#if only i could be a full time content creator but that doesn't pay the bills nor is it what i'm in school for 💀

[seokmattchuus]

Guess who quit their second job so they have more time to write~

[yooniesim]

I think one of the things that makes it so hard to find new creators (that are free) is how insular paywall/early access cc creators are. I literally can't remember the last time any of them used their massive platforms to support newer creators and they only seem to reblog content that features their own stuff or other creators they're close with. They are literally only concerned about their "brand" instead of actually participating in the community that provides them with their livelihoods. If you're looking for content, you're going directly to these creators first and maybe you'll look through finds blogs if you're more invested. To a point, I understand that's how popularity works, but they could be doing so much more.

Plus, since the early access model is so popular, I do think there's a push for new creators to switch to that. You get an initial burst of engagement when you first post and then another when your content is free, instead of just posting once and getting what you get. Also, I do think there's an unspoken rule that "early access creator" = "professional". So, if you want to be taken seriously, you'll imitate what the "professionals" are doing.

I'm sorry you're discouraged trying to find new creators. It's actually insane how much damage the popularity of paywalling has done to this community.

Hey nonny, thanks for sending this and also for your sympathy! I agree with everything you said, and I'm just gonna ramble a bit in a semi related way.

I think the point you made about professionalism is especially poignant. Creating cc is less a hobby now and more a setup for your own "business". But in this marketplace, there are no standards or regulation whatsoever- and many people here are just bad at what they do in various ways. It seems as if they either have the aesthetic & business model down, but are terrible to their customers and/or make terrible product, or they make a good product but can't quite grasp how to play the "game" to work the system to its full advantage. Sometimes you get people bad at all of it, yet they still charge. Because the only consistent thing about this community at the moment is that everything absolutely has to have a price, no matter how shitty it is. And there's absolutely zero consequence for being a gigantic douche nozzle.

This is a mostly disconnected side note, but when I think about these creators, it's just unbelievably depressing. I have thought about what it would be like to try early access a few times over the years, and honestly even the thought gave me such a burst of anxiety I immediately dismissed it. Just releasing cc for free is sometimes an anxious feeling for me, I just can't imagine having to base a business around it. The thought of possibly disappointing people and not consistently providing a quality product that is worth their money is a shameful thought for me. I have gotten a few $1 donations to my patreon over the years and even then i feel bad for not being able to create cc for a while because of my mental health, and not being better at cc making in general. And yet there's people that provide the most lazy, shit items I've ever seen without blinking. Stuff they never tested that doesn't work in game, two second conversions, no hat chops, no lods, gigantic poly, etc. They don't even know how to make cc and admit to that but still charge. I think I would die of shame. I'm sitting here thinking about, do they feel guilt over it, in the back of their mind? Does the stress and the anxiety gnaw at them like it does me? Even just uploading to curseforge for me, causes a bit of anxiety, even though no one pays for it directly. But CF is just another tool to be used to most- now people use patreon, but once its unlocked, the download link leads to CF so they can double dip. So it must not be bothersome to them at all. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around.

...I've gotten so far off track, again. Here's the part where I re-read your ask and try to get back on topic lol. Sorry, my mind runs a lot these days.

I'm glad you mentioned the part about how insular paywallers are. But I think there's even more to this than just popularity. They do not break from their circle, except in the very rare case someone new becomes very popular and they want to do a boring collab with them, and even then it seems limited. I'm pretty sure they have a server (or multiple) where they share people's urls for the purposes of chain blocking them. They also, without a doubt, share people's personal info to one another in order to ban their accounts from their patreons (at the very least). I have witnessed this multiple times. There are several doxxing rings besides the ones that were exposed, at least one exclusive to early access creators. They don't allow new people in/trust others easily because of this. This is why I don't trust paywallers as a rule; not because I think custom content should never be monetized under any circumstances, but because the lack of standardization and consequences for privacy violations makes it unsafe.

I've read through your ask again, and it made me think of something else, so bear with me haha. But the point about how you find newer creators, and how some will go to finds blogs. The fact of the matter is that popular finds blogs have the potential to be compromised as well. I have been blocked by mmccworld ever since EA temporarily banned paywalling and I reblogged a post that had a list of people intending to continue paywalling after that, and they happened to be on that list. They were one of the more popular finds blogs in the community, but I obviously won't be reblogged by them like I was in the past. Now, this isn't that relevant anymore since they're definitely not as highly regarded as they once were, but think about tumblr's lack of algorithm & what you said about how people find newer creators. If you aren't reblogged, you aren't found. And it makes me wonder how many other creators are blocked at a finds blog's discretion. I mean, this isn't necessarily a bad thing; you can filter people how you like, for example I don't reblog from paywallers on mine, or known bigots etc. But it's something to think about, and I think is a smaller example of how simblr works. If you don't play the game and fall in line, if you question the wrong person, you won't get exposure. And to most, in our current system, exposure equals money. Of course you're going to toe the line- no one wants to be publicly shamed, or worse, have a drop in potential income.

This has gone on far, far too long, so let me stop lol. But thanks again for sending this and allowing me to ramble in response, nonny... not that you had a choice 🤣

[polina-tvorozhok]

RP Headcanons p2

POLI

Since I cannot leave you without any content while working on my au, have some more headcanons 😜

PAST

Poli used to live with his two fathers, who were humans + creators of his design and his younger brother. Unfortunately, both of his parents were in pretty toxic relationship. They were always either busy with work (both of them were officers) or they were fighting, so they didn't really pay much attention to the kids.

Both Poli and his brother lived and trained in a police department, where his parents worked.

When Poli was 10 and his brother 9 an "accident" happened. One of the workers began to attack everyone. The imposter ran away while 5 workers were killed, including Poli's brother.

After the tragedy, the family's relationship got just worse. The two men would fight all the time and wouldn't pay any attention to their only son at all.

Although Poli was feeling terrible, he tried to show his parents some empathy and help them (somehow), yet, no matter the effort the young car would make, his parents did not listen to him.

Six months after the tragedy, the young car ran away from home 'cause he could not bare the situation anymore.

No matter the difficulties, Poli actually made it to another police department. He also started seeing a therapist, he moved on pretty quickly, unlike his parents. This man asked for no trauma!

Despite the childhood trauma and him not wanting to have anything in common with his two fathers, Poli kept trying to help them (or at least contact them) throughout his entire life, yet no progress has been made.

PRESENT

Although Poli was seeing a therapist, he fully recovered after participating in Broomstown Rescue Team.

He sees all of his friends as an actual family where he belongs.

Due to this every time someone of them get hurt, Poli tends to overworry.

Out of all the rescuers Poli and Roy has the strongest bonds.

Sometimes after a long day full of work, all the squad will gather somewhere and just cuddle.

Poli is a MASTER of roasting people. He doesn't do that very often but when he does... Oh...

He ESPECIALLY likes to roast those who poss him off. It's not easy to do it (he prefers to keep his cool + the role of leader requires calmness) so it only hits harder.

One day Poli and Helly decided to make a joke competition. The goal was to make the opponent to laugh without laughing at the opponent's jokes. Boy I promise, the rest of the team was laughing so hard that they were almost crying.

He did not win the competition.

After the competition he's been tickling Helly for at least 15 minutes straight.

He is the second after Helly who has to listen to Jin's lectures.

Poli's the one to overwork himself the most often out of all the squad.

That's all for today! Have a wonderful day/night💗💗💗

[lhs3020b]

Regarding the ongoing uBlock-vs-YouTube arms race, it's interesting how, in a way, it showcases Google/Doubleclick/whatever-they-call-themselves-now's slow downfall.

It's hard to remember now, but in the 2000s, people actually non-ironically liked Google. Even as late as 2014, you could still see pro-Google takes even in Leftist and semi-Left spaces. In 2014-19, for all its flaws you could still say Google services were useful, so they had that very-practical point in their favour.

Then the 2020s began and search became increasingly-useless.

(These days, I bookmark anything I need on the web, because goodness knows if I'll be able to find it twice).

YouTube's slide appears to be well under way. It's not new, certainly they've had problems for a while - crap moderation, reams of problematic content, an algorithm that pushes far-Right influencers apparently over all other videos, and then there is the sheer propensity of YT content-creators for scandal. (Just to think of a few recent examples of the latter, let's see ... there's the 8Passengers case, there's the ongoing illuminaughtii situation, and now there's the Sssniperwolf [just how many "S"'s does she need?] debacle. And they're not the only examples I can think of, just off the top of my head. If you dug, you could certainly find many, many more. Youtuber implosions aren't rare.)

Now the platform iself is going to war with its users.

That ... rarely ends well for platforms. (*cough* LiveJournal *cough*)

As to what's going on in the background, obviously I don't know for a fact, but we can take some guesses. They may involve the words "money", "managers" and possibly "venture capital". The venture capital model that supported many internet endeavours in the 2010s seems to have gone pop, likely as a side-effect of the pandemic-rebound inflation surge. Previously, with interest rates sat up against the zero lower bound for an entire decade, VC types could borrow huge amounts of money at little-to-no cost, and they would only need a handful of investments to pay off to recoup their costs elsewhere. Now, that's no longer true. Suddenly, the VC types can quickly find themselves dangerously overextended on debt, hence some of the desperation to claw back any pennies they can.

Though, it should be noted, this point perhaps doesn't fit YouTube so well. Google/Doubleclick have no shortage of money, and were apparently quite happy to run YT as a loss-leader throughout the late 2000s and all of the 2010s. Why did they suddenly panic this year?

I have a suspicion that the answer may lie in the word "management".

As for managers, both platform and business, one thing I've noticed is that managerial culture seems to have fallen off a cliff during and "after" (insofar as there is an "after") the pandemic. Lockdown seems to have messed them up; it does appear that a lot of them fear and resent the loss of minute-to-minute control over their staf that they had when everything was default-in-the-office-full-time. (One thing I've wondered about is what is the true ratio between people who go into management for the money and people who do it because actually, they don't care about the cash and are just a control freak acting out?) The authoritarian, hierarchical nature of the modern corporate internal structure means these people are incentivised to kick down at every opportunity.

Certainly, purely from personal experience, my own workplace has got a lot worse during and after the pandemic, and most of that seems to be coming down from the top.

Viewed in the light of this model, YouTube's platform dictats make slightly more sense - basically, managers seeing users doing something they don't like, and said managers then having a tantrum. Probably they're using the VC business model issue as their justification for their behaviour, and who knows, maybe some of them even believe it.

Anyway, we'll see how this all plays out, but perhaps this is a sign we all need less Google in our lives.

[ifiwereafish]

holy fuck

if you/someone you know use UHC, makes sure whoever pays for your/their healthcare - you/them, a spouse, family, whatever - knows about this because to quote a content creator i follow called liv pearsall, "what in, and i do not say this lightly, fresh hell"

also, if you're like me (in my case it's autism but it could be something else for you) and struggle with understand big, fancy words (like the article) i ran the article through this informalizer to make a more simple version. it's under the cut! :)

Yo, so here's the deal. UnitedHealthcare, the biggest health insurance company in the US, is supposedly using this totally messed up AI algorithm to screw over old folks and deny them the coverage they really need. It's a total mess. These elderly patients are getting booted out of rehab and care facilities way too early, and they're being forced to drain their savings just to get the care that should be covered by their Medicare Advantage Plan.

And get this, someone actually filed a lawsuit about it. It's going down in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit is all about how UnitedHealth denied health coverage to two people who eventually died. But it's not just about them — there could be thousands of other people in similar situations.

This lawsuit lines up with an investigation by Stat News that basically supports all the claims. Stat got their hands on internal documents and talked to former employees of NaviHealth, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth that created this messed up AI algorithm called nH Predict.

One former employee, Amber Lynch, spilled the tea to Stat. She used to work for NaviHealth and said that the whole company cared more about money than actually helping patients. She hated how they treated patients like data points instead of human beings.

Here's the deal with nH Predict. It started being used by UnitedHealth back in November 2019, and they're still using it. Basically, this algorithm tries to guess how much care a patient on Medicare Advantage will need after they have, like, a big injury or illness. Stuff like therapy and skilled care in hospitals and nursing homes.

No one really knows how nH Predict works exactly, but it apparently takes info from a database with cases from 6 million patients. The case managers at NaviHealth put in some details about a patient, like age and living situation, and the algorithm spits out estimates based on similar patients in the database. It tries to figure out stuff like how long the patient will need care and when they can be discharged.

But here's the problem — the algorithm doesn't take a bunch of important factors into account, like other medical issues the patient might have or if they catch something like pneumonia or COVID-19 during their stay. It's a mess.

According to the investigation and the lawsuit, the estimates the algorithm gives are usually way off. With nH Predict, patients are hardly ever getting the full 100 days of covered care they're supposed to get in a nursing home. Usually, they only get like 14 days before UnitedHealth denies payment.

And get this, when patients or their doctors ask to see the algorithm's reports, UnitedHealth just says no and claims it's top secret. And if the doctors try to disagree with UnitedHealth's decision, tough luck. UnitedHealth just overrides them.

This whole thing is messed up, but sadly it's not the first time the healthcare industry has screwed up with AI. They've been doing this racist algorithm stuff for a while now. But what makes this situation even worse is that it seems like UnitedHealth is deliberately denying coverage to save money.

Ever since UnitedHealth bought NaviHealth, former employees say the company cares more about hitting targets and making post-acute care as short and cheap as possible. They even have requirements for case managers to follow the algorithm's predictions. If they don't, they could get in trouble or even lose their jobs.

Apparently, case managers are trained to defend the algorithm's estimates to patients and their caregivers. They use all these tactics to shut down any objections. Like, if a nursing home doesn't want to let a patient leave, the case manager will say the patient doesn't need certain care because of some calorie rule. It's like they don't even care about the patients.

And even if patients manage to win an appeal and get the denial overturned, UnitedHealth just comes right back with another denial a few days later. It's a never-ending cycle.

The lawsuit is fighting back against UnitedHealth and NaviHealth for all this shady behavior. They're accusing them of breaking contracts, not acting in good faith, unfairly getting rich, and violating insurance laws in a bunch of states. They want damages, emotional distress compensation, and for UnitedHealth to stop using the AI-based claims denials.

We don't know exactly how much money UnitedHealth saves with nH Predict, but it's gotta be a crazy amount. Last year, the CEO made almost $21 million, and other execs made millions too.

In the end, it's just a messed up situation. These elderly people are getting screwed over by an AI algorithm that values money over their health. It's not cool, and something needs to change.

UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to override doctors' judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients. This has resulted in patients being kicked out of rehabilitation programs and care facilities far too early, forcing them to drain their life savings to obtain needed care that should be covered under their government-funded Medicare Advantage Plan.

It's not just flawed, it's flawed in UnitedHealthcare's favor.

That's not a flaw... that's fraud.

[alchemiclee]

lee rants about stuff. warning to not read if you dont like rants about life fhfdjdjdsklsl

i've recently seen so many new streamers become full time streamers/content creators. they blow up so fast and do so well. I love supporting them as much as I can. it's really cool and makes me feel like maybe it's actually possible????? but at the same time, it feels so impossible for me for several reasons that these people don't have to deal with...

first, my internet won't even let me stream right now. I have had several years since I started where I had to stop for long periods because of these reoccurring problems.

second, these people stream regularly, even if they work daily. (current one i'm watching is talking about her schedule. she has streams planned every day and is working 12 hours shifts daily....the heck) i'm so exhausted after work and I only work 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I could only do it Fridays and Saturdays most times. sometimes I did it midweek in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep lol. but it was so hard to keep up with when I had to go to work. the few months I was off work for surgery was so consistent I streamed almost every day. others can make time in hectic schedules but I can't. I don't have the time to build up something that makes quitting my job safe to do.

on top of that, having health issues makes it impossible to be consistent. you NEED to be consistent to make it as a streamer/content creator. and last, most streamers who do well are super outgoing, funny, and talk easily. my autism makes talking physically hard and very exhausting, makes me not know what to talk about or how to respond to people, and makes it hard for me to have/show a personality...people think i'm boring and dont want to watch. so I can't get anywhere with it.

another added bonus is many of these people have something that makes them get a boosted popularity or viewership at the start. such as being a mod or friends with a popular streamer, becoming a popular chatter in someone's streams and making lots of friends, or being part of a popular project or something and becoming known through that. I DID become affiliate through being part of a thing (a very active gtav rp server) but after that thing closed down, all my viewers went with it.

but i'd love so much to be able to quit my job too like these streamers i've watched. i'd love to quit mopping floors, collecting trash, cleaning literal shit, making my body constantly be in pain and be super bored of life for minimum wage. sighs. i've been off and on streaming since 2017 and content creating since at least 2012. but i'm still working my "temporary" job over 10 years later and suffering 😭 not sure what to do. if people give me advice it's always to "do more/be consistent" as if i'm able. but how do you do that when you ARENT able?

I know I can't get another job. I want one i enjoy that doesn't hurt and doesn't feel like a job basically. why do we have to work jobs we hate??? I only have a job because I work with my mom for my aunt. i've been rejected from all 300+ jobs i've applied to. I dont have options. I have bills to pay. I want to do cool stuff. but I don't have the ability to do what's required. so I just keep trying and get nowhere and it's exhausting 😭 telling me "one day....." doesn't help because I KNOW what i need to do, but I physically am struggling to do any of it. like I literally can't ask my internet to work and it listens 😭😭😭😭

trying super hard to fix my internet do I can try streaming again. it's been over a year now...

[strawberry-cowmilk]

Brothers and datables watch pan's labyrinth. Their reactions.

Hi! I actually haven't watched the movie yet but I did some research on it, I know what I'm going to watch next now. Thanks for the (indirect??) movie recommendation, anon! Anyways, I hope you like it

the obey me cast watches pan's labyrinth

not proof read, also luke isn't in this because I don't think it's a child-friendy movie. Also, I'll do my best to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

content warnings: movie itself is pretty dark, crying

-----

Lucifer

he enjoys movies that have a deeper meaning behind the surface, so it's safe to assume he liked this one

lucifer watched it with a straight face, but deep down inside he felt bad for the girl (he will never admit to that)

even though he's watched plenty of movies that deal with heavy topics

Mammon

we all know this guy hates horror, and while this movie isn't exactly that genre, some of those magical creatures haunted him in his nightmares

mammon was that one guy who screamed pretty loudly during some scenes

and also he cried at the ending

Leviathan

movie night? with diavolo and the others and the movie isn't even an anime? hard pass if only lucifer didn't force him to join the activity

levi went in with a pretty sour attitude towards the film, but eventually it grew on him

now he's writing a 6 page essay review on it online

Satan

he's actually already read the book so he knows some of the hidden lore behind the movie

satan's just sitting there, feeling proud of himself because he knows he's got more knowledge than lucifer at the moment

also he is the one who tells mammon to be quiet when he screams

Asmodeus

this is very different than the mostly lighthearted stuff he usually watches

and asmo feels like this is one of those movies where you can't really understand the full story when you've only watched it once

that doesn't mean he'll rewatch it, he prefers his 'lighter' stuff

Beelzebub

as long as there's popcorn and/or other food, beel doesn't care what movie plays nor does he pay full attention to it

but this one actually did catch his attention at some point, beel really put the popcorn down for a minute

the ending made him very emotional though

Belphegor

there's a good chance belphie will fall asleep during the movie

unless a loud noise or something wakes him up, he will fall asleep and therefore miss the movie

he doesn't really mind that, though, belphie likes sleeping during movies

Diavolo

this is great! watching a film from the human world in the devildom

diavolo is so happy spending time with the others, the switch in mood caused by the dark content in the movie actually catches him off guard for a while

he did like said movie, but maybe let's watch something less heavy next time

Barbatos

barbatos probably didn't watch the whole thing since he was doing things like making everybody tea while the movie was playing

but chances are high he fully understood what was happening regardless

he can tell diavolo got a little upset by the movie, cheering his master up is his first priority after the film ended

Simeon

he had not heard of the movie before, so he looked it up to check if he could bring luke or not

turns out it's not suitable for him so simeon went without him

as a writer, he really appreciates the effort the creators put into the movie

Solomon

he's a human and he's been around for a long time, solomon has probably already seen it

the most amusing part of movie night was studying the reactions of the others

also he made cookies but barbatos accidentally dropped the tray, too bad, guess he's making a new batch later

[opinated-user]

I don’t understand, not defending Lily, but why would Disney payed people to advertise “LOOK WE HAVE A GAY CHARACTER” but literally bearly on anything else to undermine it

While yes, they could be paying, you have to remember that Disney is so big, that everything they do, someone is probably watching and already writing or wrote something about it, no matter how big or small for the clicks

consider the timing of when any article like that were published, barely before the movie was already out on the same weekend where one of Disney biggest franchise (Wakanda forever) was going to be out in the cinema. this movie was barely given any help as it was and then it was put to compete against a Marvel movie fans have been waiting for years? there's no way that's fair. think too about all other ocassion in which "first openly gay disney character" happened to be announced. it wasn't just one article, it was a lot of them at once, all talking about how "one source" (we're talking about the same company that didn't even let actors to know the full story of what movie they were doing to avoid spoilers, does it sound reasonable to think they'd let "a source" to babbler everything without their okay?) telling all about this character and reminding people to go watch the movie. what's the difference between then and now? as you should know, that all those "openly gay characters" were easily forgettable with scenes of merely seconds, didn't even had any lines, were edited out entirely or you'd only know they were gay at all because someone said so. but with strange world they can't do that so they have to keep quiet enough while at the same time pretend like they care. why bother at that point, you might ask. because they're queerphobic but they did wanted some kind of profit, so they bet on those pinkwashed dollars to come give them something for the trouble while the rest of their more conservative audience ignores it completely and the loud rest goes on about how kids shouldn't be watching it at all because it has gays on it. they're playing to both teams, so to speak, but it's pretty clear where their favourites ultimately are and it's not with the queers. disney only wants from us our money, but the less they have to see us or hear from us all the better so it doesn't ruin their "all family friendly" brand. as to why make the movie at all if they never planned to let it succeed... i don't know. with treasure planet we find out later that disney was practically strong armed by their biggest animators into letting them do the movie, after they already gave disney it's renaissance, so the company didn't want to make the movie in the first place and then did nothing to advertise it either. maybe a similar situation like that happened here or something else entirely. i guess we won't ever know until the creators come out to reveal what happened. i just think that assuming that the queer content on the movie had nothing to do with this treatment is absurd, considering all the other times that Disney has indeed do it's best to hide queer content and it was only the employees insisting that allowed that rep to exist at all. what we do for sure know is that those kind of articles are good publicity for the kind of people who even cares about gay characters existing, be it for better or for worse, and Disney has let Strang World down in a way they haven't done since... Treasure Planet. the dots are all there, LO just refuses to make the connection.

[nymphigeon]

From me, to you || 07

♤ Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

♤ Genre: fluff, angst, romance, hybrid au, hybrid!Taehyung, detective!reader

♤ Words: 2.5k

♤ Rating: PG-13

♤ Warnings (for this chapter): Mentions of hybrid abuse, swearing.

♤ A/N: Surprise! I'm really sorry it took me this long, but I finally found the time and drive to write again :) Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Synopsis: A story in which he has never known love, so you’ll give it to him.

Series masterlist

06 07

"What do you mean this hybrid doesn't exist?"

Her eyes are wavering with an unspoken fear, perhaps caused by the bitterness my questions holds. I'm not happy, and she knows.

“It’s just, the chance that a dangerous breed such as the tiger hybrid would escape our system is basically zero..” The gaze she held on the computer screen unsurely moves my way. My expression must've instilled another layer of anxiety to the already existing one, as her mouth abruptly stops moving and her pupils dilate.

“Go on, explain.” The tone of my voice softens a bit as I notice her visible discomfort worsening. Even if there is no way that I’ll get any information from this place regarding Taehyung and his owner, I would still like to know why they’re both not showing up here.

Eun-ji takes a few deep breaths to stabilize her voice. As she does her posture slowly relaxes just a little and her eyes lose some of the nervousness they held before. “Because the first ‘successful’ tiger hybrid ran rampant after killing their creator, anyone who still breeds or creates them is being watched very closely by us, as well as by some other institutions.”

Perhaps it’s my lack of reaction that causes her to trail off at the end. Though I’m not judging her or her story, unlike she may think. To encourage her to continue, I give her a nod, tilting my head to show interest.

“The regular citizen isn’t even allowed to have one, needing special training to handle them. It’s like that for most hybrids that find their origins in wild animals. Creating tiger hybrids obviously requires a lot of knowledge when it comes to playing with genes and breeding them…. Well there are only three organization that are authorized to do so. All the resulting hybrids are registered and chipped.”

The explanation, which turns out to be a lengthy one, gets broken by a shuddering breath leaving her lips. She composes herself, clinging on to the little confidence she has left in her line of work to speak about the rest of her clarification.

“Of course people have tried to do it themselves, but those d.i.y operations have always ended in disappointment. If not taken proper care of, with substances only a board certified hybrid doctor can provide you, the pregnancy will fail. These are no easy practices they are dealing with.”

After the girls’ last words I give myself some time to think, letting a silence full of tension fill the room. It must be obvious that my mind is somewhere else at the moment, as the other girl in the room does her best to stay quiet. I don’t need much time however, my thoughts having quickly rearranged themselves as they were trained to do.

“So what you’re saying is, since tiger hybrids are hard to ‘create’, if you will, there are only a few people who actually manage to bring them to life. And so those few people are kept under close watch, as are the hybrids they successfully wake, am I correct?”

Eun-ji nods affirmatively, clearly happy that I seem to understand the situation. “So there is absolutely no way that someone without authorization has had a decent attempt at either genetically merging a human together with a tiger or getting a tiger hybrid pregnancy to be successful?”

Perhaps there might be a bit of scepticism in the question I asked, as her attitude immediately changes into a defensive one. “There is not! Whatever hybrid you’re searching for either gave you a false identity or is not a tiger hybrid at all, which would seem rather unlikely. I told you they get chipped right? Why not go look into that.”

“He doesn’t have one. We already had a hospital take a look at him, they didn’t find anything. ” The statement seems to shock her, the gears in her head instantly turning as to find an answer to this riddle. She however can’t seem to get one.

“They can be removed, can they not? They’re just under the skin. If someone decided to just cut it out they could. Terrifying, but plausible. Either that or one of your faithful authorized employees has been leaking information to outsiders.”

This is where Eun-ji seems to give up. Her shoulders sagging and a heavy sigh leaving her lips. “There would still be the problem of the missing equipment, test subjects, practice… How would you even get hold of fertilized human eggs to play around with? But I guess that wouldn’t be totally impossible. As for cutting it out… There would be a noticeable scar. The implants are always put in the same place, it wouldn’t be hard to miss.”

I make a mental note stating to ask Taehyung about all of this when I get back. If anyone knows how he got onto this world it would be him. “Is there a possibility that you could have someone look into it?” The girl nods in defeat, paying more attention to the ground than to anything else. “I’ll see if I can get someone on the case. I’ll have them contact you if we know anything.”

After those words she turns around in her chair, facing the monitor that had already put itself into sleep, and turns it off. Taking a notepad out of the drawer to her left, she quickly writes something down with the pen from her breast pocket. “I’ll get on it right away. Would you like me to walk you back to the exit?”

I shake my head. “No It’s okay, I’ll find my way back. Thank you for cooperating.” Eun-ji gives me a small smile, followed by a bow and walks out of the room taking the note with her, presumably immediately keeping herself busy with the extra work. Not wanting to waste any time I copy her, walking myself back into the direction we came from. Turns out it proves quite easy to find the exit by myself.

It’s already far past dinnertime when I make it back to the office. Not many of my colleagues have remained in their seats, most of them opting for a nice meal with their families. The few that have stayed behind are mostly known to live alone, quite like myself.

I quietly knock on my supervisor’s door, but when no response emerges from within the room, I can safely deduce that she too has already returned home. “I’ll have to write her a report about today later..” I mutter to myself, before stepping away from the door and instead heading to the cells at the back.

Technically the arrest period had already ended for Taehyung, as the law wouldn’t allow us to keep him locked up for any longer without any charges being held against him. His cell however technically was never locked and so even now, he is free to go wherever he wants. Though it didn’t change the fact that he still has no place to go to.

“Good evening. Had anything to eat yet?” He just chose to stay here and we accepted it. “Oh, hello! Yes, that tall handsome bulky man gave me something earlier, I can’t remember his name. He said something about it ‘being the best shit in town’.”

I slightly giggle at his quote, knowing immediately who it belongs to. “That definitely sounds like something Namjoon would say. What did he give you?”

Taehyung looks a lot better than he did yesterday. The stress of the interrogation seems to have completely worn off, instead traded for the sweet bouncy personality he used to show around me.

“Umm it was something in the shape of a circle and it had meat all over it… Oh! I think he called it a pizza? It was delicious!”

“You’ve never had pizza before?” The words leave my mouth before I actually get the chance to process them, causing me to instantly regret ever even opening my mouth. These days are stressful enough for him as they are, he doesn’t need a painful reminder of the life he never got to live on top of that.

The question doesn’t seem to hit him as hard as I though it would though. In fact, his demeanour doesn’t seem to change at all. Although sadly, it doesn’t make his next words any less painful. “Nope! When I first got adopted all they would feed me was wet cat food. It wasn’t great, but at least I got my three meals a day. The foster family I stayed at after my first owners mysteriously disappeared didn’t actually have the money to even take proper care of themselves, so at that time all I would get was whatever was left of their dinner that day, if there was even any left. It was mostly just greens. The lack of meat made me real sick at the time.”

He pauses talking for a second to look up at my face through the metal bars. The content look on his face quickly changes to one of worry once he catches my eyes. It’s no mystery why, I know I look at him pitifully. Even if he may not wish for my concern, I am only human. I can perfectly hide it when I need to, but this is not one of those cases.

“There it is again, that sad look on your face…” He sits up straight on the side of his bed to fully observe me, a tilt of his head giving him away. I send a sad chuckle his way as I reach for the door of his enclosure, inviting myself into the small space with him. He doesn’t object.

“Is it that obvious?” It was meant more as a way to lighten the mood, not as an actual question that needs answering. He still does however, giving me a simple slow nod. “You don’t need to feel bad for me.”

“Someone has to. You deserve at least that much.”

There’s a chair neatly placed under a small desk in the room. It used to be quite lively, with all kinds of bright colours blending into each other. It was a little positive additive into the dark grey room, but after all the anger that has been acted out on it, it no longer has that same shine.

I pull the chair out to place myself upon it, straddling the seat while I rest my arms on top of the back rest. Facing the tiger I use my arms as a pillow to lean my head on, making myself comfortable on the creaking furniture.

“Say, Taehyung, do you remember anything from when and where you were formed?”

He seems slightly taken aback at first, though quickly regains his composure. He also doesn’t immediately answer, first taking some time to think before coming back to me. “I was born a hybrid to two purebred tiger hybrids. They did their best trying to care for me in the little time we got to spend together, but seeing as it happened on a breeding farm getting to spend time with my parents wasn’t the plan. I got sold off pretty quickly, as soon as I learned to hold my first few full conversations.”

“Do you… Would you happen to know what happened to the farm? To your parents?” I fail to hide my apprehensiveness, needing too much space to form a careful approach. This shouldn’t feel like an interrogation to him, I never even announced one. There is little reason for him to answer me, the vital information from his side has already been given anyway. Nonetheless, even though I probably shouldn’t be doing this right now, I can’t just miss this opportunity.

“I heard my adoptive family talking about how the place was burnt down a while later. Most likely the police had caught a hold of it and they had to delete their left behind evidence. Both building and hybrids.”

Despite talking about the death of his parents, he seems to tell the story with relative ease. Probably not having much connection with the far past, his brain too young to truly hold on to the memory of them.

“They were successful too, as the case got dropped faster than lightning. It wasn’t long before the general public forgot about it too, believing it was just another misunderstanding. Besides, hybrid lives weren’t as important anyway.”

The amount of rights hybrids had when they were first created back in the day were close to zero, only strictly being seen as objects to show off whatever possible wealth one may have had. For a while there was even a popular theory going around that hybrids didn’t actually have the ability to feel any kind of emotion or pain. The genetic puzzle wouldn’t allow for it, as it had been tampered with to an extreme extent. This only built on the carelessness shown towards them, slowly chipping away at their sanity.

Although the rumours were wrong, they came from a place of truth. Facial expressions were rare for hybrids, as was the ability to speak. Most of them couldn’t even keep up with regular humans, exhaustion quickly taking over the little anger they could show. Scientists hadn’t yet quite figured out how to perfectly combine the pieces of genetic code and so hybrids were more like living dolls in the eyes of evil humans. Having no voice to object and barely any means to actually hurt anyone, it wasn’t much of a surprise the selfish nature in humans came to rise.

Luckily, or depending on how you look at it, sadly, these first generation hybrids were never able to reproduce. The doll like hybrid features eventually died out with the rise of the newly perfected pieces and the theory was debunked by a group of scientist who actually did care about the hybrids’ wellbeing. Those hybrids had lived through countless punishments, and every single one of them had hurt. A lot.

Right now hybrids in a lot of ways are superior to the rest of us. Having the combined senses of both animal and human alike, society has reluctantly given up on trying to contain them. They are still to be bought and owned, but no longer to be treated like dirt. The smartest of hybrids have even already gotten complete freedom to do as the please, no longer having to be bound to a human to roam freely. However, those unable to pass the close to impossible tests aren’t so lucky.

“I’m sorry about what happened.”

Taehyung gives me a reassuring wave of his hand, effectively trying to lighten the mood, along with a sad smile. It wouldn’t take a trained professional to know he still longs for his parent’s presence, even if he may do well hiding it.

“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.”

That doesn’t make the situation more okay, but I hold my remarks back. For now, that might just be for the best.

Taglist

@suhappysuho @intellectualxprincess @sana-b @littlewolfieposts @nellaphine @the8luvr @deathkat657 @elenaramos1 @namjoonies-dimple

[androgynousblackbox]

i think a lot of this critiquing of people's fanworks is a little out of hand. if they didn't ask for critiques, don't give any because 9/10 their art or writing is free anyway. and it's so easy to sit behind a screen on an anonymous account and say whatever you want about others' work when they've never had the courage to post anything themselves. why don't they try creating something to post and see that it's not easy. (i also think this applies to the original works fans complain about too. sometimes there's some space to critique because usually it's something people pay money for, but just because you pay for art doesn't give you the right to degrade artists. and just because you pay for art doesn't mean the fans "own" it in anyway to make demands about the story.)

There is this reasoning where people act like "if you published stuff online then you are opening yourself up to criticism" and so people think because someone dared to publish content that means they should be subject themselves to whatever opinion anyone has, no matter how useless, ignorant, shitty or simply unnecesary it is. On top of that, as the content creator, you are supposed to be grateful because someone looked at your work and said it was shit, because oh, how else artist are going to improve if not by people telling them their work is shit? I mean, you could improve by studying, practicing, seeing other creators, tutorials or generally studying by yourself and learning to see the flaws on your work to improve for the next time, but naaaaaah. Let's have instead a stranger feel like a smarty pants by giving you advice that might not even be applicable or help you at all, so when you do improve they get to pat themselves in the back as if it was their achievement. Most of the time those "critiques" are only for the critic's benefit since very barely they seem to offer actually constructive information that could be on any way useful. I am honestly not amused about this. Like, if someone is publishing free art (including fanfic) and sucks ass... who the fuck cares? Since when is a crime to publish mediocre shit? Who are they hurting? Maybe their anatomy sucks, maybe the shadows make no sense, maybe the proportions are off, and overall that gives an ugly picture, so fucking what. Maybe they will improve, maybe they won't. Maybe they will die being a mediocre artist who never learned to do a hand, but as long they were happy making art and the people who did liked it got to enoyed it, does it really matter? Like, I will admit my art and writing is full of flaws all day. I have eyes, I can see them. And since I started drawing more I see how much work there is behind it so, unless someone is honestly, actually asking for feedback, I just prefer to stay quiet even if it's the most ugly shit I have seen on my life because you don't fucking know what that piece meant for that person and how much effort it took.

[cimu]

Intellectual Property is a Lie (Part 1: Copyright)

Nobody really understands copyright and what it does. Fools think 'DMCA' means a webhost's contentID flagged your upload; DMCA is actually a full-fledged law preventing web platforms from being sued with rules and stipulations. Fools think "Fair Use" of others' copyrighted content means all you have to do is cite the source or because a clip is too short for ContentID, then that's fair.

People don't recognize the unfairness of it all. It isn't applied consistently and doesn't protect the actual creators. For example, nowadays people assume it's fine to make "React" videos using others' random indie content, but it's somehow illegal to display a TV show. In principle, both of these things are the exact same thing and should be treated as such under the law, but the practical reality is that a TV show's copyright holder, usually some media conglomerate, has way more resources to devote to hiring contractors and agents to flag and litigate. In principle, you should be able to stream TV shows without a broadcast license when the same type of thing is common practice for streaming gameplay or indie video content.

Now we have NFTs making a few people lots of money, but they don't inherently convey any transfer of copyright. Therefore, you could pay for a book, image, or any piece of digital media; and the only reason it's worth anything is because fools falsely assume you obtained its "ownership" when the legal rights still belong to the copyright holder. The whole thing is based on a scam, but that's a topic for another time--I only bring it up now to show how fools don't understand copyright.

In addition to being inconsistent and unfair, copyright generally doesn't protect the actual creators from being ripped off. Firstly, you have to be wealthy enough to afford legal protection and hire fools to search and flag. Most commonly, the copyright holder is some corporation who acquired the rights through unscrupulous means.

People are so brainwashed that they'll defend some faceless corporation who exploited their employees and contractors to obtain those rights. Or, that corporation just happened to be wealthy enough to purchase the rights from another bankrupt or startup company, and that enables them to leech revenue from people using the material in perpetuity. There's no "innovation" or "creativity" involved in any of these pure business moves. Often, they aren't even doing any kind of marketing since the material is already known, popular, and old. They have no intention of publishing or broadcasting it themselves, only to collect royalties from others "violating" their copyright. Even if they do plan on republishing the content, the product is the exact same as the unauthorized copy and therefore adds absolutely no value to the consumer.

I'm not saying we should completely get rid of copyright or just totally ignore it; creative works are fundamentally different from physical commodities and do require some level of protection (unlike patents), but it should be non-transferable. Like, if we have to license media to use it, why can't the media conglomerates be forced to sell only licensed material instead of being able to outright buy the copyrights. Moreover, if the original creator(s) die or if a certain amount of time passes, the copyright should revert to the public domain. That's how the laws were written, but they have legal loopholes to extend it forever. Nobody really cares about the actual creators; it's extremely rare for them to own the rights to their works, but we treat the companies who ripped them off as if they're legitimate owners. Ridiculous.

[mbaljeetsingh]

An Introduction to VuePress

You may have heard of VuePress recently, it appeared almost overnight and shortly thereafter became Product of the Day on ProductHunt. What is it about VuePress that makes it so special? What is VuePress? Well, it’s effectively a static site generator. Particularly, a Vue.js-powered static site generator aimed toward building documentation websites. Why’s that so special? The creator, Evan You, has a knack for building incredibly simple but flexible software. After all, he made Vue.js. VuePress is no different. After running two commands, you’ll have a zero-configuration prerendered, SEO-friendly SPA with full Vue.js support. A few lines of config and it will be personalized to fit your needs.

Getting Started

Step 1: Install VuePress.

$ npm install -g vuepress

Step 2: Write something.

Create README.md in a folder and write some markdown (mixed with Vue.js expressions!) in it.

README.md

## Hello VuePress! _How are you doing?_ > **I'm doing fine, thanks!** _Great, I was wondering what `49 + 32` is?_ > **49** _Could you repeat that a few times?_ > **Sigh...** <p v-for="i of 3">49</p>

Run $ vuepress dev in that folder and visit the resulting URL. (It has hot module reloading!)

The result should look something like this:

As you can see, if you’re familiar with Vue’s templating system at all, you’ll feel right at home with VuePress. Also, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see that headers in the page become anchors that you can link to, which comes in handy.

Step 3: Build It.

When you’re ready to publish your site, run $ vuepress build. The resulting output will be in .vuepress/dist, nicely built and minified with Webpack.

But you’ll probably want to make a few tweaks first, won’t you? A single page is a bit boring.

Post Metadata

First things first, go ahead and create a couple more markdown files in your project directory.

Page-1.md

# This is Page 1 Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Page-2.md

# This is Page 2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

If you check your browser now, you’ll notice that some magical next / previous post links have appeared. The text of those links will be the same as the first header in those posts. In this case, that means This is Page 1/2. That’s not quite what we want.

Go ahead and add a YAML Front-matter block at the top of the two page markdown files.

Page-1.md

--- title: Page 1 # We can even add meta tags to the page! This sets the keywords meta tag. # <meta name="keywords" content="my SEO keywords"/> meta: - name: keywords - content: my SEO keywords --- # This is Page 1 ...

Page-2.md

--- title: Page 2 --- # This is Page 2 ...

With that, your links should now say Page 1 and Page 2 instead of This is Page ....

Here’s the full list of front-matter metadata.

Navigating with forward / next links is kind of inconvenient, isn’t it? Also, the pages seem kind of out-of-order. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a sidebar or something that could solve both of those problems?

VuePress’ default theme comes with support for a powerful sidebar, but to enable it, you’ll need to create a simple configuration file.

Go ahead and create .vuepress/config.js in your project directory and enable the sidebar.

.vuepress/config.js

module.exports = { themeConfig: { sidebar: [ '/', '/Page 1', '/Page 2' ] } }

That’s all you need for a basic sidebar, but there are a variety of other configuration options as well.

Enabling the Navbar

So you’ve got pages and sidebars, but the site still feels a little bland. Why not spruce things up by adding a navbar and search functionality?

.vuepress/config.js

module.exports = { title: 'My VuePress Site', themeConfig: { sidebar: [ ... ], } }

Turns out all you need to do to create the navbar and search field is add a title to your site! Talk about convenient! And the search functionality works out-of-the-box!

(There are a few other things you can do to configure the navbar, of course.)

Using Vue Components

Let’s kick things up a notch. The true power of VuePress lies in its ability to use Vue components in pages.

Note, your Vue components must be SSR capable, so you shouldn't do anything that modifies the DOM or interfaces with browser-only APIs outside of the mounted() hook or event listeners.

Let’s create a Vue component that lets us increment and decrement a number. (Really important stuff here, folks.) VuePress automatically detects Vue components created in .vuepress/components, so let’s go ahead and create .vuepress/components/NumberModifier.vue

.vuepress/components/NumberModifier.vue

<template> <div class="number-modifier"> <button @click="increment()">+</button> <strong> </strong> <button @click="decrement()">-</button> </div> </template> <script> export default { props: ['start'], // We have to copy the value because we can't use v-model with // nothing to bind to. // (VuePress doesn't have support for reactive page variables at the moment.) data() { return { value: this.start } }, methods: { increment() { this.value++ }, decrement() { this.value-- } } } </script>

And just like that, we can use it in any post. For example, Page-1.md

Page-1.md

... # This is Page 1 **Our Component:** <NumberModifier :start="5"></NumberModifier> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

The same method applies to any component. This makes it an excellent way to demonstrate the components you write inline with your documentation for them, or even build more advanced sites! It’s all up to you.

Custom Themes

Not everyone wants their static site to look just like every other one built with the same tools, so most likely you’ll eventually want to start customizing things.

Basic modifications

The default theme uses Stylus as its CSS preprocessor. If all you want to do is change a color or two, you can accomplish that by adding .vuepress/override.styl and modifying a few values in it. You could even add a few CSS overrides in there if needed.

The default theme is basic enough that all you’ll probably want to change is the accent color.

.vuepress/override.styl

// Color configuration $accentColor = #3eaf7c $textColor = #2c3e50 $borderColor = #eaecef $codeBgColor = #282c34 // Layout configuration $navbarHeight = 3.6rem $sidebarWidth = 20rem $contentWidth = 740px

Creating a new theme

In VuePress, themes are just collections of Vue components and related assets. If you want to get started with your own theme, the easiest way is to eject the default theme using $ vuepress eject. All this does is copy the default theme files to .vuepress/theme.

If you take a look at the default theme, you’ll discover that it’s incredibly easy to understand. Fewer than 25 files with an average of ~70 lines apiece. Basically no boilerplate.

You can go ahead and start customizing the theme right off the bat. Components will be hot-reloaded just like the rest of your site! For more details on custom themes, take a look at the docs.

Conclusion

VuePress is just getting started, and I can already say it looks awesome. Even if you’re not planning on building anything with it right away, keep an eye on the offical docs. Things are only going to get better from here.

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