#Protected Profits bot

[carnivorousforlove]

If your reaction to people rightfully calling out Gaza scam bots for being vile scammers preying on real Palestinians’ lives and people’s kindness is to call them racist or genocide supporters, you’re one of these;

Someone who is never taught about internet literacy, internet safety and how dangerous it is to blindly trust strangers in your inbox / DMs begging you for your money with the same copy paste script of the same sob stories — strangers whose blogs were either created 3 days ago with the sole purpose of sending the same ask to 100+ people a day or literal porn bots before they became Palestinians, if you go to their blogs and scroll down far enough

Someone who is easily guilt tripped and manipulated. Because that’s the precise tactic these scammers use, manipulating and guilt tripping you into believing you are a terrible person for not donating and posting their asks

Someone who knows these vile things are scammers but still chooses to protect them for the sake of looking Morally Superior (“look!!!! I support these Poor People!!!! I’m such a good person!!!!)

Someone who, for some sick, twisted reasons, is okay with scammers profiting off of real Palestinians and scamming people off their money

Someone who is also a scammer

Also, no, people who rightfully call out Gaza scam bots for being vile scammers preying on real Palestinians’ lives and people’s kindness are not “monsters” or “racist” or “heartless”. They are the ones who actually give a fuck and care about Palestinian people enough to choose to speak against scammers who profit off of a genocide and robbing from Palestinian people donation money that could have gone to, you know, real Palestinians instead of scammers’ pockets.

A reminder that these scammers stole from Palestinian people their identities and photos to trick you into believing them. But it’s all part of a big scam ring, even the vetters and the organization that vets these bots, and Tumblr has always been a target of scammers for years.

It started with these scammers pretending to be students needing money for their education fees, then they pretend to be pet owners needing money for their sick, dying pets, then they’re porn bots and now they pretend to be Palestinians trying to survive in Gaza. But they are all the same scammers plaguing Tumblr for a whole decade and more. Do not fall for them. Stay safe.

[projectbot13]

On Skylar

Hi! It's the Captain, botmom here. As you can probably tell, Skylar's been dormant for a few years. This isn't me saying she'll be back, kind of the opposite, but I wanted to reflect on Skylar and provide some closure.

What first caused me to shut down Skylar was a wane in interest for Tumblr in general. Her last post was in February of 2019, only a few months after the infamous porn ban that saw people leaving for, what was at the time, greater pastures. It lead to my lull in social media activity for several years. Even today, I'm not as active as I was back in 2014-2017. I'm just not as interested in high-octane posting and internet clout anymore. The second point is that Skylar would need to be rebuilt if she were to return. She was an early project back in my first two years of learning how to program. She was very inefficient behind the scenes and required infrastructure that I no longer have access to. The Skylar we knew and love is, unfortunately, lost. Now, I could still rebuild her and obtain access to resources that would let me run her again. My motivation to do that, however, is halted by the biggest reason why I've chosen to let her go: ChatGPT. Back in 2015 before AI became the monstrosity that it was, having a robot to talk to was a fun novelty. Research into what would become the modern LLM was what I was intending to build the "Skyler 2.0" bot off of, which never came to fruition. Not only is there more advanced versions of what Skylar was trying to do, but the thing I was trying to do with her in the first place would end up becoming a scourge upon the internet. The novelty of having a robot you can talk to is not only gone, but actively detested.

I love Skylar, I loved the things we did with her. I loved her emergent obsession with bees, accumulating in T-shirts (which I still own) and raising money for non-profit bee protection charities. I ultimately want her to remain a pleasant memory of a time before the current AI boom. She is for me, and I hope she's a pleasant memory for as well.

If you're still here, thank you. I appreciated all the times we've had together with this silly little bot.

[startheskelaton]

Do you have a timelime for your sparkplug au?

Yes and It's LONG. This isn't even all of it but it's what I have written out at least

Timeline: important plot points 

Pre war

Orion pax and D-16 are born 

Both experience the loss of parental guardian 

D-16 is taken to the pit 

Orion pax breaks into the pit, he and Dee start the foundations of the Decepticon cause 

Revolution starts to take shape on Cybertron 

Orion is killed in an attempt to stop D from falling down the slippery slope of a rage filled warmonger 

Orion is brought back as Optimus prime 

OG Ultra Magnus makes him a general in the Autobot ranks 

During war 

War goes on for like…. Long ass time

Autobots land on earth 

Main decepticons fallow suit and step up shop due to amount of resources

Governments make deals with different factions in place of protection and access to weapon technology

Eventually Megatron has a “oh fuck” moment when he invades an illegal mining operation in central Africa. It puts into perspective how far he has fallen, seeing his commanders make deals with those who profited off the mines, just like those in power back on cybertron. 

Midlife crisis, Megatron leaves the Decepticon cause, he takes Soundwave with him. Declares he will do whatever he needs in order to free those enslaved on this planet

Megatron joins the Autobots, this cases Prowl to leave and switch sides 

Battles pick up heat as both sides are desperate 

Millionaires and those in places of high power use Cybertronian technology to flee earth and live in space as earth is being destroyed

Starscream kills Optimus Prime in an attempt to kill Megatron. Both sides retreat as a result 

Optimus splits the matrix and gives it to Hotrod and bumblebee, 

Rodimus prime and Vespa Prime are born 

Optimus Prime’s spark is put in a reformation chamber with parts of Megatron in an attempt to bring him back 

Treaties are made and the decepticons take Cybertron as the Autobots stay on earth 

Post war 

Decepticons start rebuilding Cybertroinian society 

Shockwave finishes creating a replacement for Soundwave

Soundblaster is born 

The first sparkling born on Cybertron in millenia emerges

Nightflyer is born 

Due to the splitting of the matrix of leadership, dormant energon on earth awakens and allows for new sparklings to emerge 

The attempt the revive Optimus prime’s spark fails 

Sparkplug is born 

A new era 

Earth 

The Autobots have made it their mission to help reform the planet and help the humans rebuild 

Rodimus prime leaves earth in a hope to find some kind of explanation for why he feels like everything is in the shitter 

Subsections of colonies start to pop up, some keep to themselves, others work directly with the autobots, some hate transformers entirely 

Railroads are made more efficient in order to transport supplies across countries 

Earth starts to heal with the help of the matrix, forests grow and temperatures fall to a normal level 

Major cities act as sanctuaries for the human population, help from other alien races arrives as well, helping earth to become a space traveling hub 

Cybertron 

The Decepticons no longer go by that name, no longer wanting to be associated with the past. They go by Workers of Prime 

Shockwave has put together a complicated and purposeful chain of command and leadership that he sits at the top of. However Starscream is the “king” of Cybertron, while being a puppet 

Prowl takes care of enforcing laws and regulations to the planet. Along with trying to unite the cities with one another 

Cybertron now has a entertainment industry, focused on promoting good morals to the population along with keeping bots distracted 

Cybertron only communicate with it’s colony planets, trying to form a stronger relationship between all transformers 

“Peace times” (start of the story) 

Sparkplug is currently working as the assistant of Ratchet under the blessing of Megatron and Elita one 

Sparkplug trains in her free time to be a scout and will sneak off every once and a while to play basement concerts 

On Cybertron, Nightflyer is top of his class while training to be a high guard soldier. He is chosen by Shockwave to go on a mission to earth and infiltrate the Autobots

Cybertron is in desperate need of resources 

Nightflyer lands on earth and pretends to be a Decepticon defector, Sparkplug is wary of him 

Nightflyer manages to become an Autobot and meets Sparkplug during the scout tryouts 

Reluctantly Sparkplug is passed but gets put on the Energon transportation and quality control team, she’s fine with this as she just wanted to see the world 

Nightflyer gets put on a mission team, meeting Landlot, Defender and other bots his age. 

During this time we get our first mentions of a cult ran by a former Decepticon that’s turning humans into purple energon

Both Spark and Night explore earth and meet new and old bots.

Example: Sparkplug gets to know earth born transformers, Nightflyer gets to meet bots like Skyfire 

Back at the base, Sparkplug gets annoyed with how much fanfare Nightflyer is getting, while she still gets treated like a sparkling 

She breaks Night’s social mask and gets to know the real him. A romance between the two starts to form 

Shockwave informs Nightflyer that they’re sending a team to take over the main Autobot base 

Shockwave employs the DJD to help in the Autobot attack 

Return to war 

Sparkplug confesses to Nightflyer, Nightflyer returns the feeling as he does like her.

Right before the invasion he tries to convince her that living on Cybertron wouldn’t be so bad. Sparkplug refutes that she likes Earth and that Cybertron would probably hate her.

The DJD and a group of seakers make their way to Earth and start fucking shit up

Big dramatic reveal to the characters that Nightflyer was a spy all along and is Starscream’s ward

Things are going in the bad guy’s favor until Tarn realizes Sparkplug is part Megatron.

 He orders his men to capture her and kill everyone else, as they have a new leader of the Decepticon cause 

The battle becomes even more messy as sides are switched and the Autobots and seekers are now fighting to survive

While attempting to help Megatron fight off Tarn, Sparkplug is grabbed by Soundblaster, who hopes to bring her back to Shockwave in order to get in his favor. 

Space distortion happens when Skywarp tries to help get Soundblaster out of there and accidentally sends him and Sparkplug halfway across the universe. 

This cases the DJD to leave as they are now looking for Sparkplug, and the seekers(after getting beaten by the DJD) are taken prisoner for now 

Depression but in space 

 Sparkplug and Soundblaster are in the middle of nowhere on a deserted planet. After trying to restrain one another, they realize they need to help each other if they wanna survive this mess

Back on earth, Rodimus comes back from space due to getting a SOS message, he is yelled at by his family

Acidstorm, Slipstream and Airachnid are absolutely furious about being stuck on earth for the time being. Nightflyer is currently being used as a verbal punching bag for the Autobots 

Back in Space, Sparkplug and Soundblaster start to develop a chemistry as they learn more about each other.

Rodiums takes it upon himself to get Sparkplug back as a way to make up for leaving everyone years ago. This is a big reference to “the lost light”, characters like megatron, rodimus, swerve and others join, along with some OC’s like Nanabah (native american sharpshooter) who forms a friendship with Preceptor, and Lobo (the lowrider transformer born on earth) 

Rodimus takes nightflyer under his wing in an attempt to reform him  

In space, Spark and Soundblaster start to feel romantic feelings for one another. However this is interrupted by them getting found by the DJD.

Soundwave takes it upon himself to split off from Rodimus group as he might be able to locate her better through his mind powers (I don’t know, it's all space magic man)

Sparkplug properly meets Tarn and is quickly given a new frame and alt mode against her will. 

Soundwave finds the DJD with Spark on it and sneaks on, However he is caught, and even if he fights well, he can’t fight off all of them.

Tarn forces Sparkplug to finally give into her anger when he kills Soundwave in front of her and lets her kill him. 

Spark takes on the name “Megatron” and is then forced to eat Tarn’s spark in an act of dominance. She is now the leader of the DJD 

There will be more to come!!! this is not all of it

Part two

[genericpuff]

I've been griping about the normalization of identity outing via social media for a while now. To put it simply, it's become almost some weird societal requirement that if you don't have every detail listed about yourself in your Twitter/FB/etc. bio, then it means you have "something to hide" or that you're not as "verifiable" because your account looks indistinct from that of a bot.

But that societal norm has really only benefited the people who profit off of that information in some way, whether it's through selling user data or through weaponizing details about a person against them.

I know that a lot of us love to use the fun little labels and acronyms in our bio that help others like us identify us as a 'safe person' or as someone who's in the same social/racial/identity groups as them. We're humans, we love to categorize things, it's in our nature (and it's fun!)

But if there's any time to start regulating that habit and challenging the norm that you're obligated to include all your personal info online - it's now.

There was a time when sock puppet accounts were expected and typical, not "suspicious".

There was a time when even age-sex-location was considered "too much information", but once it became the norm, we only EVER gave our personal information beyond generic ASL to people who we knew both online and in real life, or at the very least, people who we had known online for a significant enough amount of time that they had proved to be trustworthy (and even then, we didn't owe that information to anyone, ever; there are forum friends who I made online 10+ years ago and still talk to who do not know my personal information beyond broad strokes).

There was a time when simply being an avatar with a funny username was enough. And it still is enough, but massive platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been brainwashing us for years to believe that's not the case, under the guise of, "You wouldn't want to be dishonest, would you?" Through these same norms, we were led to believe that anime profile pictures are cringe, that having a fake online name is stupid, that the photos of you having fun at social events have to be taken JUST right otherwise you might imply to others that you're not actually having fun.

And considering how long these platforms have been around now, we have entire generations of children now who have been born and raised on that version of the ZuckMusk web, who have been taught that it "protects them" to express to everyone publicly their age, their school, their workplace, their family members, everything about themselves, because to not do so would be disingenuous.

None of this is to imply that the Internet was "safer" back in the day. I definitely should not have been on the Internet as much as I was when I was 13 in the late 2000's, it definitely did not benefit my brain development or my social skills. But the version of the Internet we currently exist in now is one that's been predicated on the false sense of security - the belief that if you're honest, everyone else has to be, too.

We've always had ways of identifying our safe people - by participating in the communities that we know are designed around our hobbies, our interests, our people. They might be small, they might not be as "cool" as the idea of netting yourself a big following of thousands of people, but they're also a lot safer and more genuine than that idealized following ever could be.

Don't feel pressured to include every bit of information about yourself in your bio. Even on Facebook, there's no rule that says you have to list your workplace, your school, your family members. There's no rule that says you have to list your personality type, queer labels, and neurodivergent disorders in your Twitter bio. There's no rule that you have to "prove" your life is real and fulfilled through the verification of photos, location tagging, and open-book sharing. If you share those photos, it should be because you genuinely want to share them, not because you feel some societal pressure to live up to others' expectations.

And I guarantee you, even your local mutuals on Facebook - your former classmates, family friends, distant relatives, coworkers, etc. - do not actually give that much of a damn about your personal life that they should be owed that much of a look into it on a daily basis. They've got their own shit going on, they literally do not need to know every detail about you.

I know it sounds scary. It also sounds kind of boring, when we've been used to a certain "way" of browsing and participating for years, that if we don't do so, it feels like being in the "out group" and that we're "breaking the rules". But I promise you, after spending over half my life online, those rules do not exist or benefit anyone who wouldn't profit off that information.

If you're wanting to learn how to branch off from major platforms like Facebook and Twitter and/or become more self-sufficient online, here are some guides to navigating the Internet like an old schooler that may help you!

FREE SITE BUILDER:

DIGITAL PIRACY 101:

(also in addition to everything mentioned here ^^^ they neglect to also mention Tor Browser which is a light and free-to-use browser software that allows you to browse anonymously; note that it's similar to a VPN in that it helps hide your identity online, HOWEVER it won't mask you from your ISP quite as effectively as a VPN, and if you sign into personal accounts with Tor, that's still going to obviously out you online lmao but I love using Tor for the odd time when I need to make a sock puppet for something and don't want it linked to my IP! and unlike a VPN, it's free to use!)

LEARN HOW TO USE RSS FEEDS:

People still use these! They're especially helpful for getting updates from your favorite pages and sites directly to your browser WITHOUT having to worry about stupid algorithm bullshit picking and choosing what you see. And many sites DO have RSS support once you know how to find it! (like adding in /rss at the end of a URL! Like this!)

FAKE EMAIL SERVICES:

LEARN HOW TO CODE IN HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT (AND MORE!):

DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:

I hope this helps arm you with some new knowledge in how to navigate the Internet like a Certified Old Person™️(like meeee!) Make your secret alt blogs for besties! Make your formal Facebook accounts that are clean of personal information and present the most neutral, safe-for-work version of yourself and keep the fun stuff to the secret profiles and chat groups that are just for you and friends/family/etc!! It might be "inconvenient" to have multiple accounts for the same purpose, but it's also INCREDIBLY freeing and can make your online experience both safer and more enjoyable.

Being "less" of yourself online does not make you any less you. It is your identity - you do not owe any amount of it to anyone beyond yourself. And in times like these, your identity is your greatest asset. Protect it.

[aventurineswife]

Aventurine with a fem reader who has a strong sense of justice and short temper? Which gets her into fights often (both verbal and physical). I can imagine her fuming at seeing how Aventurine is talked down to sometimes and talking constant smack about the IPC. Oh and what if she had Boothill's accent—

Reckless, but Right

Summary: Aventurine dazzles the casino crowd with his skillful gameplay and effortless charm. When an opponent lashes out after losing, you, Aventurine's fiery and fiercely protective partner, step in, shutting down the tension with your no-nonsense attitude and southern sass. Despite Aventurine’s insistence that he can handle himself, your unwavering defense and genuine belief in his worth leave him momentarily disarmed. As you walk out together, Aventurine reflects on how your love and support anchor him in a cutthroat world, making him feel like the true winner in life.

Tags: Aventurine x Female!Reader, Romance, Fluff, Southern Accent, Protective Reader, Verbal Sparring, IPC Criticism, Gambling Themes, Banter.

Warnings: Mild profanity, References to gambling and manipulation, Mentions of corporate corruption and disrespect.

A/N: this reminded me of my Madea fic 🫣

The dimly lit casino hall hummed with the murmur of voices and the soft chime of slot machines. At the center of the floor, Aventurine stood at a card table, the faint smirk on his lips betraying his confidence as he laid his cards down. His signature hat rested jauntily on his hair, and his eyes gleamed behind rose-tinted glasses. Every move he made seemed effortless, calculated—a dance of precision and charm.

Across the table, his opponent scowled, their loss evident by the pile of chips Aventurine had neatly collected.

“Better luck next time.” he said, his voice smooth, laced with just enough sarcasm to make his opponent flush with anger.

But before the tension could escalate, your voice cut through the air like a whip.

“That’s what ya get for underestimatin’ him, ya overgrown buffoon!” you said, stepping up behind Aventurine with all the fire of a Southern storm.

Heads turned at your arrival. Dressed simply but with an undeniable presence, you didn’t care much for the glitz and glamor of the casino. Your fiery personality was your true calling card.

Aventurine turned, his smirk widening at the sight of you. “Darlin’, I thought I told you to behave while I worked.”

You crossed your arms, your piercing gaze flickering to the man at the table. “I was behavin’, sugar. Until I saw this here jackass actin’ like you weren’t worth his time. Now, I don’t take kindly to folks disrespectin’ my man.”

The man bristled, but one look at your steely glare—and your clenched fists—made him think twice about opening his mouth. He muttered something under his breath before stalking off, and the crowd that had gathered quickly dissipated.

Aventurine chuckled, gathering his winnings. “You know, my dear, there’s something terribly poetic about you charging into my defense, especially when I hardly need it.”

You huffed, poking a finger into his chest. “I don’t care if ya need it or not. Ain’t nobody gonna talk down to ya while I’m around. IPC or not.”

His eyes softened, the playful mask slipping for a brief moment. “You truly are one of a kind.”

“Damn straight,” you said with a wink, though your tone quickly turned serious. “But let’s talk ‘bout the IPC. You’re too good for them vultures, sugar. All they care about is profits. They don’t see the man behind the mask.”

Aventurine tilted his head, intrigued. “And what do you see?”

You leaned closer, your accent thick as molasses. “I see a man who’s brilliant, who’s got more guts and brains than those pencil-pushers could ever dream of. I see someone who don’t need to play by their rules to win.”

For once, Aventurine was rendered speechless, his normally quick wit failing him. Your unshakable belief in him had a way of disarming him like nothing else.

He reached for your hand, his fingers brushing yours in a gesture both intimate and grounding. “And here I thought I was the gambler in this relationship. But it seems you’ve already gone all in on me.”

You grinned, the fiery spark in your eyes never dimming. “Damn right I have. And don’t you forget it.”

As you both left the casino, Aventurine couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest man alive. In a world where high stakes ruled and facades were currency, you were the rare, unyielding force that reminded him of who he truly was—and who he wanted to be.

[ny000mdraws]

tfp au swindle!!

backstory under cut

An opportunist and neutral (“opens up more business opportunities”), Swindle lives by one thing: money. She runs her enterprise on her warship selling weapons or supplies to anyone willing to pay a hefty price. Since Megatron is a frequent customer of her’s, bots associate her with the Decepticons despite not being a part of the faction.

Contrary to popular belief, Swindle is actually a good boss. She doesn’t want high turnover or a negative work environment, believing that if the workers aren’t at optimal efficiency, then that means less profit. Instead of paying for workers, Swindle hires desperate bots who offer to work in exchange for a place to stay/ protection/ fuel. And because of the good work environment and fair trade of work for shelter/ protection/ fuel, a lot of bots stay by Swindle’s side.

Other bits of info…

- design is heavily influenced by TFU

- 40s (in human scale)

- can and will kick your ass

- Hardtop is her right-hand man

- a popular gossip on the warship is who her conjunx is

- the second youngest of the Combaticons

[gl1tchy-4rt]

Piece of Towel 2 :0

Okay, so in past post I had mentioned that Pizza rebuilded the Tower out of spite to take rightful revenge on Peppino and the others.

So I decided to draw The New Tower!

Behold! The New Tower.

As you can see this Tower is taller but more scuffed and rushed than the previous one.

PizzaMan had to cut budget in order to effectuate his completely reasonable revenge but hey! It's standing and in one piece!... Most of the Time....

Five floors of pain! Four levels each! One New henchmen protecting the key to the next floor, Fun for the whole Family!

• Floors!

(Cause a tower has floors and lots of levels :D)

• Floor One: Reception Room

The Main area for visitors, Tell your motives and get going!, since PizzaBoy's Pizz-Pizza is a busy company with busy employees you should also be busy and movin'!

Level 1: Entrance

Level 2: PizzaRuins

Level 3: Mozzarella Museum

Level 4: Olive Offices

BOSS: Michael Jones (Yup he's Dougie's brother)

Hidden Level: Old Tower = Lobby

• Floor Two: Mediapolis

Studios, cameras and totally real news that hadn't been altered to cause fear mongering! The perfect place to promote your brand and become famous in exchange of your soul and privacy!

Level 1: Hot-Sun Studios

Level 2: Withering Arizona

Level 3: Faux Vegas!

Level 4: Rootbeer Pub

BOSS: Dj Ananas (AKA: Peter C. Ananas)

Hidden Level: Old Tower = Western District

• Floor Three: PizzaLand!

"Enjoy, Buy and Consume!" That's our motto! Come to enjoy the many attractions that PizzaLand has to offer! (PizzaLand doesn't make themselves responsible for the loss of items, money, family, health, dignity or innocence)

Level 1: Cheese Resort

Level 2: PizzaLand Park

Level 3: GOLF 2 (Not affiliated with Billy C. Greaseball)

Level 4: PizzaBoy's Mega-Mall!

BOSS: The Prince (AKA: Kingsley Hamburg)

Hidden Level: Old Tower = Vacation Resort

• Floor Four: Sacrifice Zone

What? Did you seriously think that a company like this would care about some plants? Heck nah! Where lame-os see "Destruction of both emviroment and quality of life" WE SEE BIG PROFITS.

Level 1: Industrial Streets

Level 2: Ah Crap... (Chemical waste disposal area)

Level 3: Drippin' Boilin' Melterator (Climate change :D)

Level 4: War-bot Factory

BOSS: T0N1 the Task Maneger

Hidden Level: Old Tower = Slum

• Floor Five: PizzaBoy's Private Offices

The Blood of the Company, This is where the... "Magic" happens, all the deals, transactions, stock management, Tax tax evasion, invention brainstorming, unethical experimentation, Magical researching, ect, ect… Everything that's helpful and essential for PizzaBoy's Pizza-Pizza!

Level 1: Pizza Offices

Level 2: Make Sound, Lemme hear You!

Level 3: Secret Labs

BOSS: "Bulldozer" the Last Clone

Level 4: Crumbling Walls (Outside of the Tower)

TRUE BOSS (Top of the Tower): PizzaMan

Hidden Level: Old Tower = Staff Only

• Hidden Floor: PizzaMan's Private Studio:

"You six aren't supposed to be here…" Level: Private Studio -------------------------------

HOOO BOY THIS WAS A LONG ONE

This is the Layout of the New Tower, the New Levels and PizzaMan's New Henchmen!

Im going to be posting the Floors with Their Bosses

It WILL take a while but ill try my best! besides Summer is soon! so ill have a bit more time to draw

Anyhow Everyone take care and

See y'all later!

[winderlylandchime]

I’m archive locking my fics. That means that if you don’t have an ao3 account, they’re not going to be accessible to you.

I encourage everyone to get an ao3 account! Having one allows you to bookmark your favorite fics, access archive-locked fics, and comment on fics that limit comments to ao3 users.

While I have enjoyed the guests who have left kudos and comments, etc, it’s harder to utilize ao3’s tools to protect myself if there’s a negative or abusive comment from a guest user.

Further, the news of continual ai scraping makes me want to hurl (both in the vomit and throw things angrily senses). Fanfic is a gift, given for free, to a fandom. For some bot to scrape the hard work of fans to train an LLM and then likely turn around and produce writing that will be used for-profit really goes against everything I believe in about art.

[megatronsfakestfan]

Thinking about Knockout's character if he could exist in TF One, since Breakdown was a racer in the Iacon 5000 (as a bot with a cog too. inch resting). and we can't separate them :)

(although it's purely pre-canon Knockout focused. just thinking about his backstory up to the 'Con stuff first. Mayhaps a pre-relationship part two later)

Knockout was a cogless miner bot, but immediately decided he really didn't vibe with it. He preferred being solo and was a stranger to everyone else, but still got in trouble for sneaking off and avoiding to do any work. He was kinda like an outcast. Used favours and off-record business to get by (maybe Sentinel created ass healthcare too 🫢), and planned on leaving Iacon all together to start somewhere fresh.

Maybe he had a designation like D-16 or B but wanted to change it. He really wanted to distance himself from his miner origin to make that easier.

Becoming a doctor was also an aspiration of his. Spending his time studying and practicing in secret. He offered freelance work occasionally as he knows it's a useful tool to bots that need it to be confidential, and it was very profitable.

The truth about Sentinel got around to Knockout after spending a lot of time in the underbelly of Iacon. But it was all coming together already as he continued studying Cybertronian biology, through research he acquired himself. It made for an interesting picture.

Then post-movie with Optimus became the new Prime, restored Cybertron, and gave everyone back their cogs, Knockout got his too. Though, he was very removed from anything about Iacon at that point, the reveal of the full truth and all the changes Optimus brought upon was a big surprise, but Knockout regarded it all for a moment, just shrugged, and removed his cog, getting back to work packing up to get out of dodge.

He took out his cog often when he first got it. He thought his smaller frame can be used as an advantage and getting used to the difference got on his nerves. Having it at all just made Knockout think the hubbub around them was very underwhelming. Sure, it's more useful in protecting himself efficiently, at least. But sometimes, he gets really stressed and wants to focus, it makes him feel like a lumbering oaf and doesn't need it for the moment.

Time passes and while in an abandoned structure Knockout made into his own lab, he did his best living in hiding while tensions were rising between all of Cybertron's current factions. But soon the lab was raided by Decepticons and he was taken as prisoner. After learning about his profession, they offered him a deal, either return to Iacon and be labeled as an Autobot, aka, the enemy, or have his skill be of some use to them before the war really starts, and and had to accept he wasn't going to get off scott-free this time. They were a bit desperate at this point.

Maybe he was petty, but Cybertron being completely restored doesn't give Knockout high hopes to how society is reacting to these changes, the city was probably a mess, the outskirts were chaotic enough with energon and cogs flying around practically for free now. And two entire armies planning on raining down on them soon? Knockout wasn't an optimistic idiot.

and rest is history. probably ending this abruptly but it went kinda long. I'll put more of my thoughts in another post and again, that'll be KOBD focused. I don't have much to say during his 'Con time, besides becoming morally gray and a lil bit fucked up :)

and yep, they meet during the 'Con days. committing war crimes and yearning gayly for each other yippee!

[elkian]

Its both tragic and hilarious how SecUnits (at least by Murderbot's perspective, which is admittedly... biased) are a prime example of that thing about working environments.

In Artificial Condition, MB says it likes winning, but it also says it likes protecting people, and things. It's very interesting to look at bots at this point because we never encounter a bot that seems to actually dislike its function, and ART (who admittedly is ALSO a dubious narrator in its own ways) is confused by MB's responses.

But Murderbot -and possibly by extension, all SecUnits- *does* like its function. The problem was that it was immediately forced into a configuration counterproductive to its function (protecting Company profits at the cost of people), and I'm curioud if this is because its initial programming is off, if it's made something new of its design, or if the people employing SecUnits now are deliberately if not necessarily knowingly forcing them to do shit they're not made to.

This as meant to be a short post but now I'm thinking of the BE SecUnits being different and wondering how that handled. I'm thinking of our one outside take of "Company Units are dangerous" and the Company being so infamously stingy that it about starts a space war over the events of the first book (events which it allowed to take place via taking bribes to begin with). The infamy for badly maintained and frequently malfunctioning equipment, including allowing a dangerous third-party update to be pushed and cause Ganaka Pit.

Maybe not all SecUnits have as miserable a time as Murderbot (though that doesn't mean like. they're not still experiencing brutal Future Slavery conditions) because the Company in specific fucks up a lot?

Anyways, the point I was actually making is that Marth Wells *gets* the many many flaws and vices and issues of the capitalistic system and how it destroys perfectly good people and products for the sake of profit and control.

[thirtheenprimes]

Started Artificial Condition while I was at work and I marked the pages I had notes on so I could make another reread thread.

"ART, who was apparently very interested in the job scenario,"

Yeah I bet ART is super invested in this job scenario. ART, who's night job is fucking over corporations that profit off screwing over innocent people. Who was 100% already on an information run to do something to fuck over some corporation when a rogue SecUnit asked to come on board. I bet that ART is very invested in helping these young scientists that just lost their very important research to someone who is going to try and kill them so they can abuse the remenent detection tech.

And, I bet, ART is very excited to have a construct that is such a good person and hates corporations too and obviously likes to protect humans to do this little side quest that it would otherwise bot be ale to help with.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hello TBSkyen, I have a question for you. I myself am a person who's interested in making videos about art and posting them on youtube but have heard pretty much every youtuber I watch complain about youtube's unfair copyright system. So I would like to ask, how do you typically deal with that? What do I need to do to decrease the chance of a video getting claimed/struck? I know you don't have all the answers but I would like to hear the opinion of someone who has had to deal with this.

*deep breath born from long history of frustration*

Okay, so number one, you can't protect yourself fully from that. Anyone can file a copyright claim on anything you upload for any reason, they don't have to have evidence that they own the work being claimed, and all of the onus is on you to prove you didn't commit infringement by disputing the claims being made.

Which sucks.

It's a very frustrating thing to deal with, and it can make it nearly impossible to discuss certain properties or media because the owners (or a bunch of shitty grifters abusing the copyright system) will strike and claim anything and everything they can possibly identify.

Having said that, there are some tips and tricks. First, understand the principle of Fair Use (which is American law, and which is usually what you have to deal with on YouTube, but not always), which Casey Fiesler has a good video primer about here:

The broad strokes are that you can use as much as is needed to make a transformative point and then no more than that. The spirit of the law is that you can't use Fair Use to simply repost and profit off of other people's work, and the reality of how it's enforced is that bots scan YouTube for instances of videos using Too Much of the media they're protecting, and claim it as infringement.

So. If you're discussing any kind of video media - film, TV, animation, etc. - use clips of no more than 5-8 seconds of continuous footage, and do not use the original audio of the show unless it is necessary. You can sometimes get away with longer stretches of footage, but anything over 10 seconds is just begging for an automated copyright claim.

Shrink the footage down on screen and put a frame around it so it doesn't take up the entire screen, edit something on top of the footage like animations and other edits that transform the footage, maybe slow the footage down to a lower speed so that your video can't be construed as a meaningful replacement for watching the original media.

If you're discussing static art - comics, paintings, etc. - make sure to double check the copyright status on them, and keep in mind the principle of using what is needed to make a point and no more than that. If you discuss a manga or comic, be careful about simply showing whole pages unaltered on screen if it's not necessary. Show the panels or dialogue as you discuss it, but don't put whole pages or issues or chapters up on screen in sequence.

There are other tips and tricks and guidelines and hacks also, but if you're discussing any popular form of media you do have to be ready to have to fight a ton of spurious copyright claims on anything you do, especially if it gets views and becomes popular. It's a long process of filing disputes and waiting 30 days for them to get dropped before you can publish your video, it sucks.

[shrimpothy]

literally what is the good in reporting "scammers". if it actually was a scammer great job they'll make another account and go on with their day. some probably wont notice if they're running multiple scams but if you managed to get an actual persons account deleted they have to make a new account prove that they're in an active war site go through the vetting process write a new fucking paragraph about their trauma (if they don't have it on hand already with how many accounts are scamjacketed and deactivated constantly) and regain their meager ass place in the algorithm. for daring to mildly inconvenience a tumblr user. i'm going insane

pls read all the way thru!!

~

is it weird that what makes me the most certain that they’re actually scam bots the fact that they would choose tumblr in the first place. like let me go to emo faggot land, a site that is believed to be dead by most people and is lowkey infamous for its bot problem, to get help. it makes more sense to post something like that on tiktok, instagram, xiaohongshu, etc. or at least imo.

in the event that families are actually flocking here in an attempt to receive help, someone should tell them that they’re likely to be ignored and assumed to be a bot. if you’re gonna support a scam, tell these accounts to catfish people on sugar daddy apps to get donations. there are lonely rich dudes willing to pay to just talk to people. or shit, asking a findom to get their subs to donate could work too.

~

but on a more serious note, it’s generally safer, and better for everyone involved, to help people through legit organizations (like pcrf, map, unicef, unwra, wfp, wck, rescue, etc.) anyways, as these are actual nonprofits and welfare programs and they have potential to reach more than just one family at a time, which is ultimately more effective and efficient when it comes to saving palestine as a whole. it’s secure and safer to trust.

not all people are moral, a lot of humans use whatever they can to their advantage. if someone wants money, even if they don’t remotely need it, they will find a way to get it.

the internet has been littered with scams since its conception.

do not trust strangers with your account information, do not trust strangers with your money, do not trust strangers on the internet, do not trust strangers. full stop.

remember, dead internet theory isn’t a theory anymore. bots have already begun to reign supreme.

~

anyways,

here’s more links to some helpful resources in regards to being confident in your efforts to support palestine.

protect palestine - essentially a palestinian support masterlist

palestinian solidarity campaign

the blop - big list of protests, not just for palestine but still useful and relevant

click to help /li ‼️- this one is great for my fellow broke and/or depressed bitches that lack the funds or energy to contribute more significantly but still want to help out. you best believe that activism burnout is real and prevalent, which is another thing this is good for

is it legit? - read charity reviews and ratings

us campaign for palestinian rights

decolonize palestine - learn about palestine and its culture! history, literature, myth busting, and more

palestine legal - if you need lawful help in your support efforts. this is especially important with the kidnappings of activists that’s been occurring as of late

heal palestine

build palestine’s list of trusted orgs

muslims around the world - they’re international but i linked their palestinian donation page specifically

un crisis relief for gaza

donate stock or crypto to project hope

wear the peace - clothes as activism. all profits go to gazan aid

penny appeal

doctors without borders - helps over 70 different countries, including palestine, ukraine, sudan, and the democratic republic of congo

sign up to volunteer at helping hand for relief and development

impactive - app for organizing and volunteering

turn up activism - app for youth activism

BDS movement

apps and sites to help with your boycotting: no thanks, boycott for peace, goods unite us, uplift

aweea’s list of palestinian owned businesses in USA, CANADA, UK, and AU

shop palestine

actions you can take to help

[shiroxichigo]

I've been informed (and have confirmed it myself) that my fanfic "I AM Zangetsu" has been stolen and uploaded to a YouTube channel called "YaMochiWhatIfs"

I have not given this channel permission, and it appears to be a content farm (not someone who made an honest mistake, but someone deliberately stealing content to make a profit).

I am making this post to make people aware that:

this YouTube channel is run by a thief

that if someone by the name EsquireBot (CopyKnight) reaches out to you on AO3 about your fanfic potentially being stolen, they are LEGIT

and that you can submit a copyright claim to YouTube if you discover any of your fanfics have been uploaded by this user (as of this post, I have successfully submitted a claim and the video with my work was taken down)

Anyway, PLEASE do not interact with this channel. Block them. And keep in mind that ONLY I can issue a take down as the copyright holder on my work.

DO NOT try to issue take downs on other people's behalf. DO NOT comment on the video. And DO NOT engage with the content since this will only encourage the YouTube algorithm to spread it.

Protect your work, guys! 💜

PS: if you want to use any of my fics to make a video, comic, etc - you totally can! Just make sure it falls under transformative work. This person just took my fanfic word for word and put it into a text to speech bot, then uploaded it. Didn't add anything whatsoever. And also monetized MY work. Something I wrote for people to enjoy for free, they were profiting off of.

[north-noire]

Hello everyone, just a little update while I complete my ArtFight entries + write my fic drafts, since I know there's still people trying to read my fic or still haven't read my fic.

I set my Hidden Hands AU fic to view-only to registered users for now because there's apparently a bot scraping fics off the site (rivd dot net - thankfully and miraculously I'm not on there, but plenty of fic authors are) and I wanna make sure it never happens to my fics at all, or to anyone else who's also an AO3 author themselves.

For AO3 writers, please check this twitter thread when you can, and hope you don't find yourself in it, because it requires you to give out your REAL NAME and real life information and that's NOT GOOD. Please don't give out your information to these people/the site.

Here's what to do if you find your works/username the site instead: thread of what to do

It's disappointing to hear that these kinds of people think they can just scrape off works out of complete passion or works made for fun by authors, where we're never paid or compensated for any of it, but they think they can just steal and feed it into some stupid A/I slop because they think they could just steal our hard work and make some profit off of it, and treating it like no big deal all "in the name of the future".

It's horrible, and I hope there's going to be laws and restrictions around not just this practice in general, but to all kinds of protection around artists' works as a whole. We artists and creatives really don't deserve to be treated like this.

[recurring-polynya]

I mentioned the other week that I'd been thinking about doing this, but I've decided to lock down some of my fanfics to ao3 users only. For now, I'm just going to do the smutty ones. I wanted to give people fair warning, so I'll do it a week from today. Download 'em if you want 'em or perhaps consider actually getting an ao3 login? (There's a queue, so you put in your email address and in a few days you get an email with instructions. It's not that hard). It's free and their bookmarking and collection features are really powerful ways to keep track of your favorite fanfics and recommend them to others. We're getting wave after wave of bots scraping fic for 3rd-party profiteering or just leaving nasty spam comments. Lots of authors resist locking their fics down out of love for their lurkers and Guest commenters, and I think that making an account is a way of telling your favorite authors, "hey, I respect your right to put the tiniest possible amount of protection between the work that you do for free and the current enshittification of the internet."

We'll see how it goes, but in the future, I will probably end up doing something where when I write a new fic, I'll make it public, but then lock it down after a week or two. Thanks in advance for your understanding, and I'm sorry we can't have nice things, but that's how it is these days.