#iT WOULD BE MY PERMANENT URL IF I COULD JUST HAVE IT

[astromechs]

inactive blog who has the peterparkour url, just know i glare at you angrily from afar everyday ❤️

[clarenecessities]

He-man.org will close in 5 days.

He-man.org has been a staple of the Masters of the Universe community since the early days, originating as an email list that worked to document episodes before anything (not footage, not lists, nothing) was available online. It grew into a sprawling, multi-faceted beast of a thing, including an encyclopedia (an in-house wiki), merch lists, a marketplace, forums, anything you could think of.

Several years ago now, the main site went down for updates/maintenance. For a few weeks, we were told, maybe months. The forums remained open for fans to communicate, and barring a period of downtime earlier this year things were going smoothly.

Yesterday, the owner of the site, Val Staples, announced the site would be closed on November 14th, 2023. Six days later. We are currently attempting to contact him, to see if he’s interested in selling, and if he means closed as in “no new posts” or closed as in deleted entirely. Regardless of its eventual fate, the archiving of these forums is essential to preserving the history of the franchise, the fandom, and the brand.

TO SHE-RA (and MotU) FANS SPECIFICALLY: I have personally used these forums to answer questions that could be answered nowhere else. Had I not had access to them, I would never have been able to prove that Purrsia was fake, or found so much unpublished concept art, or discovered that Scott “Toyguru” Neitlich personally wrote Catra’s MOTUC bio (even if he’s put off answering my questions about it for over a year now). Forum members have conducted interviews with the likes of Jon Seisa, Cathy Larson, Janice Varney-Hamlin—essential figures in the very foundations of POP, and those interviews revealed and recorded priceless information for future generations (me! you! us!) to find. Did you know Cathy Larson named Adora? That she originally pushed for “Dorian”, after her own daughter? We cannot let this treasure trove disappear into the ether(ia).

TO THE UNAFFILIATED: Please help. Pretty please. If you’ve ever liked my art or my writing or my haphazard blogging, ever, at all, consider archiving just one board. Just one page. Literally anything helps. I am spiraling into madness & this is my library of Alexandria. The mythical one that was totally unique and persevered nowhere else and was destroyed in a single cataclysmic event. Pretty pretty please help.

HOW TO HELP:

Archive.org has several ways to upload shit but most of them are longer term than “a few days” so we’re focusing on two (which can be run simultaneously): Save Page Now, and browser extensions. From their help page:

1. Save Page Now

Put a URL into the form, press the button, and we save the page. You will instantly have a permanent URL for your page. Please note, this method only saves a single page, not the whole site.

We want to keep outlinks and screenshots wherever possible. The Archive does not keep your IP address, so your submission is anonymous.

2. Browser extensions and add-ons

Install the Wayback Machine Chrome extension in your browser. Go to a page you want to archive, click the icon in your toolbar, and select Save Page Now. We will save the page and give you a permanent URL.

One plus to installing the extension is that as you surf around, when you run into a missing page they will alert you if we have a saved copy.

More extensions, apps, and add-ons:

Firefox add-on

Safari Extension

iOS app

Android app

I strongly encourage you to use these tools even if you aren’t helping with this project/after it ends. Documenting and preserving information is essential in this day and age & The Internet Archive is at the heart of it. Please support them however you can.

I’m serious about paying you, though I may need more communication with folks I don’t know so we can coordinate/verify shit gets done. I think this is a worthwhile pursuit in itself but I recognize your time is valuable & like, people gotta eat. DM me if you’re interested and we’ll talk. I may need to adjust pay depending how many people bite but I’ll do what I can

[tsutsumi-kurose]

Hi tsutsumi-kurose! This is nanabansama. I have two questions for you. First, do you have any thoughts on who was hurting Amane when he was alive, leaving him covered in wounds? I wanted to see your perspective on it. Second...what is the origin of your url?! Just curious!!! Thanks.

ahh im so sorry it took so long to answer this, i was traveling with spotty wifi and a packed schedule this week lol. but i'm so excited to get an ask from you thank you!! ☺️

it’s so interesting that you bring up amane’s injuries now, because I actually didn’t have too many thoughts on that until 115 came out!! and now I have a very Out There theory, that i don't even really believe but think could be fun and messed up haha

my assumption has always been that tsukasa was the one who did that to him. it tracks with tsukasa asking amane things like do you want me to stay or would you rather I was gone, amane killing tsukasa, tsukasa being reckless/destructive (in very serious ways, but also even in lighter ways, like turning amane’s head too far to get him to see the stars in the picture perfect arc). amane defends the person hurting him, he forgives them for it all, and we’ve seen him show tsukasa this unconditional love throughout the series (tsukasa's existence as hanako's yorishiro, hanako saving him in 109, hanako seeming to be open to giving up his wish in order to not permanently part with tsukasa). I get the impression, after the oni arc and the night out arc, that amane was almost doing this in a nurturing way, in order to care for the person doing it. hakubo eats/destroys sumire as an act of love; mitsuba bites very deeply into kou's hand, and instead of being afraid or angry kou vows to nourish mitsuba in any way he needs. generally, throughout this series, harm being done by one person to another is not necessarily shown as an act of malice, but rather one of love and longing and need. I think this theme will continue with whatever was going on with amane before he died. and i think tsukasa and amane/hanako are constantly hurting each other despite how deeply they love each other, and tsukasa has been entangled with the supernatural (not in the same way as hakubo and mitsuba, but then, hakubo and mitsuba aren't the same type of supernatural either and yet they both have shown... cannibalistic? tendencies) since he was four, so it's possible that gave him the cannibalistic (for lack of a better word) tendencies we see in hakubo and mitsuba.

so overall I still do think it was tsukasa doing that. it makes the most sense lore wise and thematically.

but... hear me out...... given the lore we've seen..... it could be nene!!!! it's out there, but i think it's possible!!

who else, other than tsukasa, does amane love enough to accept something like that? i know we can’t know how far into the series we are, but it feels kinda late to introduce a new character to be the answer to this mystery, and it seems like amane cares about the person hurting him deeply. of the characters we already know, hanako loves tsukasa and nene most deeply (in my personal reading ofc).

one thing i was on the lookout for this arc was if nene can still slip through time, and in 115 she sees amane from the past!! i know this is passed off as magic happening around nene... but she's always there when this sort of time slipping happens. this, of course, could just be because she's our protagonist. but we get a lot of story through other perspectives than nene's!! so i don't think it's insignificant that she is the one constant when it comes to time travel!! and she has specifically seen amane in the past multiple times now (at the festival when he's ~nine, when he's ~13 and injured, now in ch115 as an adult), so we know it's possible for her to see him. she even touched him at the festival!! and took a physical key from him in the classroom!! so we know nene can physically interact with amane in the past!!

this theory is also based on a twitter event, so take this part with a grain of salt, but i think nene being "monster 8" to mitsuba's "monster 3" in the kamome monster nursery au definitely has some implications of heer potentially becoming some sort of supernatural or school mystery at some point in the story. potentially something similar to mitsuba, since they're the only monsters in this au with numbers. if nene becomes something similar to mitsuba, this takes us back to the hakubo and mitsuba cannibal point; if mitsuba is out here biting kou's hand like he wants to eat him, and nene becomes something similar to mitsuba, maybe she'll develop the same needs?

but again, this is based on a twitter event, so hard to say how much information on canon that gives us!

this theory could also maybe be disproven by that mini comic of amane in the tea party arc where he’s blushing like “that girl had really large ankles” lol, idk if he’d call her “that girl” if she was the one hurting him when he's already hurt.

and if it was nene, then that wouldn't really connect the injuries to amane killing tsukasa? at least nothing i can connect with the information we have right now.

so yeah honestly i don't really believe this theory, but i had fun thinking about it lol and it is technically a possibility with the lore we've been given!! and it would be really interesting to see all the time traveling she's done culminate in something so significant!!

but at the end of the day i still think it's tsukasa. it may be the easy answer, but the why of the injuries may be more important than the who. the who doesn’t need to be the biggest mystery for this to be an incredibly moving plot line!! and there's still so much mystery around the injuries and the murder!! could it have been a mercy killing even? so many possibilities. personally, i think amane had a plan with the murder... but that's for another post haha

and my url is just cool hot women in bnha im really intrigued by lmao, lady nagant's civilian name is kaina tsutsumi and 13's in anan kurose, so i just put their names together bc i like them a lot lol

they're both very interesting and hot and i get strong strong queer vibes from both of them lmao. look at them. i'm obsessed i'm in love

thank you sm for the ask!! hope you're having a good week!!

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

WIP Wednesday

Nobody tagged me but I'm having the time of my life with the banter in this fic so I'm sharing anyway. Have some tidbits!

(These are not necessarily in order of when they occur in the fic. I just picked out some bits I thought both showcased the banter and didn't give away plot.)

“Right, thank you. I’ll get him to bed. Can he walk?” “I can walk fine.” “I didn’t ask you, did I? I asked the trained medical professional.” “Give me the fucking ring back, I want a divorce.” “You say the sweetest things.”

This is extremely difficult to do seeing as that performance is burned into his brain with the kind of permanent intensity he thought only childhood trauma could attain.

“Well, I’m deeply flattered, but I simply can’t see myself holding your hand and calling you ‘dear’.” “No offense, but the idea of waxing poetic about our wedding day makes me want to hang myself.” “I’m flattered, actually. I’d be concerned if it was any other way.” “Oh? Your wife never told you of my deep and unrequited feelings for you?” “No, of course not, how else would she keep her psychosexual hold over you all these years?” Someone passing by the table keeps them a very weird look.

“He’s got over her, in case you were worried about that. It was some years ago.” “And here I was about to throw myself into traffic.” “Traffic’s no good on this road, you’ll want to get over one onto the main thoroughfare.” “You know exactly what to say to a man when he’s down.”

Anyway if you're sitting here wondering "is Mads having mayhaps too much fun?" the answer is yes.

Tagging @princessfbi and @buckttommy (you and your url changes I'm gonna strangle you...) since I'm not sure who else has WIPs at the moment. MWAH.

[windvexer]

Hi, have you ever heard of this entity?

https://www.scarystudies.com/midnight-man-game/

Would a witch be able to summon it outside of this context and what kind of entity is this? Also, using your own name and dropping blood onto paper what does actually entail?

Easy link to URL

Midnight Man is an urban legend. I suppose that if such an entity does exist, it could be classified as a pop cultural spirit, or perhaps an egrigore.

There is no way for us to know if it is possible to summon Midnight Man outside of this elaborate summoning ritual, until we do the necessary research. When lore dictates that a certain ritual is the correct one to use to summon an entity, it's hubris to assume we can conjure the same spirit using our own, unrelated summoning rituals.

And until you let Midnight Man try to murder you until 3:33 am, then how would you know you conjured the same spookypasta spirit if you used another format? Just because you summon a spooky spirit who promises to kill you doesn't mean you've summoned the actual Midnight Man, if such a creature does actually exist.

Also, you don't even get anything for surviving the ordeal with Midnight Man. You just don't die. This seems like a terrible deal. There are lots of urban legend summoning stories. Have you considered Three Kings, or perhaps the Man in the Fields? Either of those urban legends at least suggests that if you don't die or go permanently insane you'll get wishes, or something.

I mean, even if we're approaching this from a pop-culture witchcraft context, Midnight Man explicitly doesn't like or help people at all, unlike Man in the Fields. So it's hard for me to see this going anywhere even if you want to take the urban legend and transplant him into your personal magical practice.

I'm not sure I understand your question about using your own name. The instructions you linked seem quite clear:

1. Write down your name on a piece of paper. First, middle, and last name. Then put a drop of your blood on the same paper. Let the blood soak in to the paper. 2. Then turn off the lights. All of them. Go to the wooden door and put the piece of paper with your name in front of it. Then light the candle and put it in on top of the piece of paper.

I do sometimes use my blood in rituals. To obtain blood for this purpose, I use sterile diabetic lancets which can be purchased at any pharmacy.

Also, if your aim is to summon a demon who's only goal is to eviscerate you, please let me recommend a more fire-safe option for the setup: Use a candle with a low profile, like a tea light, and place both the paper and the candle in a large, fire-safe cooking pot.

Being hunted by a suspected demon seems like a great setup to kick a real candle and actually burn down your apartment, and doubtless the insurance company would not attempt to subrogate against the Midnight Man.

Best of luck working with creepypasta spirits!

[aubrey-right-back]

Heck. That was a lot.

We're all safe. Police were circling by in case they caught the watcher guy and this intruder took the hint and left after seeing one drive by and after Polly got out the phone. Appearance and licence plate was reported anyway to the relevant authorities, who identified him as someone on the sex offender registry.

He never saw me.

It wasn't my dad, by the way, just someone who looked a bit like him. Who saw Watcher's photos and had intent to break in here and do something to me or Basil or both. Made it clear he had no clue of my actual blog or Sunny's, he doesn't know our URL, the photos had been uploaded to other circles and the background data on the photos was used to figure out the exact address. This would never have happened without @watcherblog-faraway, and even if it did, it would have been our own faults in a reasonable matter. But no. You're trying to protect us by leaking more data first? Saying it's okay because you delete it? Everything on the Internet is permanent, you know. Everyone you claim to protect could be in danger at any moment BECAUSE OF YOU.

Do I expect this to go through your thick skulls? No. Of course not. But you're not the hero you think you are.

(Saturday 16th September, 2000, 3:09 PM)

[eossa]

How I'd Make Tumblr More Profitable

Yes, this is going to be controversial, since I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes spending, economics, and all that jazz. But I've been on Tumblr for long enough to have a rough idea of the userbase wants - which is what positions Tumblr in a niche other sites don't really utilize. Most of the points I list here are about improving the experience of existing users, as keeping users might be harder for tumblr than attracting new ones.

Please note that this posts reflects my personal opinions and some stuff I've seen people complain about it. Do not attack me over anything I've written here, it's not worth my time and I will resort to blocking if I'm being bothered. Constructive criticism is fine and encouraged!

[under the cut because this got quite long] [last updated 20th July 2023]

Features to Add

Block posts. Xkit has/had this feature, it was great. Sometimes I just don't want to see a specific post, and others probably agree with that.

Send asks and replies from sideblogs. Would literally make a lot of things easier and better.

Delete individual reblog additions from a post. Sometimes, you have a post where there is one"relevant" addition, multiple "irrelevant" additions ("yes!", "[repeated phrase in bold]", "this is a must reblog"), before there is a "relevant" addition again. But right now, you can only remove all reblog additions, not just individual ones. I feel like this would be a neat feature.

Direct blocking of anon hate which also tracks the IP and blocks the associated account(s). No rights for cowards, that's all I'll say.

Features to Bring Back

Reblog chains. Prev tags are the backbone of lots of interactions on here. If I click on someone's username in a reblog chain, I want to see that post on their blog, not their blog starting from the newest post. The loss of this feature is one of the things people constantly complain about in the replies of @changes.

Several text formatting options. As a theme maker, it would be nice to have proper preformatted text again - it makes code so much more legible. Other formatting options I miss are marked/highlighted text and text lines, which are really helpful to visually break apart passages of text.

Features to Ditch

Tumblr Live. There I've said it. If I want to see stuff like that, I have TikTok, IG Reels, Pinterest Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Twitter also has something like this. It's oversaturated, and aparently there are still enough cyber security concerns that it's not even accessible outside of the US and Canada.

Ads in lightboxes. Especially on mobile, there are already more than enough ads on the feed, no need to add more nested inside other elements.

Features that Make Money

Pay for NSFW. If this site allowed full nudity etc. again but hid it behind a paywall, we'd kill two birds with one stone: The site would probably still be allowed on the App Store, and the money influx would be huge. The userbase would also increase again.

(If Tumblr Live is kept.) Pay to snooze Tumblr Live permanently. It's the most complained about thing in changes' replies, so I feel like people would pay on a subscription base just to not see TL anymore.

Pay to increase limits. 250 posts per day is the maximum that can be posted - and there are people hitting those limits. If there was an option to buy a higher limit (500p/d, 750p/d, etc.), people might generally use it. Like those add-on charges for mobile data. Same goes for posts in the queue, posts in drafts, images in a photoset and so on.

Pay to pin posts at the top of a tag or search result. Ebay Kleinanzeigen has this neat feature where you can push your small ads to the top of a search query so that more people can see it. This could be a cool feature to try, as it would work in a more content-aware way than Blaze does.

Pay to buy inactive URLs. There are some really cool usernames on here that are taken by blogs that haven't updated for 5+ years and only have one post (or none at all), and I feel like it would be neat to be able to buy one of these cool usernames attached to an empty account. To make sure that usernames attached to redirect or something else don't get bought, tumblr should send an e-mail to the username owner - if the user doesn't react to that for 3 months, the usernames changed owners. [added 13th July 2023]

Existing Features to Improve

NPF posts. I feel like a combination of legacy and NPF would be neat. Think selecting a main element like in the legacy editor (e.g. video, image, audio) and then adding a caption that can add different content types like NPF does. Or at least create a better overview over NPF variables and release the full base code with documentation to make things easier for the web designers on here. There are more issues with the NPF format but I won't list everything people dislike about it here.

Block people. The block feature should make sure that the person being blocked doesn't see any posts made by the person they were blocked by, even if those posts were reblogged by another user. Also, like IG does, there should be an option to block either just a specific blog or the IP address attached to block side-blogs and other accounts of that user.

Color palettes. The color palette options for the dashboard are generally a nice idea but I think it would be better if there was a dropdown menu to choose a palette from rather than having to click through all the different options. For example, if I want to go from Cement (light mode) to Dark mode, I have to click through 10 options until I reach Dark again. There has to be an easier way. [added 20th July 2023]

Other Improvements Needed

Nuke spam bots. Users are reporting all the spam bots, yet, it doesn't seem like they are dwindling in numbers. Also - at least this is how it's being perceived by the userbase - tumblr isn't doing enough on their end to reduce spam bots. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed.

End hateful and criminal activities. It's the year 2023, yet there are still outright N*zis, violent tr*nsphobes, literal p*dophiles, and other people committing to the daily bit of hate speech and other illegal activities (fraud too considering all those fake GoFundMe sites) on this website. I'm not saying free speech should be banned but there is a bright red line between what is free spech and what is hate speech (or should get you jailed considering fraud and p*dophilia).

A through-out, perhaps even interactive, beginner tutorial. "The site is too complicated to use for new users!" – then explain how it works in easy terms, with examples, images, and videos. Every other application or web app has walk-throughs, just do the same here.

Improved ad relevancy. The ads I see on tumblr are usually so out-of touch with the userbase, and many of them feel like the sort of stuff you see on a spam-ridden torrenting site. I feel like increasing the relevancy of ads to what the users usually blog about would cause a higher click-rate and turn-over-rate than the current ads do.

Summary

There is probably more I could add, but that's it for now. Should I make any later additions directly to this post, I will mention it to prevent misunderstandings. If you have any ideas or constructive criticism, let me hear about it in the replies or reblogs of this post.

[razputin-vodello-au-archives]

Starting 2024, The blog will permanently change.

This is hitting me harder than I thought it would. Been a bit emotional. I have been pondering about the following decision for a while now, and it’s not been an easy one: in 2024, I will effectively shut down the Ask Blog. Now don’t panic and let me explain.

What will change?

Starting from January 2024, I will permanently disable the ask box – with exception a few times I feel like taking asks. The Ask blog will be rebranded into a reblogging …blog, complete with a new url. I will still post my Psychonauts fanfiction – both links to AO3 and tumblr posts, but mostly I’ll just be reblogging Psychonauts content. I also have a few asks and prompts saved up in my drafts, so I’ll be working on those too. Any sort of asks can also be asked on my main blog: @devastator1775.

THE TIDES OF WAR sequel story is still going to be written, so don’t worry: I will bring this AU to a satisfying conclusion.

Now, I feel like I can’t just drop this bombshell and leave it at that, so here’s my explanation for this action.

First and mostly, it has fulfilled its purpose.

When I started on “The Lives and Times of Razputin Vodello”, I created this ask-blog as a fun little side-project; never really expecting that it would take off in the way it did. Soon, this blog and the asks I got became my main tool for worldbuilding and fleshing out the AU. And I feel that, as a worldbuilding tool, the blog has reached its goal. With the expection for a few times I could manage to squeeze in a little story, my content hasn’t felt that exciting anymore.

Secondly, my priorities have shifted.

2023 has been a tough year for me, and I have come to the realization that I need to bring some changes in my life, both for my physical and my mental health – some of which have already been implemented. I want to work on myself in 2024, explore new opportunities and undertake new endeavors. Which brings me to my third reason.

Thirdly: I'm going to be working on my novel.

Pretty much self-explanatory. If I ever want to get this thing written, I'll need to get started and make time for it, but it means going to some sacrifices on my part, so …yeah.

So …yeah, I originally wanted to wait until November and post this on the blog’s second year anniversary, but … Anyway, we still have a few months left before the end, so please load up my inbox with as many asks as you can think of. If you have messages for me, I’ll happily take that.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This blog has been an amazing experience. This blog and, most importantly, every single follower have brought me so much joy and happiness these last two years and I know for a fact that my blog has brought happiness to some of you guys as well.

This blog invigorated my love for writing again.

With every single ask, you guys have helped me grow as a writer.

I will be forever grateful for my followers and readers for walking alongside me on this journey.

But every journey has its end …and this one’s is in sight.

So don’t be sad and remember the happy times.

The blog might change, but its spirit will forever be etched into my heart and soul.

So, once again:

THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING TWO YEARS!

Your Friend

Simon, the AUthor

[pandaladie]

My stupid guide to getting the stupid list of people YOU FOLLOW on tumblr

if tumblr has some way fo getting a list of usernames and urls of blogs you follow i don't know of it, if theres some script i don't know it, if theres anything. LET ME KNOW. but since i dont think there is welcome to my bruteforce method of getting a list of people you follow.

I am not a coder, i don't know how to do this with a program, and i dont know of any program that does it, no programmer thats going to or anything so im bruteforcing this in perhaps a stupid way but it works

go to your https://www.tumblr.com/following page

its just this same link, it takes you to the list of everyone you follow Then you need to load EVERY FOLLOWER by scrolling ALLL THE WAY DOWN the list, i have 2000 blogs i follow but ti doesnt take long for me to get to the end, yes you have to do this.

rightclick and select inspect

a box will come up, this might be scary for non techy people, don't worry were just looking at the code underneath the site, nothing you change will be permanent. dont mess around here unless you know kinda what youre doing, but dont be scared for what were gonna do.

there are several tabs to this new window, we want to be in the inspector tab, and when you mouse over the text in here you can notice that it flashes certain parts of tumblr. these different lines all pertain to certain spots of the webpage so you can see what tumblr wants you to see.

we want to find where they put the followers

so were gonna hover over:

and notice that the very center and only the center where you're followers are shown is lit up, that means inside this line somewhere is your follower list ((its not gonna be pretty)) use the little arrow on the side of this line and click it to expand the underlying code (this is really called nesting i think im not a coder, basically when there an arrow, theres stuff in there)

open the next arrow too (main something something)

keep hovering over the lines within this one and see which one lights up the center and only open that one, next one is "section something something" next class something something

now this might start to look familliar to you if you read all these "data-cell-id=" lines these are all the people you follows usernames,

I'm sure someone who knows how to code would be able to grab this in a neat way and put it in a text document for us, but i dont know how to do that i just know i want it.

so what i do is:

right click the line whose arrow we just opened to be able to see this and select "copy, inner html" this line to be clear

and i make a new notepad document(txt) on my computer, and i paste all that shit in there. and yes it looks like complete nonsense because everything is going everywhere with text you dont need or understand. dont worry about it. you still have all your list of following usernames in there.

now i used vs code(or visual studio code) (its a free program you can just get it if you want use google) and you dont even need to know any coding for this cleaning step. to clean this up, i open the document i created with all this shit in it in vs code and it has the capability to select every instance of a word or symbol or whatever and delete every single one, or replace it. it can also write with multiple cursors at the end of every line of text at the same time. so this way i can get rid of all this nonsense stuff to line up everyones usernames the way i'd like.

you can use google to figure out how to do this, or fuff about in vs code, but selecting a chunk and right clicking and choosing "change all occurrences" is what i used the most.

now if someone who actually codes could… help.. help me please.. dont let anyone else have to use this guide, there has to be a better way. thank you i love you

[power-handmaiden]

patreon users help me

the tl;dr of my question is: is there a way to search a creator's posts for a specific string of words? Or search titles only? Is there any good way to search that doesn't just turn up anything with the vaguest similarly?

The details: in preparation for my 2024 Tingler marathon I signed up for Chuck Tingle's patreon so as I build my checklist, I can include whether each title is available on Patreon or whether I'll have to buy it myself. Just to test it out I decided to search for "Creamed In The Butt By My Handsome Living Corn" since that was one of the titles I could remember off the top of my head, and I got... a lot of results. More than I'd like to sift through. I tried searching for Living Corn first and got results that included both words, but Corn was a part of Corner. So I put quotation marks around it, but that did nothing. Then I just typed I'm the whole title and got the same results, most of which don't even include the word Creamed. I guess I can go back through every listing, grab the patreon link, and assign it to an item on my checklist once the checklist is all done, but if there's an easier way I would appreciate it. (I also don't know if patreon URLs are good permanently so I'm kind of scared of going to grab a bunch of links just to have them go dead a couple months into the year)

[dramamath]

tag game— spelling out your URL with songs! I was tagged by @purplemuskrat. I will follow my friend's lead and add some commentary. It took me a few days to consider the options, but I like my collection of songs. I think they fit me quite well.

Drowning by Joe Jackson - I connected with this song when Joe Jackson released his album Laughter & Lust in 1991. It rattled around in my brain looking for a cause, which it would find in 2005. At the time, I had just wrapped up my 11th play as a high school director and although I was looking forward to the next show, I realized that my darling bride was pregnant, we would soon have four kids under the age of 6, and I needed to step away to spend as much time as possible at home. The drowning in this song refers to the end of a romantic relationship. However, as I sat on an empty stage, the lyrics took on a new meaning. "I don't love you, but I'm lost," are the opening words. I realized that, in that moment, I didn't have the deep love of theatre that had been central to my being, but felt lost in the need to walk away from it. This song made it easier to do just that, until I was ready to return.

Root Beer Rag by Billy Joel - From his 1974 album Streetlife Serenade, this instrumental is lively and witty and just picks you up and carries you with it. It is a beautiful marriage of Rock and Ragtime as you will ever find.

All Along the Watchtower arranged by Bear McCreary - Originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967 and memorably recorded a year later by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, this version that was an integral part (in instrumental form) in the latter half of season 3 of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, its full exposure in the final episode of that season was haunting as many hinted secrets were revealed. I get chills anytime I hear it.

Make Me Smile by Chicago - This song begins a seven-song cycle which the band refers to as Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon (Make Me Smile - So Much to Say, So Much to Give - Anxiety's Moment - West Virginia Fantasies - Colour My World - To Be Free - Now More Than Ever) from the 1970 double album Chicago II lays out the story of composer and the band's trombonist and his attempt to win back the love of his ex-fiancé.

Accountancy Shanty by Monty Python - Formally known as The Crimson Permanent Assurance, this song is from a short film that opened Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It speaks well for my love of absurdist humor.

Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney - From his 1970 debut solo album, the lyrics just haunt me. "Maybe, I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time/And maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you." I thought about these words when my darling bride asked me, after six years of friendship, why I had never asked her out.

Alive by Hiromi - A jazz pianist, this song opens her 2014 album of the same name. The song grabs you by the lapels of the jacket you are wearing and won't let go until you are fully engrossed in the journey.

Take Her to the Mardi Gras by Harry Connick Jr - I feel lucky that I purchased the 2007 album Oh My NoLa from Walmart, because this track was only placed on copies of the CD sold in those stores. It is another "hold on tight and don't let go" kind of song ... one I wish was available for karaoke, because I would be on that stage in a heartbeat.

Hearts by Yes - Truth be told, I could have probably done this entire list with nothing by music from Yes. They have invented and reinvented themselves for 50 years. Again, it is the lyrics that just haunted me upon first listen. "Set your heart sail on the river (Hearing)/Look around you as you drift downstream (Talking)/Pouring souls into the ocean (Love you)/Take account of all you've seen."

If you have made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my journey and perhaps, find yourself a new song to put into your rotation. Thank you, purplemuskrat, for the inspiration.

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

which Badfinger song would you use for a URL if you could?

SO MANY POSSIBILITIES i could be sweettumblrmorning instead of sweet tuesday morning or nameoftheblog instead of name of the game or storminatumblr instead of storm in a teacup. comeandblogit instead of come and get it. i actually love that.

MAYBETOMORROWIWILLBLOGAGAIN

midnightblogger

blogofallages

BLOGWYN < this is my favorite one

yes they have to be puns on "tumblr" or "blog"

but no, i would actually probably choose something more serious for an emotional reason and i'm not sure what that would be right now, i would probably analyze every single lyric thoroughly with blog name thoughts in mind to pick the perfect one that i could keep forever. this is IF i planned on having a permanent badfinger blog. it would take me a while to come up with one, probably.

if i was limited to only using the actual song titles without them being puns and just because i like the song, then i'd probably go wiiittttth (scrolling my playlist right now) either blodwyn, we're for the dark orrrr beautiful and blue. or walk out in the rain. or blind owl. i like other songs a lot too but i vibe with the titles of these ones the most, i think.

i could go with perfection, but i would want some extra lyrics so it would have more of the song's point in it because he's saying there is no real perfection. i agree, pete.

i would also consider apple of my eye but i think i like the other ones more for urls so i don't think it would be a final choice(though i do love the song)

i'm rambling now, look at what you did to me anon (thank you very much i'm having fun answering this)

shine on could work too actually because it sounds happy and uplifting, like yes i think i will shine on today. AND the music sounds happy so every time i look at the url it would put a happy sound in my head. and the image of pete's mustache.

i'll stop here because i'm going to end up listing too many songs and explaining why and how they could work for a url

[intrepidmare]

I haven't spent the last 10+ years of my life on this site curating my dash to EXACTLY what I want to see in it for you @staff to come and forced an algorithm on me!!! DON'T YOU DARE!! That would make me consider to leave (even there's nowhere else I'd like to go bc the rest of social media sites are shitter). This is my hellsite, and I want to stay here, so don't fuck it up!

Do you want to make things better for users? How about fixing the search engine within the site? I'm positive that the user base at large will be eternally grateful if every time we search for a post we could actually find it! We don't need you to tell us what we should look at; let us seek what we want to see.

And oh! You know what else would make things better for us? Getting rid of Tumblr live, or at least let people turn it off permanently as any other feature on this site. I know why you got the thing on, and I get that money needs to come from somewhere to make the site profitable, but can you really tell me that a significant portion of the userbase is actually using that?!? Because from I can see, nobody is.

And stop babying people. This site is not difficult to use. Let me tell you that, back in the day, I had much more trouble understanding how twitter worked than I ever did with Tumblr, and this was in the ancient wild days. Anyone who doesn't understand how the site works is because they're used to get things thrown at their face, content being spoonfed to them, and having no active role in shaping their experience to their liking. Do you really want to contribute to the mindless content consumerism rampart on the internet right now?! Especially when Tumblr prided itself for the opposite?!!

Faciliting conversations, yeah, ok, that would be nice. That includes the ability to choose which blog you reply a post from (main or side blog), right? At least when you're the original poster using a side blog. It would be very very very cool if you allowed that. Sometimes, you want to keep your main blog completely separate from side blogs and people is more likely to recognize the url if they follow the side blog not the main. I understood the need not to allow that before, probably making more difficult for haters to harass other people under the protection of a different url, but if now you can track anonymous asks to users (since they have to be logged in to send said anonymous), you can do the same thing with side blogs.

Just looking at how I started this reply (and other gazillion answers in the notes), you can tell you might be jeopardizing the current base if you implement some of these changes and you don't give a choice for opting out of them. Don't lose the faithful users just trying to catch potential users that will never come here in the end (talking about those users way to used to algorithms). That's a bad play, guys. Seriously, remember the exodus after the nsfw ban? This one could be way worse. Just saying!

"Push notifications and emails are essential tools to..." No, there are not!! Most people turn those off anyway. Just ask anyone. And in my case in particular, i hate getting emails. If you force me to get them because i have push notifications off, I'll hunt you down!! Altho, I admit that getting a notif when a poll is over is cool. But that's my choice. It's my decision to what and how i get the notifications, not yours.

------------------

I was going to post this, but i saw the update staff did, saying that the chronological order is staying as it is, and the other algorithmic stuff can be toggle off in the settings (e.g., best things first). Ok that's great! But why would you put it the way you did in the original post, then?!!

The first thing you should've said was that the new changes you want to implement will be optional!! Because as it's written, it didn't sound that way.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[bblawg01]

Introduction Post

Hello!

I'm Spaceyish! I'm a 21 year old college student (as of June 2024) studying psychology. My pronouns are she/they.

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 15. For those of you who don't know what ADHD is (or believe that ADHD can only be diagnosed in hyperactive boys under the age of ten), ADHD is a condition generally characterized by three things: 1) inability to pay attention, 2) hyperactivity and 3) impulsivity. Yeah, the eight year old boy in your third grade class that could not sit still and forgot any instructions your teacher ever gave him within five seconds might have had ADHD, but the thirty year old woman who sits next to you on the bus who always seems to be bouncing her leg and is always buying shit off of Amazon may be just as likely to have it.

[Note that I'm not a licensed professional and I can't provide diagnoses-- the above situation is a hypothetical]

My worst ADHD symptoms are related to impulse problems. I order takeout way too often, spend way too much time and money on Amazon, and have more makeup than my friend who worked at Sephora for half a year and got more than a thousand dollars worth of products for free through her gratis. I very clearly have an overconsumption problem, and I'm working on it in therapy. One method that was recently mentioned to me was blogging, and while watching a StrangeAeons video, I realized Tumblr would allow me to blog for free (I'm trying to cut back on spending, and opening a URL seems expensive and hard). So, here I am!

This is probably going to be mostly related to the consumption of makeup and skincare, but I want to raise awareness of ADHD (especially in WOC-- I'm mixed) in general.

Hopefully I don't forget about this blog-- ADHD object permanence and all that.

[whosxafraid]

Meme: no idea my dude...i am so sorry. Status: closed cuz I dont know which one it was URL: @brooklynislandgirl

Were it not for his other senses--her quiet statement would have startled him. But as it is he lets it float into the air. Given steps to climb with each step he and she make upon the loose graveled road. Foot steps that come to a slower pace each time until they cease entirely. A road pointed in each of the true directions upon the compass.

And it is here that he slips his arm from beneath her own. A crunch and then another. Just two has brought him to the center. The very point that all is connected in upon itself. A veil so thin that on the right night...well just about anyone could stumble their way into another time and place.

Which is why here is where was chosen. Here where one side was just as strong as the other. Colliding and connecting and separating again. No winner. No loser. Even ground. And green finally tears itself from the night sky. Green that's seen too much and remembered too little. Green that settles on the one he had loved in another life...the asker of the quandary. And he smiles.

"Oi'd be callin' us, odd o'bes' lass."

Something darkly mischievous flickers across his features before the instantaneous micro flinch chases it away. All of it wrapped up in a well practiced wink.

"Bu' aye...f'ye mus' know.... "

And there's a whirl of shadow and mist that rises up from nothing in the gravel. A crack then six....and she can hear it can't she? She can hear him right? Screaming for her to...to... An ear ringing snap, blinding light that is slow to fade away breath by breath. The night sky coming into focus a little more with each exhale. The sound of grinding gravel the first thing of notice taken. And then--

"Bet'.....Bet' be lookin' o'me lass...come on....open ye eyes lass."

The world beneath her feet starts to vibrate...rattle like a baby's play thing and then all at once---

"Bet'!!!"

Her eyes snap open, and she coughs. Arms coming under her to help her sit up. And where it should have rocked her to her core...everything is in perfect alignment. And there's clarity isn't there? Understanding of what the fuck just happened. And a hand comes up. Connects with his face so hard a grown man's head snaps entirely to one side.

"Nevah hana hou, Ca'hal. Ya lissen f' me?!"

A roll of a jaw and a wince as he comes back on his ass. Both out of exhaustion as much as how hard she hit him. With her hand and her name calling. Green and yellow squinting a bit in the moon light. The bugs that have been screaming their music all night going silent in the wake of her yelling. And an old man hasn't the heart to do much else than sigh. Hands tossed in the air a bit flippantly.

"Me apologies, ye highness."

Because she can name call all she damn well likes. But she asked him to show her what he does for a living. And while he told her it would be best to let him do this bit...well she'd decided all on her own she was going to show him a thing or too. And foolishly he'd let her. Foolishly he'd said 'As ye loi'ke, lass' and now here they were sixteen miles into the wilds of Hungry and she nearly ended up on the wrong side of the veil in a permanent kind of way.

"Bu' f'i' be any consolation..."

He holds up a vial filled with what looks like dark ichor.

"We go'im."

[jinxviolets]

8, 23 and 25? 👀

8. game of the year?

this feels like a loaded question bc look at my URL/icon lol but baldur’s gate 3!!!! the only other game i have this much time in is animal crossing lol 😅 honestly i really could write essays on why i think this game is phenomenal but i really just love it SO much, i think they did SO much right

23. if you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?

you will be more powerful this year than you ever thought you could be

25. did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? describe one

yeah!! the only character i’ve given any real thought to so far is styx, my bg3 dark urge. she is a mephistopheles tiefling ranger. she hunted… kind of anything. she was a mercenary, a sword-for-hire, killing in part bc [redacted dark urge spoilers] and also bc she’s a fucking great tracker, so she could earn gold by hunting people down. she had animal companions she loved dearly and valued them more than her companions, bc she felt they were stronger. eventually, she ran into what she thought was a creature but turned out to be an incredibly powerful sorcerer. while fighting them, she got hit with a spell that left a magical scar on both her skin and in her eye, leaving her with permanent proof of her wrongdoings. the sorcerer is one of the only targets that’s ever gotten away.

this is her 🩵🖤

end-of-year asks! send me a number?