#does the dash have an algorithm too now???

[kanon-kun]

how come some of the people I'm following (whom I know are posting frequently) aren't showing up in the "following" tab on my dashboard??

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

Hi, I don’t follow you and I’m not Christian but for some reason your Lilith post got algorithm-ed onto my dash and now I’m curious and by that I mean…. SERIOUSLY? Have I just been gaslit into believing about the existence of a Bible character my whole life? Is she the Goncharov of the bible? I swear I’ve seen Christians mention her so where are they getting their idea of her? Or why do they think she’s worth discussing if she doesn’t even exist? Obviously if you’re busy you don’t have to answer this but your post is literally the first I heard about this.

I'm afraid you have indeed been gaslit.

All the Christians I know would only mention her with disdain, because we're aware she's just some medieval dude's Bible OC (and adding to the Bible is kind of a no-no).

If the Christians you know discuss Lilith as if she is part of Biblical canon, there are really only two explanations: 1. They have never read Genesis (which is like, the first book any Christian is raised to know), and are not being adequately discipled. 2. They are nominal Christians who don't understand or care about the gospel, but who like the aesthetic of Christianity and Christianity-adjacent things.

The reason Lilith is such a thorn in Christians' side is that she interferes with Genesis 1-3, which is the foundation not just of the entire plot and premise of the Bible, but of our theology regarding the physical world and our place in it.

Her myth posits that God initially made both man and woman from the dust, but then made another woman from Adam's rib. It posits that the complementarian nature of man and woman must be manifest in sexual relations. It posits that a figurehead of mankind could sin (by failing to sexually submit), but not suffer the consequences God promised for sin. It posits that Adam bore no blame in the first sin. It posits that humans can become demons (they can't). And from this point on, it ceases to make any sense. Demons can't have children, demons can't have dominion over anything God didn't grant them dominion over, and there was no sickness prior to the Fall for Lilith to cause. I would even argue there were no demons before the Fall, and that Lucifer fell at the moment he decided to tempt Adam and Eve. And what does it even mean for a demon to die? Demons are already cut off from the Author of Life, and they are spiritual beings (no bodies).

Then the question arises, if Adam & Eve didn't commit the first sin, why did Jesus have to be the Second Adam? If death and sickness existed before The Fall, how could they also be the consequence of The Fall? If death and sickness existed before The Fall, why should it not exist in the New Earth after Jesus returns? If Adam and Eve sinned, why didn't they become demons, too? Why aren't all of us demons because of them? et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum.

[unrestrained-balderdash-art-blog]

Going on a Riddler fanart break

I'm having a break from posting Riddler fanart to Tumblr. The backlog will still be posted on Cara and Instagram (both @ tbalderdash), and if the break is long enough for it to catch up I will post things made during the break on there before Tumblr. I will still be posting bird art here. I will still post fanart for other fandoms here if I make any (I am currently undecided about non-Riddler DC). The break will be for at least a month. I will probably come back when the OCD medication has kicked in for a bit. Thank you for all of the support on the last post. I don't want to take a break, but I have to for my mental health.

"Organised" ramble about reasoning (this is heavily influenced by neurodivergence/mental illness and I am not trying to sound like an entitled/ungrateful twat. I don't want to guilt trip anyone, please don't feel guilty):

The Timezone Curse: Tumblr has a reverse-chronological dashboard. I am British. I live earlier than the majority of the userbase. I have no idea what time to post things so they don't get buried. Recently I've tried to stop waiting for the exact right minute to post things, as it doesn't stop them from flopping.

Likes vs Reblogs, (and OCD?): I will preface this and say: a lot of this is my brain's fault. Since Likes don't do anything to spread things, my brain gets upset when things keep getting Liked without Reblogged. Unless it is from a bird fan on the fanart, better artist, or irl friend, Likes mean nothing to me. I know this is silly and irrational, but I can't help it and this is the main reason why my brain is suffering posting fanart. I hope medication will fix my feelings. Additionally, OCD brain keeps trying to find a reason: Am I dislikable? Is my art bad? Does it have no appeal? Is it aphobia? Did I do something cancellable without knowing and now everyone hates me? I (think I) know the answer is people just don't use this website that way, but my brain is never sure. This is why I don't have the problem on the other websites, every like helps the algorithm and actually means something in my brain

The combination of the Timezone Curse and lack of reblogs means my art often gets barely any reach (or reach my brain deems meaningful). I desperately want to feel like part of the Riddler fandom community. Unfortunately, due to Tumblr making me suffer (overwhelmed by compulsive need to scroll entire dash, repulsed aroace, and simple posts being able to make me ruminate unpleasantly for a long time) I find it very hard to follow new blogs or connect with people on this site. I love birds, but I need Riddler interaction. I can't look at much fandom on other sites, as they have barely any/no tag filtering, which means I will suffer if I look for him.

Why it's just fanart and not birds affected by this: I started off as a fanartist with no expectation to get big with birds, so I had a que sera sera attitude and I post them whenever they're ready, I didn't expect to get big. I am more fulfilled when it comes to the bird interest (more community interaction + every day can have different birds out there + people in my real life are interested in birds). Additionally, the bird art spreads a lot more (due to bird blogs reblogging). Bird art is my "job" art (it is where I plan to make money from) whereas Riddler is where my passion lies the most (I still love the birds but I have many other ways of interacting with them without needing art). This means I get more emotionally invested in the Riddler art than the bird art

Is art becoming a compulsion? This applies to the birds as well, but since they're "job art" it doesn't matter too much. I keep being worried about not posting enough Riddler art, and feelings of social media sometimes overshadow the joy of creating - I keep thinking about posting, rather than doing. I get too anxious to make art that is "unpostable" (eg: self-insert and him hugging), especially due to the fact I'm trying to get more professional. I feel like there's more I want to expand on this but it's been too long and I'm tired. This break might help me do more high-quality art instead of having to churn it out out of fear of everyone forgetting me.

Sorry for all the text. I don't know if I've explained everything very well but it's been an hour and usually if I post something after 8 it fails, which I don't usually want to worry about but it's a bit important for an announcement like this

[scaryfangirl2001]

Changing Season (fanfic, 610 WC)

@flufftober

As the vibrant hues of October painted the streets of New York, the Library stands as a stoic fortress in the lively autumnal backdrop. Inside, the hum of computers and the rustle of papers fill the air, enveloping Harold Finch in a cocoon of work. His fingers dance across the keyboard, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, the weight of their clandestine operations reflected in the furrow of his brow. His focus is unwavering as he delves into the intricacies of their latest case. John Reese, his loyal companion and protector, notes the change in the season with a spark in his eyes. The scent of fallen leaves and damp earth whispers through the cracks in the windows, but Harold remains steadfast in his focus, oblivious to the subtle dance of nature outside.

He hadn't noticed John's leave of absence until the man bounds into the Library with a glint of mischief in his eyes. He holds a smooth and round acorn in his hand, chiding the older man, "Harold, you've been buried in those screens for too long. Time to breathe in some fresh air. Breathe in the beginning of change."

Harold hums and raises an eyebrow, his attention tethered to the complex web of data before him. Oblivious to the acorn's significance, he dismisses it with a wave of his hand, much to John's amusement. "That's nice, Mr. Reese. But please, let's focus on our number."

Undeterred, John spies a chestnut resting on the windowsill, its spiky shell catching the sunlight. He picks it up and places it on Harold's desk, careful not to tip anything over.

"Come on, now. Embrace the season with me. You can't ignore the signs of fall forever," John teases.

Harold sighs softly, his mind preoccupied with algorithms and code. "I appreciate the sentiment, Mr. Reese. But we have a schedule to keep."

John walks away, not willing to give up. He joins Bear, their loyal Belgian Malinois, at the nearest window. They take in nature as October paints the city in golden browns and fiery reds. Bear is a very smart dog and, with a twinkle in his eye, John instructs him to fetch a particular item. Bear dashes out of the room and returns moments later, a pine cone delicately held in his mouth. The precious dog looks up at John with big doe eyes, and John clicks his tongue.

"Go show Papa."

Bear understands and pads into Harold's work area, tail wagging in excitement. When the older man looks over, Bear drops the pine cone at his papa's feet, and Harold chortles.

"Alright, alright. Maybe I've been too focused on work," Harold admits, a soft smile tugging at his lips.

John beams, pleased to see Harold finally acknowledging the beauty of the changing season.

"John, be a dear and fetch my coat, would you?"

He happily does so as Harold finds Bear's leash. They emerge into the crisp afternoon, a symphony of colors enveloping them. The crunch of fallen leaves underfoot is accompanied by the distant chirping of birds filling the air. The sounds of their fond banter mix with the rustling, and Bear finds a squirrel particularly interesting. The men let him run more freely at the dog park once they arrive, and Harold's eyes fall upon a lone pinecone nestled among the fallen leaves. A resigned sigh escapes his lips as he carefully stoops down to pick it up

"John, sometimes I believe you and Bear are the only ones who truly appreciate the simplicity of the changing seasons."

John chuckles and leans down to plant a kiss on Harold's temple, warmth spreading through his chest.

[topguncortez]

Hello, sorry to be a bother I hope everything is going well with your graduation 💗💗

I just wanted to ask if you have any tips and/or thoughts for those starting out posting their fics and ect on tumblr

i meant to answer this the other day but things came up and i pushed it to the back burner.

anyway! my tips and tricks on getting involved in fandom writing (and it doesn’t just have to be this one. this goes for ALL fandoms)

1. use tags

tags are very helpful with organizing and getting your work out there. not only can people follow certain tags, but it’s also easier to search and find a certain fic. for example, if i wanted to read nico hischier fics im going to search “nico hischier imagines” i use the same 10-15 tags on all of my posts.

now ☝️ here’s one thing that butters my biscuit about tags, is when people misuse them. do not tag a fic about jake seresin with “bradley bradshaw imagine”.

2. headers & titles & synopsis

titles are hard. i’m pretty sure i have three fics all titled the same thing. however, titles are attention grabbers. titles are gonna make people want to stop and read your fic. my go to advice for titles, is find a song you like and use that. or maybe a line of dialogue. or in the TGM fandom, your characters callsign

headers also grab people’s attention. i almost always use a header image unless im writing a blurb or a one shot from an ask. pinterest is a great lovely tool that you can find amazing pictures to use as headers. and canva is a great free tool that’ll help you edit.

synopsis: also attention grabbers. a proper synopsis will give people a glimpse at what’s ahead. it can be as simple as “in this fic, jake is an asshole”

3. warnings

this is a big one. especially if you’re wanting to write smut or angst. yes, people are responsible for the media they consume, however it is the writers job to warn them about what they are going to consume.

i normally write “warnings: a…b…c…” in my angst and smut fics. however, if i’m writing about darker angst/realistic topics such as SA, abuse, gun violence, etc, i will put a “trigger warning” (tw) tag in my tags.

i can not stress this point enough. like i said, the reader is responsible for what they choose to read. but your duty as a writer is to make sure your warnings and tags are very, very clear. it does not matter if your warnings “give too much of the plot away”. that means your plot is probably very triggering for people and you need to tell them that.

be very clear with your warnings. crystal. clear.

4. the use of read more

please use the “read more” option when writing long pieces. the fandom will love you if you do.

5. reblog your work, reblog others work… build a network

reblogs are so so important especially on this app. tumblr is not tiktok. there’s no algorithm for what shows up first on your dash. the way to keep your fic and others fics alive is by REBLOGGING

also, reblogging of other peoples fics is what draws attention to your blog. and it’s how you start to create friendship networks.

i met most of my friends by reblogging their work or sneaking into their dms.

writers support writers around here.

6. make your blog personable.

no one likes a blank inpersonable blog. not saying you need to put your face as the icon. but make it look like you’re not just a bot blog.

find a cute color scheme and some headers. make it unique. make it you!

7. do not be afraid to tag people

some people (including myself once) are afraid to tag the “big blogs” (which i find to be a stupid term. no one here is a “big blog”, sit down charlie d’melio) but tagging people again is what catches peoples attention.

do not be afraid to tag some of your favorite writers and be like “hey i’m new look at this”

8. utilize online resources for writing help

there’s so many free writing resources out there! i’m seeing more and more show up on my instagram feed, tiktok, youtube. they are great apps that’ll help you get started!

i know this was a lot but if you have ANY questions or need someone to look over your fics, you can reach out to me!

i hope this helps:)

[regexkind]

You think determinism is real??? Unfollowed.

No, but seriously, would you possibly mind explaining a bit more? I have been Having Some Feelings about the ways in which life plays out that are very uncanny and to see and recognize all these patterns has been tripping me up (frustrating me, too, but that is good I think—there is information in there) and there's a sense of delusion I've been trying to shake off because, honestly, I Want To Believe, especially in myself and my senses, even if the idea of being told what to do by something else is very annoying to my sensibilities. I don't even believe in Angel Numbers, really, but I have been constantly seeing eights and sixes and I know what they mean, regardless. Sorry. Infodumping.

Seriously, though! It is neat and it does feel like I have been claiming some sense of power and just... being on the right path.

And because it's a topic that has been on my mind right now, and I came across that post, I thought that I would just ask.

Hyper-glib answer: my view on free-will is close to that espoused in the "Thou Art Physics" LessWrong article, with a dash of Daniel Dennett's perspective in "Elbow Room" that what people are distressed by in the question of free-will is the feeling that their agency is being encroached on, and that even if free-will is an illusion, a life in which the decision-making algorithms inside your skull are an ingredient in the outcomes is totally sufficient for happiness.

Less glib, and more in response to your actual ask: I also recognize that what you're talking about when I say "determinism" seems to be different than what I am talking about. Your response makes me think you're imagining that "determinism" is necessarily the result of some sort of planner—you are concerned about being "told what to do by something else", but that isn't necessarily what I'm imagining at all.

The thing I mean is more like the determinism that is implied by the thought experiment of Laplace's Demon. The idea is that if you know the state of the universe at a fixed point in time, and knew the ruleset along which evolution of the universe progressed, you would be capable in principle of computing the state of the universe at any given future moment. Nothing about this scenario presupposes that there was any intentionality in this initial configuration.

In fact, what seems much, much more likely is that the universe is both vast and essentially random in its initial configuration, so that it was inevitable that some corner of the cosmos would contain the seeds for our particular world. It isn't the result of any plan. For a sufficiently small change from our world, there would be a size of universe that would be big enough to contain a version of our world that is that distance away or smaller, and in an infinite universe, arbitrarily small variations of our world prevail. (This is Tegmark Level I multiverse theory; I would link to the specific part of the article but every day mobile web browsing becomes a worse experience and I can't do that anymore it seems)

Anyways, the type of determinism I espouse seems very very different from the one you seem troubled by.

[thatdisasterauthor]

The new dashboard layout

I wanted to wait to play with it for a bit to see what sort of feelings I had that weren't just my immediate reaction, and now I have so let's talk.

My general feelings: I get what they're going for, and I think it has potential, but right now it is too busy. There are some great things about it, like being able to post while in your feed, and some bad things, like the amount of different sections.

But let's get into it a little more.

I know everyone is screaming about how they copied Twitter, but they didn't. Side menus aren't even close to a new thing on the internet. They aren't AS popular as top menus these days, but they still see plenty of use. Really, the only issue I have with the side menus at this point as that the "Account" tab doesn't seem to stay closed for good once you close it. Also, on smaller screens it becomes its own scrolling section, which feels even more crowded.

No, my main issue here is that--especially at the top of the dashboard--there is SO MUCH going on. You've got Tumblr live, you've got the new left side menu, you've got the little content suggestion block with "changes on Tumblr" and all that, you've got "Check out these blogs," you've got Tumblr Radar, and you've got your actual dash. It's a lot of info to be hit with all at once.

I think we've all beaten the dead horse that is Tumblr Live enough that I don't have to do it again here, so I won't. But in general, having that at the top of the site just doesn't WORK. The little thumbnails don't tell you anything about what is going on in the stream, they're hard to read, they take up a ton of space, and they just don't mesh well with the overall culture of the site. If Tumblr wants to have that there, they should at least use the same algorithm for "blogs in your orbit" so that they're related to content the viewer is already interested in.

Tumblr likely isn't going to roll this back, at least not entirely, because it DOES have a lot of potential. It brings a lot of settings and options to the forefront, which is a good thing. Even veteran users likely don't know everything about this website, especially those who may have taken an extended break at some point. The fact is Tumblr does need new users, and it needs those users to be able to understand how to use the website.

So here's my suggestion:

Tumblr has been experimenting with a subscription model, so make dashboard layout customization into a subscription feature. Allow people add and remove, or even reorganize, the different sections to their liking. Leave it as it is for unsubscribed users, and allow subscribed users the ability to customize.

Will this be a popular answer? Nope, probably not. But it will help bridge the gap between making new users and old users comfortable, while also raising money to help keep the site we all love so much going.

[jayflrt]

HELLO!

I like your work a lot like it's genuinely Hilarious so I thought you would be the best person to ask for this.

I want to make a writing tumblr for enhypen but I'm a little lost because I've never used tumblr (as a creator) before LOL just used twitter and AO3 to write/socmed for fictional fandoms (tbh this is my first time like being a proper fan of a kpop group as to occasionally liking a song or two).

Anyways! What I've gathered from my experience on twitter and the writers I've followed here is obviously your blog should have an intro about you (inc. what you're comfy with, what you write, etc.) and a master list of your works BUT some of Tumblr's mechanics are Confusing.

Like,

1) should I create specific tags for my asks?

2) on twt, usually you create a tweet like "Hi! New to #___twt, looking for moots blah blah" to get an initial burst of likewise new people to bond and communicate with, does it work similarly here and if so/not please elaborate TT

3) is the etiquette to reblog every work you like, or is that spammy and you should just like them?

4) is there any other advice you have for navigating tumblr (like odd quirks)

5) ALSO this is a small dumb question but in the fandoms I've been in until now we usually used socmed au instead of smau do you have any idea why that's different (low-key smau is smarter tho bcus it's a shorter abbreviation)

I think that's all. I tried going through your rules and intro again, but I didn't see anything on whether an ask like this was alright or not, but I hope it is! I didn't want to Like intrude, but I felt most comfortable asking you because you're also desi ❤️❤️.

Anyways!! If this is something you don't want to/don't feel comfortable answering or it's like annoying genuinely just ignore this, I don't want to be make anyone uncomfortable!

omg thank you so much ml, i'm so glad you enjoyed my works!! 🥹 welcome to the kpop community first of all!! did you recently become an engene? :') and welcome to the tumblr ff community too! honestly i feel like if you can navigate ao3 just fine then tumblr shouldn't be too difficult after a while but i'm sure it's confusing at first 😵‍💫

as for your questions i'll answer them in the same order you asked them:

1. honestly i'm not 100% sure if there's any real purpose behind specific tags for your asks other than organization personally LOL but it's pretty helpful if you want to go back to look through your asks for something instead of scrolling past all the posts on your blog !!

2. omg yes i love the twt intros 💗 honestly for tumblr i think i just started posting content right away whenever i made a blog 🤧 i think intros are usually just in your navigation anyways but if you want to talk to different authors then it doesn't hurt to send an ask!! usually people communicate with different authors via the ask box 🥰

3. all sorts of interaction is great but i think reblogs are preferred!! i typically use likes as my bookmarks and then reblogs to comment on work or share it to a wider audience. the algorithm for tumblr works so that your likes don't show for others (unless you make it public on your profile) but your reblogs are on the dashes of people who follow you

4. ooh i'd say make use of the tagging system!! using tags like #enhypen fluff or #enhypen x reader on your fics will make it easier for people to find your work 💘

5. HAHAH I USED TO CALL IT SOCMED AU TOO BEFORE I JOINED TUMBLR 😭 i still use social media au as a tag but i think smau is more widely used here!! not exactly sure why but im guessing its just easier to tag 🙂‍↕️ i get you tho bc i experienced the same culture shock

dont worry you're most welcome to send asks !! 🥰💘 and thank you for reading my rules and intro!! i definitely don't turn away anyone who's looking for advice <33 also omg fellow desi 🫶 welcome to enhablr !

[clippy]

Anyway uhhh if Tumblr does do away with chronological order I'll probably slowly leave entirely to be honest... As much as Twitter sucks, there is still an option to have some semblance of a chronological feed (under the Following tab over there but it sprinkles in ads and the occasional '____ liked this post'. And the site is run by Musk) but like.... Tumblr loves to destroy features when implementing new ones so I genuinely do not have a lot of faith

Some examples:

Blog themes; when converting to the more mobile/app friendly version of default themes, a lot of custom HTML themes broke. Customizing these themes is a pain in the ass. A lot of blogs on desktop, unless they have custom HTML enabled, no longer lead to a ____.tumblr.com URL and instead open a on-dashboard view of the blog (that comes in from the side and does not work)

Search and tags; previously, going to http://tumblr.com/tagged/____ would take you to a chronological feed of the tag and would pull up *every* post with that tag... Then it started including posts that included the tag's contents in the body, and now it barely works at all. Defaults to a "top" view that is seemingly random. Search function on blogs has never been perfect but now if a blog has selected the option to "not appear in Google searches", the search function on the blog no longer works. At all. Even trying to go to a tag on someone's blog through the app does not work because Tumblr treats this as a search

DMs; had to spread the feature "like a virus". Doesn't consistently work for me, personally (I get a lot of false notifications). Riddled with spam from the bot problem they never fix. Twitter has this issue too, though. Also they took away fan mail, which I KNOW used to be the previous "chat" feature (as someone who had to use it myself), but I'm sure some people would like it to be back to be a less formal thing than a DM, and fan mail can't be published like an ask.

And this isn't even getting into features no one asked for that are forced on us (Tumblr Live, big banner ads at the top of the dash that take up 33% of the screen in the app, etc)

Like the fact people still use Tumblr despite the site being held together with duct tape and a prayer is a miracle and it's 100% due to the structure of the dashboard that can be switched to chronological order and doesn't randomly change to the algorithm-based version....

[irvinis]

Thanks for responding 😊

I was browsing your posts just before and I was wondering, how come these amazingly done artworks don’t have many many more notes? I’m particularly fond of your thin dark duke art, my heart grew a couple of sizes when I saw it on Instagram and I came to your tumblr to find the art to reblog but got distracted with David’s beautiful eyes and your post lol.

I fully agree with your analysis of their exchange of energy, sounds on point 🥹 please feel free to share more of your d/m thoughts if you felt like it. I LOVE seeing that kind of content on my dash so very much 😊

Thank you for your kind words @avengersnewb! This is apparently how the algorithm of Tumblr, and indeed any social network, works. Popularity is unpredictable - some things “take off”, but people don’t go further and one-time success does not give much coverage. My work in other fandoms was more successful. I've gotten plenty of responses from Michael in past years, but not this time, so I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me, haha. I hope it's not because I'm crossing his personal line fingers crossed. As for the Thin Dark Duke - oh, I try not to look at this fanart. He seems to be too frank. It's quite difficult to walk the line between what you want to portray (with all the respect and love for real people) and not falling under the new oppressive laws against the queer community. Among my audience there are those who know me personally… Our “closets” take strange forms and the impossibility of leaving them. Especially if you are supposedly not non-hetero or even a political activist.

This is why I can't post D/M openly on my page, but my spontaneous cries are similar to Michael's sudden tweets.

Returning to spontaneous thoughts about D and M. I don’t know if you watched the premiere of Fellow Travelers. This was practically the first serious project of this kind that I watched after “GO”. So, in my opinion, the chemistry between the characters in the series is really very powerful and the candid scenes create a feeling of great intimacy. It can be assumed that the actors have a special relationship. But watching their joint promotional sessions and interviews, you notice the respectful, friendly distance they keep from each other (especially Matt Bomer, who tries to mention his husband as often as possible). And it made a huge impression on me compared to D/M. Now it seems to me more and more that “GO2” was one big date (of course this is not a reproach to the acting or talent!).

[northwest-cryptid]

I believe I've finally figured out why this website feels so exhausting to me. It's a few reasons but they all sort of funnel down into the same sort of "overall thing" which is that you're not allowed.

Allowed to what? Anything.

No no, stay with me a moment here let me explain.

See Tumblr doesn't really have an algorithm outside of the "For You" tab, everything you see is funneled into your dash through the people you follow, and by extension the people they follow, and then their dashboard is populated by the people they follow. What this means is that you don't have a lick of real privacy here.

That's true for most of the internet, however if I make my own website, host my own blog; and write my own thoughts and opinions there. It's a pretty clear concept that what I'm writing is mostly for me, secondarily for you as the reader; and ultimately not for "everyone" which is fine.

What we have on tumblr is essentially a huge open forum, where anyone can add anything; to any post. Which isn't inherently the issue, but you've got so many smaller fandoms, communities, and politically aligned groups who believe whatever the hot topic of the week is.

Which, for all the nuance people want to put forth in issues like "do you like coffee" becoming "I only like certain kinds" or "I only like certain flavors" or "I only like it cold!" Suddenly becomes a no nuance "no actually coffee is bitter." If you dare to say "well not all coffee is bitter" you're labeled with "oh look they said #Not All Coffee!" You're sent anon hate, you're ridiculed and dragged through the mud for stating something. It doesn't matter how right you might be either, if it's not popular to side with you; people won't do so.

Obviously my coffee question metaphor is a sort of blanket example that is meant to encompass a broader topic of discussion. We don't talk about the nuance of issues, everything is black and white; and furthermore people act like they want to.

But because it's an open forum for everyone, someone from an opposing side of the argument, or someone who doesn't like what you're saying or how much attention it's getting; can easily toss in their two cents.

Your only option to stop this? Disable reblogs from everyone, stop the conversation with you. Isolate yourself to the point using SOCIAL media is all but pointless. I have enjoyed using this website significantly less after having to turn off asks and submissions, but can you blame me when I was actively getting hate and annoying remarks on the daily?

Now normally I'd argue "hey if that many people don't like me maybe I'm doing or saying something wrong!" Thing is, it's not like I've not reflected on that; when I get some form of hate, I tend to do my best to ignore the actual hate and focus on what's trying to be said under the layers of "go kill yourself." Typically it's "I don't like what you're saying" or "you said too much and I didn't bother reading it all because I have TikTok brain!" However there's a handful of times when people actually do explain their side of the argument politely and I can sort of learn that this isn't the place to talk about certain things.

Like when I openly talk about how porn addiction isn't real, I get a lot of people saying they themselves are victims of it. Yea fam I thought I used to be as well, and then I educated myself about what addiction really is; and understood the nuance of the situation:

To put it plainly, addiction is when your brain chemistry is physically changed in a way where you form a genuine dependency on the substance that changed it. This change can be temporary or permanent; which means something like coffee can be actually addicting since it can even temporarily make you dependent on the caffeine to function.

However, did you know; that there's literally no way to change your brain chemistry with pornography? Yea believe it or not, that's a total myth. That being said it's not a myth that masturbation does release dopamine and generally can help people suffering from a lack of dopamine; typically this involves people who are depressed.

This is a two fold thing, since if you're not literally ace your brain likely produces hormones that tell you that you're supposed to be reproducing; which means it will more easily motivate you to masturbate than say, play a video game or listen to music.

You brain isn't just concerned with producing dopamine, it's just hardwired for survival of the species; so you can easily get yourself to jack off but god forbid you try to do something fun with your time. Depression is just sort of like that; you lack the motivation to do much of anything, so falling back on masturbation for a quick hit of dopamine is easy.

Now this causes a feedback loop where you find the easiest, and most effective method of keeping yourself happy is to watch porn and jack off. That's not a clinical addiction; that's just literally the nature of your brain at work.

Why do I say all of this? Because this is the sort of thing I can't talk about on this site; not without 50 random anon messages either agreeing with me or telling me this is a women's issue and I shouldn't talk on it "as a man." Which is fun because I thought we were all supportive of LGBT but it turns out I'm not a valid NB because I don't shave my facial hair or something.

We don't discuss the nuance, we don't actually bother to read and understand what each other have to say; we just get mad about shit constantly. How dare you have an opinion that I don't have.

We say buzz words are bad, but then we use buzz words when they benefit us.

We say generalization is bad when it applies to the LGBT, or PoC but you know; those white people and cis and christians are all the same... right?

Talking on this site is like walking through a mine field; my mutuals might politely just go about their day, or maybe even agree with me. God forbid my post "breach containment" I start getting messages from people I don't even know. People start commenting and reblogging on my posts to yell at me about shit I literally covered already.

I can literally say "I don't think this is bad, but I think it's a bit more nuanced than this and we need to look at it from this angle too" and I'll get comments saying "I can't believe you think this is bad!" To which I just kind of sit there wondering how you somehow couldn't be fucked to actually read what I said and understand it.

I know we joke about the reading comprehension on this site, but I am serious when I say people will READ what I say; but not COMPREHEND what I say. I didn't understand how or why that was happening for a long time and now I think I finally get it.

It's because this site is all about knee-jerk emotional reaction response.

Don't tell me it's not, think about it; every time someone on this site needs help or financial aid what are the first words you see?

Typically it's some form of their entire label chain "help a lesbian, genderfluid, PoC, with [Disabilities] pay rent!" Not just "Hey I lost my job and need help paying my bills" Like dude I'd help if I could in either scenario but when you lead in with literally like 10 random labels I have to wonder if maybe you're trying to say "we're the same you and I, we come from the same community" or if you're trying to say "you get woke points for helping ME because I'm not just some cis white straight guy!" It feels like borderline guilt tripping.

When we see posts about how "love language" is fake, I'm literally told "it was invented by some CHRISTIAN MAN so he could PRESSURE his POOR WIFE into SEX!" Like whoa boy that's one hell of a claim; even if it's true that's still a bit of an emotionally charged statement you know?

It's like, well sure; I'd love to talk about how the concept of love languages isn't entirely false. To say that is to ignore that people love in different ways, and feel loved in different ways. Let's not even get me started, as someone who became hypersexual thanks to being sexually abused (and yes I am in fact amab, and was in fact groomed by a cis woman when I was a minor; and she was a 26 year old in the navy. Later I was again sexually abused by a cis woman when I was a few years older.) On the topic of the whole "people pressure others into sex saying it's the only way they feel worth and love." Like alright yea let's literally not perhaps look into that trauma response and maybe try to help these people live normal lives.

It's the same way I see people talk about pornography. They go off about the porn industry being extremely horrible towards women. Which like, yea it absolutely can be; and mostly is. There's no mention of the way we view men, and how the way the media portrays men is just as harmful to young boys with self esteem issues and all that. We don't talk about how stupid the idea of dick size mattering is; no we in fact reinforce negative amab issues by saying "that's small dick energy bro" and the like. You bring that up and people will say you're ignoring women's issues; absolutely the fuck I'm not? I'm just trying to make you aware the problem is actually larger than just that. "Oh but we're just focusing on this right now" right, that's fine; but you're literally ignoring the other problems.

It's like how when people bring up how there's bans on pornography or, how people view pornography we always have to make it about how this effects the LGBT before people care. We go around saying "sex work is real work" but then we also go "these poor women on OnlyFans who are FORCED to do sex work need to be saved uwu" meanwhile I know a LOT of women who enjoy doing work on OnlyFans, and who hit me up to be their manager because I have a reputation as being a chill dude who can help them grow their numbers. I have a lot of connections in NSFW spaces and yes believe it or not sex work IS in fact real work; which is why like we should probably actually focus on the real industry problems. The women and even men being harmed by this are not typically your OnlyFans indies; but your industry people.

This is like how if I bring up the stigma on pornography I'm labeled poorly for it, I'm told I'm misogynistic which like, I don't believe I am; but believe it or not I have done a lot of self reflection on it. I even went around to a lot of women I know and sat down with them to talk about whether or not they believed I was misogynistic or if I had some form of unnoticed internalized misogyny. Do you know what those women (and yes, some were in fact; as we say here on tumblr transwomen) had to tell me? They literally told me that I need to chill the fuck out and get off tumblr because it was only contributing to my anxiety.

You're not allowed to talk about things on this site, because you're not allowed to be wrong. You're not allowed to grow and change, you're not allowed to have a flawed opinion that needs to be workshopped with some other people who could talk with you on the subject. You're not allowed to be given kindness, you're not allowed to speak up on issues that matter to you.

It's how I speak up on Native issues, even more specifically sometimes Lakota issues. Only to have other Natives and even other Lakota disagree with me; and then a bunch of their followers dogpile into my inbox to tell me how stupid and wrong and bad I am for having lived the experience of being a "breed" back during a time when racism in Native communities was much more rampant than it still is.

On this site you're told how bad and wrong and sad it is, that we as people have been reduced to being "content creators" who have to make the most palatable entertainment for the masses. Then you speak to a niche, say something about your lived experience; or simply have an opinion and whoops there it is. You're now public enemy number 1, all those posts about how it's rotten and evil and wrong to tell someone to kill themself? That doesn't matter anymore, not to the dozens of anons in your inbox who have found "slightly more creative ways" to say the same thing.

You either get to be an aesthetics blog, who never has an opinion, or a voice of their own; and you get to keep your ask box open and enjoy being toted around as a good person and shit. Or you speak your mind and immediately get labeled by someone as something.

Tumblr is no better than twitter in this regard, it's no better than reddit; it's not even any better than 4chan if I'm being honest. We just really don't want to admit that because there ARE a handful of us who are genuinely just chill people trying to enjoy blogging and staying in our lane. The problem comes when other people decide they're going to merge into oncoming traffic without so much as a turn signal because they revel in the discourse.

It sucks because I cannot tell you how valuable discussion and such is to me. I cannot tell you how many times I've come out here and said my piece, spoke my mind; and someone has politely come out to the post to mention things from their own angle. We have a back and forth, maybe we both learn something. I walk away with information I didn't have before, and they do as well. It's a way for us to see things from someone else's perspective. We're all unique individuals, we all have different lived experiences; we all know stuff other's do not. I value that information, the interaction we're allowed to have as human beings who can communicate.

This website however does not.

It feels strongly like this website merely wants to tell me to shut up and kill myself.

But hey, don't worry I'll probably reblog a funny video of a cat; or wholesome anime picture; or a funny meme in 2 minutes and we'll all just move on with our day.

[wixelt]

Was refreshing my memory on everything with the au when I found where you mentioned scenes that would go very differently if a hermit had a totem, and perhaps the Hermethius has a reserve stache of them or something

And that got me thinking through a very likely scenario

Consider: the Hermethius is programmed to drop emergency supplies on each hermit's last known location should something go catastrophically wrong and they're left stranded. This is a bit of a special scenario, where that information does not exist. But it has its own Grumbot and Pilots to resolve oversights.

The Hermethius begins mapping the planet and scanning for player activity, and, when it's finally completed months later, launches 26 supply drops to the areas with the highest centers.

The hermits honestly weren't even expecting the supplies to come, but they do recognize what those twenty odd shooting stars spanning out from a single point are.

They do have parachutes that deploy, so they shouldn't cause too much damage, but they quickly realize the problem when one lands near their location.

They may not know exactly why they're landing where at first, but they figure it out quickly.

You see, it's not until the resistance is already under way that the supplies drop. Only one drops on the revolution base. Beef estimates that one landed in Cub's custom biom, another seemed to be landing near Bdub's mountain, he thinks two landed near Pearl's and False's houses respectively, one fell into the ocean,

And one landed in Newtopia.

So Andrias knows what the drops were.

And now it's a mad dash to try and keep each other from getting those resources.

When I mentioned the Totems of Undying on the Hermithius, I was thinking about The Hardest Thing, but this is a fun scenario as well, so here's some thoughts on that.

----------

Normally all the Hermits have some sort of signalling device on their person in case there's a genuine emergency. This is what the Hermithius uses to identify drop sites for supplies, but with the ship half-functional - the wash of dimensional energy blew out a lot of key systems - it wouldn't be able to complete this task, even if the Hermits had been carrying signallers when they were scattered, which they weren't.

As is, Renbob & Goatman have been trying to patch up the ship's engines as best they can while using momentum to help the onboard Grumbot - disconnected from the hive after past fiascos - navigate into orbit of the planet Xisuma's suit transponder's pinging from.

Unfortunately, the ship's damage prevents them from getting a clear fix on X - if he's even still on Amphibia by the time the vessel arrives (either late Season 2 or very early Season 3).

So they resort to doing things the more time consuming way. Grumbot runs an algorithm through the geology scanner - X usually uses it at a "Season" start to identify strong "spawn" candidates - focusing on any land activity/structures that match certain Hermits.

After weeks of searching & double checking, it gets 26 verified hits.

Some are clustered together, whilst others are more distant, but they're enough to work with for now. By this point, the pilots have had time to repair the supply drop mechanism to enough accuracy to set the emergency boxes - bespoke for each Hermit's needs - down where geographic evidence would indicate they're likely to find it.

They can only work with the limited information they have, though.

One night midway through Season 3, while listening to Sasha run through a plan, Tango's attention's stolen as 26 stars rain down from a single part of the sky, dropping all across Amphibia.

A sight he knows all too well, & that fills him with hope.

Several drop close enough that the Resistance finds them in a matter of minutes. False's house is nextdoor, & Grian & Pearl's is nearby, among others.

One drops over South Tower, though, & another near Quareller's Pass.

One drops on the coast, near-directly where TFC will emerge from tunneling under the ocean, several months from the present.

One drops over Cub's massive structure, & another near BDubs' artificial mountain.

And more still fall in places both known & not.

Only one drops over Newtopia, but Andrias & the Core are smart enough to put the pieces together about the same time Beef does about what they contain & where they'll land.

And so the race begins...

[chronicallyexisting]

One of my mutuals put an anti-ao3 post on my dash and I'm pretty dissapointed by it. Like I look at the rhetoric that's being used and can't help but draw comparisons to purity culture, right wing fascism, and the current anti LGBT and censorship push. Just because it's coming from the left doesn't mean it isn't the same things. The leopards will eat your face at the end of the day too.

First off, AO3 is an archive. Content being hosted does not mean any moral endorsement. There is no algorithm to push certain content, it is community driven. So if you're tempted to say "this website supports x" maybe recognize that the archive is acting as a library. If a fandom community consistently likes and writes content that makes you uncomfortable, then maybe take issue with the fandom or even source content if applicable.

Look, censorship is very, very bad. Claiming something is problematic and "not safe for those poor children" because it has racist language is the same argument that gets books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn banned. This is also the same argument that's being used right now to ban all books even mentioning anything LGBT. There will always be something problematic in any work of art or fiction, and claiming that it shouldn't exist because of that, or because it makes someone uncomfortable, is a dangerous slope that does not go where you want it to.

Censorship is not okay, yes even when it's the "left" doing it.

While I'm talking about it, the whole point of tags is to give users the maximum ability to control what content they see. Don't want any sexual content? Easy, filter it out. Really don't like a pairing because it's "problematic"/makes you uncomfortable, fantastic! Filter it out. Dead dove don't read. You do not need to subject yourself to anything you don't want to read or experience. Content is expected to be tagged appropriately. If you see explicit racism and it's not tagged, you can report that! It won't get that user suspended unless they repeatedly fail to tag it, but that is something you can and should complain about.

The other argument that constantly gets thrown around is claiming that AO3 hosts "child porn". It doesn't. Period. It's illegal and explicitly against their terms of service. Fiction is not reality. No children are being harmed.

Sometimes I'll see people discuss fic with underage teen characters having sex and they'll be calling the author a pedophile, meanwhile the author is the same age as the characters. Are we saying no one under the age of 18 should ever think or talk or write about sex with characters that are their age? Should we instead insist that a 14 year old only write about sex between people in their 30s?

Also, you are expected to be 13 years or older to join AO3. There are no 8 year olds stumbling around looking at porn of their cartoon characters anymore than there are on any other website. Age restrictions are hard to enforce, but that isn't AO3s job beyond what they already do. They provide plenty of warnings and lock content as best as they can. They are an adult space and are set up as one.

Liking something in fiction does not mean liking or endorsing it in reality. Someone who likes reading about princesses does not necessarily endorse modern monarchy. Someone who likes reading about dubious consent does not necessarily endorse or like dubious consent in reality. The same goes for every squick, "problematic" ship aspect, or content written. Reading dark things does not make someone evil. There are no thought crimes. Reeevalute the culturally Christian, purity mindset. Sometimes people enjoy reading fucked up things. It does not affect or harm you in any way.

Anyway, the current censorship push, no kink at pride, right wing fascists, and TERFs all use the same arguments and rhetoric. I'm begging people to recognize it when they see it.

[hanafubukki]

Will Hana be playing nightbringer? 👀

Thoughts on the game and the drama with the og game, expectations, hopes, worries? I’m a bit excited to see the past but also very annoyed that Lesson 80+ won’t be in the og game but rather in NB. Which means we’ll most likely have to wait for the “mc in the past” arc to end to get the rest of the CURRENT story instead of just,,,,,having duel games, both to play,,,,,also not happy with OB only having event updates cuz lately the events suck! Sorry but someone has to say it, every once in a while a nice event comes out, but they all follow the same algorithm and it’s just. Dude. Who’s suggesting these events, where can I submit a suggestion? Why not spice it up instead of the same endings every time :/

(and hello where is wedding event part two…)

Hello Anonie 🌺💚🌻

Thank you so much for asking. I have so many, many thoughts about nightbringer and I agree on the points you make fully! (this post is going to be long so going to put a cut to shorten it on dash a bit)

Yes, I'll be playing night bringer despite all the criticisms I have for the game and the devs right now because I'm interested and the tropes they use are some of my fave. you can't use time travel tope on me and expect me not to play....plus I want to know what happened to Simeon and who I need to go after. I also love purgatory hall residents so I cant wait to give them all the love 💜

I am with you that I am annoyed that they are continuing the game in NB and not in the OG game. I looked into it a bit more, and from what I’ve seen circulating around, it seems that NB is going to have new mechanics they couldn't put in the OG game. not only that, but your choices are going to matter now apparently, and the phone calls are going to be more romantic as well. They couldn't do that without overhauling the OG game which might make it unplayable. which to a certain degree I understand.

but what I DO NOT like at all is the fact that all our cards that we worked so hard to level up, grind for, collect, and trying to get game currency is going to be reset for the new game.

I don't know if the game is not going to have battles or not, but I assume it will. Unless they are going to make the whole game into a rhythm based game which I doubt unless they are going Enstars route?

but if it does have battles, why can't we use the cards we had before? there must be ways for us to use them or transfer them? surely? also, all the DVs some people must have saved? the grim and energy? all of that going to be reset? thats just irritating.

the OG game will be used for events and I guess in that sense, you can use your Dvs for...but what's the point? its not like events are hard to beat? unless they are thinking of spiking the difficulty level of events?

talking about the event....omg, the events. I have such...irritation with the events. Not only is the event constant and relentless, but the story is subpar.

There was a time when I played Obey Me very religiously (lol) constantly grinding for event and playing story, to the point that I got burned out because not only were the events constant without breaks and they kept releasing cards, but the story for each of these events just started becoming boring and dumb and just constant repeats of each other but with different scenarios.

its always a curse or a witch or luci wiping memories or it was a dream blah blah blah

it's always a tease too. for a 18+ game, you would expect for steamy bits. and it seems they even dumbed down the more "evil"? 'brutal"? aspects of it. for instance, they would talk about torture and other demon related things before but they don't now???

and as you said, the story is redundant. but let's also talk about the characters. the events always tries to put all the characters in the events. which shortens the events and screen time for the characters and at the same time, its just rehash off the usual. we also get no character development in these event because of it either.

it has to be said anonie, say it even louder! because the events suck. not only are you trying to get the cards, competing with other people for ranking (which I never do), they also made some events into those surprise gacha boxes.

I literally stopped playing events after that was introduced and then slowly gradually stopped because of the difficulty in the main story battles.

they really do need to spice up the events or change it. I think the constant events is really destroying the quality in writing. I hope that changes since they now need to get people to play both games. So they need to work harder on events.

another point you brought up that I agree with, we have to wait for this past arc to finish before we can go back to current arc. that's definitely something that I dont think many would be happy with.

not only was this past arc advertised as a big part of the NB game, which means we won't know when this arc will end and when we will get back to the current arc, which is irritating already.

we already have inconsistencies in the game, not to mention they have used the past trope a couple times already (MC dying, and then meeting them as angels...) some of the inconsistencies include, Solomon is wearing his RAD outfit when it doesn't exist yet and his red cape is missing. in addition, NB said that RAD doesn't exist in devildom...which is not true because one of the cards Luci mentioned meeting Dia as an angel and RAD was already established at the time.

They mentioned new models/outfits for the characters which might solve the whole uniform issue ...but still those story inconsistencies need be answered. unless they are saying this past is a different timeline? and please don't get me started on the OG timeline that we never hear about again.

the game is also adopting 3D models...lets say I'm not a fan. 3D models can be a hit or miss.

side characters are romancable but who knows when that will be...especially with the emphasis that the brothers are given right now. in that case...is it one character? or multiple? you can be together with? how would the side characters be implemented then?

I really went off there didn't I? lolol I guess I needed to let it out. despite my criticisms and irritation, obey me still gives me fond memories because of the fun I had.

it's just...some of the choices I do not agree with. I especially feel bad for those who bought the Dvs and Vip passes, how does that work for them?

but yeah, those are my thoughts. thank you for letting me rant lolol

(omg the wedding event, they should have one soon, because the new side characters will need their turn right? 👀👀👀 or eventually)

[heliza24]

For me, figure skating seems still like such a niche interest despite it being so much of my life, and I know some (well 2) Olympic skaters. To see someone's post on my dash and it be skating always throws me through a loop.

Oh that's so funny! It's nice to find another fan! Now I need to know who your favorite skaters are, if you skate yourself, and which olympians you know! Please fill me in. I'm gonna use your ask as an excuse to talk about skating a little bit.

I started watching figure skating in the 2018 Olympics and just never stopped. (The algorithm served me some Virtue/Moir clips and the rest was history.) It's the only sport I follow, which honestly tracks for someone very into art and not that into sports :D

Dance is definitely my favorite discipline because it's the most expressive- despite the judging occasionally being extremely rigged. I have so many opinions about the different dance teams and their programs haha. I like pairs a lot too and then with singles I have specific skaters I like and will seek out to watch. If I had to pick a favorite from every discipline it would probably be Gilles/Poirier, Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps, Jason Brown, and either Kaori Sakomoto or Loena Hendrickx.

I've never skated myself but I did dance for years before I became disabled, so skating is a nice medium place for me-- it scratches the same itch as dance, but it doesn't make me feel sad in the same way dance does.

I haven't posted much about skating on here/dipped into the tumblr figure skating community at all until now but maybe I'll start!

P.S. I've always secretly wanted someone to skate to Simon's song or one of Omar's songs. I'm not sure they would make the most competitive program but I would enjoy it!

[dennydraws]

The art of slowing down

Hello, hello! Good morning :D It's time for another art related blog post that I'm surprised to find people following and enjoying? \o/ I want to be consistent with these cause over the past year or so I started to feel less and less connected to my art or art in general and talking about art related things does help me get back into that mindset!

And today I wanted to ramble about .... slowing down.

I recently working on a personal piece and while completely enjoying the process I reached the background part. As usual my first idea was - ok I'm not drawing this grass or bushes or whatever, surely I can find a brush somewhere. Long story short I spent more time looking for a brush than working on my line art, got upset and started drawing my own grass. And as I was drawing the grass I got completely sucked into the process, I was actually enjoying it? Why was I in a hurry to get the background done anyway? So I could post it asap? Why?

(Behold! My very much self painted and slightly burned grass :D)

I'm pretty sure I rambled about this before somewhere... or here and I have a need to ramble about it once more xD;;

It feels like nowadays we're so bombarded with fast content. Even looking on youtube for art videos you keep being fed with - draw faster, improve better, complete X for Y days etc ... and I was in that trap too. My first idea all the time is how do I get faster? But now I'm starting to replace it with - how do I get comfortable. If the process is comfortable, then it doesn't have to be faster, does it?

Thanks to beloved algorithm and social media trends we are taught that our art is worth 5 seconds on the platform's dash, so yes why should I invest hours and hours into a piece that will go into the endless scrolling void in 5 seconds? Yes, my mutuals will see it, but they will also see my blorbo scribbles that I did in an hour or less. It feels like the current climate online doesn't want you to slow down and enjoy the process of your own art and instead invest in quantity over quality.

That's not good for your brain, or mine. I've always been one to enjoy the process until recent years where I found myself constantly stressing over how fast I draw or what's the point when something easy can get me seemingly same results - just how a grass brush would seemingly get me same results - it didn't. I felt way happier with me drawing the grass myself. Will anyone notice or care? I don't know but it made me really happier that I did it.

I can't help how people like or dislike my art, I can only help how I feel about it and I rather go back to loving the process even when it's slow and even when a couple of brushes will 'solve' my issues. I'm not saying hey ditch all the brushes, no I think they are wonderful mean to enhance your piece! I only used it as comparison cause it made me, personally me, say wait, hold on... why am I not drawing the grass myself? When did I stop enjoying the process?

But yes, thank you for reading my little rambles, dear reader! All inspired my me drawing grass :D;; I need to post the said piece later on, I was really happy how it turned out too! \o/ But with that said, I don't want my rambles to get way too long so, I hope you have an inspiring and great rest of the week!