#but duckduckgo isn't any better

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Doing research for a conlang

search: indo-european consonant shifts

results: Grimm's law, Grimm's law, nothing but Grimm's law, Germanic languages are the only ones that exist, don't even bother asking about anything else

search: indo-iranian consonant shifts

results: here's a map of Iran, here's ten thousand maps of Iran, and here's a chart of the Persian writing system. How about Indian food near you?

search: proto-indo-european daughter language sound shifts

results: GRIMM'S LAW BABY!!! And here's a map of Eurasia from Wikipedia for your troubles. Fuck you.

I checked; my library district has exactly ZERO books on any of the subjects I'm looking for across 12 branches throughout the entire county. Remember when the internet was the information super highway? I may as well be asking random strangers off the street!

[sroloc--elbisivni]

a Red-Tailed Hawk theory of culture

These photographs are courtesy of this todaysbird post; that post identifies its source as the Macaulay Library but that page won't load for me so I can't confirm. They're here to help me illustrate my point. All of these are examples of real red-tailed hawks.

Speaking of illustrating, this is a screenshot of a duckduckgo search I did two minutes ago for 'red tailed hawk illustration.' You'll notice that most of them follow the same coloration trend, with less variety than the pictures above. In fairness I will note that looking for 'field guide red tailed hawk' promptly yielded a scan from the sibley guide to birds, which represents six varieties in coloration. The information isn't hidden; I'm not suggesting conspiracy. It just struck me as interesting to see the first series of photos when most of the pictures I've seen, and the ones most easily accessible, had a broad and consistent agreement that This Is What A Red-Tailed Hawk Looks Like. Real red-tailed hawks can look any number of ways, but the collective idea of what a red-tailed hawk looks like is fairly set.

So. Metaphor established. Let's talk culture.

I think modern culture tends to embrace the idea that the best sign of authenticity is uniformity. We want a series of markers that can be run against a checklist to confirm yes, this displays the correct signifiers. Yes, this matches our expectations. We know it's a real xyz because it does this-and-such. I don't know what this could be attributed to, though I'm sure you could find any number of things to blame it on. The scientific method requiring repeatable results to prove something. Factory mass-production and the notion of 'the Real McCoy,' the best version of something that works better than the knockoffs. Art authentication where there are often steps required to prove yes this is a real da Vinci. Proliferation of branding and trademark and copyright. The 'No True Scotsman' fallacy, and corollary of 'you're not a real fan if you don't do this.'

The thing is, authenticity in culture doesn't work like that.

There are as many ways to participate in a tradition as there are people who participate it. Got any holidays that your family celebrates in a particular way or with a certain thing, even though the holiday is also observed by a broader group of people? Got any regional traditions that are different if you go to the next town or next neighborhood over? There's no singular way to be involved in a culture. Any culture, I would argue. Even in cultural groups that value conformity, or have a single central authority dictating which things are correct, there are going to be people who approach their position in different ways.

Variety in expression is not a sign of cultural weakness. I would argue, in fact, that it's a sign of strength.

We have a great deal of data from the field of biology to demonstrate the limits of singularity. Consider the campaign the WWF ran back in 2008 that's had followup art projects since, where pictures of endangered animals are made using only one pixel per living member of that species to demonstrate how much harder it is to see that species the less data you have to work with. Consider cheetahs, which are all extremely similar in coloration because the species is suffering from genetic bottleneck. Consider the instability of monocultures, especially clonal monocultures, where entire populations can be killed with the same disease or fungus because they share vulnerabilities.

Moving back to cultural considerations: the singular of culture is too often reduced to 'stereotype.'

Maybe what the tendency to boil things down can be attributed to is simple human desire for pattern recognition. We like knowing what things look like. We like having examples to point to and emulate. There's a pleasure in playing to type, in assuming a role, in fitting oneself to a form. Nuance and variations are hard to remember, and often hard to observe in the first place. There is a very real satisfaction in concrete knowledge.

A culture adhering to a singular presentation, however, is often a culture under threat.

In the interest of not being reductive, I'm going to only offer a single example here, from a situation I'm familiar with: late 20th century efforts to revive Breton, a regional minoritized language in France. After the language underwent a period of (often enforced) decline throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, there were efforts to institute public education in Breton for children and adults, encouraging those who did not already speak the language to learn it, thereby avoiding widespread linguistic dormancy. Mari C. Jones wrote an article in 1998 called 'Death of a Language, Birth of an Identity' that called attention to a difference in traditionally Breton-speaking communities vs. people learning it to participate in cultural revival. She pointed out that cultural revivalists were interested in identifying themselves specifically as Breton, forming an association between themselves and their region as a whole. The traditional speakers, however, were far more likely to identify with their local parish, or their larger diocese, with only a faint connection to the idea of being 'Breton' as an identity. The movement that understood their culture as being under threat was the one focused on constructing a stable, singular, pan-Breton identity.

Variation and internal diversity is the sign of an active and self-sustaining cultural community that has the energy to go a lot of different directions at once.

I suppose the overall point I'm driving at is that the more people there are doing something, the more ways that something should be done, and this isn't a sign that something's gone wrong. One realization I came to after thinking about this is that queer microlabels--which I, personally, am rarely interested in engaging with--are a sign of a healthy and thriving culture. Having the time and energy and space to argue about things like this, rather than needing to appeal to a greatest common denominator of your peers in order to get time and energy and space, is a good sign. Growth is the enemy of conformity. An authentic culture is an adaptive one.

Fundamentally, culture is what people do together, and people are always going to do something different eventually. Illustrations are meant to show reality, not dictate it. There's a lot of ways to look like a red-tailed hawk and there are red-tailed hawks out there proving it every day.

[creature-wizard]

I don’t know how to stop looking at other people as competition, it’s how I was raised. Even with my friends (or former friends, considering they don’t talk to me now), I’m constantly trying to one up them and the ones I’m not trying to one up, my brain has already deemed that I’m “above them” (clearly I’m not or else I wouldn’t be here). My mom repeatedly told me since I was a little kid that the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to me is to be the one clapping for my “friends” while they receive awards and achievements instead of it being me receiving those awards. It’s literally ingrained in me and my cousins, we don’t even like each other because we hate that one is more successful than the other.

Holy shit anon, that's an awful thing to have put in you as a kid, and I'm so sorry that your relationships were sabotaged this way. This was not a normal way to be brought up, and you deserved so, so much better.

What I have found to be effective is to challenge these beliefs and essentially crowd them out with other, beneficial beliefs. Curate an online experience that helps you with this.

As you probably know by now, I have the capacity to be pretty impatient and mean, and one of my Weird Tricks is to channel that onto my inner demons. Like oh, this fucker has the gall to hold me back? Fuck him, I'm gonna kick his ass. This isn't to say that I'm hard on myself or tell myself cruel things; it just means that I take a proactive role in dealing with what's messing me up.

Since this is childhood indoctrination we're talking about, it's going to take awhile. And like any psychological healing journey, your recovery won't be linear; you'll make progress and then you'll have bad days where you slip back for awhile. The bad days don't mean that progress isn't happening; they're just part of the healing journey.

Searching up "how to challenge negative core beliefs" on DuckDuckGo, I can find a number of resources, including this page with a worksheet. I can also find the article How to Spot and Challenge Your Negative Core Beliefs, According to a Therapist, which might also be useful. You can also search up "how to challenge negative core beliefs" for yourself and find more help.

And again, I recommend my post "I'm in a bad place and need to get out, what can I do?" It's got a list of resources, tips, and blogs you can follow. Hopefully at some point you can get an actual therapist, maybe even get on medication of some kind, if that's a thing you're open to. But if you can't do that - at least, not anytime soon - you can at least do the other things I've suggested.

And above all, be patient and kind to yourself. You can do this. It'll take time and work, but you can do this.

[starstruckpurpledragon]

Hey, this is a longshot—but d’you have a link to that “how to remove bloatware on Windows/what bloatware to remove” post?

I’m asking because a friend sent me a link to that one about pc specs you reblogged a while back, and I could’ve sworn I saw the bloatware one in the recommended posts for that one, but I forgot to like the post and now I can’t find it. I finally picked up a windows laptop and need to know what to disable.

So it sounds like you're referring to a post I reblogged from @ms-demeanor but I cannot seem to find it. But tumblr search and even the option of using duckduckgo to search tumblr for me is letting me down. Though the PC Specs post might be this one? https://ms-demeanor.tumblr.com/post/726025900027789312/so-the-counter-to-this-is-that-ssds-are-static

I may poke around a bit more later to see if I can find the post but for now... I can list off some of what I did based on my own recent experiences of setting up a new laptop after my old one decided to start blue screening if I moved it five inches in any direction. (That old laptop is now doing perfectly fine when left completely stationary, so I've been using it to experiment with creating a local file sync for back ups using some old hard drives i had lying around.)

Bloatware Social Media/Video Media Apps:

These are probably pretty obvious bloatware since this is a computer and all these services are therefor going to a.) work on the browser and b.) work better on the browser than the app anyway. Also there are a few cases like Facebook where there's a c.) why would I touch <insert application> with a ten foot pole anyway? reason for removing the App

Instagram

Facebook

Netflix

Prime Video

News - Microsoft news aggregation App (there are better options out there than this for news aggregation)

TikTok

Spotify - depends on your spotify usage tbh, but I don't use it since I just dumped all my music onto my local plex server and use that to play music all over the house

Twitter - Or X, whatever

Additionally:

Any preloaded game you don't find interesting. Depending on the vendor there could be a lot of games or no games.

X-Box gaming apps - while there are some reasons to keep the x-box gaming stuff, most people are gonna find it useless

WildTangent Games

Omen gaming - if you've got an HP laptop specifically, you will probably want to give Omen related game apps the boot too

Vendor specific applications - YMMV, I do keep some of these for diagnostic purposes, but you definitely want to at least give any HP this or Dell that or whatever type programs a harder look. Any program starting with the name of the vendor that created your laptop? At the very least look it up to see how important it really is/isn't

Adobe programs - there are free versions of everything adobe does that do it better than adobe does

3D Viewer - it's a 3D modeling program, but odds are you won't need/want this

Microsoft 365/Office/etc - Unless you need these programs specifically for professional reasons, LibreOffice is free and reliable and has multiple UI modes for the toolbars depending on your preferences

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft ToDo

Microsoft Family

Microsoft Maps

Mixed Reality Portal - Unless you're doing VR dev/VR gaming using this computer, there's no real reason to keep this one

Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft People

Sound Recorder - YMMV, this is useful for recording lectures and the like, but I prefer freeware like Audacity which is more reliable/just works better

Sticky Notes

Weather

Cortana

Amazon Alexa

I'll usually keep Edge around as a backup browser, but Firefox is definitely the best browser out there right now.

[laceratedlamiaceae]

rules: tag 10 people you want to know better! tagged by @sidewalk-scrawls :)

relationship status: waiting for the perfect guy to materialize in my living room because I can't be fucked to go outside and meet people

fav color: probably black, but I'm also very into magenta and everything between green and blue

song stuck in my head: I saw the words "stuck in my head" and I immediately started hearing Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue

last song listened to: Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode. I love that song, like yes words *are* very unnecessary, they *can* only do harm, so true

last google: well I use duckduckgo because I'm too pretentious to use google but it was "Antelope Dendrobiums," because I went to a talk about them at my local orchid society and I impulse bought one (for only $26!) and I had no idea how to care for it

dream trip: if I were to completely ignore all the ethical implications, I'd love to stay at one of those insanely luxurious resorts with rooms right over the water somewhere in the Maldives

anything i want right now: the good hummus that isn't at any of the stores by me and season 2 of ofmd

tagging: uhhhh usually I'm too shy to tag people in these but fuck it, @lordess-dickery-doof @something-about-sunflowers @christocentricqueer @doktorgirlfriend @humblexwanderer @treesofgreen @chokedbyanangel @izzyhandsrightglove @blow-me-a-kis @calicojavk (only if you feel like it of course)

[mordcore]

has anyone else noticed how googling things sucks now? and duckduckgo isn't any better. i'm like battling the AI. im like. no i want to know more about disorganized attachment style developing *later in life* not read the 7392838th bad quality online magazine saying the exact same basic 101 stuff about it. :(

[headspacedad]

kokobot is like an official/sponsored tumblr bot tho from years ago. its supposed to like allow you to anonymously vent to another person who also uses the bot. idk anyone who actually uses it and you still shouldn't give out personal/identifying info but its not a malicious spam bot (or at least not some generic phishing sceme a la our current porn bot issues)

sorry, anon. It looked like a bot, quacked like a bot and hit my IM out of the blue without any invitation from me just like a bot. I did a duckduckgo search after I got your message though and there is a list of articles about how its official but dang! wow, tumblr should know better considering this isn't the first time we've been inundated with an endless wave of porn bots doing the exact same thing. Knee-jerk response was to block that sucker and I can't say I'm sorry I did. Thanks for the clarification. It still seems way too suss to interact with but at least now we knows its Old School tumblr suss and not invasive porn bot suss.

[vivaciouscynner]

15 questions, 15 people

I FORGOT - was away for a while - sure I'll do it Tagged by @laas-yahnir

Nickname: Cyn

Sign: Libra

Height: 5'5" - 5'10" while not slouching

Last Thing I Googled: I duckduckgo!

Number of followers: as of posting, 36 - fair tbh. I don't post much.

Amount of sleep: Hahaha

Dream job: Novelist I suppose. Any position, really, that'll allow me to write stories.

Wearing: The clippings of a sheep. Stayin' warm

Movie/Book that summarizes you: This is a bit different than a favorite movie/book isn't it? jeez, I dunno. Here, I'll pick a favorite, but I won't tell you why: Breaking Legacies - Zoe Reed

Favorite song: Unable to pick a fav. I bounce and hop around a lot - She Wolf - Shakira - Dancing in the Dark - Au/Ra - Monster - Meg Myers - Goodbye - Ramsey

There's an unfortunate large handful of songs I just can't remember until I come across them again.

Favorite Instrument: Not a particular instrument, just - I like the uncommon. Thinking in terms of the herdy gerdy.

Aesthetic: Plain and boring. Using not bright colors due to sensitive eyes, but I'd love to go crazy luxury designer level and go all out - like met gala levels.

Favorite authors: - Zoe Reed - Tamsyn Muir - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone MAINLY for their wonderful gift of This Is How You Lose the Time War

I need to read more. I'm sure CL Clark will be one if I ever get around to reading The Unbroken

Random Fun Fact: I program. Not sure how fun that is but I've got a pet project that I hope to debut one day that will help fic authors organize their thoughts better than an outline. Like linking whole scenes to future chapters so you don't forget about them

[mademoisellesarcasme]

I'm trying to help a friend find some good examples of short hairstyles to offer a hairdresser as options, and I'm having a bear of a time with google and duckduckgo image searches both completely ignoring my search requests. It doesn't help that style magazines think that a "long bob" or a "lob" counts as "short" (it really doesn't, please shut up) and the terms "wash and go" aren't giving me anything that isn't heavily styled (which is ... not ... wash and go ....). Style mags also seem incapable of understanding face shapes.

tl;dr trying to find hairstyle inspiration for a friend and global internet searches suck, any better options?

[deep-fried-byleth]

Hello people in the notes who are as equally 💀 as me

First of all, tumblr misinformation strikes again (again) though I'm not blaming OP or anyone for not knowing better, we're all human and make mistakes (genuinely, I'm not being sarcastic) And second of all, here's some *proper* privacy/security advice from someone who actually has a degree and interest in this kind of thing (me). And if you don't trust me, check out PrivacyGuides.org and/or PrivSec.dev which are run by people who are well-informed and are part of the security and privacy community 1. Chromium isn't bad in of itself. When it comes to android, you *should* be running a chromium-based browser (ideally Vanadium (if you can run GrapheneOS), Cromite, or Brave) given that Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers are genuinely behind in security on mobile. On iOS (i.e., iPhones and iPads), everything is Webkit so don't worry about it, just install Adguard it's okay. On Windows or Linux, use Firefox or Brave and on MacOS just use Safari but turn on Advanced Data Protection in your iCloud settings. If a site breaks, Brave is probably the least worst Chromium when it comes to privacy, just be sure to turn off all the crypto and vpn bs. For search, use Duckduckgo, Startpage, or Brave Search which at this point are probably all as good as (or better sometimes) than Google with how gamed with SEO the google search results are these days. And lastly, install uBlock Origin on Firefox/Brave and Adguard on Safari. You DO NOT need multiple adblock extensions. 2. Duckduckgo is not "selling your data zomg!!" nor is Mozilla just an extension of Google. The former is a result of people misinterpreting a part of DDG's agreement with MS for the ability to use their Bing search results as one of the components of DDG's (tl;dr they needed a way to track results originating from DDG as well as track the number of ads being displayed (which you shouldn't see if you just use uBlock Origin anyway)), and the latter is FOSSbros' (you are so lucky if you don't know what a FOSSbro is...) smear against Mozilla because it's too "woke" and they can't openly say that without sounding like hypocrites for supporting free (as in liberty) software but not diversity and inclusion. The truth to it is that yes, Google as part of its monopoly bs pays mozilla money to stay as default search on Firefox and that significantly funds Mozilla, but it's not their only source. As for the other fearmongering about Mozilla's privacy policy, just use Librewolf or apply Arkenfox to FF, you don't technically have to use Firefox as is. 3. Vivaldi is... a browser. When it comes to privacy and security, Firefox with Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection turned on or Brave with the crypto shit off would both be better, but it's your life I'm not your mom 4. If Firefox runs slowly on your computer, you probably have an old computer and/or a low end computer with barely any memory, which I'm honestly shocked is able to run Chrome "well". Unless you literally just can't afford better, get a decent computer or just switch to a used iPad that's a couple years old with a keyboard case. If you simply just can't afford that, I'm sorry and I hope you can get out of that situation because at this point, the internet and a decent computer should really just be human rights. 5. Honestly just like, spend some time reading through PrivacyGuides it's nice, practical advice for anyone that cares even a little about their own privacy *and don't get your tech knowledge off popular tumblr posts*

hello google chrome refugees

don't use any of these browsers, they're also chrome

Here are my favorite firefox plugins for security/anti-tracking/anti-ad that I recommend you get

please get off chrome google is currently being investigated for being an Illegal Monopoly so get outta there okay love you bye

[dreamerandthedarkhalf]

I don't think our technology is actually making things better

So I finally booted up the new laptop last night and it's more like an infectious disease than something actually beneficial to my life. I'm hoping I can get my actual laptop repaired and get it back because this new use of technology is absolute garbage. Disabling stuff took me like three hours last night (because they hide all the options for privacy and it takes forever to find and click each individual thing) and I'm still not done.

1) you can't even turn it on without having an active internet connection

2) according to the license and user agreement, you as the user have ZERO rights and the corporation(s) have all the rights over you and your use of their software

2a) as an example, the license software says that it can deactivate and delete any anti-malware software that isn't part of the W operating system

2b) the license software also says that by using any of the software on the machine that came with the machine that you had no say over being on the machine that you agree to all their terms and conditions

2c) the license software also says that you agree you can never take them to court and all disputes with them must be provided to them in writing and then solved in like small claims court or without a judge and jury

3) you actually can't download ANYTHING from outside the W Store (I mean, you CAN but you have to disable some things that can't be reenabled, which isn't bad, it's just annoying)

4) you can't download or use a browser that isn't E, nor can you use search browsers like duckduckgo as a default because it only allows you to use E and B (again, you CAN, but you have to permanently disable some stuff)

5) all the things have the "right" things to say listed in the text, like "your privacy is important to us" --> no it isn't. you don't give two piles of poo about MY privacy, as you want to use your invasive programs to track my entire life and use me for data-mining

[lazyscience]

In order to name a specific person as your executor, you need to have a will - otherwise the court will appoint someone, usually a family member, which is exactly what a lot of you don't want. With legal gay marriage, your spouse is the first priority choice for executor unless you choose someone else, and they'll keep their access to joint property, policies and bank accounts. When there isn't a will OR a marriage, shit gets really gray legally.

If you're a grown adult who pays your own bills, has your own bank accounts, has any retirement plans/has ever contributed to social security, and/or have life insurance, you should have a will. I know, I know, there's always time for that.

Spoiler: there is not, in fact, always time for that and it becomes a mess for your loved ones to deal with if you didn't.

You can say you know you partner's wishes, but you will be tied up a lot longer in probate if there's no will even if there are no challenges (probate=the legal process of disposing of an estate). Probate is MUCH shorter when there is a legally sound will - you can't do that shit like on TV where you write "I leave all my worldly possessions to my love, X. Havisham-Goode" on a piece of notebook paper and have a nurse and a janitor date and sign as witnesses - well, you CAN, but it's not like Murder She Wrote, your survivor will probably not find it very useful. Without a will, executor or not, if there's a challenge whoever can afford the most for lawyers will probably end up winning the battle for whatever property/belongings were at issue - like a shared house or bank accounts.

You can buy willmaking software that will do the job for most of us who don't have lots of property, but resign yourself to probably having to spend between $150-300, or more depending on how complicated your situation is/what kind of mutual property you own. If you have a house, significant retirement income in a 401K/IRA/other investments, and/or ESPECIALLY if you have kids, you should probably talk to a lawyer in person - guardianships in particular are nothing to fuck around with on an amateur level. DuckDuckGo "LGBT estate planning (your city/county/state)" to find someone knowledgeable near you, check the Better Business Bureau/Google for reviews, ask your friends who they used. It's not important you LIKE your lawyer, but you should feel like they know what they're doing and are professionally respected.

Look up your state's specific laws and constitution; it's unlikely that the Trump administration will be able to just retroactively ban gay marriages and say none of them ever existed. HOWEVER, what could happen is exactly what happened when Roe was overturned - states that have their own specifically gender neutral or specifically queer marriage friendly laws will continue to allow gay marriage that will need to be honored because of interstate commerce clauses but forbidden to continue in unfriendly states. What would be a whole disaster is if both Obergefell were overturned and the Respect for Marriage Act (2022) had constitutional challenge brought and was overturned - and even then, there would need to be a new federal law passed to forbid gay marriage. This process would not be able to happen on January 21st, 2025 - but be sure they'll be trying for it sometime over the next four years.

What you all need to do is not wait for there to be publicity about it. Hammer your Congressperson, blue or red, male or female, actual phone calls best, second letters, third faxes, fourth emails with YOU LEAVE GAY MARRIAGE THE FUCK HOW IT IS OR YOU'RE GETTING PRIMARIED (maybe a little nicer than that - but ONLY a little)

And fill out your durable power of attorneys, healthcare directives and write your wills in the meantime. They're good things to do even if the fashies don't come for gay marriage; they're a form of tangible help and support you can give your spouse even when you can't do it in person any more. Believe me when I tell you serious illness or death is going to be horrendous for your loved one WITHOUT having to book a seance to figure out what you really wanted, and it'll be invaluable if the worst does happen legally.

Before January 2025:

If you are a USAmerican in a relationship that might be affected by legislation that dissolves same-sex marriages, who may no longer be recognized as next-of-kin, especially if you have children, get your rights in writing!

Your marriage certificate may not be enough to prove you have rights to make medical decisions for non-biological children or for a same-sex spouse or partner.

Go to a lawyer, get it spelled out as clearly as possible that you have a voice in emergency medical and legal situations.

[anarchopuppy]

I've seen your reccomendations about browsers and I use Firefox- but what about search engines? I've been using duckduckgo but it isn't very... good. I run a dnd game and frequently search for kind of specific things... For example I spent half an hour trying to find the width of a train on duckduckgo and when I finally gave up and tried google it was the first result.

Do I just have to suffer through it and occasionally use google if there's really nothing on duckduckgo, or is there a better option?

If you’re asking for my recommendation, I don’t recommend any search engine other than DDG

It can sometimes give bad results for very specific things (a lot of people exaggerate this way beyond the real issue, though). In those cases, after initially trying DDG, you can use bangs, such as putting !w before a search to have it redirect to Wikipedia, !wa for Wolfram Alpha, or !g for google

If you need to use google often though, consider downloading TrackMeNot. It automatically does fake searches to hide your real data from google, and you can configure it to do that with all of the search engines you use

[marigoldwitch]

Sharing Information: Witchcraft + Occult

Okay, firstly I want to say that you don't owe anyone your time or energy. If you don't want to answer questions or share information you don't have to but, if you're presenting yourself as a mentor or a teacher of the craft and/or the occult it shouldn't come as a surprise when someone asks for more information; or if they have follow up questions about the information you shared. I was inspired to make this post because I noticed a huge influx of witches (specifically on social media platforms) resorting to the classic "just Google it" or "Google is free" response when someone asks for information or is asking a follow up question regarding information that was shared to them.

And you know what, I'm definitely guilty of this. I even made a post that suggested using Google to do research. And I stand by that, you should be doing your own research, on your own time, when it comes to things you’re specifically interested in that hasn't really been discussed by anyone you've been following online. I still think Googling (all though I've heard duckduckgo is better) is your best bet if you want to do independent research. But this is about witches who share information and then when asked follow up questions about the information they resort to "google it" instead of sharing their sources. There's a few reasons this isn't helpful. So let's get into them..

✨ If you're sharing information in a way that comes off unquestionably factual but lack the basic essentials of having sources available for readers, listeners or viewers to do their own research with, then how are they suppose to trust that you're reliable? Or that your information is even correct?

🌙 Google works with an algorithm, just like any other website. It uses collected information from the users internet history to determine what it thinks will be the most information websites or relatable websites for their search results. It's why when you tell a racist to Google CRT they're not given the same results that you are. <- of course this is simplified and it’s a bit more complex than this but you get my point lol.

🌈 Even if the user used something like a VPN so that websites like Google can't track their internet use, the way something is phrased in Google is gonna effect what information you're given. For example:

Someone, who is skeptical of crystal magic, asks me "so how are crystals supposedly magical?" and I respond "google is free, google it." They're probably gonna google something like "are crystals really magical?" instead of "the magical properties of crystals." The results are wildly different. the first one gives a bunch of skeptics takes on crystal magic and healing. The second search gives actual information about the spiritual and religious ties crystals have to magical practices.

☀️ It's way easier, and more helpful, to have an arsenal of links (or book recommendations) on hand when discussing a specific topic. Especially if you're doing so from a position of self imposed authority on the topic.

🌟 And at last it's okay to tell them "Idk" or "I'm not sure but if you Google [specific phrasing of question here] you might get some answers." At least tell them what it is they're googling and how to phrase it.

I think we all resort to “just Google it” because we’re aware that we’re all online communicating with each other and we all have access to the same tools. So we assume we should be given equal access to the same information, which isn’t always true. So yeah. I hope this is helpful. And I promise to also try to be better at citing sources or answering questions (when and if I can) and to be honest when I don’t know the answers.

Buy me a coffee

[onewomancitadel]

tbh i love that you arent really the type to...ig 'entertain'? negativity and public crit about other authors 🥰🥰 i dont get the thought process behind going to another author and being like WOW YOURE SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS OTHER GUY WHO SUCKS!! bc i know id cry if i saw that about myself </3 ALSO im having fun catching up on skimming eye i love your characterization of them <3

do you think youre not really a knightfall fic reader because of your specific tastes for the ship? because i know thats why i dont generally READ fic for the rarepairs i enjoy. its less likely ill find other authors who have the same thoughts and characterizations as me so i just sit in my little corner and write my own stuff. have a good evening 🥰

I do appreciate you saying that. For the record, I think any anons who come to me talking about other fic or fic authors are well-meaning, and I don't hold any ill-will. Truthfully, I generally don't hold ill-will, because I try to assume the best of somebody interacting with me, even if I assume the worst re: my own fic lol.

I just think it isn't immediately apparent it can be extremely awkward for me, so I think handling it with sincerity is the way to go. It's always better to be sincere (:

I also also sort of think that personal/private discussion of fic is different to public. I mean, I was websearching my fic on duckduckgo to see if a reupload of Skimming Eye had been taken down at my request, and I found a Reddit thread where my fic was being discussed. Someone said I read too much into canon and attribute too much importance to intertextual sources - someone actually defended me/disagreed to be fair - but it also makes me crie and I didn't want to ever post online ever again. So I would be a literal and actual hypocrite if I were publically mean.

(On the other hand, I doubt that user ever intended me to see it, so it's not really fair of me to be upset, and that's why I don't feel bad about it now - and who even follows my blog? I really doubt any other Knightfall fic authors, other than my friend Sunset Hunting, is going to see anything, and he knows he's great. I am still trying to be nice though).

Also ideologically, I think that more discourse and more ideas is always better. If you have different opinions about a ship or what it would look like, you're allowed to express that, and it can be meaningful if that's derived from a depiction you dislike.

ALSO im having fun catching up on skimming eye i love your characterization of them <3

Thank you. <3 <3 <3 That's so sweet... I hope you are enjoying it (: What is it like reading it as a sort of non-Knightfall shipper?

do you think youre not really a knightfall fic reader because of your specific tastes for the ship? because i know thats why i dont generally READ fic for the rarepairs i enjoy. its less likely ill find other authors who have the same thoughts and characterizations as me so i just sit in my little corner and write my own stuff.

Delicately, yes.

I was in the corner on my own making my dollies kiss for the better part of a year and a half before I even discovered other Knightfall fic, and given *gestures to my entire fucking useless blog* all of my R/WBY opinions I have a very particular rendering of them in my head, and it can be sort of psychically violent to read things which contradict it. It's an issue I near-universally encounter the minute I start writing for a pairing - not reading - so the moment of real and total commitment.

I didn't have this issue with Reylo mostly because I did manage to find renderings of Reylo that really fit the two of them in my head, chiefly Sword of the Jedi series by diasterisms and anything written by corseque. Chelsea's Reylo is... so perfect it makes my heart hurt.

But that was possible because Reylo is such a huge fucking ship. Statistically speaking someone else is going to have a similar reading.

It's only harder with Knightfall because of my opinions on the show, the smallness of the ship, the varying points of canon at which other fics have been written, etc. and I think it's great that other authors are having fun, by the same virtue I am also allowed to have my pet opinions in the corner.

It is very well-known that my understanding of R/WBY conflicts with some and I maintain the semi-controversial (????) opinion that V8 is my favourite volume. V4-5 are my comfort watch volumes. I'm here for a different thing, lol.

I love Byronic heroine bad wizard Fall Maiden Cinder Fall and sweet but a little mean healer Jaune and that's kind of my thing. I don't want to read Volumes 1-3-era Knightfall because that's not really what I'm there for, for instance. And the Byronic heroism has to be there for Cinder, if she's just a flat femme fatale I'm out.

There is one thing I can comment on though, speaking as a woman, which is that the depictions of Cinder I've encountered in some fanfic - not naming any names - is frankly misogynistic. And frankly, I don't have to read that to be nice.

By misogynistic I mean, like, examples of Cinder's narration that are straight-up not the way women as human beings think about themselves, or reductions of her character, and again in respect to Jaune taking away everything interesting about them gender-wise and making it fulfil romance ideals which are decidedly not my own. And it's repugnant to read.

That's kind of what makes the issue more difficult and is why I prefer not to comment as well. I'll write my own stuff, lol.

So yeah, Knightfall is kind of a special case in some ways honestly. Is it a rare OTP? I think it's rare, at least in terms of people who earnestly and singularly ship it. It seems like multishipping is much more common. I at least don't now how I have attracted the readership I have, for what it's worth, lol.

Now, I hope I haven't stepped on any toes mentioning misogyny in other fic, but I think it's a distinct issue from issues with characterisation (for instance, I don't think the misogyny is a show-accurate rendering).

It's what makes it hard for me, as a female reader, to look at a lot of other Knightfall fic, and to be quite honest I want to remain ignorant. It's not like the boys want me to play with their toys, anyway.

Btw, whilst we're here, I really like your fic. There's a positive note. (:

[crasher33]

All of this, but I would also like to add that DuckDuckGo uses Bing's index and is, essentially, an alternative front end to Bing. This isn't necessarily awful, but I never cared for Bing as a search engine (and I really wanted to like Bing). It just wasn't as good as Google was in it heyday. Even if its better than Google is now

However, Brave Search (search.brave.com) uses its own, independent index. I know Brave as a company has had some ups and down (most notably going all-in on crypto), but I've been using it for a while and I feel it gives better results than DuckDuckGo, while also keeping your information private.

You don't have to use the Brave browser or have an account with them to use Brave Search either. I set it as my default search engine in Firefox and but that can be done on any browser.

I honestly recommend giving Brave Search a try. Maybe perform your searches in both and see which results you like better.

google siting ao3 as a source is so unhinged