#especially retaining users

[rcbertleckie]

Do you think they will release the mota series on bluray at some point?

well anon... i honestly would not be able to guess... while i think the hankspielbergoetzman trio woooouuulllddd, as far as i know apple is a lil bitch when it comes to physical releases of their exclusive content so it really depends on what sort of contract they have

[revxwrites]

GUESS WHO'S BACK TO RAMBLE HEHE

I'm sorry for the horrible ms paint doodles but I needed something to explain my Shadow Knights

anyways ramble under cut as always

cw mention of cannibalism and light gore (?)

SHADOW KNIGHTS!!

Undead fellas /silly

In all seriousness shadow knights are well, yeah undead, a subcategory of undead in my rewrite, specifically knights of our dear shadow lord

humans affected by sk magic

there's humans like brian and alexis that have been exposed to large amounts of shadow knight magicks, which made them have the same 'veins' sk's have under their eyes, but still be human (ie. alexis' curse)

usually there's no side effects to large amounts of exposure to shadow knight magic other than mood swings (irritability or rage)

incomplete (premature) sk's

a 'premature' shadow knights eyes are their original eye color with very small hints of red in them, as if alluding to the side of themselves they pick to repress typically only magicks users can see the red of their eyes, and the 'veins' they have around them. to the untrained human eye their eyes look their original color but don't have any life in them

they have a hard time controlling their temper, still attempting to retain a sense of humanity that they have long lost

immortal sk's

to become immortal a shadow knight must kill either their lord or the person closest to them, and ingest their heart (as mentioned in gene's story), or alternatively, they must take countless lives of the innocent

once immortal they may gain different abilities, or a boost to the ones they already own. ie. Gene's mind manipulation working without having to touch the person (unlike his mortal counterpart)

another example is Zenix' flame manipulation (despite not being a magicks user)

general shadow knight facts

they're smelly, especially when having recently emerged from the nether shadow knights have an incontrollable appetite, similar to a

zombie, they can eat human food but it doesn't sit very well with them (the only thing that'll control their appetite is human flesh)

there's certain shadow knights who's bodies cease to exist (or are reclaimed by the earth in the mortal realm). in cases like those they are made new vessels of materials of the nether

shadow knights stop aging once they gain their immortality

Shadow Knights hibernate in order to heal their bodies in the overworld, their healing can be sped if left in a place that'll connect it to it's undead roots (morgue, graveyard, etc), due to the fact they feed off of the dead spirits lingering, using what little energy is left of them to heal.

Shadow Lord > Sergeants > Commanders > Magicks Users > Soldiers

with the hierarchy set above we go

shad > gene > zenix (pre betrayal) > sasha > vylad (before caught) > glenda

in terms of the shadow knight 'rebels' we have (in strength)

vincent > zenix (mostly due to his instability) > vylad > laurence > amethyst (this is before the rebellion is properly set in place, still during season 1)

anyways thank you for attending my ted talk /silly

[aquamarine-oceanfront]

The Amazing Digital Circus is receiving a manga adaptation in CoroCoro!

Rough translation, from right to left:

Large text on right: "Where is the exit?" Smaller text on right: "The show everyone's talking about, with over 400 million views on YouTube!!" Large text on left: "The world-renowned dark comedy cartoon, fully adapted to comics!"

A few hours ago, the official Japanese TADC Twitter account revealed that a manga adaptation of the series would begin running in the December issue of CoroCoro Ichiban! (to be released on October 21st, 2024). It will also be published simultaneously in the online edition of Weekly CoroCoro Comic - despite the magazine's name, it will still be on a monthly schedule.

So what'll it be like? Well, while every magazine under the CoroCoro brand is generally targeted towards grade schoolers, CoroCoro Ichiban! in particular skews even younger, frequently featuring gag comedies. Furthermore, the author - known mononymously as "Sakura" (咲良) - has experience in that genre, having adapted Nintendo's ARMS into ARMS: Skillful Gag Fight! (ARMS スゴウデギャグファイト！) for the magazine between 2017 and 2018.

However, I'm reasonably confident this adaptation will retain the bleaker edges of the original series. Not only does the above promotional image explicitly call it a "dark comedy" (and further implies it'll be a faithful adaptation by using "完全," translated above as "full"), but this is the page they chose to release as a preview:

Rough translation, again:

(The bit above the logo just means "New series!") [Why is this girl running...?] Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide,

(As a side note: I should mention that the above two images were both taken from the artist's later tweet about the manga, since they were higher quality. They're cropped a little more, but not enough to really infringe on their contents.)

Looking over the QRTs, both Japanese and English responses were equally surprised to learn about this. A couple of Japanese Twitter users were specifically bewildered that it was running in the especially child-focused Ichiban! - here's one as an example:

Very roughly translated:

"A Digital Circus series will run in Weekly CoroCoro Comic!" 👆 Huh?!?! Well, if it's in Weekly CoroCoro, I guess I'll check it out… "Also running in CoroCoro Ichiban! (mag for young children)!" 👆 HUH????!!!!???!!!????!!!!!!!!!?!

Finally, for completeness's sake, here's the last promotional image from the announcement:

[cripplecharacters]

This might be redundant because it is about my own disability, but I’m on the autism spectrum with moderate needs and I am a part-time AAC user. I wanted to represent myself in a character, but I was recently told that my depiction of this character was infantilizing, which hurt because they were based off of me. Would it be okay to get some of my points reviewed, just so I can check if I screwed it up as badly as other people thought I did?

-This character still lives with their father as a caretaker, and while they love and trust him, they have some resentment for how overprotective he can be, since he still sees them as his baby. -They’re more comfortable verbally communicating with people they know and trust, or when talking to themself about their special interest. The rest of the time, they use an AAC tablet which was slightly modified in terms of aesthetic to fit the worldbuilding of my story, but retains all the general functions of a modern AAC application. -This character has several meltdowns over the course of the story. In one of them, they lash out at someone they love and run away, and in another, they completely lose the ability to communicate. These meltdowns are inspired by the way I’ve felt when overstimulated, but they’re also there to drive the plot. Because of this, one of them puts them in serious danger. -This character exists in a psychological horror setting, so they actually spend most of the story in legitimate danger, alongside characters of other neurotypes. -They’re very blunt and straightforward, and usually say things with no regard for if they’d sound mean or not, because they aren’t moderating their own tone of voice if they’re speaking out loud. -They’re technically a minor antagonist, since nobody knows who’s side they’re on for most of the book.

I don’t see anything that wrong with my character, but I just wanted to make sure there were no huge issues that I somehow missed. I don’t want to be “bad representation” myself, you know?

Hi asker,

I do not see anything wrong with your character, and especially so because you are basing it off of yourself.

You, and your needs, are not bad representation. End sentence.

Nothing here is jumping out as being infantilizing. I think something that happens is people can confuse "having more significant support needs and/or more obvious signs of disability" with actual infantilization, which is treating people like they are children who cannot make decisions for themselves.

Having an autistic character live with their parent isn't infantilization, having them use AAC or have meltdowns isn't either. Having a caretaker isn't infantilization. Not even the father being overprotective is necessarily infantilization – how many overprotective parents of abled and disabled kids alike exist? (A lot.)

You know already because you based this character off of you, but more people need to remember that these are just things that people can do or need. None of those by themselves are infantilization!

Autism is a spectrum. This spectrum includes people who can't do things that abled people can do easily, and people who can't do things that other disabled and even other autistic people can do easily. Some can do these things with help. Some can't at all. Showing this is not infantilization.

A person (or character)'s disability disabling them is not infantilization.

There's nothing wrong with your character, asker. No one's needs are "bad representation," and my heart goes out to you that you were made to feel that way. That is deeply unfair to you.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

[taikeero-lecoredier]

RECENT UPDATES ON THE BAD INTERNET CALIFORNIA BILLS:

Sadly, both AB1949 and SB976 passed and are now on their way to the governors desk.

We need him to veto them so they dont become Law.

If you havent Heard of the danger of those bills for the Internet , this post explain it thoroughly :

- Post doing a deep explanation on those bills here

I CANNOT emphasize enough how these would have a global effect on the Internet given that most websites and apps originates from California and not all of them could afford either following those bills or moving states.

Now, as the bills are on their way to the governor, we need Californian citizens to voice their oppositions to those bills to the Governor Gavin Newsome HERE

(Non California peeps, we are urging you to share this as well!!! )

Please keep in mind that calling with phone is much,much more efficient.

You can also send faxes with Faxzero

Here are scripts you can use as arguments : (text/alt version below the read more )

Than you for reading. Even if youre not from California, please spread the word anyway ! Make posts,tweets,etc

REBLOGS ENCOURAGED

TEXT VERSION :

AB 1949

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Senator's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Senator to vote NO on AB 1949, the amendment to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020. While this bill's intent is to prevent the sharing and sale of minor's information under the age of 18, the method it would intend to do so by is written far too broadly for it to be safely and reasonably implemented.

While this bill retains a safer standard of the business requiring actual knowledge of a consumer being under the age of 18 to be held liable for the sharing or sale of personal information, its wording is still too broad to exclude a default usage of age verification by online businesses in order to protect themselves from liability. Taking measures such as age verification, age assurance, or other data collection and analysis to determine the age of users. Even though measures like this have been proven to be vulnerable to data breaches no matter how secure they proclaim to be. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others.

As it stands, this bill is far too broad in its wording and enforcement of its age-specific measures to be considered a safe piece of legislation. Which is why I urge the Senator to vote in opposition to this measure.

Vote NO on AB 1949.

---------------------------

SB 976

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Assembly member's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Assembly member to vote NO on SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act. Although this bill has intent to protect the mental and emotional health of California's youth, the method this bill would intend to use could be counterproductive to that goal, or even endanger them further.

One of this bill's primary measures includes requiring verifiable parental consent to allow websites to display “addictive” feeds to minor users. However, the ways “verify” the identity and age of a responsible parent are often invasive and dangerous. Especially since these methods have proven repeatedly to be vulnerable to data breaches that can leak sensitive information to bad actors. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others. To determine if this is necessary at all would also require collecting even more data on minors and non-minors alike to determine who would even require these measures to be set in place. Especially when it would have control over someone's access to a website or application based on the time of day, as this bill would require in order to “reasonably determine” the user is not a minor.

The vagueness of this bill's text at all is dangerous as well. The broad-spectrum definition it gives of “addictive internet-based service or application” could cause an unintended censorship effect where minors and adults alike could be blocked from accessing information purely because some part of a website or application uses a “feed” which could arguably fit the bill's definition of “addictive”

With all of this in mind, I urge the Assembly member to vote in opposition of this measure to protect the privacy and safety of California's minors and adults alike.

Vote NO on SB 976.

[sflow-er]

Addressing the top complaints (outside of tumblr) about KAJ winning Melodifestivalen and representing Sweden at Eurovision:

1 "It's a joke act!"

Fun Eurovision entries are a spectrum. There are true joke acts at one end (e.g. We Are the Winners in 2006, Dustin the Turkey in 2008), "serious" acts with fun elements at the other (e.g. Lordi in 2006, Hatari in 2019, Daði Freyr in 2021), and acts with variable levels of humour in between (e.g. Verka Serduchka in 2007, Cezar the opera vampire in 2013, Käärijä in 2023, Baby Lasagna in 2024).

KAJ are also in that middle part of the spectrum. Based on their musical talent and dedication to their craft, you could even put them a couple of notches closer to the "serious" end. In the sixteen years they've been making music and comedy together, they have released seven albums as KAJ and one as Vörjeans, and written two musical plays. They have parodied loads of different genres (e.g. Kpop, rap, EDM, Latin-inspired party music, even opera) and sold out venues in Svenskfinland.

Several of the non-joke acts on this spectrum did very well in the ESC, especially in the popular vote. Just as KAJ did very well in Mello, where they smashed the all-time voting record and defeated runner-up Måns by about one million votes.

2 "They aren't Swedish!"

Céline Dion isn't Swiss, but she still won the ESC for them in 1988. Plenty of artists have represented countries they had little or nothing to do with - which isn't the case with KAJ.

Finlandssvenskar are descended from Swedish settlers who came to Finland from the Middle Ages on, [EDIT1: misconception, many thanks to the user who reached out!]

KAJ are native Swedish speakers from a country where Swedish has been spoken from the Middle Ages on. Part of a minority that has close cultural ties to Sweden, they will have grown up following Swedish entertainment alongside Finnish. Hell, Jakob has even told an anecdote of how it was his biggest dream as a tween to be on Allsång på Skansen (at age 14, he even won a contest to be on stage with Anders Lundin but got cold feet).

Also, Bara bada bastu was written with Swedish producers. It's a Swedish song performed by native Swedish speakers who were specifically invited to participate in Melodifestivalen.

3 "Their dialect isn't real Swedish!"

Fun fact: it's not Finnish influence that makes Ostrobothnian (österbottniska) dialects so distinctive. It's elements retained from Old Swedish (fornsvenska) which have fallen out of use in standard forms of Swedish, such as old words and the tendency to shorten words at the end. Finland wasn't part of Sweden anymore when pronouncing all the last letters and endings as written became a thing there, and the Ostrobothnians still aren't doing it.

[EDIT2: Of course, the dialect does also have Finlandisms, as pointed out by the user who reached out! My point here was to highlight how close Ostrobothnian dialects are to Old Swedish: closer than other Fenno-Swedish dialects or even standard forms of Swedish. So, what KAJ are singing is very "real" Swedish by all measures.]

4 "They are promoting a tired stereotype of Finnish people!"

...said journalists from the country whose hosting organisation made an entire interval act joking about Finland last year.

"Finnish people are extreme sauna lovers" is indeed a stereotype, but KAJ aren't mocking it, nor are Finns at large offended by it. Even those who don't actually enjoy the sauna acknowledge it as a pillar of Finnish culture and tradition. It's where babies used to be born and bodies washed for burial, where ailments were healed and the toils of the week washed away. "The best remedy for the body and soul" as it says in the song.

Not only that, some finlandssvenskar even find Bara bada bastu validating. They are often stereotyped as wealthy snobs in Finland because a small percentage of them are descended from the colonial elite, which is unfair and frustrating to the large percentage who are just completely normal people. By embracing the Finnish national stereotype on the big stage, KAJ are showing that the Swedish-speaking minority are not that different from the Finnish-speaking majority and uplifting them - while also giving Swedish people with Finnish ancestry something nostalgic to relate to.

Also, take a second to consider who or what it is the guys are very gently poking fun at. It helps if you know the random Finnish words and phrases aren't actually random; they are widely joked to be the only phrases that Swedes know in Finnish.

But that's okay though. If this is how you see us, we aren't offended. We are here to help you relax and let go of the stress that everyone feels living in these times - as per Finnish sauna tradition!

[magicbeings]

How I added "instant translation" to the non-english text on my fic: a very easy 3 step guide

Hello!

I recently posted a Wolfstar fanfic called Instance of Happenstance and received a lot of compliments on a small piece of code I used. Both @marigold-hills and @leavesthatarebrown suggested I share how I did it, so here I am, finally explaining it in a Tumblr post!

Before diving into the details, I want to clarify that I didn't write this code myself.

Initially, I tried following this tutorial, but I stumbled upon a better solution in the comments of that post. The code on the tutorial itself does work, but a) it's harder to use and b) it doesn't work as well if you're planing to have multiple paragraphs that you need to show the translation on the same fic.

The solution someone presented on the comments, however, is very simple and easy to use for as many paragraphs as you need, but the explanation there wasn’t too clear, so I decided to expand on it to make it easier for others to implement.

All credit to Ao3 users La_Temperaza (who wrote the orginal post) and Nikkie2571 (who posted this code on the comments).

What Does This Code Do?

This code adds an interactive feature to your fanfic, allowing readers to hover over a specific paragraph (or tap on it if they’re on mobile) to instantly change the text to something else — also set by you.

While this can be used for various purposes, I think it's particularly useful to display instant translations of non-English dialogue/text directly in the story. The code offers a much smoother alternative to the clunky “see end notes for translation” thing—which, let's be honest, can be a pain for readers, especially in long chapters.

For example, in instance of happenstance, Sirius discovers an old journal written entirely in French. I wanted to maintain the sense of mystery and intrigue that would be lost if I simply said the journal was in French, but wrote the text in English.

This solution let me keep the best of both worlds—retaining the authenticity and the immersion of the French, while still making the story easy to follow for the readers.

Now, I know this sounds complicated, but I assure you, it's not!

Down bellow is a quick, 3 steps tutorial on how to do it. I hope this is helpful! (:

(I'm doing this on the computer, if you're doing it on mobile, the layout of the website might be different from my printscreens)

Step 1 - Create The Work Skin

I'm gonna go right to the point here, but if you want to know about Work Skins in detail, I suggest this Ao3 Article.

On your Ao3 Dashboard, click on the fourth link on the sidebar, which is "Skins".

Then, on the page that opens up, click on "My Work Skins"

Then, on the top of the page, select "Create Work Skin"

Now, you'll see the form to create your skin, which looks like this:

Leave the "Type" as "Work Skin". On the Title, you can give any name you want to your skin, but I suggest you choose the same title as your fic or something like "instant translation", so you'll know what it's about later.

You don't have to worry about any of the other fields, except for the CSS one, where you should copy and paste exactly what I'll put bellow:

#workskin .change_on_hover:not(:hover) .on, #workskin .change_on_hover:hover .off { display: none; }

So, now, you'll have something like this...

... and you just have to click "save" on the bottom of the page, and this step is done.

Step 2 - Apply the Skin you created to your fic

For a new work, click on "New Work" as usual. If it's a fic you're already posting, you can add this as well, just click the "Edit" button.

Now, on the form of your fic, on the "Associations" tab, right under the menu where you select the language of your fic, you'll see a "select a work skin" option.

On this field, you should select the workskin you just created on the previous step, searching by the name you gave it on the "Title" field.

Step 3 - Insert the text

The code we're gonna use is this one:

<p class="change_on_hover"> <span class="off"> paragraph in foreing language </span> <span class="on"> paragraph in english </span> </p>

If you have no idea what this means, hold my hand, we're gonna get through it together!

First, copy your fic’s text into the AO3 text box as you normally would. Then, switch the text box to HTML mode so you can see the underlying code.

Now, scroll down until you find the paragraph you want to translate. After pasting, it will likely look something like this:

Note how each paragraph in HTML starts with <p> and ends with </p>. These tags indicate where a paragraph begins and ends.

Our goal is to modify that first <p> tag so it tells the browser, “Hey, this paragraph is different from those other ones. It should change when hovered over or clicked.”

To do this, we’ll change <p> to <p class="change_on_hover">. This marks the paragraph as special—one that should switch text when interacted with.

Now note how instead of having a single paragraph, we need two versions of the text:

In blue, the original (non-English) text, which will be shown by default.

In red, the translated (English) text, which will appear when the reader hovers over or clicks on it.

For the original text, wrap it inside a <span class="off"> tag, ending with </span> like this:

<span class="off"> insert here the whole text of the paragraph in the foreign language </span>

For the translated text, wrap it inside a <span class="on"> tag, also ending with </span>. This will replace the original text when hovered over or clicked:

<span class="off"> insert here the whole text of the paragraph in english </span>

And don't forget to end the whole thing again with </p>

Again, here's how it looks on my fic:

With the paragraphs that come before and after the translated text, just leave them as they are. They should still start with <p> and end with </p>. No changes needed!

You can use this method for as many paragraphs as you want, whether in the same chapter or across different chapters. As long as the Work Skin is active, the effect will work seamlessly throughout your fic.

[goingmerryfics]

Turned into a child w/ Sanji, Robin, & Ace

Content: GN reader, fully platonic/familial relationship since they are literally children here. Light One Piece Backstory Spoilers

Notes* In this scenario, they’ve been turned into a child by an unnamed devil fruit user. They don’t retain their adult memories, but they remember everything after it wears off! I wanted to do this prompt for a while because these three really deserve some hugs and love

Content with spoilers: hinting at past child abuse 

Sanji

He’s. BABY

He doesn’t know where he is and he’s scared, so you find him hiding under the table after you weren’t able to find him in the usual spots on the ship

You didn’t understand the situation at first, but you couldn’t miss those cute little curly brows

You call his name, and he looks even more confused at the fact that a stranger knows his name

So you move to sit on your knees a safe distance away from Sanji so he can feel a little safer

You only knew bits and pieces of the treatment he went through with his birth father and siblings, but it was enough to understand why he would be scared of adults. So you offer him a soft smile, full of patience

You assure him that everything is ok, he’s safe, and that you aren’t going to hurt him

Slowly he starts to emerge from under the table and asks where he is

You offer your hand to him, asking if he’d like to see

He’s hesitant, but you look so sweet, so he trusts you and takes your hand

You take him out of the room to see the ocean and his eyes light up

It makes your heart ache

He looks at you with a big smile

“Is this the All Blue!?”

You gently tell him that no, not quite. But he is on a ship that’s trying to find it, and he looks out over the railing, scanning the horizon

Sanji is sweet on everyone, loving the attention from the girls (as always) and yet still getting into tiffs with Zoro, even at this young age

You have to stop Zoro from trying to fight him

Everyone loves hanging out with little Sanji, and he keeps gravitating back to you with a big smile

He doesn’t seem to remember Zeff when you ask him, so you leave it be

He still cooks for everyone come dinner, but you’re there to help him- especially when he cuts his finger

You calm him- you almost cried when he did -and then kiss his bandaged finger for him to help him feel better

The next day when he returns to his proper age, he shuts himself up in the kitchen in embarrassment, baking anything he can think of so he doesn’t have to face everyone

Robin

It was almost impossible to find her the morning of. Poor thing was so worried that she hid too, just a little bit better than Sanji did

When you do find her, it’s in the storage room of the ship, and she’s already crying

You quickly assure her that she’s not in trouble, nor are you going to giver her to the marines

She’s not comforted about the fact that she’s in a pirate ship though, so she might be around the age after Ohara’s death, maybe a few years after being on the run

She was open with you about her past after the events of Enei’s lobby, but it was always painful to talk about so you never pressed the subject

She didn’t look like she was going to be leaving anytime soon, so you promise to get her some things to make her stay more comfortable

You bring her a blanket and some of her favorite books, which she perks up at

Sanji enters to pass off a snack and almost passes out from how cute and little she is

You totally agree with him, but you still have to shove him out before he frightens her too badly

She only seems to touch her snack when you’re not looking

You didn’t want to leave her completely on her own so you were keeping her company

The more time passed and the more the crew poked in to say hello, the more she began to relax

She started to ask you questions- like help with reading a big word, or about how she got on the ship

That one was a little harder to explain, so you simply said you weren’t sure but that she had the whole crew protecting her from any big bag marines

You were glad that there were no bases of theirs in your path for now

Eventually you’re able to coax her out of the storage room just in time for dinner

She sits next to you and keeps looking around cautiously- the group was chaotic, and you were worried that maybe it would scare her back into her shell

But it actually does the opposite, and you’re happy that she’s finally relaxed

When she returns to normal, she thanks you for being by her side and calming her down when she needed it

Ace

The absolute biggest asshole ever

Adult Ace was this cocky, flirty, goofy guy. He was fun and knew how to have a good time

But him as a child is the worst

He is, max, 10 years old and the most conniving little shit

Not only did he go straight to throwing hands when you accidentally uncovered him hiding in the pantry stuffing his face, but he kicked you in the knee before running out to find a new spot

You’d warned Marco and any of the others you passed after that while your knee ached in pain

It wasn’t long until he was eventually found again, this time by Whitebeard of all people, which ended up with them fighting

It was clear that Whitebeard was trying to go easy on the little guy, but he was getting annoyed

Eventually Ace is picked up by the ankle and held out in front of him almost akin to garbage while he flung around, swinging his arms wildly and kicking at Whitebeard’s wrist

“Let go of me, you stupid old man!”

It took a while, but eventually you, Marco, and Whitebeard managed to calm him down enough to talk to him

He sat with his arms crossed and sour

He was only acting out as a fear response due to his lack of memory, of course

But you were still kind of unhappy when it was decided that you were babysitting him

Ace owes you big time

But even with the attitude he gives, if he’s not throwing hands, he’s a pretty cute little guy

You spend the whole day talking about your adventures on the crew when you realize that’s what piques his interest

Suddenly he’s all smiles and he’s engaging with you happily

At dinner, he still stuffs his face and falls asleep at random right there at the table

You carry him to your room to sleep there since someone needed to pick up on Ace’s missed duties today, and when you return he’s still asleep, but back to his usual age

So you scream for him to wake up and apologize for kicking you

He laughs, the dickhead, and apologizes.

“I’ll kiss it better if you want. But tell me- was I a cute kid?”

[tinystepsforward]

please tell tumblr staff i appreciate them and i’m sorry their boss is a fucking moron.

(this is about this post)

i'll tell the ones i know <3

i would really love if people stopped tagging staff into angry rants, or using "fuck staff" tags, but i know that's probably not going to happen. more specifically i would love people to stop making threats against individual staff members, especially trans ones!

it's already difficult enough to be where they are now without the weight of being piled on in reaction to something that isn't their fault, that hurts them in ways it doesn't hurt the average tumblr user. i disagree with a hell of a lot of my ex-colleagues about a lot of things and am far more radical than the majority of them but none of them deserve this. it's honestly just fucking weird. like i don't care what the political opinions of an individual amazon employee are, i'm not acting like even the most bigoted shithead working in a warehouse is personally responsible for the way amazon is ruining lives — or that their life isn't one of the ones being ruined.

the one thing matt is right about is that unbridled, thoughtless hostility toward all staff makes it harder to retain people who can improve tumblr. in particular, marginalised staff get enough of this shit in other parts of their life and no amount of wanting to change shit for the better is worth dealing with this for. we burn out faster and harder under lateral violence than people who aren't affected will.

[ghouljams]

hello! would you consider compiling your aus into ao3? i've been downloading my favorite works to add to my little private library via epubs and i haven't found one for tumblr that doesn't use the desktop yet. i find it easier to follow when on ao3 too, but that's negligible.

although if not, that's totally fine too! the ai scraping in ao3 by that one guy is a bit horrifying, esp when i found out that said guy may have coded a way to scrape locked works.

I have a few fics on ao3 and the cowboy au on there. I have considered adding the rest of my aus to the archive as well, especially in light of my recently lifted explicit label. The problem is (as always) ai scraping. I have my fics locked to ao3 users only and they still got scraped. Moderately disheartening, but then I remember ao3 has copywrite lawyers on retainer and everything is good in the world again.

I'll probably put more series on ao3, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Work has been exceptionally busy and I've barely had time to write let alone go through and scrape my own fics off the hellsite.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all?

For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about "lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html

Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and never return:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/when-a-fake-business-used-a-real-st-louis-address-things-got-weird-32087998

Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair, it's a little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed more locksmiths than taxis:

https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/

But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself. Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic in the financial district:

https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455

Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the presence of this clinic super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit all the major landmarks.

It's not just Maps users who'd noticed the rampant enshittification. Even the original design team is so horrified they're moved to speak out about the moral injury they experience seeing the product they worked so hard on turned into a giant pile of shit:

https://twitter.com/elizlaraki/status/1727351922254852182

Now, when it comes to locksmiths, I'm lucky. My neighborhood in Burbank includes the wonderful Golden State Lock and Safe, which has been in business since 1942:

https://www.goldenstatelock.com/

But you wouldn't know it from searching GMaps for a locksmith near me. That search turns up a long list of scams:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/locksmith/@34.1750451,-118.369948,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

It also turns up plenty of Keyme machines – these are private-equity backed, self-serve key-cutting machines placed in grocery stores. Despite Keyme calling itself a "locksmith," it's just a badly secured, overcaptilized, enshittification-bound system for collecting and retaining shapefiles for the keys to millions of homes, cross-referenced with billing information that will make it easy for the eventual hackers to mass-produce keys for all those poor suckers' houses.

(Hilariously, Keyme claims to be an "AI" company):

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200114005194/en/KeyMe-Raises-35-Million-to-Further-Its-Mission-of-Building-the-Premier-Locksmith-Services-Company-in-the-Nation

But despite the fact that you can literally see the Golden State storefront from Google Streetview, Google Maps claims to have no knowledge of it. Instead, Streetview labels Golden State "Keyme" – and displays a preview showing a locksmith using a tool to break into a jeep (I'd dearly love to know how the gadget next to the Slurpee machine at the 7-Eleven will drive itself to your jeep and unlock the door for you when you lose your keys):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/KeyMe+Locksmiths/@34.1752624,-118.3487531,3a,75y,350.19h,90.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssHrtqjqvgFir3NBauMy13Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x80c2959cd65dbb1b:0x4b3744cf87492a71!2sBurbank+Blvd+%26+N+Hollywood+Way,+Burbank,+CA+91505!3b1!8m2!3d34.1750025!4d-118.3493484!16s%2Fg%2F11f37_3lq8!3m5!1s0x80c2951cedbf4d39:0xe8ff9fd5872e66e9!8m2!3d34.1755176!4d-118.349!16s%2Fg%2F11mw7nr4fx?entry=ttu

It's pretty clear to me what's going on here. Keyme has hired some SEO creeps and/or paid off Google, flooding the zone with listings for its machines. Meanwhile, Golden State, being merely good at locksmithing, has lost the SEO wars. Perhaps Golden State could shift some of its emphasis from being good at locksmithing in order to get better at SEO, but this is a race that will always be won by the firm that puts the most into SEO, which will always be the firm that puts the least into quality.

Whenever I write about this stuff, people inevitably ask me which search engine they should use, if not Google?

And there's the rub.

Google used predatory pricing and anticompetitive mergers to acquire a 90% search market-share. The company spends more than $26b/year buying default position in every place where you might possibly encounter a new search engine. This created the "kill zone" – the VC's term of art for businesses that no one will invest in, because Google makes sure that no one will ever find out it exists:

https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android

That's why the only serious competitor to Google is Bing, another Big Tech company (Bing is also the primary source of results on Duckduckgo, which is why DDG sometimes makes exceptions for Microsoft's privacy-invading tracking):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies

Google tells us that the quid-pro-quo of search monopolization is search excellence. The hundreds of billions it makes every year through monopoly control gives it the resources it needs to fight spammers and maintain search result quality. Anyone who's paid attention recently knows that this is bullshit: Google search quality is in free-fall, across all its products:

https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think it has a problem. Rather than devoting all its available resources to fighting botshit, spam and scams, the company set $80 billion dollars alight last year with a stock buyback that was swiftly followed with 12,000 layoffs, followed by multiple subsequent rounds of layoffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

The scams that slip through Google's cracks are sometimes nefarious, but just as often they're decidedly amateurish, the kind of thing that Google could fix by throwing money at the problem, say, to validate that new ads for confirmed Google merchants come from the merchant's registered email addresses and go to the merchant's registered website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Search is a capital intensive business, and there are real returns to scale, as the UK Competition and Market Authority's excellent 2020 study describes:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fe4957c8fa8f56aeff87c12/Appendix_I_-_search_quality_v.3_WEB_.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think that its search needs that $80 billion to fight the spamwars. That's the thing about monopolists, they get complacent. As Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the AT&T operator" used to say, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company."

That's why I'm so excited about the DOJ Antitrust Division monopolization case against Google. Trusting one company to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," was a failure:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

I understand why people want to know which search engine they should use instead of Google, and I get why, "There aren't any good search engines" is such an unsatisfactory answer. I understand why each fresh round of printer-company fuckery prompts people to ask "which printer should I get?" and I understand why "There are only six major printer companies and they're all suffering from end-stage enshittification" isn't what anyone wants to hear.

We want to be able to vote with our wallets, because it's so much faster and more convenient than voting with our ballots. But the vote-with-your-wallet election is rigged for the people with the thickest wallets. Try as hard as you'd like, you just can't shop your way out of a monopoly – that's like trying to recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Systemic problems need systemic solutions – not individual ones.

That's why the new antitrust matters so much. The answer to monopolies is to break up companies, block and unwind mergers, ban deceptive and unfair conduct. "Caveat emptor" is the scammer's motto. You shouldn't have to be an expert on lead gen scams to hire a locksmith without getting ripped off.

There are good products and services out there. Earlier this year, we decided to install a (non-networked) programmable pushbutton lock. I asked Deviant Ollam – whom I know from Defcon's Lockpicking Village – for a recommendation and he suggested the Schlage FE595:

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/products/FE595PLYFFFFLA.html

I liked it so much I bought another one for my office door. Eric from Golden State Lock and Safe installed it while I wrote this blog-post. It's great. I recommend both of 'em – 10/10, would do business again.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#vapor-locksmith

Image: alicia rae (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kehole_Red.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

--

Budhiargomiko (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wasteland.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[griffinswitch]

Some headcanons for Griffin, Faragonda and Saladin

I have some headcanons about Saladin, Griffin and Faragonda. All three of them have been "cursed" (not cursed per se, I'm using the word 'curse' as a metaphor for their trauma) during the Company of Light era.

Saladin prides himself in his powerful abilities as a wizard, especially in his strength.

When the time came to face a battle between the Ancestral Witches and their minions during one of the Company of Light’s missions, one of them cursed him to age quickly, which heavily affected his height too, causing him to shrink. It took him a while to adjust to his condition, but despite his curse, he is still able to retain the potency of his magical abilities with some limitations that comes with being cursed, which Valtor in Season 3 insinuates that he is the weakest (obvs he is far from that!) among the three points of magic.

With Faragonda, being able to have better control of her powers is one of the most important things to her. For most part of her childhood up to her early teenage years, she struggled understanding herself and her powers. Growing up from a family of witches and wizards, she was born a witch and because she was unable to control her powers (thanks to the pressure from her parents), despite the help of Griffin when they were younger, she decided to transfer from Cloud Tower to Alfea to become a fairy.

When she switched schools, it had caused a slight rivalry and bitterness between her and Griffin since light magic is the more socially acceptable type of magic. By channeling positive emotions, it has helped her manage and understand her powers better. This also led to an interest in teaching herself convergence at Alfea (which she teaches in the series), particularly converging with dark magic users. With Faragonda's own research in convergence with light and dark magic to fight the forces of evil, she had hoped it would bridge the gap between fairies and witches (especially from Alfea and Cloud Tower), hoped it would bring her and Griffin together like they once were and hoped it would help the Council understand that light and dark can work in unison, and that dark magic users are important to the balance of magic. I'll expand on Faragonda's role, powers and background in my CoL fic later on. Similar to Griffin's own research in my headcanons for her.

Anyway, during Faragonda’s mission to rescue Griffin from the Ancestral Witches' lair in Obsidian, everything was going to plan when Faragonda found herself in a trap set by one of the members from the Wizards of the Black Circle, Yllidith (a character from the comics who we do not see in the show). Long story short, Yllidith plucked Faragonda’s wings in front of Griffin (who was magi-cuffed at the time, also tied to her fate, so she couldn't access her powers as she watched in horror). Hagen and Saladin both came to their rescue and fought off the wizard and other beings of evil. And with all the strength she had left, Faragonda opened a portal and teleported them back to safety despite being severely wounded. Even with the help of her Enchantix fairy dust or any fairy who was at Enchantix level, there had been no cure in growing her fairy wings back.

However, since witches don't need wings to fly, Griffin taught Faragonda to fly with a LOT of trial and error + it had taken Faragonda years to heal from losing her wings. She also had gotten a little better at channeling her negative emotions but she was still better suited as a fairy and was at her best with transmitting positive emotions despite being wingless.

Griffin’s curse is thanks to Valtor for her betrayal during their final encounter with one another. He has cursed her to never know peace. Anything she holds dear somehow gets taken away from her, even momentarily and she's in a constant state of chaos, also most likely from her PTSD from the war(s). (Faragonda helps Griffin cope with and manage her curse, they both do!)

Cloud Tower (CT) is one of the things she holds dear because it is her safe space, not only for herself or the many objects (some rare, dangerous and ancient relics) that is home to it but also for her students who she deeply care for.

The times when CT was invaded by the Trix and with them being related to the Ancestral Witches (AW), you can imagine how triggering it was for her, especially when she’s worked incredibly hard to make sure CT is a school where witches of dark magic can learn how to control their powers for good and help fight evil. She fears that, with the Trix being in control of CT, history might repeat itself and cause an army of dark magic users who uses their powers for evil causing an imbalance in magic.

And let’s not forget when Valtor took control of CT and her students, it had really caused her dearly. He even sent her to prison in her own school, a cruel way to face her punishment for betraying him all those years ago. He had hoped she'd rot in her prison cell for eternity, to be a prisoner of her own mind from her grief and guilt, the same way he did when he was trapped in the Omega Dimension. (Of course, we know what canonically happened in Season 3).

[pilkypills]

tell me EVERYTHING you know about oin pretty please*

*so i can use it in a fic because i don't know how to characterize him like at ALL 😭

I’m by FAR not an expert on canon info about the Company, and if you want firsthand (maybe technically secondhand) facts about Oin's character and how the writers and John Callen constructed his personality your best bet would be to look for scans of the relevant pages from the Hobbit Chronicles books. (btw if anyone reading this is aware of a post containing these pages lmk! It'd be super appreciated!)

I can tell you what I've personally extrapolated from what I've seen, though it's entirely possible that some of it is incorrect, or just common opinion, or just my own opinion!

For starters, according to the WETA page on Gloin's statue (I can no longer find the official page on Oin's statue, it seems to just be in the ether) he and his older brother remember Erebor very clearly and consider restoring it to its former glory a very important mission, and very important to the line of Durin. It also says Gloin is a retainer. No idea if that title extends to Oin but I wouldn't be surprised. Makes his decision to stay in Laketown with Kili all the more impactful. He's a healer above all else.

He is canonically a midwife in addition to being a healer, and delivered Gimli. The idea of him dropping baby Gimli on his head came from somewhere and this fanart came out of it, which John Callen has seen and put his stamp of approval on (I cannot find a link to the social media post where he says this, but I've seen it!)

He is also well-read and very smart, which is no surprise. To clarify the bit about the word ointment, it's a word he came up with himself to refer to a mixture of his own invention. Clearly, he's a master of his craft! Very cool. (I really like the idea of him as a mentor for Fili, which is a fairly common headcanon these days)

I think it's very reasonable to assume he's a proficient user of Iglishmek given that he is hard of hearing, but this is just personal headcanon.

We don't know for sure how he feels about elves, but since he reacts to Tauriel's healing of Kili with awe, saying that "it is a privilege to see it in action", he either feels more neutrally about them than the other older dwarves, or perhaps feels that medical knowlege is a wonder no matter the source (perhaps a bit of both? I feel like no matter how he felt before, seeing Kili's life saved by an elf would make him soften up a bit)

In terms of personality, the little we know and see firsthand seems to point to him being quite gruff and straightforward, perhaps a bit cantankerous. We see him join in on the festivities at Bag End, even letting ale get poured into his ear horn and blowing bubbles with it, so he's not completely serious. I don't know if this is canon or popular fanon, but I've seen it commonly said that Oin pretends to not hear/wont use his ear horn when someone is saying something he'd rather ignore, so he has a sense of humor, too. I'm of the opinion that he's a very dry and sarcastic guy myself.

Oin is the one who "read the portents" that say its time for dwarves to return to Erebor (from the way he talks about the birds returning to the mountain this could also refer to him studying their flight patterns). I've read some fics that expand on this idea, including using geodes for fortune telling, which is a really cool idea! I feel like as far as religious thought goes among dwarves, he's probably on the more spiritual side. It would make sense, especially given that healers in fantasy works tend to pull double duty as clerics.

This is pretty much all I can tell you, I hope it helps!

[thelittlesupernova]

Palm Root Stone, stone of grounding

🤎 Palm root stone, often referred to as petrified palm root, is a type of fossilized wood formed from ancient palm trees. Over millions of years, organic materials in the palm wood are replaced with minerals like quartz, calcite, or chalcedony, preserving the structure of the original wood. This process creates a stone that retains the texture and appearance of the palm root but is now a durable, mineral rich material.

🖤 It typically has earthy tones like beige, brown, black, and white, often with intricate patterns resembling wood grain or roots.

🤎 Palm root stone is found in areas where palm trees thrived millions of years ago. Common sources include regions in Indonesia, India, and the United States.

🖤 Palm root stone is believed to anchor the user to the Earth, fostering a sense of stability and balance. It is often used during meditation to center the mind and maintain focus.

🤎 As a fossilized material, it symbolizes transformation and growth, helping individuals adapt to life changes and overcome challenges. It inspires patience and perseverance by reminding the user of the slow, natural processes that lead to beautiful outcomes.

🖤 Palm root stone is associated with ancient knowledge and the Earth’s memories, making it a tool for connecting with ancestral energies or wisdom. It can be used to help unlock past life memories and lessons.

🤎 Many believe palm root stone creates a protective shield, guarding against negative energies and emotional instability. It can also provide a sense of safety during times of uncertainty or transition.

🖤 Palm root stone is often used to balance and activate the root chakra, the energy center responsible for grounding, survival instincts, and physical well being. This promotes a deeper connection to the physical world and a sense of security.

🤎 It is used in crystal grids, meditation, and energy work to align spiritual energy with physical reality. It's calming vibrations make it suitable for mindfulness practices and stress relief.

🖤 As a symbol of stability and growth, it helps in manifesting goals and intentions, especially those related to long term projects or personal development.

[fiveeven]

TikTok Ban: A Little Too Convenient?

The TikTok ban saga has been wild to watch unfold, but honestly, the closer you look, the more questions arise. Between members of Congress holding Meta stock and Facebook’s sudden interest in integrating TikTok accounts, it feels less like a genuine privacy concern and more like a potential power play. Let’s break this down.

Congress Loves Meta—And Hates TikTok Did you know that several members of Congress own Meta stock? A 2023 analysis revealed that lawmakers with financial interests in Meta, Alphabet, and Snap could stand to benefit if TikTok faces a U.S. ban. This raises potential conflicts of interest, especially when these same lawmakers are involved in crafting legislation that directly affects TikTok.

Meanwhile, Meta, despite its long history of privacy violations (remember Cambridge Analytica?), doesn’t seem to face the same scrutiny. It’s hard not to wonder why Congress is suddenly so concerned about user privacy when it comes to TikTok but continues to give Meta a pass.

Meta’s Sudden Interest in TikTok Integration With TikTok under threat of a U.S. ban, Facebook recently added features allowing TikTok users to link their accounts to their profiles. While this feature aligns with broader trends of social media integration, the timing feels a little too coincidental. It suggests a strategic move by Meta to retain users who might migrate away from TikTok or prepare for an influx of creators seeking alternative platforms.

Even If Trump “Saves” TikTok, I’m Not Buying It Let’s say Trump swoops in and “saves” TikTok at the last minute. I still have serious concerns about what that actually means. Trump is transactional—he doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him or his allies. If TikTok is “saved,” I can’t help but wonder:

Does it get sold—in name only—to a U.S. company like Meta, keeping the same issues but with a different logo?

Does it stick around but get neutered, suppressing content like other corporate-owned platforms?

Or does it become a tool for pushing American propaganda, especially with initiatives like Project 2025 on the horizon?

These are just questions, but I think they’re valid ones. If TikTok survives under Trump’s “protection,” it’s unlikely to remain the platform we know today.

Is This Really About Privacy? The ban is framed as a response to concerns over data privacy and national security, but critics argue it might be more about corporate competition and information control. TikTok’s algorithm has surpassed its competitors in engagement and reach, making it a significant threat to U.S.-based platforms like Meta.

It’s worth noting that many social media platforms collect similar levels of user data, and the difference often lies in who owns the company. In TikTok’s case, its ties to China have made it a target for U.S. lawmakers.

The Bigger Picture Regardless of what happens with TikTok, the implications of this ban extend far beyond one app. It sets a precedent for government control over digital platforms, raising questions about freedom of expression, competition, and corporate influence.

If we’re not questioning these decisions now, we risk handing over even more control to a small group of powerful entities—whether they’re corporations, governments, or both.

[powdermelonkeg]

Something websites (*cough* Tumblr *cough*) need to learn is that what retains an audience isn't an abundance of new bells and whistles to play with, it's a coherent experience overall.

When someone joins a website, you don't need to grab their attention and hold it. They're already testing the waters. They've agreed to sign up. You've won on that front, and they're there for something specific you already have that they're hoping works well.

What drives them away is frustration.

Frustration, frustration, frustration.

Learning curves are going to be a part of any new website experience; they're something the user comes to terms with, in their own time. But broken or bad features are going to make them jump sites.

On top of that, constantly adding new features makes them feel like all the hard work they've put in to learning what you have isn't worth it; your website looks unstable and your staff looks incompetent, because it gives the impression that you don't know what you're doing.

You are floundering. It makes your new users nervous. It makes your old users hesitate to bring anyone else on board. And why should they? Why should they put effort into it if you're going to throw that effort away next Tuesday? Why get used to a UI that you're not going to bother to keep? Why customize anything if you're going to whittle that customization away?

Between that and the broken, unattended features of this site—the tag organization failing, the inability to look up posts word-for-word, the video player either refusing to play or yanking you to the top of the dashboard, images taking forever to load, advertisements blaring at full volume when you scroll past, you have your problem.

You have the reason why your numbers are failing.

It's not that you're not interesting enough.

It's not that you're too difficult to understand.

It's that you aren't improving what you have, yet you keep adding more half-broken things and unwanted copycat features to the pile.

It's that you're losing your identity in pursuit of a hypothetical perfect customer.

It's that you are actively telling your user base that you prefer those hypothetical customers over them. And your user base, your real people who make you happen, are smart enough to know where your priorities lie.

The bulk of this post talks about Tumblr, but other sites have gone the same way. Twitter is dead and its corpse is decaying in the street. Reddit has sabotaged any trust its users had in its management. If you'd like a really old example—I used to use Fanfiction Net. It's not the most intuitive website in the world, but it was the first one I called home.

I used it to host my works. The adware now on it makes it a hassle to navigate. The bots make comment sections and private messages a dread rather than a joy. So I moved on.

I also used to use it to collaborate on stories with my now-roommate. The message limit was 300 a day. When you're writing dialogue between characters, that's nothing.

So I moved on. We started messaging on Facebook. It was better, it didn't have a limit. But then I learned Discord existed, and I could edit messages, make dedicated channels, etc. So I moved on from Facebook to Discord. And Discord had a steep learning curve, especially if you're trying to make your own server rather than contribute to one. But, most importantly, the payoff was worth it.

If Discord changed its layout every other month while I was learning it, and broke how its reactions worked, and kept shifting what it meant to create a channel? If it opted me into servers I didn't sign up for, in hopes of engagement? If its text never formatted correctly, or its search function only went back a day or two?

I would have gone right back to Facebook. Even if it's a more basic experience, basic is always preferable to unstable.

Figure out what you want, websites.

Slow growth, or a gamble?

You're paying for your magic slot machine in users.