#i have been on tumblr for like. 3 months help

[reveriesrequiem]

short writing practice one-shot, with rodydeku and erasercloud sprinkles. keep in mind this is only a hobby, and i am not an experienced writer.

~

wind rustled through izuku's hair as he sipped at his lychee-flavored boba. the sky was a a breathtaking orange-to-pink, and the clouds were in the cumulus formation.

izuku's always liked clouds. it was his little thing. like how denki acts like he hates it, but he actually like being compared to pikachu. yaomomo likes feeling useful. izuku likes clouds. hitoshi likes hugs-but only if its cold.

contrary to popular belief, izuku wasn't actually oblivious. he could see the way momo and kyoka looked at eachother. the way tenya looked to ochako for praise whenever he makes a joke or pop-culture reference.

the way denki always made to include hitoshi in whatever he did. the way aizawa-sensei had a picture on his desk of a blue-haired boy with a smile to rival even the brightest stars, and constantly held onto a necklace that held a ring identical to the one on his finger.

in short, he wasn't oblivious.

he was burst out of his thought process by a shuffling of footsteps behind him. a hand gently placed itself on his shoulder, warm and familiar.

"are you alright, midoriya?" aizawa-sensei's voice, gruff yet full of concern, rang out from behind him. he'd been, admittedly, softer, ever since the war. izuku thinks he, tenya and yaomomo make for great co-parents.

izuku blinked sleepily, "yes, aizawa-sensei. just..thinking about something."

"on the roof?" izuku nodded simply. his teacher huffed in fond irritation.

"..aizawa-sensei?" he started, quietly, a few minutes later. he picks at the label around his boba.

aizawa-sensei grunted.

"have you ever..loved someone that- that you can't have?" izuku's voice quivered, trailing off at the end, nervous.

"..i have."  izuku looked at his teacher, suprised.

"and how do you...deal with that?"

"other than drinking boba on roofs and staring at clouds?" he teased.

izuku tsked.

"this is about your othenan friend, isn't it?" aizawa-sensei deadpanned. izuku blushed and tilted his head in a shy 'yes'.

the black-haired man sighed and sat down next to him. the hand on izuku's shoulder moved to his head and ruffled his hair.

"..i had a friend. in my first year, when i moved to the hero course. i didn't want to be his friend, but i ended up hanging out with him and his group anyway." he could've sworn aizawa smiled. it was a wistful one, one that people would often have when reminiscing.

"he died in my second year."

"oh- i'm sorry – "

"don't apologise, kid. " he buried the lower half of his face in his capture scarf and continued, " i admit, i came to love him. romantically, i mean. but it was too late for it to go anywhere farther than it already was."

"w- what was his name?" izuku asked, gently.

aizawa-sensei hesitated before answering.

"...oboro. his name was oboro. "

izuku's smile was small, but kind, "thank you for sharing this with me, aizawa-sensei." he says, honestly. his teacher blinks, and bashfully pulls up his capture scarf to cover his mouth once more.

"c'mon, kid. let's get you back to the dorms." the gruff man offers his hand. the teen grasps it, laughing as he pulls himself up.

~

"..shota?" oboro had murmured, carding a hand through his boyfriend's hair as he dozed.

"mh?.. he hummed.

"do you think..we're together in every universe?" the blue-haired boy questioned softly. shota cracked an eye open to stare at him, confused.

"what brought this on?" he asks, voice hoarse from sleep. oboro blinks lazily, sky-blue eyelashes fluttering.

his face softened before he answered, "nothing, nothing! just..curious, i guess." he laughs quietly before pecking shota on the cheek.

the red-eyed boy gave a 'hmm' as he looked up at his partner. "i think, that any universe without you is a sad one." he muttered, sleepily. oboro smiled so wide his face must've hurt.

he rained kisses all over shota's face before tucking his face into the crook of his boyfriend's neck, a smitten grin stretching his lips.

shota huffed contentedly and settled down to fall back asleep.

~

[rainyraisin]

GUYS.... GUESS WHAT...

Movie Sonic!!! He exists!!! Isnt that neat!!! The silliest guy ever is real he is right there and he has three whole movies worth of content to go insane over (and like a little bit of a TV show episode icl the first episode was VERY close to being my favorite ep of Knuckles purely bc Sonic is in it I'm not even joking- Episode 4 ate so hard tho)

Anyway be prepared to hear about this guy for like the next few weeks still probably especially because my band have agreed to do the Sonic movies for our college music festival so now being insane over this hedgehog is technically college work let's go chat (i also have to make Escape From The City into a ballad for one of my units so this hedgehog has invaded my college work multiple times its so funny)

[exopelagic]

i said i wouldn’t do it this time but it’s 3am and mods asleep. boy

[blitz0hno]

I don't want to get off my phone I don't want to stay on my phone I don't want to pump gas I don't want to do deliveries I don't want to get ready for bed I don't want to write anything of substance I don't want to create I don't want to not create I don't want to be here I don't want to go anywhere I don't want to move I don't want to stay still my brain and body seem to simply want to sit here and Yearn

[weirdnerdygoat]

I'm doing far too much introspection lately, can't i just go back to calmly reading fiction?

[delta-piscium]

✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥

been staring at this for a day like 🥰🥰🥰 filled with endless love and joy here, like so soft, and also right back at you, always thrilled to see you and I hope you have the loveliest day

[abiamantha]

I've discovered the most mentally excruciating aspect of writing for me is at the start. When i know what I'll write about but dont know hot to put 2 and 2 together. It's Bad.

[deepfriedseagullfeet]

also the furry stuff ive been drawing lately has been flopping really bad on twitter. which is incredibly sad because im having a LOT of fun with it but no one likes meeeeeeeee its fine. i dont care in fact. i just wont post any art anymore. that way i dont have to see it flop and get no likes. i can sit on my pile of bunny jameson porn and be happy. grins. smiles even

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:

Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.

It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:

This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?

Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.

Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:

SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."

That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.

The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.

HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.

Uh oh!

Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.

You can guess where this is going.

So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.

Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.

[icewindandboringhorror]

golf

[astrxealis]

i am so used to my pinned post i kinda don't want to change the format but i want to

[bloodawakening]

Rebellion. hi yes I am still hibernating (my goal is to still get a hub blog set up for other muses I plan to write + bring back but guess who might be having an idea for a new muse...)

[buttercuparry]

Urgent: Extremely low funds!!

I am writing to you on behalf of Abdulsalam Al-Anqur ( @aboodanqar20 ), whose family has managed to raise a mere 3% of evacuation/survival funds. At this point, it would soon be one year of bombing and destruction of Gaza and I request you to take this in consideration while reading the post. For almost one year, the family has tried to get by, before finally reaching out to all of us for help. I am going to keep this short in hopes that this would be an easier read and would take only a few minutes of your day. 

Abdulsalam is only 26 years old and is father to one year old Iman. He hopes to save his daughter who is currently suffering from malnutrition and offer her a better life by evacuating to Egypt.

However as the borders are currently closed, the Al-Anqur family needs your help to collect funds for survival. There are 7 members in total, including an elderly couple.

Abdulsalam’s father (Ahmed Al-Anqur), is 54 years old and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. He has been advised to undergo surgery every three months, but with how things are in Gaza, the family isn't sure if it is possible. They are also worried that even if by some miracle it becomes so, they might not be able to bear the cost of it

What Ahmed, hence needs is access to medicines to get by. He also has a weak heart and already has 4 stents in place.  

The Al-Anqur family has been displaced several times and because they couldn't bear the cost of transportation, they once had to travel from the North to Deir Al-Balah in the South ON FOOT ! They have also been subjected to terror and humiliation when they crossed military checkpoints.  

Currently the family is living in a camp surrounded by waste and garbage and would like access to a decent tent before winter sets in.

For a long time, Abdulsalam refused to share his burden with anyone. But after almost a year of surviving through this genocide, he has grown tired and now fears for his daughter’s life. He is also close to tears about his father’s condition and requests  your help in  raising funds for survival. Please help him in whatever way you can. He has come onto  tumblr with a lot of hope. Please donate if you can. Boost and share if you can't. 

Currently at €1,703 / €50,000. Only €797 till €2,500.

Vetting #4 by @gazavetters ( this blog is run by Gazans themselves whom you have helped and still continue to help. Please, a lot of hope is riding on your participation).

[breadfan]

to be playing P5R but constantly thinking of Yakuza is like having to juggle between two jobs

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

FYI artists and writers: some info regarding tumblr's new "third-party sharing" (aka selling your content to OpenAI and Midjourney)

You may have already seen the post by @staff regarding third-party sharing and how to opt out. You may have also already seen various news articles discussing the matter.

But here's a little further clarity re some questions I had, and you may too. Caveat: Not all of this is on official tumblr pages, so it's possible things may change.

(1) "I heard they already have access to my data and it doesn't really matter if I opt out"

From the 404 article:

A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.”

So please, go click that opt-out button.

(2) Some future user: "I've been away from tumblr for months, and I just heard about all this. I didn't opt out before, so does it make a difference anymore?"

Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?” Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.”

It should make a difference! Go click that button.

(3) "I opted out, but my art posts have been reblogged by so many people, and I don't know if they all opted out. What does that mean for my stuff?"

This answer is actually on the support page for the toggle:

This option will prevent your blog's content, even when reblogged, from being shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models.

And some further clarification by the COO and a product manager:

zingring: A couple people from work have reached out to let me know that yes, it applies to reblogs of "don't scrape" content. If you opt out, your content is opted out, even in reblog form. cyle: yep, for reblogs, we're taking it so far as "if anybody in the reblog trail has opted out, all of the content in that reblog will be opted out", when a reblog could be scraped/shared.

So not only your reblogged posts, but anyone who contributed in a reblog (such as posts where someone has been inspired to draw fanart of the OP) will presumably be protected by your opt-out. (A good reason to opt out even if you yourself are not a creator.)

Furthermore, if you the OP were offline and didn't know about the opt-out, if someone contributed to a reblog and they are opted out, then your original work is also protected. (Which makes it very tempting to contribute "scrapeable content" now whenever I reblog from an abandoned/disused blog...)

(4) "What about deleted blogs? They can't opt out!"

I was told by someone (not official) that he read "deleted blogs are all opted-out by default". However, he didn't recall the source, and I can't find it, so I can't guarantee that info. If I get more details - like if/when tumblr puts up that FAQ as reported in the 404 article - I will add it here as soon as I can.

Edit, tumblr has updated their help page for the option to opt-out of third-party sharing! It now states:

The content which will not be shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models, includes: • Posts and reblogs of posts from blogs who have enabled the "Prevent third-party sharing" option. • Posts and reblogs of posts from deleted blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from password-protected blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from explicit blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from suspended/deactivated blogs. • Private posts. • Drafts. • Messages. • Asks and submissions which have not been publicly posted. • Post+ subscriber-only posts. • Explicit posts.

So no need to worry about your old deleted blogs that still have reblogs floating around. *\o/*

But for your existing blogs, please use the opt out option. And a reminder of how to opt out, under the cut:

The opt-out toggle is in Blog Settings, and please note you need to do it for each one of your blogs / sideblogs.

On dashboard, the toggle is at https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/blogname [replace "blogname" as applicable] down by Visibility:

For mobile, you need the most recent update of the app. (Android version 33.4.1.100, iOs version 33.4.) Then go to your blog tab (the little person icon), and then the gear icon for Settings, then click Visibility.

Again, if you have a sideblog, go back to the blog tab, switch to it, and go to settings again. Repeat as necessary.

If you do not have access to the newest version of the app for whatever reason, you can also log into tumblr in your mobile browser. Same URL as per desktop above, same location.

Note you do not need to change settings in both desktop and the app, just one is fine.

I hope this helps!

[haikyuupaladin]

TLDR; don’t give tumblr money until they start making visible improvements towards accessibility

I’ve seen a few posts around about something people are calling crab day where you’re supposed to gift the crab button to your mutuals to support Tumblr financially. Please don’t participate in this unless Tumblr starts making noticeable improvements towards accessibility between now and then. It’s been 5 months of me trying to get the bare minimum of accessibility for photosensitive users or even just find out who I can talk to to get anywhere, and Tumblr is refusing to make any changes.

@photomatt has doubled down on the suggestion that you should just pay for ad-free or install an ad-blocker instead of listening to any of the suggestions photosensitive users have repeatedly made. Please do not give money to Tumblr until they show a commitment to accessibility because they will continue to ignore our requests if it doesn’t impact them financially.

Some of the requests we’ve made are:

1. Allow us to disable autoplay on browser as well as the app. This is an accessibility feature, not a data-saving feature, and should be treated as such.

2. Include ads in disabling of autoplay, along with other formats that currently get around the autoplay feature. Currently even if you have autoplay disabled you can still end up with flashing lights in your face every few posts from ads.

3. Improve the reporting process for strobing ads. The quick reporting process doesn’t provide good options to ensure the person reviewing the report realizes that it’s being reported for flashing lights so you have to hope they agree it’s either malicious or offensive and don’t just brush you off as abusing the report function. The more complicated reporting process involves getting a screenshot and the link that the ad brings you to, which requires lingering on the ad, which if you’re trying to report the ad for your safety, is dangerous. You can also still get the same ad 10 times a row after reporting it until it’s been reviewed. Which again, presents a danger to users.

4. Add a community label for flashing lights. Flashing lights are commonly untagged or mistagged, even sometimes maliciously. It would be extremely helpful to the photosensitive community to be able to add a warning to a post that doesn’t have one.

I’ve talked a lot about the photosensitive community in this post because that’s what I have personal experience with and what @photomatt has explicitly come out and just said to buy ad-free about, but there are definitely other accessibility issues that need to be addressed as well (like the alt text function needing improvements to make it accessible to users who need it and don’t use screenreaders, or the fact that a lot of tumblr official stuff still doesn’t seem to use the alt text feature themselves). Please feel free to add on accessibility issues I’ve missed in the reblogs.