#I'm pretty sure a lot of you Twitter refugees

[just-osgood]

Hello new followers

[stevetown]

I posted 238 times in 2022

That's 237 more posts than 2021!

46 posts created (19%)

192 posts reblogged (81%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@voxvalentine

@knaveofaces113

@plummetingplum

@vgadvisor

@nintendumpster

I tagged 128 of my posts in 2022

Only 46% of my posts had no tags

#steve bait - 30 posts

#video games - 21 posts

#2022 game journal - 10 posts

#tumblr - 8 posts

#twitter - 5 posts

#silent hill - 5 posts

#dracula daily - 4 posts

#neon white - 4 posts

#pokemon - 4 posts

#persona 5 - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 70 characters

#no but really ezio killed hundreds but decides hes done with the pope?

I sent 3 gifts in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

89 notes - Posted August 23, 2022

#4

Her: She would be the kind of domme that's like "Pin yourself to the wall."

Me: Lmao. Wait what's that a reference to again?

Her: "...Sonic the Hedgehog"

106 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

#3

Hi! I just saw your quick start guide for the new twitter refugees and as someone who has been on tumblr since 2013/14 I was actually pretty impressed - you seem to have adapted very well. It got me wondering: how do you feel about all the "twitter-refugee-phobia" you have seen in the last few weeks? Personally, I'm kinda worried with the idea of new people ruining the tumblr echosystem, but I would like to see your point of vew (Sorry to bother you btw <3)

I totally understand that worry! Thinking on it, I believe it comes from two separate sources.

The first, and in my view more legitimate fear, is that Tumblr will become more like Twitter in that we'll see more corporations/celebrities/influencers/advertisers come here and somehow upset the ecosystem, as you say. In honesty, Tumblr has some built in defense mechanisms that make this less of a worry for me. Namely, they have access to the same tools as everyone else. There's no personal information here for them to buy, no real algorithm to game, no verification system. When anyone joins, they're just like you and me.

I'm heartened to see folks like @flanaganfilm come and check out Tumblr and take advantage of things like the ask feature. I think it's a really great way to interact with folks that feels more personal than Twitter pedestals.

The second fear I see is that somehow regular Twitter users are going to come in and ruin the place in an unspecified way. I guess the fear is they're going to bring a specific brand of toxicity or some such, but that seems unfounded to me. I think about how so many people are hooked to Twitter and don't know how awful it is and how much more comfortable they can be with a social media platform and themselves. We should encourage and welcome them!

Sure, this place isn't going to be for everyone, and I suspect many will check it out and bounce. And yeah, some not-so-great folks will find their way in. But at the end of the day, the block button, filtering, and content moderation tools still work the same!

When I came to Tumblr, I felt fairly instantly like I could be more myself. I could talk about weirder hobbies, I could engage with queer art, I could make silly Dracula Daily memes, and it all felt not just okay but encouraged. I want that same experience for everyone.

If Twitter really is the "modern public square," you're still putting on a mask and a front when interacting with people. Tumblr let me take that mask off, and I want everyone to have that opportunity.

114 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

#2

414 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

A Tumblr Quick Start Guide

A year ago, I realized that every time I logged onto Twitter, I felt my blood pressure rise. It's a platform that runs on anger and outrage, and I wanted someplace better to spend my screen time. In my almost-year on Tumblr, I now realize I log on here and get one or two good laughs every time I check my dashboard.

Tumblr has given me a lot lately, but it is a bit different than other platforms. I'd like to give back a little and provide a quick-start guide on how being new to Tumblr worked for me.

Finding Things to Follow

The biggest thing I had to get used to was realizing that on Tumblr, you don't necessarily follow people or celebrities or politicians. You follow your interests. In fact, it's pretty common to follow only strangers that post things you like. That can make your empty dash daunting to fill! Let's fill it with things you love and make you happy.

Make a list, mental or otherwise, of things you're interested in. Be both broad and specific! Board Games. Magic The Gathering. Supernatural. Marvel. Video Games. 8-Bit. Urban planning. Any and all things that you like!

Pick one of your interests and search for that tag. Flip between "Latest" and "Top" and browse around to see what kind of content is in that tag. You'll notice images, art, gif sets, TikToks, videos, essays - all sorts of things!

If you see a lot of things you like, cool! Click the button to Follow that tag if you want to keep up to date on it and find things later (we'll come back to this).

If you see a post you love, check out who posted or reblogged it. Scroll around on their blog. Do they post similar stuff? Are there other things you like here? Are they posting often? If you like what they post, follow the blog! Congrats, you've followed your first blog!

Take some time and check out some other tags and follow the same process - follow tags you like and blogs you might be interested in. It's not possible to over-follow! You can always curate your list later. This isn't Twitter - no one cares if you unfollow someone. Find what makes you happy.

Go back to your main dashboard - how are things looking? Filled with things you're interested in? Excellent. If things don't work for you, don't be afraid to unfollow blogs.

Want to follow more blogs? New episode of Andor drop? Go to the "Your Tags" header and scroll around to find some more juicy content. Check out blogs you like, follow 'em if you like em, rinse and repeat! That's curating your dash!

Your Blog is Your House

Okay, so you have a dashboard of content that you like - but what do you do with it all? Someone once described a Tumblr blog to me like your little house that you can fill with all the things you like. There is no rhyme or reason, and you don't need an excuse to reblog something other than the fact that you liked it!

If you see something you like, reblog it! To me, I reblog things when I say "I like this and I want it to live in my house so other people can see it when they come visit"

Reblogging is like passing a message along to other people. You can just reblog it on its own to amplify it, or you can add your own tags, or if you have a funny reaction gif/thought/video/thousand-word-essay, add to it when you reblog!

Use tags. People actually find posts through tags here. Use them to help people discover that really cool reblog you found! You can also search for tags on specific blogs. This makes them great for categorizing posts on your own blog. For example, I use #2022 Game Journal when I blog about whatever game I'm playing so I can do a year-end review later and find all the posts later.

Like things too. Likes don't amplify posts, but they're nice to let a poster know you appreciated it! I also use likes a bookmark. Sometimes I don't have time to watch that TikTok, so I'll like it as a reminder to come back to it later.

Be Weird. You can have sideblogs to hold more specific content, but don't be afraid to just scoop up anything you like and put it in your house! Reblogging is how content gets passed around.

Random Blog Tips

Wow nice job, your blog's looking great! Before you know it, someone will find it, check out your posts, and maybe give you a follow if they like what you've made or what your reblog! The last thing I'll touch on here are some nitty-gritty tips that can help you think about all the meta stuff about Tumblr:

Tumblr is the most anonymous social media platform. No one has to know who you are. Take advantage of all the privacy options.

You can also hide likes and who you follow from public view - that's no one else's business! Turn off asks too if you want.

Play around with your settings in general - there are lots of customization options and other dash tabs that you can use to find new content. You can also turn on timestamps so you know if a post you see is a "heritage post," as they say. Content is evergreen here and I personally like to see that in action.

You can filter and hide tags that you don't want to see.

Just block people liberally, it's cool.

You can pay to remove ads (nice), but you can also leave the option to see Blazed posts on. Blazed posts are ones that people pay for impressions for - and any post can be Blazed. The kicker is, there's no ad targeting. It can be quite funny or quite annoying depending on what you want.

When viewing the notes on a post, you'll see comments, reblogs, and likes. For the reblogs section, I like to filter by "Comments only" to find what people have added to the post.

Like all social media sites, there are dark corners here. I think Tumblr more than most puts you in control to curate your Dashboard to only see what you want. Block a user, hide a post, and move on.

That should be quite enough to get started! Tumblr can take a little more time to "get" compared to other social media platforms (and get in on the long-running jokes!), but trust me, after a week, you'll notice the difference between checking your Tumblr dashboard and checking your Twitter timeline.

See the full post

1,925 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mozillavulpix]

Israel

If you're a progressive activist who likes to write call-out posts and permanently excommunicate from people who don't share your political opinions, please don't read this post. For my own sake.

I'm a Jewish person who gets upset at a lot of the discourse surrounding Israel, especially at the moment.

Don't you want an immediate ceasefire?

I do, but I get the feeling that's not happening because it's not exactly practical. If you ran a country and knew that a neighboring region had access to militants and weapons to go over to your country and murder and kidnap your citizens and civilians whenever they wanted (and in fact, that's what they just did), I think it's...practically the point of having an army to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. If you stop, you give them time to regroup and escape to try another time.

But what about the lives of the Palestinians?

It's a pretty awful situation, yeah. But Israel has already told them to go to the south so they don't get caught up in the fighting, and Egypt doesn't want to accept any of them as refugees, so I don't know how else you'd even get them out of the area.

But isn't Israel bombing in the safe zones, too?

This is a war. I'm sure the Israeli army wouldn't bomb other places unless there was some practical reason. Like there was access to weapons in one of those areas. I really wish they wouldn't do that, but I'm also not a military strategist with intelligence on the area, so it's not like I know what's around there.

Listen, if the reasonings are "Israel had intelligence that there were resources in that area used by militant groups" or "Israel are cartoon villains who purposely bomb civilian targets to make sure they inflict as much pain on Gaza civilians as they can", the first one just seems more likely to me.

What about the hospital that was bombed?

Several Western countries have all said from their independent intelligence that it wasn't Israel that did that.

But what if they're all just lying and saying that because they're working together?

Now you sound like Qanon

Why do you call us anti-semitic? We just want peace. We don't support terrorism and we're not telling people to hate Jews.

You're going around and using words like 'genocide'. Even if you don't think you're inciting violence, when you make such a powerful plea to people's emotions and empathy, some people are going to feel powerless and try to take it out on an 'easier' target that's only vaguely related to it. Like those Jews living in your country who happen to have family in Israel and so want to support them.

You're all really pissed off at the moment. Pissed off people get violent.

Wow, I can't believe I used to respect you.

I think it's a very dangerous mindset to be so willing to do a complete 180 on someone just because of one situation where they play devil's advocate. I'm not going around and yelling that all Palestinians are terrorists and should be killed, I hate people in the Israeli government as much as you do. I just want people to stop treating Israel like some one-dimensional cartoon villain responsible for all the evils in the world because you heard they're the 'occupiers'.

anyway, this isn't gonna stop anyone, just really me rationalising my thoughts and why i keep having to mute people on twitter until this all hopefully dies down

i'm literally just some girl on the internet, i'm not a political expert and don't fucking put me on blast because my arguments don't have all the facts

[rauhauser]

RabbitMQ in Depth

I write a bit of software here and there, but I do NOT self describe as a programmer. I am an integrator, a longtime systems guy who bolts stuff together using the "Unix way". I find things that mostly work, and which offer methods to chain them to other things, then at the very bitter end of solving a problem I might produce a little code. Given that I approach Python like a preschooler facing down his first pair of lace up shoes, it's probably for the best I don't show this stuff in public.

I've put a lot of energy into Open Semantic Search over the last few years and it was there I first encountered RabbitMQ. This piece of message oriented middleware was interesting to the point I also invested time in it, reading enough of RabbitMQ in Depth that I started refactoring my Twitter tracking system.

There's a Python library associated with the book, rabbitpy, but it's super minimal. I hit barriers with it and then wandered off to do other things. Recently I got the urge to tune up the Twitter stuff and as part of that I'm shifting to the amqpstorm library.

A lot of people start learning Python without the benefit of the computer science background I have. I see folks getting their feet wet with Jupyter Notebooks, which is a decent way to get an introduction, but I'm not sure how many of these new users are aware of the notions of a 1) integrated development environment that includes a 2) symbolic debugger.

I picked Pycharm for this role. This is a comprehensive IDE for Python, part of a family of similar tools from Jetbrains. It's enormously complex, but I wanted it for a few specific reasons:

It provides a context for working on more complex Python problems, as opposed to using shell/text editor and keeping that context in my head.

It has support for the Github version control service.

The symbolic debugger interface is much smoother than trying to use Python's native option from the command line.

So I'm revisiting the RabbitMQ book and the debugger offers a view like this into a simple script. Every command that creates an object in memory gets the blue stuff in brackets, which reveals the object type and a unique identifier:

And if you click that link you can see inside the object in question:

This is SO much easier than the CLI ritual of adding type(object) and dir(object) to a script, adding various programmatic probing, and then running the script again ... and again ... and yet AGAIN.

Did you notice the recurring mentions of what I call the integrator shuffle? I seldom sit down with something new and spend a lot of time exploring, instead I do just enough to get things running before I'm pulled away to some other task. Mastery, such as I may achieve, comes incrementally. Open Semantic Search was an exception - for that I had to build every component by hand in order to debug some stuff, so I got in pretty deep very quickly.

The world is changing. I'm surprised Twitter continues to run so smoothly, but I don't think it will last. The flood of Twitter refugees arriving on Mastodon is going to increase, but I expect Tumblr is going to claim a goodly portion of them. Automaticc can both scale up a platform and defended it against frivolous litigation. Whatever direction things go long term I suspect more time spent with a best of breed object broker is going to pay dividends for me.

[jonathanslms]

Here's what I missed on ! Tumblr !

It's pretty weird to return to this site after so long. (I'm not exactly a "Twitter refugee" as they seem to be called lmao, more like someone who, because of the whole Twitter stuff, realised that there are still people on Tumblr? And apparently the site stopped their weird filtering/post banning system bc they now allow porn again? Anyway,) I don't remember when I was last active on Tumblr because I deleted my old blog some years ago, but if I had to guess I was probably active from around 2013 to 2015/16 at the latest? And boy, there's so much new stuff...

Firstly, the quality and functionality of themes seems much higher? Maybe that's just because I'm older now, but there are just so many original and innovative themes and pages that, like, are so interactive?? And such a broad variety as well!!!

Adding on to that: Javascript is sort of forbidden?? The work-around is pretty fast and easy (just ask support for permission basically), but still, that sucks lol.

Then there's the whole "you can have an account but no actual blog"-thing?? Idk if I really like that. A lot of people seem to use the site like that, so it's apparently at least somewhat popular. But as a Tumblr-conservative (as in conservative about Tumblr, not a conservative on Tumblr) I must say that having a blog and customizing it was sort of the whole Unique Selling Point of the site, so... interesting choice. (As long as that's still possible I'm still happy either way, I think)

The whole Dashboard experience in general is just so different now. For one, there are ads? I'm not a fan of ads (shocking opinion, I know) and I'm sure had they done it right Tumblr could have become like Ao3 and not even needed them. Still, I don't mind them too much (haha certainly not bc I use adblock :) idk what that is, sounds very morally wrong to me) and I read somewhere that the premium version is only 40€/year, which isn't a lot a lot, but still unfortunate.

I can't even tell which features are new and which aren't most of the time (except for the replying to posts? and THE CHAT?? now that there is one I can't help but wonder why there wasn't one from the start?). I think there's a lot of stuff Tumblr implemented that used to only be possible through xkit before.

Speaking of which: xkit! There's a new version - xkit rewritten - and it's incredible. I didn't even think about re-installing xkit until I stumbled upon a post that mentioned it. Now that I am aware of its existence again, god have I missed it. Being properly on Tumblr without it just isn't the same, man...

Pretty sure the search and follow tags/trending/etcetc stuff is completely revamped as well, but I don't think I used that very often back then anyway. Once I followed a big chunk of blogs I just found new ones through snowballing.

The last thing I can think of that noticably threw me off was the slang? Like wtf is a blorbo? (I actually think I get that one now) What are those other scrinkly, scrumblo, beedy weeby words? Why do I feel several generations older all of a sudden? I can feel the immediate and visceral impulse of disgruntled rejection welling up inside me everytime I see people use any new slang word (or meme, looking at you old scorsese movie that doesn't exist) whose invention I wasn't there for. (please if you've been (back) here for a while, feel free to educate me on the new tumblr etiquette, memes and slang words, I'm curious, I wanna know)

Though that being said, the overall vibes have not changed much. It is still a site that embraces its nerdy lameness and unnecessarily deep deep-dives into ANYTHING. And after the last few months to years of seeing people attacking anyone and anything, and feeling angry/depressed every time I spent some time on my social media site of choice, I think this is a very nice change of pace.

[hunterinabrowncoat]

1) hey, i was wondering how you personally make sense of the passages in the bible that are often used to justify homophobia. i'm trying to read them now + having a hard time both w/ conservative interpretations (that i don't agree w/) but also more progressive readings because some of them, to me, make just as little sense, not so much in their conclusion that queer ppl aren't to be condemned but more in that i don't see the text supporting this without sometimes extensive cherry picking. is

2) that something you ever struggle w/, and if so, how do you reconcile those passages w/ your faith and trust in god? have you found an interpretation that works for you? when i read those parts (and many others that include violence etc) or i think of the history of the church as an institution, all i can think is "how can i support this, how can this be my faith, i don't want to listen to this". have you found a way to own those things and make them yours, especially as a queer person, in

3) a way that still makes you feel confident and comfortable to say you're a christian? (genuine question!)

Hi anon,

It sounds like you’re well on your way in a deconstruction journey. For many people that starts with questioning Biblical interpretations of things that affect them very personally like passages about sexuality.

I understand your fears about cherry-picking. I was so terrified when I started my deconstruction journey because all the conservative people seemed to have these really deep theological arguments for why everything had to be the way it is, but people who were more left-leaning and had more liberal interpretations of the texts always seemed so much more relaxed about it. It seemed as though the conservatives were really serious about Biblical interpretation, and left-leaning people didn’t take the Bible seriously. And yet as a queer, trans person I couldn’t ignore the reality that I just could not believe God would condemn me for being me.

But this is all based on the idea that taking the Bible seriously means taking it literally. If you’re anything like me the faith tradition you’re coming from probably tells you that taking the Bible literally is how you take it seriously. But that’s blatantly untrue.

And so is the whole idea of Biblical Literalism. For starters there are lots of contradictions in the Bible itself. One book will tell you there were x amount of people there, another book will tell you there was y amount of people there. Genesis 1 gives one account of the timeline of creation, and Genesis 2 gives another.

There’s also no getting around what are often referred to as the ‘Texts of Terror’ – passages like the ones you’ve described that portray God as seemingly violent and tyrannical. Whole nations are wiped out on his command. Salves are taken, people are raped, people are slaughtered, and countless other horrors – seemingly all in God’s name.

Either we believe that God is love, and also everything in the Bible is literally true, in which case the embodiment of love itself involves punishing people with violence and wiping out entire nations and torturing your own children forever.

Or we believe that God isn’t very loving and is a violent tyrant.

…Or we can accept that the Bible is not a historical textbook. It’s full of poetry and imagery and literary devices that were common at the time and in the culture those texts were written. It’s a bunch of texts written by countless different people, all trying to make sense of life and its messiness and who and what God is and what that means for them. And understanding that doesn’t mean that you don’t take it seriously. It just means you aren’t expecting things from it that it was never meant to deliver.

Maybe the people who wrote those homophobic passages were just… homophobic. Or maybe those passages have been grossly mistranslated or misinterpreted over time. I’m not a scholar. I’m just a queer person who knows that God loves all of me, and God delights in my queerness.

If you’re interested in reading further about the subject, I’d highly recommend the book ‘Inspired’ by Rachel Held Evans. There are lots of other books about Biblical interpretation and deconstruction of Evangelicalism or conservative Christianity, but that’s one of the few that I’ve actually got around to reading, and I found it really helpful.

I would also recommend the book ‘Religious Refugees’ by ***. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a pretty solid guide for someone going through the deconstruction journey and coming to terms with a loss of faith in some way or another. You might also find the #Exvangelical hashtag on twitter quite useful if you use twitter much. There’s a whole community of people out there just like you and I who have done or are doing a lot of questioning and leaving behind conservative and fundamentalist faith traditions.

In all honesty, I’m not sure ifI can say I’m a Christian anymore. I guess that depends how you define it. My 14-year-old feverent Evangelical self would be absolutely horrified to see what I believe and how I’m behaving now and probably would say I’m not a Christian at all.

I wrote a blog post about it a while ago. You might find it helpful, idk.

https://dreamsandimaginations.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/on-the-other-side-of-deconstruction/?fbclid=IwAR3nKUaOm6r8bkXphtCAelwcFhdEclx0mYUVI0vik7C-LGjh3hjeRsYQs6Q

[adroguegirl]

This is me officially asking about capybara’s and the terrorizing of the Argentinian upper class?

Ok, hear me out

There's this gated community in Tigre, Buenos Aires, called Nordelta. It has been able to develop and maintain a varied array of commercial and services infrastructure, including swimming pools, soccer and tennis fields, a shopping mall, a medical center, a sports club, four private schools, playgrounds, saunas, AND MORE. You have no idea of how racist and classist the people there are. Neighbors of Nordelta asked the combi company that makes the transfers in the community that the employees do not travel with them. Why? Because they "talk a lot about their daily lives, because some of them speak Guarani and because they have a bad smell".

And then there are the wetlands. Environmentalists disapprove of Nordelta because it is built on the wetlands of the major River Paraná, second only to the Amazon in South America. Enrique Viale said, "Wealthy real-estate developers with government backing have to destroy nature to sell clients the dream of living in the wild – because the people who buy those homes want nature, but without the mosquitoes, snakes or capybaras". Not only that but also the destruction of the wetland causes flooding in the surrounding shanty towns.

Here's where the little bastards come in.

Because of the lack of natural predators, the capybara's numbers keep increasing. Mix that with the low temperatures making them seek refugee away from the water and you have the invasion of Nordelta. They apparently shit in the gardens, eat the plants and pick fights with dogs. Don't quote me on that last one tho, I'm pretty sure the dog in question attacked them first, capybaras are extremely non-aggressive, they will only bite to get away from danger.

There are videos all over Twitter of capybaras inside pools and even getting into houses, looking completely unbothered. Just look at this dude, they're chilling

Obviously, everybody else finds the situation completely hilarious and stands on the side of the capybaras. A dude tried shooting one and the full weight of the people's wrath fell on him. But that was the worst of it. Right now, the Argentinian upper class has to call security 5 times a week to remove the little dudes from their properties and suck it up.