#if you use twitter consider retweeting the image there!

[ms-worldwide-miku]

Indigenous Mikus by weevildoing on Twitter!

Here is the link to Survival International.

[arcanefandomweek]

Announcing Arcane Visions!

Taking place during the entire month of October, leading up to the release of Arcane season 2, this event will focus on speculative fanworks and their predictions for our beloved cast of misfits.

Week 1: Revenge - Alliances - Angst Week 2: Discovery - Betrayal - AU Week 3: Invasion - Truth - Fluff Week 4: Invention - Freedom - Last Kiss

Will Ekko and Jinx make up? Is Ambessa invading? Any ideas on Warwick's fate? What are Vi's feelings, putting on an enforcer uniform? All those and more are great questions to answer for this event. We provide some guidance, but you're welcome to pick your own prompts!

You can create a work per week, or one per day if you're insane, or even have a single contribution. You can post a fic's chapters throughout the month, or can cosplay as characters in their new looks... All fan works are welcome, including meta speculation.

We want to help build the hype and reknit the community together!

To participate you can post (from October 1st) on tumblr or twitter using the tag #arcanevisions, and can ping us on tumblr @/arcanefandomweek or twitter @/Arcanefanweek. You can also submit your work to the Arcane Visions collection on AO3, which will open the first day of the event.

Please also check out our Rules and Guidelines under the cut. If you still have questions, check our FAQs or send us an Ask! Don't be shy, and please reblog!

Rules and Guidelines

Fanworks created for this event should be focused on Arcane character(s), and their potential story beyond Arcane 1. You may feature whatever canon character(s) you want, and if inserted judiciously, LoL characters too. While reader inserts and original characters are also allowed, canon Arcane characters should be the focus.

All types of fanworks, including fic, art, moodboards, podfic, playlists, meta, embroidery, and more, are welcome for this event.

NSFW or potentially triggering content, even if canon-typical, must be properly tagged with any applicable content warnings. For the comfort of the mods, please only submit NSFW works if you are 18+.

This event allows all ships and themes so long as everything is appropriately tagged. You will be contacted if your submission is under-tagged. Poorly tagged works will not be reblogged.

ANY use of leaked footage, content, or information will lead to your account being blocked. We do not promote or condone the spreading of spoilers. Please do not base your speculations on leaked information.

Racist, queerphobic, ableist, misogynistic, or otherwise hateful or bigoted behavior or fanworks will not be tolerated. Your work may include aspects of bigotry and oppression so long as they are properly tagged. For example: A fic that features a character facing ableism is allowed with content warnings; a work that includes ableist tropes as part of the narrative or erases a canon disability is not.

If you are submitting visual work, please consider writing an image description!

If you are unable to post on tumblr or twitter, but would like your work cross-posted via our account, please get in touch.

Submitting Posts to AO3, Twitter, and Tumblr

AO3

Please submit your works to the AO3 collection Arcane_Visions. This collection will be opened the day the event starts, and remain open for at least a month after it ends. It will never be hidden, made anonymous, or deleted. If you can't find it in the suggested drop down, enter the name Arcane_Visions manually.

Twitter

If you want us to retweet your posts, @ us (@Arcanefanweek) and use the tag #arcanevisions. If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the post. NSFW material should include the tag #nsfw or #arcanensfw, or you may want to consider adding a sensitive content filter.

Tumblr

If you want us to reblog your posts, use the tag #arcanevisions. Due to Tumblr’s glitches regarding posts with links not showing up in the tag, we also recommend that you @ us (@arcanefandomweek) in the body of your post just to make sure we see it!

If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the body of the post. Any NSFW or triggering material itself must be under a read more cut.

If your post is longer than a few paragraphs, please place the rest of the text under a read more and/or include a link to AO3.

Mods

The event is currently only managed by the blog admin, @space-blue (formerly Blue Daddy's Girl). More mods may be announced closer to the date. If you're interesting in modding for the event, please get in touch.

[secretmellowblog]

I hope tumblr doesn’t die because No other social media site is as good for long, thoughtful, nuanced analyses of media. Yeah tumblr is also full of dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts, but you can make dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts anywhere —-there are no other popular social media sites that let you easily format and share long essays on the media you enjoy, and then have conversations around those long essays.

Fandom on all the other big social websites just seems so utterly …shallow. And it’s not because people on other websites aren’t thoughtful or don’t have deep things to say, but because these sites’ formats do not allow for any kind of long nuanced conversations.

Tiktok? Things have to be crammed into a super short video with an attention grabbing headline, and you can’t hyperlink sources. Instagram? Everything has to be in an image format with strict limits on length, and nothing will be shown to your followers anyway because of how Instagram’s algorithm works, and also no hyperlinks. Twitter? Strict character limits, and if you split it into threads it means someone can retweet a part of your essay completely out of context, and also very little freedom with formatting.

It frustrates me so much. If I go into the Tumblr Les Mis fandom I’ll find really compelling long essays on the original novel (including essays being written for the ongoing book club) on the story’s historical context, or the parallels between different characters and their narrative foils, or the way the politics were defanged for certain adaptations, or the way Victor Hugo’s personal life and failings affected the novel. But on tiktok I’ll get the same five shallow stale jokes from 2013 over and over, or maybe the same “DID U KNO THAT IN THE MUSICAL JAVERT AND VALJEAN SING THE SAME LEITMOTIF” style of basic Intro To Les Mis 101 For Babies media analysis (which is what Tiktok considers deep media analysis), or stale “LOL JAVERT ACTS GAY” style jokes as if we’re living in the early 2000s and calling a character gay is still a funny punchline. And it’s impossible to have any kind of deeper thoughtful discussions than “DID U KNOW <x Kool Fact>” or “lol <shallow observational joke>” on tiktok because the platform just isn’t built for building niche communities around in depth conversations. it’s built to churn out bland generic content for as wide an audience as possible, which means pointing out a small detail like an Easter egg and calling it “cool” is deep media analysis, because you cant have longer more in depth conversations without alienating people. And I hate it. Bc like, it’s not because there aren’t smart clever thoughtful people on Tiktok— there are—it’s because Tiktok isn’t built for these conversations, and anyone who wants to have them has to really fight against the things the website encourages or prioritizes!

Or like, if I go into the LOTR fandom on Tumblr, I’ll find tons of extremely long analysis and fanfic, and analysis of queer readings of the story. On Instagram people will still shriek in terror if you suggest the characters are gay, and most of the popular lotr posts are stale memes recycled from like 2007. There’s really no room for thoughtful media analysis, and even if you did create it, instagram’s algorithm would make sure no one saw your post anyway.

And everyone’s going to say “the algorithm shows you what you’ve seen before so maybe it’s your fault ~” or whatever but i do look for things I want! I do! “The algorithm” doesn’t know me or what I want or value or care about beyond this meaningless surface level.

The only thing that was worthwhile about these sites was the great visual art people were creating, but now the websites are overwhelmed with meaningless soulless machine-generated AI glurge, and it sucks. It just really, really sucks.

I’m honestly confused about why people don’t use tumblr….There’s no character limits! You have freedom with post formatting, and can insert images throughout textposts to illustrate specific points you’re making beneath the paragraphs where they’re necessary! You can add hyperlinks, linking to your sources! People can reblog your entire essay and share it, and then add on with commentary that then becomes part of a larger conversation! People can find your stuff through the tagging system! Reblogging means posts stay in circulation for years instead of being dead 30 minutes after they’re uploaded! If you want to have genuinely interesting text conversations about a piece of media, there really isn’t a better social media website for it anywhere.

To be clear, I’m definitely not saying Tumblr media analysis is *always* clever and thoughtful or etc etc. there are shitposts and nonsense here too (plenty of which I’ve created lol.) I’m saying that Tumblr gives people the tools for in-depth insightful analysis to happen. Whether people choose to do it or not is their own decision XD. But the reason lengthy in-depth conversations and book clubs are even possible here is because Tumblr is built for allowing these conversations to happen, in a way other sites simply aren’t.

It’d really suck if it died, because it’d be a huge blow to…being able to easily find long insightful in-depth media analysis written by fans. I currently don’t think there’s anything that could replace it.

[bogkeep]

grousing about ai art stuff

every time i open twitter (my mistake) there's a new thread on how to spot ai art or ai photos by finding all the mistakes in it, and like obviously this is useful and it's good to watch out because they kEEP SHOWING UP EVERYWHERE AHHH HELL WORLD HELL WORLD, but it's also a little depressing that we're training ourselves to nitpick all kinds of details within a piece of art.

like even before the artifically generated image boom randos on twitter would reply to fully finished illustrations with the most asinine unsolicited advice possible. art's gonna be flawed sometimes! i'll draw someone in a weird pose because of vibes! i'll wing a hand! i don't fucking know what a house actually looks like!!! like yes of course the way a human artist creates flawed art is different from the way an algorithm doesn't actually know what anything looks like because it has no mind. it doesn't know shit. so it's not that it's UNRELIABLE but it's like. it's like... i've been telling myself and others every time i'm struggling to make something look Just Right that actually nobody i going to be staring as hard at my art as i am while making it. if i don't point it out people aren't likely to notice unless they are going through it with a fine toothed comb BUT NOW WE ARE DOING THAT APPARENTLY. WHICH IS ANYONE'S PEROGATIVE AND FAIR ENOUGH! PEOPLE CAN LOOK AT MY ART HOWEVER THEY WANT IT'S FINE

but it's ALSO so depressing to consider having to analyse every single piece of art you come across like that my goddddddd i just wanna enjoy it!! i wanna enjoy art!!!! i mean the main reason i finally stopped going on twitter regularly was during the NFT boom and i got so tired of having to vet every single artist i came across to make sure i wasnt retweeting nft stuff. like that really ruined my previously enjoyable experience of LOOKING AT NICE ART ON MY FEED WITHOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE.

god another thing that happened during the dark nft times was how certain art styles tended to be nfts. and i don't mean the ugly apes and stuff, like of course there's those, but there were a lot of artists who sold their souls to crypto and there was just a certain Vibe to a lot of those styles. like i got a sixth sense for it, i would see a piece of art by an unknown artists and when i checked - yep, that was a crypto guy now. and you know what!!!! i hated that!!!! i hate that it ruined entire art styles for me!! AND NOW ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED IMAGES ARE DOING THE SAME!!!!! like what tends to tip me off is less because i spotted some wonky hand or a weird flap but because the style is a popular one for the ai bros to imitate. you know what i mean right!!!!!! it's kind of how the ai photos look a bit too clean and crisp and smooth in an unsettling way. it just pings the brain a bit.

ULTIMATELY the absolute main method i have for filtering away ai images isn't so much looking for mistakes, but by checking sources. it's the same way i check that i'm not reblogging from reposting accounts Because That's A Thing I Care About Too - if there's no description or the description seems off and i don't recognise the OP, i check the original post/blog to see what's up. if the image gives me a weird vibe, i check where it comes from and who posted it. oftentimes the comments on posts with ai images will point it out - they're not always accurate and there's definitely been times where people are a little too trigger happy to accuse art of being AI... but it can be a good lead or confirm suspicions. on one hand, i don't want to do detective work while im having chill scrolling time, but on the other hand - i already had this habit for other reasons, so it's less disruptive to me than the alternative. it also helps that it's very rare for ai shit to turn up in my tumblr feed. i don't want to keep looking over my shoulder!!

(also for anyone who wants a little bit of optimism in the middle of all this, here's an episode of Better Offline podcast that outlines how it's very unlikely for generative ai to actually get much better. here's the part two also.)

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Jezebel 2.0 continues her wicked mission to (behead) silence and harass TRUTHERS by criminalizing our digital criticism. Pure evil.

Please subscribe to Proper Wiseguy's NEW Channels & also consider making a donation to help him rebuild. Our world is in desperate need for gifted comedians. Hopefully this silencing stunt will backfire and move him closer to FULL TIME comedic work. He has real TALENT, something that makes The Meghans bitter with envy.

Queen Jezebel was the most wicked biblical "royal." She violently silenced all who spoke the truth while her feckless, cowardice husband---King Ahab---knew better but supported her every murderous scheme.¹ (Spoiler alert: in the end, she's thrown to the dogs.)

Just prior to the launch of their recent Nigerian Scam, Jezebel and Ahab 2.0 used BIG Brother (Google) to cancel/silence truther channels like Lion's new "Proper Wiseguy" channel (formerly Motivation Specialist) and Ibble Dibble. ID is thankfully back to normal. Join me in supporting Proper Wiseguy's effort to rebuild his channel.

Please follow the links to help Proper Wiseguy rebuild his new channel. He's also created a backup channel.

The hackers sabotaged more than his YT channel. Big Brother (Google) is also withholding the ad revenue he generated for them earlier in the year prior to monetization of his Motivation Specialist channel.

Tech experts advised Lion to purchase new equipment. Donations accepted via paypal, Go Fund Me and on his merch website

Please follow & retweet on Twitter @ProperWiseguy

Surely the sewer squad, messy misan and boozy the fraud are salivating over what they perceive as a win. It will backfire.

Murderous efforts to silence the truth will always backfire. Like Obi-Wan: when you strike down a truth teller, they return 7x TIMES STRONGER.

There's nothing new under the sun & nothing new in Darling's tactics to silence her critics: TorontoPaper February 10th 2019

"Did you really think, exposing nobodies with only a few followers, some broke or jobless, would help your image? Have you actually sunk this low? You were proud, almost arrogant. What happened to you? I don't recognize you anymore."

Lion is back and better than ever!

"I see myself in all of you too"- 🤡

"People see me as a role model." 🤡

Lion: Are people aspiring to be DList Actresses 😂

"So they loaded up Madea's jet & they moved to Beverly, Hills that is..." 😂

Sparry is lizard lip licking again...dressed like the king of fried chicken Colonel Sanders😂

From Lion's Comments Section

BTW-I don't think she has any of Diana's jewelry.

Proper Wiseguy Channels

Backup Channel

https://youtu.be/XM-xXZar6Vs?si=t-TM4Xrhacking.

Links:

Go Fund Me

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-and-fight-with-the-lion-who-loves-you-baby?utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp%2Bshare-sheet&utm_content=v2_shareai_control

Website

¹Sparry to the Sussex Sewer: "Keep doing what you're doing."

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

PSA on sharing others' twst merch pictures + jp fandom etiquette

Okay guys, it’s time to sit down and have a serious talk for a second 😣

With the recent deliveries of 2023 Valentine Gifts to Japanese fans, I noticed that many had censored the text (whereas in previous years, it was much easier to locate uncensored letters). At the same time, I've also noticed many international fans reposting pictures (which do show the uncensored text) taken from Japanese fans' accounts to sort of "live react" or scream about the contents (rather than sharing and/or liking the original post they clearly took the images from).

Admittedly, this is an issue that moreso plagues TWST Twitter than TWST Tumblr, but I know that there are fans that frequent both platforms and are unaware of this issue. Here in this post, I'm going to talk about why spreading someone else's merch pictures looks bad for us (in the international TWST fandom), why you shouldn't do it, and what you can do instead.

First thing's first, let's think of it this way: this situation is similar to art/writing/translation theft. One can make the argument that technically since the work being shared around is "not original/not made by the OP" then it is okay to just take it and spread it. That's not the problem here; the problem is that someone else spent their hard-earned money to obtain this item, and some OPs even go out of their way to make elaborate set-ups to take pictures of their merchandise. The act of taking something that isn't yours but still posting it without crediting the OP (and thus taking the credit for yourself, even if not explicitly claimed to be "yours") still pervades. If you want to think of it another way, it’s like not citing your sources properly in an essay. What makes this behavior worse is that it's literally SO easy to just retweet and/or like the original post. But no, instead people are actively making the decision to take their photos without so much as linking back to the OP. What purpose does that serve, especially when it's considerably more effort than liking/retweeting? Not to mention the harm it does for the already shaky relations between Japanese and international fans 💦 I already mentioned before that the number of uncensored Valentine Gifts has gone WAY down in 2023, and I'd wager that this is, in part, due to international fans often engaging in this aforementioned "picture theft". It is seen as something done in poor taste, but it is not often overtly spoken about due to the language barrier and/or Japanese fans not being as outspoken as, say, western fans are. Japanese fans are sharing pictures of their merch to express their excitement and share the love of their favorite character(s) with others. It feels like a violation of those positive feelings to have someone else come along, snatch up the picture they lovingly took, and pass if off as essentially their own without permission or even acknowledging that the OP exists. We also need to consider the possibility that some Japanese fans may be uncomfortable with their pictures being spread around because it unintentionally spoils others. Their excitement should not impact others' experiences, so when this is done outside of their own control it can make them feel helpless. They are NOT posting these very personal pictures for clout, but to spread their joy to their friends and followers. That's why so many Japanese fans now feel discouraged from sharing something they love so much with fellow fans--because their boundaries and intentions are not being respected. We want to see the Valentine Gifts and other awesome pictures of TWST merch in the future? Then we need to give our fellow fans the courtesy they deserve. We should NOT act entitled to or feel owed for what is paid content that other people purchased. This should be a GIVEN act of basic human decency. Furthermore, PLEASE remember that in continuing to take pictures that don't belong to you, you're only going to make it harder for yourself to all to see Valentine Gifts moving forward (save for buying all 28 letters yourself, or hunting down the 28 individually on a platform now scarce of the uncensored versions). The OPs’ feelings are obviously much more important than international fans not getting their fix of merch pics, but if that’s how the situation needs to be reframed to make people reconsider their actions, then reframe it we shall. Merch picture theft, combined with international fans misusing the JP fandom's tagging system to increase visibility of their posts (even when the content is not relevant), acting entitled to translations of official and fan content, and instances of international fans acting aggressively and harassing Japanese fans has created an environment of distrust. It's only going to get worse if we can't draw a line in the sand here and now.

The intention in calling attention to this issue is NOT to gatekeep Japanese merch from an international audience. You have MANY options available to you where you can engage with OP’s post, still see and enjoy the content, AND be polite about it.

What's NOT okay to do?:

Taking OP's picture and reposting it with no credit.

Taking OP's picture and editing it (filters, drawing over it, etc.) before reposting.

Asking OP to uncensor the image(s).

Contentious to do:

Quote retweet! (Japanese fans are generally iffy with internet strangers in their mentions. This may vary from OP to OP.)

Commenting on OP's post! (Like QRTing, the Japanese fandom generally does not like comments unless they come from mutuals/people they are familiar with. Again, this may vary from OP to OP. It’s best to preface comments with an “excuse me”, “I’m not a mutual but”, or something along those lines to be polite.)

Linking or crediting the OP in a thread, especially if it is the second tweet or beyond (because not everyone will read the entire thread, and therefore they may miss the credit). If you’re going to credit OP in a thread, do it in the initial tweet or as soon as possible in your own post.

Asking for and getting OP's permission to share their picture in a public space. (I would advise against this one due to potential language barriers. This method may also put OP on the spot to give a certain reply.)

So... what IS okay to do?:

Liking OP's post!

Retweeting (or whatever the equivalent of sharing is) the OP's post!

Sharing OP's post or images in private spaces (ie DMs, among friends/group chats, etc.)

Sharing only the TEXT of merch items in public.

Sharing your OWN pictures.

Sharing your reactions to merch in your own post (without any pictures).

Sharing/referencing a database created by the OP (same person who took all the pictures in the database) for the sole intention of being shared.

Asking to see merch images taken by your friends.

I did my best to research this situation and to give appropriate advice on it, but please let me know if I flubbed up somewhere 💦

Anyway!! I hope that you found this post enlightening and that you take its message to heart 🙇‍♀️ Please, let's all try to be more mindful of how we share things that we're excited about in this fandom!! We can still have fun and scream about our favorite characters without souring the experience for other fans!!

[yukipri]

I joined Threads! Unfortunately my reach on Insta is still the most limited of all of my socials, and that’s the account Threads is directly attached to.

If you’re on either Insta or Threads, would love if you could stop by🙏

Direct linking to Threads doesn't seem to work...so here's

my Instagram

through which you can find my Threads account!

Edit: You actually can link to Threads, ironically through the icon at the top of individual Instagram account pages on desktop. Though Desktop viewing is currently limited to individual pages, and you can't necessarily scroll the feed. So here's my Threads page!

~~

Next, some initial thoughts on the platform for those who are kinda curious what this new thing is. Not at all an expert, just some info I've gathered myself, that I'd personally have liked to know before joining:

On Threads

・It launched July 5~6, 2023. Rollout varies by country.

・Twitter's already upset about it, apparently there's a lawsuit. So I guess it considers Threads a possible threat.

・It's run by Meta, same folks as Insta and Fb.

・The accounts are directly linked to Instagram, which has its pros and cons. You need an Insta account to make a Threads account, but if you already have an Insta account, it's very easy to make a connected Threads account. However, once linked, they're linked; you can't disable your Threads account without also disabling your Insta account. You can also automatically follow all the accounts you're already following on Insta, to be activated as they make Threads accounts. You can also share Threads posts to your Insta stories.

・Currently only on mobile app, hoping the'll make it desktop accessible soon

・The current audience mostly seems to be folks who have come direct from Instagram. This means yes, a lot of official/influencer accounts, but also a lot of artists/small creators too.

Functionality

・Right now, the "feed/dashboard" is a hot mess. It's just one massive algorithmic spew, no way to curate it, no way to see just the posts by the folks you're following, not even chronological. These are things that i personally require in a social media, so yeah it sucks rn. HOWEVER, they did state that they're working on a "followers only" feed, much like the one on Instagram. If they implement a Followers Only feed like Insta, it'll at least be much better than Twitter's current "Following" feed. There has been no timeline provided on when this may launch.

・It functions much the same as Twitter, with options to create new posts, and like, retweet, quote retweet, and reply to posts made by others. (There's still a lot of floundering about the exact terminology to use, since it's not twitter so you can't "retweet" etc)

・500 Character word limit per post, which is much more than Twitter, ey!

・Up to 10 images per post, doesn't seem to cause image quality reduction either. Rather than being able to arrange the images like on Tumblr though, they're all automatically in a carousel that you can see by swiping.

・Your bio can be the exact same as what's on your insta, but currently only shows followers. In order to see who you follow, you tap "followers" and then when the menu opens, swipe to "following." Then, you can tap on the individual accounts to view their pages. This is currently the only way to ensure you see the posts from certain accounts, because there's no guarantee they'll show up on your feed, and it's a huge pain. But again, they're hopefully working on a fix for this.

My understanding is that the app rushed to launch now, since Twitter is a dumpster fire and people are fleeing. (why is it a dumpster fire? Well, Musk implemented a randomly fluctuating tweet view limitation, which is dumb af, but means it's essentially become unusable to folks who use the platform a lot)

I'm hoping that there'll be improvements to Threads and it'll become a viable Twitter alternative, but until then...yeah we'll keep an eye on it.

Now that I've probably completely turned you off from downloading the app, if you do, a nudge that again I'd appreciate if you stopped by my account, YukiPri_Art on Instagram, and/or YukiPri_Art on Threads!

[killjoynest]

[ID: The outline of the side profile of a person's head with a speech bubble to the left. Text inside the head reads "i want that salesman carnally," and the inside of the speech bubble reads: "hey im headed to tommys you need anything?." End ID]

[ID: A text message that reads: “Sorry, I can’t make any decisions until I consult with a Lesbian.” The senders icon is a panel of the torso droid. End ID]

Twitter messages reading:

The Director: what are ur pronouns?

kobra kid: he/they

The Director: wrong answer

(Beneath the messages is a banner that reads: "You can no longer send Direct Messages to this person. Learn more. [link]")

[ID: Shots from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Will originally says, “I was minding my damn business eating some fruit.” The image is captioned "juvie halls when asked to explain why dr death has been broadcasting about them for the last 3 hours". end ID]

[ID: a tweet from 'broadcasts whenever hot chimp does' @/benjamincyanide that says "im not saying the poetry isnt good but have any of you considered hitting on someone who doesnt smell like last months bloodstains", using "twitter for DESTROYA scrap". The retweets and quote retweet totals are almost equal. end ID]

[ID: Text that says "For pronouns, he selected 'he/him'. For gender, however, he wrote, "No." For sexuality, he wrote nothing. For religious affiliation, he wrote "Sure, why not." Behind the text is a panel of Tommy Chow Mein. End ID]

In-universe danger days memes resurfacing one again....

[goodluckdetective]

For those still using the rotting husk that is the bird site aka Twitter, please be careful about what you’re retweeting around there. It’s a flood of misinformation, even by normal social media standards (and this is happening in lesser extents all over)

Against my better judgement, I checked there last night and saw well meaning people who deeply care about innocent lives retweeting things posted by and not limited to:

The Greyzone, a discredited outlet that publishes Putin propaganda and anti vax content.

Someone claiming to be a journalist for Al Jazeera.

A fake government account

Tankies

Neo-nazis

A fake government spokesman account

A far rightwing influencer

Some guy claiming to be a munitions specialist with 0 proof

All of these went massively viral far more than the corrections. This is really dangerous, with tensions as high as they are. I understand the need for folks to get their information from folks on the ground but there are some important things to consider. As a rule of thumb I recommend the following: before you repost check:

The source of the repost

The source of the post itself

The source of any images including screenshots of accounts in the source

And then check each for past reporting accuracy, and any verification they say who they claim to be.

This is all horrible and awful. I know a lot of people want to help get information out about what is going on, and rightfully so. But if you’re not careful and spread false information, that’s going to backfire terribly.

[rivalryrsc]

🐚 ⸻ ✷ GUIDE TO TUMBLR AND CLIQ RPING.

Interested in joining a rp that’s using Tumblr and CLIQ as there platform? Say no more. I’ve created this guide with step by step instructions on how to do so. Whether you use this guide to join our rp ( @rivalryhq ) or another rp, we hope that you find that’s guide useful. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us on our main. Thank you and I hope your journey into Tumblr and CLIQ rping is a breeze ! Without further ado, let’s jump right.

Please make sure you throughly read all directions before sending any extra questions you may have. In order to gain access to CLIQ, you will need to provide us with an email that has not been associated with ANY other CLIQ organizations in order for you to accept your invite. While CLIQ is available for iPhone & Android Users, you will need to set up your profile on your desktop or by using your mobile web browser via your phone.

SETTING UP YOUR TUMBLR ACCT.

This section is fairly easy out of the entire process.

STEP ONE: If you haven’t already when submitting your application, create your Tumblr blog and make sure that your blog username is the same as your social media handle on your application. This is extremely important because the dash will act as your social media feed. See example below.

STEP TWO: Set up your Tumblr blog however you want to your liking. Themes are completely optional but if they are your things and helps get your muse pumping, here is a few themes that you can use: THEME ONE, THEME TWO, and THEME THREE. Plesse note that these are completely optional. You may use whatever your heart desires.

STEP THREE: Now it’s time for IC interactions via Tumblr. Again, this is fairly easy, but if you are still having trouble understanding just reach out to us. The dash is your social media feed. Meaning all your tweets, IG post, tiktoks, and whatever other social media your muse uses. Your personal IMs on tumblr is considered your DMs/iMessage. We do suggest when you do FaceTime/regular calls to switch to your personal IMs on CLIQ. However, the decision is up to you.

STEP FOUR: Now it’s time for you to make your tweets. When making your tweets we suggest that you don’t use any formatting, but instead change the font to “BIGGER”. This is just to keep the dash uniformed and clean. All reblogs will act as retweets or reposts (depending on what the post is). When you want to tag some one in a tweet or mention them, just simply @ them. Here is an example of how a tweet can look.

SUGGESTED TAGS TO CREATE: media (for images posted on twitter), instagram (posts, stories, reposts), tiktok, music, tasks, development, anons, and etc.

SET UP FOR CLIQ.

This section may be the hard part, but do not fret ! If you still aren’t getting the hang of things after this explanation, please contact us on the main page.

STEP ONE: Upon receiving your application & it being accepted, you will be invited with the email you provide us. Unfortunately, your email will not be hidden so please make sure you provide us with an email that you are comfortable with everybody seeing. Once you join the organization, you will then set up your profile to your liking. Please make sure you are using your character’s name when doing so. You will see an example below.

STEP TWO: After that, some of you will see that you have already been added the “WELCOME ABOARD THE S.S HILTON”. If you haven’t been added, do not worry. You can join the channel from using the search bar.

STEP THREE: Once you have completed this & you have noticed that you haven’t been added to you home, please message us so we can add you. We will attempt to stay on top of this but please excuse us if it slips our mind. When you are added to your home you will notice that you are made the admin of your home. You will then have complete control of you home & can add/remove whatever character you want. We ask that you do NOT remove the admins from your home & that you do NOT create your own home.

STEP FOUR: After all those steps have been completed, you can join any room you see available. You will join by simply hitting the “JOIN” button & you will have full access to the rooms. While you guys are not the admin, you are able to add a character if you would like. If you have any questions regarding set up feel free to message us.

STEP FIVE: Now when using CLIQ, you will interact how you would on discord & HALL (if you remember that time). We suggest using third person to write. During the times that there are events, we ask that you end your message by “ @ “ the person you are communicating with. That way they won’t miss your response. You also have the option of creating a thread within the channel for you & the person you are communicating with. You will be able to do this by holding down their message and choosing “Reply in Thread”. If you are on your desktop, you will simply hover the message you would like to make into a thread & click the message icon to ignite the thread. If you have any questions regarding this, feel free to message us. Below you will see all the various markdowns that CLIQ uses.

[arcanefandomweek]

Arcane Year Two week event Rules and Guidelines

Rules

Fanworks created for this event should be focused on Arcane character(s). While LoL characters and OCs are welcome, they should not steal the spotlight. Canon characters should be the focus, even in a work set in season 2 with new characters joining the cast.

All types of fanworks, including fic, art, moodboards, podfic, playlists, meta, cosplay, embroidery, and more, are welcome for this event.

NSFW or potentially triggering content, even if canon-typical, must be properly tagged with any applicable content warnings. For the comfort of the mods, please only submit NSFW works if you are 18+.

This event is also open to all ships and all levels of rating. However we expect works to be fully tagged in order to be reblogged. This is a strict rule, as people can't be expected to effectively manage what they see and read if they are not given the tools to effectively block tags.

Racist, queerphobic, ableist, misogynistic, or otherwise hateful or bigoted behavior or fanworks will not be tolerated. Your work may include aspects of bigotry and oppression so long as they are properly tagged. For example: A fic that features a character facing ableism is allowed with content warnings; a work that includes ableist tropes as part of the narrative or erases a canon disability is not.

Any form of disrespectful or threatening behaviour towards fellow participants will see the offending account blocked and their works unshared.

If you are submitting visual work, please consider writing an image description!

Guidelines

This is a week format event. It will run for 1 week, from the 7th of November to the 13th. Late entries are accepted. Early entries are not and are discouraged. Please wait for the start of the week to share your works. We will not be browsing the tag prior to the 7th.

How do you participate?

By making any type of fanwork using any of the prompts provided. The orthodox way of playing with this type of event is to restrict yourself to a prompt provided on the day. Posting a fic on day 1 written to a day 1 prompt, an art on day 2 with a day 2 prompt, etc.

This event provides 2 sets of prompts with two different themes (pre-canon and canon timeline, and a post canon speculative timeline). While you can stick to one set of prompt, you are very welcome to mix and match. Extremely bold participants may want to do both and post 2 weeks worth of works. That's fine too! So is doing a single work for a single prompt.

Ultimately, the goal is to have a week during which the Arcane fandom gets the spotlight and new works are created and shared. the goal is to be inspired and have fun. The prompts are there to inspire If you see a prompt in the post-canon theme that appeals to you for a pre-canon story, go crazy!

Submitting Posts to AO3, Twitter, and Tumblr

AO3

Please submit your works to the AO3 collection Arcane_Year_Two. This collection will be opened the day the event starts, and remain open for at least a month after it ends. It will never be hidden, made anonymous, or deleted.

Twitter

If you want us to retweet your posts, @ us (@Arcanefanweek) and use the tag #arcaneyeartwo or #arcaneyear2. If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the post as per our rules. NSFW material should include the tag #nsfw or #arcanensfw, or you may want to consider adding a sensitive content filter.

Tumblr

If you want us to reblog your posts, use the tag #arcaneyeartwo We'll also monitor #arcaneyear2, so either should work.

Due to Tumblr’s glitches regarding posts with links not showing up in the tag, we also recommend that you @ us (@arcanefandomweek) in the body of your post just to make sure we see it! If we take more than 2 days to get to you, feel free to send an ask or DM.

If your post includes NSFW or triggering content, a rating or trigger warnings must be included in the body of the post, as per the rules. Any NSFW or triggering material itself must be under a read more/post break.

If your post is longer than a few paragraphs, please place the rest of the text under a read more and/or include a link to AO3.

Mods

The sole mod for this event is the blog runner, @bluedaddysgirl (they/them), both on here and twitter.

Our twitter | Our FaQ | AO3 collection | Prompt list

[roo-bastmoon]

Exploring ARMY Cancel Culture

Let's start with agreeing there's always a good time to block and report accounts and it is when they:

--use hate speech and slurs

--denigrate members and fans

--share personal or harmful content

--outright spread lies and misinformation

By all means, block and report those kinds of assholes. I do this at least once a day over on Twitter.

But today I witnessed something really disturbing.

I woke up to my notifications going off. I was being tagged and asked to unfollow a Twitter account because they posted photos of Jimin at Paris' fashion week, but they either trimmed Hobi out of the shots or just didn't mention Hobi if he were in the photos.

This was considered "diet-solo" behavior and folks were calling for massive blocks and reports.

So I asked: May I have some context please? What's problematic about this Jimin-focused account focusing on Jimin?

And of course got called a mootie and had some private quote retweets for my troubles. But basically, people felt it was super shady not to mention Hobi if he was in the shot.

Okay. That's a perspective that could have some legitimacy.

So here's what deeply concerns me.

This could have been an opportunity to have a discussion, to learn and grow, and actually affect some change.

Folks could have politely commented something like: "It appears that you keep cutting Hobi out of photos. You state you are a Jimin image archive, but many folks feel it is very disrespectful to ignore another BTS member. Would you consider mentioning Hobi or not cropping him out of your images?"

That is an example of non-violent communication, which illustrates a concept and a boundary, without insulting anyone or insisting the other person act in a way you deem fit.

The account owner could have come back and said something like: "Oh my gosh! I never want to disrespect any BTS members. The whole point of this account is simply to focus on my bias. But if it is upsetting to people, I will try to include other members in mentions, or in some shots, if I can!"

In which case, problem solved.

Or the account owner could have come back and said something like: "No I will not be doing that. This is my twitter page. I wish to focus on Jimin. If you don't like it, please just don't follow me."

In which case, you know this account isn't your cup of tea.

OR they had the option to say something like: "Fuck you. Fuck all the other members. Jimin supremacy is real. I hate every other BTS member."

In which case, THEN you know to report and block.

But instead of calling this person in and discussing the matter, people dogpiled on block threads and sent her a bunch of hate and spam, and as a result, she closed her account.

One less Jimin-positive account in a vast sea of Jimin-negative accounts on the Twitsphere.

Plus, someone's feelings were hurt. She basically said something akin to: "I tried my best but it wasn't enough. Please remember there is a human being behind this account. I have to leave without a backup account just to protect my mental health."

So... because folks didn't LIKE that Hobi didn't share a frame with Jimin in some edits, they grabbed pitchforks and torches and villainized a person as a solo, without any conversation.

Gone are her edits. Her archive will not be updated. People may have ruined BTS for her.

I'd been following that account for a bit. There was never a hint of shade toward any members, never anything negative about BTS in general; they didn't even draw comparisons between Jimin and other people. It literally was just an image archive focused on Jimin, making mood boards and stuff like that.

And they got run out of town on the rails. Straight up cancelled. An absolute perfect example of mob mentality and group-think, with almost no due diligence.

It makes me angry. If I am being honest, it makes me a bit ashamed to be ARMY.

I found BTS a little over a year ago thanks to a Jimin-focused fan cam. I was watching dance sequences on YouTube because I am a giant dance nerd. I saw a Jimin fan cam compilation of some of his performances. They cut out other members of the group in order to focus on his moves and skill.

But BECAUSE of his focused cut, I discovered BTS. From there I became a passionately OT7 ARMY, and very quickly after that a Jikook supporter.

BTS had been around for 9 years and I never paid a smidge of attention to them. It was a focused fan account that recruited me into this fandom.

Imagine if we did away with all bias-focused accounts or ship-focused accounts for being "diet solos"? What sort of fandom culture would we be creating? What would the ARMY microcosm look like, if we wiped out the celebration and focus on people's biases?

It's such a harsh, cruel, fucked up world. Can we not let folks just harmlessly enjoy things?

For my part, in any given situation, I always ask myself: WHAT IS THE KIND THING TO DO? Because I believe that is how BTS would want me to represent them as their fan.

Sometimes, the kindest thing I can do is not engage, just report and block vile little antis riding their hate-trains.

But most times, the kindest thing I can do is invite real, nuanced, complex conversation. I can approach people with the goal of making allies instead of enemies. I can try calling them in, before calling them out.

You might notice that I follow people here on Tumblr who love to ship Jikook. I also follow a few people who don't believe in shipping. And I follow one or two blogs who passionately stopped shipping Jikook. I don't agree with them, but I listen to what they have to say.

Because I am able to entertain a thought without automatically adopting it. And I am able to listen to people without endorsing them. Unless someone has monetized their blog, keeping an eye on them is not, in fact, a vote for everything they have to say.

So as to avoid living in an echo chamber, I will open myself up to a multitude of perspectives UNLESS those people:

--use hate speech and slurs

--denigrate members and fans

--share personal or harmful content

--outright spread lies and misinformation

Each and every person must act according to their conscience. I am not trying to convert anyone to my way of seeing the world. But sometimes I feel like purity politics is at play here, in ARMY. I see people on Twitter move like herds, or schools of fish, reacting before thinking, desperate not to be judged, so eager to feel morally superior.

That's... not self-actualization. That's a performance.

I want you to know it's super okay with me if you judge me. So long as you do your due diligence and get all the facts, please go ahead and make judgement calls about me. If you genuinely don't like my content, my methods of expression, my personality--you are absolutely free to police your own internet experience, and mute or block me. I WANT you to. I want you to protect your energy and do what makes you feel safe and joyful.

But if I'm HARMING you or doing something WRONG, I'd really appreciate if you'd kindly tell me what it is, and why it's bad. Give me the chance to learn and grow--or at least to explain my thinking.

Let me be human.

Let fans be human.

Let the members be human.

Humans learn by making mistakes.

I will say it again: as a human, your job is to make mistakes, gather up the related data, analyze it, and learn to adapt and do better.

If you get cancelled for just being human, then no interaction will be authentic. It'll just be token stanning and filtered content until all of fandom is just vapid, watered-down bullshit.

You should be able to be yourself in your own space, as long as you're not deliberately being toxic to others.

So the next time someone tags you and tells you that you need to unfollow someone who is problematic--consider asking for context and proof, sift through the evidence yourself, maybe try to have a conversation if you have the mental energy to get into it, and THEN react.

ARMY is in serious need of critical thinking skills these days.

Things that make you uncomfortable aren't always bad.

Things that challenge you aren't always toxic.

People are all works in progress.

Shame is a weapon, not a teaching tool.

Please use shame as a last resort.

Thanks for coming to my semi-ranty TED Talk.

Sending you all much love and peace,

Roo

[gatalentan]

We love and support your AvaMel side but I always laugh when I see something about them bc I remember that Janelle’s tweet 🤣🤣

Ok so for those who don't know, Janelle got tagged in an AvaMel ship fanvid, and replied to one of the quote retweets on that fanvid. I've censored op here for privacy:

Two things can be true:

1. Janelle is allowed to be weirded out by being tagged/seeing ship content. That's her face & those are her co-workers. She's a very private person who mostly keeps fans at arms-length and that's healthy. Ava isn't Janelle, but she has her face (and so does Lisa), so fanvids in particular when accompanied by an explicit caption I can imagine would be really weird to see. As fans we know the diff between real-person and fictional shipping but from her perspective you can see how that would be more nuanced and complicated. Unfortunately, the Twitter algorithm now puts stuff on your feed - regardless of if you follow them or not - based on how it has pigeonholed you, and as a person who sometimes tweets about Abbott/Ava because it's her job, the algo assumes shes a fan and dishes up Abbott fandom content to her whether she likes it or not, so she sees stuff she doesn't wanna see even if she isn't tagged; she wasn't tagged in that QRT, but she still saw it, so we can see that's what happened here. A big problem there is that seeing stuff that makes them uncomfortable can make actors change how they approach the character(s) in future which sucks for everyone. We can't control the algo but on the whole it's better to not try and expose actors to ship content as much as possible because there's scores of ships where the actors became hostile to shippers as a result of being repeatedly exposed to content they don't want to see, or even just getting fatigued by an unintended ship overshadowing the rest of their acting effort. Unfortunately social media giving a lot of access to celebrities is a very double edged sword and difficult to balance, especially when some actors (cough lisa cough) are so far over the line of what's considered normal fan interactions that it gives unrealistic expectations for celebrities that are more private. Actors aren't your best friends, they don't owe you interactions or unconditional support just because you're a fan, they're strangers and real people with their own thoughts and feelings. Everyone has their own limits and boundaries and are allowed to express that and they're entitled to not be comfortable with fan work that uses their image.

2. Actors/creators not supporting a ship doesn't mean we still shouldn't be allowed to play in the sandbox. Work Wives isn't gonna be canon either, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying it. I'm 32 and if I didn't ship stuff just because it didn't have creator support I'd have spent twenty years with nothing to ship at all. As queers we have to carve our own space out where we can see people like us and make a meal out of scraps because otherwise we wouldn't get to engage with media the same way cishet people take for granted. Unless a show is Queer™️, a vehicle for a character's queerness and a major topic of discussion, we rarely get canon queer characters, let alone characters where it's treated respectfully without one of the pair getting fridged or dying. Even The L Word, Queer™️ as it was, killed off one of a major pairing. We deserve to see ourselves across the whole spectrum of genres, not just in Queer™️ TV, but it simply isn't there, so we make it for ourselves in fanwork. In fanwork you can play with these characters however you want. You can give them a soft landing where they're safe (or the opposite, explore darker themes for a light-hearted show). You can give them the type of stories that would never have the space to breathe in the works they came from. You can take them out of their environment completely and put them somewhere else, you can change one thing that changes their whole dynamic, or you can just write absolute filth. Either way, fundamentally they're fictional characters, they do not exist and they don't have free will, only what you put into them as a viewer. We're not about to make Janelle make out with Lisa, but in fiction, Ava and Mel can, and as fictional characters they represent a dynamic we don't see a ton of with two older women, not teenagers/young adults which is the predominant type of representation we get for WLW in TV. So I'm gonna keep shipping AvaMel, I'm just, y'know. Not gonna put it where Janelle might see it. Easy.

Some good vids on this topic: Is Shipping Gay Culture? (James Somerton) | Artists & Fandoms (Philosophy Tube) | Parasocial Relationships: Strangers Aren't Your Friends (Naomi Cannibal) | An Exhaustive Defense of Fanfiction (Sarah Z) | Why We Ship Characters (The Take)

[northropi]

So I'm going to be using this more, for real this time.

In an effort to Holy Fucking Shit They're Considering Cisgender A Slur Now What The Fuck, I am soft-leaving Twitter. For real now. What do I mean? I will not post anything "directly."

I'll still like, follow, reply, retweet, whatever, but any media or in-depth text (so like also media) will no longer be natively placed on Twitter.

From now on anything I put on Twitter will be links to other sites.

It also seems inevitable at this point that I will eventually have to leave Twitter entirely because harassment is becoming more frequent.

While I'm not big enough to be readily targeted, bigots are trawling the trending tab to find anyone who comments on a recurring topic and start gnawing them.

I've never been a full "no ethical consumption under capitalism" person, but up until this, I could at least blow Elon's bigotry off as "oh, so we happen to have a bigoted owner on this site, well not gonna pay his ass so I'm fine in the short-term." But this policy, which seems to have gone through, is probably the first time something actively bigoted and not just generic right-lib "hey we should let bigots talk because censorship bad" has been written into the ToS.

To strongarm Cis out of our vocabulary leaves us with no words to describe Cis people exclusively (which is itself a pretty damning reason why it's not a fucking slur, but I don't think at this point that anyone who says they think it is is doing so in good faith). We have to use the word bigots want us to use to describe cis people.

Normal.

And every time we speak it, they'll lick their slimy lips and relish in the implication that, by exclusion, we have admitted we are not.

BlueSky likely will mark the end of Twitter being an even neutral space for vulnerable people in terms of community, though maybe I'm talking out my ass there because I hear some shit about BlueSky too- so sub BlueSky for whatever more solid Twitter-style multipurpose high-throughput platform follows and actually is good if I have to eat those words, I guess.

It, or the hypothetical next thing, will bleed Twitter of users who are, you know, not fucking horrible, and in turn, create a selective pressure that turns Twitter into a decidedly bigot-friendly site. This is the cost of being run by someone who thinks "free speech" should mean taking the wrong answer to the paradox of tolerance, and an idol to rightoids and conspiracy theorists who need that "gifted" Christ-figure and a supposed force of opposition to exist, even if they have to rip their brain in two to characterize that opposition as the establishment while, being conservatives, every single stance they take is pro-establishment.

You people ruined schizoposting, you know that?

Newgrounds will be for images with occasional text updates, this for long but relatively rough posts, Wix for more encyclopedia-style content as I intend to use it in a wiki-like capacity with secondary blog purposes (why not use wiki for that, you ask? because it looked like a lot to learn up front and there seemed to be like twelve different wiki formats, Wordpress/Wix was just easier but might change later).

I'll also aim for some filler on Youtube in the form of just video game clips so I can feed the algorithm a bit and try to be more active in exploiting what free time I have to actually use my mic for voiced stuff including, possibly, short streams, though that begs the question of where I'll be doing those.

As for Tumblr, a friend offered me to help me learn its syntax or whatever you'd even call it in this case to get it formatted. I wouldn't count on it replacing Newgrounds yet and that may be my primary art site from here on out (I've expressed concern about their harsh policy against WIPs and certain modeling programs that might include my VRoid work, but the latter would obviously be fine here and the former can still be posted in a publicly accessible capacity to NG, just not promoted in the art portal- hopefully I get "scouted" there sooner than later but nothing is a dealbreaker yet). The problem ofc is because, well... First off, NSFW. "Oh but you can post-" yes. I know. You can do some lewd stuff and fetish content fine as long as it doesn't hit a particular bar of "non-artistic" nudity. However, a lot of my stuff is raunchy fucking hypercock bellybulging cum cum madness. I can't just fly under that restriction and not need to eventually find another outlet.

Second, I really gotta handle these fucking bots. Not sure how many I have still as I imagine a lot are getting cleaned out by mods, but it seems follower notifs on this site have been going into junk for a while due to sheer frequency.

I'm also thinking about if I have it in me to forgive DeviantArt for their AI debacle, but the site's stance on it is concerning and I fear that there's at best going to be a ton of it flooding the site, which, while acceptable if they hold their promise of being able to opt out future works (remember, the opt-out doesn't apply to any works put up before- you can't un-train a neural network, so fuck that sideways), will be frustrating to interact with. I'm also going to look into ArtStation a bit, I recall them doing something dubious but I'm not sure of the status of it since. I actually already have an account there, for Project G.L.U.T.T.'s demo mostly...

[sasuhinamonth]

SHMonth2023 Deadline and NSFW Rules

Hello, lovely people! I have another announcement for you all!

While SasuHinaMonth2023 does fall in July, the deadline for submitting SHMonth content is extended to August 11th. This means the SHMonth mods will still be actively liking and retweeting/reblogging your submissions as long as you tag us and use @sasuhinamonth at the end of your posts. @'ing us helps us find your stuff, so it will be a big help if you'll be able to include it in all of your submissions!

And now ..... let's talk NSFW

If you have NSFW submissions you'd like for us to consider, there's a short checklist you'll have to follow:

If it's an image, make sure it's hidden so people must actively click on you post to see the NSFW content.

If it's text/fanfic, make sure you include the rating at the beginning of the post, and make sure any NSFW content is below the (read more) line.

If you're linking to a Rated-M or above fic, simply make sure you have the rating on your post with the links

Also be sure to tag the post as #nsfw or #rated m

These rules are for both Twitter and Tumblr. If you fail to follow these rules, we will be unable to like/reblog/retweet your submission (which is disheartening for both you and us, I'd imagine!)

I'd also like to quickly link our discord server, where we'll be having weekly reading sessions and events, as well!

Thanks, all!

Mod: PC

[shyheemprosper]

TWITTER

TWITTER

Twitter, one of the few mega giant apps I considered in the whole social media platform spectrum, due to its popularity and longevity. It was founded by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass in 2004. At the time, they didn’t really have a clear direction as to how they wanted the platform to be, up until engineer Jack Dorsey proposed a short message service (SMS) where one could share and send bloglike updates with friends. Dorsey would send his first post on March 2006, and followed up on July 2006 with a completed version of the platform. Glass proposed the name Twttr, due to being inspired from the name Flickr, however, six months after the launch, the name was eventually changed to Twitter.

Some may say that it’s similar to Facebook in terms of being able to share posts, socialize and have the opportunity to promote your business/brand. However, Twitter is slightly different due to having its own unique features and structure.

The image above shows the Home page and gives you the point of view if you’re using the platform on a desktop. At first glance, it may seem slightly busy, upon seeing many clickable links to go to, however, don’t be afraid, it’s easy to navigate through. I’ll give you a quick tutorial/run through of the various functions to better understand the app:

Home: As shown in the image above, this is where you will see all of the tweets that are both shared by you and the people you follow.

Explore: Here, a search bar provided for you to search for anyone by their twitter handles, also, there are many trending topics to discover.

Notifications: Here it shows if someone likes your tweet, notifies of people following you, mentions someone tagging you to a post,/comment, notifications from twitter relating to your profile etc.

Messages: Here is where messages are stored between you and others.

Twitter Blue: This allows you to become a blue subscriber, where you can create longer tweets up to 10,000 characters. (Disclaimer it will cost you $84.00 for a yearly subscription).

Profile: This is where you can see everything on your feed that you have liked, retweeted and make edits to your profile.

THE BUSINESS SIDE OF TWITTER

One thing I have noticed from using twitter is businesses/brands have huge followings to their profiles, and this is caused by the engagement with the audience/customers. Let’s look at Starbucks as an example. Starbucks as we know is one of the biggest coffee franchises in the world and they provide excellent customer service. Their Twitter page tends to highlight:

Charities that they are apart of such as ACRSNEWS nonprofit organization and the Born This Way Foundation, just to name a few.

They retweet posts from users who share their experience with the brand.

They stay with the trending scene by creating tweets relevant to their old and new menu selection.

Pictures, videos and GIFs of various beverages, delicious treats or even customers enjoying their meals are shared  on their home page.

Holiday specials are advertised like their Christmas #RedCupDay, which is a limited edition reusable red cup with the purchase of any holiday handcrafted beverage.

So, Twitter plays a great role on allowing businesses/brands to engage with their target audience and even gravitate new audiences to them. I, however, am curious to know what is the future outcome of Twitter, seeing that Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO and left the company back in May 2022, and now Mr. Elon Musk had purchased the company. Changes had already been made regarding the subscription that I mentioned earlier about Twitter Blue and he has indicated of implementing future changes. Only left to be seen.