#but some people will use it as a buzzword to scam

[tombraiderrocker]

If they claim they can cure your condition that you have been told is incurable, run. If they claim they cured themselves, run. If they claim they have cured everything from cancer to lupus holistically, run. If they claim you have to buy only supplements from them, run. If they claim they that only thing that will cure is x but x costs tons of money, run. If they refuse to run tests or address your diagnosed conditions before insisting you do an expensive treatment not covered by insurence, run. If they offer a one size fits all treatment/cure, run.

I have been scammed by "holistic" and "naturalistic" people before as a chronically ill person. In fact it was an actual doctor who went to medical school who scammed me for years. So watch out. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

[box-in-a-cage]

There is not virtue in getting scammed. There is not virtue in being a mark. You are not displaying your virtuous nature by giving money to someone who is lying to you via emotional appeals so that you will open your heart and bank account to that poor downtrodden Nigerian prince. All you are doing is showing fellow zealots that you are also utterly devoted to The Cause, and showing other ill-intenders that they too can get you to cough up money with the right words.

You are not obligated to #GetScammed4Palestine. Getting scammed is not activism. You are not bettering anyone's lives except for the ill-intending agents who want your money to do something secret and untoward.

You wanna help Palestinians? Donate to real, honest, accredited aid organizations and charities. Ones that did not have employees taking part in the atrocities on October 7th. If you're in the USA, campaign for Kamala Harris as a means of harm reduction toward Palestine. Giving your money to some random person who is in one of the twenty countries that GoFundMe operates in (NOT someone in Palestine!!!) does nothing but cost you money and GUARANTEE that your money does not reach Palestinians in need.

We have our issues with the phrase "virtue signaling," as it's often a condescending right-wing buzzword, but that's what this whole Gaza-scam Zeitgeist honestly is-- taking action first and foremost in furtherance of upholding our standing as a good activist. You feel obligated to circulate, to give to, false crowdfunding operations that empirically, evidently, cannot be for the cause you are supposedly contributing to. You feel that you will be ostracized by your peers if you question these fundraising asks you're getting in your inbox. You'll be a bad activist if you don't do everything you can to help Palestinians-- yes, including possibly sharing a few scams! Sharing just a few scams is a small price to pay for circulating what surely are mostly honest accounts of real need, right? After all, you really think someone would do that? Just go on GoFundMe and tell lies? It's never ever happened on Tumblr before.

Do not give your money to randoms on the internet. You do not know who they are. The people who supposedly "verify" these fundraisers are also random people you do not know. You know that the site they are using to crowdfund does not service people in Palestine. The only evidence you do have around this whole thing is evidence that these GoFundMe's are lying to get your money. Believe the evidence and stop giving in to (what seems to you as well-intended) peer pressure from your activist friends.

If anyone takes issue with you wanting to know where your money is going, then they are showing that they want you to be taken advantage of. They want you to listen blindly! Sight-unseen! Listen to your self-preservation instincts, take notice of the red flags in front of you, and prioritize your own well-being. Drop manipulative people from your life.

Your principles are being used against you for no benefit to Palestinians, and you are in a cult. You have to start taking care of yourselves and stop endlessly sacrificing yourselves for no real value in the name of a cause that you are not benefiting.

[huntinglove]

How to get away from antiship spaces (mostly)

Warnings: Long post, antis mention, mentions of pedophilia, rape, self harm and gore (none show, not descriptive)

Have you recently learned that you align yourself with the proship label? Would you like to get away from antis as safely as you can? Here's what I've learned, as an ex anti:

1. It may be hard, but try to get rid of/abandon your accounts where you used to interact with antis.

This is one of the hardest steps because having a lot of followers can be discouraging, but it's the safest approach in this situation, because if antis see you following or interacting with proshippers they WILL question you about it and depending on how you tackle their asks they'll throw you to the wolves and publicly "warn" people about you so people can mass report your account/harass you

This applies to anything; Tumblr blogs, Twitter profiles, Discord servers, if you've interacted with antis block them and delete your account if you decide to adopt the proship label

Antis constantly claim that they don't harass people but as soon as someone drops the anti label they dogpile them and call them "traitors" as well as their usual buzzwords to catch people's attention, it's better to pull the plug directly than just rebrand your account

1.5. If you REALLY want to keep your account because you've used it for a long time or because it works as a portfolio, please create a different account to post about proship content

If you make a new account remember to block your anti mutuals/followers from your main account before you start posting, art styles can be very unique and easy to spot similarities in, as well as typing patterns and reoccurring emojis/symbols

If there's the option to, keep your profile private until you've built a steady environment for yourself, if you prefer to keep your profile private permanently that's also a good option!

Remember, your safety matters more than numbers on a screen!

2. This one should go without saying but, please don't share much of your trauma/mental health issues/triggers with people online in general, but especially not with antis

I used to talk about my struggles and vent publicly a lot, antis would stalk my accounts and send me all types of fucked up content.

I've had people send me rape videos and threats, people telling me I deserved the abuse I went through, people would send me gore and self harm images, as well as suicide tutorials.

They can and will use all of it to their advantage, they're restless and will dig up even decade old posts if they feel it'll be useful for them. It can and will take a toll on your mental health, so please save yourself the trouble and only open up with people you genuinely trust and feel safe talking to!

You're not alone, but please don't let dangerous people take advantage of you when you're at a bad spot

3. Keep an eye on your followers, especially if your profiles are public. There are always some things to look out for to make sure your followers aren't antis pretending to be proshippers

According to my personal experience, here's some red flags to look out for:

A.Antis think that the word proship means problematic ship, so they'll refer to pairings as "a proship"

Most proshippers dislike this terminology because it comes from an incorrect definition and usually avoid it

B. TikTok antis specifically come up and use a lot of emoji combos, creating meanings for them and usually adding one or two combos that are actually known to proshippers, along with some never seen before

A lot of the time they use it to identify themselves, a sign that means "I'm not actually a proshipper, just baiting"

I've also seen antis use the clover emoji in combos, inspired by the "clovergender/cloversexual" scam that 4channers came up with, to make it seem like the LGBTQ+ community was welcoming to offending pedophiles. Antis do this because they assimilate the proship label with problematic ships, mostly age gaps/underage content

C. Their account is brand new but they already follow a lot of proshippers. This is usually because they'll follow proshippers who've been posted on a blocklist, usually in the exact order that they've been listed too

If they're on Tumblr, they'll usually keep the people they follow public, so that other antis can find and harass those proshippers

D. Keep an eye on their follow list. Like stated above, they'll usually keep it public and 9 times out of 10 there will be an out of place antiship account, it's most likely their main profile/account/blog

E. They'll use their usual buzzwords on their own posts

For example, if they're trying to mimic a proselfship account they'll post pictures of underage characters and caption it things like "omg i'm such a pedo" and tag their post with proship related tags

Of course this doesn't apply to everyone, so it's always important to take context into consideration, as well as how many of these red flags may apply.

And lastly, please remember that the block button is your friend.

If someone's interacting with you and something about them seems/feels off, block and move on

[gailynovelry]

SCREAM I love dystopias and I love worldbuilding and I am appalled at the thought of how desperate a person would have to be to get something called a Worker Bee Implant omg

Please tell me more fun things about this please

aaaaaaa hello! So this is from Mindhive and boy is Mindhive a ride. Still working out a lot of things about it, but also it's 80k long, so there's a lot of thoughts to choose from. Hmmmmm.

More context about the implants! But not all of the context, hehehe;

~ The trial volunteers do not go into the trial with any idea of what the implant actually does. It's only specified to be a "mental enhancement." Within the context of the world of MH, this means that most trial volunteers are going in assuming that it's going to be another failed attempt at a "general intelligence enhancement."

~ We say "another failed attempt" because the tech industry in MH has been in a hype cycle for "we're going to use science to enhance IQ!" for a while. But "intelligence" is complicated, and brains are complicated, and there's no magic bullet to "enhance" these things.

~ (Can you tell that the tech industry in MH is prone to eugenic lines of thinking and hype cycles for things that will never pan out for practical reasons? Real life is an unfortunately great source of inspiration for dystopia.)

~ But the implant is not an intelligence enhancement.

~ It could be considered a communication enhancement. If you've read the summary, you know one of the things it is capable of!

~ Hooray telepathy : D

~ It's intended to work in concert with a different type of technology, known as an EIS - an Emotive Intelligence System. Basically, a classic sci-fi AI, but under a new name because MH takes place in the future and in my present the tech industry has made the term "AI" into a marketing buzzword associated with art theft and scams.

~ The ideal EIS for this set-up has enough interpersonal skills to communicate with contractors, but only enough interest in workers to maintain Baseline Aliveness.

~ So, not V.E.R.T.I.G.O, who has a near-anthropologist curiosity about people, and a firm desire to provide them with a decent quality of life whenever possible. : (

~ What does this add up to? Not the horrors, of course, I am sure that the way these ideas click together have nothing to do with the way that corporations approach labor costs, working conditions, and bodily autonomy. : )

Also we're really into making webpages right now, so this WIP has some Neocities funstuff happening! Yay!

[ada-crunch]

Comparing a Scam Token to Cardano? The Ridiculous Story of Retik Finance

Read the original article HERE.

A lot of recent articles have been talking about a new cryptocurrency called “Retik Finance.” Make no mistake, Retik Finance is obviously a scam. Do not interact with their website and do not send them any of your crypto. Normally, I would just ignore these obvious scam, but what surprised me today was that my google news feed suggested an article with this ridiculous headline:

A quick look at their website (which I will not link here to prevent any potential reader from being scammed themselves) and it is obvious that Retik Finance is a scam.

The scam token is being featured in a lot of articles on small-time Indian news outlets. The articles are vague, misleading, and oftentimes just outright wrong. Take this little snippet from one of these articles:

The article claims that a 2.65% price dip invalidates Cardano as a leader in “evolving crypto landscape.” This is absolutely preposterous. A 2.65% price dip is completely insignificant and a token’s price is not indicative of a cryptocurrency’s underlying technology. A token’s price only represents the demand from buyers for a token in a marketplace.

Taking a look at their website is also hilariously ridiculous. The first thing you are greeted with is a presale that asks you to connect your wallet. Again, please do not connect your wallet to this:

They also display the address for their token. Which, oddly enough, is an ERC20 token. So their claims of low-fee transactions are blatantly false, anything transaction on the Ethereum blockchain carries a hefty fee (I took the liberty to check the etherscan page and found that a transfer of Retik tokens cost around $5–6 in Ethereum per transaction, which is obviously not cheap).

The token’s etherscan page is even more hilarious. There are only 8 holders of all Retik tokens and all 8 of those holders are likely the same person. Take a look at the screenshot below:

Those percentages show how much of the total supply of Retik tokens are owned by each wallet. See how those numbers are all nice, pretty numbers that end in zeros? Yeah, it’s definitely unnatural and are all likely the same person (not to mention the top wallet owns 40% of the total supply).

Scrolling down further on their website reveals some more nonsense.

They claim to be audited, have a KYC process, and a whitepaper. KYC for a cryptocurrency? That sounds really counter-intuitive.

The audit button leads to this audit report, which already claims Retik is a “high risk” and that the creator of Retik can blacklist any account and has the ability to enable/disable trades. This is another a red flag to add to the list.

The KYC button just goes to a page that says KYC is pending:

The whitepaper is extremely vague, uses a lot of buzzwords, and doesn’t discuss any type of technology at all. It's an embarrassing collage of buzzwords attempting to look authentic.

Going back to the original article, if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll find this little disclaimer:

Neither the author nor the website (ThePrint, an Indian news outlet) will take responsibility for the the content of this outrageous article. Typical.

Retik Finance is a laughably dumb scam. The fact that people still fall for these kinds of scams is something I still don’t understand. But google suggesting these kinds of articles in my feed? That’s even more outrageous. Google must have some kind of basic process to filter out these kinds of scummy articles. Because of Google’s complacency, so many more people will be exposed to these scams.

In short, Retik Finance is nothing compared to Cardano. Retik Finance will never replace Cardano. Retik Finance is a scam. Don’t fall for scams. Google needs to get better at not suggesting scam articles in news feeds to users.

If you enjoyed reading this, consider following/clapping. It helps a lot! Need help with crypto gas fees? Go here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoGasFees/

ADA Crunch

[meow-moment]

everyone makes fun of sci-fi movies for just adding random science words like Quantum in front of other words like a prefix but already we've done this. When cryptocurrency was the new thing you could just say Oh yeah that guy's a Cryptobro and he's pushing a CryptoNFT Crypto Scam. and people would be able to tell it was some stupid bullshit. and now with AI you can be like This AI Generated Movie is AI Scripted and AI Voiced and you can tell it's some stupid bullshit. I guarantee that as soon as they crack quantum mechanics Quantum will be the new insufferable buzzword and we'll start seeing headlines about how Disney is using one Quantum Worker to do the work of 10 normal crew members or some shit. people will start using Quantum Products to scam people and call it The Future Of Marketing and within 2 months Quantum Anything will only be in use among terminally online joe rogan enthusiasts

[ms-hells-bells]

I've had to unfollow lots of people lately due to seeing them uncritically reblog dozens of scams multiple times over without taking a single second to verify the sources/images of those posts, often boosting the same scammers over and over in the process. It's so frustrating. It's like people will see a donation post with certain buzzwords & suddenly all filtering and critical thinking goes out the window and they just mash the reblog button. Like the idea of people lying doesn't occur to them.

Yeah. Generally, if it's not a public circumstance with verified external info, people you know and trust, or you are not rich and okay with your money being lost, then most online donos are a no.

I only ever did a gofundme style thing once, it was just for $50 because I was deaf in one ear from an ear blockage, and could barely walk from dizziness, and couldn't afford to get it removed. I mentioned it on my blog, and several women dmed me and asked if there's a way for them to give me some money. Nz doesn't do PayPal, so I used the nz version of gofundme called givealittle, and then just chucked it on my blog, the couple women donated up to the $50, then deleted the post and closed the account so no one could send me more money. Got me ear fixed, and offered proof to them with the invoice :) but I have zero expectations of money, didn't dm anyone or encourage reblogs, and I offered actual proof (though it was AFTER the procedure tbf). Most importantly, I didn't have a history of repeatedly doing this over years. Like, if someone has been ebegging for YEARS, over multiple blogs, and regularly delete prior posts or claim other blogs are not theirs when they can clearly be linked to it, then....do it at one's risk, I guess. What do they call the lotto, stupid tax?

[hareofhrair]

So while the ethical and legal issues with AI are real, this problem actually isn’t. The stats that claim AI is using a ton of power were using the power draw of the *entire data center,* of which AI is only a relatively small percentage. To quote the Ars Technica article I’m about to link:

“Long before generative AI became the current Silicon Valley buzzword, those data centers were already growing immensely in size and energy usage, powering everything from Amazon Web Services servers to online gaming services, Zoom video calls, and cloud storage and retrieval for billions of documents and photos, to name just a few of the more common uses.”

Even if generative AI went away tomorrow, all of that would remain.

The article then goes on to point out that people’s readiness to believe this is probably due to conflating AI with crypto. But while crypto’s exponential energy requirements were an unavoidable part of the business model, generative AI has an incentive to become more efficient and cheaper over time, like most technology.

Here’s the aforementioned article about it.

Imo, the problems with AI are not with the technology itself, anymore than internal combustion is to blame for vehicle pollution.

The problem is 1) grifters scamming tech illiterate executives and investors into believing AI is a magic cure all, so they try to force it into industries and areas where it’s useless or actively detrimental, or are foaming at the mouth to replace their human work force with it, when the tech is not capable of that and likely never will be.

And 2) lack of regulation allowing businesses to train their models on stolen data, either outright stealing art and writing without payment or attribution, or skimming it from users through incredibly shady practices that should not be legal.

But the actual problems in both of those cases are corporate structures putting people in decision making positions over issues they have zero experience with, and lack of legal regulation and the fucked up nature of IP law.

Don’t allow your legitimate concerns about the way capitalism abuses a novel technology to be warped into luddite hysterics over a technology that is neither as revolutionary or as apocalyptic as some would like you to believe.

I don't know, how about switching it off?

[criptox]

"Regulatory Clarity: Positive Momentum in the Tokenized Era"

```html

Understanding Regulatory Clarity in the Crypto Space

The world of cryptocurrencies is constantly evolving, with new innovations and challenges arising every day. One of the most pressing issues facing this vibrant landscape is the need for regulatory clarity. In this article, we'll explore what regulatory clarity means, why it's important, and how it can impact the future of cryptocurrency.

What is Regulatory Clarity?

Regulatory clarity refers to the clear and comprehensive laws and guidelines set by governments and financial authorities regarding the use, trade, and management of cryptocurrencies. It provides a framework within which individuals and businesses can operate without the fear of unexpected legal repercussions. Without regulatory clarity, potential investors and developers are often hesitant to engage in the crypto sphere.

Why is Regulatory Clarity Important?

Here are some key reasons why regulatory clarity is vital for the growth and sustainability of the crypto market:

Investor Protection: Clear regulations help protect investors from fraud and scams, encouraging more people to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Market Stability: Regulations can reduce market volatility caused by speculative trading, fostering a healthier trading environment.

Encouragement of Innovation: When entrepreneurs knows the legal landscape, they are more likely to innovate and invest in new technologies within the crypto ecosystem.

Global Standards: Regulatory clarity can pave the way for international cooperation on cryptocurrency regulations, leading to a more coordinated global approach.

The Current Landscape

Currently, the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies varies significantly from one country to another. Some nations, like El Salvador, have embraced Bitcoin as legal tender, while others have imposed strict bans on cryptocurrency transactions. This inconsistency creates confusion and uncertainty, leaving many potential crypto users in the dark about their rights and obligations.

The Path Forward

For the crypto industry to thrive, it's essential that regulatory bodies provide clearer guidance. Collaboration between industry leaders and regulators can help establish reasonable frameworks that prioritize both innovation and consumer protection. Here are some steps that can be taken:

Engaging in Dialogue: Regulators should actively engage with the crypto community to understand their concerns and needs.

Creating Clear Guidelines: Authorities need to develop undemanding regulatory frameworks that provide specific guidelines for businesses and individual users.

Continuous Evaluation: As the crypto space evolves, regulations must be regularly updated to reflect new challenges and opportunities.

Conclusion

Regulatory clarity is not just a buzzword—it’s essential for the future of the crypto industry. As we move further into the digital age, it’s vital that lawmakers and regulators recognize the importance of creating an environment where cryptocurrencies can flourish without compromising security. By fostering collaboration and open communication, we can pave the way for a more stable and innovative future in the crypto space.

It’s high time for clarity because the digital currency revolution is only just beginning!

``` "Regulatory Clarity: Positive Momentum in the Tokenized Era"

[cloudshapedpatch]

am i the only one who thinks the whole "manifesting" thing has gone a little too far?

im a spiritualist. i take time to understand the stars and the way the world works and i take my tarot, crystals, spirit, and the universe seriously. it's not a trend to me, it's my way of life. and it makes me so upset when i see people who are doing it cause it's trendy.

i saw a tiktok the other day of a pregnant woman working out. nothing special, but the caption said "i am manifesting this baby" ??? she already HAS the baby. it's growing inside her. she was over seven months along! that's not how manifesting works! it's become a super glorified buzzword and i hate it!

and i see a whole lot of "i attract but never chase" esp on twitter and tiktok. it's alright to want to attract something to you, but at this point it's all people ever do or say. they say they are manifesting (when in actuality, a lot of times they aren't actually putting in the effort or don't even know how to meditate or actively manifest beyond just wanting something). it's a really super easy way to say "im not going to put in any work to attain my goals but i should have this good thing because i deserve it"

don't get me wrong, everyone is deserving of good things, but the constant "attract not chase" mindset is harmful to yourself and others. you need a balance. you cannot aggressively want something and expect it to appear in your lap. if you are truly seeking to attract something, put in the work to properly manifest it. bring it to fruition. and then know when you need to chase. going after what you want is not a bad thing. it's not a poor thing or a pathetic thing to work towards and go after what you want.

if you really want to see results, make sure you have a balance. manifest the things you want. talk to spirit or the universe or any deity you may work with and see whether it's actually going to be a good thing for you, or whether you're ready for it yet. put yourself in a position to receive. even in attraction, it's not passive background work. you have to actively make sure you have the opportunity to receive it. open yourself up to the possibilities! you can't gain anything if you shut yourself out to world.

i know that crystals and tarot are super popular right now but using it just to play with or to fit in, and not taking it seriously, can have dangerous consequences. playing with the supernatural isn't a game, and while crystals are mostly harmless (unless handled wrong, i've heard of way too many people taking baths with their selenite! just cause some lady on tiktok said it's okay), it's still so easy to go too far if you don't know what you're doing or not taking it seriously.

if you really, actually, want to get into spirituality, please talk to someone who actually knows what they're doing. stop interacting with the tarot reads on twitter and tiktok, and get into it outside your home. go to an apothecary. go to crystal shops without the buzz antics. i know it's hard as a new spiritualist to know what's goid and what's a scam, so here's some guides i use to choosing a good shop:

don't shop anywhere that sells colored glass as crystals

don't shop from anyone or anywhere that swears by opalite. it's not real. if you want to know more about that please reach out!

hematite rings. just don't. hematite is great for soaking up negativity but it's fragile and prone to breaking when it's had enough. buying a new $30 ring when it breaks because it's soaked up too much negativity is just a way shops use to get lots of returning customers. just buy a big chunk of it and remember to cleanse it every so often.

make sure you research the way herbs interact if you're unsure. some combination don't work well together or neutralize each other and don't do anything. this is the same for crystals.

PLEASE don't attempt to open your third eye unless you are thoroughly experienced and ready for impact. closing your third eye is difficult and having it open when you're not ready is overwhelming at best. i learned that lesson the hard way. it's not fun. you don't ever have to open your third eye if you don't want to. it's not a requirement.

doing tarot reads for other people when you're still not completely sure about your deck isn't good. until you know the card meaning inside and out, reversals and uprights, and know your specific deck, it's too easy to give an incorrect reading and lead others astray. just stick to yourself.

[arecomicsevengood]

I Think We Can All Agree, NFTs Are The Ugliest Thing We’ve Ever Seen

It was recently announced that Kickstarter is moving to the blockchain. I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea what this means, or why it would be done. It’s pretty obvious to me how Kickstarter makes its money, they pretty transparently deal in the stuff and take fees for doing so. It seems like blockchain is just the latest buzzword that gets thrown around silicon valley tech circles and appeals to investors. I don’t really know what it is, or how it connects to crypto, bitcoin, NFTs, all these things that are widely opposed to by reasonable people on the grounds of being environmentally destructive and also a scam. I know the website Popula used Blockchain, but that’s not why I stopped going there, the site was poorly designed and uninterested in giving any indication as to what its articles were about. I am not being facetious when I say I have no idea what the blockchain is. Does it have anything to do with how people on Twitter block people they’ve never interacted with because of the people they have negative interactions with are associated with them in some capacity? Does that cause a lot of carbon emissions?

All I know is that I’ve had a “fuck kickstarter” stance for a moment now, for reasons I haven’t publicly articulated. It’s one of the basic premises I operate from, which are perhaps impossibly idealistic and generally prone to conspiratorial thinking. These are the thoughts that sneak into my TCJ reviews and instigate minor controversies. I started writing for TCJ when Dan Nadel was an editor, though I never worked with him, I think my thoughts align broadly with the issues he highlighted in his infamous “sell your boots” editorial, or at least the subsequent comments thread. I think Kickstarter is a poor excuse for publishing. It creates a world where artists that are either established or have a big social media following or easy pitch can maybe succeed but diverts their success into things that have nothing to do with the art, or reaching a broader audience.

Nadel’s company Picturebox is in many ways my ideal for what a publisher should be. They put out a bunch of great books, but they also took risks, and some books were more successful than others. Successes subsidize risks, a risk that fails is not pursued further. With Kickstarter, a book that “does well” is pre-sold in advance to a readymade audience, and the more successful they are, they get a book on a different paper stock or some stickers or other bullshit. Whereas in publishing, you put out a book, and if does well, the stores that carried it know to order more of your other books, and more risks are taken. We’re now living in a wildly conservative time for book publishing, and interesting things don’t make it to stores, and stores are boring. It’s bleak all around.

Picturebox may be an esoteric example if I’m citing my ideal of what a good publisher does. Often I find myself thinking of Dark Horse in the nineties, which published creator-owned work from Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick, Paul Pope, Mikes Allred and Mignola, Bernie Mireault, Jay Stephens, and Dave Cooper. They also paid Jim Woodring to write Alien comics, they had a Grendel anthology that published work in the U.S. by artists from Croatia, and they did a bunch of manga licensing. I think of them as a much more conservative company now, whose work I don’t pay much attention to. Bob Schreck and Diana Schutz were the big editors in charge of the work I’m talking about, I believe, and it’s interesting to me that, when Schreck went on to DC Comics at the turn of the century to edit Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Strikes Again, he was working with an artist who was aware of (and inspired by) alt-cartoonists like James Kochalka to make weird and invigorating work. Comics these days is far more siloed off. There was a time when the success of Frank Miller got a higher page rate for Renee French. Now is a much rougher time for artists like Renee French economically, and while it may be wildly profitable for Frank Miller, I don’t think it’s benefitted him artistically to be in, essentially, the 1% of comics artists, afforded a deal with Legendary to be the only artist they publish. (Right? The movie studio got into comics, but only ever released Holy Terror?)

Another reason to romanticize the 1990s: Publishers handled publicity for their books in such a way that artists did not need to be constantly online, which is maybe the number one requirement of a person seeking to promote their Kickstarter. Part of the rationale behind Kickstarter is to treat traditional publishers like they’re parasites, which is true inasmuch as current publishers also require their artists to be online constantly, doing all the promotion of their work themselves, as part of the ongoing neoliberal shifting burdens onto those least adept at shouldering them. If I were a publisher, and I wanted the work of the artists I published to be as strong as possible, I would want their time online to be minimized. It does not benefit an artwork for its creator to suffer from terminally online brain. Particularly if a publisher is seeking to have a diverse publishing slate, the more an artist differs from the cis white male model, the more likely they are to be continually antagonized and harassed online. The work of being a proponent for oneself online works against the work of making work that’s larger than yourself off of it. (Traditional publishing theoretically supplies editors as well, which I’m sure many comics would benefit from, but how much publishers actually give useful editorial input to their artists is something I couldn’t say.)

This is not to suggest that Kickstarter doesn’t fulfill a role. Clearly, it is a response to the conservatism of traditional publishing. “Publishers should make bolder choices” might seem like a non-solution, as all the cultural factors I’m alluding to here plainly suggest why everyone is so conservative. But like: That’s it. That’s the solution. That’s the issue. Book publishing, done well, is the alternative to weird web platforms, which will probably always be prone to snake-oil salesmanship.

---

For whatever it’s worth, I should direct people to Domino Books, who is currently planning an anthology of weird experimental work which will be funded partly through advertising. Domino is also a zine distro, and I believe proprietor Austin English largely believes that distributing affordably-produced self-published work is a preferable alternative to publishing as I’m outlining it here. His tastes are far more outré than what would ever be successful on Kickstarter. But again: Selling ads to subsidize the costs of a publication is a pretty good example of what a publisher can do that shouldn’t be the artist’s responsibility to bear. Not all comics should have advertising, but it’s a pretty major part of the newspaper model that provided a profitable outlet for comics for the entire twentieth century. Anyway, credit is due to him and editor Floyd Tangeman for publishing artists who seemingly have no social media presence where one can preview their work.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Oky I got no horses in this Artist-doll game, so I just wanna say it as a neutral person on the topic. I kinda agree that it's shitty for artists to make an exclusive line of sales between them. Not the act of exchanging dolls, or trading for personal pieces just as it. But the entire making copies of exclusive, or "one-off" resin tones, or limited dolls just to give another artist. If an artist says a resin tone is a one-off, and then makes another one just to trade with another artist, that just feels like a massive kick in the ass. So what the artist is saying "This piece is limited to only a certain number, 1-n, but only if I don't want another artists work and can trade this exclusive version."

But I think it's quite audacious, and just shows a lack of personal responsibility, when an artist is not delivering to their paying customers, has been in production limbo for months with no update, or has clearly scammed people, but then just turns their ass around and magically can produce a doll to trade with another artist, or just gift them a doll.

Calling out this behaviour honestly makes perfect sense to me. Even if you're not into buying these artist's dolls, and have been personally affected by their abysmal business tactics. Even as an outsider, this shit just doesn't look good on the hobby as a whole. Artists are pushed as the "symbol" of BJD's, or at least the status quo for the artist scene in our sphere of the hobby, and they're often the biggest people in the hobby. Looking into the hobby from the outside, and seeing this hypocrisy just being par for the course just seems insane, and I think it kinda does actually reflect badly on the hobby as a whole, but mostly artists, even those who're genuinely good and honest. Especially with how many followers of these double-faced artists are spineless tools who for some reason decide that they won't try to get their hundreds of dollars back after being scammed, and instead whine about nothing happening, when they don't even do anything to change the situation.

If you were to ask me, and several of my dolly friends, I think most of us would say the main negative words to describe the artist side of the BJD hobby are: Scamming. Bad quality. Bothersome. Obnoxious. Can't keep to their word. Lying. Petty. Infighting. Elitist (actually elitist, not just used as a buzzword.) And maybe even gaslighting. (Considering how some scammers will try and blame everyone else, or even try and change the actual events by lying about them)

~Anonymous

[catboy-dysphoria]

Rarely do I ever see posts for sex workers outside of the blogosphere of sex work blogs, that aren't thinly-veiled judgments, or vague affirmations written by someone who has never participated in sex work, so as a former FSSW/cam worker, I'm sending out some reminders to current sex workers, as well as anyone interested in starting <3 Below the cut bc it gets kinda long, and bc I can't properly tag without getting smacked by Tumblr.

Feel free to add if you have experience.

Learn to do your own taxes as a self-employed person (if applicable)

Learn to spot signs of a scam (connecting with other sex workers is harder than it used to be, but can be very helpful for this!)

Find a place to get tested regularly that you trust. LGBTQ centers often offer free testing, even if you are not LGBTQ yourself. Most also are sex-worker-friendly, in my experience. Be honest about what sex acts you're participating in.

Bring your own protection and lubricant, and make sure they're compatible.

Learn how to practice sex safely. This goes beyond Health Class 101. This includes learning how to clean your toys, how to use lubricant and signs you need to re-apply, how to acquire and use PrEP/PEP (which I recommend for everyone, if you're able to get it and have sex with multiple partners. There's a number of resources out there for aquiring low/no cost PrEP) contraceptive use (beyond just condoms!) and more.

Search yourself (both your alias(es) and real name) regularly. Try to send takedown notices for stolen content. You may even be able to pursue legal action. If you don't want your sex work alias connected to your real identity, this can also help you keep tabs on that. Reverse image search on some of your pictures every so often (but keep in mind RIS works...less well for pictures of naked ppl)

You don't need to be your full, authentic self for clients. This seems obvious (or should,) but also remember that you are not betraying your identity/community if you choose to closet yourself to clients, use buzzwords that may be offensive for better search results, etc.

Money 💰 first 💰 always 💰. Especially for FSSW. Negotiate any additional fees beforehand.

Re:money, be careful what apps you use, if any, and what information is tied to them. Learn about how much cash you can deposit at once into your bank account, and stay far enough below that number so as not to arouse suspicion from your bank. Sex workers are the best friend of a new money service and the worst enemy of an established one. Have backups. Established/long-time sex workers will remember what happened to Venmo, Cashapp, etc.

It can be easier to lower your prices than raise them (often, but not always.) I liked to have a range that I kept to myself, so I can offer cheaper rates to people I liked, and more expensive rates to people I didn't. Don't undersell yourself. This is SO much harder now with OF etc being in the mainstream and cheaper than before, but remember that you are the only one who can offer your specific body and services. Don't sell yourself short.

Remember that as a gig worker, your money will not be consistent. You may hit a strong cash flow at some point in your career, don't bank on it always being as strong. If possible, have enough saved for at least 1-2 months of crickets.

Be nice, be friendly, but don't be a doormat. If you're new to in-person sex work, practice ways to say no politely but firmly. There are people who know that you have fewer resources to report them for bad behavior.

^ Related, take safety measures. Learn what self-defense tools are legal for you to carry in your state/city/country, and how to use them. Pepper spray requires a firearm license in some states, and the last thing you want in a worst-case scenario is to be hit with a charge for defending yourself. Learn some form of weaponless self-defense, ideally more than one.

Additionally, have a way to check in with a safety person/trusted friend. I used to use Kitestring, but it looks like that's being shut down. Asking a friend to send you a text 5-10 minutes past when you think you should be done, and telling them what you want them to do if you don't respond would be a good alternative, as well as telling them where you're going and who you'll be with.

Learn the laws in your area, as specifically as possible. Take advantage of loopholes. Have a cover story. This applies extra the more marginalized identities you hold.

Have a cover story for friends/family you don't want to know about your work. This can be as specific or vague as you feel comfortable, but make sure it's consistent.

At least one person you know will find out, almost guaranteed, especially in the age of the internet/for internet-based work. Be prepared.

Remember to sometimes have sex for your own fun, if you want to. It can be nice to not have to focus as strongly on a partner as a client, or associate sex purely with a transaction.

Know your limits/boundaries. I advise not having any "first times" with a client unless you have an established relationship. If a client suggests something that you've never done before, I advise practicing with a trusted friend/partner before doing it professionally. If you don't want to be contacted on short notice or during certain times, be upfront.

Risk reduction! It's a huge topic. Many of the things we do are not free of risk. Learn how to practice things safely, whether that includes substances, kinks (especially kinks including impact play and bondage,) etc.

Have a plan for the future. Have more than one. Maybe that includes shifting genres (if that's the case, know at some point you'll need to shift from focusing on the loyalty of clients to getting new ones,) making more niche content, or getting a "vanilla" job. A lot of sex work (but not all!) depends on staying pretty, and people don't stay pretty forever. If your line of work is illegal or grey-legal, it may involve switching to a more protected line of sex work, like working in a dungeon, or a line of work that is adjacent, like some non-profit work. To reiterate from a few points ago, a good safety net is making sure you have enough savings to keep yourself afloat for at least a few months.

SW is in a weird position of being something many people want, but also something many people (including the former!) don't want to respect. Something endless participate in to different degrees, but something still not protected by the law in most places. Highly desired and largely shunned. Sending all SWers of all varieties lots of love and support.

[hareofhrair]

Hey, so, assuming good intentions here, but first of all you've got some misinformation.

Procedural image generation is not harmful to the environment.

Reports that claimed it was were reporting the energy output of the ENTIRE data center, which handles a LOT more than just any LLM, including "everything from Amazon Web Services servers to online gaming services, Zoom video calls, and cloud storage and retrieval for billions of documents and photos."

These data centers are the infrastructure of the internet, so conflating their complete power usage with the tiny fraction used by "AI" is absurd. This only caught on as an argument because it came so close on the heels of the crypto scam, which WAS disastrous for the environment, and would only continue to get worse as its design necessitated exponential energy needs.

"AI" on the other hand (I hate calling it that, it's such a meaningless buzzword but anything else is too confusing) is incentivized to become cheaper and more efficient over time, like any other tech.

Additionally, procedural generation of this kind (generating random small details for greater variety without designers having to individually make all those unique assets) has been a tool in video game dev since before Minecraft. Minecraft uses procedural generation to create its maps. No developer sat down and built those environments. This is one of the vanishingly few actual legit use cases for AI.

As for the other issue... That's rather less defensible. Overwolf doesn't just support the IDF, they're an Israeli company to start with, and three days after the Oct 7th attack they partnered with an Israeli charity to raise donations for protective gear for the IDF. Fuck Overwolf, and Curseforge. Go use ModDB. Or Nexus. Or Modrinth. There is no reason to use that shit anymore.

Inzoi is created and published by Krafton, Inc, a South Korean holding company for Bluehole Studios, the creators of PUBG, with a baker's dozen subsidiaries including Unknown Worlds, the creators of Subnautica. Basically, they had options when it came to figuring out a modding platform and chose an Israeli company.

That said, they're not Overwolf, and I haven't seen anything to suggest they themselves support Israel, and their choice of who to run mods through is pretty minor.

If tangential association with Israel makes you uncomfortable, that's a valid reason not to play. But I don't think this is a situation in which boycotting is useful. The game is still in development, and they have no investment in Israel beyond Overwolf being a convenient modding platform. It's probably more useful at this time to show that there are a lot of people interested in the game who want them to find a different modding platform, rather than playing it really negative and petty in a way that kind of suggests you were never really interested in playing the game to begin with.

Friendly reminder to my moots that Inzoi’s build mode uses generative AI for the creation of things like art and wallpaper and it’s not worth melting our planet for a vidya game thank you

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Babysitter vetting and voice-analysis: Have we reached peak AI snakeoil?

The ever-useful Gartner Hype Cycle identified an inflection point in the life of any new technology: the "Peak of Inflated Expectations," attained just before the sharp dropoff into the "Trough of Disillusionment"; I've lived through the hype-cycles of several kinds of technology and one iron-clad correlate of the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" is the "Peak of Huckster Snakeoil Salesmen": the moment at which con-artists just add a tech buzzword to some crooked scam and head out into the market to net a fortune before everyone gets wise to the idea that the shiny new hypefodder isn't a magic bullet.

Machine Learning has enjoyed an extraordinarily long and destructive peak, with hucksters invoking AI to sell racist predictive policing systems, racist sentencing and parole systems, and other Weapons of Math Destruction.

But those were Long Cons run by sophisticated hucksters with huge gangs of confederates; lately, we've been seeing a lot of short cons run by petty grifters who prey on fears to target individuals and small businesses, rather than cities, nations and Fortune 100 multinationals.

Here's an example: Predictim uses a secret "black-box algorithm" to mine your babysitters' social media accounts and generate a "risk rating" that you're entrusting your kid to someone who is a drug abuser, a bully, a harasser, or someone who has a "bad attitude" or is "disrespectful."

This system does not weed out risky people. It is a modern-day ducking stool, used to brand people as witches. What's more, it's a near-certainty that its ranking system is racially biased and also discriminates on the basis of class (because poor and racialized people are overpoliced and more likely to be arrested or otherwise disciplined for offenses that wealthier, whiter people get away with, so if you train a machine-learning system to find the correlates of anti-social behavior, it will just tell you to steer clear of brown people and poor people).

But the company -- backed by the University of California at Berkeley’s Skydeck tech incubator (this is a stain on the UC system and Skydeck) -- is finding customers, because it has found a way to play on suckers' fears. As Sal Parsa, Predictim co-founder says, "There’s people out there who either have mental illness or are just born evil. Our goal is to do anything we can to stop them."

Once babysitters click the "I consent" link on a parent's request to give Predictim access to their social media, they are at risk of having an unaccountable algorithm assign an arbitrary, unappealable score to their name that could permanently bar them from working in their industry.

In addition to pushing junk tech, Predictim's management is font of junk psychology: for example, CTO Joel Simonoff wants to feed data from social media streams to the unscientific Meyers-Briggs test (a latter-day astrological tool) to produce an even more unscientific personality category that parents can use to discriminate against potential sitters.

Predictim doesn't promise to keep predators away from your kids, just to "help." But when you read the feedback of Predictim's customers, like San Francisco's Diana Werner, you see that the customers have somehow gotten the impression that using Predictim will keep your kids safe ("Predictim goes into depth, really dissecting a person — their social and mental status. 100 percent of the parents are going to want to use this We all want the perfect babysitter.").

Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson shredded Predictim in an epic Twitter thread that shamed UC Berkeley, the company's founders and employees and its customers.

But he has his work cut out for him, because Predictim is just for starters.

Companies like AC Global Risk have announced that they can use voice-stress analysis to identify criminals, even before they've committed crimes, using (again) proprietary machine-learning systems that can "forever change for the better how human risk is measured."

AC Global Risk's products are, if anything, even more dangerous than Predictim: they're being marketed as a potential answer to Donald Trump's "extreme vetting" obsession, and AC Global Risk is proposing to subject refugees fleeing for their lives to this unaccountable black-box's judgment, potentially sending people to be murdered in their home countries on the strength of its random-number generator's judgment.

AC Global Risk raises every red flag: they claim that they can predict whether someone is a criminal with 97 percent accuracy, by analyzing their voices. As with Predictim, the people their algorithm condemns have no right of appeal; and as with Predictim, the company can dismiss its false positives as sour grapes from "bad guys" the system caught, and claim that its false negatives were among that tiny 3% who slipped through its net ("Imagine how much worse it would have been if you hadn't been paying us to sit in judgment!").

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/26/ducking-stool-2-0.html

[nehatiwari454545-blog]

Top 5-Trends Transforming E-Commerce and Online Retail in 2020

 Businesses are looking for new ways to solve the eternal mystery called a customer. They are trying to devise new ways to forge connections with them and to make their brands click.  What’s the secret of standing out in the crowd of ‘me-too’ strategies? What are the trends that the brands ar6e missing out on? As we usher in 2020, it is time to find out what they can do to strike a connection with untapped markets and be more customer-centric!  

So, don’t wait and scroll down for the lowdown of 5-top trends of online retail and e-commerce for the year 2020!

 Amazon Prime spoilt its customers with same-day delivery. As if it weren’t enough, the launch of Amazon Prime Air has started to deliver the packages in thirty minutes or even less! No wonder, the 30-minutes-or-free generation isn’t willing to wait anymore or even for a week to get their products delivered. This recent shift in logistics has prompted customers to expect faster delivery and enhance the convenience of online stores with the immediacy of offline stores. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that eighty-eight per cent of customers are willing to compensate for faster delivery and shipping. Because it is the only hurdle that stops the online users from buying online especially when time is of the essence.

Same Day Delivery ruled the chart as the e-commerce trend in 2018 and is going to come out in full swing in 2020 with small retail stores leveraging this opportunity to boost their business and strengthen their relationship with customers. According to an Internet Retailer Report for more than nineteen per cent of users, Same Day Delivery and immediate product access is an important criterion.

Often customers abandon their shopping carts when there is an unexpected delay in delivery timings and also cancel their product midst shipping for delayed delivery. However, small startups, mom-and-pop shops and retail customers are going to face a tough competition while keeping up with the unrealistic expectations of immediate delivery and resultant expenses.

 Sustainable Fashion

 While consumers these days prefer fast delivery, they are no longer identifying with fast fashion. Green consumerism is the buzzword and the biggest catchphrase. The millennial wants to stay on top of fashion without impacting the environment with their purchase decisions. The new-age brands support recycling and practice pre and post-eco-friendly habits. Be it free-range meat, skincare range or organic cotton basics, people prefer responsible brands. On social media as well, customers have been calling out e-commerce giants like Amazon for using too much plastic for packaging and outing brands for their non-greener practices.

Fashion alone contributes to more than eight per cent of greenhouse gases, and if continues to have its way, it will be responsible for more than twenty-five per cent of the global carbon budget across the world by 2050. While fashion waste can go up to 148 million tons by 2030, the ethical fashion and clothing market is gradually expanding its steps and is expected to increase by twenty per cent.

It takes more than 7,000 litres of water to process a pair of jeans. One kilogram cotton takes up to 20,000 litres of water to produce.

…And if the environmental impact of fast fashion wasn’t detrimental enough, seventy-seven per cent of clothing retailers in the UK believed that there could be a likelihood of modern slavery at some stage of supply chains.

If e-commerce businesses, small or big and retail companies want to strike a chord with customers, they have to take the environment seriously and be a responsible brand. While we have a long way to switch to regenerative and renewable closed-loop model, but waking up to the fact that the plastic, footwear or the cosmetics we once used aren’t ending up in an ocean or a landfill, is incredibly satisfying.

See it? Search it!

 Often customers shop with set goals in mind. They want a particular handbag, the dress their colleague has or the wardrobe they saw somewhere on an Instagram feed - the visual search enables the spot-on and shop its mindset. Visual search is used by Amazon and several fashion stores to search for similar recommendations and to offer more personal and intimate shopping experience to their users. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the next trend to watch out for retail and e-commerce industry in 2020 is the Product Recognition AI, which makes visual search possible. Fashion retailers and startups want to improve their customers’ journey and make it incredibly simple. The visual search makes it possible. With it, customers don’t have to scroll through the endless stream of products, care for the brand or style –upload the image and let the magic unroll!

Thanks to visual search AI, the circuitous purchase cycle becomes a lot simpler. As only one in three Google searches lead to a click, the product recognition AI makes life easier for the startups that can at focus their attention to the customers with a target in mind and are not mindlessly browsing. It is more personalised and more powerful.

Just so that you know that visual search isn’t new, countless applications are using it to facilitate customers. We all are aware of Google Lens on Google Shopping that pulls similar products. Macy’s utilises visual search to blur the line between seeing and buying. Customers can upload an image and find similar products on the store. Designers are using it to search for stock images. Synthetic Style Intelligence Agent-SIA also uses AI to find the right accessories to complete their look, doubling up as a virtual shopping assistant.

 The Power of Influence

 Hype beast found out that influencers are losing their charm on commoners. Some of them are being ousted and called out for scamming (Fyre Festival, remember?) whereas some of them could sell only thirty-six t-shirts despite having over two million followers! Let’s accept it. Our Instagram feeds and lives are oversaturated with inspirational quotes, ad videos of brands with some bit of story in them and them always leading on colourful lives, which we clearly can’t afford. They are selling everything, from vitamins to lifestyle and they are everywhere, be it Instagram, YouTube or TikTok.  Researcher and Strategist Alexandra Samuel discovered three groups of social media

·         Enthusiasts (Users posting more than five times a week)

·         Lurkers (A whopping fifty-two per cent of users posting once a week or even less)

·         Dabblers (Users who post two to four times a week)

Lurkers are the hibernating cell of the social media that don’t care much about influencers or their friends.  The same goes for dabblers that don’t get “influenced” or draw a conclusion from their friends and family’s purchases. The influencers don’t seem to turn this category on as they make their decision independently.

Does it mean the influencer culture peaked? Do companies need to quit influencer marketing?

Certainly not!

Influencer marketing needs to be adopted brilliantly and smartly.  In 2020, businesses would need to understand their customers and broaden their mind towards social media so that the ‘lurkers’ somehow could be included and influenced. The influencers need to work on their CTA to not to look like a complete sell-out and instead work towards ‘nudging’ the customers to make a well thought out decision.

In this year, businesses would like to pay attention to not only the big reach but also their content that can unlock the opportunities for you.  Apart from it, social shopping is going to rule the roost. According to a North American e-Commerce agency Absolute,

§  More than eighty per cent of e-commerce shoppers accept that they rely on social media for a shopping decision.

§  Thirty per cent of customers purchase directly through social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

§  More than 40 per cent of businesses are utilising social media to gain traction, generate leads and sales.

§  One-in-four businesses are selling through Facebook alone.

One of the interrelated trends in 2020 will be the dominance of mobile sites. Social media sites and e-commerce sites are mainly mobile now. Brands are cashing in on ‘Instagram ability’ and creating visually-driven customer-driven content.

If used intelligently, influencer marketing can be used to harness trusted voices and help customers make an informed decision. Aimed to become a more than $10 billion industry by the end of 2020, the influencer marketing, mobile website and social shopping are going to prove its dominance.  

The brands, however, are putting their relationships with influencers under scrutiny. The rise of fake influencers and ‘likes’ no longer being considered as the potential engagement metric, the brands want to leverage nano-influencers, people who have a tightly-knit community as followers.

The other thing to watch out in social space as a booming trend in 2020 is Instagram and Facebook stories that have an engagement of 500 million daily users. Similarly, Instagram trends, polls, interactive stories are also a brilliant way to catch attention and continue to be so.  Meanwhile, this New Year also rolls in Instagram business feature, Growth Insights and “Stories about You” to help a business to strengthen their foothold in their domain.

This the feature will be incomplete without the mention of TikTok –the most installed app of year 2019! Once rejected and ridiculed as childish and ‘royal waste of time’, this app now has more than 800 million active users now. The users are spending more than 46 minutes every day on the app, which is important because the videos on this app are only 15-seconds long! And businesses are using this app to reach out to the user base of this platform, which typically consists of 16-24 years old. However, the app’s sixty per cent of users are based in China and this is where it loses its steam. In order to maintain the dominance of its digital footprint, the app needs to wade through Chinese territory.

Voice-based search SEO

 You have optimised your website content for SERPs.  But it is time to embrace and adopt this new trend in the New Year! The voice search is on the tremendous rise and there were more than one billion voice searches monthly by January 2018 alone. It is estimated that by 2020 more than thirty per cent of website browsing will be conducted with voice, without needing a screen! Similarly, an astonishing sixty-two per cent of individuals have admitted buying products using the voice search capabilities of their smart speakers.

A study discovered that the voice search e-commerce brought in over $1.8 billion in Amazon revenue, which is expected to go up to $40 billion by the year 2022.

The voice-only search allows the users to search through the internet with the voice. One doesn’t need a physical keyboard or have to scroll through several websites on their desktops, mobile devices and tablets.  The programs with voice searching capabilities like Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri are driving the brands and businesses to make their interfaces voice-search compatible.

Voice SEO is different from traditional SEO. While the latter is about ‘fixing’ the content with keywords, the former is based on ‘what people say while talking to Siri or Google.’  For instance, a user might type “affordable data mining services” on Google whereas her voice search would vary to “affordable data mining services in my city near me” or “where can I find affordable data mining services?”

It is imperative to think about customers, and your sales funnel while optimising your business and its platforms with voice-search capabilities. Voice search often entails long-tail keywords and smart searches conducted by customers, which may vary from a business to another. The website should load quickly to ensure a comprehensive voice search across the internet.  The files should be compressed and images should be optimised for search.

More than twenty-two per cent of voice search queries are location-based. This is why the keywords ‘near me’ hold preference and have a higher chance of appearing in the search result.

The Conclusion:

These social media trends will help retailers and e-commerce enthusiasts to level up and establish contact with their customers like never before. From personalisation to interactive visualisation and chatbots, businesses are making every effort to get ahead from their competitors and win this race of ROI, customer engagement and create a strategy that makes them the most-talked-about brand online. Early adopters of commerce strategies have experienced rapid growth and with more than 1.66 billion online players, it seems they were right about hopping on this wagon. Besides these, eCommerce and retail sectors are harnessing data solutions such as data mining, data scrubbing, data appending, data verification, data appending, email appending, data scraping, skip tracing, phone appending, CRM cleaning , Data verification email verification and data analysis for business intelligence and sales forecasting!

The race is on! Where are you? Are you prepared for the exciting future of online retail and e-commerce? Is your business joining the e-commerce revolution or is it going to lag and miss out on the estimated $4.8 trillion e-commerce sales projected worldwide in 2021?