#fear people

[donnieisaprettyboy]

“what if kids identify with something and it ends up just being a phase-?” good. stop teaching and expecting kids (and adults honestly) to formulate permanent traits and ideas of themselves. everything in life is a phase. that doesn’t make it any less legitimate while you experience it. let people explore themselves and know it’s okay if what you think about yourself changes.

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[ifmypeopleza01]

Fear of People

Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory that is of men more than the glory that is of God. (John 12:42-43 ASV)

This verse struck me in my reading this morning. My morning reading is usually a quicker read. I just want to read the Bible through quickly. I do about 13 chapters from OT, Psalms and Proverbs, and NT. So I am getting an overview rather than reading devotionally.

It struck me for a few reasons.

1) Red letter Bible. Do you have one? If you are anything like me, your eyes are almost looking for the red letters as we consider them more important as they are Jesus words. But last I check ALL scripture is God breathed. Taking this into account, I wonder how often I have read these verses and not given it some thought.

2) My evening reading in Romans 10 from a few days ago is still fairly fresh, possibly because I refer to these verses often:

"because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:9-10 ASV)

3) These rulers were close to the kingdom, but refused to confess because of fear. They were not saved.

4) I live in Cape Town. We elected a mayor that goes to church, and others that also go to some church somewhere in the metropole. Yet, these self-same alleged Christians support every evil under the sun, including LGBT+ issues (sorry I refuse to use the entire alphabet). Why do they claim to be Christian from one side of the mouth, but the other side of the mouth, they are denying Christ?

5) Seeking man's glory falls so far short of God's glory. Man's glory is a slippery slope into the abyss. Perhaps instead of electing such characters in the next election, why not listen to see if the person actually has a salvation testimony and see if he is actually following the LORD or maybe they seek man's glory? Include the voting record of the politician when we do the research.

We need actual godly leaders in our nation. Not those that will bend the knee to every false, antichrist movement so they can keep benefiting from Soros funded money. I thank God that in South Africa, we have the ACDP that does not fear man, that does not bow the knee to money. I pray that more leaders such as these be raised up, not only in my own nation, but around the world.

[angell-castiglione]

[hoofpeet]

never forgive react youtubers for making ""what?????????? I'm so confused 😧😧" the peak of humor for so many people.. Now any and every piece of art that's even slightly unconventional has at least one dipshit in the comments that has to be loudly confused about it like ❔Ermmmmm what .... Op are you okay? Like fuck off. I wish I could put you in a saw trap until you understand the concept of art

[lesbianfakir]

You’re placed in a room with an animal. The door is closed and you cannot leave. The animal is completely calm and has no intent of harming you. You are in no danger unless you provoke the animal in some way.

[oifaaa]

I will say despite all my issues with the new boy wonder issue this panel is so funny as Jason basically went

[bitit]

hey so what if third life was just an epic game of gaga ball during recess

[wishfulsketching]

Happy (Shimmer) Holidays!

Even the chem baron can enjoy a sudden snow day with his family! Too bad his right hand lady decides to use this chance to have some revenge for all the bullshit she has to deal with

(I wanted to draw this three years ago but didn't get around to do it)

[tuometarr]

okay so what actually lives rent free in my head is this line

because like, viktor, girlie pop, what DO YOU MEAN???? this man has KILLED YOU and after THAT you had a homoerotic fight where after you wrapped your legs around him and choked him he rejected you and destroyed your little robot avatar that shed tears about it

and at the peak of your no emotions no free will evolution you are "... pleased to see him" PLEASED?? to?? see?? him??

truly a fatal case of gay yearning

[hinamie]

subject, specimen, spectacle;

should i say that you're dead?

[mavigator]

(UPDATED!!!) here are some people that have reached out to me recently with their fundraisers. LINKS IN NAMES. status as of 09/28/24. i've checked that all fundraisers listed here are vetted.

Abedalrahman Alhabil (€83,893/€120,000) -- Abedalrahman, his parents, and his five siblings were displaced when an Israeli attack destroyed their home. Abedalrahman's father is in urgent need of evacuation and surgery, as he suffers from chronic heart disease and high blood pressure. (@abdullahgaza) 69% of goal reached. ALMOST NO PROGRESS.

Asmaa Ayyad (€22,552/€45,000) -- Asmaa and her family of eight were displaced when their homes were destroyed by Israel. They need funds to evacuate to Egypt before they suffer any more loss. (@asmaayyad) 50% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

Hashem Al-Shawish -- (€10,754/€45,000) Hashem's wife, Samer, recently gave birth to their baby, Omar, in a tent. Omar has already needed emergency medical attention as a result of poor living conditions. He, along with Hashem's mother, wife, four brothers, and two sisters need funds to evacuate. (blog terminated. can't find new one.) 24% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

Doaa Jad Al Haq -- (kr231,172/kr300,000) -- Doaa and her 5-year-old autistic son, Omar, evacuated to Sweden, but Omar was extremely traumatized by the horrors in Gaza. He needs treatment so he can recover. In addition, evacuation funds are needed for the members of Doaa's family that are still trapped in Gaza, including 11 children and her father, who has been incapacitated by a stroke. (@doaaomar1234) 77% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

Aya Alanqar -- (€13,479/€15,000) Aya and her husband Jihad need funds to evacuate themselves and their three young children (Abdelrahman, 7 years old, Jori, 5 years old, and Adam, 2 years old). Their home was destroyed by Israel and they have been forced to move over thirteen times. (blog deleted. can't find new one.) 89% of goal reached. SO CLOSE!!!

Muhammad Shehab -- (€11,767/€25,000) Muhammad desperately needs funds to evacuate himself and his sons, Zaen and Yahya, from Gaza. They have already been displaced nine times and are at risk every day. (@zeanyahya1) 47% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

The Shehab family -- (€58,613/€85,000) This family's original goal of 50,000 has been reached, but has now been raised to 85,000 as the family has added more people to their fundraiser (as they can't make their own), including a 3-month old baby. Please continue to support this family!! (@danashehab) 69% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

Mahmoud Al-Sharif -- ($11,530/$60,000) Mahmoud's wife, Soha, just gave birth to her and Mahmoud's fourth child on 8/12/24. Please please help this family of six, including the newborn, get to safety. (@mahmoud-sharif) 19% of goal reached. INCREDIBLY SLOW PROGRESS.

SHARE AND DONATE !! remember that even a small amount can go a long way.

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[pixlatedvampire]

It’s best to introduce your Hag slowly through the door first to not scare the others

[iron-bullogna]

autistic wizards just hit different