#for once in a long time i actually live up to my url

[ink-pen-rat]

trying out scanning trad ink sketches to colour them enjoy scribbles

[wannabespiderman]

Man vs machine

Hello! This is my first fanfic written in English so I'm slightly nervous to post this but I couldn't get this idea out of my head so... I hope you enjoy :)

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Just an old man confused about modern technology.

.

.

.

You were walking past the living room door when a discontented grunt caught your attention. You took two steps back to crane your neck past the half-closed door. Bucky was sitting on the sofa, leaning over the living room table, which looked like a toddler’s table compared to him, his face illuminated by the bright screen of his new laptop that you’ve bought him not too long ago. His eyebrows were tightly knit together when he mumbled a quiet curse. You turned around, a curious expression on your face as you walked through the door.

"You okay, baby?" you asked and promptly sat down next to him. Bucky gave you an inscrutable look before turning his eyes back to the screen. “Where the hell do I find my emails?” he asked in frustration. A sudden laugh escaped you. You should have realized that a 106 year old man who had little to do with electronics would have some trouble with a laptop. Bucky gave you a displeased look with a slight, unconcious pout appearing on his face. “Click on the internet icon.” You spoke softly, willing to help. Bucky’s brow furrowed. “I don’t need the internet, I need my emails.” You stayed silent for a moment, slightly baffled by his words. Just last week you took the effort to set up a Google account with him and you were pretty sure he had paid attention then. “Bucky.” You said an amused huff escaping you. “Your e-mail is connected to the Internet. Just click on the icon.” Bucky clicked his tongue in annoyance to cover his slight embarrassment and went back to staring at the desktop. He was definitely taking his time, and at one point you doubted he knew what an icon was. “Need any help?” you asked as kindly as you could, though the sight of Bucky squinting his eyes like a real old man made your voice sound rather amused. With an exhausted sigh, Bucky leaned back against the seat back and rubbed his face, his shoulders visibly slumping. “You do it.”

You snort, but immediately apologize after he gives you an exceptionally grumpy look. “You can do it.” You said encouragingly, giving him a small smile. Bucky rolled his eyes, but relented and bent over the laptop again. You shuffled closer to it so you could see the screen properly, and the little orange and blue Firefox icon literally jumped out at you. You pointed your finger at it and looked at it again. “Just click on this one.”

You tried to be patient with him, really, and actually he did exactly what you said, but you couldn’t hold back the little sigh that left your mouth as he moved the cursor over the Firefox icon and clicked. Once. “Okay.” You mumbled, rubbing your eye. Apparently, you needed to be more specific. "This time you click twice." Another brief but piercing look from Bucky before he actually double-clicked and the browser opened. You sent a quick thank you to the heavens before instructing him to type the url into the search tab and cringed silently when he started typing with both of his pointer fingers. Right this second you decided to teach him how to properly type with all ten of his fingers later. A few more instructions later, probably a little more than usually necessary, he reached the Google log-in site.

“I assume you can handle the rest?” It was supposed to be a statement but your voice shifted into a question at the end.

He hummed quietly in affirmation, though his brow was still furrowed as if this whole thing was incredibly complicated which, to be honest… it probably was for him. You pressed your lips together, a slight sting of guilt coursing through you, your previous amusement and frustration about his hardship completely vanishing. One second you were quietly sat next to him and the other you had your arms wrapped around his bicep and your head leaning on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about laughing earlier.” You whispered, almost too quiet for him to understand if he weren’t a Super-Soldier and had enhanced hearing. “I know it’s new for you.” Bucky tried to shrug it off but you saw how his eyes softened when he tilted his head to look down at you. A sudden, quiet chuckle escaped him, making you quirk an eyebrow in curiosity.

“You’d think, as a Cyborg, I’d be better at this.”

[terraliensvent]

A blast from the past: terras and ip grabbing

so im sure some of you have seen this post over on csmingy, and zaga had actually reached out to me here to post on their actions in terras as well

for the uninformed, zaga (creator/former owner of isopups) was the original site coder for terraliens. recently, they've decided to come out about the circumstances surrounding the original terra vent blog and the ip grabbing, stating that THEY were the one who originally did so after pressure from civ and coy. (and if you weren't here for the doxxing issue, just read through this)

and as an aside: from my personal recollection of actively following the original blog and even having post notifs on, i dont remember any death threats being posted to that blog. what i do remember is the original discussion on kinah being that they were "greedy" for dropping an adopt batch on their birthday, and others bitching about petty shit to that effect. my memory could be wrong, but even at the time i thought the content of the original vent blog was blown way out of proportion.

anyway, on with the screenshots:

(edit to specify: in this screen i say Kinah was the one to influence zaga to IP grab, but later zaga corrected me to state that it was mainly civ and coy, with kinah's situation and attempt influencing them, not kinah directly)

along with this, i was given an imgur gallery of screenshots (lemon and tuna = zaga)

here are some i thought were interesting:

Later on civ says this:

more incriminating shit:

this proves they definitely did have a fucking spec-ops investigation to ip grab nearly everyone involved with the blog, getting people's locations and making spoofed urls. honestly, im not even totally sure how they landed on the people they did as the supposed owners of the blogs, seeing as they were going based off of location and there are a lot of people living in australia. additionally you can see civ blowing things out of proportion on a few messages like this one:

which, that is a completely reasonable thing to say!! if youre making attempts on your life over a closed species, maybe it would help you to remove yourself from that space, just a thought.

and finally the cherry on top of the shit sundae:

they didnt even ban the right fucking person

i highly recommend reading all the screens, it's a whole rollercoaster and not once do either of them think theyre in the wrong for being incredibly invasive, using spoofed links to grab IPs, picking out a random person because they said they lived in melbourne (which has a population of over 5 million) and then doubling down saying "erm but guys we didnt release the info we just used deceptive means to ban them but it turns out the person we banned wasnt even the right one oopsies!"

in fact, according to zaga, the IP they got wasn't even linked to a home address, it was tied to a satellite ping tower, so the user who's IP they tracked could have very well not even been in melbourne. so they just caused a shitload of anguish to Mal for no reason and refused to take it back, even after they realized they fucked up. full explanation here:

finally, zaga did link me to their apology doc regarding isos. i wont go in depth on it because this isnt isopups venting, but ill drop it here anyways for anyone who's interested: link

overall, i dont want to bash zaga crazy heavily over this, seeing as it looks like theyre on a pretty big apology tour right now for their actions here as well as in isopups. they stated in my dms: "I also want to clarify while I wasn’t sorry for it last year, it’s been a long time since this and I feel immense shame and guilt for it, which is why I’m coming out about it," and given their current actions of laying everything out here + the iso doc, i want to say that theyre making a change and i cant knock them for apologizing.

i will say though, that these messages are incredibly fucking damning for civ and OG terra staff, and i will absolutely criticize civ for them since their actions here are pretty consistent with their behavior in every single following controversy: doubling down, blowing shit out of proportion while simultaneously downplaying their own actions, and "everyone is at fault but me"

what a great throwback thursday

[khaoala]

tag game ✨

@mbjw saved me from saturday boredom and tagged me in this, so thank you jubs, i enjoyed these a lot.

1. why did you choose your url?

i love khaotung. khaotung was obsessed with the capybara song last year before i even knew who he was. capybaras happen to be a very common animal in the region i live. i was very happy they were getting the recognition they deserved. put them together, we have lovely khao + capybaras = khaopybara (i'm also super sure i've seen people here and on tw use this and i just stole it. i'm not creative especially when it comes to usernames).

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

i have two other sideblogs. @tuseryoo for all of the gifs i make so i can have all of them in one blog just because, so i feel like i'm not losing track of the things i create (even though i haven't updated that one in a while), and @captain-xandis that some moots might have noticed in their notifications bc i recently created that one to post gifs about critical role, but i always forget to check which blog appears on top of the thingy, so i'm constantly deleting and reblogging things in the right blog these days.

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

as of july 3rd, i've been here for 11 years now, so since 2013? which tracks with my super strong k-pop phase tbh.

4. do you have a queue tag?

nah, i have a queue going for gifs that are requests or for episodes that already aired, but usually i just post things whenever.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

ha, i was into super junior. and i was experimenting with fandom for the first time at the time. that's it. i felt like tumblr was a lot more creative and pretty than twitter or facebook, so i stayed.

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

i am a mook defender and apologist. i also think aya is super cute and super pretty. i change icons so often though, i blame all the pretty women in qls these days for making me change it all the time.

7. why did you choose your header?

i am breathing and living for the heart killers and kantbison and unfortunately i'm dying from lack of content. the tattoo table kiss is going to change lives i think, so until we don't get the official version, i'll have this masterpiece displayed there somehow.

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

as of now, it's a 23.5 official trailer gifset of sun being jealous of ongsa with amazing 939 notes, but the gifset of lada protecting earn from hitting her head on the table is quickly catching up with 877.

9. how many mutuals do you have?

17 mutuals? i think that's right.

10. how many followers do you have?

843 if you count the main blog + side-blogs.

11. how many people do you follow?

... 27 blogs.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i mean, sure? i do get embarrassed by my own shitposts sometimes and i delete them tho.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

all the time. it's my favorite social media for sure. i get to see pretty things and my dash is much better curated than other apps. it's great.

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

i don't think i ever fought online. i block people with remarkable expedience tbh if i don't like their vibe or their tone or the shit they post, and i also make use of the filtered tags, so you know, no reason to fight.

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts

these exist? good for them. you shouldn't tell people what to do.

16. do you like tag games?

sure! i only started being part of them now, so sometimes i forget them, or i just don't see i was tagged, but i do enjoy them.

17. do you like ask games?

i don't think i've ever done an ask game but that's mainly bc i think people won't want to know and won't send any asks, and i'd rather spare my ego from that humiliation.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

i think many of my mutuals are famous in our ql bubble which makes it a little crazy that some are my mutuals tbh. that's most of them actually.

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

i do have people that make me kick my feet when they interact with my posts like, twirling my hair, silly smile, giggling because they've noticed me. but actually crushing, imagining our lives in the countryside, with a kitchen facing the meadow in a fine spring morning, with two dogs and three cats, no.

20. tags?

i'm tagging @namtanfilm, @aylinaliens, @sollucets and @sherrymagic, @ayansukkhaphisit and whoever feels like doing it, and to those i've tagged, just ignore this if you want, too, no pressure.

[scrumptiousstuffs]

Tag game

Tagged by the lovely @mbjw

Why did you choose your url? - It first started as "thescrumptiousbookstuffs" cause I really like books but I never really have the time to actually write a proper review of books (or even read nowadays). And then I decided the whole name was too long, and I basically shorten it into the current moniker. Cause I thought, hey - BL boys are scrumptious too 😁

Any sideblogs? - If you have them, name them and why do you have them - I just started one but there is nothing posted on it. I called it "just writing" cause it will likely be my random thoughts that I will keep private

How long have you been on tumblr? - Since 2010 (I think) but for the longest time, it was empty where I will occasionally reblog random things. I only started to become active in during COVID lockdown

Do you have a queue tag? - Nah, I cannot be bothered. I usually just post it immediately.

Why did you start your blog in the first place - COVID lockdown means I was oscillating between depression and boredom. Apart from work (which was exhausting cause I worked in the medical field and during lockdown, I don't have to tell you want that means), I was pretty much isolated from my closest friends and family (as they all live in a different country altogether). So, tumblr allowed me to browse through my interest (mainly BTS and BL)

Why did you choose your icon/pff? - Erm, FK owns my soul. Hehe...They are my children/babies and I will defend them till the end of time.

Why did you choose your header? - I change this every few months. The most recent one is a photo I took when I went travelling to the Southern part of New Zealand (my other interest apart from BL/BTS is to take beautiful photographs of nature)

What's your post with the most notes? - I think it is the Wandee Goodday cast dressing up (and having fun) during Pride Month. I guess seeing Podd in drag is a highlight for everyone lol

How many mutuals do you have? - Not sure. 10? I am terrible at this, I should really follow more people lol

Now many followers do you have? - just over 750. Not a lot hehe

How many people do you follow? 26. I should really follow more people.....

Have you ever made a shitpost? - If you mean putting/posting things that I regret - yes. I then just delete them.

How often do you use tumblr each day? - I checked them at least 3-4 times per day (bad, I know 😅), but it is fun to see what other people are posting

Did you have fight/argument with another blog once? - Nah, if I don't like what someone post (maybe cause I disagree with what they say etc), I just block them. Means tumblr is a peaceful and safe haven for me

How do you feel about 'you need to reblog this' posts? - I don't like it. I will reblog and like the posts I want to like. Nobody is allowed to tell me what to do on my tumblr dashboard 🫣

Do you like tag games? - I don't mind it at all. It is a way for me to learn about my mutuals (and other people) 😌

Do you like ask games? - Sure, happy to answer any questions ✌️

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? - Hemm, I have no idea hahaha....what is considered famous?

Do you have a crush on a tumblr? - Nah, but I am always happy to interact with anyone and answer any questions (but I cannot promise I know the answers!)

Tags? - Gonna tag @akkpipitphattana, @hyp-no-tic, @pluviophile6104, @moonkhao, @c0smicdaisy, @fadeawayaway, @firstkanaphans and anyone else who wants to join (also feel free to ignore these if you don't want to answer any of this!)

[mangocheesecakes]

how many of these scams are the same person? i know the paypal names leila rajab and remmy cheptau and tasneem r’m رجابو are the same person, and now hamdi ahmed is posting the exact same script as they do, so in my mind that's one person behind those four..... and Nada,r Ab'r Hus'sein and raobh tingo are the same person, and nchagwa mwita now goes by annah musa. are there other names that are really just one person?

your guess is as good as mine anon.

Before the genocide in Palestine started, some of the kind of scams we would find here were:

pet donation scams (stealing dog and cat pics from facebook)

cancer and diabetes donation scams (usually pretending to be Black American or African)

homeless/persecuted gay or trans person scam

the occasional impoverished or sick Filipino scam

Since this genocide started, most of these have disappeared, most notable being the pet scammer. The insulin scam has merged with the fake Palestinian scam. There's still one or two of the fake African/African American cancer patient, as you may have noted when you tracked down these urls (the one that always has the Black Lives Matter title, as an example).

One conclusion I can make is that there's a scam ring, and that most if not all of these accounts are being handled by a group of people.

Laura Deramas, we know, has been repeatedly implicated in a number of scams before these fake Palestinian accounts started, but I genuinely believe she is still here also trying her hand at pretending to be Palestinian (the Laura Mae Noro and most recently the Maureen Jane Aloot scams I believe are definitely hers). Whether she is part of a larger scam ring along with the other fake Palestinian scams or if she is in a separate group along with her friends, I can only guess.

But it's very good that you are able to take note of which scam paypals are being used together, anon! Sadly there's been a lot of them for so long that I just gave up trying to keep track which type of scam is using which paypal name, the only thing that I can do is take note of the name and mark it as a scam so that they'll be easily caught once they are reused.

@kyra45 may have a better record and a better memory of these scam paypals and actually most of the time I just rely on their masterlists and posts when I come upon a potential scam account that I haven't seen before.

[rosieuv]

New website is up!

Finally, after like 2 months: I finished it!

I never want to touch HTML ever again.

Here it is:

I thought I should do a little commentary here as it isn't just some standard linktree/carrd.co thing anyone with a free afternoon can crap out (and also because I'm vain) so here's the commentary:

The problem with my old one was that it was getting too crowded for all the stuff I was chucking at it. I mean, look at this header:

It's a mess!

I wanted to make something that had everything in nice neat categories, and also this was in a time where I was unsatisfied at how flat UI design had become and was starting to long the futiger aero windows XP-7 days. I wanted to make it look detailed and shiny and more personal. I deleted everything off and for 2 months, this was what the website looked like:

(I didn't have a more up to date "under construction" picture so I used the one from Sci-Fi RaiRoboska!?).

I didn't realise it would take 2 months but I didn't want a repeat of last time where I was talking on discord with someone and they were looking at my website as I was designing it as I was doing it live in Neocities and I left the link in my bio.

I used the same layout builder as I still didn't know how containers worked then. It ended up causing some problems later down the line with media querys (FUCK media querys) but it's decent enough to get you started. I did some fiddling with the header so it was the right length (dear god that took a while) and had to do that airbrush thing multiple times just to get it looking right.

I drew this background at around the same time and used my OCs from San_Watsaku as it's my latest game and I don't really have another group of OCs from a game that's released. Annoyingly, I couldn't get the sizing to work on a regular 1080p widescreen display so the top and bottom cuts out. I was trying to go for a similar approach to how Newgrounds does the background arts.

I had a wayback machine page of Newgrounds in 2013 in the early days as reference on how to make things look cool, as well as some pages from this website that has a collection of screenshots of webpages, specifically for UI reference. I was trying to make it look like a website from the late 2000s-early 2010s where everything wasn't flat but also wasn't as shiny as windows 7 (usually).

I put little doodles of myself across the pages because it looks more interesting than a flat button saying "video games". That sidebar is annoying though as it has a habit of cutting off if the main box isn't the right shape by the pixel.

I was very proud of these buttons when I got them working. The design changed a bit as I realised that it needed to be longer to fit properly.

Wasn't sure what to do with tumblr though:

I used a speech bubble drawing for my bio thing to make it look more aesthetic and also to flex that I didn't use AI at all as AI can't replicate my shaky-ass hand. I found this file called "avocadoplaceholder.jpg" which seems to be what I was using to figure out sizing.

For the stuff below the main boxes, I googled for stuff to chuck on a neocities page as it was too boring just having the bluesky embed sitting there. I went on the gif hunt at 11 pm while some AI bro on discord was calling me an idiot for actually coding and drawing the UI. I put some other stuff to pad space, like the pixel art and the links to my older websites. I added some stuff to it over time, like the interests list and the music section once I finally figured out how to get audio players working (literally earlier today lol). I wanted to add music for each page but decided against that. I wanted music on the main page though but couldn't for the life of me get it to work until I was trying to add a preloader (didn't work) and the website I was on was another neocities one that had an audio player but had the "neocities.org" thing in the URL so I knew they weren't a supporter. I went into inspect element and figured out that dropbox works and that's why I now have a dropbox account. Couldn't find a tutorial on how to make it not look basic though, so all I did was make it shorter and blue.

I made unique backgrounds for each of the pages to differentiate them and I made these from scratch as I actually figured out how containers and grids worked.

And of course: matching headers:

For each page: there's a doodle of me doing something vaguely relevant to the topic, little circles as links for the socials I have that apply to that thing (Newgrounds is on all of them and YouTube is on 3/4 of them.) I then used that speech bubble thing to make backgrounds for all the little bios. The music one was originally much longer but I cut it down significantly so it would fit. I used the empty spaces for doodles.

continuing...

[jim-bones-spock]

Okay, alright, here’s my analysis of seasons 5 and 6 of Community, starting with Repilot (an episode that lives rent free in my mind!!!)

Repilot is the epitome of what I’m trying to say, it’s meta and dissecting the very essence of the show, since it’s a literal “do over” (Re-Pilot)

The ironic thing is that Jeff would have succeeded in his law practice if there wasn’t a season 5, but since we need him back at Greendale, Jeff fails.

Hard.

The episode is basically a huge mirror from the pilot episode.

The same character from season 1’s inciting incident, Allan, sends Jeff back to school. We see what Jeff would have become if he didn’t go to Greendale for four years, so we at least have this parallel to go on.

Our Jeff is not that defeated that he would go as low as Allan, right?

Right????

We already see Jeff’s delusion with the world, he’s back to his cynical self, drinking and wallowing. His red tie almost undone vs the red superhero suit in his commercial. It’s already darker but the narrative needs him in school, so it has to be a little extreme.

Then, Jeff goes back to Greendale. Immediately Leonard is there, blowing raspberries. Jeff sees his and Annie’s trophy. We’re having a much better time, even if it’s not for a long time.

Because Greendale has turned the camp and the chaos and the sheer stupidity to eleven. Because the narrative needs to remind us of how detached from reality the school is. Because it’s a TV show. There’s a class about ladders, for god’s sake.

It needs to be this wacky because the show has now shifted to: We’re gonna save Greendale. We’re gonna save the show, like it’s been saved on Yahoo.ca, whatever it takes.

When they get to the study room, the table has been buried - the show has been buried, too, but when everyone comes back (Abed: the Dean called me, I called everyone else) just like the pilot, they put life back into it.

Abed is still Jeff’s mirror here, and suggests that Jeff becomes a teacher at the school, because it would be the most TV-logical thing to do, especially since Jeff got his diploma in education hello!??

I LOVE how Jeff is like absolutely not. He’s still fighting the narrative, trying to make sense of his new role.

The Dean also has a very interesting speech about “Greendale is a good place for good people, that old spiel” basically having a cynical view of seasons 1-3 and making fun of the initial message of the show. We already know this, but Greendale has changed. Or maybe, Jeff has changed and is now starting to see the cracks.

Coming back to the study room, they immediately start to fall back into old patterns of bickering, because they all have something to hide and are too proud to admit they are miserable. Shirley brings them back to reality before they get too far. Once again, rooting us slowly into reality.

Jeff, for his part, forgot how good it felt to be bad. When he beats down Allan with his own tie… woof, that was rough. He takes the tie. Takes charge. Wants his own identity back, because it’s much easier to be bad than good. Much easier to pretend that he doesn’t care, than actually caring. Caring got him hurt.

Then Chang appears and makes fun of the absurdity of his character. It’s easy to see here, because when said out loud, Chang’s development is the most extreme. Like come on, amnesia? Get a grip, show!!!

Jeff then feels he has been robbed of his identity and starts to point out each character’s development:

Britta was an eclectic anarchist. She is now the airhead, which is heartbreaking and I don’t want to think about season 1 Britta too much or I go insane.

Shirley began the show by taking back her independence from her cheating husband and is now the one who cheated ???

Annie lost her go-getter attitude and settled for a job she hates.

Abed, multiple breakdowns. Like, at least one per season.

Troy’s Clive Owen Tumblr (what is his url u think) but no, seriously, always being with Abed and nothing else.

They did ended up like mixed up cartoons, and not only because of the “gas leak year”. They’ve become stereotypes, as sitcom characters often do. They’ve evolved, but perhaps not in the original direction intended, or not where we left then in season 3.

Now, it’s time for them to Get Something Back. Their narratives.

Annie says to Jeff: Greendale is in your hands. And it is. If Jeff talks long enough, he can make the people around him do things. It’s his power. Greendale’s fate is in his hands.

Then, Abed throws his words back at him: you make us see the right truth.

And that could be that Greendale is a place worth saving!!!! Jeff knows that, because, as usual, with one sentence, Abed has thrown off his resolve. Maybe Jeff needs to show them another thruth. But Jeff needs one last convincing first.

The Pierce hologram is my favorite. The fact that only Jeff could see it for some reason, echoes season 1 when Pierce was more of a grumpy grandpa that sometimes gave Jeff some nugget of wisdom and acted like a distorted father figure. Same here.

Jeff walks back in the school, screaming to the Dean about his power to destroy the place. But he won’t do it. He’s so desperate for something to matter once more and for that thing not to be dark and twisted.

And then. And Then. The Dean offers him a job.

Teacher.

The way Jeff looks up as he would be talking to god (non specific) when he whispers “Screw you Abed” as soon as he sees his path laid out for him: become a teacher at the school who, he thinks, stole 4 years of his life. He looks up like he’s delivering a monologue in theater, like he’s alone, like he’s praying.

As you can see, I feel VERY normal about the acting choices.

Screw you, Abed. Screw you, TV show. Screw you, logical way for my character to stay and have the rest of my story be mine, or trying to be.

The table burns, but that’s okay, because they build a new one together. This is truly theirs, now. They have the power to do anything.

And Jeff, well…

Jeff still, in his darkest moments, thought of his friends. In his most ironic moment, looked UP to Abed/his mirror/the narrative and said “Screw you…

…I’ll do it anyway.”

[sophietv]

What are your thoughts on 1975 fans trying to attribute a lot of Easter eggs to Matty in the new video? :( Someone on Twitter put a visual together of all the highlights and it’s so annoying because when it’s laid out like that I see it and I hate that I see it. Just like lighting visuals being very similar, and particular dates being significant to the 1975 and/or Taylor. For example, the July 9th 1:38 people are saying is for Taylor and Matty’s birthdays (the 13th and the 8th). I guess the timeline makes sense because early April when she filmed this video would have been around the time when she was hanging out with him and doing whatever pr nightmare that was…talk me off the ledge pls! Lol.

Hi!

Don't worry, I went and check the threads you were talking about and I'm confident that it's not related or at least not as they think.

The lighting in I Can See You Lyrics Video is the bisexual lighting and fits really well with the theme of the song.

Her comparing being in love with another woman to being a spy and having to navigate cautiously to not be seen.

The spy scene is remisnescent of a commercial she did:

(X)

And what she was trying to protect back then in the briefcase was a microphone you know to "Speak Now" maybe...

The videoclip has a lot of references to Look What You Made Me Do both MV and Eras Tour number, and I think it's very important and meant to point at Karma.

A girl, that is remisnecent of Lizz comes and save her with her beard at the time that shielded her.

All her outfit of her public appearance (X) emprisonned behing glass.

Side note on all of this is reminescent of the Tom Ford commercial Karlie did not long ago

With the lyrics video too:

Her being locked up in a Vault. With an orange door.

And the Eclipsed Sun imagery (do with that that you will ;-) )

Also some Karlie's parallel:

With Long Live lyrics on her arm.

"I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you"

Long Live was written a month after Chely Wright came out. And if you take the time to really look at the lyrics, you see how well this all fits together.

Someone counted all the marks on the wall, and there's 1468 lines/days.

The exact number of days between when her masters got stolen and her releasing Speak Now Taylor's Version (X)

When she's finally free. All the glass closet shatter.

And even more. The building holding her captive explodes once and for all.

The person who help her escape has stars on her right side (Eye theory I'm looking at you)

Stars on the face are there always to depict Taylor Swift TM public personna.

And she's the only one that can actually see Taylor and help her out.

Some say it might be gaylors, who can actually see the real Taylor.

But whoever this person is meant to represent.

She codes...

And has a ring on her right ring finger....

Now the dates:

It's tonight.

Remembre how Taylor said that Speak Now her version would be out on July 7th just in time for July 9th where we would be able to celebrate?

Now the time 1:38. The mission starts at that time. But how much time would it take to get her out? 20 minutes maybe?

Wich leads to: "Lit through the darkness at 1:58" and "That July ninth, the beat of your heart"

Both lyrics from last kiss.

To me it does sound like a rendez-vous. Now the only thing to determine is: is it 1:38 ET or 1:38 Liverpool time wich would be 8:38 ET (just before Taylor goes on stage for the show tonight).

And notice that in the countdown yesterday. Beside the clock in the front, every other clocks pointed to 1:58

And the other date is where it gets really interesting...

I found this last night.

May 22 2020

Here's what happened for Taylor on that date:

And when you type the adress, you are still led to her website with this ULR message:

"they wouldn't me do it Karma" (X)

And yes, I think it is exactly what you think it is...

Remembre how last week right before Karlie posted 6 palm trees (Karma was supposed to be TS 6th album)

The URL on karmaonthewall.com changed for "after Midnights it starts" to "Ready For It"

Suki, Austin and Kristine Karlie's sister also posted palm trees last week....

Here's a post I did about how Ready For It is relevent for all of this (X)

So yeah... everything in that MV is sooo important.

Nothing is related to Matty.

Now we just have to wait and see. And show a lot of support and love for that amazing woman who's been throught so much and deserves the world.

And after this URL change of last night... I think we can safely agree that karmaonthewall.com is really related to Taylor too...

[loftec]

Weekly tag Wednesday actually on a Wednesday for once!

Thank you @deedala for the tag!

Name: loftec

Age: 38

Location: Sweden

Top sheet, yes or no? If this is what I think it is (a loose sheet on top of you and just a regular blanket on top of that) then absolutely not. I could not live like that. I have a duvet with a duvet cover.

How many stuffed animals do you own? Many, I've got my childhood stuffed animals stuffed into my closet because I cannot get rid of them.

The names of your pets (and the explanations behind them): My cat growing up was called Ivan, named after Van Morrison (a compromise for my dad to agree to adopting him, he got to name him). I adopted my brother's cat a few years ago, and she was adopted from someone else, who named her Bella. And my current boy I named Magnus after Magnus Bane, because he is a black cat with golden eyes, and also I thought it was funny (Magnus is a very middle-aged human man name in Swedish).

Favorite color: I've been really into coral pink lately

Any tattoos? Yes

How you transport your belongings (purse, tote, hands, pockets, etc.): I have a smaller backpack I always carry unless I need something bigger, and I usually pack an extra tote in case I need it.

The last movie you watched: Pride (2014) and I cried like it was the first time I saw it.

How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? Anything between 20 minutes and 3 hours (3 hours if I actually do the things I want to do; bike to the ocean, do a little yoga or work out or whatever, cook breakfast, make coffee, have a shower... lately I've just made breakfast and coffee and eaten it by the computer. I work at home.)

Favorite weather: Fog, crisp, no wind!

Relationship status: Happily single

Ice cream flavor of choice: If there's a chocolate option with something a little salty added to it, I want it.

First fandom: First fandom that I participated in online was j-rock

How many books have you read this year? 4

First 4 words of your last notes app entry: Svamp, frukt/bär, Banan

And finally, if you had to change your URL tomorrow, what would you change it to? I am really bad at change, would you believe, I've had this username since 2005... maybe "klemrisk" because I think it's a fun word.

Tagging anyone who wants to do it!

[halfbakedspuds]

Thanks so much to @honeybewrites for the tag! (Also, I must apologise for being made of stupid, I posted this a few days ago already and ended up putting down the wrong URL for the tagger. Very much am stupid, sorry)

Proud of tag

Rules: post an excerpt you are proud of.

I don't have any non-spoilery extracts like this for Echoes of Shadows and writing for the Tempest Prince is basically non-existent (despite it being my oldest and most well thought out WIP), so I think we'll go with Children of the Stars for this one.

I know this scene is short, but I like it because it's one of the first where you can see the usual tin-soldier demeanour of Adrian slip a little, and it was one of the first 'downtime' scenes I wrote that I liked. It's also the first scene where we can see just how well Lyanni has come to know her human housemate

The front door slammed shut. That was Lyanni's first cue that something was wrong, because not once in almost a year of living with the human had Adrian shown frustration in any capacity.

Bearing that in mind, and at least a bit curious as to what could have driven him to a break in Imperial decorum, she marked the spot she was at in her book and placed it down on the table. However, she chose to remain lounging on the couch for the time being, stretching out all seven feet of her and turning to watch the hallway.

It did not take long for Adrian to show his face, and what a sorry sight it was. His snow-white hair was ruffled, and noticeable dark sackd hung under his eyes. Even his usual stolid demeanour was gone: replaced by the slouched and tired posture of someone who had just gone through hell. He reminded her of a soldier who'd spent years besieged, and she wonder if this had been his constant look a mere three years prior.

He stopped by the rack to look at her, slowly peeling off his soiled coat to hang it up

"Fuck,"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

He paused for a moment to rub his tear ducts. Clearly, what he wanted more than anything was sleep, and despite his silence on the matter he showed incredible trust in her by allowing himself even such a minor lapse in his usual manner.

A long, silent moment passed before he said, "I am going to go take a shower and calm down before I forsake my dignity further. Then I'll let you in on the shitshow that has been the last few days,"

"Sounds like we've both had it equally bad," Lyanni said, gracefully drawing her body up and onto it's feet, stretching as she strode to the kitchen, "I'll get coffee,"

His body immediately tensed up as he asked, "What happened here, then?"

Lyanni smirked. Zero to machine in point-three seconds. Classic Ajay

She shrugged non-chalantly to indicate that he had nothing to worry about, "Nobles, a hole, and a servitor uprising,"

"Ah," He said and relaxed, as though he actually gleaned something of note from her words, and continued up the stairs.

What's the bet this time?, she thought switching on the biosynthesizer and ordering two cups of coffee: one Levo and one Dextro, Give him three... two... one...

As if on cue, she heard him pause about halfway up the stairs, before backtracking slightly. She turned around just in time to watch him lean over the railing with an embarrassed smile plastered on his face.

"Sorry," He apologized sheepishly, "Hello, Lya,"

She smiled. Adrian, always so mindful of manners, "Heya,"

No pressure tag for @orion-lacroix, @illarian-rambling and anyone else who wants in

[nebulouscoffee]

for the ask game star trek voyager!!

Thank you sm friend! I already answered a couple of these, but the great thing about being very indecisive is I can give different answers each time <3

Favourite character: B'Elanna Torres, although Kathryn Janeway is a close second (I do have a Janeway-themed url, after all😌)

Second favourite character: okay, I'll talk about Janeway here! Gosh what a deeply flawed individual. She's awesome, and yes, incredibly charismatic and badass, but she's also haunted, complex, and scarily capable of hurting those closest to her (which she does. Like, a lot.) She ends up in charge of a seemingly endless mission, and she cannot afford to crack- not in front of her crew, and not even really in secret- so she begins this seven-year process of what basically amounts to dehumanising herself. Her arc is almost like a long-form merging with Voyager the ship- she is Voyager, and Voyager is her! She will protect her crew and bring them home. She will ensure they get to survive. (What happens to her? Well, she knows she can and will never be the same, but she can't and doesn't think about that right now). She made a mistake and her crew paid the price and the guilt of this eats at her every day, but she cannot afford to acknowledge it or she'll go insane. She tries so hard to stick to her principles but once she's violated a few she starts thinking of her soul as this already-corrupted thing- she knows she can live with it, so why not do something else that's a bit messed up! Better me than any of my crew, right! Like- no wonder she couldn't move on with her life once Voyager reached the Alpha Quadrant in the Endgame timeline. No wonder she had to travel back in time to die in the past. She is so changed by the events of this show that the past the only place she can truly belong. Ugh!!!! I have so many feelings about her!!

Least favourite character: I dislike voyager!Q so much I actually skip all his episodes on rewatch lmao. And I'm someone who actually quite enjoys him on TNG! He's this all-powerful all-knowing omnipotent being who could literally be off anywhere any time doing anything he wanted, and yet he chooses to keep coming back to this one starship just to flirt with the most boring man alive. He literally got kicked out of the Q Continuum for having too much of a hyperfixation on his blorbo. That's funny! And compelling! Unfortunately the Voyager writers did not understand what made this work and decided his only trait was *irritates everybody* (including the audience lol). What he and Picard had was a funny back and forth, a snarky Quodo-style "these horrible old men deserve each other" rivalry. What he and Janeway have is sexual harassment played for laughs 🙃

The character I'm most like: Kes - I went into more detail here :)

Favourite pairing: B7 if we're talking non-canon ships! From canon, uhhhh I guess whatever was going on between Janeway and Chakotay in 'Resolutions' & Tom/B'Elanna before they got together

Least favourite pairing: I don't know if I have one? C7 is the popular answer but I literally straight up forget it exists because it's such a small part of the show, like it doesn't even show up for reals until the finale. I'm not a fan of the way they wrote Tom/B'Elanna for basically all of S5 and S6, and the damage control they did in S7 wasn't bad imo but also felt too little too late. I also dislike Kes/Neelix, though I do think it had potential to be a really interesting breakup arc lol

Favourite moment: That scene from 'Year of Hell' where Janeway has given the order to abandon ship and everyone else is so reluctant to desert the bridge and it looks soooo banged up but she still won't abandon it.... and then Tuvok gives her that hug goodbye..... and she glances at that little gift Chakotay made for her which she didn't have the heart to recycle..... and she talks about what Voyager means to her, and why she has to go down with the ship...... my heart😭

Rating out of 10: Objectively an 8/10, I think the early seasons are GREAT and around midway through they do sort of run out of ideas thanks to their commitment to being as episodic as possible and sidelining more than half the main cast as well as refusing to let the guest cast build up or develop. The show genuinely suffers for it imo! There's a lot of wasted potential, as well as biases of the time that prevented it from reaching true heights- I also wholeheartedly think this show ruined the Borg lol, now 75% more human and 200% less intimidating! However it's also got so many positives- I adore all the main characters so much, and the premise itself gives me so many feels that in my heart it's an 11/10🥰

[anonymousad]

crowdfund review: Shelterwood

Shelterwood has been on my radar for a while, since last year when they were casting (I think it was last year, but at this point we're over midway through this one so it may have been more recently). there have been rumblings about it for a while, lots of people intrigued by the initial pitch of "suburban gothic horror", so it's already gotten a bit of traction. I was unsurprised to see it announce a crowdfund. even more unsurprised to see certain aspects of it weren't up to snuff.

as usual, the link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shelterwood-a-suburban-gothic

so let's start as we always do...

(Un)Realistic Goals

what is with this $26,000 number, I'm serious was there a memo that went around to all of you saying this was a magic number???

genuinely, I find it especially odd when you consider that this is the exact same amount that Arden season 3 was asking for, and that is a show that is very established with prior crowdfunding success to base it off of. and I still thought it was a lot to be asking for them as people who had proven to their fans the quality they would provide.

Shelterwood is a project helmed by Stephen Indrisano (he/they), sometimes known as Indrisano Audio. I believe this is his first project as a writer, but on their website you can find other credits for both acting and sound design. of note, he is part of the team for Re: Dracula. suddenly why they think that giant number is acceptable makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? has Tal advice written all over it.

you know we will come back to this number in the budget section, but once again I will say that a "flexible goal" is not a bad thing, but maybe it's a sign that you should set a more realistic goal and then have stretch goals on top. I went pretty in-depth on the reasoning behind that in the Arden crowdfund review (that none of you read), but again.

we'll come back to this number.

Video Time

exactly 1 minute long, a reasonable ask of any prospective backer's time. but it's not about the campaign. this is a teaser trailer that goes on the podcast feed with a video component. honestly, the video aspect is not bad, it's a live action attempt to show off the general vibe and energy with actual clips of the show playing. has the same amateur energy of a lot of short films I would say, but sometimes that's charming. and the clips used are good, they tell the story of what to expect and the framing of it.

but it's not about the campaign.

a brief mention at the end with a link is all you get, and honestly that should have just been saved for the text portion of the post. most ideally, that's the INTRO of your video and after that first minute you have a call to action that actually says more.

good information to include:

time frame of the campaign

amount looking for

mention the passion of the team working on it

you can even mention influences here, but like one or two. keep it brief if you're going to

technically the video never even asks you to support the campaign, just that it is "crowdfunding now" and you can follow the url for more details. not much of a call to action to actually get people to take a look.

the ideas they executed on in the video are done well, but you can tell it wasn't really thought about how to make this work for the crowdfund so much as it would for just making me follow the RSS feed ahead of launch.

The Story and People

What Is Shelterwood: A Suburban Gothic?

as stated in their description, Shelterwood: A Suburban Gothic is a 16-part "Docu-Horror Podcast" (not sure why they capitalize those words to be honest). up front this is really good important information that will be immediately helpful in telling someone whether they will be interested in the project. there are plenty of people in the community with strong feelings one way or the other on the "docu-series" style, and being this clear about it is a good thing. for some they'll be more excited, and others will know this isn't worth their time and be able to move on (which isn't really a loss because even if you got them to read further they wouldn't likely give money anyway).

also love to see the length of the series being stated clearly here. "a 16-part" length tells me the most important information I need about the scope of the campaign. in part because it implies that this money will cover the production of the ENTIRE series, rather than later having them come back and go "hey, we actually are doing two seasons of 8 episodes each so we need another $26k to finish the story". that better not be what fucking happens, I swear

moving on, we are introduced to the writer/producer I mentioned above, Stephen Indrisano (he/they) (along with a link to his website, thank you for showing that people can very easily add hyperlinks in these sections). this section doesn't say anymore about Stephen or their personal qualifications to be asking for this much money and trust, but if you follow through to the website you can see credits for things they've been involved with on the production side. it would be better to not have to go elsewhere or dig for this kind of thing, when you are asking for a sum this large in any setting there is an expectation of proving that you can be trusted with it. and that comes down to more than the people you bring on board to help, it matters specifically with regards to the showrunner themself.

so why should I trust that Stephen can create a product so professional it needs $26,000 USD? at this point there's no reason. but let's keep going.

very brief one sentence description of the plot, not a bad thing to have but it could be fleshed out a little more to have some of the interesting details that were alluded to in the video trailer. again, not everyone will watch your trailer, sometimes when I see a campaign I'm in public or otherwise unable to listen to something and so will skip something with sound. plus it's less accessible to not have a written component (though it does look like care was taken to make sure the youtube captions were accurate, something very easily overlooked by even full-time video creators), but that does still require someone hitting play on a video they might not be able to.

we get a short list of inspirations, including two other well-known podcasts and an iconic horror video game, and then a description of "one part Gothic, one part Found Footage, and one hundred percent terrifying." which is not a bad tagline, but I'm still thrown by the weird capitalization going on here, that might just be a me thing.

Who Is Involved With This?

here's where we get some cast and crew and the standard name dropping you might expect from this type of production. it isn't necessarily trying to coast on the people involved and their success, buuuuttttt kind of a little it is. honestly I don't blame campaigns for doing this to an extent, even fans of a thing don't always remember the names of the people behind it.

it is always a bit suspicious to see name drops without additional context however.

we all know you put The Magnus Archives first as an attention grab, even though you only have one actor from that show who did a very good job but wasn't at all responsible for it being so beloved. Alasdair is great, but people need to stop coasting on his willingness to do smaller projects as a way to make themselves look more important.

of the 8 people listed in the crew section (which when it comes to quality of the finished product is who tends to matter more), I recognize and can connect 3 of them to other projects, and only two of those in a significant aspect. now that doesn't have to mean anything, but for me it does make me ask questions and want to dig into what the rest have done before to get a sense of the quality of the final production.

a small thing: it is also weird that within the crew section Stephen is the only one not with a crew related credit. obviously we've already been told he wrote it, but I'm not sure why it isn't still included when two other people in that section have both a cast and crew role listed.

I will say that the graphic looks nice, but I've brought up before how IndieGoGo doesn't seem to have any kind of alt text feature and so when you have an image with a lot of information you should keep that in mind. all of these people are only listed on the image, not in the text. the only thing that gets the text with links out treatment is the shows that Shelterwood is bragging about their talent being from. just something I thought I'd point out, if it's about the people then you should highlight the PEOPLE.

as much as I would like to, I'm not gong to dig into each of the credentials of the people listed here, cast or crew. people deserve to be given chances even if they're new to the scene (every gig is someone's first gig), and my personal desire to know how "qualified" each of them is is ENTIRELY coming from the amount of money being asked for. for even a $10,000 goal I would not be asking all these questions, there is just a threshold after which I get really suspicious and feel that justification is necessary. which they try to do a bit in the budget section.

but let's move onto the next bit, I don't think there is all that much to comment on as far as actors except what I've already said about clout.

Campaign Rewards and Goodies

let's talk tiers and perks.

the Shelterwood campaign has a total of 9 tiers, ranging from $5 at the lowest up to $1,000. you already know what's coming when we hit that one

so first of all, I think the sidebar tier scroll is REALLY good. the images for each level are unique and eye-catching, and help add to the general feel that the show is going for. scrolling through them really helps paint the picture for the Stepford energy to expect from this fictional neighborhood. each image also good theming, relating to the different aspects of being part of a neighborhood, from "Architect" to "Licensed Realtor". very good job on that, it adds to the fun of the experience and telling your friends about the level you backed at. especially if you want to make jokes about this being the only homeowner adjacent status you can afford.

the tier descriptions are a little more verbose when you are actually looking at the options for selection, so I'm going to be referring to what is written there. I will point out if there is any substantial difference between that and the main text of the campaign, but for the most part it seems to just be an additional sentence and small wording tweaks.

NOTE: every tier includes all the rewards that are part of the prior tiers, I will not be pointing this out for all of them because that just gets repetitive and makes this even longer than it needs to be.

$5 PROSPECTIVE BUYER - a reasonable intro tier, and honestly anything lower doesn't seem to get many people on board anyway. a tip jar type $1-3 tier always seems like a good idea, but I doubt it's making up enough of the funding to justify itself when it comes down to it. but let's look at what's in this first bit of goods:

a pack of digital wallpapers - could be interesting based on the types of images we've been shown so far in relation to the campaign, and honestly it's a nice extra at this basic tier that a lot of campaigns will reserve for $20+

supporter updates through development - this is very vague and will probably come down to the way that all crowdfunding campaigns post updates. something that can usually be seen by people whether or not they backed your campaign, so I don't actually think this an exclusive anything for being a supporter. but at this tier price that's fine enough honestly.

supporter exclusive discord - perfectly reasonable to place here, helps even the backers who can't give much to feel like they are able to be part of and support the project as it becomes reality.

$15 NEW NEIGHBOR - the jump from $5 to $15 is a little odd to me, but I guess if you are trying to keep the number of tiers lower and already know your high point it is okay. personally the difference between offering $5 and $10 is a much easier choice to bump up as a supporter than going all the way to $15.

personalized shout-out on Twitter and/or Tumblr - to be fair, this was before the latest Twitter meltdown, so offering that was not quite as pathetic a couple weeks ago. BUT this is still a pretty sad upgrade for tripling your pledge?

$30 LONG-TIME RESIDENT - this has the same price increase issue as the last, there's just something about going up to $30 versus $25 that feels odd? harder to justify, sometimes numbers don't feel linear when it comes to money

curated recommendations - "everything you need to understand who we are and why" is a very vague description of what this might contain. I'm assuming we're talking books, movies, tv-shows, video games, other podcasts, and music that helped inspire the show. which honestly is fun, I don't mind that, it's just being extremely vague about it. $50 says House of Leaves is on there (no hate, it's a very important piece of architectural horror).

Haunted House micro-zine - UH OH. we all remember what this means, right? we all saw the absolutely PITIFUL micro-zine that went out to Re: Dracula supporters and with many of the same people involved here that is definitely the level of quality to expect (shoddy folding, clip art ass looking artwork, copy-pasted stuff from the web vs original content, misaligned printing, etc). granted, I think this is a PDF version (not that it specifies that itself, just based on the full tier description that says "a printable first step into the neighborhood"), but still. that zine was also at the $30 level and there were people really disappointed with it. I am not going to link to the Twitter thread in which one of the people involved with the campaign actively searched for and found a post with no hashtags or tags and proceeded to put them on blast to their own thousands of followers. but I want you all to know that I remember that happening, and it IS going to become relevant again at some point in the future.

UPDATE: right has I was doing my final checks of the campaign to make sure my images were up to date for this and things were still as I expected, an update was posted. an update that in part pertains to the micro-zine. I think everything I wrote above (and below about the physical version) is still relevant, BUT specifics of that will be revealed and discussed right before the end of this post if you want to jump down there and take a look at what I have to say now.

$50 LICENSED REALTOR - jumping up another $20 so that they can print out two sheets of paper and add 3 random stickers to send you

printed versions of the curated recommendations and micro-zine - you know what, they did at least learn that a printed copy of their zine was NOT worth going at the $100 tier. so they did make one improvement.

3 random stickers - stickers are nice and easy and can be sent worldwide for pretty cheap. a good thing to have, I just also usually like to see what these stickers might look like. in this case, that would be especially helpful because you are only getting 3 of the 5 designs, and it might actually help a backer decide to up their tier level because they really want to make sure they get the ones they want.

$100 DEVELOPMENT INVESTOR - for adding $50 to your pledge (doubling it) you can get some really boring shit:

all 5 stickers - adds the other two stickers! wow, thanks. totally worth it...

a signed, printed script page - a.... single page? for $50??? I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you doing. this is an INSULTING reward for someone giving you $100. that may not be a lot of money to some people, but especially right now during a huge economic downturn? that's just pathetic.

UPDATE: while it isn't listed here (which should be updated by them when they see this), as part of Campaign Update #2 (which I cover near the bottom of this behemoth post) there was an additional perk added to this tier and above: "a unique page of blackout poetry from a book that influenced the show" - I have no strong opinions on blackout poetry. I still don't think that this makes this tier worth it, but at least they recognize how pathetic it is that it needs a little more of a boost to look appealing.

as an aside: here's some examples of $100 backer rewards that I've seen on campaigns and think ARE worth it:

Syntax - both an annotated full script AND a personalized voice message from any cast member AND credit shout-out (not even counting the earlier included rewards such as an exclusive enamel pin and AMA)

Red Valley - a signed and bound FULL SCRIPT

Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemason - an autographed FULL episode script AND a t-shirt

juuussssttttt some food for thought.

but let's continue on, I'm sure nothing else will be questionable here. can you feel the sarcasm coming off of me in waves, even across an ocean I hope you can sense it

$150 HOMEOWNER'S ASSOCIATION MEMBER - add another $50 for an exclusive poster (which honestly seems pretty reasonable especially when you consider how much international shipping is and production costs of a nice print. assuming the print is high quality, but you never know with this stuff until someone gets it)

an exclusive poster - again, would love to see a design. and maybe measurement details would be nice? I am really glad to see that the artist is named and linked to. the lack of credit I've seen on some campaigns for things they've hired out for is a really disappointing thing, so I am genuinely very happy to see a link to the artist's gallery. it gives a good idea of the style without giving away the mystery (if we want to give the benefit of the doubt that it is supposed to be a fun "mystery" what you will receive) as well as introducing people to an artist who may have other work they would enjoy and like to support. big A+ for that, seriously. the bar is really low on some of this shit.

$250 ARCHITECT - fucking hell, we're jumping up a full $100 now, time for the big leagues benefits

limited edition t-shirt - honestly I can't believe that they decided to put the t-shirt behind a $250 paywall. absolutely absurd, especially after I pointed out that it was included at the $100 tier for a campaign like Two Flat Earthers. I'm serious, do you know how cheap it is to print on demand a t-shirt? it's not dirt cheap, but it is NOT $250 tier level. I am unsurprised that at this point only one person has backed at this tier.

personalized thank you note from writer/creator - this is a nice reward, but again why do you think it is worth enough to be a $250 tier perk? especially when we all know that a "thank you note" can just be a one sentence thing with your name plugged into it. doesn't even say anything about being an exclusive postcard design or anything else that might make it worth it. Stephen might just go to Sam's Club or Costco and bulk buy a box of generic thank you cards to fill out.

$500 CHAIRPERSON OF THE ASSOCIATION - here's where things get a little more interesting

name a character or location in the show - this kind of thing is fine, my one hang up is just that sometimes these things are so fleeting or hidden that they barely qualify as a fun easter egg? we all know that this isn't going to be naming something important, and that's okay, I just hope that it's going to be naming something that is actually audible and noticeable at some point in the show.

one-of-a-kind "production ephemera" - this is a very neat perk that could also be really fucking disappointing. I think to make something like this appropriately exciting you need to give a specific example, more than saying "such as a prop from the video". especially when you use a term like "ephemera" there is an implication of it being something really neat and unusual and you should want to be selling that idea more explicitly. I do genuinely like this reward though, I think it IS relatively appropriate for this level of contribution and could be something really special. could be.

NOTE: this is the first tier where I feel the need to bring up that there are no limits on the number of backers at each level. I think for most physical goods that can get produced it isn't a huge deal to leave it open because a lot of that stuff is going to be made to whatever number is needed without much issue. but when you get into the territory of a "one-of-a-kind" good, there are going to be limitations on what is classified as being good enough to give away. if you get 30 backers at this level, but only 10 of the items are really worth it, you are doing a huge disservice. capping these numbers can also entice people to jump on them for fear of missing out on the one-time opportunity, so it can in fact be beneficial. for example, the Red Valley campaign I posted earlier capped their 3 highest tiers (10, 10, and 5) and sold out of ALL of them. granted, their highest tier was $328 USD (£250 GBP) and not $1000, but still.

$1000 TOWN FOUNDER - who could have guessed that the big $1k tier was once again a vanity Executive Producer credit.

Executive Producer credit - wow. I'm so shocked by this. truly this is the fallback reward of so many campaigns and is so fundamentally USELESS. stop trying to sell people a vanity title, it's gross and doesn't mean shit, and muddies the waters when it comes to the actual creatives who are involved. stop making me point this out. the fact that some people are willing to pay for this does not make it less of a skeezy scam.

[listed] in all show notes and transcripts - there is a typo here that says "listen" instead of "listed", not a huge deal it just made me do a double-take and wonder if I was in fact correctly understanding this reward. initially I read it as "oh cool, they actually get to listen in on some production stuff maybe?" only to realize that no. it's just more shit for the vanity title.

verbal thank you at end of all episodes - generally this is a nice tier reward, but again is it worth $1000? I also pointed out above that the Syntax campaign had this as a $100+ reward, which feels much more reasonable. this does again also bring back the thought of putting limits on the number of backers, because do you really want to potentially be reading dozens of names at the end of every episode? granted at this high of a tier that was never likely, but I did point this out for my Arden write-up which had it included at a tier far too low to leave open.

notably missing things:

any images - literally anything to show off potential rewards. I pointed it out at those tiers, but having a reward for 3 out of 5 random stickers and not showing ANY of the stickers? why would I even think about backing higher to get all of them when I have no idea what I'm missing out on.

any mentions of ad-free episodes - maybe they aren't planning to put ads on the podcast anyway, but worth pointing out that it isn't mentioned anywhere

early access to episodes - this one is usually a staple, weird to find it absent when it's such an easy draw

behind the scenes content - currently there is no indication that they have any kind of platform where they might share behind the scenes stuff, and it isn't a required thing. but I know a lot of people ARE interested in this stuff so I would think that maybe it could have a place. if there is supposed to be an implication that these things will be in the supporter-exclusive Discord server, then that should be clearly said because it is something that could convince people to support.

no add-on rewards - this isn't a super common one and I kind of get why they didn't include this, but when you have some of your physical rewards like a t-shirt locked behind these hugely expensive tiers no one is going to have them. but if you add a $30-50 t-shirt add-on people will buy it. and that's publicity when they wear it, when they post about receiving it, and when they see it in their own closet and think about your show. the ongoing Tell No Tales crowdfund has an add-on option for their very cute mug design, something I personally know people have added to their contributions

some general thoughts on these rewards:

mostly unenticing and overpriced, with nothing that really is selling them as a worthwhile investment. for all the money that they are asking, none of these tiers (particularly the high ones with the possible exception of the $500 one) have anything that would make me pledge above $15. things are either too far out of reach and expensive like the t-shirt or just plain not enticing like the micro-zine.

now that THAT is dealt with, let's move onto the imaginary world of how this money would be parsed out if the campaign were fully funded.

Where Will My Money Go? AKA The Budget

NOTE: because this is a flexible goal campaign, for calculations I am going to use the $26,000 USD being asked for to demonstrate the cost breakdown of the provided budget. this is reasonable given that by asking for this much they are claiming that this is the amount it would take to produce this audio drama. whether or not they receive that, that is the implicit claim.

here you can see the budget pie chart provided by the campaign (I would like to say that visually I am a fan of this weird kind of tv psychedelic thing they have going on in the background of their images). it is... a thing. not a good thing.

Before the Dive

but let's start with what the campaign says in this section because that is also very interesting for other reasons. let's highlight what I think are the most important things:

270 page script

3 years of development already

"we are striving for nothing less than fair wages for all parties involved"

this breakdown applies AFTER crowdfund and reward expenses are accounted for

that last one is particularly important, because my first reaction to this chart was wondering if they were rolling the crowdfunding fees and reward expenses into "production" since they definitely didn't fit anywhere else. this does also slightly complicate the math because I do not know what those expenses will come out to apart from the standard 5% fee that these platforms usually take.

I do also think that the 3 years of development is really important to consider, especially when you combine it with the claim of "fair wages for all parties involved". as it stands, this budget breakdown does NOT do this, because it does not take into account those 3 years of writing and development and pre-production in terms of compensation. this problem of not paying the writers is something I keep seeing, and I think it keeps happening because the writing has already been done and it feels weird to some people to ask for retrospective payment. but if you pitch a script to a director and a studio picks it up, you get paid for that time! you get compensated for the thing you wrote that was a gamble, and if this campaign is making money off of that 3 years of work, why should that not be compensated to an extent?

in a lot of cases this would be the most important thing for me to call out here, that discrepancy between claiming to want fair wages for everyone, but that only seeming to apply when it comes to the production and post-production stages.

now, 270 pages is not nothing. that's a lot of script to write. but it's also not that much script to write if we're being honest. there are shows I listen to that have hour long episodes and their transcripts are 80-90 pages EACH. so comparing that to Shelterwood could have you thinking this is only going to come out to about 3 hours of content.

I actually had to come back to this section and make some adjustments because it's only in the FAQ (where most people forget to look) that episode length is mentioned (40-50 minutes).

now then.

Let's Get Into the Numbers

it's time to crunch some numbers.

it's going to be a bit difficult to divide based on anything except the cast/crew list and the number of episodes that will be produced, but I will try my best to break it down like that.

there is also a bit of really useful information hidden a little further down in the stretch goals section of the campaign (which I am glad I made note of before doing all of my math).

in the "How Much Do You Need to Raise?" section is the following:

For this project to get off the ground, we need to raise $26,000, with a green light to start production at $20,800. But don’t worry, we’ve got some exciting milestones to hit before then! For every $5,000 of our total goal raised, we’ll be releasing a micro-sode in the world of Shelterwood

this has some VITAL information for our calculations, namely that the ACTUAL goal to start production is $20,800 USD, not $26,000 USD.

there is a slight problem with this however, in that a "green light to start" can mean a few things. because the campaign is still a flexible goal, even if they don't hit this number they will get the money, so I am assuming it does NOT mean that they have to hit it to start production at all. I think what it is meaning to say is that it's either hitting that number or the campaign ending that will be the green light.

however, there is an alternative.

this is a group of podcasters with some significant pull and connections, something we've seen some of them deploy for other projects. namely, Re: Dracula.

yeah, we're back at this one apparently.

the reason I bring it up at all, is because that was a project that IN ADDITION to their crowdfund had a $10,000 investment from Seed & Spark. now why might that be relevant? there is a chance that when Shelterwood says it needs $20,800 to green light the production, that is an absolute statement. but that they have plans to try and find other investors to help them hit it if the crowdfunding doesn't get them there. I don't have any real reason to believe this would be the case, Re: Dracula was very upfront about their outside investment. but it does feel like something to point out with regards to how this is worded.

either way, I am going to be doing the calculations for 1. reaching the full goal, 2. reaching the "green light" goal, and 3. as a per episode cost. hopefully these three ways will give a good insight into the actual budget being proposed here.

there is also something in this text about promised "micro-sodes" at each $5,000 hit. that isn't about stretch goals, it's about the whole campaign. so we need to factor it in somehow. luckily there is already the first one up on the Someone Dies In This Elevator feed (another perk of having Tal on your campaign is getting some of the promotion they only seem to reserve for friends) and so I can see that it is 7.5 minutes long (which, side note, it's kind of weird that Shelterwood isn't referenced in the name of this one? it's in the show notes, but I scrolled past it without realizing and then had to take a closer look as I was going through again to figure out which it was).

most of this feed seems to be populated by a variety of micro-sodes, lengths ranging from as low as 4 minutes to as high as 11 minutes. so this one is actual bang on the money for average length. additionally, we know from the FAQ that the actual episodes will be 40-50 minutes apiece. now, I did not know that when I DID the calculations because I didn't check that section until the end.

as a side note, before we get into it: I really appreciate it when campaigns do some of this for me and include their own actual numbers along with the percentages. maybe you don't want to make my life easier, I am in fact largely writing about campaigns that I think are not good, but still. even as a prospective backer it's nice to see the 1 to 1 of "oh if I give $100 that is paying for half of an episodes acting!"

so let's break it down with first the big percentages as numbers:

here's where that little bit of info about the micro-sodes is useful. I was going to use my calculations to basically guess at how comparable all of these were compared to a full episode, before I realized the actual expected episode length was in the FAQ. but then I realized that the phrasing of these goals is that they are already completed and just waiting to be published, about 37.5 minutes of content based on the one we currently have access to. only the stretch goal mini-sodes have NOT been written and produced. so I am actually NOT going to factor them into the costs, because I've already pointed out that we are seemingly ignoring work that has already been completed before the campaign went live, and this is definitely that. so thank you for making my math a bit easier I guess by not having to factor those in.

additionally, I did point out how the campaign says that the percentages will be applied to the number leftover after campaign related costs, but that is an impossible amount of money to guess. so for ease I will be ignoring it entirely.

(I actually just forgot to calculate what 5% of the total goal removed would change the numbers to, and I really don't want to redo all my math now that I've realized this. sorry if that makes me seem less professional with my breakdown, but I can only do so much and don't have all the time in the world to make this perfect. an impossible task as-is.)

so. let's see these numbers in full (in USD):

PRODUCTION - 10% - $2,600 (at the $26k goal) or $2,080 (at $20,800) - $162.50 or $130/episode

so first of all, "production" is a very vague term. to some creators this may or may not include sound design and other aspects of editing, but since sound design is accounted for separately it makes it less clear what this bucket means.

I think that we can get a better idea by looking at the involved crew, but there will still be some guesswork involved.

first up, I think we can assume that this does NOT include payment for writing the script. we've already covered that I think, but I just to explicitly address that since in my mind that would be in the "production" bucket for this categorization of budget.

next we have the producer. again, this is fucking vague as hell in terms of titles, means different stuff to different people. I do however think it is part of this section of payment, given the name, so there is one person.

we also have 2 directors for this project. now, I think a case could be made that the directors are getting paid from the actor pool, but what it really is is part of the production side of things so I am going to assume it is here. that brings us up to 3 people.

lastly we have the graphic designer, a role that definitely falls into production as it almost certainly entails stuff like promotional material, marketing, and unique cover art for episodes (if they go that way, plenty of shows don't).

so we have a total of 4 people to split this money, though not all of these roles are equal. but as an average payment, we're looking at about $650 or $520 per person. I do think that the rate for the directors compared to the graphic design work is not going to paid the same, though I don't really have a clear idea how either of those costs will compare to the role of the producer here.

however.

even if we were to divide this in a way that was VERY generous to the co-directors, up to $1000 each even, that is really fucking low.

if both are taking part in directing all episodes, at 16 total that is $62.50 pay each.

if they are splitting the directing work and each taking 8, that is $125 for the episode in question.

either way, it comes out to the same amount overall, which is not really fair compensation for what will come out to what I would guess is around 25+ hours of work.

that estimation could be really off, but based on my own experiences I think I'm even being a bit conservative on that point. maybe not everything is being directed, some of the smaller parts might be recorded asynchronously, but still.

for a budget this massive, to only be setting aside less than $3000 is kind of ridiculous.

moving on.

MUSIC - 10% - $2,600 (at the $26k goal) or $2,080 (at $20,800) - $162.50 or $130/episode

again, I'm a little confused by the crew list here. we have listed both a "composer" AND someone doing "in-show music". given the context of the framing device as a docu-series, I'm still left pretty confused? this designation of "in-show" kind of implies that there will be a separation between the more professional production investigative documentary-esque side and some other place that music would be. the only things I can think that that would exclude are intro and outro music, which is not hugely significant compared to the main content of the show that will be given original music as background.

it makes it a little harder to distinguish these roles, though I do believe that the "in-show music" is going to be a larger portion of the production, so will likely get a larger chunk of the funds allocated here.

but let's assume for a moment that these are equivalent roles, and look at how much each will be paid:

for the full project, that comes out to $1,300 or $1,040 each (or approximately $81.25 or $65/episode.

now I don't think that the per episode cost here is that valuable, considering music is most often something that is paid a flat fee for. additionally, it's unlikely that every episode is going to have unique music; a certain number of compositions will be done to cover the broad themes needed (i.e. music for action moments, for investigative moments, for emotional moments) and then reused throughout the series. it's not really possible to make a guess at the amount of music that is going to be produced, so whether or not this is a fair pay rate is unclear. I will point out that there is a stretch goal involving an album, so we're probably talking about more than 10 distinct compositions.

even so, let's remember that this is the same amount allocated as for Production, but only split between 2 people. which is interesting. as I said, music can have re-use, but things like direction and production usually cannot, so I would expect those things to take up more time overall. and yet the same amount of money is being split more ways too.

again, this is all educated guesswork. it isn't super common for podcasts to have entirely original music and it's also very nebulous in how many tracks are required to keep things from feeling repetitive and to match the varying tones in a story. this leaves us to kind of just take this section of the budget as a gut check, one that I wouldn't really think much about if not for the fact it is being valued at the same price as "production".

I do think it's also worth asking a question about the need for original music. for a theme and credits track I definitely get it, having something that is 100% solely identifiable with YOUR production is big and helps it feel special. but when we're talking about background music, these are things that are arguably not that important in terms of being completely original?

I do think this isn't that much of an issue here, the music budget is still very tiny compared to the rest of the proposed costs, but it is still over $1000 for something that could be achieved by using a more cost effective solution like a sound library. as an example, Epidemic Sound is $239.88/year for a commercial license, and you could possibly get away with the personal subscription at just $119.88/year (I don't endorse this service, it is just seems to be the one most commonly used). there are a huge number of tracks, more than enough to tackle sound design for a documentary-style horror podcast.

let me be clear: I love music, I love musicians, I think people should have opportunities to get paid for their talent.

but I think it says something about how highly that this production sees itself that they are pursuing costs that are arguably not NECESSARY (we will get back to this, have faith). the more the cost of the campaign climbs, the more you should be evaluating what is most important. if the music isn't integral to the story, how are you justifying that additional cost?

like I said, I don't think it necessarily applies here in the context of the percentage of the budget, but $1,040-1,300 is still a LOT for most campaigns.

but let's keep going, we're about to look at the majority of where the budget is going.

CAST - 40% - $10,400 ($26k) or $8,320 ($20,800) - $1,625 ($26k) or $1,300 ($20,800)/episode

from these numbers we can also break down approximate actor pay.

what we know for sure from the cast announcement is that there are a total of 27 actors (3 of whom are also crew). obviously there are going to be varying levels of supporting vs main, but at this point there isn't anything I can say about the breakdown of that besides a guess (in a cast this size I would personally guess that probably 5ish roles are considered main characters, with 5-10ish as supporting and the rest as flavor characters).

but let's just look at breakdown as though every role were somehow equal in terms of compensation:

that gives us about $385 or $308 per voice actor across all episodes, or an average of $24 or $19.25 per actor per episode.

again, I don't think this is an accurate breakdown, obviously our perspective character is going to be speaking for most of every episode and just from looking at character names in the cast list you can tell quite a few will only appear once or twice.

but when you factor in that over half of these actors are likely doing minor characters and getting paid probably around $25 for their entire contribution, that leaves a lot of money left.

as a quick guesstimation, let's say 15 of the actors are in this group, accounting for only $375 of this budget. that leaves over $10,000 on the table to be split among 12 people, most of whom will not be main characters and probably only make $100-250 each. even if I were to be generous with these numbers, there is still a lot of money left on the table going to the main actors in the group. more than there needs to be for it to be fair compensation.

I want to reiterate that it's difficult to do anything definitive with the information we have, but I think it is somewhat useful to do this exercise as there are some somewhat standard rates of pay within audio drama, at least for smaller sized roles.

I believe in fair pay, but there is a difference between what that means in audio drama and what that means in other voice acting career spaces. I think there is a larger conversation to be had about that, particularly as we keep seeing crowdfunding campaigns of this size that seem to be trying to make their project something that provides a "living wage" to the actors. this is not really a sustainable or reasonable expectation given the amount of work being done, especially when compared to the value that is being given to other aspects of the production process (again, why are the directors getting paid from a bucket that is so much smaller than this one?).

what this seems to be doing is trying to fit a wage mold that isn't really applicable. these are not union actors getting paid industry rates, these are just not those kinds of professional productions. there is something very off about the amount of money being asked here for a project that is not even that large.

but let's move on before I go on an even larger tangent about this side topic.

SOUND DESIGN - 40% - $10,400 ($26k) or $8,320 ($20,800) - $1,625 ($26k) or $1,300 ($20,800)/episode

finally let's address the elephant in the room.

Shelterwood is a project with 1 sound designer. just the one.

Brad Colbroock will be receiving around $10,000 just for this 16-episode project. which is a ridiculous amount.

the claim here is that Brad is worth 27 actors, and 4x the musicians and rest of production team.

oh, but what's this interesting note here at the bottom of this section?

look at that, there is an amount of recognition at the ridiculousness of putting 40% of their budget towards a single sound designer. let's dive into it.

okay, so first of all. this is an extremely unimpressive list of events. I know SEVERAL sound designers who are capable of delivering these specific scenarios in a couple hours each, MAX. if this is meant to show the justification by being the most impressive examples (excluding stuff that would be too spoilery obviously), then I am not very excited for the intensity and weirdness of the show's sound design.

this feels really basic for stuff you are trying to say justifies this high of a price.

I'm serious, this in no way convinces me that his work is going to be worth this much money.

standard sound design rates in audio drama are nowhere near $1,300-1,625 per episode, that is RIDICULOUSLY high. the most I've heard is probably around $500, and that was for an actual play which is significantly more work than your average audio drama episode.

I would like to know how on earth this is a justifiable number.

I would ALSO like to know if "sound design" includes as much as you might think it does.

there are a lot of shows where things like doing the dialogue cut is separated from the sound design aspect. I don't know if that's the case here, but as I'm still struggling to determine what the Producer is going to be in charge of if not the editing, all I can do is try and guess at what tasks are being left on the table.

"sound design" does not necessarily imply all parts of the editing process, and at a price this high that is majorly concerning.

THIS was the reason I decided to do a write-up.

there are a lot of things in this campaign that I think are suspect or just outright bad, but this was the moment that I went "holy fucking shit, these people have completely passed the point of being reasonable in their crowdfunding goals."

I am SO tired of seeing goals placed this high, the only thing it does is take away community funds and resources that could be better spread to a variety of diverse projects.

I'm not saying that Shelterwood doesn't deserve funding and to be made, I AM saying that Shelterwood asking for $26,000 when other campaigns struggle to raise even $2,000 is a big part of the fucking problem with audio drama crowdfunding right now.

this is a form of resource hoarding.

and it's the same people who keep perpetrating and benefitting from it.

I'm just really fucking tired of seeing so many interesting and diverse voices not be given the benefit of the doubt the way that people like this with connections to more established names do. because being friends with people who have a lot of sway DOES make a difference in the long run.

RANT OVER.

before we move on to stretch goals, just a couple small things:

I find it insulting that this team is justifying some of these expenses while still not compensating the writing that Stephen already did. I know I've already brought it up, but having crunched through all those numbers and had to see just how much more they are valuing the sound designer than the person who created the damn thing (which likely included already thought through notes about what the sound design should be), it is a spit in the face of all of the writers in the community. sound designers are very important, yes. but so are the actual minds and writers behind these stories.

Shelterwood is an interesting project because of its concept, NOT because of the promise of the sound design. I would listen to a low budget show with this concept and pitch because it sounds interesting, even if the production quality were barebones. because the actual value is in the story, not the presentation. I think these people have forgotten that.

I would also like to say that as part of a good budget section for a flexible goal campaign, I would expect to see something addressing if there will be changes to the breakdown if that goal is NOT met. before you address stretch goals you really need to talk about this.

now, it IS addressed, but not right here where it should be. it is in the FAQ section (where no one ever looks), so we will be dealing with it there.

I'm not doing a great job at holding back the salt, am I. out of practice forcing professionalism I guess, it's been a bit since I did one of these.

Stretch Goals

I briefly touched on this earlier during the budget section as there was information revealed here that was important for that.

but now let's take a look at it in full and talk about what's left.

Shelterwood has outlined 5 stretch goals:

at $28,000 is promised "off-week micro-sodes with extra scares added to the release schedule". this is an odd one to unpack, but it does reveal a small interesting tidbit in that Shelterwood will not be releasing weekly, most likely every other week. not hugely relevant, just good to know.

what I think IS relevant is that there isn't really a claim to how many of these bonus micro-sodes will be made? the use of the term "off-week" could imply that it is filling every gap in the schedule (i.e. there will be 15 micro-sodes added, one for between each major release and not counting the 6 that would already be out in the world as a side effect of hitting this level of funding).

in conjunction with that, this is only $2k above the fully funded goal, the implication there being that this is enough additional money to cover the cost of what is being promised. which seems pretty impossible at the prices we have been led to believe are needed by the budget section, the math just seem like it would work out to cover that.

at $30,000 the 7th micro-sode is written and released. I would hope that this work includes paying Stephen for their time writing, but the rest of this campaign has made me suspicious that he is not in fact paying himself for that work so I won't hold my breathe on that point. especially since we know that the mini-sodes will require sound design, and that the sound designer is very expensive.

at $32,000 we see "actor payscales increased!"

hm. well that's interesting. there are people involved in this campaign who have been VERY outspoken about how actors should NOT be paid more than sound designers and other parts of production. and yet here we are with a stretch goal that is only going to apply to actors getting paid more?

at $34,000 there is a Shelterwood Album. that's all it says, no clue if that means anything specific as it relates to campaign supporters? might just mean uploaded to Bandcamp for you to purchase if you'd like. to be clear, this isn't a bad stretch goal, I'm just unsure if it's actually going to be something that people get to enjoy "for free" after they've paid enough to the campaign to unlock it.

and finally,

at $35,000 the 8th micro-sode is written and released. I don't have anything to say about that that I didn't say about the $30k stretch goal.

moving on, I promise we're nearly done and all the hard stuff is out of the way now.

Other Ways To Help

always a good thing to have, though to be honest I don't know if it actually ever does anything? I think people are more likely to retweet or reblog a post they see naturally on social media, rather than getting to the bottom of a campaign spiel and deciding to write something up fresh.

giving some examples is a nice touch that makes it much easier, I hope that it is intentionally that they are all somewhat cringey (cringe can be a good thing).

I also this it's really great that there are already crossover episodes lined up with a few other podcasts (though I can't say I'm familiar with any of them apart from Someone Dies In This Elevator, and several seem to be non-audio drama and even nonfiction in aspects, which is an interesting choice for this project?)

I would also like to say that I genuinely LOVE the "more uncanny way to help" section. it is honestly the best part of the campaign and is a model for creative and interesting marketing. I don't know how effective it will be, but this is the kind of fun interesting shit that makes a campaign stand out. it's also a great opportunity for spreading the word if people actually do it. not because I really think people will go to a url on a random flier (I think if you want actual throughput that way you need to add a QR code instead of just the typed web address though, much easier for people to follow through), but because those people will post on social media which will get attention and then you can reblog with some in-universe type response and get free marketing that is engaging.

FAQ

we're done looking at the main bit of the campaign, let's jump over for a look at the FAQ, aka the most frequently ignored part of a campaign.

How long will the show be?

here is the only place that there is mention of the length of the episodes, which gives us a good idea of the full length of the finished product. we are told 40-50 minutes per episode (not including any micro-sodes) so if on average it's going to be 45 minutes each we can math that out to around 12 hours of content. pretty solid amount, I'm not sure why that is buried here though? to me this is important information, I would have expected it to be proudly presented at the top of the campaign when the 16 episodes was first stated.

What makes Shelterwood different from other horror podcasts out there?

honestly this is a good pitch, so good that it shouldn't be hidden away here. move this to your introduction, you want to be sure that people read this when deciding whether to give you money. there are a LOT of horror podcasts, and it's really important to set yourself apart from the get-go. talking about being horror and Gothic in passing isn't going to be enough, you need to really emphasize it.

this is ALSO important in that it is the justification given for the music budget that I was looking for earlier. granted, the necessity of this as being vital to the show will remain to be seen, but "in-universe songs that haunt the whole show" is the kind of thing that would make me more excited to give. highlight that in the main body of the campaign, make a point of clearly calling out why these things are so necessary to the fabric of the show. it helps you stand out and it helps you communicate their importance.

How scary will the show really be?

I honestly don't think this is really a provable thing, people will know if it's scary once they hear it. usually I would lean on the creator's previous work, but we have nothing here to look at for that. so like all things, it will come down to personal taste whether listeners find it scary. hard to quantify something like that, honestly I think the only reason this is here is to try and bolster Stephen Indrisano's experience and why you should trust them to make a good horror show.

the problem being that this isn't being put where we as a prospective backer are introduced to him, but somewhere most will never look.

What happens if the goal isn't reached?

now as I said earlier, I really feel like this should be addressed in the main body of the campaign because most people won't look here.

but here it is, and here we are. so let's talk about what this says:

If we cannot reach our goal, we will have to go back to our budget and start making tough decisions about pay scales, characters, and whether the show can be made at all while still fairly compensating our team. If we cannot raise the funds, there will be large delays in production until we can determine outside funding. We are dedicated to paying our cast and crew what they deserve for high-quality work.

overall, the way this is worded and framed is kind of vague? yes, there's no reason to get into details here about what would need to change, but it feels like a dangling threat that you are meant to fill in with your own worst case scenario "what-ifs". it's also a bit concerning in some aspects, because which pay scales are we talking about here?

while going through the budget earlier, it was very clear what work was valued most of all: the sound designer. now, it's also important to note that he is probably being paid a fixed rate that will be non-negotiable, most sound designers have a per hour rate they give and you don't really haggle that. so I don't believe any of that shortfall would come from his budget.

the next obvious pool is actors, which makes sense given it also calls out whether characters will need to be cut. this is kind of shitty, as all of these people are already promoting this project they got cast in and might get removed from without warning. this is a FLEXIBLE GOAL, so to get cut after putting in time and effort to help get more money means that you just did that labor for free that you would have been compensated for in some way before. just because you aren't paying cast and crew to do promotion doesn't mean that their actual pay isn't in some part FOR that. this is true in any job, if you were organizing a money-making event and then got fired right before it happened, the money that the company made off of the thing you planned is not benefiting you.

I think in a lot of these cases, it's production that takes the brunt of these cutbacks first. these are the people who feel the most investment in making the project happen, and the most willing to undercut themselves to try and make sure it does.

now then. the most egregious part.

we will have to go back to our budget and start making tough decisions about pay scales, characters, and whether the show can be made at all

"whether the show can be made at all".

this is a "flexible goal" campaign. that means that any money they raise is going to be kept by them, whether or not they decide they can actually make the show "at all".

a charitable reading of this would be that in that case they will refund all the donations and not keep any money.

but it's weird not to say it outright because all that does is make you look like someone who will try to get away with keeping the money, even if the project falls apart.

there's also something else I think we should talk about with regards to this:

I think that by creating a flexible goal, you are implicitly saying "we don't think we'll reach the full goal, and we'd still like to get some money if we don't."

if this is the case, then why aren't you creating the initial budget with that in mind?

I think I touched on this in the Arden post, but you should be presenting your "minimum viable product". what this means is that you are stating that for the project to exist it MUST have at least this. and I don't mean in terms of money, I mean in terms of cast and crew and episodes and time that can be given to create the most bare version of the thing that will get to the goal.

that might mean no original music, that might mean fewer side characters, that might mean half as many episodes.

whatever it means, THAT is what you need to be thinking about when you start asking for money. especially if you are already approaching it from the stance of "we will take whatever we can get", you need to know going in what that looks like. it is NOT something to be decide later if you don't hit the goal, it is something that needs to be known upfront and used as the basis for your decision-making.

doing anything else is irresponsible to all parties involved, including those trusting you to put their money to good use.

Campaign Updates

you thought we were done?

so did I god fucking dammit why are we not done yet.

since campaign launch there have been 3 updates.

the first is from about 2 weeks ago, just sharing that the first bonus micro-sode was released with a link and reminder that at every $5k another one will be released.

the second was posted at the end of the first week of crowdfunding (just over a week ago as of right now).

this update actually has something interesting that I pointed out earlier. at this point, the campaign decided to add another reward at the $100 tier and above, a unique page of blackout poetry. which is fine, except that again this is hidden away where most people won't see it, and the actual tiers and body of the campaign need to be updated to reflect this additional perk for it to do any good in convincing supporters to give money at that level. right now it's basically just a hidden easter egg reward.

however this post also alludes to something in the 3rd update. something I fucking hate.

can I just say how much this reminds me of those Instagram "follow and tag 2 of your friends!" contests? I can't be the only one.

but let's actually look at what this is:

We are pleased to announce that, effective immediately, we will be running a referral contest. What does that mean? In a nutshell, we will be offering one of three very special, unique perks to the top three individuals who can gather new pledges through referral links: 1. A walk-on part in the show, to be recorded when production starts 2. A personalised list of horror recommendations from the cast and crew 3. A character named after you, who will die spectacularly in Shetlerwood The rules of our contest are simple: whoever gets first place gets first pick of the rewards. 2nd place gets 2nd pick, and 3rd place gets 3rd pick.

so there is a lot about this that I think is bad, some of which might just come down to personal ethics and what I would be willing to do as part of a fundraiser?

I hope it's at least clear why I find this kind of thing gross and exploitative. in a way you are dangling rewards that are reliant on someone having a relative position of privilege. referrals only count if the person follows through and donates, which means that you need to be friends with people who can afford to do that.

I will say that I am VERY thankful it seems to be based on the number of referrals and not the AMOUNT that is garnered by them, but there is still something very gross feeling about this that I can't shake.

part of it might be that these feel like backer rewards that were withheld for the sake of this contest. like they were going to do this no matter what and they looked at the things they could offer and went "let's hold back these enticing things specifically for that". especially when the actual campaign rewards are really lackluster, to hold these back and have fans compete to try and get them is gross to me.

I fully accept this might just be a "me thing" that I find this to be icky, but none of us are original so at least one other person is going to agree with me. that doesn't make it the right opinion, it just reinforces that it is a valid one.

I don't think that contests are a bad thing, there is just something about a "referral contest" that makes me think of MLMs and other financially exploitative systems.

but now let's talk about the fun part of this update, which is the reveal of the "Haunt-Your-Own-House Micro-Zine".

I am happy to report being right about the quality of this "micro-zine". allow me to draw your attention to the fact that the printed "shingles" are not oriented correctly. you cannot convince me this was a design choice, I'm pretty positive it's just sloppiness.

would just like to point out that this is not a zine of any kind, this is just papercraft. which is fine, but that's a REALLY different thing. I don't want a bit of papercraft taking up space, a small zine that can slip onto a little bookshelf is much more desirable to me.

as an idea, it's not a bad one though. like this is a fun little thing for you to put together and maybe customize, but you should advertise it for what it is, which is NOT a zine of any kind.

but also, the ghost shown in the image is NOT part of it. I thought that was another bit of papercraft when I was writing the image description above, but no apparently it isn't even part of it, they just stuck it in there to make the thing look less boring. if it can't look impressive as the thing you are giving, maybe that's a sign it isn't a good reward.

before we move on from this, they also say the following:

The PDF for these will be sent out to all backers at the $30 level and above within the next 48 hours, so be on the lookout for that!

now I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that backers haven't actually given money yet. they can still cancel their pledge, but you are already looking to fulfill the reward?

I can understand this as a marketing move, get the thing in people's hands so they can make it and post on social media to help the campaign gain traction. but you are jumping the gun and if I wanted to I could back, get the PDF, and then fucking bounce now that I have it. just thought I should point that out.

no, I will not be doing that, I don't need this kind of clutter on my desk and I don't even own a working printer.

okay, one last part of this update: "even more bonus audio!"

here we get an acknowledgment that the campaign is not really on track to hit full funding, so they are adjusting their goals in terms of releasing additional content to try and attract more support.

Unfortunately, our funding has been a bit too slow to reach many of those [$5,000 micro-sode] goals... which is why we're lowering the bar and releasing new audio on our YouTube channel every $1000 instead! This will include exclusive micro-interviews with some of our iconic cast and crew about all things horror podcasting, as well as other terrifying glimpses into the world of Shelterwood

can we stop using "micro" as a prefix on everything?

so I am a little confused by the wording here, in the sense that "lowering the bar" is a phrase usually used to talk about a change to something, rather than the addition of new things? so I'm a bit unsure of whether this is going to impact the existing every $5k micro-sode goal, or if this is something entirely separate that is being introduced to try and get more excitement.

I think it's fine either way, I was just a bit confused by the wording and curious if they are considering adjustments to the micro-sode goals to ensure they will get to release all of them (since I think it's pretty clear the first 6 are completely produced and ready to go).

as for the actual content being promised here, it seems fine enough? I'm assuming that they are having to dig into some stuff they were hoping to save for later, and I hope that the "micro-interviews" are at least somewhat substantial enough to justify their existence.

as a note, it's weird that they hyperlinked to the first micro-sode, but not to their YouTube channel where these new things are going to be posted? there's nothing up yet (unless you could some Shorts) so I'm assuming they mean every additional $1k after the update was posted.

that is all for the updates because I am determined to publish this before they can put another one out. I need this to be done, and we are NEARLY there.

please bear with me, the last section is extremely important.

The Catch-All Section

here's just random stuff that I noticed or thought of but didn't have a real place anywhere else:

in the Cast and Crew graphic, why is Karim Kronfli the only person who's name is at the bottom of the image rather than the top? just a weirdly random inconsistency that bothers the perfectionist in me

please more images and pictures, they don't need to be much (especially since as I stated before we unfortunately don't have any kind of alt text feature for campaigns to utilize) but they keep people from getting bored staring at a massive wall of unbroken text

there were more than a few typos across the campaign (the show's name on one occassion). it's a good idea to put all your text in a word processor first to catch these things, you just aren't going to see it yourself the 5th time you are re-reading the campaign before publishing. let a computer check your work.

it would be nice generally to see more creativity when it comes to rewards. things don't have to be expensive or extravagant to be interesting, even at lower tiers. think about the world you are creating, think about what works within it. as an example, the WOE.BEGONE patreon has a tier at which the creator writes in-character postcards to patrons that when put together reveal a larger story (this is an example of something that I find really creative and like. I know it's not a crowdfunding campaign but whenever I think about rewarding listeners for their support I think about this). and he does this every month. that is an incredibly clever use of the world that show has built and connecting the fans to it in a unique way. you only have to figure out something like that once for your campaign, I believe in you.

Conclusion and a Larger Conversation

so why am I once again talking about a high profile campaign that is asking for a lot of money?

I think there needs to be a recognition of the importance of the context surrounding when you launch a campaign as well. because the financial situation right now is very different from the financial situation a year ago is very different from the financial situation of 2019.

as an example, let's look at the Afflicted Season 2 crowdfunding campaign that just ended in failure.

this was a FIXED GOAL campaign. they were asking for $23,500 USD and they only made it to $13,283, just over 50% of the way there. so they got none of it. it was all or nothing and the result this time was nothing.

and that really sucks for a lot of reasons.

I had some criticisms about that campaign that I kept to myself at the time, in part because diverse voices in audio drama is really important. Afflicted provided a lot of opportunities for marginalized creators to get established and share their unique voices. so often the campaigns that are getting met are the ones that continue to prop up the same types of voices and experiences as we've all heard before.

I am much more interested in the unique horror that a show like Afflicted is bringing to the table as a production driven by a Black woman than I am with hearing from the same types of voices we are used to. we have a lot of similar people making stuff in the community, and frankly a lot of our "diversity" is mostly driven by being white and queer. these voices are important too and there's a lot that is good, but that is the majority in this space. that's why we need to make sure we are getting opportunities to the people who don't have the privilege or connections.

this is a personal opinion, not one everyone will agree with. but we are better as a community when we do extra work to make sure that more varied diversity is highlighted and supported.

Afflicted planted their foot saying "this much or nothing" and took the gamble that most of these high number campaigns are unwilling to do. a gamble that they succeeded in last year to fund the first season.

the difference is partly that the economy looked really different last year. disposable income, rent prices, general cost of living. it wasn't great, but it was better than it is now and that MATTERS. we all know how fucking bad it is right now, especially in the US, so to be asking these massive amounts of money is tone deaf. in this case, Afflicted was even asking for MORE than they raised for season 1. you could argue some of that is because they already managed to prove themselves as creators who were good for the money and deserved that kind of chance.

but the fact of the matter is that people just don't have that kind of cash to give over and over.

which leads into my main point.

every time I see a campaign with this high of a goal I think one thing:

"this is hurting the community."

now, that may not sound reasonable to some of you, especially if you are one of the people who believes that numbers this high are justifiable.

when we talk about supporting each other from a audio drama creator standpoint, it is done so freely and with an understanding that new listeners isn't really a thing we're going to run out of. if I recommend 10 podcasts I like, that doesn't hurt MY show. it just helps the community by sharing things we generally enjoy and care about it. this is how you end up with the networks of support that we've seen in newer places like the Audio Drama Lab.

unfortunately, money is not the same.

the amount of money that each of us has to give to support the things we like is limited based on our individual situations. anyone recommending a specific crowdfunding campaign to give money to DOES have an impact on the amount of money left in the pool for others.

so when something like Shelterwood or Arden or Afflicted or Among the Stacks or The Magnus fucking Protocol asks for these amounts, this is ACTIVELY impacting whether other campaigns will succeed.

while The Magnus Protocol raised over £700,000 (or about $940,000 USD), DOZENS (probably more) of smaller projects were struggling to get less than half a percent of that.

that was money that could have done a lot more community good than supporting a blatant RQ cash grab.

we're looking at a different scale here, obviously. I do not think that the absolutely disgusting amount raised for one of the most beloved audio drama's sequels is directly comparable to what these campaigns are asking.

but it certainly did help them when trying to legitimize those numbers.

$26,000 is a LOT of money.

there are a lot of people who would be able to change their lives on even just 20% of that, be able to create new and interesting things if given just a little bit of support. and most of them are not asking for much.

but repeatedly having these large projects that position themselves as more worthy and better is hurting us all.

I think we also need to talk about what it means to pay "fair wages"? because a lot of people don't even make that at their day jobs. a "fair wage" is a capitalist idea that most don't benefit from, and it isn't necessarily applicable to every industry.

most voice actors do not get by doing projects they care about, they get by doing commercials and audio books and training videos for random corporations. because a "fair wage" in voice acting is not necessarily a set thing where hours and effort given always corresponds to money received.

all creative industries have trouble supporting that, this is a capitalism problem that you are trying to fix with more capitalism. you can't force the concept of "fair wages" into a space that monetarily cannot support it.

because what you are doing is creating an ecosystem where only YOUR cast and crew will get fair wages for their work. everyone else will have to do the compromise for YOUR sake.

there's that phrase, "a rising tide lifts all boats". I think people cling to this when they see these kinds of things, especially when they are successful. "isn't that good for all of us? doesn't that mean everyone will get more?"

again, no. money is a resource that is limited (for us as non-rich oligarchs).

the "rising tide" is not the ocean that freely gives and takes water in cycles. where we actually are is a dam, where water levels are carefully controlled and directed and distributed during times of drought. campaigns like this are part of that, they direct the water towards the richer and more privileged neighborhoods, the people who already have connections and opportunities.

there is less water left for everyone else.

THAT is what these campaigns do, THAT is why it is important to really assess what is necessary.

I don't think think that people shouldn't be able to make a living off of what they love, but I think that there are exploitative ways to do it and non-exploitative ways. these campaigns are exploitation in a way. crowdfunding in theory shouldn't be that, but it becomes that. especially when you start to enter the territory of these numbers, both in what is being asked for and what tiers are being presented as "normal and reasonable amounts for a single person to be giving".

we need to fucking stop this before we let these kinds of campaigns empty the dam completely.

that's it. that's all I have to say on this.

this is a conversation, one that I want us to have. I am tired of watching people who are already privileged continue to hoard the resources.

we can do better.

anyway, I think this campaign is a product of a larger issue. it is NOT "the problem", but it is a symptom of it. one that you are making a statement about in deciding to give or withhold money. it's not in my hands, it's in yours.

just keep what I said in mind, and maybe search the terms "audio drama" on whatever crowdfunder you like best.

take note of all the other projects you see, projects that have promise and talent and don't have connections that make them feel like they deserve to take half the pie home.

[blackchantilly]

Tagged by @rivetgoth to do my URL as song titles! Like in an acrostic way. Hold on, because once I start talking about music it's hard for me to shut up!

B - "Breathe" by Night Sins - One of my favorites of theirs. The new single has reminded me that I was obsessed with them throughout 2022 and part of 2023. Their music is pretty derivative, in the best way -- many of their songs sound like they were perhaps based on certain classic goth-adjacent songs. This one makes me think of "This Time of Night" by New Order.

L - "Life Itself" by Glass Animals - We first heard this song live in 2016, maybe a week or two after it was released. The show was fantastic. Their second album hadn't come out just yet (let alone "Heat Waves"!) and so nearly all of the songs we heard were from their first album, which I WORE OUT in 2014. But this song made an immediate impression. Somehow everyone in the audience apart from us already knew all the words, lol. I remember hearing everyone sing along and asking Brock, "What is this song and how does everyone know it?" but dancing like an idiot anyway. Eight years later I'm still not tired of it.

A - "Atlas Air" by Massive Attack - I have been trying to convince people that this album (Heligoland) had good songs on it, and I've been using this as a prime example. It's a perfect slow burn at nearly eight minutes long. I love the Middle Eastern influences that echo the subject matter and the explosive payoff of the outro.

C - "Cowgirl" by Underworld - A club classic for a reason! I have other favorite Underworld songs nowadays, but this one always goes over really well on the dance floor. Another excellent slow burn. Such good vibes and everyone loves it. You probably know it from Hackers, lol.

K - "Komboloy" by A-Head - I guess this is an X Marks the Pedwalk side project? I've only ever heard it in clubs in OKC, but it's another one that always gets people on the dance floor. My best friend heard it in my car one time and said the vocalist "woke up and decided to sound like a monster from the Labyrinth." I can't deny it.

C - "Close (to the Edit)" by the Art of Noise - I will die on the hill of referring to this song as EBM, lol. I first heard this on VH1 Classic and mostly remembered it because of the weird video. Heard it at a club in Tulsa a few years ago and was reminded that the song is also super cool. Later I found out it was also huge in '80s breakdancing circles, which is interesting to me with all the car sputtering, chainsaw noises, and the heavier beat.

H - "Happy up Here" by Royksopp - This is what the inside of my head sounds like when I'm staring off into space.

A - "Alive in the Night" by Sacred Skin - I love how danceable this band is, which is why it's funny that this is my second favorite of their songs. It is not danceable. It's like a goth power pop ballad. But the chorus gives me major goosebumps and I'll be damned if I can resist singing along in the car. Has one of my favorite bridges, too!

N - "New Decision" by Manufacture - A new favorite! IT'S SO CATCHY. I want this to be a club hit, but alas, it's 33 years old and that has not happened yet to my knowledge. I only heard it because I heard a couple of songs by this band and decided on a whim to listen to their two albums. Synthpop from the '90s is so tragically overlooked.

T - "True Colours" by Kite - One of my spring 2022 songs which means it's sometimes a little hard to listen to -- I was in the middle of a major crisis at the time, and the song is sad enough as it is. But this is my favorite example of Kite's DENSE synthscapes and brooding vibes. Listen when you're feeling wistful but like in a depressed way, lol.

I - "Iris" by TR/ST - Actually my favorite song by them! Now that I think of it, it's not dissimilar to the last song as it has the really thick-sounding synths, slow pulsating beat, and kind of bittersweet vibe. I WILL attempt to dance to it if I hear it played out (which has happened exactly once) even though it's like 90 bpm.

L - "L'appel du Vide" by Actors - I generally like them, but this song in particular is SO catchy and upbeat despite the darker lyrics. It is always getting stuck in my head. When people ask for examples of good newer post-punk I usually direct them to this song in particular.

L - "Land of Rape and Honey" by Ministry - This is one I've passively liked for a while, but then one of our local DJs started playing it semi-regularly and I remembered it existed and how much I enjoyed it. I've been listening to it a lot this spring. This is slightly on the heavier side of what I would normally listen to, but I adore the mechanical beat and the creatively used string sample. Also I appreciate that it's clearly a dance song and not as rock-oriented as some of the other songs on this album.

Y - "Young" by the Soft Moon - Still really sad about this guy dying. What a loss for the goth/industrial scene. This was one of my very favorites on this album; it really showcased his fusion of the post-punk and industrial genres. The slow, menacing beat is really effective.

I don't usually tag people on these, so if you want to do it then consider yourself tagged!

[hookechoes]

hehe both criminal minds and peaky blinders if you want to

the GOATs

Criminal Minds

My rating (1-10): 7.9, its incredibly enjoyable, frequently silly, often kind of awful. a great combination.

My favourite character: Emily, which could not be more obvious w/ my url but i also love reid almost as much

My least favourite character: Gideon annoyed me a little on this last rewatch, which is a way more negative reaction than I've ever had to any of the other mains. Ashley Seaver SUCKED so fucking bad but she wasn't around long enough to be relevant to this question lol

The character I think I'd be friends with: JJ and Morgan, they've both got a sarcastic teasing streak that I really vibe with

The character I think I won't hit off with: Gideon.

My favourite episode/scene: Man. That's hard, there are so many good ones. The one that kind of lives rent free in my brain is Uncanny Valley (the doll one), and that speech that Reid gives to Riker in that episode is one of the banger scenes of all time.

Whose clothing style I like best: Reid, I love how much he loves that purple scarf

Times I watched it (and if I would again): I've never actually watched all 15 seasons all the way through! I used to watch it when I was in high school and early college, just whenever I saw that it was on TV, so I didn't get through it linearly until this latest rewatch, and even in this rewatch I only got to the later half of season 9 and then kind of fell off lol. But yeah I'd totally watch the early/mid seasons again.

Peaky Blinders

My rating (1-10): 9.2, extremely aesthetic, dialogue to die for, unfathomably fucked up. very much my shit

My favourite character: Ada!!!!!

My least favourite character: John I guess? I've definitely forgotten that he existed at some points lol

The character I think I'd be friends with: Lizzie probably

The character I think I won't hit off with: Arthur, for me he is best loved from a distance lol

My favourite episode/scene: I don't know about episode specifically, but the scene in season 5 episode 4 where Tommy shows up to Ada's house and rambles his way through a mental breakdown at her is honestly one of the best scenes in Anything

Whose clothing style I like best: Ada season 2/3/4

Times I watched it (and if I would again): Only once, and I honestly don't know if I could handle watching it again. It took so long for me to get through season 6 - the bleak darkness of it was truly on the edge of being too much. Which is where I like to be taken, don't get me wrong, it's just that I don't know if I want to necessarily subject myself to the whole thing again lol

[chinzhilla]

Do you have any fave Thai BL series? If you do, what's your top 10?

hiiii thank you for the ask! 💙 and oh yes of course i do!! i'm not gonna actually rank these but here are my top ten thai bls in no particular order (with commentary bc i always have to be the most verbose person in the room):

The Eclipse - i think this one goes without saying if you’ve been following me for long. it's the first bl i watched live, before this blog even existed, and i imprinted on it like a duckling. that's the firstkhao effect i guess, and also my penchant for repressed sadboys and characters who are so attracted to each other and so mad about it

Manner of Death - may be surprising since i haven’t posted about it much but this drama is just. perfect. one of these days i’m gonna do a rewatch and i’m gonna be SO annoying about it. tension and release doesn't get any better than this, and the entire time the plot is plotting and it's fantastic!!

My School President - this one should also be obvious given it's the source of my url and also basically the reason this blog exists. this is the show that escalated my bl obsession to critical mass and left me with no choice but to make a sideblog about it. the soundtrack is banger after banger, every character is lovable, there are such genuine touching moments, and gemini and fourth just kill it the whole time

A Tale of Thousand Stars - i don't think any show has made me cry more. i was warned but nothing could have really prepared me cause it's like this drama was made in a lab specifically to target all my emotional weak points. i related a ton to tian and his need for escape and agency, and his growth and redemption over the course of the series is really just beautiful

Bed Friend - this show is a bit of a sexy comfort watch for me. to watch uea go through absolute hell and come out the other side getting the love, respect, and devotion (and cat ears) he deserves is just sooo satisfying. and did i mention how sexy it is?

La Pluie - closest i ever came to writing actual meta was while watching this show. its take on soulmates is so refreshing and thought-provoking and i really appreciated its emphasis on family and the trauma it can bring even when everyone loves each other. also gorgeous chemistry from the leads and lomfon and tien had me in a chokehold for weeks

Only Friends - obviously the show has been very polarizing but y'all all know where i stand. i'm not without my criticisms of how THAT storyline ended but there are far far far more positives than negatives for me. and in terms of pure entertainment they DELIVERED

Not Me - another one i don't talk much about but absolutely adored. every relationship in this show could have essays written about it (which i'm sure has been done) and the seanwhite first kiss is actually one of my favorites

Laws of Attraction - charn wasn't on my screen for a minute and i was already in love with him. this is another one with a great plot, good chemistry, and a captivating side couple. the only thing it doesn't hit right on the mark for me is the physical intimacy (especially bc i couldn't help but compare it to mod) but it makes up for it with hot lesbians (silvy pls give me a chance)

I Feel You Linger in the Air - no it's not over yet and yes i'm two (almost three) episodes behind but listen unless they really screw the pooch right at the end this one absolutely deserves to be here. once again the chemistry is chemistrying and the setting and mechanics are FASCINATING. however i have a feeling it's gonna join the ranks of atots as dramas i adored but might not everr watch again due to emotional devastation

honorable mention to Shadow which is currently airing and which i am obsessed with so far. if i ever do another version of this list it may well be on there