#I WAS READING WHAT CAME UP FOR OTHERS EARLIER AND OMG THE ACCURACY

[ndostairlyrium]

@n7viper @idolsgf @greypetrel @shivunin @demandthedoodles tagged me in this little thing to take this uquiz for my OCs Thank you so much guys!! ;;

Ankh: The Final Girl

you're very tired, aren't you? thrashing and fighting and trying to survive– it has taken its toll, but that has not stopped you. you'll continue to gnaw and scream and bare teeth until you can free yourself from this mess, even if it means being the last one left. there is rest at the end of this hard battle, i promise you. there is a time when the fight will be over– but fighting is all you know, isn't it?

Oof! Appropriate

Hawke: The Sacrifice

a knife to your back is your first memory– it will also be your last. you cannot help but let things into your heart, such is your nature. time and time again, however, they hurt you and leave you to rot. but your heart remains open, and you continue to let more in. is it kindness, at that point, or is it sacrifice?

THE WAY THESE ARE SO ACCURATE OMG

Elanor: The Monster

it was not your fault– at first, at least. you can not help being the way you are. and even if you could, would you choose to change? they met you with torches raised and screaming mouths, the only choice you had was to flee. but you will not stay away forever. they whisper your name in fear, and you will make sure you hurt them just as much as they hurt you.

I'm calling the police

@underneathestars I'm dragging you in this lol but also: @sparatus @goofsoup @that-one-halfwit @astertataricusblog @bruxbea

[fictionismyforte]

my favourite fandoms of the decade

i’ve been through a lot of fandoms, and i’m not super active in all of them anymore, but i wanted to acknowledge the ones that have been a big part of my life over the last 10 years (the first decade that i really started strongly interacting with anything other than disney channel ;)) )

so, in chronologicalish order:

percy jackson/rick riordan in general: does anyone else remember those “demigod posts” where it had like a different font/colour for each character, and they’d have short conversations in reply to a question? yeah those were what got me into tumblr lol

harry potter: i didn’t read/watch this until 2011 i think? but once i did there was absolutely no going back.

once upon a time: this was the first (again, non-disney channel) tv show that i started to avidly watch, and actually wait for the new episode/season to come out. i definitely liked the older seasons better, and i still haven’t actually finished season 7 (oops)(my dad and i restarted the season together so i’ll get there), but it was sort of the first tv show that i started caring about. even visited storybrooke—once just on a trip, and once to watch them film the finale!

one direction: ah, memories of elementary (middle in other areas?) school. one time our music teacher played “what makes you beautiful” when we were waiting for the bell to ring, and every single girl in my class crowded around the speaker for harry’s solo.

house md: my parents and i started watching this on netflix, and i thought it was amazing from the beginning. they didn’t love it as much as i did, but we watched the whole thing. this is around the time that i had started seriously thinking about going into medicine, and it was really cool to learn about some of the rarer diseases (with varying levels of accuracy).

booktube: not really a fandom, but when i discovered this, it really changed the game for me lol. i still follow the same booktubers as i did when i was younger, although i’ve added some more.

doctor who: my dad and i started watching this together when it was on netflix, and i misS it. we didn’t finish it before they took it off, and haven’t found another way to watch it, so we’re just sort of in limbo. regardless, i loved it.

supernatural: probably is and always will be my biggest fandom. not only is the show amazing, but it led me and my best friend to become as close as we did. i went to a convention in 2018 and met jensen, jared, misha, brianna, alex, rob, and ruth in person, and this is probably one of my best memories of the 2010s. i watched it through all of high school, and its ending at the end of my first year of university, so i guess it will have come full circle :’)

the infernal devices: oh my god. will hero dale. just. i’ve read this series so many times, and it always hurts me (but also brings me so much joy). this is usually the first thing i read every year, but i’m not sure if it will be this time, because i won’t have the hours a day to devote to it that i tend to need.

nick jonas: i already knew him from disney obviously, but i got reintroduced to my love for him in 2016, when him and demi went on tour, and he did a bunch of press that showed up in my youtube recommendations lol. then he did jumanji in 2017, and i just sort of remembered 2007 when miley was in love with him, and i was by default bc i wanted to be just like her. anyway, more about him later.

marvel: i don’t entirely know when i started watching marvel movies; i think it was just after civil war war released. i used to know absolutely nothing, and i started out by only watching the things chris hemsworth was in, but now i’m definitely invested. am i beyond excited for the falcon and the winter soldier? um, yes.

one chicago: i think this is probably the fandom i devote the most time to on tumblr, so y’all probably aren’t that surprised haha. i started watching chicago fire after house ended, because of jesse spencer, and i continued on to pd, med, and that one season of justice. in all honesty, this isn’t my favourite series and i have a lot of problems with it, but i care deeply about just enough of the characters and actors to continue to be invested in it. connor leaving was a blow, but i’m still going (for now) (if jay does then idk i may be out of pd)

the greatest showman: i’m still in love with this movie. i remember finding out like a year before it was released that sac efron was going to be in another musical, and my high school musical obsessed childhood felt that. the movie is incredible, and i love the soundtrack, and yeah. amazing.

joe jonas: again, i already knew him from disney, but i fell into a rabbit hole that i never came out of when he was on the voice as adam’s advisor and i had to educate my mom on him. then he was a coach on the voice australia, and then i watched all of his dnce interviews. again, more on him later.

5 seconds of summer: i remember randomly getting recommended the video of them talking about their tattoos. i obviously watched it, because i don’t have self control, and here i am. i haven’t mentioned it a ton here but i love 5sos.

panic! at the disco: i didn’t start listening to them until fall 2018, but my friend is a big fan and gave me a quick crash course. just over a year later and here i am, completely trash for brendon urie. shoutout to my profile pic lol.

the haunting of hill house: omg, this show. i highly recommend it. i don’t even really watch horror shows or movies or anything, but i love it so much. my friend and i have rewatched it together multiple times, and i’m so excited for the second season (although it’s in like a different universe lol)

harry styles/louis tomlinson/niall horan: i think this might have happened earlier, but i’m not quite sure when. all i know is that i was suddenly a big big fan of all of their solo stuff, and now i watch all their interviews. good stuff. fine line is amazing.

jonas brothers: i liked the jonas brothers when i was younger, but i was also confused by them (long story short, i thought they were fictional for awhile because the first time i ever saw them was hannah montana), and quite young, so i wasn’t able to get quite to the level of obsession that i started to get with other things later on (aka everything i just mentioned in this list). but fun fact: about halfway through february 2019, i rewarched all of the nick jonas press from jumanji, and then all of his interviews, all the joe jonas stuff, and then old jonas brothers interviews (we had about a week off of school bc of snow, so that’s how i spent it lol). then a week later, there were a ton of rumours about them reuniting, which, yes, i told everyone i knew about. thEn i think it was a week after that? a few days? anyway they officially announced their reunion and i haven’t been the same since. i’ve seen all of their interviews too many times, watched chasing happiness with my friend the day it came out, and many, many times since then. the album came out the day before my birthday, and i had a jb cake. nick jonas is going to be on the voice next month and i can’t handle it. their memoir is being released in march. i think the jonas brothers are one of the biggest contributing factors to my gpa being where it is right now. yes, they were my most listened to artist on spotify in 2019.

thanks to anyone who read all of that lol! here’s to a fantastic 2020 👌

[junker-town]

The people’s guide to Will Grier

The WVU quarterback has tremendous confidence in what he can do, which is good, because he can do a lot.

Thumbnail bio: Will Grier, redshirt junior quarterback for the West Virginia University Mountaineers. Stands 6’2 and weighs 214 pounds if he’s soaking wet, because he tends to skinny, despite growing up in North Carolina and attending school in Florida and West Virginia. If someone manages to stay thin after all that, that’s being an elite ectomorph.

Threw for 77 TDs at Davidson Day School, won a mess of national awards, and committed to Florida. Like every Florida quarterback since Tim Tebow, transferred to another school where he would thrive.

In his case, the move was not entirely voluntary. After leading the Gators to a 6-0 start in 2015, Grier tested positive for Ligandrol, a steroid that is banned by the NCAA, but not listed on the NCAA’s list of banned substances. Did you know the NCAA prohibits substances it doesn’t tell people are prohibited? College sports is not run by smart or kind people.

Grier served a year’s suspension, and under pressure from then-Florida coach Jim McElwain, transferred to West Virginia. McElwain recruited other quarterbacks, never really found one, and was fired, largely due to anemic offense. Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns in 2017 at West Virginia and is off to a torrid start in 2018.

TL;DR: This worked out well for everyone except McElwain.

Hair: Was better last year when he had the Jesus locks, but still pretty nice. Has a beard because it’s 2018, he lives in West Virginia, and he’s a dad.

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

2017 Will Grier

Other personal notes: Comes from a family of social media stars? His brother Nash has 9 million followers on Instagram, so Will is actually the disappointment in the family. Stop focusing on follow routes and start focusing on followers, Will.

Environment: Playing in a QB-friendly conference like the Big 12 is great, but Grier plays for Dana Holgorsen, which is doubly nice. Holgorsen is a former student of Mike Leach and coordinated scoreboard-rattling offenses at Texas Tech, Houston, and Oklahoma State. Holgorsen’s Hair Raid — nicknamed after Holgorsen’s flowing, Bill Murray-in-Kingpin coiffure — is an evolving mutation. It generally runs the ball more, but also tinkers with passing concepts, too. (Including a few NFL-type concepts, as noted by Chris Brown here.)

General type: A pocket-friendly but mobile QB who is, unlike a thousand other college quarterbacks, accurate, especially on short stuff like this from early in 2018’s Tennessee game.

short stuff

It is a different offense in a lot of ways, but on early downs, West Virginia likes to run quick-hit air raid staples like stick for easy yardage. Grier can happily dink and dunk all day long.

Comparisons: Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said Grier reminded him of Johnny Manziel. He’s not quite the same kind of runner, but Grier has a good (but not cannon-quality) arm, can extend plays beyond the 5-second mark, and does it mostly for the benefit of his team.

No one gets ready to jump off the lip of the stadium when he takes off, is what we’re saying, even if it looks terrifying sometimes.

IT WORKED OUT IN THE END, WE PROMISE

Grier scrambled out of that possible disaster on second and 12, gained four yards, and stepped out of bounds to save a field goal attempt. It’s not panic-free game management, but it’s a functional concept.

Things that may upset you about Grier: Um ... if he’s off, he’ll do things like this.

MAGIC LEGS

Grier, like any QB, can be streaky, and when he’s cold, he tries to force the issue. A lot of college quarterbacks suffer from Magic Legs — they do not fully realize they are no longer the quickest person on the field, like they were in high school — and sometimes, this continues deep into a professional career.

See: all pro QBs who drift forever toward the sideline, waiting for someone, anyone to come open, unaware they can no longer just sidestep the linebackers barreling in to rodeo tackle them into the bench.

When Grier isn’t settled, he’ll miss throws like this shot at an open wheel route.

rushing

You can almost feel how bad he wanted that, and how quickly he saw that pre-snap, right? We all wanted it, man. That thing sailed like a lot of throws early in games, when a QB is just a little too excited.

Confident as hell in his arm and his receivers, he’ll force the issue when he probably shouldn’t.

forcing the issue

His accuracy at least turns a lot of potential disasters into mere incompletions. But because he can scramble and has confidence in his arm, Grier has a bigger menu of things to force. Sometimes that means trying to throw into double coverage in the endzone after escaping pressure, as he did in the Magic Legs clip earlier.

Sometimes he does this even without scrambling, though.

Triple coverage

That’s three orange jerseys around his receiver. There is a fine line between confidence and insanity. This is well over that line, which Grier occasionally straddles.

You got a pretty play as an intermission here? Yeah, because I’m about to talk about how awesome Grier is, and also just happened to make a GIF of this insanely beautiful draw West Virginia gets to run because Grier is such a threat in the passing game.

just a pretty draw play

But wasn’t there a hold on that play? There is a hold on every play. No one cares, including offensive linemen, who admit to holding on every play, too. Accept some beauty in your life without questioning too much, y’all.

Now let’s talk about how awesome Grier is when he does everything right.

Grier is awesome to watch, 1: He can make more than one read and hit open receivers underneath with ease.

taking the under

Such a clean and responsible young man, taking what the defense gives him and moving the chains for a first down. Combine that with the consistent accuracy, and Grier’s practically a savings bond between the 20s. Steady, unsexy, but reliable returns, opening up running lanes with the pass game, and keeping the poor defense on the field.

Grier is awesome to watch, 2: Quick-ass reads. This third-down conversion gets to the receiver on a greased rail, and the receiver can run through the catch.

That’s some Kurt Warner-y stuff, the quarterback I think of first as leading receivers so they got the ball in the flow of a play, not at a station-to-station exchange.

Grier is awesome to watch, 3: Infinite chill (when needed). A weather delay at the half of the Tennessee game must have relaxed WVU. When play resumed, the Mountaineers came out on fire, with Grier throwing for 275 yards and four scores on 16-of-19 passing in the second half.

Not all of those throws were uncontested. At the start of the fourth, West Virginia stood in its own end zone. With his feet in dangerous territory and a free rusher closing in, Grier does this on third and 11.

endzone pressure

Grier helped flip the field with a smart, composed, and accurate bullet 30 yards downfield. It almost looks easy, and it is anything but, but that’s what composure and a near-perfect mesh of system, plays, and players will do.

Grier is awesome to watch, 4: AAHHHHHHHHHHH OMG THAT THROW—

Just—

over the top where no one else can get it

—I mean—

ball placement

— FILTH, THIS IS JUST FILTH, GET THE MODS TO BAN ALL THIS SICK FILTH —

just what the fuck do you do

Take all this in before summing Grier up: Gary Jennings Jr. and David Sills V are excellent receivers, and the line looks like it’s going to be solid, and backs like Martell Pettaway make the offense work. There is a coaching staff dedicated to an aggressive style. The conference West Virginia plays in is notorious for its generosity.

I get that, and you get that, and anyone who watches football gets that.

I also get that there are only a few quarterbacks in college capable of dropping a backbreaking TD pass directly into the hands of a receiver not just over the back shoulder, but at the exact angle to make it indefensible. People talk about creating plays with the feet, but Grier can create throwing lanes simply through touch, trajectory, and velocity. An otherwise covered receiver is suddenly open.

He does not play perfect games, but no one will. But this system gives him plenty of chances to show out, because the Hair Raid, air raid, or whatever it gets called requires quarterbacks to throw 30, 40, and sometimes 50 times a game. This has been a place for so-called system QBs, even if it’s also been a place for serviceable NFL starters, and also Brandon Weeden.

But even with all the qualifiers, there is something really spectacular here. Unlike almost anyone else in college, he will make arguments to a defense that have no counter. For Grier, there will be three or four throws a game that are nothing less than pure evil, laced right through a defense doing everything it should be doing.

Anything else? Yeah, he’s a hopper. Just one of those QBs who really likes to jump a little in the pocket, looking for his man. Bouncy, like a kangaroo that can throw a wicked post pattern. Once you notice it, you will never unsee it.

[hotspreadpage]

What’s Accuracy Got to Do With Social Media?

You may be familiar with the oft-quoted line attributed to Mark Twain, “A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on.” It’s cropped up quite a bit over the last couple of years in discussions about fake news and alternative facts. Twain’s words seem a particularly apt description of social media’s role in spreading misinformation faster than ever, while amplifying the confusion of who or what to trust.

Putting aside any political connotations, let’s instead consider whether marketers are guilty of inadvertently spreading inaccurate, outdated, or just plain wrong information. Sure, getting a fact wrong or misinterpreting a stat isn’t necessarily the same as telling a bald-faced lie. But neither is it trivial when our content is supposedly intended to create the impression of authority and expertise. In short, fact-checking matters just as much in a 280-character tweet as it does in a 10-page white paper. But, boy, has the bar for accuracy slipped worryingly low in this fast-paced, attention-seeking online world.

Fact-checking matters just as much in a 280-character tweet as it does in a 10-page white paper, says @kimota. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Fact-Checking for Content Marketers: How to Protect Credibility in the Era of Fake News [Checklist]

Taken on trust

Almost all the information we consume, particularly online, is crowdsourced in one way or another. Wikis are the obvious example of the community collating, curating and certifying the vastness of human knowledge. Yet most of the information we encounter is filtered and reinterpreted through a series of books, blogs, infographics, explainer videos, articles, and, of course, social media updates.

Unfortunately, this means a lot of the information we encounter as consumers of content may be the result of garbled repetition. Error builds upon error until what may once have been accurate morphs into something inaccurate. As we are also content producers, we then risk compounding the mistake.

“A little research is precisely what many people don’t want when it comes to their digital diet … because many of the information environments we inhabit are magnificently hospitable to meme-sharing, attention-grabbing and OMG-have-you-seen-this moments – and relatively uninterested in hang-on-a-second-let’s-pause-and-think-twice,” as Tom Chatfield writes in New Philosopher.

A little research is precisely what many people don’t want when it comes to their digital diet. @TomChatfield Click To Tweet

Most social media users can’t afford to check the validity and accuracy of every factoid that crosses their feeds. How could they? Therefore, there’s a huge element of trust inherent in that relationship between publisher and audience.

But that means we as the producers of this content must continually prove we are deserving of that trust. If we’re serving up these bite-sized snackettes of information into social media, it’s our responsibility to ensure that they won’t rot the very trust and authority we hope to instill.

When serving up bite-sized #content, we need to ensure it won’t rot trust in us. @kimota #factcheck Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Democratization of Distrust Is Our Biggest Opportunity

Misinfographics?

A client once supplied me with a crucial statistic for an infographic I was creating and cited a government e-book on business as the source. I was surprised to discover that the footnote for the stat in the government e-book claimed it came from a blog post published the previous year on the client’s website. That post claimed the stat came from an earlier edition of the government e-book, which in turn referenced an earlier article on the client’s website. The two had been unwittingly handballing the same stat back and forth for years, each attributing it to the other and each giving the information a veneer of freshness by failing to include any other contextual information or mention how outdated the information actually was. To this day I’m still not clear who conducted the initial research.

I certainly didn’t continue the chain of inaccuracy by using this stale stat in the new infographic.

Don’t continue chain of inaccuracy by including stale stats in new infographics, says @kimota. #factchecking Click To Tweet

In my mind, an infographic without checkable references is just an untrustworthy set of icons and numbers. I’m not saying every infographic should undermine its visual appeal and brevity with a long list of fine print at the bottom. But you should still make it easy for readers to check each and every stat and fact. Too many sources? List them on a webpage and post a short URL at the bottom of the infographic.

Sources by themselves aren’t necessarily a guarantee of accuracy. The way in which the fact or stat is summarized and represented can also mislead. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve scrolled to the bottom of an infographic and followed the references to discover the original research is years out of date or taken out of context. And that’s if the sources are even included.

Sources by themselves aren’t necessarily a guarantee of accuracy, says @kimota. #factchecking Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Well Do You Fact-Check Your Content?

A+ for effort: D- for diligence

Having worked as a writer, journalist, and editor for many years, I’ve learned the hard way to be extremely skeptical when researching. If I can’t verify a fact or claim, it makes me nervous.

OK, I admit I’m quite the pedant. You never forget the first time a university lecturer marks you down for failing to provide adequate references (correctly formatted) to back up the claims in an assignment into which you poured so much effort.

But this is about far more than just “showing your work.” It’s about applying appropriate rigor in research. When you have to document your own references so precisely, you soon learn to distrust any source that doesn’t do the same.

So much content is published, shared, and remixed every day that checking the veracity of an individual claim can mean following a trail of bread crumbs from infographic to blog post to article and so on – stripping away each filter or reinterpretation to get back to the source. Therefore, it is extremely frustrating when – after spending an hour trying to confirm the accuracy of a statistic I desperately want to use – my journey ends at a blog post from someone I have no reason to trust and who didn’t bother to mention where the information was first sourced.

This is why the original source is all that matters – not only when fact-checking for your own sake but also for your audience who deserves the same courtesy when verifying your claims. Otherwise, you’re relying on a source less diligent than you – and then why should your audience trust anything you say? I don’t care if TechCrunch says 84% of Twitter users have developed an addiction to blancmange. If I want to use the stat in a future column (“The disturbing connection between social media and pink desserts”), I need to check and cite the original research. After all, it’s not unknown for a stat to be *gasp* made up!

Who said that?

Social media loves quotations. These days, it seems all you have to do to achieve viral gold is slap an inspirational quote onto a sunset image and spam it to every network. But while the right quote correctly attributed can lend authority and gravitas to your content, an inaccurate or misattributed quote can just as easily undermine it. (Just saying, but Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill most likely didn’t say half of the pithy bons mots commonly attributed to them.)

The level of inaccuracy can sometimes be spectacular, but most dodgy quotations aren’t necessarily deliberate. Most probably arise from poor editing, a lack of context, or unreliable sources (Wikiquote, I’m looking at you!).

A great example of how social media can mangle a quote is discussed in a 2011 article from The Atlantic, which investigates how a Facebook user’s words ended up being attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.  – “mangled to meme in less than two days.”

Image source

What surprised me most about The Atlantic article was the number of people who defended the quote as legitimate even after learning of the mistake. To them, the message is the thing. People most commonly share quotations that represent and support their view of the world. Because they identify with the sentiment, it feels “right.” And because it feels right, they are less likely to question its accuracy or authenticity.

However, if the person didn’t say or write it, it isn’t a quote. Period.

Fact-checking tips

Yes, fact-checking can be both boring and frustrating, but that doesn’t mean it can be skipped or taken less seriously. Fact-checking was once the responsibility of that highly endangered species, the copy editor (something for which they were never fully appreciated). However, very few of us have the luxury of a dedicated fact-checker on the team these days, so the unshirking responsibility falls to us.

Just how does a busy content producer, infographic designer, or social media manager navigate this maze of online information to separate fact from fiction?

Always search for the most recent statistics. No one cares about a social media stat from 2010 when so much has changed in the intervening years. Use your search engine tools to restrict searches to a particular time frame, such as the last year.

Always search for the most recent statistics, advises @kimota. #factchecking Read more >> Click To Tweet

Trust no one. Even if the stat is published by a leading brand you think would be above reproach, check its sources. Wikipedia is NOT a source. But it does contain a lot of references and citations, so follow those links.

Wikipedia is NOT a source. But it does contain references and citations, so follow those links. @kimota Click To Tweet

And get a reputable quotations dictionary.

Speaking of which, let’s return to that Mark Twain quote I mentioned at the beginning. Even if you skip past the difficult fact that the quote was first attributed to him in 1919, nine years after his death, there is absolutely no evidence he ever wrote or said it.

According to the indispensable site Quote Investigator (there’s another tip for you), numerous versions of the quote pop up throughout the previous two centuries, morphing with each paraphrase to become the (disputed) Twain version we’re familiar with today. The earliest recorded version was penned by the satirist Jonathan Swift in 1710: “Falsehood flies; and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect.”

The jest is over. Check your sources.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Proofing and Editing: How to Make Your Content Less Frightening

A version of this article originally appeared in the May issue of  Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free subscription to our print magazine every quarter.

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