#I mean at least I'm not applying for fucking customer support this time

[narastories]

the fucking experience when they ask you to take an MBTI test for a job application and you already know your type and despite trying to slightly pull back on your more anti-social answers, you still get your INTJ-A result...

I'm torn between being reassured in my personality and just really unmotivated to continue my application because there is a small chance they are going to be happy about the result but more likely they are going to outright throw my application out the window

[drunkenskunk]

Been thinking a lot about Lancer lately, in case you can't tell. And a thought has crossed my mind.

The various military powers that exist in the world of Lancer. Union. The Karrakin Baronies. The Aunic Ascendancy. The corpro-states like Harrison or SSC or IPS-N. Even the smaller independent nations in the diaspora outside the control of Union or anyone else. How are all the various armies of these different powers organized, and what are their respective doctrines actually like?

Let me explain.

When you play Lancer, the book makes it VERY clear that what you, the players, are doing when you're in the combat part of the game is... the exception and not the rule. 3 to 5 people in absurdly customized and overpowered mechs is not normal. You are exceptional people, piloting exceptional machines, constantly being thrust into exceptional situations.

So how are the armies of regular mechs organized, and how are they deployed against one another in actual war?

By way of an example: Battletech. When it comes to the armies of the Inner Sphere (at least during the Succession Wars), forces of mechs would typically be organized like:

4 mechs in a Lance

3 Lances in a Company

3 Companies in a Battalion

3 to 5 Battalions in a Regiment

Now, obviously I'm oversimplifying here. There's gonna be some variations, depending on the time period and the Successor State in question, and anything larger than a Regiment has it's own problems... but that tends to be the starting point. Usually. And there's also many different variations when it comes to the organization of things like aerospace assets, armored vehicle elements that are NOT mechs (like tanks and artillery), and infantry units. Because even in a setting dominated by heavy metal, the humble footsoldier has never truly gone away.

But that's just how the Successor States of the Inner Sphere do things. Mostly. The Clans have a very different way of organizing their armies:

A Point is the smallest unit for the Clans, either being a single mech, two aerospace fighters, two armored vehicles, five power armored infantry, or a 25-man platoon of conventional infantry.

5 Points in a Star

2 Stars in a Binary

3 to 5 Binaries in a Cluster

3 to 5 Clusters in a Galaxy

The Clans like thing to be simple and organized, which... can be both a good and a bad thing, depending.

In terms of battlefield doctrine, the way the Successor States wage war is an absolute clusterfuck. Tactics can vary wildly depending on which house you're talking about, and when, but for the most part? They're going to employ some form of combined arms, with mechs spearheading an assault, supported by infantry, armor, artillery, and aerospace assets. The Clans, on the other hand, have a completely different doctrine: their Batchall, or "Battle Challenge."

See, the Clans treat war like a game. It's a sport. It's not (usually) about annihilating the other side; it is (supposed to be) a means of settling disputes in a "civilized" manner. Clan Wolverine would probably have some choice words to say about that description, but that's a topic for another day. See, they want things to be an even fight. A test of skill, rather than a test of who can buy the biggest weapons or field the largest number of troops. For example: if your side has warships, and your opponent does not have warships, then you're expected to bid away your warships and you don't get to use them in that fight.

It is a very fair, but very stupid, way of waging war, and that battlefield doctrine came to bite them in the ass in 3052 when the ComGuard beat the shit out of them at Tukayyid.

... I think I may have drifted slightly off topic.

Right, yes, Lancer, that's what I was talking about.

What got me thinking about this? Well, I was reading through the rulebook earlier; specifically, going through the GM part of the book where it has the list of all the different NPC types and the templates you can apply, and how to build encounters and such. And I was also fucking around in Comp/Con. Doing things like trying to figure out how strong I could make the "squad" NPC using the rules available (is it even possible to make a squad of infantry a threat to mechs?), and trying to see what stats a tank would have, that sort of thing.

And as I was futzing around with all this, I noticed that the way you build encounters reminded me a lot of... well, building a Lance of mechs to fight an opponents Lance of mechs in the tabletop wargame version of Battletech. And then that got me thinking about organizational structures and battlefield doctrine, and...

I suppose the point my autistic ADHD-addled mind is trying laboriously to get to is: would it be possible to modify the rules of Lancer to play it like a tabletop wargame instead of an RPG? Y'know, like...

Well, Battletech, I suppose.

And, y'know, from a lore side of things: what would an army of mechs in Lancer actually look like (beyond the squad of player characters who are special by dint of the narrative), and how would those armies be organized?

[autolenaphilia]

Fuck Chromium (and that includes Brave and Vivialdi)

I have made multiple posts about why you should use Firefox, and of course I get the reply "not all chromium browsers are bad, they are not all as evil as Chrome." And sure, browsers who use the chromium code are not required to do all the shady things that Google does with it.

Still, I think it's bad that chromium-based browsers are getting close to total market dominance. By this point it has made Google's competitors like Microsoft and Opera drop their own unique proprietary browser engines for chromium. Browsers are becoming a fucking monoculture at this point. And Chromium becoming the browser code base of choice empowers Google, since they are the ones who mainly develop, maintain and fund its code. It means supporting them in their quest to become an internet monopoly that can do things like drm the web itself.

So let me be clear: you are still supporting google by using chromium-based browsers. By helping out in making chromium the de facto standard for browsers, you are giving google power. They are the ones driving chromium development, they will set the standards. And those standards will be in Google's favor. They are an ad company, their goal is to kill off adblockers by making them impossible to use, first with manifest v3 for extensions and now WEI, their web drm.

Brave is a joke.

The supposed "good guy" chromium browsers people recommend are actually shady as shit.

The one i see recommended the most is Brave, and it's fucking terrible. For one thing, it is funded by right-wing techbro Brendan Eich. He was Mozilla CEO for some time, but then people found he was a massive homophobe who funded campaigns against marriage equality, and Mozilla forced him to resign. And that's why he created Brave. That's who you are supporting by using Brave.

It runs off chromium because that's the easy and lazy choice for a browser. And it's literally funded through cryptocurrency, probably the negative environmental impact is a plus in Eich's book. And its adblocker runs off the same dishonest business model as adblock plus does, it will not block ads if advertisers pay them for the privilege. This betrayal of the users is opt-in at least, and you get paid for watching ads, but it's in the aforementioned worthless crypto beans. Brave is a joke.

Vivaldi and the importance of open-source

And then there's Vivaldi, it's a freeware proprietary browser run by a for-profit company, which alone should scare you off it.

"If you aren't paying for it, you are not the customer, you are the product" is a phrase that sometimes unfairly gets applied to open source projects to dismiss them. If it's open source and either community-run or run by a non-profit foundation like the Open document foundation for Libreoffice and or the Mozilla foundation for Firefox/Thunderbird, you are safe even if it's free.

But that phrase 100% applies to free products from for-profit corporations. These companies need to make profits at some point for for their shareholders, and if it is not from selling goods or services, it comes from things like selling your user's data or "attention".

That applies to Vivaldi, who makes big promises about how they will respect their users privacy and never sell their data. But promises mean nothing, Google also says they respect your privacy. And the thing is, Vivaldi is closed source. Not entirely, ironically the bits they got from Google's chromium are open source, but other parts of their code is closed-source. And what that means is, they can make any and all promises about what their browser's code does and there is nobody except Vivaldi that can check if their code actually fulfils those promises. Only Vivaldi has access to that code.

I'm no open-source fanatic, like I don't care if some random game i install and play is closed-source, as long as it is from a credible developer. But open-source is important for security and privacy, because that means someone else other than the company who develops the program can vet it's code for vulnerabilities and privacy violations. Your browser and e-mail client (vivaldi has an e-mail client too) should be open-source for your own safety, because those programs handle sensitive data like your passwords or your e-mails. Closed-source is not more secure, since Kerckhoff's principle applies to digital security and privacy.

And Vivaldi by being proprietary software fails that test. Their own justification is that being closed-source is "their first line of defense, to prevent other parties from taking the code and building an equivalent browser (essentially a fork) too easily." It's the same hypocritical argument that Red Hat used to justify making their Enterprise Linux distro closed-source. "It's fine if we use chromium's code to build our own browser, and expressly for making an Opera clone (that's the literal point of Vivaldi, that's why the name is a music reference), but if someone does the same with our product, they're evil." It's nauseating and alone justification to distrust Vivaldi as it is crying out to be trusted.

Listen to some Antonio Vivaldi instead, his music slaps. And install Firefox and Thunderbird instead.

[delphicvoiceaddragh]

I'm not generally the sort to make this sort of post (normally I'd reblog someone else's), however I have not seen anybody on Tumblr talking about this.

Stop Killing Games is an initiative started by Ross Scott (A.K.A. Accursed Farms) to combat the practice of game publishers making online-based games inoperable following the end of official support. They intend to do this by petitioning several governments across the globe to ban the practice, as well as making an example of Ubisoft by reporting them to consumer protection agencies regarding The Crew.

On the website I have linked above, there is information regarding what you can do to help whether or not you own a copy of The Crew. As of 25/04/2024, there is specific information for:

France (summon a legal mediator if you own The Crew AND contact a consumer advocacy group with a good track record in defending the rights of game owners)

Germany (unlike most EU countries, the Verbraucherzentrale CAN prosecute Ubisoft, and you are not required to own The Crew to contact them about this)

Canada (petition pending approval)

The UK (petition open for signatures until October 16th)

Australia (petition open for signatures until the 20th of May, you can also contact Ross Scott directly to be put on a list of affected customers to be sent to the ACCC as part of a larger complaint if you own The Crew)

The US (TBH y'all are kinda fucked but you can contact the FTC if you want)

Brazil (there is discussion of a class-action lawsuit being filed against Ubisoft in the future)

Countries under the EU (sometime in a few months, citizens of EU countries may be able to sign a European Citizen's Initiative to ban this practice, however it requires over a million people to sign within a year)

All countries on this list have instructions in their national language regarding how to contact relevant agencies regarding the shutdown of The Crew and potential consumer rights issues surrounding it, and the website itself is available in multiple languages. There are also instructions for contacting France's department for consumer affairs (DGCCRF), which can be done regardless of location as long as you can prove you own The Crew AND have contacted Ubisoft regarding this issue.

To be clear, this movement is NOT asking publishers to keep game servers online forever. That is an unreasonable demand. To quote the FAQ page, "What we are asking for is that they implement an end-of-life plan to modify or patch the game so that it can run on customer systems with no further support from the company being necessary." This means that titles where connecting to a central server is required to run/play the game, whether necessary for gameplay (e.g. MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft) or not (e.g. always-online DRM ala SimCity (2013)), and that server shutting down rendering the game wholly unplayable. This is also NOT intended to apply to games that have online multiplayer or other online-only features (e.g. the HITMAN World of Assassination trilogy), as these are still playable with or without the central server, and are only missing some features.

Games as a service (and software as a service in general, tbh) is a terrible business model from a consumer standpoint. You own nothing, even though companies will make it look like you do. They can take whatever you bought (under the assumption that you'll have it forever) whenever they want and leave you with no recourse. From an archival standpoint, it's even worse. Before, companies were overwriting source code, but at least you could still archive the final product. Now, they're completely disabling finished and published titles with little chance of anybody being able to get them running again. This industry has a problem, and it's about time it got nipped in the bud.

Share this information as much as you can. I don't give a fuck if you reblog this post or not. Just get it out there. And if you can, act. Sign the petitions. These are official e-petitions, if they get enough signatures, they will be going to the respective governments for discussion. If you've been affected by the shutdown of The Crew, or hell, any similar issues, contact your local consumer protection agency. Sign up for the mailing list so that you can stay updated and find out what else you can do to help as new information is discovered. Do something to stop the loss of more games and the erosion of consumer protections.

[bylightofdawn]

Today was a rough day at work and I've sadly realized that like most people in the American workforce I am underpaid, under-supported and underappreciated. We got forced to train to do business but they aren't giving us any additional pay which is bullshit. On top of it, they aren't supporting us like they should so the job is SUPER STRESSFUL. Today I cried in frustration because of the stupid bullshit that happened with this customer I could not fix it and I'm so stupidly empathetic that I cried afterward. Which is on me but it's also on my job because they won't give us the support and tools I need to do my job.

And yet the cost of living pretty much gone up 30% to 50% in my area and is just going to go up and I am definitely feeling it in my wallet. So I went onto Indeed today, and saw a local call center in my town offering literally the same job I am doing, same hours (is probably subcontracting for the same fucking company that my job has contracts with) and they were paying 2 dollars more an hour.

And I keep scrolling and the average call center job for my state for experienced call center reps is pretty much universally at least 2 dollars more an hour. Yes, there are the shitty ones that churn through barely out of high school age, they are only going to be there for six months so we'll pay them shit pay of like 12 dollars an hour sorta places. It's literal pay people to be a body in a seat sorta call center which sucks and I am beyond that life.

So I know my current job is seriously underpaying me. Not even accounting for the other horseshit I've been dealing with by them forcing business accounts on my shoulders with no additional pay. Business agents back when we were in the call center got like a .50 cent or something pay differential. It was peanuts but even that's gone away. Which is why I never wanted to do business accounts.

I could bitch about bullshit red-tape too, anyone who has worked in a call center knows what I'm talking about. But it was still a kick in the balls to know just how underpaid I am. I mean, I've been there for almost five years at this point. I have seen exactly one major raise in that time where I think they moved us from like 14 to 15 dollars an hour. Then COVID hit, they shut down my local center and moved all us agents to WFM and moved to a different state where I KNOW they are paying less than what they were paying us. But I ate shit and accepted it because I love my job, I love the mental stimulation of what I do, and getting to feel like a mini detective. Without going into too much detail I work in the fraud prevention industry. It's an interesting job and I don't feel like I'm just a zombie asking people if they have unplugged their equipment and restarted their computer tech support job.

So now I'm putting out apps and applying and I fucking HATE job hunting. I am at an age that I want to find a job and just stick with it for the next 20 years. But that's a fucking pipedream and I know it because that's now how real life works anymore. I want the stability of having my routine, doing a job I enjoy, and one that I'm good at. I don't want to hop from one place to another. And I think I'm a pretty fucking good employee. Every supervisor I have had says I'm a model employee who does excellent work, I'm good with customers etc. I had like a 100% schedule adherence last year with zero points for like being late clocking in/out etc. Fucks sake I work in a job where I tell people no all the time, and deny them services and my customer rating scores are like 90%. Comments on my calls from customers are always glowing so I'm a fucking rockstar as far as call center employees go. I deserve to be respected and supported by my job and should be underpaid and underappreciated.

But fuck I hate job hunting. I hate changing jobs, having to learn the ropes of a new place, meeting new people and having to adjust to the atmosphere of a new place. I hate having to make bullshit smalltalk and having to find bland, safe topics to chat up the cubicle mates and desperately try and find some common ground. All the while praying to sweet baby jesus that person isn't some batshit right-wing casual racist/misogynist/generally unpleasant to be around a person or someone who is just plain crazy or a casual thief who will go through your shit when you're not there.

Like, call centers attract an interesting variety of people. Sadly work from home jobs are drying up which stinks cause I love WFM mostly. But fuck it, I'm willing to go back into the office if I need to. I just hate job hunting. I hate everything about it.

[rpbetter]

a vent (feel free to ignore if it's too much!): so recently i've noticed psd makers getting anon asks on whether they're ok with people who write certain topics (mostly rpf, incest, rape, underage, the usual "problematic" topics) using their recourses. now, i don't roleplay any of these subjects on tumblr, so even if a content creator said not to use their stuff, it's not even something i need to worry about - but, and maybe this is me overthinking it, what if i, someday, write a noncon fanfic on ao3? i'm still not using their resources on the subject or writing it on tumblr, but i'd probably feel weird about it, like i'm crossing some boundary. what if a psd maker whose content i've already purchased suddenly goes "actually don't use my psds if you rp abusive relationships", which is probably the closest to what people consider "taboo themes" of the things that i roleplay. it just feels like a fine line between personal boundaries and a shitty situation for a customer - not wanting to cross boundaries but already having PAID for something previously, when no such rules existed. it's making me want to 1. block everyone i see saying this, because even though i don't personally roleplay the topics above, i don't feel SAFE around people who tell others what kind of fiction they are allowed to enjoy and 2. just quit using people's resources and spend years learning to make my own psds so i won't have to worry about this shit. it's just stressing me out, as someone who has been harrassed and bullied online for speaking against censorship. i've had literal sock accounts made just to spew targetted harrassment at me on twitter. i've been accused of being a pedo and supporting incest and this is??? literally for saying "i don't think real people should be harrassed for fictional shit", i've not even shipped underage or incest ships. both make me uncomfortable. but fuck, antis make me 1000000x more uncomfortable than people who ship these kinda ships. i digress, this got rambley, i just. do you have any advice on what to do with the potential psd situation, or am i really just overthinking it? (always worried i accidentally send stuff like this off anon. help)

I need you to know that I actually had to rush-scroll back up and just double check that you did submit on anon lol! I always get worried I'll miss the one person who accidentally didn't use anon, if it makes you feel any better! When someone does submit with their URL attached, I message them first to be sure they are okay with them having it posted that way/it wasn't an accident ;) That's what I would want someone to do!

Alright, so, anyhow...

I've also noticed that becoming a more common thing and it's been on my (maybe huge) list of things to look into for a bit because I really do try to make sure I'm not just noticing things in my areas of the RPC/failing to notice things that do not impact me. Since I do all my edits and graphics, it falls into the first category for me. So, thank you for moving that up the list and informing me that it really is more prevalent and not my imagination!

My take on seeing it was a combination of business logic and anxiety, not going to lie.

On the first: charging to do a psd that is just that, just a psd file being used as a template/to act as an easier version of a photoshop "action" in a way, that's 100% legal and fine. Absolutely no muddy waters there. However, charging to do things like icons, edits, etc. that include images of celebrities and stills from movies (or gifs) is quite muddy. Legally, it's not legal. It's a thing we're allowed to do and use (on most platforms) because we're not making money off of it, we're not claiming to hold rights to the images, and so on - it's ignored but illegal. Charging money for it, however, even when phrased as "for my time" (which, absolutely valid feeling), is a more serious form of illegal and potentially attention-getting. This all gets more iffy though when we add donation instead of direct commission/purchase when working with these copyrighted materials. You can ask people to donate and suggest a donation based on your time spent, and that is always what I advise people to do.

Okay, so, that preface is necessary because the thing about stipulating use-rights is that they're iffy, too, there are variables present.

Often, these same people are charging for things like icon packs as well, meaning that even if they're only charging you for a template-style psd file sans imagery they don't own, they've kind of shot themselves in the foot. Not to mention, it's exceedingly damn hypocritical to pitch a fit about someone violating your rights when you're literally using other people's copyrighted materials lmao And that does tend to occur to me, yeah, it's a consequence of attorney friends and running businesses.

The other issues with this are that usage rights have to be stated at the time of purchase and morality clause-style shit, as pertains to products, is not legally binding.

When you purchase something like a psd file, that purchase acts as a sort of contract.

Think of like...buying a photoshop brush set - the person selling it puts very simple rules as to its use, such as: non-commercial use only, brush pack cannot be resold or distributed for free, separate brushes from the pack cannot be resold or distributed for free individually. Meaning that you own the brushes you bought, but you are not legally allowed to make real-life money from anything you use them in, and you cannot send the whole pack or files individually to friends for free or charge other people for them. By buying these, you have agreed to these stipulations of use and ownership.

If the person sells psd's and you agree to what they've stated about the use (you can't use them to do commissions you make IRL money from, you can't give them away to friends, etc.), that's binding even somewhere as casual as RP Land. The exchange of real currency makes it that serious.

However, there are limits to stipulations of use! One of those things is when you agreed - this person cannot, even one literal second, later change their terms of use and retroactively hold you to them. If they were okay with you not crediting them anywhere or using them in works you will gift others or charge others something like game currency for at the time you purchased, then that's it. Tough shit for them, not you, when they decide a month later that they want credit given where the work appears, that they do not want finished products gifted, or don't want you to make even in-game currency from them.

And that absolutely would apply to the morality wank, yes.

Except that this very morality wank comes with its own issues. Reality is not tumblr. In reality, at least in most instances and countries, you can't throw in a fucking morality clause regarding the buyer, use of item, or finished product.

Think of this in this way: Chik-Fil-A starts denying chicken and waffle fries to anyone suspected of being queer. They're legally allowed to run their business (as a private business, everything does have variables) with some things that are morally objectionable that they feel morally aligns with their religious beliefs. They're not allowed to deny queer workers a job or queer customers service, however, in accordance with overarching laws.

While "being gross" online in fiction is not like, making anyone a protected status person lol this is just an extreme example to drive home the point. Legally, when it comes to items/products be they digital or physical, your rights and responsibilities as the seller don't include your moral policing.

What your right is, is to make people uncomfortable to a degree, yeah. You absolutely can do that. You can state some nasty shit about prospective buyers you don't want. For example, they should (I mean, they should just grow up and get some real concerns, but) be stating that they would not like to see their psd's used by people on this following DNI list of idiocy, and they will block those users if possible to prevent interaction and purchase. That's really it, that's what they can do and the least immature way to proceed.

On the second: none of this logic would make me feel comfortable about interacting with them and their psd's in the future once they had outed themselves as morally objectionable and dangerous to me with this nonsense. And I would still feel anxious about using things I had previously bought because once harassed...it doesn't really go away, does it? It would just give me some ease about the latter with things I'd already made. Like, I could keep using the icons I'd made with those psd's with a little bit more comfort knowing that they honestly have not a leg to stand on outside of their harassment.

I might have the tendency to respond to harassment without much upset, but that doesn't mean I want to be harassed. Especially when I am not doing anything that draws that kind of attention. Not that harassment is warranted over anything, but when I make a PSA or answer an ask that I know is likely to get their attention and piss them off? That's an acceptable risk I am knowingly taking. When I'm just going about my life as a RPer, it isn't.

So, I don't feel like you're overthinking it or being too concerned! In no way did you sign up for getting unwanted attention, and because it has happened before, of course, you're trying to insulate yourself from having it happen again. That's totally reasonable!

Now, what you could do about it...

It's another of those situations in which we're only truly capable of controlling ourselves. Everyone else is kind of a NPC.

You don't have to do anything I'm suggesting, but these are things I would do!

I would block the shit out of anyone saying these things/trying to make them stipulations, yes.

By that, I mean that I would also visit blogs they appear to interact with and they'd be blocked as well. We can all reblog something like resources or a shit post from a user we do not agree with without realizing it, but when it's frequent reblogs, direct support, and friendly vibes going on, it's safer to assume that they are aware their friend sucks. More importantly, that they do not think their friend sucks and support their views.

Even if that is not the case, do you want someone else's repeated inattention to expose you to bad actors? Nope! So, don't run the risk of paying and otherwise interacting with the one resource blog in the group that doesn't express these views/"requirements," but does involve themselves with those who do.

Try to find people selling these resources, that are not connected to the problem ones, who do not have those views. Once a trend starts, it is very hard to stop until it has run its course naturally, so, this might be difficult and take some extreme effort. You might want to consider asking like-minded friends who use psd's where they got them so you can check those users out for yourself.

If they're all the same, problem, people...

Look for users well outside of your corner of the RPC(s) who are not asking to be paid. I know it sounds wild, but there really are RPers out there who just enjoy making things for others! I can think of at least one right off on my dash. They might not be advertising for doing psd's or psd packs, but either they might be willing to do so (especially if they do not appear policing-positive) if you explain what is going on, or they could at least fill some requests for you for fully made icons and such. Hell, people who love doing this work usually know others who do as well, and anti-policing people quite reasonably stick together. They could have suggestions for someone not vile selling psd's.

Depending on what it is you want your psd's to do, I promise you that it wouldn't take you very long to learn it. I know...I know lol that's both really easy for me say when I've been doing it for over twenty years and am about to piss some people off. The latter because the most common settings on popular psd's are extremely simple shit, a lot of that is the kind of thing you're expressly told not to do in design work. Like ramping up extreme contrast, pixelating the fuck out of an image, and turning up the primary colors only. Once you get to playing with photoshop or an equivalent, you will totally see what I mean. You can accidentally make an icon look identical to something that is on trend in the RPC. If that was what you were going for? You've hit the mark, and it's just repetition and tweaking it here and there!

Once you start playing with it, too, it's actually pretty intuitive when it comes to the basic things like resizing, adjusting colors and contrast, and doing easy effects like blurs and sharpening. Frankly, playing with it is better than half the tutorials you'll find because they get unnecessarily complicated when all you want to do is crop your muse's face, overlay some color, and add a damn dotted border. Listen, like I said, I have a lot of experience...and I find many tutorials frustrating and overwhelming!

It is not just you, you're not dumb or anything. People get very comfortable with something and when they try to explain it to others, they use terms and methods that are more advanced or specific to them than they realize. That's all!

If you have friends who make their own things, ask them some very basic questions about what you want to do. They know you, so, they'll know better how to explain to you, specifically. Just keep it simple until you've had some time to experiment! Ask things like, "I want to take this image, resize it to be an icon, and add an orange tint to the image while sharpening only my muse's features...how would I do that? Easy mode?"

And! You don't even have to pay for photoshop or pirate it anymore! Photopea is as an exact copy as possible entirely located in your browser for free. It's all overwhelming at first, a real case of too many options and ways to do the same thing, but the only way it gets less overwhelming is just diving into it. Dive in, get a little frustrated, have some successes, make some awesome discoveries, it gets a bit addicting in short order. Then, the tutorials and tips are so much easier to figure out and expand on, too.

If you'd like, you can always send me a pm here and ask me. I'm happy to try to explain how to do things, zero judgment or impatience. Just an additional option if you both decide to try learning and would feel comfortable doing that. Zero judgment as well on not wanting to do either of those things!

Okay, this one is much harder than learning PS basics because it's honestly a bit terrifying...the way these people are, they're going to take issue with you no matter what you do, and in the end, if they notice you and feel like bothering you, they will. There's literally nothing you can do about it. All you can do is try to buffer yourself, stay away from them, and be aware that you are not the problem.

Like with the AO3 thing or writing what could be viewed as toxic relationships. You can never write or be interested in a single, solitary thing that they're on about (and accusing you of doing in real life when the burning Eye of Moron turns your direction), but to them, you supporting the right of other people to do so is just as bad as doing it yourself. To them, the toxic relationships not only would be problematic, they'd be problematic enough. Being uncomfortable with their policing and feeling unsafe because of it is, to them, a red flag of how problematic you are. Writing anything they've deemed objectionable (or reading or viewing it, for that matter) anywhere, doesn't have to be on this platform or RP-adjacent, doesn't have to actually utilize any of their materials, is enough.

They're absolutely including you in who shouldn't use their shit. That's part of the "logic" and methodology of policing. Everyone is problematic, so, everyone can be labeled a pedo and harassed without too many people getting up in arms about it. No one is safe, so, everyone better behave. You don't actually have to be engaging with or enjoying things like underage, non/dubcon, rape, abusive relationships, etc.

It's gross, it's bullying, it's actually a problem...and there isn't much you can do.

All that is truly up to you is making an effort to avoid them, though, this is very often unfair and likely to get more unfair as resource blogs of all sorts deal in it more. At least, in this case, you do have some small bit of actionable power - by not ever buying from them. They wouldn't be charging if they did not either need or want the money, not giving it to them is a bigger hit than things like simply unfollowing/blocking, reblogging PSA's, and so on is!

Nope, it isn't like you're denying them some extreme amount of money by yourself, but every three, five, ten dollars is felt pretty hard when you desperately need money and/or are saving for something.

I know, I mean, I personally do know, that it's impossible to "get over" bullying, Anon. I'm in no way telling you to just get over it and move on, find some great well of not caring somewhere! What I'm saying is that there is power in not giving them power. The power to make you anxious, uncomfortable, unsafe, when you have every right to be here doing your thing and are not hurting anyone. And it might seem to be a deeply contrary sort of logic, but realizing and accepting that there are people out there who irrationally dislike you for literally no reason, that you cannot infallibly escape or avoid, despite doing nothing wrong is a bit empowering. Because it puts into perspective the things you can control, and when we know what is in our control, it's easier to just enjoy our time here without constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. If it drops, we can go put it back in the closet where it belongs.

It starts to put a positive spin on the whole, damned if I do, damned if I don't feeling, if that makes sense? I'm probably way too tired to try to be explaining this lol I'm sorry!

Anyway, again, I'm not implying you can or should do any, let alone all, of those suggestions! I just really hope that something will help you feel even a little bit more at ease. It's an unfair situation, it isn't right, and you have every reason to be uncomfortable and stressed. If I could make it happen, you better believe that every policing asshole out there would be writing heartfelt apology letters and sending donations to everyone they've upset lol but...since I can't make that happen, all I can do is say what I, personally, do, would do, or have done.

[it-is-i-zim]

I posted 779 times in 2021

9 posts created (1%)

770 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 85.6 posts.

I added 18 tags in 2021

#craig the gatherer - 5 posts

#kraven the hunter - 5 posts

#marvel - 1 posts

#magneto - 1 posts

#x-men - 1 posts

#professor x should've done something - 1 posts

#man did fuck all but tell others to stop magneto - 1 posts

#and the brotherhood - 1 posts

#they were actually trying to do something about discrimination - 1 posts

#the spectacular spider-man - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 62 characters

#they were actually trying to do something about discrimination

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

This is the lamp Craig got for his wife, Susan. She hates it and during bookclub she tries to hide it because she finds her husband's taxidermy embarrassing. It's terrible and hardly ever in good taste.

1 notes • Posted 2021-05-28 15:30:32 GMT

#4

Where do you work

I am not legally obligated to answer that question. If you truly wish to know I will set up a court date with my fictional lawyer, Matt Murdock, and we can discuss it there and then. In other words, I finally have work coming up and I'm not going to tell you, because even though I hate John (that's not his actual name just to clarify), I do like my job and need to keep it if I want a roof over my head.

1 notes • Posted 2021-03-18 03:57:59 GMT

#3

This is Craig the Gatherer. He's the middle aged, conservative, middle class cousin of Kraven the Hunter who lives in the suburbs. He works a blue collar, 9-5 job to support his wife and 3 kids. Yes, he has airpods. He might take his oldest son hunting ONCE during a summer where he shot himself in the foot and it had to be amputated. He claims he lost it when he went to the African Savanna and a lion bit his foot off and he had to wrestle it. He then bought a taxidermy lion head on Amazon to feed into the lie. He also owns several cursed looking Taxidermy, like wolves with peacock feathers, a tortoise with it's shell split to look like beetle wings, and a lamp that's a raccoon in a dress that he got off of eBay as a gift to his wife on their anniversary.

3 notes • Posted 2021-05-28 15:26:12 GMT

#2

Anyway, so it's 11:25 at night and I can't sleep because my mother is slamming things around downstairs, cursing at my father, and calling him a scumbag. It's not fun and I can't wait for work tomorrow because at least I know I'm not physically at risk. Am I at a health risk? Most likely, considering that corporate only designates that customers wear their masks, which doesn't necessarily mean that they have to use them (ex: mask chin). Emotionally? I'm absolutely at risk when people start berating me when I already have such a low self esteem and possible depression and/or anxiety but I don't actually know because my mother would never let me go to the doctor unless it was for a vaccine. Even better, I know first hand how corrupt the American Healthcare System is and how little doctors actually care for their patients considering the fact it didn't sent any red flags to my doctor when my mother would butt in her 2 cents whenever I was ask a question about my emotional well being. Let's not forget about the fact that I possibly have undiagnosed autism and my mother simply refused to let me get a real diagnosis. And because I'm 19, a legal adult, not very many people will actually diagnose me because of that fact alone.

3 notes • Posted 2021-05-19 03:34:50 GMT

#1

Have you ever just wanted to break down and cry because you hear someone say "I think the world is pretty fantastic." Clearly, you haven't spent time in an abusive household while working retail during a pandemic, having to listen to your mother scream at you and threaten to beat the shit out of you because you're struggling to apply for college because of your executive disfunction and then have to listen to strangers scream at you over corporate decision about the fact that you have to wear a mask while in store, to come home and have to listen to your mother threaten to jump up and punch you because you haven't done anything with your life yet and she basically considers you to be a 50 year old living at home event though your 19. At this rate due to the sheer amount of stress your under, and the fact that your mother will scream at you or your father, who she cheated on and who you believed was your full brother is apparently your half brother and his father is your mother's old gym instructor, at anywhere between 5 in the morning to 7 in the morning and at this point it's considered amazing if you even get 4 hours of sleep.

3 notes • Posted 2021-05-19 02:55:32 GMT

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