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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months ago

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AI “art” and uncanniness

TOMORROW (May 14), I'm on a livecast about AI AND ENSHITTIFICATION with TIM O'REILLY; on TOMORROW (May 15), I'm in NORTH HOLLYWOOD for a screening of STEPHANIE KELTON'S FINDING THE MONEY; FRIDAY (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

When it comes to AI art (or "art"), it's hard to find a nuanced position that respects creative workers' labor rights, free expression, copyright law's vital exceptions and limitations, and aesthetics.

I am, on balance, opposed to AI art, but there are some important caveats to that position. For starters, I think it's unequivocally wrong – as a matter of law – to say that scraping works and training a model with them infringes copyright. This isn't a moral position (I'll get to that in a second), but rather a technical one.

Break down the steps of training a model and it quickly becomes apparent why it's technically wrong to call this a copyright infringement. First, the act of making transient copies of works – even billions of works – is unequivocally fair use. Unless you think search engines and the Internet Archive shouldn't exist, then you should support scraping at scale:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

And unless you think that Facebook should be allowed to use the law to block projects like Ad Observer, which gathers samples of paid political disinformation, then you should support scraping at scale, even when the site being scraped objects (at least sometimes):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/06/get-you-coming-and-going/#potemkin-research-program

After making transient copies of lots of works, the next step in AI training is to subject them to mathematical analysis. Again, this isn't a copyright violation.

Making quantitative observations about works is a longstanding, respected and important tool for criticism, analysis, archiving and new acts of creation. Measuring the steady contraction of the vocabulary in successive Agatha Christie novels turns out to offer a fascinating window into her dementia:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research

Programmatic analysis of scraped online speech is also critical to the burgeoning formal analyses of the language spoken by minorities, producing a vibrant account of the rigorous grammar of dialects that have long been dismissed as "slang":

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373950278_Lexicogrammatical_Analysis_on_African-American_Vernacular_English_Spoken_by_African-Amecian_You-Tubers

Since 1988, UCL Survey of English Language has maintained its "International Corpus of English," and scholars have plumbed its depth to draw important conclusions about the wide variety of Englishes spoken around the world, especially in postcolonial English-speaking countries:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/projects/ice.htm

The final step in training a model is publishing the conclusions of the quantitative analysis of the temporarily copied documents as software code. Code itself is a form of expressive speech – and that expressivity is key to the fight for privacy, because the fact that code is speech limits how governments can censor software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech/

Are models infringing? Well, they certainly can be. In some cases, it's clear that models "memorized" some of the data in their training set, making the fair use, transient copy into an infringing, permanent one. That's generally considered to be the result of a programming error, and it could certainly be prevented (say, by comparing the model to the training data and removing any memorizations that appear).

Not every seeming act of memorization is a memorization, though. While specific models vary widely, the amount of data from each training item retained by the model is very small. For example, Midjourney retains about one byte of information from each image in its training data. If we're talking about a typical low-resolution web image of say, 300kb, that would be one three-hundred-thousandth (0.0000033%) of the original image.

Typically in copyright discussions, when one work contains 0.0000033% of another work, we don't even raise the question of fair use. Rather, we dismiss the use as de minimis (short for de minimis non curat lex or "The law does not concern itself with trifles"):

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

Busting someone who takes 0.0000033% of your work for copyright infringement is like swearing out a trespassing complaint against someone because the edge of their shoe touched one blade of grass on your lawn.

But some works or elements of work appear many times online. For example, the Getty Images watermark appears on millions of similar images of people standing on red carpets and runways, so a model that takes even in infinitesimal sample of each one of those works might still end up being able to produce a whole, recognizable Getty Images watermark.

The same is true for wire-service articles or other widely syndicated texts: there might be dozens or even hundreds of copies of these works in training data, resulting in the memorization of long passages from them.

This might be infringing (we're getting into some gnarly, unprecedented territory here), but again, even if it is, it wouldn't be a big hardship for model makers to post-process their models by comparing them to the training set, deleting any inadvertent memorizations. Even if the resulting model had zero memorizations, this would do nothing to alleviate the (legitimate) concerns of creative workers about the creation and use of these models.

So here's the first nuance in the AI art debate: as a technical matter, training a model isn't a copyright infringement. Creative workers who hope that they can use copyright law to prevent AI from changing the creative labor market are likely to be very disappointed in court:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sarah-silverman-lawsuit-ai-meta-1235669403/

But copyright law isn't a fixed, eternal entity. We write new copyright laws all the time. If current copyright law doesn't prevent the creation of models, what about a future copyright law?

Well, sure, that's a possibility. The first thing to consider is the possible collateral damage of such a law. The legal space for scraping enables a wide range of scholarly, archival, organizational and critical purposes. We'd have to be very careful not to inadvertently ban, say, the scraping of a politician's campaign website, lest we enable liars to run for office and renege on their promises, while they insist that they never made those promises in the first place. We wouldn't want to abolish search engines, or stop creators from scraping their own work off sites that are going away or changing their terms of service.

Now, onto quantitative analysis: counting words and measuring pixels are not activities that you should need permission to perform, with or without a computer, even if the person whose words or pixels you're counting doesn't want you to. You should be able to look as hard as you want at the pixels in Kate Middleton's family photos, or track the rise and fall of the Oxford comma, and you shouldn't need anyone's permission to do so.

Finally, there's publishing the model. There are plenty of published mathematical analyses of large corpuses that are useful and unobjectionable. I love me a good Google n-gram:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fantods%2C+heebie-jeebies&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

And large language models fill all kinds of important niches, like the Human Rights Data Analysis Group's LLM-based work helping the Innocence Project New Orleans' extract data from wrongful conviction case files:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

So that's nuance number two: if we decide to make a new copyright law, we'll need to be very sure that we don't accidentally crush these beneficial activities that don't undermine artistic labor markets.

This brings me to the most important point: passing a new copyright law that requires permission to train an AI won't help creative workers get paid or protect our jobs.

Getty Images pays photographers the least it can get away with. Publishers contracts have transformed by inches into miles-long, ghastly rights grabs that take everything from writers, but still shifts legal risks onto them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/19/reasonable-agreement/

Publishers like the New York Times bitterly oppose their writers' unions:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/new-york-times-stop-union-busting

These large corporations already control the copyrights to gigantic amounts of training data, and they have means, motive and opportunity to license these works for training a model in order to pay us less, and they are engaged in this activity right now:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/technology/apple-ai-news-publishers.html

Big games studios are already acting as though there was a copyright in training data, and requiring their voice actors to begin every recording session with words to the effect of, "I hereby grant permission to train an AI with my voice" and if you don't like it, you can hit the bricks:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

If you're a creative worker hoping to pay your bills, it doesn't matter whether your wages are eroded by a model produced without paying your employer for the right to do so, or whether your employer got to double dip by selling your work to an AI company to train a model, and then used that model to fire you or erode your wages:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

Individual creative workers rarely have any bargaining leverage over the corporations that license our copyrights. That's why copyright's 40-year expansion (in duration, scope, statutory damages) has resulted in larger, more profitable entertainment companies, and lower payments – in real terms and as a share of the income generated by their work – for creative workers.

As Rebecca Giblin and I write in our book Chokepoint Capitalism, giving creative workers more rights to bargain with against giant corporations that control access to our audiences is like giving your bullied schoolkid extra lunch money – it's just a roundabout way of transferring that money to the bullies:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/what-is-chokepoint-capitalism/

There's an historical precedent for this struggle – the fight over music sampling. 40 years ago, it wasn't clear whether sampling required a copyright license, and early hip-hop artists took samples without permission, the way a horn player might drop a couple bars of a well-known song into a solo.

Many artists were rightfully furious over this. The "heritage acts" (the music industry's euphemism for "Black people") who were most sampled had been given very bad deals and had seen very little of the fortunes generated by their creative labor. Many of them were desperately poor, despite having made millions for their labels. When other musicians started making money off that work, they got mad.

In the decades that followed, the system for sampling changed, partly through court cases and partly through the commercial terms set by the Big Three labels: Sony, Warner and Universal, who control 70% of all music recordings. Today, you generally can't sample without signing up to one of the Big Three (they are reluctant to deal with indies), and that means taking their standard deal, which is very bad, and also signs away your right to control your samples.

So a musician who wants to sample has to sign the bad terms offered by a Big Three label, and then hand $500 out of their advance to one of those Big Three labels for the sample license. That $500 typically doesn't go to another artist – it goes to the label, who share it around their executives and investors. This is a system that makes every artist poorer.

But it gets worse. Putting a price on samples changes the kind of music that can be economically viable. If you wanted to clear all the samples on an album like Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back," or the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique," you'd have to sell every CD for $150, just to break even:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/07/08/creative-license-how-the-hell-did-sampling-get-so-screwed-up-and-what-the-hell-do-we-do-about-it/

Sampling licenses don't just make every artist financially worse off, they also prevent the creation of music of the sort that millions of people enjoy. But it gets even worse. Some older, sample-heavy music can't be cleared. Most of De La Soul's catalog wasn't available for 15 years, and even though some of their seminal music came back in March 2022, the band's frontman Trugoy the Dove didn't live to see it – he died in February 2022:

https://www.vulture.com/2023/02/de-la-soul-trugoy-the-dove-dead-at-54.html

This is the third nuance: even if we can craft a model-banning copyright system that doesn't catch a lot of dolphins in its tuna net, it could still make artists poorer off.

Back when sampling started, it wasn't clear whether it would ever be considered artistically important. Early sampling was crude and experimental. Musicians who trained for years to master an instrument were dismissive of the idea that clicking a mouse was "making music." Today, most of us don't question the idea that sampling can produce meaningful art – even musicians who believe in licensing samples.

Having lived through that era, I'm prepared to believe that maybe I'll look back on AI "art" and say, "damn, I can't believe I never thought that could be real art."

But I wouldn't give odds on it.

I don't like AI art. I find it anodyne, boring. As Henry Farrell writes, it's uncanny, and not in a good way:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-uncanny

Farrell likens the work produced by AIs to the movement of a Ouija board's planchette, something that "seems to have a life of its own, even though its motion is a collective side-effect of the motions of the people whose fingers lightly rest on top of it." This is "spooky-action-at-a-close-up," transforming "collective inputs … into apparently quite specific outputs that are not the intended creation of any conscious mind."

Look, art is irrational in the sense that it speaks to us at some non-rational, or sub-rational level. Caring about the tribulations of imaginary people or being fascinated by pictures of things that don't exist (or that aren't even recognizable) doesn't make any sense. There's a way in which all art is like an optical illusion for our cognition, an imaginary thing that captures us the way a real thing might.

But art is amazing. Making art and experiencing art makes us feel big, numinous, irreducible emotions. Making art keeps me sane. Experiencing art is a precondition for all the joy in my life. Having spent most of my life as a working artist, I've come to the conclusion that the reason for this is that art transmits an approximation of some big, numinous irreducible emotion from an artist's mind to our own. That's it: that's why art is amazing.

AI doesn't have a mind. It doesn't have an intention. The aesthetic choices made by AI aren't choices, they're averages. As Farrell writes, "LLM art sometimes seems to communicate a message, as art does, but it is unclear where that message comes from, or what it means. If it has any meaning at all, it is a meaning that does not stem from organizing intention" (emphasis mine).

Farrell cites Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie, which defines "weird" in easy to understand terms ("that which does not belong") but really grapples with "eerie."

For Fisher, eeriness is "when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there is nothing present when there should be something." AI art produces the seeming of intention without intending anything. It appears to be an agent, but it has no agency. It's eerie.

Fisher talks about capitalism as eerie. Capital is "conjured out of nothing" but "exerts more influence than any allegedly substantial entity." The "invisible hand" shapes our lives more than any person. The invisible hand is fucking eerie. Capitalism is a system in which insubstantial non-things – corporations – appear to act with intention, often at odds with the intentions of the human beings carrying out those actions.

So will AI art ever be art? I don't know. There's a long tradition of using random or irrational or impersonal inputs as the starting point for human acts of artistic creativity. Think of divination:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/31/divination/

Or Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies:

http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html

I love making my little collages for this blog, though I wouldn't call them important art. Nevertheless, piecing together bits of other peoples' work can make fantastic, important work of historical note:

https://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/john-heartfield-art/famous-anti-fascist-art/heartfield-posters-aiz

Even though painstakingly cutting out tiny elements from others' images can be a meditative and educational experience, I don't think that using tiny scissors or the lasso tool is what defines the "art" in collage. If you can automate some of this process, it could still be art.

Here's what I do know. Creating an individual bargainable copyright over training will not improve the material conditions of artists' lives – all it will do is change the relative shares of the value we create, shifting some of that value from tech companies that hate us and want us to starve to entertainment companies that hate us and want us to starve.

As an artist, I'm foursquare against anything that stands in the way of making art. As an artistic worker, I'm entirely committed to things that help workers get a fair share of the money their work creates, feed their families and pay their rent.

I think today's AI art is bad, and I think tomorrow's AI art will probably be bad, but even if you disagree (with either proposition), I hope you'll agree that we should be focused on making sure art is legal to make and that artists get paid for it.

Just because copyright won't fix the creative labor market, it doesn't follow that nothing will. If we're worried about labor issues, we can look to labor law to improve our conditions. That's what the Hollywood writers did, in their groundbreaking 2023 strike:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Now, the writers had an advantage: they are able to engage in "sectoral bargaining," where a union bargains with all the major employers at once. That's illegal in nearly every other kind of labor market. But if we're willing to entertain the possibility of getting a new copyright law passed (that won't make artists better off), why not the possibility of passing a new labor law (that will)? Sure, our bosses won't lobby alongside of us for more labor protection, the way they would for more copyright (think for a moment about what that says about who benefits from copyright versus labor law expansion).

But all workers benefit from expanded labor protection. Rather than going to Congress alongside our bosses from the studios and labels and publishers to demand more copyright, we could go to Congress alongside every kind of worker, from fast-food cashiers to publishing assistants to truck drivers to demand the right to sectoral bargaining. That's a hell of a coalition.

And if we do want to tinker with copyright to change the way training works, let's look at collective licensing, which can't be bargained away, rather than individual rights that can be confiscated at the entrance to our publisher, label or studio's offices. These collective licenses have been a huge success in protecting creative workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/26/united-we-stand/

Then there's copyright's wildest wild card: The US Copyright Office has repeatedly stated that works made by AIs aren't eligible for copyright, which is the exclusive purview of works of human authorship. This has been affirmed by courts:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

Neither AI companies nor entertainment companies will pay creative workers if they don't have to. But for any company contemplating selling an AI-generated work, the fact that it is born in the public domain presents a substantial hurdle, because anyone else is free to take that work and sell it or give it away.

Whether or not AI "art" will ever be good art isn't what our bosses are thinking about when they pay for AI licenses: rather, they are calculating that they have so much market power that they can sell whatever slop the AI makes, and pay less for the AI license than they would make for a human artist's work. As is the case in every industry, AI can't do an artist's job, but an AI salesman can convince an artist's boss to fire the creative worker and replace them with AI:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

They don't care if it's slop – they just care about their bottom line. A studio executive who cancels a widely anticipated film prior to its release to get a tax-credit isn't thinking about artistic integrity. They care about one thing: money. The fact that AI works can be freely copied, sold or given away may not mean much to a creative worker who actually makes their own art, but I assure you, it's the only thing that matters to our bosses.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

#pluralistic #ai art #eerie #ai #weird #henry farrell #copyright #copyfight #creative labor markets #what is art #ideomotor response #mark fisher #invisible hand #uncanniness #prompting

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fembutchboygirl · 3 months ago

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ALRIGHT EVERYONE: I've decided to do this for real this time.

Pick a song, ANY song included in the playlist above that you'd like to hear me sing, and submit it to the forms below it! Once I've gathered enough submissions, I will take the top results — excluding anything I know for sure I can't sing — and I will record an acapella cover on my shitty phone mic.

Actually, no, scratch that �� I won't record an acapella cover. I will record THREE! So hurry up and make your submissions before the clock runs out!

#my posts #blue music #i think this allows for multiple submissions (and I encourage them!) but if it doesn't let me know #obviously don't submit stuff like instrumentals or screamo because I'll just ignore those #the playlist linked is my Master Playlist so there's gonna be a lot of unviable stuff in there #Spotify

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callsigns-haze · 7 months ago

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Short love: Chp 18

Summary: The is about widowed father Bradley Bradshaw who enlists his brother-in-law Jake Seresin and childhood best friend Robert Floyd to help raise his three daughters, eldest Donna Jo Margaret (D.J for short), middle child Stephanie and youngest Michelle in his San Diego home.

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Reader

Warning: Fluff, flirting

With a shared vision in mind, Jake and Y/n roll up their sleeves and dive into the renovation project with gusto. The attic, once a neglected space filled with dusty boxes and forgotten treasures, is soon transformed into a bright and spacious bedroom, complete with multiple functional areas.

Together, they brainstorm layout ideas and design concepts, drawing inspiration from magazines, online resources, and their own creativity. They envision a space that is not only stylish and modern but also practical and versatile, catering to their various needs and preferences.

The first step is to declutter and clear out the attic, sorting through years of accumulated belongings and deciding what to keep, donate, or discard. With determination and teamwork, they tackle this daunting task, motivated by the prospect of creating their dream bedroom.

Once the space is cleared, they begin the renovation process, starting with structural improvements such as insulation, flooring, and walls. Jake's handyman skills come in handy as he handles the more technical aspects of the project, while Y/n lends her creative touch to the design and decor.

They install large windows to let in plenty of natural light, creating a bright and airy atmosphere. They also add built-in storage solutions to maximize space and organization, ensuring that every corner of the room is utilized efficiently.

As Jake focuses intently on drilling the wooden plates into the walls, Y/n watches with a mixture of amusement and admiration. She can't help but chuckle as she sees him maneuvering the drill, occasionally getting stuck or encountering a stubborn spot.

"Need a hand there, handyman?" Y/n teases, her laughter filling the room.

Jake looks up with a playful grin, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. "I've got this under control," he insists, determined to conquer the task at hand.

But as he continues to drill, a particularly stubborn spot causes the drill to jam, and Jake lets out a frustrated sigh. Y/n can't help but laugh at his predicament, finding his determination endearing.

"Maybe I spoke too soon," she quips, moving closer to offer her assistance.

With a grin, Jake accepts her help, and together they work to free the jammed drill and continue with the task. As they work side by side, their laughter fills the room, turning the mundane task of renovation into a fun and memorable bonding experience.

As they continue renovating the attic, Jake and Y/n find themselves knee-deep in paint cans, power tools, and endless to-do lists. Despite the occasional mishaps and setbacks, they tackle each challenge with determination and a sense of adventure.

One afternoon, while attempting to install a new light fixture, Jake finds himself tangled in a mess of wires, his brow furrowed in concentration as he tries to decipher the instructions. Y/n watches from a safe distance, stifling a giggle as she sees him struggle.

"Need any help there?" she offers, trying to suppress her amusement.

Jake grumbles in frustration but eventually accepts her offer, grateful for her assistance. Together, they work to untangle the wires and install the light fixture, laughing at their shared clumsiness and enjoying the camaraderie of working together.

Another day, they decide to tackle the task of painting the walls, armed with brushes, rollers, and plenty of drop cloths. But their ambitious plans quickly take a comedic turn when Jake accidentally spills a can of paint, sending a cascade of white paint splattering across the floor.

Y/n's eyes widen in disbelief as she surveys the mess, but before she can scold him, Jake bursts into laughter, realizing the absurdity of the situation. They spend the next few hours cleaning up the mess, turning the ordeal into a lighthearted paint fight and making memories in the process.

Despite the inevitable hiccups and mishaps, Jake and Y/n press on with their renovation project, fueled by their shared determination and love for each other. With each coat of paint applied and each piece of furniture assembled, they inch closer to transforming the attic into their dream space, creating a home that reflects their love, laughter, and unique bond.

Jake looks up from his work as Y/n enters the room, her eyes sparkling mischievously as she approaches him, a small item hidden behind her back. He furrows his brow, curiosity piqued by her secretive demeanor.

"Hey, Mr. Handyman," she says smiling and kicking her feet.

"What do you have there?" he asks, unable to contain his curiosity.

Y/n smiles mysteriously, holding the item out of his reach as she teases him with a playful gleam in her eyes. "You'll have to wait and see," she says, her tone teasing and coy.

Jake chuckles, leaning in closer to try and catch a glimpse of what she's hiding. "Come on, don't leave me hanging," he pleads, reaching out to try and snatch the item from her grasp.

But Y/n deftly sidesteps his attempts, dancing out of reach with a playful laugh. "Not yet," she says, her smile widening as she revels in his curiosity.

With a grin, Jake sets down his tools, determined to uncover the mystery behind Y/n's secretive behavior. He follows her playfully around the room, determined to discover the surprise she's hiding. And as they laugh and tease each other, their bond grows even stronger, fueled by the joy of their shared antics and the love that binds them together.

Jake's eyes widen in astonishment as Y/n reveals the positive pregnancy test hidden behind her back. For a moment, he's speechless, the weight of the moment sinking in as he realizes the significance of what she's showing him.

"Is this...?" he begins, his voice barely above a whisper, unable to fully comprehend the news.

Y/n nods, her eyes shining with unshed tears of joy as she confirms his silent question. "We're going to be parents," she says, her voice trembling with emotion.

A surge of overwhelming happiness washes over Jake as he wraps his arms around Y/n, pulling her close in a tight embrace. He presses a kiss to her forehead, his heart bursting with love and excitement for the new chapter they're about to embark on together.

"We're going to have a baby," he murmurs, his voice filled with wonder and awe.

As they stand together in the newly renovated attic, surrounded by the promise of their growing family, Jake and Y/n share a moment of pure happiness and anticipation for the journey ahead. With their love as their guide, they're ready to embrace the joys and challenges of parenthood, knowing that they'll face them together, hand in hand.

tagging:

@callsign-magnolia

@shanimallina87

@callsign-dexter

@horseslovers2016

@rosiahills22

@djs8891

@hookslove1592

@emma8895eb

@hardballoonlove

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@senawashere

@buckysteveloki-me

@sweetwhispersofchaos

@itsmytimetoodream

@jessicab1991

@ahh-chickens

@86laura11

#hangman imagine #hangman x reader #jake seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin #jake seresin #hangman seresin #hangman top gun #jake hangman fic #jake hangman imagine #jake hangman x reader

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open-hearth-rpg · 3 months ago

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#RPGaDay2024

An engaging RPG Community

It won’t come as any surprise I’m going to mention the Open Hearth Gaming Community here.

I (edige23 aka Lowell Francis) took over as community manager, under this community’s previous identity, back in mid-2019. I’d already been acting behind the scenes, as the go-to person for GMs and in some work started at the beginning of the year to fix some issues with the community. I won’t go into why the previous manager stepped away.

The community had already changed my life– introduced me to people around the world, giving me a chance to play with tons of different gamers, giving me the confidence to try out new hacks & games, making me a better game facilitator, and providing me with many, many new friends. I’m a chronically shy person. Unless I’m in a social situation with a clear, defined structure– I have a really hard time. It’s something I’ve known about myself and tried to work on (joining groups, doing improv, theater, etc).

So I would go to RPG conventions to run and feel absolutely terrified and sick to my stomach before each run. But being part of the community, feeling validated for my skills, talking with new folks helped change that at least a little. I remember the first con I went to where I didn’t feel that crippling anxiety. It shocked me.

When I took over we looked to have more open discussion with the community and implement changes/ We worked through and revised our Community Code of Conduct back in 2020. I learned a lot about what mattered to people and we worked hard to find ways to support everyone. I’ve loved it when initiatives come from the community itself.

For example, at the start of the Pandemic in 2020, a discussion started about what we could do to support people. We knew that many folks would be cut off from face to face gaming. At that time many people hadn’t played online, didn’t understand what it involved, or had a negative view of it. The suggestion arose that we could undertake something to help show folks what it involved.

That started what’s become our Shared Hearth Open Gaming events. It would be a free online ttrpg convention aimed at new folks. We would offer one-shots so people could easily try out online play and see best practices. It would also allow us to show off great games, many storygames, which could easily be played online with basic tools.

And it would be free– completely volunteer run. That was important to folks. We wanted to make sure we lowered the barriers as much as we could. While we would be introducing folks to the community, we also made that a strongly secondary element. We didn’t want it to feel like an opportunistic recruitment drive. We’ve done a bunch of these events since then, bigger and smaller, and folks have stepped up to contribute each time.

Other initiatives came from the community itself. We talked about ways in which we could serve often marginalized players or those suffering economic hardship. That led to the Open Hearth Gameway. People in the community started doing GM support camps, which has led to ongoing Game Facilitator Camp workshops for new and veteran GMs alike. We also do a yearly podcast surveying community members’ favorite games. There’s lots more.

While there’s some “gaming discourse” which happens here– more often than not it's about games we’re playing, games we want to play, advice for running & playing, and celebrating cool things at the table.

There’s lots more for me personally. Playing online with Open Hearth in its various forms moved me away from an insular community of players. It has changed me, I know, for the better. And it allowed me so many experiences I wouldn’t have had otherwise. More than anything the community has been able to support people and give them a place.

Many of them eventually move on when they find their own, stable ttrpg groups. Some head off to form parallel communities with a particular focus. I think that’s great. I don’t want a cult of personality community– I want one focused on play. And in that way it should support play of all kinds, even if it isn’t with us.

I’ll admit I’m a little sad when I remember someone I played with who I haven’t seen for a while. But I’m happy when I see they’ve found a group, post their plays, talk about games they’ve developed, and seem to be in a good place.

It's bittersweet.

If you're interested, sign ups for our free online event (Sept 5th to 8th) opens tomorrow (8/20 at 1200 US Eastern)

#ttrpg #rpg #open hearth gaming #rpgaday2024

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techtrifecta · 1 month ago

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Why Every Business Needs an Online Free Survey Maker Tool (Yes, Yours Too!)

Running a business is like juggling a dozen flaming swords, right? So, why make life harder when an online free survey maker tool can give you a direct line to your customers? With just a few clicks, you can find out if people are loving your new product or if it’s about as popular as kale-flavored ice cream. Trust me, it’s way easier than playing email tag for feedback. Plus, you’ll know exactly what your customers want before they even know they want it. Now, that’s some next-level Jedi stuff!

#startup #entrepreneur #marketing #founder #surveymonkey #onlinesurvey

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freecash2025 · 10 months ago

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Earn Free Money Now !

Check Out 6 Best Sites To Earn Money

#crypto #earn money online #freecash #make money online #money #refferal code #» bonus refferal 20%#💰bonus refferal 10% + 10%#financial #profit #income #make money from home #bitcoin #dogecoin #litecoin #cashapp #earnings #finance

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prettypleasewillgraham · 2 years ago

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TAYLOR SWIFT'S ALBUMS RANKING

Hi! So, i saw a lot of people on tiktok making rankings for taylor swift's albums and I like it very much. A lot of people were asking for someone to make a test/quiz to be able to calculate precisely without having to use math (calculate it) themselves, so I MADE IT!

Here you can find out your taylor swift's albums ranking pretty easily. I hope you like it!

It uses weighted average for result, so it’s pretty awesome.

Hope you have fun, and don’t forget to share :)

(I tried using other sites to make this, but typeform was the only one that allows me to use advanced tools like variables and etc, that’s why I made it there)

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poll-lite · 2 months ago

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How Can Survey Tools for Business Improve Your Customer Experience?

In today’s competitive market, understanding your customers’ needs and preferences is crucial for any business. Survey tools for business offer a simple yet effective way to gather insights, enabling you to make data-driven decisions. At Poll-Lite, we provide advanced customer survey tools that empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction, improve services, and boost overall growth.

But how exactly can these tools transform your business? Let’s explore how using survey tools for business can positively impact customer experience and overall performance.

Why Are Survey Tools for Business Essential?

• Gain Valuable Insights: The primary benefit of using survey tools for business is the ability to collect actionable insights directly from your customers. Whether you're launching a new product, improving services, or gauging customer satisfaction, surveys allow you to understand exactly what your audience thinks.

• Improve Customer Retention: Businesses that understand their customers can make better decisions, and this often leads to improved customer retention. With customer survey tools from Poll-Lite, you can ask specific questions that address pain points, allowing you to solve issues before they become reasons for customers to leave.

• Measure Customer Satisfaction: Understanding how happy or dissatisfied your customers are is essential for growth. Survey tools for business make it easy to measure customer satisfaction, identify gaps in your service, and take the necessary steps to improve.

How to Choose the Right Survey Tools for Business?

• Customization Options: The best survey tools for business offer customization so that you can create surveys that align with your brand. With Poll-Lite’s customer survey tools, you can tailor questions, design the layout, and even personalize thank-you messages to improve response rates.

• Ease of Use: Not all customers are tech-savvy, so it’s important to choose customer survey tools that are user-friendly. Poll-Lite makes it easy for businesses to create, distribute, and analyze surveys without the need for advanced technical skills. Our intuitive interface ensures that both your team and your customers can navigate the platform with ease.

• Real-Time Analytics: One of the biggest advantages of using modern survey tools for business is the ability to track responses in real-time. Poll-Lite provides businesses with robust analytics that allow you to monitor responses, identify trends, and make adjustments on the fly.

• Multi-Platform Compatibility: In today’s digital age, customers use various devices to interact with businesses. Whether it’s on mobile, tablet, or desktop, your surveys should be accessible across all platforms. Poll-Lite’s customer survey tools are designed to be compatible with multiple devices, ensuring a seamless experience for every respondent.

Benefits of Using Customer Survey Tools from Poll-Lite

• Enhanced Customer Experience: By using Poll-Lite’s customer survey tools, businesses can gather direct feedback from their customers. This helps in identifying areas that need improvement and ensures that you are continuously working to meet customer expectations. Surveys allow you to engage customers in meaningful conversations, making them feel heard and valued.

• Cost-Effective Solution: Many companies believe that implementing survey tools for business is expensive. However, with Poll-Lite, you get cost-effective solutions that provide a high return on investment. Our affordable pricing options mean that even small businesses can benefit from advanced customer feedback tools without breaking the bank.

• Informed Decision-Making: One of the main advantages of using survey tools for business is that they give you access to critical data. With this information, you can make informed decisions regarding product development, marketing strategies, and customer service improvements. Poll-Lite provides detailed reports that help businesses interpret the data efficiently.

• Increased Engagement: Using surveys allows businesses to connect with customers directly. With our customer survey tools, you can encourage engagement, gather in-depth responses, and foster a stronger relationship with your audience. The more connected your customers feel, the more likely they are to remain loyal to your brand.

How Poll-Lite’s Survey Tools for Business Stand Out

• Custom Reports: With Poll-Lite, businesses can generate custom reports that showcase key metrics. Whether you're interested in tracking customer satisfaction, product preferences, or general feedback, our tool allows you to export reports tailored to your specific needs.

• Segmentation: Not all customers are the same, and Poll-Lite allows you to segment your audience based on demographics, purchase behavior, and more. This means you can create personalized surveys for different segments, ensuring that your feedback is relevant and useful.

• Security: In an era of increasing concerns over data privacy, it's essential to ensure that customer feedback is collected securely. Poll-Lite’s customer survey tools comply with data protection regulations, ensuring that your customer data is safe and secure.

Conclusion

In a world where customer experience drives business success, investing in survey tools for business is no longer optional; it’s essential. These tools not only provide valuable insights but also help businesses stay competitive in an ever-evolving market. At Poll-Lite, we offer robust customer survey tools that empower businesses to connect with their customers, improve services, and make data-driven decisions.

If you're ready to take your customer engagement to the next level, consider implementing Poll-Lite’s survey tools for business today!

#survey tools #survey tools for business #best survey tools #best survey software #customer survey tools #online survey tools #survey platforms for businesses #survey platforms #customer survey software #anonymous survey free

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sogolytics · 3 months ago

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#survey tool #online survey tool #survey software #create survey #survey platform #online survey maker #create free surveys online #survey maker free #online survey platform

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teamarcstechnologies · 8 months ago

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Choosing the Right Online Market Research Tools for Your Business

Understanding your target market is crucial for the success of any business. With the abundance of online market research tools available, gathering valuable insights has become more accessible than ever. However, with so many options to choose from, selecting the right tools for your business can be overwhelming. To help navigate this process, let's explore some key considerations when choosing online market research tools.

Define Your Research Objectives: Before diving into selecting tools, it's essential to clearly define your research objectives. Are you looking to understand customer preferences, evaluate market trends, or measure brand perception? Clarifying your goals will guide you in selecting the most appropriate tools to achieve them.

Consider Your Budget: Online market research tools come in a range of price points, from free to premium subscriptions. Consider your budget constraints and weigh the features and capabilities offered by each tool against their cost. Remember, investing in quality research tools can yield significant returns in the form of valuable insights and informed decision-making.

Assess Data Accuracy and Reliability: Accuracy and reliability are paramount when it comes to market research. Look for tools that utilize robust methodologies and data sources to ensure the information gathered is trustworthy. Reading user reviews and testimonials can provide insights into the reliability of a tool's data.

Evaluate User-Friendliness and Accessibility: Choose tools that are intuitive and user-friendly, enabling you and your team to navigate them with ease. Accessibility across devices and platforms is also crucial, ensuring that you can access the tools whenever and wherever you need them. Consider whether the tool offers mobile apps or cloud-based solutions for added convenience.

Explore Features and Customization Options: Different research projects may require specific features and customization options. Evaluate whether the tools offer functionalities such as survey creation, data visualization, sentiment analysis, and demographic segmentation. Additionally, assess the level of customization available to tailor the research process to your unique business needs.

Look for Integration Capabilities: Integrating market research data with your existing business systems can streamline workflows and enhance decision-making processes. Prioritize tools that offer integration capabilities with popular platforms such as CRM systems, email marketing software, and analytics tools. Seamless integration can facilitate the seamless flow of insights across your organization.

Seek Support and Training Resources: Even the most user-friendly tools may require some learning curve. Look for providers that offer comprehensive support resources, including tutorials, documentation, and customer support channels. Training resources can empower you and your team to make the most of the tools and leverage their full potential.

Consider Scalability and Future Needs: As your business grows, so will your research needs. Choose tools that can scale alongside your business and accommodate evolving requirements. Assess whether the tools offer scalability in terms of data storage, user licenses, and advanced features to future-proof your investment.

In conclusion, selecting the right online market research tools for your business requires careful consideration of your objectives, budget, data accuracy, usability, features, integration capabilities, support resources, and scalability. By evaluating these factors thoughtfully, you can empower your business with actionable insights that drive growth and success in today's competitive market landscape.

To know more: online market research platform

panel management platform

Sample Management Platform

fraud detection and reporting tool

#market research #onlineresearch #samplemanagement #panelmanagement #communitypanel #datacollection #onlinesurvey #fraud detection #datainsights

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influnance5 · 11 months ago

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User-generated content (UGC) is content created by individuals rather than brands. It can include images, videos, reviews, testimonials, or any other form of online content that features or mentions a brand, product, or service.

UGC is a powerful tool for influencer marketing, as it can help you increase your brand awareness, trust, and engagement among your target audience. According to a survey by Stackla, 79% of consumers say UGC influences their purchasing decisions, and 60% say UGC is the most authentic form of content.

But how can you maximize the potential of UGC in your influencer marketing campaigns? How can you encourage and leverage UGC for more authentic and engaging campaigns? Here are some tips and strategies to help you get started.

Define Your Goals and Metrics

Before you launch any UGC campaign, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. Do you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, grow your social media following, or collect feedback? Having a specific and measurable goal will help you plan your campaign and evaluate your return on investment.

You also need to define the metrics that you will use to track and measure your UGC campaign performance. Some of the common metrics are:

Reach: The number of people who saw your UGC or influencer’s content.

Engagement: The number of likes, comments, shares, clicks, or views your UGC or influencer’s content received.

Conversions: The number of actions, such as sign-ups, downloads, purchases, or referrals, that your UGC or influencer’s content generated.

Brand awareness: The increase in your brand recognition, recall, or reputation among your target audience.

User-generated content: The amount and quality of UGC created by your influencer’s followers, such as reviews, testimonials, or photos, that feature your brand.

You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or Instagram Insights to track and measure these metrics. You can also use unique codes, links, or hashtags to track the performance of each UGC or influencer campaign.

Find the Right Influencers and Platforms

The next step in maximizing UGC is finding the right influencers and platforms for your campaign. You want to work with influencers who have a relevant and loyal audience, who share your values and vision, and who can create authentic and engaging UGC that showcases your brand.

There are many ways to find influencers, such as using hashtags, keywords, or social media platforms. However, this can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a clear criteria or a large network. That’s why you might want to use a platform like Influnance, which connects brands with the perfect influencers, creating value like never before.

Influnance is a platform that allows you to easily collaborate with global influencers and create exclusive UGC for your brand. You can find influencers with precision by searching through language, region, and tags. You can also enjoy free influencer searches with no subscriptions, contracts, or hidden fees. Plus, every influencer is vetted by Influnance, so you can ensure high-quality, professional UGC.

You also need to choose the right platforms for your UGC campaign, based on your goals, audience, and content type. For example, if you want to increase your brand awareness and reach, you might want to use platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, which have a large and diverse user base. If you want to generate leads and conversions, you might want to use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, which have more options for driving traffic and actions. If you want to collect feedback and testimonials, you might want to use platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Amazon, which have a strong review culture.

Provide Guidelines and Incentives

Once you’ve found the influencers and platforms you want to work with, you need to provide them with guidelines and incentives for your UGC campaign. You need to communicate your expectations and requirements clearly, such as the format, length, tone, and key messages of the UGC, as well as the deadline and deliverables. You also need to disclose the sponsorship and follow the ethical and legal regulations of your industry and platform.

You also need to provide incentives for the influencers and their followers to create and share UGC for your brand. This could include offering discounts, free samples, commissions, or rewards for the influencers, and prizes, contests, or challenges for their followers. You should also provide the influencers and their followers with the tools and resources they need to create and share UGC, such as branded filters, overlays, stickers, or hashtags.

Promote and Repurpose Your UGC

The last step in maximizing UGC is promoting and repurposing your UGC across multiple channels and platforms. You need to amplify the reach and impact of your UGC by sharing it on your website, social media pages, and other marketing materials. You should also encourage the influencers and their followers to do the same, and create a buzz around your brand and campaign.

You can also repurpose your UGC for different purposes and audiences, such as creating testimonials, case studies, or social proof for your website, creating ads, banners, or videos for your social media pages, or creating blog posts, newsletters, or ebooks for your email subscribers. By repurposing your UGC, you can extend its lifespan and value, and create more content with less effort.

Conclusion

UGC is a powerful tool for influencer marketing, as it can help you increase your brand awareness, trust, and engagement among your target audience. However, you need to maximize the potential of UGC by following these tips and strategies:

Define your goals and metrics

Find the right influencers and platforms

Provide guidelines and incentives

Promote and repurpose your UGC

Do you want to leverage UGC for your influencer marketing campaigns? Then you need Influnance, the platform that connects you with the ideal influencers for your brand. With Influnance, you can easily create exclusive UGC with global influencers. You can also access features like free influencer searches, verified influencers, instant messaging, secure payments, and cooperation history archive. Influnance is the best platform for UGC and influencer marketing. Join Influnance today and boost your brand with the right UGC.

#influencer marketing #influencers #social media marketing #User-Generated Content #Brands #Visibility #Blog #Influnance #Social Media

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