#Tumblr let me post high quality pics

[pumpyriah]

Please help an unemployed brown mixed disabled trans person sustain their family + help their parents leave venezuela

Hello tumblr dot com users! I'm Ren, a trans and disabled venezuelan trying to get back into art. And as of the 1st of nov 2024 I'm officially unemployed and really, really broke 🥲

If you want a more extended version of our situation you can reffer to my last post thread from months ago, I decided to finally create this one as an updated version.

Summarizing and updating extremely quickly what has happened this last time: The humanitarian Parole is no longer available, The Darien has become way more dangerous and inaccesible to cross and the Panama goverment is going to get toughter, considering this is a mostly usamerican site I hope I don't have to mention what happened this month over there, and obviously there's certainty shit isn't going to get any better from this point onwards. Things have changed so much that my mother started considering emigrating to Spain.

As some of the people close to me know, I really dislike being in the necessity of e-begging without at least offering something in return to people helping me because I don't feel ok doing so otherwise. That's why in this post I have several avenues to help me depending on what anyone might preffer.

Our current plan is to keep saving as much as we can while we wait and hope for a relative of my father to present a Family Reunification TPS while there is still chance, if neither of those don't work or something happens, we'll help either him or my mother go to Spain instead. We are definitively not giving up, but that doesn't mean things didn't get harder.

❗Some of the most urgent needs we're currently trying to cover:

7-12$ Bug poison. We have an extreme problem of cockroach infestation

20-25$ Rispheridona resupply

10-15$ Glasses reparation

6-10$ Shower reparation

+30$ Mother's car revision

+20$ By-Weekly groceries

+15$ General Medicines

You can make as little as a 1 USD donation by simply buying a high quality piece I've done recently!

I'm also currently still offering extremely cheap comms for little chibi doodles like the ones in the pics below!!

Either way. If you can't of don't wish to donate or commission. Please know that just by sharing this around as much as possible is enough to help. Thank you <3

ppal

[ 0 / 8000 ]

[ashlynniis-bracketeers]

E.G.OBLAST {Antonblast/PMoon}

Merry Crisis, have some crossover silliness.

So me (and a few other people I know that are into both PMoon and Antonblast) have been trying to make Antonblast character/Abno E.G.O pairings... because Funny™. I've drawn other E.G.O pairings, but I don't think they're up to the same quality as the ones I'm posting here, so I'll probably redraw those lmao.

I'll put those older ones under the cut, though. Easier to do "indirect" things like that on Tumblr lmao.

This will be a lot of text, so I'll put all of my explanations under a cut. Big ol' thing.

I hope you like it!

Cut time.

Annie: I drew the Annie one today in Krita.

She's an obnoxious hellion (affectionate) at the best of times, only going on the Kick-Satan's-Ass Adventure for the sake of causing carnage, so I felt that Singing Machine for all of its annoyingness (Can't have too low of one stat... but also can't have too high of another! Fuck off) and tendency to cause chaos would fit her. Meat Lantern could probably also fit. Not sure what Limbus Abno/E.G.O could fit her, though...

Decided to give Annie both versions of the Harmony E.G.O weapon (Bazooka from LobCorp, grinder guitar from Ruina), with Ruina's suit (because SM doesn't have a suit in LobCorp) and LobCorp's gift. She deserves both weapons, it'd let her do maximum chaos. Meanwhile, her Corroded form is basically just the Singing Machine itself with eyes, legs, her morningstar in its mouth, and a silly hat. Basically an exited dog made of buzzsaws lmao.

The text reads: How about we made some REAL noise? (Awakening) - Louder, LOUDER! Better, make it better, make it LOUDER, LOUDER, LOUDER!!! (Corrosion)

Satan: I drew this one (and Freako's) in MS Paint lmao.

For his LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O, I decided to give him Sanguine Desire. As for the explanation, well... have you seen the Red Shoes' quotes in Library of Ruina + Corroded Sanguine Desire Rodion's quote? All for a more vivid, luscious shade of red. Honestly, his ass is not Awakening if he gets his hands on that E.G.O, he's Corroding immediately lmao.

I actually do have a Limbus E.G.O in mind for him: Blind Obsession (Dream-Devouring Siltcurrent). His obsession with becoming the Reddest of the Red is all-consuming and does nothing but leave him miserable, as does the DDSC's desire to sink into the dark depths as to "shine brighter than anything in that dark place". I also think that the guy that desperately wants to be red getting a very blue E.G.O (which is also Pride-affinity, also blue) is rather funny lmao.

I don't know what kind of hooved legs he has, so I based his skeletal leg in his Corroded form off of horses.

I didn't write any quotes for it, but I managed to figure some out in Discord chats: C'mon, now. Just a little cut here..." (Awakening) - Red, red, RED! RED, RED, RED, REDDER, REDDER, EVER MORE RED! GIVE IT TO ME, ALL OF IT! (Corrosion)

Freako Dragon: Also drawn in MS Paint.

Dragon with a body made of pachinko balls, and his associated sin is Greed... but Greed isn't a Sin Affinity in Limbus, seemingly absorbed into Gluttony. I felt that Effervescent Corrosion would fit, replacing the pachinko balls with pearls.

For the Corroded form, I put multiple pearls in the clam mouth to look like his body curled up inside it, like a dragon protecting its hoard. I colored the join-circles with the same colors as his eyes when he's charging in his fight.

I'm not really sure what LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O would for him... Old Faith and Promise, the literal gambling-mechanic Abno, doesn't have its own E.G.O rofl.

The text reads: Hah! Sticky. Stuck in your head, huh? (Awakening) - Come here! Come and try to claim my riches! (Corrosion)

Also, here's the other pics

Hex Nail Brulo (because... er, "attachment issues").

Blind Obsession Satan (see above, under Sanguine Desire)

Pleasure Anton (substance abuse themes + red + UR HEAD ASPLODE)

[bubblegum-glitch]

The Lines We Won't Cross and How They Change

Let's rewind time a little bit, back to the year 2011. I had joined this little website called tumblr and had made an acquaintance whose confidence would begin to inspire me to branch out and try all kinds of things I never could have seen myself doing before that point in my life. I began recording and publishing vocal covers to YouTube, I started showing off my artwork publicly, and I even posted a single topless photo of myself online - all because I couldn't stop comparing myself to this random fucking girl. If she could do it, so could I...

But I was determined that I could do it better.

The "relationship" I built with this online stranger is a little odd, and probably would throw up several red flags for some people. I can't explain why I felt such a strong sense of rivalry between us, and I know she never felt the same, but there was just something about my interactions with this person that made me want to always do better than her, even to this day (even though I'm 100% sure she doesn't even remember who I am).

Creepy? Weird? Stalker-y? I dunno. Probably. Harmless? Absolutely. All I can say is she is the one who ultimately introduced me to the world of "Topless Tuesdays" and the alternative modelling site "SuicideGirls."

She had posted a set to SuicideGirls as a hopeful, and being in full rival mode at the time I had considered doing the same. Ultimately I decided against it however, as the fear of any member of my family every finding out gave me far too much anxiety to overcome (hold this thought). Not to mention I couldn't bring myself to believe I was "pretty enough" to succeed.

I often wonder what would have come of that if I had ever gone ahead with that hopeful photo-set submission.

But I digress.

Let's jump ahead in the timeline to around 2017/2018 (I can't quite remember when). I had a case of the retail woes, a certificate in photography, and a foolish idea to escape the Hellscape that is customer service once and for all. The internet had informed me that feet pics were in and there was mountains of cash just waiting for me, all I had to do was step on a twinkie or two.

Long story short (or short story shorter) I failed in this business venture pretty much immediately. It's harder than you think to market and sell pictures of your tootsies.

Now, let's spin back a bit to where I mentioned my fear of my family discovering my nudity online. This is a topic I will address a bit more in a future post, but I will let you know now that although my parents do try their best to steer more towards the life of liberal boomers, they are still very uncertain of LGBTQA+ topics and VERY against sex work. I have built a strong and close relationship with my mother, but if she ever discovered what I've begun doing for work I believe it would ruin all of what we have.

Early in 2023 I began weighing that fear of my family discovering me against the possibility of actually making a living wage by taking my shirt off for strangers online. After many discussions with my husband (who has been fully supportive since day one) and a long time of back and forth with my decision, I finally decided to give OnlyFans a try.

Originally I had no intentions of posting more than some topless photos. I used what I knew about photography, photo editing, and makeup to my advantage to create some high quality, if a little bit minimal, content. Upon seeing there was some interest, but being unable to hold the attention of anyone for long, I decided to step over that initial line I had drawn for myself and posted some full nudes. Immediately I started seeing a positive response and suddenly I had a little extra spending money.

At that time I said that this was as far as I was willing to go. Excuse my vulgarity here but I had no intentions of doing pussy pics or spreading my asshole. Tasteful nudes, and no farther.

I stuck to that line for about a year, until the inevitable "Fuck it" moment I previously posted about occurred in July of 2024. I stepped over the line again and started posting some more risque content at a premium rate. It was then that my OnlyFans really started to take off and I was seeing actual financial gain in response.

Once more I drew a new line for myself that I swore I would not cross. Absolutely no video content.

But then I couldn't stop considering making that video content. I would think about it so often that I actually began frequently dreaming about creating pornographic films.

So once again I turned to my partner and we discussed the pros and cons, and eventually I decided to dip a toe over the edge and get a sense of the temperature of the deep end.

Admittedly, that first masturbation video I made embarrassed the fuck out of me. I felt exposed, I felt ugly, and I felt very stupid. But then the response to it came.

"I love this."

"That was so hot."

"You're so gorgeous."

"More, please."

So I decided to try again, and again, and then suddenly I fucking LOVED making the videos. The sense of empowerment, the ego boost - It gives me this absolute sense of control. Something I have been missing in every single career I've ever had in my life.

It was about the third video that I realized "This is it. This is exactly what I want to keep doing with my life for the next several years."

But this is the point where I want to say this to anyone reading my blog who is considering this vocation as a future (or even current) option:

Set your rules early. Understand what you do and do not feel comfortable doing, and express that to your followers. You NEVER have to do anything that you are not comfortable with, even if it's what people are trying to push you to do. At the end of the day it is about your level of comfort, not their level of enjoyment. Set the line you will not cross and do not cross it unless YOU want to. You might have to work a little harder to build a community, but you can get there.

I still have multiple things I will not do, some of which I will likely never do, and others I might be open to one day exploring.

There is no timeline in existence where I will ever be comfortable sexting someone. I'm not even comfortable doing that with my own husband. It's just not for me.

I will not do the dom/sub stuff.

BDSM - Yeah, not happening.

Fetish content - It depends, I have no problem sitting on a cake and giving my husband a foot job, but most Fetish content is a nope from me.

Threesomes? Absolutely not.

Meetups? Hell to the fucking no. My husband is the only person I'm sleeping with and I'm firm on that, thank you.

In this industry you are the boss. What you say goes and your followers can either take what you're giving and appreciate what you do, or they can pack up and find someone else to pester with their more extreme requests.

Who you are and what your destiny is belongs to you and only you. Don't let anyone convince you to change if that's not what you want to do.

Never be afraid to say no.

---

As a side note before I close out this entry, I've opened up an Askfm account so you can ask me anything anonymously. It can be about me, about my journey, or even just general advice for starting work in this industry. I'm by no means an expert, but if I can offer some insight to help you out I would be honoured to do so!

[yooniesim]

Honestly, I feel like the reason these people get away with these poor quality meshes and shady tactics is because most people don’t realize that it’s not all that good in the first place. You sit there and think “WOW! Look at this person who made their own items for the game!” and since you don’t know how to do it yourself and you’re on the outside looking in, it all seems impressive. I can definitely pinpoint the moment I realized that it’s as good as it seems.

I was too poor to buy packs so I used CC to fill the gaps , but then I discovered the Seven Seas of the Internet. Suddenly, I had all the packs at my disposal and I was so excited going through all these CAS items that I only ever saw in pack reviews on YouTube. But, that feeling faded quickly because I realized that I had seen most of them already in the form of CC mesh edits. I think what really put the nail in the coffin was seeing the DHD Items and realizing how many creators made their mesh edits and put them under early access w/o mentioning that they were just barely tweaked versions of an EA item.

I definitely had to take a step back from downloading CC after that, because I couldn’t view the creators I had admired so much in the same light as I had previously. All their creations were just kinda meh now that I had realized that they didn’t really create them at all and had just chopped it up and sold it as theirs. It was like finding out an artist you liked was just tracing everything and presenting it as theirs just because they changed the hairstyle.

Anyways, thanks for letting me ramble and keep on being awesome!

Nonny, I agree with everything you said. I went through this same thing as I realized more about cc creating and really how simple and repetitive some of my favorite cc was. I would be thinking a creator had super high quality work and was good at replicating EA's style... just to find out it was literally EA's meshes & textures just slightly tweaked. Considering how EA is (justifiably) shit on and used to be considered worse than cc creators, the situation has really taken a turn with maxis match creators. I really feel sorry for people that started simblrs in the last few years bc they will never know how you used to have 10x more content for FREE after a pack would drop, there would be repeats bc everyone was scrambling to make these little edits. Now the same 4-5 creators horde them under "add on" packs for extra money after people already paid EA for the pack. It's really just more microtransactions but it's from people that used to (seem to) care about the community & having fun but now just see dollar signs. I really honestly think they take those preview pics we get of all the items in a pack and seriously plan what they're going to slice and dice before the pack even comes out. And I think it's funny to criticize EA's every move (which i agree with tbh) when you're pretty much just a leech grabbing the work of the devs and stretching it as far as you can for your own gain. And they KNOW it's shady, that's why they hide and only pop in to post their cc, that's why they're super defensive, why they only talk to each other and have their lil secret discords where they pass around peoples names and get them banned from all their patreons while immediately chain blocking the people that criticize them on tumblr. The first minute I criticized early access (before I ever mentioned anyone by name), I got chain blocked by 5-8 big creators within a day, and i'm even blocked by maxismatchccworld by the same exact reason. They 1000% block out anyone they can and just collect a check every month off their basically- let's call it what it is- stolen work.

[iantimony]

yay tuesday is back

return of tuesday! i had two weeks in the UK which was very fun but i am definitely vacationed out - i miss my routine. longer trips like that are only fun towards the end if you have a home base that isn't just a hotel room.

listening: newest coral bones ep is very chill. it's only three songs and they're all very vibey but i think my favorite is 'seatac'. i wish they were still posting on bandcamp. alas.

SeaTac - Coral Bones

also got back into listening to the altogether - their album 'when we were kids' is very travel-coded to me for some reason, it was on loop my entire train ride from london up to edinburgh. (i'm also pretty sure brian david gilbert of all people is featured on this album haha)

Billy & Anne - The Altogether

finally, i saw st. vincent live in london this past weekend!!! it was a really good concert, lots of fun, interesting venue. she's definitely got an insane stage presence. the opening act (heartworms) was fun too, my brother and his friend weren't interested and described it as 'moody goth bullshit' and i was like well. that is right up my alley. you boys enjoy the bar im gonna go be moody and goth. it was good!

i think if i do standing room tickets again i need to invest in some platform shoes, at least two or three inches, because some of that was a struggle to see Anything ... i did manage to find a spot where i had a decent little corridor between heads to see the stage, however i was directly behind a guy in a bowler (?? fedora?? idfk) hat and his boyfriend who kept moving around and dancing (fine) and gyrating (also fine ?? i do not consider st. vincent particularly gyrate-able music but what do i know) so i also had to do some leaning side-to-side to see around them. one of her songs has a line about jumping off the london bridge and the way they both looked at each other and pointed gleefully at themselves while going "meeee" was very funny. i bet they're on tumblr, they had the vibes. hello gay guys at the london st. vincent concert, if you're reading this.

reading: i read 'when the angels left the old country' by sacha lamb in the two days that i was alone in edinburgh before my brother came! it was good, speedy read, i enjoyed the characters and overall conceit well enough. probably not on the to-buy list, i'd just rented an ebook for my trip.

some miscellanous articles from my pocket emails:

How to Coexist With a Belligerent Catbird by Caitlin Gibson (<3)

The Last Kid in Ninth Grade Without an iPhone by Liz Kreiger (this was relatable as a kid whose parents did Not let her get anything more complex than a flipphone for emergencies until i got myself one as a senior in high school and i think i was better off for it)

The Case for Doing Laundry Every Day by Rebecca Onion (insane, IMO)

watching: mostly fallow, did watch one of the dunmeshi eps that came out when i was gone with the boy yesterday and will probably watch the second one tonight.

i have Opened the jenny nicholson star wars hotel video, not yet watched, but saw in my patreon emails from friends at the table that the tablefriends did a related episode on their star wars podcast, which, i then noticed like [leo decaprio pointing meme] xeecee spotted in the credits for the cover art ?? i'm not surprised they are aware of each other but i thought it was funny

playing: fallow! completely, for once! no ttrpgs, no video games, etc. i guess i played a Lot of solitaire on my flight back from the uk, maybe that counts lol

making: i did a lot of sketching on my trip! i made a watercolor travel journal that somehow doesn't have enough pages so i'll have to rebind it but oh well. no watercolor pics for now but i'm excited to share those as i go! in the meantime, some sketches i did in the east princes street gardent, the scottish parliament, and the victoria and albert museum in london respectively:

i think once i finish the travel journal ill try to do a higher quality scan of it and upload a pdf somewhere, i feel like that will be fun.

eating: ough i ate a lot of good food in the uk. mostly the non-british food unsurprisingly but i Did have some really good fish & chips moments. last meal of the trip especially we got a recommendation from one of my brother's friends who goes to cambridge and ouuuugh that shit was So good.

misc: it's good to be back ... now i'm back in The Grind (work) but i don't mind it. despite the jetlag i'm feeling refocused and excited to get moving on stuff again. i liked a lot of stuff about the uk (trains, vibes) but i also did not like some stuff (why are the cold meds So weak there lmfao) and overall i'm glad to e home :)

[cricksims]

i have some exciting news :) my screenshots are about to start looking SO much better bc my partner is going to let me transfer my decades save and my mods onto his GAMING PC!!!! that means i can download a reshade and a better editing software!!! the computer my save is currently on is pretty old, i have to play on laptop mode and cant use shaders. im so excited, these next few posts will still have the same quality (im actually usually farther in the save itself then what i post here on tumblr, got lots of pics backed up) but expect to see high-quality borowski family in a couple weeks :)

[relaxxattack]

What are you using that you can’t zoom in on pics? I use the app both on an android phone and on an ipad and have no issues. Same goes for desktop version on both. Is it a pc thing?

I wasn’t a big fan of the new lightbox either (especially how it would bring you to another post if you scrolled down) at first but recently i’ve realized that i could save pics without leaving it, when before when i was zoomed in it would zoom out whenever i long pressed so it makes it a bit more streamlined when you want to save multiple pics in a row so now i’m just like ‘yeah it’s fine’, especially since i have no zoom issue.

But i post art on here so i’m really curious. What if a large amount of people can’t even see what I post in the res I think they are? That would suck. Might need to scale down a bit.

(Also, sorry that you have to endure tumblr live; i don’t got it because i’m european but it sounds real annoying)

it’s kind of hard to explain but sometimes when you open an image to view it (in the tiktok-like “lightbox” feature you described) it can’t be zoomed in, or if it can it looks terribly grainy

however for some reason it only seems to happen on certain instances of posts? so if it does i usually just click on op’s url to go to the og post, which will more often than not let me open it with the old photo viewer and let me zoom in at a high quality. though sometimes that fix doesn’t work, and i’m not sure why

i couldn’t really tell you what the pattern or reasoning is behind how the tumblr app decides which posts to not let you zoom in and which ones to let you… it’s generally just an inconvenience to my scrolling that i try to get around as fast as possible by visiting the og post or other reblogs of it from the notes 😭

it could literally just be a bug from their awful photo viewer system not managing to apply to all kinds of photos in the update? all i know is sometimes you can open photos as normal and sometimes you can’t

i’ve only experienced this on the tumblr app on ios, pc works as normal for me in terms of photo viewing

[shadowmaat]

The CorpSpeak makes it hard to trust anything tumblr is saying right now. Sure, reverse-chrono feeds aren't going anywhere (yet), but given all the hype about algorithmic content I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they pull another tumblr live and make it so you have to "snooze" the FYP feed on a weekly basis. After all, reverse-chrono is an "outdated" way of doing things, right?

Even leaving the feed view aside, though, there are still a lot of issues going on, as mbfgl details above. SO MANY PEOPLE have addressed what's really wrong with tumblr, but I don't trust our corporate overlords to actually do anything about it. Or at least not in a way that actually improves things for the userbase.

Sure, maybe they'll make improvements to the search feature, but is the aim to make results more accurate? Or just more algorithmically curated?

I don't expect accessibility to be fixed at all. They've already shown a complete lack of interest in fixing the pic-resizing issue (I mean the "update") in the app and I really can't see them spending any money to improve readability, access, navigation, etc. for a "small portion" of the userbase.

I also don't expect them to do anything about the hate groups and harassment blogs flourishing on here. Nothing has been done until now, so why start? Especially since hate groups and serial harassers still bring in revenue, and achieving a profit is all that matters. Which is another reason they'll never let us permanently shut off tumblr live even though 98% of us have begged them to do that.

I'll also say that if tumblr starts spamming me with notifications, stuff they (or their algorithm) think I might like, things that are popular outside my bubble, and other such nonsense then I, too, will be blocking the hell out of that crap and using whatever scripts I need to keep it out of my face, out of my inbox, and off my dash.

tumblr also needs to understand that "content" (to use their term) is what we, the users create. We're writing stories, we're making art, we're generating memes and shitposts and taking ridiculous dives into left field. So when they talk about wanting to "deliver high-quality content" and express concerns about users having a "bad content experience" it makes me nervous. Who determines the quality of the content? And what happens if a blog is deemed to contain "bad content?" Are they gonna get throttled? Shadowbanned? Told to shape up or ship out? Tumblr is (or was) a place to relax, not a place where you're obligated to create "good" posts or risk your stuff not showing up anywhere.

Look, tumblr is supposed to be my comfy place. I've been here since 2011 and weathered a shitton of changes, but if the current owners are planning to turn the site into a bland, homogenized version of every other social platform out there (with all their inherent hazards) where I'm expected to sell myself in order to "do numbers," then I'm just gonna finish brushing the dust off my pillowfort blog. It's still safe to be a backwater blog over there and they don't have any corporate overlords or advertising execs to appease.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[manjuhitorie]

Hitori-Escape Tour 2019 concert reports 14-18

1-9

10-13

14 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/10/2019 at Takamatsu DIME Takamatsu prefecture

●The road was flocked with cosplayers on their way to the venue. Yuma recognized the Azur Lane cosplays, while SND recognized the Street Fighter and the Touhou. “Like Reimu and Youmu~” Yuma was face to face with a Miku across the street while waiting at a crosswalk, which amused him also..

SND “Hey! Was anyone in the crowd here who was out there cosplaying today, raise your hand! Come on be honest, tell sensei. Everybody close your eyes so you can’t judge each other, so only sensei can see c’mon.” Yuma “There’s people still opening their eyes lol.”

●Takamatsu really is full of events. There was a strange pungent smell eating away at Yu until he sought out the origin. It was a cheese event going on right nearby.  “These sort of things bother you until you find! Once you find the origin then it stops smelling, it’s an enigma.” ●A cat was spotted caught up in the cosplayer crowd too, which SND found adorable.

Yuma “I’m a dog lover and… I don’t really get the feelings of cats!! If you annoy a dog then you’re their enemy for the rest of the day but, with cats they’ll only hate you on the spur of a moment, based on mood. Yet then you spend the rest of the day depressed...!”

SND brings the flow of the conversation over to yga’s (cat-like) feelings, where Yumao dubs him the “Expressionless emo”. Yuma “He’s stoic but, mid-show he will turn around and smile at me! Sometimes he’ll be saying something too but, because it’s indecipherable I’ll just do my best to convey ‘Uhh, that seems good!!’ to him.” SND “... He looks at me a lot too but he never smiles.” Yu “Well cause the crowd could see his face then, but when he's turned around the crowd can’t see him!”

●SND “Well then. Umm.. It's uh… today...” *Unable to piece anything together while yga stares at him stifled and raring to go* “Ummm..”  ygarsh >>*BWOON*<< SND tweet "Takamatsu concert: complete, Takamatsu is the greatest place every time I come, I’m happy I got to perform in a city I love. Thank you, we’ll probs be back. Tomorrow we’ll be in Osaka y'hear"

15 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/11/2019 at Takamatsu DIME in Takamatsu prefecture

●During the handheld mic song SND went over to yg’s side and wrapped his arm around yg’s shoulders. Contrary to yesterday’s slip and slide yg did to dodge him—

●SND was late getting to the venue, due to countless self-destructive forces at bay. Yumao joked that he’s truly living the rockstar life. Truly a ‘rock musician’. At first he questioned “Sensei~ Were you busy drawing your manga~?” Because SND is an artistic person, and artist’s concept of time tends to be wonky. “Both of my parents are artists so I know this well,” he said..! SND “I drank for 12 hours straight... Until 10 AM... When the meet-up was at 12. I just had to group up with the crew to get all our gear together and hop in the car to drive down, so I told myself I would nap for 1 hour, then wake up, take a shower, get ready and go... But I ended up sleeping overtime. When I woke up even a miracle wouldn’t be able to get me there on time. So I called manager-san and told her the situation”.

Yumao “I didn’t care if manager-san gets angry at you~!” Though manager didn’t get angry at SND, she just made sure he had everything and could play okay.  SND “Though I lied and said I had some stuff ready when I didn’t... Why is it that we tell useless lies when we’re scared of getting in trouble.”

FInally in the car driving there, SND reeked of alcohol.. Yumao tells the story of how yga, in the backseat, burst out saying “This smell... It isn’t beer.. It’s... Highball. This is Kakubin, Highball whisky.. The beer was Kinmugi.. So... Torikizoku (the name of a bar chain).” Actually hitting the mark on what SND drank yesterday. SND “WTF.”

ygarshy is now the self-proclaimed ‘Highball detective’. ●Back to the show....! SND “Everybody it’s 11/11, what does that mean!“ Crowd “It’s bass day!” SND “Well then ygarshy, do your thing!” yga *>>BWOON<<*

The date 1111 resembles the 4 bass strings, thus the excuse for celebration! ygarshy also did a seminar for a bass week if that may pique your interest..: Here. SND tweet "Osaka concert: complete, thank you kindly. I'll see y'all next week then."

16 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/14/2019 at LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo prefecture

I’ll make a separate special post including all of Nishimaki’s photos etc., but for now it’s all mostly on my twitter... https://twitter.com/boat_manju/status/1195265416249139200

17 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/17/2019 at SPADE BOX in Nagoya prefecture

To dodge redundancy I’ll omit some of the happenings, as they reflected on the tour again and many topics were recycled from Tokyo. MC time! ●Yumao picked on SND again for saying “I have to sing and haven’t played a show in a forever unlike you hustlers, I have it a million times worse than you guys, I’m on a different level~~.” back when he was nervous on the first day of the tour. Yu “But... didn’t you once sing in a SOPHIA cover band?”

SND “We only were up for like 30 minutes, and we did just a bunch of L'Arc 〜en 〜Ciel or LUNA SEA or Visual kei kinda stuff.” Yu “Visual kei.. did you wear makeup!?” SND *laughs it off* “I pretended to be Mitsuru Matsuoka for 2 shows and that was the end of it.…“ ●When they were at the vacation cottage watching historical drama on TV... Despite yg seemingly not-watching and playing bass, to their surprise after he told them “That was funny”.  SND “yga never stops practicing huh” Yu “I could never watch TV and play drums." SND “Guitar might work huh.” Yu “Last show I had told everybody to feel free to ask me on Twitter about how to use the mobile battery we’re selling as merch, and someone did!” SND "I questioned how many interactions he got and.. It was a whopping one. One! *laughing*” Yu “They even told me ‘I can’t believe you replied!’” ●SND story time. He talked about how he first came to this city of Nagoya back when he was 17 or 18. He was born in Ishikawa prefecture and he passed the regional teem music tournament there, so he came for the south-east coast tournament. It was only his voice and acoustic guitar up on the loft, and he went home with no prizes but. After some thought he realized that was the beginning of his music career. What he felt up on that stage is still burned into his mind, and has kept him going all this. So being back in Nagoya, singing up on stage, feels like fate. “Our journey is ending for now but, we’ll be back. As long as we’re alive, we’ll be back.” And he sounds like Leader at the end.. Leader would say that..

●SND “It’s time ygarshy-kun! The Kirin Challenge Cup, it was Columbia VS Japan right, give us a comment on Japan’s smashing defeat of 0:2!”   yg *>>>angry BWOOON<<<* SND tweet “Nagoya concert complete, thank you. We performed footloose and enthusiastic, I hope nobody got hurt. See ya next time.”

18 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 11/18/2019 at Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka prefecture

The finale! Ahh the 18th show. What a long journey, but somehow it felt short.

●Yu “This show was an add-on, so it sorta feels like a bonus stage y’know. Normally I put a lot of attention into keeping my performance, my feelings as flat and stable as possible but, today.. I just scattered emo around.” SND “I feel ya haha.” Yu “Concerts are tricky!”

●SND “When we’re traveling the country, we see people smiling, people crying, people who have a face like they have no idea what to do with themselves, there’s just… so many different people, and every one is so beautiful. Every time a show ended I would go name-searching on the internet because I wanted to know what everybody thought, and just. Seriously, thank you. Thank you for mustering up the courage to come see us. With 18 concerts on our backs, we managed to shape this into something real. We’ve come so far and— Yuma, pops in like he’s feeling embarrassed or nervous or something, “Uhmm-” SND “Oi….!?” *collapses to the floor* “C’mooon I was just in the middle of something!!!”

Yuma “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to butt in-“

SND “It’s fine hahaha You’re always like this, I’m used to it hahahaaa” SND *on the verge of tears*→ Yumao *does his Yumao thing*→ Everyone  :') ●
Yuma “After all this time we figured out the trick to ygarshy too, even though he’s always stoic, right! But when he’s doing something bad or bullying, he has a HUGE smile! Especially when he’s bullying Shinoda, he’ll grin from ear to ear.” SND “Piece of shit I won’t forget what you’ve done to me. This bastard smiles the most when he’s the assailant”.   yga *Takes out his camera and begins to record SND*

Yu “See, he has fun in his own way!”

*Records Yumao twice, Yumao poses with both hands making the peace sign*

*Records the crowd* Yu “SND and I are always chatting it up about something right, but sometimes an hour or so later after we talk, yg will come over to me when I’m alone and tell me his opinion. ‘I think this I think that. Yumao you said it well earlier, you did well’… But... It’s, it’s okay to join in on the conversation too ygarshy..!” ●Onto merchandise chat!

Merch is currently available online now!!! The English site is here, but as most items are out of stock there, the original Japanese site is an option if you have access to proxy shipping, here! http://shopping.deli-a.jp/artist/hitorie.php Beware that the mobile battery cannot make it over the border due to restrictions, so even if you order it from the JP site, a problem will most likely emerge...

*Yumao poses to show off his hoodie, flops the hood up and down to show how the letters on the back appear.* *Points at ygarshy wearing the black shirt*

Yumao “The friction highlighters, if they get put in the drying machine or make contact with heat the ink will disappear! But if you put them in the refrigerator then it will come back! It’s a mystery~“ Yu “Then also the pouch... Ah where’d it go where’d it go..” Staff “Behind your drums!” Yu “I found it! I put my little drum supplies in here, it’s great, I never lose anything. The tote bag is convenient too! Throughout the tour I’ve been using it to carry my change of clothes and things.” SND “The bleach acid-washed denim was such a good idea, it looks adorable.” *Yu heads back to his drums* *yg picks up his bass* SND “Are we playin’?” Yu “Are we still talkin’? SND “We have the choice to just not do encore, right?” *yg on standby* *Yuma walks back to the microphone *yg puts his bass down* SND “Ahhhhh, that’s heavy to keep isn’t it, just keep it down.” Yu “Let’s goo!” SND “Alright ygarshy-kun.. Once this tour is over let’s drink some good beer!” yg “…?” *The lighting goes red* SND “?!” *Staring at each other doing nothing, yga puts his finger on his bass string* SND “Wait, what?!” yg *>>>BWOOON<<<*

ygarshy: “18 concerts. Thank you for mustering up the courage to come all the way out and see us. Being able to perform Hitorie’s music up on stage, was my pride and joy yet again today."

 SND: “Thank you.”

 Rie’s manager: “Thanks. I’m so proud of them.”

Yumao: Really by virtue of every one who came were we able to marathon this tour. 

I was on the same page as you when this started: totally unsure of how to present myself for these concerts. But halfway through somewhere I started to have fun, the number of smiles increased, and now that it’s over I feel like I lost something, the burdens and something special both.

I’m bad with expressing myself in text so this is all I’ll say.

~~Fin.~~

[simpforcatra]

Hey! I just finished watching she-ra for the first time, and I was wondering if you could recommend some blogs and/or fic writers to me?

first off, congrats. i hope you enjoy the extreme gayness that has now entered your life. just don't let it consume you.

second, oooooo boy do i have a bunch. sorry this list took me forever to compile. i literally sat on this for like a month and compiling the list took me maybe 30 minutes 🗿

tumblr users

radsity - art, really fucking pretty art

@swearyshera - she-ra abridged. its good. you probably already follow them.

@turtle-ly - good shitposts. has a lot of content and has 300+ shitposts stocked up, so expect content for a long time

kaereth - art, lots of older content but still doing shera stuff occasionally from kofis

miledibuja - art, comics, standalones, my profile pic :)

@catradoratwtgoodies - posts good content from twitter and or reblogs spop stuff

@ao3feed-catradora - literally just a bot that posts new fics from ao3 under the catradora tag. but ive found a lot of fics from it so its here

@incorrect-quotes-from-she-ra - i am gonna plug my best friend on tumblr here, leo, who has amassed a large amount of funny incorrect quotes for our favorite gang.

wingedcorgi - pretty artstyle and has published several great post/pre/during-canon fics

musenilla - has branched out to other content but still makes spop stuff, great comics and standalones with a cute art style

@nonbinarychaoticstupid - reblogs a shit ton of spop stuff. among other content. but they are still a good source of spop content. lol.

ao3 writers

laurenjauregui - wrote the love simon au. funny, well written, great fics and usually releases chapters consistently. currently releasing scream au

ceruleanstorm - their world building, characterization, and writing style is AMAZING! the upper west side series is 400k+ words and i feel like its half that.

petty_labelle - its always a good day when a new petty labelle fic drops. some of the funniest catradora stories ive ever read

driluth - has written several fics based on show aus

lesbianxcatra - has a bunch of fics under their belt, of varying content and age ratings

sevansevan - really good au long form fics, writes other ships as well like glimbow

DandyVela - break my leg is such a drama i love it.

chellethewriter - has multiple great fics.

ehj - prolific on twitter. also very good short fics, both au and in canon

n7punk - lots of variety when it comes to fics. very high quality writing.

i was going to include twitter users. but i am too lazy to go through those. probably the most important user ive seen in the fandom is el, @ okokcooool, their art is very prolific, pretty, and well followed for good reason. literally their art gives half the fandom life. if u have it, you can check my twitter out @ abssimpforcatra and take a look through my following list for some people to follow

hope this list is good! tried to get the best of what i could remember. a lot of the tumblr users are on twitter, and a lot of the ao3 writters can be found on tumblr/twitter at similar names. like petty_labelle can be found on twit @ pettiestlabelle. their socials will be in fic notes a lot. 🤷‍♂️

[rottenratman]

Hi! I’m opening commissions since I’m struggling to make rent, pay pet insurance and feed myself and my cat. Please, if you can spare the money for my art, I would really appreciate it! Just throw me a dm here and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I will only be taking on 3-5 commissions for now but more slots may open! 

PRICES BELOW! PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES! (Sorry it’s a little long, take your time!)

PRICES 

Sketch - 10 GBP (13.70 USD) Portrait - 15 GBP (20.55 USD) Half body - 30 GBP (41.11 USD) Full body - 45 GBP (61.66 USD) Tattoos - To be discussed Character sheets/turn around - 55 GBP (75.36 USD) W/ simple background - +5 GBP (6.85 USD) W/ complex background - +10 GBP (13.70 USD) Per extra character - +50% base price.

- Prices are base and may increase depending on time and complexity.

- Tattoo prices vary depending on style, size, complexity and time.

- Happy to do custom requests for icons, banners, branding. Prices discussed.

- Tips appreciated

GUIDELINES/MY T&Cs

- Will draw: OCs, fanart (especially ososan…), nudity, some gore, monsters, 

- Maybe: furries (I cant promise they will be good. They’ll be in my style.)

- Won’t draw: PROSHIP, explicit NSFW, fetish art, mecha, complex armour

- Please specify if you would like specific style choices (preferably the ones shown.)

- Please dm me through tumblr and we can discuss your commission when I’m ready. Let me know what it is you want and if there are any extras you would like and I will confirm the price and drop my Paypal for you.

- I require references! character designs, background imagery (if applicable), clothing reference, colour palettes, poses (otherwise they’ll stand there like a lemon.) 

- If you cannot provide references then please be as descriptive as you can!

- You are required to pay 50% base price up front once I have accepted your commission and pay the other 50% upon completion. You will receive the high quality finished commission after payment. I only accept Paypal at the moment.

- I have a right to refuse/reject/cancel any commission I am uncomfortable or not confident with, if you are rude/disrespectful or if my personal life takes priority. 

- Original 50% payment will not refunded if it was accepted prior to a cancellation. 

- You risk being blocked if you are continuously rude or disrespectful towards me.

- Due to my mental health stuff, I may be slow in completing your request. I encourage you to message me and ask how things are progressing, but please be patient with me, especially considering I may have multiple projects. I will send progress pics at different stages.

I think that’s… everything? for now… I’m trying to cover my bases before I feel intimidated haha I am happy to repeat any of this in dms!

I will post in my description or on this post when commissions close!

[theriu]

A Meager Attempt At A Cool Rocks Post

So I have been inspired by @reddpenn​'s superb Cool Rock Posts. I too have a love for cool rocks, but it pales in comparison to the breadth and depth of both collection size and rock knowledge Redd has. Alas, my love of rocks remains uneducated and amateur, which is kind of ironic since I took three geology classes in college for my science credits. (Turns out I just like pretty things, actually remembering their formation and hardness and stuff doesn’t factor in.)

Nonetheless! I wish to share my small but still lovely collection of rocks and what little I know about them!

I have made this little display for our purposes. Obviously there are a few stand-ins so that my collection does not look too lonely, but if there is one thing I do excel at collecting, it is cool-looking Stuff to scatter around my house. Pay no mind to the Trex, he was a recent purchase from the home decoration store because he LOOKS like rock, which I think we can all agree is a good aesthetic for him. So far he has been a very good chap.

We shall start with the Small Boys:

These are the rocks I've had the longest, and in truth pay little mind to. As anyone who has frequented a gift shop with a rock section will recognize, these are the kind of assorted rocks one finds in a box, pays for by weight or bag limit, and takes home in a charming felt pouch. I don't even know what kind of rocks they are. Perhaps variations of the same kind? Someone with greater rock knowledge than I may know.

But you should know that, when it comes to rocks, I have a secret:

I really, really, REALLYREALLYREALLY like rocks you can SEE INTO

There's something so beautiful and magical, even mysterious, about translucent stone. Be it a glass ball full of swirled colors or a rough chunk of rock revealing deeply embedded inclusions, the depth and glow of a transparent or translucent rock fills me with delight. Perhaps it puts me in mind of bodies of water, and all the life swimming about in them. It makes you want to believe there is more to this simple stone, to imagine cool fantasy stories around their hidden abilities. This is why this seemingly boring Gray found a home - look how he lights up! Even Green has a bit of glow! (Blue does not, sadly, but he is blue. I like blue. :D)

My fondness for orange rocks is also going to become highly apparent as we continue:

Left: A GORGEOUS carnelian palm stone I found at a steampunk convention last year. I think I paid $30 for it. Now, I am not one to dole out large amounts of money for rocks willy-nilly - I have to be REALLY CERTAIN I love a rock enough to spend the asking price (i.e. How Likely Am I To Hold And Stare At This Rock For Long Periods?). But just look at this BEAUTY! It's like I'm holding a small chunk out of the rings of Saturn in my hand. It is also just about the right shape to pass for a dragon egg. And, I mean, look at it in the light:

Tell me that doesn’t look like a yolk. XD

I waffle between imagining this as a dragon egg, or plotting to incorporate it into my orange-and-yellow mandalorian cosplay as a chunk of stone from an old Jedi temple that my mando has hooked up to an arm device that uses it to detect force-users in the vicinity. Like I said, rocks are awesome for creating cool stories. :D

(Also: while I do not ascribe to the new age-y uses of palm stones, I will say that there is something decidedly pleasant about just holding a gorgeous, smooth, cool rock that fits perfectly in the palm of your hand!)

Back to the first picture, because Tumblr has an obnoxious 10 pic limit on posts...

Right: This is my newest rock, purchased just this week at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. Sometimes a particular rock just jumps out at you, and that is what happened with this very reasonably-priced $5 piece of orange calcite I brought home. 

It looks like a huge chunk of candy. I almost want to eat it. But where it lacks the superior factor of rock candy that is deliciousness, this citrine has the estimable advantage of not turning sticky no matter how long I touch it.

And once again, when held up to the light...

Look at that gorgeous glow! She turns almost yellow in the light! I tell you, I looked at most of the orange citrine in the box, but this one that initially grabbed my attention just really stuck with me. Sometimes rock collecting is just the simple joy of finding that rare rock that really leaps out at you ahead of all the other pretty rocks which give you your fill for a few seconds before being left peacefully on their shelf.

(In other words, find the rocks that you want to stare at while spinning in your palm for unreasonable amounts of time like a crow adoring its shinies.)

Now, this little slice of a geode (I THINK??? Experts please advise) isn't very exotic. But for the paltry sum I paid for it at a rummage tent, and the GORGEOUS swirls this picture does not do justice, I think my reasons for claiming it are clear:

Someone more knowledgeable than me, please feel free to point out what qualities make this piece so lovely. It is amazing, like the frozen visage of a swirly space storm frosted with ice. I want to make it into jewelry or attach it to something, and I never wear jewelry. Why is the carrying around of pretty stones just to look at fondly in bored moments not more socially acceptable, I ask you?! (Not that this has stopped me, at times.)

Alas, I'm probably getting a bit long-winded, but we are nearing the end of the collection! And I'm sure someone out there is interested in the contents of this fun little box:

This was actually a prize I won for completing the scavenger hunt games in first place at a Steampunk convention several years ago! And I LOVE IT! A perfect little custom exhibit box, complete with labels! It looks so cool on my shelf. And all the pieces are authentic!

First, the ever-familiar purple amethyst. I must confess, I am a slight hipster in regards to liking things a bit more if they are less well-known, and perhaps that is why I don't have much opinion about amethyst. It is undeniably lovely in color and translucency, but it's just EVERYWHERE - I feel sometimes like it is the unofficial mascot of Cool Rocks In Gift Shops. So this rock isn't high on my favorites list, but it still feels right to have a piece.

The trilobite is my real favorite of the group. Look how big he is! Look how complete! I'd never held such a big one before this, much less owned it! And he's still a little guy compared to some out there! So cool!!! And he is indeed a rock, because fossils :D

And the last one isn’t a rock at all, but come on, ACTUAL VIKING AGE METAL. That's just cool.

But what's this? A mere decorative addition? An imposter?!

Sure, sand and glass are both made of silicates, but they don't really count as Cool Rocks, or even gems. But what's that there, tucked away in the shell...?

My genuine pink pearl from Hawaii! Now, granted, pearls are not your typical rock. But they ARE considered gems, just made by a living creature, so I felt it deserved a mention. I got this two years ago on a family vacation to Maui, at the Dole Plantation. While pearls have never been a favorite of mine, this one is special to me because my mother, sister, and cousin also did the "open an oyster and get the pearl inside" touristy thing that places like this offer. We almost all got different colors, and it was just really cool. There is a hole drilled in one side in case I ever want it mounted in a ring or something, but truthfully, I wish I had left it pristine. It now resides as a secret treasure in my other, glassier souvenir from that cool trip.

Alas, these are all the rocks and near-rocks I have to share. If you like cool rocks and want to learn actual cool science about LOTS of cool rocks, definitely check out @reddpenn​'s blog, where you will find MANY COOL ROCK POSTS SERIOUSLY REDD YOU HAVE SO MANY COOL ROCKS!!! 

And if you wish to share YOUR cool rocks, I highly encourage you to do so! Let me be your forerunner in sharing cool rocks without actually knowing all the sciency stuff behind them, because sometimes you just like things because they are pretty and tickle your imagination.

~River

[kiloxy]

Analysis: WHY DREAM IS ACTUALLY BLONDE GEORGE!

NOW DON’T SCROLL AWAY JUST YET!

Listen Guys I have come up with the greatest theory/analysis of my life. Twitter could NEVER. This is about to solidify me as one of the lead big brain theorists on tumblr, cross my heart..... *cough* shit-poster *cough* I mean what? anyway... This analysis includes lots of receipts! Now let’s begin me launching my 1000000000 IQ career faster than Dream can MLG water out of this damning post. 

Tw: Close up of eyes since I zoomed in images of their eyes as proof. It will be under the cut.

So let me start with the question everyone has asked: WHO IS DREAM?!?

He’s the mysterious lime green, tea kettle sounding, god level skill, 10000 IQ, pissbaby enigma that took the internet BY STORM. He has grown so fast and so quick it’s insane, big brain plays must be through the roof. We could wonder how he did this... Why he did this.... But really. All we should care about is WHO THE FUCK IS HE?!!?!

Excuse my language... But anyway.. I have been working DAY AND NIGHT. To figure this out for you guys. It’s been 78 hours of no sleep. After escaping Dream’s basement (smart ass found out I was going to expose him) I have finally made it to a computer to post this...   

Dream is Blonde George

Okay wait wait wait! Before you go leave, screaming and appalled, slamming the button to unfollow my broke ass, hear me out. 

First point... What the fuck is blonde George?

THIS MAN. REMEMBER HE BLEW UP?!?! WHY DID HE? WHY??? I mean we hate him! Well the only reasonable explanation is that he was a PLANT!

Yes that’s right, blonde George was a plant. This is actually Dream. Now Dream loves chaos, he’s even mentioned before he may make a stan account/pose as a cosplayer and I think this was his way...He leaked this photo of him on twitter to fuck with us. To test the waters before the Mr.Beast video where he might reveal himself as blonde George. 

Only Dream and his 1000000 IQ could blow up a post like this guys, think about it! 

OKAY TIME FOR THE REAL PROOF:

We know Dream’s hair color okay, look at this twitter post where he does a hair color reveal:

POST HERE

Now let’s take a closer look. Here’s Dream’s hair:

Rest of the analysis under the cut includes more analyzed images, links, and video as proof:

Now I took to an eyedropper and examined Blonde George’s hair and got:

LOOK HOW CLOSE THE NUMBERS ARE!  AND WE KNOW NUMBERS DON’T LIE! The more samples I took of blonde George’s hair and compared to Dream’s the clearer it became... Their hair... Is the same! 

Now that we have the hair matching what else can we figure out? I mean Dream said he had green eyes, we even have a pic here of them. 

But I ask you.... Dream’s smart. You really think he’s telling the truth? I mean think of the the vlog incident. Man is a liar. 

I introduce to you a concept: CONTACTS

You see Dream knew that blonde George would get a lot of traction (he wanted it to). But he didn’t want to be outed too fast. I mean blonde white dude? blowing up on twitter? Obviously traceable back to Dream. So change one of his most distinct features, his eyes! He is wearing brown contacts. I have proof, let’s look at blonde Gog again. uSING MY EXPENSIVE HIGH TECH EQUIPMENT I-

ENHANCE ENHANCE ENHANCE!

I mean first just looking at this you can see the odd white glare on his eye... Now that is not your usual eye glare, no... That’s an eye glare that shows what it looks like when light reflects off a contact lens. He is wearing contacts! 

But if that isn’t enough for you I cleaned up the photo of blonde George’s eye using mad skillz I learned from crime shows and got:

YEAH THAT’S RIGHT! CLEARLY A CONTACT LENS AND A CHEAP ONE TOO! LOOK HOW ARTIFICIAL IT IS IN THIS CLEAR ZOOMED IN PICTURE OF BLONDE GEORGE’S EYE THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT A PHOTO OF A RANDOM WOMAN I FOUND WITH A CONTACT. 

Dream put in brown contacts! Why else would this “blonde George” be wearing contacts huh??? We know real George has 100% real gorgeous brown eyes. 

Now you may be saying, well that’s just an edited photo of legit George. We have the real photo of George.  But no, it’s not! THAT’S WHAT DREAM WANTS YOU TO THINK SHEEPLE, WAKE UP!

Dream put on a red hoodie, styled his hair to look like George, and he posed just right so it looks like it’s an edited version of that photo of Gog. But it’s not! We can tell by the contacts! Also George would never exude the off vibes blonde George does. It doesn’t pass the vibe check. 

Now while there are so many other bits of proof... This is getting long and I want to wrap it up. So here’s one last big bit of proof. 

THIS VIDEO OF THE SCUFFED PODCAST AT 15:37

They talk about blonde George and, George claims it is photoshopped but he smiles nervously. And as he pulls up blonde George Dream does his nervous laugh. Why is he nervous? Why would he be nervous?? about this “meme”. Maybe because he’s scared to be found out,

Now the most important part:

“I don’t rlly like it tbh.”- Gog.

“Uhhh I don’t like it.”-Dream.

Now you may have brushed past this upon viewing, but.... Nobody asked for Dream’s opinion. This was supposed to be about GEORGE why would Dream input his opinion and speak like it’s about him... BECAUSE IT IS HIM

Now the most damning of all... 16:50 same video.

“Dream have you like ever done a face reveal or no?”-??

Dream HESITATES 

“No- I haven’t yet. I do plan on doing one but I haven’t yet.”

As he speaks his words get more rushed and quiet, he’s lying. He’s nervous.

Then George saving him, redirects the topic completely off blonde George and Dream immediately jumps on the new topic eager to switch focus. It’s so weird how fast they move the topic, the clearly don’t want to talk about it. George is a good friend, he knew that Dream was scared and needed an out of the conversation before he outed himself as blonde George. 

But... they couldn’t keep the ruse up.... BECAUSE I AM HERE! 

I see you Dream and your 10000000 IQ. HE THOUGHT HE COULD CONTAIN ME, CONTAIN THE TRUTH. BUT I- BREAKING GENESIS CAN NOT BE STOPPED. I ESCAPED HIS BASEMENT JUST FOR THIS FUCKING POST! IT WAS MANHUNT, I SPEEDRAN THIS SHIT. I BET HE’S LOOKING FOR ME NOW.

*cough* Anyway, now my very very last point. 

Why haven’t we ever seen Dream and Blonde George in a room together huh? It’s weird right?? They can’t coexist separately because THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON. IT’S SO OBVIOUS! 

If this grade A++++, wagyu quality, meaty with receipts analysis wasn’t enough to convince you then.... I am going to hack into Mr.Beast’s content. I am on my way to his house as I type this... Next post I am LEAKING images from the shoot when Dream drops the sign that will SHOW that he is in fact Blonde George. 

If you have more proof.... Anything to add... react... or respond to this analysis. My inbox is open.

Wish me luck, I honed my hacker skillz just for this. You may not be able to trust Dream, but you can trust me! Hopefully I can do this before Dre catches me again. 

o7 bois 

[thedevilliers]

idk if you’ve answered this already but how do you edit your teaser pics to be so high quality?? they’re absolutely gorgeous 🙀 i’m so hyped to see what’s going to happen next!!

aaaaaaaaaa 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 thank you so much for saying that!! i hope part 2 lives up to your expectations 🥺👉👈 i accidentally typed a lot so i’ll put all details on how i edit my screenies and the character posters under the cut!

lets gooooo

about my teaser pics, im assuming you mean the characters posters! i take the screenies in-game and my settings are ALL on ultra. my screensize is also 1920x1080! i use simemi’s v2 reshade ingame too.

for posting, tumblr has a 540px size for individual photos. i don’t resize my photos at all, but instead i crop them into dimensions that if downscaled (seen from mobile or an ipad) they fit the 540px aspect ratio criteria. in the cropping settings in photoshop for example i put “540px x 650 px” but i don’t actually resize them, if that makes sense. they still have 1080px as width.

for sharpening settings, i usually have these for all my screenies:

ALSO!! i noticed around a week ago that my screenies, even if 1080px, get decreased in quality. i’ve recently discovered that my banner, this being my crest, was actually NOT the same width, which caused my screenies to downscale in quality to fit the banner size. i’ve since increased the size and I can 100% recommend doing the same if you have a banner. (this is said banner that is now 1080px width to match with my screenies)

anyways !! lets keep going. there’s other story simblrs i’ve seen that use topaz clean and i personally don’t like how blurry and liquified-like (?) they can make sims look if very strong, so instead I use a topaz-like action by troianbelles, i use v3, lower the opacity layer to 40% and its good to go!

i don’t use the COMPLETE action though, so I just select the steps I want and then press the “play” button as usual:

for my actual character posters, they are VERY edited. just like my other portraits i’ve posted, i drew in the shadows and highlights in the face, neck and clothes. for this I use ‘overlay’ and ‘soft light’ layers with just a soft, very low opacity brush with the color black. for the highlights, i’ve really liked using the ‘dodge’ tool! I use it to bring some shine to the eyes, nosetip, cupid’s bow and even jewelry!

I use a modified version of my psd (this psd I made it myself for my simblr!) here’s all my layers: (ignore layer 3 sjflksjf its just the highlight color and I ALWAYS LOSE IT, also name your layers what they are dont be like me)

AND...there you have it. for my regular ol’ screenies, i do the sharpening + topaz action and then add my regular psd. just a bunch of adjustment layers to get your desired effect!

if you made this far and think ‘this post deserves to be on the /r/restofthefuckingowl subreddit, IM SORRY but if you have any more questions please ask me! i’ll answer them happily <3

[fuckyeahmercury]

Hello. This is @freddiemercuryonline (I wanted to write this under my blog but it won’t let me switch to my Freddie blog, anyway), I want to apologize for not crediting the pictures I took from here, I didn’t know you actually EDITED them, I thought you took them from other websites, so yeah my apologies for reposting without credits. But there’s something I don’t understand, we (Insta accounts) are getting blames for this but I also don’t see you or other blogs giving credits to the books you +

I would usually stay away from this since I got better stuff to do but I choose to speak up about this ongoing issue. I decided to do a bit of my own research on your @freddiemercuryonline Instagram. and I found that the photos you post, I posted them just a day or two before. Some examples:

I posted this on July 11, you posted it on July 14

I posted this on June 14, you posted it on June 15

again, my post from May 20, yours 6 days later

my post from April 18, yours 5 days later

my post from April 1st, yours the next day

and this is far back from December 19, 2019, you reposted it 2 days after with stating that you edited it

I could go on because this is never ending but you get the point.

what I'm writing now doesn't have anything to do with you personally, attention to your Instagram profile has been brought to me by this anon message, not to mention there's thousands of fan profiles on Instagram just like yours that repost not only from my blog but others too, so maybe it was time to talk more extensively about it and show my followers just how unfair it can feel when someone else is building their fan site or a fan base by stealing content and not giving credit on purpose, even when they know exactly what source to credit.

the main issue is that it doesn’t matter what you thought where I took the photos, you chose not to give my site any credit on purpose. you obviously do visit my site daily and as I can see, none of your posts taken from my site had my Tumblr as a credit. so you can't come here and pretend like you were unaware of the fact that FuckYeahMercury is the source where you take some of the photos from for your own Instagram, shamelessly, posting them the very next day. this is exactly why you (Insta accounts) take the blame, you can't even write your own caption, let alone find a good photo on your own.

to answer your question, I want to explain the whole edits thing. I don't really do 'edits' as such, this means I don't click on a random Freddie Mercury fan page, take the photo and add brightness/contrast to it. I actually take my time to research the web and find relatively uncommon or unseen pictures from photo agency sites and news websites and anytime I can, I credit the photographer. I go to great lengths to find stuff that other fans may not be able to find because I love bringing new content to the table when it comes to Freddie/Queen community. as for books, magazines, clipping and posters I scan, I cannot always give credit because most of them don't even have the photographer written in there. this is the difference between you and me, for every photo I post, I know exactly where I originally acquired it and I do my best to give credit. as I said, I don't own any of these pics, I never took them, I never met Freddie or Queen but I do my job running this blog because I love it, just to find that someone else is enjoying my fruits of labour in extensive number of likes and followers. so, ignoring to give credit on your fan page to a source you constantly take from and writing the same caption with something along the lines of "I edited this high quality image😝" is plain unjust. it's unfair to all the blogs who disappeared over the years that had really good content. I personally know fans who stopped sharing rare stuff exactly because of this attitude with reposting things.

I’d say that yours or anyone elses apology doesn't mean much to me... I don't care if I lose followers or someone asks why I'm blowing this out of proportion. I've been here for a long time and tried to accept the fact that "fans share stuff" but in so many cases unfortunately, it's not being done respectfully and some things just had to be said. so if you're a fan or have a fan page, I hope if you read this, what you take or learn from this is please - if you share stuff, just give the credit. it won't hurt you. in my mind, you can only gain respect for it ✌

[spikebhm]

Hey, hi there tumblr :)

It’s me, spike! Welcome to my webspace~

Would you like to sit down? We gotta talk..

First of all, thank you all for being so incredibly nice and responsive with my content! Being isolated and trying to keep everyone safe made me stay at home for longer then intended but interacting with you makes me feel like a human so big, BIG thank you for that! Now, that being said - let’s discuss my issue on having some sort of privilege over my content or on what I post and share here. Personally, I feel I share a lot of myself even though it’s not that high quality. I have a bad camera to take pics and videos but I’ll make due with what I have. Also, I don’t want to monetize anything that I put out because it’s just fun for me, something that I love to do (even though it seems like it’s not a lot of effort but anything small I can get done is a plus in my book, damn depression lol). Feedism is a sort of escapism and something that I truly have a passion for. That being said ... Recently I started to get very weird messages where people try to strike up a convo with me, share some very shallow niceties and then proceed to ask me, no excuse me, use imperatives to get content from me. 

“Give picture”, “Video”, “Please, I’m 1x old and can you make a video for me” That happened now the third time this week. If you don’t that know already, I do content for myself. I post videos and pictures of me and post about my preferences. Things that I enjoy about feedism. So whenever I make a picture or video, it will always end up on my tumblr page so even if you ask me to do something specifically in it, it would end up on tumblr anyway. And I would only do that if I feel like it! I like suggestions, the casual talk about preferences but I’m not here to fulfill your fantasies. This will maybe change in the future (wink wink) but right now this is just a personal blog about personal kinks. There are plenty of people who have amazing content for you to enjoy if you agree to their prices because it takes effort to be sexy - believe me, going to the fridge now is quite the workout! Support them! They will do everything for you if the price is right and they agree on it. So for those who just not simply scroll down to my pictures and actually read my wall of text, big kudos to you :) Thank you for staying with me! I know that I will inevitably catch the attention of some weirdos but all in all, I’m happy that I started to share my journey here to become a blob ~!