#how to search on facebook ad library

[awaketake]

Stop Facebook From Stealing Your Ad Budget! ( It's Free)

Master Facebook Ads with the Ad Library. Find high-converting ads your competitors are ALREADY using.

This video shows you:

What the Ad Library is and how to access it.

How to spy on competitor ads (shh!) and find winning strategies.

How to target specific keywords and locations for laser-focused research.

How to save searches and streamline your ad planning.

[mariacallous]

A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Meta argues that US law requires the company to let people use unofficial add-ons to gain more control over their social feeds.

It’s the latest in a series of disputes in which the company has tussled with researchers and developers over tools that give users extra privacy options or that collect research data. It could clear the way for researchers to release add-ons that aid research into how the algorithms on social platforms affect their users, and it could give people more control over the algorithms that shape their lives.

The suit was filed by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of researcher Ethan Zuckerman, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. It attempts to take a federal law that has generally shielded social networks and use it as a tool forcing transparency.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is best known for allowing social media companies to evade legal liability for content on their platforms. Zuckerman’s suit argues that one of its subsections gives users the right to control how they access the internet, and the tools they use to do so.

“Section 230 (c) (2) (b) is quite explicit about libraries, parents, and others having the ability to control obscene or other unwanted content on the internet,” says Zuckerman. “I actually think that anticipates having control over a social network like Facebook, having this ability to sort of say, ‘We want to be able to opt out of the algorithm.’”

Zuckerman’s suit is aimed at preventing Facebook from blocking a new browser extension for Facebook that he is working on called Unfollow Everything 2.0. It would allow users to easily “unfollow” friends, groups, and pages on the service, meaning that updates from them no longer appear in the user’s newsfeed.

Zuckerman says that this would provide users the power to tune or effectively disable Facebook’s engagement-driven feed. Users can technically do this without the tool, but only by unfollowing each friend, group, and page individually.

There’s good reason to think Meta might make changes to Facebook to block Zuckerman’s tool after it is released. He says he won’t launch it without a ruling on his suit. In 2020, the company argued that the browser Friendly, which had let users search and reorder their Facebook news feeds as well as block ads and trackers, violated its terms of service and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In 2021, Meta permanently banned Louis Barclay, a British developer who had created a tool called Unfollow Everything, which Zuckerman’s add-on is named after.

“I still remember the feeling of unfollowing everything for the first time. It was near-miraculous. I had lost nothing, since I could still see my favorite friends and groups by going to them directly,” Barclay wrote for Slate at the time. “But I had gained a staggering amount of control. I was no longer tempted to scroll down an infinite feed of content. The time I spent on Facebook decreased dramatically.”

The same year, Meta kicked off from its platform some New York University researchers who had created a tool that monitored the political ads people saw on Facebook. Zuckerman is adding a feature to Unfollow Everything 2.0 that allows people to donate data from their use of the tool to his research project. He hopes to use the data to investigate whether users of his add-on who cleanse their feeds end up, like Barclay, using Facebook less.

Sophia Cope, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, says that the core parts of Section 230 related to platforms’ liability for content posted by users have been clarified through potentially thousands of cases. But few have specifically dealt with the part of the law Zuckerman’s suit seeks to leverage.

“There isn’t that much case law on that section of the law, so it will be interesting to see how a judge breaks it down,” says Cope. Zuckerman is a member of the EFF’s board of advisers.

John Morris, a principal at the Internet Society, a nonprofit that promotes open development of the internet, says that, to his knowledge, Zuckerman’s strategy “hasn’t been used before, in terms of using Section 230 to grant affirmative rights to users,” noting that a judge would likely take that claim seriously.

Meta has previously suggested that allowing add-ons that modify how people use its services raises security and privacy concerns. But Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, says that Zuckerman’s tool may be able to fairly push back on such an accusation.“The main problem with tools that give users more control over content moderation on existing platforms often has to do with privacy,” she says. “But if all this does is unfollow specified accounts, I would not expect that problem to arise here."

Even if a tool like Unfollow Everything 2.0 didn’t compromise users’ privacy, Meta might still be able to argue that it violates the company’s terms of service, as it did in Barclay’s case.

“Given Meta’s history, I could see why he would want a preemptive judgment,” says Cope. “He’d be immunized against any civil claim brought against him by Meta.”

And though Zuckerman says he would not be surprised if it takes years for his case to wind its way through the courts, he believes it’s important. “This feels like a particularly compelling case to do at a moment where people are really concerned about the power of algorithms,” he says.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The moral injury of having your work enshittified

This Monday (November 27), I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

This week, I wrote about how the Great Enshittening – in which all the digital services we rely on become unusable, extractive piles of shit – did not result from the decay of the morals of tech company leadership, but rather, from the collapse of the forces that discipline corporate wrongdoing:

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-dont-be-evil/

The failure to enforce competition law allowed a few companies to buy out their rivals, or sell goods below cost until their rivals collapsed, or bribe key parts of their supply chain not to allow rivals to participate:

https://www.engadget.com/google-reportedly-pays-apple-36-percent-of-ad-search-revenues-from-safari-191730783.html

The resulting concentration of the tech sector meant that the surviving firms were stupendously wealthy, and cozy enough that they could agree on a common legislative agenda. That regulatory capture has allowed tech companies to violate labor, privacy and consumer protection laws by arguing that the law doesn't apply when you use an app to violate it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

But the regulatory capture isn't just about preventing regulation: it's also about creating regulation – laws that make it illegal to reverse-engineer, scrape, and otherwise mod, hack or reconfigure existing services to claw back value that has been taken away from users and business customers. This gives rise to Jay Freeman's perfectly named doctrine of "felony contempt of business-model," in which it is illegal to use your own property in ways that anger the shareholders of the company that sold it to you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Undisciplined by the threat of competition, regulation, or unilateral modification by users, companies are free to enshittify their products. But what does that actually look like? I say that enshittification is always precipitated by a lost argument.

It starts when someone around a board-room table proposes doing something that's bad for users but good for the company. If the company faces the discipline of competition, regulation or self-help measures, then the workers who are disgusted by this course of action can say, "I think doing this would be gross, and what's more, it's going to make the company poorer," and so they win the argument.

But when you take away that discipline, the argument gets reduced to, "Don't do this because it would make me ashamed to work here, even though it will make the company richer." Money talks, bullshit walks. Let the enshittification begin!

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/22/who-wins-the-argument/#corporations-are-people-my-friend

But why do workers care at all? That's where phrases like "don't be evil" come into the picture. Until very recently, tech workers participated in one of history's tightest labor markets, in which multiple companies with gigantic war-chests bid on their labor. Even low-level employees routinely fielded calls from recruiters who dangled offers of higher salaries and larger stock grants if they would jump ship for a company's rival.

Employers built "campuses" filled with lavish perks: massages, sports facilities, daycare, gourmet cafeterias. They offered workers generous benefit packages, including exotic health benefits like having your eggs frozen so you could delay fertility while offsetting the risks normally associated with conceiving at a later age.

But all of this was a transparent ruse: the business-case for free meals, gyms, dry-cleaning, catering and massages was to keep workers at their laptops for 10, 12, or even 16 hours per day. That egg-freezing perk wasn't about helping workers plan their families: it was about thumbing the scales in favor of working through your entire twenties and thirties without taking any parental leave.

In other words, tech employers valued their employees as a means to an end: they wanted to get the best geeks on the payroll and then work them like government mules. The perks and pay weren't the result of comradeship between management and labor: they were the result of the discipline of competition for labor.

This wasn't really a secret, of course. Big Tech workers are split into two camps: blue badges (salaried employees) and green badges (contractors). Whenever there is a slack labor market for a specific job or skill, it is converted from a blue badge job to a green badge job. Green badges don't get the food or the massages or the kombucha. They don't get stock or daycare. They don't get to freeze their eggs. They also work long hours, but they are incentivized by the fear of poverty.

Tech giants went to great lengths to shield blue badges from green badges – at some Google campuses, these workforces actually used different entrances and worked in different facilities or on different floors. Sometimes, green badge working hours would be staggered so that the armies of ragged clickworkers would not be lined up to badge in when their social betters swanned off the luxury bus and into their airy adult kindergartens.

But Big Tech worked hard to convince those blue badges that they were truly valued. Companies hosted regular town halls where employees could ask impertinent questions of their CEOs. They maintained freewheeling internal social media sites where techies could rail against corporate foolishness and make Dilbert references.

And they came up with mottoes.

Apple told its employees it was a sound environmental steward that cared about privacy. Apple also deliberately turned old devices into e-waste by shredding them to ensure that they wouldn't be repaired and compete with new devices:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

And even as they were blocking Facebook's surveillance tools, they quietly built their own nonconsensual mass surveillance program and lied to customers about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Facebook told employees they were on a "mission to connect every person in the world," but instead deliberately sowed discontent among its users and trapped them in silos that meant that anyone who left Facebook lost all their friends:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

And Google promised its employees that they would not "be evil" if they worked at Google. For many googlers, that mattered. They wanted to do something good with their lives, and they had a choice about who they would work for. What's more, they did make things that were good. At their high points, Google Maps, Google Mail, and of course, Google Search were incredible.

My own life was totally transformed by Maps: I have very poor spatial sense, need to actually stop and think to tell my right from my left, and I spent more of my life at least a little lost and often very lost. Google Maps is the cognitive prosthesis I needed to become someone who can go anywhere. I'm profoundly grateful to the people who built that service.

There's a name for phenomenon in which you care so much about your job that you endure poor conditions and abuse: it's called "vocational awe," as coined by Fobazi Ettarh:

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

Ettarh uses the term to apply to traditionally low-waged workers like librarians, teachers and nurses. In our book Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin and I talked about how it applies to artists and other creative workers, too:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

But vocational awe is also omnipresent in tech. The grandiose claims to be on a mission to make the world a better place are not just puffery – they're a vital means of motivating workers who can easily quit their jobs and find a new one to put in 16-hour days. The massages and kombucha and egg-freezing are not framed as perks, but as logistical supports, provided so that techies on an important mission can pursue a shared social goal without being distracted by their balky, inconvenient meatsuits.

Steve Jobs was a master of instilling vocational awe. He was full of aphorisms like "we're here to make a dent in the universe, otherwise why even be here?" Or his infamous line to John Sculley, whom he lured away from Pepsi: "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?"

Vocational awe cuts both ways. If your workforce actually believes in all that high-minded stuff, if they actually sacrifice their health, family lives and self-care to further the mission, they will defend it. That brings me back to enshittification, and the argument: "If we do this bad thing to the product I work on, it will make me hate myself."

The decline in market discipline for large tech companies has been accompanied by a decline in labor discipline, as the market for technical work grew less and less competitive. Since the dotcom collapse, the ability of tech giants to starve new entrants of market oxygen has shrunk techies' dreams.

Tech workers once dreamed of working for a big, unwieldy firm for a few years before setting out on their own to topple it with a startup. Then, the dream shrank: work for that big, clumsy firm for a few years, then do a fake startup that makes a fake product that is acquihired by your old employer, as an incredibly inefficient and roundabout way to get a raise and a bonus.

Then the dream shrank again: work for a big, ugly firm for life, but get those perks, the massages and the kombucha and the stock options and the gourmet cafeteria and the egg-freezing. Then it shrank again: work for Google for a while, but then get laid off along with 12,000 co-workers, just months after the company does a stock buyback that would cover all those salaries for the next 27 years:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

Tech workers' power was fundamentally individual. In a tight labor market, tech workers could personally stand up to their bosses. They got "workplace democracy" by mouthing off at town hall meetings. They didn't have a union, and they thought they didn't need one. Of course, they did need one, because there were limits to individual power, even for the most in-demand workers, especially when it came to ghastly, long-running sexual abuse from high-ranking executives:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/technology/google-sexual-harassment-andy-rubin.html

Today, atomized tech workers who are ordered to enshittify the products they take pride in are losing the argument. Workers who put in long hours, missed funerals and school plays and little league games and anniversaries and family vacations are being ordered to flush that sacrifice down the toilet to grind out a few basis points towards a KPI.

It's a form of moral injury, and it's palpable in the first-person accounts of former workers who've exited these large firms or the entire field. The viral "Reflecting on 18 years at Google," written by Ian Hixie, vibrates with it:

https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627373

Hixie describes the sense of mission he brought to his job, the workplace democracy he experienced as employees' views were both solicited and heeded. He describes the positive contributions he was able to make to a commons of technical standards that rippled out beyond Google – and then, he says, "Google's culture eroded":

Decisions went from being made for the benefit of users, to the benefit of Google, to the benefit of whoever was making the decision.

In other words, techies started losing the argument. Layoffs weakened worker power – not just to defend their own interest, but to defend the users interests. Worker power is always about more than workers – think of how the 2019 LA teachers' strike won greenspace for every school, a ban on immigration sweeps of students' parents at the school gates and other community benefits:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/23/a-collective-bargain/

Hixie attributes the changes to a change in leadership, but I respectfully disagree. Hixie points to the original shareholder letter from the Google founders, in which they informed investors contemplating their IPO that they were retaining a controlling interest in the company's governance so that they could ignore their shareholders' priorities in favor of a vision of Google as a positive force in the world:

https://abc.xyz/investor/founders-letters/ipo-letter/

Hixie says that the leadership that succeeded the founders lost sight of this vision – but the whole point of that letter is that the founders never fully ceded control to subsequent executive teams. Yes, those executive teams were accountable to the shareholders, but the largest block of voting shares were retained by the founders.

I don't think the enshittification of Google was due to a change in leadership – I think it was due to a change in discipline, the discipline imposed by competition, regulation and the threat of self-help measures. Take ads: when Google had to contend with one-click adblocker installation, it had to constantly balance the risk of making users so fed up that they googled "how do I block ads?" and then never saw another ad ever again.

But once Google seized the majority of the mobile market, it was able to funnel users into apps, and reverse-engineering an app is a felony (felony contempt of business-model) under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to install an ad-blocker.

And as Google acquired control over the browser market, it was likewise able to reduce the self-help measures available to browser users who found ads sufficiently obnoxious to trigger googling "how do I block ads?" The apotheosis of this is the yearslong campaign to block adblockers in Chrome, which the company has sworn it will finally do this coming June:

https://www.tumblr.com/tevruden/734352367416410112/you-have-until-june-to-dump-chrome

My contention here is not that Google's enshittification was precipitated by a change in personnel via the promotion of managers who have shitty ideas. Google's enshittification was precipitated by a change in discipline, as the negative consequences of heeding those shitty ideas were abolished thanks to monopoly.

This is bad news for people like me, who rely on services like Google Maps as cognitive prostheses. Elizabeth Laraki, one of the original Google Maps designers, has published a scorching critique of the latest GMaps design:

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

Laraki calls out numerous enshittificatory design-choices that have left Maps screens covered in "crud" – multiple revenue-maximizing elements that come at the expense of usability, shifting value from users to Google.

What Laraki doesn't say is that these UI elements are auctioned off to merchants, which means that the business that gives Google the most money gets the greatest prominence in Maps, even if it's not the best merchant. That's a recurring motif in enshittified tech platforms, most notoriously Amazon, which makes $31b/year auctioning off top search placement to companies whose products aren't relevant enough to your query to command that position on their own:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Enshittification begets enshittification. To succeed on Amazon, you must divert funds from product quality to auction placement, which means that the top results are the worst products:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

The exception is searches for Apple products: Apple and Amazon have a cozy arrangement that means that searches for Apple products are a timewarp back to the pre-enshittification Amazon, when the company worried enough about losing your business to heed the employees who objected to sacrificing search quality as part of a merchant extortion racket:

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-gives-apple-special-treatment-while-others-suffer-junk-ads-2023-11

Not every tech worker is a tech bro, in other words. Many workers care deeply about making your life better. But the microeconomics of the boardroom in a monopolized tech sector rewards the worst people and continuously promotes them. Forget the Peter Principle: tech is ruled by the Sam Principle.

As OpenAI went through four CEOs in a single week, lots of commentators remarked on Sam Altman's rise and fall and rise, but I only found one commentator who really had Altman's number. Writing in Today in Tabs, Rusty Foster nailed Altman to the wall:

https://www.todayintabs.com/p/defective-accelerationism

Altman's history goes like this: first, he founded a useless startup that raised $30m, only to be acquired and shuttered. Then Altman got a job running Y Combinator, where he somehow failed at taking huge tranches of equity from "every Stanford dropout with an idea for software to replace something Mommy used to do." After that, he founded OpenAI, a company that he claims to believe presents an existential risk to the entire human risk – which he structured so incompetently that he was then forced out of it.

His reward for this string of farcical, mounting failures? He was put back in charge of the company he mis-structured despite his claimed belief that it will destroy the human race if not properly managed.

Altman's been around for a long time. He founded his startup in 2005. There've always been Sams – of both the Bankman-Fried varietal and the Altman genus – in tech. But they didn't get to run amok. They were disciplined by their competitors, regulators, users and workers. The collapse of competition led to an across-the-board collapse in all of those forms of discipline, revealing the executives for the mediocre sociopaths they always were, and exposing tech workers' vocational awe for the shabby trick it was from the start.

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/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

[goldenpinof]

Facebook ADs mini-essay by me <3 (excuse any typos and grammar mistakes, please. corrections are welcome.)

★ a huge shout out to Emma @dnpbeats for sending me a link to Phil's Facebook ad library. now we have a lot to go through ★

you can see that Phil's Facebook is linked with Dan's Instagram. Dan's, on the other hand, isn't.

note: filter goes from 2018 to 2024.

Terrible Influence (TI) youtube promo video "Finally Revealing Our Secret" is running as a bought ad in: Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Poland (if you search for it, the ad appears but it has reached just a few people in France and Poland; the locations of the ads are in Germany). we can see who paid for these ads (Bill Bailey)*.

no TI youtube promo video as an ad in countries with actual shows: Belgium (on a screenshot as an example), Netherlands, Iceland.

note: you can select any country and see if this ad reached anyone there. countries above are those that i selected because they either have shows or are very close to the ones with shows (France). i also selected Latvia - it didn't have this specific ad. it did have WAD premiere ads because WAD was targetting worldwide (spoilers, i guess).

nothing at all in the UK. it doesn't mean the ads are not running in the UK. i personally didn't see any, but if they are out there, they are probably bought by and run via a promoter (AEG; didn't see in their library) or someone else.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in the USA and Canada (screenshots below). Tysons as an example. there's no information about who paid for the ads.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in Australia and New Zealand. there's no information about who paid for the ads. but the ads are running on more platforms than in the USA, Canada and Europe.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in some European countries (more on that later).

on some screenshots you can see that Phil also has ads for WAD premiere and preshow (only in Europe, Canada and Australia/NZ). in EU we can also see who paid for them (Hangtime)*.

* i don't know how true this information is. i personally don't know about any connections between Dan and Phil and these people/companies. spoilers: local TI promo posts are paid for by A Comic Soul (in the EU), and in this case, we do know the connection. but more info about local TI promo posts will be in the reblog (because Tumblr limits, ya!)

shout out to Dan for having 0 ads in his Facebook library.

Europe:

USA and Canada:

Australia and New Zealand:

WAD premiere:

[gallifreyriver]

New game: Drop Google Chrome's market share 2023.

Why? Monopolies are bad and that's what's gonna happen if things don't even out a bit.

Why is it bad if Google has a monopoly? Because google already tracks the shit out of you, that's why. They collect and market your data. Yes, even in incognito mode. Just because your search history isn't being saved, doesn't mean google hasn't logged away where you've been or what you've searched for their own purposes. Imagine what more they'll do if the competition snuffs out?

"But I'll use an ad-blocker. I'm good." Not on Chrome you won't, because they're killing off ad-blockers in 2023, literally as soon as January- that's less than two months away. Gee... I wonder why they'd be doing that...

I recommend Firefox.

I switched a couple months ago and it's seriously so good.

It takes literal minutes to switch, you can import your bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, and even your open tabs from chrome to firefox.

Oh- and they don't collect and market your data.

And the extensions are amazing:

uBlock Origin blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, etc. Hate those annoying ads before YouTube videos? I haven't had one since installing- and it literally never occurred to me for some reason that ad blockers would work on YouTube too. (It also got rid of the ads on tumblr, which I also didn't expect to happen)

There's Auto Tab Discard for people like me who always have a ton of tabs open. It puts your inactive tabs to sleep (but doesn't close them! important!) to help save memory and battery

Facebook Container keeps Facebook from tracking you around the web. (Includes Insta and Facebook messenger)

There's Image Search Options, for when you want to properly credit an artist, or need to find the source of an image. You just right-click on the image and it gives you a list of 10+ top reverse image search engines to click on, and when you click one it automatically plugs the image into the search!

Youtube Audio saves you bandwidth and battery when you just want audio from YouTube (aka: to use Youtube as a music streaming service or listening to narration videos/podcasts)

Then of course there's XKit Rewritten, which I'm sure you'll already recognize as the thing that enhances the tumblr experience.

And there's so many others!

And I get it if you don't like change, and don't wanna deal if the browser appearance is either different than you're used to, or worse- ugly. I get it, I do. But the good news is if the only thing holding you back is that you've gotten used to how Chrome looks, Firefox Dark theme is literally so similar I didn't even notice the difference when I switched. (And I imagine the same is true of the light theme) There's also literally a whole library of themes if you want a more customized look!

And some of you might be thinking "But I have a google account! GMail, Drive- Everything! Won't I have to stop using all that if I switch?" NOPE. Being logged into Google isn't the same as being logged into Chrome. You can log right into Google on Firefox same as you would on any other browser and your experience with your mail, drive, etc. will be just the same as if you were in Chrome, just without the collecting and marketing of your data. (That reminds me, There's also extensions to prevent google from tracking you as well, like "Don't track me Google" and "Google Container")

But seriously, Firefox is so great. Not only does it not track you and market your data, it's genuinely just a better experience than Chrome.

If you've been putting off switching, consider this your sign to do it.

[techniver]

How can you put images on posts?

Adding images to your posts can make them more visually appealing and engaging for your readers, and they can also help to illustrate your points and make your content more digestible. There are a few different ways to add images to your posts, depending on the platform you're using.

Here are the general steps on how to put images on posts:

Prepare your image: Make sure that your image is the right size and format for your platform. For example, if you're adding an image to a blog post, you'll want to make sure that the image is not too large, as this can slow down your page load times. You can also use an image editing tool to resize or crop your image to the desired size.

Upload your image: Once you have prepared your image, you can upload it to your platform. This may be done by clicking on an "Upload" button or by dragging and dropping the image into the post editor.

Position your image: Once your image is uploaded, you can position it in your post. You can choose whether to have the image appear on the left, right, or center of the post, and you can also choose whether to have the image float alongside the text or be displayed in a full-width block.

Add a caption: Once your image is positioned, you can add a caption. This is a short description of the image that will help your readers to understand what it is. A good caption should be no more than a few sentences long and should be informative and engaging.

Add alt text: Alt text is a text description of the image that is used by search engines and screen readers. It is important to add alt text to your images so that people who are unable to see the image can still understand what it is.

Here are some specific instructions on how to add images to popular platforms:

WordPress:

To add an image to a WordPress post, click on the "Add Media" button in the post editor.

Select the image you want to upload from your computer.

Click the "Insert into post" button.

Position the image in your post.

Add a caption and alt text.

Facebook:

To add an image to a Facebook post, click on the "Photo/Video" button in the status update box.

Select the image you want to upload from your computer.

Add a caption.

Click the "Share" button.

Twitter:

To add an image to a Tweet, click on the "Image" button in the tweet composer.

Select the image you want to upload from your computer.

Add a caption.

Click the "Tweet" button.

Instagram:

To add an image to an Instagram post, open the Instagram app and tap on the "+" button.

Select the image you want to upload from your phone's photo library.

Edit the image as desired.

Add a caption and hashtags.

Tap the "Share" button.

If you found this answer helpful, please like and leave a comment. You can also follow me for more helpful tips and tricks.

[marketingflare]

Exploring the Facebook Ads Library: Insights

Unlocking the Power of Facebook Ads: Exploring the Facebook Ads Library for Strategic Insights

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, Facebook Ads have emerged as a powerhouse tool for businesses to reach their target audience effectively. With its vast user base and sophisticated targeting options, Facebook Ads offer immense potential for businesses to grow their customer base and increase revenue. However, to truly harness the power of Facebook Ads, marketers need to delve deeper into the platform's resources. One such invaluable resource is the Facebook Ads Library, a treasure trove of information and insights that can fuel your advertising strategy. In this blog, we'll explore the Facebook Ads Library and how it can provide strategic insights to elevate your advertising campaigns.

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Understanding the Facebook Ads Library:

The Facebook Ads Library is a comprehensive database of all ads running across Facebook-owned properties, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. It was created in response to increasing demands for transparency and accountability in online advertising. The library allows anyone to search for and view ads, regardless of whether they have a Facebook account.

Benefits of Utilizing the Facebook Ads Library:

Competitive Analysis:

By accessing the Meta Ads Library, marketers can gain valuable insights into their competitors' advertising strategies. They can analyze the type of ads being run, the messaging used, and the targeting parameters employed.

Inspiration for Creativity:

Browsing through the Ads Library can spark creativity and inspiration for your own ad campaigns. You can identify trends, discover innovative ad formats, and adapt successful strategies to suit your brand.

Audience Research:

Understanding the types of ads that resonate with your target audience is crucial for effective advertising. The Social Media Ads Library provides a wealth of data on the demographics and interests of the audiences being targeted by various ads.

How to Use the Facebook Ads Library:

Search Functionality:

The Ads Library features robust search functionality, allowing users to search for ads by keywords, advertisers, or even specific regions. This makes it easy to find ads related to your industry or niche.

Filtering Options:

Users can apply various filters to narrow down their search results, such as ad type, date range, or ad placements. These filters help in refining your research and finding relevant insights more efficiently.

Analyzing Ad Performance:

While the Meta Ads Library provides information on the content of ads, it does not include metrics on ad performance such as engagement or reach. However, marketers can still glean valuable insights by analyzing the types of ads that are consistently running over time.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the Meta Ads Library is a powerful tool that offers marketers unparalleled transparency and insights into the world of online advertising. By leveraging this resource, businesses can gain a competitive edge, refine their advertising strategies, and reach their target audience more effectively. Whether you're looking for inspiration, conducting competitive analysis, or refining your audience targeting, the Facebook Ads Library is an invaluable resource that should not be overlooked in your marketing arsenal. Start exploring today and unlock the strategic insights waiting to be discovered within the Facebook Ads Library.

In a nutshell, the Meta Ads Library is an indispensable resource for marketers looking to gain a competitive edge in the crowded digital advertising landscape. By tapping into this treasure trove of information, businesses can refine their strategies, gain valuable insights into their competitors, and ultimately achieve greater success with their Facebook ad campaigns.

[oldmanbayou]

how to start a garden with no money

Most people who know me know how much a hate spending money on things. I’m reasonably comfortable financially now, but I graduated right at the very start of the recession and was barely making ends meet for the first decade of my adulthood. So thriftiness is sort of embedded in me. Besides wanting to save the planet, I think just being kind of a cheapskate is where my homesteader mindset probably comes from. A commenter on another post gave me this lovely idea for a writing prompt -- Thrifty Gardening! 

Here’s what really pisses me off about gardening -- It’s not the act of gardening but then unbelievably sexist gardening industry that tries to sell us tools and supplies. I mean just look at the ads -- it’s a bunch of ladies and their babies. Even though there are tons of dudes who garden, they are under the impression that gardening is dominated by women and I swear to god, they stick a women’s tax on gardening supplies in response. SO much of what they try to sell us looks aesthetically pleasing on the surface, but then turn out to be overpriced uni-taskers and pure junk! A lot of it is stuff you can find in a hardware store or Tractor Supply that they’ve rehashed as gardening supplies and jacked the price up. (Note for clarification - despite my handle, I happen to be a lady.)

Starting a garden doesn’t need to be an expensive endeavor. You don’t need special tools or equipment to start one. You don’t really need much of anything!

Here are the BAREBONES BASIC essentials you need to start a garden. If you do have a little bit of cash to spend, I’ll put the extras in at the end that will make your life easier and have a higher chance of success. 

1. Forget transplants from the gardening shop - Get yourself some seeds! Cost: $0. Hear me out:   • Do a quick google search: “seed library near me”. See if there happens to be one nearby and check it out if there is! • Check out this amazing organization, Free Heirloom Seeds. They have a lengthy list of seeds and you can get 4 packs of whatever you want for free!  • Gardeners LOVE sharing their seeds! We also get super excited about new gardeners and want to help them out and share our wisdom (hi). If you are on Facebook, do a search for local garden groups and join a couple. Post to the group and just tell them you’re starting from nothing and ask if anyone has some extra seeds they want to get rid of! You’ll likely get a few people who would love to help a newbie out. • Butter up some old folks! I am ridiculously shy and have no social skills but nonetheless, I have still unintentionally landed on free seeds and free plants just from casually chatting with locals. Every year, my town has a big townwide tag sale. A lot of these tag sales tend to be from retired folks who are downsizing and moving away. Many of these old folks have big, beautiful, impressive gardens that they’ve developed over many decades. As shy as I am, of course I need to compliment them on their garden! And that gets them going, and then they inevitably end up gifting me seed packets or plants that need a new caretaker. One woman I met really scored me a jackpot when she gifted me the  seeds she’d been harvesting from her garden year after year for generations and are functionally landrace varieties specifically suited for the exact microclimate of my little pocket of the world. I’ve also accidentally gotten a lot of garden supplies for free this way! 2. Next is the garden plot! Cost: $0-$20 • If you have dirt, you don’t need a raised bed. They’re expensive to build, require shipping a giant pile soil, and are so unnecessary. The most overrated gardening ploy of our time! Unless your soil is toxic or you have physical limitations necessitating a raised bed, just use the ground! The ground will be a better insulator than a raised bed, providing better protection to your plants from temperature fluctuations. It also typically has both better water retention and drainage than a raised bed. (If you DO need a raised bed -- try straw bales or finding a used trough and drilling some holes on the bottom.) • Moving on! If you don’t have a pre-existing garden plot or bare patch of dirt to work with, you’ll probably need to dig up a plot, likely involving removing chunks of grass, which is sort of exhausting work. If you aren’t blessed with livestock to do the dirty work for you, a spade or garden fork will serve you well in the garden. You might be able to find one for very little money at a tag sale or on craigslist. But if you need to buy one, they're usually around $20 new.  • If you don’t have ground to work with, container gardening is a perfectly legitimate way to garden! Keep an eye on craigslist/FB marketplace for people giving away planters. You can also make your own out of trash -- Any food container can be a planter. You can poke holes at the bottom for drainage with a screwdriver, nail, awl, or pretty much any sharp object (if you’re truly starting with nothing and don’t even have basic tools at your disposal like a screwdriver, two words - DOLLAR TREE.) Berry containers and those plastic boxes that salad mixes come in make excellent mini greenhouses. 

3. Plant your seeds! Cost: $0-$16.25.  • Option A: Direct sow - If you really want to go the totally free route, you can just stick the seeds in the ground. Refer to the seed packet and/or Farmer’s Almanac to determine timing.  • Option B: Start indoors - All you need for starting seeds indoors is some containers, potting mix, and a window. If you ever buy eggs again, egg cartons can make terrific seed starting trays. If you ever buy transplants at a store, start hoarding those little containers they come in because those are ideal for starting seeds and will last years! As I stated above about container gardening, any food containers can be reused as planters if you just poke some drainage holes at the bottom with a sharp object. For soil, any potting mix will suffice, which a bag will run you about $5-$15 depending on bag size (note: don’t use dirt from the outdoors for container plants). Once they are ready to go outside, make sure to harden them off first by gradually acclimating them to the outdoors over the course of a week. When you’re ready to transplant them, all you need is a trowel to dig a hole, which can be found at Dollar Tree for $1.25.  **Free and simple watering can on a pinch: Try a soda bottle!

Non-essentials but a good idea: • If starting seeds indoors, a seed starting potting mix will give you a much better germination rate and the seedlings a better start at life. This runs about $6-$8 for a small bag (I only use this stuff in seed starting trays because of the expense. Once the seedlings outgrow their trays, I either stick them in the ground or upgrade them to a larger container with regular potting mix.)  • If starting seeds indoors, investing in a grow light will result in an easier time and prevent leggy seedlings. A regular lightbulb isn’t really going to cut it, but you can find a basic grow light easily enough on Amazon for less than $20.  • Fencing. Unless you live in a very urban area with no concerns about wildlife, something is most likely going to want to eat your garden! Honestly, I just use this fairly inexpensive wire fencing ziptied to some garden stakes and the only critters I’ve had issues with are chipmunks. It’s $45 and a roll goes a long way. You can find even cheaper options for $30. Garden stakes usually run $2 each and Dollar Tree carries packs of zipties. (You can also buy a bulk pack of zipties with various sizes for $6 on Amazon.) I also don’t have a door on my fence--I just have a cinder block on both sides of the fence that I use to step over it ($2 per block = $4). A door could be nice for occasional wheelbarrow loads but eh....doors are an overrated added expense!  • Soil test. A soil test will reveal what nutrients are already in your soil and your soil’s pH level. If you base what you plant off of your pre-existing soil conditions, you’ll have a higher chance of success. If you’re growing food and suspect there might be a chance your soil might not be safe for that, you may need to send it to a lab for testing. Costs on this can vary wildly depending on where you live and what resources you have for this kind of thing. Otherwise, the at-home kits are perfectly sufficient. I use the Luster Leaf rapid tests, which are $17.  • For weeds, I just use a garden cultivator (it’s the size of a trowel and looks like a claw), and guess where you can get one for practically nothing? That’s right - Dollar Tree! $1.25

Don’t be fooled by aesthetics in the garden catalogs. This is my thrifty garden (taken in July--it’s of course covered in snow right now). It’s substantially larger than it was when I first started off about 5 years ago, but I’ve not really made many upgrades!

The squash trellis is a new addition that I paid nothing for. I built it out of scrapwood and some leftover fencing. Trellises are the most obnoxiously and pointlessly overpriced of all garden things - Another post for another day!

[iptvtunes]

IPTV Codes for Android Devices

https://iptvtunes.com/

Are you feeling restricted by the limited channel options on your Android device? Have you ever pondered the possibility of expanding your streaming choices affordably? Look no further! This article delves into the realm of IPTV codes designed for Android devices, showcasing the incredible potential they hold for enhancing your entertainment experience.

In essence, IPTV codes open up a vast array of channels, delivering global content directly to your Android device. With just a few codes, you can gain access to a plethora of movies, TV shows, sports events, and more. Picture enjoying premium content without the burden of hefty subscription fees. This article provides a comprehensive breakdown, guiding you through the process of acquiring and utilizing IPTV codes on your Android device.

Understanding IPTV Codes

IPTV codes play a pivotal role in enhancing the functionality of IPTV on Android devices. Essentially, these codes serve as keys to unlock a vast array of channels, content libraries, and features. The benefits they bring to the table are not only significant but also contribute to the growing popularity of IPTV among Android users.

How to Find and Use IPTV Codes

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) codes, also known as IPTV subscription codes or M3U codes, are alphanumeric strings that provide access to IPTV services. Please note that using IPTV codes to access content without proper authorization may violate copyright laws and terms of service, so it’s important to use them responsibly and within legal boundaries.

To Become iptv Reseller

Here’s a general guide on how to find and use IPTV codes:

Finding IPTV Codes:

Online Forums and Communities:

Many IPTV users share codes and playlists on forums and online communities. Look for IPTV-related forums or groups where users share their experiences and codes.

Social Media:

Platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook have communities dedicated to IPTV. Search for keywords like “IPTV codes” or “IPTV playlists” to find relevant discussions.

IPTV Providers:

Some IPTV service providers offer free trial codes to potential customers. Check the official websites of reputable IPTV services to see if they provide trial codes.

YouTube Tutorials:

YouTube often has tutorials and videos where users share IPTV codes. Be cautious and verify the legitimacy of the source before using any codes.

Using IPTV Codes:

M3U Playlist URL:

The most common form of IPTV codes is the M3U playlist URL. It is a text file that contains information about the channels and streams. Copy the M3U URL provided by the code.

IPTV Player:

Use an IPTV player or application to input the M3U URL. Popular players include VLC, Kodi, IPTV Smarters, and others. Download and install the player on your device.

Player Configuration:

Open the IPTV player and locate the option to add a new playlist or source. Paste the M3U URL into the designated field.

Verify and Save:

Verify that the playlist is working by checking a few channels. Save the playlist, and the player will usually refresh to display the available channels.

Enjoy IPTV:

Once the playlist is added successfully, you can start enjoying IPTV channels. Navigate through the channels using the player’s interface.

IPTV Services What You Need to Know Related To IPTV

Important Considerations:

Legal and Ethical Use:

Ensure that you have the legal right to access the content. Avoid using codes that provide unauthorized access to copyrighted material.

Security:

Be cautious about the sources from which you obtain IPTV codes. Avoid sharing personal information, and use reputable sources to minimize security risks.

Quality and Reliability:

Consider using reputable IPTV services to ensure better content quality, reliability, and customer support.

Top IPTV Codes for Android Devices

Navigating through the myriad of available IPTV codes can be overwhelming. To simplify your choices, we review some of the top IPTV codes for Android, comparing their features and performance. This section acts as a comprehensive guide for users looking to make informed decisions.

Tips for Optimizing IPTV Experience on Android

While IPTV codes enhance your streaming experience, it’s crucial to optimize the overall performance on your Android device. Learn about compatibility, and gain insights into troubleshooting common issues to ensure a seamless and enjoyable IPTV experience.

Legal Considerations and Best Practices

Before delving deeper, it’s essential to address the legality of IPTV codes. This section outlines the legal landscape and provides best practices for responsible use, ensuring users stay within the bounds of the law while enjoying IPTV content on their Android devices.

Future Trends in IPTV Technology

As technology advances, so does the world of IPTV. Explore the evolving features and anticipated developments in IPTV for Android devices, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of streaming technology.

User Reviews and Recommendations

Real-world experiences matter. This section showcases user reviews and recommendations, offering valuable insights from those who have explored the world of IPTV on their Android devices. Learn from their experiences and make informed choices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, IPTV codes for Android devices open up a world of entertainment possibilities. Recap the benefits and express final thoughts on how these codes revolutionize the way we consume digital content.

https://iptvtunes.com/

[adstargets]

Facebook Ads Library Guide 2023

In the world of digital marketing, Facebook has proven to be one of the most powerful platforms for reaching and engaging with audiences. With over 2.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers an unparalleled opportunity to connect with potential customers and grow your brand.

One of the most important tools in a marketer's Facebook arsenal is the Facebook Ads Library. This powerful resource allows users to search and view all active and inactive ads on Facebook and Instagram, providing valuable insights into the advertising strategies of other businesses in your industry.

In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at the Facebook Ads Library and explore some of the ways it can help you improve your own Facebook advertising efforts.

What is the Facebook Ads Library?

The Facebook Ads Library is a publicly accessible database of all ads that are currently running on Facebook and Instagram. This includes ads from all over the world, across a wide range of industries and sectors.

Using the Ads Library, you can search for ads by keyword, advertiser name, or page name. You can also filter your search results by ad format, placement, and country, as well as by the date range the ads have been active.

Each ad in the Ads Library includes detailed information about the ad, such as its copy, imagery, target audience, and the estimated budget and reach. This makes it a valuable resource for understanding the strategies and tactics of other businesses in your industry, as well as for identifying trends and opportunities in your market.

How can the Facebook Ads Library benefit your business?

There are a number of ways that the Facebook Ads Library can help you improve your own Facebook advertising efforts. Here are just a few examples:

Competitive research: By searching for ads from your competitors or other businesses in your industry, you can gain insights into their advertising strategies, messaging, and target audience. This information can help you better understand your market and inform your own advertising efforts.

Ad inspiration: The Ads Library can also be a great source of inspiration for your own ad creative. By browsing through ads from other businesses, you can see what types of imagery and copy are resonating with audiences in your industry, and get ideas for how to improve your own ad creative.

Audience targeting: By viewing the target audience of ads in the Ads Library, you can get a sense of the types of people your competitors are trying to reach. This can help you refine your own audience targeting and ensure that you're reaching the right people with your ads.

Ad optimization: Finally, the Ads Library can be a valuable resource for optimizing your own ads. By comparing your ad performance to that of similar ads in your industry, you can identify areas where you may be falling short and make adjustments to improve your results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Facebook Ads Library is a powerful tool that can provide valuable insights into the advertising strategies of other businesses in your industry. By using the Ads Library to conduct competitive research, find ad inspiration, refine your audience targeting, and optimize your ads, you can improve your own Facebook advertising efforts and drive better results for your business. So next time you're planning a Facebook ad campaign, be sure to take advantage of this valuable resource!

📷📷Write an article about online Weight Converter tool

[mystream4u]

Where Can I Watch Videos for Free?

If you are looking for a place to watch videos online, there are many options to choose from. Some sites have large audiences and provide a variety of video types and formats. Others cater to specific niches. Depending on your budget and preferences, you can find a site that suits you.

YouTube is one of the most popular video sharing sites. It offers a wide range of entertainment, news, and social networking content. However, some users may be unsatisfied with the site. For these users, it might be a good idea to search for other sites that offer similar features.

Vimeo is another great option for video viewing. The platform offers free trials, video cards, live pay-per-view events, and custom end screens. Videos can also be monetized through ad-generated revenue. Users can also vote on their favorite video creators.

Metacafe is another option to consider when it comes to watching videos online. It is a popular platform for uploading short videos, mostly entertainment. The company's algorithm makes sure that only high quality and unique content is uploaded to the site. They do not allow videos that are violent or illegal. In addition to providing quality content, the site pays its producers $5 for every 1,000 views.

Another option to consider is the Internet Archive. This is the world's largest digital library. There are a wide variety of video files available, from music to movies. You can download them or upload them to the site. You can upload up to 100GB of storage per file.

TED is an organization that posts talks for free. TED talks are typically in the form of podcasts. Viewers often assume that a content creator with a TED talk is a well-respected professional. TED has over 2,300 talks to choose from, making it a great choice for your videos.

PeerTube is a decentralized video hosting platform based on open source software. It provides users with an easy way to upload and store videos. Unlike other video sharing platforms, it does not have censorship and does not require you to pay a membership fee.

LinkedIn is an online social networking site that is especially popular among professionals. This site allows you to create company pages and share any type of file. It is also a great option for you to share your own personal videos.

Facebook is a popular social network with millions of users. The platform provides a wide variety of video content, including current movies and TV shows. It also has a personal profile and the ability to comment on other people's videos.

Using these options, you can watch videos on any device. You can also find out how to get a TEDx license, which is a special license for individuals who want to give a TED talk. While YouTube is the most popular video streaming service, there are other alternatives that you might want to try. These alternatives may not be available in all areas of the world.

[ausetkmt]

The Atlantic: The GIF Is on Its Deathbed

About 40 percent of my first full-time job was dedicated to making GIFs—a skill I had professed to have during the interview process, and that turned out to be much harder than I thought. It took trial and error to figure out how to make sure the colors weren’t too weird, the frame rate too fast, the file too big.

This was 2015, and GIFs had to be smaller than 1 megabyte before you could upload them to most social platforms. Fiddling with them was worthwhile, because GIFs were very important. You had to have them! They were the visual style that the audience craved. Not only did I make dozens a day for the website I worked for, but I often made extras for co-workers who requested them for their personal use. (I was eager to please!)

GIFs—particularly “reaction GIFs,” such as Michael Jackson chomping on popcorn and Mariah Carey muttering “I don’t know her”—were a lingua franca of the internet and significant enough culturally that in 2014, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York even put on an exhibit of reaction GIFs (titled “Moving Image as Gesture”). “This is the file format of the internet generation,” Tumblr’s then-head of creative strategy, David Hayes, told Mashable in 2016, while more than 23 million GIF-based posts were being uploaded to the site he worked for each day. As the GIF’s star rose, GIF-searching features were added to Facebook, Twitter, and iMessage, making it even easier to find a GIF to express whatever emotion you wanted to convey without words.

And that was the turning point. These search features surfaced the same GIFs over and over, and the popular reaction GIFs got worn into the ground. They started to look dated, corny, and cheap. “GIFs Are for Boomers Now, Sorry,” Vice’s Amelia Tait argued in January. As older adults became familiar with GIFs through the new, accessible libraries attached to essentially every app, GIFs became “embarrassing.” (Tait specifically cites the GIF of Leonardo DiCaprio raising a toast in 2013’s The Great Gatsby, and I agree—it is viscerally humiliating to be reminded of that movie.) The future is dark for GIFs, Tait suggested: “Will they soon disappear forever, like Homer Simpson backing up into a hedge?”

Much, too, has been made of Meta’s acquisition of the GIF search engine Giphy, which regulators in the U.K. have attempted to block. Giphy pushed back by roasting themselves. “GIPHY has no proven revenue stream (of any significance),” the company’s lawyers wrote in a filing with the Competition and Markets Authority. No company other than Meta is interested in buying it—they know because they specifically asked Adobe, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Snap, and Twitter, and they all said no. “Further, there are indications of an overall decline in GIF use,” the filing continues. Without providing any specific figures, they highlight a “drop in total GIF uploads,” a growing disdain for GIFs among social-media users, and “younger users in particular describing GIFs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe.’”

What I would like to suggest is that the situation is even worse than it appears. Not only are reaction GIFs “cringe” to some people, but the entire GIF medium is under serious existential threat.

GIFs are old and arguably outdated. They’ve been around since the days of CompuServe’s bulletin-board system, and they first thrived during the garish heyday of GeoCities, a moment in history that is preserved by the Internet Archive on a page called, appropriately, GifCities.

Read: The battle for the soul of the web

GIFs—as a file format, not as a category of thing you could use to express an opinion without formulating one—were special. “This was an art form that was native to the internet,” Matt Semke, a GIF artist who works under the name Cats Will Eat You, told me. “Videos existed in other places; paintings, photos existed in other places. GIFs just didn’t exist anywhere until the internet.” And they were beloved because of the seamless animated loop, which was not possible with any other file format. Because of their unwieldiness and antiquation, today, many GIFs are converted to MP4 video files, which look good and make life easier but do not loop perfectly. There is always a tiny hiccup when the video has to restart, making them inferior.

For people like Semke, 2007 was the year to be alive. Tumblr debuted and quickly became the home of digital art and fandom, which meant it became the home of GIFs. Originally, users were stuck with the traditional 1-megabyte limit, with a low resolution of 500-by-500 pixels. This may sound annoying, but actually, it was great. Semke recalls that it was “a cool challenge for artists to try to crunch their art down into a file that was so restrictive—the challenge in itself was part of the art.”

But even with the restrictions, optimizing so many animated images became expensive for Tumblr. It needed a way to crunch them down. So the company approached Eddie Kohler, a Harvard computer scientist, in 2013 to help with its GIF-resizing process. This resulted in a platform that was uniquely well-suited to serving its millions of GIF-hungry users an endless feed of GIFs, which is precisely what it has continued doing to the present day.

Tumblr is now a rarity for displaying GIFs at all. Most popular sites—including Twitter and Imgur—convert GIF uploads and serve the animations as MP4 videos. As Kohler explained to me, video compression has improved so much over the years that many video files are much smaller than GIF image files. He pulled a GIF from a movie and a graphic-art GIF to show me the difference. The GIF from the movie was nearly 4.5 megabytes, and the MP4 translation of it was about 20 times smaller, at less than .23 megabytes. “MP4 is the right choice for this kind of image,” he said. “Much smaller, very similar visual effect.”

But not everyone lives their life in pursuit of expediency. For some, GIFs are an art form; therefore, detail matters, and pain is expected. Kohler noted that an image tailored to this format might demand “pixel perfection for its effect,” which makes compression a trickier business. We looked at an example of graphic art where the GIF version was about 5.4 megabytes and the MP4 was about 4.8 megabytes. “MP4 is blurring some of the pixel perfection,” he pointed out, “and MP4 isn’t even that much smaller.” Even so, artists must follow their audience, and much of the digital-art scene has moved from Tumblr to Instagram for greater visibility. Instagram allows only video uploads, and a GIF artist’s page there will appear as a grid with “Play” buttons all over it. A Tumblr archive of GIFs is a living thing, playing over and over. “That’s probably why I’m still on Tumblr,” Cat Frazier, the artist behind Animated Text, told me. Although she has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, it’s not the same: “If I could just upload GIFs everywhere and not reformat them, I would.”

Read: How the snowflakes won

Tragically, even Tumblr’s commitment to the GIF is now in question. In 2015, it appeared to be unwavering: “The format is woefully outdated, and this begets massive, low quality animated images,” a post on Tumblr’s engineering blog read. “However, as the true ‘home of the gif,’ Tumblr isn’t ever giving up on your gif files!” This summer, though, even Tumblr started “experimenting with serving GIFs as MP4 videos” to a “small subset” of users, with the aim of making GIFs load faster. (Company blog posts discussing the change did advise artists that they could opt out of this conversion by adding a single transparent pixel to the first frame of their GIFs, breaking the conversion and thwarting the process.)

So could it really be the end for the ol’ GIF? Tumblr sees nowhere near the number of posts of any kind that it did six years ago, and not to be crass, but there are constantly rumors that it is itself at death’s door. GIFs are “cringe” in part because they are too easy to make and find—they have been totally devalued by the public. And they are being replaced—Frazier noted that people communicate with other kinds of moving images now, such as TikTok clips with text over them and super-short Twitter videos that add humor by incorporating sound.

But I think there will always be, at least, a handful of masochists who want to struggle to make a GIF and struggle again to post it somewhere—all because they are devoted to the perfect animated loop, and because they think there is something spiritually important about contorting themselves to create it. “[Igor] Stravinsky has a quote about constraints,” Kohler told me. Then he read the whole thing aloud: “The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.”

[mariacallous]

Meta’s online ad library shows the company is hosting thousands of ads for AI-generated, NSFW companion or “girlfriend” apps on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. They promote chatbots offering sexually explicit images and text, using NSFW chat samples and AI images of partially clothed, unbelievably shaped, simulated women.

Many of the virtual women seen in ads reviewed by WIRED are lifelike—if somewhat uncanny—young, and stereotypically pornographic. Prospective customers are invited to role-play with an AI “stepmom,” connect with a computer-generated teen in a hijab, or chat with avatars who promise to “get you off in one minute.”

The ads appear to be thriving despite Meta’s ad policies clearly barring “adult content,” including “depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.”

That’s created a new front in debates over the clash between AI and conventional labor. Some human sex workers complain that Meta is letting chatbots multiply, while unfairly shutting their older profession out of its platforms by over-enforcing rules about adult content.

“As a sex worker, if I put anything like ‘I will do anything for you, I will make you come in a minute’ I would be deleted in an instant,” says Gemma Rose, director of the Pole Dance Stripper Movement, a UK-based sex-worker rights and pole-dance event organization.

Meta’s policies forbid users from showing nudity or sexual activity and selling sex, including sexting. Rose and other sex-worker advocates say the company seems to apply a double standard in permitting chatbot apps to promote NSFW experiences while barring human sex workers from doing the same.

People who post about sex education, sex positivity, or sex work have for years complained the platform unfairly quashes their content. Meta has limited some of Rose’s posts from being shown to non-followers, screenshots seen by WIRED show. Her personal Instagram account and one for her organization have previously been suspended for violating Meta policies.

“Not that I agree with a lot of the community guidelines and rules and regulations, but these [ads] blatantly go against their own policies,” says Rose of the sexual chatbots promoted on Meta platforms. “And yet we’re not allowed to be uncensored on the internet or just exist and make a living.”

WIRED surveyed chatbot ads using Meta’s ad library, a transparency tool that can be used to see all the ads currently running across its platforms, all ads shown in the EU in the past year, and past ads from the past seven years related to elections, politics, or social issues. Searches showed that at least 29,000 ads had been published on Meta platforms for explicit AI “girlfriends,” with most using suggestive, sex-related messaging. There were also at least 19,000 ads using the term “NSFW” and 14,000 offering “NSFW AI.”

Some 2,700 ads were active when WIRED contacted Meta last week. A few days later Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said that the company prohibits ads that contain adult content and was reviewing the ads and removing those that violated its policies. “When we identify violating ads we work quickly to remove them, as we’re doing here,” he said. “We continue to improve our systems, including how we detect ads and behavior that go against our policies.”

However, 3,000 ads for “AI girlfriends” and 1,100 containing “NSFW” were live on April 23, according to Meta’s ad library.

WIRED’s initial review found that Hush, an AI girlfriend app downloaded more than 100,000 times from Google’s Play store, had published 1,700 ads across Meta platforms, several of which promise “NSFW” chats and “secret photos” from a range of lifelike female characters, anime women, and cartoon animals.

One shows an AI woman locked into medieval prison stocks by the neck and wrists, pledging, “Help me, I will do anything for you.” Another ad, targeted using Meta’s technology at men aged 18 to 65, features an anime character and the text “Want to see more of NSFW pics?”

Several of the 980 Meta ads WIRED found for “personalized AI companion” app Rosytalk promise around-the-clock chats with very-young-looking AI-generated women. They used tags including “#barelylegal,” “#goodgirls,” and “teens.” Rosytalk also ran 990 ads under at least nine brand names on Meta platforms, including Rosygirl, Rosy Role Play Chat, and AI Chat GPT.

At least 13 other apps for AI “girlfriends” have promoted similar services in Meta ads, including “nudifying” features that allow a user to “undress” their AI girlfriend and download the images. A handful of the girlfriend ads had already been removed for violating Meta’s advertising standards. “Undressing” apps have also been marketed on mainstream social platforms, according to social media research firm Graphika, and on LinkedIn, the Daily Mail recently reported.

Some users of so-called AI companions say they can help combat loneliness, with others reporting them feeling like a real partner. Not all of the ads found by WIRED promote only titillation, with some also suggesting that an explicit AI chatbot could provide emotional support. “Talk to anyone! You’re not alone!” reads one of Hush’s ads on Meta platforms.

Carolina Are, an innovation fellow researching social media censorship at the Center for Digital Citizens at Northumbria University in the UK, says that Meta makes it extremely difficult for human sex workers to advertise on its platforms, she says. “When people are trying to work through and profit off their own body, they are forbidden,” says Are, who has helped sex workers reactivate lost and unfairly suspended accounts on Meta platforms. “While AI companies mostly powered by bros that exploit images already out there are able to do that.”

Are says the sexually suggestive AI girlfriends remind her of the unsophisticated and generic early days of internet porn. “Sex workers engage with their customers, subscribers, and followers in a way that is more personalized,” she says. “This is a lot of work and emotional labor beyond the sharing of nude images.”

Limited information is available about how the AI apps are built or the underlying text or image-generation algorithms trained. One used the name Sora, apparently to suggest a connection to OpenAI’s video generator of that name, which has not been publicly released.

The developers behind the apps advertising explicit AI girlfriends are shadowy. None of the developers listed on Google Play or Facebook as creating the apps promoted on Meta’s platforms responded to requests for comment.

Mike Stabile, director of public affairs at the Free Speech Coalition, an adult-industry nonprofit trade association, sees the apps promising explicit AI girlfriends and their advertising tactics as “scammy.” While the adult industry is banned from advertising online, AI apps are “flooding the zone,” he says. “That’s the paradox of censorship: You end up censoring or silencing an actual sex worker and allowing all these weeds to flourish in their place.”

Anti-sex-trafficking legislation signed into US law in 2018 called FOSTA-SESTA made platforms responsible for what is posted online, vastly limiting adult content. However, it resulted in consensual sex work being treated as trafficking in the digital world, shutting adult content creators out of online life and making already marginalized sex workers more vulnerable.

If Meta wipes the AI girlfriend ads from its platforms, it might emulate past sweeps of human sex workers. Despite diligently trying to follow Meta’s guidelines, the Pole Dance Stripper Movement’s account was banned “without warning” during a wave of removals of at least 45 sexuality-related accounts in June 2023, Rose says. Meta eventually rolled back some of the deletions, citing an error. But for sex workers on social media, such events are a recurring feature.

Rose’s personal account and its backup were also deleted in June 2021 during the Covid pandemic after she shared a photo, she says, of a pole-dancing workshop. She was hosting online pole-dancing classes and posting on the adult subscription site OnlyFans at the time. “My business was gone overnight,” she says. “I didn’t have a way to sustain myself.”

“OK, so I got deleted,” Rose adds. “But these companies are allowed to put out this kind of shit that sex workers aren’t allowed to? It makes no sense.”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Tomorrow (November 27), I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

#20yrsago Big Mouth Billy Bass runs Linux, does impressions https://web.archive.org/web/20031123212606/http://bigmouth.here-n-there.com/

#10yrsago Pratchett’s “Raising Steam”: the magic of modernity https://memex.craphound.com/2013/11/27/pratchetts-raising-steam-the-magic-of-modernity/

#10yrsago NSA spied on non-terrorist “radicalizers”‘ porn use in order to discredit them https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nsa-porn-muslims_n_4346128

#10yrsago Public Citizen threatens legal action against Kleargear on behalf of customers https://www.techdirt.com/2013/11/26/public-citizen-suing-behalf-customers-whose-credit-was-ruined-kleargears-3500-bad-review-fee/

#10yrsago Beasties/GoldieBlox debunked https://waxy.org/2013/11/goldieblox_and_the_three_mcs/

#5yrsago Billboards are using sensors to identify, target and track individuals https://onezero.medium.com/irl-ads-are-taking-scary-inspiration-from-social-media-7088e8241beb

#5yrsago Man arrested for rape after his Playstation mic allegedly broadcast audio from the crime to other players https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/11/a-hot-playstation-mic-captures-sounds-of-apparent-rape-leads-to-arrest/

#5yrsago Amnesty will stage global protests over Google’s spying, censoring Chinese search engine plan https://theintercept.com/2018/11/26/google-dragonfly-project-china-amnesty-international/

#5yrsago Supreme Court looks ready to let customers sue Apple for abusing its App Store monopoly https://gizmodo.com/supreme-court-appears-to-lean-heavily-against-apples-de-1830662533?IR=T

#5yrsato A visual guide to America’s concentrated, uncompetitive markets https://concentrationcrisis.openmarketsinstitute.org

#5yrsago US tax shortfalls have our public schools begging for donations https://truthout.org/articles/bake-sales-cant-fix-school-funding-pinch-caused-by-corporate-tax-cuts/

#5yrsago Using information security to explain why disinformation makes autocracies stronger and democracies weaker https://memex.craphound.com/2018/11/27/using-information-security-to-explain-why-disinformation-makes-autocracies-stronger-and-democracies-weaker/

#5yrsago The Fifth Risk: Michael Lewis explains how the “deep state” is just nerds versus grifters https://memex.craphound.com/2018/11/27/the-fifth-risk-michael-lewis-explains-how-the-deep-state-is-just-nerds-versus-grifters/

#1yrago Poe vs. Property https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/27/poe-vs-property/

[cluelesssocialworker]

Hoping, praying, wishing that you're still active.

I just got my first job as a social worker and am already on my deathbed. Fresh from uni and not a clue how to do the things they're asking me to do. I'll try though.

Working with seniors, I have to do outreach. We are distributing flyers and trying to make connections for our senior day program for seniors with dementia. I have already reached out to churches, hospitals and medical clinics, community centres, and libraries. But my manager wants me to expand on that list.

I really don't know who else to contact. Do you have any suggestions? And what was your greatest obstacle working your first SW job? ♥️♥️♥️

I'm not really active, but active enough to see this ask!

Oof, frontline social work jobs are tough. I'm assuming you're in the US (though I imagine this would probably be at least somewhat applicable to other countries), so here are some ideas:

First, search your area for social work/mental health worker networking groups. Most of them are on facebook, but some of them might be elsewhere. You can google "[City name/state/region] mental health worker networking group" and see what pops up. I say this both because you'll be able to do some outreach there, but also because you deserve to connect with other mental health workers for support for yourself. Also, try reaching out to your college and see if they have a group for alumni. Again, for outreach and networking opportunities, but also to connect with other social workers for support for yourself.

As for ideas for other places to reach out to: I mean, honestly, you've hit almost all the places I could think of! Try senior centers, if you haven't already. Try other nonprofits serving seniors in your area (try looking for Medicare/Medicaid-funded organizations), assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, and retirement communities, and see if you can find any individual therapists or group therapy practices that may serve seniors.

Also, don't be afraid to stand up and advocate for yourself in your job. If you're fresh out of ideas and your manager is still pushing for more, gently push back. Think along the lines of "I've already tried everything I can think of, including x, y, and z. I'm out of ideas at the moment. Do you have any ideas of other places I can try?" If they don't, and they just expect you to come up with... something, try, "I'm not sure what else to do. If you don't have any other ideas, I'm going to [insert idea of what you can do next that's tangentially related, like, 'follow-up with the places I've already reached out to so I can keep building those connections.'] But I'll talk with you during our next check-in/meeting to see if I come up with any other ideas."

Social work jobs are hard. They are so hard. I struggled with pushing myself too hard and not having the work-life boundaries I need to last long-term. Take your time off, take your sick leave. Turn your phone off (or at least mute work people) after hours. If you can keep from adding any work apps to your phone, do. If they try to give you more work than you can do in a reasonable work week, tell them that. "I'm not able to get x done with y and z, so I'm going to prioritize y and z unless you tell me you'd like me to do something else." And don't be afraid to look for a new job if this one is going to burn you out.

(also AskAManager.org is a great resource for finding ways to advocate for yourself in the workplace. Social workers deserve better than the field gives them. You don't have to put up with it.)

[techtipsdigital]

How can I find free digital marketing tools

Leverage free digital marketing tools to streamline your marketing efforts and reduce costs. As a new marketer, leveraging the right tools is essential for driving success. But building an effective digital marketing arsenal can be challenging on a limited budget. So, how do you find free digital marketing tools?

In this guide, we’ll explore various free digital marketing tools and how to use each one effectively.

Recommended Free Digital Marketing Tools

1. Google Analytics

An essential resource for monitoring web traffic and gaining insights into user interactions. Tailor your marketing efforts to your audience’s preferences and needs, based on their interactions with your website.

How to Use:

Create an account and incorporate the tracking code into your website. Use the dashboard to monitor traffic, user demographics, and behavior. Analyze metrics like session duration and bounce rate to optimize your content and marketing strategies. Compare performance metrics across different time periods to gain valuable insights and optimize your marketing campaigns.

2. Buffer

A multi-platform social media management solution for scheduling and publishing content. The free plan lets you schedule up to 10 posts per social account, making it easier to maintain a consistent online presence. If you create an Instagram account, Facebook page, and Twitter account, you will be able to share and engage with your audience by utilizing this free tool.

How to Use:

Create a free account and link your social media profiles. Use Buffer to schedule posts in advance, ensuring consistent engagement. The free plan allows you to manage three accounts and schedule up to ten posts per account, streamlining your social media marketing efforts.

3. Canva

Create stunning visuals with ease using this intuitive graphic design tool, featuring a vast library of templates for social media, presentations, and more. The free version provides access to numerous design elements.

How to Use:

Sign up for a free account to access thousands of templates for social media graphics, presentations, and marketing materials. Customize designs by adding your images, text, and branding elements. Download your creations in various formats for immediate use, enhancing your visual marketing strategy.

4. Mailchimp

A comprehensive email marketing solution designed for crafting and overseeing your email campaigns. Perfect for small businesses starting their email marketing journey, this free plan supports up to 2,000 subscribers.

How to Use:

Create a free account to manage up to 2,000 subscribers. Use Mailchimp to design email campaigns, automate responses, and segment your audience. Track engagement metrics to refine your email marketing strategy and improve your outreach.

5. Google Search Console

This tool helps you monitor your website’s performance in Google search results, providing valuable insights into search queries and indexing status.

How to Use:

Verify your website to access performance data in Google search results. Use it to monitor indexing status, identify crawl errors, and analyze search queries. This tool helps improve your site’s SEO and visibility, ensuring that your content reaches the right audience.

6. Hootsuite

Similar to Buffer, Hootsuite allows you to manage and schedule social media posts across various platforms, along with analytics to measure performance.

How to Use:

Register for a free account to manage multiple social media accounts from one dashboard. Schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance metrics.

Ideal for managing multiple social media profiles, this free plan allows you to connect up to three accounts.

7. Ubersuggest

A free SEO tool that provides keyword metrics, search volume, and competition analysis, helping you optimize your content for search engines.

How to Use:

Enter a keyword to receive insights on search volume, competition, and keyword suggestions. Use these insights to inform your content strategy and optimize for SEO. The tool also provides site audit features to improve your website’s performance.

8. Trello

A project management tool that can help you organize marketing tasks and collaborate with your team effectively. It’s adaptable for content planning and project management.

How to Use:

Create boards for different projects or campaigns. Use lists and cards to organize tasks, assign responsibilities, and track progress. Trello’s visual layout makes it easy to collaborate with team members, ensuring that everyone stays on the same page.

9. Google My Business

Essential for local businesses, this tool helps manage your online presence across Google, including search and maps. Optimizing your listing can improve visibility to potential customers.

How to Use:

Claim your business listing to enhance local SEO. Add essential information like your address, hours, and services. Encourage customers to leave reviews and respond to them to build credibility and engage with your audience.

10. Pablo by Buffer

This tool provides a simple way to create visually appealing images for social media. Choose from a library of free images, add text overlays, and customize sizes for different platforms.

How to Use:

Access Pablo to create images for social media posts. Select from a library of free images, customize with text overlays, and adjust sizes for various platforms. Download and share your creations to enhance your social media presence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these free tools provide a valuable resource for businesses aiming to enhance their online visibility and drive growth without incurring costs. By leveraging these resources, businesses can effectively implement digital marketing strategies and achieve their goals.