#arguably one of the most “I dont know what this person even looks like” website

[pokeybananas]

Today I learned the importance of not sending your pics online to strangers. It apparently doesn't take much to steal folks identity.

[thdrama2]

me when i post my character to a public website and then people like it 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

yall dont even have to disable favs, just turn off the notifications for it and youll never know the difference, if someone offers on your character when its not ufo you can ignore or block them

i really dont understand the brainrot with these people, if you dont want to be a part of what is essentialy an artist social media then dont participate! make your characters private!

its arguably more entitled to think someone should APOLOGISE to you for adding a fav to your character

personally i use my dreamie list as a collective of just pretty characters that i look at when im feeling art blocked, i promise u not everyone is fiending for your character in specific and probably forgot about it the second they clicked off ur page

Reply to this.

One will just have to decide which they desire the most, being private and comfort or public and visible.

[sigurdjarlson]

-clears throat- i got up on my soap box again. It’s just me bitching about self righteous assholes in fandom (tw: abuse, rape, other triggering issues) 

honestly at this point i’ve been in fandoms so long i legit dont give a fuck what other people ship. if i don’t like it i ignore it. if it makes me uncomfortable i take measures to avoid it. i don’t message people and tell them to go kill themselves over fictional characters. please get professional help if you do

nor is it my responsibility to cater to you if you blatantly choose to look at things that upset you. I’m not your mother. You have to take responsibility for your own internet experience. 

I read a fic that fucked with my head the other day. I didn’t know it would but it did. It put me in a bad headspace. It reminded me of some traumatic shit. Did I go ham on the creator because how dare they write something that upset me? Nah. It’s not their fault. They had all the proper trigger warnings in place. It just happened to hit a sore spot with me because of my own personal experiences which I recognize are very different from everyone else’s. 

sigh

the older i get the less i care because i realize it really does not matter what people like in fiction. Some of the best, kindest people I’ve met on this website ship horrifying ships, have some fucked up kinks or enjoy problematic characters. And some of the worst people I’ve met only ship ~pure ships~ and only love ~pure cinnamon rolls uwu~ or whatever. 

It’s fiction. It has no reflection on what someone is like as a person. How you treat other people however DOES. 

I could go on about how people use “discourse” as an excuse to bully people they disagree with but honestly a lot of people have said it much more eloquently than I. 

Just..tag your shit so people can avoid it (especially content like non-con and such). Be kind to each other. Take responsibility for your own internet experience. Create your own safe space because no one can do that for you. Nor should they have to. 

Fandom becomes a lot more fun when you do those things. And that’’s what it’s supposed to be. FUN.

just because someone wants to get fucked by a tentacle monster in fiction doesn’t mean they’re going to shove an octopus up their asshole.

ALSO if you think people have to tell you about their traumatic experience to justify shipping or enjoying something...you can go right to hell. You don’t care about survivors because if you did you wouldn’’t force them to reveal very personal info about themselves to avoid being harassed and bullied. You’re using survivors to further your bullshit moral crusade that makes you feel better about yourself and I want no part in it. 

Also you don’t speak for all survivors even if you are one yourself. I’m one myself and I don’t speak for all survivors. 

My personal opinion? You don’t need to be a survivor to be allowed to enjoy problematic things. It’s fiction. God damn. 

It reminds me of fatphobes try to claim they care about a person’s health when in reality they’re just using they facade of concern as an excuse to bully and abuse people they don’t like. 

Someone’s trauma is none of your business. what they enjoy is none of your business. 

If someone goes and does something they read about in fan fic they already had serious problems to begin with. 

Also frankly the belief that fiction causes people to do bad things actually takes the responsibility off the person. “Fiction with abusive relationships makes people abusive” no...abusive people make the choice to abuse other people. Don’t you dare take the responsibility off of them. I want none of that.

Abuse, rape, sexual abuse, murder, etc are all CHOICES people make. A fanfic they read once didn’t turn them into a monster. They already were one. This was already a desire they had.

And yes people can enjoy bad things in fiction and not want to do those things in real life. They can be and often are disgusted by those things in real life. They have a healthy distinction between fiction and reality. 

Also frankly I’m insulted by the idea that I’m going to think something is okay cuz I read a fic about it. “People will think it’s okay to be abused” woah woah wait? First you take the responsibility away from the abusers..and then you blame the victim. what you’re really saying is t’s ultimately their fault because they didn’t understand it was abuse? Many abuse victims don’t know it was abuse at first. That does not make it their fault.and it has nothing to do with that fic they read 5 years ago. 

Go on and on about how fiction reinforces social norms..I could argue it doesn’t and its more of a lens in which we can see problems that are already there.

Rape culture is rampant in fiction? It it because it is in society. The fiction did not cause rape culture. “It normalizes it.” it’s already normalized and frankly yes be critical of it but I’d advise you to focus and target the root of the problem instead of the symptoms. 

People exploring these themes and being fully aware these things aren’t acceptable in real life are not the problem. People who believe those things are okay are the problem

also

Real people are more important than fictional ones.

If anti’s put half the energy they put into harassing people on the internet into actually helping the real people they claim to care about they could do a lot of good. But whatever keep on jacking off to your belief you’re morally superior because you don’t ship reyl0 or whatever ship is the target of anti’s now days.

Which goes to show it is not about the issues they claim it’s about. It’s not about abuse apologism or rape apologism. It’s about some very sad, pathetic individual using important issues to stroke their ego and make themselves appear to be the most visibly enlightened or whatever. It’s about the people that pat them on the back and tell them they’re great! They’re good for doing this!! It’s all about ego. 

Sure some people might simply be misguided and have good intentions. Maybe they really believe they’re rooting out the fandom boogyman or whatever. But the real anti’s? They don’t give a flying fuck about survivors. 

So yeah I don’t give a shit what you get off too. I don’t give a shit what you ship. I might not like it but that’s my personal preference and it means nothing beyond that.  

Fan fiction has very little effect on society as a whole anyway. Maybe try focusing on media that actually does? Like television or big blockbuster films? 

Honestly fanfic is actually arguably more aware than any other form of media. With some exceptions..there are proper trigger warnings in place. People freely say “yeah this is terrible and i would never condone it in real life” and that already makes it far less harmful than something like 50 shades of grey. 

However I know I’m tired of having to repeat that disclaimer over and over again. It’s so annoying. It should be a give in. Stop assuming that because someone likes something they would support it in real life.

I want to see Negan and Rick fuck. Am I beating people in the head with a baseball bat? No. Do I think they kind of behavior is acceptable? Fuck no. Do I find the dynamic interesting? Yes. Hot even? Yeah because it’s fictional and it is perfectly okay to explore dark themes in fiction. Would I feel that way if I saw a dynamic like that in real life? Hell no. You best believe I’m going to be disgusted and contact the proper authorities. 

There is a huge difference between fiction and reality. Something anti’s don’t seem to understand. It would just be annoying if it wasn’t so harmful. When you start telling people to kill themselves, trying to ruin their lives with faux accusations, whatever. You become a horrible person. You become that terrible person you say you’re protecting everyone from. 

Just...enjoy what you enjoy. Tag your shit so people can avoid it. Block what you don’t like and have fun for fuck’s sake. Respect and be kind to one another. Take all that moral righteousness and channel it into something that actually helps people instead of actively harming them. 

Someone writing about something that upsets you, unless sent directly to you, is not a personal attack. People don’t have to stop writing about something just because you don’t like it. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Everyone has had different experiences in life and are effected by things differently. 

[topicprinter]

This is more for tech entrepreneurs here. However, the core ideas can be taken out for some other businesses. Let me know if it helps.I was answering the question “What are the strategies to convert a free user to a premium user for a SaaS product?” and the answer became an article in itself. At the same time, it’s yet another one of my core fundamentals which I think can impact someone. Below is my answer.It’s all about intent.If your intent is to make as much money as possible as fast as possible (i.e short term), the answer is not for you. You’ll do things that other guys/gurus mention such as “Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.” — that’s corny, dull and lacking a long-term vision.Here’s something that I’ve noticed within myself. At a point, I’ve realised I love some companies to the point where I feel like they’re my friend. They’ve done so much good to me and they’ve been “by my side” to a point where I don’t have any problem with parting with my money.There’s an emotional connection between me and them. It may sound dramatic but it’s true. When I pay them I do so happily as I support their cause.Here’s the TLDR answerHelp them grow so you can grow together.By that I mean the freemium model should offer the client the chance to grow — equality of opportunity — and if it does happen that they grow and become profitable, the SaaS starts charging based on that. In a sense, value-based pricing, or at least as much as it could get with a scalable model.In other words, open up the doors for a lot of people and then benefit mutually from the winners.Objection 1But I don’t want to have users on the freemium plan leeching my resourcesNow here’s the catch — I’d say charge the winners enough so that it’ll cover the expenses for those who didn’t get it yet (or leeches, because I know that might be going through your mind, especially if you’re a business person).Charge them enough so that you won’t get mad when you find out about that couple of users that just sucked the benefits of your benevolence and never contributed towards your company.Objection 2I can’t afford to offer the free plan to so many peopleHere’s another magnificent thing that happens when you open the doors for everyone — word of mouth is on steroids. You’re on a fast track to word-of-mouth express. It’s possible you might have heard this comparison before — arguably you can reach 1000 people. And one of these people knows 1000 people. That means you’re a person away from a million. And two people away from a billion.If your intent is to do good and give chances to everyone to prove themselves, within that network of a billion some of the engagements will include how nice it is that your SaaS is doing them good — whether they pay or not.Therefore, I’m pretty confident when I say that the ARR you’ll get to in 1–2 years, given the money you’ll be burning initially because of the free plan (it’s not the case all the time though) will be significantly bigger than the ARR you’d have by implementing the shitty tactic of“Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.”Give them bloody enough if you can. Because you’ll have a customer for life and some of them will become even friends. And then when they win and scale, they’ll be more than happy to pay you. And I’ll state it again: they’ll be happy to pay you amounts of value that will cover for those on a freemium plan.Why? Simple — you see it everywhere. Millionaires who grew up as orphans donate back to orphanages because without these houses, they couldn’t have won. Most of the time it’s more than just THE orphanage they grew up in. We’re humans and once we accumulate resources, if the intent is good in that person, they want to help the cause. Remember what I wrote above that in my case I wanted to contribute to the company’s cause?Objection 3I really can’t afford it because I don’t have the money right now — I’m bootstrapping it, hence no investmentsFair. Charge for what you do, don’t offer a freemium plan or do so but only as a trial. But as soon as you’re able to do what I said above, please do it.The point is this: the more you’re able to give away for free, the more it will come back to you. It won’t make any sense to you unless you’ve experienced it yourself but maybe one single reader will simply trust it by heart and she or he will be taken far.Here’s another choice of words for sceptics: the more you’re able to give to people, the more you’ll be able to ask from them (eventually). Makes sense?Some practical examplesI’ll give some examples below along with a brief description. Cloud services are more prone to do so given the fact that what they offer is more fungible and is easier to be priced in a “pay as you go” model.Dropbox — 2 GB free for anyone. Moreover, get people onboard and we’ll give you more. All for free. Help me, help you.Spotify — free music, no problem. Just ads. If you mind them (i.e. if your time is more valuable than the monthly $10), we’ve got you as well.GitHub — sure, put your beloved code and creations on our platform. Open to anyone. If you’re looking to do more than just a hobby, only then we’ll charge youFirebase — If your database downloads exceed 10 GB/mo, then you’re pretty serious and most probably you can afford to pay for a solution. If not, however, it’s fine, we’ll take the risk with you. Let’s see if your idea works, no problem if it doesn’t. We’ll swallow it.Cloudflare (which I absolutely love by the way, even though I don’t use their service) — You know what guys, we’ll sell you the domains at wholesale price, we won’t get any commission. And if your website is tiny, it’s just a small personal website or a blog that just started, it’s fine. Stay for free. Only later, when you worry about high-performance and security (which is when you’re at a later stage), we’ll start charging you.MailChimpThe bottom lineOpening up the doors for everyone can go this way. One in 10,000 make it through and have a huge impact on the world, which usually is affiliated with resource gathering.If your intent is to create a win-win environment and give equality of opportunity so that eventually the next Leonardo da Vinci will come from under your rooftop (and he won’t forget that), this is a way to solve the freemium-to-premium user conversion problem.——Originally posted here. I run an experiences design agency that helps SaaS CEOs reduce user churn.