#creator survey 2018

[silmarillionwritersguild]

It is one thing to document that, yes, the vast majority of creators love comments on their work. But the big question that hangs over any discussion of commenting remains: What about the dozens upon dozens of readers who read a story but do not comment?

Authors have been angsting over the disparity between their click and comment counts since those data became available to them. In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, Dawn dusts off a 2018 article that she wrote for the Project Long Live Feedback, which dug into the 2015 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data and what it showed about comments ... or why people don't comment. Using data from the 2020 survey, she's updated the article this month, but the takeaways remain the same: Commenting is a skill and its own unique type of writing. A lack of confidence as writers can hold people back from commenting. And feeling part of a community is an essential component of easing the way from becoming readers to commenters. In the Tolkien fanfiction fandom, which has been around a lot long (both online and offline) than most fic fandoms, platform shifts at least partly account for the rise and fall of comment counts.

You can read this month's article, "Why People Don't Comment: Data and History from the Tolkienfic Fandom," here.

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @pinkfadespirit  |  AO3: ghostbunny

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A with Ghostbunny

How long have you been into DA?

I first played Inquisition in 2016 but didn’t play the other two games until late 2018/early 2019. That was when I really got into the fandom. DA2 was the game that made me want to start reading DA fic and my second play through and first time romancing Anders that same year lined up with me completing a fic for another fandom that I had been working on for several years. I started writing my own take on the Anders romance then and never looked back.  

What is your OTP?

I am obsessed with Handers! I have written multiple fics of varying lengths for Anders/Male Hawke, plus so much art and I co-ran a zine for the pairing last year. I usually play with a mage Hawke and I love the idea of them coming from such different backgrounds but having magic in common. I have so many feelings about them, most of which I tend to explore through fic. 

What drew you to tackle a Big Bang?

I’ve participated in a few bangs as an artist before now and this time I really wanted to try it as a writer. Plus I have an idea that I’ve been holding onto since I first started writing DA fic. I always had some other project to prioritise before now but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally write it. I like the idea of having a set time in which to write it so I don’t get distracted by other ideas. And I’m so excited to see what kind of art my story will inspire!

[colorpickinglesbian]

History of the Lesbian Flag

Since I run a blog that's all about appreciation for lesbians and our current flag, I thought it'd be fitting to make a post about lesbian flags of the past and how we (more or less) settled on this design!

The first lesbian flag was designed by Sean Campbell in 1999, who was working as a graphic designer for the Greater Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Times [1]. It has a solid violet background in reference to the tradition of violets as a symbol of sapphic love. The inverted black triangle is used to represent remembrance and reclamation for the lesbians who were marked "asocial" during the Holocaust, much like how the pink triangle was a common symbol in the gay men's community [2]. The labrys was already an established lesbian-feminist symbol of women's strength and self-sufficiency due to its association with the Amazons.

This flag was more of a niche success than the versions that would follow, for a number of changing reasons. The first is that this flag was created at a time when it was just starting to become commonplace for individual identities to have their own flags as opposed to everyone being under the rainbow; the bisexual and transgender flags were both only around a year old. The second reason this flag hasn't seen widespread use is the controversial use of the black triangle. To an uninformed viewer, the inclusion of a Nazi symbol on a flag can be alarming. There is also debate on if lesbians should reclaim the black triangle, as it was most commonly applied to Romani people. The third and most contemporary criticism of this flag centers around its adoption by transphobic radical feminists, due to the lesbian-feminist history of the flag.

There is a current movement to revive or slightly redesign (by removing the black triangle or adding trans-positive imagery) this flag, as some people connect with the empowering and historically significant symbolism or simply think that the most widespread design doesn't reflect their aesthetic or connection with lesbianism.

The second flag wasn't meant for the whole lesbian community, but it became pretty widespread: the Lipstick Lesbian flag. This flag was created in 2010 by lesbian lifestyle blogger Natalie McCray to represent the hyperfeminine sub-community of "lipstick lesbians" [3]. The shades of pink and red, fittingly, represent common shades of lipstick, and the kiss mark is in the upper left corner in the tradition of the bear and leather flags.

In 2013, a version of the flag cropped to exclude the kiss mark was posted on Tumblr, where it was described as a general lesbian flag representing the whole community [4]. In 2015, a DeviantArt account dedicated to uploading high-resolution versions of pride flags posted the version without the lipstick mark, mentioning that it is a variation of the lipstick lesbian flag but still framing it as a flag for the whole community [5]. The admin later revealed that the omission of the lipstick mark was simply due to the difficulty of upscaling the image to a higher quality without the original vector.

This design was moderately successful until racist, biphobic, anti-butch, and cissexist comments from the creator were uncovered c. 2018. The flag was already facing replacement efforts due to its "lipstick lesbian" association making it uninclusive of butch lesbians.

2017-18 was a very fortuitous time for lesbians to be in search of a new flag. Social media use was reaching new peaks and the microidentity boom came with a huge wave of new flags for the queer community at large. Concurrently, there was a big push for inclusivity in the queer community that birthed the Philadelphia Pride flag to explicitly include people of color, the first time the LGBT rainbow flag had seen a revision since it was cut to six stripes in 1979.

It was not difficult to find lesbians willing to try their hand at making The New Lesbian Flag. There were so many interested parties, in fact, that multiple community surveys were conducted to pick a design! (I had the joy of participating in some of those surveys in favor of the 7-stripe flag that this blog is dedicated to.) On the DeviantArt account that posted the lipstick lesbian flag with the kiss mark removed, there are 212 variations under the "Lesbian WLW" category.

Pictured above are three of the most successful variations that came out of this lesbian flag explosion. The design on the left was created by Jace (AKA anurtransyl), with 5 shades of blue and purple representing community values like trust, freedom, and pride. The design on the right won the which-lesbian-flag survey; it was created by Marion (AKA apersnicketylemon), and the four stripes represent different subsets — trans, femme, aspec, and butch — of the lesbian community. The center flag was created by Lydia, the same woman who brought Natalie McCray's bigoted comments to light. It is commonly referred to as the Sappho flag because its violet shade is a direct reference to Sappho's poetry, while its other shades represent the community values of strength, fragility, and healing.

Separate from the evolution of the community lesbian flag, some lesbians were making flags for subsets of the lesbian community. While I won't cover these in detail, the one relevant to this story is the butch flag created by Mod Q of butchspace.

People were naturally attracted to the idea of smashing the butch and lipstick flags together to create one representing the whole community. Olivia (AKA shapeshifter-of-constellation) created a very familiar design (alongside some proposed variations) in July 2017 to little fanfare [6]. No meanings were provided for the stripes, but Olivia mused back and forth with some other community members about meanings that could be ascribed beyond 'butch, femme, and other'. She proposed a couple more variations, but ultimately seemed to abandon the design.

The current design originated in June 2018 and was designed by Emily Gwen [7].¹ By the end of the week, the meanings for the stripes were finalized: gender non-conformity, independence, community, unique relationships to womanhood, serenity & peace, love & sex, and femininity.

There are many reasons why this flag was successful.

The retained stripes from the lipstick lesbian flag allowed it to retain recognizability; someone who has only seen the previous iteration can see those stripes and infer that the flag has something to do with lesbianism.

The stripe meanings were decided with input from the community, resulting in associations that include lesbians of all kinds in a respectful way. Olivia's design faced criticism for implying that all lesbians exist on a continuum from butch to femme, so Emily Gwen's uses "gender non-conformity" and "femininity" to include butches and femmes while including all lesbians on every stripe. Trans lesbians provided feedback in the replies of the original post as well as sadlesbiandisaster's ask box stating that they felt having trans and nonbinary lesbians on their own stripe separated them from the rest of the community, so the white stripe was changed to "unique relationships to womanhood."

Marketability. Emily Gwen allows people and corporations to make and sell merchandise with her flag design on it. Despite the community's attitudes towards rainbow capitalism and the unfortunate financial impact on Emily Gwen personally, this allowed the flag to proliferate.

The color combination is pleasing to the eye. This is obviously a matter of opinion, but it seems to be a widely shared one! This design received its "sunset flag" nickname very early on, which tends to be a positive indicator for longevity of a pride flag.

Catherine Becker created a five-stripe derivative of this flag to facilitate printing [8]. Oversized flags have been a historical issue for the LGBT community, most notably with Gilbert Baker's original rainbow flag which had the pink stripe removed due to poor availability of pink fabric and the turquoise stripe removed to allow for it to be split in half on each side of the San Francisco pride parade route. The simplification turned out to be a good move, as it is the most popular design used by corporations like Disney and Spencer's Gifts.

Anecdotally, Emily Gwen's design is still the most popular at pride parades and online. It's the one we see handed to celebrities like Lucy Dacus and LOONA. It's the one we see proudly displayed in the icons of lesbians online. It's recognized by governmental organizations, universities, news and entertainment publications, and gay heritage organizations.

To close out this recounting of lesbian flag history, I leave you with two of my favorite memes about lesbian flags.

¹ Despite its visual similarity to Olivia's flag from the previous year, both designers attribute this to convergent evolution and deny any claims of plagiarism.

[mademoiselle-red]

Hey TC (and Renault) fans! An academic decided to write about us, online fans of Mary Renault’s works, for her phd dissertation in 2018 👀👀👀 (And she does not have good things to say 😤)

You can read it here: Between Boys: Fantasy of Male Homosexuality in Boys’ Love, Mary Renault, and Marguerite Yourcenar by Jui-an Cho, Graduate Program in Literature, Duke University (2018)

And as the subject of her research, I have some thoughts 😤, which I shall be airing in a series of posts this weekend ✍️📑

Here is part 1/6 of this series. (Links to part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6)

Let’s begin with the interpretive framework and aim of her dissertation:

“Exploring narrative strategies, critical receptions, textual and extra-textual relationalities produced by the three bodies of works, this dissertation delineates a paradigm for reading cross-gender homoerotic texts that is neither gay nor queer, neither paranoid nor reparative, and instead focuses on fantasy and how it produces pleasure. Fantasy is used in two senses here: as a preoccupation with relationships in romantic fantasies and as a desire to depart from the here and now. By thinking through both forms of fantasies, I examine the misalignments between identity and identifications in Boys’ Love, Renault’s historical novels about ancient Greece, and Yourcenar’s cross-identifications with gender, temporal, and cultural otherness.”

Excuse me? It’s not gay or queer because many of the authors are (queer) women?

“Boys’ Love is as fascinating as it is perplexing: it depicts physical and emotional intimacy between men but is definitively non-gay, and its creators and consumers are mainly heterosexual women.”

Mainly heterosexual women. Where are you getting this??? Can you site a survey? When was the data collected? How large was the sample size? What was the methodology?

“More importantly, this chapter establishes BL as an interpretive lens for reading cross-writing texts especially those by Mary Renault and Marguerite Yourcenar, which I examine in subsequent chapters. What Renault, Yourcenar, and BL have in common is women’s desire for the fantasy of male homosexuality.”

Ah yes, Renault’s gay romances are all fantasies that have nothing to do with her queerness and experiences with the queer community 🙄

As you can see, we are not off to a great start 😤

More to come in part 2

[hopefulleafva]

I’ve ranted in tags about this before but in light of Deltarune’s birthday I just need to post a quick love letter of appreciation for how magical my first time playing chapter 1 was.

I have never had a Twitter and had somehow avoided all knowledge that Toby had been making mysterious tweets on the 30th back in 2018. I was (and probably always will be) obsessed with Undertale, but my focus was on another fixation at the time so I wasn’t obsessively tracking it. So I had no idea about the mysterious Totally Not Gaster™️ voice that had taken over.

I was in college at the time and had spent Halloween night hanging out with friends and walking around campus to see all the people in costumes. I didn’t get back to my dorm until 10:30 or so and my roommate was out somewhere so I was completely alone.

Somehow, despite the game having been out for a bit at that point, I STILL managed to avoid knowing what it was. I saw one tumblr post that was like “Stop everything guys go check out Toby’s Twitter” and that’s all, so I did.

And man. Something about downloading a sketchy looking SURVEY_PROGRAM.exe off a “hijacked” twitter late on Halloween night all by myself, ignoring my computer’s virus warning and seeing that “YOU ACCEPT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN FROM NOW ON” license agreement was just so magical and creepy and amazing. It felt like I was living the start of a horror movie or creepy pasta or something.

When I saw the Survey Program name and started that character creator I had thought “Oh, Toby is making a new game and he wants us to design the protagonist, he must be sending out a survey that will see what the most popular choices are and then that’ll be all this is.”

And then as I played and found out it was actually some sort of game, I figured we were getting like a 30 minute demo or something, but then it just kept. on. going. Every time I thought it was surely about to end it continued and I was floored!

I wound up having to go to bed because it got so late and I was exhausted, but finishing it up the next day was wonderful. I had been spoiled for Undertale before my first playthrough, so it was great to play Deltarune totally blind and be fully immersed in each twist and turn.

That first playthrough and the wonderfully eerie moments that lead up to it were so so magical and I feel so lucky that I got to experience it that way. It’s a shame new players won’t get to have that same experience but I’m very grateful I did.

Thank you Toby for sharing this game with us. I really, really love it. I will happily and patiently wait as long as it takes for you to finish your masterpiece, it will be worth it.

[anachronisims]

Get to know you: Sims Style

thanks @eulaliasims !

What’s your favorite Sims death?

What a macabre start to the survey lol… I hardly ever let my sims die, so kind of none, but my least least-favorite is probably dying of fright.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Club Crimson and GoS foreverrrrrr (but I'll take whatever's out there, I really don't care tbh)

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Lol you can tell they wrote this survey for TS4 players… yes, sometimes the game makes them not-fat anymore and I'm like… no, really, that's not how this sim's metabolism works thanks

Do you move objects?

…do you NOT?

Favorite Mod?

There are a lot of new good ones but hands-down my ultimate all-time favorite is the Community Time mod by crammyboy, as later tweaked by Chris Hatch. I cannot live without this mod and it is 50% of the reason I hate playing TS4. Why is it suddenly an ISBI anytime someone leaves the house? Who wants to play that game??

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

Livin' Large

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

(a)LIVE Mode wtf do you also pronounce gif like the peanut butter?

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Any of my Meraki founders, they are my forever darlings

Have you made a simself?

Not since 2009

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Ew, gross. Natural: Shrapnel (which is BROWN), and Unnatural: HMX

Favorite EA hair?

Again… gross? #hideeverything

Favorite life stage?

Child, probably

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

The eternal question, isn't it?

Are you a CC creator?

I'm a CC adapter.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I'd like to think so! Shout-out to @niamh-sims, @fireflowersims, @fracturedmoonlight, and @gayars

Do you have any sims merch?

No but there is a plumbob tshirt on my Christmas list

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Technically yes, but I never posted my swimmable pond tutorial there because #adhd

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I was definitely a casual player/serious CC collector for most of the first decade of the game. I was probably one of the first people to experience pink flashing from overloading dense, urban neighborhoods, and the game never being able to handle my dreams (in aLIVE mode) limited my actual playtime substantially. I took a couple years off and then in 2016 or 2017 came back enraptured with the Test of Time challenge (and modifying the ToT challenge rules as much as anything). Meraki is my third iteration of that, working past neighborhood corruption (1ST attempt; 4th gen) and founder fatigue (2nd attempt; barely got off the ground, it was just too weird trying again). Now (lately) I'm back to regular modern play (which means CC collecting and neighborhood setup, apparently).

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

Today, Jacky93sims lol. ATS for longevity. Adele for details. HS for the infinitely useful Arizona sofa lol

How long have you had Simblr?

Probably… 2018-2019? I think I got the idea for Meraki around the time of my honeymoon and that's when I came up with the name 'anachronisims,' and my prior tumblr was just a general purpose thought repository.

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite?

Seasons. In any game. Seasons.

impossible to keep track of who's done these already especially since i can't keep a close eye on my dash so i assume these folks have already done it BUT i tag: @fireflowersims @fracturedmoonlight @moocha-muses @frauhupfner

[eeveecraft]

Tulpas and LLMs

I have been blessed with a good idea for a post:

A compare and contrast between tulpas and LLMs (large language models. I'm not calling them AI because LLMs are not intelligent, they're just really good at guessing what word goes next).

My systemmates and I often see posts on r/Tulpas from people trying or wanting to use apps like Replika to aid in tulpa creation or as some kind of forcing tool. And I've always wondered: why? You can't take a machine you built up and place it inside your head as a systemmate. What benefit does it bring?

All you can use LLMs for with tulpa creation is just constructing a base personality for your tulpa, which a base personality isn't even required to make a tulpa. And if you wanted to have a base personality, why not just use a character sheet? Why waste your time, interacting with an LLM when you'll eventually have to abandon it because your tulpa and the LLM are completely separate things? (Also, in some LLMs, you might even end up spending money depending on what you're trying to do.)

Like, if you base your tulpa off of your Replika, your tulpa and the Replika are not the same person. It's the fictive issue all over again.

But one thing I've noticed is that LLMs and tulpas share the similarity of development in response to interaction... just that a tulpa is an actual person and is infinitely more complex and consistent than an LLM (They also have the ability to say no and they're not just a yes-person to keep you on an app run by a corporation, nor are they chained to a device or corporation that is trying to extract you for wealth by preying on your innate need for social interaction. Seriously, that sh!t is so fucked up.).

From the last community survey conducted in 2018, companionship is the most common reason to create a tulpa, while the most common reason to sign up for something like Replika or Character AI is to cope with loneliness. I might be biased, but I'd definitely say tulpas are better for your health than relying on an LLM for socialization. Do either replace physical world socialization? No.

At least the other is an actual person, is often a lifelong commitment, and actually usually encourages you to go outside.

I don't know, just some observations I've made.

If you like this post, consider buying us a Ko-Fi:

7-23-2023

[thereasonsimbroke]

TMNT Shredder's Revenge DLC Unveiled

In Ep. 567, Macio and I discuss the Fortnite crossover survey, Usagi Yojimbo joining TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, James Wan on the challenges of Aquaman 2, and more!

Full Topics:

Fortnite survey hints at potential crossovers with Pokemon, GTA, and Metal Gear

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge DLC "Dimension Shellshock" introduces Usagi Yojimbo and inter-dimensional battles

Pixar cuts around 75 jobs as part of Disney layoffs, affecting director Angus MacLane and producer Galyn Susman

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Pt 1 breaks box office records with $120.5 million opening

Chris Hemsworth reflects on Thor: Love and Thunder, admits it became "too silly" Sir Anthony Hopkins calls working on Thor films "pointless acting" due to heavy use of green screens

Live-Action Miles Morales and animated Spider-Woman in development, expanding Sony Marvel universe

James Wan discusses challenges of working on Aquaman 2 during changes at Warner Bros. Discovery and DC

Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck's involvement in final cut of Aquaman 2 uncertain under James Gunn's direction

FOLLOW/SUPPORT MACIO: @macdamurderer (Macio's Twitter) As always, we appreciate your constructive Feedback, Suggestions, and Questions. You can also leave us an audio question on SpeakPipe. Thank you for the continued love and support! Enjoy the show. Daniel Podcast Awards 2019 || Games & Hobbies (Winner) Podcast Awards 2017 - 2018, 2020 - 2022 || Games & Hobbies (Nominated) Official Site FOLLOW US: - Twitter | @ReasonsImBroke and @TRIBPod - Instagram - Pinterest - Tumblr - Discord Lounge - YouTube Channel SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / iHeartRadio / TuneIn / Overcast SUPPORT THE POD: Getting $1's worth of entertainment and information each month? Support us on Patreon or visit our TeePublic storefront! SPREAD THE WORD: If you're enjoying the show, please head over to iTunes and leave us a rating and a review! Each one helps new Brokettes discover the podcast. Contribute to the Hero Initiative to offer assistance to comic creators facing difficulties. Show your support for the AFSP's efforts by donating to the Autumn Snyder Tribute Fund. CREDITS: Opening/Closing Jingles - Alex Scott Show Logo By - Opanaldiova

The latest episode of The Reasons I'm Broke Podcast!

[memoriae-lectoris]

In 2006, the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Transportation Alternatives conducted a citywide survey of placard use. Three in four holders were using their permits illegally. Fully half of the cars parked illegally belonged to police officers. When the car was a safety hazard, it was a police officer’s personal vehicle 61 percent of the time. Transportation Alternatives had sent out twenty-two researchers on the project; every single one of them was apprehended and asked for ID doing their research, and two were detained. The worst placard abusers were the police, and the police ran the parking enforcement.

[…] Even if you could accept the idea that cops and court officers somehow had a particular need and right to drive to work, it was harder to defend the back-burner corruption that trailed in the wake of that privilege. Where there were placards you would find them being used illegally; you would also soon find a license plate behind a foggy plastic cover, or folded at the corner, to evade speed cameras and tolls. For the watchdogs who tracked the placards, parking corruption was an ominous sign that police did not think they had to play by the same rules as everyone else. And watchdogs did see what was going on. In 2007, Transportation Alternatives started a website, Uncivil Servants, where citizens could submit flagrant parking violations by city officials (mostly police). More than 1,600 vigilante parking sheriffs contributed. The NYPD was livid.

Twitter also became a popular platform for pointing out parking corruption. The anonymous Twitter account @PlacardAbuse was particularly fervent in policing the police. When we first spoke in 2018, the account’s creator wouldn’t tell me his name, but he said his work (posting photos of illegally parked cars on Twitter) had gotten him into several physical altercations as well as earned him complaints to his employer and a menacing visit to his home from the NYPD’s internal affairs unit. His best case for taking the issue seriously was not the consequences of the illegal parking, per se, but its implications for the police force.

[salonshop]

Hongerwinter is a new book co-published by Mokopōpaki and Envy to accompany the exhibition by Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P and Te Maari at Envy, Wellington.

Hongerwinter (2024) ka puta mai i WARY—A Survey (2018) ki Mokopōpaki, Ākarana.

Title: Hongerwinter Creator: Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P, Te Maari, authors; Mokopōpaki, author Contributor: Mokopōpaki, issuing body; Envy, issuing body Series: Mokopōpaki (Series), 10 May–8 June 2024 Publisher: Auckland, New Zealand: Mokopōpaki and Envy ISSN: 2537-8783 Publication Date: May 2024 Format: 24 pages; 21 cm Edition: 200 Notes: Screenprinted bag made by Greg Thomas

Purchase here

[cleanwaterchronicles]

MiWaterNet Monitors Quality of Northern Michigan Streams

Source: Great Lakes Echo

By Nicoline Bradford | February 27, 2023

A water monitoring system powered by citizen scientists provides real time data for researchers across northern Michigan.

The system, called MiWaterNet, is important because it constantly measures the quality of small streams.

“Small streams are often considered the sentinels of the watershed,” said Ashley Moerke, the director of the Center for Freshwater Research and Education at Lake Superior State University and creator of the MiWaterNet program. They are very responsive to changes in the environment.

The real time data helps researchers answer important questions about a watershed’s condition.

“For example, if we’re studying how climate change is affecting the stream ecosystem we would need data that is taken at a high frequency,” Moerke said. Without constant monitoring, scientists couldn’t get the full picture.

Most stream monitoring is done a few times each year and does not capture the changes occurring over long periods. MiWaterNet measures them constantly.

The researchers were inspired by the US Geological Survey’s stream gauging network, said Drew Heckman, a research technician for the Center for Freshwater Research and Education and for the MiWaterNet program. This network provides valuable, real time data on a stream’s water quality, level and temperature.

However, these sensors are extremely expensive to maintain and tend to focus on large rivers, Heckman said. Many of them have become inactive and not been replaced.

Keeping the cost low is MiWaterNet’s focus, Heckman said. “Technology has come so far. What was cutting edge 10 years ago is now available to consumers for a much lower price.”

The researchers were also able to cut the cost significantly by doing some of the coding and wiring themselves.

Even high schoolers got involved.

One of the most rewarding parts of running the program has been the opportunity to integrate citizen science, Heckman said. Through a k-12 educational program with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the researchers were also able to work with schools across northern Michigan, including Les Cheneaux Community Schools, Brimley Area Schools and Pickford Public Schools.

Heckman and his team brought science to the classroom. He worked with the students to assemble the monitoring stations and then deploy them in streams near the schools, providing the students with real time data. This gave them a local connection and got them excited about citizen science, he said.

High school students install a monitoring station on the Pine River. Image: Drew Heckman

The program has grown beyond the initial goals of data collection, Heckman said.

The data has already contributed to understanding stream pollution, which students have presented to city councils, Heckman said.

His favorite parts are the questions that come after the students deploy the sensors, Heckman said. They start thinking about the bigger picture and making connections.

Since 2018, 26 sensors have been deployed with funding and collaboration from various groups, including the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service and the Anglers of the Au Sable, according to the Center for Freshwater Research, which runs the program.

What’s so unique about this program is the variety of stakeholders it has engaged, Moerke said. Federal, state and local communities are involved at different levels.

“These broad stakeholders demonstrate how good the program is at integrating science, technology and education,” she said.

Browse the real time data on the MiWaterNet website. 

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @bubblesgin  |  AO3: JordanIllustrations | Twitter: Bubblesginart | TikTok: Bubblesgin | Instagram: Bubblesginart

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A with Jordan

What is your favorite DA religion?

I’d say the Elven Gods are my favorite. I’m extremely excited to see how the lore expands around them in Veilguard! I also appreciate all of the beautiful murals and mosaics of the Pantheon found throughout DAI!

How long have you been into DA?

I believe it was late Spring of 2018, my fiance was playing DAI. After watching him play it for a while, I eventually started my own play through and I was HOOKED. After playing through DAI I started Origins and DA2. and it really allowed me to have an outlet to create characters and art for.

What is your favorite aspect of DA as a whole?

It’s definitely the characters and how your PC can build relations with those characters over time! I love to create characters and think about how their backstories would influence how they interact with the cast of characters!

[socialmetacommentary]

Week 7: Body Modification on Visual Social Media

With the wake of digital technologies revolutionising what we would consider a job, ‘online influencer’ and its plethora of synonyms such as ‘e-celebrity’ and ‘content creator’ have all become highly sought after occupations (Duffy B, Meisner C, 2022). A report by the Morning Consult in 2019 identified in their survey of millennials that 54% would be willing to pursue the career if given the opportunity. But why? One’s exposure to an online influencer is generally through the viewing of an already successful creator. In this regard, the lifestyle has built the stigma that it's easy, gives freedom of work, and makes a lot of money. While partly true, Brooke Erin Duffy and Colten Meisner in their literature, ‘Platform governance at the margins: Social media creators’ experiences with algorithmic (in)visibility’, measured the common sentiment amongst questioned influencers to be that the career path is more stressful and jarring than people assume.

Unlike more traditional jobs, as being a creator is linked to digital platforms, many current and aspiring creators echo the feeling that effort and hardwork don’t directly correlate to growth or performance; rather they are at the mercy of a black box algorithm to decide. Without any concrete way of knowing how to increase one’s own favorability in the systems, guidance is often seeked through continuous exposure to the environment. 

A by-product this leads into, however, is the modifying of one’s self image and character in an attempt to not only seemingly appease various social media algorithms, but also contribute to the normalised ‘porn chic’ culture that seems to thrive across social platforms. Jenna Drenten, Lauren Gurrieri, and Meagan Tyler (2018) coined the concept after assessing the trend of visual and textual sexualisation in abundance. A major driver they found is that provocative labour and photo editing to appear more “beautiful” connotated to greater avenues to monetization, faster growth, and interestingly, higher self-esteem. 

With this pressure to maintain this online appearance, what we’re seeing recently is the emerging socio-issue of body dysmorphia to the most minute degree.

References

Duffy  BE and Meisner,  C 2022. “Platform governance at the margins: Social media creators’ experiences with algorithmic (in)visibility,” Media, Culture & Society. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221111923.

Morning Consult. 2019. "The Influencer Report Engaging Gen Z And Millennials". https://morningconsult.com/influencer-report-engaging-gen-z-and-millennials/

Drenten J. Gurrieri L. Tyler M. 2018. "Sexualised labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetisation of attention". Gender work and organisation. DOI:10.1111/gwao.12354

[kiyonoa1blog]

Olympic Games legacy

For the Olympic legacy to be achieved, a vision must be developed. For people, cities and territories, and the Olympic Movement, it encompasses all intangible and tangible long-term benefits associated with hosting the Olympic Games or sports events (IOC, 2017). Legacy is very important to make strategic plans in order to host any sports events. Especially, Olympic games are the biggest sports event in the world. Thus, the process of developing the legacy is significantly important and interesting things. It has become increasingly important for bid committees, event governing bodies, and host governments to focus on the long-term legacy of hosting large-scale sports events (Thomson et al., 2019 as cited in Leopkey & Parent, 2016, Veal, Toohey, & Frawley, 2012, Preuss, 2007, Ritchie, 2000). It may be possible to benefit future generations from positive social legacies like skill building and volunteering in the host community (Dickson & Darcy, 2022 as cited in Dickson et al., 2020).

IOC

Hosting Olympic Games could give a big impact and opportunities for the host country. For example, new job opportunities, meeting new people, economic effects and new buildings and transport systems. Events venues, transportation services, road upgrades, sports facilities, and accommodations are among the new infrastructure communities benefit from, as well as potential new business and tourism opportunities (Griffith University, n.d.).

Globalization, digitalization, and mediatization have caused the Olympic Games to grow into a massive event that incurs significant operating costs (Seung-Jin, 2022). There would be a huge cost in preparation for the Olympic Games but worth it. Also, as Kim stated that Mega-events have motivated countries and cities to host them because they are expected to bring positive changes, and their legacies are actively investigated (2019).

The Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in 2032. Queensland Government starts preparation for the Olympic Games. It is based on the results of the national Hopes and Dreams survey and the discussion at the Legacy Forum with 500 of Australia's smartest, brightest and bold minds. It will provide a framework for public and private sector cooperation to plan and make decisions in the years ahead under the Brisbane 2032 Legacy Plan (Queensland Government, 2023). According to the Games Master Plan, 84 per cent of venues are existing or temporary. By using this model, Brisbane 2032 will be delivered with significant cost savings and will provide a precedent for future Olympic and Paralympic Games in mid-sized cities (Queensland Government, 2022).

References

Dickson, T. J., & Darcy, S. (2022). Next Steps in Mega-Sport Event Legacy Research: Insights from a Four Country Volunteer Management Study. Event Management, 26(8), 1849-1854.

Griffith University. (n.d.). Legacy: Before, during and after. Future learn. https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/sport-inclusion/0/steps/41656#:~:text=Legacy%20is%20the%20term%20we,a%20major%20sports%20event1.

International Olympic Committee. (2017, December). Legacy strategic approach moving forward. https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Documents/Olympic-Legacy/IOC_Legacy_Strategy_Full_version.pdf?_ga=2.203412370.2032941517.1683451763-1122605148.1683451763

Kim, H., Choe, Y., Kim, D., & Kim, J. (2019). For Sustainable Benefits and Legacies of Mega-Events: A Case Study of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics from the Perspective of the Volunteer Co-Creators. Sustainability, 11(9)

Queensland Government. (2023, 3 May). Legacy. https://www.qld.gov.au/about/Brisbane2032/legacy-program

Queensland Government. (2022, 5 October). Brisbane 2032 Master Plan. https://www.qld.gov.au/about/Brisbane2032/brisbane-2032-master-plan

Seung-Jin, H., Lee, W., So-Hee, K., Yoon Sang-Hoon, & Hyunwoong, P. (2022). Assessing Expected Long-term Benefits for the Olympic Games: Delphi-AHP Approach from Korean Olympic Experts. Sage Open, 12(4)

Thomson, A., Cuskelly, G., Toohey, K., Kennelly, M., Burton, P., & Fredline, L. (2019). Sport event legacy: A systematic quantitative review of literature. Sport Management Review, 22(3), 295–321.

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories

[amaranthineoceans]

Everything Weird About Deltarune!

Spoiler Warning for Undertale and Both Chapters of Deltarune! Really! I Literally Go Through Everything I Can Remember About Them!

This is a long post so get comfortable. Also note that my brain doesn't process thoughts into words very well so some of these might not be worded in the best way. :)

Deltarune. The first teaser chapter was released on October 31, 2018, and it came out of nowhere. We've all gone through this, but I'll try and go through every single painstaking detail I can remember. Feel free to reblog and add/correct things.

The weirdness begins right off the bat. The title is an anagram of UNDERTALE. We all know Toby likes to use anagrams when he wants to indirectly tell us when things are related, so it's no surprise that when you go to download DELTARUNE, it warns you that the game is designed for people who have played UNDERTALE. You think, "Cool, so it's a sequel? Or maybe a prequel? A different perspective of UNDERTALE perhaps?" You were wrong; so terribly, terribly wrong! I'll elaborate on this later.

Before you download the application, the terms of service that you must agree to beforehand reads simply and plainly, "You accept everything that will happen from now on." This detail was kinda brushed off in the beginning, because, hey, it's Toby Fox. He does weird stuff all the time. But even in the first chapter, it's apparent that the concept of choice, or more accurately, the lack of it, is a very present theme in the game. I would like to remind you that Toby has announced that there will be one ending in the game. One. I'll elaborate on this later.

The program (as in, what the game is called in your files) is named SURVEY PROGRAM. Why not just call it Deltarune like it is when you download chapter two?

The game launches you, without a title screen, without any setting adjustment options, straight into a reference to the theme of the entire franchise: the lack of choice. A strange formless voice guides you through "making a vessel", with what we know now as a fountain in the background. You have the option to make some very disturbing choices in this character creator, such as making its favorite flavor "pain" or expressing your feelings about it with options such as "fear" and "disgust." You name your "creation," tell the formless voice your name (which is different from your vessel's name) and watch as said formless voice muses over your name at an agonizing pace. It thanks you for your time and tells you that your wonderful creation, (cue music cutout and background removal) will now be discarded. "No one can choose who they are in this world." The screen slowly turns white as the voice says, "Your... name... is..."

It gets weirder. The next scene appears from the whiteness and showcases Toriel calling "Kris" out of bed. Kris' area of the room is very bare in contrast to the other side, which we later discover is Asriel's.

It's Toriel. Why is Toriel here?

Kris is kind of an anagram of Frisk (the protagonist of UNDERTALE) but without the F. I highly doubt this is a coincidence.

Speaking with Noelle is the only reason you can proceed (see what i did there?) while finding a partner in the classroom. This means you can't go through the 1st chapter without knowing who she is. Is it because of the Snowgrave route?

Ralsei is just suspicious to me. There's no way he was just waiting in that castle his whole life alone without some mental toil. So either he's insane or he wasn't alone the whole time. What happened? Is it related to how he can close his eyes and see what Susie is going through when she's apart from the party? Was he just watching everything? Is he related to the formless voice?

Susie's icon is the only one without color in the Dark World.

Jevil's fight is more difficult than Sans'.

Your actions have little consequence in the first chapter. If you choose to go genocide, the only difference in the ending is being run out of the kingdom, and this doesn't carry over to the next chapter. Again, lack of choice, people.

If at the end of chapter one, you walk around town, it's mentioned (notably by Noelle) that you're usually not this talkative. If you go to the hospital and speak with the receptionist, they mention that you used to play the piano in the corner. If you decide to attempt to play the said piano, an out-of-key bash can be heard and the receptionist comments on how you used to play beautifully. If you try this in chapter two, the result is the same. All this is confirmation that Kris is acting noticeably weird.

When you leave the Dark World and walk around town, you can find Sans. He "pretends" to recognize you, and if you tell him you recognize him, he tells you it's funny, considering that you two have never met before. He winks. I'm pretty sure he knows that the player is there.

The mention of Papyrus in both games, but the purposeful lack of him. Like he's avoiding you.

If you go upstairs while inside Asgore's flower shop, there are flowers in glass cases resembling his SOUL collection in UNDERTALE. There's a red flower.

You can't enter the church.

The clock in the storage closet shows a different time than all the others in the school.

If you go all the way south in town and into the woods, the music stops and you come across a rusty, double door is in a hill covered in crass. It's locked. If you go this way in chapter two, however, you watch a cutscene where you and susie happen to find Monster Kid from UNDERTALE (or someone resembling them) and an owl kid in front of the door. The owl kid is pressuring Monster Kid to (presumably) break inside, telling them that they don't want to be a wimp like Kris. Does this imply that Kris is connected to this strange door somehow?

The ending. You know what I'm talking about.

Did Kris actually rip out the SOUL (I say "the" because I'm not entirely sure it's Kris') and knife because they wanted to eat the pie? Did they only eat the pie because Toriel caught them?

Why did they look at the player? Are they sick of being controlled? Is that why they freaked out after the Spamton fight? (later)

Anyway, now we're at chapter two.

DELTARUNE Chapter Two was released on September 17th, 2021. 17. Entry Number 17. Sound familiar?

Asriel's part of the room is different from the last chapter. I don't think this means anything sinister, but I think it means Kris notices different things about the room as the story progresses. My theory is that it will become more sinister in each chapter.

Ralsei getting super excited to see Susie and Kris after a day. As in he has separation anxiety and it breaks my heart. not anything suspicious but it makes me sad so it's on the list.

Kris and Susie's rooms. Ralsei REALLY doesn't want them to leave. Seriously get this boy a therapist. Or a stuffed animal. SOMETHING.

Kris having to gather everything from the storage closet so that people appear in the Dark World????? Why??????????????? They had to do the same thing for the computer lab too.

The golden door. I don't trust it.

How/why the heck did Noelle and Berdley go into the Computer Lab Dark World? I don't see either of them just walking into pulsing void doors without Susie.

Apparently the knight has been gone for a bit and can corrupt people's minds? The king in the first chapter doesn't seem like he can be redeemed but Queen just seems,,, not bad, but a little crazy. I wonder what happened.

Then again, name ONE person in this franchise without trauma.

Spamton.

Horror doesn't bother me. Spamton? Spamton bothers me.

SPAMTON. ENOUGH SAID.

A Kromer is a type of hat invented in the '70s. Nobody named Mike is associated with it, that I can find.

SPAMPTON. HOW DO I EVEN DESCRIBE IT.

HIS SONG IS THE ONLY ONE WITH WORDS.

The way he asks Kris is they want to be a heart on a chain their whole life. Like, dude, no wonder they were screaming after the fight.

WHERE DID THE YELLOW HEART COME FROM. YELLOW MEANS JUSTICE. WHY DOES JUSTICE APPLY.

Kris screaming after the fight and the player not being able to hear it. Don't you dare tell me that's just how the game is designed. There are sound effects characters make throughout the game. None that I can think of apply to Kris, apart from when they rip their soul out.

Ralsei brushing off the Spamton fight. Either that's his coping mechanism or he was trying to shut Susie and Kris up to protect them from... something. I'll touch on that in a minute.

According to Queen, DETERMINATION is a key factor in creating a fountain.

Also according to Queen, Kris, Noelle, and Susie all have DETERMINATION SOULS.

Ralsei freaking out about Berdley making a fountain implies that he may also have DETERMINATION. Why I'm bringing all this up will make sense soon.

How was Noelle able to cast Snowgrave... a spell that she, according to her, didn't know?

The Snowgrave route is so twisted.

You manipulate Noelle into killing Berdley and then, when you get back to the computer lab and investigate his corpse, the text box says that he doesn't seem to be awake. As if you're in denial?

Burgerpants recognizes you. Not Kris. As in the player.

The ending. I don't think I need to describe it. Kris is very methodical without the SOUL. (I say "the" because, again, I'm not 100% convinced it's theirs.) I'm saying this about how they left clues that someone broke into the This proves that they are NOT a mindless, vengeful husk.

HOW DID THEY MAKE THE FOUNTAIN WITHOUT THE SOUL INSIDE OF THEM. DID THEY FEED THE SOUL TO IT AFTERWARDS? IS THAT WHAT THAT WAS?

Another point I would like to make is my theory that Ralsei knows much more than he would have us believe. I might put this into a different post because I have yet to gather my points into a coherent bullet point list, so keep an eye out for that.

Anyway apart from Toriel and Susie being VERY heavy sleepers, I think I've gone through everything. I have a few theories.

1. Kris is possessed by the player and figured out that they could make a fountain from Queen and related to Spamton freaking out about freedom. They then decided to make a fountain going by the logic that "this would tick the player off." This is one of my top theories that assumes that the SOUL is theirs.

And 2. Kris is possessed by both the player and the knight. I think the formless voice at the very beginning of the game is the knight, and they somehow needed the player to possess someone with DETERMINATION. If so, then why Kris? We know from Queen that Noelle and Susie, and maybe even Berdley also have DETERMINATION. The most plausible thing I can think of is the fact that human souls are stronger than monster ones.

I do think that the popular theory (about the one that suggests that the Dark Word is nothing but a figment of a child's imagination, and the events that occur in said Dark World are simply children playing with toys) has been thoroughly dashed due to Berdley's murder in the genocide route of the second chapter. Unless he's not dead. Regardless, how the events (or lack thereof) that occur in the second chapter play through the next will be interesting, especially considering Toby's announcement about how there will be one ending to the game. So either Berdley isn't dead, or he will be.

Aaaand I think that's it! Sorry for the long post; let me know your thoughts and if I missed anything!