#Pokémon go community day poll

[mewmewgirl101]

This one is very very hard please repost this when you vote please and thank

[dalooneylass]

The Chains Pokémon partner parings explained.

Hi this is that post where I try to explain my reasoning for pairing each Link with their Pokémon partner + a little fun fact about each Pokémon.

Sky with Dragonite

Sky and Dragonite have quite a few things in common. Their both big, loveable, caring beings who are always ready and willing to help those in need, their both also A LOT stronger than they initially seem. Sky being a literal demon god slayer, and Dragonite being a Pseudo Legendary Pokémon that can control the weather at will.

I imagine that Sky met his Dragonite before his adventure when it was still a little Dratini, they love to take naps together, and go on long flights around Skyloft.

Fun Fact: Pseudo Legendary Pokémon get their title from the fact they have a base stat total of 600, which is the same as most Legendary Pokémon, and are extremely difficult to evolve, Dratini taking 55 levels, or 207,968 experience points earned to evolve into its final form, Dragonite.

Four and his Eeveelutions

To be honest there really wasn’t any other Pokémon besides the Eevee line that had enough evolutions or unique forms/variants to give Four. But even then it’s still a good pick, Eevee can evolve into one of 8 different Pokémon. Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, and Espeon being the most obvious picks for Four/The Colours, Jolteon being the next best thing for Green since there’s no Flying type Eeveelution, and Espeon for Vio due to his book smarts and relation to Shadow, with Vaporeon and Flareon being perfectly fitting for Blue and Red respectively.

I picture Four meeting his Pokémon between his adventures in Minish Cap and Four Swords Adventures, as Eevee, and then taking them with him through the latter adventure. And while Green, Blue, and Red found the evolution stones to evolve their Eevee at some point or another throughout the adventure, Vio and Shadow’s Eevee evolved during their time together when Vio was pretending to be a traitor (Eevee evolves into Espeon and Umbreon through high Friendship during the Day and Night respectively). And that while the Colours were struggling to work together during FSA, their Pokémon were working with each other just fine. After Shadow sacrificed himself, Four cared for his Umbreon.

Fun Fact: Shadow’s Umbreon likely knows Shadow isn’t really gone, but has no solid way of communicating this to Four.

Time with Celebi

Pretty simple really. Time is a time travelling fairy boy from the forest who’s possessed by a deity, Celebi is a time travelling forest guardian fairy who IS a deity.

I believe that Time would meet his Celebi some time after Majora’s Mask, but before the War of Ages.

Fun Fact: Time’s Celebi is nicknamed Navi.

Double Fun Fact: Time’s Celebi Navi may or may not actually be several different Celebi (Cuz there’s actually like a bajilion of these lil onions babies all zipping throughout time and space) and Time has yet to figure this out.

Note: Still a’nt actually settled on whether Navi IS multiple different Celebi or just one single Celebi. Tell me which one you guys think it is in the comments. I genuinely love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Or I might make a poll or something.

Legend and Lopunny

With the fact that Lopunny is a rabbit Pokémon with a pink shiny, the connection seems pretty surface level, and that I paired the two just cuz I genuinely like Lopunny (Which I admittedly do) but when you look a little deeper into Lopunny’s character, they actually do have more in common with Legend other then aesthetics.

For one, Lopunny evolves via Friendship (Like Espeon and Umbreon) HOWEVER Buneary, Lopunny’s pre evolution, is actually hard to befriend at first, as Wild Buneary always start out with a friendship level of 0, (something usually reserved for Legendary Pokémon) Legend too is a bit rough around the edges and a little hard to get to open up at first, but a loyal companion and friend once he lets people in. As well Lopunny, while not one to go out of it’s way to pick fights, IS a strong and capable fighter, who could hold its own alongside Legend in combat, and much like how Legend has a wide variety of tools in his arsenal, Lopunny is able to learn a wide variety of Moves. Plus both Legend and Lopunny could totally put on one heck of a show if they wanted to.

I would think Legend meets his Lopunny as a Buneary after all his adventures where set and done (But before LU of course) and while they didn’t get along all too well at first, they actually warmed up to each other rather quickly and have become the best of pals since.

Fun Fact: Due to how Pokémon breeding and Egg Groups work, Legend’s Lopunny is able to be siblings with Fable’s partner Pokémon, a Delcatty.

Twilight with Herdier

I wanted to pare Twilight with a Pokémon that would not only work well with his profession as a Rancher, but also not overshadow or replace Epona’s relationship with Twilight, nor the Chains relationship with Wolfie. So I went with Herdier, A loyal and sturdy hard working dog Pokémon that just like real dogs has been working with humans both on and off the farm since ancient times.

Just like Legend and his Pokémon, Twilight meet his Herdier back when it was still just a little Lillipup some time after Twilight Princess, and they do everything together! Work, play, fight, and just overall in joying the simple things in life, Herdier loves to play with the village children, and is happy with its life with Twilight overall.

Fun Fact: Twilight’s Herdier is actually already passed the level when it should have evolved, but hasn’t due to it holding an Everstone, a item that, when held, prevents a Pokémon from evolving even when the conditions for evolution have been met. Herdier has the Everstone because it’s happy as a it is right now, and is in no real rush to evolve, and Twilight respects his Pokémon’s wishes to say a Herdier.

Wind and Clauncher

Again a pretty simple reasoning behind this pairing. Wind loves the Great Sea, the colour blue, and lobsters. Clauncher is a Water type Pokémon that lives in the sea, that is blue, and is a lobster.

Again just like Legend and Twilight, Wind meets his Clauncher after his adventures in Phantom Hourglass, but before LU. Wind loves his Clauncher, and Clauncher does love Wind back, tho that doesn’t mean they don’t get in fights, as Wind and his Clauncher are both hotheads. (Wind taking weeks to get Clauncher to stop attacking Arill’s Wingull, or any Wingull in general for that matter, and being VARY upset with Clauncher during that time. And Clauncher being upset when Wind thinks that he isn’t good enough as a hero or a big brother, despite it being completely untrue, casting Clauncher to become moody with Wind) But they can still both be sincere when it really counts. And will comfort the other when the other is feeling down.

Fun Fact: Wind’s actually had his Clauncher for the same amount of time that Legend and Twilight have had their Pokémon for, but Clauncher has yet to evolve due to Wind lacking the Time to properly train it.

Hyrule with Ribombee

I paired Hyrule with Ribombee due to their similarities. Hyrule is half Fairy, and Ribombee is a duel Fairy type Pokémon. Hyrule is a capable Magic user, and Ribombee is a strong Special Attacker. Hyrule has the ability heal his allies, as so too does Ribombee. Not to mention their both small and cute.

I imagine that Hyrule actually meet his Ribombee as a Cutiefly during his first adventure in Zelda 1, and that while Hyrule was apprehensive about bringing a tiny little Bug Pokémon like Cutiefly on a dangerous quest, Cutiefly did a surprisingly good job holding it’s own against the monsters in the dungeons. And after that, the two have been best buddies ever since.

Fun Fact: Hyrule’s Ribombee has the Ability Honey Gather. Meaning after a battle, Ribombee has a chance of just finding some random honey. Ribombee happily shares this questionable sourced with Hyrule afterwards.

Warriors and Aegislash

Picking out a Pokémon partner for Warriors was the trickiest, I initially thought about giving him a Kingambit, but felt that it didn’t really suit him, as while Warriors does lead an army and is a tactician, I felt that Kingambit’s style of fighting didn’t really suit Warriors. Aegislash however are known to work with people and leaders such as kings, and are known to be good judges of character, which I feel was more fitting. Also I thought it’d be cool to have Warriors use his Aegislash like a sword. (The Pokédex says you shouldn’t do this, but it’s been established that the Pokédex is being written by edgy 12 year olds, and a character did it in one of the mangas, so it should be fine)

Warriors met his Aegislash during the War of Eras, not sure if was already an Aegislash or not tho. Despite the communication barrier between them, the two often do battle planning together, and fight really well together. Aegislash and Warriors a’nt afraid to tell the other off if they were bing stupid, or pushing themselves too far, but also are happy to compliment each other if the other for doing well.

Fun Fact: Warriors Aegislash has a Sassy Nature, meaning it loves bitter foods and hates sweets. Don’t ask me how a sentient ghost sword can eat, it just does.

Wild and his Hisuian Zoroark

And finally we come to Wild and his Zoroark. When I was looking through the Pokédex to see what Mons would fit well with Wild and saw Zoroark, I knew that it would make the perfect partner Pokémon for Wild. A loyal, wild fox Pokémon and master of trickery that will protect its pack no matter what.

Much like the others in the Chain, Wild did not meet his partner as a fully evolved Pokémon, but as a Zorua. But he didn’t meet it as a Hisuian Zorua. They meet each other when they were kids, before Wild had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and back when Zoroark was still a regular Zorua, they became close friends, and where together through thick and thin. Zorua was there when Wild became a knight, Zorua was there Wild when he became Flora’s appointed knight, Zorua was there during the memories, Zorua stood by Wild’s side when Calamity Ganon attacked, Zorua died by Wild’s side during the Battle of Fort Hateno.

And while Link was placed into the Shrine of Resurrection so that he may revive and defeat the Calamity 100 years later, Zorua was not. But Zorua did not need the Shrine of Resurrection. Through the power of they’re hatred for Calamity Ganon, and they’re love for their trainer Wild, Zorua rose from the dead, reborn into the world anew in the form of a Hisuian Zorua. They wanted on the Great Plateau for over a hundred years for Wild to revive, likely evolving during that time. And when Wild finally awoke, it was the happiest day of they’re life. But it was also they’re life, as Wild remembered nothing of his life before the calamity. But even then Zoroark stuck by Wild’s side throughout his adventures in BotW, through thick and thin, and they defeated Calamity Ganon together, along with the Champions, and Zelda. And while the spirits of the Champions and the King passed on afterwards, Zoroark did not, as always Zoroark continued to stand by Wild’s side, through TotK, and Beyond.

The Fun Fact about Wild’s Hisuian Zoroark, is that it uses its power of illusions to help Wild recall his lost memories.

OK! This was a long post but I did it, I hope you all find my progress interesting, and that I did a good enough job of explaining it. If you want to look into this sorta stuff yourself go for it. Sorry for the Wild bias, I hope you have a lovely day/night and goodbye.

[pkmn-smashorpass]

FAQ PLEASE READ

• “Why do you keep tagging ‘Markiplier’?”

This is why. He was literally my inspiration for this whole thing.

• “Is there a way to just look at polls? I don’t care about the rest of it.”

Yes!! Every smash or pass poll is tagged #JustThePoll

Conversely, asks will always be tagged #Ask

Sometimes I might forget to add the tag so don’t be afraid to send me an ask about a mistake I might have made!

I’ve also started adding a #PersonalLife for is someone asking a question just about me. Which I don’t mind at all!

• “Why only post one Pokémon a day?”

Cause we’re taking life slow and smelling the roses!!

• “Do you delete asks?”

I will delete asks if they’re rude, or overly sexual but sometimes I might just censor parts of it for fun. I might also delete an ask if I feel like we’re going on too long about one subject. Or, honestly, I might delete on my personal discretion. It’s never personal but I get so many asks that it’s gonna happen.

• “I should totally join the Discord right?”

Yeah you totally should!!! It’s a lot of fun!! And honestly not as sexual as you’re probably assuming. We just hang out and talk about Pokémon and there’s 2 specific and protected NSFW channels if that’s your thing but most of the conversation happens outside those channels.

Blog Lore if anyone’s interested

• Cofrgrigus Fucker

They were a beloved follower. Best known for being declared a coward for posting on anon and responding with “I would love to ask on my blog but that would ruin my incredible reputation for being someone who doesn’t follow a pokemon smash or pass blog” as well as making incredible propaganda fanart. They were the first person to make a side blog completely dedicated to responding to this blog. But one day they mysteriously disappeared and we will never know why but we will always honor and love them.

• “Cowards”

I can’t remember the first time it was said but we lovingly refer to many followers as cowards. You might be called a coward because you voted pass or because you ask on anon or for any reason. But it’s said with love and not with any hurtful intent.

• Asexual thread

The big thread started with one person saying “I’m asexual so I’m voting pass on everything” and many other asexuals coming in to say all the different ways they’re playing this game. All the way from “I pretend I’m smashing it with a hammer” to “I pretend I’m voting on if it’s dateable” to “I’m voting on if I want to transform into it”. And the point is that everyone can play this game however they want to.

[best-tv-theme-song]

Polls will start to be posted within the next week or so.

Bracket list under the cut!

UPDATE: LIST CANCELLED

*Starred shows have multiple theme songs or I have combined shows in a franchise in an effort to include as much as possible. These will have preliminaries built-into their polls on the first round. This is how it works: 1. all of the songs will go into a poll together against one other show; 2. the COMBINED votes for those songs will determine which show wins that poll; 3. only the top voted song for that show/franchise will move on, if the show has won the poll. (If you are confused it will make more sense when we start, I promise!)

The 100

30 Rock

9-1-1*

The Addams Family

Adventure Time*

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All That

The Amazing World of Gumball

American Dragon: Jake Long

Animaniacs

Arcane: League of Legends

Arrested Development

Arthur

Assassination Classroom*

Austin & Ally

The Backyardigans

Barney & Friends

Barry

Batman*

Bear in the Big Blue House

Ben 10*

Better Call Saul

Beverly Hills, 90210

The Big Bang Theory

Big Time Rush

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Black Sails

Bluey

Bob the Builder

Bob's Burgers

BoJack Horseman

Bones

Boy Meets World

The Brady Bunch

Breaking Bad

Bridgerton

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Charmed

Cheers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Choo Choo Soul

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Cold Case

Community

Cory in the House

Cowboy Bebop

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend*

Criminal Minds

CSI*

Cyberchase

Danny Phantom

Daredevil

Dawson's Creek

Death Note*

Desperate Housewives

Detective Conan

Dexter

Dexter's Laboratory

Diff'rent Strokes

Digimon*

Doctor Who*

Dora the Explorer

Downton Abbey

Dragon Ball*

Dragon Tales

Drake & Josh

Ducktales*

ER

Ever After High

The Fairly OddParents

Firefly

The Flintstones

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Fraggle Rock

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Friends

Fringe

Full House

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Futurama

Game of Thrones

George Lopez

George of the Jungle

Gilmore Girls

Glee

The Golden Girls

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Grey's Anatomy

H2O: Just Add Water

Hannah Montana

Hannibal

Happy Days

Hawaii Five-0*

His Dark Materials

Horrible Histories

House, M.D.

How I Met Your Mother

How It's Made

Hunter × Hunter

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers

I Dream of Jeannie

I Love Lucy

iCarly

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Jeffersons

Jeopardy!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*

Jonas

Justice League

Kim Possible

The Last of Us

Laverne & Shirley

Law & Order*

LazyTown

The Legend of Vox Machina

Leverage

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Little Einsteins

Lizzie McGuire

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

The Love Boat

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Madoka Magica*

The Magic School Bus

Malcolm in the Middle

The Mandalorian

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Merlin

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mob Psycho 100

The Monkees

Monster High

The Muppet Show

Murder, She Wrote

Murdoch Mysteries

My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Hero Academia*

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

The Nanny

Naruto*

NCIS

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Girl

NFL (various network themes)*

Ninjago

The O.C.

The Office

One Day at a Time*

One Piece

Only Murders in the Building

Orange Is the New Black

Ouran High School Host Club

The Owl House

Parks and Recreation

The Partridge Family

Phil of the Future

Phineas and Ferb

Pinky and the Brain

Pippi Longstocking

Pokémon*

Power Rangers

The Powerpuff Girls

Pretty Little Liars

The Price Is Right

The Proud Family

Psych

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Reading Rainbow

Reba

Red Dwarf

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Riverdale

Rugrats

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sailor Moon

Sanford and Son

Saturday Night Live

Schitt's Creek

Scooby-Doo*

Scrubs

Seinfeld

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sesame Street

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Sherlock

The Simpsons

Smallville

Sofia the First

Sonny with a Chance

The Sopranos

Spider-Man

SpongeBob SquarePants

Star Trek (instrumental themes)*

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stargate*

Steven Universe

Stranger Things

Succession

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*

Suits

Taskmaster

Ted Lasso

Teen Titans

Teen Wolf

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teletubbies

That '70s Show

That's So Raven

Theory of Love

Thomas & Friends

Tokyo Ghoul

Total Drama

Totally Spies!

Transformers*

True Blood

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

VeggieTales

Veronica Mars

Victorious

Voltron: Legendary Defender

W.I.T.C.H.

The Walking Dead

WandaVision*

Welcome Back, Kotter

The West Wing

Westworld

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

Wild Kratts

Winx Club

The Wire*

The Witcher

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wonder Pets!

Wonder Woman

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The X-Files

Xena: Warrior Princess

Yellowjackets

Yu-Gi-Oh!*

Yuri on Ice

Zoboomafoo

Zoey 101

[ultimatepokemontournament]

Here’s my 2¢ take it or leave it. Do the poll how you want. You don’t owe anyone on the internet anything. If someone doesn’t like how it’s done they can go make their own poll. You don’t owe anyone your free time to make a Pokémon poll how THEY want?? If they’re not paying your bills they can stfu.

This is true! To me, ultimately, polls are a collaborative effort. I may do the organizing, but without everyone's cooperation, we won't get places. I appreciate the perspectives that other people bring to the table, because it might help me find better ways to approach the problem that I wouldn't have otherwise thought of!

At the end of the day, I am going to run this in a way that I'm satisfied with, and part of being able to do that means knowing that the community is satisfied with my methodology too!

All of this to say, no decision I make here is ever giving into anyone else's demands! I'm just incorporating the opinions of others to help me make decisions that I'm happier and more secure in!

Thank you for taking the time to send this message! It really is very kind!

[crystalartsandanimation]

10-Year Anniversary, and Which Animation is Releasing First?

So, one fact about me in relation to animation and fandoms, I love watching Alan Becker's Animator vs. Animation / Animation vs. Minecraft series. I don't remember when I first discovered it, though I remember watching Animator vs. Animation IV first... I think. I've strayed away, however, because of schoolwork and watching other shows like Steven Universe and PJ Masks (yes, I know it's a show for children, but Walt Disney did say "adults are only kids grown up," and what's wrong with liking a kids' show, so back off.). It wasn't until this past summer that I've rediscovered the series and fell in love with it again as I did the first time I saw it.

Hey, isn't today the day that Animator vs. Animation III was published to YouTube exactly 10 years ago (October 2, 2011; and I'm pretty much a day late in my time zone, but, hey, better late than never I suppose)? Because it is, and it also marks the first appearance of the Dark Lord, so happy 10th anniversary!

Also, today, if anyone hasn't seen it yet, Alan Becker created a community poll on YouTube asking viewers which would they prefer: if they would like the next AVM short out as soon as possible or if they would like to watch a separate animation called Animation vs. Arcade Games.

As of right now, from what I can see in a couple of comments, the first option is winning. In my personal opinion, although I am really excited for the next AVM episode to come out after the absolute banger of an episode was released at the end of August, I do think that waiting until more information about the warden is released because of course, more accuracy. Although all of us do know that the stick figures have been denying them since the beginning, AVM also does stay true to Minecraft physics most times, and this is coming from a person who watched a lot of Minecraft videos in the past, but doesn't actually play it (please don't hurt me). I'm also pretty intrigued to see how Animator vs. Arcade Games would go. We've already seen the stick figures tackle Pokémon and Super Mario Bros., so I wonder how they will tackle other games.

I swear, when I first saw the title Animator vs. Arcade Games, my mind thought of Pac-Man, Galaga, Frogger, Donkey Kong.... but who knows what the outcome will be in the end when Alan finally makes the decision? Would AVM be released first, or would it be AVAG?

Side note: did anyone know that there is a FANDOM wiki on the Animator vs. Animation franchise?

[natedrawsfrogs]

Pokémon Go to the polls! #weedlegang Vote for Weedle Community Day @pokemongoapp on Twitter!

[blackuigryphonvr]

Another #NewPokeGym!!!! #PokemonGo #MyPokemonGoLife #Wayfarer

This was another DREAM COME TRUE!!!

I’ve been wishing, wanting, and HOPING for this Portuguese Church ⛪️ to become a PokéGym since 2016!!!! When I got back into playing Pokémon Go late summer 2018 after a long not playing since winter 2018, this was the #1 spot I wanted to become a PokéGym! I even wrote to Niantic about it!

I coordinated with my local Discord Pokémon Go group 2-3 weeks ago to get this spot in. I was worried that it hadn’t gone up yet, but the other new stuff did... so, I moved onto other things....

Then, this evening I happened to be playing Pokémon Go when I felt sort of lost and confused because the PokéGym I saw there I’d assumed was Starbucks.... but it wasn’t! It was the church ⛪️!

The game developers back in the old Niantic system from Ingress back in 2012-2014 was very English centric... so, they only entered in certain stuff to the maps or the games... I personally added this church to every map, including Yelp, Google Maps, and OSM, as well as others. But they didn’t speak Portuguese n had no concept that it was a church. I know it’s a church because it’s been a number of things over the years. Back in 2004 it was used as a voting 🗳 poll and I literally voted for stupid John Kerry against GW Bush, but he quit even tho he won the election because he’s in Bush’s fraternity, and had a dude tazered for talking about it as a form of public torture punishment without due process.

Other things that are also new PokéStops or PokéGyms now we’re also stuff that were unfinished, unsaved, unpublished, or missing from the maps. Now, they are reality. But, it was due to the efforts of sharing my work with others.

We have a lot of Portuguese churches ⛪ n businesses around here because there’s a lot of Brazillians around here, including my neighborhood.

And, here it is! I can see the church PokéGym from sitting on my sofa 🛋 at home!

This is gonna be an AWESOME Community Day this month!

[berniesrevolution]

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that public-sector employees who are represented by unions in collective bargaining can’t be obligated to pay dues to those unions. Legal observers say that decision, in Janus v. AFSCME, could presage a similar ruling regarding private-sector unions. More broadly, Janus was a stark victory for the 1 percent, underlining a decades-long trend of working- and middle-class wage stagnation. It was the kind of development liable to outrage both politically engaged liberals and politics-averse but pocketbook-conscious swing voters. It was, in other words, a potentially catalyzing moment for the Democratic Party, a chance to make the case for the practical necessity of progressivism in clear and stirring terms during a crucial election year.

Presented with this opportunity, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi … did not rise to the occasion. “With this decision,” she said at a press conference, “the Supreme Court became the Supreme Corp.”

“That’s as in short for corporation,” she added helpfully. It’s a play on words! Woof.

“Supreme Corp.” is not the only egregious Democratic messaging swing-and-miss in recent memory. The most high-stakes such failure may have occurred in 2016’s first general-election presidential debate, when Hillary “Pokémon Go to the Polls” Clinton made laborious work of introducing a disparaging catchphrase for Donald Trump’s economic plan—“Trumped-up trickle-down”—that, suffice it to say, did not actually become a catchphrase. This foreshadowed Democratic efforts at Trump-related wordplay that continue to this day and have a collective batting average of .000. Senate Dems’ painfully awkward slogan during the Obamacare repeal battle, “Make America Sick Again,” was if anything a reminder of how Trump is way better at this stuff. (Relatedly, in May, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that the president’s tariff policies would “make China great again” and that they demonstrate “the art of a bad deal.”) Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, riffed on the repeal bill’s “Trumpcare” nickname by suggesting it should instead be called “Trump doesn’t care.” (Zing!) In June, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Patty Murray wrote that “as a candidate, President Trump talked a big game on lowering drug prices, but after 500 days in office the only health care ‘Price’ he has dropped is his former Secretary.” That would be ex-Trump administration Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Hey-o! Barf.

Two years into the Trump presidency, the prominent Democrats who are called upon most frequently to speak on the party’s behalf about our many national crises—Pelosi, Schumer, other high-ranking legislators, the officials and surrogates of the Democratic National Committee—seem congenitally incapable of communicating in a way that is not beside the point and laden with clichés. This is in and of itself not totally crippling to the party’s electoral chances—there’s a lot that goes into messaging besides catchy sound bites. The toothlessness of establishment Dems is even somewhat understandable, given the way Pelosi, Schumer, and others came of age in an era in which the deployment of cautious, folksy rhetoric was a winning strategy. But it seems at least worth considering that, in 2018, being more direct, more aggressive, and more not-world-historically-lame—being, say, more like Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, who concisely and virally said during a debate with his opponent Ron DeSantis that “I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist. I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist”—could help the party rally supporters, establish a rapport with new voters, frame news coverage in advantageous ways, and, like, actually win elections for once.

(Continue Reading)

[sactonki]

The jackbox party pack

The jackbox party pack update#

The jackbox party pack full#

The jackbox party pack tv#

Winners are awarded slices of the Wheel’s face with a chance to win big with each nail-biting spin. Can you solve murders while trying to get away with your own? The Wheel of Enormous Proportions (4-8 players) - Trivia has never been so large! A fantastic, mystical wheel challenges you with a variety of trivia prompts. Players doodle all the clues, hiding a letter from their name in the weapon drawings. How well do you know your friends?! Weapons Drawn (4-8 players) - A social deduction game where everyone is both a murderer and a detective. Go head to head to see who scores the job! The Poll Mine (2-10 players) - A survey game that’s all about YOU! Split into teams and see who can escape from the witch’s lair! Players individually rank their choices to a difficult question, then must guess how the group answered as a whole. Job Job (3-10 players) - Use other people’s words to create unique and funny answers to classic job interview questions. In this revamped title, players create looping, two-frame animations based on weird and random titles. About Each Game Drawful Animate (3 -10 players) - It’s alive! The guessing game with terrible drawings and hilariously wrong answers makes a dynamic return. This game does not support online matchmaking but can still be enjoyed remotely using livestreaming services or video conferencing tools. The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is currently in English only. No extra controllers needed - players use their phones or tablets to play along! Got a bigger group? Play with up to 10 players and up to 10,000 audience members. No extra controllers needed - players use their phones or tablets to play along! Got a bigger group? Play with up The eighth installment of the beloved Jackbox Party Pack franchise is here! Five hilarious new games will energize your next game night, holiday party, happy hour, or video call.

Summary: The eighth installment of the beloved Jackbox Party Pack franchise is here! Five hilarious new games will energize your next game night, holiday party, happy hour, or video call.

© 2022 Hookshot Media, partner of ReedPop. Join 1,341,995 people following Nintendo Life: Koumajou Remilia II Brings More Castlevania Inspired Game.Īlterium Shift Is A Super NES-Inspired RPG With Three Dif.

The jackbox party pack full#

Splatoon 3 amiibo Unlocks And Rewards - Full List Nintendo Direct Zelda Announcement Rumours Intensify

The jackbox party pack update#

Splatoon 3 Connection Issues? Looks Like An Update Is On. Nintendo Switch Online Missions And Rewards: September 20. Where To Buy The Splatoon 3 Nintendo Switch OLED Model Co. Pokémon GO Community Days 2022: September Community Day. Limited-Time Pokémon Sword And Shield Distribution Event. Pokémon GO Spotlight Hour Times: This Week's Featured Po. Never fear though, even when you’re out you’ll find yourself Roomerang-ed right back into the drama!ĭispatch Games Posts Several Updates Around Its Company S.

The jackbox party pack tv#

Roomerang (4-9 players) – Channel your inner reality TV star in an attempt to come out on top of your fellow players! Respond to prompts, bring the competition and role-play to avoid being voted out. Nonsensory (3-8 players) – Professor Nanners is here to test your NSP (Nonsensory Perception) in this drawing, writing, and guessing game! How close can you get to guessing where another player’s prompt ranks on the silliest of scales? More votes equals more value and then poof! You’re a human again! Junktopia (3-8 players) – A strange wizard has turned you into a frog! Create hilarious backstories for weird objects and then get them appraised by your fellow players. Quixort (1-10 players) – In this trivia sorting factory, work with your team to sort falling answers into their proper order before they hit the floor! Or, play the single player mode and see how many blocks you can sort before topping out.

[emmajustin20]

Pokémon Go: September and October Community Day Confirmed with an Exclusive Move

Pokémon Go has finally revealed the results of the upcoming September and October Community Day. For the upcoming Community Day (CD) fans had four options to choose between Charmander, Grimer, Porygon, and Caterpie. Now the voting is over, and Niantic revealed the final results. The voting was held over a weekend through a poll on twitter. Niantic already announced that the two highest chosen Pokémon would get September and October CD.

In the poll, two Pokémon took the show by winning and the other two runner-ups Pokémon barely got 8% combined votes. So as every player expected, “Porygon” and “Charmander” got the highest votes. During the voting, both of these Pokémon were trending in the Pokémon community. Porygon got the highest votes because it’s a rare Pokémon and the trainer wants to register it. On the other hand, Charmander is a fan favorite Pokémon that evolves in Charmeleon and Charizard.

To evolve Charmander into Charmeleon, it takes 25 candies and 100 candies for Charizard. If trainers evolve Charmander into Charizard, they will also get an exclusive move. On Community Day, the shiny form of Charmander will also appear. The shiny form of Charmander is pretty, but Charizard’s shiny form is very different from the original. The original form of Charizard is in orange color, but its shiny form is in matte black color that looks outstanding.

If trainers evolve Charmander into Charizard during the CD, they will get an exclusive move named “Dragon Breath.” The Dragon Breath move of Charizard is a fast move that has Power: 6 and Cooldown: 0.5 seconds. Mostly Dragon-type Pokémon possess this move, and Charizard can have it too if the trainer evolves their Charmander on CD. Charizard is not a Dragon-type Pokémon, but it owns some Dragon-type moves that make this Pokémon a fan favorite.

From the excitement of fans, the result of the poll was almost visible, but the competition was quite tough between both Pokémon. Niantic has also confirmed the date of September and October CD. The upcoming CD will take place on September 20 for Porygon and October 17 for Charmander. However, most of the fans were curious about why Charmander is part of an upcoming CD since it was already part of the CD once before.

The reason behind the voting for Charmander is that Niantic will launch “Mega evolution” in Pokémon Go very soon. Charizard is the third form of Charmander, and it will get two extremely powerful Mega forms. Charizard is already a powerful form, but its Mega form “Charizard X” and “Charizard Y” will set the stage on some higher levels.

Now that voting is over, and results are revealed, some fans are curious about November CD. Usually, in December, Niantic features the Pokémon that comes throughout the year. So according to this, there’s still one mystery left for CD 2020.

Right now trainers are busy with the “Heatran” raid. Heatran is legendary Fire/Steel-type Pokémon that are appearing in 5-star raids. So, this legendary will keep the trainers busy until the next Community Day arrives.

Conclusion – Trainers are always ready to catch new species of Pokémon. Pokémon Go is available in every region, and that’s why players from around the world will be able to catch the CD Pokémon on arrival. However, the CD will be available for a limited time, so it is necessary to catch the CD Pokémon as many as possible in the available time.

Hey there, I’m Oliviya . I’m a web developer living in USA. I am a fan of photography, technology, and design. I’m also interested in arts and web development. You can visit my site with a click on the button above. Also read my Blog, Howtouk

Source: Pokémon Go: September and October Community Day Confirmed with an Exclusive Move

[sjx3gaming]

@PokemonGoApp : 💧 Squirtle, the Tiny Turtle Pokémon, is going to need your help to become one of the two Pokémon with the most votes in the Community Day poll! Share this post if Squirtle has your vote! 💧 Save the date: 5/23! 🗳️ #PokemonGOCommunityDay https://t.co/XUWnG8l76T via Twitter

[narcisbolgor-blog]

Amino Apps Makes the Case for Anonymity Online

Over the last several years, a number of social media and dating platforms have begun emphasizing users’ real names. Facebook started requiring people sign up with their “authentic” names in 2014. Twitter invited anyone to apply to be “verified”—meaning Twitter certified they were who they claimed—in 2016. In December, OkCupid said it would no longer allow prospective daters to use names like “sexgirl_420.”

That call to de-anonymize the internet found renewed support last year, after Russian propagandists—often posing as Americans—flooded platforms like Twitter and Facebook during 2016 US presidential campaign. Mark Cuban demanded Twitter and Facebook “confirm a real name and real person behind every account.” Organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, meanwhile, have long argued that anonymity is crucial for democracy because it allows marginalized voices to speak without the fear of retribution.

It’s not hard to understand why platforms might want users to go by the names they use in real life. It’s easier to sell advertisements if you can tell companies what kinds of people will see them, and there’s a hope that people using their real identities will act more civil online. But a relatively new, smaller social network called Amino Apps isn’t buying it.

The mobile-first platform aimed at teens is organized similarly to Reddit—which also doesn’t require real names—but has the emotional, nerdy attitude of Tumblr. Amino Apps CEO and co-founder Ben Anderson believes anonymity is integral to self-expression—and the way the platform engineered identity has uniquely shaped how it functions.

'Anonymity is actually less immediately impactive on social behavior than we might assume or expect.'

Whitney Phillips, Mercer University

Amino comprises different communities structured around certain interests, just like Reddit. But that’s where the similarities stop. Reddit has always thrived as a minimalist desktop site; it didn’t even release its own mobile app until 2016. While Amino has a desktop site, you can’t post from it. And it began as a sprawling network of 90 or so different mobile apps. The company only built a centralized portal two years ago through which every community can be accessed. Before then, joining another Amino community meant downloading a separate app. With the centralized structure—and the ability for every user to start a new one—Amino now has over a million communities.

Amino doesn’t make any money, and is fully funded by investors. To generate revenue, the company plans to sell digital goods, like profile upgrades and sticker packs, and to offer a subscription service. Amino declined to say how many active users it has, but said that its various apps have been downloaded tens of millions of times. Users spend an average of 70 minutes a day on the platform, according to the company, or as much as Snapchat and Facebook combined.

Each Amino community has access to several well-built news feeds, chatrooms, quiz and poll capabilities, and voice chat. The most popular Aminos center around nerdy interests, like K-pop, Pokémon, and video games like Doki Doki Literature Club.

But interests like vaporwave music, bisexuality, and feminism all have Amino communities too. Noticeably absent are some of the topics that often feel inescapable on the internet: The tiny Amino communities dedicated to US politics, Trump voters, and Bitcoin are mostly ghost towns. That’s likely at least in part because Amino has so few links to other parts of the internet, like news sites. Many problems that have plagued mainstream platforms, like fake news, have arisen due to outbound links. Conspiracy theories on Facebook aren’t published right to the platform, but to third-party websites which are then linked to. Amino has fostered a culture that often ignores the rest of the internet.

Amino also diverges from Reddit in that it doesn’t carry identity across communities. You can be one person in the Overwatch Amino, and another entirely in Mario Kart. You can change your name, profile picture, and bio to match each specific interest.

“We want people to be able to express themselves, we do want people to create an identity, but we don’t necessarily want them to bring in their full real-life identity. They can craft this identity around this one topic they’re really passionate about,” says Anderson.

Experts say that gives Amino users the chance to express themselves, but it comes with risks.

"Allowing a fluid identity does give people the chance to experiment, and perhaps cultivate, a new and better self,” says John Suler, a psychology professor at Rider University who has written extensively about online behavior. “But it also allows people to express those underlying, and perhaps even unconscious, psychological frustrations and needs. It's just so easy to act out when wearing a costume.”

Amino

Last week, Amino announced it would carry anonymity over to video chat, in which users can only communicate as an avatar they design. Anderson compared the feature to Apple’s new Animoji, available only available on the iPhone X. Think of it as Bitmoji for your face, or a form of digital cosplay.

“I wouldn’t say yet that it captures emotion as well as we would probably like, but it gives you a glimmer of the beginning, you can imagine how you could actually capture how one is feeling through this type of technology,” says Anderson.

The new video chat feature serves as an answer to what Anderson calls the “Chatroulette problem,” referring to the viral site that allowed anyone to instantly video chat with strangers—and which became quickly overrun with penises. On Amino, you can’t show anything to the camera aside from your avatar. If move the camera away from your head, your character simply waits for your face to return.

Amino is one of the first social media platforms to bring anonymity to video chat, though people have long role-played in video games and in virtual reality. But its decision to anonymize all aspects of its platform raises questions about what that does to user behavior—especially because Amino is aimed at teens. But researchers say that anonymity alone doesn’t determine how an online community functions.

"Anonymity is actually less immediately impactive on social behavior than we might assume or expect; it's an intuitive idea, but there's actually not much research to back those assumptions up," says Whitney Phillips, a professor at Mercer University and the author of several books about internet culture.

She says that a community’s norms can be more powerful—which is why Amino’s moderators are so crucial. Like Reddit, each community has a number of moderators that help decide what users can post. But if a moderator starts a new Amino with bad intentions, having anonymity can help them get away with it.

'It's just so easy to act out when wearing a costume.'

John Suler, Rider University

Unlike Reddit and Tumblr, Amino doesn’t allow pornography. Despite the restrictions, I was able to find content that violated the rules, including groups dedicated to specific sexual fetishes, within minutes. Parents who have posted reviews on Common Sense, a non-profit dedicated to promoting safe technology and media for children, said they also had found inappropriate content on the app.

“With more than a million communities, we know that violations sometimes escape our best efforts, but it is often only a matter of hours—or even minutes—before these violations are fully addressed,” Anderson said in a statement when presented with the offending groups. “We are constantly trying to do better by investing more and more to deliver on our vision of better digital communities.”

What might be harder to moderate than public content are one-on-one chats, which Amino allows. Almost immediately after joining any community, I was inundated with messages from strangers. Many of the messages had little to do with the designated topic; most people wanted to say that they thought my profile picture was cute, or to ask how my day was going. I could chat with dozens of individuals without having to reveal anything about my actual life. It was hard to know how to trust, since I had little to confirm who they were, which sometimes felt creepy. The risks seem far greater for a 14 year old.

Most of the time though, chats on Amino are more mundane. The platform is ultimately banking on what makes the internet alluring for many people: It offers them a chance to be fully immersed in the thing they love the most, while leaving behind the baggage of real life. But it's hard to be only part of yourself at a time. Even in the most popular communities, the conversations often turn to the normal gripes of everyday existence. In the anime group—which has 1.5 million users—a chat one morning quickly became about how it’s a pain to get ready for school.

Social Hour

Encouraging real names didn't help Facebook stop Russian misinformation agents from flooding its platform

If you'd rather stick with Facebook regardless, here's how to make your News Feed actually enjoyable

And for an even better—but not bulletproof—way to go anonymous online, give Tor a try

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[brittneyishhere]

Niantic will be taking votes for the next two Pokémon Go Community Days

Niantic will be taking votes for the next two Pokémon Go Community Days

Today, Niantic announced that it will once again leave the players choose the next two Community Day Pokémon. While players were able to vote by researching one of the four different Pokémon species in February, this time voting will be much easier. Starting Saturday, May 23, 2020 at 6 p.m. PST, players will be able to vote for 24 hours in a poll published by the official Pokémon Go Twitter…

[entergamingxp]

Pokmon Go will decide next two Community Days via Twitter poll • Eurogamer.net

Weedle out the competition.

The next two featured creatures for Pokémon Go’s Community Day will be chosen via Twitter poll.

Pokémon Go has offered a public vote for its next Community Day Pokémon once in the past, earlier this year, although this involved completing tasks in the game itself.

While the game adapts itself to be fully playable indoors, a Twitter poll has instead been chosen as a suitable substitute for picking the next couple of options.

The top two choices will become the June and then July Community Day options and what’s interesting here are the specific choices on offer. Whatever the community decides, each option sets a new precedent for what could be considered a Community Day Pokémon.

The choices are:

Weedle, despite being a very underpowered Pokémon, is the only option here yet to see its shiny version made available in Pokémon Go. For collectors, this is the obvious first choice.

Squirtle, which is a fan-favourite Pokémon, but one who already had a Community Day back in 2018. This option opens the door to more repeat Community Days in the future. This option would also let you evolve Squirtle to Blastoise with Lucario’s move Aura Sphere.

Sandshrew, an uncommon Pokémon with a nice-looking shiny which is already available in the game. Its evolution Sandslash would get Shadow Claw. Choosing this option would make Sandshrew the first Community Day Pokémon with only one evolution. Meanwhile, Alolan Sandshrew would be available in raids – an activity which is not normally the focus of Community Day.

Gastly, a popular Pokémon whose shiny remains hard to find. but whose evolution Gengar has featured in two raid days where its shiny was available. Evolving it to Gengar will give it the move Shadow Punch.

The poll will be open this Sunday, 24th May for 24 hours from 2am via the Pokémon Go Twitter account.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/pokmon-go-will-decide-next-two-community-days-via-twitter-poll-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pokmon-go-will-decide-next-two-community-days-via-twitter-poll-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[biofunmy]

21 Things BuzzFeed News Tried And Loved In 2019

As the tech and business team at BuzzFeed News, we love stuff. Gizmos, gadgets, games, and gear. So here are some of the many things that we tried this year and wholeheartedly recommend.

1. Forest App — Free

Can you go half a minute without checking Twitter, or TikTok, or Facebook? I bet you didn’t make it through that sentence without gazing longingly at another tab. How does one get work done in such a distracting world? Some of us have given up. For the rest of us, there’s Forest. No, not the one with trees. Don’t get carried away. I’m talking about Forest, the app, and also a browser extension, that helps you concentrate. When you use Forest, you can choose to block certain websites, or stop using your phone, for 25 minutes intervals. When you start your countdown, Forest displays a small shrub, which grows until it’s a fully mature digital tree at the 25-minute mark. If you try to navigate to your forbidden websites — which you can whitelist or blacklist — you will kill your tree. And since you don’t want to be a tree murderer, you will concentrate and enrich your life, or your company, and live happily ever after.

—Alex Kantrowitz

2. Google Doodle Polls — Free

Toward the end of 2018, I attended my first meeting for what became the BuzzFeed News Union. When it was time to plan when we’d meet next, there came that inevitable murmur of everyone pulling up their calendars, throwing out a bunch of dates, and then someone else saying they weren’t free — but how about this day? Rather than let that agony go on any longer, I volunteered to just make a Doodle. “What’s a Doodle?” someone asked. “What’s a DOODLE?!” I probably shrieked back, stunned that so many people didn’t know about the productivity tool I’ve been loyally using for at least six years.

Doodle is pretty simple: It’s a scheduling tool that makes planning meetings ridiculously easy. You select a bunch of possible dates and send them to the attendees. They check off which dates they could do. At the end, you have a neat little tally showing which day most people are free.

But Doodle isn’t just for meetings! It’s also how I kept my book club a well-oiled machine this year. And there’s truly no better way to plan a dinner with that group of friends you’ve been meaning to catch up with. Maybe I sound like a square using a productivity tool to manage relationships, but it’s the simplest way to push past the “I’ve just been so busy!!” excuses and find time to see the people you love. I often find myself wondering what else I could be using Doodle for: A family reunion? A weekend trip with my college friends? And when will Doodle integrate with dating apps? Can it please be now?

Several months — and more than a dozen Doodle polls — later, we officially formed the BuzzFeed News Union. And while that was mostly thanks to the hard work of my colleagues, I like to think Doodle deserves a little bit of credit as well.

—Julia Reinstein

3. Apple EarPods — Free With an iPhone

At the end of 2017, I said that Apple’s AirPods were my favorite gadget of the year. At the end of 2019, I am retracting my opinion. AirPods are trash — after about two years, when the tiny battery in each one begins to die, and your $159 pair of earphones start sputtering out in minutes. Your only recourse is buying an expensive, out-of-warranty replacement or a brand-new pair from Apple.

So earlier this year, I abandoned my AirPods for something a lot less sexy: the simple white wired earbuds that came with my iPhone.

Sure, I can’t plug EarPods, which is what Apple officially calls them, into my MacBook, something that drives me nuts, and sure, I have wires dangling out of my ears like we all did not that long ago. But they also NEVER die on me in the middle of a podcast because the battery died, and I NEVER have to charge them, and if I ever lose them, new ones are $29 a pop, far less than what a single replacement AirPod costs. And they don’t sound any worse than AirPods.

When AirPods work, they are magical. But when they flake out, as AirPods inevitably will, they make the simple act of listening an experience fraught with anxiety — I could never predict when I’d hear the telltale chirp in my ears that meant the battery was depleted, sometimes just minutes after a full charge.

Now, I shove my trusty little EarPods into my ears and just go. Around me, millions of human beings swirl freely, unencumbered by wires, but hours later, my EarPods keeping playing and playing and playing. It’s magical — and it works every time.

—Pranav Dixit

4. Google Home Mini — $14.99 on Amazon

This year, for me, has been about investing some energy into making the devices and apps I regularly use fit into my life better. It’s weird that the technology’s default mode right now is changing human behavior rather than adapting to it. After moving to a new apartment, I realized the Google Home I’ve had for about two years really couldn’t cover multiple rooms, so on a lark I picked up a Google Home Mini and threw it in my bedroom. The two devices work seamlessly together. I bought a bunch of cheap Wi-Fi outlets and plugged some lamps into them in different rooms, which lets me turn lights on and off like I’m living on the starship Enterprise. I can move a song on Spotify around my apartment, from one Google Home to another. The Mini’s speaker is just the right size for a bedroom. In the morning, it tells me the weather and plays a few headlines. This all sounds extremely basic and it is, but it’s also exactly the right relationship I think we should have with smarthome technology — add a little bit at a time when you feel like it, see if you like it, casually adjust accordingly, have fun with it.

—Ryan Broderick

5. Feedly and Pocket Apps — $6/month and $4.99/month

Over the last four years, my personal internet had mostly shrunk down to just Twitter — which is by all accounts an irredeemably awful website full of the worst kind of content being created by the worst people on Earth. To fix this, I started paying for the RSS reader Feedly ($6 a month) and the read-it-later app Pocket ($4.99 a month). I mainly use Feedly for work. The paid version supports Google Alerts and works really well on mobile. Pocket, according to my phone’s screen time, is regularly in my top three most-used apps. I’ve used the free version for years, but the paid version has a really powerful search function, which means that whatever I put in there is easily findable, online and off. Pocket also has a Spotify-like algorithm that is always recommending me stuff to read based on what I’ve previously loaded in there (it used to be better, but sadly now it mostly just recommends Pocket originals which I’m kinda meh on). Both apps have helped me focus better, follow the news more easily, and actually enjoy the long-forgotten feeling of digging into something interesting on the internet. Read more websites in 2020!

—Ryan Broderick

6. Nintendo Switch — $298.99 on Amazon

I’ve technically had a Switch for about a year and a half, originally buying it for a European vacation with lots of train rides. In the last year, I really dove into its catalog of games. I’m by no means a Real Gamer — I’m 30 and the last system I owned was a Nintendo GameCube. That means I mainly just want to play a bunch of cartoony RPGs, remakes of old games, and a bunch of party games for when friends come over. I also travel a lot. All of these things make the Switch one of my favorite devices. Big games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Astral Chain, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and this month’s Pokémon Sword and Shield are genuine joys. And the Nintendo store has all kinds of cheap mid-sized games that you can just jump into whenever you want to kill some time, like Untitled Goose Game, Sonic Mania, and Hollow Knight. The console is also incredibly portable with a shockingly good battery life. Plus, Nintendo has for the most part avoided the toxic cultural wars that follow other video games. Instead, I can come home, lay around with my Switch, and spend a mindless couple hours trying to catch a shiny Galarian Rapidash in peace.

—Ryan Broderick

7. Instagram’s Close Friends Stories — Free

As someone whose private Instagram account is PG-13 at its absolute most risqué, I initially brushed off Instagram’s “close friends” stories feature as unnecessary. But Instagram has become my main means of sharing and communicating, my followers now include my boss, colleagues, aunts, married high school friends, acquaintances — as well as several dudes from Hinge who will apparently continue watching my stories until one of us dies. So the close friends feature has become my go-to. Whether I want to deliver an update while perhaps being a little drunker than advisable, share a meme without individually messaging it to seven different people, or just generally be a little sad/weird/vulnerable online, close friends has become both a micro version of a finsta and the realest version of myself I share anywhere on the internet. It’s some small comfort to take back a bit of privacy on social media — as much as privacy exists there at all, of course.

—Olivia Niland

8. Scam Goddess — Free

The summer of scam may be over, but scam springs eternal — and Laci Mosley keeps us informed on Earwolf’s Scam Goddess podcast. She’s tackled everything from Anna Delvey, aka the Soho Scammer, that nationwide Airbnb scam, and the absolutely bonkers Ukrainian orphan story since the podcast began in September. Mosley’s guests have included Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus, and Nicole Byer, so while the show can’t help being hysterical, at least once per episode she delivers a line so strikingly, memorably, out-of-left-field funny that I find myself rewinding to listen over and over again. Scam Goddess is true crime without the ick factor, a bubblegum fun listen with a dose of education, and a breath of fresh air in my podcast feed.

—Olivia Niland

9. Silicone Case for Apple TV Remote — $7.45 on Amazon

This was the year I finally cut the cord on cable television, which meant I used the Apple TV remote a lot more than before. I have a fourth gen Apple TV (the 2015 release that was the first model with Siri), and my chief complaint is that the remote is incredibly slippery. Not only do I find it slippery in terms of trying to scroll with my thumb on the trackpad, but the damned thing flies out of my hand like a bar of soap in the tub. I literally marvel at it sometimes wondering how Apple sells something that is impossible to hold. Steve would never!

Here’s where the silicone sleeve comes in. It’s anti-slip, and it gives a tiny bit more girth and bulk to the remote to make it easier to hold. My only regret is buying it in black. I’d recommend getting a bright, easy-to-see color, because you know the Apple TV remote is always getting lost.

—Katie Notopoulos

10. Idagio Classical Music Streaming App — Free or $9.99/month

A few years ago, I wrote an article about the current state of the used CD market and discovered that one genre that still thrives on CD is classical. It isn’t just the better sound quality or that it’s for old people (OK, maybe that’s part of it), but rather that streaming apps like Spotify are terrible at organizing classical music. Unlike pop music, where Spotify’s algorithms and playlists can create amazing guesses on what you’d like to hear, classical is quite different.

The metadata is different — do you want to search by composer or conductor, orchestra or soloist? Also, many classical “albums” have several composers — a CD might be one orchestra’s concert of Mozart and Beethoven together, making an album search confusing. And there are dozens of versions of specific pieces recorded by different groups.

Idagio was recommended to me by a few people on Twitter after I tweeted complaining about the lack of good streaming for classical. The paid version (I signed up for a free week trial) was great — interesting curated playlists, good search, and recommendations — everything you’d want from a dedicated streaming app for classical. You can browse by composer, ensemble, conductor, soloist, genre, period, or even instrument. There are curated playlists from composers and soloists and even things like highlights from the London Symphony’s 2019–2020 season.

That said, I didn’t feel up to paying $9.99/month for yet another streaming service. I already pay for Spotify’s family plan, plus SiriusXM (which is soooo expensive, but I need my Howard Stern). So I canceled it after the free trial.

But this fall, Idagio released a free version. Not all the features of the paid version are available on the free version, crucially the ability to play a specific track. For example, you can’t play an exact Richard Strauss song, but you can play the Essential Richard Strauss radio playlist. Even so, it’s still the best free classical listening experience you can get.

––Katie Notopoulos

11. Curology — Subscriptions From $24.90/Month

Perhaps it was naive of me, but I assumed that once I got out of my teenage years, I wouldn’t have to worry about acne. And then I hit my late twenties, and BOOM — some sort of cursed second puberty, complete with painful cyst-like zits that I couldn’t remember having as a youth. I tried every “miracle” mask, face wash, toner, acne cream, oil, etc. Nothing helped.

In May, after years of extreme self-consciousness every time I had a flare-up, I stumbled across a thread on the /r/SkinCareAddiction subreddit about Curology, a subscription mail-order acne medication service. Since I had nothing to lose, I gave it a try. A week and a half later, I got a little white bottle in the mail that literally changed my life.

It’s been six months and the hormonal acne on my chin that I thought I’d be cursed with forever is all but nonexistent. The discoloration marks on my chin and around my nose have begun to fade and my skin tone is even in a way that it’s never been before. When I get a zit or two, they aren’t painful and they’re gone after a few days of my normal cleaning and Curology routine. My prescriber has answered every question I’ve had promptly and I have yet to have any problems with my shipment — and I still can’t believe I’m only paying $40 every other month for something that’s had such a profound change on my skin and day-to-day existence.

—Ellie Hall

12. SoFi Banking App — Free

Banks suck. I like money just fine, but I’ve always resented the institutions that hold onto the money for me. For years, I had a checking account at Wells Fargo, which, thanks to a massive scandal in which the company opened at least 3.5 million “potentially unauthorized” accounts, I now very much regret. Then I put my money in a local credit union, which somehow meant I was never able to access it unless I went to one specific office in San Francisco that never seemed to be open. So when I needed to open a new account earlier this year, you can imagine my trepidation — send my money to an evil empire with a UX from 1995 or to a rickety storefront in some basement, which also somehow had a UX from 1995?

Enter SoFi, the startup lending company which launched a mobile banking and investment app in February. I opened an account and now do all my finances from the free mobile app. It’s great. It’s a money market account, so I earn a small amount on my deposit and can easily pay bills, transfer money (similar to Venmo), and invest in the low-fee index funds dear to my heart. The UX looks like it was designed in this decade, and the investment side isn’t cluttered up with a bunch of unintelligible quant gibberish. (Looking directly at you, E-Trade.)

My eyes aren’t closed. SoFi seems to have previously been a terrible place to work. I sincerely hope the culture is better for employees under new CEO Anthony Noto, because I really like this app. Now if I could just convince my boomer psychotherapist to let me pay him on it instead of writing paper checks.

—Scott Lucas

13. Frogstagram — Free

Frogs: They’re usually small, sometimes green, and always delightful to follow on Instagram.

I stumbled upon Frogblr, the unofficial community of frog-owning Tumblr users, in early 2018. In the months following that, I realized many of my favorite frog blogs also had frog-themed Instagram accounts. So in 2019, I fully committed and now follow more than a dozen Instagram accounts operated by frog owners.

There’s @stickyfrogs, which features frogs named Gumby, Jeans, Voight, and Tiny. I also love @moonnight.17, which has wonderfully TINY frogs, as well as small snakes and geckos. I’m also a fan of @frog.wizard_, which has extremely earnest frog-themed memes. Also, @the_froggy_momma is great. She features dozens of different amphibians and reptiles, including frogs named Buttercup, Bertha (who has three legs), Norman, and Darla.

Of course, the frogs are incredibly cute. I love their big eyes and oddly shaped little bodies. But it’s equally joyful to watch their owners livestream the frogs, call them goofy names, and brag about everything they do (which is, in all honesty, not very much). It’s very sincere. I’d highly recommend going through the #frogsofinstagram tag and findings some accounts to follow.

—Caroline Haskins

14. Nuking All the Digital Evidence From Before My Haircut — Free

Bangs are not just my haircut. They are a crucial part of my personality. There are two stages of my life: before bangs and after. If you ever have the misfortune of glancing at my giant forehead, you will understand.

I got bangs in January 2017. Tragically, that is not very long ago. So I decided this year to delete and untag myself in any Instagram or Facebook photos before bangs. I also deleted all of my tweets in January 2018, which would have included any images of me from before I got my haircut.

This may sound dramatic. However, I promise it is not. If I’m honest, this isn’t just about liking my current haircut. It’s about having some control over the ways that I’m seen online. I keep the number of public pictures of me to an absolute minimum, and exercising some private control over my image feels like a natural extension of that instinct. Now with bangs.

—Caroline Haskins

15. TikTok — Free

It’s more than just funny, although it’s funnier than almost anything on television. TikTok is as much a portal into the everyday lives of other people as Chatroulette ever was, but without the expectation to engage with what you’re seeing. It’s the only social app on which I follow only delightful strangers, don’t consume content from anyone I know, nor feel pressure to post content myself. TikTok shows me a greater diversity of race, class, and, yes, age than any other platform I currently have access to. I’ve watched videos made by Mennonite teenagers, by hippie grandmas, by immigrant families. TikTok isn’t all jokes; I’ve watched girls do interpretive dances to the soundtrack of abusive boyfriends and screaming parents. I’ve watched videos expressing queer pride, native pride, ethnic pride. I’ve watched hours of TikToks; I’ve watched TikToks about being a 30-year-old woman addicted to TikTok. I conceal the extent of my TikTok watching from my partner.

I used to be addicted to Instagram, scrolling endlessly and closing the app only to immediately reopen it seconds later. But now, that pink and orange neon square doesn’t beckon the way it used to. I’d rather be watching TikToks, which pass no judgment on my baking, never make me wonder if I’m taking enough vacations, buying enough candles, or wearing fuzzy enough sweaters. What TikTok offers is comedic, absurd, and intimate. The only problem is now I need headphones in public, and I might be under surveillance by the Chinese state.

—Caroline O’Donovan

16. Send to Kindle for Google Chrome — Free

I’m trying to spend less time looking at my phone and have become obsessed with looking at my screen time stats (in the iPhone’s settings app). My most-used app, other than Instagram, is always Safari or Pocket, because that’s where I read long articles — actually, where I try to read long articles, but never finish in one sitting because some news alert or push notification has pulled me away from the story.

In an attempt to create a more distraction-free reading space, I’ve started to send any article of length to my Kindle, which has a black-and-white screen that’s more comfortable on the eyes. This Chrome extension makes it so easy. It grabs all the text on the page and zooms it right over to my e-ink reader in less than a minute. And it really works! I plowed through an entire ~3,800-word piece without reading one incoming WhatsApp and loved every minute of it!! (BTW, the fantastic, multithousand-word story is by my colleague Katherine Miller, and you will not regret spending 15 uninterrupted minutes on it.)

—Nicole Nguyen

17. Tile Pro — $35 and Tile Sticker — $40 2-pack

I’ve been yelling at people to get Tile’s Bluetooth-enabled thing finders, for years, but with the caveat that the device’s biggest flaw is the way it handles its battery, which is glued onto the device’s circuit board and can’t be replaced. Not great for the environment.

Well, the latest version of the Tile Pro finally has a replaceable battery!!! This is huge because the Tile really is a wonderful little doodad for helping you find keys, your kid’s fave toy, etc., and now you don’t have to throw away the entire device when it runs out of juice a year from now.

There’s another new Tile, called Sticker, which unfortunately doesn’t have a replaceable battery, but it lasts three years, which is very good for an always-on Bluetooth device. It’s also small enough to put on my AirPods case and stick discreetly on my bike. I haven’t lost either yet — but I am a huge fan of these tiny things.

—Nicole Nguyen

18. Streaming Co-Op — Free

It has been active for years, but in 2019 my streaming cooperative really began to shine. The idea is so obvious that you may be in one already: a group of friends — comrades, one might call them — who each subscribe to one streaming service and share the login details with all the others.

As it currently stands, I pay for Netflix, a friend in San Francisco pays for Hulu and another here in New York pays for HBO Now. We all pay for Amazon Prime, because Amazon. The co-op is currently onboarding a fourth member who will pay for Disney+. Scale!

Sharing passwords like this might go against the fine print of the average streaming user agreement, but it doesn’t seem to be against the spirit of them — most allow two and sometimes four seperate devices, in completely different locations, to be streaming simultaneously. Unless we’re talking about a situation where every member of the co-op is watching the same service at the same time (Does this really happen in a post-GoT world??), you should be just fine.

And given the trend, this might be the only workable model for watching stuff in the 2020s: Apple, Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Hulu will all have exclusive shows you can’t see anywhere else, while Disney and its fellow content mega-giants will be using their vast libraries to funnel people into their own platforms. In a world with 8 to 10 streaming services each demanding 12 bucks a month — and we’re not even including cable channels, for those who want live sports or CNN or whatever — a co-op is the only game in town. Viewers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your passwords.

—Tom Gara

19. Buy Nothing Project — Free

On Jan. 1, 2019, Netflix released Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, a reality series consisting of eight episodes of sweet lifestyle porn. The smiling, soft-spoken, petite host gently floats into people’s messy, cluttered homes, like an organizational Mary Poppins, and — from the shambles — helps them create a peaceful space to live and breathe and be joyful. Deep. There were moments during the show, however, when I wondered what exactly happened to all that perfectly usable stuff that Kondo helped them thank in a moment of ritual silence before tossing it into a trash bag in the driveway. Is it all headed to the landfill before ending up in crushed shards in some whale’s guts or up some turtle’s nostril?

One answer to this problem is the Buy Nothing Project, a network of local groups on Facebook started in 2013 “to quickly get rid of things that are cluttering their lives, or simply to save money by getting things for free.” The groups — which have popped up around the world — are organized by city, sometimes even by neighborhood. Some members post items they’re ready to “gift” to their neighbors, and others post things they need, in case anyone happens to be looking to expel that object from their house.

People gift clothes they no longer want or that don’t fit, furniture that doesn’t work in a new apartment (even a fireplace), storage and packing boxes, cosmetics and other beauty products that aren’t exactly the color or scent they were looking for, kitchen gadgets and spices they don’t use — the list goes on. One popular member regularly gives away extra bagels (local hero!). My most recent acquisition was a bunch of baby spider plants from an indoor gardening enthusiast who is propagating her plants and who — it turns out — lives across the street from me. It can be a nice way to meet neighbors with shared interests, which is part of the project’s ethos: “A gift economy’s real wealth is the people involved and the web of connections that forms to support them.”

I’ve found it to be an especially fabulous resource for new parents like me, since babies grow out of (or grow tired of) everything in just a few short months — onesies, shoes, toys, feeding gear — and a Buy Nothing group creates a pipeline to people in a similar life stage as you and who also live near you. It’s way easier than holding a yard sale and preferable to plopping a box of stuff on the sidewalk with a “FREE” sign and hoping for the best.

Life is fluid and ever-changing, but most of our stuff outlives its utility. I’ve really embraced the idea of letting things go when I no longer need them. My place isn’t Marie Kondo–level tidy — and probably never will be — but a Facebook group that facilitates free, no-landfill decluttering really can spark joy.

—Venessa Wong

20. #great-tweets — Free

This feels kind of like cheating because this isn’t a product that normies can access. Also it’s not new: I’ve been using it for the last two-and-a-half years at BuzzFeed News, when in my first week here someone showed me its greatness and my world perspective was forever changed. With this product — or more aptly place — the 473 people who can see it will on any given day find memes about Baby Yoda, a listing for a toddler’s (unused) Minion coffin, wedding photos from the holy matrimony between two water coolers, and screenshots of an influencer tanning their perineum, a.k.a. “buttchugging sunlight”. And that was all just on a random Monday in November.

This wonderful watering hole of content is known within BuzzFeed as #great-tweets, a Slack channel open to everyone at the company where folks pop in to just share really good tweets. There’s little conversation — save for the emoji reactions that fellow great-tweeters use to express their gratitude or disgust — and each day it’s a continuous stream of hits, 10 to 15 of the funniest, weirdest, nastiest things taken from the blue bird hellsite that most of us here spend too much time on. Maybe the tweets have been ripped from another platform (TikTok is a pretty popular source these days). Maybe the tweets have already gone superviral. But they are our great tweets, and we love them.

While I feel a little dirty sharing the existence of my colleague’s secret space with the public, #great-tweets is just that good. After spending some pretty terrible days online at work, I’ve spent many a night lying in bed laughing my ass off because someone shared a tweet with a hypothetical conversation between a cat and an octopus in a standoff, or a cow wearing a VR headset. It’s one of the few things that I know can consistently bring me joy on the web and I hope when I go, I too will be memorialized in the channel.

—Ryan Mac

21. Neato Botvac D7 — $599.99

One of the best things to happen to my family in 2019 was Kevin, the robotic vacuum cleaner. Kevin is a BOTVAC D7, and he is a cleaning monster in a household of 4 sloppy humans, 2 sloppier dogs, and a cat aghast at their collective sloppiness. When my home is dirty, I summon Kevin from my phone. Kevin is always ready to clean. He is very good with dust and dirt, and — crucially — his blade-and-bristle brush makes short work of dog hair, which is in issue in home with 200 lbs. of doggo, where things can go from relatively clean to dog park very quickly. When Kevin gets stuck or encounters an insurmountable obstacle, he messages me asking for help. It feels stupid to say it, but I find this adorable. Part of this is because that help typically involves picking Kevin up like a baby and relocating him to an easier navigate area. And part of it is because afterwards Kevin will message me again noting — like a dorky little grade school cartographer — that he has updated his map of my home. Two things here: 1. Kevin uses exclamation points! 2. I can use this map to create zones for targeted cleaning (kitchen, dog bowl area) and also out-of-bounds areas for Kevin to ignore (dog bed, dog). My home is a small one, so Kevin’s advertised battery life of 120 minutes has always been plenty. He automatically switches cleaning modes when running on wood, carpet, or tile. Typically, there is no (to little) visible dog hair on those surfaces when Kevin is in town. Kevin’s lone flaw, as best I can tell, is that his dirt bin can be easily overwhelmed during spring “blow,” but in a house with these two, who wouldn’t be.

—John Paczkowsi

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