#i just filtered by most popular and downloaded the ones I liked

[cecexoxo]

I’d still like to see the outfits you picked for some of the DC sims. Like you said you love building, I love making sims lol

Took me a while but here's a few of Dick, Babs, Selina, Ivy and Harley

[wrongcaitlyn]

What type of tik toks do you think everyone would post in tyt?

SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS i knew that i had talked about this in a few posts a while ago but its been so long that i can't find it anymorejsdf

anyway just a vague summary even tho i went into more detail on those old videos

nico - rarely uses it, mostly just shows up in random comment sections which always surprises everyone. occasionally he'll be forced to make some promo vids or smth but it's always very halfhearted or joking, think conan gray's tt LMAO i also think he'd be using those filters all the time idk like the ones that generate "what godly parent are you" "what celebrity look alike" that sort of stuff, occasionally he'll also do very very long rants on 2x speed (so that makes it so fast pretty much no one can understand) and post them on priv

will - even MORE rarely uses it. was forced to make one by leo. he goes months without looking and then posts a bunch of priv videos in a week. occasionally he'll post one public vid or msth taking part in a trend and it'll go super super viral for no reason (except a million people asking where they recognize him from)

leo - most followers somehow because i do think he'd get super viral with the tiktok algorithm. constantly posting videos, mostly just him and his friends doing random stuff or audios with text being relatable/saying stupid jokes (will nico jason and piper make FREQUENT appearances here)

kayla - also super popular, def took part in the bratlympics trends but usually will do dances/trends or archery things, occasionally talking about her annoying brothers on there and also every now and then having to do an explanation video of "yes my dad is apollo and yes my other dad is darren knowles and yes my brother is best friends with nico di angelo and yes i know piper mclean pls stop asking questions about this" (nico makes a lot of appearances on her tt too)

jason - pure promotion stuff. clips from interviews and red carpets, he only posts when he's got something coming out

piper - lots of promotion stuff too, bts from photoshoots and stuff, but also her and leo prob do a bunch of dances and stuff like that. overall she, leo, and kayla do the best/are the most active on tt

apollo - he doesn't post on the actual apollo account he has but there is a delphi records account that people don't know he runs. and is active on. very frequently. he likes to comment on random small artists' posts or duet them just to watch them go viral and get attention!! also does the thing that nico does of appearing in the most random comment sections, and will comment on every single one of his kids' videos

austin - he doesn't have a tiktok account but at some point someone records a performance of his and posts it online and the audio goes viral. when kayla finds out that her brother went viral without even having the app downloaded she goes insane and will pester austin about creating an acc till the end of time but austin is very stubborn

[kverything-official]

10 Free Kdrama Sites That Nobody Will Tell You About

Let’s be real here, even though most of us want to watch Korean dramas all day, not all of us can afford high price margins of streaming platforms. Given the fact that a big part of Korean drama fans are still students, it’s only natural to look for affordable ways to keep enjoying Kdramas in the best possible way. 

This is why I decided to share these 10 free Kdrama sites that no one will tell you about. I have personally used these sites before and these work just fine. But you will need a little guide on how to use these and I am here to teach you the hacks. 

So, read the blog till the end and discover the wonder that free Kdrama sites have to offer. Without further ado let’s get into the list. 

10 free Kdrama sites for streaming

10. Dramafire 

Starting with my least favorite site, Dramafire, this one is quite complicated and I myself don’t understand how to navigate through it properly. Nonetheless, it can be one of the best free Kdrama sites if you know your way through it. 

The very first thing that upsets me is that there are a ton of different versions of the same site and if you don’t know which one is the real one, you are bound to get lost (just as I did). The next negative point is that there are both videos and blog posts, so you need to filter through those if you want to land on the dramas. 

Another thing is that I don’t know yet, if there are any options of downloading or not, as it was quite difficult for me to navigate through the site. But again it’s better to have something other than having nothing. 

So, you can bookmark this site and use this if your favorite free Kdrama sites aren’t working properly.

9. MyAsianTV

Next in the list, we have MyAsianTV. Even though I haven’t yet used it personally, the interface of this website looks promising. Unlike most of the free Kdrama sites, this one is organized and has different sections, where you can find the most recent Kdramas and the most popular ones of recent time. 

There are very minimal advertisements, which is another plus point. You can also search for the dramas you are looking for through the search bar. 

Not only Kdramas, but there are also movies and shows that you can easily find out by browsing through the different tabs and the search bar. Downloading here is very easy. However, just as the other free Kdrama sites, it will redirect you to different websites, which you need to be aware of. Other than that MyAsianTV is a standard free Kdrama site that you can use as your permanent choice for watching or downloading Kdramas for free. 

8. Dramahood 

Next up, we have Dramahood as our 8th free Kdrama site. Honestly, I didn’t like this one. It has a clean interface but that is rather glitchy. The dashboard took quite a lot of time to load, which means you shouldn’t expect much of an user-friendly experience. 

The dashboard has a list of some of the most popular dramas and movies of all time, which would be better if replaced with the on-going series and movies. 

I haven’t downloaded anything from this site, so I can’t review that experience but beware of the ads. Everything you tap will redirect you to another site, which is certainly very annoying. 

But again, if your favorite free Kdrama sites aren’t working then this can be plausible choice.

7. Amazon Mini TV (For indian fans)

Amazon Mini TV is a very special feature as one of the free Kdrama sites for the Indian Kdrama fans. You can watch Kdramas for free, that too, from a trusted provider such as Amazon. But there are cons. 

First of all, Amazon Mini TV is not an official streaming platform, it is rather a small inclusion to the Amazon ecommerce application. Hence, you can not expect the quality that Amazon prime Kdramas offers. 

Secondly, the limitations of Kdramas are striking. There are very few Kdramas that you can browse through and watch. So, there is a bigger chance of you not finding the drama that you are looking for. 

Thirdly, all the Kdramas are dubbed in Hindi. Many of you might like it but I prefer watching Kdramas in the original version (as it keeps my Korean under practice).  

So, Amazon Mini TV might not become the kind of free Kdrama sites that you are looking for. However, it doesn’t hurt to try, right? 

Read more at: 10 Free Kdrama Sites That Nobody Will Tell You About

[bloodydeanwinchester]

hi jenna gif questions for u 💜 what's your favorite part of making gifs? what's the most valuable thing/tip/trick you've learned? what's some of your favorite gif sets you've made?

hi ida!!!! sorry i took a couple days to answer this i wanted to wait until i had some time to think about it before i answer! i loooove these questions tho so thank you so much for sending them 💜💜

my favorite part about making gifs is probably coloring and like...that moment when i get the gif to look exactly how i want it to. i like to play around with coloring and try a lot of different things with it and that can be so fun! i think over the last like 6-8 months my coloring has really improved a lot and i've been having a lot of fun learning new ways to do things! but i actually had a really hard time coming up with an answer for this question because i mostly enjoy the entire process! the only part that i don't really enjoy is picking out the frames for each gif. i always start with way too many and then i have to cut stuff out and i hate that part. also it's reaaally hard sometimes to not end up with like 20 gifs cause there's so much i want to include!!!

okay im gonna cheat on this one and give a few things i've learned since i started that have been sooooo valuable to me. first is the importance of having a good quality download to start with. i think my gifs got significantly better when i finally downloaded all of the episodes in 1080p instead of using the screen recording on netflix like i had been before. second sharpening is so important! i did not do any sharpening on my first gifs i made! sharpening makes the gifs loook sooo sharp and crisp and pretty. third and kind of similar to sharpening was learning/figuring out how to use the camera raw filter. there's sooooo much you can do with camera raw filter (coloring sharpening lightening). and finally one thing i learned that i think made my coloring look significantly better was to try not to lighten the gif too much and/or to figure out ways to lighten darker gifs without it messing up the background too much (sometimes when they're lightened too much it will like pixelate the background and it looks awful)

and finally (in order of when they were made from oldest to newest) here are links to some of my favorite gifsets:

Bloody Dean Throughout the Seasons Set - this one actually came out really good considering the fact that it was made only a month after i first started making gifs! if i remember correctly it's the first set that i ever used sharpening on.

6x20 F+TM King Set - this one is a favorite mostly just because i love the song so much and tmwwbk is one of my favorite episodes. i think some of my favorite sets to make are the ones that i add lyrics to.

2022 Nov 5th Set - i was really happy with how this one came out! it's so hard to get gifs from episodes over different seasons to look the same! and this one had gifs from 12 different seasons! also i think this was the first set i ever made that got over 1000 notes which i remember being really excited about!

Laughing Dean Set - this one is a favorite purely based on the content of the set. it feels like injecting serotonin every time i look at it<3

1x12 Faith Set - another one based on the content of the set. i just love this episode so much.

Season 9 Dean Set - i LOVE the coloring in this set! and season 9 dean is so beloved to me. he is just so beautiful and bloody and sad.

2023 Cas Day Set - another f+tm lyric set! i love the space overlay that i added and the blue-pink of the coloring so much!

4x18 Destiel Every Episode Set - i loooove this scene so much! this gif series has by far been more popular than any of the other gifs that i post and this set is definitely the most popular in the series. no other set has ever even come close to getting 4k notes like this one did. also i really like the purple coloring a lot<3

[hell-of-blazing-fires]

Currently fully abandoning twitter because it's already a shithole, it's getting worse, about to start scraping all your data for ai training and it's a soon to be state propaganda site. So I've started tracing accounts to other platforms.

Went through my follows and now going through my bookmarks and it is an absolutely miserable process. But here's some things that have made it slightly more bearable.

I used it as a lurker mostly as a means to see art so that's where these tips are coming from.

You can get an archive of your twitter data.

Settings -> Your Account -> Download an archive of your data.

It takes a while so check the email your account is linked to. It has your tweets, retweets, DMs, etc. I used it to get my likes which is given to you in a big ass list of links. Also be aware that it does NOT archive your bookmarks.

Sky Follower Bridge

Finds the Bluesky accounts of your follows, followers or list members from their twitter name or links in their bio. It's far from perfect as their Bluesky name has to match their handle or display name perfectly or it doesn't work. But it will hopefully cut down a fair bit of work in finding people.

If an artist has a page there, it will have a list of links to their profiles across the internet. It's a lot more useful than you'd think it'd be because even a ton of small artists have pages. Though they are only as complete as the people who create and edits the pages makes them so it can be hit or miss.

Danbooru

I'd suggest searching with (artist name) + danbooru as the in-site search is janky with aliases.

Most Eastern artists, especially Japanese ones, use Pixiv. It's an annoying site to use because it locks basic features behind paywalls (Like sorting by most popular and the fucking ability to blacklist tags.) But a large majority of them can be found there.

Danbooru has a lot of porn on it (without filters by default) in addition to sfw drawings. Just be warned.

Pixiv

If you know a way to archive bookmarks definitely share that because all the methods I saw are broken and I'm pretty sure the only way to archive it is by doing it manually which is awful. Also these are just the methods I used for myself, please feel free to share others.

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Backing Up Fanfictions with Calibre + FanFicFare (with screenshots!)

If you've been reading fanfiction for any significant length of time, you've probably had the horrifying realization that a fic or series that you absolutely loved was deleted. Maybe the author was harassed or stalked, maybe they didn't want an abandoned WIP lying around, or maybe they just didn't like the fandom any more. Whatever the reason, it is so important to back up your favorite fanfictions.

Calibre is one of the most popular ebook management softwares available, primarily because:

It is full-featured and fairly easy to use

It has a large plugin ecosystem (like Firefox's addons)

It's available for most operating systems

It's completely free

By "ebook management", I mean it can do things like indexing and searching a library of your books, downloading covers and metadata for them, etc. I originally got Calibre for backing up ebooks I had purchased from various online stores in case they ever shut down (like Microsoft Books) or decided they wanted to take a book back (like Amazon has done), and so I could read in whatever app I wanted.

BUT, remember that plugin ecosystem I mentioned? JimmXinu took advantage of that to create FanFicFare, a plugin that allows Calibre to download stories from over 100 creative writing sites (primarily fanfiction archives, but also erotic writing sites among others).

Just paste in the URL to an AO3 fic, for example, and it will:

Download the fic in your preferred format (EPUB, MOBI, TXT, HTML, others)

Fill in all the metadata for you (story name, author + AO3 pseuds, the fic's order in a series, if the fic is complete or not, word count, all tags, etc.)

Generate an ebook cover from scratch OR using art that was embedded in the fic

From here you can just click on a tag to find all other fics in your library with the same tag; you can also click into the author or the series. It's almost like having a mini-AO3 on your computer, one that is always available and where fics never get deleted.

Installing Calibre

Download Calibre from here, choosing the appropriate copy for your operating system

Run the Calibre installer and click through the wizard. For most people the default options work well.

Open Calibre; the Welcome Wizard should appear and walk you through initial setup

Choose your language, and the place on your computer where you want Calibre to store the fics/ebooks that it downloads, then click Next.

Select the device you use most often to read fanfiction on. This helps Calibre decide what format ebooks should be stored in (but you can override it with FanFicFare later)

You should now have Calibre open with an empty library. NOW we want to install several plugins to teach it how to handle fanfics.

Installing Calibre Plugins

First up is Count Pages. This plugin counts the words and pages in a fanfiction and shows it in Calibre so you know whether the fic you're looking at is a oneshot or a behemoth.

Look for an icon like the one below and click it to open Calibre preferences.

2. Under the "Advanced" section, click "Plugins"

3. At the bottom of the Plugins dialog, click "Get New Plugins"

4. Type "Count Pages" into the "Filter by name" search box at the top right. Once the plugin is visible in the list, click it, then click "Install". It will bring up a prompt about the security risks, but we are only installing well-known plugins today (ex. ZimmXinu has been developing FanFicFare for over a decade). Click Yes to install the plugin.

5. It will then prompt you to restart Calibre in order to begin using the plugin, but just click "Ok" because we're going to install a couple more plugins first.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for three more plugins: "Generate Covers", "EpubMerge", and "FanFicFare"; once all 4 plugins are installed, close Calibre completely and open it again. You should now have several new buttons on your Calibre menu bar:

FanFicFare is now installed! But we still have a little bit of work to do to unlock its full capabilities.

Configuring FanFicFare for Your Fanfic Site of Choice

So FanFicFare is now installed, but right now if you tell it to look at a fic on AO3, it will be browsing AO3 as a new, anonymous user without an account. This means that:

It won't be able to see explicit fics because it hasn't accepted the "See adult works" prompt

It won't be able to see locked fics (ones you can only read if you are logged in to AO3; these are very common nowadays as authors try to prevent AI engines from scraping their fics and flooding them with spam comments).

So we need to configure FanFicFare to accept the adult prompt (if you'd like to download anything rated higher than T), and we also need to give it our AO3 username and password so it can download locked fics on our behalf.

Click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button in the Calibre toolbar. A dropdown menu will appear. Click "Configure FanFicFare"

2. At the top of the "Basic" tab, select your prefered download format (if you prefer a format not listed, like PDF, don't worry, Calibre can convert it for you later).

3. Click the "Personal" tab in the FanFicFare settings dialog, then click "Edit personal.ini"

4. It will open a very basic text editor where you can type your personal fanfic site details for FanFicFare to use. If the box is small and text is cut off or hard to read, resize the editor window by hovering over the edge of the window until your cursor changes into an arrow with two heads, then click and drag to expand the window.

5. Type "is_adult" (without the quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find. The first result should be this a line that looks like "# is _adult:true". Delete the "#" and the space after it to uncomment the line; the text color of that line should change from yellow to green and light purple.

6. Type "archiveofourown" (without quotes) into the Find bar, then click Find until you see a section that looks like the one below (it should be the first or second result):

7. Type your AO3 login details after the "username" and "password" text. Do not put any spaces between the colons and your username or password. Note that your password is stored in plaintext in this file, so don't let anyone else get a hold of it.

8. Skip this step if the only site you're interested in downloading from is AO3. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each fanfiction or erotic writing website you use. There are only a few sites in personal.ini out of the box, so you may have to copy a specific site's configuration section from defaults.ini, which has example sections for all 100+ supported sites.

9. Click "OK" to close the personal.ini text editor, then click "OK" again to close the Customize FanFicFare box.

Whew! Lots of clicking but you're done now! Time to download some fanfic.

Downloading or Updating Fanfic(s)

Copy the URL of the fic (I'm using one from AO3 for this example).

Click the FanFicFare button on the Calibre toolbar. It should automatically detect that you have a URL from a supported site in your clipboard and paste it into the dialog

If you want to download multiple fanfics in a batch, you can hit enter and paste more URLs into the box, one per line. NOTE: please do not try to download like 30 fanfictions at once; a bunch of people doing that can strain AO3's servers, and your account might have its download capability temporarily throttled to prevent that.

5. Click OK. Calibre may look like it's frozen for a few seconds, but this is normal during the metadata fetching process. Once it figures out which of the fics you pasted actually need to be downloaded, it will unfreeze and begin downloading them

6. Once Calibre has begun downloading your fics, it will display "Jobs: 1" with a spinning icon in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. If you click that, you'll get a progress bar of what it's doing

7. Once Calibre has finished downloading your fics, it will display a summary of the job in the bottom right corner of the Calibre window. In this summary, "good" updates meant that a fic had to be downloaded, while "bad" updates indicate fics that didn't need to be updated (because you already had them on your computer) or that could NOT be downloaded due to an error (usually a fic that was deleted or hidden in a private collection). You can click "View Log" if you're curious about which fics were downloaded and which were skipped. In this example, 2 fics were missing from my library and were downloaded, while "Where the Sand Meets the Sea" was not downloaded because it was already on my computer and up to date.

8. Exit the FanFicFare log if you clicked into it, then click "Yes" to accept the results and add the downloaded/updated fics to your library. The fics should appear in Calibre almost immediately. Then FanFicFare will kick off a second job by calling the Count Pages plugin to grab a word count for the new/updated fics. Once that job completes, just click "Yes" in the job summary window that appears in the bottom right of Calibre to store the word counts in your library.

And you're done! You just backed up your first fanfictions :)

Downloading a Series

FanFicFare can actually pull all of the URLs for individual fics in a series for you automatically!

Copy the AO3 series URL (not to an individual fic in the series)

In Calibre, click the dropdown arrow to the right of the FanFicFare button on the menu bar, then click "Get Story URLs from Web Page"

3. FanFicFare should automatically detect that you have a supported web page in your clipboard and paste it into the text field. Choose the download option you prefer: downloading each fic in the series as a separate ebook, OR combining every fic in the series into a single ebook, commonly called an anthology. Note: anthology ebooks can get rather large in file size if they have embedded fanart in them.

4. Once you pick an option, FanFicFare will grab the URL of every fic in the series and automatically paste them into the FanFicFare fic download window. From there on out just follow the normal steps for downloading those fics (this will start at step 3 in the "Downloading Fic(s)" section above).

Updating Fanfictions

Just wanted to note that you can update fanfictions in multiple ways. You can either:

Select ebooks in your Calibre library, then click the dropdown arrow next to the FanFicFare toolbar icon and click "Update Existing Fanfiction Books" OR

Take the URLs and just download them like you would a new fic. FanFicFare will automatically replace your existing copy with the updated one. This way you can just paste in the URL from an AO3 subscription email alert instead of having to hunt down the fic in your library first.

For Advanced Users

FanFicFare can actually pull the URLs off of any page of multiple fics - this includes pages of bookmarks. For example, if you want to download fics that you have bookmarked and tagged with "favorite", just filter your bookmarks for that tag and then use the resulting URL in the steps for "Downloading a Series". Note that FanFicFare doesn't handle pagination, so if you have multiple pages of results for that bookmark search, you'll have to paste in each paginated URL separately.

Summary

Well this got WAY longer than I meant it to. I think my background in technical writing is showing - this is probably more detailed than the average tumblr user wants or needs. But whatever, at least it's thorough. If you found this guide useful, please reblog it! The more people who back up fics, the better the chances that those fics will be available if you want them later. And if you end up using Calibre extensively, consider donating to the one-person developer team to keep the project going :)

[mosneakers]

Do you have any tips and tricks for someone (me) starting a sims story to post on Tumblr? Asking for a friend (it's me. I'm the friend)

omggg you're askin me? 🥺

I'm not sure I'm the best simblr to ask because I'm not in it for the trends or popularity; I'm all about the interaction and finding others to talk to at length about my delusional fictional universe that's been going on for over a decade now lol. But let me try:

*puts on my mother glasses* There are two ways to go about it; depending on your goals. There are plenty of exceptions, but simblr sorta has a formula you can follow. Get ready for some contradictions haha

if you aim to appease the simblr community:

reshade/gshade mixed with photo-editing is generally a must. Simblr users will gravitate to pretty pictures, so even if you're an excellent writer, people usually won't give it a second look unless something attracts them to it. The sims is pretty ugly without filters and such, and it will enhance the experience as well. Bonus if you crank up the mxao and depth of field but I prefer to take it a little easy on those lol

CC. Not necessarily a must, but simblr in particular usually hates vanilla sims. same explanation as above, slather those suckers in skin details!!

poses poses poses. readers love reading stories with poses and they spit on screenshots with only game animations! (tbh those game animations do get pretty repetitive after a while so I kinda get it)

Read stories. I'm not much of a reader personally, but there's a huge imbalance in the reader-writer ratio on simblr, and lots of simblrs will return the favor if you read theirs too. Be careful, though; getting stuck in a transactional mutualship can lead to tricky dynamics. Only reach out to other stories if you're genuinely interested in following more stories, not just to gain readers.

BUT, with all that being said, as an "elder" of the simblr community, please consider this as permission to say screw any and all of those above tips if they don't align with your goals.

If your goal is to just have fun and relax:

reshade/gshade. Because let's be real the game's graphics are very depressing. It's not actually a must if you're just enjoying yourself, but if you find the right settings and just play, so you can spend minimal or even no time editing your photos. There are lots of tutorials that explain how to set it up. If you can't figure it out or don't feel like it, that's also not a big deal.

I can be a controlling sim god when it comes to my stories, and I have most things planned out. HOWEVER sometimes it's a little fun to let the sims drive their own storylines. If something is just not working, I consider that a sign to let the story flow in a slightly different direction. IF you're planning on writing gameplay stories/writing as you go, as I do. (which has its own challenges lol)

Sometimes it can be tempting to let readers sway the way the story is going. Sometimes that is a strategy that works. But if you have a storyline that you're confident in, own it and let it play out. Even if the whole community (and your spouse) wants that alien character to go die, you have him there for a reason, trust in the power of your storytelling 😜

Despite being a pose creator, I find using poses kinda tedious and sucks the life and immersion out of the story and gameplay personally, if used too much. Trust me, I do use my fair share of them, but I do try to use the game animations whenever possible. When I do use poses, I personally prefer to keep the expressions very maxis-y.

Don't try to be like any one particular simblr. With a community where we all pull from the same CC and game pack pools, there's bound to be overlap in aesthetics, storylines, and concepts. Definitely find inspiration in all your faves but do what works best for you but don't feel some sort of way if your screenshots don't look exactly like PastelPlumbobPixelLlama's game, despite you downloading all the content and presets from their resource page! You have your own style babe and it's way more unique ♥

Post a "New Story/New simblr" post to get the word out about your story.

PLEASE don't ever get discouraged by notes because you are perfect and creative and if others don't understand your genius that's them problem ok <3

sorry it's so long ;-; there's probably more but that's what came to my mind off the bat.

[smileymoth]

We were making an ai classifier toda which was pretty interesting, like you get a bunch of photos for multiple things (i did it on moths so, one class is rosy maple moth, second is atlas moth, third is herculese moth etc etc) and train it to recognize the patterns and if you show it a moth it will try to guess what moth it is (regarding the classes you made for it). We made a quizz off it after.

However because we scraped the web for images to train it on, most of us used google. And it just proved the point of how useless google's image search actually is. We used an image downloading extention called "imageye" which basically scrapes all the images from the website you have open and downloads them, this also means it downloads absolutely all favicons and random icons that nobody wants so you have to filter them.

And oh my god it was garbage. ~10% of your results depending on what moth you searched were AI sludge. Then it shows you shop listings (obviously), then it shows you a completely different moth. It was impossible to get photos for the rosy maple moth because 50% were plushie/etsy listings. Like I get it its a popular moth thats really cute but jesus christ. I had to go to flickr to get pictures of that thing because after sorting the images i was left with like. 15 files. Which is Not enough for a classifier.

I think the saddest part beside the fact of youre just downloading random images with no permission is that there was barely any art in the search results. Like there were a couple of moth drawings, and some "buff moths" (bc i was looking up buff tip moth lol) but the rest was just... online listings, ai sludge, or some other thing you didnt need.

I think the classifier itself is a more useful tool than an image generator since you can train it to recognize plants and animals, like those mushroom identifier books but automated. The professor showed us a classifier that sb had made for shooing away foxes and raccoons from their garden, so if it detected it it would make a noise and scare them away. Lol

[ratedjo]

Welcome!

I made this blog dedicated to small indie games that I personally think deserve more love! While most entries will be short and odd, these games made me happy to play them.

Also I've decided to categorize them in a way that makes them easier to filter through, in case you're looking for a specific genre or platform to play! Mainly will be tagging them with the developer, engine, genre, and download site. Take these as suggestions, not as full info of playtime, trigger warnings or contents, so seek the games at your own discretion. And will keep my comments in a separate reblog from the game showcase :>

If you'd like to recommend me a game, or have any questions about the games I show or this blog, I'd be happy to hear whatever's on your mind! Just keep in mind that, in case of game suggestions:

This blog prioritizes small and obscure indie games, so games like Hades, Cuphead, Undertale or similar titles, while amazing, are popular and thoroughly funded, so they won't be mentioned here.

NSFW or 18+ games can be recommended, but strictly porn games will be ignored. Basically I'm fine with games that have or are centered around sexual themes, if they explore those themes in some way other than just sexual gratification.

I'll only be accepting games that are either in English or Brazilian Portuguese, or have translations of those languages.

Most entries will probably skewer towards Horror and/or Rpgmaker games, because that's one of my favorite types of games, but don't be afraid of recommending something outside those genres :>

[amethystina]

For the ask thingy

9. How do you find new fic to read?

I have one of the most uninspired yet organised methods for finding new fics that I know of.

Because I will basically go to AO3, find the fandom I'm interested in, pick all my filters, sort by word count, and start from the highest and just work my way through them methodically, reading the tags, summaries etc. and open the ones I like in a new tab.

I'll do that for a couple of pages, stop, download all the tabs as PDFs to my Dropbox, and then keep going. Rinse and repeat. Either until I reach the final page or my enthusiasm for that particular fandom/pairing starts waning. If I reach the end before my enthusiasm has waned, I usually go back for a second round but with lower standards x'D

Quite often, if I find a fic that piques my interest, I'll stop and spend some time reading instead (which usually snowballs into me reading more of those I've already downloaded), before eventually getting back to the culling. So this can take everything from days to months depending on the size of the fandom and the intensity of my interest.

This is why I don't have favourite fanfic authors because I just don't pay attention to that at all when I find my fics. I base my picks entirely on summaries, tags, and warnings. Though there have been times when I've read a fic in a fandom and it's good enough for me to go to the author's page and download the fics I thought sounded interesting. That's rare, though. For the most part, I go story by story and each is judged on their own merit.

And, yes, this means that kudos, views, comments etc. are entirely useless to me when I search for fics x'D Which I guess makes it a little more fair? Everyone has a chance to convince me to read their fics, no matter if they're popular or not. It's the content that matters to me.

I can also read fics if I get a rec, either from a friend I trust or a rec list, but it's kind of rare. And the former is definitely more likely than the latter.

I'm picky, I guess you could say, and prefer to just browse on my own over having someone else tell me what to read.

Questions for fic writers

[luciferstit]

hiii just want to ask when you do mp100 edit how do you decide on which part to use and how to make clean scene without subtitles? Is there like a simple how to in making edits?

Hello! 

Sure, I can give some tips as a sort of mini-guide for making amvs! 

More below the cut! 

Deciding on which scene from the show to use is always the hardest part, and so much of it genuinely just boils down to 1) knowing the show very well and 2) luck. I usually begin the amv by creating a very basic “outline”, matching up lyrics from the song to scenes from the show that I thought would match them. 

My ability to pick scenes from the show to use in the edit relies HEAVILY on how well I’ve memorized the show/how many times I’ve seen it. You want a scene that matches both the rhythm and the lyrics—meaning that the scene makes sense with what is being said/plays a role in the narrative purpose of the AMV while also matching the musical rhythm with an interesting movement or animation that suits the beat. It’s super intuitive and a lot easier in reality than I’ve made it sound here. If it looks good and makes some sort of sense, that’s all that matters. 

However, sometimes I accidentally stumble upon a scene while looking for a DIFFERENT scene that matches much better with the rhythm and the lyrics and is just a lucky, perfect fit, which is why I said that luck also plays a part in it. You’re not gonna be able to feasibly 100% memorize everything in the show, so sometimes you’re just gonna accidentally stumble on a scene that fits twice as well as the one you originally planned to use and change the plan last-minute. 

In terms of getting subtitle-free scenes, I specifically seek out and download the dubbed versions of episodes, as they don’t air with built-in subtitles and provide a blank scene without any distracting script. For Mob Psycho 100, gogoanime.gold (please use a VPN and antivirus if at all possible) provides good episode downloads at a very reasonable file size while still maintaining good picture quality. I have every episode of the MP100 English dub downloaded on my phone to make AMVs with lol.

As for a general sense of how to make one: it might seem kind of trite, but honestly the best practice you could ask for is to jump in the deep end and just start making them. So much of the decision-making process during AMV creation, from my perspective, is done by feeling and intuition alone. The more you play with it, the easier it becomes. 

Capcut is a great, easy-to-use service that can be used for free, and it’s also wildly popular. I actually prefer CuteCut Pro, which is a paid app and not as technically amazing as Capcut is, but it’s what I started out using back when I was 16 and it’s what I know best. I know the app inside-out, so I find I work better on it. Sometimes I will take the product from CuteCut Pro and move it over to Capcut for filters, effects, or subtitles, though. 

But yeah. The best way to get a feel for AMV rhythm and editing is just to pick a song, get some footage, and play around with your app of choice until the pieces start coming together. I promise that, eventually, they will. You can also always watch other people’s AMVs and edits to see what they decided to do in certain moments for some inspiration and direction. 

HELPFUL TIP: If at all possible, do not edit in  wireless/Bluetooth headphones. Most wireless headphones connected through Bluetooth can cause a very slight sound delay and make your editing seem a bit off-beat. 

Some people choose to follow the beat in AMVs, some prefer following the melody, and some prefer just matching the lyrics. IMO, there’s a time and a place for all three to be done well. It’s genuinely hard to make a bad AMV, so don’t be hesitant to play around with it. It’s kind of like art in the way that people aren’t going to see your AMV and be like “that’s not as good at THIS AMV 🫤”, they’re gonna be like, “Yay, another AMV!”. 

If you decide you want to make AMVs, just have fun! At a fundamental level, that’s really all it needs. 

If I didn’t fully answer your questions here or you have additional questions you’d like to ask about, feel free to send me more asks and I’ll answer them as best I can! 

[quanonthecob]

osu! diary, 3rd december 2022

so i've been grinding osu! quite a lot during the past week, when i definitely should have studied more, especially when mid-terms are coming up, in fact, i have one tomorrow morning, but i'm here writing this lol

also i titled this "diary", but this is probably a one-time thing, like yeah yeah, diary in vnese is nhật ký, and nhật (meaning "day") implies the daily aspect of it, but hey, i can't be bothered to write sth daily, not like i have enough ability or linguistic skills to write so much ._.

so yeah, like i've said before, i've been grinding a lot recently. specifically, this is the graph showing the number of plays in the past year

November: 175 plays

December: 59 plays (keep in mind we're only 3 days in)

so yep, the future's not looking so bright LOL

the main reason why im playing so much is because i've got a new laptop, so i'm kinda abusing the storage and specs upgrade from my last laptop

and... on the topic of storage, here we have the amount of storage i've spent for storing the beatmaps

i feel fortunate because i'm currently only into play osu!standard, and not other game modes as well, because god knows how much more storage it's gonna take up

but yeah the first few days when i first installed the game, i mass downloaded the beatmaps. i just looked up some popular artists and download all the beatmaps of the songs that i know. to the point that osu literally temporarily blocked me from downloading any more beatmaps 💀💀💀 they quite literally shouted at my face that i need to stop downloading maps and play more...

of course, after playing for a bit and waited until the next day, i could download more beatmaps again 😈 so as of now, we end up with

...

i have no idea if i'm gonna be able to play all of them. obviously there are also beatmaps from other game modes, and there are 6-star, 7-star beatmaps which i don't think i'm gonna ever have enough skills to play them. i might need to filter them out sometime, for now i can't be bothered to do that, especially when they don't take up that much space in my hard disk.

there's kinda one problem tho, it's when i try to press the Z and X keys on this laptop, but it's a membrane keyboard, and this laptop also happens to be really slim too, so pressing the keys down feels very shallow. i find it really annoying at first typing on this keyboard, still does now, but im more used to the feels. but yeah, it feels kinda weird having to spam these two buttons playing osu!, and since the laptop in general is so fragile, i always feel like i'm damaging the keys somehow. so i might get specialised keycaps just for this game idk (if i do, that would be extremely concerning actually)

~~~~~

and so the grinding starts, i played some maps that i used to love playing on my old laptop, also tried out some new maps, most of them are songs that i'm already familiar with, so i tend to not have a lot of problem with the rhythms

one of the really good songs that i've downloaded and have played recently is lily allen's fuck you. honestly, the song itself is amazing. the beatmap, well, it's a little bit slow, so i had to do put some mods in, specifically HR - hard rock, making the circles smaller and faster and DT - double time, increase the speed of the song and the beatmap by 1.5 times i think (yeah i know it says double but that's how the mod works ig)

honestly that was pretty challenging to me already, especially when the tempo of the song is 1.5 times faster. but it also pays off with a good amount of pp (let me stop you horny mfs right there, it's performance points) and rank, and ofc had quite a bit of fun playing it, and a bunch of adrenaline as well.

another beatmap is sesame street's cookie butter choco cookie, it's basically ppap, but for kids

honestly i'm still wondering how is this a thing, like, look at this

セサミストリート：ピコ太郎、エルモとクッキーモンスターの CBCC （Cookie-Butter-Choco-Cookie) - YouTube

the beatmap was just the first minute when elmo and cookie monster was singing. there are also quite a lot of difficulties to choose from, so i just played a lot of that song, not to mention because i'm also kinda grinding for stats, and i tried a difficulty that's a bit harder for me, so yeah just imagine having elmo and cookie monster "awh" harmoniously in your ear three times each time the song plays and have that repeat for about 15-20 minutes...

truly traumatised

it kinda pays off tho, i got a 2nd highest on my PB leaderboard, and im now in the 600k (ofc, not a lot, but still sth)

i enjoyed it a lot, i've always loved rhythm games, and osu! is an awesome game, despite it's clearly contributing to my highly likely, upcoming dramatic academic downfall, but hey, circle clicking game is fun, you can't blame me alright?

[booleanean]

I've heard various reports that this was an issue where the spam filter malfunctioned and flagged their account unintentionally, or that the document was reported by a disgruntled beta reader. That might also have been two different people that had similar things happen to them. I've also heard people say they got access back after a manual review. These situations suck for the person going through them, and they're very scary to everyone. The details don't really matter for the lesson we should all learn from things like this happening.

That lesson is:

One is None. Two is One.

This is an adage from the IT world (and other places), meaning that anything that you only keep one copy of is effectively already deleted. It doesn't matter if that copy is online or offline, a single copy is never enough to keep your stuff safe.

If you write offline

Keep a backup. Hard drives fail, usb sticks get lost, laptops get stolen, phones fall in the river. Best bet is to pay for a backup service if you can afford them (order of magnitude $5/month).

Second best option is to write in a folder that's synced with an online drive service like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Proton Drive. They're free, and unless you spend 16 hours a day writing for the rest of your life, there's no way you're going to fill them up with just your writing.

Corin Tellado is arguably the most prolific author in the world, writing over 4,000 romance novels in her lifetime. An article I found claimed she churned out a novella (20k words) a week from age 19 to her death at age 81. That's actually an underestimation by about 800 novellas if the first number is accurate. 4,000 novellas at 20k words each would put her at 80 million words written over her lifetime.

The least generous popular online storage service, dropbox, offers 2GB of free storage. That's the equivalent of ~285 million words. Corin could've shared her dropbox with two equally prolific colleagues and still have had 40million words breathing room.

If you write online

Keep a backup. Accounts get hacked, accounts get locked for no (good) reason, services go down unexpectedly. Best bet is to automate it however you want and make it something you don't have to remember to do at all. Just put a reminder in your calendar to occasionally check that it's still working. If that doesn't work for you, you can of course download copies manually. If your writing tool of choice doesn't offer a regular download option for folders at a time, most of them are legally required to provide you with a dump of the data they have on you. It's sometimes a bit of a process to request, and it can take a couple of hours waiting before you get your download, but it'll give you a snapshot so you don't lose everything when you do lose access for whatever reason.

There's also online services that can sync a google drive with onedrive or dropbox or protonmail, though I have no experience with them.

If you write NSFW works

It's worth splitting it out into a separate account, especially if you rely on your google account for other things. It reduces the risk if you lose access. I've got a proton mail/drive account for all my NSFW stuff, and while it would suck to lose access to it, it's not going to lock my phone or the gmail address I've had since you still needed invites to join gmail. (Bet lots of y'all didn't know that was even a thing, huh?).

If any of the automated solutions don't work for you, put a reminder in your phone to make backups manually at least once a month, if not every week. Try to get in the habit of making them when you stop writing for the day if you can.

Hey, you want to hear something horrific? Well, there you go anyway!

“You no longer have permission to view this document,” said the pop-up message. “If you believe this is an error, contact the document owner.”

This was how Renee experienced a moment that most of us have heart-pounding 3 am stress nightmares about. All 10 of her works in progress—some 222,000 words across multiple files and folders—were frozen. Not just frozen, but inaccessible on her phone and tablet. When her husband fetched her laptop, Renee logged into Docs and tried sharing the documents again. Then she received her own message from Google.

“Can’t share item,” was the header. “You cannot share this item because it has been flagged as inappropriate,” read the body text.

Stop using Google Docs. And ALWAYS keep local copies of your work.

[voodslifestyle]

Buy TWS Earbuds Online at Reasonable Price

Buy TWS Earbuds Online at Best Price

If you have been searching for the right wireless earphones to buy but have not yet had a starting point on that then this article using the information below will guide you. When there are so many options, buying TWS (True Wireless Stereo) earphones online can be confusing. But don’t worry; we’ve got you over a barrel! In this tutorial, I am going to explain that how you can avail the most out of TWS earbuds with the best possible rates and the features what you need.

Why Buy TWS Earbuds?

True Wireless Stereo earbuds are one of the essential gadgets for anyone who loves listening to music, pod casts or even conducting phone calls on the go. The biggest advantage we get from TWS earphones, is their portable nature. There are no cables to manage or headset to carry around. You simply have to put them in the ears and you are ready to start. TWS earbuds are perfect for the go, for the working, exercising, or even just staying at home. What is the best part? This way you will get the best discounts online without paying the price.

Advantages of TWS Earbuds Purchase Online

The following are the advantages that one will incur while in the process of buy TWS earphones online. First of all, the choice is unique. Online businesses usually offer the range of products wider than offline stores, so you will most likely find a pair you need. You might just filter by price, read about the product, and look its rating. This means that you can make the right decision all from the comfort of your home.

Among others, a way of shopping online is that people are able to get exclusive offers and promotions. Most online stores offer extra benefits, especially during the promotions, one of which is Black Friday or the Christmas period. Within a few clicks, one can get quality TWS earbuds within equal to or even less than your desired budget.

Is It possible to Find the Best TWS Earbuds?:

When buying goods online, it is essential to know what features to look out for when selecting the product. Here are some variables to consider:

1. Sound Quality: For the majority of the consumers, this is the main factor they think about. Search for bass load earbuds with clarity at the tops and mids that aren’t overpowering. Some versions also have noise canceling systems to help you get the best out of your listens.

2. Battery Life: While TWS earbuds do come with a charging case still, you seek out for earphones with longer battery longevity. The majority delivers between 4 and 8 hours of gameplay before needing recharging, while some others add the cost of the case.

3. Fit and Comfort: Everyone’s ears are different so make sure the earbuds that you get come with a bunch of different tips. This ensures an accurate and comfortable fit in the course of the wear.

4. Price vs. Features: TWS earbuds need not always be expensive. Innumerable models which are sold for affordable prices have such quality features as touch controls, waterproofing, and long-life batteries.

How to get the Best Deal

To enjoy the best discounts, be sure to check out most popular online shops to find the best offer. There is always information on quick promotions, discounts or deals which is available through signing up for newsletters or downloading mobile applications. Furthermore, use price comparison tools for it is a vital asset to determine on the best offer one can take.

The second important procedure is reading customers’ experiences as well. The reviews may help you know how the earbuds work in real life situations. Are they comfortable enough for utilizing them for lengthy working periods? Are they easy to plug into smartphones? Using these buyer insights, you can make a better buying decision.

Final thoughts

Buying TWS earbuds on the internet does not need to be complicated. As we see, today there are so many options, that it is almost easy to choose a pair of headphones that will meet the demands for good sound quality, comfort, and available settings and be also Cheap. Only be wise enough to do your research, be able to assess your options and most importantly capitalize on the best promotions. So, why keep waiting? Start searching for the best set of TWS earbuds on the internet today!

[laxmankodadala]

Troop Messenger vs Telegram: Why You Should Consider Switching

Are you looking for Telegram alternatives? Then read this blog to discover alternative messaging platforms and get a quick overview.

Troop Messenger

Since Telegram is used by a few start-ups and small enterprises, I figured Troop Messenger and others could be added to the list. Troop Messenger is undeniably more than a Telegram alternative. Troop Messenger offers a lot of features compared to Telegram, which is far superior in terms of providing quality. For instance, Troop Messenger groups will have great advantages compared to Telegram chatting groups such as admin super controls, advanced search filters, screen sharing within group calling, and so on.

One of the encrypted chat programs on the list is Troop Messenger, and it's possible that you've already used the safest one. Due to its superior security features, political parties utilise it as their political campaign software, and the defence agencies of a few strong nations employ it for defence collaboration services. You can therefore gauge the tool's security. There aren't many products like Troop Messenger available on the market that can be supplied via all of the main delivery models, including chat APIs and SDKs, on-premise, SaaS, etc.

Apart from chat basic functions, Troop Messenger is a complete team collaboration tool that provides its users with all the features such as audio/video conference, screen sharing, remote access, live location tracking, and so on.

Do you know that Troop Messenger has a Burnout feature similar to Telegram’s secret chat? Teams, Defense agencies, and government officials can use it to convey classified information that no one else on the planet, including service providers, has access to.

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging software that is freeware and cross-platform. End-to-end encrypted video calling, file sharing, VoIP, and other functions are also available. Telegram's initial release date was August 14, 2013, for iOS and October 2013 for Android.

Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who were also the inventors of the Russian online social site RK, launched Telegram in 2013.

Telegram's data is dispersed over five data centers in various locations around the world, including the operations center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

After WhatsApp announced its privacy policy in January 2021, 25 million new users joined Telegram, according to Telegram creator Pavel Durov. This equates to almost 8.33 million new users signing up every day. Telegram added over 100 million new users in just the month of January.

Telegram quickly made a name for itself as a competitive WhatsApp substitute. A few publications claim that Telegram currently has over 550 million active members and ranks in the top 10 most popular social networks globally in terms of download volume. Businesses were compelled by Telegram's popularity to get their app developers to produce an ideal substitute.

Why is Telegram not recommended?

Even though a few companies use it, Telegram shouldn't be on your list of chat apps for your team or place of business. It wouldn't meet all workplace requirements because it's a social messenger unless you wanted to limit it to phone calls, conversations, and file sharing. Telegram will merely function as an additional messenger, similar to FaceTime, WhatsApp, and the like. Nevertheless, a strong team communication tool can enhance teamwork and increase productivity at work, something that Telegram apps are unable to accomplish.

Check Point issued a Telegram warning in 2021, that "it tracked 130 cyber attacks that used malware managed over Telegram by attackers. Even though Telegram is not installed or being used, it allows hackers to send malicious commands and operations remotely via the instant messaging app."

What are the disadvantages of Telegram?

Here are some of Telegram's drawbacks that may make you want to uninstall it and look out for Telegram alternatives.

Telegram collects users’ contact details and metadata

If the articles are to be believed, Telegram is not an end-to-end encrypted

It has limited support

Since Telegram has a 1.5 GB file size limit, illegally downloaded movies are being mixed in with adult content that is not appropriate for children.

Telegram also allows attackers to access hacked machines from practically anywhere on the planet using their mobile devices.

Due to some operational advantages, cybercriminals are increasingly using Telegram as part of their activities.

Attackers can simply exfiltrate data from victims' PCs or transfer new malicious files to infected machines owing to Telegram's unique communication features.

Observing the above-mentioned segmentations, on the contrary, users have huge benefits from utilizing Telegram as their social chat app, which any app like Telegram may not offer.

If you believe that we are being subjectively biased by pointing out Telegram's drawbacks, further information will show just how objective we are.

How have users benefited from Telegram?

Do you know that with 700 million monthly active users, Telegram has ascended to become one of the top 5 downloaded apps globally in 2022? According to Telegram, it has never spent money on advertisements; instead, it was users who shared their positive experiences with other users (friends, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, and others). As a result, they were persuaded to download it.

In light of this, Telegram introduced a premium plan that gives users access to extra premium features while allowing free use.

Telegram Premium

Users will have access to increased limits, better chat management, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, and other benefits with Telegram Premium. Despite this, non-premium users will still have access to all current capabilities. In fact, they may even be granted access to select privileges, such as

Ability to download large documents.

Tap to increase the counts on premium reactions that have already been added to a message.

Can view the stickers that Premium users have sent.

Some of the enticing features that premium users can access are

1. Chat Management

New tools in Telegram Premium help you organize your conversation list, such as setting your default chat folder to ensure that the app always starts on Unread instead of All Chats.

Indeed, subscribers can keep the busiest chat lists organized by enabling a Privacy and Security feature that automatically archives and mutes new chats.

2. Animated Profile Pictures

Everyone using the app can see the animated profile videos of premium users in chats and the chat list. In addition, premium users can demonstrate their fresh look to the world or showcase their creativity with a unique looping animation.

3. 4GB Uploads

Those who use Telegram Premium can now send files up to 4 GB in size, which provides sufficient space for 4 hours of 1080p video or 18 days of high-quality audio. At the same time, non-premium users can indeed upload files and media up to 2 GB in size and take advantage of unlimited free storage in the Telegram Cloud.

4. Faster Downloads

Media and files can be downloaded as quickly as possible for premium subscribers. Users get limitless access to their cloud storage and can access everything as quickly as their network can accommodate.

5. Doubled Limits

Doubled limitations are available to premium users for everything in the app, including:

Can add the fourth account,

Able to follow 1000 channels,

Create up to 20 chat folders, each containing a maximum of 200 chats,

Add ten chats to the main list,

Ten favorite stickers may be saved,

Ability to write a longer bio and add a link to it.

6. Voice-To-Text

For those occasions when you cannot listen but still wish to see what it says, voice messages can be converted to text. You can give transcriptions a rating to help them get better.

7. Unique Stickers

There are dozens of stickers available for Premium users to send in any chat to add extra emotion and expressive effects to engage the recipients while still making them visible to all users. These stickers are meant to impress, especially millennials, and feature full-screen animations. In contrast to Telegram alternatives, the Telegram team of artists will update a premium sticker collection every month.

8. Premium Badges

In the chat list, chat headers, and member lists in groups, all premium users have a special badge that says "Premium" next to their names, signifying that they are a member of the club that gets first access to unique features.

9. Premium App Icons

Premium customers have the option to add new icons to their Home Screen in an attempt to make it more compatible with their personality or wallpaper.

Telegram guarantees its users that it will continue to implement free features that are accessible to everyone and that it will do it more quickly than any other app similar to Telegram.

Conclusion

If the encryption is disregarded, Telegram can serve as a popular social media chat software, but it is a terrible tool for team and corporate interactions. Whereas hackers are using Telegram data to their advantage, WhatsApp is only gathering commercial data from particular companies. Telegram needs to start prioritising security, or else users will begin to migrate to other messaging apps.

[tootiredtricycle]

hello i am hax anon… Genuinely i am so thankful you’re putting so much effort into this hax post thank you sooooo much <33 i come from lifesteal where we have an amazing team of archivists that neatly have every vod saved on a spreadsheet .. used to having things handed to me on a silver platter heheh . but ive really been struggling to get into mcsr because I HAVE NO IDEA WHATS GOING ON. i love these little speedrunner people already but i want to love them more!!! again. thank u so much i appreciate you and your service to the mcsr community okay bye thank u.

hellooo that was quick haha i was hoping you would see it

yw, thank you for sending the ask! i've been meaning to learn how to properly save vods for a while now so this is just the final nudge i needed, really. i'm assuming you saw my silverr reign post – it was my first time making a post like that and it was very satisfying so i am happy to make one for hax. it's fun to look back on memories, and it's always exciting to have new people interested in mcsr!

ahh lifesteal archivists...i have heard legends peepoWow

yea most runners don't save their vods, save a select few like feinberg (who trims his sometimes) and silverr who saves (most of) his full vods when he remembers/is reminded. fein has a dedicated vods channel and silverr has a playlist that used to be 250+ jumbled, undated vods until i offered to organize them after getting made mod.

anyways

welcome to mcsr! honestly i still feel pretty new myself haha even though i've been here close to a year atp. don't worry too much about not understanding everything that they do ingame, you'll start picking stuff up as you go :) i'm not the best source of info on speedrun tech (i've barely played any mc myself), but you can join the massive minecraft java speedrunning discord (javacord) or look for videos on youtube to get the gist of what people are doing in speedruns.

mcsr is more of a twitch/streaming-based community rather than yt-based – you'll find that a lot of runners' yts are mostly filled with personal best (pb) runs or failed runs. there are of course people who create fantastic youtube content (that's a whole 'nother post), but the majority is livestreamed.

there are a couple main categories that people stream: 1.16+ any% random seed glitchless (aka rsg, the most popular mc speedrunning category where the main goal is to get to the end and kill the dragon aka beat the game), 1.16 all advancements (aa), set seed glitchless (ssg), mcsr ranked (players parallel 1v1 speedrun the same seed from a filtered pool of seeds, whoever kills the dragon in their world first wins and gains elo. here is the website to download the mod made by RedLimeRL and OliverMCSR, you can join the discord to learn more. there is a quarterly ranked playoffs tournament hosted on feinberg's twitch, past playoffs vods can be found here and we are currently in season 5. here is a separate website with a live leaderboard for this season, you can see all the details of every match and directly compare player stats, very cool).

recently, people (including hax as you probably know) have also been streaming 100 hardcore, which is a challenge to beat the game (usually in 1.16) on 100 consecutive random seeds (no reset) in hardcore mode. very difficult. couriway was the first runner to attempt 100hc back in early 2022 after completing his initial 1,000 no reset runs challenge (you can find videos about that and his current 100,000 no reset runs challenge on his yt). only 2 runners so far have completed the 100hc challenge: feinberg and energy9802. some have gotten very close, including taffel (96, died to lava on run 97 rip) and hax (99). i will be talking about hax's 99 streak and its glorious end in my hax post.

mcsr is a wonderful place. it has its rough moments but for the most part it is a lovely, accepting community. when i first got into mcsr i was swept away (and still am!) by the constant innovation and clear passion that shines through in the community-organized events. just off the top of my head: speedrun showdown (my personal introduction to mcsr), eye spy invitational (aka esi, you'll hear about hax's role in esi3 soon), mcsr ranked playoffs, lockout bingo, various beat the record live (btrl) tourneys, weeklies, couriway's no reset tourney (which he plans to do for every 1,000 run milestone!), mcsr world cup, an assortment of charity events (such as the couples counseling 3 scout-and-route tourney that is happening this weekend to support the trevor project – it is being livestreamed on President_Poundcake's twitch, bracket here), and assuredly many more that are slipping my mind.

all that to say: hang tight! it's going to be a good one :)

(edit: here is the hax post!)