#but i feel humans are not as nonsensical as an algorithm

[arcadelife2021]

The AI Debate

Look, I get the whole hating on AI because it steals content from creators to train itself, I understand disregarding it as actual art because it was created from algorithms and pre-made images, I even sympathize with the disappointment most people feel when find out something they were interested in (be that an artwork, a fanfiction, or anything else) was artificially generated.

But for the love of everything, stop acting like it is the end of the world as we know it.

AI is a tool. AI can be misused, like literally any other tool. The original purpose of AI was to cut down on research time, and to provide resources to those who didn't have access to them.

Have an idea you want to explore, a certain room in a fanfiction you want to describe but are either lacking the skill in descriptive writing or simply cannot find a good enough reference anywhere, or have the money or time to commission an artist to create it for you, as well as factoring in changes? Generate an image to give yourself a clearer picture of what you are already imagining.

Can't find that exact right phrase that would tie your work together in a beautiful little bow, giving yourself the satisfaction that you spent hours and hours pouring your creativity into it and the gratification that you finally completed it? Tell an AI to rephrase a sentence for you.

Don't have the time to properly research the nuances of a specific character's speech style you'd like to include in your writing? Don't have the energy to get farther than just your idea and actually try to come up with a plot that would tie into it? Tell the AI to make a prompt. Let it give you information and inspiration and a starting point.

It is the people you should hate. The ones who pass off entirely AI generated works as their own, the ones who benefit from no other work than putting in 1 line of text and having it create the rest. It is the ones who misuse a tool. It is designed to assist you, not create for you.

When you utilize AI with its original intention, it is absolutely no different than asking your friend to beta edit your story, pouring over a thesaurus to find the right word for your story, or spending hours finding the perfect reference images, just that it's faster.

Yes, AI is flawed in it's information sometimes. Quite literally everything is. Whether you got your information from a textbook, firsthand accounts, AI, or the News makes absolutely no difference - you will never have the entire story, you will always be missing pieces because the people providing the information are biased. Everyone is biased. It's called pushing a narrative, and it might be wrong but it's a real thing that really happens, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Yes, AI is bad for the environment because of carbon emissions in their energy usage. Literally no different from the celebrities using their private jets to fly everywhere, the fashion industry creating cheaply made clothing just to end right back up in a landfill, or pesticides and inorganic fertilizers in agriculture. The world doesn't care, you can't cherry pick a particular angle of a problem to use in your argument without including the things that are better or worse, and the benefits and consequences of doing so.

Be as mad as you want, but AI misusage will inevitably happen because humans are inherently selfish and starved for instant gratification. It is inevitable that your creations will be misused for personal gain, that's the sad shitty reality we live in.

So please, stop your incessant whining and filling up all of these fanfiction tags with AI debate nonsense. You complain about people leaving negative feedback on works when there's a back button? Take your own damn advice. Report it and move on.

[hplonesomeart]

Hey!! So turns out a video I made between a certain “well beloved but highly sensitive/emotionally reactive T.V” and an “orange haired inkling-turned-human” has managed to sweep my YouTube channel and accumulate 100k VIEWS!! THAT’S A LOT OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY?? My most widely viewed video EVER to exist in this moment in time?? AAAAA?? Not even mentioning the various comments and staggering increase in subs! It’s so much more then what I expected or even prepared for—might even be the most impactful thing to happen for me this year <3

…aside from graduating high school + the social connections I’ve been fortunate to make lol

BUT THE POINT IS I’d been closely monitoring the YouTube growth through the entirety of October. It’s make me smile like a dork, gawk in astonishment, dance frantically in my room from the energy boosts, and grow courage to stop being so selective/self-conscious with what I wish to share with the world! It’s kept my ambitions going!

I needed to find some way to celebrate the occasion and express my thanks—because I can’t NOT acknowledge this milestone jksjskp. Typically I try to avoid getting tunnel visioned focusing on the metrics/numbers. Mr. Puzzles had already demonstrated how much those things can mess with the minds of creatives. Caring too much about chasing views or placing your artistic value in attention seeking gets damaging. But at same time…it’s hard to deny the sense of pride the 100k achievement has filled me with. I understand that reaching 100k views doesn’t immediately make me any “better” or “worse” then I was before. I’m still just me! It only helps me feel seen by others—and that’s all I really needed. To hear some nice words & receive reminders that my ideas are cared about. So thank you SMG4 fandom for that, seriously thank you.

Please accept this Mr. Puzzle drawing as a way of sharing the happiness around. He’s so entertaining. Love him for simply existing. So glad we can all collectively be super attached to him (and the rest of the SMG4 cast of course). Can’t wait to see more incredible artworks from the fandom :)

Just incase anyone is confused by my vague description over which “animated video” I’m referring to here—hopefully this photo will help clarify lol. It’s this one!! Sorry about not outright stating the title at the start, I got carried away with writing!!

I’ve been in an odd place mentally when thinking about it. Wondering to myself if any of the attention is deserved considering it’s not even fully colored and could be dismissed as “low effort” content (despite taking several days making it). It’s easy to get into a trap of comparing yourself to others and questioning how much of the videos success is based on your skills, sheer algorithm luck, or only because you used popular characters and catered to a specific fandom. And then judging yourself by looking at other peoples videos. I’ve seen several artists post higher quality works then my own but it somehow gets less views. So why did mine succeed when others (who should have gotten just as much attention if not more) didn’t? Sometimes you feel like you’ve unfairly robbed them of that chance to be seen. However I’ve realized that I can’t ever expect views to be consistent—and comparing is pointless. So why worry about it or feel inadequate? I mean it’s pretty common for funny cat videos to go viral, so who am I to question the system lol. “Popular” YouTube videos can range from a passion project which took 7+ artists…to a clip of Toad singing Chandelier or a nonsensical Vine sketch. Anything can happen when it’s the internet! And just-so-happened my video was chosen. I should stay glad about that and get rid of all the overanalyzing. So that’s what I’ve chosen to do :)

[halforcdad]

i remember begrudgingly getting into ncis: hawaii bc the youtube algorithm would not stop recommending me kate and lucy videos no matter how much i ignored them. i didnt know then that i'd find a pairing and a show that would mean so much to me.

this cancellation is not the first and it won't be the last, but it has left me particularly and extremely heartbroken.

kacy means a lot to me. it's the first ship that's made me feel something in a long time, maybe since high school. ill never forget the genuine excitement, the heartache, the happiness, they made me feel, especially in season 1. ill never forget this show and the ʻOhana i never knew id get so invested in.

i look back in my drafts and i still see posts i never finished about s2 and stuff i had yet to post about s3. i still had so much to say about the show. and they still had so much to give us. its a damn shame that they weren't even given a goodbye season.

was it shitty, corny copaganda at the end of the day? yes. was the writing sometimes rushed and nonsensical? absolutely. did they waste a whole season developing a character that had nothing to do with the core cast? you bet. but the cast and crew didn't deserve such a cruel, untimely cancellation without a chance to say goodbye (especially for shows that include a nasty dude who assaults his costars). the human aspect of it all is painful on its own. the show wasn't perfect at all, but it had heart, it had a good cast and crew, and i know i will miss it terribly.

most of all, i'll miss all the good times i had posting about the show and talking about it with everyone here. it's led me to meet some special people that i'm eternally grateful for and reignited a creative passion in me i haven't felt in a while. I'll always remember kacy and hold them dear in my heart. but I won't be giving up on them any time soon. even after the show ends, ill still be here, going insane over them and all the possibilities we won't get to see. kacy gave me such hope and happiness for the future, and i hope everyone keeps that spark alive.

[moderatelyquicksilversposts]

Witchy Slop: Horoscopes, Taroscopes, Interactive Readings

Some weeks ago I got asked why I only present readings I did for myself or others, and don't do interactive readings which may be useful to more people. The question was asked in good faith and in good faith I answered. But I thought it made for a nice article. As usual, I will be brash and abrasive, because I'm not an easy person, but I mean no disrespect to any particular individual.

Horoscopes. In reality, horoscopes are more the invention of journalists than of astrologers: astrologers just unwittingly lent themselves to the farce. Horoscopes are predicated on the fundamental misunderstanding that the place the Sun occupies at birth automatically has something to say about us. This is a relatively modern invention in the long history of astrology, and anyone who thinks about it seriously for even five minutes must conclude that, in order to say anything at all about one twelfth of the world population purely based on their month of birth, one needs to water down everything one says to the point that nothing is said at all except playing into the belief that everyone is adorably quirky (oh those Aries boys who ram through everything, oh those Gemini girls always being nutty). That some astrologers, realizing this, feel the need to add Moon signs, Rising signs etc. into the equation does not improve matters at all: a fundamentally silly idea multiplied by itself remains silly.

Taroscopes. Taroscopes are an even more modern invention. They substitute or complement the reading of a sun sign chart with a broad card reading (usually tarot, hence the name). They started popping up on social media some ten years ago as a way of feeding the sludgeflow of nonsense that is required to keep the algorithm satisfied. I am pretty sure they started out as a silly game, then some saw that it was good for business. I am even aware of established readers who haughtily denounced taroscopes for the travesty of divination that they are, only to bend the knee once it was clear the current flowed in one direction only.

Interactive Readings. Interactive readings are the height of silliness, and the perfect exemplification of the word 'slop'. Choose between Deck One and Deck Two and listen to why he doesn't deserve you because you are such a special, intuitive an free-minded queen. Choose between the butterfly and the butter knife and listen to why all the narcissists in your life hate you for being such an authentic empath (somehow those buying into this nonsense are always surrounded by narcissists, yet they are never narcissists themselves). That's the essence of interactive readings as a further development from taroscopes.

The reality is that divination is already hard as it is, being an imprecise and complex art due to the amount of factors to be considered and the fallibility of humans in considering them. Trying to extend it to a whole swath of people who randomly happen to bump into your video or post is beyond ludicrous.

In attempting to justify this travesty to themselves, some readers are eternally caught between two stances: "if you bump into it, it is meant for you" and "if it doesn't resonate it's not the right message", logic being the first thing to fly out the window once someone decides to be a brave and empowered little witch. Of course you'll always find someone who responds to an interactive saying "I chose the butterfly. That's exactly it, that's me to a T". And those are the unlucky ones, because they get roped into a world of self-delusion and meaningless hype (the universe seems to be constantly cooking up something big for you, according to interactive readers).

So yeah, that's why I stick to traditional readings

MQS

[zalmoxis-the-great]

Scared you! Short Story -Orizyn

‘Are you afraid of anything ?’ asked Trazyn curiously.

‘I am not like one of those unclean organics. I can control my emotions.' Answered Orikan, looking at the screaming humans running away from another human, the former wearing a mask and a knife, sprinting, in turn, after them. ‘It is nonsensical to be afraid when you can control your engramatical processes.’

The archivist asked Orikan to join him on a trip to a small agri-world, to witness one of their harvest festivals, which involved the participants trying to scare themselves using masks and sudden jumps or noises.

‘Yes, but being afraid involves the lack of control over a situation’, Trazyn retorted, greedily looking at the humans wearing masks. ‘ I, for example, am very afraid of a certain someone coming to ruin my Galleries’ he turned and glared hard at Orikan. ‘You must be afraid of something! What if someone managed to transcend before you ?’

The cryptek rolled his ocular.

‘Firstly, I know this will not happen’. He turned his attention to one human wearing a long black cape staring in their general direction. They should have been covered by Trazyn’s distortion field. Why was it staring at them. ‘Secondly, I would just involve myself, so that I could learn how it happened, or to stop it if I deem it hazardous for the tapestry of destiny.’

‘Hmmm’, the archivist let out a static hum from his vocal actuators. ‘Orikan could you hold this for me?’

Orikan, still looking at the eerie human, grabbed whatever Trazyn gave him.

‘Fine.’ He said as he started to turn his head to the overlord.

Looking at what he held, he was met with a logical error from his algorithms.

His cognition engrams were malfunctioning.

He could feel the star in his reactor core collapsing.

He was holding Trazyn’s deactivated head in his hands.

Trazyn was dead.

Alert protocols overtook the logical centers as he almost instantly started reciting the incantations to travel back in time.

A moment before he intoned the last words, his head finished the movement, as he turned to face where Trazyn was.

The image of the smiling overlord brought first relief, then anger as the time started to turn backward.

‘Are you afraid of anything ?’ asked Trazyn curiously.

Orikan turned to stare into his oculars.

‘It would be foolish to admit to such weakness’, he answered. ‘ Not everybody is so obviously afraid to get their possessions destroyed’.

Trazyn sent a pouting glyph in the interstitial channel they were sharing.

‘Spending time with you feels like facing my fears every day’, he replied, unhappily with the fact that the cryptek didn’t take the bait.

Orikan turned to where the odd human should be, only to find it empty.

‘There are some things even I fear’.

[jungkoode]

The craziest thing about this plagiarism thing is this person genuinely seems to be talking like you. If i didnt see typos i woumd have thought they just put your writing through an AI to spit out the story and all your messages. Its lowkey freaking me out

Roo babe you are NOT the first person to bring this up to me and honestly I’ve been chewing on it for a bit now because it opens up a super fascinating discussion—not just about plagiarism, but also about authorship, mimicry, and the whole “is this AI-generated?” panic that’s been circling in digital spaces. So buckle up, I’m gonna go full nerd-out mode for a second. (ueheheeh)

First off, I want to be really clear about something:

I’m not going to comment on whether or not this person is using AI. It’s not my place, and frankly, there’s no reliable way to prove it. AI detection tools? Garbage. You can run Shakespeare or Emily Dickinson through one and it’ll tell you it was “95% AI-generated” like okay sure girl, tell that to her ghost. They struggle with nonstandard syntax, figurative language, sentence length variation—you know, all the things that make writing good.

That being said, yes, I’ve seen the comparisons. Yes, some things have felt uncanny. And no, I’m not here to accuse—but I do think it’s worth unpacking why certain works can feel eerily derivative or off in tone, and how authentic author voice is something that can’t really be faked—not by AI, not by a human, not successfully and not sustainably.

Because here’s the thing:

You can mimic the notes, but you can’t recreate the melody.

I actually talked about this with Vani yesterday—the difference between writing inspired by something and trying to simulate the internal architecture of someone else’s voice. And for anyone who’s wondering, no, my style didn’t come from thin air either😭. I think I’m heavily influenced by authors like H.D. Carlton (and I don’t mean content-wise—I mean that whole unfiltered, “nice going bitch” inner monologue thing that sounds like your own brain is narrating your downfall? Yup. Guilty). But I also read a lot. I’ve consumed hundreds of books across multiple genres and languages. It shows. It should show.

But what’s mine—what no one can copy, whether AI or person—is my actual authorial fingerprint. That’s the part that’s not just voice, but rhythm. Structure. Quirk. Obsession.

Like:

My slowburns are so drawn-out they start growing moss. That’s intentional. That’s tension. That’s craft.

My metaphors, my scent anchors, the whole aura thing in KGP that’s sometimes a bit cringe (I WAS YOUNGER. LET ME LIVE) the foreshadowing that goes back 20 chapters (YES, I really did plan that thing from chapter 5. Please ask Koops. She has suffered).

The inner monologues that spiral in this very specific way—you know the one. Where it’s like “I am an emotional disaster but also I’m hilarious and aware and self-deprecating and now I’m going to make you cry.

The way my character decisions are rooted in deep, documented psychology. I literally write trauma-informed character arcs that come from hours of academic research and behavioral theory. Ask me why someone acts a certain way and I’ll send you a thesis. I HAVE BOOOOKSSS at home and printed academic papers. I’m a huge nerd for psychological depth.

The literal strikethroughs with UNICODE and the nonsensical random thoughts I add in parenthesis with sometimes way too poor grammar.

The syntax tics—slightly off ((;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`)) because I’m polyglot, so sometimes my brain switches mid-sentence structure between Spanish, French, and English. I’m aware of it. It’s part of what makes my sentence formation just a little “wrong” in a right way. A kind anon once said it was “beautiful weird grammar” and I still don’t know if I should thank them or cry.

All of that? That’s not style. That’s signature. That’s how you know it’s me.

And no—no algorithm, no mimic, no person trying to pass off a lookalike will ever be able to reproduce that. Because those things are the result of my lived experience, my linguistic patterns, my thought rhythms, my emotional palette, my obsessive characterization spreadsheets, and no offense but there’s no “ChatKiki” prompt in existence that can replicate that chaos. (Yet. Please don’t try.)

Also fun fact: AI models still struggle with basic semantic memory coherence. You can ask them how many “r”s are in “strawberry” and they’ll hallucinate the answer. They have trouble with consistency across long texts. They can’t maintain internal character logic, emotional throughlines, or nuanced symbolic motifs over extended narrative arcs. You know what can do that? My obsessive brain and my hundreds of tabs open at all times.

And even if a person—human or bot—tries to copy it? It doesn’t work. Long-term. Eventually. Because you cannot mimic the why. You can replicate the what—but the heartbeat behind it? That’s mine. That’s years of growth, grief, therapy, rage, books, trauma, hope, and yes—pride!! I own the way I write because it comes from inside, not from a prompt or a pre-trained pattern.

So yeah. It might be easy to get spooked when something sounds close. But when it comes down to it—I’m still here. I’m still building.

And there’s no facsimile in the world that can hold a candle to the real thing when it’s rooted in lived voice.

[unclekoopus]

Art theory states that art should have intention. A dissertation on "AI Art".

A disclaimer first of all that I am someone that has dived deep into AI image generation, I've worked with and created my own models and generated my own images using the open source code. I did this to understand what it is and how it works and I'd say I understand it more than most artists that talk about it online. I feel confident saying that I know what I'm talking about in this matter. I know its capabilities and limitations.

I'm not going to get into the morality of the use of it. I won't defend the rampant theft and copyright violations, I'm someone that believes that AI image gen at the very least should never be used for commercial purposes, but in this post I only want to talk about something else: Tte plain and simple merits of AI art as "Art" itself.

I'll start with repeating my premise statement: "Art theory states that art should have intention in order to be art." Does AI generation meet this criteria? Well, no, not really. Specifically it's not an image generation user's "art" if it is art at all.

With pattern biased algorithmic image generation, AKA "AI art”, someone pressing a button after typing in a prompt just doesn’t amount to a person actually picking and choosing their subject, their composition, and ESPECIALLY their meaning and message. The result is most definitely not the button-pusher's art, the generation is too random and what comes out belongs far more to the machine than to the prompter.

And a machine cannot by itself cogently make the essential choices to make an image successfully have intent. Language models we currently have cannot communicate a person's intent to the machine beyond a few broad strokes tags and trigger words, and pattern bias will often supercede those prompts anyway. A discerning eye will always be able to tell which decisions were made by a machine because it is not making them in the way a human being would, they appear uncanny in the most basic way. The generator is not understanding and interpreting the space and subject in the way that someone who lives and breathes with binocular vision and a human's infinitely more adaptable brain would.

The generator is incapable of truly understanding stylization or design principals, and all its continual, persistent mistakes in numbers of fingers, in anomalous anatomy, and broken gestalt, in nonsensical perspective, and merged and floating objects are a byproduct of this lack of living intelligence. These are things that will never go away, no matter how much data is fed into it because it is flawed at the core by the very basis of its pattern bias. It cannot "learn" how to fix them and so it can only hope to, at best, get lucky enough, or generate enough iterations of the same prompt that the images won't show the cracks. And that process is not creative, it's gambling at a slot machine hoping for a payout.

AI gen really is just a parlor trick at this moment in time, it’s a parrot that’s been taught to repeat phrases in response to certain stimuli to fool you into thinking you’re having a conversation, but it’s just really been trained to recognize noises, not meaning. It's a very pretty bird, but it's no replacement for the real thing, and the longer you "talk" with it, the more obvious that will become.

Art, the real art that the machine is trying and failing to learn from and replicate, requires a human’s creativity and problem solving to be able to make the decisions that will create a piece of art that someone can confidently call their own.

[charlotteswebbbbb]

What's the vibe? #79

News:

David Lynch died last week Wednesday (15th) and may we all remember his strangely influential films, his optimism and his full head of hair.

America is inspiring many trends. If America became less politically relevant, it would still be culturally relevant as the largest English-speaking country. I say this as Donald Trump orders the US to leave the World Health Organisation, meaning less health protection in the event of another pandemic, less research on existing diseases etc.

TikTok was banned for basically 5 hours. Two things I realised: these younger generations have such a bad addiction to social media that even the mention of something ending is a panic. Like the algorithms are shaping our brains as we speak. How do we get out of this? See the transfer to Xiaohongshu or Instagram changing its feed shape to rectangle in preparation for more people to make reels. The second thing is that there's an extremely dark aura to having Trump as the president for the second time. Regressive social policies are on the way and tech bosses (Meta, Airbnb!!!) are admitting openly their support for a nationalist president.

The other non-American based apps know about this and are capitalising. Xiaohongshu is hiring more English translators and Douyin (Chinese TikTok) is opening up its product to people with a non-Chinese number for the first time ever. The youth don't have that Sinophobic paranoia like before and want to know about how others live. The curiosity could mean an increase in Chinese anglosphere exchange of information (also xhs has a censorship issue whereas TikTok doesn't have as bad as an issue...bar the fact that people can't say certain words).

Georgia Graham writes about this splintering of the internet in her newsletter:

“What’s happening with TikTok is also another example of an overall splintering of social media, whereby users are becoming more like nomadic tribes (see also: the rise of Bluesky, and niche social platforms like Perfectly Imperfect’s PI.FYI and Dazed’s Dazed Club app). We’re no longer wedded to a single platform, instead becoming habituated to a new culture of constant relocation in smaller groups.”

She’s talking a bit more to brands and less normal humans but you get the gist. Everyone is going into their little corners of the internet that are owned by someone. Maybe we'll teach each other how to make our own websites soon? The kids also yearn for Tumblr....

You want to do anything interesting? IRL. You want to say something about a president who also has an internet addiction? IRL. You want to be an artist who is known not on platforms owned by people who play games with your visability? IRL, and making community connections.

Something to read?

"Sales grew ten-fold from less than €10 million in 2019 to over €100 ($103 million) in 2024, as best-sellers like twisted seam pants, bathrobe coats and matte silk blouses continued to fly off the racks, rejoined by a burgeoning leather goods business featuring supple anatomic footwear and quirky bags shaped like seashells and croissants."

"The brand is dipping its toe into advertising and celebrity marketing, running targeted campaigns for store openings and cultural events like sponsored art exhibitions and concerts."

We're back at MFW FW25. I feel old. FW25 - gimme a break. But the shows are excellent, the music is thumping, the designers have a lot to say and it feels very rich.

Firstly, MM6 with their Pitti Uomo debut - biker chic, indie sleaze.

Prada FW25 is cowboy sailor country industrial. Nonsensical mismash. Working through this cinematic theme. Almost like the city boy (check jacket/shirt) moves home or somewhere alien. It's like the scene in the film where they come in to a local bar and they're trying to assimilate into American country living (the fur coats and the way it's cut almost like this animal on the shoulder).

JordanLuca got married!

Magliano - Da Giocare - "To Play"

Saul Nash - skin tight athleisure, suiting

Our Legacy - the juxtaposition between

Rian Phin says it's the year of sincerity:

Menswear Trends according to Vogue Business:

Minimalist fits, unconventional accents: "Graphic tees are a key item for AW25, allowing men to personalise their plain suiting and normcore fits."

Ivy League preppy > related to dandyism

Fisherman aesthetic: "Like gorpcore, the fisherman aesthetic responds to technology fatigue and a growing desire for outdoor pursuits, experts agree. According to Heuritech data, the ‘weekend wanderlust’ aesthetic is here to stay in 2025, with the appearance of hunter green, quilted pieces and rain boots forecasted to grow 6 per cent, 5 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, over the next 12 months."

Customised sportswear, retro styles:

Visual Suggestions:

Ecologist chic - water, algae coming to the front again, cleansing

Knowledge is cool > Jurassic Park > Offline behaviour > reading clubs > JW's last Loewe collection (SS25) on art and museums

Trend:

We're in this moment of sort of perversion - Nostferatu, Babygirl, Peggy by Ceechyna, Ethel Cain's album Perverts, does it mean it'll be seen now? Maybe in the women's collections, this subversion, this gothic-ness.

(Yes, I'm still thinking about Ceechnya, cause it goes up in the club.)

Talent:

Florence Tetier + Alina P. Aleksandrovna

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Christelle Oyiri is bringing her Venom Voyage exhibition to London this Friday at Glasshouse in Soho, London. 5 Warwick Street, London, W1B 5LU.

Food Discoveries:

Czech beer aka Mlíko is all the rage and all the head in NYC.

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Solar Bakery and Solar Cafe - Hong Kong style popular in Manchester

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The Dreamery in East London combining ice cream and wines:

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Coffee Shop DJ Sets in LA Alaia has their own cafe in their Bond Street store run by Violet Cakes.

On nostalgia by Cillian:

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[innernachoesandguacamole]

Input You, Output You

(I understand this may be completely redundant as there’s only so many ways one can describe the very simple and intuitive concept of ‘just be’, but my mind has run in circles with ‘what about the circumstances or senses’ despite the principle being repeated a million times over, so I thought I’d put my thoughts down to help myself better understand it, and hopefully help others better understand through this interpretation!)

I’ve recently been spending more time on my phone that I’d like on brain-numbing, meaningless stuff

Not just social media, but mindless mobile games

Just being inundated with excessive visual and aural stimulation that says nothing, means nothing once the app is closed

I feel drained and disconnected afterwards

I can’t engage with family or friends as much as I like, my thoughts drift back even when I’m not actively scrolling or playing, it’s like my mind becomes a jumbled pile of brainrot mush that doesn’t even make me happy

Yet I find myself going back again and again for that comfortable, predictable stimulation

But I recently came across an ig reel by Adam / etymologynerd that’s lingered in my mind since first watching: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_VnTi2Pjg8/?igsh=djFuYnNtZnY0c290

If you don’t feel like watching he’s discussing how ai generated content’s ability to make comprehensible… anything is solely due to the massive amounts of human-created data it’s trained on

It doesn’t actually understand or create like a person does because it’s a pattern predictor, not a soul or individual being

Once it starts training on itself it loses that conscious discerner and so the outputs get less coherent until it eventually eats its own tail and just makes nonsense

Same thing can be applied to you because the human mind-body is itself a pattern predictor that spits out whatever it’s fed - think solving an equation, drawing from past experience, a mediocre song stuck in your head because you were fed it against your will by spotify’s stupid algorithm and now you’re singing the lyrics, your internal clock being fucked up because you kept sleeping at 3am lol

The mind-body is not its own conscious entity, it can’t do anything by itself

But even with all these seemingly automatic thoughts and actions, you always have the ability to consciously step out and change the scene

You as the observer bring it into existence and continue to keep it alive through your awareness of it

If you allow your awareness to follow or focus on a certain belief or habit, your world will naturally adjust to output that initial belief again and again and again

This doesn’t necessarily have to be inherently good or bad; it’s up to you to continuously check on the data you choose to input

Are you content with what you are observing? If not, why have you not already tweaked your dataset?

As you continue to submit your power to the primitive, lifeless machine of the mind-body with manufactured fears and desires and identities, does your life feel like it’s losing meaning? Do you want enough to escape that comfort of familiarity in order to go beyond?

Is the reward of loving yourself, of returning to yourself enough for you to step out of the cycle into the vastness of infinity, even with initial resistance and garbage outputs from the pattern predictor?

Remind yourself of your autonomy again and again

Your inner foundation trains your ‘AI’ to imitate the input of your focused attention and your being

Take time to take a step back from the generated illusion and focus on what speaks to you :) as the dataset consolidates, the output will naturally reflect it

Don’t worry about the how or when

You don’t need to source, blueprint, or assemble the parts of the machine in order to install it and reap the rewards

Know it’s part of you and let the magic happen

Input ____, output ____

That’s all :)

[bluravenite]

Kinda wanna rant a bit about being a freelance artist and also struggling with mental illness !!

I like seeing Tumblr as my own personal blog because I can talk about things I care about and don't always feel like I have to cater to people, yet I still have sooo much to do, art for myself, commission requests, chores, projects, etc!!

I am currently sick so having a headache and peeled nose doesn't really help my case but I feel like we don't often see/hear about the struggle of being freelance and struggling with mental or physical illness (particularly chronic!!) and how debilitating it can be sometimes.

We often think the measure of success is in productivity and that our worth lies in the validation and approval of an external authoritative figure, like an algorithm. But I think that's often a harmful way to view human success and accomplishments, it is necessary to keep a level of understanding that validation is required as a part of motivation, but not the sole indicator of success.

People say that with great power comes great responsibility, but I think it's different, rather with great power* comes great expectancy of independent responsibility, be the power as it may not power at all, but rather life itself. When we grow up and become independent people suddenly expect this level of responsibility from everyone, but not everyone can meet that criteria. Humans need support, naturally, we are made to work in groups or rely on people for things! Be it emotionally, physically, environmentally, or chemically in our brains we crave to coexist with people, sometimes that can help us maintain a level of productivity and routine, but others it can hinder it. It's all about compatibility and about knowing and understanding yourself and what works for you!!

I don't wake up early every morning and eat breakfast and get to work and then do chores and have a perfectly balanced social life, in my current situation I find that late nights are when I work best, perhaps it could be early mornings but I live with people who are very awake in the mornings and I need my peace ans quiet to work, I find that I enjoy slow mornings and take 45-60 min breaks approximately every 2 hours of work, I like walking around my room and stretching whenever i feel too compressed and I try to eat at the same times every day so that I won't forget to, but it's not perfect and it's still a struggle. That doesn't mean I'm less productive! I've been trying to embrace taking breaks too, like real breaks.

Full days where I go without pushing myself to draw UNTIL I am so bored of the mundane thoughts that plague my mind that I am required to put them down on paper, and then I draw again, because I have a purpose.

It doesn't always work, MUCH easier said than done, but I still think allowing yourself to kind of "go with the flow" shows better productivity results at times, than forcing a habit when your brain and body aren't willing.

This was a little nonsensical journalistic rant about how I'm finding my mindset relating to art lately, been doing lots of explorations and learning to find comfort in creating again, thank you for reading if you did, and if you too struggle with this or with your own issues know that you're not alone, and I am always happy to listen in the replies or talk about other stuff.

At the end of the day I am a little human, just like you.

[onewomancitadel]

The idea that what I've been doing all along, myself and probably many others of classic fandom, is interrupting people's personal daydreams and investment in the self-insert which predominates narrative engagement actually makes a lot of sense. It's difficult to decouple that but it's also a mismatch of intention; self-insert is about the last thing I'm interested in.

Of course it's going to feel awful and intrusive when somebody disturbs that. Self-insert is pure id, nothing getting in the way of the most base titillation. In some ways I wonder if that's a natural evolution, or if that's a product of all other emotional conveniences: sex without the messiness of human engagement; prepackaged political and philosophical opinions; automated and algorithmic artistic/media engagement; and so on and so forth. It's also just partly a consequence of 'fandom' - fannish, fanatical engagement with media - going mainstream. The lowest common denominator wins, particularly when it's all community-driven but not community-regulated (outside of the anti/pro nonsense), meaning it's probably most likely that id after all will rule supreme.

But moving away from my attempts at pseudopsychoanalysis, I think it's sort of strange to see my suspicions become concrete. It had always been apparent issues related to Jaune in fandom were 100% self-insert nonsense, masculine neurosis, which is why no one criticism is consistent with another because it's idiopathic, but to see swathes of fandom fall prey to this that even regular OTP's - nay, even the wild fujoshi is threatened - come second to the self-insert, a once rare and contained predator, is truly bizarre! And perhaps I am always trying to understand why it is that fandom is so hostile. If your presence is a threat to their very personal investment - because the fantasy now has real stakes, it has a presence in fandom which isn't private - well, that's going to make people angry in a way they can hardly articulate.

Of course, I don't think beliefs about imaginary characters are meaningfully harmful, it actually matters how you treat other people.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

I’m fully under the belief that public figures/celebrities/artists/anyone who makes anything should undergo rigorous background checks before being allowed to enter people’s hearts and minds. Like, I straight up wish people who made things had no personality other than “I make things/I sing somgs”. I should just be rest assured that the people making things I love are good people or my love and money back. I wish brainwashing were real so we could make everybody a decent human who cares about everything. Genuinely.

I feel like social media has genuinely ruined the way people act online.

When social media was at its infancy during the late 2000's and early 2010's, it was great because it was a good way to connect with people who shared your interests online.

Now that everything is dominated by algorithms, everybody is focused on maintaining high follower counts and engagement numbers, because that's become the only way to get anyone's attention these days.

These giant corporates basically told everyone "Hey, you have to act like the worst fucking version of yourself whenever you use our site/app. Otherwise your posts won't reach a larger audience."

Facebook became a QAnon shit hole, Instagram became a shittier version of TikTok, and Twitter is a rotting zombie that refuses to die.

And look, there are plenty of public figures that still post vapid uninspired feel good nonsense on social media, but whenever I come across that sort of nonsense, I just wanna say to that person "How could focus on something so trivial when a literal genocide is happening right now?"

Yes, not everyone should spend countless hours talking about the same thing, even I get emotionally exhausted talking about Palestine. But I just don't understand how people can be so indifferent.

I live in a middle eastern country, and it kinda breaks my heart to see how quickly we stopped caring.

Everyone was talking about Palestine back in the fall and early winter, then it all just stopped.

I really don't know what else I can say at this point.

[impostoradult]

I locked that other post I made about AI because I can't possibly respond to everyone individually. But for the record...

A) A lot of you genuinely don't understand how these AI language models work (and I don't have the time to explain it to everyone individually). You are using analogies for what the AIs do that I don't agree with, and think are bad/unfair comparisons.

B) A lot of you are arguing about this from the anthropocentric premise that humans creativity is AUTOMATICALLY a special, magical process that isn't just a reiteration of things YOU'VE consumed before. Which I just don't buy into. I don't think human creativity is the romanticized process you all think it is. And that's just a philosophical difference that can't be 'proven' one way or the other. But I don't believe humans are special just because it flatters our egos to think we are.

(Also the anxiety you have about the AI stealing your work and a corporation profiting off it is a possibility that has always existed. How do you know human beings aren't already using your work as inspiration to write commercially profitable things? You DON'T. If your work is publicly available, human beings RIGHT NOW could be 'stealing' your ideas, changing them just enough to avoid plagiarism charges, and using them to profit. That could easily be happening to you RIGHT NOW. And I get that this is to some degree a matter of scale, which is fair critique up to a point. But that's where we circle back to point A where a lot of you are assuming the AIs are 'stealing' work in ways that are (in my view) just a misunderstanding of the process. All creative output is indebted to prior creative output. That has never not been true. And acting like its less stealing because it cycled through the grey matter of another person's brain as opposed to a computer algorithm feels like a distinction without a difference to me.

Furthermore, I think one of the reasons you all make that distinction is because it is more FLATTERING to you to be creatively stolen from by another human being than by a machine. If a human steals your creative idea and uses it in their own creative work, someone has made a qualitative judgement about your work that it is good/worthwhile/worth imitating. Which is flattering. If an AI does it, there's no flattery involved. But lets be clear, then, about the fact that this is, again, about egos and human emotional insecurity about the art we create. Other people stealing our work and repurposing it for their art is emotionally validating in a way that a machine doing it isn't. But then your issue ISN'T that you are being stolen from, your issue is that it isn't an emotionally gratifying form of stealing. Which I guess it is your prerogative to care about that. But at least be clear about what your motives are)

C) Just because a process is more work, that doesn't make the end result more 'valid' or worthwhile. That's like saying because farming with automated machines is less work than a human harvesting food by hand, the food harvested by machines is less food. Which is nonsense. Just because traveling by walking is more physical WORK than traveling by car, that doesn't mean you didn't make the trip. Humans have ALWAYS developed machines to make the things that are work LESS work. That's universal in human history. I don't know why all of a sudden we are acting like that's evil.

D) Making things less work is a GOOD thing. (Also you can still walk places, even when cars exist. You can still grow food in your garden, even when industrial farming exist. You can still do math by hand even when calculators exist. No one is stopping you)

E) Please stop talking about this like it is a zero-sum-game where EITHER the machines make art, or humans make art. That's a false binary. Both can happen at the same time. One doesn't preclude the other. It's not either/or. There's no reason to buy into that false binary.

F) The question of what capitalism is going to DO with this technology is a valid question, and that's the area where I agree, we need to be the most cautious and the strictest about how this technology gets used. I don't necessarily approve of the idea of publishers just switching to AIs and just unilaterally eliminating all paid human creative labor (particularly not without a social safety net in place). However...

G) One of the reasons I dislike reactionary responses to AI is I actually think -- IF WE PLAY OUR CARDS RIGHT -- AI could free us from a LOT of bullshit labor and be the mechanism that ushers in UBI. If we play our cards right. But it requires acknowledging that reducing human labor should be a GOAL, not a thing to fear.

I get that people worry that corporations are just gonna replace people with machines, those people will be left to fend for themselves, and capitalism will continue on as before with more people out of work and not able to support themselves. Which is ONE POSSIBILITY. And admittedly a very bad one.

However, that trajectory of events depends on the political consciousness we collectively have around labor, technology, and what the goals of human life really are.

Ironically, I am (by and large) supportive of AI precisely because I think it COULD lead to a situation where human being are actually given the opportunity to be MORE creative. Which I think is a good thing.

A lot of human creativity is hampered by the fact that we have to work 8+ hours a day to support ourselves and we don't have the free time to do all the creative things we want to do.

Also, a lot of creativity is hampered by the fact that corporations want to make money off of human creativity, and creatives are strong-armed into making art that is commercially palatable. (Which is one of the reasons I find a lot of your responses to this baffling. You are acting like corporations aren't ALREADY taking creative human labor and churning out watered down, imitative, sanitized storytelling from it. Which they very much ALREADY are. Have you seen the MCU lately? The thing you are afraid of IS ALREADY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. It's just less mechanized, which I don't think therefore makes it less of a problem.)

So, why not let the AIs make commercially palatable art, and do a lot of the other bullshit work that eats up human lives. And then it can free people to make the art they actually want to make because they'll have enough time to do that AND they won't be under commercial mandates to make what they create 'marketable.' (Again, this doesn't have to either/or. It can be both/and).

***

I think you all are looking at this very wrong in the sense that I think there is a very real possibility this is a massive BOON for human creativity. I get that that feels counter-intuitive and paradoxical. And I also get that it's not *inevitable*. Capitalism does have a tendency to ruin things that could be good.

But I think part of the way to avoid that is to NOT be reactionary about AI but embrace its liberatory capacities. And to develop a vision of how human beings might flourish by integrating AI into society in a just way. Which I think would lead to MORE and BETTER human creativity. Growing vegetables in your garden is probably a more rewarding process if you don't have to live under the fear that if your gardening goes bad one year, you'll starve to death.

People still garden in a world where machines harvest a lot of our food. And they probably get more joy out of it when their survival isn't pegged to the outcome process.

[acorpsecalledcorva]

Did I ever write an essay here on Edward Bernays and propaganda? Dissociative amnesia go brrr so I'll see if I can quickly bash something out to distract myself from cramps. This post is going to be completely uncited and I'm barely gonna fact check myself so if any of this sounds interesting I strongly recommend looking this stuff up and if I'm wrong then yay! You'll learn something by doing so.

So who is Bernays? No he is not a sauce made out of butter, egg yolk, and white wine vinegar, he is the nephew of Freud and regarded as one of the most influential men of the twentieth century and the father of Public Relations.

He was very interested in his uncles work, and worked in the fields of psychology and sociology. His main schtick was that he viewed humanity as deeply and fundamentally irrational, illogical, emotional, and needed to be controlled lest they fall into chaos. Through Freud's work on psychoanalysis he devised a way to influence the masses by playing on their emotions and insecurities, something which we should all be very familiar today in politics and advertising.

Before Bernays, advertising was very, like, practical. "These shoes will survive up to a thousand miles of walking, they're comfortable and hand crafted with fine leather" kinda thing. People were interested in what products could do for them and made informed choices. Now though advertising is much more about lifestyle and aspiration. No joke in 2021 I saw an advert for a company that sells kitchens that said you needed to drop 20k on a new kitchen to prevent "zoombarrassment" when you work from home because all your colleagues will think you're a bad person and shame you for it.

Where we're at with this stuff today with algorithms and stuff is that engagement is key. If people are talking about you, if you're trending, then that's good. And the best way to get people talking about you? Controversy. Budweiser, Gillette, and I think a brand of coffee machine?, all jump out as recent examples of companies capitalising on a hot social issue to generate free advertising by whipping the masses up into a frenzy. Rainbow capitalism isn't only bad just because they hope that if they put a trans women in an advert that you'll buy it, it's also much worse because they're actively trying to piss off conservatives and fascists and incite flame wars as the official sponsor of transphobia. On the one hand, yay representation, but on the other, every time this happens I get to see just how many people in the world fucking hate me for existing. They're actively contributing to a global pandemic of deepening division and increased risk of violence.

And politicians cottoned onto this too. Boris Johnson is particularly good at this, and it's called the dead cat technique. If he ever feels like things might get tricky and might actually have to do a politics, he throws a dead cat on the table in the form of some inflammatory or bizarre remark because it shuts down the conversation. I mean, there's a dead cat on the table, how can you talk about anything other than the dead cat? His go to increasingly became trans people towards the end of his political career, just constantly talking about penises, absolutely obsessed with penises, but there's this really incredible interview he did where an interviewer asked him what his hobby is and he started talking about making London buses out of milk crates. It's absolutely nonsensical but you can also tell he's choosing his words very very carefully. Why? Because during the Brexit referendum he put a massive lie on the side of a bus and he wanted to manipulate the search results for when you search "Boris Johnson Bus".

Another technique politicians absolutely adore is being completely contradictory in your positions. Say you're committed to providing an inclusive and compassionate asylum system while actively dismantling said system. Say your committed to reducing wealth inequality while actively increasing it. Say you're committed to reducing national debt while actively increasing it. It keeps your opponents confused and unable to oppose you because they never know what your true position is and therefore what theirs should be, and it also provides you a get out clause. If someone accuses you of being against something? Just point to all the times you supported it. If someone accuses you of supporting something? Just point to all the times you condemned it.

So why am I writing any of this in the syscourse tag? Because a lot of syscoursers use these techniques to grow their own popularity and reach. It honestly doesn't even need to be a conscious effort, those who engage on syscourse over at Twitter are rewarded for doing this whether they know it or not, and then it gets brought here. Thankfully Tumblr isn't as bad, but we still feel it's effects. Whenever I see absolutely deranged "anti endos do this" or "pro endos do this" stuff I just assume it comes from Twitter because I struggle to find it here when I look, but the beefs and long standing arguments are still very twitteresque.

I do think it's important to be aware of this stuff though, because when you understand it all becomes deeply unserious. You may not be immune to propaganda but at least you can learn to recognise and step outside of it. When a syscourser admits to openly trying to be inflammatory to the other side and enjoying watching them get upset over it, or if you notice them restarting old arguments after not being talked about for a few days then you can finally give yourself permission to let go and not get involved. You can no longer take anything that person says seriously, because you can't ever know if they are being serious. They literally told you that they do it on purpose, therefore anything they say fails to be credible or sincere. If it pisses you off? It's meant to. If it's factually incorrect? It's supposed to be. Feel like writing a call out post to denounce them? That's exactly what they want you to do because you're talking about them. Keeping them fresh and trendy at all times.

[sleeepydraws]

There's a huge amount of pressure to make perfect art.

You're supposed to know and have such a good handle on all of the fundamentals because, if you don't, the algos won't show your work to anyone.

We have to simultaneously be (usually) multimedia experts and infinitely relatable.

There isn't room in the Algo to experiment and try new things... Because it actively sabotages you if you do. Use a different media? Stop working in the same style? Bye bye, followers. Goodbye, reach.

It's heartbreaking! Experimentation is the crux that's kept me doing art consistently for almost a year now.

I used to go *months* without drawing. And now I feel weird if I haven't drawn that day; it's such a comfort to me. To give myself time to decompress.

And to think that the space I use for playing and messing up and thumbnailing and trying new things and GROWING is a thing that could actively sabotage a career as an artist is ...

Honestly fuck it.

FUCK the algorithms. FUCK the nonsense that means I have to """""niche down"""" and never change.

No. We're human. We change. We grow. We evolve. We EXPERIMENT.

Anyways long winded way of saying just share it. You don't need a perfect sketchbook.

So many folks have told me that my pages where I actively add silly notes or go (OH NO) when I realized I made a mistake? They love it.

Do it. Remind each other that imperfections are necessary. It brings community. It relieves others (and yourself) of that pressure. Even if just for a bit. Even if just for a little.

i don't like to yuck people's yum but i have to say that my least favorite thing to come from the current state of Artists on the Internet is the idea of a sketchbook as something nice and pretty and shareable. like i love me a notebook full of gorgeous art don't get me wrong but that is NOT what a sketchbook is. a sketchbook is my friend who i carry around everywhere like a purse chihuahua. it is the physical manifestation of my notes app. it is the container into which i wring my brain out. it is my therapist. and most of all it is filled with absolutely terrible sketches that should never see the light of day.

[mintcopy12]

SEO Copywriting Tips for Small Business Owners

Juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle”— that’s a commonly used expression to describe a particularly challenging task. If you think about the act in more detail, it really is quite the feat. Riding a unicycle isn’t easy. Then you have to juggle. And then, those aren’t just plastic batons or balls you’re so skilfully tossing around – they are flaming torches! Running a small business is not a lot different. I can tell you from flying solo at the start to growing our small business into a well-recognized and trusted content agency in Toronto, I’ve been on that unicycle and juggled fiery torches for a long time!

As a small business owner, there’s always something demanding your attention. Between managing operations, handling customer service, constantly battling competition, and trying to stay sane through it all, SEO copywriting might feel like just another item on an ever-growing to-do list. But here’s the thing—done right, it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to drive organic traffic, build trust, and convert visitors into loyal customers.

At MintCopy, we’re also a small business, a digital copywriting agency. We understand the balancing act and know that SEO today is no longer about stuffing keywords but crafting strategic, engaging content that search engines (and real people) love. Let’s break down some proven SEO copywriting techniques tailored for small business owners who want big results.

Understand Search Intent—Look Beyond Keywords

Think of SEO keywords as ingredients in a dish. You wouldn’t toss random spices into a recipe and hope it turns out delicious. Similarly, blindly inserting keywords without understanding search intent leads to content that’s bland at best and irrelevant at worst.

Search intent falls into four categories:

Informational (e.g., “How to choose the best hot tub cover”)

Navigational (e.g., “MintCopy blog”)

Transactional (e.g., “Buy premium aluminum spa covers online”)

Commercial investigation (e.g., “Best spa cover brands compared”)

Before you begin writing, ask yourself: What is my audience looking for, and how can I provide the best answer? Use tools like Google’s “People Also Ask” section, AnswerThePublic, and Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to align your content with real user intent.

Write for Humans First, Then Optimize for Search Engines

If keyword stuffing still worked, we’d all be reading robotic nonsense like, “Best small business marketing strategies for small business owners running a small business.” But Google’s algorithms (and actual humans) hate that. What a relief, whew!

Instead, focus on:

Writing naturally, incorporating keywords where they fit organically

Using variations and long-tail keywords (e.g., “affordable spa covers” instead of repeating “spa covers” 20 times)

Structuring content for readability (short paragraphs, bullet points, sub-headings)

Google’s Helpful Content Update reinforces the importance of content that genuinely helps users rather than just ranking well.

Leverage AI, but Keep It Human

AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, Co-Pilot, and Future proof your business with GTM AI can speed up content creation, but AI alone won’t make your content shine. Think of AI as an assistant, not a replacement.

Best practices:

Use AI to brainstorm ideas, rephrase sentences, or summarize key points

Always add a human touch—your brand voice, personality, and unique insights

Fact-check AI-generated content for accuracy

Search engines prioritize authenticity, and customers trust real, relatable voices over robotic, overly polished text.

Optimize for Featured Snippets and Zero-Click Searches

Sometimes, Google gives users the answer without them even clicking a link. But is there an upside to that? For sure! If your content lands in a featured snippet, you become the authority.

How to optimize:

Use clear, direct answers in the first 100 words of your content

Structure sections with FAQ-style questions

Format content using lists, tables, or bullet points

Use schema markup (Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can guide you)

Example: Instead of writing: “There are many benefits to using aluminum hot tub covers.”, try: “What are the benefits of aluminum hot tub covers?”, followed by a concise bullet list.

E-E-A-T: Show Your Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness

Google’s E-E-A-T principles (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) determine whether your content deserves top rankings.

Ways to boost E-E-A-T:

Author bios with credentials (even a simple “Written by Jane Doe, a small business marketing expert” helps)

Linking to reputable sources (e.g., industry reports, case studies)

Customer testimonials, case studies, and real-world examples

Secure, well-maintained websites (fast load times, HTTPS, mobile-friendly design)

E-E-A-T signals heavily influence rankings in competitive niches—so don’t overlook them.

Internal Linking: Don’t Let Your Content Be an Island

Think of internal links like the hallways in a shopping mall. Without them, customers wouldn’t find their way to the best stores.

Best practices:

Link to relevant blog posts, service pages, or cornerstone content

Use descriptive anchor text (e.g., “Read our complete guide to spa cover maintenance” instead of “Click here”)

Avoid overloading a page with too many links (balance is key!)

SEO Copy Formatting: Make Google and Your Audience Happy

Ever clicked on a giant wall of text and immediately hit “Back”? Yeah, us too.

Improve readability with:

Shorter paragraphs (2-3 sentences max)

Sub-headings (H2, H3) to break up content

Bullet points and numbered lists

Bold important phrases to guide skimmers

Good content structure and user-friendly formatting boosts engagement metrics like time-on-page and lowers bounce rates, which helps rankings.

Stay Updated – SEO Changes Constantly

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (remember those round discs that magically produced music?), I’ll say it yet again – SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. Google makes thousands of algorithm updates per year (literally).

Staying ahead means:

Subscribing to resources like Moz, Search Engine Journal, and Google Search Central Blog

Using updated SEO tools like SurferSEO, Ahrefs, and Rank Math

Testing and tweaking—track results in Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4

The Road to Long-Term SEO Success

SEO copywriting is an investment, but you have to be willing to go the distance—it’s not a one-time effort. By focusing on intent-driven content, structured formatting, and keeping up with trends, you’ll steadily build an online presence that attracts and retains customers.

Think of SEO as planting a garden—nurture it consistently, and over time, it will flourish. Need help to refine your SME content strategy? MintCopy is here to support your journey to SEO success. Visit here :