#and its not only driven a lot of people out of the industry but created burn out for those that stayed

[one-sleepy-dragon]

okay, so, this isn't a dig at @thatgentlewife, who seems like a lovely person overall, but i do want to use her post to dissect something that's been itching at the back of my head for a while now.

it really feels to me like a lot of women have a fundamental misunderstanding of what modern feminism actually entails. i see a lot of (especially) young women online equating feminism with the "girlboss" image, the cutthroat executive climbing the corporate ladder, getting the corner office and earning the big bucks. that was a popular image in the 80's, back when neoliberal capitalism was booming and trying to win the female workforce over by presenting "empowered women" as successful CEO's.

it's also an ideal that modern day feminism has largely tried to distance itself from because it's inherently anti-feminist. the girlboss isn't interested in female solidarity; she isn't interested in bridging the gender gaps across the board or in addressing the problems created by them. the girlboss doesn't care about dismantling a male-dominated system; she only cares about winning at it. girlbosses don't lift anyone up with them; as long as they get to break the glass ceiling, they don't care if no other woman (or minority for that matter) can.

modern-day feminism places so much emphasis on the importance of community as an antidote to the obsessively individualistic age we live in. it encourages women to support and defend one another, to build communities and support networks amongst themselves -- to interact and intersect with other communities, whether that be poc, lgbtq, or the countless men who suffer the consequences of gender gaps as well. it encourages people to treat one another with empathy and understanding, and to integrate as many causes as necessary into their fight, because modern-day feminism is painfully conscious that none of us will be truly free until we are all free.

this is precisely why there's such an emphasis on sustainability as opposed to consumer culture within the feminist movement nowadays. there's a growing awareness to the fact that investing in industries which a) disregard fundamental human rights to meet a quota and b) catastrophically threaten the planet our children and grandchildren will inherit, is inherently anti-feminist. it's a slap in the face to the image of the girlboss driven and measured by material success; many modern-day feminists embrace securing freedom, safety and joy for their communities as the most successful legacy they could aspire to.

so why does the image of the girlboss persist? why do so many young women understand "feminism" to mean "selling your soul to a company and trading in your humanity for a paycheck"? personally -- and i may be wrong here -- i have a feeling that the reason is twofold: one, a consumerist-driven economy only benefits if it can convince as many people as possible that true success lies in how much you can afford to buy; two, a conservative movement that fundamentally relies on keeping women confined to the domestic sphere will go out of its way to make any other alternative seem extremely unappealing.

so, on the one hand, you have an entire advertising industry selling the idea that having and spending as much money as possible is actually empowering, and on the other, you have an entire sociocultural movement capitalizing on the soullessness of such an idea in order to push their own agenda -- in other words, so they can appeal to young women who (very understandably) reject the notion of wasting away behind a desk for the rest of their lives. much like an advertising powerhouse of their own, conservatives are selling the "traditional, stay-at-home wife who gets to spend her days gardening, cooking, cleaning, and devoting her time to her beloved family as God intended" as the ONLY alternative to the lonely, bitter, dehumanized girlboss -- who, by their logic, embodies feminism as a whole.

but this could not be further from the truth. real feminism seeks to broaden women's choices, not limit them. it's why feminism encourages women to enter the workforce -- not because you're a failed woman if you're not a company hotshot -- but because you're so much freer and safer that way. having your own income -- and i cannot stress this enough -- is the safest and most free you will ever be. managing your own finances means you'll have a safety net for whatever comes along, whether that's an unexpected child, an illness, an accident, etc. it means you'll have the capacity to leave an abusive situation instead of staying trapped there. earning your own income is not a measure of success because you're making money -- it's a guarantee of independence no matter what.

and here's the other big secret: earning your own income does not have to mean selling your soul to a company. my aunt, who was a stay-at-home mother during most of her life, has now established herself as a professional potter, because ceramics has always been her passion and, with her children all grown up, she has the time and energy to invest in a career she loves. you do not have to make money at the expense of your humanity or your family -- the whole point is just to be able to have something that's yours, something you own entirely. maybe that's selling baked goods, or teaching sewing workshops every friday, or doing hair and makeup for local bridesmaids on the weekends. if you can afford to survive on a single income, and you have the luxury of having your basic needs taken care of by your husband, then that's all the more reason to seek out a job where making a living wage is not your main concern, where you can establish your own schedule and follow your own passions.

one last thought; i've seen one too many posts for my liking along the lines of "why would you work for a boss who doesn't care about you when you could have a boss that truly loves you." and the thing is, your spouse should never be your boss. you know why? because that immediately invokes a power dynamic that does not belong in the domestic sphere. your boss has power over you because they determine whether you get paid or not. BUT your boss is also legally restricted from establishing any inappropriate relationship with you; they cannot demand anything from you besides what's strictly in your contract -- no sexual favors or intimacies of any kind. and they cannot withold your pay for any reason other than stated in your contract -- in other words, they cannot use their power to deprive you of your means to survive without risking the consequences. you are legally protected from your boss at work.

your spouse, on the other hand? your spouse can exercise their financial power over you with very little consequence. if they manage the household finances -- if the bank account, the house, and/or any other assets are in their name and their name only, then legally, they can do with that money whatever they fucking please. if they want to starve you, they can; if they want to refuse you access to healthcare, they can; if they want to decide how you dress, how you act, the way you cut your hair, what personal items you can and cannot have, they can; if they want to control you, they can. if they eant to withold your basic needs from you until you satisfy their demands, whatever those may be, THEY CAN. and, legally, that's one hell of a mess to try to get out of, because unlike with your boss at work, there's an emotional dimension to your relationship with your spouse, and that always makes everything more complicated. so no, your spouse is not simply "a boss that actually loves you and cares about you." an employer-employee relationship is always strictly professional because when an emotional dimension is introduced to a power dynamic where one person has financial control over another, it becomes inherently unethical and prone to abuse.

to sum up: it saddens me to see so many young women who have been made to believe that feminism is inherently dehumanizing and romanticizing "the grind" as opposed to real human connection, and it scares me for the situations that so many of them might end up in because of that belief.

[fonteyn]

Imagine thinking that the recent "failure" (by Disney standards) of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is because of the addition of "diversity wokeism" (their words, not mine) and a lack of focus from the architects of the MCU (mostly Kevin Feige) on the overarching storyline that binds all movies & shows and not due to the fundamentally unsustainable structure currently in place that attempts to make several gigantic billion dollar movies every year for the last 12 years whilst obviously relying on the exploitation of workers, particularly vfx artists, so much that it's driving people out of the industry, and milking as much money as possible through it all...

Like, sorry to say but: they aren't making movies...they're just rolling another product off the assembly line at this point.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Monsters Reimagined: Bandits

As a game of heroic fantasy that centers so primarily on combat, D&D  is more often than not a game about righteous violence, which is why I spend so much time thinking about the targets of that violence. Every piece of media made by humans is a thing created from conscious or unconscious design, it’s saying something whether or not its creators intended it to do so. 

Tolkien made his characters peaceloving and pastoral, and coded his embodiment of evil as powerhungry, warlike, and industrial. When d&d directly cribbed from Tolkien's work it purposely changed those enemies to be primitive tribespeople who were resentful of the riches the “civilized” races possessed. Was this intentional? None can say, but as a text d&d says something decidedly different than Tolkien. 

That's why today I want to talk about bandits, the historical concept of being an “outlaw”, and how media uses crime to “un-person” certain classes of people in order to give heroes a target to beat up. 

Tldr: despite presenting bandits as a generic threat, most d&d scenarios never go into detail about what causes bandits to exist, merely presuming the existence of outlaws up to no good that the heroes should feel no qualms about slaughtering. If your story is going to stand up to the scrutiny of your players however, you need to be aware of WHY these individuals have been driven to banditry, rather than defaulting to “they broke the law so they deserve what’s coming to them.”

I got to thinking about writing this post when playing a modded version of fallout 4, an npc offhndedly mentioned to me that raiders (the postapoc bandit rebrand) were too lazy to do any farming and it was good that I’d offed them by the dozens so that they wouldn’t make trouble for those that did. 

That gave me pause, fallout takes place in an irradiated wasteland where folks struggle to survive but this mod was specifically about rebuilding infrastructure like farms and ensuring people had enough to get by. Lack of resources to go around was a specific justification for why raiders existed in the first place, but as the setting became more arable the mod-author had to create an excuse why the bandit’s didn’t give up their violent ways and start a nice little coop, settling on them being inherently lazy , dumb, and psychopathic.   

This is exactly how d&d has historically painted most of its “monstrous humanoid” enemies. Because the game is ostensibly about combat the authors need to give you reasons why a peaceful solution is impossible, why the orcs, goblins, gnolls (and yes, bandits), can’t just integrate with the local town or find a nice stretch of wilderness to build their own settlement on and manage in accordance with their needs. They go so far in this justification that they end up (accidently or not) recreating a lot of IRL arguments for persecution and genocide.

Bandits are interesting because much like cultists, it’s a descriptor that’s used to unperson groups of characters who would traditionally be inside the “not ontologically evil” bubble that’s applied to d&d’s protagonists.   Break the law or worship the wrong god says d&d and you’re just as worth killing as the mindless minions of darkness, your only purpose to serve as a target of the protagonist’s righteous violence.  

The way we get around this self-justification pitfall and get back to our cool fantasy action game is to relentlessly question authority, not only inside the game but the authors too. We have to interrogate anyone who'd show us evil and direct our outrage a certain way because if we don't we end up with crusades, pogroms, and Qanon.

With that ethical pill out of the way, I thought I’d dive into a listing of different historical groups that we might call “Bandits” at one time or another and what worldbuilding conceits their existence necessitates. 

Brigands: By and large the most common sort of “bandit” you’re going to see are former soldiers left over from wars, often with a social gap between them and the people they’re raiding that prevents reintegration ( IE: They’re from a foreign land and can’t speak the local tongue, their side lost and now they’re considered outlaws, they’re mercenaries who have been stiffed on their contract).  Justifying why brigands are out brigading is as easy as asking yourself “What were the most recent conflicts in this region and who was fighting them?”. There’s also something to say about how a life of trauma and violence can be hard to leave even after the battle is over, which is why you historically tend to see lots of gangs and paramilitary groups pop up in the wake of conflict. 

Raiders:  fundamentally the thing that has caused cultures to raid eachother since the dawn of time is sacristy. When the threat of starvation looms it’s far easier to justify potentially throwing your life away if it means securing enough food to last you and those close to you through the next year/season/day. Raider cultures develop in biomes that don’t support steady agriculture, or in times where famine, war, climate change, or disease make the harvests unreliable. They tend to target neighboring cultures that DO have reliable harvests which is why you frequently see raiders emerging from “the barbaric frontier” to raid “civilization” that just so happens to occupy the space of a reliably fertile river valley. When thinking about including raiders in your story, consider what environmental forces have caused this most recent and previous raids, as well as consider how frequent raiding has shaped the targeted society. Frequent attacks by raiders is how we get walled palaces and warrior classes after all, so this shit is important. 

Slavers: Just like raiding, most cultures have engaged in slavery at one point or another, which is a matter I get into here. While raiders taking captives is not uncommon, actively attacking people for slaves is something that starts occurring once you have a built up slave market, necessitating the existence of at least one or more hierarchical societies that need more disposable workers than then their lower class is capable of providing. The roman legion and its constant campaigns was the apparatus by which the imperium fed its insatiable need for cheap slave labor. Subsistence raiders generally don’t take slaves en masse unless they know somewhere to sell them, because if you’re having trouble feeding your own people you’re not going to capture more ( this is what d&d gets wrong about monstrous humanoids most of the time). 

Tax Farmers: special mention to this underused classic, where gangs of toughs would bid to see who could collect money for government officials, and then proceed to ransack the realm looking to squeeze as much money out of the people as possible. This tends to happen in areas where the state apparatus is stretched too thin or is too lighthanded to have established enduring means of funding.  Tax farmers are a great one-two punch for campaigns where you want your party to be set up against a corrupt authority: our heroes defeat the marauding bandits and then oh-no, turns out they were not only sanctioned by the government but backed by an influential political figure who you’ve just punched in the coinpurse.  If tax farming exists it means the government is strong enough to need a yearly budget but not so established (at least in the local region) that it’s developed a reliably peaceful method of maintaining it.  

Robber Baron: Though the term is now synonymous with ruthless industrialists, it originated from the practice of shortmidned petty gentry (barons and knights and counts and the like) going out to extort and even rob THEIR OWN LANDS out of a desire for personal enrichment/boredom. Schemes can range from using their troops to shake down those who pass through their domain to outright murdering their own peasants for sport because you haven’t gotten to fight in a war for a while.  Just as any greed or violence minded noble can be a robber baron so it doesn’t take that much of a storytelling leap but I encourage you to channel all your landlord hate into this one. 

Rebels: More than just simple outlaws, rebels have a particular cause they’re a part of (just or otherwise) that puts them at odds with the reigning authority. They could violently support a disfavoured political faction, be acting out against a law they think is unjust, or hoping to break away from the authority entirely. Though attacks against those figures of authority are to be expected, it’s all too common for rebels to go onto praying on common folk for the sake of the cause.  To make a group of rebels worth having in your campaign pinpoint an issue that two groups of people with their own distinct interests could disagree on, and then ratchet up the tension. Rebels have to be able to beleive in a cause, so they have to have an argument that supports them.

Remnants: Like a hybrid of brigands, rebels, and taxfarmers, Remnants represent a previously legitimate system of authority that has since been replaced but not yet fully disappeared. This can happen either because the local authority has been replaced by something new (feudal nobles left out after a monarchy toppling revolution) or because it has faded entirely ( Colonial forces of an empire left to their own devices after the empire collapses). Remnants often sat at the top of social structures that had endured for generations and so still hold onto the ghost of power ( and the violence it can command) and the traditions that support it.  Think about big changes that have happened in your world of late, are the remnants looking to overturn it? Win new privilege for themselves? Go overlooked by their new overlords?

Art

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: KinnPorsche, and Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist Edition (Part 2)

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I conclude a two-part series on my thoughts on KinnPorsche, my very first Thai BL, and the impact that I think KP has had on the Thai BL industry since 2022.]

Top of the morning (or whatever time zone you're in) to ya! Yesterday, I ruminated on KinnPorsche's foundation in regards to how the show wasn't as innovative as newbie members of the Thai BL fandom, like myself, may have thought in 2022 -- but was rather a great example of a show that derivatively used a lot of excellent past Thai BL influences in order to make a newly stylized show that I think, for the most part, worked well.

Harkening back to the outline for these two pieces that I laid out yesterday, this post will concentrate on:

3) How I think KP has impacted how other studios approach, market, and write Thai BLs now, and 4) A quick passing thought on BOC's own continued influence on the Thai BL genre and industry since 2022, particularly by way of Dead Friend Forever.

Before I get fully into point 3, I wanted to take a second to offer one more thought on an element about the KinnPorsche series itself that I didn't unwind on much yesterday, and one that'll connect with point 3 in a second. I mentioned yesterday that I personally (in my own opinion, I am accountable here) don't think that some of the VegasPete elements of the show helped the show's flow and continuity at all times. After my rewatch, I think the show could have stood for more episode editing to better its flow. I very much know how beloved VegasPete are in much of the KP fandom (thanks so much to dear friend @wen-kexing-apologist for the conversations about this during my rewatch!), so I don't want to pooh-pooh very hard, because at the same time, I think Bible as an actor was valuable to the show regarding Vegas's interactions with Porsche -- that side storyline offered intrigue and depth particularly into Porsche's mindset at the end of the series. At the same time, I think the VegasPete scenes contained enough questionable takes on trauma and attraction that I think now contribute to the show's legend and status as a uniquely heaty drama, but (in my opinion, people, I own this!), I think some of those takes could have been removed, smoothed, or tamped down for editing's sake, vis à vis those questionable takes in particular.

Taking VegasPete's trauma-and-kink-driven storyline, and KinnPorsche's romps and unravellings, into consideration, along with the show's excellent use of comedy as a plot driver: I think that KinnPorsche has clearly had an impact on how subsequent "heat" BL dramas have been created and marketed since KP's run. I'm thinking in particularly of some big ones (heh heh), including 2023's Only Friends, and 2023-24's Playboyy (which I did not finish, FYI).

Heat -- and the increasing use and management of it -- has long been an important element of the Thai BL industry. Like I said yesterday, MaxTul (my beloved) were pioneers of it in Together With Me and Manner of Death, and MAME consecrated episodic heat in 2019's TharnType, and even introduced enough of it notably in 2018's Love By Chance by way of those awesome spicy AePete scenes. And the WONDERFUL Lovely Writer offered meta commentary about the dependence that the Thai BL/Series Y industry has on heat in order to drive in fans, oftentimes to the detriment of more interesting and/or fulfilling and/or emotionally complicated plots.

KinnPorsche's lengthy marketing, from its Filmania days in 2020 and 2021, to its eventual 2022 premiere through Be On Cloud, certainly helped to drive interest and intrigue in the show, from the debut pairing of MileApo, to the clear use of heat that the show was promising before its airing. (Red Peafowl could never.)

Looking at the moment we are in right now -- early spring of 2024, with the ability to look back on the conclusions of both Only Friends and Playboyy -- I see the influence that KinnPorsche had on these shows being HUGELY marketed as cutting-edge-entrées to a high-heat and high-interest slice of Thai BL, particularly for Only Friends, which was GMMTV's own first step into really high-heat territory.

Both of the shows ended in meh territory (and both shows were written by the same writer in Den Panuwat, who may very well have a monogamy kink). Both shows ended up putting pure monogamy on a pedestal, and seemed to judge extra-monogamous sex as a "mistake" that was worth rectifying through "true," i.e., monogamous, love.

I posit, and I'm glad, that KinnPorsche did NOT go this route. Extracurricular sex wasn't even in the show's genes anyway, but -- the heat that KP marketed at the time of its premiere was solely associated with the centralized romances of the two main pairings. KinnPorsche didn't have to get extra-monogamously messy in its bones (huh huh) in order to be hot -- and it makes me curious to wonder why shows like Only Friends and Playboyy felt the need to promote relational messiness as a way to hype up their heat, all of which kinda putzed out in the end run of both of those shows.

Of course, we've still had heat in many other shows since KP's premiere, including in directions that roundly surprised the larger fandom, such as Pit Babe's take on omegaverse, and maybe even the vets Earth and Mix getting hot and heavy in Moonlight Chicken, a direction that Aof Noppharnach has been known to not take for the sake of keeping the ratings on his shows kid-friendly. But I do find it interesting that the heavy promotion of Only Friends and Playboyy led the fandom to think that these shows were going to have progressive takes on sex and sexuality, when they ultimately did not (I'd even argue that both of these shows ended up being judgemental of sexual experimentation). And while I don't think KinnPorsche's takes on heat were necessarily progressive, I do think the marketing of their actors getting into that, particularly as compared to Apo's previous career path in leaving acting for a while, was notable -- and as well, the care that the show took to depict heat scenes with excellent cinematography makes many of those scenes so memorable today.

I want to make one final note about KinnPorsche's and Be On Cloud's general influence on the Thai BL industry, in that I'm impressed by their investment in generally good-to-great writing and directing. As I overviewed yesterday, KinnPorsche heavily featured veterans from across the BL landscape, and Be On Cloud's latest serial offering, Dead Friend Forever, continued that trajectory, having an OG BL director in Ma-Deaw Chookiat partly take the helm of that show. Very importantly, Ma-Deaw Chookiat has been the screenwriter and director of a number of seminal Thai queer films and shows, including 2019's Dew, and more impactfully, 2007's The Love of Siam, which is considered a harbinger of the television Thai BL industry, and a film that has notably influenced important Thai BL creators, especially New Siwaj, who doesn't hesitate to include references to LoS in many of his shows, including Until We Meet Again, My Only 12%, and more. Chookiat has also screenwritten and/or directed three shows written by the notable Thai Y novelist, Sammon, in DFF, Manner of Death, and Triage. Sammon has been on a tear recently, as she will be the screenwriter for BOC's upcoming drama, 4 Minutes, as well as Spare Me Your Mercy, the hugely anticipated BL drama starring Tor Thanapob and singer Jaylerr.

Going back to my thoughts earlier about big marketing of big BLs: we've seen some duds recently from shows that were marketed at a big tip, from OF, to Playboyy, to Idol Factory's The Sign. From what I've gathered from the Tumblr tag regarding The Sign -- it seems that show suffered mostly from a lack of editorial context and plot sensibility and tightness, and that there could have been a good show, if the show had spent less money on CGI, and more money on the script.

Be On Cloud seems to mostly be putting its money where its pen is. I say "mostly" as a caveat. Was the ending of DFF fantastic? No, and I totally admit as much: while the show mostly stuck to its slasher genre conventions (thank you so much to @lurkingshan, my genre guru, for explaining this to me), the show seemed to poop out in the end by giving us a PheeJin BL ship, instead of Phee's and Jin's gruesome deaths. Womp womp. The pull of BL, and the need for clean-ish endings for the fujoshi crowd, may still be too economically enticing for studios, including Be On Cloud itself.

But I'm optimistic for BOC's upcoming shows, with the talent and money they're putting into scripts and directing. And we know that BOC's first film, the non-queer Man Suang, was an important artistic point for the studio as it continues its investment in MileApo and experimental content to market within and outside of Thailand. It was important enough that Dead Friend Forever, emanating from the Thai BL world, took on an entirely different genre instead, and literally presented that back to BL fans on a silver platter. I hope 4 Minutes can tread similar experimental territory. And I'm glad to see Be On Cloud being able to invest in high-quality writing and directing after the publicly major obstacles the studio experienced last year during the Build Jakapan scandal.

From the time I discovered Thai BLs in 2022, to now: I would not have expected KinnPorsche and Be On Cloud to start such a journey in my personal drama fan life. As well, considering how many damn shows I've now watched from Thailand, I also didn't expect this rewatch of KinnPorsche to be so much fun. AND, I truly didn't realize I had this much to say about it -- but there was a lot of say, especially by way of how referential the original KinnPorsche series was, which touched my little nerdy BL heart.

With that, I say ta-ta to my entrée to this fun world of Thai BLs, and move on to the next one!

[OKAY! We are kind of back of the grind, although my ability to watch dramas has really been hampered by real life obligations and schedules. BUT: I'm trucking along through War of Y, and I have some fun rewatches coming up in The Eclipse (my first-ever GMMTV BL), as well as two new-to-me dramas in GAP (the first GL on the list, WOO!) and My School President, which I can't wait for.

I've made a few tiddly adjustments to the list below, including adding Dead Friend Forever as an important addition, and I'm deep in my giggles with 23.5, which I am LOVING. ONWARDS! For more details about the ongoing list, please checkity-check here!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: preamble here, part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) (review here) 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here)  36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist (part 1 here)

...interrupting the OGMMTVC list here to watch War of Y (2022) (watching) in chronology to decide if it gets listed...

37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine “Genre BLs” and Internalized/Externalized Homophobia in GMMTV Shows  39) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 40) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 41) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 42) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 43 La Pluie (2023) (review coming) 44) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 45) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 46) Only Friends (2023) (tag here) (not technically a BL, but it certainly became one in the end) 47) Last Twilight (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as Thailand’s first major BL to center disability, successfully or otherwise) 48) Cherry Magic Thailand (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as the first major Japanese-to-Thai drama adaptation, featuring the comeback of TayNew) 49) Ossan’s Love Returns (2024) (adding for the EarthMix cameo and the eventual Thai remake) 50) Dead Friend Forever (2024) (thoughts here) 51) 23.5 (2024)]

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Alright, some context before I ask theis, because I don't want to misrepresent myself even by implication:

I am extremely economically right-wing. I am also pro-incarceration for quite a few crimes. I am generally not on the "democracy" side of the democracy to non-democracy scale. I think it would be okay if prisons were run hereditarily, if the position of Warden were generally given to the second or third son of a local Earl.

THAT BEING SAID:

There's no contradiction between prisons being a net cost to the taxpayer, and the demand for prisons being heavily driven by people who profit from them, that sort of thing happens all the time! The USA is rife with crony capitalism. It's not at all uncommon for something that is overall unprofitable to be promoted because it benefits a small group of wealthy and influential figures who can lean on politicians and media companies. Look at the defence industry. Look at protectionist tariffs. Look at corn syrup.

It's absolutely possible that if nobody were profiting from, for example, prison phone calls, or those prison dramas on American television like "OZ" or "Orange Is The New Black" (which make huge amounts of money, and are perceived as "realistic" or "gritty" because prisons exist) that there would be less incarceration.

Advertising, mass media, and campaign donations are not minor influences.

BTW, what's this about natural gas in Gaza?

there is absolutely a lot of crony capitalism going on in the us prison system, and this certainly creates some vested interest in engorging the prison population. but, like i said, it just cannot plausibly do all the heavy explanatory lifting ppl claim for it wrt the extent of us mass incarceration

its surprisingly hard to find much aggregated info on campaign finance and advertising in local judicial elections, but it kinda defies belief that they are the object of a vast industrial conspiracy to promote mass incarceration and that this more or less explains entirely why the us has so many of its ppl locked up. if it were so, one would to begin with expect the conspiracy to regularly promote judges to office with a consistent pro-imprisonment bent, rather than for sentencing severity to cycle with elections. indeed, it would be a hell of a lot more efficient to make sure these judgeships were all appointed, so the System could install them directly without the mediation of routine popularity contests. this doesnt look like the machinations of a crony capitalist cabal hand in hand with the state, it looks like individual mostly local elected bureaucrats pandering to a base that wants revenge all on its own

i probably am risking giving the impression i think judicial elections are the be all and end all of the crisis of mass incarceration in the united states. obviously thats not the case; states like cali with only limited electoral accountability for judges are hardly all bastions of freedom, and ofc this ignores legislative interventions like mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing laws. but it is useful as a way to point out the limitations of "just follow the money!"s explanatory power

"israel/us are bombing gaza for natural gas" was a silly theory being propagated on social media among some leftists

[butmakeitgayblog]

Whatever, the only writers I Care about are my lovely Clexa ficwriters❤️

I say this with all the kindness toward you in the world, but I do not like this at all. At all.

Not to be holier than thou but you should care. I mean they are human beings who are just asking to be paid a reasonable amount for their work. And tbh I'm not sure if a lot of people outside the US (even in the US and just aren't directly effected by it) understand exactly what's going on here. The truth is we're being driven to a fucking breaking point. The cost of everything, EVERYTHING, is going up all the time and we're not being paid enough to match it. These fat cat corporations and greedy fucking billionaires are quite literally making it so people can't afford food and rent. This strike, while its been a long time coming, is just a very visible and tangible example of something that's wrong across the board. These people are driving force behind a global money making industry and they even aren't getting paid enough for their work to live and eat. And that's the same work which we fanfic writers then use as inspiration to write our own fics for free in between working and struggling ourselves.

They'd not asking to become millionaires, they're just asking to be paid even remotely fairly. And they're being told no because a handful of people who are already richer than you or I will ever be say they simply can't afford it. Bullshit. It's all bullshit. It's just another excuse to keep workers impoverished and a slave to their job. It's yet another example of this country's elite taking advantage of the working persons labor.

And this is just a sidenote not even directly aimed at you anon, so don't take it personally because it's not, but I kindly want to nudge people to really evaluate the assumption that if this turns ugly and drags on forever and all tv and movies turn to shit, that they'll be able to just turn to fanfic. The problem there is every day more and more fanfic writers and artists stop creating because of how little support they get. I'm lucky because so many of you guys interact with me and I love it, I do and that's what keeps me going. But I'm also not blind to the fact that on a long ask/answer post I made, the accidental poll attached has 30+ votes, but only about 20 notes and not even 5 reblogs. Fanfic writers get burned out too. Especially when it feels like they're pumping out work and getting barely anything in return. Smaller creators especially, but even with bigger accounts there's only so much they can do.

So please, support those writers that are striking. Support your fanfic writers who use their work as a building block. Support your artists who take these concepts and then turn them into masterpieces. Because all of them are just people trying do what they love while still being able to feel valued for their time.

[glasshalftrue]

as both an artist and a programmer (though not one working in machine learning so i won't claim anything close to expertise), the anti-ai takes i see from artists are really frustrating to me. the two most common criticisms i see about it are that it's 1. stealing 2. not art regarding the first point, it's clear that most artists don't understand the general technology behind it at all. they constantly claim that it does stuff like just collage different parts of images together, when that's very much not what it's doing! the process that neural nets use is incredibly complex and it's much more about pattern matching than storing and replicating exact sets of pixels. i definitely don't like it when ai artists specifically target an artist who voices their discomfort with having their art being used that way, if only because it's simply mean and rude, but unfortunately, i can't say that i'd consider it plagiarism. and for the people who want stronger copyright laws to protect artists' rights: believe me, it will not at all be helpful to "the little guy" like you think it will. regarding the second point, it seems like there's a couple things going on. one part of the critique seems to come from the quality of the art itself, which is an obviously losing battle. remember a year ago, when people were making fun of how bad ai was at generating hands? they seem to have pretty much solved that now, and whatever little nitpick you might be able to point out next, it's almost certain they'll eventually figure out that one too. i see a lot of tips floating around about how to tell if a piece of art is ai-generated, and while the tips usually do work well, the fact that the people need to use these increasingly specialized perceptive skills makes it pretty clear that it's becoming more and more indistinguishable. i've seen plenty of cases at this point of real artists having their work being accused of being ai-generated, which to me seems like the logical conclusion of people's assumptions that they can always tell when something is real or not, and i think it's only going to get worse and worse. the other part of the critique is about the artist's intent, an appeal to some illusory idea of "the soul", which seem like transparently bad arguments to me, and are clearly motivated from an emotional-driven place. because it seems so obvious to me that prompters do, in fact, have an intent when they're generating ai art, some sort of vision of what they want to create. it doesn't matter that their idea is vaguely defined rather than fully-formed in their head; plenty of existing art forms involve a creation process that is similarly stochastic, from Jackson Pollock-style drip paintings to experimental generative digital music. hell, even when i draw i often don't know exactly what i want to the end product to look like and figure it out as i go along! now, the incredibly low-barrier to entry and the general motivations and sensibilities of a lot of typical ai art enthusiasts mean that, in practice, a lot of (maybe most) ai art is indeed dumb garbage. but just like how the reality that most mainstream superhero movies these days are boring and soulless doesn't mean that the superhero genre is inherently without merit, the existence of bad ai art isn't good evidence of the medium itself being creatively bankrupt.

ultimately, i do agree and sympathize with a lot of artists' concerns and criticisms about ai art and what its possible effects on the world will be. like i said, in practice a lot of ai art really is soulless trash, but the ease of creation means that i can very easily see a world where most of the art we see today in our everyday lives is replaced with bland, insipid ai generated shit that is just good enough for the general public, and i really don't want to live in that world. and for that same reason, it'll also likely have a very bad impact on the art industry and people's abilities to do art as a career, and while the disruption of industries due to technological innovation is a tale as old as time, the potentially rapid pace of this disruption will certainly lead to a lot of suffering along the way. i just wish that artists had a better idea of what they're actually fighting against.

[brainjuicey]

guys I'm going to speculate about personal wealth as the only viable option to achieve a quality of life in modern ireland because of a systemic failure of the gov.

the cultural and social climate in Ireland is incredibly isolated and mainly survives on the community driven status quo, and part of that means talking to anyone on the street about anything. its taboo to hold a prejudice against men (you'll find no sympathy or self awareness in the good hearty country people for the actions of others because they're so convinced of their own Catholic virtue) I like that their belief and strength comes from a place of goodness but at the same time 😀 as a young person there's no space for change (I want to posit the growing perceived idea that most change in Ireland is bad, in the last 40 years the country has changed dramatically in every way)

as governmental policy, regulations and aspirations were influenced by western advancement, the approach to urban planning and management has gotten bloated and useless. rapidly, life in Ireland changed, often reflecting the cultural urban centres of the UK. the ideology behind that choice is found in every corner of the irish design industry "new is good, old is bad," and the only use for old world customs and traditions is tourism. Ireland is fundamentally about living a simple life and while those wealthy enough to access the resources can do that (education, comfort, fine commodities), everyone in between rural country life and "high society" (the majority of the population) has been left in limbo. for young people it can seem like the only choice is to become a wealthy Dubliner, go abroad, or stay home and work in a shop or pub. there's no shame in any of these. again, people have been trying for decades to create alternative routes that ultimately submit to the same rules and guidelines. any chance at true enjoyment of social security and standing must be enjoyed alone. the gov plays no part in the organisation or support of communities. people are disillusioned with police for inactivity and unfairness. the gov is like an absentee parental figure, building massive housing estates with no engagement or organisation of most often- large groups of vulnerable people with children who grow up idle and angry. housing for upper class people are no different, devoid of organised thought and a poor mimicry of the enjoyment of Irish homes- the peace of isolation. instead they are hostile.

i think the anti-social sentiment of citizens disillusioned with Irish life (quite a lot of people) comes from a disappointment and anger towards a longstanding neglect of responsibilities of the Irish government. anyone should be able to contact their representative and do what they want, be it fireworks or a driveway or a solarfarm or a playground or parking spaces or turning an empty building into something new.

I reject the free markets ability to come into a decrepit area that people suffer for, homes uninhabitable in the town centre, footpaths unusable and unsafe, and take advantage of the market to create a luxury-amenities business.

while being bi-partisan to any prejudice or resentment is a prize quality in old Irish culture, modern Ireland is riddled with resentment. an economically diverse society openly mirroring a hierarchy is a relic of medieval times— a historical period still present in the Irish cultural mindset. in this way, the urge to be all the same is a negative hindrance on improving quality of life. the answer isn't personal wealth, or thinking you've found the solution (a cushy lifestyle that you've carved out for yourself, half in half out of society when it suits you). progress has to be momentous enough to encompass everyone in the community, a socio-cultural-economic boom of energy that inspires people enough to embrace their traditions actively and not abandon them as a sacrifice to achieving a "better" life.

[civilizednations]

How Progressive Lifestyle Trends Are Changing the Fashion Industry

There have been many changes in the fashion industry in these years due to progressive lifestyle fashion. There is a growing demand for clothing that would not only look good but would also resonate with values associated with sustainability, inclusivity, and social conscience. These progressive trends have been changing the way consumers see fashion and how brands even behave.

Emergence of Purpose-Driven Fashion

One of the greatest enablers of these changes is purpose-driven fashion. The new generation of consumers now seems to be attracted to brands that adopt ethical practices and strengthen social or environmental causes. They are expected to engage in waste reduction, sustainable sourcing, cheap labor practices, etc. Hence, it becomes a good practice for purpose-driven fashion brands to align themselves with the values of the audience they serve in order to build trust and loyalty.

Impact of Positive Mind Attitude Clothes

Positive mindset apparel clothing is the other arm of the Progressive Fashion movement. The weight of these brands is more on clothing, which bears up the inspiring messages as well as looking modish. Apparel with uplifting quotes or affirmations promotes mental wellness, helping customers embrace a positive outlook toward life. This trend encourages wearing attitudes that are supportive of personal growth, self-love, and mindfulness.

The Evolution of Inclusive and Sustainable Values in Fashion

Modern fashion has, therefore, focused on and encouraged integrity and inclusivity. Some centuries before, many domains of fashion are identified with exclusion along with body type, gender, and race. Today, there are collections featuring everything from diverse geographical, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds through size and shape. That is, clothes producers are showing a propensity towards being environment friendly just as they are pursuing social inclusiveness. More and more brands are promoting their own eco-materials, ethical production methods, and recycling programs.

Consumer Dynamics

Consumers are at the center of this whole transformation. A lot of the new ethical trend comes from conscious consumerism: people are now careful about which brand they build an affinity with and often want to pay closer attention to the origin of the clothing they buy or everyone who had anything to do with an item while almost always wanting to find out how that item affects the world, wanting information more than just a label. It is mostly through social media, where this kind of information is disseminated and popularized-fueled by celebrities and social advocates of green and inclusive brands.

The Emerging Scope of Fashion

In fact, it is believed that progressive lifestyle fashion will continue its ascent as more brands add social responsibility to their lists of operational ethos. Indeed, one might have thought that looking ahead, the future of fashion would witness some more leaps toward sustainable materials, ethical fabrications, and contributions to communities. As purpose-driven fashion gains momentum, it ultimately creates demands for greater accountability and transparency in the workplace environment. Thus, social change can make an impact via fashion.

Conclusion

The progressive wave of lifestyle environment fashion marks the end of an era and into a new, more transformative time for the fashion world. Such are the brands that practice and preach purpose-driven fashion as well as belief in good mindset apparel, keeping sustainability and inclusivity in focus, which has ushered us into this new, responsible era in fashion. Brands will find that their support from consumers becomes even richer over time. Fashion is no longer just for looking good. There is more.

To understand how progressive trends are shaping the fashion industry, visit Civilized Nations.

[vanatorrpoassist]

Best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services in Australia

Imagine a world where your business comes at the top position whenever a net surfer searches for your category of product or service. Such rankings will allow you to attract potential customers in huge numbers.

Hiring the best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services in Australia is the right step and in this blog we will also explain its benefits. Furthermore, let’s first understand SEO completely.

In this blog we are going to talk about the best SEO (search engine optimisation) services in Australia. So, without any breaks let’s get right into it.

Key Takeaways:

Understanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Why Are SEO Services Important For Your Business?

Exploring The Different Types of SEO

How SEO Benefits Your Business IN The Long Run?

Listing the Best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Services in Australia

Our Services

We offer a comprehensive suite of well-designed digital marketing to boost the efficiency of your business

Search Engine Optimization

SEO services: We use advanced SEO techniques such as local, technical, off-page, and on-page SEO to improve your search engine rankings

Social Media Marketing

We utilize data driven technology to derive brand strategy and compelling designs to uplift your brand’s social media presence

Google & Meta Ads

Our Ads Management services help you to scale your business and generate paid leads easily and quickly

Graphic Designing

We create interactive designs that resonate with the ideologies of your target customers and leave an impact immediately

Email Marketing

We leverage top-notch tools to easily manage contacts, build newsletters and avoid hitting the spam folder!

Content Writing

Curating compelling content that sells and builds an ideal relationship with your potential customers

Website Development

We understand your business needs and draft a compelling website accordingly to enhance your online presence

App Development

We leverage top-notch tools to easily manage contacts, build newsletters and avoid hitting the spam folder!

Get Free COnsultation

Understanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization. It counts as the process of enhancing your website, social media account, or YouTube Account in such a way that it ranks higher on the search results. To put it simply, people might look up for your niche and end up finding you on the top spot. That’s what SEO is for.

Customers typically look up for the products you sell or services you offer. Also, they might look for information on topics related to your industry niche. So, the more optimised information you have on your website, higher are the chances that the customer would notice you and click on your links.

Hiring SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services in Australia is one way to fearlessly achieve the heavy lifting SEO takes to rise at the top. We will talk a lot about that later on but first let’s understand the impact of technology over search engine optimization. 

As technology evolves we are set to have algorithm changes, website changes – as in complete evolution. There’s a lot of AI in SEO and new anti AI algorithms.

Why Are SEO Services Important For Your Business?

Until giant search engines such as Google and Bing don’t die out, which is unlikely to happen – SEO will remain as the most imported marketing channel. A simple yet solid explanation to verify the previous statement is that everybody with internet accessibility uses Google to look for things online. 

Also, more than 8 billion searches happen daily, and this is only the number of Google searches (The number may vary).

Here’s Why SEO is Still a Vital Investment

Increased Online Competition: SEO is a necessary tactic to beat through today’s fierce competitive market. As more and more businesses continue to enter the market. It has become important to optimise websites and content for higher rankings on the SERPs.

Improved User Experience: SEO is considered as the best practice to bring organic traffic to the website. But, what about the user experience? Well, when you intend to optimise your website you automatically do things that improve user experience.

Targeted Traffic: Do you want your target market to notice your existence? SEO helps in attracting the potential audience to your website. When users search for keywords related to your products and services – they end up landing on your website! Resulting in bringing targeted traffic and boosting lead generation.

Brand Authority: Isn’t it important for your business to have a positive image in the market? SEO helps boost your reputation and builds trust with potential audiences.

Long-Term ROI: SEO is a super effective digital marketing strategy because it offers splendid results. Moreover, the results can be long-lasting, meaning that once optimised your website will attract leads and generate traffic for years to come.

Read Also: Best Website Development Services in Australia

Exploring The Different Types of SEO

SEO is a combination of various specialisations and types. We have explained all of these different practices to ensure that you have a clear understanding of what your business needs to work on.

Types of SEO

1.  On-Page SEO: It is the process of optimising website front-end content which is visible to the users.

Curating high quality content infused with high volume keywords.

Curating compelling meta titles and descriptions to make readers click the link.

2. Off-Page SEO: It is the process of working on aspects that do not directly impact the look of your website. This focuses on things such as building backlinks from reputable sources and distributing content over social media platforms.

Acquiring high-quality backlinks using practices such as guest posting, and outreach.

Distributing content over social media platforms to enhance your visibility and acquire backlinks.

3. Local SEO: Local SEO is a specialised form in which an expert looks after the factors which may enhance your local visibility. It involves optimising content to boost your Google Maps ranking!

Using relevant local keywords to target your local area.

Creating and optimising your Google My Business Profile for increased online visibility of your store.

Marking your existence consistently to ensure that singular information is spread about you in the market.

How SEO Benefits Your Business In The Long Run ?

Want to learn more about the magic SEO has on your business in the long run? Here are four benefits to help you understand the importance of SEO:

It Enhances Customer Experience (UX)

People usually forget about this benefit of SEO because they’re always too busy measuring ranks. While practising traditional activities is important, you also need to work on customer experience. 

Search engines will bring you down the ranking leaderboard once it sees that your content and website is not being liked by the users. There are a whole lot of factors that impact this decision.

More importantly, everyone is curating content and making changes for web crawlers. With regular algorithm updates, Google is slamming down ranks the moment you try outsmarting it. 

Therefore, focus on curating content which is for the user query. Search engines will automatically take that up the leaderboard. Additionally, focus on several other factors such as page load speed optimization, mobile responsiveness, and customer travel journey (the entire journey of your customer once they come on your website).

It Improves Rankings and Spreads Online Visibility

The primary target of SEO optimization is to improve your website’s search engine result pages (SERPs) rankings. High level optimization will bring you in front of huge crowds who might be looking for a business like yours. 

Enhancing the visibility also means that it makes the process of users finding your business easier and better than ever before. Now, the click percentage is only high for the top 10 leaderboard holders. Which means to get clicks and views, you need to fight for the best spot. 

Hiring the best SEO (search engine optimization) services in Australia will help you do it! They will optimise your content to make sure that you stay ahead of the competition.

Forms Trust and Authority

While ranking, visibility, and user experience remain in the front, people forget that SEO actually helps form trust with potential customers and builds authority. However, things are changing and now people are realising that it is important to check whether the website they’re visiting is genuine or not.

To check that, Google and other search engines now award a domain authority score (DA).Higher your domain authority score, the better are your chances to perform on the big stage (SERPs). Good SEO practices can help you build a website that people trust. 

The process becomes something like this – people trust your website – traffic arrives – customer experience standards met – you get ranked higher on the SERP – getting more leads. So, trust the process and let’s keep this fight alive!

Generates Traffic and Boosts Lead Generation

More traffic = more visitors, and more visitors = more clicks, and more clicks = increased lead generation. Don’t get stuck with that simple maths equation. To simplify, good SEO practices lead to high traffic numbers and ultimately bring in new leads. 

Boosting ranks is one of the main aims of SEO optimization, and by working on that you will be able to generate more traffic. We all know that if you do not rank amongst the top 5 on the leaderboard then you will not be able to generate traffic.

Read Also: Top Social Media Marketing Services in Australia

Listing the Best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Services in Australia

Here are the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Services in Australia:

Vanator

Learn More >

Vanator is a digital marketing assistant for businesses around the world. We exist in the market to provide exceptional digital marketing services to small or large size businesses. 

The current market offers a more standard approach using the same old protocols while Vanator brings in the change. Our dedicated team members stay ahead by studying Google’s algorithm changes and finding new ways to maximise SEO optimization. 

We offer the best SEO (search engine optimization) services in Australia. Claiming the number one spot for ourselves. Waiting for this blog to reach the #1 on search engines, and our statement will be greeted with a full stop.

Studio Hawk

Learn More >

Studio Hawk is a dedicated SEO agency with offices in various locations including London, Sydney, and Melbourne. Formed in 2015 by a specialist named Harry Sanders they have been dominating the SEO landscape with their wide variety of SEO (search engine optimisation) services in Australia. 

They are the best when it comes to building organic search rankings. This award winning agency has made it to this list of top 5 SEO agencies in Australia because of their pure expertise in crafting and converting SEO campaigns!

Dilate Digital

Learn More >

Dilate Digital is a renowned digital marketing company in the Australian region. Situated in Perth, Dilate Digital have been masters of excellent SEO campaigns – local and international. They offer various services including web design, SEO, Facebook advertising, and Google Ads Services.

Online Marketing Gurus

Learn More >

OMG!! Yes, those are the words when we came across this brilliant digital marketing agency based in Australia. They have a strong team of 180+ dedicated members who offer diverse services for various kinds of businesses. 

Well, Online Marketing Gurus (OMG) take it one step further with their strong understanding of the latest SEO practices. With a sense of improvement about everything, they become a rock solid agency that’s ready with answers for your business.

Boylen

Learn More >

Boylen is a top provider of the best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services in Australia. Located in Adelaide, they are veterans of various digital marketing services such as Web Design, SEO, and Graphic Design. 

With an overall experience of 30 years or more, they have dominated the digital marketing industry. If you are looking for an agency to enhance your online visibility, then you should reach out to Boylen!

Wrapping Up Words

Australia is one of the finest places to run a business in today’s evolving world. To take your business to the next level you need the support of the best SEO (search engine optimization) services in Australia. 

Make the right choice and let SEO be the factor which takes your business to a new level!

How much does SEO cost in Australia?

SEO costs in Australia vary widely. Factors like project scope, website condition, industry competition, and provider choice affect pricing. Expect to pay from a few thousand to several thousand dollars per month. Get quotes from multiple providers for comparison.

What are the 5 ingredients for SEO?

What type of SEO is best?

What is the most used SEO tool?

What does SERP stand for in SEO?

[eiyuhnnn]

WRITTEN BELOW ARE MY INSIGHTS FOR THE FIRST PART OF INTERVIEWS IN EACH BUSINESS

NJESS GENERAL MERCHANDISE - After interviewing Ms. Barton, I realized some things about creating a business. There is no clear path as to what kind of business you will operate in the future. Sometimes, it will align differently with your passion or with the previous business you owned. For example, Ms. Barton sold soft drinks and beers but later started a new hardware supply business. It also began selling lansang (nails) before becoming a shop. Furthermore, from what I have noticed in our environment or the location, Ms. Barton's choice of selling hardware supplies was good, as she has no other competitors in the area. She is the only one who is selling hardware supplies. Additionally, my family recently purchased supplies from them, and their service was excellent. Their business is doing well, as they have already become a supplier for contractors, engineers, and others, which reflects the high quality of their services. HAPPY SIP - During this second interview, I believe that Ms. Rema Hasan has been in the business industry for a long time. It is because before we could even ask any questions, she clarified that she wouldn’t discuss their sales— a topic we hadn’t planned to ask about anyway, as we understand it’s personal and confidential. Interestingly, she was the only business owner we interviewed who proactively mentioned this before we even began asking questions. She also mentioned that the business isn’t doing as well as she had hoped, and explained that this is largely due to the nature of the product—milk tea. She pointed out that milk tea isn’t a daily necessity for most people, which makes it harder to sell consistently. I agree with her perspective, as I enjoy milk tea myself. However, there are times when people, including myself, prioritize eating food over having a milk tea. Despite these challenges, Ms. Rema remains committed to her business. Her perseverance is evident as she runs the business while looking for solutions to improve its performance. Ms. Rema is dedicated to keeping the business operating, even when faced with challenges. AJ WATER REFILLING STATION - This third interview is somehow different from our previous ones because of the unique reason behind why the business was built. While many business owners start their ventures primarily to earn money, Mrs. Jamito’s motivation was different. She created her business for her children, with the intention of leaving them something they can rely on when she and her husband are no longer around. I believe the location of their shop is a significant issue. The shop is situated near a road, and there’s no available parking space. It’s challenging to run a business like Mrs. Jamito’s refilling station without proper parking. If customers are only buying one gallon and can carry it, it’s not a problem. However, when they want to purchase larger quantities and need to load them into their car, the lack of a parking area becomes a major inconvenience for customers. JASMINE GARDEN - Mrs. Dap-og’s motivation and perseverance are truly remarkable. She has been selling flowers since 1992 and continues to do so today. I believe her passion for flowers likely comes from a deep fondness for them, making it feel more like a hobby than just a business. During our interview, I noticed the wide variety of flowers she sells, with different sizes and types. It made me realize that the process of loading and unloading these flowers, especially the heavier ones, must take a lot of time and effort. Running a business for 32 years and counting is no easy feat, especially with many competitors in the area also selling a variety of flowers. What sets their businesses apart is how they are managed.

AQUARIST AQUARIUM FISHSHOP - This final interview is similar to our previous one with Jasmine Garden in that the business is driven by a passion for a specific interest. Mrs. Chua’s husband’s love for fish and various fish species inspired the creation of their business. In terms of location, it’s advantageous that they have a parking area. However, I believe most of their customers are likely those who already know the business or have bought supplies from them before. The shop appears somewhat unmaintained, particularly with regards to its signage and overall presentation. This suggests to me that they are running the business out of a genuine passion for their interest rather than solely for financial gain.

[jcmarchi]

AI for health & networking: Christie Mealo's tech impact

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/ai-for-health-networking-christie-mealos-tech-impact/

AI for health & networking: Christie Mealo's tech impact

My name is Christie Mealo, and I’m a Senior AI Engineering Manager at CVS Health, where I focus on AI-driven health products, primarily in the area of diabetes management. 

In addition to my work at CVS, I’m the founder of Orbit, an AI-powered contact book and networking app designed for value-based networking. 

I also lead the Philly Data & AI Meetup group, help guide the Philly Tech Committee, and serve as a chair on Philly iConnect. 

Through these roles, I’m deeply involved in organizing communities and events across Philadelphia and the larger East Coast, helping to foster collaboration and innovation in the tech space.

It’s been a crazy year for those in tech—what’s excited you most about recent developments?

It’s been an incredible year in tech, and what excites me most is how generative AI has significantly lowered barriers to entry and creativity for so many people. This technology is empowering individuals with new and novel ideas, allowing them to bring their visions to life in ways that were previously out of reach. 

I believe this will shake up the economy in a positive way, leading to the development of a lot of innovative products and introducing new competitors into the market. While we’re undoubtedly in the midst of a hype cycle—or perhaps only at the beginning—it’s thrilling to see where this will take us in the coming years.

What role do you see generative AI playing across industries over the next 6-12 months, and where do you think it will have the biggest impact?

Generative AI is poised to significantly impact various industries over the next 6-12 months. While it’s clear that it will continue to transform fields like copywriting, advertising, and creative content, its influence is much broader.

On one hand, generative AI is incredibly exciting because it lowers barriers to entry for innovation and creativity. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and GitHub Copilot are not only enabling individuals and smaller companies to bring novel ideas to market more quickly but are also optimizing workflows. Personally, these tools have streamlined my day-to-day work, saving me approximately 10 hours each week by automating routine tasks and enhancing productivity.

However, there are valid concerns about the impact of generative AI, particularly regarding its effect on the internet and the truth. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, there is a real risk of misinformation and the proliferation of fake information online. This not only threatens the integrity of the internet but also raises ethical questions that need urgent attention.

Interestingly, these challenges are creating new opportunities for AI ethics as a field. We’re likely to see significant job growth in areas focused on developing frameworks and tools to manage these risks, ensuring that AI is used responsibly and that the internet remains a trusted source of information.

While we are only getting started, the balance of benefits and challenges will ultimately shape the economic and social impact of generative AI. It’s an exciting time, but also one that demands careful consideration of the ethical implications.

How can companies effectively navigate the ethical considerations that come with the rapid advancements in AI technology? 

As an ex-McKinsey person myself, I feel compelled to steal some good advice and guidelines they have provided for this one:

Establish clear ethical guidelines: Companies should start by defining ethical principles that align with their values and business goals. These should cover critical areas such as bias and fairness, explainability, transparency, human oversight, data privacy, and security. For instance, ensuring that AI models do not inadvertently discriminate based on race, gender, or other protected characteristics is essential.

Implement human oversight and accountability: It’s important to have a “human in the loop” to oversee AI decisions, particularly in high-stakes scenarios like financial services or healthcare. This ensures that there is always a human judgment applied to AI outputs, which can help mitigate risks associated with AI decision-making.

Continuous monitoring and adaptation: Ethical AI isn’t a one-time effort. Companies should establish ongoing monitoring systems to track the performance and impact of AI models over time. This includes regular audits to check for biases or inaccuracies that might emerge as the AI system interacts with new data.

Educate and empower employees: Building a culture that supports ethical AI requires educating employees across the organization about the importance of these issues. Providing training on ethical AI practices and ensuring that teams are equipped with the necessary tools to implement these principles is crucial for long-term success.

Generative AI is a whole new ballgame, and we still have a lot to learn, but these pillars provide a good start.

What are you excited about at Generative AI Summit Toronto, and why is it important to get together with other leaders like this?

I’m really excited about the opportunity to connect with a diverse group of AI professionals and thought leaders at the Generative AI Summit in Toronto. 

The event will feature cutting-edge discussions on the latest advancements in generative AI, and I’m particularly looking forward to the workshops and panels that provide opportunities to interact directly with experts. It’s important to gather with other leaders in the field to share insights, foster collaboration, and drive innovation in this rapidly evolving space.

Christie will be moderating at AI Accelerator Institute’s Generative AI Summit Toronto.

Join us on Novevember 20, 2024.

Get your tickets below.

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[dailyanarchistposts]

2

Many people now assume that a pitiless chaos is on the horizon. A chaos birthed and driven by a social system based on hierarchy and exploitation. Our fragile biosphere is sick. Its health is deteriorating fast. Desertification of vast areas, global warming, diminishing sunlight, widespread cancer, and daily extinctions are but a few of the symptoms. Our planet’s diversity of life forms is in peril.

This crisis has been caused by the institutions of the state and the urban ways of industrial capitalism. It is maintained by our belief in ideologies. Our way out is to collectively de-urbanize and de-industrialize. It is to relearn how to feed and shelter ourselves without governments or markets. It is to create our habitats as we are simultaneously created by them, thus re-establishing a healthy relationship with our environment.

Unfortunately, every crisis is compounded by the existence of yet other crises on our horizon: nuclear waste waiting to sit up like a corpse and spread its death, the ongoing possibility of nuclear war, the disappearance of the protective ozone layer, scarcity of potable water, and even complete ecological meltdown. The warning lights are blinking wildly, the alarms are getting louder and the elders are warning us: it’s urgent.

Our future is shrinking.

Will there always be seeds of the old world in the revolt for the new? Perhaps, but a genuine rebellion won’t be fertile ground for them to get established. Liberating humans from urban life is possible. We are all potential agents of change. By emphasizing local resistance, our strengths become more obvious and defeatism wanes. We need not prolong the time it takes to travel from the possible to the impossible.

This isn’t to say that an international anti-authoritarian uprising can’t or won’t happen. It is to ask how might this come about if we recognize that institutions of domination are complex and global, and that there are too many variables for any particular minority group to grasp and control in order to strategically and intentionally instigate such a global process. Many Marxists hold that planned, coordinated revolutions are possible by putting our power into the hands of a specialized intelligentsia and often the political party they work for, but history has shown us the misery and repression waiting for us when we do allow them to hijack our insurgencies.

The breaks I am encouraging don’t require the permission of parents, parties, or productive forces. There is no need to wait for history, god, or material conditions to authorize them. I’m exploring willful ruptures among friends, neighbors, fellow conscripts and comrades, ruptures and breaks that are valid adventures unto themselves, yet might coalesce into something larger, something planetary even.

Where do authentic rebellions originate? Most often they originate where people spend a lot of time together and therefore know each other enough to have shared their misery and their desires, to have built some trust: ghettos, neighborhoods, factories, universities, prisons, reservations. Frequently rebellions happen along tribal, ethnic or kinship lines.

Of course, any individual who wants to make a break, who wants to live an intense life, can. This is making one’s life a cause sufficient unto itself. These folks can inspire others, can implicitly give others permission to stand up and shine and flourish. But, when such individuals are embedded somewhere, are surrounded by friends and neighbors with whom they try to have real relationships, the virus can take hold, the contagion can spread. If they are entenched only in a milieu, a scene or subculture based exclusively around shared outlooks or interests, then the contagion will likely be contained by its typically narrow demographic limits. Occasionally, anti-authoritarian radicals from these sub-cultures can join in various oppositional struggles to try and push them further or in order to question notions of directors and representatives, but these opportunities aren’t always present and nevertheless we shouldn’t be basing the realization of our dreams and desires on a strategy of intervening in reformist revolts.

[sophiasmithg]

How Panel Management Software is Transforming eCommerce Industries?

Research is a starting point for every online business, especially e-commerce. Finding the right niche, services, and products to offer requires a detailed analysis of market and customer preferences. 

In the past, gathering information and feedback from diverse groups was challenging and time-consuming. But, in this fastest-growing Ecommerce industry, where every second is crucial, no business wants to spend enough time gathering data and insights.

Thus, businesses spearheading market research need tools that can help them connect with global and diverse participants who can fill out their surveys for the most honest responses. These tools not only help you to get the data faster but genuine ones that help you devise your business strategy for future-ready ecommerce business meeting all demands.

Our market research experts suggest that to overcome research hurdles and connect to the right people at the right time, we need advanced solutions like panel management. In this blog, we will help you understand how it fits into your ecommerce landscape.

First, understand what panel management software is and its core features.

Understanding Panel Management Software

Panel management is a software solution that helps market research organizations or businesses with large demands to conduct frequent market research for their objectives. 

It allows you to connect with diverse panelists from all over the world, with the ability to profile them based on demographics, age, gender, and others. You can integrate your set of panels for specific surveys in specific regions.

You can manage each participant or respondent, track their activity, and reward them for their responses. This is why you need to incentivize them for their dedication, attention to detail, reliability, and time. 

Core features of a panel management software-

Access to global panelists

Integrate third-party panels via APIs

Ability to create your panel

Monitoring and rewarding research participants

Trusted payment integrations

Faster response to any type of survey

Recruit your panelists

AI-powered fraud detention technique integrations and more.

You can connect with a market research software development company to understand how panel management software works and how you can use it to generate responses for better decisions.

Enhanced Customer Engagement

Panel management software lets you collect feedback and information about your services directly, without needing someone else to do it for you. Businesses can use this platform to learn what customers like, how satisfied they are, and what new trends are coming up. This helps them adjust their products to better fit what customers want.

It will reduce the time required to revise your strategy based on the responses. This way e-commerce businesses can improve their products to enhance customer engagement. Not only this, businesses can create personalized experiences by understanding what their customers like and how their preferences change over time.

Efficient Market Research

Market research used to take a lot of time and effort. But now, Panel Management Software makes it much easier. Businesses can quickly create surveys, send them to their panel members, and get responses right away. This saves time and helps companies react faster to changes in the market.

Businesses can get real-time information and tweak their decisions based on it. They can even run a dummy campaign to check if it will work and get feedback from their panels. You can spot the latest market trends and evolving customer preferences, so you get a competitive advantage.

Data-Driven Decision Making

In eCommerce, smart decisions are key. Panel Management Software turns data into useful insights, guiding decisions. By studying feedback from panels, businesses spot trends and areas to improve. This helps make decisions based on real customer views and market trends, not guesses.

The software also supports A/B testing. This lets eCommerce sites try out different ideas and see how customers react. It's a cycle of testing and refining strategies to work better and keep customers happy.

Streamlined Operations

Efficiency is crucial for eCommerce success.  You can use panel Management Software to simplify tasks like collecting and analyzing data, which is super useful for eCommerce businesses. You can automate tasks like scheduling surveys and reminders, cutting down on manual work, and getting responses on time.

The software also stores and analyzes data in one place, so there's no need for lots of different tools. This helps teams work together better and make decisions more smoothly.

To fasttrack your research and get access to diverse and global panelists, you must check White Label Solutions for Market Research.

Scale your Ecommerce Business With OnGraph’s Panel Management Software

Panel Management Software is a powerful tool for eCommerce. It helps businesses do a few important things really well:

Connect with Customers: It makes it easier for businesses to understand what customers want and how they feel.

Do Market Research: It helps businesses quickly learn about the market and what competitors are doing.

Use Data for Decisions: Businesses can use the information they gather to make smart choices that help them grow.

Run Smoothly: It helps businesses operate more efficiently, saving time and making sure things work well.

As eCommerce keeps changing, Panel Management Software is becoming more and more important for businesses that want to do well in a tough market.

OnGraph, a company that specializes in Market Research Software Development, offers solutions that can help businesses grow.

Original content source: https://www.mioola.com/OnGraph51/post/54217295/

[aritrijsmc]

How MSURVS Helps in Tourism Surveys

Understanding guest preferences and experiences is essential for destinations and businesses looking to stay competitive in today's quickly changing tourism market. On the other hand, using traditional survey methods can require a lot of time and resources. Enter MSURVS, an advanced Generative AI-based Survey, Quiz, and Form SaaS that outshines survey alternatives like SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, QuestionPro, Typeform, Jotform, Zoho Survey, ProProfs Survey Maker, SmartSurvey, SurveySparrow, Alchemer, LimeSurvey, Paperform, SurveyLegend and SurveyPlanet. It offers powerful generative AI powered functionalities, making it the go-to platform for innovative, data-driven organisations.

Instant Survey Creation with MSURVS

MSURVS stands out as a survey generator that can produce surveys, quizzes, and forms in just seconds. This capability is a game-changer for tourism professionals who need to gather feedback quickly. The survey maker simplifies the creation process, allowing users to focus on what really matters – the content and objectives of the survey.

Real-Time Data Analysis

One of the key advantages of using MSURVS is its real-time data analysis feature. This survey SaaS empowers researchers by enabling them to dissect survey responses instantly. With real-time filtering and data transformation into bespoke charts and reports, tourism businesses can quickly adapt to trends and feedback, making data-driven decisions more efficiently.

Cost and Time Efficiency

Creating surveys manually or using less sophisticated tools can be both time-consuming and costly. MSURVS drastically reduces these burdens. By accelerating the time to market, it provides huge time and money savings, allowing tourism organisations to allocate resources more effectively.

Customization and Branding

Tourism surveys often need to reflect the brand's identity to ensure consistency and professionalism. MSURVS’s survey designer allows users to customise themes according to their brand. This feature ensures that all surveys are not only functional but also visually appealing and brand-consistent.

Multilingual Capabilities

The tourism industry is inherently global, catering to people from various linguistic backgrounds. MSURVS’s multilingual survey maker allows users to create surveys in multiple languages effortlessly. This feature is essential for gathering accurate feedback from a diverse audience, ensuring that language barriers do not hinder the data collection process.

Advanced Text Sentiment Analysis

Understanding the sentiment behind responses can provide deeper insights into visitor experiences. MSURVS incorporates advanced text sentiment analysis to gauge the emotion behind survey responses. Whether respondents are happy, unhappy, or neutral, this feature helps tourism professionals understand the underlying sentiments, enabling more nuanced analysis and better decision-making.

Versatility and Application

MSURVS is not limited to just one type of survey. It’s a versatile survey software that can be used for a variety of purposes within the tourism industry. Whether it’s customer satisfaction surveys, event feedback forms, or market research questionnaires, MSURVS serves as a comprehensive online survey maker that meets diverse needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, MSURVS is a ground-breaking survey platform that significantly enhances the process of conducting tourism surveys. With its ability to generate surveys quickly, analyse data in real-time, customise themes, support multiple languages, and analyse text sentiment, it stands out as an indispensable tool for tourism professionals. By leveraging MSURVS, the tourism industry can gain deeper insights, make informed decisions faster, and ultimately provide better experiences for travellers.

Adopting MSURVS in your survey strategy means embracing efficiency, accuracy, and innovation – qualities that are essential in today’s competitive tourism landscape.

[ledenews]

Santorine: We Need to Fail Faster to Succeed Sooner in Wheeling Area

You can and will be a Hall of Fame slugger if you fail seven out of 10 times at the plate in Major League Baseball. It takes a batting average just north of .300 to get there. That’s in the “Majors.” As good as it gets. That is a 70 percent failure rate.  But we expect our employers to step up to the plate and knock it out of the park every time. That’s a remarkable mental disconnect, isn’t it? I love sports metaphors for life and business because they are so uncannily accurate. I think it speaks volumes about the games that we play, and how seriously all sports affect us. Remember that cliche, work hard, play hard? I know, as Americans, we do that better than anyone else in the world. When I talk to entrepreneurs about startups, I tell them what I learned investing my own money. On a good year, I had about .342 average just like Babe Ruth, and during a great year, a Ted Williams like .406 (Which, I might add, he only accomplished for one season). I ask these highly motivated entrepreneurs to look at the people on either side of them and know their business will likely not survive. It’s no better in corporate America.The statistics on new product successes are about the same. 70 percent fail. 30 percent succeed. So, we know that: Some “Artificial Intelligence” companies are going to fail. Some “Green Energy” companies are going to fail. Some “Software” startups are going to fail. The beauty of capitalism is that it’s a self-organizing chaotic system. The emphasis is on “self-organizing” It’s a whole different thing when the government gets involved. The government will spend your money with reckless abandon in a futile attempt to justify their “economic development” investment in a buggy whip manufacturer. They will pick unqualified people who have the right political connections to receive the money extorted from their constituents, and those same unqualified people will find a way to line their pockets from the public treasury. Private industry does not have the same amoral obsession as bureaucrats. The business world has balance sheets, which are factual. If you continue to lose money, it’s likely you won’t have money to pay the power bill, and the lights will go out. Like sports, it’s a numbers game. You lose, you head to the showers. If you’re smart, you make corrections, and we will see you again next year. The other thing we know is that about one-third of these startups will position the communities where they are located for future success. But you can’t get to those diamonds without moving around a lot of dirt. Our beloved Wheeling area has historically driven entrepreneurs away. The number of times I’ve heard that “so and so” is bankrupt because their latest venture failed makes me want to wretch. Most people don’t know what bankruptcy is, the difference between a business one and a personal one, but they KNOW it all, and if their business goes down, so does the entrepreneur. The rumor mill is why I don’t do startups in Wheeling. It’s not worth the commentary from the know-it-alls. So, I invest in startups that create jobs elsewhere, because the environment in Wheeling is just too toxic. Wheeling needs to understand that the steel industry is not coming back. The coal industry is not going to come back to its former glory. I do appreciate them both, and the fine people who make a difference in legacy industry, but truth is truth. By measuring every startup in the Ohio Valley by this hundred-year metric, and by families carping that “Johnny is out doing this stupid startup when he could be making real money in the mill” pins us in a corner where we don’t have a back bench. That means we don’t have a future. We do not have new companies vying to make it, and to be the critical new employers we need in this Ohio Valley. Who’s on deck? Well, no one. It shows, too. “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison For the record, investors are more likely to invest with an entrepreneur who had a business that didn’t work out. They learned what worked, and more importantly, what didn’t. Were they too early to market? Too late? Did they chase a market that really didn’t exist? So much to learn, and so little time. So far, it’s the Wheeling community that has discouraged entrepreneurs from doing start-ups. They have done it actively, too. Let’s face more truth – you miss 100 percent of the balls you don’t swing at. Wheeling does not swing at many, and when we do, there is a propensity to pick big picture snake oil salesmen who doesn’t have the business chops to pull it off. So, go hug an entrepreneur. If you like their business proposal, get behind them. If you have some money to lose, invest with them, and fully expect the money to go away. That way, you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you get a return. Then, take a piece of your winning and invest again. Trust me, it’s more fun than the casino! Wheeling needs startups. The community culture about business needs to change. And we need business to fail on its own. We need this to happen now, and for it to happen quickly. By failing faster, we will succeed sooner. Read the full article