#But in a school forum or discord server?

[lanatusnebula]

I wanna draw backgrounds but I am too lazy and inexperienced and my patience is low.

But there seems to be a lot of trends with the backgrounds I'm looking at in detailed works that appeal to me. I don't think I would able to replicate the things others draw since it seems they're taking shortcuts (compensating for simplicity by compacting details into the pieces, using 3d models, using environment brushes like buildings, etc), ones that would end with my art looking really hilarious.

I know it's too late in my life to start thinking about job opportunities and I need to start acting now. But if i could get an art job, I think I'd feel more fulfilled. At the moment that obviously isn't an option. (15 more days I am losing my mind) I keep wanting to make a professional looking portfolio but my art simply is too much leaning towards hobbyist. :/

This looks very mediocre. I know though I could have added some trees but I still struggle with composition.

There are characters sitting on the "bench" but I didn't use a reference so it looks... hm.

This one was really fun an relaxing to do, but the mediocre aspect of it is present here as well. Obviously some shit doesn't make sense because I removed the character layer (that's why there are random shadows), but there's surely gotta be some sort of way for me to improve.

Compositions like this make me feel at peace, but the forefront character's color clashed terribly with it. I need to not be afraid to adjust things in photoshop I think?

These are the only examples I have on hand, which is also a really huge red flag; if I don't have many examples, that means I'm not practicing enough. I could do warmups to draw backgrounds quickly, but the struggle is more in composition and color theory. I don't know how to do those things, despite the large collection of resources and tutorials. It just doesn't click. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. > <;;

I will inevitably have to figure it out. I heard that drawing other peoples' images that are closer to what I want is the ticket, and if i do it enough times it'll come naturally. The process isn't too difficult to grasp but feels morally wrong to start my day like that. But I'm building up a collection of art I admire for composition (withbackgrounds) as a starting point at least.

None of it will be posted obviously but... I hope to have something to show for in a few months.

Big things comin.

[amyoffline]

It's done! The outline for—

—is below the cut. The goal of this project is to explore the following phenomena with as much context and nuance as I can manage, tracing our history over the past 15 years:

What about us, and what about Dan and Phil, drew in and continues to draw in a very specific audience. If they are a ranch metaphor, we are a pizza metaphor 🥗🍕🫶🏻

Why we were Like That™, by which I mean so parasocially invested in them that we became, at times, the most annoying people on the internet. Much of that reputation is undeserved, and the videos on the phandom to date have been strongly negative. So, uh, I guess I'm going to put my face on camera and (mostly) defend us.

Reblog, share in your Discord servers, reply, or send me messages/anon asks with feedback or resources if you have any! Especially if your experience being in this fandom community has been dramatically different from mine. There are TIT spoilers near the end of the outline, but I'm not tagging because certain individuals seem to be lurking over there. Thank you!

Chapters:

Full outline:

introduction

cold open

felt personally attacked by jonathan haidt's last press tour

showed up to the phrenaissance 11 months late

had an unexpectedly strong response to their new content, needed to find out why

what the hell are we doing here?

- phenomenology (academics are professionally insufferable) - research question 1: what drew the audience in? - research question 2: why were we Like That™?

what we're NOT doing here

- a strict content analysis or "wow we sucked" video - providing sources for things best left uncirculated, thank you

reflexivity (personal biases)

- american zillennial in public health - in the youtube audience by spring 2010 - lurking in the phandom on tumblr 2013-2015, back* since 2019 - fan behavior i did and did not engage in

(----): truly necessary background information, i swear

(pop) cultural trends, tech, and their intersection

- nerd/geek identity and the first online weirdos - broadcast tv & the music industry vs the internet - defining "emo" - blogging & vlogging - early internet comedy

broader social/economic trends

- so the U.S. economy collapsed in 2007 - a decade that sucked except for rom-coms and square enix games - the flip/slide phone + digital camera + mp3 player loadout

(05-8): early youtube and early phil

youtube: a great video uploader without a clear purpose

the content on the website

- crossposts, corporations, and creative/social outlets - omg guys it's amazing phil - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: justin bieber

the audience of "early adopters"

contemporary social media sites and forums

(2009): origin story

a wild dan appears… in the comments

the global constant that is teenagers being messy online

daring my old school district to sue me

- "one town's war on gay teens" (literal rolling stone headline!) - epidemiology 101: rates of… ugh… "unaliving" oneself - ways kids cope when it seems no adults will help them

the earliest days of dan & phil

- hello internet + pinof - a chronically overexamined timeline - file deleted ---* so how big WAS the audience at the time? ---* acceptable funny/edgy language was just different

contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: lucas cruikshank

omg it's meeeeeee

- how amy & friends were using youtube - ways i was just destined to end up here - being in social environments with peers 3-6 years older

(2010): is it "twenty-ten" or "two thousand ten?"

youtube is a platform about to explode in popularity

- the algorithm before it was The Algorithm™, lost site features - let's take a trip through the wayback machine :3c - actual dan & phil content in 2010 - the green brothers found vidcon - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: darren criss

social media: also about to explode in popularity

- facebook was cool at the time, believe it or not - law of equivalent exchange: 2010 amy cringe compilation - the birth of instagram and pinterest - youtube slash livejournal (the first phanfics… sort of) - shockfic and its place in the overton window

the beginning of "the great rewiring" as haidt calls it

- ways social media is about to dramatically change - third spaces become online spaces - confounding variable: changing expectations of teens

(2011): the end of an era, the start of an age

a very long tangent on fandom and pop culture

cultural exchange

counterculture and teenagers as concepts

the first british invasion: the 1960s

- beatlemania and its descendents - moral panic about the virtue of tween/teen girls - tv/film/fashion trends being imported from the uk - in parallel, star trek births the modern fandom

the second british invasion: the 1980s

- synth/new pop that came out of the punk movement (hi, emo?) - confined mainly to music and fashion - cool britannia

it's harry freakin' potter

- absolute titan of pop culture influence - the rise of online fandom: examining the horrors ---* what is "wank" ---* flaming, sockpuppeting, and general cyberbullying ---* censorship: ffnet purges, boldthrough, & strikethrough ---* other fandom shenanigans of the time (yaoi paddles, anyone?)

harry potter's over. now what?

- for those who needed coming-of-age hero's journeys ---* twilight and YA dystopia waiting in the wings ---* some pretty iconic tv shows start or hit their stride ---* the mcu's phase one ---* takeaway: the rise of "geek culture" generally - for those who just wanted to go to hogwarts ---* doctor who & the wider world of bbc programming ---* british vloggers, you say? where? on youtube? brb--

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

dan & phil in the first half of 2011

- a continuation of 2010… for now - the videos - british pancakes as a case study of bad fan behavior

streaming and social media

- the birth of snapchat, twitch, and younow - netflix starts developing original programming - multi-channel networks (mcns) - digitour

dan & phil in the second half of 2011

- and they were roommates (omg they were roommates) - fantastic foursome - youtube glitches out - the super amazing project - the first proper baking video + wait, is that the bbc?

~ baking interlude 1: christmas cookies ~

the family sugar cookie (sorry, delia)

amy's 2011

(2012): why is anyone nostalgic for this

the transition from desktop to mobile

- massive growth in smartphone ownership 2011-2015 - things one might do on mobile one might not do on desktop - non-online ways smartphones changed being a youth™

what is tumblr and why is my child using it

- how the site is meant to work - fandom, memes, aesthetics, and SOME public figures - want to be anxious and depressed in peace? come to tumblr - this site seems a little……… gay ---* tumblr's very queer, very neurodiverse userbase ---* legacy media representation in 2012: bad! ---* actual academic research on tumblr users (yes, it exists) - the tumblr experience for non-native english speakers

amy becomes a vibrating mass of panic and paranoia

- in context of the above - additional rant about the american public school system

the growing dan & phil audience

- investigating the origin of the term "phannie" - more collaborations = more viewers - more video uploads = more /invested/ viewers - younow and interacting with fans - watch time replaces clicks in the algorithm

online etiquette, or lack thereof

- mid-transition from the 2000s to the 2010s - "professional internet celebrity" is still basically brand-new - lack of boundaries - various ways to be an asshole online - unsupervised kids simply do not engage in best practices

the end of 2012

- dan and phil move to london - wikipedia vandalism - tiptoeing around a top contender for the phandom's greatest sin - super amazing project DONE, now it's BBC RADIO TIME

(2013): arguably the most important year

- wait. what's that six-second video platform over there--

[amy's curated vine compilation]

- a new wave of internet comedians (read: future youtubers) - the zillennial lexicon - other platforms start emphasizing short-form video content - magcon

emo is BACK - well, sort of

- fob hiatus ends, mcr breaks up. my god. you had to be there - more open ties to nerd/geek culture than in the 2000s - these things once again intersect at dan and phil

dan and phil in the first half of 2013

- siri, what's a "sex symbol?" why are you booing me i'm right-- - d&p are everywhere - radio shows, interviewing, hosting - youtube uploads on their individual channels

rapidly changing cultural attitudes towards queerness

- gay marriage will be legal in places other than canada soon - a lot of assimilationist rhetoric though tbh - parallels to the pop feminism of the decade

hey kids, let's talk about compulsory heterosexuality!!

- what is it and why do people do it - academic, tumblr-level, and anecdotal research - the dannies, the phillies, and the phannies

amy

- the closet™ - mental health stigma - 2013 dnp posts from my main blog

dan and phil in the second half of 2013

- subscriber milestones, vidcon - joint content before the gaming channel - phandom starts having a major presence outside tumblr

(2014): achievement unlocked!

it's time to talk about rpf

- definitions (a chance to be annoyingly pedantic) - academic perspectives and fan discourse on the ethics - when the subjects clearly aren't fine with it - so… we can acknowledge "shipping phan" was different, right? ---* sometimes the subjects are fine* with it, actually ---* how dan and phil started to handle the shipping ---* obvious differences between phan and other rpf ships ---* sharing my favorite passages as a first-time phanfic reader

dan and phil in 2014

- wikipedia vandalism 2: electric boogaloo - bbc request show → internet takeover - the 7 second challenge - youtube content, subscriber milestones, rewind - cons and award shows

tumblr reaches the peak of its influence

- yahoo's attempts to monetize the userbase - buzzfeed and aggregators steal our jokes and bait our clicks - legacy media dangles carrots and uses us for free marketing - the legend of korra breaks TV precedent, almost out of nowhere - the tumblr user experience ---* on mobile, without xkit ---* on desktop, with xkit ---* 2014 dnp posts from my main blog

gamergate and its long shadow

- trolling, renewed and revamped - algorithms push increasingly extreme content - the broad conservative backlash conglomerate - increased normalization of conspiracism in general

my greatest sin [not clickbait] [very funny]

- so, circling back to comphet… - the actual story

anyway, let's talk about danandphilgames

- a star is born: dil howlter - different types of gaming content on youtube at the time - why did 17yo amy not subscribe? well…

~ baking interlude 2: chocolate cupcakes ~

make your own frosting. it freezes well

roasting myself further

(2015): it's not queerbaiting when it's real people

facebook "pivots to video"

- mark zuckerberg lied. water is wet - causes other platforms to REALLY double down on video - the birth of musical.ly - corporate-branded creators (read: future youtubers)

queerbaiting enters mainstream public consciousness

- academic origins - early fannish and acafan writing - johnlock, destiel, and sterek - statistics 101: type i error, type ii error, and queerbait

dan, phil, and the phandom

- bbc, cons, & the brits - danandphilcrafts - phan conspiracies ---* japhan ---* body language experts ---* timeline truthers ---* floor plan investigators ---* no but seriously imagine it - regular youtube uploads ---* solo content ---* joint content ---* subscriber milestones, rewind - tatinof uk and tabinof ---* on "selling out" ---* revisiting the statistics 101 lesson: now with real people! ---* never meet your heroes (unless they're dan and phil)

amy's (temporary) exit from the phandom

- it's legal adulthood with a steel chair!! - growing discomfort with some fans' behavior - 2015 dnp posts from my main blog - the closer: final fantasy vii

(2016): season finale

vine's imminent demise

- content platforms behaving badly - content creators behaving badly

youtube after "the great rewiring" (as haidt calls it)

- version 1.0 of the modern youtube algorithm ---* deep neural networks for dummies ---* what's holding creators accountable, or not - advertising and sponsorships ---* basically every child and youth™ is watching now ---* the battle for our attention ---* regulators start to crack down on undisclosed ads - the rise of drama/tea content (and later, channels) ---* youtubers are now seen as regular celebrities ---* dan and phil as the butt of other youtubers' jokes ---* baiting the phandom for engagement

tatinof us and aus

- a proven new model for live show tours - show & documentary released to youtube red (now premium) - [sigh] the tour bus

sea change in online fandom

- the newer, sometimes queerer media in korra's wake ---* better and more representation in live-action tv shows ---* voltron (i'm sorry!!!) ---* the mystic messenger craze ---* alice oseman & heartstopper - the new dynamics of #discourse ---* proship is to anti as phannie is to phanti ---* the bad behaviors of the 00s get a new coat of paint ---* new, though: fans harassing creators ---* a personal note on ace discourse

dan and phil presence off-tour

- the internet takeover ends - regular content, subscriber milestones

so. uh. current events.

- brexit - sorry the united states is a font of chaos - ripple effects

closing out the year

- amy finally gets an anxiety diagnosis and treatment! hurray! - dapgo, rewind - bbc radio awards & the boncas - gamingmas

(2017): time for a rebrand

tangent - sit down!!! buckle up!!! today's lecture is on PSIs & PSRs!!!

"parasocial" as defined by the current zeitgeist

- summing up youtubers' and laypeople's opinions (not dan's) - an unfairly negative stance overall, imo

older academic literature

- the 1956 paper (yes, 1956) - with traditional celebrities - with fictional characters

current academic literature

- with youtubers and other content creators - positive effects on the audience - negative effects on the audience - broader societal implications

fandom spaces as a parasocial experience

- parasocial and truly social interactions with each other - phandom as a supportive, welcoming space for oddballs - what research i can find about neurospicy folks, + anecdotes - me and everyone else on planet earth move to discord

inherent transactionality

- the nature of celebrity - positive effects on creators - negative effects on creators

reexamining early phandom through a parasocial lens

- the good, the bad, and the ugly - the role audience demographics played in all of this - entering, exiting, and remaining in the phandom

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

vine is well and truly dead

- some had prepared to become primarily youtubers (smart) - some move to musical.ly, insta, facebook, or snap (less so)

the sun sets on danisnotonfire

- i am very normal about dan's hobbit hair, i swear. - the last dnp content before the rebrand - new apartment, new floor plan investigations

adpocalypse now

- youtube has become the village elder of platforms ---* increased scrutiny, increased responsibility ---* some youtubers had been getting away with !#$!#@% - the scandals ---* pewdiepie + logan paul ---* elsagate and being "family- friendly" (read: ad-friendly) - censorship and monetization ---* adsense revenue goes down as advertisers pull out ---* the glory days of posting whatever and making bank are over

amazingphil and ~daniel howell~

- youtube & younow content - that week in march - vacations and conventions - conjoined baking and the concept of a "soft launch" - daniel & depression → dan as a mental health advocate - truth bombs, ii announcement, rewind

(2018): the phandom vs the hiatus they told us not to worry about

interactive introverts

- "giving the people what they want" - in hindsight… - let's talk about dnp fans from the global south

youtuber burnout

- it wasn't just dan: (more examples than header fits) - the old model was simply not sustainable - newer contributing factors - research on burnout, plus personal anecdotal experience

other dan and phil content

- younow/rize lives - dan's last videos before… you know… - phil's solo content in 2018 (quiff!!) - pinof → wdapteo - the gaming channel

other stuff happening online and in the world

- youtube raises the barriers to monetization - many "pivot to video" creators are now independent - the modern youtuber's multiple streams of income - continuations of societal trends in 2016 - musical.ly becomes tiktok - notable: she-ra and the princesses of power

the hiatus™: part myth, part reality

- how long dan was actually offline - major confounder: tumblr implodes almost overnight - major confounder: perception of content density from '13-'16 - major confounder: rapidly maturing audience - major confounder: our temporal awareness is about to go way ↓↓

~ baking interlude 3: scotcheroos ~

minnesotans and their obsession with "bars"

amy has one last existential crisis (you know, to date)

(2019): demolishing the closet with a nail bat

phil videos in the first 5 months of this very important year

basically i'm gay

- my thoughts - its legacy in the canon of "coming out" stories - multiple things can be true at once

coming out to you

- my thoughts - its legacy in the canon of "coming out" stories - why phil waited (actual explanations, speculation)

amy's 2019

- return to the audience, not really to the phandom (rip tumblr) - strange coincidence that i also had a major life transition

dan and phil: still here, freshly queer

- twitter becomes the main nexus of phandom, by default - regular phil uploads + brief return to younow - vidcon

(2020): go home and stay there

so it's a goddamn global public health crisis

- infectious disease perspective - effects on overall well-being of adults - effects on kids and teenagers (sorry to all of you) - political and economic impacts

hitherto unforeseen levels of online content consumption

- tiktok replaces basically all short-form video content - yet another wave of new (otherwise unemployed) youtubers - you're watching a video essay. these got really popular now. - being young and isolated: thoughts from younger phannies

the Content™ bc that's the one word we use for this now

- phil's videos - when dan is around - that attitude magazine interview - pour one out for the phil solo project(s) the panini wrecked

further political disaster… avoided?

- checking in on the state of social issues previously discussed - unfortunately,

(2021): welcome to the 2020s, we have lingering trauma

THE PHOUSE?!?!?

- social media posts - the stereo shows

other dan and phil videos

- phil's solo videos - gay and not proud - hometown showdown - other joint videos - phil's #shorts (sounds normal in american english)

panini updates

- vaccines soon, uwu??? + entrenched misinformation - pros and cons of remote work - pros and cons of remote school - pros and cons of remote socializing

you will get through this night

- younger me really could have used this book too, dan - thoughts as a professional in a related field - reflecting on some of my more unique circumstances

daring my old school district to sue me (again!!)

- updates: racism and transphobia - updates: right-wing freaks take over the school board again - residents vote against improving mental health resources

(2022): dan returns (still not on fire)

hey so politics are um getting worse

- americans lose the right to reproductive freedom ---* the quickest of histories on where these freaks came from ---* this shit kills people. - trans kids become the punching bag of culture war discourse ---* fuck off! (gently) ---* fuck off! (i have a knife) ---* checking in on terf island

we're all doooooooooooooooomed

- dystopia daily my beloved - the style, the substance, the metatextual analysis-- - not everyone loved it, though. why? - the promo - dan on tour + sister daniel

amy's 2022

- i got covid - then i got long covid: brain fog, pots-like symptoms

some more news (i will work on my warmbo impression)

- dan joins tiktok + danisnotinteresting uploads - phil: uploading less, busy doing remote crisis management - twitter is acquired by an idiot jackass - heartstopper on netflix! ---* the show and what it means to people ---* drama (revisiting "real people can't queerbait") ---* why this has anything to do with the phandom

~ baking interlude 4: cinnamon rolls ~

- lovingly, recipe changes and corrections :) - if i have an opinion about anything, it's sweet yeasted breads

(2023): the phrenaissance

phil

- joins tiktok! - youtube uploads through september - what even is phannie tiktok. i've never used this app. help.

dystopia daily b-sides

- dan memes of 2022 - the 2023 dystopia daily episodes

amy: the doctoral candidacy process

- purgatory, privilege, poverty, and free pizza - checking in on what this is like outside the united states

pretending the panini is over

- complaining about post-adpocalypse censorship standards - honest take about "giving up" on covid - who gets the short end of the stick

the youtube algorithm is BAD and UNINTELLIGENT, actually,

- unhinged rant about not hearing about the gaming rephrival - because i was offline from other platforms. like, @amyoffline.

pov: you are a phannie (not me) on october 15th

- what i was doing on october 15th - saying goodbye forever, spooky week, and november - gamingmas - phil uploads through december

(2024): fifteen years of terrible, terrible influence

hey what the fuck is going on

- dan and phil ---* joint and phil videos ---* jokes they never would've made ten years ago ---* a collection of emotional posts about how far they've come ---* people want fun and silly content again. we'll get to why ---* nostalgia, hope, and other warm and fuzzy feelings - the phandom ---* ancient parasocial attachments, reactivated instantly ---* people are way more normal now. let's discuss why ---* tumblr vs twitter vs tiktok phandom

we're all doomed, youtube version

- my thoughts - thoughts on "dan should/shouldn't" do video essays - i can't objectively evaluate anything he makes bc [gunshots]

terrible influence tour

- legally phlonde - the concept: healing one's inner child / taking it back - we gotta talk about phannies in the global south again - no but seriously imagine it? ---*ogres are like onions, they have LAYERS ---* [placeholder for whatever does(n't) happen]

anglosphere current events once again

- the likely us tiktok ban - the tories get fired - [placeholder for whichever hell americans manifest] - witnessing genocide and feeling powerless

ffx full-circle moment to the intro of this video essay

- the night i found out they came back - why i am doing this, now with context - reflections on a nearly 15-year (parasocial) relationship

whatever youtube uploads we get during fall/december

AMY SEES TIT (nov 14)

- the vibes at the phamily reunion - buying merch to apologize for eternal ublock origin use - how much should i document?? (not during the show) - phanspiracies confirmed - atlanta confessions - favorite bits - the alternate universe where i went to tatinof and/or ii

(2025): the horrors persist, but so do we

whatever 2025 content is out while i'm still working on this

our parasocial social club

- let me be philosophytube for a second ---* every interaction has a parasocial element ---* what are we obligated to do as a phandom, actually? ---* as people who parasocially care about these two dorks? ---* what else should we be doing socially to be at our happiest? - "they're my gay uncles" vs "i'm a little in love, even now" ---* riffing about the boundary/overlap between these camps ---* sibling reads me for filth in a single text (sister daniel...) ---* at least we're all in this together

what's going to continue to draw people in

- grown adults drawing our cat whiskers back on - updates on queer/nd kids - updates on anxiety/depression rates - updates on tech and the broader environment of content - world still feels doomed

tangent - the "hard launch" and why people want it

what are people referring to, exactly

- general definition and other examples - when it comes to dan and phil - maybe they hard launched already and we just missed the memo

the ludonarrative of phandom

- if you got here early on - if you got here in the mid-2010s - if you got here after they came out - if you got here post-hiatus - final fantasy comparison: ffvii's chokehold over first-timers

a rom-com for the ages

- the tropes in play - brief tangent on the evolution of the genre - queer romantic comedies - final fantasy comparison: ffviii's plot and squall/rinoa

phriends… or…

- wholesome influence, slice-of-life - projection - final fantasy comparison: ffxv's gameplay loop, the chocobros

humans don't like ambiguity

- from a media perspective (narrative tension) - research from the hard sciences - final fantasy comparison: fanille ---* the first gay final fantasy characters, actually ---* ffxiii's character development process ---* fang and vanille in the text. brb, clawing at the walls ---* so, if anyone is looking for a phyuri au prompt…

tl;dr: reality is not fiction. make peace with not "knowing"

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

the phuture

- phil's big solo project when??? - dapg is just the joint channel now - youtube has changed since when dan last "regularly" uploaded - nothing lasts forever, and that's okay

~ baking interlude 5: ranch + pizza ~

- ranch propaganda and ranch metaphors - showing off my dough and sauce skills

conclusions

- a lot has happened in 15 years - [placeholders: don't write your conclusions before you do your research]

Proof this project can only be done in consultation with Tumblr: no other platform we're on could accommodate a post of this length and formatting detail lol

[eggrens]

i think people should try a little Linux, just for something different yknow

doesn’t have to be any specific “beginner-friendly” distro or whatever, could just be WSL even . just gives you a different perspective on OSs :)

like if you’re sick of Windows/MacOS and are frustrated that you need to keep upgrading your hardware to run the newest versions, why not experience something else and download VirtualBox n try out a Linux distro for a bit, see if you like it,, I think you might be surprised by some of em :)

i still use Windows 10 for my desktop, mainly for gaming and art etc, but i switched over to Linux Mint on my laptop a while ago and have used it for school, and it’s been running better than when it had Windows on it. does what i need it to do, and using the terminal to do stuff feels fun and kinda powerful with how easy it is to install stuff with it :)

was there troubleshooting involved? yes, but it was often fixed by just looking up your problem and finding answers on stackexchange or linux forums, not too different from troubleshooting windows tbh lol

i’ve also recently got a mini pc to use as a little server for stuff, like discord bots. even tho the specs are a little on the lower side, it’s still able to run stuff pretty well since I installed Xubuntu on it, which is specifically designed to be quite light on system resources, and it’s been great too :)

anyways point is,, try out Linux in some form, why not :) if you have an old laptop/desktop sitting around, try reviving it by installing a lightweight linux distro on it! the less e-waste the better :3

[cutewebgraphics]

Can you list the websites where you get your graphics from?

Hello!

I had another question like this and wrote a big long answer & when I went to save it as a draft, it disappeared!!! X_X I'll do my best to write it out again!

I don't actually know how I do it... I go into a blind haze and wake up hours later with dozens of tabs open and hundreds of graphics in my downloads. Not really, but it feels like it sometimes ^^'''

Usually, I start out by reverse image searching a graphic I already have on image search engines like Google Images, Yandex, etc. and opening a bunch of sites that host that same graphic, or by going into the 'similar images' section and looking for interesting graphics, thumbnails and sites that way. I look out for text-hosting (blogging, fanfiction) sites, self-hosted websites, forums and foreign language sites - I find a lot of my favorites from Japanese, Hindi and Italian-speaking sites in particular! From there I look for hyperlinks to other sites and start going down rabbit holes. I avoid popular image-hosting sites like Giphy and Pinterest, as well as popular English social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.

Text-hosting sites like Wattpad and Asianfanfics are good for finding organized collections of graphics, mainly layout-related graphics like dividers, headers and footers.

I find a lot of my decorative text on forums.

Blogging and foreign social media sites (especially Japanese as Japan invented emoji and decomail!) support .GIFs more often and I find a lot of tiny inline-sized pixels there.

Personal sites are great for doll collections!

Finding specific user accounts on these sites and pawing through their post history, uploads and friends is my favorite way to find little 'gold mines'. I sometimes also enter a general query into image search engines i.e. 'christmas divider pixel say' and filter by Colour -> Transparent and Type -> Animated (Google Images) to look for graphics and sites that way, but I find it to be quite surface-level and don't get a lot to chew on.

I also have a (neglected...) Discord server with a tiny lovely community of people that share their finds, help others find specific graphics, troubleshoot and pass around interesting websites and tools with one another. I've been a bit absent from the Discord during the school year but want to swallow the social anxiety & become more active now...!

I hope this helps give a rough idea of my process, but it really isn't a science and is more just glorified web-surfing x) Have fun!

[writingquestionsanswered]

I was here just a minute ago but I also wanted to ask if you know how to get involved in writing communities? I'd love some writer friends but I just don't know how to find people

Getting Involved with Writing Communities

First you have to find some writing communities to get involved with. One option is to see if there's a local writing group you can join. These groups often meet in person at libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, where they discuss writing-related topics, do group writing sprints, etc. This not only gives you a chance to meet and hang out with other writers, it also provides the opportunity to meet potential critique partners, beta readers, and make new writer friends. Try visiting your local library, independent bookstore, or coffee shops to ask if they know of any local writing groups that meet there.

If you want an online community, there are plenty to choose from. Facebook has a lot of great writing groups, usually organized around a particular genre, writing advice expert, writing method, etc. For example, author and advice expert K.M. Weiland has a Facebook community called "Wordplayers" for readers of her Helping Writers Become Authors books. The Self-Publishing School web site has The Write Life Community. You might even find online writing groups for people in your city/state/country.

There are also other internet options, off Facebook, such as various writing forums, Discord servers, group chats, etc. You can also get involved in broader writing communities by following writing-related hashtags, following high profile posters, and following/interacting with people whose names you see over and over again.

Once you find some communities to join, it's a great idea to just observe for a little while. Get to know the rhythm of the community, who's who, what's what, and how things generally function. Then start with small interactions, working your way up to replies and eventually posts, making sure you're adhering to community guidelines.

I hope that helps! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[0x4468c7a6a728]

primary methods of making friends i've found so far:

get forced to be in same place (e.g. school, friendships made this way don't seem to last long after you are no longer forced to be in the same place)

find a random discord link on a forum (don't do this one)

random tumblr mutual invites you to a discord server out of nowhere (has only happened twice)

i don't think any of these are particularly easy to repeat so uhhhh idk what i'm doing 👍

[error4343]

Ok I've had a very random train of thoughts and now wanna compile it into post.

Some MM characters computer-related (???) headcanons lol

Riley:

Has above average knowledge of Excel/Google sheets due to studying finance, but after four years with no practise forgot most of it.

The "Sooon, I have a problem" person in their family. Actually, surprisingly good and patient at explaining computer stuff to older people.

Has a higher responsibility of doing taxes (finance, after all). Even he never fails to do them right, Ed always double checks. Sometimes they get into argument, where inevitably Riley proves he is right but his father would never admit it.

Warren, Leeza, Ooker and other teens:

Also nothing outstanding in terms of skills, except few of them have interest in IT.

They have bunch of small local Discord servers and one big main server with some very stupid name.

Few times Bev tried to bring up importance of parental control over this "new and rapidly growing young community", but thanks God no one took her concerns seriously

Leeza moderates it and her moder role called "Mayor-mini". Like father like daughter.

All teens local jokes and memes were bourn/spread though that server.

Bev:

Rumors says she sacrificed her humanity to obtain such powers with Microsoft software package.

Can build up Access database from scratch, using basic SQL commands, assemble primitive, but surprisingly sufficient interface to it and synchronize it with Excel in span of one day or less.

In her laptop there're every pupil's personal file, countless Excel tables, several automatised document accounts, Google calendar with precisely planned schedule for next several months (for school, church, island and personal matters) and probably Pentagon files.

Probably can find all Pi numbers with Excel formulas.

Never lets anyone to her laptop.

Spends her free time at different forums, mostly gardening-related.

Wade:

Made a very fucking poor decision to let Bev do all the legwork with digital document accounting.

Now has no idea how some of things even work, so just goes with a flow and does what Bev tells.

No wander she got away with embezzlement.

Knows about kid's server. Very proud of Leeza for managing it :)

Because of that, he knows one or two memes from there, but keeps them in secret.

Has hobby of fixing office equipment. Does it with Sturge in spare time due to Dupuytren's contracture not letting him operate his hand fully.

Sarah:

There's no good medical technicians on island, so when something goes wrong with equipment electronics - tries to fix it herself to best of her ability.

Always monitors electronic e-shops for spare details or equipment. Grows more and more addicted to it.

Frequently updates her selection of sites with useful medical information, because Erin asked her for help guiding teens though puberty. For that receives glances from Bev, but doesn't give a shit.

Has reputation of cool aunt among kids, so she was one and only adult invited to main Discord server. Didn't accept it (doesn't even have Discord acc), but still grateful for trust.

Plays solitaire a lot.

John:

Back when he was playing Paul, Bev asked him to do something with Excel. In conclusion, poor bastard had to learn basic computer skills and Excel in span of several days. Now he is traumatized for rest of his life.

Will do all the work manually just to not touch laptop again.

Upsets very easly when does something wrong.

Doesn't own laptop. Don't give that man laptop, he will cry.

By his own will uses it only to watch baseball. Always asks someone to help with that.

[gingerbravecookie]

devlog 1 - cursor and the horrors of game making. the agony and such of making a rewrite fangame

hello!! name's cursor/siffrin and i'm a poor loser making a fangame!! why did i commit to this i could have just made a fic but noooo i gotta pick up rpgmaker again

this devlog is made because. well. all devs do one ithink. also to write down my ocasional progress in this project!! this won't be monthly but whenever i have the time and got something to report yay. spare me from this hellhole

we begin 💥

ever since cookie run the darkest night got cancelled a few months ago and left us with only chapter 1 i did feel sad!! i liked the story!!! gingerbrave cool and fucking awesome moments. BUT!! because i am mentally ill,, i decided to rewrite the game myself and give it the ending it deserved to have!! will the ending be proper i dunno. i am still writing this stuff waugh. but hey it will have an ending at least

to gamedev stuff proper. i got rpgmaker mz around 2022 for the purpose of making a cr game still. an original one!! however after making a few stuff i left it in hiatus bc i had to focus on school (i still do. college is breathing on my neck dear lord). i still plan to continue that one but it will be after i'm done with this rewrite. in either way. i've been changing placeholder stuff for now,, such as menu icons and figuring out how to make the party have five members. also re learning how to use aseprite because i gotta make all sprites haha (breaks down)

i should remind folks that i am an artist/writer first and foremost. i will very likely go through pure trial and error while making and 'coding' all of this (why did i plan 14 chapters oh my godddd),, though i do have notes i took from the rpgmaker tutorial so i can refer to when i'm stuck whenever and hey!! forums are always a thing!! i wouldn't have figured how to have 5 party members if they weren't!!

to writing stuff. i've been planning the prologue and the locations of the first 3 chapters so far. as well as a vague idea of chapter 12 and the epilogue. with point A and point B set,, now i just gotta make the middle point. aka the rest of the game</3

the main party and a few relevant npcs and characters have already been set. as well as brainstoming stuff and showing said stuff to the gingerbrave council (personal friend server) for approval of sillyness. you guys are fucking awesome btw if you're reading this. also hi chat

mentally i've been setting a timeline of events. i plan to write these in a notebook so i can have them at anytime and not have to open my laptop whenever i get a cool idea. or dig through thousands of discord messages just to find an idea i wrote down in the moment. overall i believe writing (in comparison to art making and the game making process) will be the easier part for me. also i gotta decide for a proper name for the rewrite. naming it the same as the og is lame. i need something with more sauce. i'll figure it out. in the meantime. have this goober

i'm sure this should be it for this devlog!! hooray!! what have i gotten myself into!!!

in all seriousness i'm honestly pretty excited,, i really want to make this game work and for people to play it!! even if it might be a bit of a pain i really wanna finish this project so there's tgat

that's all. see you all in the next devlog whenever that might be 💥

[annokan]

checked a few CrP themed discord servers One had a very sanitized environment to the point my presence was too offensive (my profile picture is uh a specific pepega on discord) The other is more about kids talking about school days and how math sucks or whatever WHat if what if I make a server? JK, nobody would join and I don't know how to manage one But I don't know what people use nowadays instead of forums. I just want to brainrot with people who also want to brainrot about Toby or whatever- Draw collabs too, or when people draw all on one canvas simultaneously, sounds fun

[cpericardium]

Taylor's locker didn't give her toxic shock and claiming it did is ignorant and misogynistic

When I was growing up, my mother didn't let me or my sister use tampons, citing the risk of toxic shock syndrome. We didn't have them in the house. Literally I thought I'd die the moment that thing entered my glovebox. I also went to an all-girls convent school for much of my life and never met anyone who used or advertised the use of anything other than pads.

My sister has since moved on to using cups, but even now I don't think I can ever use a product that you insert. Lingering Catholic guilt, you understand. But I looked into toxic shock syndrome anyway to counteract the terrible sex ed I was getting from both my school and my mother (father's a doctor, so for all his conservativeness he's more inclined to give me unvarnished medical information). Because it's my body, and being AFAB I'm practically required by law to be afraid all the time. May as well find out which fears should be prioritised.

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) can develop when staph bacteria, and in some cases strep bacteria, enter the bloodstream via open wounds like cuts and abrasions. These bacteria are normally harmless and live all over your skin, but under certain conditions they can multiply rapidly and release toxins. Adolescents are more susceptible, mostly because they haven't developed the antibodies to fight the infection.

“The first is vaginal colonization with a strain of S. aureus, which can make the toxin; the second is production by the S. aureus of the toxin; the third is penetration across the vaginal epithelium of enough toxin to cause disease; and the fourth is a lack of adequate titers of the neutralizing antibody to the toxin,” says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of The North American Menopause Society.

The incidence of TSS is estimated to be around 0.8 to 3.4 per 100,000 in the United States. Cases have declined massively since peaking in the 1980s. The point is: TSS is an incredibly rare complication of a complication that requires specific conditions to develop under.

So why is it on the worm subreddits and discord servers and forums, there are always people insisting that the locker incident was an act of bioterrorism, that her bullies need to be shipped off to Guantanamo for what they did? Why are there so many wormfics where Taylor physically rots in the locker as a result of TSS compounded by aggressive necrotising fasciitis, and this necessitates Amy staying with her for days to tend to her failing organs? Why are people doing nonsensical Tampon Math to justify her being on the verge of death when she's found? See thread for more inane arguing.

Yes, the locker was biohazardous and it was inarguably a cruel prank, a disgusting experience all around. But absent other circumstances (like the bullies deliberately planting a virus or Taylor uhhh getting impaled on a coat hook? both of which I've seen in more than one fic), Taylor in all likelihood didn't get TSS from it. Sure, authors can do what they want, but out of all the possible deadly infections, why oh why do they always specifically choose TSS?

Is it because of the tampons?

The reason it happens with tampons is that the bacteria can become trapped in the vagina and enter the uterus via the cervix. Most cases result from the use of highly absorbent tampons, as dry tampons can abrade the skin when removed and thus provide more entry points for bacteria. The National Organization for Rare Disorders estimates that TSS related to tampon use occurs in about 1 in 100,000 menstruating women. It usually happens if the tampon is inside them and they left it in there for days. The risk of toxic shock via tampon rises significantly after eight hours.

The tampons were not inside Taylor. She was also only trapped in the locker for about an hour and a half. Afterwards, she spent a week in the psych ward, and as far as we know had no significant physical injuries. But, detractors say, all her struggling might have broken skin, and the bacteria on the tampons could have fermented over winter break!!! Have you ever fished out a used tampon that's been in a bin for a while (i.e. weeks)? Just saying, Taylor is more likely to get an infection from all the used hypodermic needles that are undoubtedly a large component of Winslow bathroom trash.

To quote Kyakan whom I had to pester for the canon info about Taylor's stay,

"There are a lot of things that can go bad with the human body when exposed to X Y or Z conditions, but we survived long enough to evolve. It's not like touching blood will instantly disintegrate us. Human bodies are resilient even without modern medicine."

Here’s my theory. People don’t understand what TSS is, its risk factors or its rarity. They have a vague idea that it’s the icky female period disease even though only about half of all TSS cases are menstruation-related, so obviously Taylor contracted it from touching icky female period blood.

I won't say it couldn't happen to Taylor, ever, in (fan)fictional stories written by men. Just that it's not as likely as you think.

A final note—if you, the author, are fixating on gruesome medical details and describing the contents of the locker in terms of microbiology, you are completely and tragically missing the core of Taylor Hebert's trigger event. .......but that's just a theory! a worm theory

[shifting-shadows-writes]

hi. i'm back.

to my lovely lovely friends, i am so sorry for abandoning y'all. especially @sorrowlovingbirds i hope you are doing alright and i would love to stay in contact with you.

it's almost november again and i'm finally in a good spot to share a bit about what has happened in the past year and honestly before that too.

i'm putting this below a cut. this is long and chaotic and i'm really sorry that this is my returning post to tumblr and my little ywp community but i owe y'all an explanation, and i'm hoping i can speak out now about what i experienced.

this is my turn to step forward about the nano drama of last year, and my apology letter to any friends i've worried.

(tw the nanodrama, mental health spirals, toxic/abusive friendships, bigotry and threats)

for any of y'all who see this post and don't know me, my name is shadows. my first foray into the online world was the nanowrimo young writers program forums.

i'm sure many of y'all have heard about the abuse and trauma many of us have faced, and if you haven't, my friends have plenty of posts about it.

i joined the forums in april of 2020. i was lonely and isolated and the community there helped me figure myself out.

i wasn't particularly active most of the time. i had a few friends. people i knew and liked drifted in and out, and i had no way to contact them.

i ended up in a toxic friendship with someone on nano and it took a year to cut that off. i was going through my own separate mental health shit at the time so i didn't really realize how bad that person was for me for a while.

that was the first time i really learned people on nano and the internet weren't always who they said they were. i had learned internet safety and i kept my own life fairly private, but it didn't occur to me that other people who didn't keep their lives private could lie about the details.

at some point i joined the ywp discord server, moderated by basically the popular kids of the forums. (i hope y'all don't mind that i say this; it's how i viewed it.)

i learned other kids had been going through some of the same stuff i had--bullying, grooming, etc and had received little to no support from the moderators for it.

collectively we had a very jaded view of nano, but i think we all felt it was our duty to protect other younger users. (this led many members of this server to spiral in mental health because they had to deal with all the drama.)

but things were okay ish for me. i had recovered and i was pretty active on both the nano forums and the discord server.

then october 7, 2023 happened. (it will become very clear why this is relevant soon.)

i am not a politically involved person. i know a little between history class and what my parents have explained to me, but political dynamics always confused me and upset me so i generally avoided things.

being a jewish kid, i had a vague understanding of israeli history. i knew it existed and how old it was and i could recognize it on a map. i knew there was an ongoing war and that it was complicated. i knew the idf had mandatory service from my israeli camp counselors (most of whom had served roles other than active fighters) and i was confused that people would attack gal gadot for having served when it's mandatory. but that was it. my working knowledge of israel was basically nonexistent.

and all of a sudden, i was expected to know everything.

nano had a lot of jewish kids, all of whom seemed to know way more than i did. i got most of my information from them, and from my parents. (a little from school.)

in theory, i'd had lessons on the history of zionism and different branches of what zionism agreed with, i'd read israeli founding documents, i'd had a brief history of the conflict explained to me.

in practice, i hadn't paid attention to any of that. i didn't know what was going on, but i knew that i was expected to. i also didn't trust non-jews to give me information, in part due to a specific incident on nano which happened a few weeks later.

on october 13 somewhere in my community was targeted with a bomb threat. i told my friends on nano about it because it was scary and i wanted support. they gave it to me.

i also ended up writing and posting a brief overview of antisemitism (using knowledge i'd gathered from hebrew school and the internet for fact checking). here is the link to that if anyone wants to read it. the wording was last updated in december 2023.

it was pretty common practice on the nano forums to write a psa about something you'd noticed or that had affected you recently, and i had several other people say they would like a psa on antisemitic tropes and dogwhistles.

not long after i posted that, someone in a "diverse character help" thread asked for help writing a palestinian character. i will call them eva as that was part of their username and i need to refer to them.

one of my friends who is from northern israel responded with a bit of basic background information.

the response eva provided did not seem to line up with anything my friend had said. i was already wary of a non-jewish non-palestinian person writing a story about israeli/palestinian dynamics as that is incredibly complex, and i could tell eva was not well informed.

so i responded to the thread, warning eva that this was a sensitive and complicated topic and as a jew i felt someone israeli or palestinian should be writing this book. if eva isn't from israel like my friend is, maybe don't write a main character from the area. let actual palestinians tell their stories.

(unfortunately, i do not have my exact wording, though i did save their posts. i will be paraphrasing my responses to the best of my ability; i will paraphrase eva's and pull relevant quotes.)

eva responded to my message by saying: "Im not from PALESTINE, but I am VERY familiar with the topic" (even though they didn't seem to be).

they continued: "I want to inform people about the TRUTH. [...] Maybe you should try doing more research as to what is ACTUALLY happening, not what the internet and social networks have been lying to you about."

a reminder here that i had not mentioned anything more than: leave talking about palestinian trauma to palestinians. not what "side" i took (it is so much more complicated than that).

they continued to accuse me of not having a heart or having a bit of human in myself.

my antisemitism dogwhistle alert was blaring. i had just spent a week writing that psa, and here were real life examples of exactly the tropes i had been talking about!

but i kept my cool. mostly. i held a hope they could be reasoned with. "don't write this, please. you do not know what you're talking about. i think your perception of the conflict is just going to hurt people."

i need to include most of their next post.

"Netanyahu even said he will not stop bombing, killing and torturing Palestinians. The media has really gotten to you. Even some Jews are on the side of the truth, because they know, killing thousands of innocent civilians is wrong. Are you going to ignore the protests that are going on, because HUMANS actually care? You don't have to be Muslim to support the ones who are oppressed. I hope God puts you in the same situation as the Palestinians are going through right now. And I hope that you get to experience that. Does it really not hurt you to see kids bombed into pieces, getting Phosphoric Acid on you? Have YOU ever talked to a Palestinian because I have. You are blind as to what is going on. And don't come at me saying, "WeLl WhAt AbOuT hAmAs? At least they know who to challenge. You evacuated from Germany because of Hitler, and now you're doing the same. Netanyahu is Hitler in disguise. Beheading babies! Is that normal to you? If so, I hope you figure out what is right and what is wrong, and not being influenced by the media."

this whole paragraph was full of antisemitism accusing jews of being inhuman and controlling the media. and accusing me of being inhuman and unable to tell right from wrong.

the kicker is that i mentioned zero politics. i did not mention netanyahu or how i feel about him. i did not mention hamas or how i feel about them.

but what really got me was this: "I hope God puts you in the same situation as the Palestinians are going through right now. And I hope that you get to experience that. Does it really not hurt you to see kids bombed into pieces"

i had received an active bomb threat about a week beforehand. i didn't need to imagine going through that--i very nearly had.

i couldn't respond. i knew i would respond poorly and i would say something i didn't mean.

luckily, my friend stepped in once again and agreed with me, telling eva to stop and that they were misinformed. my friend, having lived in israel, had more knowledge of the active situation than me and tried to explain this to eva.

and eva responded with this:

"At least YOU actually have some knowledge but not enough. I will not say any more because I don't want to waste my precious words on you guys. [...] But, at the end, false knowledge doesn't work on me. Israelis and Jews are different, as I've heard and seen from different Jews myself."

if someone who lived in the area doesn't have enough knowledge, who does?

this rant is cut down because after saying they "don't want to waste [their] precious words" on us, they continued to accuse us of being immoral, uninformed, and duped by the media.

then finally: "israelis and jews are different." what? does the media controlling immoral inhuman stereotype only apply to israelis? are half of the world's jews different from the other half?

more of the same conversation happened. other users stepped in defending me from a literal bomb threat and the accusation that jews or israelis or "the media" or whatever else were corrupt, immoral, and inhuman.

the whole thread was removed, though some people asked for my original response (leave these stories to people who have actually experienced it) to stay up, as it was an important point.

this was one of many frustrating moderation decisions made recently on the site, and one of many where a mod stepped in only when things got wildly out of hand. (not to mention the speed of moderation response suggested the mod had been active while that conversation had been ongoing.

it was also one of the last straws for us. just a few days later, we posted about what we had faced on the ywp site to the main forums.

y'all can find what happened next on my friends' accounts. there was drama and investigations and a ton more stuff we didn't even know about.

i was glad we had kept receipts from all the times we had felt hurt. we had evidence that we were being mistreated, and the adults on the main site rallied to our side.

it turns out the main staff didn't even know the teens had a separate forum space on our own website.

the forums were shut down. i don't know if i was relieved or upset. there was a lot of community and collaborative work and safe space for so many kids out there. i know many kids from abusive families who got away with having the social media of a writing forum and found friends and explored their identities. and at the same time we faced so much shit on that site.

the discord server continued though it turned into much the same problems as the site. there were cliques and constant gossip and now it wasn't even moderated by adults but by involved teenagers.

by febuary i was stressed. it had been a rough few months for a lot of reasons, and i had happened to have a particularly bad day with people getting mad at me that i vented about. even though i put it under spoiler marks and tagged it, i was told not to post it there, which frustrated me since i'd posted much the same stuff before. then later a fight where some people disagreed with me just set me over the edge.

that was when i last posted on tumblr. i was having a meltdown and not in a good headspace.

i took a hard break. i deleted every single messaging/social app from my phone, even the ones that had nothing to do with the drama. i stopped responding to or checking things entirely.

(it turns out the discord server shut down just weeks later due to drama anyway.)

i genuinely believed that everyone hated me and the only way i could make myself deal with that was to cut off contact with everyone.

i've spent the last 6 months dealing with my shit, getting better therapy, and slowly re-engaging.

to be honest i am proud of myself that i survived until now because things were very rough and i wasn't dealing well.

i'm in college now. i'm meeting new people and making new friends. things are going a lot better.

thank you to all the people on nano that gave me advice and encouragement about college and applications, and about my family emergencies and grief.

thank you to all the people on nano who stood up for me and supported me through the toxicity i faced while y'all dealt with your own.

i hope i've been able to do the same for some of you.

to some degree, this is the grad post i'd always hoped to make. i know most people won't see this, and i don't know how many of y'all will care. but i'm ok with that now. i'm sharing to get this off my chest and maybe also hope that my friends who see this will know where i've been.

i know what the worry is like when someone disappears and we don't know if they're in trouble with their parents or if they've had a mental health crisis or something. i've seen that play out on nano before.

to anyone who knows me, you're welcome to reach out. i won't be super active on here. but i will be here for any of you who need my support. y'all gave me yours.

this is a bittersweet goodbye to nano as well. the forums have been gone for nearly a year and i will not be participating in the challenge this fall.

i will remember our little community, the good and the bad. i hope i will remember what i've learned from it.

keep writing, lovelies. keep being your amazing selves.

-shadows

[tea-and-secrets]

I have the terrible habit of being at the wrong places at the wrong times online.

I have been quietly deleted from 2 servers on discord, downright banned from another one, i got cancelled on twitter, and I wasn't even present in the drama.

I was busy, you know, having depression and failing school.

meanwhile, a friend of a friend of my friend had been on an all-ages forum (that we were in too) making a harem of teenagers! oh!

i have no idea what happened but that ended up with me and 15 other people being silently taken out.

im guessing someone said the wrong thing, and we all paid the price. but man. pandemic madness was hell.

i deleted twitter and quit every single discord server (except a stoner server) and now im happy

.

[tenelkadjo]

THE STAR WARS EXPANDED UNIVERSE GROUP READTHROUGH! (It's a mouthful and a ton of books!)

⠀This was a project started a number of years ago on Discord and was sort of dropped when people got lost in the shuffle of school and work and such and discussions got lost in the constant Discord chatter (what can i say we were yapping a lot in the EU Discord server we had lololol, hahahahah)~

⠀Recently, a couple of us thought it would be fun to pick up the project/readthrough again except on a forum this time where we could index discussions and link to threads from a sort of table of contents and all that jazz. A way to keep order and organization throughout the readthrough!

⠀We also thought we'd jump around a little bit so we're starting with the New Jedi Order series! (And after that we'll head to another place in the EU~)

⠀If you'd like to join a group readthrough of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe (or Legends) head on over to CC and register an account! All the info can be found in this thread in the special sub-forum for the readthrough!

[izicodes]

do you have any advice on how to make developer or comp sci friends?

How To Make Developer/Computer Science Friends?

Hiya! 💗

Yeah, finding developer/computer science friends can be hard, but here are some places I’ve tried and other suggestions!

Educational settings

If you're a student, the pretty obvious place would be at a school setting like universities, clubs, colleges etc!

Attend office hours

Also if you're a student, attending office hours is a great way to connect with your professor and other students in your class. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and get to know other students who share your interest in computer science.

Attend tech events and meetups

Look for local tech events and meetups in your area, and attend them regularly or a couple over the year! You'll defintely meet people who are into computer science.

Join online communities

There are many online communities such as reddit and disocrd (made a post about it) where you can connect with developers and computer science enthusiasts. Participate in discussions and ask questions, and you'll start to build relationships with other members! This definetly worked for me when I joined several programming discord servers!

Collaborate on open-source projects

Contributing to open-source projects is a great way to meet other developers. You'll have the opportunity to work together on a project and learn from each other. Not only are you getting experince collaborating with developer but also making a friend - 2 birds with one stone!

Participate in hackathons

Hackathons are events where developers and designers come together to create a software project within a limited timeframe. Similar to collaborating on open-source projects, hackathons is a great way to meet computer science enthusiasts and work on a project together! Places like Dev Post, Devofolio and Hackathons UK.

Attend conferences

Attending conferences in your field! You'll have the opportunity to attend talks and workshops, and network with other attendees. Networking is super important!

Join a coding bootcamp

A coding bootcamp is a great way to learn new skills with a teacher. This idea is if you can - bootcamps can be very expensiive if you can't find the free ones! You'll spend a lot of time working together with other beginner developers on projects, which is a great way to build relationships!

Start a coding club

If you can't find a coding club in your area, consider starting your own. You can use social media or online platforms to connect with other developers and computer science lovers who are interested in joining! I'm considering doing this in the future for younger kids, hehe!

Volunteer at tech-related events

Volunteering at tech-related events, such as conferences or hackathons, is a great way to meet other developers and computer science enthusiasts. You'll have the opportunity to work with other volunteers and attendees, and build relationships with them.

Use social media

Social media is a great way to connect. Use places like Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram (made post) and Tiktok! Follow influencers and regular developers in the field, and participate in discussions and communities related to computer science. I made a couple developer friends on Instagram and on here this way! Instagram is super supportive, everyone wants to help everyone! Love the coding community on Tumblr and Instagram the most!

Participate in online coding challenges

Participating in online coding challenges is another way to improve your skills and connect with other developers at the same time. Join coding competitions or participate in coding challenges on websites such as HackerRank or LeetCode!

Attend coding workshops

Attending coding workshops are always going on, look online for one online or happening near you! Meet with other attendees and network that way!

Contribute to online forums

Participating in online forums, such as Reddit or Stack Overflow! You can share your knowledge and ask for help with coding problems, and you might find other users with similar interests who are looking to make new friends or even collab on a project together! One of my developer friends met his developer friends on Reddit - all online!

In terms of how to make friends, you guys already have something in common to talk about: programming/computer science. Work from there and I'm sure you'll be alright! 😎

I hope this helps and if anyone knows any other places, do suggest some please! Thank you for the question Anon! 🥰🙌🏾

[yvesdot]

yves, if only theoretically wanted to break into publishing or lit mags, do you have recommendations or advice?

My primary advice is to get to know as many writers as you can, as well as you can, quickly. I’ve recommended joining Discord servers for this in the past and will do so again; the most active ones I’m in are Max's @goose-books server (I think you have to ask for an invite?), WTW, and writeblr garden. Participate in book events virtually and in person when you can. When you like someone's work, tell them! And mention that you're an author, too.

Disclaimer: I haven't made it into any paid magazines, largely because I find submitting and waiting for months at a time before working on edits exhausting, particularly in comparison to instant money on Patreon—so have that grain of salt at the ready! All I've done is publish the one book, twice, and release a substantial amount of short fiction on my own. People read it and liked it, and now I have lovely anons like you who seem to respect me enough to ask for industry advice. Thank you! Hope you like long posts.

The reason I say the above is that, in my experience, the entirety of publishing is just one big who-do-you-know. Utterly non-exhaustive list of ways "knowing people" has helped me in my writing career below.

I left a middling review on a trans author's book, and in the correspondence that followed we became friends. Rysz Merey went on to start tRaum Books, and because we were friends, we put out the Something's Not Right anniversary edition together.

When I was at my university, I was loudly opinionated about books and writing and art in all of my classes, and a professor's words about me in an email to an author they knew became the blurb for that same edition of Something's Not Right.

I read Tragic Accident (a flash piece originally rejected by an online magazine for, in my opinion, cisgender reasons) last night at Flash Fiction Forum, the heads of which I know personally because, after a high school internship, I was directed to a friend of theirs to volunteer at her writing camp. I sold a lot of copies of the original SNR to teens at that camp, and I've sold dozens of copies since by linking to the book in the Zoom chat and bringing physical copies to in-person readings.

Tragic Accident may have ultimately been rejected from the venue I sent it to, but I only had that venue on my list because my beloved friend Fer @asablehart posted in WTW a spreadsheet of places to submit. I still use that spreadsheet, filled with dozens of extra places I researched on my own, and pass it on to anyone who asks. Fer also read The Traveler Wife and gave extremely insightful feedback on it; we've since done tons of great critique4critiques together and they're still my go-to if I need wise words on a piece of writing.

When I held my event at Bookshop Santa Cruz, I marketed my ass off. I'd learned from my previous event at the Diversity Center in town and focused heavily on reaching out to individual people: posting in Discord servers, DMing everyone I knew, and telling everybody I met in December that by the way I would be reading at Bookshop Santa Cruz in January. I worked my job as an author and my book and my event into every conversation I had with a stranger that month. Everyone responded positively! People want to know what you're working on.

But at the end of the day, under a third of attendees were people I hadn't previously considered friends in some way. The majority of the people who came were family, friends, coworkers, friends-of-friends dragged along by someone I knew well, etc. One coworker couldn't come but invited their housemates, who bought books and left saying they would read Band Girls at home. One of the friends who came met me when we would ride the same bus every week to class, and I initially spoke to him because I fully thought he was a transgender woman (he turned out to just be an extremely fashionable individual). That guy helped code my website. Of the three people who interviewed me locally for promotion, two are people I'm friends with and one I cold-emailed due to his past work.

One of the major servers I used to invite people to both of my events is one I was only added to because I met a goth girl who invited me to her dorm to watch her inject E into her thigh and when I reported back on this to another transfem friend that friend instantly named her because they were in the server together and multiple people in it knew me from my creative writing efforts so everybody agreed to add me. I literally only had that space to network because I said "nice boots" to a girl whose special interest turned out to be DIY HRT at a protest party about the chancellor getting a raise.

Claire Oshetsky came to my event and I made a point of finally starting to read their book beforehand so I could honestly tell them it was cool when I signed their copy of Something's Not Right (it was cool, and everyone should read Chouette, and also Poor Deer, which I am on page 10 on and can already certify is fantastic). They were incredibly nice to me for no reason—well, because of those interviews I had, which led to them noticing another nonbinary author in the area��and ultimately reviewed SNR very positively on GoodReads. You can see what happened to the numbers afterwards. (I also sold a copy that day; when you sell roughly a copy of a book per week, you can absolutely make these connections directly.)

Tonight was Claire Oshetsky's event, so I showed up having read Chouette in full and asked a question during the Q&A and told them how cool their book was, and they invited me to a little post-event author dinner. (One of the authors introduced herself as "Karen" and described a prolific writing career very opaquely until her friend mentioned the name of her latest novel: Booth.) Everyone was incredibly nice and wanted to buy my book which was unfortunately sold out because of the aforementioned event, and a couple of people gave me email addresses so they could buy it later. I've been trying to meet local authors for over a year, and I met seven by accident because one of them came up to me to say it was nice to see Bookshop Santa Cruz had two nonbinary readers in a row.

Talking to David Sedaris at an event got me a job! He complimented my outfit, I said thank you I wore it for the interview with [x], and he did everything he could to help me network with the [x] people there. I was later told that my "chemistry" with Sedaris, among other things, helped me get the position. I would also find out that David specifically loves the last people in the signing line because they're the most patient; I happened to have waited until last because I wanted to have more time to talk to him.

I have emailed several authors with fanmail, and depending on how popular they are, I have gotten responses! I'm in a correspondence right now which netted me a behind-the-scenes look at an incredible draft, and thank you for reminding me because I need to respond and tell them how good it was.

Patreon is on pause right now, but I believe over half the subscribers are people I'm friends with in one way or another. I've tried nearly everything under the sun to advertise, and so far the only thing that's worked is "telling someone who has the disposable income."

The people who beta-read my latest release, Band Girls (18+), for me (which is the only reason it wasn't an unmitigated disaster) include my butch, who met me in a Locked Tomb server (naturally), a friend from a creative writing class in university who later became my housemate, and a good buddy of my butch's whom they rescued from the aforementioned TLT server. I literally didn't even notice that guy when we were in the server together and it turns out he's also a writer with a Giant Lesbian Women project who also wound up really liking Long Line (18+). Glories are all around you.

(Also, apparently my butch had that "how to write a blurb" post bookmarked and immediately recognized me, which is crazy. Imagine meeting some random author in a fandom server and they ask to see your [redacted] in DMs.)

Hell, my buddy Max Franciscovich read my book five years ago in the back of a car and had a transcendental nonbinary lesbian experience, and because he happened to be mutuals with a high school friend of mine, that friend sent me screenshots of him panicking about how he couldn't talk to me because I was too cool. I DMed him, and we are like each other's female husbands now. Undoubtedly we have each gained a substantive reader base from hyping each other's work at anyone in earshot. Maxserver, which I shouted out above, only has me in it because I know the darn guy. It's a lot more populous than yvescord in part because he is that much more active than I am, and can engage with other people's work more. I'm mooching off the labor of my best friend who pseudo-reached-out to me because I put a pronoun pin on a character's bag in the book I self-published in 2018.

Speaking of which: I self-published the original edition of Something's Not Right as a thank-you birthday gift to the Beta Reader. I seem to remember him reading my writing for the first time and saying something along the lines of "You do realize this is really good, right?" (I did not realize.) That was the first person to appreciate any of my original fiction, and it led to my entire career. We met on a class trip because he was the only person who would listen to me talk about Star Wars.

I try to never ingenuinely be nice to people. This is not particularly difficult, because I like people and give the benefit of the doubt to a pretty extreme fault. I will occasionally be nice out of politeness, but everyone I mentioned here is someone I genuinely like whose work is fantastic. It wasn't hard to honestly say I liked them and their writing.

I also recognize that much of this is kind of just me blathering about Ws with no actionable advice... but it might give you ideas for where to go or who to talk to about your writing. I also want you to feel just how much of writing is about "networking" in a way that is not cold and manipulative and moneyhungry but actually just involves being genuine friends with other people. I think the sheer quantity of evidence here is helpful to understand just how much you can do for yourself by talking to the people you like.

I also think it's good practice to own the fact that very little of my microcelebrity success has anything to do with how good my work is. I mean, sure, I think it's good, but this should make it clear that my greatest strength has been my perseverance and my friendliness.

(Also, obviously, I have the immense privilege to have gone to college, to live in California, to get to all these places and meet these people and work with them. I had the money in the bank to publish and promote a book. This is not a small factor. I'm hoping to do a full rundown of costs and efforts to promote Something's Not Right's anniversary edition sometime this year.)

I also don't think I'm particularly good at socializing—I have a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, a difficulty with meeting people's eyes, and a mild stutter when I talk too quickly (which is often). A lot of people find me annoying or insincere because I act like a sentient powder puff, and when I'm not jumping up and down and meowing at people instead of saying "on your right," I'm complaining about the most widely-beloved pieces of pop culture and making two-hour rant videos about video games I think insufficiently scrutinize the concept of the nuclear family. I say all this to head off any concerns that perhaps I am just secretly very suave and social; I love talking to people, but I don't believe this is the case.

If I can summarize: nearly every time I've had any success with my writing, it's been because I made an effort to be kind to people I respected and share my passion for books and writing. I hit upon enough privileges and lucky circumstances to get the right circle of people to make all of the above happen. I think you can do it, too! I wish you the best. Thanks for asking ^__^

[emilykaldwen]

Okay but what if I made a server for people looking to connect with beta readers.

I mean preferably it would be an old school forum because that’s how I did it back in the day and I like that? But also that would require people signing up for another site, and the majority of people have discord anyway.

I also thought about doing a tumblr for it. That could work. Hmmmm. It would also be nice to offer certain research sources for certain fandoms as well. Maybe also a repository for ‘hey I need help with this thing’ to post and let the community take over, as a way to help foster connections.