#I understand that it was just a phrasing issue but a callout post???

[chaifootsteps]

Reading Viv's callout post for DollCreep is kinda frustrating tbh. I wasn't there and none of us know exactly what the dynamic was like but that's why evidence is provided in these callout posts. To convince us that DollCreep is really bad. but.. the evidence provided isn't really on her side?

DC doesn't seem nice, exactly, but I'm not really feeling a lot of malicious intent? Not in the messages where they have normal-ish conversations and when their friendship still kinda existed? I'm not feeling much actual intent on abuse? I've been through some pretty nasty abusive relationships and I can understand being sensitive sometimes and needing a little more assurance but I don't think I'm comfortable calling DC totally abusive? Not without more evidence.

DC has an obsession with copying which isn't healthy. I dunno if I agree with him that the Viv ocs are copies but that also is more of an issue on his part rather than an intent on abusing Viv. I feel like there's gotta be more to that story.

Some of the messages seems more like critique than anything. The whole "those teeth look weird in your style" posts are more critique than abuse. It's not a nice way of phrasing it but DC doesn't seem delicate in general? His language is casual-harsh from the messages. Not horribly cruel? Maybe?

DC seems kind of exhausted with Viv saying the relationship wasn't healthy. To be honest it's probably not a healthy relationship and these two should've just stopped talking a long time ago. When DC does cut Viv off it seemed like it had been a long time coming. I've had to do something similar in my own life. Just sometimes on a certain day you chose to do it. It's not always because of a big blowout it can just be exhaustion. and if panic attacks were happening on the regular then it's not a bad thing they cut each other out.

DC gave Jiji to Viv as something of a peace offering. and in that message in particular (not underlined by Viv) Doll mentions that the copying obsession and character credit issue IS a personal problem that they're trying to work through. Something that isn't acknowledged in the rest of the callout. Viv obviously knows he has an issue with this subject and I feel like she could've spared a little more grace in acknowledging this is a personal problem for him. It's wrong for him to feel that way but it's clearly not just a 'DC is an asshole' situation. It's a mental issue. A hangup. A really nasty and unhealthy mental hangup.

His Afkinz stuff about Viv saying 'It's my story' in her underlined bits.. She bought Afkinz from DC. It seems like he's offering his own thoughts based on the character concept he created. He's not demanding anything just saying what he would've done with the character concept he created? Again, not in a NICE way but still.

I understand why Viv would remove part of DC's credit in Die Young but I still think she shouldn't have. She was angry at him but it doesn't change that it was a bad decision. In the art world credit is more highly valued than it is anywhere else and 'special thanks' doesn't mean much in comparison to a design credit.

Some of the parts towards the end are a bit.. weird. I dunno why she put up the original Jiji art mixed with rp logs to.. make fun of Jiji? The character made by DC was obviously a parody of scene girls.. not a real serious character. So it seems strange to say "wow so smart and original". She wasn't a character used in a real project so..

She's calling DC a stalker for just.. visiting her blog? I don't think that's terribly unusual? and Viv rants and talks about DC about as much as he did her? So.. I think they were both being annoying about all of this.

He made a crappy drawing of Viv.. but Viv made Jojo. So.. According to the writing under the drawing this was made AFTER Viv made Jojo. So.. I don't understand why she's shocked when she did the same thing first? and the 'dislikes' part is pretty.. concerning.

I really feel uncomfortable with Viv pointing out DC's characters that do 'extremely disturbing' things. Why even put this here? It adds nothing to the allegations and serves to shame DC. Especially when Viv does the same thing in romanticizing abusive relationships. Which.. I personally don't think is always wrong in every circumstance. and I know Viv doesn't see that as wrong either considering her OWN characters. So the only reason she put it there is to shame DC.

All in all. Pretty wild? I do think DC was a bad friend and they had a very toxic relationship but.. This is also something that should've been handled privately? Callouts really only need to happen if there's a clear and present danger to the general public. Nothing DC did was a danger to anyone but him and Viv. They should've went their separate ways and never spoken about each other again.

Instead this happened. Making it public was such a horrible idea and did nothing positive at all. It COULD NOT have had a positive outcome.

I think that's my takeaway from the whole thing too. DollCreep was no saint and they seem like they were both bad for each other, but from what we've heard of DollCreep, they seem to have disappeared, grown up, and become a better person. Vivzie hasn't.

Also, Dollcreep made a crappy drawing of Viv. Viv made a transphobic caricature of Dollcreep. Viv, you don't get a checkmark on that one.

[enneamage]

your SBI post made me realize something, which is that the insistence on anything only ever being exactly what you say it is and nothing more, in the context of fanfiction, shipping, porn, etc. ie: "it's platonic cuddling, you're the one making it weird!" functions on the same principle as the mcyt fandom approach to politics does. saying the right thing is valued above all else, discourse begins and ends at nit-picking language, and you're discouraged from going out and doing external research instead of "listening to (x) voices," in other words, folding to public opinion (see: the ranboo racism apology phenomenon). The end result being that calling out racism, homophobia, transphobia, and so on, is constantly used as a convenient cover for a secondary goal. for example, ranboo fans recently digging up stuff to get mad at matpat for while in reality, they're just pissed off that he called ranboo an ex-dsmp member… but if you try to say they don't actually care, it makes you seem callous to bigotry (SO YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT RACISM? vs SO YOU'RE MAKING THE HAND-HOLDING WEIRD, CREEP?) obviously, unknowingly participating in a kink community is a lot more overtly dangerous, but it's the same tendency in a different context: if you actually interrogate the political issues you're discoursing about, you don't get to use them whenever it's convenient anymore. if you actually consider whether you're writing kink fanfiction and call it what it is, you either don't get to write that kind of fanfiction anymore OR you don't get to participate in "polite society" anymore. the obsession with lists of boundaries and either badgering the CCs about them or piecing them together wholesale if they don't already exist, which is what creates the "but it's Platonic cuddling, kissing, BDSM, and marriage, i promise!" excuse in the first place, is another fixation on precise language...

(if my phrasing here is a little convoluted it's because i'm posting in Tired Mode, and you have to forgive me.)

To be fair, there are a lot of fandoms that go way back that have co-opted social justice causes to try and get what they want. This goes back at least a decade, this corner of the streamer sphere is just the most recent and pointed example because you can directly address one cc and get a response really quickly compared to a showrunner or team of people. In a lot of ways social justice language is some of the only power people (especially young people) will have online when it comes to getting what they want, so I understand why nobody wants to let it go or frame it differently even when it’s a personal beef or self-interest.

It’s not like these people are never right, this is a Youtube/Twitch/gaming space and it’s loaded with bad behavior that I would rather people be mindful and aware of. The issue is as you said, you can usually track a secondary goal underneath the callout, and it’s rarely as clean as it’s presented as. For whatever baffling reason Ranboo had a bunch of racist people defending him and he’s had to try and find ways to get that to stop, and that continues to be very real, but people were also pissed off at Ranboo for a bunch of other reasons that went unspoken.  

In some ways this situation is the child of black-and-white thinking, something is either absolutely right or absolutely wrong, and by extension people are either absolutely right or absolutely wrong. People are very afraid of being absolutely wrong themselves, so they hunt down specific permissions to do things, and then use the letter of the law to protect themselves when someone says “hey this is kinda off.”  

[rollercoasterwords]

I was the prev anon, and I definitely understand what you said! I definitely, should’ve not used the word acknowledge as in I should’ve worded that better but that makes sense. I read it at some point and I swore there was more issues with it but I guess not!

thanks i'm happy for the clarification! the main reason ur phrasing with "acknowledge" made me feel that the ask might be in bad faith is that asking for acknowledgment assumes a premise that something bad has already happened, in this case "use of slurs + racism," which is such a broad statement that i wasn't going to just agree to work from that premise especially since i feel it's a bit misinformed. but of course, saying "no i don't acknowledge that" makes me look like i'm dismissing any real concerns, so....it felt like a bit of a trap, even if that wasn't ur intent. and like i said, even if the intent is genuine, i'm automatically going to be more wary if it's coming from an anon.

and also - just want to make clear that my intent with that answer was not to say "you should completely dismiss all concerns bc i have now Absolved the work for you." if u read the work and found issues with it that you want to discuss, like i said, my dms are always open. it's just that a lot of the conversation i've seen regarding racism in atyd has been based on misinformation and bad-faith criticism that people who haven't actually read the work have just taken and run with, and that is something i have no desire to engage with. i don't want people to just parrot callout posts they see on twitter, and i also don't just want people to uncritically agree with my own posts. what i'm trying to encourage is for people to engage with texts openly and critically by themselves so that they can draw their own conclusions. like, my goal in saying "i feel that i can acknowledge the stereotypes in the greyback bootleg chapter while still loving atyd" is not for everyone to go "great rae said we're allowed to like it so we can," it's for you to consider whether you agree with that sentiment and whether you feel the same way. hopefully that comes through in what i wrote lol

[nightfall-1409]

sometimes i do in fact just balk at how ppl engage with and around discussions of disability and ableism.

Like ofc, being mindful of language is a nice thing and we should all strive to be nicer but if thats where your advocacy ends thats not great and further, imo esp amongst the disabled people I know just leads to non disabled individuals policing the jokes disabled people make.

implying that disabled characters 'should be' depicted as inferior to their nondisabled counterparts. That's ableism, Textbook ableism according to the APA. Discussions abt how the suffering of disabled characters should be always be central in narratives about them. That's ableism. (especially when its portrayed something that can be overcome.)

condoning disgust and shock responses to physical disabilities as "they're just thinking about themselves and thinking about what if what happened to you happened to them or someone they love". Is so ableist that I still cannot believe that I had to read it

The framing of disability as tragedy or something to be horrified at. Even if you think that saying "Well they're not disgusted by you they're disgusted thinking about if it happened to them" makes it better. It really doesn't, I think it makes it worse. "Well you're already disabled so who gives a shit. What if I, a normal person had that happen to me?" type vibes.

The consistent use of the medical model with characters with disability, where disability is something to be cured or corrected, with a mind to making a character "more normal" (i've also seen this phrased as "make them more human" which is particularly disgusting on top of deeply fucking ableist). This is also a highlight of the APA's discussion around ableism.

And to be clear: I don't go out of my way to yell at people when I see this stuff and I don't think others should either. I don't think that's helpful or productive. I take note of it, sure, especially if I've seen them make shitty comments before, and I might bitch about it out of context to fellow disabled friends, but I don't want to endorse callout culture or posting, it's unkind and imo most people don't want to perpetrate these sorts of attitudes, they're simply societal norms that they've never questioned, and I don't want trying to correct this issue to spiral into accusations of people being awful and spiking off defensiveness.

From Leah Smith's Article on Ableism on the Center for Disability Rights' website

Just like most forms of discrimination, ableism often shows its ugly face from nondisabled people with good intentions. Unfortunately, good intentions never solved any problems. So let’s put our good intentions aside and get to the root of what’s really going on. I believe much of ableism rests on the medical model of disability, in that we have first come to understand disability through the lens of a doctor- something is ‘wrong’ with this person and that ‘something’ needs to be fixed. This is how we are taught to think about disability. However, where we have interpreted the word “wrong” is where we have gone wrong. Just because something is different, does not mean it is bad. We live in a culture in which we have entire television series’ on the medical complications of different types of disabilities. [...] The best way to de-root ableism in our everyday lives, is to ensure that there’s always a seat at the table for those who are like you and those who are not, but also checking ourselves on how we treat people with disabilities once they are at the table. As simple as this sounds, de-rooting ableism is often as simple as just treating disabled people like you would anyone else.

And from NPR's "How to Talk About Disability and Avoid Ableist Tropes"

"Many disabled people subscribe to the social model of disability, which sees disability as the result of the interaction between people living with disabilities and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers. While it doesn't deny the reality that comes with living with a disability or the impact it has on an individual, it emphasizes the need for social change in order to accommodate disabled people." "The social model says that a disability is not my inherent problem and that something isn't inherently wrong with me as a person. I think it's more of the community aspect and how you can have diversity in your culture, versus the medical [model] of, like, you have to be fixed, you have to blend in with the norm and this is how we're going to do that to fix you," said McDonnell-Horita. The disability pride movement stemmed from the social model of disability, as it frames disability as a cultural identity and a natural part of human diversity. Disabled people have used pride to affirm the self-worth and agency of disabled individuals and as a tool for combating systemic ableism.

I've got faith that this doesn't have to be the way things remain. I do.

[green-lanterns-c0ck]

Did you ever make a callout post about how Hal was terrible to guy and/or john, and why hes not the best green lantern, despite popular opinion?

Not yet! I talked a little about Hal's treatment of Guy in my GuyHal essay here: Link and a bit about his treatment of John here: Link

I'm not sure I ever brought it up in a post before but Hal not being the best Green Lantern 100% used to be true until Geoff Johns rewrote history in 2004 - Before that, it was always John.

For example: John is a better flyer than Hal. It's set up in his first appearance when Hal says he has a real talent:

Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart flying. Narrative says: "For hours, they practice in the sky above the city..."

Hal says: "You have a real talent, John! You've quickly mastered the skills necessary to sustain flight -"

John replies: "It's easy compared to the skills needed to reach my pad after dark! Those muggers - something else!"

And later brought up more explicitly, like here:

Narrative boxes talking about Green Lantern John Stewart. Box 1 reads: "Of all the Green Lanterns of Earth, John Stewart was always the best flyer." Box 2 reads: "When noticing his strenght at flight, Hal Jordan had called him a natural athlete. John had thanked him and then asked if Hal thought "... all black men were natural athletes?"

John also just beats Hal whenever they fight. It's pretty funny, in my opinion.

I am also a firm believer in John Supremacy, meaning: If John had been old enough to be eligible for the ring when Hal first got it, he would have gotten it. There would have been no argument, no considering two equally worthy candidates - That ring would've gone to John, no questions asked.

I will probably write a longer post compiling at this eventually, but... Anon, Nonny, my beloved. It will not be a callout post. Hal Jordan is a fictional character, I cannot call him out.

[autisticandroids]

bro, u and ur anons keep talking about cas being "complicit" in his abuse by being too afraid and beaten down to even slightly disagree with dean, and how he just needs to start standing up for himself?

and while its true that cas pushing dean around even a little bit would fix a lot of their relationship problems, phrasing it that way just seems... idk... supremely victim blame-y to me. like, the responsibility is somehow on cas to sort through his own trauma enough to gain an unbiased view of the situation, while he is still actively in the abusive situation that caused that very same trauma in the first place, and then risk (in his mind) the only meaningful relationship he has left by pushing dean away enough to set boundaries? as opposed to it being dean's responsibility not to treat people like disobedient pets? dean of course has his own issues that make it hard for him to see things clearly, to put it mildly, but cmon, these are not even remotely the same caliber lol.

furthermore, i know having someone else come along and say "he doesn't love u! he wouldnt mourn u if u died! dump him!" helps a lot of ppl wake up to abuse, but in cas's case, my gut instinct says that would make it a thousand times worse?? bc, on some level, cas already believes that, and that's part of the problem??? obviously the whole suicide fantasy thing can be damaging to fans, but even if cas himself has that fantasy, i doubt he genuinely thinks that's what's going to happen when he dies. im sure he WANTS dean to mourn him like a widow, but he fully expects dean to move on and even be happier (in the long run) once cas is gone, which is part of why he’s sacrificing himself in the first place.

it's shitty of the showrunners to craft this narrative in the first place, but i dont think it is inherently worse for the fantasy to be fulfilled than not... either way, it's rewarding/justifying cas's decision, unless cas stays dead AND dean is miserable, and they really lean into it being a Tragic Ending. even fics that try to avoid this problem often just make things worse bc ive seen multiple fics that bring cas back just to have dean punish him further, with no self-awareness on dean's part. like, the man is so miserable with guilt and loneliness and hopelessness that he kills himself, and u (dean/fanfic authors, not mx. androids) think the appropriate way to respond to that is to make him feel guilty and selfish and weak for turning to suicide??? wtf??? truly NO ONE wins in the game of supernatural

anyway im genuinely not trying to do a callout post here or anything, im positive none of yall meant it in that way, i just wanna know more about ur perspective on this. no pressure to respond if u dont want tho. (also i know im talking abt fictional boys like theyre real ppl with thoughts and feelings but this show simply isnt interesting to me otherwise, love & light xoxo)

i have never referred to cas as complicit in his own abuse. i have referred to him as complicit in dean's abuse of jack, as well as potentially complicit in dean's abuse of sam. he's also complicit in a bunch of other terrible things dean has done to other people or induced him to do to other people.

i have discussed the way that cas gets used to being abused and makes a home there, to the extent that even when he has opportunities to improve his situation he stays in his little corner because he really doesn't understand how to get out (not has he ever experienced anything really all that different) but while that's his choice it's not really his fault in the same way. it's tragic, he isn't to blame.

re: the suicide thing i was mostly being snarky and pissed off, throwing spaghetti at the wall. you are right, there is no good answer. no one wins supernatural.

[nyadversary]

18, 19, 25

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

totally, although usually the “alternative versions” are just super early drafts that don’t go anywhere. i do have an example to share though because i’ve got all my early draft notes from the story i wrote as a senior project in high school (it wasn’t done in a traditional format, i told it online via character blogs, but it ended up running somewhere between 60k-70k words iirc). 

the initial idea for the story was about a twelve-year-old girl named luna who discovers a gateway to a magical realm (as one does) and goes on strange adventures (as one does) but i wanted it to be some sort of genre deconstruction. i was like fifteen and edgy when i was first planning out this story so naturally my first thought was “what if it’s all in the protagonist’s head and she’s crazy” and that’s what i ran with initially. problems i ran into were 1) this has been done to death and 2) her inability to distinguish fantasy from reality made her a really unreliable narrator. i wanted to tell the story in first person from her perspective but i realized that at a bare minimum i needed a more grounded secondary character for her to play off of. probably someone older, just so i wasn’t totally trapped in the perspective of a child when telling the story. 

so i came up with another character. initially this character was a boy named john patrick who was a few years older than luna (fifteen/sixteen) and sort of a big brother figure to her. i wound up deciding after a short time that i didn’t want to write an older boy / younger girl dynamic as the central relationship in the story in case that was misinterpreted as inappropriate on the part of the boy, especially since the intent was that they were strictly friends. so i thought, okay, john patrick is now jacqueline patricia. then i changed that to patricia jacqueline because i thought it sounded better. then i wound up just calling the character “jack” for short. the idea of this character as a girl never fully took in my mind or something because i wound up giving jack a whole host of Gender Issues and essentially implying she’s transmasc but hasn’t figured it out yet. complete coincidence that i came out right around the time i finished writing this story

anyway. jack wound up becoming primary narrator, i wound up having to explain under what circumstance these two were even spending time together (given that the age difference was such they wouldn’t view each other as peers, and i wanted them to be strangers at the beginning of the story) and that led into a plotline about luna’s eccentric/absentee parents hiring jack to hang out with their daughter, while hiding the arrangement from luna. jack agrees to this because she’s actually lonely enough to take any “friends” she can get and figures it’s a win/win if she has someone to hang out with AND gets paid, plus sees it as a fuck-you to both sets of parents for putting them in this situation (general teenage resentment + plot issues that would take a while to explain) if she manages to genuinely befriend the girl. once i had that idea in my head i just started writing mostly seat-of-the pants and it wound up being a story about a toxic/codependent relationship that ends pretty badly for all involved. not at all what i’d originally planned, but definitely better, i think.

i’ve played with going back to those characters and written some stuff that could wind up being a sequel / rewrite / combination sequel and rewrite, but all that is currently on the back burner lol

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

there are definitely words/phrases i will habitually use, but it changes over time, i’m not sure what the current go-to examples would be. i dunno what i describe too often, if anything, as i actually feel like writing description is an overall weak point for me (i don’t have a super visual imagination). as for trope i can’t get enough of, i have way too many favorite tropes and listing them off would just turn into a callout post for myself

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

i love writing dialogue! it always feels like the most organic part of the process — just letting the characters play off each other. you can fit so much characterization etc into dialogue even if what they’re actually discussing is unimportant to the plot, wrt. fanfic, literally the main reason i like writing fanfiction is sometimes i see a character and think “it would be fun to try writing that character,” and doing that well/convincingly boils down in large part to getting their voice down and understanding how they talk down to the minor details like phrasing, word choice, verbal tics, etc. which, like, i also love overanalyzing fictional characters, win/win really

[0ssianic]

Name: 0ssianic, on both tumblr and AO3

Fandoms: I bop around a lot, but I consider my main ones Persona, Hikaru no Go, and  Natsume’s Book of Friends. back when I was 13, i wrote PJO fics

Most popular oneshot: By both hits and kudos, its The Thin Layer That Separates Us

Most popular multichapter: sorting by hits and kudos again, this one is Honinbou-sensei. Although, this story is only 2 chapters atm and it’s on the backburner. I don’t have any completed multichap stories so this prob isnt the best representation of my stuff

Fics Nervous to post: The first one! After a several year gap of having not posted anything online, i was so nervous to post even a small test of an idea. Since then, it’s definitely been easier to go through with posting stuff

Coming Soon: A new what if? story for Hikaru no Go and hopefully I’ll get to some new chapters of “Into the Tomb of Her Heart“

Favorite things to write: Fluff and pseudo character studies

Actual worst part of writing: Trying to get between story beats. I’ll have these visuals in my head, but the path in between is blank. My most extreme example is Into the Tomb of Her Heart because I have the very first scene and the last scene completed but the middle is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How you choose your titles: I try to summarize the story down to a few words or a phrase. They’re mostly literal, sometimes with symbolism or imagery in them

Do you outline: I make notes of what events I want to happen and what the results should be, mainly so I don’t forget and to help myself figure out the order of how it should go later.

One thing I do try to outline and have a solid understanding of is the underlying emotional throughline of a story. It’s something I find more useful than a plot outline, especially when the fic in question is a character alone and thinking to themselves (of which i have written 3 of in the last few months).

 Ideas I probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?

I love god!natsume stories and there’s this one i like where natsume was raised by yokai, but it hasn’t been updated in years. i’ve always thought i should try my hand at one of these types of stories, but don’t really have any ideas beyond the premise

I think it’d be neat to do some kind of compare and contrast between Lisa and Ann from Persona, given that they have similar story issues and looks, but I feel they come across as very different characters. If I ever got around to this, I would want to finish P2IS and P2EP first which will take a while given that the fan translation of P2EP for psp isnt done yet

Callouts @ Me: ‘’’’just’’’’  & using the pattern “subject (past tense) verb, present participle verb blah blah”

Spicy Tangential Opinion: idk if this is a spicy take or not, but I think the “exclude” options on AO3 should be used liberally by readers. I exclude tags all the time. I think of it as being proactive about the “don’t like don’t read” phrase. 

[tbatf-callout]

Tbatf Callout

This is a collection of over 20+ people, with their own stories and issues with the creators of TBATF.

TBATF is a popular eddsworld comic with a huge fanbase. Of course, these people who all chose to remain anonymous to avoid being attacked and harassed came together and decided enough was enough. We want to make this clear, we aren't jealous of their fame, or who they interact with. We aren't jealous of their fans. We are concern individuals,  who either been hurt, shunned and/or manipulated.  We weren't lurking in the shadows and we certainly aren't liars.  Everything posted below is the truth share between-now friends. Now you have the right to take what we say with a grain of salt but we assure you we aren't lying. For this reason, we will not be referencing anything from the official TBATF comic. The issues with the comic itself are purely speculation and humor is different for everyone.  

What we want from doing this post, is that we all as fans learn to not blindly follow others, and understand that even our favorite people can do horrible things.  We don't want a fandom war, we don't want people being hurt or attacked over their decision after reading this. It just to get the truth out.

This is Jax, one of the creators of TBATF personal discord, and this was her message to this ex-fan. This is horrible, this is disgusting. No matter what, that was a line she decided to cross. Now it's well known, Jax is in her later 20's. Jax is in control of her own actions, and mature enough to know that this is wrong, but she sent it anyway. Now you can say "but maybe they deserve that message". No. They did nothing, and here what happen before Jax sent this.

We have cut out our friend name for their safety, and Eli is a fake name for the sake of avoiding any harassing. This person did nothing wrong, we aren't even sure why Jax was so angry to even start attacking this person. But this is disgusting and shame on her, for thinking she could ever send this to someone.

Manipulation Intentional or not, manipulation can be severely damaging to everybody's mentality and the people around them. One big red flag of manipulation is changing the story and bringing out what seems like "love" and "support" when people start calling you out for bad behaviors. You ever hear the phrase "I didn't mean it, you know I love you"? That is one of the most common manipulation tactics that we see going through the posts that the crew of TBATF has pushed out.

Once criticizing becomes too hard for the crew to bare, they often send out what they call a heartfelt post of "we love you all and don't believe what other people are saying about us" type of post. These contribute to them not only guilt-tripping their audiences to be on their side.  When this offense is repeated, it shows that the crew knows exactly what they're doing is wrong and gathers "supporters" who know absolutely nothing about the full situation and only knows what the TBATF crew tells them.

According to Psychology Today, "guilt trips are a form of verbal or nonverbal communication in which a guilt inducer tries to induce guilty feelings in a target, in an effort to control their behavior. As such, guilt trips are a clear form of psychological manipulation and coercion." In other words, guilt-tripping is the conscious act of forcing your feelings into other people in order to control their decisions and behavior patterns. You control them like sheep and not letting the audience choose their own sides when all the evidence is placed on the table.

On the site "Learning Mind", we learn that there are a few ways that we as a group can recognize blatant guilt-tripping. One of the big ones is the seventh one that is listed "7. You don’t feel as if you can say ‘No’." When it comes to the conditions that TBATF layout, they have strict rules and a narrow mindset, these are big creators that have in the past lashed out at other creators that had different harmless viewpoints. To them, agree to disagree doesn't exist and they don't seem to put those viewpoints past the person in front of them. When younger children interact with these people (we know their fanbase are younger kids) they want to live up to their expectations and don't seem to look at their idol's awful behaviors and instead of blinding themselves to a toxic idolization of a toxic person. It happens often with big YouTubers who have either done appalling things or started dreadful trends.

Anti-Ship/Anti-Fandom

The main rule enforced in the servers any of the creators are mods or admins in having this one rule in common. No Shipping

However, as most know, this is a rule they've been well known for breaking, as long as it's not two men or two women. In their server, they have a strict no ship rule. Which we are aganist, but not for their reason of "avoiding ship wars". The problem is how they do handle the issue when ships is brought up. There a correct way and wrong way of coming at it.People who post art have to do this

or else they get gang on and harassed and their content deleted if the boys are close together or something stupid like that. 

They act like people who draw or write these ships or different fanon ideas as...kinda bad people. 

They seem to act that if you don't follow eddsworld canon, you aren't in the right and people who have interacted with them, came forward and said they felt bad for shipping or for liking certain characters. It's dishearting to hear from people you look too, saying how awful certain things you enjoy when the things you enjoy aren't bad. Shipping isn't bad as long as you respect others. If you ship and someone else doesn't, then that's okay. If you have a headcanon and someone else doesn't, also okay. As long as it isn't a problematic trope, then go for it. But these creators don't seem to understand this, and instead attack and belittle.

Now they used to have blog, which they consider their steampunk au. In said au, each of the boys, or how they phrase it,  their ancestors (while completely identical to the main characters with altered outfits), have a female partner. Three of them are white, except for Tord's wife, who is a whitewashed Japanese character.

The main focus will now be on her, as she is the most problematic. When Tord is portrayed, he is seen as a cheater, along with the other boys every once in a while. When asked why he doesn't get a divorce, he gets a gun put to his head, and states she is the daughter of the leader of the mafia and would kill him if he even tried. They are still portrayed as very sexual with each other, almost ignoring the fact Tord is not willingly with her. It also pushes some stereotypes (usually European) of violent and forceful Asian people, while highly sexualizing her. When cosplayed, she is always depicted as a white woman, as long as she has a large bust. They don't mind this ship and don't get on people either when they ship Eduardo and Laurel. So what assumption are we suppose to make? Hetero ships is fine, but if we make it same-sex couple it's bad?

(This isn’t true in our experience and were all in many servers? This is a trick to try to sell their nonshipping in rule. Like look what happens if we don’t have this rule, the fandom is nasty and horrible and we’re the only safe place)

There still a lot of issues but we figure to end it here and be open to discussion. It took a lot to even decide to get to this point and we want the truth to be out. We're tired of being label as liars, people who are jealous, haters, etc.  Please don't harass anyone, and don't send hate to each other.  Thank you for your time.

[quasarkisses]

Hey can you tag stuff related to protests thats easier to screen for? Phrases can be hard and I'm actively trying to preserve my mental health and not be inundated with that without knowing what I'm getting into. Thanks

i tag all protest/police violence/callouts of racism things under “don’t look away”, i’m confused as to why just sticking that into tumblr’s built-in tag blocker in the general settings wouldn’t be an effective method of blocking all posts tagged with that?

please let me know if I’m not understanding either the issue or the tag blocking system somehow tho and i’ll make efforts to accommodate further

[lisbonsteresa]

in defense of wyatt's ill-timed confession: the man was also grieving and did not seem in control of his emotions. don't get me wrong i think it was incredibly poor writing and seemed like a hail mary for lyatt fans (which i still am deep down) but it was so poorly executed and really shouldn't have happened at all in that moment, however he is grieving rufus and had several traumatic events on top of immense guilt. anyway i dont feel like any confession on his part should have happened in s2

Thing of it is nonnie, I would have probably let that ‘confession’ stand and not had any feelings on it one way or another had he not brought up Rufus. This season has brought lyatt to such an ‘eh’ place for me that despite what was said in that scene, or how Lucy reacted, I wouldn’t have given it much credence and let it play out however it did and kept my thoughts to myself. But since he did bring Rufus into it, the whole speech makes me angry instead.

For the one thing, I don’t think Rufus gave even the slightest shit about what was going on with Wyatt-Lucy-Jessica after 2.06. Because he had more important things to worry about. (in all honesty i don’t think he cared too much about it before that because he had Jiya’s visions and other missions to think about, but he did comment on it so I’ll allow it). Rufus learns that he’s going to die, and that very understandably takes vast precedence over whatever mess of a love triangle Wyatt’s got going on. (I would even argue that from 2.06 onward we get almost a clear-cut split between the W-L-J plot and the Rufus and Jiya plot - there are still moments when they all interact, but they don’t involve discussing their relationships until Rufus - very rightly - tells Wyatt off in the finale.)

Even if we allow the idea that Rufus was concerned about what was going on with Wyatt’s situation throughout the whole season, he sure as hell wasn’t after one third of that triangle took the love of his life captive and stole the Lifeboat. “You got so caught up in this Lucy and Jessica soap opera that you forgot there are other people in this bunker, people who love each other” is a pretty clear indicator that Rufus was waaaaaay far off of the ‘ss lyatt’ (or the ss jyatt or the ss anything involving those idiots). He was most certainly not standing in the background, wishing and hoping and cheering for a lyatt reunion, and even if he was, you could not pay me all the money in the world to think he would react with ‘it’s about damn time’.

Maybe if Wyatt had reacted differently to his callout in 2.01 he may have said that. Maybe in the aftermath of Hollywoodland he said/thought that. But after 2.04? (sub-point that adds to this; I believe @trash-by-european-villains made a post of a similar nature where they said that Rufus is loyal. he is a loyal friend to Wyatt, yes, but he’s also a loyal friend to Lucy. and he might have been pushing Wyatt to say something during WWII and waving metaphorical pom-poms after 2.03, but just because he was the captain of the lyatt cheering squad for the first few episodes (a separate issue altogether, but i digress) does not mean that he would continue supporting them being together after the mess that happened with Jess. He spent the rest of the season supportive of Wyatt making a go of it with Jess but also there to comfort Lucy in her reactions to it (when he was included in that plot at all) and honestly if you think he was still waiting in the wings for a lyatt reunion after seeing how hurt Lucy was by the entire situation, then I’m inclined to think you don’t think too much about Rufus as his own character or about Rufus and Lucy’s friendship.

And especially after 2.06? Nope, nuh-uh, he had his own shit to deal with. And that shit came into direct conflict with Wyatt’s shit and he was not happy about it, so honestly get outta here with that ‘it’s what Rufus would have wanted’ bs because I do not think he could have cared less about lyatt with everything else going on. (also, small, petty point becauseimstillmadwelosthimatall - Rufus is……how should I say this…dead. you know what he wanted? to not die. Rufus doesn’t give a single fuck about who you love ‘wherever he is’ Wyatt, and I’m so mad that they gave him the gall to include that line at all).

Moving on - and more to your point nonnie - I get that Wyatt was grieving and not fully in control of his emotions/actions, I will most definitely allow him that. He has gone through a lot of confusing feelings this season, and then in the finale he was ‘betrayed’ (quotes because I’m still not over that whole storyline and wow. much shock.) by the person he saw as his family, loses his wife all over again - this time by her choice and taking his child with her - and then loses his best friend. So of course he’s a mess, I get that. However…..know who’s also a mess? Know who also lost any family they had left, and their best friend, and even themselves? Lucy.

Lucy Preston has systematically been broken down through this entire season; she has lost everything and she has gone to a VERY dark place (I’m talking dark and scary and violent- let’s not forget that if that gun has been loaded, Lucy would have sprayed Emma’s brain all over that alley). And I don’t know if that ‘confession’ was supposed to be Wyatt comforting her or a nice moment for them to bond over their shared pain, but it sure as hell was neither for me. Lucy has spent the majority of this season having to grin and bear her way through this whole Jessica situation; had to deal with the pain of losing Wyatt and then seeing him (and hearing him) with his wife every damn day; had to deal with Wyatt wanting to have his cake and eat it to, with him not understanding that she needed space and instead expecting their relationship to be as close and comfortable as it had been, and damn that is a lot. And then on top of that she has losing her mom, losing Amy, losing Rufus piling onto her shoulders. If anyone should be making wild statements and confessions, it should be Lucy.

Putting all that aside, the timeline of the episode and how it led to Wyatt’s ‘confession’ irks me. Whatever your feelings on Jessica, it is made very clear that Wyatt loved and likely still does love her. It might not be the same way he did before the reveal; he might not want to, but this woman was his family and he spent years trying to get her back and she is carrying his child and he still has a connection to and feelings for her. Even if you want to argue that the feelings are only about the baby, they’re still there. We go from Wyatt pleading Jess to stay with him, telling her through teary eyes that he’s her family, he and the baby are her family and her future, and stopping Flynn from shooting at her because she’s carrying his child, to Wyatt sitting next to Lucy and essentially telling her he’s been in love with her the whole time. And it just doesn’t match up with what we’ve seen and it doesn’t make sense.

Because that means that either Wyatt HAS been in love with Lucy this whole time, but he still tried to make things work with Jess (not supported by the plot, but ya know) which isn’t fair for either woman but is honestly cruel to Lucy, because in that case there was no reason for her to go through so much pain on Wyatt’s behalf when he could have just told Jess from the start he had fallen for someone else; or (supported by the plot) he did have feelings for Lucy but he got his wife, who he never properly let go of/moved on from, back, and he stopped whatever he had started with Lucy to try again with Jess, in which case I still maintain it could have been handled SO much better but his actions are more understandable. But if it is the latter, than the show just stomps all over everything it had previously told us by having Wyatt say he’s been in love with Lucy and ‘should have said it a long time ago, but I didn’t so I’m saying it now’.

The whole thing feels very contradictory and - to ME - really just makes Lucy look like a second choice. By which I mean Wyatt went through all this drama, all this mess with Jess, and then after her secret was revealed - again, much shock. - and he STILL ran after her and tried to convince her to stay with him, maybe 3-4 hours later he’s telling Lucy he’s loved her through all of it, which, no, doesn’t hold water for me. Lucy does not deserve that being thrust on her with everything else she’s dealing with, regardless of Wyatt’s state of distress/unstable emotion.

And, to bring the two points - kind of - together, she REALLY did not need Wyatt’s feelings thrust upon her with the added note - and pressure - that this is what Rufus would have wanted. Which just…..mhmhm that was so unnecessary. Because - again, to ME - that makes it feel like Lucy is almost being guilted. ‘It’s what Rufus wanted’ - well first of all, no, second of all it makes it seem like she’d be disrespecting Rufus’s memory or his wishes if she DOESN’T respond to this positively. And I know that’s not the intention, but wow it sure is what I got out of it.

So…..TLDR nonnie; while I can understand and sympathize to a certain extent with the pain and turmoil and guilt Wyatt is feeling, the timing and phrasing of his ‘confession’ really rubbed me the wrong way and I don’t feel like it benefited anyone other than Wyatt himself.

[bananannabeth]

Hi! So you’ve been a huge advocate for greater representation of ethnic and sexual minorities and stuff - definitely agree with you there, definitely something we need more of - but I saw this post of yours where you said people were attacking sophii for criticising the way rick portrays his minority characters, and maybe they have a point? (Ps pls don’t blast me for just criticising anybody who isn’t straight/white/male because I’m bi/brown/female 😂) So firstly, I remember how you (1)

yourself didn’t want to write Sirin Cove from the POV of certain PoC and stuff because you felt you couldn’t do justice to them or stay true to their heritage and stuff - maybe that’s one factor to take into account, maybe Rick feels the same way? Because - and here’s my second thought - he DOES have a LOT more representation than a whole lot of widely-read YA authors out there, especially with the Magnus Chase series. And while to a certain extent we’re justified in wanting characters that actually interact with their heritage and stuff and are justified in pushing him to write those characters, shouldn’t we also be supporting the fact that he’s representing so many of us already? And pushing other authors to follow his example? 

Third point - representation in itself is tough simply because there are so many people to represent, and I can’t imagine it’s easy to work them “acknowledging their heritage in any meaningful way” into the already very complex plot of a story. Because as mentioned, there are so many people to represent, and to have all of them acknowledge their heritage MEANINGFULLY would surely take up a lot of space, and again, maybe rick doesn’t feel comfortable representing them because he feels he can’t do them justice (especially because you have to admit today’s internet environment has become kinda toxic, and you can come under massive fire for almost anything, even when it’s undeserved, because people twist your actions/words and make them out to be more than they are, and honestly because sometimes people just can’t take a joke!) And Rick does have his characters acknowledge their heritage! Sam in MC, Leo in HoO, even Frank and Hazel to some extent all acknowledge their heritage very meaningfully (I’m sorry I’m using “acknowledge their heritage meaningfully” so often, can’t think of another phrase!) And the thing is with all these characters, the acknowledgement doesn’t happen every other page because it’d be hindering the plot AND frankly it’s just not needed! 

If I was reading a book and one of the characters was brown, I’d honestly just feel weirded out if she kept referencing her heritage every few lines or whatever. And I would love a lot of brown jokes (the way Leo makes Hispanic jokes n reference) but “meaningfully acknowledging their heritage” the way the post said it, with a lot of deep, serious shit would not only be weird but if it happened too frequently would also alienate a lot of readers, because these are after all minority characters.

DEF. not saying representation is in ANY WAY AT ALL a bad thing, it’s just.. all those things that I just said. I’m really really sorry is this is coming across as rude or anything, I swear I’m just trying to understand your pov better. So what do you think?? (Ps Toxic callout culture and toxic activism sucks, and the fact that people “attacked” sophii is entirely deplorable and unacceptable. Also the way you promote healthy discussions and calmly answer all your asks is awesome, tysm! ❤️😂)

Whoa, this is.. a lot to unpack wow. I love your passion, firstly, and thanks for being so polite in your ask/explanation. Disclaimer that I’m white, I’m speaking only for myself here, and I am most definitely not an authority on this issue in any sense.

You’re right that I myself am writing a book with a white protagonist because I don’t think I could write a protagonist of colour believably well, and I do still maintain that the single most important thing we as readers can do to help change the racism present in publishing is to vocally and monetarily support authors of colour telling own-voice stories.

However, I do also think it’s fair to acknowledge that yes, Rick is much better than a lot of other mainstream authors, YA or not, with the diversity of his characters and his willingness to step outside of the straight white default that has been so pervasive in publishing. But, just because he’s better than most doesn’t mean that he’s beyond reproach, or that he doesn’t have any more work to do.

Sophii touched on it in another post, but meaningful interactions with heritage don’t have to involve constant repetitions of characters’ skin colour or race (in fact, they shouldn’t, not unless you’re doing the same for all your white characters, too, and if you are then you’re not writing well), or grinding the plot to a halt to cram in references to religious practices or extended info-dumping on politics. 

However, your characters’ backgrounds should impact everything they do in the present, and spouting a few words in a language other than English isn’t enough. Readers shouldn’t be forced to fill in the blanks of how important a character’s race and heritage is to their identity. 

For some examples just off the top of my head, Hazel should have had a response to the comparative lack of segregation in the modern world. The whole build up about how important Frank’s ancestors were should have led to some important discussions about his family history, how he reconciles the Chinese beliefs with the Roman ones. 

Dear god, the last thing I want is for Rick to write a series from the POV of each of his characters. I can think of nothing worse. But maybe that comes down to, again, his poor choices regarding the structure of his narrative. I maintain that there are too many ‘main’ characters and too many POVs in HoO, which makes things cluttered enough as it is. If he’d cut things down, each character could have been given so much more development in every sense.

It’s not hard to drop in a reference to a character’s background every now and then in dialogue. Rick does this pretty well with Samirah in the two Magnus Chase books I’ve read, I think, so perhaps he’s improving with time, but that doesn’t mean that people can’t be annoyed about choices he made in his old work. And the only way he’s ever going to improve is if people inform he when he makes mistakes.

I don’t know if this has clarified anything for you, but I suppose the crux of it is that asking Rick to do better in future by pointing out his mistakes isn’t disregarding all the good he’s done.

[theteenagetrickster]

Techno is technocracy

This year noted the 400th wedding anniversary of the transatlantic slave labor and the arrival of 20-30 West Africans to the United States contents. In August, The New York City Times Magazine, led by personnel press reporter and investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, released the very first edition of The 1619 Project, a collection of essays, rhymes, fiction and also photography that re-examines and also starts the sluggish procedure of changing United States background with correctives on occasions of structurally- and also socially-ordained public and also financial oppression of dark individuals. This change in race conversation certainly overflowed into the worldwide electronic popular music scene, as direct as well as understandable reminders of the extraction as well as erasure of dark culture through callouts and social networks retaliation.

The popular music market has always done not have nuance in respect to cultural sensitivity and recognition. In 2019 the need for a collective understanding of the importance of portrayal as well as liability seemed extra publicly vital. As the massive historic concern of The United States's tormented past is put in to situation through, primarily, black scholars and thinkers via a public organization, the significance and also worth of American culture and assets were also disputed.

The phrase "techno" was created by futurist and also business person Alvin Toffler in his 1980 book The 3rd Surge, which illustrates "created" countries, like The United States, and also their economic shifts coming from commercial creation to data-driven labor. Techno, as dark music and method, is coded along with industrial economic conditions and also involvement with market circulation. Its focus on beat patternization lends itself to become interlocked with various other monitors-- an excellent metaphor for American wonderful futurism, along with running as a literal social line, certainly not as well unlike the dark folk-tradition of storytelling.

Toffler's usage of techno was directly in endorsement to technocracy, or even a regulating system led by an elite lesson of technical professionals that create systems of development for a class of mostly skill-less consumers. Toffler notified technocracy had the potential to destabilize training class wheelchair and social areas via a "technocratic divide" which prefers the "notified" opinions of technological experts over a marginalized, and presumably questionable, community. When considering the specificity of African-Americans' 400-year-long history of injustice by methods of an only white European colonial controling physical body, the understanding of technocracy appears a whole lot even more scary.

Juan Atkins, that emerged the techno noise in the group Cybotron, 1st faced Toffler's creating in a secondary school course referred to as Future Studies. In the midst of Detroit's neglecting automotive field as well as the consequences of the ethnicity troubles of the 1970s, Cybotron's popular music reflected the industrial boom and decline of the metropolitan area which was meant to be actually an example of an American capitalist utopia. Detroit's failure in to dystopia motivated white colored people to take off to the residential areas, taking tasks as well as resources with them. The futurist bests of Toffler's works, along with his idea of the "techno revolutionist" who would certainly not really feel restricted or even defined by modern technology, encouraged Cybotron's popular music as they utilized readily available innovation to promote cutting-edge end results. In 1981, Juan Atkins created Cybotron's 'Planetary Cars' with the intent of it being actually a "unique as well as bold item of synthesizer rut, extra harmonic with Germany than the remainder of Black America." That exact same year in 1981, Paul Lesley as well as Sterling Jones' A Variety of Titles released 'Sharevari' which is often taken into consideration an early instance of techno.

Both Cybotron and A Lot of Brands's songs had their tracks transmitted on WGPR, 107.5 FM's Electrifying Mojo, a radio series along with a mainly black viewers as well as eclectic playlists consisting of music through Royal prince, the B-52s as well as Kraftwerk that influenced a lot of the Detroit sound. A year eventually, while on a see to The big apple, Atkins heard Afrika Bambaataa's 'World Rock' and viewed it as a better instance of his sonic sight. In 1988, Derrick May, a recognized pioneer of techno as well as ex-Northern Soul DJ and Kool Kat Records boss, Neil Rushton, assembled a cd of very early Detroit keep tracks of contacted Techno! The New Dancing Noise of Detroit for Virgin Records UK imprint 10 Records, which would certainly put the condition "techno" in to flow among music-buyers as well as journalists.

In July of this year, Mixmag operated a cover story entitled, "Exactly how Richie Hawtin improved digital popular music regularly and also once more". The British striking publication, which released its own debut issue in 1983 along with United States black disco group Shalamar on the cover, apparently formalized techno for worldwide consumption, according to a 2015 retrospective in The Independent; techno and acid house were actually certainly not imported in to the UK till 1988, a year after Phuture's 'Acid Rails' was actually launched. Much of digital popular music past prefers the job of Hawtin as one of the most significant Detroit DJ and developer as well as many years after the "invention" of techno in Detroit, Mixmag organized Richie Hawtin as the criterion wherefore a digital music icon can appear like.

The account, written by long time music writer as well as previous SIMPLE FACT factor Joe Muggs, illustrates Canada-native Hawtin's specialized proficiency as well as how he "longed for releasing on Derrick May's Transmat or Juan Atkins's Metroplex but [was actually] unable to receive the interest of [his] idolizers" and instead established his personal label, Plus 8, in 1990.

Five years after the label's creation, James Stinson of Drexciya talked to a critical and an unanswered question while being talked to through Tune Creator: "Why do Richie and his Additionally 8 household come down below as well as toss celebrations in midtown Detroit? ... [He] introduces all these youngsters from the suburbs and also from Canada and that shows a shortage of appreciation. I have actually been actually to everyone of those celebrations and I've never heard an Underground Resistance record, a Cybotron report, a Design 500 file or even an Eddie Fowlkes document. It's an overall disrespect and it's reached hinder."

Fast-forward to Oct 2019. Cold DJ/producer Nina Kraviz blog posts an image of herself on Twitter using cornrows, urging notable review. When confronted, Kraviz answered: "Realities examining [sic] For those who didn't recognize. I am actually not white european [sic] Braids is actually [sic] a part of several cultures. Heres [sic] is actually a viewpoint from a past history teacher." The "point of view" was provided through a screengrab coming from Quora, a user-edited question-and-answer site. Pigtails as well as cornrows are actually known typical African hairdos that became useful during the course of the transatlantic slave labor and were actually at some point utilized as a setting of top secret interaction in between slaves via styles that could duplicate maps to free of cost places in America. Kraviz is actually certainly not the 1st to acquire backlash for lifting hair-braiding-- one Kardashian or an additional has been actually proclaimed for lead-in different knotted types throughout the years-- neither is she the first to reject verification of the pain in the callouts that comply with, opting to acknowledge the retaliation an instance of reverse-racism. [Ed. note: There is actually no such thing as reverse-racism.]

Pair of months later on Mixmag honored Kraviz by placing her in the no. 6 area on its Best 10 DJs of the Year list. Her admittance, which has actually given that been actually amended, reviewed: "She sustains. The Shivery DJ might have caused a minor tweetstorm with her ill-judged reaction to objection of her hairstyle, but she stays the singular largest celebration draw on the planet and really innovative, psychological and also evocative DJ of single sight and success. Still Techno's brightest superstar."

A straightforward modification of techno's past history would comply with a trail of concepts like white colored extractive commercialism, white tour and re-urbanization as well as the economics of social fraud. Technocracy counts on the withholding and holding on to of info and sources to support criteria specified by a managing a frequently unethical best course. A thing or an encounter is offered value through specific requirements within a technocracy as well as by decentralizing current stories and allowing producers to inform their own tales, there is chance for an extra also and also ethical social substitution around the unfortunate situation of an economical market established by intense as well as willfully oblivious white International colonial belief. Continuing into 2020, a handful of prominent vocals of a brand new generation of Black Techno reveal their experiences and also chances for a decolonized dancing music society.

Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson It is actually constantly thought that a duty of mine to become able to press [the dark] background [of techno] and push black musicians. I had actually been thinking of doing an occasion such as this for a number of years yet it's difficult to just do this event without any type of community backing or structural backing. Having dealt with many dark musicians given that moving to Brooklyn and right now as booker at Bossa Nova Civic Nightclub, it merely believed that a no-brainer. Occupant was also such a very easy occasion to coordinate but our team most definitely need even more black individuals in booking postures at clubs. There is actually an overwhelming large number of white bookers everywhere in NYC which definitely impacts opportunities for black musicians. Nevertheless, I presume there is actually been actually a basic favorable shift in areas seeking to manual much more otherwise. There actually is no reason.

Akua This was actually a pivotal year for the Dark Techno area. Within my quick circle in Brooklyn, I've found my peers and also I blossom with our unapologetic method to redeeming as well as rejuvenating the often-ignored dark story of the style. Our interaction along with techno has straight directed the underground, political values in its own rawest form to permeate the homogenous scene and also take apart white colored patriarchal frame that has actually outlined the style for technique very long. As a dark woman in a scene where I am strongly obvious, yet undetectable at the same opportunity, it's been actually extremely inspiring to see that the additions my peers as well as I have actually created to continue modification on a domestic as well as international scale.Being able to explore worldwide this year has actually helped me boost as well as revise the purposes behind my engagement along with techno at the same time. While I have actually possessed the possibility to dip into places that are actually considered essential techno sites like Berghain's Saüle in Berlin, I have actually involved discover my task as not simply a rabble-rouser of adjustment, yet also one of a mender and also instructor. To become capable to participate in the music of black artists I respect a lot, like veterinarians Robert Armani and also Mike Dearborn, in the location's situation, it felt a lot more strong, given the challenging history between Berlin and the US as it pertains to techno. Knowledge like these have given me the chance to carry additional focus to the dark, POC and also queer senior citizens and forefathers that laid the structure for me to perform what I'm doing today. To me, there is actually something exclusive about digging via the archives to retell the accounts of my seniors in purchase to heal the cut origins of the genre and also to prompt folks to decolonize their minds when it concerns their viewpoint of techno.

"Portrayal issues, our terms issue, our songs issue, and also our lives issue. Individuals need to know that whether they like it or otherwise."-- Ash Lauryn

MoMA Ready Some of factors that have actually been actually uplifting me the very most are the hard-working DJs of Brooklyn's existing nightlife communities, especially the POC and QTPOC areas. Our team've all of been actually operating all together to develop spaces for ourselves in international dancing songs. My explanation for launching thus a lot songs this year is a bit even more individual. It stems a lot more from my wish to sustain freedom over my fine art and also the narratives bordering my craft. Each release is various and is actually discharged for a various purposes, even with the output. Receiving the popular music to people without a stream is actually something that inspires me, also. More of my colleagues is discharging music to be actually contributed to the library of black techno as well as dancing songs. I believe that everyone intend to find even more favorable modifications for POC in dancing popular music internationally. What much better to perform that than by creating the popular music that begins brand new chats? Techno roots can not be actually refuted. There is actually a brand-new generation of black DJs as well as producers that currently understand those roots and also desire to result in the legacy of black dance popular music in The United States.

Ash Lauryn Residence as well as techno popular music has actually observed somewhat of a renewal of dark and also brownish young people as of late, there is still an amazing volume of job to be carried out. I am actually happy to be actually an aspect of the act at a time where several are actually carried out being actually soundless on issues that matter to our company. There are a great deal of wonderful individuals doing excellent points all in hopes of protecting the rich black roots of dance music, and also I consider on my own to become some of all of them. Via my system Underground & & Afro-american, my goal is actually to boost and also inspire the future generations of dark dance popular music, and I can easily very most submissively state I am actually performing just that. Portrayal matters, our words matter, our popular music concern, and also our lifestyles issue. Individuals need to have to recognize that whether they like it or certainly not.

DeForrest Brown, Jr. is actually a New York-based thinker, reporter and also curator. He makes digital audio and extended media as Audio speaker Popular music and is an agent of the Make Techno Black Again project. His recent creating could be discovered in Afropunk, Artforum and Hyperallergic.

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This content was originally published here.

[lasiiurus-archived]

thank you !

^^ dis gif isn't mine. but that's totally my face.

Here it is! This is my big dumb 'thank-you' post that I've been meaning to write. So if you weren't aware, I've actually closed this blog (aside from some random posts about Logan and a Batman Podcast - you should listen to it) due to some major, major problems with the DC fandom that I find toxic and quite frankly disgusting. But das stuff that sadly I can't change so I'm doing what's best for me and getting my ass outta here before my love for Batman is forever ruined by blind and immature fanboys.

i started writing bryce around about 2015. My first blog was called surgitisms but I changed it because someone made some burnbook callout about me copying someones url (I had no idea that blog existed rofl - surgit is latin for 'rise'). I then moved to rageinyourbones (shoutouts to joseph gordon levitt) where i spent most of my time, developing this character that wasn't even my idea - it was just a passing remark from a lovely actress by the name of Natalie Dormer. now as you're aware (and as i continually apologize for) i fucked up on that blog, and i've done my best to reach out and make amends with the people i offended (and they were super gracious and accepted my apology). but that negative bollocks aside, i grew up so much on that blog. i learned some amazing things about myself, i learned some bad things about myself, and most importantly i created a character that i personally believe is different to bruce wayne. i ended up headcannoning late at night, thinking about how she would act differently to bruce, about how she would interact with certain characters etc etc etc.

but what really made all the difference was the people i met.

you guys are fucking amazing. i mean lets be real - the tumblr rp community can be fucked sometimes. we've all seen it, but what i love is that we tend to (80% of the time) treat each other as real human beings and see that what we're really here for is just the love of these dumb fictional characters. they give us a break from the savagery of life and its endless woes. i am so, so so grateful and so so so blessed to have known the people i have on here. people whom i met on rageinyourbones and followed me across to here, and people whom i met here. holy bollocks im rambling - im just gonna tag some specific people who really really made my life on here so enjoyable. the rest i'll just lump into one big post because i'm lazy like that.

@fracturedportrait - harmony. i remember meeting you the first time. i remember it so clearly. you were so chill, so spunky (god i feel old using that word), and you had such a passion for your oc. i remember the first plot we had, the inspiration we shared... who knew that it was the beginning of my greatest friendship and my #1 OTP for bryce. you were the first person whom i ever actually spoke to off tumblr (remember when i called you?? and you heard my dumb aussie accent??). i remember legitimately getting teary over memes, i remember smiling so much during our threads, i remember (and still do) laugh about us talking about how our sin is like a lovely vintage of wine. your writing consistently, unimaginably, pushes and has pushed me to better mine. with every post you made, you helped improve my writing. you are such a blessing to me and i am not going to just let this stay as some dumb tumblr friendship. we'll face time, and i'll be sure to credit you when i'm on the red carpet with natalie dormer being like 'so what made you want to write this film about a female batman?'. i'll just be like 'yo there was this really cool chick who wrote a vampire and she told me to just write this film'.

@halysborn - SWAN. ho man. do you remember when i wrote that giant meta about how dick literally changed not just bryce's life, but bruce's? i firmly believe that dick is the most important character in bruce's life. and i mean i'm talking on the same level as alfred - even more. he's the TRUE son. the son whom saved him. like i just cry about how bruce says that line - 'sometimes i think i've never done any good in my life. then i look at dick and realize i'm wrong' or whatever that actual phrase is. i PHYSICALLY VOM WHEN PEOPLE SHIP THEM. but yo that's other stuff. what's important is that you have supported me selflessly and without strings. you've supported me here, you've supported me over on deshibcsara, you've just been a consistent rock, an unyielding foundation of encouragement. i still, and will NEVER delete that voice recording where you talk about me and my love for batman. it gives me such hope and reminds me that, yeah i fuck up, but i've at least affected someone else's life and how they see batman. my only regret is that i was so goddamn slow with replying to our stuff. and that was literally because i felt like you deserved nothing but my absolute best. you are incredible, and from one aussie to another, i love you brocookie!

@femmekill - could u pls stop spamming my facebook wall with memes?? SIKE I LIED. I FUCKING LOVE IT. my mum literally asked me the other night 'who is -insert your real name-?' and i was like 'oh thats my wife' and she was like '???' and i just said 'dont even BOTHER trying to understand'. you have been nothing but optimistic about me. you consistently, relentlessly see the good in me. i dont think there's ever been a time where like i've felt wronged by you? or at the very least felt like i was a burden to you? you never fail to spread positivity. even when you were feeling like shit and i tried to cheer you up, it's like you turned it on me and were like 'nah gus you're not cheering me up IM CHEERING YOU UP - thats how it works'. im so fucking whipped by you, because you're just such a blessing to my life. the day we shared FB's was like the day i realized 'WELP IM IN THIS MARRIAGE FOR LIFE NOW'. when it comes to your writing - i'm just breathless. the tumblr rp fandom does not deserve you. keep doing your thing man - don't ever let douchebag anons change that.

@marblebelow - I SINCERELY HOPE YOU STILL HAVE THE RECORDING OF ME SINGING 'THE CONFRONTATION'. especially with the 'DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUN'. that shit is lit. yo but mikel really. the days of us writing together - writing fisk/bryce and then writing jim/bryce... i value it so much. you've taught me to pursue every little nuance in bryce's character. and i mean that - you ask me tiny little questions, and holy crap i end up going into a massive internal investigation. and worst of all (or best??) you jsut lavish me with genuine, kind words. i regret that we didnt get to write much more (both of us having major stress/overwhelmed issues), but dude, like, never stop being you - you have such overwhelming, unimaginable depths of creativity. even if you don't realize it, or feel like you don't, believe me - you do. it sounds like -- errr.... arrogant? but ive spent the last six years studying writing/fiction/film and just immersing myself in it so i feel like i have SOME credibility - you really really do have a gift.

@ivyworn - 'yes hello i'd like to report a murder? the victim is ME' aka this is what happens whenever we talk. so we never actually got to do much writing, but honestly? i literally feel like we did writing in the SPIRIT with all of our tumblr IMs and just the amount of shit talking we did. PUMA. LEST WE FORGET. PUMA. no but real talk, i was supposed to send you a birthday gift aka im still gonna get my ass onto paypal and do that SO DONT YOU LEAVE YOUR BLOG. AND YOU CANNOT SAY NO. i've never met anyone whom has such an in-depth love and understanding for ivy. i remember chatting about Cast Shadows with you and the level of complexitity between Batman and Ivy. i mentioned this but Batman/Ivy is literally my OTP for Bruce. i just think it is such an interesting avenue that no writer (post Cast Shadows) has explored. whenever we spoke, i had such a smile on my face, i cannot even begin to desribe it. i really really hope life goes well for you and treats you with the care and respect you DESERVE.

@psyclownsis @scarestress tags both blogs bc i have no idea where you are these days. so i already recorded that voice meme thing talking about you piri - but i literally just want to further express my admiration and gratitude for you. you've stuck by me, you've pulled me aside and been like 'oi gus you're being a douche stop it', and you've just supported me and taken such an interest in this dumb character i write that literally just blows me away. the fact that we barely write but i still feel so close to you and so valued by you is just a testament to the power of tumblr rp friendships. we don't NEED to write together to be friends and to respect and admire each other. AND LORD KNOWS i admire you. i admire your dedication, i admire your 'idgaf' attitude. and honestly i just admire your unrelenting loyalty to people.

because i've literally written an essay - the rest of these tags are people that i admire and love, even if we haven't had much chance to interact.

@agoodluthor | @gunkanjiima | @grincarved | @terrifiesthem | @tcmbraider | @truthpiety | @influencedbyfear | @inexactexpiration | @aftcrshocks | @fallencomrade | @geniusfuturist | @mangledgrin | @shewolveriine | @tragicloss | @unleashedjustice | @volchista | @widowscars 

[roseapprentice]

I figured out a term I like for the facets of SJW culture that bother me

so, I really dislike the term “SJW,” when used as an insult, because it tends to blur the line between promoting social justice (awesome) and a spectrum of harmful behaviors that often get excused under the guise of promoting social justice (not awesome).

I’ve been searching for a constructive term for that spectrum of harmful behaviors for a while now. (To be my version of constructive, it has to be a word for a belief or behavior, not a label to slap onto a person or group of people).

I like “callout culture,” but it’s a little too specific in terms of the behavior it refers to. I was using “the toxic elements of liberalism” for a while but I wan’t satisfied with it for numerous reasons. Including that “toxic” is one of those words that naturally escalates conflicts and misunderstandings whenever you try to make use of it in a discussion of interpersonal behavior.

I recently saw someone call it “left wing conservatism” and that didn’t really hit the right chord for me, but it got me thinking about it again. What do you call social justice activism that isn’t so much social justice activism as it is an impossibly strict moral code and a shared terror of violating that moral code?

Well, I was looking back at that “Protestantism with a gay hat” post, and it finally hit me.

“Pro-Shame Activism”

My thought is that it could be a word not so much for individual’s intentions, but for certain patterns of behavior that promote shame & feelings of worthlessness as if they are a desirable goal.

So things like dog-piling, spreading names and photos of “problematic” individuals, accusing people of having bad intentions because they’re not fully versed in left-wing systems of etiquette, etc.

Basically, this is when it stops being about “I’m going to get this person to leave me alone” or “I’m going to help this person understand this issue” and starts being about “I’m going to make this person feel bad about themselves.”

Now this is still tricky terminology because:

1) making people feel bad about themselves is often just an unavoidable side effect of teaching them or pushing them away,

2) refraining from promoting shame is a skill unto itself, and a lot of people with good intentions aren’t deeply trained in that skill,

3) you’re almost always going to feel like someone is shaming you if they explain that you’re doing something hurtful, now matter how kind and constructive they are actually being,

But I still love it, because it captures exactly the cultural dynamic that bugs me in some social justice communities. And it captures the means by which critical thinking and benefit-of-the-doubt attitudes can become unreasonably difficult in some of those communities.

So yeah. Pro-shame activism. I think this is a phrase I’m going to start using.

[riichardwilson]

How to Mine for Competitor Insights Using BrightLocal’s Review API

When Kogneta’s Jordan Choo contacted us saying he’d created a brand-new free tool using our Reviews API (find out more about our APIs here), we just knew we had to share the results with you. Here, Jordan shares his exciting new tool designed to help you analyze your own reviews and mine competitor reviews for insights.

Read on to find out how you can benefit from the Kogneta and BrightLocal Reviewalyzer…

There’s no doubt that reviews should be a critical part of a business’s local marketing agency strategy, not only from an SEO Company perspective but from a reputation standpoint as well. This is perfectly illustrated in these online review statistics.

With more and more businesses generating reviews on a yearly basis, how do you use not only your reviews but your competitors’, to successfully grow?

Thanks to a new tool that I put together using BrightLocal’s handy Review API, you’re now able to mine your competitors’ reviews at scale and incorporate these findings into your SEO Company and overall marketing agency strategy.

I’ve found it to be extremely useful in understanding not only what makes a competitor stand out from their positive reviews, but where they drop the ball by looking at their negative reviews.

So without further ado, I am happy to introduce…

BrightLocal and Kogneta’s Reviewalyzer

You can grab your version of the Reviewalyzer by making a copy of it here.

How to Use the Tool

With the help of BrightLocal’s Reviews API, we’re able to use AppScript, which is a JavaScript-based language, to create a miniature app inside of Google Sheets to gather the reviews of multiple businesses in bulk. Below you can find a step-by-step process on how to get it running and how to leverage the tool for your own business.

Add Your BrightLocal API Credentials

The first thing that you’ll want to do is get your BrightLocal API credentials. You can find your API key and API secret by navigating to your Account Setting drop-down, and clicking on the API Access option. Once the API Access page loads, you’ll be presented with your API Key and API Secret as shown in the annotated screenshot below:

Copy your API Key and API Secret into the Config tab in the BrightLocal and Kogneta’s Reviewalyzer. Your BrightLocal API key will go into cell C5 and your BrightLocal API Secret will go into cell C7 which is the annotated step 2 and step 3 in the screenshot below:

Get Business Directories

Now that you’re ready to connect with BrightLocal, the next step is to pull in all of the business directories that you’re able to analyze reviews from. To do this, click on the BrightLocal Reviews dropdown and select the Get Directories option.

You’ll then start to see all of the business directories populate in the RAW – Config tab.

Enter Business Information

The next step is to start entering the information for all of the businesses that you want to pull reviews for. If you don’t know offhand which competitors you should be analyzing, then I highly recommend using BrightLocal’s Local Search Audit which will provide you with some of your top competitors.

Using the Businesses tab, fill in the information for each business that you want to pull reviews for in the white column (columns D to I). If I wanted to pull reviews on burger restaurants in New York City, it would look like this:

Note that the directory column (column G) has a handy drop-down option where you can select from the directories that you pulled in the previous step from BrightLocal.

Get Reviews

Now we can finally pull in the reviews. To do this click on the BrightLocal Reviews dropdown and select the Get Reviews option.

The Job ID, Batch ID, and Status columns will then populate with some information.

You’ll notice that the script will finish running but, the status column will be set to In Progress, there’s no need to worry as in a minute or two you’ll see that it changes to complete and the RAW – Reviews tab will be full of reviews. This is due to BrightLocal’s batch API, which you can read more about here.

Once your status column is updated to complete, you can then navigate to the RAW – Reviews tab to see all of the reviews that BrightLocal’s API gathered. 

Analyze Reviews

This is where the fun starts and we start analyzing the reviews to pull juicy insights from your competitors.

If you haven’t noticed by now there is an Insights – Positive and Insights – Negative tab, these tabs take the reviews that you just pulled in and execute an n-gram analysis on them showing bi, tri, and quad grams.

The Insights – Positive tab only looks at reviews that scored 5 or higher while the Insights – Negative tab only analyzes reviews that scored a 3 or lower. 

In the screenshot above, we can see the commonly used words and phrases in positive reviews by Shake Shack. A few common themes that we can see across these bi, tri, and quad grams are:

The burgers are the best according to these reviews

Their location is relatively clean 

Their meals are a good price

On the flip side, if we look at Shake Shack’s negative reviews we can see two common points of pain emerging:

There are long wait times

It was overcrowded with a lot of people

How to Use the Results

Now that you have these insights, the next step is to use them against your competitors and, in our case, this is Shake Shack. Here are a few ways that I would use these insights:

In Web Copy

Using the insights from the negative reviews, you can add copy across your site that addresses the negative view that people have about your competitor by saying that it’s an issue that you don’t have. 

If we were McDonald’s or Burger King, we would use the reviews that reference Shake Shack’s wait time as ammunition to create callouts on our website saying there is less than a two-minute wait time for your food.

In PPC Ads

One super sneaky way of using these reviews is to run a PPC conquesting campaign on your competitor and having one of your main headlines call out the competitor on common things mentioned in their negative reviews. 

Referring back to our Shake Shack example, our ad copy could say something such as “Tired of crowds when trying to enjoy your burger?” or “Get your burger in less than 30 seconds!”

To Improve Business Processes

A third, and likely most important, strategy that I recommend is to leverage the insights from the positive reviews to improve your own business. By understanding what people like about your competitor, you can incorporate that into part of your business.

If we look at Shake Shack’s positive reviews of it being consistently clean and the meals being a good price, I would want to make sure we are cleaning our restaurant frequently enough and that our burgers are priced fairly.

Conclusion

The above three strategies only scratch the surface of how you can use your competitors’ reviews against them and mine reviews for insights. If you have a unique way of using competitors’ reviews share them in the comments below!

P.S. Want to find out how BrightLocal APIs can work for you? Get in touch with our Business Development team now.

Or, if you’re doing something cool and innovative like Jordan with our APIs already, drop us a line and let us know!

The post How to Mine for Competitor Insights Using BrightLocal’s Review API appeared first on BrightLocal.

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source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-mine-for-competitor-insights-using-brightlocals-review-api/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/624135765557903361