#i have many examples of image descriptions on this blog if youre interested in seeing what descriptions can look like for mhy things in

[oathofkaslana]

anyways on the topic of accessibility: reminder that you are always free to add any video/image descriptions i add to your post! this'll mean people who need an image description won't have to search through the reblogs to potentially find one! absolutely no credit needed!

[anaquariusfox]

I spent the evening looking into this AI shit and made a wee informative post of the information I found and thought all artists would be interested and maybe help yall?

edit: forgot to mention Glaze and Nightshade to alter/disrupt AI from taking your work into their machines. You can use these and post and it will apparently mess up the AI and it wont take your content into it's machine!

edit: ArtStation is not AI free! So make sure to read that when signing up if you do! (this post is also on twt)

[Image descriptions: A series of infographics titled: “Opt Out AI: [Social Media] and what I found.” The title image shows a drawing of a person holding up a stack of papers where the first says, ‘Terms of Service’ and the rest have logos for various social media sites and are falling onto the floor. Long transcriptions follow.

Instagram/Meta (I have to assume Facebook).

Hard for all users to locate the “opt out” options. The option has been known to move locations.

You have to click the opt out link to submit a request to opt out of the AI scraping. *You have to submit screenshots of your work/face/content you posted to the app, is curretnly being used in AI. If you do not have this, they will deny you.

Users are saying after being rejected, are being “meta blocked”

People’s requests are being accepted but they still have doubts that their content won’t be taken anyways.

Twitter/X

As of August 2023, Twitter’s ToS update:

“Twitter has the right to use any content that users post on its platform to train its AI models, and that users grant Twitter a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to do so.”

There isn’t much to say. They’re doing the same thing Instagram is doing (to my understanding) and we can’t even opt out.

Tumblr

They also take your data and content and sell it to AI models.

But you’re in luck!

It is very simply to opt out (Wow. Thank Gods)

Opt out on Desktop: click on your blog > blog settings > scroll til you see visibility options and it’ll be the last option to toggle

Out out of Mobile: click your blog > scroll then click visibility > toggle opt out option

TikTok

I took time skim their ToS and under “How We Use Your Information” and towards the end of the long list: “To train and improve our technology, such as our machine learning models and algorithms.”

Regarding data collected; they will only not sell your data when “where restricted by applicable law”. That is not many countries. You can refuse/disable some cookies by going into settings > ads > turn off targeted ads.

I couldn’t find much in AI besides “our machine learning models” which I think is the same thing.

What to do?

In this age of the internet, it’s scary! But you have options and can pick which are best for you!

Accepting these platforms collection of not only your artwork, but your face! And not only your faces but the faces of those in your photos. Your friends and family. Some of those family members are children! Some of those faces are minors! I shudder to think what darker purposes those faces could be used for.

Opt out where you can! Be mindful and know the content you are posting is at risk of being loaded to AI if unable to opt out.

Fully delete (not archive) your content/accounts with these platforms. I know it takes up to 90 days for instagram to “delete” your information. And even keep it for “legal” purposes like legal prevention.

Use lesser known social media platforms! Some examples are; Signal, Mastodon, Diaspora, et. As well as art platforms: Artfol, Cara, ArtStation, etc.

The last drawing shows the same person as the title saying, ‘I am, by no means, a ToS autistic! So feel free to share any relatable information to these topics via reply or qrt!

I just wanted to share the information I found while searching for my own answers cause I’m sure people have the same questions as me.’ \End description] (thank you @a-captions-blog!)

[lindwurmkai]

hey, have you heard that pillowfort has ✨ drafts ✨ now? (as in, the ability to save your posts as drafts.) they're still working on the queue feature (update: it's done!), but drafts are a big step forward!

in case you missed it so far, pillowfort is like a cross between tumblr and dreamwidth/livejournal, with a simplified dashboard reminiscent of old school tumblr and some classic livejournal features such as communities, threaded comments, and the ability to make individual posts followers-only or mutuals-only.

what are communities? basically, central hubs for posts about any subject you want that, unlike hashtags, can be moderated. they may have rules, such as "[subject matter] must be tagged" for example. you can post directly to a community or reblog existing posts to it!

since the site is currently experiencing some financial trouble, i thought i'd help out by spreading the word once again.

edit: the fundraiser was a success! crisis averted! i knew we could do it :D

why you should give pillowfort a chance:

no ads

no venture capitalist funding

no spying on the users

completely free to use except for optional premium features

nsfw is allowed except for sexual depictions of minors. if you're unsure what exactly that means, their tos may help

communities and the privacy controls mentioned above are excellent features

great community, low drama compared to other websites (so far)

the site's features themselves encourage genuine connection and good-faith conversation over endless "discourse"

every blog can automatically be filtered by original posts only or reblogs only

reasons not to join:

if you enjoy algorithmic social media. there is no algorithm at all

if you want to post or look at machine-generated art. they're still finalising the wording and personally i hope some exception will be made for models trained on ethically sourced images, but basically an anti-AI rule is in the works (update: finished!)

if you cannot live without reblog additions (reblogging with comment). all discussions on a pillowfort post take place in the comments section, and only your own followers see your tags. this has its pros and cons for sure! a similar feature to scratch that itch may be implemented in the future, but it will never be exactly like on tumblr.

if you need everything to be an app. the website works fine in a mobile browser and a progressive web app will hopefully be released soon (basically it's like an app in your browser and on mobile these can be added to the homescreen like real apps i think? they have push notifications!), but there's not going to be a native app available through official app stores due to the restrictions of those stores.

other factors to consider:

yes, the userbase is still small. depending on your interests, activity may be very slow. but we can change that! and on the plus side, reblogging your post to a community is a good way to easily get more eyes on it; way more effective than simply adding tags imo

the site culture is a bit different than on tumblr. many people read everything that's been posted since the last time they were online and don't follow more users/communities than they can keep up with. it's still somewhat lacking in shitposts and heavy on "essays" but don't be afraid to post whatever 😅

there are no blog themes like we have them on tumblr as yet, but you can customise your blog's colours and use html/insert links and images in your blog description

likes literally do nothing except to let OP know you enjoyed their post. you can't look at a list of all your likes. beware!

the staff is small and development is slow. some highly anticipated planned features other than the aforementioned queue include: - multi-account management - dashboard filters/reading lists - post bookmarking (since likes don't work that way) but we don't know how soon any of those will be implemented.

there is a user-developed browser extension (well, a userscript) called tassel available that adds additional features much like tumblr's beloved xkit :)

✨ okay, so how do i sign up? ✨

if you're interested but confused by the sign-up process or still under the impression that you need to pay to sign up (false), i'll put some clarifications and invite codes under the read more below. plus a note on donating, premium features, the paypal issue etc.

in a nutshell:

it's free

signing up without an invite code is possible, but you may have to wait a short while - supposedly less than an hour atm. just submit your email to the waitlist

if you don't feel like waiting, you can either use an invite code from an existing user or pay $5 to sign up instantly

every user gets plenty of invite codes and we're all willing to hand them out at the drop of a hat. they're really not hard to come by

some invites to get you started (just click the link):

invite 1 ▪ invite 2 ▪ invite 3 ▪ invite 4 ▪ invite 5

invite 6 ▪ invite 7 ▪ invite 8 ▪ invite 9 ▪ invite 10

invite 11 ▪ invite 12 ▪ invite 13 ▪ invite 14 ▪ invite 15

invite 16 ▪ invite 17 ▪ invite 18 ▪ invite 19 ▪ invite 20

i'll try to periodically check if any have been used and cross those out.

...paypal issue?

ok so paypal doesn't like working with sites that allow nsfw. as a result, you need a credit card in order to donate to pillowfort, buy one of those insta-registration keys, or subscribe to premium features*. i personally happen to have a credit card and would be willing to help out anyone who trusts me enough to send the money to me via paypal, but i realise chances are only my friends will do this.

some users are currently organising various activities for the purpose of letting people who only have paypal contribute to the site's survival. it's not super relevant for new users and won't get you access to premium features, but i thought i'd mention it anyway in case someone loves the concept of the site so much they want to support it immediately. a fundraising community has been created to collect posts of that nature!

*premium features are strictly limited to two categories of things:

fun little extras that no one truly needs

higher image upload limits, because obviously big images take up bandwidth and are therefore a reason for increased costs

you will never need to pay for vital accessibility features or anything of the sort. :)

[formatting-news]

Read my description for a basic overview of my services. Read through these as well to make sure you understand what my services entail and that you understand my rules. I do not have to serve you if I do not want to, or if it breaks these rules.

❗ My cases will always have me responding to at least one post with a reblog to it. If you see my name in an ask but no reblog within 24 hours, that's probably not me. Make me aware if you see this sort of behavior of an impersonator, and do not immediately jump to report them or something as it may actually be me. ❗

Do not use my services to harass other people. If you want to start a case in lighthearted fun, feel free to contact me. If you try to use me to start drama, then you should leave before I make you.

I will not provide my services for blogs that are considered very NSFW. If a blog you want to ask things about contains things you would not show to a child or your parents, do not ask me to help you with it. Use common sense, to put it simply. Blood/violence is alright with me, it's mostly nudity or inappropriate scenery that I'm worried about. If you're on the fence about whether it's safe enough for my services or not, just ask me directly and I'll check for you.

I simply want to help people who have trouble asking people who run interesting ask blogs that they want to interact with. You do not have to pay a fee for my services, this is entirely free as a normal ask is.

This is how to use my service;

Send me an ask or a direct message. You can choose to keep yourself anonymous in an ask, or make yourself known to me. This will be completely confidential between the two of us, I will not leak your username in any way, shape, or form unless specified. I will not accept introduction media asks, due to me introducing myself anonymously without media. Afterwards, once I've reblogged their post and sparked their interest, if you have an image you want them to see, tell me.

Say what you want me to tell them. I will give you an idea of what I may say in response to it, and we can go over it a bit before I ask anyone anything. If you want to show someone fanart but are too afraid to do it yourself, I can handle situations like that as well.

I get on the case, you sit back and feel good for getting something off your chest.

Example of my process:

Let's say you want to ask a really interesting roleplaying account something. We'll use @bernard-posting as an example. Their account is about roleplaying the character Bernard from Pikmin 4. He wears sunglasses all the time, so let's say you want to ask them about how many sunglasses Bernard owns, or if he just keeps wearing the same pair every day. You would come to me via asks or DMs (it would be easier to plan out with DIRECT MESSAGES, but if you just have something simple that doesn't need planning then you can just shoot me an ask), tell me what you want to know, and I'll do my thing and ask them. If we need to use force to answer the question, I can be persistent and roleplay along. I know how to play the "bad cop", and I know most characters would prefer to answer a question over obtaining mild seasonal allergies or something along those lines. Unless you're Doctor Jekyll or something...

...and that's it, I suppose. You understand it, I'd assume. If not, you may ask me to clarify things anonymously in my askbox, so others can benefit as well. So...I'll see you in my next case, perhaps.

[goldstargloww]

hi :D i'm gold, just a random blob you encountered on the internet :>

this blog used to be @starglowwos (our collective blog), but seeing as this is my account's main blog and mainly i use it, i've decided to move @starglowwos to a sideblog. also, here's all my links!

i use they/vae/void/ender/it pronouns, among others, but if you need to, just they/it is fine! i enjoy variation but no need to go out of your way to do so :>

i'm neurodivergent, queer, plural, and alterhuman, and a lot more (and if you don't know what some of those mean, don't worry about it! feel free to ask tho)

this is a blog for whatever i feel like talking about, really, which as of now tends to be mcyt and isat! my current special interest is the life series/traffic lives im pretty sure lmao, and i'm hyperfixated on in stars and time. as for mcyt, i very much enjoy the life series, hermitcraft, rats smp, pirates smp, and probably some other stuff.

speaking of fandom things, i do in fact do fanart! if any creators see my stuff, (thinking mcyt specifically) feel free to name drop or show my stuff on stream :D (keep in mind this blog isn't necessarily pg)

i do a lot of art in general! here's my ao3 and artfight if you're curious. also, reminder that nothing i make is ever okay to use to train AI models, prompt AI models, create NFTs with, or anything similar.

other than that, i enjoy liomogai stuff and i'm tangentially in the warrior cats fandom, and i very much enjoy omori! i'll try to remember to tag that stuff seeing as its a horror game

i make emojis over at @emojistargloww, all my art gets reblogged to @artstargloww, and i do liomogai things at @liomstargloww. i also run @isat-emoji-archive and help run @mcyt-emoji-archive!

i'd also like to say go check out my mallowfriends they're very cool :> @thecardinalcoven @milo-handsoftime

more detail in things under the cut :D

interacting with me

here's some notes on interacting with me, if you find that helpful!

dms are always fine! just explain why you're dming me instead of just saying "hi" or something

feel free to @ me pretty much anywhere!

when it comes to tone tags, i essentially mirror your usage. if they help you, go ahead and use em! if you want me to use em, go ahead and ask! if i'm not sure, i'll usually use the common ones like /j /srs /gen /lh, but otherwise i'll just clarify what i mean :>

squicks, warnings, and censoring

i don't really have many common triggers, so don't worry about triggering me - i do prefer warnings though in some situations!

note that this list does not contain anything that seriously would trigger me. it's dangerous to give that information out and i am aware. don't worry about accidentally triggering me, and don't purposefully try to do so.

warning that i will be talking about common triggers and squicks here!

common things like bugs and other small animals like snails don't bother me

flashes and eyestrain don't need censoring for the most part, but if it's a flashy thing (especially if it autoplays), warnings would be nice

i do need volume warnings though, please warn me for volume ^^

horror generally doesn't need any warning with me, except for maybe jumpscares and realistic horror, if you'd like.

things like suicide and self harm generally don't need censoring, but i don't mind a warning

if you're talking to a headmate of mine who you know may be triggered by something, it's usually a good idea to at least warn for that, just in case

i appreciate warnings for mentions/talk of removal of devices and restrictions on them (like screen time limits or phone lockers)

swearing and the like is completely fine by me ^^

images, videos, and other media

for videos, a video description would be really helpful for me! there's a lot of times that i can't watch videos in posts (clips, for an example—longer youtube videos i can make time for) and video descriptions are really helpful for me! to anyone who does this, thank you :>

image descriptions are also helpful, especially for text in an image. i can see the image fine under normal circumstances, but especially for things that might be hard to visually understand or to get without context, they can help a lot

audio descriptions of audio files could also be helpful (like, if talking, a transcript would be helpful for me as a form of captions—but if it's just music or something, there's no need)

oh, and for me, there's no need to make them entirely screenreader compatible as i don't use a screenreader, but it is good practice to regardless for those who do and for general accessibility :>

i try to do all of these things, but things like image ids are hard for me sometimes. i do video transcripts (with small descriptions of what's happening if needed for context) and audio transcripts fine though, for the most part! if you want to help me with accessibility on any of my posts, feel free to do so, i'd appreciate it ^^ if you do i'll probably add it to the original post :>

tagging system

my tagging system is a bit of a mess lmao, but here's the system ill try to be using

c:/sgos - any post by me or the brain beings

c:/sgos/user/[name] - a post by [name] (one of the brain beings—most things will be from me, gold), or intended for them if it's a reblog

c:/sgos/groups/[name] - anything for or by a group of brain beings

c:/sgos/talking - probably me just ranting honestly. probably about traffic lives

c:/sgos/creations/art - any art by me

c:/sgos/creations/animatic - animatics i've made

c:/sgos/creations/apmv - AMVs/PMVs i've made

c:/sgos/creations/writing - if i happen to post any writing, it'll be tagged as this

c:/sgos/creations/commissions - anything i was commissioned to make (i have commissions btw! dm me for info!)

c:/sgos/creations/skins - minecraft skins i've made

c:/sgos/creations/coding - code i've made

c:/sgos/creations/emote - emotes over at @emojistargloww

c:/sgos/creations/term - terms over at @liomstargloww

c:/sgos/creations/flag - flags over at @liomstargloww

c:/sgos/creations/other - any other creations i dont have a tag for

c:/sgos/projects/[name] - a project, such as an animatic/amv/pmv, that i'm working on

c:/sgos/quotes - i collect silly/weird quotes. they go here

c:/sgos/clips - stuff i've clipped

c:/sgos/asks - asks i've answered

c:/sgos/my asks - me reblogging things i've asked/requested

c:/sgos/saved - things i've saved for myself

c:/sgos/saved/btgbr - things saved for characterization reasoning, usually :>

more serious stuff - stuff that's more serious that you might want to filter out in case you don't wanna see it right now

heavier stuff - same as last one but for stuff that's more emotionally heavy

here's how i do warnings

cw [x] - warning for [x] (ex: cw eyestrain) (i don't use tw)

[x] spoilers - warning for spoilers for [x] (ex: limited life spoilers)

[x] slur - warning for [x] slur (ex: f slur)

[x] word - warning for [x] word (ex: fr word)

[x]phobia warning - warning for [x]phobia (ex: trypophobia warning)

eyestrain - eyestrain warning

flash warning - warning for flashing or fast moving visuals

paranoia trigger - warning for something that might trigger paranoia

[thesomewhatliterateaxolotl]

Hi!! Question, since you do a lot of IDs (image descriptions) do you have any resources or tips for someone who wants to start writing them as well? What to pay special attention to, what is irrelevant, checklists etc?

Hi Anon!! This made me so happy to see. I'm glad you're interested in writing ID's!!

It's definitely not as overwhelming as it may seem. I will say I'm still learning myself, but here's my process. I boiled down my steps into a basic checklist to get you started:

Describe the category of image (digital/traditional art, photo, social media screenshot, etc.), unless it's already stated in the post.

Next, the summary. Pretend you're explaining the image to a friend (since that's pretty much the goal). You'll find yourself naturally starting out with the broadest/most obvious things. If it's a drawing or a photo, for example, that'll be the main subject[s] and whatever they're doing: "[Character] holds a bouquet of roses." "A fluffy cat blinks at the camera." OneLook Reverse Dictionary is your friend if you can't find the word for an action or pose.

Then, once you have your super basic one-to-two sentences, you can start on the details. When I'm low on energy or time, I stick to describing the most punchy details of the image: "A heart-shaped frame surrounds the characters. The piece uses pinks and reds." I also found this site for identifying drawing styles. For art, pay attention to color (or lack thereof), presence/absence of line art, and shading. For photos, describe style, mood, and color if you think it's relevant. It might be for artistic photography, not so much for a news article or a meme.*

There are different ways to demarcate your ID. You've probably seen that I use brackets around the description ( [ ] ) and sometimes a slash ( / ) right before writing "end ID." I've heard these aren't required, but lots of people prefer the visual distinction.

Use plain text (normal-sized font, no fancy formatting). You'd think it'd go without saying, but I've seen far too many people write their ID's in tiny font. Bold text at the beginning and end is fine, but that's about it.

Some subjective language is fine for describing mood (melancholy, cheerful, etc.), but don't overdo it. Don't add jokes that aren't in the image itself.

*For fictional characters, I usually only describe their outfits and features if they deviate from canon. For real people, I use my judgement on whether describing these details is relevant: Without those details, would they miss out on something important?

As for what's irrelevant, people have different preferences. I've heard from some blind and low vision people that they prefer really straightforward descriptions, while others prefer the detailed ones because they give them an equal or equivalent experience to what a sighted person would have.

I try to strike a balance, writing shorter descriptions for memes/informational images and longer ones for art. Active voice can help simplify your ID, though this isn't a strict rule.

What I have almost universally heard, though, is this: Even the most basic ID is better than none. If all you can do is a quick one-sentence description, that's ok! You've still opened up a previously inaccessible image to a new audience.

Now for resources:

Image Desc. Guidelines - This helped me out a lot when I started out!

Writing Image Descriptions

Giant Google Doc for Describing Memes

Resource for Video Desc. (I'm still learning how to improve my VD's myself)

Lastly, I know not everyone likes joining discord servers to ask questions, but The People's Accessibility Server is a great resource. (I removed the link because I couldn't find a way to hide my discord # from the invite, and I don't want to just put it out there, but here's this invite via keplercryptid's blog.) You can ask for advice, for someone to review your ID's, or even for someone to write them for you. You can DM me as well if you're comfortable with that.

I hope this is a good starting point for you, anon!! Best of luck <3

[pathos-logical]

[ID: an animated GIF that reads "Tumblr 2022 My Year In Review", and shows a variety of moving stickers including the anon profile picture, grabs, stars, hearts, the plinko horse, the reblog symbol, and the tumblr symbol. It looks like a page out of highschool sketchbook. End ID.] (ID by @thetragicallynerdy <3)

I posted 7,770 times in 2022

118 posts created (2%)

7,652 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tmoblrina

@pathos-logical

@carfuckerlynch

@generic-internet-name

@three-magpies-in-a-trenchcoat

I tagged 6,482 of my posts in 2022

Only 17% of my posts had no tags

#described - 2,771 posts

#that's my queue - 1,032 posts

#described by me - 809 posts

#storytime - 675 posts

#unreality - 273 posts

#tumblr - 263 posts

#to watch later - 242 posts

#mutualsposting - 226 posts

#lovecore - 213 posts

#tropes - 184 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#i didn't see a post like this earlier and didn't have time to say it myself but happy diwali to all who celebrate i love you 💜🪔🌟🕯💛

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

who needs IDs, how do they help and why are they used? i've always been curious, i mean no harm by asking, so sorry if this is rude

Not rude at all anon, I'm so glad you asked!! Image descriptions are accessibility aids for vision-impaired folks and anyone who may have issues parsing an image (ex: an autistic person unable to comprehend a visually busy art piece). For people who can't see an image for any reason, IDs provide a way to understand what's on screen, whether it's a meme or tweet or art. For example, a blind person using a screen reader (a device that reads text out loud) wouldn't know what an undescribed all-image post was talking about, but with an ID they could know it's a tweet and then a meme mocking it

IDs can look abstruse and intimidating when you're unfamiliar with them, but I promise they're not! The simplest step to making your blog more accessible is scanning the notes of a post to find a comment with an ID and reblogging that version of the post instead! If you're interested in learning how to write your own IDs, I really love this post as a resource, plus the amazing People's Accessibility Server if you have questions or want to request descriptions! I'd also like to plug my pinned post, which has a link to a doc with templates for a ton of memes so you can describe posts yourself!

I hope this wasn't too much text and that your question was answered clearly, anon! Please feel free to go through my "image descriptions" and "accessibility" tags for more info!

115 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

#4

Copying tags in accessible ways on mobile

(Large text: Copying tags in accessible ways on mobile)

People screenshot tags all the time, whether to share a funny joke or add important commentary, but they often don't realize that this is inaccessible to vision-impaired people and many others. This is a problem because a lot of people primarily use Tumblr on the mobile app, which doesn't let you interact with tags at all unless you screenshot them. However, accessibility is always worth the extra time and effort you can spare, so here are some ways for you to easily copy tags without spending too much of either!

Image-to-text softwares

(Large text: Image-to-text softwares)

If you simply must screenshot those tags, you can still convert them back into usable text! There are plenty of easy-to-use websites that allow you to take any downloaded image and extract the text from them. I prefer onlineocr.net, but the Google Translate app has the same feature! All you need to do is input the image and hit the button, and it'll spit out the text for you to copy. This method is fantastic for images with lots of text, not to mention it's easy to do and generally accurate, and I use it all the time to great effect!

Going to browser

(Large text: Going to browser)

If you're on mobile, it's probably a safe bet to say that your phone also has a browser app. If so, all you need to do to copy the tags from a post is copy the link of said post into a browser and then copy the tags from there. This method can mean extra formatting, since hashtags and links won't copy over, but it's relatively low-effort to do and doesn't take long at all!

Going on PC

(Large text: Going on PC)

If you're on mobile, you can also consider saving the post with desired tags to your drafts. This means you can easily access it on another device, aka a computer, and copy the tags there! Copying tags on desktop is possibly the easiest way to do it, since all you need to do is highlight the text and paste it later- it'll even save the link formatting when you do! The only extra step you might have to do is add spaces between the tags, since they'll automatically come smushed together and only separated by hashtags. This method might mean you take a little longer to reblog the tags, but it is very much worth it to make the post accessible to all!

Going forth

(Large text: Going forth)

These methods are a smidgen more effort than just screenshotting or prev tagging, but I don't think it's a bad tradeoff at all! I hope this can provide quick and easy ways for everyone to get more used to thinking more conscientiously about accessibility. And these aren't your only options- alt text helps people who use screenreaders, and you should always add an image description below screenshots if you're going to add them. Hope this helps!

TL;DR: Instead of screenshotting tags, which makes them inaccessible, other options are: using image-to-text software, copying the tags on a mobile browser, or copying them on desktop Tumblr.

290 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

#3

Gif makers will be like "how can I fit as many inaccessible font options as exist on planet earth into one three-word movie title"

413 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

#2

How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)

Plain text: How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)

This is a list aimed mostly at helping people who already write IDs; for guides at learning how to do them yourself, check my accessibility and image description tags! I write this with close to two years of experience with IDs and chronic pain :)

Get used to writing some IDs by using both your phone and your computer, if you can! I find it easier to type long-form on my laptop, so I set up videos and long comics on my phone, which I then prop up against my laptop screen so I can easily reference the post without constantly scrolling or turning my head

I will never stop plugging onlineocr.net. I use it to ID six-word tags, screenshots of posts, and even comic dialogue! On that last note, convertcase.net can convert text between all-caps, lowercase, sentence case, and title case, which is super helpful

Limit the number of drafts/posts-to-be-described you save. No, seriously. I never go above 10 undescribed drafts on any of my four blogs. It doesn’t have to be that low, but this has done wonders (italics: wonders) for my productivity and willingness to write IDs. If I ever get above that limit, even if it’s two or three more, I immediately either describe the lowest-effort post or purge some, and if I can't do that then I stop saving things to drafts no matter what. No exceptions! Sticking to this will make your life so much easier and less stressful

My pinned post has a link to a community doc of meme description templates!

Ask! For! Help! Please welcome to the stage the People’s Accessibility Server! It’s full of lovely people and organized into channels where you can request/volunteer descriptions and ask/answer questions

I make great use of voice-to-text and glide typing on my phone to save my hands some effort!

Something is always better than nothing!!! A short two-sentence or one-sentence ID is better than no ID at all. Take it easy :)

If you feel guilty about being unable to reblog amazing but undescribed art, try getting into the habit of replying to OP’s post to let them know you liked it! This makes me feel less pressured to ID absolutely everything I see

I frequently find myself looking at pieces of art which feel like they need to be considered for a bit before I can write an ID for them, and those usually get thrown into drafts, where the dread for writing a comprehensive ID just builds. Don’t do that! Instead, try just staying in the reblog field for a bit and focus on the most relevant aspects of the piece. Marinate on them for a little; don’t rush, but don’t spend more than a handful of seconds either. I find after that the art becomes way easier to describe than it initially seemed!

On that note, look for shortcuts that make IDs less taxing for you to do! For example, I only ever describe clothes in art if they're relevant to the piece; not doing that every time saves a lot of time and energy for me personally

Building off of that, consider excusing yourself from a particular kind of ID if you want to. Give yourself a free pass for 4chan posts, or fanart by an artist who does really good but really complex comics, whatever. Let it be someone else's responsibility and feel twice as proud about the work that you can now allot more energy to!

As always, make an effort to find and follow fellow describers! It’s always encouraging to get described posts on your dash, and I find that sometimes I'm happier to ID an undescribed post when the person who put it on my dash is a friend who tagged it with "no ID"

TL;DR: To make ID-writing less stressful and more low-effort, use different devices and software like onlineocr.net and voice-to-text, limit the amount of work you expect yourself to do, and reach out to artists and other describers!

442 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

[ID: A cropped screenshot of two crabs on the tumblr dashboard. They are right next to each other and both say “love <3.” End ID]

PEACE AND LOVE ON PLANET EARTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Plain text: Peace and love on planet earth!!!!)

821 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr Year in Review 2022 ->

[fuzzy-robot]

I love this post! If I may, I also wanted to add something on--

ACCESSIBILITY!

It's a personal webdev passion of mine and it's been frustrating seeing a lot of newer websites adopting fancier or more mobile-focused design at the cost of accessibility to a wider userbase. Whether you're new to web design or not, making sites more universally user-friendly is pretty simple imo!

Users To Consider:

Visually impaired people

Hard-of-hearing people

Neurodivergent people

People who don't navigate solely by visual screen plus mouse or touchscreen device (e.g. keyboard-only users, other assistive technology users)

People with older/less powerful devices or poor internet service

And many more!

Overview!

Current accessibility principles can be summed up with the POUR acronym: content should be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

Perceivable: content is easy for the user to see or hear. One example of this is that images/video/audio should have alt text or transcripts where applicable. For sighted users, text and backgrounds should have enough contrast to be readable (more on that below) and you shouldn't alter the site in a way that makes visually impaired people unable to enlarge text.

Operable: the user should be able to navigate the page by mouse/touchscreen/keyboard--any simple HTML site will have basic keyboard navigation options provided by the browser, just be mindful of whether adding advanced features could alter that. Also, if your navigation buttons are images, make sure to use alt text or provide an alternative!

Understandable: both the content and controls should be understandable and easy to read. This means that as well as being Perceivable, they should be organized consistently and placed on the same part of the page. Also consider making plaintext links more obvious with your color choice and/or formatting.

Robust: content should work with current and future technologies. This means it can be accessed by different browsers and operating systems, but most importantly for this level of design, it means being accessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies!

QUICK TIPS!!

Use alt text!!! Here's a w3schools page showing where you put alt text in the html code, and here is a w3c decision-tree on where and how to use alt text. ABSOLUTELY use it if you're using images as links!!

Color usage! When picking out background/text/link colors, check the color contrasts here or here to see how well they match up to the W3C's accessibility guidelines! -Write meaningful link text! Here is one guide on that, including stuff like keeping links descriptive for screen readers, not making urls into link texts, and keeping them short and informative

In-Depth Guidelines

WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) is a site with a ton of content on different aspects of web accessibility. Here is a direct link to a page of their most-used tools and guides.

Right here is a nice, simple rundown of universal design when it comes to web accessibility. The tone is a bit more academic but I think it's a nice overview.

Much more in-depth is W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines document! It's long and not necessarily exciting, but it's comprehensive AND has a nicely organized and linked table of contents that can lead you to suggestions for improving any features you're considering, meaning you can read the whole thing or just jump around to relevant or interesting parts.

I don't think I followed all of these tips in my own blog HTML or even the body of this post (oops) because I put it together on the fly, but if you can, I think these are all principles that are good to keep in mind🌟

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

[vulpiano]

Music Video Making-Of: Brevyn – “Moonbow”

https://vimeo.com/305635092

After an enforced hiatus due to my MacBook dying with no hope of recovery, I was of course delighted to resume video work when I was back up and running again with a new laptop a few months later. I had begun a music video in August 2018 for Brevyn’s “Moonbow” from the Liquid Sunlight EP on Vulpiano Records and finished it in December 2018.

Brevyn, also known as dreamfortress on Rate Your Music and moonsandmelodies on their Tumblr music blog, is a talented electronic artist and a resourceful listener, possessing a wealth of knowledge about all manner of music, including library music and new age. After exchanging conversations on RYM and delighting in their 8tracks mixes, Brevyn released Liquid Sunlight on my netlabel (with bonus tracks!). The imagery of the album was so clear – the ocean, colors, times of day – that the ideas necessary for a corresponding music video came to mind readily.

My workflow for creating a music video that uses outside source material is usually like this:

The artist sends me any reference images, videos, symbols, or typography that I should have in mind when creating the video. Brevyn was great about telling me just what they hand in mind throughout the process:

I feel the bluer shot of the ocean could fit more with a tint of another color e.g. a darker orange to fit the orangeish shots..do you think with some of the clips, e.g. ocean-then-moon, you could have them fade into the next? – As i said, the images already go very good together, but I think blending them in that sort of way would make it even better. I was thinking of the kind of subtler distortion they have in some vhs-inspired images / videos.

I create a Google Doc to place all of this reference material in, as well as the resources I locate or create myself and any other feedback the artist gives me on draft versions of the video so that I have everything in one place

In the Google Doc, I write out some keywords associated with what I should be looking for (example: moon, sunset, tide) to keep in mind when I’m searching

I search on Creative Commons repositories such as Vimeo and Pixabay for any images or videos that I would be allowed to utilize in the music video. CC-BY (attribution) or CC0 / public domain are ideal; I am free to use these assets in a video legally and I do not have to write the creator asking for permission. I feel like it is important to gather more clips than you think you’ll need, but don’t five too far down the rabbit hole of clicking around for interesting clips, tempting as it is, or you won’t get around to making the video!

I paste all the links I find in the above in the document and download any that I am thinking about using. I mark in bold the ones that make it in the final video and note the title and author information so I will have the accurate details for crediting appropriately within the video and in the body of the video’s description.

I keep everything together (inspirational images, font, videos I may use and will use) in one folder on the desktop and backed up on an external drive (I recommend LaCie).

Final Cut Pro is my video editor of choice. I personally find it much more intuitive than Adobe Premiere, even though I use Adobe in many other ways (such as organizing all of my photos in Lightroom and the ever-useful Photoshop for creating graphics).

The next part is a bit trickier to describe: how does one actually make the music video? This is where listening through the track several times and picturing the scene unfolding in your mind comes in handy, along with your own personal techniques. It is important not to over-think it and begin to work; you can always adjust everything later. Here, I thought: how can I tell a story about a relationship between the tides, the moon, and the sunset? How should these elements best flow in-and-out? Lay everything down to fill the length of the song, chop clips up, see what works best. I think it is important to be light on effects the first go-around so that you can hear from the artist what they want to see happen next.

After the initial draft, I then went ahead and made adjustments according to comments from the artist and applied color matching and correction where necessary to give the clips from various sources a unified feel. One of the desired changes was to add VHS effects. I managed to find an amazing and heavily customizable free plugin for FCPX that helped me to achieve just that. This moon phases font filtered through the familiar coral / sunset color throughout the piece also helped to set the tone. I created another draft, got further feedback of other areas where the transitions were a bit too abrupt, and worked until the final piece was complete.

When the video is all finished, I upload it to Vimeo and YouTube and also back up all the associated files on a cloud service as well. I can’t stress how important it is for all video editors to always have back-ups in one or two places of everything they’re working on or finished with, as well as any of your files period! Before my laptop died a few months ago, I had done a back-up of everything two weeks before. As a result, I lost almost no important data. Get into the habit now if you don’t already and it will become second-nature.

There are other approaches I use when the video I make includes material I’ve shot myself, footage generated or manipulated with Processing, or footage from Second Life, but I will hopefully cover these processes in a future post. I hope you found this informative – feel free to comment with any questions or thoughts below.

[ashers-transition]

Hello! My name is Asher, my pronouns are he/him, I'm 23, and this is my transition blog! I am a nonbinary trans man and will be taking masculinizing hormones (testosterone/T).

Due to the nature of this blog being informational, I do not have a formal DNI. That being said, I support all minorities and good faith identities, and I will be blocking anyone who can't behave themself.

In the interest of not clogging up too much space, I'm going to add a read more link. Please click for more info!

So, why have I started this blog when there are already so many people who have done the same thing? Well, besides wanting to document my transition for myself, to see my own progress, I also have a few things going on that have the potential to affect my transition. (Besides, even if I didn't, if we have more examples of people's transitions, we get a better idea of the different ways someone's transition can go)!

Age: I'm 23! While that definitely isn't old, it's a bit older than people usually start their medical transitions (at least as far as the common trans narrative goes).

Disability: I have hypermobile Ehler's Danlos syndrome (hEDS or EDS), fibromyalgia (fibro), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME).

Mental Health: I have borderline personality disorder (BPD), as well as some other, less relevant stuff.

I want to be able to share my experiences with how these conditions affect my transition (and vice versa) to hopefully provide that information to people with the same (or similar) conditions who are also looking to transition. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have! (I may not answer some if they're a bit too personal for my own comfort, but I promise no ill will will go against you for asking as long as you do so respectfully)!

Disclaimers:

First of all, I am not a medical professional! I can talk about my personal medical transition and my personal experience with my disabilities, but I am not qualified to give any medical advice. Please talk to your doctors if you have any medical questions!

Second, I can only speak from my own experiences in general. There are many demographics I don't fit into and many experiences I will never have or understand. (Even if you check all the same boxes as me, our experiences still won't be the same)! If you have a blog about your own unique experiences with the intersection of your demographics and your transition, please reach out! I'd love to make a list here to share other people's experiences as well.

Accessibility: I would like to make this blog as accessible as possible! That being said, I can't know or meet everyone's accessibility needs, in part due to not being able to know everyone's accessibility needs, and in part due to some limitations that my own accessibility needs cause. If you have an accessibility need that is not being met on this blog, please let me know and I will do the best to implement it.

Regarding specifically image and video descriptions, I have ADHD and autism, both of which can make it very difficult to determine what information is important and what information isn't. I will do my best to provide image and video descriptions, but if you notice any improvements that can be made let me know and I will revise them!

[yournextflame]

Western fandom views Golden Order Greatsword as an evidence that Radagon never loved Renalla and cynically reforged her wedding gift. But during my visits to the Japanese side of community I noticed that native speakers are calling this sword a copy and their interpretation of what happened between Radagon and Rennala is very different from EN. In my attempt to understand why there is such massive discrepancy of opinion between anglosphere and JP fandom I decided to check the description.

Telltale signs betray that this was once the greatsword bequeathed to him by his first wife, Rennala

そこには、最初の妻レナラから贈られた 大剣の面影があるという

面影 - has many meanings; modern ones such as vestige, traces, remnants, but also more archaic - in a memory of someone, reminder, looks, likeness.

Depends on the reading of "omokage" 面影 description of the Golden Order Greatsword can have two opposite interpretations: - Radagon didn't cared about about Rennala anymore and reforged her gift (Golden Order Greatsword bears traces of Moonlight Greatsword) - Radagon still loved Rennala and forged his new sword in the image of her gift (Golden Order Greatsword bears likeness of Moonlight Greatsword)

Official translation went with the first variant, which is the most popular reading of 面影. But Elden Ring often favors archaic Japanese over modern language, a good example of this case is a famous Greattree fiasco. Translators slept on 樹根 "roots" being an ancient term used in old times when Japan adapted Chinese hànzì, and created a magic tree, which ruined Western lore arena is never discussed by native speakers or mentioned at all. When it comes to difficult translation my golden rule is go to Japanese online spaces and find out what they think.

Japanese twitter, what is your wisdom?

However, some people think that Radagon reforged Rennala's gift:

Well, I get it right and description is supposed to be vague as even native speakers are questioning what does it mean:

As you can see there is no consensus, majority of tweets I read were saying that the Golden Order Greatsword is a copy, not a reforged Moonlight Greatsword, but not everyone is so optimistic.

I'm not going to call description of the Golden Order Greatsword a mistranslation as even native speakers don't have a common interpretation of it, but I'm disappointed that EN missed the duality of 面影 and went with the most straightforward variant, missing original deeper meaning.

This sword is one of the greatest mysteries of Elden Ring lore to me as my blog started with investigation of Cave of the Forlorn, and I wonder if we will see Greatsword of Full Moon in DLC (if there will be any).

P.S. I've been already talking about many interesting details surrounding Golden Order Greatsword, but this time I want to pay attention to the color. According to the description "greatsword made of light, modeled after the Elden Ring itself" it is supposed to symbolize the Elden Ring, but I've found it interesting that a sybbol of Elden Ring in Radagon's interpretation has a very noticeable red tint.

The red tinge in the gold coat mirrors the primordial matter that became the Erdtree. The color of homeward yearning

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 16/6

The best thing about categories like Sburb Titles is that once you have a big enough sample size of Person/Category mappings, you can extrapolate their traits to any character you like. 

Example: I got an ask a while back asking whether I have any Titles for my own OCs, and to be totally honest I can’t stop thinking about it

Oh, that is awesome. I’m bookmarking that for reference, when I’ve finished the comic. Biology is not my strongest suit, but I do find it fascinating, and speculative biology is my jam. 

It’s a balancing act, trying to make a quirk both unique and readable. i thought about a capitalization quirk WHERE i only capitalize common programmINg keywORds, but it looks kind of funky, and I wasn’t sure how to define what keywords to include. 

@capribornio​ submitted: Part 1! Terrible memes to help you cope with what just happened.

Part 2! (Dunno why tumblr wouldn't let me submit you the two images at once, but.)

jettison to the moon drop it on those stupid pawns bye bye kids, you're gonna die now your session's dead and gone

That was made by abysswarlock! Their blog is linked below the main links in my bio.  It’s great, isn’t it? Really makes the Land come to life. 

Man, I’m really mad I missed the Club Penguin craze, because if I’d played it, I would absolutely have answered this ask with penguin designs for each of the kids. 

Classic Tumblr. When you edit you blog description in the appearance editor, it actually scrubs all the HTML you added, and replaces it with plaintext. To update your description properly, you need to do it in the theme editor. 

I fixed the blog description on desktop, but I don’t think it ever worked on mobile, since tags generally don’t work properly on the app. I think it should work if you access the blog through say, Firefox, rather than the app itself? 

So do I!!!

That’s one of my favorite anime tropes, and it’s vary Homestuck-friendly, considering how many characters are bespectacled. I’m glad that my ‘sona is continuing this proud tradition. 

Thank you!  I think a big part of it is just that Homestuck happens to deal with stuff I’m really into. I love time travel and alt-self/identity shenanigans, so I was already looking at the Paradox Clone system from every angle even before the Veil. Once that cursor targeted Nanna, a lot of things immediately clicked into place. 

I didn’t see the paired tubes coming, though. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. 

Maid! That was the first class I chose for myself, because I liked the connotations around ‘organizing’. 

I’m planning on doing a bunch of Title tests over the weekend. The Official Sally Classpect will be an open question for a long time, but I am interested in how much the various tests will agree. 

We’ve already talked a bit about it on the blog, but Homestuck is a kind of meta story on a lot of levels. 

We saw it with the reader suggestions at first, but there are other things too, like Hussie’s narration interacting with WV. Is that ‘canon’, per se? Much to think about...

[ sent on the 12th! - Cat ] 

Happy belated birthday Carcino ‘Cancer’ Geneticist! May this year bless you with Grist, Boondollars and a successfully salvaged Sburb session!

Honestly!!! 

Hussie is very good at turning on the waterworks. It doesn’t happen much in Homestuck, but when it does, it hits hard. 

True, true. But that was just John’s opinion - now Hussie’s narration is saying she sucks!

These guys really have been great recently. It’s like Hussie has spent a while giving them improvised character traits based on reader commands, and now that their personalities are fully established, they’re actually getting full arcs with awesome moments of development. 

I honestly can’t wait to see what the Windswept Questant’s real plan is. She’s abdicated to PM, and seems to be putting a team together. Did she know WV had the Ring all along? What’s up next? 

[utilitycaster]

On character design, what are your thoughts on there being official art? Not the art itself, though if you have thoughts please share, but for example, my own opinion is that while it's a good tool and help for cosplay and nice as a base for artists to use when drawing, I feel like it stifles a lot of creativity. When you have a "correct" template to follow it's so much rarer to see any designs that don't match up, and if they do they easily fall into samey stuff or stereotypes like characters that are infantilised being chubby or having big round glasses (as was mentioned with Imogen and Jester). I think it'd be really cool to see what all the talented artists in this fandom would do with character design if there wasn't anything but descriptions as to what characters looked like (I've seen one person do that and it's easily some of my favourite c3 art out there). With official art it just sort of feels like every piece of fanart ends up being a bit of a dtiys of the characters. Imagine how many cool robot designs of FCG there'd be for example, since that is a race that really lends itself to unique designs as it doesn't follow the humanoid forms everyone else has. I think it'd also lend itself more to small variations that end up happening during sessions, like imogen being blue or bald. And while I'm not sure if she started wearing them, Fearne got those glasses of charming people and I don't think I've seen any art of her wearing any yet

This is going to sound pretty harsh, but: I like having official art, and I like seeing other people's interpretations within the bounds of that art but a lot of "interpretations" go into the realm of "literally an OC" and often in ways that are like...actively worse. I've seen multiple people try to tone down Ashton's obnoxious outfit or draw his hair as regular hair rather than purple crystal and it's like "literally just make your own character at this point, who is this bargain-basement imitator that you captioned with Ashton's name."

Like...I recognize this sounds rich coming from me, a person who can just about draw a stick figure, but if someone wants to draw creative aeormatons...no one is stopping them, but at the same time, FCG is a yellow robot with a sort of cylindrical head and big blue glassy eyes, with an image of some blades of grass on their chest, and that's what they look like and if you draw something else I'm just like "maybe make an original character then? If you say it's Aeormaton concept art you can even still tag it as Critical Role in good faith."

It's also worth noting: I don't reblog a ton of NADDPod or TAZ art, but those are both fandoms that by and large haven't had very prominent official art (at least not until TAZ Balance's graphic novels). The following two things have happened pretty often:

The art still is largely all very much the same - which, I should point out, I don't mind! I mind when people all do the same thing and I think that thing sucks, but like, you can look at my blog and see tons of reblogs of renditions of Imogen looking largely the same throughout (ie, very similar to the official depiction), but they're interesting and enjoyable for reasons of composition and art style. I have a stronger musical background than visual arts, and the idea with music(unless you're doing like, improvisational jazz) is that you add your own self-expression through the interpretation, but you are still largely hitting the same notes as anyone else, and I don't think that's a bad thing! I think it shows judgment and talent to work within parameters in a way that is still unique to you. Toddlers can easily scribble outside the box and frequently do. It takes some skill to actually add something inside the box that makes people go "oh hey I never saw the box that way."

People get, shall we say, self-righteous and terrible. I think representation in art is important, but this is where you get headcanon depictions being treated as canon, and then, if canon art comes out later and conflicts with that hc depiction, a certain segment of people start bringing out the accusations of bigotry and the creators are like "literally I was just hanging out". I've mentioned how absolutely bugfuck people got about Taako having blue-green skin. I also love NADDPod but people who complained about the lack of diversity in CR often touted NADDPod, a show that is also entirely made up of cis white people over 30, as some shining unproblematic example; at least part of this was, in my opinion, because there was no official depiction of the characters and therefore people felt more validated in their headcanon depictions - there isn't, actually, any more representation. (This is not the only reason why this happened, nor should "fandoms having some obnoxious people in them" be a reason for creators to do anything ever, but, on a practical level...having official fan art is my preference).

I guess the tl;dr is: if you truly want to let your creativity roam free...why have you chosen the medium of "art based on an existing work." I say this as someone who writes fanfic - it's great! It's fun! Also if I wanted to write a story that deviates significantly from how the characters are depicted in that work, I would write original fiction rather than a fan work.

[blindbeta]

Something I frequently see in atla fanfic is Toph rolling her eyes and other characters being surprised she can do that. (“Who taught her that?” Is a very common sentence.) I wonder if this is realistic? Obviously, with some forms of blindness, rolling your eyes is no problem. But would Toph, blind from birth, be able to roll her eyes? I’m sorry if this question is hyper-specific. I see this trope in at least half of all fics with Toph in them. (Thanks for your amazing blog and all you do.)

I welcome hyper-specific questions here! Especially about A:TLA and Toph, where fandom is both a nice break from ableism and a very ableist place.

With the resurgence of Avatar, there were an agonizing amount of comments like this online. Although they were more about how unrealistic it was for Toph to have facial expressions, how the animators messed up by having her eyes move, etc. The “Who taught her that?” trope about eye-rolling is simply another manifestation of that.

It is hard to explain my frustration with questions like these, even if no offense is meant. These questions bother me partly because they assume certain things that make it clear they have never met a blind person, nor bothered to research before commenting, endlessly, on what is or is not possible for blind people.

Also, as I explained in this post about myths, even the ignorance behind expectations like these can be harmful. In assuming Toph cannot have facial expressions, a blind person who makes expressions or gestures may be assumed to be faking. This puts a lot of stress on a blind person, who may be refused help, harassed, or even attacked. Plus they are just annoying. In this post, I go over how some of these assumptions carry over into jokes, something the Avatar fandom is also not exempt from.

Jokes are fine. Questions even more so. As long as someone is genuinely asking and not coming from a bad place. For example: “I wonder how Toph learned to make facial expressions as a blind baby” is easier to answer than “OMG Avatar is so unrealistic and ridiculous because Toph, a blind girl, makes the same kinds of expressions as the other characters!”

Facial expressions are instinctual and innate. There are basic expressions that many people can make and understand — with some exceptions — which have evolutionary implications. For example, making a face of disgust could have indicated that something was poisonous. A face of fear could have alerted others to danger. Eye rolling is not quite so useful or ancient, but it has been referenced in older literature as a way to express contempt or rejection.

I would put eye rolling in with the gestures category. By this I mean research shows blind people gesture just like others who speak the same language. Because gestures are culturally specific, they can differ depending on language. Even people who were blind since birth gesture the same way others do. Eye rolling is not much different. No one would need to teach Toph how to roll her eyes, although she probably would have heard about it verbally eventually as she aged, such as when Azula teased her by saying, “And since you can’t see, I should tell you I’m rolling my eyes.”

So the “Who taught her that?” question is not very realistic as far as I’m concerned.

I will say that sometimes people have rapid eye movement and difficulty controlling the muscles in their eyes. Before I had surgery, I would have uncontrollable eye movements in one eye and since I couldn’t see my own eye, I have no idea if rolling my eyes actually looked like it is supposed to. And because I can’t see other people very well, I’m not sure if I’m the best person to give details about this.

But the real issue behind the other characters being surprised Toph can roll her eyes isn’t so much about the ability to do so, so much as just knowing about it. Again, the same question comes up about facial expressions and gestures.

I also want to clarify that the ableism in the Avatar fandom isn’t really about mean words or even rude assumptions. It is the attitudes and beliefs behind these questions. It is a rudimentary understanding of ableism that causes people to claim Katara is ableist so they can hate her, while similtaneously complaining that Katara and Zuko talk about their trauma too much. While simultaneously sharing art and GIFs and videos of Toph without image descriptions. While saying very little about the show’s lack of audio descriptions when it was added to Netflix initially, or even assuming blind people couldn’t or wouldn’t watch the show at all. Not because of a lack of accessibility, but because people simply assume we don’t like television or films.

If you think about these attitudes and beliefs, you start to notice a pattern. One that isn’t only in the Avatar fandom, but it is made all the more frustrating because the show has a popular blind character in it. You would think people would be interested in learning about blindness, but the overwhelming love for Toph sometimes comes across as exploitive without this interest.

That said. Toph is one of my favorite characters and I love that the fandom loves her too. I love fanfics with her in them. I don’t blame one person for not adding an image description to their art, because image descriptions are not as normalized as they should be, and were certainly not normalized years ago. When I talk about ableism in the Avatar fandom, I don’t mean any one person. I mean the wider problem as a whole that has been going on for over a decade. I mean people who have “ableism” in their vocabulary and yet don’t change their ways when someone gently asks them to. Ableism is in our society and fandom, especially those with blind characters, are no exception, despite whatever hopes I might have.

There are absolutely wonderful people in the Avatar fandom. The fandom is improving on reblogging things with image descriptions or adding their own to older posts, especially art of Toph. While I sometimes feel things are stagnant, there are people like you, anon, asking the good questions. I appreciate you and anyone else who is doing the work to learn and also for supporting this blog. While I have some problems with the fandom, there are wonderful people here and progress is being made every day.

If you want help writing Toph, @mimzy-writing-online has an excellent post with advice. I highly recommend fanfic writers read it for a richer story.

So that’s my wishy-washy Avatar post with some slight education thrown in. Thanks for the question, anon!

If any blind people want to chime in about this, feel free.

I hope this helped some.

-BlindBeta