belong to someone else, but you need to own the address.

To market it, be it on one social app or many, in print or in t-shirts or in skywriting, you need to say "Find my stuff at My Website Dot Whatever. Sign up!"

This domain needs to belong to you and cannot be tied to a service you cannot get away from.

What if you decide Substack sucks?

What if they say "hey we are doubling our rates"?

What if they go out of business?

What if you want to branch out into other things beyond newsletters?

To be fair. You are not being locked into Substack's system.

You can pay them $50 USD, then walk away in 3 years and point your domain somewhere else, the cost being this one-time fee.

But I want to talk about something.

When you get a domain, from Google Domains or any other the other billion companies that sell them, the registrar says "okay where does this thing point to?" -- as in -- Substack is not doing the work. The registrar is. That's part of the roughly $12/year fee you pay them for.

I have never seen a company charge you to point a domain to their service before. I am suspicious.

Notice how Tumblr is not charging to use a custom domain?

At this point, I am admittedly guessing, but the only reason I can think of a charge is to make authors second-guess if they leave the platform.

Evil Supply Co. closed in the summer of 2019, I am writing this in February 2023, I still get traffic on the old domain. It diminishes month-by-month and yet it is still a valuable "I am rebranding!" tool.

I plan on keeping the domain forever. It costs me very little per year because no one has charged me to point it at the address of the new project. I can change gears once a week and point it somewhere else without fee.

I have never seen a site charge to have a domain pointed at them.

Prior to writing this answer, I had never looked into Substack's business model.

Having found this point, I would never recommend them to anyone for any reason, even if their newsletter is going to be free forever.

In contempt and anger at this bullshit, I offer a non-affiliate link to MailChimp's blog on launching a paid newsletter.

I'm not so much saying "you should use MailChimp" as "there are other solutions that won't charge you."

I have used MC in the past to great enjoyment and success.

I've used other services too. They won't charge you for pointing a domain to them.

Because this is Tumblr which is owned by Automattic which owns WordPress and because I am super fucking mad at this Substack bullshit I will close with saying WordPress.com also has the ability to launch a newsletter and they won't charge you for a domain to be pointed at it.

I hope this is helpful.

It has been an illuminating experience to research for you.

[oggysonart]

PSA real quick: Don’t buy art advice

I’m not talking about art tutorials or like supporting a tier on someone’s patreon to get feedback or stuff like that, that’s a different thing. This is also not about going to art school.

What I am talking about is stuff like online courses and books that people sell on topics like secrets to growing your art instagram, making loads of passive money off your work, stuff like that. It’s fake.

I’ve seen a disturbing amount of them appear which is why I’m making this PSA. There is no secret to growing your art instagram or making passive money off your art or kickstarting your freelance carreer. If the tips are legit, it’s out there for free if you look for it. We are already talking about it because we’re already doing it. People making these courses and selling these books are only sharing stuff you can already google yourself. These people are rarely making their livings as artists themselves, instead they’re just doing the art world version of get rich quick schemes, they’re praying on your passions and selling you advice that is either already publicly available, unhelpful or even just false.

I’ll give you some advice for free, kay?

Improving your art:

First and foremost working on improving your art should always be priority and you can find tutorials on any subject matter for free pretty much anywhere if you just google stuff like “how to draw a cloud”. Your art is what people will want to buy/see so keep improving it and keep making it if your goals is to build a carreer or an audience, there is no way around it.

Growing your audience

Straight up just engage with whichever app/site you’re using. Post good art yourself, but be a cheerleader for others first and foremost. Post consistently, not constantly, use appropriate tags, talk about your work in your descriptions and engage with people who engage with you. That stuff is in your control, the rest is honestly just luck. For some people it takes a long time, for others it’s a faster progress, there is no secret here, no one knows how to please the algorithm, we’re all just throwing crumbs out and hoping it gets eaten. Bots and promo bots will do more harm than good and spamming other people’s accounts asking them to check you out or tagging someone in your art that’s completely unrelated to them is just annoying. Just chill and post your art and have fun. Remember that social media should ‘t be a popularity contest, it should be social.

Making money

There are so many ways! I don’t even know half the ways and it depends what you want to achieve really. You can make money selling commissions, you can try to get a job at some sort of company, at which there are many who’d want to employ artists, games, films, animation, marketing, marketing departments in companies that otherwise do completely unrelated stuff, I’ve heard of an artist working fulltime at a science lab. There is room for you, you just need to find your industry. You can also license your work which is where the passive income comes in and there are a bunch of ways to do this too google it. You can be an illustrator for books or magazines, you can be a cartoonist for a paper, you can do logos or t-shirt designs and you can work freelance as pretty much whatever you want. It’s not going to be easy finding these jobs and most people do several jobs at once. It takes time to build up clientell and find your opportunities but a good place to start is straight up just googling “how to license my art” or “how to become a concept artist” or just straight up “how to make money as an artist.” It’s all out here.

I don’t have all the answers at hand and I’m too busy looking for all the resources for you. I bet other people will happily provide links and stuff, so feel free to share resources! My point id just this:

Everything is out there for free, google it.

[songbird-at-the-fireside-chat]

Browsing the World Wide Web

Browsing the World Wide Web

One of my favorite passions is creating/finding ways to navigate the web that are healthy, authentic, and fun! Here are some resources I use to guide my internet usage. Some language has been slightly adapted for tone and accessibility. For more in-depth reading, follow the links! (taken with permission from https://yair.garden/browsing). Shared Ideals

MelonKing has an excellent list of shared ideals which I try to keep in mind as I browse the web. It's a great starting point!

Creativity is First: We see the ability to design, decorate, and graffiti digital spaces as essential and powerful.

The Internet is Fun: We want the Web to be a playground that's free to explore and enjoy.

Corporations are Boring: We are tired of the monetization, data abuse, and endless breaches of trust in corporate culture.

The Web is Friendly: We believe the Web should be friendly and supportive; caring is a radical act.

Right to Repair: We value the freedom to make, break, and repair our stuff - tinkering is a form of debate and protest.

One World Wide Web: We want free open knowledge and global connectivity, without paywalls, bubbles, or borders.

Chaotic Effort: We believe that value comes from the time and effort put into projects they love for no reason other than love.

No to Web3: In many (but not all) situations, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, unfairly trained AIs, and buzzword tech are unwelcome and uncool.

Manifesto for a New Web

The YesterWeb is an organization seeking to progressively transform internet culture and beyond. After two years, they created three core commitments and three social behavior guidelines to benefit everyone.

A commitment to social responsibility and partisanship.

A commitment to collective well-being and personal growth.

A commitment to rehumanizing social relations and reversing social alienation.

50 additional manifestos can be found here Social Etiquette

Engage in good faith.

Engage in constructive conflict.

Be mindful of participating in a shared, public space.

Why say no to Web 3.0?

One of the shared ideas of our community of web surfers is to push back against "Web 3.0". Here's why:

It's driven by predatory marketing tactics.

It requires complex technological and financial knowledge to fully understand.

It is actively harming the environment.

It caters to early adopters and whales.

It profits off artificial scarcity.

Investors are banking on Web3, and they really don't want to be wrong.

Personalized Web Surfing Guide

Make your web surfing personal and adventurous, away from corporate influences. Here's a simple guide for a unique browsing experience.

Configure your browser

Remove Ads and Clean up Privacy:

Ublock Origin for removing ads

ClearURLs for removing tracking elements from URLs

SponsorBlock for skipping sponsorships on YouTube

Make it a Safer Space:

ShinigamiEyes for highlighting transphobic/anti-LGBTQ sites

TriggerRemover for removing trigger-inducing content from pages

Clean up UI for Beauty and Minimalism:

CleanerReads for a muted Goodreads experience

Minimal; for a minimal and less attention-grabbing internet

Bonuses for a Cool Experience:

Library Extension: Check book availability at local libraries

Translate Web Pages: Translate pages in real-time

Return YouTube Dislike: Bring back the YouTube dislike feature

How to Browse and Surf the Web

Explore Beyond Corporate Sites: While the internet is vast, the majority of users only see a small fraction dominated by large corporate sites. These sites often prioritize shock value and extreme content, overshadowing the richness of the wider web. Explore alternative avenues to discover the internet's diversity.

Search Engines: Avoid corporate search engines like Google. Instead, consider using alternatives like Kagi, which focuses on privacy and doesn't sell your data. While it costs around $10/month, Kagi offers a diverse mix of web content, making it a worthwhile investment for varied search results. Other niche or non-commercial search engines can also provide unique content. While they may not be sustainable for daily use, they're great for discovering new sites. Find them here.

Webrings: Webrings are collections of websites united by a common theme or topic. They offer a unique way to explore sites created by real people, spanning a wide range of interests. Here are some of my favorite webrings:

Hotline Webring

Retro Webring

Low Tech Webring

Geek Webring

Soft Heart Clinic Mental Health Circle ...and here are some list of webring databases to explore!

Curated List of 64 Webrings

Neocities Webrings

Curated List of Active Webrings

Comprehensive List of 210 Webrings

Cliques/Fanlistings Web Cliques/Cliques are groups which you can join usually if you fulfill a certain task such as choosing an animal or listing your astrological sign. Fanlistings do the same for fans of various topics! You can then be linked on the clique's/fan group's site for further website discovery! Here are some web clique directories:

Project Clique

Cliqued

Fanlistings Network

5. Link Directories

Many sites have smaller link directories of buttons where you can find sites that they are "mutuals" (both creators follow each other) and "friends/neighbors" — sites they follow. It's a great way to build community. There are also larger link directories of sites which someone finds cool, and it's a great way to intentionally explore the web. Here are some of my favorites:

SadGrl Links

Melonland Surf Club

Neocities Sites

Onio.Cafe

Though there are many more! 6. Random Site Generators

Finally, there are random site generators which allow you to randomly stumble upon websites. While not very practical, they are a lot of fun and offer a unique way to discover new corners of the web.

A list can be found here

What now?

The next question you have is probably how can you become an active member/contribute in this world of the underground web? I unfortunately don't have the energy to write a guide right now but it will come soon! In broad strokes, consider making a site on Neocities. If you do make a site, remember to include a robots.txt file to get AI and bots out of there and don't forget to rate your site so we can know who it's for. If you'd like to transition off social media I recommend an RSS Reader such as the one at 32bit.cafe or on Fraidycat (guide on this to come soon as well!). For your twitter-fix you can always post a status at Status Cafe and your mood at imood. There is a whole world out there full of passionate and friendly people who are ready to reclaim the web. Excited to see you there!

[theliterarywolf]

So uh, what's the deal with spindlehorse and merch? Cause I didn't even know there was official merch for HH, I only knew about unofficial merch that fans would make in their spare time

So during the lead-up to the premiere of Hazbin Hotel, A24 and BentoBox (the studio that was brought on to help with production) put up some early-access bonuses people could buy.

They ranged from trading cards, keychains of the HH Key, enamel pins, an official playbill for the series and VAs, and early-access to the first two episodes.

And if you wanted to splurge, you could get the ultimate package that included all of that.

... I splurged on the ultimate package.

I still don't have my playbill.

Also, something something -- I had to pay extra for my access to the first two episodes even though I already paid??

But the series premiered proper and, as anyone who's in marketing would tell you, you would think that they would have had merchandise ready for people to purchase as viewership creeped up.

Well... The only official merch available throughout the entirety of S1 was Amazon offering crap-quality t-shirts, some crap-quality popsockets, and trading cards --

Wait, no. The trading cards have been on waitlist since January.

Meanwhile, people who want to support the show are disappointed because, well, they don't want the crappy merch on Amazon and there are some who feel like they're being punished for not knowing about the early-access bonuses.

So we actually didn't start hearing about anything in the way of better official merch until we were pretty much on the week of the finale's release. And even that wasn't a 'hey, you can buy this now' or even a 'coming soon to *insert store-chain*'. No, it was the Spindlehorse artists who have been assigned to handle to designs of the better merch posting on Twitter about how they're still finalizing designs. In addition to this, we got an official Instagram post talking about how they're still in discussion about what store-chains they want to collab with; though it seems like the bulk of this merch (whenever it releases) will be sold by Hot Topic.

Now, of course, in this bizarre in-between period, fans and entrepreneurs are going to do what fans and entrepreneurs are going to do. So we had an explosion of fans selling high-quality fan-merch. Typical stuff: get some good merch, rep your favorite blorbos, and support some independent artists while you're waiting for official merch to drop.

Well... Apparently, some Etsy store owners who specialize in HH fan merch have been reporting their stores getting taken down by Amazon. Now, while it's true that 'oh, people who sell fan-merch know that they either have to have their own independent sites or they have to use creative alternative names on places like Etsy (i.e.: 'Look at this cute Pikachu cloud pin -- I-I-I mean -- look at this cute 'electric yellow mouse sleeping on cloud' pin'), but it's shitty on Amazon and A24 to start doing this now when they're the reason that Spindlehorse can't sell HH merch on SharkRobot anymore unless it's of the pilot-designs of the characters.

[mxjackparker]

I love your work, and I have a question.

I'm a trans guy who is thinking about starting an OF. I have a lot of knowledge in marketing and the kink scene, but otherwise I haven't monetized this part of my life yet.

What are the basics I should know about this kind before I jump in?

The knowledge of marketing and kink will help you a lot! Honestly, most of the work is the marketing, and you'll spend far more time on that than you will making the actual content for your subscription site (at least at first).

My best advice with the start of your advertising would be the sex worker version of "work smart, not hard" - a little nudity and some clips go a long way in your advertising. I realize many people don't want to show themselves for free and want to censor all their ads, but I've always gotten more subs through people finding the clips on my profiles on porn sites than I have through marketing or Twitter or via social media (with Reddit being the occasional exception, when a picture gets a lot of likes, but only with nudes!)

Post in every possible "trans" tag you can find on porn sites, like adding "ftm" and "trans" and even tags like "twink" or "femboy" even if that's not actually your aesthetic because people in those tags often will want to see just any trans guy.

Basics outside of the marketing stuff:

Prepare what you'll do if people in your life find out: vanilla job, family, etc. Take precautions in like with the risk and how bad that'd be.

Get a cheap second phone + a protonmail email account and use that phone number and email when you sign up for stuff so you don't get recommended to people you know!

Create a menu of services you offer and costs; it is easier to get more money from someone already subbed to your subscription site than it is to get a new subscriber. If you can pull £50/$50 from one subscriber, that'll be worth many new subscriptions!

Also I'd hugely recommend going with JustForFans or an equivalent rather than OnlyFans. They permit more content, break down less, and the owners of OnlyFans have donated money to Israel.

I'd also suggest signing up to additional sites, like IWantClips or Manyvids, where you can sell full videos. It'll bring more people to your subscription site, has internal traffic, and you'll make extra money that way and seem more "professional". They also have trans tags/sections!

[shadowmaat]

Artificial Incompetence

The conversations around "artificial intelligence" are getting a bit bonkers. Not that they're really conversations so much as screaming matches. And not that we're talking about true artificial intelligence so much as algorithm blending programs.

I don't like the recent fad of ABPs. It has a lot of the same earmarks and defenders as NFTs had, and boy howdy did that not work out well for folks. I don't think ABPs have been tied to the fake currency market, but their current implementation is still going to do more harm than good, in my opinion.

I'm not gonna say that writing or art should be "hard" or that people need to "struggle" in order to create things. I do, however, believe that they need to do the goddamn work themselves. Feeding prompts into a content generator doesn't make you a writer or artist. Well, scam artist, maybe. It's taking words/brush strokes from someone else and claiming credit for it. Even if you mention you used an ABP you still didn't create the art yourself, you just fed a program some prompts or the name of some artists you like and it spat out something you claimed as your own.

That's one of the big hangups I have with this fad: taking credit for someone else's work. Reaping all the perceived benefits (kudos, reblogs, etc) without actually doing anything to earn it.

If I give someone a prompt and they write a fic based on it, that story isn't mine. Sure, they might mention I gave them the prompt, but they were the one to write the actual story. Not me. My name doesn't go on the author line and I can't boast to others about the fic I wrote. Because I didn't.

I'm all for accessibility tools to help people complete tasks, and if ABPs were being widely used to help make creative efforts more accessible, I might have a different opinion. As it stands, however, the vast majority of people currently using ABPs aren't using them to help with their own creativity, they're using them as a substitute.

The arguments about data scraping and plagiarism are important, especially if we want to make sure that ABPs stop doing that, but from where I stand it still all boils down to people trying to loophole past responsibility and effort.

It gets worse when you switch gears from fic writing to essays and articles. At least in fiction stuff is supposed to be made up, so, all jokes aside, if some details are wrong it doesn't really matter.

When students start submitting essays to their teachers that they didn't write or sites try using an ABP to write articles, facts become a lot more important. And ABPs are infamous for making shit up whole cloth, even to the point of citing imaginary sources for their facts. That is, quite frankly, dangerous.

You think the past few years (decades, centuries) of misinformation have been bad? It can get a whole lot worse. These programs can seed in just enough "real" information to sell their bullshit as legitimate, and if even some experts have to double-check stuff to figure out what's false, where does that leave the rest of us? Especially all the ones who don't fact check at all before reblogging/believing something they read?

I think the future of artificial intelligence- real artificial intelligence- could be incredibly cool, and when the first AI submits a fic to AO3 I hope I'm around to read it. Right now, though, it's less about exploring potential and all about exploiting it.

[cloudmancy]

I’ve honestly been thinking about how to reconcile actually seeing problems with CR content policy and all that stuff with those people being close friends and collaborators with people from D20.

( Especially that I do consider myself the CR fan, I like watch the streams which feels a bit hypocrytical but I giess I could have worse hyperfixations lol; to clarify I am also a D20 fan and been before even I have started watching CR)

Obviously I am of the opinion that glamourizing and putting creators and artists of any content we like is dangerous (and seeing them as our allies or friends in some capacity) - and we as fans don’t really know those people and shouldn’t base our moral judgement as ours.

But like I still wonder, how do people like Brennan think of CR and their policy, especially considering Brennan frequently praised Matt not just as a creator but as a person

I am curious on your thoughts, not trying to start any discourse here, just thinking

great questions! I want to start off by saying that I really don't care to speculate what brennan's opinion on the policies are: firstly because I don't parasocialize people like that, and secondly because he would not be in charge of any content policies for dimension 20 even if he felt some sort of way about it. I think if you want to reconcile liking CR while having issues its content policy, we need to look at what the issues are first.

as much as I've dunked on CR's content policy, it is nothing unusual for shows to want to protect their own IP. the terms of copyright in there are pretty standard for any form of media (even if I think it's pretty ironic that critical role is itself derivative of another franchise). the only reason dimension 20 doesn't have anything similar is because they're not at the point where it's profitable for people to sell knockoff merch or make knockoff mobile games using their characters yet. I think you need to prepare yourself for dimension 20 eventually reaching that level of success too.

dimension 20 from the start has and always WILL market itself much more as a product than critical role. it explicitly is one of the few things that kept dropout going through the bankruptcy of collegehumor as a parent company, it treats its audience like paying customers and respects audience feedback accordingly, and that's fine! I like that about it! it means that we get sensitivity consultants and production value, because we are customers paying for a product and there are now standards on how that product is delivered.

so yes, I do think dimension 20 will, at some point, implement their own content policy. they already have copyright over their works and properties, even if it's not stated anywhere on site. I have asked about the validity of fanworks before, and gotten this as a response:

For copyright protection reasons we are obligated to protect our IP in instances where we see it being monetized / exploited (the legal meaning) by non-official sources, and sanctioning monetized fanworks in an official sense could create a situation where our copyright becomes compromised on a legal level (without that sanctioning being a long legalese-ful document filled with caveats).

so we're at the same place that critical role fans were five years ago - it's not technically sanctioned, but dimension 20 has been turning a blind eye and even supporting some of the charity endeavours that involve the use of their IP. what remains to be seen is what happens when D20 eventually does put a content policy of their own in place, and which types of fan content will be restricted.

my issue with critical role's content policy is and always will be how they choose to reinforce it, and the way CR itself still markets itself as a small game between friends and refuses to acknowledge how corporate it has become. they may not be explicitly allowed in their policy, but imo they should only come into play when there's actual scammers using copyrighted logos or copyrighted images to sell products.

a content policy for CR was inevitable. there will be one in the future for dimension 20 too. but there is no reason that CR should have been striking down charity projects and fanzine productions, from members of their own community and official artists no less. I can only hope dimension 20 will not go down the same route in the future.

[jeffgerstmann]

'Bonelab', the sequel to Boneworks, came out two weeks ago- if you follow VR news outlets it's basically the second coming, but major gaming outlets like Gamespot and IGN have not only *not* run a review, they never even ran stories announcing the game or its release date. I get that Alyx didn't get the clickthrough they wanted, but the biggest release since gets *nothing?* With an estimated 20 million VR headsets in the wild, when, if ever, will gaming news outlets start covering VR?

Well, obviously, PSVR2 is going to be the next attempt to bring VR to a mainstream audience, and it'll get a requisite amount of coverage. I don't see this being something that carries over into coverage of other VR headsets or marketplaces, though. That ship feels like it's sailed. There are already way more non-VR games coming out than any site can handle and there's no real reason to waste a bunch of time chasing down VR stuff.

Especially Bonelab, which is for a niche of a niche of a niche. They're out there practically shitting on the Vive for not being good enough for their game. The way Boneworks spent time up front shitting on "comfortable" control schemes was pretty off-putting, too. It's for a specific crowd and that's rad! But don't expect anyone else to give a shit. Considering it sounds very similar to Boneworks, it sounds like it's pretty much a product built for the VR enthusiasts that are all the way down the rabbit hole and everyone else will probably just get sick within 20 minutes of putting it on.

For what it's worth, the release of Bonelab was the thing that got me to blow the dust off my Quest 2, but after realizing the battery was dead and the firmware was way behind and I still have to migrate to a Meta account and all this other shit... I don't think I'm going to be jumping through those hoops anytime soon. I spent a very long time checking out new VR releases week by week and it was one of the most discouraging things I've ever done. Every week was like "hey, here are nine more shooting galleries and one neat physics demo thing that we're trying to sell as a $30 game." It was like watching people get slowly sucked out of an airlock or something, like you're watching this fledgling corner of the industry snuff itself out in record time with like four different chicken-and-egg problems to justify why sales weren't great or why AAA devs weren't investing big in VR or why the VC money was drying up or whatever. Not enough quality, not enough interest, not enough install base. Pick your excuse.

I might also add that "VR news outlets" are pretty much the last place I'd go for any kind of signals about the overall health of the VR market. You can sit here and talk about "clickthrough" on mainstream sites, but those sites are pretty much gone if they can't keep convincing their audience that VR still matters.

Pretty crazy when you think about it. All these years of wondering if VR could ever be a real thing. And now here we are, it's very real and can be very cool, but no one gives a shit.

[pancakeke]

Advice for someone who wants to pick up a new hobby and work on it consistently? Maybe even multiple hobbies?

Love your blog btw

Watch lots of youtube tutorials and follow lots of artists that are into the things you want to get into! (like here on Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) this helps with inspiration and gives you background knowledge on how things work for when you start up a hobby for yourself. Local libraries have random classes you can take so it's worth checking them out to see if they offer anything that you'd like to learn (mine does a lot of technology based stuff these days like 3D printing). Also if you have the cash, community colleges offer classes for cool things like pottery, glass blowing, sewing, watercolor, scrapbooking, and more. I checked my local community college's website and depending on the course, class fees were between $35 and $225 (the cheaper ones are one day classes and the more expensive ones are multiple day courses. also they're after hours on weekdays and on weekends)

If you can find them, join small communities for the hobbies you're interested in! so like smaller subreddits and discords (big ones suck and are mostly people showing off how much money they can spend tbh. but small ones generally have cool knowledgeable people who share progress photos, tutorials, and will help you with whatever questions you may have). Immersing yourself in a hobby environment helps with inspiration and the initiative to create!

Start nice organized bookmarks in your browser and bookmark everything that you find cool or helpful, be that tutorials, tools, materials, other artists' works, what have you. use subfolders so everything is easy to find later.

Keep a notebook on hand for your ideas. I use a cheap bullet journal because it makes it easy to create little sections on each page for multiple ideas. also get one of those multi colored pens to keep different ideas easy to differentiate from each other. This is helpful for before you start a hobby so you can plan out what you really want to do and what you need. once you start a hobby it helps you organize your plans, list materials, draw out patterns, etc.

Last thing is be reasonable with your money. always check second hand sales for equipment before buying new if you can risk it. I got a TON of knitting stuff from Goodwill once. I also got a knitting machine from eBay as part of an estate sale for half of what they normally sell for. shopgoodwill is also a good resource, as well as Facebook sales. Craigslist is still out there but god it's a pain to use. If you have a local community for a hobby become a part of it because (other than meeting cool people and having fun) you can get lucky and inherit old equipment from people for little cost or even free when they upgrade their setups.

If used isn't an option, be savvy with sales. Use camelcamelcamel to track Amazon's prices to make sure sales are *really* sales and not instances of sellers inflating prices and then discounting them back to the normal cost. As much as marketing emails suck, subscribe to emails for sites that sell things you need for your hobbies (ex. Joann Fabrics, Blick, Tandy Leather, Dharma Trading, and smaller independent supply stores).

Once you have a good idea and initiative, start small and within reason for your skill level. Don't expect to build a work room overnight or create masterpieces immediately. Build a mindset that perfection isn't real and every piece you create is another step forward in your journey as an artist. You will never stop learning and growing so there will never be a point when you are "done" and can rest on your laurels. Even abject failure in creating is experience you need so that you can fully understand the limits of yourself and your medium as well as how to work around those limits to continue creating. It can also give you a chance to stop and think critically about your methods in situations where you had a reasonable idea but went about it in a less than ideal way (<= I do this thing constantly lol, first ideas arent always the most efficient...)

Remember that creating is about fun and expressing yourself. If you arent having fun don't feel like you need to keep pushing yourself to work on something. abandoning unfun projects is 100% fine. Your energy is better spent working on things you can feel invested in anyway.

So um TLDR: immerse yourself in inspiration and community, do your research, stay organized, and have reasonable expectations for yourself. also have fun :)

[leak321]

The Rise of Video Marketing: Captivating Audiences in Seconds

Master the Art of Video Marketing: Your Ultimate Guide

Video Marketing is a Secret Weapon for Business print, help them connect with people and good. This isn't just great for big companies; Anyone can do this, and it becomes more important every day. Let's look at some tips, cool facts, and types of videos that can make your business stand out.

Why video is so cool

Video is like a marketing mantra. Here are some simple reasons why:

People love watching videos: Almost half of people want businesses to create videos regularly. So if you want people to like you, make a video!

Video Increases Sales: If you post videos on your website, more people are likely to buy your products. It's like a trick to make people believe in you and want to buy what you're selling.

Videos get more clicks: If you send an email with a video, more people will click on the video. Email seems to have great power!

How to make a good video?

Making videos doesn't have to be difficult. Here are some simple tips:

Keep it short and sweet: Don't make your video too long. People get bored easily, so leave it for a minute or two.

Plan Ahead: Think about what you want to say before making your video. It's like having a game plan so you don't get stuck.

Story: People love stories. Disclose accurate information about your product or service. It makes you more interesting.

Use a great title and image: Make your video title catchy and the image people see before they click should be happy. It's like making your video look like a blockbuster!

Get people to do something: At the end of the video, tell people what they should do next. They can visit your website, buy something, or share a video with a friend.

Why video marketing is important

Videos can help you in three ways:

Google likes you more: If you have video on your website, Google thinks it's great and will rank it at the top when people search. It's like being a superhero in the online world.

People love your products more: People love videos. They're ten times more likely to comment and share videos than boring stuff like blogs or regular posts.

More Sales Coming Your Way: When people see your videos, they're more likely to buy your stuff. Imagine making 80% more sales because of a video on your webpage. That's like a money-making machine!

Different Kinds of Videos You Can Make

There are lots of cool videos you can make. Here are some ideas:

Show Off Your Product: Make a video showing how awesome your product is and why people need it.

Capture Fun Events: Film cool stuff happening at events related to your business. It makes people feel like they're there with you.

Talk to Experts or Happy Customers: Chat with smart people or customers who love your stuff. It's like having a friend vouch for you.

Show great things: Create a video that shows the value of people. It's like helping a friend.

Explain simple things: If your product is a little difficult to understand, use videos to explain it easily so that everyone can understand it.

FAQ:

How do I put my videos online?

Add a few nice words to describe your video when uploading. Share it on sites like YouTube and Facebook and ask cool people to share it too.

Video What is Internet Marketing?

This is similar to using video to talk about your business online. You post your videos on social media and on your website to get more people to see them.

How to create free video?

Use free tools like Canva or Adobe Spark. Get images from free sites, be careful not to use something that belongs to someone else without asking.

Conclusion:

Video marketing is like having a secret weapon for your business. It's not going anywhere, so you better start using it now. Follow these simple tips to create great videos and watch your business grow. In today's world where attention spans are shortening and competition is getting tougher, video marketing is vital to connect with people and make a big impact in today's digital world. Get ready to become a video marketing superhero! 🚀