#ios has less options but they are there

[venacoeurva]

Tumblr opting for tumblr premium as a thing with features people don't care about and things that don't really affect most users (there's already a like/post limit and there has been for years, I remember people hitting post limit in like 2012, most people just don't hit them) while people

1. don't have extra money and are likely stretched thin over subscriptions they already use more/have to use

2. are violently annoyed with premium memberships, let alone price hikes of them

3. are highly irritated for a consistent history of targeted conduct, bias in what can and can't be blazed, and deletion of accounts on here which prompts people not to spend money on Tumblr

4. A lot of people would tolerate in-app ads if they weren't gross, scams, spammy, and presented in ways that they interrupt your scrolling or, as some people reported, video/audio playback in other apps

is certainly a decision lmao

[all-the-fish]

Oh, you know, just the usual internet browsing experience in the year of 2024

Some links and explanations since I figured it might be useful to some people, and writing down stuff is nice.

First of all, get Firefox. Yes, it has apps for Android/iOS too. It allows more extensions and customization (except the iOS version), it tracks less, the company has a less shitty attitude about things. Currently all the other alternatives are variations of Chromium, which means no matter how degoogled they supposedly are, Google has almost a monopoly on web browsing and that's not great. Basically they can introduce extremely user unfriendly updates and there's nothing forcing them to not do it, and nowhere for people to escape to. Current examples of their suggested updates are disabling/severly limiting adblocks in June 2024, and this great suggestion to force sites to verify "web environment integrity" ("oh you don't run a version of chromium we approve, such as the one that runs working adblocks? no web for you.").

uBlockOrigin - barely needs any explanation but yes, it works. You can whitelist whatever you want to support through displaying ads. You can also easily "adblock" site elements that annoy you. "Please log in" notice that won't go away? Important news tm sidebar that gives you sensory overload? Bye.

Dark Reader - a site you use has no dark mode? Now it has. Fairly customizable, also has some basic options for visually impaired people.

SponsorBlock for YouTube - highlights/skips (you choose) sponsored bits in the videos based on user submissions, and a few other things people often skip ("pls like and subscribe!"). A bit more controversial than normal adblock since the creators get some decent money from this, but also a lot of the big sponsors are kinda scummy and offer inferior product for superior price (or try to sell you a star jpg land ownership in Scotland to become a lord), so hearing an ad for that for the 20th time is kinda annoying. But also some creators make their sponsored segments hilarious.

Privacy Badger (and Ghostery I suppose) - I'm not actually sure how needed these are with uBlock and Firefox set to block any tracking it can, but that's basically what it does. Find someone more educated on this topic than me for more info.

Https Everywhere - I... can't actually find the extension anymore, also Firefox has this as an option in its settings now, so this is probably obsolete, whoops.

Facebook Container - also comes with Firefox by default I think. Keeps FB from snooping around outside of FB. It does that a lot, even if you don't have an account.

WebP / Avif image converter - have you ever saved an image and then discovered you can't view it, because it's WebP/Avif? You can now save it as a jpg.

YouTube Search Fixer - have you noticed that youtube search has been even worse than usual lately, with inserting all those unrelated videos into your search results? This fixes that. Also has an option to force shorts to play in the normal video window.

Consent-O-Matic - automatically rejects cookies/gdpr consent forms. While automated, you might still get a second or two of flashing popups being yeeted.

XKit Rewritten - current most up to date "variation "fork" of XKit I think? Has settings in extension settings instead of an extra tumblr button. As long as you get over the new dash layout current tumblr is kinda fine tbh, so this isn't as important as in the past, but still nice. I mostly use it to hide some visual bloat and mark posts on the dash I've already seen.

YouTube NonStop - do you want to punch youtube every time it pauses a video to check if you're still there? This saves your fists.

uBlacklist - blacklists sites from your search results. Obviously has a lot of different uses, but I use it to hide ai generated stuff from image search results. Here's a site list for that.

Redirect AMP to HTML - redirects links from their amp version to the normal version. Amp link is a version of a site made faster and more accessible for phones by Bing/Google. Good in theory, but lets search engines prefer some pages to others (that don't have an amp version), and afaik takes traffic from the original page too. Here's some more reading about why it's an issue, I don't think I can make a good tl;dr on this.

Also since I used this in the tags, here's some reading about enshittification and why the current mainstream internet/services kinda suck.

[changes]

Thursday, September 12th, 2024

🌟 New

When a community post gets 10 reactions (not counting reactions from the post author) the post author will now receive a notification about those reactions. We want to give some kind of notification when you’re getting reactions, but not for every single reaction (that could be a deluge of hundreds of notifications in our big communities). Let us know what you think!

Community admins and mods will now be asked for a reason when they moderate a comment.

Logged out users, likely new visitors to Tumblr itself, can now start requesting new communities to be put on the waitlist. They will be asked to log in or sign up before finishing.

To celebrate the new folks joining Tumblr from Brazil, we have launched a lot of communities features if you’re in that country, such asrecommended communities in the For You feed and related communities carousels when searching and viewing tag pages in the mobile apps.

🛠 Fixed

Dismissed “Check out these blogs” recommendations are now dismissed forever.

New custom domains were not receiving renewed SSL certificates, and thus not properly accessible. This has now been fixed, and new SSL certificates have been granted to the affected domains.

Archives and custom pages on blogs with custom domains were broken. This has now been fixed.

On web, some dialogs did not disable our keyboard shortcuts while they were open. For example, you could like a post with the ‘l’ key even though a dialog was open on top of the post! This is now fixed.

On web, we were displaying an option to block a community in Activity, which is not actually possible, and has now been removed. Instead of blocking a community, you can simply leave a community.

The community tags section has been updated to make it clearer that they will aid in discovery of your community.

We’ve made a few small design improvements throughout communities. Less wasted space FTW!

🚧 Ongoing

We’re aware that some ads may interrupt background audio on iOS and are working on a fix! We have also received reports of a weird “cricket-like” sound in the app, which we think is related.

🌱 Upcoming

No upcoming launches to announce today.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with other users.

Wanna support Tumblr directly with some money? Check out Premium and the Supporter badge in TumblrMart!

[goatskickin]

On the eighth day of GOATmas, my true love sent to me...

...counters! Wood recolors of counters!

I've recolored every counter that EA has created in a pack or expansion that:

1) already had wood recolors

2) didn't have wood recolors, but I felt that wood recolors suited them

For the colors: I am using Dynamite, Depth Charge, Shrapnel, Safety Fuse and Time Bomb by @pooklet, and Nesert and Honey by Io aka @serabiet.

Please check out the Add-On's I've recommended! They are meshes made by community members that will use these textures too. Or, they are bits of CC that go along with these nicely!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castanoga Counter - counterbrasserie

Notes: really solid shape! didn't touch the texture at all, though the shine has been removed

Recommended Add-on: #1

Chez Moi French Country - countercolonial

Notes: not my most favorite counter, but very fancy and still nice! countertops have no shine, the bottoms have some shine

Recommended Add-on: #1

Chiclettina Fjord Kitchen Counter - counterloft

Notes: actually uses the wood texture it came with, which is not that bad. Shine removed.

Club Room Countertop - counterclub

Notes: one of my favorites and really really improved by reducing the shine! same wood texture

Counter Country New Mimic - countercountry

Notes: this has one of the best wood textures and the shine has been removed. Swatch!

Recommended Add-ons: #1 #2

Counter Culture Surface - counterquaint

Notes: same texture, less shine. I took care to adjust the handles to be colored in a way that would update this dated-looking mesh

Recommended Add-on: #1

Double Wood Counter - counterromantic

Notes: your best 'historical' option for a counter if you're purely MM. no change at all to the wood texture. Minimal shine on the bottom.

Epikourous Sleek Cuisine Counter - counterdesigner

Notes: a counter so nice I made 2 versions! V1 here has the original wood textures, minimal shine.

V2 removes the wooden slats which were just texture, and not meshed on.

Got some new countertops to go with it as well! why not

Fat City Counter - counterdiner

Notes: this came with a wood retexture that's not the worst, it's alright, so I used it. Shine removed.

Recommended Add-on: #1

Surfaco Counter - counterstylish

Notes: I really like this one! It has a vintage vibe in my opinion. Same wood texture, no shine.

The Forbidden Fruit Counter - counternightclub

Notes: another cool counter hiding a pretty nice wood texture. Shine removed.

Recommended Add-on: #1 #2

The More Impossible Misson Counter - countermission

Notes: Monty lookin counters. Mostly the same textures, but instead of stained glass inserts in the doors, decorative wood! Swatch of the counter tops

Recommended Add-on: #1

*notable exceptions:

that ugly art nouveau one, "Chiclettina "Sardinia" Kitchen Counter". I did try about 3 times to make it look good but it just does not. Maybe someone more talented than I can rework the mesh, the mapping....

The "Krampft Industries Value Counter". This is a counter that I really like, and I've even included 3 very nice DL's that are repositoired to it below! But I thought that wood recolors just would not work on the shape. Other people have done wood recolors however, and they are very easy to find.

Download - Sims 2 Counters - Wood Recolors

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recommended downloads:

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Blocking Ads on Mobile Devices

Blocking ads on our phones is way harder than it should be so I figured I'd make some recommendations. These are not the only options out there, just the ones that I know and use.

Please note that browser-level and system-level adblocking are complementary; you'll have the best experience if you use both of them together as they each block different things in different places. If you want a basic idea of how effective your combined adblocking setup is, you can visit this website in your mobile browser.

Lastly, there is some additional advice/info under the readmore if you're curious (EDIT: updated June 2024 to add info about sideloading altered versions of social media apps that don't contain ads on Android and iOS).

Android

Browser-Level

uBlock Origin (for Firefox)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard

Blokada 5 (completely free version) OR Blokada 6 (has some newer features but they require a subscription)

iPhone/iPad

Browser-Level

AdGuard (Safari extension; free for basic browser-level blocking, requires a subscription for custom filters)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard (requires subscription for system-level blocking)

AdGuard DNS only (this is free and does not require the AdGuard app, BUT I would only recommend it for advanced users, as you can't easily turn it off like you can with the app. Credit to this Reddit thread for the DNS profile)

Some additional info: browser-level blocking is a browser addon or extension, like you might be used to from a desktop computer. This inspects the HTML code returned by websites and searches for patterns that identify the presence of an ad or other annoyance (popup videos, cookie agreements, etc.). System-level blocking is almost always DNS-based. Basically whenever an app asks your phone's OS to make a connection to a website that is known for serving ads, the system-level blocker replies "sorry, I don't know her 🤷‍♂️💅" and the ad doesn't get downloaded. This works in most places, not just a browser, but be warned that it might make your battery drain a little faster depending on the app/setup.

Each of those types of blocking has strengths and weaknesses. System-level DNS blocking blocks ads in all apps, but companies that own advertising networks AND the websites those ads are served on can combine their services into the same domain to render DNS blocking useless; you can’t block ads served by Facebook/Meta domains without also blocking all of Facebook and Instagram as well because they made sure their ads are served from the same domain as all the user posts you actually want to see. Similarly, browser-level blocking can recognize ads by appearance and content, regardless of what domain they’re served from, so it can block them on Instagram and Facebook. However, it needs to be able to inspect the content being loaded in order to look for ads, and there’s no way to do that in non-browser apps. That’s why using both together will get you the best results.

These limitations do mean that you can’t block ads in the Facebook or Instagram apps, unfortunately, only in the website versions of them visited in your browser. It also means ads served by meta’s/facebook’s ad network in other apps can’t be blocked either (unless you're one of the rare beasts who doesn't use facebook or instagram or threads, in which case feel free to blacklist all Meta/FB domains and watch your ads disappear 😍; I'm jealous and in awe of you lol).

One note: some apps may behave unpredictably when they can't download ads. For example, the Tumblr app has big black spaces where the ads are, and sometimes those spaces collapse as you scroll past them and it messes up scrolling for a few seconds (UPDATE: looks like the scrolling issue may have actually been a Tumblr bug that they have now fixed, at least on iOS). Still way less annoying than getting ads for Draco Malfoy seduction roleplay AI chatbots imo though. And honestly *most* apps handle this fairly gracefully, like a mobile game I play just throws error messages like "ad is not ready" and then continues like normal.

One final note: on Android, you may actually be able to find hacked versions of Meta’s apps that have the ad frameworks removed. In some cases they are a little janky (unsurprisingly, apps don’t always take kindly to having some of their innards ripped out by a third-party), and they are often out of date. BUT in return you get an Instagram app with no ads whatsoever, and some of them even add additional features like buttons for saving IG videos and photos to your phone. However, use these apps at your own risk, as there is functionally no way to validate the code that the third-parties have added or removed from the app. Example altered IG app (I have not vetted this altered app, it's just a popular option): link.

It is technically possible to install altered apps on iOS as well, but Apple makes it much, much harder to do (unless you are jailbroken, which is a whole different ballgame). I'm not going to cover sideloading or jailbreaking here because even I as a very techy person eventually grew tired of messing with it or having to pay for it. If you're interested you can read more about the different ways to do sideloading on iOS here.

[ms-demeanor]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but we spoke a few months ago about Tumblr Support’s response to seizure and eyestrain inducing ads. And while it is good to report that they’ve added a feature to report those ads, I wanted to ask for some advice

I’ve messaged staff no less than ten times about this feature not working. The same ads show up on my dash, over and over again, no matter how many times I report them. I’m up to date with my software, and still I’m put in danger by being on this site, and I can only use mobile as I do not have a desktop

Should I just quit tumblr at this point? Staff really don’t seem to care. I tried my best to give them my patience, but this has been disappointing for months now, and none of it is getting solved regardless of how much people message them. Is there anything we can actually do about it? Nobody outside our sphere is taking notice

Some of this unfortunately just has to do with the way that ads are served. Reporting the ad will get that instance of an ad removed after a certain number of reports, but depending on how that ad is served, you might be seeing the same flashing visual ten times and the ad system considers it a different ad each time (think of it like ads on a bus - you are reporting the ad on bus 249, but not the ad on bus 250 even though they are showing you the same image; sometimes the flashing image will be one campaign - so all on bus 249 - and it won't get served to you again, sometimes the flashing image will be scattered in a dozen different campaigns with different names and metadata perhaps with the explicit purpose of getting past user reports because advertising is a garbage industry full of horrible shitheads). Unfortunately I'm not sure there is anything that can be done beyond reporting the individual ads in terms of getting them removed; online advertising is generally minimally supervised by humans, which is how you end up with things like starvation-bait diet ads getting blasted all over the site with a terrible history of pro-ana networks.

Since you're using tumblr exclusively on mobile, it seems like your two other options are:

Turn off autoplay which should (in theory) stop any video (including ads) from playing in the app unless you allow it. Here's how to do that on iOS and Android.

Use the app exclusively from your mobile browser with an adblock enabled (won't work for iOS, changes the user experience pretty drastically).

There's one possible other option that I am not *recommending* I am simply stating that it is an option to explore: you could look into an adblocker like AdLock that does global video blocking on a mobile OS. The reason I'm not recommending it is that these kinds of adblockers cost money and are not known for being very reliable. It is something to investigate more if you are out of all other options

It seems likely that you've already turned off the autoplay, so that's probably not useful advice. If you haven't tried using tumblr in a mobile browser with ads blocked, that might be worth giving a shot before you give up on the app as a whole.

It's a really shitty situation and I'm sorry you're dealing with it.

[jiraisupportgroup]

♡ Common Trigger Warnings & How Filters Work ♡

Trigger warnings are important when talking about sensitive topics to ensure our community is safe and inclusive for people of all backgrounds, especially in the jirai / landmine / menhera communities where the core that brings us all together is our mental and physical struggles.

Over time many variations of the same trigger warnings have come up to avoid content flagging, which can make it difficult to filter tags that may affect you or that you may not want to see. I’ve collected the most common variations of these tags that I’ve seen to try and make filtering a little less overwhelming:

♡ More Information Under The Spoiler ♡

how tumblr’s filtering system works & how to filter tags or content:

♡ Tumblr’s Filtering System ♡

Tumblr has two filtering options: tags and content

♡ Filtering Tags ♡

When you filter a tag, any post with that tag (or a tag containing the filtered phrase) will appear like this:

You can see what tag is being filtered, and decide if you want to view the post.

If the post contains the word you've filtered but is not tagged with that word, it will still show the post. For example, if I filter the tag "pink" a post which says "I love pink" but has no tags will still be shown.

♡ Filtering Content ♡

When you filter content, any post with that word (or any word containing the filtered phrase) will appear like this:

You can see what content is being filtered, and decide if you want to view the post.

If the tags contain the filtered content, but the post does not, it will show the post in full. For example, if I filter the content "pink" a post with a pink photo, no text, and the tag "pink" will still be shown.

Typically on this website, filtering tags is more helpful than filtering content; although, it does not hurt to filter both if you want to be safe.

♡ How To Filter Tags & Content ♡

♡ On Mobile ♡

♥ Go to the “account” tab

♥ Click the gear icon on the top right of the screen

♥ Click on “General Settings”

♥ Scroll down and click on “Filtering”

♥ From here you can add filtered tags, or filtered content. To delete you can swipe left (IOS) or tap the tag and click “remove” (android)

♡ On Desktop ♡

♥ On the left side of the screen click "settings"

♥ Scroll down until you see "filtered tags" and "filtered post content"

[live-emotion]

Playing Live Emotion on Non-Japanese Device Guide

To avoid disappointment, please prepare yourself that an English language release for Live Emotion may not be likely. At least not simultaneously with the Japanese release.

However, depending on your device you should still be able to play and support the Japanese version when it releases even if you do not live in Japan.

Downloading Live Emotion on Android devices: Guide Option 1 (My old guide to using Qooapp) Guide Option 2 (Youtube video for Qooapp and Tunnelbear methods)

Downloading Live Emotion on iOS devices: Guide Option 1 (Reddit Post) Guide Option 2 (Youtube Video)

These methods may be outdated. If so I’ll look into it more and may repost a new guide in the future.

✦✦✦

Translating the game in real time in-app on Android devices: Comic Screen Translate - Nice UI, less ads. Has extra premium options that seem handy. Instant Translate On Screen - Nice UI, slightly more ads than Comic Screen Translate. Perhaps slightly slower but has a few extra nice features. Also has more convenient premium options. EZ Screen Translator - Has more invasive ads and less pleasing UI, but is pretty quick. Qooapp - Has a live translation feature, but it is paid (but not too expensive) and potentially slower than other options. I believe it has a feature that will read out the in-game text out loud. Translating the game in real time in-app on iOS devices: I'm unsure of similar app options for iOS.

I believe if you take a screenshot you may get a 'Translate' option in the bottom left without having to go to your gallery. This will still be a bit slow, and will leave your gallery full of heaps of screenshots.

The Google Translate app also works, but is slow since you have to take screenshots in-game, open the translate app, and do them one by one. It does have a 'Tap to Translate' option, but it requires text to be copy pasted which isn't possible in this situation.

✦✦✦

These methods aren't perfect, but they will help you navigate playing the game and understanding the stories if you don't speak Japanese. Let me know if you know other live translation apps or DL methods and I'll add them to the list.

[getvalentined]

This will probably be my last post on the Patreon/iOS app debacle until things settle a bit more, but I finally got a solid answer to a question, and it makes basically everything make so much more sense.

TLDR: They're not giving any real answers because they don't have them. The so-called Q&A that they set up was never meant to be a source of answers for creators at risk of losing everything, but rather a source of feedback for the company that refuses to accommodate those creators by a single fucking inch.

They were never going to answer us. They have no answers.

I feel like I need to point out that the so-called "subscription" billing model, which is a rolling monthly charge that makes it so creators do not get a consistent payday and never will again, has been in use for almost three years at this point, and their resources for changing over from first-of-the-month or pay-per-creation billing are nonexistent. After three years.

The option to use those billing models disappears on November first of this year. We have the option to opt into a grace period, which will hold us until next year, but the majority of the platform will be switched over, whether they like it or not, less than three months from now. They want us to believe that their staff are going to do in 11 weeks what they've failed to do in three years.

The top earner on Patreon, their #1 creator, is on the pay-per-creation billing model. They're taking it away anyway, offering no concessions and no actual support, with the vague promise that they'll have help to offer eventually—but they don't right now, and they don't know when they will, and they don't care who this change is going to hurt. They are ruining the business model of the highest earning creator on their entire platform, and are still running full tilt to throw themselves on Apple's dick.

Creator-first my ass.

[miniherodesktales]

Day 15: Virus

Kryten shook his head.

'It's not good news, sirs,' he said quietly. 'His Light Bee is getting weaker.'

'You saying he's done for?' Lister whispered.

'I'm sorry, the anti-virus has failed. The Light Bee is maintaining his projection for now, but I fear his mind has already gone.'

'And there wasn't much of that to lose in the first place...' The Cat wiped away a tear with his silk handerkerchief, ruining it.

'What do we do?' asked Lister.

'We should make him as comfortable as possible and say our goodbyes.'

'You mean switch him off?'

'His Light Bee is overheating and slowing down. He'll suffer less this way.'

***

The malware had trapped Rimmer inside of his own mind. All around him the bunk room was fire. Rimmer sat on the floor with his head in his hands. He was waiting for rescue, but it was a long time in coming.

'You mean switch him off?' Lister said from the computer screen.

Rimmer looked up, startled.

'His Light Bee is overheating and slowing down. He'll suffer less this way.'

'No!' Rimmer shouted. 'I'm here! I'm still here!' He slammed his fist against the wall, making the screen shake. 'You idiots! Help me!' The flames swelled around him. 'Help me, please! Dave!' Helpless he sank to his knees. 'Help me,' he whispered.

'They can't hear you, boy, so all this shouting and screaming is an entirely futile waste of your energy and very limited time.'

Rimmer felt his heart sink. 'Not you,' he moaned. 'Not you.'

'I am here,' his father said. 'I'm the antivirus and I suggest you listen to me.'

Oh, of course. Thank you fate, thank you fortune.

Rimmer allowed himself to sink sideways onto the floor. He closed his eyes.

'Enough of that,' his father scolded. 'Think! You can't communicate with the outside world and you can't lie on the floor. What other options are open to you?'

'I don't know. I'm tired.'

'Sleep!' his father declared. He wrote it on the chalkboard, as loudly as he could. 'It is an option. But of course choosing to sleep now will only lead to....come on, you know this!'

'Death,' Rimmer groaned.

'Precisely. And you know death, Arnold. It's the only thing you were ever good at.'

Rimmer opened his eyes. He pushed himself upright.

'How can you say that to me?' he rasped. 'I'm your son, help me!' He held out a hand to his father.

Professor Rimmer stared at the hand. His own twitched slightly, before the look of contempt returned. He folded his hands behind his back and bent down, pushing his face close to Arnold's.

'Dying is your forte, boy,' he droaned. 'Dying and...'

'I'm fading,' Rimmer gasped, he sank back down. 'Help me...'

'Dying is what you are good at and....what is your other strength? Answer me! This isn't difficult. You've been doing it you're entire exsistence.'

Rimmer couldn't answer. He had no strength left.

***

Lister placed his hand just over Rimmer's. The projection was so weak he could see the mattress beneath him.

'See ya, Arnie,' he whispered.

***

Rimmer closed his eyes. He felt quite comfortable, really. Lister was holding his hand, but he had given up on him. They'd all given up on him.

He began to dream, his dying mind throwing up all sorts of final memories before it would shut die for good.

He remembered nearly dying of malnutrition, but he hadn't. He had nearly died in the Great Io disaster when a volcanic explosion so powerful had wiped out one of the neighbouring bio-domes - he'd gotten lucky. Then there was the time Howard had nearly drowned him by pushing his head down the toilet. And when Porky had thrown him in the septic tank. Being tied to a spit; getting too close to an exploding scutter; sepsis; attacked by malfunction andriod....radiaition leak...ok, so that last one had taken him out, but frankly it was bucking trend.

It was the pattern in his life. He nearly died but clawed his way back out of pure stubborness. The world hated him, wanted him dead, well he wasn't going to go. The world was suffer a little longer with him in it.

Rimmer tore his eyes open. Pushed himself to his feet.

'Yes!' his father encouraged. He turned to write on the chalk board. It read: spite. 'You can choose to live. That is your option. Dying and surviving through sheer stubbornness and obstinacy. That is your talent, lad!'

Rimmer walked through the flames to the computer screen. He stepped up onto the chair and began to push his way through. His hands and arms melted though the glass.

He was about to duck through when his father said,' Arnie, I did the best I could.'

Rimmer blinked, then said, 'No you didn't.' And he left, leaving his father to the flames.

***

Kryten was astonished.

'Sirs, his Light Bee, it's turned itself back on! Working at 20% functionality. No, 50%, 60%, 80% - he's coming back to us!'

Rimmer opened his eyes. He was struggling to sit up as the Cat threw his arms around his neck.

'It's good to have you back, Goalpost Head! I still hate you!'

'I hate you more,' Rimmer rasped back.

Lister squeezed his forearms, beaming. 'I thought you were a gonna, man. Welcome back, Iron Balls.'

'Sir, I don't understand!' Kyrten cried. 'You were dead! Your Light Bee had shut down, but then it reactivated. How did you do that?'

'I'm very stubborn,' said Rimmer. 'You're all idiots for giving up on me.'

[pintsizebear]

A guide on using RSS

This is an extension of my previous post about diversifying your internet use!

What is RSS?

RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) is basically an update log for a website. When a site has new content the RSS feed will update, and an RSS reader will show what's on the RSS feed. Think of an RSS reader like a centralized timeline/dashboard for all your favorite sites.

Why use RSS?

The most important reasons are to reduce your reliance on any one site, and to save time by compiling all the websites you check in one place instead of having to visit each one individually.

There's also no algorithm that decides what you see (or don't see.) No more shadowbanning, it's all where it's supposed to be. Plus, it makes it incredibly easy to jump ship from a platform that's endlessly fucking up, without having to start over entirely or maintaining profiles on 20 different sites.

Examples of websites that have RSS feeds:

Blogging + Social media sites (tumblr, cohost, blogspot, livejournal, mastodon, bluesky social, reddit, etc)

Video sites (youtube, dailymotion, vimeo, etc)

Podcasts

Forums

News sites

Personal websites (if the person running the site has added one. Here's a guide on adding an RSS feed to your own website! And here's a shorter one!)

How to use RSS?

You will need an RSS reader. I personally like and use Feedbro, which is a free browser extension (available on chrome, firefox, and microsoft edge.) Feeder is free and popular on android. Chrome on android also has a built-in RSS reader that can be enabled. Feeeed is a good free option on iOS.

How to find RSS feeds?

Some RSS readers like Feedbro are able to automatically find the RSS feed for a page with minimal effort on your part, you just click a button and it'll pull up the info.

Others will need you to paste the feed URL into a box, which isn't particularly hard either. There's a few ways to find an RSS feed URL. Some sites will have a direct link to it. It'll usually be an orange icon that looks something like this:

Less commonly, it'll be a link that says "subscribe", "web feed", or just a + icon.

Many sites don't have a direct link listed anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't have an RSS feed. A simple tool for finding unlisted feeds is Thirdplace Discovery. On that website, you paste the URL of the site or page you want the feed of, and you're given the URL of the feed if it exists.

Some sites simply don't have their own RSS feeds. That can often be worked around with tools like OpenRSS, RSSHub, or RSS.app!

It's also worth suggesting for websites you like to add their own RSS feed or to add the link in an accessible place. The more interest people show in it, the more likely it is to be supported.

That's about all you need to get started!

RSS is infinitely useful and customizable, it's worth trying out at the very least. Once you get settled in, it's very easy to use.

There's a huge amount of RSS reader options out there. Don't like the reader you started out with? The vast majority of them will let you export your subscription list as a file that can then be imported into a different reader! Feel free to experiment with different options to see which one you like best.

Also feel free to ask questions if you have them!

[nadianova]

Do you have any advice for beginning horny artists? Platforms they can use, where and how to share their NSFW art, so on, or just art tips even. I would like your wisdom. I would like to start sharing my more adult and straight up NSFW and explicit art, as well as have the confidence to share my horny thoughts, maybe receive asks about my kinks, I just don't know where or how to do it....I honestly admire you, with how you're so open and expressive about your desires and what brings you joy. I wish I could do that.

i dunno i have no tips for openness and expresiveness i have borderline personalinty disorder and i take physical damage if nobody is paying attention to me and i also have severe hyperfixation on porn so this is a combination ive been rocking with for as long as i remember

but like honestly just post anywhere just post it doesnt matter you cant do it wrong just post. you post until you figure out what the way to post is. idk. post compelted projects or episodic stuff on itch io. post art on social media on twitter and cohostbluesky(lol?) and sure post cropped stuff on tumblr.

internet is always going to suck for porn artists so just deal with it and post where you can and dont put all your eggs in one basket. this matters more when you ahve more audience if youre just tsarting out its less relevant since ultimately if anyone can gain an audience that means they can always build it back etc

if you really want specific advice its gonna be hard to say but just think of your favorite artists and mimic them and pick an option that seems like it fits you. idk you just say wahtever and share whatever. lots of people make alt accounts or otherwise create new accounts for nsfw stuff to separaet it from their regular stuff. do that if you want. if you get shy delete that account or something theres no damage if you change your mind idk

you just wanna share what you like making so clearly you want to do that so do it i guess. theres no wrong way to start if something doesnt work out keep iterating. nobody has the right approach when they first put their first thing online theres no pointo overthikning it up front unless youre literally intending to start sexwork with your real face and name attached to what youre doing

[samueldays]

I am once again recommending Master of Orion (1993).

It's thirty years old, it originally came on floppy discs, and it's really good. The interface is crisp. The ship design system is neat. The technology research system is not your standard tech tree. It has helpful hotkeys like "Indicate next world that has enemy fleet inbound". It has antifeatures like "not doing a Cinematic Camera Pan for several seconds". It has detail while avoiding micromanagement by giving you mostly high-level control, and automatic reassignment of overflow when something like factory construction fills up.

I say it again because of discourse from a mutual's post.

hello gamer. you claim to want "shorter games with worse graphics that are made by people who are paid more to do less". in front of you is itch dot io, which has a "pay what you want" feature,

that… feels like an unfair take?

I don't want the claim as stated, I strongly suspect it's something said because it's catchy more than it's accurate, and I want to dissect its relation to things I do want, like MOO1.

shorter games

No, I want games with less padding.

I want fewer cinematic camera pans, and fewer cutscenes, and less of the dev team showing off their fancy tech demo, and fewer animations in the interface because the interface should have sub-second response time, and less loading time because the game should be smaller, and less grinding unless you're an idle game in which case it should be automated, and I want more automation and macros for things that are a waste of my attention as well as my time. Give me autoresolve for battles with weak enemies. Give me minions that can be sent to do things for me. Give me "repeat until" orders. Give me a dialogue meta-option that says "I've played this before, give me the TL;DR". Give me speed-up and skip buttons.

itch.io games have some of these, but also have less gameplay.

worse graphics

I'm close to agreeing with this, but IMO it's less about the graphics themselves and more about the 50GB graphics package and rendering engine that contemporary games like to include for little to no gameplay improvement, and then that enables lazy devs to think "another 3GB isn't a problem when we're already past 50GB" and the game bloats to 150GB as each dev includes a whole-ass library for one function, and then there's 10GB updates to download repeatedly.

I don't know if this is literally what happened behind the scenes, but a recent game like Baldur's Gate 3 did hit 150GB. Which also brings me to,

people who are paid more

I want developer studios to fire the movie team and redistribute their salary to the rest of the devs, with movie team describing the Thing that 'graphics department' has grown into.

A game like Age of Mythology doing in-engine cutscenes was cool when the engine was primarily a game engine and hands had eight polygons; these days it seems like AAA games also want to be movies and that means turning the game engine into a movie-maker, and hiring an entire movie team to render the 3D model of each character's armpit hair and the physics of how it moves in the wind when the character raises his arm.

Since budget is limited, that movie team comes at the expense of every other aspect of the game, like gameplay, writing, bugtesting, et cetera, and it still won't be as good a movie as an actual movie.

do less

See above. Less padding, less cinema.

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on todays volume! in case you are unaware, android users got to play the volume very early, while ios users were given a late release. lmao. (i have both ios & android, but my phone is old & i didn’t want to add “slideshow frame rate” to a game that’s already glitchy af) somehow i managed to escape the horde of unmarked spoilers 🙏🏽

first off, felicity is stunning !!! i'm surprised she had an actual sprite rather than getting the zeph & cassius treatment . if she's not coming back that's such a waste of a really cool & pretty design

friend is really generous, jin . i get OG LI is trying to be nice or whatever but be so fr 😭 the only thing that sienna has been is a boring antagonist, she’s not shown not one single ounce of personality besides being delulu and coming at MC sideways (and it’s mainly because FB now struggles with writing multi-faceted characters…which is why they have AI allegations in the first place…)

speaking of delulu : theo , girl... how many times do i gotta tell you i'm all in on claudia unless they actually let us be poly at the end

MC somehow came out unscathed in movie night, plot armor for the win ! the guys pull MC for a chat before the boy's choice recoupling. the pit in my stomach when i read that.

theo flirts again, but this time our responses are flirty, rude af, or "you should focus on claudia." i didn't want to pick any of these but i picked the flirty one because at first i thought it could be "jokingly" said. interestingly enough, he says something among the lines of how he didn't expect MC to be interested in him because she's with claudia . i didn't want that to bite me in the ass later so i just replayed and picked the rude option (so it seems that it's "canon" for theo & claud to simultaneously crush on MC? at least if she's bi/pan etc.)

i saw this coming but still, this has to be a joke … 😭😭😭😭😭

there’s like what, three volumes left ? unless FB decides to drag this out with a “season 8.5,” this should’ve been a players choice recoupling (hell, it technically could've still been boys choice, with MC getting first pick for winning the heart rate challenge, or because she was selected by the viewers, literally anything lol)

it'd be one thing if OG LI was like, "i chose you because i wanted to keep you safe . even if we're not meant to be, i still care for you, i want you have a chance with the one you want," blah blah blah, but FB never lets us be in a friendship couple, he's just gonna keep pining for MC ... moving on

i forgot to screenshot the first part but it was basically claudia fantasizing about her and MC living in a huge house like the villa, MC was like "how are we gonna afford that"

my MC is a musician, so cuteee

i...what ? 😬 genuinely , what . i read this like 5 times and i still don't understand. unfortunately he did couple up with me, that's why i'm forced to hang out with claudia in the damn shower instead of being out in the open with her . somebody get this grandma to bed

i kinda love the cowgirl outfit. it's terrible, but i love it in a kitschy way . also i just kinda went with it because the mermaid outfit was clipping through MC's braids (as you can see the hat has some weird layering issue, but it's the lesser of two evils)

claudia's outfit wasn't paywalled, and i didn't get the gem option to give jin the viking outfit so he came out looking like this lmfaooooooo

okayyyyyy cowboy carter!

logan arrived way too late imo. again, unless FB plans on extending the season (or he's not romanceable ?) people who get with him are gonna get less time than oliver, angie, youcef romancers. you know how little time that is ???

as for the whole hazel and liam thing ... horrible. , she really deserves better, like me 💋 

[coldshrugs]

wip wednesday

wow i'm on time!! ty @lilas and @lavampira beloveds!

i'll tag (with no pressure): @scionshtola @galadae @hylfystt @birues @impossible-rat-babies and also everyone meg and dani tagged. you're tagged again 💗

this is all being edited and will likely change but :>

The silence is not a comfort to her now. It stretches on like the gaping canyon below the city, churning with the force of something unfathomable. The street lanterns flicker to life on either side of her. "Io." He pries her away from the stone railing, and the unspoken question remains. But he smiles again, and she joins him as he playfully jostles her shoulder. Finally, now that the crowd has thinned, she throws her arms around him and squeezes until he shakes with low, rumbling laughter. He squeezes back. She steadies herself with a deep breath and releases him. They walk on. "I'm sorry. If you must know, I am a bit jealous of you. Your continued adventures. I haven't adjusted to standing still." "Easily remedied, no?" Estinien shrugs casually. "We will make our own adventure. Unless you've been chained at the ankle, what keeps you from going where you please, at least for a day? If you want for decent company, well, I cannot claim decency. But we are friends, are we not?" "Of course we are." Io bumps her shoulder against his. "Alas, the chain is metaphorical, and therefore heavier than you've imagined, and it has everything to do with the title you'd rather ignore." He crosses his arms, steps slowing as they near Fortemps Manor. "You don't even mean to try?" "I did not say that! I only meant–" "Io, dearest! And is that Ser Estinien?" Haurchefant's voice cuts through her retort. She did not hear the door open, but she certainly hears it shut as he takes the opportunity to join them. "The steward said you were out on errands, but I never expected you to procure such a treasure as the nation's final Azure Dragoon. How are you, my friend?" Haurchefant extends his hand to Estinien, who clasps his arm with practiced neutrality. The tight line of his lips tells another story–his annoyance at this interruption. For a blessing, this goes ignored by Haurchefant, but there is comfort in knowing she is not the only one hanging to her charades by a thread. "Fine," Estinien says. His gaze follows the arm he's just released settling around Io's waist. "And pray, if we must prattle on about rank, 'Knight Commander' is the less abrasive option." Haurchefant's expression brightens beyond possibility. "You are returning for good then?" "For now."

[mariacallous]

Apple has a Spotify problem—and it just cost the iPhone maker a $2 billion fine from the European Commission.

For years, the two companies have been at war as the streaming service lured users away from Apple’s iTunes and accused the tech giant of exploiting its dominance to stifle innovation. In their long-running conflict, each has made incursions into the other’s territory. When Apple launched its own streaming service, Apple Music, in 2015, Spotify claimed Apple was able to undercut the platform’s prices because Apple didn’t have to pay the same App Store fees as rivals. In 2019, Spotify began an ambitious podcast spending spree, splashing out on high-profile shows, in another direct challenge to Apple.

The feud’s early days were civil, with few barbs traded in public. “We worry about the humanity being drained out of music,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2018, a cryptic comment widely interpreted as a jibe at Spotify’s heavy use of algorithmic recommendations. But Spotify became more outspoken as EU politicians started to call for laws to reign in Big Tech. The €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) fine on Apple announced by the European Commission today shows that its tactics are working. The fine originates in a legal complaint filed with the European Commission by Spotify in 2019, challenging the restrictions and fees Apple places on developers listing their apps in the App Store. Today the European Commission agreed, saying that Apple’s App Store restrictions amount to unfair trading conditions that may have led iOS users to pay significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions.

“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, in a statement. “They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.”

Apple’s App Store rules restrict music streaming companies and other apps from informing their users on Apple devices about how to upgrade or sign up for subscription offers outside of the app. Instead, app users can only see sign-up options for in-app subscriptions via Apple’s payments system, where prices are likely to be higher because Apple takes a cut. Some app makers, including Spotify, do not offer in-app purchases because they don’t want to pay this commission. "Some consumers may have paid more because they were unaware they could pay less if they subscribed outside the app,” Vestager said. “This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.” Apple, which says the EU has failed to provide credible evidence of consumer harm, has pledged to appeal.

Big Number

The fine is far bigger than expected, prompting Apple’s stock to drop 3 percent on Monday. Media reports based on unnamed sources had predicted a penalty of around €500 million. It’s also one of the biggest fines the EU has ever issued against a tech company, ranking below only two Google fines of $5.1 billion and $2.4 billion. Vestager explained in a press conference that the scale of the fine is intended to prevent the company from breaking rules in the future. She added that the amount includes a “lump sum” to “achieve deterrence.” $1.9 billion amounts to 0.5 percent of Apple’s global turnover, she said.

Although Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has expressed disapproval of Apple’s business tactics, he’s also something of a reluctant figurehead in Europe’s fight against Apple. The self-described introvert has adopted the role of spokesperson for disgruntled European app developers who finally feel their complaints about Big Tech are being heard.

On Monday, Ek posted a video on X in which he described Apple as a threat to the open internet. “Apple has decided that they want to close down the internet and make it theirs, and they view every single person using an iPhone to be their user and that they should be able to dictate what that user experience should be,” he said. Ek also claimed Apple wants to effectively levy a tax on Spotify while exempting its own music service, Apple Music.

Apple hit back at Spotify in a statement posted to its website. The company pushed back on the idea that Spotify had suffered as a result of its policies, instead describing the platform as an App Store success story, pointing out that Spotify’s app has been downloaded, redownloaded, or updated more than 119 billion times onto Apple phones.

“We’ve even flown our engineers to Stockholm to help Spotify’s teams in person,” Apple’s statement said. For all that, Apple says, Spotify pays them nothing. “But free isn’t enough for Spotify,” the statement continues. “They also want to rewrite the rules of the App Store—in a way that advantages them even more.”

Spotify is one of the few European consumer tech companies with a significant global business, so people in the continent’s tech community listen when it speaks out. Spotify’s latest criticisms are spurring more European developers to complain about what they consider to be unfair treatment by the tech giant—putting the European Commission under even more pressure to act. “Apple holds app providers ransom like the Mafia,” Matthias Pfau, CEO and cofounder of Tuta, an encrypted email provider based in Germany, told WIRED last month, echoing frustrations also voiced by US app developers such as Epic Games.

For Apple, Spotify’s success today is potentially an omen of future action from the EU. This week marks the deadline for compliance with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, a new antitrust law designed to prevent the internet from coming under the control of only a handful of big—usually American—platforms. The new law gives Europe the power to fine tech companies up to 20 percent of their global turnover, meaning future fines could make dwarf $2 billion levied on Apple today.

“This is the commission saying, ‘We're going to be tough, particularly on Apple,’” says Max von Thun, Europe director of the Open Markets Institute, of the decision today. “I see this as kind of small compared to what's to come.”