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cheesiedomino · 10 months ago

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RentABoyfriend.com ꙳ ੭ * ‧

synopsis: you’re tired of being single so you to take an unusual route in helping with that— but what happens when you start catching real romantic feelings for your rental boyfriend?

genre: seo changbin x fem!reader | fake relationship/dating au wc: 5.1k tags/warnings: fluff, v minor angst, mild cursing, (kinda) nerdy changbin, use of pet names, mentions of alcohol usage, just overall very cute story dw <33

[this is part of my valentine’s series where i write a short story for each member surrounding themes of love, newfound romance, relationship hardships & more.]

“I have a date tomorrow guys.”

Everyone’s head instantly lifts up from their phones at this sudden announcement, collectively drawing their attention at you. You weren’t expecting all of them to gasp and swap such looks of genuine confusion. It’s starting to make you think maybe this situation was a lot more serious than you’ve bargained it out to be.

You couldn’t fathom it either honestly, the realization of you going out with someone probably won’t settle in until you’re physically on the date. Based on their initial responses though, you might regret everything you’re about to say, but it’s far too late to retract any of your statements now.

“No way.. with who??” Danielle is the first out of everyone to ask.

Taehyung chimes in as well, “Yeah, who’s the lucky person? They’ve gotta be something seriously special to be talking to you.”

Well, you suppose you could put it that way.

You already have a preconceived notion of what they’re going to think of this “idea”. Mentally preparing yourself to receive a flood of questions and critique from your close friends.

“Actually… I rented him. For the week.”

Now they’re all looking at you like you’ve officially lost it. The room got scarily quiet, no one wanted to be the first to speak. You should’ve anticipated on their reactions being like this, it isn’t everyday someone just openly admits to buying a partner online. Nowadays there’s a lucrative market for just about anything, when you stumbled upon an ad for this service called ‘RentABoyfriend.com’ you didn’t think much of it. You laughed the concept off at first, thinking how lonely people must be to buy someone else’s time.

But the ads kept popping up, they wouldn’t stop showing in almost every YouTube video you were watching— even one of your favorite YouTubers promoted them before! So one day you finally decided to check this website out, you wanted to see what the hype’s all about so you signed up just for shits and giggles. You weren’t expecting to actually be somewhat interested in trying this thing out, but after going through a couple different profiles and reading hundreds of positive reviews you were practically sold.

“You rented out a boyfriend..? Seriously ___? I mean, I’m not judging but you’re a gorgeous girl you can easily get a boyfriend without paying for someone’s companionship, I don’t see why you need to rent one.” Mark bluntly expressed his opinion, he was probably the most outspoken out of all of you guys.

Taehyung and Danielle both agreed in unison, it’s practically 3 against 1 at this point. You knew you should’ve waited to tell them but you weren’t anticipating on them being this judgmental about it. You were hoping for a little more support, as they’re all way more experienced than you in the dating scene and could lend some helpful advice about your first date, ever.

See, the thing is you’ve never tried dating before so you wouldn’t know the first thing about it or what to expect from your future partner. You’ve never had a boyfriend, let alone held hands or kissed someone of the opposite sex. Being in your twenties it’s kind of embarrassing to say you’ve never done those things, but you thought what better way to try it out than renting a full-on experience that can give you just that? Well minus the kissing part, but you can make it work.

You were skeptical of doing this whole ‘rent-a-boyfriend’ thing at first because you didn’t think there’d be anyone you’d find suitable enough. A big part of the reason that you’re still single is because you’re extremely picky, you want to date a guy who’s so perfect that he must’ve came straight out of an indie romance film. Your friends would tease you for having such unrealistic standards when it came to dating but you were the all-or-nothing type, you’ll be single with fifty cats before you settle for less. Renting a boyfriend is definitely an unconventional idea of easing into dating but you thought it might be worth a try anyway.

What’s the worse that could happen?

( 1 day earlier )

Hovering your cursor over the bold red text of the website, you read over the main rules before going on to select the person you want for your date.

‘The rules are simple:

You are allowed to see only ONE person at a time, if you want to switch boyfriends you’ll have to pay a $50 fee.

MUST be over 18 to rent a boyfriend, we have implemented an age verification system before the date as we do not tolerate anyone under this age to use our services.

NO kissing, or sexual intimacy allowed. If this is found out later on by our agency we will terminate your contract and ban you from using our services in the future.

Remember to have fun !! ^_^ Our services are great for people who are new to dating or have never been in a relationship. We provide the ~ultimate~ boyfriend experience to all our clients. Customer satisfaction is 100% guaranteed ! (NO REFUNDS)’

Well jeez… they seemed a bit strict but you can deal with those rules and restrictions for the most part.

After hours of skimming through hundreds of profiles, you have a hard time choosing which you like most. Did you want an artsy, shy kind of guy? The tattooed, bad boy aesthetic type? You really couldn’t pick one until you stumble upon a particular profile that catches your eye almost immediately.

SEO CHANGBIN | 168 CM | PART-TIME LIFEGUARD | 24 | *POPULAR ↝

5 Facts About Me: I’ve traveled to over 50+ different countries and counting (ask me which my favorites are), I can speak 4 languages (working on my fifth), love to sing and used to have a rap trio with my buddies from college, I can & will easily lift you up ;) also have a secret talent for cooking, there’s nothing I can’t do!

Why Choose Me? First of all, why not choose me? I’m the best candidate for whatever kind of date you need, something casual, social gatherings, weddings, you name it! I’m very social and can make most people laugh (unless they’re the literal Grinch reincarnated), I’m able to get along well with anyone and just love to have a good time. I hope we can get to know each other and make great memories in the future :)

Going through his pictures you couldn’t believe someone was capable of being this humanely attractive. Don’t even get started on those impeccable muscles either… He really had to sport them in every other one of his photos, wearing the tightest shirts to show the outline of his insanely sculpted frame. You might have just been mesmerized from his godlike visuals alone. They even had a Valentine’s Day deluxe package that comes with seven dates in total for half the price, which they specified was for a limited time only.

$600 later you’ve got a full week of dates lined up with the hottest guy you’ve ever seen in all your years of living. You should’ve definitely went shopping before considering all this because now you actually have a reason to get dolled up for someone.

You were so nervous about going on this date you almost cancelled last minute out of fear. Typing out several different elaborate paragraphs to Changbin on why you couldn’t make it. You didn’t have his real phone number, it was all through an app facilitated by the rental company that was included in the package. Even though you were feeling overwhelmed and practically shaking with anxiety about meeting up with a guy, you still forced yourself to go anyway. You didn’t just dish out all that money just to not show up and waste his time on top of all that.

Your rental boyfriend texted you the location to meet at, it was near a train station so you both could see each other out in a public open space. The outfit you wore was fairly simple, a black mini skirt with warm tights underneath and a cropped turtleneck sweater. You accessorized the look with some dainty jewelry, a thin scarf, and knee high boots to pull everything together. It wasn’t something you usually wore but you had certain clothes you saved for a special occasion like this.

Upon your arrival, you notice him standing near a vending machine and waves over at you with the biggest smile plastered on his face. You awkwardly wave back, giving a soft smile as you slowly walk up to him. He looks even better in person, you don’t even feel adequate enough to be in such a gorgeous man’s presence. No wonder he’s so popular on the site, he’s practically unreal.

“Hi, you must be ___. It’s so nice to finally meet you, might I add you look really beautiful today, I think you’re making my heart race just by looking at you. Happy Valentine’s Day!” Changbin introduces himself, buttering you up with some sweet compliments before handing you the most insane bouquet of roses you’ve ever seen.

You take the flowers and almost stumble backwards from how heavy they were, “Wow, thank you!” Changbin prevents you from falling, quickly coming up behind you to get your balance back.

“Careful honey, can’t have you injured on our first date!” He voices with concern, “I hope you love the idea I came up with, I’ve only been to this place once before but I’m sure it’s still as fun as I remember it, let’s go!” Eagerly grabbing your hand to begin the journey, he turns around again to examine your body language.

“You seem a little tense babe? Do you need a massage?” He asks in a concerned tone again, this is all really beginning to freak you out. You know this is what you signed up for but this was all starting to feel a bit too personal, all the nicknames and sweet talk he’s giving is just something you aren’t used to.

“Uh, no! It’s o-okay.” You shook your head, denying anything suspicious going on. Truth be told you were barely able to contain your composure right now.

Changbin keeps on insisting, “The massage is included in the package so you don’t have to worry about getting charged extra.”

“N-no it’s okay, really. I’m just nervous that’s all, sorry I just don’t meet up with guys…” you shyly admit, finding it hard to look him in the eye.

He nods in understanding, “No need to be nervous with me sweetheart. I’m here to make you feel as comfortable as possible.” The smile he flashes at you instantly makes you warm on the inside, he seems like a genuine, caring person. You think things might go well for you after all.

The rest of the night was full of only good vibes and laughter by the end of it all. Changbin took you to an adult arcade that had old video games like Pac-Man, Super Mario, and Space Invaders, the other side was a bar where people could sit, drink, and socialize. He bought all your drinks that night, let you use up most of his tokens and overall had the most fun you could’ve ever had with someone. He was so easygoing but also knew when to act super caring and would be all lovey dovey with you. He was gentle, nurturing, and could have conversations about anything. You loved that he’d randomly drop some interesting fact you never knew about, or talked about a certain niche topic that he’d go on multiple rants over. It didn’t feel like you were renting someone out to date you, it felt natural— like you’ve known him for longer than a couple hours. Changbin walked you home and held your hand the entire time, along with the flowers he provided a teddy bear and a heart shaped box of chocolates. If that didn’t scream boyfriend goals then you don’t know what does.

The next day you wake up to Changbin blowing your phone up this morning. You had over 26 messages from him, which was pretty excessive in your humble opinion. The first thing he said was good morning then he goes on to express how fun yesterday was and he can’t wait to do it again. He even sent a couple mirror selfies of him at the gym, ‘conceited much?’ You thought. But then again, if you were Seo Changbin you’d probably be full of yourself too.

For today’s date you wore a pretty red sundress that made your skin glow in the sunlight. It’ll definitely get him to compliment you even more— which you secretly love when he does. Changbin calls you before he heads out to the date, letting you know how excited he is to see you again. You couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot on the train as you made your way to the destination, thinking about what he’s planned for you two next. This time you’ll be meeting up at a park but you still have no clue what you’re doing.

Changbin texts you where exactly he is in the park, it was pretty huge so it took you a while to get to him. As you get closer you see him sitting on a large blanket by the lake, on top of it were a bunch of different foods and snacks scattered all around that came out of a huge picnic basket. You were speed walking at this point trying to get to him. His arms opened out for a hug and you lean right into him, what you didn’t expect was for him to suddenly stand up and lift you in his arms to swing around you like a doll.

“Put me down I’m scared of heights!” You squeal out in fear of being too high up in the air. Maybe you really should’ve taken the bio on his profile more seriously when he mentioned certain things.

Finally putting you down after minutes go by of you protesting, Changbin sits you back onto the blanket. He brought an assortment of breads, cheese, fruits, lemonade that he made himself and a couple seltzers. You’ve never seen anyone put such time and effort into a date before, even being here with him is like living in a daydream. He was definitely succeeding in making you feel comfortable, which is something you never thought was possible with men. He actually took his time getting to know you and didn’t sound arrogant whenever he talked about himself, Changbin was so different than other guys who’ve tried hitting on you in the past. He was actually respectful, intelligent, and could easily carry a conversation without long, awkward pauses.

He was literally everything you’re looking for in a guy. But you’ll be seeing him for this week only then it’s bye bye forever. That revelation makes you a little upset, but you try pushing those thoughts in the back of your mind. It’s irrelevant and unnecessary to think about. Yet you can’t help but wonder about certain things though, wanting to know more about his job and what it’s like on a daily basis for him.

“Can I ask you something? I need you to answer it honestly.” You say out of nowhere, hoping that didn’t come out as weird as you thought.

Changbin nods, “of course, shoot.”

“How many clients do you usually get?”

This question definitely catches him off guard, he’s never really been asked this before and he’s debating on if he should as it might be a breach of privacy.

“I don’t think I can answer that, sorry.” He responds in the nicest way possible, but deep down he wants to know why you’d want to know how many other people he sees a day.

You were going to push him a bit more to try and get an answer but you decide to let it go and just enjoy the rest of the picnic. You didn’t want to bring the mood down with your odd questions and/or end up making him feel so uncomfortable that he won’t want to see you anymore. It was definitely something you shouldn’t have asked but you were curious to know anyway. Overall besides that small incident, you had another wonderful time with Changbin and couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come any faster.

Changbin had a foolproof way of getting you to blush like a giddy high school teen whenever he texted you. He’d always refer to you as ‘pretty girl’ or ‘princess’ which gave you insane amount of butterflies. You loved how clingy he could get and would double text when you don’t reply fast enough, always needing constant attention from you which you never minded giving.

He texted you at around three in the afternoon, proposing his next plan for today’s date.

‘Let’s go out for drinks tonight, it’s all on me ;)’

You liked his message, replying that you’ll be there and put a series of hearts at the end. Speaking of hearts, yours is fluttering at high altitudes from the way you can’t stop thinking about your “boyfriend” Changbin. This has been better than anything you could’ve expected, you never want this week to come to an end. It’s only been three days but you’ve begun to grow feelings for him, they weren’t too strong just yet but they were most definitely there. You couldn’t let that halt you from having a good time tonight, you’ll have to accept it soon enough he’s not your actual boyfriend. He’s doing this because you paid him to, if it wasn’t for your money he wouldn’t be here right now.

‘This relationship is purely transactional’ you unfortunately keep reminding yourself of the reality you’re in. Psyching yourself out of this sudden somber mood that’s consuming you, distracting your pessimism by raiding your closet for some cute clothes to wear tonight’s date. After what seemed like hours of tearing your entire room apart, you decide to settle on this sparkly black mini tube dress, pairing it with a leather jacket and more platform shoes because you’re obsessed with feeling tall. Once it’s 7 PM you head out to the bar you’re seeing Changbin at, he was already waiting for you inside the place. Eyes instantly lighting up when he sees you coming towards him, just like he always does he motions for a hug, pulling you in tightly like he hasn’t seen you in years.

His hugs felt so cozy, like sitting in front of the fireplace on a crisp, snowy winter’s evening. You never wanted to escape the warmth of his arms, it was one of those forms of physical touch that felt so overly personal to you. The thought of him hugging someone the same way he hugs you slightly enrages something in your spirit but again, it isn’t your place to get genuinely upset over him doing his job. You’re not entitled to him exclusively, but you feel like if you keep this up feelings will only continue to develop. This wasn’t something you considered when going into this and now you feel like you’ve just made a huge mistake.

“You okay babe?” Changbin notices you acting a bit strange, choosing not to pursue it after telling him you’re fine. He knows something’s wrong but doesn’t want to mess up the flow of the date, instead he orders a drink for the both of you and switches on to a lighter subject. “Let’s go shopping tomorrow at that new centre that just opened last week. I need to buy some new AirPods, I accidentally lost one of them in a taxi..”

“Sure,” you nod at his suggestion, in desperate need of some new clothes anyway. “Sorry about your AirPods, that sucks!”

He takes a sip of his bubbly drink that’s now on the table, “Eh, it’s okay this is probably the fourth time this has happened so far.” This has pretty much become a regular occurrence for him by now.

As the date progresses, things continue getting better. You’re both laughing, engaging in much deeper conversation than ever before. You definitely had more than enough alcohol in your system by now, feeling congested and claustrophobic as more people came into the bar. Changbin takes note of your discomfort and asks if you want to get some fresh air outside, you wasted absolutely no time to agree.

While you two were outside continuing your chat about some wild conspiracy he read about online, Changbin’s attention was soon drawn to a different building nearby. Gazing up in confusion at his sudden outburst of excitement, you wonder where he could be leading you next.

“Noraebang!” He shouts loud enough anyone miles away could’ve heard that, he’s now grabbing your hand to frantically drag you along with him.

You were never one to carry a tune but Changbin was actually very good at karaoke and singing in general, he had such a lovely voice. You could seriously listen to him sing all night— which you basically did since you kept begging for an encore until it hit 4 am. That’s when you both decided to finally call it a night, you wanted to pay for the Uber since he’s paid for all the drinks and every other expenses for today. You felt bad because you were the one renting him to be your boyfriend yet he’s constantly shelling out money left and right. He still insisted on paying and ultimately won the whole debacle, making you swallow your pride and get into the Uber with him. Changbin’s definitely not just someone you’re going to forget about after this week is over. You dread the day this all comes to an end, wishing there was a way to relive these moments again and again.

“I’m a little under the weather today, sorry I can’t make it Binnie.” Your voice is hoarse from coughing and unbearable throat pain. You’ve already consumed half a bag of cough drops, throat lozenges, and random cold medicine you’ve found in your cabinets.

He sounds mildly disappointed, but springs back up with a new proposal, “I can come over and bring some soup if you’d like!”

You appreciate his gesture but still refuse, you know he’s only saying all this because he has to, not because he wants to. “N-no you don’t have to, I’m sure you can go see other clients today. One less person to worry about right?”

The call went silent for a minute, he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to such a deprecating comment.

“I don’t want to see other clients, I want to see you ___.” He sighs, unwilling to give up so easily, “I’ll be at your place soon, m’kay?” He hangs up before you could even respond or say no again.

You had no choice but to wait for Changbin to show up now. Before you got sick, the last two dates you went on were debatably the best so far. You had gone out shopping together, accidentally wearing almost the same kind of outfit. Changbin was wearing a white graphic tee with blue baggy jeans and you wore something practically identical. The two of you looked like a real, official couple and people would stare as you walked hand in hand, it really did seem like the perfect relationship on the outside.

You got even closer when he came over the following day, resulting in you two cuddling while watching movies and baking cookies. He’s expressed that he’s never been to another client’s home before but it wasn’t “technically” against any rules. The more you kept hanging out together, the harder it was coming to terms with the fact you’re actually falling for Changbin. He made every experience with you more exciting than the last, which he did exactly that night. When the cookies were done you fed a piece to him, making little airplane sounds as you do it, he eagerly takes a bite of the chewy treat and compliments both your efforts.

“These taste way better than I thought, oh my god they literally melt in your mouth. Try it!” He takes another cookie from the tray and feeds it to you this time.

There was something so overly domestic about that moment you couldn’t shake the feelings of wanting to kiss him right then and there. But you can’t. If you did such a thing you’d never be allowed to see him again, plus you don’t want to be known as that one creepy client who just couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. As you were cuddling on the couch though, things may have taken a turn for the better… or worse?

Changbin would “yawn” at the movie and subtly wrap his arm around you, he’d subconsciously pull you in closer and it didn’t make it any better that you were under the same blanket. You weren’t complaining at any of this though, you were pretty much in heaven. It took everything in you not to look up and stare, gluing your eyes to the movie that was displayed on the TV. But as the night progressed you were practically snuggling up with him like he was your real boyfriend. The way he’d run his fingers gently down your back, soothing you in a way that could lull you asleep. His touch was the most relaxing thing ever, you were so calm with him and loved how he brought a side of you that’s never been shown. After this encounter you can no longer deny the way you feel— you are officially falling deeply in love your rental boyfriend, Seo Changbin.

The sound of your doorbell ringing alarms you of a new visitor, who was none other than your “boyfriend” waiting patiently outside the door for you. You feel and look like death itself, coming downstairs to answer the door still in your PJ’s and hair a disheveled mess. Every five seconds was interrupted with you coughing your lungs out, barely able to speak above a whisper. Changbin looks thrilled as ever to see you, even when you clearly don’t look your best he’s still coming up to hug you tightly. His hugs are always blocking off your airways from the way his muscles squeeze you, it’s even worse when you’re sick— practically gasping for air.

“Sorry babyy, I just missed you so much. I couldn’t stop thinking about you all day and soon as you said you’re sick I dropped everything to go make you this soup. It’s a specialty I make whenever my friends are sick, the perfect remedy to cure my princess.” He goes into your kitchen to heat up the soup in your microwave, making you wait patiently on the couch as you’re wrapped up in multiple blankets.

Your body feels like it’s -2 degrees, you were freezing. The crazy thing is your thermostat was set to 80 degrees, it was definitely you that was the problem. He propped your feet up on the table, rested a tray in your lap and set the bowl of soup on top. Brushing a couple strands of hair out your face he looks at you intently, examining your symptoms as if he’s a doctor.

“It’ll be okay soon love, I’m here to nurse you back to health again. Can’t see my pretty baby sick like this, makes me all sad.” He pouts, giving you a soft head pat like you’re a delicate kitten.

He takes a spoonful of the hot soup, slightly blowing on it before telling you to open up so you can eat. You don’t know what’s gotten into you but you feel like he’s gone too far with all this. It’s not fair for you to continue on if it’s just become torture now. He’s practically dangling in your face that you’ll never have a partner as perfect as him in your life.

“I- I can’t do this anymore Changbin..” you say lowly, refusing to eat the soup he made.

“What do you mean? I’m just feeding you soup, it’s my duty as your boyfriend to-”

“This isn’t real… none of it is. I’m stupid for even doing this but I was lonely.. I’m sorry but I’d prefer something that isn’t temporary.” You cut him off to express your pent up frustrations, ready to be let down and rejected by him as gently as possible.

“Then let’s make it real,” he proposes without any hesitation, “honestly I stopped faking it around our third date, it was all me after that. I never said anything because well… this is my job and I’ve never fallen for a client before so this is still all very new to me..”

You’d be screaming right now if you weren’t sick, instead you’re internally freaking out at this confession, it feels like your hearts doing cartwheels and somersaults.

“Seriously?” Eyes widening as you look at him, suddenly your body heat rises and you know it’s not because of the soup or the layers of blankets that’s covering you.

He nods, “I thought it was kinda obvious when we kissed yesterday..”

Oh yeah… you forgot that did happen. You thought it was another fever dream you might’ve just made up in your head. You shared your first kiss with someone you deemed so special and important to you, someone you never would’ve guessed could come into your life and shift the entirety of your world like magic. There was no one else in existence you wanted more than Changbin.

“Doesn’t that mean you’ll have to quit your job? I don’t want to be the reason you stop making such good income.. I’ll feel so bad.” You knew deep down you didn’t feel that badly about him quitting to date you instead. It was just the thought of him leaving something he’s been doing for years behind all for some girl he’s known for simply a week.

He shrugs at your comment, “I’ll be just fine, I was planning on finding a new job soon anyway. It gets kinda old after a while, I felt like I was on autopilot most of the time. You were able to get me to open up and show my true self, I could never thank you enough for that ___.” Changbin couldn’t resist the urge to plant a kiss to your forehead.

After everything that’s been said and done. What you’ve come to understand is that love is learned, a development that takes time to grow and blossom into something extraordinary. Just like learning a new language or a musical instrument, we learn love from society and cultures we’re raised in, it’s a beautiful thing once we know how to cherish it. Your newfound romance with Changbin is something you’ll learn to cherish forever and ever.

[End <3].

#skz fluff #skz x reader #changbin fluff #seo changbin fluff #stray kids imagines #skz drabbles #changbin x reader #changbin skz #changbin x female reader #seo changbin x reader #stray kids fluff #changbin scenarios #changbin drabbles #changbin imagines #skz au #skz scenarios #stray kids scenarios #stray kids drabbles #skz imagines

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riyangiis · 1 year ago

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flowers for you ! ─ han yujin

you've had a crush on yujin for so long, you just gave up on trying anything because you're nowhere near his level. but rumors started to go around about him and another idol in your school, you couldn't help but be jealous.

pairing , han yujin x reader

warnings , idol!classmate!yujin, idol! oc, rushed..

𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 !

han yujin, a name known all around your school. insanely talented, unbelievably attractive, his whole existence is precious, and so many more. you were absolutely nowhere near his level. he's adored by many and probably has his own group of admirers.

you know there are so many other talented people like him in your school, so you don't even bother and try to get him to notice you unlike delusional daydreamers who can't seem to catch a break.. chocolates here, letters there.. you just sort of ignore him the whole time to ease the pain of knowing that there isn't a single chance of him liking you back.

just one thing caught your attention, seo jiwon. she's the rising star of the infamous group starlinx. the frequently praised and adored, the super talented maknae, the drop-dead gorgeous girl. she was exactly what you were scared of.

jiwon's had her own share of admirers too, but rumors started going around stating that yujin and jiwon have a thing for each other after a fan recorded their interaction in school. it's nothing really, socializing at it's finest. but fans started realizing how 'good' the both of them would be for each other. you felt a little bit of jealousy bubble up at the thought.

nevermind. articles like k-daily use their aesthetic and unique style more than the main focus of the entire website. so it shouldn't matter at all, right? maybe. you snapped out of your thoughts and went to a specific app to see other's opinion on this. you scrolled on twitter and find some tweets about the whole situation.

this whole idea may sound stupid, but you really thought of fully ignoring both jiwon and yujin as if you were only able to sneak a few glances with them whenever you got lucky. give up.. it's not like they will notice and as if it's gonna do anything major.. (maybe)

you turned your phone off and started getting comfortable in your bed, trying to get some sleep. all you could think about was yujin, jiwon, yujin, jiwon, it was suffocating. if anything you should be drowning in your soft bed and get some sleep, not drown in those stupid thoughts.

what should you do tomorrow? just let them be? safest option but your intrusive thoughts or your heart will never agree to that. be mean to them? might get cancelled by their fans around the school. fully ignore them and act like they never existed and dodge every option that leads to them? maybe.

"gosh jiwon, no wonder people called you helpful."

yujin sighed and dropped the notepad with a million ideas to make the first move. for who you ask? you'll see. he checked each page to see how many recommendations jiwon did with a whole lot of research about what that lucky person likes and possibly wants in a guy.

"how do you even do this?"

yujin's face was full of shock and wonder, jiwon smirked and looked and yujin's reaction in satisfaction. she snatched the notepad and flipped every page to boost her ego a little bit more.

"hey, it's me, the super wonderful maknae, jiwon! you'll never get anything wrong with me around!"

"i don't understand how you're good at this more than taking simple notes and putting the teacher's lectures to use."

jiwon slowly looked at yujin to create a more dramatic effect, she stared at him as if she just failed her exams. yujin just sits there confused.

"was i wrong?"

jiwon smacked yujin in his shoulder playfully and made sure he wasn't hurt at all, yujin acted as if he just got shot and played along with her.

"all we need to do is focus on the main thing, get [name] to like you and not get scolded or caught."

a camera from afar failed to hear their conversation and just snapped a picture of yujin and jiwon at the back of the school, jiwon seemed to notice an awkward presence and looked around in her surroundings, yujin followed. the person slowly walked away without the both of them knowing that they pretty much screwed their plan up. a little bit i guess.

the bell rings, a few people sigh after getting tired of hearing the teacher's boring lesson in mathematics. everyone grabbed their bags and rushed out of the classroom. jiwon and yujin involved. jiwon sneakily watched the both of you exit the room, why do you look more gloomy than usual? yujin hold the chocolates in his hand feeling a little nervous, he walked up to you and tapped your shoulder, you continue walking.

"hello?"

you continue walking.

"i'm busy."

he tried to catch up and stopped in front of you. in which you tried to pass by him, is anything wrong? you usually tried to greet him but his fans were always near him that time. he gently pulled you to a private spot and held you as if you were delicate. you blushed at the thought, but snapped out of it.

"what is it that you want?"

"i was about to ask if we could hang out for lunch, since you were busy i just wanted to give you these."

yujin opened his hand that had pieces of your favorite chocolate inside. you slowly took them and kept them inside your pocket. he knew what you liked?

"wait.. why are you giving me this?"

oh, yujin didn't think about that. he tried to brush it off with a pretty bad excuse.

"i always saw you buy them in the store or eat them at least once a day. and you're really kind to me and treat me like a normal person instead of some deity.. i just wanted to give you these as a thank you.."

yujin nervously looks down at the floor with his face fully red. he tries to cover his blushy state with one hand but you noticed right away.

"i.. thank you, i don't really know what to say. don't hide yourself, yujin. you look so cute right now."

you teased him and removed his hand covering his face and held it. you remembered that he asked you to hang out with him, you can't miss that opportunity.

"uh, also, we can hang out another time if you want? i can ditch my friends-"

"what? no need to ditch your plans.. that's pretty ridiculous to do for someone you only interacted with a few times.."

"someone? you're the han yujin! even if i tell my friends they will probably get it.."

there goes your blushing yujin again. he's all giggly as well, you could honestly ditch everything just to see yujin blushing. maybe that's just how adorable he is.

"maybe we can hang out at the park, if you're free at saturday?"

and there it is. you finally got to have a pretty long conversation with him, is this a dream? whatever. you just had to get prepared for saturday, get your best outfit, maybe prepare incase anything happens.

"what do you mean you're gonna hang out with someone?"

gyuvin asks yujin confused, they had a packed up schedule and this is the first time yujin was able to hang out with someone.

"are they special? what did they do for that hang out? is it jiwon asking you to do your 'secret sessions'? what is it??"

gosh, gyuvin really sounds like a curious mother. curiosity kills the cat (ricky) you know? (probably why he's really curious)

"hyung, calm down. were only studying for a quiz.."

yujin looked down on the floor knowing he messed up big time, that horrible excuse did not do anything but peak gyuvin's curiosity more.

"a quiz?? you can ask hao hyung for help.. or maybe gunwook.. what is it that you need help for?? are you hiding something from me??"

yujin inhaled and tried to explain to gyuvin about everything.

"uhm.. iwantedtoaskjiwonforhelpbecauseilikesomeoneandiwantedtomakethefirstmovesoiaskedthemtohangoutwithmenowweregoingtotheparkonsaturdaybutidon'tknowwhattodo."

gyuvin's brain was processing on what yujin just said. holy, his son is a rapper too?

"wait wait, YOU LIKE SOMEONE??????"

gyuvin shouted out loud enough for the other members to hear.

"be quiet!"

hanbin, zhanghao, and ricky scolded gyuvin for #1 being too loud, #2 disrupting hao's precious beauty sleep, and #3 ricky just wants to scold gyuvin. gyuvin's jaw is still on the floor after what yujin just said. him? liking someone? his son is growing up?

"wait, i have an idea."

gyuvin dragged ricky and hanbin to a flower shop and asked hanbin which one should yujin pick for his.. crush..

"what are their preferences anyway?"

yujin looked around and spotted a bouquet full of pink tulips.

"this, i once saw in their instagram post that they liked pink tulips."

ricky looked at the price and the quality of the flowers. hanbin seemed impressed by yujin.

"pink tulips.. affection, caring, good wishes, and love.. not as deep at red tulips, which is good because you guys are still kids. impressive yujin."

ricky grabbed the bouquet and his wallet to pay for it. they walked out of the store and talked about what yujin should do on the way back to the dorms.

(i cant add more pics so pretend this is a divider)

it's saturday, you decided to pick a casual but good-looking outfit. you tried to look as presentable as you can, you're literally gonna hang out with an idol. yujin probably has better things to do.

you walked all the way to the park and waited for yujin to meet you at the spot you both agreed on. you waited for a little while until a familiar voice called your name. yujin walked up to you holding something behind his back with that cute smile he has.

"what's that behind your back?"

he slowly revealed the bouquet of pink tulips. you got flustered and took the bouquet, the price tag was still attached, it looks pretty expensive for flowers.. you looked at yujin in shock, how did he know? he just smiled in satisfaction. it's obvious that you love his gift.

"flowers, for you."

#riyangiis #yura.writes !#zb1 yujin #han yujin #han yujin x reader #yujin x reader #zb1 #zb1 x reader #zb1 fluff #zb1 imagines #zerobaseone #zerose.library

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mostlysignssomeportents · 11 months ago

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Tabs give me superpowers

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

"Lifehacking" is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reason: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of productivity porn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.

But I was there when lifehacking was born, and I'm here to tell you, it wasn't always thus. Lifehacking attained liftoff exactly 19 years and 348 days ago, on Feb 11, 2004, when Danny O'Brien presented "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks" at the 0'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (aka ETCON). I was there, and I took notes:

https://craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt

O'Brien's inspiration was his social circle, in which people he knew to be no smarter or better or motivated than anyone else in that group were somehow able to do much more than their peers, in some specific domain. O'Brien delved deeply into these peoples' lives and discovered that each of them had merely ("merely!") gotten very good at using one or two tools to automate things that would otherwise take up a lot of their time.

These "hacks" freed up their practitioners to focus on things that mattered more to them. They accomplished the goal set out in David Allen's Getting Things Done: to make a conscious choice about which things you are going to fail to do today, rather than defaulting to doing the things that are easy and trivial, at the expense of the things that matter, but are more complicated:

https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/

One trait all those lifehacks shared: everyone who created a little hack was faintly embarrassed by it, and assumed that others who learned about their tricks would find them trivial or foolish. O'Brien changed the world by showing that other people were, in fact, delighted and excited to learn about their peers' cool little tricks.

(Unfortunately, this eventually opened the floodgates of overheated posts about some miraculous hack that turned out to indeed be silly and trivial or even actively bad, but that wasn't O'Brien's fault!)

I'm one of those people whom others perceive as very "productive." There are some objective metrics on which this is true: I wrote nine books during lockdown, for example. Like the lifehackers O'Brien documented in 2004, I have lots of little hacks that aren't merely a way of getting more done – they're a way to make sure that I get the stuff that matters to me (taking care of my family and my health, and writing books) done.

A lot of these lifehacks boil down to making your life easier. There's a spot on our kitchen counter where I put e-waste. Whenever I go out to the car, I carry any e-waste out and put it in a bag in the trunk. Any time I'm near our city dump, I stop and throw the bag into their e-waste bin. This is now a habit, and habits are things you get for free: I spend zero time thinking about e-waste, which means I have more time to think about things that matter (and our e-waste still ends up in the right place).

There's other ways I use habits to make my life easier: after many years, I learned how to write every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

For longer-form works like novels, I "leave myself a rough edge," finishing the day's work in the middle of a sentence. That way I get a few words for free the next day, meaning I never start the day's work wondering which words I'll type:

https://locusmag.com/2014/01/cory-doctorow-cheap-writing-tricks/

One of the most powerful habits I've cultivated is to have a group of daily tabs that I open in a new browser every morning. The meat of this tab group is websites I want to check in with every day, either because they don't have RSS feeds, or because I want to make sure I never miss an update.

This tab-group habit started before RSS was widespread, when most of the websites I wanted to check in on every day didn't have feeds yet, and for many years, this group was just a set of daily reads. But over the years, I started throwing things in the tab-group that I needed to stay on top of.

My daily tabs are in a folder called "unfucked rota" (they were originally in a folder called "rota," which got corrupted and had to be reconstructed in a folder I called "fucked rota," until I finally took a couple hours off and got it in good running order, hence "unfucked rota"). As I type this, "unfucked rota" contains more than a hundred websites I visit every morning, but it also contains:

The edit-history pages for four Wikipedia entries I'm watching;

Chronological feeds of my books on Amazon and Audible, to catch counterfeits as they are posted;

The parent notification portal for my kid's school;

The mileage history for the airline I flew on yesterday (I'll delete this once the flight is posted);

The credit card history for a card I reported a fraudulent charge on (I'll delete this once the refund is posted);

The sell-pages for three products that are out of stock (I'll delete these once the products are in stock and ordered);

A bookmarked newest-first Ebay search for a shirt I like that has been discontinued by the manufacturer;

The new-survey-completed pages for my last two Kickstarters;

The courier tracking page for an item being shipped sea-freight to me from Asia.

The tail end of this unfucked rota changes all the time, but as you can tell, it's got a lot of stuff that would be time-consuming to build a whole new system to track, but which has a web-page that can be easily added to a daily, habitual check-in and then removed when it's not relevant anymore.

Some of these things have email notifiers or RSS feeds, but those are too easy to lose in the noise. I generally delete email from ecommerce sites unread, since 99.99% of the messages they send me are unsolicited marketing nonsense, not the "notify me when this is back in stock" message I do want to see (same goes for my kid's school, which sends me fifty unimportant messages for every message that I must reply to).

Most of the internet is still on the web, which means it can be bookmarked, which means that it takes me one second to add it to the group of things I'm staying on top of, and one second to remove from that group. I get up in the morning, middle-click the "unfucked rota" item in my bookmarks pane, make a cup of coffee, and then sit down and race through those tabs, close-close-close.

It takes less than a second to scan a tab to see if it's changed (and if I close a tab too quickly, the ctrl-shift-T "unclose" shortcut is there in muscle-memory, another habit). The whole process takes between one and 15 minutes (depending on whether there's anything useful and new in one of those tabs).

Tabs, like lifehacks, are also in bad odor. Everyone stresses about how many tabs they have open. It's even inspired Rusty Foster's excellent newsletter, Today In Tabs:

https://www.todayintabs.com/

But this is a very different way to think about tabs. Rather than opening a window full of tabs that need your detailed, once-off attention later, this method is about using groups of tabs so that you can pay cursory, frequent attention to them.

In a world full of administrative burdens, where firms and institutions play the "sure, we'll do that, but you're going to have to track our progress" game to get out of living up to their obligations, this method is a powerful countermeasure:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

My little tab habit is so incredibly useful, such a powerful way to seize back time and power from powerful actors who impose burdens on me, that I sometimes forget how, for other people, tabs are a symptom of a life that's spiraling out of control. For me, a couple hundred tabs are a symbol of a couple hundred tasks that I'm totally on top of, a symbol of control wrestled back from others who are hostile to my interests.

This isn't how tabs were "meant" to be used, of course. It's an example of the kind of "innovation" that comes from users repurposing things in ways their designers didn't necessarily anticipate or intend.

This is what Jonathan Zittrain meant by "generative" technology back in 2008, when he published his incredibly prescient The Future of the Internet: And How To Stop It:

https://memex.craphound.com/2008/07/22/zittrains-the-future-of-the-internet-how-to-save-the-internet-from-the-internet/

For Zittrain, "generativity" was the property of some technologies that let its users generate new, useful tools and solutions for themselves (this is very different from "generative AI!")

Zittrain described how "curated" computing systems, like mobile devices that relied on apps that couldn't be adapted by their users, were dead ends for generativity. 15 years later, the dismal world of apps has proven him right:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

To the extent that "lifehacking" is about doing more, rather than being more deliberate about what you accomplish, it can be harmful. I am not immune to the failure modes of lifehacking:

https://locusmag.com/2017/11/cory-doctorow-how-to-do-everything-lifehacking-considered-harmful/

But overall, using tabs as something I close, rather than something I open, is a source of comfort and calm for me. For one thing, ripping through a group of tabs every morning means that I don't have to worry about missing something if I go too fast. I'll get another chance tomorrow:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/27/probably/

Decades ago, Dori Smith dubbed her pioneering blog her "#Backup Brain":

https://web.archive.org/web/20020120231027/http://www.backupbrain.com/

At their best, our systems – be they physical, like a spot on the counter where the e-waste goes, or digital, like a tab-group – are "congitive prostheses." They allow us to move important things from the highly contested, busy and precious space between our ears and out there into the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

Like those lifehackers that O'Brien studied for his presentation in 2004, I confess to feeling a little silly about telling you all about this. For me, this habit of decades is so ingrained that it feels trivial and obvious. And yet, when I look at people in my life struggling to stay on top of a million nagging administrative tasks that could be easily watched through a morning's flick through a tab-group, I can't help but think that maybe some of you will find a useful idea or two in my unfucked rota.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/#unfucked-rota

#pluralistic #productivity #life hacks #mozilla #firefox #open web #systems #getting things done #externalized memory #outboard brain #generativitiy

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dedalvs · 8 months ago

Note

Is there something up with the High Valyrian wiki?

https://wiki.languageinvention.com/index.php?title=High_Valyrian_language

I've had this link bookmarked since ages. I can't seem to load the page. I've tried all sorts of browsers and it is still not working. i wanted to get back into actively learning HV again and duolingo is kinda annoying so. Is there a different page/resource the wiki has moved on to? I also seem to recall an old forum for HV with a bunch of really good resources for it. is it possible for you to provide a link? Thanks so much anyway!!

Good question! This wiki, which you can find here..

...is a labor of love—not just from me, but from a team of dedicated individuals who want to get information about my languages up somewhere more or less permanent, editable by many, and all in one place.

For years I have had a hosting plan from DreamHost. For a fixed fee, DreamHost allows you, essentially, infinite storage. I've got a dozen or so websites hosted by the same DreamHost account. I have to pay for the urls (a yearly fee; everyone pays these), but the hosting itself is covered, no matter if I had one website or a hundred.

Creating a wiki that would function like Wiktionary was my idea. I love Wiktionary, and love the idea behind it. For example, let's say you wanted to look up mate. This is an English word. It's also a subjunctive form of matar "to kill" in Spanish. It's also the word for "saliva" in Swahili. It's also "dead" in Tahitian. It's also a word in several other languages. It's kind of cool to take an abstract form—going just by spelling—and seeing that it's a word in a bunch of different languages, all with different etymologies (some related, of course. For example, mate has something to do with death in a lot of Oceanic languages. In Hawaiian it's make, which looks like an entirely different English word!).

In Dothraki, the word tor is the number four. It comes from Proto-Plains *tur (and so would be tur in Lhazareen). It's also the word for "tower" in Hen Linge (this is one of the words coined by Andrzej Sapkowski, not created by me). In Noalath, from The Shannara Chronicles, it's the word for "wolf", and in Shiväisith, the language I created for the Dark Elves from Thor: The Dark World, it's the word for "sword". While it's true I didn't create the Hen Linge word, I created the others, so you can see it's a form I'm fond of, where the shape is possible.

Anyway, that's kind of cool! And that was the point of the site.

As it happens, the High Valyrian section of the site is…massive. To give you an idea, at the moment, the wiki has over 220,000 pages. Most of those are High Valyrian pages. This is because there's a dedicated team for High Valyrian that has added pages for every single noun, adjective, and verb inflection for every existing word on the wiki. To give you an idea, every verb of High Valyrian has around 200 forms (ipradagon "to eat", ipradan "I eat", ipradā "you eat", ipradas "s/he/it eats", etc.). Every single form for every single verb has its own page. This was accomplished primarily with a program that populated the inflectional pages, but however they got there, they're there.

Certain things on the wiki are templates that need to go through and "check" every single page. Additionally, a webcrawler goes through and checks every single page on the wiki. This requires a lot of RAM. As a result, periodically, the entire website just...shuts down.

Obviously this is not cool. I asked DreamHost about it, and though we have infinite space, we don't have infinite RAM. The first step was to disable all web crawlers. You know about SEO, and how you can do things to increase the page rank of your site? Well, we needed to do the opposite. We needed to make the site disappear from the net, effectively. And we did. This is why even if you type "David J. Peterson wiki language invention" into Google you get nothing. It's like we don't exist. We're there, but you have to know we're there and go to the site specifically. That helped, but our own programs still shut things down.

The second step was to get a private server (technically a virtual private server) for the site. This cost me an extra $25 a month ($300 a year) from what I was already paying. This definitely helped, but sometimes things get to be a bit too much, and so the site still shuts down. This is what you experienced.

You know how Wikipedia begs you for money every year? It's because of this. It's one thing to create an awesome resource; it's another thing for people to actually use it.

Hosting already costs me about $250 every two years, and every year I renew the urls for about 15 websites, which is another $300 a year. If I upgrade the VPS to the next level, it's even more money every year. And that's just me paying it.

Right now, we're in an okay spot. The site shuts down every so often, but most of the time it's more or less stable. Unless I start making a lot more money regulary, that's the way it's going to stay.

So if you go to the site and it's down, I'm very sorry, but it will be back. May take a few days, but it'll come back (as long as I'm alive, anyway).

#conlang #language #wiki #wikipedia #wiktionary

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the-sleepy-archivist · 1 year ago

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Favorite Firefox Extensions

Firefox is a very extensible browser - through a combinations of addons and userscripts you can make it behave just about any way you want. The best part is, they're all free. Here are some of my favorites.

Note: if you have an Android device, check out my post about Firefox for Android's new extended support for addons!

Note: if you have an Apple device, check out my favorite Safari extensions here!

Last updated Dec 2024 (added Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy).

Index:

uBlock Origin

Tab Session Manager

Sauron

Bypass Paywalls Clean

Auto Tab Discard

Video DownloadHelper

Highlight or Hide Search Engine Results

TWP - Translate Web Pages

UnTrap - YouTube Customizer

Indie Wiki Buddy

Cookie Auto Delete

ShopSuey - Get Rid of Ads on Amazon and Ebay

LibraryExtension

Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy

uBlock Origin

(compatible with Firefox for Android)

This is the first addon I install on any new Firefox browser. It's an adblocker, but at its core it can remove pretty much any HTML element from a website, and it comes with pre-configured lists for removing everything from ads to cookie banners to those annoying popups that ask you to sign up for email newsletters.

Tab Session Manager

Have you ever accidentally lost all your open browser tabs due to a computer update, or even just accidentally closing Firefox? With this addon you no longer have to worry about that - it automatically saves your open tabs and windows every time the browser closes, and autosaves a restore point of tabs every few minutes in case the browser crashes unexpectedly. Opening all your previous tabs and windows is a one-click deal.

Sauron

Ever wished your favorite website had a dark mode? With Sauron, now it can! Sauron attempts to intelligently figure out how to edit the color scheme of the web page (including text) to make it dark-mode friendly. It preserves the original color of images, but dims them so that they don't blind you. You can disable image dimming or dark mode on a site by site basis too. It's not perfect since it is making guesses about which colors to change, but it goes a long way toward making the internet an enjoyable place for me.

Bypass Paywalls Clean

This addon removes paywalls from hundreds of news websites around the world or adds links to open the article in a wrapper that provides the article text (like the Internet Archive etc.)

Auto Tab Discard

Ever wanted to keep a tab open for later use, but you notice the browser getting slower and slower the more tabs you have open? Auto Tab Discard will automatically "hibernate" tabs that you haven't used in a while so that they use less resources on your computer. It's smart enough not to hibernate pages that are playing media (like YouTube) or that have forms you haven't submitted yet (like job applications). You can customize how fast it puts tabs to sleep too and exclude certain websites from hibernating at all.

Video DownloadHelper

This addon can download streaming videos from most modern (HTML5) websites, and even finds soft subtitles that accompany the stream and downloads those too. Just browse to the webpage that has the video on it, click the icon in the Firefox toolbar, and select the video you want to download and click "Quick Download". For YouTube I would recommend using a YT downloader website (like KeepVid) to download the video directly, but Video DownloadHelper really shines for websites that aren't popular enough to have dedicated downloader websites like that. I've used it download videos from a Japanese film festival streaming portal, news websites, etc.

Highlight or Hide Search Engine Results

This addon allows you to blacklist websites and completely remove them from Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo search results. Don't want to see image search results from AI websites? Blacklist them. Searching for tech support advice and getting frustrated by all the auto-generated junk websites that stuff themselves full of SEO terms to jump to the top of the search results without actually providing any information at all? Blacklist them so they don't come up in your next search. Conversely, you can also whitelist websites that you know and trust so that if they ever come up in future search results, they'll be highlighted with a color of your choosing for visibility.

TWP - Translate Web Pages

(compatible with Firefox for Android)

Does what it says on the tin: auto-detects a website's language and provides a button that can translate it to a language of your choosing. You can also just select individual text on the page and translate just that. Note that this sends whatever text you translate to the servers of your selected translation service (Google, Bing, Yandex, or DeepL), so keep in mind the privacy implications if you don't want your IP address associated with having read that text.

Edit: As of version 118, Firefox now has the ability to translate text locally on your computer, without needing to send it to a cloud service. You can enable this in Settings -> Translation -> Install languages for offline translation. Note that at this time (May 2024), 18 (mostly European) languages are supported. More info here.

UnTrap for YouTube

(compatible with Firefox for Android and they have a Safari for iOS extension too)

This addon lets you tweak the YouTube interface and hide anything you don't want to see. For instance, I hide all the "recommended" videos that come up when you search YT now. They have nothing to do with your search, so they're essentially just ads YT puts in your search results. I also hide Explore, Trending, More from YouTube, and Shorts sections, but you can customize it to fit your preferences.

Note: depending on the particular set of tweaks you want to make to YouTube, you may prefer to use YouTube Search Fixer instead. User preference.

Indie Wiki Buddy

I loathe Fandom.com wiki sites - they are cluttered and filled with ads and autoplaying videos that follow you down the page as you scroll. The organization is also hostile - if a community tries to leave their platform and bring their content to a new wiki hoster, Fandom bans them from the platform and reverts all their deletions/changes. Indie Wiki Buddy attempts to find an independent alternative for the wiki you're trying to browse and automatically redirects you to it, and if one doesn't exist, it will redirect you to a proxy site like antifandom or breezewiki that shows the Fandom content but removes all ads/videos/background images so you can actually, you know. READ it.

Cookie Auto Delete

(compatible with Firefox for Android)

Websites store "cookies" - little text files with info about you - on your computer as you browse so they can track you as you browse the internet. This addon automatically deletes cookies from a website a short while after you close the last tab you had open for that site. You can customize how long it waits before clearing cookies too. Note that this can sign you out of many websites, so you can whitelist any site you don't want cookies cleared for.

ShopSuey - Get Rid of Ads on Amazon and Ebay

Removes the ads/recommended products that clutter up Amazon and Ebay search results and product pages.

LibraryExtension

This fantastic addon recognizes when you are viewing a book on many popular websites and can automatically check whether that book is available in any of the library systems or subscription services you have access to, including how many copies your library(ies) have and how many are currently checked out. The best part is it shows the availability for physical books, ebooks, AND audiobooks at supported libraries. The extension currently supports libraries in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, but it also supports some global repositories like the Internet Archive and subscription services like NLS Bard for the blind and print disabled, Kobo Plus, Libro.fm, Anyplay.fm, Bookmate, and Everand. Great extension for people trying to support their local library and also save money.

Filtering+ for Tumblr

This addon lets you add tags or phrases to your tumblr tag filters with two clicks, without leaving the dashboard. I've been asking Tumblr for this tag filtering behavior on their mobile apps (i.e. press and hold a tag to get a filter option) for at least a year now in asks and surveys, without ever stopping to see if someone had already implemented this on desktop. More fool me. This addon is from the author of XKit Rewritten. Note that the right-click tag filtering only works on the dashboard; it will not appear if you are on someone's blog. Right-clicking selected text to filter the phrase works everywhere based on my testing.

Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy

This addon does its best to re-enable the normal right-click context menu and copy/paste actions on pages that try to disable them. If you run into a site that messes with either of those, select this addon and check "Enable Copy," then try again. If that doesn't work, check "Absolute mode." It doesn't work everywhere, but I find it very helpful.

#firefox #firefox extensions #internet privacy #mine #long post

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easyquickweb · 1 month ago

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Elevate Your Business in Jubilee Hills with the Best Web Designing Company in Hyderabad

Tucked in the heart of Hyderabad, Jubilee Hills is a thriving area known for its rich cultural landmarks like Peddamma Talli Temple and the picturesque KBR National Park. Businesses in this upscale neighborhood require a strong online presence to thrive. With EasyQuickWeb, recognized as the best web designing company in Hyderabad, creating a compelling website has never been easier.

Our expertise spans various industries, offering responsive web designs, eCommerce solutions, and SEO services. Whether you are a startup or a legacy business, EasyQuickWeb provides customized web solutions that are both cost-effective and impactful.

Why EasyQuickWeb is the Best Web Designing Company in Hyderabad

1. Responsive Web Design for Modern Businesses

A responsive website is essential for engaging users, especially in an area like Jubilee Hills where mobile browsing dominates. EasyQuickWeb ensures that your site looks stunning and performs flawlessly, whether viewed on a phone or desktop.

Learn more about our responsive web design services

2. Comprehensive Web Development in Hyderabad

Jubilee Hills is home to thriving businesses that demand dynamic, scalable websites. EasyQuickWeb offers comprehensive web development in Hyderabad, ensuring your website is secure, fast, and tailored to your needs. Whether you are a retail store or a corporate office, we deliver web solutions that align with your goals.

Explore our web development services here

Features That Make EasyQuickWeb the Best Web Designing Company in Hyderabad

1. Custom Design Studios in Hyderabad

Our design team creates visually stunning websites that reflect your brand’s identity. As one of the top-rated design studios in Hyderabad, we craft custom websites that not only look good but also function seamlessly.

Check out our portfolio of designs

2. Expert SEO by the Best SEO Company in Hyderabad

Visibility is key to success, and our SEO services ensure that your business ranks high in local searches. EasyQuickWeb, the best SEO company in Hyderabad, uses proven strategies to increase organic traffic, driving more potential customers to your site.

Boost your rankings with our SEO services

3. Custom Apps by a Leading Mobile App Development Company in Hyderabad

In today’s competitive market, having a mobile app can significantly enhance customer engagement. EasyQuickWeb collaborates with the best mobile app development company in Hyderabad to create apps that are user-friendly and aligned with your business goals.

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Unique Selling Points of EasyQuickWeb

Same-Day Website Delivery: Launch your site within 24 hours and stay ahead in Jubilee Hills’ competitive market.

Affordable Pricing: Starting at just ₹4,999, we offer the best value for your investment.

355+ Google 5-Star Ratings: Trusted by hundreds of clients, EasyQuickWeb is Telangana’s most reviewed web design service.

MIT Alumni Endorsed: Our innovative solutions are recognized by global leaders in technology.

See our pricing details

How EasyQuickWeb Supports Businesses in Jubilee Hills

For Startups

Are you launching a boutique near Peddamma Talli Temple or opening a café close to KBR National Park? EasyQuickWeb helps you create an online presence that captures your brand’s essence and attracts customers.

For Legacy Businesses

If you’ve been operating in Jubilee Hills for years, we can revamp your website to meet modern standards. This ensures you continue to engage with tech-savvy audiences while preserving your brand’s legacy.

For Creators and Innovators

Freelancers and artists in Jubilee Hills can showcase their portfolios with a professional website that highlights their talent and achievements.

Get inspired by our portfolio

Discover the Benefits of Working with EasyQuickWeb

With Jubilee Hills’ vibrant business environment and iconic attractions like KBR National Park, having a professional website is crucial for success. EasyQuickWeb, the best web designing company in Hyderabad, ensures that your website is not only visually appealing but also optimized for performance and user engagement.

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dapacheckertool · 1 month ago

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Free DA PA Checker Tool

One of the most important free SEO tools is the DA PA Checker tool, which can evaluate the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) score of either a website or a single webpage by owners, marketers, and SEO professionals. Moz developed metrics for ascertaining the strength and credibility of a website in terms of ranking potential on search engines like Google.

Key Characteristics of the DA PA Checker Tool Domain Authority (DA): What is DA? Domain Authority refers to a grading scale between 0 and 100, which signifies the general power of a website's domain when concerning the potential of rank-ability in search engines. The higher the DA, the better is the possibility to rank. Why is DA Important? DA depends on the quality and amount of backlinks, the age of the website, the quality of its content, and overall user experience. Generally, more authoritative websites with higher DA scores have better results in search. Page Authority (PA):

What is PA? Page Authority scores the potential for a particular webpage to rank well in search. It's similar to DA but looks at pages, not your overall domain. Why is PA Important? PA becomes really useful when analyzing specific pages that need improvement about their SEO performance. A high PA might signal that it's a page that has strong backlinks and has content aligned closer to what your target audience is looking for. SEO Monitoring:

DA PA Checker has the capability of letting anyone know how any website or page is positioned in terms of its authority, which further guides optimization efforts. Checking DA and PA enables a user to know where his website or page lies in the competitive landscape and lets him decide upon an appropriate SEO strategy: improving content, acquiring backlinks or bettering user experience. Free And Easy To Use

Many DA PA Checker tools are available for free, allowing users to input a URL and get instant insights into the DA and PA metrics without needing advanced SEO knowledge. Some tools may offer additional features such as bulk DA PA checking, which is helpful for analyzing multiple URLs at once. How the DA PA Checker Works Input URL: The DA PA Checker needs a simple to use the URL of the website, or a particular page you'd like to research. Metrics Analysis: Check of DA and PA is carried out with some factors including; Backlink Profile: It outlines the number of high-quality, diverse backlinks that are pointing to the site Content Quality: Relevance and optimization of content on the page or domain. Social Signals: Social media engagement indirectly impacts DA and PA. Internal Linking Structure: The way in which a site links its pages. Display of Results: The tool provides DA and PA score along with other data like spam scores which would help users identify risks and drawbacks. Benefits of Using the DA PA Checker Tool Quick Grading: It allows users to instantly grade the authority of the own website or their competitors' sites, thus making decisions easier on the basis of choosing an SEO campaign.

SEO Tracking of Performance: This tool helps owners track progress against time by checking DA and PA. They can understand how well their SEO efforts are improving.

Competitor Comparison: The tool enables users to compare their site's authority with their competitors' sites, allowing users to uncover strategies in order to surpass those competitors in search rankings.

Develop Backlink Strategy: Because backlinks have major impacts both on DA and PA, this tool is going to highlight opportunities for the link-building strategy to improve both scores.

Limitations of DA PA Metrics Good DA and PA are certainly useful lagging indicators of SEO potential; however, they should be out of the focus of an SEO campaign. These metrics are proprietary to Moz and are not indicative of what happens within the algorithms of other search engines. Moreover, DA and PA scores fluctuate for a multitude of reasons including the factors of algorithm updates and shifts in the backlink profile.

#seo #digital marketing #digital marketing services #search engine optimization #social media marketing #seo services #content marketing

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is-the-post-reliable · 1 year ago

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Hey I don’t think How Stuff Works is a good source of information for fact-checking. Most of their articles haven’t been updated since the 2000s (even though it says they’ve been updated in 2023; you can check the Wayback Machine and see that there’s no text change) and they don’t really hire experts to write on the subjects. Their article “How Antimatter Spacecraft Will Work” is especially egregious and not an isolated case. The website was bought by the Discovery Channel in the 2000s and then sold to a company specializing in using AI to improve SEO so. Not reliable

hi, could your provide any sources on this? I haven't been able to find any sources suggesting that it is unreliable, and MBFC rate it very high for factual reporting. I just received another anon about this, and if it is unreliable I would definitely like to know

#ask #anon #how stuff works #not a fact check

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repguardians · 7 months ago

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How to Wisely Choose a Digital Marketing Agency: A Step-by-Step Approach

In today's digitally driven world, the importance of a robust online presence cannot be overstated. Businesses of all sizes are increasingly turning to digital marketing agencies to enhance their online visibility, reach their target audience, and achieve their marketing goals. However, choosing the right digital marketing agency can be a daunting task. With so many options available, how do you ensure you select the best partner for your business? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you make an informed decision.

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Budget

Before you start your search for a digital marketing agency, it's crucial to clearly define your marketing goals. Are you looking to increase website traffic, generate leads, improve your social media presence, or enhance your overall brand visibility? Understanding your objectives will help you identify an agency that specializes in the services you need.

Simultaneously, establish a budget for your digital marketing efforts. Knowing how much you can afford to spend will help you narrow down your options and prevent you from wasting time on agencies that are beyond your financial reach.

Step 2: Research and Shortlist Agencies

Once you have a clear understanding of your goals and budget, begin your research. Look for agencies that have a strong online presence themselves—after all, if they can’t market their own business effectively, how can you trust them with yours?

Consider the following factors when shortlisting agencies:

Expertise and Services: Ensure the agency offers the specific services you need, such as SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media management, email marketing, etc.

Industry Experience: Agencies with experience in your industry are more likely to understand your unique challenges and opportunities.

Reputation: Read reviews, testimonials, and case studies. An agency with positive feedback from clients is a good indicator of reliability and effectiveness.

Portfolio: Review their past work to gauge their creativity, quality, and success in executing campaigns similar to what you envision.

Step 3: Evaluate Their Website and Online Presence

An agency’s website is a reflection of their capabilities. Evaluate their website for user experience, design quality, content, and overall professionalism. A well-maintained blog and active social media profiles are signs that the agency practices what it preaches.

Step 4: Schedule Consultations

Narrow down your list to a few top contenders and schedule consultations with each. This step is crucial for assessing their compatibility with your business. During these consultations, consider the following:

Communication: Are they responsive, clear, and transparent in their communication?

Understanding of Your Needs: Do they take the time to understand your business, industry, and goals?

Strategy: Ask about their proposed strategies for achieving your objectives. A good agency should provide a tailored approach rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

Team: Inquire about the team that will be handling your account. The agency should have skilled professionals with expertise in various aspects of digital marketing.

Step 5: Check References and Case Studies

Before making your final decision, ask the agency for references from past or current clients. Speaking directly with these clients can provide valuable insights into the agency’s reliability, effectiveness, and customer service.

Review detailed case studies to understand how the agency has helped other businesses achieve their goals. Pay attention to the metrics and results they highlight—this will give you an idea of their ability to deliver tangible outcomes.

Step 6: Understand Their Reporting and Transparency

Effective communication and transparency are key to a successful partnership. Ensure the agency provides regular updates and detailed reports on the performance of your campaigns. Understand how they measure success and what metrics they use to track progress.

Step 7: Consider Long-Term Partnership Potential

Digital marketing is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. Consider the agency’s potential as a long-term partner. Assess their ability to scale and adapt as your business grows and your marketing needs evolve.

Choosing the right digital marketing agency requires careful consideration and due diligence. By defining your goals, researching thoroughly, evaluating their capabilities, and understanding their approach, you can find a partner that aligns with your business objectives and helps you navigate the complex digital landscape effectively. Remember, the right agency can be a powerful catalyst for your business’s online success.

#orm #digital marketing #seo

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latifurlimon · 3 months ago

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Why Local Businesses Need SEO Services

In today’s digital landscape, local businesses face unique challenges and opportunities. One of the most effective ways to ensure visibility and attract customers is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In this post, we’ll explore what local businesses are, delve into local SEO, and discuss why investing in SEO services is crucial for success.

What is a Local Business?

A local business typically serves a specific geographic area and caters to the needs of local customers. This could include restaurants, retail stores, service providers like plumbers or electricians, and more. These businesses rely heavily on foot traffic and community engagement to thrive.

Local Business Examples

Restaurants and Cafés

Health and Wellness Services

Home Services:

Retail Shops

Beauty Salons

Legal Services

What’s Local SEO?

Local SEO means when a customer searches for some keywords focuses on optimizing a website to be showing in local search results. When users search for products or services in their area, local SEO helps ensure that relevant businesses appear prominently in search engine results. This involves optimizing your Google My Business profile, building local citations, and gathering customer reviews, among other strategies.

What is Local SEO in Digital Marketing?

In the realm of digital marketing, local SEO is essential for connecting businesses with their local community. It involves strategies tailored to attract local customers and convert them into loyal patrons. This may include targeted content creation, optimizing for local keywords, and utilizing location-based marketing tactics.

Why Do You Need Local SEO Services?

Investing in local SEO services is vital for several reasons:

Develop Visibility: Local SEO helps your business appear in local search results, making it an easy way for organic customers to look at you.

Competitive Edge: Many local businesses are still catching up on digital marketing. By implementing local SEO strategies, you can outshine your competitors who may not be utilizing these tactics.

Targeted Traffic: Local SEO attracts customers who are already looking for the products or services you offer, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

Mobile Optimization: With the rise of mobile searches, having a strong local SEO strategy ensures your business is easily discoverable by users on-the-go.

Why is Local SEO Important for Small Businesses?

For small businesses, local SEO is even more critical. Here’s why:

Limited Budgets: Small businesses often operate on tighter budgets. Local SEO provides a premium-attractive way to attract customers without the necessity for extensive promotion.

Community Focus: Small businesses typically serve a specific community. Local SEO allows them to target local customers, enhancing their connection to the community.

Greater ROI: By attracting local customers who are ready to buy, local SEO can lead to higher conversion rates and a better return on investment.

Building Relationships: Small businesses can benefit greatly from fostering relationships with local customers. Local SEO strategies, such as engaging with reviews and local events, can help strengthen these ties.

Conclusion

In conclusion, local businesses must recognize the importance of SEO services to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. By implementing effective local SEO strategies, businesses can increase visibility, attract targeted traffic, and foster community trust. For more information on how to optimize your local presence, consider consulting a professional in local SEO. To learn more about Local SEO, check out this expert resource.

#local businesses #local seo #seo strategy #local citations #local business #market #traffic #seo specialist #on page seo #link building #professional seo services #gmb optimization #gmb posts for location #gmb services #gmb listing

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bmv1 · 13 days ago

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How Blogging Builds Trust and Brand Loyalty

Blogging may seem old school compared to the rising wave of AI-powered marketing innovations, but if there’s one lesson to learn in this new digital age, it’s this: trust is the real currency of success. Platforms like the ://vital-mag.net blog demonstrate how consistent, high-quality content can build trust and foster brand loyalty. By addressing readers’ needs and offering valuable insights, blogging remains one of the most powerful tools in your content arsenal.

For small business owners, digital marketers, and content creators, understanding the potential of blogging in an AI-driven world is a must. Whether you’re looking to reach new customers or strengthen relationships with existing ones, this guide will walk you through why blogging matters, how it builds trust, and how to get the most out of it, even with AI in the mix.

What Is Blogging in the Digital Age?

At its core, blogging is about sharing valuable, engaging content with your audience. A blog is far more than just a corner of your website; it’s a platform for communication, education, and connection.

Blogs give your brand a voice. They allow you to tackle questions, share insights, and showcase your values in a way that resonates with your audience. And in an era where consumers crave authenticity and transparency, blogs deliver that personal touch better than most marketing tools.

Why Blogging Matters

Here’s a statistic to consider 53% of consumers conduct online research before purchasing. Blogs tap into this behavior by providing answers, guidance, and reassurance. They serve as a friendly hand during customer decision-making, building trust at every stage. Over time, blogs don’t just improve your SEO or drive traffic they solidify your authority, making you the brand your audience turns to repeatedly.

Building Trust Through Authentic Content

Create Value, Not Just Words

There’s a big difference between blogging for content volume and genuinely connecting with your audience. Authenticity is key. Focus on creating blog posts that solve problems, answer questions, or entertain your audience. Every post should provide value, leaving readers feeling informed, inspired, or understood.

The Role of Storytelling

Never underestimate the power of a good story. Sharing personal anecdotes, customer success stories, or behind-the-scenes glimpses into your brand humanizes your business, making it relatable. Whether it’s how your product helped a customer overcome a challenge or the passion that brought your vision to life, storytelling fosters connection.

Personalization Makes All the Difference

Blogs that feel personal are far more engaging. Use conversational language, address your readers directly, and tailor content to their interests or needs. A blog post that feels like a one-on-one chat is incredibly effective for building trust.

Leveraging AI for Better Blogging

AI is not here to replace human creativity but to enhance it. Small business owners and content creators can use AI to make their blogging process faster, more efficient, and more impactful.

AI Writing Tools

Platforms like Jasper and Grammarly can streamline everything from grammar checks to keyword optimization, helping you craft polished, professional posts every time. AI tools also analyze readability, ensuring your content resonates with your audience.

Maintain the Human Touch

While AI can optimize your blogs, never forget the importance of the human touch. Consumers connect with people, not algorithms. Pepper your AI-optimized content with personal anecdotes or tailored messaging to keep your blog authentic and relatable.

Engaging Your Audience

Spark Conversations

Engagement isn’t just about getting clicks; it’s about starting conversations. Ask questions at the end of your posts, encourage readers to comment, and make it easy for them to reach out or share their thoughts.

Build a Community

Your blog isn’t just a repository for content it’s the foundation of a community. Successful projects such as the Fappening blog demonstrate how sharing user-generated content, featuring customer spotlights, or running interactive polls can foster a sense of belonging. These elements transform a blog into a shared space, creating a two-way conversation that keeps audiences engaged and connected.

Measuring Success and Adjusting Strategies

Key Metrics to Watch

To ensure your blog is hitting the mark, regularly monitor performance metrics. These might include:

Traffic – How many visitors are reading your blog?

Engagement – Are readers staying on your page, commenting, or sharing?

Conversions – Is your blog driving newsletter signups, product purchases, or other actions?

Refine Based on Data

Use analytics to identify what’s working and what isn’t. If specific topics get consistent engagement, create more of that content. If bounce rates are high, evaluate whether your post meets reader expectations.

Case Studies: Blogging in Action

Case Study #1: A Specialty Coffee Brand

An artisan coffee brand used blogging to share stories about sustainable sourcing practices. By writing about their farmers and the bean-to-cup process, they built a loyal following who appreciated the brand’s commitment to ethics and quality.

Case Study #2: A Fitness Equipment Startup

A fitness startup launched a blog on workout tips, nutrition advice, and home gym setup ideas. Over time, they improved their SEO rankings and became a go-to resource for fitness enthusiasts, directly boosting product sales.

Why Blogging Is Your Secret Weapon

Blogging isn’t just content creation it’s trust creation. It’s an opportunity to establish your expertise, resonate with your audience, and set your brand apart in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Consistency and authenticity are your greatest assets if you’re just starting. Treat your blog as a long-term investment, and its value will grow.

#Blogging

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