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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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1169

Do you take lessons for anything? No. I’ve done so in the past, but not at the moment.

Has something really heavy ever fallen on you? Other than siblings or cousins from when we played together as kids, I don’t think so.

If you wear makeup, what colors do you usually wear? I never wear makeup but whenever my friends have used my face as a practice stage (lol) they’ve usually just used natural or nude-ish colors, which I find look okay on me.

Does your shower have curtains or a glass door/wall? It has a sliding door. I’m not sure what material it’s made out of, but I can tell you it’s at least not glass.

If you have more than one pet, do they ever get jealous of each other? Cooper does tend to bark and/or whine when he sees me giving more attention to Kimi, but not always. Kimi couldn’t give less of a crap, but this is also because he is 13.

Is there a room in your house that you don’t like going in? I used to not like being inside my bedroom, especially after the breakup. For a long time it was a place I only associated with crying and breakdowns, so when I was doing the arduous task of starting over I haaaaated staying there because it only hurled me right back to square one. But I’m happy to say that I eventually got better, had enough strength to change the narrative for my room, and now I like being here again :)

Do you remember the last question you were asked? What did you answer? My mom just asked me to watch Cooper because he was having the zoomies.

Besides salt and butter, do you put anything on your popcorn? Not a big fan of popcorn but if I had to pick a topping, I’d go with cheddar cheese.

Are you lonely? I’ll feel it sometimes, but it only lasts for a moment or so.

What’s your favorite magazine to read? Wow I haven’t read a magazine in years.

Do you like pineapple? I hate it. In all forms. The pizza debate doesn’t even matter to me lmao, I just think pineapple downright sucks.

Have you ever seen fireflies? They used to be common in our village when we first moved in, back when there were only like 3 houses in the neighborhood (we were one of the first to move in here). As more houses were built and the place got more occupied the fireflies gradually lessened until they disappeared altogether.

Have you ever trespassed? I very vividly remember taking multiple trips to the school cemetery back in grade school (I went to Catholic school and ours had a cemetery below our chapel, where all our deceased nuns were housed...I really shouldn’t be talking about this at 10 PM...). I am 100% sure that was an off-limits area but we went there anyway because we were a naughty group of kids and because no one was guarding the area.

Do you tell your parents where you are going? Yeah; if I live with them, they have the right to know. < Ooh, I’ve never even thought about it this way before but this is a very good point. I’ll second this, haha.

Do you agree with the notion that all people were created equal? Yes.

Do you raise your hand or participate in class? God never. I hid as much as I can and only recited if I was called on purpose.

Do you like visiting the mall? Why or why not? I like the malls that we have. But then again, malls are the only decent public spaces we have - we don’t have public libraries, parks, playgrounds, etc. – so it’s not like I have a choice on where I can go if I want to go out.

Have you ever purposely hurt an animal? Yeah I kill bugs when I see them. Soz, I have no feelings for them whatsoever.

Would you ever see a therapist? I planned to finally do this last year but it just fell through haha and eventually I was able to care for myself too. Now that I’m doing a lot better for the most part, I feel like I’d have no clue what to talk about once faced with one.

Are you afraid of heights? Only if I had to jump all the way down. But if I ever found myself staying at an extreme height simply to enjoy the view, or if I was ever in one of those towers where the top floor’s floor is made out of glass, I think I would enjoy that.

Are you afraid of the dark? I always say I’m usually not afraid of the dark, and will only be if I was in a situation that was intended to scare me. I would definitely be afraid of the dark if I was in like an abandoned cave or a haunted house, but I would also find the darkness in my room comforting.

Are you a jealous person? When I am it’s mostly been in a playful sense and rarely serious.

When is your birthday? April 21st.

What are you listening to right now? My very very old aircon doing its very very loud whirring thing. It’s become a running joke in the family because it is literally SO FUCKING LOUD hahahaha Have you ever been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing? As a goody-goody, I can only ever do this to my mom; but yeah, she’s caught me many times.

Are you still friends with someone from kindergarten? Sure, but I’m not ~close friends with any of them. Just chummy enough to like their photos on social media once in a while or greet them happy birthday. My oldest friend was from Grade 1.

What is the most important thing to you? Being happy with myself and making sure I don’t miss out on life and opportunities.

Do you like whipped cream? I can take it or leave it.

Are you close to your mother? We get along but not close.

Are you close to your father? I’m closer to him in the sense that I would be more comfortable around him, but we’re also not physically or emotionally close.

Do you walk around bare foot when you're at home? Or do you wear socks? I am Asian hahaha what do you think?

Do you like chocolate popsicles? Sure! One would sound lovely right now, actually.

Would you ever be your school’s mascot who wears that costume? Both of the schools I’ve attended don’t have mascots.

Would you rather see the Great Wall of China or Big Ben? Great Wall for sure. Sorry but I can’t see myself getting excited over a giant clock, and I’m sure there are other lovely spots in London I’d much rather visit.

Have you ever written a poem? Always unsuccessfully. It’s never been my forte.

Would you ever be a tornado chaser? That’s a thing? Uh...no way??

What is your favorite thing to eat with bbq sauce, if you even like that stuff? Pizza. And anything, I guess. Barbecue sauce is the bomb.

Your parents tell you that this summer, you get to pick the vacation. Where do you plan to go? Covid notwithstanding and budget permitting, probably New York City.

What do you think is a good theme for a prom? I could not care less.

Have you ever had to do a class in summer school? Thankfully, never.

Do you get nervous when you go to the doctor? About what? You know, I’ve always thought going to the doctor was no sweat until I realized just how nervous I was when I had to book a telemedicine consultation once as part of my job (PR can make you do the most random, out of context things sometimes, I swear haha). I surprised even myself with the reaction I had when I found out I had to do it, and how I felt like declining the offer...I guess I was scared about the possibility of underlying health issues suddenly being unearthed. Your whole life can always get turned upside down in the blink of an eye with just one diagnosis.

Have you ever been to the rainforest? I’m pretty sure the climate I live in is called tropical rainforest, so I guess yeah.

Have you ever created a website? Not from scratch. I had always made it under an umbrella website, like Blogspot.

Ever thought about writing a book? Sure, as a kid.

Have you ever had a dream where you killed someone? No. Whenever I have dreams of that nature it’s always me or a loved one being killed, but never me doing the killing.

Do you ever make up stories in your head and wish they come true? Yes.

Which is worse: stuffy nose or runny nose? Stuffy. It sucks not being able to breathe freely.

Which is worse: Sick to your stomach or sore throat? I super hate sore throat. I already get stomachaches frequently, so even though I know how sucky it can be I feel like the discomfort would be bigger with a sore throat.

Do you think your last relationship was a disaster? The way it ended was, but it wouldn’t be fair to myself to invalidate the genuine happiness I felt when I was in it.

Have you ever solved a Rubik’s Cube? Never.

Who do you think is the easiest to talk to? Angela.

Would you consider yourself to be emo? No.

Do you have a favourite metal band or do you not like metal? Not really, no.

What is your current desktop picture? It’s just one of the provided desktop photos on my Mac.

Thick or thin blanket? Thick.

Who are your favorite bands? Paramore, Coldplay, and Against Me!

How do you mark through your word search puzzles? Depends on my mood. Sometimes I’ll strike through and sometimes I’ll go ahead and encircle the entire word altogether.

Have you ever sewn something? I’ve done embroidery...does that count?

What did you eat for dinner last night? We had breakfast for dinner, actually hahaha so my dad made an omelette, hotdogs, and tapa.

Ever been grounded? If so, for what? Continued from last night. Yes, I was caught cursing all over Twitter when I was like 11 so my parents cut off my access to all my gadgets for a year or so. Which, in retrospect, is an acceptable consequence for my actions, but we’re also talking about a time when schools were starting to view the internet as a necessity in doing homework and research. I missed out on nearly all my homework for a while, and my mom didn’t buy it when I kept telling her I needed to do my research over the internet. At the same time, she kept demanding why my grades weren’t doing so well when she was the reason they kept being pulled down...so yep, not a very fun time.

Have you seen all of the Jaws movies? No and I don’t really have the desire to. Doesn’t seem like my kind of movie.

When was the last time you played cards? (not on the computer) Maybe 2 or 3 years ago.

Have you ever drank Cherry Coke? No, I don’t drink any soda.

Have you ever had a black eye? Nope.

Have you ever eaten a bug? Not to my recollection, but I would love to try cooked crickets and whatever bug can be prepared and eaten.

Do you like pranking people? Never; the idea makes me cringe since I never know when it’s considered going too far. I’d rather watch people prank other people.

Did you ever take a cooking class in school? Yeah, but we were required to take it. We also had some baking sessions, which to me was a lot more fun. I remember having to make macarons and rainbow cake which are both right up my alley, heehee.

Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? No, idk what that is. I just know people turn everything green on that day lol.

Do you use Skype? I’ve never used Skype on my own. That’s where I used to talk to my dad for video calls maybe around a decade ago, whenever he was abroad; but I never had my own account. These days I alternate among Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.

Have you ever participated in local magazine cover girl searches? I don’t think so, but I did join a few contests on some of those kid’s magazines we used to have...none of which I won.

Have you ever been called a skank/slut because of the way you dress? No.

Is your ex sexually attractive to you still? I haven’t seen her in 5 months, which helps...that said, I simply feel nothing. I’m neither sexually attracted nor not sexually attracted to her.

Describe the most romantic moment you’ve ever had. I can think of one but I don’t see the point in still raising it, considering where I am in life right now.

Have you ever cheated on a test? Yes, once. I hated it.

Have you ever been to couple’s counseling? Nope.

How often does your employer ask you to work overtime? A few times a week. Sometimes I’ll do it willingly as well just to get the task over with or to save myself some deliverables the next morning. I’m fine with OT-ing tbh; since I work from home, I feel like my time is a lot more flexible.

Did you often read for fun when you were a kid? I read A LOOOOOT as a kid. I was a total bookworm. < Yeah, same. You could always find me bringing a book to school and reading during breaks, even though they technically didn’t allow us to bring any non-academic book. My spark for reading died when I was around 12, same time as when my depression started to kick in, and it never really came back.

When was the last time you were scared? Someone from the media called me up yesterday VIA LANDLINE to ask a question about a press release I had sent out that day. I usually read up on the materials we have, but I honestly didn’t give a shit about that particular story and didn’t really make an effort to know more about it, so I found myself stumped when he dropped the question. I ended up stalling for a bit before I was able to stutter an answer, so that was scary, but at least he was nice. Also, I hate phone calls.

What’s your favorite song by Rihanna? KISS IT KISS IT BETTER

Can you speak binary? No, I never understood it.

Would you rather live somewhere that had hurricanes or tornadoes? I already do, at least for hurricanes. I imagine I’d be terrified of tornadoes.

Have you ever had a pet that you disliked? Nooooooo, never. I was never close to Arlee but I still did my best for her to like me, and always fed her whenever my sister would be in her dorm.

When was the last time you saw hail? Never. Doesn’t happen all that often here, and when it does it’s always in the provinces.

What is on your mind right this second: I want to spend my remaining time awake reading fanfic (I’m into them again, omg) but I also wanna finish surveys...so I’m doing my best to breeze through this so I can finally look for something to read hahahahaha.

Have you ever given a nickname to your pet(s)? Cooper is Cooperino to me. Sometimes I’ll call him Cooperino Cappuccino. Kimi is Kimchi, Kimmerl, Kimberly, The Kimster, and sometimes Lolo, which is grandpa in Filipino heheh.

When was the last time you shaved your legs? Like 3 or 4 days ago.

Do you ever try free samples at the store? Nope.

Do you like boys with long hair? Physical traits don’t matter much to me.

Do you like rootbeer? I’ve never tried it but I don’t really want to either haha. It smells weird.

What is the best fast food place, in your opinion? KFC or Taco Bell. Or Jollibee.

Do you have faith in yourself? Starting to.

#survey #surveys

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #287

“keep him tied - it makes him well / he’s getting better, can’t you tell?”

What are you favorite things to watch on YouTube? I like a pretty big variety now. I’d say I’ve been mostly into pet YouTubers lately, especially reptile ones. Oh, and WoW stuff. Can you pick out any constellations in the sky without looking them up online? Besides the Little or Big Dipper (idk which is which), nope. Are you religious? If so, what influenced you to start believing God? If you’re not religious, what convinces you there is no God? I wouldn’t call myself religious, no. I do believe there’s some kind of ultimate power, but hell if I know what it is, and I don’t actually worship it. I don’t believe any “good” god would demand kissing its feet in order for you to end at peace, among a billion other reasons. I believe there is something though because the odds of life and everything is just… too perfect. Plus I believe in the paranormal, so to me, there is obviously something beyond the mortal form. Is there any animal out there that genuinely terrifies you? Is this an animal you’re worried about coming across in daily life? I am terrified of ticks and parasites in general. They’re fucking disgusting. Maggots will also make me scream. Oh, and then there’s whale sharks. In my daily life, I wouldn’t say there’s any that I actively worry about crossing paths with. When was the last time you wore make-up? Around Halloween when Summer, me, and another of her friends did a witch-themed photoshoot. It really fucking sucks that it was so dark by the time we were done that the pictures came out absolutely awful. You can’t see shit, and of course on camera, I look absolutely awful. Have you ever worn colored contacts? No, but I’m totally not opposed for a cool photoshoot. Have you seen any of the Disney re-makes (eg. Aladdin or The Lion King)? What do you think of them? I’ve seen a good number, and I really like them. I think The Jungle Book remake was the best of them. How long did it take you to pass your driving test once you started learning how to drive? Ha, I still haven’t tried. When was the last time you went out for a formal occasion or event? Do you remember what you wore? Uhhhh… I have zero clue. Well, does my last job interview count? I just wore black sweatpants and some kind of formal top. How often do you have the TV on? is it more background noise or are you actually watching things? Y’all know by now that I don’t watch TV. Do you like any songs by Elvis Presley? Well of course. “Devil In Disguise” is my favorite. Do you ever answer the phone to unknown numbers? Nope. Do you eat anything special for breakfast on Christmas Day? Nah. When you go to theme parks, what’s your favorite type of ride? I haven’t been to a theme park in beyond forever, so idk. Are you afraid of falling in love? Ohhhhh yes. Expecting something to change in the next month? No. e_e What is your biggest worry in life right now? That Mom’s cancer will come back. Well, it IS going to eventually flare somewhere else, but no one can estimate when. Could be tomorrow. Could be years. Do you give up easily? It depends. With a lot of things, honestly, yes, because I get upset with my incompetence. What are you listening to? "Going To Hell" by The Pretty Reckless just came on. Is anything bothering you right now? Always. Were you ever made fun of? Yes. Are you currently jealous? I’ve been having episodes of it. Do you find piercings attractive on the opposite sex? I find them attractive on almost all people. Who was the last person you yelled at? I don’t know. Probably Mom. What do you say a lot? “Mood,” “lmao,” “can’t relate,” “same,” “oof,” “yikes,” shit like that, haha. What is your favorite place you have traveled? Chicago. Do you like ice cream? Yeah, that’s my comfort food. Do you like bananas? Yeah, but I don’t dare to eat one if I haven’t had my heartburn medication, because otherwise I get it BADLY. Do you like Paramore? A handful of their songs, yeah. I don’t know a lot though, honestly. Do you plan on getting married? It’d be nice. Ever been given a promise ring? No. Sexual orientation? Bi. Who do you text the most? Definitely Sara. Do you still talk to the person who hurt you most in life? Why or why not? No, because he wants nothing to do with me. I don’t blame him. Have you ever given your number to a complete stranger? Um, no. Well, besides in like, job applications. What color is your keyboard? Black. Your mouse? Mostly black, but it does have this crackled pattern that can glow blue or red. Desktop or laptop? I prefer laptops for mobility’s sake. Do you like sweet tea? I hate tea. How much sugar do you put in your tea? ^ Have you ever called someone useless? Wow, no. Do you have a wood or glass dining room table? Wood. Do you tend to get attached easily? HOLY GOD OF FUCK, YES. Is Joe Jonas really hotter than Nick? I haven’t seen either in god knows how long, but I remember I thought Nick was very cute. Favorite flavor pudding? Chocolate is the only kind I’ve enjoyed. Not that I’ve tried a lot. What are three words used in your area/dialect that many other areas/dialects wouldn't be familiar with? Oh, there are most certainly some, but I can’t think of any right now. How do you feel when your partner is talking to an ex? This would depend on a lot of things. What is the most expensive gift you have ever given? Received? Given, I’m really unsure. I answer enough questions sharing that I don’t have my own source of income, so a lot of times, my mom lets me use her money, but there is obviously a ceiling to how much I can use. Received, definitely my Sager laptop Jason got me one year. Do children like you? I’m always surprised that kids seem to… I don’t know how the hell to interact with kids, but parents tend to tell me that they do like me. If you found your child's diary would you read it? What if you found the diary of one of your parents? Hell no would I read that shit. Both deserve privacy. Have you ever stalked or killed a wild animal? Fuck no. Name something you are now prepared to reveal about yourself that you weren't ready to talk about in the past? The state of my virginity. Name a talent someone has of which you are jealous: I am soooo envious of talented and actually successful photographers. What would you most likely complain about in a hotel? Probably if the bed sheets seemed dirty. Is it possible to be in love with more than one person at the same time? Probably. I’m monogamous though, so I really can’t say because I haven’t experienced this. Do you often feel pressured by others? Society, yes. Should couples live together before marriage? I feel that it’s the better decision, yes. You may not blend well actually sharing the same house. You learn things about your partner. How would you feel attending the wedding of an ex? It would depend on the person. Girt or Sara? I would love to. As a matter of fact, I better be invited lmao. Jason? I couldn’t in ten trillion years. Fiction or nonfiction. I strongly prefer fiction. Can you can lie with a straight face? Yes, if it’s something little. Name three things you have experienced that would shock your parents: Probably just sexual stuff. Do you believe in using the silent treatment? No. I’ve sure done it before, but I’d like to think I’ve grown out of this. Communication is where it’s at. Your most embarrassing thought: *shrug* Your most prejudiced thought: I don’t know. I don’t think I’m very prejudiced. A shameful moment for you: The situation w/ Joel. The biggest gamble of your life: Deciding to drop out of college the last time. Who knows if that was a good choice or not… It’s too early to tell. What is your greatest weakness as a friend? Idk off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s something. Do you feel better when you have a tan? Nah, I like being pale. I did go through a period in HS of using tanning lotion on my legs though because I was self-conscious of JUST how pale they were. Do you sometimes enjoy being mean? ”I don’t think so. Maybe like... in certain contexts. Like being mean in video games can be really fun sometimes, haha. And being a little mean in a kink setting can be fun too.” <<<< This. Are you high maintenance? Definitely not. Has anybody ever told you that you’re too young to be in love? I think my dad has, just indirectly. Did you learn anything from the last BIG mistake you made? Yes. Do you have a favorite brand of shoes? Yeah, Converse. Do you like rollercoasters with big drops? I’m afraid of rollercoasters so have never been on one. Do you have any inside jokes with your parents? Not really. Have you ever thrown a surprise party for somebody? I don’t think so? Do you know who your mom’s favorite singer is? Oh, she’s totally obsessed with James Hetfield/Metallica. What year were you born in? 1996. What is your favorite card game? Magic: The Gathering, even though I was never great at it or totally understood all the rules. I just adore the artwork, and I like the detailed tactics behind it. Have you ever tried to surf? Nah. Do you want to learn? Nah. Have you ever had a song dedicated to you? What was it? Let’s not with this. What color eyes does your best friend have? Brown. Have you ever been on a blind date? Nah. Which one of your family members do you wish you could see more often? My brother and his son. I got really close to my nephew the last time they visited for a few days. What room in your house is the messiest? Right now, the extra bedroom that I want to make my dayroom. A lot of our “extra” stuff is just shoved into there. Have you ever requested a song on the radio? No. Are you proud of your parents? Yes. Have you ever (accidentally or not) set off a car alarm? I think I accidentally have before. Do you have dimples when you smile? Yes, way more prominently on my left cheek though. Do you find graveyards scary? No. They’re peaceful to me. Have you ever carved anything into a tree? I don’t think so. Do you read those celebrity gossip magazines? Ew, no. Celebs deserve privacy. Do you give or get advice more often? Well considering I’m in therapy, probably get. Did the last type of shoes you wore have laces? No. Do you like the picture on your license/I.D. card? FUCK no. When was the last time somebody hit on you? Idr. Which one of your friends do you feel most comfortable around? Sara. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? Just pass me the rolls lmao. Who did you last spoon with? My cat lmao. What was the last video game you played? I don’t recall the last console game I played, so does World of Warcraft count, even tho it’s a computer game? When you’re in trouble, do your parents ever “middle name” you? Ha, my mom will sometimes. Does getting sweaty or dirty bother you at all? If so, has it ever put you off doing exercise? Very much so. I suffer (and I DO mean “suffer”) from insane hyperhidrosis, so I sweat my ass off if I so much as twitch, if even that. I just hate feeling gross. Have you ever thought about how you want to spend your retirement? No, honestly. It’s hard for me to imagine even *getting* to retirement. Would you describe yourself as healthy? Why or why not? No. I’m physically and even more mentally not okay. Do you miss anything about being a teenager? If you are a teenager, what’s your favorite thing about it? Yeah, some things. Though I really don’t even want to think about it. I look back on me being a teen with both wistfulness as well as bitterness. I don’t know which is stronger.

#survey #surveys #quiz #questions #questionnaire #lyrics: ''welcome home (sanitarium)'' by metallica

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mab1905 · 4 years ago

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84 Questions

original:

https://fuckyeahsurveys.tumblr.com/post/61049002526/84-questions

1. Put your music player of choice on shuffle and list the first 10 songs

Someone New (Hozier)

Cactus Tree (Joni Mitchell)

Budapest (George Ezra)

And Dream Of Sheep (Kate Bush)

Nancy Mulligan (Ed Sheeran)

And Then She Kissed Me (St. Vincent)

Level of Concern (Twenty One Pilots)

Lovefool (The Cardigans)

Best For Last (Adele)

Video Killed The Radio Star (The Buggles)

2. If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Would you take anyone with you?

Japan. I travel a lot and it’s been on my list for a while, I would really want to go to the Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli theme park, if it ever opens that is. I would bring my best friend, Layla. I also would love to go to Amsterdam again.

3. What is your preferred writing implement? (eg. Blue pen, pencil, green pen)

My ink nib cartooning pen (similar to a quill, but without the feather)

4. Favourite month and why?

October, not too hot, not too cold, and of course, Halloween!

5. Do you have connections to any celebrities (even minor)? List them.

Nope, met several, got to true connections though.

6. Name 3 items you could pick up from where you are.

My iPad, my Leatherman Multitool, my collection of David Bowie postcards.

7. What brand logo is closest to you currently?

The Apple logo

8. Do you ever play board games or other non-computer games? Got any favourites?

Chess. Card games like Solitaire, Black-Jack, and Castle. A game that I can’t remember the name of but it’s essentially a board-game version of Capture The Flag. Mostly Chess.

9. A musical artist you love that isn’t well known

St. Vincent? I’m not sure if she’s well known or not.

10. A musical artist you love that is well known

David Bowie.

11. What is your desktop background currently?

A picture of Apollo 11 accompanied by the words “It won’t fail because of me”

12. Last person you talked to, and through what you talked to them

My best friend Layla, through the iMessage app.

13. First colour name you can think of that isn’t in the rainbow

Salmon

14. What timekeeping devices are in the room you are currently in?

My iPad, my computer, my collection of vintage stopwatches

15. What kind of headphones do you use?

Sony, wireless, noise canceling, over-the ear

16. What musical artists have you seen perform live?

Twenty One Pilots, Sylvan Esso

17. Does virginity matter to you?

I guess? I think it’s important, it’s certainly some kind of ‘milestone,’ but I don’t think it should be treated like the scale of a persons ‘purity.’ It’s important because it’s sex, and (hopefully) that means that you’re sharing a consensual, intimate experience that feels fucking great for both (or all, if it’s more then two) participants.

18. What gaming consoles do you or your family own?

Z e r o, although I’m hoping to buy a PS4 at some point so I can play Detroit Become Human.

19. What pets do you have? What are their names?

Juno is my cat, she is an adorable grey tiger-striped shorthair. She’s got little white mitten-paws and it’s absolutely ridiculous.

20. What’s the best job you’ve ever had?

Doing tech at a local theater

21. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

Teaching art to little kids (I like kids but it was just exhausting)

22. What magazines do you read, if any?

The New Yorker, and the National Geo if I’m like, waiting in my doctor’s office or something.

23. Inspiration behind your URL?

It’s just my initials and a year from the Edwardian era

24. Inspiration behind your blog title?

It’s just my initials

25. Favourite item of clothing?

My reddish-brown knit sweater vest and my floral bow-tie (often paired together)

26. Are you friends with any exes?

I made a very conscious effort to cut my exe out of my life… we were not happy for a very long time to say the least

27. Name at least one book you loved as a child.

Strega Nona, it’s about an Italian witch that makes great pasta in a magic pasta pot. My dad would read it to me and my sibling in Italian.

28. What’s your native language? If that language has distinct regional variations, which variation? (eg. AU English, US English)

US English

29. What email service do you use?

Gmail

30. Is there anything hanging on the walls of the room you are currently in?

So many things. Here's the list:

A giant David Bowie poster, a plaque that says “David Bowie IS,” five David Bowie postcards, a giant Abbey Road poster, all of my patches from summer camp, polaroids of me, my friends, and my family (including my cat), ticket stubs from concerts and plays, two trail markers that I took off of fallen trees on two important cross-country backpacking trips I went on, playbills from a bunch of broadway shows I’ve seen, a poster that says “Stonewall was a riot,” a DC Comics poster, a Pink Floyd poster, a few paintings of mine, and a painting that I got for free from a street artist I befriended in Rome when I was twelve

31. What’s your favourite number, and why?

16, 24, 21, and 8, some numbers make me uncomfortable, but these are just very soft and light and nice

32. Earliest moment in your life you can remember?

A rocking chair with fruits painted on it sitting in a dark room and my great grandfathers brown leather loafers (I remember early early stuff in just images or stills, not full moments)

33. What did you have for dinner yesterday?

Pasta with shrimp

34. How often do you brush your teeth?

Usually twice a day, but I’ve been waking up later and later and sometimes forget in the mornings

35. What’s your favourite candy/chocolate?

I don’t know the name of it but it’s this chocolate bar that is stuffed with caramel, hot chili flakes, and crunchy bits of baked tortilla. It's one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted.

36. Have you had other blogs on Tumblr? Do you have any other blogs currently?

I used to have one but I deleted it because I never used it

37. If you were suddenly really hungry, what would you choose to eat?

I would probably walk into the kitchen, realize that too eat something I would have to muster the effort to cook something instead, and then decide to just have a glass of milk instead.

38. What fandoms would you consider yourself a part of?

Downton Abbey (primarily Thommy)

Chernobyl HBO (as well as the Leonid Toptunov/Sasha Akimov subfandom)

Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit (books and movies)

CrankGamePlays

Buzzfeed Unsolved

Star Trek TOS

Philosophy Tube

The Dark Crystal and The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance

39. If you could study anything, what would it be?

If I had the energy to fully wrench my life in a completely different direction I would like to become a professional scuba diver and study the ocean. I already am a scuba diver, but it’s a hobby and not something I’m able to do very often at all.

40. Do you use anything on your lips? (eg. Chapstick, gloss, balm, lipstick)

I’ll wear chapstick if I have a cold

41. How would you describe your sense of humour?

Intellectual and dry

42. What things annoy you more than anything else?

People who think they’re better than everyone else and people who recognize a fault in themselves and then refuse to work to change it

43. What kind of position are you in at the moment?

I’m laying on my bed, hunched over my laptop

44. Do you wear much jewellery?

Occasionally I’ll wear a necklace or a few rings. I have a lot of non-traditional bracelets (I literally just have pieces of canvas and industrial tie-line wrapped around my wrist). I’m a gay guy and I like to sort-a walk the line between feminine and masculine (often leaning more towards the masc side), so it really depends on my mood.

45. Who is the leader of your country, currently? Any other levels of government with leaders? (State, region, province, county, district, municipality, etc)

A cheese-pizza flavored pringle is currently POTUS and every day the thought of that tears away at a piece of my soul.

46. Last 3 blogs on your dashboard, not including any of your own

@shochmonster @velvet-of-the-night @panicsheerbloodypanic

47. What do you carry your money in?

My pocket, I have a wallet and I don’t use it

48. Do you enjoy driving? Why or why not?

It’s fine, don’t love it don’t hate it

49. Longest drive you have ever been on?

Three days

50. Furthest away from home you have ever been?

Went on a trip to Switzerland to visit family, I think that’s the farthest but I’m not entirely sure.

51. How many times have you moved house?

Twice

52. What is on the floor of the room you’re currently in, not including furniture?

Five paintings, stacks and stacks of books, boxes filled with stuff (mostly more books), plates, glasses, cutlery, clothes

53. How many devices do you own which can access the internet?

2, and iPad and a computer

54. Is there is anything that is guaranteed to always make you happy?

Listening to music

55. Is there anything that always makes you sad?

Thinking about my past for too long

56. What programs do you currently have open?

Google drive, I’m writing

57. What do you associate the colour red with?

Blood and fire

58. Last strong smell you can remember smelling?

Shrimp and butter

59. Last healthy thing you ate?

Three green olives and a handful of bean sprouts

60. Do you drink tea or coffee, and how much per day?

Used to drink coffee like it was life support (which it essentially was), now I’ll have the occasional cup of tea.

61. What do you associate the colour blue with?

Birds and rain

62. How long is the closest ruler you can find?

I don’t think I own one

63. What colour pants/skirt/etc are you currently wearing?

I am wearing olive green corduroy slacks

64. When was the last time you drank water?

30 minutes ago?

65. How often do you clear your browser history?

Never

66. Do you believe nude photos can be artistic, rather than erotic?

Nude anything can be artistic, it can also just be normal, eroticism is in the eye of the beholder.

67. Ever written fanfiction for anything?

Yes dear god so much fanfiction.

68. Last formal event you attended

I genuinely can’t remember, I am have extreme social anxiety and don’t go to events like that unless I absolutely have too

69. If you had to move your birthday to another date, which one would you choose and why?

I don’t care about birthdays

70. Would you prefer to be at a beach or in the countryside?

Beach, I love to swim, I’m also a surfer

71. Roughly how many people live in your town?

Uhm… eight times the number of people who live in the state of Montana and that doesn’t count daily commuters and tourists (New York City is essentially just a tin of sardines, except inside are 8.399 million sardines)

72. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you?

No, but three of my friends were born on the day just after my birthday.

73. Favourite place to shop? Can be a certain store or a place where there are multiple stores

The Strand Bookstore, L Train Vintage, any antique shops in the town of Hudson, New York

74. Do you have a smartphone? What kind? If you don’t, do you want one?

I used to have an iPhone 5SE but then it stopped working after a few weeks of quarantine and I haven’t gotten a new one (I’ve had it for about 5-6 years so it makes sense)

75. What is your least favourite colour, and why?

I don’t have a least favorite color, but my favorite color is prussian blue

76. How do you spell grey/gray?

Grey

77. Go to your dashboard and describe the image shown in the radar section (below the “Find blogs” link)

It’s anime fanart for a show I’ve never heard of

78. What difference is there between how many followers you have, and the number of blogs you follow?

79. How many posts do you have?

219

80. How many posts have you liked?

619

81. Do you post mainly reblogs, or your own content?

Mostly reblogs but I do my own content as well

82. Do you track any tags?

No, just blogs

83. What time is it currently?

10:39

84. Is there anything you should be doing right now?

writing

I’m not quite sure who to tag so it’s just open to anyone I guess?

#i love questionaires #they're so much fun

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moiraineswife · 7 years ago

Text

Autistic!Jasnah: Masterpost

Okaaay, so, as you might have guessed from the title, this post is a long list of reasons Jasnah Kholin is autistic af.

The short version: Jasnah is autistic because I, a Known Autism, say so. Have a nice day.

The long version (format): A long series of chronological quotes that all follow this pattern: Quote. *Insert ramble about why this is an Autistic Thing* *Possible and probable further ramble about why I’m emotional about that.

That’s literally it, people. Buckle up, I’ve picked through all three books (yes all three) to compose this post for y’all. It’s not going to be short.

To business:

The Way of Kings:

Jasnah glanced at Shallan, noting her, then returned to her conversation.

Introducing Jasnah ‘I don’t have time for social niceties I’m busy’ Kholin. From the first interaction she’s...Bad at interacting. Iconic.

“Then we shall do an evaluation. Answer truthfully and do not exaggerate, as I will soon discover your lies. Feign no false modesty, either. I haven’t the patience for a simperer.”

Jasnah is both blunt, direct, and honest in her speech as she is in her expectations from others. She doesn’t have the energy to deal with manipulation/lying/tarting up the truth to make it more socially acceptable bc she is a busy autistic lady with shit to do. (really, though, what she’s literally demanding here is the first rule of the autistic’s guide to easy conversation. Clear. Simple. To the point. To frills, no fuss.)

Jasnah didn’t argue further, and Shallan could see from her eyes that it was of no consequence to her if the king risked his life. The same apparently went for Shallan, for Jasnah didn’t order her away.

People do what people want to do and Jasnah doesn’t waste any time pretending she cares/that it matters to her for the sake of appearances. Again, this woman has a vendetta against typical social niceties and I love it.

“Now?” the king said, cradling his granddaughter. “But we are going to have a feast—”

“I appreciate the offer,” Jasnah said, “but I find myself with an abundance of everything but time.”

Do I need to point out the lack of social niceties again or are y’all sensing a pattern at this point? *King lovingly embraces his darling granddaughter that Jasnah just saved and orders a feast prepared in her honour* Jasnah: ‘Thanks but no I’m too busy to socialise.’

Jasnah was also a rationalist, a woman with the audacity to deny the existence of the Almighty himself based on her own reasoning. Jasnah would appreciate strength, but only if it was shaped by logic.

Jasnah feelings>>>>>>logic. This is a fairly common theme, of Jasnah being ruled less by emotions/sentiment/societal pressures/expectations and much more by logic/her own reasoning. She has her own way of looking at the world, her own rules for how it works, and she won’t be swayed by anyone else’s opinions on how she should feel/behave.

Jasnah turned to look out of the balcony into the dark space of the Veil. “I know what people say of me. I should hope that I am not as harsh as some say, though a woman could have far worse than a reputation for sternness. It can serve one well.”

Jasnah not being very self-aware in how people actually perceive her is also an autistic thing. Shallan notes several times that Jasnah is actually nowhere near as harsh/stern as she’s reputed to me, and, more importantly, she’s nowhere near as harsh/stern as she perceives herself to be. She also fails to note that Shallan actually enjoys the work/the challenge. This also implies that she takes what people say about her at face value and doesn’t have the necessary social skills to refute them.

Shallan tried to judge Jasnah’s mood, but the older woman’s emotions were impossible to read.

Again, this is a fairly common autistic trait. We struggle to read other people’s body language, but they often struggle to read ours as well. A part of this is probably Jasnah deliberately cultivating this kind of persona, but even so, she’s too unsure of how she comes across to have completely mastered this.

Jasnah carefully removed its contents, neatly lining up the brushes, pencils, pens, jar of lacquer, ink, and solvent. She placed the stacks of paper, the notebooks, and the finished pictures in a line.

Oh look, it’s one of the world’s biggest Autism Stereotypes (which I’m totally guilty of too): lining all the things up neatly, and making them Orderly.

At least with Jasnah one knew where one stood.

Jasnah of the straightforward, blunt honesty and ‘what you see is what you get’ strikes again.

When Jasnah was deeply immersed in one of her projects, she often ignored all else.

And here we see the Autistic Jasnah in her natural habitat: hyperfixating on her special interest.

The rest is under the cut for length!

Jasnah had elegant handwriting, of course—Jasnah rarely did anything without taking the time to perfect it.

Jasnah not doing anything unless it’s done Properly and Right according to her? Also Jasnah being indifferent towards things she hasn’t put any time into perfecting (such as drawing).

“I always forgive curiosity, Your Majesty,” Jasnah said. “It strikes me as one of the most genuine of emotions.”

Again, Jasnah encouraging/reacting positively to genuine/honest emotions because she doesn’t Understand the whole guile/lying/not being honest thing because honestly what is the point?

“Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality—which answers only to my heart—is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.”

Honestly, just, this whole thing. For a start it’s a massive transgression of the Vorin social norms/expectations, especially for Jasnah as a prominent public figure as the sister to the king. For another it’s that internal rules thing again. Jasnah’s world operates according to Jasnah’s principles and Jasnah’s understanding of it, no-one else’s.

But Shallan had caught a handful of occasions, mostly when Jasnah had been distracted, and had apparently forgotten she wasn’t alone.

*Jasnah ignores social expectations so hard she literally forgets other people exist in the world* Also, again, the hyperfixation on special interest.

“And yet, those men are off the street. The people of this city are that much safer. The issue that Taravangian has been so worried about has been solved, and no more theatergoers will fall to those thugs. How many lives did I just save?”

“I know how many you just took,” Shallan said.

Jasnah has a habit of doing this, this very cold, calculated, logical and pragmatic way of seeing the world as well as morality. Shallan considers the lives taken, the emotional aspect of the moral dilemma, the horror of murder. Jasnah just sees it almost as statistics, as four lives taken to save many more. Shallan also focuses on the cold hard facts of ‘I know how many people you just killed’ while Jasnah is engaged in weighing up the probability of how many she just saved. (In theory, the thugs might never have attacked anyone again, so Jasnah might not have saved anyone by her actions, which I think is what Shallan is getting at here. But that’s just...A moot point as far as Jasnah is concerned)

This is also an example of her black and white thinking. There’s more net good in what she did than there is net bad. That’s where her questioning/reasoning stops because it makes sense to her. Shallan exists in the grey area, but I don’t think Jasnah even sees it in cases like this.

But it wasn’t the act itself so much as the cold callousness of it that bothered her.

This is an interesting one, and something I’ll talk about more a bit later, probably, but the way Jasnah comes across vs how she actually is. I totally get why Shallan views what she did as cold and callous, and in a way I suppose it was. It was fully planned and fully intentional. But I think for her it’s this kind of...separation between logic and sentiment. I think Jasnah feels very strongly and very deeply, but she doesn’t often display that to other people, and I also think she believes there’s a time and a place for that. Also, black and white thinking again. It comes off as cold to Shallan, but for Jasnah I think it feels more like common sense.

“You only needed to kill one of them.”

“No, I didn’t,” Jasnah said.

“Why? They would have been too frightened to do something like that again.”

“You don’t know that. I sincerely wanted those men gone. A careless barmaid walking home the wrong way cannot protect herself, but I can. And I will.”

Again, black and white thinking. (I’m also surprised this moment doesn’t generate more Discourse...Or maybe it does, I’ve just avoided it, either way) This is both a case for Jasnah not being able to predict people’s responses/behaviours, and also black and white thinking/internal rules at play. As far as she’s concerned those men are criminals. She has no assurances that they won’t hurt anyone else again. They’re already criminals, and there’s no chance for redemption or leeway, here. She’s made up her mind. They’re all criminals. They’re all dangerous. They all die.

Jasnah closed her eyes again, handing the brush toward Shallan. “Fifty strokes tonight, Shallan. It has been a fatiguing day.”

A)- routines the ‘tonight’ and the familiarity of this implies it’s something that happens every night. And the ‘fifty strokes’ is either another routine related thing, or an internal rule thing. Either way. Also this is probably a stim thing, since she’s using it to relax/de-stress.

Jasnah tapped her desktop with a fingernail.

Stimming.

“Brightness Jasnah does NOT like people entering her room. The maids have been told not to clean in there.” The king had promised that his maids were very carefully chosen, and there had never been issues of theft, but Jasnah still insisted that none enter her bedchamber.

Definitely, definitely, definitely an autistic thing. Issues with people entering Your Spaces or touching Your Things is a big autistic thing. (especially because the assurances about thieving don’t change her mind) Also the emphasis on not as in ‘this is a thing one absolutely does not do unless one wishes to die’.

“She’d believe me,” Shallan said. “She thinks she’s far more demanding than she is. Or…well, she is demanding. I just don’t mind as much as she thinks I do.”

Again, Jasnah taking what people say of her/how they say they perceive her at face value, and also lack of self-awareness in how people actually respond to her.

Jasnah regarded Shallan, face stiff, impassive. “I have been told that my tutelage is demanding, perhaps harsh. This is one reason why I often refuse to take wards.”

“I apologize for my weakness, Brightness,” Shallan said, looking down.

Jasnah seemed displeased. “I did not mean to suggest fault in you, child. I was attempting the opposite. Unfortunately I’m…unaccustomed to such behavior.”

Two things here: one, I’m like, 99% certain that Jasnah, who has been camped out at the hospital all this time waiting for Shallan to wake up is feeling anything but ‘impassive’ at this moment, in which case this is an example of her body language/facial expressions not matching up properly to her actual internal feelings, which is fairly common. And two: Jasnah’s apology being taken for a rebuttal and her obvious displeasure at it coming across that way when she literally intended the opposite (been there).

Also her general air of uncertainty/discomfort in this setting, which is one that’s obviously social/emotional. Also the fact that she pins her poor apology on lack of practice/familiarity with these kinds of interactions when, in theory, these kinds of things should come naturally to people. So like, lil bit of hinting/implication of scripting social things her, which I think her initial words reek of as well, as she’s said similar things before.

“You make it sound as if you were waiting out there.”

Jasnah didn’t reply.

“But your research!”

“Can be done in the hospital waiting chamber.” She hesitated. “It has been somewhat difficult for me to focus these last few days.”

“Jasnah! That’s quite nearly HUMAN of you!”

Again, a few things here, firstly that Jasnah is othered in a way by Shallan (and this isn’t the only time this happens, either) because of her lack of emotional response/social stuff. Secondly the fact that she’s clearly uncomfortable/struggles with this kind of conversation – the hesitation, the lack of responses are very much at odds with her usual composure and the way she has an answer for literally everything.

Words of Radiance:

She was all too glad to be leaving the stuffy room, which stank of too many perfumes mingling.

Prologue and we’ve already got Jasnah experiencing sensory issues in a crowded room with lots of perfume. What a way to kick things off.

“Many people consider that sort of thing enjoyable.”

“Many people, unfortunately, are idiots.”

Her father smiled. “Is it terribly difficult for you?” he asked softly. “Living with the rest of us, suffering our average wits and simple thoughts? Is it lonely to be so singular in your brilliance, Jasnah?”

A)- Jasnah obviously not enjoying social events/parties (she literally spends all of this one...contemplating the assassination she’s plotting. Like. Mood.)

B)- Gavilar’s comment is...Strangely sad, I think?? And perhaps a bit too on point. (This is very much just my reading of things but)...I don’t know. I see Jasnah trying to make a little quip/a joke here and it being misinterpreted because of her tone. And then, again, there’s that idea of othering that came up at the end of TWOK.

But I think the ‘is it lonely to be so singular in your brilliance?’ I think that....A huge part of that ‘brilliance’ comes from a mixture of Jasnah’s autistic traits: her special interest/her focus in them/her dedication to pursuing them...but also that sense of being other. Of not fitting in. The rest of “us” she doesn’t belong, she doesn’t fit.

And I think this idea of their ‘simple thoughts’ as opposed to Jasnah’s brilliant ones is a little like what we see with Renarin in Oathbringer, where Adolin explains that he isn’t trying to be lofty and brilliant, people sometimes just have difficulty following him. And I think this is what’s happening with Jasnah here (and in other places, she frequently talks about the difficulty she has in teaching, and how her methods are too intense and involved)

And also I think that....The saddest bit about this is that I think she was....Trying to joke here? Trying to fit in with those ordinary people, ‘the rest of us’, and just making a sarcastic joke on the back of her father’s comment about most people enjoying parties and she just sort of ‘well, most people are idiots aren’t they?’ And that’s what prompts this little moment here. So even when she’s trying to fit, and trying to belong, she’s still cast as the outcast, and misunderstood, and othered and it Hurts Me.

I, she thought, need to write this experience down.

She would do so, then analyze and consider. Later.

She literally topples into another world, effectively, and is just like ‘hm, I should make some notes on this and analyse them’. And. Yep. This is how she processes the world. By making sense of it, by treating everything according to Jasnah’s rules: it gets written down. It gets analysed. It gets understood. Bam.

Jasnah ignored the eyes of the sailors. It wasn’t that she didn’t notice men. Jasnah noticed everything and everyone. She simply didn’t seem to care, one way or another, how men perceived her.

Jasnah ‘I don’t have time for social expectations’ Kholin strikes again. Jasnah also just doesn’t care how anyone perceives her, social norms and expectations can go fuck themselves .

Jasnah grimaced at the thought. Shallan was always surprised to see visible emotion from her. Emotion was something relatable, something human—and Shallan’s mental image of Jasnah Kholin was of someone almost divine.

Again, the othering idea, as well as visible emotion being startling, as she’s typically so withdrawn/closed off/difficult to read. Yes friend, u guessed it, this is Peak Autism. Also the specific word in it being ‘relatable’ again marks that difference between Jasnah and...Everyone else. Again she’s different, again she doesn’t quite fit.

Jasnah relaxed visibly. “Yes, well, it did seem a workable solution. I had wondered, however, if you’d be offended.”

“Why on the winds would I be offended?”

“Because of the restriction of freedom implicit in a marriage,” Jasnah said.

Again, Jasnah misreading things/not being able to anticipate how people are going to react to different things. Also her view of marriage as ‘restricting’ says a lot about how she sees it/probably relationships in general.

Power is an illusion of perception.”

Shallan frowned.

“Don’t mistake me,” Jasnah continued. “Some kinds of power are real—power to command armies, power to Soulcast. These come into play far less often than you would think. On an individual basis, in most interactions, this thing we call power—authority—exists only as it is perceived.

“You say I have wealth. This is true, but you have also seen that I do not often use it. You say I have authority as the sister of a king. I do. And yet, the men of this ship would treat me exactly the same way if I were a beggar who had convinced them I was the sister to a king. In that case, my authority is not a real thing. It is mere vapors—an illusion. I can create that illusion for them, as can you.”

This right here is Jasnah explaining passing, without ever using the word ‘passing’. This is how Jasnah sees social interactions. They’re all illusions, they’re all, effectively, lies. They aren’t real to her. How people perceive others isn’t something that she can fit into her box of neat facts and logic. It’s this ever changing, insubstantial thing, ‘mere vapours’. And though she’s talking here about power and authority, the basic principle applies to literally every single social interaction ever. Aka: the secret behind how Jasnah Kholin (somehow) managed to convince ppl she’s allistic.

The orders of knights were a construct, just as all society is a construct, used by men to define and explain. Not every man who wields a spear is a soldier, and not every woman who makes bread is a baker. And yet weapons, or baking, become the hallmarks of certain professions.”

Actual footage of Jasnah Kholin going to war against social constructs and their flimsiness.

It was a picture of Jasnah, drawn by Shallan herself. Shallan had given it to the woman after being accepted as her ward. She’d assumed Jasnah had thrown it away—the woman had little fondness for visual arts, which she considered a frivolity.

Instead, she’d kept it here with her most precious things.

This is one of my favourite Underrated Jasnah Moments tbh because it says so much about her with such a simple gesture. We’ve established from the past book and a half that Jasnah is pretty bad when it comes to social interactions, and she’s even worse when it comes to displaying her emotions. But she’s not emotionless. She, personally, doesn’t see the value in visual arts, and hasn’t dedicated any time to it herself. Yet she keeps the gift that Shallan gives her. She understands how important this is to Shallan, and she quite literally treasures the art that Shallan gives her, and keeps it with her precious research/notes (and, like, Symbolism with her keeping her sentimental gifts and logic fuelled research in the same place/with the same level of importance/value, except one is hidden, and one is displayed)

And, like, Shall literally assumes Jasnah had just thrown away the picture?? And instead she’s got it kept safe with her most treasured possessions? Like??? The TL;DR version of this point is that Jasnah is horrendous at displaying her emotions/showing people how she feels about them/what they mean to her, but she feels things, goddammit. And now so am I.

What of this Sadeas? she thought, flipping to a page in the notebook. It listed him as conniving and dangerous, but noted that both he and his wife were sharp of wit. A man of intelligence might listen to Shallan’s arguments and understand them.

Aladar was listed as another highprince that Jasnah respected. Powerful, known for his brilliant political maneuvers. He was also fond of games of chance. Perhaps he would risk an expedition to find Urithiru, if Shallan highlighted the potential riches to be found.

Hatham was listed as a man of delicate politics and careful planning. Another potential ally. Jasnah didn’t think much of Thanadal, Bethab, or Sebarial. The first she called oily, the second a dullard, and the third outrageously rude.

She studied them and their motivations for some time.

Right. Now. Correct my autistic ass if I’m wrong, here, but I’m like 89% certain that ‘taking notes on the basic personalities/literally studying the people around you and making notes on the way they behave so you can actually understand them’ is not a typical allistic thing to do.

Shallan turned back toward him. That pride in his voice didn’t at all match what Jasnah had written of the man.

Jasnah can literally predict the oncoming apocalypse by the power of research, can she pin down some basic Facts about the people she’s observing around her? Nope. I wonder why.

“She wouldn’t let me be a mother to her, Dalinar,” Navani said, staring into the distance. “Do you know that? It was almost like . . . like once Jasnah climbed into adolescence, she no longer needed a mother. I would try to get close to her, and there was this coldness, like even being near me reminded her that she had once been a child. What happened to my little girl, so full of questions?”

Two things: one, this is probably (agonisingly) relating to whatever trauma Jasnah experienced as a child and I’ve got Painful Emotions about it. Secondly, Jasnah being very mature for her age/shucking Navani’s influence because it wasn’t what she thought she needed/wanted is, like, not exactly the most tactful/self-aware/socially conscious thing in the entire universe.

“You’re still human,” Shallan said, reaching across, putting her hand on Navani’s knee. “We can’t all be emotionless chunks of rock like Jasnah.”

Navani smiled. “She sometimes had the empathy of a corpse, didn’t she?”

Oh look, it’s canon low!empathy Jasnah: from the words of her own mother no less.

(Also, small note here, as a low!empathy autistic myself: I really love the way Jasnah is written because it complements my own understanding of empathy which is...Fairly complicated. Jasnah isn’t just like none and done here. It’s not that she just doesn’t feel empathy so she doesn’t care? She isn’t characterised as this brutal, unfeeling, robotic ice queen. There are a lot of nuances and complexities here as to how she relates to those around her and I love it.

She obviously loves her family very deeply, and is driven to protect and help them (in a very practical, logical way I might add. Which is typically how I relate to care/love as well. You want a shoulder to cry on? I’m going to sit there awkwardly, pat you on the head, and hope you stop soon. There’s a practical solution to your current problem? Heaven and earth will be moved to achieve it.) She keeps Shallan’s drawing, even treasures it. And I think that she obviously....Feels her lack of feeling (if that makes sense)

See: the hospital scene with Shallan where she attempts to apologise. She’s...Uncomfortable with the emotional aspect of things, and she’s completely wrong about Shallan’s intentions, and actually her actions as well. There’s a block there with the empathy...But that’s obviously something that doesn’t exactly...Sit right with her? She’s quite self-depreciating in that scene, actually, and it’s clear (to me, anyway) that there’s the sense of her being aware that there’s something...Missing. Something that...Doesn’t quite line up. Something that makes her different and stops her relating to people perhaps in the way that she wants to.

Anyway: don’t equate lack of empathy with lack of love: a novel by Brandon Sanderson. God bless. Intentional or not, this is one of the most relatable low!empathy characters I’ve ever read and I’m here for it.

“Chana knows, I wondered sometimes how I raised that child without strangling her. By age six, she was pointing out my logical fallacies as I tried to get her to go to bed on time.”

Shallan grinned. “I always just assumed she was born in her thirties.”

“Oh, she was. It just took thirty-some years for her body to catch up.” Navani smiled. “I won’t take this from you, but neither should I allow you to attempt a project so important on your own. I would be part. Figuring out the puzzles that captivated her . . . it will be like having her again. My little Jasnah, insufferable and wonderful.”

Again, a few things here: this concept of autistic children being far more mature/behaving like ‘little adults’ is actually pretty common. Also the puzzle-solving thing is just. Relatable.

Oathbringer

“Brightness?” Shallan said. “But … Shardblades aren’t fabrials. They’re spren, transformed by the bond.”

“As are fabrials, after a manner of speaking,” Jasnah said. “You do know how they’re made, don’t you?”

“Only vaguely,” Shallan said. This was how their reunion went? A lecture? Fitting.

Jasnah is believed dead for months on end, reunites with Shallan after who knows how long: immediately starts infodumping to her. Shallan:.......’Figured.’

People were always surprised to see emotion from Jasnah, but Dalinar considered that unfair. She did smile—she merely reserved the expression for when it was most genuine.

Jasnah back at it with the only bothering with emotions when they’re genuine. (Also Dalinar getting all indignant about people not understanding Jasnah/mischaracterising her is my favourite)

“They will try,” Jasnah said, “to define you by something you are not. Don’t let them. I can be a scholar, a woman, a historian, a Radiant. People will still try to classify me by the thing that makes me an outsider. They want, ironically, the thing I don’t do or believe to be the prime marker of my identity. I have always rejected that, and will continue to do so.”

Obviously she’s talking about her heresy here, but with a tiny smidge of tweaking it works well for her being autistic, too. She will always be a little bit different, always not fit, always be defined by being an outsider.

“In the face of such an atrocity, I would consider the sacrifice of one or more Heralds to be a small price.”

“Storms!” Kaladin said, standing up straight. “Have you no sympathy?”

“I have plenty, bridgeman. Fortunately, I temper it with logic. Perhaps you should consider acquiring some at a future date.”

Again on the feelings tempered by logic, thing. (Also Kaladin/Jasnah is interesting because they’re basically....polar opposites, and I enjoy the dynamic. But that’s for another day.)

“If you wish, Captain,” Jasnah snapped, “I can get you some mink kits to cuddle while the adults plan. None of us want to talk about this, but that does not make it any less inevitable.”

“I’d love that,” Kaladin responded. “In turn, I’ll get you some eels to cuddle. You’ll feel right at home.”

Jasnah, curiously, smiled.

Jasnah: approves of frank, honest comments. Even if they’re mildly insulting. As long as they’re genuine.

They didn’t talk tactics too specifically; that was a masculine art, and Dalinar would want his highprinces and generals to discuss the battlefields. Still, Shallan didn’t fail to notice the tactical terms Jasnah used now and then.

In things like this, Shallan had difficulty understanding the woman. In some ways, Jasnah seemed fiercely masculine. She studied whatever she pleased, and she talked tactics as easily as she talked poetry. She could be aggressive, even cold—Shallan had seen her straight-up execute thieves who had tried to rob her. Beyond that … well, it probably was best not to speculate on things with no meaning, but people did talk. Jasnah had turned down every suitor for her hand, including some very attractive and influential men. People wondered. Was she perhaps simply not interested?

All of this should have resulted in a person who was decidedly unfeminine. Yet Jasnah wore the finest makeup, and wore it well, with shadowed eyes and bright red lips. She kept her safehand covered, and preferred intricate and fetching styles of braids from her hairdresser. Her writings and her mind made her the very model of Vorin femininity.

Jasnah just not caring about social/cultural gender norms. Jasnah does what Jasnah wants. But also, gender roles, and tbh the entire concept of gender, is a social construct, it’s something a lot of autistic folks struggle with. (Also non-binary/agender!Jasnah just, as a fun little aside)

“Surely,” she said softly, “if Jasnah had known that I’d just confronted a deep insecurity of mine, she’d have shown some empathy. Right?”

“Jasnah?” Pattern asked. “I do not think you are paying attention, Shallan. She is not very empathetic.”

A)- Jasnah probably didn’t notice and B)- low!empathy Jasnah again.

Jasnah rubbed her temples. “Storms. This is why I never take wards.”

“Because they give you so much trouble.”

“Because I’m bad at it. I have scientific evidence of that fact, and you are but the latest experiment.” Jasnah shooed her away, rubbing her temples.

‘I have scientific evidence of the fact I’m not good at mentoring/teaching/with people in general’ actual quote from Jasnah herself. Also, just, the language here? The mentoring/taking of wards is an intimate social relationship in Vorin culture, but the way Jasnah speaks of it she uses words like ‘scientific evidence’ and ‘experiment’ which says a lot about how she views relationships in general tbh.

Also, I think her self-consciousness is something that’s interesting to note. This isn’t the first time she questions her teaching abilities/methods, in fact it’s one of her biggest and most obvious insecurities, it’s something that she’s very aware of. She knows she’s bad at this, and it bothers her.

“Ivory, you think all humans are unstable.”

“Not you,” he said, lifting his chin. “You are like a spren. You think by facts. You change not on simple whims. You are as you are.”

She gave him a flat stare.

“Mostly,” he added. “Mostly. But it is, Jasnah. Compared to other humans, you are practically a stone!”

[…]

“Jasnah?” Ivory asked. “Am I … in error?”

“I am not so much a stone as you think, Ivory. Sometimes I wish I were.”

And again with Jasnah being factual-based when it comes to her decisions ,and emotions based when it comes to her motivations. Jasnah Kholin feels things so deeply I will physically fight you over this matter. Also, given what we’ve seen, it definitely seems as though Ivory/Inkspren/Jasnah’s ideals are concerned with logic/reason/rightness, and that being a defining aspect of her/her order is interesting in the context of her being autistic.

Renarin still lurked at the far side of the room, mumbling to himself. Or perhaps to his spren? She absently read his lips.

Since, as far as we know, Jasnah isn’t deaf/hoh, the lip reading is something she acquired for other purposes. Probably as part of her paranoia/wish to protect her family, but it’d also probably help with auditory processing disorder. Which is basically where your ears hear words fine, but your brain scrambles them up and fails to make sense of them. Also a lot of autistic folks (self included) tend to watch people’s mouths instead of their eyes (bc eye contact Sucks) and I’m not saying I can lip-read, but if I could it’d definitely make life easier.

But when, before this, had she last heard him laugh?

“Maybe,” Navani said, “we should encourage him to take a break and go out with the bridgemen for the evening.”

“I’d rather keep him here,” Jasnah said, flipping through her pages. “His powers need additional study.”

Navani would talk to Renarin anyway and encourage him to go out more with the men. There was no arguing with Jasnah, any more than there was arguing with a boulder. You just stepped to the side and went around.

Jasnah being completely and utterly oblivious to the hidden agenda/undercurrent to Navani’s thoughts which is ‘Renarin is comfortable with the men/is enjoying himself with them, maybe we should encourage that?’ and just responds to her mother’s words and nothing else. The boulder analogy makes me laugh (but also recalls what Ivory said about her being ‘stone’ which is, again, a kind of othering, a setting apart of the ‘normal’ humans, based on how she emotes/deals with things/processes fact.

I’m sorry, Mother. I’ve been dealing with a lot of lesser ardents today. My didactic side might have inflated.”

“You have a didactic side? Dear, you hate teaching.”

“Which explains my mood, I should think. I—”

A lot of autistic folk find it difficult to teach people, largely because, if they explain something in a certain way, away in which they understand, they have trouble rephrasing it/altering it to make other people understand it as well. Can definitely, definitely see Jasnah struggling with this.

Jasnah preferred to work alone, which was odd, considering how good she was at getting people to do what she wanted.

This shocks me to my very core so it does.

Next to her, Jasnah stood with arms wrapped around herself, eyes red. Navani reached toward her, but Jasnah pulled away from the others and stalked off toward the palace proper.

Oh look, it’s touch!averse Jasnah. (she’s really not very touchy feely at all) Also Jasnah not knowing how to deal with her emotions/grief and withdrawing from people around her. Also I’m calling the arms wrapped around herself as a pressure stim. Fight me.

Jasnah met his eyes, chewing her lip as she’d always done as a child.

Jasnah having anxious!stims (that she probably forced herself to unlearn)

“Forget I asked,” Dalinar said, sharing a look with Navani and Jasnah. Navani smiled fondly at what was probably a huge social misstep, but he suspected Jasnah agreed with him. She’d probably have seized the banks and used them to fund the war.

Jasnah ‘fuck your social niceties, I have a war to win’ Kholin.

Suddenly they were young again. He was a trembling child, weeping on her shoulder for a father who didn’t seem to be able to feel love. Little Renarin, always so solemn. Always misunderstood, laughed at and condemned by people who said similar things about Jasnah behind her back.

Mm, who else was ‘solemn’ as a child? Maybe ‘correcting logical fallacies at age six’ ‘no longer needed a mother when she reached adolescence’ Jasnah. And, like, ‘people mock Renarin for his autistic traits...Jasnah is also mocked for having these exact same traits.’ It’s basically canon, people.

Jasnah fell to her knees, then pulled Renarin into an embrace. He broke down crying, like he had as a boy, burying his head in her shoulder.

Also, the fact that Renarin instinctively went to Jasnah for comfort, not Navani, who eagerly mothers literally everyone around her, or anyone else, he went to Jasnah ‘empathy of a corpse, made of literal stone’ Kholin for comfort and support tells me something. It tells me that these two had an understanding. That Jasnah understood Renarin, and that Renarin understood Jasnah, and that there perhaps a reason for that that has to do with their shared brain weirdness.

This is also the first time, as I recall, that Jasnah responds with physical affection. (And this doesn’t undermine what I said about her being touch!averse, she is, but a)- she initiates this contact and b)- it’s with someone she’s clearly comfortable with this level of contact)

Jasnah glanced over her shoulder at the gathering army. “And perhaps … this is one time when a lecture isn’t advisable. With all my complaints about not wanting wards, you’d think I would be able to resist instructing people at inopportune times. Keep moving.”

I have said it before and I will say it again, Jasnah infodumping to an exhausted Shallan in the middle of a fucking battlefield is the most autistic thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life.

These had always been right. Until today—until they had proclaimed that Jasnah Kholin’s love would fail.

And, to summarise it all neatly, Jasnah Kholin, empathy of a corpse, heart of a boulder, whose love in the end never failed her. *wipes tear* my beautiful autistic queen is good and full of love and feeling but just being really bad at showing it to people. We do not deserve her.

TL;DR: Jasnah is autistic af. It’s basically canon. Fight me.

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alilybit · 3 years ago

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Steam Scam Documentation

improved readability + table of contents on my website: https://phal.io/hackers/stean (free easter egg included!)

——————————————————————————————

TLDR – What To Do

Prevention

- Never sign in using Steam anywhere unless it’s a well known site that you navigated to yourself, preferably by manually typing the URL into your browser and saving that URL as a bookmark for later, NEVER sign in on links others sent you, even your significant other whom you would trust with your life because their account could be hijacked or they don’t know they’re sharing a malicious link

- Optionally send the link to an internationally approved computer expert you trust (me?)

- When you confirm trades in the app, always double check both trade contents AND the person you’re trading with (level, friend date) because hackers can automatically replace outgoing and incoming trade offers to go to a different account with the same name and pfp as your original trade partner

When It’s Too Late

- Warn your friends not to click on any link that might be sent on your behalf, check active chats for messages you didn’t send, send/tell them this

- Change your password (if you use your Steam password elsewhere, change those as well, you should be using unique passwords and a secure open source password manager like KeePassXC)

- Log out all sessions in the Steam desktop client by clicking on your name in the top right corner next to notifications and navigating to account details -> account security - manage Steam guard -> deauthorize all other devices

- Open https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey in your browser (if you don’t trust my link, which you shouldn’t, simply find out if steamcommunity dot com is the real domain for Steam and then manually type the complete link into your browser), revoke any API key there is if you haven’t created them or don’t know what they are, if you did make them replace them

- Optionally report the link at https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?hl=en to make all common web browsers display a warning before loading the malicious site

(Source + further info: https://forums.steamrep.com/pages/hijacking/)

When a Friend Sends You a Malicious Link or Acts Suspiciously

- Try to contact them somewhere outside of Steam and send/tell them this to save their account and to prevent the hijack from spreading further through their friends list

- Warn their friends

Pro Tip

The interwebs are full of malicious links/downloads, even/especially search engine results. To make sure you get the proper installer for programmes/the proper link to log into/purchase something, ALWAYS use the Wikipedia Technique™:

- Open wikipedia.org

- Search for the programme/site/shop/whatever

- Look for the website link either on the right in the summary box or by navigating to the external links section at the bottom

——————————————————————————————

I will now describe and show how a friend of mine had their account hijacked. I’ll also keep adding other forms of scam attempts to this post/site as I come across them so you can look at examples and be prepared for when it happens to you.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 1 – Can You Vote for My Team?

It was the night before my first vaccination. I was still doing something on my PC, I don’t remember what, even though it was past bedtime, when I got a message from a Steam friend. I’ll call them Ingeborg. My brother, Ingeborg and I had met a month earlier on a TF2 rocket jump server and we added each other. We played together a couple more times but beside that I didn’t know Ingeborg that well. You can see the chat from that day in the images below.

The first cropped message from Ingeborg at the top is “hey u free rn?” or something. I assumed they just wanted to ask about playing a game of TF2 with me, as it has happened before. When they dropped the question about voting for their team and getting keys in return, I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know of any competitive team they were in and I also didn’t know Ingeborg well or that alleged tournament at all. It also didn’t seem like they could just throw expensive keys around. I took some time to process the information and to think about what I should reply, but Ingeborg didn’t leave me much time to think, following up with “?” and “u here”. So I asked, feeling stupid for not knowing what they’re talking about.

Then, they also set a time limit of less than 30 minutes and kept asking why I’m not immediately replying or “voting”. I have to admit, I nearly fell for it. I want to help people and I can’t think clearly under pressure, especially when it involves other people. And, for the Permanent Record, I of course wouldn’t have taken anything in return for helping a friend. I wanted to tell them that but they didn’t even give me the time to type that. I had already put my name and password in the form, after a lot of thinking, but something prevented me from pressing enter, it just didn’t feel right. I had even briefly searched the web for that tournament and didn’t really find anything. But what finally made me realise that there is something wrong and what made me think clearly again was the border and title bar of that alleged pop-up window. (Edit: Thanks for 1 likes. I compared genuinely signing in through Steam on scrap.tf and it did not open a pop-up window, it simply completely sent me to steamcommunity.com. I guess that means pop-up Steam sign ins are always fake.) I already tried clicking on the HTTPS information earlier which didn’t work for some reason but which still didn’t make me 100 % realise that this is a fake site. Until I noticed that the title bar is a Windows 10 default light theme title bar. I’m on Linux and I use dark themes, the title bar should look completely different. I tried moving the window around and it moved choppily and I could only move it within the Firefox window. I checked the source code and it was true: It was merely an iframe within the site that contained a fake Steam login form from a different URL that’s not steamcommunity.com. This is the site in the iframe:

As you can see, it’s the Steam login form, but the address at the top is not a Steam address. I took a look at its source code and found that it was a lot longer than the original and also contained a lot of dialogue lines about removing the Steam mobile authenticator. This apparently didn’t come up when actually putting in password and username, but you should look out for fake sites telling you to remove your authenticator, they could get complete access to your account that way.

I confronted Ingeborg with this and they stopped replying. But they didn’t immediately remove me from their friends list, like that one time I was actually scammed. I wasn’t sure what to do now. Was Ingeborg really a scammer? Was everything we did together so far just to gain my trust to scam me? Like that one time I was actually scammed? The funny thing is that out conversation before this was about scammers. Some usual random scammer put a usual comment on my profile and Ingeborg warned me. But I believe in the good in everyone and I didn’t want to just assume they were a scammer without making absolutely sure. I thought about what else I knew about Ingeborg. They gifted my brother some items because he barely has any. They invited me to their Steam group. They subscribed to me on YouTube and put my channel on their home tab. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, I also took some time to take a look at their YouTube channel and subscribed. So I thought that me subscribing to them was the sign they were waiting for, signalling that I trusted them enough to fall for the scam. I checked their channel and I was still on their home tab and subscriptions. I checked their Steam group and was still a member. This convinced me that there really is a possibility that this wasn’t actually Ingeborg trying to scam be but that they’ve also been phished and someone else is now trying to also gain access to their friends’s’s accounts.

Ingeborg’s friends list and profile comments were now set to private, so I couldn’t comment or directly message their friends to warn them. But there was the Steam group. One other member was online, one with a Pokémon profile picture and I believe I also remembered noticing them on Ingeborg’s friends list because of the Pokémon theme. So I put a comment in the group and added the Pokémon person, who unfortunately had their comments disabled as well, so I put an explanatory message into my profile to let them know why I’m adding them. I warned them and asked them to tell Ingeborg that someone has access to their account, should they know Ingeborg better than me. On YouTube, Ingeborg had their Discord name listed. I tried to add them but friend requests were disabled. There was also an Instagram name. I technically don’t have Instagram but I made a test account a while ago to test a YouTube scam comment with a link to an alleged Instagram password hacking site. I logged in with that account, changed my profile picture to my real one, added an explanation to the bio and added Ingeborg. But they didn’t react. So I wrote a comment on a YouTube video. I think it took three attempts for the comment to pass the automatic spam filter. It could of course also have been Ingeborg deleting my comments exposing them for being a scammer. But the third castle stayed up. And a while later, they actually responded. I then tried to tell them to add me on Discord, that also took many attempts and extremely careful wording to get through. Not even my Discord tag with numbers spelled out and 1447 speak, as Jeremy 900 800 500 would say, went through, but a carefully camouflaged link to my website did. By then, they also messaged me on Steam, asking for help and asking me to temporarily take their valuable items to secure them. I told them to add me on Discord so I know it’s actually them I’m chatting with. As it turned out later, it was really good that they didn’t trade me their stuff.

Apparently, Ingeborg wasn’t home at the time and only had access to their phone. And they allegedly fell for the exact same scam a day before. The obvious first thing that had to be done was changing the Steam password. But it seems that the password can’t be changed in the app itself. So I had the idea that Ingeborg could log into Steam on their phone’s web browser and change the password there, which worked. We kept chatting and I kept researching. I still wasn’t sure if this was still part of Ingeborg’s ingenious plan to regain my trust to scam me again, but I believed in them. Eventually Ingeborg got home, and I stayed awake gladly until 3:47 in the morning, I… I sang as time went off. Because as long as menly men like me are prepared to give their time, a flower grows. And that flower, that small, fragile, delicate yellow flower, shall burst forth and defeat interwebs criminals. On the “next” day, the vaccine had a side effect of making me a little tired. Strangely enough, that side effect already started before the injection itself.

I also kept thinking about what the actual purpose of this series of hijacking accounts is. Ingeborg’s Steam wallet and inventory seemed to have been untouched but there must be some way for the criminals to profit off of this, if only to pay for the costs of the website and domain. On Vaccinator day, I finally found an article on https://forums.steamrep.com/pages/hijacking/ that explains it. When you give them your password and current authenticator code, they obviously get access to your account, but you still have the authenticator, so what they can do is limited. Apparently, they use the opportunity to create an API key that allows them to keep accessing your account even after you changed your password and they use it to immediately replace incoming and outgoing trade offers with ones that go to a fake version of your original trade partner with the same name and profile picture. You might then not notice the difference when confirming the trade in the app and give them your items, unknowingly and without them having to have access to or remove your mobile authenticator. A brilliant idea. You might as well check if you have any API keys which you usually shouldn’t, the details are explained on the steamrep link and in the “when it’s too late” section at the top of this piece of medium literature.

And the moral of this story: Always be careful, educate yourself on how they trick you and on digital security in the sense of safety, never assume you won’t fall for it, don’t shame people who fell for it and don’t feel ashamed if you fell for it. And always have an internationally approved technical support character on your team.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 2 – Simply Building Trust AKA Social Engineer

We write the distant year of 2016. Two… œ… six… one. Oh, I’m an idiot, I held the pen upside down. Never mind. I don’t recall the incident in as many details, but I still know the most important things. It started on a TF2 tdm_hightower community server, rocket jumping and Market Gardenering around. I don’t remember exactly how one of the other players started conversing with me, I just remember that they, I’ll call them Wincohn, added me, chatted with me and wanted to trade one of my items that was not yet tradable. We chatted over the course of multiple days. Eventually, we also chatted about bad things that happened in our pasts, like the divorce of my parents and how their dad allegedly died when they were young. And we comforted each other. They also asked me if I was religious at some point, I guess because religious people are easier to scam. When I took a look at their inventory, I saw TF2 competitive matchmaking beta passes. I don’t remember exactly how that worked, but I was excited about matchmaking and you could only get in if you have the beta pass item, but having it also gives you some invites to give to other people. So I offered to take a beta invite in exchange for the item they wanted. My item, a festive Rocket Launcher was still not tradable though, so they offered me to temporarily give them something else and they would immediately give me a beta invite. Since the beta invite is not an item, I had to trust them they would actually invite me in return. We were on the aforementioned community server again and they agreed to make our trade public to the server members so they could witness it and report one of us, should we not keep our side of the bargain. So we opened a trade and I gave them one cosmetic drop I didn’t need, one cosmetic I used and two non-strange festive weapons so I don’t lose my stats, which were apparently in total about equal in value to the Rocket Launcher. Right before the trade went through, they left the server, which I only noticed when the trade window closed. And they removed me from their friends list. No beta invite. I told the others on the server that we traded but he left before it went through and he scammed me but nobody cared. The chat where we agreed that I would get a beta invite was also gone. I lost my items and I didn’t even have proof that it was a scam and not just a gift or tax dodge. Steam rightfully doesn’t return scammed items, because the scammers of course immediately sell them and taking them away from the buyer would be unfair for them and giving the victim a duplicate would be easily exploitable, but getting them banned would at least prevent further scams. The worst part, though, is that everything they told me was a lie and only served the purpose of gaining my trust. Fascinating.

After it happened, I was of course sad and angry. But only temporarily. I don’t hold a grudge against them, I’ve long since forgiven them. Quite on the contrary, I’m even thankful because I didn’t lose that much virtual material value (like 3 $) and it was a valuable experience. I only hope that they have changed since then and don’t do this anymore. The comments on their profile are disabled to this day, not the best sign. They also don’t have a Steam or third party ban. Either them scamming was not a common occurrence or nobody was ever able to prove it.

——————————————————————————————

Incident 3 – Wanna Join Our Tournament Team? (Incomplete)

I got another one of those friend requests on Steam from a suspicious looking profile. One of those that have TF2 comp stuff in their profile description. This time, I accepted it to see what they would do, to document more methods used by interwebs criminals.

This account had 1200 hours of TF2 playtime. So it looked like they’re an actual player, or maybe a hijacked account. Their inventory was public as well, but nearly empty, not even regular weapons or anything. They were playing TF2 the entire time and when I checked the server they were on, it always said no server. I guess that means they just have TF2 open the entire time to farm playtime that is publicly and prominently displayed on their profile to appear like a real player.

I tried to go along with their chat but it didn’t go well. I even prepared my long unused Gibus Cap Discord account that I used to use to test roles on our server. But apparently, I asked too many questions. I was too eager to get a nice phishing link into my net. After that last message, they removed me from their friends. Next time, I won’t ask questions.

#phishing #hijacking #scamming #hacking #steam #tf2

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sparklykryptonitecollection · 4 years ago

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Tik Tok App Download Free For Mac

Turn your dreams of being a pop-star into reality with TikTok, a social media app that transforms your short videos into mini masterpieces. TikTok has achieved what every social media strives to do: gather a large community and spark discussions and content creation. Before adopting the current name, this app was called Music.ly.

Watch your friends and favorite streamers on a bigger screen. Share your silly music videos for others to watch and comment on.

‎TikTok is THE destination for mobile videos. On TikTok, short-form videos are exciting, spontaneous, and genuine. Whether you’re a sports fanatic, a pet enthusiast, or just looking for a laugh, there’s something for everyone on TikTok. All you have to do is watch, engage with what you like, skip wha.

A collection of the top 70 TikTok wallpapers and backgrounds available for download for free. We hope you enjoy our growing collection of HD images to use as a background or home screen for your smartphone or computer.

Download Tik Tok 17.4.4 for Android. Fast downloads of the latest free software!

Watch music videos on the big screen

Create your own unique videos or watch other streamers’ live feeds.

Join in the fun with Tik Tok for Windows. It’s a desktop version of the popular mobile app for iOS and Android.

Watch content from friends and other people you follow. There’s plenty of new videos to digest as they are uploaded constantly. Use the handy explore buttons to find the usernames of your favorite streamers. There are funny, talented, and outright questionable videos to discover, so you’ll never run out of original stuff to watch. Enhance your experience on the desktop version, as all of their videos have HD quality.

Don’t wait around for something to load. Tik Tok for Windows has a speedy load-up time so that you can get stuck into some entertaining content straight away.

Keep teens safe with parental locks. This option is available on the mobile version as well, but it works better on the desktop version because you can use Windows’ built-in locks, too.

Despite this, Tik Tok still remains an unsuitable program for teenagers if left unsupervised. The videos can sometimes have sexual themes or provocative dancing that parents might not want their children to watch.

Another downfall is that you have to download an emulator before you can use Tik Tok. They usually don’t take up a lot of disc space, but it can be frustrating to download a program and have it running every time you want to use Tik Tok.

Where can you run this program?

This program is available for Windows 10 and later.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. LIKE is a similar video community and has more safeguarding options for teens.

Our take

Tik Tok for Windows doesn’t have the same appeal as its mobile version. It’s harder to create content on a desktop, but it remains a great choice for viewing content.

Should you download it?

Install Tik Tok App Download

Yes. If you want a desktop version of Tik Tok, this is the right program for you.

Tik Tok App For Desktop

4.9.1

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askluxnovalibra · 8 years ago

Text

FAQ & Blog PSA

To help navigate my blog!

✨✨✨ My top FAQ: Who is the guy in your icon/ theme?😉🔥 He’s a male model named Stephen James. I love him lmao if you see me say “my Sagittarius husband” I’m talking about him. His Placements

📝📝📝📝Blog Psa Stuff:

-What’s this blog about?❓❓❓ This blog, @askluxnovalibra , is the ‘ask box’ for my main astrology blog @luxnovalibra . To avoid cluttering everyone’s dash, I made a separate blog. This way I can answer many asks in a row and manage/organize the questions more thoughtfully.

-What can we ask about? 🤔 Anything really. The most common asks I get are about compatibility and placement descriptions. If you need advice or to rant, I will always try to help you out or send you a link to someone who can.

-Do you answer compatibility asks? If we send in a compatibility ask, what should we expect? ❤️ Yes I do, at least for now. Most people will send their sun, moon, rising, mercury, mars, and venus of themselves and their partner or crush. I will give my first impressions and potential problems I see. I may say how they get along, how they like to be treated, and what they want/need. It’s important to remember that without seeing charts, I can give only very very very generic answers. Know that people are complex and unique. I do not know you or your crush/partner personally. I can only attempt to guess how they act according to my knowledge of the signs’ archetypes. I will never be 100% accurate. No one will be.

-Do we have to send our sun, moon, mars, venus, etc. when asking a compatibility question? ❤️ No, you can send as many or as few placements as you want. It’s more interesting to send specific questions like ‘how is a Scorpio venus in love?’ or ‘how does a Scorpio venus and Leo venus get along?’ or ‘compatibility for x mars and x venus with y mars and y venus?’ Stuff along those lines. If I’ve already answered something, I will link you to it.

-What’s important to know about compatibility? ❤️ I believe no matter the placements any pairing can get along with patience, time, and understanding. Communication is necessary and vital for healthy relationships. Most of the time, problems are not solved by simple compatibility. They are solved by committed partners learning to compromise and work with each other.

🔎🔎🔎 ***Want a better and deeper insight into compatibility? Do a synastry chart. A synastry chart takes you and your partners’ chart and overlays them together. Your planets will aspect theirs and your planets will fall into their houses & vice versa. These aspects and placements will tell you how you will interact, get along, and how you work together. You can calculate your synastry chart on astro-charts.com or astro.com or any astro site you trust. How do you read a synastry chart? It would be very hard for me to explain it step by step as I don’t do a lot of synastry. There are many resources online that tell you exactly what aspects and placements mean what. Have your venus sextile your partner’s mars? Type in “venus sextile mars synastry” into google and stuff will come up.

***** please note, I do not do synastry, so I can't help very much

-My crush smiled at me in the hall last year but hasn’t talked to me since. Do they love me or not? What are they thinking? 🤔❤️🔎 I don’t know. I do not know you or your crush personally. It’s important to remember that most crushes are just that, crushes. It’s best not to spend too much time worrying about them. For most people, crushes don’t last more than a few months, if that. As an air dom with a Scorpio venus, I hardly ever have crushes and so when I see a lot of people obsessing over them, I usually will give you an honest answer. That being said, it’s totally ok to ask for advice. I’m never going to chew you out or call you stupid for liking someone. It’s natural. It’s a part of life. I’m just saying, crushes are not going to make or break you. They’re not the end of the world. What will happen will happen. I only say this because I know how you feel and I try to tell you the things I wish someone told me when I was younger. In fact, most of the advice I give is based on what a younger me would need to hear.

-Is it ok to message you for advice? What do people message you about?📨📬 Sure, I get a few private messages about people wanting insights about crushes / situations / placements and I try my best to help.

-Are there any kinds of private messages you don’t like?📭💣 I generally respond to everything

-Do you answer some asks before others? 🔢🔝 Most of the time my inbox isn’t that full (RIP the blogs that have 50+ lol) so I try to answer them all as fast as I can. Usually I answer chronologically (first ask gets answered first). If a question is simpler, I’ll try to get those out of the way. Complex questions take longer because I need to think about them and look up info as needed. Lately, anon compatibility gets answered last. I am more likely to answer non-anon asks a little faster, especially if you’re following me @luxnovalibra (you don’t have to follow @askluxnovalibra). Why? Because I don’t like when anons copy and paste compatibility q’s into 20 astro blogs’ boxes. It’s a bit disheartening because usually it’s just people who don’t care enough to look into astrology at all, and send in their crush-of-the-week’s placements. But don’t worry sending anons is perfectly fine! I totally understand being shy, or even because you don’t your main blog to pop up or because you’re not a full-time astro blog or whatever the reason. I get it, and I send anons sometimes too. And don’t worry if you’ve sent multiple blogs the same ask to get another opinion. Usually we can tell who’s just copy and pasting and who wants to learn. Pro tip for sending asks to other blogs: it helps if you say hi and/or mention something specific you like about their blog not just ‘compatibility xyz love ur blog.’ “Thank yous’ and polite feedback are nice too. Remember most of us are just teenagers that don’t get paid and genuinely want to help and learn together. To put it short, most asks get answered in 6 days or less

-Why do you add so many links?📚 I’m an air dominant lol I like to know things. It’s because I want to help and sometimes links are the best way to go. If I don’t know a lot about something off the top of my head, I’ll give you links and references. I get most of them from tumblr and a simple google search. Links aren’t mean to scare you, they’re there for deeper insight. I learn best with specific examples and links provide that. I give multiples because everyone has a different preference for writing style and multiples increases the chance of you understanding something and relating to something. Also, sometimes I’ll add them if the asker doesn’t specify if they want my personal opinion or a more general description.

-What if I ask about something you don’t know about? 🤷🏻‍♀️🕵🏻‍♀️ I will give you my best guess but admit that I don’t know a lot about that subject. I assume you don’t want a random answer and I don’t want to give one. Expect links or I’ll send you to someone who might be able to help

-What if I don’t agree with your opinion or your interpretation? 🙅🏻🙎🏻 That’s fine, I don’t expect you to agree with me all the time, that’s why it’s my opinion/interpretation. I’m still learning everyday. I’m not a professional. I’ll make mistakes. It’s all a part of the process.

//////////// Personal-ish Stuff:

-What are your placements? ☀️🌙💫 Libra sun 6th, Libra moon 6th, Taurus rising, Virgo mercury 6th, Sag mars 7th, Scorpio venus 7th, Cap neptune 10th, Aqua jupiter 10th, Aqua uranus 10th, Aries saturn 12th, Sag Pluto 7th, Virgo north node 5th, Cap MC, Virgo lilith 5th, Virgo juno 5th

About Me My Chart My Placements

-What are your dominants? 👁 Libra & Virgo especially. Then Capricorn, Taurus, Sag, Scorpio, and Aqua. My planets differ based on the calculator but usually I go by Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Pluto, and moon. Air and earth. Cardinal.

-How long have you been studying astrology? ✏️📓 I just found out I made my blog on May 8, 2016, so since about then. I got into it because of the memes and stayed when I realized there was so much more than your sun sign. It’s more of a hobby for me than a full-time study. I mostly learn through tumblr and google. I never want to intimidate or scare anyone away from it. When I first started, I didn’t know all 12 signs let alone their order. Even now, I still have a lot to learn but I think I’ve come a long way 😊

-Do you use desktop or mobile? 🖥📱 I use mobile 99% of the time. That’s why I make a lot of typos lmao usually I answer asks on the iPad and it lags a lot so expect typos and weird wording. Trust me, it hurts my Virgo and air placements way more than it hurts you

-Is this your main blog? Technically my main is @erinwriting so all likes, follows, replies, asks show up as that blog. The blog I use the most is my astro blog @luxnovalibra . I’m also @falling-for-the-winchesters and my tarot blog @queenofswordstarot

-Can we ask personal questions about you or your experience? 😁 Sure! It’s easier for me to talk about myself if someone asks rather than me coming right out and saying it (my air dom lol). If I don’t feel comfortable answering, I’ll say so, no hard feelings. Or if I can better answer you privately, I will

-Age/Gender/Name/Location 🎂🚺 20, Female, Erin, USA

-Are you in school? 🏫 I go to college for art

-Do you have any hobbies? 💡 Art & photography, reading, writing, astrology, tarot, camping, listening to music

#blog psa #FAQ #masterpost

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blackseniordating · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.blackseniordatingsite.com/truly-african-review/

Truly African Review

Our Review

TrulyAfrican.com is part of the Romantic Network. It is known to be one of the most secured African dating sites. The platform was first rolled out to the public in 2009. It has over 40,000 members due to its tight security and exclusivity.

The goal of this dating site is to connect African men and women, to singles from all over the world who are looking for love and relationships. Their members are usually from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, and other African countries.

Seniors 65+ especially from African and western countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada are more likely to find their ideal matches from this platform of genuine singles.

Anyone of all ages can easily navigate all throughout the site. Right from signing up to chatting with your matches. While you date, you also get to know yourself a lot better with their personality and dating questions. You can also share your interests and match preferences right on your profile for everyone to see.

If you’re looking for someone to spend the rest of your life with, you will be able to find one through TrulyAfrican. With the success stories found on their website, I’d say you have a reasonably good shot at it.

Truly African – The Details

Pricing

Creating an account in TrulyAfrican is basically free. Upon joining, you will get the standard membership. But you will have the option to upgrade your account.

Standard

The standard membership comes with all the basic features of a usual dating site/app.

Premium

1 month: $28.95 7-day trial: $2.95 (1-time offer)

Payment Methods

The following payment methods are available:

All Major Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard. American Express, UnionPay, etc.)

Paypal

Truly African Platform Features

Sign-Up Procedure

It takes about around a minute to create your account. You sign up with your name, profile email address, password, gender and age, and country of origin.

Upon joining, the anti-spam team will review your profile. Forced verification is sometimes enforced by the platform to ensure the authenticity of the members.

Membership Options

Free Membership

The free membership allows you to do all the essential features found in a dating site. Features like instant messaging, saving people as your favorites, sending interests, sharing photos, and searching for specific members.

Premium Membership

With the premium membership, you will have access to all the features Truly African has to offer. You will be able to send and translate messages without any more restrictions. You will have access to video chat anyone and edit the settings on your profile’s visibility.

Profile Page

Your profile at first glance mostly features your profile name, photos, personality test results, your answers to the relationship questions, and facts about you. Your profile will show if you’re currently online and if you’ve verified your identity.

The best thing about this is you can see how much of a match are you with others depending on your personal dating and match preferences.

Safety And Security

If you have any issues regarding other members who are offending and you think are scammers, you can report them to the administrators directly. If you have proof of your conversation, you may provide a screenshot to further strengthen your case.

You also have the option to block a member. Along with those, you and other members can also verify your profiles through different means.

Live Chat & Instant Messaging

Whether a member is online or not, you can still send them a message through chat. You can share your private pictures there and send each other classic and animated emojis to lighten up your conversations.

Mobile App

Truly African is available on both the App Store and Google Play. The app has the same features and UI theme as the desktop platform.

Truly African Unique Features

Personality Test

The Personality Test is a free feature that allows you to answer a questionnaire to give you a solid understanding of your personality based on a set of questions. Your results will provide you with an insight into your sociability, likability, emotional stability, your openness to experience, and carefulness.

Once this test is completed, you will see your results right on your profile, and so will the other members.

4 Level Verification

The dating app has four different kinds of verification types that let you choose one or three more other ways to verify your profile. This feature helps you smoothly navigate without the nuisance of notifications and whatnots.

But even with verified profiles, you still need to be aware of scammers and catfishes.

Video Chat

This feature helps you interact with other members face to face through your device’s camera. This is a remarkably helpful feature if you want to make the relationship situation with your match even better.

To access this feature, the other member should also be online. This feature is available to Premium members only.

Advanced Search

This feature helps you select which type of members can appear in your search results. You have the option to search for a specific person or a particular group of people who fit your dating preferences. It could either be from city, country, age range, body type, religion, and many others.

Public and Private Photos

If you have some pictures you’d want to remain hidden to others, you can save your snaps on a private album. What this does are this only lets you share your private photos to the people you want through messages. With this, your privacy is protected.

Language Translations

You don’t have to learn another language and utilize third-party translation apps and dictionaries to communicate with your matches. With the language translation feature in Truly African, you can set the language to the one you’re most comfortable with, and it will automatically translate messages and profiles to your own language.

24/7 Customer Support

Not all dating sites have dedicated customer support. Whenever you’re having trouble while using the platform or if you have any suggestions on how the administrators can further provide you with a better experience, you can share your thoughts and complaints on their 24/7 customer support.

They are open to assisting both standard and premium members.

Truly African Pros

Private chat with singles

Send and receive mutual interests

Save favorite members

Language translation feature

Has a mobile app

Verifies members

Video chat capability

One of the best African dating sites for serious relationships

Truly African Cons

The standard membership has limited features

Not fit for people looking for hookups

The member base is medium sized

Conclusion

Are you interested in building relationships with singles from Africa? Are you looking for that one particular dating platform that will give you the full experience as well as the opportunity to connect with attractive African singles without the hassle?

The site is particularly good. It has the features you’re going to require to communicate online. It is also very easy to use. The good thing is they are very strict with their profile review process. They have zero tolerance for scammers. But even with the tight security and the high number of verified profiles, one still needs to keep an open eye for scammers. Make sure the person you’re interacting is genuine. As much as possible, avoid sending money or sharing any of your personal information.

Truly African can both be accessible on desktop and mobile. Its mobile app lets users date and receive notifications even when they’re away from their computers.

If you want to check out this African dating site, please click here to be redirected.

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creativeindustries18 · 7 years ago

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The Market of Abandoned Materials - A Review as a Participant

-Written by Andrew.

The short version:

Overall it was a genuinely pleasant and certainly highly memorable experience - from the short film of unwanted footage & music, to the various nostalgia-heavy activities at the many stalls the market had to offer, as well as the various displays, everything had the sense of being thought through, planned meticulously and crafted painstakingly through time and commitment. It was the biggest one in scale, too - essentially taking up three floors, and I would suggest that the space has been utilised rather well. The fact that the exchange system had essentially eliminated the need of any sort of physical or digital piece had also liberated us participants from a potentially lengthy pre-participation preparation process, allowing us to get straight into the activities - and in turn contributing to the market through more than just another simple exchange.

The long version:

As mentioned, the market had three floors at its disposal - and the market had granted the visitors a very wide range of experiences. Interestingly, nostalgia had once again turned out to be one of the main themes: That makes all three of the markets. Unlike the Market of Impossible Things however, I feel that this time it had been fully utilised to work with the central theme. There is a sense of poetic beauty in this theme of ‘Abandoned Materials’ - perhaps it’s something about the things left behind, be it memories of the past, ideas which were shot down, or an item that used to be loved and cherished by oneself - something that seems to be of not much use to us anymore...

...Which neatly brings me onto my favourite display stand of the lot, which featured around 30 phones from the past two decades or so (as well as two iPod touches - essentially redundant after the better refined and packaged iPhone 4 came around), collected from various sources and beautifully set up on the table. Seeing all those different shapes again - slim, short, rounded, geometric... The mechanisms were interesting, too: There were much more to phone designs than just the simple ‘bar’ style (which nowadays with the touchscreen phones had become rather more like ‘card’), be it a flip-open or a slider (both of which I have owned, and still use), They were from a time when the design book contained rather more than just the phrase ‘minimalism’, a time when the keys had a proper, physical ‘click’ in response to the fingers - rather than a digital representation on a flat, featureless surface. This was a time when they were built to last as long as they could, not as soon as the next model’s due to come out - typically within a year or so... Anyways, that’s the rant out of the way. Chatting with the people who ran the store was a genuinely enjoyable experience, and the occasional phone trivia was a bonus, too.

Come to think of it, there were actually quite a few highlights during my 1 hour 15 minutes of market participation. While it was a bit of a blind start - there were some asking around I had to do, eventually finding out that the market begins on C floor and works its way upwards. The recycled, environment-friendly elements were constantly present, alright - but it was not a Greenpeace campaign, there were no holier-than-thou preaching of ‘save the Earth’, and that’s brilliant. Used materials were simply incorporated into every stall as unobtrusively as possible, having been blessed with some impressive craftsmanship and ingenuity here and there: “Chat with the Artists” provided a bit of one-on-one discussion in regards to their topic of choice - mine was about sexuality. Every question and answer brings another stroke, dot or scribble onto the a page from an old Massive magazine, eventually completing an abstract expression for the visitor to take away or pin up onto the board. “Recycled Fortunes” on the other hand, had gathered some old horoscopes cut-outs along with two desktops’ worth of words and phrases (possibly from the same magazines) for a bit of mix n’ match that responds to the star signs’ respective sections, which had their individual prompts. “I had a fight with [your world]” - yup, that sounds positively rebellious, although without a cause.

It didn’t have to be physical material that was abandoned - as the 4 minute short film/musician interview and the “Abandimations” had shown. Taking place in "The Marvelous Memory Theater” (complete with paper cups of popcorn), the former was a collection of abandoned film footage, set to (what I’d like to think was, anyway) a track dug up from deep within some folder inside the musician’s computer, the same musician who had talked about melodies and chord progressions which could have been, but ultimately never was. The latter was a montage of rejected animation footage - there were some genuinely fascinating bits, with a few which were quite well-polished. An enormous hand-drawn colouring sheet sat next to the TV for some painting therapy, with characters inspired by the footage, completing the set.

All in all, a highly enjoyable market - as I stepped towards the exit I found myself turning back for one last look and a few more seconds in the atmosphere. I had come to the market and made my memories - and at the time of departure, I had indeed, as one of the stalls had instructed, “leave only footprints behind”.

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crittercreature · 8 years ago

Note

11, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 31, 49, 51, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68-86, 90, 108, 110, 111, 114, 116, 117, 118, 120, 125, 127, 128, 130, 131, 133, 134

11: What do I miss - A lot of my friends, lazy summers.

15: Favorite quote - “I love the ology of clouds. And the ism of rain too.”

18: Do I use sarcasm - No. I absolutely DO NOT and WILL NOT, EVER.

19: What am I listening to right now - Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project.

20: First thing I notice in new person - Hair and what they’re using to carry stuff.

21: Shoe size - Mens 9.5-10

31: How I feel right now - Sore, tired, angry with certain people, happy with others, a bit frustrated, like I just want to cuddle for a whole day.

49: Am I excited for anything? - Seeing friends, maybe a bit of *cough cough parents* social independence, the future.

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? I don’t really go out of my way to smile, but definitely sometimes.

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? I hope not. Anyone I trust right now is someone I can safely trust in the near future.

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Probably Adam Savage.

57: What do I think about most? I’ve got no clue. Probably mostly overthinking solutions to simple petty problems.

58: What’s my strangest talent? I guess I can usually put at least one leg behind my head. Otherwise, is cold resistance a talent?

59: Do I have any strange phobias? I don’t think so. I guess I don’t like sounds that are loud enough so that you can tell they’re there but not loud enough for you to be able to tell what they are.

61: What was the last lie I told? Probably some reason that I was late to something.

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? I’m not usually a huge fan of phone calls. A computer makes it a lot more casual and accessible.

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? - Ghosts? No. Aliens? Yes but not the American UFO mythos.

64: Do I believe in magic? Not in any traditional sense. In a historical sense it is a very interesting topic of discussion.

65: Do I believe in luck? Yes in the form of subtle and passive manipulation of thoughts and probability.

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? Yes.

69: Do I have any nicknames? Sort of cuddlefish.

70: What was the worst injury I've ever had? Probably a nasty spider bite that dissolved a hole in my leg.

71: Do I spend money or save it? Save, spend when justified.

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? Not my tongue but I could certainly touch it with another tongue.

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? Yep. Pink fairy wings no more than a foot from me.

74: Favorite animal? Probably cuttlefish.

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? Laying in bed failing to sleep.

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? Pence.

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? The Star Trek TNG theme song.

78: How can you win my heart? Be genuinely loving and affectionate, I guess? It’s a lot more complicated than I could write in a text post.

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? My cause of death if it is interesting. If not then a fake and more interesting cause of death.

80: What is my favorite word? Maybe pandiculate right now.

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr - yours, @a-penny-a-bee, @kaijuno, @godzillabreath, @iguanamouth in no order

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? Respecting others is worth the effort.

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? Nope. A few are mafia-affiliated, though. I stay away from them.

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? - The ability to make people imagine others complexly and accurately without bias. That or time manipulation. Either works.

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? Questions involving aspects of myself that could potentially cause the person asking to harm me.

86: What is my current desktop picture?

My photo of the Boulder White-Clouds

90: Failed a class? Never because of my own grades. Once because of an awful teacher who decided to “forget” some grades.

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? Probably. Not in the last few years.

110: Gotten my heart broken? I don’t think so, but people have made me feel pretty bad in the past.

111: Been to a professional sports game? I’ve been to a few hockey games. They were pretty fun.

114: Been to prom? Nope.

116: Fly by helicopter? No but I really gosh darn want to.

117: What concerts have I been to? Bob Dylan for some reason. He was half an hour late, mumbled a few songs that lasted way too long, and left half an hour early. Also Barenaked Ladies.

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? Mildly a few times.

120: Wore make up? Not really. Costume make up a few times.

125: Rode in an ambulance? Not because of any injury, but yes.

127: Met someone famous? I met Cecil Baldwin very briefly.

128: Stalked someone on a social network? Not necessarily stalked, but I’ve looked at people’s internet presences to find information.

130: Been fishing? Yep. Not very good at it.

131: Helped with charity? Yes. Several times.

133: Broken a mirror? Yes. It was fun.

134: What do I want for birthday? Honestly, money. From friends, maybe sweaters? I’d rather be surprised.

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drummcarpentry · 4 years ago

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The Most Challenging Parts of the Content-Led Link Building Process

Earlier this month, we launched our annual State of Link Building Survey, which aims to give the SEO industry insights into the way link building is currently being done, how it’s measured and perceived, and the future of link building.

This year, we asked a bunch of additional questions related to the content-led link building process, one of which asked respondents to tell us which steps of the process they found most challenging. Here are the results:

Today, we’re going to talk through each step of this process and look at ways to make them less challenging, thus leading to more successful results.

1. Getting links from outreach targets

I wasn’t too surprised to see this picked as the most challenging part of the process. After all, the crucial part of succeeding isn’t in your control. You’re asking someone else to do something for you, and all of the work up until this point will be for nothing if they just don’t want to do it. Not to mention that bloggers and journalists can often get hundreds of emails a day, meaning that standing out can be difficult, even if you have a solid campaign idea. As Stacey MacNaught, one of the contributors to our report, says:

“Naturally, as more and more people turn to content marketing and digital PR tactics, the space gets more crowded. Journalists are getting HUNDREDS of emails a day. So even if what you have is brilliant, there's always going to be that element of things that's out of your control.”

There’s another crucial element in the process here that is rarely, if ever, talked about: luck. As Stacey goes on to say:

“What if your email just lands in that important inbox just as they're getting a response to something really important? What if it lands on a day they just happen to be out of office? What happens if they login and there's 400 unreads in the inbox and yours just gets scanned over? Yes, you can have tactics and strategies in place to chase up, or optimize timing. But let's not fool ourselves into believing that there isn't an element of this that's luck even after you've produced something wonderful.”

One scenario I often think about is the fact that many of us will check email on our phone whilst on the move, or even when taking a break from our desktop and making a coffee. What if a journalist reads your email, likes it, but by the time they get back to their desk, something else has grabbed their attention?

The thing is, as we’ll discuss a bit more later, that the seeds of success at this point in the process are sewn long before you send that message to the person who you’d like to link to your campaign.

With all of that said, how can we improve our chances of getting links at this point in the process, and overcome this challenge?

Don’t treat outreach as a numbers game

It’s 2021 and we’re long past the point of link building being a numbers game. I’m not just talking about outreach here, I’m talking about the effectiveness of links themselves on your organic search rankings. Long gone are the days when raw numbers of links were the key driver, at least over the long-term. You’ll still see some websites ranking off the back of high volumes of low quality links, but it’s not something that a legitimate brand should build their search traffic on.

As Gisele Navarro commented on this question:

“This right here is the reason why trying to scale content-led link building campaigns is a waste of time. I've read people saying what we do is a numbers game but it's not.”

Gisele mentions an important word — scale. Once you scale anything, quality can start to suffer, and this is the same across many processes. Of course, some quality can be maintained, but when it comes to link building, scale often means a number of things:

Emailing as many link prospects as possible

Using email templates with minimal personalization

Automating follow-ups

None of these are a great way to represent a brand online, let alone be effective at link building.

Gisele went on to talk about the importance of putting time into content instead of worrying about scaling outreach:

“No matter how many emails you send or how many sites you add to your target list, if your content is not link-worthy then you will struggle getting links. Grab all the time and effort you're dedicating to scaling link building and put it into the content you're producing.”

So, the question becomes, how can you be more effective at outreach? Let’s look at a few ways.

Focus on key relationships in your sector

Much has been said about the convergence of SEO and PR over the years, and I don’t want to focus too much on that today. But one thing that PR professionals are good at is building relationships, and I think that’s something that has often translated well into the SEO world.

You don’t need to have a campaign in your hand in order to start building relationships, either. You can start any time with a simple email, and many journalists or bloggers will welcome an authentic message from you where you might be starting a conversation about their work or views on a specific topic. Our team at Aira has done this many times over the years, and real friendships have developed as a result.

Look at your sector and ask yourself how you can engage with key people — without asking for anything in return. You’ll be surprised at how receptive those people are.

The key point to remember here is that you’re putting time and effort into this up front, knowing that you’ll see the rewards later. When the time comes to share a campaign that could be genuinely useful to your contact, they’re going to be far more likely to open and read your email. Even if the campaign isn’t for them, you’re likely to be told that, and have the chance to get feedback rather than having your email completely ignored without knowing why.

Find the right person to contact

When link prospecting, it’s very easy to go to a domain and make a note of the first name and email address that you find, and then continue on. This is fine for small blogs and publications, but you should take time to do more research for the medium to larger ones.

Bigger publications, especially top-tier newspapers and magazines, will have whole teams of people who cover different topics. Even specific topics can often have several people working on them — check out the travel section of any large newspaper and you’ll quickly see just how many writers there are.

It’s worth taking a bit of extra time to find out if there is more than one person who you could contact, and if so, making a note of all of them at the same time. You can then dig into each one a bit more to see who may be the most appropriate person to contact.

Keep an eye out for a few things in your research:

How often they publish content: do they seem to be a regular writer or more like a guest writer?

Are they on Twitter and if so, are they active? If they are, this may open up a way to engage with them and learn more about what they like writing about.

What specific topics do they write about? Don’t write down “travel”, write down the specific niche within travel.

Look at the headlines they use: are there any patterns in them, or anything you can learn about their reporting style?

Yes, this takes time. But it’s worth it because when you need to do outreach, you’re more likely to contact the right person and increase your chances of getting a reply and a link.

If you still find that your outreach is failing and you need to fix it quickly, check out this process and framework from Shannon McGuirk in her Whiteboard Friday.

2. Coming up with ideas for campaigns

Second in our list of challenges with 23% of respondents was coming up with ideas for their content campaigns. I fully understand why this is a challenge for many people, because knowing if an idea is good or bad can be very subjective. Not to mention, there’s a huge difference between a good idea and a good idea that will get links.

You may well come up with a solid idea for a piece of content that sits on your website and may get traffic, but it may not quite provoke someone to link to it over and over again. It’s important to understand this difference when coming up with ideas.

So, how can you overcome this challenge and come up with ideas that will work?

Develop a process and methodology

Not everyone will describe themselves as a creative person and unfortunately, those who describe themselves as not being creative will assume that they aren’t going to be very good at coming up with content ideas. Even if you’re at the opposite end of the spectrum here and believe that you are creative and can come up with ideas, having a solid process that guides you is a great way to ensure some consistency and save time.

Coming up with link-worthy content ideas can be hard, doing it over and over again is even harder — a process and methodology will help with this because it can be used repeatedly and across different sectors.

There are multiple processes that you can use here and there is not a single right answer, so here I just want to share a few that we use at Aira which may be helpful to you and point you in the right direction.

Content strategy framework

Our content strategy framework is designed to provoke ideas that are tied into the themes and topics that are most important to the brand that you’re working with. It also helps you understand which content formats are available to you and what the associated KPIs should be.

The last point is important because whilst links may be the focus, a great content campaign will add much more value and this should be acknowledged. For example, a campaign may also help you drive referral traffic to your website which could have value.

On the flip side, this framework also helps you demonstrate that some content campaigns will not lead directly to leads or customers — something that can be a common misunderstanding with some stakeholders. Using this framework lets you be explicit on what the primary KPIs for the campaign are, and when driving direct customers or revenue isn’t one of them.

Here is the framework itself, along with pointers for what each line means:

And here is an example of how it may look if we were working with a company who sell products to help you get a good night’s sleep:

Whilst this won’t define every single topic, it gives a solid starting point and importantly, keeps your ideas focused by making sure that they fit within the overarching themes and are linked to the right KPIs.

Audience pain points framework

Another methodology that we use at Aira revolves around the pain points of our client’s target audience, then connecting those pain points to solutions that the client can provide or create. There are there parts to this framework:

Audience: we work with the client to determine their core target audience for their products and keep this as tightly focused as possible on who they want their content to get in front of.

Pain points: we carry out research on this audience to understand what their main pain points are when it comes to the service or product that the client is offering.

Solutions: this is where we look at how the client currently solves these problems with either their products, services or content. This gives us a steer on where we ultimately need to be driving traffic to or if we need to create a new page.

Here is an example which imagines that we’re working with a company that helps people buy a home:

Once complete (although it’s never 100% complete, it’s an ongoing process) we can start to connect the dots between these three areas which can lead to campaign ideas.

For example, we may join the dots between these:

We could then base our idea generation around the target audience, their pain points and the solution offered by the client. This means that a campaign idea will be closely tied to the business and audience of the client, not going off on a tangent and reducing the value of the idea.

If you want to take a deep dive into the creative process, my go-to is always this deck from Mark Johnstone who also recently produced this report which picks apart 31 campaigns from different digital agencies to see what made those ideas work.

3. Getting approval for campaign ideas

Third in our list was getting approval for content ideas, with 20% of respondents saying that this was a challenge for them.

Having pitched many ideas to clients over the years, I understand how this can be a challenge, but it can also vary massively on a number of factors. The projects where I (or the team) have struggled most with sign-off are when we haven’t fully understood client expectations for the ideas.

The truth is that a lot of these expectations should be understood up front either when you sell a project or when you kick the project off. If you put together a creative brief, it should include questions that will help you ensure that the ideas you come up with are as likely as possible to be signed off.

Let’s look at the kinds of questions we need to be asking up front in order to do this and hopefully avoid pain further down the line.

Core topics and teasing out objections

Asking a client up front what topics they are happy to talk about can be useful, but won’t always unearth potential problems. Start by asking basic questions such as:

What topics do you want your brand to be famous for?

What topics would you say you’re credible to talk about?

What topics does your audience resonate with?

What questions do your customers always ask you?

This can give you a really good starting point but once you hear the answers, you need to go deeper. This involves a bit of thinking on your feet, but you should start to test the client at this point to see where their limits are and what they will and won’t sign off.

Take one of the topics they’ve mentioned and throw out a random example of using that idea, then do it again and again. Start to get a feel for how they react to ideas and listen carefully to what they say. They will start to give clues as to how they respond to ideas and what questions come into their mind.

For example, a reply may be “yeah, that would work but….” then they will give you a glimpse into potential problems. So this may become “yeah, that would work but we’d need sign off from our compliance team” or “yeah, that would work but Jenny in our data team would need to review it first.”

Off-topic ideas

Following on from this, it’s important to get an early understanding of what topics they want to steer clear of. Again, from experience, usual answers here may be fairly typical and not that helpful, such as a client wanting to steer clear of content that may be a bit risky or mention competitors. It’s not uncommon for companies to want to avoid political content being produced by a third party, even if the company doesn’t generally mind talking about political issues.

To try and dig deeper, repeat the process above and give some examples to test the boundaries a little and see how they respond. One way to do this is to ask about any previous campaigns that have gone wrong, not worked or caused issues for them internally or externally.

If you’re not dealing with the CEO, perhaps ask something like “if we wanted to produce an idea on this topic, what would your CEO say? How would she react?”. The additional benefit here is that you can start to see how internal dynamics between teams and the people above them works too.

Brand guidelines and tone

You need to ask how much they expect a piece of content to adhere to brand and tone of voice guidelines. Chances are that they want to make sure that content is consistent with their brand, but the extent of this can vary a lot depending on the business. Some will ask you to stick very, very closely to them whilst others will give you more freedom.

Knowing this is important because it can affect the ways in which you can execute an idea and sometimes, it will mean that some ideas aren’t feasible.

Format of presenting the ideas

When writing up and planning to present your ideas, don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right format for delivery. This will change based on the client and quite often, how long you’ve been working with them.

At Aira, we have some clients who we’ve worked with for many years who know our process and team very well. These clients may only need a simple email with a summary of each idea in order to sign off or to ask a few questions.

This will be different for a client who is brand new and perhaps hasn’t run any campaigns before. This one will need a lot more detail and probably a full presentation with details/data attached so that they can fully understand everything.

Getting the format wrong up front is a sure fire way to put yourself on the backfoot, no matter how good the ideas may be.

4. Finding enough domains to get links from

Fourth on the list from our respondents, with 13% of them saying it was a challenge, was finding enough domains to get links from. This appears to be a relatively small challenge and even in competitive sectors, there are usually plenty of domains out there that are relevant to the campaign that you’re producing.

There are plenty of guides out there which give away lots of techniques and processes for finding link prospects, here are a few:

How to Find Sites That Will Want to Link to Your Content

The Beginner’s Guide to Finding Link Targets

Building Your Outreach List

To add to these, I want to encourage you to also think carefully about the attributes of the domains that you’re trying to find and not to obsess too much over “SEO metrics”. Let me explain.

I believe more and more that Google passes value across links in very different ways than they used to. Essentially, Google can pass more or less PageRank across a link based on a number of attributes associated with that link. The concept of this has been around for many years and Bill Slawski has written about how Google may do this here.

Whilst not new, this is one area where I believe Google can (and does) refine more and more as time passes. If we assume that links will remain a core ranking signal for a while yet, it stands to reason that Google will refine the signals within it, of which, there will be many.

Side note: our State of Link Building Report also asked respondents if they felt that links as a ranking signal would still exist in five years time, many believed they would:

The belief reduces a little if we look ten years into the future, but the majority still said yes:

Back to our core point, I believe that it’s important to think about the attributes of links that Google may look at in order to define value, but also to think about what is valuable to you beyond pure SEO or ranking value.

Here are some examples:

Links that send traffic to you

Links from domains that your audience frequently visits

Links from domains that you don’t already have

Links from domains that your competitors have (and don’t have)

Links from domains that have high levels of traffic

When you start to do link prospecting with these kinds of attributes in mind, you start to think a little bit differently and you naturally lean toward quality over quantity. These are the links that Google wants to reward now and in the future.

5. Design and development of ideas

Finally, in last place in our survey was getting the design and development of ideas. Only 10% of our respondents listed this as a challenge.

We don’t spend too much time on this but here are a few tips for making sure that your content campaign doesn’t fail at this point.

Don’t start with the format

As tempting as it can be, try to avoid any bias toward a certain format or type of execution before your idea is fully fleshed out. For example, try to avoid starting by saying “I want to do a map” or “I want to do an interactive infographic”. Let the idea lead to an appropriate format by asking yourself what the best way to communicate your idea is.

This could lead to a range of options:

Blog post

Long-form guide

Infographic

Tweet thread

Video

Slidedeck

Whitepaper

The list can go on and you get the idea.

You should still be aware of what content formats can work and keep an internal log of your campaigns to see which ones work best, but don’t let yourself get caught up in the format. A successful campaign that was an interactive piece most likely worked because the idea behind it was strong, not just because it was interactive.

Don’t let the idea get lost

Leading on from the previous point, it’s very easy for a core idea to be lost when it goes through the process of being designed and developed. If we imagine that the core idea has come from one or two people, who have then passed it along to a designer, maybe a developer and also other stakeholders who have given feedback, it’s very easy for the core idea to be diluted.

It’s important to be clear about the core idea and why that idea is so crucial to the success of a campaign at all stages. When you brief a designer, start with the idea. When you pitch the idea to a stakeholder, start with the idea. When you start to do QA on designs and development environments, keep the core idea in mind.

Be aware of restrictions

The design and development of an idea can fall down very easily if you present something that can’t be executed on the company website. For example, if you’re unable to upload interactive content or you have to publish content within an existing template, this is going to cause blockers with design and development. It’s important to be aware of these up front so that you can design and build content that can be published.

To wrap up: every step is a challenge, but is also important

Despite some steps being harder than others, the truth is that you need all steps to be doing their bit and pulling their weight if you’re going to end up with a successful campaign.

Outreach becomes easier when you have a great idea.

Coming up with ideas becomes easier when you have a good brief.

Implementing a design becomes easier when the idea is clear and compelling already

You get the idea. Take time to understand the process in full and optimize each step as much as you can, whilst allowing for flexibility and for people to be creative and do what they think is best.

0 notes

lakelandseo · 4 years ago

Text

The Most Challenging Parts of the Content-Led Link Building Process

Today, we’re going to talk through each step of this process and look at ways to make them less challenging, thus leading to more successful results.

1. Getting links from outreach targets

There’s another crucial element in the process here that is rarely, if ever, talked about: luck. As Stacey goes on to say:

With all of that said, how can we improve our chances of getting links at this point in the process, and overcome this challenge?

Don’t treat outreach as a numbers game

As Gisele Navarro commented on this question:

“This right here is the reason why trying to scale content-led link building campaigns is a waste of time. I've read people saying what we do is a numbers game but it's not.”

Emailing as many link prospects as possible

Using email templates with minimal personalization

Automating follow-ups

None of these are a great way to represent a brand online, let alone be effective at link building.

Gisele went on to talk about the importance of putting time into content instead of worrying about scaling outreach:

So, the question becomes, how can you be more effective at outreach? Let’s look at a few ways.

Focus on key relationships in your sector

Look at your sector and ask yourself how you can engage with key people — without asking for anything in return. You’ll be surprised at how receptive those people are.

Find the right person to contact

Keep an eye out for a few things in your research:

How often they publish content: do they seem to be a regular writer or more like a guest writer?

Are they on Twitter and if so, are they active? If they are, this may open up a way to engage with them and learn more about what they like writing about.

What specific topics do they write about? Don’t write down “travel”, write down the specific niche within travel.

Look at the headlines they use: are there any patterns in them, or anything you can learn about their reporting style?

Yes, this takes time. But it’s worth it because when you need to do outreach, you’re more likely to contact the right person and increase your chances of getting a reply and a link.

If you still find that your outreach is failing and you need to fix it quickly, check out this process and framework from Shannon McGuirk in her Whiteboard Friday.

2. Coming up with ideas for campaigns

So, how can you overcome this challenge and come up with ideas that will work?

Develop a process and methodology

Content strategy framework

Here is the framework itself, along with pointers for what each line means:

And here is an example of how it may look if we were working with a company who sell products to help you get a good night’s sleep:

Audience pain points framework

Audience: we work with the client to determine their core target audience for their products and keep this as tightly focused as possible on who they want their content to get in front of.

Pain points: we carry out research on this audience to understand what their main pain points are when it comes to the service or product that the client is offering.

Here is an example which imagines that we’re working with a company that helps people buy a home:

Once complete (although it’s never 100% complete, it’s an ongoing process) we can start to connect the dots between these three areas which can lead to campaign ideas.

For example, we may join the dots between these:

3. Getting approval for campaign ideas

Third in our list was getting approval for content ideas, with 20% of respondents saying that this was a challenge for them.

Let’s look at the kinds of questions we need to be asking up front in order to do this and hopefully avoid pain further down the line.

Core topics and teasing out objections

Asking a client up front what topics they are happy to talk about can be useful, but won’t always unearth potential problems. Start by asking basic questions such as:

What topics do you want your brand to be famous for?

What topics would you say you’re credible to talk about?

What topics does your audience resonate with?

What questions do your customers always ask you?

Off-topic ideas

Brand guidelines and tone

Knowing this is important because it can affect the ways in which you can execute an idea and sometimes, it will mean that some ideas aren’t feasible.

Format of presenting the ideas

Getting the format wrong up front is a sure fire way to put yourself on the backfoot, no matter how good the ideas may be.

4. Finding enough domains to get links from

There are plenty of guides out there which give away lots of techniques and processes for finding link prospects, here are a few:

How to Find Sites That Will Want to Link to Your Content

The Beginner’s Guide to Finding Link Targets

Building Your Outreach List

To add to these, I want to encourage you to also think carefully about the attributes of the domains that you’re trying to find and not to obsess too much over “SEO metrics”. Let me explain.

Side note: our State of Link Building Report also asked respondents if they felt that links as a ranking signal would still exist in five years time, many believed they would:

The belief reduces a little if we look ten years into the future, but the majority still said yes:

Here are some examples:

Links that send traffic to you

Links from domains that your audience frequently visits

Links from domains that you don’t already have

Links from domains that your competitors have (and don’t have)

Links from domains that have high levels of traffic

5. Design and development of ideas

Finally, in last place in our survey was getting the design and development of ideas. Only 10% of our respondents listed this as a challenge.

We don’t spend too much time on this but here are a few tips for making sure that your content campaign doesn’t fail at this point.

Don’t start with the format

This could lead to a range of options:

Blog post

Long-form guide

Infographic

Tweet thread

Video

Slidedeck

Whitepaper

The list can go on and you get the idea.

Don’t let the idea get lost

Be aware of restrictions

To wrap up: every step is a challenge, but is also important

Despite some steps being harder than others, the truth is that you need all steps to be doing their bit and pulling their weight if you’re going to end up with a successful campaign.

Outreach becomes easier when you have a great idea.

Coming up with ideas becomes easier when you have a good brief.

Implementing a design becomes easier when the idea is clear and compelling already

You get the idea. Take time to understand the process in full and optimize each step as much as you can, whilst allowing for flexibility and for people to be creative and do what they think is best.

0 notes

epackingvietnam · 4 years ago

Text

The Most Challenging Parts of the Content-Led Link Building Process

Today, we’re going to talk through each step of this process and look at ways to make them less challenging, thus leading to more successful results.

1. Getting links from outreach targets

There’s another crucial element in the process here that is rarely, if ever, talked about: luck. As Stacey goes on to say:

With all of that said, how can we improve our chances of getting links at this point in the process, and overcome this challenge?

Don’t treat outreach as a numbers game

As Gisele Navarro commented on this question:

“This right here is the reason why trying to scale content-led link building campaigns is a waste of time. I've read people saying what we do is a numbers game but it's not.”

Emailing as many link prospects as possible

Using email templates with minimal personalization

Automating follow-ups

None of these are a great way to represent a brand online, let alone be effective at link building.

Gisele went on to talk about the importance of putting time into content instead of worrying about scaling outreach:

So, the question becomes, how can you be more effective at outreach? Let’s look at a few ways.

Focus on key relationships in your sector

Look at your sector and ask yourself how you can engage with key people — without asking for anything in return. You’ll be surprised at how receptive those people are.

Find the right person to contact

Keep an eye out for a few things in your research:

How often they publish content: do they seem to be a regular writer or more like a guest writer?

Are they on Twitter and if so, are they active? If they are, this may open up a way to engage with them and learn more about what they like writing about.

What specific topics do they write about? Don’t write down “travel”, write down the specific niche within travel.

Look at the headlines they use: are there any patterns in them, or anything you can learn about their reporting style?

Yes, this takes time. But it’s worth it because when you need to do outreach, you’re more likely to contact the right person and increase your chances of getting a reply and a link.

If you still find that your outreach is failing and you need to fix it quickly, check out this process and framework from Shannon McGuirk in her Whiteboard Friday.

2. Coming up with ideas for campaigns

So, how can you overcome this challenge and come up with ideas that will work?

Develop a process and methodology

Content strategy framework

Here is the framework itself, along with pointers for what each line means:

And here is an example of how it may look if we were working with a company who sell products to help you get a good night’s sleep:

Audience pain points framework

Audience: we work with the client to determine their core target audience for their products and keep this as tightly focused as possible on who they want their content to get in front of.

Pain points: we carry out research on this audience to understand what their main pain points are when it comes to the service or product that the client is offering.

Here is an example which imagines that we’re working with a company that helps people buy a home:

Once complete (although it’s never 100% complete, it’s an ongoing process) we can start to connect the dots between these three areas which can lead to campaign ideas.

For example, we may join the dots between these:

3. Getting approval for campaign ideas

Third in our list was getting approval for content ideas, with 20% of respondents saying that this was a challenge for them.

Let’s look at the kinds of questions we need to be asking up front in order to do this and hopefully avoid pain further down the line.

Core topics and teasing out objections

Asking a client up front what topics they are happy to talk about can be useful, but won’t always unearth potential problems. Start by asking basic questions such as:

What topics do you want your brand to be famous for?

What topics would you say you’re credible to talk about?

What topics does your audience resonate with?

What questions do your customers always ask you?

Off-topic ideas

Brand guidelines and tone

Knowing this is important because it can affect the ways in which you can execute an idea and sometimes, it will mean that some ideas aren’t feasible.

Format of presenting the ideas

Getting the format wrong up front is a sure fire way to put yourself on the backfoot, no matter how good the ideas may be.

4. Finding enough domains to get links from

There are plenty of guides out there which give away lots of techniques and processes for finding link prospects, here are a few:

How to Find Sites That Will Want to Link to Your Content

The Beginner’s Guide to Finding Link Targets

Building Your Outreach List

To add to these, I want to encourage you to also think carefully about the attributes of the domains that you’re trying to find and not to obsess too much over “SEO metrics”. Let me explain.

Side note: our State of Link Building Report also asked respondents if they felt that links as a ranking signal would still exist in five years time, many believed they would:

The belief reduces a little if we look ten years into the future, but the majority still said yes:

Here are some examples:

Links that send traffic to you

Links from domains that your audience frequently visits

Links from domains that you don’t already have

Links from domains that your competitors have (and don’t have)

Links from domains that have high levels of traffic

5. Design and development of ideas

Finally, in last place in our survey was getting the design and development of ideas. Only 10% of our respondents listed this as a challenge.

We don’t spend too much time on this but here are a few tips for making sure that your content campaign doesn’t fail at this point.

Don’t start with the format

As tempting as it can be, try to avoid any bias toward a certain format or type of execution before your idea is fully fleshed out. For example, try to avoid starting by saying “I want to do a map” or “I want to do an interactive infographic��. Let the idea lead to an appropriate format by asking yourself what the best way to communicate your idea is.

This could lead to a range of options:

Blog post

Long-form guide

Infographic

Tweet thread

Video

Slidedeck

Whitepaper

The list can go on and you get the idea.

Don’t let the idea get lost

Be aware of restrictions

To wrap up: every step is a challenge, but is also important

Despite some steps being harder than others, the truth is that you need all steps to be doing their bit and pulling their weight if you’re going to end up with a successful campaign.

Outreach becomes easier when you have a great idea.

Coming up with ideas becomes easier when you have a good brief.

Implementing a design becomes easier when the idea is clear and compelling already

You get the idea. Take time to understand the process in full and optimize each step as much as you can, whilst allowing for flexibility and for people to be creative and do what they think is best.

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

0 notes

bfxenon · 4 years ago

Text

The Most Challenging Parts of the Content-Led Link Building Process

Today, we’re going to talk through each step of this process and look at ways to make them less challenging, thus leading to more successful results.

1. Getting links from outreach targets

There’s another crucial element in the process here that is rarely, if ever, talked about: luck. As Stacey goes on to say:

With all of that said, how can we improve our chances of getting links at this point in the process, and overcome this challenge?

Don’t treat outreach as a numbers game

As Gisele Navarro commented on this question:

“This right here is the reason why trying to scale content-led link building campaigns is a waste of time. I've read people saying what we do is a numbers game but it's not.”

Emailing as many link prospects as possible

Using email templates with minimal personalization

Automating follow-ups

None of these are a great way to represent a brand online, let alone be effective at link building.

Gisele went on to talk about the importance of putting time into content instead of worrying about scaling outreach:

So, the question becomes, how can you be more effective at outreach? Let’s look at a few ways.

Focus on key relationships in your sector

Look at your sector and ask yourself how you can engage with key people — without asking for anything in return. You’ll be surprised at how receptive those people are.

Find the right person to contact

Keep an eye out for a few things in your research:

How often they publish content: do they seem to be a regular writer or more like a guest writer?

Are they on Twitter and if so, are they active? If they are, this may open up a way to engage with them and learn more about what they like writing about.

What specific topics do they write about? Don’t write down “travel”, write down the specific niche within travel.

Look at the headlines they use: are there any patterns in them, or anything you can learn about their reporting style?

Yes, this takes time. But it’s worth it because when you need to do outreach, you’re more likely to contact the right person and increase your chances of getting a reply and a link.

If you still find that your outreach is failing and you need to fix it quickly, check out this process and framework from Shannon McGuirk in her Whiteboard Friday.

2. Coming up with ideas for campaigns

So, how can you overcome this challenge and come up with ideas that will work?

Develop a process and methodology

Content strategy framework

Here is the framework itself, along with pointers for what each line means:

And here is an example of how it may look if we were working with a company who sell products to help you get a good night’s sleep:

Audience pain points framework

Audience: we work with the client to determine their core target audience for their products and keep this as tightly focused as possible on who they want their content to get in front of.

Pain points: we carry out research on this audience to understand what their main pain points are when it comes to the service or product that the client is offering.

Here is an example which imagines that we’re working with a company that helps people buy a home:

Once complete (although it’s never 100% complete, it’s an ongoing process) we can start to connect the dots between these three areas which can lead to campaign ideas.

For example, we may join the dots between these:

3. Getting approval for campaign ideas

Third in our list was getting approval for content ideas, with 20% of respondents saying that this was a challenge for them.

Let’s look at the kinds of questions we need to be asking up front in order to do this and hopefully avoid pain further down the line.

Core topics and teasing out objections

Asking a client up front what topics they are happy to talk about can be useful, but won’t always unearth potential problems. Start by asking basic questions such as:

What topics do you want your brand to be famous for?

What topics would you say you’re credible to talk about?

What topics does your audience resonate with?

What questions do your customers always ask you?

Off-topic ideas

Brand guidelines and tone

Knowing this is important because it can affect the ways in which you can execute an idea and sometimes, it will mean that some ideas aren’t feasible.

Format of presenting the ideas

Getting the format wrong up front is a sure fire way to put yourself on the backfoot, no matter how good the ideas may be.

4. Finding enough domains to get links from

There are plenty of guides out there which give away lots of techniques and processes for finding link prospects, here are a few:

How to Find Sites That Will Want to Link to Your Content

The Beginner’s Guide to Finding Link Targets

Building Your Outreach List

To add to these, I want to encourage you to also think carefully about the attributes of the domains that you’re trying to find and not to obsess too much over “SEO metrics”. Let me explain.

Side note: our State of Link Building Report also asked respondents if they felt that links as a ranking signal would still exist in five years time, many believed they would:

The belief reduces a little if we look ten years into the future, but the majority still said yes:

Here are some examples:

Links that send traffic to you

Links from domains that your audience frequently visits

Links from domains that you don’t already have

Links from domains that your competitors have (and don’t have)

Links from domains that have high levels of traffic

5. Design and development of ideas

Finally, in last place in our survey was getting the design and development of ideas. Only 10% of our respondents listed this as a challenge.

We don’t spend too much time on this but here are a few tips for making sure that your content campaign doesn’t fail at this point.

Don’t start with the format

This could lead to a range of options:

Blog post

Long-form guide

Infographic

Tweet thread

Video

Slidedeck

Whitepaper

The list can go on and you get the idea.

Don’t let the idea get lost

Be aware of restrictions

To wrap up: every step is a challenge, but is also important

Despite some steps being harder than others, the truth is that you need all steps to be doing their bit and pulling their weight if you’re going to end up with a successful campaign.

Outreach becomes easier when you have a great idea.

Coming up with ideas becomes easier when you have a good brief.

Implementing a design becomes easier when the idea is clear and compelling already

You get the idea. Take time to understand the process in full and optimize each step as much as you can, whilst allowing for flexibility and for people to be creative and do what they think is best.

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