#is apple still banning long post

[valeriehalla]

at this point I just categorically have 90,000,000 times more fun on tumblr than the smoldering wreckage of twitter. like, twitter was already becoming kind of a drag for me before the hostile takeover, and now that cohost (hallowed be her name) is shutting down, it's like, well—i guess we doin’ tumbls again!! “it’s obviously the best one”

honestly, while the queer internet may never recover from the sucking wound that was and is tumblr’s NSFW ban—at least not as long as the united states of america continues to fail to take antitrust action against apple, google, and the payment processors collectively serving as the final boss of what’s allowed to be posted where on the internet—i’m starting to feel like tumblr is moving back into position as The Best Site For Artists regardless. my thoughts on this are half-formed, but it’s like this:

every other social media platform is either 1. tiktok, 2. hyper-obscure, or 3. slow-motion self-destructing to a degree way beyond even what tumblr inflicted upon itself in 2018. this is not a new sentiment i don’t think.

i think the fact that tumblr is unable to capture the literal billions of users every other platform is chasing makes it arguably a lot nicer for the users who are here. there is no way for an application to achieve a tiktok-sized install base that isn’t just naked manipulation and skinnerboxing. tumblr’s leadership seems either too incompetent to pull it off or too wise to try, and so we have what is effectively the last microblogging platform on the internet that’s actually still usable for microblogging.

also, a smaller-but-not-too-small audience is more engaged with what they’re seeing. simple as. a thousand notes on tumblr means more than a million views on tiktok and it always will.

of course, i am in fact making a living off of sexually-explicit art right now, and so tumblr cannot be my One Platform. i get away with it because the art is in service of a story hosted off-site, and so i never need to post The Whole Pussy on here; if i was exclusively an illustrator i’d be even less thrilled with the current state of things than i already ain’t. i guess this is just a testament to how truly bad The State Of Things has gotten, though. congratulations, tumblr: you really did win by doing absolutely nothing.

[hedgehog-moss]

I realised I hadn't posted a greenhouse report since spring, and today seemed like a good day for a 2023 home-grown food review!

2023 was a great year for fruit; my apple & plum trees were so generous! In the greenhouse my most successful crops were tomatoes, red chilli peppers, beans, and pickles. I was able to make spicy plum chutney using my own plums, onions and peppers:

On the other hand I was unlucky with my non-greenhouse vegetables, there were so many insects this year and my courgettes got absolutely decimated. But then I complained about my bad courgette luck to some neighbours and was gifted 9 courgettes and 3 pumpkins. I spent the first half of my autumn cooking and freezing and pickling and preserving to try not to let anything go to waste; I made:

7 jars of pesto (with greenhouse basil); 8 jars of pasta sauce (with courgette-pumpkin-tomato-red peppers-onions-basil, + parmesan); an unknown but large amount of pumpkin-tomato soup (I put them in empty glass bottles and freeze them); 7 jars of spicy plum chutney; 2 small bottles of spicy oil for my pizzas (with some of my chilli peppers; the rest are still drying by the stove to become chilli powder); 5 jars of plum jam and 3 of blackberry jam (I also froze several kg of whole blackberries for winter desserts); 6 jars of pickles (they are delicious!! I'd never pickled pickles before this year, I'm really happy with the result); 12 small bottles of elderberry syrup; 4 large bottles of elderflower syrup; hundreds of little apple sweets; several bottles of apple juice; an absolutely dizzying amount of apple puree / compote / jelly, because I refused to leave any leftover apples for the dormouse population. They are not my friends.

(If you think I'm being too mean to the dormice, please know that a) they are unrepentant thieves; b) I became so competent at hiding my apples that a dormouse ended up sneaking into the shower at night to eat my soap. My bar of homemade (not by me) goat milk soap. It's hazelnut scented so I guess if you're a rodent it just smells like lunch.)

I took some stuff out of the freezer just long enough to take this family picture; though I already gave away a lot of things to guests and neighbours, so it's just what's left! (I also froze enough chopped onions to last until summer I think)

I am terrible at labelling my jars; in my hubris I always assume I'll just remember where I put which kind of sauce or flavour of compote. I never remember. I end up having to give my guests mystery jars, like "this is fruit jelly! Made with... fruits"

So it wouldn't get too monotonous I added various fruits to my apple purees: apple-raspberry, apple-blueberry, -plum, -blackberry... I also made a few jars of apple-pineapple-pumpkin compote because I had too much pumpkin and I regret not focusing on that from the start, this combo tasted so good and was the most cheerful yellow colour.

I finally used my last apples last week, making apple-quince paste which is currently drying in order to become sweets. I bought some pretty & thick paper to origami a few boxes to put them in, so I'll have New Year presents for my courgette-providing neighbours. <3

(My cats are currently banned from this room so they won't try to lick the fruit paste) (they don't even like it, they're just cats)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

an impolite use of magic

I was rereading Malleus’s Dorm Uniform vignettes to gather information for another post! Something that stuck out to me upon the reread was how magic can be used in an insulting or disrespectful way. We often hear about how both NRC and Twisted Wonderland itself has many rules and regulations which govern magic and its uses—but it seems there is a social component too.

A quick summary of the aforementioned vignettes; they center around Malleus trying to make it to a dorm leaders meeting. After his peers fail to successfully remind him of their appointed time and day, Malleus decides it would be easier the other dorm leaders come to him rather than him going to them. He then casts a spell which transfers those he wishes to meet with (the headmaster and dorm leaders), bringing them directly to him. This is where it gets interesting, because it is Malleus using this spell on his peers that offends them.

Azul indicates that he had never been treated with such disrespect and that Malleus’s act is an insult. Vil and Leona express upset that Malleus seems to think of them as nothing more than objects, luggage, a pen, or a book. Malleus says he does not understand why everyone is mad because the same spell he used on them, they use all the time to summon their magical pens to them. Riddle clarifies: “PENS ARE OBJECTS AND WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS!!” Lastly, Idia likens the situation to being treated like a familiar that Malleus sees fit to summon at his beck and call, which is also just as irritating.

Judging by the other dorm leaders’ reactions, we can infer that most mages find it extremely impolite to have a spell which is typically used on objects cast on them/living beings. Riddle implies you must obtain consent before doing so, otherwise it violates decorum. (This aligns with the idea that magic is usually formally regulated; for example, medical mages must still get their patients’ consent to operate on them or to heal them.)

Reviewing the other lore we know of, this piece of magical manners (?) makes sense. It seems to be okay to cast object-oriented magic so long as permission is granted. For example, in Floyd’s Labwear vignettes, Adeuce are shown practicing color changing magic on an apple. Vil would use similar color changing magic to alter his and his father’s clothes when they were being hounded by the paparazzi. A similar situation would occur in Lilia’s Suitor Suit vignettes, in which Malleus uses his magic to create a suit on Lilia that perfectly matches his image. I’m sure there are many other examples you could think of; these are just the most obvious ones that come to my mind.

Where does that leave us? Well, with a bunch more questions!! Firstly, what else is considered rude use of magic? Secondly, are spells which violate control over one’s mind and body also considered transgressions of social norms??? They must be, right?? Then why was everyone so chill when discussing how Ruggie and Jamil used their UMs in the main story compared to Malleus casting his transference spell? Isn’t having someone else’s will overwrite your own equally as, if not more, degrading and dehumanizing??? (We do see the the other students upset about the magic being casted on them after the fact, but talking about the possibility of it isn’t done with horror; maybe because it was already established that doing these things is a no-no.) In which case, Ruggie and Jamil, who have UMs meant to be used on living beings anyway, is also “impolite” because their spells still violate other people’s autonomy. Why isn’t this banned by law or at least regulated?? Because it’s too hard to control through legislation alone? (That actually makes sense 💦)

What about when Deuce cast a floating spell on Ace to launch him at the chandelier in the prologue? Or the time NRC students made rude Halloween goers (Magicam Monsters) leave campus by floating them over the school gates?? Were those instances considered impolite too???? And is it more impolite to use magic against a non-mage (since they cannot defend themselves) than against a mage? They mention in Terror is Trending that there are laws against using (attack) magic on non-mages, but what about non-attacking spells and with consent like color changing magic???

What are the rules around casting magic on sentient objects like the Mirror of Darkness, is that considered rude as well since the object is “living”? Do ghosts count as “living” enough to be offended by having an object-oriented spell cast on them? Where do blessings and curses fall in this, since those can be cast without consent (Lilia on baby Silver in book 7) and can also be cast on objects (Vil with the gifted cake and pie in book 5).

I must.. know… 🤡

[bookofbonbon]

i know i am - rafe cameron.

Pairing: Rafe Cameron x Reader.

Summary: For Rafe, it's always been you. He's just waiting for you to realise it too.

Word Count: 840.

A/N: It has been a hot minute since I've posted Rafe Cameron and this is OLD. So, so old and I just found it in the archives and thought I would post it because why not?

You feel him before you see him, goosebumps covering the length of your arms and, not because it’s cold – more attuned to the pretty blue-eyed boy who fills the space behind you than you cared to admit but, he didn’t need to know that.  You try to be subtle in the deep breath you take, he always smells so good, you think he’s your favourite smell – yet another thing he didn’t need to know but, the small laugh he breathes tells you that he already does.

“You know you can do better than him,” Rafe chuckles quietly at the boy trying but failing to win you a stuffed animal - you’d been hoping he’d get you the brown teddy bear with the blue bow tie – the boy you’re actually here at the carnival with.

You roll your eyes playfully at his words even though he can’t see you, you’d heard them a thousand times before, “you can’t say that to me. I banned you from saying that to me, remember?”

Rafe laughs loudly, warmly, the sound reverberating through you and you’re unsure of when you had leant back into him but, you don’t mind. It feels nice.

“Okay, then…” Rafe acknowledges, making a noise in the back of his throat like he’s thinking. “How about… he’s not right for you.”

This time you roll your eyes in exasperation, turning to look at him – all playfulness and amusement gone. The tip of his nose and apples of cheeks are coloured pink from the cold and, if it weren’t for the mild irritation, you now felt with him, you would’ve thought it was cute.

You look to the side, mulling over your words as your gaze focuses on an unknown couple, wondering whether or not you should say what you have on your mind. It had always been a carefully crafted dance with Rafe, always teetering toward the edge but never going over it and, not because of him but because of you. You had known him too long, loved him too long, what if things didn’t work out between you two? But then he gives you that cheeky half grin that you love so much, and you think maybe you are ready to go over the edge if it's with him.

“You only ever say that because you think you’re right for me,” you shrug nonchalantly, gaze finding him again and steeling yourself to appear more confident than you felt.

Time seems to stand still at your words, never had you said anything like that before, always brushing him off with a roll of your eyes and a push at his arm but not this time. Something shifts between the two of you, a maddening tension that had always knocked at the door but had never been invited in until now and you wonder if Rafe feels it too.

If your words have any effect on him, he doesn’t show it, at least not in the way that you’d like. The seconds feel like hours, each one sending a knife to your heart as Rafe doesn’t say anything. Instead looking at you with a tilt of his head and a light draw of his brows, eyes shining with something you can’t quite place.

Your heart beats wildly in your chest – you’re sure if he comes any closer than he already is, he’ll hear it. But he doesn’t say anything and, instead of coming closer, he moves further away and around you before disappearing from your view entirely and leaving you feeling like a fool. Whatever confidence you may have held, leaving with him.

Tears fill your eyes, a lump in your throat as you swallow thickly, sniffling lightly and pressing a hand to your forehead. You stay there for a minute, probably less but it feels much longer; only prompted to move by the feeling of someone’s hand around your wrist and pulling you around to face them. You mentally shake the last few minutes with Rafe from your head, knowing that it’s likely your date returned with that stuffed animal he promised but, to your surprise – it’s Rafe.

“I don’t think I am; I know I am” he smiles at you.

It’s easy and light, always so effortless in his charm but, it's not playful like it usually is. There's a sincerity and comfort in the way he looks at you.

His confession catches you off guard even though it shouldn’t. He’s always been so openly and shamelessly in love with you and, yet butterflies erupt in your stomach all the same. Sliding his hand from around your wrist to cradle your hand, he squeezes it softly before guiding it towards something he holds in his other hand – you look down in surprise when you feel something soft beneath your fingers – it’s the brown teddy bear with the blue bow tie.

“Just waiting for you to realise that I am, too,” Rafe grins with a cheeky wink before he disappears into the crowd, knowing full well now, that you do.

-

All fics are my own work - I have not posted my work anywhere else.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places mentioned above.

Do not copy. Do not translate. Do not repost.

© bookofbonbon 2023. All rights reserved.

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸 🚨

UNITED STATES CONGRESS PASSES SERIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC AND PRO-WAR BILLS DESPITE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The United States Congress and Senate passed a series of bills, including three controversial anti-democratic and pro-war bills, two of which were tied together, on Saturday, bypassing public opinion and popular opposition to the profligate, pro-war, globalist, Neolib/Neocon agenda currently driving United States domestic and foreign policy.

Included in the bills passed was a bill to force TikTok to divest from its connections with China at risk of being banned immediately, which naturally was tied to a Foreign aid bill.

However, as even Republican Senator Rand Paul mentioned in an opinion piece in Reason Magazine, the Bill is almost certain to lead to more power for American political elites and their administrations to pressure companies like Apple and Google to further ban apps and sites that offer contradictory opinions to that of the invented narratives of the American Political class.

Before long, Americans, many of whom are already poorly informed, and heavily misinformed by their mainstream media, could lose access to critical information that contradicts the narratives of the United States government and corporate elites.

Horrifically, this only the start. The US Congress also extended the newly revised FISA spy laws, which gives the United States government the power to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners, while also conveniently sweeping up the conversations of millions of Americans, as we learned years ago thanks to the sacrifices of whistle blowers and journalists like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

The new FISA Law goes further than this, however, granting US Intelligence agencies the power to spy on the wireless communications of Americans in completely new ways.

A recent Jacobin article describes these new powers as a, "radical expansion of government surveillance that would be ripe for abuse by a future authoritarian leader", or it could just be used by the authoritarian leadership we have right now, and have had for decades.

In fact, when one commentator described the new powers as "Stasi-like," Edward Snowden himself replied with a long post in which he remarked, "invocation of "Stasi-like" is not only a fair characterization of Himes' amendment, it's probably generous. The Stasi dared not even dream of what the Himes amendment provides."

The amendment in question just "tweaks" the current law's definition of an "electronic communication provider," which is being changed to "any service provider," something extremely likely to be abused by the government to force anyone with a business, a modem and people using their broadband to collect the electronic communications of those people, while also forcing their victims into silence.

The government could essentially force Americans to spy on other people and remain silent about it. Cafe's, restaurants, hotels, business landlords, shared workspaces all could get swept up into the investigations of the Intelligence agencies.

Worse still, because picking out the communications of a single user would be next to impossible, all of their victim's data would end up being surrendered to the authorities.

Sadly, the assault on Americans by their own political elites didn't end there, to top this historic day in Congress, at time when the United States public debt is growing at an astounding rate of $1 trillion every 100 days, US lawmakers also passed a series of pro-war aid packages to American allies (vassals) totalling some $95 billion.

Included in the foreign aid bill are aid packages totalling $61 billion for the Ukraine scam, $26 billion for Israel's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific to provoke WWIII with China, at the same time we're also provoking a nuclear holocaust with the Russian Federation.

Also buried in these aid packages is the authorization for the United States government to outright steal the oversees investments of the Russian Federation, and thereby the Russian taxpayers.

Astonishingly, and in direct opposition to the wishes of their own voters, Republican support was won without the possibility of conditioning the aid to any kind of border security, this despite the issue being among the top biggest concerns of Republican voters.

Although much of the money is to be used replenishing the heavily depleted stocks of America's weapons and munitions, it remains unclear where the munitions are expected to come from, as US defense production has remained sluggish and slow to expand despite heavy investments and demand in recent years, despite the rapid urgency with which the policy elite describe the situation.

It bodes poorly for working Americans that only a relatively small handful of lawmakers opposed the bills, producing unlikely bedfellows like Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, opposing the FISA bill.

While in the House, the loudest opposition to the foreign aid bill mostly came from populist Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Goser. Only 58 Congresmembers voted against the Foreign Aid Bill in which the TikTok ban was tucked.

Not one word from American politicians about the need to raise the minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 2009 despite considerable inflation, nor a word about America's endlessly growing homelessness crises, property crime increases, or the 40-year stagnation of American wages, the deterioration of infrastructure, and precious little was said besides complaints about border security over the immigration crises sparked by American Imperialist adventures and US sanctions.

What we've learned today is that we are highly unlikely to see any changes to the insane behavior of the US and its allies any time soon, neither with regards to the absolutely bonkers Neocon foreign policy leading us to the edge of abyss, nor the spending-for-the-rich/austerity-for-the-poor Neoliberal domestic policy of the last 45 years.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

Blue: titles are opinion pieces or analysis, and may or may not contain sources.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

We should ban TikTok('s surveillance)

With the RESTRICT Act, Congress is proposing to continue Trump’s war on Tiktok, enacting a US ban on the Chinese-owned service. How will they do this? Congress isn’t clear. In practice, banning stuff on the internet is hard, especially if you don’t have a national firewall:

https://doctorow.medium.com/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography-33aa668dc602

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

My guess is that they’re thinking of ordering the mobile duopoly of Google and Apple to nuke the Tiktok app from their app stores. That’s how they do it in China, after all: when China wanted to ban VPNs and other privacy tools, they just ordered Apple to remove them from the App Store, and Apple rolled over:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped

That’s the completely foreseeable consequence of arrogating the power to decide which software every mobile user on earth is entitled to use — as Google and Apple have done. Once you put that gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, you damn betcha that some strong-man backed by a powerful state is going to come along and shoot it by Act III.

The same goes for commercial surveillance: once you collect massive, nonconsensual dossiers on every technology user alive, you don’t get to act surprised when cops and spies show up and order your company to serve as deputies for a massive, off-the-books warrantless surveillance project.

Hell, a cynic might even say that commercial surveillance companies are betting on this. The surveillance public-private partnership is a vicious cycle: corporations let cops and spies plunder our data; then the cops and spies lobby against privacy laws that would prevent these corporations from spying on us:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/25/nationalize-moderna/#hun-sen

Which makes the RESTRICT Act an especially foolish project. If the Chinese state wants to procure data on Americans, it need not convince us to install Tiktok. It can simply plunk down a credit card with any of the many unregulated data-brokers who feed the American tech giants the dossiers that the NSA and local cops rely on.

Every American tech giant is at least as bad for privacy as Tiktok is — yes, even Apple. Sure, Apple lets its users block Facebook spying with a single tap — but even if you opt out of “tracking,” Apple still secretly gathers exactly the same kinds of data as Facebook, and uses it to power its own ad product:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

There is no such thing as a privacy-respecting tech giant. Long before Apple plastered our cities with lying billboards proclaiming its reverence for privacy, Microsoft positioned itself as the non-spying alternative to Google, which would be great, except Microsoft spies on hundreds of millions of people and sells the data:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge

Tech’s surveillance addiction means that Tiktok’s own alternative to the RESTRICT Act is also unbelievably stupid. The company has proposed to put itself under Oracle’s supervision, letting Oracle host its data and audit its code. You know, Oracle, the company that built the Great Firewall of China 1.0:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveillance

We should not trust Tiktok any more than we trust Apple, Facebook, Google or Microsoft. Tiktok lied about whether it was sending data to China before:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access

And even if it keeps its promise not to send user data to China, that promise is meaningless — it can still send the vectors and models it creates with that data to China — these being far more useful for things like disinformation campaigns and population-scale inferences than the mere logs from your Tiktok sessions.

There are so many potentially harmful ways to process commercial surveillance data that trying to enumerate all the things that a corporation is allowed to do with the data it extracts from us is a fool’s errand. Instead, we should ban companies from spying on us, whether they are Chinese or American.

Corporations are remorseless, paperclip-maximizing colony organisms that perceive us as inconvenient gut-flora, and they lack any executive function (as do their “executives”), and they cannot self-regulate. To keep corporations from harming us, we must make it illegal for them to enact harm, and punish them when they break the law:

https://doctorow.medium.com/small-government-fd5870a9462e

After all, the problem with Tiktok isn’t the delightful videos or the fact that it’s teaching a generation of children to be expert sound- and video-editors. The problem with Tiktok is that it spies on us. Just like the problem with Facebook isn’t that it lets us communicate with our friends, and the problem with Google isn’t that it operates a search engine.

Now, these companies will tell you that the two can’t be separated, that a bearded prophet came down off a mountain with two stone tablets, intoning, “Larry, Sergey, thou shalt stop rotating thine logfiles and, lo, thou wilt data-mine them for actionable market intelligence.” But it’s nonsense. Google ran for years without surveillance. Facebook billed itself as the privacy-forward alternative to Myspace and promised never to spy on us:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

The inevitabilist narrative that says that corporations must violate our rights in order to make the products we love is unadulterated Mr Gotcha nonsense: “Yet you participate in society. Curious. I am very intelligent”:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Of course, corporations push this narrative all the time, which is why American Big Tech has been quietly supporting a ban on Tiktok, which (coincidentally) has managed to gain a foothold in the otherwise impregnable, decaying, enshittified oligarchy that US companies have created.

They have conspicuously failed to call for any kind of working solution, like a federal privacy law that would ban commercial surveillance, and extend a “private right of action,” so people could sue tech giants and data-brokers who violated the law, without having to convince a regulator, DA or Attorney General to bestir themselves:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/you-should-have-right-sue-companies-violate-your-privacy

Instead, the tech giants have the incredible gall to characterize themselves as the defenders of our privacy — at least, so long as the Chinese government is the adversary, and so long as its privacy violations come via an app, and not buy handing a credit card to the data-brokers that are the soil bacteria that keeps Big Tech’s ecosystem circulating. In the upside-down land of Big Tech lobbying, privacy is a benefit of monopoly — not something we have to smash monopolies to attain:

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

Not everyone in Congress is onboard with the RESTRICT Act. AOC has come out for a federal privacy law that applies to all companies, rather than a ban on an app that tens of millions of young Americans love:

https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-first-tiktok-congress-ban-without-being-clued-in-2023-3

You know who agrees with AOC? Rand Paul. Yes, that absolute piece of shit. Paul told his caucusmates in the GOP that banning an app that millions of young American voters love is bad electoral politics. This fact is so obvious that even Rand fucking Paul can understand it:

https://gizmodo.com/rand-paul-opposes-tiktok-ban-warns-republicans-1850278167

Paul is absolutely right to call a Tiktok ban a “national strategy to permanently lose elections for a generation.” The Democrats should listen to him, because the GOP won’t. As between the two parties, the GOP is far more in thrall to the Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the business lobby. They are never going to back a policy that’s as good for the people and as bad for big business as a federal privacy law.

The Democrats have the opportunity to position themselves as “the party that wants to keep Tiktok but force it to stop being creepy, along with all the other tech companies,” while the GOP positions itself as “the party of angry technophobes who want to make sure that any fun you have is closely monitored by Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pinchai and Tim Cook and their pale imitations of the things you love about Tiktok.”

That’s not just good electoral politics — it’s good policy. Young voters aren’t going to turn out to the polls for performative Cold War 2.0 nonsense, but they will be pissed as hell at whoever takes away their Tiktok.

And if you do care about Cold War 2.0, then you should be banning surveillance, not Tiktok; the Chinese government has plenty of US dollars at its disposal to spend in America’s freewheeling, unregulated data markets — as do criminals, petty and organized, and every other nation-state adversary of the USA.

The RESTRICT Act is a garbage law straight out of the Clinton era, a kind of King Canute decree that goes so far as to potentially prohibit the use of VPNs to circumvent its provisions. America doesn’t need a Great Firewall to keep itself safe from tech spying — it needs a privacy law.

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here’s how you can: I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A modified vintage editorial cartoon. Uncle Sam peeks out over a 'frowning battlement' whose cannon-slots are filled with telescopes from which peer the red glaring eyes of HAL 9000 from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Topping the battlements in a row are Uncle Sam and three business-suited figures with dollar-sign-bags for heads. The three dollar-bag men have corporate logos on their breasts: Facebook, Google, Apple. Standing on the strand below the battlements, peering up, is a forlorn figure with a Tiktok logo for a head. The fortress wall bears the words 'RESTRICT Act.']

[sonicenvy]

An AO3 app? -- The next installment in my AO3 posting.

I'm going to preface this by telling you that I don't entirely understand the urge or need to have an app for everything, but then again, I am closer to 30 than 20, so maybe that's the difference. Moving on.

So I've seen a lot of people saying that they wish there was an AO3 app. Presumably these people read AO3 on their phones or tablets. The thing is, there is NO AO3 app. If you see an app in the App Store or the Play Store claiming to be an AO3 app, it is fake, and you should not download it.

Say it with me kids:

"ao3 does not have an app and will not have an app."

The thing is, there's a really good reason why it will never happen. If you've been on this site (tumblr) long enough you'll either remember or have heard about the great tumblr porn ban (aka the ban on "female presenting nipples"). Believe it or not there was time where the tumblr (official) policy on adult content was "go nuts, show nuts. whatever." <-- actual quote btw.

A big reason why the tumblr porn ban ever happened was because of the tumblr app, specifically, the tumblr app for iOS. Apple decided one day that they thought that the tumblr app contained too much "sensitive content" and they banned tumblr's app from the Apple App Store, until such time as tumblr took what they believed sufficient corrective action for this "issue." Apple also believed that tumblr's app was hosting CP, which they considered a violation of their TOS.

So, in response to Apple banning them from the app store (which did not effect current users of the tumblr app, only potential new tumblr users), tumblr rolled out the adult content ban, so that they could get re-instated on the App Store. Like many other new "features" and "updates" to this site, the roll out was clunky, badly done and deeply unpopular. It was easily one of the worst changes for this site, in no small part because of how clunky it was; lots of innocuous posts were incorrectly flagged, and many bloggers found their entire blogs flagged, with little recourse in the initial wake of the ban. Critically, this event saw a great many users on tumblr leave this platform for twitter. How this affected site culture is up to debate.

Why am I telling you this? Well, as I am sure you, as an AO3 user are well aware, AO3 hosts a great deal of "adult content," of many persuasions and forms. They are explicitly against censorship of any kind. The app store is NOT against all censorship. These are two conflicting values. Since AO3 (and by extension OTW) has no interest in purging content from their site on behest of a megacorp (which btw is also why they rely on donations only and don't serve advertisements), they have no interest in developing an app, given the potential for restrictions.

Besides, AO3's website is simple, clean, and mobile responsive. Why fix something that ain't broke??

But, wait, if you're the target audience I'm hoping to reach with this post, you still want an app for AO3 on your home screen!

Never fear, my app loving youngsters! There is a way for you to create an "app" icon on your iPad or iPhone's home screen for AO3 (or any other site you like really) Apologies Android users; I don't have an Android, so I can't show you something analogous to this on Android, and don't know if they have it. Ditto on Kindle Fire.

This tutorial will use both safari and Firefox*. I won't show you Chrome (derogatory) because I don't have it and don't use it.

*Side note, switching to Firefox today is a great thing that you can do for yourself. You can easily import all of your Chrome bookmarks if that's what worries you.

In Firefox:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Firefox browser.

Step 2. Tap the hamburger menu in the right hand side of the top ribbon to reveal the browser and page settings and options menu, and locate the "Share" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 3. In the "share" menu popup, locate and tap the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 4. Give your new "app" (secretly just a bookmark) a title. You can leave it as the default, but I suggest shortening it so that the entirety of it shows on your home screen. You can name it whatever you want.

In Safari:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Safari browser.

Step 2. Tap the share icon in the right hand side of the top ribbon and scroll down until you find the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in green below). Tap this option.

Step 3. In the "add to home screen" pop up, type whatever name you want in the name field (highlighted in green below). You can leave it as the default, but I suggest that you change it to something shorter so it displays in full with the icon on the home screen.

Either way, you should end up with an icon on your home screen that looks like this:

This is not an "app" BUT it is an icon on your home screen. When you tap the icon, it takes you to the home page of AO3, in whatever browser you created the bookmark in. You can move it around however you'd like, just like a real app, and put it any folder you'd like.

So that's all I have for this chat.

See you again next time I get inspired to write an ao3 chat/tutorial post for newbies!

Final note, If any of my followers have Android devices or Kindle Fire devices and want to add a photo tutorial for this on those platforms to this post, please feel free to, since I don't have any devices with either of those OSes, and thus could not do that myself.

[nessieseadreams]

Twst characters as things I did as a child

I had no idea what my first post should be so here is some crack hcs ig you can call them based on things I did when I was idk 13 and below :)

yuu (malleus is the person in question) - became close friends with someone who developed a crush on them. mf was hugging, holding hands and patting their back and all they thought was “oh wow what a good friend,” cause they’re fucking oblivious to flirting cause they’re aroace.

riddle - forced himself to like girls before realising he too was aroace

Trey - was the priest in the playground for a guy who wanted to marry his carrot

Cater - vents in his notes app and forgets, so when he goes back into it he gets flashbacks

Deuce - started sobbing after someone made a joke about him not having a dad (it was a rough day)

Ace - called someone a wanker and riddle had to make him apologise to the kid

Leona - mother admitted he was “an accident” but was still loved and somehow interpreted that as her admitting she hated him

Ruggie - stole a pack of gum and thought he would go to jail only for no one to notice. that’s how his theivary started

Jack - father thought his obsession with a werewolf show was demonic and banned him from watching it

Floyd - punched someone when they said his drawing looked like baymax

Jade - walked (or swam…fuck idk) around the school playground and talked to himself cause he had no friends

Azul - made an entire obstacle course in primary school and made people pay him in seaweed (leaves) and it got so bad the teachers had to tell him to stop cause there was no seaweed left around the school (all the trees didn’t have leaves)

Kalim - hid in a huge shopping centre when he and his family were on holiday in a different country and got half of it closed to search for him. he just wanted to play hide and seek :(

Jamil - got told “d-d-dora…d-d-deported,” and just laughed in confusion.

vil - keeps away from mario kart cause he knows if he plays it he would become way too fucking competitive and curse out all the children playing it and scare them.

Rook - secretly burned the tops of his fingers cause he liked the feeling

Epel - ate an entire shrek lipbalm cause it was apple flavoured and he fucking loves apple flavoured stuff. then got sick right after

Idia - got told off for wearing cat ears to school

idia again - screamed bloody murder when his favourite character died in an anime and then sobbed louder when it turned out the character reincarnated, his brother rushed up the stairs thinking he was dying

Sebek - saw his teacher from years ago after a long time and yelled “OH MY GOD YOU HAVE GREY HAIR,” the minute he saw her.

Silver - helped a kid once because he felt bad for them since they were lost but now continuously runs away from them cause they KEEP ON FUCKING FOLLOWING HIM EVERYWHERE AND HE CANT TELL THEM TO STOP BECAUSE HIS VOICE IS TOO FUCKING QUIET

Lila - grew up witnessing horror and seeing gruesome shit (playing resident evil at 5 and watching pewdiepie play corpse party) and now has a weird fascination of horror and gore.

Malleus - constantly gets told ‘are you okay?’ or ‘are you tired?’ no bitch that’s his resting face, asshole

[georgiapeach30513]

Hi there! Long time no see (🤡widow Cole anon*)

I see we are once again talking about Ghosted, well at least semi. My theory for his rut and his lost of energy during this past few years is actually Ghosted.

Cause I keep thinking about it and I have a longer theory that’ll make seem like Charlie from Always Sunny and I know you don’t want to mention THAT so here’s the smaller rundown.

I highly suspect that Ghosted was supposed to be his Project Headliner of the shift in his career. I believe that Ghosted wasn’t a contractual obligation but a contractual perk from Apple. A movie that he could get assemble to prove he’s got what it takes to make a successful movie behind the scenes.

From the interviews that came out from the cast and Chris. Chris was the main guy at the helm of it.

Firstly, Dex had mentioned that Chris was signed onto the project before him. Both he and Ana mentioned that Chris called her for the part once Scarlet left and Scarlet was working with Chris and Dex beforehand too.

Secondly, Both Dex and Ana were promoting the release a ton before release and yet Chris wasn’t. I know during the time everything coming out about it was saying it was bad but you would think that the lead would still be contractually obligated to promote the movie like his costar and director, wouldn’t you ? Especially cause by that point, we’ve come to expect practically zip from Apple themselves in terms of advertisements. Unless of course, he didn’t have that type of contract?

Thirdly, why a romcom and not the Gene Kelly project? Simple, ROMCOM CHRIS! Can’t completely be sure on the straight side of the fandom but at least in the gay Chris fandom we were rooting for a return for romcom Chris with an out actor name Zane Phillips. But yes I did see Romcom Chris edits from posted religiously before Ghosted (specifically Colin Shea and Harvard Hottie); now not so much.

Finally, the infamous GQ article… what movie was mentioned? What movie was the one seemed to have the most impact on our guy? What movie made sense for the direction the interview seemed to go for?

That’s right, Ghosted! Logically you’d think they’d use the Pain Hustlers as an upcoming project to talk about since it was before the strike and it’d be a sly lil advert. But if my guess is correct, I think if Ghosted was successful as it was hoped. Then we would’ve got something kind like “Hunky Heartthrob Chris Evans Box Office Success Revives Romcoms!” Instead of and, excuse my pessimism, “Chris Evans Doesn’t Need Hollywood (*Too Rich to Strike*).

There wasn’t really much in that magazine but it seemed like it would have been a good time to talk about how this may have been a passion project he really took the helm and brought to life from conception to execution. Then either mentioning his upcoming serious role in Pain hustlers or more than likely talking about the real passion project Gene Kelly.

So we’d go from Chris Evans the actor-> Chris Evans the producer-> Chris Evans the Director (time for Gene Kelly). At least that’s my thinking. There’s more but again, I respect your blog and the banned topics.

And to end this on a lighter note, *STOP GIVING AWAY MY MAN, THAT POWER OF THE LAND IS MINE!* 😭

Hey!! You made it back anon!!!

So I can see your theory, but I think the Gene Kelly project was prematurely mentioned in order to distract from something else at the time 😬 I don't think he intended on putting a brain idea out there before he had anything tangible to say it was moving forward, but alas, sometimes you make people look in one direction, so you ignore what's going on in another direction.

I think Ghosted had a lot of issues, and some you mentioned. I still think it's odd that Chris didn't promote this project more than he did. During filming he showed behind the scenes photos and videos, and then it was silence. He didn't want to touch it again. Dex I'm not sure was the best director for the project. Ana definitely wasn't the best as a romantic costar. Her acting on the project seemed to be way to serious, on top of such an odd direction.

Let me go ahead and say, even though I talk a lot of shit about Ghosted, I don't hate it. I've seen it several times, but I can acknowledge the weaknesses from the cast, director, and even the script. Can we normalize straight men not writing romcoms??

But I do agree your theory did seem to be a way to progress him into something a bit more serious behind the camera.

Thank you for respecting my no talking zones here 🖤🖤 I'm sorry for trying to give away your man. I feel you need to have an emoji at this point.

[happyinjection]

Episode 8 left me with SO MANY thoughts and they’re all over the place. Great episode with gorgeous action scenes (which got me hooked to the show in the first place). Please don't mind me, I need to rant for a bit.

The lore dump that is Finn’s past is not entirely unexpected, but to see it confirmed is... whoa. So now we know that he did lose his family in a house fire involving a “knight” in black. Perhaps the knight is a player too? But why is he targeting Finn’s family, and how did Finn survive the strike? Did someone come to save him, or is his survival also part of his “destiny”? (since he’s clearly not just some guy)

Finn’s brother is still nowhere to be seen and hidden on purpose. But Tilt’s appearances in this ep is basically a nod toward the theory that he is indeed Finn’s biological brother, or at the very least, is watching over him, right? Iris (the girl from episode 1! finally) shows up as well, and she does take part in protecting Finn from Bobby, is it possible that she’s receiving orders from Tilt?

And this. This shot has been bugging me since last night.

Whose hand is this? The recurrent appearance of Mr. Apple is getting sus too (he’s so funny tho). Is he working with a player? Has he been watching over Finn? The glove has a heart symbol on it so it must be a Heart card, right? And heart card = abilities related to body manipulation so is it really what I’m thinking? Is Mr. Apple a shapeshifter maybe? Could it be he’s actually Tilt himself?!

I also noticed that they really love putting emphasis on how Chris likes to claim himself as Finn’s “trusted older bro” huh (I can make a compilation tbh). I wonder if Tilt (or anyone else in that matter) turns out to be Finn's real biological brother, are they setting up for “choose between your actual older bro or Chris!” situation?

And if Chris turns out to be working with the Klondikes or is betraying Finn in some way… gah (I mean, Chris is technically responsible for dragging Finn into this whole business, putting aside the fact that Finn likely has been involved for a long time without himself realizing).

There’s also Bobby playing not one, but two cards! In an official tweet, and I think also in one of the early episodes (was it Bernard?) it is stated that a player can only play a maximum of one card. How does Bobby manage to break that rule? Is it a something developed by the Klondikes? Is it actually possible to do so from the beginning, but with fatal side effects? (btw the Klondikes look a lot like a cult huh lmao... Ban, you scare me)

Frankly “X-hand” is a ridiculous name but oh well. I guess it is possible to play more than one card as long as it follows the rule of poker hands? Bobby’s cards are “a pair”.... right? Also now I’ve got an idea of what Ban probably meant by “X-blind” in episode 5, perhaps it is when one person play all 52 cards at once? Just like the boy-king in Fourland history.

Lindsey basically saying “I’m happier if you don't come back here at all” when Finn has given his everything for Sunfields is just brutal... even more so when you realize that Leo has in fact said the same thing in the side story but now that Lindsey has confirmed it... pain.

Speaking of Finn and Chris, I also have a lot of thoughts about their relationship but I think I'm saving that for another post. For now let’s put out that martial arts training short story quick before next week so we can all scream together (please scream with me).

[ask-obt]

If you couldn't reboot og OBT, how would you have changed the original story?

// Alright buckle up, because this is gonna be a long answer. This whole ask will be ooc, but I’ll be switching to non-italic formatting since Tumblr’s post editor can be finicky.

For this hypothetical I’ll assume…

I can’t re-do individual pages, either

I somehow kept the motivation to see it through, and keep along with the original tone of the story

I’ll also avoid talking about things that were repurposed for use in the current iteration of OBT!

For starters, the comic would certainly be much farther- chapters were generally shorter, not to mention the whole not-starting-over aspect- and we’d probably be somewhere around Chapter 13-15.

I’ll be paraphrasing a lot of the plot beats here since I don’t wanna reiterate the entire story of PMD: EOS.

In Chapter 6 we would be reintroduced to Team Skull, who were a friend of the Guildmaster’s instead of a friend of Keaton’s. Rather than Keaton and the Guildmaster’s tenuous relationship being based around the Guildmaster’s obsession with humans, it was much more based in Keaton recognizing Team Skull as dangerous. The dungeon itself yielded Shiida the Paras as a recruit, who would be joining the main team. She never really got much of a personality in my notes, though I think she was intended to be a researcher of sorts. As far as the dungeon itself went, I think it was mostly uneventful… until the team reached the Perfect Apple Tree. There the Team Skull showdown is about the same, but during the Noxious Gas Combo, Fienne evolves, shields Rune, and takes the brunt of the attack, and dies. In-game the team got bottlenecked in a corridor, and Rune ended up getting put to sleep by a Butterfree’s sleep powder, which then started attacking Fienne and whittling down her health until she fainted.

Fienne’s death shakes the team, but they also don’t know how she evolved- pokemon haven’t been able to evolve by themselves for years, and the evolution stones are currently out of commission. (In-universe the explanation was that pokemon needed the presence of humans to evolve, and evolution springs I think were similar to the stones of Geosenge in X and Y, where they were made from the petrified remains of humans. This isn’t the case with current OBT, and the evolution stones are still working fine!) This part of what I had planned would largely stay the same, it was always something I enjoyed planning the plot out on, and I was really looking forward to it. Following the attack, the Guildmaster gets confirmation that Rune was a human due to Fienne’s evolution. He admits his humanity to Rune, and she was planned to take it well (“hello fellow human” energy, vs. the reboot where she isn’t even sure she’s a human). Keaton tries to ban them from the expedition because he doesn't want them getting killed, and Yokaro vetoes the idea.

Following that we have the expedition arc, in which I had planned to follow the in-game restriction of having only the hero and partner attend. In retrospect I think it’s more fun to include other teammates whenever possible, so perhaps I would have changed that! But something very exciting happened here- Bidoof, the mandatory escort, died. Which wouldn’t seem like a surprise- but he actually died by Rune’s hand.

OKAY FIRST LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED IN-GAME! Bidoof had just been frozen by a Dewgong in Craggy Coast (I think), and I was freaking out because more enemies were fast approaching. I didn’t realize attacks wouldn’t land on a frozen pokemon, and I decided to thaw him out the only way I knew how… with a flamethrower. No, I wasn’t thinking about the fact I was like, 10 levels higher than him. Rune killing Bidoof, even by accident, was going to cause a huge rift between her and Kodali as his trust in her further dwindled. But for some reason, this did not stop Kodali from trying to kiss Rune during the fountain scene- and she rejects him hard. From there, the expedition arc would have unfolded with that in mind. The rest of my notes on this didn’t include any specifics on story beats, until we get to Chapter 10.

In Chapter 10 the team goes to Amp Plains- at this point in my game notes I don’t think I was particularly concerned with dynamics with the rest of the team, but I do remember Kodali’s dad being planned to show up as the Amp Plains boss, something something he’s homophobic and abusive and Kodali as a result had internalized homophobia to deal with. While this is happening, Rune was planned to uh, hit it off with Kodali’s “brother” who was a mew in disguise (very specifically Pika’s character Xander, from Haphazard. This was long before Haphazard even started, and started out as a joke between us because Kodali’s brother just happened to be named Xander as well). They had a weird one-night fling, Rune and Kodali beat the shit out of his dad, and life goes on.

Then we got to the arc where Grovyle is stealing Time Gears from the lakes, and Rune ends up getting seriously wounded in one of these fights (also I think Shiida died in the desert area). She’s hospitalized in the guild (again) and she finds out… she’s pregnant. Now let me just say, I have no idea what I was on when I came up with this as a plot point. I literally can’t imagine it now. So for this ask I received a while back…

Anonymous asked:

Who is Akio?

That’s who Akio is, and where he came from. He’s a weird remnant of a plot point I waffled on for ages. He would have been born in the future of darkness arc (Rune calling him “Akio” because he’s her son of light in a dark world), and in travelling back to the past he would have aged up a bit because something something time travel. If I kept going with the original version of the comic I probably would not have gone through with it. It also came with a weird subplot where Kodali has a stick up his ass about Rune having a relationship with his brother instead of him, and generally would have been uncomfortable to watch.

From here on I didn’t really have a lot lined out for the comic outside of a few key points:

Dora’s real name is Pandora (nice save there, girl), and she was part of the team from the future. But she was also a double agent- since everyone saw Dusknoir’s betrayal coming, I thought it would be more fun to have another betrayal that wasn’t predicted.

Kodali and Rune did end up getting together, like classic heterosexuals. Dora would have queerbaited everyone because at the time I was dealing with my own internalized homophobia and couldn’t imagine her and Rune getting together or- gasp- all of them being in a polyamorous relationship. (Note: I am now very gay ((bi)) and unafraid of gender)

When the team got back from the future, some years would have passed, and Fawkes would have been an adult. (I think they aged like animals so they weren’t gone for too many years, but yanno)

There was another member of the future squad named FM, who was a Noivern/Charizard hybrid. He’s also the one who killed Fienne’s brother, for some reason. Dusknoir was planned to kill him on-screen at some point.

Apparently there was also a Milotic in my old notes who was also part of the future team? She’s talked about but never seen, and got killed by Dusknoir as well somewhere off-screen.

Fawkes’ dad was an Arcanine who worked with Darkrai and would have shown up in the final boss fight, if I got to that point.

Fusion was a thing in this iteration of the comic. That weird big guy that showed up in Chapter 5 was a fusion of the Guildmaster and Chatot. It also, for some reason, was kind of a thing people didn’t really know about? I think at some point I decided only human-turned-pokemon could fuse with other pokemon, but it wasn’t what I originally planned. Rune and Kodali def would have fused during the Dialga fight.

If I ended the run pre-epilogue, Rune would have disappeared as the future changed and she’d be dead and that’d be the end of the run. She and Kodali kiss, Kodali cries, the end. I guess Akio lives with Kodali at that point.

If I ended the run post-epilogue, Darkrai would have killed Rune in the final battle.

So the original thesis of the story was, Rune is a bad person and deserved to die. Which is kind of why I didn’t want to keep going with the original run of the comic- I based a lot of her traits on horrible people in my life, and the comic was a means of me venting how frustrated and angry I was with it all. Which… isn’t really something I wanted to do, as I started to grow and heal. Old OBT didn’t have planned themes of amnesty or forgiveness, nor the foundation for it, and that’s why I don’t think it would have been possible for me to continue the comic as it was. Current OBT has a lot of themes like that, and in a lot of ways, it gives me opportunities to forgive myself as well. I guess this ask is a lot less of “what would I do if the comic continued” and more just going over major notes I had based on the direction things were going, because there isn't really a world where I could have drastically changed the story to fit the themes I wanted to explore.

[chilidogloverr]

“I just came from r/196” ask game

Saw another post. I think I should invite y'all to one of our longstanding traditions. Answer the questions then tag 10 (or more) people. I'll go first.

Name? Jarrod

Pronouns and gender? they/he, guy???

Sexuality? Pansecual

Country? USA MERICA FUCK YEAH🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

Top 5 fandoms? hazbin/helluva, fnaf, team four trees two, i forgor the rest

What is your Most forbidden snack? fabuloso also chapstick

Would you pet a bug? scared scared scared of bugs. dont like them. scary scary.

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. i love fixing things, no matter what it is. my silly little brain just latches onto it like a puzzle, which it kinda is. i can already fix most electronic devices, or alteast know how to (FUCK apple and their stupid fucking anti repair policy. thats actual fucking bullshit. i dont want to have to pay for a 200 dollar course and license to fix your shitty god damn phones. mac books and ipads are aight. but FUCK apple as a company. all this does is protect their silly little fucking income from their stupid ass fucking phones breaking all the fucking time. all it does is make it so that people who do fix phones for a living fucking cant, and no devices to fix means no food on the fucking table for them or their families. they're toying with peoples livelihoods for a bit of fucking profit.) if i dont know how to fix it (cars, microwaves, tvs, literally anything that could break) i want to learn

What does the color blue taste like? mmm yumby

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? the ocean. it goes on forever. it doesnt stop. i didnt realize that until i saw it in person. it stopped me dead in my tracks.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? ive got this protein bar. in 2020 (my second year of marching band, freshman year) i was eating a box of them on the way to marching band camp. i lost one. this was in july. i found it on the ground still sealed in january of the following year. i still have it. im going to eat it my senior year at the end of the year band dinner. i have not done it yet. im going into my senior year. im going to do it. it will kill me. i will not regret it.

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? a pastor for a church i used to attend (unfortunately hes my uncle) blamed crime and evil on transgender people

Hyperfixation song? long list. Starman David Bowie, banana man tally hall, mr white keys cherry poppin daddies, play that funky music wild cherry, cant take my eyes off you frankie valli, sh-boom the ink spots, the devil went down to georgia the charlie daniels band

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? I've been asked several times where "Chapstick Man!" comes from. It comes from TF2. I named a rocket launcher "chapstick gun" with the description "ngl chapstick taste kinda good" and then i thought the joke was funny and it stuck. my name is now Chapstick Man on like everything. i have not been sued yet. Im too cool to be sued.

Dream career as a child? also electronics repair technician (i am answering these out of order)

Dream career as an adult? still kinda a child ig. but i want to be an electronics repair technician, running my own little computer/electronics repair shop. i already know how to do it, i just need a building and to be 18 (i turn 18 in december) and people to come and give me their stuff to fix. i love fixing things.

Thoughts on cilantro? its aight ig

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? I havent. but i plan to be. i am going to be silly and they cannot prevent it.

What is your cursed food combination? I did my burgers in ketchup if i want ketchup, i did my biscuits in gravy for biscuits and gravy

Trans rights? are epic!!!!!!

@everyone im lazy

[takiisieju]

PORNPO, Chapter 4: Gluttony

Characters: Polpo, Anna Anguria Pairing: Polpo/Anna Anguria Content: Oral Sex (Fem receiving), Masturbation, Petting, sort of Praise Kink?? Words: 2,286 Taglist: @roofgeese @poisonedtruth @theelderhazelnut

Free, alive and unbothered by pesky teenagers with dreams, Polpo got a little too comfortable. So comfortable that he hires four women to do minor chores and look pretty. Being a man of culture, he makes no further advances, but the business relationship slowly develops into something much less decent.

Info about the girls

Link to AO3

I will post chapters as I write them, not chronologically.

This is not a crack fic. Any fatphobic comments and negativity are banned here.

Sample under cut.

Capo Polpo sighed, settling down on his couch and resting the enormous head on the backrest. The couch was custom-made, big and sturdy to accommodate the man the way regular furniture could not. Carota had just left after the thorough cleaning, and the overwhelming scent of lavender was filling the room. Polpo did not skimp on her cleaning products, making sure they were gentler on the skin and on the nose than most. Carota was cleaning almost all the time, after all, unsettled by the slightest imperfection. So the entire estate, as well as her clothes, smelled like lavender and sometimes roses.

The sitting room’s door opened with a slight creak, letting in a tiny woman with a plate of fruits. Bananas, apples, peaches and Polpo’s favorite, grapes, were piled up, fresh and ripe. The man couldn’t help but lick his lips in anticipation of a delicious meal. Anna approached the coffee table, settling the plate down.

“Not too heavy for you, I hope?” Polpo asked, slightly concerned. Anguria had terrible back pains, so he only allowed her to run the easiest errands, like feeding him. Mora was tasked with making sure the portions weren’t too big for her to carry, but it never hurt to make sure.

Anna shook her head, a little too strongly.

“Ah, poor girl, still afraid of me.” Polpo thought. “At least, now she’s not afraid of punishment, just of my disappointment.”

That was a big progress as it was. But he had to build her trust up a little more.

“Today was such a long day, Anna, dear…” Polpo sighed dramatically. He only had to make a couple calls and settle a dispute in one of the casinos today, but his plan required a bit more dramatism. “I’m starving.”

“Should I bring some more?” Anna asked immediately. Polpo could never get enough of how she cared for him, despite her anxiety.

“No, no…” Polpo shook his head.

“What can I do then?” Anna stepped closer. Polpo’s plan was working like clockwork.

“I am too exhausted, Anna…” he dragged with a sigh. “Feed me, will you?”

[mariacallous]

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, people concerned about online extremism turned their attention to the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where a Hamas-aligned group posted graphic images of the group’s attacks to a channel that now has 1.9 million followers. That content was then shared widely across social media. Following public pressure on Apple and Google several weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, Telegram “restricted” two of the major channels used by Hamas. But it did not, as it may appear to some users, ban them.

A WIRED investigation reveals that rather than ban or delete Hamas channels or those run by right-wing extremist groups, Telegram is hiding them from the users of the two major app stores, but they are still there. Some of the content from restricted channels is being shared broadly in unrestricted ones—despite Telegram’s mechanisms for stopping the sharing of such content. The findings show that while Telegram makes some of its most violative communities difficult to find, the people in restricted channels are still able to spread their messages, experts say, and the channels continue to function as spaces of radicalization.

WIRED and Jeff Allen, cofounder of the tech policy think tank the Integrity Institute, analyzed over 100 restricted channels and thousands of posts over more than two months. Most of these channels include content related to right-wing extremism and other forms of radicalized hate. WIRED’s analysis found that most of these channels remained active even when restricted.

“What they’re doing is making [channels] not show up in your search and discoverability, but they’re keeping them on the back end,” says Nicole Stewart, assistant professor of digital media at Texas State University.

Founded by Pavel Durov in 2013, Telegram has long been a favorite platform for extremists. Its channels have no limit on the number of subscribers who can join (groups have a 200,000-person limit), and its approach to content moderation has meant that groups and content that might violate the terms of service on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) remain accessible.

WIRED examined 108 restricted channels, including the Hamas-aligned channels Telegram restricted in late October, and 365 unrestricted channels over more than two months. Fifty-four of the public, unrestricted channels included content forwarded from the restricted channels, suggesting that they share overlapping membership. While some restricted channels have only a handful of messages per week, others, like the right-wing channel rlwolf_9999, have upwards of 1,000.

Most of the channels were restricted during the months WIRED monitored them. However, in examining the Hamas channels that were restricted after the October 7 attacks, WIRED found that while content views dropped significantly—by about 70 percent—they still remained active, with the Hamas military-affiliated channel @qassambrigades continuing to share more than 20 pieces of content per day. Although views on the restricted channel often dipped, WIRED found that content from @qassambrigades was copied and pasted into the unrestricted channel @hpress, a popular news-focused channel that has over half a million subscribers.

“It’s not surprising that in a restricted environment that you’ll start to see that same network-sharing pattern,” says Stewart. “It’s what they do to share their own ideological beliefs and spread the message.”

Experts who study extremist groups on Telegram tell WIRED that the platform typically moderates these groups’ content in response to pressure from governments, law enforcement, or entities like Google and Apple that have the ability to restrict the app’s availability.

“What we seem to know from experience is that when Google and Apple say, ‘Hey, remove this,’ that’s when Telegram comes in and starts removing things,” claims Aleksandra Urman, a researcher at the University of Zurich who has studied Telegram and the far right in Europe. That also speaks about the “power of Google and Apple,” Urman says, because both companies are able to exert influence over Telegram’s moderation decisions.

While Telegram is available for download on Google Play and the Apple App Store, both Google and Apple disallow apps that promote hate speech, terrorism, and violent content. For example, Google’s terms of service say it doesn’t “allow apps with content related to planning, preparing, or glorifying violence against civilians” or “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals.” Apps that violate these standards can be removed from Google Play or the App Store, significantly limiting their availability. That both app stores offer Telegram for download suggests the app is complying with the companies’ terms of service.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Google spokesperson Danielle Cohen tells WIRED, “Play apps that contain or feature UGC [user-generated content], including apps which are specialized browsers or clients to direct users to a UGC platform, must implement robust, effective, and ongoing UGC moderation. This includes providing an in-app system for reporting objectionable UGC and users and taking action against that UGC and/or user where appropriate.”

Telegram did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

In 2021, Telegram released a version of the app that could be downloaded directly onto Android, which the company billed as having “fewer restrictions.” Downloading the app directly puts it outside the scope of Google Play’s terms of service. Users who have this “sideloaded” version of Telegram can continue to see and post in restricted channels that regular users can’t access.

Cohen, the Google spokesperson, tells WIRED that “Google does not control app distribution on Android,” noting that Android’s open operating system means apps can be downloaded from other Android app stores or directly to users via an app’s website.

Telegram’s terms of service state that users may not “promote violence on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc.,” but it says nothing about how the platform responds to users who violate these rules. Telegram did not respond to questions about how it assesses whether a channel should be restricted or banned entirely, as it has done to Islamic State-affiliated channels in the past.

In a post on his public Telegram channel on October 13, Durov addressed the pressure to remove Hamas channels and content, saying, “Every day, Telegram’s moderators and AI tools remove millions of obviously harmful content from our public platform.” He also asserted that because Telegram doesn’t algorithmically amplify content, “it’s unlikely that Telegram channels can be used to significantly amplify propaganda.”

While Telegram may not be algorithmically promoting content, it is used to spread hateful ideologies, experts say. “Hate groups and designated terrorist groups who are using the platform as a way to mobilize the troops, basically, they’re functioning as influencers,” says Stewart of Texas State University. Part of that work is sharing and promoting the posts and ideas of other aligned groups and influencers, pushing users deeper into the extremist ecosystem.

When a Telegram user from a restricted channel forwards content to a nonrestricted channel, that content won’t be visible to anyone in the channel who has downloaded the app from Apple’s App Store or Google Play. But a simple copy and paste easily circumvents this feature for text-based messages. WIRED and Allen found over 400 instances where text-based content was copied word for word into both restricted and nonrestricted channels, with users often tagging the restricted channels in the unrestricted ones. The analysis did not include images and videos, which also comprise a considerable amount of the content.

For instance, messages sent to an unrestricted channel called OfficialTheCollective, with more than 4,000 members, included tags to restricted channels like SpecialQForces, a QAnon conspiracy channel, and often encouraged users to join.

One message posted to OfficialTheCollective even instructs users how to get around Google and Apple’s restrictions, saying, “Google and Apple [are] censoring the Telegram app downloaded via Google Play and Apple App Store. Use the web browser.” The message includes instructions about how to sideload Telegram, including a link to an instructional video on the video platform Rumble, which is popular with right-wing influencers.

In the unrestricted ExpatsPortugalEngChannel, WIRED found a message referencing a riot by Eritrean migrants in Germany. “Where are all the liberals who wanted these invaders in their country with open arms?” the post reads. “WE need you to go talk to them nicely, go first before the NAZIS take charge since YOU going to need them now.” The text is identical to a post shared in the restricted channel @InTheEndGodAlwaysWins.

In some cases, Telegram will restrict channels based on local laws. This includes Germany, which has strict rules against hate speech and neo-Nazism. Heidi Schulze, a researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, says that she was able to access channels restricted in Germany by using VPNs and Dutch SIM cards, which tricked Telegram into treating her as though she weren’t in Germany at all. Channel restrictions “from Telegram’s perspective might be a smart thing because they’re adhering to the local laws, but they’re not deleting channels,” she claims, as it would allow the platform to retain its claim of protecting freedom of speech.

But Urman, of the University of Zurich, says that restricting the channels can also create a space for more radicalization. “People who are likely to follow these groups even after they are restricted, who really want to see that content and are going to seek out the technical possibilities to do that, are more likely to be more radical,” she says.

Having already been “deplatformed” in some capacity can also mean that content is likely to be more extreme because channel operators are no longer factoring in a fear of content moderation, according to Urman. “These groups, even when they are restricted, are probably conducive to radicalization,” she says. “You’re not going to plan, in most cases, a certain attack out in the open. But now you’re not in the open. You are among your club.”

Rita Katz, executive director and founder of SITE Intelligence Group, a consultancy that monitors terrorist groups online, believes the company’s decision whether to ban a channel likely hinges on laws and enforcement. “The European Union has strong-armed Telegram to take action against ISIS and al Qaeda since 2015, and the company acted even more surgically against the groups’ networks in 2019,” claims Katz. “Telegram began deleting whole channels and accounts, not only of administrators or ISIS- and al Qaeda-connected accounts but also of everyone in those chat groups and channels.”

When a user forwards a message from a restricted channel to a nonrestricted one, a notice will appear to anyone who doesn’t have the “sideloaded” version of the app saying that the message can’t be displayed on that user’s device. WIRED’s analysis of thousands of restricted pieces of content found that only 36 of them appeared with the notice that they were restricted for violating Telegram’s terms of service. This means that a majority of restricted channels and content appear to be an effort to comply with the policies of Google and Apple, which can drop the app from their stores.

“Unless Telegram’s operations are going to be threatened somehow,” claims Stewart, “it’s probably not a priority for them.”

[feathersandblue]

@gazingattheradianceofthesun replied to your post “So Google banned AO3 from showing up in search...”:

Why?

The short version?

​Because they want to protect German youths from realizing that there's Peter Parker/Tony Stark underage rape/noncon A/B/O fic (mating cycles, in heat, come inflation, daddy kink, humiliation, object insertion, dom/sub) freely available on an archive that does not care how much porn or graphic violence you put in your story, that's why.

Even worse, easily impressed teenagers might stumble accross that gen-rated meet cute coffeeshop AU where they're BOTH barristas and there's only ONE brewing machine! Imagine the scandal.

The long version is this: Germany has a relatively strict pornography law wich makes it a criminal offense to make pornographic material available in any shape or form to people under eighteen. Which, according to a court decision from 2020, can also extend to written and fictional content (for example, sexting with minors). There's been a legal battle with pornhub and xhamster as they're not requiring age verifiction from users. Some providers have already blocked access to their sites.

It's still somewhat of a gray area whether erotica actually falls under the porn category. Especially since "Shades of Grey" features prominently on book store sales counters and Amazon makes explicit erotica easily available to everyone. If the fictional characters are underage, that area gets a lot grayer, however.

But just to illustrate what it means when someone takes the issue seriously: the most popular (*cough*) German fanfic archive fanfiktion.de has been complying with German youth protection laws for years by reminding their writers NOT to make sex the focus of their stories (sex scenes are only allowed to make up up to one third of a text, no PWPs, no heavy kink), and by making possibly entwicklungsbeeinträchtigende* 18+ rated fic available only to adult users (who need to register with official ID) between 23.00 and 4.00 o'clock. Depictions of sexual abuse of underage characters, bestiality, necrophilia are all forbidden without exception.

*entwicklungsbeeinträchtigende = negatively affecting the development of of children and youths

The status quo, for years, has been that fanfic archives based in the US and operating under US terms were flying under the radar. But we've reached a new stage in the fight for net neutrality and control of the free internet. It's not really about porn, it's mostly about politics. It's become a free speech issue.

Countries like China and Russia have been limiting their citizens' access to social networks and content-featuring sites with the help of Big Tech fior quite a while, and now the US and Europe are striving to do the same. Only that our governments are struggling with inconvenient laws that technically forbid any kind of censorship. Hard to keep up the pretense that you're protetcing free speech when you're actually not.

What's happening now is that under the pretense of protecting people from misinformation and disturbing, offensive, or "harmful" content, both the US and the European Union are trying to introduce legislation that forces Big Tech into compliance and thereby forces everyone into compliance because everyone ultimately relies on the tech giants (Google, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, Apple) to access content.

If Google excludes "alternative" media from its search results, that's the fight against misinformation, and everyone applauds. If Google excludes AO3 from its search results (in compliance with German youth protection laws) everyone is aghast. But it's really only part of the same package.

Ultimately, both things are the consequence of governments interfering and trying to control what you are allowed to see. They only have the best of intentions, of course. Never doubt your benevolent beloved parent, The State.

For now, you can still access AO3 from Germany by simply typing the url or using your bookmarks, or access the page through external links. The next step is to block access to the site. I don't think that AO3 has the means to do anything against it. But it would be interesting to know whether the OFTW was contacted in advance on the issue of age verification by the German officials.

[deviantartdramahub]

Lol, who wants to bet it'll be about another month before these guys post again? Of course that'll probably be it, as I've been sucked into this drama long enough to know these people don't ever know when to back down, they're too obsessed with their petty dramas! But things must be much slower for them now that their main victim Club has been mass-reported off the site. They're desperately trying to hang onto the drama by attempting to make me the next main victim, and also still talking about Club a while after he's been banned. But these people are obviously nothing to fear, simply pathetic lmao. And with Mod-S insisting she'll stop posting about Club? Honey please, your ass pretty much centered your life around that poor man at this point. You sure wish you could move on, but you can't. XD

Anyways, as you can probably tell from this post, I'm thinking of coming back to support you Tri, Club, and any other innocent victim of DADramaNow. Probably won't be posting about anything else since I fortunately haven't really dealt with much other dramas on DA.

Yes there were some bad people that made me not want to be here anymore, but I should've expected it when this is a place where everyone can speak their minds, which is the beauty of this blog, so I won't let any bad apples here bother me. And it's not your fault anyways, Tri, and I still see you as a friend and greatly respect you for your calmness and maturity.

I may not post much, but I will try, I'm sure it'll be nice to be back :)

In that case, welcome back. I hope we may help. And I do try to keep it all peaceful by addressing when people overstep (often has a better outcome than silencing).

It is revealing that they'd rather wait out Mod S’ “school work” than come here, it suggests they’re driven by their crowd (dare I say their cult?) than genuine concern.