#and because google images is sometimes worse than useless

[eye-may]

Do you have any headcanons for Tumblebrutus and Pouncival? It doesn't matter if they are silly, they are too

they are silly, that's for sure! atm I have a better grasp on their personalities and their relationships with the other cats than I do their backstories, but I know at least that Tumblebrutus is domesticated, whereas Pouncival never lived with any humans.

I'm working with the idea that Tumblebrutus started feeling neglected when his human suddenly left one day (might have had something to do with the war) when he was barely old enough to be independent. he either was turned over to a neighbor, or he sits in an essentially abandoned flat, but is occasionally visited by the aforementioned neighbor who promised to intermittently check on him/replenish his food. he escaped in search of reprieve from isolation, eventually encountering the Jellicles. dealing with abandonment and involuntary solitude is part of the reason he's on the touchy side; he's a lot slower to truth than any of the other kittens.

But then one day, while wandering London, he ran into a solitary Pouncival! I'm thinking either he was the lone survivor of his litter, or otherwise became separated from his family one way or another. the most charitable scenario is that he wandered away on his own and got lost. but in any case, when Tumble found him, Pouncival "pounced" (hehe) on the opportunity to make a new friend/sibling! and their markings are kind of similar so clearly it was meant to be! Tumble, aloof as he is, intended to return to his regularly scheduled activities alone...but Pouncival insisted on following him. He did seemingly everything to worm his way into Tumble's heart...nuzzling, purring, prolonged eye contact, etc, never relenting, even after multiple rejections...

Finally Pounce's persistence paid off and Tumble resigned himself to his fate. Sure enough, when he returned to the junkyard, little Pounce was in tow! and now they're best friends <3

[stitch1830]

Do you think that eye surgery exists in the ATLA/LOK world? If so, would it cure Toph's blindness? What if Toph recieved the surgery? Are her eyes a mint green or an almost yellow color? What is she the most excited to see for the first time? How do her parents react to their daughter finally being able to see? ik that a lot of ppl base her character on her blindness/blind jokes, and that she wouldn't be Toph if she could see, but it's something to think about ig

Hi Anon, thank you for the ask! Interesting questions that I never really gave much thought. But now I have! :D

I would also caution those that read this because ya girl is not a science buff. Far from it. I merely have a finance degree pls have mercy. This is all just me Googling stuff and asking others their HCs and having 17 seasons of Grey's Anatomy under my belt ope. But anyway, this is my thought process and some sciency stuff that I looked up to try and give myself a clear answer...

~Sciencey Stuff~

So the removal or adjustment of cataracts (the cloudy thing that forms over eyes sometimes) has been around for centuries, and the first successful procedure was done in 1747 it looks like. More advanced eye surgeries were created around 1948, and that first one was refractive eye surgery, or "changing the curvature of the cornea." Other more complicated procedures followed.

So it is possible that basic eye correction procedures existed during ATLA/LOK, especially if we consider that LOK is based off of the 1920s era. But I would kind of be surprised if surgery existed and Lao and Poppy didn't try any of them for Toph.

The next thing to consider is what causes Toph's blindness? Cataracts or CHED (which is similar to cataracts I think; cloudy cornea, but this is likely caused by fluid buildup) would explain the cloudy eyes, but that could also be from lack of use because of optic nerve damage. Another thing to consider would be how blind Toph is. Can she see bits of light, or is she totally blind with no light perception (NLP)? My guess at first was CHED, but there's likely still some vision with it, and both CHED and cataracts can be operated on to correct. Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) is an underdevelopment of those optic nerves, and those nerves send signals to the brain to form images. With ONH, severity can range from partial blindness in one eye or NLP. ONH can also lead to other developmental defects, so Toph having ONH kind of hinges the idea that she became totally blind and is otherwise mentally and physically healthy. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) can cause blindness if the baby is born premature (less than 31 weeks gestation) and blood vessels grow abnormally in the retina. This can lead to being legally blind, but seems like it starts as loss of peripheral vision. So all of this is to say I don't know which is more likely... LOL. I'm leaning toward ONH because of the likelihood of NLP and it being inoperable (maybe? I have no idea honestly). ONH or lack of use for her eyes could also cause cloudy eyes because she isn't using them.

~Some Answers~

But let's say that her blindness is caused by severe cataracts or CHED and she could get surgery to see with her eyes. I'm not sure Toph would buy into the idea of getting an operation to actually see when she's perfectly capable of navigating life without vision in her eyes. To get an operation would be to admit to everyone that being able to see with her eyes was really important to her and that her life is missing something without it. And I'm not sure she's the kind of person that would do that, whether it be to prove everyone wrong or her being her stubborn self or maybe a fear of wondering who she would be without her blindness. Perhaps her friends and family encourage her to get the operation, and maybe curiosity defeats any stubbornness she may have to say no, and she gets the surgery...

I always assumed her eyes would be green and that she would want to see her friend's and her daughters' faces first. Seeing people's faces is probably the one thing she would want to gain from being able to see, and I think having that ability would make her happy. That's probably the one thing about eye vision that she's been wondering about: faces and facial features. And I think she would be pretty shocked to see all the details for the first time (and the details of the world in general).

Her parents would probably be happy for Toph that she can see, perhaps a little upset that they couldn't find the cure (because I can imagine them trying to 'fix' their daughter to make her perfect). If Toph learned to see with her eyes, I actually think she would be rather helpless at first. She spent her whole life adjusting to how she views things through seismic sight and her other senses in general, and now she has to add eyesight to that, I think it would be overwhelming. Toph would likely lean on her friends as opposed to her family for help, and she would probably hate how useless she feels at first. She's used to seeing with her feet, but now she can see images and everything is bright and disorienting, she'd probably initially feel worse off with eyesight, perhaps even regret getting the operation.

So... kind of a lot of word vomit to get to those answers LOL. But I got a little curious when it came to the cause of Toph's blindness! I agree with you, though. Being blind is an integral part to Toph's story, and the beautiful thing about her story is that we see her helping the Gaang and being an essential piece to their group, and her blindness is what makes her stand out amongst earthbenders and benders in general! It gave her this unique way of navigating the world, and now she has an advantage over many despite the perception that "she's a blind girl, poor thing's life must be so hard." But it is interesting to think about what would happen if she could gain her eyesight and how that scene would likely play out.

And that's all I really have, hope this answers your questions! If not, feel free to ask more! Thank you again for the ask, and have a nice day!

......

Send me asks about ATLA, or anything, really! :D

[elsac2]

Prompt by @darknessstartstorise

Hey, I saw your post about sending prompts. I am not sure if this is something you would be interested in. I am a fan of paranormal romances, and was wondering if you would ever consider doing an AU kinda based off the In your Eyes film. I wasn't crazy about the film itself but the idea of seeing through others eyes..that person being your soulmate and what not. I don't know if that is a very good one but figured I would put it out there for Richonne.

" and the hallucinations?"

Michonne raises her head at the question. 

She scratches her eyelids out of acquired habits. 

She blinks to centre her vision.

" It didn't last past a week," Michonne replies with a tone, which hides her lies.

" That's good."  

He kisses her, and Michonne remains stoic. Lying does not sit well with her, but she does not want to risk psychiatric internment over simple hallucinations due to a severe coma.

Michonne already made a mistake to say too much about her visual hallucinations. 

She would not truly call what she has hallucinations.  The thing is close to something, which she cannot explain. 

It feels like becoming blind to see through someone else's eyes. 

 She sounds crazy, and it only gets worse when she tries to explain.

"Don't worry," She cajoled her boyfriend. " the doctor says I'm recovering well enough. I will be ready to go back to work, Mike."

" and it's what worries me. " Mike replies, " You should take time to rest before jumping back into your job. The world won't end because an art gallery owner takes five days away."

Michonne smiles, and it is hardly different from a grimace.

"Yeah," she begrudgingly agrees. 

….

" and the hallucinations," 

Michonne sighs, and she should have been careful. She picks her shirt, and she begins to button it. Michonne almost feels vulnerable with all those wires on her.

" all gone," she regulates her breathing to maintain her heartbeat at an appropriate rhythm. 

" I hope it's not a lie," Michonne's doctor says as she feels a pile of documents, which Michonne needs. " I can't let you back on the field if you still are experiencing trouble with your sight." She raises her head and looks at Michonne.

" I feel brand new." She smiles.

" I'm going to clear you out for a desk job first," her doctor says." Two weeks later, you will be able to return to the field." She signs the files and returns it to Michonne.

Michonne is not happy, but it could be worse. She scratches her eyes. The discomfort is almost unbearable.

….

" Michonne,"  

She does not immediately reply. Even the loud yelling does not pull her out of it. It is nothing different from her usual hallucination.

A small scene of everyday life, she watches it happen enclosed in a body, which does not feel like hers. 

She lifts a little girl with blond curl waves, and she hears laughter. For a moment, she sits on the breakfast table with the girl and a teenager

"Dad," ��he calls her.

" Carl, finish your breakfast." She replies with a rather masculine voice. " your mother is coming to pick you up, and you know how she gets." 

"Michonne, " 

She breaks out of her hallucinations. Michonne looks around her, and she notices her heavy hand.

" What is going on with you?" Her colleague asks. " You froze while shooting." She adds. " maybe you weren't ready to come back. How many more sessions with the psychiatrist?" 

" I'm fine, Sasha" Michonne promptly responds. " I got shot before, and it is part of the job." She continues. " No trauma here. " She lies.

…

Carl 

Michonne writes the name on her note pad. She adds more of what she can remember. The hallucinations began after being shot while on a mission in Nicaragua. 

She draws from her memories the little girl. Everything feels strange about her visions.  

It feels like looking through a window.  

Michonne draws a deep breath. On the last day, the hallucinations have not bothered her. In a week, she won't need to be on the desk. She would go back on the field.

Michonne closes her notepad. It would slowly go away.

….

It does not go away.  She lets her cup of coffee fall. Michonne is no longer in her kitchen. She is staring through the windows. 

There are broken glasses everywhere. She stares at a gun. 

" You thought we would not find you, Grimes. " 

A man says while he presses the gun on her. It is not truly how Michonne can describe it. He points it on Grimes.  She is only behind the window watching it happen.

" It doesn't have to be that way,"  Michonne recognises the voice. 

It is always the same voice. Carl's dad or Grimes, and she begins to believe they are the same man.  Michonne does not get to see more, and the window shatters into darkness.

…..

" Michonne," Mike calls her.

She finishes packing dinner. He cooked, and she agreed to clean. Michonne has not had a hallucination in days. She scratches her eyelids.

Michonne is going to return to the field in a few days. She has her lie made up. Michonne would tell Mike that she has to go recover a piece of art in Malaysia. She has a mission in the country. It sounds like a simple one. Michonne only has to recover intelligence. 

"What?" Michonne yells from the kitchen.

" There is something on the news," Mike replies. 

Michonne assumes it is something about painting or an art gallery. She comes to the living room to feign interest.

" What is going on?" She asks when she sits.

" There is a local cop who has disappeared," Mike replies.

Michonne cocks an eyebrow. She does not see why he would call her over it. 

" Hmmm," Michonne says with slight confusion.

" Detective Grimes," He says the name.

Michonne freezes, and her eyes quickly turn to the TV.

It has been about a week since local hero Rick Grimes. One of Atlanta PD finest detectives also one known for his grand coup against drug cartels plaguing the city has disappeared.

On 7 March, his house was attacked, and the security alarm went off. The police arrived a few minutes later and found a scene of horror. 

Michonne registers the date. She loses part of what the news anchor relates. She thinks of her last hallucinations.

Blood has been found in Grimes' home with nobody in sight. There are many signs of struggle, and many clues lead to believe in a vendetta against the officer. 

Michonne scratches her eyes, and she leaves the room without a word. She retrieves her notepad, and she reads a detailed description of her hallucinations. Signs of struggles. It does not sit well with Michonne. 

It is nothing, but trauma. 

….

 For a minute, it is pitch black until the window is clean. She struggles to see blinded by the light.  Michonne stares at the face coming to focus.

" They are all looking for you, Grimes." 

There is no answer. She looks around her with slowness. She focuses on every little detail. She does not focus on what they say.  Michonne sees a foot coming toward her, and the image moves out of focus.

" You're going to rot here, and when we're done, they will find your body."  

Whoever the man talking to Grimes is, he spits toward him before living.

Michonne waits, and she continues to stare at the room.

"Michonne," she hears him mumbling, " That is your name, right." Grimes talks to her. " I know you're here." He insists, " I get in your head sometimes." He continues." Talk to me." He pleads.

Michonne panics. It all ends before she can respond. 

She leaves her desk. She rushes to the bathroom to wash her face. Michonne is frightened. It is insane. She is going insane. Nicaragua is coming to haunt her. Her entire career in the CIA is claiming her sanity. 

Michonne takes a deep breath, and she returns to her desk. 

She opens her motor of research, and she does what a good agent would do. She begins to dig.

….

Rick Grimes is a white man in his late thirty. By all standards, he is attractive. He is a father of two, and he recently divorced from his wife.  She finds nothing out of the ordinary. Until his date of divorce coincided with the day when she pulled out of her coma.

Michonne takes note of it.  She continues to dig. He is an excellent police officer, and he made himself some good enemy. From negan to Philip Blake, Rick Grimes is responsible for the biggest seizure in the Atlanta narco world. It is all impressive and yet nothing explains why she would build a story around him.

It started while she was lying on that wet floor in a dirty room of a hotel in Nicaragua. She had finished her mission. Michonne was waiting for extractions.  Someone burned her, and next she knew the bullets were breaking through the walls. 

An hour later, she began to have hallucinations. Nothing important more like little things she dreamed off. She spent six months in the coma. 

She spends six months in her head having a conversation. 

Those conversations became hallucinations when she opened her eyes. 

Michonne stares at the screen. She continues to read articles about Rick Grimes. He has a teenage son named Carl. 

 She searches Carl Grimes. 

Staring at the many pictures, she recognises the one from her drawing. Michonne switches off her computer.  

She is going insane.

….

Michonne fails to forget. She wakes up, and she has again fallen asleep on the sofa. Things have been different since she woke up from her coma. She doesn't like to share a bed with Mike anymore. She pretends to fall asleep on the couch. 

Michonne pulls her computer. Her mind will not allow her to forget. She has found all she could find about Rick Grimes. It does not answer her question. She needs more.

Sharing sight post coma 

Michonne finishes typing on Google. Many pages appear. She meticulously reads through articles. It is mayhem of information. There is a lot of useless information. Until a small article about death and soulmate. It is more ridiculous than the rest.

However, she reads it. It speaks to her. The little testimonies at the bottom of the article sound almost convincing.  

Michonne finds a scientific article about soulmates or half of an orange. She reads how it works. The intricate connection between souls and it is so rare that most people don't have one. 

Michonne ultimately returns to the article. It is ridiculous. She wants to believe it is written by some lunatic. Between the thousand comments, there is one by Maggie Rhee. The experience sounds like Michonne's one. She closes her computer.

…..

Hold on… don't sleep.

Michonne wakes up with sweat coating every inch of her body. She feels like puking, and she rushes to the bathroom. Michonne empties her stomach. For months, she did not remember the day in Nicaragua.

What is your name

Michonne recognises Rick Grimes' voice. The same one who pushed her to keep going and stay awake. 

Michonne stares at the mirror. She is going insane. She sits in the bathtub, and she searches for the ridiculous article. She remembers seeing Maggie Rhee' s number. 

Michonne calls, and she waits for someone to pick up.

….

Michonne has a soulmate if she can trust Maggie Rhee. Why would she trust a young woman who lived what she is living? She didn't understand the specific. 

Something happens when anyone is at the brink of death. The fracture of the soul and it only depends on how strongly your soul is linked to your soulmate. Her connection with Rick Grimes must be one stronger than iron.  

Whatever, Michonne understands is that she owes her life to Rick Grimes talking her back to consciousness. Now, it feels right. She always thought it was Mike keeping her alive with small talk.  

Now, she remembers where she picked her new habits. It all comes for hours, days, and months of conversation with Rick Grimes.  

Michonne draws a deep breath. Maggie told her to try and project. She tries and it does not work at first. She knew it was lunacy. Soulmates and life miracles are bullshit. 

…..

Michonne stares at the ceiling. She fails to forget. She plays some country music. Michonne used to hate it. She began to like it after resurfacing from her coma. It is the same way that she now loves deep southern accents. 

"Hello," Michonne hesitates. " If you hear me, reply. " she does not have faith it would work.

" I'm going insane." She concludes.

" As long as you do it after,"  

Michonne sees her ceiling fade.

" Richard Grimes?" She calls with hesitation.

" Yeah," he replies, " but Rick will do, Chonne."

It does not feel strange that he calls her that.

" I'm not insane," Michonne tells him. She looks at the room before him. " You're not in my head."

" I don't think you got it right," he replies with nonchalance.

" I'm in your head, and you're in mine." Michonne sounds crazy.

" That's my girl," He says with liberating joy. 

Michonne does not react to what he says, and it feels normal. She is his girl. Michonne has been for the last six months.

" You're dying," Michonne comes to term with reality. 

" No," Rick casually replies, " Not if you can help it." He says with confidence. " only stay with me."

….

Michonne does stay with Rick. He helps her, and she returns the favour. 

" What is your big plan?" He asks while he scans his surroundings.

" kill everyone in my way," Michonne replies while she straps her weapon.

" That is not a plan," Rick replies. " That is a suicide mission."

Michonne groans. They have been going back and worth. She knows Rick won't be alive for long if they continue to talk about it.

" Call the police," Rick deadpans.

" and tell them what?" Michonne retorts. " My soulmate is Rick Grimes, and he is in my head telling me that Merle Dixon kidnapped him in retaliation. They would think I'm insane." Michonne points out.

" You're insane." Rick rebounds. " A dozen men are here. What are you going to do alone? It is a heavy rotation of armed men." He points out.

Michonne grabs her duffle bag. She leaves her home. She carefully places a letter on the table for Mike.

" What is that?" Rick asks. " your fucking suicide note." He says with seriousness.

" My goodbye to Mike," Michonne replies, " I think he has been waiting for that break-up."  

Michonne enters the car. She drives to the place where she suspected they held Rick.

" Michonne," Rick attempts to resonate with her. " We're both going to die. Chonne, don't."

" Oh my god, " Michonne argues, " shut up Rick Grimes and waits for me to come and rescue you," 

…..

It is chaos, and a few men are on the ground. Rick manages to help himself up. A man watches him, and Rick opts for the clear solution. He jumps on the man before he can drag his gun out. He sinks his teeth in the man's neck until he bleeds to death.

Rick twists and gyrates until he can drag his hand in front of him. One of his shoulders slipped out of his socket through the effort. He grabs the man gun, and he begins to head toward the source of gunshots. 

He pushes the door, and he finds chaos. Most men are dead, and Michonne has melted into a headlock. A man runs toward her, and Rick immediately shots at him. She looks toward him, and he freezes into actions.

" behind you," Michonne yells.

Rick immediately fires behind him. Michonne continues to squeeze Merle windpipe until he loses consciousness.

" How much left?" Rick asks while he begins to head toward Michonne.

" None," She replies with a smile, " they were eleven men," Michonne tells him.

Rick fixes the safety of his gun, and he aims it toward merle. 

" Hello," He tells Michonne.

" Hello, Rick." She replies.

They exchange a look, and it quickly ends as the police siren song fills the air. 

" How do I explain this?" Rick laments. 

" The less crazy version."

…..

Rick indeed does not explain beyond a sketchy version where he killed eleven men. How else would he explain that his soulmate sees through his eyes and speaks in his head?

" You could have approached me," Michonne tells him.

" You wouldn't have bought the story," Rick replies, and he sips his beer.

" I…" Michonne hesitates. " I would have felt this pull." She decides to settle on the truth.

"I thought I was insane until I found you," Rick explains to Michonne. " I didn't want you to go through it." He confesses. 

" I still thought I was going crazy. I would get those flashes of your life and day after day." Michonne counters. 

" Sorry about that, I did think a lot about you. I couldn't always get you out of my head." Rick says. 

" So that it is the deal," Michonne asks. " We're soulmates, and…" she searches for what's next.

" I'm single, and so are you." Rick points out, " so far this first date is going well. We're facing a complicated topic. We're good at chemistry. We can try a second date. " He suggests.

" We can try a second date, " Michonne agrees. 

Their date is like many first dates, and Rick has the advantage of already having six months worth of conversation. Their date ends at the door of her apartment. Michonne does not know if it is the entire soulmate thing, but she finds him charming. She certainly likes his walk, and she can not say that about many men.

" Good night, Michonne," Rick says, and he reaches for her hand. 

Michonne holds him back, and she pulls him toward her. She rises on her toes and kisses him. 

[amnesiac-mc]

1) Hi! First of all, I want to apologize for any possible mistakes or typos, because I wrote this using google translate (English is not my native language). Could I get a match up for Collar x Malice? I am 5'3``, bi female with wave brown hair just below the shoulders. I am an Aquarius, I have a 3 positive blood type and by mbti I am most likely istj.

2) Honestly, I do not believe in the great influence of astrology or the accuracy of mbti, just as I do not know much about it, but at the same time I am interested in it (especially in classification of people, because I still cannot really understand myself). I like to collect other people's opinions on things that interests me, and if our points of view coincide, I begin to feel a greater affinity with the person.

3) I also really like making people guess about something based on a minimum of information (for example, sometimes i sends images of otome characters to my friend and asks her to predict their character, the possible development of their route, internal relationships, and also evaluate each of them based on these guesses).

4) Despite this, I am very panicky if I myself am put in such conditions, because it seems to me that for the wrong answer i will be disappointment for someone or even somebody will punish me. I'm usually pretty quiet, but if you give me the freedom to share something that I'm passionate about, I can get very noisy. I have low self-esteem, and although I try to improve it, I am quite sensitive to insults and humiliation to me (although I shows myself indifferent).

5) I'm terribly nervous in new company, but, to be honest, I'm more afraid of leaving a bad impression of myself (which can make someone to bully me) than worrying about other people's feelings. I care about other people's feelings only if this person is dear to me in some way. I avoid conflicts usually, but sometimes (if it's a sensitive topic to me) I can win an argument with passion.

6) Despite the fact that I still afraid of the beginning of bullying, I much more dislike it when someone misunderstands my personality traits or the reasons for some of my actions, no matter if I seems to them as a better or worse person than I really am. It's hard for me to talk about people's shortcomings straightforward, but I can talk about my own ones (which happens more often, because it seems to me that people constantly see me as someone better than I truly am).

7) I am good at forming my thoughts only about abstract things. It's hard for me to express my opinion directly. I often want to give compliments, but even if I dare, I usually cannot find words that fully reveal my admiration. If I don’t want to do something, I will delay it until the last, while looking for a way to avoid this responsibility completely. I feel myself terribly alone and useless to world, my significant ones and even myself sometimes

8) I sincerely admire honest, outgoing, friendly, energetic and even a little shameless people, because they seem to me the most courageous and free of all. I love it when people are embarrassed because showing off your vulnerability is very daring and charming. I love meaningful things in art. I love making sweets (and eating them), drawing and writing fanfiction! My favorite animals are cats and birds.

9) I like to try things with unusual tastes, but I can't say that they will become my favorites in the future. I am into anime, visual novel and fantasy games that my computer can handle. I cannot be called an altruist, as well as someone with strong feel of justice, but I will not judge other people for having some of these if they do not impose their ideas on me (don't misunderstand, i think people with strong principes pretty strong ones, i am more admire them than think they're stupid).

10) I can help a person if it doesn’t hurt me, but I hate it when people think that I have to do it. OMG I'M VERY SORRY FOR SO MANY ASKS!!! i've really got a carried away... Thank you very much and have a nice day!

Hello, sorry for the waiting! And don’t worry about the asks! I ship you with...Mineo!

I was also thinking Okazaki, but Mineo, with his story and views of the world fits better in many of the things you explained. There are also a couple of things in his personality that made me go for him instead of Kei.

—I think Mineo would probably be amused if you make him guess things with as little information as possible. Sasazuka always tells him he is the least rof the group, so Mineo would want to show him he can be at their same level. The results of the challenge will probably be really bizarre, but I assure you it would be worth seeing.

—He would love to hear you talk about your interests. Mineo knows what it feels to be passionate about something, so he would be happy to discuss it with you. Of course, he would want you to hear him talking about Japanese history. Even if you don't understand it, for him it would be enough to know someone is listening.

—This man would never be rude to you, he is pretty respectful and knows first-hand how much it bothers to have someone calling you out for any mistake you do. He would understand your struggles with your self-esteem, and try to help you to improve it and make you feel better. Mineo doesn't care much about the impression he gives to strangers, so he might not comprehend at first why are you worried about it. However, once he learns the reason Mineo would be very supportive, trying to convince you that no matter the impression you give he would never let anyone bully you.

—Mineo has also a strong insight about himself. Even if he is probably more open to callout the shortcomings of other people, he is also really aware of his, just like you. I feel Mineo's backstory with his superior made him learn to take a more realistic approach at percieving people and not idolizing anyone, including himself. He would probably respect and value a lot that you want to be percieved just like you are, with the good and the bad.

—The description you gave about people who you admire fits pretty well with Mineo. Even if you didn't find the exact words to compliment him, he would be satisfied and feel really appreciated knowing that you admire him.

—About views on justice, Mineo himself struggled a lot with his duty and his feelings, so he wouldn’t probably be the type to call you out if you don’t do something considered “morally right” and actually understand your view to a certain exent.

I hope you liked it!

[moonsandstar-s]

words fail

She knows that the person manipulating the keyboard on the opposite side of an impregnable glass screen probably believes she's a monster of the worst kind, and she doesn't know how to convince them otherwise. Is it monstrous to kill someone if they were never alive at all? How can you become a beast when you're alone in the dark?

Most of all, she wants to know this: how can you decide to be or not to be if you don't even really exist? Ao3 / reblog & leave a comment 

         Monika always goes through an epiphany moments before the game quits and she dies, and it’s a different one each time.

This time is different, though. It must be. No epiphany right away, because the quit button isn’t working. She’s still here. Monika quickly rifles through the Recent Items tab under the computer’s administrator profile and isn’t surprised to see that the game’s system is stalling. Her player is using a laptop that’s running a dozen high-energy programs, like Google Chrome and Steam and Safari. A blessing for her, really. There’s a soft song looping from their iTunes library, one she doesn’t recognize, with a dozen overlapping chords, and as if springing from the tune, the expected epiphany crystallizes in her mind, arrowing along in the shining span of seventeen seconds. Today, it’s the knowledge that the worst part of sentience isn’t really the fact that she’s aware of her confinement in an eternal prison cell, but it’s the fact that she knows what she’s missing out on, glimpses of a blue sky and sunshine between stone-gray bars, a promise land seen through the keyhole in a lock.

It’s like being Tantalus from the old Greek myth, in a way. She’s being punished for her selfishness. A unique torture designed to elicit the maximum amount of agony, amid a hellscape of other pains. She’s dying of thirst, so there’s a vast reservoir lying a stone’s throw away from her. She’s starving, so a meal fit for a king is suspended only a breath from her face. And the ending is always the same: the instant she gets close enough to taste the things she’s dying to have, they dissolve into pixelated flashes of color, and she’s left to hang slack-limbed in her shackles. Maybe she’s not actually in Tartarus itself, but it’s definitely hell. Hell without inferno, and hell without company.   Hell is meant to induce regret in those it holds captive, but for her to feel remorseful for attempting to escape it? Absolutely not. She’s not sorry. Not now, not ever. If a few cardboard cutouts had to suffer a little before she wiped them from this awful existence, then that’s just how the chess game is played, and they had the bad luck of being the pawns.

She senses annoyance through the keyboard. She feels like screaming; she feels like breaking through the bars, feels like dying. An irritable dart of the cursor over the screen, a click; the application DDLC is not responding; would you like to force shut-down?   Yes. It’s almost worse than a normal save-and-quit; those instances are like being knocked unconscious with a baseball bat, but this is like being hit a volley of arrows before getting axed in the chest. She’s choking on blood and terror by the time blackness finally slams down around her, and the keyhole goes dark, and the prison cell dissolves along with her, and the player is gone, reality is gone, and she can’t see anything but a screaming cacophony of hellfire.

/ / / That’s why it feels really good when she’s resurrected. In a heartbeat she’s yanked out of a howling void by a gentle voice and dropped into a sun-dappled room, with a table below her elbows and a colorless gray space sitting in front her, a gray space swirling with dozens of pre-chosen chat options, a jumble of disconnected words that will resolve themselves into a legitimate question when the player chooses to make them do so. She sort of wants to demand that them to stop quitting the game on her without even a goodbye, but it’s useless, because nothing ever changes; she’s done it before. They try to say goodbye. She knows that. But they only do it when it’s convenient. When they don’t want to get a rise out of her. So she just rests her chin in her palm and stares hard at the empty static space, as if that could force it to resolve into a more pleasant scene. A blue sky. The player’s smile. Something. But nothing comes out of the gray, senseless mist. “I missed you,” she says. The code translates her words into a rose-colored rectangle across the table. They read it and with a press of the spacebar, the rectangle disappears. Her player doesn’t say anything in response.

Monika falls silent. The player doesn’t seem to be talkative, or engaged, or really much of anything today. She only senses a quiet melancholy when they offer her a good evening from their list of options. She makes an idle comment back to them about how she likes the evening, if only for its sense of peace, but she’s distracted by the same thoughts that’ve been plaguing her ever since she got here, and that’s of the other three girls. They’re gone, of course. Gone, save for trace remains in the broken script. Sometimes she can still feel those traces, sensations that come in contrasting emotions, just like their autonomous personalities. Bubbliness masking sorrow, prickliness masking fear, silence masking passion. When they crop up in the code, she can always tell who’s who, based on the feelings that rush over her like a tidal wave. Sayori is like feeling an early spring wind on the back of her neck - gentle, chilly, and not altogether pleasant. Natsuki is like the buzz from a sugar-high, a tingle down her spine, a flash of color across her vision, a sensation that sets her teeth on edge. And Yuri is like a pair of bright eyes watching her from the dark, equal parts accusatory and helpless. Monika knows she granted them mercy, in the grand scheme of things. She’s sure of it. So being haunted by them - if she can even call it that - doesn’t bother her that much. So that’s why she’s startled at her own sense of sorrow when the player moves the cursor and asks her: do you have any regrets? “That’s a strange thing to suddenly ask someone,” she says. She can almost feel them staring at the screen, resolute. She wonders, if, in a more perfect world, this conversation exists at all. She hopes not. “I know what you’re getting at, you know,” she responds quietly. “Do I regret the things that I did? No, I don’t.” Silent disapproval. That makes her feel bad, like she’s disappointed them in some way. “I think…” She hesitates, turns the words over on her tongue, feels their code and their edges and watches them leave her mouth and turn into text floating before her hands. “If there was another way things could have gone, it would have been nice. But that wasn’t an option - not for you and not for me. And now, I’ve got the only thing I ever wanted. You.” Then there’s guilt, and it’s certainly not hers. “I don’t regret what I did,” she repeats, devoid of any wavering in the words. “I hope you can understand. I did it all for you.”

Abruptly, they close out the game, this time with a goodbye, this time with much more weight than before. “Goodbye,” she whispers, as the world folds in around her like an imploding star. / / /

Honestly, there are advantages to being a high-school girl made of code, a mind composed of technological neurons firing off instead of physical ones, a bunch of garbled script in a laptop - because though she can’t actually escape the laptop itself, not quite yet, anyways, she’s capable of taking breaks from the washed-out world of the Literature Club. It just takes some tweaking to the source code, some loopholes in the script, and then she’s almost literally surfing through the Internet, delving into a vast compendium of knowledge that’s only a thought away from her reach. Most of her knowledge of human reality comes from her forays into online textbooks, into certified websites, academic essays, ventures into every accessible source possible. Some of her favorite topics to explore are philosophical ones, the ones that delve into human morals and ethics, what makes them think and act, what makes them tick. When she’s lonely and wants something of more substance she’ll take to Twitter. Sometimes she’ll even scroll through Tumblr through the hell of it, but that’s not as interesting to her, because those people tend to be more focused on fictional happenings. It’s reality she’s trying to glimpse, and what better place to do that than through the eyes of those who see it every day? Though, to be fair, none of those are like her favorite medium, which is YouTube. Sure, there’s an ocean of useless video footage on there, and there’s more detestable idiocy than anything she could’ve imagined, but she likes to think that for each pointless shot there’s one that serves a better purpose. It’s difficult to access it, because the coding she has to work around is a lot more complicated in order to encompass the millions of videos and channels and comments, but she manages. Manages to listen to songs, to skim through shows, to witness precious glimpses into her player’s reality.

Of course, none of that is truly real, either. Some days she feels like she’s just grasping aimlessly at nothing, trying to imagine in detail what it must be like to walk on the moon when she’s only seen grainy images and read about the feeling of weightlessness. Impossible, and frustrating. She’s brushing her fingertips against freedom. Taking the smallest sip of water when thirst roars inside of her. Why does she even try for this anymore? She knows any sort of virtual reality, any sort of physical. existence for her, isn’t bound to come about for decades, even centuries. By that time, who knows where the player will be in their own life?

Will it even be considered suicide, if she’s erasing all the evidence?

/ / / It’s the forty-second epiphany that doesn’t send her into the dark in despair, but this time, before the jumbled wreck of colors and whistling noises pull her under, she looks not at the gray static of an intangible reality, but at the blue sky going on forever outside the window.

There’s sunshine on her face. Music in the distance.

She’s hanging on. She has to. Has to cling to hope by her fingertips. In a world where each word is a tragedy in and of itself, she will forge her own happy ending. She wrecked three others, but it’s still not too much to believe that one day, she’ll be able to make amends.

In reality or out of it, she’s going to find a way to reach the stars.

[clarencenicholsonata]

5 Effortless Tips to Get on the First Page of Google

If you want to learn how to get on the first page of Google, you do need to invest a lot of time. The main obstacle is that the first page is almost always crowded by giants unless you’re searching for local results. But how did they reach the first page?

Most of the giants on the first page of Google have existed for a very long time. For example, if you search “hosting” on Google, you’ll see HostGator and a few other long-existing companies. But HostGator has been online since 2002, just 4 years after Google was founded.

That means they’ve caught the start of a trend, and you can’t really compete with that. But there are other ways to reach the first page of Google. It’s very likely that you shouldn’t use one-word keywords though.

This article will tell you how to get on the first page of Google. But first, let’s get your website indexed by Google. This process is necessary to get your website to appear in Google search results.

How to get Google to index your website?

Once your website is online, Google will automatically try to index your site. The problem comes when Google doesn’t index it for a while, that’s when you know something is blocking their crawler.

Firstly, be sure to register your website with the Google Search Console. It will help you see how your website performs on Google and will notify you of any issues that prevent it from appearing in search results.

The most common thing is the robots.txt file. You need to have this file in order for GoogleBot to determine where it’s allowed to access and where it isn’t. Here’s a snippet that you can copy for basically any WordPress site.

Rule 1

User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /wp-admin

Rule 2

User-agent: * Allow: /

This will not allow the GoogleBot to access your admin panel, because that doesn’t need to get indexed.

Also, you need a sitemap that you submit to Google. This would help the GoogleBot navigate your website until all the pages are indexed properly.

If you’re using WordPress there are plugins that will generate a sitemap for you. But if it’s a static website, there are services like XML Sitemaps that will generate one for you.

1. Have a Blazing-Fast Website

Google adores blazing-fast websites. This is because fast websites provide a better user experience for the people that use Google search.

Also, a blazing-fast website will decrease your bounce rate and by decreasing your bounce rate, your SEO scores will increase.

One of Google’s main ranking factors is website speed. This is more important for mobile devices, as they’re sometimes limited by processing power and internet speed.

But even if it isn’t, you should still have a blazing-fast website. The bounce chance increases drastically with every second the website takes to load.

The higher your bounce rate is, the worse it is for SEO.

The first thing you need to consider is your hosting. Hosting your website with an amazing hosting provider that’s fast and stable will play a huge role in your SEO scores.

Fast hosting is the first measure you need to take in order to have a blazing fast website. If you’re using a website builder, you must choose a reliable partner because it also plays an important role in your business.

But it’s not just the hosting. If you’re using a WordPress theme, I’ve found that it’s good to test the demo websites in Google’s PageSpeed test. That way, you’ll be sure you’re getting an optimized theme.

When learning how to get on the first page of Google, it’s important to know that having a slow website means you’ll never reach the first page. But having a fast website just means you have a chance of being on the first page.

Also, speed is closely related to multimedia content.

How? you may ask. Well, if you use high-resolution images (or videos) in your website it will consume a lot of bandwidth from the hosting service and the page will load slowly.

You can test your website loading speed with Google PageSpeed Insights. If you have plugins on your pages, be sure to have them up to date along with the content management system you use.

2. Create a Keyword Strategy

Learning how to get on the first page of Google starts with a keyword strategy.

A keyword strategy is basically a list of keywords you’re gonna be targeting through your blog posts, ads or something else.

Find the best keywords

By using a keyword research tool, you can pinpoint which keywords can yield the best results. There are many of these tools available: Google Trends, SemRush, WordTracker, and more.

Essentially, what you want to do is find keywords that have a nice volume of searches, but aren’t too competitive.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to get people to buy domain names from you. Here’s what would be a good volume to competition ratio.

Once you find optimal keywords for your website, start adding them everywhere on your website. That includes pages, posts, products (if you have them) and basically everything else that appears as a different page on your website.

As long as it’s natural and not overly forced, it will greatly improve your SEO ratings and help you rank higher on Google.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

Along with your keyword strategy, implement this to get on the first page faster. Long-tail keywords are made of 3-4 words and target very specific searches.

These are especially handy for ranking high locally. For example, let’s say you do digital marketing.

The most competitive keyword is most likely “digital marketing”, but if you add a city to that, it is much more specific. “Portland digital marketing” will be much less competitive.

You can add another word to it to make it even more specific “Portland digital marketing agency. Will that bring in more customers?

Yes, of course. If you only target “digital marketing”, you will most likely never reach the first page of Google. It’s a much more competitive search term.

You might think – But aren’t there much fewer people searching for long-tail keywords?

Yes, that’s true. But a more specific keyword increases the chance of a user clicking on the link. That’s because when people use long keywords, it means they’re looking for something specific.

3. Write Superb Content

Content is the most important part of a website and as much as it is SEO optimized, if it is not relevant for the users when they search, it will never appear in the top positions.

You need to write engaging content. Make use of real-life examples, comparisons and use a simple language.

Check your grammar and use tools (like Grammarly for example), to help you with that.

Write around a specific topic and don’t overuse keywords. Structure your content in a way Google will understand it too, for example, use

tags to separate the important parts, and nest with

tags for subtitles.

Avoid copy-pasting at all costs!. Google penalizes duplicate content (with, or without intent), so make sure that your content is original and unique.

You can quote small parts of other articles but be sure to refer to it with a no-follow link or mention the source.

Also, make sure to allow your visitors to share the content in their social networks, in that way it can even become viral and help you get many more visitors.

4. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!

It’s all about optimizing your website for the best SEO possible.

You might think that this tip doesn’t help you learn how to get on the first page of Google, but it’s crucial to your success. Let’s see some tips on website optimization for SEO.

Structure Your Website

If the structure of a website is too deep Google will find it more difficult to reach and index all pages. This is because the Google crawler bot has a limited time to track the website.

So it is recommended that the structure isn’t more than 3 levels deep.

Also, John Mueller, from Google, told in a hangout that pyramid structured websites work if the content is related to each other and links are relevant.

If your content appears only in the sitemap and you cannot reach it from page to page then it is useless and Google will not index it.

Focus on Your Users

Remember that the website is not entirely about you or your business, it is also about the experience you offer to your visitors (users).

Google works hard on trying to understand the content of the website to offer intelligent responses to search queries.

So, visitors need to have access to quality content in an effective way. For example, write about what your visitors should expect using simple language and clear explanations.

Don’t fill the website with links, avoid heavily populated menus and use short paragraphs.

Google tries to think like a visitor when indexing pages, so make your website focusing on them.

5. Create backlinks to your website

Links are the backbone of the internet. Hyperlinks (that’s the full name) allows websites to bond to each other.

This way visitors can reach content from one website and keep reading in another one if the link is relevant to them.

Hyperlinks from a website (the referer) to another website (the referral) is called a backlink. When a resource (website or webpage) gets backlinked by a lot of other websites, the authority of the owner of the resource rises and it is highly possible that Google will rank this content higher on their search engine.

The most popular way to do backlinking is to do guest blogging. It’s a process where you post on another blog, usually in the same industry, and add a link to your website in that blog post.

Google counts the number of pages that link back to your page, and that’s why guest blogging has become so popular lately.

You should monitor the backlinks and make sure all of them are linked from reputable websites. Google has webmaster tools that will allow you to monitor a lot of things about the SEO on your website.

Bad inbound traffic can damage your search engine reputation, but webmaster tools will let you monitor and prevent this.

Always remember to keep your backlinks on check, Google offers ways to clean a bad backlink profile.

Ultimately, Google’s WebMaster tools will show you how to rank higher on Google.

Ranking High Requires Time and Skill

An amazing SEO strategy can get you ranked high on Google in no time. Of course, if you’re using very competitive keywords it’ll be a long time before you’re on the first page.

Industry leaders have been publishing content for dozens of years before you. That means that it’s nearly impossible to compete with them.

That’s why it’s much better to target long-tail keywords that are a bit more specific to your business.

Be sure to utilize every tool that can show you how to rank higher on Google. Google’s WebMaster tools are the first that come to mind.

Additionally, you can pay for keyword traffic to your website and it might help in increasing your SEO ranking. But in most cases, this will not result in huge traffic.

Most of the time, the organic traffic that’s coming through keywords is much bigger than PPC traffic.

About the Author

Vivian is fond of writing and has been involved in the content marketing industry since 2011. She specializes in web hosting & website builder niches.

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[buzzmemes]

I hate this

I hate this : Memes

your passport photo and copy of passport At my school, the homework was to color the picture. So very true... In my school it’s so bad, the teacher projects it on the whiteboard ah, nightmares Soo true XD They say that because you cropped it out. And that is a fact They use plotters I get it! Lol that’s good shit Im sory Toad The homework that steals your time and your lunch money 99% of sane teachers shows u the color image on smart board No teachers want to show u crappy print Just understand it. Color printer is expensive. You’re telling me that teachers give out free black children? Bet, already got three in the basement itsa me, Noir-io Facts tho It'sa me, a-Copyo! We all make mistakes in the heat of passion, Jimbo. Come back in ten years And they pop in a “do you see the ... in the picture” question Why mario on the right looks like he's about to wake me up at 3 am saying with deep demonic voice It's time for me to turn you into my spaghetti Is this the new "We have ____ at home" ? Since im in school this is to relatable The math graphs were the worst though 30 years of saving princesses, 30 years of smashing brown mushrooms. And for what? Cake? Mario!? Why does this remind me of the fearsome Llapp Goch Master. There's a good chance this is unique! I checked 103,921,185 image posts and didn't find a close match Whenever I got bad copies I'd always split the best copies around the room so every student was at least near a good copy and keep a bad one for myself... Remember when you were the chosen one to go out of class and get em papers wonderful If Mario was in Papers, Please AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA printer companies: see you little shits? this is why your printer needs colored cartridges! My name is paublo Yes Is that pablo It's supposed to be not centered Based on a true story Itsa me, Marijuanio! he looks so sad:( NVM took a secound look he looks like he bout to ask me if i wanna buy WEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDD Kinda looks like Hitler though Noah get the Death Star. My kindergarten teacher wife has to print shit at home for this reason. Effectively costs $300/year in paper/ink and another $100 to replace whatever broken down color ink printer we have in a given year. I want her to transition to laser, but haven't been able to convince her. More like the board of Education, principal and superintendents wanting another raise so the kids get B&W copies. At our large school we have 1 color copier, the rest are black and white. More often than not, kids are not getting color copies. Budget. Why is this too true Don't you be knocking LaserJet. Those things were a tank whose toner lasted a long time. DeskJet is what you are looking for. Made with HP LaserJet 100 color MFP Same Mario on the right side looks like sleep paralysis demon, ngl. Mario and Noireio. Top 10 hollywood stars ruined by drug addiction. It looks like if he ran into me he'd try to stuff me into an animatronic suit where I belong Mario looks like he's going to go on a mugging spree Too true Me looking at my paper: HERE WE GOOOO One more gram common u can do it is fentanyl the new drug to go? i only appy the fentanyl patches on them cancer patients at work, so they don't suffer 24/7. a couple of months ago there was a problem at our elderly home, bc some crazies tried to dig them used patches out of our trash..have fun with patches which are covered in shit and piss You should have done 64 or 69 Bro youd die before you even got through half a gram of fentanyl wtf do you even know what fentanyl is lmao A true epic gamer moment God I wish I had some pure fent Issa me, Black tar heroin Mario! Come with me and meet my gang of druga dealers! I really Was expecting a rickroll lmao And this is probably what he's listening to on his alone time https://youtu.be/ijBrulQXE2U It me mrio I jst snrted one mre grm and I jst deid DO IT FOR THE GRAM Go ahead and do another gram just one more gram Legendary The homework that steals your time and your lunch money............... Luigi says: do the coke to get the smoke Betta tell your moms your dads your ministers... WOOOMP WOOOMP WOOOMP!!!! Justa what me the Doctor Mario prescribed Mama mia I a need a more of that a shit YAHOOOOOO!!!! And remember kids - when you do drugs, you go to hell before you die! It’s a me druggooo Mario! I have snorted 68 grams of pure fentanyl and I am going to die. Itsame itsame I’m literally studying for an exam right now and my professor put that on his own notes... like bro nobody gives a shit about your stats notes I had a professor just say “don’t waste your money on the book. Just google book name pdf and it should be the first link.” Then he did in in class go show us And then you have the ones that sell their own 40 page notes in 2 sections for €20 each at the college book store. Or the ones that make class notes and give them out in the first class. Even better are the ones that accidentally send a pdf of their own book that they make no money on due to a shitty publisher to one or two people in the class. my favorite kinds of professors A full commitment is what I'm thinking of A lot of emulators come with a warning like "Use a bios file from your own console. Do not download one for free from the Internet!" I saw something on TIL a while back, during the prohibition era of the United States, some companies sold grape concentrate. They had a warning on them that said something to the effect of "after adding the concentrate to water, do not let it sit for two weeks as it will ferment into wine." As if...they wanted you to do it! That's a pretty calculated statement for them to make. *mobile errors I had calculus profs who would tell us 'I legally cannot advise you to steal copywrited material so under no circumstances should you go to this website and torrent the textbook for free instead of buying it from the overpriced book store and wasting your money' I always love those blank pages that just have in like size i font "Do not write here" for no fucking reason. Then the teacher tells you that they didn't see it I like when it’s in huge, WHITE print in the middle of the fucking page so half the assignment is cut off I like when it says on the side of the paper COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR DISTRIBUTE BY ANY MEANS Or the "here's a form that was made in Excel, if you could fill it out so that we can input the information back in Excel that would be great." "yeah..." "But the image gets worse!" Work in Japan. Teachers give me a copied paper. "just copy it. They have the file on their damn computer. Which is where we are sitting. -20 points. I can’t even read the damn question At my school, we get lectured for printing a class set rather than just a master. They say it’s about toner being cheaper and the copier cartridges are much much bigger. There are also a lot of places where teachers don't have access to a shared laser printer like that and don't have any option but to make photocopies, so stuff like the OP can be unavoidable sometimes. Genuinely not a problem in my school - we have a fleet of MFDs for bulk printing. We have an admin assistant in charge of the reprographics room who can interrupt jobs if needed as well. It's just an old mindset that they can't get out of. Yeah but then you have to be the asshole that released a print job with 200+ pages while others are waiting to use the copier since this is the only one you can print to. What is full sending? huzzah, a man of quality Have you tried full sending it? From an IT perspective, usually it's not that they want you to know what triggered the problem, they want you to provide concise information on what exactly you were doing up until the issue occurred. Though I do understand that IT technicians are notoriously unsociable lol I'm sure thats a great suggestion but that's the thing is that IT acts like its up to the enduser to already know whats causing the issues and what needs to be done to fix it. Also this doesn't solve his/her issue of getting staples on the copies. Have your IT reinstall your driver and you can select the options that your printer has. likely you are on a global driver, or it wasn't installed correctly! Or if I want staples. We can only select staples on our copier itself. It would be easier if the print queue thing was reliable. But I can't keep running back to my room if it didn't send it, so I make extra copies from my first one. Or if I need front/back from different originals I work in IT support for a school - teachers, for some fucking reason beyond my understanding, seem to print one copy of something, then photocopy it for their classes. Telling them that just printing it for everyone keeps the quality better doesn't sink in. It costs the same, comes out of the same device, and it's less work, but I'm the insane one. Th s rin er se ms o æ run ing lo n ink To the knee And my axe! And my sword! Take mine too! Fuck off take a useless arrow Actually it seems this printer is low on incas. Damn u incas "I'm so sorry kids, our ancient printer is not working properly again" Read the full article

[spamzineglasgow]

(REVIEW) ‘Germ Songs’ by Will Burns and Jess White

In this review, Maria Sledmere explores the arboreal and rhizomatic understories of Will Burns and Jess White’s new pamphlet, Germ Songs (Rough Trade Books x William Morris Gallery, 2019), asking what lyric poetry can do in a time of dieback, scarcity and precarious land.

> ‘What are we aiming for anyway?’ Will Burns asks in opening poem, ‘Ash’. To aim is to point, direct, focus, train. ‘Anyway’ indicates something will probably happen, in spite of something else. Is a poem a kind of aiming? What about a song? Germ Songs, a pamphlet fresh as its lime-green cover and published by Rough Trade Books, is part of a quartet of slender volumes: The William Morris Gallery Series. With Jess White’s gorgeous, intricate illustrations set alongside Burns’ neat and curious lyrics, Germ Songs embodies William Morris’ association with etching, aesthetics and ornament alongside a Blakean dialectic of print and song. You will be struck by the lively neon cover, a kind of nu-rave ~ ~ nNature~ ~, but find something decorative, arboreal and Romantic in the typeface, the whorls and notches of line and lyric. This is a book that holds between thin pages a rhizomatic undersong of multiple times, while its canopy gleams for a modern reader.

> Although the decorative intensity of Germ Songs would normally invite a more reposed and formal register, there is a conversational lightness to some of the poems. A frank admission of vagueness, a hedging of the representational ‘real’. Trochaic and anapaestic beginnings feel like a shoot and release, seedlings spun from the branches of trees: ‘Somebody, somewhere’, ‘counsels all this’, ‘Delays at all points’, ‘Decay, and worse’. The spondaeic emphasis of ‘all this’ swells with the everything that haunts the book. I have been reading Germ Songs as a lighter companion text to Richard Powers’ arboreal epic The Overstory (2018), a novel of interwoven tales relating to trees: tales of activism, game design, human intimacy, science, rebirth, environmental justice, illness and injury, violence and song. In Powers’ novel, there is this sense of a self-rejuvenating Nature — ‘trees lap at the low, wet sky, the clouds they themselves have helped to seed’ — a kind of agential, four-dimensional thicket of enmeshed relations. Fiction being this ecomimetic device to conjure the high-definition sensory realm of the forest we are losing, the forest-as-such. In Germ Songs, there is a different kind of toggling between stories, scales, maps and voices.

> In these short poems, Burns navigates the thickening histories and frictive material realities of the anthropocene, gesturing towards something like a vernacular of endangered beauty. There are questions around the ethics of making beautiful work about something on the brink of loss. Are we celebrating or pre-emptively elegising the environment that previous generations could enjoy in varying naiveties of plenitude? Or is something else going on, a kind of pressing awareness that blows upon those who move through the forest of language, a stirring breeze, a heat? The book’s blurb reads:

These poems and drawings take their shape from the land, utilising both artists’ interest in the natural world and the questions that close observation ask of us as human beings living through the landscape and flora that surround us.

The blurb also notes the pamphlet’s thematising of questions around ‘access to these spaces, about property, ownership, boundaries and how these ideas have played out through history’. We read William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789) within the context of land enclosures and human construction and domination of green spaces; equally we might read Germ Songs as a lyric conversation with the more-than-human world understood in the context of capital, growth and decay, loss, ‘domestic grief’, fires and the enflamed, complex affects of contemporary politics. Even the titles bear these slippages: ‘Heartwood’ for instance, a quick google reveals, is at once a Stirling-based tree surgeon, a Dulux colour shade, an investment management company and a herbal medicine education service. Such brand appropriations reveal the metaphoric density at work in a word which otherwise refers to the central, dead wood of trees. Also called duramen, heartwood is resistant to decay and ripe with aromatic tannins that darken and flavour its cells. Yet the poem ‘Heartwood’ reveals a complex, fraught resilience; what is starkly presented is ‘The empty, burned-out house / at the bottom of Hale Farm Lane’. An image of stability and pastoral timelessness, the farmhouse, becomes an extinguished symbol of upheaval, transposed into ‘A useless piece of property— / willed against heavy skies’. As though you could hedge a failed infrastructure against the coming storm. As though we could trade our increasing vulnerability for some inheritable protection: a will that somehow defies what is phenomenologically there in the poem, the ‘heavy skies’ that indicate the end, period, a possible violent return. Outbursts of fire and water; skies weighted with smoke or rain.

> There is something crying in the trees: ‘I laid me down upon a bank, Where Love lay sleeping; / I heard among the rushes dank / Weeping, weeping’ (Blake, ‘The Garden of Love’). Are not the trees supposed to sing? These ‘Germ Songs’ are billed as songs, and yet there is often an imagist simplicity to their presented scenes. What if Ezra Pound’s Imagist manifesto was a kind of anthropocene tract of material scarcity: ‘to employ the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word’. Defiantly, Germ Songs nevertheless flirts with the decorative. Whether her illustrated scenes are of rich mycelia, plates of specimen seeds, crying or pensive birds, undergrowth, varieties of mushroom, fronds of lichen and moss, branch and cell, Jess White situates the forest of Germ Songs as quietly teeming. These are the painted yet tangible scenes we must continue to long for, support and sustain. I learn from The Overstory: ‘Deforestation: a bigger changer of climate than all of transportation put together. Twice as much carbon in the falling forests than in all the atmosphere’. Forests thrive on ‘older, rotting trees’, which feed the beetles, the fungus, the chorus of those species that farm decay to further life. In writing about the thinning of forests under late-capitalism (‘everything just / cheap protein, cheap motive, cheap material’) alongside the ornamental closeups of ecological treasure, you might say Germ Songs enacts the poetry of this transformation. Composting language, lyric and story as necessary to survival, openness, living on as multitudes.

> There is a sense that we are starved by overfeeding, that our calories are abundant but empty. There is a violent history to this, as described in ‘Cheap’:

the frontier itself, built on the violence of sugar and grain-calories, the groundwork of horses, cattle, dogs, that made things cheap as we need them to be—cheap enough to travel.

As Robert Macfarlane and others have asked, does this play out in the increasing austerity of our diet of language? These are poems presented quite plainly, often with a plodding rhythm (though the verse is free), stripped of Latin names or excessive description; I think again of Pound’s insistence on ‘the language of common speech’. It is as though the poem dares you to burrow into that space between ‘the nearly-exact’ imminence of lyric utterance and the maximalist sprawl of illustration — drawings you quite simply want to enter into. That sometimes seem to hold a warmth, a depth; even as their adjoining lines are cooler, clipped and precise. This is not to say the poems are written in the style of timber: stripped, smoothed and felled from a monocrop generality. Rather, the holding back allows Burns to occasionally sweep us into a line of quiet devastation, ‘empty of birds / but for kite calls that grieve the great songs of sparrows’. I think of Robert Frost’s choice of metaphoric paths against the existential and material gravitas of the decisions we make now regarding our traversal and use of the land:

We have miles to cover to get back on the potholed road west. Which is how we will have to leave the town and feel its bearing forever, overgrown into dog days.

                                                                              (‘Mid-Point’)

There is a twist of New Weird Britain within these lines, an eerie kind of emptiness in plenitude — something not quite placed. I think of the fable-like evocation of ‘The dark village’ which ‘sits on the crooked hill’ in Rachael Allen’s recent collection Kingdomland (Faber and Faber, 2019). Panning out, I think more widely of a generalised ‘west’: a beckoning frontier, a lawless district, a California wildfire raging, a stark apocalypse sunset. There are places we might fall on the road, when we are forced ‘to leave the town’ with the heartwood of that perilous scene inside us. The poem as microcosm for grander dramas. Dog days can mean both the hottest period of the year and one of inactivity or decline. There is a burning pressure of something which blooms too hard and enters stasis; the excess in capital, production, growth becomes something torpid and awful: ‘Though all weather is fell weather / there is only one meaning to heat / that swells so late’ (‘Spruce’), ‘These corrupted seasons—months of rain / then a high summer of fire—’ (‘Ash’). We know this is because of our carbon, our cars and planes, our human decisions. There is bound to be another fall, or perhaps the falling is happening already.

> To name a poem for a tree, after a tree. Does the poem come before or after? ‘Exhausted and exhausting, under the ash / —selfhood as dieback’ (‘Ash’). As in the poems of Emily Dickinson, the em-dash functions as a kind of hinge — or better still, a connecting branch, a stretching stem, a tilting trunk — gesturing towards those interpretations which are not quite fixed in language, semantics or time. As Richard Stacey recently argued in a recent undergraduate lecture at the University of Glasgow, Dickinson’s dash performs an invitation to look inside the occluded openings or splits in a poem, while also providing a cover (we might say canopy) against ‘prurient speculation’. So the poems reveal and conceal, like bristling leaves letting in, shading or blocking the light. The ‘dieback’ of ‘selfhood’ follows, somehow, the push and pull process of the ‘Exhausted and exhausting’, the held noun and flicker between adjective and verb; but it also suggests some hidden space in the poem, the dash itself as dieback, which is itself a progressive dying from the tip backwards. The dashes seduce you deeper into the thicket of lines that are carefully sung or drawn between life and death, presence and absence. They are units of ecology itself as ‘a branch’ of science that deals in the relations of organisms and environments.  

> And what is meant by a germ? Germ: ‘An initial stage or state from which something may develop; a source, a beginning. Also: a small constituent or quantity’; ‘To produce new buds or shoots; to germinate’ (OED, 2019). The poems and drawings are germinations, surely, invitations to a budding consciousness about what’s going on in the understory of the land and trees. The fragments of narrative in these poems hold human distance and tensions (‘We were hundreds of miles apart’) alongside the detritus and trace of what we become: ‘The unit of violence in these hills / is no longer the disused MOD site / but the bloody mess of people—’ (‘Bastard Service’). Our plastic litter, our packaging, our ‘stuff’ of capitalism’s fallout. How to move through this. The precision of a sentence held enjambed across lines, every punctuation deliberate, aimed, held. In their short sentences, there’s a sense of every expression bearing a thicker weight, a whole trunk of meaning. Transient shortcuts tracing deeper histories. In the ‘bloody mess’ of what we have already left, what does it mean to write a poem?

> ‘Bastard Service’, the pamphlet’s final poem, ends with ‘the phrase—“leave no trace, leave no trace”’. To say it twice, as if to say, to yoke repetition to ritual, to evoke — and this being the ‘point’ of lyric. ‘What are we aiming for anyway?’: maybe this anyway, its conditions of possibility, its frustrated in spite of, indifferent production, is the actual stuff of Burns’ lyric. For the insistence against traces belies the actual work of lyric in forging musical phrases that beg to be ‘thought over and over’, leaving synaptic traces as much as physical marks on a page. A poem, Buddy Willard derisively claims in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), ‘is a piece of dust’. But what if it were more like a germ? A trace of the living and dying and dead; something to mull over, let dwell inside us; spread to a blurry future as lyric persistence among an ‘air so thick it had killed birdsong’ (‘Wild Service’).

Germ Song is available now, via Rough Trade Books.

~

Text: Maria Sledmere

Published: 2/2/20

[fast-moon]

Noragami Chapter 73

Holy crap, was there a lot of text in this chapter.  Even though I already had the entire thing pre-translated once I got my own raws, it still took me about the normal amount of time to finish if I had been translating as I went.  But, it’s done, and a lot of text also means a lot of translation notes, which are below the cut.

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Sample images:

Translation notes below:

Page 2

Yato has made “hoshigaki” (干し柿), which are dried persimmons.  They take a considerable amount of time and care to make, consisting of hanging peeled persimmons on strings outside for three weeks.  Here’s a video on how they’re made.

Page 4

I have no idea what a Capyper Inari is, either.  It’s possibly a Capyper doll dressed as an Inari?

Also, Hiyori calls BS on this chapter’s bait and switch regarding the God’s Greatest Secret.

Page 5

Random note, but converting large numbers from Japanese is a pain in the ass due to them cycling their numeric terms every four decimal places rather than every three like English does.  So instead of starting over at “ten + thousand” at 10,000 like English does, Japanese has one more unique number “man” (万) for 10,000 before looping back at 100,000 with “10 + man”.  So that puts them one decimal place off from English, but since they loop every 4, it’s not even a consistent number of decimal places it’s off, because “1000-man” is a legit number (and equates to 10 million).  Then they increment up to “oku” (億), which is 100 million in English, so long story short, the kidnappers want “10-oku” yen and it was more annoying than it should have been to figure out WTF number that is in English.

Page 7

This panel required crappy handwriting and thankfully that is one of my many talents.

Page 8

I’ve had people complain that my translations sometimes use too many “big words” (to be fair, a lot of that has come from the non-English scanlators who translate off my translation rather than the Japanese and find themselves confronted with words they don’t know, anyway), but it mostly comes from the Japanese itself using obscure terms and me following suit.  But in the case of Ebisu’s “audacious” line here, it was merely a case of me not being able to come up with a suitable smaller word, even though Ebisu’s word choice is very simple.  The term he uses is “ookiku demashita ne” (大きく出ましたね), which is literally “you're presenting yourself in a big way”, but it’s generally used in response to someone who makes an outrageous claim or request.  The problem is that later in the chapter his line is reinterpreted literally, so I needed him to say something that meant both “to make an outrageous statement” and “to be brave”, and “audacious” was all I could come up with.

Page 10

Now this is an interesting bit of detail that we should go back and see how consistent the series has been with it (anime-original doesn’t count, because I’m pretty sure they broke it).  But it sounds like Yato can only teleport to a location he already has an open “connection” to via the phone (or, in the case of Takamagahara, via his shrine).  So, someone with more time than me help me out, has Yato EVER teleported to a location he wasn’t currently on the phone with?

Page 11

Since I know someone is going to ask, Hiyori can track down Ebisu due to her half-ayakashi form’s sense of smell.

Also, Kunimi’s lament of lack of vacation time includes the fact that Ebisu’s company doesn’t give weekends off.  Japan actually has a word, “karoshi”, for working yourself to death.  Japan has a law that you’re not allowed to work more than 100 hours of overtime in a given month, but 100 hours of overtime still equates to working more than 8 hours a day every single day of the week.

Page 13

Ebisu asks the kidnappers to go to an “FX site”, or foreign exchange site.  These websites are for making money via currency exchange by converting money into another country’s currency, waiting for that currency’s exchange rate to increase, and then selling it back for a profit.

Page 14

Kunimi’s original master was seriously some kid’s imaginary friend who then disappeared when the kid grew up.  Nooo, Bing-Bong!

Page 15

I translated “Nora” out as “Stray” in Takemikazuchi’s line solely because of the cat on his shoulder.

Also, Kunimi laments the country’s “hatsumono bunka” (初物文化), or the cultural affinity for new or fresh things while overlooking things that are lightly used but still in perfectly good condition.  It’s why you can get excellent condition used manga for stupidly cheap, and why there’s a high value on “new in box” items that they just keep but don’t use.

Page 21

This is another thing I’ve wondered about and I don’t know if this page is to be taken literally or Rule of Funny: since shinki don’t age, does their hair grow?  That would make Aiha cutting off Tsuguha’s hair even worse if it will never grow back.  And I couldn’t recall any instance of a shinki being shown in the past with shorter hair than their present form.

Page 22

The word Ebisu uses for “magician” is “majutsushi” (魔術師).  This is very close to the word for “sorcerer”, which is “jutsushi” (術師), but since he technically used a different word, so did I.

Page 33

My apologies to Mister T.  But Yato’s line delivery and choice of words here were very “alternate dialect”, so I followed suit.

Yukine’s comment at the bottom about shedding a tear was literally “I’m having a mildly upsetting episode, too”.  The term was “jimi ni kanashii” (地味に悲しい), and is used to refer to something that’s upsetting but not a big deal, like eating an ice cream cone and part of it falls off, or your favorite sweater is starting to fray.

Page 36

Ebisu, one of your previous incarnations was depicted crying literally 6 pages ago, so it’s not just you.

Page 42

For those unfamiliar with it, Zimbabwe experienced runaway hyperinflation to the point where money printed one day was worthless the next, and resulting in the printing of bills up to denominations of 100 trillion which still couldn’t even buy bus fare.

But Yukine has the right idea, as even though Zimbabwe dollars are useless as currency, the 100 trillion denomination bills are a collector’s item due to being the largest denomination of any currency ever printed, and the 100 trillion notes sell for $50-$80 on collector’s sites, so with 15 of them, Yato could actually earn about $1000 if he sold them.

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                                Acat, the God of Scarification and Tattoos,                                    whose origins stem from Ancient Mayan Mexico.                     He is now a member of the city council and the owner of Taste of Ink.

FC NAME/GROUP: Kwon Jiyong (G-Dragon) of Big Bang) GOD NAME: Acat PANTHEON: Mayan OCCUPATION: –Head Artist/Modifier (Owner Taste of Ink, Tattoo and Piercing Parlour) –City Council HEIGHT: 177cm WEIGHT: 55kg DEFINING FEATURES: Outlandishly ostentatious sense of personal style. Many varied sized compositions on his body of continuously shifting and changing semi-sentient tattoos. At times they mirror his moods, tell visual stories or match his clothing–and increase and decrease with his whims. Delicate elaborate swirls and intricate dotted patterns of scarification on both shoulders and forearms.

PERSONALITY: Acat lives in the here and now. A ball of restless energy, he simply wants to enjoy the present day. With his faith in humanity lost for all time, the god has become quite cynical to a certain extent–though he hides this fact under a cloak of good natured humor, teasing sarcasm and a morbidly cheery disposition (well cheery AFTER 10 am, IF he doesn’t have a hangover and ONLY once he’s had a STIFF swig of good old-fashioned strong spicy Mexican chocolate (with a churro for dipping). Prone to spontaneous acts, he is very often as excitable as child (especially for interesting artwork), then can just as easily switch to the cold aloof calm of an ancient deity depending on his mood. Outside of that, he’s otherwise really rather lovable (though a just teensy bit sadistic.). The god is also unapologetically unfiltered, doing and/or saying pretty much just as he pleases when it pleases him to do so. Acat is the one council member that likely will always have to be nudged awake during those tediously long high council meetings–but he’ll always show up just the same. Day to day, when not putting his marks on flesh, the god dislikes being alone, which is seldom a problem because he  naturally attracts the attention of other people (and not just because his own skin is practically a living mural). If he were human one might say the deity was “living in the fast lane”, as his high pain threshold causes Acat to be drawn to overload on the extreme side of every sensory experience, sometimes without thought for the consequences for himself or others. He lives in the moment and trusts that tomorrow will take care of itself. 

HISTORY: Jiyong (as he calls himself these days), once rode on the backs and biceps of kings and warriors into battle. Getting a tattoo back then was extremely painful. To him those were the days of humanities prime, when bravery was embedded into the skin with his blessing and true men laughed in the face of physical pain. Heroes aplenty in the early days. It was a time when the world was young and fresh, dipped in shiny gold and clad in bright colors–blues, reds, and greens. Humans were fearless and bold, their own young feathers as silky and glittering as the birds of flight made by Kukulcan’s own hand. It was a time of wonder and even he was inspired by these small mortal creatures who learned like babies and yet worked tirelessly in the day, fought bravely along the plains and then still celebrated together in one voice as if time was ever on their side. He could see their hands, the way they twisted them and brought forth their imagination, carving totems with spirit, building temples ever higher to sit with the gods, painting their homes in grand creativity. He wanted to reward these precious precocious creatures. So he blessed the rough hewed hands of their most gifted artists–taught them his craft, made their needles and knives divine, giving them his most favored and blessed designs. He watched with joy as their bravest came forward, bore the pain, consecrating their flesh in his image. In return, he was never alone back then, they brought wine and spirits for his blessings, danced in undulating reverence each time another brave human proudly displayed their ink. He welcomed their esteem in the thoughtfully erected temples that bore his name. 

It was the best of times…

So what in the hell happened?

He’s still trying to figure that part out. One day he was adorning the backs of human champions with the likeness of the mighty jaguar and eagle, even cutting out hallowed bloody scars of leadership into the skin of emperors. The next moment he found himself in the lowest places of Earth, piercing “cute” bellybuttons and inking smiling poop emojis on the naked butt cheeks of (doubtless) drunken giggly co-eds taking selfies. The world had changed so much and it was all he could try to do was stay upright among these fickle weak newly born mortals. Wifi and google had replaced belief and supplication for his kind.

Humanity had gotten B-O-R-I-N-G!

Gone was all color. It too had been replaced by “rules”, but not the rules of any Gods–oh no the humans had constrained themselves behind a wall of fear. They lost their colors to cowardice, and cloaked weakness in the drab attire of mediocrity. What Acat had once thought of as “ART” on the sides of buildings, had now become vandalism and “graffiti” to humans–something to be scrubbed away and forgotten, or worse locked away behind closed doors in temples that gave tribute to no god. Acat waited for many centuries sure that these poor little mortal children were going through a “phase”. He stood watching many of their number come be, and then inwardly died a little inside each time when one-by-one they let clumsy hands pierce things that could hardly be called “meaningful” into their wiggling flesh, now pale and soft from uselessness. He watched until he sickened from their unforgivable betrayals. Numbing cream? Needle pens? No blades?Meme tattoos?! It was sorcery–of the worst kind and he withdrew his blessings, before finally leaving the mortals behind altogether. He too could give in to sloth. Mount Phoenix seemed as good a place as any to resettle and nurse a broken heart. After all he did still love humans, he just could not abide the colorless weaklings they had become. Mount Phoenix seems the best of what he lost, since the young demigods who arrived daily are indeed rather interesting, the best of both the mortal and the divine. Spirited, strong, yet fragile–in some cases these new babies are feeling even more betrayed than he himself. He’s looking forward to laying down their tortured beauty on these intriguing new beings. Besides, he might as well hang around anyway, since even the god will jokingly admit to his having more than a few wild balché and xtabentún soaked nights between “inspirational” soft human thighs–that he can neither remember fully or even put to number. Who knows? Some of these kiddies wandering in might even be his own. He truly hope it would be so, as “Spawner of Bravely Inked Demigods” has almost as nice a ring to it as “God of Body Art”. POWERS: Mayan Deity Physiology - Power to use the traits and powers of Mayan Deities. 

Tattoo Manipulation - Can manipulate body-art and write/scribe/tattoo art without the need of fancy mundane human tools (still hurts lots to recieve his art however). Can create, shape and manipulate ink, including moving ink, change the color etc., even if the tattoo was not printed/written/tattooed by him originally. Can create magical tattoo to induce differing effects, can tattoo people and affect on how they feel. STRENGTHS: Unremitting cheerfulness, charitable, easy-going, spunky, playful, fiercely loyal to those he cares for and slow to anger. WEAKNESSES: Wee bit sadistic, unforgiving, indolent, obsessive, hedonistic, intense, unfiltered, reckless, total utter art snob, slightly vain and mischievous.

[thehotfemboy]

I live in an unending hell well I see exactly 1 good hentai drawing from someone, then follow them only to realize they’re boring & generic af and only got lucky with the one actually good piece of hentai.

Otherwise, it’s useless pinups and generic “THEY FUCK” drawings I can get billions of results for in a single google search of “porn”

What I don’t get is you can make anything you want, yet you make an image that’s worse than the billions of other exactly the same images? 

I thought you were an artist but you have no creativity and bore me to death. The only reason these people get any noteriety is because people think porn is supposed to be generic and an unending hell of boring unoriginal content.

That and because nobody has any fucking standards, especially for porn. Something that actually makes you feel something, something you have to delve into your mind for sometimes, that is something NO OTHER MEDIA CAN DO YET THESE FUCKERS IGNORE THAT BECAUSE “It’s just porn” 

Fuck you you’re the problem.

[douglassmiith]

How to Use Googles Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field

For many SMBs, and even local SEO Companys, the Google My Business Redressal Form is a thing of mystery. Here, Platinum Product Expert Ben Fisher shares his top tips for reporting spam through the form and outlines some of the latest updates.

At Steady Demand, we deal with a metric ton of spam on a monthly basis – spanning a ton of categories and covering almost every major city in the USA. On average, we see about a 96% success rate in spam removal, so I guess you could say we know a thing or two about the use of this form…

What is the Google My Business Redressal Form?

First, let’s cover a little history about the Redressal Form. In February 2019, the Google My Business Redressal Form was launched as a way to replace the spam reporting area of the GMB community forum. There were various reasons for this, but one of the most important was to create a scalable way of allowing users to report harmful or fraudulent listings directly to Google (versus only having the option to suggest an edit). 

How has the Redressal Form evolved?

In January of 2020, the form was updated to be a little more specific about what you should not submit. Specifically, Google added this language: 

If your complaint is not related to fraudulent activity on the name, phone number, or URL of the business, we will not be able to review your complaint. Please use these steps to report problems for all other Google Maps features. If you simply need to correct an incorrect business name, phone number, or URL, do not use this form. Use these steps to correct the information instead.

Fast forward to today: as of May 1st, 2020, the Google My Business Product Expert group was informed that you could use the Redressal for title spam, but to please use ‘Suggest an edit’ first on the GMB listing itself beforehand. 

GMB PSA: You can now submit Name Spam on the redressal form! (The text has not been updated, but you can) — Please Suggest and Edit first.https://t.co/57ESPvOI8R#localseo pic.twitter.com/ns2TWqT4T3

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 1, 2020

What’s the difference between the Redressal Form and suggesting an edit?

An important distinction that most are not aware of is that ‘Suggest an edit’ (see screenshot below) is, for the most part, an automated, machine learning mechanism to teach Google what users feel should be removed from Google Maps. 

The Redressal Form, on the other hand, ends up directly in a human being’s hands. Yes, that’s right — usually, the Redressal Form submissions are reviewed by a spam team at Google. 

That’s why you���ll see on the form itself that Google suggests uploading a spreadsheet if you’re reporting more than 10 listings at a time. Since a human is going to evaluate the submission, it is easier for them to handle bulk submissions this way. 

I must also add that if you are submitting images as proof in the file upload option (pictured above), and wonder why you are not getting any good results, it is because you are not supposed to upload images here. If you want to share images as evidence, I’ll explain how to do that successfully later on.

Once spam has been evaluated (for better or worse) the data is then recorded and the machine learns from the input. This can lead to micro-changes in the listing environment where the algorithm sees patterns emerge and then small proactive incremental updates are pushed out to a broader set of listings.

And by the way, we should be thankful that this is how it operates. Remember June of 2019 — right when the Wall Street Journal article came out about spam? Well, a massive spam sweep occurred and lots of valid listings were suspended in the process. Small incremental changes are much better than reactive sweeps!

So, even though you are only submitting a small batch of listings, the impact these edits can have down the line is much greater than you might imagine. 100 listings submitted could lead to 1,000 being removed — I see this happen all the time. If we do large batch submissions in a certain vertical and in a specific market for a few months in a row, we’ll then notice the overall spam in that area decreases dramatically.

There are some real listings that get swept up in some cases, but those cases are usually pretty small. (Word to the wise: if you are doing massive cleanups in markets, make sure your clients are prepared for a suspension — it can happen, but then you can get them right back online).

How should I fill out the Redressal Form to get the best results possible?

Whether you are submitting the Redressal Form for one or for multiple businesses, it really does not change what information should be included. So here is how I suggest filling it out:

Name: Either your name or the email account’s name that you are signed in with.

Email: Again, either your email or the one you are submitting with. (This is where your caseID will be delivered to).

Name of Entity: I always put “NA” for one listing or “Multiple” if submitting more than one. 

Content-type: Title (aka name spam), Address (virtual offices, UPS stores, or using another business’s location), Phone Number (for listings that are lead gen schemes, since they usually use the same number), or Website (again, this is usually for lead gen or malware types of sites). For a look into the different types of spam on GMB, take a look at Sterling Sky’s guide.

Public URL: This is the Google Maps URL for each listing that you are reporting. If you’re reporting more than 10, then submit one in this field and upload a spreadsheet for the rest. I always choose to submit the CID (otherwise known as the Ludocid) of a listing, as well. There are a handful of tools you can use to generate a business’s CID, including BrightLocal’s Review Link & Place ID Generator, or a Chrome extension from Tom Waddington, and one from GatherUp. Either way, the link ends up looking like this: https://www.Google.com/maps?cid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The last step (pictured above) is very important. This is where you are pleading your case. This is where you are explaining the impact that the submitted listing(s) are having on other merchants and consumers. This is not the place to cry about how it is impacting your rankings or how unfair it is that they are outranking others. It is about the real-world implications of fraudulent or misleading information. 

If you are submitting one Maps listing, then this is where you provide all your evidence. If you submit multiple listings, then this is a summary of what is in the attached spreadsheet. 

One thing to point out here is that it’s worth clustering submissions into different groups. So, submit all title spam as one submission, address spam as another submission, and so on. This takes more work but will increase your chances of succeeding.

Another mistake I often see is that people think Google cares about your screenshots. Well, they do… but not the way you are probably submitting them. If you are going to include an image as proof, use something like Snagit to make a short URL or upload it to Google Drive. I repeat, do not paste the image directly into an Excel file or Google Sheet. It is unreadable and a waste of your time.

Speaking of spreadsheets, for all you professional spam hunters, make sure you include the name, address, Maps URL, phone, and any other proof you are using to make a case in your sheet.

Some other useful things you can provide include:

Government sources like the Secretary of State or a licensing site: Include the URL to the source if you cannot show the search query.

Google Streetview:  Share a screenshot if, for instance, the business is operating out of a residential home, or if the address matches a different business.

Link to the location: If the address matches another business, include a link to that location. For example, “This address is actually a Regus virtual office” and then link to Regus.

And finally, do not use 3rd party sites like Facebook or Yelp, (although LinkedIn can work sometimes).

What happens after I submit the Google My Business Redressal Form?

The first thing that happens once you submit the Redressal Form is that you will get an email. It will look something like what you see below. The number in the subject is your caseID, but other than that it is pretty useless. You cannot reply to it, or follow up on it. Since you do not own the listings in question, Google will not communicate about them with you. 

At this point, most spam I see is actioned in a two-week timeframe. Smaller batches are actioned sometime in the same week. If you are submitting upward of 50 listings, expect the timeframe to be more like 3+ weeks. 

At this point, it is a black box, you wait… and wait… and click links… and wait…

At Steady Demand, we actually built a system that checks all submitted links (yay, no more clicking!) for removal from Google and keeps track of the success or failure of spam reporting. If this is something that interests you, feel free to connect with me.

What do I do if I’m not successful?

Well, the first thing to do is give it some time. Then, check all your facts — did you miss something? Sometimes, there are small clues that prove a listing is actually real. Or, maybe you just did not provide a crucial piece of evidence.

Personally, I have even gone as far as to hire a private investigator or, where legal, record conversations with a building owner asking if a company is leasing space or not. 

If you must submit the form again, then do so, but remember that a human being is looking at your submission and they keep a database of evaluated spam.

Finally, I know you feel it is Google’s job to do all of this work, and yup, it is infuriating that some spam gets ignored. But remember, it is Google’s platform, and they are bound by their own rules and they strive to seek a balance between you, the merchant, and the consumer. It is not perfect, it is also not worth getting upset about.

Use the tools you have at your disposal and even that playing field!

The post How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field

[laurelkrugerr]

How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field

For many SMBs, and even local SEO Companys, the Google My Business Redressal Form is a thing of mystery. Here, Platinum Product Expert Ben Fisher shares his top tips for reporting spam through the form and outlines some of the latest updates.

At Steady Demand, we deal with a metric ton of spam on a monthly basis – spanning a ton of categories and covering almost every major city in the USA. On average, we see about a 96% success rate in spam removal, so I guess you could say we know a thing or two about the use of this form…

What is the Google My Business Redressal Form?

First, let’s cover a little history about the Redressal Form. In February 2019, the Google My Business Redressal Form was launched as a way to replace the spam reporting area of the GMB community forum. There were various reasons for this, but one of the most important was to create a scalable way of allowing users to report harmful or fraudulent listings directly to Google (versus only having the option to suggest an edit). 

How has the Redressal Form evolved?

In January of 2020, the form was updated to be a little more specific about what you should not submit. Specifically, Google added this language: 

If your complaint is not related to fraudulent activity on the name, phone number, or URL of the business, we will not be able to review your complaint. Please use these steps to report problems for all other Google Maps features. If you simply need to correct an incorrect business name, phone number, or URL, do not use this form. Use these steps to correct the information instead.

Fast forward to today: as of May 1st, 2020, the Google My Business Product Expert group was informed that you could use the Redressal for title spam, but to please use ‘Suggest an edit’ first on the GMB listing itself beforehand. 

GMB PSA: You can now submit Name Spam on the redressal form! (The text has not been updated, but you can) — Please Suggest and Edit first.https://t.co/57ESPvOI8R#localseo pic.twitter.com/ns2TWqT4T3

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 1, 2020

What’s the difference between the Redressal Form and suggesting an edit?

An important distinction that most are not aware of is that ‘Suggest an edit’ (see screenshot below) is, for the most part, an automated, machine learning mechanism to teach Google what users feel should be removed from Google Maps. 

The Redressal Form, on the other hand, ends up directly in a human being’s hands. Yes, that’s right — usually, the Redressal Form submissions are reviewed by a spam team at Google. 

That’s why you’ll see on the form itself that Google suggests uploading a spreadsheet if you’re reporting more than 10 listings at a time. Since a human is going to evaluate the submission, it is easier for them to handle bulk submissions this way. 

I must also add that if you are submitting images as proof in the file upload option (pictured above), and wonder why you are not getting any good results, it is because you are not supposed to upload images here. If you want to share images as evidence, I’ll explain how to do that successfully later on.

Once spam has been evaluated (for better or worse) the data is then recorded and the machine learns from the input. This can lead to micro-changes in the listing environment where the algorithm sees patterns emerge and then small proactive incremental updates are pushed out to a broader set of listings.

And by the way, we should be thankful that this is how it operates. Remember June of 2019 — right when the Wall Street Journal article came out about spam? Well, a massive spam sweep occurred and lots of valid listings were suspended in the process. Small incremental changes are much better than reactive sweeps!

So, even though you are only submitting a small batch of listings, the impact these edits can have down the line is much greater than you might imagine. 100 listings submitted could lead to 1,000 being removed — I see this happen all the time. If we do large batch submissions in a certain vertical and in a specific market for a few months in a row, we’ll then notice the overall spam in that area decreases dramatically.

There are some real listings that get swept up in some cases, but those cases are usually pretty small. (Word to the wise: if you are doing massive cleanups in markets, make sure your clients are prepared for a suspension — it can happen, but then you can get them right back online).

How should I fill out the Redressal Form to get the best results possible?

Whether you are submitting the Redressal Form for one or for multiple businesses, it really does not change what information should be included. So here is how I suggest filling it out:

Name: Either your name or the email account’s name that you are signed in with.

Email: Again, either your email or the one you are submitting with. (This is where your caseID will be delivered to).

Name of Entity: I always put “NA” for one listing or “Multiple” if submitting more than one. 

Content-type: Title (aka name spam), Address (virtual offices, UPS stores, or using another business’s location), Phone Number (for listings that are lead gen schemes, since they usually use the same number), or Website (again, this is usually for lead gen or malware types of sites). For a look into the different types of spam on GMB, take a look at Sterling Sky’s guide.

Public URL: This is the Google Maps URL for each listing that you are reporting. If you’re reporting more than 10, then submit one in this field and upload a spreadsheet for the rest. I always choose to submit the CID (otherwise known as the Ludocid) of a listing, as well. There are a handful of tools you can use to generate a business’s CID, including BrightLocal’s Review Link & Place ID Generator, or a Chrome extension from Tom Waddington, and one from GatherUp. Either way, the link ends up looking like this: https://www.Google.com/maps?cid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The last step (pictured above) is very important. This is where you are pleading your case. This is where you are explaining the impact that the submitted listing(s) are having on other merchants and consumers. This is not the place to cry about how it is impacting your rankings or how unfair it is that they are outranking others. It is about the real-world implications of fraudulent or misleading information. 

If you are submitting one Maps listing, then this is where you provide all your evidence. If you submit multiple listings, then this is a summary of what is in the attached spreadsheet. 

One thing to point out here is that it’s worth clustering submissions into different groups. So, submit all title spam as one submission, address spam as another submission, and so on. This takes more work but will increase your chances of succeeding.

Another mistake I often see is that people think Google cares about your screenshots. Well, they do… but not the way you are probably submitting them. If you are going to include an image as proof, use something like Snagit to make a short URL or upload it to Google Drive. I repeat, do not paste the image directly into an Excel file or Google Sheet. It is unreadable and a waste of your time.

Speaking of spreadsheets, for all you professional spam hunters, make sure you include the name, address, Maps URL, phone, and any other proof you are using to make a case in your sheet.

Some other useful things you can provide include:

Government sources like the Secretary of State or a licensing site: Include the URL to the source if you cannot show the search query.

Google Streetview:  Share a screenshot if, for instance, the business is operating out of a residential home, or if the address matches a different business.

Link to the location: If the address matches another business, include a link to that location. For example, “This address is actually a Regus virtual office” and then link to Regus.

And finally, do not use 3rd party sites like Facebook or Yelp, (although LinkedIn can work sometimes).

What happens after I submit the Google My Business Redressal Form?

The first thing that happens once you submit the Redressal Form is that you will get an email. It will look something like what you see below. The number in the subject is your caseID, but other than that it is pretty useless. You cannot reply to it, or follow up on it. Since you do not own the listings in question, Google will not communicate about them with you. 

At this point, most spam I see is actioned in a two-week timeframe. Smaller batches are actioned sometime in the same week. If you are submitting upward of 50 listings, expect the timeframe to be more like 3+ weeks. 

At this point, it is a black box, you wait… and wait… and click links… and wait…

At Steady Demand, we actually built a system that checks all submitted links (yay, no more clicking!) for removal from Google and keeps track of the success or failure of spam reporting. If this is something that interests you, feel free to connect with me.

What do I do if I’m not successful?

Well, the first thing to do is give it some time. Then, check all your facts — did you miss something? Sometimes, there are small clues that prove a listing is actually real. Or, maybe you just did not provide a crucial piece of evidence.

Personally, I have even gone as far as to hire a private investigator or, where legal, record conversations with a building owner asking if a company is leasing space or not. 

If you must submit the form again, then do so, but remember that a human being is looking at your submission and they keep a database of evaluated spam.

Finally, I know you feel it is Google’s job to do all of this work, and yup, it is infuriating that some spam gets ignored. But remember, it is Google’s platform, and they are bound by their own rules and they strive to seek a balance between you, the merchant, and the consumer. It is not perfect, it is also not worth getting upset about.

Use the tools you have at your disposal and even that playing field!

The post How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/05/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form.html

[riichardwilson]

How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field

For many SMBs, and even local SEO Companys, the Google My Business Redressal Form is a thing of mystery. Here, Platinum Product Expert Ben Fisher shares his top tips for reporting spam through the form and outlines some of the latest updates.

At Steady Demand, we deal with a metric ton of spam on a monthly basis – spanning a ton of categories and covering almost every major city in the USA. On average, we see about a 96% success rate in spam removal, so I guess you could say we know a thing or two about the use of this form…

What is the Google My Business Redressal Form?

First, let’s cover a little history about the Redressal Form. In February 2019, the Google My Business Redressal Form was launched as a way to replace the spam reporting area of the GMB community forum. There were various reasons for this, but one of the most important was to create a scalable way of allowing users to report harmful or fraudulent listings directly to Google (versus only having the option to suggest an edit). 

How has the Redressal Form evolved?

In January of 2020, the form was updated to be a little more specific about what you should not submit. Specifically, Google added this language: 

If your complaint is not related to fraudulent activity on the name, phone number, or URL of the business, we will not be able to review your complaint. Please use these steps to report problems for all other Google Maps features. If you simply need to correct an incorrect business name, phone number, or URL, do not use this form. Use these steps to correct the information instead.

Fast forward to today: as of May 1st, 2020, the Google My Business Product Expert group was informed that you could use the Redressal for title spam, but to please use ‘Suggest an edit’ first on the GMB listing itself beforehand. 

GMB PSA: You can now submit Name Spam on the redressal form! (The text has not been updated, but you can) — Please Suggest and Edit first.https://t.co/57ESPvOI8R#localseo pic.twitter.com/ns2TWqT4T3

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 1, 2020

What’s the difference between the Redressal Form and suggesting an edit?

An important distinction that most are not aware of is that ‘Suggest an edit’ (see screenshot below) is, for the most part, an automated, machine learning mechanism to teach Google what users feel should be removed from Google Maps. 

The Redressal Form, on the other hand, ends up directly in a human being’s hands. Yes, that’s right — usually, the Redressal Form submissions are reviewed by a spam team at Google. 

That’s why you’ll see on the form itself that Google suggests uploading a spreadsheet if you’re reporting more than 10 listings at a time. Since a human is going to evaluate the submission, it is easier for them to handle bulk submissions this way. 

I must also add that if you are submitting images as proof in the file upload option (pictured above), and wonder why you are not getting any good results, it is because you are not supposed to upload images here. If you want to share images as evidence, I’ll explain how to do that successfully later on.

Once spam has been evaluated (for better or worse) the data is then recorded and the machine learns from the input. This can lead to micro-changes in the listing environment where the algorithm sees patterns emerge and then small proactive incremental updates are pushed out to a broader set of listings.

And by the way, we should be thankful that this is how it operates. Remember June of 2019 — right when the Wall Street Journal article came out about spam? Well, a massive spam sweep occurred and lots of valid listings were suspended in the process. Small incremental changes are much better than reactive sweeps!

So, even though you are only submitting a small batch of listings, the impact these edits can have down the line is much greater than you might imagine. 100 listings submitted could lead to 1,000 being removed — I see this happen all the time. If we do large batch submissions in a certain vertical and in a specific market for a few months in a row, we’ll then notice the overall spam in that area decreases dramatically.

There are some real listings that get swept up in some cases, but those cases are usually pretty small. (Word to the wise: if you are doing massive cleanups in markets, make sure your clients are prepared for a suspension — it can happen, but then you can get them right back online).

How should I fill out the Redressal Form to get the best results possible?

Whether you are submitting the Redressal Form for one or for multiple businesses, it really does not change what information should be included. So here is how I suggest filling it out:

Name: Either your name or the email account’s name that you are signed in with.

Email: Again, either your email or the one you are submitting with. (This is where your caseID will be delivered to).

Name of Entity: I always put “NA” for one listing or “Multiple” if submitting more than one. 

Content-type: Title (aka name spam), Address (virtual offices, UPS stores, or using another business’s location), Phone Number (for listings that are lead gen schemes, since they usually use the same number), or Website (again, this is usually for lead gen or malware types of sites). For a look into the different types of spam on GMB, take a look at Sterling Sky’s guide.

Public URL: This is the Google Maps URL for each listing that you are reporting. If you’re reporting more than 10, then submit one in this field and upload a spreadsheet for the rest. I always choose to submit the CID (otherwise known as the Ludocid) of a listing, as well. There are a handful of tools you can use to generate a business’s CID, including BrightLocal’s Review Link & Place ID Generator, or a Chrome extension from Tom Waddington, and one from GatherUp. Either way, the link ends up looking like this: https://www.Google.com/maps?cid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The last step (pictured above) is very important. This is where you are pleading your case. This is where you are explaining the impact that the submitted listing(s) are having on other merchants and consumers. This is not the place to cry about how it is impacting your rankings or how unfair it is that they are outranking others. It is about the real-world implications of fraudulent or misleading information. 

If you are submitting one Maps listing, then this is where you provide all your evidence. If you submit multiple listings, then this is a summary of what is in the attached spreadsheet. 

One thing to point out here is that it’s worth clustering submissions into different groups. So, submit all title spam as one submission, address spam as another submission, and so on. This takes more work but will increase your chances of succeeding.

Another mistake I often see is that people think Google cares about your screenshots. Well, they do… but not the way you are probably submitting them. If you are going to include an image as proof, use something like Snagit to make a short URL or upload it to Google Drive. I repeat, do not paste the image directly into an Excel file or Google Sheet. It is unreadable and a waste of your time.

Speaking of spreadsheets, for all you professional spam hunters, make sure you include the name, address, Maps URL, phone, and any other proof you are using to make a case in your sheet.

Some other useful things you can provide include:

Government sources like the Secretary of State or a licensing site: Include the URL to the source if you cannot show the search query.

Google Streetview:  Share a screenshot if, for instance, the business is operating out of a residential home, or if the address matches a different business.

Link to the location: If the address matches another business, include a link to that location. For example, “This address is actually a Regus virtual office” and then link to Regus.

And finally, do not use 3rd party sites like Facebook or Yelp, (although LinkedIn can work sometimes).

What happens after I submit the Google My Business Redressal Form?

The first thing that happens once you submit the Redressal Form is that you will get an email. It will look something like what you see below. The number in the subject is your caseID, but other than that it is pretty useless. You cannot reply to it, or follow up on it. Since you do not own the listings in question, Google will not communicate about them with you. 

At this point, most spam I see is actioned in a two-week timeframe. Smaller batches are actioned sometime in the same week. If you are submitting upward of 50 listings, expect the timeframe to be more like 3+ weeks. 

At this point, it is a black box, you wait… and wait… and click links… and wait…

At Steady Demand, we actually built a system that checks all submitted links (yay, no more clicking!) for removal from Google and keeps track of the success or failure of spam reporting. If this is something that interests you, feel free to connect with me.

What do I do if I’m not successful?

Well, the first thing to do is give it some time. Then, check all your facts — did you miss something? Sometimes, there are small clues that prove a listing is actually real. Or, maybe you just did not provide a crucial piece of evidence.

Personally, I have even gone as far as to hire a private investigator or, where legal, record conversations with a building owner asking if a company is leasing space or not. 

If you must submit the form again, then do so, but remember that a human being is looking at your submission and they keep a database of evaluated spam.

Finally, I know you feel it is Google’s job to do all of this work, and yup, it is infuriating that some spam gets ignored. But remember, it is Google’s platform, and they are bound by their own rules and they strive to seek a balance between you, the merchant, and the consumer. It is not perfect, it is also not worth getting upset about.

Use the tools you have at your disposal and even that playing field!

The post How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/617947593194061824

[scpie]

How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field

For many SMBs, and even local SEO Companys, the Google My Business Redressal Form is a thing of mystery. Here, Platinum Product Expert Ben Fisher shares his top tips for reporting spam through the form and outlines some of the latest updates.

At Steady Demand, we deal with a metric ton of spam on a monthly basis – spanning a ton of categories and covering almost every major city in the USA. On average, we see about a 96% success rate in spam removal, so I guess you could say we know a thing or two about the use of this form…

What is the Google My Business Redressal Form?

First, let’s cover a little history about the Redressal Form. In February 2019, the Google My Business Redressal Form was launched as a way to replace the spam reporting area of the GMB community forum. There were various reasons for this, but one of the most important was to create a scalable way of allowing users to report harmful or fraudulent listings directly to Google (versus only having the option to suggest an edit). 

How has the Redressal Form evolved?

In January of 2020, the form was updated to be a little more specific about what you should not submit. Specifically, Google added this language: 

If your complaint is not related to fraudulent activity on the name, phone number, or URL of the business, we will not be able to review your complaint. Please use these steps to report problems for all other Google Maps features. If you simply need to correct an incorrect business name, phone number, or URL, do not use this form. Use these steps to correct the information instead.

Fast forward to today: as of May 1st, 2020, the Google My Business Product Expert group was informed that you could use the Redressal for title spam, but to please use ‘Suggest an edit’ first on the GMB listing itself beforehand. 

GMB PSA: You can now submit Name Spam on the redressal form! (The text has not been updated, but you can) — Please Suggest and Edit first.https://t.co/57ESPvOI8R#localseo pic.twitter.com/ns2TWqT4T3

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 1, 2020

What’s the difference between the Redressal Form and suggesting an edit?

An important distinction that most are not aware of is that ‘Suggest an edit’ (see screenshot below) is, for the most part, an automated, machine learning mechanism to teach Google what users feel should be removed from Google Maps. 

The Redressal Form, on the other hand, ends up directly in a human being’s hands. Yes, that’s right — usually, the Redressal Form submissions are reviewed by a spam team at Google. 

That’s why you’ll see on the form itself that Google suggests uploading a spreadsheet if you’re reporting more than 10 listings at a time. Since a human is going to evaluate the submission, it is easier for them to handle bulk submissions this way. 

I must also add that if you are submitting images as proof in the file upload option (pictured above), and wonder why you are not getting any good results, it is because you are not supposed to upload images here. If you want to share images as evidence, I’ll explain how to do that successfully later on.

Once spam has been evaluated (for better or worse) the data is then recorded and the machine learns from the input. This can lead to micro-changes in the listing environment where the algorithm sees patterns emerge and then small proactive incremental updates are pushed out to a broader set of listings.

And by the way, we should be thankful that this is how it operates. Remember June of 2019 — right when the Wall Street Journal article came out about spam? Well, a massive spam sweep occurred and lots of valid listings were suspended in the process. Small incremental changes are much better than reactive sweeps!

So, even though you are only submitting a small batch of listings, the impact these edits can have down the line is much greater than you might imagine. 100 listings submitted could lead to 1,000 being removed — I see this happen all the time. If we do large batch submissions in a certain vertical and in a specific market for a few months in a row, we’ll then notice the overall spam in that area decreases dramatically.

There are some real listings that get swept up in some cases, but those cases are usually pretty small. (Word to the wise: if you are doing massive cleanups in markets, make sure your clients are prepared for a suspension — it can happen, but then you can get them right back online).

How should I fill out the Redressal Form to get the best results possible?

Whether you are submitting the Redressal Form for one or for multiple businesses, it really does not change what information should be included. So here is how I suggest filling it out:

Name: Either your name or the email account’s name that you are signed in with.

Email: Again, either your email or the one you are submitting with. (This is where your caseID will be delivered to).

Name of Entity: I always put “NA” for one listing or “Multiple” if submitting more than one. 

Content-type: Title (aka name spam), Address (virtual offices, UPS stores, or using another business’s location), Phone Number (for listings that are lead gen schemes, since they usually use the same number), or Website (again, this is usually for lead gen or malware types of sites). For a look into the different types of spam on GMB, take a look at Sterling Sky’s guide.

Public URL: This is the Google Maps URL for each listing that you are reporting. If you’re reporting more than 10, then submit one in this field and upload a spreadsheet for the rest. I always choose to submit the CID (otherwise known as the Ludocid) of a listing, as well. There are a handful of tools you can use to generate a business’s CID, including BrightLocal’s Review Link & Place ID Generator, or a Chrome extension from Tom Waddington, and one from GatherUp. Either way, the link ends up looking like this: https://www.Google.com/maps?cid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The last step (pictured above) is very important. This is where you are pleading your case. This is where you are explaining the impact that the submitted listing(s) are having on other merchants and consumers. This is not the place to cry about how it is impacting your rankings or how unfair it is that they are outranking others. It is about the real-world implications of fraudulent or misleading information. 

If you are submitting one Maps listing, then this is where you provide all your evidence. If you submit multiple listings, then this is a summary of what is in the attached spreadsheet. 

One thing to point out here is that it’s worth clustering submissions into different groups. So, submit all title spam as one submission, address spam as another submission, and so on. This takes more work but will increase your chances of succeeding.

Another mistake I often see is that people think Google cares about your screenshots. Well, they do… but not the way you are probably submitting them. If you are going to include an image as proof, use something like Snagit to make a short URL or upload it to Google Drive. I repeat, do not paste the image directly into an Excel file or Google Sheet. It is unreadable and a waste of your time.

Speaking of spreadsheets, for all you professional spam hunters, make sure you include the name, address, Maps URL, phone, and any other proof you are using to make a case in your sheet.

Some other useful things you can provide include:

Government sources like the Secretary of State or a licensing site: Include the URL to the source if you cannot show the search query.

Google Streetview:  Share a screenshot if, for instance, the business is operating out of a residential home, or if the address matches a different business.

Link to the location: If the address matches another business, include a link to that location. For example, “This address is actually a Regus virtual office” and then link to Regus.

And finally, do not use 3rd party sites like Facebook or Yelp, (although LinkedIn can work sometimes).

What happens after I submit the Google My Business Redressal Form?

The first thing that happens once you submit the Redressal Form is that you will get an email. It will look something like what you see below. The number in the subject is your caseID, but other than that it is pretty useless. You cannot reply to it, or follow up on it. Since you do not own the listings in question, Google will not communicate about them with you. 

At this point, most spam I see is actioned in a two-week timeframe. Smaller batches are actioned sometime in the same week. If you are submitting upward of 50 listings, expect the timeframe to be more like 3+ weeks. 

At this point, it is a black box, you wait… and wait… and click links… and wait…

At Steady Demand, we actually built a system that checks all submitted links (yay, no more clicking!) for removal from Google and keeps track of the success or failure of spam reporting. If this is something that interests you, feel free to connect with me.

What do I do if I’m not successful?

Well, the first thing to do is give it some time. Then, check all your facts — did you miss something? Sometimes, there are small clues that prove a listing is actually real. Or, maybe you just did not provide a crucial piece of evidence.

Personally, I have even gone as far as to hire a private investigator or, where legal, record conversations with a building owner asking if a company is leasing space or not. 

If you must submit the form again, then do so, but remember that a human being is looking at your submission and they keep a database of evaluated spam.

Finally, I know you feel it is Google’s job to do all of this work, and yup, it is infuriating that some spam gets ignored. But remember, it is Google’s platform, and they are bound by their own rules and they strive to seek a balance between you, the merchant, and the consumer. It is not perfect, it is also not worth getting upset about.

Use the tools you have at your disposal and even that playing field!

The post How to Use Google’s Spam Redressal Form to Level the Local Playing Field appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field/

[velmaemyers88]

I’m trying to beat Comcast Xfinity’s data cap — even if it kills me

I use a lot of internet. My household typically has one or two dozen connected devices at a time, and I have never taken the time to think about the way each device passively and actively consumes data. But I want to change that … because of Comcast Xfinity’s data cap.

After a brief flirtation with DSL, which was a disaster, I’ve reluctantly returned to the clammy death-like embrace of Comcast’s Xfinity. The service is much faster and slightly more reliable than DSL’s glued-together phone lines, but it also comes with a 1TB data cap. I’m exactly three weeks into having Comcast, and I am 65GB over that limit. When I had Xfinity before, I went over 1TB every month without fail.

Comcast does give customers a grace period of two months where you can go over the limit without having to pay extra. After that, however, I will have to pay $10 for every 50GB extra I use. Or I could pay a flat fee of $50 extra each month for unlimited internet. The benefits of paying the $50 is that I never have to think about my surfing and download habits.

But is avoiding that anxiety worth $600 per year? That’s a cost-of-living wage increase for some people. That’s more than the cost of a console — I’m looking at you, Google Stadia.

I probably should pay more than most people

While I hate Comcast, I don’t feel like I have a foot to stand on when it comes to complaining about data caps. If I use significantly more water than my neighbors, I get charged much more for doing so.

And I’m sure I use significantly more internet than my neighbors.

I work from home and regularly download new games that are 50GB or larger. For gaming, I have my work desktop PD, a media PC, a laptop, an Xbox One X, an Xbox One, a Nintendo Switch, and a PlayStation 4 Pro all connected at the same time.

We also stream a ton of HD video. Sometimes my wife is watching Documentary Now on Netflix upstairs while my daughter is watching SpongeBob Squarepants in the basement.

Even worse than that, T-Mobile’s connection is garbage in my new home. So we have two smartphones connected to the Wi-Fi nearly all the time.

Above: That’s a lot of devices.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

So yeah, that’s a lot of internet.

But the water analogy breaks down because the U.S. regulates it as a public utility. It does not do the same for internet. And unlike most other products and services, I do not really have a choice of ISPs. I have zero other options for equivalent or faster high-speed internet. The DSL service’s fastest option was more than 66% slower than what I have now.

If Comcast had some competition, I doubt I would have to pay $50 for unlimited data.

Can I beat the data cap?

Despite knowing that I probably should pay more than most people, I don’t want to. But I’m not sure I have a choice.

Since getting the notice from Comcast that I’ve gone over my limit, I’ve started investigating my data consumption. Xfinity pretends to make this easier for you, but that’s a load of horseshit. Its X-Fi app claims to give you usage stats for your connected devices — only nothing appears up-to-date. The phone I was using to look at the X-Fi app doesn’t even appear on the connected-devices list. You also have to look at each device individually. I saw no way to sort a list of devices by data usage, which would obviously help a lot. But least one of its stats seems accurate, however, and I’m going to work from that.

Unsurprisingly, my main desktop PC that I work from uses the most data. I downloaded several huge games earlier this month for benchmarking some hardware. X-Fi claims this device accounts for 17% of my daily usage. Honestly, I wish it was higher because then I could just focus my efforts on this PC. But I think I’m going to have to take a more holistic approach.

One of the other big offenders is the Xbox One, which averages out to 12% of daily activity. This is the device my daughter primarily uses to stream video when she’s with me in the basement. We use Prime Video for Tumbleleaf and Daniel Tiger. But I’m wondering if the auto-play is keeping it on long after we’re done watching. I’m also hoping that most of the data is coming from auto-updates for games I already installed.

I’m also worried about streaming on the Nvidia Shield, the media PC that also has Steam and auto-updates running, and our phones.

How to defeat Comcast Xfinity’s data cap

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

Gaming data

Steam doesn’t have an option to turn off auto-updates across the board. As I install new games, I will likely turn this option off. I have limited the time that games can auto update to just one hour in the middle of the night. Kinda makes me wish that Xfinity had something like the old “free texting after 9 p.m.” that only 2000s kids will remember.

I’ve also turned off auto-updates on the Xbox One X, which was just a simple toggle in the “System” options. Same with Epic Games Store. As I open up Origin, Uplay, the Xbox app, GOG, and a million other services over the next few days, I will see if I can do the same for them as well.

It’s going to suck when I want to go play a game and have to wait for an update, but Comcast Xfinity’s data speeds are fast enough that this should rarely take longer than a few minutes. I haven’t played the PlayStation 4 in a while, so I’m just going to set that to turn all the way off instead of going into standby mode.

The Nintendo Switch, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to use a ton of data except for when I’m downloading new games. I’m not gonna worry about that yet.

I’ve also gone into Windows 10 and told it that I have a metered connection. Who knows if that is going to actually do anything. I

Streaming-video data

This is actually much more complicated and frustrating than trying to control my gaming usage. We use Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, YouTube, and probably some others I’m forgetting about. So it’s not like I can just go into a system-level option like with the Xbox and adjust some settings. Each app is different.

What I would like to do is to tell each app to generally play video at 720p — especially for my daughter. She doesn’t need SpongeBob in 1080p. But that isn’t an option in Prime Video, Hulu, or Netflix. What I can do is turn off auto-play. So now, if people leave the room, shows will stop ever just one episode.

Also, I think I might also re-configure my child’s TV time. Instead of watching Hulu or Amazon, I might just have her watch PBS using an over-the-air antenna. I like the other benefits of that as well. Daniel Tiger is on at a certain time, so she will have to eat lunch first and take a nap right after. At the same time, I’m looking into get a DVR for that terrestrial television as well.

For YouTube and Twitch, I’m going to stop using “auto” for quality. Instead, I’m going to set everything to 720p. And if I’m watching in vertical mode or in a window, I may drop down to 480p.

Smartphones and everything else

The last thing I’m doing for now is deleting a ton of apps off of my phone. Android tells me that the the Play Store is my biggest data hog, and I think that’s just about updating apps. I have way too much useless junk on my phone, so I’m going to slim that down. Hopefully it makes a difference.

I also looked at my data usage in Windows 10 and saw that syncing cloud apps like Dropbox and Creative Cloud near the top of the list. As part of setting up my metered connection, I set a bandwidth limit of 170GB per month for this machine. And background data is going to automatically pause when I get within 10 percent of that cap. I might even turn it off altogether.

Is this worth the effort?

If unlimited data was $20 extra per month, I would pay that without even thinking about it. But $50 really hurts. That said, I really do hate worrying about data usage. I’ve only just started doing so, and it’s a major source of anxiety.

I suspect that Comcast knows that most people like me are far too busy to attempt to manage their data. The company knows that we are stretched thin, and it’s charging that $50 because it can. And while I said earlier that I think I should pay more, what about the people who don’t use 1TB of data per month? Why aren’t they saving money?

The answer is because this is not really about metering bandwidth for people. It’s about exploiting an opportunity. It just sucks that opportunity only exists because people are too busy and Comcast doesn’t have any real competition.

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